#izzy hands hate

[carrymelikeimcute]

No cis actor should ever play queer/trans characters, I do not understand how you can continue to champion ONeill for this.

If he was the amazing aware ally the canyon is making him out to be, then he would have reflected before taking this role and instead of profiting of the trans community done the actually supportive thing and let a trans actor have the role. (I’m not saying that he necessarily had bad intentions but to be a good ally wanting to do good is not enough, you have to actually put the work in and educate yourself!)

Go support trans actors of color and trans women instead of simping for some straight-passing cis guy!

0/10 rage bait.

Must try harder.

What is this word vomit? Why are we pretending that being 'queer' means NOT being cis???? The majority of queer (gay, lesbian, bi, pan, ace/aro etc) people ARE cis????

We don't even KNOW Con's identity because he's private and other than coming out as being part of the queer community, we have no idea what that looks like or means for him.

What character is even being discussed here? (Possibly in reference to Val, a character with no concrete gender identity, who often went by male pronouns and was never confirmed to be trans or anything other than VAL).

Trans actors of colour?? Wasn't aware Con had ever taken a role as a POC?? What are you even blathering about?

'Straight passing' - absolutely laughable. Say you think all queer men should be femme stereotypes without saying it.

Also, lolling at the 'canyon' mention - because it shows whoever wrote this 1. is in the ofmd fandom and 2. likely stans Ed and Stede - two GAY characters played by STRAIGHT, CIS, MEN. (Rhys has also done roles in drag and made debatably transphobic jokes in his stand-up ("I like transformers...chicks with dicks") but obviously, they can do no wrong. Because they're the straightwashed, comfortingly non-sexual gays.

Critical thinking skills of a lemon.

[cursedgaysuit]

I don't care about izzy hands. The actor is great but I hate that we're spending time on his rancid vibes in a cast full of charming flamboyant characters. If we were regulars at the same gay bar he'd be someone I avoided. He would sneer at me. I don't care about his leg or his love life. You can't give me a season 1 of him bullying flamboyant men and then expect me to care about him.

[blog-for-posts]

izzy fan i respect: loves him because he's disgusting

izzy fan i cannot tolerate: wah wah why do you all hate him and post izzy hate in the izzy tags (directed at people talking about how he literally is, textually, in the show) the whole cast loves him and he's clearly meant to be sympathetic

like there's nothing wrong with having a reprehensible little fuck as your favorite character, i extend this opinion to the cast of the show as well? i assume they enjoy his writing and his character as con portrays him as is anyone's right, but he's still a Reprehensible Little Fuck. like objectively speaking. if you can pinpoint for me 3 entire unambiguous positive traits this man has that weren't generated by the fandom out of thin air then maybe i'll back off

[carrymelikeimcute]

Normally, I don't see shit like this but as this was tagged into the 'izzy hands' tag...I'm gonna take the time to respond. Because that's what happens when you don't tag your hate properly.

And this is hate, because it's all just...so inaccurate I could cry.

(obligatory disclaimer that I think S1 Izzy is a fucking arsehole to everyone, including himself, and that I wish Ed had been redeemed properly in S2, because is stands they fucking assassinated his character).

The problem I have with Izzy’s character arc in s2 is that he doesn’t do anything to make reparations until his deathbed apology to Ed.

...aside from keeping the crew alive through the kraken era (by shooting Ed non-fatally before he could kill them all), being mutilated and tortured and then never throwing that in Ed's face afterwards (and taking all the blame for it), keeping Ed's body safe in the hold so that he was still alive when Stede got there and not dumped overboard, sucking it up and thanking Stede for rescuing him, talking to Lucius about his issues in a way that actually helped him get over it (when nothing Ed did actually helped), helping Stede become a better pirate/captain, and making sure he didn't get himself killed while Ed was gone, and telling Ed and Stede that they were good together....

Aside from that, God, what did Izzy ever do to make amends?

He lost his LEG. And his LIFE.

Ed wore a sack for a day, during which time he was barely on the ship. He fixed one door.

You know who has done some really shitty things and does actually work toward making reparations? Ed.

Literally...where? I think it's just bad writing but most things Ed 'did to say sorry' were turned into jokes - the safe space ship apology, the bell and the sack, being pushed off the ship...they're just empty stupid little gestures that don't help anyone. If anything they are designed to make HIM feel better about what he did.

The largest gesture Ed makes, is throwing a party - a party the crew paid for with all their raids, a party they buy the supplies/organise and throw, and which was theiridea in the first place.

He got Ivan killed.

Made Fang cry like a literal child.

Held them all at gun point and manipulated them into saying everything was fine.

He made Jim and Archie fight to the death for the crime of being in love.

He tried to kill them ALL - and got everyone but the core crew killed in a storm...

But it's all OK now, because he wore a babygrow (that he was bitching about wearing after five minutes) and let them throw themselves a party.

(He also had the rest of the crew marooned, including Buttons. Which I bring up because when alone with Buttons in 'Fun and Games' he immediately loses his cutsey shy act, that he used on Stede, and starts rolling his eyes and being belligerent to Buttons. He only seems to care what Stede thinks of him, and only cares about him, not the crew - again, probably bad writing/direction).

Ed doesn’t have great apology skills. His “apology” speech was definitely lacking as far as our modern standards are concerned. That’s fine. Those aren’t natural skills to have, they’re learned, and he never really had the opportunity to learn them. But you can see that he wants to, and he’s trying and he’s learning, and that’s the most important thing.

But this doesn't apply to Izzy because....you don't like him? So he's just not given a pass on being emotionally immature? Why is it not 'trying' when he thanks Stede for saving him? Or talks to Lucius about the shark? Or tells Stede he and Ed 'balance each other out'?

Does it not count as trying because you already made up your mind that nothing the writers could have him do would ever be good enough?

Izzy called the cops on 'queer and poc' people.

Ah yes, the 'Izzy is a homophobe and a racist' argument, cloaked in new language. He can be a total cunt without being homophobic and racist. He's QUEER! And it is very much up to interpretation if he was homophobic to Lucius and Ed.

Note how Olu and Jim are in a queer relationship, as is Pete. But Izzy yells at LUCIUS - just Lucius. Because in that episode he is lazy, and insubordinate, and disrespects his authority. Izzy is a tiny little despot with a napoleon complex, that is why he yells at Lucius imo. Not just because he's queer or femme (though that is probably part of it), but because he is a representative of everything Izzy hates about the regime on that ship - the laxness, the friendliness, the lack of structure and professionalism. Lucius is NOT a pirate, and is the closest person to Stede. Hence Izzy's ire.

Likewise the 'namby pamby' comment everyone loves to point at as THE SINGLE WORST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO SOMEONE EVER (as opposed to having your toes cut off and fed to you while you sleep, or having your leg shot off, two things that you just gloss over). Ed IS in a terrible state at that point. He's wandering around in a silk robe, singing to the crew and being soft. And that will get him killed. Get them all killed. We already see how Blackbeard's flag makes people surrender. His reputation keeps them safe. He needs to be Blackbeard if he is going to survive.

So Izzy comes in to be an arsehole to him and provoke him. After quite a while of this, mind you. We see that he's been covering for him for a while now, before he sends Lucius in. So it wasn't his first reaction. But yeah, he comes in and is a cunt to him, and that is mean and horrible.

But it is not an unforgivable crime, and by the time Ed cut off his second toe, you know what? I think he'd paid for it, even without an official 'sorry man'.

Where does he turn around and say “yeah calling the cops on you was fucking horrible and I shouldn’t have done it” or “I shouldn’t have said those things when you were already struggling” or “I’m sorry for taking advantage of my power and using it to bully and abuse my employees and another captain’s crew.”? He doesn’t do any of that. He doesn’t even try.

Um...because that would be incredibly out of character? You admit Ed isn't good at apologising but...Izzy is meant to be Dr. Phil all of a sudden?

Ed already punched him in the face for getting the navy involved, and then came back to the ship and re-acknowledged him as first mate. That issue is settled before the end of S1. Pirates screw each other over all the time and forget about it - See, Jackie working with Stede, Zheng working with Stede, and Izzy never mentioning the mutiny and attempted murder or trying to 'get the crew back' for that. (Jackie also sold them out to the Navy by the way, she was at that meeting and never apologised...but I guess that doesn't fit into the 'Izzy is a nasty racist' narrative...)

