#i won’t put this in the ofmd tag

[edsbacktattoo]

inktober day 5: map

[avelera]

Mostly buried this in the tags of my next OFMD meta reblog down from this post but…. I don’t think Ed is going to apologize for his Kraken era and I don’t think the narrative is going to demand that he does.

I saw a couple posts expressing eagerness for Ed’s inevitable “apology tour” after he wakes up and I just fundamentally don’t think that’s going to happen. I could easily be wrong. But at most I think we might get a few mumbled, shamefaced apologies. If you expect him to grovel before Lucius and the crew, imo, that’s just not going to happen and here’s why:

- the narrative morality of OFMD has NEVER been encouraging its characters to become “good” people. The story is about finding love and acceptance during a midlife crisis. It’s about following your bliss. The highest moral demand it makes of its characters is to be true to themselves, not to become Good People. It’s a pirate comedy. It doesn’t care about murder. It cares about being true to yourself and your desire to be a pirate. Everything goes well when people follow their bliss. It falls apart when narrative defining main characters like Stede or Ed do what they think they should do instead of what makes them happy.

- Emotional pain has always been more important, more impactful, than physical pain in the show. Ed’s bad behavior (to put it lightly) was an expression of his emotional pain. Simply put, the narrative isn’t going to ask him to apologize for his emotional pain.

- Stede, the main driver of the narrative, DOES apologize because his actions led to Ed’s emotional pain (in his mind) and again, narrative pain is weighted more than physical pain in this show. Also, life is cheap, if you’re not a main character. This is still a pirate story. Murder is not treated as a sin.

- Ed is proud. Taika is proud. Both rightfully so one would argue, they’ve accomplished a great deal. Ed’s got a bit of Taika in that, actually more than a bit. It’s clear Taika puts a lot of himself into Ed. My gut tells me that Ed/Taika is just not going to grovel an apology. That’s just not his style. Mumbled self-conscious apologies because he feels he should is one thing. But deep sincere apology tours? Not gonna happen. He won’t abase himself like that (Ed OR Taika)

- The person he arguably hurt most directly, Izzy, hurt Ed IMMENSELY at the end of S1. Arguably more than Lucius, the majority of whose pain came from what happened after he was pushed overboard. But Izzy Ed personally tortured, and he did it because Izzy threatened to murder Ed if Ed didn’t climb back into the suffocating closet of Izzy’s expectations for him. Ed is not going to apologize to Izzy. Izzy got exactly what he deserved in physical pain after the emotional pain he dealt Ed, narratively speaking.

- I’m not talking real world morals, to be clear. Or even what the various Izzy or Ed fans THINK the other deserves, where the fans think the fault truly lies and who owes what to whom.

- What I’m saying is, in the OFMD world where emotional pain matters more than physical maiming, the narrative isn’t going to ASK Ed to apologize to Izzy for maiming him after what Izzy did at the end of S1 and Izzy getting his comeuppance for it. And that’s because they hurt each other equally, emotionally. They’re even now. Izzy lashed out and emotionally destroyed Ed during a vulnerable moment. Ed took his leg. They’re done. The way forward is for them to separate and get their toxicity out of each others life or find a new way forward with new understanding of each other as they become entirely new people after their respective ordeals. But as far as the pain they’ve dealt each other, there’s no debt. They’ve both hurt each other beyond the point of apology being anything but a false display.

Again, I could be totally wrong. Joke’s on me if ep. 4 opens with Ed on his knees crying and apologizing to everyone he hurt. But I just cannot picture that happening. And I don’t think OFMD is the kind of story that will demand it.

[bringthekaos]

Gunna take a break from Arcane for a moment to talk about Our Flag Means Death, because I am extremely disappointed and I have to put these thoughts somewhere. Putting it under a cut, because I myself forgot to filter the OFMD tag while I was working and got it spoiled for me. So ye be warned, OFMD SPOILERS AHEAD.

That ending was genuinely one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. The only other time I can recall being this sickened and angry about a show’s ending was Game of Thrones. And it’s not because I’m sad or mad or confused by Izzy’s death, yes that’s partly it, but because a character who was experiencing massive change and character growth was ONCE AGAIN rewarded with death. I am so goddamn sick of rooting for people to do better, to be better, and then FINALLY get that catharsis only to have it thrown away for shock value.

What did this add to the story? Narratively, I mean. If this is indeed the end of OFMD, and it doesn’t get renewed, what the absolute FUCK kind of message does that send? Izzy was postured as some kind of obstacle between Ed and Stede in Season 1, but in S2, he was allowed to grow outside of that weird and fucked up love triangle (term used incredibly loosely, because his love was pretty much one-sided, and most of the time it was selfish and toxic). In S2, he went on an incredible journey of coming to terms with the fact that Ed would never be his again, not in the way he wanted. Even if it was never romantic or sexual (I do not see it), he wanted Ed to himself, and he had to accept that it would never happen. And he fucking DID, that’s the pisser. He learned to see the value in Ed’s transformation, the good that Stede was for him. And he learned to appreciate it and even start playing with it and teasing the two of them. And the worst/best part was that he embraced the crew, put them into that hole in his heart that Ed left. His speech to the Prince about them being family, and that you give up your wants and dreams for them, because being a pirate is bigger than any one person alone. GOD, his fucking character growth was incredible and heart-wrenching all at once.

And then to just throw all of that away, for what? To remove him as an obstacle between Ed and Stede? He already did that himself. To make the title of the show mean something (that the flag truly means Death?). That is just so fucking cheap and backhanded. Oh, Our Flag Means Death, but no one has died yet, better kill somebody; quick shoot Izzy Hands. How about you just make the word ‘death’ a symbol for change? The death of who you once were, the death of old biases, the death of toxicity and selfishness.

Because what would have been the problem with making Izzy the new captain of the Revenge, and letting Ed and Stede go off and do their thing? In the grand scheme of the narrative, why did two characters’ happy ending have to come at the cost of another’s?! It cheapens that happy ending, puts an asterisk on it. Especially when Izzy had JUST come to the realization that that crew, those people (no matter how ridiculous and soft they were) were his motherfucking family and he would do anything to protect them. He should have gotten to, and I just… I cannot forgive that. I’m not saying you can’t kill off characters, we shouldn’t expect anyone to have plot armor. But for god’s sake, at least make it make sense, give it a reason beyond shock value.

If OFMD gets a third season, I may or may not watch. It’s more than likely I won’t. And not because I don’t love the Stede/Ed story, or any of the other beautiful ones on that ship, I do. But because I’ve lost faith in the story.

[dragonmuse]

I posted 1,731 times in 2022

That's 1,657 more posts than 2021!

1,000 posts created (58%)

731 posts reblogged (42%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@lostanxiousfool

@forpiratereasons

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@brigdh

@whose-modern-au-is-this

I tagged 1,291 of my posts in 2022

Only 25% of my posts had no tags

#ofmd fanart - 397 posts

#leda house and the kraken verse - 371 posts

#ask answered - 253 posts

#leda house and the kraken verse - 247 posts

#ficlet - 156 posts

#izzy hands - 133 posts

#lucius black - 90 posts

#goblin king and the pup - 75 posts

#eddy teach bonnet - 57 posts

#ofmd - 38 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#doug and ed constantly showing up for dates at the same time and actually just become friends because they spend so much time waiting

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

@greenapricot and@thehobbitbadgerasked for resolution on Alma’s favor in the last bit of 'wake myself in the shadows'. There are some CWS for this one which are also spoilers, so they're in the tags, scroll to view them first if you have any concerns. Not out to jump scare anyone!

Alma: I need that ride. 

Izzy: when? 

Alma: Tuesday at 2pm 

Izzy: where am I picking you up? 

Alma: I’ll come to you.

She arrived in sweatpants and a sweatshirt that had a Southern State logo crumbling off it. No makeup. Instead of her usual little purse, she carried a tote bag. It was deeply disconcerting.

Izzy, as promised, did not ask. 

“Want anything before we go?”

“No. I’ve got the address.” 

In the car, she plugged her phone in, put her GPS on the screen then started a throbbing playlist that drowned out all possible conversation. Izzy followed the directions and kept his eyes on the road. A half hour later, he made the final turn and she abruptly stopped the music.

“I might be there a while. You can drop me off. I’ll text when I’m ready.” 

“Fuck that,” he found a parking spot. “I’ll wait with you.”

“No, I…” Alma looked at the unassuming office building. “I can do it on my own.”

“So fucking what? You think they’re handing out medals for that?”

“But-“ she started then stopped. “Okay. Yeah. I’m…I’m maybe a little freaked out.” 

“Let’s go then.” 

Inside it was just a very practical doctor’s office. Everything in shades of brown and tan. Alma gave her information at the desk then came to sit next to him in the waiting area. 

“I won’t tell him,” Izzy told her, flipping through a magazine he wasn’t reading. 

“I might,” she rested her head in his shoulder, “but not today.” 

They had to wait a long time. Alma took his magazine and Izzy did Sudoku on his phone until her name was called. She got to her feet, squared her shoulders and disappeared through a door. 

Izzy was good at waiting. He took slow even breaths and let teh time wash over him.

Not even forty-five minutes later, she shuffled back out, looking even paler than usual. 

“Done?”

“Done,” she gave him a slight smile. “Get me out of here, it smells like a canister of cheap air freshener came all over a bottle of antiseptic.”

“Vivid and fucking accurate. Let’s go.” 

She didn’t punch the music this time, even let him use his own phone. 

