#and 1-3 was edizzy

[twitterdotcom]

Thinking about how EP 5 was so Stizzy Coded

[starofhisheart]

Love...TRIANGLE?

WAKE UP BOYS DAD SAID STEDDYHANDS REAL

[focusfixated]

It was a pistol shot to the stomach from the English that had done it, the bullet lodging into Ed's flesh in a scatter of pieces that might have obliterated him at closer range. Izzy had dragged him to the corner of the ship and wrenched his shirt away, his hands a determinedly steady counterpoint to the wild rocking of the sea, knife in his teeth as he staunched the wound, then picked out the shrapnel in Edward’s belly with his blade.

“Fuck me,” Edward had yelled, laughing, delirious, above the noise of thunder and guttering rain, palms soaked with his own blood. “This could be the end, Izzy! The fucking end of everything!”

“Stay fucking still you fucking moron!” Izzy had yelled back, and Ed had tried to cock his pistol, maybe to pull rank on Izzy for his insubordination, maybe to scare off the maimed and staggering enemies still at the throats of his crew, or maybe to put to his own temple if it looked like it was all going to go belly-up, but Izzy didn’t stop, not for a second, picking and cleaning and staunching in the glow of a dying oil-lamp, and his face was wet with more than sweat, more than rain.

Ed had dropped the pistol with a clatter to the deck, pearl inlays catching in a fork of white lightning that split the sky.

we were the same

[ritalacochona]

I'm going back to him

I know my therapist's pissed

We both know he's a dick

At least it's the obvious kind

And I think I believe in getting saved

Not by Jesus validation in some dudes gaze

And I think I believe in getting saved

Holy water pull my hair right from the base

It should take a whole lot less

To turn me off, to turn me off

And it should take a whole lot less

To turn me off

I'm gonna find a cure

If I'm in love, nothing hurts

Give enough, make it work

Clarify what I deserve

And I think I believe in getting saved

Not by Jesus validation in some dudes gaze

It should take a whole lot less

To turn me off, to turn me off

And it should take a whole lot less

To turn me off, to turn me off

He wears a front-facing cap

The sex is almost always bad

I don't care 'cause I'm in love

I don't know him well enough

What am I projecting?

He's gonna start infecting my life

It will hit all at once like sepsis

What if I'm down to let this kill me?

Oh!

It should take a whole lot less

To turn me off, to turn me off

And it should take a whole lot less

To turn me off, to turn me off

It should take a whole lot less

To turn me off, to turn me off

And it should take a whole lot less

To turn me off, to turn me off

[winepresswrath]

the man did surprise me i have to give him that.

djenks does not feel like he's writing specifically for my 17 year old self the way tamsyn muir or nd stevenson do but he does fall into the category of writers i trust to mostly share my sensibilities and interests and have something interesting to say about the project of being a person. tbh while i think it is actively good and healthy to read and watch things that are not the product of people who share my sensibilities and interests there is something really enjoyable about that trust fall. call it clown to clown communication or recognition of communal experiences in art but it's nice it's good. parasocial high fives all around.

[lavenderprose]

Once again I am rotating EdIzzy Intricate Rituals and also, predictably, Izzy Hands carpet munching

Izzy, who would suck Ed's dick for breakfast lunch and dinner and thank him for the privilege, clamps his legs SHUT the moment Ed starts making any sort of movement past his tits. They do not talk about this. Ed assumes Izzy has some dysphoria stuff going on. Or whatever a 1700s pirate would call dysphoria. Basically, Ed's mouth waters when he smells Izzy's lap but apparently getting head makes the gender ghosts that live in Izzy's brain angry, y'know? Oh well.

Meanwhile, the gender ghosts and everything else that lives in Izzy's brain think about nothing BUT Ed going down on him. The list of Most Common Thoughts in Izzy's head is thus:

1.) Murder.

2.) That knot looks wrong. Who tied that knot. What the fuck is going on with that KNOT-- (Cont. see: Topic #1)

3.) Ed Teach's fucking mouth.

