Pride Month Picks: Our Flag Means Death Is A Gay Romance For The Ages
This article is part of Pride Month Picks, a collection of pieces that aim to highlight queer representation across games, television, film, books, and more throughout June.
I can’t stop thinking about gay pirates. I want to uproot my life and take to the seven seas in search of a swashbuckling sweetheart who will sweep me off my feet. HBO’s Our Flag Means Death is absolutely responsible for this new fantasy, with the romance of Stede Bonnet and Captain Blackbeard drawing me in, breaking my heart, and piecing it back together again as I cheer on the igniting bond between these two men.
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Having recently been renewed for a second season, David Jenkins’ comedy series is bound to delve even further into this relationship as Rhys Darby and Taiki Watiti return to inhabit their characters. I’m so relieved things aren’t being cut short, with the final episode concluding on a cliffhanger that leaves Blackbeard heartbroken while Stede attempts to reunite with his new love and make amends for past mistakes. The potential is immeasurable, and all because the building blocks have been so perfectly assembled.
One of the things I love most about Our Flag Means Death is how it normalises queer identity. Despite taking place centuries before LGBTQ+ people were accepted in wider society, the show is filled with characters who are unafraid to show their attraction to the same sex through physical touch and flirtatious comments, while even those with no romantic connection are intimate or caring to their friends aboard The Revenge.
There isn’t a single moment in the show where someone has to step forward and justify who they are, except for Stede in the final episode in
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