Our Flag Means Death: Thread 3. It's still utterly brilliant. We are still obsessed.

[TriceratopsRocks]

Ahoy again mateys! Set sail aboard thread 3 where we still wax lyrical about our favourite show, its cast, its music, fan edits, fan fiction and more 😁(there may also be just a little obsessing over our fabulous leads - pictures extremely welcome)!

If you haven’t yet seen Our Flag Means Death, what are you waiting for? Go watch it (on BBC iPlayer), then come back here and join us. But be warned, some of you may find yourself as hooked as we are 🎣.

You may have heard that this is a comedy about pirates and think it's not for you. But it’s actually a show about self-discovery, healing and found-family with a love story at its heart. The joint leads are both damaged by abusive backgrounds and want what the other has. The show is about their healing and their respective journeys. It’s tender, romantic, funny, emotionally intelligent and utterly refreshing. It subverts genre expectations. There is comedy, absurdity and a good amount of heartbreak and despair - sometimes in the same scene! The acting is outstanding (Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby especially). But the writing, music, costumes, sets, the sheer attention to detail – for a show with only 18 half-hour episodes it is still keeping us talking, two full threads and many re-watches later.

If you think this might appeal, do watch it and come back and talk to us. It would be lovely if more were to join our crew. But it's a show that needs time. The 2nd lead arrives in episode 3, so you need to give it at least 4 episodes as that’s when the tone changes and the main story starts. It still took me several more episodes to fully appreciate what I was watching, but by then I was hooked and had to immediately watch it all over again. If you like Good Omens, What We Do in the Shadows, Ghosts or even Bridgerton, this might be the show for you.

(I’ve kept this spoiler free, but if you scroll down you will no doubt find many, so beware!)

Thread 1: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5008593-our-flag-means-death-its-utterly-brilliant-and-i-am-obsessed?reply=135294204
Thread 2 : https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5076581-our-flag-means-death-thread-2-still-utterly-brilliant-and-we-are-still-obsessed?reply=136060611

This is a test

Edited to add: meant to be a GIF. Didn’t work. Enjoy static Ed, anyway.

Just read the tour guide one. So sweet ♥️

@MrsJellybee I'm going to wait until the Chicago one is finished so the angst will be swiftly followed by all the loveliness. Nomadsland does do angst and pining very well - the Long Winter is only just about bearable because we know how it ends. At least in Throat Goat that part is pretty short.

[Spoilers for Throat goat]
The Stede in Throat goat tries so hard it's just heartbreaking - saying no to Ed until after the tour, then later on flying back from NO and crying himself to sleep because he's just so, so tired. But I love the way they then sort out the dynamic of their lives together and how Stede blossoms. She does the sweetness so well too - I love the baking and the charades, and the frequent references to blankets. And Ed talking on stage about his crush💜

Me too! I honestly don't know who I am any more. For years I've averaged about six books a month; since mid-April, when I became afflicted by pirate brain rot, I've read a total of five - and two of them were for book club so, like @MrsJellybee, only peer pressure made me drag myself away from fanfic.

I'm on holiday at the moment and have five books with me. I planned to start one last night but thought I'd just check this thread first. Of course @TriceratopsRocks had just recommended loads and @CarterBeatsTheDevil had recommended the series by afterism, so I think you can guess how my evening turned out.

Tonight I will 100% definitely read a real book.

Hehe sorry about that, @lizziesaurusx , and good luck with the real book this evening! That list was from page 1 of 5 of my bookmarks so there are probably more I could pass on if you did want more pirate brain rot 😁However I shall be good and refrain from posting more links for a little while :) I'm currently working my way through fics by Nomadsland that I haven't read yet, except for a few which I'm skipping due to subject matter. I've been doing that with all of the authors I'm subscribed to.

I'm also with you on not feeling as immersed in a fic if I can't read it all in one go, and although I hate to say it, Constellationism is becoming an example of that for me. For quite a while I would have said it was my favourite fic because it is so exquisitely written and she seems to 'get' them so well. And I love how their relationship was/is progressing. But I wouldn't necessarily say that any more and it's because of the long update time. Just reading a new chapter on it's own isn't anything like as satisfying. If I had my way I'd rather wait a year and then have her post the entire thing in one go than have periodic updates and finish in 6 months. I just feel myself starting to become detached from the story a bit. It's another reason I tend not to start unfinished fics.

What I find really hard is reading monthly or longer updates on a fictional scenario that's taking place over hours or days. I am really grateful to the authors who put out this often very well written work for nothing and I respect their right to pick a schedule that works for them, but as you say it really makes the reading very bumpy.

I have the same issue with webcomics that update one page every other working day. You really lose a sense of the action unfolding and how that page works in the chapter or overarching work. Again, I am hugely grateful and wouldn't call it a complaint but it does mean I am more likely to wait until I can read the whole finished work.

That's it, yes. If there is an unfinished fic that I like the look of, I just add it to my 'Marked for later' list and forget it. I didn't realise constellationism was unfinished when I started it, and the only other exception I've made is Rince and Repeat, but YellowMustard is good about updating quickly. I also wanted to support her as she wrote, because it's turned out to he her first 'long' fic and I adore all her previous work.

I understand the feelings around unfinished fanfic and tend to agree, but I find it difficult to criticise when they are a) so devoted to the task and b) doing it for free. If I knew there would be a regular weekly update, I would cope better.

It was interesting yesterday with Nomadsland’s update as there was a key piece of information that I had missed or not realised, and judging by the comments, so had many others, which was vital. I thought I had misunderstood at first, then the penny dropped and I was shell-shocked. I think this is the problem with reading so many fics at once (and I don’t read that many), and waiting for updates. The ‘Eds’ and ‘Stedes’ start to blend, alongside important detail.

@lizziesaurusx I’ve read three (no, two-and-a-half) books since April. It’s unheard of. I mean for a month I was just watching the show on a loop 🤣

Exactly - I'd never express this to the writers and I get very annoyed with comments that criticise work that is completely free and written entirely for love of the subject. The only exception was when my husband and I joined a Kickstarter for the completion of a webcomic we'd followed for years and the guy just never finished it. Took the money, no explanation, no apology, started working on something else which he also then abandoned. That was annoying. But then it wasn't exactly a fortune.

I understand the feelings around unfinished fanfic and tend to agree, but I find it difficult to criticise when they are a) so devoted to the task and b) doing it for free. If I knew there would be a regular weekly update, I would cope better.

Oh I know! Like @CarterBeatsTheDevil I'm not complaining either about or to them. They are all absolutely wonderful for doing what they do. But personally I just find it harder to engage with sporadic updates. It's my issue, not theirs. But it's also why I made an exception for YellowMustard. She hadn't written a long fic before and she's probably my favourite writer, so I wanted to encourage her progress 😁

@MrsJellybee I’ve read three (no, two-and-a-half) books since April. It’s unheard of. I mean for a month I was just watching the show on a loop.

The struggle is real 😩I volunteer at our local community library and my friend who runs it is brilliant at letting me have the pick of the brand new books. She's quite concerned as I keep returning them unread, muttering about things being a bit busy at the moment - I haven't confessed to my new fanfic addiction😬

I mean for a month I was just watching the show on a loop.

'was'?? How did you wean yourself off it? I watched an episode every night from the middle of April until a week ago - away with family now and feeling major withdrawal symptoms.

I'm so in awe of the fanfic writers and so grateful for their generosity and time - I've found discovering fanfic for this show a genuinely life enhancing experience. I hadn't thought of it in terms of if you're writing something episodic it must perhaps help to publish in instalments and get feedback and encouragement as you go along. When there are so many Eds and Stedes though, and the story arc is often similar, it does get a bit difficult to follow when it isn't complete.

I had no idea how good some of the fanfic is. Several of them are phenomenal writers, and when you combine that with a thorough understanding of the characters we love - well, it's unputdownable! It has definitely been life enhancing, as you say. But I would equally say that of the show. It has certainly encouraged me to push myself out of my comfort zone this year.

@lizziesaurusx 'was'?? How did you wean yourself off it? I watched an episode every night from the middle of April until a week ago - away with family now and feeling major withdrawal symptoms. I was like that on holiday in May. I was five/six weeks in and watching clips on YouTube on the beach hammering the roaming charges. I do watch a lot of clips still. I’m still doing fanvids so know the minutiae of some scenes frame by frame. I’m on Tumblr too doing meta. I am currently on a rewatch up to 2.6. I was thinking the other day I’m where @TriceratopsRocks was in Feb when she first made the thread. I finished my first watch mid-April ( I thought it was earlier, but I was wrong) so four months of insanity so far. Seems longer. Seems a lot longer.

As for the quality of the fanfic, imho ‘Work Experience’ is the best-crafted I have read. It feels as if it’s been through a proper editing process. It also breaks the fourth wall and the ending is very postmodern. But I understand that that is not what most people want from their Ed/Stede fanfic 🤣

I really like Yellow Mustard as they write in vignettes. I like short , emotional scenes especially in innkeeper/canon. AU, I really like Nomadsland as I think they handle plot well and that’s the hardest thing to do. Their ‘Stedes’ are also sublime.

I've broken my very recent vow and am reading one where they meet at a karaoke club 🤣

Work Experience is absolutely superb imo. A really great, tightly written piece of work. Actually wish I had written it myself. (I don't write fanfic, mainly because if I can't stop reading other people's I am genuinely concerned for my career and family if I started actually trying to write my own.)

Oh Carter! What if we just pretended that your vow never happened? I mean, we could if you could 😁😁😁

But seriously, if you want to try again tomorrow, we will try to support you in your abstinence. We can all suggest you close your eyes if we are going to post something about a fic - that will surely work!

And I don't write fanfic either, but that's because I think I'd probably be rubbish at it!

Ahoy there OFMD mateys!

I'm on holiday and forgot my phone charger so have been offline.

Fortunately I managed to get one so can share this lovely tentacle pic.

Wow! A kraken invasion! Hope you have a lovely break, @Phineyj

@Phineyj that’s insane. I love it. Where in the heck are you?

As for fanfic, I can’t do plot.

And I wouldn’t be any good at writing the ‘stuff’. It would go something like this… ahem… ‘Lights and clothes were soon off. Carnal knowledge was sought and coitus occurred. There was a lot of loud ‘concurring’. Afterwards, they were peckish so raided the fridge…’ And what would follow would be a really detailed, sensual description of the contents of a sandwich.

Oh honestly @CarterBeatsTheDevil, you were my role model in renouncing fanfic and that's lasted less than 12 hours! Please do feel free to share a link for the karaoke one though: I'm doing karaoke on Saturday so feel it's essential to my preparation.

And if you do decide to break your vow to not write fanfic, you have an eager audience right here.

I believe there's a gap in the fanfic market for detailed, sensual descriptions of sandwiches - at least I don't remember reading any. As for the other stuff, we could do whatever the collaborative/crowdfunding equivalent of writing is - I feel sure we've all read more than enough of Stede and Ed enjoying carnal knowledge of each other to contribute.

Oh, you could AI it, surely. It's actually relatively formulaic. And then the sandwiches would be your special motif. People like us would be going "Have you read Jellybee? She's the sandwich one.". "Oh, I love the sandwich ones! Has she updated recently?"

@lizziesaurusx Here you go It's a good'un.

@TriceratopsRocks I really find myself attracted to the "just forget the vow" option here 😀

I'm in the Azores @MrsJellybee.

On an "activity adventure break" where I am by far the most unfit person 😂 so tomorrow I'm ducking out of canyoning (tbh I didn't realise what it was before...the horror...) and having a day of wandering around and shopping. If I see any good piratey stuff, you guys will be the first to know.

Fridge Scene, 9 1/2 Weeks

Now picture Ed and Stede…
Here’s my gap in the market!