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YES. I have feelings about this and they come down to masking.
I can’t speak much about this from a race perspective as I am white and I don’t think I have the knowledge to really dig into it more than mentioning it a little because it’s important for Ed’s context, but from a neurodivergence and queer perspective? Ed masks constantly.
Right when we’re first introduced to him, Ed is masking with Izzy and the rest of his crew. He’s brooding, he smokes a pipe and stays huddled in the shadows, he uses skulls in his decorating, litters his room with animal skins and Pirate Trinkets, he wears black leather and pirate jewelry and wears his hair loose and doesn’t really bother with it at all.
Then, he meets Stede. He settles into Stede’s world and starts masking a combination of the Revenge crew and his own: leather, but a bun in his hair to be a little tidier, a more cheerful attitude, playful, embracing Stede’s fine things but also melting in with the chaotic energy of the crew. He literally turns into Stede when they exchange clothes, he mimics the mannerisms he imagines Stede to have, he matches his energy. If you compare how he is when he’s pretending to be Stede against how Stede is when he’s pretending to be Blackbeard it’s fascinating, because Stede…does not really Become Ed, he’s still Stede just Stede-in-Ed’s-clothes. He’s a little nervous, smiling, shaking hands, getting anxious and panicky, being rude about Izzy etc, but Ed embodies Stede. He flounces more, he prances more, he even talks more like Stede. If you told me this was actually a magic bodyswap episode, I’d believe you if you only showed me Ed.
I also think he masks when he’s alone with Izzy, but less? He’s more Himself with Izzy, solely because Izzy has seen so many masks? But he does mask, especially at the end of episode 4 because he goes back into Pirate Mask Mode and starts concocting plans and stuff.
His “insanity” that Izzy references, including the hyperactive complaints about being bored and wanting to die, is probably him at his least masked and more… erratic? Because finding the Real Him is really god damn hard after 40+ years of concurrent masking.
Then, after they go back to normal, Ed wants to go to a fancy person party. He puts bows in his beard and flowers in his hair and dresses and holds himself far more like Stede and his interpretation of what High Society dresses and acts like.
I did some meta talking about how Ed treats Stede during the party episode because an anon asked if I had any thoughts on why Ed ‘turns against Stede’ during the party (to which I said I don’t think he does, actually, and talked about it), but once he makes that first quip about killing a Prussion, the whole time after that while Ed is at the party? He’s masking.
It’s why Stede feels so left out and somewhat pushed aside by him, because Ed becomes the High Society fickle assholes, he blends right in with them and starts making similar mean jokes (though I stand by what I said that he doesn’t actually make a mean joke about Stede, he makes a mean joke about a fake person called Godfrey and their fake relationship) and somewhat turning himself (and this digs into race a little, so I can’t say for sure that I’m right here, but this is how I read it) into a somewhat… hm, what’s the right phrasing? More of what they, the assholes, would expect of him as a man of color in their very white party, rather than what he actually is. He makes jokes about violence and cannibalism and does fart noises. We don’t see that kind of behavior from Ed any other time, but he picks up on what they expect and what would entertain them and endear him to them and he runs with it. He becomes their party clown while also mimicking them.
Masking.
After that, we have the Art of Fkery, which has less overt masking and more subtle theatre kid connotations. A lot of kids (and adults) turn to drama and theatre because of how good they are at masking. It makes sense that Ed would bring that “pretend to be something else” into his piracy, because he does it all the time. He’s at his least masked with Stede while he’s crying in the tub, I think, but even then he’s mimicking Stede somewhat (emotionally available like Stede pretends he is, hiding under Stede’s blanket).
Then there’s the treasure hunt episode. He’s masking as Stede constantly at the start, with the tea and the way he holds himself, and the way he moves and talks to people and responds to things.
I don’t have much to say about the masking during the treasure hunt, I can’t quite sus that one out, but I’m positive he is. He also masks a little with Lucius, in my opinion, but I can’t pin that down either.
The most obvious example of masking though to me is We Gull Way Back. Calico Jack shows up and Ed just transforms into him. His sense of humor, his way of talking, his shitty jokes, his behavior etc. He masks as all of it. And he says to Stede, “This is the real me,” because he doesn’t realize. He just knows that whenever Jack is around, that’s the fun they have! I mentioned Izzy in my last meta that mentioned Jack, but I imagine Izzy fucking hates who Ed turns into when he’s with Jack, much like Stede does, and that’s probably a big reason it’s such a sore subject. Ed figures Stede won’t like him like this just like Izzy doesn’t and it’s The Real Him, so he doesn’t like him after all, but the truth is it isn’t the real him, and Stede and Izzy can both see that, which is why they don’t like it.
