#extechos

[extraterrestrialechos]

I have watched Episode 8 possibly more than any other episode and it's so vital what Jack's saying and what he thinks he's doing, which is completely centered around pointing out Stede's from outside their world and pointing out Ed he's wallowing in unsustainable excess.

Jack: Just for the two of you, huh? Hornigold'd shit himself.

Jack: That's a real pirate! Not like one of these store-bought types.

We're soon provided the information Jack genuinely believes he's been acting with Ed's full support and consent since back at the dramatics on deck.

Jack fully believes he shook Ed out of whatever weird, seemingly uncharacteristic funk Ed has gotten into.

Jack: Best thing that could've happened to you, if you ask me. Like when I heard that you'd shacked up with him, I said... Ed: Where'd you hear that? You didn't just happen upon us, did you, Jack? Jack: Took you long enough. The old Blackbeard woulda seen me comin' a mile away.

Jack: I figured you were on to me when I lured you to Blind Man's Cove, seeing as its distinguishing feature is that... Ed: It's impossible to make an escape.

Ed, otoh, had a good reason to want to show Jack, who he cared about, they could both be a part of Stede’s love in — he wanted to believe that there was room for Jack in muppet land, and a different future for both of them than they’d ever imagined.

That was so far from Jack’s reality he never conceived it was happening and believed they were co-conspirators in a completely different series of events from the one Ed was living.

Chauncey makes a similar point to Jack's in the next episode:

Chauncey: I'm afraid the offer doesn't extend to you, Bonnet. After all, the King was only referring to real pirates. He's from my world, not yours.

That Stede isn't part of the fabric of that world is pivotal to the thrust of the thing, because it's not just about Ed and Stede. The crew, who Oluwande assured in the first episode would come to kill Stede next if he didn't say he killed Nigel on purpose, and who'd all just reassured Jack would probably still mutiny on Stede in the future, decide at this moment that Stede, admittedly a work in progress, is worth standing up for.

And shortly after, Ed chooses to give up everything he's worked so hard his whole life for, a career and huge prestige and "more riches than you can shake a fucking stick at," to go into an unknown, barefaced future with Stede.

Despite Jack not believing Ed would throw away what he built from nothing, what they were stabbed and ground down to nothing and treated like dogs for a chance to aspire to, despite that Episode 8 exists to let Ed see the risk he's taking.

Throughout, Izzy builds up reminders of the bonds he forged with crewmen who believe in the him he chose to show them that he has to choose to separate from:

Ed: No, Izzy, we're not doing this. Izzy: No, you're not doin' this, so I must.

Izzy: Remember though, you said when you made me first mate, "Above all else is loyalty to your Captain." You're my captain, and I was never gonna stand by and let you destroy yourself for that... twat.

Izzy fully believes throughout he is doing what Ed (who at the start of this had repeatedly, disturbingly expressed suicidal ideation in Episode 4 leaving us with two long shots of Izzy standing stunned and shaken after he walks out) pledged him to do. To hold the outfit together and keep Ed's reputation secure.

There's nothing nefarious about the sad henchman sitting in prolonged denial.

Izzy: The plan is very much alive. He promised me.

But Fang and Ivan have now seen through the thing, too, and so they remind Ed of the sacrifices they've made to be a part of this outfit the three together. And still Izzy is careful not to speak in front of them when he offers to help secure their normal,

Izzy: I'll happily end it.

We can assume here, and when Ed couldn't do it and Izzy steps in, that what Izzy knows after all these years is Ed doesn't kill people face to face. How many other people has he dispatched to shore up the occasional slack for the continued honor of sailing with the most brilliant sailor he's ever met?

It is my strong opinion that diminishing these character’s belief in the Ed they’ve known for years and the loyalty they display diminishes the enormity of the choices we see Ed make and risks he taking putting his life and heart in Stede’s hands.

These are men he chose to forge bonds with through his own actions, and the resistance to change they put up comes out of having traveled well worn paths with the Ed who made himself king of the ocean who is suddenly exhibiting erratic and, to them, totally unprecedented behavior.

Ed returns to an Izzy whose faith is at last broken, and swiftly and expertly resecures his place of power. Even devastated himself that his start at a different life a part of him privately yearned for left him so completely bereft.

[extraterrestrialechos]

a human being can't appropriate Christianity.

if that human being is aware of Christianity, it is because of a relentless campaign of aggression upon people the half of whom would have liked to be left alone.

i have been relentlessly enculturated since childhood

...

