#stede is best captain

[arsenicflame]

Edward "human weighted blanket" Teach & Izzy "crush my soul out of my body" Hands

[larphis]

The fact that the entire crew lied to Stede at some point to take the blame for Ed’s actions because they knew that hearing just how severly he traumatized him would have scared him off (not as in being scared of Ed, but as in being scared that he has hurt Ed so much that he would rather run away once more as to not cause any more suffering than to face him and actually fight for him) and they couldn’t let that happen because everyone who has been near Blackbeard in the last few months knows that the only way to help this man, the only way to temporarily and after some work even permanently fix his deep rooted turmoil is Stede fucking Bonnet.

[thesillydoll]

Modélame así, dame ahora tu mejor,

Pose, Pose, Pose, Pose

Ed and his (not really) cursed suit!

[jellybeanium124]

buttons & stede is an underrated dynamic. buttons is literally loyal to him from the get-go, warning him about the mutiny. they have a conversation about cannibalism. stede says cannibalism won't be necessary, but doesn't say cannibalism is never necessary. stede respects buttons's mourning process for karl. they looked at each other and saw two weird blond men who just wanted to do their thing and said "respect" and are the best captain & first mate relationship in the show. 0 drama just two coworkers and a bird.

[matelothot]

And when Stede has to fight a rabbit to regain his spot as best friend and co-captain what then

[blakbonnet]

Best boyfriends and co-captains Ed and Stede as Calvin and Hobbes, for the lovely @ourflagmeansqueerpirates who participated in the @adoptourcrew charity pride event 🌈

[starlithumanity]

I honestly find it so cathartic that Stede got to have his big romantic hero fantasy come true, with him and Ed running to each other on the beach--but this time, Stede wasn't some brutal, manly pirate captain. He was just his cringefail, heartfelt, determined self, traipsing alongside Zheng Yi Sao the best he could. This time, Ed had forgiven him, and neither of them had beards covering up their true selves. Ed loved Stede for who Stede really is, and Stede knew it, at least in that moment. 💜

[lightbluetown]

i saw some people say ed and zheng are master strategists while stede is just some guy with ridiculous luck, but i think that's unfair. sure stede's ideas are insane, but they fit the looney tunes ass universe of ofmd perfectly. they're mostly well-thought-out, well-executed and they showcase stede's strengths and growth! so allow me to talk about them:

1- ghost of the forest - 1x02

a fuckery™ before stede even knows what a fuckery™ is! this is amateurish and stupid in every way. he's not even threatening izzy with a real dagger-- that's a letter opener. does izzy actually believe that stede has a huge crew hiding behind the bushes? doubt it! but this weird little act is enough to establish stede as a (ridiculous) pirate figure to the legendary izzy hands and to accomplish his goal of taking a hostage back

2- lighthouse - 1x04

imagine coming up with the exact same idea at the exact same time as the most brilliant tactician of the seven seas! we don't know who came up with which parts of the plan (honestly it was probably mostly ed) but this is still bloody impressive

3- stark revelations - 1x05

stede's first big success! he uses his knowledge of the aristocratic world to get a shipful of rich assholes to destroy each other, but he's also showcasing what sets him apart from them: this plan only comes to fruition because stede talks to frenchie, olu and abshir as equals. as people he can learn from, as sources of inspiration

4- duel with izzy - 1x06

this one was absolutely unhinged, but its success was far from dumb luck. only stede could think of using a brazillian cherry wood mast and ed's weird stabbing lesson to win a duel, and that's what makes this plan so undeniably stede and brilliant

5- faking his death - 1x10

i love that he just had to "die" in the most dramatic way possible. a heroic fight (tiger), a realistic accident (carriage) and the most cartoony death in the book (piano)... not only is his triple-death able to convince everyone in barbados that he's dead for good, it also allows him to have closure with his family. it's filled with stede's ridiculous unique flair, but it's designed to be a fuckery™ through and through. ed would be SO proud

6- stealing jackie's indigo dye - 2x01

quick little stealth mission. did ricky manipulate stede into trying this out? sure. did ricky also ruin it? absolutely. but it was working until then! the swede isn't part of stede's crew at this point, but his respect for stede is what gets him to cooperate and risk his relationship with his beautiful wife. also, it's thanks to his love for fine things that stede immediately recognizes the value of "blue dirt"

