#izzy's dd anon

[sixstepsaway]

Hey hey hey! I was just lookin' through the second OFMD episode and I NOTICED SOMETHING! And I NEEDED TO TELL YOU IMMEDIATELY! Don't know if anyone else noticed! But right at the end! So, Izzy pulls Fang's beard, right? And then, off camera Fang says, "I hate it when he does that. It really hurts." Then! Ivan says, and I quote, "You should say somethin' about it." And Fang says, "Ah, what's the point." Oh. My. God. This line was not an accident. It has SO MANY IMPLICATIONS. It's one of those lines, I swear, that is meant to indicate so many things about the theme and characters. Fang DOES NOT TELL IZZY HE HURT HIM. He ASSUMES it doesn't matter. That Izzy wouldn't care. This tells us so much about the entire culture of Blackbeard's crew. Izzy is an asshole to the crew, but did anyone tell him that? Or did they just assume they'd better get in line because Izzy wouldn't care? Does Izzy want to yell at people, or does he think they won't do their jobs or respect him at all if he isn't aggressive? Does the crew know that it probably really hurts Izzy's feelings that they have that mean nickname for him? Ed probably has no idea that Izzy is in love with him, or that the root of Izzy's anger and nagging is fear: of getting killed, of being left behind, of being unprepared for the dangers that lurk ahead. All he can do is yell. And if Izzy has been massaging the crew when they lose faith in Ed's judgement, that's just more proof Ed isn't communicating with them. Ed never tells Izzy what he's feeling at all, at least not in a serious way that Izzy can understand. Ep4 is just one massive communication breakdown between Ed and Izzy. The FIRST, the very FIRST time we see Stede with the crew of the Revenge, it's "Talk it Through as a Crew". And the first thing we see on the Queen Anne is, "Say something? Ah, what's the point." I've done it. I've solved OFMD. -dd anon that is also a GENIUS

nonnie i love every time you come into my ask, do you know that? i look forward to your messages, i really do.

imma break this one down to make it easier for my brain (that's why i tend to do inlaid quotes so much):

So, Izzy pulls Fang's beard, right? And then, off camera Fang says, "I hate it when he does that. It really hurts." Then! Ivan says, and I quote, "You should say somethin' about it." And Fang says, "Ah, what's the point." Oh. My. God. This line was not an accident. It has SO MANY IMPLICATIONS.

Before we get to what you read from it, I want to say what I read from it, which is that Ivan thinks Fang can say something about it. Maybe they're all so used to Izzy and Ed talking past each other that Fang takes it for granted that no one will listen, but Ivan truly, with his whole chest, thinks Fang can say, "I really hate it when you pull my beard like that, it really hurts," and Izzy will not punish him or yell at him, he'll just be like, "Oh shit yeah sorry," and stop.

This also folds in with something I said earlier which is that in 1x05 when Izzy spends the whole episode trying in vain to make Lucius (a member of the ship's crew) do his job (as a member of the ship's crew) instead of fucking around with Pete or drawing, Fang isn't scared of Izzy in the slightest. "Let him look," is one comment. Another is that Izzy comes in and goes, "What the fuck?" and metes out absolutely no punishment on Fang. None. Fang actively refuted his orders, scooped Lucius from the side of the boat, took off his clothes in the captain's cabin and occupied Lucius doing non-work things, and Izzy is just, "What the fuck?" not, "Take Fang out back and whip him," or something. There's no punishment!!! None!!!!!! Fang receives no discipline for openly disregarding Izzy's word. Which tells me that Izzy is not as strong a hand as he pretends to be (and that he doesn't actually treat his crew with cruelty, he just wants them to do their damn jobs, which isn't unreasonable, especially considering Lucius is actually receiving a wage for his work LMAO).

(This also ties in with my headcanon that Wee John has a back injury much like the actor who plays him, and that's why he was allowed to sit.)

It's one of those lines, I swear, that is meant to indicate so many things about the theme and characters. Fang DOES NOT TELL IZZY HE HURT HIM. He ASSUMES it doesn't matter. That Izzy wouldn't care. This tells us so much about the entire culture of Blackbeard's crew. Izzy is an asshole to the crew, but did anyone tell him that? Or did they just assume they'd better get in line because Izzy wouldn't care? Does Izzy want to yell at people, or does he think they won't do their jobs or respect him at all if he isn't aggressive?

My read on this is that it's Ed who's sort of started the culture of, "No one will care." See: Fang had to put his own dog down. See: Emotions are weakness. See: Pets befoul the ship. See: Love is weakness. Ed started all of that, Izzy repeated it as is his job as first mate. At some point he's shown Ivan that he's different, but Fang hasn't seen that, so he doesn't know, but what he does know is that Izzy isn't as bad as he pretends to be, which is why he's so concerned about his foot in 1x10 🥺

Does the crew know that it probably really hurts Izzy's feelings that they have that mean nickname for him?

That he hates it? Yes. That it's more than just an irritation? No.

Ed probably has no idea that Izzy is in love with him, or that the root of Izzy's anger and nagging is fear: of getting killed, of being left behind, of being unprepared for the dangers that lurk ahead. All he can do is yell. And if Izzy has been massaging the crew when they lose faith in Ed's judgement, that's just more proof Ed isn't communicating with them.

Izzy has been propping Ed up this whole time, including with the crew. It's stated repeatedly as canon in the show (Izzy saying he did it and Ed not refuting that fact, Ed saying he needs Izzy there etc), and honestly the fact Ed nearly pushes Stede away in 1x07 and actively leaves because of one small spat in 1x08 is also a small bit of proof of that, though I can't put into words why. Hoping you understand what I mean tbh.

Ed never tells Izzy what he's feeling at all, at least not in a serious way that Izzy can understand. Ep4 is just one massive communication breakdown between Ed and Izzy.

The closest you get to Ed actually communicating with Izzy is the scene with the model ship. He's saying how cool it is and Izzy is not getting it because Izzy is very preoccupied with the life and death situation Ed has gotten them into, and Ed starts whining about how bored he is and how everything is repetitive, and then when Izzy points out that no matter how Ed is feeling in that way, if Ed doesn't continue that repetitive cycle right now, they're all going to die. And then it spirals into Ed genuinely thinking death might be better than the boredom and I doubt Izzy really gets that, so he writes it off as senseless.

The FIRST, the very FIRST time we see Stede with the crew of the Revenge, it's "Talk it Through as a Crew". And the first thing we see on the Queen Anne is, "Say something? Ah, what's the point." I've done it. I've solved OFMD.

[sohnric]

spread some love !

talk about your favourite mutuals and why you like them

sweet anon this is such a cute ask let me reply right away or else i'll forget

@satoruly - miri is my longest friend on here. she knows me, she gets me and i honestly have never had a healthier friendship than with her. she is very well spoken, she taught me a lot about lots of different things, she offers me honest advice and is always so supportive of me. she is the best writer around, she is so so fun to talk to, she is very understanding and openminded. miri is my soulmate and i feel the safest with her. i enjoy listening to her long voice memos like it's a podcast, i enjoy hearing her talk about literally anything she is interested in. she has good tv show recommendations and i am so proud of her for everything and i will support her forever and always. it's hard for me to put emotions to words, but miri is my best friend and i am beyond thankful to know her in this lifetime.

@csenke - my favorite long distance friend our bond will forever be special to me because you're the first online person i've ever met irl. i love her energy, i love her sense of humor, i love how we can talk about fun things but also more serious ones. i love her aesthetic and i forever think she is the coolest person i know. i like how vocal she is with the love she has for her interests and her idols and her favorite musicians. i enjoy how our music tastes match and how similar we are with different phases of our lives, which makes me believe we are platonic neighbors for sure. she's very fun to be around and talk to and i admire her courage and also her energy. she's very easy-going and down to earth. she's so cool yet so adorable. also, an icon.

@from-izzy - izzy is the asian version of me and i am the white version of her. i like her humor and the way we tease each other and poke fun. i enjoy having someone with the same major as my online friend because it lets me talk about this nerdy interest of mine with someone else and compare our knowledge and teach each other more. i admire izzy's emotionality and her mature way of handling things. i like her supportiveness and even though its unfortunate, it's good to have someone who shares the same struggles with you. i love izzy's energy and view of life. she's very cute and kind <3 oh and also she makes me feel special lol

@sanaxo-o - i'd like to say me and sana have chaotic sibling energy. i like our chats because we can talk about lighthearted things but also more deep stuff. i like her stickers and random meme pictures she sends in chat. she works hard and puts in a lot of effort. her energy is unmatched and although we used to bully each other for fun, she is very compassionate and caring.