Izzy apologises for 'feeding Ed's darkness' while dying, but he also tells Stede that they are both responsible for what Ed did. Stede for leaving and Izzy for what he said. (Which you know, he got choked, then mutilated, then permanently disabled for).

Oh he bullied the crew? On a pirate ship? Oh dear! They got yelled at, that's really sad. Does he aim his gun at anyone? Force them to go on dangerous raids? Cut bits off them? Make them fight each other to the death? No?? He pulls on Fang's beard once and thwaps the back of Pete's head.

What. A. Monster.

Lucius literally disobeys a direct order and he doesn't even touch him. Openly mocks him, and he doesn't do anything but storm off.

Such a mean bully.

Toxic masculinity doesn’t make repeatedly insulting someone for having traditionally feminine traits and interests okay.

NO. It doesn't! But you're the one who said - I also know why he did them. And knowing why doesn’t make it okay. It helps me understand him more, and to know that he wasn’t doing them because he enjoyed them and, most importantly, that they’re things he regrets doing.

So...why no effort to understand why Izzy did those things? Why no mention of the fact that after being almost pathologically afraid of vulnerability and softness, he literally lets a member of the crew put makeup on him and entertains them at the party? He lets them hug him. He cries in front of them.

I guess because anything that doesn't fit the 'he's a racism homophobe' narrative Izzy haters have been pushing since season 1 has to be forgotten about, because god forbid they change their opinion.

We literally see Ricky tell Izzy's he's lost his touch, that he isn't what he expected. We see that even the slight changes Izzy has made to himself, are enough to start eroding his reputation. His fears were not unfounded.

But recognizing these as faults and actively working to improve yourself and grow and apologize to the people you’ve hurt and try to make things better does make it more likely for the people who care about you to forgive you.

Honest question...how does Ed 'grow'?

He basically doesn't apologise to the crew, spends no time with them, runs off to be a fisherman for fifteen minutes and then comes back and starts murdering people. Then starts an inn on a whim. Seems like he's the same Blackbeard/Ed he was in S1.

What decisions/actions does he make in S2 that he would have been incapable of in S1?

S1 Izzy would not have comforted Stede, or spoken to Lucius about his feelings, or put on make-up and sang. You can literally see him changing, in each episode.

Ed's changes are shallow, temporary and skin deep. And that's on the writing tbh. I wish they'd done him justice, but it's just not there on screen. He is insonsitant, poorly characterised and doesn't develop at all.

And I know you won't read this, or care, because you just brush this stuff off as 'being a stan' or a 'crazed member of the canyon' but jesus wept, we're all watching the same show, how are you missing what isn't even subtect - it's actual spoken dialogue???

😩 one of the main things I see about Izzy and why he’s an innocent little lamb who has done nothing wrong is that he’s got a lot of internalized homophobia going on, as well as issues with toxic masculinity. And yeah, OFMD is all about taking those toxic societal expectations and telling them to shove themselves up their asses. And I think having a character who has those internalized feelings and who holds onto them until being proven that they’re wrong is an interesting character arc. Growth is a great thing! We love to see it!

The problem comes when people use those characteristics as excuses for any of izzys bad behaviors, as if they give him a free pass to do whatever he wants to do. But that’s not how these things work. The problem I have with Izzy’s character arc in s2 is that he doesn’t do anything to make reparations until his deathbed apology to Ed. He just kind of…continues to be there, ignoring Ed, letting the crew extend kindness to him and still not really engaging until Calypso’s Birthday.

You know who has done some really shitty things and does actually work toward making reparations? Ed. And that’s another thing I see a lot of Izzy fans say: that gb people give Ed a free pass for everything he did because of his childhood and his trauma and his self hatred and broken heart. But babes, when we talk about these issues, you’re misunderstanding why we’re talking about them. I obviously can’t speak for all Ed fans, but the majority of us aren’t listing these issues as excuses, we’re naming them as reasons for his behavior. So we can understand why he feels the way he feels and did the things he did.

