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Guess you never know when you’re in the middle of the ‘good old days’

MASSIVE OFMD SPOILERS, BE WARNED

I’ve been seeing a lot of takes today about Izzy’s death which I disagreed with, but there’s one specific take that I want to actually address because I think it’s a really insidious way of blaming the audience for being upset.

I’ve seen a couple of posts and comments that are like “well everyone dies, (no kidding) and queer people die, and you can tell queer stories where queer people die and that’s ok, so you shouldn’t be mad at Izzy dying.”

And yeah. Of COURSE that’s true, we all know it is. I love a fair bit of queer media that ends DEVASTATINGLY, and that’s fine.

But the thing I take issue with here is that that is not what we were promised. That’s not what the show sold itself as. OFMD is a comedy, and more specifically it’s been sold to us repeatedly as a queer comedy for queer people. In fact, it adheres to its comedy status so stubbornly that sometimes I think it undercut the show’s emotional core. It’s a historical show where the silly little gay people get to be happy, and stuff like being stabbed in the liver is non fatal, and wounds only get infected if plot relevant and generally heal instantly, and people can be brained with a canonball and then walk away through the power of Mermaid Love. It was sold and discussed as a piece of queer media where it’s audience could relax, because we were safe. And then, when we’d all relaxed and stopped jumping at the stab wounds, we found out that we shouldn’t have lowered our defences at all.

I’m not angry that OFMD is a queer show that kills its characters. I’m angry that it’s a queer show that specifically and repeatedly said that this wasn’t going to be one of those shows, that this wasn’t going to conform to real history, and then killed off one of its most central, compelling old queers in the last 5 minutes.

“Not moving on is worse.”

In the context of season two, I struggle to reconcile the intersection of sincerity and comedy, and the idea of what pains and traumas we are meant to understand at the deeper level of what trauma is with those that serve only the purpose of comedic timing. This isn’t limited to one character, but rather to the season as a whole.

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Okay yes Ed and Stede are going to be objectively very terrible at running an inn. Just the worst anyone has ever been at it probably. But can you imagine what it would be like to stay at this place.

• There's literally a grave right there in the front yard.
• Ed and Stede both have a very intense "compliment my boyfriend or I'll blow this whole place up" energy. Ed glares at you until you compliment the interior decor. Stede makes very unsubtle hints for you to rave about how good Ed's cooking is.
• Towel service is fucking immaculate. And Ed probably keeps rooms stocked with all the good soap.
• You can't sleep because those two are going at it all night long. You probably assume they're having some weird orgy because they're really into cringefail roleplay sex and you hear several different names as they try to find a good plot. You hear a cat bell ringing but they definitely don't have a cat.
• Ed offers to take you fishing with him but spends the entire morning waxing poetic about his boyfriend while you do all the actual fishing.
• It takes half an hour to get to your room because they just keep doing bits and talking about all the knickknacks they've got.
• They're just absolutely embarrassing. No customer service is being done because Ed is too busy sitting in Stede's lap.
• Continental breakfast is like. Just a whole fish and marmalade set out on a table. You have to eat it anyway because Stede's face makes it very clear you're not leaving that inn until you do.

Every one of these as a writing prompt is sheer fucking gold.

Keep It In The Box : An Essay on OFMD Season 2 and the Failure to Heal

(here in is my season two reaction. It contains many many spoilers. It's also about 3k words long so you know what you're getting into.)

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On Izzy's grave

The final shot of the season is actually Izzy’s grave, outside of Ed and Stede’s cottage. “I think him being buried near them is a lovely image,” he said. “And there’s a reason that that happened. I think they both were sad to see their friend go. And I think they’re both thinking, ‘let’s make this work not just for us, but in memory of Izzy’.” [source]

Okay. Great. This shit. Just perfect.

I mean, does Jenkins even hear himself when he says this? Is this supposed to be a sufficient explanation for Ed and Stede burying Izzy in their fucking garden instead of giving him a funeral at sea that would be proper for a lifelong career pirate? Are we supposed to feel better after reading this?

Because it's not fucking working on me, David. Because what you did is that you took a beautifully complex man who in the end turned out to care about his crew and his community way more than he cared about ANY single person and you literally reduced him to a motivation for Ed and Stede to try and be better. (It bodes so fucking well for their relationship if they need to look at Izzy's grave every day to be reminded that they love each other, by the way!)

Izzy's last scene is fucking ALL about Edward. He apologizes to his abuser (yes, they were mutually abusive but Izzy NEVER went as far as Ed did and he never took pleasure in it). He tells Ed the crew are his family (the crew who took Izzy's side when Edward was abusing him, the crew who are IZZY's family, not Ed's, and the crew whom Ed abandons literally two scenes later). And then he says he wants to go so that Ed's conscience can be clean (Izzy "I'm not dying, not for that ponce and not for you" and "indestructible little fucker" Hands says he wants to die!!!).

And if that wasn't bad enough, they make his final resting place all about themselves as well. We KNOW a burial on land is not what Izzy would have wanted. Not to mention the mockery they make of the grave itself in hanging Izzy's cravat with his ring on the marker rather than burying him wearing it. But sure, Ed and Stede need a reminder to be decent people, so let them take all of Izzy's agency away and disrespect him even in death.

