#Stede Bonnet

[sherlockig]

[bizarrelittlemew]

His golden retriever energy 😭 ⌊ requested by @xxprincess1x

[sailorsruin92]

Another silly mermay art. Probably THE silliest of them all. Prompt was "Rescue", so there you go!

[xray-vex]

[eddie-redcliffe]

'This is just an idea. This is it. I'm sorry. That's it.'

[ofmd-ann]

Right now, I just wanna do what makes Ed happy

[dimplyowl]

Okay has anyone written any meta about the differences between our two first mates, Auntie and Izzy? Because I just finished rewatching s2 and was struck by how similar their situations are, and their temperaments, and yet how very completely opposite they behave in nearly identical situations.

Cause like. Both their captains are insanely infamous, badass pirates who have an image to uphold, Ed as Blackbeard obviously, and Zheng as the pirate queen who conquered China. They both become romantically interested in someone who honestly has no business being a pirate: oluwande and Stede, both described as soft, not masculine, yes in the end willing to do violence if necessary, but it’s not their preferred way of handling conflict. People who, maybe rightly, the respective first mates consider potential threats to their captain and crew.

But just the way that auntie handles the situation compared to Izzy. Auntie doesn’t meddle. She is vocal about what she thinks of Oluwande, about her concerns about Zheng being distracted, “compromised”, not focused on the mission. But she’s ultimately acting as an advisor for Zheng, which is exactly what her role is. She doesn’t try to control Zheng, she doesn’t remove Zheng’s agency, she doesn’t threaten Zheng or tell her that she’s pathetic for mooning over Oluwande (I know we never get to see any mooning onscreen but cmon, there has to have been some). When the Revenge crew escapes her ship, and she knows she fucked up, Auntie doesn’t run salt in the wound the way that Izzy would take pleasure in doing. She starts to say “I told you so,” and Zheng very firmly tells her “Don’t”, establishes a boundary that Auntie respects, because ultimately Zheng knows she fucked up and she’s not a child who needs to be taught a lesson or managed. Auntie respects her and her personhood.

And compare that to Izzy, who consistently manipulated Ed to get in between him and Stede, threatened Stede’s life on multiple occasions, essentially mutinied against him, sent the cops after them, and then berated and threatened Ed over being heartbroken.

Like, even down to nearly dying. Auntie has a severe gunshot wound in her shoulder that she will clearly die from if she doesn’t accept help. She’s spent the entire season being tough, unwilling to show weakness, equating softness to weakness, but in the end she decides to accept help, to accept a little bit of softness, to change and accept that softness can be good. Izzy in contrast, declines help, knowing that he’s done. He knows he can’t fit in to this new world, this new piracy, where people can be soft and vulnerable and still fucking kick ass. He’s been resistant and outwardly aggressive to this idea, and he chooses to die rather than accept that softness. Ofmd is ushering in a new era of pirating, and Izzy doesn’t fit in it, and doesn’t want to fit in it, and ultimately, narratively, that’s why Auntie survives and Izzy doesn’t.

[follows-the-bees]

The journey of the Blackbeard image from three different perspectives:

1) Ed holds up the book containing a crude caricature of himself and scoffs. He has one gun and one knife just like everybody else. From the onset we see how Ed does not agree with the public persona of himself — a monster; the audience's perspective — just like Stede's — is challenged and flipped from the celebrity to the actual person behind it. We see the brilliant tactician, but also the man who likes fine things, goofy playacting, and sitting quietly and carefully taking care of someone majorly hurt.

2) Izzy holds up a different image of Blackbeard., ripping out the pages and telling Ed, beardless, vulnerable, cloaked in a soft robe Ed, that that version of him is worse than death. That this caricature in the book is actually Blackbeard and that's who he needs to become. He is telling Ed to only be the monster in the book — that public persona Ed made abundantly clear he does not like.

When we see Ed in the next season, he has completely shuffled on that persona: nine guns and all.

3) Stede sees the wanted posters of Ed and scoffs (just like Ed did when he saw it) and talks about how that's not Ed. Ed isn't a ghoul, he's a really great guy.

Stede takes up his own parchment and pens his own version of Ed. He creates poetry about Ed, he writes letters and "sends" them to him. He draws how Ed actually looks in the margins of the map. How he sees Ed: Not as Blackbeard with nine guns, but just a man, a man he loves, a man who loves him.

