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

Especially Stede’s comment about ‘hygiene’ thinking Ed had just picked it off the shelf at the gift-shop 🤣

Have not actually read more than a paragraph of this but FIFTY PLUS CHAPTERS PEOPLE

https://archiveofourown.org/works/42740754/chapters/107373435

PS Can't help noticing that Ed and Stede have been snowed in at a hotel in Kent for three months now. Come on, Shearwater!

Synchronicity is really shockingly raunchy 😂. Obviously I've had to re-read it quite a few times to check...

And yes @CarterBeatsTheDevil. It's Kent. Not Siberia. FFS.

Unusually, I have been able to watch 2 nights running now so tonight was 1.10. I think I can summarise it quite succinctly by going "Waaaaaaah!! Ed!!" 😭😭😭.
So just a few thoughts this time:

• Stede looking good in teal emphasising how he doesn't fit in on land any more. I adore that colour on him.
• I still think Louis reminds me of Doug in looks and speech patterns. I'm yet to be convinced that this is simply coincidence 😄
• we get the only 'chest out' shot of Ed in the whole show
• Lucius taking on the 'ship counsellor' role (again). He's brilliant here.
• I want to be Mary when I grow up
• the Swede playing with his marrionette when marooned on the island. Who made that then? Maybe Stede had packed it for one of the kids

Mirrors, mirrors everywhere. Well. Kraken/BB mirrors anyway. We've talked of mirrors before. I hadn't noticed (or had forgotten) that the lighthouse mirror from 1.4 is on the wall in the bed nook, directly opposite the lighthouse painting. Stede is the lighthouse. We see Ed in mirrors when Blackbeard/Kraken is around (later this episode and elsewhere, e.g. 1.5 after he tells Fang to skin the French captain with the melon fork and throw him overboard). So Blackbeard is facing the lighthouse. Is he thinking he should have stayed away so he didn't crack up on those rocks? Or is the mirror positioned there to show that BB is about to reappear?

In 1.9 Rhys was utterly superb at portraying Stede's confusion and apprehension turning into terror and despair. In 1.10 it's Taika's episode all the way. Ed in the blanket fort is heartbreaking, but the moment that gets to me most in this one is his sadness just before he lets go of his 'heart' and the remeniscence of YWFTW. Stede has Ed's heart now, and he's letting Stede go...

That'll do for tonight :)

Woohoo! My crew for life t-shirt just got admired! Ok so it was DDs friend (who introduced us to the show) rather than a stranger, but she spotted it, loved it, and then had to go through all the different icons she recognised. It pleased me anyway 😁

And as I was driving just now I felt guilty about saying it was Taika's episode. I adore Rhys in this of course, from fuckery to "his name is Ed", but it's Taika's emotional range from heartbreak to Kraken that affects me more. I'll shut up now 🤣

@TriceratopsRocks Thank you for 1.10. I have things to appreciate about your post and say (obviously) about 1.10. I will be back tonight. p.s hurray for t-shirt appreciation 🙂

p.p.s. you know, I’m not sure I even noticed Ed’s chest in this shot before. So thank you for that!

The garden-scene caused me lose braincells. I think we need to appreciate Stede’s arms again.

Quick 1.10 thoughts.

The mirror and the light. 🪞🔥

I love this imagery. The best example of this is 1.4. After the synchronised ‘We need to be a lighthouse!’, they both feed off each other’s creativity to come up with the plan to defeat the Spanish. Without the light, there is nothing for the mirror to reflect, but without the mirror, the light isn’t strong. It is together they are at their best. The reminder of that in 1.10, with Ed and Stede apart, and with the same mirror now reflecting the lighthouse painting, is heartbreaking.

Just some thoughts on the fuckery. I love how there are callbacks to Stede’s childhood traumas as part of the drama, but this time Stede is in control.

In childhood, Stede is picking flowers when chased by a gang of boys. In the fuckery, he is holding flowers when chased by Ned in the house, but this time Stede is controlling events with a chicken drumstick! Stede is injured by running into a tree as a child, but the injuries in the fuckery are a ruse. The blood on his face after his father kills the goose is mirrored by the fake blood Stede puts on, this time through his own agency. Made to kiss a horse as a boy? This time the horses take Stede away to a new life. He is no longer tied to a rowboat and forced to row; Stede willingly rows out to sea to find his love.

(Not sure about the falling piano. A tenuous link to Ed crying in the bed-nook. There’s an upturned piano to Ed’s left. You can just make out the flipped piano stool on the floor next to him too. Pianos did not fare well in 1.10).

I only got to episode 1:7 with my own re-watch as I was not brave enough for the crab/turtle meanness and Ed’s later heartbreak.
I did though watch the start of 1:3 a few times to check out a theory re accents.
When BB first speaks he is lighting his pipe, which means he would have to be drawing on the stem with short puffs to get air through the tobacco (My Dad smoked one).
Next time he speaks, in his more familiar accent, he is blowing smoke rings so his speech is not impeded by the pipe stem. Just a thought. Many more things to ponder and share but this will do for now.

Just spotted Joel Fry in Paddington 2. Only a tiny part as a postman, but what a cutie.

@MrsJellybee those are excellent 1.10 thoughts. You describe that lighthouse & mirror imagery so well. The other thing I love about lighthouses is that the 1.4 wedding lighthouse is so grey and miserable, mirroring Stede's unhappiness, but the painted lighthouse that is also Stede is vibrant and exciting, reflecting the change in Stede after he goes to sea and meets Ed. It's interesting that it was Mary who painted that for him. I'll have to have a think about what that means.

As for the 1.10 fuckery, I have always adored that, and what a good spot all those childhood connections are. The only piano link I have is the one you came up with already. The one in the cabin is on its side and battered. But we never saw Ed play that one. The only time he played piano was in 1.5 at the party, after which there was no doubt that Ed was totally in love with Stede. Maybe the wrecked pianos reflect the wrecked state of Ed's feelings at that point in time?

@MrsBruin Sometimes on my rewatches I have been known to skip quite a chunk of 1.8. Basically the bits with CJ being an idiot. I pick up again just before the telescope scene. Not every watch, but sometimes I just really don't want to see Stede so uncomfortable, or Ed trying to be someone he isn't.

Interesting observations about the pipe!

Hilariously, the fic I'm currently reading has them getting physical very regularly. But the author is still warning readers where to skip if they want to avoid the smut. I mean, there is still a story without it, but it's probably a lot less than half of the actual words 🤣 I really don't know why that are still trying 😁

But the author is still warning readers where to skip if they want to avoid the smut

I never understand this. Hands up anyone who is reading this fic and it’s not for the smut? 🤣 Obviously there are a few outlier writers such as Shearwater and Nomadsland whom offer amazing emotional insights and characterisations. But the majority are not going to win any Nobel prizes for narrative execution. I’m here for the smut!

@MrsBruin Next time he speaks, in his more familiar accent, he is blowing smoke rings so his speech is not impeded by the pipe stem. Just a thought. Many more things to ponder and share but this will do for now.

That’s so interesting. Thanks for sharing this insight. I don’t know any pipe-smokers. I wonder too if BB is trying on another persona here. Was it @lizziesaurusx who said upthread that Ed likes to ‘play’? He says in the same scene Stede is ‘a fancy man with a fancy ship’ and ‘he is a gentleman. We want to make a good impression’. Is this Ed trying out his ‘posh voice’? Trying to get ready to make a good impression. How should one meet the Gentleman Pirate?

If you're here for the smut, have you tried "Blue as cut sapphires"? 37 episodes of filth. I've actually had to break it up a bit with other stuff.

I have to say that one of the things I loved about the show was that it didn't involve anything graphic. The older I have got the less I am interested in seeing or reading about sex in detail.

Maybe that's why I haven't taken to the fan fiction as much as other folks.

I'll have you know that I thoroughly enjoyed some teen rated fics only this weekend. One even went on my rec list 😉. In general I'm there for the slow burn followed by declarations of undying love, with the smut as a (sometimes admittedly huge) bonus. But you're spot on. For the fics where there is a lot of smut they should just rely on the tag.

Oh. I just realised the issue. The first in the series was teen rated. That'll be why they keep pointing it out for the later ones in the series. Some of those have a lot of smut 😁.

In general I'm there for the slow burn followed by declarations of undying love, with the smut as a (sometimes admittedly huge) bonus. I definitely like this too, but as Ed says ‘It’s got to finish with the good shit’ 😉. If it’s well-written, like Shearwater’s, I’m happy to wait (though not this long! They’ll be a thaw soon!). But for some of the fic, the only reason to read is the smut as the writing isn’t that great.

@CarterBeatsTheDevil I have read some of that one. I prefer the smut in AUs to be honest. I sort of agree with @CarlaH about the canon boys. I like that they are friends first and foremost. I may come back to Blue Sapphire during the long winter months though…

That was actually one where the smut became too much for me. Not the quantity but the type of smut. I started skipping parts of it.

@CarlaH these are some of the Teen/General fics on my rec list if you want to give them a go? I think I've only linked the last one before:

Short stories:

Stede owns a cafe
archiveofourown.org/works/51984412

Alma stows away
archiveofourown.org/works/43675585

Stede works for electricity company
archiveofourown.org/works/54409753

Ed's POV leading up to 1.6. Diverges from canon right at the end.
archiveofourown.org/works/41502468/chapters/104083827

Longer stories:

Ed owns a campsite. Stede visits. I loved the whole series of these.
archiveofourown.org/works/39444126/chapters/98718291

Set at an Antarctic research station
archiveofourown.org/works/53675812/chapters/135875668

A potential S3 plot idea
archiveofourown.org/works/53598247/chapters/135675664

Can't believe I missed this one:

They are on summer fire watch duty in a remote forest
archiveofourown.org/works/43432464

Great recommendation. Oh, you know how much I love this one. It’s gorgeous. The long pine…

Which is the one where Stede is AI? That was incredibly emotional. And the smut was very loving.

This is the AI one:

archiveofourown.org/works/41333706/chapters/103642158

And here's an Innkeepers era short story

archiveofourown.org/works/56413711

@MrsJellybee was that an intentional pun about the long pine? Well done 😂 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