#c: izzy hands
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so here's the thing
i've seen a bunch of people say on twitter and stuff how... ed's behavior is very abusive and his anger is dangerous and he isn't romantic lead material because of it
and i get where they're coming from
but to me the main issue isn't putting ed in the position of a romantic lead, but not crafting the narrative around his characterization so that it allows for a spicy romantic pirates-in-love narrative instead of...whatever this is.
i'm going to try and explain this. idk if i'll do well but i'll try
the way she show presents stede is as an innocent baby who isn't really equipped for pirate life. he goes into a fugue/disassociative state whenever there's any real violence, apparently, and needs protecting by other characters when things get too rough - for example when ed is telling ned lowe not to take the poker to stede.
that's fine! it's honestly adorable to see a masc character being so soft around the edges and being protected by other characters this way.
(i'm not going to touch on stede's... eh... not great characterization this season rn)
then there's izzy, who is shown as a bit violent, a bit rough around the edges. he's more likely to draw a sword or throw a punch or hit someone with a chair or take a punch like a champ. violence is just part of life for him and that's okay, it just Is, from small things like smacking stede on the ass to bigger things like being wall slammed, it's not all that big or bad for violence to happen around and with him, he tends to give as good as he gets (there's some nuance here but i'm talking the macro themes not the micro of what izzy does vs is done to him)
and finally there's ed
ed is presented as violent (stabbing knives at guys, telling fang to use the snail fork etc) and used to a life of violence, and then in season 2 he's presented as really violent, his anger coming out in dangerous and terrifying ways
and frankly, i'd be super into it if he and izzy were the main ship and that twisted dynamic from the first two episodes of s2 was explored and fleshed out into something deeper
friends to enemies to lovers who fight and fuck. angry pirates who lay hands on each other, who break the whole ship with each other in the heat of passion.
except instead, s2 gives us... abuse. it gives us izzy cringing and lowering his head and trying to protect the kids crew from ed's angry outbursts.
so when stede comes back and he's still soft around the edges and ed headbutts him and it's deliberate, it's... not a great look, and the vibes are a bit skewed
if stede fought back, if when ed struck out at him he struck back, if they fought rather than it being one-sided, if it was friends to enemies to lovers and not presented as healthy, but maybe they can work their way there, who knows, maybe even more like anne bonnie and mary read because hey, they were doing something very similar?
except they were both into it. they were both enjoying the fighting and the fucking and the burning down the house.
stede's not enjoying it.
i cannot describe how much i hate this sequence just because of the way stede flinches
anne and mary don't!! mary jumps at the unexpected bang but she doesnt flinch, she doesn't cover her face like she thinks the vase will be coming for her not the wall and anne? looks so into it
and the thing is that in real life, no, you don't want to date someone who throws shit around, or headbutts you
but in fiction when it's two fucked up people doing this shit together like anne and mary?
that can be fun.
but instead what we've been given is stede flinching and apologizing to ed and then all of ed's...what, semi-redemption???? is done away from the other collection of people he abused, and then he spends some time on a fishing boat wearing a dog collar and everything is fine because he's good now and won't be doing anything bad ever again
and it's just... poor writing. the vibes are rancid.
i spent a really big chunk of time between s1 and s2 defending ed. i kept saying how what he did to izzy by making him eat his toe wasn't abuse, it was a one-off and abuse isn't a one-off thing it's a pattern, and then s2 made it a pattern.
explicitly. explicitly a pattern.
not just one toe but three.
