I Watched the Gay Pirate Show | Our Flag Means Death SPEEDPAINT 

Ahoy mateys, thanks for stopping by! (^^)/ I already talked up an absolute storm in this video but honestly there’s so much to be said about this show - hopefully y’all can relate to what I was able to fit into twenty minutes anyhow!🌈🏴‍☠️ (also I am once again politely reminding y’all to feel free to share ur thoughts and fave moments from the show here in the comments as well! (Please and thank from me and and my ongoing OFMD hyperfixation 🙏🏻💖))

Puts a whole new spin on "be gay, do crimes."

"There's definitely ways to portray a character is hot without zooming in on their boobs during a fight" Oh you mean how Ed slowly opens his jacket and shows his stomach during the "stab me" scene and its framed as flirty and suggestive but he also has a completely normal and healthy body anyone can realistically have?

Taika being Māori and playing a queer character is something I’ll never shut up about, me being queer and Māori as well. Growing up I always felt as though queerness was always very very whitewashed & that always played a role in how I saw myself. So seeing someone that not only is queer but looks like me??? That brings tears to my eyes :’)))

I haven't seen OFMD yet, but I still have a ton of thoughts on it and what it means to the queer community. When I heard about it for the first time and saw the characters, it hit me that these aren't teenagers or young adults. These are grown people who are queer and trans, and they are allowed to exist. It made me realize that media doesn't show older queer people. OFMD shows us that there is a future for us. That we can live into our 40s, 50s, and beyond and be HAPPY. Like you said in the video, most queer rep is about suffering. We get killed off. We don't get to have a happy ending or a happy life. It made me emotional thinking about it, but this show is letting young queer people, myself included, that there is a future for us. There is a happy and exciting life waiting for us. There is hope for us, and I can't think of any other show that has shown that.

AUGH How did I just notice that Ed and Stede's poses are shaped like a heart 😭😭😭 Edit: god, the second you started coloring Ed's eyes- you drew Taika's heart eyes PERFECTLY. LOOK AT HOW MUCH HE LOVES HIM

When Jim was revealed to be nonbinary I was just so damn happy, YES! THIS HERE! This is amazing representation!

This is exactly how I feel about this show but couldn’t put into words, and the details in the drawing are so so so amazing… thank you so much for this, it was a genuine treat!!!

16:18 "...after a lifetime of media that has never once let things play out that way, and thinking "we can have this." We can have funny, sincere, swashbuckling, beautiful love stories that don't ever even once call the worth of our love and ourselves into question. And yeah.. turns out we can." *ABD I am SOBBING please*

"to whatever it is that izzy hands has going on" is literally my favorite line i can't believe my favorite character is the emotionally repressed loyal rat man

After finishing s1 I actually burst into tears "this" I thought "this is what media should be; unapoligetically queer, diverse and open and lovely" and I'm so proud it came from my country.

I was listening to this because I don't have HBO to watch Our Flag Means Death and wanted to know more and when ABD said "'what is her name?' he says 'his name is Ed' and simply, without questioning, Mary just hugs him." and I didn't think I'd start crying at that but holy shit did the waterworks start happening, honestly that meant more to me than any dramatic hollywood coming out scene ever has or could.

Thank you so much for verbalizing everything that's so so good about this show. I think the moment I realized that I could really trust the show was the beard joke Lucius makes when he accidentally sees Jim and they're threatening him - just the fact that someone on the team had enough knowledge to make that kind of joke, that the team agreed to put it in there, it was just like "oh, these people are on my side". Which is a rare feeling these days with media, especially as a queer person. Oh, and beautiful art as always!!

"Hopefully I've not gotten too into my feelings during this video" Me, crying all my tears: No no we're fine... Side note, I didn't think I'd watch the show but when I saw you video pop up, I instantly knew it was gonna be worth it. Of course I watched it all in one night yersterday. Thank you for making me discover so many good shows. The kind of shows you're glad you've seen, and you know you'll never forget.

