#ed making fang put down his dog

[sky-fire-forever]

To the people who say that Ed never harmed the Kraken Crew:

I am genuinely so confused by this take. First of all: Ed is shown to be violent even if that's not directed at the Kraken Crew specifically. He threw Lucius overboard and thinks he killed him in cold blood and he tortures Izzy by mutilating him. Even IF he never physically harms Jim, Frenchie, Fang, or Ivan directly, he is still behaving violently. He is killing people and taking out his depression on both Izzy and the innocent people (ish, they're still naval officers) that they are raiding.

Even if Izzy (and Lucius, remember) are the only direct victims of his physical abuse... they are still victims of that abuse? No matter what Izzy has done, be it threaten him, verbally lashing out at him, or even abuse of his own if you interpret it that way justifies how Ed physically takes him apart and makes him EAT parts of himself. That is beyond abuse. That is both physical and mental literal torture

And remember, Lucius was entirely innocent. He was actively trying to HELP Ed and that did not stop Ed from behaving violently towards him.

If you say since we see no signs of Ed abusing the Kraken Crew, I will remind you that the way Ed led the Kraken Crew got Ivan killed. Ivan DIED due to decisions made during Ed's time as captain of The Revenge, likely due to the constant raids making them exhausted and weakening their ability to fight.

We don't know enough about Ivan's death for me to really say that for certain, so it's speculation. But if Ivan died during a raid, the responsibility still falls on Ed's shoulders. He is their captain, it is his job to protect and defend his crew and we are explicitly told that he did not bat an eye when Ivan went down. We even see Ed kill a member of his own crew during his suicide attempt. A crew member falls overboard and we see Fang reach for them. This is directly caused by Ed sailing into that storm.

He points a gun at his crewmates and they have NO IDEA if he's going to shoot him. They're clearly afraid that he might. Fang starts crying and they all tense up. Frenchie expects Ed to kill him when he finds out that he's been hiding Izzy. They are afraid of their captain, they believe he does not care about their lives and that he could kill them at any moment.

This is abuse. I genuinely do not care if it is physical towards anyone but Izzy or not, it is abuse plain and simple. Ed behaves in an abusive manner towards his crew. That abuse actively puts their lives in danger. Constantly forcing them to go on raid after raid after raid for no reward (because he makes them dump the treasure that they believe they are earning for themselves, as Frenchie flat out asks Izzy if they're receiving "their cut") and exhausting them in the process makes them more likely to be killed on the field. Fighting while exhausted and demoralized is fucking difficult!

And before anyone says that's just life aboard a pirate ship, isn't Ed supposed to be better? Isn't he supposed to be better than Hornigold? Even Ed remembers having good times on Hornigold's ship with Jack. And the Kraken Crew appear constantly exhausted and terrified, carving out their own moments of joy just like Ed had to while under Hornigold

I have seen posts claiming that Izzy fans have a disconnect between interpretation of a character and their actual actions, but the lengths I have seen (certain, not all) Ed fans go to to completely absolve Ed of his cruelest actions absolutely baffles me. Like... Ed made Fang kill his dog and that's BEFORE he became the Kraken.

Ed is a dark character. He does twisted shit. Is that not INTERESTING to you? Does it not fascinate you that a man perfectly capable of torturing his crew and driving them harder and harder and harder until some of them die fueled by his own desire to make himself irredeemable STILL at his core is a man who wants nothing more than to be loved? Do you not find it somewhat beautiful and that this man with so much blood on his hands is still told "someone will love you. You are not a monster, but a person despite your cruelty"? Do you not think the story of a man so completely consumed by all he has done realizing that he can not erase the damage of what he did isn't a good tale to tell? Do you think there is a fundamental difference between the man who tells Stede not to kill and the man who has killed for himself?

I feel like stripping him of his horror takes away so much of who he is. So much of what makes him interesting. He CHOOSES to leave Stede's crew on an island to die of exposure or starvation. He CHOOSES to basically kidnap Frenchie and Jim. He CHOOSES to hurt those closest to him in horrible ways

And he chooses to come back from that. Chooses to try to do better. To learn. To grow. To love.

I have issues with season two, but if we had more time to watch Ed come back from this, to see him make amends with the crew he so horribly damaged, I would have thought this was the best arc ever. Redemption stories are my favorite because it shows that everyone is capable of both good and evil. Ed is capable of both too. I really wish people would see his growth for what it is: a man so entrenched in violence with a nonlinear recovery that hurts people and still keeps trying anyway. Rather than someone who never hurts anyone at all

[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.

[izzyrarepairkinkmeme]

[FANG/IZZY centric +pet adoption +optional accidental/impractical acquisition of a child]

An Izzy lives AU where Stede and Ed have still left.

Izzy is working through his shit and living his best life totally against his will. Him and Fang connect in a way that is totally new for them. Which makes Izzy look back on their shared history together and, with new understanding, feels guilty.

So he gets him a guilt puppy!

The crew help him plan the surprise, and It's all very cute with Izzy hiding the dog in a barrel then telling Fang to fetch something from it for him.

But Fang struggles to get excited and starts to say no even as he cuddles into it. Izzy being dramatic, swears his sword to her like a knight from a fairy tale.

"Now will you keep the fucking dog now?" Izzy: kneeling down in front of a weeping Fang who's just frantically nodding.

(The crew are watching like "Did they just get engaged over a dog?")

They settle into a nice routine with the puppy and continue to bond even more over co-dog-parenting. Fang uses Izzy's promise to rope him into their care, Izzy is too smitten with both of them to put up an opposition.

Optional: Before they get together, the dog gets turned into a human (age depending on the author). They can talk and still remember things from being a dog (i,e knows Fizzy as their dads) and is still very much dog in mannerisms and personality. So now their just straight-up co-parenting a feral goblin of a child/person.

♠

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

When Lucius is about to push Ed off the boat and he tells Ed that his line is "we're going to have a talent show," I don't really think Ed's saying he doesn't remember the talent show at all when he's like "why would I say that? Doesn't sound like me."

I can totally get why people have that interpretation! It would make sense; when Ed pushed Lucius overboard, he was in a terrible place, feeling terrified, and he's had a rough few months to put it mildly. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Ed has forgotten the talent show, but I don't think that's what they were going for.

In the scene, Lucius was clearly trying to recreate exactly what happened to him. The last thing he'd said to Ed before Ed pushed him off the ship was about setting up for the talent show; it makes sense that Lucius remembers that vividly and if he was trying to recreate his experience that he would have Ed say it to reverse their roles.

But I also think Ed's refusal to acknowledge the talent show at all might be because he doesn't even want to think about that time. The way he says it comes across as awkward more than anything. He'd been on the upswing when they were planning the talent show only to have everything shot out from under him, there's undoubtedly a lot of complicated feelings there. Ed has been shown many times to just pretend he doesn't fucking know what you're talking about if he doesn't want to talk about it (like in season 1 when he says "I might vaguely remember that" when pressed about how Fang had to put his dog down).

I think the most likely thing going through Ed's head when he says that getting ready for a talent show "doesn't sound like [him]" is just that he's trying to set a boundary - he really doesn't want to acknowledge the talent show that never was, because it was that last good thing he almost had before all the Kraken shit, and even though he's trying to set things right, he's not comfortable with even mentioning that.

[bookshelfdreams]

actually yk what I'm gonna say this out loud.

I am sick and tired of people acting like Ed not allowing Fang to bring his shitty dog on board is some great injustice that he will have to beg forgiveness for.

"No pets" is a perfectly reasonable rule. They live on a ship. There's limited space and resources. Who in their right mind would think it a good idea to bring a dog on a pirate ship. How would you even feed it! They haven't invented dog food yet! There often was barely enough food for the humans, sailors were chronically malnourished (famously so! It's even a plot point in the show!), and you want to bring a dog?? What's it supposed to do on board other than just piss and shit everywhere and then slowly starve to death?

