#hornigold's izzy

[sibmakesart]

Was thinking about @favouritefi s Hornigolds Izzy

And then i made myself sad

[tasteofdeathao3]

Hi friend! I hope 2023 is treating you well so far, since we’re now one month in already (aaa!) ☺️ I was wondering if you have any Baz headcanons or situations you’d like to share since we are both so fond of that skrunkly little guy

Also- I can’t help but read him as permaregressed but I’m not sure if that was the original author’s intention, what do you think?

thank you friend! i hope you're doing well as well, i can't believe we're already done with january! (and yes, baz is 100% our little skrunkly)

you'll have to forgive my formatting because I'm on mobile

• I've seen Baz sleeping both alone with Izzy in his cabin and in the captain's bed, but I'd also like to think that he has a trundle bed that he can pull out from beneath the captain's bed (sort of like a drawer bed?) where he can cuddle up close just him and bunny, but if he needs he can reach up and grab a hand to hold during the night <3

• I think food would be a challenge for him, not so much eating a healthy amount (though that probably would take some practice getting used to) but just having so many options to choose from and having so many different flavours and textures.

It can be a bit overwhelming, especially when he has to try something that looks weird or yucky or has to make the choice for himself over what he will eat, but it's good for him to practice telling other people what he wants and needs, even if it feels scary sometimes.

• I don't think Baz ever would have learned to swim. Hornigold's attack dog probably wouldn't have much purpose aside from protecting him on one ship and being carted to another to help in raids.

At some point the Revenge Stops over by a lagoon and Stede gives the crew some vacation time. Baz, of course, has never been on vacation. He's never ever had a break before the revenge, and no idea of the concept at all.

When the crew and captains find out that Baz hasn't ever swam before, they're appalled! and thus a beach day is decided, and Baz gets taught how to swim (or really, how to kick his legs and swing his arms enough to float), rotating between hanging onto Ed and Izzy's backs.

• Baz has a tattoo - only one, a spade beneath his eye that he'd begged of Izzy (credit to jaybirbbbb for that i believe) - but he's never given one. He firmly believe's that he is Izzy's, no matter how many times Izzy tries to say that they don't own each other, that Izzy is his too.

Baz doesn't like the look of the needles at all. It was fine when someone was doing it to him, but the idea of sticking someone with a needle over and over makes him a tiny bit queasy.

Instead, he and bunny draw lots and lots of little drawings and helps him find the perfect one for each willing crew mate. Soon everyone has an original tattoo from Baz and bunny.

• one day while onshore with Izzy, Baz spots a real bunny. It was bound to happen eventually, seeing as they frequent a lot of ports near farmland.

They're in the middle of a market when all of a sudden Baz spots it. A tiny white rabbit in a wide enclosed across the square.

Instantly he tugs on Izzy's sleeve, yanking so hard that the ties around his upper arm almost come undone. Izzy turns around once he's finished dealing with the store vendor, looking to Baz expectantly.

Baz is practically jumping up and down on his tippy toes, hands shaking hard enough that Izzy can barely tell what he's trying to sign. 'Bunny.' He signs, his fore and second fingers bent in half at either side of his head. 'Bunny bunny bunny bunny bunny.'

"What's wrong with Bunny?" Izzy asks, point at the little toy squashed in Baz's elbow. "Has your bunny got a tear?"

Baz shakes his head as fast as he can. "Bunny. Look. Bunny. Look. Izzy. Bunny." He points across the square with a shaking hand the very second he's finished signing.

"Yes, that's a bunny." Izzy says.

Baz holds bunny up close to Izzy's face and pints back at the little cages rabbit across the way. "Same."

Izzy nods. "Yes, they're both white."

"Family."

"I don't think they're related, lot's of rabbits look the same." Izzy says, taking Baz's hand. "We have to go, Baz, it's time for dinner."

Baz usually likes doing what Izzy tells him - it's makes him feel good, safe, because he knows he's doing the right thing - but he tugs his hand out of Izzy's grasp. "Bunny." He signs again. "Take."

"We can't take the rabbit." Izzy sighs. "Where would we keep him?"