He has dreams about it. It's a whole thing. HOWEVER, something something all the internalized phobias, something something Izzy's self loathing, something something Blackbeard doesn't give head. Izzy won't allow Ed to DEBASE himself for the likes of himself. A captain can't SERVICE his first mate. It's not how things are DONE. What would God Mother DAVY JONES say??

This goes on for anywhere between several months to twenty-mumble years depending on just how ill you need these men to be about each other to nut, or whatever.

Enter: Stede Bonnet, who Izzy absolutely does not respect and who eats pussy like he's been in a loveless sexless marriage for twenty years. That is so say: badly, weirdly, and with enough eagerness that the first two things don't matter.

Someone once said that Stede just sticks his nose in it. This is fact.

Point is, one day Ed walks in on Izzy with Stede knee deep in the passenger's seat and has a full-on existential crisis.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I COULD HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR TWENTY(?) YEARS, Ed shouts as he wraps Izzy's thighs around his head.

"Oh, that's how you do that," says Stede, and Izzy pretends that the kick he delivers to Stede's chest is purely because Ed is doing something with his tongue that Izzy thought was only possible in one of those weird dreams were nobody has to breathe.

Your Poor Wife floats a voice on the wind--Davy Jones, in case you were wondering, because he actually HAS been watching this whole time.

"Did you hear something?" asks Lucius, several decks away.

"Not at all," says Fang, and ignores the fact that everyone on the ship can clearly hear a very distictive raspy voice wailing from the Captain's cabin.

[theyoungeragrippina]

🫶🏻 15 gentlebeard/blackbonnet fic recs

(17 if you squint)

hey legends, in this bittersweet period where a lot of a us are feeling gutted but simultaneously, rebelliously hopeful, i've emerged from my reading den to showcase to you all some of the brilliant talent we have in this fandom! these fics are some of the best of the best, and i hope you love them just as much as i do! <3

they are all complete, do not feature any ongoing steddyhands/edizzy/stizzy, and are above 20k words.

peruse part 1, part 2, and part 3 at your leisure if you want to compare our tastes/devour more fine literature, or check out my masterlist as an ao3 collection.

adrift between the dreaming seas by @dandy-pirate-time

49k, mature, locked

stede lives a cursed life on a moving island, until the monotony of his days is suddenly interrupted by the fearsome kraken.

this was such a fascinating & incredible idea! i love how it manipulates aspects of the original story and transforms them into parts of the cursed island <3 sweet & unique & magical. i want to hug poor stede.

Five Birthdays and a Funeral by @bizarrelittlemew

58k, explicit

"When Ed and Stede's friend groups merge, they meet at a birthday party, and Stede's life is turned upside-down. As they collide again and again, he not only has to figure out what Ed means to him, but what he means to himself."

stede gets to be oblivious and a bit of a silly goose as a treat. also: treasure hunts, lucius is the best, ed has a cat whom i would die for, such a sweet & heartfelt fic. you will be so unbelievably fond of this version of every character.

The Ghost of Frigate Point Lighthouse by @piratecaptainscaptainpirates

53k, explicit

"When history professor Stede Bonnet goes to investigate rumors of a ghost haunting the local lighthouse, he's thrust into a mystery centered around the ghost of one of the most famous pirates of all time."

was SO eager to read this and it did not disappoint!! it has everything - fun, magic, mystery, tired TA lucius, and a lil bit of seduction. good enough that i am worried the author may actually just be a sea witch recollecting events he personally witnessed.

Haunted by @thepirateroo

60k, explicit

"The Kraken is a famous spiritualist, working the music halls of 1920s London to help families communicate with their dead. But Stede Bonnet knows that underneath the fame and illustrious title, Edward Teach works as a ghost hunter, debunking the spirits he makes his living off."

this is, genuinely, in the top 5 fanfics i have read for any fandom EVER. i wouldn't bat an eyelid if i read this exact work as a published novel in a bookstore. the mystery is so good and had me guessing and re-theorising constantly, the characterisation is brilliant, and the emotions are perfect. i cried, i laughed, i felt sick with worry for the characters, and i couldn't stop reading until i was done.

haunt me, then by @hyruling

28k, explicit

"He releases the ropes slowly, barely registering the burn as they slip through his fingers. Then, fallible as Orpheus, turns to meet his ghost."

post s1 fixit fics ily. everyone needs some therapy. really VERY well written and a joy to read.

