#izzy was buried alive | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

andsomemaniacgotridofthewheel · 5 months

Text

Ok, so I've asked you how you think David Jenkins will bring Con O'Neill / Izzy Hands back if there is a season 3.

Now I'm asking:

(Don't worry about how likely or realistic or logical your choice would be, or about what DJenks said.)

158 notes · View notes

treesofgreen · 4 months

Text

It's the unabashed hypocrisy from (so many people in) the wider fandom that's the most upsetting. You all were horrible to us when Izzy died - you doubled down on the character hate, you mocked us, you told us it was just a tv show and to get over it already (that I had to make a post not even 36 hours post finale assuring people it was alright to still be upset speaks volumes, "we gave you space to grieve" is a flat out lie), you told us that there were other queer characters and other shows and S2 ended SO WELL and SO HAPPILY and tied up everything SO PERFECTLY just in case! (*wink wink nudge nudge* because it's not like anything is going to ever go wrong for YOU. You like the RIGHT characters best. You're PURE).

And now you're doing all that and I felt truly sorry for that "rug pulled out from under me" feeling because hey, a bunch of us were there months ago, not that you cared, but it sucks. It really sucks. It sucks they killed Izzy like that. It sucks the show was cancelled. I hope it gets another chance. But mostly I hope some of you gain the tiniest shred of self-awareness and compassion from this experience.

PS - I signed the petition before S2 aired because the Canyon was already working on renewal then and the campaign was able to take off so quickly when the news hit because of their hard work (along with others, but you all literally bullied one of the dedicated leaders off twitter in November with your cruelty so congrats)

#'the cancellation with ed and stede alive and together is the real bury your gays' jfc #if this doesn't apply to you i'm not talking about you #any one else just block me already if i haven't blocked you yet #ofmd #izzy hands #fandom critical #the izcourse

123 notes · View notes

lesbos-crossings · 6 months

Text

izzy stans…how we. how we doi— *GUNSHOTS*

#ik it’s about the symbolism but god why #he could’ve been the inn’s dog or something it could’ve WORKED #my delusional ass thinking of ways he could be alive when his body is buried in the ground #izzy hands #ofmd #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #my posts

25 notes · View notes

vocesincaput · 5 months

Text

OPEN STARTER: Izzy Hands

Each and every night for over a week, a seagull would land upon the makeshift at the head of a grave. Until one night, the top layer of earth began to shift, the disturbance in the soil growing more and more until fingers could be seen clawing out.

Frantic fingers became hands, became arms until finally the mans face appeared with gasps for air. Coughing up dirt that had filled his throat and nose as he dragged himself out from beneath the ground to lay sprawled out on the ground beside where his body had once led.

Confused, delirious, Izzy managed to sit himself up enough to cough up the rest of the dirt before looking around. It took a moment for his eyes to focus. Nothing around him looked remotely familiar. Not the coastline, not the rundown looking cabin behind him... not until his eyes fell upon what sat at the head of where he climbed out of.

The wooden leg the crew made for him.

Izzy frowned as he looked at it, noting the piece of wood attached to it. His brow furrowed and he looked down at himself and then at the earth he just dragged himself out of. The realisation was slow until suddenly the memory of it came rushing back to him, making him close his eyes and hold his head.

He had died...

He had died on the Revenge's deck with Ed over him. It was still a little bit hazy but he remember what had happened. But it just made the former first mate more confused and he looked down at himself. How was he alive? How was this possible?

Izzy's mind ran through so many things all at once before settling on Ed and the crew... He could only imagine what they must be going through with all the hell Ricky seemed to want to bring down on them all.

Izzy didn't even think about how they would coping with his death. If they had not buried him at sea like anyone who lived their life upon it deserved and instead an unfamiliar location with none of them around... he must not have meant as much to any of them as he thought that he was starting to. Sighing at the thought, the former first mate ran his hands over his face before looking back out over the view, lit by the pale moonlight.

If they had buried him in such a place, they were all better off not knowing he was alive once more. They must have made their peace with it if they had abandoned him in a grave, they didn't need to know. And so after removing the piece of wood from his wooden leg, Izzy strapped it on and struggled to his feet before heading off into the night.

Izzy was alone now. He couldn't go back to life he had once lived, not if everyone was to believe he was still dead. He had to start anew.

After walking through the night and into the early hours of the morning as the sun rose on the horizon, Izzy encountered two people asleep beside the burnt out embers of a campfire. Moving as quietly as he could, he slid a knife out of the sheath next to one of them before making quick work of killing both and hiding their bodies. Returning to their campfire, the former first mate got it going again slightly before changing out of his dirtied and bloodied leathers into some of the clothing he found at the camp.

Knowing that he would need to look different if he was going to go unnoticed, Izzy sat beside the campfire and took the knife once more. Slowly and carefully cutting off his hair until it was in a far shorter style than he had ever worn. The feel of it strange beneath his fingers as he ran his hand through the short strands. He smirked sadly before carefully using the knife to shave off his beard. Leaving just the moustache.

Afterwards, he ate some of the food supplies and tried to think of a plan to do next. As if was lost in thought, Izzy's eyes settled upon the golden unicorn leg.

That... was definitely something that was going to have to change.

Even after having buried where he had and feeling abandoned and unwanted by the crew, Izzy couldn't bring himself to just throw it away. So, he worked at removing the leg from the harness and placed it into a bag that was sat next to where one of the men had been sleeping. He then took a piece of wood from what he assumed was supplies for the fire and began to whittle and carve away for a few hours until it resembled something that would work as a leg. Attaching it to the harness, Izzy thought about how he had had to relearn to do most things with the unicorn leg and sighed.

He couldn't dwell on the past. Not now.

After packing what supplies he could into the small bag, Izzy headed off again. Walking for far longer than he should with his wooden leg until he came upon a small village. After talking with a man in the inn there, giving him the name of Hes (short for Hesikia, a family name), he managed to get a room in exchange for work in the inn.

Some time passed and Izzy settled in at the Inn. Working various jobs around the place, mostly repairing what he could. Whenever any people would come in that he knew were pirates, Izzy would slip out of sight. Giving an excuse that it brought back memories of how he lost his leg after his former home had been attacked by pirates. Even with his shorter hair and no beard, he knew some may still recognise him and would definitely recognise his voice.

It was the middle of the day and Izzy was working on repairing a chair leg whilst sat at the back of the inn, mostly out of sight, when he heard a voice that made him still completely. Breath catching in his throat.

He knew that voice...

Swallowing, the former first mate looked out from where he was sat. Instantly recognising who it was. Cursing under his breath and knowing that he could easily be seen and possibly still recognised, Izzy got up and, as carefully and quietly as he could, began to make his way to the door that led to the backstairs up his room. He needed to get out of there for a few hours. Out of sight until the familiar face had left.

Making it up to his room, Izzy closed the door and moved over to the window. Glancing out to check if he could sneak out onto the small balcony and away. He was just about to climb out of the window when there was a sharp knock at his door.

#ic #muse: izzy hands #verse: izzy hands : new life #non rp blogs do not interact #non rp blogs dni #non rp blogs will be blocked #non mutuals do not interact #death mention cw #cw death mention #buried alive tw #tw: buried alive #tw buried alive #//please continue in a new post #//as it helps me keep track of things easier #//so apparently Hesikia is another possible name he was known by alongside Basilica #//please do not feel as if you need to match the length #//i got carried away with 1164 words.... lol #open starter: izzy hands #open starter

4 notes · View notes

izzy-b-hands · 6 months

Text

ya ever start a fic draft of vaguely angsty slightly smutty post false death/being buried alive situation and then suddenly go

oh. oh is that what that is? in regards to your own sensation seeking post near death experiences

because i just have. That's Something lmao

#text post #i need work to tell me wtf we're doing today too my brain is cagey and wants to know what's happening #instead im writing izzy getting affectionately dicked down while ed and stede work to make up for burying him alive #on accident but like. still. they're aware even as self centered as they can be that that was A Big Fuck Up lmao #but if that work email would like to come thru while i type up izzy purposefully letting coffee burn his tongue #and letting himself accidentally nearly hurt himself in other ways to make himself feel he's fully alive #then that would be absolutely fuckin fab #lmao they sent it as i was typing this. okay. lovely coincidence time to go read it and see what they're up to for today

3 notes · View notes

adzeisval · 6 months

Text

Buried Alive

Stede finds himself in a tight spot. Also on AO3.

Stede knew something was wrong. His head felt funny and he didn’t know where he was or how he had gotten there. Stede opened his eyes, blinked and frowned. He couldn’t see anything. He lifted his hand to feel his face but didn’t reach it; his hand hit against something.

“No, no, no,” Stede mumbled as he felt around. He couldn’t move much and everywhere he felt there was wood and sand. He kicked his feet and felt the same thing. He could lift his head only a little before touching wood.

A coffin. He was in a fucking coffin and he was buried in the sand.

Stede tried to stay calm. He only had so much air right? That’s how that worked right? Stede felt like crying. He forced himself to think; how had he gotten there? Had he been taken? Had he been wounded and the crew thought he was dead and buried him?

No. The crew knew he wanted to be buried at sea. They wouldn’t stick him in a coffin in the sand. He had to have been kidnapped. There was probably a ransom. Ed and Izzy would stop at nothing to find him and all he had to do was stay calm and wait to be found.

Easier said than done.

He was aware of every breath he took and hoped that he wasn’t breathing too fast and that his friends had time to rescue him. They wouldn’t leave him to die. He knew that. Edward would tear through the seven seas until he found Stede and Izzy…Izzy was capable of an insane amount of violence to protect his family.

They were going to find him.

Stede focused on breathing slowly and tried to remember who had taken him and where they had been. The last thing he remembered was sailing away from Barbados and talking to Ed about needing to get more marmalade.

After that nothing.

There had to be a ransom. No one would bury him alive if they didn’t expect some sort of reward. Though they had been very stupid in thinking that Edward was going to just submit and give them money. Not without memorizing their names and where they were going so that once Stede was safe they could exact their revenge.

