anyone else having deep thinky thoughts about how the start of episode 10 establishes that izzy only smiles when he’s lying, specifically because he wants to give the impression that everything’s TOTALLY fine, NOTHING is wrong, BLACKBEARD IS FINE, and then he has the exact same expression on his face when he says “blackbeard is himself again” at the end of the episode?
like, it’s not just the toe thing: by this point in the episode, izzy also knows that edward killed lucius, and, importantly, he apparently feels NOTHING about it. no emotions whatsoever.
and like, I don’t think that’s something izzy was expecting. I don’t think he thought anyone was actually going to be killed, or at least not this quickly and this coldly. he asks if he should go get lucius to take notes, for fuck’s sake. he wouldn’t ask if he thought note-taking was never going to happen again. he’s not like “mwahahaha, now’s our chance to make that stupid twink do some real work!” or whatever. he’s still thinking about lucius in the sense of his position on the ship, which izzy neither respects nor appreciates, but clearly it’s not something izzy expected to change.
I think he fully expected everything to stay the same, except now blackbeard would have some more internal oomph and maybe the crew would start doing the kind of shit a crew is expected to do, like rewicking cannons and scraping barnacles and whatnot. I’d even go so far as to say that he still expected the version of blackbeard who avoided killing people personally, even if he was okay with less direct forms of murder. and that’s not what he got.
but this is what izzy WANTED, right? he WANTED the blackbeard that randomly threatens violence and kills people, not edward the, ahem, “mamby-pamby in a silk gown pining for his boyfriend.” he WANTED the blackbeard that makes people eat their own toes for a laugh. he WANTED the legendary blackbeard from stede’s book of pirates (which episode 4 shows that even pre-stede blackbeard thinks is over-the-top). he WANTED this, right? RIGHT?
YUP. TOTALLY. THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM. EVERYTHING’S FINE.
sorry i’m just still on this because it could not be a more obvious textbook parallel
opening scene: “blackbeard’s under the weather but he’s in good spirits!”
closing scene: “blackbeard is himself again!”
I think a lot of people read the second one literally: that he really is happy that edward’s become blackbeard again, and he’s totally on board with everything he does, when I think it couldn’t be more clearly telegraphed that on some level, izzy is aware that ed being “himself” as the kraken is just as much of a lie as ed being fine after being abandoned by stede.
which, speaking of parallelism:
while I’m on the izzy apologia train, let’s talk about these two scenes!
because like, okay, the show makes this scene in episode 10 to be a very serious threat. and it is! he’s straight up threatening to murder ed! that’s a big fucking deal!
exceptizzydoes that all the fucking time. their entire relationship up to this point has been izzy insulting ed, trying to bully him into the version of blackbeard he thinks he wants because that’s the blackbeard that does things instead of hiding in a blanket fort eating marmalade like it’s ben and jerry’s. he uses insults as a motivator and ultimatums as a threat. it’s his usual abusive management style but directed at edward. I think he genuinely does not know any other way to get people to do things, and I highkey doubt that episode 4 was the first or only time izzy has used this tactic on edward.
except, you know, he never actually follows through. episode 4 is just izzy insulting edward and then threatening to quit…. and then immediately turning around the second ed says he needs him. “you will rue this day, edward!” he says in episode 6, immediately before coming up with a plan that gets everyone captured or killed by the british except ed, because he’s a “sentimental bastard.”
so him going off on ed about how he’s not blackbeard anymore, and edward “better watch his fucking step”? that’s normal for them! that’s their usual messed up relationship! what makes this any different?
it isn’t about ed anymore.
izzy’s a huge hypocrite about ed’s name: he’s allowed to call him edward, but he’s blackbeard to everyone else. even when he’s threatening him with a plague on his house or some shit, he’s still calling him edward.
but ed being edward to everyone on the crew is a threat for two interrelated reasons: 1) izzy’s no longer the only special person who gets to call him “edward” and 2) that’s because ed has abandoned all the toxically masculine trappings that made him miserable but also kept him safe.
I don’t think izzy wants ed to only be blackbeard, but I do think he wants ed to be blackbeard to everyone other than him, because leaving himself open to that kind of emotional vulnerability is dangerous. ed’s threats (“I’m still blackbeard, so”) no longer have any weight, because they’re backed up by his squishy marshmallow center instead of the terrifying violent persona, and that’s a problem izzy needs to solve. we know izzy doesn’t have any respect for non-toxic masculinity… but that’s not unique to him. an edward that is miserable but outwardly menacing is safer than an edward who is happy but no longer a threat, because that persona is what has helped them get this far.
so I don’t think “blackbeard is my captain, not edward” is literal, because that would be both way too self-aware for izzy and also not backed up by his actions prior to this. I think it means “I want what we had before – a guy who’s terrifying to everyone, but with whom I can have a very specific level of intimacy, because our relationship is special.”
but izzy’s not saying that. what he’s doing is threatening ed on behalf of blackbeard-the-myth.
and what happens when ed fully goes into kraken mode? izzy doesn’t call him “edward” anymore. he calls him “blackbeard.” ed’s response to the threat is to eliminate any emotional vulnerability, including with izzy, and I don’t think that’s something izzy expected or wanted to happen.
