god stede’s fruitiness got cranked up to 1000 as soon as he started wearing that red suit. that was the real “curse” (and I loved every second of it)

I noticed a detail in the kiss scene that I need to talk about before I combust

Okay, so, I was scrolling through the Our Flag Means Death tag and saw this pair of gifs by @eddie-redcliffe.

Towards the end of the second one, you can see Ed begin to pull back from what is a very chaste kiss. This is when the shot cuts to the over the shoulder of Stede and his hand moves into Ed's hair, holding him in place and turning the kiss more passionate.

Ed's posture becomes more tense before he reaches up and pushes Stede away gently, asking him if they can go slow.

Stede literally did the middle-aged-gay-man-discovers-he-really-likes-intimacy-after-kissing-another-man thing we've been speculating and joking about for a year and a half! Sweet touch-starved baby boy was given the tiniest bit of physical contact and he grabbed hold of it as hard as he could to keep it from going away again.

And Ed calling their hand-holding "perfect" is just so wonderful and reassuring. Almost like he realized that Stede needed some sort of touch to ground him, something to keep reminding him that they're together and working towards more even if Ed isn't ready to go all the way yet. He meets Stede in the middle, finds a place where they're both comfortable and makes it clear that that kind of touch is welcome. Stede needed reassurance that he wasn't being pushed away and Ed gave it to him perfectly and I just-

(all gifs provided by @eddie-redcliffe thank you so much!)

Y'all realize that there's more than a day between episodes 5 & 6, right? I get that it's weird that Pete and Lucius apparently hadn't told anyone about their engagement yet, but: 1) Ed's cheeks go from looking like this:

to this:

The bruise around his right orbital has completely disappeared, and the one on his left cheek is almost healed, the scab well on its way to a scar. That kind of healing takes at least a week, but it might be as much as a month. 2)

If this takes place the day after ep 5, they JUST went through the adventure of the Cursed Suit, which involved raiding 2 ships in 1 day. And they're already bored? (and spent the night after all that rearranging furniture?)

and 3)

It would mean that Ed was right about only having to wear the penitence onesie and cat bell for one day, and then the crew was apparently totes ok with not only letting him wander around bell-less, but have gone back to calling him Captain:

Edited to add: Ed's not the only one with dramatically altered scars. Izzy goes from looking like this:

to this:

I'm not saying it's a LOT of time, but it's for sure more than just one day.

I'm permanently living in this moment

Hang on

Boys please tell me you don't think this is a handy

(thanks to @eddie-redcliffe for the beautiful gif)

Had to use a low res video BUT here is a quick Stede Bonnet - CVNT edit (episode 5 spoilers)

There is some connection between Ed saying he “took a man’s leg” (instead of Izzy’s leg) and the fact that he and Izzy haven’t interacted since he woke up but I’m not nearly clear headed enough to get it all out coherently right now

Years ago one of my housemates, after he nearly levitated suddenly seeing my reflection behind him in the microwave-- for the second time that day, I'd walked into the kitchen undetected-- said "Jesus! We've got to put a bell on you."

Which I've been thinking about a lot over the last couple of weeks, seeing Frenchie levitate when Ed suddenly materializes near him in s2e2, and seeing Ed actually wearing a bell in s2e5 as a condition of being on the Revenge.

(Image courtesy of ratcoffin69, as my ability to screenshot HBO Max seems to have vanished.)

Being a very quiet walker is an advantage if you're a cat stalking a bird. But it's also an advantage if you're a child trying to be invisible and inaudible to a volatile parent. I don't remember learning to walk quietly, but I do remember thinking my sibling who was cheerfully loud would probably suffer less by getting better at melting into and out of rooms.

I imagine there are adults who are quiet walkers because one of their parents took them on a nature hike and taught them if they were very quiet they might see a cool animal-- not necessarily to catch it, just to enjoy seeing a creature living its creaturely life.

Ed "I hate nature" Teach is much less quiet walking through tall grass and didn't learn to walk quietly in order to watch a deer going through its early morning routine (though his bunny-interaction skills seem promising?).

Per a current housemate's request, I try to remember to say "I'm walking behind you" when someone I live with might not hear me, at least in the kitchen where stoves are hot and there's a higher number of breakable and pointy things. Which I guess is kind of like wearing a bell. Just: it's hard to learn a new habit, especially when you had very good reasons for learning the old one.

Just a lil something I love about S2E5.

When Lucius made the portrait of Pete, he didn't put it in his sketchbook, he put it on the goddam wall. He made it big and he put it in a location where it was going to be seen. People are going to be walking by it and looking at it on a daily basis. (I have a head canon that at least one crew member probably greets it by name when passing by: "Hey, Pete.") Lucius made Pete--and his love for Pete--visible. "I just want you to know that I see you," he says, and not only that, but he wants to be sure others can see him too. This is Pete, I love him, I care about him. We don't see a signature (and strictly speaking, there's no need, because there's no doubt who created the sketch), but I hope to god Lucius signed his name to it on general principle.

Anyway isn't that what the show does, for all those folks who see themselves in it? Hey, LGBTQ+ folks, hey people of color, hey people of size and different physical abilities and disabilities, hey late bloomers and people who love weird hobbies and freaky outfits and celebrate arcane spiritualities: we see you, we care about you, we want to make sure other people see you too.

okay also I am never getting over the sexy slutty little move Izzy made with Lucius’ cigarette like what a whore!!! absolutely unparalleled, what a time to be alive truly

Does Izzy just...spend all his free time whittling metaphors and chilling dramatically in stedes quarters???

