#Edward Teach meta

[cursed-coat-of-homosexuality]

Listen, I know we're all talking about the beautiful editing in this scene right now. However, and that might be just a guess, I think Ed is killing someone here.

First off, look at the background. They aren't fighting anymore. This isn't an action packed raid scene where everybody is fighting against one another amidst the chaos of bloodshed. It's quiet, normal even. The fighting is over, and everyone is either checking their newly acquired loot or looking at Ed, who seems to be at the center of ship. Now see where the gun is pointed - it's down,

almost as if he is shooting someone who's kneeling.

That's not a warning shot and neither is it a fight, that's an execution. Ed is killing again (by his definition of killing I mean)

And I DEFINITELY am not implying that he has become super violent and angry or something like that (which I think is a very stupid, racist take and not in line with his previous characterization at all, but that's a whole other post), tbh I think it's exactly the opposite. He isn't angry at all, that's what's worrying me. There is a stone cold dead calm in him. I think he has given up.

That is, by letting go of one of his core principles (not killing), and therefore becoming the Kraken - he is personafying himself as his father's killer, trying to become the monster other people and himself believe him to be. I mean, LOOK AT HIS CLOTHES!!

He is wearing nine guns and is very much looking like a vampire clown. He's dressing up as a caricature of himself. He is doing all of that because - deep down - he thinks that's why Stede left him. Because when he finally laid his soul bare in front of him, Stede rejected him (so that surely must mean that he saw something he did not like in there). To Ed, Stede finally "sees him now" as the monster he really is. A monster who isn't deserving of fine things, or luxuries such as not killing. So when he becomes the Kraken, after Izzy does That Whole Thing, he gives up trying to fight for them.

Thing is, the Kraken is not really killing other people, at least narratively speaking (sorry Lucius). Killing is a tool he is using to let go of the part of him that longs for Stede, love and all the fine things that he can't have - and the part of him that is just so, so hurt by not having them. The Kraken isn't killing others, it's killing Ed.

So it's no wonder that we see him kill at a wedding of all places. It's the embodyiment of everything he has ever wanted and lost so far. Extravagant dresses, good food, fancy stuff and, most of all - love.

[veeagainsttheday]

Two lines from OFMD s2 have been rotating around in my head for the last few weeks. 

The first is from s2e3, when Ed is speaking with Hornigold about his sandals, and Hornigold tells him that he always has to have an angle. Ed responds by saying, ‘Nah, mate, I’m actually just a very simple man’ before sharing his thoughts about opening an inn. 

The second is in s2e7, after Ed left Stede, when Stede and Izzy are in Jackie’z. Izzy says to Stede, ‘You know what he did when I told him I loved him? He shot me,’ as Stede says, ‘He shot you. I know.’ Izzy continues, ‘He’s a complicated man.’ Stede doesn’t respond; they look at each other for a moment and then the scene ends. 

First of all - that line of Izzy’s about Ed shooting him when Izzy told Ed he loved him makes me want to start ripping my hair out in frustration. Ed shot Izzy when Izzy announced in front of the crew that vibes were bad because of Ed’s feelings for Stede Bonnet. Ed responded to Izzy saying he loved Ed by making a noise of disgust and walking out of the conversation. So it’s fascinating that Izzy has reframed the event in this way (and not the first time we hear him reframe it - as he tells Lucius a shark took his leg). Stede obviously heard that Ed shot Izzy (he says, ‘shooting people’s legs off’ in the list of reasons why Ed’s in the sackcloth at the start of s2e5), but we have no idea where he heard it from or who told him why. The way he says, ‘I know,’ to Izzy in s2e7 gives me the impression that he’s heard Izzy say it a number of times - he sounds weary. I’m guessing Ed’s never told Stede what really happened, nor any of the crew who witnessed it. But if I could ask the writers about one line from s2, I really think this would be it - I just don’t know how to interpret it (and if anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them below!). 

Anyway. Back to those two lines. Ed says he’s ‘actually just a very simple man’ in response to being misunderstood by Hornigold (actually his own self-consciousness). For two seasons, Ed’s been attempting to communicate that he’s got a simple, reasonable desire to retire from a dangerous, violent career and be with the man he loves. Izzy’s response has been to deny Ed that, to call Ed insane, try to keep him in piracy by whatever means he can, and of course try to get Stede killed. By the time Ed’s in the gravy basket, he’s arguing even in his own head that he’s a simple man, with a simple desire for the future. 

Then we come to s2e7, and Izzy still doesn’t get it. He still thinks Ed is a complicated man, he still thinks Ed is acting in a way that doesn’t make sense or requires some convoluted explanation. It’s notable to me that Stede doesn’t agree - we know from s2e3 (and, ya know, the rest of the show) that Stede understands Ed deeply.  Then I think about Ed talking to the ‘wolf’ in s2e4 - ‘It’s a very rare thing to find someone who understands you,’ he says, tears in his eyes, obviously missing Stede but also - fuck, man, that scene with the rabbit is so funny but makes me so sad for Ed, because he really does have a pretty simple desire and he’s spent months - implied years - being told that he’s crazy for having it.

[shelfperson]

UGH thinking about edward, thinking about how he's so fucking crafty so excitable so fucking smart. thinking about him at 10, 12, 14 years old, clutching red silk in his pocket and watching his so called betters piss on him and his mother and thinking "if i had what you had, i could do anything. my brain eats itself, it's so alive. give me a book, give me maths, a trade, and i could run circles around you all." and of course, that never happens. he never thought it would. he makes his own way.

thinking about edward boarding a ship for the first time, his father's blood on his hands, silk twined in his fingers (hidden but always there) and realizing. he doesn't need to be given anything. he can take it. and he does. he runs circles around them all. he amasses more riches than you can shake a stick at. i'm thinking of him and his goddamned fuckeries and how wonderful it must have felt to have an outlet for all of that sharp fucking wit, to pull one over on all the people who thought they were better than him. he's blackbeard, now. he can do anything.

thinking about how awful it must have felt when, twenty, thirty years down the line, it all begins to chafe again.

[tizzyizzy]

Ed's Song vs Izzy's Song

Both scenes involve troubled leather-wearing pirates putting themselves out there to the crew of the Revenge through the medium of song. But what are the differences?

Captain Instigated vs. Crew Instigated

It is Ed who is the first to sing, much to the bafflement of the crew. He has feelings and he wants to express them to a supportive group. This leads into Buttons's experimental tone based singing and Ed's idea for a talent show. The crew are totally on board, but this is still Ed, as captain, setting the agenda.

Calypso's Birthday is an event the crew come up with, separately from the captains. In fact, the holiday itself is a kind of defiance of authority. It's a "pretend holiday" that a captain can "fall for", and Stede agrees to play along. Izzy even isn't even there for the initial planning. Izzy's role comes later; his singing is a contribution to and complement to a tone already set by the rest of the crew.

Emotional Low vs. Emotional High

Ed is at his lowest point in the narrative so far. Stede, a man he opened his heart to for the first time in his life, abadoned him. His hopes for a gentler life have been shattered. His conversation with Lucius and singing to the crew are desperate attempts to elicit the emotional support that Stede was the first to give him. And the crew are supportive, even asking him to sing again.

Izzy sings at the peak of his emotional health in the series. He is no longer obsessing over Edward. He's developed trust and friendships with the crew. The fact that Izzy is putting himself out there, wearing makeup and singing in front of these people, is proof of how far he's come.

This is reflected in their clothing choices, or lack thereof. Ed has dragged himself out of his depression pit and looks like it. Izzy is wearing makeup and a flower, and has never appeared so gussied up.

New Relationship vs. Tested Relationship

While Ed did pal around on the Revenge, and Lucius in particular offered him relationship advice, he spent most of his time and emotional energy on Stede. For everyone on the crew, except perhaps Lucius, seeing Ed suddenly being so vulnerable and open with them was something of a shock. They rallied, but from their expressions it's clear they aren't initially sure how to react. They're up for forming a closer relationship with Ed, but this is just the start.

Izzy's relationship with the crew had been developing in every season 2 episode before his solo. It started with Izzy reluctantly allowing himself to be hugged by Fang, and has included him saving the crew from a suicidal Blackbeard, a gift of a peg leg, and chats about trauma with Lucius. Izzy's song can be seen as a gift to the crew, or even a love song to them. It is his relationship with them that has allowed him to feel safe enough to come out of his shell.

Implications?

While both characters are trying to connect to the crew, when we compare Ed's experience to Izzy's, it's easier to see how Ed's actions and emotional situation were not ideal. All it takes is one conversation with Izzy for Ed to start regarding the crew with suspicious or resentment again, more of an emotional threat like Stede than a source of comfort. He swings in the other direction and attempts to kill all but two, whom he kidnaps.

While Izzy does not have an Izzy figure in his life to express disgust for his soft, unpirate-like behavior, it's doubtful that he'd pay them any mind at this point in his emotional development. If, for example, Ed had insulted him after this song, Izzy would have told him to fuck off.

It's also worth pointing out that Ed's song was followed with him suggesting a talent show and toying with the idea of giving up piracy. These actions are both out of character and that latter is a pretty extreme, impractical suggestion. Ed seems to be flailing around, uncertain about his identity and desires.

While on the surface, Izzy's makeup and singing might seem like an even more extreme change, both a appropriate for the event he is participating in: a party. While he is trying something new, he is doing so within the confines of a space and time designated for such activities. He isn't even the most garishly dressed: he was specifically emulating Wee John, who appears in even more elaborate drag. His core personality hasn't really changed much. He still says fuck and can be abrasive. He smiles when he watched Stede kill Ned Lowe, unbothered by the violence as usual. He's still a pirate.

Of course this is not me saying "Izzy good, Ed bad". It just shows the difference between two characters at different points in their story. It was good Ed was reaching out for help, but he was emotionally fragile, and overcorrected at the first challenge. Izzy had to go through hell and be forcibly adopted to get where he is.

[freedom-in-the-dark]

A Fight Taken To Heart: How Edward Teach Became a Queer Ally in Honor of Charles Vane

This piece was originally written for the fantastic @blacksailszine, which unfathomably came out over a year ago (and you should check it out if you haven't!). Somehow, I managed to procrastinate posting this here for that long, which is asinine. Especially because I'm actually very proud of it!!!

The news about Ray Stevenson today has me emotional (of course) and thinking again about how his performance as Blackbeard had a great impact on me. In his honor, it feels like a fitting day to finally share my tribute to his character on this blog.

Without further ado... please enjoy my meta below 🖤

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The first time we see Edward Teach’s eyes, they’re framed in a mirror with a heart carved above it. Within the context of a scene designed to convey that Teach is a figure who commands fear and respect, this seems to be a curious choice for an introductory shot. Yet, much like many details placed throughout Black Sails’ meticulous narrative, the mirror’s design is poetic in hindsight because Teach’s heart was his ultimate motivation.

Over the course of multiple scenes, the first half of season 3 introduces us to both the pillars of who Teach is as a character and the primary characteristics of his relationship with Charles Vane. Taken as a whole, the picture painted of Teach’s presence in the story is that he acts as a metaphor for heterosexuality, toxic masculinity, and tradition. We learn that Teach had nine wives over the course of eight years, at least partially because he is motivated by the desire for a son. He glorifies strength above weakness, and he defines strength as superior physicality, independence, and sufficient leadership. He reminisces about the original state of Nassau in his youth, in which the standard was an enforced masculinity, powered by the notion that “one had to prove his worth.” And as he says to Vane and Jack in 3x02, in his view,

“You have taken away the one thing that made Nassau what it was. You have given her prosperity. Strife is good. Strife makes a man strong.”

Upon his introduction, Teach sees only the small picture of Nassau, not its place in the bigger picture of the world. He looks upon a Nassau rich in monetary plunder, preparing to come to its own defense or go to war, and he sees the ease in which men can typically join any crew as a marker of a lack of conflict. What he fails to take into account is that the primary strife now originates externally rather than internally because it is the strife of oppression, and that the solidarity that results from that strife creates its own version of strength.

”Why are you so determined to defend Nassau?” he asks Vane in 3x02, because the island is no longer anything special to him. “A lion keeps no den,” he tells Vane in 3x05, “Because the savanna, all the space within it. . . belongs to him.” Teach is not beholden to Nassau for haven or home, because he was able to assimilate into civilization whenever he had cause or desire. He married multiple women, flew under the British flag, and even spoke their “language” of flag codes (3x10). While Teach is certainly a pirate, it is by choice rather than survival.

As a result, he cannot understand the importance of true solidarity amongst the oppressed–and thus, Nassau’s defense–because he’s never needed it, as a straight white man who’s never been limited by oppression. And because this is a narrative where piracy is arguably a metaphor for queerness, filled with characters who do not have the luxury or desire to play by civilization’s rules, Teach sticks out upon his entrance. It’s also partially why he’s initially framed in an antagonistic light; he is not “with them,” and therefore, he is “against them” by default in some capacity.

The exception, of course, is his bond with Vane. Teach is one of many characters motivated by the desire to leave a legacy; as he says in 3x03, “There is an instinct to leave behind something made in one’s own image.” In his case, this manifests as his desire for a son–but he saw parenthood as an opportunity to mold and form another man to be his reflection. Teach wanted Vane to be a copy of him, but Vane never was, and it’s the primary source of the conflicts between them.

Teach had no love lost for Nassau, and so he calls it a “burden” on Vane, while Vane insists that he is “committed to it” and Jack by extension (3x03). Teach scoffs at the idea of such loyalty, deriding and discounting Vane and Jack’s relationship, casting aspersions on Jack’s character in the process–even as Teach demands to receive such loyalty from Vane himself. It’s evident that Teach doesn’t understand core aspects of Vane’s personality and motivations, but Vane is unequipped to explain himself to him.

