#Ofmd character study

[scary-flag]

Chapter 5 of my backstory/character study fic posted!

Stede thinks about his future, Izzy saves Ed's life and joins the Hornigold's crew, and Jack feels jealous.

Read here :)

[follows-the-bees]

I want to talk about Jim during this part of Calypso's Birthday.

We see Jim's transformation this season and especially in this scene. They become more comfortable with themselves and their self expression.

From someone hiding behind long hair, a floppy hat, a fake nose and beard, and mute to all but Olu to someone who is in drag and loudly cheering and goofing around!

And while Archie is the one who hands the drinks over to Ed and Stede (showing how the crew is okay with Ed on board now) Jim is right behind, getting into Stede's personal space for a bit of fun. I love how their relationship has changed as well. Jim disliked Stede at the beginning, reluctantly helping him out, calling him a bad pirate, and now they are goofing around with him, matching his level/energy.

I love seeing how free Jim is in this scene, and how close the crew is.

[anextrapart]

most people are viewing the Izzy sword-training scene and simply thirsting after Con (which, fair) but I think it's a hilarious scene because it confirms Izzy has no other tattoos on his (upper) body

meaning this dramatic-ass bitch chose to get his first tattoos on his neck and his face and then was like... "yup that's enough I'm done now"

absolutely stellar, no notes. carry on, you funky little weirdo

edit: I have been reminded there's a tattoo on his hand, too. still unhinged

[kay-claire]

I finally finished this! I actually started this drawing n June last year, abandoned it, and then decided to try and finish it again this month before season 2 comes out.

AU where Izzy is a sculptor

[shelfperson]

fiona apple, amiright?

*tosses this video into the edizzy tag like a zebra thigh into the lion's den and then skitters away*

[boatcats]

Arachnophobia

Ed's spider tattoos through the years.

Fic inspired by a post by @areyoudoingthis

[madzillus]

Karl we miss ye buddy

[katmiscellanious]

I truly think Stede is about to have his own breakdown. Now, idk if it’s going to happen at the end of this season or in the 3rd if we get one. But Stede has been ignoring his trauma for too long.

Stede is good with other people’s emotions because he knows how he wants people to treat his own. But he’s so busy pushing people to better places and helping others that he completely disregards what he’s gone through. He hasn’t ANYONE what happened in those woods the night he escaped the British. He hasn’t told anyone about what Badminton’s said to him, or being bullied, or the way his father treated him. I don’t even know (and I doubt) he’s even REALLY told Ed just how trapped he was in his marriage with Mary.

When Stede really, actually kills a man on purpose, instead of talking it out, he throws himself into Ed’s arms. And Ed obliges because I think this is the kind of comfort he knows how to give.

And now we can see, as Ed rises to better places, Stede is descending. Stede has discovered his own power. He’s discovered he doesn’t have to take shit from people and while I’m so glad for him, he’s also doing so without addressing that’s he’s breaking his own “not fighting violence with violence” and “talk it through as a crew” and “turn poison into positivity” It feels good now, but especially without working it out in a meaningful way, he’s losing himself to it. He thinks he needs to be this macho tough guy to feel powerful, cause he’s discovered what all the people he’s helped have, that power feels good in the moment. And then, he’ll, you’ve done one bad thing, why not another? It doesn’t feel as bad as you thought? So maybe it’s normal? But then the trauma comes, and you wonder if your a good person anymore, or if you ever were? But you ignore the feeling, because it feels good, and your not weak any more. Nobody can hurt your. So drown yourself in more power or liquor or drugs. Who cares if your a bad person? If people hurt you, you hurt them back. And people respect you for it. And by the time you look back and realize how bad things are, you might think it’s too late to change.

Violence and power is like a drug, you chase the high of power, and when you start to feel it, you remind yourself why you do it with more shows of violence and your tolerance for it just gets higher and higher until the only person left to hurt is yourself, and your Blackbeard, and your sailing your ship into a storm to kill yourself and your entire crew, because your an unlovable monster and you can’t see the light beyond the violence anymore.

Ed and Izzy don’t quite see what’s happening as a bad thing because to them, this is normal pirate stuff. And Stede is Stede. Kind, loving, soft, fabric loving Stede, who is so in tune with people’s emotions he literally therapy’d Ted Lowe’s crew into turning on him in the middle of being tortured. Stede couldn’t possibly become like them. He’s just more piratey now. And see? Look how much fun he’s having? He’s fine!

And Ed? He sees Stede happy and powerful and is so happy for him that he doesn’t even consider asking Stede to come with him this time when he decides to quit and become a fisherman. Ed thinks they are on different paths. And he doesn’t even conceive that this path is a danger to Stede, because it’s Stede. Stede could never get as bad as he did. Right? So best to just end things and let him be happy before either of them get to attached (though, it’s a little fucking late for that one bud).

Mark my words, unless somebody steps in and realizes what’s happening, Stede is going to end up just like all the other pirates we’ve seen. And there is only one way that kind of violence can end, with him getting himself killed, either someone else’s hands, or his own.

[serennn17]

Learning to Love Me Like You

Rated G | 523 | Mini One Shot

Ed doesn't understand why Stede loves him so much, but he's learning that he doesn't need to because Stede is going to love him anyway.

Read on AO3 Here

[davekatzdefensesquad]

The way that Stede has asked two different people if they meant to hurt him physically (the Spaniard’s stabbing and Ed’s headbutt) goes to show he’s either really naive or likes to think people aren’t as awful as they present themselves as.

