Thinking more about how much of a social chameleon Ed is.
It’s not even conscious, and probably a part of the same coping mechanism I talked about. Being so effortlessly malleable allows him to be loved and admired instead of being looked down upon. Smarter folks than me can probably find a connection to people of color often feeling the conflicting need to “fit in with the crowd” for their own safety, too. The problems usually arise when Ed’s dealing with two or more completely different expectations at the same time, like Stede and Jack or Izzy. If he tries to appease both, he satisfies neither.
A great example of it is the end of ep 4. The way he swiftly switches from looking at Stede with childlike wonder and asking him to be taught fancy lessons, to then indifferently promising Izzy to kill Stede and steal his ship.
It’s interesting that Izzy is so certain that Ed can’t go back on that promise. I don’t know if that’s because Izzy wants to believe that, or if Izzy’s been the only person Ed needed to appease before, so those promises never conflicted with anything else. The look on Ed’s face when he turns away kinda says to me “ah shit, I’ll have to figure out this contradiction later. but at least the immediate conflict is solved”.
So with his crew Ed’s pretty lowkey. Quietly menacing, handsomely dignified, coldly calculating, mostly observing from the shadows. He’s discussing the “uzh” plans with Izzy in a dry and aloof manner. These people need to respect him with a tinge of fear, and getting a glimpse of his emotions other than anger is detrimental to that.
When he meets Stede, he adapts his cartoonish whimsy and sincere gentleness. He’s ready to exchange looking scary to looking affably eccentric. Stede sees something sweet and innocent in him, and so he feels uncomfortable Jack discussing maiming for fun around Stede, and tries being more sympathetically vulnerable. The “I have no friends bit” is both genuinely true, and (un)intentionally omitting anyone like Jack for the sake of the moment. The Revenge crew expect him to be their friend and father the same way Stede grew to become, so he confides in them and caringly encourages them.
When he goes to the fancy event, he molds his casual attitude and crass humor to fit the pompous arrogant tone of the room. He readily makes jokes at Stede’s expense, as long as those people find it funny, and doesn’t think much of it. If they want him to be intriguingly scandalous and dispense all of kinds of Munchhausen stories, he can put on a hat and mock something captain-y.
When he reunites with Jack, he’s loud, violent and obnoxious, the fifth grader state. There’s no more wit or charm or dignity going into anything anymore, all that matters is brute force and dumb fun. If he’s not bullying someone with Jack, Jack will bully him, so it’s survival of the fittest.
When he’s at the barracks, he’s calm and obedient. There’s no one else around to shame him for this choice, so he can fantasize about being Edward Teach, a civilian who always lived a mundane life and never hurt anyone. If Stede reacted positively to this change, he would’ve continued playing a soft harmless housewife. But as soon as he realizes Stede is uncomfortable with this change, he goes back to plotting crazy adventures. What do you want, Stede? I can be any character from your romantic novels.
And then we have the Kraken, an exaggerated version of what he thinks Izzy wants, what he thinks people who write books about him want, what he thinks he himself needs to get over Stede.
If Izzy didn’t give his speech about despising Ed’s state, and if Stede never found Ed, sooner or later Ed probably would’ve quietly returned to his regular self, the way he was at the start of the series. He would’ve discarded the robe, grew the beard back and closed himself off to the crew again. Izzy essentially causes an explosion instead of the slow fizzling out.
I don’t think we know who the real Ed is yet. I don’t think he knows, either. It wouldn’t be good for Stede to get into a relationship with a made up version of Edward, catered to his fantasies, and it wouldn’t be good for Ed to continue such performances for a crumb of validation.
They just got to the honeymoon phase, when you mostly ignore any bad things about your crush, and, in turn, attempt to look your best in their eyes. It’s very fun and sweet, but it’s easy to love someone at their best. If the relationship is to last, you need to be able to love them at their worst, as well. So I’m hoping this breakup will be a good “mask off” moment for both.
reposting because ed’s skin ended up too light with that low opacity watercolor look, sorry about that. took this opportunity to add more sleepover content though
I often see posts going around that are like “Ed was going after Stede from the start, the way he flirts with him”, “Stede is clueless but Ed knew what he wanted”. And I sorta get where they’re coming from, but also? No he didn’t <3
This basically ignores the entire premise, that these two people completely accidentally fell in love and didn’t even fully realize it until the end, which is what makes the show so sweet. So I’m just gonna ramble about that lmao.