"Boat."

"The ship isn't safe for a rabbit, he could get hurt very easily."

Baz whines. He knows he shouldn't, he knows he should be doing what Izzy says and following him back to the boat, but he needs to get that bunny. It's in a big scary cage, and it's all scared and too big for the tiny cage and it doesn't want to be there! He knows it.

"Save." He frowns at Izzy, hugging bunny tight to his chest. "Cage."

Izzy sighs. Baz knows that Izzy spent some time with his old master in this world, even if he got away he knows a bit of what it was like for Baz. Baz watched as Izzy's resolve cracks.

"Fine." He snaps, and even though Izzy snapping usually makes Baz feel so scared and worried, he can't help but smile; Izzy is going to save the bunny from it's scary little cage.

Izzy makes him hide around the corner just in case a brawl starts, but Baz sticks his and bunny's heads around the corner anyway. He wants to watch the bunny rabbit get free.

Izzy talks to the vendor, a big scary man with an ever bigger and even scarier sword in his hand, and when that doesn't go the way he wants he ends up taking matters into his own hands. (If he were alone, he would've just kicked the cage over and ran as fast as he could, hoping that the rabbit managed to wriggle out. But he knows Baz is watching him, and more importantly, watching the rabbit, so he doesn't do that.)

Baz watches as Izzy scoops up the cage with the little white rabbit inside and begins to walk off. He holds Bunny as tight to his chest as he can get him.

The man tries to stop Izzy, but he's already undone the latch on the cage and sent the bunny rabbit running off down between the tall thin buildings, and before he even knows it the man his behind Izzy with his sword raised and Izzy is cutting big red lines in the air and Baz has to squeeze his eyes shut tightly so that the sight of it doesn't take him back to somewhere he doesn't want to be.

Soon enough Izzy comes to get him, pale red streaks where he hasn't quite managed to wipe off all the blood on his face. "The rabbit is gone." He says. "It's safe now."

Baz squeals, hopping up and down. "Thank you." He signs. "Thank you. Happy."

"I'm glad." Izzy says, giving Baz one of his rare smiles. "Let's go home, okay?"

(Eventually Baz does get to meet a really bunny. that one will also be white, just like Bunny, and he will he to give him a few soft pets and introduce it to his Bunny teddy before it hops away. Stede says it probably has to go home to it's family, just like Baz will always come back to the revenge.)

• and my love to answer your question! honestly yeah, i kinda read him that way too. Age regression is a legitimate coping strategy as well as a trauma response so it's believable that he would find a lot of comfort in a more relaxed childlike state, and seeing the age that Baz would've been when he met Hornigold, he probably wouldn't have had much time as a proper grown up. I'm not entirely sure if that's what the original author intended, but I've seen a few fics here and there that sort of focus more on the childlike aspect of Baz's behaviour.

I think it would be easier for him to learn all these new things, like making choices and feeling happy and sad and getting comfort and having his needs met like that, where he has a comfort item and so much love going around.

I also think it would just be more enjoyable. There's no need for Baz to be grown up. He spent so much of his life dealing with such raw and intense treatment that would've brought more stress and anxiety than typical adulthood, I don't think he has any use for it. I think he deserves to relive whatever of his past is comforting and to receive that comfort as often as possible.

[beelze0-0]

Act 1: Raid (First Meeting)

CW: violence

(ID: sequential art

image 1: young Izzy Hands in a dark room, scowling as his shirt is pulled off by a smirking unnamed royal navy officer.

image 2: young Izzy Hands holding onto a ship mast as he is whipped by royal navy officers in the background, including the unnamed officer from the first image, his back is bloody.

image 3: wide shot of an English merchant ship chased down by a pirate ship.

image 4: low angle scene of young Jack Rackham holding a gun, dressed in an oversized royal navy jacket and young Edward Teach wearing baggy pants and a saber on his hip with sky in the background and smoke in the air.

end ID)

[lucinfernos]

[starlithumanity]

I'm having a fascinating time rewatching Our Flag Means Death with the knowledge that Ed sees Izzy as a "safe" mentor/family figure ("safe" because Izzy is Ed's subordinate aboard the ship, which creates a more balanced power dynamic) upon whom Ed projects his many unresolved daddy issues. That stated interpretation from David Jenkins does work, even in season one!