It IS a fandom tho and I gotta get on my initiative to draw some hella erotic slash.

Really wish tumblr had a "people are appropriating and misusing elements of my faith and that is offensive" option for reporting posts...

CATHOLICISM 👏 IS 👏 NOT 👏 AN 👏 AESTHETIC 👏

[extraterrestrialechos]

I've really enjoyed reading your meta on Ed (and the show as a whole.) Do you have any predictions/expectations/hopes for how his arc will play out in s2 and s3?

I’ve tried not to set too many expectations on S2 and hopefully S3 so I can just be surprised by and receptive to whatever rolls through.

The fundamental, primordial thing is I'm a big horror fan so of course no one would want me to write a second season of a comedy! Even my jokes are...

Me, making a crazy wall about how Ed and Frenchie are gonna make it work in the end.

Pointing to the mess of red thread and smiling with gleaming-eyed fervor as I corner you and tell you this is so obviously the endgame.

My smile is too wide I have too many teeth.

And clearly my one aspiration will be fruitless!

.

Rhys isn’t in the writer’s room obviously but I was saying in some reply I thought this bit of meta in an early Collider interview was really solid on his part:

Even in his most romantic sequence of thinking about everything he loves about Ed he thought about Ed threatening to stab a man through the eye (I mean it was very sexy of him, I feel you Stede), but obviously the last shot of Ed we see is a man heartbroken from crushed visions of a future denied him.

So, maybe I would like to see a dark but funny reunion, like Stede exulting that Ed has recovered from the awful (shudder) sock folding state Stede reduced him to etc etc and then looking down like “Oh. That’s a knife!”

But have we reached our impalement level with Stede? He’s already been stabbed twice! (Luckily this doesn’t seem too serious for him, but is more impalement a narratively fruitful direction? But then, a third beat can land hardest.)

I want to be entertained as it is impressed upon Stede that no, in fact, Edward does not feel refreshed and un-ruined and zesty about events as they transpired.

.

The show was, ofc, extremely careful to show that Ed didn't just fall apart because one man left him, but gave us a strong confluence of events where his new beau cut out on him and his professional partner and attack dog of however many years (in the post-S2 filming Insta interview series it was said they taught each other swordsmanship) was spooked by getting himself about drowned when left alone for five minutes.

(This was Izzy's own fault for being insufferable at people and open to the wiles of anyone including Black Pete who has like one (1) wile if any, but obvs the impact of the isolation after a season of Unattended Henchman Anxiety Syndrome was acute.)

So I guess my biggest hope is we really see Ed as his own man and being positioned to plot his own course with a clear head.

Which doesn't mean not forging healthy, re-negotiated relationships, but also doesn't mean being rescued by love or something unless it's Frenchie's that Episode 10 already psychological realism'd us out of.

Love by itself doesn't mend a lifetime of unaddressed trauma. Wherever you go, there you are.

[extraterrestrialechos]

Regarding my reblog,

It is difficult to describe the sheer disorientation of entering the fandom like "Absolutely banger, badass final episode. I haven't been this excited for a Season 2 in years. That just launched itself into the stratosphere! The acting was on another level! I'd do anything to get more of that."

...and then to enter this fandom where my timeline was barraged by people who were very angry about the incredible performance Conathan and Taika gave together there and throughout the series -- milking the anguish even in the background of shots, microexpressions out the wazoo -- for some reason utterly, staggeringly alien to me at the same the showrunner was gushing for fans to rewatch and make sure they don't miss a second of it:

(I watched on April 12th and I was then handed this interview and obediently rewatched immediately.)

Like how someone doesn't relish watching these men try to hold on to something they once had that's now a phantom of itself and ending up each emotionally shredded, together again in a Frankenstein of their glory days, simultaneously tragically ripped asunder.

*slams fist on table* THAT'S THE GOOD SHIT

[extraterrestrialechos]

"Hate narratives, conditioned language and networked harassment: A new breed of anti-shipper and anti-fan – antis" by Samantha Aburime (copy request link on Twitter)

Coming back to Tumblr after years and seeing the "izzy critical" tag which stems from this hate campaign used in connection to my queer pirate show kills me inside, actually. Thanks for asking.

[extraterrestrialechos]

it also has a funny habit of absorbing in fans who don't necessarily like izzy, but had been targeted as part of a harassment campaign or in general just tired from fandom in general.

