johannestevans:

i keep laughing over ed and izzy’s pre-stede interactions because every single one is izzy trying to do Sensible Stuff and Be Efficient and Ed is just. exhausted and listless and so bored of it all

like. Ed is the boss, but Izzy spends all of his hours trying to manage him

and it’s not even like Ed doesn’t WANT him to. you see it when he comes back aboard and he immediately asks for Izzy to bring him his tea - Izzy will bring him his tea or his pipe, but Izzy has basically. been the guy managing his depression for years

it’s Izzy who makes him get out of bed or forces him to make decisions or whatever even though he’s tired of doing any of it - and Izzy like. is a sink of personality and couldn’t command without doing it on his behalf, bc he just sucks. no one would follow him as captain

but also every time Izzy mentions stuff like Ed’s increasingly erratic moods or that he misses Blackbeard like

what he ultimately misses is being the second of a skilled and demanding tactician, rather than the carer for an increasingly depressed and unpredictable has-been

and that’s such a big difference between him and Stede, right? bc not only does Stede care for Ed so enthustically and so lovingly but also like

he addresses the root cause of the depression - lack of variety, lack of purpose - by his mere existence

do you know what’s funny about this BTW?

Mary does the exact same thing for Stede. Not because she hates him or wants to hurt him (any more than Izzy hates Ed) but because these things have to get done, and STEDE has to be the one to do them

bookshelfdreams:

A brief conversation I had with @mikimeiko on their lovely meta about the motive of loss and abandonment made me think about miscommunication some more, and how horrible Calico Jack was to Stede.

When Stede meets Calico Jack for the first time this is what he says to him:

Who’s the big gal?

Off to a terrible start, and it only goes downhill from there.

As others have pointed out, this is a very mean thing to say in general and absolutely unacceptable to say to a queer man in particular, and Ed knows that. He’s trying to do damage control

He’s fucking joking. You’re not a girl.

but he’s laughing along with Jack - or maybe trying to laugh it off? He immediately gets physical with Jack as well, and it looks to me like the sort of thing you might do, when someone you like just has said something that makes you intensely uncomfortable but you really don’t want it to be a big deal. He’s performing closeness with Jack: Look, I like this guy he wouldn’t say something like that he doesn’t mean it. While at the same time he literally jumps on him almost as if that would distract from the really hurtful thing Jack has just said.

But. Look at Stede’s face while Ed does this.

He knows guys like Jack. All his life guys like this have shamed him for being “weak” and effeminate. And he knows the kind of guy who would laugh along with that for whatever reason - to protect his own image, to not cause a conflict. He’s already tired of this interaction. Look at this sad little nod after Ed says “You’re not a girl.” (sorry for bad quality, this is not art, just to illustrate my point)

God this is. Painful. I feel this expression in my soul.

And he’s still trying to play nice with Jack! He’s offering his hand, he’s welcoming him. He’s even ignoring Jack’s sarcastic little “Lovely”, as they shake hands. Because Jack’s a friend of Ed’s and he’s used to putting up with a little bit of bullying. But the disappointment here is palpable. And so is the resignation. Because Ed may not be a bully, but (from Stede’s perspective) he doesn’t defend Stede from abuse either, and part of Stede expected this to happen eventually. I’m not even sure he thinks about it as betrayal per say - it’s one of the things that just happen. Bullying is inevitable and people are only friendly with him as long as no one can see.

But! From Ed’s perspective, this isn’t what’s happening at all! I’m not saying he doesn’t have baggage, but he probably didn’t grow up with this specific kind of constant ostracizing. To him, it’s all just friendly banter. He doesn’t notice how hurt Stede is because, well, Stede is very good at not letting it on when something really hits him. To Ed, he’s just averted a crisis, introduced his old best friend to his new best friend, and now they’re all gonna go have breakfast together :D

It gets even worse later on, when Stede asks Jack about his ship. If you’ve ever been bullied tell me if this sounds familiar: You were just trying to defend yourself, but the bully suddenly starts a crying performance, and now you’re the mean one. Meanwhile, all the bully’s friends flock to them and comfort them because you really hurt their feelings, how dare you! I don’t even think I need to talk about this further.

And then. It all culminates in the beach scene. After being literally peed on, Steve has finally had enough. He’s an adult; he doesn’t have to put up with this shit. He’s still avoiding confrontation though, he simply extracts himself from the situation.

But Ed, who was just having a fun day at the beach, doesn’t understand why Stede is suddenly leaving. Ed wants Stede to be there and share in the fun! More importantly, he wants to show this part of himself to Stede. He wants this to be a bonding experience, and he’s really excited about it. So he tries to convince him to stay.

I might just head back to the ship.

But Ed (contrary to Stede tbh) is actually good at communication, and he wants to know what tf is going on, so he asks again.

And I think it’s actually a testament to how close Stede’s gotten to him that he actually tries to communicate his feelings for once.

What he says: “I’m not finding any of this a blast actually! I don’t like to drink ‘til I puke, or get pelted with coconuts. Or making a turtle fight a crab? That’s just mean!” Now it’s not that he finds any of these actions distasteful in particular. These are all just stand-ins for what Stede is actually angry about. Which is that Jack is hurting him in a way he’s been hurt all his life, but he’s not saying that. Because the first rule of the bullied kid is, you do not let the abuser (or their allies) know when they got to you. And in this moment, to him, Ed is an ally of Jack’s.

Ed doesn’t have all the context though. He doesn’t know this about Stede’s past, he doesn’t know how sensitive of a subject this is for Stede. Fuck, he doesn’t even know about all the interactions Stede had with Jack. Look at his expressions, as Stede goes on his little rant:

Why would you say this I thought we were friends :(

In this moment, Stede is triggering all of Ed’s insecurities. To him, Stede just described a fun afternoon. He feels judged, like Stede is shaming him for his lack of sophistication.

