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the entire internet focussing on ‘who the real Martha is’, instead of the identity of the powerful writer who groomed and r*ped donny just tells you what you need to know about the state of our society.

#baby reindeer #netflix #sa #tw #richard gadd

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Yu Wuyuan: my prince tells me he’s met the famed Bai Fengxi

Hei Fengxi: smirks yeah that’s my wife

Yu Wuyuan: he commends her beauty

Hei Fengxi:

#had it out for him ever since lmao #JEALOUSYY #they’re so married #who rules the world #bai fengxi #hei fengxi

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Never in my life have I seen to main characters as married from the very beginning of the drama as Bai Fengxi and Hei Fengxi from Who Rules the World

#they are married!!! #that’s his wife!! #and that’s her husband!!! #the banter and seamless cooperation screams married #bai fengxi #hei fengxi #who rules the world

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I want him gone but you’re making Mao-mao cry I want him gone but I’m keeping the dog named after him I want him gone but I’ll keep donating monthly to save the polar bears I want him gone but I’m keeping his memorial tablet and picture at my house I want him gone but I’ll play dog to cheer him up I want him gone but stop possessing them it’s dangerous I want him gone but he’s not good enough for you I want him gone but it’s my turn to keep you I want him gone but who are you talking to? my husband I want him gone but

#i’m unwell #they’re so personal to me actually #the love was there #it didn’t change anything #but it was there #taiwanese drama #marry my dead body

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the plot of Til the end of the Moon, essentially;

Literally everyone and their aunt: you’re destined to be the Devil Lord

Tantai Jin: actually I can’t, my wife said no

#til the end of the moon #tantai jin #li susu #ye xiwu #cdrama

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things I absolutely love seeing in hannibal fics:

Will graham having a slight southern accent that slips out when he's tired/drunk, which hannibal loves hearing.

Hannibal having a trauma-induced fear of the show and cold, which will does not know about or realizes at a pivotal moment later on.

Both of them being intensely clingy and having abandonment issues about each other after surviving the fall.

Hannibal being willing to give up eating people for will, but will does not want that for hannibal.

Hannibal being incredibly sweet to will after the fall, and will not knowing how to deal with it at first.

seriously every time I see these tropes I gain an extra life

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the real reason why Lucifer took so long to come help Charlie is that he wanted to see Alastor get his ass handed to him and knew Charlie wouldn’t let him do it himself

#and then it took him a while to stop laughing #him and vox are praying on his downfall fr #hazbin hotel #hazbin alastor #hazbin spoilers #hazbin lucifer #hazbin charlie #hazbin

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underrated interaction in my opinion:

Beard: I don’t want Jamie to play hurt.

Roy: I don’t mind him playing hurt. I played hurt all the time.

Beard: You can’t walk up stairs.

#he ate i fear #he said keep that macho shit to yourself #grandad #ted lasso #rewatching ted lasso #jamie tartt #roy kent #coach beard

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Stede being a shitty dad to his actual kids but still having the Dad Voice Of Pride And/Or Disapproval at his disposal for use on his crew - good

Stede using the Dad Voice all of once on Izzy and Izzy getting so fucking wet he might as well just hurl himself into the ocean - EXCELLENT

Ed knowing full well what Izzy looks and sounds like when he's simultaneously gagging for it, horrified at his own horniness, and desparate to hide his arousal, letting this play out for his own amusement (while Stede remains completely oblivious) - STUPENDOUS, UNPARALLELED, DELICIOUS

#stizzy #stede bonnet #izzy hands #steddyhands #gentlehands #ofmd

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#ofmd #blackbeard #izzy hands #ed teach #wuthering heights

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things I do not have time to write: Izzy and Stede had angry hate sex (which was, uh, far more mutually appreciative than either of them want to admit) after Ed left Stede and the 'he's a complicated man' scene. It was a one night stand. It was a mutual blowing off of steam. They agreed to put it behind them and never, ever talk about it again. Ed came back and Ed and Stede got back together and everything's fine, Izzy's fine, everyone lived and it's happy fucking families on the Revenge.

Izzy is also fucking pregnant.