I object to the term "whim"

In episodes 4 and 5 of the second season, there's a lot of throwing around of the word "whim." Ed and Stede both argue that they were just a whim to the other, Stede concludes they they are both "whim-prone" and that whim-prone people shouldn't run off to China together, and Ed cites their "whim-prone"ness as a reason to take things slow as they start to rebuild their relationship.

And I know we all like to joke about U-Haul failboats in love, but they aren't whim-prone. That's not what's going on here.

The first time on the show that we hear the word "whim" is in s1e4, when Izzy says "For years, I've followed your every whim, I've managed your increasingly erratic moods, I've massaged this crew when they were worried about your judgment." But from what we see of Izzy's interactions with the crew, he's not a massager, he's a sledgehammer, and the crew respect Blackbeard a hell of a lot more than they respect Izzy. Ed's moods don't read as "erratic" at all if you pay attention to what he's responding to; he's an emotional guy, for sure, but mostly even-keeled until highly provoked. And as for "following [his] every whim," Izzy can barely follow orders as given - committing insubordination at least twice that we see; not telling Stede that it was Blackbeard that wanted to meet him in s1e3, and flat-out ignoring Ed's "we're not doing this" in s1e6 when he challenges Stede to the duel. So I don't see Izzy as a reliable narrator when he suggests Ed is "whim-prone" - it might look like that to him because he doesn't try to understand Ed on his own terms, but it is v. much a construction that Izzy is imposing on Ed; not an objective character trait Ed possesses. After all, you don't get a reputation for being "history's most brilliant tactician" if you're not, at the heart of it all, a planner.

Stede is also a planner. Mary accuses Stede of abandoning his family on a whim, but that's also inaccurate. Thanks to all the hard work @nicnacsnonsense did in her marvelous 1st season timeline video, we know that SIX MONTHS elapsed between Stede proposing with his model boat that they go to sea at the anniversary debacle and the night of Mary's apology when Stede had already committed to actually leaving. That's not a whim - that's plenty of time for serious deliberation. It LOOKED like a whim from the outside because of their disastrous communication failures, but that doesn't make it true. Unabandoning his family was not a whim either - Chauncy was the catalyst, but only because he created a high-pressure situation that validated all of the insecurities we'd seen Stede struggling with all season; guilt over abandoning his family, and his crater-bottom self-esteem that the people he loved were better off without him. Even in season 2, we see more of this long-game behavior, where Stede takes his drudge job in towels and elevates it by applying scent; a move that LOOKS whim-prone from the outside, but primes him for success when it comes time to escape, because it means he knows the guards are used to deeply inhaling the scent of the fresh towels he gives them, and is thus he is able to trick them into chloroforming themselves.

There are times in the 1st season where it might LOOK like they are being whim-prone, but for the most part, those things are mostly time-critical circumstances . The impulsive decision to go to the French Party Boat? The invitation was for that night, so it's not like another opportunity like that was just going to come along. Stede's impromptu Fuckery? He'd JUST been introduced to the concept that morning, and the ships on which he wanted to try it out were three days away. If you'll recall, Ed actually tries to talk him out of going through with it with such a short turn-around time, and likely would have succeeded if Izzy hadn't interveined to further his "Kill Stede Now" agenda. The Treasure hunt? Stede was anxiously scrabbling for ANYTHING to keep Ed's attention (AFTER he confirmed there were no oranges for sale, not even for ready money) because Ed said that his plans for the day included "planning for the next adventure" and leaving. Act of Grace? Signing away ten years of your life for a man you've known for a month IS a lot, but the alternative was letting Stede be executed. Running away together? I'll give you that China was quite the absurd swing, but they WERE in jail for all intents and purposes - no sense staying longer than absolutely necessary, and there theoretically could have been time for re-working the plan once they were just away had circumstances not arisen.

So while I think it's fair to call the boys whimsical with their love of dress-up and lovely perfumed things and theatrics and tasty sugary treats, I wouldn't say whim-prone is an accurate descriptor (and the fact that they are accepting that it is makes my heart crack wide open for them, because it's evidence that they're still both uncritically absorbing the labels applied to them by people who don't really understand them at all), nor the problem they need to address.

Their real problem is actually the exact opposite of flitting from whim to whim; that, once they've committed to something, they are all in, 100% ride-or-die. It's why Ed resigned himself to going down with the ship when it turned out he'd miscalculated the date instead of trying any evasive maneuvers with the fog to give them cover. It's why, when Stede didn't show at the docks, Ed went full pillow fort until Lucius was able to talk him around into life going on without Stede. It's why Stede threw himself into trying to be all the things he thought he'd failed to be as a husband and father when he came back to his family, and was committed to staying, even though it was making him miserable, until Mary tried to murder him.

Ultimately, the solution for both these conditions is the same - slowing down. But it's not a matter of making sure this is serious and not just a whim for either of them; it's a matter of taking the time to understand exactly what it is that you're committing to. So I object to the term "whim."

When Pete asks 'does that make us horrible people?' when they're planning on passing on the curse by leaving the suit to someone else...

Honey. You are -and I cannot stress this enough- pirates.

Also just have to say I love how Izzy tells Ed to give Stede a minute of space and Ed pauses and then literally 6 seconds later (I COUNTED) he's like yeah ok enough time is passed I should see how he's doing