Ofmd - Blog Posts
If I had a nickel for every time the internet went wild over a “ste/ed” ship I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice
Watching ofmd for the third time be like *watches Ed and Stede be fascinated with each other prior to meeting* * Lucius is literally the glue holding this show together* *using they/them pronouns for Jim before the crew knows* *deep desire to help Izzy get laid despite kinda hating him* *cries*
Sometimes I accidentally pronounce “Stede and Ed” as “Sted and Eed” in my head
Frenchie is definitely my favorite “minor character.” I’d be so curious to learn more about him, and I figure we surely will considering he’s one of the ones that has to stick with Ed ((:
obsessed with frenchie as a character. invented the pyramid scheme. terrified of cats. doesn’t even do pirate stuff. just plays his little lute and sings. doesn’t really do anything violent, like, ever. they get raided by the english navy and he just stands there plucking his lute unbothered. very emotionally aware and knows how to read a room. says cute shit like “cheers, me dears!” loves conspiracy theories. likes to draw. likes to design spaces by drawing out blueprints. calls his friends ‘babe’. the only one brave enough to ask the Blackbeard after they’re invaded if he’s gonna kill them after they repair the ship. tells stede “wiggle the hips” during his duel with izzy. cheers when izzy gets punched. somehow gets a reputation for being able to sew so ed keeps him as one of two [2] members of stede’s crew to stay with him after he abandons the rest on a desert island. “they’re such DICKS about spoons.”
Ugh I can’t wait. Usually with second seasons or sequels or whatnot I get so scared they’ll ruin it, but I just find it hard to believe they will. Everyone who works on this show is so talented, and honestly I’m confident that whatever direction they choose to take in season 2, it’ll be the right one
My wishes for a possible season two are so utterly varied!!
I want them to reunite with gusto within the first three episodes, yet I also want a tantalizingly slow escalation of near-misses and stolen glances! I want Stede tracking Edward down with unbounded love, singing sonnets the whole way; but I also want Stede tracking Edward down with anguish, spurred by love but with a burning desire for answers- perhaps even retribution. I want that journey to ground Stede- bringing him down to earth and forcing him to start from scratch. But then again, I also want that journey to spur his unabashed flights of fancy- exacerbating all that makes Stede Bonnet so utterly bonkers.
I want Edward to sail as far away from Stede Bonnet as he can geographically muster, forever pushing forward until the physical distance matches the metaphorical one that Stede initiated. But I also want Edward tracking Stede down, thinking that he's with the navy, thinking that he returned to his family, thinking 101 different thoughts that have him ceaselessly searching for the man that fucked him over. I need him to hear of Bonnet's death on the mainland- I want him to believe it, to genuinely think that the man's dead; but equally I need him to clue in on the fuckery, to uncover the story of Badminton #2 and piece together the bizarre puzzle from that fateful night. I need him to hear of Captain Thomas and his bizarre domination of the Carribean; I want Ed to brush it to the side, a mockery of Bonnet's name. Yet I want him to realize, to recognize who exactly this Captain Thomas and his peculiar pirating style is.
When they do reunite, I want Stede to alternatively mirror season one, with him coming in to save an Edward who's gotten into a frightful altercation with the British; subsequently spending days sitting at his bedside as wounds tentatively begin to heal. Yet I also crave for their reconvening to be utterly novel- something that forces the two to work together before they even get the chance to speak. When they lock eyes for the first time in months, I want Ed's world to crumble at the sight of Stede Bonnet, his knees thunking the floor and eyes welling with unkept emotion. Yet there's an undeniable appeal that comes from an on-deck duel, emotions funnelled into a physical altercation. I want Stede to respond with emotional maturity, facilitated by lessons from his arduous journey at sea! Yet I yearn for the clueless, tone-skewed Stede Bonnet who goes about reconciliation in an entirely convoluted manner. I want Izzy to support the reunification, having realized that the Kraken was not the monster that he had called for, realizing that people are multi-faceted and healing is paramount. But I also yearn for him to be a little shit- desperate and repressed- protective of the image of Blackbeard and disallowing Stede's return to their lives.
I want the healing to take mere days, routine returning with the softness of the rolling waves outside. Yet perhaps even more so than that, I need this to be a months-long process of Stede proving that he's here- he's not going, he doesn't want to, he accepts Edward as a whole, never for individual parts. I want Stede to wipe the paint from Ed's face, gentle and soothing with every stroke. But I can't dissuade the idea of Edward doing it himself, sitting in front of a basin, scrubbing at the sensitive skin until he recognizes the face before him; until he believes that healing is attainable.
This makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve haven’t had the chance to fall in love yet, that’s just not been a part of my life, but I think the reason I love this show so much is because even though they’re pirates it still feels like a realistic love story. It’s something that I can see in my future, unlike other romance shows/movies. And it’s queer!
I've been trying to tease apart why I've gone so terminally feral for this show in particular, and I think a big part of it is because it captures the feeling of falling in love so accurately that I feel like I'M falling in love. Butterflies in my stomach, nauseous when I think about it, can't STOP thinking about it love.