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Official statement on why Izzy's death affected me so much

Our Flag Means Death, is, at it’s core, is a show that focuses on queer joy- a form of therapy for those that have been raised on queerbaiting, shipping minor side characters, or watching, when nothing else is available, queer tragedies. You know how it goes- the two main characters, both male, have chemistry. They say things to each other that seem weirdly like declarations of love. They look at each other with love in their eyes. You see these things and the main man gets married off to a badly written, unfinished female character and is left feeling empty. The best friend dies for the main character to live. When everyone talks about how cute the main couple are, you want to scream all of a sudden, because nobody can see this love story play out except you. It’s queer, it’s tragic, and nobody else can understand it. 

Not Our Flag Means Death. From the moment it aired, it was praised as a show with unabashed queer joy, which means more than I can possibly say. The two main male characters meet, they have chemistry, and they fall in love. It’s not implied, or hinted at, but blatantly obvious. Their romances and the queer romances around them attracted so many queer fans who felt that after so many years, this type of show was a vindication for what they had been through with other media. 

In this show, piracy itself was that of a found family. Though Stede Bonnet and the crew of the Revenge start off with many differences, the core of the show centers around a theme that many queer audiences are attracted to: found family. The Revenge was depicted as a safe space, where everyone could express themselves freely, a refuge from a world of judgment. Queerness was not only accepted but normalized on The Revenge. No homophobia, no coming out, no typical complications of queer romance. Just love and safety. Warmth, which was Ed Teach wished for in purgatory. Which was what he found on the Revenge. The ship was a safe space that so many queer audiences had dreamed of. 

Well, a safe space except for one person: Izzy Hands, Blackbeard’s First Mate, who was a man painfully stuck in the wrong genre. This is the general consensus by both fans and the cast: Izzy, Edward and their crew had been in a gritty action movie, whereas Stede and his crew were in a muppet movie of sorts. While the majority of Blackbeard’s crew quickly acclimates to and celebrates the change, Izzy doesn’t. 

And right away, many fans felt a deep attraction to Izzy. The reason that Izzy couldn’t get Edward to love him was because, in the end, the only way that Izzy knew how to love was through blood. To give and receive pain in an action movie is one of the greatest forms of love, but Izzy fails to realize that Ed is not in an action movie anymore. He is happy with this stability, and the reason that so many people felt Izzy’s presence so was strongly was that he wasn’t. 

So many queer people are, in a way, addicted to tragedy. Tragedy is all that is represented in queer media for the most part, or was until very recently. Take Achilles and Patroclus, one of the most celebrated and recognized queer love stories of both ancient and modern times. Why that one? There are other greek love stories, many of them queer. The tragedy of it- Patroclus’ death and Achilles’ rage- made it all the more appealing. Many in the audience of Our Flag Means Death were not comedy fans, they were horror or drama fans, attracted to a comedy because of the love story. But Izzy, to them, was a physical representation of who they were, carrying an awareness of homophobia, of blood and pain that so many queer relationships had previously been illustrated by (i.e. Hannibal). Though Ed may not have understand this type of affection, the audience did- Izzy’s Otherness from the crew despite it’s safety, his expressions of love and his unrequited love story were all things that the audience were familiar with feeling. 

If Ed and Stede were good queer representation, Ed and Izzy, for example, were a foil of that. They were evil, messed up, and fed into the worst parts of each other because it brought them closer. This is a theme present in a lot of queer media, and by extension, queer lives: “if you love me, Henry, you don’t love me in a way I understand”, is an excerpt classic queer poem about unrequited love that fits the situation. The very reason Izzy stuck in people’s heads because he was of a different genre. His grittiness and bitterness made sense to the audience. They saw Izzy and saw what was familiar. He was exquisitely written, simultaneously making even casual audiences both hate him, and against all odds, find him oddly endearing. The idea of this man sacrificing every inch of himself for an unrequited love was a concept of tragedy, leaking into a comedic show. 

So fans projected onto Izzy. He was a catalyst for the heartache, for the audience’s sheer inability to have a happy show. For one reason or another, some of the audience simply couldn’t live with a show that was all fantastical, which I theorize is because they couldn’t see themselves in it. So Izzy became the epitome of queer suffering: pining longingly after another man that couldn’t understand him. This projection of suffering, however, led to a new wish: happiness for Izzy. If Izzy in Season 1 was a tragedy, assimilating him into the found family in Season 2 would have elevated the safe sense of the ship all the more. It would have proved to so many of these Izzy Fans that yes, even though you view yourself as unloveable, even though you see yourself as Israel Hands, Villain, even he can be loved too. Why can’t you be? 