This is partially because Vane initially doesn’t understand his own motivations either, especially in the face of his father figure’s disapproval. His inner struggle is exemplified in how he’s torn between allegiance to Teach, or allegiance to the rebellion for Nassau’s independence and his people caught in the fight. Flint summarizes Vane’s internal conflict by bringing it to light for him in 3x06:

“They took my home. I can’t walk away from that. Can you? Forget me, forget Teach, forget loyalty, compacts, honor, debts, all of it. The only question that matters is this: Who are you?”

It is not insignificant that a gay man says this to Vane. The struggle of finding oneself is inherently queer as a framing device, especially in the context of a narrative where piracy and freedom are pursued by the marginalized. The fact that wrestling with identity is the defining point in Vane’s arc implies that the answer exists beyond the bounds of what others would ascribe to him. Straight people–particularly in regards to Black Sails’ main cast of characters–are not faced with this question.

And various players do try to ascribe an identity to him. Teach tells Vane that he’s a lion, while the Spanish soldier calls Vane a fellow sheep (3x05); Eleanor lists Vane as the antithesis to civilization (3x01) and calls him an “animal” to his face (3x09). Yet even up to his end, though civilization and history would paint him differently, Vane’s motivations were always painfully human. Vane was driven by emotions on a deeper level than most recognized, and by desire for two primary things: freedom and honest loyalty.

Vane felt empathy for the unfree, and he was defined by wanting to avoid living in chains again at all costs–literally or metaphorically. He explicitly compared the fear that slaves face to the wider struggle of the pirates on Nassau (3x01), and the fear they feel as they sit on “Spain’s gold on England’s island,” expecting a retaliatory response. Vane feared subjugation or submission at the hands of any person or power, considering it a fate worse than death; to him, “no measure of comfort [was] worth that price” (3x08). His manifesto was “side with me. . . and we’ll keep our freedom,” and he said he was “[a man] who would die before being another man’s slave again” (2x06), which became his ultimate fate.

Pursuing freedom defined both Vane’s life and death, but it was not an abstract concept. It was freedom to a purpose: freedom from expectation; to make his own choices; to define home as he saw fit; and, crucially, to surround himself with honest people who provided mutual loyalty and respect without subterfuge or manipulation. This is why Jack, who knew him best and cared for him most, called Vane a “good man” and summarized him this way in 4x07:

“He was the bravest man I ever knew. Not without fear, just unwilling to let it diminish him. And loyal to a fault. And in a world where honesty is so regularly and casually disregarded…”

Vane exhibited and sought both honesty and loyalty. It was also how he expressed his love, and the way he wanted love to be expressed to him in return. That is partially why Eleanor so effectively acted as his downfall: he repeatedly trusted her, but she could not or would not be loyal to him. By contrast, as he told Teach in 3x02, Vane found loyalty and commitment in Jack–and in Anne by extension.

So while “a lion keeps no den,” as Teach said, what a lion does keep is a pride. A lion may be free to roam, but it does so with a family. Teach did not begin to understand the significance of that to Vane until after Vane gave his life not only in the name of freedom, but also in defense of his family and home.

This turns Teach’s earlier question of “Why are you determined to defend Nassau?” into the unspoken question of Why did Charles Vane willingly die to defend Nassau and those who are fighting for it?

When Teach called Nassau–and, to some extent, Vane’s partnership with Jack–a “burden,” Vane tried to explain to him that wasn’t the case. At the time, Teach didn’t listen. He gave Vane an ultimatum: I’ll help protect these people, but you have to leave them, their cause, and your “commitment” behind.

Teach thought leaving all of that behind was freedom, and it was a definition of freedom he thought that he and Vane shared, referring to the two of them as being “of the same mind” (3x05). But Vane was unable to leave his people or their fight behind, because that’s not what freedom meant to him. For Teach, freedom meant solitary independence; for Vane, freedom came to mean solidarity (3x09):

“Because they know that my voice, a voice that refuses to be enslaved, once lived in you. And may yet still. They brought me here today to show you death and use it to frighten you into ignoring that voice. But know this. We are many. They are few. To fear death is a choice. And they can't hang us all.”

After Vane’s death, Teach listens. In the absence of being able to listen to Vane directly, he does the next best thing: he goes to the people Vane valued most and died to protect. In the name of the mutual interest of revenge, he listens to Vane’s family.

At first, Teach obviously thinks Jack and Anne are both weird–to use a different word, he thinks they’re both queer–and he makes that clear in underhanded comments. Neither Jack nor Anne fit into the boxes of “man” or “woman” in the traditional senses that Teach is most accustomed to valuing. He doesn’t understand why Vane would align with them and their cause above all else, or why Vane would be loyal to them and value their unconditional loyalty in return. But Teach seemingly knows that if he can get to know them, then perhaps he can understand what Vane saw in them, and–in turn–learn more about Vane as well. Vane lives on in pieces of them, and so it is upon listening to them that Teach ends up indirectly listening to Vane one last time.

In a discussion spurred by Anne’s concerns, Jack and Teach debate the merits of murdering Eleanor Guthrie or chasing Woodes Rogers, and they bond over their shared understanding and memory of Vane’s “distrust of sentimentality” (4x02). They can chase an empty version of revenge in the name of justice, fueled by emotion... or they can fight to win the war of resistance that Vane gave his life to incite. Between the two of them and their shared grief, and in an echo of Vane’s internalized arc, they find that the only question that matters is this: Who was Vane, and what mattered to him most? They both discover they already know the answer.

For Teach, acknowledging that answer involves fully accepting that Jack and Anne were the family that Vane chose, that the rebellion for Nassau’s freedom was personal enough to Vane that he died for it, and that this is a fight which holds value and necessity that Teach initially misunderstood.

Teach is straight, and his views on masculinity are not fully incompatible with the ones civilization enforces. Oppressive powers hold no true threat for him, because he is capable of assimilation; he could leave Nassau and thus the rebellion for its freedom behind. He always planned to. But after the sacrifice of the man he considered a son, he chooses to become an ally in the fight against white supremacy, and an explicit supporter of Jack and Anne–the queer found family that Vane prioritized, and died to protect.

Teach always thought he was molding Vane into his own image, but the reverse became oddly true instead: Teach allies with the cause, gives his life for it, and indirectly protects Jack and Anne with his final moments, echoing and honoring Vane’s sacrifice.

Woodes Rogers expected to keelhaul Teach into submission by default, through torture no man should have been able to repeatedly survive. But to fear death–to submit to death on anything other than one’s own terms–is a choice. A pirate’s fear is an opponent’s victory; Vane and Teach both knew that, and embodied it. Teach’s unwillingness to let fear diminish him or to be broken by Rogers was largely the result of his own principles and hard-won defiance, but it was also the only reason Jack and Anne narrowly avoided the same fate.

It aligns poetically: in the final months of his life, Teach’s actions were motivated by old shifting shrapnel lodged in his chest and the beating of his heart, which he referred to as “a grim little timepiece” (3x06). And “the louder that clock [ticked]”–the more the shrapnel moved, and the closer his end became–the more inclined he was to pursue happiness and purpose (3x01).

Ultimately, he was keelhauled 3 times, and then he was shot.

For Charles–tick.