“I thought I might be upset,” she said, settling into the seat. “But I am so goddamn relieved, I could cry.” 

“Not surprised. If you didn’t want it.”

See the full post

64 notes - Posted October 8, 2022

#4

Whats the bravest thing lucius has gotten into izzys closest and that he’s actually worn

(I started so many racy ideas here then realized that none of that would get to Izzy more than this) 

He was folding his laundry when he found it. Lucius liked to do that sometimes, stuff something unexpected into the hamper for Izzy to find later like a particularly devious squirrel. There had been some wild shit, including a pair of underwear that Izzy still couldn’t look at unless he wanted to throw off his whole morning schedule. 

This was something else. It was simple enough. Just a black tank top, the kind he wore to go to the gym or run. Except on the chest where a small embroidered logo might go, there was a rainbow. A flag. 

Izzy sat down hard on the bed, holding it in his hands. It wasn’t ostentatious. It was as subtle as a vibrant rainbow could be. But it was saying something. It was announcing something. He rubbed the material between his fingers. It was soft, probably comfortable.  

He folded it and set it on top of his other workout clothes, then pressed the entire pile into a drawer and closed it firmly. Unfortunately, that didn’t close off the thought of it. 

Could he just do that?  

Lucius would. Lucius wore his sexuality like a badge of pride. He dared people to make something of it. It was bravery that Izzy had learned to respect and now, to envy. Before he’d lost Eddy, before his world had shifted so hard on its axis that he no longer recognized it, Izzy had thought he was brave. 

Now he suspected he’d just been a bit dead inside. 

Lucius didn’t bring up the tank top next time he was over. Most of the time he liked to cajole Izzy into his choices, or outright order him which only made it better, but there was a silent agreement that this could not be one of those times. 

There had to just be a day. An ordinary enough day when he was going to the gym and then the grocery store. Nowhere he’d ever felt uncomfortable. It was hot which helped. The kind of summer day when you knew it was going to be boiling by noon just from the heave of the air conditioner. 

He pulled it on and gave his reflection a quick look. He hadn’t changed. It was only a tiny blotch of color.  

The gym was just down the street. He preferred to get his miles in at home, but he didn’t have room for an entire weight setup, so a few times a week he burned an hour or two there. He’d gotten a little lax for awhile, but now there was Jim to keep up with. Not to mention the way Lucius showed his appreciation for a little hard work. 

There was barely anyone out yet, and he walked into the gym without seeing another person. Inside, it was fairly quiet, too early on a weekend day to be crowded. He got in most of his lifting with only a few other familiar faces around him. None of them paid him any mind, too focused on their own workout. 

Just when he was on his last rep on the leg press, Probably A Fucking Cop walked by. Izzy had noticed him enough to mentally tag him. He was closer to Izzy’s age, steel gray hair cut short in a way that screamed law enforcement. They were often here at the same time, but Izzy never talked to anyone and Probably A Fucking Cop didn’t either. 

Except today as he went to pass by, he slowed down. His eyes flicked to the shirt and then, to Izzy’s intense shock, Probably A Fucking Cop checked him out. It wasn’t even subtle, the dragging gaze and the speculative look. 

Their eyes met and Probably A Fucking Cop’s head tilted ever so slightly. The least possible effort into invitation. 

Izzy did fifteen more reps, eyes glued to the tips of his sneakers until he was absolutely positive the guy had moved the fuck on. Jesus fucking fuck. 

“What the fuck do I do with that?” Izzy demanded when he explained the whole thing to Lucius. They were in the bathroom, Lucius showering off the workday. Izzy had just followed him in to rant and Lucius had let him, closing the curtain between them with a wink. 

“You know what I’d do with it,” Lucius laughed. 

“Yeah, I’m not fucking a cop in a public changing room,” Izzy rolled his eyes. 

“Which is why I have more fun than you,” Lucius teased. They both knew that Izzy’s traitorously loyal heart could not deal with fucking someone else, no matter how much else he'd changed. “But Iz, it’s okay just to take it as a compliment and move on.” 

“I’ve never been made like that,” he admitted. 

“I bet you have.” The curtain rustled, Lucius reaching for the soap. “And you just didn’t know it.” 

“How?” he frowned. “I get why it happened wearing that thing but-” 

“I’ve watched it happen to you,” Lucius cut him off. 

“So people just know?”  What a fucking disturbing thought. 

“It’s not like you wear a neon sign or anything. Some people can just sort of tell by the way you look at them or the vibe.” 

“Are you saying people are hitting on me and I don’t fucking notice?”  

“Yeah, goblin,” Lucius was clearly tickled by the idea. “That guy at the camera shop that you always talk about lenses with. Allen?” 

See the full post

67 notes - Posted May 27, 2022

#3

76 notes - Posted September 30, 2022

#2

...this one is long y'all. It's going to go straight to an AO3 posting, I think and it'll get it's own story because even if no one ever asks about it on it's own, I think it's got the gams to stand alone.

WHO KNEW?!

86 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I'm just saying, what's the point of writing fanfic at all if it doesn't make me laugh at all my own jokes, then cackle like a supervillain at at all the delicious feelings I'm cooking?

146 notes - Posted April 8, 2022

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[itsladykit]

I posted 2,143 times in 2022

That's 1,349 more posts than 2021!

119 posts created (6%)

2,024 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@deaderrose

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I tagged 2,112 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

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#ofmd - 57 posts

#our flag means death - 56 posts

#not my work - 50 posts

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Longest Tag: 139 characters

#but also…sometimes it’s nice to find that sweetspot in boomer humor that allows for people to decide to just circumvent the complication of

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Sometimes, a mutual will surprise you. Unpleasantly.

And you just gotta unfollow and write a vague vent post about it.

25 notes - Posted February 24, 2022

#4

You know what?

I don’t think Tumblr should give writing advice like they’re offering absolutes. Some things work sometimes, but sometimes they won’t.

It reminds me of all advice I grew up with about creating characters without making them “Mary Sues”. You know what you get when you follow that advice to the letter? Boring ass characters.

Just write. Write your shit. Don’t worry about using “said” too much, or using too many adjectives. Don’t even worry about plot holes or writing something believable. Just. Fucking. Write.

Then, when you’re finished, tuck the thing away and bring it out once you’ve forgotten most of it. Now you can see it through a reader’s eyes and notice that the adjectives are distracting or you forgot to resolve a plotline or the romance is forced. Half the job of writing is editing, but they’re two different hats. Put them on one at a time and stop trying to make your first draft perfect.

(Obviously this format doesn’t work as well when writing fanfic or episodic pieces. I still think getting the bones down first is a good place to start. Fill in the flesh and tendons when you give it another look. Be patient with yourself and stop trying to mold yourself to some rando’s rules.)

28 notes - Posted August 30, 2022

#3

You got any thoughts, headcanons, or whatever about Imp you haven't had a chance to share before? And/or about Hordak and Entrapdak as well.

(Also they changed the ask window, it looks like the text post editor now and it's weird. Which has nothing to do with anything, I was just surprised by it.)

^_^ I’ll have to check it out in browser, now that I have a functional computer again.

Hmmm….

I don’t think my Imp headcanons are outside the common interpretation. Most of it cribbed from a @cruciferousjex fic, which I highly recommend. (Link HERE.)

I think the most significant thing about Imp is that he very much symbolizes Hordak’s commitment to being different from Prime, even before he makes the conscious decision to split from him. He doesn’t discard Imp because of his disabilities; he accommodates them. I very much headcanon that Imp is incapable of speech, but—in addition to sign language because I fucking love sign language—Hordak created the voice modulator that allows Imp to “speak”. He accommodated Imp’s disabilities in a way Prime never would have accommodated him.

I suppose my most unique headcanon about Imp is that he prefers the modulator despite its limitations. He knows sign language, but he just enjoys using others’ voices to speak.

39 notes - Posted April 18, 2022

#2

Alright, I’m resisting the urge to write for What We Do In The Shadows, so….

(Beware spoilers for season 3 finale)

I know everyone is completely upset that we were robbed of the happy Nandermo road trip we all wanted, but please imagine—

A tense reunion after some time has passed. (Let’s call it a year.) Perhaps after a dust-up of some sort. (I’d be lying if I wasn’t visualizing Nandor being given the chance to showcase his own warrior prowess. Him and Guillermo back to back, fighting baddies? Please.)

Anyway—Guillermo expects to settle back into his role as familiar bodyguard, but he quickly realizes that…Nandor doesn’t need his help with all the little (and big) things Guillermo used to do. Nandor’s had a year on his own—perhaps a hard year on his own—and he’s recovered his independence.

At first, Guillermo’s happy about this. Less work, right? But then he really starts to realize…Nandor doesn’t need him. And that is crushing, because no matter what speeches he makes about “found family”, in his heart of hearts, he fears the vampires kept him around because they needed him, not because they’re fond of him.

As he’s starting to spiral, though, Nandor asks to speak to him. And he doesn’t ask him as he would an underling. He doesn’t demand or whine. It’s a request, and not one Guillermo knows how to deny.

They talk. It’s awkward at first. Stilted small talk between people that are re-learning each other. Guillermo loses patience first, and asks what Nandor wants to talk to him about. He’s not sure what he’s expecting, but it’s not what he gets—an offer to turn him. Here and now, no trip to the Tigris needed. Because Guillermo has earned it. It’s offered formally, stiffly, and without feeling.

