#I will defend stede with my life but I also know that what he did wasn��t okay

[bisexualmultifandommess]

I hate when people call Alma and Louis rude and out of order for how they initially treat Stede in episode 10.

Stede is my favourite character and I love him so much and I try to understand and explain his actions whenever I can but even if it was something he felt he had to do and he didn’t want to hurt anyone he still abandoned his children and hurt them a lot.

Alma has a right to be angry at Stede because this is a man who is supposed to love and be there for her and watch her grow up but he left her without any warning and only a letter to the family. I think she actually acted quite mature in her final scene even though she definitely earned the right to still be bitter.

Stede obviously loves his children and had a decent relationship with them before he left but that doesn’t change the fact that he let them down.

[lamentus1]

Where Ed starts to learn that his actions were forgivable and that he is lovable.

Ed believes that he is unlovable and yet the crew shows him love despite everything he put them through. He feels guilt about what he did to them, and yet the crew forgive him easily.

This contradicts some of the takes I’ve seen over the past few months that suggest the crew didn’t forgive Ed, or that it wasn’t explicitly shown that they forgave him. I sometimes wonder if those people missed episode 5. In this episode everyone gets closure (or at least starts to).

Ed’s initial speech might sound like a politician’s speech, but even at that stage some of the crew are won over, some even impressed by his apology.

Ed and Izzy share a drink out of a bottle. Ed apologies to Izzy, saying sorry about his leg. It’s awkward, but it’s right for both of them.

Lucius might not get closure after throwing Ed off the ship, but he does start on a sort of path to healing. His therapy is drawing pictures of Ed in an attempt to reconcile the real Ed with the evil Ed in his head. He is putting Ed’s face on nice things that he likes, like flowers and dogs, and kind of creating positive associations with Ed’s face to wipe out the negative one that he had. It’s great therapy. And then Izzy tells him that moving on is better and Lucius takes Pete’s advice and focuses on the fact that he lived and he finally takes hold of what he wants - a life with Pete.

When Ed speaks to Fang he admits his guilt. He says: “Maybe I did too much. I took a man’s leg. Terrorised you. I wasn’t a good guy. I’d like to make amends, but honestly I wouldn’t even know where to start, what to say to make things better. How to say it. There are certain things I should be saying…”

At which point Fang interrupts and basically stops him saying any more. In fact he accuses him of talking too much “because you don’t know how to sit with yourself.” Why does Fang cut Ed off at that point? Maybe he is just saying it’s ok, we forgive you, or maybe he just wants Ed to stop scaring the fish. Whatever reason Fang thinks Ed has said enough. He is forgiven.

Ed takes on Fang’s advice to stop talking and just “sit with yourself”. The whole experience with Fang probably leads to Ed’s philosophical approach to being a fisherman.

What’s all this say? That Ed feels like he has to do more to make amends, but the crew is like: ”We’re ok. We still love you.” I also think there is an element of we don’t need to forgive you for what happened because it wasn’t your fault, it was your depression and despair. Nobody should be blamed for a mental breakdown.

But even in the next episode Ed still feels the guilt. In the Calipso’s Birthday episode we have the Guilt Room. “Excellent, A reminder of my guilt. A guilt room,” as Ed says. Even though the crew has forgiven him, he won’t forgive himself.

Ed uses the symbol of his guilt for something good, he turns the poison into positivity with the party paid for by the plunder. But then of course even that goes wrong with the arrival of Ned Lowe, which Ed blames himself for (Ned being one of his passive suicide options that he has now brought down on the crew and Stede).

I feel that the choice of words Ed uses when he tries to stop Stede killing Ned are significant. He says: “Killing in cold blood, you can’t come back from that.” I always wondered what he meant by that, it seems a strange thing to suggest that the circumstances would be “in cold blood” (e.g. no emotion, ruthless and unfeeling) when they are anything but. That’s not what Stede is doing at all, Stede is defending his crew and ridding the world of someone who sort to hurt and kill them all. He is defending his crew from an evil person, just like Ed defended his mother and himself from his father. It’s another thing Ed has to learn: that sometimes killing is justified and it doesn’t make you a bad person.

Then Ed goes to Stede afterwards to offer support and Stede’s reaction to Ed standing at the door talking about how his first kill was his father is to pull him towards him. Perhaps this isn’t just Stede saying he wants Ed, it could also be Stede saying that it was the right thing to do for both of them, to protect their family. And that they have that thing in common. They are comforting each other - and it’s definitely what Ed wanted to happen, I firmly believe he didn’t only go to Stede to comfort him.

I’m going to leave it there, because obviously Ed still has a lot to work through before he can truly forgive himself and learn that he is loved, but he is part way there.

[meteor752]

Episode 6 and 7 thoughts

This will now be a regular thing

Also im writing this as I go

Episode 6

So Izzy thought Ed was Roach. Huh. Does he and Roach talk regularly? <- Coming from a Rizzy shipper

“Do weeeee?” Fang I love you

Oh my god, Frenchie and Jim coming to Ed and Stede like they’re kids asking if their cousins can sleep over

The crew going shoppiiiiiiiiing!!!

Frenchie’s lil dancey dance added many years to my life

Ed being nice and giving kids mon- oh never mind, oh that’s a knife okay. Ed never have kids please

“Don’t pirate kids” well listen okay I don’t have HBO Max it’s the only way I can watch this show

MY QUEEN

Wee John you’re so beautiful and amazing and we don’t deserve you

Jim’s lil mustache, like yeah me too <- Non-Binary person

Stede looks so happy about seeing Wee John!! He’s so proud of his son!

Izzy is gorgeous. I’m actually so happy to see him explore more sides of himself, and to find things he can indulge in. This whole season has really just been Izzy’s big therapy arc

His hair makes him look a bit like Cinderella’s evil stepmother though

Oh he can sing too! Izzy!!! <- A person who did not like Izzy in season one

Wee John X Izzy? Roach X Fang?

YO THE

POLYCULE DANCING?!

Ed protecting Stede….just, immediately putting him behind himself…I just…

I rewatched that clip five times

“Because I only hang out with cool pirates” Stede’s face!!! He’s just like Oh Snapppp

Despite it all, Stede and Ed are still the cutest couple that has ever graced the TV screen. Like hell yeah, make fun of people together!

Ed keeps being protective…..okay I need a moment…

Roach you’re a lunatic and I love you

“Whatever this is it’s just gonna turn me on” Izzy you’re a shining star

Also I just now noticed that Black Pete and Lucius aren’t there. I’m guessing they eloped somewhere and are currently taking care of their adopted cat

Nope okay, literally the second I unpaused there they are. That’s the worst timing

Hell yeah my dudes, I hope you broke whatever bed you used

“I’m just doing it for the lolz” Yeah that’s sounds like something someone from the 1700s would say

I know this is a pirate ship but why do they just have so many knives and swords laying about

Who is this fanged torture queen, and how do I acquire her number?

Stede remains best employer, while Aziraphale is the best landlord. Can these two people just run the world please and thank you

Hell Cat Maggie is my soulmate

I feel like there needs to be a pirate workers union

The crew of the revenge is the best found family of all time

Stede Bonnet can rival Steven Universe in reforming villains, like he’s just such a genuinely nice dude

“Alright gang! Let’s talk profit sharing”

Oh protective Stede, alright let’s go mate defend your mans

Okay but why is Stede kinda 👀 in this scene

Oh Stede, love…

OH THEY FAWHKING

That French? Izzy speaks french?

I want to see that man get dicked down

I guess the revenge now has a pet goat

Episode 7

Okay Ed is a soft boy again, aight

NO NOT THE LEATHER JACKET

The anime toast in mouth thing. He’s officially been baby girl for a long while, but we’re really solidifying it

OH THEY FUCKED

Isn’t there an anime where a mob boss becomes a house wife? Yeah that’s Ed

Oh we’re telling him about the mermaid fantasy, okay

Izzy what the fuck, you’re amazing

“He’s jealous” my darling

The polycule is going strong, and I love the absolute lack of jealousy. This is the best representation I have ever had

Oh they’re going on a date! That’s so sweet actually

It’s really sweet that they’re talking about their time apart

Stede’s famous now? Good for him!

I need to stop falling in love with every pirate lady In this show. That being said, I hope we see more of the fangirl lady

I’m reinforcing my claim that Stede and Ed are cuter than anything that has ever been on screen

OH MY GOD SWEDE

The Söt Och Saftig, my love. Also this far in and this is the first time the character “The Swede” actually says something in Swedish

Scammer Frenchie is back in business, love that

Jim and Archie trying to get their boyfriend set up is very sweet actually

The character development of Izzy going from wanting Ed to remain “Blackbeard” to him saying if being a softie makes him happy then he should do that, like I get it now, I know why you all love this man

OH MY FUCKING GOD STEDE

Can’t believe Stede is an official Slut now

Open communication? Like genuine conversation about their relationship, and the pace they’re taking it? Ed being honest that he’s not ready for the steps they’re taking in their relationship?

What is this argument

I live for Lucius and Black Pete’s nicknames for each other

“I’ve only known you for a few hours Bonnet, but I’d fucking die for ya” Same random dude. Same

Izzy🥹

Zheng and Olu are really cute actually

Oh my god the polycule will end my fucking life

DONT BRING ED INTO THIS ZHENG

“That was really mean” YOU TELL HER STEAK KNIFE

Protective Jim my beloved

Oh my god

Roach and Fang friendship?

Roach is the queen of self care

[ourfag]

finally going back over season 1 while giving myself permission to just follow my gut and let myself see abuse where i see it and . ugh. ffffuuuuuck. the very first thing we learn about izzy’s relationship with ed, before ed even appears onscreen, is that he’ll casually disparage ed’s judgment in front of the crew, and then an episode and a half later he turns around and tells ed he’s been the one defending ed’s judgment in the face of the crew’s doubts, right before hitting ed with a string of personal insults that ed calmly voices his agreement with to izzy the following morning. the way he’s willing to outright lie to ed in aid of furthering his own personal vendetta. the way he reacts any time ed shows signs of emotionally connecting with someone other than him by trying to sever those connections. the way ed is ready to part ways with him after the duel and he says, no, i’m not done with you, i’m taking you back by force. the speech he gives ed when stede’s in front of the firing squad is like a gaslight in a little bottle: you’ve lost your mind and no longer know what’s good for you, but don’t worry—i still do, so i’m going to look out for you by making this decision on your behalf against your will, and even though you think you don’t want this, i know you’ll come to agree with me eventually.

and while his motivations shift in s2 towards supporting ed’s actual wants, he never seems to completely lose that sense of entitlement to accessing every part of ed’s life. which i appreciate! partially because i dont think he’d be at all recognizable to me if he did, but also because it’s so evocative, like, to an alarming degree for me, of someone trying to enact genuinely good intentions through a dysfunctional deeply rooted mental framework that they remain unable to question or revise yet.

[perpetualcontrolleddrowning]

Blackbonnet Soulmate AU

The Nettles in the Garden Don't Go Away

JRaylin441

Summary: When Stede is nine years old, he loses his new red, silk handkerchief.

A soulmate AU where Stede and Edward unwittingly share everything they own. It doesn't change anything, and it changes everything

Read on AO3 (x)

Read Part Two Here (x)

When Edward is twelve years old, he wakes up one morning to find his hand clenched tight in a bright red piece of fabric. He’s never seen anything like it before, and his knuckles are aching from the force of his grip. The fabric, gossamer thin and softer than anything he’s ever touched, is unbreakable in his grasp.

He waits until Father has left for the night before he tentatively shows it to his mother.

“Edward!” she gasps, “Where did you get that?” She snatches it out of his hand before he has a chance to say a word, her other hand a vice around his wrist. “Whoever you took this from, you need to give it right back to them.”

It’s frustrating that she thinks he stole it. He hasn’t stolen anything for at least a couple weeks now. The last time he had taken a pretty bauble from one of the stalls down at the market, his father had seen it and blown up. Do you think I don’t provide enough for this family? Why am I working my ass off all day if I’m just supporting a petty thief? He’d taken the lovely pin and thrown it into the forest bordering their farm with all of his strength and sent Edward to bed without dinner.

Now he watches as his mother runs the bright red fabric through her fingers. It flows like water, but it looks like she doesn’t even notice.

“I didn’t steal it,” he mutters. “I woke up and it was in my hand.”

His mother is tired, so tired, all the time these days. At his words, she rolls her eyes and sighs like he’s wounding her.

“Eddie, you have to give it back. The kind of people who own things like this, we can’t afford to upset them. It’s not safe for the family.”

“Mom, even if I did steal it, you know you don’t have to worry about something like that. If someone ever tried to hurt you, I wouldn’t let them.” She touches his face, just once, lightly. Edward, like a plant seeking sun, leans further into her palm.

“My Edward, you’ve got so much fight in you. I worry about you so much. We’re just not the kind of people who can defend ourselves against everything. Not like the Carmody family, or people like them. Sometimes, love, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to keep our heads down and be kind.”

She’s been saying these sorts of things his whole life, and Edward’s heart rings in recognition of her words. But, he also can’t stop thinking about a few nights ago, when Father had been drunk and angry (again) and there’d been no talking him down from the ledge. His mother had stood there, against the wall of the kitchen, so small, while he ranted and raved at her.

His mother is kind and good, but Edward isn’t sure he has it in him. He isn’t sure it’s something he wants to have in him. But his mother would never listen to him say something like that. And today is a good day. He just wants her to keep smiling at him and touching his face.

“I didn’t steal it, Mom. I don’t even know what it is.”

She doesn’t respond to his words, just smiles indulgently, in a way that lets him know she still doesn’t believe him. But, she doesn’t take her hand away from his face. Instead, she brings the red fabric to meet her other hand, brushing it gently along his cheekbone, in a sweeping arc up toward the outer corner of his eye. It feels like the lightest feather. Like slippery, cool water on a summer’s day. He remembers the iron-rod strength of it in his hand. Marvels at the contrast.

“It’s silk. Feel it, boy. The Carmody Estate is full of things like this. Beautiful things.” And it’s in the way that she says those last words. Beautiful things , with a wistful smile . Like the way that she talks about Heaven and how she smiled the one time he saved up for weeks and bought her a tiny cake from the bakery in town.

“Why can’t we have things like this?” he asks, and his voice is quiet but it feels like his heart is screaming. Like he woke up this morning and drank water for the first time. He lived his whole life dying of thirst, and he didn’t even know until he had his first taste.

“Well it’s not up to us, is it?” She asks, with that patient tilt of her head that she always uses when she knows that he won’t like what she has to say. “It’s up to God. He decides who gets what. We’re just not those kind of people. Never will be.”

And it should be a silly thing, just a passing conversation that quickly fades into memory. But, something about the way that his mother says that, the way that she presses the silk against his fingers with worshipful care while explaining why it could never be hers, strikes him. He feels the words bouncing around him and his body ringing like a church bell. He feels jittery and unsettled and like he needs to get up and do something, doesn’t matter what.

Before anything more can come of the conversation, Father comes home. Mother, quick as a flash, tucks the fabric up Edward’s sleeve. She catches and holds his gaze for a moment or two, likely trying to remind him to return the silk scrap, before walking over to greet Father.

Edward feels the smooth brush of silk against the inside of his wrist with each pulse of blood through his veins. In the confines of his sleeve, it flattens and warms, to a point where it almost feels like it isn’t there anymore. Like it’s part of his skin.