In the end, Ed takes up all sides of himself, including the leathes of Blackbeard. But not for other people, not to be that monster public persona, not to shield himself from harm, but to fight for love.

There is something to be said about the dropping of weapons completely during this scene as well. The journey of what Ed holds: weapons, the necks of colonization, the love letter, Stede (but that's for another post).

The layers of storytelling are built into the core of the show. I've written before about Pinocchio reflecting Stede's story of becoming himself, not just someone who lives in the fantasy of books, (also Jim's story) and how stories take on a journey of their own. As well as the importance of Stede's writings.

But Ed's story is also just as layered. Celebrity versus reality. We see both the good and bad of being in the public (the about turn at the French party, Ed teaching Stede about fame in Man on Fire). We see how exhausting and isolating it can be to keep up the public persona. And especially how toxic it is when others force this on you. But best of all, we see how freeing it is to have someone to see you for everything you are, flaws and all. And then being able to love yourself for those same reasons.

Ed takes back his story, the images about him out there showing a monster, and he learns to love all sides of himself, learning to be just himself: Ed.

[temporal-discounting]

Whatever you do, do NOT think about how Stede's biggest fear during The Great Separation was that Ed's life was better without him

And definitely -- and I cannot stress this enough -- do NOT think about how this same period was the bleakest time of Ed's life

[manesalex]

Every Ed Teach Scene (47d/?)

[nerdyprincessbarbarian]

Fandoms only die if we let them, and OFMD has been through too much for us to let it die. Just because it didn’t get renewed doesn’t mean we stop loving the characters and the actors!

Besides if Ted Lasso can get picked up again then maybe there’s hope for our pirates some day too.

[crimson-and-clover-1717]

I love that Stede is velcroed to Zheng the morning after the attack on The Republic of Pirates. Despite the previous night’s animosities, Stede offers what he can. Empathy; a friendship of sorts. A misjudged, but valiant attempt to defend the pair from the British. Necessity stirs Zheng from despondency, but Stede gets her moving.

There are many things you cannot be around Stede Bonnet - inert or ambivalent are two. He will cause you to act and feel. It might be a strong desire to kill him; or simply get away. It may be an eagerness to rescue. Indifference though is not an option. And it’s likely, if you have one iota of goodness, you’ll end up loving him.

When Zheng states she can go die by herself, Stede refuses to leave. Collectivism is the cornerstone of Stede’s philosophy: together we are stronger. Zheng rejects him initially - ‘Your help is about as good as no help at all’. Stede replies, ‘I can do things! I’m not a total loss.’

What he does bring is Ed to the yard.

Stede might not be as skilled at hand-to-hand combat, but Ed arrives because of Stede. And Stede’s partly why Zheng is on the beach too, not realising his awkward pep-talk and optimistic gung-ho ambush contributed to her taking action. Zheng also realises she needs help - ‘Hey, guys!’ It takes all three to rout the British on the beach.

Stede brings a different strength to the fight - his presence. I’m sure he does slash a few major arteries, but his being there is enough. Because Stede kills with kindness. He is the linchpin in the alliance between Ed and Zheng. And he brings out the best in Ed: reborn in his leathers, ready to fight and kill for Stede and a different future.

Stede is the heart and the meaning

For Love! is all-encompassing

Stede’s the esprit de corps.

[sherlockig]

[ofmd-ann]

Iz*y: His name is Blackbeard, dog!

Stede:

Stede's response to him is the cold shoulder pivot, eye roll, and a bitchy little hair flick (I love him)

[the-widow-olivia]

The last chapter of Starman (a 1972 NASA AU) goes up later today, but please enjoy this GORGEOUS art by @merryfinches that goes along with Chapter 5, when our boys go on a side quest to see David Bowie live.

“If he didn’t know it before, he knew it now: he was in love with Stede Bonnet. This strange man who had captivated him from the first moment they met, who was always himself – whether he wore a low-cut silk shirt or a G-suit. Ed was absolutely gone for him.”

[temporal-discounting]

I love the playfulness of the dream reunion in Impossible Birds. The way they're like two excited puppies, just slamming into each other and rolling around giggling in the sand.

'Cos yeah, they're in love and they are sexually attracted to each other. But also, they're besties! They love playing together and being silly and goofy with each other! And Stede has clearly missed that so much.

They just take such immense joy in each others' company - and it's that joy that Stede's sleeping brain goes to first.

(Though I would love to have known where that dream was headed had it not been interrupted by Wee John's farts... 🤔)