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ANONYMOUS:
Ed is my favorite character but I am also very much an Izzy Hands enjoyer and I am baffled by the "Ed is a innocent lamb uwu everything bad and mean about Blackbeard was Izzy but also Izzy is incompetent and Ed never needed him for Blackbeard at all!" sentiment I see. Like....? How do you reconcile that? Also Ed "doesn't kill" but we see him order a man to be flayed alive with a snail fork and then thrown overboard. We see that. Izzy isn't there. Izzy didn't "make" him do this, just like Izzy didn't make him cut off his toe, which happened hours after their fight, in a calculated response that took into account Stede specifically recoiling from the idea (there's something to unpack).
When they say Ed had people kill their pets, Ed doesn't deny it or in any way indicate it wasn't his idea. The entire plan of killing Stede and taking his place was Ed's idea, not Izzy's! Ed could have ordered him to stop at any time and he didn't, he didn't even have the stomach to watch Izzy stab Stede (I love the contrast between this and the act of grace moment), and people act like the whole murder thing was entirely Izzy's idea and desire and Ed is just a helpless bystander. Ed is the one in charge except when he can't or won't be, but he still wants things done his way, wants all of the positives and none of the negatives (who can blame him? We all want that. But Ed doesn't seem to recognize that isn't actually possible).
If Izzy is so diametrically opposed to everything Ed is, and just a horrible hateful little man, why has Ed kept him around? Why is he his first mate? Why does he trust him more than anyone else, and let him in more than anyone else, until Stede? Why does their relationship read like they came up together, like they've literally known each other decades, like there is a depth and history and so much nuance to the relationship and yet you have people acting like Izzy is just some guy assigned by the pirate temp agency to Blackbeard shortly before the show starts? That Ed doesn't have the authority to fire?
There's abuse and toxicity coming from both Ed and Izzy in this relationship, and we're seeing it as it crumbles. The fact that it crumbles so painfully and dramatically - along with just every single thing about the way they interact, I feel insane - speaks to there having been a foundation of genuine friendship and partnership and maybe even love through the years (there are so many ways to love, what Ed & Stede have is glorious but just one). They're both in crisis. Izzy is making horrific, hurtful decisions but so is Ed. Ed has been hurt by Izzy's actions but Izzy has been hurt by Ed's as well (I'm not even talking about the toe! I'm talking about the years of relying on Izzy and having him do his dirty work, with very little thanks).
Ed and Stede have protagonist bias working in their favor (see how so many people ignore Stede's casual colorblind racism and that he can only be funding this adventure through exploitation and violence) - they also had some tragic, traumatic back story shown on screen. Izzy didn't - do people think that means he doesn't have one? That he was just born like this, has always been like this for no reason? That isn't how humans work. Real or fictional.
Ed deserves to be happy, it's what I want most. I want him to heal. I want the same for Izzy. They're both struggling and in pain and nothing I've seen from either of them as fictional people in a romcom makes me think they're undeserving or unable to be redeemed.
Anyway I love your Izzy posts. Keep on keeping on. Sending this anon because I don't want my own haters haha.
All of this, anon. All of this. The Revenge and the rest of the Pirate World are two entirely different stages (up until the end of ep 10), and when they swap between those worlds, the rules shift and change. You go from Pirate Drama (ala Black Sails, for example) to Rom Com and back again. Because of that, pretty much everyone who joined the Revenge who isn’t Stede is an objectively awful person in their own ways who have made their lives by killing, plundering, looting, even torturing. I think that’s why I love them all so much, because they’re being given the chance to evolve past that. It’s almost like starting a series with an entire cast of villains heading for redemption. It’s excellent.
