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

Bought my ticket for Heathrow!!!!! 🥰🏴‍☠️🥰🏴‍☠️
Regular ticket - no hotel rooms available as yet

Have you read this epistolatory one? I have had it bookmarked for ages, didn't much fancy the idea of it but loved it when I read it today. It's a bit like Work Experience in tone, which is the highest praise I can offer.

I have not read this one! Thanks @MrsJ

Thanks for the recommendation of "Fast Car". I had to have a couple of goes as the first section was upsetting, but wow, was it worth it to persist. I liked how Stede came to the realisation that it was his friendships as much as his relationship with Ed that he should have kept up.

The characterisation of Mary was good too. And the funeral. So cold!

@Phineyj I thought chp 4, ‘the bridge’ was so painful. Years of pining and yearning. I can cope with that, just not cruelty. I liked their making up. Ed being all aloof then forgiving Stede over a tuna melt within thirty minutes. Practically canon.

They’re a good writer, smallestchurch.

I haven’t but have started this today, thank you!

Thank you @CarterBeatsTheDevil and @MrsJellybee for those suggestions - both look just up my street. There are so many out there it's quite difficult to find fics with just the right feel. I recently started the Seaglass series as I'd seen it talked about very enthusiastically on reddit: I really liked the setup and the first few chapters but then it became very much not my thing and I wish I hadn't now got some of its characterisation of Ed and Stede to what's already there in my head.

I loved Fast Car though wish the years of pining had been much shorter. I guess that's the problem when a writer wants to have Ed and Stede meet as teenagers and then has to bridge the time gap until they get together properly in middle age - I've read a couple of others where that's the case too and there's not really any happy way to get round that 20 years or so. But in Fast Car Stede's loss of the other friendships too made the pain more intense.

smallestchurch is great - I really liked Turn on the Light too, and of course the utter sweetness of Not Pickles.

I came across this just after reading Fast Car - (very) short but sweet.

idunn on X: "#GENTLEBEARD // fast car 🚗💨💔 https://t.co/9IsuLMbeUr" / X

Kissing you on the forehead for this one @CarterBeatsTheDevil . Although the ending nearly gave me a heart attack for a moment. Desperate to read the sequel now.

Had to reread Seaglass to remind myself of how it changes. It is a bit weird.

The sequel is also good! Love discovering a new-to-me writer, too

Hello everyone! I've been away with intermittent internet, but with some time to indulge in fanfic so I'm very happy to see all the fic chat :) I'm glad someone mentioned the prison letters one (and it's sequel). I've had the series bookmarked as a favourite for some time but it had been a while since I read it. That has now been rectified! I'm also not a fan of Seaglass, but I found that reading lots of other fics was a great cure for getting one I didn't like out of my head 😁I'm still working my way through other fics by authors I've already got bookmarked, and through their bookmarks. Like @MrsJellybee I've been loving the ones by foxtails. I haven't a clue now, though, what's been recommended here and what hasn't. There are a couple of medical ones, if that is anyone's thing? I'd probably put them in the 'good but not great' category, though I think the epidemic one is my favourite of the two. And I've added a 'fake relationship' one for good measure. Sorry if I'm repeating suggestions - especially if they are recent ones - I am losing track a bit!

Surgeon/anaesthatist:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44037846/chapters/110725062

Epidemic:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50688013/chapters/128045995

Fake relationship, set at Christmas:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/43168584/chapters/108495630

Don’t toy with me, Rhys. Footage. Now.

Welcome back and very glad to hear you've been having some quality fanfic time :)

As for losing track, you did say earlier on in this thread that you were up to over 100 bookmarks. I've made myself a spreadsheet with all the titles, authors, links and a few words to remind me what they're about, with the ones I'd like to read next highlighted :) It's ultimately pointless though as I've limited myself to just reading fanfic at weekends, for sleep reasons, and I'm very behind as I just keep rereading the same ones – the lure of nomadsland is strong.

(and @TriceratopsRocks too) There was lots I liked about the first few chapters of Seaglass and I thought a Welsh knitting shop would be kind of like Constellationism, lots of beautiful romance and slow burn. I know we all have our own interpretations of Ed and Stede and Seaglass seems really popular, but there were some aspects that really didn't fit with the way I want to see them and I had to go and read an unracy but full of yearning chapter of Constellationism to reset them in my head. My own fault, of course - I should've read the tags, and stopped reading sooner. I was just excited about a series with about 20 different works.

