#trauma flag

[belinhagamer999]

💖 Heartbroken platonic trauma flag 💔

[PT: 💖 Heartbroken platonic trauma flag 💔 /END PT]

A flag dedicated to those with trauma of losing all friends, not having friends, wanting to feel platonic love but didn’t find friends, things if the same kind

[IMAGE ID: The image features a centerpiece of a pink broken heart, enclosed in a white diamond shape. This main figure is set against a backdrop of a diamond-shaped pattern that blends from pink to yellow. Despite the emotionally charged symbol of a broken heart, the simplistic, clean design and warm colors evoke a sense of warmth and love. The overall presentation is minimalist and clean. /END ID]

Colors that are from the platonic attraction flag are pink yellow and orange, A broken heart means the lack of love from friends, lack of friendship, and the meaning that’s something very traumatizing for your heart

I made this flag for myself and other people with the same experiences

Lucky I’m healing from my childhood trauma with my friends and my life now is so colorful! :)

Oh, one more thing The flag is actually so beautiful :0

[chaoscoining]

Glass Child Mad Pride Flag

A pride flag for Glass Children. Glass Children are the neglected siblings of children with more pressing or extreme needs. (Typically defined as the healthy siblings of disabled children, but a low-support child can be neglected for a high-support one, or one sibling's disability may be acknowledged but not the other.)

Glass Children are often parentified, and even if not, deal with the trauma of other types of neglect. Typically their experiences are of emotional neglect, but physical neglect is not uncommon either as their parents are simply not paying attention to their needs. They may also experience emotional abuse, being held to high standards or not allowed to make any sort of mistake.

[myiliterallyhavenolifegoals]

i'm unwell!!! because in stede's eyes, ned low was right!! ned says "he [ed] only likes you because of your bumbling amateur status" and calls stede blackbeard's "pet" just like izzy did in series 1

so stede steps up as a captain, kills the man who harmed his crew, and suddenly, for once in stede's life, he isn't a joke! the gentleman pirate is taken seriously and welcomed into the pirate community!

and what happens less than 24 hours later? ed calls their night together a mistake, AND LEAVES.

yes, obviously the situation is more nuanced, and these old men are once again struggling to communicate, but i 100% understand why stede went a bit of the rails at the end of episode 7. stede's been so focused on trying to help ed, that he's completely ignored his own ongoing identity crisis and trauma, and after the incident at the academy in series 1, this meltdown was long overdue.

[pastryjay]

I feel like with Stede's optimism and Ed's heartbreak in the trailer, it's easy to forget how Stede didn't just leave Ed at the docks. He was awoken and led away at gunpoint by a man who fully intended to execute him. If Chauncey Badminton hadn't tripped and shot himself dead in front of Stede, he would be dead. It was pure luck that he lived and Chauncey died. Stede was traumatized, terrified and filled with so much renewed self-doubt. If that hadn't happened I am sure, even with his fears, Stede would have met Ed at the dock.

I hope that in S2 Stede (notoriously bad at talking things through) actually tells Ed about what happened that night, in full. I really hope Ed listens and acknowledges that yes actually, that would have been terrifying to go through and actually, the shock could easily make anyone make poor decisions. I want to see the fear/ anger flash in Ed's eyes at the revelation that Stede was nearly murdered that night. That context as to why Stede left in such an abrupt way is so so important.

[a-fans-rant]

Your found family:

My found family:

I love them so much

They’re like stray cats that can’t be adopted separately.

[bizarrelittlemew]

Our Flag Means Death 1x4 | 1x6 | 2x6 | 2x7 ⇉ if the bed nook could talk...

[creature-wizard]

PSA: If you're searching out resources to help cult survivors, check their citations and look out for these names - and if you see them, leave immediately - because these people are all far right conspiracy theorists:

Svali

Cisco Wheeler

Fritz Springmeier

Cathy O'Brien

Mark Philips

Lawrence Pazder

Michelle Smith/Pazder

Lauren Stratford

Texe Marrs

Bill Schnoebelen

Rebecca Brown

Mike Warnke

Literally all of these people were (or in some cases, still are) pushing far right conspiracy theories derived from early modern witch panic, blood libel, and The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Literally do not trust anyone or anything that cites them.

[wolfpoets]

god the fucking terror of the izzy says you guys think the atmosphere is toxic? scene. the immediate fear once ed walks out on deck. fang just bawling in the corner. izzy knowing he was fucked as soon as edward walked away from him. izzy deciding fuck this, you want to get into it, edward? let's fucking get into it. and yet the catharsis of a festering wound finally breaking open to bleed - no more tiptoeing around the elephant in the room, the acknowledgement that feelings do exist. all of the feelings finally out on the table and everyone going to get slaughtered over it.

[biceratops7]

Guys… guys.

As hilarious as all the “how oblivious ARE you?” jokes about Stede are, I think we’re missing the big picture. This isn’t about obliviousness, it’s about trauma.

Stede isn’t ignorant of the fact he’s in love with Ed. he’s been abused his whole life for his queerness and is having trouble conceptualizing that he’s allowed to be.

Notice how Stede immediately has the instinct to walk back his comment of Ed being “lovely”? This is the same man who didn’t even pick up that his very obviously mutinous crew was planning a mutiny, that shit was learned behavior. He’s speaking as a little boy who was tied to a boat and stoned for picking flowers, and as someone who was told mere days ago a man falling in love with him was “defiling a beautiful thing.”

Homophobia/ heteronormativity is alive and well in this world and Stede, being forced to live in the conservative circles he does, would’ve absolutely been painfully aware of it. The fact that he feels the need to ask a woman what it’s like to be in love with a man speaks volumes after he’s already been happily kissed by one and has roleplayed being married to him when lonely. He’s not just casually making conversation then has a eureka moment when he happens to notice the description applies to him and Ed too, he asked specifically to compare them.

It’s him testing the waters and thinking that maybe “they” were wrong. Maybe he’s not broken or pathetic, maybe he never deserved to be treated as such. Maybe he didn’t “seduce” Edward, or “ruin” him, or “defile” him. And maybe his feelings for Ed are just as loving and romantic as Mary’s feelings are for her boyfriend.

It’s such a beautiful moment when he slowly smiles, let’s out that little breath like a sigh of relief, and tells his wife of an arranged marriage with nothing less than wonder in his voice that what he’s found at sea is in fact love. Fuck, it gets me every time.

There’s an absolutely gorgeous through line of queer liberation in Stede’s half of episode 10 after this scene. How he refers to Ed as his “newfound love”, confidently says they’ll “all be great”. He smears the blood on his face himself, breaks his own flowers, all to reach someone who sees him as perfect and beloved exactly as he is. What a fitting ending to his days of crying himself to sleep because he cannot be what everyone’s failed to beat him into.

[keepyourpantsongohan]

I have a Venn Diagram to share

[dumb-droid]

dream blunt rotation

[maybe-horny]

My kink is wanting to know everything about you.

[mania-sama]

"Maybe I won't lose all of my friends in the next universe..."

The next universe:

... "...but I was there. What did you mean you were alone?"

[celluloidbroomcloset]

I came across a few posts noting that Ed should not have told Stede not to kill Ned Low, which got me thinking...

I don't really agree with that. That entire scene, both Ed's decision and Stede's decision, is complicated with a lot of different things, but none of them quite so much as the shared knowledge, and pain, of both men. (Yeah, I'm not capable of not writing an essay.)

Stede is the only one who knows about Ed's father. Ed tells himself-as-Hornigold that he never told anyone about killing his father, and Hornigold reminds him: "But you did, though, didn't you? And he left you." Stede is also the only one who knows Ed really doesn't kill - that he, by his own admission, outsources the killing to others. The murder of his father is the center of Ed's self-loathing, and is the thing that he relates, in his conversation with Hornigold, most directly to Stede leaving him.

