#this man..

Ever since I saw someone say something about how Ed is healing when he's with Stede and the crew of the Revenge but he's not done anything to make the transition easier for the rest of his crew, namely Izzy, I've gone insane thinking about it like okay so.

We know very little about what the dynamic on Blackbeard's ship might've been originally but I think its fair to infer that it was pretty violent and the complete opposite of how Stede runs his own crew. That scene where Fang and Ivan are talking to Izzy about whether or not they're gonna kill Stede and one of them says how this is the most open he's ever seen Blackbeard be really stands out to me like it must have been a huuuuge difference from how he used to be before Stede. When Blackbeard's crew saves Stede and his crew from the Spanish Navy, all Ivan and Fang see of Ed is him disappearing into Stede's bedroom and appearing outside wearing Stede's clothes, being all happy and flippant.

And for Izzy, he's probably seen how depressed Ed has been leading up to the point where he hears of Stede but seeing him being So interested in what is the exact opposite of the persona he's created for himself and reinforced must've been so jarring. Like sure he's depressed he's bored he wanted to meet this Gentleman Pirate cause he's doing something "original", sure Izzy can rationalize that as another one of Ed's little eccentricities. But seeing him genuinely interested in Stede, seeing him open himself up like this, changing everything about himself so suddenly? No wonder he thinks that Stede must've done something to Ed's brain because it seems like Ed never confided any of his more vulnerable thoughts or shown his soft side to anyone before, including Izzy who must've been the closest thing he had until Stede.

Here's Izzy, having served Blackbeard for who knows how long, who has essentially molded himself to be exactly what Blackbeard wanted him to be, his utterly ruthless right hand man suddenly seeing his captain being soft, wearing bows in his beard for fucks sake, letting this stranger call him Ed and completely ignoring all of Izzy's concerns in favor of staring at Stede with hearts in his eyes. No wonder he cannot reconcile the man he's known all this time with this Ed he's seeing right now. The only difference between his Blackbeard and this Ed is whatever Stede has done to him, so ofcourse he would try to get rid of Stede, ofcourse Stede is a threat, all Izzy has ever known is Blackbeard and all he's ever tried to do was protect him and be loyal to him. No wonder Izzy loses his mind because he has never seen this side of Edward, he never knew it even existed.

The little wave he does after he's sold them out and tries to talk to Edward about how this is clearly the more humane option is so clearly him still clinging into the delusional hope that if he just gets rid of Stede, his Blackbeard will come back. He's still trying to convince himself that he does know Edward and that he needs Izzy to get him back because otherwise everything he's done up until that point is pointless and Blackbeard never existed.

His entire worldview is being upended and the man he's devoted his life to has not been truthful to him, and the only options are that either Izzy never really knew Edward or that Stede is ruining Blackbeard.