#if I said it to someone who's never watched OFMD would they look at me funny?

[canonizzyhours]

So a week ago I didn't even know what the canyon was but I got into ofmd about a month ago bc of someone in the canyon, and while I was watching i just kept feeling so confused because it was....nothing like what they told me it would be? Even the scenes they told me about that like actually happened ...kind of? how they said they would were totally different in terms of narrative framing. And then I went looking on tumblr to see if other ppl also thought the same as them and what they had told me bc I was so confused and all I've found have been them and their friends on here just.... bullying and harassing people for years over this stuff hunting down posts and judging people and having these bizarre double standards for how they act vs how other fans wh I disagree with them act which like even if they were right would all be awful!

I've never felt so off center in my life. It really feels so bizarre that they've been doing this while telling me about how they've been harassed and I believed it but I really can't find any evidence that they were doing anything but seeking out people who disagreed with them to bully and calling it harassment when people responded? I've been in fandoms for almost 15 years and never experienced something like this.

#422.

[chained-to-the-mirror]

Back from my portrait hiatus, I drew my darling babygirl.

I have been trying to go through my thoughts about what OFMD has meant (and means) to me. It’s been some days now since we heard from David Jenkins that it is officially over… In my heart I was expecting it, but it was still a blow. Still, during the time between the initial cancellation and right now, I have been slowly coming to terms with the fact that we have two wonderful, wonderful seasons of TV and they are forever. I know for a fact that even if Max deleted the show and it was never again seen anywhere (legally), it would be forever burned into my brain. I can recite it in my sleep at this point, yet I still keep re-watching. Why? Because this show is like no other, to me.

When S1 first came out, I was not the person I am now. Nothing much has changed externally, but in my mind, things have shifted. The character of Ed triggered my the journey of figuring out that much of my personality and behaviours have very likely been shaped by trauma. Now, I have been in therapy, have been hospitalised multiple times, have been seeing a psychiatric nurse for years - I know I have issues, some of them even have names. But not until I saw Ed did I realise that trauma may be at the core of it all. 

It’s funny, because I’m not like Ed. I am very introverted, very insecure, not particularly skilled, not popular. But I relate to him so much it’s not even funny. What happens to him means the world to me. So what a gift it is that we got to end at Ed being happy, and on his way to recovering from all the traumatic experiences of his past. He got his happy ending! That is a rare thing indeed. I felt vindicated in some way, like I was cheering on a dear friend and they triumphed. 

So, in some ways, I can’t be too upset that we don’t ever get more of all their stories. Of course I AM upset, but not necessarily so much for myself - more for the creators, and the fandom as a whole. Most of my friends have not even seen S2, and none of them is obsessed with this show like I am. It gets lonely sometimes, but when I come on Tumblr and scroll through my dash, I see all these people who ARE obsessed, and who really live and breathe the show. I am an outsider looking in, but it’s still a bit less lonely.

My contribution to the fandom is an occasional art, and reblogging All The Things to by sideblog @dearpirates - it hasn’t got that many followers, but really I am using it as my teenage bedroom wall where I plaster all the shiny and lovely and maddening things for myself to see. There are so many wonderful things and people in this fandom.

I really hope the fandom survives, and thrives. I would miss it dearly if it ever went away. Many of the people I follow feel like friends to me, even though we’ve never spoken. That said… if you ever want to talk to someone about anything OFMD related, my inbox is there for you. Ask box too. I would love to actually talk to people, but I am very shy so I can’t really take the first step usually 😅

This got long. Thank you if you read to the end and didn’t just look at the art above and scroll past the wall of text.

Patreon / Ko-fi / Society6 / Redbubble / Commissions / Colouring book

[jaskierx]

Every time I see some Taika slander on this app, I block. And I don’t even care about him because I have no clue how he is in real life, but I have enough of the bullshit. Taika is a Zionist? Block. Taika’s fault for whatever-pick-anything? Block. Taika is an evil man? Block. Taika doesn’t do enough to promote ofmd? Block. Taika did this and that in his private life? One, how the fuck would you know, random person who lives in Germany? Keep your nose out of his goddamn business. Second. BLOCK. Let’s celebrate Taika’s shows ending one after the other? You guessed it. Block. Someone literally said Taika’s ancestors are rolling in their grave in shame. Bloooocccckkkkk.

I have no words, this is vile. And this public character assassination has gone on for way too long, from medias and randos on the internet alike.

Those people who gloat and say the most horrendous things need to get off their moral high horse, clean in front of their doorstep and go outside to touch some grass. I don’t know why they’re so spiteful but they need to heal their soul. They’re keyboard activists that are looking for trends to be mad about so they can pretend to care and be morally superior. And then they can harass others. They don’t care and they can’t fool me and they can fuck off. Blockity block block block.