I am fully aware that he did some really shitty things to people who care about him and who he cares about. I acknowledge that. I also know why he did them. And knowing why doesn’t make it okay. It helps me understand him more, and to know that he wasn’t doing them because he enjoyed them and, most importantly, that they’re things he regrets doing. That’s obvious throughout the entirety of eps4-6, in his hesitance to return to the ship, in agreeing to wear a burlap sack and allowing Lucius to push him over the ship, in taking time to actually listen to fang about his own experiences during the kraken era. It’s part of the entire reason they have a party, it’s part of turning poison into positivity. Ed doesn’t have great apology skills. His “apology” speech was definitely lacking as far as our modern standards are concerned. That’s fine. Those aren’t natural skills to have, they’re learned, and he never really had the opportunity to learn them. But you can see that he wants to, and he’s trying and he’s learning, and that’s the most important thing.

Izzy doesn’t do that shit. In season 1 he uses his position of power to bully the crew, to go against Ed’s orders (his captains orders; that’s essentially mutiny right there); he loses and turns his captain and a ship full of queer and poc to the cops; he then becomes captain and it takes less than a day for the crew to mutiny on him because he’s a fucking asshole and no one wants to work for him; and to top it all off, he tells his boss—his friend, supposedly, his depressed and already established to be suicidal friend—that he would be better off dead than be like he is.

Where are his attempts at reparation? Where does he turn around and say “yeah calling the cops on you was fucking horrible and I shouldn’t have done it” or “I shouldn’t have said those things when you were already struggling” or “I’m sorry for taking advantage of my power and using it to bully and abuse my employees and another captain’s crew.”? He doesn’t do any of that. He doesn’t even try.

Internalized homophobia doesn’t make intimidating your gay subordinate or calling your friend a “namby pamby in a silk dressing gown” okay. Toxic masculinity doesn’t make repeatedly insulting someone for having traditionally feminine traits and interests okay. Doing those kinds of things can never be okay. But recognizing these as faults and actively working to improve yourself and grow and apologize to the people you’ve hurt and try to make things better does make it more likely for the people who care about you to forgive you.

[thence-we-came-forth]

Posting my second gift for this year's @fandomtrumpshate this time for @at-delphi!

I gotta say I loved working on this since Izzy is a character I held close to my heart (and drawing Jim and Wee John is always a bonus, too)

Anyway, enjoy!

[inkxmilk]

ofmd sketches

[varyathevillain]

thinking about how the scene where Izzy shoots himself and misses isn't actually just about "haha, see, he's not dead, he just missed", it's about how it is about Izzy Hands dying. it's about how old Izzy Hands, the toxic, tragic image of a golden age pirate, is dead; it's about how he had to kill the part that was perpetuating the horrors and the abuse to save the crew.

had he not done that, Izzy Hands wouldn't have been able to get up on the deck, because old Izzy Hands would have to abide by the rules of common sense and reality. he'd have to die tragically at the hands of the man he loves. he'd have to rot for what he's done. but he does the one thing that he wouldn't in season 1: he becomes part of the crew, and that crew never abided by real life logic. Izzy Hands climbs to the deck on one leg with a poorly treated festering stump and stands as tall as he can, in the most unrealistic fashion, and he lives.

[bisexualmultifandommess]

The funniest thing that could happen in ofmd season 2 is Stede and Izzy hanging out so much they accidentally become best friends and both absolutely horrified when someone (definitely Oluwande or Jim) points it out to them.

Like I can definitely see a situation happening where Stede goes off into danger and Izzy is adamant that he’s not going after him to help but it immediately cuts to a scene of him going after him and all you can hear is him going “stupid fucking Stede Bonnet” like we know he’d say something like that.

Enemies who grow to care about each other is my favourite thing.

[sixstepsaway]

so here's the thing

i've seen a bunch of people say on twitter and stuff how... ed's behavior is very abusive and his anger is dangerous and he isn't romantic lead material because of it

and i get where they're coming from

but to me the main issue isn't putting ed in the position of a romantic lead, but not crafting the narrative around his characterization so that it allows for a spicy romantic pirates-in-love narrative instead of...whatever this is.

i'm going to try and explain this. idk if i'll do well but i'll try

the way she show presents stede is as an innocent baby who isn't really equipped for pirate life. he goes into a fugue/disassociative state whenever there's any real violence, apparently, and needs protecting by other characters when things get too rough - for example when ed is telling ned lowe not to take the poker to stede.

that's fine! it's honestly adorable to see a masc character being so soft around the edges and being protected by other characters this way.

