LOVE IS A RADICAL ACTION

Izzy is terribly unhealthy about his masochism. He is unable to ask for what he needs because he’s so fucking repressed. The ONLY way he can get any of it is if he pushes Ed to punish him. Which means he makes Edward his Dom without Ed's consent AND puts himself in real danger because he's being punished without limits or safe words. It’s heartbreaking that he really enjoys it because it's both abusive towards Ed and unhealthy for Izzy. But he does enjoy it.

I mean, yeah, season two wasn't perfect, but it definitely wasn't devoid of character development for most of its characters.

Season one was always meant to be a pirate comedy with a romance; it's not like David scrapped the whole thing at episode six. The script for season one was written. There could have been some tweaks and some changes to acting direction, but what really changed would've been the direction of season two (and season three, if we get it). That's not really making shit up on the fly, yeah? It's pretty normal for creative projects to go in a different direction, and I'm glad this one did!

I'm not trying to fight either, I'm just exhausted with this fandom where any criticism gets you blocked and banned in most places. I refuse to be hounded out of the fandom but I also refuse to praise something I think was very poorly written.

I mean. The main argument a huge part the fandom keeps using for why Izzy had to die is that it's always been a love story between Ed and Stede. And now it turns out it that’s not even the case, what Djenks was planning was yet another sad queer story of unrequited love (yay for cishets writing queer stories?).

That’s not a minor tweak. A minor tweak is giving Wee John a doll or making Jim non-binary (a huge thing in terms of representation but not really important for the plot). Changing the main plotline halfway through a season isn’t the best look for a professional writer. Especially that he keeps repeating it's a romantic comedy even when in S2 it very clearly isn’t. Not with that amount of trauma porn.

(I mean, I'm a 100% Izzy stan who's written A LOT of Blackhands fics, but seriously. It would NEVER have worked between Ed and Izzy in canon because Izzy is too much of a submissive, at least towards Ed.)

This is such a magnificent deconstruction of masculinity and stereotypical dynamics in MLM relationships. Like. Ed has *a reputation* for being a highly competent leader. A legend in his community. The one who always has a clever plan and is always in control. Stede also has a reputation - for being incompetent and out of hid depth.

And yet. Ed DESPERATELY wants someone to top him. And to Dom him. The fact that it's Stede first time with a man makes it all the more fascinating. Cause it's SO OFTEN assumed that in gay sex it's always the more experienced partner who always tops. They've already deconstructed this in a metaphorical way with the sword fight when Ed showed Stede how to be safely penetrated,

Now they're doing it FOR REAL and this time Ed doesn't have to threaten Stede with a gun to push him to it. Sure, Stede is burning an adrenaline high after killing Ned and Ed is going to regret it in the morning, but in this moment they both want it (Stede stops for a moment until Ed nods his consent!) and it's fucking PERFECT.

I've been thinking about this in the context of everything that happened in S2 and it 100% changed my reading of this scene from funny to fucking terrifying.

Ed has anger management issues that pretty much disqualify him from being a romantic lead. Issues that are never really addressed beyond Izzy triggered him and Stede will heal him. Issues that now make me see this scene as a huge red flag.

Sure, he is on edge because he doesn’t really want to be there. He hates nature and would rather spend time on the ship. The snake may be dangerous, so killing it is a natural thing to do. But Ed doesn’t just kill it. He keeps stabbing it and shouting for it to die. He becomes so absorbed in the violence he's dealing he forgets everything else for a while, including the fact that he JUST told Stede he was relaxed.

It makes me think to the dinner scene in Fun and Games and how he smashes the chair against the wall when he learns Stede went back to Mary after abandoning him. That scene is the next fucking step. He's no longer angry in the shouty way. He seems calm and collected as if Stede’s ways have rubbed on him to some extent.

And then he still smashes the chair and throws things to the ground. That rage is still there and he still can’t control it, even with Izzy out of the picture and the love of his life by his side. If anything, his calm in the scene makes him even more fucking terrifying because you have no idea what he's gonna do (JUST like pretending he's peaceful and serene before sailing the ship into the storm that can easily kill everyone).

I honestly have no idea how Jenkins wants us to believe Stede's love will miraculously fix Edward’s issues. That’s not how any of this works and many DV survivors take issue with how irresponsible the message Jenkins is sending here really is.

I'm not saying Edward is irredimable. This whole show is supposed to be about him learning that he’s worthy of love. But where he stands now, that would take a lot of work. Work that Edward’s not even begun to do.

I'm happy for the crew to be free of him because they are safe from his moods, which now, with Izzy gone, could be fucking lethal for them since it seems every little thing can trigger him. Even when Stede is here.

The final shot of the season is actually Izzy’s grave, outside of Ed and Stede’s cottage. “I think him being buried near them is a lovely image,” he said. “And there’s a reason that that happened. I think they both were sad to see their friend go. And I think they’re both thinking, ‘let’s make this work not just for us, but in memory of Izzy’.” [source]

Okay. Great. This shit. Just perfect.

I mean, does Jenkins even hear himself when he says this? Is this supposed to be a sufficient explanation for Ed and Stede burying Izzy in their fucking garden instead of giving him a funeral at sea that would be proper for a lifelong career pirate? Are we supposed to feel better after reading this?