Low's insults don't affect Ed much; he's heard them before, he knows what's behind them. But Stede has been watching Low hurt people and things he loves - Ed, the crew, the ship itself - without being able to do anything about it. He successfully uses his "people positive management style" to get Low's crew to turn on him, but the problem of Low himself remains and cannot be eliminated in the same way.

Low calling Ed a "lowborn dirtbag" is what finally makes Stede snap, and one could argue that his response is more or less automatic. It's certainly emotional. There's nothing he could say to Low to put him in his place, as he did with the aristocrats in "Dressing Well." It wouldn't work; he cannot meet Low on a level playing field and use the same weapons against him, because Low's whole thing is being a bully and Stede is not a bully. Everyone, including Ed, is surprised when Stede actually draws his sword. But by the time he's done it, there's no going back.

Low obviously reads people quite well, and like many bullies he can suss out the places that will hurt others the most - he knows that torturing Stede will hurt Ed more than torturing Ed. He knows that insulting Ed will hurt Stede more than anything he could say to Stede himself. And he hits on Stede's fears about his masculinity and especially Ed's feelings about him. Low is another in a long line of bullies (Nigel, Chauncey, his father) from Stede's class, and he manages to hit exactly the sore spot, the fear that Ed only loves Stede because of his "bumbling amateur status."

Stede absolutely believes the things that others say about him. In the moment, Stede reads Ed's statement not to kill Low in exactly the way that Low wants him to - as a desire to keep him docile, pure, a pet. Not a real pirate, not a real man. He struggles with it - having gone so far as to hold Low at swordpoint and to force him onto the plank, it's hard to back down. His crew egg him on - Low does indeed deserve to die for what he's done. But when Stede kills Low, to the cheers of the crew, no one but the audience can see his face - the horror and shock at what he's done, as the memories of his childhood shoot across his mind.

As soon as Stede's actually committed the murder, he realizes the true meaning behind Ed's words, and it's this, combined with the shock of having truly, directly, and deliberately killed a man, that sends him running back to his cabin. Stede sees himself as a child, the boy who just wanted to pick flowers, splattered with blood from "men's work." He cannot go back now; he's made a choice, and he murdered a man. He does exactly what he's done each time his own shame has become too much for him, and hides himself.

But when Ed comes to his room, he directly relates it to his own trauma - "I was a wreck after my first kill as well. Well, it was my dad..." He's there not to shame Stede either for his violence or for his self-perceived weakness, but to be present for him.

That traumatic past is part of what unites them. Stede was forced to witness death and was told it was what men do; Ed committed murder, and has been haunted by it ever since. Ed sees the potential of the same thing happening to Stede - being so overcome with guilt and shame at actively committing murder that he suppresses and remakes his self to avoid coping with the horror of what he has done. It doesn't matter that Stede is a grown man and Ed was a child; Ed knows how badly it can warp someone, and Ed knows better than anyone how the abused child becomes the traumatized man. He tries to warn Stede first, recalling their past, and then he shows up for Stede in a way that no one did, or could, for him - not until Stede himself extended his hand and said, "I'm your friend." Ed is there at the door within minutes, asking if Stede is OK, offering his support, not letting him hide alone if he needs someone to hold him.

I've said a lot about the progress from the moment Ed appears at the door to the moment Stede closes the curtain here, but again I don't think it should be read as Stede proving his masculinity or Ed feeling sorry for him. Sex is not being treated frivolously here, either by the show or by the characters. It is an outpouring of pain and grief and deep, intense love between two men who understand each other's suffering at a fundamental level, who have shared things with each other that no one else knows, and who see all of each other, the darkness as well as the light.

[thetypingpool]

Going completely insane because I never noticed Stede was barefoot when he went back! He was BAREFOOT 💀

[nawoja]

I keep thinking about how Izzy used fiction to cover up his trauma. He knew that he would have to live with his tormentor on the same ship, so he had to pull himself together. The trauma was so strong that the only way to overcome it was to change the version of events in his head. Ed became a shark that Izzy exposed himself to. He certainly doesn't fully believe in it, because he admitted it to Lucius.

This is very personal to me and I completely understand Izzy's suffering.