explicitly places toxic masculinity at the root of a lot of evils
I really feel that, though -- the way Ed's "return" to being Blackbeard is an expression of grief and hurt that makes him more miserable (and breaks up a great crew.)
It's responding in a complex way to the romanticization of violence in pirate mythology
That's such a great point. The violence in the show is traumatic or grotesquely comedic, but not heroic; the most heroic act is arguably Ed's act of surrender to the British. *Not* making a doomed heroic last stand, but a pragmatic act that saves everyone's lives.
deliberately NOT queerbaiting,
Totally! I think they gave us the exact setup of queerbait -- strong chemistry between the leads + plus side characters to "channel" the queerness -- and then were like "nope this was the story all along." Revisionist queerbaiting. Queetbait baiting.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2022-04-07 03:05 am (UTC)I really feel that, though -- the way Ed's "return" to being Blackbeard is an expression of grief and hurt that makes him more miserable (and breaks up a great crew.)
That's such a great point. The violence in the show is traumatic or grotesquely comedic, but not heroic; the most heroic act is arguably Ed's act of surrender to the British. *Not* making a doomed heroic last stand, but a pragmatic act that saves everyone's lives.
Totally! I think they gave us the exact setup of queerbait -- strong chemistry between the leads + plus side characters to "channel" the queerness -- and then were like "nope this was the story all along." Revisionist queerbaiting. Queetbait baiting.