#ofmd 2x4 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

follows-the-bees · 6 months

Text

2x4 Filmmaking Analysis

Breakdown of the 'love confession" scene in "Fun and Games."

This scene means so much to me and I've avoided breaking it down for a while, but it's time! Be still, my heart.

The set and lighting is soft and romantic. They are surrounded by neutral colors: browns, reds, and yellows, which also match their clothing. The blanket Ed hides under is cream with only hints of dark grey/black, reflecting the light and love Stede is about to surround him with.

The scene starts with Ed lying down, the large room behind him. He is curled toward the back of the couch, and just like the pillow fort and tub, this shuts out the world, offering a cocoon of comfort.

Stede walks into the room but he doesn't remain standing, above Ed. He sits down to be level with him, facing him but on the table, because he isn't trying to invade his space.

They stay in this two shot, showing that this is about them, as Stede softly speaks to Ed. Ed doesn't come out of the blanket until he starts to tell his opinion "fair!?" And he sits up further as he evens out the conversation. He rises completely, and his voice is the loudest as he yells at Stede about "it was supposed to hurt."

Stede diffuses the situation with a quiet "alright," which immediately quiets Ed, and he turns his body to plant his feet on the floor.

Stede isn't afraid to call Ed out/correct assumptions. First with the head butt and then the whim comment. It puts them on equal footing at this point (literally and figuratively) and their clothes also reflect this. Ed's top half is his black leathers, with the light tan blanket while Stede is wearing a tan shirt and dark pants.

A small candle is lit between them in the background. Lights have been used in both seasons to represent them finding each other, being the light for each other in the darkness.

Stede doesn't move over to sit next to Ed until this equal footing. He has been waiting months to tell Ed the truth, to tell him how he feels. And he doesn't hesitate here. Sitting next to Ed, turned toward him, but not touching, not invading his space. Just like MerStede, real life Stede never invades Ed's space, tries to persuade him with touch, or does anything without his consent.

The nice part of this conversation is that it doesn't come across as rehearsed. He starts to tell his side of the story and bounces off the whim-prone comment from Ed. And Ed responds about being "all in." He stays facing forward, not yet looking at Stede since he sat down next to Ed.

Ed turns slightly to Stede when the comment of the beard comes up. This is once again a miscommunication between them. Ed thinks shaving off the beard represents Stede not liking Ed for Ed, but rather for Blackbeard. But Stede corrects him, saying he likes his chin and beard at any length. AKA, he likes Ed for Ed, not for Blackbeard. This is the point when Ed starts to soften and look toward Stede.

The small candle between them appears closer in the shots with Ed in the foreground and Stede in the background. It often "touches" Ed's face, and shines bright like Stede's love for Ed right now.

The scene then takes a turn for the romantic as the song Träumerei starts to play. Ed cuts off Stede after "I love" because he isn't ready to hear I love you yet from him. But he still turns his head to look at Stede.

Stede immediately stops talking and reconsiders what he wants to say. He only proclaims "I love everything about you," once Ed turns and looks at him again, giving a silent continue. And he tells Ed "you don't have to say it back to me." He knows Ed isn't ready for that. And he isn't asking for that.

Ed responds with "I'm not about to" but immediately turns toward Stede, and not in a challenging way like I dare you to get mad, but a soft one that is accessing. Stede responds by looking down, once again considering his words. When he looks up, Ed turns his head and looks at him, so Stede continues his praises. "I love being near you. It's nice. Feels good. Breathing the same air."

Ed doesn't turn away the entire time Stede makes his speech, letting the words sink in, and after, he fully makes eye contact with Stede, smiling at him for the first time since they reunited.

This moment isn't about the both of them professing their love for each other, but it is about them talking, getting on equal footing again, and more importantly Stede being able to tell Ed he loves him. Stede is the one who left, and he is finally getting the chance to explain, to tell Ed how he feels about him.

Ed, on the other hand, gets to hear those words. Learns that it isn't just the Blackbeard persona Stede fell in love with, but rather "I love your chin, naked or otherwise."

