#why WOULDN'T stede be upset with ed? why SHOULDN'T he be?

[lecter-lioncourt]

Me when an OFMD fan yet again forgets about Ed's 3 canon acts of animal cruelty, ordering Fang to skin a man alive with a snail fork, setting fire to a ship full of people and burning them alive, cutting people's body parts off, canonologically "loving a good maim" etc and instead infantalizes Ed and somehow places the blame for all his Kraken antics onto Izzy:

[pagesofkenna]

i tried so hard to wait but anyway massive Our Flag Means Death spoilers behind the readmore

the tumblr algorithm is getting better about which posts to rec and tonight it's been all OFMD stuff re: Lucius and now I have to say my piece which is

Lucius possibly dying was the #1 thing I was most upset by in this very upsetting final episode. like everything happening with Ed is bad bad bad but I went into the finale really hoping the show title wasn't going to manifest in reality wrt the main characters and for the most part it didnt! Stede and Ed lived! but the other most prominently out gay character getting killed as part of a character regression arc??? cut me so bad

and not like in a morally bad way necessarily even though I spent most of Thursday torn about how I felt about that! and ultimately I decided I'm not interested in policing the moral purity of queer media, and like most importantly the part of this I was most upset by wasn't 'this is a morally objectionable thing for the writers to do' but 'this is a morally objectionable thing for the CHARACTER to do' and its actually, like, really damn effective writing and I shouldn't be cushioning the blow by pulling myself out of the narrative to object on a meta level!

the reason that one act was so emotionally effective on me is because Lucius is Baby Stede! I always interpreted him as who Stede would have been if Stede had gotten out, escaped to the sea, and become a pirate before having family responsibilities to run away from. Lucius being the only one who could read or write indicated to me that he was also a rich boy running away from a gilded cage, and that he'd realized much faster than Stede had that that life wasn't for him. Stede and Ed being made to sign their names in episode 9, and Ed only able to sign with an X, seemed like an intentional reminder that this class difference is still a notable wedge in their relationship

and on top of all that, Lucius is maybe the most emotionally mature member of the crew, wrt relationships. that moment where he tells off Izzy Hands is still one of the hottest scenes in the show. he's open with his sexual availability and expects all his partners to be honest and straightforward as well, which leads directly to him parsing Stede and Ed's relationship quickly and effectively advising them on how to navigate that relationship

which is why Ed, regressing back to Kraken Blackbeard, HAS to kill him, in order to solidify that regression both for himself and the audience. Lucius knows his vulnerability, has direct ACCESS to that vulnerability, is a constant reminder of Stede and presumably why Ed thinks Stede ditched him, and is so frickin easily killable

which leads me to my main conclusion here which is!!!! I don't know if Lucius is actually dead or not!!!

I wouldn't be surprised if we get a season 2 and he somehow comes back but I also wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't!! it was... not a just death for a character that important, but NONE of the character deaths in this show have been 'earned' the way traditional media would usually make them (except maybe Calico Jack). and if Lucius was actually still alive, why wasn't there a brief shot confirming that? It kinda does suck to tell an audience a character is dead only to pull a 'psych!' months/years later!

but the thing i keep going back to is......... we never see what Ed did with Stede's secret closet?? the first place Stede took Ed when they met, the room where Ed told him who he was. I feel like the editing/writing on this show has been very deliberate, and the 'fancam' moment of Mary talking about what love feels like, when Stede flashes back on that scene in the secret room, deliberately reminds us that that room exists. Stede said he had it built secretly, so none of the other pirates would know about it. when we see the pirates clearing out Stede's stuff it's just the books and the furniture (unless we did see him clearing out the closet and I just missed it?), because of course they wouldn't have known to clear out the secret room

it seems wildly grasping at straws to suggest Lucius hiding in the secret room but also!!!! it's silly and comedic and would be so satisfying!!! Lucius, unable to swim and clinging to the side of the ship, discovering a porthole to a room he's never seen before and climbing in. Lucius getting to act out the same role as the ghost of Nigel haunting Stede over his failures, ghost in the walls tormenting Ed for his mistakes and all that

(the even more self gratifying image would be Ed actually saving Lucius just to hide him in that room, but that feels like too much of a stretch.)

I just... have been taking a very long time to process my feelings over the finale. and I'm still not done and seeing other people talking about it is helping. I went into these episodes assuming the show was completely done-done, and was surprised by what was obviously a 'vying for season 2 semi-cliffhanger' which has completely emotionally destroyed me. and the ambiguity over Lucius's death still kills me but I'm also pretty damn impressed by it as a writing choice? even if i also hate it and wish we'd just gotten a sappy happy total finale?? but if tragic cliffhanger means more story down the line then I really can't complain???

anyway I'm a wreck I just wanted to talk about Lucius