OFMD fix-it comic Part 1

Finally finished part 1 of this behemoth! A take on ed and stede’s possible confrontation in season 2! Part 2 is in the works where they talk it through. Enjoy!

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maybe in a way…you never left.

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Why Isn't There a Poll Option?? (Some Unofficial Fic Polls)

FRIENDS i can't insert a poll here because we still don't have that option for some reason (and also because i refuse to create an account on a polling site just to get an embed link) so i'm just gonna link to these twitter polls

(if you don't wanna go on twitter you can cast a vote in the replies! or DM me! or like. reblog with your opinion? look i don't know your life, just follow your heart and chase your bliss here.*)

Reasons not to be a lighthouse

So, I want to talk about the lighthouse, and what it means for Stede to be the lighthouse.

I’ve seen fanart that frames the lighthouse/kraken imagery in a light vs dark, oppositional way. Like Stede is a light that needs to rescue Ed from the dark. And jarring with that use of the imagery made me realise that I see these symbols completely differently, not in opposition but in parallel. To me it follows that if the kraken is Ed at his worst, then the lighthouse is Stede at his worst.

It’s easy to see the negative attributes of a kraken (frightening, violent), but the negative attributes of a lighthouse are less straightforward (yes, you can get smashed on the rocks, but what exactly does that tell us about Stede?).

When I considered it, it brought to mind the apocryphal tale where two nations are in contact by radio at sea. They each demand the other divert to avoid collision, going back and forth until one country says “This is the biggest, most heavily armed warship in our country’s big and heavily armed fleet. We demand that you divert course or we will fire upon you,” at which point the other country says “This is a lighthouse. Your call.”

A lighthouse is not going to divert course to avoid a collision. It’s going to stay exactly where it is, and if you don’t divert course to accommodate for it, you’re fucked. A lighthouse is a perfect metaphor for obstinance, for inflexibility. Stede can be bad at taking other people’s perspectives into account and adjusting accordingly. At his worst, he can’t even take in that other people’s perspectives may differ from his in the first place.

We see this with his family. He wants to uproot their lives and go to sea. He presents his dream as a present to Mary, and assumes she will be just as thrilled as he is, because he’s too wrapped up in his own excitement to connect with Mary as a separate individual. The dialogue then explicitly tells us how Stede is unwilling/unable to hear Mary expressing her perspective/experience:

Mary: “You know I hate the ocean. I said so just the other day.” Stede: “What? When?” Mary: “When we were standing by the fucking ocean.”

Mary isn’t upset that Stede has an interest in sailing, she is upset that Stede has no interest in actually knowing her, merely trying to fit her into his own interests. The scene where Mary repeatedly tries to get Stede’s attention and he ‘Mmm’s without looking up from his book also show us how he does not respond to her attempts to communicate. It’s telling that when she presents her anniversary present to him, Stede does not know Mary paints. (Honestly, I would find it completely in character for Stede if she had mentioned her painting to him several times in the past, but he just hadn’t taken it in because it’s not what he’s interested in.)

Which takes us to the consequence of this inflexibility: the lighthouse is isolated. Stede is so inflexible at times that he cannot forge the back-and-forth communication required to actually connect with other humans.

We also see this at the start of the show with his crew. I think the underlying reason that the crew wants to mutiny is how Stede cannot see things from their perspectives or accomodate for them.

Stede went into piracy with no experience, and decided to impose his own views on how to do things on his crew, without seeking to first learn from them about an area in which he has no experience. Throughout the first few episodes we see Stede trying to push his crew into being the people he expects and wants them to be, rather than trying to get to know them.

In the first episode, in the ‘talk it through as crew’ call and response, we see Stede (frankly, quite patronisingly) trying to push the crew into adopting his perspective and participate the way he wants them to. We hear Stede narrate “I pay my crew a salary. Same wage, every week, no matter what. Course, it took them a while to come ‘round to the idea”, and while Stede probably thinks he’s doing what’s best for them and they just can’t understand that, consider what difference it makes to the power dynamics if the results of everyone’s work are shared versus if they are completely dependant on Stede. Consider how Stede is disbelieving when Lucius says he’s the only crew member who can read (“That’s not. Is that true?”), dismissing this input to the point that a couple of episodes later, when he tries to replace Lucius with Frenchie, he is surprised to discover Frenchie cannot write.

When Stede decides that the crew should vacation in episode two, he says explicitly “Your time is yours to do with as you please” and “There’s literally no way to mess this up.” He then almost immediately starts telling the crew what they can and can’t do, responding to their methods of unwinding with “That is NOT what I was talking about!”. You’re not allowed to spend your downtime roughhousing, becasue Stede does not enjoy roughhousing. Stede’s preconception of himself as a captain is that he is accepting and he listens, but the actuality of his captaining style is that he tries to push his crew into complying with his preferences.

In the third episode, Stede is completely unwilling to learn from his crew – most of whom have visited the Pirate Republic before – about how things work there. When Lucius tries to advise him (repeatedly) he dismisses it (repeatedly).

If the kraken represents a toxic masculinity aligned with aggressive and threatening behaviour, then the lighthouse represents a toxic masculinity aligned with is mansplaining, blind confidence and the assumption of authority.

In episode four, their meeting starts Stede and Ed’s arc of mutual character development. I think it’s a crucial moment in Stede’s development when he excitedly presents Ed with Stede’s preconception of who Ed is – a picture of Blackbeard from one of his pirate books – and Stede actually sees and takes in Ed’s response. Stede listens to Ed. And after having listened, Stede adjusts his course. While Stede’s perspective is firmly that being Blackbeard would be great (he says that he’d give up everything for just a day of being Blackbeard), what he says to Ed isn’t encouragement to keep going, insisting that surely Ed’s life is amazing. Instead, it’s: “Look. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but have you ever considered retirement?” This might be the first moment in the show where Stede is considering things from someone else’s perspective. And that’s the start of him being able to reach past his previous isolation and actually connect.

Stede still struggles at times with seeing past himself for the rest of the show, but episode four is a turning point. It introduces his capacity to change and a new willingness to learn.

For the rest of the show, we see Stede succeed when he stops trying to be the isolated beacon that gives detached direction, when he can see past his preconceptions, connect and adjust, and we see him fail when he can’t. In episode five his moment of triumph is rooted in a moment of connecting with and listening to Frenchie. When Frenchie expresses his experience – “I was in service for a minute so I now the lay of the land and trust me, servants, they see everything. This lot, they’re not so fancy” – Stede actually takes it in, and that gives him the idea to ask Abshir for the information that Stede builds into his passive aggression bomb. In episode six Stede comes pretty close to explicitly naming the problem and solution himself: “I’d like to apologise for my behaviour earlier. As total as my theatrical knowledge may be, I did forget the most important thing: company!”

I think what takes the crew from where they started at the brink of mutiny, to the intense loyalty they have by the end, is not a change of heart on their part, but Stede changing. Stede softening his dismissive streak, starting to genuinely rather than superficially listen to his crew and to respect their input.

When Stede feels he needs to be the lighthouse, he feels he must be the guiding light all on his own. He can’t have his guidance questioned, because then he’s failing in his role.

I think this sense that ‘knowing best’ is supposed to fall entirely to him is one of the reasons why he feels so guilty about leaving Mary: he is supposed to be her guiding light, so surely without him she must be lost? Surely, without his light, his family have been smashed up against the rocks? It is his sense that he has failed in his duties at being his family’s lighthouse that makes him falter at the crucial moment when he leaves Ed. Stede seeing that actually, his family are just fine at finding their own direction (and Stede finally, finally, listening to and allowing himself to be changed by Mary) is what shows him that he doesn’t have to be the lighthouse.

I don’t think he returns to his crew as a guiding light. I think he returns ready to adjust course as he goes, with his crew’s support and collaboration.

so both the lighthouse and the kraken hold specific story significance to stede and ed as well as functioning in several different metaphors at once! this show is A Lot.

the thing i just put together (thanks to that why not to be a lighthouse post, i will link when not on my phone!) is that when you isolate the ways in which the world expects them to perform their masculinity and how it fucks up their emotional economies, lighthouse and kraken are the perfect ways to describe those damaging expectations.

stede is expected to be steadfast and rational, a distant light guiding his wife and children (and our very culture/society, in some ways!) to what is good and right and civilized. he is supposed to be alone on his lofty perch atop the social ladder. he is supposed to be cold and logical and need nothing.

ed is expected to be wild and irrational, a brutal but seductive monster warning our wives and children (and our very culture/society, in some ways!) that this way lies sin and sloth and untamed madness. he is allowed to be surrounded by a group of fellows instead of a wife and kids, but he too is meant to stand alone. he is supposed to be hot-blooded and illogical and need far too much.

they are both expected to display toxic masculinity and the utmost strength, but in very different and damaging ways.

jesus christ this show is good.

hmm, is it mean to mention that:

WHAT UP Y'ALL I FINISHED THIS

~3300 WORDS AND A FULL 1/3 OF IT IS JUST FULL ID

my favorite thing about oluwande is that he is a competent, professional, sensible young man who, as soon as he thinks or talks about jim, IMMEDIATELY turns into A Guy With A Crush. so awkward so embarrassed so pining so flustered. cinematic realism

okay I know the popular conception of stede and lucius' relationship is a father/son thing but like, okay, I get it, and I'm here for it, but I also don't get that vibe at all.

like, I don't think lucius admires/looks up to stede in a parental way. he likes stede, he's supportive of stede, but personally I wouldn't call my dad a bizarre little man or ask him how his breakup is going. like, that's way too informal. that's more a relationship of equals than anything else.

nope. I think their relationship is actually elder gay/baby gay (in the sense of experience rather than chronological age). lucius has been out for years, he has a lot of experience in relationships, he is way more able to read relationships (e.g. knowing that ed and stede are flirting before they even realize they're flirting), and because of that he is extremely well equipped to give advice about navigating queerness.

stede, on the other hand, has just barely started to dip his toes in the gay pool. like regardless if you go with the theory that stede didn't even realize he was gay until he met ed or that he knew for years but couldn't acknowledge it openly until he met ed, stede has zero practical experience. he is, in his forties, experiencing a bunch of "firsts" that lucius probably did in his teens or early twenties. the entire emotional landscape is foreign to him (and I was going to make a joke about how pirating is also foreign to him but then I started thinking about how piracy in this show is a metaphor for queerness and that's a whole second essay)

basically I think lucius spent the first however-many weeks on board the revenge being like "oh my god this guy is a naive idiot but at least he's paying me," and then he heard nigel badminton joking about how he used to bully stede in school and his gaydar went off like mad, and at that moment his attitude changed to "someone needs to protect this naive gay idiot and that person is me" and that's where it is for the rest of the season.

Absolutely this, especially compared to the way he treats Ed.

During episode 7, he shares Blackbeard’s opinion that the treasure hunt is stupid and will happily bitch with him about the flies, the climate and everything, but he is 100% aware of why Stede has set this up. It’s only when the snakery scene happens that he twigs that this isn’t just a one-sided affair - oh god this is happening.

He knows it’s Stede’s awkward, clumsy way of trying to do something Ed likes and had no idea it would actually... get any response, but when your captain is tenderly cleaning another captain’s beard, while said gruff and scary captain stares at him with hearts in his eyes, a man’s gaydar can only scream so loud.

So when Ed is actively bitchy and mean about Stede - “he’ll be moping about this all the way back to the ship” - that’s when Lucius snaps at him for the first time because, no, sir, that is my newbie gay and you are an idiot. Okay, ‘Blackbeard’, since you’re going to be a knob, here are the home truths you salty middle-aged leather daddy who has clearly never been hit on this way before - he likes you and this is how he is trying to show it.

Lucius is absolutely aware that Ed has past experience and treats him accordingly despite still clearly being intimidated by him. And when you get to the CJ breakup, you can really tell this is how he sees Ed. With Stede, he’s firm but gentle, checking in to see what this poor middle-aged first-time gay is feeling and how he should approach. With Blackbeard, he’s like “I know you’ve dealt with this kind of BS before. Here’s your stuff. GTFO”

Which makes the blanket fort scene all the more poignant because there’s seeing your new-to-gay captain experiencing the stress and confusion of his first big crush and then there’s seeing his bit-of-a-dick would-be boyfriend absolutely demolished when he’s abandoned because turned out there was a lot more going on than you realised with him and it was never just a fling for that middle-aged leather-daddy.

stede and ed are truly moron loving moron. stede got stabbed and the first thing he did was ask ed if he did it right and of course, ed thought that shit was the coolest fucking thing ever. they got one braincell between them and it died the day they made eye contact

Ed + how knowing Stede has changed him

i have the pirate sickness, if anyone has an OFMD ed/stede prompt hmu while i'm working on this fic outline

this outline is now nearly 7k words long

i definitely still need to add at least one scene

i don't know what i expected

Who has four thumbs and is publishing their first eBook??? MEL AND I.

After much needling from family and friends, we’ve decided to release the first couple of episodes of Hug Your Local Werewolf as ePubs. No more tedious screen reading, y'all get to browse this puppy on your eBook reader of choice.

With this in mind, we’re releasing a few Patreon-exclusive rewards that we thought might interest y'all.

Sound like your cup of tea? To get these rewards, you just have to sign up to be a patron before the end of the month.

As well as these new rewards, patronage gets you first access to episodes, behind-the-scenes insight into the project, invitations to live writing sessions, and more. Sound rad?

Join the pack: patreon.com/yourlocalwerewolf