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thedamsorce2 · 8 months

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Earlier today, my best friend (@dragonwars2601 ) messaged me with some information about Good Omens that led to a crack theory about Uriel.

This information was that in the bible, Uriel is the angel of prophecy (and also wisdom, but “mainly for this prophecy”). In season 1, Uriel said that, quote “Don’t think your boyfriend in the dark glasses will get you special treatment in hell”. This means that Uriel believes that Aziraphale and Crowley are dating. This could be because literally everyone else knows that they’re in love with each other, or the wild idea that I came up with.

This idea is that Uriel has funky memory. Like, they don’t make memories, but when they were created it was almost as if they had already lived through all of eternity until their destruction. This would mean that they know for a fact that Azi and Crowley get together at some point, Uriel just doesn’t know when. They thought that Azi and Crowley were dating in the bookshop scene at the end of season 2 and thought that they were already together because the next time that Uriel has a personal conversation with them/sees them in the same room next, they are dating.

It also explains why Uriel was kind of useless for most of the show - they already know how it’s going to end.

However, this theory kind of falls to shit when you realise that this would mean they knew that Jim was Gabriel. In response, I offer you this: Uriel’s memory has degraded. Over the Millenia they’ve been around, their ‘memories’ of the future have become blurred and fuzzy. With the miracle on top of that, Uriel likely wouldn’t be able to remember.

The more cracks elements of this headcanon are Uriel going up to Gabriel (probably centuries or even a couple of millennia before the apoca-not) and telling him that he will need to tell them what to get Gabriel and Bee as a wedding present and Gabriel just goes “????”. Then when he starts going out in dates with Beelzebub and suddenly just goes “… OH. THIS IS WHAT THEY MEANT?”. Uriel would also probably show Supreme Archangel Aziraphale the best way to sneak out of heaven.

Another crack element is Uriel have ‘The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch’ with the ‘Agnes Nutter, Witch’ crossed out with ‘Archangel Uriel, Angel’. And in this book they have everything that they think will be important, but they couldn’t get to the ‘ Gabriel loses his memory and there’s a miracle so he’s unrecognisable’ part before they forget about the miracle, leading to Uriel not being able to identify Jim. (Also, just imagine Uriel frantically scribbling down information in the book in a corner of heaven, and slamming it shut every time someone comes close, leading to a competition to steal the book and a betting pool about what’s in it)

This theory would also explain why Uriel doesn’t really react to anything - it could be just regular prophecies, or it could be written in ‘The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Archangel Uriel, Angel’.

Another fun thing about this headcanon could be Uriel training or being friends with Agnes, and offhandedly mentioning ‘The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Archangel Uriel, Angel’, and then Agnes just went… nice name. It’s mine now. And then wrote ‘The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch’. It could also have been how they passed the book down between generations - Uriel might appear to them (like, meet them on the street, help them, visit them is a dream, etc) and then whoever has the book just goes ‘yup, thanks who’s getting the book next’.

Also, I’ve been updating Dragon on this as I’ve been writing, and they just sent me this I response to Uriel hiding in a corner, leading to attempted theft and betting pools:

And this about the wedding presents:

And this one about Uriel’s out of pocket advice that they totally give:

#good omens #uriel #slight season 2 spoilers #ineffable bureaucracy #a little?#also #ineffable husbands

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lunanoc · 2 months

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xiaoge (and liu sang if you want to) for the ask meme 👀

sorry for the late reply that I’m writing while procrastinating on other things but thank you for asking! <3

Xiaoge

My first impression

I honestly can’t remember all that well because it was such a long time ago, but when I first discovered Daomu Biji, it was through PingXie clips on twitter from Ultimate Note, and because I had nothing to do and found them cute I ended up finding a carrd where someone gave a barebones rundown of what you had to know to not be extremely confused if you wanted to watch it. The way Xiaoge was described in it and his initial appearance in Ultimate Note made me think he was the quiet warrior stereotype that felt a lot of things strongly but just didn’t express them openly, a lot introverted and a little lost in a lost puppy kind of way