For sure!

My favorite character is Ed. My main reaction to the series was to find some more media with Joel Fry in it.

But during April 2022 and into May 2022 I'd go trying to find fanart of Ed on, say, the Our Flag Means Death twitter topic.

I'd be recommended people's fantasies of Izzy being killed violently, hoping Stede murders him, hoping Ed murders him, etc -- although the worst one was an incredibly graphic tweet about Calico Jack's organs and some ocean birds.

I installed Red Block, like you have to, to start chain blocking likes on these posts. And this is June 26th:

I think it's been three, maybe four days since I last scrolled the OFMD topic and had to block someone for describing how they want Izzy to die so either the fandom is going better or my block list is. 🙃

I remember waking up one morning and finding an Ed artist I thought liked Izzy who I was following had decided in the early AM to tweet out a Season 2 murder fantasy.

After that morning I started chain blocking at the slightest whiff of trouble. The trade off of no doubt blocking some strangers who are chill was worth the quality of life improvement from never seeing these things again.

I still do not know what in the world would cause people to have this reaction to what is by majority an office/romantic comedy and to an exhausted, depressed, mild antagonist henchman who fails at 100% of the things he attempts.

Did I intend to set out to see as much pornography of Izzy Hands as I have now viewed? Not in the slightest. I mean, I don't mind it, but at the same time I want his gender but I want, you know... Ed. I actively tried to engage with other material!

But here we are and I've seen so many of my friends be dogpiled and harassed and abused and lied about and obvs there was the actual doxxing, to boot.

This past year and three months have been BRUTAL. I'm happy people have stuck together and found ways to keep each other safe and not let our queer joy be yeeted.

maybe a silly question, but what does the term “izzy canyon” mean? it conjures up a mental image of “the metaphorical place where izzy hands enjoyers hang out/got kicked into” but I dunno if it’s a hashtag or a group chat or a state of mind or why it’s a canyon specifically (I guess con sounds like can?) the mastodon con makes it seem pretty organized!

not a dumb question at all!

"metaphorical place where izzy hands enjoyers hang out/got kicked into" might actually be the most succinct and on the nose description i've heard of it lmao

it is really mostly just a way to refer to izzy hands fans who tend to interact in the same corner of fandom.

the idea started sometime last year when an izzy fan got doxxed after receiving hate mail for a few months. a burner account posted the person's city and possible locations for the chain they worked at, along with a list of other users they said they would target next (seemed to just loosely be people in the same circle as them? weirdly enough my handle was on there too despite not knowing each other)

nothing further developed from that situation and the person was okay, but understandably it kicked off a wave of izzy fans blocking anyone who had a habit of harassing izzy fans, along with running blockchains on the most vocal ones who'd start dogpiles. around the same time, someone made an "izzy haters" twitter and izzy haters group chat which just intensified "okay just block all of them because that is a huge red flag for incoming networked harassment"

tldr izzy fans grew a reputation for being very heavy blockers. it became an in joke within the community that izzy fans didn't ever know what was going on when the general fandom had new memes, or more likely, new discourse because of the huge block wall between the groups.

almost as if they were at the bottom of a canyon, doing their own thing, and not paying attention to whatever was going on outside. hence the izzy canyon. i think it's also at least 30% a joke about izzy's genitals as well.

so yeah, just generally people who like the same character and hang out in the same social circles. i think because it's the part of fandom most vocally anti harassment, it also has a funny habit of absorbing in fans who don't necessarily like izzy, but had been targeted as part of a harassment campaign or in general just tired from fandom in general.

it pretty much functions like its own mini fandom within fandom? and as a group is very enthusiastic and also freakishly well organized so they end up more likely to do things like make regular fanweeks, set up a blog for doing fandom research and polls, organize a boat tour for a convention, or laying out detail instructions for test running mastodon for week to see how viable it is as a platform.

[extraterrestrialechos]

Edward Teach has a superabundance of gender.

Whatever gender you are attracted to.

He has it.

[extraterrestrialechos]

Aw yessss I was just about to ask you if you ever watched From and it seems you did!! What are your thoughts? One year (or more) is too long to wait for season 3, man 🥲

I haven’t!! That was the first I’ve heard of it so I hit like on account of liking what I saw. But I’m def gonna check it out?? It looks like my shit!