And Season 2, for the most part, delivered beyond our wildest dreams. Izzy had people who cared about him. And though the genre shifted into the darker, Izzy himself shifted slightly to the comedic side as well. His life, which had been centered for so long around a man that didn’t reciprocate his feelings, was gone. He started a new life, and this life, again, focused on queer joy. The queer joy from Season 1 was suddenly for everyone, even those like Izzy that couldn’t have understood it. He sang, he whittled, he talked about feelings, he dressed in drag. Many elder queer fans also saw Izzy as another metaphor, too: that queer joy can be attained overtime. You don’t have to have had it the whole time, but you can accept yourself even when you are older. The message of Izzy was one of resilience and stubbornness, one that the queer community needed to hear: that you don’t have to be like this, you don’t have to create pain for yourself. You don’t need to watch tragedies all the time. You, too, can heal from the past.

And then, the season finale happened. By this point, many argued that Izzy had stolen the show. Con O’Neil’s acting mixed with his general arc of self acceptance had made him a fan favorite. In the last episode, it is Izzy himself who sums it up perfectly, accepting that he belongs somewhere despite his pain and flaws. Despite the darkness within him, he was still accepted and loved. He says it right to the face of Prince Ricky, who thinks himself above it all. That piracy, a metaphor for otherness, wasn’t actually about being alone; it was about finding others that understood you when nobody else could. 

Listen, this show is known for it’s nonsensicality. In the finale of Season 1, Lucius is thrown overboard by Ed and survives by simply swimming to another ship. Stede reunites with his crew by sailing a rowboat. Buttons turns into a seagull. Stede stabs Ed for a comedic bit. Earlier in the season, Izzy himself gets shot and survives. This queer joy show was celebrated for being, well, joyful. Even when things like getting thrown overboard did happen, they were, ultimately, a blip in the character’s journey towards acceptance, healing, etc, which was what made the show unique. Our Flag Means Death, whose audience had been living for years off of the “Bury your gays” trope, was adored because it illustrated a world where things didn’t have to be that way. A place where the impossible, such as Izzy Hands being loved, could happen. This show was one of survival. 

But not for the one person that was seen to struggle with this concept the most. Not for the one person that was a metaphor for belonging in this place, who became, over the course of a season, the embodiment of the message itself. Not for the Unicorn, the very symbol of this magical, nonsensical ship. Not for the most stubborn, most indestructible, most enduring (queer) person in the show. Not for Izzy Hands. 

This trope, honestly, was one that many have seen before, both in mainstream and queer media. A character, previously shown to be a villain or else to have gone through a lot of pain, is shown to heal, to get better, and then to die in order to “complete their arc”. This trope is common: Loki, Cas. even Ted Lasso, who doesn’t die but goes back to the very place that broke him in the first place. But the reason that Izzy’s death, while it might have been expected in another show, felt like a betrayal in this one is because it was known for subverting those tropes. From the “Bury Your Gays” to the “Up For Interpretation”, it was known to look those tropes in the eyes and say “fuck you, these people deserve to be happy”. And this did happen! Except for the one character who’s healing journey was one of the most relatable, at least to queer audiences. 

What also made it so jarring was that all the other characters got to be happy, except for the one that had struggled with the idea of happiness the most. In the scene immediately after Izzy is buried, Lucius and Pete get married. In the scene after, a montage of queer joy and found family is shown amongst the whole crew. In the final scene, Ed and Stede, our main queer couple, are shown healing themselves and starting a new life together. The last shot, however, showed Izzy’s grave, visited by Buttons the seagull while Ed and Stede had dinner. A tragedy in it’s finest. It wouldn’t have been difficult for Izzy to live. Because, in the end, his death meant nothing. His healing meant nothing. He died and was moved on from in a matter of seconds. He was, as I mentioned, the catalyst for tragedy, more specifically, queer tragedy. But because of this, of his genre, Izzy didn’t get to live. He had to die in order for the rest of the characters to keep living in this fantasy world. This death was, in a way, a preservation of these other love stories.

