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marionthegeek · 7 months

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Stede is in the Gravy Basket, Izzy is Alive

The season 2 finale of Our Flag Means Death is odd. It hits weird. I think I know why. And this is going to sound bananas, but give me a chance to explain. Maybe you’ll agree.

It has a huge tonal shift. It seems to speedrun Stede and Ed’s romance. It feels like we’ve missed out on something from the end of episode 7. The fight scenes and pirate plans are nonsensical, even for OFMD. And most egregiously, a prominent character is killed off in a way that feels disingenuous to his story arc, just for starters.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We need to go back to the beginning of season 2. The season opens with Stede looking more piratey than ever. Beard, sash, earring… oh he’s his own fantasy of a real proper pirate. He’s clashing swords with Izzy Hands and demanding to know where Ed is. He’s dreaming. In the dream he kills Izzy. He and Ed run into each other’s arms while screaming each other’s names. They crash into the surf. Ed says “I knew you’d find me, Babe. I knew you’d find me, Love.” Stede keeps asking if they’re good. Ed dodges the question. Then Ed asked about the smell. Stede wakes up in a crowded room with farting and shushing roommates.

At first I thought the finale was supposed to be just a “satisfying” mirror to Stede’s dream. Stede and Ed call each other’s names and run into each other’s arms in a display that resembles a more grown up version of Stede’s dream fantasy. There’s some wild sword fighting not unlike Stede’s dream duel with Izzy. And Izzy dies.

It does mirror, but I didn’t find it satisfying. All of the characters except Stede feel flattened. Stede gets to make the heroic plan (that we never even hear) while there’s at least five pirates with better skill sets for it in the room. Ed, as Blackbeard, was described last season as “History’s greatest tactician”; Zheng Yi Sao conquered China; Jackie just took out a room full of British soldiers. Izzy and Auntie are right there. You could make arguments that Jim or Frenchie, or pretty much anyone could make a better plan. Then Stede says “It’s only suicide if we die,” which is horrible considering the plan gets Izzy killed.

Stede’s really the only person in that room who thinks Stede should be making the plans. So I got to thinking, what if it's not just mirroring the dream? What if it is a dream? Last shot of episode 7 is an incoming cannonball. Maybe he’s unconscious.

Huge shout out to @Arty_Sunflowers on twitter (I’m not calling it X, fuck Musk) for pointing out that that isn’t the only episode that ends with a cannonball. Episode 2 ends with Jim swinging a cannonball down at Ed’s head. Stede’s not just dreaming, he’s in the Gravy Basket!!!! (Stede even screams “Oh my God!” at the end of episode 7 in the same tone he screams “Oh my God, I don’t want to die.” in s1e9.

Stede’s hopes, dreams, and insecurities shape everything in the finale. And it helps explain the absurdities in the episode when you remember that Stede is living out pulp adventure and romance novels in his head. (He even looks like someone on the cover of one in his episode 1 dream.) But Stede can’t be dead, you say. He’s literally the main character. Well, Ed was dead for a whole episode. Let’s take a closer look.

I could and probably will do another essay on Lucius as a POV character and Ed’s mental health and how the threads they seemed to have dropped aren’t as dropped as they appear. But all of that hinges on me proving the Stede is in the Gravy Basket theory. So for this essay I’m focusing on that.

So for starters we’ve got the cannonball scenes. They’re eerily similar even if the method of cannonball propulsion is different. We don’t know Ed is dead and in the Gravy Basket for about half of episode 3. Neither does he. It makes logical sense you can be there without realizing it for a while. Buttons even said Ed didn’t know whether he was in the Gravy Basket or not in episode 4. It definitely messes with your reality.

One of Ed’s issues is self hate. He manifests Hornigold as his companion. Stede is desperate to be a good pirate and have people be proud of him. And he lives in his fantasies a lot. So his dream shapes his experience. There’s a whole bit about Zheng needing “soft” and Auntie saying she’s proud of her. That isn’t their issue. It’s discordant with the show previously. But it is Stede’s issue. He’s manifesting.

When we first see Stede and Zheng in episode 8, they’re in a familiar spot for Stede, the bridge from episode 1. But why are they alone? When we last see Stede and Zheng in episode 7, several characters are within 5 to 10 feet of them. Did none of them decide to escape with Stede? Izzy, Lucius, and Jim are closest. But we know Pete was there begging Stede to stay down during his fight with Zheng. Archie was definitely in the bar. That's why Jim entered the fight. So why is it only Stede and Zheng at the bridge? Because, going back to rescue others fits into Stede's hero fantasies.

Zheng and Stede also argue about who pulled who to safety and how they got there. Stede waxes poetic about being a failure his whole life, but things always seem to work out for him. He’s such a main character mediocre white guy in this scene. He saves Zheng from two random soldiers, then she has to save him from them. Then they fight a bunch more soldiers on the beach until Blackbeard manifests in full leather from the ocean. It looks cool. But it's absurd, even for OFMD.

Speaking of Ed, he begins the episode waxing poetic about nature and calling fishermen simple. Those things are more Stede than Ed. Pop pop tells Ed, “You have no skills” which is something Izzy said to Stede in episode 5. He also tells Ed, “If you were ever good at something, go do that, you bum.” If Stede’s insecurities could be distilled into one sentence, it would probably be that. (He also talks about being like a wave. I’m not 100% sure it's a The Good Place joke, but it would be thematically appropriate.)

Pop pop also tells Ed he “ruined dinner.” Back in season 1, in Stede’s flashbacks to life with Mary and the kids, Stede thinks he’s ruined dinner. But remember, we also see another version of the scene where Stede is laughing with Mary and the kids. Stede isn’t exactly a reliable narrator. Even in his own head.

Despite it being beyond unlikely, Ed finds soldiers reading one of Stede’s letters. I know physics in this show is sketchy, but this seems like a good time to point out no one found the red silk. Stede wants Ed to read a letter and for it to fix everything between them. The letter, plus Stede being in danger, make Ed swim out, find his leathers, and emerge from the sea with them on, while the music is the Swede’s solo from Stede’s fuckery in s1e6. Stede wants to be rescued by his handsome pirate in leather, again, just like a pulp adventure romance novel. Little chance of Ed swimming out and finding his kit. Even less of him getting leather pants on under the water.

Back to the beach… for some reason two squads of soldiers are wandering around out on an empty beach. A visually incredible fight scene occurs. It honestly reminds me of Pete’s story in s1e2, including flips. Ed and Stede yell each other’s names exactly as in the dream. Like I’m pretty sure they used the same audio track. The same song (I Love My Baby, Nina Simone) starts playing. Ed says “I love you.” Stede says “I know.” (We’ll come back to the Han Solo joke in a minute.) They have a bit more absurd fighting then Ed, Stede, and Zheng sit on the beach complimenting each other. And Ed calls Stede “babe”. He’s never done that outside of Stede’s dream and this moment. He’s called him mate a couple of times. Babe is exclusively in Stede’s head.

Back in the Republic of Pirates, the crew are locked in a cell that is actually the “vista suite” at Spanish Jackie’s. Izzy gets a heroic entrance. It’s as cool as Stede thinks Izzy is. And he gives a speech that sounds like what he probably told Stede to get him to relinquish the suit in episode 5. Piracy is about belonging to something. You can’t ignore the wishes of the crew. Izzy also knows details about Captain Kidd and Pinocchio. Not impossible, but not exactly Izzy’s wheelhouse. It is Stede’s though. He’s obsessed with pirate tales and he read Pinocchio to the crew.

