Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
To add I love that the first thing Ed says to Steve is a recognition of him as a pirate. Both give each other a much needed validation. For Stede it’s recognition as the gentleman pirate, and for Ed it’s that he doesn’t have to be the Blackbeard mask he can just be Ed. For both there is a freedom in these (new) identities.
The choice should not be Ed or the Kraken. Just as the choice shouldn’t be Stede or Izzy.
OFMD is about self actualisation through the love and support of community. Characters are rewarded for doing things which allow them to be themselves, and (generally speaking) when they cage away parts of who they are or repress themselves the narrative throws negative consequences at them.
This is why is can’t be Ed or the Kraken. Because both are Edward Teach. It’s also why the choice can’t be Stede or Izzy as epitomised by Stede brings out ‘soft Ed’ and Izzy brings out ‘harsh Kraken’.
Because if Stede is going to be the love interest Ed needs (and this is a love story, so he’s going to be) then he cannot be just an opposite version of Izzy. He cannot be a person who brings out one side of Ed and punishes or ignores or berates Ed for the other side. It won’t work. That’s Izzy’s role, as an antagonist who is fighting against letting Edward self-actualise. Stede can’t be in that boat too.
No, Stede needs to fall in love with all the parts of Ed, if Ed is going to be able to chose him in the end. And no, this doesn’t mean Stede should forgive him for the whole…crew thing, because like I said, another very strong theme is about love and support through community and Ed was destroying his own community in his heartbreak. But like. Stede can’t be Izzy 2.0. It won’t work. It won’t be suitable.
Ed is violent, he does love a good maim. He also cries in bathtubs and fancies a fine fabric. He likes fuckery, and can make friends easily, he’s charismatic as fuck - but he’s also scary enough that he managed to build up a legend where people see him and immediately surrender or throw themselves overboard rather than deal with him. He is both.
And I think this also comes back to why we love Stede/Ed in the first place. Ed ADORES all these things everyone else in his life has belittled him for, the secret wardrobes and books and the fanciness. He’s immediately interested in pretty much anything Stede has to say, listens to him, laughs with him. And he shares his own life with Stede; fuckery, raids and yes, that soft part and Stede loves all of that too. But Stede has to give him that in return! He has to! He has to love all the pieces that don’t fit right in everyone else’s books which includes the Kraken and Blackbeard. AND I feel if Ed finally does feel accepted for both, he’ll no longer be so liable to these intense swings because he’ll stop seeing himself as fragmented pieces. Like. Stede leaves him and the last conversation they had Stede said ‘yuck’ about making people eat toes - so Ed IMMEDIATELY makes someone eat a toe when he ‘switches back’ to his old persona because he’s trying to PROVE SOMETHING instead of just like. Being himself.
IDK man, I just. I think it’s way more complex than some people are making it out to be with an Ed vs. Kraken, Izzy vs. Stede thing with Ed’s identity. It’s very similar to what the Dragon Age fandom does with Iron Bull vs. Hissrad actually. But Ed is both. And for their love story to work, Stede should accept him that way.
The choice should not be Ed or the Kraken. Just as the choice shouldn’t be Stede or Izzy. There isn’t a choice. It’s just Ed, and who is gonna accept Ed enough for him to be who he actually is, all of it, not just a few pieces.
For the snippet prompts: something with leather care/bootblacking? Could involve Blackbeard or Izzy from OFMD, but original characters would be super cool too
Ed had brushed it off as not much of a big deal, just a thing that Izzy did for him from time to time, and Stede hadn’t precisely known what that had meant at the time. He’d thought it funny, but interesting, that Ed should bring it up, hadn’t been able to envision it as something he ought be jealous of.
Perhaps that was why he asked to watch.
Not that he doesn’t trust Ed – of course he does – and while he doesn’t trust Izzy, it isn’t as though he thinks Izzy would do something untoward to Ed, either. He’d simply been curious, and now, that curiosity is being rewarded.
Stede sits back on the other side of the couch, his book in his lap ostensibly to hold his concentration, but he isn’t so much as glancing at the page, chin resting on his hand as he stares down at Izzy at work.
Ed is sitting back with his arms over the back of the couch, and he’s staring down at his first mate with a smoky look in his eyes, but Izzy isn’t looking back – Izzy is concentrating on the work, his jaw set, a sort of solemn look on his face and his brows furrowed. The silence in the room is thick, the air pregnant with it, and Stede has to keep reminding himself to breathe – the only sound is the whisper and gentle scrape of Izzy’s brush on Ed’s boots.