My impression now

Xiaoge to me now is multifaceted in ways I feel deserve their own separate post, but I’m going to tl;dr it as in some ways, I feel like he’s almost a subversion of the stereotypes he’s presented as. So much of Xiaoge’s character arc both in the present timeline and in past events is about his dehumanization, but that dehumanization isn’t purely about the ways others treat him, it’s also in the way he himself has become “other”. The Three Days of Silence extra goes into this the most explicitly, but the llama at the temple wants Xiaoge to carve a statue out of a stone by infusing emotion into it because he feels that “no man is a stone”, that is it say that no human being is without emotion, and only by proving that he can feel can Xiaoge prove that he’s human. But the problem is that by that point Xiaoge, both by circumstance and by design, to all intents and purposes has become a stone in some respects in terms of his distance to people on a personal level. It’s not an accident that Wu Xie often compares him to a god or to Buddha with no passions or desires of his own, because it’s what he’s been made to be, and his indifference, that’s a defining character trait, isn’t feigned. It’s genuine.

So Xiaoge’s character development very much revolves around breaking free from his identity as a tool and as something almost akin to a bodhisattva to obtain his own identity as a human being that can connect with others.

It’s more complicated than that and I’m generalizing, but I feel that Xiaoge is someone who’s inherently merciful and kind, but is also generally speaking not invested in most people on a personal level, mostly because forming a connection with anyone is an exercise in futility, both because Xiaoge’s life experience and what “fate” has imposed on him make it difficult for people to relate to or understand him, and also because that distance means most people will inevitably only want to use him. But he does care about the people who’ve successfully forged a connection with him, he just shows it through actions, not words. Is he also a little awkward in interpersonal relationships sometimes? Yeah that too

Favorite thing about that character

Probably the fact that despite everything he’s gone through he’s Daomu Biji’s goodest boy. He’s kind in a completely uninterested way. That and how much of a troll he is that’s the Zhang in him coming out

Least favorite thing

Maybe that he’s so flippant about his own well-being and bodily comfort. He tends to view himself as an extension of a purpose and is in general very pragmatic, but because of how removed from people and humanity he is, it means he doesn’t really take himself into consideration much over the people he cares about. There a bit in the Fishing King extra where he slashes his own hand open and when Wu Xie later realizes it, he asks Xiaoge if it hurts, and he replies that it doesn’t. And Wu Xie doesn’t comment on it, but his overall internal thought process is a bitter “of course it doesn’t hurt”

Favorite line/scene

Trying to pick a scene that’s about him specifically and honestly the entirety of the stories about when he’s doing his release into the wild during the Tibetan Sea Flower flashbacks. Jaded and ruthless baby, but even before he was ever Zhang Qiling he was still more humane than everyone around him despite having been used as a disposable blood bag by his own family

Favorite interaction that character has with another

Everyone’s expecting the “If I disappeared no would notice” scene with Wu Xie but you know what I’m gonna go with something else even if that scene is up there.

In the Fishing King extra when Wu Xie goes to fist bump him because they beat Pangzi at rock paper scissors and Xiaoge doesn’t understand so they stare at each other awkwardly and he ends up covering Wu Xie’s fist with his hand like ‘paper’ my heart

A character that I wish that character would interact with more

To be honest Xiao Hua or Huo Xiuxiu? You don’t ser much of those three in the same room but I imagine Xiaoge and Xiao Hua would be a very efficient, pragmatic and silent duo

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character

Not entirely because I don’t think I know any character that’s exactly like Xiaoge, but a little bit Shenhe from Genshin. Emotionally restrained to the point of lack of emotion but by design, mistreated as a child, also a little bit of a troll and straightforward when confronted with people with bad intentions. Also very combat efficient.

A headcanon about that character

I don’t know if I have a really big one besides I like the headcanon that Xiaoge is ace or demisexual? I have a hard time picturing him having had any kind of romantic relationships and to be honest even casual sex doesn’t feel likely to me just because even that requires having some form of interest in the other party which Xiaoge doesn’t ever really seem to have. But who knows what he might have had to do out of necessity or if there were people he’s forgotten

A song that reminds me of that character

This is really hard but I haven’t found anything more fitting than ‘The Ghost on the Shore’ by Lord Huron

An unpopular opinion about that character

I had to think about this a little but if I had to pick something it might be the fanon perception of Xiaoge as a ‘feral cat’ that Wu Xie and/or others have ‘domesticated’. Part of it is personal interpretation, because I feel like he’s hardly feral considering outside of crisis situations he’s probably one of the most chill characters in Daomu Biji. But it also feels… I don’t know dismissive? To be calling him that when Xiaoge being out of touch with most people on a personally involved or intimate level is the fruit of so many things outside of his control he’s been subjected to. He’s spent the better part of his life being subject to the whims of an unnamed entity that uses him as it sees fit for an agenda the reader only knows exists let alone what it entails. He’s seen people at their most vile, been used by people in the most vile ways, and that mixed with his sense of duty as Zhang Qiling and his age (though he was already jaded even as a teenager before he was ever made into Zhang Qiling) has made him into someone who wanders the world without any real connection to the people in it. For a very long time Xiaoge just ‘existed’ in the most literal sense, and just because as a result of that he doesn’t care about social niceties (why would you care about face and other people’s attempts to maintain the façade of it in a cutthroat business like tomb robbing?) or knows or cares how to maintain relationships doesn’t make him ‘feral’.

Plus calling him ‘domesticated’ veers a little too much into dehumanizing him as if he’s some animal Wu Xie (or someone else) tamed and that answers to his beck and call. As if the entire point of Xiaoge’s story arc isn’t that Wu Xie is the first person he can remember who ever persisted in forging a connection with Xiaoge until Xiaoge was forced to realize he cared and felt a connection with another human being. As if the conclusion of that wasn’t him making a gamble on Wu Xie’s sincerity that he would come and pick him up in ten year’s time, as if Xiaoge choosing to stay in Yucun with him and Pangzi isn’t Xiaoge reciprocating that sincerity with his own, making an active choice to stay and call somewhere ‘home’ for the first time in his life.

I might be looking at this too deeply but it rubs me the wrong way

Favorite picture

Hard so I’m not picking absolute favorites just ones I like. For book Xiaoge I like versions of him that look similar to this:

(Source)

And for drama Xiaoge there’s so many good shots of all the versions of him, so looking at the most recent version of him in the Misty Creed movie, this one shot is 10/10:

(Screenshot courtesy of @shaish)

Liu Sang

Disclaimer: Since this is tagged, apologies in advance to Liu Sang fans. I’ve tried to be as reasonable as possible about my opinions, but that being said be warned I don’t like him, so if you'd rather not see any negativity about him, feel free to skip

My first impression

My introduction to Liu Sang was through fandom, both fanon, fanfic, and discussions about him that I’d seen/read before I ever watched Reboot, since I started with the dramas. From how people talked about him I was pretty hyped about him I’m not gonna lie, and I definitely got the feeling he was an important character, so seeing how loved he was, I was looking forward to seeing him for the first time in canon.

Then once I started watching Reboot my first impression kind of yoyo-ed around. There was a little whiplash from the gap between how fandom presented him vs. how he acted at the beginning of Reboot towards Wu Xie and Pangzi especially, but I figured given people liked him he probably got better. And to be fair he did! On my first full watchthrough of Reboot I ended up feeling pretty neutral about him, not in a negative sense, but more like how I tend to view most of the more minor characters (like Xiao Bai for example since we’re talking about Reboot). I appreciated he got character development and was left with a general “yeah he’s alright” impression

My impression now

Full disclaimer, I’ve only read half of Restart the book so far, so I can’t fully talk about book Liu Sang beyond his appearances in the South Sea King’s tomb and the immediate aftermath of that. I can talk more about Reboot the drama Liu Sang though.