For Jack–tick.

For Anne–tick.

And for Nassau–

Boom.

How fitting.

After all, Edward Teach always expected that his heart would bring about his end.

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If you'd like to read more of my meta about this show, here are the other pieces I've written:

• Black Sails, Queer Representation, and the Valid Canonicity of Subtext

(I should crosspost that to tumblr at some point ^)

• The Flinthamilton Reunion Is Definitely Real

• James Flint Is Gay

And my pinned post on Twitter @/gaypiracy has a collection of the shorter posts / writing I inadvisably did on there.

Don't forget to check out the Black Sails Zine for a variety of incredible work :)

[ineffable-piracy]

Don’t mind me, just getting all emotional about Ed thinking that people only like him for being Blackbeard and the first person he lets himself be Edward around abandons him at the end of a dock 🥲

[sixstepsaway]

Why do people keep calling Izzy a manipulator? He's not cunningly manipulating Ed; he just tells Ed what he thinks and feels bluntly, sometimes to the point of yelling.

Sending Calico Jack was pretty cunning, but otherwise? Tbh I wonder if it is kind of an attempt to absolve Ed of certain responsibilities? Like, apparently Izzy didn't tell Ed he should have let the English kill him because he was angry and disgusted and disappointed in Ed's behavior. All his words were cunningly and carefully chosen to get Ed to do what he wanted, ie go full Kraken. Grumblegrumblecomplaingrummble. (Also, congrats on the ADHD meds working out!)

This might get a little fandom discoursey so bear with me but if y'all haven't worked out I'm a little fandom discoursey by now idk where you've been.

There's come a trend in fandom over the past decade or so where one ship is declared the "good" ship. It's the pure, good, soft ship, where the characters who make up that ship are good and pure and soft uwu babies who never have done anything wrong in their lives. And on the flip side there is a "bad" other character who is often shipped with one (or both) of those soft babie uwu characters and that Bad character is villainized and made out to be The Worst. It usually starts with a character being accused of being a meanie/rude/a dick, then it amps up into abusive, then from there when fandom doesn't disavow the ship, it becomes an incestuous or pedophilic ship.

But the core of it remains the same: the two in the ship are pure and good, the one on the outside is bad and evil, so why would you ship those characters when the uwu pure babies are right there?????

(I have a theory that a good chunk of this particular rhetoric comes from a combination of radfem and toxic leftist fields where one mistake once in your life (in radfem circles this can mean anything from being male (or seen as male) to having liked/supported a man once) means you are unforgivably and unendingly tainted, you can never recover nor improve from that mistake. I personally think this treatment of people is terrible, no matter how bad their sin might be (from "liked a bad character" up to "committed a real life crime") because if you declare someone a write off, they have no reason to ever try to be better, and that continues the perpetual cycle of pain and suffering endlessly. If you tell someone who hurts other people they can never change, even if they want to, and they thusly do not try, people continue getting hurt.

But; it trickled down into the fandom = activism circles, where what you ship shows what you believe in real life. You think that gay ship is not great? Homophobic. You prefer a ship with two white people over a ship that includes a black person because the former has Spice and the latter is more bland and healthy? Racist. Etc etc. Your fictional preferences show who you are in real life, according to these ideals.)

To come back around to Ed and Izzy though: Blackbonnet is the Designated Soft Uwu Ship, which makes Izzy the abusive interloper. The way some people talk about Ed and Stede, you'd think they were watching a totally different show lmao

I saw a conversation on Twitter that was like, "Let's not start romanticizing the real Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard! They were bad people, they were murderers and rapists and slave owners. They're completely different from these characters!" And while, yes, I can see that point (although I would argue that Blackbeard has been endlessly romanticized for decades, much like we all romanticize being a pirate in general. I honestly forgot he was a real person until recently), and do appreciate that our Stede and Ed are not rapists* and are not slave owners or traders, I feel like the argument of, "The real Stede and Ed were bad," has the underlying, incorrect, argument that our Stede and Ed are, in fact, not bad.

The thing is, Stede and Ed are not bad, no, but they're not good either, and honestly they are down the darker end of the morally grey spectrum (further, I would argue, than Izzy Hands himself). Stede sets fire to the party boat and is smug about it, Ed's list of crimes is very long and not just in an official Crimes Against The Crown capacity but in a real way: he's maiming people as recently as Stede says in episode six that he has seen Edward maim people.

But Stede and Ed are framed as protagonists. They're morally grey, deeply impure protagonists, but they are our protagonists. We root for them. When Stede and Ed sail away and leave a boat full of rich people to burn to death in the middle of the ocean, we root for them. When Stede runs away to become a (pillaging, looting, murdering, maiming) pirate, we root for him and even hope to see him achieve those things in the future.

The show aired and then fandom does what fandom (unfortunately) does best: while one half of it dissected all the canon and tried to interpret and make sense of the characters from what they say and what actions they take or don't take on screen, the other half distilled everything down to: Izzy Bad, Stede and Ed Good.

(In fact, I received these tags on one of my metas earlier and it's very true: #OP YOU GET IT#ofmd#it is always so confusing to see posts where its like omg other ppl actually watched this show and had like#thoughts based off of canonical moments that uses the characters actions and dialogue as a means of analysis#instead of just vibing off of 'i dont like this chara so everything he does is bad')

But the thing is, Stede and Ed do some shitty things, and to specifically talk of Ed in relation to this ask, Ed does some horrible shit in the finale. He's stated to have done a lot of bad things before the show starts, and then he shows those bad things in the finale: he leaves six people to die on a tiny spit of an island (and surely tells Izzy how to trap them there via fake talent show, though this is conjecture), yeets Lucius off into the ocean to die (so that's seven), and cuts off Izzy's toe in a brutal and horribly framed moment that would make him downright irredeemable in many shows and to most of the "pure uwu ships for me only" people out there, and now, in fandom, to a lot of people, you can only like ships or characters that align with your morality.

(I saw an anon earlier (I don't recall where, apologies) say they hate Izzy because they can only relate to characters whose actions they morally agree with, and honestly that made me do a double take because uh, anon that sent that particular message, are you going to be cutting off toes and burning people alive, bud? Can you let me know so I can keep out of your way, champ?)

So, what's a "my shipping preferences are pure uwu and healthy" person to do?

Blame it on the Bad Guy.

Which brings us, yet again, back to this ask: Izzy is manipulative because Izzy has always been in Ed's life, and thusly all of the bad things Ed has ever done can be written off as Izzy's influence.

The black and white thinking means that anyone who shouts or makes another character scared or flinch is Bad, and Izzy shouts and is rude a lot. There's no nuance, there is no value beneath the surface. When Izzy yells he's being abusive. When Izzy yells at Edward he's being racist. When Izzy gets angry and lashes out, he's being, again, abusive.

When Izzy goes, "Ohhh, daddy," he's mocking gay men, not getting lost in his own attempt to be annoyed by their softness with each other and accidentally revealing too much of himself.