jim saying "you're in an unhealthy relationship with blackbeard"
and all ed offered izzy was a "sorry about your leg" which might've been fine if izzy survived and they could work on this more, but instead that's all the apology and closure izzy will ever get
ed threw a chair and a vase and made stede flinch in fear and stede was right to do that. what part of any of this implies this will never happen again? that stede won't press the wrong button at some point and be on the receiving end? none of it
and if we'd been presented with a s2 stede bonnet who could handle himself and stand up for himself and fight back, then maybe i could imagine that turning into a weird sexy fucked up anne/mary like thing and maybe that could be why they put that episode in, but instead it feels like that episode was going, "look, see, ed's violence is fine because these two are fine with it with each other"
but stede isn't
ed and izzy or ed and stede in an unhealthy battle of a relationship could be such a fun, interesting and downright sexy thing to watch unfold on tv, and could honestly end somewhere far more down the chill end of the spectrum, but that's not what we've been given here
i cannot argue that ed isn't an abuser anymore, and not just of izzy but of the whole crew. he terrified frenchie.
it's not good writing to try and lean into the idea that ed and the pirates are violent and live a life of violence, so it's okay that ed's been violent, while simultaneously presenting his violence as traumatic and abusive, and then less than three episodes later saying oh it's fine now, he's just a little meow meow who can do no wrong, see?
especially considering they had him murdering people at the end of the season. and sure, you can say the english are just cannon fodder and they dont 'count', but they did before. ed explicitly did not kill before, and that included the english, or the spanish, or anyone else. so either they count or they don't, but flipping him on a dime makes no sense.
ALSO
having ed be the son of an abusive man who threw plates at his mother and made her cringe and then having ed kill his father to protect his mother and then a season later having ed become the kind of man who throws chairs and vases and makes his love interest cringe is, again, not bloody optimal
i want to say again i dont CARE about tv always presenting healthy relationships or tv always giving us aspirational goals. i want messy fucked up dynamics and terrible people making terrible choices, and still, to this day, i fucking love ed teach. i would honestly love to have seen them continue with ed's darkness and bring stede into it and see where they went with that, to have stede kill ned lowe and not just bury his feelings in ed but get off on it, enjoy the violence, and see where that led, but no
and so instead all we end up with is a protagonist who is being set up for a lifetime of abuse from an intimate partner, and a romantic lead who abuses his love interests (and yes. izzy is a love interest, he is set up like one and positioned like one and treated like one), frightens his love interests with his violence, is erratic and most of all inconsistently written. he was so sorry about scaring fang as though he hadn't been deliberately terrifying the whole crew for fuck knows how long? what?!
the whole fandom has spent so long saying, "no no, i know stede bonnet irl was a slave owner, but ofmd is using the names and not any real piracy, it's more disney piracy, you know? so that kind of stuff doesnt exist!" and then they flipped around and went "blackbeard is blackbeard and so he is evil and does all these horrible things" and i dont know how to rationalize the two sides of that because it feels so out of place
i'm getting rambly, this isnt a particularly well constructed thought process, i just feel like we were robbed both of a toxic, violent relationship that could be fun to see explored on tv and a soft and sweet love story between two middle aged men exploring their first loves in one fell swoop and there's no way for s3 to bring either of those things back because they got utterly torpedoed by making ed a horrible person
ugh
#ofmd critical#i hate that i'm using this tag now :c#edward teach#ed teach#ofmd s2#ofmd season 2#our flag means death#ofmd spoilers#ofmd meta#i guess#izzy hands#stede bonnet
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what does being disabled mean to me?
it means i get to answer my phone like this for the rest of my life
#who am i kidding? i'm not answering. that shit is going straight to voicemail and i'll text them instead#izzy hands is a disability icon#disabled#spoonie#c punk#cripple punk#crip punk#epilepsy#ehlers danlos syndrome#chronically ill#ofmd#our flag means death#izzy hands#ofmd izzy hands#israel hands#con oniell#con o'neill#dysautonomia
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PROPAGANDA
R. M. Renfield
Mentally ill queer man writes mentally ill queer character. 200 years later, Dracula Daily happens and everyone in their mother immediately starts poking fun at him, demonizing him, or treating him like a naive child when none of these things are true. I could write a darn essay about Renfield and his role in the story. His status as a servant of Dracula is kept hidden from our heroes despite how obvious it is to the modern reader, and it turns into a striking example of dramatic irony. But at the same time, he's not a simpering servant; he's psychotic and Dracula feeds his delusion for his own gain. His death isn't a sacrifice, it's a tragic end to a story about the effects of isolation on the mind and the suffering that can come about from people refusing to listen to those who aren't like them. Pretty damned amusing, then, that absolutely no one seems to listen to the words that come out of his mouth.