Stede, Ed, and Zheng show up just as Jackie has poisoned a bunch of soldiers. Stede makes a plan, despite everyone else being more qualified. Everyone disguises themselves as soldiers. Now we’ve seen the crew of the Revenge wear disguises. They never do the weird free styling they do here. Only Stede actually looks like a British officer. Zheng at least wears the disguise properly. Suddenly Ed has a multi gun bandolier like Blackbeard in the books. Pete ripped the arms off. Izzy is still wearing his vest. Doesn’t make sense if we’re going for stealth. Neither does not checking hostage Ricky for weapons or putting Izzy and his wooden leg at the front of the group.

If I'm right, Stede wouldn't know Ricky was behind the explosions. However, Ricky is basically evil Stede. He's Stede's perfect foil. All of this is reflecting Stede's psyche. So, of course, it's Ricky.

Izzy gets shot and says quite a lot of nonsense in his death scene. “They love you, Ed.” Um, 3 of them were going to leave like five minutes ago. Ed has made some progress with the crew, but we’re not at “they love you Ed”. The only person who thinks the crew loves Ed is Stede. Stede who weeps for Izzy while most of the crew aren’t showing much emotion. Stede can barely deal with his own big feelings. His fantasy doesn’t give the crew room to have them. Also, given the rest of the season, having Jim just let Ed be the person cradling Izzy doesn’t fit. The crew is also pretty stony at Izzy’s funeral.

I feel like it should be noted the last shot of Izzy in episode 7, he’s got one are around Jim and a hand on Lucius’s shoulder. He sat in Wee John’s lap in episode 6. Reactions to his death don’t make sense.

Also, Izzy’s terrible grave marker is very … Stede. He’d think it was a brilliant idea.

I didn't understand at first why Izzy had to die, even in Stede's dream world. Stede clearly likes him a lot better now. Why kill him? Well, it's because we're supposed to think Buttons is there to go to the Gravy Basket for Izzy. When actually he's already arrived in the Gravy Basket and he's there for Stede. Also, mentors die in pulp adventure novels. Stede sees Izzy as a mentor.

They go aboard the Revenge for Lucius and Pete’s wedding. It’s cute that the crew performs the ceremony, but I’d venture a guess that’s because Stede doesn’t know a captain should do it if it's legally binding. Stede does love the romance of it all. The sudden uptick in monogamy is also very Stede. He barely understands monogamous relationships. Polyamory is beyond him.

Then Stede and Ed, who earlier told Zheng they’d help hunt Ricky, go back to the island where Izzy is buried to start an inn in a run down shack. Stede knows Ed wants to do this because Ed told the (Taika’s) kids that they ran an inn. We hear Ed ask “Jesus, what is that smell?” Now, at first, I thought Izzy, because Ed “knows the smell of my rotting first mate”. But what was the last thing to happen in Stede’s dream? A fart joke.

Last scene is Buttons landing on Izzy’s grave. To retrieve Izzy from the Gravy Basket? No, Izzy’s not dead. He’s with Jim and Lucius, probably watching over Stede’s corpse. Buttons is there to retrieve Stede.

This theory fixes the plot holes and dropped threads problem. We’re coming back to them next season. Ed's amends making should be far from over. And we see several moments during the season where he acknowledged that. And yet here on the island they've set up a horror movie and called it a happy ending. Well, Stede is the type of boss who thinks things are fixed with a pizza (Calypso) party. In Stede's mind, this is a happy ending. But really Ed is still off finding himself, Stede is (temporarily) dead, and Izzy (who is not dead!) is probably guarding Stede's corpse.

They haven't resolved the domestic violence thread, but they haven't dropped it, either. Izzy is alive. Stede and Ed aren't together (yet). There's still time.

This also explains some of the freewheeling nonsense David Jenkins has been spouting in articles. Ed doesn’t see Izzy as a father figure and mentor, Stede does. Stede almost turned to mush when Izzy approved of him. And David is writing a three volume adventure novel. Han Solo (Stede) is in carbonate (the Gravy Basket). The perfect end to the second act. See, I told you we’d get back to the Han Solo joke.

I still have problems with the season. I really think they need a sensitivity reader. Even just implying a newly disabled character was fridged is certainly a choice. Especially given the amount of time devoted to how the character handled the disability. The DV scenes were brutal, as well as the suicide attempt, and the Human Puppet joke. I think they need someone trauma informed and disabled in the writer's room. (David Jenkins hit me up!)

Overall, I liked season 2. Especially once I realized Izzy wasn't dead. I'm looking forward to season 3, the conclusion of the Gentle Beard arc, and hopefully 6 seasons and a movie of Izzy (to be clear, he's not captain) and the kids sailing up and down the coast being gay and doing crimes, occasionally checking in with Stede and Ed.

Seriously, David, call me.

Historical Note: IRL Blackbeard died on November 22, 1718, killed in a naval battle off Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. IRL Stede Bonnet died December 10, 1718, hanged in Charles Town, South Carolina for piracy. IRL Israel “Izzy” Hands survives piracy, death date unknown. I know this show doesn’t actually care about historical accuracy, but this lends a little support for my Ed died, then Stede died, and Izzy isn’t dead theory.

#our flag means death #ofmd #izzy hands #stede bonnet #gravy basket #Izzy Hands lives #David Jenkins I just want to talk

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celluloidbroomcloset · 6 months

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I've been thinking about this exchange between Izzy and Ed in "Discomfort in a Married State":

"For years I've followed your every whim, I've managed your increasingly erratic moods, I've massaged this crew when they were worried about your judgment—"

"Mm, sounds stressful, Izzy."

"It is."

Izzy has assigned himself the role of "managing" Blackbeard, but it's quite obvious, both in Ed's response and in the way he says it, that Ed has never wanted or expected him to. And he continues to try to manage Ed, even when Ed clearly tells him not to.

Both Ed and Stede have that word "whim" thrown at them by people who don't really understand them - Izzy and Mary - and both at first resist the word (Stede even says "I object to the word whim"), then internalize it. It seems what are being called whims by outsiders are actually expressions of deep desires that neither Ed nor Stede have the verbal or emotional language to describe.

It's not a whim that has Stede running off to a be a pirate - it's all the frustration and loneliness and repression - and it's not a whim to go back to Mary - it's a result of guilt and self-loathing. It's not a whim that has Ed following the Revenge to meet Stede - it's wanting to find someone who might be a kindred spirit. But neither of them can openly articulate those feelings, either to the people who are calling them whims or fully to themselves. Stede goes further than Ed does because so many of his desires are located in his repressed homosexuality, and once he's able to articulate that - with Mary's help - he understands his feelings. He still believes that he's "whim-prone" in other ways, but not when it comes to Ed.

Ed is especially leery about his own desires, which have been managed by other people for so long, and about Stede's. His idea to "run off to China" is a whim in a certain sense, but it's expressing a desire to leave behind their old identities and form something new together. His desire to "take it slow" is about his own healing independent of Stede, but it's also built on a fear that Stede is going to disappear again. After they have sex, Ed again falls into the fear that it was a whim, but it's not his whim - it's Stede's. He's scared that what meant so much to him doesn't mean as much to Stede, or not enough for Stede to be able to let go of piracy and fame. He's worried that piracy wasn't a whim, but he was.