The problem with my general impression of Liu Sang now is that it’s very polluted by my interactions with his fans. I won’t get too much into that because this is supposed to be about Liu Sang the character and not the Liu Sang fandom (because yes there absolutely is a Liu Sang fandom that exists as a subset of the Daomu Biji fandom), but to keep it short, the version of Liu Sang that I find is pushed forward a lot by his fans is a version that doesn’t correspond to either the drama or book version of him, and is instead heavily steeped in widely accepted fanon to the point it’s almost a different character sometimes. And that widely accepted fanon version is something that his fans have the unfortunate habit of being very pushy and single-minded about, and it’s caused a number of issues and rifts within the wider Daomu Biji fandom.

Keep in mind this is all my personal feelings and doesn’t necessarily reflect on every single person who likes Liu Sang as a character, but to get back to the point, it means that my overall impression of Liu Sang now is a pretty negative one. Full transparency (if it wasn’t already obvious) I don’t like him, and while I do find what I’ve seen of the book version of him has the potential to interesting, and I can absolutely appreciate that, not to mention the genuine character arc he gets in the drama, because of how his fans act about him, he’ll never be a favorite

Favorite thing about that character

In the book so far what I find most interesting about Liu Sang is the ambiguity of his past and of his intentions. He’s initially presented in a way that’s puzzling in hindsight, and while part of that I think you can put down to Restart being a weird time for Wu Xie in general, there’s little clues that makes you wonder what his deal is and that his role in the story might be more than meets the eye.

He’s introduced as a consultant Wu Erbai trusts the competence of, and Pangzi is immediately incensed by him in ways that are almost uncharacteristic. Because Pangzi (in the books at least), is someone who regularly puts up a loud front and throws jibes at people when he doesn’t trust them in a way that’s both testing but not too aggressive to instigate a conflict unless the other party is openly hostile. But with Liu Sang he’s immediately, and to Wu Xie without apparent reason, extremely hostile and vitriolic. You learn later that Pangzi has heard sinister rumors about Liu Sang, and you infer from there the vitriol is coming from Pangzi wanting to keep someone potentially nefarious and ill-intentioned to a sadistic degree away from his friends. But you also later see him again when he listens to thunder at the beach in front of the guesthouse Wu Xie and co. are staying in, and Wu Xie’s observations give you the impression there’s something deeper going on. In Wu Xie’s words, he doesn’t like him, but he’s intrigued by what he represents (and not gonna lie I am too)

Least favorite thing

Besides the egregious fanon version of him I’m not touching on because it’s not actually canon, ironically I find early drama Liu Sang to be worse than early book Liu Sang. To be fair I don’t know how he evolves in the book, but in that Liu Sang is more focused on his job, and apart from his one iffy moment in the car where he’s constantly trying to snap pictures of Xiaoge without his consent (to which both Wu Xie and Pangzi react with variations of yelling and kicking his seat in), he’s really not doing anything questionable, unless you count being in on Wu Erbai’s test as questionable. Drama Liu Sang however by this point not only throws jibes around at both Wu Xie and Pangzi, but uses Wu Xie’s terminal illness as a leverage point to mock him and almost gets Wu Xie and Pangzi killed because he thought it was funny. Which is honestly at odds with his book character that’s actually very professional, because none of that is professional

Favorite line/scene

Uhhh I don’t know that I have any? Maybe the part in Restart where he walks out into the thunderstorm to listen to the thunder and Wu Xie watches him until it triggers a moment of self-reflection. It’s not really about Liu Sang so much as it’s about Wu Xie and his headspace, but it’s a meaningful scene

Favorite interaction that character has with another

Ok I’m not gonna lie that one moment in the Reboot drama where Liu Sang tells Xiaoge he’s his biggest fan and Xiaoge of all people takes a moment to emote because he’s that confused and baffled by the direction the interaction is taking is hilarious

A character that I wish that character would interact with more

Maybe Xiao Bai? I haven’t seen them meet in the book, but arguably in both that and the drama especially both Liu Sang and Xiao Bai are mirrors of each other in terms of what they represent in relation to Xiaoge and Wu Xie respectively. Plus their interactions in the drama were wholesome

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character

I can’t think of one to be completely honest

A headcanon about that character

I’m going to call this headcanon for now since I’m not done Restart the book so I can’t be sure, but I like the idea of book Liu Sang just being an ornery bastard with his own nebulous agenda. Let the man be a bastard! Bastards can be interesting too!