Most of the fandom conceptualized season one Izzy as a power-hungry subordinate to Ed and a "co-parent" to the crew (paralleled with the Stede/Mary marriage) who has an understated masochist lust for the Blackbeard legend. All of that is true too, because Ed and Izzy's relationship is incredibly complex and fucked-up. I know from personal experience that this kind of layered toxic relationship is completely possible, though it might seem contradictory on the surface.

In season one, Ed considering Izzy as a mentor/family explains more why Ed let his first mate be so insulting to and controlling of him and still kept wanting Izzy to stay beside him. It adds more meaning to how Ed veers super hard into the violent Blackbeard role after feeling cornered and threatened by Izzy at the end of the season. (This also has further weight for those of us with family members who have disapproved quite loudly of our queer relationships.)

There is a strong parallel that I noticed previously between young Ed's reaction to his father abusing his mother and season one Ed's reaction to Izzy dueling Stede. Stede is linked to Ed's mother through the red silk and through the fact that Stede and Ed's mother--and Lucius--are the only people we see treating Ed with compassion/softness in season one. It thus makes sense for Izzy to be mirroring Ed's father.

Then there's another parallel in how Ed responded to Izzy mentioning Stede in a mocking way ("pining for his boyfriend") by choking Izzy, like how Ed had once responded to his father threatening his mother by strangling his father. In this moment, Izzy touched Ed's face with an intimate kind of familiarity and said, "There he is." Ed clearly found this unnerving, which some people read as sexually harassment, but it makes just as much sense for it to be his daddy issues getting triggered.

(GIF Sources: captain-flint and divineandmajesticinone)

I think part of why this dynamic was unclear in season one is because the writers wanted us to see that, even though Izzy is a mentor figure who taught Ed certain skills, Ed is a grown man who is fully competent on his own. He had likely started building the Blackbeard legend by the time Izzy met him, he has a clever mind that's constantly coming up with new plans, and when Izzy himself was left as captain, Izzy proved to not have the necessary charisma and compassion to lead the crew. Ed is the star power; Izzy is the manager, so to speak.

However, Izzy overestimates his importance and often talks about himself like he's a martyr to the Blackbeard legend, working so hard to keep both Ed and the crew in line. He claims that he's been "clean[ing] up [Ed's] messes... my whole life," which feels like a very parental complaint to me.

Ed fuels this martyr complex some in season two by physically harming Izzy, but notably, Ed doesn't threaten this kind of harm to the rest of the crew (though he isn't very careful with them either) until he's in the suicidal spiral of driving the ship into a storm. Before that, Ed threatens Izzy specifically, both because Izzy threatened him and Stede in season one and because Ed's trying, in his own fucked-up way, to prove to Izzy that he's following Izzy's guidance and "being Blackbeard." The toe-cutting also has some metaphorical weight: Izzy demanded that Ed "cut off" the gentler pieces of himself to be Blackbeard, so Ed starts cutting off literal pieces of Izzy in return. When it becomes clear that this isn't satisfying Izzy either, that's when Ed really goes off the deep end. ("I loved you the best I could," but I never could be enough to fit your expectations.)

(GIF Source: livelovecaliforniadreams)

Meanwhile, we see Izzy starting to question things specifically in response to Ed saying that Izzy could be replaced as first mate. Izzy thought his place, as a mentor/family and self-professed "martyr", was more secure than that, and it challenges his whole identity.

Throughout season two, the mentor/family dynamic is further emphasized via the parallel between Izzy/Ed/Stede and Auntie/Zheng Yi Sao/Oluwande. Others have discussed this more, but there's so much meaning in the similar ways these characters carry themselves, in the tension of Auntie disapproving of Zheng Yi Sao's feelings for "soft" Oluwande, and in the way Oluwande finally teaches Auntie to soften herself some for Zheng Yi Sao.