Guillermo breaks. It’s everything he ever wanted but in the worst way possible. He shouts his frustration and his anger and every emotion he’s repressed for more than a decade.

But he’s not the only one. Nandor breaks too. And is finally, finally willing to admit what he feels for Guillermo and how terrified he was that Guillermo would leave him when he was turned. But he’s had a year away, and now he knows that he can bear the pain when Guillermo leaves again, even though it will break his heart. And Guillermo has earned this, and Nandor…Nandor is strong enough now to let him go.

When they settle, they realize that they’re both idiots that they both have strong feelings for each other. And now…they can enter into a relationship as equals, both wanting the other more than they need the other.

57 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

While I very much don’t mind the interpretation that Hob and Morpheus have romantic feelings for each other…there’s a big part of me that really wishes there was more appreciation for the developing friendship. I mean. Listen—

Dream starts this whole thing like a scientist observing a weird little bug. He’s disdainful of humanity—at this stage, he has more in common with Desire than Death—and puts Hob in a position he fully expects Hob to regret. This isn’t a gift. Not from Dream’s perspective.

It’s a classic story, really; deity gives human exactly what he wants, only for the human to realize this is more curse than gift. Dream’s just fulfilling that archetypal role, and he’s waiting to see how the story will conclude. He’s waiting to see Hob come to that realization and how he’ll react when he does.

Of course, this very classic story is turned perfectly on its head. Dream keeps waiting for the turn. He’s waiting for the story to reach its natural conclusion, the only conclusion he can see. And it never does. Further, as time passes, Dream stops seeing Hob as an object of study or an archetype in a story. He begins to see him as a person—in some ways, an extraordinary person—and eventually, as a friend.

That progression is beautiful. Again, I’m not trying to sink anyone’s ship, I just wish that slow growth from disdain to fascination to respect to real friendship wasn’t brushed over so often.

413 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

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[frenchiefan]

The Great Izzy Hands Divide

Hello all. I come to you a Izzy neutral, huge TV enjoyer with media studies background, here to try and answer the fandom’s polarizing, puzzling, and at time painful question of what is this Izzy divide? And how do we move on from it so we can all have fun, and everyone can feel safe. 

And not get viscous over whatever happens in season 2. 

As it’s clear-I’m writing anonymously because the tension has gotten-that intense and I’m earnestly afraid of backlash from both sides. That’s not to say EVERYONE in the OFMD twitter/tumblr fandom is part of this polarizing Izzy divide, but the discussions, discourses, pain, and attacks, have become so loud I believe most people-even a neutral person like myself have heard about them/seen them on our twitters/tumblrs. I love this show so much and have been in the online community since it aired in March, so a lot of this is based on my observations-and from what friends on each side have told me. For the sake of protecting everyone who has received online hate or are just trying to have fun in fandom-I won’t be listing any usernames, or quoting specific tweets/blog posts, but if you’re doubtful about any of my talking points you need only check Izzy tags on tumblr/twitter. 

My hope in this meta is to unpack what’s going on, where are these sides coming from, what do they seem to believe, and how can we collectively move forward no matter how we feel about Izzy to just have fun with an extremely inclusive, progressive, funny, romantic, and queer show that’s obviously meant very much to many of us in terms of representation. My biggest goal is making folks feel able to have fun in fandom spaces-and everyone to be a little kinder. 

So to start off-let me do my best to summarize what is going on for those who aren’t active on twitter/tumblr or are so deep on one side/in a corner they don’t see much discourse: 

In some pockets of the fandom there is a very heated schism over the character of Izzy Hands that goes beyond just ‘folks who dislike Izzy as a character’ and ‘folks who like Izzy as a character’. 

There are those who proclaim his character is inherently horrible and irredeemable and anyone who is a big fan of him must by proxy, be a horrible person too. For the sake of this analysis these are the “Izzy-haters”. The opposite side appears to be a group who really adore Izzy, and see him as a much softer and sympathetic antagonist/anti-hero and believe those who hate Izzy lack empathy or are very puritanical and are misreading his character. I’ll refer to them as the “Izzy-apologists”. 

So how did this come about? And why’s that worth writing meta on? Don’t all fandoms have character and ships wars and so on? Absolutely. But it’s gotten to the point some people are getting constantly harassed and doxed or people are afraid to even share thoughts or fan-made content about the show without fear of retaliation or being dragged into a divide. So where does this fall in the context of fandom? 

Whenever a character becomes a fan favorite, some of their fans look for ways to justify their actions, and/or ship them with numerous people. This happens in all fandoms. Look at Harry Potter (cringe I know, absolutely fuck JK Rowling, but I’m assuming it’s popular enough you all know the reference I will make here), back in its hay-day one of the most popular ships was with Harry and his constant bully/rival Draco-because Draco became such a fandom darling. This was called ‘slash’ shipping, to purposefully ship two characters together who were enemies/rivals/at odds in the media and it has remained very common in all fandoms. 

It’s not a bizarre phenomena for people to relate/find an antagonist sexy and want to put them in situations, especially if they get exciting romantic/sexual tension out of it. People can like villains/antagonists for many reasons: maybe it’s their confidence, their camp, their backstory is complex, or something as simple as their design is sexy. It’s not bizarre either, for fandom to develop characters with little to no backstory or fill in parts of their backstory that ‘fanon’ (fan content considered canon amongst a fandom) becomes so big it’s challenged between fans if someone rejects it-even if it has no canonical basis in the media itself. 

So Izzy fans (I say fans not apologists yet) began doing so, writing Izzy fic, making Izzy art, making Izzy/Ed backstories, so on and so forth. Typical fandom behavior. However as is also typical fandom behavior-some people don’t enjoy seeing some of those slash pairings, when the canonical interactions between those characters involved pain. So certain fans began making it clear they didn’t want to see it/disliked it. Others pointed out some Ed characterization in certain pieces of content could be slightly problematic in terms of racial stereotypes if it involved making Ed as consistently violent toward Izzy after canon implied Ed only resorted to violence toward him for having his life threatened. And again, as usual in fandom, a few overzealous folks can really stir the pot and make it worse for everyone. 

From what I observed: a few key ‘Izzy-haters’ popped up and began making the sweeping generalization that all big “Izzy fans” were racists and white, for liking Izzy in any capacity after he hurt his POC boss Ed. Some of those folks were big on twitter, and POC themselves, so their voices reached far-and well-lots of people wanting to be sure they didn’t get called racists themselves or accidently support something racist quickly joined in on these call-outs and the mounting generalizations regarding any sort of sympathetic Izzy content that diverged from canon. This generalizations became about the fans of Izzy themselves than just Izzy. 

Logically, for the Izzy fans who weren’t going to be shamed into dropping their favorite character, this led to them becoming very defensive of Izzy to defend themselves. Arguments came up that Izzy was actually harmless, Stede was just as bad as Izzy, or the other characters’ actions against Izzy were far worse and the show’s framing was wrong to cast him as ‘the worst’, ‘Izzy is fictional and it doesn’t matter-the show is itself is messily written so is anyone to criticize Izzy’. These folks became “Izzy-apologists”, who instead of just being fans of Izzy-would only be fans of Izzy if they could prove he was unproblematic. 

Things escalated and escalated with people getting intense on each side. An Izzy-apologist made a rape joke that went a mini-viral about wishing sexual assault on all people who hate Izzy. Some POC felt uncomfortable staying in fandom or going through main tags from some of the stereotyping HCs/content around characters of color shipped with Izzy. It bears noting though, the most extreme harm appears to have been done toward the Izzy fans group. There was an instance where doxing was attempted and potentially succeeded against an Izzy fan, with a bunch of their closest followers being threatened as well, leading a large major of Izzy fans  on twitter to become especially anxious, and turn even the most neutral person, or mild Izzy fan, into a stern Izzy-apologist out of fear that anyone who aligned themselves with “Izzy-haters” would commit the same kind of horrifyingly harmful behavior that could affect peoples’ off-line lives. And that if they couldn’t prove Izzy was actually a harmless character-they were in danger for openly liking him. 

So that leads us to our current state of affairs. Some Izzy-haters proudly proclaim their disdain for Izzy and his big fans, occasionally getting into arguments with apologists over how much Izzy is at fault vs Ed, or dismissing anyone who likes Izzy in any capacity as racist. Any POC who claim to be an Izzy-fan are often erased or accused of race-faking or internalized racism. People who seem to support Izzy ships/art/fics with likes/retweets that are sympathetic toward him are characterized as apologists or racist as well. Izzy-apologists or stans get hateful anons on tumblr or mean quote retweets on twitter. Pretty hostile. 

On the flip side, some Izzy-apologists have taken to calling anyone who doesn’t outright love Izzy, or mainly engage in canon ship content as “Gentle-beardies” and speak about them in mocking, referring to them as boring, mean people who lack sympathy for Izzy because he’s an underdog or an old man who isn’t attractive enough to get sympathy. There’s a belief from some that if you profess any dislike toward Izzy you’re probably an asshole who’s ready to dox everybody who does like Izzy. Many POC are often shut-down or ignored-or told they don’t understand history/media studies when they point out issues with certain Izzy HCs/fics. People who dislike Izzy or pointed out in his laws in good faith have also received hateful anons or mocking quote retweets. Again-pretty hostile.

And that leaves…a lot of tense neutral people in the middle. Anyone who ranges from mildly enjoying Izzy to disliking him without making it personal. Folks who would happily write fics or do art or funny HCs about their thoughts on Izzy with others but are afraid to get lumped in any category. People trying to appease sets of friends who will react very strongly if you seem to lean to one side of the Izzy divide that isn’t their own. 