Stede didn’t know how long he’d been in the coffin or how long he had before he was in danger of suffocation. He didn’t know how much time was passing. It was so hard to know anything in the small dark place.

Stede took a deep breath and it felt like it wasn’t enough. He tried not to panic but… it was getting harder to breathe. His head was starting to hurt and he couldn’t get a good breath of air.

Too late, they were going to get to him too late. By the time anyone got to him he was going to be dead. It was going to destroy Edward. Probably Izzy too. He would never see any of them again. He wouldn’t get to see his kids again.

Stede’s chest felt tight and he tried to take even breaths but it was hard, so very very hard. The air was stale and hot and not enough.

Stede thought he might have heard something. Maybe they were digging to get to him. He didn’t know how deep he was buried. If they were there how long was it going to take to get to him.

“Please hurry,” Stede said, though no one could hear him. His chest hurt, breathing felt useless. He needed air.

He was…he was dying. He was going to die.

Stede didn’t want to die. He didn’t want Edward to find his body. He didn’t want to hurt Edward. He couldn’t quite remember the last thing he’d said to Edward. Had he told Edward he loved him recently? Had he kissed him? Was the last thing he said something loving? It most likely was. And he was going to think the last thing Ed said was something loving as well.

No air. There was no air. Fuck it hurt.

There was noise from above. Was there noise from above? He wasn’t sure. His mind felt like it was full of cloth.

Please hurry, he thought and at the moment he wasn’t sure whether he wanted them to find him or whether he wanted to be done with dying.

Stede was scared. He didn’t really want to die but it hurt, it fucking hurt.

Suddenly there was bright light and air and Stede thought for a moment that he had died. Didn’t people see a bright light when they were dying?

Stede blinked and gasped for air and as things came back into focus he realized what was going on.

“Just breathe love, just breathe,” Ed said and Stede realized he was in Ed’s arms. He looked around and saw several of the crew panting and holding shovels. Stede smiled. They had come for him. They had tried their best and he was alive because of it.

“Ed…”

“I’m here Stede, you’re alright.”

Stede breathed and held onto Ed and he started to feel better with every breath he took.

“I…I think I’m alright,” Stede said.

“Can you stand?”

Stede nodded and let Edward help him stand and get out of the grave, “What happened.”

“You were kidnapped. Pirate hunters. Wanted money.”

“Did you pay?”

“No, tortured the information out of them. Ugh, heads up you might not want to ask Izzy exactly what he did.”

“Noted.”

As they approached the ship Stede saw Izzy pacing back and forth and looking like he wanted to murder someone. When he saw Stede he visibly relaxed.

“I’m alright Izzy,” Stede said, “Thank you.”

Izzy nodded, “It’s good to see you.”

Stede gave Izzy a short hug, the most Izzy was comfortable with outside of the Captain’s cabin. In that moment curiosity got the better of him.

“How did you get the information out of them?”

“Cut them open and hung them by their intestines,” Izzy said.

“Eugh,” Stede made a noise and felt a little ill. Ed was right, he shouldn’t have asked.

#whumptober2023 #no.25 #buried alive #ofmd #fic #stede bonnet #edward teach #izzy hands

5 notes · View notes

queerly-autistic · 3 months

Text

You really can't engage meaningfully with Ed's story in S2 without firmly centring his mental illness and suicidality, because that's inherently what the story is: it's the story of a man having a severe mental breakdown and going to increasingly erratic extremes in order to achieve his end goal, which is to not be alive anymore...and then it's the story of his recovery from that.

And so much of my frustration with the way I see this being talked about (or, in many cases, not being talked about) reflects my more general frustration with how we talk about mental illness and neurodivergence, so buckle in because this got long (also I am going to be discussing suicide here, as well as very brief mentions of psychosis and ocd, so please take care). There's this trend when we talk about mental health: we go 'oh mental illness isn't an excuse' or 'mental illness doesn't make you do bad things' or variations thereof. These are, in my opinion, some of the worst things to ever happen to the discourse around mental illness. It's reductive. Absolutely mental illness can lead you to do things that you would not have otherwise done, even things that you would be absolutely appalled by, if you were mentally well. What do you think mental illness is if it's not something that impacts your brain and how your brain functions? If your mental illness doesn't directly lead to problematic behaviour, then that's fantastic, but that experience is not universal. It's not an 'excuse' - it's an explanation for certain behaviours that's vitally important to acknowledge and understand in order to try and mitigate harm.

There's also this thing that happens with discourse around mental illness where we assume that what you do in the grips of mental illness is reflective of something that's innate inside you. You were violent whilst in the middle of psychosis? Oh, it's because you're an innately abusive person and this just reveals who you really are. You have Tourette's and one of your tics is a racial slur? Oh, it's because you're an innately racist person and this just reveals who you really are. Your OCD is rooted in a fear that you're going to murder your family? Oh, it's because you inherently do want to murder your family and this just reveals who you really are. It's bullshit. What you do in your mentally ill state is not some deep philosophical reflection of your true character, and the idea that it is is something that causes really deep, dangerous harm to mentally ill and neurodivergent people.

So, now that that's over with, back to Ed.

