Nandor Everytime The Camera Zooms In On Him:

While we like to joke about Izzy being in the wrong genre, I would argue that there are in fact at least five distinct genre universes in the world of Our Flag Means Death, and all of them have different rules.

Stede Bonnet, and his crew when they’re around him, live in a Muppet movie. I didn’t come up with this analogy but it’s so accurate. Insane physical comedy and comedy-action where no one really gets hurt. Mild peril but you know everything is gonna work out. Terrible puns and sight gags, but room for sweet, genuine emotional moments too. The rules of time, space, probability and logic will bend for a good joke.

Izzy Hands is in a grimdark action/drama where if someone gets stabbed in the gut they will behave normally and fucking die. (Probably slowly and painfully, of sepsis.) Crucially I think Izzy also lives in a genre where you can only be subtextually queer, and violence (done for or with or to each other) is the only acceptable form of intimacy between men. This is why being forcibly dragged into Stede’s world, where everyone is busy having silly low-stakes misadventures and being gay and emotionally available all over the main text–and seeing his Subtextual Boyfriend go into this world and love it–sends him round the twist.

The British, Spanish and other imperialist militaries are in a Master and Commander-style naval adventure where they’re the heroes. This is why they all take it completely seriously when Stede (unintentionally) kills Badminton and takes hostages, even though we can see that he bumbled his way into it ass-backwards. This is also why Stede is so shocked to get actually for real stabbed aboard the Spanish ship. (“Did you mean to do that?”) He didn’t realize until that moment that he’d stepped into a different genre. The stabbing is one of the first Surprise Genre Switch moments we get and in retrospect it’s very important for setting up that in this world, the threat of getting hurt or killed is very real–which we need to understand to know that there are real stakes much later, when Stede almost gets executed by the British.

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Celebrating my first pride accepting myself as gay ²— both genderfluid and bi

Me starting season 2: It’s quite common for the second part of a three-part series to have the main characters split up the whole time. It’s cool that Aziraphale and Crowley aren’t— oh

This makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve haven’t had the chance to fall in love yet, that’s just not been a part of my life, but I think the reason I love this show so much is because even though they’re pirates it still feels like a realistic love story. It’s something that I can see in my future, unlike other romance shows/movies. And it’s queer!

I've been trying to tease apart why I've gone so terminally feral for this show in particular, and I think a big part of it is because it captures the feeling of falling in love so accurately that I feel like I'M falling in love. Butterflies in my stomach, nauseous when I think about it, can't STOP thinking about it love.

As much as we all love a classic rom-com/love story flick, they have wreaked havoc on our expectations of romance. The purpose of those films or shows are to play out our most grandiose fantasies of love and relationships, a level of drama we could never actually attain, as a form of escapism. There are no manic pixie dream girls whose sole personality is a brand of quirky that fits your interests and saves you from your disillusionment in life. In reality, pursuing someone so intensely without ever giving up or taking no for an answer until they finally win their love interest over has become a trope so pervasive that its bled into the insidious romantic imagination of Nice GuysTM world wide. In the real world, you probably will never have that spinny camera kiss in the pouring rain after you've beaten the odds and live happily ever after, and you might feel like nothing you can experience will ever live up to that feeling. Not to mention they're all heteronormative as fuck.

In OFMD the friends to lovers journey is tentative and slow. There's no moment where one of them takes their glasses off and they suddenly see the other in a whole new light. There's no one sided whining and pining, where there's no real interest in friendship and they only stick around hoping to someday get in the other's pants. They deeply care and fret about not ruining their friendship, about not making the other uncomfortable or pressured. Most of my personal long term relationships started out as friendships, and it was a delicate drawn out testing of the waters before it naturally evolved. And this is particularly common in queer relationships where the lines between platonic and romantic love are often blurred because there are no models of courtship to look to for guidance.

I've seen people talk about how their kiss was too awkward, but that's how real first kisses are. Confessing your feelings is mortifying and nerve wracking, and hearing it makes you blush and stammer. You miss their lips and knock your heads, you don't know where to put your hands. You're nervous. It's not perfect but it's sweet.

And hats off to Taika for absolutely nailing true heartbreak. It feels like your world is ending and your life has come crashing down like they show in the movies but it also makes you feel small and soft and scared. It's the squeak in your voice when someone asks you how you are and you can feel yourself trying not to cry but you can't stop it. It's feeling so emotionally exhausted that you can't even bring your self to be angry, you'd just rather curl up into a ball and die. It's thinking you're moving on until something small reminds you of them and you ugly cry until snot is running down your face and you can't catch your breath. It's hiding under your covers and writing shit poetry in your notes app.

OFMD isn't "I wish I could experience this love story." OFMD is "I have experienced this love story." Falling in love can be the most huge, overwhelming, transcendental part of the human experience. It doesn't need exaggeration. It's the little things, it's like Mary says. It's them understanding your idiosyncrasies and finding them charming. It's exposing each other to new things and new ideas. It's laughing a lot. It's passing the time well.

It's mundane and it's amazing. It's easy, it's like breathing. This show has made me fall in love with the idea of falling in love all over again.

Finished both ofmd and wwdits within like six days… guess it’s on to Good Omens then…

Brb I have to get off tumblr to spread the good news (tell all my friends who’ve watched good omens 0-1 times about every detail of the new poster and opening sequence)

You know when you see someone do something and you don’t think it should be embarrassing but you know if you did it you’d be embarrassed but you’re not gonna say that because you don’t want them to feel embarrassed because there’s literally no reason they should be?

I used to hate Valentine’s Day because I’m always single, but now I’m just kinda vibin. It’s not that bad you guys

How does Taika Waititi (and honestly every single person who works on more than one film project, like, ever) have time for all that?? I have to read one (1) book within the span of a month and absolutely lose it

Pretty much nailed it

OFMD Characters Based on What I’ve Seen From Gifs Because I Haven’t Watched The Show Yet:

- Blackbeard: looks scary but has a marshmallow center maybe? Insecure, should be protected even though he’s a big scary pirate. Shaves his beard later and I’m already sad about it.

- Fancy Man: big silly goober. Blackbeard is in love with him and he returns the feelings but it takes him longer to figure it out because he’s a big silly goober. Mega nerd.

- Pathetic Mean Little Bitch: one sided feelings for Blackbeard maybe? Embarrassing little man. I suspect he’s just pathetic enough for me to like.

- ‘Move I’m Gay’: has a lot of good one liners? Doesn’t think he’s cute but has decided to act cute anyway. Good character.

- Fancy Man’s Wife: deserves better.

- and like a million other characters I don’t remember

- I think there’s a seagull?