iamadequate1717

[iamadequate1717]

I moved on over here!

[iamadequate1717]

Moving off to @iamadequate1 since Tumblr is driving me nuts. I can't uncouple from the primary blog I made this under, so it's time for a fresh start!

[iamadequate1717]

What progress at home has biden enacted? What policies of his show that he is making progress that prove he is actually different than trump?

I like to pretend I have faith in humanity, so I'll answer as if you're asking this in good faith.

Biden's DEA has lifted restrictions on telehealth prescriptions to make appointments and assistance more accessible.

He put a funding package into place to help unhoused people get access to mental and physical healthcare, as well as short-term and long-term housing.

He has attempted and is still attempting to get student debt relief through - this was blocked by Republican judges appointed by Trump, but he's still working on it.

Infrastructure repair - his administration has budgeted funds to actually fix some severely-damaged and frequently-traveled bridges.

Trying to expand access to healthcare to include undocumented immigrants who came to the USA as children (Dreamers) under the Affordable Care Act. Support for Navigator programs and outreach has also been increased.

He has vetoed Republican-led bills that were attempting to overturn environmental protections - one that would have forbidden investment fund managers to consider climate change in their portfolios (I have two degrees in accounting and this is actually huge), and another that would have overturned restrictions on agricultural runoff into our waterways.

He and his administration worked for ages to get rail workers paid sick days.

This is just some of what he's been doing. Meanwhile, Trump and other Republicans want to criminalize the lives of LGBT people like you and me. They want to eliminate no-fault divorce and force births that will kill parents or devastate them financially. They have stated flat out that they want to install a military dictatorship in the USA. They attempted to put that in motion on January 6th, 2021. They failed once. They will do better next time.

One party wants to house the homeless and expand social safety nets, while the other one wants to criminalize homelessness. One of them wants a future in which I might be able to vote to change how much of a war machine my country is, while the other one wants to eliminate my ability to vote entirely. Those are not the same. Those literally are opposites.

At the end of the day, all you and I can do is choose to do the least amount of harm possible. You and I cannot choose to do no harm. This is the USA, we sell war, you and I cannot choose to do no harm. I wish we could, my god do I wish we could, but that is not an option. So we grieve for the harm we couldn't eliminate and work to minimize the harm that is done. Despite all the crap they support, Democrats are the minimum amount of harm right now. Acting like they aren't is exactly what brought us to an election where our options are a future where we are either wading in blood or drowning in it.

Not voting for Biden will not help Palestine. Not voting for Biden will guarantee a Republican president who will make the situation in Palestine WORSE. AND it'll hurt a lot of other places as well, both at home and abroad, because Republicans are about business and the USA is in the business of war! And I would very much like that to change someday! I would very much like to someday be able to choose to do no harm! And I know what I have to do to try for that future, so what are YOU going to do? There is no standing off to the side in this. If you aren't helping pull, you're the dead weight we're pulling. Are you going to dig your feet into the mud and blood and drown us there? Or are you going to get the fuck off your ass, grit your teeth, and help us pull free?

[iamadequate1717]

GOLDFISH

[iamadequate1717]

[iamadequate1717]

cunty stede fancam ✨

[iamadequate1717]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[iamadequate1717]

i feel like auntie has all the character appeal that i spent months trying to see in izzy hands but just couldn’t. she’s gruff, grumpy, shouty, would highly prefer to see shit get done, supremely competent, clever, diligent, loyal, stoic, cares deeply about her captain despite giving her a hard time every so often, WHERE IS AUNTIE CANYON.

[iamadequate1717]

God they were so horny for eachother

Same artwork, different lighting.

[iamadequate1717]

God they were so horny for eachother

Same artwork, different lighting.

[iamadequate1717]

Stop 😭

[iamadequate1717]

i will be autistic for a moment but living in a world where social expectations and standards are made by others and expected to be followed lest you be seen as a 'failed' person somehow when those standards are not based in personal happiness or autonomy or kindness to others makes me feel genuinely insane like daily

[iamadequate1717]

Does it bug anybody else how people seem to consider Ed and Stede to be old? I mean, they’re not kids, but Taika and Rhys are in their 40s. They aren’t ‘old men’. They’re at the beginning part of what most people would consider to be middle aged.

And maybe this is just a me thing, since I’m not that much younger than them, as I approach my 42nd birthday next week, but I’m not old. I mean, I’m not a kid, but I barely even feel like an adult most days.

And yes, I do know that for a pirate in those days, 48 or so would have been considered ancient. I know the real Blackbeard died in his mid to late 30s and Stede Bonnet at 30. But that’s reality, and OFMD is not supposed to resemble reality. If it did, it would be a very different show.