Homeward Bound by mari_who

51k, explicit

"In the long-ago year 2000, bouncy blonde boy-band member Stede Bonnet is 17-year-old Edward Teach's gay awakening. Decades later, Ed hears a voice he could never forget."

i said 'ohhh no poor ed/stede' so many times while reading this. a lovely exploration of emotion and human connection, and finding yourself when everyone else has always defined who you are on your behalf.

I just need some air by @cuddlytogas

26k, teen

"Stede Bonnet's been having panic attacks for almost as long as he can remember, suffocated by pressure and expectation... When [he] finally takes his life back — divorces Mary, moves to Melbourne, starts his own event management business — things get better, but he's still no good at parties. He still needs some air, even at the very events he's brought to fruition. Meanwhile, Edward Teach, renowned chef and owner of Blackbeard's Catering, is wondering why the newest bigwig in events still hasn't hired him."

zoomed through this faster than lightning mcqueen. such a lovely writing of stede, ed and the whole crew - it feels like there's depth in every character, even background ocs.

also fantastic australia rep (i was jumpscared by mention of the cotton on group) AND i've been to the bar the final scene takes place at!!!! most exciting reading experience of my life.

i'll be your treasure by @monksofthescrew

48k, mature

"Wasn't the Dread Pirate Blackbeard rumored to have a hoard hidden somewhere near Essex? It's a metal detecting AU. They're detectorists. They fall in love."

i LOVE this fic so much it is just,,,, so sweet. stede does self-discovery and is seduced. ed is a bit of a goose and i'm obsessed with him. doug and mary are lovely. alma is so cool and i love her.

+ the sequel! drift o'er the rolling hills, swim through the briny sea (made me cry. btw. doug keeps being the best.)

The Kraken's Sacrifice by @trinityofone

22k, explicit

"Every year, a person is chosen—supposedly at random—to be sacrificed to the Kraken, to quell the sea's worst storms and to stop the taking of ships... Stede discovers that there is much more to the creature than he was led to believe—and that they have a deeper connection than he could have ever dreamed."

i LOVED this okay. it was funny and sweet and gave an interesting spin to the ed-is-the-kraken genre. get both of these boys some self-esteem asap. also comes with art by @avatoh!!!!!

lovers in a dangerous time by @veeagainsttheday

52k, explicit

pacific rim au - "Edward Teach becomes a jaeger pilot, first with Izzy Hands and later with Stede Bonnet. It’s not easy trying to save the world and falling in love with your drift partner…"

made me feel every emotion under the sun, including foaming at the mouth jealous that i don't have a drift partner. absolutely, masterfully written. i've popped this link first since its the fic that focuses on stede & ed, but it was written as a prequel for:

+ catagory five: a shatterdome romance by @owlinaminor (27k, mature), which focuses predominantly on jim & oluwande, and which i also massively recommend reading (first). it's told through lucius' words and made up of journalistic notes and transcriptions, and its really terribly clever. i knew nothing about pacific rim before this, and now i'm really very invested. if i wrote something this fantastic (& creative & wildly unique) i would never shut up about it.

More of the Gravy Basket than of the Grave by @veeagainsttheday

36k, explicit

"Ed and Stede’s ‘unorthodox friendship’ ended four months ago when Stede left Ed without a word after Ed asked him to run away to a parallel universe with him. They’re thrown back together when they’re summoned to perform a supernatural exorcism at the Hillside Hotel during a blizzard."

this has got to be one of the coolest and most creative fics i have ever had the pleasure of reading. genuinely kept me guessing and so so intrigued, PLUS the most sweet stede & ed dynamic!!!

