#ofmd s2 e1-5 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

emopirates · 7 months

Text

Thoughts about the wooden demon boy who thirsted for life

OK so I think early in his pirate career Stede latches on to the story of Pinocchio because it’s about a "fake" boy becoming “real.” And for Jim, Fang, and Archie the focus is on a "wooden" boy becoming "flesh."

Stede has masked his entire life, with his father and his bullies and his arranged marriage. He has buried his true impulses over and over (when he made himself look at that bloody goose, when he posed for portraits with a stranger he didn’t want to marry, when he said his life wasn’t monotonous, when he told Mary his crying was an owl). A puppet who wants to be human resonates with him because maybe he has become a puppet, a little bit. He's done what people manipulated him to do, and what he himself learned to make himself do, to get by and stay out of trouble. When he leaves home, Stede isn't sure who he will become or what will happen, but he knows he has to go in order to find out. He takes a leap of faith, and I think he hopes it will lead him to be more authentic to himself than anything he’s known lately.

To Jim, Archie and Fang, the story of Pinocchio is maybe the same, but it’s also about a “wooden” boy who is becoming “flesh.” Which is hilarious because it makes it a horror story, and Jim and Archie and Fang are all in on that joke! But also, the lives they have led, as an assassin trained from childhood, as career pirates, have led them to be tough and guarded (Jim takes a year to tell their best friend their favorite color; Archie isn’t phased by fighting to the death because that’s just how stuff goes; Fang is more raw and open, but also his persona is so different on raids vs on the Revenge that that juxtaposition is used to set up the whole cake-eating scene). Jim and Fang both remember a time when almost everyone on the Revenge was unguarded and soft most of the time. They wore soft clothes and sketched each other and played the lute and went on little day trips and talked about their feelings and kissed. Archie probably doesn’t know all those specifics but she can piece some of it together, I think. I think, to Jim and Archie and Fang, maybe the wooden boy story is still about unmasking and shedding learned behaviors, but instead of the focus on those behaviors being untrue, now the focus is on those behaviors being protective.

Side note: we don’t know this for sure, but Pinocchio could be the same story, mostly, in both tellings! Certainly they’re compatible with each other. Which maybe is a comment on what it’s like to put your story out in the world. People will make it their own and use the parts they need, and that’s the desired effect! That’s part of it! Look how much relief and hope it’s giving these folks to do these silly demon voices! Look how this fancy guy is enjoying reading this kids' story to his new family!

Also both s1e1 and s2e1 end with Pinocchio (if you include the post-credit tag) which I just think is neat.

Seagull feast

I think this is related. I was wondering if the seagull feast is maybe a goose callback?

Goose: baby Stede making himself go through the motions of seeming tough and masking to avoid mean comments from dad. Mostly this isn't successful, shown by baby stede’s flinch and dad’s lecture. Dad still mean, goose still not nice to look at. Flashbacks to the goose moment always come when Stede feels like he's weak or weird or wrong :(((( — but, I think this is changing in season 2!

Seagull: Shows that the crew have made themselves BE tough since the storm / almost killing Ed. They are much more effective at toughening up than baby Stede (not flinching at the sight of the dead bird but digging in!! eating it!!). They are more armored up than ever rn. They're eating a SEAGULL and not flinching even a little bit. They've gone full box-in-the-mind.

I love so much that Stede seems to see the bloody seagull and barely registers it (or jumping overboard, swimming, climbing up a ~!~ladder~!~ for that matter). Now he only wants to find Ed, and flashing back to his dad is the farthest thing from his mind, dead bird what dead bird who CARES I have important things to do. He’s got no time for his filters and protective layers and second guessing his instincts, he’s a real boy and he’s going to find Ed damn it!!!!! Ahhhh!!

Nine guns

There is so much to think about with Ed and Blackbeard and masks and armor. When Ed meets stede he’s been wanting to soften and take off his Blackbeard armor for a while, and within the first one hour and forty seven minutes :D of meeting, he does so, a bit, in the form of softer clothes. Ed lowers his guard over and over, in the bathtub scene, the kiss scene, etc, even renounces piracy (kinda ;), he is his real soft self and then when he gets his heart broken :(((((( he tries to suit back up with his emo makeup and nine guns, but he can't really get that armor to stick. Maybe because it's tied up in the Blackbeard persona which he was so ready to shed anyway???

