i miss my man (57 y/o fictional character)

Came Back Wrong dark!fic with Izzy getting revived after a month underground

only it's told from Ed's perspective

and you don't know if Izzy actually came back wrong or if Ed is just unable to accept that there's a happy ending here/is trying to convince himself this isn't HIS Izzy so he doesn't have to actually put in the work to properly apologise and make amends/is freaking out because Izzy is starting to critically think about everything Ed did to him and realising that, no, he didn't deserve to be abused like that, and Ed cannot handle the thought that Izzy might CHOOSE to leave him and would be in the right to do so -

Izzy comes back wrong, as in, he's kinda dozy and sweet and smiley and not quite all there.

The only problem is, Stede and Ed discover that they much prefer a placid, docile, mouldable Izzy who does what he's told and follows Ed's orders unquestioningly and says his pleases and thank yous like Stede wants him to. Who says thank you for being buried in their garden like their dog.

This Izzy is easy to like! Or even, to love. He's so eager to please, and happy to help, and quick to take the blame for everything that ever goes wrong~ Isn't he so much nicer and easier than that last little nightmare?

So you can imagine Ed and Stede's panic when Izzy starts sloooowly rebuilding his personhood, recovering his memory, and realising that holy shit, he WASN'T actually to blame for literally everything that happened and his own abuse.

Ed and Stede's relationship is detoriating, which I feel like the canyon has explored. There's just a LOT of unresolved baggage, and that plus an otherwise empty island (isolation) plus lack of communication plus doing this all on a whim doesn't spell...anything good.

They Portrait of Dorian Grey him. On the outside, their relationship looks soooo beautiful and cutesie and perfect.

Then Izzy is just a bleeding, shaky wreck in the corner.

Suicide mention under cut, and ofc, abuse.

I want you to notice how all the major Izzy meta writers don't post anymore. I want you to notice how the only people posting at this point are the occasional fanfiction writer, some artists, or...antis, antis taking up at least 30% of an otherwise dead tags (Izzy Hands, The Izcourse <- which used to be filled with some of the best well thoughtout meta by those who originally made the tag, BIPOC Izzy fans, etc...), and that's a lot considering 90% of Izzy antis have blocked me.

They still have their same talking points, about hating anyone who likes Izzy, saying that Izzy fans think he's a more important character than he is, or saying they don't care about canon, or saying they're abusers, bashing Con for daring use words they don't like to describe the backstory he created with the writers (or for being the wrong type of queer), rewriting history and completely disregarding the awful abuse Izzy hands fans (especially fans of color, disabled fans, mentally ill fans, queer fans) had to endure. People were harassed, threatened and doxxed. How Izzy fans had to make a block wall so high that they affectionately called it a canyon, how that word was then co-opted and used to continue the abuse, calling them deranged, lunatics, cult like, and so on... Blacklisting them and barring them from interacting with the rest of the community.

Not only that, but even non Izzy fans came under fire, including pro-palestinians who dared criticize the show in any way due to the Zionist tendencies of some of the more vocal Izzy anti members, OFMD fans in general, and some of the show's cast.

Izzy antis decided that Izzy was abusive and thus decided that anyone who showed any form of interest toward the character, or who criticized the show and by extension the untouchable Stede and Ed relationship were labled as free game. Anyone who dared give Ed any sort of nuance beyond being an untouchable babygirl who could do no wrong were labeled as racist, including BIPOC fans who were begging fans to give him more credit and dimension.

(Personally, one of the worst things I experienced was when I was literally told by one of these people that I couldn't possibly have experienced trauma and that I was lying about it because I liked Izzy. I was literally retraumatized by one of these people, since the core of my trauma is people not believing me. I haven't been the same since and my mental health has plummeted to the point where I am considering self-harm despite medication and therapy).

But at the end of the day, the most active Izzy fans and meta writers have since moved on from the character, either due to being tired of fighting with overly aggressive OFMD fans, or because they simply lost interest.

Meanwhile, we can clearly see who still obsesses over the character, who rejoices in othering Izzy fans, scapegoating them, misrepresenting them; Izzy fans who are just so so so tired and no longer interact with the fandom in a meaningful way.

In retrospect, I think it's clear that a lot of the accusations that Izzy antis make toward the corpse that was once the canyon is just projection.

And Ed and Stede aren't that. They rush into everything. They're ride or die for each other immediately. They risk their lives for each other. Kiss and then run away and then meltdown. They sleep together on a whim. They're very fast paced compared to a lot of queer stories

But then there is a character who is all ABOUT yearning. Who never kisses anyone despite us wanting him to so fucking badly. Who wants so desperately, but is always on the outskirts, looking in. The queer character we're all used to and who a lot of us relate to: