katspajamas

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my turn!!

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You know, the solar eclipse is bringing out something in humanity that I always love to see. Humans making a big deal out of something we can't change, celebrating and laying picknicks out to see a giant rock pass in front of our light source, passing around special glasses so we can all observe the sky being different for a few hours together...

The cuteness of it all, the child-like wonder of it all, the feeling so small of it all...

The world isn't perfect but humans try their best to enjoy what we can when we can.

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Pangaea was wasted on the dinosaurs. Imagine the railway network.

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unseen art for mike wheeler day part 1/2

(band AU with lead vocalist and guitarist mike & bassist will) (+ lucas on the drums, dustin on the keyboard and backup vocals)

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girls when they realize theyre just like their father

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Talking on the phone with my mom I finally broke down and cried thoroughly about the cancellation. I think I'd been holding it in for the last two days, or two months. And honestly I've been wondering all along why this show means so much to me. I am not queer, I am not neurodivergent, I am not POC or disabled or any of the groups that this show has been so important for in terms of representation and being treated with respect and dignity. I understand and completely empathize with all of you, and fight for this show and your rights worldwide alongside you, but it still left me wondering why I myself have latched onto Our Flag Means Death. I suppose part of it is that despite being white and cishet and the privileges that have always come with that, I have been treated like an outsider and ostracized my entire childhood and teenage years, for being ugly and having "disgusting" interests (primarily liking insects, reptiles, other creepy-crawlies - aka the thing I literally do for my career now). I was bullied relentlessly from preschool through early college and became a very lonely introverted person - I still am. Undoubtedly Our Flag Means Death gave me renewed hope that I haven't missed some key window for finding love or relationships of any kind that matter, as I sit here typing this at age 28 having never dated anyone.

But it had to be more than that. And with everything that's happened the past couple of months, and the last few days, I think it finally clicked for me.

Followers of my blog may or may not know that I am a conservation biologist, or pollinator ecologist, whichever hat fits best on a given day, they're quite close. I don't make many original posts like this anymore on here because my job is so busy. Basically, I do a variety of things - academic research, habitat management & restoration, and public outreach - to try and preserve biodiversity and ecosystems on our planet. I'm just going to say it: it's a thankless job. Nothing we do ever feels like it's enough, and burnout is common in our field because we sit with the guilt of feeling like we are the only thing between survival and utter destruction of planet Earth, and work ourselves to exhaustion. It's one of those jobs where your work is your life, and your passion is your work, and it's inseparable from who you are on a molecular level. We are often faced, on a large scale, with hostility, from people that don't believe in science and are more than happy to pull a shotgun on us, or rich old men in power who are content to watch the world burn for another penny in their bank account. There are days when sometimes it sinks in just how bad things are, and it's terrifying, and I feel like we will never be able to do enough, to change enough, before it gets catastrophic. It's paralyzing.

My ability to do my job is dependent on hope. Unwavering, unrelenting hope. Hope beyond hope. We have to believe what we're doing matters, otherwise we'd fall down and never get back up again. I'm no big-shot, I give talks to a few hundred people at a time, and make urban pollinator habitat on a local scale. Is any of that going to make a difference compared to the ramifications of a single oil mogul deciding to cut corners and cause an oil spill that kills millions of seabirds and damages ocean food chains for decades to come? If people in my field let thoughts like that linger, we'd be paralyzed to inaction. I have to hope that the people I teach choose to do something good with that knowledge, and go on to inspire others, or that the patch of habitat I make allows a declining species to maintain a foothold instead of going locally extinct. You just have to keep going.

And Our Flag Means Death got wrapped up in that for me. The Stede Bonnet effect, if you will. He set out to do pirating differently, treating his crew with respect and helping them grow. In return, they internalized that mindset, and it spread to how they interacted with others. It changed the trajectory of individual lives, and also at least began to change how the society of pirates operated as a whole. It was a beacon of hope that choosing small acts of kindness did matter, even if you yourself could not see the ripples it made. It renewed my faith that love persevered and would win. That we could all make life a little better for each other and ourselves through kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and mutual support. I think a good chunk of that is from Taika - these are running themes in his projects, and his films move me deeply for that. This show became in some, perhaps subconscious way, a source of strength for me to keep putting myself out there in my line of work to do whatever I was capable of to help the cause.

The cancellation was devastating, but the second cancellation (turbohell cancelation?) was even more so. Because now it's so clear that this is largely the work of David Zaslav and the regime he's built. It's petty, it's greedy, and more than anything, it's cruel. Indifferently, indiscriminately cruel, when one person at the top can have such power to make or break the lives of thousands, millions, beneath them, and though it would have been barely a drop in the bucket, a hand wave, to renew our show or let it pass to another streamer, he actively chose to shackle it to this sinking Titanic of a company WBD has become. I have always operated on the belief that you can do anything if you work hard enough at it, and believed deep down that there was some order, some justice in the universe, atheist though I be. We as a fandom did everything we possibly could, we loved this show harder than anything. The numbers were there, the awards nominations were there, the critic praise was there, and we were loud and loyal every single day. I felt like we could do this - how could we not win when we've done so much, and the show deserves it so much? Surely cause and effect will prevail.

This fight seemed small, though really it wasn't; we fought for the right of artists and creators to make quality, original stories and have them told to their natural end, we fought for diversity representation to be more than a token character - OFMD raised the bar so much higher on all fronts, we fought to shed light on the chaos and impending collapse of this industry silencing art and exploiting writers, actors, and all manner of production workers. It was a small fight from the outside, one that I really felt we could win. And I put my heart and soul into it, because if we could win this, if we could save this simple, kind love story about two guys on a boat, then maybe there was hope for the bigger, badder stuff too. It shouldn't seem an insurmountable task for several thousand fans to convince a streaming service that they'd turn a tidy profit to give our show one more season.

Yet we lost - through no fault of our own. I am so proud of us. But that really struck deep for me. If one peabrained CEO of a media company wouldn't budge on greenlighting a show that was in his every best interest business-wise - perhaps enough to even save Max from going under in the not-too-distant future - my god, what hope was there for changing anything bigger? The 'real' problems of the world? When no amount of ethos, logos, or pathos can penetrate these men at the top, where's that hope to fight? Lately the world seems like it's just going belly up all over. If we gave everything we could, and it still wasn't enough - if it could never be enough - what hope is there? It's like chaining yourself to a tree and the bulldozer plowing right on ahead. And I think that broke something in me. It shook me to my foundations because it broke my rules of how things are supposed to work. We believed hard enough, we worked tirelessly, and we deserved it for how important this show was to so many people. And it didn't matter. Our best wasn't enough. And that caused an avalanche of all of the horrible, scary things piled on my shoulders - we're losing the Amazon rainforest too fast to save, climate change is going to turn the corn belt into a dustbowl by mid-century, a border wall is going to devastate imperiled wildlife in Texas, deforestation and hurricanes on songbird wintering grounds could lead to entire species extinctions, saltmarshes are our lifeline and they're shrinking and we're still building stupid concrete stormwalls, invasive diseases will completely alter the composition of our forests to be unrecognizable to our children, and if you don't make every slide of this powerpoint utterly perfect and you fail to convince every single person in attendance to get rid of their lawn then you've failed and the world is doomed.

I've struggled with being a perfectionist my whole life. This didn't help.

That's where I was a couple hours ago. But I took some deep breaths. I know the world isn't fair. But I really thought if we could win this one battle, then we could win the war.

But here's what I realized. Everything we did mattered. It mattered so much. Because there's the show, and then there's everything that was birthed out of that show. The community, so many of us around the world who have been uplifted by Our Flag Means Death in a real and lasting way that we will take with us and spread to affect those around us. The Stede Bonnet effect goes global. We raised thousands and thousands of dollars for charities around the world, real people whose lives have been improved, or maybe even saved, because of us and this silly pirate show. We brought a hell of a lot of attention to WBD and their shitty practices, keeping the momentum going in a way that I think is only going to build - and I sure hope it leads to Zaslav getting deposed. We have demanded more queer stories, more BIPOC stories, more disabled and autistic and middle-aged stories, stories with exquisite costumes and award-worthy wigs, dear lord, and we are being heard. We have expressed such love and support for the cast and crew, showing them that we appreciate their hard work and that we will be behind them in their future projects. So many of them have told us how the show and its fans have changed their lives. We convinced Rhys that his career isn't winding down but winding up, and to be unapologetic about his wonderful weirdness - we've proven to everyone through this show that your weirdness is what someone out there is going to love you for, not in spite of. We rallied to help writers and actors during the strikes in a way that was taken to heart and remembered. We have been out here talking it through as a crew, and turning poison into positivity, for over two years now, and that impact is permanent. They can cancel our show, they can try and slap copyright notices on our fan merch, and spew bullshit excuses about the numbers not being there. But Our Flag Means Death sparked a movement, the biggest pirate crew the world has ever seen, using our power for good.

We may not have any more new material for our show for a while, or ever. But I maintain hope that when the dust has settled and streaming has entered its 'new era' that they'll remember us and throw us a lifeline. Because hope is a part of my genetic makeup, and even in cancellation my hope has been renewed that the fight is worth fighting, that our individual choices of kindness are having an effect, and making the world a little easier to live in bit by bit. No one can take from us what we have built out of this show. And thanks to pirating, they can't take the actual show from us either. Despite this, no matter the outcome, I am so happy we got two seasons of this wonderful series. That was more than almost anyone expected. The story belongs to all of us, and it will always live on. We did not truly lose this battle, because in the process we gained more than we could have ever imagined. And I know there's still so much more to come. That gives me the strength to keep doing what I do, every day.

To me, Our Flag Means Hope.

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Thinking about how of course Mike immediately tried to talk El out of her state in the season 4 finale and became more desperate as it didn't work. To him, all he knew is that doing that in the past had worked immediately almost every time. He didn't notice the pattern:

And similarly, it's only natural for Will to assume it would work and encourage him, too. They took it as universal, impersonal rule.

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unfortunately i Do feel better when i clean my living space and eat enough fruits and veggies and go outside and generally remember i am a mammal :| real pity that knowing this does not make it easier to do those things

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I’m so mad I’m shaking. WE WERE SO CLOSE! Our clownery wasn’t unfounded. We really were getting an announcement. And they just let it fucking drop.

https://x.com/thecozypirate/status/1745641563403771912?s=46&t=hlyEMD5zVK_HL1eoyYeONA

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Yes!

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According to the writers of Stranger Things , this is the first scene for the script for Season 5 Chapter 1 Scene 1

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Broke: Izzy said “I want to go” because he legitimately believed his life’s journey had reached its end.

Woke: Izzy said it so that Edward could move on, a comforting lie in the service of seeing to his beloved captain’s emotional needs one last time.

Bespoke: Izzy went into the gravy basket when he got shot, where Sea Witch Buttons appeared to him and told him if he chose life, his ultimate fate was handling the customer complaint department at Ed & Stede’s Bed & Breakfast & Seafood Restaurant & Freelance Carpentry Business, and knowing this, chose death.

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"No one wants to work anymore." Damn right brother. If I could sit in a beautiful field for 40 hours every week of my singular precious life I would

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do you think stede will do bedtime stories for the inn's guests

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Ooft, this OFMD discourse sure is something. [OFMD finale spoilers under the cut]

My personal hot take is that it was really, really obvious that Izzy was going to die given how fast-tracked his character development was this season.

You can be disappointed that they killed a character you liked and of the belief that it wasn't handled in the best way (which is more or less where my opinion lies) whilst also recognising that time and cost restrains had a very obvious impact on how that played out.

I'm finding it incredibly bizarre that there are people who are less disappointed by the writing/pacing and more just outraged that the show had the audacity to kill a character that is quite well liked. That's life, baby! It's a show about pirates, we were going to lose a fan favourite eventually. And god, I'm begging y'all to watch more stuff or read more books because killing a character you like is disappointing and upsetting, sure, but that's the point - it doesn't mean the shows creators are out to get you, or leaning into bury your gays or whatever. It's how fiction works, it's how it's always worked.

It's totally normal to be upset, or disappointed, or to not think it was the best decision, whether that's narrative-wise or just because you like that character. That's okay! But acting like the writers and showrunner have done you a personal disservice and harassing them online is just some next level fandom brain rot. I can't say I'm surprised, because the moment I watched that scene I was like 'uh oh, this is gonna go down like a lead balloon', but in a lot of ways I'm kind of impressed that they went ahead and did it anyway all the while knowing how popular that character is. That's bold as fuck. You may not agree with it, but the creators clearly understand how much people love Izzy and felt it was important to that character's journey for them to die at that time.

I just wish people could understand that those two things can coexist - that you can be disappointed for any reason, and you can also recognise that sometimes characters do die because that is how fiction works and you're not always going to be happy with narrative or character beats in a show you love.

For me, ultimately, despite the budget and pacing issues this was a really damn good second season. They leaned into a lot of the themes I really loved in season 1 and took the characters and narrative in places I hadn't expected it to go. I think that the final episode (in a few places!) was unfortunately a bit rushed and some of the key emotional beats were unearned, but like many others in the fandom I think it's clear that the 2 extra episodes planned would have alleviated a lot of those issues. It's a shame, but it doesn't take away from what was overall a really solid and enjoyable season of television imo.

I also really respect that given the current landscape of television and streaming content, the showrunners had the foresight to leave their final episode open whilst also tying up loose ends. It doesn't seem to always matter if a show has fans or not before it's unceremoniously cancelled, so I appreciate the consideration for the fans in making sure we at least have some areas of closure in the event that it doesn't get renewed for a third season.

To end on a positive - Izzy fans, I know this is an upsetting time. I get it, I've been through the trenches of being disappointed in a character's death before, whether that's because it felt unearned or because it was just sad. Your grief is allowed and you should absolutely express it, but that shouldn't be done by harassing or vilifying the show runners. Those same people also created a character you love and the reason you're feeling wrung out is precisely because they did a good job with that character in the first place. We shouldn't be turning on creators just because they did something we didn't agree with, criticism is okay but there's a line, and a lot of people are crossing waaaaay over it.

Take some time, y'all. Make a cup of tea, draw some fanart, read some fanfic, channel that sadness into something constructive. Trust me when I say you'll feel so much better longer term if you don't hold onto that anger and you get yourself to a place where you can positively engage with fandom and enjoy yourselves again. Instead of piling onto David Jenkins, why not instead shower Con O'Neill with praise because he absolutely fucking smashed it.

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"killing off izzy after he went through all this growth and finally got to be happy means all that healing was for nothing"

goddamn that is a bleak way to look at life. we all die, man. healing is still worth the effort.