If you liked "Our Flag means death" I would recommend watching (if you haven't already) The Owl House. Good story, good representation and lots of good humour and feels. LOVED the drawing btw!

been meaning to watch the show forever! i don’t want to get spoilers but i DEFINITELY want to watch a sketchbook session with abd sooooo….guess i’m off to watch the gay pirates!! be back soon!

I absolutely agree with everything that was said but especially with how casual queer themes were addressed in the show. I think a lot of the time queer themes are put in with straight audiences in mind and it's why they centre so much on how hard it is to be queer as kind of a "hey don't be the a--hole that makes someone feel like this" but I think this is one of the few shows that was written with queer audiences in mind, and because of that we were allowed to skip the questioning and the coming out scenes AND THEN THE ENDING CAME AND KILLED US ALL

GOD THIS SHOW WAS SO GOOD AND THIS ART IS *CHEFS KISS*

This is a great video, and wonderful art as well! A small nitpick is that at the start you say that Taika Waititi is the director of OFMD, and while he is a executive producer, the show was created and mainly directed by David Jenkins :)

I'm crying and I'm convinced to watch this show. I can't STRESS ENOUGH how much joy and catharsis I felt by how you described the finale. It was something that, like you said, the community needed. I think I needed it too. As I'm typing this, the tears won't stop and I am definitely gonna convince my bf to watch it with me.

When you brought up the love scene I started crying, that scene is probably the one that hit hardest of the whole show for me, if for no other reason than because it was a beautiful description of love and accepting.

Ok, video topic aside, the animations for ur sprite have gotten so GOOD! LIKE WHAT?!? I love them

"his name is Ed." really hit me when watching too, I didn't really realize why but you helped explain it. Something so simple meant so much to my little gay heart lmao, definitely one of my favorite moments

This channel and the art fills me with an overwhelming feeling of comfort and trust and I love it

this show was SO GOOD IM STILL DYING FROM IT. the season finale destroyed me, but one thing I haven't seen people mention is how we as a audience haven't really seen Ed without Stede. if theres one thing their divorce arc will do, I hope it's going Ed his own space to breath and be himself without stede (and get together please taika). man has more things he needs to work out

i have finally seen Our Flag and it is GLORIOUS. it means so much to see a show that isn't about coming out or dealing with nasty comments from bigots full of teens and young adults. the fact that it proves yeah, queer people can be happy all our lives. our stories do not have to end in tragedy, we do not have to die before the end credits. i heard once that one of the reasons a lot of characters are over their 40s and 50s is because it was made for folks who grew up in a difficult time for the queer community, as a nod of "we see you, don't ever doubt that your identity or love is something to be speculated about or shunned for." but as a younger queer person, it's more of a beacon of hope to me. it's not only Taika Waititi in leather trousers and gay swashbuckling, it's like being told you have a future ahead of you, and it can be bright and happy and full of unapologetic queer joy. OFMD is a letter of love to the queer community, and like you said, i hope this becomes the standard for movies and TV.

This is why there is no bi flag emoji, clearly we don’t need one since we have the Pirate flag 😂 The Birates life is the life for meee!

Also!!! Trauma!!! Men with feelings!!! Big scary blackbeard absolutely breaking down sobbing because he has PTSD and he was having a flashback. He wasn't ridiculed or thought to be any less amazing or scary. He just had his moment and everyone moved on. Same with Stede. Adult men having feelings and trauma and not being very good at handling either but that doesn't make them any less of a man. I love that shit. And to extend on the talk about the cast not being full of big ripped men and curvy women. The body positivity!! The fact that the love stories were not just "the hot ones" but people of all sizes and colors and all that shit. Taika Waititi in leather pants and a crop top with his little tummy sticking out I ADORE HIM. He wasn't forced to starve himself so he could have a 6 pack he just looked like a decently fit guy. I love this show.

I could not have clicked on this faster XD and yeah, 'his name is Ed' is possibly my favourite scene in the show and I cry every time!

