#which is why Edward tells Stede that he'll handle this from up in the crow's nest

[ferusaurelius]

@ontologicalsynaesthesia​ Local idiot deranged professor of Izzy Hands studies here: I think he’d have left for real! 

Weirdly, insulting Ed’s competence is one area where Izzy understands how he’s been the asshole. I think he’d have gone off to think about what he’d done and waited for Edward to decide on the next appropriate move.

But Edward tells him: “I need you here.” So Izzy stays. That’s all it takes. There’s no real apology from either of them until Izzy feels compelled to acknowledge his misstep (”You’ve still got it.”/”I know.”). It’s not really an apology, when you come down to it? Just an acknowledgement of the state of the world and a shared understanding.

In some ways, Episode 04 almost sets up Izzy’s “what the fuck Edward” reaction to the outcome of the duel in Episode 06! It’s possible Izzy didn’t expect Edward to allow him to banish himself because of that “I need you here” in Episode 04.

What’s also fascinating to me is that Izzy further makes the mistake of underestimating just how pissed off Edward is going to be about the English showing up to murder Stede in Ep 08/09.

Anyway these two are fascinating! When they’re being good to each other, they’re really good (and like weirdly on the same page with shared history), and when they’re awful they’re REALLY awful. It never gets old on a rewatch tbh.

So I wonder: if Ed hadn't stopped Izzy from leaving at the end of episode 4, would Izzy have just... left? Actually resigned? Noped out of Ed's life and not brought the British down on them all?

I don't know! But I think it's not impossible. At the end of episode 6, Izzy is forced to leave in humiliation, after he had decided to literally fight for his place at Blackbeard's side over Stede. He was in a very different emotional place at the end of episode 4, though it's hard to tell what that place was, before Ed started talking to him. The last time we see him before that is when he corrects Ed about the date and Ed gives up and says they're all going to die, and there Izzy just looks quietly devastated.