Because it's not fucking working on me, David. Because what you did is that you took a beautifully complex man who in the end turned out to care about his crew and his community way more than he cared about ANY single person and you literally reduced him to a motivation for Ed and Stede to try and be better. (It bodes so fucking well for their relationship if they need to look at Izzy's grave every day to be reminded that they love each other, by the way!)

Izzy's last scene is fucking ALL about Edward. He apologizes to his abuser (yes, they were mutually abusive but Izzy NEVER went as far as Ed did and he never took pleasure in it). He tells Ed the crew are his family (the crew who took Izzy's side when Edward was abusing him, the crew who are IZZY's family, not Ed's, and the crew whom Ed abandons literally two scenes later). And then he says he wants to go so that Ed's conscience can be clean (Izzy "I'm not dying, not for that ponce and not for you" and "indestructible little fucker" Hands says he wants to die!!!).

And if that wasn't bad enough, they make his final resting place all about themselves as well. We KNOW a burial on land is not what Izzy would have wanted. Not to mention the mockery they make of the grave itself in hanging Izzy's cravat with his ring on the marker rather than burying him wearing it. But sure, Ed and Stede need a reminder to be decent people, so let them take all of Izzy's agency away and disrespect him even in death.

It's about him FINALLY finding himself after almost killing himself in order to get out of a toxic, destructive relationship. It's about him getting away from Edward and learning to be free. It's about him becoming his own person. And then they fucking bury him in their garden as a reminder for themselves. After all the painful growth he went through, to decide to keep him close, literally trapped in their garden, and to reduce him to a warning for themselves is so incredibly insulting that I can't imagine either Ed or Stede wanting to do that.

He wanted Blackbeard back because that was what kept the crew safe. He was terrible about it and hurt the man he obviously loves in the process, but it WAS for the greater good. It wasn’t a purely selfish act the antis love to frame it as. He wanted to feel safe again and he wanted the crew to be safe as well.

Hell, he was doing his best to help Edward through his post-breakup depression. He didn’t understand what was going on and was clearly distressed by it but he provided what Ed needed. He *knew* he lacked the emotional capacity to help his captain himself so he agreed to bring him Lucius. I really think he would have just gritted his teeth and suffered through it if Ed didn’t say the one thing that could collapse his whole world.

"Why do we even bother being pirates?" That was what freaked Izzy out so much that he pushed Edward to violence. Not because he selfishly wanted Ed to be close at all times but because Blackbeard the legend was the pillar of his community. That legend kept everyone safe and even if Izzy is a horrible asshole, he *does* care about his crew. He knows the world is a horrible hostile place and he focuses on risk mitigation, even if it means hurting the one person he really cares about.

He really tried to provide that to the crew when Edward and Stede took the Act of Grace. It was a terribly misguided attempt at keeping things under control and it was certainly influenced by his submissive tendencies which make him crave structure and feel safe within hierarchies. He *knows* he lacks Ed's charisma and ability to think outside the box and with such huge shoes to fill it's not really surprising he acted out in anger and in result failed miserably. But he was *NEVER* an asshole just for the sake of it.

Now he realizes those days are gone for good. He's already done everything he could to bring Ed back to his senses, including using *Stede fuckin' Bonnet’s* name. It didn’t work. The realization that his one true safeguard is really gone must be terrible, but it also pushes him to take action.

The moment he realizes the crew are in real danger, he takes things into his own hands. He not only goes against the hierarchy he believed to be sacred but also against the man he *LOVES*. He fucking shoots his beloved captain to save the crew. You don’t get much more *community* than that.

He is clearly struggling. He's just tried to fucking kill himself after being maimed AND told he was disposable by a man whom he's apparently served for dacades. He will have to reevaluate his whole life and he *knows* it. But he puts it all to the side and he does what needs to be done. He took all of Edward’s abuse without complaint it seems but the moment the crew are in real danger, he intervenes. You can’t tell me a community (*any* community) doesn’t need people like that.

It all feels very old-time queer to me. The willingness to make terrible sacrifices to protect one's space. The decision (conscious or not) to be effective rather than liked. The choice to stay alive despite terrible heartbreak and go on fighting.

This is EVERYTHING to me. My sad little masochistic boy is growing into a somewhat content somewhat mature masochistic man. They didn't try to cure him of being into pain. They are clearly saying his tendencies aren't wrong. They are saying they may actually be AN ASSET.

Yes, they are doing it in a fun, lighthearted way. Too Kinky to Torture is a trope that works best in comedy. But at the same time, you KNOW Izzy is dead serious here. That's the man who used to burn himself with candles and got visibly excited when being choked. So while being funny, this actually isn't a joke for Izzy. He would ACTUALLY enjoy being tortured.

And. He says it out loud. For the first time, he vocalizes his preferences. Surrounded by both his own crew and Ned's people who at this particular moment are the enemy. You can see from his face he's HAVING FUN with it. He's not ashamed anymore, he's out and proud. Having a safe space made him comfortable enough to let people see who he is in every aspect, from his artsy side to his masochistic tendencies.

Excuse me while I scream and cry

Warmth,

Good food,