This is a wonderful first step to them reconciling. They express so much not only in words, but in body language. Each time Ed turns and looks at Stede, he's giving him consent to keep talking, and Stede responds to this, only talking when given permission. They are attune to each other's every movement.

This whole scene is soft and intimate. There aren't any fancy camera movements. They start with both in frame, cut to single shots while they lightly disagree, and the rest of the scene cuts between two medium shots with both in frame, showing the positive progression of their stance together. The shots are also static since they are on land and don't have to worry about the movement of the ocean.

The quietness of the scene adds to the romance: only their song, the clocks ticking, and their voices can be heard. The softness of Stede's voice draws you in, makes you want to hear everything he wants to say, and just like Ed, the audience is hanging off of every word.

I love this scene and the filmmaking and acting, all parts of production make it the perfect unconventional yet character appropriate love confession.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #stede bonnet #ofmd stede #ofmd edward teach #gentlebeard #blackbeard x stede #blackbonnet #ofmd season two meta analysis #ofmd meta #taika waititi #rhys darby #fun and games #ofmd 2x4

392 notes · View notes

cat-hesarose · 7 months

Text

Steddyhands announcement, clown noses at the ready

"Unicorn" is slang for a third party who joins an existing relationship.

#ofmd #our flag means death #izzy hands #stede bonnet #edward teach #steddyhands #you can't stop me #and even if you could i'd just start again the second you rip off the duct tape #ofmd s2 #ofmd 2x4

152 notes · View notes

luciuscodedswedeboy · 6 months

Text

Buttons transmogrifying into a seagull and knowing the exact procedure to do it implies that Karl and Olivia were also actual people that transmogrified & maybe knew Buttons before

#just breaking my own heart in various new ways forever 🫠#nathaniel buttons #buttons ofmd #karl ofmd #olivia ofmd #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd 2x4 #our flag means death #ofmd

70 notes · View notes

livelovecaliforniadreams · 7 months

Text

#He's In Love

2K notes · View notes

khruschevshoe · 5 months

Text

OFMD Critique: Finales, Writing Backwards, and the Importance of Building Relationships

Continuing on the rambling meta bc it turns out there are a couple of people that responded well to my initial thoughts...

Am I the only one that felt like the OFMD Season 2 finale suffered from the exact same problem as the Game of Thrones or the How I Met Your Mother Season finales? Well, not exactly the same, but lemme explain.

The treatment of Izzy Hands in Season 2 of OFMD feels like when they sat down to write this season, they wrote his death scene first (for whatever reasons that might be, though likely for the sake of Ed's arc- we're not going to address my feelings on THAT rn), THEN backfilled his arc for the rest of the season based on that, but then didn't rewrite his death scene to address the stuff that organically happened when writing the rest of the season.

Like, for example, I've seen plenty of people point out that the deathbed apology from Izzy to Ed doesn't really work (I fed your darkness) both in regards to the sheer imbalance of damage shown onscreen between Ed and Izzy, but also doesn't work as a "putting Blackbeard behind us" scene when Izzy figuratively (and literally, if you count him as part of the group with the cannonball) killed his half of Blackbeard in the storm scene in 2x2, with whatever parts lingering in him killed with the unicorn scene in 2x4. After this point, his arc and his focus has very, very little to do with Blackbeard or hell, Ed in general besides the couple of comments made to Ed and Stede that cement that Izzy is happy that Ed moved on and found someone that makes him happy.

Izzy's arc has left Blackbeard behind already. He has already hit the emotional beat that the finale wants to retread.

And then the other part of his deathbed comments to Ed- "the crew loves you, Ed"- makes no sense from the Ed side of things. The show built up an arc for Izzy that would make people care when he died, but that arc was literally about the crew literally putting aside their differences/fear/distrust of each other to help, support, and accept Izzy as their figurehead, their protector, their friend, their recovery, their family, their (insert positive symbolism/metaphor for all of the VARIOUS implied flirtations here).

