Work Text:
so the thing is the more i think about it the more i think lucius living in the walls of the revenge would be an excellent way of letting episode 1 be dark and gritty to give you the feeling of ed and izzy and co’s Blackbeard World while also retaining the humor
imagine, the show opens with a “previously on” that’s mostly quickfire and comes down at the end to Ed killing Lucius and then becoming Blackbeard: “farewell, Bonnet’s playthings”
and then the start of the first episode of season 2 begins with a voiceover:
“It’s been four weeks since I began living in the walls of the Revenge with nothing to eat but rats that chew on my feet at night–”
lucius skids out into the galley, steals a big piece of meat, and then skitters back, maybe back to a room he’s made his own (one of stede’s hidden rooms, maybe?)
“–and still there has been no sign of this new Blackbeard ever going back to the person we all loved.”
then the episode is told from Lucius’ point of view, commenting on how the raids go etc and hiding out from trouble and nearly getting caught and by the end of it he’s exhausted
and the tag of the episode is just he’s curled up, asleep in Stede’s auxiliary wardrobe, using some of his summer linens as blankets, and the door slides open, casting a beam of candlelight across his fast asleep body
Ed sighs, mutters under his breath, “this is a stupid place to sleep,” and shuts the door on him
end episode
if i was writing ofmd season 2, i wouldnt have stede in the first episode at all
i’d have the first episode focus on ed and izzy and their Real Pirate Vibes (and I’d use Lucius as a comedy angle, but that’s in another post) and it’d be dark and there’d be killing and maiming and pirating across the board
and at the end of the episode as they wreak piratey havoc on some unsuspecting ship, i’d play a hauntingly arranged sea shanty, something like this:
and then as the song and the scene of the pirates doing dark murdery pirate things faded to black and silence i’d cut to stede and his crew assembled together and it’s all bright and colorful and he’s just like
“Right then, time to get my man back!”
i just think that would be delightful
addendum: ABBA should fade in over Stede and co after the Creepy Shanty departs. i dont know what song. i do not ABBA much aside from Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) I am open to suggestions.
ANONYMOUS:
It's Stede's fucking story, it's his fucking show, it's RHYS'S fucking show. He is the star, NOT TAIKA and certainly not fucking Con O'Neil. Izzy does not deserve to have more fucking screen time than fucking STEDE aka THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE FUCKING SHOW in the season premiere. Piece of fucking shit.
me: izzy izzy izzy hands izzy izzy i’m an izzy enjoyer izzy
anon: [static]
me: i wanna see ed’s world (which includes izzy) in the season premiere because it would mirror season 2 and we really and truly deserve to see some of ed outside of stede, and of the ed that was before he boarded the revenge in episode 3, and be set up for season 2 knowing what stede will find when he does get back to ed considering it’s been stated firmly that it is a rom com :)
anon: [goes nuclear]
but also, like, narrative framing is actually really important? you dont get a show like ofmd without a veritable shit ton of narrative framing, that’s what makes the story so good (otherwise it’d just be a weird floppy thing propped up on pretty leads kissing and a ridiculous amount of historical inaccuracy)
most of episode 3 of season 1 is ed and izzy because narrative framing, you needed that time with ed and izzy to set up the future relationship between stede and ed. stede wasn’t in a lot of that episode aside from trying not to die and having some hallucinatory flashbacks, because it was important to further the plot
yes, it’s rhys’s show, but the reason why rhys (and everyone else) love the show so much is it’s treated with the respect and reverence it deserves and is given proper narrative treatment, not just left to flounder around like a dying squid
having season 2 open with ed (and by extension izzy) and their darker narrative path would be good narrative framing for the show, it would set up where stede is coming in, and would be an excellent lead in for stede to be the lead of the show that he is
(also, lots of shows have Leads and those Leads don’t always appear as the Main Focus of the first episode of the next season because of narrative framing and the importance of the plot. there’s often a big chunk of time dedicated to the anticipation of “when will we see our beloved lead again?”)
i’m sure david jenkins has his own ideas and you dont have to worry a jot that my ideas will come to fruition and i’m positive his will be a thousand times better
but i also think that if david jenkins sat down rhys darby and said, “so, narratively this is how we’re opening season 2, and we’ll feature you in the last scene as lead-in to the rest of the season” and it worked and the script was right and the plot and narrative was excellent, rhys darby would not give a fuck about how much screen time he had in the first episode, his fucks would be allocated to the show being the best show it could be