Then Stede delivers the killing blow: “Honestly Ed? I don’t like who you are around this guy.” And he means: I thought I could trust you, I thought you wouldn’t find this kind of behaviour acceptable.

What Ed hears is: You aren’t good enough for me. I have seen a less refined side of you and I don’t like it.

Which is why he says “But this is who I am.” He’s a pirate, and he’ll never be an aristocrat, and if Stede doesn’t like it, well, Ed also thought Stede was one of the good ones :’(

Just. A masterclass in miscommunication.

colorshelf:

Take care, mate.

kissingcullens:

I wanna talk about the Fandom idea of Izzy Hands as a “manipulator,” and common ideas around Ed “performing” Blackbeard. I’ve just been kicking around a lot of thoughts about the topic after seeing a lot of meta that feels not-quite-right to me.

First; I admire the writing in Our Flag Means Death SO MUCH.
I think that it stands up really well to endless different analyses and has a lot of nuance!  So I’m not trying to say like, “all XYZ meta is wrong.”

But I’m REALLY starting to balk at the popular fandom notion that Izzy is a devious manipulator and that Ed is just “performing” depending on who he’s with in order to have love and acceptance— in a way that I feel needlessly victimizes Ed and discounts his agency and power as a character.  

First of all, Izzy isn’t manipulative; he’s a blunt fucking instrument.

Keep reading

forpiratereasons:

you know how there’s this whole thing in golden age romcom 1999 hit the runaway bride about how the julia roberts character likes her eggs? when she’s with one guy, she likes them over-easy, same as him. when she’s with the next guy, she likes them scrambled, same as him. with the next guy, in an omelette, same as him. and in the end, she can’t marry richard gere because she still doesn’t know how she likes her eggs. it’s not until she’s gone off on her own for a bit and built her own life and discovered how she likes her eggs without anybody else’s influence that she can finally allow richard gere back into her life with hope for a real future.

what i’m saying is this. calico jack takes his eggs scrambled. izzy takes his eggs hard-boiled. stede takes his eggs over-easy.

not canonically of course, what i mean is, each of these men in ed’s life have different views and expectations of who ed is, and ed is so desperate for love and acceptance that he is willing to turn himself inside out to meet this expectations. calico jack wants a party; ed will party. izzy wants fearsome; ed will cut off his toes. stede wants a softie who will talk it through with the crew; ed will talk it through with the crew.

ed leaves with jack because he knows jack does this to him, and he knows jack went too far, and he knows he allowed jack to have enough power and control over him that he allowed jack to go too far. ed concocts terrible plans with izzy in order to try and control the power izzy wields over ed - by keeping up with him, instead of letting him take control. ed allows izzy to duel with stede even though, under command, izzy should have stood down. stede is a gentleman and a silly adventurer, and ed tries to become a gentleman and a silly adventurer.

these are all different theses about who Edward Teach can be. all suggestions. even stede, who we often speak about as being really good for ed and allowing him to be who he wants - it’s impossible to ignore that on some level ed is also trying to form himself around what stede wants him to be. this is imo most obvious in ep 10 where ed virtually hangs himself in front of his own crew by erasing the fear they have and thereby abdicating any power. izzy’s threat is the most upfront demonstration of this, but right after that we hear the crew on deck shouting for eddie to come give them another song. ed has no control. he has no respect. izzy’s a dick throughout, but his threats before were always to leave – now he’s threatening ed himself. ed has put himself in danger trying to be what he thought stede wanted.

so, okay. those are the theses. then we get ep10 dark ed. this is the antithesis. this isn’t who anybody wants. he’s not a fun time. he’s not a fearsome pirate. he’s not soft. he’s not weak, and he will cut any weakness out. he is the kraken.

what we need from the narrative now is the synthesis. the discovery, for ed, of what ed really wants. how does he take his eggs.

ed can’t do this as dark ed. he has to come out of dark ed in order to remember the taste of eggs. he can’t do this as any of the standard theses either, because then he just ends up mirroring whoever has the most power of him at any moment, including stede. he can’t do this as the boy who wanted red silk or who killed his own father. he can’t do this as a king’s privateer. he can’t do this as anybody but himself.

what i’m saying is: i am so fuckin ready for ed to have the pirate version of his eat pray love self-discovery journey off alone with no one who knows him so he can decide for himself how he likes his eggs, and then when he and stede meet again–he’ll be ready.

the-moon-loves-the-sea:

Izzy’s voiceover suggesting he suspects Ed has no intention of killing Stede Bonnet, followed immediately by Ed teaching Stede dueling, makes me wonder. At first it looks like good fun, and then oddly intimate masochism, and then suddenly he pulls a real gun on Stede and says “Thus is the life! Act, or die!” (And, of course, teaches him how to be run through safely.)

Is he only (violently, Izzy and Jack-style) flirting with him? Is he mainly making good on his general promise to teach him how to be a proper pirate? Or is he very aware that he promised Izzy Stede would die, that Israel Hands is going to hold him to it one way or the other, and that Stede cannot hesitate to run a man through to live—or be run through safely if it comes down to it? I can’t help but think he’s trying to set up what comes next.

He doesn’t seem to resist Izzy’s order (and it’s an order) to kill him, but part of him had to know he couldn’t in the end—or that if it came down to it he’d want Stede to beat him. And he didn’t seem to believe Stede will survive the duel with Izzy, but I don’t think it’s for lack of hoping. I think even then he knew he did not have control of Israel Hands, and he’d better equip Stede to survive him than pretend he can make him stand down for the sake of Ed’s love.