𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔟𝔶 𝔨𝔦𝔱𝔢

Ed leaves Stede: Stede immediately picks a fight with Zheng who absolutely will win and presumably, probably kill Stede; especially when, as compared to his previous fights, his heart clearly isn’t in trying to survive

Stede didn’t need anyone to tell him what Ed was like when he was gone

'here we are at the end of piracy', followed by izzy's death

izzy's role in keeping ed trapped in the blackbeard persona

his deathbed apology acting as both izzy and piracy finally letting ed go

And also— the spirit that Izzy championed in his speech to Ricky (love that Con got to deliver that “fuck you” to the anti-Queer imperialist tradition of Britain!) truly does live on.

We see the crew sail off with their family. We see us, the crew, the fandom experiencing joy. We see LGBTQ folx and POC folx living in blatant spite of the “empires” that would destroy them.

We’re still talking about pirates today! Because there’s something in the spirit of it that resonates with us. Defiance, risk, finding personal meaning, finding a sense of belonging…

And I’m so thankful that they revealed that there is more to Izzy and more to his life than “piracy.” He found that something more and enjoyed it before he was ready to let go.