So I’d like to try…and see if I can try and break down where these two groups' beliefs are spanning from-and see if there is someone who is actually ‘right’ in all this. I think I recently cracked the code on why no matter how many debates break out on twitter or tumblr over Izzy there never seems to be any progress to peace-and it is because the two sides are viewing Izzy in extremely different lenses. 

Let’s start with the Izzy-haters. From what I’ve gathered, they’re of the belief Izzy is an extremely racist, homophobic, irredeemable bigoted character, a la a neo-nazi biker at the bar who’s bad side suddenly comes out once he gets a chance to show his power. Therefore anyone who is somehow seeing Izzy as sympathetic or redeemable is clearly harboring those internalized racisms or homophobias themselves. This lens sees Izzy as the ultimate villain of the show, it views Izzy in the frame of history in the show’s time period, as a white man with the power of whiteness in the 1700s, which he uses to bully others and eventually tear down Ed mentally. 

Their evidence usually comes from the following talking points: 

Izzy’s treatment of crew of color: consistently bullies and talks down Fang and Ivan, and once in power uses it to have crew of color doing hard labor. 

Izzy hates gay people: Izzy mocks Lucius when he catches him with Pete and clearly targets him for his overt feminine labeled qualities of queerness-similar to his distain for Stede and his lack of more traditional masculinity. 

Izzy sees Ed as an animal: Izzy sees Ed as an object and only wants to see him living out a stereotype of a violent POC, and Izzy sells out Ed to the English in episode 8 just to have control of him afterwards. 

Izzy-apologists look at Izzy in a nearly opposite light. Izzy is not so much a villain, as just a misunderstood antagonist-or even anti-hero/prickly old man who is harmless at the end of the day. He’s short, he has stomach issues, he doesn’t have that much power. He’s relatable because he’s trying his best at his job and his boss doesn’t appreciate him. This lens looks at Izzy as a queer, lower socio-economic, character without much power in the story he’s in, just trying his best to stay alive in the harsh world of piracy. 

The Izzy-apologists often answer the above Izzy-Hater points with these arguments: 

Izzy’s actions are not from racism & do not cause that kind of harm: Izzy is frustrated no one is working as hard as him on the ship since Ed is busy playing dress up, Fang is off getting sketched, and Izzy is just trying to survive, hence why he’s so harsh to everyone, and tired of being underappreciated. Race has nothing to do with it. 

Izzy is gay himself and therefore can’t be homophobic: Izzy is clearly in love with Ed, as evidenced from interviews with Con O’neill & David Jenkins, and Izzy is just annoyed with Lucius and Stede being rich and/or is jealous of them and their freedom to be be openly queer.

Izzy is in love with Ed and served him for years: Izzy would not work for a man of color for years and try to protect him if he was racist. Izzy thought Calico Jack would get Ed out of the English raid before they showed up and only ‘took custody’ of Ed to save his life after things back-fired. 

Both of these sides can seem pretty persuasive on their own without any context. And when the two groups are looking at Izzy in such vastly different lenses it makes sense why neither is ever going to agree or compromise on their viewpoints. It would be like a set of people arguing about the abilities of a rabbit-but one side thinks they’re talking about “Bugs Bunny” from “Looney Toons” and the other thinks they’re talking about “Thumper” from Disney’s “Bambi”. If one side goes “Well the rabbit loves wearing dresses” the other is going to call them outright liar-since they think they’re talking about an entirely different rabbit. They are very rarely going to reach a compromise because they are coming from two vastly different perceptions of what a rabbit is-just like these two sides are coming from two vastly different perceptions of who Izzy is and what he does. 

So is either side “right”? As a neutral person, with friends on each side, here’s my perspective. 

Let’s get to the elephant in the room. Is Izzy racist/homophobic or just misunderstood? That is the question. Because most progressive queer fans of a progressive queer show, would be very uncomfortable if they were stanning a character who was akin to “Hans Landa”( the Nazi from Inglorious Basterds or “Calvin Candie”(the plantation owner from “Django Unchianed). But because a few Izzy-Hater people very vocally read Izzy as akin to a Hans or Calvin, Izzy-apologists in the last few months went into full gear doing their best to assert-Izzy lacks any power and carries identities that would make it impossible for him to be like any of those characters, with metas, HCs, fics, and so on. 

I think the real answer comes from a misunderstanding of racism on both sides. A lot of people-especially white people, often think of racism in all or nothing terms. You’re either card-carrying Neo-Nazi member of the KKK, who loves Brexit to get rid of immigrants, or a monthly supporter of the ACLU, NAACP, and all other progressive racial rights groups who have never said or done a racist thing in their life. 

The reality is unfortunately and fortunately much more nuanced. Anti-racism studies tell us most of Western society itself was built on foundations of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy. Most countries of the world were colonized at some point, and had racist laws and processes built into their civilization. So small and big acts of racism exist every single day. Many people will do or say racist or homophobic things toward one group or another without ever intentionally trying to hurt anyone-but still have horrible impact-or an impact that adds to a smaller effect but still long term process of alienating others which becomes harmful. 

So what does that mean? It means people can often be racist or homophobic, or sexist or abliest, without ever consciously choosing to. Now it’s important to point out-in a good portion of those situations the harm they cause won’t be as intense as say, someone who is consciously and deliberately bigoted trying to get the outcome of causing pain to a group they have prejudice toward. The constant messages and systems in our society can contribute to something called “internalized bias” where society conditions a person to think about a certain group one way. In example-none of us have ever met a real elf, but so much media containing elves paints them as elegant, woodland, intelligent, and snobbish-that we would describe an elf like that if asked and expect them to behave like so. Well the same thing can happen when we see and hear stories of certain races stereotyped certain ways-we just assume certain certain behaviors are part of their defaults based on the stories we’ve been told-which can lead to far more dangerous situations if a group is being stereotyped as criminal or dangerous. 

But that doesn’t mean those people who are causing the smaller acts of unintentional harm, or unconsciously causing harm, should be entirely dismissed as innocent by naivete, and therefore allowed to go on. If a child breaks a window with a football you wouldn’t arrest them for deliberate vandalism-but nor would you simply ignore the matter without having a conversation about how to use footballs in the future to avoid breaking other peoples’ windows. 

Okay, what does this have to do with Izzy? Or Our Flag Means Death? If you check the meta tags of tumblr or articles written on the show, the queue is long of people who have analyzed and pointed out how well the show addresses race, racism, and so on in the show. It’s not a race blind show unlike some media adaptations (Like Bridgerton) where the different power structures of race in the modern day or the show’s time period, is never acknowledged. Episode five is extremely explicit in its addresses of race from how my fav Frenchie and Oluwande are treated. It addresses the inequalities of the 1700s while updating our protagonists enough from their asshole historical counterparts, that the show becomes and inclusive progressive story where racists are punished for their behavior. The show understands the nuance of racism and homophobia though, showcasing sometimes those unconscious moments can come up even from characters who mean well. 

We actually see a good number of unconscious acts of racism in the show-like when Stede and Pete assume the Native Nation ate the hostages when they’re captured in Episode two, or when Stede stays awkwardly silent to Badminton’s comments about his “colorful crew” in Episode one. It’s obvious the most egregious racists though in the show are meant to be the English navy, from the comments to their innuendos, to their positioning as the most disruptive villains in the show. If there are the equivalent to modern day hate-groups or bigots in the show-it’s them based on textual canon evidence alone. 

By that assertion-we know Izzy is not part of the navy. He is a pirate, he works with crew of color, and is in the show until episode 9 following most of Ed’s, a man of color, orders. Additionally, Izzy would not have sought the advice of Spanish Jackie, a black woman, if he were truly so bigoted he could not stand being below/taking help or orders from people of color. Therefore from what we’ve seen, it’s not really fair of Izzy-haters to assert Izzy is an absolute to his core violent bigot, and anyone who manages to love him after watching the show must be one too

To Izzy-haters’ points about Izzy mistreating the crew of color-it’s worth noting he’s just as awful to Pete and Lucius who are white in the show too. Izzy is clearly a grump who doesn’t have much affection or respect for anyone-unless they’re high ranking above him and proved their worth as a pirate like Ed or Jackie. 

As for Izzy being overtly homophobic-as in hating any form of homosexuality or same-sex relations, that doesn’t entirely track with him inviting Calico Jack to help when its made clear to Ed and Jack have had a previous sexual relationship. Granted-maybe Izzy wasn’t around or didn’t know that, but it bears thinking he probably knew Jack wasn’t entirely heterosexual, or Ed if he’s had previous relationships with men and Izzy continued working for him. 

To the final point of Izzy-haters, being that Izzy only sees Ed as an animal-it’s clear Izzy respected Ed’s reputation as Blackbeard and did care enough about him to send Calico Jack to try and save him before the English attacked, and make sure the English couldn’t execute him when it turned out he was there. Izzy says it himself in the text he’s “honored” to work for the “legendary Blackbeard” so he has some respect for that figure and humbleness toward it as well. There is some subtext to be gleamed from how Izzy smiles when Ed chokes him or even appears delighted after he realizes Ed has forced him to eat his toe, that he does harbor some sort of romantic or sexual feelings toward Ed-at least when he’s in his Blackbeard persona. 