He doesn’t return the silk. Firstly, because he didn’t even steal it in the first place and would have no idea how to go about returning it. Secondly, because that thirsty, desperate part of him is soothed and quieted by the liquid strength of the silk. Thirdly, because he can’t stop hearing those words. Beautiful things. Like a benediction. Like a prayer. Like a blessing.

*~*~*

When Stede is nine years old, he loses his new red, silk handkerchief.

His father had been happy today. Well, not happy. Never, really, happy. But, Stede had gone with him into town to watch him select the material for a new doublet to wear at a luncheon that was happening next week. His father had walked him through his thought processes and, for once, Stede had felt like they were speaking the same language. The things his father was saying made sense.

At the end of the day, his father had allowed him to pick out one handkerchief to go with the suit that his grandmother had gifted him last month. Stede had hemmed and hawed over the overwhelming options until his father was sighing exasperatedly behind him. Quickly, before Stede could sour the very good day, he grabbed for a bright red, silk handkerchief that had caught his eye right as he walked in. It was fine material, smooth and slick against his fingers like the silk dresses his mother used to wear for tea.

His father gave a grunt of acknowledgement and paid for the handkerchief along with the tailorwork for his doublet. Stede had walked out of the shop fiddling with the fabric until his father snapped at him that he would ruin it if he kept touching it. Stede slipped the handkerchief into the paper bag the shopkeeper had provided before his father could decide that he didn’t deserve to have it.

When they arrived at home, Stede had run off to go do whatever the fuck it was he did all day and brought the handkerchief with him. He sat on his bed and fiddled with it for a few moments, before carefully wrapping it back up in the paper and setting it neatly on his dresser. After dinner that night, he looked at it one more time before falling asleep.

And now it’s morning, and the handkerchief is gone. He’s positive that he left it right there on the dresser, but he checks his drawers and closet quickly. He spends a single moment worried that his father might notice it missing and be angry until he realizes: his father. Of course his father had come into his room last night and seen that Stede hadn’t put the handkerchief away correctly.

It was stupid of him to leave it out like that. No wonder his father never lets him have things like this, if he can’t even take care of them.

*~*~*

The silk is not the last time that Edward wakes up to find something in his hands. A few weeks after the first incident, he wakes up with his hands gripped tight around a fascinating little rock. It’s the width of his thumb and flashes and glitters in the sunlight. He doesn’t show anyone this time. Instead, he pries up one of the many loose floorboards in the house and hoards the stone away. On the rare moments where he’s the only one at home, Edward takes the stone out and watches it glint and flash in the light. Watches as it reflects fractal patterns around the room.

It continues on like this. Over the next year, every couple weeks, he wakes to find his hands wrapped tight around some curiosity or bauble. On the day of his thirteenth birthday, he wakes up to find sugar and whipped icing all over his hands from where they are squeezing a slice of cake. Edward makes sure no one else in the room is awake and then licks each of his fingers clean, one by one.

It’s like nothing he’s ever eaten before. The sugar and frosting coat his tongue lightly and the cake is as light as air. There are flavors he doesn’t even know how to name. It tastes like a forbidden celebration and the bubbling joy of discovery.

The beast in him, that desperate, starving thing that claws and scratches and howls for something he couldn’t name, goes quiet for a moment. Sleepy and sated.

He wonders for a while whether he has started sleepwalking. Perhaps Edward is a spectacular thief, to the point that he can sneak into the estates on the other side of town and return home with his spoils without ever waking up.

When he finally figures it out, he feels stupid for taking so long. Sure, he’s never heard of this kind of soulmate pairing before, but there’s nothing else it could be. Edward’s mother shares dreams with her soulmate, and his father has a black marking of a swan on the back of his neck. It’s usually something simple like that. Supposedly, the pairings are supposed to help you find a perfect match. In reality, no one really bothers with that sort of thing. Soulmate pairings can come from all walks of life, from every background, and it’s irrational to think that you could ever find the other person. Even for the rare few that do find each other, it never really works out. Different statuses, same gender, different ethnicities. There are a million ways people can fall apart.

So. Edward assumes the baubles are from his soulmate. If that’s the case, then it’s just another case to prove the rule. Edward with his family in their tiny, one-room house on a tenant farm. The soulmate, with their silks and stones and cakes. Beautiful things , he thinks. We’re just not those kind of people.

*~*~*

Stede has always loved stories about soulmates. He likes the idea of someone out there who is made for you and will understand you perfectly. Who will think it’s charming that he is always misplacing his things and doesn’t seem to care about the same things as the other boys his age.

Stede recently found a small nook in the school library that’s almost impossible to see. He spends his lunches there, and some of his time after classes. He can hear the other boys carousing and yelling outside on the lawn, but Stede is working his way through shelf after shelf of novels.

He finds the romance stories. The first time Stede reads a story like that, where the main character is swept off on a grand adventure with a handsome, charming rapscallion, he feels a strange sort of stirring behind his breastbone. A sort of knowing. For a few weeks, he’s utterly hooked. Every free moment finds Stede curled up in his small nook, tearing through the whirlwind romances and finding himself just as swept off his feet as the protagonists.

His favorite story is one about a pair of soulmates. They find each other from the other side of the country, drawn together by their shared thoughts. Stede reads with avid attention as the soulmates grow to know each other, to find each other, to love each other. When he finishes the book for the first time, he immediately starts it over again. And again.

Of course, it’s a boarding school. You’re never truly alone in a place like that, and there’s nowhere you can go where someone has not gone before.

The other boys find him. They let Stede know that what he is doing is incorrect. They are not kind about it.

He stops reading the romance novels.

*~*~*

Once there’s an explanation for what’s happening, Edward considers throwing the stuff out. It’s way less interesting if it’s some dumb soulmate thing. Sleepwalking thievery would have been way cooler.

Still, when he actually goes to toss that shiny rock, the second thing that ever arrived, into the forest, he can’t bring himself to let it leave his hand. And fuck, why can’t he enjoy the things? Just because they come from some rich-as-fuck soulmate out there doesn’t mean he can’t use them for his own fun. He’s going to eat the cake and hoard the little treasures and it has nothing to do with a soulmate. Beautiful things. He’s going to shove it in the face of every asshole who ever tried to say that he couldn’t have things like this. One of these days, he’s going to go out into the world and take every beautiful thing from every one of those fuckers who tried to keep him on this small-town farm for the rest of his life.

Might as well start with the soulmate.

*~*~*

The night after his classmates tie him up in a rowboat and throw rocks at him, Stede curls up in his bed and cries. Great, heaving sobs that rip through him and leave him shaky and exhausted. He tumbles into a crusty-eyed sleep and wakes up dizzy with dehydration.

He wakes up holding a knife.

*~*~*

Edward thought it would be easier. He thought it would be harder. He thought someone would notice or care.

He’s staring up at the thatch poking through the roof above his bed. Edward doesn’t know how long he’s been staring like this. He doesn’t think he needs to blink anymore. Maybe he never did.

It should feel…bad, right? Edward feels scooped-out and hollow. There’s an echoing emptiness inside of him. In the rain and the struggle, it had all felt overwhelming and crushing and terrifying. Now, it’s like he’s been scorched clean on the inside. Like he cauterized all of his fear.

Edward stares at the ceiling. He doesn’t remember falling asleep, but he must have, because he wakes up with the sunrise.