Anyway, I’m not having a go here, and maybe to younger fans they really do look like two decrepit, ancient, old men, or maybe people are just joking around, but more likely this just seems a bit like a byproduct of the film and TV industry’s obsession with youth. I think people are surprised (not in a bad way, just pleasantly surprised) to see people not in their 20s depicted as being in love, and having sex, and all those things that we’ve been indirectly told for years can only happen up to a certain age. And then to see it in a queer romance too, that just makes it stand out all the more, and compared to a lot of the other media people see, these characters do seem older. Because they are.

So I think what I’m saying isn’t, “Hey, stop calling them old!”, which I guess you’re welcome to do if you really must, it’s more something along the lines of, “It shouldn’t be unusual to see these kinds of relationships, and if it was more normalised then maybe people wouldn’t think they were old.”

But it’s also to remind people that calling them old perpetuates that idea that romance in your 40s and beyond is unusual, and that’s not a good thing to be telling people, even by accident.

[iamadequate1717]

Controversial opinion (?): the Kraken Era wasn’t all that dark.

There’s a whole lot of meta and fic out there that portray early season two Ed as a bloodthirsty, hyperviolent monster, and when that portrayal is challenged, the rebuttal is usually along the lines of, “I’m just doing what canon did. Did you even watch the show?”

I did watch the show, and honestly? I expected Ed to be so much worse than he was! When I see people say they didn’t think Ed did enough to redeem himself or that he went past the point of no return, I just… don’t understand.

I already went into this in my way-too-long meta about Ed and abuse, but I do think it bears repeating (in a shorter post) because it seems like Ed’s actions -- more than the actions of any other character -- are scrutinized and discussed outside of the context of, y’know… a comedy about pirates. There’s tons of casual violence in Our Flag Means Death. Sometimes the violence is even funny! 

So what does Ed actually do?

As far as I can remember (I’ve only seen season two a few of times, so correct me if I’ve missed something!), we see Ed directly harm someone twice in the first two episodes: first on the wedding boat, and then when he shoots Izzy in the leg. Kind of unimpressive numbers, yeah? Tbh, I'd expect more out of a heartbroken Blackbeard.

The first instance involves Ed shooting a man during a raid. That man has a sword through his chest before Ed fires, leading me to believe that Ed’s still following his season one pattern of keeping himself a step removed from murder (technically, the sword killed that guy). We also don’t see the murder happen; the man tumbles offscreen before Ed shoots. This makes the action less brutal. If the writers wanted us to be appalled by Ed’s violence, we would’ve gotten a graphic kill (or several).

And the second instance is Izzy. Ed shoots Izzy in the leg after he suggests that the shitty atmosphere is because of Ed’s feelings for Stede. Hot take, maybe, but I don’t think that was entirely out of line -- definitely not for a pirate captain whose first mate is acting out! Ed’s feelings for Stede are not the only problem; a significant chunk of the problem is Izzy. Izzy called in the navy and led to their capture and, more importantly, Izzy bullied Ed back into the Blackbeard persona. This is what Izzy said he wanted.

We’re also told that Ed has taken more of Izzy’s toes between seasons. This isn’t cool -- bosses definitely shouldn’t be asking for their employees’ toes -- but there is a precedent for it: in season one, Ed told Stede that he used to feed people their toes for a laugh (yuck). For a laugh. This, to me, implies that it’s not a huge deal. It’s certainly not completely unexpected pirate behavior, and it seems more lenient than, like, a keelhauling or a whipping. I think both of those things would've felt way more gruesome and dark.

As far as violent actions go, that’s not a lot. Like, numerically.

Things get darker in S2E2 when Ed becomes increasingly desperate for someone, anyone, to send him to doggy heaven. He’s unhinged and working his way up to a murder-suicide before he’s stopped, but he doesn’t lay a hand on anyone. He orders Archie and Jim to fight to the death. He ignores anonymous crewmembers as they’re swept overboard in the storm. This is bad! It’s self-destructive and selfish! But violent? Monstrous? I don’t really think so.

In my opinion, the worst thing Ed does is force his crew to do violence for him -- not because it’s violence (again, they’re pirates), but because the violence hurts them. THIS is what traumatizes them! Their trauma flashbacks are scenes of them hurting others, not of Ed hurting them directly. Ed didn’t physically torture his crew (with the exception of Izzy, and that’s complicated). His crime was driving them to do one violent raid after another, killing and plundering without any joy or theatrics. Ed feels trapped in the role of Blackbeard -- the role that he’s been desperate to escape -- and, in his heartbreak, he opts to trap his crew with him. 

Yeah, Ed is messed up in the first two episodes of season two. I don’t blame the crew for almost killing him; it’s what needed to be done. I think that Jim, Archie, Frenchie, and Fang had every right to want Ed gone after Stede’s return. 

