#CJ and stede too but less so

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Izzy is only interesting because of his proximity to Ed. I'm just the only one brave enough to admit that fact.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I'm just curious since I absolutely adore all your trans Ed fics, what made you read Ed as being trans? Is it more of a personal headcanon since we tend to see ourselves in fictional characters, or did you notice some tiny detail on the show that made you think so?

Oh my friend, I'm so glad you ask.

The cool thing about reading Ed as trans, I think, is that you do not even have to squint to do it. Literally you need to change exactly nothing, and this read suddenly adds a lot of nuance and additional juicy layers to his story and his journey with masculinity.

Ed's whole deal with masculinity, precisely exactly all of it, makes him feel so much like a trans guy who never outgrew the "I need to be hypermasculine so I pass" phase, fitting that read so precisely that given there are trans writers on the OFMD team I would be absolutely SHOCKED if at least some of it wasn't intentional. Every single trans guy I know has been through a version of this, where you come out and you know you're a man but you need everyone else to know, too, and so you lean very hard into masculinity to make damn sure you pass. And not just pass, but pass perfectly. Ed is forcing himself into such a heavy ideal of masculinity that it feels artificial; he needs to make sure everyone sees him as this perfect ideal of a masculine man that he cannot possibly live up to because no one could.

Certainly, parts of Ed's hyper-masculine presentation seem to be things that genuinely make him happy and bring him joy. That's important. Ed's happy to be a man, the problem is that he's trying to force himself into such a narrow idea of masculinity that it's stifling him. It's preventing him from enjoying more ""feminine"" things that he genuinely loves, because he's terrified of being seen as less of a man for it, and people like Izzy reinforce the idea that if Ed fucks up in his performance of masculinity, he's going to be in danger because of that. It's very real, and the added juiciness from reading Ed as trans adds so much to the great story that's already there, I think. There's this additional element of Ed knowing he's a man but needing to make sure everyone else could never doubt it, there's an additional perceived danger to slipping up, there's a sort of jealous admiration for guys like Stede who seem, at least on the surface, so much more comfortable with a different type of masculinity that Ed wishes he could have more of.

And on top of that, there's just a lot of other little additional things, like:

Ed making his beard his whole brand, it just screams beard dysphoria and "no one could ever claim I'm not a man because the beard is my whole THING."

Something about his relationship with his name, and how hard he has to try to get people like Izzy to call him by his name in front of others

The way Ed is dehumanized when he dares to step outside a very safe, masculine gender presentation - it's why Izzy saying "this thing you've become" when Ed is wearing a robe and painted nails hits so hard for me, I think

Okay. okay. listen. You know the scene where Ed makes CJ whip him in the balls. Listen. Ed baby. It just SCREAMS "people here don't know I'm trans and I don't know how much getting hit in the balls should ACTUALLY hurt so I'm gonna lay it on really really thick just to be safe"

There's a lot to be said about Ed and his clothing in a lot of directions, but I'm gonna leave it at how he's really figured out a safe set of clothing that works for him and consistently allows him to be read as this super masculine guy, and he's scared to step away from that. Also, I really like imagining the full-fingered gloves at the end of s1 as a way to cover up the nail polish on his fingernails until it wears off.

I think it's very sweet that Ed tends to be very private when talking about his personal and sex life with others, but a very, very easy explanation for how that got started is he just doesn't want to go around sharing personal details about his body with people!

Yeah. A trans read of Ed is so shockingly easy, fits so well, and adds so much to his journey, frankly I'm amazed it's not more common.

[scary-flag]

Underrated OFMD fics!

So I've thought of compiling a list of good but unpopular OFMD fics. There are many recommendation posts going around, but they mostly feature the same 10 authors (who are great, do not get me wrong!) - I have thought, however, that less popular writers need some exposure too!

I have tried to keep the selection varied, with different ratings, fic lengths and ships. Feel free to reblog to increase the exposure of these creative people! :)

The Recommendations:

Snubs and Explanations by MzDany - T, 1,7k words, Ed/Stede. A funny little fic in which a Dutch merchant is offended by the Revenge not attacking his ship and goes there to investigate..

