#ahab's boat and crew

[saltwife]

this one was too good not to do.

[youthofpandas]

Call Her Ishmael (or: a trans reading of one of my favorite Limbus characters)

Hi, I have been thinking about writing something like this since Canto V first released and today I finally felt inspired to actually make this... A compilation of the parts of Ishmael's story that lead me to reading her as trans <3 and why I think that understanding her character though that lens works so well

We begin with a woman stuck in the mundane. No plans for the future, no dreams of a life beyond the one she is currently living in, and that life is one she has long grown tired of. And she decides she would rather quit living that life, even if it would kill her. Everyone told her not to do this, but she wanted (needed) to do something new with her life.

She finds Ahab here, when she is at this low where she is unsure of where to go from here now that she has cast her old life away. She looks at Ahab and sees a woman with goals, determination, serious plans for the future she is willing to commit to. And she wants to be just like that woman. She wants to be a woman who will choose what her destiny is, choose what life she has.

"I hoped to be like her one day. To be someone who will face the destiny of her own choosing. To have something I could give it my all with conviction and without a moment of hesitation."

And when she gets on that boat and starts this new chapter in her life, well. There she meets Queequeg, and is asked for her name...

Queequeg asking her name, something that surprises Ishmael, and complimenting her hair is a defining moment in Ishmael's life and in their relationship. And not only is it the first conversation they have, it is the also last thing Queequeg asks of her. To hear Ishmael's name one more time is something that will bring not only herself comfort, but she knows will stabilize Ishmael as well in this moment. That it will bring her back to when they had first met, to the fond memories of a good friend who had asked for her name. Ishmael's name, her identity, the one she forged on that boat even through great difficulty is what shaped her into being herself... That is how their relationship begins and ends...

There is also a recurring theme of being reborn, of happiness being found in another life that is kinder to them both. Ishmael dreams of a life where they can break out of their cocoons. She wants to bury her past and had no dreams of the future before joining the Pequod, before meeting Queequeg and finding someone she wants a future with. Through Queequeg, through the woman who thinks her hair is the brilliant color of sunset and asked for her name, Ishmael is capable of imagining a destiny of her own choosing just like she had wanted when she met Ahab. (She isn't able to chase after it, not yet, because of Ahab's influence over the Pequod, but she for the first time can at least dream of a future where she is happy)

When tragedy strikes, she is left as, in her mind, the sole survivor of the crew, she has lost Queequeg, lost Ahab, lost her chance at finding happiness and purpose. It's then that she takes Queequeg's rope (the thing that kept her alive! Queequeg throughout their time knowing each other is always there to save her and help her keep on living) and makes it into a headband, attaches cute bows to it, a bit of femininity that is intrinsically attached to the woman who helped save her. She grows out her hair, her beautiful sunset colored hair, and it is so heart warming. For a long time I assumed that her not cutting her hair was done out of mourning, out of an unwillingness to move on from the life she had on that ship, but instead it was because Queequeg had loved her and she had loved her friend in kind.

In conclusion I love Ishmael very much and I like to rotate her around. Everything from her metaphors of being stuck in a cocoon and wanting to break free, her envy of Ahab's ability to find purpose so easily, her relationship with Queequeg that helped inspire her to dream for more to dream of a future where she is happy,, it is all very good and to me reading her as trans strengthens the themes of her story. I've watched the final part of the Canto V dungeon several times over when my friends arrive at that part of the story, and the Call Me Ishmael line always makes me start tearing up.

Ishmael starts as an unhappy office worker with no future and it is a life she cannot continue living, she meets an older woman who has the drive and passion to chase after her goals and wants to be like her when she is older, she has a life defining moment where another woman asks for her name and wants to be good friends with her, that woman will save her in so many ways and she will love that woman so deeply for how she helped influence her life, she sees herself trapped in a cocoon and wants to break free, she dreams of her and that woman will persevere, how they will live out the rest of their days, countless mirror worlds of happiness spent at each other's side. She starts the game proper with her hair grown long, ribbons attached to a rope that helped save her that represents the woman who had saved her before. She ends her chapter finding a new adventure to go on, one will she get to explore the world she lives in, she has found a compass in Dante who will help her chart her path forward.