Speaking of which. Ed immediately gives the reason for not allowing pets on board - "They befoul the ship"! Which they do! And there's no way around it. Other animals at least are somewhat useful - livestock for fresh food products, cats for pest control (so they feed themselves and also they can easily be trained to shit in a box). But dogs? What use would a dog be on board.

The "the love of a pet makes a man weak" is obviously bullshit. Ed doesn't even remember saying it. It's the sort of excuse you come up with when your reasonable arguments aren't listened to. Ed clearly doesn't truly believe that.

Then Fang being "forced" to put his dog down. First of all, there's no indication Fang was forced to join Ed's crew - if his dog had been that important to him, he simply could not have become a pirate! He doesn't say "When you made me join your crew", it's "When I joined your crew", implying this was 100% voluntary. First of all. Second of all, you realize they didn't have animal shelters back then right? Would it really have been more kind to abandon that dog to a slow death in the streets? No. He's gotta take responsibility, and that means facing that this animal's life is in his hands. If he can't care for it anymore, and there's no other option, the least he could do is give it a clean death himself.

And lastly. The whole reason this is even brought up is because Izzy is a petty little bitch who hates friendship. Like. We realize Izzy is an unreliable narrator but not when it comes to this?? Not when he's clearly just looking for an excuse to dehumanize Stede? Okay lol.

Ed is perfectly within his rights to not want dogs on his ship and has very good reasons for that.

[house-afire]

Doggie Heaven (fix-it, Izzy & Fang, Izzy & dogs)

Turns out, when half the Caribbean’s spent the last twenty-odd years calling you Blackbeard’s dog, it really fucks up death’s sense of what berth to hand you.

That’s as good an explanation as Izzy can come up with, anyhow, since he bled out on the Revenge and woke up in doggie heaven.

It’s not so bad, really. Better than most place he’s been. A lot of it is an endless meadow, peppered with wildflowers and crisscrossed with streams. He just has to watch where he steps, because this might be the only heaven with quite this much piss and shit in it. It all fades away after a day, though, so there’s never too much of it; the dogs just seem to like a good bouquet of smells about.

They seem to like him too. Bring him sticks when they want to play. Lick his tears away when he’s lonely. When Izzy stretches out at night, under the glittering canopy of unrecognizable stars, the dogs come and sleep around him. One squat, white, bullet-headed terrier always curls up in a ball up by Izzy’s armpit, so Izzy has to sleep with his arm slung out across the furry, furnace-hot twat. It’s not uncomfortable—heaven and all—but Izzy pretends to mind anyway: he scratches the pup around his flared, pointy ears and tells him he’s a fucking terror.

One day he wakes up with the Fucking Terror lying on his chest, silhouetted by blue sky.

“You’re lucky this can’t kill me here,” Izzy says, rubbing the dog along his ribs and listening to his tail thump. “You weigh a fucking ton.”

The Fucking Terror puts his chin down against Izzy’s sternum and looks up at him adoringly, and all of a sudden, Izzy remembers.

“Fuck me,” he says. “You’re Fang’s dog.”

The Fucking Terror wags his entire back half at hearing Fang’s name, to the point where he tumbles off Izzy’s chest. The weight of him seems to stay, though.

He didn’t give the order for Fang to kill the Fucking Terror, or whatever the dog’s name was back then, but he made sure it was done. Didn’t try to argue Edward out of it. Didn't stop it.

You shouldn’t have brought him here in the first place, he told Fang. Blackbeard’s right: the ship’s no place for a pet. You going to take him out for walkies in the middle of a raid? All he’ll do is eat up more than your share of the rations and make us all soft.

He remembers Fang crying. Fang’s clothes matted with short white hairs.

“I’d stop it now,” he tells the Fucking Terror, “but he wouldn’t order it now anyway, would he? And then there was a time when he wouldn’t, and I told him he should. I hung on his neck about it.” He exhales. “Our whole lives, there were only ever a few days, really, when we could save each other from ourselves. And that was too late for you. We had such rotten fucking timing, me and Ed, until the end. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t look out for you. Didn’t look out for Fang.”

The dog licks his face. Dogs are the forgiving kind.

Izzy knows better now than to take that puppy-eyed love for granted, or think it comes cheap just because it comes easy. He pets the Fucking Terror and presses his face to the dog’s bristly side, breathing in the smell of him.

“Wish I could take you back to him,” he says, one arm around the dog’s neck. “You’re young still, and Fang deserves—”

The Fucking Terror barks directly in Izzy’s ear.

Underneath all the ringing that ensues, he realizes that he has an unnaturally clear idea of what the dog is—wild as it seems—trying to say.

Wish I could take you back, he said.

The bark answers: You can.

It’s a reply that, until this last year, Izzy Hands would have said existed only in places like doggie heaven. Life’s not that kind. You fuck things up and you live with it, that’s all.

But as impossible as it seems, he’s gotten these kinds of chances before. There’s a reason why, even in doggie heaven, where he moves gracefully as ever and without any pain, he still has one golden hoof: because he loved this undeserved epilogue more than anything else in his whole fucking life, and there’d be no heaven without it. Doggie or otherwise.

So he’s going to follow the spirit of Fang’s dead dog, because, well, he followed Stede Fucking Bonnet, too, and it turned out all right until Pinocchio the Cunt put a bullet in him.

“Lead on, then,” Izzy says to the Fucking Terror.

The dog gives another enthusiastic, all-rump waggle, hops to his feet, and starts jogging resolutely towards the west.

“I always thought the west would just take us deeper into dying,” Izzy says. “That’s what people usually mean by it, down there.”

The Fucking Terror, one bafflingly comprehensible answer aside, is the strong and silent type; he doesn’t bark out any particular response to that. Which is probably just as well, now that Izzy thinks about it, because it’s one thing to try to resurrect your friend’s dog and it’s another thing to have a fucking philosophical discussion with it.

He follows the dog west.

It’s hard to tell much about how time and space work in doggie heaven. As far as Izzy can see, they may just do what the dogs want or expect them to do.

The Fucking Terror doesn’t think in miles, just in terms like near or far, and he knows that where he’s taking Izzy must be very far away.

So it is. They go without sleeping or tiring, but all the same, they walk for what may be days or even weeks. It’s a long enough trek that the world around them changes, and the meadows turn to dunes, to shale, to sand, to lush tangles of green. The air warms, and Izzy can smell the sea.

The ocean opens up before them, wide and blue.

And the Revenge is there, settled onto the sand not like Bonnet’s run her aground again but like she’s there as naturally as driftwood. Ships aren’t meant to look this good on land, but this one does. She’s as pretty as Bonnet’s model of her, and she’s waiting for them.

They’ve carved a new unicorn for her prow, painted it black and gray and given it one shining gold hoof.

“Fucking twats,” Izzy says, his eyes burning. “Salt’s going to eat away at the paint. You’ll have to touch it up every other week.”

The Fucking Terror yips at him a bit until Izzy picks the dog up and gives him a proper cuddle. He settles down so comfortably in Izzy’s arms that Izzy decides to leave him there and just carry him aboard. It’s practical, or so he tells himself.

The Revenge is quiet: a living ship is a ghost ship, apparently, if the land is full of ghosts already. But as Izzy walks through it—the Fucking Terror doesn’t seem to object to him taking his time—he finds signs of his crew, here but just out of his reach. Roach’s galley smells like fresh bread and the broth from the Pirate Queen’s ship. There are nicks in some of the posts where Jimenez has been throwing knives. Frenchie’s lute is slung into a hammock. There’s the potted plant that once proved Bonnet’s pirate bona fides.

One of the rooms—Izzy refuses to acknowledge that he knows very fucking well it’s what they called the jam room, because if he does, his brain will start leaking out his ears—has been converted into Spriggs’s personal gallery. Lots of dicks—some of which Izzy knows on sight; you didn’t forget the bend in Pete’s once you’d seen it, God knows—but sketches of ships and shells and birds, too. A few crew portraits where everyone’s got their cocks or other bits put away.

There’s a drawing of him singing at Calypso’s birthday.

The Fucking Terror looks at the picture with interest.

“I know,” Izzy says, trying to make a crack about it and not sure he's putting it over. “Stunner, wasn’t I?”

The dog sends his tail flying into Izzy’s chest.

This little tour of theirs has to come to an end. If Izzy stays here any longer, he’ll be too fucking heartsick to leave the dog behind the way he should. He has to let the Fucking Terror live, the way he once let him die; he never did enough for Fang in life, but he’s going to do this for him now.

Can’t leave him on the deck, though. For all Izzy knows, the weather in the real world isn’t anything like this calm. (And that’s if this half-baked scheme of his—some bastard child of Ed’s plans and Bonnet’s—even works at all.) He hasn’t come all this way to let the little fucker be swept overboard.

But every sailor keeps a trunk, stored down belowdecks for safety, and it doesn’t take Izzy too long to find Fang’s.

Time was, this would have been locked, but nobody here is careful. Somehow, they’ve all found the one place where they don’t have to be.

Inside, the clothes all smell like Fang—sea and sourdough and rum and black pepper. Like the only hug Izzy’s had in years. He strokes the rough cotton of the top shirt and looks at where it’s mended with some bright purple thread that can only have come from Bonnet. It’s turned a tear into a pattern.

Purple’s Ed’s favorite color. Izzy always knew that, even though he used to pretend neither of them had a favorite anything. He knows Ed’s stitches, too—God love the man, but he’s shit with a needle, and Izzy’s crookedest scar comes from the time they both got drunk and decided they could do the surgeon’s job for him. These are too neat for Edward. Fang’s own work, probably.

Izzy lays the dog down in the trunk, in the nest of Fang’s clothes, and it feels like he’s tearing his own heart out of his chest.

“I’ll miss you,” he says, his voice raspier than ever from the tears he’d not going to fucking shed over a fucking dog that was never even fucking his to begin with, over the life and friends he’s already fucking lost. “If you can’t stay here, come find me. And—just fucking love him for me. Love all of them. Be a good dog.”

The Fucking Terror rubs his head against Izzy’s hand, licks him once, and curls up in Fang’s shirts.

Izzy scrubs at his eyes with the heels of his hands and sighs. That’s it, then. It’s done. He turns to go.

But—

His leg hurts.

He can feel the ship rock and sway in the calm, always-there way you almost never notice after a lifetime at sea. You don’t even feel it like this after being ashore, only after being becalmed for longer than you can stand.

The air is filling in with distant sounds.

Behind him, the Fucking Terror barks.

“What was that?” someone in the corridor says. “Is someone up to something weird in bed?”

It’s Fang. That works well enough. It’ll be nice, him being the one to find the dog.

But he won’t find Izzy, and Izzy has to remind himself of that, to not let his hopes rise up so far he chokes on them. He’s a ghost, and if Fang can even see him in the first place, all he’ll do is run—that’s what you do when the dead try to follow you.

And odds are, Fang will never even know he’s here.

The door opens.

“Anybody knocking boots in—”

Fang stops.

“Izzy,” he says, and Izzy doesn’t even get the chance to think before Fang is engulfing him in a tight embrace. It’s like having the dog on his chest all over again: he’s being crushed and he fucking loves it. “Izzy, you’re not dead!”

“I am,” Izzy says. It comes out as a croak. “I was.”

Fang still doesn’t let him go. “You’re too warm to be a corpse and too solid to be a ghost. That’s good enough for me. The barking’s a bit weird, but we can—”

“That wasn’t me, for fuck’s sake.” Izzy disentangles himself just enough to gesture at Fang’s open trunk. “Fucker found me up in doggie heaven. He wanted to come home.”

Fang looks. His eyes were already shining, and this finishes off the job and lets the tears fall. “Fluffy?”

“Fluffy,” Izzy mutters. “No wonder I didn’t remember that. Dog’s not fluffy at all, he’s sleek.”

The Fucking Fluff sits up in the trunk and barks until Fang scoops him up too, and then they’re just like that, all pressed together, wet with tears and dog slobber. And it’s not any heaven Izzy’s ever heard of, not with his aching leg and Fang’s beard half in his mouth and a dog named Fluffy, but it’s life, it’s a second chance, and he holds on and is held.

[whatkeepsmeafloat]

All right, now that all the promotional material is out there (as far as we know), here are my season 2 timeline predictions/expectations. Putting it behind a cut because this is a long one - I just need to get my thoughts out.

Before we jump into my proposed timeline, a note on the character arcs: Stede is free of his past, but now has to wrestle with the present and his romantic expectations vs. the reality of the situation. I think he enters the season full of hope that the worst is behind him and now he’s going to reunite with his love and his crew and they’ll all sail off into the sunset together. Not so much. He is going to have to put in the work - a lot of it. As for Ed, he will go through a ton of emotional turmoil this season around the theme of acceptance and self-actualisation. I think he initially blames everything on Stede, but has some realisations of his own and finds a way to let go of Blackbeard and his own troubled past at last. This is necessary for him to arrive at any kind of forgiveness when it comes to Stede.

It’s only after Ed lets go of some of his baggage and Stede has proven himself that they truly reunite - on equal footing. They may meet up again early on, but no smooches until after some serious character development.

So what do I think the order of events is going to be?

Bearded Stede running down the beach in leather trousers at sunset is absolutely a dream sequence, and my money is on Stede. He's going to have this fantasy about being a dashing rogue swashbuckling his way back into Ed's heart - maybe in slow-motion set to a great song - only for it to cut to him and his crew sleeping on a floor somewhere like a group of miserable wet dogs. Classic gag - it’ll be great. If Blackbeard interrupting the wedding isn't the opening scene, it'll still be in the first episode of the season. Izzy hates how it's all going and tries to talk to Ed about it, but Ed throws a knife at his head and locks himself into the auxiliary closet with the cake figurines. The crew eats the wedding cake and talks about how things are Not Going Well. Stede stares at the wanted poster, Ed stares at the figurine (music plays, of course). Ed has given up - Stede has only become more determined. Somewhere around here is when Stede meets the Prince Ricky character. More on him later. Also, and I’m not sure if this will happen this early on, but after almost getting eaten by Buttons and Roach, the Swede leaves the crew and joins Spanish Jackie’s harem of husbands. She finds herself drawn to his awkward vibe and he likes getting bossed around by a strong woman - we already know that Jackie is the dominant partner in her relationships.

Stede and crew befriend what they think are a group of Chinese merchants, but end up being a band of pirates who have a bone to pick with Blackbeard and want to find him just as badly as Stede does.They’re using Stede to find Blackbeard’s ship, but somehow it all works out. Don’t ask me how. Meanwhile, Jim is bonding with the cool new lady pirate, but still looking for a way to escape and get back to Olu. Fang and Frenchie are concerned as Ed’s behaviour escalates and Izzy loses his leg - whether it's the severed toe or that rogue gunshot, I don't know. When Stede finally catches up with their ship, they use the crossbow to make a zip line between them - finally, the gang is reunited. Perhaps all of this takes place after the storm that we see Ed standing in. He is reckless and gets himself knocked out. Stede insists on bringing him onto their ship as well, even though everyone thinks Blackbeard is going to kill him. Ed wakes up, headbutts Stede, and things are Tense. Stede is his smiling cherub self and assumes they’ll just go back to the way things were. He says all the wrong things, and Ed is having none of it. He tells Stede that he never wants to see him again once they’re back on land. Stede sighs that he should have just told Ed how he felt instead of whatever came out of his mouth - we all cry. The Chinese pirates forget about whatever they wanted from Ed because he is clearly a broken man and there’s nothing to gain here. Maybe Stede’s crew grew on them, like when we see Buttons doing tai chi with them on deck.

