#ofmd criticism | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

i-am-the-hero-alfred-jones · 6 months

Text

OFMD Season 2 Finale Spoilers

That was THE MOST DISSATISFYING ENDING

Now granted, I'm usually dissatisfied with endings that wrap everything up in a neat little bow, because some stories just work better with an open-ended ending.

For example, one of my favorites will always be Labyrinth. Sarah goes back home, but the goblin king keeps his kingdom and power.

Let's talk about WHY I'm so disatisfied (and honestly, maybe that's the point, it sort of seems like they want the fandom to be like that in order to fix it later one, but idk) 1. Stede Fucking Bonnet STEDE DID NOT BECOME A PIRATE FOR ED

This ending is unsatisfying because why would Stede give this up?! Stede LOVES being a pirate, it's Ed who's disatisfied with that life. Stede CHOSE this life, Stede loves this life, for him to leave it for Ed is fucking ridiculous.

STEDE BONNET IS MORE THAN EDWARD'S BOYFRIEND HE'S HIS OWN GODDAMN CHARACTER AND HE'S THE MAIN CHARACTER FOR FUCK'S SAKE

His pirating is what attracted Edward to him in the first place! You can't take that away from him! It makes him a shell of what he is! Stede never wanted the good peaceful life- he had that. He hated it. Now he just has it with Edward. And sure, he loves Ed, but that's not gonna fix his disatisfaction.

-Now granted, this does seem intentional. It could very well be that this inn ending is intentionally there to show both Ed and Stede, that a part of them really does love the seafaring life, and that they want to return to it.

-You know, like a callback to when Stede returned to Mary and realized what he really wanted was Ed. Instead Stede and Ed are going to try the quiet life and realize what they always wanted was the sea. It was just that they wanted the sea with each other.

-If that's the route they take in Season 3 (or a similar one), I can totally get behind it, and I think it'll fix the Stede Bonnet Problem. [For the record, I think they handed Edward's arc CRAZY well]

2. Izzy Fucking Hands

-. . . Guys. . . One the one hand, the monologue he gave when he died NEEDED to be given.

-Izzy does things more with actions than words, and Ed needed to say how much Izzy meant to him, along with Izzy needing to say how much he loves this crew.

On the other hand- way to kill your guys. Way to immediately fall into old tropes and make us hate ya, Dave. Granted, in the past he has played with tropes intentionally, so this COULD be that (in which case he's sitting back and laughing maniacally like the BASTARD that he is-) Where he's making us believe Izzy is gone for good only to bring him back. [I HAVE HOPE DAMN IT]

-There seems to be this idea that Izzy was the last remaining bit of Blackbeard, but Izzy is his own person and he got to grow into his own person during this season.

Of course, now that he has no thematic relevance, to kill him off is fucking pathetic. NOW we kill him, he's of no use to us. Why keep the disabeled gay? We don't need him anymore. THAT is the vibe that we've been given. Now that he's grown, we're done with him. (as if anyone truly stops growing at any point-)

-Buuut, on the one leg that Izzy has remaining,

-This could be a really good way to tie into Edward's story that he is and always has been Blackbeard. That Blackbeard was never Izzy's creation, but rather a part of himself. And he gets to choose what to do with it.

BUT EVEN IF THAT HAPPENS IZZY JUST DIED FOR EDWARD (Sure, what the character always wanted- but not what he deserved)

-If Izzy comes back from the gravy basket (Maybe with Buttons? lmfao-) with a newfound sense of independence and growth (maybe he learns to love again, idk.), this could be beautiful. A beautiful way to fuck with tropes and to show other shows how people SHOULD be handled. Bury your gays, then bring them back fuckers.

If he doesn't, this fandom will never be the same. Nor will it ever forgive it's writers. We deserve better, man.

#infodump #ofmd #ofmd 2 #ofmd season 2 #our flag means death #our flag means death season 2 #our flag means death rant #our flag means death season 2 spoilers #ofmd season 2 spoilers #izzy hands #stede bonnet #edward teach #ofmd speculation #ofmd criticism

27 notes · View notes

ourflagmeansgayrights · 7 months

Text

honestly tho. the balls of izzy to suggest talking it through as if he didnt literally threaten to kill ed the last time ed openly shared his feelings

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 #izzy hands #dizzy izzy #israel hands #izzy critical #s2e01 #s1e10 #txt #mine #og

5K notes · View notes

puns-and-musicals · 7 months

Text

I’m starting to wonder if straight people know what a “buddy comedy” is 🤔

#Good Omens #OFMD #Good Omens S2 #Good Omens Season 2 #Our Flag Means Death #Ineffable Husbands #Blackbonnet #Aziracrow #Gentlebeard #Honestly though aren’t critics supposed to be able to read into this kind of thing? Pathetic

1K notes · View notes

jaskierx · 6 months

Text

okay there is a post going round about how izzy’s death means the writers are saying that only ‘socially acceptable’ queers get to have a happy ending

and first. what is socially acceptable about an entire ship full of pirates with diverse genders and sexualities and ethnicities and body types sailing off into the sunset while their two co-captains open an inn

and second. none of us are socially acceptable. ‘socially acceptable queers’ is an oxymoron. we see this every single day in the homophobia and transphobia that happens around us, that’s all over the press, that’s perpetuated by governments

you could be the most squeaky clean, socially acceptable, cishet passing, white male ordinary normal queer in the world and bigots are still going to call you a slur and try to deny you your basic human rights

if you think the show has stopped being groundbreaking because it killed off one of its entire cast of beautiful diverse queer characters then you never appreciated how transformative it is in the first place

#ofmd #ofmd s2 spoilers #izzy hands #fandom critical #lyse.jpg

1K notes · View notes

artemis-pendragon · 9 months

Text

Canon gay confessions alignment chart

#hannigram makes me home of phobic so it gets to be in the middle 🥰#good omens #critical role #hannibal #spn #ofmd #go2 #go2 spoilers #good omens spoilers #destiel #imodna #ineffable husbands #hannigram #beauyasha #blackbonnet

1K notes · View notes

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses · 2 years

Text

taika waititi really said "Blackbeard but make him a dilf in leather pants" and we all agreed unanimously and without hesitation

#ofmd #our flag means death #my only suggestion is the pants could have been tighter but who am i to criticize a MASTERPIECE

12K notes · View notes

bemusedlybespectacled · 6 months

Text

just the fact that this is a show where people get stabbed in the gut multiple times with no long-term health problems and not even real pain, someone gets tossed overboard in the middle of the night and manages to get onto another ship without drowning, an entire island of people gets found and rescued by a dude in a rowboat who doesn’t even know they’ve been marooned, someone lives despite being in a coma and beaten with a cannonball, and A GUY TURNS INTO A FUCKING SEAGULL but oh no THIS time this guy is dead after getting shot even when he didn’t die from blood loss or infection or a fucking gun to his head earlier like ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

#ofmd meta #personal #izzy hands #our flag means death #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 finale complaining #ofmd critical

880 notes · View notes

khruschevshoe · 6 months

Text

The problem with the handling of Ed's season 2 arc on ofmd is that it sets up the cycle of abuse so well. Demonstrates the way it destroys both Ed and his victims in the first two episodes so well. Shows the ways the trauma can keep destroying people and their relationships in episodes 2-4 (Lucius, Izzy, Jim, etc.). And then just...shames Lucius for trying to open up and shames him for being traumatized and makes fun of him for trying to talk about what happened to him. Makes Izzy apologize to his abuser for one comment he made what is implied to be months ago after the man he is apologizing to CUT OFF HIS TOES AND SHOT HIM IN THE LEG. Doesn't allow Jim (or for that matter, Archie) to be righteously pissed off for longer than episode 4. And then has the audacity to say that Ed making a "Youtuber apology" and using the loot that he blackmailed/threatened/forced the crew to steal in the first place to buy them party decorations somehow...makes up for everything he did?

Like, am I missing a part of this arc? Am I missing the part where he reconciled with literally ANYONE but Fang? Am I missing the part where Stede apologized to Lucius for telling him to stop talking when he was telling him about the severe trauma he went through? (Or even, as much as I love him and their relationship, Pete apologizing to Lucius for dismissing his trauma and wanting to move on before Lucius was ready because listening to Lucius' sa/abuse story was uncomfortable?) Am I missing the part where Archie and Jim found a reason to forgive Ed (and don't tell me that the Izzy-the-unicorn helped them forgive Ed- that was about the crew coming together to help IZZY to recover and had jacksquat to do with Ed)?

The set up was brilliant. Episodes 1-3 killed me. Episode 2 was my favorite episode of the show (bar the bit where Stede ran away when Lucius was unloading his trauma, and even THAT could have worked if he apologized later and allowed Lucius to talk). But the lack of payoff makes me feel sick. Because I understand this show is a comedy, but you don't introduce themes like that and give them that kind of ending.

#ed teach critical #ofmd critical #jim jimenez #ofmd archie #lucius spriggs #ofmd season 2 spoilers #izzy hands #tw abuse #tw sa mention #writing #ofmd season 2 #meta #analysis

628 notes · View notes

sixstepsaway · 6 months

Text

so here's the thing

i've seen a bunch of people say on twitter and stuff how... ed's behavior is very abusive and his anger is dangerous and he isn't romantic lead material because of it

and i get where they're coming from

but to me the main issue isn't putting ed in the position of a romantic lead, but not crafting the narrative around his characterization so that it allows for a spicy romantic pirates-in-love narrative instead of...whatever this is.

i'm going to try and explain this. idk if i'll do well but i'll try

the way she show presents stede is as an innocent baby who isn't really equipped for pirate life. he goes into a fugue/disassociative state whenever there's any real violence, apparently, and needs protecting by other characters when things get too rough - for example when ed is telling ned lowe not to take the poker to stede.

that's fine! it's honestly adorable to see a masc character being so soft around the edges and being protected by other characters this way.

(i'm not going to touch on stede's... eh... not great characterization this season rn)

then there's izzy, who is shown as a bit violent, a bit rough around the edges. he's more likely to draw a sword or throw a punch or hit someone with a chair or take a punch like a champ. violence is just part of life for him and that's okay, it just Is, from small things like smacking stede on the ass to bigger things like being wall slammed, it's not all that big or bad for violence to happen around and with him, he tends to give as good as he gets (there's some nuance here but i'm talking the macro themes not the micro of what izzy does vs is done to him)

and finally there's ed

ed is presented as violent (stabbing knives at guys, telling fang to use the snail fork etc) and used to a life of violence, and then in season 2 he's presented as really violent, his anger coming out in dangerous and terrifying ways

and frankly, i'd be super into it if he and izzy were the main ship and that twisted dynamic from the first two episodes of s2 was explored and fleshed out into something deeper

friends to enemies to lovers who fight and fuck. angry pirates who lay hands on each other, who break the whole ship with each other in the heat of passion.

except instead, s2 gives us... abuse. it gives us izzy cringing and lowering his head and trying to protect the kids crew from ed's angry outbursts.

so when stede comes back and he's still soft around the edges and ed headbutts him and it's deliberate, it's... not a great look, and the vibes are a bit skewed

if stede fought back, if when ed struck out at him he struck back, if they fought rather than it being one-sided, if it was friends to enemies to lovers and not presented as healthy, but maybe they can work their way there, who knows, maybe even more like anne bonnie and mary read because hey, they were doing something very similar?

except they were both into it. they were both enjoying the fighting and the fucking and the burning down the house.

stede's not enjoying it.

i cannot describe how much i hate this sequence just because of the way stede flinches

anne and mary don't!! mary jumps at the unexpected bang but she doesnt flinch, she doesn't cover her face like she thinks the vase will be coming for her not the wall and anne? looks so into it

and the thing is that in real life, no, you don't want to date someone who throws shit around, or headbutts you

but in fiction when it's two fucked up people doing this shit together like anne and mary?

that can be fun.

but instead what we've been given is stede flinching and apologizing to ed and then all of ed's...what, semi-redemption???? is done away from the other collection of people he abused, and then he spends some time on a fishing boat wearing a dog collar and everything is fine because he's good now and won't be doing anything bad ever again

and it's just... poor writing. the vibes are rancid.

i spent a really big chunk of time between s1 and s2 defending ed. i kept saying how what he did to izzy by making him eat his toe wasn't abuse, it was a one-off and abuse isn't a one-off thing it's a pattern, and then s2 made it a pattern.

explicitly. explicitly a pattern.

not just one toe but three.

jim saying "you're in an unhealthy relationship with blackbeard"

and all ed offered izzy was a "sorry about your leg" which might've been fine if izzy survived and they could work on this more, but instead that's all the apology and closure izzy will ever get

ed threw a chair and a vase and made stede flinch in fear and stede was right to do that. what part of any of this implies this will never happen again? that stede won't press the wrong button at some point and be on the receiving end? none of it

and if we'd been presented with a s2 stede bonnet who could handle himself and stand up for himself and fight back, then maybe i could imagine that turning into a weird sexy fucked up anne/mary like thing and maybe that could be why they put that episode in, but instead it feels like that episode was going, "look, see, ed's violence is fine because these two are fine with it with each other"

but stede isn't

ed and izzy or ed and stede in an unhealthy battle of a relationship could be such a fun, interesting and downright sexy thing to watch unfold on tv, and could honestly end somewhere far more down the chill end of the spectrum, but that's not what we've been given here

i cannot argue that ed isn't an abuser anymore, and not just of izzy but of the whole crew. he terrified frenchie.

it's not good writing to try and lean into the idea that ed and the pirates are violent and live a life of violence, so it's okay that ed's been violent, while simultaneously presenting his violence as traumatic and abusive, and then less than three episodes later saying oh it's fine now, he's just a little meow meow who can do no wrong, see?

especially considering they had him murdering people at the end of the season. and sure, you can say the english are just cannon fodder and they dont 'count', but they did before. ed explicitly did not kill before, and that included the english, or the spanish, or anyone else. so either they count or they don't, but flipping him on a dime makes no sense.

ALSO

having ed be the son of an abusive man who threw plates at his mother and made her cringe and then having ed kill his father to protect his mother and then a season later having ed become the kind of man who throws chairs and vases and makes his love interest cringe is, again, not bloody optimal

i want to say again i dont CARE about tv always presenting healthy relationships or tv always giving us aspirational goals. i want messy fucked up dynamics and terrible people making terrible choices, and still, to this day, i fucking love ed teach. i would honestly love to have seen them continue with ed's darkness and bring stede into it and see where they went with that, to have stede kill ned lowe and not just bury his feelings in ed but get off on it, enjoy the violence, and see where that led, but no

and so instead all we end up with is a protagonist who is being set up for a lifetime of abuse from an intimate partner, and a romantic lead who abuses his love interests (and yes. izzy is a love interest, he is set up like one and positioned like one and treated like one), frightens his love interests with his violence, is erratic and most of all inconsistently written. he was so sorry about scaring fang as though he hadn't been deliberately terrifying the whole crew for fuck knows how long? what?!

the whole fandom has spent so long saying, "no no, i know stede bonnet irl was a slave owner, but ofmd is using the names and not any real piracy, it's more disney piracy, you know? so that kind of stuff doesnt exist!" and then they flipped around and went "blackbeard is blackbeard and so he is evil and does all these horrible things" and i dont know how to rationalize the two sides of that because it feels so out of place

i'm getting rambly, this isnt a particularly well constructed thought process, i just feel like we were robbed both of a toxic, violent relationship that could be fun to see explored on tv and a soft and sweet love story between two middle aged men exploring their first loves in one fell swoop and there's no way for s3 to bring either of those things back because they got utterly torpedoed by making ed a horrible person

ugh

#ofmd critical #i hate that i'm using this tag now :c #edward teach #ed teach #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #our flag means death #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #i guess #izzy hands #stede bonnet

761 notes · View notes

alex51324 · 6 months

Text

Another round of thoughts on the "Izzy died like a queer-coded character from a pre-gay-lib era" theme:

Every time I check into the Izzy tag or the main OFMD tag, I see people talking about how they liked/weren't shocked by the finale because it always kinda seemed like Izzy was going to die:

The reason it seems that way is because Izzy is the kind of gay character that has, historically, gotten buried.

He's the queer-coded sidekick that has to die to make way for the straight romance, and the queer-coded villain that has to be vanquished to make room for the happy ending (which includes a straight romance).

This time, he died to make way for a gay romance. Diversity win!!! I guess????

And it isn't that anyone thinks--well, probably someone somewhere does think it, but it isn't that I think that DJenks did this because he secretly loves homophobic tropes.

I think--I mean, he's pretty much said, in the interviews--that he did it because he just kinda felt like Izzy had to die to complete his arc. And he's also said he didn't intend to write a homophobic show, what I conclude from that is that he didn't fucking notice that the reason he, IDK, just kinda always felt like Izzy had to die was because of this trope.

That's why, as of the actual filming of the fucking episode, he convinced himself he was doing the "mentor dies" trope, even though he'd never done anything to establish that kind of relationship between the two characters. Because he didn't fucking know why it just kinda seemed right for Izzy to die.

And that, my friends, means that this show is just not as smart as we built it up in our minds to be.

I wasn't even expecting it to be the show where That Character finally gets a happy ending of his own. But I was--because it is a fucking sitcom--expecting it to be one where he ended up somewhere we could imagine a happy ending for him, rather than leaving him bleeding out on the fucking pavement.

#izzy hands #ofmd critical #it's just a show this is not an actual real-life problem #but I'm disappointed #I expected better

794 notes · View notes

bougiebutchbinch · 6 months

Text

"But Lucius is physically disabled and he survived, so it's fine to kill Izzy -"

As most of you know, I am physically disabled. Have to use a lot of very visible mobility aids, get stared at in the street, have kids asking uncomfortable questions, etc.

If you are also physically disabled and cannot see that there is a WORLD of difference between Lucius losing his finger and Izzy having a hugely traumatic, majorly life-changing disability thrust upon him, becoming suicidal, using alcohol to cope, crawling along the floor, hating himself and feeling useless and worthless, thinking he's a burden to the people he cared about because of his physical inability to protect them...

Then getting built up again by that same crew, given a beautiful prosthetic that they made for him, accepted and loved, and learning to accept and love himself specifically as a queer disabled man....

THEN SAYING EXPLICITLY THAT HE WANTS TO DIE, AFTER ALL OF THAT BEAUTIFUL GROWTH

If you cannot see how that might be JUST A LITTLE upsetting to other disabled cripplepunk folks....

I honestly do not know what to say to you.

His arc was about self-acceptance and self-love as a disabled queer man. To have him declare that he wanted to die after coming to terms with his disability and queerness is, in fact, going to upset a lot of disabled queer people.

If you are not physically disabled, feel free to reblog but don't say a word unless it's in support.

[Edited to remove the parts about Ed being canonically disabled, as someone kindly pointed out to me that they were incorrect. I hadn't realised that his knee brace was just fanon! The creators shouldn't get credit for creating a 'disabled' main character if the disability is only really acknowledged by fans.]

#izzy hands #ofmd #our flag means death #ed teach #blackbeard #lucius spriggs #the izcourse #ofmd critical #this attitude is pissing me off #israel hands #there is a world of difference between different sorts of disabled rep. izzy's was a very specific self-love and acceptance story.#to go from wanting to die after a hugely traumatic disabling life event... to....... wanting to die after finding acceptance and happiness #that is gonna be upsetting to disabled people. can you see why? :/#ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 spoilers

576 notes · View notes

tizzyizzy · 6 months

Text

I really appreciate that a section the fandom seems to have embraced the psychological horror of Ed & Stede's Haunted Inn

Stede abandoned a wife and children for the freedom of the sea, and found a new family. He has given up both for a life on land with an unstable lover, always looking for a reason to bolt at the first sign of trouble. His dignity as a captain has been replaced by the placid facade required for customer service (and his lover's peace of mind).

Ed is a murderer and torturer. He is wracked by guilt but unable to make true amends: the mangled body one of the two men that ever loved him lies buried as a monument to his brutality. He ricochets from identity to identity in hopes of finding peace, but the monster is inside him. All he has his Stede. If he loses that, or thinks he does, he'll drag them to the bottom of the sea.

Izzy has been denied a burial at sea, unable to escape Ed's clutches even in death, his golden leg amputated from his body. All that was good in Izzy Hands has gone to better places. All that remains is pain, jealousy, fear, and hate. He has been trapped with the two men who took everything from him. Now he will take everything back.

#ofmd critical #izzy hands #stede bonnet #edward teach #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #ofmd season 2 spoilers

548 notes · View notes

mottlemoth · 6 months

Text

We said "please stop killing off queer couples" and David Jenkins said "yep cool absolutely but the disabled older guy in drag is still fair game right? it's a comedy so we need a happy ending" and we said "wait what hang on" and then 20,000 teenagers said "how dare you media illiterate bigots oppress celebrated queer activist David Jenkins in this way, also when were any of you told that it's a comedy"

And then we all got shot and died, for it was the only satisfying end anyone could think up for our character arcs.

#izzy hands #ofmd critical

599 notes · View notes

jaskierx · 6 months

Text

'they killed off a protagonist' no they didn't

'they killed off one of the only characters in the show that's played by a queer actor' not really

'well they killed off the only character in the show that's played by an actor that's vocal about queer rights' 1. no 2. please don't say shit like this when vico ortiz is right there 3. no again

'they fridged him' nope

'they only killed him for ed's development' also nope

'they caved to anti pressure' lmao

'they buried their gays' 1. [hot fuzz voice] just the one gay actually 2. that's not what that means

'this is ableist' it's not

'this is homophobic' it's not that either

#i'm really out here feeling like jonathan frakes on that fucking fact or fiction show he presented #i went in the tag for One Second lads. mistakes were made #ofmd s2 spoilers #fandom critical #lyse.jpg

883 notes · View notes

artemis-pendragon · 8 months

Text

I love you AO3 volunteers I love you fanfic authors I love you fanfic readers I love you everyone going feral over the silly little gay story site going down I love you community of strangers connected through an appreciation of creativity on the internet I love you so so much

#seriously tho ao3 volunteers are thee MVPs of all time #ao3 #fanfiction #good omens #ofmd #spn #critical role #star trek #star wars #etc etc etc

1K notes · View notes

itswhatyougive · 6 months

Text

674 notes · View notes