What did they have with Ed? Other than his moments with Stede and Fang, what relationships were built up before Izzy's death? Calypso's birthday included no scenes of the crew interacting with Ed other than the short Archie/Ed/Stede convo at the beginning. We get none of him talking to them when prepping for the party. He spends 2x7 and 2x8 with Stede, only having scenes with Stede, never building anything with the crew.

THE LAST SUBSTANTIAL INTERACTION ED HAS WITH THE CREW BEFORE IZZY DIES IS THE "INFLUENCER APOLOGY" IN 2X5 (other than with Fang in the boat). Holy shit, I didn't even realize that until I got to this point in the meta. I had realized that something felt wrong/off about the "the crew loves you line," but I thought that it was because 2x1-2x3 cast such a long shadow on the rest of the season that it was impossible to escape. No, there were cracks in the back half of the season as well.

All of which is to say: if you have to kill Izzy (which you really, really don't, btw, it makes little sense in a show where pretty much every character has survived a near death experience with nary a scratch, but for the sake of hypothetical), there is a way you can pull it off: you have the crew at Izzy's side as he dies instead of Ed. You have their relationship with Izzy at the forefront, because their relationship is the one that matters at this point in the narrative. You have Izzy die trying to save one of them, not by random gunshot.

And then after Izzy dies, you finally give the crew their agency back. You let Izzy's death be the last straw in THEIR arcs. You let them tell Ed that they cannot allow him to stay on the ship after everything. You let them tell him that they are putting their foot down, and he can go retire if he wants, but they will not let him destroy this crew anymore.

(Or, you know, you can have all of that with a death SCARE instead of an actual death, and allow Izzy to sail off into the sunset as a first mate instead of as a dead body. Because that would suit the tone of the show and the story better.)

But I have the feeling that point B (Izzy dying/his death scene) was the thing that was decided on first, and so the budget crunch/other factors may have led the writers into making the same mistake as so many before them have: writing point A out organically, and then failing to change Point B when it no longer fit the story they had written.

#izzy hands #ofmd critical #2x08 mermen #ofmd 2x08 #ed teach critical #meta #fix it #kind of #analysis #i know I'm rambling #calypsos birthday #we really ahould have taken the “red flags” episode title more seriously #ofmd meta

166 notes · View notes

iamadequate1717 · 6 months

Text

The Breakups

Stede and Ed have three breakups under their belt right now: Ed initiated two of them, and Stede is currently getting blame for one of those. The finale is releasing tomorrow, so hopefully this turns into a moot point, but I'm defending Stede anyway!

Part 2: The Breakups

Note that Part 1 is here:

This 2x7 breakup is likely to be over in 2x8 (.... I say less than 24 hours to the premier and trying to act like I'm a prophet...), and with rule of three, I'm going to say that's going to be their last one. Any more Will-They-Or-Won't-They would be tedious, especially since at that point, we'd be at about one-third of the series with them "broken up," and they need to start communicating as a couple already, but this oscillation is what makes OFMD unique isn't it?

Their breakups are about them as characters: the first time, Ed leaves with Calico Jack; Ed realizes his devotion to Stede but Stede has his fears confirmed... which rolls into the second breakup (Stede doesn't have those fears resolved early enough, and Ed feels like a discarded plaything), which rolls into the third. They need to address the fears and insecurities together and not spiral out on their own. I'm guessing (and using what HBO has shown us) that Ed gets his assurances early, and hopefully, we can put an end to this internal catastrophizing so they can face the world together.

Love, the emotion, may be easy, just like breathing, but a couple is still two people with different experiences and different needs, but real life relationships take work (...I say as a happy single person...). Romcoms end with the First Kiss, fanfics end with the First Sex, but OFMD seems to be carrying us through the growing pains of the relationship. Happily Ever After isn't a magical state that is achieved once you tell each other that you love the other, but so many pieces of media treat that as the end, but OFMD is treating it as a middle. Often times, it feels like the couple is just playing musical chairs, and if they're a couple when time runs out, they're going to be a couple forever!

In S2 speculation, it was not infrequent that people were imagining that the S2 cliffhanger would be Ed and Stede laying eyes on each other for the first time with a fade to black. That isn't interesting. We don't want these two to run out the clock.