Ed was behaving in ways that were acknowledged in canon as being extremely out of character whilst in the midst of a severe breakdown. Fang himself said that he'd 'never' seen Ed behave this way; even Izzy, who actively pushed for Ed to embody the extremes of his Blackbeard persona, ended up concerned because it became so extreme and out of character that it was impossible not to be concerned by it. The crew who mutinied on Izzy within a day didn't mutiny on him for months, not until their lives literally depended on it, because it's heavily insinuated that they were hoping he would get better. Because this wasn't the Ed that they knew (the Ed that we came to know in S1 - an inherently soft man who is caught in a culture of violence and is tired of it).

The show wasn't subtle about this. It didn't bury the lead. As well as the constant reminders that he was acting out of character in increasingly alarming ways, this was very clearly depicted as a breakdown, an almost total collapse of Ed's mental health. We saw Ed detached and numb and completely dissociated from the world around him. We saw him in private moments of despair, breaking down. We saw him behaving erratically in the grips of mania. We saw him display absolutely textbook warning signs of someone whose made the decision to die by suicide. We saw him smile and say 'finally' at the moment when he knew he was going to die.

The show basically painted a giant neon sign over his head flashing 'THIS MAN IS EXTREMELY UNWELL' in bright lights, and if you miss that, then it's because you're deliberately avoiding looking properly.

(And, important to note, that most of the people that I've watched the show with outside of fandom discourse absolutely took away from these episodes what the show was intending - they saw how unwell Ed was, they were devastated for him, and they desperately wanted him to get better.)

When Ed steered the ship into the storm, and threatened to put a cannonball through the mast, his clear goal was to create a situation where the crew had no choice but to kill him. I've seen people describe this scene as Ed 'trying to hurt the crew', and I think that's very much a misrepresentation of what the show was depicting. It was very blatantly a suicide attempt. He wanted to die, and he didn't care what he had to do in order for him to achieve that goal. That doesn't make it good behaviour, and it doesn't mean people didn't get hurt, but it does make it a very different situation than if causing harm had been his main intent.

There is a fundamental difference between 'he is doing this because he explicitly wants to cause harm to the people around him' and 'he's doing this because he's suicidal and beyond the point of being able to rationally consider who might be getting hurt in the process of ensuring that he ends up dead'. One of those is a bad person who enjoys causing pain - and the other is a deeply unwell person who can be supported and helped to recover and be better (and should be, for the good of themselves and the people around them).

And on that note, the failure to engage with this as a mental health story is also, I think, why I've seen some people get so upset about the show not doing Ed's redemption arc 'right' - because this isn't a redemption arc, and it's not trying to be. One day I'll do a separate post about how much I love that the show explicitly rejected a carceral approach, opting to essentially put him through community rehabilitation rather than punishing him, and even mocking punitive prescriptive measures (that rubbish youtuber apology speech was supposed to be rubbish and unhelpful), but that's one for another day.

The fact is that the show is telling a story about mental illness, and that inherently means that Ed's arc is a recovery arc, not a redemption arc. And if you're expecting a redemption arc, then you've fundamentally misunderstood the story that they're telling (and the revolutionary kindness at the heart of the show).

I have a lot of feelings about this because I genuinely believe that it was one of the best depictions of mental illness and suicidality that I've ever seen. Within the confines of it being a half hour, eight episode comedy show, they told a story about mental illness that was surprisingly realistic (with the obvious fantastical over the top elements of it being a pirate show - and piracy is explicitly depicted as a culture where violence is heavily normalised), and that didn't shy away from the messier, darker, more complex elements of mental illness (particularly of being suicidal).

And then, most importantly, after all that, the show took me gently by the hand said 'you are not defined by what you do in your lowest moment - you can make amends, you can recover, you are still loved, and you are worth saving'.

#cw suicide #cw suicidal ideation #cw mental illness #cw ocd #cw psychosis #i'm tagging all the things just in case someone has them muted for their own wellbeing #ofmd #our flag means death #edward teach #ofmd meta #mental illness #neurodivergence #erin rants

160 notes · View notes

jaskierx · 6 months

Text

so there's been a lot of posting about things like ofmd not being a 'kind show' and no longer being 'the queer joy show' etc etc and. i just want to remind us of where everybody is in s1's finale vs s2's

let us begin

stede: stede ends s1 on a hopeful note (setting off to go get his man) but shortly prior to that he's kind of been through it (he nearly got executed and then two different people tried to murder him). stede ends s2 on an even more hopeful note, having got his man, ready to open an inn with him. verdict: slightly better off at the end of s2

ed: ed ends s1 in absolute despair. izzy has been a real dick to ed (depending on your interpretation, he's done something ranging from being a little tiny bit mean to ed to calling him a slur and threatening to kill him, but we're not having this discourse again) so now he's back in his blackbeard persona mere days after feeling some hope that he was finally free from piracy and ready to run away with someone who loves him for who he is. the last shot we see of s1 ed is him absolutely crying his eyes out in the bed nook. it inflicts d4 psychic damage on me whenever i look at it. anyway at the end of s2 he's been on an absolute journey, he's learned that he's loved, he's free from being blackbeard, he's stood beside the man that loves him and they're going to give everything a go. verdict: significantly better off at the end of s2

