#points at this post
A point I’d like to see being addressed more: the thing that ACTUALLY made Stede run away. Like, okay, yes, in HINDSIGHT Stede figured out he had to go home to set things right with his family and find out just how much he didn’t belong there, but he didn’t originally leave Ed specifically for that reason.
In the moment, Stede Bonnet ran away from his life at sea and a future with Ed because he believed to his core that he was not just a poor pirate, but a monster and a plague, a ruiner of beautiful things—and then Badminton confirmed it, repeated his inner thoughts back at him while pointing a gun at him. It’s a recurring motif throughout the show, Stede picturing his family and Nigel Badminton in moments of guilt; we already know he thinks he ruined their lives. He’s working through that guilt. It doesn’t begin to occur to him that he’s ruined Ed, however, truly ruined him despite Izzy’s bleating, until the Act of Grace business.
