Our Flag Means Death / YMMV

Adorkable: Stede. His giddily enthusiastic approach to piracy and his awkwardly endearing attempts to encourage his crew are some of his crowning moments.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Did Blackbeard always plan to kill Stede and take his identity but bailed at the last moment because they'd become friends, or was that a lie he told Izzy to keep him on the crew and give him an excuse to spend time with Stede?
- In a flashback in Episode 4, Mary tells Stede not to play pirates with the children as it supposedly gives them nightmares. However, the children seem to play the game with great enthusiasm, even pretending to run Stede through with a sword and laughing all the while. Was Mary just trying to keep the kids from becoming like their father, as she hates the ocean and the idea of sailing? Or was Stede's memory (or dying dream) faulty, and the children really were scared of the game at the time?
- Was Ed being honest when he told Stede that he hadn't (directly) been responsible for someone's death since killing his father or was that a lie that was revealed when Calico Jack references an instance of Ed setting a ship ablaze and leaving its occupants to die?
- Is Nana actually Jim's biological grandmother, or is she an unrelated nun who raised them after the Jiminez family was slain? When Oluwande asks if Nana is Jim's grandma, they don't confirm or deny it, just sarcastically ask if he thinks the situation is funny.
- Is Izzy just plain homophobic and directs his ire at Lucius the most because he is the most visibly effeminate, or is he not judging him for his sexuality, but the fact that he's sleeping with most of the crew? (The fact that he first punishes Lucius with backbreaking but unnecessary - de-barnacling is usually done while a ship is careened - work before he catches Lucius sketching Fang or learns about Lucius having 'sketched' most of the crew would suggest the former.) Does Izzy think his own masochistic obsession with Blackbeard is only acceptable because of its singular focus?
  - Relatedly, is Izzy homophobic at all? He already seems to be aware that Edward is attracted to men (as he immediately leaps to the conclusion that Edward is falling for Stede and later sends Calico Jack to lure him away from the ship), he only zeroes in on Lucius after the latter backtalks him when he tries to make him do chores, he never discriminates against Fang or Pete (who he is definitely aware are attracted to men), his mutual animosity with Stede starts well before Stede even meets Edward, and he only vehemently protests Edward adopting Stede's mannerisms and/or showing vulnerability when he does so in public (implying that he's more fearful about Edward's reputation slipping than he is about Edward becoming "softer"; he's supportive of Edward retiring into Stede's life via Kill and Replace, and when he picks up that Edward is uncomfortable with killing Stede he privately offers to do it himself).
Aluminum Christmas Trees:
- In the first episode, Stede robs a fishing boat of a ... potted plant. Pirates actually did raid merchants not of gold and jewels (though they were happy to take them), but for more prosaic items (ropes, spars, canvas, coopers, smiths), because they were desperate for basic supplies rather than famed wealth and fortune.
- Despite the show making almost no effort at historical accuracy (entirely on purpose), Blackbeard historically did take a shine to Stede Bonnet and merged their crews, despite the latter being a well off merchant who randomly ran off to be a pirate for no clear reason. Considering they spent the rest of their lives together, portraying their relationship as a romance isn't completely out of left field.
- Stede Bonnet was a useless tit who no one respected. But they put up with him. People genuinely liked him because he was a nice, kind useless tit, and he really did pay a living wage. His sailors put up with him and real hardcore pirates accepted him because he just really wanted to be one of the boys, even though he was so entirely out of place and doomed to hang.^noteWhich he did. He died of hanging.
- The naval officers' wigs are all a level of obviously fake that would approach Dodgy Toupee if they weren't clearly worn over full heads of hair — and this is entirely accurate^note. Powdered wigs were accessories and were not designed to be taken for the wearer's real hair, and while fashionable civilians were likely to either shave their heads or maintain a very short cut underneath theirs, naval officers typically let their hair grow at least a bit at sea so that when they worked without the wigs they'd have some built-in sun protection (which raises the question of why Chauncey Badminton often forgoes the whole business, of course).
- It's easily mistakable for more Rule of Funny, but the historical Stede Bonnet really did install a library on Revenge and was often spotted wandering around on deck wearing a dressing gown.
- The entire rough outline of the first season matches the historical record, including Blackbeard marooning Stede's former crew in the end, which makes the Anachronism Stew choices that much funnier.