(And, honestly, the more I muse on that scene and all of the scenes around it, the less I read Izzy as, in any way, homophobic. He was pissed they were fucking around. He was maybe jealous they were canoodling and he couldn't with the one he loves. He was angry that Lucius would cheat on Pete. All of those interactions were born more out of resentment and frustration than actual homophobia, and I stand by that. Not to mention that considering how Edward treats the guy who called him a donkey, and how he reacts to just about anyone who treats him or those around him with prejudice, and the fact Izzy knew Calico Jack well enough to send him after Edward, I find it very hard to believe that Edward would keep Izzy around if Izzy was homophobic or, for that matter, racist. People have commented that Jack calling Ed "Blackie" might be a racist nickname, but I wonder if, much like some people have called out shortening Oluwande to Olu as uncomfortable in the language the name comes from (something about Olu meaning God and it being not great to call Oluwande "God"? Something about it being disrespectful?), it was just one of those things that slipped through. Shortening Blackbeard to Blackie as a way of saying, "I'm still special. You get to call him Ed, but I get to nickname Blackbeard down to Blackie and he doesn't kill me, I'm important too," makes a lot of sense to me.)

By making everything Ed does Izzy's fault, they're absolving Ed of the responsibility he holds for every horrible thing he's done in his life. Ed is responsible for the murder of his father (whether that father deserved it or not). Ed is responsible for the people he's killed since then, whether "technically the [x] killed them" or not. Ed is fully responsible for marooning seven people on an island to die (and they would be dead if Stede didn't find them, is the thing!! They would be dead!!) and killing Lucius, whether he managed to kill those seven people or not.

Here are a few of the things nasty anons have said about Izzy:

He's not going to be around being a toxic abusive piece of shit forever. Quit trying to normalize & downplay the horrible way he treats other characters.

This one misses the point and makes me laugh because it downplays everything Ed does by implying Izzy is the only toxic and/or abusive person there (Ed! Cut! Off! His! Toe!)

He is unnecessarily violent in speech and behavior, particulary towards BIPOC. He is manipulative, he's a liar, and he has tried to kill or threatened to kill multiple people on the crew.

The first part is patently untrue, actually. He's loud and rude and angry but I don't find much of his speech to be violent? Just coarse. He's definitely not 'particularly towards BIPOC', it's just that his scenes are often framed with BIPOC around him because of how few white people are in the show (which is a definite good thing, but it means every time Izzy yells at someone he is, by virtue of the show being so diverse, yelling at someone who is a minority either in sexuality, disability, or color, unless he yells at Stede or Lucius, which uh. he does. a lot. he's shown yelling at and being rough with Lucius and Pete more than anyone else).

As for manipulative and a liar, potentially he lied about telling Stede who his boss was, but even if that's so, it just says a lot about how Izzy is The Bad Guy whereas Ed is Pure UwU. Ed is also manipulative, that's shown a lot when he's masking (see: party boat when he's saying whatever) and when he comes up with the plot to kill Stede to keep Izzy on board. Ed also lies a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I've talked about this before. Most of what Ed says is a lie lmao. You have to read between most of Ed's lies to find even a sliver of truth.

And then there's the pièces de résistance of this particular comment: He has tried to kill or threatened to kill multiple people on the crew.

lmaaaaaaaaaao. Ed stranded six people who trusted him on an island, had Jim knocked out and, technically, kidnapped, and yeeted Lucius into the ocean!!! And maimed Izzy!!!!!

Just because YOU have decided to bend over backwards to justify Izzy's abusive behavior doesn't mean he's not abusive. He is. And you are not only actively ignoring and denying that abuse (and BLAMING IT ON HIS VICTIMS) but you're justifying it! [...] He's possessive, controlling, manipulative, a gaslighter.

I like this one too because the more I muse on it the more I realize a lot of this is more reflective of Ed? I don't think Ed is abusive, don't get me wrong (there is FAR MORE to abuse than just 'this guy is mean' or 'they yell'), but the second Izzy stepped out of line, Ed maimed him. Izzy hurt him trying to protect him, Ed hit him. Ed let Izzy get cast off the boat after the dual.

When Izzy tried to leave of his own volition, Ed stopped him.

So, to boil this all down after I rambled for this long: Izzy is The Villain and a Bad Person because he is easy to hate. He's short, old, angry and mean. He isn't cute about anything (okay, I can't say this one with a straight face. The wave at the start of 1x09 is adorable). As long as Izzy is a puppeteer, Ed can be a soft uwu baby and he can be safe to love and stan and whatever else.

Ed gets his guts ripped out, replaced by a fluffy interior because without Izzy he's perfect, you see. Ed is a perfect soft baby who has never done anything wrong in his life, and thusly it's safe to love him. You're not a bad person for loving him! He's never actually done anything, he would never actually hurt someone he loves (and, yes, he canonically loves Izzy in some way, there's a long-standing depth of relationship and affection there that is very obvious in the way they are together and from the way (up until 1x10 when Ed is already broken and far too easy to snap) Ed puts up with Izzy's tizzies. I somehow doubt Ed would put up with someone else calling him a twat and flipping him off and just go, "I need you here," rather than telling them to fuck off) so he'd never hurt Stede and there's nothing dark in him or their potential relationship, so it's fine.

And Stede hasn't ever actually done anything wrong either! Sure, he's made some bad choices, but he was in shock so he's absolved of running off on Ed (I do agree he was in shock and I am in no way picking on the person who meta'd that Stede was in medical shock at the end of 1x09 - I fully agree! - but I've seen some other people act like that absolves him of the harm he did to Ed, and it really does not) and he didn't personally kill either Badminton, they both killed themselves, even Nigel who was unconscious when he fell on his sword due to Stede hitting him. That was all Nigel's fault.

And those on the party boat set the boat on fire themselves and Stede had no part in it. He didn't make them fight! That was all them, because they are Bad People, so they would, of course, do those things.

Bob's your uncle, Sally's your aunt: Stede and Ed are now a soft uwu ship who you can love without worrying about what it says about your moral fiber as a human being. They're both good people! They've never done anything.

It was all Izzy's fault all along.

Also, I want to make another point which I thought of while I was writing this: I don't think Izzy expected Ed to go full Kraken. I was thinking about how he flipped out at him in 1x03, after the clothing swap. He tells him he's an insane shell of a man and he's pissed off and he's leaving and he calls him a twat and storms off.

To which Ed responds with a sort of squinty-big-eye thing idk how Taika pulls that one off but he did, and lets Izzy fuck off and do his thing, because Izzy is just being Izzy and doesn't mean any of it, really, and then after that, Ed is like, "You're being silly. Blackbeard has had a plan all along re: Stede, here it is," and Izzy is like ":o Oh okay! That's nice. Okay, yes, good."

So when 1x10 comes around, and Ed is, once again, dressed in Stede's clothes and being him, Izzy once again lashes out and basically tells him, in his own way, to pull his shit together, because this isn't the person Izzy serves.

The big issue here is that Ed is no longer the person he was even an episode before. Ed is a broken shell of a man who is just trying to pull his pieces back together.

