I want to start a conversation about Izzy Hands and Lucius Spriggs, and queerness, and I'm gonna start it with a bold statement but I want you to hear me out- They're the same bitch.
Over the years I've spent in this fandom I've seem countless people claim that Izzy Hands is homophobic, specifically using the way that he treats Lucius throughout the show as an example of this- And I can see how they got there! He calls Lucius slurs, tries to shame him for being promiscuous, punishing him with manual labor... Except, he's fucking around when he's supposed to be doing his job, and he's not shy about it. He's targeting Lucius's queerness specifically because he's doing Gay Shit instead of working, and maintaining the ship is the BARE MINIMUM of what the members of a crew are supposed to be doing. In a pirate context, all of Izzy's behavior is TAME. He would have been whipped for shirking his duties to get laid... In season 2, the Rat Boy arc (which needs a post of it's own discussing it's many flaws) highlights what actually happens to boys like him, on a real pirate ship, in the real world.
The muppet bubble of Stede Bonnet's ship has provided a kind of safety to his little crew that's entirely foreign to Izzy. To young queers watching, epecially those who's experience of queerness is primarily online in a similar safe bubble striving to be as respectful and validating as possible, it's easy to take that safety for granted- The joyful, unapologetic, safe queerness of Bonnet's crew is something that Izzy has never been allowed to touch. Izzy's targeted anger towards Lucius in season one wasn't because he was homophobic or a prude... He cut his own name into Stede's shirt to get his tits out for fuck's sake he was never closeted! (And yes, rewatch it- It's too practiced to be literally anything but a signature move) His anger towards Lucius is motivated by jealousy. Plain and simple.
Izzy Hands has been a pirate for longer than he's been anything else- And he's not a particularly masculine man. He's queer. Soft voiced. Short. Just take a look at what Con O'neil looked like when he was a young man. To survive on a pirate ship, long before he was ever known as Blackbeard's First Mate, Basilica Hands, he had to work to survive. He poured everything into his swordsmanship, discipline. He built himself up, made himself useful, therefore his sense of self is deeply anchored to being OF use, and the way he would have been treated until he made something of himself? Look at his back. Think of Jack talking about Hornigold- "He treated us like we were nothing. Less than nothing, just ground us into the dirt."
That's why their interactions in S2 are so poignant- Lucius was going down the same path of anger and trauma and fear that led Izzy to becoming what he is by the time we're introduced to him in the show.
The life that Izzy has lived, the world in which he has existed in, has taught him that to not be of use, to be effeminate, to be soft, is a death sentence. Blackbeard is something that he and Ed built together in order to protect themselves in a world that wanted to eat them alive- This is also why Ed being openly vulnerable in front of the crew gets him so worked up, he's terrified and that comes out as anger.
This is also why Calypso's birthday is so important- Jim, Frenchie, Fang and Archie, then the rest of Bonnet's crew, all held him through the lowest point in his life. "And you... what even ARE you..?" They answered, you are our unicorn. Our figurehead. YOU protect this crew. Even if he's a dick, he's their dick- And they have made a world in which Izzy can sing. In which he can tell Lucius that not moving on, is worse.
Being real queers in the real world is really terrifying, right now.. But it's not new. How quickly we have taken the bubble of safety that our queer elders have fought so hard for, for granted. How ready are we to cast them out, when they have been hardened and shaped by a lived experience far less kind than our own.. Calypso's birthday was a shining example of what it could be like if we embraced and protected them just as fiercely as they have fought for us.
Izzy Hands did not need to die in order for us to have a world in which everyone could be happy. He was already a part of it. Imagine what he might have been like, if he had that kind of environment to begin with..
I think he and Lucius would have had a lot in common.