7- prison break - 2x03

in my eyes no scene depicts stede's growth better than this one. knocking zheng's entire crew out with tea is the most stede thing out there, and this plan uses the cherry wood mast as well! this plan relies on stede's (unrealistic) tea knowledge, overly-fancy ship and ability to coordinate his crew. what makes it breathtaking is that he secretly sets this plan into motion while actively mourning the "death" of the love of his life. he's putting his life on the line to rescue ed's "killers" because he's emotionally mature enough to look at things from their perspective and forgive them

8- inciting a mutiny - 2x06

yet another brilliant plan that could only be executed by stede. this entire episode revolves around his idea of "turning poison into positivity" and here he, well, fights poison with positivity. stede captains his pirates with respect and care (best he can) which just so happens to be the opposite of ned. he exploits this and gently gets ned's crew to turn on him. he singlehandedly saves himself and his entire crew from a notorious pirate! oh he also literally invents walking the plank right after this

9- "it's only suicide if we die" - 2x08

okay, yes, this one didn't go that well (sorry iz). but it's not like ed, zheng or anyone else had any other ideas! stede's weird suicide mission, for the most part, worked. they needed to get through british soldiers to reach their ship and they did exactly that. if only they'd remembered to check if ricky had his gun... oh well, you live and you learn

sure, ed and zheng are legends and stede is a silly newbie with wild luck. but he's also quick-witted, creative, confident and brave! he's a damn good captain and he deserves to be recognized as a good strategist!

[nonpracticinghumanbeing]

Izzy IS about community. He’s ALWAYS BEEN about community in his own messed up way. The Canyon was right and the haters were wrong.

He wanted Blackbeard back because that was what kept the crew safe. He was terrible about it and hurt the man he obviously loves in the process, but it WAS for the greater good. It wasn’t a purely selfish act the antis love to frame it as. He wanted to feel safe again and he wanted the crew to be safe as well.

Hell, he was doing his best to help Edward through his post-breakup depression. He didn’t understand what was going on and was clearly distressed by it but he provided what Ed needed. He *knew* he lacked the emotional capacity to help his captain himself so he agreed to bring him Lucius. I really think he would have just gritted his teeth and suffered through it if Ed didn’t say the one thing that could collapse his whole world.

"Why do we even bother being pirates?" That was what freaked Izzy out so much that he pushed Edward to violence. Not because he selfishly wanted Ed to be close at all times but because Blackbeard the legend was the pillar of his community. That legend kept everyone safe and even if Izzy is a horrible asshole, he *does* care about his crew. He knows the world is a horrible hostile place and he focuses on risk mitigation, even if it means hurting the one person he really cares about.

He really tried to provide that to the crew when Edward and Stede took the Act of Grace. It was a terribly misguided attempt at keeping things under control and it was certainly influenced by his submissive tendencies which make him crave structure and feel safe within hierarchies. He *knows* he lacks Ed's charisma and ability to think outside the box and with such huge shoes to fill it's not really surprising he acted out in anger and in result failed miserably. But he was *NEVER* an asshole just for the sake of it.

Now he realizes those days are gone for good. He's already done everything he could to bring Ed back to his senses, including using *Stede fuckin' Bonnet’s* name. It didn’t work. The realization that his one true safeguard is really gone must be terrible, but it also pushes him to take action.

The moment he realizes the crew are in real danger, he takes things into his own hands. He not only goes against the hierarchy he believed to be sacred but also against the man he *LOVES*. He fucking shoots his beloved captain to save the crew. You don’t get much more *community* than that.

He is clearly struggling. He's just tried to fucking kill himself after being maimed AND told he was disposable by a man whom he's apparently served for dacades. He will have to reevaluate his whole life and he *knows* it. But he puts it all to the side and he does what needs to be done. He took all of Edward’s abuse without complaint it seems but the moment the crew are in real danger, he intervenes. You can’t tell me a community (*any* community) doesn’t need people like that.

It all feels very old-time queer to me. The willingness to make terrible sacrifices to protect one's space. The decision (conscious or not) to be effective rather than liked. The choice to stay alive despite terrible heartbreak and go on fighting.

He's absolutely NOT an irredimable villain. He’s an asshole who tries to keep his little world safe. He’s Larry Kramer getting kicked out of GMHC for being too confrontational and politically incorrect to be palatable to the general public.

