#ofmd season 2 finale

[wrensgeekyvibes]

Season Finale

The season finale is going to make me cry right. Right? Like...I'm going to be emotionally devastated? I'm going to have to walk on shards of glass to feel better? Eat a pile of bricks just so I can feel something? Is that what's going to happen?

That's cool. I had nothing else planned for next week.

NEW THOUGHT....

This must be after the suicide mission because if Ed says, "You came back," and Stede says, "Never left," I AM GOING TO EAT THE PLASTER OFF THE WALL

[khruschevshoe]

OFMD Critique: Izzy Hands, "Burying Your Cripples," and That Fucking Finale

(Note: this is a cleaned-up/expanded version of a post I made earlier regarding disability rep in this show bc I was chatting with @itswhatyougive and @notthewriteryourelookingfor about "Burying Your Gays" and the parallels with the "Burying Your Cripples" trope in media, which is often more insidious because people are less primed to notice it and call it out.

Also, although I am analyzing a trope in media in the most unbiased way I can, I am going to get angry. Because this is a show that did its job at making us care about its characters and their portrayals and you can't get mad at me that I did just that.)

On a fourth note when it comes to the problems with the writing in this season of ofmd...the handling of disability. Because good God.

To preface this before anyone jumps down my throat about getting upset: I am disabled myself, both physically and mentally. I carry a small laundry list of mild to moderate conditions that impair my daily functions. I understand what it is like to desire to see characters that carry disabilities similar and dissimilar to my own onscreen. I also understand that there ARE multiple disabled characters in OFMD (ex. Jackie with her wooden hand, Ed with his knee brace, Pete with his cleft palate, Lucius with his mentioned bad back/wooden finger). I UNDERSTAND that these were all generally handled decently well, incorporated without drawing attention to them (although the disappearance of Ed's knee brace was strange to me in season 2, even that I could get with bc personally I only need to use my cane when my knee flares bad and can walk perfectly normally the rest of the time without an aid).

Which is all to say: the way that Izzy's death was written is insidiously (likely unconsciously, but still) ableist. His entire arc this season revolves around community and recovering from trauma and accepting himself both in a queer sense and a DISTINCTLY DISABLED sense. The way he remarks upon his own disability and his acceptance of himself and the way that the show is written to have his crew member ACCOMODATE him joyfully as an EXPLICIT SYMBOL OF LOVE was a breath of fresh air when it comes to disabled characters. I also enjoyed the way that he pokes fun at it occasionally in the same way that I do with my coworkers/friends (joking "oh really, you're going to ask an invalid to do that?" *gestures at my cane*).

But that ending. God, that fucking ending. *vehemently taps table* The fact that this character who opens up, who is accepted for both sides of his identity after dragging himself through the fucking pits over them, is killed. BECAUSE HIS MOBILITY AID COULD BE SEEN BY THE ENEMY. BECAUSE HE WAS SEEN AS UNIQUELY VULNERABLE. And then they FUCKING PULL HIS MOBILITY AID, the very symbol of his acceptance, from his FUCKING BODY SO HE CANNOT BE BURIED WHOLE?

I'm sorry. I really am. I don't mean to get furious about this. But as a disabled person who saw such hope in this character, who saw a storyline about a part of myself that is rarely displayed onscreen (that slow acceptance of the part of yourself you considered broken + the acknowledgement of love by your family/community in the form of loving accommodation without complaint), this hurt me at a very primal level that I didn't know I could be hurt at.

Bringing this back around to the "Burying Your Cripples" trope: the reason why an ending like this is so horrifying is because it is very much telling you that you can have a healing arc, that you can finally find yourself accommodation and acceptance, and it doesn't matter. Your disability will be the thing that kills you.

To people who say that this ending is justified because sometimes death is just random like that, that saying that death makes healing not worth it, I get what you're saying. In real life, of course you're right.

But this is a CLOSED NARRATIVE. It is a story with BEATS that MATTER, made of decisions by writers who had to purposefully decide to put scenes together. There's a reason they're called "arcs"- they're supposed to aim at a specific point. IF YOU LET EVERY CHARACTER IN A SHOW LIVE THROUGH THINGS THAT SHOULD HAVE KILLED THEM EXCEPT FOR THE DISABLED CHARACTER, YOU ARE MAKING A FUCKING POINT WHETHER YOU REALIZE IT OR NOT. Izzy's death is not showing "random chance" or "the risks of piracy"- HE DIED BECAUSE HIS MOBILITY AID WAS VISIBLE.