There’s so many streaming services out there I can’t keep track of what’s up.

I struggle to watch series sometimes but I did just blow through Good Omens Season 1 in one sitting a couple days ago so my attention span just might be passable rn.

(I never felt a driving need to watch GO b/c I was content with the novel in the context of it being a The Omen parody when I read it in the 00’s but then I was like, you know I’m interested in where they might go with a S2.)

[extraterrestrialechos]

I've put a pause on tumbling b/c I thought that the long form of Tumblr might be more conductive to mental health.

Yet, I seem to be having exactly the problem I was having on Twitter!

I stopped having individual, non-ofmd creative thoughts.

There are a couple other metas I wanna write but gosh darn I've got to figure out how to switch gears on cue, first.

[extraterrestrialechos]

And not just gay men. I grew up in circles of, you know, cis straight men. I had my cis gay circle ofc but like, shout out to all my straight cis bros who I've flourished among.

None of my friends had lunch hour with me in high school due to scheduling so I even had just "table of cis straight lunch guys" who I hung with almost nowhere else. There's also the D&D guys. The larger comic shop set. The anime fansub IRC guys. My Reddit hockey bros. The guys I smoked with on the reg in the back room of the cigar shop. My work friends.

I've been largely housebound for a few years now so I've fallen out of touch with most people in the fleshworld, but I promise that being a masc among dudes is something I've always been happy to be.

There are a lot of shitty people in the world, but if you're masc there are cis mascs to have a good time with out there.

We've got some problems going after the red-pilled, "incel" ('actually volcel you're just an asshole') far right explosion that's been heavy online. And I watched a work friend slowly slip into Jordan Peterson world. Yikes. But that's not something inherent to masculinity. It's going hand in hand with a boom in femme tradwife and TERF shit.

The enemy isn't men, categorically, it's fash.

i’m not joking when i say that like trans mlm who are really hurt and mad about “demonization of masculinity” need to get into gay male spaces. like beyond “it will make you feel better and people there don’t do that pinky promise” it’s just also just that you’re all stuck for some reason in like womens and wlw spaces and while yeah it kinda sucks if they tell you they think men smell bad or something but you’re going to feel more fulfilled if you actually just meet other gay men lol. i promise “masculinity is demonized” is not sweeping over “queer spaces” unless you are on purpose ignoring queer men. you don’t have to have Gender Segregation or whatever but hanging out in queer male spaces is like touching grass in this case. like get out there lol i promise people appreciate you as masc/man.

[extraterrestrialechos]

I do want to clarify again as I maybe haven't in this space that I am not a Stede hater, I simply respond to these two men's "It's a power move. Make people feel underdressed, and suddenly you're the one in charge" with a feral masc need to assert my own dominance.

But immediately become calm when

Therefore I defer future enthusiasm for Stede in S2 when I get to see him with his act together, like in Hannibal S3 when that guy became (still a serial killer but) emotionally accessible.

I am really looking forward to seeing who Stede becomes as he begins to open himself to peer relationships as he learns to fill the emptiness he's felt his entire life Rhys has movingly described -- but is hopefully still extremely bitchy. That part is already entertaining.

I am super enthused to see where the character goes next season, because fiction is all about growth and change and meeting challenges and narratives are dull if you don't start from a place that leaves the narrative wide open room for it all!

(I already accept my starry eyed EdFrenchie dreams are not in the cards. qq)

[extraterrestrialechos]

Staring at Ren's gorgeous EdJack, BlackHands, Blackbonnet drawing (now-nostalgically) again like...

Listen, I deeply enjoy the drama of Ed’s terrible taste in emotionally unreliable dudes as far back as we know. Just a series of highly entertaining disasters culminating in the biggest disaster yet. It makes for fantastic television.

But EdFrenchie anthem might be that year 2000 Placebo jam

Come back to me awhile Change your style again Come back to me awhile Change your taste in men It's been this way since Christmas Day Dazzled, doused in gin Change your taste in men Come back to me awhile Change your style again Come back to me awhile Change your taste in men I'm killing time on Valentine's Waiting for the day to end Change your taste in men

Come back to me awhile Change your style again Come back to me awhile Change your taste in men It's been this way since Christmas Day Dazzled, doused in gin Change your taste in men [Repeat: x10]

[extraterrestrialechos]

I love OFMD because it is a show about two extra messy men in midlife with long emotional and sexual histories behind them that shows them still amid their failing relationships blowing off their domestic obligations to do some light, energetic cucking.