The way Jenkins talks about this, we should see all of it as sad but sweet and touching. For me, it's none of those. It's disrespectful in the worst possible way. And I seriously don't think I will ever recover from that.

Fuck. I'm so devastated I forgot about another vital point here. Izzy's whole character arc in S2 is kicked off by Edward abusing him to the point of physical mutilation. Yes, the arc is about redemption and learning the value of community, but it is ALSO about Izzy realizing just how terribly codependent and mutually abusive his relationship with Ed is and learning who he is outside of it.

It's about him FINALLY finding himself after almost killing himself in order to get out of a toxic, destructive relationship. It's about him getting away from Edward and learning to be free. It's about him becoming his own person. And then they fucking bury him in their garden as a reminder for themselves. After all the painful growth he went through, to decide to keep him close, literally trapped in their garden, and to reduce him to a warning for themselves is so incredibly insulting that I can't imagine either Ed or Stede wanting to do that.

And it's not just insulting to Izzy. It's insulting to the fans as well as we are told we should accept that because we were given a topless scene and La Vie en Rose in drag.

An open letter to David Jenkins

Some fans believe that we should not vent our anger and frustration to show creators. I don’t believe that. The thing about being a professional is that receiving criticism is part of your job—especially if you have done a terrible job.

OFMD went from groundbreaking to disappointing overnight.

There was a momentum to create a queer media that is smart, fun, sexy, and most importantly, respectful. In the way they are writing these queer characters. Especially older and disabled queer characters, a reflection of a generation of marginalised communities that have gone through so much. To give audience a glimpse of hope in their escapism.

But sir, you choose to Remus Lupin him instead.

This is not just about killing off a character. Hell, I might be willing to accept it. After all, I have read and even written fics with MCD in it—involving my favourite character.

But I want you to know that this is a special case. It is not just another popular character being killed off to drive plots.

I have issue with how you kill off a queer character that represents many marginalised communities in his arc.

Izzy is an abuse survivor who becomes disabled as a result of it. Izzy is a queer elder. Izzy is suicidal but manages to overcome it with the healing power of love and community.

Having him killed off just like that is a huge slap for fans who have gone through what he has gone through. Turns out, even in fiction, in our escapism, there is no joy. Only despair.

Also. Father figure? Where does that come from? Ed has never been shown to have any level of respect for Izzy. So let me ask you again. Where does “father figure” come from?

You have an opportunity to make a difference with OFMD; to be remembered in history for the right reasons. Yet somehow you choose not too. You choose to turn this into cheap, sensationalist entertainment where death and torture are thrown around for shock value.

It is like you have no idea how much power you have by being a professional storyteller.

OFMD has truly become an overnight failure. I don’t know how this happened. I would like to blame budget cuts, but your Vanity Fair interview makes me realise this is all deliberate choice.

So, what is next for us Canyonites?

If anything, this convinced me that queer and disabled people should write. And continue to write.

We can no longer trust major media to speak for us. We definitely can never trust David Jenkins again. Any form of progressiveness that he showed earlier was just coincidence, apparently.

As my friend Sam beautifully puts it, Izzy belongs to us now. We reclaim that character and give him all the happy endings he deserves in our fic, our art. We transform the works. We write about queer, disabled, suicidal characters the way the deserve to be written. If being a published writer is the path you choose, make sure you make wiser decisions than David Jenkins.

Thank you, sir. It was good while it lasts.

But this is a terrible job that you’re doing.

"Well, that's that, then"

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH (2022— ) Episode 2.08

They didn’t even bury him with his fucking ring.

Watch till the end 😂

I ❤️ them 😂 but yeah, Stand Up ✊

them

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH | Blackbonnet
All Kisses ❤️

I do wanna be clear that Stede was fucked after that first kill and we see from Izzy and Ed's reactions that you have to be a true maniac (Ned, the English) to enjoy it but the second one comes a lot more naturally to him, and that is partly tied with the applause he gets and partly with the last few months having shown him that killing is a necessary part of the world of piracy he so idealises. It's not ooc for stede to kill and to kinda be swept up in the fame of it all - it's how Ricky got inside his circle too. Stede is very prone to flattery, it doesn't even have to be the good kind. It's his growth as a character, the next stage for him to know to pick his enemies, and what he's wanted all along is to be taken seriously in this world. This man has never had a kind word spoken to him most of his life, of course he wants the infamy and the emotional riches of people patting him on the back and having his face tattooed on their bodies. Of course he wants to be a proper pirate, he's always said that, we've always known that.

Stede had already set fire to a whole ship, only none of the people who had burned to death then were standing right in front of him.

Our Flag Means Shakespeare

"And worse I may be yet: the worst is not So long as we can say, 'This is the worst.'" --King Lear (4.1.-27-28)

“Guess you never know when you’re in the middle of the good old days.” -Jim, S2 E2 (Red Flags)

"I've had a few secret passages built into the ship... you know, just for fun."

NGL this one hurts.