there are no less than FIVE separate scenes with Izzy and Stede together in the trailer alone!!
and they're wonderful!! It's everything I ever wanted for their dynamic and more!!!
but also A WHOLE PROSTHETIC LEG!!!!!! Wow!!
I've always been in the "cutting people's toes off is serious business" camp but David Jenkins and the other talented writers for the show leaned in hard
I haven't seen that many people talk about this but I just wanted to point this out: they have Chinese pirates in the second season of ofmd!!! I'm really happy that the show runners have added this to the show, because most mainstream depictions of pirates are just white European men; the shows skip over the whole entire era of Chinese piracy in the 18th and 19th centuries.
I'm so excited to see what the show has in store for the new character Susan!! She looks soooo cool
A quote from the vanity fair article, this sounds so awesome! Ofmd is already great with representation and now with Chinese pirates playing a part in the second season, it adds even more to it!!
The juxtaposition and symbolism of Izzy holding his hand close to the candle flame when in service of Blackbeard in Season 1, like a masochistic type of submission, versus him SLICING those candles down (while fucking shirtless) in Season 2 has me in a chokehold.
Okay so I wanna share my thoughts on this scene cause I’ve seen lots of posts about it but I haven’t seen any that really match the thoughts I’ve had about it. (If anyone’s posted similar please let me know, and I’m so sorry I haven’t seen it 🥺)
So the first thing we see is a very concerned looking Stede. He’s clearly afraid that Ed is not going to be okay after whatever has happened to him. We can see pretty clearly Ed has taken some decent physical damage after fighting or possibly after being thrown off the ship in the storm we don’t know just yet, but I feel like he’s definitely clearly hurt. My assumption is he had passed out from said injury or had been knocked unconscious and Stede was very worried about this.
I say passed out because we clearly see Ed wake up in a moment of adrenaline and panic. Hence the reason he immediately headbutts Stede. His body is still in fight mode so his fight or flight response was to attack the person who for all he knew was trying to hurt him further.
We see pretty quickly that he relaxes after a few seconds and lays back against the bed Stede’s possibly laid him on. Presumably after he’s able to process that it’s Stede who is leaning over him and he’s not in any immediate danger anymore.
Now! For the hand! I think personally Stede is applying pressure to a wound of some kind. Gun or blade I couldn’t say but what I’m thinking (hoping) is that the rest of this scene is Stede gently helping Ed from his jacket and lifting his shirt to attend to the wound.
Much in the same way I think Ed did for Stede early on in season one when he’d been stabbed. I know we never see Ed attend to Stede’s wounds physically but I think is kind of unspoken in the way Ed watches over him and cares for him until he’s better. I mean Ed even asks Lucius to bring them a wet cloth. You know that Ed sat at Stede’s bedside and used the damp cloth to clean the sweat from his forehead, that he used it to try and keep any semblance of a fever down. He hardly moved from Stede’s side until he was awake and able.
So I don’t think it’s a leap to say Stede is going to do the same even if Ed protests saying he doesn’t need Stede’s help or how he’s fine without him, has been…is….has to be…right?
I feel like this scene could really pose as a turning moment in them reconnecting and coming back together, a small bridge to rebuilding Ed’s trust in Stede.
I think, Ed is gonna be situationally forced by his injuries to accept help and care from Stede.