stede's crew: i mean. what is there to say. at the end of s1 they've just been marooned and social order on their little island is rapidly breaking down due to buttons and roach teaming up to try and eat the swede. at the end of s2 they're happily back at sea and the swede has spanish jackie to fight off anyone who would even consider having a nibble. verdict: significantly better off at the end of s2

honourable mention - buttons: ends s1 unsuccessfully trying to eat the swede. ends s2 having fulfilled his life's dream of becoming a bird. good job buttons. verdict: slightly better off at the end of s2

ed's crew: as above, the crew end s2 happily sailing away into the literal sunset. we finish s1 with jim presumably unconscious and izzy pointing a gun at frenchie. so not an ideal situation really. fang seems to be having a good time though and ivan gets killed off between seasons (rip king) so it averages out at a slightly better rather than a significantly better. verdict: slightly better off at the end of s2

honourable mention - frenchie: ends s1 hoisting his flag at gunpoint. ends s2 captaining the bloody ship. go frenchie. we love to see it. verdict: significantly better off at the end of s2

lucius: ends s1 soggy. ends s2 not only dry, but married. verdict: significantly better off at the end of s2

izzy: ah yes this old chestnut. so. two perspectives here. one is simply that he ends s1 alive and ends s2 dead. so. possible verdict: significantly worse off at the end of s2. alternatively, he ends s1 as his classic repressed self, smiling from ear to ear because ed cut his toe off and it sparked joy, disliked by the crew, resented by ed. he ends s2 having accepted himself and having experienced all the queer joy he would never have permitted himself in s1, having experienced more screentime and growth than any other secondary character in s2 (yes he's a secondary character no i won't argue with you about this), and dies exactly as he lived - being a pirate who can pull off a plan. he gets to have his deathbed deep and meaningful conversation with ed, which brings closure to them both. he gets buried beside ed and stede's new inn, on land where his grave will be tended, having been given a nice funeral by people who once despised him. so. possible verdict: slightly better off at the end of s2. he definitely seemed happier in s2, and died at peace rather than as a frothing little ball of anger, which is more than i could've foreseen in s1.

anyway. the eagle eyed mathematicians among you will notice that even if we take it as read that izzy is significantly worse off at the end of s2...

every single other character ends s2 in a better place than where they ended s1.

ofmd is a kind show that's full to the brim of queer joy. you guys are just sad that your fave died. and that's fine. the writers did a great job creating a story with characters that were so well written that people are genuinely grieving izzy's death.

but his death does not erase the inherent kindness and joy of the rest of the show.

anyway thanks for reading. i had fun playing with the tumblr post editor settings. by which i mean changing the text colour was unreasonably difficult and now i am stressed

#ofmd #izzy hands #the izcourse #lyse.jpg

196 notes · View notes

stizzysupremacy · 3 months

Text

post-canon Stizzy concept: Izzy showing up at the inn like a year later (maybe he never got gut-shot . I like the idea that he faked his death). Ed is gone, having gotten bored enough to have himself another little menty b and has fucked off to follow a new whim, some new life path that Stede had no interest in walking. (so they broke up. Again.) Stede is now running more of a boarding house instead of an inn because of course those two losers chose a rundown shack in a sparsely populated area that does not have enough people passing through to sustain an inn. Stede’s kinda quietly surviving, doing an okay job of it, and convincing himself that it’s the right place for him because obviously his grand adventures at sea didn’t work out for him so it’s time to stop dreaming big. A monotonous existence isn’t so bad, really… is it? At least he isn’t leaving dead bodies in his wake anymore. (Yeah… he is doing Not Good)

Izzy has to convince Stede that he’s not useless. That he’s actually, sigh, a pretty good Captain by certain standards. Imagine Izzy trying to walk the line between his own stoic reticence, and actually saying nice encouraging things to the man that he hasn’t hated in a long time but is still so used to insulting. Izzy wasn’t even good at hyping up Ed who he legitimately adored admired. But fucks sake, he can’t let Stede just spiral into hopelessness, bury himself alive on land when Izzy knows that Stede has a sailor’s soul (even if he knows piss-all about proper sailing).

So Izzy stays at the boarding house. Maybe it’s fully booked because it’s tiny and can’t possibly have more than like a couple rooms, so Izzy has to stay with Stede. (#onlyonebed) In classic Stede fashion Stede does not ever talk out his problems and actively avoids the subject when Izzy tries to… so Izzy has to move slowly to gain Stede’s trust and bring the man out of himself. He helps out around the place (quietly doing the chores Ed used to bitch loudly about), supports Stede in his interactions with other people, even is actually polite to the other guests when Stede asks him not to scare anyone off. (Izzy wishes he had thought of that. If he had just scared ppl off immediately it would be easier to convince Stede to leave an empty ‘inn’). They spend many an evening in each other’s company, and obviously they talk. Bonner isn’t going to shut up entirely, even if he won’t talk about what matters. They get to know each other really well actually. Stede never felt a need to impress Izzy the way he was desperate to impress the famous Blackbeard. and Izzy isn’t like Ed, he doesn’t mold his personality to the people he is with, so he doesn’t share Ed’s insecurity about being liked or disliked for his real self. So there’s really no reason for either of them to hold back or hide anything. Neither of them could have guessed how easy it was, how comfortable they were able to be with each other. How well they mesh when they don’t have the task of managing Ed or the pressures of surviving a sea-faring life to get between them.