(i'm not going to touch on stede's... eh... not great characterization this season rn)

then there's izzy, who is shown as a bit violent, a bit rough around the edges. he's more likely to draw a sword or throw a punch or hit someone with a chair or take a punch like a champ. violence is just part of life for him and that's okay, it just Is, from small things like smacking stede on the ass to bigger things like being wall slammed, it's not all that big or bad for violence to happen around and with him, he tends to give as good as he gets (there's some nuance here but i'm talking the macro themes not the micro of what izzy does vs is done to him)

and finally there's ed

ed is presented as violent (stabbing knives at guys, telling fang to use the snail fork etc) and used to a life of violence, and then in season 2 he's presented as really violent, his anger coming out in dangerous and terrifying ways

and frankly, i'd be super into it if he and izzy were the main ship and that twisted dynamic from the first two episodes of s2 was explored and fleshed out into something deeper

friends to enemies to lovers who fight and fuck. angry pirates who lay hands on each other, who break the whole ship with each other in the heat of passion.

except instead, s2 gives us... abuse. it gives us izzy cringing and lowering his head and trying to protect the kids crew from ed's angry outbursts.

so when stede comes back and he's still soft around the edges and ed headbutts him and it's deliberate, it's... not a great look, and the vibes are a bit skewed

if stede fought back, if when ed struck out at him he struck back, if they fought rather than it being one-sided, if it was friends to enemies to lovers and not presented as healthy, but maybe they can work their way there, who knows, maybe even more like anne bonnie and mary read because hey, they were doing something very similar?

except they were both into it. they were both enjoying the fighting and the fucking and the burning down the house.

stede's not enjoying it.

i cannot describe how much i hate this sequence just because of the way stede flinches

anne and mary don't!! mary jumps at the unexpected bang but she doesnt flinch, she doesn't cover her face like she thinks the vase will be coming for her not the wall and anne? looks so into it

and the thing is that in real life, no, you don't want to date someone who throws shit around, or headbutts you

but in fiction when it's two fucked up people doing this shit together like anne and mary?

that can be fun.

but instead what we've been given is stede flinching and apologizing to ed and then all of ed's...what, semi-redemption???? is done away from the other collection of people he abused, and then he spends some time on a fishing boat wearing a dog collar and everything is fine because he's good now and won't be doing anything bad ever again

and it's just... poor writing. the vibes are rancid.

i spent a really big chunk of time between s1 and s2 defending ed. i kept saying how what he did to izzy by making him eat his toe wasn't abuse, it was a one-off and abuse isn't a one-off thing it's a pattern, and then s2 made it a pattern.

explicitly. explicitly a pattern.

not just one toe but three.

jim saying "you're in an unhealthy relationship with blackbeard"

and all ed offered izzy was a "sorry about your leg" which might've been fine if izzy survived and they could work on this more, but instead that's all the apology and closure izzy will ever get

ed threw a chair and a vase and made stede flinch in fear and stede was right to do that. what part of any of this implies this will never happen again? that stede won't press the wrong button at some point and be on the receiving end? none of it

and if we'd been presented with a s2 stede bonnet who could handle himself and stand up for himself and fight back, then maybe i could imagine that turning into a weird sexy fucked up anne/mary like thing and maybe that could be why they put that episode in, but instead it feels like that episode was going, "look, see, ed's violence is fine because these two are fine with it with each other"

but stede isn't

ed and izzy or ed and stede in an unhealthy battle of a relationship could be such a fun, interesting and downright sexy thing to watch unfold on tv, and could honestly end somewhere far more down the chill end of the spectrum, but that's not what we've been given here

i cannot argue that ed isn't an abuser anymore, and not just of izzy but of the whole crew. he terrified frenchie.

it's not good writing to try and lean into the idea that ed and the pirates are violent and live a life of violence, so it's okay that ed's been violent, while simultaneously presenting his violence as traumatic and abusive, and then less than three episodes later saying oh it's fine now, he's just a little meow meow who can do no wrong, see?

especially considering they had him murdering people at the end of the season. and sure, you can say the english are just cannon fodder and they dont 'count', but they did before. ed explicitly did not kill before, and that included the english, or the spanish, or anyone else. so either they count or they don't, but flipping him on a dime makes no sense.

