#zheng x oluwande

[nortism]

jim jimenez and their girlfriend working together to get jim’s boyfriend a girlfriend, truly no one is doing it like them

[magniloquent-raven]

who's ready for the finale (not me)

✨here be memes✨

[coishen]

Modern AU

:D

[ohmyglobwhatthefrickamievendoing]

100% Jim & Archie were trying to get Olu to bring Zheng into the polycule except Olu had no idea he was even in a polycule to begin with

[sephyrrr]

Can I just take a minute to talk about how much oluwande means to me? To see a dark skin, fat black man be desired by not one BUT TWO characters?? And to have his appearance never be made into a joke or brought up at all? He’s not loved “despite” his size like many many other movies and tv shows do jim and zheng just love him because he’s sweet, kind, funny, hot and really fucking cute.

[hugesigh]

broke: olu is straight

woke: olu is queer

bespoke: olu is attracted to the most competent person in the room at any given time

[courtjestermerlin]

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH | 2x07: Man on Fire

[mutantmiro]

Heartbreaker 💔

[bellarke-is-my-death-wave]

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH | 2x03 The Innkeeper

I love this scene so much. I, too, can relate to being really good at my job and am able to dismantle the egos of misogynistic men with a few carefully chosen barbs, but am equally unable to seduce anyone I like without terrifying them.

[elara-in-the-sky]

okay so once again im not going to put this eloquently because the thought entered my head and I immediately needed to get it out but I haven't really seen anyone else talking about this yet. but like the major conflict of s1 has to do with izzy not supporting the relationship between ed and suede right? and how like it's a distraction to ed as a captain and yada yada yada etc. but in the new episodes auntie has a problem with olu and Zheng but like the massive difference in the way it's handled on zhengs ship compared to the revenge. like auntie is a first mate just like izzy was. but zhengs ship is run so much better (not to mention the actual Zheng historically was beyond incredible seriously look her up) but like ya auntie had a huge problem with the relationship but just the way it was handled and the parallels and ugh someone please put this into better words for me but it just makes me feel so many things god damn I love this stupid show

[maddytheintrovert]

Ok so OFMD S2 Ep8 spoilers, you’ve been warned.

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So…

What the everloving fuck was that. I just. I am devastated. Ok well I’m happy for Ed and Stede because of course I fucking am. But. What THE EVERLOVING FUCK.

Thoughts:

1- I refuse to let it sink in that a certain someone was gut stabbed and is now buried under a lovely cross (the unicorn leg, the scarf with the ring, get out stop). I will be anxiously awaiting the fanfic writers to fix this. Plz. I’m going to go on Ao3 immediately after I post this.

2- is that dream sequence of Stede’s actually foreshadowing? Because while Izzy does not die at his hand, Izzy dies due to Stede’s plan. Idk.

3- if Izzy doesn’t fucking haunt someone on the crew I’m done. He better show up like the Badmintons to call everyone cocksuckers or I sue.

4-Lucius and Pete got married and that brings me joy (in this pit of despair)

5- aw Ed. ED. I was cackling when he sucked at fishing and Pop pop was ready to fucking beat the shit out of him. Iconic. Also him just staring at the burning ships and being like “stede”. Stop. Also the I love you and the like I saw u do all that “cool” pirate stuff. And BABE. And THE LETTER.

6- Ed pt.2 IZZY AND ED. THAT SCENE STOP. While I don’t feel like Izzy should have died I think he was awesome this episode and definitely like came full character arc this season (the talk with our least favourite pirate wannabe and final words with Ed - I.e., Ed has so much family now. He can just be Ed)

7- Spanish Jackie being awesome and the bit about poison tolerance amongst the hubbies. I love her and the Swede and the Swede is finally getting some fucking respect and love and aw.

8- the seagull on Izzy’s grave. Hey buttons, love u

9- and the quad lives (shoutout to my lovely 4 Jim, Archie, Oluwande and Zheng Yi Sao). Also that moment between Zheng Yi and Auntie. Also Jim patching Auntie up.

10- ok gotta circle back to Izzy and the pirate wannabes chat and how much I love Izzy

11- how are we feeling about ep 8 Bonnet. I personally think he still needs some humbling. Idk because I’m happy about the progress he’s made re being made out to be a failure his whole life and coming to terms with that and becoming this more confident version of himself (I mean he had confidence from Day 1 but he was mighty plagued by all the Shit he went through in his youth). I enjoyed him “trying to protect” Zheng Yi when she wouldn’t run away when the navy because she was mighty fucked over losing Auntie and her crew (which my poor baby). Also I like Zheng Yi calling him out on his bullshit 24/7. But also idk I wanted him to like apologize or smtg because he was being a right dickhead the previous night. Also idk so happy Ed told Stede he loves him but like life’s a dick but so were u Stede… basically I love that Stede is unapologetically himself this season but also sometimes u do need to say ur sorry for being a dickhead.

12- the crew when Izzy died. The look on Jim’s face. Stop. I need to rewatch and look at Al their reactions but Jim’s caught my eye of the pain and sorrow because WE ALL LOVE IZZY NOW.

13- once again, Izzy better haunt someone or I sue

Ok I’m going to go try to not thing about the fact they killed Izzy now. What I don’t believe can’t hurt me or some shit.

[sky-fire-forever]

So I've seen different interpretations of the Zheng/Oluwande/Jim/Archie polycule and I'm curious as to how most people interpret them so

[thelighthouseandthekraken]

I love Oluwande's little feet kicking when he's kissing Zheng T.T

He's just excellent

[ivory--raven]

This is what I want.

[khruschevshoe]

OFMD Critique: the Handling of Female Characters, "Girlbosses," and Dropped Polyamory in Season 2 (aka Why the HELL did you give Zheng Yi Sao that ending?)

For this one, I kind of just want to gesture at the ending of 2x7 and the entirety of 2x8 and scream at the top of my lungs, "What the FUCK was that SHIT?"

But I already did that when the finale itself came out, so instead I'm going to stay calm and give a genuine critique (though still as rambly as always).

The handling of this show's women is...questionable. I think the only woman that was handled 100% well is Mary in Season 1. No real notes there. I love her and how her storyline is written to bits.

But in season 2, all 3 major women characters (Archie, Zheng Yi Sao, and Spanish Jackie) have their storylines hamstrung by romantic plot lines.

In Archie's case, the romance plot works. Not every character needs to have a subplot. The bits that flesh out her character are well integrated into the story, whether that be her first kiss with Jim directly leading into the fighting to the death plotline/Jim finally standing up to Blackbeard or the lines "you have hope, it's cute," "this is just kinda how things work," and "they just kind of get away with it, you know" (though it still pisses me off that that last one goes unchallenged in the narrative) being used for plot progression, or are fun character details, such as all of the snake cult hints. (Do I wish that the poly aspect of her, Jim, and Olu's dynamic was better executed so that I didn't feel like the tealoranges plot was yanked out from under my feet? Yes. Of course.)

But as for Zheng Yi Sao?

The treatment of this character makes my blood boil.

See, I'm not opposed to her having a romantic plotline. In fact, I think it could have been fun. A woman can have romance and power. 2x7 even looked like it was building to that sort of conclusion, with Jim, Olu, and Archie joining her crew in one of the very few actual canon implications of poly (though no confirmation, sadly- have y'all seen the info about the deleted scenes that could have confirmed it? I can't believe so much ended up on the cutting room floor.) But then the end of 2x7 strips all power from Zheng Yi Sao.

The show pulled one of the most powerful pirates and most accomplished women in history (also a woman of color, btw, a fact which only doubles the weird fucking undertones of her treatment as a character) into the show only to strip her of her power, shove her into a romantic plot line on a ship where she isn't even a captain, and expected me not to pick up on ANY of the fucked up optics of the writing? The fact that we end the season with Zheng and Spanish Jackie both losing their power as pirate queens in exchange for setting them on a ship with only one singular boyfriend grinds my fucking gears, man.

There are ways to give Zheng a romantic plotline without it making her an idiot (ala what happens with Olu in 2x3) or making her lose all of her power (ala the finale). Jackie's case is less infuriating, but it does remind me of the fact that a lot of the casual poly/open relationship rep from the first season got stripped from the second season (and before you come at me with the Zheng/Olu/Archie/Jim storyline, look me in the eye and cite to me any concrete canon evidence we have of it. I ADORE the fanfic as much as the next person, but I mourn the lost potential every day. Check my previous tealoranges meta for that- I might write a long version of it sometime). Lucius and Pete lost all their open relationship implications and Jackie's husbands are dropped from the finale in favor of her running off with the only one who gets a name.

I understand that they probably wrote Zheng Yi Sao this way to show Stede's growth as a Captain by showing that he brings more flexible ideas to the table (which, by the way, is completely undermined by the fact that his plan actively kills Izzy in the process), but they really should have thought through the...everything in regards to the implications of writing Zheng Yi Sao this way. Because if you bring in one of the only female characters with speaking lines onto this show, a Chinese woman at that, make romance actively make her stupid, have her be fooled by a white man (who, by the way, kills THOUSANDS of unnamed women off-page in explosions and it's just kind of treated as a plot point for the whole Zheng/Auntie/Stede/Izzy/Ed comparison which gives me the ick), strip her of her fleet and her power, and then have the GALL to not even make her the Captain of the Revenge at the end of it all? I'm not sure I trust you to handle her legacy, much less write women in general.

TLDR; Writing a very queer show does not resolve you of sexism.