“I thought he’d look a bit happier about it,” says Stede to Ed. It’s not idle, exactly, but it’s not as catty as he’s capable of being, as catty as he often finds himself being where Israel Hands is concerned even before he’s thought about it, more just conversational, and Ed looks over at him.
That scary, grim look he’d been wearing to look down at Izzy fades slightly, the eyebrows going up and the lips going down, and then he constructs a different mask, sort of sly.
“You think I should make him happier?” he asks. There’s a rumble in his voice that Stede really doesn’t hear very often, not directed at him, and Stede’s mouth is dry.
He glances at Izzy, who’s leaning further forward, rubbing the brush in circles over Ed’s boot, still. The stuff smells, and Stede really doesn’t care for it, but he likes Izzy like this, Izzy quiet and concentrated and really almost-tame, even if there’s a darkening flush showing in his cheeks, underneath that kiss tattooed on his cheek.
(Not a kiss. Ed’s signature. When Edward had thrown that out, so casually, it had only been a few weeks after their reconciliation – Izzy had stiffened up like a corpse, and Stede had broken the sherry glass in his hand, had snapped the bowl and the stem as his fist tightened all of a sudden.
They’d never fucked, he and Ed. Edward had told him so. But Izzy had known precisely what Stede would think of it, even though Ed hadn’t given it a thought.)
“Just that I thought he would be, that’s all,” murmurs Stede. “Isn’t this an indulgence? Letting him black your boots like this.”
“Would you rather do it?” asks Izzy.
Ed moves so fast Stede just sees him as a blur of black, hand whipping out, but he hears the sound of it, the sharp crack of Ed’s palm across Izzy’s cheek and the way it rings in the room, his head snapping to the side.
He’s breathing heavily, and the new redness blooms from the smack rather than the blush Stede knows Izzy would never admit to.
“Are we fucking talking to you?” asks Ed.
Izzy sets his jaw.
“Still think I should make him happy?”
“You’re indulging him,” Stede says resolutely, feeling a sort of warm anticipation gathering within him, one that’s rather unlike the anticipation that goes with him into the bedroom with Ed, but isn’t entirely different. “Why not indulge him all the way?”
Izzy stares at Stede, his eyes wide and his lips twisted, and Stede gives him a warm, honeyed smile that he knows (Ed’s told him, often whilst on his knees or scrambling to get into Stede’s breeches) doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Go on,” says Stede when Ed looks at him too, and Izzy hisses as Ed extends his leg, pressing the heel of his boot against Izzy’s crotch, and Izzy’s hands tremble, his eyes fluttering closed, his lips open. “Did the captain tell you to stop working, Mr Hands?”
“Fucking… Hell,” mutters Izzy, but he opens his eyes, breathing heavily, and puts his trembling hand back to finishing up, brushing in smooth little circles.
“Is this alright?” asks Stede in a sudden whisper.
“Shut up, Bonnet,” Izzy retorts.
Stede takes that as a yes, and gives Ed the nod to press harder on his crotch, until Izzy groans.
so, I’m rewatching episode 6 of OFMD and thinking about how Ed admits that he hasn’t killed anyone since he killed his father. And how at the beginning of the episode, Izzy tells Ed that he needs to kill Stede with Fang and Ivan at his back, an intimidation tactic to make Ed realise how serious this shit is. BUT then, Izzy waits until Ed is all by himself and THEN and only THEN he says that he’s happy to do it himself.
And the first time that I watched this I was like ‘yeah of course he’s happy to deal with this himself, he hates Stede and he also thinks Edward see’s Stede as a ‘pet’ so wouldn’t want to hurt him’ (interesting that Izzy can’t conceive of Stede being a friend only a ‘pet’ but I digress) but with the context that Ed doesn’t kill it’s like. Oh. OH. He’s offering, while Ed is all alone, because Ed doesn’t kill. And because Izzy is the one who kills for Ed, probably the most out of anyone in Ed’s crew because he’s the one who’s tasked with protecting Blackbeard’s reputation and so this is probably a secret that (until Ed tells Stede) only he and Izzy share.