I think what causes people to say that is Ed’s charm and maybe even the initial attraction to Stede, but the thing is that there’s nothing special about those at the start. Ed is that way with everyone. He fucked, but never loved, that’s the whole point.
Ed was holding a promise to Izzy to kill Stede for several episodes, so while he was definitely enjoying Stede’s company a lot, he’s constantly being reminded that he can’t get attached. Sure, he thought Stede was sweet and fun and interesting, probably even attractive, but at the end of the day, Stede was going to be just another stepping stone, just another curious oddity left behind.
And even once Izzy is out of the picture and there’s technically no incentive to think that way anymore, literally in the next episode Ed is about to leave the ship “for new adventures”. Hell, there’re like ten times when Ed tries turning around and either leaving Stede or just kinda ignoring what might happen to him. Ironically, considering what prompts a break between them. As much as I’ve talked about Ed and his fear of fickle crowds, Ed is very much a fickle crowd himself.
But it’s all because Ed’s conflicted and confused about his feelings, and doesn’t know what to do with any of it. He’s constantly considering leaving because he’s unsure if this (whatever this is) is the right thing for him, or even for Stede. Lucius pretty much has to grab and shake him like “hey, this guy likes you a lot, that’s why he’s doing nice things for you”, and Ed responds with a surprised Pikachu face. Stede’s been doing nice things for everyone, from the beginning, so Ed couldn’t even tell if this was a special gesture. Only after that Ed makes a conscious effort to reciprocate, not just because they’re good pals hanging out, but specifically because he likes Stede back.
Mfw my cabin boy tells me, an idiot, that this cute son of a bitch was busting his ass organizing a date for us the entire day, and I didn’t even realize.
Ed’s cluelessness kinda says a lot about the people he’s used to having around and how he treated them back. We know the roots of his problems, and I wanna point out that even his charm is a part of his trauma. Some abused kids become social butterflies in order to compensate for that attention and validation they never got. His over the top shenanigans with Jack smell of coping mechanisms to me. If you party hard, you don’t have to think about these things, after all.
Ed doesn’t show much attachment to his crew. He’s fine with losing his men in fights because “they’re pirates”, and his attitude towards Izzy is mostly just a workspace relationship. Which is funny, because from Izzy’s point of view, he’s also done plenty of nice things for Ed, and it confuses him to no end why Stede gets special treatment while he’s easily cast aside.
Ed’s initial friendliness and charm held no real emotional depth behind them. People are either useful tools, or cannon meat to him. He has no one special in his life, and no one considers him special to them, besides Izzy. Jack was also the closest thing he’s ever had for even a substitute of a friend, and we know how both of those went. Pirates don’t have friends; every man is for themselves.
It’s all superficial, surface-level, a gaping void inside of him that he was aware of, but didn’t know how to handle until Stede showed up. And Lucius straight-up tells him that he could either finally embrace Stede’s efforts to fill both of their voids, or continue that empty existence, because he’s probably not gonna find another emotionally open guy like that among the pirates again.
These warped societal standards of love surround them everywhere. Ed’s family had no love in it, neither did Stede’s marriage. The one couple in the 5th episode turned out to be incestuous. Spanish Jackie doesn’t particularly care about her husbands; she has “favorite” ones the same way she has favorite shoes, but it’s not actual love, it’s ownership.
Lucius says “See? We don’t own each other” in an act of defying those standards, as well as a narrative jab at Izzy, who does feel certain ownership over Ed. Because their weird little freak ship is a rare place of some actual human love.
I always think about how even after they kiss and agree to run off together, Stede still takes a while to fully process it. In most romance stories a kiss is the culmination after everything’s been figured out. But Stede’s been in a loveless marriage for so long that he needs to compare his feelings to someone else who’s experiencing them, to really make sure. Obviously, he knew there was something special between him and Ed, but his mind would rather invent this new form of agape called “co-captains”, before it could process that this is just romantic love.
And it’s cute, and it honestly works best. This way both of them mentally allow it to progress naturally without overthinking it and getting too defensive. And the process of looking back and realizing queer things in retrospective is so true for many of us. I love clueless queer stories, especially those for older people, because sometimes you really don’t realize it for most of your life, and that’s okay. There’s still plenty of time ahead.