People aren't protagonists and villains in relationships. They're human beings.

Characters in an adult series aren't cartoons of morality whose every action is just and right who face the Monster of the Week who represents a single human foible for the audience to condemn (the hero wins; everybody claps). They're complex and flawed.

I'm not looking for good "representation," I'm looking for great characterization!

Let every last character be messy and flawed and also sympathetic and see how it all collides together in a single smashing trainwreck!

[extraterrestrialechos]

Still thinking about how wild it is that ya'll see this scene between two guys who've known each other's bodies and are like, wow he shouldn't have touched him like that!

But then when Ed snarls for a mostly naked Izzy the camera has just sensually panned down the bare body of to 'open his fucking mouth now' and tells him to 'clean himself up' afterward like it's been oral while Ed grabs his booba you're like, what?

"Normal shit. Anybody would grab the titty."

Ya'll're a hoot but why are you wasting your lives being mad a TV-MA show has TV-MA content?

It's been a year but you're still nonstop mad that Ed and Izzy are shown as dysfunctional codependents.

When you very vocally don't enjoy the contents of a show you can actually just go watch a show you do enjoy.

I will be here supporting and loving both their serious wrongs. (Maybe see an intimacy counselor Ed and Izzy fr. Formerly light kink sex after we fight has gone TOO FAR vibes.)

There's not enough talk about how absolutely fucking creepy the scene where Izzy touches Ed's face is. The more often I see it the worse it feels. Like, if this scene was done with a female character in Ed's role, there would be outrage about it. Touching someone's face, especially in this soft caressing and holding the cheek kind of way is a very intimate touch. It's something that's reserved maybe for family members and very close friends, as a comforting touch when you're sick or hurt or crying, but mostly for lovers sharing a tender moment. The interaction (and relationship) between Ed and Izzy in this moment is not intimate, tender and comforting. Izzy just insulted Ed, he called him a slur. Ed reacts aggressively to protect himself (justified!). And Izzy's reaction to that is this soft touch to his face, this intimate gesture, and it's creepy as fuck. What the hell is wrong with you, Izzy. It's abusive, it's violating, there's a definite undertone of it being violating in a sexually charged manner, and Ed reacts accordingly - Ed is feeling creeped out and violated. Note how he draws the robe tighter over his chest, covering himself up more. This is meant to be read as an abusive interaction.

[extraterrestrialechos]

Edward Teach: How to (de)Construct a Legendary Villain

The show introduces us to the legendary Blackbeard as a traditional Hollywood villain. He’s positioned, specifically, as Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, head of the global criminal organization SPECTRE. 

This character came to define the trope of the criminal mastermind, including the trope of never showing the villain’s face. The chair obscuring Ed’s body while his minion takes orders from across the desk is classic Blofeld. 

Along with Black Pete’s story, this is meant to pour in information about and expectations for Blackbeard in the short three episode buildup to his reveal: He’s big news, he’s bad news, and he’s the undisputed big dog whose underlings are cogs in his evil schemes.

Yet even in his first scene, the show begins to highlight the artifice at play and humanize Blackbeard and his subordinate. 

Izzy is doing his level best to play the sufficiently professional henchman. Edward flirts with him until he’s forced to drop the pretense, his henchman act collapsing into an exhausted and familiar “Oh, Edward, can't I just send the boys?”

And, if we look closely in retrospect, the reason Ed doesn’t turn to the camera is that his leg is elevated to give relief to its nagging knee injury. There’s a cane in the bin in the foreground beside Izzy. These stereotypical trappings of villainy are partly a product of Edward’s high seas career wearing his body down. 

On to Episode 4

Episode 4 isn’t a significant departure from any other day at SPECTRE flotilla headquarters for Edward. Yes, he meets a fun new guy. He also shows off what kind of brilliance is routinely demanded of him by his profession (of being a criminal mastermind) day in and day out, even if he hits a hitch. The emotional beat of the episode is exposing how this intense workplace grind is wearing him down. 

Next, he decides he’ll sail with that fun new guy, murder him, desecrate his corpse and take his identity. The kind of nefarious scheme a pro would expect of himself. 

The subsequent plot, then, does not come out of the idea that Ed, as Blackbeard, is any less than a man who’s achieved the pinnacle of Big Bad attainment, who in conversation with his subordinate checks off on killing entire crews as part of “the uzsh.” He really is that good, and Stede really would have made the perfect and unwitting mark Ed identifies him for. 