Nothing Missing in My Life by @semisweetshadow

63k, explicit, locked

"Hollywood action star Ed Teach is bored with his celebrity life. Everything changes when he meets Stede, a sweet extra working on the set of his latest film shoot. Stede doesn't know who Ed really is and treats him like a real person and Ed can't help wanting to keep him."

ed plays an action hero called jeff the accountant, and if that's not immediately the greatest synopsis ever idk how else to win you over. hilarious, clever, & so heartfelt. i gasped and said 'oh no' with a hand over my heart nearly as many times as i laughed out loud.

not pickles by smallestchurch

84k, explicit

"Ed's minding his business when the new neighbor's kid comes around holding a human puppet. It's creepy as hell, but as soon as the kid's father rounds the corner, Ed doesn't mind."

i actually feel a bit ill when i think about this fic because i love it so overwhelmingly. there's family, and healing, and good food and friends, and ed teach and louis bonnet become the dynamic duo they always had the potential to be.

Our Fangs Mean Death by @flawedamythyst

87k, teen, locked

"Master Vampire Blackbeard's afterlife is enlivened by the arrival of a new coven in town, lead by the self-styled Gentleman Vampire. Now here's a Master who doesn't mind shaking things up by wearing clothes 300 years out of date, buying a massive gothic mansion for a lair, and leading the most eclectic coven Blackbeard has ever seen."

ridiculously fun. this is the vampire novel/fic i didn't know i needed and i loved every silly second. stede really gets to fulfil his dad-ness. i'm furious i can't join the gentleman vampires coven irl, will just need to embrace the gothic vampire aesthetic in my own life.

Wayfaring by @justkeeptrekkin

35k, explicit

"The downside to being stuck on a desert island is that Stede's not awfully good at adapting. The upside is that he and Ed can finally have some peace and quiet– that is, if Ed ever wakes up from the gunshot wound in his stomach."

the sweetest desert island fic, feat. the cutest piglet in the world, a little bit of pining, a helpful skeleton named dusty, and some of the best & most accurately written stede and ed content ever (imo).

[kityana]

#i was actually surprised at how quickly they dropped their weird version of blackhands #like for over a year now they've been writing blackhands as this abusive relationship with ed as an uncontrollably violent toddler #which. you know. incredibly racist on its own #but then they claim they actually got it in canon and it's too much so they drop the brown guy and ship the white guys exclusively? #very very weird

^^its not actually weird at all!! it’s very simple: the brand of blackhands these shippers loved is when they could portray the relationship as constantly imbalanced in izzy’s favor bc ed needed to do so much work to Atone and izzy was a poor helpless victim to ed’s violence. and when i say they wanted that relationship constantly imbalanced i mean CONSTANTLY constantly, like they needed ed groveling they needed izzy being doted on they needed the entire dynamic of their relationship to be centered around how izzy is finally getting the love he “deserves” for putting up with ed and being ed’s victim for so long.

and now they got the first half of the dynamic they wanted which is ed being a domestic abuser and izzy being the target of ed’s abuse (i mean, they didn’t actually get it, but they THINK they did) but they had a part two to the dynamic that they didn’t end up getting which is “ed is permanently put in the doghouse” and to them, ed saying “sorry bout your leg” was not NEARLY enough groveling.

and!! ed even got to be happy in the season despite not fixing his relationship w izzy!! bc these fans only think abt any aspect in the show when they’re thinking abt “how can i make this about izzy” so like to them the most important part of any narrative analysis of ed revolves around his relationship with izzy (this is why ed leaving in 1x07 is abt missing izzy and not abt him being unsure of his relationship w stede, why they’ve written metas abt how the chain and run from me are edizzy songs, why there were headcanons that thankfully got squashed pretty quickly they DID exist for a minute abt how ed grew out his hair bc izzy had long hair when they were younger and ed thought it was cool) and they expected the show to write ed this way, too.