God… I got heated real quick. Sorry about that. But for real, I hope he stays the hell away from social media.

yeah i've blocked literally dozens of people in the last 30ish hours and the vast majority are people who have never watched ofmd who decided to go into the tag and post about how happy they are that the 'racist tv show' that's 'run by zionists' is cancelled and 'the zionists' are now 'unemployed'. or people who are casual fans of ofmd who were like 'meh s2 was bad and you could tell taika was bored of it'

it's just so fucking stupid. i hate this whole mentality that people are either 100% perfect and morally pure or they're evil and every bad thing that happens to them should be celebrated. i hate that people are so desperate to blame taika when the show wouldn't fucking exist without him. i hate that people are so confidently stating shit like 'david should've known taika couldn't commit for 3 seasons' like fuck that parasocial ass shit you don't know any of these people! imagine if it was the other way around and the cast started posting shit on twitter like 'lol lyse jaskierx should lose her job bc i can tell she's bored of spreadsheets'. it's ridiculous

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

Hi

Not OFMD specific but might be of interest

(copied without permission given to reproduce)

Found in Private Eye 16-29th Feb

Warner Gloss:

Labour's business charm offensive continued last week, as Keir Starmer proudly posted that he had met with David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, aiming to "work in partnership with the creative industries to drive growth".

Named by the New York Times as the man who "blew up Hollywood", Zaslav in fact seems to be doing everything he can to prevent growth in the industry. Having merged hi cable TV company, Discovery with entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros in 2022, Zaslav took on $56bn in debt and enacted cost cuts of £3bn.

To achieve this he set about binning TV shows and films that had already been completed in order to claim large tax write-offs - most notoriously superhero caper Batgirl - and removing shows from streaming services to avoid paying residuals fees.

In a move that might have had more appeal for St

armer, Zaslov also hired Chris Licht as CEO of CNN in 2022 to make the news service more appealing to conservative viewers - but then fired him within a year after ratings hit rock bottom. Under Zaslav's watch, the stock price of Warner Bros Discovery Inc has fallen by nearly 60% - probably not quite the growth Starmer would hope to discover!

END

Firstly thank you for your round-ups, much appreciated!

"make the new service more appealing to conservative viewers" Why am I not surprised.....

Secondly I am disturbed that the possible future leader of the UK or his advisors didn't do more investigating before agreeing to or asking for this meeting, very disappointing.

Thirdly "removing shows from streaming services to avoid paying residuals fees" Should we be concerned by this for series 1 and 2?

best wishes

Susannah

Hey omg I'm like 3 days behind on messages/replies/asks I'm sorry! This weekend was crazy! Hi Susannah!

Oh interesting! I've never read Private Eye, I'll go check them out now! Oh darn- looks like a paywall, thank you for pasting the text! (And no problem about the recaps! Thanks so much for reading them!)

To address your second point: I wish I knew more about Keir Starmer! I'm in the US so I only know tangentially about him. You would think someone would have vetted the situation a bit more though (although you know Zaslav has been a bit of a sneaky little fucker about everything until he was outed more recently). Sorry I don't have much to say on that point!

To address your third point:

Yeahhhhhh, my hope is that it won't affect OFMD too much because it's a bit more of it's own thing (and not a WB proprety like the Coyote movie). I think they could actually make money selling S1 and S2 as opposed to loss since there's such a demand for it, so personally I don't think it's going to be much of an issue, but I have no real authority or reason to believe that except common sense (which we all know hollywood doesn't always have).

@fuckyeahisawthat had a good take though, it's kind of anything goes unfortunately.

I have faith though... because like a lot of my tumblr colleagues have said, David Jenkins would have probably told us by now if in fact, there was literally no hope. He's been pretty good about putting out hints and letting us know where to focus our efforts, and as of yet he hasn't flat out said "Thanks anyway guys, but its not going to happen.

That in itself gives me hope for s1, s2 and s3.

Anyway, thanks for the write in Susannah! I'm really sorry again it took me so long to answer, and then I doubt I gave you anything of real substance @_@. I hope you're having a lovely day, and would love to chat more!

Take care, sending love!

Abby

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

i'm cry laughing some people on twitter are now saying "izzy bashing" needs to be tagged in fics. how did these people ever survive watching this show where izzy is the CANON ANTAGONIST i'll never know

benefit of the doubt but i think most of them have gotten to this point gradually. when they first watched the show they were not attached to izzy the way they are now. i know for a lot of people it was blorbo at first sight with izzy but i've also seen izzy enjoyers say they didn't like him at first, and then fandom made them care about him.

like i'm pretty sure for a lot of ppl it started off with isolating themselves from ppl who made posts that they didnt like, like ppl who criticized ofmd for being based on two real people with direct connections to actual real-world slave trade (which is an incredibly valid thing to criticize abt ofmd).

another one that i think funneled a lot of fans towards being so delusionally attached to izzy was people pointing out or complaining about the disproportionate amount of fan content for izzy compared to prominent characters of color—which is a consistent issue in fandom no matter what the media, and is also a very easy one for people to be uncomfortable with whenever they see it get pointed out. people venting that "fans care too much abt this white man" often make fans who care abt that white man very defensive right off the bat, and then rather than engage with why they feel defensive or question if maybe their enjoyment of this character is fueled by implicit bias (which it might not be, to be clear! im not saying—and i have never said—that everyone who enjoyes izzy likes him for racist reasons), they stop listening to the conversation abt white favoritism and continue blorboposting as much as they want. it's incredibly easy for fans to brush off this convo as "just starting drama" and avoid the topic altogether because "fandom is for fun!" and they dont want to think abt difficult topics like racism and implicit bias, they just want to enjoy their blorbos in peace.

