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.
Was just trying to sleep earlier today when a random thought smacked me in the face.
Lucius and Pete really did just hook up out of nowhere huh?
And, rather than ignore my Dumbo brain and sleep, I theorized and now I’m on Tumblr talking about it.
I fully believe Lucius ‘checked the rations’ with Pete intending it the same way he sketched Fang and had uncomfortable exchanges with Izzy, ie a flirtation/fling without real feelings behind it, but then the Art of Fuckery episode happened and while everyone was worried about him Pete did something more.
Pete whittled him a lame ass finger that barely passes as a thumb.
And yeah, we’ve all seen the episode and know this, but idk if anyone’s ever thought too hard about it. Lucius is used to being the object of desire, of wooing and flirting as he likes, but I think that was the first time anyone had truly gone out of their way to do something nice for him.
And now Lucius is head over heels for our favorite stereotypical pirate because he did what no one else had thought to.
Thank you for coming to my sleep deprived Ted talk
Stede, by and large, is not a Toucher. (Thatās a whole separate essay.) Heās hesitant as fuck about it, and tends to initiate contact, if at all, through some intermediary: clothing, air, etc. Later, with Ed, heāll do incidental touches, little things that could be explained away like the brush of arms together, etc.
(THIS IS NOT THAT ESSAY.)
But look at this shit. āMay I?ā Stede asks, and he gives it a moment but Ed doesnāt actually hand it over. He doesnāt even answer.
And Stede just reaches out, takes an end of the silk, and
slowly
drags it
through Edās fingers as Ed fucking tilts his eyes upwards in complete silence, his gaze clicking from spot to spot as his heart gets unwound from his lax ā but not relaxed ā grip.
And while I like the meta where Stede has NO FUCKING CLUE ABOUT HOW SEDUCTIVE HEāS BEING, I also like the idea that for the first time in his life, because this is a Queer Situation, Stede has the glimmerings of Game. Because, my god, the forwardness of it. He didnāt wait for Ed to give it to him. He just reached out and took, but in such a syrup-slow manner that Ed couldāve said no, couldāve just tightened his fingers if he didnāt want to let Stede take this precious thingā and Stedeās giving him that time while simultaneously also making some pretty great allusions, intentional or not, to how exactly heād make his move, if a move he ever made.
Like, āMay I?ā Stede would ask, and Ed (Blackbeard) wouldnāt move, wouldnāt say a word, but he wouldnāt step away either, would just watch Stede with a clicking gaze as Stede stepped forward, raised his hands, and drew Ed syrup-slow toward him, every moment one where Ed could turn away and every moment clear that Stede was here, wanting this, wanting him, and deliberate in his want.
So my god, the pure queer seduction of this scene: the intermediary object as a stand-in for themselves; the plausible deniability; the silent consent (a subgenre of plausible deniability); coded language; āinnocentā touch as protective camouflageā¦
(Itās a little distressing to consider how much queer romantic context comes from trying to be both Open to a possibility while simultaneously trying not to get the shit beaten out of us for being wrong. Itās a powerful language. Itās a tragic one. Itās what makes it feel so special if it goes right.)
Anyway. Stede may have no idea the levels heās playing at here, but heās a man who was explicitly and in canon abused for displaying a particular flavor of non-masculine behavior. Even if he doesnāt know heās queer, he knows the need for the language of safety; heās been learning it since childhood. So he speaks itā and Ed, who engages in at least āwhen at seaā levels of queer living, picks up on it like the Stede-radio heās been tuning for ages now to find a signal that explains him has suddenly gone from static to the crystal-clear notes of Gnossienne No. 5.
Is it any wonder that Edās oh no moment is fucking palpable here? Is it any wonder that Stede comes away from this scene a little more certain of himself around Ed, able to argue him into staying, pull him into a treasure hunt, touch his bare arm against Edās when they become co-captains?
Like everyone else, I love Ed. He is one of my favorite characters right now. But I think a lot of people are ignoring that the man has a lot to atone for.
He’s not wrong when he says he’s not a good person. He’s not. He can be. Someone’s past does not have to be their future. But he’s done some horrific stuff and we all know it. He even left our beloved crew to die miserable, slow deaths.
And it is clear that the man changes behavior depending on his circumstances. It is clear that the Blackbeard behavior is something he has adopted to survive in pirate society. That doesn’t change the the fact that he is still responsible for his choices.
It’s not just Stede that needs to apologize here. Ed needs to do something HUGE to regain the crew’s trust. He needs to put his life on the line to save all of them. There doesn’t seem to be any other way for the story to go here.
the black cravat in our flag means death as a symbol for the hold, negative or positive, stede has on the person whoās wearing it.
when itās shown maryās life after stede left, she has no black cravat at all. sheās free of him.
but then stede is back, and the black cravat enters the scene. mary is not free anymore, and she has a stede to deal with.
stede decides to stay. the black cravat goes higher, and tighter, maryās neck. like she is suffocating. and she is.
stede fakes his death. he is gone for good. the black cravat gets down, mary can breath again. and soon, she will be free.
when edward has his first real interaction with stede, look whoās there too. the black cravat. stede clearly has a hold in him. heās hung in stede.
then stede leaves. and different from mary, that freed herself when he did so, in edwardās case, it goes tighter up his neck.
(note: I did not include injuries that could potentially cause disabilities such as Roach’s shoulder because it’s not shown that there’s any clear lasting issues.
Also, I included Black Pete because even though it’s never acknowledged in the show, I think it’s important to note that his actor, Matthew Maher has talked about his cleft lip and palate and said about the scar and his speech impediment: “I always think of it as a challenge—an impediment/challenge to my acting career…If you have anything that sort of makes you aggressively different than everybody else, you have to sort of wrestle with it. I had speech therapy. Part of committing to being an actor was finding a good speech therapist to make me just a little bit more comprehensible. But even still, she didn’t eliminate the lisp and there’s still the scars. It’s been one of the biggest things that’s slowed me down, but it’s also been paradoxically the thing that distinguished me the most.” So even though it’s not addressed in canon, the fact that it isn’t and he’s able to just be as he is on screen is so nice to see.
