This drawing is brought to you by listening to The Chain and Miles from Nowhere on repeat for about three hours I didn’t use a reference for this one, but I hope I can be forgiven
I marathoned the entirety of Our Flag Means Death this weekend and I am awash in feelings, so I’m taking it out on the internet in the form of fan art. If you like pirates, gay kissing, theatrical gore, improbable shenanigans, and emotional damage, I highly recommend this wacky historical fanfiction romcom.
Hi! Hello! I will be tabling at Dokomi 2022 in Düsseldorf this coming weekend! I’ll be selling a bunch of new stuff that i compiled here! I’ll also have my OFMD Wanted poster and stickers with me!! so come by and talk to me about gay pirates!
So I went fully insane on this one. Backgrounds aren’t really my strong suit and I think I ended up drawing this one like……..4…5 times? I also hand painted all the patterns cause as I mentioned before - I’m fully insane for these pirates.
I’ve noticed that Our Flag Means Death seems to use beards to represent performative masculinity, which frankly makes me believe that if Stede really does get a beard in season two things will not be looking good for our heroes
I love the whole “Stede is going to try and theatrically sweep Ed off his feet, oblivious to how heart broken he is” theory, just cause it’s so freaking funny and in character, but I can’t help that evil, angst ridden part of my brain that whispers “Stede is going to go in a downward spiral when he realizes that his big attempt to save Edward ruined him, this might be even more proof to him that he’s a horrible monster who ruins everything he touches, he’s gonna end up just as angsty as Ed” like no please I can’t do this-
In s2 of Our Flag means Death I too want Stede to grow as a pirate. I want him to have his badass fighting moments and do things competently so that I can go “aaah, they grow so fast” and cry. However, I also want him to stay true to himself (fancy, precious, and appalled by death). I want Stede to wear his fancy lil outfits and drink his tea with his pinky out ex, ex while he kicks absolute ass. I want him to become confident in himself and his fighting style, only using stun moves and stabs to the left to take on opponents but still obliterating them in combat. I think it was purposeful that Stede learned multiple non fatal ways to take people out and I really want those skills to pay off. I’ve seen some people say things like “I want Stede to kill someone on purpose”, and while I agree, that would be objectively very badass, I think it would just be so much more impactful and align better with the theme of the show if Stede learned to be badass while keeping the crucial aspects of his character. Our flag means death’s themes are meant to tackle toxic masculinity, and the notion that their is only one way to “be a man”. Stede’s way of piracy, or way to “be a man”, is very unconventional, and a lot of the conflict comes from conventional pirates like Izzy and Jack finding something wrong with that. It would be so impactful and satisfying if in the second season Stede was still fragile, feminine, and scared of violence, but he found a way to competently (and badassly) incorporate those things into his piracy.
TDLR: I want Stede to be a badass pirate who doesn’t kill and only uses stuns and stuff but’s still very competent because I think that would satisfyingly support the themes