so they kept narrowing the takes they were seeing until they were in an echo chamber that kept moving more and more towards complete woobification of izzy hands. these people are now looking at the show entirely through izzy's pov, making posts abt how sad it is that none of the other characters are ever nice to him, how frustrating the show is from his perspective, how it feels to be deeply in love with someone who doesn't love you back. they've stared at gifs of con's micro-expressions and read angsty fanfiction and looked at endless izzy fanart and their entire ofmd fandom experience revolves around empathizing with this one character even tho the show itself continually makes him the butt of the joke.

at this point, telling these people to rewatch the show doesn't even matter. they've spent so much time over-analyzing every single one of izzy's scenes to the point where the emotional responses they get from these scenes are not the emotional responses anyone would have watching the show for the first time. they've warped the entire first season to fit their version of the show and are forgetting how often the show itself bashes izzy.

and the icing on the cake is the trolling. there's like, one or two people on here who go around sending anon hate and leaving nasty comments on instagram posts and harassing people on twitter for... like, i would say "for liking izzy" or even "for saying positive things about izzy" but like. i've gotten these messages, and the most sympathetic i've ever been to izzy was the post i made like "maybe he's mean bc he has chronic IBS. i'd actually understand him more if that were the case." so when i get these messages it's easier for me to just laugh them off bc it's so obviously just someone trying to make me upset, but people who do care about izzy (a lot of them being the same people who avoided engaging with the "why does fandom care so much abt white characters" convo) get these absolutely horrible messages about how they deserve to get hate crimed and they should kill themselves. and these fans who didn't want to even see vaguely negative posts abt izzy bc they just want to enjoy fandom in peace are now like "im targeted for just liking a character!"

so that's how we get to people saying that "izzy bashing" needs to be tagged. never mind that their definition of "bashing" almost certainly includes things that are not bashing but are just things that contradict the way they headcannnon him.

[megaawkwardhuman]

hello hi hey I'm icarus (but I'm also fine with virgo) and welcome to my blog!

idkf how you got here but uhhh congrats?

also sorry if parts of the gif look weird idfk how to fix it

I'm a neurodivergent artist who talks about gay vampires (wwdits) a lot!

I do have other interests tho like ofmd, good omens, hannibal, re-animator, interview with the vampire, the band ghost, the world of mr plant, south park, and so much more (it's just that wwdits is just what I think about the most)

things I've made:

I've written a few fic before and one can be found on my blog! it's a post season 4 nandermo fic and here's a link if you wanna check it out :)

as for the rest can be found on my ao3 here! (I'm not going to move the post season 4 fic there mainly cause idk if I really wanna)

I made a uquiz a while ago that basically tells you what you would be if you where in the wwdits universe (a vampire, a familiar. an energy vampire etc)

I have an instagram that I just post my art to and that's really it

things I like to make:

as you can probably gather by now I primarily do pixel art but I also like to doodle/sketch with good old pencil and paper

I make a LOT of kandi (primarily singles) buuut I don't really post it on here (I mean unless someone asks me to I'm more than willing to share)

I kinda write? like I've written fics before and I DO have a bunch of wips but it's kinda hard for me to finish a fic due to the fact that I get distracted easily and the fact that I'm really dyslexic (you have no idea how badly I wanna fist fight the english language in a denny's parking lot at 3am)

oh while it's not a medium or anything but I'd like to mention I LOVE to draw characters from the media I like as pastel bunnies! (tho at this current moment it's primarily wwdits characters I draw) is it weird? yeah but I like to so I'm not stopping anytime soon if you want a rough explanation as to why I made a long post about it

fav characters:

guillermo de la cruz from wwdits (seriously I'm fucking feral for this man he's my top blorbo atm! he has my gender in a chokehold and I relate to him A LOT also harvey guillen is just really fucking hot-)

nandor the relentless also from wwdits (not as crazy about him but like he fascinates me and I love his goofy cringefail vibes... HE'S ALSO REALLY HOT-)

dib from invader zim (while I haven't watched invader zim in a while I still consider dib to be a fav! hell he's my fucking profile pic. he's one of the first ever characters in something I've seen that I've related to)

stede from ofmd (he's a huge fucking mood and I too jump into things head first without any plans whatsoever)

argos from twomp (a new addition to my fav character list since I stumbled upon twomp more recently. idk I just like him like go googly eye man date that murderous plant dude! wow that must sound weird to those who don't know what the world of mr plant is XD. it also might have to do with the fact that he's kinda socially awkward)

mr plant from twomp (another new addition. idfk something about that murderous plant I find oddly relatable? I think it's the fact that he's also socially awkward. arguably more than argos)

herbert west from re-animator (idk I think this autistic man with no care for ethics is neat)

I have more but for now those are the ones I'm gonna list :)

other shit:

as I've already said I have dyslexia, I possibly have ADHD (never officially diagnosed buuuuut really fucking confident I do and a past therapist said I most likely do), I keep running into situations where I question if I have autism or not so take that as you will, and despite what it may seem I have really REALLY bad social anxiety (well I have overall anxiety too but let's just say there's a reason I spend a lot of time online and not out and about)

asks as you can already tell are open

DMs are also open (tho I will say it's mainly to mutuals)