A song that reminds me of that character

I honestly can’t think of one right now

An unpopular opinion about that character

I could probably go into this for a hot minute but everything surrounding the sanitized fanon version of Liu Sang that’s both in my opinion inaccurate (despite being presented as accurate) and absolutely in your face unless you take extreme pains to block out pretty much everything to do with him. To be clear, what people like is their business, but unpopular opinions aren’t called that for nothing, and this entire post is meant to be about my feelings, not objective facts.

That being said, fanon Liu Sang to me is woobified to a level that completely erases any traces of his actual character to cater to a very specific view of him that’s as far as I can tell made to be palatable. His fans make a concentrated effort of pushing forward, in my experience sometimes aggressively, what’s essentially a sanitized version of him that glosses over or deliberately erases any unsavory aspects of his character.

Which to be clear I have no problems with, most of if not all the characters in Daomu Biji are fundamentally imperfect and flawed, some to the point where other less niche (in western fandom spaces anyway) fandoms would label them as ‘problematic’. It contributes to making the characters complex and more human in my opinion. Which is why it’s kind of sad that Liu Sang has been reduced to being the fandom’s (or part of the fandom’s) ‘poor little meow meow’ who’s suddenly inherently likable.

Again, if you like that then that’s your business. The only reason I have strong feelings about this in the first place is because Liu Sang fans have, in my experience, the bad habit of shoehorning that version of him into everything, and by that I mean to the point of encroaching on other people’s lanes in ways that are incredibly tone deaf. It also feeds into the general problem the Daomu Biji fandom as a whole has of assuming that everyone is ok with anything and everything, and doesn’t believe in personal boundaries. But anyway, the point here is that I don’t like fanon Liu Sang, and the only reason I’m talking about him is because of this ask

Favorite picture

I also don’t really have one

#dmbj #zhang qiling #liu sang #ask meme #hopefully this is appropriate #and if it's not then feel free to point it out #but that being said i don't like the idea of having to walk on eggshells with opinions on fictional characters #especially when other people don't #character meta #a little?#a little

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swindlez · 1 year

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cover for my wally playlist , tried my best to make most of the songs unique lol

#welcome home #welcome home arg #wally darling #eye contact #body horror ?#a little?#trev (f)art

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silverpsychedelic · 2 years

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Overdrive

#NiGHTS #NiD #JoD #NiGHTSposting #Nightmaren #Ideya #tw: body horror #a little?#maybe LGAU related #silverspychedelic

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kithtaehyung · 6 months

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HAPPY 3TANNIVERSARY 🍊🍊🍊

so grateful to you Ryen for creating this safe space, for all the lovely interactions with our 3tan fam, and for creating 3tan Yoongi (my source of comfort and benchmark for all men help me 💀), the 3tan gang, and the 3tan universe 🥹

and not Hybe celebrating 3tanniversary by releasing more footage of ginger Yoongi with the PTD US digital code promos 💀 coincidence yet again, huh? 💀💀💀

ANNE😭🍊🍊🍊 thank you so much, my love! It’s been a huge accomplishment for us all to get to this point, and I’m glad you’re still here🫂 Cannot wait to keep going and share even more things for y’all to enjoy, and 3tan yoongi will always be here if you need him🥹

HYBE……………… releasing more ginger yoongi in general is just straight up RUDE💀 THANKS!!!

#we’ll keep having a great time!#anne!#asks:3tan #3tan2yrs #lovely people #*ryenfictalk #mailbox💌#ok mr. min #a little?