Both of them have been managed most of their lives, in different ways and by people and structures that they never wanted to manage them in the first place. It was all about keeping them in settled, socially acceptable places where they can't escape, and casting doubt on the legitimacy of their desires. (I don't think Izzy, and certainly not Mary, consciously think of it in these terms, and Mary especially has had to subsume her own needs as much as Stede has.)

In the scene with Izzy, Ed's evidently pushing back at the management, and he probably has been for a while. But this is likely the first time where his desires are getting more articulated, after his conversation with Stede, and are the same moment when Izzy starts trying to exert even more control over him.

His finding the letter is a mirror to Stede's conversation with Mary - the realization of who he is and who the man he loves is, and that the feelings he's experienced not just for but from Stede are not whims but bone-deep love.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd season 2 #stede bonnet #edward teach #mary bonnet #izzy hands #ed teach #blackbonnet #gentlebeard #gif #whim prone #ofmd meta #this was supposed to be a really short post but i cannot be brief apparently #my wee thoughts #thanks to anyone who reads these #i'm always happy to chat about 'em too!

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saltpepperbeard · 7 months

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no because really, i think stede is operating in a way he thinks will win him respect. i think he's operating in a way he thinks is the expectation. i don't think he likes it, and i don't think it's "him," but i think he enjoys the positive reinforcement from everyone around him. he's literally never had that before in his life.

he was bullied as a child for what he enjoyed. he was cast aside by his father for being himself. the crew threatened to mutiny against him or even just flat-out kill him because he was too "weak."

and here he is trying to pull himself up out of maelstrom of mistakes. "he's been a failure his whole life." he's trying to do everything he can to rectify that. he wants to be the lighthouse for his crew. he wants to be a good captain. he wants to be a good pirate. he wants to be a good lover. he wants to be something.

and he was actually getting there himself--he just didn't realize it. listening to his crew more, showing them kindness, leading them when they were lost and had no place to go, putting his own grief on hold and taking back the revenge...

he was getting there! but still, he was surrounded by those haunting expectations, by the fear that it wasn't enough.

the whole conversation between he and ed where ed is encouraging him to command respect/be tougher. the whole conversation between he and izzy where izzy says he's "never met anyone with a total lack of skills." zheng saying that she didn't "conquer china by letting people go on and on about their feelings."

not to mention the goading from ned. "once you kill me, you're a real pirate. you're not an amateur." "see? that's why he likes you. your bumbling amateur status."

it all keeps swimming circles around him, looming above his head like a shadow.

he thinks he has something more to prove. he thinks he has to be more. even though his own methods work, like ned's crew turning on him simply because stede showed kindness and understanding, all these phantoms keep telling him it isn't enough and that the other methods are more effective.

because he kills, and looks visibly shaken by it, but his crew cheers. he grabs ed by the collar despite them wanting to take things slow, and they grow intimate. he walks into jackie'z after it all, a place where he was previously banished from, and is treated like a sort of pirate hero.

it's not him. "we don't just banish people, do we? that's not us."

but it's encouraged. it's celebrated. so he thinks it should be.

#OFMD #OFMD Season 2 #OFMD S2 Spoilers #Stede Bonnet #Revenge Rambles #WHEW #listen #listen listen #i have trust #i have faith #i really truly believe he's just caught up way WAY too much in all of this #that he's in WAYYYYY over his head #that he's riding the wave of FEELING like someone #and isn't really taking anything else into account #because like #idk man #as someone who has struggled to fit in and struggled to be respected/treated well by my peers through school #i did some things that i would normally not do #i acted in ways uncharacteristic for me #and i thought i enjoyed them at the time #i rode the thrill of getting approval from everyone else #but looking back on it now #it was absolutely NOT worth it and was not something i'd do presently #i just did it simply because i thought i had to #and i think that's more of what's going on with stede right now

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amuseoffyre · 2 months

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Whim-prone.

Hm. Lads, I don't think that means what you think it means.

"when you ordered me to follow that ship" - patiently and methodically arranging a situation over several days/weeks, to be in proximity to a man you are interested in, an accessible gentleman who might let you reach out and touch the very life you've yearned for since childhood. And the fact that unlike every single person in your life, he says "there's always another way"? Of course you're going to be intrigued.

"you're not having this built, are you?" - spending an exorbitant amount of time and money personally designing and commissioning a ship with the intention of giving your family a less confined and suffocating life, planned weeks, months maybe even years in advance, all with the intention of finally being free to do what you want after decades of being controlled and sold out for land.

"It was against regulations. It had to go" - using your arrest as a reason to get rid of the beard that is a vital part of your Famous Pirate pseudonym, which you have said repeatedly that you wanted to get rid of from the first day you met the man you fell in love with.

"Until you resolve this guilt, you will always be haunted" -abandoning the life that makes you happy after being shamed and guilted about the damage you have inflicted on other people purely by existing and returning to the masked-up closet that makes you miserable to try and fix things for everyone

The only real whim was "we could go to China" and really, that felt more like Ed just spitballing ideas of "anywhere but here" and Stede immediately going "not anywhere but here" because so much baggage weighing him down.

Two men who have never been able to have what they want and being told the things they want are 'whims' because people think they're doing them on the spur of the moment, when these are deep-rooted issues driving every decision they make.

However, there is a meaning of whim that does suit them better and that's one that ties in to whimsy.

This version of whim suits them both perfectly because they are whimsical lads who like to have a bit of fun with each other and are both a little bit silly.

Captain likes a bit of whimsy after all :)

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #stede bonnet #ed teach #blackbeard

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lokiiied · 7 months

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WOW YOU GUYS. JUST WOW. LE VIE EN ROSE WAS JUST FUCKING PERFECT. 11/10 WE GOT:

• EDIZZY BABY STEPS

• TAIKA’S DAUGHTERS

• STEDE & ED “WE RUN AN INN TOGETHER”

• WEE JOHN AND IZZY IN DRAG

• IZZY’S FUCKING BEAUTIFUL PERFORMANCE OF LA VIE EN ROSE

• POLYCULE DANCING TO LA VIE EN ROSE

• NO COPS AT OUR PRIDE JUST FUCKING NED FUCK NED ALL MY HOMIES HATE NED

• “ZHENG YI SAO PIRATE QUEEN WHO BENT ALL OF CHINA TO HER WILL” YAS QUEEN

• ED “HEY THIS IS ACTUALLY SOME PRETTY EROTIC TORTURE BUT DONT YOU TOUCH MY FUCKING BOYFRIEND BITCH” TEACH

• UNHINGED ROACH

• THE GAY FIANCÉS PREPARING FOR AN OUTNUMBERED BATTLE

• ASSERTIVE AND RIGHTFULLY PISSED OFF PROTECTIVE BOYFRIEND CAPTAIN STEDE “YOU MESSED WITH WRONG FAMILY SHIP” AND TURNED ON BUT CONCERNED BF ED

• OH SHIT STEDE REALLY DID IT BETTER GO CHECK ON YOUR BOYFRIEND HES PROBABLY— OH HES HORNY AS FUCK LETS GO

• BACK TO OUR RUDELY INTERRUPTED LA VIE EN ROSE PERFORMANCE BY THE BEAUTIFUL ISRAEL FUCKING HANDS ENCORE

• MORE UNHINGED ROACH

• STEDE & ED SEXY TIME

WE WON ‼️‼️

#ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #ed teach #izzy hands #edizzy #stede bonnet #gentlebeard #wee john feeney #oluwande boodhari #jim jimenez #archie ofmd #roach ofmd #fang ofmd #ned low #zheng yi sao #black pete #lucius spriggs #lucius x black pete #our flag means death

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internerdionality · 7 months

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And just to be clear, it wasn't just Izzy's death or the way it happened that I found incredibly disappointing about that finale. For that matter, while there were some great moments, the entire season felt rushed and incomplete, with a lot of decisions that just baffled me.