WARNING I KEYBOARD SMASH A LOT!

nandermo shipper but I'm fine with other ships involving the two :)

overall I try to be nice on here cuz there's enough negativity out there why add to it? tho key word here is try (I've gone on small rants here before and there's the possibility I will again)

I really REALLY fucking love bats and frogs THEY'RE JUST LITTLE GUYS HOW CAN I NOT?

there will be moments where for one reason or another (sleep deprived, sad, bored, it's a tueday, etc etc) I'll be reminded that oh yeah I fucking love frogs and will just start spam reblogging frog posts so be warned if you see me reblog a frog photo and read the words frog blogging or frog posting in the tags run while you still can (or don't cuz frogs are the best and need to be loved and cherished)

tag stuff:

misc thoughts/ideas/this tag is mainly random shit: throwing up my thoughts onto tumblr again

theories/meta/looking too much into small stuff: word garbage™

answering asks: answering stuff

my art: *funny tag for my art*

bunny art related posts: bun stuff

mothman memo related posts: mothman memo stuff

fanfics I've written: gather around and lend me your time

edits I've made: edit shmedit

memes I've made: brought to you by ms paint

show + tags thing: + tags

all the weekly wwdits sparkle on images: sparkle on it's gay vamp day!!!

posts that involve irl friends of mine: friend chaos

follow for a fuck ton of reblogs, art, and long tangents about whatever takes over my mind atm

thanks for reading, have a nice day, and remember: baby bats are called pups

this has nothing to do with this post I just thought this was important info plus I just wanted to throw in this cute bat image I found on google

[winderlylandchime]

Hi, hello, hi. I have a question that was triggered by that beautiful prom gif set you just reblogged. And since I still, months later, have a post from you stuck in my head- The Brian Kinney one about his education and how he became The Brian Kinney- I can’t help but to ask you. The pause!!! What do you think would’ve happened between Britin and with Brian after prom had the bashing not happened? I mean Brian got in the car and was all smiley and looking in the mirror to watch Justin!! And the PAUSE! And now I am going through a million feelings because of the what ifs.

Hello dear sweet anon! Thank you for your patience while I gave this question some thought.

First off, let us acknowledge and thank @sophsun1 for this incredible gifset that captures THEE MOMENT

Everyone go reblog it and show it some love.

So I think the first question here is why did Brian show up at prom? I think he showed up to make Justin happy. Which is not something Brian is known for, right? But here is this kid who has "snuck in under the wire" (I know that's S2 but it's no less true here) and Brian wants to do something to make him happy. Just purely for his happiness. And it will make Brian happy - you pointed out he's all smiley - and isn't that the kicker? He found someone that making him happy makes Brian happy. Not Justin makes Brian happy (little nod to my beloved OFMD, RIP), but making Justin happy makes Brian happy. I think that's important.

I think what Brian is communicating here (and, importantly, Justin is understanding) is those three words that Justin spent later seasons wanting so badly.

So I think Justin would have felt more reassured in Brian's love than he did in S2. I think he always wanted to feel like his place was with Brian and of Brian's own volition. I know Brian says during their negotiation about "coming home to you" but I think that gets lost in Brian's tugging to keep some of his freedoms.

I think Brian would be less trigger shy about doing romantic gestures for Justin after prom. I think prom proved to Brian his worst fears - if you make yourself vulnerable and admit to loving someone, it will only hurt you (and what's the best way to hurt Brian? Hurting Justin).

I think Justin would have been more confident about his place in Brian's life both feeling like he was truly wanted there (not just there because he got bashed) and because he had this irrefutable proof of Brian's feelings. Yes, he's heard about the romantic dance and the kiss from Daphne but she wasn't by the Jeep and I don't know if she would have picked up on the significance of The Pause.

Let's talk about that, actually. When has Brian ever paused? When has he ever, in a sexual context, sought someone's eyes before kissing them? (Not to imply that Brian didn't get consent.) Never. He is not the type of guy to pause. He barrels forward. I don't think the pause is insecurity or even about consent, it's "we're on the same page here, right? okay? All those things you said that I felt, you were right. Here I am, baring myself before you you, more naked than being naked (bc lbr naked is not vulnerability to Brian... it wouldn't be to me if I looked like Gale either), showing you my soul. I am trusting you."

The reason this took so long to answer is that I'm completely torn about whether there would have been a break up. Or at least the Ethan break up. Maybe the break up would have looked more like a combination of S2 and S5 break ups. But the other thing? I don't think they would have reunited. I think the bashing is something that ties them together, in a sense. I think without it, with everything more on the surface, without the effects of PTSD on Justin's abilities and his need for Brian's care (and Brian's care bonding him to Justin), Justin would have thought "this is all there is, I've gotten everything I can from him and I need more." But I could be wrong, maybe there would have been zero drama. Justin would have gotten what he needed from Brian the night of prom and they would have lived happily ever after.