Izzy doesn't realize this. Izzy doesn't have any way to know how Ed feels about Stede. Unless Ed bawled into Izzy's lap in the pillow fort (which is a hilarious image I hope someone will draw now) about how they were going to run away to China (ouch for Izzy if so) and how romantic their kiss on the beach was, Izzy doesn't know any of that. All Izzy knows is Ed had a bad time and now he's sad and he's mopey over the fact his boyfriend left him and it really sucks and this isn't him (remember: David Jenkins says Ed has never been in love until Stede, so Izzy has never seen this happen to Ed before).

This isn't Edward or Blackbeard, and it isn't even Ed! And so Izzy lashes out expecting to jolt Edward back to some kind of reality, some kind of common ground they share where they can get stuff done and Izzy can serve someone he respects and have a captain that can, y'know, captain, instead of moping and putting on talent shows, like he did last time!

Instead, he accidentally shatters what's left of Ed's psyche because he jabs in just the wrong place (not knowing where the real weak spots are) and unleashes a monster not even Izzy has seen before.

And that's actually really scary.

Thanks for the ask nonnie, I love musing on this shit lmao. Also, thanks for the comment about the meds. I'm so happy I might cry tbh.

(*the asterisks exists because we here on my Izzy Hands Enjoyer[tm] Blog Hot Spot have already discussed the framing of the toe scene and although Ed is not a rapist, the toe scene is beyond mildly questionable because of the framing, so our boy gets a lil asterisks)

[wisteria-lodge]

Sorting Our Flag Means Death: Part I (The Captains)

This is a fascinating show with a lot to say about identity, constructed identity, masculinity, fame, burnout... it was actually quite a challenge to sort. But I think I’ve got it, and I am very excited to share.

If you’re curious about the character analysis system, I go into a lot more depth here, and talk about the move away from the HP terminology here. But here are the basics: 

PRIMARY (your MOTIVE)

BADGER ~ Loyal to the group.

SNAKE ~ Loyal to yourself and your Important People.

LION ~ Subconscious Idealist. Ideals are linked to feelings and instincts.

BIRD ~ Conscious Idealist. Ideals are linked to built systems and external facts.

SECONDARY (your METHOD)

BADGER ~ Connect with the group. Make allies, work steadily and well. Be whatever the situation calls for. If you find a locked door, knock.

SNAKE ~ Connect with the environment. Notice things. Tell people what they want to hear. If you find a locked door, get in through the window.

BIRD ~ Collect skills, tools, knowledge, personas, useful friends. If you find a locked door, track down the key or learn to pick the lock.

LION ~ Be honest, be direct, speak your truth. Either the obstacle is going down or you are. If you find a locked door, kick it in.

STEDE BONNET

Stede is defined, early on, as someone controlled and bound by society. He doesn’t want to marry Mary? Doesn’t want to wear the mild-mannered class performance? Too bad. Stede is the little boy with his hands tied to the oars, unable to control where he’s going. It’s made him so desperate that he’s willing to blow up his entire life to become a pirate. At least pirates get to make their own decisions. 

Stede is a very loud example of a Lion primary. He needs to act on what he feels is right or else he feels trapped, unsafe and miserable. Through most of the season we see him respond to the feeling of being a pirate - the freedom, the romance, and even the slightly queer vibe. The moment where he doesn’t join Ed down at the docks is a perfect portrait of a Lion Primary in distress. Nothing that Chauncey Badminton is telling him makes logical sense… but it does make emotional sense, and that’s what Stede responds to. 

His major conflict is actually a war between his primary and his secondary. Stede knows what he wants to do. But his secondary is arranged in such a way that either he can’t do it, or can only do it incorrectly. The problem is not that he left Mary, the problem is that he did it the wrong way. (Hallucination!Mary doesn’t ask why he left, she asks why he left leaving only a letter.) The problem is not that he wants to be a pirate - the problem is that he’s not very good at being a pirate. 

So Stede’s secondary is a puzzle, because we are first introduced to his character in terms of incompetence. At the beginning, it’s clear that this guy is not used to solving problems and is almost pathologically conflict averse. (Basically, he’s Burnt.) He pretends to be asleep rather than talk to Mary, he can’t turn down Nigel Badminton when he invites himself to a tea party/tour. He’s spent his life in a sort of doormat Badger secondary performance, which we see him wear it in flashbacks, to the French party, around Calico Jack. He clearly hates it. But underneath? 

On the surface, running off in the middle of the night to become a pirate sounds really Lion secondary. But. A massive amount of prepwork did go into that decision. A lot of time and effort went into building an entirely custom ship using only the very best materials (“the finest cherry wood in Brazil.”) True, a lot of his design choices don’t make a lot of sense (because Stede doesn’t actually know how to be a pirate.) But what is clear is that this is a man who doesn’t cut corners. That’s one of his saving graces. He does nothing halfway. 

In the first episode, there are two reasons why his crew doesn’t mutiny. The first is that Stede puts a lot of effort into reading them bedtime stories. Lucius can try and do the voices, but he doesn’t care nearly as much, and doesn’t compare. The second is that Stede distracts them with a team-building craft project. That’s his leadership style: “talk it through as a crew” “If I can help this crew grow as people, then I will have succeeded in being a pirate captain” “I forgot the most important thing. That this is a company.” Stede's strength comes from the community he is able to build around him, and from his constant need to give 110%. Very Badger secondary.

A good example is the sword fight… which Stede really should have lost. But even though Izzy is the better swordsman, he’s going into that fight with his skill and nothing else. *Stede* is going in protected by his loyal crew (shouting advice, encouragement, obscure dueling rules) and by the Revenge herself, this ship that he put so much time and effort into. The mast snaps Izzy’s sword because it is made of the finest cherry wood in Brazil. Stede made sure it was.

Stede Bonnet builds rapport with pretty much every person he meets, including his hostage, and the tribe that captures him. That last one is particularly funny because we can see that under fire, his first instinct is to align himself with the group. He derisively says, “Oh those light-skins” (when of course he is in fact, light-skinned.) Stede gets the party ship to blow itself up by going to check on Frenchie and Olu, and using them to get dirt on the guests. He gets Izzy to back down by implying that he’s got a crew backing him up. Basically, he fights using the people around him. Over the course of the season, Stede’s crew becomes increasingly and increasingly loyal - to the point where it drives Chauncey Badminton into a murderous rage. He doesn’t get it. “Why are you so loyal to this… nothing?”

There’s also something interesting going on with the journal, where Stede records fictionalized versions of everything he does to make himself seem more piratey. Since Stede’s a Badger secondary, he doesn’t really act and he can’t really lie. He has to believe that he’s a pirate captain, or it’s not going to work. I read his diary project as almost a weird way of hacking his brain into believing that this is the sort of person he is. And then, the diary proves that he is a pirate to the English Navy. So it kind of works.

But what really works is the way Stede studies and practices. He takes notes, takes lessons, and asks for advice. At the end of the season, he is finally at a place where he can be a functional pirate, and his primary and his secondary start operating as a whole. Now he can leave Mary, but this time do it properly. He can elaborately fake his own death, using the plan Ed came up with. He can take to sea in a dinghy, pick up his crew (the source of his power) and then… go fix things.

