The middle-aged queer series, everyone!
All around, it's a fun series that offers a lot.
From the mainstream queer media that we get, this one sticks out. The cast is largely older and middle-aged at best.
Now, everyone has already talked about the queer text of the series, from its diverse cast to how the story is written. I don't think I need to elaborate just how extraordinary the showing had been as the lived experiences of the queer community.
I think a great example of trusting the show to handle the queer characters is Lucius interacting with Fang at the chore of washing the portholes. It's very easy to play the 'gay manipulative' but the show made it pretty clear that Lucius was genuine and formed a friendship with Fang afterward. I'm pretty sure Fang is sneaking food to Lucius in the secret passages because it just makes sense.
However, at the same time, it also examines race, sexism, classism, and masculinity. These are just as connected to the queer text. The diverse cast is definitely part of why these examinations came through thoroughly.
Due to its diverse cast, we see how BIPOC characters react while the white characters particularly Stede didn't react to the microaggressions. Even Stede abandoning Ed have the added text of how the colonizer affected the colonized as Stede a rich white man with more options ran back to his household, leaving Ed a poor indigenous man in the dust. Yes, I understand why Stede did what he did but he still is culpable as a white man. Even Jackie in her own establishment was forced to accommodate Izzy and Chauncy when she was the not one who called the meeting; she gave Izzy a listen but in no way did she willingly let them take over in her own establishment. At least, Jim treated her as an equal as they are both BIPOC when Jim went to confront her.
While it was played for laughs, the first plundering we see from Stede was him stealing from poor fishermen, punching down basically on the poor from him, a still rich man who pays his crew handsomely. While real pirates do steal from poor people at times, often to get necessities, this case is to show just how Stede is unable to plunder his former peers until that party where he revealed his own form of violence. Aside from that French ship but that was only because Ed wanted to teach Stede and his crew.
It's just great to see the white people depicted not as the default but as a race as we see these white characters are put first as white people first just as much as their queer characters are too in defining them. Of course, they are cool and complex characters who made mistakes and hurt other people physically and emotionally but they're flawed and are culpable for the mistakes that they had to make up for.
Heck, the allowance of Roach getting away with his violence towards his oppressors is played off as great. Roach experienced no consequences for basically slapping the officer in the face.
Stede is not the pinnacle of Healthy Masculinity, considering his treatment of Mary. In Stede's world, the woman is expected to care for the kids and be at his beck and call. When Stede got back, all Mary sees is a self-centered lazy man who expected no consequences from his abandonment which Mary took personally. Stede is a rich white man who of course expects no consequences for such a thing because consequences mean facing the fact that his family was better off without him. Mary had every right to kill him and not just the party was the breaking point for her to commit murder. She had more willingness to kill than Stede and Ed combined and I think Stede knows it even with the fact he had grown so used to attempts on his life at sea that Mary's attempted murder on him was nothing.
Izzy Hands even if he's a pirate still showcased his privilege as a white man. Even with his soured relationship with Blackbeard, it's clear that he doesn't want Ed. The writing on the wall with his classism and homophobia shows in a different light than Stede. Stede is not perfect but at least he will own up to those mistakes when appropriately called out for them as a white man. Izzy is a white man who has a sour relationship with his so-called love interest.
Izzy supposedly belongs in another genre where the ho yay remains that. I guess that's mainly what everyone sees even though his narrative role as an antagonistic force is there. He won for fuck's sake! He loved the fact he lost a toe because the Blackbeard he wanted is back and doesn't care what his fellow crewmates think. Ivan and Fang enjoyed the atmosphere and they were in the coup to throw him overboard.
Every time I see Ed x Izzy fics, I feel they miss the point of the relationship and what Izzy is supposed to represent. I'm not bashing Izzy, just pointing out what Izzy is in the narrative.
Just… white people fans, please understand that Stede and Izzy are white men and are being held accountable for their actions. Hold them accountable for their actions that hurt others instead of saying he went back because of trauma when he should’ve communicated to Ed instead of running back to the other option that he has more than Ed. Even if Stede is far nicer on the surface level and Izzy got the shield of the white man & genre, the story of OFMD made it clear they are white men with privilege that unwittingly or not oppressed their crew and women, especially Ed one way or another. Yes, we got the talk it through as a crew that everyone loves but at the same time, Stede still shows he’s a white man who still got more than his queer BIPOC crew who rightly pointed out they didn’t turn to piracy on a whim but as a way to live. As much as it is funny to see Stede read bedtime stories to his illiterate crew, he is still acting as an authority as a white man instead of teaching them. Much later on, we see the crew share stories instead of bedtime stories read exclusively by Stede.
About the historical aspects, it's clear they have done the research yet thrown out a majority of it.
About the pirate aspect, there is violence and killing. The Badminton brothers' deaths are treats for the bullied Stede. It's like hey, these guys are bad with their homophobia, racism, and white privilege and they are especially hard on Stede and Stede a treat with not even regretting their deaths because deep down he has no regrets. Honestly, more Badminton extended family deaths would be welcomed at this rate because it's just funny for Stede to accidentally kill or involve in some way with the Badminton annihilation in the same place.
It's not as if we can't have killers be complex characters. In the same series, Ed, Izzy, and Jim with Olu murdered people in the past therefore it's obvious they have blood on their hands. Stede didn't murder but it was accidental manslaughter at best. Olu is telling Stede what it is, not murder when Olu himself assisted in a murder. The rest of the crew before joining perhaps had killed or done bad things like torture with Roach’s apparent relaxing torture comment and Buttons’ cannibalism; those things don’t come out of nowhere.
The fact Ed murdered his dad adds to his complexity as does Jim's revenge murder. It's part of their arc as Jim doesn't define themselves as all dark as Ed and Izzy do. The Badminton deaths impacted Stede but he doesn't regret their deaths at all.
It’s just for this series, it’s a dramedy but for the sake of complexity, they’re not completely unsympathetic. Unlike other series where terrible people do terrible things and people analyze them without excusing their crimes as critical analysis though technically this series still does it with the trauma Ed harbors and his crimes even if he killed one guy and indirectly killed others like that French captain, this series just examine all kinds of violence even violence that we don’t consider like passive aggression.
Because the series examines violence thoroughly on how it comes through in various ways.
Again, look at Roach who got away with fighting his oppressors so lightly that it’s a wonder he wasn’t beside Stede at the firing squad execution.
This is not a story that is trying to tell the actual or even the fictionalized version of Stede Bonnet. While it is valid for historians to feel that it's irresponsible, OFMD from the get-go is basically fanfiction with these historical characters basically dressed up as OCs. Unlike Hamilton which is not telling these guys as loosely based on a true story type of deal, this one was made explicitly clear that when it does stick to history, it's only the important bits.
I mean we certainly haven't got the over 100 crewmembers the real Stede got. We instead got fictional crew members who probably didn't exist. Just know that while there will be queer BIPOC pirates but we don't know for certain similar personalities did exist. Stede Bonnet is not a good person in real life, just to be clear.
The showrunner made it clear that things won't end in tragedy for these characters. With the retirement brought up when they first met, retirement from piracy and into a leisureful life floating at their boathouse at some secluded place somewhere is the happy ending they want with their crew maybe. The crew probably wanted that relaxing life without any more attempts on their lives, just living to old age and not worrying about any enemies coming for their heads.
At this point, just take the historical inaccuracies as just funny things. Things that are made centuries later would mean nothing in a world that runs on its own logic. Sometimes characters die for real and some won't. Lucius won't be killed off that easily and that was made obvious in his so-called death scene; that's too Looney Tunes that makes no sense for an actual death when Geraldo's death was made clear with Jackie killing him instantly.
It's a rom-com. It's still a rom-com. Lucius is not gonna die when this show is just so queer-friendly and won't touch the negative aspects of queer rep that have been known.
We're not in the resolution stage of the rom-com yet. We're getting it considering those nicknames we got from the showrunner.
For season two, I think we'll see Ed having to work it through with the rest of the crew for forgiveness though not after some vengeance from them. I want to see Lucius having a ghost fuckery until he finally revealed himself to be alive and messed with him as just revenge for attempted murder. With the other queer couples as guides, I'm sure Stede x Ed will be okay. Stede will have to fight for Ed and prove how far he is willing to go as well as the depth of his love. Stede also has to apologize and prove to Ed he means his love for him.
New characters could be other famous pirates like Hornigold, Kidd, Anne Bonney, and Mary Read with Chinese pirates thrown into the mix. The mention of China from Blackbeard raises good flags for potential Chinese pirates to come. Even pirates that aren't exactly known since Stede Bonnet himself have grown in popularity more than his scant appearances elsewhere like in the Assassin's Creed games; I can see the show adding in lesser-known pirates and privateers. While One Piece never mentioned Stede Bonnet in any capacity, there are references to lesser-known pirates and privateers in the likes of Bege.
While we do get queer rep, we haven't got a lot of lesbians or of the ace spectrum. We got an example of polyamory. Godoka, there aren’t a lot of demisexual rep; as a Demiromantic bisexual, I hope to see it. I’m hoping to see bi, pan, and ace rep.
While I’m not asking OFMD to portray the entire spectrum, I hope to see these nonetheless. I’m hoping to see them fight against biphobia at the very least. Stede is gay definitely so it’s unlikely he’ll provide the bi rep. Vico Ortiz did say the main cast of characters is queer.
While Frenchie and Wee John are now roommates, they are often paired off together anyway; we don’t know their story.
I just hope to see more when the series had done such an amazing job at the queer rep.
Outside of asking for that, I hope to see more meta and contextual applications of white privilege as well as the BIPOC experiences.
Really, what I first said above applies such as the examination of masculinity, sexism, and classism too.
The intersectionality of these topics created an efficient story with loads of meta. I’m not expecting to tackle every social subject under the sun as Glee demonstrated that it’s a terrible thing to do too overtly and hit over the head with PSAs. OFMD is smarter than Glee.
While Glee was written by a team of white men, OFMD is written with lending from a diverse cast and voices. Jenkins certainly knows better than Murphy.
For future pirate and queer media, I hope to see what the showrunner offers next that is unique from OFMD. I’m not going to bet if others started to copy OFMD in some capacity since the queer community had called OFMD unique among the first gays and young coming-outs.
Nobody expected OFMD and its deserved popularity so there’s a possibility of following the leader. That’s what happened when someone tried something new, got famous, and someone else tried to do the same. Look at BTS where their peers and juniors wanted to copy them. The Fake Love copycats had gone on for years. I saw BWL copycats too. One spectacular one, SuperM’s We Do, had a combo of BWL and Dynamite even Spring Day thrown in the mix. That was the most embarrassing one; the paltry streams are just a cherry on top of a trainwreck of a single. At least, their juniors make sense given how much they admire them. Their peers are partly due to studio pressure; SuperM is completely studio pressure because it's all LSM chasing the gravy.
Anyways, I don't think we'll see a lot of pirate media any time soon. POTC and OFMD are exceptions, not the rule. At large, I don't see pirate media coming back in a big way. One Piece is a different case, of course.
Really, it’s a great series and I can’t recommend it enough. It has layers as it has more than just the queer text.