Also I know we all make jokes about how inconsistent the art is when it comes to her chest but like... Come on look at the difference here.... I'm correct about this. But I mostly wanted to make this post to point out that her narrative arc is also trans and it goes so much deeper than just art inconsistencies.

Okay that's all I can think of now, thank you for reading, I hope you all also love her <3

[mobydyke]

one of my favorite parts of moby dick is when ishmael wants/needs to tell us something but he desperately doesn't want to have to talk about it, he just buries it in a bunch of irrelevant information.

at the very beginning, he goes to church. a place filled with "silent grief... insular and incommunicable." and he sees these marble tablets on either side of the pulpit and says 'I don't really remember them all that well' (which is likely a lie. at the least it's extremely out of character for a man who directly quotes the internal monologues of other men) and proceeds to give three paraphrased examples. the first tablet is for a teenager, lost overboard off patagonia. the tablet was paid for by his sister. the second is for 6 men, taken by a whale they were hunting in the pacific. the tablet was paid for "by their surviving shipmates." the third is for a captain, killed on his own boat by a sperm whale off japan. the tablet was paid for by his widow. all seemingly normal.

except they're not. the first one is a red herring, seemingly irrelevant to our story. but the second? a memorial for a crew lost to a whale, left by their surviving shipmates? that's exactly what we're reading. the surviving shipmate is ishmael. he's all that remains. and then he pivots, drawing our attention to the much clearer parallel- the captain who loses his life on his own boat to a sperm whale. and we all immediately go "oh I know who that is! ahab!!" and ishmael succeeds. he needs us to see the sailors remembered by their surviving crew, but even more he needs to not address it. he needs us to not ask him about it. he wants this story to be told but he doesn't want to be the one telling it. he wants to pretend to be someone else, to be someone other than the one who survived. and for 135 chapters, he gets to be.

[pocketsizedquasar]

the THING. the thing the thing the thing. the thing about ahab and starbuck. is that to each other. starbuck is devotion without trust. and ahab is trust without devotion.

starbuck is SO devoted to ahab. like, unhealthily devoted to him. like “some ineffable thing has tied me to him; tows me with a cable I have no knife to cut” devoted to him. like “I misdoubt me that I disobey my God in obeying him!” devoted; like “stares down the barrel of ahab’s gun pointed at him and keeps his cool” devoted to him, like “recognizes that the only way home to his family, home to his wife and child, is by refusing ahab, and yet still he chooses ahab, chooses him over and over again over himself, over his crew, over his own survival, over his own God, chooses his captain over his wife and his child and making it home to them” devoted to him. over everything, starbuck chooses ahab.

but he doesn’t trust him. of course he doesn’t; why would he? he’s no reason to trust him; he knows ahab is going to lead them all to their deaths no matter what starbuck says. he tries and tries and tries over and over again to get ahab to turn around and it’s never enough.

and ahab. ahab trusts starbuck--as much as he can trust anyone. that trust is not always there -- especially not at the beginning; it grows throughout the book. starbuck is truly the only one on this boat with the means to stop ahab, and he knows it. ahab wants him on his side, spends time winning him over, is pleased when he thinks it’s worked -- “starbuck is now mine” (gay as hell to--). but even then, there is a level of trust there -- stubb talks back to ahab and he immedediately and commandingly shuts that shit down, but starbuck? ahab listens to him. even changes his mind for him in certain places, listening to starbuck over his own wants. immediately after holding him at gunpoint (lmao) he gives in to starbuck’s request because he knows he’s right. “thou art but too good a fellow, starbuck.” and in the very end, when he needs help to be hoisted up into the rigging because he is unable to make it up on his own with his prosthetic, ahab decides to trust starbuck with his life over everyone else -- over the harpooners, over fedallah, over everyone -- to hold the line that would keep him alive: “Take the rope, sir—I give it into thy hands, Starbuck.” starbuck could easily kill him here -- let go of the rope and send him plunging 100 feet to a shattered death on the deck of the pequod, and ahab trusts him with his life. take my life, starbuck; i’m putting it in your hands. he trusts starbuck to stay on the ship while he goes off to hunt the white whale.

