laceratedlamiaceae:

“It wasn’t actually you who stabbed the painting, was it?” Stede asks suddenly in the middle of their training.

“No,” Izzy answers after a moment of careful consideration.

“Then why’d you tell me you did?”

“I thought Edward was dead. And I want”–Izzy heaves a shaky sigh–“I wanted someone to remember him fondly.”

“You mean me?” Stede asks, pointing at himself dumbfounded.

“Fuck if anyone else is going to, after all the shit he did.”

Stede takes a moment to consider this. Even after everything his crew has told him about Ed, he finds it hard to believe that it isn’t all just one big misunderstanding. But if Izzy, Blackbeard’s most loyal servant, was saying it as well…

“Not even you?”

Izzy shakes his head, holding back the tears threatening to well up. “Not anymore.”

theenoathee:

“‘fuck you’ is her name!”

“STUPID NAME FOR A PERSON.”

bizarrelittlemew:

do you know what WOULD be weird and ooc?

Ed and Stede magically learning perfect healthy communication skills and letting go of their own deeply rooted self esteem/self loathing issues over the course of four days

ourflagmeansheartbreak:

When Zheng said “you’re the worst kind of man. A mediocre man who thinks he’s exceptional”

Stedie boy I love you but she’s just so so right

amuseoffyre:

“This is what a man’s work looks like”

In case there was any question Stede’s first kill is messing him up, he’s found himself an older man in a blood-spattered leather apron to give him validation and approval.

In Stede’s childhood flashbacks and fevered delirium, his dad is wearing that very same apron, still smeared with blood. When Stede killed Ned Low, he instantly flashes back to that day and the spatter of blood on his face.

Our man is Not Handling Things Well.

amuseoffyre:

Things worth remembering:

All Stede knows about Ed’s breakdown is that it was because of him (You broke him/he took my leg cos I mentioned your name), He doesn’t know about Ed’s other trauma aside from his dad and while he knows Ed is disillusioned with pirating, he doesn’t know the specifics about why.

Ed tends to speak in metaphors and while Stede tries to understand them, it’s clear that sometimes he’s missing the mark. Sometimes Ed isn’t even sure of the metaphors himself, but once he has them, he holds onto them - the fish thing has got him especially.

And the thing is that Ed’s only just learned to sit with himself in episode 5 and it’s overwhelming him. At the beginning of 6, he’s the stillest and quietest we’ve seen him and is gazing out to sea while having flashbacks to things he’s done and people he’s hurt (hello 1x09 callback).

And the thing is he’s okay at the start of 7. He’s made a decision about shedding the Blackbeard stuff. He doesn’t say anything to anyone and he’s ok until Jackie points out Stede is the rising star just when Ed wants out

He doesn’t begrudge Stede being excited and happy with his new fame. He is afraid of what his presence has led Stede to: the conversation with Jackie is very much his “you defile beautiful things” moment, especially his presence brought Ned to Stede (“It’s me you want”).

He also doesn’t understand why Stede killed Ned because Stede bottled up his trauma like his love letters. He doesn’t even know why Stede a) became a pirate or b) went back to Mary, especially since Stede never actually told him where he’d been directly. He had to hear it from Anne - and Stede is betrayed by that as well (“I told you that in confidence”)

Right now, he’s feeling unmoored by his own identity and now Stede has taken a step that has fully changed him as a person too and dragged him straight back into the heart of piracy. He tells Jackie he wants out and she asks if Stede knows that and Ed’s face just drops and he whispers “shit”.

And he spends of the rest of the day thinking and quiet and realises that to process any of this mess, he needs to be away from the pirate world for a bit so he can get his head on straight because now it’s roaring back in for him. He sits, he thinks, he realises he needs that space - he should speak to Stede but he tried that the day before and Stede still killed Ned.

Stede also lashes out, which definitely doesn’t help. He’s right. Ed is panicking, but Stede is also missing so many little clues. Ed never told him about dropping his leathers and Stede just sees him as Ed in other clothes. He doesn’t understand the significance, even when everyone around them realises something is off. If even the Swede picks up on it, you know it’s an obvious flag.

They both need to use their words and explain wtf is happening with both of them, but they are also both ridiculously traumatised by their past experience. Ed is afraid he’s unlovable and now Stede is talking down his coping mechanism, so maybe he’s right and Ed-as-Ed is unlovable, while Stede has been told his entire life he isn’t enough, so becoming the ultimate pirate should be the win he’s been looking for, only Ed isn’t happy and Ed is leaving him, so maybe it’s him that isn’t enough after all.

They are both tangled up so much in their own histories and don’t know enough about each others and that’s why they keep lashing out and hurting each other so much - they each don’t realise what they’re saying is a different kind of weapon to the other.

piratecaptainscaptainpirates:

I really adore that everyone who works on OFMD seems to love it just as much as we do.