But I want to look at the breakups specifically. Let's look at 2x7. Spanish Jackie lays down the truth to Ed, but he doesn't seem to latch onto the big point: does Stede know that this regular guy, no more pirate, part isn't a phase?

"He said at the academy..." Stede was dealing with other things, and from what he saw, Ed went back to piracy. To be fair also, the Revenge doesn't do much piracy itself, so Stede hasn't seen Ed's dissatisfaction first hand. A lot of audience anger toward Stede is an audience who saw the environment 2x1 and 2x2, who saw Ed in the gravy basket, who saw Ed's bored asides with Izzy. They're treating Stede as a member of the audience rather than as a character within the story. Stede didn't see any of this. Most of his interactions with Ed was cutesy fluff. Stede knows he likes being near Ed, but they haven't spent much time talking about deeper topics.

On what Ed does with the breakup in 2x7, I'm bringing up this line from 2x4, when they briefly spoke like adults:

Ed shutting down the conversation and not letting Stede give explanations isn't fair to Stede, but it continued with the third breakup: in 2x7, Ed leaves Stede with some emotional whiplash. Stede was just having one of the best days of his life and was met with an Ed who refused to explain what was going on. When you look at what just Stede saw, it was utterly baffling! My post on that:

And then Stede insulted Ed's fish, thereby making him History's Greatest Monster, amiright?

Ed basically screams that fishermen and pirates are so different, it would be like if a mermaid and a bird tried to have a marriage. It's a self fulfilling prophecy at that point: cut Stede out completely so they have no chance to grow their lives with room for the romantic relationship. (And really, for those criticizing Stede, how do you respond correctly off the cuff to a random statement like that?)

This is devastating: Stede has completely cut himself out of his old life. He left Barbados for Ed, not for piracy. He laid out his feelings, and he made himself vulnerable to Ed. Just hours after being intimate for the first time, he's coldly told it was a mistake, and his sad face at that statement:

He doesn't run off in tears to have a breakdown like I would! He instead is reasonable with Ed: they can define their relationship however they want, but Ed cuts off any possibility of any relationship.

Stede does not know what's going on. I'm really confused what people who are "so mad!" at Stede here would expect of him, provided they only know what Stede knows in universe. Stede just wants to talk and work on their relationship together. Ed wants to start a new career, and more specifically, a life completely separate from Stede.

No, Stede doesn't respond to that pirate line, but he gave the immediate response to the part he cared about more (and likely replayed the conversation over and over in his head later with improved responses, as we do).

Stede does not run after Ed here, but why would he? He's told the audience directly that he thinks Ed is better off without him.

Lucius tells him, "Maybe the time he spent with you is the best it's ever going to get for him," and again, Stede directly tells the audience that he doesn't believe that.

This is not a man with high self esteem. Remember him being ready to be executed and being told he's the worst pirate captain ever? He thought that was fair.

Ed cuts off their relationship, and Stede thinks he deserves that, that Ed realized he was better off without Stede. So Stede lets him go.

On their breakups, the first one was short (Ed's back the same episode!), but the second happened at a season break so there was more time for fandom speculation. We all saw the theories, and a too common thread was "Will Ed forgive Stede??", and we saw the speculation that Stede should prostrate himself before Ed and beg for forgiveness, no matter how long it took. It simplifies the narrative, but is that the show we're watching and is that fair to Stede?

Stede instantly forgave Ed after choosing Calico Jack over him in front of everyone; the second breakup was longer and they had more time to do the whole negative self talk thing, but Stede still did deserve more grace, didn't he? With Season 2 (and its truncated run time!), we saw the criticisms that Ed forgave Stede too easily, but did he? They're on friendly terms, but there is still a wall.

See Ed's time in the Gravy Basket. The first three episodes were the Soup Show. It symbolized family or warmth or whatever (...I say as a robot who doesn't understand human feelings...), so it's a standout that Ed calling the soup poison is his feelings about accepting that warm domesticity, not something literal about Hornigold. He opened himself up to someone, and all he got was heartbreak and confirmation he was unlovable (and he was too scared to do anything about it).