and then the worst part (and also the part i've seen izzy stans analyze the LEAST which is in no way a coincidence) is that in izzy's dying words he admits to Fueling Ed's Darkness for his own personal gain. he apologizes for being cruel to ed. and outside of their buzzword phrases about how this was a portrayal of "an abuse victim apologizing to their abuser" i haven't seen anyone from the izzy stan crowd dig into what it actually MEANS and what kind of harm izzy caused by feeding ed's darkness and pushing ed to be blackbeard, like they're acting as if izzy’s literal actual last words have no narrative significance whatsoever. but you’ll notice there are MANY posts from izzy stans abt how horrific the violence ed did to izzy was and how tragic it all is for poor izzy :(

so yeah. the three-hit combo of 1. not enough focus on ed atoning for harming izzy, 2. ed being allowed happiness despite not having properly atoned for harming izzy, and 3. the finale directly saying “izzy did bad things in this relationship, too” are why they fully fucking hate ed now and have abandoned ship to start writing stizzy now. like, we have a few stede and izzy interactions in s2, but for the most part their relationship is a blank enough slate that they can create a whole fully-fleshed out (and, lbr, probably very generic and overused) fanon dynamic out of scraps. but ed was given too much attention from the story outside of just being a vehicle to project izzy’s desires onto and also the source of izzy’s trauma and they can’t reconcile their version of edizzy with what happens in canon. thinking abt edizzy means thinking abt how canon didn’t punish ed enough and how ed got a happy ending when izzy didn’t, even tho in their minds ed is the reason for the majority of izzy’s misery.

sorry lol “it’s actually very simple” i say before depositing five hefty paragraphs into ur inbox

(this is in reference to my tags on this post)

yeah that is a pretty good summation of everything.

tho thinking about it, i do think there's a secret 4th component as to why they're now dropping ed completely and shipping stizzy, which is how stede became more masc this season. i think the show makes it pretty clear the reason for it is that stede thinks he has to become more masculine and violent to get ed back and keep him, but that doesn't really matter to them. the fact remains that stede is now dressing in muted colors and leather, and pulls out his sword on a dime. so now they're more comfortable enjoying him.

[sunshineonashelf]

"oh but it was satisfying! izzy went on a healing journey and got to die happy!"

again i'm very sorry for being feral about an old man named izzy hands. but i am NOT SATISFIED

(1) the whole point of izzy's healing journey is that he learns to be okay with being himself and being queer and being a part of a community that genuinely loves him. and learning who he is outside of who he has to be in a toxic relationship. he doesn't have to bear ed's burdens anymore and he SLOWLY learns that's okay and that he doesn't have to stay that same person.

only to die when he FINALLY internalizes all of it!! the whole point of his healing was that he learned to change and be loved for who he is!! and then he died after only getting to experience it for maybe 20 minutes!! i don't care that him sailing off into the sunset with the rest of them wouldn't have been closure, because it would have been a much better ending to his story.

(2) it is NOT SATISFYING that his LAST WORDS were basically to further ED'S story arc. he literally dies reassuring ed that his found family loves him when the whole point of the story was that the found family loves IZZY. it was a very sweet moment and yes ed deserved to hear it and yes i did cry over him calling them ed's family but damn. he STILL HAD TO CARRY ED'S BURDENS. his death scene was not about him at all.

it's very sweet that ed and stede stayed with him but the whole point of izzy's journey was that he doesn't have to be a piece in ed's story and now he has to be just a piece in ed's story forever??

(and yes i'm a slut for edizzy so i did appreciate what they were doing. yes it was very special. yes i sobbed. but JESUS was it upsetting now that i'm actually thinking about it.)

(3) he could have lived and it would NOT have undermined anything else. he could have been dying and telling ed the same things and it would have been just as meaningful if he had lived. imagine an ending scene where he's almost dying, says all that stuff, then is brought to a bed to recover. it cuts to the exact same wedding scene and stede/ed scene with the house and the crew being happy. then it cuts back to izzy waking up and smiling or something and that's the last shot.

stede and ed would still have their happy ending and it would have been JUST AS meaningful if izzy had lived and gone off on the revenge. if not MORE so because then there's the aspect of izzy finally being happy with himself and being okay with stede and ed's relationship and being okay with distancing himself from them!! when he says dying is what he wants it's literally that same sentiment, just cheap and rushed and UNSATISFYING.