Two things are true at once:

Blackbeard is his world’s all time pirate villain overseeing the dispatching of countless lives (we see the population of a whole merchant vessel butchered just in Episode 5 — but laugh, because the sequence is shot through with camp), and

Ed Teach “works for Blackbeard.” 

Blackbeard isn’t who Ed is but a product of Ed’s theatrical skills. 

The show has, already, in Episode 4 cast a realistic light on the inevitable psychological toll of being the Big Bad mastermind keeping yourself at peak performance all the time. 

On to Episode 6

In Episode 6, the show deconstructs how one man, who has one gun and one knife just like everyone else, could feasibly construct such a legend.

This is, at the same time, a meta interrogation of how much effort a man like Blofeld and his infinite villainous counterparts across all cinema would have to actually put in to maintain their seemingly effortless style. 

Here, the answer is Ed is a theatre kid at heart, relying on all the same techniques the real life crew themselves are using to bring us the show.

We’re given a scene of Ed seemingly teleporting around a clouded ship, delivering cinematic lines like “Flee and survive, or face me and burn!” 

Barrels of sparklers stream flash powder into the air. The unnatural fog turns out to be the product of stagehands hard at work behind the scenes. We can extrapolate the flashes of lighting were likely, seeing as we can’t assume stage lights, the product of even more flash powder prepped in the style of old time photography. 

Ed ends up in an elaborate harness. One that Izzy’s doubtlessly removed him from countless times, as he reminds Ed if they don’t work together Ed’s balls will chafe. (Ostensibly, this all used to go smoother before stress aged their relationship to the point of its present squabbles.)

Now we can spy back earlier in the show and see even in Episode 3 they were employing theatrics. 

The smoke steaming behind Izzy as he fixes his spyglass on the Revenge isn’t mysteriously atmospheric. It’s from a big cauldron kept stoked on the deck of the ship, the handle of which peeks through. It’s a constant effort to keep the Queen Anne billowing across the ocean. 

And Forward to the End...

Ed goes through multiple phases of trying on different Eds in the next four episodes. From living as tea with seven sugars Ed, to deciding he needs to physically move on if he’s not going to ice this guy but being prompted by Lucius to explore being “being in a relationship Ed,” to us seeing Jack’s Ed and his ability to relish brotivities, to stripped down Ed on the beach, a blank slate now able to open himself to considering what to paint there, to Ed choosing what to paint there.

Unfortunately, while it’s a new work, it's a dark one.

Having been rejected by Stede and Izzy successively as they see him trying out tidying house, become upset for individual reasons, and walk out of the room in nearly identical scenes, Ed takes stock of what he has left and what capacities in his repertoire will assure his future security. 

We now see Ed pinning (stabbing) up a picture of the archetype he’s going to take on. This is Ed in his make-up trailer, looking to a character design by a concept artist and building a costume around it.

Grease paint, sword earring, jacket shrugged back on, full gloves, and, we see later, Stede's black cravat tight around his neck as @speckled-jim describes (and discusses further here) “like the albatross of Ancient Mariner fame,” reminding him that love itself can be a burden and to never allow himself to be that vulnerable again. 

This new Blackbeard variant cuts a genius, poetic, unmistakably more dangerous image than the comparatively relaxed tough biker pirate we first met.

His newer, dialed up villainous persona, the Kraken, is face revealed with, among the many cinematic variations on the trope, what tightly resembles another more recent Blofeld shot, at once telegraphing this Ed is the Big Bad again and reminding us that being any Big Bad is a high camp performance.

The seams are already fraying. Fang and Ed are both shown drinking heavily to help cast off their sympathies for their recent associates and loose their MUAHAHAHAHA laughter. Already, before this scene, Izzy’s “Blackbeard is himself again!” is paired with the manic smile of a man who knows that whoever the new boss is, it’s not the original Blackbeard and he's in over his head.

But the three of them cut imposing figures on deck, and the future will tell if the movie magic holds.

Errata

Why would they think "Blofeld"?

It might be SPECTRE's trademark giant octopus.

[extraterrestrialechos]

My first assumption when someone says "There he is" while intimately touching someone's face while being choked when the same two men haven't been shown to have a confrontational relationship before is that he's intimately touched the same man's face before while being choked. You know. In bed.