ALSO

having ed be the son of an abusive man who threw plates at his mother and made her cringe and then having ed kill his father to protect his mother and then a season later having ed become the kind of man who throws chairs and vases and makes his love interest cringe is, again, not bloody optimal

i want to say again i dont CARE about tv always presenting healthy relationships or tv always giving us aspirational goals. i want messy fucked up dynamics and terrible people making terrible choices, and still, to this day, i fucking love ed teach. i would honestly love to have seen them continue with ed's darkness and bring stede into it and see where they went with that, to have stede kill ned lowe and not just bury his feelings in ed but get off on it, enjoy the violence, and see where that led, but no

and so instead all we end up with is a protagonist who is being set up for a lifetime of abuse from an intimate partner, and a romantic lead who abuses his love interests (and yes. izzy is a love interest, he is set up like one and positioned like one and treated like one), frightens his love interests with his violence, is erratic and most of all inconsistently written. he was so sorry about scaring fang as though he hadn't been deliberately terrifying the whole crew for fuck knows how long? what?!

the whole fandom has spent so long saying, "no no, i know stede bonnet irl was a slave owner, but ofmd is using the names and not any real piracy, it's more disney piracy, you know? so that kind of stuff doesnt exist!" and then they flipped around and went "blackbeard is blackbeard and so he is evil and does all these horrible things" and i dont know how to rationalize the two sides of that because it feels so out of place

i'm getting rambly, this isnt a particularly well constructed thought process, i just feel like we were robbed both of a toxic, violent relationship that could be fun to see explored on tv and a soft and sweet love story between two middle aged men exploring their first loves in one fell swoop and there's no way for s3 to bring either of those things back because they got utterly torpedoed by making ed a horrible person

ugh

[googoogojob]

[arsenicflame]

It's a time-honoured tradition- every time Sam comes across Izzy (and Ed) in their travels, he asks Izzy to marry him. And every time, Izzy turns him down.

At this point, Sam is asking more for the sake of it than any belief Izzy will ever say yes, a remnant of childhood dedication touched with 30 years of heartbreak and regret- though even now, a small part of him still holds out hope. Sam's promises have only got more extravagant over the years, from a job as his first mate, to a captaincy, a fleet at his command, a whole fucking island if that's what Izzy wants- but he knows it isn't though, not really. If Izzy was ever going to agree to marry him, to leave his life and go with Sam, it wouldn't be for anything Sam could offer him. Izzy never did care for flashy shows of wealth, for a ship or to be captain. The only thing that ever mattered to him was loyalty given, and loyalty shown in return. 

It all comes to a head after Stede left and came back, after Izzy lost a toe, lost his leg. Sam hasn't seen him since before things with Ed started to really slide off the rails, before stress permanently set into the lines of Izzy’s face. So, when he sees a dishevelled man with a hoof for a leg in a no-name port, he doesn't even consider the idea that he might know him. It's only when he turns towards him, and Sam catches a glance at those oh too familiar tattoos, he realises this is Izzy, his Izzy, that stands before him.

Knowing Izzy's discomfort with pity, he doesn't treat him any differently than he would in years gone by, positioning himself in Izzy's line of sight before approaching and sweeping him up into a bone crushing hug. 

“Israel-goddamn-Hands!” he exclaims, as Izzy grumbles back a begrudging “Samuel-fucking-Bellamy”, a tradition almost as old as their friendship itself. Izzy might not hug him back, but he can’t keep the corner of his mouth from twitching, just for a second.

(If Sam holds Izzy a little tighter and a little longer than usual, well. That's his business)

By the time Sam lets go, most of the crew has appeared in the town square, drawn in by the commotion. They may have given Izzy his leg and welcomed him as one of them, but still there’s an underlying tension, with nobody quite ready to set aside everything that happened before the Kraken. Seeing him cosying up to an unknown man sets everyone on edge, unsure whether to come to their first mate’s aid, or to assume that they've been betrayed once again.

When Ed sees that the yelling was Sam, his hand goes tense where it's held in Stede's. He knows the routine, has seen it more times than he can count, but as he watches them part he realises that this is the first time in a long time he's unsure of what Izzy's response will be.

