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OFMD S02E01-03
Oct. 6th, 2023 01:53 pmI'm feeling better today and watched the episodes that have dropped.
Some thoughts are under the cut thing, so
I'm incredibly happy with pretty much everything, from the gleeful play with fanfic tropes (bearded Stede! the instant joyous reunion! merman Stede!) to the pitch-black darkness of a lot of the content. (I'm . . . bemused that something I put in one of my darkest stories--Ed taking out his rage on Izzy by amputating more bits whenever he's displeased--turned out to happen canonically.) Ed's been hurting not just the people on the ships he takes, and not just Izzy, but his whole crew too. And he's been full-on, relentlessly suicidal as well as abusive. (Speaking of suicidality: even though it turned out to be a fake out, the sound of that gunshot from Izzy's "suicide" truly shocked me. How do the rest of you read the later flashback where we see it? It looks to me like Izzy genuinely tried to shoot himself and failed. But also, because I have no doubt that Izzy's perfectly competent with a gun, his attempt was not whole-hearted.)
Lucius, whom most of us imagined stowed away in relative safety in the Revenge's hidden passageways, has been "passed from ship to ship." We know that some of the abuse he's suffered was sexualized (the "human puppet" thing) and the phrasing of "passed from ship to ship" can be read as implying systematic sexual assault, I think. I'd just as soon they didn't go into more detail about it, but I think it's good storytelling to have it acknowledged as a thing that happened (happens) to people.
I'm glad the show didn't delay Ed and Stede's reunion any longer, and I'm glad that it's been made extremely clear that the hard part is still in front of them. Ed has done terrible things, and both he and Stede have to learn to live with it. (The violence is considerably less muppet-y this season. At least for now, we're no longer in "a small bandage and a morning's nap will cure a gut wound" territory. Izzy has lost a leg, and Ed almost died. The massacre on board the wedding ship was . . . still muppety, but not played quite as much for laughs.)
The story direction with Oluwande and Jim is . . . interesting. The show's doing something quite grown-up here; either we're seeing a romance ending, or we're seeing one getting a bit complicated. In a way I think it parallels Ed and Stede: the fairy tale was last season, and now we've come to the hard stuff. I love that this is real, complicated, adult storytelling, and I'm also very glad that while I really like Oluwande/Jim, it was never hugely my ship.
Thinking of other ways we're seeing the characters and the story grow up: Stede rejecting the myth of the Gentleman Pirate and leaving Ricky (essentially his old self) to his well-deserved fate; Pete admitting he can't make the crossbow shot; the collapse of Ed's innkeeper fantasy. I'm sure there are others I'm not remembering.
The one thing I'm a little bit dubious about is, predictably, Izzy. He's come to a lot of self-knowledge if he can (furiously and half against his will) let himself cry in Fang's arms, or say the word "love" to Ed's face. I found the rage more plausible, like his bitter laughter when Ed tries to commit suicide-by-Izzy. On the other hand, given that Ed is the center of Izzy's life, I guess I can see Izzy having to think quite a bit about a lot of things when he sees Ed destroying himself. And Izzy's newfound concern for the crew is, I think, interpretable not so much as humanitarianism as Izzy's desire--which we've seen--for an efficient, well-run ship. He loves Ed, but he's been frustrated for years by Ed's failure at day-to-day management. Add to that his fury at seeing Ed self-destruct over Stede fucking Bonnet, and we do perhaps have a recipe for Izzy doing whatever he can to stop it in the name of protecting the crew.
Occasionally I think the show was a little too on the nose, too quick to spell things out that were perfectly clear already ("unhealthy relationship" or Ed's realization that he hates himself), but I guess you have to make sure the sort of viewers who are only half paying attention can also follow the story.
Overall: excellent stuff, can't wait for more.
ETA: Just thought of another cool thing I have to mention: the little cake toppers, which never get a single mention in the dialogue (thank you, show, for letting us do our own interpretation here). Ed making over the bride doll to look like himself will send the "Ed is trans feminine" crew wild--I'm not among them, but may they have fun. What I love, and what breaks my heart, is how the dolls first replaced Ed's red silk as representing his secret longing for a different life, and then shared the silk's fate, dropped into the sea.
Some thoughts are under the cut thing, so
beware spoilers.
I'm incredibly happy with pretty much everything, from the gleeful play with fanfic tropes (bearded Stede! the instant joyous reunion! merman Stede!) to the pitch-black darkness of a lot of the content. (I'm . . . bemused that something I put in one of my darkest stories--Ed taking out his rage on Izzy by amputating more bits whenever he's displeased--turned out to happen canonically.) Ed's been hurting not just the people on the ships he takes, and not just Izzy, but his whole crew too. And he's been full-on, relentlessly suicidal as well as abusive. (Speaking of suicidality: even though it turned out to be a fake out, the sound of that gunshot from Izzy's "suicide" truly shocked me. How do the rest of you read the later flashback where we see it? It looks to me like Izzy genuinely tried to shoot himself and failed. But also, because I have no doubt that Izzy's perfectly competent with a gun, his attempt was not whole-hearted.)
Lucius, whom most of us imagined stowed away in relative safety in the Revenge's hidden passageways, has been "passed from ship to ship." We know that some of the abuse he's suffered was sexualized (the "human puppet" thing) and the phrasing of "passed from ship to ship" can be read as implying systematic sexual assault, I think. I'd just as soon they didn't go into more detail about it, but I think it's good storytelling to have it acknowledged as a thing that happened (happens) to people.
I'm glad the show didn't delay Ed and Stede's reunion any longer, and I'm glad that it's been made extremely clear that the hard part is still in front of them. Ed has done terrible things, and both he and Stede have to learn to live with it. (The violence is considerably less muppet-y this season. At least for now, we're no longer in "a small bandage and a morning's nap will cure a gut wound" territory. Izzy has lost a leg, and Ed almost died. The massacre on board the wedding ship was . . . still muppety, but not played quite as much for laughs.)
The story direction with Oluwande and Jim is . . . interesting. The show's doing something quite grown-up here; either we're seeing a romance ending, or we're seeing one getting a bit complicated. In a way I think it parallels Ed and Stede: the fairy tale was last season, and now we've come to the hard stuff. I love that this is real, complicated, adult storytelling, and I'm also very glad that while I really like Oluwande/Jim, it was never hugely my ship.
Thinking of other ways we're seeing the characters and the story grow up: Stede rejecting the myth of the Gentleman Pirate and leaving Ricky (essentially his old self) to his well-deserved fate; Pete admitting he can't make the crossbow shot; the collapse of Ed's innkeeper fantasy. I'm sure there are others I'm not remembering.
The one thing I'm a little bit dubious about is, predictably, Izzy. He's come to a lot of self-knowledge if he can (furiously and half against his will) let himself cry in Fang's arms, or say the word "love" to Ed's face. I found the rage more plausible, like his bitter laughter when Ed tries to commit suicide-by-Izzy. On the other hand, given that Ed is the center of Izzy's life, I guess I can see Izzy having to think quite a bit about a lot of things when he sees Ed destroying himself. And Izzy's newfound concern for the crew is, I think, interpretable not so much as humanitarianism as Izzy's desire--which we've seen--for an efficient, well-run ship. He loves Ed, but he's been frustrated for years by Ed's failure at day-to-day management. Add to that his fury at seeing Ed self-destruct over Stede fucking Bonnet, and we do perhaps have a recipe for Izzy doing whatever he can to stop it in the name of protecting the crew.
Occasionally I think the show was a little too on the nose, too quick to spell things out that were perfectly clear already ("unhealthy relationship" or Ed's realization that he hates himself), but I guess you have to make sure the sort of viewers who are only half paying attention can also follow the story.
Overall: excellent stuff, can't wait for more.
ETA: Just thought of another cool thing I have to mention: the little cake toppers, which never get a single mention in the dialogue (thank you, show, for letting us do our own interpretation here). Ed making over the bride doll to look like himself will send the "Ed is trans feminine" crew wild--I'm not among them, but may they have fun. What I love, and what breaks my heart, is how the dolls first replaced Ed's red silk as representing his secret longing for a different life, and then shared the silk's fate, dropped into the sea.