And this is followed almost immediately by the baller line about a man being brought down in the place where he had definitely chosen Stede for the first time.

In the Gravy Basket, we had the metaphor on the feet (no shoes = death, shoes = life... there is good meta running around, but I'm too lazy to find it). Ed gains one shoe (putting him between life and death) when Stede starts to be led to his body, and Stede brings life to him (shoe shot!).

Stede is an anchor to life at this low point, but that doesn't mean that Ed completely forgives.

In Season 2, we don't have the Gloves as Metaphor with Ed anymore (half gloves when he meets Stede, no gloves at the academy, full gloves when he goes full kraken), but he still has other cues on how his feeling about Stede. We don't have the casual touches of Season 1, and everything feels "off." We're lacking in the tenderness, and Ed still is keeping his distance.

Ed and Stede have held hands this season, but not in a romantic way.

When we get to the romance, Ed doesn't put his hands on Stede's skin/hair like Stede does for him (production stills don't count!). In the third kiss, he pushes Stede's collar up as a barrier.

With what the audience was invited in for their love scene, Stede is visually more exposed and ready, and Ed is more distanced and closed off (that is NOT to say that Ed wasn't into it...).

Everything is close to what it should be, but it's not the perfect expression of love exploding across the screen. Something's off. The audience can pick up on it, and Stede, our autistic king, may subconsciously feeling it, but he is taking a lot of it at face value. (They slept together! They're a couple and an unbroken team now!)

On The Sex, is this the first time that Stede has received (verbal) concerns about his welfare in the series? He was told he was a monster, a plague, a defiler of beautiful things, and he's just been trying to live his life with no one refuting that even in a small way.

Sure, Ed said his fake heads idea didn't suck.

Sure... uh.... Ed said he wasn't a girl?

He gets some affirmation, they do something to help them feel alive almost losing each other, and he's intimate for the first time with the man he loves. Everything is going great! But everything instantly flips 180 degrees a few hours later. He's been holding it together well most of the season, even after thinking that Ed is literally dead, and y'all shouldn't judge him for a few mildly harsh words said without thinking. He feels foolish and used and heartbroken, and his bad day has just begun.

I hope I can get some thoughts up on the last part of 2x7 before the finale, but until then, here's some bonus sad face Stede during their first breakup, where Ed broke up with him in front of everyone! Everyone saw it! ("Never left" psh, likely story.)

How can you not be sad when he's sad??

We'll see what the finale does with them soon. Overall, I'm happy so far with Ed/Stede in Season 2. The rest of it... eh, Lucius/Pete is my happy spot. I'm hoping we get a good Ed/Stede payoff in the finale, and that we get to see more of their growth as a couple in Season 3 (manifesting!). It's rare that a show/movie/book/etc focused on just a romance sticks with the couple after that "finally together!" spot, and I want to see what this writing team does with that settled romance.

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #stede bonnet #stede defense #stede did nothing wrong #blackbonnet #gentlebeard

65 notes · View notes

hugesigh · 3 months

Note

OFMD for the game!

yay!!

favorite male character:

Ed, gotta be one of my favorite genders.

favorite female character:

Spanish Jackie bc she means everything to me.

least favorite character:

the badminton’s, in a ‘wow i love how awful they are’ way. like whenever i watch through i’m like ‘this actor has seeming insufferable down to a science, 5 stars’

prettiest character:

jim, respectfully vico has the only face

funniest character:

choosing roach bc his jokes r underrated, i think about ‘how does it kiss’ every day, also his reaction to someone getting kicked off the ship consistently being sandwiches is hilarious

favorite season:

Season one just barely? I like that they had more episodes to do filler stuff with

favorite episode:

2x4, obsessed w/ Ed when he’s pissed off and also Minnie Driver is in her element here, oh and i love that Ed can’t smoke weed it’s perfect

favorite romantic ship:

gentlebeard, i’m a simple man

favorite family ship:

