Our Flag Means Death - Thread 4: Roll up, roll up! Come join us for more pirate obsession!

[TriceratopsRocks]

Ahoy again mateys! Can you believe we are now aboard thread 4? Stick around for chat about this brilliant show, its cast, its music, fan edits, fan fiction and more than 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 and join us 😀

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, three 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 be aware that it's a show that needs time. It’s structured like a theatre production, with a prologue and 3 acts. The 2nd lead arrives (briefly) in episode 3. Episode 4 is the start of Act 1, where the tone changes and the main story begins. You need to give it at least 4 episodes, and from there it just gets better and better. 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. And again. And again! If you like Good Omens, What We Do in the Shadows, Ghosts or even Bridgerton, this might well 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
Thread 3: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5101662-our-flag-means-death-thread-3-its-still-utterly-brilliant-we-are-still-obsessed?reply=137315706

The OFMD costume/makeup people are utterly unhinged 😂

Making fake rats to piece them together into a fur jacket for just one scene?!

Ahoy there crew! I’ve been away for a bit and also trying to having a bit of a break from screens and social media etc and I’ve had a quick glance back and see I’ve missed so many interesting conversations! I’ve also been recovering from the excitement of meeting Rhys two weeks ago today. Only partly joking – I saw northern lights for the first time a few days later and the two are honestly both up there as equal highlights of my holiday. Not that I’d admit that to anyone but you lot.

I was away with family and so no pirate TV for nearly three weeks and I really hoped that I might be cured of my obsession, but last night I watched 1.4 and it felt like a warm hug. Time away has got me no closer to working out why this show means so much but watching it again feels a bit like coming home. Then of course I had to read some fan fiction – I’ve had two weeks off that, since the excellent karaoke story – and I read Chicago (I forgot it wasn’t finished and just wanted to read more nomadsland). Also Fast Car – I can’t remember who recommended that but I loved it, apart from the decades long angst – I can’t bear the idea of all those years of pining and separation caused by poor communication. Ed really unravels into self-destructiveness in Fast Car and it's hard to read. Three (?) months or so in the show was painful enough.

I love the idea of this being an OFMD book club, mainly because I’m doing so much better on my commitment to this book club at the expense of my real life book club. I collected my latest book club book from the library yesterday but then fanficced until 2am. Tonight will be different, though I’ve really missed this thread though and am tempted to go back and read through the last couple of weeks properly instead of my book...

Anyway here is Rhys, from @TriceratopsRocks and I's amazing evening. I loved his jacket. He seems to wear those same shoes and trousers in so many photos, which is very endearing.

@lizziesaurusx welcome back! You’ve been very much missed, but a screen break sounds very healthy. Not a screen break, but I managed to watch an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? last night and fully immerse myself in it. That’s probably the first time I’ve managed that since April. I then watched 2.8…

I’m tempted to read Fast Car now if it’s definitely complete as I can cope with Ed angst if I can power through to a happy ending.

Your Cryptid meet up with Tri sounded amazing. What an intimate and fun setting. I love how much time Rhys and the others spent with their fans. The same shoes ad trousers is likely neurodiversity. God love him.

I decided to say carpe diem the other day and purchased a golden ticket for Heathrow. That photo of Rhys above is gorgeous. How kindly he is looking at that lady. If he even glances my way like that, I’m going to buckle. Jeez.

Ahoy there @lizziesaurusx we've missed you! What a lovely reminder of our Edinburgh trip. Thank you for those photos :)

And talking of trips, has anyone got their ticket for Heathrow yet? I am still trying to work this out and am very torn over which ticket to aim for.

I'm so glad you mentioned Fast Car. I did find that a very hard read and couldn't decide whether it should be a recommendation or an 'avoid' if you don't like angst. One thing I struggled with was the feeling that even after the resolution, the damage done to their relationship may have simply been too much. After I had finished, I was still feeling sad at the utter waste of all those years, but also that their relationship still felt that loss.

Back to the thread, thank you @MrsJellybee you have corrected what was a typo in my post :) I had intended to type 'Ed is willing to give up his life to protect Stede, but Stede is willing to kill to protect Ed'. That accidental swapping of 'Stede is' to 'is Stede' totally changed what I wanted to say 🤦

So yes to Ed putting his body between Stede and danger, and those screenshots illustrate it beautifully. It's one of my favourite things about Ed, and why I was trying to say the above. And yes to Stede being willing to kill to protect Ed.

There's more I wanted to say about your post but I'm on the app atm and as it's impossible to have the thread open whilst typing a reply I'll have to come back to it as I've already forgotten!