EDWARD “BLACKBEARD” TEACH 

Instead of a Badger gathering community, Edward Teach is a Bird secondary gathering tools. “History’s greatest tactician” likes to have all the relevant bits of knowledge at his fingertips, then use them to correctly predict weather conditions, drop legal knowledge, and do recon on Stede. He likes inventions and gadgets (a dry ice suspension rig, a lighthouse made using a mirror.) He likes planning - or as he puts it “a good fuckery takes ages to develop.” Occasionally he will say things like “the plan is to go with the flow, see what happens” … but only when he’s adrift. The second he’s feeling better about life, his tune changes to to “there’s always an escape (...) in two hours, that guy over there is going to take you to the docks.” 

He is absolutely the sort of Actor Bird secondary who creates specific personas for different situations. Edward, Blackie, Jeff the Accountant and the Kraken are all different presentations he’s able to take on and off. But the jewel of his collection is of course Blackbeard. Ed has clearly done a lot of work building and curating this character, and now his reputation does the work for him. Of course, the tradeoff is that now there are a number of things Ed might like to do (treasure hunting, Stede) which don’t fit with Blackbeard’s character. A lot of Ed’s angst comes from this limitation, and his related worry that he only has value as the mythical Blackbeard, not vulnerable and human Ed. That’s a Bird secondary worry: their constructed persona is not “them,” or at very least not completely them, so it’s unpleasant when others (like Izzy) see it as the ‘better version.’

So anyway, Ed’s a Bird secondary. When he is on his own ship, under his own flag, his plans can look like improvisational Snake madness, but it’s pure Rapid-Fire Bird. He gets stressed the second he moves away from his base of operations: he’s twitchy on Saint Augustine, and nervous when he goes to the party ship. After all, he’s trying out his High Society persona for the first time. And since this is his first time in a very new arena, Jeff works until he doesn’t. After Jeff says that he *would* summer in Paris (incorrect!) and doesn’t pick up on the passive aggression, Ed slides right back into his old staple (“I will kill every last one of you.”) Even though Blackbeard is absolutely not the appropriate face for this situation. 

The question of why Ed does things, what motivates him, is tricky. Because when we first meet him the answer is… not much. He’s in a funk. He doesn’t care about being Blackbeard, he doesn’t care about his crew. Izzy tries to get under his skin by saying “I attacked that ship, losing several of our men by the way,” to which Ed responds “kind of the job, they’re pirates.” He is fascinated by Stede’s madness and passion, and the world Stede lives in. So - maybe a Burnt Snake with no people? But I just don’t see that distinctive, slightly cold Burnt Snake hedonism. Also, that hypothesis also does not explain Calico Jack. 

Because the weird thing is, if you look at just his actions… Ed is most loyal to Calico Jack. He lets Izzy leave. He lets Stede leave (that’s a slightly uncharitable reading of the ending, but come on, it’s super likely that Stede just got in trouble on the way down to the docks.) The only one Ed actually follows is Jack, even when Stede wants him to stay. So why does he follow Jack?

The key to Ed is that he sees the world as a game, a game with rules. “How does one win this encounter” he asks before he goes into a new situation. He can’t interfere in the duel to protect Stede because that’s not how duels work, and we actually hear a lot of the rules he’s put in place for himself - ‘the Captain goes down with the ship’ ‘Pets befoul the ship and make one weak,’ ‘Control your enemy’s fear and then you own them,’ ‘I always outsource the big job,’ ‘Blackbeard doesn’t feel fear,’ ‘Jeff would never back down from a challenge.’ These are bits of Ed’s self-constructed code. He’s a Bird primary, and his set of rules is his system. 

Unfortunately, most of his rules-to-live-by were designed for Blackbeard, a simplistic character he plays. Ed has a list of piratey bullet points, but needs a more complex system that can incorporate more experiences. Stede Bonnet’s very different outlook on life helps with that, and Ed starts incorporating his ideas about creativity, aesthetics, community, “fine things,” and “the high life” into a new worldview. He falls in love with Stede’s existence, which is why he very literally wants to kill Stede and take over his existence. It becomes more about Stede the fascinating individual, but it didn’t start that way. Ed is using the new data Stede gave him to write new rules, and when Stede abandons him at the docks, that process stops. 

But. Ed is still able to absorb enough to turn himself into a simplified version of Stede, and build something based on softness, sad poetry, and talent shows. And as a coping mechanism it seems to be working? Ed is picking up his trash, on the path of creating a more fulfilling and emotionally honest existance for himself. But Izzy shuts him down. He shows Ed a picture of Blackbeard and pokes holes in the new system, calling it weak. Edward Version 2.0 is not stable enough to survive that. So he reverts back to an even harsher, more constricting version of Blackbeard. 

“The Kraken” is a monster built of desperation and fear. He’s deliberately inhuman, just an illustration in face paint. In a subtle costuming detail, Ed stops wearing fingerless glovelettes that allow him to touch the world, and starts wearing just full gloves. He is cut off from his ability to take in information, grow, and change. His Bird primary explodes.

For an example of what I mean when I say that Ed’s first law is his consciously-constructed code, take the scene where Izzy is trying to convince him to kill Stede. Emotionally, Ed does not want to do this. If he had been a Lion or a Snake, that’s where the conversation would have ended. But, Izzy recites one of Ed’s rules back to him. (“Pets make one weak.”) He knows Ed follows his rules, not his emotions, and so that’s what he uses to convince him. Calico Jack does a similar thing, constantly repeating “I saved your life.” This seems to be a value/rule Jack knows he can exploit. When he’s ordered off the ship Jack once again says, “I saved your life, Blackie,” and Ed has no choice but to go with him. That whole episode is about Jack getting Ed to revert to an older, less developed version of himself, so it makes sense that he’d go back to using his older, black-and-white system instead of the more nuanced one he’s building with Stede.

There’s also a kind of Bird primary energy in the way Ed doesn’t kill people - technically. Maiming doesn’t count. Burning a ship doesn’t count (because  the flames killed them.) Those are arguments Ed makes to save his own conscience, because secretly he fears that he’s a “bad person”... or not even a person at all. Very Idealist primary angst. (Or Burnt Primary angst. But for most of the season, Ed’s primary isn’t actually burnt. It’s just... in flux.)

PART II (THE CREW) IS RIGHT HERE

tl;dr

Stede Bonnet - Lion primary / Burnt Badger secondary which unBurns, Badger secondary performance that he hates. 

Edward “Blackbeard” Teach - Bird primary that is in the process of expanding to support a larger range of experience, but Explodes at the end of the season / Bird secondary (Rapid Fire when he’s on his ship, Actor when he’s using the Blackbeard persona) 

[eternalplutoniangoddess]

I don't know why Izzy fascinates me so much. Maybe it's because he makes all the wrong choices??? Like mf really was prepared for his crush captain to get murdered just because he fell in love with a cute blonde. Like homie, you treated your relationship with this man like a business transaction. Wtf did you think he was gonna do, "Oh Izzy, the person I like to show cool shit to but never seems to express any enjoyment of it, yeah I totally feel like having a romantic relationship with him." Izzy is dumb as fuck if he really thought some hot blonde with a big don - I mean ship, that likes the weird shit his captain does, wasn't gonna get Ole Eddy's attention.