The Olu/Zheng/Jim/Archie polycule got no resolution whatsoever and just felt crappily done. It felt like Jim and Olu transitioned from romantic to platonic between seasons and then got shoved at new love interests, instead of actually grappling with the interesting poly dynamics, jealousy, NRE, insecurity, etc., that they could have engaged with. And to be clear I LOVED every moment of Olu/Zheng and Jim/Archie! But it felt like the show didn't believe you can have meaningful romantic relationships with multiple people at the same time, so they had to make it as if Jim and Olu's romantic sexual encounter at the end of last season didn't mean anything and that the two of them are perfectly happy being chosen siblings. This after Oluwande is explicitly described as in love with Jim in the first season! WTF?

It also felt like they just abandoned Lucius and Pete being poly in favor of having a cutesy wedding? Like don’t get me wrong, yay for weddings, but honestly it felt very mononormative and forced instead of queer and affirming. Even if Lucius had like, kissed Fang on the lips right after, or if they'd had more affection shown between the whole crew during the wedding, that would have been something. It just felt off.

Zheng felt like a wasted character by the end. Her just letting Ricky know where all her ships were was unbelievable for how competent and badass they made her out to be, and literally her only impact on the plot was serving as a vehicle to drive Stede from place to place. Also just killing off her entire crew other than Auntie? Hundreds of mostly Asian women? Yeah, that's not a good look.

Why did they feel the need to destroy the Republic of Pirates, for that matter? What actual plot or emotional growth did it create? At the end of Episode 7, I expected Stede to have to grapple with how he's managed to not just bring down Blackbeard but the *entire Republic of Pirates* and *the Pirate Queen of China* to add to his whole "I ruin beautiful things" trauma and instead he just doesn't seem to care at all. Like how did he get from all of his trauma and grief about being inadequate in the first season—the actual trauma that led him to leave Ed in the first place—to "oh, it's not so bad being a failure once you get used to it"?!?! Throughout the season I kept thinking that he was repressing and it would come back up to bite him in the ass but no, apparently he just fixed that issue offscreen? What the hell?

And it was the same with Ed! After all that build up in the first season about how Ed doesn’t like to kill people directly—and maintaining that through the first two episodes, even, which was hard! We never see him directly kill anyone! The guy he shot had already been run through!—he’s literally joking while surrounded by corpses he killed and the show barely addressed the trauma that the character we knew would have experienced. Just a completely dropped note. What happened to Ed's self-hatred that they spent an entire dream sequence episode establishing?

Ed and Stede’s actual conflicts and problems just basically disappeared at the end, with a “oh I actually do love you, babe” glossing over Ed’s very legit reasons for leaving and then Stede (apparently?!?) being convinced to give up piracy without a second of screen time spent discussing it. If felt like they were actually setting them up to just be the toxic lesbians from episode four, how is that a satisfying finale? I honestly would have rather had them end the season apart again, but this time knowing they love each other and they have to do some work to get back to each other. Like, Stede sailing into the sunset after kissing Ed and promising to come back and Ed going "i trust that you will, thank you for giving me the space I need to heal"—that would have been a satisfying place to leave them.

And then Izzy's death... don't get me fucking started on what a complete waste of screen time and acting that was. Wow.

#our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #izzy hands #ofmd #gentlebeard #blackbeard ofmd #boatmance #lupete

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eyesofshinigami · 3 months

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Three Little Words

Rating: T

CW: none

Tags: Established relationship, tiny bit of angst, kisses

Prompt: For @quinns-shadowy-arts "Love is saying 'I love you' even when you're scared"

WC: 1091

Written for @steddielovemonth Day 21

Three little words.

Three little words that burned like acid on his tongue when he tried to say them. Three little words that he knew he felt, every single time his heart beat in a rhythm of Steve, Steve, Steve, but he couldn’t make himself say. It was just three little words. Three little words that he knew his boyfriend wanted to hear more than anything.

They both bore scars from those three, simple little words. Steve’s parents used them in a lofty, detached sort of way, trotted out for appearances just like the nice china. Eddie’s parents wielded them like a weapon, his father using them as an excuse for why he behaved the way he did. The old “I only do this because I love you” that Eddie learned very early in life had absolutely nothing to do with those three little words.

It had taken Eddie a very long time to even be open to the possibility of saying them to someone else. Even with Wayne, his father in everything but blood, never got to hear them out of his mouth. Wayne didn’t say them much either, had other ways to show it than speaking it out loud.

The problem was, Eddie really wanted to say them out loud. He wanted to croon them in Steve’s ear when they were pressed together in bed, or whisper them into his mouth during a good night kiss, or even whisper them into Steve’s skin when they were both shaking in bed from nightmares of the horrors they’d seen. His chest ached with it, but his stubborn mouth refused.

So, he threw himself into showing Steve. Night drives together, cuddling in the van, making love in one of their beds until neither of them could stand it, falling asleep together after… all of these things painted the picture of what he wanted to say, but he knew it wasn’t enough.

He needed to say them. He just didn’t know how.

“How do you tell someone you… you know…” Eddie asked one day when he and Wayne were sitting outside, smoking together. It was a warm, clear night, the stars winking above them.

Wayne raised an eyebrow. “No, I don’t know. Mostly because I have no idea what you’re trying to ask me, son.” He took a drag from his cigarette. “Is this about Steve? Are you trying to break up with him?”

Eddie spluttered. The very idea made his heart feel like it was going to fall right out of his chest. “What the fuck, no! The opposite! I want to tell Steve that… you know…” Just say it. It’s right there. Just say it, you fucking coward.

“Ah. You want to tell Steve you love him,” Wayne said after a moment.

Eddie swallowed. “Yeah. I just… you know… can’t. I try to say it but it’s like my brain won’t let me.”

Wayne let out a sigh and stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray by the bench. “I get it. Sometimes it can be hard, especially after what you kids went through.” He sighed, rubbing his chin. “But I think you should just try. Steve’ll get it.”

Eddie nodded, but it didn’t stop the angry swirl of his stomach or the burn on the back of his tongue.

–

He waited until the next night, after he’d picked Steve up. They grabbed some fast food and drove out to the quarry, parking and opening up the van. It was another nice night, the half moon blazing bright in the night sky. Perfect night for a little romantic rendezvous.

“This is nice,” Steve said, pulling out their burgers and fries. “It’s nice to be able to hear myself think after being around the kids all day.” He popped a fry in his mouth and then leaned over, pressing a greasy kiss to Eddie’s mouth.

It should have been gross, but all it did was make that feeling in his chest grow stronger, the need build higher. Fuck, it shouldn’t be so hard, but Eddie was terrified. What if Steve didn’t feel the same? What if he used it against him, just like his dad had? What if, what if, what if…

“Eds? You okay?” Steve asked, breaking Eddie out of his spiraling thoughts. His brow was furrowed and the corners of his mouth were turned down. “Do we need to go?”