If Izzy is so diametrically opposed to everything Ed is, and just a horrible hateful little man, why has Ed kept him around? Why is he his first mate? Why does he trust him more than anyone else, and let him in more than anyone else, until Stede? Why does their relationship read like they came up together, like they’ve literally known each other decades, like there is a depth and history and so much nuance to the relationship and yet you have people acting like Izzy is just some guy assigned by the pirate temp agency to Blackbeard shortly before the show starts? That Ed doesn’t have the authority to fire?
omg anon this bit here i was nodding along ready to contribute my own thoughts and then i hit PIRATE TEMP AGENCY and i fuckin LOST IT. thank you for that.
But also I think one particular bit really stands out to me from the POV of their friendship. Two, actually, one less than the other so I’ll start there:
the first one is that Izzy specifically sends Calico Jack after Ed. He knows enough about Ed’s temperament, and about his relationship with Jack to know that Jack is absolutely perfect to drive a wedge not only between Ed and Stede but between Ed and everyone on the crew. And he DOES. It’s an absolutely FLAWLESS plan up until the point they’re in dinghy and Jack has to be a bitch and talk about Izzy. If he hadn’t done that? If his jealousy, ego, bitchiness hadn’t come out so strongly? Damn. That plan was flawless and Ed would firstly have never known about the English and secondly gone back to Izzy.
Because Izzy knew him.
But the bit I specifically wanted to talk about in relation to your piece up there is after Ed hits him at the start of Act of Grace.
First off; Ed only hits him. He socks him real good in the face but that’s it! I subconsciously assumed he was testing to see if the English would stop him, and then would surge on with something new but no. He thinks Izzy has completely betrayed them, and he even says so to Stede (“He sold us out.”) but all he does is hit him. He doesn’t hit him then try to shove him over the side. He doesn’t try to bounce him off the mast. He doesn’t pull a knife! He just socks him once real good in the face.
And then comes what Izzy says after that:
“That’s fair. That’s fair. Remember though, you said when you made me first mate, ‘above all else is loyalty to your captain’. You’re my captain and I was never gonna stand by and let you destroy yourself for that… twat. And this? This is a humane way of ending this. It’s quick, it’s clean. Edward, you know that.”
And oh, my god. I could go on about this line for days but I’ll try and keep it brief: Edward is the one that told Izzy that above all is loyalty to him. Edward. Knowing what Ed is capable of, knowing the kind of shit he’s done not only in episode 10 but also the skinning and god knows what else? Who knows how he instilled that into Izzy, that his loyalty is to Edward and Edward only. A lot of people think the X on Izzy’s cheek is his signature, and fuck. Imagine if that was when he gave him that? Imagine if he literally tattooed his signature into Izzy’s face because his loyalty is to Ed and Ed only. (If not that X, perhaps a Blackbeard brand under his glove? Who knows.)
Then, after that, he goes on to say he wasn’t going to let Ed destroy himself. This isn’t a betrayal, and I think the fact Ed doesn’t kill him here, doesn’t cast him off the ship at the end of episode 9, doesn’t tell him to go fuck himself, proves that Ed doesn’t think it’s a betrayal either. Regardless of his feelings for Stede, the only time he thought it was a betrayal was when he thought Izzy had handed them all over hook line and sinker with no regards for anything but himself. Izzy did not betray him. Izzy, in fact, kept his pledge of loyalty.
And then finally, the humane way of ending this? Izzy’s job is keeping Edward happy. Izzy’s job is keeping Edward safe and happy. That’s why Stede is, in that scene, about to die by firing squad, not in some gruesome show at Charlestown or whatever else might have come his way. I would lay bets that Stede dying quickly and as painlessly as possible was part of the deal Izzy made.
I would also bet that the words, “This is the humane way of ending this, it’s quick, it’s clean,” was what Edward said about Fang’s dog.
They’re both in crisis. Izzy is making horrific, hurtful decisions but so is Ed. Ed has been hurt by Izzy’s actions but Izzy has been hurt by Ed’s as well (I’m not even talking about the toe! I’m talking about the years of relying on Izzy and having him do his dirty work, with very little thanks).