Le Bel Homme sans Merci by GeorgieBlossom - G, 296 words, Ed/Stede. A poem based on John Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

The Winning Prize by Birdie_Lo_Green - M, 24k words, unfinished yet, Ed/CJ, Ed/Izzy (unrequited). A multichapter story set when Ed, Izzy and Calico Jack are young and stupid.

Sunkissed by Spineless_Lobster - G, 709 words, Ed/Stede. A short ficlet full of tooth-rotting fluff!

Scylla's arms, Charybdis' mouth by Wrizard - T, 1136 words, no ships, Trans Izzy. A fic in which the Kraken is an actual deep sea creature and young Izzy Hands is a sacrifice for him.

Windward Passage by Consultingcrybaby - E, 4.7k words, Ed/Stede. To quote the author: "In which Stede is astonished by the existence of buttfucking, and Ed really needs a cup of tea."

WHERE'S THE LOOT?! A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Game by glitterpig. T, Ed/Stede. It is literally a game!

A Demon Lived in My Brow by Bazzle. E, CW: some non-con, 8.7k words, Ed/CJ, Ed/OC, Ed/Izzy, Ed/Stede. Snapshots of Ed's relationships - and sexual experiences - before he met Stede.

Leather by Chocolatepot. G, 100 words drabble with Ed and Stede, taking place in episode 04.

To Make Pan-puddings by Whatthefoucault. T, 2.5k words, Ed/Stede. In which Stede find an old recipe and wants to cook it for Ed. Fluff!

They Haven't Made the Color Yet That'll Paint Over Every Part of Your Past by Parsnips (trifles). G, 1.4k words, Mary/Doug. A lovely fic about Doug and his love for Mary.

Orange You Glad by Lesspale. Not rated but imho G. 3.3k words, mostly Roach. A wholesome fic about the origins of the 50 orange cake!

Just Let Go, My Party Piece by red-sky-in-mourning. M, 4.3 words, Stede/Ed, some Lucius/Pete and Jim/Oluwande. A ficlet inspired by the well-known s2 bts photo of a possibly special necklace.

Two pints of Guinness, a packet of crisps (and a bag of cans) by Buoymehome (Lilibel) - T, 3.4k words, Modern AU, found family. Wee John and Stede go for a pint for St Stephen Day and Stede strikes conversation with the handsome looking fiddle player.

Lucius Returns by Scaredycattales - T, 367 words. Lucius, Ed. Screenplay format! Criminally underrated.

Learning Curve by Lwwyrd - M, 13k words, Izzy-centered. Young Edward Teach and Israel Hands meet, and the rest is in the hands of Fate. Written for the Fate & Fortune challenge.

The Night That Has No End by FrazzledWriter - M, 1.2k words, horror. Frenchie POV. Everyone on the Revenge is being driven into madness by a mysterious fog, and only a few are still sane. Ambiguous ending.

The Other First Mate by Dorie22 - G, 1.5k words. After episode 05. Ed is confused about his feelings and Stede, and Buttons turns out to be an unexpectingly good listener.

Room People by Moonandsunlight - G, 1.1k words. A short fic exploring the queerplatonic relationship between Wee John and Frenchie.

Much Ado About Something by Winter_of_our_Discontent - T, 528 words, Ed/Stede. Shakespearean AU. Super hilarious.

A Lighthouse To Each Other; or, Cracking Up On The Rocks by Zmayhem - T, 12k words, Mary/Stede. A fic exploring the relations between Mary and Stede after their 10 years of marriage.

What Makes The Man by Unovis - T, 12k words, unfinished yet. A fantastic character study of Stede and the conversations he has with his barber.

Wee John Feeney's Excellent Day by Activevirtues - T, 2.7k words. A criminally underrated fic about a fantastic day that Wee John has and the joy it gives him. Super wholesome!

The Saint of Never Getting It Right by Goldblooded - G, 3k words. Ed's POV. Interesting choice of formatting, adding to the story. A short fic about Ed and his emotional issues.

Skeleton Crew Drabbles by Tipsy_Kitty - mostly T, a collection of short drabbles written for a Halloween event. It has canon ones, and AU ones. Some hilarious, some a bit more emotional.

One Thousand Sea Creatures: a Buttons OFMD SMAU by Idiotatsea, Loopydangerfrom and Otsanda - T, 23k words. A Scollection of posts from Buttons' twitter account, his Moon Journal and other media. He does try to list 1000 sea creatures, and it is hilarious.