Eddie shook his head, trying to gather every ounce of courage he had. Three little words. That’s all it was. “No, I’m good. I just… I really need to tell you something.”

Steve kept frowning, sitting back. “Okay, I’m listening.”

“I just… Steve…I…”

“If you’re going to break up with me, can you please just get it over with?” Steve said sadly, folding his arms across his chest.

“Why does everyone keep thinking that? No, Steve. I love you, why would I break up with you?”

It got so quiet, Eddie was pretty sure he’d be able to hear a pin drop. That wasn’t quite how he’d planned to say it, but now it was out there. Nothing he could do now. “Steve?”

Steve looked back at him, pretty mouth dropped open and his eyes sparkling, just like the stars above them. “You love me? You mean it?”

Eddie felt his whole body soften. He could still feel them there, burning in the back of his throat, but that feeling was being overtaken by the way his stomach fluttered, how pretty Steve’s blush looked under the moonlight. “Of course I do. I just… those words are hard to say, you know?”

Fingers entwined with his own and pulled him close, Steve breathing against his mouth from where their foreheads were pressed together. “I do. Thank you for saying them. I thought so, but… you know I love you too, right?” At Eddie’s nod, Steve continued, “I didn’t want to say them first, either. The last time, it kind of blew up in my face, but… I’ve felt it for months now. You’re kind of it for me, you know?”

“I do,” Eddie replied, grinning so wide his face hurt a little. “I’m sorry I was scared to say it.”

“I was too. But now we don’t have to be. That was the hard part.” Steve closed that last little bit to kiss Eddie again, deeper and sweeter than the last one. It felt good. It felt right. It felt like nothing was ever going to be the same again, in the best way.

It felt like those three little words.

#steddie #steddielovemonth #les writes things

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sarucane · 6 months

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Ed Teach's Stories

From practically the moment we meet him, Ed's identity is unstable. We know who is he (Blackbeard) from context, from the story told by the the room around him, by Izzy and the flag his crew. But the thing is, Ed doesn't fit the story of the Mad Devil Blackbeard. Two of his first few words are "good" and "love" for crying out loud. He's called "Blackbeard," but his beard is grey.

This instability exists because Ed himself isn't sure what story he's telling--or wants to tell. "I shouldn't be bored, I'm fucking Blackbeard!" All through his early episodes Ed is in increasingly desperate tension with his own identity. He's trying to tell stories within stories, wanting all the stories to be true at the same time, yet aware of the reality that the world is constantly trying to wipe one or another of the stories away. And not really trusting that he can tell the whole story of who he is.

In the first season of OFMD, Stede wears a different outfit every episode. Yet Stede remains the same: despite his internal tensions (almost despite himself) there's a stability to his identity. But all through both seasons of OFMD, Ed putting on a new outfit means he's trying to tell a completely different story about himself.

And underneath this cacophony, there's Ed. And Ed is himself a chorus of stories, a living contradiction. A patricidal murderer who was protecting his mother; a paragon of masculinity who longs for softness and fluidity; a man renowned for violence and madness who has in fact carefully cultivated that reputation and is extremely careful with his violence; a killer who doesn't kill, yet who does kill all the time just at a bit of a remove; a half a dozen names and personas and yet always Ed; unloveable, yet deeply loved.

At the beginning of the show, Ed isn't actually good at telling his own story. He's good at listening to other people's stories, and conforming himself to them often without conscious effort. But when he tries to really tell his own story--asking Stede to run off to China, singing his break-up song song, going to become a fisherman--he fails. We don't understand in the first season why his judgement clouds, why he becomes weak when he tries to tell his story. But in the second season after spending half an episode in Ed's mind, a painful truth is undeniable: Ed, like Stede, doesn't think he's worthy of telling his own story.

So instead of telling his own story, Ed let other people tell his story. In the first season, Ed built off what Izzy told him he had to be. But he couldn't lose himself in Blackbeard, no matter how hard he tried. So in the second season, when Ed couldn't face living with his contradictions anymore, he wrote an ending worthy of Blackbeard.

All this, because Ed thinks he can only be "himself" by telling one, single story about himself. By denying his contradictions, rather than embracing them. Splitting himself in two to tell himself a story, rather than telling the story himself.

What Ed doesn't believe or trust is this: For Ed to really be himself, he has to be impossible. Two contradictory things, at the same time.

The second season of OFMD is about learning to embrace all these contradictions. In each episode of OFMD, character look at the same object or situation (a wanted poster, a unicorn, a velvety suit, a relationship, a past trauma) and they tell two completely different stories about it. Sometimes one of those stories turns out to be wrong, but more often than not both are true, and something else--something beautiful-- is born from the place where those contradictions meet. And the characters, Ed most of all, learn to accept and balance this dissonance.

Thematically speaking, I'd argue that's why the second season of OFMD is more fantastical than the first: fantasies are contradictions, real and not-real at the same time. And isn't that what transformation is, in the end? What you are and what you are not, meeting and becoming "you"?

Transformation isn't all good. At first, Ed's fantastic stories hide his pain or invoke despair

But later, the fantasies make their way into reality. The impossible begins to shape reality--and opens a way for hope.

In the last episode of S2, Ed emerges from the waves as the kraken--but there's 3 musical tracks playing, three themes: the kraken, Ed, and Blackbeard. Then he reads a love letter, and has a deeply romantic moment with his boyfriend. He puts on a new outfit to escape the British, yet his personality doesn't change at all. When Izzy first apologizes to him, Ed says "I'm the one who should be apologizing," but then Izzy changes his entire understanding of their relationship. Becomes the first family figure to offer Ed permission to be himself.

Contradictions galore, and yet Ed is still Ed. Both who he was formed into by other people (his father, Izzy, Pop Pop) and yet who he is.

In the final scenes, Ed begins to finally accept the tensions of his life. He tells Zheng that yes, he wants to kill Richie--but he doesn't go on a revenge quest. And while before his forays into being someone else meant changing his name, his clothes and mannerisms, his whole story, he doesn't act like that at all in the last scene of the ep.

And Ed's been able to do all this, to come this far, because of Stede. Stede, who Ed was drawn to because he was a "fancy man who leads a brigade of imbeciles," yet had won a fight with Izzy. Stede, who looked at Ed at his lowest moment, after Ed had admitted that the entire basis of their friendship had been in bad faith, and said, "I'm your friend." Stede who, even knowing Ed wouldn't want to hear from him, poured his heart into letters about how their bond was unbreakable.

Stede is everything he is, all at the same time. And when Ed was drowning in his own contradictions, (a rope tied around him that he could not undo and yet had put on himself) trapped somewhere "inevitable, yet impossible," Stede appeared as a fantastic, beautiful creature and brought him home.

Stede lets Ed be everything he is, and sees it all as true and worthy of love. Even when Ed fucks up, it's all right.

And sometimes, telling two different stories about something doesn't lead to a fragmented self, doesn't drive people apart.

Sometimes, it means understanding. Means acceptance, safety, connection.