(4) the entire beautiful fucking unicorn metaphor they spent the whole first part of the season developing is totally tossed out the window!! izzy becomes the literal figurehead and protector and guiding light of the revenge in a metaphor that could not have been more obvious. and he is HAPPY ABOUT IT. he GENUINELY SMILES and CRIES about it. it is what he WANTS TO DO and it made NO SENSE that he said he was ready to go. what was the point of all of that if they were just going to kill him and not let him actually do that duty in the way he wanted. he only got to be the figurehead when it meant protecting everyone from ed.

(5) this is maybe a silly argument but it literally would not have been unrealistic if he survived. like a week prior he got shot then got his leg cut off then shot himself in the head, then walked upstairs in the middle of a hurricane hours later. and was fine. by the show's logic he could have been fine from ONE bullet wound to the side. what the hell happened to "indestructible little fucker"!

tl;dr izzy was very special to me for reasons that would constitute another 700 word post and he was done so FUCKING dirty by that literal TEN MINUTE scene that went against everything we've been doing the entire season (AND SHOW AS A WHOLE) so far

[jellybeanium124]

thank you for tagging me, @chocolatepot!

Rules: go to your AO3 account and find the following:

What ratings do you write most of your fics under? T - 47 G - 38 M - 26 E - 6

What are your top three fandoms? Our Flag Means Death (TV) - 86 The Umbrella Academy (TV) -26 Flight of the Conchords (All Media Types) -2

What is the top character you write about? Ed - 84 Stede - 77 Izzy - 24 Diego - 19 Viktor - 19

What are the top three additional tags? Alternate Universe - Modern Setting - 34 Weight Gain - 33 Fluff - 31

Does any of this surprise you? I'm surprised that diego and viktor both beat out klaus, who's only in 16 of my fics. in fact, allison beats him too at 18, and he's tied with luther. poor ben and five, getting neglected by me 😅. I'm also surprised that ed's in so many more than stede. I wrote 7 fics that include ed but not gentlebeard??? when?? I remember writing one edizzy fic... oh ok I looked it up yeah that checks out I wrote 8 fics that have ed but not stede. I've got 1 stizzy fic that's got no ed. the ratings doesn't surprise me at all. neither do the fandoms or top 3 tags. like haha yeah I do like fluffy wg why are you asking 😳

tagging: @in-a-slanted-outhouse @piratecaptainscaptainpirates @bisexualtedlasso and anyone else who wants!

[inventinglove]

IT'S TIME FOR SOME GRAPHS BABY! we ran a little interest survey and damn, you guys are for sure interested in an edizzy zine, uh?

➡️ 144 answers

➡️ 115 potential buyers

➡️ 100 potential contributors

when the topic is participation, people are mostly pretty sure that they will contribute to the zine 🥰 we are so ready to see all the lovely stuff you create!

we wanted to know: on a scale of 1 to 5, what type of content are you creating?

considering that...

1 - fluff! ❤️

3 - angst w happy ending, hurt/comfort 🥺

5 - no happy ending, hurt/no comfort 💔

is anyone surprised that ~50% of answers failed on the hurt/comfort bracket?

In terms of media... we have a lot of fanfic writers ready to play in the space, followed closely by art. Other medias also have a space on the zine, though!

👀👀👀

Another non-shocker: 94% of our database would buy a NSFW zine. Good think that almost all of our contributors are comfortable with creating NSFW pieces! 🥵

after all, edizzy invented kinky sex. That's how the saying goes right?

but don't worry, we will have room for SFW too!❤️

Of course edizzy shippers love some dead dove... 🕊 but most creators wouldn't probably go for it 🤔

Even so, considering the votes, we are leaning to allowing DD content on the zine - all properly tagged and separated so everyone can be comfortable and avoid squicks!

ps specifically for the dead dove content for creators we fumbled the question and forgot to add the 'comfortable with dead dove' option and only noticed after some answers tickled in. that could have skewed the answers a bit!