Do i think Izzy is down bad for Ed? Hell fucking yes!!!

Does he know it? Probably not, but he's close. My man was shit talking Stede to Jackie and sounding like a jealous popular girl in teen drama who's boyfriend (ex most likely) or crush just flirted with the new girl.

Do I think Ed was (maybe still is???) into Izzy?

Probably, I think he is/was kinda. Like we all can conclude that Ed was in a depression before he met Stede, so when he found something new and sparkly (Stede) he wanted Izzy specifically to check it out. Like yeah it could be because he's his first mate but that the scenes when they board the revenge, he still drags Izzy along with him pointing this out things that he thinks is cool and trying to get him to respond. He didn't have to then. And him manipulating Izzy to stay, because thats what it fucking was. You cannot tell me that when someone says their gonna leave and your response is like "no don't go yet I need you, im gonna kill him promise." is not some of the similar shitty tactics that people use when trying to save a breakup/marriage thats honestly worrying. Ed knew full well that in the back of his skull that he wasn't gonna kill Stede, because he's NOT a hands on killer. Even after the duel when Izzy was leaving, Ed was still trying to tell him that it didn't have to end like that, because he didn't know why Izzy was so pissed at him for hanging with Stede in the first place since Izzy seemingly didn't want anything to do with him from what we seen.

Case in point: Izzy hands is a simp that aint getting shit because he doesn't know what emotions are. And for whatever reason this turned into a blackhands rant, anyways Ed and Izzy both had feelings for each other but each of there actions conflicted with each other and caused neither of the to recognize they have some type of feelings that weren't quite platonic.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

godddd the way the original e5 “you wear fine things well” scene was backlit by a giant full moon that didn’t actually exist bc this was ed and stede’s fairy tale romance, the way they’re both all dressed up in finery and looking their best after a fancy night out (which didn’t go how either of them expected but that’s not the point the point is it was an Event it was a whole Thing they went to)

and then in the e5 “wear fine things well” 2 electric boogaloo scene the moon is a waxing gibbous because it’s real and stede’s wearing what remains of his fancy suit he had to get rid of and ed’s wearing a fucking. sack and a cat collar. and holding a fucking dead fish. and they’re just catching up after both of them had a pretty normal day doing their own things. this isn’t the picture-perfect fantasy from last season this is both of them grounded in the moment taking it slow because their relationship is worth handling with care. they want this to last and they want this to be real so they’re taking their time, being gentle. they’re not as completely absorbed by each other the way they were last season, they’re their own separate people who can exist in different plotlines for an episode and then come back at the end of the day and catch up, swap stories, kiss and hold hands and just hang out and enjoy being in each other’s presence.

now if you’ll excuse me. i have to go cry.

[lightbluetown]

i just love that ed asked for stede to stop

i love that stede was finally able to tell ed that their first kiss happened too fast and that he panicked. i love that when they kissed again, when ed leaned in for a quick peck but stede got passionate, ed was able to break the kiss and say "hey man, let's take this slow". i love that stede, of course, immediately stopped. i love that it didn't feel weird and they kept playing with each other's fingers and talking about their day

that was the most healthy, natural, realistic kiss i've seen. it wasn't romanticized for tv, it wasn't forced to be something it didn't have to be. it happened under a moon that wasn't full, on the deck of a messy ship, after ed complimented a piece of fine clothing that had lost most of its charm. it was as awkward as it was graceful

[edscuntyeyeshadow]

thinking about how ofmd took blackbeard, a historical (almost mythical) figure that has pretty much always been depicted in media as a super hypermasculine white cishet man, and turned him into a gay man of color who wears crop tops and silk gowns, paints his nails and pines for his boyfriend

[blakbonnet]

Ed baiting Ned Low </3 oh i get it. the tally marks, ‘we’ve got a record to break.’ ed was baiting ned low deliberately. he had to know low would come after him: low was ed’s original passive suicide plan - @forpiratereasons

[tizzyizzy]

Ed & Fear

As a love interest and popular character with a tragic past, it’s easy to forget how frightening Blackbeard is.

Sure, we get a sense of his reputation before he appears. A story of his smoking head and glowing eyes, ominous music playing over his flapping flag, Spanish Jackie letting Stede go because she didn’t want to cross Blackbeard.

That all sets us up for the twist once Ed is friendly, but lost like Stede, looking for some meaning in his life. We learn about Ed’s past, and his vulnerabilities, and fall for him as Stede does. He’s still that abused child trying to protect himself.

But those stories and that reputation didn’t come from nowhere. I don’t think it’s an accident that Frenchie, one of the most savvy people in the crew, is the one that asks Ed whether they’re all going to be killed while Ed’s swanning around the deck.

Blackbeard is all about fear. It’s what makes ships surrender at the sight of his flag. His trademark fuckeries are based on psychological warfare. Craft an illusion powerful enough, and no one will dare hurt you.

It’s not just illusions, though. Ed’s one fear is the kraken, i.e. himself. He’s frightened of his own capacity for violence. He can’t evening kill people directly by his own hand.

Others are frightened by that capacity too. It helps to contrast his wrath to Izzy’s. Izzy yells, and everyone ignores him. Ed raises his voice, and everyone lines up to shake Stede’s hand obediently. Fang laughs at the thought of Izzy coming in to see him modelling for penis drawings. He nearly jumps out of his skin at the thought of Blackbeard arriving. Even Lucius, who tries to communicate with Ed and be sympathetic to him, is wary in their interactions.

Cultivating an aura of fear keeps people from getting close, however. Others idolize and/or fear him. Before Stede, Izzy is one of the few people allowed to see behind the curtain to the man behind the myth (”His name is Blackbeard, dog!”).

I actually suspect Stede’s naivety is part of what allowed their relationship to take off. Sure, Stede’s heard stories of Blackbeard, but he’s still a gentleman whose one only venture into proper piracy involved him stealing a potted plant from two defenseless fishermen. He wasn’t clever enough to realize that what a dangerous position he was in with Blackbeard on his ship, so he was happy to treat Ed as a friend.

And for Ed’s part, Stede’s a bit like a child or...well...pet. A dog doesn’t know your insecurities or reputation. It isn’t a threat. You don’t need to put on a façade of ferocity because it won’t stab you in the back.

If Stede had been a proper pirate, Ed wouldn’t have been able to relax with him, or open up. You can’t admit to other professionals in your field that actually you’re bored and you like fancy fabric and it’s frustrating that they all imagine you as more dangerous that you actually are. You want them to see you as that dangerous.

[captain-flint]

something something Ed not being able to step in to protect Stede from physical and emotional harm out of fear of damaging Stede's reputation and instead letting it play out as he silently falls apart in the background

[palaceoftheprophets]

I am feeling fine and perfectly normal about them. :)))))))