- The historical Calico Jack Rackham was indeed a drunk. In fact, he was captured by the British because he and his crew, minus Anne Bonny and Mary Reade, were hungover from a party with turtle fishermen the night before. This makes his characterization as a drunken frat boy more historically accurate than his portrayal in Black Sails. Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow, with his drunkenness and foppishness was based on Jack Rackham.
- The scene where Stede teaches Blackbeard how to eat French cuisine is rather fitting, given that Blackbeard stole another ship's French cook.
- The scene in season 2, episode 6 where Stede forces Ned Low to walk the plank to his death might seem like the show checking off another entry on the list of tropes and clichés in pirate media, but historically Stede Bonnet is one of the few pirates who was alleged to have actually done this during his career.
And You Thought It Would Fail: The show’s odd release timeline, lack of advertising, and delay in renewal negotiations strongly indicates HBO had no faith in it. And then it was the #1 most streamed new show for 7 straight weeks, and even after it was kicked to #2 by Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in its debut week, it went straight back to #1 the week after, beating out competition from juggernauts like Moon Knight and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Ass Pull: Izzy dying by getting shot in the previously-established-as-nonfatal left side, because nobody bothered to search Ricky for weapons when they took him hostage.
Award Snub: Despite being a big audience and critical hit, the show received zero Emmy nominations. This is likely because of a lack of marketing from HBO, and putting the show up for Emmy nomination at all was last minute.
Awesome Music:
- "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac playing as Ed, Stede, and the Revenge crew are all arrested by the English Navy.
- Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" provides a bittersweet atmosphere for the ending of Episode 9.
- "Miles From Nowhere" by Cat Stevens makes for an extremely fitting end to the first season.
- "Avalanche" by Leonard Cohen plays as Ed transforms himself into the Kraken persona.
- The original score by Mark Mothersbaugh runs the gamut from lively and comedic to heavy and dramatic rather effortlessly, with special mention to the leitmotif that reoccurs during tender moments between Stede and Ed which is a simple and understated piano piece that does a tremendous job of underscoring the emotion of those scenes as well as their burgeoning romance.
- Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" creates a suitably ethereal, epic mood for Ed and Stede's reunion wherein Ed, unconscious and on the verge of death, chooses to live after hearing Stede's voice.
  I know you have a little life in you yet
  I know you have a lot of strength left
Base-Breaking Character: The fandom tends to be split between those who see Izzy as a straight-up villain trying to push Edward into being Blackbeard for his own gratification, and those who see him as an emotionally stunted Only Sane Man trying to maintain the shield that's kept both him and Edward safe and successful during their careers as pirates.
- With Izzy no longer serving as the antagonist in Season 2 and going through an absolutely brutal Trauma Conga Line, he has, for many people, been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
Broken Base:
- The second season in general is fairly divisive, due to changes necessitated by HBO cutting the show's budget by 40%. The lack of budget resulted in the season being cut to eight episodes instead of ten and several characters being Put on a Bus, depriving the writers of both the time and the material necessary to fully tell the story they wanted to, and forcing them instead to quickly Wrap It Up in case the show was cancelled (which it was). On the other hand, a lot of Season 2 was very well-received by fans despite the limitations set by the studio. The overall conflict is, essentially, about how badly the changes affected the show's quality ("not at all" to "hugely"), and what parts of the show – specific plot points, arcs, or episodes – affected its quality.
- Izzy's death in the Season 2 finale was not received well by many fans, as for them it not only contradicted the Plot Armor for the good characters^note and the setting's Magical Realism ^note, but contradicted the emotional arcs established for the season^note. For those who considered Izzy The Scrappy or were just deeply moved by Izzy's death scene, it was a fitting end to his character. Izzy being the nexus of a lot of fandom conflict already did not help.
Complete Monster: "Calypso's Birthday": Edward "Ned" Low is a pirate obsessed with how Edward "Ed" Teach has surpassed his previous record of raids. Unlike Ed, Low is a brutal sadist who regularly kills his victims and gleefully tortures those he captures in "symphonies" where he times each blow to fall with the music. Low even kills his own brother while trying to kill everyone aboard the revenge for his wounded ego.
Fanon:
- Many fans assume that Izzy's "X" tattoo is Edward's signature.
- Any fic that involves or mentions the Badminton twins will almost always have Chauncey be one of Stede's childhood bullies along with Nigel. On a broader scale, they are also treated as The Dividual, despite canonically never even interacting with each other and having completely different personalities.
- Edward's ship is never named, but it's near universally assumed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge.