This is certainly a fic waiting to be written. I've read fics where the bashing doesn't happen or it's less severe but that's because other circumstances are different. What would happen if canon is canon but the one divergence is the bashing doesn't happen?

[danepopfrippery]

Wtf is happening over on ofmd Twitter??

I dont tag in much so last i was aware was the ‘stede bonnet is a racist and u are too’ fluff. And this is of course my take. I only peak in anymore someone more involved might be able to explain better.

Theres some lovely ppl over there, gorgeous art and nsfw art too. But starting lets say may-ish a group of mostly young fans (judging by their profiles most were under 22) started saying most fans were racist for liking Stede Bonnet or Izzy and basically white people and straight ppl shouldnt be allowed to watch or be fans. If u like Con or Izzy (yup both) you were basically a klan member cuz clearly he thinks Ed is his slave etc. it goes on.

Look im white and cishet so im basically 3% of most of the fandom. But i found this particularly interesting cuz a lot of these people crossed over with Wwdits and no one wanted to talk about Kayvan Novak doing repeated blackface starting in 2015. They also didnt want to acknowledge Taika said some real terfy shit when he was my age in 2014 (mustve been an asshole era). Neither man has apologized (or mark proksch) and Kayvan doubled down on it last year.

So look i absolutely can not say how poc are allowed to feel. I just find it very odd they want to lynch Rhys and Con but are fine with Kayvan especially. Blackface to me seems like an ultimate sin.

So moving along… by the C2e2 they wanted to cancel Con for playing Izzy and slammed anyone who fangirled over him. A few weeks later Con made an insensitive comment about a tory having a coke nose, comparing it to a latine country. For some reason that didnt blow up til August. He did apologize and deleted or paused his twitter (he claimed before it blew up he would for filming and this coincided with filming beginning so hard to say). Most of them felt apologizing was no good and this was proof he was truly a racist playing a racist character.

(Fyi my personal belief is ppl should take responsibility, sincerely apologize, and never do x again).

Rhys’ wife is a royalist and when the Queen died they went after her and Rhys for saying Elizabeth’s death was sad. Wife doubled down. Ppl said proof shes racist and he should divorce her (i mean…i didnt love it but they really went after them. Im no royalist and think the queen was a colonizer.)

So then a few weeks ago Rhys Darby briefly replied to a friend that he felt playing Stede Bonnet was like reliving a past life. It was like 2 sentences. Ppl first thought it was cute, then this mob came to feast. They attacked any fan who liked it and attacked rhys so much he declared this is why he doesnt tweet much.

I personally took the tweet to mean he felt like he was reliving a life, not necessarily Stede Bonnet the real dude. But i mean shit if ur playing (or claiming) a rich white man pre 1860 the dude was likely a slave owner. Not a justification but liking a fictional character doesnt mean u think the fictional character is the real dude. I didnt know Stede Bonnet existed before ofmd. Real dude was a cunty slave owner who was prbly mentally ill and an asshole to his crew. I dont conflate Rhys’ bird of paradise bitchy queen with that dude. In my world Stede Bonnet is a fictional character. Fuck the real guy.

Soooo ive ranted nice and long here (sorry i have feelings). But the summary is theres a young mob of ofmd fans on twitter who want to prove they are activists by being assholes to real ppl who arent doing anything worth calling out…while also not calling out actors who really have done shit. Basically baby bullies. And oddly many of them are white so its even weirder. But thats that. I dont recommend bothering with it.

[beepbeepdespair]

HI okay so i have more weird dreams involving ofmd cast members to tell y'all about. i did try to find the post with the original two on it but tumblr's search function is a fucking joke so i couldn't 💀 ok here goes

so this first one happened a couple nights ago. i dreamt that there was an abandoned run-down old house not far from me that was infamous because if you entered it, you would only exit being dragged out by your ankles because you'd be dead, and no one knew why. my best friend, who i remember was in a VERY kawaii outfit, went in and i tried to stop her but i was too late and she died, so i had to go in to retrieve her body. and it was then that i came face to face with the reason why everyone died in that house:

madeleine sami. or at least some version of them that was somewhere between a horror film serial killer and a mob boss lmao. she was in a black suit (and looked fucking fantastic, might i say)... and then i suddenly pulled a machine gun out of god knows where and said "right. you're coming with me." i led them out with her hands behind their back hoping she'd be cooperative and i wouldn't have to kill them, but literally the second she got out the door they made a run for it and i was like "shame. ah well i gave her a chance" and fucking mowed them down kfndndndn. like. i shot her probably 20 times, mostly in the head

and i do just want to stress quickly that i absolutely adore madeleine and i do NOT want to shoot them. so i have no idea where this came from lmao. at least it's the kind of badass thing i think she'd enjoy

and now we move onto last night's dream. so in theory i do have a tiktok (i say in theory because it is d e a d i do not use it) but on the rare occasions i hop on there, normally because someone's sent me something, there's this lady on there called haley who i am SO jealous of lmao. she's a professional/performing mermaid at a park, gives out necklaces to kids, does tricks, that sort of thing

anyway i dreamt that i was one of these mermaids and taika and rhys had come to watch me perform. they decided that they both really wanted one of these necklaces and in the dream there was apparently some company policy that i could only give them to children so i had to apologise that i couldn't give them any. they really didn't like that answer so they jumped over the barrier into the pool and drowned me krnrnrnrnr

again i absolutely adore those two and i know they would never do something like that, but i will say the image of rhys and taika holding mermaid me underwater until the bubbles stop was oddly hilarious to me

[queen-anne-music]

ok no. i'm not done.

firstly, from a meta standpoint of izzy's death representing the dying age of piracy, I can kinda get it.