Just wanna talk about Ed’s trust issues and fear of rejection and embarrassment for a bit. I’m sure a lot has been said about it already, but I need to release the pressure from my cranium.
I love Ed because he’s simultaneously very confident and comfortable in his skin, with great people skills and open demeanor, but also has a lot of insecurities and feels lost in social situations he’s not familiar with. He’s up to any silly shit as long as others support it or find it cool, but if he thinks that people are starting to laugh at him instead of with him, he loses it.
Ed says that fear is the most powerful emotion, and that Blackbeard feels no fear. But the real Ed’s biggest fear is being ridiculed and undermined. He simultaneously dislikes the caricature of violence people assign to him, yet subconsciously Needs to be the scariest pirate out there, because if people are afraid of him, they won’t laugh at him.
It parallels Stede in an interesting way, because Stede is very familiar with being seen as cringe by everyone around, but he just kinda accepted it at this point, and doesn’t let it stop him anymore. He only has this one life to live, and he’s gonna do it his way, silly libraries on board and all, which is what Ed admires about him. Stede doesn’t need to be some tough shit pirate to be able to handle some shade and throw some back, without absolutely losing it. If Stede learned to be a little more unhinged about standing up for himself from Ed, I hope Ed can learn some composure from him, too.
In the 5th episode, Ed is completely out of his element. These people have their own set of bizarre rules that are hard for him to follow, brilliant sailor or not. They don’t know who he is, so his reputation and threats don’t affect them. Not to mention him being a mixed person of color. His fear of being emotionally trampled was palpable in that shrimp scene, and he was about to resort to the only way he knows how to fix it: taking out his gun and maiming some bitches.
Ed’s disturbed by the notion that thinly veiled insults exist as a form of emotional warfare, and that Stede obliterated an entire ship with politely delivered words alone. I think that moment of Stede’s derangement was definitely respected and appreciated by Ed, but it also planted a seed of “he’s capable of destroying me in ways I couldn’t even fathom” in his mind.
During Ed’s stay on the ship, he and Stede come to feel comfortable enough around each other to open up and be themselves without worrying about how others see them. This requires trust in each other, the trust that if you show your belly you won’t get stabbed in it.
I think Calico Jack was the first blow to Ed’s newly acquired trust in that regard. The old Blackbeard would’ve been on his guard and suspicious of jack from the start, but for the new trusting Ed it was enough to cry about a mutiny (which I imagine Jack normally wouldn’t do). Jack tricks him, then laughs in his face and mocks the idea that pirates could even have friends. On top of that, Ed finds out that Izzy gave them up, and Izzy has always been his most trustworthy person.
Stede disappearing after their most vulnerable moment is obviously the biggest nail in the coffin. It’s very telling that Ed didn’t go back looking for Stede, in case he got himself into some trouble, but just kinda sat there in defeat, like deep down he expected it to go this way.
There’s a neat progression of his power dynamic with Stede. When they first met, Ed was obviously friendly and nice with Stede, but he had the upper hand there. Blackbeard is the legend of the seas, and Stede is a funny little guy who almost got killed for being stupid. Ed really enjoys casually revealing his identity to Stede, because he knows how much it’ll awe him. “You’re a lunatic and I like it” isn’t an insult by any means, but it says “I know my shit, and you don’t (affectionate)”.
But then in the 5th episode, he learns that Stede is equally as knowledgeable and ruthless in other areas. In the 6th, Stede supports him through a moment of weakness and self-loathing. After that, Ed is no longer a cool menacing idol to a little incompetent goofball nobody; he fully comes to see Stede as an equal, hence them deciding to co-captain.
And after they level it out, Ed almost seems like he’s afraid to believe that Stede Actually Really likes him. He’s very moved that Stede is willing to look past his assassination attempt; he looks surprised when Lucius tells him Stede went out of his way to do something fun for him; when Jack appears and badly influences his behavior, Ed sheepishly argues this is the real him, and Stede wouldn’t like it anyway, so leaving is the right option. The way he says “what makes Ed happy is…you” is with baited breath, like he’s scared of what might happen afterwards. If Stede didn’t smile in response, I think Ed genuinely would’ve imploded on the spot.