Lemme repeat that: costume concepts showed that the original design of Izzy's naval outfit covered his wooden hoof. It was a conscious decision to have the shot of the naval officer looking down at Izzy's leg, at his exposed leg, and pinpointing him as the weak one despite there being entire scenes dedicated to showing that he was still as strong as the rest of them. In a show where the budget and runtime was restricted, not a single shot or costume decision was on accident. They had to pay more to green screen in that leg.

If Castiel went to superhell because of his gay confession for Dean, then I cannot think of a clearer way to Bury Your Cripples than having Izzy die because someone saw his mobility aid.

Do I think they did this on purpose? Well, no more on purpose than David Jenkins looking at Izzy's Hayes-Code-era gay coding/arc and saying that he knew that Izzy would have to die because that's what characters like that do. No more on purpose than saying that the mentor character had to die because that's what characters like that do.

Izzy's disability was visible, was the cause of his death, because "that's what happens" to pirates who gain disabilities. They are weaker. They are more at risk.

I'm sorry, but fuck that.

Fuck the idea that in a show that created a careful space in its narrative (for a season and a half at least) for queerness to be treated ahistorically kindly, that often disregarded geographic, historical, and medical accuracy to tell a compelling story, and that purposefully provided racial and body diversity while calling out racism, that the disabled character getting offed is a "kind ending." It's not. It never has been. And I'm tired of accepting that sort of thing.

I am SO GLAD that fanfic exists with better depictions of disabled arcs/endings in OFMD bc I don't know if I could recover otherwise. Hope my fellow disabled folk out there are recovering as well, and that they understand that there is positivity to be made out of poison- it just wasn't what the finale gave us.

[payperviewpanicattack]

I wasn't gonna even say anything but I think the thing that pissed me off the most is when Izzy said "I wanna go" I literally yelled NO YOU DONT? Because??? No he doesn't??? His whole arc was about learning to find happiness and loving himself and finding a reason to live?? He started the season suicidal and he was SUPPOSED to end it with a new love and appreciation for life He didn't want to fucking go

[emmtm]

Seeing everyone get so incredibly angry at David Jenkins is just unfair. He doesnt deserve any of this, yall put him on a pedestal and got mad when he did smth yall didnt like. Which is valid, but don’t personally attack him. Hes just a guy like the rest of us. I am so sorry to all the writers who are getting sm undeserved hate rn, specifically jenkins because at the end of the day, hes only human. So yeah heres my 2 cents on this.

[where-our-stories-start]

OFMD Spoilers for 2x08

So I just finished OFMD 2x08 and I have lots of feelings. I will probably post a longer breakdown once I've had a few days to marinate on it, but overall:

The season felt a bit rushed overall, but I'm still satisfied by the finale

Stede and Ed are everything and I squealed like a child when they found each other again

Izzy's speech about piracy is perfect

I love that Zheng and Auntie got some more development

I am sad about Izzy's death, but narratively I did find it satisfying

[angelitosdemiel]

CALYPSOS BIRTHDAY FOREVER MOTHERFUCKERS

[reyl0ct]

I hate to beat a dead horse but what the actual fuck was the season 2 finale? Besides Izzy's speech that was the most hollow unfulfilling episode I've ever seen.

Yes I'm mad and venting, and yes everyone is entitled to their own opinion but that could have been written so much better and you can't convince me otherwise.

I honestly really like s2 up until the last episode. As far as I'm concerned the finale was Calypso's birthday.

[go-bonkers-go-foolish]

okay for real i have thoughts on the ofmd finale, and they're mostly positive, but i've seen a LOT of takes that are just. not using critical thinking at all. so i wanna outline my stuff here. spoilers under the cut

okay. so, first things first, a round of applause and a bouquet of flowers to con o'neill. brilliant, BRILLIANT work from him in both seasons - no exaggeration, maybe one of the best performances i've ever seen. he put his heart and soul into that role, and i cannot commend him enough. i was moved to tears multiple times this season, and he did wonderfully.