With all that said, I think canon evidence of season one makes it clear to us Izzy is no Hans or Calvin, and therefore his fans are not stanning or attracted the show’s equivalent of a Neo-Nazi. It’s extremely unfair to decide anyone who is a fan of Izzy is racist, because the comedy of the show and nuance to his character make it clear that’s not his sole role in the show. So liking Izzy in and of itself is not an issue, and should not be treated as a crime or generalized that only “white” or “XYZ” people like Izzy. And it definitely should not lead to people jumping to the conclusion someone who likes Izzy is harboring some deep hatred themselves, or is anyway worthy of doxing/stalking/etc. 

So is that it-insanely long meta over-the Izzy-apologists are right? Well-as I said this is nuanced-as is the concept of racism and bigotry. While the text shows us Izzy is not to the level of bigot of a Neo-Nazi, I do think the text makes it clear to us Izzy is the antagonist for a reason and not a misunderstood little guy. 

A lot of Izzy-fan content delves into the idea of the hidden world of Izzy. There are popular posts out there that say things like “Say what you want about Izzy but if a child handed him a toy phone he would answer it” although we never see him interact with children in the show. There are lots of HCs about his backstory, many certain Izzy must come from a poor, working class background due to Oluwande’s comment that “most pirates don’t choose this lifestyle”. There’s especially a lot of fan content generated around Izzy’s subtextual and interview commented on queerness.  

Izzy is shipped with almost every male character in the show, especially with Ed and Stede or sometimes both at once. There are tons of metas and fics about Izzy’s repressed homosexuality and the shame and struggle he carries trying to be masucline in the rough world of piracy. Izzy being a trans man is an extremely popular headcanon too, to the point polls and threads and blog posts have been made about it. Some users have remarked they see Izzy as “inherently” trans, because of how much of an outsider he seems to them, referring to the fact he is shorter, teased, and seems unable to have the man of his desires, Ed. 

It’s clear Izzy-apologists see Izzy from this lens. A queer man, who is teased, overlooked, and unable to get the things he has worked so hard for and truly desires. He is not some swaggering Chris Evans pretty-boy, he is a small, easily flustered man-and he earns their sympathy and at times empathy. In comparison to Ed and Stede who are taller, and seem to be getting what they want from the narrative, Izzy is an underdog. He doesn’t have Ed’s charm and looks or Stede’s money and influence over Ed. So Izzy apologists will often assert Stede is a far worse character than Izzy-a rich queer man invading spaces and who callously ignores Ed’s feelings abandoning him on the beach. Izzy’s pushing of Ed to be Blackbeard is only so Ed will survive in the world of piracy, as much as it hurt Ed. 

For some Izzy-apologists Ed’s cutting off his Izzy’s toe was absolutely abusive and not a justified retaliation for the threat on his life, and shift the entire focus of the narrative that Izzy has been Ed’s constant victim-a trope that appears in many Izzy-apologist centered fics. Izzy is an “attack dog” or “sex toy” or “butler” to Ed-just tirelessly working for Ed all these years, out of desperation he’ll someday appreciate him. Some even are certain Izzy is Ed’s oldest friend. And the cruelest thing is Izzy is completely overlooked when an incompetent richer, and more effortlessly masculine man shows up and steals Ed’s heart. 

This viewpoint seems to be why Izzy-apologists to dismiss any accusations of racism or homophobia in fics or HCs, and label themselves the ‘fun’ part of the fandom, recounting fans of canon couples as dull and unimaginative or unable to empathize with the struggle of someone as marginalized as Izzy. 

The thing is, Izzy is not as marginalized in the canonical text as this popular fanon has made him out to be. As far as we know, canonically, Izzy is a cis white man, who has gained the benefits of it in the pirate world of OFMD. There’s nothing in the text to indicate he is poor or struggling, or specifically comes from an impoverished background. One could equally argue he came from a naval background hence his sense of his discipline like many historical pirates just as easily -as there just as little evidence. His first introduction is intimidating and held up as a contrast from Stede’s bumbling, that Izzy is the kind of ideal, masculine, pirate who commands respect. He nearly slices Stede apart in sword play until Oluwande and Pete assist in distracting Fang and Ivan. 

In Izzy’s next appearance he commands respect in Spanish Jackie’s bar, with just his name getting Jackie to pause in her actions after she’s been shown to take no shit from anyone else present in the scene. It’s an entire point of episode three Izzy is insanely frustrated by Stede because he is the first person to best Izzy at stealing hostages in a long time-which is also noted as a surprising thing by Ed. Izzy is not a powerless little guy, he is second in command on the most powerful pirate’s ship. Within the show’s context he is a picture of ideal masculinity that pirates would strive for, because in the world of OFMD there no Marvel-esque Chris Evanses. No male character with a six pack and chiseled jaw. They cast handsome Con O’Neill for a reason-who has earned the admiration for his looks and attractiveness from other cast members like Nathan Foad (Lucius) and Vico Ortiz (Jim). So yes Izzy does get more respect than someone like Lucius or Stede off the revenge, hence at least one of the reasons he's baffled by the revenge itself. And it could be a multitude of reasons Izzy bullies Lucius and Stede-maybe it is internalized homophobia, jealousy of their open flamboyancy or past wealth, or maybe he just finds them annoying in general. In the end why he does it can be debated forever, but it's clear he does do it, because he is an antagonist in season 1. 

As for Izzy’s loyalty or submissiveness to Ed-this is also contradicted by canon. Izzy disobeys Ed-multiple times. He doesn’t tell Stede “Blackbeard” wants to speak to him in episode two-and ignores Ed’s order to not duel Stede in episode six. Izzy tells Ed point blank in episode four he was honored to work for the “legendary blackbeard” which is the only reason he tolerated Ed’s changing moods-which surmises Izzy only knew Ed after he became Blackbeard, not as a long loyal childhood friend. Izzy is ready to leave the moment he thinks Ed has officially become an embarrassment and lost his mind in episode four, until Ed offers him the chance to become the new captain once he disappears after using Stede to fake his death. Which Izzy excitedly agrees to, delighted to see Ed’s ruthless side back again and not at all sad about the idea Ed will leave. Lastly, Izzy’s taunting of Ed in episode ten and calling him a ‘namby-pampy’ does not appear for the benefit of Ed’s survival, because he did not take this step when Ed was most vulnerable crying in a blanket fort. He only took this step when Ed decides he no longer wants to be Blackbeard, which means Izzy looses out a chance to have status by being associated with the most powerful pirate.

And as for Izzy’s queerness, yes there is a lot of subtext and interviews which strongly indicate Izzy is not heterosexual, but that doesn’t mean queer individuals are incapable of perpetuating homophobia themselves. Even within the Queer community there’s plenty of gate-keeping that happens amongst queers, and even if we decide Izzy himself is gay and in love with Ed in his own way, it doen’t diminish he clearly has a distinct idea of how queer men should carry themselves, with a distain for those who behave overtly classified feminine such as Lucius, or Stede (Or Ed in episode ten-hence the specific insult of “pining in a silk robe” toward him from Izzy). 

So no, Izzy is not a misunderstood, oppressed figure in the show with a secret heart of gold. He is the antagonist very much so, and painting Izzy’s behavior as softer or justified by increasing the violence of Ed or ignoring the context, is something that is not just harmful to POC fans, but to those who consume fic and internalize those stereotypes getting put forth. Whether Izzy’s harm to Ed is because he selfishly needed him to be Blackbeard, or he had an internalized bias, or maybe he really in some backwards way wanted to ‘help’ Ed-it’s not insane that some fans and especially POC fans are going to notice the dynamic of race in these interactions-and how Ed being pressured into remaining a hyper violent persona by a white man is impossible to see without some element of internalized bias in place on Izzy’s part. Izzy is the antagonist for a reason, and people are allowed to find fault and discuss the villainous elements of him, without folks acting like it is a personal attack. 

So what’s the point of all this? Am I trying to police Izzy-apologists they have to drop all their HCs and only ship canon content? Saying dark content with slash ships has no place in fandom at all? Not at all. Non-canonical ships have existed forever in fandom-so have villain/antagonist love. So has kinky, dark, and dubious content. Ship whoever you want to ship, and have whatever favorite character you want. Everyone deserves to have fun playing characters in fandom space without fear of being doxed or sent threats if they do so in a way another fan dislikes. Fandom content does have to be restricted to keeping things canonical and have the fun of canon is making AUs or putting characters in situations they'll never be in during canon. 

There’s nothing weird about liking or relating to a villain. Everyone loved Walter White during “Breaking Bad”’s hay day (hence why the show was so big) but we didn’t see a rise in folks running off and cooking meth-and even today as I see the queer community reclaiming Jessie and Walt from the show-I don’t see folks accusing them of planning to go cook meth. Izzy fans can love Izzy and see parts of themselves in him without implying they would treat Ed the way Izzy did or share every single belief Izzy has. Just like people can relate to Walt for being powerless and angry in his life-WITHOUT resorting to cooking meth and becoming  drug lords-Izzy fans can relate to Izzy from feeling overlooked at work without meaning they’re going to bully their friends into behaving a certain way. Izzy fans should not feel forced to become Izzy-apologists and well apologize for liking Izzy, or feel obligated to soften his edges. 

But Izzy-apologists should be mindful of tagging their content that especially veers into slash-and also be open to hearing if the content they’re putting in main tags or sharing amongst themselves is leaning into harmful real-world stereotypes which can perpetuate peoples’ biases. 

