I hate Ricky Banes so much. I need OFMD S3 just to see him die… But, I’d be lying if I said I don’t kinda like him as a villain and wanted to sketch him… The bastard. >:c

Can't believe I have an audience with the great Israel Hands. That's absolutely astounding. I've always thought you were underrated. I mean it's absurd, isn't it? Isn't it? That Blackbeard, he gets all this praise, when you are quite clearly the brains of this operation?

Absolutely cackling at the “best OFMD ship (voter fraud encouraged)” poll results.

I swear the entire thread is gold.

Good job evil!Stede and evil!Ed!

OP including an edit for basically every single placing is also great.

I hadn’t known this was a thing people shipped but it makes sense.

I did actually vote for this one, for all the good my single normal, non-bot vote did here!

yep

ofmd but Ricky wears a propeller hat for the entrie show.

so. did izzy call ricky "syphilitic" because he actually thought he lost his nose to syphilis or was he perfectly well able to correctly guess he lost his nose to jackie but played into the obvious syphilis connotation that everyone else would likely be assuming because he knew ricky would find that more insulting.

Yet again, this started on the bird site and I got carried away :D

I want to do an analysis of Ricky and Ned as the foils for Stede and Ed: it's usually a family thing and Ricky and Ned both have the same flavour of "minor prince" and "my brother". They are the children overlooked in favour of their 'better' sibling/relative.

While Stede and Ed are different flavours of Daddy Issues incarnate, Ricky and Ned are the boys raised jealous of a sibling/relative, feeling they are entitled to more than they were given and ready to do violent harm to get what they feel they are due.

They take slights personally, they respond with excessive violence and cruelty to punish anyone who takes something they believe is rightfully theirs (fame and glory for Ricky, legacy for Ned). They also don't do most of it themselves - they get other people to do the dirty work for them.

Whatever prestige they have, they haven't earned it. All the work was done by the people they paid to do it. They hardly put any of the work in themselves. They stand by and let their people get bloodied up to make themselves feel powerful.

It's why it falls apart under any kind of scrutiny by people with actual practise and skill. Stede dismantles Ned's power structure with a few words to his crew. Jackie demolishes Ricky's support network when he makes the mistake of underestimating how smart she is.

Ricky and Ned both have the same disregard for the people they're targetting: these rubes, typical pirates. They see themselves as something better and because of underestimating it, it comes back and bites them in the arse and it's magnificent.

They've clearly spent years crafting a story of how special they are and how much they deserve to be treated like The Most Special Boy and absolutely can't take it when - even after they feel like they've won - people laugh in their faces about it.

Ed mocks Ned for being melodramatic, Stede scoffs at his people management and turns his crew, Izzy straight up laughs in Ricky's face when Ricky tries to insist he's won because he could call up a navy when he had a tantrum. Absolutely zero respect and they're right.

Well one of you is fucking lying.

The thing I like best about Izzy's conversation with Ricky in 2x08 isn't actually the speech, even though it's definitely wonderful. No, my favorite part is that the speech is his response to Ricky's flattery.

I've always thought you were underrated. I mean, it's absurd, isn't it? Isn't it? That Blackbeard, he gets all this praise, when you are quite clearly the brains of this operation?

I don't think Izzy wouldn't quite characterized him and Ed that way in season 1. In 1x04, he admits how much he looked up to Ed and called him "the most brilliant sailor he had ever met." Even though he definitely thinks the shine has gone off the apple, it'd be wrong to think he'd say Blackbeard never deserved the credit he got.

But throughout season 1, Izzy definitely thinks of himself as Ed's keeper, or his handler or some other kind of gross, paternalistic role. He's the one who's "managed [Ed's] increasingly erratic moods" and "massaged" the concerned crew to reassure them. In his mind, he's the one holding this whole thing together, and Ed, "an insane, unpleasant shell of a man who's merely posing as Blackbeard," has lost the plot of what they're trying to do. Because this is how he sees himself, he can justify any action as being "for Ed's own good" (ugh.)

This isn't so different than what Ricky's offering him in this scene. Ed is overrated--you and I both know who's really keeping the ship afloat. (btw, side note: of course Ricky looks straight past the brilliant Indigenous tactician and makes the white dude his pirating blorbo.) I like that this is when Izzy makes his speech, because it really shows how he's changed. We can debate whether or not his arc is done well, but the man who was willing to cozy up to the British in season 1 to get Stede executed and Ed "remanded" into his custody (ick) likely would've warmed to this praise. But in season 2, Izzy doesn't bat an eye at Ricky's words. Instead, he stares him down and delivers a speech that just may be the show's thesis. For a man who was scowling in the background of the cozy, gorgeously-lit "Last Supper" tableau scene, this moment shows how thoroughly he's made his way into the fold.

Our Flag Means Death Season 2 - one gif per episode (with the first gif from their first scene and the last gif from their last scene) | Prince Richard "Ricky" Banes

i think it’s interesting how Ricky and Zheng are both introduced so quickly

because both of them are Stede, kinda

Ricky is naive and clueless, putting himself in danger for the flair. that stupid cocktail thing is exactly something stede would have tried last season, so is just approaching a random pirate with no idea if they’ll listen to or kill you.

Zheng is a seemingly laid back captain who has the respect of the crew without aggression. a very successful pirate, using diplomacy first and violence second. everything stede tried to do last season.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this atm, but it’ll be interesting to see how they come back later in the show. (I’m assuming they’re both going to be hunting stede, but we’ll see)

"Stupid puppet pulled it off"

No but you don't understand my obsession for heroes and villains mirroring each other so closely.

We already have the Pinocchio tie in from season 1 that gets brought back both in references and name-calling. Stede and Ricky were both dolls that ran away from their lifestyles in the search of adventure but when tasked with hindrance, you can change, adapt and grow or you can learn the wrong lessons, scarper home and bury yourself in the false grandeur of something bigger than you (in this case the monarchy).

Our Flag Means Death is about what happens when you become a real man

And what happens when you stay a puppet

He's lying to you Zheng and a lie keeps growing and growing until it's as clear as the nose on your face

adore how the main villain of season 2 is just so incredibly queer-coded. erroll shand as ricky banes appreciation post

Cuntiest prince ever💅

I know he'd already loaded it when they left the bar but this is fucking funny to imagine

Ricky: *aggressively cramming gunpowder in pistol*

The crew, watching: I'm sure this can't possibly go wrong!

Ricky bts + Izzy & Ricky