and yet

Ed says in the opening voiceover that he's seen the ocean as a battlefield his whole life, and the start of the episode genuinely does give him a chance to recontextualize it. Yes, he's a shit fisherman, but he still gets to have some quiet time to just be with himself and the world around him. My favorite shot in this opening is when he's holding up the fish scale and we see his eyes crinkle as he smiles at it. The whole thing doesn't go well but he's genuinely getting some time to slow down and reconsider the sea as a place that holds great beauty and himself as someone who can see that beauty.

Ed Teach + turning to look at Stede 🥹

At the start of the scene, we see English soldiers reading it and laughing about it. "Some guy's all hot and bothered," the one reading it says. They act like it's a joke, like it's something to be laughed at. "Dear Ed, I long for you," he reads in this dramatic voice that sounds like he's barely able to hold back laughs.

And that's so often what queer love and desire is made into - just a joke.

And then it's not subtle at all - Ed fuckin' wastes those guys. He cares so little about them and their mockery of the love letter Stede wrote for him that he barely even looks at them.

The scene starts with these homophobic characters reading the letter like it's a joke, but then Ed takes it back and we get to hear that letter in both his and Stede's voices, with all the love and gravitas and sweetness it deserves. Their love, and this tangible representation of it, means so much to both of them, and we get to see that. And I love that, because yeah, these jerks talk about the letter like it's something to mock, but the show doesn't let them have a lot of space to do that before Ed takes it back and we get to see the letter for what it really is - heartfelt, and impactful, and a beautiful expression of queer love and desire.

It's a lovely scene.

"You won anyway. And I was late!"

"Boom! Crash! That's what I'm talking about! Fuck scissors!"

"Bitch!"

"See? You lost. And I didn't even look. Next!"

"See you later, boy!"

"Yes! There you go! I cheated."

"Bah! Humbug."

"I win!"

"I win!"

"Why?" - "I'm sorry." "What does it mean?" - "It just means I won."

fifth attempt "ruibo! come on!"

David Fane laughing "Do I win? Defeats everything!"

The Revenge crew all get it, though. They went from plotting mutiny to defending him with all their might. Lucius watches Ed and Stede fall in love in real-time. Jim, the most deeply critical of Stede from the start, tells his stories to Fang and longs for when life had meaning on the ship. Olu stays up all night with him and later follows him everywhere. The Swede owes him a life debt. Buttons, probably the most experienced sailor of the group, declares him a pirate with his whole chest.

Stede just showed up one day with his fancy unicorn boat and fancy clothes and depth of human kindness and promptly seduced the most feared pirate of Caribbean without even trying.

They're like the Roger and Jessica Rabbit of pirates.

Is going to be this Stede Bonnet:

Is going to be this Stede Bonnet:

And is also somehow never going to lose his kindness and his gentleness and his whimsy.

Like, that's quite a character progression without ever violating the essence and reality of the character.

there's a distinct lack of warmth in the gravy basket. it's tinted blue as if it's cold. ed's near-death is portrayed as him drowning in cold water. we don't see him with a robe or a blanket at any point in the kraken era, not even in private, even though we know these things comfort him. we don't see him having any physical contact with the crew - in fact there's often a large space between him and the others. he does not feel the warmth of other human beings.

in contrast, warmth is a key feature of times when he and stede work together well - they use fire to appear like a lighthouse in s1e4, stede burns the boat after the aristocrats upset ed in s1e5, ed is under a blanket when stede comforts him in s1e6, they enjoy the snake snack by the fire in s1e7.

when ed eats without stede, it's not 'good food' - either he's eating marmalade out of the jar or cake icing off a dagger because he misses stede, or he's using the wrong cutlery to eat a prawn and getting laughed at by the aristocrats. he ensures the crew get cake from the wedding raids, but does not join them to eat it. he accidentally ruins the fishermen's meal in s2e8.

when ed eats with stede, the meals are substantive and good quality - breakfast spreads, the snake snack, the meal they don't pay for. they take part in so many little social rituals associated with eating - making food for each other, clinking their teacups together, stede getting the crumb out of ed's beard. many of their major relationship moments revolve around food - stede bringing ed breakfast in s1e4, the cutlery being a turning point in s1e5, blackbeard's bar and grill in s1e7, jack interrupting breakfast and 'well well look who's eating seaweed' in s1e8, their reconciliation at the dinner at anne and mary's house in s2e4, the breakfast in bed in s2e7.

orgasms is in some ways an obvious one bc the only sex scene he has is with stede - but on a wider level, he has very little positive physical contact with anybody that isn't stede (other than his cute little friendship dance with anne) - even his interactions with jack feel somewhat forced and over the top. but ed and stede touch all the time, in a very casual way, and a lot of the moments where they touch are significant - ed holding stede's hand while he's unconscious in s1e4, ed throwing his arms around stede after the lighthouse plan works in s1e4, ed resting his head against stede's hand in s1e6, the foot touch in s1e8, stede trying to wake ed up in s2e3, ed reaching out to protect stede in s1e9 and s2e6, the way they wrap themselves around each other when they kiss.

in comparison, the ways that he shares contact with other characters is starkly different - fang describes desecrating ed's unconscious body, he indirectly loses autonomy over his body when he's forced to shave his beard at the privateering academy, ed and izzy's touches in s1e10 are either violent (e.g. ed feeding izzy his toe) or an uncomfortable violation of boundaries (e.g. izzy touching ed's cheek). compare this to stede's approach to touching ed - he asks ed to come out from under the blanket in s2e4 instead of pulling it away, he checks in with 'is this okay' when they're holding hands in s2e5, he waits for ed's nod of consent in s2e6.

princess edward teach canon let’s fucking goooooooo

And this all takes place in an episode about Stede being uncomfortable in his marriage.

The raging lack of subtlety in this show means that it's so easy to overlook how incredibly not subtle it is.