Ok so the thing about reading like books which are "predictable" is that I, a story enjoyer, go completely bonkers about it bc its like Enrichment in my Enclosure. A scene parallels another earlier scene between different characters thus serving to highlight the differences in their views and priorities???? A line makes me think "hmmm I bet that's gonna be relevant later" ends up being relevant later????? I am a tiger chewing ice cubes out of a pumpkin. I'm so so happy. Please foreshadow more things. Throw the completely anticipateable plot beats at me like catnip mousies!!!!!

YEAH!!!!!!

The Hague, Netherlands: Spanish street musician Borja Catanesi and the 68 year old dancer from The Hague mr Roland Parijs

imagine just playing your guitar and you come across the FUNKIEST grandpa

wizard duel

wizard collaboration

Oluwande Boodhari is amazing. He talked his crewmates out of mutiny for the sake of a bedtime story. He helped his work friend go into hiding after killing their boss's husband. He poured boiling tea on a man's crotch. He threw a rock at the crewmate of one of history's most bloodthirsty pirates. He wears crocs in 1717. He was bullied into being captain for approximately 3 hours. He helped invent the world's first pyramid scheme. He plays drums maybe? He keeps his beanie on during sex. He's incredible. He's my best friend.

So I was thinking about how it’s pretty thoroughly established that Frenchie can’t read or write, but then we get to episode 5 and he a) identifies the party invitation and b) writes receipts as part of the pyramid scheme. The first one could be explained by what little we know of his background – he knows what a fancy party invitation looks like – but what about the receipts? I’ll admit, the possibility that Frenchie lied about his literacy level in order to avoid getting stuck with Lucius’ job was very funny to me, but I went back and looked and no:

No, he just drew pictures again. Which, first off, incredible, love that, but it does kind of make me wonder how he got away with it and the only thing I can think of is that he. That he told them the receipts were written in hieroglyphs. 

And presumably a bunch of aristocrats were like “that sounds fake but I definitely don’t know enough about Egypt to dispute it, one half a pyramid please.”

Fun OFMD rewatch activity: replacing the word 'captain' with any variation of 'dad' or 'father'

i'm just thinking about the moonlight scene and the Jenkins interview yesterday about Stede being an unwitting seducer and it just makes the scene so much more enjoyable to rewatch. From Ed's perspective this guy is pulling the smoothest moves of all time, like the most forward, i'm about to sweep you off your fuckin feet lines, looks him right in the eyes and tells him straight up "i'm gonna make you fall in love with me rn." And it COMPLETELY works on Ed like he can't even breath he's being so actively seduced. And even though Stede isn't doing that on purpose at ALL it's almost even MORE effective because he's being so authentically genuine and truthful that he is just exuding pure kindness and love and insight into Ed's soul. It's just so funny to me thinking about how Stede has absolutely no idea what he's doing to this man in that moment.

And it paints all future interactions with them with a completely different brush because one of them is consciously aware of the VIBEZ and one of them is only subconsciously aware. Ed thinks Stede knows what's up so he is purposefully flirting in all their little moments but hesitates to do anything outright because he's getting mixed signals from Stede, he just doesn't know the mixed signals are because Stede doesn't know that Ed knows that he's feeling a vibe and Stede himself doesn't even know what the vibe even means for himself.

It just really subverts the power dynamic that you would expect from this naive sunshine man meeting his broody hero. Stede holds all the power here and he has NO idea that he has Ed wrapped around his finger. Ed wants to leave bc he's afraid of the intensity of his feelings and the mixed signals from Stede and Stede is like "no <3" and puts on a cute outfit and takes him on a walk and makes Ed stay. Stede says he doesn't like Ed's personality around CJ and Ed is so gutted he leaves FOR STEDE not for himself but to spare Stede from himself. While they're being arrested Stede literally just SMILES at ed and ed signs his entire life away for him. 

I just think keeping all of this in mind is so important to understanding why their break up is SO melodramatic. Stede has unknowingly taken Ed on this emotional rollercoaster and he's been at following around Stede at his feet like a puppy dog just WAITING for a sign that this is real and Stede isn't toying with him so on the beach everything finally falls into place for the first time and Ed can finally just RELAX he isn't crazy and the power dynamic has shifted so that they are finally on the same page, he doesn't have to feel like he's just pining anymore, they are equally in love and that is so reassuring and validating. AND THEN HE LEAVES. That is such insane emotional whiplash and he was wrong the whole time and he feels like a fucking idiot and he must be SO FUCKING CONFUSED. Because the moonlight scene it seems like Stede is being so fucking crystal clear about his intentions and how could he have possibly got all of this wrong, and he ws right the whole time because Stede kisses him back and agrees to run away but actually no he was WRONG the whole time but how??? and yet it also goes back to that exact same scene where Ed tries to kiss him and Stede doesnt return the energy where this dynamic becomes so unbalanced and murky

no one touch me, alexa play motion sickness  

two months later and i still can't believe ofmd spent THREE WHOLE EPISODES hammering home how lame stede was and how uncool everyone found him only for THE LITERAL BLACKBEARD to show up and spend a whole episode going "look at all this cool shit this guy has" and "omg you're telling me you have a second closet?!" and "holy shit bestie, you READ?!?!?! 😍😍😍" 10/10 show of the century

Master of the house isn't my favourite les mis song but I do love that it preps the audience to see Thénardier as the funny haha joke cartoon villain only for him to pop out up in the sewers singing about how god is dead and life can only mean trampling on other people and the implication that yes what happened in the barricade was terrible and sad but not as terrible and sad as a society that forms a man like Thénardier.

it CANNOT be overstated how much Matthew Maher's cleft lip does to set the tone for the whole show.

The show starts out like a goddamn Disney movie, with the jaunty guitar piece and the introduction song. There's a very specific (one might say, unkind) kind of humor associated with this sort of story; humor that relies heavily on punishing deviation from the norm with ridicule. It's fitting, in an oh-boy-here-we-go kind of way, that the first pirate we really meet is Pete - short, bald, with a speech impediment. He isn't the first character whose voice we hear, but he is the central character in the first scene of the show. Look at this funny guy who can't speak lmao this show is gonna be hilarious!

And then that just - doesn't happen.

It only takes a few minutes to establish that this isn't going to happen, that Pete is just someone who happens to have a lisp, like some people just do in real life. It's just how he speaks. He doesn't stand out; he's not comic relief. Or rather, everyone on this ship is comic relief, including the main character. Especially the main character.

The first 5 minutes of ep1 is the first time the show sets up a joke, makes you look at the punchline you're expecting and goes "See that? That's bullshit. We're not doing that. Let people live."

Some very sweet elephant behaviours I read about in Carl Safina’s Beyond Words:

Turtles helping each other in times of need 

(Source)

Lucius Spriggs being Iconic™

obsessed with frenchie as a character. invented the pyramid scheme. terrified of cats. doesn’t even do pirate stuff. just plays his little lute and sings. doesn’t really do anything violent, like, ever. they get raided by the english navy and he just stands there plucking his lute unbothered. very emotionally aware and knows how to read a room. says cute shit like “cheers, me dears!” loves conspiracy theories. likes to draw. likes to design spaces by drawing out blueprints. calls his friends ‘babe’. the only one brave enough to ask the Blackbeard after they’re invaded if he’s gonna kill them after they repair the ship. tells stede “wiggle the hips” during his duel with izzy. cheers when izzy gets punched. somehow gets a reputation for being able to sew so ed keeps him as one of two [2] members of stede’s crew to stay with him after he abandons the rest on a desert island. “they’re such DICKS about spoons.”

The way the machine pauses like “should I do this?” before it draws the circle

Tortoise opening the new science lab at the University of Lincoln 

(Source)

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