I CAME AS SOON AS I HEARD YES!!!!!!! Their gonna look so good in your style😭😭😭

My hometown is going to have their second pride parade this year (last year was their first) and now I'm wondering if I can get a group of us together and dress up as pirates.

I can't get over the love and tenderness in ed's eyes. you're so incredibly skilled

I was really interested in what you’d say about this video and you hit a lot of the feelings i had about this show on the head. I did laugh very hard at you calling Rhys Darby “Rhys Davis” though sorry haha. All the credit to David Jenkins for making this show and letting it be what it is as well as the many directors. It’s just a gorgeous series and I’m so hyped about season 2. Definitely gonna nab this design on redbubble

yesss is my favorite artist dude

Already crying because of gay pirate show, then heard your incredibly detailed, thoughtful and meaningful, commentary and cried more, THEN noticed that the steam off of the middle tea cup makes a little heart and just absolutely BROKE. Thank you.

OH MY GOD YES. I’m so happy you’re drawing them!!!

YESSSSS!!!!!! THANK YOU!!! I watched this show recently and immediately finishing it, I thought "okay when's ABD getting in on this?" SO excited for the gay pirate love! 💙💙💙💙 Also, SEASON 2 LETS GOOOOOO

Oh, my heart! I haven't watched the show, but just listening to him talk about it in such a passionate way makes me get a bit emotional! I hope the next season is just as great! Also, the art, chefs kiss, and beautiful as always!

Today has been filled with dysphoria and just a lack of joy, but seeing this and listening to your rant about queer representation in this show is just reminding me about pride just to keep going. As a closeted trans-man who may or may not be gay, this video has just made me smile in a way that has made my day better than it started. Keep up the good work, and happy Pride Month!

Me and my friends should definitely watch this. It’s gay, there’s pirates, there’s gay pirates, we love humour

THIS IS THE EARLIEST I HAVE EVER BEEN I'M SO EXCITED JAHSBWBWBQ 💖🌸💖🌸💖🌸💖

This show absolutely blasted my past crying record. I broke down into tears 5. Times. The only comedy was me thinking that this was a happy show

I saw the notification and let out an audible YESSS

The fanarts for this show always manage to make me cry for some reason 🥺♥️

this is just another push to watch ofmd and i will i'd like to say there's an animated show called the owl house with just a lot of gay and even a nonbinary character played by a nonbinary va. it's filled with magic and witches and just because it's disney it doesn't mean squat it's got a lot of angst and feels. main character is in a queer relationship and it just happens no one questions anything they're just dorky gays okay sorry i wanted to ramble byE-

hahahaha literally just finished watching the show for the second time and your vid popped up ^_^ *edit: your take on the show is so good. I don't fall into the queer category, but it's honestly so refreshing just to get to see something different like this. It's so rare to get to see two people fall in love in a comfortable way. So often it's forced or drama related or so toxic I don't understand how someone said: 'that's romantic"...just seeing these two guys spend time together and find that, regardless of their obvious differences, they have so much to offer the other it was amazing. I'm so tired of being marketed shit like 365 days were some rich freak kidnaps someone and it's somehow supposed to be romantic and not fucking terrifying. Also, Lucien and his "I actually think I'm just so-so, but I've decided to carry myself like I'm cute" attitude is just fab. He reminds me so much of my nephew who just came out. I hope Lucien's not really dead, it's going to kill me if he is. Also loved the crew asking Jim if they're a mermaid 🤣 and Frenchie's comment about women having crystals in their bodies that attract bad energy lol

Oh man. The scene at the end when Mary hugs him *wrecked* me.

You described exactly waht I felt watching teh show! And your art, that is already incredible, is getting like insanelly good! You added more depth to the shadows, it made everything pops up even more! Love this piece!