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sixstepsaway · 2 years

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You do realize that Izzy is THE series villain, right? He's not sticking around post-reunion. He's not part of Stede's crew, he's not Team Revenge, he was actively gleeful about them being marooned and left for dead. He's not a good guy. He's not a protagonist. He's not going to be around being a toxic abusive piece of shit forever. Quit trying to normalize & downplay the horrible way he treats other characters. I know as a fetishizer you're predisposed to abusive white men, but this is idiotic.

(Since tumblr cuts this off from what I can see; this turned into a big Izzy Hands meta! So read on if you want!)

Let me try and word this in a way you might understand, nonny, since you clearly have some issues with the definition of things, and while I'm here I'm going to turn this into another meta post, this time about your favorite character: Izzy Hands ♥, rather than just posting this as a mean anon or deleting it outright.

(That said, anon, I really think this is the second message you've sent me now. The first time it was because I mentioned Izzy during a meta about Ed, and the second time is because I mentioned Izzy (and Lucius, and Jim, and Fang) during a post about Ed and Stede gettin' it on in season 2. If you really hate Izzy this much, I truly recommend blocking those of us who enjoy him, and using the blacklist feature to remove any posts mentioning him. I think your fandom experience will be truly improved if you do that, and at the end of the day that's what we all want here, isn't it? A good fandom experience.)

Firstly, Izzy is the singular Real Pirate trapped in a muppet comedy, which makes him hilarious and fascinating.

Secondly, as the only Real Pirate, he's the only one that can see the dangers of being weak and not being a proper pirate. Do you think that the English are going to let Ed just walk away? He signed his life over to them for ten years then bailed the first night. Do you truly believe the English aren't currently looking for Blackbeard specifically to finish him off or take him to Charlestown to make an example of him? Do you think they aren't currently tying nooses in his honor to say, "Look what happens if you take our offer of an Act of Grace then bail out"?

They absolutely are.

Now, ask yourself; what happens if the English rock up on the Revenge, crewed by a group of terribly bad pirates who couldn't defend themselves against the Spanish, or the English, or-- actually, any battle they've had so far. Jim is the only truly competent pirate on that crew, from what I've seen.

So what do you think Izzy is imagining when he sees Edward return from bailing out on the Act of Grace and not only once again letting the ship return to Muppet Comedy, but also actively trying to stop them being pirates?

I think back to what Oluwande said in the first episode, being not only a man of color like Edward is, but potentially being an outlaw for more than just the color of his skin: him and Jim aren't being pirates because they just woke up one day with a fun little idea and more money than they can shake a stick at, him and Jim are pirates because neither of them have any other choices. Do you think even if Ed hadn't taken the Act of Grace, he would've had other choices? Do you think the man who murdered his own father in what would likely have been seen as cold blood (not a defense of himself and, primarily, his mother; especially since he and his mother are not white and his father was) ever had any other choices?

So what happens to them when the English come? What happens to Edward when they board the ship and he's wearing the breakup robe and singing songs? Do you think they'd look at him and go, "Oh, no, he's so sad. Let's let him go."

(I mean, they might, in the context of muppet comedy, but as previously stated, Izzy's world is not a muppet comedy. In Izzy's world, when you get stabbed you die. In Izzy's world, when you duel a pirate with thirty years of experience on you, you lose.)

Now I want to run down the list of what Izzy Hands has done over the course of the 10 episodes to make him horrible and abusive. I'm not going back to reference the episodes because I don't have the time to sift through every one, but I'm pretty sure I remember it well enough. Replies can totally correct me with extra citations if I miss stuff.

Episode 1: Wasn't in it

Episode 2: Ignored the vulnerable crew on the beach, cut Stede's shirt open, stole a hostage.

Episode 3: Suggested the 'normal' course of action to be murdering the inept pirates and slinging them to the sharks, implying that's what they usually do. Went to Spanish Jackie's and invited Stede aboard, but didn't mention his boss by name. Told Ed what happened, but didn't say he didn't name him by name. (Open to interpretation as it's possible everyone worth their salt knows Izzy is Edward's right hand man, it doesn't need speaking). Helps Edward save Stede and co.