From discordance (contradiction), harmony. A gentleman can be a pirate. A man can be a bird, or a unicorn. Izzy can have been one of the good ones and a fucking nightmare. And Ed can tell all his stories, they can all be true--and he can still be Ed.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #ed teach #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #gentlebeard #okay every single s2 ep has A HEAP OF things where there's one “reality” and multiple stories: Stede's letters; indigo dye...#...zheng the soup lady; a betrayal; wanted posters; a storm; soup in purgatory; life itself; anne and mary to others and themselves;#; pinata and wedding cake; unicorn parts; what happened to buttons; ed's speech; stede's captaining skills; the suit; Izzy's shark #ned lowe's record; ed's treasure and the whole poison/positivity thing; ned's execution; having sex; stede's infamy #that's off the top of my head IT'S EVERYWHERE these writers are unbelievable #long ass post #ofmd season 2 love

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jaskierx · 7 months

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thought about ed trying to break ned low's record for too long and made myself sad

i wish we'd had a few more scenes around it in the show bc i feel like it's such an effective illustration of ed's mental state at the start of s2 in a bunch of different ways

one of the things that kicked off izzy's whole attack on ed in s1e10 was ed saying 'why are we even being pirates'. and then that attack is the catalyst for ed becoming the kraken. it's like he said 'oh you want me to be a pirate? you want me to be blackbeard, you want me to be the best pirate? fuck it. let's break the raid record. let's be record breaking pirates. let's do 88+ consecutive raids without a break. fuck you'

and this gives ed something to focus on, something to strive for, to try and distract himself from the pain he feels about stede abandoning him. so i could absolutely buy him throwing himself into the first few raids, trying to enjoy piracy again, and ending up feeling even worse because the issue was never that he didn't have a goal to work towards, it was that he's been tired of piracy for fucking ages. and he had the briefest glimmer of hope that it didn't have to be like that bc him and stede were gonna run away to china and reinvent themselves and live new lives, but that never happened, reinforcing his belief that fine things just aren't for people like him

so at the start of s2e1 he's back where he started, except now with the knowledge of exactly what he's missing and how different he could've felt if things had gone right, and he's absolutely fucking done

but he keeps going with the record anyway. because it's a contingency plan in multiple ways. if he keeps raiding ships, maybe he'll pick the wrong target one day and someone will manage to kill him. if he keeps overworking the crew, maybe they'll get sick of his shit and mutiny. if he gets close enough to breaking the record, maybe ned low will get pissed off and track him down to get his vengeance

and if none of that happens? he has a deadline. maybe he'd feel able to actually end his life himself at that point. maybe he could justify it as going out with a bang. everything hurts but that's okay because it'll all be over, one way or another, after they've hit that 89th raid, and he's finished, and he can go in peace without feeling like he's left a loose end

in ed's head, the record is a ticking clock counting down to being able to die at last and have a fucking rest

#ofmd #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #edward teach #cw suicide #cw suicidal ideation #lyse.jpg

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kaelleid · 7 months

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S02E08 Spoilers

Anyway I hated it lol

And this isn't just a "my little guy died" kind of thing. I've thought he was going to die all season; that was not a surprise to me. This is about how tacked on the ending felt.

Izzy spends his dying breaths comforting Ed and telling Ed the crew is his family and loves him. And then Ed immediately leaves the crew to be an innkeeper. Yeah, that was a great and meaningful use of screen time.

If the crew loved Ed and considered him family, I'd really like if they would have showed that instead of just telling us. Because what I saw this season was post-Kraken Ed having one conversation with Fang and that was pretty much it for positive crew interaction. But apparently they love him and they're family, okay.

Also RE: showing and not telling, Ed referring to Izzy as his family. I think I could count the positive interactions between Ed and Izzy across all seasons on Izzy's hoof. They've hardly spoken this season post-Kraken. Where is this coming from? It felt so forced and unearned.

It's frustrating how the scene seems to brush off all of Izzy's development this season, moving away from his toxic relationship with Ed and opening up after surviving a suicide attempt, to spend his last minutes focusing on Ed and saying that he wanted to die.

Anyway forget that, it's wedding time! And now forget that, let's have Ed and Stede run an inn with no prior onscreen discussion! The end!

I got into this fandom because I loved Ed/Stede so much. The potential for cracks in their relationship was there from the start; one of their first conversations together was Ed wanting out of piracy while Stede wanted in. I was really interested to see how this would be resolved, and how they'd move forward together. I don't think the resolution on this front was satisfyingly handled at all. But Ed read a letter and they kissed, so hooray I guess. Why would you ever need to talk anything through and build a solid foundation before living together? It's not like we saw this analog literally go up in flames a few episodes ago.

There was such an odd juxtaposition of spoon-feeding the audience with flashbacks to explain what was going on for obvious things, and then also expecting the audience to do all the legwork for important relationships. What's the relationship between Jim and Oluwande? What made Stede finally decide to leave piracy behind for Ed in S2E8 vs S2E7? Why, according to an interview, is Frenchie apparently captain now instead of Zheng Yi Sao or Oluwande? We're not going to write those conversations, figure it out yourself.

Also, Blackbeard the genius, and Zheng Yi Sao who conquered China's seas, apparently can't come up with a plan better than "Wear uniforms and then walk around with a hostage, whose gun we will not be taking." It just felt so meaningless.

The thing that really gets to me the most is how much I loved S2E1-7. I had some lingering issues, but they didn't bother me because I had faith they'd be resolved (at least, resolved to some extent, given a 3 season arc). And then the last 15 minutes of this episode destroyed that notion. I thought the writing was poor and inconsistent, and it threw everything before it into a completely different light. The things that I was waiting to be built upon were never actually in the blueprints. The cracks in the foundation were covered up with bubblegum. It didn't have good bones.

#kaelleid post #ofmd spoilers #ofmd #izzy hands #spoilers

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dragon-kazansky · 7 months

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Spirit of the sea

Izzy Hands x Reader (GN)

You were a member of Blackbeard's crew long ago. Then you became a ghost story. Izzy Hands only sees you in his dreams these days, until he sees you for real when investigating Stede Bonnet. This sets him on a rollercoaster of emotions between you and what his captain is doing.

{Masterlist}

{Previous Chapter} - {Next Chapter}

Warnings: Implied NSFW. Goodbye toe. Hello Kraken.

Edward's heart is broken. Stede, you bitch (affectionately), come get your boyfriend!

Season 2 chapters coming next week!!!

Chapter Nine - Changing of the tides

♡♡♡

Both of you free from mutiny, Izzy goes on to see to his captain. He was elevated to see Edward back onboard. He should have known he would escape even the King.

You made the crew get to work. They did so no questions asked.

You wait for Izzy by the captain's door. When it opens he steps out, he closes the door behind him and turns to you.

"Well?" You ask softly.

"He's, uh... yeah, he's okay."

You look at him a bit more expectantly.

"He's depressed, but he should be okay in a few days..."

"Izzy."

"Apparently he was going to escape with Bonnet and go to China, but Bonnet never showed up. Ed waited all night."

"Shit..."

"You know, I didn't expect that from Bonnet." Izzy sighs.

"How are you?" You ask.

"Fine."

"Izzy..."

"I'm fine. Really. I'm just glad to still be onboard and... and that you're okay too."

You smile at him.

"I'm still trying to accept what you were going to do."

"Izzy, I'm not letting you leave me again."

Izzy watches your face closely as he takes a step forward. He goes to take one of your hands, leaning in a little, but he pulls back when loud crying from the captain's room can be heard.

You both sigh.

♡♡♡

You sit on deck whittling away on a barrel. The crew are mostly pottering about. The ship was as ship shape as could be. Nothing put if place, a clean deck, tidy rigging, polished canons.