He’s holding a fluffy pair of socks.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Ok I’m gonna jump on my Calico Jack apologia for a bit here. To be clear I don’t think that Calico jack being mean to Stede like that was ok, it had underlying tones of toxic masculinity and misogyny and a little bit of homophobia and it was uncool, and I think he had the cannonball to the chest coming for what he did to poor Karl. also I think the nickname was a bad writing call. I will not defend this character from those things. What I do want to apologize for is everything else

Ok now with that out of the way because no one on tumblr understand nuance. Here goes. STEDE DID TO MARY AND DOUG EXACTLY WHAT JACK DID TO ED AND STEDE EXCEPT STEDE DIDN’T HAVE AN EXCUSE AND JACK DID!!! Allow me to explain. First off I’ll just acknowledge the way in which Jack was worse. The only way that he was worse in fact. Jack never apologized. Stede did, point for Stede there.

Now brief aside to talk about Izzy Hands (i.e. Calico Jack’s excuse) Izzy is clearly talking about how shitty Stede is to anyone who will listen. How Ed has been seduced by him and how he’s done something to Ed’s brain and all that bullshit. We also know that Jack was sent by Izzy to extract him before the British show up. That was Jack’s mission. Now I want you to imagine that you’ve got an old friend, you and this old friend haven’t talked in a couple years, but you went through a lot together when you were younger. You’re friend’s current best friend approaches you and tells you that they’re currently fighting with your old friend because this friend has a new boyfriend and his new boyfriend is shitty blah blah blah you probably stop listening. But then this friend of a friend who you’re talking to mentions that the new boyfriend has a warrant out for his arrest, and you happen to know that the old friend in question has done something that that they could get put away for life for, and if the cops show up, your friend is defiantly going away for a really long time. The best friend then tells you that he’s made a deal with the cops to get his own record scrubbed in exchange for information about where to find the new boyfriend. What might you do to save your friend from getting locked up for the rest of his life?

Now that you’ve seen things from Jack’s point of view. Jack is no longer trying to maliciously break Ed and Stede up, is he? No he’s trying to save Ed’s life. Could he technically have warned everyone? Yeah. But he doesn’t know Stede, all he knows about Stede is what Izzy Hands told him. And I’m guessing someone like Jack isn’t going to be too terribly charitable to a pirate hobbyist, as is his right, frankly. Stede doesn’t have to do this and he’s putting everyone else at risk by doing it. So if Jack deems Stede to be a liability, which he almost certainly has, he’s going to try to get Ed out of there without Stede figuring out what’s going on, so that Stede goes down and Ed walks, -1 liability that’s gonna get his ass shot. Jack doesn’t know that Ed’s in love. Jack just knows he’s in danger. That is the context in which Jack tells Stede that he doesn’t know Ed at all and pisses on his boots. That is the context in which Jack calls Stede a “Store Bought type” as opposed to a real pirate. That is the context that Jack has.

Another thing I want to touch on is that Jack almost defiantly thought Ed knew what he was doing. I want to remind you of that scene where Ed finds out what’s going on. Jack says “When I heard you shacked up with him I said-” and Ed cuts him off and asks “Where’d you hear that?” and Jack’s eye twitches a little and he furrows his brow and cocks his head in confusion. Then he start’s laughing and says “Took you long enough, the old Blackbeard would have seen me coming a mile away.” Like, he thought Blackbeard knew what he was doing the entire time. He was under the impression that Ed knew and agreed to come with him in full knowledge of that.

Also The entire time he was there up until the point of Ed breaking up with Stede, Ed was having a perfectly good time. He was laughing, and smiling and jumping around and when Ed did give off vibes that he was uncomfortable, Jack laid off. He of course didn’t lay off Stede, but as soon as Ed adjusts himself uncomfortably in the chair and Says “Stede doesn’t want to hear about that.” Jack stops talking, let’s Ed and Stede have their moment, and suggests they do a new activity. He’s not there to bully Ed or make Ed feel like shit. He’s there to cause problems on purpose and get out while the getting's good.

Now I get that Jack was still super manipulative and he still says really shitty things like the whole ‘pirates don’t have friends’ line, which almost definitely  fucked with Ed assuming he wasn’t too under water to hear it. But I think that Jack being kinda Shitty can in fact be forgiven, at least as it relates to Ed and Stede, not as it relates to Karl there is no excuse for what happened to Karl, given that Stede is so much worse to Mary and Doug.

Now that we’ve compared Stede’s POV of the Calico Jack incident to Jack’s Pov of the Calico Jack incident, lets consider Doug’s POV of the Stede Bonnet incident.

I am going to make an assumption about Doug. I will assume he’s a wife guy who loves Mary very much.

So you fall in love with someone, right, you have a lot of common interests, common interests that you have been engaging with for a long time but which they have never really been encouraged for and have even been insulted for at times. They ask you to show them more because you’re the expert, and you do and as you do you very slowly fall in love with this person and they fall in love with you and you get closer and closer over time and everything is going great. Then their ex from a time when they were unhappy and had to hide a part of themself shows up and expects them to be the same person they were when they were unhappy and causes problems when they aren’t that person anymore. Does this sound familiar? It should because that is both the Doug, Mary, Stede dynamic, and the Stede, Ed, Jack dynamic.

Except it’s actually not the same, because the whole time Jack was there, up until the breakup, he was getting positive feedback. Stede was the only one who didn’t want him there. Stede didn’t get any positive feedback. Mary’s friend openly wants to kill him from the moment that he steps in the house. Mary vomits when he shows back up. And when Stede get’s drunk he’s not fun he’s violent. Calico Jack ruined a perfectly good pair of boots, Stede almost ruined Doug’s neck. What Stede did might have been acceptable in Spanish Jackie’s bar I guess but at an art showing in Barbados where Stede (and maybe Evelyn Higs) is the only criminal? That's insane. It’s the moment when Mary decides if she doesn’t get rid of him he’s going to hurt people.

So you know I give Stede credit for apologizing, but he really fucked up, and I think that despite Jack and Stede displaying similar behavior in these two scenes, Jack is fundamentally more sympathetic here than Stede because of their motivations. Jack wants to extract Ed from a life threatening situation. Stede wants to.... ???

Thats the rub isn’t it. Stede’s not doing this because he has some reason for it. There’s no end goal that is ultimately understandable. He just feels weirdly possessive over Mary despite having abandoned her. He doesn’t even want to be in a relationship with her. He just feels like she should be behaving like his wife despite him never once behaving like her husband. If we’re gonna give Jack shit for being casually misogynistic and homophobic and fatphobic for the “Who’s the big gal” comment we have to give Stede shit for being violently misogynistic with his behavior towards Mary and Doug by proximity. Did he make amends, did she forgive him? Yes. Did he redeem himself? Yeah. But there was so much to redeem dude.

Anyway Calico Jack is actually an interesting and complex character who is also a dick some of you were just bullied in high school and are letting your innate fear of jocks and frat boys get in the way of you accepting that. And you’re more willing to let an autistic gay nerd get away with actually terrible shit because he’s on your side of the high school predator pray dynamic that you were supposed to have turned in with your cap and gown.

[londonspirit]

“There’s this queer pirates show. Go and watch it.”

Something like that started crossing my dash at the end of March. Only a few posts, but they continued, getting more enthusiastic every time I saw someone post about it (mainly looking at you @mylastvow​ and @atlinmerrick​).

I didn’t see anything about that show over on my Twitter (which usually is the reason for me to start watching something). But then again, I was still mourning the end of award season for Tick Tick Boom (also grieving a tough RL loss).

I wasn’t in the headspace for anything new just yet - especially not a TV SHOW (my brain’s weird like that the past two years - it’s either just new films or shows I know, very rarely I was in the mood to start sth new.)  

But then, on a normal Thursday evening the links for it crossed my dash (again) and I was like, why the hell not. You’ve got nothing else to watch, and since Tumblr seems to love it, there must’ve been something about it. 

So I clicked the first link. 

And it changed my life. 

First thing that struck me were the accents (I admit I expected English accents, not the insanely awesome mix of all sorts of accents.) 

Then there was the fact that it wasn’t a full on white show (which lately makes me wanna turn off things). 

