the red camellia is undeniably soukoku's flower to me. they bloom in the cold, through snow and winter chill. they're at their most beautiful in the harshest conditions when everything else is dormant or dead. they're a symbol of perseverance and strength and passion. but at the end of the line, they 'behead' themselves when they die, refusing to drop petal by petal, choosing to go when they're still beautiful, refusing to compromise the rest of the tree by rotting on the branch.
[attaches my izzy hands apologist pin to my vest] kind of fucked up that some find izzy Irredeemable when we have seen him do next to nothing violent or even particularly mean, whereas we know ed made fang shoot his dog and then shrugged at him while he cried about it and also, apparently, regularly forces people into autocannibalism for the smallest of transgressions. which is not hate towards ed! he is a pirate and this is typical pirate behavior, and if ed wasn't prone to violent behavior then that would make his path towards self acceptance and kindness weigh less than it does. but it does seem as if izzy has only ever been the enforcer of blackbeard-slash-ed's Rules and Regulations, and while ed seems happy to abandon all that and turn a new leaf because he fell in love, izzy is left with the harrowing memories of what he has done For Blackbeard, in blackbeard's name, and wondering what the fuck happened.