[super-who-locked-me-in-here]

Pieces of media my mom has seen and the popular MLM ships in them that she doesn't think are gay:

MCU - Stucky (note that she does get a kick out of Stony stuff and she believes wholeheartedly that those two hate fucked in a not-filmed scene of Avengers 2012 so this is not about her thinking "oh Captain America is so straight-laced because he's the ideal American man" or anything)

MCU - Poolverine (she's fully aware and accepting of the fact that both Logan and Wade are canonically queer characters but she thinks all the flirting Wade did with Logan in the newest movie didn't necessarily mean anything because "he talks like that to everyone". Side note though: while she believes Wade should be with Vanessa, she does think that Logan can and should shoot his shot with Wade after Vanessa inevitably dies since he and Wade are both immortal. It's just that she thinks Wade should get his happy ending with Vanessa first.)

MCU - Lokius ("Mama have you ever seen a man fix another man's tie like that" "No but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen! I wouldn't know though; it's been like 15 years since I worked a corporate job.")

Sonyverse/Marvel - Symbrock ("They literally have a symbiotic relationship. That doesn't make them gay." So I showed her the comics where Eddie calls Venom "love" and gives birth to Venom's babies and she said "Fine you win but please never show me alien man birth ever again."

Supernatural - Destiel ("They're like Steve and Bucky! They're brothers in arms! They've been through hell and back together!" Note that she only watched through season 5 but she does know about a lot of their later interactions because I told her about them)

House M.D. - Hilson ("Dot I watched that whole show and they were never anything more than good friends" "What about when House admitted to thinking about Wilson during sex? What about that whole episode where they pretended to be gay for each other to prove a point to a neighbor and Wilson proposed? What about that whole episode where Wilson had to furnish the apartment and House told him not to let a woman tell him what to do but Wilson let House tell him what to do? What about the whole ending?" "Why can't two men just be close enough friends to joke about that stuff with each other?"

Real life - Me and my best friend of the same gender orientation who I've kissed multiple times and have had a requited crush on for years that neither of us have ever persued for logistical reasons (I literally used me and this friend to try and prove my mom wrong about Stucky and Destiel. I asked her if she thought me and this friend were like brothers and she said yes with a straight face)

Sherlock - Johnlock (to be fair this is the BBC ship name, but she doesn't think any iteration of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are the slightest bit gay. "They're business partners and roommates.")

Our Flag Means Death - BlackHands (Should go ahead and say that I'm not really a BlackHands shipper myself; we both really enjoyed Stede and Ed's romance in the show. BUT it takes so much away from Izzy's character and his development if you don't acknowledge that he was jealous of Stede and in love with Ed, at least a little. My mom thought Izzy was just an extremely loyal first mate.)

Also, for the record, I'm not trying to call my mom out as homophobic. I'm queer and so are two of my siblings and she's very supportive of us. There are gay romcoms she enjoys like Our Flag Means Death and Red, White, and Royal Blue. The reason I'm making this list is because I think it's really funny how she doesn't understand the concept of queerbaiting (not that all of the above listed ships are queerbaiting). She thinks things are either explicitly straight or explicitly queer (whether it's gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc) and cannot comprehend the idea that some character relationships are deliberately pushing the boundaries of straight friendships into queer relationships to get more minority viewers and I think her explanations are funny.

[insaneunpleasant]

I know this has been asked many times but i need to know what moment in the show first made you go "izzy is the character for me"

Mine was at the beginning of ep 3 when he says "ohhhh Edward can't I just send the boys?" and you realize that the formal captain/first mate talk is a veneer over a personal relationship of some kind and you wonder just what kind it is and why they need the veneer in the first place and that actually the folks on Blackbeard's ship are just as weird as the ones on Stede's but in a very different way and Izzy with his exaggerated deference and performative badassery is probably the weirdest of them all

then the deal was really sealed for me in ep 10 when he touches Ed's face while Ed is strangling him and you're like "ohhhh I get it now, this guy wanted Blackbeard to step on his dick this whole time and that's what's been driving him all along" and then the naked erotic toe-cutting happens and Izzy looks like he's just had the best orgasm of his life but by the next scene he's on the verge of a nervous breakdown cuz he realizes how badly he fucked around and found out and I was just like "awwwww yeah this is my guy right here"

anyway what was yours?