Back on land, Ed tries to leave Stede behind, but Stede keeps following him around and popping up all over the place - like at Spanish Jackie’s place and Anne Bonny and Mary Read’s… antique shop? That look on Ed’s face in the trailer reads as “oh god, he’s back again” to me, not like a first meeting. Anne Bonny and Mary Read either gleefully enjoy the drama of it all or have something more nefarious in mind in revenge of Calico Jack. Izzy absolutely loses his leg because of Ed and is patched up by Stede's crew. Roach uses the ship’s unicorn to create a peg leg. It’s humiliating for Izzy, but he has no choice but to accept. He is vulnerable in a way he has never been before, and instead of casting him out the crew is supportive and tries to help him back onto his feet (well, foot and hoof). This makes him reevaluate not only himself but the group and piracy as a whole - think Long John Silver's arc on Black Sails. He will also have to relearn how to fight and handle himself with the peg leg, so I fully expect a Rocky-style training montage including that shirtless candle slicing scene. This newfound sense of community and purpose combined with the knowledge that Ed really was better with Stede drives Izzy to train Stede in the ways of being a pirate. They both grow to respect each other, the fans cry - give me the montage. There might be a storyline where Olu and Jim have to rediscover their relationship after their separation and Jim growing close to the new crew member. I don’t see them breaking up in any way though - just figuring out where they stand now and how they want to move forward. At the end of the episode someone appears on the ship in English navy clothes, and it turns out to be our boy Lucius. Roll credits.

We learn that Lucius was picked up by the English at the end of season one and has integrated himself into the navy, growing a beard and keeping his head down. He has heard some things and has been looking for a way to rejoin the crew and share this knowledge - maybe their new Prince Ricky fan was an undercover English officer this whole time or something. Black Pete is overjoyed and so are we. Meanwhile, Ed tries to find ways to move on and figure out who he is without a crew and without Stede. He finds himself in an isolated location - maybe after washing ashore after a storm, but this is the part that I can’t figure out - where he talks to a rabbit and starts seeing the ghost of Hornigold. Whether he is using drugs, seriously dehydrated, or just lonely and emotionally unstable, I don’t know. Maybe it’s all of the above. Regardless, he has to face his past and deal with his Blackbeard identity. This is his lowest point, and he ends up throwing himself off the cliff with the rock tied around his middle. Maybe he believes it is a way to pay for what he’s done, maybe he can’t imagine a future for himself without Blackbeard looming over him. Either way, he survives somehow and finds a way to work through the trauma and start over - an ocean baptism, if you will. At the end of all of this is when Ed is finally ready to forgive and move forward with Stede. Perhaps he’s just in time to jump into the fray as Stede is battling the English navy.

I don’t know who this Prince Ricky character is, but it seems like he initially meets Stede’s crew while down and out (or pretending to be), gets his nose cut off along the way (presumably by Jackie), and then leads the English in their battle against the pirates. I do know that there is a historical figure who was an English sailor turned pirate who had the nickname “Prince of Pirates” and used to sail with Hornigold and Blackbeard. However, his name was Samuel Bellamy a.k.a. Black Sam. They may play fast and loose with history though and move some things around. It was actually Hornigold who became a pirate hunter for the English in the end, but maybe they’re going to give that storyline to this guy. I’m really curious to see how it’s going to play out. Fighting back is where Lucius really comes in - he has insider information that the crew can use to form a plan.

The torture ship? Drag show? Earring? I have no clue.

Thank you for letting me vent. Place your bets now on how wrong I’ll end up being!

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

the reason that Ed doesn't remember saying "the love of a pet makes a man weak" is because the real reason he doesn't allow pets on his ship was because he's a certified neat freak and he hates mess but that's not something you would expect from Blackbeard so he had to say some scary hard ass shit to cover it up. He's saying something he doesn't actually believe to maintain his image and then immediately forgetting about it because it's bullshit.

Also the way some of you guys interpret the thing with Fangs dog is low key kinda weird. Like Ed did not personally kill the dog. Fang says "When I joined your crew you made me put my dog down." To me the way to interpret this that is the most consistent with the characters as we know them is Ed saying in his Blackbeard tm voice "Fang you can join my crew but you have to get rid of the dog, the love of a pet makes a man weak no pets on my ship." Not really caring that much whether Fang kills or just gives away the dog, but also not bothering to correct the record on that and being fine with it coming off like he wants him to kill the dog because he has an image to maintain and Ed canonically doesn't really give a fuck what happens to animals it's like the worst thing about him. And Fang who has not been around yet long enough to know that Ed isn't as evil as everyone says he is being like "Oh shit Blackbeard wants me to kill my dog" and Izzy whose bought into the Blackbeard image hook line and sinker going "Yeah he totally wants you to kill your dog dude" and Ed having already dusted off his hands and walking away to never think about the dog again until Fang brings it up.

basically what I'm saying is "when I joined your crew you made me put my dog down" sounds like the dog killing was directly connected to the joining of the crew like a price of entry thing and Fang could have just walked away with the dog but he chose his career instead. And that the bad things about Ed here are not that he's an abusive boss or a bloodthirsty monster it's that he does some macho posturing in order to be the very best at piracy and he doesn't give a fuck about animals

[thecallofthewildgeese]

"those frivolous extracurricular needs" excerpt, pt. 1

My relationship with writing has been an on-and-off affair. As a pre-teen, I’d write detailed backgrounds and wordbuilding in ruled school notebooks, ambitiously planning stories that would span multiple books. I never got farther than a few chapters, but it was fun to think about.

Then, I discovered the wonderful world of RPGs and fanfiction, which encouraged me to create new original characters, explore original ones and develop my writing, besides allowing me to meet some of my dearest friends. But, although I had multiple ideas for fanfics, I’d stumble and halt when it came time to actually write, a pattern which repeats to this day, with only a few short stories to my name.

However, there’s some joy to be found in the act of creation, even if unfinished, so I continue writing. The nice thing about having hobbies is that you’re not expected to be good at them, or in fact to do them at all unless it strikes your fancy. I may not be a famous writer, or even a prolific fanfic writer, but I do enjoy putting some words together until they sound nice.

Today I’ll share a piece of writing from my current project, an “Our Flag Means Death” fanfiction titled “these frivolous extracurricular needs”. It’s centered on the courtship of Izzy Hands by Stede and Ed–with him completely unaware of it, and pining after them both. I’ve been trying to be more colorful with my writing, the famous “show, don’t tell”. This particular excerpt came about when I wondered how I could dig deeper into the metaphor that first came to mind: “It made Izzy feel like a starved mutt begging for scraps”. It adds some flavor to the story, don’t you think?

“Stede and Edward could not be more openly and overtly in love with each other if they tried. They were always touching, arms and hands and legs and lips, eyes seeking and finding each other in every room like the sure needle of a compass.  Watching it was unbearable, enough to make him flinch for the first few months. Their love made him feel small, insignificant. Izzy was well-versed in the art of bottling his emotions up, though, and so perhaps only Ivan and Fang (and Ed, always Ed), who were more familiar with his mannerisms, had been able to catch the minute twitching of his eyes at every revolting display of affection. Every time he thought about this, he could not help but remember a scrawny, grimy mutt that lived near his orphanage as a boy. It had big, wet black eyes and shaggy fur. The dog would beg for scraps and pats from every passerby, only to be kicked  down and screamed at.  Its whines of pain were always so very quiet.  The first and only time Izzy approached the mutt to pet it, it suddenly bared a mouth full of sharp yellowed teeth and bit his hand, hard, not letting go until Izzy kicked it away. He was feverish for weeks afterwards, the wound leaking a sickly yellow pus, but somehow didn't die. He still had the scar, a jagged half-moon on his left hand.”

[didntwanderstillgotlost]

Ed finds a stray dog outside the inn and takes care of it until Fang shows up one day and asks why there's a dog. Ed gives the dog to Fang and apologizes for making him put his dog down. He didn't understand before, but now he does.