Not a lot of options but obviously Zheng and Auntie, btw my favorite line read of season 2 is “good… job. I am- proud, of, you.” stunning, wouldn’t change a thing

favorite friend ship:

ed’s kraken era crew, bless the trauma bonded gang

worst ship:

anyone with Jack bc i’ve yet to see an option where the other person couldn’t do better lmao

#thank u 😌

0 notes

bizarrelittlemew · 6 months

Text

ofmd x tumblr

#ofmd tumblr text posts #incorrect quotes #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd #ofmd gifs #tumblr screenshot #ofmd 2x4 #our flag means death #ofmd x tumblr #i am putting wayyy to much work into these but at least i'm having fun <3 #s2 is so dark i have to recolor my ancient screenshots #been holding onto the last one for a year thinking “hm this has ed energy but there's no fitting clip in s1” AND THEN S2 FUCKING DELIVERED #ofmd crack

5K notes · View notes

pearlswine · 7 months

Text

New ofmd is so fucking good oh my god. I was giggling the whole time during 2x4

1 note · View note

follows-the-bees · 2 months

Text

I ended up writing a ton more OFMD meta posts than I thought. And for the sake of my own sanity, I made a master post of all of them.

Filmmaking Meta

How cinematography, blocking, and camerawork in S2 eps 6&7 show Ed's and Stede's emotions

Sound design in 2x3 MerStede scene

Full filmmaking breakdown of 2x3 MerStede scene

Scene that captures the thesis of the show

Filmmaking, camerawork, framing, in 2x1

Breakdown of love "confession" scene in 2x4

Progression of the candle light getting closer to Ed in 2x4

The contrast of sounds used in the bathtub scene

The use of greenery in negative space in 1x7: This Is Happening (Part One of Negative Space Series)

How center-framed shots of Ed's back show his emotional state and isolation (Part Two of Negative Space Series)

How negative space shows Ed a hopeful future (Part 2.5 of Negative Space Series)

Negative space shows Ed's isolation after shuffling on the Blackbeard/Kraken role. (Part 2.5.5 of Negative Space Series)

The camerawork, cinematography, and blocking during Blackbeard and Frenchie's "impossible bird" conversation at the end of 2x1.

How the camerawork used in 2x2 Red Flags shows the power dynamic and tension between Blackbeard and Frenchie.

The contrast of having these two shots (2x1 and 2x5) set in the exact same place.

Wild West/Western theme used with the original Blackbeard crew

Wild West theme coming back when Ed is The Kraken

More Western tropes that I found

Buttons as a conduit of death/purgatory

Ed and Stede jumping into the water for each other

2x3 and 2x8 Ed and water parallels

Light motifs show hope and love

Green lighting used in 1x6

Ed and Stede wedding cake toppers

Light motif during the lighthouse scene in 1x4

Mirror shots

Izzy's lighting in jail

1x8 and 1x10 depression era robe

Fanfiction Meta

Stede's costume color in S2

Face touching and Ed's outfits meaning

Character Meta

Ed hiding his heart: the silk and cake topper

The crew voting to let Ed back on the Revenge

Stede heals the tattoos Ed puts on his body to get over/integrate his fears/image

Jim's transformation in Calypso's Birthday

Archie's role in the narrative

Ed not really wanting to die in the grav(e)y basket

Stede touches Ed's elbow and back of head cause he knows it's safe

Ed touching Stede's chest

Frenchie's and Ed's instant friendship

Ed and Frenchie have similar coping mechanisms

Discomfort in a Married State

Doggy Heaven line

Izzy taking the blame for the painting

Ed hiding his heart (silk, wedding cake toppers)

Stede character study

Stede Bunnet Symbolism

Choice of saying us not me

Ed's trauma response

Stede going quiet when grieving

Non-Meta

Stede is a cutie patootie

Ed's introduction

Comedic actors can't pull off drama

Small moments in PB scene

Jim as Peter Pan

Edward Teach, born on a beach

Song Lyrics

All Shades of Blue

The Stable Song

Dark, Dark, Dark

Southern Star

Second Chances

Swallowed in the Sea

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #masterpost #ofmd meta #meta analysis #cinematography #ofmd stede bonnet #ed teach #izzy hands meta

35 notes · View notes