@sungbeam - i adore beam as both a creator and as a person. i always sound like a fangirl whenever i talk about her but i really can't help it. her mind is so big and her creativity is unmatched. she is very good at her craft and i hope she never stops doing it. our talks were always very deep and productive, for some reason. beam has this energy of being older than me but she's actually younger so that makes me a lil :DD. i look up to her in many aspects and she's so cool omg.

@cloverdaisies - another one that feels like she's supposed to be older than me. i adore clo's maturity and the way she handles things, her humor and her over-all energy. we don't talk much but there's something that lights up in me whenever we do. also i find clo so cool. OH and her writing is unmatched >>>

@decembermoonskz - another friend that's known me for ages. izzy you are such an anchor and a safe space for me. i've always adored your mind and the way it works. you are so creative and artistic and i support you in everything your majestic mind comes up with. your persona is so warm and welcoming and i feel very positive whenever we talk. i miss you lots <3

@okkotsu-simp - kyuzu is forever my younger sister. she is very strong and very mature for her age. i adore how she speaks up and uses her voice on things and i also very much enjoy her energy. i miss talking to her but we're both so busy now :( i am always rooting for her.

@injangism - i admire her maturity and the way she is so well-spoken. she handles everything so well and i love her lots. she always makes sure to subtly tell me she cares and i wish i can to the same to her as well. her mind is very big and i know she can do big things. <3

and lastly my sweet aimee, although we can't talk anymore, i think of you daily. you were the sweetest, nicest person around. you were so selfless and i hope to one day be as kind as you were. your smile was always the brightest and i trusted you with everything. i miss you dearly and let's hope one day we meet again, angel <3

[decembermoonskz]

Hello moonbeams~! Writing letters is something I’m good at, because even if I stumble in all other forms of communication sometimes, my writing, my words never fail me. The overall negative energy, annoyance and sometimes hatred towards the pandemic, the social/political topics and the year in general can be very draining and or taxing on me and you all. Of course we’re upset too but seeing so much hate can be draining for people like me, and maybe you. So for a moment, grab a seat and a blanket and listen as I read this letter to you. This is a letter from me, to you, and I offer a blessing from her majesty the moon herself as well.

2020 has been one hell of a year that’s for sure. I experienced a lot of sadness, fatigue and overall lower moods as I tend to take on the energy of the world heavily. There has been so much that’s happened to us all, sadness, fear, anger, heartbreak; but even still we survived it. There were so many that felt we wouldn’t make it through this year or make it to the end as it felt like it would go on forever, but we’re here now, to write these letters, to tell these stories. 

Even in this hectic year, I experienced so much, I felt happiness, joy I cried a lot and released so many pent up feelings, I came to terms with things I had locked away, I laughed a lot, I found passions that I thought were long lost. So much has happened to me in this year both ups and downs and I’m grateful for it all. You may be wondering why I would be grateful for downs as well, they helped teach me things, how strong I am; how it’s okay to give in and feel your sadness or pain; to validate my emotions; and a lot more. I hope that with all that’s happened you were able to take in some lessons yourself.

Below this cut, I wanted to thank some people who made my experience on tumblr as wonderful as it has been, more amazing than I had ever expected it to be. I came on here extremely nervous about sharing my stories and these people have been so warm and welcoming and honestly I wouldn’t have enjoyed my time as much without them. I’ll have my ending message at the bottom of this. 

@sleepylixie Lily darling, my brain twin!! you’ve made my short tumblr life so much fun! sharing brain waves one moment, soundboarding ideas the next, and having so many things in common between us it’s crazy (wolfie gang). You’ve become one of the best things to happen to me on this site! xoxo thank you for always sharing your wonderful ideas with me and for sharing my love of fantasy!! Oh and I can’t forget all the shared screaming we do over skz and anything else xD I’m so glad we started talking and even in just a short time I feel so close to you already!! Thank you for letting me vent out all my ideas and for letting me be that person for your ideas too, thank you for always giving such good feedback and opinions and thank you for just overall being one of my favorite people to talk to. I hope we can make more wonderful memories in the coming year and beyond it. love you darling have a beautiful 2021~ 💜💜💜 ⟪ song rec: Another Day - Stray Kids ⟫

@rebecca-noona​ Becca! You were the first person to interact with my blog and when I look back on it, I’m so thankful you did. I love our talks about Korea and skz and writing. Your support has always been incredibly helpful, thank you for always being a cheerleader for me, it means the world. I hope you know I love you and support you and your works and whatever you wish to do so much as well!! I’m so happy we started talking and you make me so happy. Thank you for being my friend and when I finally get to Korea you gotta show me around when you get back!! I hope your process of getting back is smooth and easy, stay as optimistic as you can love!! xoxo  ⟪ song rec: motive - Ariana Grande (ft. Doja Cat) ⟫ 

@skzctnightnight​ bel! bel! :DD it’s your words of encouragement that helped me create this blog, you’re one of the reasons I’m here!! your works have been some of my favorites and I was so happy when I first reached out to you. Your kindness really touched me and being your anon at the time was so much fun >v< Prowl will forever be one of my favorite series and you inspire me with your works!! I love talking with you no matter if it’s a quick chat, or a long convo, I always love talking to you. Thank you for making my 2020 so nice! I’m glad I know you and let’s talk more soon! <3  ⟪ song rec: Clarity - Kim Petras ⟫ 

@aliceu​ Alice!! I’m so thankful we met by chance when replying to one of Lily’s posts LOL I think it was an ask of yours about fantasy, and we shared a mutual love for it xD I want you to know that I always smile and I’m always happy when you send asks or dms so please I hope you never worry about being a bother and keep sending them hehe >v</ Thank you for always taking some of your time  to check out my stories and for always leaving such wonderful feedback too!! It makes me happy to read your mini reviews about them!! Thanks for having little chats with me too. I enjoy them always and I hope we can continue to chat more 2021!! Please have a great new year and stay safe and comfy uwu ⟪ song rec: TMT - Stray Kids ⟫ 

@t-toodumbtocare​ Bar! xoxo I’m so glad we finally started talking and I’m hoping we can talk more soon >w<b You’re so fun and sweet and your stories are cute!! I wanna read more soon!! >^<9 Thanks for our little chats and thanks for checking out my stories as well I appreciate it. I hope to get to know you better in the coming year and I hope you have the best 2021!!  ⟪ song rec: Cruel Summer - Taylor Swift ⟫ 

@delicatewerewolfsoul​​ Vicky!!! I’m so happy we started talking! I loved talking about animals and pets with you and I loved all the skz soft hours asks you sent (I hope you send more of them psst psst) they made my day!! You’re such a sweetheart and you’re a master of heart memes xD I hope your 2021 is wonderful just like you are!! Stay safe and warm you cute bean xoxo ⟪ song rec: Inception - ATEEZ ⟫ 

@dreamescapeswriting​ Hi M!!! Okay full disclosure!! I’ve actually read some of your works before having tumblr LOL Like I really enjoyed them (Lucky and You Love Me are so cute) and honestly I was shy about reaching out but I’m so glad I did because now I wanna continue to talk and send you hugs! >V< I’m so glad we’re both gamers and your asks make me so happy! Thank you for being the sweetie you are and I hope we can talk more in 2021!! Have a great new year cutie!! <3 ⟪ song rec: False God - Taylor Swift ⟫ 

to my mutuals and other moonbeams who I wanna talk to more and love and support so much!! @mikoto-ica-fics​ @hanflix​ @chogiwow​ @redsandroses​ @meiiyue​ @missskzbiased​ @rosieecheeks​ I hope we can talk more in the new year and I love you a lot!!! You’re all such beautiful souls!! Know I’m sending you love and hugs and all the support I can muster \>v</ xoxoxoxoxo ⟪ song rec: Breath - GOT7 ⟫ 

To my beautiful nonnies, I’m super happy you’re here. I miss you all and hope you’re well and to the new ones welcome welcome!! I hope you know all your messages make me so happy! When I started my blog, I didn’t imagine I’d have as many anons as I do now, I didn’t think I’d have many, maybe 2 or 3? You guys make me so happy and I hope to see you more in my inbox when you have the time!!! <33 ⟪ song rec: You Can STAY - Stray Kids ⟫ 

To all my followers, my darling moonbeams!! Thank you so much for joining on this journey of practice and self-love that I’ve been trying to embark on. The comments, the reblogs, the likes, the asks, all of it, it means the world to me. To re-learn that it is possible for people to enjoy what I do, and not tie it to my own self-worth has been something I’m so thankful for. You all helped me learn that so thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy the stories I put out and feel free to reach out anytime! I’m so happy to have 300+ (almost 400) of you lovely moonbeams here! I hope you all have a wonderful 2021! It doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are, where you come from, what you identify as, what you believe in, or who you love; you are all precious moonbeams here in this haven.  ⟪ song rec: Haven - Stray Kids ⟫ 

I know I say it a million times but since this is a wrapup letter I’ll share it again shortly. My blog was made for the main purpose of learning to appreciate my passion for writing and to not cage myself from posting and sharing my stories. I wanted to learn to write for myself and that posting stories in and of itself was the main victory, and everything else was the bonus, instead of thinking when people like it, only then is it good. I’ve done that before and having learned from it I now feel more prepared to tackle this. Thank you again for all the warm welcomes and the love I’ve received it still hasn’t quite sunk in for me and it feels so unreal. To know you all enjoy my stories and give me so much love, it’s crazy and it’s happening and I am so happy. I’m very thankful I took the leap of faith even though I was scared and decided to create this blog! 2020 challeneged me as well as pushed me and supported me. I experienced hard times yes, but I also experienced some really amazing things. I found comfort in things new and old, I feel like the quarantine made me come to terms with myself more, not run from things I wanted to confront and talk to myself more. I feel like 2020 albeit really draining in all ways, helped shape me and I got stronger because of living through this year. Now before I get any more preach-y than I already have LOL Thank you for being a part of my 2020 everyone!! I hope to have you with me in 2021 and I hope you experience the blessings of the moon like I feel we all do. See you in 2021 y’all! We’ll get through next year and the next and the next, I know it! 💜

Love Izzy 

[xukei]

hey aleeza i know u thought sending ur poor brainwashed dumb friend izzy ( hi !!! nice to meet u :DD ) to do the dirty work on my blog for u wuld make me see their location n be like , oh ! whatever ! but when i hav their path on my blog tht gives away the Sole purpose of opening my blog ur lil idea doesn’t seem So smart so uh ! learn how to keep urself nd ur friends away from me n my blog, nd stop doing toxic dumb n problematic shit so we all can keep going our separate ways , or else one day someone is gna rip u a new one when the last straw snaps. dnt forget tht staying away from my blog includes sending anons to defend urself n having ur friends do the same !!! and dont forget to save urself the time of writing 5 paras victimizing urself, deleting to remake in a few days, throwing a tantrum , spreading lies, nd the long list of things tht are ur antics ! oh, no need to mssg me Either ! block me , stop pulling this shit , nd it will b settled !! dont want u twisting my words for ur pity parties u know :((((( this applies to u too izzy !!! no need to bother getting out of ur way if ur gna put a stop to it :) may u get hit w the truth one day so u can look back at this nd think “oh . wow”. all the love <3

[sixstepsaway]

Wild theory: the Izzy the Spewer incident will be clarified. What struck me about when it was first brough up was that it mentioned diarrhea, which isn't really a sea sickness symptom. Also, it's specifically mentioned that Izzy was left in charge. Why would that be important, if it was just motion sickness? If it was just about Izzy being motion sick, you'd think it would be mentioned as an ongoing issue as opposed to a specific incident, considering they basically live on a boat.

So, going on my theory of themes of communication...

Edward wanted to go do something, leaving Izzy in charge. However, Izzy was beginning to feel ill. Maybe Izzy tried to say he wasn't up for it, and Edward ignored him. Maybe Izzy didn't want to let Ed down and chose to power through. Or maybe it was a bit of both. Izzy tried to speak up about it, but Ed wasn't really listening, and he didn't want to press the issue.

So Izzy ends up alone and badly ill, and embarrasses himself in front of the crew. Because he's Izzy, he probably handles this by shutting down any talk on the topic, which only makes it funnier to the crew. Izzy maybe ends up being even more forceful and aggressive with the crew in an attempt to regain his lost respect, which has backfired.

There, that's my elaborate theory.

-dd anon

I really hope they do clarify it! Especially if they roll it up with him recovering from the trauma of the toe scene!

I know that @ourflagmeansdemise made so much sense on this post here because it's logical to conclude from the Izzy the Spewer story that Izzy isn't just 'seasick' (which makes very little sense at face value; surely he'd throw up during any storm, not just the one where he's captain) but he has IBS or something like that, which; yes.

Your theory that Izzy was already feeling ill could easily tie into that too! Chronically ill bitches usually can feel the start of a flare coming on, so if he felt an IBS episode coming on and tried to power through... Eech.

Izzy maybe ends up being even more forceful and aggressive with the crew in an attempt to regain his lost respect, which has backfired.

Ivan thinking Izzy will listen if Fang says he doesn't like the beard yanking. Fang, who's seen enough of the force and aggression and anger after the Spewer incident and didn't understand why it happened, not believing him.

Im emo about this

(Also, I hate that Izzy won't have Ivan in s2 :( at least Fang will still be around.)

[sixstepsaway]

My rant may have gotten a little unhinged there, so pardon the caps and and wild swerves in topic. You've got a great point in how their interactions show that they know Izzy is mostly talk. And Fang really is worried about poor Izzy's foot, isn't he? Also, in regards to that scene, when injured angry Izzy comes in snarling about the books not being thrown overboard, Ivan looks kinda taken aback. "It's a lot of books, Izzy." Not only is he comfortable talking back, Ivan seems surprised that Izzy would say something like that. I get the sense that while Izzy might be on everyone's ass about work, he isn't generally the type to push people to work harder if they're already doing their job. (I also think this suggests Izzy is afraid of Ed now in a way he wasn't before. They need to move fast, or who knows what Ed might do?) No one's had to deal with forced autocannibalism from Izzy on that crew. And I do know what you mean about the spat and pushing away with Stede. Ed tends to flee when rejected or feeling rejected. But my visions of the future have made me realize something so important. Point 1: We've established poor behavior on both Izzy and Fang's parts in regards to each other, and the need for communication. That means there's a good chance character development stuff might involve them communicating to one another. I have Reasons to believe the Izzy the Spewer incident might come up again as a topic for discussion. Point 2: Confirmed babygirl kinkster who is only capable of expressing physical affection toward men in violently charged interactions frequently pulls large, daddy-shaped man's beard. -dd anon

nonny. nonny. nonny. nonny of my heart. i've been staring at this fucking message since you sent it nonny and i havent gotten any less feral over my brain suddenly opening up and the skies parting and all i can see is izzy/fang. nonny. i had to sit here for this long before i could come up with a reply to the rest, nonny.

Okay, the rest:

I think maybe something that we're not really adding to our thoughts is that we've actually only really seen Izzy as attempting-to-be-first-mate of the Revenge? Not of Ed's ship?

So, as a brief rundown of the Revenge from what we've been shown so far: they are a crew who were scooped up from god knows where, on a ship that's pristine because it was literally built all of a month ago, the crew are being paid wages rather than having to work for their dinner, no one ever actually seems to do ship things except maybe Buttons who seems to have a clue what he's doing but I don't think I've seen him actually work either, and no matter how much some may argue they're real pirates, they all hide behind the ship in 1x01 when the English show up, just like Stede.

Furthermore, the ship's surgeon is actually the cook (and although he's sewed up his shoulder in the past and makes a bangin' orange cake and goes in to amputate Lucius' finger, we don't know that he's actually qualified to be the surgeon), Stede had no idea Jim was "really a woman" (I mean, they're not, but you get my drift for the early episodes), and in 1x02 they forgot to steer the ship, which is why they ran aground.

So when Izzy comes around in 1x05 and is trying to do his job, which is basically to oversee and wrangle the crew into doing their jobs, what he finds is that there are two functional crew members (Ivan and Fang, who they brought along from their ship), and a bunch of folks that... don't do their jobs.

Literally in 1x05 you have Frenchie who went off and put on nice clothes he found from their raid (which is not working, though he did look dapper), Stede and Ed very distracted by the invitation, Lucius and Stede swinging their legs watching Ivan do all the work of going through the bodies for loot, Fang who is--

Wait, hold on. What is Fang doing?