Nostalgia by HopelessScribe - G, 1.6k words. A BEAUTIFUL pre-canon fic about Roach's childhood memories and his North African background. Criminally underrated so give the writer your kudo!

More recommendations to follow next week!

[ask-stede-bonnet]

ooc: would you ever consider dialing back on Stede's engagement with CJ? he takes up so much oxygen and you interact with him more than with Ed even. it's kind of weird that he's allowed to insert himself into their inkeeper era so much, especially given how Stede responds to people who make Ed feel bad. shouldn't this kind of head canon saved for fic instead?

ooc: no. me and the jack mod are friends and this fun for us. I'm sorry you don't like it (and to some extent I get it... sometimes the threads get wayyyyy too long and lowkey annoying to scroll thru... oops). the ed mod isn't as active so that's why stede interacts with him less on tumblr. off tumblr it's all about that gentlebeard tho babey!! when stede turns off his magic box with tumblr in it, jack ceases to exist for him, do not worry.

this rp just has a gentler take on jack with a slow burn character development arc. ed and jack have already had an arc where jack crossed ed's boundaries, which upset him, and then they worked it out and are now trying to be real friends instead of pirate pseudo backstabby friends.

and isn't this a kind of fic? it's just interactive. there's the different blogs acting as the characters in the story, with y'all sending in asks to prompt things. it's improv fic.

while I am so, so glad to have brought a lot of joy and fun to so many people in this fandom, especially after the news of the cancellation, and then the news of the renewal campaign failure, this is my blog and I'm going to have fun with it as I see fit. I really do try my best to keep stede close to his canon characterization, and I'm sure I've probably done so poorly from time to time. I can even see why the whole jack thing would be ooc for him, but my thoughts behind that is 1) stede's attitudes and beliefs makes people's lives better, and on occasion make people better (izzy), and he sees jack as a challenge, and 2) stede does have a bit of a fuckboy party side a la 2x07, and he can get sucked into things. he's never had a Guy Friendship before, and he 100% felt left out as a kid when all the other boys were fucking around and he was just being relentlessly tormented.

if you don't like this blog, you can unfollow or block it. I don't mind. I'm a big believer in DLDR. you shouldn't sit through posts you don't like. or annoy you or make you unhappy.

I hope this has been a satisfactory answer!

[teeny-tiny-revenge]

After seeing yet another post about Ed's "horrible taste in men" and "what even is his type, CJ and Stede have nothing in common lmao", I'm gonna throw in my two cents. Because I actually think they do have something in common? They treat Ed as an equal and they are people he can have fun with. I think that's his type. Someone he can have fun with, who does not put him on a pedestal or approaches him with hierarchy in mind.

From Ed's position, that's a rare sort of social interaction, he does not meet many equals, and there also doesn't seem to be much fun and whimsy in Ed's life. Ed's life is Serious Pirate Business, and presumably it was already when he and Jack met. Ed wasn't Blackbeard then, or even a captain, he and Jack where low on the pirate corporate ladder (and probably bonded over it), but Jack doesn't seem like younger him would have been less of a party animal. I think he just is Like That. He doesn't (seem to) take things seriously, he loves drinking and silly party games and probably some horny violence. Those are things Ed likes too (things that the Crew of the Revenge also liked!). Yes, CJ is a manipulative bastard, but Ed doesn't seem to really see through that, and in Jack's defence I don't really think he's tried very hard to fuck Ed over before. Ed doesn't trust easily, and he trusts CJ fairly much. Their whole interaction makes it seem like CJ coming by at random for a couple of days of partying is a normal (and welcome!) thing. This has happened before. CJ is the guy Ed's known all his life who is sometimes in town and he's always fun to be around because he knows how to have a good time. And that's what Ed wants from this relationship (and usually gets I think). A mate to cut loose with, to spend a few fun days partying, to have a good time (and take a break from the dull daily life). CJ doesn't demand Ed behave in a Blackbeard way. He demands (often cleverly and covertly) other behaviours, like heavy drinking, but he is happy to let Ed giggle and jump around and be a silly guy for a while. The fandom has (rightfully) analysed how much Ed's Blackie persona is just a different mask and performance, but Ed doesn't really see that (yet?). Instead, I think the switch feels like a relief to him? It's a holiday. He gets to play around and have fun and be Blackie, who gets to have way more fun than Blackbeard is allowed.