[onlylostphysics]

For the character meme: Ed! :D

:D!

favorite thing about them

oh god, everything. His theatricality, his natural brilliance, his showboating, his arms, his boredom, his playfulness, his legs in those breeches, his terrible coping mechanisms, his disney prince eyes, the way he has so many sides to him that flash depending on who he's with and what the situation needs, his love of fine food and clothes, his stupid frat boy schtick, the way he does his hair, the leather, his confidence, the way he doesn't like to try new things if he's not immediately great at them... he is a hot mess of contradictions and that makes him very compelling (also, he's hot).

least favorite thing about them

That time he made Fang put his dog down 😠 (I have thought about this A LOT because I don't like it!! and I want to reduce it!! and I think it is interesting that the policy Ed remembers is "no pets because they befoul the ship" but the rest of his crew give more weight to the "the love of a pet makes a man weak" thing, which Ed needs reminding of. Extrapolating from that, my headcanon is that someone tried to push back on the befouling thing once and Ed threw out ~love makes you weak~ because: a) he's Blackbeard and that's the sort of thing Blackbeard would say, and b) he's good at manipulating people and saying whatever needs to be said in the moment to get them to obey, and c) fuck you for arguing with me -- which doesn't make it better but it does make it less about the dog.)

favorite line

"Dickfuck, no it's not" lives rent free in my head, but shout out to "You wanted to be Blackbeard, this is what it's like" and "Science tells us all the useful organs are on the right side of the body, so I cleverly took the sword on the left."

brOTP

Ed & Lucius, especially when it's post-S1 fake-ghost Lucius who was enjoying haunting him but is now like, holy shit, you need help, let's get this bitch some therapy.

OTP

I am gone on Ed/Stede like I've never been gone on a pairing before.

nOTP

reciprocated Ed/Izzy (sorry)

random headcanon

It might be more word-of-god than headcanon, but I like the idea that Ed's got plenty of physical experience with sex but not much emotional experience. Which means every time with Stede, even when it's flaily and faily awkward too-many-knees sex, is still the best of his life because it's fun and safe and exciting all at once.

unpopular opinion

*kicks the hornets nest* There's a side of Ed that does enjoy cruelty and violence and making people scared of him (and part of his journey is going to be reconciling and balancing that with the equally real side of him that wants to be pampered and loved and treated gently.)

song i associate with them

always Grace Kelly by MIKA but a recent and very strong entry is Both by Todrick Hall

favorite picture of them

(he is SO PRETTY and I like wallowing in heartbreak)

✨️ character ask meme!

[flawedamythyst]

Sometimes I think about Fang’s head belt thing, which we all snigger about, and I think, ‘What if he brought his dog aboard knowing Blackbeard didn’t usually welcome pets but hoping anyway, because his dog was the cutest and how could anyone say no to his fuzzy little face? What if he got his dog a leather-and-studs collar so he’d match the aesthetic of the crew, so he could say to Blackbeard, ‘Look! He’s like a mascot! He looks like he belongs so we should keep him, please don’t make me kill him’? What if Ed was too moody/depressed/bored to even come out of his cabin and look, just passed the order that the dog needed to be put down? What if Fang carefully kept the collar afterwards, wearing it every day so he’d never forget his dog? And any time anyone tried to mock him for it, what if Ivan stuck a knife through them?’

Anyway, that’s what I sometimes think about.

And other times, I think about Fang shoplifting from Hot Topic.

[clowncalvary]

Reviewing Every Animal Crossing New Horizons Villager (Because I Have Fallen Down The Rabbit Hole) Part 5

This really is just another deep dive into the nonsense that I get myself into. 400+ villagers is so fucking much. But I will endeavour! I will push forward!!

Dobie: SO, my moirail has this dude on her island and every time that I see him I smile! He just seems like such a grumpy old man that has a heart of gold. 3000 Bells.

Doc: What a goofy ass looking man. I'm going to see them at the library and they are going to compete with me over who has read the most books. And I will get stupidly invested in the argument before I realize how dumb it is. I'm going to count each individual manga I've read as a full book, Doc, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. 69 Bells. Haha.

Dom: Awe! I love that we share a nickname and aesthetic! His horns kind of remind me of a large carnival lollipop. Unfortunately there is not enough room for the both of us on my island. 420 Bells.

Dora: Ugly ass lookin' mouse. Can't they make at least one cute mouse? I'm begging all of you. Please. Mice can be cute! 0 Bells.

Dotty: Why are all of the rabbit villagers (except that one) so enchanting and cute? I want a separate island just to put them all on now. 500 Bells.

Drago: Awwww. Someone has seen one too many animes. 0 Bells.

Drake: This is just a Scooby Doo villain. He is going to scheme to take the fortune of a bunch of weirdos that just turns out to be worthless confederate dollars. 0 Bells.

Drift: Frog. Ugly. 0 Bells.

Ed: Giving the horse emo hair was not going to make him better in my opinion, now we just have a blue emo horse. 0 Bells.

Egbert: This man has never slept a day in his life. He is always staring at the sky. Not wondering, but knowing that one day it will happen. The sky will fall. 10 Bells.

Elise: >:/ I feel like they are doing this just to taunt me at this point. -8000 Bells. Pay me for the mental damage you have caused me.

Ellie: She has the charm of an old timey cartoon. I mean, I still don't want her on my island because I can't stand the elephants, but she is still good. 50 Bells.

Elmer: Horses. Damn Horses. Why are there so many horses? I'm going to freaking count them at this point, but there are so many. Why even bother? 0 Bells.

Eloise: We are right back to the elephants. Why does she look like flan? Hate that for both her and me. 10 Bells.

Elvis: This is just the guy that was torturing animals in Robin Hood. The disney version that made all those kids into furries. 10 Bells. 12 because of taxes of course.

Erik: Now we know what rudolph would have looked like if they removed his nose. Deffo a downgrade. 0 Bells

Étoile: It isn't bad! I'm just not vibing! Perish! 50 Bells.

Eugene: Oh! An ugly koala! That's new at least! 10 Bells.

Eunice: She looks like Muriel's (Courage The Cowardly Dog) fursona that her husband made her because he thought it was cool and would make him money. 100 Bells.

Faith: A second ugly koala! I did get suckered into scrolling through her wiki, so they did get me with that. 40 Pity Bells.

Fang: Who gave the wolf eye shadow? Better yet, why can the wolf do better eyeshadow than I can? Love that for him actually. 777 Bells.

Fauna: Normla is probably the best personality type for it, because that's about how I would describe her look too. 100 Bells.

Felicity: She reminds me of a model from an old fashion magazine! I also had to look up when Tweed Dresses were in fashion, so I now think she is either really into old fashions or a time traveler. 1960 Bells.

Filbert: This is not a real man. He is staring at you through your window at night. 0 Bells.

Flip: -500 Bells.

Flo: EMO PENGUIN. EMO PENGUIN. EMO PENGUIN. EMO PENGUIN. 420 Bells.

[adickaboutspoons]

Ok, but I need to talk about why I'm sad this black veil didn't make it into the final cut. Because Fang mirrors Ed somewhat in his tough pirate facade concealing a gooey marshmallow center and in how he struggles with death, but because he's a background character instead of a lead it's not in-your-face or given as much narrative weight or time. But I think his relationship to death and especially expressing his emotional vulnerability in regards to the deaths of those near him serves as a particularly poignant microcosm of how impactful Stede's brand of gentle piracy is meant to be understood to be.

When Izzy draws Ed aside to rant at him during the outfit exchange of 1x4 we learn several of Ed's men died during the Spanish vessel raid, and no one much seems to care - not even Ed ('Mmm - kind of the job. They're pirates.'). It seems taken as read that untimely brutal death is just a normal facet of pirate life and not something to get hung up on or dwell upon ('Most of the pirates I know? They're dead. So you're doing a hell or a lot better than them' Ed casually consoles Stede when he's bewailing his piratical failings. A sentiment dispassionately echoed by Izzy when training Stede in 2x5: 'I've met greater men than you. You know, better fighters, better shooters, better, uh… Well, just better. But they were all killed.'). You just get on with your live and do your job.