[izzymarksthespot]

Possessed by the idea of Ed sitting Stede down once he gets together with Izzy (just to be clear, I mean Stizzy getting together) and giving his co-captain a lecture about dating their first mate, since he's already got experience (kinda like Ted to Barney in HIMYM).

The rules are as follows:

1. No PDA. None. No matter how tiny the gestures might seem. Izzy Hands is not to be touched in view of others. Period. Unless Stede really wants to lose a finger or an eye.

2. No pet names under penalty of death. Ed has tried to call Izzy 'babe' exactly once. The screaming he got in return was not worth it.

3. All attempts at funny business during 'work hours' are strictly forbidden. Any tries result in a knife to the gut. Izzy doesn't let sex distract him from chores. Ever.

4. Izzy's hair is not to be petted, even if they look exceptionally fluffy. It's not done. Finger, eye, knife. You get the picture.

5. You do not coddle Izzy. Never offer him any comfy fluffy robes, bubble baths or such, even if he looks like death warmed over. It's best to leave him alone till he bounces back himself.

Stede listens to the list with rapt attention, nodding along, even starts taking notes at some point.

Then proceeds to do the exact opposite.

And Ed watches as Izzy lets him.

[jellybeanium124]

really love how fang gets to quietly be the wisest character in ofmd. a lot of characters are smart in a lot of different ways, but fang just has this well-earned understanding of who he is, what the situation is, and what the next move is from here. he's always completely tuned into the vibes. he hasn't climbed the pirate ranks because he doesn't want to, not because he can't. he has the emotional intelligence and the fierceness to lead, but he doesn't want to be the first mate or captain. too much drama, too many eyes on him. this is a man who found the job he's best at and didn't let himself get "promoted" to a job he hates. I'd believe it if fang has turned down the first mate job in the past after izzy had a blowout.

and he knows ed. fang is consistently shown to have a really good understanding of who ed is, and literally never makes an incorrect observation about him. even with all of ed's masks and his depression + izzy's manipulation making him distance himself from the crew, fang sees through all the bs. if you wanna make an argument for a character knowing ed better than stede, fang is the person you wanna pick. he has a 20 year history with ed that no amount of being literal soulmates can replicate. stede and ed know each other deeply, have a connection stronger than anything, and see themselves in each other. but nothing can change the fact they met in their late 40s. fang watched ed grow from a new captain into blackbeard into ed for 20 years and you can't beat that kind of history.

I love fang have I mentioned I love fang I love this guy. dude who giggles and loves goats and puppies and flirting and busting heads and 100% pretends to just be The Muscle™ in order to be underestimated and learn absolutely all the tea. I completely believe fang knows more about ed and izzy than they know about each other.

[follows-the-bees]

Ed and Frenchie connecting right away always makes me smile.

Their connection in 1x5 feels instinctual. We see Frenchie carefree, walking into the captain's quarters with a flourish in his new outfit. He's comfortable with them, and when Ed and Stede decide to go to the party, Ed right away asks Frenchie to come along if he doesn't have any plans.

Then when Ed walks out of the party upset Stede is not the only one to respond to that. Frenchie's body language immediately changes from relaxed and having fun to standing straight up, concern on his face followed immediately by a crack at the societal people.

We don't see it directly on screen but Frenchie and Olu used their earlier agreement with Abshir over the pyramid scheme to get Stede the information for the passive aggression moment.

We don't know much about Frenchie's past, only that he worked in "service," can play the lute, and is an absolute gem at pulling off ploys.

I have written about how Frenchie and Ed have similar coping mechanisms with their trauma, and while not on the surface or talked about, it adds to their connection.

(This connection also explains why Ed keeps Frenchie aboard at the end of the first season and why he chooses Frenchie to be first mate.)

Now I feel like I'm rambling but my point is, we learn so much about Frenchie's character in this episode and the relation between Ed and Frenchie is instant and sweet. I love the effortlessness behind connections between people in this show.

The Best Revenge is Dressing Well is a great episode and these small moments, this link makes it all the more deeper.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Okay seriously though probably my least favorite thing about fanon Izzy (aside from all the Racist Takes, you know) is that it depicts him as actually loyal when the kind of "loyalty" he's got going on is so much more interesting

Izzy claims that loyalty to his captain is something that's important to him. And I don't doubt that he thinks he's loyal.