BUT, hear me out

we didn't need that parallel, we got slapped in the face with it in episode 7 when ALMOST ALL OF THE SHIPS BLEW UP, that was representative of the "death of piracy"

additionally, the same meta-commentary could be made by saying that ed's retirement means blackbeard's death and again we get the death of piracy thing from a narrative standpoint

now by this point it is probably VERY obvious that izzy became one of my favorite characters this season, and I have to acknowledge that some of that is definitely clouding my view of this finale

but

i really, really think that this could have been handled better, don't get me wrong Con O'Neill's acting in his final scene was amazing, and I am so, so happy that izzy and ed finally talked about their relationship with each other, but this show has had crazier things happen then a character surviving things that should have killed them, off the top of my head: ed surviving this season, stede surviving being hanged, auntie surviving a whole explosion, buttons TURNING INTO A BIRD, and of course I think there is something to be said for izzy having a leg amputated!! and somehow not getting any kind of infection from that despite the less-than-ideal circumstances

while i don't think that David Jenkins intentions were to say a big fuck you to older disabled members of the lgbtqia community, this still hurts

also seeing time and time again a character go through a redemption arc only to be killed off at the end of it just gets old

but i have to wonder

maybe this isn't meant to be the end of izzy

here's what I think, recall the ending of season 1 where ed throws lucius off the boat and we were all like HE BETTER NOT BE DEAD, I have to wonder if this is meant to parallel that

i'm not trying to pull a tjlc here, but here's a few other things that don't quite add up that support this theory

firstly, the title of the episode. perhaps I'm looking in all the wrong places but I haven't really seen anyone discuss this? the title of each episode usually plays into the events of the episode in some way (sometimes in obvious ways like calypso's birthday and sometimes in less obvious ways like impossible birds) but I can't really see the connection here? its an obvious callback to stede's mermaid scene but it never really came up in the episode which seems a bit odd

next, izzy was buried on land, this feels wrong for so many reasons (yes I know half the time pirates were buried on land shush), there feels like no good reason to bury him on land, something could be said for the fact that he's watching over ed and stede's inn but for someone who represented the pirate ideal I would have thought they would bury him at sea, which leads me to my next point

buttons landed on izzy's grave again i repeat BUTTONS LANDED ON IZZY'S GRAVE the same buttons who turned himself into a BIRD, magic is canonical to the OFMD universe, and it has been established that buttons is an actual sea witch, they didn't do much to establish the limitations of these powers so it would not be out of the question for buttons to potentially bring izzy back, which maybe he can only do if he has access to izzy's body?

i feel the need to also mention that from a narrative standpoint ed and stede's ending feels a little bit rushed (this could be for a lot of other reasons that have nothing to do with this theory I'm not in denial nooooooooo) but it did feel a little bit interesting that we got the whole scene with ed trying (and failing) to be a fisherman contrasted with the ending of him as an innkeeper to say nothing of stede's love of being a pirate captain (and subsequently leaving all of his crew behind) also there was one other scene that make me think that this doesn't feel quite right, the anne and mary dialogue. while I do understand that it was an interesting look into how their relationship turned sour because they both sucked at communication I have to wonder if it is foreshadowing the downfall of ed and stede's relationship now that they've left piracy? again I'm very happy that they seem to be able to communicate a bit better this season, and that they are happy living what ed would call the simple life, but I'm not confident that this ending means smooth sailing for them

(it also seems a bit odd that ed isn't on the ship to take revenge on ricky? but maybe he needed some time to process?)

i think a solid case could be made to bring izzy back in season 3 if we get one (but they also say denial isn't just a river in egypt and I don't wanna give anyone any false hope)

at any rate they certainly have given the fandom quite a bit of stuff to play with for fix-it fics

[xoxoemynn]

OFMD has such a chokehold on my entire identity now that I genuinely can’t remember if “earhole” was a word I used before watching the show or if I just accepted it because it was Queen Mary Bonnet’s stabbing location of choice.

[lord-of-the-ducks]

I wanna make a post talking about Jim because oh my fucking god I would actually die for them.

I’m gonna be honest, I was actually skeptical about OFMD at first because I assumed that Jim was just the stereotypical “woman crossdressing as a man” stereotype that seems to appear in every piece of pirate-related media I watch. Like “ah yes, this is a 100% cis woman disguised as a man purely for practical purposes, this says absolutely nothing about her gender identity” and that isn’t bad or anything, I’m not saying that anyone who cross dresses is automatically trans, just that I’ve seen this trope only through the most cis/heteronormative lens possible and it’s really exhausting after the hundredth time you’ve seen it, especially when there’s the weird “I’m a girlboss who’s just as good as the men” kind of messaging.