And this kind of 'what does it matter' attitude seems to be reflected in Fang & Ivan's convo after Izzy pulls Fang's beard in 1x2. Where Fang is hurting and Ivan suggests saying something about it and Fang's reply is 'What's the point?' You deal with the pain and you don't say anything and nothing changes but you get on with your life as though nothing happened. Which is exactly what Fang is doing in 1x4 when he's enforcing Izzy's draconian measures upon the crew of the Revenge.

But once he's spent 'almost a fortnight' on the Revenge by 1x6 we start to see little cracks in the foundation. When he confronts Ed about being forced to put down his dog - a death that he just had to move past even though it clearly still impacts him - so much so that, now that he's started spending time in an environment that promotes and values emotional vulnerability, he breaks down crying and is comforted by Ivan. By the end of 1x6 it's Fang we see leading the burial at sea ceremony for Lucius' little fingie. No one mocks him for it; in fact they all gather round and support him in this processing of grief for such a seemingly small and inconsequential thing.

And this change in him is profound enough that it persists, and even grows, when things have gone back to the Typical Pirate Mode during the Kraken era. We see Fang openly weeping/mourning Ivan's loss - lamenting that Ed has made himself so emotionally closed-off that he DOESN'T mourn it too. And indeed, even weeping over Izzy being shot (not definitively killed - JUST seriously injured) and pushing back against Jim when they tell him to stop crying. He WON'T stop - CAN'T stop - SHOULN'T HAVE to stop; because he's emotionally devastated, and it's OK to cry when you feel so bad. It's REASONABLE to expect your crew mates to support you when you are emotionally devastated. Just like Stede taught.

And I know the finale was strapped for time so there wasn't the opportunity to make a big deal out of it but the funeral is so weird with no one saying anything except Ed (and then just 'Bye Izzy'). Most of the crew just look vaguely uncomfortable and they just peace out the instant the last shovel of dirt is thrown.

(And I get it - grief is complicated, and especially when it comes to a character with a legacy as complicated as Izzy's. But, to get a little personal for a second, and unlock backstory for strangers on the internet, a few months before the second season aired, I lost a co-worker who proudly self-identified as the Office Asshole. It was very sudden; one shift change he was there, and the next day, at the beginning of our shift, our boss tearfully announced that he had passed in the night. We were expected to get to work immediately. This co-worker was a bit of a nightmare. He'd claimed credit for my work on more than one occasion. He and I often traded verbal barbs. More than a few of my black co-workers had confided in me that his behavior toward them was overtly racist, but they didn't want to rock the boat by making an official complaint about it. But he was also only 6 months older than I am - we were two of the younger people in an aging office, and we had worked together for over 10 years in 10-30 minute increments. He and I had been raised in similar backgrounds and because of that understood certain things in similar ways. While we never really LIKED each other, we had a certain respect for one another's vocational expertise. I'm was grieving. In some ways, I still am; it's not all about him (and there's a lot of complicated grief and shame surrounding that), but it is very much grief. It's not nothing. How do you just get back to work with a hole ten years deep in your life?)

But to get back to the point at hand, when Fang walks away from the grave, he briefly wipes his eyes. Clearly, this death, even complicated as the feeling surrounding it were, impacted him more than it did the others. And I think the veil would have added an unspoken but profound dimension to that. Because Fang has been shown to have grown into a person for whom Ceremony surrounding expressions of grief is important . Because it would have clearly and unequivocally been a visual marker of the profundity of his mourning. And also, because donning a veil is a typically feminized way of expressing mourning, it would have shown a rejection of that 'get over it and get back to work' mentality of Typical Pirate Culture, and whole-hearted embrace of the softer, emotionally vulnerable culture of the Revenge.

So RIP Black Veil. I wish we had known ye.

Taika Waititi (Edward Teach) with David Fane (Fang) on the set while Rhys Darby busily reading his script for the scene!

Source: Samba Schutte's IG

[house-afire]

Knives in His Feet (Ed/Frenchie)

Prompt: 100 words of cats

“You’re the one who made the cat flag, aren’t you?”

Frenchie did his best not to jump out of his skin. It was sort of Blackbeard’s deal, especially these days, to suddenly be right behind you, so the startle reaction was just something you had to train out of yourself, wasn’t it, like needing sleep or flinching at the sight of blood. He always had blood on him now, drying around his fingernails and in the weave of his clothes.

“Thought it’d be fierce,” Frenchie said. He hastily added, “Skeleton with the heart, though, that’s better. Some of my best work, really.”

Blackbeard leaned close to him, his voice a hot whisper in Frenchie’s ear. “Want to see something weird?”

No, he actually didn’t. A guy asked you that kind of question, it wasn’t ever the good kind of weird, like a funny-colored parrot or a biscuit that sort of looked like you.

But he liked all his fingers and toes right where they were, thanks, so he wasn’t going to make trouble.

“’Course,” he said, following Blackbeard to the captain’s cabin.

It’d been a pretty place, in Stede’s day. Bit of a pit now, if Frenchie were honest. Very obviously the home of a man going through a real shitstorm of a break-up: damp hankies everywhere, slashed-up paintings, ashes from the ritual burning of the ex’s possessions, all that jazz. Sort of smelled funny.

“You hate cats,” Blackbeard told him.

“Hate’s a bit strong. Healthy terror of them, I’d say.”

Blackbeard’s kohl was streaked with tear-tracks, but picking up on that didn’t really make his bared-teeth smile any better. “Would you kill one?”

Frenchie had heard about Fang’s dog by now. Did Blackbeard have a cat in here, waiting for an appointment with Frenchie-the-executioner?

“D’you want me to get Iz?” Frenchie offered. “Think the whole, ah, death thing is more his speed.” Not that Izzy didn’t look as ashen and out-to-lunch as the rest of them, lately.

“Oh, Izzy won’t kill this kitty,” Blackbeard said, with something dark curling in his voice: satisfaction and anguish and bitterness all mixed together. “One of the few things he won’t do, even when he’s ordered, the little fucker.”

“Guess we all draw the line somewhere,” Frenchie said.

“But you’re smarter. You wouldn’t stick your head in the lion’s mouth, would you? Fucking terrible idea, right? Something shows you it’s a monster, and you know it’s a monster, you’ve got to put it down, not trust it, not let it go on gnawing at you.”

Did lions gnaw? He’d have thought they could just bite straight through. But then, he’d lost the plot here, he was pretty sure.

“Yeah,” Blackbeard breathed. “Yeah, you’re a smart man. ‘Healthy terror,’ love that. Gotta be healthy.”

He started peeling off his leathers.

So they were doing that, then? Frenchie could work with that. He couldn’t say he was much in the mood, what with the exhaustion and the mind-numbing fear and all, but he also couldn’t say he hadn’t thought about it. Never imagined there’d be this much preamble about cats, though. Well, nobody could accuse Blackbeard of being predictable.

“Right,” Frenchie said, undoing the clasps on his jacket. “Bit of fun’s healthy too, yeah? Good thinking.”

He was a touch behind on the undressing, so he hadn’t gotten more than his jacket off before Blackbeard went and turned into a cat.

Frenchie decided to fit in that jumping-out-of-the-skin bit after all, and he recoiled to the point where he banged his back against the door. It wasn’t every day that you saw a man you were ready to bed turn into a … small-ish panther? Crazily enormous house cat? There were silver strands of fur mixed in with all the black.

Blackwhiskers, Frenchie decided, and then he had to bite down on his lip until it bled, because there were certain laughs that could come out of you that you could never get back in. He didn’t want to find out how far gone he was just from that.

Blackwhiskers was even more terrifying than most cats. Wicked sharp claws, and a hiss that made every hair on Frenchie’s body stand on end. But, well—its tail wasn’t all bushy, was it? And cats did that, when they were pissed off at you: made themselves into bottle-brushes to scrub the soul clean out of your body. It wasn’t slinking into a hunting pose either.

Frenchie wanted to jump ship to get away from it, but that wasn’t the same as wanting it dead, least of all dead by his own hand. He was more of a lover than a fighter, really.