And then there was Stede, swanning in like he does and I was like ‘okay, there's something strange going on - I like.’ 

And the second BB appears I was like ‘Oh hello, what’s happening here?!’ 

This doesn’t feel like a pirate show, not at all.  So I kept watching. 

(There’s soo many wonderful and deep analysis about the show so I won’t bore you with that - go and find them and you’ll see why exactly that show’s the most wonderful thing in the world right now and hopefully in the future we’ll see more like this!!!) 

Sadly I had to stop just after E5 to go to bed (yeah, NOW I do NOT know how I had the strength to do that after THAT episode! But I had to work and sometimes I can be a responsible adult.) 

I could NOT wait to get back home tho - and the second I was back I raced through the last five epis. 

My mind’s still blown away, and I knew I found something very very special!!! 

I did a full on rewatch over the following weekend, slower, appreciating all the amazing things, the acting, the sets, the STORYLINES, fucking everything! I was in love with every single thing. 

Naturally Tumblr (and then Twitter’s tags) helped deepen that love even more. 

And then it was all ‘downhill’ from there. 

Now I’m soo deep into that rabbithole I will NEVER come back out. 

I will defend David Jenkins until the end of times for coming up with it. 

I have deeply, madly and irrevocably fallen in love with Taika and Rhys (because I don’t do casual!)  (and in a less crazy way with the rest of the cast) and am working on my way to consume everything they made and will make! 

I haven’t laughed this hard or this much in a long time ( I'm pretty sure a therapist would have a field day with my mind right now, but it all makes me happy and helps to deal with harsh real life shit so I don’t care!). My face still hurts. Did you know that the back of your head can start hurting when you laugh too much? Right behind your ears?! Because it does! 

Anyhow. 

It’s funny: Taika’s been always around the past years, always at the periphery of my watching movies and shows, always been scattered around my social media for the things he did (mainly Marvel, of course, for me) and I liked him but I wasn’t in the headspace to appreciate his… well, everything. He was too silly, too all over the place for me. 

*shakes head at self* How fucking WRONG I was. 

Yes, he’s silly sometimes. Yes, even now he’s sometimes too much. But the more I watch and read and find out about him, the more I wonder how that man stayed as unique as he still is. 

That one’s too fucking special for the world he’s in. 

One just has to look past the exterior he puts on and you find one hell of a human, who’s kind and creative and intelligent and so painfully mindful of his surroundings, and I can only hope that the world will not break him and he can continue to be as incredible as he is. (He’s also fucking gorgeous! The HAIR! GUH! Those eyes and the deep deep crinkles when he laughs. The intensity on his face when he listens to something he cares about. I could go on but yeah…) 

A true fucking artist in every fucking way!!! 

So yeah, there will be LOADS more of him on my dash in the foreseeable future. I will keep yelling about the show and its incredible cast, and HBO better fucking renew it ASAP (and my country better gets its shit together and make it available over here so I can scream to my RL folks about it as well!!) 

What I wanted to say with this way too long, way too personal, post is

THANK YOU TUMBLR!

For once again pulling me into something that keeps me sane and safe and happy in a world that seems to want to break me. 

And now I shall go and spend my weekend with yet another deep dive into everything OFMD and TW!!! 

Laters!

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

i also think, crucially, that ed doesn’t realize how much jack’s insults affect stede. there’s nothing in the show to indicate that ed is aware of stede’s history of being bullied, or of the fact that stede spent most of his life completely friendless. ed is used to jack, and is probably used to brushing jack’s insults off as friendly ribbing (altho looking back years later ed might realize that some of jack’s teasing actually reinforced or contributed to insecurities that at the time he did his best to hide and ignore). he probably is used to firing back a few joking insults of his own. ed doesn’t have the context to realize that jack’s comments actually hit stede where he’s vulnerable, and stede works very hard to hide how much jack’s comments hurt.

and i understand why stede does this, i really do. he knows bullies, he knows that showing them how much their bullying works is only going to make the bullying worse. so he bites his tongue when jack asks, “who’s the big gal?” doesn’t say anything when jack steals his seat at the breakfast table, lets jack interrupt him and make snarky comments (“ugly profession. but then, you’d know that”) without defending himself.

i also understand why stede doesn’t tell ed that jack’s insults are hurtful to him. jack is ed’s old buddy, they’ve known each other way longer than stede and ed have known each other, and ed clearly likes hanging out with jack. what if stede told ed that jack was hurting his feelings, and ed just told him to get over it? what if ed laughed at stede for caring so much? what if ed thought it was embarrassing that stede couldn’t just laugh off jack’s insults? what if ed thought stede was weak? or, on the other hand, what if ed took him seriously, tried to bring it up with jack, and then it became a fight? would ed really side with stede, who he’s only known for a few weeks, over his old shipmate jack, who he’s known for years?

(i mean, obviously we all know ed would choose stede in a heartbeat, but stede doesn’t. not yet)

when stede is leaving the party and ed is trying to get him to stay for the coconut war, that was stede’s biggest opportunity to tell ed why he actually didn’t like jack. ed had noticed stede walking away, he was sad that stede was choosing not to hang out with them anymore. he wanted to include stede in the sort of rowdy roughhousing fun that for years was the closest thing ed got to real intimacy (and there’s something there, probably, about how ed has been unable to read stede’s cues this whole time, has no idea if stede is into him the way he’s into stede, but maybe if they can play out the intricate rituals of masculine posturing and casual non-lethal violence that ed’s so familiar with, maybe then ed can get a read on what’s going on in stede’s head). but verbalizing “my feelings are hurt” is hard, it’s scary, and it’s vulnerable, and in s1 stede really is a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to his policy of talking it through as a crew.

so he says the problem is that he’s just not having a blast, he just doesn’t like the kind of destructive rowdy fun that everyone is participating in with jack (which, honestly, i doubt very much. sure, turtle vs crab was just mean, and maybe he doesn’t see the appeal of whippies and yardies, but we’ve all seen him get drunk and light someone on fire and get an ear piercing in the course of one day in 2.07. stede likes reading and nature walks, but he also likes to party). stede says to ed, “i don’t like who you are around this guy.”

but what stede means is: “jack’s insults hurt my feelings, but what hurts even worse is seeing you brush those comments off and make excuses for him. all day jack has done nothing but insult me, my masculinity, my worth as a pirate and my authority as a captain, and worst of all he has made me insecure about the strength of our friendship. jack is an old mate of yours, but until you i’ve never so much as had a single friend before. i don’t know if our friendship means as much to you as it does to me. i feel like you prefer jack’s company over mine. you are my favorite person, but i don’t know if i’m yours. i’m afraid that if i tell you how jack has been antagonizing me all day, you will choose jack over me because he’s cooler and tougher and more fun to hang out with, and because nobody in my life has ever chosen me when another option was available to them. also, he just peed on my shoes and it was really gross and now i can feel his pee squelching in my socks every time i take a step so i need to go change out of these right now.”

I don't like the assertion that Ed doesn't have fun with Jack at all, both because it's clearly not true, it fucks with the message they're going for, and kinda flattens Ed. Like yeah, Jack also does make Ed feel bad. Ed's not having fun at breakfast because Jack reminds him of his past actions. Ed's also not having fun from the second he leaves Stede until the second he's back on the ship. He's clearly miserable on that island. But he is having fun blowing up the bookcase, playing turtle versus crab, and coconut war. Ed wouldn't've gotten up and started fucking around with him if he didn't want to, although I'm not denying an element of peer pressure is at play here.

Someone like Jack gets a lot of his power from that disorganized attachment. Jack is fun and familiar, so when he hurts/manipulates Ed, he's also a source of comfort, which can pull Ed back in. This is just a well-known feature of many toxic dynamics.

