#And Ed loves Stede because with him

[drsilverfish]

Ouch the Heart Foreshadowing

Oh man this scene in 1x06 The Art of F**kery is so great (sorry everyone having to suffer my OFMD posts “late”, but it only just got released in the UK, on the BBC). 

Blackbeard totally bullshitting, Stede freaking out, Izzy losing his jealous MIND cuz he thinks they’re screwing on deck (which, of course, they are, metaphorically). 

But the best (worst) part is Blackbeard “forgetting” that the frigging heart is on the left side of the body (a pretty important organ dontcha think!) in a massive case of foreshadowing, because Stede is about to break his heart into a million pieces and he never saw it coming. 

And he’s right - being stabbed in the body with a flesh wound you can survive is one thing, coping with that pain on adrenaline and drink and the mania of his Blackbeard persona, he’s done it so many times before. And, being stabbed in the heart means death, so that’s it, you’re done. But getting your heart well and truly broken for love? Well, that’s another thing; the pain lasts so much longer, and when you finally heal, you’re never quite the same person you were before. Poor bastard, he’s so happy here, with his intimate flesh-wound.  

[whim-prone-pirate]

"i'm worried his life is better without me" because mary's was. she was better off and she was happy when he left the second time. why wouldn't ed be the same.

[transjudas]

A world where roses bloom

[saltpepperbeard]

is this anything

[celluloidbroomcloset]

This is such a sad scene because Ed is so deeply in love and thinks Stede is just slipping through his fingers like water, that him being “Just Ed” isn’t enough to hold onto a man who always wanted to be a Real Pirate and so he’ll break both their hearts rather than let Stede leave him again.

And Stede clocks exactly what’s happening but for once says all the wrong things because he’s hurt and upset and doesn’t realize that Ed doesn’t realize Stede came back to sea FOR HIM, that the sea isn’t the sea, it’s Edward Teach and Stede has been all-in from the moment he realized he was in love and even before that.

[magniloquent-raven]

ed :(

[rocketrouquine]

The way they gave us these 3 first episodes is actually so satisfying because I feel like I got a whole season already with all this shit happening (especially with this ending) and now I’ll have to wait several months (or a year or more) in a brain rot to know/see what’s next. But, wait ! Actually NO, that’s next week and I just SQUEEEEEEE !

[arsenicflame]

absolutely delicious flavour of edizzy is where theyre Actually Married but neither of them know it, while also being acutely aware of everything-

they celebrated 25 years of their matelotage. they are having sex on the regular. both of them think the other thinks their contract is purely for financial reasons and the sex is just fun + convenience.

[blue-b-bro]

I'm still not over this

Ed was like: see Izzy? I'm the worst human being, no, a monster! A devil! No wonder no one loves me!

Izzy, without 3 toes at this point: I love you.

I'm not surprised Ed didn't take it in well

[izzysillyhandsy]

I sometimes wonder if the Izzy hate would have reached those dizzying heights if S1 had ended on episode 9.

Izzy would still have done almost all the bad things: making Ed unhappy, duelling Stede and wanting him gone, the deal with the English, his past with Ed/Blackbeard - except for hurting and threatening Ed after the breakup.

And even though all of this can be seen from different angles, it is possible to interpret it from the most damning perspective - and that should be enough to hate him, right?

But Ed wouldn't have turned into the Kraken, he wouldn't have killed Lucius, marooned half of the crew and cut off Izzy's toe.

And I am almost 100% sure that most of the Izzy hate comes from seeing Ed's drastic change in episode 10. Without it, sure, some people might have found Izzy unsympathetic or just unimportant, or a little shit. But that level of hate?

I guess what I'm saying is that a lot of the Izzy hate comes from "what Izzy made Ed do" and not from "what Izzy did to Ed".

Also, it is a way of dealing with the shock/cognitive dissonance of seeing a very beloved character turn "evil" after 9 episodes of being a gentle and misunderstood guy who is a pirate, yes, but who's fundamentally non-violent and good. How can you reconcile this with Ed suddenly killing a beloved (and completely innocent) character? And the extreme violence of the toe-cutting? (And yes, I know Ed burned people alive before, pirate-typical violence etc. But we didn't know these people and we didn't see them in close-up.)

But to blame Izzy for everything and to make him this evil part of Blackbeard - completely separate of "true Ed" of course - lets Ed still be the same gentle soul that loves a fine fabric, fell in love with Stede in the sweetest way and, although traumatized by his childhood, is at his core an innocent person that can be saved by removing the rotten influence of Izzy Hands - without confronting the self-hatred, self-centeredness, mistrust of others and tendency to violence that might be a part of "true Ed" as well.