And then comes along Stede, who also let's Ed be goofy and whimsical, who engages in fun shenanigans with him, who goes to a party with him (even if the party sucks in the end), who is also unhinged and overall A Lot in his personality (both Ed and Jack are also A Lot there). Stede knows Ed is the Legendary Blackbeard, but like Jack, he too is a captain of his own vessel, an equal in standing and role on the seas, someone on Ed's level, and also someone who doesn't make the serious pirate business everything there is to life. Stede also likes to have a fun time, and he likes for Ed to have a fun time, and he likes to have a fun time together (and actively works to bring it about, even if Ed didn't really get the treasure hunt until Lucius's explanation). From Ed's perspective, here's another person who is an equal, who's fun, who lets him take breaks from his dull job and who seems to be genuinely interested in him as a person (if CJ showing up for a meeting is the normal thing it looks to be, that's him making something of an effort to meet up with Ed and spend time together, which is probably the closest to friendship that exists in Ed's life, and even if CJ shows up with the sole intention to get into Ed's pants, it doesn't seem like Ed was opposed to that outcome, so it's fair game).

From Ed's perspective, they do have a lot in common, mostly from the way they treat him. Now, Ed is falling in love with Stede, and he knows that, it's a whole different level than his "old mates, not quite friends but probably with occasional benefits" situation with Jack, but the foundation for both of these relationships IMO is they treat Ed as more than his job, they're people Ed can cut loose and have fun with, and they're people Ed feels he can trust. Stede still wanted to be his friend after the whole murder confession thing, Jack saved his life in the past. That's his type. Sees past his biggest, main mask, is fun, and can be trusted.

Tangentially this is also why I am a firm believer that Ed and Izzy never had anything other than a professional relationship: Izzy is the opposite of fun. Before Stede, the duel and the selling out, I think Ed thought he could trust Izzy, but Izzy shoots any and all of Ed's attempts to do fun bonding over whimsy and not Blackbeard things down immediately. The Frankfurter clouds and the model ship are shown to us as a parallel to Mary and Stede failing to bond over their interests. Ed is trying to make a connection, Izzy only wants serious Blackbeardery from him, and there's that. It's like pulling teeth with him, Ed says. And imagine that interaction with CJ or Stede. Stede would love it and want to talk about the funny shaped clouds. CJ would at the very least laugh and find it entertaining. And that's why Stede and CJ are Ed's type and Izzy is not.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[effervescentluminescence]

Thinking about a "We Gull Way Back" AU, where Calico Jack is a bit less "pirates don't have friends," just enough that when he shows up to the Revenge, he realizes Ed is practically in love with this weird poncy fucker named Steve(sp?), and since he doesn't want to be a total killjoy buzzkill loser, he lies tells Ed that he came to warn him that Izzy had sold Stede out (and Ed by proxy) and that they needed to stay the fuck away from Blind Man's Cove.

Stede, while initially off-put by CJ's boorishness and his own jealousy, instantly warms to him by quite a bit, and realizing this could be an opportunity to get to know Ed better, he decides to participate in some of the activities CJ sets up for the crew. CJ agrees, since both Ed and Izzy are obviously but differently obsessed with the guy and he wants to know what the fuss is about. This leads to an interaction that goes something like this:

Stede: (makes bitchy comment in response to something Jack says)

CJ: Oh ho! Kitten's got claws. Ed! Your guy's funny! You didn't tell me he was funny!

Stede: (bashful) Oh, I'm not...

CJ: Oh come on. You made me laugh! (murmurs just so Stede can hear) But now, I'm wondering what other sounds you could get me to make.

Stede: (brain stops working. Sorry Ed, you had so many chances to be Stede's indisputable gay awakening and you blew it.)

Ed, of course, sees something just went down between them and now he's jealous as hell. CJ can tell Ed is jealous, which is fucking hilarious, because the two of them are like, in love, it's so disgusting, ugh. But Stede is oblivious and Ed is too worried about fucking up to do anything about it, so Jack decides to intervene. He figures if he can get them together, Blackbeard will owe him another favor.

Jack, of course, decides to do this in the most sideways way possible, which is to rope the two of them into a threesome.

CJ: You think he's a virgin?

Ed: (blank stare)

CJ: Nah, bet he went to boarding school--they get into all sorts of freaky shit at boarding school.

Ed: uh...

CJ: Anyway, I still want you to help me get Annie and Mark back, but I figure before I go, I try your Gentleman Pirate on for size, yeah?

Ed: Yeah, no, I don't think, uh...Don't think that would be a good idea.

CJ: Why not.

Ed: ...he's got crabs.

CJ: Like that's ever stopped ol' CJ before. Whatever, we can--

Ed: Or, sorry, not crabs, he's got...a wife.

CJ: Still not seeing the problem, man. Hey, you wanna join? I'm guessing he's a top--hey, we could spitroast ya! How about that?

Ed: (didn't know he wanted that until just now) Um...okay.

CJ: Cool. Leave it to your buddy Jack. I'll set it up.

Somehow, he gets Stede to agree to this. I'm not sure how. Anyway, they spitroast Ed, CJ comes down Ed's throat, and realizing the sex is about to get *emotional* (Why tf did he suggest Ed be the one in the middle? Oh, right, this was part of his gay (derogatory) matchmaking plan. Ed really is gonna owe him one for this), he decides to bounce.

The sequel is Ed and Stede taking CJ to his ship and helping him woo Anne and Mark/Mary Cyrano-style. It only barely works and not in any way anyone assumed it would.

[mossiestpiglet]

I think it’s very interesting that Chauncey is narratively treated so much better than Nigel or any of the other people killed in the season. Chauncey is written as more intelligent, perceptive, and cunning from the start, and his motivation is also entirely in revenge for his brother which is a much more sympathetic motivation than any other wealthy or state actor gets during the show. We are never shown Chauncey bullying Stede as a child and he only calls him “ Baby Bonnet” once, right after Stede signs his confession, despite the fact that he would definitely have known Stede as a child too. Chauncey’s death is also less entertaining than all the others that came before it, it’s darker, it’s more unpleasant, we feel all the ways that Stede agrees with him and maybe we as the audience don’t fully agree but we are at a point where we recognize that someone needs to tell Stede that his actions have consequences.

He and Calico Jack are something of opposites, which makes their appearance at roughly the same part of the timeline quite interesting. In the beginning of the season all of the antagonists are firmly bullies and societally powerful (rich/agents of the state), with all the bigotry that comes with that. Both Chauncey and CJ appear after the characters who fit both of those traits have died/been killed, and they each have only one trait. Chauncey has power, Calico Jack is a bully, both are more intelligent, perceptive, and cunning than anyone killed in the story before them, and even though they are both killed they are still treated more like people than anyone else the narrative kills. I’m not sure if this hints towards the introduction of a new more complicated antagonist, or if it’s to set us up to be able to interpret some of the main cast as taking on antagonist roles, it’s exiting either way.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

I just want to recap this whole situation from my POV actually because I think it would be useful at this point. And I actually want to start in 2014 on instagram during the spam ig era. I was a homestuck cosplayer on spam insta when I was 13 and dealt with the 4 chan raids, if anyone remembers those. So that's my background, just so you know. I got called a retarded dyke by proto gamergaters during my formative years, and it effected the way I engage online.

Anyway, hard cut to when I watched OFMD in April. I deeply related to Ed as a character. Most of my fan engagement for the first month or so was on tiktok, but I got off of it and went back to my social media of choice, Tumblr. I saw a lot of fucking Takes TM that I hated from a certain contingent of the fandom and I was critical of them, and so I started posting my own reading. Here's where the situation starts

I start posting my own reading of the show and I tag the characters that are in the show, hoping to find people who agree with my reading so I could follow them. I got yelled at for """maintagging""" which is an issue I've only run into before once, and the people who got mad at me about the """maintagging""" I received some agressive anons which I promptly deleted. I posted my Ed is Izzy's abuser post (tagged Izzy critical), got more aggressive anons, which I deleted for the most part. Had to tell some people how to block the Izzy critical tag. Cemented myself firmly in the izzy critical camp. I continued to see Shit Takes, in fact since the Izzy is Ed's abuser meta I've only ever made my Izzy metas in response to Shit Takes. I got on Calico Jack twitter, which I don't go on twitter all that often, and there's a lot of overlap between Izzy twitter and CJ twitter unfortunately, so that made me less likely to use twitter at all. I was mostly on there for the porn, so it's cool. I didn't interact with discourse hardly at all so twitter didn't feed me anything related to this.