I mean the general, main answer is "attending Ed", which makes sense because they're on someone else's ship and it makes perfect sense to have Fang nearby while Ed and Stede are distracted, just in case something bad happens.

But what is he actively doing in this scene? Is he knitting? Sewing? What? What? WHAT IS HE DOING WITH HIS HANDS? You literally only see him in this shot and I am losing my mind because I want to know what he's doing???? fuck!

Anyway, Fang is off skinning a guy for Ed after this, Lucius and Pete are fucking in the storeroom amongst the food while Wee John takes a nap, Frenchie and Oluwande go over to the ship with Ed and Stede, and when you get wide shots you can see literally no one is working on that ship.

Izzy is losing his shit and yelling at Lucius because every time he turns his head, no one is doing anything. It's a ship! It needs a crew because the crew keep it moving and functioning and clean.

Like, I understand if cleaning barnacles isn't Lucius' job, but someone has to do it?

So Izzy is presented with a ship whose crew is just, not doing their jobs, and all we really get to see is Izzy yelling at them and trying his darndest to actually get them to work, while they're just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ meh it practically sails itself.

What we don't see is how Ed's ship runs. We don't see how his crew work, we don't see whether Izzy has to yell at everyone on that ship or if all he has to do is hand out a chore roster and everyone does their jobs.

If everyone is doing their jobs and pulling their weight, it's likely that they're treated with the respect they've earned and deserve as working and functioning members of the crew, and that their needs are also seen to, and who would be in charge of seeing to their needs?

Izzy.

Extra points: in the books scene, Ivan calls Izzy by his first name, Fang calls him 'boss', but the tone he uses makes it sound less like a mandatory title like when Izzy tells Lucius he expects sir or first mate hands or god or whatever, and more like he's showing him respect in return, the respect he's earned from that crew.

I get the sense that while Izzy might be on everyone's ass about work, he isn't generally the type to push people to work harder if they're already doing their job. (I also think this suggests Izzy is afraid of Ed now in a way he wasn't before. They need to move fast, or who knows what Ed might do?) No one's had to deal with forced autocannibalism from Izzy on that crew.

This, too. There's "expects the crew to do their jobs" and there's "is unreasonable about it", and there's no actual demonstration that Izzy is ever unreasonable about it. He just wants them to do their jobs and pull their weight!

[sixstepsaway]

Because I'm always down for Izzy shipping options, I have decided to consider possibilities of Calico Jack/Izzy. On the one hand, I feel like Izzy probably experienced severe nausea just being in the same room with him. On the other hand, I'm nothing if not an enjoyer of enemies to lovers and opposites attracting. Assuming Jack isn't dead of course.

Of course that would involve trying to come up with a more elaborate psychology for Jack beyond "the worst person" , along with trying to figure out how on earth those two might compliment one another.

Jack is a genuinely skilled, cold-blooded manipulator, but is also somehow stupid. He's boisterous, but not as cool as Blackbeard at his most leather-clad. Izzy is kinda pathetic, likes rules, struggles holding his emotions (anger, mostly) in. There's no reason it should work, but that just encourages me to figure out how it could.

(Oh no. Oh yes. I realized If Izzy Hands and Calico Jack had a baby, it would totally be Revolver Ocelot from the Metal Gear series. This thought is so brilliant and horribly niche that I'm going to need to make a post about it later instead of working on my fanfic.)

This random thought is brought to you by contributions from viewers like you and also Izzy's DD Anon.

I-- I do not know where to start with this lmao. I don't know who Revolver Ocelot is and I'm afraid to go find out!

On the one hand, I feel like Izzy probably experienced severe nausea just being in the same room with him.

It was pointed out to me recently that Izzy clearly has enough respect for Jack to reach out to him, and Jack calls him sentimental in response, so ugh, they might even somehow like each other in some way???? Potentially?

But I also agree Izzy probably hates his guts

he can have multitudes!

Of course that would involve trying to come up with a more elaborate psychology for Jack beyond "the worst person" , along with trying to figure out how on earth those two might compliment one another.

Jack is irritating but I don't know if I see him as the worst person. He's very similar to the other characters in that he is a pirate and that makes him already objectively terrible just for the life he's ended up living (see: plundering, looting, pillaging, raiding, killing, maiming etc), and he's definitely manipulative (I think some people confuse him and Izzy when they accuse Izzy of that tbh lmao) but most of the atrocities he's joking about in 1x08 are actually Ed's atrocities, which is kind of funny to think about.

I honestly imagine the conversation with Jack went thus:

Izzy: I need your help Jack: What's in it for me, eh? Izzy: You owe me already for xyz, so it's time to pay up Jack: Ugh. Fine. What do you need, shortie? Izzy: Edward's been seduced by a poncey toff who has him wrapped around his gilded pinky. I need you to get him out of that situation so we can fix it, because right now he has about a year life expectancy on that ship with the toff captain who has no fucking idea how to captain a ship and who has already nearly gotten them all killed once. Jack: Well why can't you do it? Izzy: I was sent away, so I can't go back until this is fixed. And that means Edward is alone making poor decisions, and we know how that goes! Jack: Fuck. Okay, yeah.

Jack is a genuinely skilled, cold-blooded manipulator, but is also somehow stupid. He's boisterous, but not as cool as Blackbeard at his most leather-clad. Izzy is kinda pathetic, likes rules, struggles holding his emotions (anger, mostly) in. There's no reason it should work, but that just encourages me to figure out how it could.

I think I've seen a Jack/Izzy fic or two actually. I feel like Jack would complement Izzy by being erratic but not as erratic as Edward, willing to do whatever it takes in a way Edward is not, but needing a smart, intelligent person to help keep him from ending up mutinied on.

Again.

I feel like Jack has the charisma to hold a crew (see: how enthralled everyone was by him in 1x08, bar Stede of course) but not the skill, which is why he kept being mutinied on.

Assuming Jack isn't dead of course.

He and Lucius are in a cave somewhere, arguing over crab meat.

[sixstepsaway]

It actually never occurred to me that Izzy being sketched nude would be him changing his core character at his own expense.

I guess I feel we haven't really seen enough of Izzy's "true" character to make that assumption. Izzy is so repressed, covering his entire body and keeping people at a distance with anger, that I don't know where we would even start talking about whether or not it would be violating for him to pose nude for a drawing. Even talking about his feelings is too much for the guy at this point, but that doesn't mean it is unreasonable to expect him to learn to talk about his feelings.

Also, in the "have you ever been sketched?" scene, Izzy seemed flustered, but also tempted, attracted, and curious.

Sometimes, facing discomfort is a sign of growth. I think there is no reason to assume just because Izzy might find the experience intimidating, he wouldn't find it ultimately worthwhile in some other way.

Also also, nudity is great for symbolism and whatnot. Get a character naked and they're putting themselves in a vulnerable position, letting someone see their "true self" without their clothing and whatnot.

Man, I'd really enjoy a scene where Izzy and Lucius got to talk properly about feelings and stuff. Lucius seems like a guy who can't help himself but be empathetic. Also a romantic. Ooooh man, he could totally be the first person to realize Izzy's in love with Ed. I feel he would end up being more sympathetic to Izzy if he found that out.

Lucius, now incapable of being intimidated by Izzy: Oh! You're not just an asshole! You're tragically in love! Honey, I've been there. Izzy, holding back tears: I'm not in love. Pirates don't fall in love. :(

Emotional Support Lucius in the Walls! Emotional Support Lucius in the Walls! -dd anon again

Also, in the "have you ever been sketched?" scene, Izzy seemed flustered, but also tempted, attracted, and curious. Sometimes, facing discomfort is a sign of growth. I think there is no reason to assume just because Izzy might find the experience intimidating, he wouldn't find it ultimately worthwhile in some other way.

Yeah! This is how I see it too, that he was really interested but afraid to actually partake in it.

I agree with you that we haven't really seen enough of him to know how the scene might be in canon. All we really have is what we can get from what the show gives us, the metas we agree with or write ourselves, and then we extrapolate further character (for example how Izzy is in a relationship or in bed) from there.

Also also, nudity is great for symbolism and whatnot.

Yes, absolutely! It's a great way of showing vulnerability.

Man, I'd really enjoy a scene where Izzy and Lucius got to talk properly about feelings and stuff. Lucius seems like a guy who can't help himself but be empathetic. Also a romantic. Ooooh man, he could totally be the first person to realize Izzy's in love with Ed. I feel he would end up being more sympathetic to Izzy if he found that out.

YES. In the fic I've been working on (two wolves, the one that's. absolutely going to be like 90k im gonna die) Ed propositions Izzy instead of Izzy going on his 1x10 tizzy and they sleep together. Lucius overhears because he's visiting with Fang a little way away, and he talks to him the next day to say he doesn't deserve to be used as a rebound. Izzy just "??????????????" up the mast and back down but it felt in character for Lucius.

Lucius, now incapable of being intimidated by Izzy: Oh! You're not just an asshole! You're tragically in love! Honey, I've been there. Izzy, holding back tears: I'm not in love. Pirates don't fall in love. :(

NONNIE THIS HURT ME

Emotional Support Lucius in the Walls! Emotional Support Lucius in the Walls!

FUCKING YES

[sixstepsaway]

I want to send a proper response to your reply to my continued writing related lamentations, because it deserves more than a 'thank you', but until I do, have these Izzy related thoughts.

I would never judge someone for their preferences in fictional characters and so on, but sometimes certain takes about characters like Izzy make me genuinely question someone's moral character? Or at least, their ability empathize with other points of view, and not be biased by their own distaste? Like it is genuinely makes me raise an eyebrow when someone describes episode 4, where Ed pays no mind to dead crew members, refuses to tell his first mate his plan, nearly gets everyone kills, and completely collapses as a leader as proof Izzy has no basis for his complaints. That people will call Izzy evil and homophobic for being rude and assigning chores while Black-forced-autocannibalism-beard has a man flayed with a snail fork? Idunno, if you can't view characters with some degree of objectivity, how can I trust you to judge real life situations or people? If I tell a story about how my boss kept me out of the loop and nearly fucked up or project, only to pull a wild scheme out of his last month minute and fix things at the eleventh hour, would they be like, "Well you should have had faith in your boss"? -dd anon

Thank you is always enough, for what it's worth, and you're welcome!

As for the thoughts:

I've said before and I will say again, if someone tells me that their top ship that they are ✨ obsessed with ✨ is an incest ship between a dad and his daughter, I'll go, "Sure, checks out, interesting dynamic, bet there's some fascinating fic and really cool slants to read!" and if that's not my ship it'll be, "Not my thing in this fandom, but you do you and I hope you have fun!" (and if it is it's "fic recs?" lmao)

and if someone says their favorite character is like some objectively terrible, war crimey son of a bitch like... idk actually, I don't watch a lot of things with Evil™ characters I'm very into shades of grey. Voldemort! Let's say Voldemort.

If someone says their favorite character is Voldemort or Tom Riddle, I'll be like, "Sure yeah, checks out, he's a fascinating character, especially in fanfic. I bet there's lots of cool things to think about him, and how he's treated by other characters in the book. Fun! Not my fave, but you do you!"

It does not mean anything about either of those people except that they have eclectic and interesting taste in characters.

but if someone sends me an ask saying, "Wait, you're okay with/ship that pairing in the first example? I hope you get [insert horrible thing happening here] and DIE!" then I am going to judge their moral character (see: anti-Izzy anon who told me they hoped I got shanked

(relatedly, you guys have made it Impossible™ to find those anons in my tagged/anonymous tag with all the wonderful things you've all been sending me over the last month. I appreciate that. Keep going ❤

i did find it though)

which, you know, is why i replied like this:

so yeah)

and I am also going to judge people who try to whitewash away the bad things one character does to make it seem "okay" to like them, and put all those bad things on another character or act like the lesser-bad things that other character does are the worst to make their own fave look better.

Taste in fictional characters, pairings, plots or tropes, will never be an indicator of moral character. Fiction is a safe place to explore all kinds of ideas and concepts, from the highly illegal and/or deeply taboo down to the whimsical and dreamy concepts like coffee shop AUs and such (which, despite being bland and fluffy, wouldn't be great in real life either).

But I think it's because people who will overlook the behavior of their faves and vilify others (instead of doing what we do, which is like, "I love Ed! Ed is my fave! He's also objectively terrible lmao" or "ed deserves some atrocities as a treat" which still acknowledges His Shit™) is just a big red flag for me, because they're likely to do that with people too. A good example being, again, the anon above, who thinks they are In The Right™ for sending me a message telling me they hope I get shanked, while I am worthy of nothing but death for liking Izzy.

That people will call Izzy evil and homophobic for being rude and assigning chores while Black-forced-autocannibalism-beard has a man flayed with a snail fork?

this made me laugh but also, yeah. We always forget the flayed with a snail fork and tossed into salt water thing don't we? We also just say it's fine because the guy was a racist, which is, again, a very black and white mentality, and also why people feel so comfortable saying, "Izzy is racist, so he deserved it!"

Objectively speaking, that guy did not deserve being flayed alive with a snail fork. I do not think anyone deserves that no matter what they did (but I'm also anti-prison, pro-rehabilitation, pro-letting and, in fact, encouraging people to change blah blah blah, so it isn't really a shock I'm not all for punitive justice in any case, since punitive justice doesn't really work). Should Ed have had him killed and dropped for the sharks? Sure, yeah, okay, I guess, especially considering the genre and context, in which there's no legal or social "this guy is a racist, can we do something about this like getting him fired from his navy job?" recourse.

But flayed alive with a snail fork implying it will take literally hours and hours if not longer? And making someone else do it for him? Seems excessive! It seems excessive!

(It also implies that either a) Fang willingly went and flayed a guy alive with a snail fork, which tells us A Lot Of Things about the darker side of Fang, or that b) Fang was coerced into it by Blackbeard telling him to do it, and that is awful)

Idunno, if you can't view characters with some degree of objectivity, how can I trust you to judge real life situations or people? If I tell a story about how my boss kept me out of the loop and nearly fucked up or project, only to pull a wild scheme out of his last month minute and fix things at the eleventh hour, would they be like, "Well you should have had faith in your boss"?

lmaaaaaaaaaao. No they'd say you deserve it because you're an Izzy fan.

But for real, I agree with you. Disliking a character is a-okay, as I've said a thousand times. If someone doesn't like Izzy or even hates him, that is fine. Not everyone likes every character. I'm sure some people watched OFMD and came out of it hating Stede and/or Ed. It happens. Everyone is different.

But being super anti-Izzy and then going on about how awful he is and how sadistic and sinister he is and how everything he does is bad and has bad undertones is just... wild to me, and it makes me think of people who see a celebrity did something marginally bad once and then instantly turn their backs 100% on that person and declare them Evil For All Eternity and start digging up even less bad things they've done in the past like, "This person replied to a 14 year old who had left a nice comment on their public Instagram and put "love you so much!! <3" in public so they're clearly evil."

It gets to the point where once they've decided someone is bad (or cringe, or just something they don't enjoy), they start finding new ways to "prove" their badness and "prove" that other people shouldn't like them.

And I don't trust those people.

No human on this god-forsaken Earth is a 100% fantastic person who has never done anything wrong in their lives, and they know that because they are the same. Everyone has fucked something up, everyone has hurt someone, everyone has done something that was, in their circle at the time, seen as 'fine' that is now seen as 'bad'. The amount of teenagers when I was growing up who would call everything that was boring or gross, "So gay :/" and half of them were bisexual or gay themselves. Everyone does stupid shit.

And the people who look at Izzy and the things he does completely divorce him of context. You can dislike the way he does things, you can think he was an asshole for bringing the English to Stede, but saying that he's awful and abusive for, as you put it so well:

being rude and assigning chores

is just fucked up. He's doing his job, and in context he was expected to do his job.

On top of that, as I've said before in posts I've reblogged about queer politics, I trust people who use the wrong words with the right feelings etc far more than I trust the people who use all the right words but are actually prejudicial.

"Your pronouns are they/them, right? Anyway, yeah, I just think that bisexuals and non-binary people should keep to their own lanes if they're being a bihet or a het in general, you know? It just seems better." no.

bad. go away.

"You're a dyke, right?? I just wanted to let you know that the woman down the street is really homophobic and she's being awful to all f*gs and dykes in the neighborhood. I've called the police about it but I don't think they're going to do anything, so I'm going to rally everyone in the neighborhood to try and get her to leave by herself. I think there's a transsexual down the street too, so we should protect him as well. Oh, sorry! Sorry, my bad, I get confused. Her. We need to protect her as well."