I maintain, however, that it would have meant more if Izzy had lived. If he had been  able to show to us that yes, despite what you have been through, despite what you may have inflicted upon yourself, you can switch genres. It’s possible. Izzy’s survival up until that point had been a profound testament to many that it is possible to heal, that queerness does not have to mean sadness. It would have continued to be a testament to that if only Izzy had lived. And so, this pirate that we latched onto, not in spite of his darkness but because of it, was buried on land on the side of the road. 

As a side note, many previous incidences in the story point to the idea even though Ed and Stede will definitely stay together, it’s uncertain if the inn would have worked out. It’s likely that, being a whim, those two might have chosen to move, or go back to the sea, or sail to China. If this is true, they would have left Izzy’s grave by itself, like a family pet buried in the yard. If this is true, Izzy Hands, a metaphor for belonging, would rot alone. 

Long live the tragedy addicts. Long live the Richard Siken poems. Long live Izzy Hands. 

*When I talk about the "fandom" I am referring to the canyon.

#izzy hands #izzy hands apologist #izzy canyon #our flag means death #ofmd finale #ofmd #izzy hands death #izzy deserved better

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I think Izzy hands is/was Calypso.

Let me explain.

So obviously Calypso is the goddess of the sea and so it makes sense to use her “birthday” as an excuse to celebrate, however, looking a bit more into her I found out that she was trapped on an island and trapped a dude there because she loved him and wanted to keep him with her but eventually she did let him go, helping him get materials to build a boat so he could leave. This kinda makes me think of how Izzy acts with Ed/Blackbeard, doing everything he can in the first season to keep him close, to try and prevent him from leaving but in the second season he relaxes more and finally lets Ed leave, and be free.

“Calypso” also means “the one who hides” which if you think about it in the context of the show being about finding who you truly are and also how repressed izzy is in the first season, I just like that connection I guess. Calypsos birthday party is where we see Izzy embrace himself and the rest of the crew without shame, they are a family he doesn’t need to hide from them anymore.

Anyways this is just a long winded way to say I think someone should write a fic or draw Izzy as Calypso, and taking care of the crew after stede and Ed run off to their inn.

#izzy hands #ofmd #our flag means death #blackbeard #stede bonnet #ed teach #edward teach #calypso #ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers

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latest member of the jilted spouse club

(stizzy suggestive text in the comic under the cut!)

I had to immortalise The Hot Potato. Please go read this fic by the stupendous @carrymelikeimcute (and all the tags on their post!)

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“Izzy’s dead in canon”

“Ed and Izzy were never explicitly romantically involved in canon”

since when do we listen to canon here? this is the destiel website, we’ve always lived in our delusions, so write your silly little headcanons, and your fics, and your fix-it fantasies, and your AUs, who cares?

we’ve never followed canon here and we’re not about to start now lol

#also stop sending hate to the people who dislike izzy #people are allowed to have opinions #same goes the other way around #personally i like him and i think his arc is beautiful #i think his death was nonsensical but that’s up for interpretation #because that’s how media works #izzy hands #ofmd 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd #our flag means death #fanfic #i also think DJenkins was wild for calling Izzy Ed’s father figure after calling him his jilted spouse last season lol #the izcourse #i fear nothing in adding that tag lol

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Blackbonnet is Finally by CeCe Peniston and Blackhands is It’s Too Late by Carole King no I will not be taking questions at this time

#i was listening to carole king the other day and i was like this sounds like ed and izzy damn #same thing happened with cece peniston #ofmd #our flag means death #izzy hands #edward teach #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #blackhands #edizzy #gentlebeard

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listen I know this isn’t likely to happen in-universe but can you imagine Alma “playing pirates since birth” Bonnet pulling up at whatever fancy girls school they’ll send her to being like “oh your father’s a governor? Mine’s a pirate” and her ultimate most deadly weapon “and you know the Dread Pirate Blackbeard? Yeah he’s my stepdad”

#let ed interact positively with children i say! #he was trying with those kids in the village he clearly meant well #let him be a good stepdad and allow himself to believe he’s nothing like his dad at all! #he sees the kids very sparingly but they love him #he’d be the fun uncle type i think #just starts building stuff with them and telling them about the clouds and the sea #alma would love him especially #ofmd #our flag means death #stede bonnet #edward teach #blackbeard #gentlebeard