Izzy exits the captain's cabin and stands in front of the crew, a cup in his hand.

"Gentlemen! Blackbeard is in fine spirits this morning, and he sends... his regards."

Izzy and yourself had agreed to cover up Edward's depression as much as possible from the crew. There was only so much you could deal with while Edward was in this state.

"He's still a... tad under the weather, but he will be back amongst us soon."

"So, he's sick, but doing well... is the news?" Franchise asks.

"Exactly, yes! And, um, in the meantime, maybe, you could, you know, polish things, or swab the deck." Izzy tried suggesting.

"We already polished twice today." The Swede says.

"Aye, the deck's as swabbed as she gets," Buttons adds in.

Izzy takes a swing of his drink and then spits it out on the deck. "Well, you missed a spot. Have at it, chaps! Dismissed!"

Izzy turns to face you. You offer him a little smile. He sighs.

"Not you, Mr Spriggs." Izzy catches Lucius' arm as he goes to walk past him. "Blackbeard has requested your services. So, no matter what you see or hear, you do not breathe a word under pain of death. Understood?"

"Yeah," Lucius agrees, feeling less than comforted.

"Good. Fuck off."

Lucius walks over and Izzy takes a sip from his cup, looking back at you again. This time you sigh.

♡♡♡

You stand by Buttons who sails the ship. You're watching the horizon when Izzy comes up the steps.

"You got a minute?" He asks.

"Yeah."

You follow Izzy right to the back where you two cam chat quietly alone for a bit. You can see Izzy's tension building in his shoulders.

"How is he?"

"He's stopped crying."

Izzy keeps his eyes out at sea. His hands rest on the railing of the ship, but you can see his knuckles turning white.

"I need to tall some sense into him."

"Be careful, Izzy. I can't pinpoint Edward's emotions. He might lash out if we're not careful."

"Careful?" He chuckles dryly. "Blackbeard is still in there somewhere. I just need to get him out."

"Izzy..."

He turns to look at you. "I have dedicated my life to Blackbeard. My life," he hisses, "and I not about to make it all for nothing."

Izzy pushes off the railing of the ship and walks off. You watch him go.

♡♡♡

Standing on deck watching Ed sing was not what you expected to happen, but you are. Then again, Lucius did say he had been asked to write down some lyrics.

It wasn't the most cheerful of songs.

At least he was out of the cabin now, wearing one of Stede's old robes, but you'll overlook that.

Izzy is sitting next to you. His face full of confusion. You're not sure anyone here understood what was happening.

The crew awkwardly applaud his song.

"That's, uh, really great stuff, Ed." Wee John tells him.

"His name is Blackbeard, or Captain!" Izzy yells.

"Izzy, no, Izzy." Edward stands. "Actually, I do want to be called Edward from now on. And thank you, you guys. It's pretty difficult to lay yourself bare in front of others."

The conversation goes on about others expressing themselves. Buttons sings a note to express himself and Edward gets excited.

"The sheer amount of talent on this ship! Why are we even pirates?" Ed smiles. "You know what? We should have a talent show."

The crew get excited.

Izzy tenses again.

♡♡♡

You head down to Izzy's cabin and see him sitting there with his head in his hands. He had gone to have a word with Edward alone in his room.

After that strange occurrence in deck, Edward had seemed more lighthearted. More open. He had gone back into his room to clean up.

Izzy had taken his chance to have a word with him, showing him who Blackbeard was supposed to be.

Edward got angry, but Izzy was pleased. Blackbeard was still in there somewhere.

"You okay?"

Izzy looks up and sighs. "Fine."

"You gotta stop telling me that. I don't believe you, you know?"

He looks up at you. His eyes look a little tired. It's been a long day.

"Is it too much to want to go back to the way things were?"

You walk over to him and sit down on the bed beside him. Since Edward came back, Izzy had taken back his old cabin. You had returned to sleeping with the crew, but Izzy couldn't deny wanting you to stay.

"Not exactly. I know where you're coming from, I do. But I also know that Stede made him very happy. Doesn't everyone have the right to be happy?"

"Yeah, but what I mean is, we're pirates. We don't get that kind of happiness. We do what pirates should do."

"But can't have love?"

"You can't have both," he says.

You frown as you gaze at the end of your boots. "What of you can?"

Izzy looks at you. You left your head and hold out your hand. Izzy drops his gaze to your palm and finds himself frozen for a moment.

A wooden sparrow.

"You remade it."

"Yeah..."

Izzy reaches out slowly and takes it from you, his fingers gently tickling your palm. He handles the sparrow with care. This one is a little smaller than the last, but it's still as good as the other one.

"Thank you," he whispers.

You look at him. His eyes are still on the sparrow in his hand, but his head is facing to enough to really look him over.

"Izzy, I care about you."

He lifts his eyes to meet yours.

"I always cared about you. Before I became a ghost story, during the entire 6 years I was apart from you, and even now after everything."

A pause. Only the sound of his breathing.

"Izzy, what if we can still be pirates and love someone? Wouldn't you want to know what that feels like? To have what they did?"

He swallows, the muscles in his neck moving under collar.

"I don't want to be weak," he says quietly.

"Who said it would make you weak?"

"Look at fucking Edward."

"You're not Edward. You're Izzy Hands. And I'm not Stede Bonnet."

You can see the way Izzy slightly shudders.

"Izzy, I've been in love with you for years. Figured it didn't mean much in this lifestyle, but I'm taking my chance. I never left you on purpose before, and never plan to. I'm sticking around for as long as you will have me, and nothing about our lifestyle on this ship would change a God damn thing."

A shaky breath escapes past his lips.

"Izzy, if you feel even a slight bit love for me, please share it, because I don't want to go another day without knowing. And if you don't, tell me now. We can go back to how we were."

He shakes his head, eyes glossy, lips parting to day something. No words come out.

You want to reach out and hold him, but he moves first. His lips are on yours before you can even fully comprehend what's happening.

You kiss back eagerly, hands grabbing at anything they can. You pull him closer, needing Izzy Hands as physically close as possible.

Izzy can't let go.

All these years he's been waiting for a moment like this, and now it's here. Finally he has you in his arms. Your lips against his. Your fingers in his hair. Your flesh against his palm.

Never had he thought the day would come when he could have you like this. Those impossible dreams made reality.

Izzy Hands loves you.

You love Izzy Hands.

♡♡♡

Late that night. Izzy and yourself are curled up together in his bed, both naked and tangled in each others limbs. Love in it's moat intimate form between two lovers.

This was supposed to be the best night of his life so far. The day he got to kiss you, hold you, love you.

It all came crashing down.

He had pushed Edward just enough. Just enough to awaken the Kraken.

It was Izzy's gasping scream that woke you. Blackbeard hovered over him. You panicked and screamed as Izzy's little toe was shoved into his mouth. Blackbeard covered his jaw, forcing Izzy to eat it.

"Eat up. That's it. Don't forget to chew."

You cover your mouth, watching. Izzy does as he's told.

"Threaten me again, ever... I'll feed you the rest," Blackbeard states. "Understand?"

"Yes! Yes, Blackbeard. Yes." Izzy nods.

"OK. Clean yourself up and come find me. Much work to do."

Izzy nods.

"And you," Blackbeard looks at you. "Get out. Don't let me catch you with Izzy again."

Blackbeard leaves.

You stare at the door and then turn to Izzy. He loses his smile and rests his head back against the pillow.

Blood stains the bed.