Hi :) I understand the lure of repeat readings! I've just thoroughly enjoyed the letters one + sequel again, after all 😁. Am I right in remembering that you don't have an AO3 log in? I really would recommend it. You can use 3 types of bookmarks (including a 'recommendation' flag), make comments on your bookmarks, subscribe to individual authors so all their works are in one place, and it keeps your history. You can also mark works to read later as a subset of your history. Where I lose track is what fics have been recommended on this thread, either recently or ages ago. I might get excited about a fic, think "oh the Mumsnet gang would love this", and then check back to see that it was recommended here in the first place. Maybe as recently as a few days ago 🤣. The difficulty of scrolling back in the Mumsnet android app doesn't help.

Thank goodness, I thought it was just me! I tend to scroll through the more um … niche passages in the fics so there was very little of Seaglass left in the end. Forgive my generalisation but I don’t think there is an alternative universe in the well … universe where Ed would be seen in a plaid mini skirt!

I feel very old saying this, but does wanting your partner to say complimentary things about you during sex really need to be called a praise kink?

Lordy

Re fanfiction - am I alone in thinking that AO3 could do with a much better filing system. I have resorted to a (OFMD) notebook. Sections for 5 star faves, 4 star prob would read again, deleted but read section so I can keep track of what I’ve already binned. And a huge list of bookmarked but haven’t got round to yet! If you could organise like this on AO3 ( and put into alphabetical order!) it would make life so much simpler 🤷‍♀️

Yes - a list of 'binned' fics deleted from your history is a good idea. Also I'd like a list of fics that I've given kudos to. But we already have 4 tiers of fics, which I think is plenty really (that's 3 tiers of bookmarks plus fics left in history but not bookmarked). Being able to see kudos would give 5 tiers. I use 'mark for later' a lot and I only bookmark complete fics that I've enjoyed and want to read again. I use all 3 types of bookmarks we have available as a quality indicator: the 'rec' flag for top quality fics I want to shout about; a standard bookmark for enjoyable fics; private bookmarks for ones I liked but I'm not entirely sure I want to recommend to others. It does work, particularly if you put comments with your bookmarks as a reminder. Actually, I could use that box to note if it's been recommended on here or not. Now there's an idea! 😁

Not just you - I was doing the same in Seaglass and that meant a lot of scrolling. I agree about the plaid mini skirt thought that's pretty tame compared to some of the outfits in that fic!

@TriceratopsRocks Am I right in remembering that you don't have an AO3 log in? I really would recommend it.

That's right and you've convinced me - I've asked for a login and I should receive my invitation and join you all on the 7 September. Apparently they're sending out 61,000 invitations a day! Having said that, your subsequent post does make it sound quite complex😁There are sometimes fics recommended on here that are only available to registered users though so that will be worth it.

@DJ47 I have resorted to a (OFMD) notebook. Sections for 5 star faves, 4 star prob would read again, deleted but read section so I can keep track of what I’ve already binned.

That sounds very like my spreadsheet, with different coloured highlighting rather than star ratings. But I hadn't thought of a binned list which is an excellent idea - thank you!

It's not complicated unless you want it to be! Perhaps I have made it so 🤣. The main things I use are history, bookmarks and subscriptions.

Subscriptions: this is just a list of your favourite authors. You can choose to get email updates when they post something.

History: a list of fics you've opened. Within that history is a very handy little flag called 'mark for later'. You can choose to show either the full list or just ones you've marked to read later. Very useful!

Bookmarks: Bookmarks are for fics you like. There are 2 additional flags you can choose to add - 'recommendation' and 'private'. This is what gives you the 3 levels of bookmark, if you like. You also get a comments box, which is handy if the title of the fic leaves you confused about which one it is (looking at you, nomadsland!).

Here endeth my AO3 tutorial 😁

I think, and I might be entirely wrong, it’s the old ‘You’re doing so well. You’re being so good for me’. Usually said by Stede to Ed. I hate that.