And Blackbeard had it all wrong if he’d thought Frenchie would kill him while he was like this. Cats were a holy terror, but Frenchie had never gone around picking them off one by one. He’d armored himself in them, flown them on his flag, tucked their claws between his fingers. There was no point in wasting what scared you. Blackbeard was fucking terrifying, too, but sometimes that had kept them safe.

Mostly kept them safe from dangers Blackbeard himself had led them to, true, but safe all the same.

He knew his fear wasn’t all Blackbeard had counted on for this, though. He never looked at a thing from just one angle: it was like he had eyes like a fly’s, everything broken up into all these shards of possibilities. He’d known that Frenchie would have to think about the others, too.

It was hard to imagine any of them would ever get close enough to Blackbeard to do a proper mutiny, with a quick in-and-out, sorry-about-that knife plunge or a proper heave-ho with an anchor. Blackbeard had them all outclassed, even Jim. Izzy … there was a chance Izzy could do it, skills-wise, but he was three toes down and still loyal, so there wasn’t much hope there.

Cat was … manageable, maybe. And Wee John and Roach and Olu and the rest had all died parched and starved somewhere, and the rest of the crew was coming apart at the seams, and the box in Frenchie’s head was beginning to look a bit battered. And if Blackbeard died, they could all breathe for a change. Sail to Nassau, maybe. Regroup.

And if Blackbeard died, Blackbeard would be dead. And he hadn’t always been … this. It wasn’t so long ago that he would’ve been the cat on the flag, not the cat on your chest in the middle of the night.

And it was awful, wasn’t it, that Blackbeard had called him in here for this? It was so sad it made something twist around inside Frenchie’s chest.

“Can you still understand me?” Frenchie said softly.

Blackwhiskers gave him another hiss. Bit hard to translate.

“I know it might backfire on me and all,” Frenchie said, sliding down the door to sit on the floor, “or on the rest of us, but I don’t particularly want to kill you, if that’s all right.”

The cat’s ears flattened against its head. Very cursed skull shape, that. He ought to keep it in mind for their next flag, if he lived long enough to stitch one.

“But,” Frenchie continued, “I’m still not clear on whether you’ve got, like, a human brain in there or not. Far as I know, you’re just working with cat instincts. So if you wanted petting, or anything like that … I mean, I’d think it was just the cat asking for it.”

The cat’s eyes were luminous, like those eerie bits of the sea. It stalked towards him, and Frenchie held his breath, waiting to see if it would claw his face off or sink its teeth into his throat and toss him side-to-side.

It dug its claws deep into Frenchie’s legs, instead. It felt like being sliced open by a bunch of white-hot razors. Having his clothes bloodied from the inside-out made for a bit of a change, at least. If he didn't die in here, he'd need to dump some rum over the scratches so they wouldn’t infect. (To be fair, if he did die here, infection would be the least of his worries, wouldn’t it?)

Blackwhiskers settled down on Frenchie’s lap, its claws still rhythmically flexing in and out of his thighs. It glared up at him.

“On it,” Frenchie said. He stroked a hand down the cat’s back: once, twice, three times.

Blackwhiskers didn’t purr for it, but it put its knives away, and Frenchie was of a mind to count that as a win. He might have to grab that bottle of surgical spirits after all.

The cat’s fur was soft and fine as silk, the way he used to imagine Edward Teach’s hair would be. He had always marked those fantasies down as pleasant but unlikely, since Ed had only had eyes for Stede, but here he was, living proof that dreams did come true, in a fashion. Granted, he wasn’t having a nice nooner with his boss’s boyfriend so much as he was petting a suicidal cat-man who’d ordered most of his friends marooned, but if you looked at it a certain way, those were just details. Life never worked out how you thought it would.

“I’d like to hold on to what I’ve still got, you know?” Frenchie said, tentatively scratching the cat’s ears. “You included, I think? So, just one man’s recommendation and all, but you could stop trying to get people to kill you.”

Blackwhiskers let out a noise that was like a strangled creak, still less like a purr than the opening a door maybe better left closed. Kindness was always chancy that way.

Frenchie decided to be hopeful about it. It was nice, being hopeful. Nice and dangerous, like an enormous warm cat napping on some of your blood, but still the best he’d felt in weeks. No sense in ignoring a silver lining.

[oak1985]

Ed, Blackbeard, the Kraken, and violence

 So I’m going to join the myriad of people trying to sort out the mystery of Ed Teach, how much of him identifies as Ed vs. Blackbeard vs. the Kraken, and their relationship to violence.  Let me say at the outset that I don’t actually think there’s a right or wrong answer here.  We have less than 300 minutes of footage to work from and Ed himself is in the process of figuring out who he is and what he wants.  Episodes 9 and 10 are very clear about this: Ed is trying to figure out what makes him happy and that process is interrupted by Izzy telling him that Ed is endangered and Blackbeard is the only acceptable presence.  So, with that caveat....

Under a cut because this got long!

We know from the beginning that Ed is sick of Blackbeard.  He tells Izzy and Stede that there’s no challenge left in being Blackbeard because all of his plans work, crews surrender upon seeing his flag, and “I don’t even have to be there.”  He’s so bored with this existence, he’s even considering death as an alternative.  

However, teaching Stede seems to bring back some measure of entertainment to the Blackbeard persona for Ed.  He enjoys showing Stede how to threaten with “oomph” on the French naval ship, he’s impressed by Stede’s burning the fancy party ship down, and he encourages both stabbing and being stabbed when he’s teaching Stede how to fence.  Of these, the first one is clearly Blackbeard since it’s explicitly a performance designed to intimidate.  The other two reactions could be either Ed or Blackbeard.  Either way, teaching Stede how to be a “bloodthirsty pirate” holds enough novelty to be worth at least pretending to be Blackbeard.  It’s also clear that Ed is more than comfortable with violence, even enjoys it in a good cause.  These forms of violence all have a purpose (destroying French imperial power, punishing rich snobs, showing Stede how to protect himself).  They are also, however, all performative to some degree; they’re designed to impress and impressing people is something that Ed/Blackbeard clearly enjoys.  

There is also violence in these episodes that Ed/Blackbeard initiate but doesn’t particularly enjoy.  The skinning of the French captain is the most extreme example.  Ed has calmed down from his initial fury in response to the French captain’s racist insults; he’s no longer shouting or standing over him, but punishment is still called for.  However, Ed outsources this violence to Fang and his emotions in this scene are under wraps as he revisits the childhood memory of being told that fine things aren’t for them.  Torturing and killing the captain isn’t pleasurable for Ed; he not only doesn’t do it himself, he also doesn’t observe it and his emotional focus is inwards, rather than on the captain or his punishment.  It’s unclear to me how much in this moment is Ed and how much is Blackbeard, or if that’s even a useful distinction to make in this scene.  The punishment for insulting Blackbeard must be public, but insult clearly hurt Ed.  What’s most significant, though, is that Ed/Blackbeard distances himself from this violence.  A much less intense example is Ed’s reaction to the snake while on the hike with Stede and Lucius.  Ed responds with much more violence than is necessary, beating the snake for a long time before stabbing it.  This is clearly a reactive Ed response and again Ed doesn’t enjoy this violence.  It’s necessary to eliminate a threat, but it’s not entertaining (to Ed; it’s hilarious for the audience).  

So far, these forms of violence have been necessary to survival, even though they may also be performative.  

Calico Jack shows us a side of Blackbeard who (seems to) enjoys violence for its own sake.  “Blackie”’s violence is less concerned with protection or with the performance of power than with chaotic destruction for destruction’s sake.  Ed might have been going by Blackbeard when he knew Calico Jack, but he was younger and not yet in to be enforcing his own power.  This diminutive version of Blackbeard, who went by Blackie, is playing with violence instead as a mode of bonding with his peers.  This Blackie burns down ships, pits turtles and crabs against each other and kills the winner, gets his balls whipped, jumps off yardarms, and gets hit with coconuts, all while encouraging others to do the same.  And he seems to find it entertaining and pleasurable.

