thinking about post s1, after stede and edward get back together
the crew is mad at both of them and they don’t want either as captain, so they decide to mutiny
Swede asks if this means they have to kill both of them, or throw them off the crew. There’s a good deal of muttering about this, but eventually they decide that they still want them around because they do like stede and ed. So they’re graciously allowed to stay.
stede is a little bummed to not be captain anymore, but he’s more than happy enough to be able to stay with the others. Ed doesn’t say anything because he knows exactly how this is all going to end up.
The crew votes for a new captain, and it’s decided it’s going to be jim, no matter how much jim argues that they don’t want to be captain.
They try it for a while, but whenever someone asks jim what to do, their response is always “i don’t fucking know, go figure it out yourself.” They don’t even want to take over the captain’s quarters because they like their room with oluwande.
It’s quickly decided they have to choose another captain. Next they choose oluwande. Except he keeps turning to ed or stede for advice on what to do and the others eventually catch on that stede and ed are essentially in charge again, and mutiny once more.
And just like that they cycle through all the crewmembers, who all decide they either can’t handle the pressure, or don’t want to argue with everyone when they have to make tough decisions or don’t know the first thing about handling crewmate disputes.
Not even a month goes by before they all grudgingly ask stede and ed to be their co-captains again
Ed is smug, because he knew this was how it would turn out. When he had told stede about it, stede had agreed and had decided to let them make their own mistakes as it were. “It will help them work through their hurt and anger towards the two of us, and will hopefully discourage further attempts at mutiny in the future if they all figure out that being captain isn’t all that fun at all”
And he’s right. By the time stede and ed have become captains of the revenge once more, the rest of the crew seem to have forgotten or moved past their anger and are just happy to have someone competent to tell them what to do.
[Image description Jim from Our Flag Means Death with their face replaced by Jadzia Dax from Star Trek saying “I’m gonna keep this very simple. You know me as Dax? So just… keep calling me Dax.” Second panel is Frenchie with his face replaced by Captain Sisko saying “Yeah, good ol’ Dax, Always liked Dax.”]
