Ooc / From Rosemary. - Tumblr Posts
thinking about how cute it is that we spend our free time crafting collaborative stories together with our favorite characters, sometimes related to their canon & sometimes entirely outside of it. thinking about how pure it is that people all over the world sit down & take time out of their lives to write things for me & make little stories up with me. thinking about how when i pick up a new muse my friends are always ready to find a way for them to interact with them, no matter who they’re writing at the time or how close their source canons might be. thinking about how every time i get a little bubble on my activity page, it could be a friend giving me a little gift consisting of a personalized piece of their writing, & how they used their creative energy on the cute little made up stories we discussed together. just thinking about how much i love my rp partners today.
i saw a post awhile back that talked about how as you become a better writer, you also become more able to recognize ' flaws ' in writing — including your own. so it can actually become harder for you to actually write, because you're so critical of what you're putting down that you stifle your creativity before it even has a chance to get up on its feet. so while you're technically a better writer than you were before, you're actually writing a lot less because you're fighting against your own inner critic the whole time. & i think that's a big thing for me lately, tbh. at the risk of sounding cocky, i'm a good writer, & i know i can write some really readable yet evocative scenes. but the flip side to that is that because i know i can write incredible things, that means that i don't want to post ' average ' things. so i get really in my head about making sure what i put down is ' good enough. ' but the only standard for ' good enough ' is also only in my head. & i just become my own worst enemy because i feel i could always do ' better. ' & like, when i think back to me when i was first playing around with fiction writing over a decade ago, like, yeah her stuff was pretty predictable & relied on a lot of tired cliche's but you know what, she was learning & having fun ! & sometimes that's more important than making sure your writing is technically flawless, you know ? so consider this a reminder to me, but also to you, oh dear rp writer who is often too critical of your own work : this is tumblr rp. you're not going to win a pulitzer for anything you do here. literally the only goal in writing here on this site is to have fun. so don't take it too seriously that it stops being fun.
alright ! i've had a full 24+ hours to Process — which may have involved a bottle of prosecco ( i don't drink btw ) & going through a few waves of tears — & i'm here ready to talk about the finale. of.md spoilers below the cut, obviously !
some things i actually did like ( a short list ) :
the plot on paper. the beats of a good story were there but it was so rushed through & poorly executed that it just felt messy, unearned, slapped together.
ed thinking stede is dead & disassociating so hard he goes on a rampage & murders several of the soldiers in very sexy ways, ie: bayonet flip. also ed coming out of the ocean like aphrodite, ready to murder in his black leather. slay.
jim & archie kissing Like That before going to battle. also jim throwing knives from in the trees. very hot, powerful trans energy there, i really enjoyed it.
unfortunately everyone on the crew looked very sexy in stolen navy uniforms.
spanish "you best believe everyone in this household is poison trained" jackie.
zheng existing ( i would like to formally request a whole show about her )
stede yelling 'for love !' when attacking the british. romantic stede my beloved.
most of izzy's main dialogue — especially telling ricky that what really matters about piracy is belonging to something in a world that has told you that you are worth nothing. & yes, even most of of his conversation with ed. izzy telling him it's ok to just be ed ? killed me. & blackbeard was both of us ? don't even. i did want him to apologize to ed properly & am still glad that he did but be careful what you ask your god for am i right.
the final panning shot of the crew on the revenge. beautiful shot despite it all.
issues i had ( a longer list ) :
the editing ? why so many harsh cuts ? the way it was spliced together only contributed to the chaotic & disjointed feeling. & of course, the pacing. i think these two issues are connected & probably not the fault of the writers themselves. the show clearly really needed all 10 episodes to do what it really wanted to do, & this finale is just begging for that lost hour of screentime.
it wasn't even a good fuckery lol.
i wish lucius & pete's wedding had been... idk, just more. something more akin to calypso's birthday, a proper celebration for them. i also wish they would have given an indication they're still poly. "i now pronounce you mateys" was good tho.
ed apologizing & saying i love you & stede not doing either one in return. stede not being sappy in his irl fantasy ? impossible, im really confused by that choice.