Izzy Hands
people hate this guy. people HATE this guy. and for what? "hes abusive" you are out of your MIND if you actually think that. let middle aged men be messy jilted lovers, goddamn!!!!
Oh my gods, fandom has lost their minds with this one. People act like Izzy is the devil himself and actually it's his fault that the main love interest of the show has ever done anything wrong ever. Every bad thing in the show? Actually Izzy's fault. I've seen people literally, actually say he deserved his abuse and that it's his fault his abuser hurt him and that he liked it. I have seen people unironically say that his abuser should have killed him. I've seen people say that Edward Teach (y'know, literal Blackbeard who explicitly says in canon, with his mouth, "I love a good maim" would never have done anything violent ever if it wasn't for Izzy's manipulation. This is, of course, ignoring that Ed's first acts if violence were before he ever even met Izzy
So Ed and Izzy have a toxic relationship and do bad stuff to each other. And Izzy fans will minimize the shit Izzy did while bringing up what he suffered. And Ed fans will maximize the shit Izzy did and forgot the rest. Honestly I'm might be bringing a lot of anger on the blog for this, sorry.
#misrepresented morally grey#round 2#bracket c#both bracket#dracula daily#r m renfield#our flag means death#izzy hands
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wait hang on 😭😭 are people seriously debating “he’s a complicated man” right now??
i agree that izzy’s an unreliable narrator, and i think that some of the things he’s said about ed aren’t necessarily true, much as many other things he’s said are also not necessarily true. he’s not really aware of the full picture the whole time, poor duck, as much as i adore him.
but like… besides the fact it really doesn’t have anything to do with wether or not you think izzy’s doing complex evil shit to ed on purpose, and people seem to be making it about that…
ed is VERY MUCH a complicated man. as someone who relates to ed probably more than stede or izzy… he’s absolutely a complicated man. ed can be violent, and suicidal, and he clearly experiences some form of emotional dysregulation, and he’s done things to people that weren’t justified. the crew was traumatised by ed’s behaviour and how much violence he placed them in a position to commit.
the way ed responds to rejection is so violent and out of proportion, his consecutive raids, his suicidal antagonism towards the crew… and for me and my personal issues, that’s extremely relatable… but it is NOT mentally well behaviour.
ed also exhibits patterns of disordered alcohol use, and his anger often causes him to lash out (yes, often at izzy who pushes his buttons, and yes, izzy’s behaviour is a factor in this. but it’s also worth noting ed has agency as a character and his violence is still violence, provoked or not) and one of his most integral traumas is how an act of violence saved him from the violent alcoholic who was his father.
there’s nothing about ed that’s not a complicated man. he’s done bad things that weren’t justified. that doesn’t make him a bad man. it makes him a complicated one. it’s very clear he knows how to be a better person. and that he can be. that the show left out a lot of that journey is really disappointing, but ed feels like he’s a monster and he does bad things to become the villain he thinks he deserves to be treated as, you know?
he is SUCH a complicated man. that doesn’t mean he’s irredeemable or bad, it doesn’t mean there’s a moral obligation to dislike him either. none of that’s the case. but izzy got it right when he called ed complicated. i think in some ways izzy had finally realised that he wasn’t always going to understand ed because ed wasn’t always going to think the way he did, but he was coming to accept that he didn’t need ed to be someone he could understand as long as ed was happy? does that make sense? i know that’s a sappy outlook on a canonically toxic relationship but i just cannot believe that there’s a genuinely widely accepted take going around which boils down to people thinking it’s wrong to call ed a complicated man. like, huh???? girl….