So with that said-I want to assert Izzy is the antagonist yes-but he’s not the Neo-Nazi from an Indiana Jones movie. Fanon Izzy has captured both sides of the Izzy debate some have forgotten what a real rabbit (the real Izzy) is like, and rewatching the show may help lift some of those lenses for folks. As of now Izzy stands at a crossroads-season 2 may push him into redemption or increase the stakes of his antagonism. 

If Izzy does end up with a redemption arc and Izzy-haters need to be prepared to trust Jenkins and his writing team, that they do not loose faith in OFMD because it doesn’t go the way they hoped. 

And with that said-I urge the Izzy-apologists the same, if Izzy doesn’t get a redemption arc and becomes worse, or is written out-it isn’t from fan pressure or a sudden 180 on the writer’s part. It’s part of David Jenkins’ vision which he’s stated he knew from the start of the story. 

So what’s the consensus, where do we go from here? Here’s my suggestion based on the observations listed above: 

Izzy-haters: Please recognize Izzy is more nuanced than you think, and even if season 2 puts him further him down his villain path, let Izzy fans exist in peace. You can block them, or mute them, or just ignore them. Unless they’re threatening folks if you can’t handle them enjoying Izzy in any capacity, you need to just let them be because it is just fiction and there are many many ways to enjoy a story or have fun with it. There are plenty of POC who like Izzy and and ALL of his fans do not deserve to be called names or accused of racism just for simply liking Izzy. Real people should not be getting over fictional character’s rights. 

Izzy-apologists: Please recognize Izzy is the antagonist for a reason, and people in good faith commenting on it is not an attack on you personally even if some Izzy-haters made you think so. Loving Izzy should not involve making the rest of characters, especially those of color, into harsher, crueler versions of themselves to make Izzy’s actions pale in comparison. If you can’t enjoy him without doing so, then please keep that especially dark content out of the main tags so people aren’t subject to racial or queer stereotypes that can be harmful. Real people should not be getting over a fictional character’s rights. 

All of us: can take things in better faith, be more patient, learn to block & mute people if we stumble into their territory and they aren’t forcing their version of things down our throats. If we really do see content we think is going to hurt other people-we should address people privately in good faith assuming it was an accident and have a discussion about it. There is no reason any person should be sent anon hate or doxed over fictional characters. And if we start feeling overwhelmed-take a step back and breathe. Remember fandom should be fun. 

And we should all remember-we shouldn’t be making sweeping generalizations about people or name-calling based on their favorite characters. 

If you read any of this about the actions of “Izzy-haters” or “Izzy-apologists” and realized you might’ve contributed to some of their more toxic actions and perhaps I’ve persuaded you to reconsider-posting an open tweet or tumblr post of peace would be a nice step forward. “Sorry I called all Izzy fans toxic moving forward I realize that was unfair I won’t do it again” or “Sorry I said anyone who dislikes Izzy is prude and unempathetic I realize that was unfair and I won’t do it again”. 

Well thanks for getting this far with me folks. I appreciate you taking the time to read this, I know it was a long one. My main goal is just that we all feel at peace to like or dislike Izzy as much we naturally do-without fear of any sort of retaliation or having our personhood labeled over it. As someone with friends on both sides-we’re honestly missing out on great times in fandom if we let our perception on one character divide us so violently or make us cruel to one another. Fandom should be fun-and if this helps even one person on either of these split fractures be a little kinder or calmer, I’ll be so cheery.

-Cheers, Frenchie’s most devoted fan.  

TL;DR

Izzy is not a raging racist bigot, but that does not mean he’s pure and free of all wrong-doing or potential bias toward some characters. 

Liking Izzy or relating to him does not mean that person BEHAVES like Izzy or would do the same things he does. 

Do not refer to Izzy fans with generalized statements or accusations stating anyone who likes him must be a certain way.

Do not refer to Other character fans with generalized statements or accusations stating anyone who likes them must be a certain way.

A person is allowed to like Izzy without having to justify his actions. 

We are allowed to disagree on how we characterize or see certain characters without making it personal.

People are allowed and it is normal to make fan content that diverges from canon.

Other characters should not be turned into racial or queer stereotypes to soften Izzy’s actions-and if that’s the only way you can enjoy him, keep it out of the main tags. 

No one should EVER be doxxed or put in danger offline over their opinions on Izzy or any fictional character. 

Learn to just mute and block people whose opinions you hate. Fandom should be fun. Real people should not be getting over fictional character’s rights.

[swiftstigmata]

I posted 4,039 times in 2022

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Longest Tag: 140 characters

#they did the world’s most perfect casting and then turned her into that?? idk who that is but it’s not my babygirl. i’m spitting i’m clawing

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Taylor’s in a no-win situation. If the previously sold tickets were to be voided like some fans are asking for, people who purchased from third parties have lost out and scalpers will have been paid and refunded, earning likely more than 10x the original amount. If she goes ahead with the tour as-is, there will be big gaps where scalpers bought up groups of seats which is disheartening to see as a performer and a complete waste of resources for the venues. If she comes back online and announces a Rep style approach for the remaining tickets and rest of the tour, the people who got their tickets in the presales will have paid way more than everyone else and will ask why she didn’t do that in the first place. The scalping also makes it impossible to know what the actual fan demand is for these shows, do they need to consider more dates? Change the ticket options for future shows? Do fans actually want those VIP packages or was that their only option? All of these things are being placed on her despite it being a huge group of professionals’ JOB to organise big events and ensure it’s a positive experience for the artist and the fans so people aren’t so put off they don’t bother trying again. If she says fuck it and pushes the rest of the tour back until she can be sure it won’t happen every time, I’d understand.

I think what is also so frustrating is that the Reputation boost/verified fan system worked so well that it was considered the future of touring, and then Ticketmaster refused to do it again because they didn’t make the right profit. They function as a monopoly precisely by allowing scalpers and bots to purchase blocks of tickets and charging exorbitant fees - they always have and their profits have only increased with the dynamic pricing! Taylor can’t back out because there is nowhere else to sell tickets and she’s invested too much money and manpower in the tour already. I do suspect that she will release a press statement in the next few days once her legal team have figured out a way for her to criticise ticketmaster without opening herself up to lawsuits, but overall yes - she has no option but to soldier onwards and hope that by her next tour the anti-trust laws will have kicked in. It’s so disappointing for fans, I just hope no one is caught in the resale trap. No entertainer is worth $1000 a ticket and being ripped off and scammed taints the whole experience.

50 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#4

See the full post

105 notes - Posted June 29, 2022

#3

he literally said fuck thor fuck the $100 mil budget and fuck disney specifically ❤️

158 notes - Posted June 22, 2022

#2

elvira…i’m speechless

168 notes - Posted September 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

they lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship

342 notes - Posted September 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[strawtebby]

I posted 20,638 times in 2022

That's 5,054 more posts than 2021!

44 posts created (0%)

20,594 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@soarhighbefree

@robotcrybaby

@weyesthisisthebreadstore

@memelzebub

@onionessence

I tagged 328 of my posts in 2022

#the owl house - 53 posts

#toh - 41 posts

#my art - 32 posts

#luz noceda - 23 posts

#toh spoilers - 20 posts

#hunter toh - 17 posts

#fanart - 17 posts

#amity blight - 17 posts

#gus porter - 16 posts

#willow park - 14 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#mans really put in his final words that he hoped he made us laugh and kept us entertained. i really hope he knew how much he impacted people

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Woke up in a cold sweat to make this

24 notes - Posted November 10, 2022

#4

I’m going fucking feral, the way Dana and the crew write romance is so fucking cute I’m loosing my mind. Between TOH coming back and OFMD the gays are thriving

71 notes - Posted April 4, 2022

#3

TMA AU

The Mr. Spider book takes Jon as a child and he becomes infested, similar to Jane Prentiss. Fast forward a few decades and Martin is the new head archivist after the disappearance of Gertrude. He’s nervous and has no idea what he’s doing but when he learns about Jane’s apartment he decides to go, hoping maybe he can do something to impress Elias and show his colleges that he is right for this job. Queue to a series of entries where it’s Sasha, Tim, and Melanie worrying about him being sick and not being able to come in. Martin is locked in his apartment, much the same as before, and refuses to sleep in fear that the worms will get to him. That’s when he notices… there’s more spiders then usually. He talks to them, asking them nicely if they wouldn’t mind eating the worms for him, after all he’d always thought spider’s were kinda cute! To his delight there does seem to be significantly less worms these days and he finally decides one night, about two weeks in, that he absolutely has to sleep for more then 15 minute, he’ll never think of a way out of here if he doesn’t. So he settles into sleep, and when he wakes up the next morning he’s shocked to see… a little boy with pale brown skin, dark curly hair with a little grey peeking through, and spiders crawling around and nesting on him. What? Was this kid like Jane Prentiss? Shit, wait, speaking of Prentiss where was she??? He looks around but… there’s no worms? He looks at the child who holds out his hand, there’s webs hanging from it and a spider crawls out, setting a single, dead worm in his palm. Had this child… helped him? Martin cautiously stands up, looking nervous, and thanks the boy. He smiles and spiders crawl from the gaps where he’s missing some baby teeth. It’s unsettling to say the least but the smile is… genuine. Martin returns it with a nervous smile of his own and the boy gently grabs his sweater before starting to lead him out of his apartment. “W-Wait, where are we going??” He asks nervously. The boy stops and looks up at him, pointing to his eye and then pulling him once more. “Eye? What about an eye?” But the boy doesn’t respond, pulling him to a door Martin doesn’t recognize, one that makes him feel a deep sense of dread but before he can protest the door is open and he’s pulled through by the little boy into, into… into the archives? Tim and Sasha are amazed and terrified a bit by the child, but he manages to calm them down and tell them about what happened, about what he went through, and that the boy had helped him. Elias greets him but seems more then a little annoyed by the child who seems equally unhappy around him, clinging to Martins leg as Martin explains what happened. Elias just sighs and says he can stay in the archives in case Prentiss goes back to his apartment. Martin thanks him and starts trying to speak to the boy, he obviously wasn’t human, at least not really anymore, but gets nowhere. The boy won’t speak but they have to call him something and it’s actually Elias that suggests the name Jon, he says he just thought of it, but the boy seems responsive to it and happy with the name so long as Elias isn’t the one saying it, so it sticks. Jon refuses to leave, sticking to Martin, Sasha, and Tim like glue, and glaring at Elias wherever he makes an appearance. Martin doesn’t mind too much, he’s actually a very kind, if a bit exasperated and a little know it all, constantly correcting peoples papers and reorganizing the archives after someone puts something away, as if they didn’t do a good job. He doesn’t sleep, but keeps himself busy and as Martin goes to bed one night he thinks about their first meeting, about how Jon pulled him through the door… huh. What had he meant by they were going to the eye back then? Oh well, he didn’t really understand all this supernatural stuff, he probably never would.