But is he "loyal to his captain?" No, not at all, to the point where that's just laughable. He constantly berates Ed, undermines his reputation to the crew by calling him "insane" and the like, lies to him, attempts to force decisions over his head (like trying to come up with own ""plan"" for dealing with the Spanish and trying to kill Stede), and even goes so far as to call the cops on him. Izzy not only isn't loyal to Ed, during s1 he's constantly being an all-around dick to him and is unshakeably convinced that he's in the right for it.

And that conviction is the interesting part! Because Izzy isn't loyal to Ed at all, he's loyal to the idea of Blackbeard. He's loyal to this legend he's built up in his head and the power and importance it gives him to be working with Blackbeard. He doesn't care about what's best for Ed, he cares about maintaining a caricature of Blackbeard and forcing Ed to fit it.

He's loyal to Ed the same way the mean dads in coming-of-age sports movies are loyal to their kids by forcing them to make their whole lives about little league baseball ("but baseball is your dream!" "no, dad, this is your dream" style). Very "I'm just doing what's best for you!" vibes, and that really helps explain why the catalyst for Izzy realizing he majorly fucked up in s2 starts with Ed spelling out for him that Izzy is expendable to him.

[starlithumanity]

I'm having a fascinating time rewatching Our Flag Means Death with the knowledge that Ed sees Izzy as a "safe" mentor/family figure ("safe" because Izzy is Ed's subordinate aboard the ship, which creates a more balanced power dynamic) upon whom Ed projects his many unresolved daddy issues. That stated interpretation from David Jenkins does work, even in season one!

Most of the fandom conceptualized season one Izzy as a power-hungry subordinate to Ed and a "co-parent" to the crew (paralleled with the Stede/Mary marriage) who has an understated masochist lust for the Blackbeard legend. All of that is true too, because Ed and Izzy's relationship is incredibly complex and fucked-up. I know from personal experience that this kind of layered toxic relationship is completely possible, though it might seem contradictory on the surface.

In season one, Ed considering Izzy as a mentor/family explains more why Ed let his first mate be so insulting to and controlling of him and still kept wanting Izzy to stay beside him. It adds more meaning to how Ed veers super hard into the violent Blackbeard role after feeling cornered and threatened by Izzy at the end of the season. (This also has further weight for those of us with family members who have disapproved quite loudly of our queer relationships.)

There is a strong parallel that I noticed previously between young Ed's reaction to his father abusing his mother and season one Ed's reaction to Izzy dueling Stede. Stede is linked to Ed's mother through the red silk and through the fact that Stede and Ed's mother--and Lucius--are the only people we see treating Ed with compassion/softness in season one. It thus makes sense for Izzy to be mirroring Ed's father.

Then there's another parallel in how Ed responded to Izzy mentioning Stede in a mocking way ("pining for his boyfriend") by choking Izzy, like how Ed had once responded to his father threatening his mother by strangling his father. In this moment, Izzy touched Ed's face with an intimate kind of familiarity and said, "There he is." Ed clearly found this unnerving, which some people read as sexually harassment, but it makes just as much sense for it to be his daddy issues getting triggered.

(GIF Sources: captain-flint and divineandmajesticinone)

I think part of why this dynamic was unclear in season one is because the writers wanted us to see that, even though Izzy is a mentor figure who taught Ed certain skills, Ed is a grown man who is fully competent on his own. He had likely started building the Blackbeard legend by the time Izzy met him, he has a clever mind that's constantly coming up with new plans, and when Izzy himself was left as captain, Izzy proved to not have the necessary charisma and compassion to lead the crew. Ed is the star power; Izzy is the manager, so to speak.

However, Izzy overestimates his importance and often talks about himself like he's a martyr to the Blackbeard legend, working so hard to keep both Ed and the crew in line. He claims that he's been "clean[ing] up [Ed's] messes... my whole life," which feels like a very parental complaint to me.

Ed fuels this martyr complex some in season two by physically harming Izzy, but notably, Ed doesn't threaten this kind of harm to the rest of the crew (though he isn't very careful with them either) until he's in the suicidal spiral of driving the ship into a storm. Before that, Ed threatens Izzy specifically, both because Izzy threatened him and Stede in season one and because Ed's trying, in his own fucked-up way, to prove to Izzy that he's following Izzy's guidance and "being Blackbeard." The toe-cutting also has some metaphorical weight: Izzy demanded that Ed "cut off" the gentler pieces of himself to be Blackbeard, so Ed starts cutting off literal pieces of Izzy in return. When it becomes clear that this isn't satisfying Izzy either, that's when Ed really goes off the deep end. ("I loved you the best I could," but I never could be enough to fit your expectations.)