#izzy hands#ofmd critical#i mean the thing is that often when people point out how ed has moral complexities he’s done bad stuff#that he wasn’t necessarily justified for but he’s ultimately a sympathetic character#who can be a much better man than his father made him feel like he could#they’re often criticised for that#and particularly for the use of the word “violent” given ed is a man of colour#even though ed does do violent things onscreen#but the people who believe racism is holding ed accountable for his own actions#and suggesting he has agency outside of responding to izzy or being infatuated with stede#start to say it’s wrong to call ed a complicated man… dude.#WRONG TO CALL HIM C O M P L I C A T E D#i’m just saying 💀💀#how are more people not deciding that THAT is racism actually#why are we dehumanising ed by insisting he doesn’t have complexity and hasn’t done bad things ever#like guys. why the fuck are we doing that???
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“Ed…?” he asks, “Ed, are you mine?”
He deserves to fucking know.
part 4/? of illustrating this fic (mind the content warnings)
#izzy hands#blackhands#edizzy#our flag means fanart#israel hands#ofmd#is it artistic license if it's your own work?#deviating slightly from the text#image quality is :c#handsenjoyer
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i will be thinking about izzy being comfortable enough to sing a soft, gentle, romantic song while he’s wearing makeup and surrounded by his new family for the rest of my life, actually.
#ofmd s2#our flag means death s2#ofmd s2 spoilers#ofmd izzy#izzy hands#CON’S V O I C E ALSO??????#HELLO???????#SIR WHO GAVE U THE RIGHT#STUPID ME THINKING IT WAS GONNA B A BIT#BUT NO#HE SINGS SO SOFTLY AND SWEETLY#IM NOT OKAY!!!!!!
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izzy hands will offically break me.
#him crying was my tipping point and it happened#f u c k#ofmd#our flag means death#ofmd s2#izzy hands#ofmd season 2#ofmd spoilers
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every day I think about his little crinkly smile here…
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OFMD Angst Prompt:
It's after the season finale, Stede and the crew have finally caught up with the Revenge and as soon as Ed catches sight of Stede, he bursts into tears and welcomes him abroad. They cry together, promise their eternal devotion and forgive each other. Lucius pops out of the wall, Jim decides that they'll wait to enact revenge on Blackbeard and Frenchie collapses into Wee John's arms.
Everything is fixed! Everything is solved!
Well, except, of course, for Izzy. He limps over to Stede, presents a saber and challenges him to a duel. The crew, at this point, are so over Izzy that they're about to rush him, pick him up and toss him overboard when Stede asks his terms.
Izzy says winner stays on the ship.
And the loser is killed.
The crew gasps. Ed begs Stede to refuse. Wee John and Jim offer to just kill Izzy outright. Lucius hides his face in his hands.
But Stede, high on the adrenaline of reuniting with Ed, accepts. He's bested Izzy twice and surely he can do it again! In fact, he privately decides that when he wins, because he truly believes that he will, that he'll just tie Izzy up and dump him at port.
So they get into their stances, swords held high and the duel commences. The crew cheers for Stede as he slashes and advances on Izzy, who's taken the defensive position and for a moment, Steds begins to feel sort of proud.
Because he's winning. He knew those lessons from Oluwande and Roach would help him! He begins advancing more and more, cutting Izzy off at every turn and backing him into a corner.
And just as Stede is about to knock the sword from Izzy's hand, he catches the confused look from Ivan and Fang. They're staring at Izzy... like something's wrong.
So Stede pulls back, allowing Izzy to advance and...
Then he realizes. Just to check, he raises his sword and swings his sword to cut across Izzy's face, making sure his move is so obvious and slow that even a child could parry it-- and there!
As soon as Stede's arm moves, there's a small twitch under Izzy's eye-- he's seen the attack coming but his sword doesn't move to even block it. In fact, Izzy waits until the absolute last second to parry and doesn't take the opportunity to advance.
Stede can't believe it. He doesn't want to. So again and again, he swings wildly, like an amateur and every time, Izzy lets him get so close to actually hurting him before he blocks or parries or dodges. Stede stops, frozen, when Izzy lets the tip of Stede's sword cut a thin line across his face.