0 resolution for stede's entire arc ? 0 indication of self reflection on his part ? & thus no resolution for the primary conflict of the show's central relationship ? they didn't even talk about their future, it just cut to them standing there & stede saying "so i guess we're innkeepers now" as if that's all he would have had to say about that ? i know that this show handwaves away a lot of things, like travel times & the realities of sailing, but i thought the story was literally about this relationship, & we don't get to see them decide on what their future together will look like. it's framed as stede just kinda going along with ed's latest whim ( since you know, they've always worked out soooo well for him in the past ) even though it's the exact opposite of what he's been moving towards personally lately, all without even saying a word about it ? i'm not even saying that i don't like this ending, but it just again felt so unearned.
very little actual resolution for ed's arc. his whole deal this season was about deciding who he wants to be, but he flip flops every time something doesn't go his way & the episode gave us no reason to think that would be different now with their inn. also he just killed a bunch of soldiers after having serious trauma surrounding the act of killing throughout the entire series, but i guess we're just supposed to believe that's ok, he's totally fine, he's an innkeeper now ! (will say more on this topic in the final section.)
poly things not being handled well or outright forgotten about. like olu / jim / archie / zheng has all the potential in the world for a beautiful poly love story & we barely got to see them interact together at all. & to think i was all :eyes: when izzy was dubbed the unicorn because i actually thought for a few episodes there that they might be doing the same thing for polyamory in s2 that they had done for queerness in s1, showing the audience that it's ok to see ourselves in stories & not just on the fringes, we're not stupid or freaks reading into something that isn't there. but turns out, it wasn't there, & i was the freak & the clown all along. live & learn.
the elephant in the room ( rip izzy you beautiful freak ) :
here's the thing. obviously i was never going to be happy that they killed my most favoritest old man. the fact that he's dead just when he found something real to live for is literally heartbreaking to me. but i could have swallowed it as a natural & important part of the narrative if one small thing was done differently: izzy could have had an actual sacrifice. & not for ed, but for the crew. after his speech about living for the crew, him choosing to act in a way that compromised his safety but earned their freedom would have felt like a completion of his arc. but instead it was a stray bullet to the left side which he earned in stede's so-called suicide mission ( don't even get me started on that line given where izzy started this season ), an injury which the show has told us previously is 100% survivable.
in the crew sacrifice scenario izzy could have acted as the symbol of piracy itself, a way of life that is dying. he is, after all, The Pirate (aside from blackbeard himself) on the show. & he has a history of letting shit slide that kinda doesn't align with the way of life they're trying to build on the revenge, not just in s1 but also in the scene with lucius in s2 ("& you? are you happy with all this?" "well, this is a pirate ship, & i'm a pirate so... yeah, i'm good with it.") ricky says they are at "the end of piracy" & izzy is the last REAL pirate (including ed because at this point as he is moving away from that life). & as izzy himself says in s1, "the only retirement we get is death." izzy also shows pretty intense self-preservation, & most of his shitty actions in s1 are motivated by often misplaced survival instincts, ("i'm not dying. not for you & not for that ponce,") so having him go against this longstanding character trait to protect the crew would have felt earned after his dramatic growth. it could have worked. it still would have hurt, but it could have worked.
instead, the way it is actually framed, the narrative actively robs izzy of this symbolism & instead makes his death entirely about ed & ed's relationship to piracy. having him die in a random incident & then having his death scene be followed up by ed finally "officially" (for the third time) giving up piracy honestly flattens everything i find interesting about them as characters & their dynamic to each other.
ed & izzy have very clearly been in clearly a mutually toxic codependent relationship (platonic or otherwise) for decades, but the framing of izzy's death being the only thing that can free ed from piracy (& blackbeard) turns izzy from a complex character of his own into a 2-dimensional plot device. & if izzy truly couldn't exist without blackbeard, then it would make sense — but we've just seen that he can, actually ! that he is a person outside of that relationship, despite what he himself thought for most of his life ! that they can both exist outside of them, & there is a very real possibility that neither of them actually need blackbeard anymore. so instead his death feels cruel to me. & because we know this is the show where injuries simply don't matter unless we need them to, we know that this was a conscious choice, that the writers genuinely felt he had to die for the story (ed's story) to continue.