Episode 4: Asks if they're going to kill the crew 'as usual' (Edward doesn't say no). Calls Edward a twat and yells at him for being completely erratic, wearing Stede's clothes and pretending to be someone else. Says he's leaving. Follows through on leaving until Edward coaxes him back. Apologizes sincerely for all of the things he said. He may not have said, "I'm sorry," but I said some things I regret, I don't think you're a twat etc is definitely an apology. Not all apologies have to include the word sorry to be an apology.

Episode 5: Spends the whole episode trying to get the Revenge crew to actually be a crew. Gets mad at Lucius and Pete for actively not doing their jobs when he tells them to do their jobs. He wasn't pissed they were fucking, he was pissed they weren't working. Tried to get Lucius to do actual work. Got pissed when Lucius seemed like he was potentially cheating on Pete and hitting on all the crew. (Which is why "We don't own each other." disarmed that attempt to control him.)

Episode 6: Demands that Edward follows through on his promise to kill Stede, referencing Edward's own rules (that he's made Fang follow through on in the past) re: killing/not having pets as a reason why. Offers to do it himself if Edward can't. Tries to make it easier for him, knowing how hard Edward finds it to do any killing himself. Challenges Stede to a dual after Edward seemingly chickens out of doing the kill himself (and usually outsources the kill, presumably to Izzy himself). Leaves the ship angrily when he loses.

Episode 7: He's not in this episode until the end, where he's ranting at Spanish Jackie and works with the English to deal with Stede and solely Stede.

Episode 8: He isn't in this episode.

Episode 9: He does a lil wavey-wave. He also specifically fought for Edward to not be killed alongside Stede. He makes sure Edward has his freedom with Izzy. He's still following through on the plan from Episode 6 (which... fascinatingly, I don't think Edward ever actually told him the plan was actively off, just that Izzy wasn't dueling Stede? I- Communication, people!) because that plan makes the most sense to him: kill the pet. Is an actual Captain telling the crew to actually do their jobs and run an actual pirate ship. I do not know how the Revenge ever sails the rest of the episodes. Nearly gets flung overboard tied to an anchor for it.

Episode 10: Sends Lucius to look after Edward, or at least try. Messes up the deck so the crew (who have actually done all their work) has something to do. Has the group do their jobs, again. Finally snaps and calls out Edward for no longer being the fierce pirate Blackbeard or a pirate at all and calls him a namby-pamby still using Blackbeard's name. I've seen people say 'namby-pamby? they might as well have just used the f slur' but Izzy has proved time and again that he's not homo or queerphobic (using Jim's correct pronouns, not, idk, having Lucius's balls cut off for partaking in gay sex just trying to get him to actually work, sending Calico Jack (aka Ed's old lover) to retrieve Ed), the implication of his words here is, as the dictionary describes, "lacking energy, strength, or courage; weak or ineffectual". Yes, it's a term used against gay men, but that isn't all he's saying there. He's basically accusing Edward of being the equivalent of a whiny teenage girl on the phone with her friends because her crush didn't text her back.

I would now like to list what Edward has done to Izzy (and others, where applicable to this conversation):

Episode 3: Not much to say here aside from bossing him around, but he is his boss.

Episode 4: Manipulates him. Lies to him, mocks him and then manipulates him into staying by promising him a dead Stede (with no real intention of following through) and a ship of his own.

Episode 8: Unrelated to Izzy, Edward is a complete tosser in this episode lmao. He wrecks Stede's shit (it's Stede's ship), he lets Jack run roughshod all over the crew, take Stede's seat at breakfast. He's pretty awful in this episode, as much as I love him. But he does come back, so I give him that one.

Episode 9: Izzy tries to talk to Edward and Edward punches him in the face. Izzy says that's fair.

Episode 10: He choke slams Izzy into a wall, cuts off his toe and forcibly feeds it to him, then forces him to get back to work without any kind of first aid etc.