And of course, if a group of fans started liking Izzy and maybe even defended/found understanding for his actions to a degree - where would that leave Ed? Is it really justifiable to fly into a murderous rage because your heart was broken (by a man you've known for a few weeks), because you're deeply unhappy and you've outgrown your pirate persona?

If Ed wasn't mentally abused by Izzy for decades, if it wasn't Izzy alone that drove Stede away, if Izzy hadn't duelled Stede out of the evilness of his heart, if Ed didn't desperately want to leave but Izzy forced him to stay in their toxic relationship, if it wasn't just Izzy and his hurtful words that drove Ed to become the Kraken...

...then maybe Ed wouldn't be an innocent babygirl anymore, and it would be much more difficult to see Ed/Stede as this perfect, unproblematic and sunshine-y couple.

It seems to me that seeing Izzy as "The Worst" and casting him in the role of the villain behind every bad thing Ed ever did is a quick and painless way to make Ed loveable without actually putting the work in (and the show actually avoided that up unto the death scene - one example is Izzy leaving in S1E4 and Ed manipulating him to stay; there are countless others).

I sometimes have the feeling that the hate for Izzy grows exponentially with more and more of Ed's darker side coming through in the show. And I don't get it - maybe because I am drawn to darker, fucked up characters and relationships. Give Ed his agency back and let him be cruel! Let Ed and Izzy have their mutually destructive, weird but intense dynamic!

Let Ed be a fascinating, loveable character with a (very) dark side - exactly like his partner for decades, Izzy - and you'll actually get a better character, and an additional fascinating relationship - as well as a more interesting story.

[awhimproned]

broke: stede obviously topped that night, he not only manhandled ed in but was also the one to take off his shirt first and close the curtains. ed let him have the reins, he was already into that when he heard the "captain voice" before. he also knew stede needed some sort of anchor and control and reassurance after ned low played into his insecurities and to show stede the pet thing wasn't true at all. he also couldn't say i love you back to stede in comfort and surrendering him like that was a way of showing it. this was also a way of showing stede he was the captain. there was also the oil bottle and the rings by stede's side on the bedside windowsill in the breakfast scene.

woke: ed topped that night. stede was reeling, terrified, horrified and high on adrenaline, had just killed someone (for ed or not) and needed all the comfort he could get. he initiated physical intimacy (either thought that was what a tougher man would do or it was out of avoidance and in desperation to feel something better the moment he saw ed -- who symbolized comfort and safety) instead of wanting to talk about it and ed saw that, and being the more sexually experienced one in the relationship, wanted to quite literally get stede (an overthinker) to a state of too fucked out to think anymore for that night and take care of him so he couldn't harm himself with those thoughts - as ed also knew that was all he could do to help stede for the moment. tldr he service topped stede stupid. that's why he's the one bringing breakfast the next morning and stede's sitting crooked.

bespoke: they're vers4vers ya nasties. all interpretations (except non-con and dub-con implications) are valid

[larphis]

The fact that the entire crew lied to Stede at some point to take the blame for Ed’s actions because they knew that hearing just how severly he traumatized him would have scared him off (not as in being scared of Ed, but as in being scared that he has hurt Ed so much that he would rather run away once more as to not cause any more suffering than to face him and actually fight for him) and they couldn’t let that happen because everyone who has been near Blackbeard in the last few months knows that the only way to help this man, the only way to temporarily and after some work even permanently fix his deep rooted turmoil is Stede fucking Bonnet.

[edwardblackbeard]

Ed... his name is Ed.

[ineffablecollision]

having seen the post earlier about stede's rings post-coitus i wondered when he took them off and if they're still there when he closes the curtains.

so of course, in my very sane ways, i made a gif!

now, enhance!

looks to me like the ring on his right hand is off already.

considering he wore his rings when he grabs ed...

means stede took his rings off before he closed the curtains!

[saltpepperbeard]

the way several characters have told ed and stede to "shut up" in some way, shape, or form. but when they're both talking to each other, they absolutely cling to every single word. they can't get enough of each other's stories, or ramblings, or little recounts of their days.

[gay-baby-brig]

Crying at Ed's raised eyebrow as he's fishing for Stede to compliment his chin and double crying at his little "keep going" looks at Stede after he says "I'm not about to."