(GIF Source: livelovecaliforniadreams)

Meanwhile, we see Izzy starting to question things specifically in response to Ed saying that Izzy could be replaced as first mate. Izzy thought his place, as a mentor/family and self-professed "martyr", was more secure than that, and it challenges his whole identity.

Throughout season two, the mentor/family dynamic is further emphasized via the parallel between Izzy/Ed/Stede and Auntie/Zheng Yi Sao/Oluwande. Others have discussed this more, but there's so much meaning in the similar ways these characters carry themselves, in the tension of Auntie disapproving of Zheng Yi Sao's feelings for "soft" Oluwande, and in the way Oluwande finally teaches Auntie to soften herself some for Zheng Yi Sao.

(GIF Source: bizarrelittlemew)

Additionally, in episode five of season two, we see Stede turning to Izzy for mentorship, proclaiming that Ed himself had recommended Izzy as someone who "made him into the captain he is today." People have questioned that as being a false manipulation from Stede, but I think there's a good chance that it was true! (Ed probably said this to Stede sometime during season one, when the two of them got to know each other so well.) "Taught him everything he knows" is definitely a flattering exaggeration, but hey.

(GIF Source: ofmdaily)

Throughout this and other episodes, we see Izzy continuing to take on a mentor-like role with Stede and the crew (and eventually Ed) as he tries to recenter himself after the darkness of the first three episodes. It's clear that Izzy is most comfortable playing the gruff and politically incorrect old fighter who offers guidance, but now he's letting himself branch out more and connect to the crew in new gentler ways. He even metaphorically "gives his blessing" to Ed and Stede's first time having sex by providing the musical accompaniment, which is the perfect amount of weird for this show, haha.

(GIF Source: izzyfag)

Izzy's transformative arc in season two also involves a steady pattern of reversals, corrected new versions of his treatment of Ed in season one, as Izzy start coming to terms with the harm he did to Ed. Other people have discussed this in more detail, but I think the pace of this change is realistic to what you would see in such a situation. Ed's responses to this, too, are consistent with him seeing Izzy as a mentor/family.

(GIF Source: edwards-teach)

I should further note that Izzy and Benjamin Hornigold (another abusive father figure from Ed's past) are two characters mirrored by the fact that they call Ed "Eddie" in season two. I can imagine that being the nickname Ed used when he was younger, before growing out of it. Izzy seems to start feeling the echo of that memory of younger Ed when Ed comes to him scared, asking for Izzy to "fix [his] mess" by shooting Ed like Ed "dreamed" about.

(GIF Source: blairpfaff)

Right before Izzy's death, there's a scene where Ed is triggered super hard in his daddy issues by the fisherman "Pop-Pop." I think the writers wanted to remind us of the parental trauma Ed has been through before giving us some catharsis through Izzy's deathbed confession and apology. In that moment, Izzy takes full accountability for what he did, while Ed cries and says, "You're my only family." Izzy redirects him in a final bit of mentorly guidance, telling Ed that the crew is there to be his family if Ed will let himself be loved, truly, in the way Ed has often rejected and distanced himself from being loved.

(GIF Source: izzyfag)

Now, I do think Izzy's death was the right choice for this show. I like that DJenkins went with the classic mentor death trope, and he did a similar thing with Buttons, the other old-timer first mate! I agree likewise with those who have discussed Izzy's loss as being a necessary step for the narrative to move forward both from Ed's darker self/parental trauma and from the older age of piracy that Izzy represents. Izzy was always meant to be a dark reflection of and a narrative support/conflict for Ed, and this is the natural culmination of that. His complicated legacy will continue to be something Ed has to reckon with, however, although Ed is trying to compartmentalize that right now.

I very much hope to see, in season three (🤞🏻), how Ed continues to process his past, especially now that he's trying for a domestic life that will likely lead into marriage. Marriage, from what I've seen, often acts as a staging ground for whatever parental trauma you had growing up, because you look to your parental figures as an example of how to do "adult" things. This is going to be a huge conflict for both Ed and Stede, who has his own personal negative marriage experience. I suspect Izzy will continue to represent this problem in some form or another.

(GIF Sources: kiwistede and yenvengerberg)