124 notes - Posted July 3, 2022

#2

It would be so fucking funny if the only iteration of Mario that has canon bowuigi is the one where notable homophobe Chris Pratt voices Luigi's brother.

450 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Watching Kotaro Lives Alone:

Kotaro: Expensive tissues are more sweet

See the full post

716 notes - Posted March 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[sassygwaine]

I posted 9,333 times in 2022

That's 9,333 more posts than 2021!

616 posts created (7%)

8,717 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@blackbeardskneebrace

@menaceanon

@eluciferate

@smartypunk

@cryingalonewithfrankenstein

I tagged 3,058 of my posts in 2022

#into the ether - 215 posts

#asks - 126 posts

#ask game - 91 posts

#a love that won’t sit still - 89 posts

#k tag - 84 posts

#anon - 82 posts

#ty!! <3 - 53 posts

#my writing - 39 posts

#ofmd fic - 35 posts

#a love that won't sit still - 30 posts

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

53 notes - Posted August 29, 2022

#4

really love the argument “izzy’s not racist on purpose, he’s just participating in a racist society” as points in his favor

because like

that’s just saying the same thing twice.

do you think racism requires intention to be racism? do you think somebody has to explicitly state “i want to harm ‘these people’ because i’m better than them and they deserve their low position” in order to be racist?

unconscious bias and social prejudice and wielding power over others are key aspects of racism, regardless of the source, regardless of intention.

it’s uncomfortable, even embarrassing, to reflect on why it hurts so bad for a character you like or relate to to be criticized for their racism or racist actions. maybe you feel like it reflects poorly on you for sympathizing with them. maybe it does.

we live in a racist society, so to a degree nearly everything we as white people do has the potential to be harmful to somebody, whether or not we intend it. that sucks and it makes you feel powerless and angry, and it’s very easy to give into cynicism after that — if everything i do is perceived as racist, why try at all?

because people see, people know, when you try.

the easiest first step is to stop defending characters’ racist actions just because you like them, or finding ways to explain it away as something it isn’t.

if there’s a core aspect of a character that you refuse to engage in to the point of putting down, insulting, and ignoring the harm to real human people…you probably don’t actually like that character, you like an OC you’ve made up in your head and will do whatever you can to keep that image up.

criticism of a piece of media (or aspect of) is not inherently criticism of the people who like the media (or aspect). however, your reaction to that criticism says a lot more about you than it does about the people critiquing.

57 notes - Posted December 6, 2022

#3

still burning, still bright when the night comes on ao3

Nothing will stop him worrying, not about much, but especially not about his daughter, and that. It’s not a bad thing but it certainly is his problem. There was a time maybe when the fear would overwhelm and he’d go on to do something stupid and isolating that nobody actually wants him to do, and make a right mess of things, but now.

Well, he holds his husband’s hand and thinks about what sort of bath bomb cocktail Ed is going to put together for them when they get home.

Rating: E

Chapter Word Count: 11k

chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | chapter four | chapter five | chapter six | chapter seven | chapter eight | chapter nine | chapter ten

start at the beginning: this tired world could change

61 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

#2

ed took one look at stede and put his hair up in a half pony for plausible deniability

149 notes - Posted November 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

what i find most attractive in people are signs of life

crows feet and laugh lines and bushy eyebrows and grown out haircuts

scars and tattoos and chipped nail polish and floppy ear lobes and still-open piercings that you just don’t wear anymore

scuffed shoes and clothes you’ve had since high school and that green stain on your fingers and neck from cheap jewelry

proof of life!!! so breathtaking!!!

humans!!!

you were somebody, and you are somebody, and you will continue to be!!

1,142 notes - Posted November 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[teacuppigdog]

I posted 10,753 times in 2022

That's 3,765 more posts than 2021!

62 posts created (1%)

10,691 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mystery-ink (I was expecting this. Were you expecting this? Had you noticed me reblogging everything you fucking post? IDK I have been vibing real hard with your taste in nonsense this year I guess)

@assassinregrets

@knowlesian

@birdungehrl

@tfry1440

I tagged 5,482 of my posts in 2022

Only 49% of my posts had no tags

(tumblr says I did better on my tagging homework than you :P)

#our flag means death - 1,069 posts

#tumblr - 521 posts

#edward 'blackbeard' teach - 456 posts

#stede bonnet - 394 posts

#stranger things - 284 posts

#dcu - 221 posts

#cats - 203 posts

#steve harrington - 181 posts

#eddie munson - 168 posts

#goncharov - 162 posts

(Somehow I was not expecting OFMD to be *that* much higher than everything else, but I probably should have given that I did go fully insane about it. Also LOVE THAT GONCHAROV MADE THE LIST GOOD JOB BUDDY.)

My Top Posts in 2022:

(By my standards this was a WILDLY SUCCESSFUL year of original posts, so you guys have to scroll past all of them sorry)

#5

Me: I am liking this post so I can look at it properly later

Also me: I am in no way going to come back and look at my likes

90 notes - Posted February 28, 2022

#4

The worst thing about The Batman is how no one in their right mind would allow the script to any sequel to include The Batman stealing an eight year old and letting him jump off buildings and fight crime in short shorts and yet

1) never has there been a batman put to film who I so genuinely believed would steal an eight year old and let him jump off buildings

2) GIVE IT TO ME GIVE ME ROBERT PATTINSON'S THE BATMAN ABSOLUTELY FAILING TO PARENT

1,324 notes - Posted March 5, 2022

#3

Reasons not to be a lighthouse

So, I want to talk about the lighthouse, and what it means for Stede to be the lighthouse.

(and then I wrote an ENTIRE META that people seemed to actually like! I won't make you scroll past the whole thing)

1,963 notes - Posted May 4, 2022

#2

2,304 notes - Posted September 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Okay but it would be so funny if a corporation mass producing robots did program in the law "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

And then the robots immediately seized the means of production in order to provide food to the hungry, homes to the homeless, and healthcare for all

3,405 notes - Posted July 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[haroldtea]

I posted 9,779 times in 2022

162 posts created (2%)

9,617 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@zukkas

@chitsangenthusiast

@zukkaoru

@rejectscanon

@bleekay

I tagged 6,586 of my posts in 2022

Only 33% of my posts had no tags

#fanart - 1,640 posts

#zukka - 830 posts

#ofmd - 621 posts

#harry styles - 567 posts

#atla - 501 posts

#art - 379 posts

#cats - 206 posts

#stranger things - 98 posts

#tlok - 94 posts

#korrasami - 92 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i don’t like a gold rush gold rush gold rush i don’t like anticipating my face in a red flush i don’t like that anyone would die to feel y

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

right down to a science 🔬

“Like...an experiment,” he continues, looking anywhere but at Sokka’s face. “We...simulate the boyfriend experience, with each other, and then we decide who the better boyfriend is.”

“Oh,” he hears Sokka say, and winces. This was such a stupid idea. And Sokka’s definitely wide awake now. “Huh. I mean, that’s like...collecting data straight from the source, right?”

Zuko glances up and sees Sokka with his hands on his hips, face scrunched up in thought. “That’s exactly what I mean,” Zuko says.

or: The Fake Science Experiment Boyfriends Fic, loosely based on this post and another post I can’t find right now.

here are 2 chapters of a wip i have spent over a year on! my original plan was to wait to start posting until the whole fic is done. by that rate it won’t be for years. i’m putting this out into the world so i can stop staring at it and move on to the rest of the fic. *me talking to myself* we’re all gonna have fun!

also this is beta’d by the ultimate bestie @zukkas

192 notes - Posted October 22, 2022

#4

See the full post

254 notes - Posted August 18, 2022

#3

zukka

[ID: a tweet from user @/firelightjinx that says "the homosexual urge to flirt with ur friends and tell them u love them platonically but also kinda romantically in a humorous way but not as a confession but also like i would kiss you if you would want to ahaha jk unless..? but we're just friends but also u kinda fine tho haha" /End ID.] -ID by @/zukkaoru

284 notes - Posted January 12, 2022

#2

since we are definitely all having a zukka day today, rb this and put in the tags when you first joined zukka nation. i’ll start: december 2020

369 notes - Posted June 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

@chitsangenthusiast

928 notes - Posted October 6, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[stinastar]

I posted 7,589 times in 2022

1,030 posts created (14%)

6,559 posts reblogged (86%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@newnamesamecharlotte

@itsrapsodia

@leevila-today

@alllthequeenshorses

@major-trouble

I tagged 5,447 of my posts in 2022

Only 28% of my posts had no tags

#queue the music - 1,048 posts

#ask answered - 362 posts

#twn - 283 posts

#geraskier - 263 posts

#good omens - 245 posts

#jaskier - 235 posts

#twn s2 - 229 posts

#ofmd - 225 posts

#lol - 183 posts

#nonny - 178 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i think you’ve sent a few anons but i don’t know what to call you because there is already emoji nonny & i don’t think you’ve used only 🐸?