If Stede is his equal and knows his weaknesses, he could hurt Ed like no one before, but Ed probably wouldn’t have the heart to hurt him back. That’s quite a vulnerable and scary position for him, so Ed is ready to explode the bridges and run if anything went even slightly wrong.
So maybe Stede’s upset reaction to his resigned state confused him. Or maybe he projected his own unstable unreliable nature onto Stede. Or maybe he thought that Stede wasn’t ready to become a real outlaw, or would rather not involve himself with such a horrible person after all. Or that their entire relationship was some fucked up social experiment invented by the upper class weirdos. Either way, I’m sure that when Stede didn’t show up, he felt like a fool.
Ed convinced himself that there’s no possible interpretation other than rejection and humiliation, and that’s what he deserves. Sure, he could go back and check, but if he did and found Stede just chilling on his bunk bed like “oh sorry mate, I don’t actually want to gayly run off with you anymore, I hope you’d just kind of go away“, that’d be fate worse than death. So it’s better to assume the unspoken, and get out.
Izzy’s reaction back on the ship buried the rest of that coffin.
Izzy, Ivan and Fang strike me as very straight-forward with ed. If Izzy doesn’t like something, he’s not gonna hold back or dance around the issue, he takes Ed aside and tells him how it is. And in turn, Ed is quite open to criticism, if it’s delivered straight to his face. In fact, this is the best way to talk to him, as opposed to Stede’s “smile politely and repress” approach to communication. He might make scary eyes at you, but he’s willing to try and make things better. In a way, they also talk it through like a crew, although they don’t dig deeper for the roots of those issues.
But when Izzy goes “waa waa namby pamby pining for his boyfriend”, this is the biggest slap in Ed’s face he could deliver. No one laughs at Blackbeard, especially not his trusty assistant, who previously looked up to him as a sea god of sorts, who was literally ready to leave for being disrespectful to Ed before. So Ed’s reflexes kick back again, and he resorts to violence to stop the mockery as he’s used to.
And then, when he’s left alone, the crew starts calling out for him to perform another song. There’s something haunting about this moment, how you can feel his paranoia flaring up again, shifting his perception towards the people he thought he could trust.
He trusted Stede, he trusted Jack, he trusted Izzy, and all of them betrayed that trust one way or another. If the one person who allegedly cared about him so so much just left him hanging on a dock like an idiot, and his own right hand man feels okay with belittling him, then what about the rest of them? Who can he trust at this point? Who’s not a fickle crowd?
Maybe all of them disliked him all along. Maybe they laugh at him behind his back. Maybe they’re frivolously calling him Eddie and demanding another performance, because he’s the ship clown. Maybe all of them need to be scared into their place again, with chopped toes and pointed guns.
I think this is confirmed by the way he looks at Lucius before throwing him overboard. Lucius comes to him talking about the talent show, and Ed gives him a bitter smile that says “I know what you’re doing. I know exactly how you feel about me. I see it now, and I won’t be made fun of anymore”.
The way he calls the crew “Bonnet’s playthings” too, not only objectifying them back into their role of ship’s workers, but also separating himself from ever being friendly with these people. They can’t hurt him anymore if they’re some insignificant belongings of another person he has no feelings towards.
And after he’s back to being the Blackbeard, the man who’s feared but feels no fear, no rejection and no embarrassment, he sobs uncontrollably, now with even less emotional outlets for his pain, frustration and confusion. Probably certain that he will never meet another person who could love someone like him, whom Ed could love and trust back.
I know we like, jokingly blame everything that happened on Izzy, but he’s not the only one who needs the Blackbeard’s image. Neither of them have the social leverage without it, and Ed would need sooo much therapy before he can fully stop relying on being the Blackbeard, like he wanted in ep 9.
All in all, Ed’s already fragile trust in people is now fucked beyond belief, and if Stede really wants to convince him his love confessions still mean shit, he’ll have to work his ass off for it. And i’m excited to see how it goes.
uhh i don’t have an explanation for these, i just incoherently started doodling something based on the ep2 cut shirt look and it went downhill from there
Continuingtheseposts, some general Izzy thoughts because I wanna open up his brain like a tin can and peek inside.
Izzy is simultaneously the most rational person on board, and the pettiest, most emotionally shriveled raisin of them all.
