#saying ed is abusive and we think izzy can't be a victim bc he's tough (nobody ever said that wtf)

[portraitofadyke]

this show is literally about growing up in a cycle of abuse and toxic masculinity, having someone breathing down your neck and constantly pushing you back into it even if you want to break it. it's about getting that need to break it and do better, even if you think it's too late. it's about recognising your own wrongdoings and being reborn.

but according to some part of the fandom, it's about ed being an abuser just like his father and ed being destined to be abusive to stede, meanwhile izzy is a victim. the same man who shot down every chance at breaking away sooner.

nobody is saying ed is flawless. nobody is saying ed didn't do terrible things. nobody is saying izzy deserved to get his leg amputated. it's one thing to say 'in his spiral, ed ended up hurting a lot of people and causing them trauma and dragged them down with him in his suicie mission' and another to say 'ed is a canon abuser who abused izzy and the ed fans don't think izzy can be a victim bc he's portrayed as tough. oh, and he will absolutely abuse stede.'

this dynamic is not played by the book. how hard is it for some people to grasp some more complicated forms of abuse? how hard is it to recognise emotional abuse? how hard is it to comprehend the power another person can have over someone who is perceived as invincible? piracy is a constant cycle of violence, and ed wanted an out. now he has it, with someone who's very much the opposite of everything he was told to be. Izzy breathed down his back and tried to knock him back into the perfect Blackbeard he wanted, going as far as killing his significant other, and he got the worst of it, and he got to grow. they were both dependent on blackbeard, and they let him go. it wasn't too late, izzy got to be just izzy, despite being the breathing walking epitome of piracy. that's it, that's the show. it tells us you're not your past trauma and even if you fucking lose yourself, because life is a dick and you probably will lose it, you can get back up, it's never too late

(source https://blakbonnet.tumblr.com, i'm not sure if it's loading in the gif)