But again, Izzy does nothing. Absolutely nothing!
Stede can feel a pit growing in his stomach. The cheers from the crew have quieted as Stede waits and waits and waits for anything, any attack. He's wide open, Izzy could easily rip the sword from his hand at any moment. But Izzy doesn't move an inch.
Stede feels sick.
This is a fight to the death.
And Izzy is losing on purpose.
So this could go any way. Preferably towards Steddyhands. Please. Please God please please please steddyhands steddyhands steddyha
#ofmd#our flags mean death#fic prompt#prompts#angst#h/c#stede bonnet#edward teach#izzy hands#steddyhands#steddy hands#i don't know how to do line breaks#i dont think u can#pleas steddy need please pease plea
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Guess who's already working on OFMD S2 Fix It Fic?
Death is not kind.
First, it’s pain. Izzy never minded pain, but when the numbing darkness comes, Izzy welcomes it. He fades out to the quiet sounds of Ed, Eddie, weeping. Cold starts in his extremities, in his toes and fingers, and spreads up his body until the only points of warmth are Ed’s arms around him. There’s yelling, a burst of pain in his chest, and then—
Death is not the nothing Izzy hoped for. It’s a constant, confusing chorus of sensation. Initially, the sensations seem rather unimportant. The gentle rolling motion melding with a fuzzy prickle of something at the back of his consciousness reminds him of his younger years, sleeping off a dogwatch in his hammock with his ship creaking and groaning around him. There’s a weak thrumming in his ears. He finds it almost calming; he clings to it.
But then the pressure in his chest begins. It builds and builds, roaring over him like waves pounding at the shore. Every gentle roll makes him want to cry out, but his throat hurts. He’s thirsty. Christ, he’s thirsty. Izzy tries to cry out, tries to beg for water, but he can’t seem to find his body.
There’s noise in Death. A constant drumming at the back of his brain overlaid with words that pass through him, some furious, some desperate. Izzy tries to hang onto them, but he only manages to grasp bits and pieces.
“...infected…”
“No! No! You…”
“...not healing! He needs…”
“...little wooden boy.”
“Fuck!”
“...lose him!”
Death jolts his entire body, making Izzy let out a soundless scream. He hurts. He hurts, and Death doesn’t even have the decency to be sweet about it. The pressure is obliterating, burning him through as light pours into his skull, whiting him out.
Izzy screams into the whiteness.
Hands cup his face. Points of warmth on his cheek. “Izzy! Shit, shit, shit, shit!”
Ed? Eddie? Is he here? Izzy remembers killing him. He wants to weep. Maybe he is. There’s wetness on his cheeks. The pressure on his chest increases, and Izzy fades back into the darkness.
Light fades in and out. Izzy dreams he’s lying in a rowboat, drifting towards shore. Death is there with him. Izzy can sense it lurking on the other side of his eyelids. He tries to pull back his lips and show some teeth, but he can’t manage more than a sneer. A hard thump vibrates Izzy’s body, and the drifting stops. He can smell silica, sulfide, and damp organic matter—sand—and then he’s lifted up, swaying weightlessly, and the sweet, sharp smell of grass floods his senses. Death has brought him to shore. Izzy tries to thrash. It’s wrong, completely and totally fucking wrong. He belongs to the sea.
“What the fuck?!”
A woman’s voice. Unfamiliar and furious. Izzy sympathizes; he’s pretty fucking furious too.
“Mary, please, he’s dying!”
That’s Stede, Izzy realizes. Of course. Not even Death can overcome Stede fucking Bonnet.
“Bon-net,” Izzy tries. His throat is so dry, and his mouth can’t quite manage the nuh and gives up completely at the final plosive. The weak thumping in his ears crescendos, stutters, and throbs. It’s his heartbeat, Izzy realizes, and that’s when the panic starts.