Izzy is the manager to Ed’s messy rock star genius. He’s the guy who makes sure that his performer isn’t drunk off his ass, and can get on stage in time. He’s the only one who cares about the actual important sailing things and their own safety, while Ed and Stede are fucking around, swapping clothes and drinking their 7 sugar tea. The Revenge crew also consists of people who nail their sleeves to the floor, hammer fabric and abandon scrubbing the barnacles to draw each other naked, so no wonder Izzy’s so pissed all the time.
Ed can be unpredictable, fickle and even lacking empathy when he’s not in the mood the mundane things.
Ed is fine with endangering others for his own entertainment, when he’s certain that everything’s under control (him making Roach dive from the mast, him threatening to shoot Stede if he didn’t stab him, etc). When Izzy was rightfully freaking out about the approaching enemy ship, Ed intentionally withheld the information about the fog just to fuck with him. Izzy must be put in his place by showing that he’s a little overreacting bitch, and that he should chill and trust Ed’s massive brain.
But Ed is the one who fucks this up, and even worse, leaves no time for them to think of something else, because he wanted a dramatic reveal instead of discussing their strategy like a normal captain. If Stede didn’t lead them to the lighthouse idea, they really would’ve been done for.
So yeah, Izzy might be full of micromanaging and overthinking anxieties, but he operates in clear statements and directions, and if his captain communicated with him in those instead of some cryptic mind games, maybe he wouldn’t have to live in fear of uncertainty every single day.
Izzy is a pragmatic. He doesn’t see clouds as anything else, because their only role to him is to deliver rain and fog. He doesn’t feel the need to work on his people skills, or make friends with the crew, because their purpose is to silently do their job on the ship.
I believe that when they first met, Izzy used to be a positive influence on Ed. If his right hand man was someone like Calico Jack, now that’d be a disaster. Maybe Ed enjoys having more level-headed people around him, so they can balance his emotional and impulsive side out.
But Izzy and Ed are incompatible long-term, because they’re too fundamentally different, much like Mary and Stede. They just want different things from life. Ed and Stede live in their romanticized adventures on the high seas, while Mary and Izzy are concerned with earthlier, simpler problems. Mary wants to fit into her society and raise her kids accordingly, Izzy wants himself and his crew to get through another day. Mary wants to show off her paintings, Izzy wants to be appreciated for his skills. Neither of them can fathom uprooting that simple but respectable life for some naïve and potentially dangerous dream.
Izzy knows he’s nothing without being Blackbeard’s right hand man. Ed has what Izzy wants: the flair, the stature, the ability to make people feel awe, even when he’s at his most lowkey and friendly. Izzy may have the same wits, but he’s too dry to have the same charm and effect on people. Izzy’s just a little man who dresses like a goth secretary. As soon as the crew figures out that he’s all bark and no bite, they stop taking him seriously. He tries being a captain once, but almost immediately gets thrown overboard.
I think it’s a popular hc that Izzy has some military roots, and imo that makes a lot of sense for him in general, but especially in terms of how he expects people to treat him. Soldiers inherently respect the ranks and rules, but regular pirates are mostly concerned with how likely they are to lose a body part if they piss you off, and compared to Ed, Izzy’s probability sees pretty low.
If Ed ever decides to stop being a pirate, or abandon the Blackbeard’s name, or leave Izzy behind, Izzy’s entire life will be in shambles, and he knows it. He’d have to start from square one, and probably not a very high-ranking or highly respected square at that. His attempt to resign in ep 4 was not a decision he made lightly, but the working conditions just got that bad.
But instead of letting him go with dignity, Ed decides to abandon his Blackbeard brand in favor of some class tourist he met three weeks ago – a person who Izzy considers inferior to both of them, who gets treated as an equal while Izzy has never been more than a secretary. It’s not just a personal betrayal, but a shitty thing to do to your trusty first mate out of nowhere in general. And yeah, I’d be livid too.
Here’s some other minor early Izzy/Ed moments I just wanted to mention somewhere.
When Ed is saying hi to the crew and being all cool and charming, you can see Izzy smile in the background because his boss is so goddamn affable (before he goes back to yelling at everyone). It just really stood out to me because I don’t remember Izzy casually smiling like that ever again.
When they take Stede to show how the raids are done, Ed is the one taking up all of the boat’s width, while Izzy is perched on the side, giving Ed’s leg some space.