First off, your drawing is absolutely stunning and I adore your artstyle so much istg - I am so soft for my gay pirates And now to our flag: that scene with Ed and Mary talking about love made me sob so dang bad. To be fair, the second half of episode 9 and episode 10 made me sob. (I think y'all know what I'm talking about) and I just love the show with all my heart. The vibes reminded me of Good Omens (my comfort show) but with the gayness dialed up a couple notches and I appreciate it A LOT I'm also ace so I really appreciate we didn't get unnecessary booty-shots like you mentioned but still have it look hot (or in my case, really aesthetically appealing)

I clicked this so frickin fast. Great video as always!

I watched OFMD finally last week and this all just perfectly ties my thoughts together. Never thought I could see myself so clearly in every way with a show like this.

I saw the announcement and just started celebrating!! I love this show so much and I was excited that you were covering it!

Alright you’ve convinced me ta try out this show lol. I’ve only been putting it off cus I hate live action shows (thinking about the fact that people have to actually act out awkward scenes just makes me want to die), but imma try it out

Oh my god! I have been anticipating the release of this video after seeing it on your Instagram! One of my favorite shows and I love the cast❤️❤️

Yo, if you want to do more video-essay-y stuff like this with your speedpaints, I'm all for it! I loved the art, but your breakdown of this show has convinced me to see this whenever I get time. And not gonna lie, your more personal explanation of how you approached the show rep-wise and how it affected you really struck a chord in me. That's how /I/ feel, too! You put something into words /I/ didn't even realize I struggled with, or wanted. The whole "bracing yourself for the ill-advised joke for the character we're lucky to even have in there" thing got me, but also the "if we're represented, it's one person, and it's either all about their Gay Angst or it's barely a namedropped attribute we never actually get to see, y'know, /represented./" Media's moved a long way, and I naturally find myself drawn to stuff with better representation (mainly podcasts ha, haven't heard a non-extremely-gay podcast yet), but mainstream media and LGBTQ+ rep is just starting to not trip over itself. Hearing you describe this show I've never seen be /good/ at its representation /while/ being funny, /while/ having a plot, and /while/ being written and acted by big-name people? It's going to reach a wide audience, perhaps even the audiences that normally wouldn't search for shows with LGBTQ+ rep in them, and it's going to show them what we can be. Not just shoehorned in there, and not just the butt of a joke: just who we are. Thanks for making this video. You helped me understand and put into words something that's been important to me for a long time, and it means a lot. Definitely bookmarking this one to come back to. Happy Pride y'all!

This show has been my whole world for the past couple weeks and I love it SO so much. Thank you for making my pride month Alex :D

beautiful art!!!! this show made me so happy and its so nice to hear other people ranting about how happy it made them :D

Oooooh my goodness this ART its so good I couldn't stop staring at all the elements you put into the background as well I love it

your voice is so comforting and I absolutely adore your art style!

Gorgeous art put in an awesome video about one of my favourite shows ever. Alex you are the best !!

I love this video so much. The art is gorgeous and the love that these two characters have for each other is so clearly shown in their expressions, it just melts my heart.

You articulated everything I love about this show perfectly and more! Great art as always, but now I wanna watch the show again haha

YESS I recently watched it and it’s MAGNIFICENT! This is absolutely lovely!

absolutely amazing i loved not only the art but the commentary!!

Im definitely gonna watch the show! It sounds so great, I started crying happily when you talked about the representation, also great art as always !! !!

this show means so much to me and hearing u ramble about it was so comforting

Beautifully worded emotions I couldn’t find, amazing video and artwork, I love this infodump style commentary!!!!

I was having sort of an off day and this video was exactly what I need to get my spirits up! One of my favorite artists drawing art for one of my favorite shows. Just hearing you talking about it made me grin like an idiot and your art is beautiful as always!

Your art piece and this video got me interested in the show so I also binged it in one go and I am in love with it wanting more episodes

This coloring is GORGEOUS it’s so bright and lovely!! And look at the way they look at each other omg, it’s so soft

ive seen the show top to bottom 5 times and this recap still made me cry thanks bud (your colors? insane. god i could watch you shade things for hours and hours)

I’m screaming with happiness! I love you and I love Ed and Stede so much! 💕💕💕 You should totally make this into a print or a sticker!