I also think acting like Ed wasn't having fun playing those games is a detriment to his character. Everyone is having fun except Stede and Buttons. These are pirate games. Even Olu (gentle, soft), and Lucius (the other feminine gay man on the ship) get into it. Liking these things isn't a flaw to be resolved. Stede is just the main character, and we're supposed to sympathize with him in this episode, while Ed's basically siding with the antagonist. Stede also sorta caused a ship to burn down with everyone inside and felt 0 guilt about it.

Anyways, I think if Ed is having fun during parts of this episode, it makes his and Jack's dynamic more compelling and realistic, versus Ed not having fun at all and only doing this out of peer pressure.

[im-the-punk-who]

The Real People of Black Sails!

Here’s a quick(I promise....I promise this is as short as I could make it without leaving out some really choice shit) rundown of all the real historical figures peppered throughout Black Sails! I think I caught them all but if you know of others please mention them and I’ll add them on! Under a readmore because this is....so long y’all.

Pirates & Maroons

Anne Bonny (possibly 1697 – unknown; possibly April 1782) Started life crossdressing at her dad’s behest to avoid his wife(who wasn’t Bonny’s mom), married a guy her dad didn’t like, moved to Nassau. There her husband became a spy for Rogers and Anne was like ‘Not cool bro’. She met Jack, they started fucking, and Anne discovered she was really good at stabbing things. Resumed dressing as a man and started trying to seduce Mary Read who was also dressed as a man. They did indeed fall victim to one of the classic queer blunders. Anyway, Anne’s like ‘it’s not gay I’m a chick!’ And Mary is like ‘really?? Then it’s a little gayer than you realize because I’m a chick too!’ They (probably) start banging. Rackham’s like ‘hang on! I’m the only dick in Anne’s life’ and Mary and Anne are like ‘you sure are’ and Mary shows him her boobs and then they have some sort of complicated and probably not totally consensual threeway. Then they get captured because, Jack is That Guy Who Was Too Drunk To Realize His Ship Was Under Attack and Mary and Anne had to defend the ship against like, a whole other crew. Jack is hung(not a dick joke), but both Anne and Mary plead stays of execution due to pregnancy. Anne disappears but possibly is maybe referred to later. No one knows. Neat!

Edit: According to sources from this post there is a genealogical record that refers to Anne and it records her death as 1782. Very neat!

Israel Hands (c.1701-death unknown) Israel Hands was a real pirate and Blackbeard’s first mate. Not much else is known about where he came from or his life, other than that Blackbeard shot him in the knee at one point while supposedly aiming for another man. ‘Oops my bad this pistol is from like, the 18th century or something.’ While recuperating in Bath he was arrested after Teach’s death but took a pardon in exchange for ratting out the colonial officials who had been bribed by Teach. It’s unknown what happened to him after that although That Book About Pyrites says he died a beggar in London.

Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) Horny4gold was one of the most well known and influential pirates of the Golden Age. Most other pirates sailed under him or with him at one point, and he was one of the founders of the Pirate Republic of Nassau. He never attacked british ships during his time as captain so that he could be like ‘but brooooo I was acting in Britain’s Interests!!! Bro!!!!!’ But his co-pirates didn’t like that and eventually voted to replace him with Sam Bellamy. He accepted the king's pardon in 1718 and became a pirate hunter instead. Bummer. He was reportedly killed in a shipwreck.

Okay listen Horingold in any universe is a fucking JOKE I have to share this passage with y’all:

“Hornigold is recorded as having attacked a sloop off the coast of Honduras, but as one of the passengers of the captured vessel recounted, "they did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss'd theirs overboard"” WHAT A JOKE.

Dr. Howell - (birth/death unknown) John Howell was a pirate surgeon forced into service by Hornigold sometime in early 1717. He sailed with various pirate crews until October before returning into the service of Governor Rogers.

Ned Low (1690–1724) N’EDWARD. Okay I’m serious again. Born in London, Lowe grew up a thief in a thief family before moving to Boston. His wife died in childbirth in 1719, so he decided ‘fuck it I’ll become a Pirate Captain’ and did just that. He was known for torturing the people on board the ships he captured before murdering them and burning the ship. Interestingly though, Lowe was known to have a huge amount of regret over abandoning his daughter when he turned pirate, and wouldn’t force married men into his service. He also reportedly would allow women to return to port safely. Because of his numerous captures and cruelties, he was one of the most well known pirates in his day. There are differing reports about Low’s death - some say his crew mutinied and marooned him and he was subsequently hung, others say his ship sunk in a storm, and some say he just straight up disappeared. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Jack Rackham - (December 26, 1682 – November 18, 1720) Really a pirate, really named himself after a housecat pattern. (No, okay, he didn’t, it was because of his threads. But wouldn’t the cat thing fit too?) Sailed with Vane, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read. Was mostly known for being That Guy Who Was Too Drunk To Realize His Ship Was Under Attack and being Anne and Mary’s captain. He was captured and sentenced to hang after the aforementioned Drunk Blunder in 1720.

Mary/Mark Read - (1685 – 28 April 1721) Much like Anne Bonny, Mary dressed as a boy for much of her youth so a parent could swindle someone out of money. From her teenage years on she continued dressing as a man to find work in the military and as a sailor. She did marry but her husband died young and so she decided to become a pirate. Like ya do. She accepted the king’s pardon in 1718, then mutinied on the privateer she was aboard, once again becoming a pirate. Because pirates are sexy. In 1720 she joined Jack Rackham’s crew and sailed with him and Bonny. Cue the whole ‘Hey you’re hot, also I’m a woman.’ ‘Oh, hey, same hat!’ with Anne. In November of 1720, Rackham’s ship was captured. Mary died of a fever in prison(likely due to her pregnancy) in 1721.

Edward Teach - (c. 1680 – 22 November 1718) He started piracy sailing under Hornigold, and built the fleet alongside him and Stede Bonnet until Hornigold retired. COOL fact about Blackbeard is he was a MASTER showman who liked to light slow burning fuses under his hat to scare his enemies, and he relied more heavily on creating an image his prizes feared than violence. He did a lot of cool shit including ransoming the entire town of Charles Town and annoying the shit out of Woodes Rogers before settling in Bath and later dying of like, a shit ton of wounds while battling Lieutenant Maynard. The battle on Roger’s ship is pretty much what happened minues the keelhauling. Afterwards he was beheaded, his head hung from the bow of Maynard’s ship, and his body was thrown in the bay in Bath, where it’s said his ghost still haunts! Funky!

Charles Vane - (1680 – 29 March 1721)  Really a pirate captain! Known for being Not A Nice Dude. Sailed with Henry Jennings, Edward England and Jackie Rackhammie. He led the pirates in resisting Rogers in Nassau, and yeah he really did light a ship on fire and 18th centuryeet it into Rogers’ line in order to escape. There’s a note that he returned to Nassau to get married but I couldn’t find any info on who he married so he’s gay now. That’s a rule I just made up. Anyway so at one point his ship got into a fight with another ship and Vane ordered a retreat and the crew was like ‘this is BOOshit’ and voted him out in favor of Jack Rackham. Ouch. Vane and some of the crew that supported him left aboard the Katherine(I believe) but then they got caught in a storm that said ‘fuck you specifically to Charles Vane,’ and he was marooned on an island. He survived! Just long enough for a British ship to stop at the island for him to attempt to board, get caught, and then hung. Deus ex piratica.

(Honorary mentions)

John Silver + Captain Flint (sort of but I’m not kidding!) Okay so of course there are a bunch of suspected origins of the characters of Captain Flint and Long John Silver, but the one I like the most is of two brothers - one of whom had a peg leg! - who captured an enormous Spanish treasure and buried it near Ocracoke island. Their names were John and Owen Lloyd. (And yes, John was the one-legged brother.) In 1750 a Spanish treasure fleet named the Flotas de Indias attempted to sail from Havana to Spain in late August, and three ships were wrecked during a hurricane. By a stroke of luck, the Lloyd brothers had been blown to the same inlet as the wrecked ships Guadalupe and Soledad , and managed to convince the Captain to hire them to transport the treasure to Norfolk. 