It’s actually kind of admirable and adorable.

[p00sy-d3stro7er]

I love how accidentally fruity (bcs i'm pretty sure it wasnt on purpose) Black Sails' Israel Hands turned out.

Like, his whole arc about Blackbeard, how he is at the same time extremely bitter about him and still somehow sentimental totally looks like an unrequited crush. He is furious at Ed for how he treated him but at the same time he still cant bring himself to hate him entirely. Becouse He remembers their good times, how dear Blackbeard was to him and perhaps this makes him even more bitter.

I'm also convinced that Israel had prepared a whole Independent woman, "i dont need you" ,"you're the Man but i got the power" type of speech when he found out that he will have to meet Blackbeard & was unpleased about the news about his death, becouse all his effort was wasted. And this is canon. Argue with the wall.

AND HIM WITH SILVER. Its fucking hillarious how he tries to sabotage Johns relationship with Flint whenever he has a chance with absolutely no reason exluding: "How dare they be in actual love when i was pining for my captain for 472828282 years and the only thing i got was a kick in my ass! 😠😠 I am not happy so neither should they! 🤬🤬" (I know Silver and Flint are everything but happy but you get my point)

And he is serving cunt honestly. With his whole girl bestie, "dump him" attitude to Silver, while being an old fuck with the greasiest most crusty dusty hair imaginable, and overall looking like this:

And when he doesnt sabotage gay relationships, he takes out his anger on John, constantly beating the shit out of him (which is totally deserved btw).

Oh and of course i have to mention his silly little moves with his silly little hammer. He is such an icon honestly.

[callmekatydid]

Fuck it I feel controversial:

Thomas Barrow is Izzy Hands written right.

[follows-the-bees]

The contrast in the sound and meaning of the doors in the bathtub scene in 1x6 is such a small moment that offers a huge emotional punch.

The first is of pain, of leaving, Ed's dad slamming the door closed, as he moved away from his family.

The second is of hope, of returning. It's Stede breaking down the door TO GET to Ed and take care of him.

These sounds are back to back, and while slightly different, offer such a contrasting sensation and emotion to Ed and the audience.

Ed is rendered mute as a kid from the trauma and while adult Ed is following in his footsteps, locking and hiding himself away and becoming as small as he can, while covering himself up with something soft, this time it's different.

This time the sound of the door is of someone coming to him, to comfort him, not to hurt him. He uses Stede's robe to cover himself in a sense of security and now that security has broken down a door out of worry for him, asking if he's all right. You can hear after each noise, Ed trying to steady his breathing.

Ed immediately speaks, telling him the truth. Something we learn later is a dark secret he's kept, and only now tells another soul.

One door offers pain and the other hope. Stede has always been Ed's hope and this is one of the loudest (literally) signs of it.

[octaviustheoctopus]

posting this bc my friend pressured me

(in response to a fic that shall not be named) I feel like the portrayal of izzy as a blushing virgin isn't really accurate and harms his character in the way that it's usually a sign of the author projecting. That usually doesn't bode well for the rest of his characterization.

Imho, Izzy would think he's experienced and have the kind of confidence that comes with that but all he has had is a lot of hookups and undying love for Ed that has stopped him from paying emotional attention to anyone else.

So I think Izzy would be actually emotionally inexperienced but think he's not

Or like w Lucius since that's my fav ship, I think he would act like he knows what he's doing as long as he thinks it's a hookup and that he understands the situation. Then I'm not sure. Bc it's an extrapolation from canon.

So using the characteristic-stems-from-an-inherent-trait model (in which every behaviour is a manifestation of a character's inherent feature):

Izzy acts like an asshole, bossing ppl around because he wants to be respected. He feels like he's losing control of that because everyone is making fun of him (or rather, Lucius specifically)

Izzy's methods for gaining respect have never failed him in the past because his crews were made of people who needed the money, who were dependent on him to get it, and were scared of the pain Izzy could inflict on them.

Lucius isn't impressed by Izzy because he's seen people like him before. I think Lucius has been in contact with a lot of insecure men who try to act tough to compensate. 

(I agree w the hc that Lucius has had quite a prolific past sex life (bc let’s keep in mind that wasn’t said anywhere in canon (I think)))

So those men Lucius had sex w would have most likely been ppl who were insecure in their masculinity bc they were hiding some part of queerness their whole lives. Since he knows the type, in his experience, that insecurity about masculinity is usually correlated with unarticulated and repressed desires regarding Them Gays, that might end with him sleeping w them.

THEREFORE, it might follow that the reason Lucius acted flirty as a way to destabilize Izzy is bc he saw the signs that Izzy was too repressed to admit to even himself that he was attracted to Lucius.

[borealing]

The worst part about the s2 trailer is finding out people I thought were cool were Izzy fans. Izzy is an abuser and a racist. You're fucking gross. Disappointed.

you spend too much time on the internet

[krak-house]

I have a whole long essay i wrote out in my drafts here but the point is: Izzy plays with fire when he's toeing the line, testing the limits of Blackbeard's mercies. On the Queen Anne, before The Fuckery, in Jackie's with the Navy, he's always got his hand to the flames of the nearest candle when he's playing with defying Blackbeard.

This interests me in two senses, the first being that it symbolizes Ed, the fire (the subject of the essay in my drafts) and by pressing his luck getting his hand closer and closer to the fire it parallels how he interacts with Ed.

The second being that he's a huge fucking masochist who physically punishes himself with pain for the slight of acting against his Captain's express wishes, even if he thinks it's for the best.