[lightning-macrine]

So Alex Sherman added 3 new songs to his ‘Our Flag S2’ playlist and they’re all Olivia Rodrigo because he’s a menace and knows what he’s doing to us and it’s these 3.

I’ve listened to Sour before but re-listening to it in the Izzy/EdIzzy context is a completely different experience so I wanna highlight some lyrics I think are just PERFECT for our boys.

enough for you

drivers license

1 step forward, 3 steps back

Anyway, happy listening!! (Or not because the divorce/breakup era is real with this one 😢)

[jaskierx]

Honestly, I really admire (and am thankful for) the way you manage and handle those back and forth with some Izzy stans, I don't think I have the mental strength to entertain them myself.

I wasn't part of the fandom after season 1 aired, I watched it without engaging much and then kind of waited for season 2 to come out, so I had no idea such a divide had happened between Izzy stans and the rest of the fandom (glad I was oblivious to it ngl). All I know is that I hated Izzy’s guts and wanted him to get his just desert.

So yeah, I wasn’t a fan and I struggled forgiving him when season 2 started because the show was trying so hard to make him sympathetic (which I honestly couldn’t give two shits about at first, I wanted revenge), plus you’re right, Izzy got way too much screen time (which gave Izzy stans ammunitions to say “SEE!! Main character!!!”), but I did end up warming up to him by the time he died. I can even say I genuinely liked him.

BUT the journey to that point was sooo conflicting because some Izzy stans were also doing the absolute most in the main tag, painting Izzy as this angel who never did anything wrong and was terrorized by the monster Ed, and I was like????? Did season 1 happen??? Did I dream the whole season??? Did I watch a version from an alternate universe??? I was BAFFLED. I don't know who is that Izzy they're talking about, but it's not the one on my screen, that's for sure.

Then, Izzy died and the hardcore stans lost their shit (you know what I'm talking about) and they have seriously soured me to Izzy again. I want to like the character we had on screen, and I want to like his redemption arc. He was a great antagonist even if I hated him, and we owed him so much for all the shit he pulled in season 1, but the OTT takes and behaviors from stans I’ve seen have made me give up on him, which sucks. Maybe I’ll feel better about him in a few months, but right now, I can’t stand him, and I’ve blocked his tag everywhere (ao3 included, because, truly, fuck fanon Izzy, fuck him).

Hope it’s not too draining for you though, just writing this felt like screaming into the void, so I can’t imagine dealing with this on the daily. Take care!

hi anon i'm so glad you sent this bc i felt very similarly about izzy in s2. i didn't find him sympathetic at all. i didn't give a single shit that he was suffering from ed being in his kraken era bc he's the entire reason ed ended up like that in the first place. izzy was reaping what he sowed. seeing ed feeling so miserable broke my fucking heart and i can't stand any bullshit takes about 'izzy was protecting the crew from ed's abuse' or 'edizzy invented love confirmed' or whatever other nonsense his stans chose to take away from episodes 1-3.

i truly do not see izzy as a victim. i truly do not see ed as an abuser. sometimes i will start reading a post in the ofmd tag that refers to an 'abuser' and a 'victim' and i get halfway through the post and realise that the op has a completely opposite view of who is who than i do.

and as s2 progressed i just felt worse and worse about it like he was getting so much screentime and popping up all over the place and he'd absorbed a load of traits (from other characters that i'd have rather seen more of) bc the writers had to speedrun making him semi-likeable. i still haven't done a proper rewatch since the finale aired and i'm pretty sure i'll feel different watching it knowing he dies in ep8, but when eps 6-7 dropped i fucking hated every scene he was in and felt like he ruined some otherwise really lovely ed/stede moments like their breakfast in bed. izzy being cheered on for wearing drag and singing - the exact acts that caused him to threaten ed - feels exactly like the very common queer experience of seeing the homophobic kid who bullied you for being queer getting loads of support when they come out themselves.