But I don’t think that Ed was a super violent monster who tortured his crew and murdered his way through his breakup. He engages in very little onscreen violence, and the person that most of his violence is focused on -- Izzy -- is the same person who told him to be violent. I think that anyone who says that Ed’s actions in the first part of season two are extremely dark is either looking at them out of context, misremembering what actually happened and just recalling the dark tone, or working with some kind of motive.

In conclusion: Ed is a man who, at his very darkest, was still operating pretty firmly within the bounds of "stuff pirates do" (but not stuff Ed has historically done, presumably).

Also look at him. Thank you.

GIF by unearthlydust

[iamadequate1717]

Controversial opinion (?): the Kraken Era wasn’t all that dark.

There’s a whole lot of meta and fic out there that portray early season two Ed as a bloodthirsty, hyperviolent monster, and when that portrayal is challenged, the rebuttal is usually along the lines of, “I’m just doing what canon did. Did you even watch the show?”

I did watch the show, and honestly? I expected Ed to be so much worse than he was! When I see people say they didn’t think Ed did enough to redeem himself or that he went past the point of no return, I just… don’t understand.

I already went into this in my way-too-long meta about Ed and abuse, but I do think it bears repeating (in a shorter post) because it seems like Ed’s actions -- more than the actions of any other character -- are scrutinized and discussed outside of the context of, y’know… a comedy about pirates. There’s tons of casual violence in Our Flag Means Death. Sometimes the violence is even funny! 

So what does Ed actually do?

As far as I can remember (I’ve only seen season two a few of times, so correct me if I’ve missed something!), we see Ed directly harm someone twice in the first two episodes: first on the wedding boat, and then when he shoots Izzy in the leg. Kind of unimpressive numbers, yeah? Tbh, I'd expect more out of a heartbroken Blackbeard.

The first instance involves Ed shooting a man during a raid. That man has a sword through his chest before Ed fires, leading me to believe that Ed’s still following his season one pattern of keeping himself a step removed from murder (technically, the sword killed that guy). We also don’t see the murder happen; the man tumbles offscreen before Ed shoots. This makes the action less brutal. If the writers wanted us to be appalled by Ed’s violence, we would’ve gotten a graphic kill (or several).

And the second instance is Izzy. Ed shoots Izzy in the leg after he suggests that the shitty atmosphere is because of Ed’s feelings for Stede. Hot take, maybe, but I don’t think that was entirely out of line -- definitely not for a pirate captain whose first mate is acting out! Ed’s feelings for Stede are not the only problem; a significant chunk of the problem is Izzy. Izzy called in the navy and led to their capture and, more importantly, Izzy bullied Ed back into the Blackbeard persona. This is what Izzy said he wanted.

We’re also told that Ed has taken more of Izzy’s toes between seasons. This isn’t cool -- bosses definitely shouldn’t be asking for their employees’ toes -- but there is a precedent for it: in season one, Ed told Stede that he used to feed people their toes for a laugh (yuck). For a laugh. This, to me, implies that it’s not a huge deal. It’s certainly not completely unexpected pirate behavior, and it seems more lenient than, like, a keelhauling or a whipping. I think both of those things would've felt way more gruesome and dark.

As far as violent actions go, that’s not a lot. Like, numerically.

Things get darker in S2E2 when Ed becomes increasingly desperate for someone, anyone, to send him to doggy heaven. He’s unhinged and working his way up to a murder-suicide before he’s stopped, but he doesn’t lay a hand on anyone. He orders Archie and Jim to fight to the death. He ignores anonymous crewmembers as they’re swept overboard in the storm. This is bad! It’s self-destructive and selfish! But violent? Monstrous? I don’t really think so.

In my opinion, the worst thing Ed does is force his crew to do violence for him -- not because it’s violence (again, they’re pirates), but because the violence hurts them. THIS is what traumatizes them! Their trauma flashbacks are scenes of them hurting others, not of Ed hurting them directly. Ed didn’t physically torture his crew (with the exception of Izzy, and that’s complicated). His crime was driving them to do one violent raid after another, killing and plundering without any joy or theatrics. Ed feels trapped in the role of Blackbeard -- the role that he’s been desperate to escape -- and, in his heartbreak, he opts to trap his crew with him. 

Yeah, Ed is messed up in the first two episodes of season two. I don’t blame the crew for almost killing him; it’s what needed to be done. I think that Jim, Archie, Frenchie, and Fang had every right to want Ed gone after Stede’s return. 

But I don’t think that Ed was a super violent monster who tortured his crew and murdered his way through his breakup. He engages in very little onscreen violence, and the person that most of his violence is focused on -- Izzy -- is the same person who told him to be violent. I think that anyone who says that Ed’s actions in the first part of season two are extremely dark is either looking at them out of context, misremembering what actually happened and just recalling the dark tone, or working with some kind of motive.

