#the way to do that is NOT trying to convince izzy enjoyers to interpret his actions differently

[gydima]

You ever think about how there would probably be 25% fewer Izzy Hands posts if some of the people who dislike him would adjust WHERE they talk about him?

Like, I get why some people hate Izzy. No big deal that people have different opinions than me! The problem lies in beating the same dead horse IN THE IZZY HANDS TAG or in direct response to Izzy enjoyers' posts.

For anyone who hates Izzy and genuinely wants to see less about him, the solution is simple and two-pronged:

If you make a post criticizing him, tag it "Izzy Hands critical." Izzy enjoyers are far less likely to jump to his defense there than in the regular old "Izzy Hands" tag. (We may never even see it if we have that tag filtered!)

Try not to yuck someone's yum in response to Izzy-positive posts. You won't have to expend your energy in a pointless back-and-forth battle if you ignore posts by Izzy enjoyers or block us altogether if our opinions bother you overmuch.

Rest assured, we've heard MANY TIMES why Izzy is crap and people shouldn't like him. Unless you're a galaxy-brained individual with an earth-shattering new analysis, one more post/response isn't going to make us see the anti-Izzy light.

(For the record, when Izzy-critical folks say something negative about him in their OWN blogs and DON'T use the Izzy Hands main tag, I think it would behoove Izzy enjoyers to scroll on past and not engage either. No one's convincing anyone to change their opinions, let's be real.)

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

i have such a weird time reading post s2 metas from izzy enjoyers who are still mad abt the season tho bc they are so clearly reading against the text that at times im convinced they HAVE to be aware of it (“the season isn’t a happy ending it’s a horror story waiting to happen”) but then other times they’re pulling scenes clips from the show as evidence for their takes (ed head butting stede in s4 when his brain is couscous and he can’t even talk is proof that he’s going to physically abuse stede) and i’m like, are you trying to convince me that this is the Correct Reading Of The Show? and do you think the Correct Reading is the same as the Intended Reading That The Writers Were Trying To Convey? or are you looking at this like we’re analyzing real people with free will who are capable of making their own autonomous decisions? or is it some other thing that makes this The Correct Way To Interpret OFMD?

bc a lot of these metas are like, Arguing A Point and i’m not sure what metric they’re using to judge themselves as Correct. like the “ed is a domestic abuser” interpretation: do they think that’s the story the writers intended to tell? or do they think that’s just the objective moral facts of ed’s actions????

that read is wild to me too bc if that IS what they think the writers were intentionally trying to do with ed idk why their criticism of s2 is “they killed ed’s abuse victim” and not “they wrote the indigenous lead in a romcom to be a domestic abuser which was like, really fucking racist of them” like they should’ve been angry at the writing in this show WAY before izzy was killed off but lol whateverrrr

[laceratedlamiaceae]

I know this is an unpopular opinion (among Izzy enjoyers at least), but I truly don't believe that Ed cares about Izzy, like, at all. Maybe he did at one point, but by the time of the show he acts like he wants absolutely nothing to do with Izzy at all.

There are a few points I've seen people raise as evidence that Ed does care, but none of them are particularly convincing to me. There's the scene where Ed is excitedly showing Izzy the model ship, but to me that reads more like Ed being like that one annoying kid who never shut up about whatever caught his interest (we all knew one of those, right?) because Izzy clearly doesn't give a fuck about the ship and Ed just ignores that--because he doesn't actually care about what Izzy wants, he just wanted to talk about the ship and Izzy was the only one there. There's the fact that Ed asks Izzy to stay at the end of Discomfort in a Married State, but again I think that has more to do with Ed than it does Izzy; my perception is that it was partially because Ed needed Izzy to help him kill Stede and mostly because of Ed's abandonment issues. I think he was just so used to Izzy being there, and so used to the song-and-dance of Izzy threatening to leave, that he didn't even think about letting him go. At the beginning of This is Happening, shortly after Izzy's banishment from the Revenge, Ed is contemplating leaving, and though from what I've seen most people think it's because of Izzy, I think it's just that he doesn't have a way to justify staying to himself now that he's decided not to kill Stede (and then the rest of the episode gives him a reason to stay). Lastly, there's the toe thing, which I've seen some people interpret as Ed showing he cares about Izzy in some sick, twisted way, but in my opinion whatever feeling would motivate someone to do something that horrifying shouldn't be considered 'caring.'

Beyond all that, the way Ed treats Izzy just isn't the way people treat the ones they care about. Like, I get that Ed is a deeply fucked up guy, but still. I guess I could buy that Ed has grown to resent Izzy, and maybe that is it's own form of caring, but I just can't get behind the idea that Ed has any positive feelings about Izzy at all. That being said, I do get why people think Ed does care about Izzy, and I'm not trying to say their interpretations are wrong, but I do think it's just as valid to see it the way I do.