But of course because they thought the Spanish SUCKED they said ‘psyche’ and just fucked off with it while the Captain was fighting Bureaucratic red tape in North Carolina. Iconique. Owen Lloyd reportedly buried the treasure on Norman Island and  the pair became folk heroes in the area, particularly in St. Kitts.  (P.s., the Stevenson family ran a sugar production business on St. Kitts, and R.L. Stevenson’s great grandfather worked there as early as 1773 - just 25 years after the epic heist. COOL STORY BRO.)

Captain Throckmorton (Okay not really but I just love this guy’s name) Okay so this guy wasn’t really a pirate captain but he was a Steamboat captain in the 1830s and his name is just too ridiculous for someone to make up. Toot toot, motherfucker.

---------

Queen Nanny(Maroon Queen/Madi) (c. 1686 – c. 1755) The spiritual, cultural, and military leader of the Windward Maroons (who the Black Sails Maroons are based on.) She led them alongside her ‘brother’ Quao although the relationship between them isn’t known. Exact information about her origins are not known but best guess is that she was of royal lineage from present-day Ghana, born sometime in the 1680’s. She did have a husband named Adou(who may have been the same person as Quao? I’ve read conflicting stuff), but they had no children. Many of the guerilla warfare tactics we now think of as common practice were developed by Queen Nanny and the other Maroons in their fight against British incursions. (The trap that Flint lays, covering themselves with paint and leaves, and the pits the Maroons lay in the forest are tactics known to have been used by the Windward Maroons.)

Nanny was a fucking legend okay a LEGENDS ONLY legend. She was one of the most instrumental people in preserving African culture among freed slaves and Maroons, and in encouraging the resistance to slavery in the Bahamas and surrounding areas. She was one of three leaders of the First Maroon War (which the war in Black Sails is based on). She initially refused to sign the treaty offered to Cudjoe because she knew the British were losing and was like ‘Why????? Would I surrender???? In a war??? I’m winning?????’

Anyway Queen Nanny was a fucking badass please read every piece of literature you can find on her. (You should absolutely read her full bio because she was fucking badass.)

Cudjoe (not exactly, but Julius is very close) (c. 1690s – 1764) Likely a freeborn son of one of the original escaped slaves turned Maroons, Cudjoe is hailed as one of the greatest Maroon leaders(after Queen Nanny). Much like in Black Sails, these original Maroons were slaves who escaped or overran their masters, forming free communities in the Mountains of Jamaica. The treaty in Black Sails is based on the one Cudjoe negotiated with the British, wanting an ‘honorable peace’ with the enemy, rather than the continued war and better terms that Queen Nanny and Quao wanted. (sound familiarrrrrr?) I do want to note that by the end of his life he became completely disillusioned with the idea that the British should be reasoned with and basically started fights with every British superior he could.

The English, Spanish, and Scottish!

The Guthries So while there wasn’t ever a female head of the Guthrie clan in Nassau, the Guthries were a Scottish merchant clan who emigrated to Boston around 1652 due to religious and racial persecution. While most of the family stayed around Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, John Guthrie moved to Virginia and his brother James Guthrie moved to Bermuda sometime after 1683.

(James Guthrie of Suffolk County, Massachusetts was listed in the will of John Richardson, dated 7 May 1683, in which Richardson says, “I give and bequeath unto James Guthrie all I have in the world except twenty shillings to buy John Harris a ring and ten shillings to buy John Kyte a ring.” This was witnessed by John Raynsford and John Ramsey.) Fellas is it gay.

Anyway, between Virginia and Boston and James’ ties in the Bermuda islands, the family made a shit ton fencing pirated goods during the Golden Age of Piracy, particularly from the Pirate Republic of Nassau.

A John Guthrie(likely a son of James’) was also a Colonel who was part of the peace talks with Cudjoe and the Maroons. Neat!

James Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) Okay listen Oglethorpe was COOL AS FUCK. He is the founder of the colony of Georgia and is imo who Thomas Hamilton is probably based on. Oglethorpe was a HUGE humanitarian and even before he decided to form an entire colony around people not owning slaves. He advocated for better conditions for sailors, and prison reform. In 1732 he read a letter by a slave in Maryland named Ayuba Suleiman Diallo and on the spot decided slavery was terrible, divested himself of his stock in the African Trading Company, and resolved to include a law banning slavery in Georgia to the colony’s charter. Radical, man.

Speaking of Georgia, and specifically his plantation near Savannah, Oglethorpe actively spoke with the native Yamacraw who populated the land to ask permission and trade for the land he sought to build Georgia on. His plantation was meant to help debtors in London, released without any support, from falling back into debt and offering them a way forward to landownership through indentured servitude. I highly recommend anyone interested in early attempts at an equality based colonial system read up on the original charter of Georgia. (Of course there were still problems, but Oglethorpe was one of the most prominent proponents of a non hierarchical society - including limits to the acreage any person could own based on how helpful that land was to the people who worked it, and communal resources.) Oglethorpe was also a lifelong friend with Tomochichi, the chief of the Yamacraw, and worked very closely with him on colonial-indigenous relations.

Vincente de Raja (birth/death unknown) He was the real Governor and military Captain of Cuba from 1716-1717. He was a devoted pirate hunter and encouraged Spanish privateering against the pirates. Due to an attempt by Spain to increase tobacco profits at the expense of the farmers, there was a large revolt which resulted in many of the Cuban officials, including Raja, being replaced. 

William Rhett (4 September 1666 – 12 January 1723) He was a merchant captain and plantation owner in Carolina who served in the colonial militia and hunted pirates. He captured Stede Bonnet and was probably just as much of an asshole as he is in the show.

Woodes Rogers - (c. 1679 – 15 July 1732) The Governor of Nassau who was largely responsible for ending piracy in the Bahamas. He really did offer a universal pardon, which a large number of the pirates took. Fun fact: before he was Governor, he rescued Alexander Selkirk, who is believed to be the guy Robinson Crusoe is based off of! Neat! He really did have a brother who really did die during his privateering exploits which also really did leave him ‘disfigured’. He got sued by his crew, went bankrupt, wrote a book, got famous for writing the book, and he really did have a wife named Sarah whom he divorced shortly after all this happened. He then became Governor of Nassau for the first time. This first term did end in him being imprisoned for debts incurred defending the island from Vane and Teach and the Spanish, but he was released, helped write that most famous A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, and became governor again in 1728. He died in 1732 of just plain exhaustion from dealing with the bureaucracy. Alexa play tiny violin.