- If Edward and Jack's old captain Benjamin Hornigold appears in a fic, he will almost always be characterized as a Dirty Old Man.
Fans Prefer the New Her: In Season Two, Stede sheds his fancy wardrobe for a more rugged, piratical look, including an earring. Fan reaction to this makeover has been overwhelmingly positive.
Friendly Fandoms:
- With What We Do in the Shadows (2019). Both are farcical comedies involving Taika Waititi that adapt popular but niche genres (vampires and pirates respectively) and feature a Cast Full of Gay.
- With Black Sails, due to them both being pirate shows with well-written LGBTQ+ representation, though otherwise they share very little in common tonally (except, oddly, the same Leonard Cohen song to represent a pirate captain collapsing into his darkest self).
- With Good Omens. The Blackbeard/Stede relationship has great appeal to Crowley/Aziraphale shippers, too, thanks to hitting at least some of the same visual signposts (light/dark, cheerfulness vs. self-conscious insistence on being Not Nice, etc.) and the "dark half" of each ship loving the other from more or less the beginning, while the "light half" takes a while to realize it. They even got their own hashtag, "#PirateOmens."
- With The Terror (which already shares a significant fandom overlap with Black Sails, see above), due to the use of maritime fiction tropes as a way of exploring trauma, as well as (textually in the case of Our Flag Means Death, strongly implicitly- and per the actors' Word of Saint Paul- in The Terror) a love story between two co-captains at sea.
- With The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent due to shippers of Nick/Javi also shipping Stede/Edward.
Genius Bonus: While most of the anachronisms in the show are there due to Rule of Cool or Rule of Funny, viewers with knowledge of fashion and art history have noted that Mary's clothes and art are used to hint at who she is outside of her role as Stede's wife. During flashbacks to their marriage, she wears era-appropriate 18th century gowns, but before their wedding and while Stede is gone, she adopts styles from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Her paintings would also fit right in with the Cubist movement of the early 20th century. Both of these details suggest that Mary is a woman ahead of her time who was being held back by her marriage to Stede, which possibly helps explain why she is instantly accepting of Stede when he comes out to her.
Growing the Beard: The first few episodes, while decent, are nothing to write home about. Once Blackbeard joins the crew, things get much more interesting. Word of God says this was deliberate, as the audience needed to see how useless Stede was on his own so we could then see how he and Ed improve each other.
He Really Can Act:
- Rhys Darby was mostly known for his stand-up, with his acting roles being comedic in nature, but has absolutely stunned the fandom in his performance as Stede Bonnet.
- Taika Waititi (who, when he does act instead of direct, is usually in a comedic role) shows off his real chops as Blackbeard, who can go from his usual quirky comedy vibe to being heartbreakingly tragic or genuinely intimidating and menacing.
- Leslie Jones is also very intimidating as Spanish Jackie, and acquits herself well in her brief action sequences.
LGBT Fanbase: Comes with the territory of having a Cast Full of Gay which includes the two main characters. It helps that the characters' sexualities are treated as being completely normal, and unlike many stories with an abundance of queer characters, this is not the focus of the series, but rather just a fluid if still essential part of the narrative. Also helps that the representation isn't even immediately clear, which has been praised as attracting viewers who otherwise might not have seen this kind of story, and potentially opening bridges for more queer characters to be seamlessly depicted in stories they typically aren't thought of appearing in.
Like You Would Really Do It: Many fans believed that Lucius survived being thrown overboard by Ed at the end of Season 1, as killing such a beloved character would make it difficult to redeem Ed in the future. It also seemed unlikely that such a queer-friendly show would risk stumbling into the discredited Bury Your Gays trope. Neither a death nor a body are shown and the scene ends with him still yelling while Blackbeard walks away, leaving some leeway for survival. Wild Mass Guessing connects his survival with an unfired Chekhov's Gun from the pilot: the Revenge has a number of secret passages behind the bulkheads that could hide a stowaway. Lo and behold, Season 2 reunites him with Stede's crew only two episodes in.
Love to Hate:
- Calico Jack is a manipulative Jerkass with the personality of a drunken frat bro, but his insight into Ed's past and Will Arnett's bombastic portrayal make him popular with fans.
- Izzy Hands is a bully, schemer, and Hypocrite, and fans love him for it. Con O'Neill's nuanced performance certainly helps.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Izzy. It doesn't help that Con O'Neill is a very attractive man and Izzy, unlike other characters, is not canonically in a relationship with anyone.