Now over this period of time the situation on tumblr was getting completely unhinged actually. You couldn't post anything at all in the Izzy tag without someone crawling out of the woodwork to tell you that you were terrible for it. People did slowly learn to block the Izzy critical tag, but jesus christ it was a slow learning process for yall. Every day I'd get on here and post silly little posts, and then one of mine or my mutuals posts would be a little bit too mean to Izzy, and by a little bit too mean it would be something objectively true. And then people would just descend on it and there would be another fucking drama. And it's impossible to predict what's gonna set you off.

Now one drama was completely unrelated to Izzy at all. Stede Anon as we've been calling them, L as they've been referred to in that document showed up in june, left a few nasty anons, and then fucked off because the people that they were bothering turned off anon. Then they came back in October to bother me I played with Stede Anon until I got tired. I wished them a Karkalicious 2009 and sent them on their way.

Another drama I want to recap, which I hesitate to call a drama because of the racist under ... well... overtones is the "documenting of the Izzy haters" a couple of people made a whole sideblog dedicated to documenting the worst of the "Izzy haters". Except they didn't start out with the twitter doxing, or L/Stede Anon. They started out with a mutual of mine who is a black woman and who talks about racism in fandom. She has never harassed anyone to my knowledge and has had quite a bit of nastiness directed at her. I had heard some whisperings of potential harassment being directed at Izzy stans, and I had remained firmly out of it. This blog was too much for me. If they were dedicated to documenting the nastiness they were receiving in fandom, and their third post was about someone who posts metas and minds their own business, then there must not be real problems, especially since I'm catching all this fucking flack for simply posting things that aren't even mean. It may just be that I grew up on the internet but I can be real fucking mean, and I haven't been.

One instance of this is the Izzy isn't canonically queer drama. A mutual of mine posted that Izzy isn't technically confirmed as queer, his queerness is all subtext, that might be an interesting thing to analyze. Things got heated on my dash for a while. Since may there's been a problem in the OFMD community where people get yelled at for posting Izzy critical. And after a long argument with a certain Izzy stan in regards to the post in question I posted this because I was genuinely curious. Basically the argument consisted of us talking past each other, where I said "No one is calling Izzy straight we're just trying to analyze another facet of his character" and they said "You're doing harm to x y z group of Izzy enjoyers by saying that he's straight, and you're doing harassment." On that post that I linked I got told by one person that that post was "Doing harm" and that "hurt people hurt people" which is frankly the most absurd application of that phrase I have seen to date. I got told by a different person that I shouldn't have posted that because "izzy stans are receiving a targeted harassment campaign, worse than anyone else in the fandom" This was the final straw for me. If they think that that post is doing harm, they cannot identify harm. I made a passive aggressive post about curating your experience, blocked anyone who got mad about it, and my tumblr experience has been a lot nicer since I did that, because people blocked me and I blocked them. Everybody's happy.

So anyway then Stede Anon returned with a vengeance. My working theory is that this person is in school and they're on winter break and have more time to be a huge bitch. They accused me of being an Izzy stan I said "nice try you fucking idiot" in a way that was sort of dry, and I said Izzy stans have paper thin skin, and I refuse to loose sleep over them getting mean anons, but you still shouldn't harass them. That response got screen shot and lied about. Because of course it did. I was an idiot for thinking it wouldn't. I stand by what I said but if I could go back I would have been nicer I guess just because it would have caused me less drama. Some Anons came into my inbox and said hey you're a fake ally and you don't care about harassment and I was confused where they were coming from but essentially I said. "Girl, it's an anon" and then someone directed me to uselessheretics blog. And so I go check out the anon harassment that's got yall so worked up. And do you know what I see there? It's fucking Stede Anon!