Also this mildly-depressed-Stede has let his beard and hair grow out and that really does something for Izzy.

#stizzy #gentlehands

111 notes · View notes

sky-fire-forever · 6 months

Text

Okay, a lot of people are calling Izzy Bury Your Gays or saying the show is saying certain kind of queers don't deserve a happy ending and I absolutely disagree with those takes. Plus, not all queer media has to have a happy ending for every single queer character

That being said, I... hated Izzy's death narratively. The tonal whiplash of having the wedding immediately follow it aside, the death just felt... so disconnected from his actual arc

Him saying "I want to go" after having a whole arc of surviving a suicide attempt and finding a community that loves him and who he loved in return feels.... so fucking weird? The way the crew who did so much for him to keep him alive just kinda... stand around as he dies?

Like, I understand the symbolism. Hecwas a pirate at his core and the Golden Age of Piracy is over. It works symbolically.

But symbolism still has to make sense for the actual character and story. He is a character and a symbol. He can't throw away his character arc just because of symbolism or it's still gonna be unsatisfying

Like it was genuinely just an incredibly unsatisfying end to his arc. For him to have a speech about how piracy is his community, how it's his family, and then... the age of piracy is over. If we're going for symbolism, what does it mean that the symbol of piracy dies immediately after piracy is said to be a symbol of queer community?

It just falls flat to me. It feels like they were so focused on the Themes and Symbolism that they forgot they had actual characters to write.

And the tonal whiplash is... so much. Like Izzy barely gets to be mourned. Ed barely seems upset afterwards. And everyone just kinda moves on and no one really seems all that upset despite Izzy having such an arc about how he matters to the crew

I dunno. It just felt... unsatisfying. That's the best way I can describe it

#izzy hands #ofmd #ofmd spoilers #our flag means death #our flag means death spoilers

183 notes · View notes

sarucane · 5 months

Text

Stede Bonnet's Stories (S1)

My favorite theme (right now) in OFMD is storytelling, and how the characters' stories shape the narrative and one another. In OFMD, stories are how people connect to one another. How they figure out their place in the world around them, how they form communities, how they grow and change. Because stories are also how the characters come to understand themselves.

In the first season, Stede is the loudest and most determined storyteller of them all. He's literally paying someone to follow him around and write his story; he's built the entire ship and outfitted it to create a certain story; he's wearing mad, impractical clothes in a harsh climate to express his personality.

On the one hand, this is a dumb thing to do. The crew can't read the library he's provided for them; his clothes (and incompetence) make his first "raid" a disaster; the pirates are plotting mutiny very quickly indeed. And his attempts to "toughen up" wind up nearly burying the crew in a larger, imperial story of race and class.

On the other hand, it's an immensely brave thing to do. Stede doesn't really try to be "like Blackbeard." He doesn't disguise his accent, wear ugly clothes, or make an example of someone on the crew to show his "iron fist." He is trying to do something genuinely different. To be a gentleman and a pirate. To tell a story that hasn't been told before. And to create space for others to tell a story: when Wee John voices criticism, Stede hands over his own fabrics to the crew and encourages them to "express yourselves." Between the bedtime stories and Stede's lie about Nigel (which is revealed very quickly afterwards), the crew decide they'll try telling his "new" story with him.

At first, the weakness in Stede's story seems to be that he's telling it in the wrong place. That his fiction is too far from reality, which is going to crush his story (as so many stories have been crushed throughout history).

And that is a problem, and his misjudgments wind up with him being betrayed by pirates and almost executed by Spanish naval officers. But it's a solvable problem, with help.

From the moment they meet, Ed and Stede are at their best when they tell stories together. When they work together, they figure stuff out about themselves, they connect with one another and with the crew, and they find a way to write the third story in a world that tells them they have only two options (gentleman or pirate). They make ship into a lighthouse; they bring a kraken to life and finally beginning to understand it; Stede uses his ship's mast and Ed's trick to outwit Izzy; a treasure map yields actual 'treasure'; the ship is invaded by the English, but everyone emerges safe and alive.

But it doesn't last. Because the real weakness of Stede's storytelling isn't the context. It's that Stede doesn't believe it himself.

Stede is doing all this to try to be both a boy worthy of respect from his father, and a boy who picks flowers. He's still defining himself by the terms of the world he came from. By running away, not running towards something.

So, when Chauncey confronts him with his own "monstrousness," Stede believes him. It's all his insecurities come to life. And he believes Chauncey when he says Stede's "brought history's greatest pirate to ruin."

If all Stede will ever be is a "little rich boy," then he needs to stop trying to be something else. Because telling that story means hurting others.