I trust that person 290283x more, despite the 'incorrect words' and the things they're 'not supposed to say'.

And it's the same basic thing. They flag Izzy as Racist and Homophobic and Abusive because they're the Right Buzzwords to make them look good, but at the end of the day they end up being racist (a good example being the person who decided it was great to say Izzy had Ed as a pet) or homophobic (literally half the shit they say about Izzy is homophobic itself) or abusive (*gestures at anons*).

Taste in characters or pairings or shows doesn't make me suspicious of someone's moral character. How they approach characters they don't like ("he deserves being fed his toe!") and do like ("Ed was totally justified in everything he did because Izzy is a dick") and people around them ("I genuinely hope you get shanked") is what is far, far more telling for me.

this got rambly nonnie i apologize

[sixstepsaway]

I've decided to worry about the fate of Izzy instead of worrying about the state of the world. I hope he gets his happy ending! On the one hand, it's clear he is meant to be in love with Ed, and the creator described their relationship as another kind of love story. There's clear sympathy for him even if it is not as overt.

On the other hand, he still is an antagonist that gets wrecked constantly and is the butt of every joke he's involved in.

But maybe that's just because it was the first season? They had to introduce and develop Stede, then Ed. Season 2, with Ed and Izzy separated from Stede, seems like the perfect time to explore both of them as characters, and who they were before Stede got involved. The ep10 argument and toe scene were the first scenes where Izzy's view and emotions were spotlighted as something to be taken seriously.

I just want him to be happy with a nice daddy? Is that too much to ask?

-dd anon

I can fully and completely understand your concerns.

I've seen some people say the real Israel Hands is who Captain Hook was based on, which makes me worried about further maiming, and I've seen people talk about how historically it's said Blackbeard shot Izzy? Which also gives me concerns.

That said, Izzy is Izzy not Israel, which is immediately an anachronism, I believe (I checked Wiki and the only mention of 'Izzy' is in regards to OFMD), and he's not sixteen and so on.

On top of that, in regards to Izzy I am regularly reminding myself of several things:

Vico and Con's relationship and how much Vico wants Izzy and Jim to be friends. If Izzy and Jim are friends, that completely shifts the narrative in Izzy's favor.

How much we all love Con and Izzy. They are paying attention. Taika saves fanart to his phone. David Jenkins is always retweeting people talking about the show. Vico reads fanfiction. Con retweets so much fanart and commentary on Izzy. They all know we're into Izzy, and from what I can tell our enjoyment of Izzy is a lot louder than the antis. Plus, when the antis are yelling about homophobia and racism, David Jenkins gets to turn to his diverse writing room full of queer and poc and go, "Eh? Did I fuck this up?" and get "No, no, we did not," in response, which I am positive is the reaction he gets.

The veritable shit ton of characters who were introduced in shows with every intention of only being in a couple of episodes, who came back or got to stay and develop further solely because of the fan appeal. In fact, this is a TV tropes page talking about popularity being power, and although it also includes "the writers liked him way too much", a lot of it does talk about things like this.

(Coulson should have stayed dead, they made him into a totally horrifying war crime committing character in AOS whose actions were always fine because he was The Good Guy, but my opinions about the shitshow that is AOS are not what's being discussed here.)

The one I always focus on though is Spike from Buffy, because of a couple of particular points:

Here's what TV Tropes says about him: "British vampire who served as the villain for early Season 2. Was planned to die, but his popularity saved him." Another point, further on: "Ascended Extra: Like Anya, he was originally conceived to be a one-shot Monster of the Week. However, due to The Anointed One's actor having a growth spurt which made it difficult to pull off a convincing immortal child, he ended up being rewritten into the Season 2 Disc-One Final Boss. Eventually, he became a Breakout Villain too, being so popular that he joined the main cast (first on Buffy then on Angel) and ultimately growing into one of the most iconic characters in Buffyverse." This also means Anya was the same! And this one: "Breakout Villain: Joss originally intended for him to be killed off midway through the second season, but Spike ended up so popular with audiences that he changed his mind."

Joss Whedon did not like Spike. Whedon liked Xander because he was the nice guy character (I still love Xander, but I can totally see the complaints that are made about him, and I can see why Whedon loved him above all others, and I can see why this is utterly fucked up. Fuck Joss Whedon.) but hated Spike and hated that everyone - especially the female, or perceived-female by Whedon - preferred Spike as a love interest over Angel, Riley, and even Xander. It pissed him off. But the audience power was so strong, he still let Spike stick around and kept writing him.

Also, to be fair, the fact he's English ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I can factor that in too. "All bad guys are English," says TV. "NOT THIS ONE," says the fans, cuddling the worst of the worst to their chest (which neither Izzy nor Spike are, but it makes a good joke).

Writers like to please their audiences while staying true to their notion. And David Jenkins also likes pleasing his cast and taking their thoughts into account.

Now, I know there's been a spate recently of writers getting mad when audiences figure out where their plots are going and fucking it all up to make a point (Game of Thrones, Westworld Season 2, multiple others but I don't tend to watch those because they fuck me off) but I don't see David Jenkins being like that.

Game of Thrones and Westworld also saw themselves as, like, high brow TV, the kind that Smart People watch. I don't think David Jenkins sees OFMD like that. Despite the fact most of the OFMD fans are pretty smart people who really enjoy it and are currently analyzing it to death and back.

I don't think David Jenkins seems to feel that he's somehow better than the people who watch the show, and thusly we should not be capable of figuring out his plans, and also our opinions are null. I really don't.

I agree that 1x10 could easily be a shift in how to view Izzy, and I hope you're right!

And, finally:

I just want him to be happy with a nice daddy? Is that too much to ask?

Man, do I hope not.

[sixstepsaway]

In regards to Izzy masochism...

Izzy reads to me, first and foremost as submissive. Before Ed's depression, he was happy to obey every command. It seems like the downfall of their relationship involved more and more responsibilities and powers shifting on to Izzy from Ed, who used to be a much more confident leader figure. Izzy isn't a natural leader, as we see in his failed, brief stint as captain, and he wants Ed to make the decisions.

Inflicting pain on someone is an extremely primal way to assert control over them. I think Izzy is a masochist in the sense that he gets satisfaction from someone dominating him in that way. If Blackbeard is strong enough to hurt him, he's strong enough to protect and lead him. Hierarchy is enforced through the infliction of pain in the pirate world too.

I think by the time Ed removed his hand from Izzy's mouth, he'd been knocked straight into a blissful subspace from shock, pain, intimacy, and forced submission. After ages trying to support a weakened, confused Ed, Izzy was sharply kicked back into his proper place under Ed's heel. Of course he would never consent to what was done to him, but he reacted physiologically none the less. IMHO of course

-dd anon

Oh, I agree with this 100%, dd anon, your brain is an excellent place.

If Blackbeard is strong enough to hurt him, he's strong enough to protect and lead him. Hierarchy is enforced through the infliction of pain in the pirate world too.

YES.

Plus, if Izzy is the strongest then doesn't that kinda make him the captain? He doesn't seem to want that at all, he just sort of ends up with it and he's shit at it lmao

[sixstepsaway]

Great post about purity culture in fandom! If you don't mind me adding on, I think another major contributor is Baby's First Literary Criticism. It as been common online to see people critiquing media through queer, feminist, etc. perspectives, and a push for diversity and positive representation of marginalized groups. Problem is, they use that purity culture framing instead of viewing these issues at the complicated, nuanced matters they are. It doesn't allow room for a particular piece of media to be good in one way or lacking in another. It doesn't take into account that one person from a marginalized group's real experience is another's tired trope. If you try hard enough you can make everything problematic. For example, is it reasonable to argue that Ed is a problematic stereotype of as moc because he is a violent pirate? Well, it's a pirate show about pirates. Lucius might be considered the 'gay best friend' for constantly giving advice, but does that really count when all his friends are also gay? And this stuff is so nuanced it's easy to pick and choose what argument is affective against your least favorite show/character/ship/etc. Voila, now everyone who likes, uh, Blackhands is a racist, homophobic, misogynistic abuse apologist. -dd anon

Oh you are absolutely right and you should say it.