Izzy says he regrets the nasty things he called Ed, but Ed isn’t mad, he agrees he’s not the pirate he used to be. And Izzy gives him the most puppy dog face I’ve ever seen from him, like both of them are solemnly reflecting on the years behind them.
You look at these and see a glimpse of an old workspace relationship built on mutual respect, going through some rocky times but going nevertheless.
I get a feeling that normally Izzy was at least trying to humor and accommodate Ed’s softer side. He didn’t necessarily understand it maybe, but he put some effort into keeping Ed happy.
He went along with a lot of Ed’s whims, including patiently waiting for Ed to entertain his rich boy fantasy, assuming that Stede will be gone once he taught Ed everything. Izzy suggests to be the one to get rid of Stede if Ed can’t do it, because he’s well aware of Ed’s murder anxiety. Hell, even Blackbeard’s scary reputation serves as a shield and a distraction to allow the actual Ed some leeway: Ed doesn’t have to be a monster, all they need is to make him SEEM scary.
The problem seems to be that Ed’s regular softer side and Ed in ep 10 are two completely different entities, at least in Izzy’s eyes. It’s one thing not being a grotesque killing machine 24/7; that’s okay, neither is Izzy, that’s not what he wants. But it’s another to get used by some fancy pants idiot, get dumped when he’s tired of playing pirates, and then sit and mope about it all day. Now this rubs Izzy the wrong way. Izzy coming in with his speech in ep 10 is basically his pep talk about how Ed needs to get his shit together. To him, it’s just a reality check.
This is the illustration he shoves in Ed’s face:
It’s different from the one Stede showed to Ed earlier, the one that upset him. This is a more accurate and down-to-earth depiction, with just one sword and all. This is how Izzy remembers him, and choosing this one over the hyperbolic violent one says to me that he doesn’t necessarily want Kraken!Ed, he simply wants the regular Ed back. Which only confirms to me that in S2 Izzy will regret pushing him that far.
I also don’t think that Stede’s kindness or gentleness in itself would normally be a problem for Izzy either, even if he himself doesn’t realize that. Both of them do their own weird courteous version of pirating. No, what would annoy someone like Izzy is Stede’s lack of skill and experience, which, in turn, hinders Ed and ruins their own reputation. Stede has zero intimidation points, he doesn’t know how the pirating world operates, he’s constantly getting himself into trouble. What if people were to see Blackbeard babysit someone like that? That’s embarrassing, that ruins their scary image.
All of this can be fixed in due time. Stede is a goofball but he’s not dumb, he’s more than willing to learn, and he wants to seem intimidating too. He’s just very new to all of this. But Izzy doesn’t care, because being in charge already comes with certain expectations. Stede is a poser, he didn’t work hard to become a captain, he bought his way into it. Maybe someday Stede will deserve a modicum of respect in Izzy’s eyes, now that he actually left everything behind.
I strongly believe that Izzy can get his own happy ending. I don’t think that killing him or leaving him in misery fits the show’s tone. Izzy is another messy gay bitch going through a midlife crisis on par with Ed and Stede, and he deserves his own resolution.
I think Izzy needs a new captain, who would actually appreciate him for all the things that Ed finds annoying. Who would take Izzy’s hand and go “I love your huge brain and your immaculate discipline. Please keep my ship in order". And then they kiss. Imo there’s no way Izzy would be okay with losing Ed to Stede otherwise. He needs to realize how bad they’re for each other, divorce and move on.
S1 was about Stede processing that his marriage sucked and that he and Mary found true love elsewhere. We can do the same in the next season(s) with Ed and Izzy.
So we can see how Ed’s feelings towards Stede start influencing his regular behavior. He changes his mind on some of his previous rules, he doesn’t see some things in the same light anymore. That’s to be expected, especially since Ed is quite a social chameleon.
But the same kinda happens to Izzy, too. He’s losing control of the situation and feeling replaced, and so he does some things he might’ve not done before. So I just wanted to compare a few things in his actions for fun.
To me, ep 4 is really good at establishing the baseline of how Izzy and Ed used to interact, even if things were starting to get sour between them. On my first watch I even commented that I completely understand and relate to Izzy at that point. Ep 4 Izzy paints the picture of a stressed assistant who doesn’t feel heard or valued, and I can get behind that frustration. But after that it kinda starts going off the rails.