So, the tally here:

Violence against Izzy: Punched, choked, toe cut off, nearly thrown overboard and drowned.

Violence from Izzy: Cut Stede's shirt, told the crew to actually do their jobs as pirates, stabbed Stede during a fair duel, ???? turned them over to the English, with very careful safeguards in place so only Stede is going to die (none of the crew were harmed. Only Stede. He didn't even turn all of them over!)

Violence from other characters for the sake of contrast: Jim's entire arc is murder and knives, either Fang or Ivan knocks over a hostage and laughs in episode 2 (I don't remember which), Roach expresses a desire to torture the hostages for fun, the entire crew leaves two human men tied to a mast to marinade in the sun for days on end, Edward throws Lucius overboard (presumably killing him, though I believe muppet comedy laws will win out and he will likely be fine), Stede sets fire to an entire ship with his words, presumably killing everyone on board, the entire crew go off in episode 1 murdering and stabbing everyone in the first episode. Oh! And Edward tells one of his crew to skin someone alive with a snail fork, which we can only assume is followed through on off-screen as we never see that guy again and it seems likely.

Following on from this, you say he seemed gleeful that the crew were marooned and left for dead and sure, yeah, I can see that. I don't disagree. But, uh... do you think that was Izzy's idea? 😅 He might have been pleased by it, but it was absolutely Edward who did that. Once Blackbeard came back, Izzy is following all of Edward's orders, not making up his own on the fly. Edward has everything thrown out (in fact, that starts before Izzy even makes it back from tending to his toe, I think), Edward has the crew marooned.

That is all Edward's doing.

I mean, sure, Izzy is the driving force behind Edward reverting to the Blackbeard Kraken, but if you tell me I'm a little twerp and I need to go be a boss and I go become a boss and abuse all my employees and fire a bunch and basically be awful, that's all me. Just because you called me a twerp, that doesn't mean I'm not the one doing those things.

So, following on from this, I want to answer a few points here:

He's not a good guy.

No one on this show except maybe Oluwande and Lucius is a Good Guy. No one. Stede sets fire to a ship. Roach wants to go torture someone just because he can. Frenchie does murders. Jim does murders. Pete wants to kill people. Buttons is a cannibal waiting to happen. Edward does horrible things all the fucking time. Spanish Jackie collects noses. Mary was going to kill Stede until he woke up.

You are absolutely correct that Izzy is not a good guy. You got that right.

He's not a protagonist.

He's an important part of the show and is, currently, in an antagonist position. That's just as important as a protagonist, actually. It helps push the plot along. We wouldn't have any of this plot without Izzy. None of it.

He's not going to be around being a toxic abusive piece of shit forever.

Correct, I think he's going to be redeemed! But we'll see.

Quit trying to normalize & downplay the horrible way he treats other characters.

I'm not downplaying how he treats anyone, but I'm also not exaggerating it like you are. And also please look at your own faves, before casting stones from a glass house.

I know as a fetishizer you're predisposed to abusive white men, but this is idiotic.

Again, as I said above, I think you're a) in the wrong askbox considering this is a response to me mentioning him in passing while gushing about Blackbonnet and b) using a word you don't fully understand. I get it. It's a good buzzword.

Edward is much, much worse (though he is actively trying to be better, which is what I hope for Izzy's future once he too finds a reason to be) and I love him too with every fiber of my being.

Izzy is only the antagonist because he isn't the one in love with Stede Fookin Bonnet. If Edward and Izzy's roles had been reversed in episode 1?

Stede would be long-dead and god knows what would've happened to Izzy in the process. Edward would've gone to town on him for being weak and having a pet. He would've forced him to kill Stede, if he didn't do it himself, and the worst part is Izzy might have done it where Edward faltered.

thanks for coming to my TED talk

#ofmd #ofmd meta #izzy hands #edward teach #blackhands #a little?#blackbonnet #a little.#our flag means death #thanks for the prompt to write this meta anon!#ask #anonymous

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