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A second thought I didn’t have room to muse but did occur to me after that anon ask: where Ed lies constantly, Stede rarely if ever lies at all. The only lies I can think of from Stede are when he pretended Izzy was surrounded in episode 2? And he was terrible at that lie, too? And he didn’t even try to lie to the tribal villagers who were going to kill him for being a light-skin if he was a murderer.
Stede seems to be unflinchingly honest at all times. He was terrible at pretending he wasn’t having the ship being built (an attempt at a lie, but a terrible one since he’d just tattled on himself), he was awful at pretending Izzy was surrounded, he was dire at the fuckery until he turned it into Acting, and he never seems to lie.
I don’t have much more in the way of thoughts on this, I just find it interesting to contrast against Ed. Stede is unflinchingly honest, even when he’s shyly saying, “I think so,” to Ed about running away to China, he says I think so. He’s unsure and honest about it (which is almost certainly one of the reasons Ed thinks he just bolted).
I dunno, I just think it’s fascinating how compared to all the ways Ed seems to lie to those around him (even telling Izzy his plan is actually to kill Stede, not that he’s crushing, to buy more time with him), Stede tells the truth, often quite bluntly.
Gif originally posted by pirateslesbian (a gif of Stede after he has the orange back saying, "Oh, thank god, I didn't want to give it to you!")
Which also makes me think about how Ed pretends a fictional character is upset over Stede, whereas Stede flat out tells his wife (!!) that he’s in love with a man; Ed. He’s so honest all the time, often with no prompting nor provoking. Which I think is also why he takes Ed at face value so easily. Ed says Jack is joking and he’s just like, “Ah, my sense of humor isn’t attuned to Pirate Jokes. I must work on that,” rather than, “Hey this was rude and he clearly doesn’t like me, and/or is jealous.”
Just some thoughts.