Seriously, I was so put off by the idea that I actually had to turn off my television when I saw Lucius see Jim swimming because I was ready for him to say things that were just going to upset me. I eventually did continue watching, but I really had to convince myself to give the show a chance. Lucius immediately being on board with keeping their secret and making the “not all beards are actual beards” comment gave me a bit of hope that I was going to be watching a show that had at least SOME canonically queer characters, but then the show implied that Oluwande was attracted to Jim and my immediate assumption was that once again, I was going to be dealing with some sort of weird Shakespearean “she’s disguised as a man but he’s attracted to her because she’s still female” thing. But thank fuck I kept watching.

The first indication that maybe I was watching a show that was going to actually address how this is an inherently queer trope was after Jim kissed Lucius and Lucius expressed attraction towards them. Because it’s already been established that Lucius doesn’t like women, since he said something about his mom thinking that he likes girls in episode 2, but he’s attracted to Jim, meaning that Jim isn’t necessarily a girl, or at least that Lucius doesn’t see them as one. And then I got to episode 4 and OH MY GOD THEY WENT ALL IN.

It’s a shame that Jim had to be outed, but I’m so happy with how the crew’s questions were written because it truly embodied the classic things that cis people ask any person they find out is trans. They aren’t word for word, but it’s the general attitude of “well meaning but incredibly strange/invasive/outright wrong” questions and comments that made me laugh so hard I had to gasp for air. They even had the “well, it’s basic science/biology that women have crystals in their bodies that attract demons”. Then Jim finally gets fed up and just tells them to continue calling them Jim and that they’re still the same person. Definitely not written with the trans experience in mind, nope.

Anyway, this is just so refreshing to me because not only is Jim actually played by a nonbinary actor (which I immediately looked up after episode 4) but they also aren’t exclusively defined by their gender identity or the suffering it’s caused. Like, they have a whole arc about killing one of Jackie’s husbands who killed their family and being wanted for that murder. They also might have a romantic plot with Oluwande, and both Jackie and Lucius expressed attraction towards them, showing that they can be someone desirable (granted, Jackie was probably just doing it to mess with them, but still). And when they do address the ramifications of being nonbinary in a time period where that isn’t understood, it isn’t in a way that makes me, a nonbinary person living in an unsafe situation, feel miserable and upset about how people like me are treated, I just get a chance to laugh at it. I’ll probably never have people asking if I’m a mermaid, but I do recognize the ignorance that those sort of questions come from, and the show makes fun of that ignorance, not Jim (Edit: I forgot to mention that Jim is actually allowed to get angry about the repetitive, ridiculous questions instead of just grinning and bearing it, and they aren’t framed as in the wrong for doing so) And then once all of that is out of the way, Jim just gets to… exist. As their authentic self. Talking about cutting people up for their fuckery. It’s lovely, I love them.

Anyway, sorry about the long post, I’m just so glad that a character that I previously assumed was going to be a looming reminder of how trans people are erased from a lot of narratives, including ones that can show a lot of diversity, ended up being some of the best representation I’ve ever seen. I pretty much immediately started following Vico Ortiz on social media and they’re also a delight, so check them out if you have the chance.

[unfolded73]

I’ve been someone who struggles with hyperfixations when it comes to fandom, and looking back, I can point to ways that the initial several months of my participation in a new fandom negatively impacted my life. I can also point to positives, but it’s hard to see if it’s a net good or a net bad. In recent months I’ve been talking in therapy about how maybe I shouldn’t engage with fandom ever again for that reason.

So recently I saw a bunch of people getting into a show on tumblr and I mentioned it to my therapist, joking that I’d better not watch it. She said, or maybe you should and we can work through it together. So I watched the show, and it did nothing for me. Don’t care about it. (Not going to name it because I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yums. It just isn’t for me.) I had just said to my therapist, never mind, this little experiment you want to do isn’t going to work. Then came Our Flag Means Death.

So I’ve been trying to observe my own hyperfixation. The way I can’t stop thinking about it. The way I keep seeking that hit of dopamine by engaging with it any way I can: rewatching it, reading/watching interviews, looking at gifs, reading fic, writing fic, making playlists, chatting on discord, etc. Oh, and watching tiktoks.

Holy shit, tiktok. The way the algorithm feeds hyperfixation is kind of terrifying. I was already on queer and fandom tiktok so it didn’t take long for ofmd content to show up on my fyp. So I engaged with it. So I got more. Engaged with it. Got more. Started skipping the kinds of tiktoks I would usually watch because I wanted more our flag means death. The algorithm responded. I’d say it took 2 days for my fyp to become ~70% ofmd. Now imagine that’s vaccine misinfo. Or terf bullshit. Like, on the one hand it’s giving me lovely content on my queer pirate show, but on the other, damn, that algorithm is scary.

All that to say, therapy this week is gonna be interesting.

[sorrelchestnut]

For the WIP meme, I'd love to hear about Cry Havoc and Thimblerig!

(For the "WIP Folder" askmeme, still taking asks if anyone wants to play!)