So for a couple weeks I've been getting these vague messages about harassment and when I finally get directed to the harassment I see an anon that I have been fighting with and have blocked because of how fucking annoying they were. This, Stede Anon of Stede Anon Gate fame, is the unique threat facing the Izzy stan community. So of course I had a fucking field day with it. All of our fandom problems originate with this one shithead and I am going to hold hands with T*zzy*zzy and sing Kumbaya as we all collectively banish Stede Anon to the shadow realm. Hit that block button babes

And then today someone posted the link to the google doc receipts. And I realize now that there's actually been some harassment unrelated to Stede anon happening on twitter, and Stede Anon has been a real terror on IG. So perhaps I jumped the gun on casting doubt, but I maintain that I would not have said anything if not for certain people behaving completely out of pocket and crying about harassment on posts that are not harassment.

And I do want to address that actually. The reason for this whole thing, is because certain people are dragging up the harassment to try to get us to stop criticizing them. The undertone to all of this is very clearly "we're being harassed so you have no right to criticize us or talk about our blorbo in a way we don't like," which doesn't feel related, does it. I've seen the arguments that "they're using your rhetoric" but the thing is you're pointing me to a couple deeply mentally unwell people who I have no control over and you're saying "you should feel bad about this because you made a meta post about your reading of fictional characters that I didn't like" and getting mad when I'm confused that has to do with anything

So basically i retract my assertion that you're not being harassed, but you can clearly see how I got here, and also you keep bringing this harassment up to me in situations that have nothing to do with the harassment. And if you had fewer shitty takes I would make fewer metas.

I also do maintain that L/Stede anon is the source of most of our problems and we should be using the block button prodigiously

Here's how:

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

What doi you think the dynamics between Ed, Jack and Anne were like in the pre-Stede era? I feel like Jack had a situationship with both Ed and Anne but they were tangentially different. I feel like Jack might've had an easier time admitting he had feelings for Anne because she's a woman and it's seen as less emasculating than having feelings for another man.

It is quite hard to say without knowing what Anne and Mary are like and hearing what they have to say so I'll probably have a more solid meta about it some other time but my guess right now is probably that Jack and Anne were Vegas married and that Jack doesn't so much admit that he has feelings for her as he does feel like having a wife is a normal thing to do. I think Jack is doing that straight guy thing (not that he's straight he's very much not) where you have a wife you don't care about (or you pretend not to care about in CJ's case). Remember pirates don't have friends, so Anne's not my wife my lover my best friend my forevergirl. She's the big titty gf who will inherit my shit after I get killed by a bird. Do I think CJ probably has secret feelings for her? Yes the man is secret feelings all the way down. Do I think he would admit to being in love with anyone ever in his life? no. No I do not. Do I think that stops him from being desperately in love with Ed, so in love with Ed that it makes him look stupid? No, that's also true CJ wouldn't know monogamy if it hit him in the chest at roughly the same speeds as that cannon ball.

I also think that Ed and CJ have a bit of a complication in their relationship that I've known was there this whole time and it's that Blackbeard and Calico Jack do not sail together regularily. A ship only has one captain and these two are way too big to not be captains. They probably go years at a time without seeing each other, so while I do believe they have a long lived multidecade spanning situationship in which they are bastards to each other, I also think that Ed has let himself be something akin to a side chick just because being anything more than that would take more effort than he's willing to put into a relationship with a guy who can't even muster the words "You're my friend" much less "I love you" lest his ego shatter into a million pieces. I think he might have felt something that was close to love for Jack at one point when they were much younger and on Hornigold's ship, although I do think that Jack would have had to nurture it a bit for it to get to real love which Jack is once again incapable of doing, emotionally stunted king, but by the time Anne probably entered the picture (I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Hornigolds ship was probably a bit of a sausage fest)

But that's where my ability to gauge what this relationship looked like ends, because IDK Anne and Mary from Eve rn. I need to get a feel for their personalities before I can make any wild speculation as to what they're like with Calico Jack in the picture and how they feel about Ed or how Ed feels about them and what that dynamic is like and whether Mary matters more to Anne than Jack does or what's going on there. All I know right now is how Jack probably is Re having a wife and how Ed probably is re Jack having a wife, all of which could be subject to change if I see strong enough evidence for it. I do think that Anne and Mary's reaction to Ed having a New Boyfriend will be absolutely pivotal to my research.