second, i know it's hard to hear, but izzy was ready to die. did he HAVE to die? no, of course not. was it fair that he died? no, death is never fair. but was he, as a character and in terms of the narrative, ready to die? yes. and before we go any further, i am saying this in explicit terms: i love izzy. i've loved him since day one. i've never been one of those people who was rooting for a bad ending for him. and this ending isn't a bad one.

izzy was exhausted. he was ready to resign last season. he was put through the fucking wringer this season. in season one, he explicitly says that the only way out of piracy is death. is that necessarily true? no, but for HIM it is. izzy's whole life was the sea. his whole life was piracy. everything he knew and loved belonged to that life. a life of piracy, constantly surrounded by violence and constantly in danger, isn't a place you can really thrive, but for him to leave it all behind would be torture for him. can you honestly imagine him retiring the way ed and stede did? i can't. i really don't think he'd want to retire. he wouldn't be happy. this post sums it up the best - it just makes sense, both narratively and in terms of symbolism.

and if the only way out for him was death, well, FUCK, then it's only fitting that he got the kindest death imaginable.

imagine if he'd died the minute he was shot and the crew had to leave him behind and we never saw him again. that would have been cheap, empty, and an unfair ending. imagine if his suicide attempt earlier this season had been successful, if he had died alone in the dark from a gunshot to his head. can you IMAGINE how hollow and bitter and cruel that would have been?

but look at him. izzy crawled his way back from the brink of death, he watched the person he loved most become a monster, he did the bravest thing and saved his crew over the person he'd been loyal to for decades, he literally dragged himself to a better life than the one he had before, and then, episode six. la vie en rose.

he was beautiful. he was radiant. he was joyful and surrounded by joy. most importantly, he was loved. i've rewatched that scene half a dozen times and i am not ashamed to admit that i've cried at nearly every watch.

that kind of queer joy and character redemption is not something i have ever seen before, and con performed it perfectly. he was there, surrounded by the crew, literally held up by a physical manifestation of their love for him. that is the apex of a character arc if i've ever seen one. that was his moment.

and for a time, he was happy. did it feel short because the pacing was incredibly rushed this season? oh, absolutely. but that's not the fault of anyone but hbo and their corporate bullshit. they had to jam-pack a dozen character arcs into eight half-hour episodes and do justice to all of them, so of course it felt rushed. but that moment, la vie en rose, and all the times after, that was a character done justice.

and then, he died. but did he die alone, or unloved, or unhappy, or before his time? no.

izzy hands died surrounded by the people who loved him, in the arms of the person he loved most in the world. he died forgiving and being forgiven. he died having experienced pure joy for the first time in a very, very long while. he died accepted and he died belonging to a family, with a leg made by his crew holding him up until the end. he said he was ready, he knew it was his time. he was a fighter, but he died letting himself rest, having fought and having lived beautifully.

it's like he said to ricky. he's gone, but he endures, because he was GOOD. he knew he was good. and for a man that was so thoroughly broken and beaten down at the beginning of his arc, that's a beautiful thing.

we watched him physically drag himself away from everyone who loved him, repeating "you are born alone and you die alone", and then we saw him die surrounded by their love. we saw them prove him wrong.

izzy died knowing he was good, and he died knowing he was loved.

death was not his redemption arc. he was redeemed from the moment he walked out into that rainstorm and saved his crew's lives by standing up to ed. this whole season was his post-redemption life, and he got to experience beauty and joy before he died in the way he wanted to - like a pirate - in the kindest way he possibly could have experienced.

we watched him go from the antagonist to the heart and soul of the crew, and saying it was all for nothing because he died is so blatantly missing the point. (and, just saying, no shade, but the venn diagram of people mad about this and people saying the good omens season 2 finale was bad is a circle. sometimes bad things have to happen in the narrative because it's right. a character you like doing something bad or dying is not bad writing.)

so, izzy, rest in peace. rest surrounded by love. rest knowing you were good.

and con o'neill, rest knowing that you did an amazing character justice, knowing that you blew everyone's minds, and knowing that you kicked ass in every single way possible.

and third, the phrase "rancid syphilitic cunt" is going to enter my vocabulary forever and no one will stop me.

[xxbranch-dressingxx]

tagging all my "izzy hands gets revived in season 3" shit as "rancid hope" in case you don't wanna get your hopes up (i kinda do)

[elwynnie101]

OFMD Finale Spoilers

I've had to think about this for a few hours, literally slept on it, and I've finally come to my conclusion on how I feel about the Finale.

