Izzy knew how important his last moments were with Edward. They say your life flashes before your eyes just before your death. Well, Izzy saw a life full of love stunted by fear and trauma and repression. And he needed Ed to know that he had seen that he was growing and changing before Stede even came into the picture, but he was afraid. So he kept pushing the darkest parts of Ed.
Izzy needed Blackbeard to be who he was, because as much as Blackbeard was a creation to protect a traumatized and vulnerable Ed in a vicious world, it also became something Izzy needed to protect himself. Hiding behind his ruthless and bold captain, because he too couldn't handle the idea of being vulnerable. Of showing his feelings.
But then, increasingly over the time on the Revenge and desperately so in his dying moments, he realized that Ed needs to let that go to survive. And in those moments telling him to let that be. Izzy went from being so repulsed and afraid of Ed’s vulnerability because it threatened his own walls, to recognizing that it is the thing that will allow Ed to live without him and not end up dead within the fucking week.
And most importantly to their relationship, Izzy knew that Ed has spent decades hiding away in locked rooms while sobbing alone because he couldn't stomach the vulnerability and the open hurt. And then we, Ed, and the crew see Izzy watch Ed sob in broad daylight on deck, and he smiles and essentially tells Ed, “I see you. This is you. Thank god you’re here. Thank god I get to see the man I was so afraid of all my life in my last moments. Thank god I don’t have to die in Blackbeard's arms. Cold and angry and yelling for revenge. I get to go out with family.”
"There he is" goes from being taunting and cruel to being so warm and earnest and full of genuine vulnerable love.
If Izzy Hands taught Ed everything he knew about how to be a pirate, Ed (and Stede and the crew of the Revenge) taught Izzy everything he knew about love. And he got to show him that.
581 notes
·
View notes
i’m real fucked up about this scene y’all
look at izzy immediately after ed grins at his quip.
even when ed loves someone else, (a strange, naive man with inane ideas of the seafaring life), all of it being very visibly more than izzy’s own i loved you, best i could —
even when iz has to invoke the memory of someone else in order to make ed crack a smile —
he will do what it takes time and again, even at great personal injury, to make sure edward teach is happy. to make sure that, even if izzy never speaks of his feelings outright again, he can at least wrap ed in small moments of levity to ease the heaviness of it all…
regardless what you think about the relationship between izzy and ed: this is love. deeply felt, enduringly beautiful, and fucking devestating.
ow. ow. fuckity ow.
gif by @izzyfag
463 notes
·
View notes
Red lipstick got you beggin’ for a kiss 💄💋
(This one is an idea from Twitter again based on the photo below:)
237 notes
·
View notes
no dynamic is superior to
Ed: Iz.... 🥺 👉 �� are we okay? Like, you've seriously forgiven me for all that shit I did to you?
Izzy: yeah
Ed: ....really truly? 🥹
Izzy: I deserved all of it, so we're fine lmao
Ed: NO
346 notes
·
View notes