but still, still, ahab does not truly ever choose starbuck. he cares for him, certainly -- he wants starbuck to stay on the ship and be safe while he goes off -- but still, ahab chooses his vengeance over him. he trusts starbuck enough to see god in his eyes, trusts him enough to lean against him for support, to let starbuck physically hold him up when his leg is snapped, trusts him enough to gaze into his eyes and lean in his arms and ask him to brush the hair from his tired wrinkled brow and still still still still doesn’t choose him. starbuck chooses ahab over everything and ahab chooses his iron-railed path over starbuck. “What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing?”

devotion without trust. i will follow you into the hell i know you’re bringing us to. i will hold your life in my hands. even though i cannot trust you to protect me and do right by me and our crew. trust without devotion. i will put my life in your hands. i will trust you with everything i have. even though i cannot choose you over the fate i was assigned.

im mentally unwell about them.

[officiallordvetinari]

I enjoyed "The Jeroboam's Story". Every time the Pequod meets another ship, we see that maybe whaling is just Like That, actually. The Pequod and the Jeroboam have both come under the control of a man who managed to hide his monomania long enough to board a ship and subvert the crew to his will. The difference is that Gabriel wants to be God's vicar to the Pacific, while Ahab wants to kill Him.

Speaking of God, the Jeroboam has had a run-in with Moby Dick too, because of course they have. He's everywhere. I was struck by the description of Macey being "smitten" - a telling choice of words - while the boat and the rest of the crew remain untouched. The Whale is simply, unquestionably more powerful than any human. And Macey condemned to "for ever sink" into the same depths we heard about last chapter, the "world's foundations", "where bell or diver never went" - the place that the Whale calls home and that Ahab can barely even imagine.

[merlincersei]

Merlin BBC UK TV Show - Opinion Piece Part 21 - Uther v/s Captain Ahab

As per my usual Christmas tradition, I need trauma to balance out the Christmas cheer so I subjected myself to watch the Merlin series all over again for the 11th year in a row!!!!!

Me before watching Merlin:

Me after watching Merlin:

While viewing the series this time around, Uther's character really stood out to me.

There is something about the way the writers choose to write Uther's character that made him come across as being more ""flawed" rather than the cold calculating antagonist that has been popularized by Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister in Game Of Thrones.

It is a real coincidence as Charles Dance himself appeared in the Merlin series as Aredian in the Witchfinder episode.

All credit must be given to Anthony Head, whose portrayal balances the multiple requirements the script demands with brilliance be it stoic, emotional and/or comedic elements.

But it was while watching the episode "The Tears of Uther Pendragon" that I could not help but find overlaps between Uther Pendragon ( 2008 Merlin BBC TV Series) and Captain Ahab (1851 Book Moby Dick)

So I felt that it could become a Tumblr post.

Here is my attempt to outline the similarities between our antagonists.

Leadership Qualities

Captain Ahab is the chief captain of the Pequod and leads a crew in various whaling expeditions.

Uther is the king of Camelot and rules the kingdom of Camelot.

Motivated By Revenge

Captain Ahab had become disabled when the white whale, Moby Dick had bitten off Ahab's leg during a whale hunting expedition. Over his long recovery, Ahab believes that Moby Dick acted with deliberate intelligence and commits himself to avenging his lost leg.

Uther had become a widower when his infertile wife who was impregnated through magic died at childbirth. Overcome by grief he believes magic to be evil and vows vengeance against everyone who uses magic.  