@TriceratopsRocks any correcting of a perceived typo was subconsciously done. I fully understood your reasoning ☺️

Should I read Red Car before getting out of bed this morning? How long is it? Will it destroy my day?

I’m going to read it anyway…

Oh, Fast Car! No wonder I can’t find it 🙈

That photo of Rhys above is gorgeous. How kindly he is looking at that lady.

That lady had flown over from Berlin to see the show. The man with the blue cap in the other pic had flown from Italy, without even having a ticket for the show, in the hope that he'd manage to get in anyway. His story was amazing and he seemed to be in a permanent blissful daze! It was wonderful to be in the company of so many similarly (actually even more) obsessed people :)

Here's the link for anyone wanting to read...

archiveofourown.org/works/54316243/chapters/137565985

Regarding Heathrow, I'm still dithering about which ticket to get. I'd love to join @MrsJellybee with the gold but it's so expensive. Has anyone else bought theirs yet, or know which one they are getting?

So I'm currently on a train and the driver has announced a Connect 4 challenge between people in different coaches. Winner gets a drink and a cookie. It got strangers laughing and talking. All I can think of now is the fic where Stede is a train announcer, brightening everyone's day. Can't even remember what it's called or if it's any good, but I'm going to have to find it again and re-read it. 😁

I might be being very dim but I can't find anything using the search term Chicago and Archive of Our Own OFMD. I am sure there will have been a link but am guessing it was a long time ago. It doesn't necessarily sound the sort of thing I would like but I feel 'out of the loop' without looking.

Could somebody kindly post a link for me? Thanks in advance.

archiveofourown.org/works/57364063/chapters/145929784

This is the one I believe. I'm waiting until it's finished!

@TriceratopsRocks would you mind linking to the train announcer fic you mentioned when you find it?

I just reread the Olympic divers one and it got me feeling all sporty so I reread the Tour de France one too. I think I prefer my smut with plot and without overt praise kink and soft dommery, perhaps

Thanks for this. I have no idea why google couldn't find it with the search terms I used.

I will :) and your fic tastes sound exactly like mine, @CarterBeatsTheDevil . I definitely like my smut to be plot driven, and loving smut. I'd much rather read a no-smut fic than one where it isn't to my taste. Said she who recommended Tree Change 🤣🤣🤣

To be fair, I was able to manage quite a lot of Tree Change before it got too much for me 😂

I think what I love about the series is that it's about emotionally damaged and closed-off people discovering that they can be kind to and safe with each other, and I really like the fics that reflect that. There's something about the ritualistic kink scenes that dent that a little bit for me, but I appreciate that kindness and safety are very much in the eye of the beholder!

I think that's why I was OK with tree change. The love and care was there throughout, they were very aware of limits, it was all planned, and they stopped instantly the moment one of them wanted. It made it feel safe. There's many a fic I've started skipping through the smut, or even stopped reading, where I didn't feel that.

Anyway, here is the Gentleman Announcer. I can't remember much about it, and didn't bookmark it so can't vouch for it's quality!!

archiveofourown.org/works/52770313

The train one I did recommend was where Ed was a guard, but I think I've linked that before. I've just remembered that one was by Nomadsland.

archiveofourown.org/works/53496583?view_adult=true

Ooh, thank you!

Loved those fics and now very much enjoying Stede and Ed on a plane. Who knew that my happy place would be transport-themed AUs?

@TriceratopsRocks I didn’t finish Tree Change either. I do like Claire G’s writing, but I find it a bit overwhelming after a while.

I’ve just finished Fast Car and thought it was superb. It hurt, but not in a cruel way. I thought it captured canon Ed emotionally, his melancholia. Stede made me hurt more actually. He was so brave, eventually. The final part with Stede’s letter… I couldn’t see to read it 😭 (those are good, cathartic tears).

Abort! Abort! It's unfinished! Abort! Sorry, everyone, as you were

The Gentleman Announcer is hilarious 🤣🤣🤣

“Can you… leave on the hat?” 🤠

All aboard 🚂

I loved it! It was a bit like that one where Stede is a guard at Buckingham Palace 😍

I’m getting mine as soon as payday arrives! It won’t be gold unfortunately

My head says regular ticket, my heart says gold ticket, my DH says "OK darling" in response to my announcement that I'm going to a pirate convention in Heathrow in November with a bunch of fellow obsessives from Mumsnet.

@MrsJellybee what swung it for you vis a vis gold ticket?