And like GOD their relationship is so LAYERED and interesting. Because it’s obviously toxic but also there’s this thing which is such a WEAKNESS and Izzy HATES all the weaknesses that he sees in Ed but also THIS weakness he protects unfailingly, keeps out of the way of everyone else. and it’s just. Yeah. I’m having some emotions about it.
I reblogged this without comment the first time I saw it, but I’m thinking about it again and I’m pretty sure that there’s no way Ed just told Izzy that he doesn’t kill people. The anguished way Ed confesses to Stede definitely seems like he’s never admitted it aloud before, and there’s nothing about Ed and Izzy’s relationship that leaves room for confessions of any kind. Which means that Izzy just noticed, all on his own. Because he’s been at Ed’s side for so long and paying attention in a way that most don’t, the better to compensate for what he sees as Ed’s weaknesses. And it makes the whole thing extra fascinating to me because he says that Blackbeard is his captain, that he has no interest in Edward, but he’s also one of the few people who ever actually saw Edward, before Stede.
Which is super fucked up when you think of it in context of him threatening Edward, by the way, because Izzy is the one person Edward is helpless against: Izzy knows Edward won’t kill him. Which is why it’s such a big deal in the toe scene that Ed tells him Lucius is dead: because what he’s actually saying is I fucking killed him, to the one other person who knows that Blackbeard doesn’t do that. He’s saying he’s changed the rules of the game, that he’s finally, after all of these years, playing it to win.
No wonder Izzy’s so happy after that. He pulled off a hail mary pass and it fucking worked, and now all of his wildest dreams came true. And I’m sure none of it is going to backfire horribly on him in the next season!
Modern AU Stede isn’t a tailor or a flower shop owner btw. He’s a divorced dad in his late 40’s who just figured out he’s queer and wants to ‘engage with his community’ and ‘do something fun for once’ so he opens a queer bar. Unfortunately he has no fucking idea HOW to run a queer bar, like at all. It’s the most ridiculous bar you’ve ever been in. He stocks more tea than alcohol. There is a wall of bookshelves next to a place that’s often used as a make shift dance floor. On Tuesdays and Sundays they open early and serve ‘brunch’ while Stede does dramatic readings of fairytales. ‘Perhaps you’d be more comfortable making it a cafe’ 'no its a BAR I want it to be a bar’ stede insists. Its called 'The Revenge’. Because what is a modern au of if not a bizzare place for queers to hang out?
Yes, and it dovetails nicely with Blackbeard’s Bar and Grill and Other Delicacies and Delights (and Fishing Equipment).
Blackbeard’s heard a lot about this new bar that’s popped up on the scene, but everyone says that you can’t EXPLAIN “The Revenge” you have to EXPERIENCE it, so Blackbeard finally wanders in one afternoon during high tea, and there are lacy doilies everywhere, and tiered cake stands with miniature cakes, and Ed’s all round-eyed wonder, because, “Look at this! It’s like food, but smaller. It’s like a teeny-tiny version of food.”
Izzy is just disgusted. He takes one look and growls at Stede, “This isn’t a bar. It’s a fucking tearoom. And you? Are a fucking tea lady.”
And Stede is holding a teapot in one hand, and a lovely knitted tea cozy in his other, which he squeezes so tightly that the pompom pops off, because HOW VERY DARE YOU. Then he storms away because he has “a BAR to run, and there are BAR snacks in the BAR oven”.
Izzy turns to Blackbeard, expecting solidarity, but Ed has picked up the pompom and is rolling it between his fingers and he’s just like, “Yeah. Nah. I like it,” then sort of trails off after Stede to offer advice and encouragement.
And Izzy watches him go with a flat “what”.
Then he hears Ed offer BBGODD(FE)’s staff to help with evening shifts and, Ed’s out of sight, but Izzy can still hear as he says “You know what you should do? Cocktails.”
There’s a fraction of a pause and Izzy knows what’s coming, but he’s still horrified when Ed offers, almost, but very much not, completely casually, “Izzy knows cocktails, he’ll train your crew.”
And Izzy’s just like “…….oh my god…….” because he knows this means Ed’s not going to just wander away again.
(When Izzy turns up to teach the bar staff of The Revenge “the fucking art of fucking mixology you fucking fuckers” Stede hands him an apron and it’s pink, it has frills and ribbon, and Izzy just stares at it, because: how ?? is this ?? his life ??)