Not just the cast, though that’s undeniable - Rhys Darby says Stede is the role he was “born to play,” Taika loves it so much he got some of Ed’s tattoos. Samba and Vico and Con are always talking about how much they love it and would surely be giving us mountains of bts content were it not for the strike.

And the crew are so excited to share things with us! They put so much care into the props and sets and costumes, and they want to share all the little details with us. The writers, especially our beloved creator David Jenkins himself, openly and happily talk about how they’re fans of the show and brought that love into it.

There is so much love in this show. I think that’s why that one review of season 2 that called it too much fanservice has only been sitting with me even worse since season 2 has actually started airing. “Fanservice” has such a cynical, negative connotation, and you really get the impression that everything in season 2 is there not just because fans wanted it but because the creators love this show, too, and they want to give us narrative beats that are extremely satisfying. Think about the end of s2e5 with the obvious callback to the first “you wear fine things well” scene - it’s a great moment, not just because it’s a callback for the fans but because it’s a callback for Ed and Stede, too, because it allows them to reclaim that moment where Ed wanted to make a move and didn’t, allowed them to move their relationship forward at the same time.

This show is so earnest and sincere and such an obvious labor of love. I feel incredibly lucky.

saltpepperbeard:

even though i’m mentally throwing a fiddle at ned low myself for interrupting a dance between ed and stede, i can’t help but sit with how intentional that upset is. because, it further hammers in the point that “their line of work” makes soft, easy, sweet moments far more difficult. at any point, at any time, an attack could emerge from the shadows, slicing through the niceties in an instant.

and for someone like ed who is exhausted by that sort of instability, and also so in love and so subsequently protective, i can’t imagine how hard that moment must have struck him. i’m sure it got the ball of fear rolling.

he just wants to heal and grow with his beloved. he just wants to turn poison into positivity. he just wants to slowly come back into his own body and self again.

but he was denied that. things went downhill so fast. he saw his darling get hurt, and easily could have lost him. and that of course led to a more impulsive, desperate bout of intimacy, stripping away the slowness and softness even further.

it was just such a catalyst. and ed’s upset for having that slip through his fingers is our own.

piratecaptainscaptainpirates:

OFMD is by far my favorite show and I had incredibly high expectations, so I think it’s been easy for me to be very critical. On the whole, though, I’ve been having so much fun with it and it’s met a lot of my big expectations, especially when I take a step back from fandom spaces and look at it on its own.

I completely understand if other people aren’t where I’m at, especially for other fans of color who’ve been harassed and who [redacted]’s arc isn’t sitting well with. But I still wanted to take a sec and just think about some of my absolute favorite things this season ahead of the finale next week.

- Ed’s arc and journey of self-reflection. So well done! I love the gravy basket especially.

- How Ed’s mutiny/suicide attempt is set up so well that we can’t blame the crew for it. So juicy!

- Stede getting to be a little bitch at every opportunity

- Every line out of Zheng Yi Sao’s mouth

- How they underscored the larger theme of transformation this season by having Buttons turn into a bird

- A bit more Fang screen time. I love Fang so much guys

- I wish Archie had more screen time but every one of her lines is a knockout every single time

- How Ed and Stede were able to get back together early and the season is actually about continuing to grow with each other

- Really loved how Stede defeated Ned Low by leveraging a people positive management style

- They put Ed in a cat collar. Can’t overstate that enough

- I actually really like Ricky’s silly prosthetic nose, and how he’s just like Stede except in all the ways that matter

- Drag! That isn’t made into a joke! Just a beautiful celebration of queer joy!

- How characters of color are consistently portrayed as smart, successful, and desirable!!

bizarrelittlemew:

this has to be a shout-out to the fandom for speculating about the sleeping arrangements aboard the Revenge for over a year

eddie-redcliffe:

His leg’s rotting! It needs to be cut off.

vafrosaon:

archie <3

raggedy-spaceman:

Interesting thing I noticed upon rewatching.
So in episode 5, after Ed’s speech, the only ones clapping are Fang, Roach, Black Pete and Stede.

Fang is obviously very attached to Ed, Roach and Pete were not there so they don’t know how bad things were, and Stede is… well, Stede.
Oluwande on the other hand doesn’t clap, probably because Jim told him what happened.
Frenchie, bless his heart, does one (1) clap and then shakes his head.

But then, interestingly, after Lucius gives him the middle finger, Ed looks to his right. He’s not looking at Stede though, Stede is further right. No, it really looks like Ed is staring directly at Izzy.

I don’t know what his face is trying to communicate here, but as far as we know Ed and Izzy are yet to talk to each other after the whole… mess.

So… yeah. Just another thing to lose sleep over until next week :)

iskander-tm:

The probability of us finding each other was very low yet still we kissed above the amputated leg