I’m not convinced that he actually does, though, or not entirely.  Like other aspects of Blackbeard, this one could be performative.  @dancing-with-the-madmen talks here about Ed’s tendency to be a chameleon who adapts to the personality of whomever he’s around in order to meet their needs and desires and suggests that he’s doing with this Calico Jack as well.  Remember that Calico Jack saved Ed’s life.  At some point, even if not in the current moment, Ed needed Calico Jack for protection.  Pretending to enjoy these games or even simply exaggerating the amount to which he does would be a smart move for a young pirate just escaping parental abuse and on the lam for murder.  Even if he did enjoy it when he was younger, Ed says after Calico Jack is gone that he finds them boring now, like the rest of the Blackbeard experience.  Just before after expressing that “it’s kinda nice...just to be Edward” and just before  saying, “I just want to do what makes Ed happy,” he admits, “I don’t know if I wanna go back to the old days...biting the heads off turtles or making some bloke eat his own toes as a laugh.”  Even if he once enjoyed those violent activities, he’s not sure he does now.  And, crucially, he’s not sure that Edward enjoys them.  Perhaps it was always Blackbeard.  Now, it is possible that he’s chameleoning here to match Stede.  He might still enjoy at least some of these forms of pointless entertainment violence but be hiding it since Stede explicitly told Ed that he doesn’t like Ed when he’s acting like Calico Jack.  However, it’s worth noting that Ed seems to be rethinking his earlier violent practices even before falling in love with Stede.  When Ivan smacks Black Pete on the head (behavior he presumably learned on Ed’s ship, if not from Ed directly), before Ed has even talked to Stede, he  says, “Let’s not brutalize our guests.”  Ed’s already rethinking some of Blackbeard’s violence, those forms that don’t punch up.

Then, there’s the violence that Ed actively does not want to enact and that requires, not Blackbeard, but the Kraken. Ed only calls himself the Kraken twice: after telling Stede about murdering his own father and after he throws Lucius overboard. I’ve written about this here, but basically, my theory is that the Kraken is a dissociative technique Ed used to protect himself from the trauma of killing his father.  In 2 of the 3 flashbacks of Ed’s murder of his father, we see a literal sea monster rather than teenage Ed, suggesting that Ed’s memories of that event are at times distorted by the dissociation he’s created to distance himself from that moment.  When Ed becomes the Kraken again in episode 10, he has a dead-eyed look that makes him look not entirely present or conscious (dissociation is designed to distance the person experiencing trauma from the event itself by taking them out of it in some way).  

So let’s look at killing and the types of violence Ed definitely doesn’t want to engage in.  Ed, even in his Blackbeard persona, doesn’t kill.  He requires the Kraken for that.  Killing Stede is Ed’s idea, initially, but you can see from his dead-eyed expression after Izzy tells him “You still got it” that he’s not excited about this plan from the beginning.  He’ll do it in order to achieve retirement, but again, it’s at least reinforcing the boredom of Blackbeard always having the answer and at worst, destroying the pleasure of this newfound relationship.  Sure enough, two episodes later, Ed has to be pressured into killing Stede and has to psych himself up to do it by repeating “You’re a killer, bro” to himself.  Ultimately, he can’t bring himself to do it and the trauma of having to try, combined with Stede’s fuckery of the kraken, brings to light Ed’s worst memories, which are inextricably linked to murder.  Ed, even in his Blackbeard persona, canonically does not kill and does not enjoy killing, at least “personally.”  Only the Kraken kills.  It’s noteworthy that the Kraken’s initial kill was to necessary protect Ed and his mom from domestic violence and arguably, the Kraken’s killing of Lucius was (at least in Ed’s mind) necessary to protect Ed from Izzy’s threats.  Ed didn’t need to kill Stede and so, ultimately, he doesn’t.  Yes, Izzy pressured him to follow through, but Izzy also at this point was still loyal enough to Ed to offer to kill Stede for Ed.  After Izzy’s betrayal of Ed to the English, his taking over of Ed’s ship and crew, and his telling Ed that “Edward better watch his fuckin’ step,” Ed needed to retreat to the Kraken in order to protect himself.  Lucius, who saw Ed’s vulnerability most intimately, had to be killed first and foremost.  It’s striking, though, that even here, Ed tosses Lucius overboard rather than killing him directly (this is a stark contrast with Ed’s murder of his father, where he holds the rope tight for a long time in order to strangle him completely).  One can see Blackbeard’s more indirect forms of killing both with Lucius and even more so when he strands Stede’s crew on the island.  Drowning and starvation will kill them, not Ed.  Not personally.  

In episode 10, the lines between Blackbeard and the Kraken get blurry for the first time.  It’s clear in the examples given above (is the killing of Lucius and the crew a Blackbeard technique of indirect murder or did the Kraken kill Lucius, given how dead-eyed Ed was in that scene, the smile afterwards, and that Ed declares himself the Kraken in the scene immediately following?).  Ed’s personal presentation changes here, too.  He models himself on the image of Blackbeard from Stede’s book.  It’s notable that while Ed told us in episode 4 that this isn’t an accurate depiction of Blackbeard, Izzy told Ed earlier in episode 10 that “This [image] is Blackbeard!” and that Ed himself isn’t being the real Blackbeard anymore.  So Ed suits up as Blackbeard 2.0/the Kraken in order to protect himself from Izzy’s threats.  Again, the line between Blackbeard and the Kraken gets tricky here.  Ed dresses up as Blackbeard, but he adds to his earlier ensemble regular gloves rather than fingerless gloves and the makeup to cover his eyes and simulate a beard.  But, while he started with the image of Blackbeard as his model, when Ed is done, he uses his knife as a mirror to reflect on himself and says, “I am the Kraken.”  Immediately following this, Ed cuts off Izzy’s toe and feeds it to him.  Again, I’m not entirely clear on whether this is an action of Blackbeard or the Kraken.  It’s just after Ed has identified himself as the Kraken.  And yet, when talking to Stede on the beach, Ed talked about making people eat their own toes as part of “the old days,” something that Blackbeard, but not Ed, would enjoy.  It’s also worth noting that Ed’s describing making people eat their own toes “as a laugh,” which suggests an extreme version of the Calico Jack type of violence.  And Ed is definitely not laughing or enjoying himself at all, when he feeds Izzy his toe.  This suggests to me that it’s more the Kraken than Blackbeard.  

So, conclusions?  Mine are definitely biased by the fact that I’m squeamish and don’t love the idea of loving a character who’s into gratuitous violence.  I’m also inspired by what others have argued here and here and here (and let’s be real, probably other posts I’ve missed; this fandom is so awesome) about how OFMD proposes that violence against oppressors is necessary and good.   But I also think there’s textual evidence that 

a) Ed uses Blackbeard as a persona, one that he sometimes enjoys and sometimes is sick of, but who is a very edited version of himself who he performs at work.  In contrast Edward/Ed is a fuller expression of Ed’s person, although both we the audience and Ed himself are still very much figuring out who that person is.

b) The Kraken is distinct from both Ed and Blackbeard and only appears when Ed is deeply traumatized.  The Kraken is more violent that either Ed or Blackbeard in that the Kraken will kill.  The Kraken’s violence is necessary (or what Ed deems necessary) and never entertaining or pleasurable.

c) Ed enjoys those forms of violence that are creative, retributive, and innovative in some way. Ed is willing to do violence that is protective of himself or others, but doesn’t necessarily enjoy it.  

d) Ed’s violence is always protective, and the majority of the violence he enacts, whether as himself, Blackbeard, or the Kraken, is directed against people in positions of power or people who are threatening his power

e) Blackbeard, when with Calico Jack as “Blackie” seems to be the only one who enjoys violence purely for entertainment’s sake.  And Ed indicates that he’s ready to retire that part of Blackbeard.  He does, however, enjoy performing violence when its paired with retributive justice.  

I’m fascinated to see how Ed’s relationship with violence and with his different senses of self evolve over the next season.  If you have more evidence that I’ve missed or counterarguments or amendments, please reblog!  I love the way that this season left so much of the characters open to this kind of rich, multifaceted interpretation.