Knowing that something’s different, knowing that Izzy's feeling vulnerable already, Sam doesn't go for the same flashy proposal he’s been giving for years. He doesn't promise Izzy the world, he doesn't cause a scene (or, any more of a scene than he already has, anyway). He looks at the fractured man in front of him, takes his face in his hands, and says the exact same thing to him he said when they were little more than boys. “Israel, I have to ask you. I know what you'll say, but I have to try. Come with me. Marry me and sail away with me. I'll keep you safe”

And Izzy… hesitates. He glances over at Ed, at Stede, and says to Sam “...We’re staying in port for a week. Ask me again then”

That's the moment Sam knows there is something deeply, horribly, wrong. He's not just looking at an Izzy who got seriously injured in a fight and is struggling to cope, this is something so much bigger than that- and that Ed has something to do with it. Izzy wouldn't even be considering leaving if he didn't. Whether it was negligence or something more sinister, Sam doesn't yet know, but he intends to find out.

[maxer-blaster]

Ed had this at home

And chose Stede Bonnet.

[toboldlymuppet]

no need for seduction when you've always had me

[unicorndeathrace]

If your argument for why Izzy dying sucks is "the golden age of piracy didnt actually end for another decade so the metaphor doesn't work" I can only assume you didn't pay attention to anything in the show outside of Izzy because uh...did you not notice how fast and loose the show plays with history? That and it literally TELLS US that in universe piracy is coming to an end! Open the schools I fucking beg!!!

And yes this is an actual argument someone is trying on me on reddit.

[dimplyowl]

Okay has anyone written any meta about the differences between our two first mates, Auntie and Izzy? Because I just finished rewatching s2 and was struck by how similar their situations are, and their temperaments, and yet how very completely opposite they behave in nearly identical situations.

Cause like. Both their captains are insanely infamous, badass pirates who have an image to uphold, Ed as Blackbeard obviously, and Zheng as the pirate queen who conquered China. They both become romantically interested in someone who honestly has no business being a pirate: oluwande and Stede, both described as soft, not masculine, yes in the end willing to do violence if necessary, but it’s not their preferred way of handling conflict. People who, maybe rightly, the respective first mates consider potential threats to their captain and crew.

But just the way that auntie handles the situation compared to Izzy. Auntie doesn’t meddle. She is vocal about what she thinks of Oluwande, about her concerns about Zheng being distracted, “compromised”, not focused on the mission. But she’s ultimately acting as an advisor for Zheng, which is exactly what her role is. She doesn’t try to control Zheng, she doesn’t remove Zheng’s agency, she doesn’t threaten Zheng or tell her that she’s pathetic for mooning over Oluwande (I know we never get to see any mooning onscreen but cmon, there has to have been some). When the Revenge crew escapes her ship, and she knows she fucked up, Auntie doesn’t run salt in the wound the way that Izzy would take pleasure in doing. She starts to say “I told you so,” and Zheng very firmly tells her “Don’t”, establishes a boundary that Auntie respects, because ultimately Zheng knows she fucked up and she’s not a child who needs to be taught a lesson or managed. Auntie respects her and her personhood.

And compare that to Izzy, who consistently manipulated Ed to get in between him and Stede, threatened Stede’s life on multiple occasions, essentially mutinied against him, sent the cops after them, and then berated and threatened Ed over being heartbroken.

Like, even down to nearly dying. Auntie has a severe gunshot wound in her shoulder that she will clearly die from if she doesn’t accept help. She’s spent the entire season being tough, unwilling to show weakness, equating softness to weakness, but in the end she decides to accept help, to accept a little bit of softness, to change and accept that softness can be good. Izzy in contrast, declines help, knowing that he’s done. He knows he can’t fit in to this new world, this new piracy, where people can be soft and vulnerable and still fucking kick ass. He’s been resistant and outwardly aggressive to this idea, and he chooses to die rather than accept that softness. Ofmd is ushering in a new era of pirating, and Izzy doesn’t fit in it, and doesn’t want to fit in it, and ultimately, narratively, that’s why Auntie survives and Izzy doesn’t.

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

https://youtu.be/JyUIVAy30gU?si=OfizEIHyRkPSu5qw

OMFG THIS VIDEO IS SO FUCKING CATHARTIC (it's a 45 min video essay about tone, cinematography and why S2 overall just felt off by The Sin Squad. A person who has other amazing work on their page) AND THEY'RE ON TUMBLR!! @cushfuddled