Love this! ❤️ Also you described my feelings perfectly in the last segment. I cried my eyes out in that scene and it still makes me cry even though I've seen it so many times! It's so comforting and definitely has made me feel much more comfortable with the idea of coming out to my parents in the near future.

Yes, I adore your style! And I know it’s a little late but Happy Pride to the community! 🏳️‍🌈

I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH I DIDNT KNOW HOW MUCH I NEEDED IT BEFORE AND THE ART IS AMAZING

PLS I AUDIBLY GASPED WHEN YOU POSTED THIS IM SO GLAD YOU WATCHED THIS SHOW IVE WATCHED YOU FOR SO LONG AND YOU WATCHED AND ENJOYED ONE OF MY COMFORT SHOWS IM SO GLAD LUCIUS IS UR FAVE AS IS MINE ❤️❤️

YEEESSS!!!! i finally got a moment to finish watching this video and AMAZING! i love what you had to say about the show and i so agree! it was such a joy to watch! i loved listening to your analysis Alex!!! and the art you did??? incredible!!! thank you for putting it in a video so i could notice all the little details you’ve got going on there!! the oranges killed me, i love them!! and YOU DRAW THE SOFTEST EYES I LOVE IT!!!! everything about this video was delightful, thank you Alex!!

this might be my new favorite video of yours!

Happy Pride! I watched the show with my partner, also binged it in one go. What a rollercoaster! Your artwork is beautiful as always, Alex.

God I loved watching the rivalry between Stede and Izzy. It was so entertaining! Loved the speed-paint by the way. You always manage to make such fun and comfy videos :)

GOD I LOVED THIS SHOW... CANT WAIT TO WATCH YOU DRAW THEM! Every time they were explicitly ‘romantic’ I felt stunned, (same with toh, when the girls say ‘date’’take u out’) the pirates kissed (y was I still surprised at that point??) honestly make me stunned in disbelief like I must have misheard, thought I was used to gay on tv but i realise it’s never been done like this, completely normalised and just part of the whole story. And most importantly, stories that I fucking love XD

i clicked faster than light when i saw you posted this HAHA never expected you to watch this show!! i love it and i love the art, and i can't wait for s2 of ofmd!!

Such a coincidence that I had finished watching the entire season two days ago! And now I’m seeing that you posted this video

THIS WAS POSTED ON MY BIRTHDAY OMG!! 😭😭😭😭 I FEEL SO HAPPY, I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE IT, OMG IM SO HAPPY IM ON YT NOW!!! 🥳🥳🥳🤯 also happy pride and I love your work, slay art king!!!

OH MY GODS I LOVE THIS SHOW SO BLOODY MUCH!!! Just how well orchestrated the entire thing is, I remember watching the first episodes and just absolutely OBSESSING over the time period outfits and how beautifully done each scene was. One of the things that I love so much about it is how they frame Stede's childhood and all of his trauma, and how similar they make it to Ed dealing with his own it really puts a new light on how freaking similar people are. Personally, it made me feel way less guilty about feeling bad about myself because they are able to relate every single character, as different as they all are, while keeping them all so different! It's truly beautiful how there are soany different representations of queer people in this show as well, like, watching normal shows and it's just one gay man in a crowd of straights. Here, we have our gay men, our polyamourous couples(rarely seen, made me feel so valid), our non-binary Jims, our bi idiots, and they all feel so real! I think it is absolutely amazing how each character just feels real, it sometimes takes me a moment to see these actors and not just think of their characters because of how well they are played~ it's ineffable! Another thing that kills me are all the small details that show Ed and Stede realising, slowly, that they can be with eachother. The foot touch- I almost freaking screamed. Hands down, thee best show. ALSO, your art is amazing! Just lovely, and it touched me so much that they're in front of a light house, that at first meant nothing to Stede when him and Mary got married, but now spending time with Ed on the ocean and falling in love with him, especially because when they made the fake lighthouse it felt like the first real time they could trust each other. Also, the oranges- I saw them and- Okay. I need to shut up