“Oh, fucking— Doug! Get the…”
Because if he’s alive, if Izzy’s fucking alive, that means—
There’s a needle prick in Izzy’s neck, and everything goes quiet.
The next thing Izzy hears is the cry of a seagull. His eyes snap open.
#our flag means death#ofmd s2 spoilers#izzy hands#How we feeling mates#because i am unwell#auntie c writes#fic in progress#sorry gus i know i promised you broadchurch#but the season 2 finale came for me and I am choosing violence
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I cannot believe that I will see him again. In two months. And PERHAPS he will even be in a different little outfit for some of it
#ed and stede have so many wardrobe changes.... i just want to see izzy in comfy clothes#some black linen breeches mayhaps#though i know the only reason he'd EVER wear comfy clothes is if they c** *** *** ***t#and that would only be out of necessity#sorry for being unhinged in thee tags on main#ofmd spoilers#not really but just to be safe#izzy hands
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I love that we saw one (1) pair of tits and collectively went insane over this man (if we weren't already), never understimate their power
[ID: A digital sketch of Izzy Hands from Our Flag Means Death. He is shirtless and being kissed by a stick figure. Above his shoulder "Izzy" is written, while "the fandom" is written above the stick figure. End ID]
#Izzy Hands#ofmd#our flag means death#I swear to god this man's arc#I have been enjoying his character so much in season 2#This is me drawing t h r i c e a day when I usually can't draw anything for months#I am simply fascinated by this wet cat turned empress of slayandia#my art#Kyber Bonsai
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transgender izzy hands does NOT have top surgery. and post
#that’s because cisgender con o’neill has god damn C cups#them thangs are THANGING#our flag means death#izzy hands#casper screams into the void
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Izzy-centric, any ships — Izzy gives up, his body gives out
At some point, Izzy reaches his breaking point and just stops fighting. Maybe it's the reunion, maybe Ed tells Izzy he's not needed/wanted, maybe the kraken burns away Izzy's X tattoo/take his ring. Maybe Izzy is no longer first mate.
In any case, the final straw, Izzy stops fighting. And it was really only the fight that was keeping him running. Old battle injuries, sore muscles, maybe infection to the toe. Once Izzy isn't fighting anymore he straight up collapses, his body gives out. He doesn't have the willpower left to keep on like this.
Angst, sickfic, hurt/comfort, character death. Do with this idea what you will.
Fill: Amends [Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5] [TW: Suicidal Ideation, Body Horror]
#TW: Death#C: Israel “Izzy” Hands#P: General | No Pairing#T: Angst#T: Sick Fic#T: Injury#T: Hurt Comfort#T: Hurt No Comfort#Fill: Complete#General | No Pairings Fills
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Stede being good at braiding Ed's hair because he used to do Alma's 🤝 Izzy being good at braiding Alma's hair because he used to do Edward's
#ofmd#stede bonnet#edward teach#izzy hands#alma bonnet#ofmd headcanon#hands in his hair is Ed's 18th c antidepressant okay#o
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Continued from here. @indestructiblelittlefuckers
❝I know how it sounds... but I did open a cupboard on my face.❞
It takes Izzy a moment to respond to that, wanting to make sure he heard that right. "You opened a-... are you fuckin' serious, Bonnet?" Truly, though, he wasn't all that surprised about it. Because Stede could be really fucking clumsy. Sometimes it was funny as hell, other times it was concerning. "And still to this day, Bonnet, you fascinate me." He smirks, making his way over to the other man and gently cupping his face in his hand, tilting it back and then turning it to the side so he could get a good look at it. "How you injure yourself in ways like this will never cease to amaze me." It was half a compliment, half an insult, though he wishes Stede hurt himself a little less. "Honestly? I would've run the fucker through if someone did this to you." And he meant it, too. He'd run anyone through that dared lay a hand on his Pretty Bonnet. "Now go sit down, you twat, and let me clean you. You're still bleedin' a little." He nods to the chair, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips before he goes to fetch some ointment and a washcloth.
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