Stede's wrong. Telling a story, even when you don't fully believe it, changes you and the people who listened to your story. And when Stede gives up on his storytelling, the causes and effects circle round: Stede told stories. As a result, other people told stories. And even if Stede stops telling stories, or tries to tell different stories, other people won't.

Stede lied when he confessed to Nigel's murder. Said he deserved to die for leaving his wife and family. But he doesn't die there, because Ed tells his own story about grace, and the crew takes Stede's mad stories as their own.

And because of what Stede did, Mary Bonnet was able to tell her own story, fully and on her own terms. And to believe in it completely. Ed and the crew were able to tell their stories, too--which comes near to an actual transformation.

In the end, it doesn't matter that Stede didn't believe his story. He changed anyway. He created space for other people to change, to tell stories that unraveled his own lies, that saved him from himself. And he awkwardly, finally, figured out what story he wanted to tell. His own truest story.

And to escape the truth he's accidentally been trapped in, Stede tells a story that inverts what he did before. At the beginning of the season, Stede was telling a story that no one believed. That only he even really tried to believe. But in the finale, he stages an elaborate fuckery to tell a story that everyone believes--except him, and the people who matter. Truth materializes from the fiction.

Stede's stories set so many people free. And in the end, when he's brave enough to lie his way to the truth, Stede's stories set him free, too.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #legit i could go on about this for agggges #just about every ep has a storytelling moment or 4 #there's all these nuanced ways the stories affect the plot and each other its so complicated and i love it

90 notes · View notes

blakbonnet · 6 months

Note

So wait, do you think this was a “bury your gays” or like the natural conclusion to Izzy having finished evolving?

Wait not at all - this is not bury your gays in any fucking way. Izzy's purpose in the story had always been to keep Blackbeard alive, to keep a close frenemy that fucks shit up, and in s2, to find a modicum of joy, which he did. He did not could not survive outside the sea, he always wanted to be a pirate, and without Ed being Blackbeard, he no longer felt the call. This was a natural conclusion to his arc, he would've wanted to go like this, and I think they did a wonderful job with it.

#asks #ofmd s2 spoilers #anonymous

125 notes · View notes

player-tag · 5 months

Text

[cross-posted onto ao3]

It wasn’t like Izzy was going to stay dead.

Who the fuck do these fucking stupid half-assed pirates think they are? Burying him? He was their unicorn, for God’s sake, they said so themselves. They gave him a leg! They ruined Stede’s stupid figurehead so he could walk normally, and he hadn’t cried—he hadn’t—but he’d thought they were okay now.

So why in the good sea’s name was he buried? And buried in dirt, instead of being tossed into the sea like a true pirate? If they were trying to kill him by premature burial, the least they could do was bury him right.

Those incompetent bitches. He was going to kill them, as soon as he got the dirt and insects out of his mouth. They tasted disgusting.

He’d been clawing at the dirt above him for a while now (maybe hours, maybe minutes, you can’t expect him to know when he was trying to preserve oxygen and not die, and plus it didn’t really matter because he was going to get out). Finally, after his fingers had had the skin scratched off of them, and after his nails had turned brown, full of fucking dirt, he saw a patch of light.

The sun! Oh, the glorious sun, he was so happy to see it, for once.

He began trying to sit up, and did so with ease despite being buried for however long. He had core strength, that’s why. Unlike those idiots back on the Revenge, he actually trained his body, and made it fit enough to survive whatever the Cruel Mistress called the Sea threw at him, whether it be storms or fights, cannonballs or, now, he supposes, being buried alive. They hadn’t even pressed the dirt down, which meant it wasn’t dense enough, and he could get easier than you’d want from a grave.

Though, he supposes they didn’t expect him to rise from the dead. Or maybe they wanted to make it easier? He wouldn’t know. All of them were idiots.

The first thing that makes it out of the grave is his hand: it sticks up completely, as if reaching for the sky and the sun, wanting to grab it, and for some reason Izzy imagines an undead creature doing it, and he imagines how Roach or Frenchie would call it something idiotic, like… he doesn’t know, ‘zimzam’, or something of the sort? Izzy doesn’t know, he's not like them.

(Though maybe he wishes he was.)

He grabs whatever is near the grave, and pulls himself up, up,up. Until his head bursts out of the dirt and he can open his eyes and actually see, observe the almost barren island around him, with a rundown looking house—more like a shabby, run-down shed, really, in the near distance. He watches as the sky clears and becomes blue, and as the sun shines on his face, and doesn't that feel nice? He appreciates some of Bonnet’s enthusiasm for life in that spare moment.

Which is obviously completely ruined when he turns around and sees his unicorn leg, which had been turned into a cross.

“I’m fucking Jewish,” he says, exasperated, and most certainly done. Of course they wouldn’t know that about him. The crew of the Revenge could barely remember his last name, and he’d never told them he was Jewish anyways, and of course Ed wouldn’t remember, that bitch.

He’s crawling out of that grave, and then he’s pulling apart the ropes on the grave marker, freeing his leg from that symbol. It takes a second to readjust the leg: it’s difficult when he’d been buried for however long, and his arms ache from disuse.