In conclusion: Ed is a man who, at his very darkest, was still operating pretty firmly within the bounds of "stuff pirates do" (but not stuff Ed has historically done, presumably).

Also look at him. Thank you.

GIF by unearthlydust

[iamadequate1717]

GENTLEBEARD LOVE-MAKING

Completely self indulgent thoughts here and going to ignore the fact that you cannot and should not attach your entire well-being to one person but oh my god how Ed got to have sex with his beloved Stede Fucking Bonnet...

I mean yeah shit timing and this is still kinda the proverbial honeymoon stage, but jeezus this isn't just some tumble with a fling that Ed's probably had dozens of times (or a familial obligation like Stede's had to fulfill in the past), this is some goddamn love-making with someone Ed truly desires and loves, and who adores him just as much.

Stede doesn't even have to touch Ed to make him feel good...

Like, just the sound of Stede's voice is enough to bring Ed back from the grave(y basket)...

This is a person Ed wants to protect...

...and who wants to protect him.

Ed was constantly giving Stede those sweet shoulder pats in the first season (plus that frickin foot touch), like he was blatantly advertising his wish for physical contact with him.

Now Stede has the emotional freedom to reciprocate, and he treats Ed with such tenderness and respect even when the desire for him is overwhelming.

I mean, look at the switch here - how Stede roughly grabs Ed, slams him against the wall and then immediately becomes so gentle cradling his head like that, like Edward Teach is the most precious thing in the world.

Ed holds onto Stede tight here, but by god does he also want to treat his sweetheart just as tenderly...

Even without the sex part, just thinking of they way these two touch each other -- or how they want to touch each other -- is so sweet and sexy.

Fuck, lookit Ed...

He is literally trying to get as close to Stede as he can here within the boundaries he's just set. He's caressing that hand like "These beautiful fingers clasped in mine belong to the person who gives me butterflies in my stomach and brings light into my life." As innocent as it is, he wants that touch. And it's there, he is right there.

From Ed's point of view, Stede is the one who plays games with him.

He calms him down.

He gives him comfort.

He defends him.

He avenges him.

He loves him. Everything about him, beyond just the physical.

This outrageous, ridiculous, bizarre man makes the dread pirate Blackbeard, scourge of the seven seas...

...go all him...

And this guy can cut Ed's heart to shreds, but Ed still misses him like hell.

Stede can be Ed's despair...

...but he's also his hope...

...his happiness...

...his joy...

All of that and more wrapped up in a tangible warmth that Ed can cherish, kiss, hold close, and in return be cherish, kissed and held close.

So yeah that sex/love-making must have been absolutely mind-blowing even if they probably were fumbling around awkwardly in the dark for a while. Anyone looking for some awesome, hot fics of that scene, highly recommend this and this by darkshrimpemotions (jujubiest)

#ofmd #our flag means death #gentlebeard #blackbonnet

[iamadequate1717]

I love knowing that there were so many moments we didn’t see.

Ed helped Stede to dress in his outfit. Stede commissioned a cake for Ed and they ate the whole thing together. They dangled their legs off the ship and talked and talked. They had lots more sword fighting lessons than we saw. Stede took Ed to his cabin and tended his wounds.

Ed loved taking baths in Stede’s tub. He probably went through every drawer and sniffed every soap. They ate breakfast together in the mornings. Stede started pouring Ed’s tea for him. Ed seems to have been sleeping in Stede’s room, when did it start? They drank brandy alone together in the evenings and giggled and looked into each other’s eyes.

Stede pleaded with the crew to let Ed come back home. He helped him climb onto the ship and made him sleep in his cabin. He sat down and wrote a “sorry” speech for Ed. They rehearsed it together. He probably (very gently) put that collar around Ed’s neck. They hold hands and walk back to their room together. Stede gets the crew to move all of the treasure to the guilt room. He takes the burden off Ed and wants to make him feel better (plus some it it was quite ugly). They go shopping together and Ed buys Stede a new blue shirt. They pick up a soft warm robe from somewhere and share it. They spend a long time alone somewhere on the ship while the crew steal the tub.

Stede takes Ed’s jacket off. Ed’s hair comes down. Ed pulls Stede’s shirt off. Stede closes the curtains and takes off his rings. Ed wakes up early and decides to make breakfast. They get dressed together that morning. They flirt and kiss the whole time. Ed asks his boyfriend to come on a lunch date.

They talk about their future together. Ed tells Stede he wants to be an innkeeper. Stede tells him that’s he’s all in this time and that he will do it with him. They talk and kiss and hold hands and walk into their new home together. 💕