Accidental Death

Captain Ahab throws his harpoon and hits Moby Dick, but its line wraps around his neck and drags him off his boat when the whale dives, drowning him

Uther is accidentally killed by Merlin when a magical artifact reverses the healing spell into a killing spell.

[carolinawrenn]

So...not only have we had a warning from the angel Gabriel not to kill Moby Dick, the Pequod's crew believe that the devil is trying to make a deal with Ahab, Moby Dick in exchange for his soul? Ishmael, baby, I know you can't read my Tumblr posts, but you and Queequeg need to get off that boat yesterday.

[cirrus-grey]

I know it's kind of the point, the passions of man versus the indifferent cruelty of nature, but it is amazing to me how much the Whale in Moby Dick just does not give a fuck.

The whole book sets it up as this malicious, intelligent demon that has it out for humans and wants to kill them all, and then when the Pequod finally catches up to it it's just... puttering along, enjoying the weather, having a grand old time. Even after they attack it and it destroys one of the boats it just kind of sits in the water nearby swatting at debris with its tail and ignoring them. Even at the end, the final destruction of the ship and deaths of all the crew, it kind of just has this attitude of like. Hey. You. I thought I told you to fuck off. Like -

Ahab: From Hell's heart I stab at thee!

The Whale: Oh, not you again. 🙄

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

I'm still not over Ahab getting up in front of God and his entire crew and looking at his first mate and saying "Starbuck I've felt strangely drawn to you since we saw... you know what... in each other's eyes" like????????????? canonically he fucking canonically says "you know what". what the shit where am I. what is going on. it's 1851 how are there so many gay people in this boat

[average-limbus-fan]

Yandere Drabbles for Ishmael, Sinclair, and Hong Lu

(Note: Hong Lu’s part is on hold until his canto)

Introduction

The feeling of the boat quickly turning into a bus was definitely jarring but at least you were on solid ground once again, all the sinners had seemed to be in better spirits with the change too… well aside from Heathcliff but you knew he was preparing for something so you left him alone to join Ishmael at the back of the bus who was in the middle of glaring at Hong Lu and Sinclair the former of which was teasing Sinclair for the small bird keychain he carried around “my sister gave it to me” Sinclair said, quick to defend his trinket while Hong Lu continued his innocent verbal assault “aww that’s so cute you must’ve loved her a lot” he retorted much to the embarrassment of Sinclair. Ishmael meanwhile seemed incredibly unamused “could you both stop acting like children for once” she said annoyed. At this Sinclair snatched his keychain out of Hong Lu’s hand “Don’t… touch my stuff again” he said in a low tone surprising the three of you as he walked back to his Quarters. Hong Lu then flashed a wicked smile “if I knew I could get such a fun reaction out of him I would’ve taken that ridiculous keychain ages ago” he said, as you were throughly disturbed by both of their words. Ishmael then headed to the back quarters of the bus seemingly tired of the petty conversation, you decided to follow suit when an odd thought crossed your mind, you had seen just how cruel Ishmael had gotten during her “turn” out on the seas… especially when she had been reunited with Ahab against her will. That got you wondering, you knew all the sinners were far from good people and they have easily maimed each other and bystanders without a second thought… but surely they wouldn’t act like that around the people they actually loved would they? Well it is your job as their manager to bring out the best in them of course! …But sometimes you wondered… these thoughts continued as you fell asleep.

Ishmael

You “awoke” to the familiar feeling of swaying you had gotten accustomed to in the past few weeks, the unfamiliar feeling beside you however was more daunting. “Cmon how about you get up and try to make yourself useful for once” the voice said while getting up, causing you fall out of the sheets in terror… and that’s when you realized it wasn’t you’re bed. You had fallen onto a weathered wooden floor much different from the cold metal floor of your bus quarters “Ishmael where are we” you asked horrified. “Where we’ve always been Dante” she returned coldly before walking out, you promptly followed to find yourself on a ship… with a familiar looking crew. A well built women approached you “Ishmael’s partner nice to see you out of room” she exclaimed much to your confusion. “Partner” you said in shock as you walked off to find Ishmael again, a relatively easy task on a ship. “Ishmael” you yelled as you caught up to her “where the hell are we” “where are the others” you asked as you started to freak out. “What do you mean Dante” “this is where you’ve always been…by my side” “after all it’s not like you’d survive anywhere else without me” she said cruelly. You froze unable to comprehend the situation you were currently in “Dante your doing it again” Ishmael said, …you didn’t respond “I think it’s time for you to go back to your room” she said while grabbing your arm and dragging you back in the direction of your “room” however you would never make it back as you quickly drifted out of conciseness.

Sinclair

It seemed you were back on a bed however it wasn’t yours once again, this one was much plumper then the last with a thick duvet and silk sheets though. You looked around the large room, there were expensive looking paintings adorning the walls and busts of prosthetic heads on the nightstands. Opposite the bed were two heavy doors however trying to open them proved useless, you were locked in. “Sorry but Master Sinclair said we’re to keep you in there until he sends for you” a women’s voice calls out from the other side of them door. Master Sinclair… you were very confused as you tried to question the person on the other side of the door, however you quickly remembered they wouldn’t be able to understand your tick tocking. So you resigned yourself to inspecting the rest of the room… to which you then noticed that the room lacked any windows. You spent what only felt like a few minutes continuing to investigate the room when the doors swung open to reveal a few women with prosthetic heads and maid uniforms “it’s time for dinner Master Dante” one of them proclaimed as you were then dragged out of your room and to what appeared to be a large dining hall. You noticed Sinclair sitting at the other end of the long table however as he saw you he quickly stood up and walked down until he was on the left chair closest to the end seat which you were soon placed into. He seemed elated at your confused and docile state as you questioned him. “There’s no reason to be worried about any of that…” he stammered out “here…” he then said while raising a fork to your mouth… you hadn’t even noticed that a plate had appeared in front of you. You reeled back in embarrassment which caused him to pale and start hyperventilating “are you still scared of me… it wasn’t my fault… you tried to run… you tried to abandon me…” he said starting to convulse as you were pulled from you’re seat by the maids. “Wait” you tried to protest as you watched Sinclair violently try to push off the maids as they were trying to help him. “I think it’s time you return to you’re room Master Dante” one of them said “don’t worry Master Sinclair will join you shortly” another said at your obvious worry for the blond. However as you were dragged back through the extravagant halls you once again felt that familiar wave of light headed-ness as you drifted out of consciousness.

At last you had finally woken up and you had never been so grateful to be met with your bus quarters, had you had a mouth you may have kissed the cold metal floor. However you would soon be interrupted by a voice at your door.

(Note: I couldn’t decide on a traumatic or happy ending so you can all have both)

Traumatic Ending:

Ishmael called out from the other side of the door “Dante you’ve been in there for hours it’s 2pm, Vergilius wants you out now” you didn’t respond… 4 hours later you’re door would be opened by Charon as the rest of the sinners looked in to find their dutiful manager pitifully cowering in the corner “stay away” you screeched out as you backed further away into you’re corner. “Do you think we broke them or something…”Sinclair asked as you started tearing up. You couldn’t let them become like that… no it would be all your fault if that happened… you then spent the next few days avoiding Ishmael, Sinclair, and Hong Lu much to their confusion and worry.