He’s completely out of the grave now, though, so that’s a plus. He’s sitting on the grass, and he’s close to the sea, and it’s nice and quiet and serene, and he thinks he could get used to this. Maybe he won’t have to see Ed or Stede or any of those others anyways (but maybe he still wishes he could see them, he really does).

The peace, obviously, doesn’t last.

“Izzy?” And it's so soft, so concerned, so, so, achingly longing. “You bitch,” he says, turning around, and seeing, ten feet away, Stede and Ed standing there, watching him, dressed completely unlike themselves (what have they gotten themselves into, this time?).

“You bitches,” he modifies and, glaring, he says, “I’m Jewish.”

#ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #our flag means death #ofmd fanfic #ofmd drabble #izzy hands #ofmd izzy #stede bonnet #edward teach

68 notes · View notes

wildfiowerss · 6 months

Text

saw a couple of people say the finale used the “bury your gays trope” and i just, no it didn’t?? if izzy had been the only queer character in the show, then yes i agree and it would have been very shitty, but the show is full of queer characters who are all alive and well. not to talk about the fact that the shows main couple is a pair of older queer men, who have been through hell and are still living and retiring together.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #our flag means death season 2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers

75 notes · View notes

vocesincaput · 6 months

Text

HEADCANON: Izzy Hand

For post season 2 interactions where Izzy did in fact die and was brought back to life, he experiences severe nightmares (details under the cut).

(This can also be adapted to him experiencing the nightmares about almost dying or dying for a few minutes.)

When Buttons brought him back from the dead, Izzy had to claw himself out from the grave he had been buried in.

He has nightmares about this and dying every night but refuses to tell any of the crew about it. Even those he may be close to into certain threads.

6 notes · View notes

squidinkedcreative · 3 months

Text

aaaaaaa brain is putting things together about izzy and i just :( damn

also going to say this now that if ur an izzy hater, this post isnt for u! pls dont engage :) thank u

saw art with a quote from a post about izzy, talking about how some people find it touching that he’s buried in the yard of the inn, but this person didn’t. it made them feel sick because he’s buried there like a dog. and just first of all yeah. at first it was touching to me bc of that sentiment that they’re keeping him near them, even in death, but the more i thought on it the more my stomach also churned.

i know djenks had the best intentions with how izzy’s character and arc were treated but jfc ya missed the mark. by a wide margin. like hello???? having the entire point of his arc in season two be discovering himself and growing into himself, hell even standing up for himself and letting himself hold on a little looser to his baggage and just put down the baggage he chose to carry on behalf of the man he loved only for him to die like an episode or two later. and the crew acts like nothing happened just. it doesnt sit right with me and it hasnt since the first time i saw it.

i know its for “plot” reasons, but there was no other way to convey any of this than maiming him like the family dog nobody actually likes??? like a grimy mutt?? without him LITERALLY DYING????????????????? AT THE VERY END OF THE SEASON??????? AND NOT EVEN HAVE THAT BE THE MAIN MESSAGE FOR THE REST OF THE EPISODE??? you had to stomp all over his dead body with a fucking wedding. yes yes good for lucius and pete i really do love them and i am happy for them, but its like they all just. moved on. and forgot about izzy. and trust me i am FULLY aware of how complex grief is, but still. it stings. it feels like its watering down the impact izzy had on everyone on the crew.

he and the kraken’s crew grew so close that they tried to keep him alive even tho they all knew if the kraken found out, they’d all be paying with blood. they MADE HIM. A PROSTHETIC. AND PAINTED IT. they cheered him on when he came out in drag and sang in fucking FRENCH!!!!!!! and then he dies and like 3 minutes later theres a wedding and another party. it feels tasteless. it feels demeaning.

and i 100% think djenks roped izzy and ed into the Bury Your Gays trope without thinking that through. elder queer man who is traumatized dozens of times over who just fucking came to terms with himself AND WHO JUST CONFESSED HIS LOVE TO EDWARD!!!! dies. shortly after that, timeline wise. thats the fucking trope. it’s literally right there.

AND THEN. they fucking bury him in the YARD. LIKE A DOG. in the far corner where they wont see it and be reminded of him every day. out of sight out of mind. they’ll move on and grow old together, blissfully happy, while izzy’s bones are the only thing left of the man who once was Israel Hands, First Mate to the legendary Blackbeard. he never got to have his mutual pining moment, he never got to find the true love of his life and grow old with them. he doesnt get to die fulfilled, with labored breaths, as old age takes him. he gets to sit and watch from the corner as ed and stede, his ex of sorts and the guy he replaced him with, live that happily ever after. he gets to sit in the corner like a bad dog and watch as these two get everything he ever wanted. just like the unwanted family pet.

it makes me ill. he deserved so much better. he deserves better than doggy heaven, he deserves better than being roped into the fucking Bury Your Gays trope too.

#ofmd #izzy hands #our flag means death #ofmd izzy hands #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #our flag means death s2 spoilers #our flag means death season 2 #our flag means death s2 #israel hands #just thinking about this a lot tonight :)#deff normal thinking :) yep :)

39 notes · View notes