Act of Grace he masks as just a sailor, happy, domestic, folding things, soft and gentle. He’s speaking his mind as who he is, but he’s still mimicking and masking as a combination of Stede and what he expects not-pirate-sailors to be. He’s blending in and becoming scenery like he always does.
Which brings us to episode 10 and the break up robe.
Now, to me, what’s important about episode 10 is that Ed has never had a conversation with Stede about Mary. They’ve never discussed whether Stede was madly in love with her and misses her every minute of the day or whether he hated her guts and thought she was the actual worst and ran away.
So when Stede up and leaves him and surely returns 'home’ (where else would he go, really?), Ed returns to the Revenge and masks as Stede.
He masks as someone who was fine with leaving the person he loved behind and being alone on the high seas.
He’s trying to be that person, the person that is okay, the person who is emotionally competent (because, again, he sees Stede that way even if he actually isn’t), the person who talks it through as a crew.
He does, however, blow all of these things up further than they are in reality. The song-writing, the singing, the talent show, the “Why are we even being pirates?!” is very much not Stede, but at the same time… it is? It’s Ed’s overblown perception of him, especially one in hindsight without him there to actively mimic and mask off of.
So yes, he’s mimicking Stede’s mannerisms. He’s mimicking how he dresses (robe), he’s mimicking how he lives (cabin), he’s mimicking everything he can about him, and I genuinely think subconsciously it’s his attempt to either a) become the person he lost so he can have him back or b) become someone who is okay being alone and without the person he loves (Mary, in his perception, because again they didn’t discuss Mary or how Stede actually feels).
And so no, it isn’t his final form because it’s still just a mask. And yes, neurodiverse people can be okay while still masking, and so can queer people, but the point is I don’t think Ed really knows who he is without the mask.
Finally, at the end of the episode, he masks yet again, this time as a combination of the perception of Blackbeard and what Izzy seems to want from him. He masks his way into someone isolated and hardened and alone with only one person by their side, someone who craves violence and threatens those closest to them: the Blackbeard version of Izzy.
okay so i talked earlier about ed’s masking and how it influences how he doesnt really know who he is, but the few times the mask really slips are usually when he’s talking to izzy or stede about being bored
and more than that, i was discussing an earlier comment i’d made, which @treesofgreen picked up on and further commented on, that break up robe!Ed (talent shows, quitting piracy for good etc) shouldn’t be his final form because that isn’t him either (it is, in fact, as she pointed out, Stede)
but i want to talk about what i think ed’s issue is and what his final form might end up being
To begin with, we have a few comments from episode 4. The first is he tells Izzy he’s bored of “make a plan, execute the plan, make another plan, execute another plan” and so on, but when he talks to Stede about it later on, he hones in on a separate point all together: the name Blackbeard precedes him. He doesn’t have to even be on the ship; someone sees that flag, Blackbeard’s flag, and immediately they surrender.
Then, over the course of the next few episodes we watch him run fuckeries and raids, enjoy being a pirate, get turned over to the English etc, and he seems happy. He’s having a good time.
Later, when he’s on the beach, he says he’s happy to be Just Ed, that he gets to figure out what makes him happy, and he says that the last few weeks have been the most fun he’s had in years, maybe ever, and he figures that what makes him happy is Stede.
And before you all come and stab me with pointy things, I love these two. Blackbonnet otp all the way, Stede definitely makes Ed happy, Ed loves him, Stede loves Ed etc etc
but.
I don’t think it’s just Stede that made Ed happy, and I don’t think that had they run away together to China that they would have been happy. And I think Ed knows it isn’t just Stede that made these past weeks happy for him, else it would’ve been okay to stay at that base a little longer than one night, folding clothes and whatever else, because they would’ve been together. He knew that just that alone wasn’t it, it wasn’t the key. He’s just confusing the fun he’s had with the love he feels (which makes sense! We all do that).
