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[mediocre-fish]

Never really occurred to me that Ed thinks he’s going to be the one executed for Nigel’s murder right up until he hears the sentence passed on Stede.

The entire time, he thinks he’s given his life for Stede’s.

(Also, the sailor behind him is untying his hands, but he can't even wait for that to happen before he's moving toward Stede.)

[mediocre-fish]

Something about Ed and Stede and nonverbal communication and invitation/consent. I don't have the right words but I love them so much. Something about bodily autonomy and treating one another as equals. Something about giving and receiving that level of attention. Something about checking in.

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Warmth&good food... You need it, Ed XD

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can you imagine how happy ed was to have his “yes and—“ best friend/boyfriend around again to riff on and on and on about everything and nothing at all 🥺🥲

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while we're talking about it i think the evolution of ed's understanding of his own feelings over the course of s1 goes more or less like this:

pre-ep-4: gentleman pirate? sounds hilarious. i'm going to meet this guy and if i'm very lucky this will relieve the unbearable crushing tedium of being blackbeard for thirty seconds or so. obviously won't last any longer than that so probably gonna kill him and take his stuff after that as one does

halfway through ep 4: oh man. this is so much better than i thought. this dude is great. rich guys are like really fun they've got all this great shit and they know how to have a good time

end of ep 4: what if i came up with a plan to keep hanging out with rich guys for the rest of my life? a plan that, coincidentally, involves me spending all my time with this specific rich guy for the next couple weeks? i'm not going to examine too closely why the end point of that plan makes me feel strangely bad to contemplate, i mean, what is the alternative here

middle of ep 5: i was wrong rich guys in general are terrible actually. which means the stuff i liked about stede had very little to do with his stealable class identity, it was...specific to stede individually…oh no

end of ep 5: oh NO

start of ep 6: FINE so i have a STUPID LITTLE CRUSH. super embarrassing but it happens to everybody i guess. i'll get over it though it's silly. it's not gonna last. people get over these things.

mid ep 6: ok that's not going to work. they're right i should just be over it already. obviously this dumb crush cannot lead to anything long term so it's stupid to act like it could. i should just go ahead with the plan no matter how much i have never in my whole life wanted so badly to not do something. this is me going through with it. ur a killer bro

end of ep 6: he doesn't belong in doggy heaven. :(

start of ep 7: ok so this is not a crush and it's not going away and also obviously it will always be unrequited. i have no reason to be sticking around here at this point. the only reasonable thing to do is return to my ship and try to move on with my life. farewell stede bonnet i will always secretly cherish these feelings you have awakened in me and i completely understand why you could never return them

mid ep 7: UNLESS…

mid ep 8: no see this was exactly what i was afraid of, obviously stede was always gonna realize what i am, best to end it here

end of ep 8: NEVER MIND I WAS A FOOL I COULD NEVER BREAK THE CHAIN. i'm all in. i might as well be married to stede bonnet and the only option left is to just bite the bullet and find out if he feels the same way

late ep 9: fuck

and the thing is this really helps explain the disconnect between the two of them at the end of the season, because ed's been on this entire emotional rollercoaster where he radically revises his understanding of what is happening between the two of them an average of twice an episode before reaching where he is at the start of episode 9

and meanwhile stede has spent most of this time stuck on "wow having a friend is even better than i always imagined XD" and has only just gotten to the point of starting to consciously wonder whether perhaps this is not actually the normal amount of weird intrusive sexual fantasies to be having about your best friend

[mediocre-fish]

Source (Season 2 - December 19th 2023)

sambaschutte: Calypso Dump 4: last one, all the lovely set and art details that we couldn’t get enough of🤩🪅🎊🏴‍☠️✨

[mediocre-fish]

[mediocre-fish]

Thinking about how we could have gotten a silly montage of Ed and Stede trying to fix up their inn (poorly).

Ed opens a cabinet and a bunch of bats fly out.

Stede falls through a weak spot in the floor.

"Stede?!"

"I'm okay!"

"You need help?"

"I've discovered the source of the stench! It's a dead raccoon!"

Ed climbs up into the rafters and gets hissed at by a family of opposums, attempts to back off, but turns around into a spiderweb and freaks out.

Stede attempts to unstop the chimney and ends up thoroughly covered in soot, as does the rest of the room.

The montage ends with them outside sitting around a camp fire dirty and despondent.

"Well, at least we got rid of the stench."

"Easy for you to say. You didn't get a face full of spiderweb."

"I fell through the floor!"

"They were in my hair Stede! I fucking hate spiders!"

"... don't you have at least 3 spider tattoos?"

"Don't remind me, my skin is still crawling..."

"I'm sorry."

"This fucking sucks."

"Hey, it's just the first day. We're just getting our bearings. Learning the quirks."

"I'm cold, i'm fucking exhausted, and all we have to eat is bone in fish on a stick. It's just fucking bones! Is there even any meat on this thing at all?!"

"Could be worse?"

"I don't want to think about how this could possibly get any worse."

Cut to both of them curled up in a corner of the inn during a storm surrounded by tiny waterfalls coming through the roof, and wind through the broken windows.

"Ed, I think this might be worse."

"I dunno. Could strip down and step into the open air shower."

"You'll get struck by lightning!"

"I met a guy who was struck by lightning once. He had this really cool scar or a burn or something all zig zaggy and shit."

"He survived?!"

"What? Nah, got fried. Cool scar though."

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Source (Season 2)

[mediocre-fish]

lucius would teach stede how to slut drop and then stede would break his knees doing it

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Haven’t seen anyone link this…

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✨ "You're a monster. A plague. You defile beautiful things." ✨

[mediocre-fish]

I just think it's cute how Ed and Stede just want to spend all their time together, like canonically.

The crew are scrubbing the deck and where are Ed and Stede? Dangling their legs off the side of ship like kids.

No one knows what the plan is or where they are sailing, Ed and Stede are just holed up in the captain's quarters chatting shit all day.

Ed trailing after Stede in that Hessian sack, what ya doing captain? can I come with?

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[mediocre-fish]

you came back

never left

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guys.

the kitty cat bell is canon. the jingle of the bell before they kissed is canon

[mediocre-fish]

I am always just wrecked by the moment in s1e4 when we see Ed rub the cashmere fabric he picks up against his cheek.

At this point, we don't know Ed well yet. We've seen him being his usual goofy self, but he hides so much when he's not just alone with Stede like we see later in this episode. Stede has just woken up. Ed's made his silly little faces in the mirror, and that's adorable, but I think the moment with the cashmere is when I just fell in love with this guy.

It's just such a tender, delicate moment. That's such a sweet, earnest pleasure, feeling something soft against your face. So hesitant in how he lifts it to his cheek, so gentle as he feels it there. "I think maybe I do, yeah," he says when Stede asks if he fancies a fine fabric, hesitant and unsure.

It's hard to describe why it hits so hard. It's such an effective communication of Ed's longing for softness, for gentleness, and it's such an innocent expression of it, taking this little joy in the feeling of something soft against your cheek. It's a precious moment.