#also making blackbeard and abuse victim is a 10/10 move in my opinion

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

can we talk about how the dialogue in episodes 3 and 4 and the way that we see Izzy and Blackbeard interact in episode 3 implies that Ed doesn’t really get out much and relies on Izzy to filter most of his interactions with other people and Izzy manipulates that to his advantage just all the fuckin time. Like I might be misreading this but they don’t really show us Blackbeard interacting with Fang and Ivan ever really, despite the fact that they’ve presumably been sailing together for some time. And Ed sorta vibing telling ghost stories is the most open and available they’ve ever seen him, despite Ed being pretty open and available generally even when Stede’s not around which makes me think that until Ed and Izzy started fighting, Ed was letting Izzy do a lot of his social interacting for him. And we only see him do this for one episode (episode 3) and in that Episode, Izzy manipulates the way that Ed is perceiving the situation at every possible opportunity. By failing to tell Stede who his boss is so that he’ll get Stede to say something stupid that he can bring back to Ed and by telling Ed unequivocally that Stede knew who he was despite this. He also lies about his own behavior and Ed seems to just take his word for it. He says “I’ve massaged this crew when they were worried about your judgement” but the only time we see him responding to a crew member worried about Ed’s judgement is when Fang asks why they have to follow Stede and Izzy’s response is “How should I know, the man’s half insane. No one asked you to fucking think” which is exactly the opposite of what he says he’s doing.

Ed also seems to think that he needs Izzy. When Izzy tries to leave at the end of episode 4 Ed says all the things he knows will make him stay. At the beginning of Episode 7 Ed is ready to leave the revenge, and I think it’s because Izzy is no longer around. Episode 9 the first thing he does, even after Izzy’s betrayal, when he gets back on the revenge, is save Izzy and reinstate him as first mate. Even after the move with Calico Jack, even after selling him out to the British and then using him as a bargaining chip (Izzy didn’t buy Ed’s freedom in exchange for Stede, he bought Ed. Ed was turned over into the custody of captain Hands by the British which I do think is probably an important distinction) After all of that, Ed still puts Izzy in a position where he can control how the crew sees Ed, how Ed sees what’s going on on the ship, and who Ed talks to.

All of this of course culminates in Izzy being able to completely flip Ed’s emotional state in just one conversation. He basically breaks Ed’s spirit when Ed was honestly doing so well recovering from one of the most intense heartbreaks of his life. Every time Izzy hurls his verbal abuse at Ed, Ed either compartmentalizes and distances himself (”That’s Blackbeard, I’m Stede, remember?”) or he is violently reactive (”Chose you’re next words wisely, dog”) It’s fight or flight, and no one else has that reaction to Izzy’s verbal abuse. Lucius doesn’t give a fuck, Stede matches his energy. Like Izzy’s not a scary character, everyone but Ed treats him like an angry chihuahua when being insulted by him and yet he put’s Ed into survival mode with a word.

I also think it bares mentioning that as soon as Izzy looses his control over Ed he responds by doing something that could kill Ed (i.e. selling him out to the Brits.) He’s going to get back control by any means necessary.

I think what I’m saying is that Izzy is Ed’s abuser, and a lot of people just didn’t notice that because Ed has power over Izzy in that Ed is the captain and Izzy is the first mate, and because the show depicts Ed enacting physical violence on Izzy (i.e. punching him, choking him, and feeding him his own toe). Traditionally when you see an abuser and their victim in media the victim doesn’t enact violence unless it’s in the context of getting rid of the abuser for good and freeing themself, but Ed does it in the context of succumbing to the abuse, which I find fascinating. This show is really good at depicting complicated and messy relationships, and I think Ed and Izzy might be one of the most complicated and messy that there is. It depicts an abuse that isn’t a helpless woman and a domineering man and it flew over some people’s heads but I can’t think of another reason for Ed to behave the way he does around Izzy. And once you see it you feel dumb for not seeing it because Izzy really pulls out all the stops short of hitting him. He gaslights Ed, he manipulates Ed, he isolates Ed from his community, he yells at him, he threatens him, he forces Ed to walk a tightrope and if Ed doesn’t stick exactly to Izzy’s expectations of him he actively tries to do Ed harm. And It’s effective, even when Ed should kick Izzy to the curb he doesn’t because he’s fully convinced he can’t live without Izzy.