At first Izzy is totally fine with calling Ed by his name, and in fact keeps doing that up until ep 10. The thing is, he considers himself the only one worthy of doing that. Izzy used to be the closest figure to him, the one who used to know Edward best as a person instead of a mythical menace.
But Stede frivolously steals the “Edward” privileges for himself, and then his crew does the same. And all that’s left to Izzy is referring to Ed as Blackbeard, the image they might’ve crafted together.
And eventually he doesn’t want to perceive “Edward” at all.
Izzy looks up to Ed’s expertize. Ed has a creative problem solving mind, he thinks outside the box, and that’s pretty sexy. Hell, Izzy probably thought the lighthouse trick was pretty damn neat, even if Stede had a hand in it.
But then we have the “take me down” scene where Izzy lashes out that Ed is acting like he’s too smart for him and doesn’t trust Izzy to do things right anymore.
Izzy originally wanted to leave the crew because he didn’t like the working conditions. Ed was the one who stopped him.
But when he’s forced to leave because he lost to Stede, and Ed just goes “oh well, shouldn’t have challenged him, buddy”, that kind of exit is unacceptable.
Izzy seemed pretty okay with the idea of Ed retiring at first, as long as he got rid of Stede in the process and put Izzy in charge.
(I do wonder what Ed’s retirement would’ve looked like before Stede)
Compared to how mad he was at Ed essentially going into that retirement in ep 10, because 1) all of it was caused by Stede 2) Izzy being in charge clearly didn’t work out 3) Izzy hated seeing Ed in this passive state.
I’m actually not sure how bloated Izzy’s ego was originally. He definitely wanted to be respected and feared and in control, and he obviously would’ve loved to raise in ranks, but I can’t say he was exactly over the top haughty or megalomaniacal about it. But I choose to believe that when he stopped getting Ed’s recognition, he started trying to compensate his sense of importance by being an obnoxious little arrogant man. Because that’s pretty funny.
We know how Ed feels about passive aggressiveness. He can ignore insults; Izzy previously called him a twat and an unpleasant shell of a man, and even said he wished the British killed him, and Ed barely reacted to any of those. Izzy’s mad, what else is new? It’s only when Izzy starts mocking him is when Ed loses it. I imagine if that ever happened before, Izzy wouldn’t be a part of the crew, or alive in general, so that has to be a new low even for him.
On that note, Izzy was lecturing Ed about signing up to serve the navy, despite literally pulling the same thing earlier, as long as they got rid of Stede.
I don’t really have a further point here, I just uhh *puts Izzy in a pear wiggler* He’s fascinating and full of mysteries to solve.
I’m so fascinated by how Izzy was the one pushing Ed back into being Blackbeard. On the surface it seems like a logical outcome, but when you dig deeper, you start to realize that the end of S1 is not something anyone would want, not even Izzy himself.
So Izzy is very much a lawful evil kind of guy. He seems to value reputation, skills and structure above all else. He admires Ed for being a great sailor instead of a great pirate, and the most annoyance Ed can cause to him is when Ed stops paying attention to the actual captaining that keeps them alive and afloat and starts doing his own weird impulsive cat things.
The funny thing is, for how much Izzy hates Stede’s way of pirating, Izzy is also a pretty unorthodox pirate, if you think about it. Izzy’s version of piracy isn’t what most people would normally picture.
Izzy’s mad about Stede ambushing them and tricking them out of a hostage, but when you think about it, isn’t that what pirates and robbers are supposed to do? Why would they politely buy the hostages from the natives, when Stede’s tactic seems more intuitive? Why would you cut your enemy’s shirt open and give them a warning, when you could just stab them and leave them to die? Why would you agree to leave the ship just because you broke the handle of your sword, when you absolutely won the fight in every other regard?
Because Izzy isn’t some lowlife savage criminal, he’s a connoisseur of the respectable art of High Crime.
Ed mentioned how their raids aren’t a challenge for him anymore because people just run in fear. And honestly? This sounds like such an Izzy thing.
You approach someone, they wee their pants and abandon the ship, there’s no senseless loss on your side or time wasted fighting, you simply board and loot it and maybe take a couple remaining hostages and move on like a badass. Nice, clean, fucking professional… but way too efficient for Ed. He enjoys the thrill and unpredictability of a nice fight, and this just feels like routine. Tragic: you streamlined your job so well, your boss doesn’t like it anymore.