and the takes that were coming out of the canyon at this time were absolutely wild, especially in relation to ed. people absolutely baying for blood, wanting to see him suffer, wanting his relationship with stede to suffer, wanting him to have to crawl across broken glass to repair his relationship with the crew, all while treating izzy as a protagonist who never did anything wrong.

so ngl i was delighted when he died. but mostly i was relieved that it was going to be over. i walked out of my circus tent with my clown makeup on believing that the canyon would yell for a bit and then slowly quiet down as people who claimed they'd be leaving the fandom if izzy died made good on their promise and fucked off.

and if anything they've got louder and more unhinged and are out here reinventing tjlc and harassing the writers and churning out the most rancid racist posts and writing obituaries that caused multiple people on twt to mistakenly think Actual Human Person con o'neill had died.

and on one hand i'm kind of glad that more people know what they're like now but god i really do feel for any izzy fans who have had their enjoyment of him ruined by the canyon. i really do think it's not the character that's polarising, it's the fandom response, in that most people who come in liking izzy end up either aligning with the canyon or getting so fucking fed up of the canyon that they don't like him anymore. and both of those are a shame tbh because he is very well acted and well written, especially in s1, and i wish i could've enjoyed his scenes and felt the emotional payoff of his death

anyway. sorry for writing you 1 billion words. ily ❤️

[ewelinakl]

first and last lines

thank you for tagging me @bittersweetbark

Rules: Go through your last 5 completed works and share the first and last lines without context

5. leaning towards the sun (ofmd, bellhands, E)

first line: "In hindsight, the bike excursion might not have been the best idea."

last line: “And yet, you love me.”

4. call it courage (ofmd, bellhands, E)

first line: "Sam asking to be choked during sex is simultaneously the hottest and scariest thing Israel’s heard in his life."

last line: "But then Sam says, “Only if you let me suck you off in the shower,” and everything is back to normal."

3. someone has to leave first (ofmd, bellhands + edizzy, E)

first line: "Neither of Sam’s ships is at the port when they dock in Nassau in the late afternoon."

last line: "And if anyone is foolish enough to come between them… That’s on them."

2. knives, singing for blood (ofmd, Hornigold/Izzy, E, dead dove)

first line: “Captain wants to see you, Hands.”

last line: “Go wash yourself,” he says. “You’re free to go.”

1. tell me we'll never get used to it (ofmd, edizzy, E)

first line: "Izzy is a fascinating little thing."

last line: “You’re sleeping here tonight,” Ed says. “So don’t soil the bed.”

no pressure tagging @sweveris, @reinarandwulf, @natilieal, @pineau-noir, @agentkuryakin, @queenclio, @ayashitetsuko, @nadsdraws, @kaelleid & @logarithmicpanda (you don't have to do 5, but I want to see at least HoS and ATORAM :>)

[blue-b-bro]

Now that I think about it, by accidentally watching those 3 episodes in reverse order, I gave myself a lethal dose for a starter. Probably that made me survive edizzy angst in 1-2ep.

[bringinghometherain]

WIP Folder Game

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

I was tagged by the inimitable @thetragicallynerdy, thanks friend for the tag.

This is what's in my folder "fiction writing," which is mostly fanfics but also includes some original stuff.

evil govt plant science

1000 words of summer 2021

Adventures of Pete and Lucius

edizzy

Paranormal detective story

whumptober 2023

Remington Steele

Under the subfolder "charlieverse:"

charlie universe one-offs

charlie scraps

Whumpuary 2023

Whumpril 2023

comfortember 2022

Charlie notes

whump wheel

True Confessions of Charlotte Walker / OFMD

Under the subfolder "ofmd season 2 stuff:"

post episode 3 izzy whump

stede is trying So Hard to be respectful

fix it #1

do you see any recurring themes

lol I guess I have a lot of works in progress. I am not going to tag 18 people, I am going to cop out and say IF YOU SEE THIS AND YOU WRITE ANYTHING AT ALL PLEASE GO AHEAD AND SHARE WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT <3