#i wish i could believe everyone understood what an izzy redemption arc would look like

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

nobody thinks izzy is mean to ed “for no reason” btw. he’s got reasons! he’s got motivations! but izzy’s reasons don’t excuse him, and they’re not written to excuse him. izzy’s actions are justifiable from his perspective, but the show doesn’t agree with his perspective. yknow, because he’s an antagonist?

and an antagonist’s actions can be unjustified AND sympathetic, actually. i personally don’t find izzy to be sympathetic, but that’s just my taste in blorbos. just for an example tho: azula from avatar the last airbender is very sympathetic to me, but that doesn’t make her actions justified, yknow? she was helping her dad commit genocide. no amount of childhood trauma excuses that.

that’s where the “villain discourse” around izzy comes from. when there’s a post talking about how fucked up it was that izzy called ye olde SWAT team on the Revenge and someone argues “well, he just wanted his captain back! ed was changing and leaving izzy behind! he felt betrayed and heartbroken!” it’s like… yeah, we know??? that doesn’t make calling the navy not fucked up????

or a post about how cruel izzy’s being when he says “i should’ve let the english kill you. this… whatever it is you’ve become is a fate worse than death. edward better watch his fucking step” getting countered with “izzy thinks ed needs to be tough or else the crew is going to lose respect for ed and their respect for ed is the only reason izzy didn’t get thrown overboard” or “izzy doesn’t understand how ed is changing and he doesn’t like it” like yeah we all know that, the thing is that izzy is wrong and that’s the whole point.

idk. liking and sympathizing with izzy doesn’t have to mean misunderstanding his narrative role in season 1, y’all. he’s an antagonist, and his reasons are not meant to be excuses. if he gets a redemption arc, it’s going to be a redemption arc, not an “izzy-was-justified-the-whole-time” arc. and as long as the fandom understands that, then we’re all in agreement!