[chuplayswithfire]

this thought just hit me but it's got me in my chest, its really got me here, but i don't think edward is actually a violent person at all. violence is a tool of the trade and a means to an end and he's absolutely aggressive as a front, but we don't really actually see ed being physically violent when its not for a job until the very end of the season, and i don't think that's a mistake.

ed's primary response to feeling humiliated or threatened is to threaten others, but he doesn't actually attack them. think about the french captain - when that man uses a slur against him, he gets up, he yells, he raises his voice, but the man is on the ground in front of him in a heap, perfectly vulnerable, and ed never once touches him when he's screaming and yelling, even when it might be easy and expected for him to kick him around.

he orders fang to kill the man, and in an exceedingly horrible fashion, absolutely, and its an expression of his anger, but its also about setting an example and reputation. you use racial slurs against blackbeard? you insult blackbeard? you die screaming horribly.

and ed doesn't watch. ed doesn't have it happen in front of him. ed doesn't even seem to enjoy it so much as he's fucking furious and setting an example, but he never gets his own hands dirty with it.

in the same way, when he threatens someone for the loot - its the clearest example of him turning aggression on like a switch, stabbing a knife, threatening violence, but never actually USING violence.

on the party boat, in that horrible moment at the party? his response is to get up and make himself bigger and louder and threaten but again, he doesn't try to hurt anyone. we see that he HAD his weapon, and there were plenty of knives at that table, and blackbeard could absolutely take down a bunch of snobby, snotty, rich punks. but he DOESN'T. he flees, and only thinks about actually engaging in violence when he's too far away to do it. and he lets himself be talked down in seconds.

when we actually see ed commit some physical violence for the first time, its against his abusive father, in what appears to be at least a slightly premeditated kill to remove his father from his and his mother's life. we see that ed's father smacked his mother around, that he threw plates, that he was a drunk and expressed his frustrations with violence - and killing him would appear to be the last time ed struck out at a PERSON in violence that wasn't about the job

(person because he did kill that snake viciously and with prejudice, though i think thats reasonable tbh. reminds me of myself with the broom every time i see a bug in my house -)

even with calico jack, ed's violence is all games and fun - shooting bottles, shooting drawers, getting whipped, staging a turtle vs crab fight, throwing coconuts at each other - and the only time he gets physical otherwise is when he snaps jack's oar over his leg and dives off the boat. even though finding out your friends have been sold out by one of your oldest buddies is absolutely the time most people would throw a punch, ed doesn't.

the first time we see him be violent towards a person in the present is with izzy when he punches him in the face directly after being released into his care and being told stede's going to die now, because of izzy. stede, who ed loves and who izzy KNOWS ed loves and who ed knows izzy knows ed loves, just to make that sentence more confusing. it's the first time we see ed react with violence and its equal parts to get away and defend stede as it is because of the emotional upheaval.

the next time we see ed lash out with violence is after he endures a truly terrible amount of homophobic aggression from izzy. it's emotional and verbal abuse, but its also just, such utter homophobic aggression, and this might be controversial but i think its perfectly RIGHT that ed strike izzy in that moment. when someone tells a queer person that their affection, their love, their mourning, their grief and loss for their partner makes them a THING that should have been killed, that doesn't deserve to live, that they would be better off dead than being openly affectionately mourningly queer? that person actually does deserve to face some physical violence!

fuck that shit!

izzy absolutely deserved to get the shit KICKED out of him in that moment, but its not about what izzy deserves, its about what ed needs, and what ed did not need was to be kicked at his lowest with every sore spot to goad him into violence (reasonable, understandable, VALID violence) that absolutely seemed to take him right back to his father, to that abuse. there's a reason ed didn't just become blackbeard again, but the kraken, who was born in ed's survival instinct but also his need to escape an abusive situation. ed becomes the kraken again because he is horrified at himself and terrified of himself and what he's become, if he can be like his father and lash out with violence when he's angry, and because izzy *validates* that and tells him that this thing he hates is all he can be.

but ed isn't naturally inclined to violence, its not his natural state, its a defense mechanism that kicks in when all else is lost. we KNOW its not just because of disrespect because izzy?

izzy is utterly disrespectful to edward at various points in the show. izzy calls him a twat to his face. izzy questions him. izzy insults him and yells at him and edward laughs it off and shrugs it away and changes the conversation and leaves the conversation. izzy initiates violence at every turn with so many characters, and ed doesn't step up to the plate to dish any out until the very end, when he's hurt and vulnerable and doesn't think he can get away from this. i DON'T think that ed has been violent with izzy this whole time, in their history. it doesn't fit with ed's behavior. it doesn't fit with izzys - izzy would have called ed out on it, if ed normally punched or slapped or choked izzy for insubordination, because its clearly part of their regular routine.

this is why it means so much that ed shoves lucius over, barely seeming to be present, fully emotionally distanced, that he cuts izzy's toe off in the dark and makes him eat it in a show of calculated violence without much emotion at all, has the crew marooned with utter calm, and then has a sobbing breakdown the second he's behind closed doors. violence has been part of his life as part of the job, not as an emotional outlet, and its killing him to make it one.

[avastyetwats]

The only commotion in the tavern had been laughter, yelling and even someone bawling his eyes out for whatever reason. Stede almost wanted to ask why, but then he became involved in a commotion that eventually pulled the most attention in the tavern. Was it his fault? Stede didn't think so considering the fact that this man dared to shove Lucius aside as he walked by, but the rudeness didn't stop there. No. When Lucius voiced his displeasure, the man turned back, called him some rather cruel names and got far to close to his face for Stede's comfort, his hand gripping the blade of his cutlass so that's when Stede rose to his feet. He wasn't having it.

Lucius wasn't exactly thrilled to have Stede Bonnet of all people defending him, given the man could barely hold his own in a fight and the instigator was rather large and intimidating, but he appreciated his Captain for even standing up for him. For caring that much. Not many did throughout his life but Stede never hesitated to stand up for his crew and Lucius respected him greatly for that... even if it could land him in more trouble like now.

He managed to squeeze himself in between the two of them, eventually letting Lucius take his seat while Stede dealt with the man. Words were exchanged and, well, eventually the larger man withdrew his sword and that made Stede take a few steps back. He was feeling nervous now, not looking forward to engaging in a duel with him, but he couldn't back down. Not in a room full of people. He wanted to be a well known pirate after all and maybe, just maybe, he'd somehow get lucky in this fight. If there was one thing Stede as good at, it was using the area around him to his advantage. He was also good at running and given their size differences, he'd like have the upper hand with that and navigating the several furniture within the room. So, he'd put on an act. He wouldn't show fear... or he'd try not to.

He talks himself up as he withdraws his own sword, eliciting gasps and oohs from around the room while his own crew faceplams. The man grins and suddenly two others appear behind him, their swords also drawn. Allies, Stede guesses. Now he's even more nervous, a bit scared, and not feeling at all confident that he can win this fight. Perhaps he can use his words though. Stall them until he thought of something, provoke them into messing up... something.

"Oh, now I'm just disappointed." Stede sighs as he lowers his weapon.

The man's claw clenches. "Disappointed? What the fuck for?"

"Because here I thought I'd have a challenge. A good ol' fashion one on one, but I see you're far to scared to take me on yourself."

"What!?" The vein in his head pops out, the man's nostrils flaring with anger at the insult.

"Well, clearly you need assistance. You're not capable of taking me on yourself." He gestures to the other two men and they look equally pissed off. "It's alright to admit you're scared. That you can't win on your own. Lay down your sword now and I'll let you off easy." He's trying to provoke him and embarrass him. "Come on. We both know you can't beat me in a duel one on one. Everyone here knows it, so you--"

"You little shit!" The man charges forward with his weapon and Stede yelps before he jumps to the side causing the man to crash into the table in front of him. There's words of annoyance from the other guests whose drinks were just knocked over and Stede has a wide smile on his face, feeling proud, until he's grabbed by one of the other men from behind. His smile now nervous, Stede turns his head. "Mind the coat, please. It's one of my favorites." He pleads and the other man in front is about to run his sword through but someone hits the man holding him from behind, causing him to let Stede go so he ducks just before the other swings his sword. Eventually a fight breaks within the tavern, several guests become involved. Some because their tables were disturbed and other's just wanting to be part of the fun.

At some point, Stede managed to sneak to the back and he makes his way outside, intending to go back in through the front and grab his crew before heading back to the ship. Only he forgot about the first man, the one that started all of this because there he was behind him, and when Stede turned he's met with a large fist, sending him onto the ground. Blood drips from his nose and he struggles to get back to his feet, especially when the man kicks his legs out when he attempts, his sword drawn, aimed right at Stede's chest. He pulls back and thrusts forward, eyes filled with rage, ready to end this pathetic pirate's life.

Gentlemen of a feather