& you know, that's fair on some level. he's the lead after all. but i also think this framing is actually kind of reductive to ed's character ! i don't write ed, but part of what makes him so compelling to me is that he is... kinda a "bad person," but he wants to be better. he's extremely complex. he has trauma & big feelings & he doesn't always act on them in the right way. & he feels guilt & remorse — he knows he has done wrong in the past & wants to be better, even if he doesn't always know how. & izzy has admittedly been an obstacle to him reaching that end in the past, but to frame it as if ed's actions were because of izzy, & actually izzy was making ed be blackbeard & manipulating him into doing bad things that he didn't really want to do, then i guess now that izzy is dead ed is free to skip off into the sunset happily ever after with his man ! the bad influence in his life finally gone, so he is all healed ! never mind that his most recent return to piracy & killing spree as blackbeard had literally nothing to do with izzy & everything to do with thinking he'd lost stede again. never mind that ed's trauma has its roots in things that happened to him before izzy (his father) & things that also happened to izzy (hornigold). nope, izzy was the real shackle all along. he has to die so ed can be free, & he only ever existed solely to develop ed's pain. that's what this narrative feels like. & i just... don't like the taste of it on any level. izzy says himself that blackbeard was both of them. so why does izzy have to die while ed gets to move on, given they both have shown the capacity to do so ?
the bit that i think i like least about how it's executed is izzy saying "i want to go," especially considering how he & ed are both shown to be actively suicidal in the opening of the season, & he has since started to regain his self confidence from that lowest point. & maybe that line could be read as him just trying to soothe ed in the moment, but idk, it rubbed me the wrong way for him to say he still wanted to die when in fact he had just found something he actually wanted to live for.
so ! i think that's all i have to say about that ! if you've made it this far, thanks for reading ! i'll be working today on writing up a basic canon divergence for both stede & izzy, since i don't like how either of them ended the season out. sorry, but stede's simply not ready to give up pirating just yet, even for ed. & in my head, izzy is fine because he was shot on the left side & "science" tells us there's nothing important in that half of the body anyway. : )
some little blog updates :
● i'm working on a new carrd, but it's a slow process. thanks for your patience ! ● i'll be adding back some old dropped muses, as well as some new ones & some "secret menu" but requestable character options that are really just here for my friends ( & sometimes one specific friend lol). stay tuned for the full, updated list. ● i'm going to consider this blog to be in a state of permanent semi-hiatus for the next year or so while i'm in grad school. activity until then will remain spotty. ● on that note, i think i'm going to unfollow some folks that i haven't yet interacted with. while i really wish i could write with everyone, the truth is that i'm just not in a space to accept new partners at the moment. so unless we already write, it will likely be awhile before i have the time & energy to reach out. until i graduate, this blog will be pretty much entirely geared towards my existing partners & close friends who have gotten used to waiting actual eons between replies.
thank you all for your understanding ! i genuinely adore every single one of you !
me rn as the anti-elle-woods like : did you guys know that grad school is um... hard ?
good things about picking a wrestler for asha's modern fc:
— canon-accurate big muscles — lots of posts with good vibes for greyjoy sibling dynamics due to team content — both " war paint " content from in the ring & everyday content from interviews etc. — ... also i'm gay & she's sooooooooooo gorgeous
also i finished reading the vampire l*stat the day before yesterday, which was some excellent timing on my part if i do say so myself.
btw, i'll definitely be writing an au verse where madeleine & claudia survive & get to be happy, because they deserve it, but just know that i'll be shaking my head the whole time so everyone knows that i understand & accept the important role their death played in the main narrative.