Cry Havoc is my other novel-length Fallout 4 epic, in which I stalled out right at the end and have been determinedly plinking at it off and on ever since. I'm down to the last two chapters - well the last chapter and the epilogue - which are both half-written. That would have been more useful if I could have arranged those halves in the right order and had something to post, but here we are. Perhaps unsurprisingly, because of who I am as a person, I stalled out on the sex scene. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Here's a snippet from the epilogue:

Something that might pass as a smile if Sole didn't know what the real thing looks like ripples over Nick's ravaged face.  "You've had a real wild ride, kiddo.  And here I thought you pre-War folks had it so easy back then." "That's what the magazines said," she agrees.  "You had a pretty good run yourself." "We're not so different." Sole smiles faintly.  A lot of people have said that to her.  Usually they were wrong.  "Pretty sure my kill count's higher." "Heh. Maybe."  The corner of his mouth curls upward.  "You know we coulda had a lot of fun, you and me.  In a different world." "Conrad, there wouldn't be a world left," she tells him, and listens to the crackling echo of his laughter through Nick's voice box.

Thimblerig is an OFMD canon-fork AU, in which Ed is the one to encounter Badminton and have a traumatic experience that sends him running, and Stede is the one left on the dock. ('Thimblerig' is an old-timey word for shell game, because I think I'm very clever.) Stede is therefore the one who has a turn toward the dark side after an encounter with Izzy, but his 'encounter' is a drunken fuck after they end up tussling on the cabin floor and Stede pulls a knife on him, and his Kraken moment is deciding to pull a Dread Pirate Roberts on Blackbeard. Izzy goes along with this, because he doesn't have anything better to do, and anyway they're probably all going to die horribly because Stede's going to fuck it up spectacularly.

Spoiler: he does not, in fact, fuck it up spectacularly.

This is another one that's mostly notes and plotting rather than actual writing - I do this a lot actually, most of it never sees the light of day - but here's a snippet from my scratchpad about when Ed inevitably makes his way back and has no idea what's going on:

Ed ends up sleeping on the couch that night after talking it through a bit with Stede, and things aren't mended but he feels hopeful they're on the way.  And then he wakes up, sometime in the middle of the night, to the sound of someone trying to sneak past.  He puts his hand on his knife, but they pass him by and it's Izzy's familiar grating whisper, Stede's sleepy murmur of response.  Izzy is telling him Buttons has the helm, he's going to get some sleep and take first watch, and Stede makes a frustrated noise and cuts him off, tells him just come to bed, Israel.  And Ed is lying there digesting that, trying to figure out if he heard that wrong, and then Izzy says in a creaking voice I can't, Edward- -and Stede cuts him off again, is asleep, like I want to be, just come to bed.  Izzy hesitates again, then gives a grunt of assent and sits down on the edge of the bed, holy shit, Ed's brain is spinning.  Stede makes room and mutters something about his boots, and Izzy gives another grunt of annoyance but actually obeys, that's somehow the most shocking part of all of it, more than Izzy sliding under the covers, more than Stede rolling over to throw an arm around his waist, casually possessive.  In the faint shaft of moonlight, Ed can see Izzy's face for a moment, looking like a man going to the gallows.  Then he closes his eyes, heaves a sigh, and settles down to sleep.

[sixstepsaway]

Ahhhh a fellow Hozier lover! It’s me again and your reply made me think of his unreleased songs. They’d fit so well too! Blood for Blackhands Tryin' hard to recognise Some pure motive inside of me A creature that would horrify Any child that I used to be Oh, give no faith to show Started to smile, so I showed my teeth No more than flesh and bone Doin' so much just to watch someone bleed and I Could Be Yours as the softest most moonlit dance hand holding Blackbonnet one. Pls drop your playlist x

I don't think I've listened to his unreleased songs! I'm going to assume they're not on Spotify? Where does one listen to Hozier's unreleased songs? 👀

As for my playlist, I need to preface this with the fact my best friend and I roleplay like... all the time... and so this playlist is for the RP character I ended up with after watching OFMD who has Edward's face. You're welcome to follow it, listen to it, go through it, whatever, but it's 26hrs of hyperfixation songs because of the character, rather than specifically because of OFMD.

(Said character is dating a guy with Stede's face and also he has a guy with Izzy's face he loves but it's Complicated (not only because the guy is mortal and actually dying right now so he's having to face down the possibility of going on without him) and he's having a baby with someone else's gf who he accidentally vampire bonded to himself after a one-night stand he did not anticipate Spiralling. it's been a whole dramatic thing for my poor bean, he's existed like two months and his life is just Drama™ but at least his mom loves him! he's also immortal even before the vampirism because his husband murdered him with a cursed knife and now they're permanently bonded and when one is killed the other takes the brunt of the hit and respawns instead of the person who was killed dying. it's. it's a lot. he's also a genderqueer shapeshifter. it's a lot. i would die for this immortal 500 year old babygirl thank you for coming to my TED talk.)

Our RP characters tend to share quite a few traits with the characters that inspired them though, so you'll recognize a lot of Ed-feels on the playlist if you still decide to look at it after this intro 😂

It only shows the first 100 songs but I promise you there are 412 on this bad boi and I add more every day because the hyperfixation never ends.

Dubbing you Hozier anon now.