As much as we all love a classic rom-com/love story flick, they have wreaked havoc on our expectations of romance. The purpose of those films or shows are to play out our most grandiose fantasies of love and relationships, a level of drama we could never actually attain, as a form of escapism. There are no manic pixie dream girls whose sole personality is a brand of quirky that fits your interests and saves you from your disillusionment in life. In reality, pursuing someone so intensely without ever giving up or taking no for an answer until they finally win their love interest over has become a trope so pervasive that its bled into the insidious romantic imagination of Nice GuysTM world wide. In the real world, you probably will never have that spinny camera kiss in the pouring rain after you've beaten the odds and live happily ever after, and you might feel like nothing you can experience will ever live up to that feeling. Not to mention they're all heteronormative as fuck.
In OFMD the friends to lovers journey is tentative and slow. There's no moment where one of them takes their glasses off and they suddenly see the other in a whole new light. There's no one sided whining and pining, where there's no real interest in friendship and they only stick around hoping to someday get in the other's pants. They deeply care and fret about not ruining their friendship, about not making the other uncomfortable or pressured. Most of my personal long term relationships started out as friendships, and it was a delicate drawn out testing of the waters before it naturally evolved. And this is particularly common in queer relationships where the lines between platonic and romantic love are often blurred because there are no models of courtship to look to for guidance.
I've seen people talk about how their kiss was too awkward, but that's how real first kisses are. Confessing your feelings is mortifying and nerve wracking, and hearing it makes you blush and stammer. You miss their lips and knock your heads, you don't know where to put your hands. You're nervous. It's not perfect but it's sweet.
And hats off to Taika for absolutely nailing true heartbreak. It feels like your world is ending and your life has come crashing down like they show in the movies but it also makes you feel small and soft and scared. It's the squeak in your voice when someone asks you how you are and you can feel yourself trying not to cry but you can't stop it. It's feeling so emotionally exhausted that you can't even bring your self to be angry, you'd just rather curl up into a ball and die. It's thinking you're moving on until something small reminds you of them and you ugly cry until snot is running down your face and you can't catch your breath. It's hiding under your covers and writing shit poetry in your notes app.
OFMD isn't "I wish I could experience this love story." OFMD is "I have experienced this love story." Falling in love can be the most huge, overwhelming, transcendental part of the human experience. It doesn't need exaggeration. It's the little things, it's like Mary says. It's them understanding your idiosyncrasies and finding them charming. It's exposing each other to new things and new ideas. It's laughing a lot. It's passing the time well.
It's mundane and it's amazing. It's easy, it's like breathing. This show has made me fall in love with the idea of falling in love all over again.
So we have some shots of what we can guess is Stede’s father… but what about his mom? Was she not in the picture for whatever reason? Maybe he’s a person who tries so hard to be nurturing because he never had a person like that?
Love how Ed plans to use Stede’s mangled corpse to free himself from piracy and Stede ends up using a mangled corpse to free himself from the part of the world he doesn’t want to be in anymore
I’ve seen and heard a lot of people saying they didn’t understand why Stede went back to Mary but listen. Just minutes before, we see Chauncey telling him that he messes up everything he does. Of course we know it’s not the best idea to go back. We know that it actually makes things worse— for him, for Mary, for Ed, for pretty much everyone but Izzy. But he doesn’t know that yet. Stede doesn’t know that him “ruining” things actually made them better for people. So he does the one thing he thinks will fix it. He goes back to Mary. This should fix his marriage, make his children happy, get Ed back to being the most fearsome pirate ever. Stede likes to do what he thinks is best for people… he’s just wrong a lot of the time
Finished both ofmd and wwdits within like six days… guess it’s on to Good Omens then…
I have not felt this way about anything since… middle school? My thoughts have been consumed.
happily ever after
An old OFMD piece based off Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog
Have I mentioned how much I fucking love Izzy Hands
His full name is Israel which is cool as hell
Historically he’s like 16 🤔
He has grey hair
He lives in the walls
He’s fallen over multiple times
He can use a sword
He hates unicorns
He is a unicorn
He’s homophobic
He’s gay
He’s swallowed at least 2 of his own toes
“Foot” 😑
He’s probably an alcoholic
He wears one glove
While drunk and missing one limb he managed to rip the legs off a decorative horse on the front of the ship (HOW??)
“I suppose they look like sausages”
He can sing
He can sing in French as well
The little X on his cheek
He wears makeup
He says FOCK
He’s indestructible (almost whoops)
What kind of last name is Hands
He’s played by Con O’Neil (do I need to elaborate?)
Short 🤏
His VOICE is PERFECTION
He has a horse leg
✨“ooohh… oohh… daddy…”✨
He got hit in the face with a sandwich
He doesn’t get paid enough for this shit
He knows songs that won’t even be invented for another 300 years
Emo
“👌”
He’s a silly billy
I cant resist first quick sketch, made with love
guys, my buddy calico jack from ofmd is not a wholesome guy. make him gross please. yeah i love it when he is a pathetic simp for izzy hands but not like *some* people think. make him complex but don’t take away his personality!!!
“fanon is so much better then canon” bestie, you literally took a complex character with personality flaws and turned him into a living stereotype.
we are soooo back (made this for my fanfic, feel free to check it out)
Just know that I’ll be here longing
Do you not have access to max but want to watch season 2 of ofmd?
My pinned post has several links and options for you!
I'll never leave you. I'll never leave again.
#they will always come back to each other
Another one before season 2 :)
Our Flag Means Death season 2 episode 1.
remember in e6 when they were brainstorming fuckery ideas and buttons said “i yearn to make sweet love to the sea” and stede responded with “woah! way too personal!”
anyway who’s excited to see Stede Hypocrite Bonnet overshare about every single romantic and sexual thought he has about his beloved edward in s2