♡♡♡

Everything that belonged to Stede Bonnet is thrown off the ship. The crew made to gather and dispose of everything.

Izzy hobbled around with the help of a cane, his foot bandaged up, and gave out orders. Blackbeard kept you close to his side.

"Blackbeard is himself, again." Izzy spoke proudly to the crew.

Yes, Blackbeard was back. But at the cost of everything else.

You watch Izzy make his way across the deck, yelling at the crew to hurry up. Blackbeard stands menacingly over them.

Your heart aches to hold Izzy again, but you cannot. No. Love is forbidden.

Pirates must be pirates.

♡♡♡

A majority of the crew from the Revenge were taken to a small island in the middle of nowhere, basically.

Frenchie and Jim were the only ones being kept behind. Blackbeard was recruiting for his new crew.

Izzy took them all out there under the impression that was where the talent shown was going to be held.

They fell for it.

Izzy returned to the ship.

You stood beside Blackbeard as he had Jim knocked out, and Frenchie came in.

"I heard you can sew."

Frenchie got the grasp of what was happening and nodded.

Things were falling into place.

♡♡♡

Blackbeard stood at the top of the ship, you on one side, Izzy on the other. It took everything in you not to look at him.

Izzy was in much the same predicament.

Blackbeard drew one of his guns from it's holster and pointed it at Frenchie. The new flag was raised.

Blackbeard was back.

If only Izzy had known. If only there had been a warning for what would happen once Blackbeard returned.

Maybe, just maybe, you'd be able to love each other properly like you wanted.

♡♡♡

@grippleback-galaxy - @askmarinaandothers - @godlikegallagher - @for-fuck-sake-im-alive - @whiskeyswriting - @lxsm2 - @bloody-bunni666 - @the-chocoholic-writer - @bugbugboy - @callmemana - @the-shenny-of-azkaban - @cool-ontherun-world -

#izzy hands x reader #spirit of the sea #ofmd #our flag means death #dragon writes

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areyoudoingthis · 7 months

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"Do you want to know a secret?" Stede whispers in his hear, and Ed's mind is instantly in overdrive, goosebumps erupting all over his skin, knees going a little weak, and he's glad Stede at least had the decency to push him into a wall before he decided to scramble his entire brain.

He gives the tiniest nod, can't manage to get any words out.

"I love you, you nut. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Ed startles so badly at the words that he almost headbutts Stede again by accident.

"None of this means anything to me without you." Oh god, there's more? "What would I want with fame and fortune if I couldn't share them with you? I already left everything I owned behind once, Ed. I'd do it again in a heartbeat if keeping it meant losing you."

Ed started crying at some point during his speech and he barely even noticed. His mind is flooding with Stede and love and Stede loving him enough to give up the entire world for him. For Ed. Not Blackbeard, not the legend but the man. All he's wanted since he woke up from his trip to the gravy basket is to be warm and safe and stop having to work so fucking hard for everything. And here Stede is, offering himself heart and soul, all of Ed's wildest fantasies coming true before his eyes.

"Marry me." Stede says next.

Ed gasps.

"What-"

He needs clarification, needs to know if he's hallucinated this entire conversation and those two words in particular, manifested them out of thin air just from how badly he wants to hear them.

"Marry me, Ed. Let's spend the rest of our lives together. We can do whatever you want, keep sailing or retire or run away to fucking China after all. We can figure it all out together. We'll discuss it over tea and draw up an entire plan. This isn't a whim for me." He's staring intently into Ed's eyes, so fucking earnest that Ed can't do anything but believe him, believe he means everything he said and he won't panic this time and leave him stranded with all this love in his hands.

They'll discuss it over tea, ha. Ed's marrying a madman. Because he will marry him, come hell or high water. He'll put a ring on Stede's finger and say his vows and tie their whole lives together as tightly as their bodies are right now.

"Yes," he says, smile radiant on his lips.

"Yes!" Stede cheers. And this time there's no running away unless it's hand in hand towards their shared future.

#blackbonnet #gentlebeard #ofmd #our flag means death #my fic #i blame the beatles for this #also david jenkins

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izzysillyhandsy · 7 months

Text

My predictions for the S2 finale (also, 100% wish fulfillment)

I'm so intrigued by this quote from David Jenkins regarding the dream sequence in S2E1:

"Stede, Blackbeard, and Izzy are on an arc together. Whether they're in stories together or not, their ultimate arc is together. I think, by the end of this season, the last episode, that first scene will be gratifying. I won't say why, but their fates are tied together."

(Just to get this out of the way, because I have seen posts worrying about it (and for my own peace of mind): if the last episode mirrors the first one and that "scene will be gratifying", in no way can I see Izzy dying - gratifying would be a really weird way to describe Izzy's death, although some antis might see it that way ;).)

But let's look at the dream again.

Stede looking all piratey-tough, beard, earring and all. Izzy standing between Stede's and Ed's happiness, and Stede knifing and stabbing him without the slightest bit of remorse. Stede and Ed running towards each other on a sunset beach. Izzy dead, forgotten and out of sight.

Combined with this quote (referencing "A Star is born") from the same article:

"... to watch Stede — spoiler, but he becomes a real boy, and he becomes a notorious pirate. To see Ed try to process that, Ed's more like Jackson Maine, and then Stede's doing a Gaga, and he's blowing up."

and the scenes from the trailer and teaser where Stede and Ed are running/fighting towards each other on (I think) the same beach...

My prediction for the show's finale is:

While Ed's still on probation, Stede, with Izzy's help, gains respect in the pirate community. "The Gentleman Pirate" becomes a thing, and Ed finds this difficult to deal with. Yes, he wanted to give up pirating and run away with Stede to China, but being overshadowed by him in his own field of expertise? His life's work? By an amateur?? (and Stede not only has his crew, but he has his Izzy too now?)

Maybe there is another separation, maybe Ed goes away to chill somewhere, maybe there is a fight between Stede and Ed.

Then Price Ricky comes back, and he wants Stede (and piracy in general) dead. Izzy has some undercover part where he's talking to Ricky over a candlelight dinner and is seen wearing a Navy jacket later. At one point, he gets severely injured (as seen in BTS photos).

The showdown is happening on the beach. But instead of Stede killing Izzy and then running towards Ed, Ed is coming back to help Stede and his crew out when the battle seems lost and Izzy is hurt/dying.

It could be framed like the scene in episode one - Ed coming from one side, Stede seeing him and running towards him from the other, both fighting Navy guys left and right. With their combined effort, the battle is won.

But instead of Ed and Stede having only eyes for each other, this time around there's also Izzy, and they won't let him die (maybe with help from a certain bird? Or is this to out there).

I can even see a bit of jealousy going on with Ed regarding Izzy and Stede.

In reversal of the dream though, Izzy will be the one bringing Ed and Stede together (through giving Stede a sense of self-worth, through talking to Ed about his feelings of envy/fear about his unloveableness because Izzy knows him and I think Ed really cares about his opinion, etc.)

In the end, the conclusion could be that they're all in it together. Ed and Stede co-captain, and Iz is their shared first mate.

(and then the three of them ride off into the sunset)

#ofmd #ofmd season 2 spoilers #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd speculation #edward teach #stede bonnet #izzy hands #maybe a bit of wishful thinking on my part #but like the gist of it is I think supported by what we know already #maybe not the overly fanfiction-y parts #shared first mate yeah right ;)

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