Happy Ending:

Ishmael called out from the other side of the door “Dante you’ve been in there for hours it’s 2pm, Vergilius wants you out now” you had never been so happy to hear you’re Ishmael as you swung the door open to have her look at you in confusion before you grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug… much to her chagrin “Hey” she shouted “what’s gotten into you Dante” “let me go” her shouts had attracted the attention of the other sinners as they entered the back of the bus in concern. “Oh dear… are we interrupting something” Hong Lu asked before you ran over and pulled him into a hug as he giggled “my my… someone’s definitely happy to see us today”. You then looked around to find the blond you had wanted, he however had noticed you’re focus and quickly tried to run in the opposite direction… but you were faster, you scooped him up from behind and nuzzled your clockhead against his hair as he went limp, his face red as a tomato. “Oi, what’s gotten into clockhead this morning” Heathcliff asked. The rest of the sinners however didn’t have any good answers for him. You wouldn’t tell them anything either but you would also never allow your sinners to become like that… it was your duty as their manager after all… you’d make sure of it.

[tortoisesshells]

top five doomed mariners go

in order not of significance, but of encounter:

(1) William Bush - the original Doomed Mariner, my copy of Lord Hornblower is still held together with duct tape from chucking the book across the room when I realized Forester was not going to pull a "if there's no body he's not dead" - rather, "if there's no body, it's because he was too close to the ignition point." A character whose defining trait is his devotion is actually something that can be so personal.

(2) James Norrington - the man, the myth, the legend. clearly takes up too much brain space for a [checking notes for comedic effect] antagonist secondary character from a twenty-year-old theme park ride movie. Hard to say at which point it became clear he'd never survive, but there's definitely a point at which he clearly thinks he's survived too long for anyone's good, least of all his own.

(3) Mr. Starbuck

“On this level, Ahab’s hammock swings within; his head this way. A touch, and Starbuck may survive to hug his wife and child again.—Oh Mary! Mary!—boy! boy! boy!—But if I wake thee not to death, old man, who can tell to what unsounded deeps Starbuck’s body this day week may sink, with all the crew! Great God, where art Thou? Shall I? shall I?—The wind has gone down and shifted, sir; the fore and main topsails are reefed and set; she heads her course.” “Stern all! Oh Moby Dick, I clutch thy heart at last!” Such were the sounds that now came hurtling from out the old man’s tormented sleep, as if Starbuck’s voice had caused the long dumb dream to speak. The yet levelled musket shook like a drunkard’s arm against the panel; Starbuck seemed wrestling with an angel; but turning from the door, he placed the death-tube in its rack, and left the place. (123: The Musket)

(4) Eyk Larsen - doomed by Netflix more than his own foibles, though that's not for lack of trying on his foibles' part. Even the men on his crew that like him are waiting for him to snap under the strain of his bereavement, alcoholism, and the demands of the new shipping company's changes (and the sudden appearance/disappearance of a ghost ship. and inexplicable deaths. and seeing things. and and and). Doesn't make it three whole scenes before staring moodily into the deeps of the Atlantic, musing on the impossibility of knowing what lives on the floor thousands of feet below. Kind of deserved that mutiny. Didn't exactly die in 1899, but. Well. Like his relationship with Maura, it was complicated.

(5) Bill Malloy - He never learned how to swim, he put together The Big Secret about the manslaughter trial quicker than any other uninvolved character, he's been in love with and trailing a respectful step behind Liz Collins Stoddard for 20+ years to no avail (but, hey, Carolyn says he's as good as her father, which?), and he's not the most helpful ghost but he is having a little too much fun getting revenge for his murder - did we ever hear him laugh when he was alive? I suppose we have to subtract some points for him never spending any time on a boat within the scope of the narrative, but then, he IS trying to go back to his job on the boats - and no one else on this list sings "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor?". I'm pretty sure the narrative is through with him now, alas. He'll always be famous to me.