I saw someone saying how nice it is to have OFMD because until OFMD the only queer shows we had were things like Queer as Folk and they said how Queer as Folk was bad rep and cringe and bad

and I wanted to scream because Queer as Folk is not bad rep! QaF was representative of a lot of gay communities. Queer people didn't have marriage equality and couldn't adopt, so they didn't ride the heterosexual relationship escalator instinctively, and so their lives ended up looking entirely different. Club culture and promiscuity was a big part of queer culture even as recently as 2005 (and I would argue it still is) and a lot of that is to do with the conversations that go on at those places about consent or just because going to a gay club you are surrounded by other queer people, instead of having to hope and pray someone is like you at a coffee shop.

Good rep vs bad rep is a reductive argument, in my eyes. The issue is quantity rather than quality, which I realize is backwards to how it usually is, but... in a show like OFMD, where you have [frantic finger counting] I'm willing to say fourteen main characters all of which are stated word of god to be queer in some way? One of them bodying the trope of 'gay best friend' doesn't actually matter

because he's just one among many. I'm-- Okay, my labels are many because my brain is a mess, but to boil it down to something simple I'm a bi ace agender/maybe genderfluid person (idk i havent dug enough into my gender stuff yet i've been putting it off like a knitting project), and I do not fucking care about the discourse around Toni Topaz or Jughead Jones

let me explain: in Riverdale there are two characters I just mentioned. Toni Topaz is bisexual and Jughead Jones in the original comics was asexual but has been in sexual and romantic relationships in the TV show.

Lots of people yell that Jughead isn't rep and he could've been, how upset they are he wasn't made ace like the comics, etc etc

I don't because I am an ace person who has had sex and relationships and plans to do so in the future

so Jughead boning Betty in s1 does not bad ace rep make. He's never looked at Betty or whoever and gone (as far as I know, I'm behind on the show), "Man, I am so cishet. I am so sexually attracted to you in an allosexual manner." though I wouldn't put it past the writers to have him say something like that lmao

so maybe he isn't sexually attracted to her but enjoys sex with her anyway. Maybe he isn't romantically attracted to her but loves her anyway (though asexual =/= aromantic but that's beside the point)

and Toni Topaz has been criticized for being a "slutty bisexual stereotype" or whatever, but... she's fine? She's just... a person living her life? She fucks Jughead, she fucks her girlfriend, she fucks... idk, I think she has a boyfriend now I'M BEHIND OKAY

to me that isn't bad rep it's just... a character. Potentially not a well-written character because Riverdale (again, I am behind, maybe it's not as bad as I imagine) but still just... a character

When the 100 killed off Lexa, the issue wasn't that they killed A Lesbian, the issue was they killed the only lesbian, thus taking away 100% of the lesbians from that show at the time (though I think Niylah became a main character later? I don't know. She was just a one or two-off at the time iirc). plus the writer was a toxic piece of shit about lexa and wielded her as a way of getting his follower count up on twitter and then killed her off but that too is beside the point

We don't need good rep or to delete all bad rep from the universe. We need more rep, period. We need more lesbians and more gays and more bis and more queers and more people of color and so on. We need shows with diverse casts to be so common we don't have a metric fucktonne of people looking at OFMD and hoping for Perfect Rep because it's all they're getting.

Queer as Folk's characters felt real. They felt like real people. Brian's fear of getting old (I had the realization the other day that he was, in fact, 29, and I nearly cried), Mikey's fear of being alone, Ben's fear of bringing Mikey down with him, Justin's fear of never being loved, etc etc. None of them were good or bad rep, they just were, much like the characters in OFMD.

Assuming the party line of 'Izzy is a homophobic homosexual', are (general) you telling me you've never met a homophobic homosexual in your life? Bet you have. Lots of us have. Izzy isn't good or bad rep, he's just a guy, and a guy who could easily exist in real life, flaws and warts and all. Violent men of color exist just as much as cute lute-playing men of color do.

Good rep is not a goal we will ever achieve because the goalposts will always change. The quantity of rep, the variety of characters of color, the variety of queer characters, the variety of queer characters of color are what matters the most.

We need more rep, not to be cherrypicking and pruning the rep that looks a little ugly on the outside to some people.

Real people look ugly on the outside to some people, too.

[sixstepsaway]

So, I was thinking. I mentioned that Fang never tells Izzy he doesn't like his beard pulled. And when they're preparing to toss him overboard, he expresses a willingness to take constructive criticism, albeit a bit late. Kind of a perfect metaphor for bottling up things until they explode. Although Izzy was so bad it exploded in about five minutes. -dd anon

Oh man, yeah, that... yeah. But it's not like there's any scene showing they were like, "Hey Iz, can we change the work rotations do you think?" it's literally:

Izzy eats a nice meal and tells them he's going to be fair while the others pull the anchor etc (and honestly, this is probably something Ed did? Show his authority?)

Wee John picks on him

Izzy tells him no rations for picking on his captain

Everyone decides to mutiny on him

there's no attempt to talk about it or even try to have things be different. They went from 0 to drowning lmao

[sixstepsaway]

Just having some Thoughts...

Imagining a scene where Ed is at the end of his rope. Izzy tries to confront him about it. Ed freaks the fuck out, goes full kraken. Just starts whaling on Izzy. Breaks his nose, knocks him to the floor, kicks him while he's down, taking out all his pent of sadness and anger out. Izzy doesn't fight back, either because he wouldn't resist Blackbeard or because he can't.

When the rage passes and Ed sees what he's done, he's horrified. Overwhelmed by guilt and despair, he falls to his knees and sobs. apologizes over and over through his tears.

Takes a bit for bleeding, bruising Izzy's pain to subside enough for him to peel himself from the floor. He awkwardly clambers over to Ed, leaving a trail of blood from his nose. Pulls the weeping Ed into his arms to his chest. Pats his back. "S'okay. It's gonna be okay..."

These Thoughts were brought to you by Izzy's dd anon at 3:39 AM

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

the worst part, nonnie, is that i can totally see it going that way, izzy, no matter how he felt, trying to caretake ed :(

this hurts me. thank you for this pain.

[sixstepsaway]

So, uh, you regularly use your bullet journal, huh? If you don't mind me asking, any tips on keeping up with one? Asking for a friend of course. -dd anon

Not so much tips, but I'll tell you what works for me:

I don't use one of those Leuchtturm notebook type things? I use a binder. I have an A5 (5.83 x 8.27 in, since I know the US doesn't use As for their papers, I don't think) leather binder and I have a set of blue plastic A5 file type binders on my shelf.

I use a binder because my brain does not like the rigidity of the notebook style. If I fuck it up, I'm just...stuck with it? If I want to add a habit tracker before my weekly spread, if I've already done my weekly spread I can't. If I want to have a certain note section (like my RegEx reference sheet) close at hand, it can only be where I put it.

I bought a 3 - 3 hole punch and a box of A5 paper that's lasted me since 2018 so far, and I put pages in and out as I want.

I put stickers/designs on my binder to personalize it.

I enjoy art, a lot, so I treat my bujo as a pretty good way of doing some art and enjoying myself. So, towards the middle of every month (usually; I totally fucked this up in April and ended up doing my May spread literally on the fly week-to-week) I open my Pinterest board and I scroll through my sections and decide what kind of design I want to do for the next month. This month (June) is watermelon. It came out real cute. Last month I did a ship/nautical theme, but as it was such a rush I didn't really do a lot of it. I did the main cover page and the weeklies were all black with no real embellishments. I try to do a pretty spread for weeklies and a nice cover every month. I also do a dividing section of a nice "Welcome, [Season]" page to help remind my brain where we are in the year, a little.

I have some tabbed dividers I put in my bujo. Behind the first is my year-round stuff, so I have things like what I've watched, what I've achieved, subs on my currently abandoned Sims yt channel (see: internet being 500kb/s), plans and intentions for the year, year at a glance etc. I did all of my 2022 yearly pages last December. Behind the second divider is the month I'm currently in. If I do the next month soon enough, it goes right after. Behind the third divider is all the other months. So right now my bujo goes: 2022 | June | January | February | March | April | May | Notes Section. This way the current month is always at the front and easily accessible, and my year round is on hand too.

