#take this from ivan's perspective mostly lmao

[asoftepiloguemylove]

BUT WHO COULD LOVE ME? I AM OUT OF MY MIND // IVAN & TILL

pinterest // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Anne Sexton Complete Poems of Anne Sexton, "The Papa and Mama Dance" // Fall Out Boy Hum Hallelujah // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Ernest Hemingway The Garden of Eden // Florence + the Machine Grace // Elliot Wake Black Iris // The National Daughters of the Soho Riots // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Mitski I Guess // Adam Silvera They Both Die at the End // Lorde Writer in the Dark // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Margaret Atwood Cat's Eye // Chris Abani Dog Woman // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Warsan Shire Souvenir, "Our Men Do Not Belong to Us" // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Louise Glück Faithful and Virtuous Night

[cheers-mdears]

I think at least part of the whole "taking Izzy's word for it that he's good at his job and keeping Blackbeard together" is due to the difference between what we see of Ed and Stede's management styles, a lack of comedy cues, and Izzy’s air of exhaustion.

On the Revenge, we see so little of the day-to-day assignment and management of crew that a lot of viewers don’t even realize Buttons is the First Mate (and if I’m wrong about his position, that just proves my point even more lol). Most of the Revenge crew aren't exactly skilled in pirating, but they're organized and skilled enough as sailors to keep the ship up and going by themselves up to and including the first three episodes (with the exception of Buttons leaving his post to listen to stories and running them aground). Seeing so little of the ship management means we don’t have much of a foil to Izzy’s main role as Ed’s First Mate.

With Ed and Izzy, Ed does a lot more explicit delegating (which is generally a good leadership trait imo), and clearly leaves the middle management shit to Izzy. And so when they commandeer the Revenge, and especially with Stede and Ed giggling and wrapped up in each other with relatively few pressing Captain-y demands, we end up seeing Izzy (attempt to) do the assigning and micromanaging of chores in a way we didn't get to see when the Revenge crew were (successfully!) managing themselves.

This sets up a sort of forced perspective of Izzy as "the person who's supposed to get things done" moreso than anyone else. In episodes 5 and 6 in particular, the captaining that Ed and Stede do is like third fiddle to their relationship building and shenanigans. With Izzy, almost everything we see him do is in the middle management role (and losing a fucking duel to Stede fucking Bonnet lmao). And with the Revenge crew? In episodes 4 and 5, what we mostly see is framed as slacking off/being incompetent by Izzy's incredibly abusive standards; in episode 6, however, we see them more from their own/Stede’s pov again and they plan and perform a fuckery within less than two days with their usual amateurish charm.

But the thing is: this forced perspective also gives us plenty examples of how Izzy is Objectively Bad at His Job aside from being an abusive shit.

He lets his guard down on the island and loses a hostage he paid for.

He deliberately sabotages his assignment to get Stede to Ed's ship.

His plan for the Spanish is to fight almost certainly to the death even without knowing the Revenge's specs/stockpiles.

He claims to have to handle/manage Ed but we don't ever see him do that?? In fact, Izzy's successful attempts at influencing him actually hurt Ed (hello bathtub breakdown, hello Kraken 2.0 breakdown).

Even if you take his mention of managing Ed’s mood and massaging the crew as him meaning he placates the crew to keep them on and working, he still calls Ed half-insane in a dismissive way to Ivan and Fang. Like?

He's wildly discriminatory-- he harasses Lucius while First Mate; makes the crew mates of color do all the aggressive, demeaning, and hard work while Captain; and mocks Ed's gender presentation and vulnerability when he's First Mate again.

He doesn't facilitate teaching the crew how to be more skilled at the things he wants them to do, he just dishes out orders and abuse.

He doesn’t shift his management style when what he’s using on the Revenge crew is clearly not working.

He certainly doesn't do any of the chores or repairs--you know, actual work??--himself.

He's mutinied within like a day of becoming captain.

He's the shitty, useless manager that leads to an office having a high turnover rate cuz no one can fucking stand working with him. On Ed’s ship, he may be good at his job of keeping people in line and they stay because “holy shit I work for Blackbeard” and that’s just how pirating goes, but the Revenge crew have higher standards and can just kill said shitty manager and elect someone actually competent (the dream 🥺).

So it comes down to a forced perspective of him seemingly doing all the work AND IMPORTANTLY, unlike in a genre workplace comedy, most of his ineptitude isn't highlighted by being played for laughs (probably because he's an abusive asshole and therefore it's only funny when he gets beaten at his own game).

And I can see how that lack of the "lmao wow can you believe how much this guy sucks at his job?" cues we're so used to in comedies can contribute to some people not seeing the forest of Izzy's ineptitude and mischaracterization of Ed/the crews for the trees of his resignation monologue, role as a middle manager, and air of burnt out exasperation that's typical of the people who work *under* people like him.

--

(Note: this is not a "get out of jail free" card in regards to considering the racial implications of taking Izzy's word as truth that he's the only competent and sane person around despite evidence to the contrary)