[nastyacitrus]

"The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward; with igniting velocity the line ran through the grooves;—ran foul. Ahab stooped to clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone. Next instant, the heavy eye-splice in the rope’s final end flew out of the stark-empty tub, knocked down an oarsman, and smiting the sea, disappeared in its depths. For an instant, the tranced boat’s crew stood still; then turned. “The ship? Great God, where is the ship?” Soon they through dim, bewildering mediums saw her sidelong fading phantom, as in the gaseous Fata Morgana; only the uppermost masts out of water; while fixed by infatuation, or fidelity, or fate, to their once lofty perches, the pagan harpooneers still maintained their sinking lookouts on the sea. And now, concentric circles seized the lone boat itself, and all its crew, and each floating oar, and every lance-pole, and spinning, animate and inanimate, all round and round in one vortex, carried the smallest chip of the Pequod out of sight. But as the last whelmings intermixingly poured themselves over the sunken head of the Indian at the mainmast, leaving a few inches of the erect spar yet visible, together with long streaming yards of the flag, which calmly undulated, with ironical coincidings, over the destroying billows they almost touched;—at that instant, a red arm and a hammer hovered backwardly uplifted in the open air, in the act of nailing the flag faster and yet faster to the subsiding spar. A sky-hawk that tauntingly had followed the main-truck downwards from its natural home among the stars, pecking at the flag, and incommoding Tashtego there; this bird now chanced to intercept its broad fluttering wing between the hammer and the wood; and simultaneously feeling that etherial thrill, the submerged savage beneath, in his death-gasp, kept his hammer frozen there; and so the bird of heaven, with archangelic shrieks, and his imperial beak thrust upwards, and his whole captive form folded in the flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it. Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago".

- "Moby-Dick; or The Whale", by Herman Melville

[lysapadin]

More whale posting! Let’s talk about Ahab.

I applaud Ishmael for trying to be generous and saying that it was the loss of his leg that drove Ahab around the bend, but Ishmael, honey, I think the man was already there:

His three boats stove around him, and oars and men both whirling in the eddies; one captain, seizing the line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale, as an Arkansas duellist at his foe, blindly seeking with a six inch blade to reach the fathom-deep life of the whale. That captain was Ahab.

One does not fling oneself into battle with the supernatural embodiment of malice aforethought armed only with a knife and expect to come out the other side in one piece unless one is a few crayons shy of a box of Crayolas.

But losing that leg sure didn’t help:

ever since that almost fatal encounter, Ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale, all the more fell for that in his frantic morbidness he at last came to identify with him, not only all his bodily woes, but all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations. The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung.

and

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.

Let’s just pause for a moment and linger on “as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it“ because goddamn, what a line. What the fuck, Melville, who gave you the right to write like this? Nathaniel Hawthorne could never, that’s why he ghosted you, honey, he was clearly jealous.

Ahem. Moving along. Regardless of when Ahab took up residence in Crazy Town, Population Him, he is definitely crazy:

Yet, when by this collision forced to turn towards home, and for long months of days and weeks, Ahab and anguish lay stretched together in one hammock, rounding in mid winter that dreary, howling Patagonian Cape; then it was, that his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so interfusing, made him mad.

And his obsession has made him dangerously powerful:

his special lunacy stormed his general sanity, and carried it, and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark; so that far from having lost his strength, Ahab, to that one end, did now possess a thousand fold more potency than ever he had sanely brought to bear upon any one reasonable object.

and

He was intent on an audacious, immitigable, and supernatural revenge.

So much so that he can take his entire crew down with him:

morally enfeebled also, by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or right-mindedness in Starbuck, the invulnerable jollity of indifference and recklessness in Stubb, and the pervading mediocrity in Flask. Such a crew, so officered, seemed specially picked and packed by some infernal fatality to help him to his monomaniac revenge. [...] by what evil magic their souls were possessed, that at times his hate seemed almost theirs; the White Whale as much their insufferable foe as his; how all this came to be—what the White Whale was to them, or how to their unconscious understandings, also, in some dim, unsuspected way, he might have seemed the gliding great demon of the seas of life,—all this to explain, would be to dive deeper than Ishmael can go.