I have a three-surface set-up in my shoebox room. My main desk, with my monitor and keyboard etc, is front, then to the left I have my art desk I can turn around and work at. Behind me I have a trolley I built a couple of months ago. Because I have spare surface room and a spot I spend the majority of my time, my bujo lives, open to today/this week, beside my keyboard, permanently. Specifically, mine is directly to the right (as I use my mouse left-handed), always where I can see it, in front of whatever tea I am currently drinking and my water bottle. It's always there. No out-of-sight-out-of-mind allowed. I used a ring-bound notebook briefly last year before I bust my bujo back out properly and any day I moved it, I forgot it existed. So, my bujo lives right here. I don't go out so it doesn't go anywhere. Sometimes it gets moved to my bed so I can make a note I need to make, but it always goes back where it came from immediately. I think this is the most important point for me tbh.

Because my binder can't hold endless amounts of paper, when a 6-month period ends I take those six months out and put them in one of the plastic binders on my shelf. The second six months go after it, along with the year pages, and that binder becomes the year binder. I haven't fully done this yet, as I've only really perfected managing to keep my bujo up this year (but I've kept it up since January 1st, and since November if you include my using my notepad briefly), but I have my old pages in one of them. It works for me.

I start the next month/year early, so my brain can't trick me by going, "Oh, you can't use your bujo, you didn't finish it." And if I fail at that like I did in April for May, I just bully my brain into letting me manage for a month. It's not the end of the world.

There is apparently a text block limit so, here's a break to see some of my pages/designs etc:

The nautical one for May was somewhat hastily done (I colored it in later, but I don't have a photo rn) and I'm sad about that. Might do another nautical one later this year, who knows.

I experiment every month. Different colors, different theme, different style, different hand-written fonts, different vibes, different experimentation. Keeps it fresh and makes me look forward to the next month. I don't do it in bulk for the whole year because idk what I'll be into by August, and because I'll be bored of whatever I did by then.

Every month I do a cover and my weekly spread. Those are my only requirements, but I can do more if I want to.

I experimented with the best way to do weekly spreads early this year. January I did boxes but no dutch door, February (up there) I did dutch door with no boxes. I hated the no boxes, I really like having things tidily put together? But I loved dutch door because I could put a little calendar on one side and notes/goals/to-dos/whatever where I could see them week to week without having to turn pages! Once I figured that out, my weekly spreads were easier to draw out and easier to use, and I could still experiment with the design (sometimes I cut out the side, sometimes the bottom, maybe next month I'll do the top! Who knows?) and have fun with it. The only month since February I haven't done dutch-door is last month and that was because I was literally doing each week on the fly in panic. I was doing the week I was on as I was on it the one week, it was a disaster lmao

I bought a snazzy rainbow bookmark and hole punched it and I use that to keep my page in my bujo, so I can get back to it easy when I have to close it (my ducks throw water everywhere when they're up here with me)

I have a simple key for my goals etc. Circles for things I need to do, circles with a clockface for things that are on a time-limit, circles with a > for things I'm bumping to another day, crossed out circles for things I no longer have to do for whatever reason. I fill in the circles when I've done the thing, which is great for my brain, and because my bujo and pens are right next to me, I can do it easily on the go.

Squares (with the same basic pattern) are for things I'd quite like to do but they're not pressing to-dos, just a good idea.

I added some other simple keys for things I use sometimes. I have a little pill capsule for logging any meds I take beside my normal (so the last 5 weeks I've been adding a little "💊 Elvanse [x]mg, #/7" so I know which day of my titration I'm on and which level I'm on. If I take a nytol or a melatonin or ibuprofen, I can write that down if I feel I should). A little bell is an event. An exclamation with a heart for its dot is a note. I had other ones but I've never used them.

This month I added a little side piece to my daily boxes. I put a ☀ and a 🌙 and under each I put, with my tiny little 0.05 fineliner (which I use for any writing I do in my bujo, to-dos etc) little daily to-dos of brushing my teeth, doing my skincare, taking my meds morning and night. It was a fun experiment and it's working for me, so I'll continue it next month! If it didn't work and I didn't use it, that's okay, it was just an experiment!

When the end of the month comes, at the end of the last day of the month I write out how the month went, either on a sheet I set up in advance all pretty, or just a normal plain sheet I add. I say what worked (dutch door, little suns and moon sections), what didn't work (no boxes, leaving it until the last moment) and what I want to change next month (add a mood tracker to my dutch door? not write week when I meant month?), then I move that entire month to the back of the second section, where I can get to it if I need to, and write out my to-dos for the next day.

I write tomorrow's to-dos before bed every night when I'm ticking off my meds, and add anything I might forget to them during the day.

I also added a "PRIORITY" top section to my boxes, usually in a complimentary color (this month's colors are green, yellowgreen and pink for watermelon, so the PRIORITY is in a nice green), and I got sick of writing "PRIORITY:" repeatedly, so this month it's a cute "!:" instead, which is the same thing.

welp ran out of space again. MORE BULLETS:

I love habit trackers but they do not work for me if I have to turn a page to get to them, which is why the sun/moon is working so nicely. I might expand it next month.

If I can't see something, it just doesn't exist, so anything important has to stay within my line of vision, hence dutch door and keeping my bujo right next to me.

I don't beat myself up if I don't do all my goals, I just focus on what I did do and use it as a way of managing my working memory rather than scolding myself. Monday my goals were to work on my sewing, start July, reply to my titration nurse, write, work on the ores for my modpack, shower, and post some metas on AO3. I did 5/7 of those things and showering was a square not a circle, so it doesn't even count. I did well, and having it written down reminds me to try again tomorrow, if applicable.

If I have ^ all those on my to-do list, and then I realize I need to, idk, clean my desk, I will add cleaning my desk to the list, so I can tick it off as done when I've done it, even if I'm already halfway through.

I've talked around this a few times but I'mma say it plainly: if something isn't working for me I discard it and try something else. Habit tracker? Gone and incorporated into the dailies. Mood tracker? Put it on my dutch door this month and have forgotten it most of the time, so I might put it on the left side (closest) instead of the right side next month and see if that helps? Too tired to do anything complex? Simple spread to get me through the month. Not enough energy to do a proper cover? Slap the name of the month down, color it, shove it in. Solved.

I might enjoy making pretty bujos and enjoying the artistic side of it, but it's my bujo, and aside from my parents seeing my designs when they stand by my desk, it doesn't have to be for anyone except me. All that matters is what works for me and what I enjoy.

So, the tl;dr and the tips I extrapolated from this ramble:

Experimentation with colors/designs/themes to keep it feeling new and fresh. Incorporate any hyperfixations in, if it helps (nautical theme lmao).

Discard anything that doesn't work, try new things every month until something sticks, then change its design rather than its function.

Please yourself and no one else, it's your bujo. Use it for what you need help with (working memory, in my case, rather than motivation or intense tracking of what I'm doing. I'm more likely to forget I wanted to do something to begin with, than I am to just not do it).

If you have problems like I do where you mess it up and you don't want to be stuck with it, swap to a binder you can move pages in and out of.

Keep it close and within your line of vision, open if possible.

Write down doing your bujo things on your bujo. Sounds stupid but if I write down "Start July" I have more of a chance of actually starting July than if I just imagine I'll get it done eventually.

Bookmark so you don't have to sift through pages.

Hope this maybe helps a little!

[sixstepsaway]

Know what would be really fucked up? What if, like, Izzy was in a matelotage with a guy in the crew. And the guy was all, "This Blackbeard guy's losing it, and you're in too deep with him." And Izzy's all, "No, you need to have faith in the captain!" And the guy gets off at the next port they stop at and storms off in a rage. But he sends a note back to Izzy saying something like, "It's me or Blackbeard. Meet me at LOCATION at TIME if you want to leave with me." But somehow Ed gets his hands on it and shows up at the meeting place and murders the hell out of him. And when they're about to leave, Izzy is all sad because Guy disappeared and never returned the ship, and Ed's all, "There, there, you still have me. :)"

Wouldn't that just be super fucked up?

AU: Ed just destroys the note and Izzy never gets it. He thinks Guy abandoned him. But then Guy shows up years later and Izzy's all, "You disappeared and abandoned me!" and Guy's all, "What are you talking about? I waited for you for six hours! You chose Blackbeard!" And then the slow dawning horror as they both put together pieces of what must have happened.

Wouldn't that be fucked up?

anyway, I just thought this was vitally important information that I needed to impart to you -dd anon

THAT IS SO FUCKED UP DD ANON WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS WHAT DID I DO TO YOU

the worst part is idk if i can even say i dont believe edward would do that? i feel like he would, depending on his mental state and dependency level on izzy at that moment

so, like, wow. is this going to be a fic???