(I am not going to be discussing the representation of disability as I simply just do not have the ground to stand on for that it is not my place, I will just be coming from someone who's done film and media studies.)

I would have been okay with Izzys' death, if Ed deserved it.

Don't get me wrong, I love and adore Ed deeply, but he simply hasn't progressed enough as a character for Izzy to have this 'mentor death' as David Jenkins wanted it to be. Yes, Ed has grown as a character, from the persona of The Kraken, to who he is now is a big distance, but just as Lucius called out, he hasn't actually apologised for what he's done. I don't think his brief 'Sorry about your leg' was enough for the weight of what he and Izzy did to each other. And again, I understand their relationship isn't very emotionally open, but part of both of their character arcs was accepting the love of others and growing as people.

(also the other characters reactions felt so out of place? We had just gone through so many episodes of the crew caring for Izzy, making him the ships figure-head, to just have only Ed be near him in his final moments? Not even Fang or Jim?)

I think if Izzys' life was left ambiguous, if Ed and Stede had decided to separate from the Crew when Izzy was in critical condition, I think that would have given Ed the chance to reflect on his and Izzys' relationship now that he isn't in the homicidal-suicidal headspace like in episode 2. He has Stede now to be able to help him grow as a person (and Stede can tell him what happened to him with Chauncey and his insecurities, then they can both grow, don't want anyone to think I think Stede isn't guiltless, he has a lot he needs to apologise for and talk about), no longer at sea with the reputation of Blackbeard to smother him, and I would have been happy with that ending.

It leaves room for a third season, with the narrative theme still that Ed and Stede aren't perfect people and need to work on themselves and their relationship. I would have been happier with that ending, I know it isn't perfect but if the verdict was to kill of Izzy anyway, at least he would have been with the crew that truly cares about him, and Ed would have had to face the reality of his actions in a clearer headspace.

(Also I just feel so bad for Con, to have this character that obviously meant so much to him, to have him killed off in such a rushed and honestly anti-climatic way)

I'm also just appalled at Izzys' character at the very end, after all of his growth, being chalked up to just being the dark side of the Blackbeard persona and 'needed' to die to free Ed from that. And this is coming from a Season 1 Izzy suffering enjoyer (in the sense of him being a rabid chihuahua type, not the toe cutting and eating).

I fully get that with HBO Maxs' budget cuts and episode constriction this season wasn't going to be what the writers wanted, but in the end to me it felt like when you write big lettering in pen, starting off fine and even and then everything gets messy and crushed at the end. I honestly now just want a season 3 to just see where the fuck do they go from here? I legitimately just don't know what they can do.

I want to love this episode, everything until Izzys' death was fine, a bit rushed but I had come to expect that from the last 2 episodes, but then after that it was so rushed that it didn't even make sense to me narratively. It's now just left a bitter taste in my mouth for those last 3 episodes, and almost this whole season, it was going so well :(

[lilpotthead]

ok one thought about izzy’s death (of many, mind you): it wasn’t a ‘stray bullet’ or a stupid accident that got him. it was ricky choosing to turn around, take him by surprise, and shoot him in the gut. and before that, we have izzy literally saying “kill me” to ricky after having brutally insulted him… he quite literally asked for it? and then went on to say that their (his) spirit will live on and it will! it does! and if we get a season 3 I can only hope that we get a bit more of the after effects on the crew.. even if it’s just a comment here or there. like in fond remembrance.

[khruschevshoe]

The fact that the whole point of Izzy dying is to release Ed from Blackbeard and give Ed that shitty, makes-absolutely-no-sense line about how "the crew loves you, just be ed" and then the moment the funeral ends, ED DITCHES THE CREW, making not only that part of the speech make no sense, but actively seeking to just piss me off from a writing POV

[neptune-garden]

that moment when the pirates combine their slay so hard it makes me cry

[emmtm]

I thought this show was better than this. I trusted this show. That felt so unnecessary.

[minty-and-fresh]

STOP STOP STOP STOP WTF WHY TF WOULD THEY DO THAT ME😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[sponge-eating-goblin]

Relishing in my last few minutes on tumblr tonight bc I cannot touch or even think about this website until after my class tomorrow lest I be spoiled for OFMD