I think what made him happy, beyond the fact he loves Stede and was enjoying their time together, is the life Stede created around them both. Stede’s ship was pathetic and weak and had one good pirate on board before Ed came along, and then Ed came along and they had five good pirates, a captain who knows nothing about sailing, and a crew of ridiculous personalities that somehow work but are definitely not good pirates so far. Stede’s crew couldn’t fight off the Spanish. Stede’s flag doesn’t fill the enemy with so much fear they just immediately surrender. Stede’s life is exciting and full of random happenstances and not everything is already a given, especially without Izzy there to make plans.
Which leads me to my thesis statement here which is that I think Ed’s actual final form should be: co-captaining a pirate ship with Stede, letting go of the Blackbeard mantle to “just be Ed”, except Ed gets to be a pirate, and Ed gets the adrenaline rush of raids, and the excitement of planning, without it being a well-oiled machine that always wins.
And yes, that might include Izzy (even the finest honed plan wouldn’t be a given with the crew they have), but it definitely involves more games of chance and more possibilities of defeat.
Moreover, Stede ran away from his boring little life to become a pirate a few weeks ago (I really thought the show was quite a few months, but I think it was only a couple?? Somehow we just get full moons every other night (it’s “tomorrow” in episode 4, today in episode 5 which must have been a few days later at least because Stede is fully recovered, and then tomorrow again in episode 8, which implies three months) in ofmd land and that’s fine). He’s hardly going to want to stop doing his dream he’s finally achieved and run away to live a boring domestic pauper’s life with Ed. Run away with Ed? Sure. Be as happy like that as he was on the ship with him? Ehh. No, I don’t think so, at least not right now.
Anyway I think the final form is sailing the high seas, conducting chaotic raids and going to party boats, and swapping out flags every few months so no one ever knows its them.
I just hope the beard comes back.
a small, extra thought on masking in OFMD:
I’ve said before that Ed masks constantly, and I either said in there or somewhere else that I think Stede used to but his masking came mostly down to “pretend to be a good husband and straight and not bored and yearning” and the moment he left for sea he just unmasked almost entirely (except the “straight” part, that didn’t come away until, I would say, 1x10 when Mary inadvertently tells him he’s in love with Ed and his brain puts the pieces together) and that’s why he’s so blunt about everything all the time; he has no mask left
but i came to the conclusion earlier that the only one who cannot mask
is izzy.
Hear me out! I’ve seen a person or two joke that it’d be funny to watch him have, like, a customer service voice or whatever where he’s suddenly Excellent At Being Around X Type Of Person for an episode and is good at masking in that way
and yeah, that could be fun
but.
When Ed comes aboard the Revenge, he joins Muppet Comedy land by immediately masking. He blends in. Fang and Ivan do it too, a little, but I think they were just…set up for it from the get-go. If you look at 1x03, Izzy grabs Fang’s beard and when Fang moves away he’s whining that he hates it when Izzy does that, and Ivan can be heard comforting him and saying he should say something (which implies he could say something to Izzy about that, and that Izzy might listen, or might have listened once a long time ago, before Ed fell into such depression Izzy is currently being his SSRIs and his executive function and his waiter and his carer and-), which tells me that Fang and Ivan are already just squishy enough to blend in with the Muppet Comedy Revenge Crew
but Izzy doesn’t.
Izzy doesn’t blend. Izzy doesn’t change (his character begins to evolve, but Izzy doesn’t mask)
when Izzy is surrounded by Icky Type Pirates in Spanish Jackie’s, he’s still Izzy
when Izzy is around the gay as fuck crew of the Revenge, he’s still just… Izzy
when he’s around Stede? Izzy.
when he’s around the English? izzy
when he’s around Fang and Ivan? a more relaxed Izzy, imo, i think they’re his closest friends aside from Ed, but still Izzy
and when he’s around Ed, he’s Izzy
where Ed blends in and changes like the wind, like a chameleon becoming whatever background he’s framed against, Izzy never changes
he never even changes his outfit
Izzy is a rock, and that’s probably been very good for Ed over the years. Izzy is stability and support, he’s an immovable object. Izzy is what Edward expects him to be, always, because Izzy is not influenced by the tides like Edward is.
Izzy is static.
Which is probably part of where their relationship (whatever it was before) started to deteriorate: Ed changed, Izzy did not.
Izzy does not, can not, mask.
It’s one of the reasons why he failed to transition into a part of the muppet crew
izzy doesn’t mask