I was completly stunned when i got your notification. This show is a lot to me right now, I watched all episodes in one evening with rollercoaster of emotions. Im so happy that something like that finaly is, a lot of us have a lot to relate to. Personaly i realy like Buttons they're my witch. I realised that I also can relate to one character, Edward. My temper and dealing with emotions is realy simmilar and also im seing my partners characteristics in Stede. I've decided to do cosplay of them but only thing is that I'm realy scared of boats so its like my therapy with them, unfortunately we had to be separated because his mother's not tolerating gay relationships. But still I'm realy happy that not only I enjoy this show that much. I hope that you will enjoy yourself and create your own private world Happy pride month!

THE WAY MY MIND SCREAMED "OH MY GOD YES" WHEN I SAW YOUR NOTIF AAAAAHHHHHHH I LOVE THIS AND THEM SO MUCH 😭😭😭💞💞💞

The amount of love that you caught in Ed’s eyes genuinely make me so happy it’s so pretty hes so in love

Absolutely stunning as always. Went to your redbubble hoping to get this on a t-shirt but was sad to not see it there! i love this show with all my heart. watched it and re-watched it the next day. so much representation. finally getting to see myself and like you said have no one even question it was jarring but so refreshing and heart warming and new. Always love your art and hope to see more OFMD fanart in future. my fav part of the show was when they were eating snake, talking about the restaurant haha and Stede picks out the food from Ed's beard. lucius just goes ;;oh my god this is happening'' haha brilliant so funny so sweet

Ngl some how this flew under my radar untill I saw this video yesterday- so I binged watched it - and am back. Thank you! I needed to watch this.

love you and your channel so much!! ^♡^ this video was beautiful as well!

I absolutely loved this video and this show. I would love to hear your take on other entertainment topics during some future speedpaints!

this video, I have so many things to say. For one I just really love your art style and the attention to detail in this drawing is phenomenal. With the tentacles, the oranges and the light house, there is so much beautiful scenery to enjoy. As well as the gorgeous rendition of Ed and Stede, this drawing over all made me incredibly happy. Now to get into the show itself, how I found out about it is rather funny. One day in the middle of 6th period my English teacher just randomly goes, "Have you guys seen Out Flag Means Death yet?" and at the time I had no idea what that was. Then one of my fellow students, who had watched the show, ends up having a very long conversion after class about the show. I listened in and became increasingly more interested in watching it. So the following week I watched the first 4 episodes and it hadn't quite hooked me yet and I didn't want to continue that evening because at this point, like you said I wasn't expecting to have real and honest queer representation. But then episode 5 came along and I absolutely fell in love with it. The dinner party, Ed and Stede having a tin disagreement but Stede sticking up for him anyways and Olu and Frenchie running a pyramid scheme with a literal pyramid, priceless. This episode just struck my heart. I love how it touched on the real aspects of a developing relationships and confronts racism during this time period instead of ignoring it. I especially loved the silk scene. "You look good in fine things," he says and I am sobbing. I have never in my life come across a show that just absolutely struck me to my core in about half an hour. Also at the end when I think Frenchie gave their collected money to the former servants just made me really happy. I could talk so much more about the rest of this show, but this is already a really long comment so I'm going to stop here. Thank you for the wonderful video!

way too excited for this one lads

ALEX IS BACK, YAAAAY!

I Haven't even watched it, and the way you described it already made me cry. I've been longing for a show that incredible my whole life

This was a really lovely video. It just felt nice. Thank you 🖤.

It's been a while since I've seen one of your videos; I find them enjoyable

the way you explain it just made me cry because its exactly how i felt watching this show

STAHP THIS ART IS SO SLAY