This! This! This! I also want to reiterate very strongly that we never see Edward actually tell Izzy what he wants. He says he wants to retire and he’s going to kill Stede and take his place, but when he changes his mind he never actually says, “Izzy, I'mma be honest with you mate, I love Stede and I want you in my life too but I don’t want to kill him, and I don’t want to be Blackbeard anymore. I want a change.” Or whatever way Edward would say those things.
Edward communicates with Izzy zilch, which honestly I think is probably how things have always gone. Edward half kills some guy then goes, “Oh, Izzy?” and walks off and it’s up to Izzy to finish it off. One of his crew members does something? He scoffs and scowls and that means Izzy has to handle it. Izzy has had to learn to fill in all those spots that Edward can’t or won’t, and that’s what he’s doing throughout the show, but he hasn’t yet been told that Edward actively wants these changes.
Hell, I’m willing to say that he thinks Edward is becoming not just something Izzy can’t recognize but something Edward actively abhors. You don’t tell someone to toughen up and kill their own dog because you like softies. Which begs the question of how much time Edward has spent actively trying to toughen up his crew and remove any soft sides, just to turn entirely into that soft side?
(Also, I’ll be honest, I do not think that breakup robe!Edward should be his final form. He was not himself there either, and that’s because he’s so actively pretending that he’s none of the kraken things that he was. He’s almost imitating Stede, in a way, trying to hide his pain by being someone else. I imagine his final form will be someone very capable of violence, very capable of anger and being awful, but someone who also has a deeply soft side and cultivates a lot of love and trust from those around him, someone who will murder in defense of his loved ones, rather than just 'cause he can. Which, to me, is who he was when he was younger. He killed his father for hurting his mother, that’s made abundantly clear, especially since we never see his father raise a hand against him.)
…they also had some tragic, traumatic back story shown on screen. Izzy didn’t - do people think that means he doesn’t have one? That he was just born like this, has always been like this for no reason? That isn’t how humans work. Real or fictional.
Honestly yeah. I think that’s likely what they think.
Which brings me right back to the fact Stede is very much an outlier. Oluwande says himself that him and Jim have no other choice. Do they think Izzy does? Who knows what his past is that led him to piracy, anger and repression at sea? Who knows what makes him so goddamn anxious about everything running Correctly?
And yes, I do read him as anxious. He hates the situation he’s in because everything is wrong. Lucius won’t do his job, no one does the things they need to do to run a ship, and he is actively seen as a villain in their lives by them when he tries to get them to be the crew of a pirate ship. He nearly got thrown overboard for making them work!
Ed deserves to be happy, it’s what I want most. I want him to heal. I want the same for Izzy. They’re both struggling and in pain and nothing I’ve seen from either of them as fictional people in a romcom makes me think they’re undeserving or unable to be redeemed.
THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!!! I want them both to heal, and Stede too!! Stede has so much trauma he hasn’t worked through that colors everything he does (as illustrated by the fact this middle-aged man is bogged down and smothered constantly throughout the first few episodes by memories of being what… ten?)
Not to mention that a forced arranged marriage cannot possibly be anything short of traumatic (cultural arranged marriage being very different and depending on the situation etc, I’m not talking about modern arranged marriages, I’m talking specifically about the type Stede and Mary were forced into, and even more specifically their marriage). I don’t think either of them were abusive to one another, but being forced to have sex solely by society and those around you to make children? Especially if Stede is gay not bi (which I read him as; gay), that’s so… awful? It’s basically that both of them had to agree to their own rape, almost? It’s a really complicated and horrible thing and god knows what Stede felt after having to do those things with her, especially if he knew she wasn’t into it with him either.
Anyway I love your Izzy posts. Keep on keeping on. Sending this anon because I don’t want my own haters haha.
Thank you so much for the message because it was GREAT and your own meta was downright excellent. If you ever feel like de-anoning, feel free to DM me! And here, have another Izzy post! lmao hope you enjoy it