It’s not just the whale that is supernaturally powerful; Ahab’s rage has made him supernaturally powerful as well. It’s made him cunning, too:

Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab’s full lunacy subsided not, but deepeningly contracted;

and

Now, in his heart, Ahab had some glimpse of this, namely: all my means are sane, my motive and my object mad. Yet without power to kill, or change, or shun the fact; he likewise knew that to mankind he did long dissemble; in some sort, did still. But that thing of his dissembling was only subject to his perceptibility, not to his will determinate. Nevertheless, so well did he succeed in that dissembling, that when with ivory leg he stepped ashore at last, no Nantucketer thought him otherwise than but naturally grieved, and that to the quick, with the terrible casualty which had overtaken him.

He knows he’s gone around the bend, and he knows how to hide that from his employers and crew, at least long enough to get the Pequod out to sea. After that, though, well. Not even Starbuck can stop him now.

[bigkickguy]

been thinking about limbus crew meeting up before the game starts in various AUs

ishmael fishing outis out of the sea on the fishing boat and outis patching her up??? I'm losing it ishmael realizes the difference between how the captain treats the crew on the hunt vs how a stranger does and leaves with her to take her back to land safely? like - ahab sucks ass girl the whole crew needs to get out!

not in a 'babygirl i could treat you better <3' way to clarify i want this in a 'you work for 12hrs a day? for that pay? and your boss sucks this bad? that's crazy, i get treated better trying to crush corps in the city' sort of way

idk why my head is stuck on this i'm just going to be rolling around making up things in my mind about why she is so mad until we get to her backstory and sprinkling some gay thoughts in

outis bandaging her wounds - leaning in to whisper in her ear 'thanks for saving my life, anyway I can kill your boss if you want.'

[pocketsizedquasar]

partner @coulson-is-an-avenger​ and i were yelling about this but it is continually absolutely insane to me that melville just casually drops in one line that ahab was forcibly put into a strait-jacket after losing his leg because he was like, in pain and traumatized and acting like it?

(ALT)

like. imagine already participating in the extremely physically and mentally taxing & traumatizing endeavor that is 19th century whaling. imagine being face to face with the largest creature in the world with nothing more than a tiny broken boat you’re clinging to and a six inch knife. imagine it tearing your leg off like “a mower [through] a blade of grass” (ch41). and all the trauma and pain that entails. and then imagine your crew physically restraining you and strait-jacketing you for months for the crime of being traumatized and in pain about it. he’s not even a threat right now, mind you -- they’re lashing him in his own bed. he’s not even walking again yet. like good god this treatment afterward must’ve been more traumatizing than the fucking whale itself!!!

like. hgdshgsahfdahsgh. i and many others have talked before abt how ahab’s anger and trauma with the world comes from a place of truth -- the world he lives in is legitimately awful and it is never more evident than in how it treats him and people like him. and he can’t fight all of that -- he cannot fight the system or the industry or ableism or the god or the shipowners but at least he can fight that fucking whale.

good god above. no wonder he can’t sleep at night. no wonder he wakes up in terrors and panics. no wonder he’s so restless. no wonder he doesn’t like staying below deck. no wonder he feels god and the world and all its men are against him. no wonder he relates so much to pip, a traumatized boy who, when speaking his trauma, also gets branded as mad/insane by the rest of the crew. no wonder he’s putting on such a front of control and power and strength. no wonder he never speaks to anyone about his pain instead of going on this horrific vengeance quest!! because the last time he did he was treated like a literal animal! locked up and straitjacketed! because the way this world treats disabled and/or mentally ill people is genuinely horrific! because he’s under a constant level of scrutiny from his crew, his officers, the shipowners to prove that he is well enough to do his job and turn them all a profit!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[gardenofshadcws]

Whale Weekly Day 31

CHAPTER 50. Ahab’s Boat and Crew. Fedallah.

·         I too admire Ahab’s conviction

·         “it is right for a whaling captain to jeopardize that life in the active perils of the chase” yall are nuts

·         Look at Ahab making the ship accessible for his amputated leg

·         God I hate how they describe Fedallah