Memetic Mutation:
- Fans latched onto the fact that the real Israel Hands — played here by the 50-something Con O'Neill — was only sixteen years old at the time the story takes place. This has led to jokes about Izzy being a "moody teenager" due to his frequent angry outbursts.
  - Doubly funny after Spanish Jackie reveals that anger ages your face and body by decades.
- Asking Nathan Foad about Lucius' ability to swim because his character is thrown overboard in the last episode of Season One.
- Referring to Izzy as the only human in a cast full of muppets.
- Many have noted Stede's appearance in the flashbacks in Episode 4 (especially the scene where he's in bed wearing a nightcap) is uncannily like Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol.
- Stede Bonnet is a Leggy Blonde is also gaining in popularity after a few notable video edits, including one replacing Ed's song in episode 10 with Leggy Blonde and a few posts going around pointing out that Stede's costumes draw far more attention to his legs than would be usual for the period.
- Season 2 is all about soup. ^Explanation
Portmanteau Couple Name: One of the biggest ship names for Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet used on sites like Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter is "BlackBonnet". Other contenders include Gentlebeard and Blackstede.
- In the same vein, Ed/Izzy is "Blackhands" and Stede/Izzy is "Gentlehands," with the OT3 ship name being Steddy Hands.
- Played With in regards to Frenchie/Izzy: the obvious name would be "Frizzy," but the current popular ship name is "Ouizzy" (pronounced "wheezy"). Because it's French.
Recurring Fanon Character:
- It's common for fanfiction to include their own versions of other pirates from the era. Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Sam Bellamy are the most popular. As of season 2, Anne Bonny and Mary Read's inclusion is now Ascended Fanon.
- It's also common to invent additional Badminton relatives, all of whom are identical to each other, as Stede already forgot that the Badmintons were twins and so could easily have forgotten they were triplets (or sextuplets) instead.
Slow-Paced Beginning: The main story is about the relationship between Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard. The latter is absent - though referenced - in the first two episodes, and spends the third mostly offscreen before his grand reveal at the very end. The pace then picks up once those two are together and Blackbeard essentially becomes Stede's co-lead.
Unpopular Popular Character:
- Stede starts out the show disliked by everyone, including his peers, his crew, and even his own family. Outside the show, he's one of its most popular characters as one half of the Official Couple.
- Within the show, the number of people who can stand Izzy can be counted on one hand. Outside the show, he's one of the most popular characters outside of the Official Couple.
The Woobie:
- Stede Bonnet. An insecure man still not over other boys and his father bullying him as a kid. He's forced to marry a woman he doesn't love, and after trying and failing to make it work for years, leaves his family to be a pirate. He proves to be out of his depth there, to the point where his own crew nearly kill him for being so soft. After many misadventures - including having to deal with the guilt of his first technical kill - he goes back to his old life. And once there, he realizes his family were better off without him, and that he threw away the chance to live happily with a man he actually loved.
- Edward Teach had to kill his abusive father when he was just a kid. He worked on Hornigold's ship, another abusive and violent environment, before he got his own. He's so bored with his life that death sounds like an interesting change of pace. His own first mate betrays him to the Royal Navy to get the man he loves killed. He confesses to a crime he didn't commit to protect Stede, and when that doesn't work, he gets between him and the firing squad. To save Stede's life, he has to agree to serve the king. The morning after they kiss and agree to run away together, Stede abandons him with no explanation. When he gets back to the ship, he cries in a blanket fort and writes sad poetry. Even in the end, when he's trying to get back to the violent lifestyle he no longer wants, he's more sad and pitiful than actually scary.
  - Ed spends the first two episodes of the second season desperately trying to get someone to kill him. He eventually starts acting so unhinged that the crew mutinies in self defense. Then he's in a coma for an unknown length of time, dreaming that he's trapped on an island with his old captain, Hornigold. When Hornigold asks him if he'd rather be alive or dead, he just says that he thinks he's supposed to want to live. When pushed to list some things worth living for, he can only come up with a short list of very basic human needs (warmth, food, and orgasms).
- Chauncey Badminton. His quest to avenge him proves to be an embarrassing failure, as just when he's about to get justice the killer is able to legally escape execution, sending a powerless Chauncey into a hissy fit as his crew holds him down. And when he later tries to take matters into his own hands and kill Stede, he winds up tripping and shooting himself dead. Making his pursuit even more pitiful, he doesn't even know that his brother's death was a complete accident.

YMMV / Our Flag Means Death

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