As far as I know, the real Izzy Hands was probably responsible for spreading a lot of the Blackbeard mythos we know today, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the fictional Izzy worked his ass off building up Ed’s scary reputation, as well.
So this is how Izzy operates. And when you keep that in mind, you start to realize that Izzy shouldn’t want Ed to end up like he did in ep 10. His ideal Blackbeard would’ve been closer to Izzy’s own ideals: intimidating, disciplined, smart pirate with brilliant strategies and an obedient crew, focused on extending his terrifying but just reach. Like some sort of… menacing gentleman pirate.
But what Izzy provokes at the end of S1 is pretty much the opposite. This Ed is even more volatile and chaotic than ever, probably even less inclined to listen to anyone’s advice, or be rational and fair in his judgement. If he wants to start throwing crew members overboard or cut their toes off for a laugh because he feels like it, he will. If he wants to send them all to their doom because he’s feeling emo and has nothing to lose, he will. So who’s to say that Izzy will be safe?
Izzy didn’t want to die for either Ed or Stede. But I think he might come close to that in the next season. And for a survivor like Izzy, that’s probably the only thing that’d make him realize the line he’s crossed.
Back when Ed said that he needed him, Izzy gave one of the few genuine smiles in the show, and that smirk was timid, and almost immediately hidden, as if Izzy was embarrassed to show how happy that made him.
When Izzy announces the return of Blackbeard, his smile is different. He’s still in pain from his toe loss, and probably still a little shaken by it. All of his other toes are intact, so this is something Ed has never done before. It must be pretty scary to see Ed at his worst, but Izzy’s trying to convince himself that this is what they need to make things go back to the status quo, where Ed still needs him, and where others don’t see them as a joke. So he’s grinning through that pain and fear like a maniac, in a false triumph he made up for himself.
I think everyone agrees that being Blackbeard, the toxic joth, isn’t a good way to live, but I also saw people say that Ed from eps 9-10 is his best and truest self. And while ep 9 Ed is definitely sweet and shows a hint of what could’ve been, I think it’s also an unhealthy extreme.
There’s something unsettling about Ed in that state, how tired and nihilistic he sounds behind the words of reassurance. He doesn’t really have ambitions or goals or cunning plans or reputation to uphold anymore. He’s fine just going with the flow with his head down, spend his time folding clothes, writing poetry, looking out the windows and ignoring the world around him.
And while it might seem okay, for how much Ed used to talk about missing the fun chaos, the excitement, the spark in his life, I refuse to believe that giving up and losing that interest is good for him. And I think that’s why Stede reacted shocked and upset to seeing him in this state, as well. You can tell he’s thinking “jesus, I broke this man”. Ed’s only hanging by a thread, and his biggest thread after giving up the piracy was Stede, which is not a healthy thing in itself.
Their conversation about fleeing to China is indicative of it, too. The idea of them escaping together is what finally lightens Ed up, but when Stede takes his time thinking about it, Ed goes back to looking resigned for a moment.
It’s okay, they don’t have to go anywhere. They could just be regular sailors in love, even if they spend the rest of their lives serving for a purpose they hate. That’s fine.
But then Stede agrees, and Ed’s whole demeanor changes back to giddy excitement, and he’s ready to plot an escape and steal boats and look for new adventures.
I really want Ed to find a healthy middle between these two states. He doesn’t have to be an unfeeling monster, but he also doesn’t have to give up on the lifestyle that brings him joy and excitement in favor of being emotionally dependent on someone he, let’s be real, practically just met. I believe he can figure out how to balance these two out without having an identity crisis.
okayy (some of) ed’s tattoos!! disclaimer that this isn’t that accurate and i just tried my best to squint at what these could be….the placements and sizes are off as well but maybe this can be a little helpful? (he does also have a ship tattoo a bit lower on the chest but i didn’t have any pictures of it for this….)
adding here also that the round one on his left forearm is a doubloon!
(I think the first pic here is slightly closer in design to what he has, the second is for the clear lettering–)
![“[on his nickname "R-Pattz”] I would like to break the hands and mouth of the pers](https://64.media.tumblr.com/77e6865e3e13c4d3fc1c950219977d19/tumblr_mhoyecCByk1r9qa5jo1_540.png "“[on his nickname \"R-Pattz”] I would like to break the hands and mouth of the pers")