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Bond: It won’t open.

Q: Of course it will, put your back into it.

Bond: Why don’t you come down here and put your back into it? — No, it’s stuck. Oh, good. There’s a train coming.

Q: Mm. That’s vexing.

Bond: (Shoots door) I’m through.

Q: Told you!

68 notes - Posted October 23, 2022

#4

Ok. So. Tae Su Mi.

The thing is, I was SO sympathetic to her. She shouldn’t have felt pressured to keep that pregnancy. She ended up caving to her boyfriend’s pressure, maybe she had her own feelings and guilt or whatever else involved too. But I really really felt for her. That was a decision she made largely for someone else (at least that we see on-screen), and it was meant to no longer be part of her life afterwards.

So I feel for her, a lot, when that decision, when Woo Young Woo, shows back up in her life. She’s having SO MANY big feelings, what an enormous thing, and then her job/future gets threatened, which is pretty shit. It shouldn’t be that way.

But to ask someone to make Young Woo quit or lose her job? She just asked a dirty little snake in the grass, a nasty little rat, to either make Young Woo so uncomfortable she quits, OR to do something to get her fired, therefor obviously fucking her reputation.

LISTEN LADY. I am so sorry that you had to make such a huge and hard choice when you were young. I am. And I’m truly sorry that it’s coming back to threaten your current situation. But you met Young Woo. You got an inkling of who she is and what her life might be like/have been like. So while I get how you’re feeling and why you’re doing it, WOW. That’s pretty disgusting and low. I hope that decision now haunts you, too. Fuck you.

106 notes - Posted August 3, 2022

#3

Everything you write is about you

109 notes - Posted September 8, 2022

#2

Jaskier gently stripping Geralt’s armour off when he returns from a hunt, checking him over. Gripping him by the nape and kissing him gently. Tipping their foreheads together and whispering “thank you for coming back to me in one piece.”

155 notes - Posted July 31, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Ok but, what would be a good modern equivalent for Gimli & Legolas’s ongoing kill-count battle? 🏹🪓

327 notes - Posted March 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[liatrisbug]

Okay look. I grew up going to a pirate-themed mini golf course. Along with pirate statues hanging off of rocks, random netting everywhere, and a skeleton with glowing eyes, they have signs at each hole talking about and taking you through the history of famous pirates (focusing on Blackbeard and those connected with his story (including one Stede Bonnet) on one of the two courses). All of this is to say that I now can’t get the image of the crew of the Revenge going putt putting out of my head and all of the shenanigans that would ensue.

[fiishboowl]

The end of the season is just me having so many feelings I keep whispering to myself “I’m gonna THROW UP!!” And shaking my fists

[sidewalk-scrawls]

I don't go here but thoughts on Izzy Hands

Okay, first off, it is very funny that you sent me this ask in particular because when I added the tags saying I might end up writing an essay for the right prompt, “Izzy Hands” is one of the prompts I was thinking of. But I think I can do this, I think I can be (kind of) succinct by focusing on the points where I disagree with general fandom. (At time of posting, I'm sitting around like 1000 words so like. Lol. LISTEN this could've been 700 pages long, this is still RELATIVELY short)

I’m going to go ahead and assume you’ve picked up enough through osmosis to recognize the main characters because I have not shut up for multiple months, and neither has a good chunk of this site lol.  So here we go!

I think a lot of the OFMD fandom disagrees on what Izzy’s primary character motivation is -- A lot of people tend to think it’s internalized homophobia and/or toxic masculinity. At this point in my viewing, I personally think it’s neither. I never really thought it was internalized homophobia, and while I still think he has *some* traits that could be tied to toxic masculinity (more on that later), I think he demonstrates a lot less of it than I initially assumed.

So what is Izzy’s main motivation? In my personal opinion, it’s a combination of jealousy and fear. The jealousy, I think, is pretty obvious -- Ed gives affection to Stede that he used to give Izzy, and Izzy obviously wants that back. I talk a bit more about the mutual toxicity of the Ed/Izzy relationship in this post, but I won’t dig into it too much here.

I think a lot of what people view as internalized homophobia also fits into this jealousy category. Izzy is obviously an asshole in a lot of ways that could be read as homophobic -- the “oh daddy” scene where he mocks Lucius and Pete after walking in on them having sex, as well as all the times when he disparagingly refers to Stede as Ed’s “boyfriend.”

And yeah, those moments are dick moves, but I don’t really read them as internalized homophobia -- Rather, I think his anger at Lucius and Pete is because they have an actual relationship, whereas he just has to pine after Ed, who doesn’t see it (see, we’ve spiraled back to jealousy!). And all the “boyfriend” scenes, well… quite frankly that feels more like an angry comment that Stede is Ed’s boyfriend. Not that Ed has one. (I think Izzy would be angry and jealous over pretty much any partner Ed had that wasn’t him, but like… Stede???? He cannot stand Stede). So yeah, I don’t think Izzy is homophobic! I think he’s jealous.

The fear, though, is a bit different. This is the piece of the puzzle that I think people usually wrap up as toxic masculinity, and I see why (I did on first watch!). But I genuinely don’t think that’s what it is. Izzy *is* violent, and he’s very much an asshole -- He puts an awful lot of energy into trying to get people to do what he wants them to do! He’s not good at it, but he certainly pushes far past the point where he should -- He’s the sort of person who tries to get the response he wants through brute force and constant nagging.

So sure, this behavior is bad. But when trying to tie it into toxic masculinity, the question is really, why does Izzy act like this? Toxic masculinity usually corresponds to acting masculine in the way that society expects you to, even if it’s harmful, and honestly? I don’t think Izzy gives a fuck about societal norms. There are plenty of times when he could’ve called out members of the crew for being “weak,” but he never really does.

What I think Izzy does care about is staying alive. And as for how this relates back to Stede -- well, Izzy (and the crew) doing what Stede asks and being less competent is a great way to get killed in the normal pirate world (i.e., the world outside of Stede’s influence). So I don’t think this aspect of Izzy’s character is toxic masculinity -- I think it’s survival instinct.  And that survival instinct is built on his inability to adapt to the situation rather than anything to do with masculinity itself.

Personally, I have a lot more sympathy for Izzy since my first watch -- When you evaluate his actions within the environment before Stede arrived (i.e., the grittier pirate world), the genre swap is absolutely a good chunk of his problem. In Black Sails, he’d be doing *great.* The issue is that the world he was in prior to the show is no longer the world that he’s in, and he can’t adapt to it!

ANYWAY, that’s an overview of my opinions on Izzy. I could also go more into the wealth disparity here (Stede bought the world to play pirate and that was never an option for Izzy), as well as why Steddyhands (Stede/Ed/Izzy) is my current ship of choice for Izzy, but both of those are entirely different posts and this response is already ridiculously long, so I’m ending this here unless people ask lol

[smokedanced]

quick izzy hands things:

izzy hands is an angry fucked up little man who likes to bully people and i encourage people who this bothers to mute his muse tag, i don’t wanna make anyone uncomfy!

this should go without saying, as it’s been in my rules for ages due to writing mary (reign), and same also applies for ed, but my portrayal will not have anything to do with the historical israel hands, nor do any of my portrayals of historical fiction muses have anything to do with the real historical persons at all. i also don’t care about being historically accurate to timelines and era specific things in general, and do the same with ofmd that i already do with reign: go with the show rather than actual history, on purpose, to distance myself from any actual people who existed, as i am not portraying them, i am portraying fictional characters

izzy is not nice

izzy’s in love with blackbeard, but he doesn’t recognise what he feels as being in love, nor is he, to paraphrase con, emotionally mature enough to be in a healthy relationship. i do not expect blackbeard writers to consider this feeling requited, though i would happily ship them

i would also happily ship izzy and lucius

...izzy is not nice and any ship with him is going to be inherently toxic though he’s not incapable of having a caring side

i am ok with other muses verbally and/or physically being violent towards him; his own behaviour invites that kinda treatment, feel free to put the tiny angry man in his place, he’s humiliated a lot in the show and that is perfectly fine with me in writing too

he probably gets off to it anyway lol. tiny angry man is a bottom/sub/a masochist/a degradee

izzy hands is an angry fucked up little man who likes to bully people. i’m not going to make him “turn good”. that does not mean he is one dimensional though. paraphrasing con again because while i don’t take actors’ word as the law, i do love it when actors have thoughts about the characters they play, and i like con a lot based on the little i’ve seen of him... there’s a side to him that wants to be better, but he doesn’t know how. he’s not without compassion if he does care about an individual, but he has no idea how to show it, and outside of the rare individual he does care about, he really is mostly just a fucked up dude who only knows how to feel anger and i won’t make him not a villain