EmmTm

the entire ofmd fandom rn

Although some people act like they never read a book as a youngling where their favorite character died and they had to process it on their own. The anger toward the writers is out of pocket. This show has so much representation and has healed things in me I didn't even know were broken. There is nothing homophobic or ableist about this ending at all. Just because you can reach the writers via social media doesn't mean you should. Take time to process the loss on your own.

- I still love this show

- they did not use the “bury your gays” trope so stop saying they did

- I trust the writers and the actors

- they deserved more time to flesh things out

- they did the best they could with what they were given

- OBVIOUSLY I wish Izzy had a different ending! I’m devastated that this is where they took his story, but Con did an incredible job this season and I’m sick of seeing people lash out

I feel so stupid for getting so involved in this silly queer pirate show and actually thinking that hey, maybe there's some media that shows Traumatised Gays that isn't focused on their trauma but which actually shows them healing and moving forward and being loved and actually gives them a happy fucking ending.

I feel stupid for letting myself believe that this show would be different. I feel stupid for not just trusting the creators, but trusting them so much i let go of all my usual wariness and dived headfirst into it thinking that they'd give me something beautiful.

but fuck that. I genuinely believed this show was better than that. couldn't even appreciate con's fantastic acting because I was so caught off guard that they'd actually do that.

I. fuck.

yeah, my enthusiasm for one of my favorite series has drained away in one swoop. because they thought it was right to give a suicidal queer man joy and acceptance for the first time in his life and then fucking kill him to motivate the fucker he destroyed himself for.

They are both grown-ass men who've had sex with other people before (for various reasons and with various results). The seriousness of their relationship doesn't rise or fall on whether they've had sex because despite social mores, those two things aren't intrinsically linked. Sex is part of how people process complicated feelings all the time (see: funerals, near-death situations), and if both parties are clearly consenting then that isn't necessarily a bad thing or something that ruins a relationship.

Ed wakes up and gets rid of a tangible part of a persona he's wanted to shed for a long time. He makes his lover breakfast in bed. He's not rattled by Izzy coming in to tease them, if anything he's calmer than Stede is (which makes sense as the partner who has actually been with a man/had sex he enjoyed before).

They have a very happy date where Stede's new celebrity status doesn't bother him at all. Ed getting rid of the Blackbeard leathers 'felt good.' More gentle ribbing about sex with Stede gets a smile from Ed.

(They could have chosen to talk about Ned Lowe that morning, by the way, or at some other time that day, or literally whenever they both felt ready to do it. I don't think they did and I think they really should, but they by no means had to process every bit of it five whole seconds after it happened.)

There is no awkwardness, distance, or upset between Ed and Stede until it becomes clear just how much Stede is blowing up as a newly successful pirate, and just how much Ed is thinking about retiring. His conversation with Jackie highlights just how much those are incongruous things. That's when he freaks out and leaves. That's when he starts picking a fight - about how they're moving too fast, about how Stede isn't instantly supportive of his plan to drop everything and run off to a new career, about how fishermen and pirates are fundamentally different or whatever shit he says in the moment.

Because Stede is 100% correct about what Ed is doing - he's blowing it up. Ed is looking for the barest hint of conflict anywhere he can to turn into a bigger fight, and then using that as an excuse to leave before Stede can do it first. And Stede may think that's a fear of commitment or intimacy or something, since he doesn't have the full context, but it absolutely is a cowardly move.

I've seen posts saying Ed is clearly communicating his needs and I feel like I'm living on another planet. Did he ever say 'I'm scared we want fundamentally different lives and that means we can't be together'? Or 'I'm worried the life you want to embrace is the life I need to drop, because it's toxic for me'? Because until he says that, he hasn't told Stede anything.