(GIF Source: bizarrelittlemew)

Additionally, in episode five of season two, we see Stede turning to Izzy for mentorship, proclaiming that Ed himself had recommended Izzy as someone who "made him into the captain he is today." People have questioned that as being a false manipulation from Stede, but I think there's a good chance that it was true! (Ed probably said this to Stede sometime during season one, when the two of them got to know each other so well.) "Taught him everything he knows" is definitely a flattering exaggeration, but hey.

(GIF Source: ofmdaily)

Throughout this and other episodes, we see Izzy continuing to take on a mentor-like role with Stede and the crew (and eventually Ed) as he tries to recenter himself after the darkness of the first three episodes. It's clear that Izzy is most comfortable playing the gruff and politically incorrect old fighter who offers guidance, but now he's letting himself branch out more and connect to the crew in new gentler ways. He even metaphorically "gives his blessing" to Ed and Stede's first time having sex by providing the musical accompaniment, which is the perfect amount of weird for this show, haha.

(GIF Source: izzyfag)

Izzy's transformative arc in season two also involves a steady pattern of reversals, corrected new versions of his treatment of Ed in season one, as Izzy start coming to terms with the harm he did to Ed. Other people have discussed this in more detail, but I think the pace of this change is realistic to what you would see in such a situation. Ed's responses to this, too, are consistent with him seeing Izzy as a mentor/family.

(GIF Source: edwards-teach)

I should further note that Izzy and Benjamin Hornigold (another abusive father figure from Ed's past) are two characters mirrored by the fact that they call Ed "Eddie" in season two. I can imagine that being the nickname Ed used when he was younger, before growing out of it. Izzy seems to start feeling the echo of that memory of younger Ed when Ed comes to him scared, asking for Izzy to "fix [his] mess" by shooting Ed like Ed "dreamed" about.

(GIF Source: blairpfaff)

Right before Izzy's death, there's a scene where Ed is triggered super hard in his daddy issues by the fisherman "Pop-Pop." I think the writers wanted to remind us of the parental trauma Ed has been through before giving us some catharsis through Izzy's deathbed confession and apology. In that moment, Izzy takes full accountability for what he did, while Ed cries and says, "You're my only family." Izzy redirects him in a final bit of mentorly guidance, telling Ed that the crew is there to be his family if Ed will let himself be loved, truly, in the way Ed has often rejected and distanced himself from being loved.

(GIF Source: izzyfag)

Now, I do think Izzy's death was the right choice for this show. I like that DJenkins went with the classic mentor death trope, and he did a similar thing with Buttons, the other old-timer first mate! I agree likewise with those who have discussed Izzy's loss as being a necessary step for the narrative to move forward both from Ed's darker self/parental trauma and from the older age of piracy that Izzy represents. Izzy was always meant to be a dark reflection of and a narrative support/conflict for Ed, and this is the natural culmination of that. His complicated legacy will continue to be something Ed has to reckon with, however, although Ed is trying to compartmentalize that right now.

I very much hope to see, in season three (🤞🏻), how Ed continues to process his past, especially now that he's trying for a domestic life that will likely lead into marriage. Marriage, from what I've seen, often acts as a staging ground for whatever parental trauma you had growing up, because you look to your parental figures as an example of how to do "adult" things. This is going to be a huge conflict for both Ed and Stede, who has his own personal negative marriage experience. I suspect Izzy will continue to represent this problem in some form or another.

(GIF Sources: kiwistede and yenvengerberg)

[luciuscodedswedeboy]

Taika et al really committing to the “Ed is Jesus, Izzy is Judas” bit huh

[ccl-c]

“hey lou reed” by the servant was playing in my head on repeat for no reason while i made this one (it's a gorgeous song though; i'm probably just obsessed with it). i thought it should at least be more “golden days” or any slade song? anyway here it is.

in my head cj is the one person who magically gets izzy to be more relaxed and playful around him because izzy realised it's an absolute waste of energy to be serious with him (and also that he is serious enough when he wants to be).

also, i have a reference photo for this which is here. it's just loosely inspired by the composition of it but i love this series so much.

[disabledpirate]

Hornigold’s Boys:

[endlessmortality]

“i have…love for you, edward.” “i loved you. best i could.”

despite how long they’ve known eachother, despite how deeply they care for eachother, they’re not able to truly say “i love you.”

izzy tries to to underplay it, making his years of devotion and sacrifice sound like something less. even then, he needs to brace himself before he says it.

ed says it in the past tense. he’s pushed away from love. he doesn’t think he deserves it. he doesn’t think he needs it. the love he felt for izzy could only be expressed through hurt and pain. the only way they can love each other is through tragedy.

[arsenicflame]

i think the thing for me about edizzy is the potential of it all- we know they have history together, but we don't know what it is, how long it went on for, what it meant for them. there's endless possibilities there to explore, and any of them could be real! or not! but theres so much to explore with them and its so fun to imagine all the what-if's and could-have-beens of their relationship

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

Season 2 OFMD: Replace Prince Ricky with Benjamin Hornigold

Hear me out.

S2Ep1: Introduce Hornigold in disguise to Stede. Make 'Ben' an old trusty sea dog who still knows a bit too much about Stede Bonnet. Have Ben compliment Stede in the same way Ricky did. -HAVE STEDE TRUST HIM- Ben being an old pirate who misses the life, the adventure, the brutality. Make Stede sympathise with him.

Make him wear a shitty disguise at Jackies until he's caught near the end of the episode (and gets away), because DUH. That's Benjamin fucking Hornigold, Jackie fucking hates him(we see her shoot at him as he runs). Maybe have Jackie tell Stede he's dangerous, only for Stede to reply 'that's just an old man' and brush off her concern.

NEXT WE SEE HIM:

S2Ep3: ED'S DREAM SEQUENCE

It's finally revealed to the audience through Ed's dreams that the old man they left behind is the infamous turncoat Hornigold. Change the line about abandoning Ed's body at a beach, to at a port town, and the 'Ed was mutinied' lie can be told like how it was in ep 3. But now we as the audience can catch hints that Ben isn't acting right. Ed still sees him as the brutal pirate and not the old man Stede met a few episodes ago.

THEN(replacing Ricky's speech on that British ship):

Hornigold discusses how brutal pirate life is to the British sailors under his command. Focus on how best to hunt them down. We can even have another sailor remind Hornigold that he's a pirate hunter due to Ben's signing of the act of grace.

Him and Zheng on Zheng's ship: Keep the scene the same. Auntie points out that Ben betrayed his pirate crew to go serve the English. Have both captains talk about how pointless this all is, but make it clear that he's willing to negociate. Have Ben roll his eyes at the British's gifts(clocks), but say it's all a formality and they can 'sell them off if she wants'. Knowing that she won't have the time to in the next 24 hours and that this will be her ships downfall.

The Zheng and Stede Fight: I hate that she gives this whole speech about defeating idiot men, only to get defeated by Ricky- an actual idiot. From this scene on she's less 'Pirate Queen/Captain' and more 'badass side chick that fits in with the crew'. BUT in this write, she lost to a pirate legend. Who sold his crew out for his own freedom. She lost because she was outmaneuvered, and she SHOULD have known better. (seriously though, why did Zheng trust Ricky, he was a british fucking officer, GOD I hate that shit)

NOW THE FUCKING PAY OFF:

Hornigold captures the crew post ep 7. We can keep Stede and Zheng getting away. BUT HORNIGOLD AND IZZY INTERACTING? Izzy siting up and defending his family from a person from his past????

Look, we know Ed has been a pirate for at least 20 years (he's known Fang for 20 years), so there's a very good chance Ed and Izzy were together on his ship.

Let Izzy give the speech about crew being family, about how you sacrifice everything for your crew. Spitting in the face of the piracy Izzy himself once lived his life by. Of this dog eats dog world.

Also: Izzy would have absolutely searched Benjamin fucking Hornigold for weapons. Now. We can keep Ben killing Izzy, maybe he runs up and grabs a sailor's gun, I don't like it. (Izzy didn't need to die for the story to work) But at least NOW Izzy died to a man whose haunted his every life's decision. A person he said he would never be, and slowly did become through years of trying to survive. It's not a good ending, but now it has a bit more meaning than Ricky getting a lucky shot he didn't earn.

Make Ed furious over Izzy's body, but show him visibly holding back from getting revenge. That throwing himself back in won't fix Izzy. So he fixes himself. This also pays off the consequences of signing the Act of Grace. Showing that this might just be the end of piracy as Ed knows it if his former bastard Captain was willing to turn coat.

This also means a BIT more for Stede, as his blind trust in Ben in episode 1 meant a dangerous pirate got away. Maybe in episode 1 Stede tells Ben about Ed. About how worried he is his 'friend' has gone off the deep end. Ben of course, actively hunting down Blackbeard and doing anything to get to his old prodigy. Have Stede regret that his 'plan to sell off Hornigold to the English' got Izzy killed. Have Stede learn to hold his cards closer for next season, to be slower to trust people. This would be a better arc than 'stede learns to be an excellent captain for his family and gives it all up in the end as soon as he can get his dick wet'.

It's still REALLY shallow, and I don't like it. This season should have had a better villain than trying to introduce the possibility of Zheng hunting them down, Ned Low, AND the British. But now, at least it fits better thematically for Izzy and Ed's arcs as growing past the traditional pirate life and Stede for learning to control his ego, showing him that he STILL has a lot to learn.

[carrymelikeimcute]

By @jickdraws on twitter

'Chaser Hornigold'

[ladyluscinia]

Hmmm... I don't think I phrased my thoughts on the "domestic violence" aspect of all the stuff going on in BlackHands quite the way I wanted to at the start of this 🤔

Like I think the show is making a lot of very black humor jokes about domestic violence - "these are the kids" - and that what it's doing with Edward very specifically targeting someone for loving him in his self-destructive spiral is very adjacent in a way that lends itself to allusions - the conversation that gets Izzy shot starting with "Who am I to you?"

But I also think they are drawing some lines where they avoid falling fully into a domestic violence arc, mainly by knocking the framing back to a workplace scenario before it stops just being a dark joke.

Big thing to me is that we've already seen domestic violence in Edward's past. They are deliberately having him echo the toxic behavior of someone who hurt him in order to hurt Izzy and the crew, but rather than pull from his dad harming wife and child, they introduce more information about Hornigold to clearly draw a line to Edward as a boss abusing subordinates just like his first boss did to him. Edward doesn't yell or rage. He's clipped. Businesslike. Or he's being positively jovial (another thing Hornigold shows consistently).

His death threat to Izzy is wrapped in the language of "failure to do the job". All his intimate scenes with Izzy - heavily focused on their personal relationship - alternate with scenes of Frenchie filling Izzy's role in a professional setting.

It feels like carefully circling the topic of domestic violence but not actually going there in a way that could make you go "Hold up, is this man a danger specifically to his romantic partners?" before they, you know, set him up with a romantic partner.

Like he goes after Izzy from a "work" direction because of the "wife" bit. Bad Boss vs Bad Husband.

Am I making any sense here, lol?

[beelze0-0]

Act 2: Red Sky (Mutiny)

(ID: sequential art

image 1: low angle shot of a pirate ship’s crow’s nest, the small figures of young Jack Rackham, Izzy Hands, and Edward Teach perched upon it.

image 2: young Izzy Hands draped over a splintering ship mast, holding onto young Jack Rackham as the boat is torn apart by a storm and lighting strikes the water below.

image 3: close up of young Izzy Hands and young Jack Rackham, faces illuminated by he glow of a fire, looking with pride at someone out of frame.

image 4: young Edward Teach standing alone with a billowing fire in the background in the middle of the night.

end ID)

[cottoncandiescupcakes]

Izzy whipped scars FOR MY IZZERS THAT FOLLOW ME

If no one got you I got you

I don't know if Ed or Hornigold did they look old

[artsyhamster]

Took part in #Hornigoldweek on twitter (Prompt was Mutiny/Kill your captain). There's three more in the thread before this if you want to see, but proceed with caution bc there's a reason why Iz is keen on ending Hornigold

Anyway was fun to draw them a bit younger and also to draw Hornigold heheh