I think I'm really glad he gets the head bonk and the cold shoulder in the antique shop and talking shit with Mary Read because they’re all little ways he’s getting little bits of protection/autonomy back?? in ways that feel authentic to Ed and not blackbeard, and not ed as part of ed+stede??? And then once he's that little bit safe he starts saying thank you to compliments from stede and yes I'll come back to the ship and gahhhhh

I have no conclusion and this is half formed, and I want to think/read about how the cake toppers and gravy basket fit in too, but really I just can’t wait for ed and stede and the crew to get more story time and art therapy. ✨🎶🎨

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2 e1-5 #or 1-4 I guess?

18 notes · View notes

spenglernot · 7 months

Text

STORIES TELLING: THE BREATHTAKING EFFICIENCY OF WRITING IN OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH

One of the things I most admire about Our Flag Means Death is the efficiency of the writing. So much happens so fast, but nothing is dissonant or feels like it comes out from left field. I think part of the reason it works so well is that the subtext does a lot of heavy lifting; setting the foundation for what comes next. There is always more than one thing being conveyed. It isn’t simply storytelling, it’s stories telling.

Case in point: Ed's stories about underwater beasties...

S1 E6, The Art of Fuckery - Ed telling the crew a story about the Kraken. S2 E5, The Curse of the Seafaring Life - Ed telling Stede a story about fishing.

S1 E6 Young Ed sees the kraken (himself). It’s foreboding, powerful and uncontrollable.

S2 E5 Ed clearly delineates between himself and the beast (rage, violence, protection). He is the man (an adult, above the water), conscious and in control. The beast is beneath the sea (subconscious).

S1 E6 Ed describes the kraken as hideous, rising out of the water (of its own volition) while young Ed stands nearby, powerless.

S2 E5 Ed describes pulling to bring the beast out of the water. This is a conscious act, over which he has control.

S1 E6 Ed describes the kraken attacking, before Ed even knew it had done so.

S2 E5 Ed describes triumphantly pulling the beast from the water.

S1 E6 Ed describes his warning about the kraken coming too late, and the kraken takes its victim. The kraken is in control.

S2 E5 Ed shows Stede the beast he subdued: a small fish.

Why is this so damn heartbreaking and funny and touching?

We have two stories that are highly entertaining and work within the context of the episodes to move the narrative forward. But they also say a whole lot about how Ed sees himself at each moment in time.

In season 1, the beast is safely underwater, but it can always rise, with overwhelming strength and power, to wreak havoc and keep Ed safe. It’s not something Ed is fully in control of, and it can (and later does) do tremendous damage.

In season 2, episode 5, the beast is safely underwater. Ed has to put effort into keeping the beast on the line and reeling it in, but he is in control of it.

And, while the small fish silhouetted triumphantly against the moonlight is beautifully sweet and funny, what made me crumple on the floor is what it says about how Ed is beginning to manage the kraken (himself) now.

The kraken is still there, under the water, and maybe Ed isn’t ready to control it in its full form, but he’s working on it. He wrangled a small sea (subconscious) beast and is celebrating his success in that.

And then Stede says this:

(Sob. You're such a good boyfriend right now, Stede!)

Yeah, Ed. That is really beautiful. Good on you, mate. Keep going.

This post was written before OFMD season 2 fully airs. No idea what’s going to happen in episodes 6, 7, and 8 (and I’ve generally fled social media to avoid spoilers). I’ll be back, looking at everyone’s fascinating posts after the finale airs.

#JFC the OFMD writers have game #OFMD parallels #OFMD subtext #OFMD meta #The kraken #The beast #Fishing #Edward Teach #Stede Bonnet #Our flag means death #OFMD S1 #OFMD S2 #OFMD S2 E1-5 spoilers

419 notes · View notes

bookgeekgrrl · 7 months

Text

My media this week (22-28 Oct 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🙂 The Golden Spoon (Jessa Maxwell, author; full voice cast narration) - a perfectly cromulent book: totally predictable to anyone who's read more than 1 mystery but still entertaining in both characters and plot. Gerald, my autistic king, you were definitely my fave. [I did like the idea of having a different voice narrator for each character, since the chapter POVs switch, but the narrator for Stella sounded like the Tiktok automated voice about 90% of the time. I could tell I was going to get annoyed with that & with the way audio draws things out when I can read text so much faster and it became clear the plot was going to be so predictable, so I switched over to reading text ~35%.]

🙂 The Sleeping Beauty Curse (who_la_hoop) - 152K, drarry, accidental soulbond

😍 i come back to the place you are (pizzabones) - 211K, steddie canon-divergent post s4, extremely satisfying slow burn, loved the dual POV structure with eddie in a coma for the first 10 months the fic covers

💖💖 +79K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

soldier keep on marching on (waiting on that morning sun) (songofswiftsunrise) - LOTR: gen, 4k - lovely 'Boromir Lives' AU, inspired by emily martin's incredible art

Pursued by Bear (Zenaidamacrouras1) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 19K - reread, forever fave, inspired by that tweet about the UFC & Shakespeare conventions occurring in the same hotel

A Tricky Bit of Spellwork (AidaRonan) - OFMD: gen, 1K - legit the only way I'll accept Izzy not being dead is this

Ready for Love (idiopathicsmile) - Singin' in the Rain: Cosmo/Don/Kathy, 13K - the Singin' in the Rain OT3 fic I didn't know I needed

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Mock The Week - s21, e2

The Graham Norton Show - s31, e3 (Laura Linney, Dawn French, London Hughes and Adrian Edmondson)

Taskmaster - s16, e5

QI - series J, ep 12; series T, ep 1-2, 4

Shakespeare & Hathaway - s1, e1

Murdoch Mysteries - s15, e18-24; s16, e1-5

Dirty Laundry - s3, e4

D20: Burrow's End - "Last Bast" (s20, e4)

D20: Adventuring Party - "The Bast of Us" (s15, e4)

Our Flag Means Death - s2, e8

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

⭐ Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Oil and Blood: The Osage Murders

Shedunnit - Spooky Sleuthing

Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals - Teaser 11: Shirley Jackson

⭐ Decoder Ring - The Fast Decline of the Slow Dance

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame

⭐ Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Auto-Tone

⭐ Song Exploder - Kesha "Eat The Acid"

⭐ Hit Parade - This Ain’t No Party?! Edition

Re: Dracula - October 24: Not Yet Reported

Into It - Britney Was Always Trying to Tell Us Who She Was

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Venturing Into the Twilight Zone with Susan Casey

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Frasier

Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals - Teaser 12: Bram Stoker

Ed Zitron's 15 Minutes In Hell - Episode 12 - Kari Byron

Simply Reflecting - Are We Back?

Re: Dracula - October 25: To His Doom

Vibe Check - I Put A Spell On You

Shedunnit - Bonus: A Haunting in Venice Review

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Great Plains Dinosaur Museum

⭐ Decoder Ring - When Art Pranksters Invaded Melrose Place

Switched on Pop - Chartbreakers: Mitski tops the TikTok chart

⭐ Today, Explained - Why does the US always side with Israel?

Ologies with Alie Ward - Teratology (MONSTERS) with W. Scott Poole

Re: Dracula - October 26: Continue Our Watching

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Art of the Heist with Noah Charney

99% Invisible #557 - Model Village

Off Menu - Ep 211: Steve Coogan

Into It - We Will Never Recover From What Justin Did to Britney or: the End of 'Into It'

Dear Prudence - I’m Making Bitchy Comments to A Dog! Help!

What Next: TBD - Self-Driving Cars Crash Into Reality

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Naked Attraction And What's Making Us Happy

Endless Thread - Endless Dread: Campfire Chills

Re: Dracula - October 28: Awful Straits

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Killers of the Flower Moon: Osage Chief Jim Gray In Conversation

Overinvested - Ep. 287: The Exorcist

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Bernie Taupin

Hit Parade - The Bridge: Down at the Rock n’ Roll Club

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Land (1975-2002) [Patti Smith] {2002}

Presenting Talking Heads

Presenting Blondie

Mania [Ramones] {1988}

Nightmare City Punk

4 notes · View notes