Day 9. Witch

"Cats are terrifying, everyone knows that. 'Cause they're witches. And they've got knives in their feet."

@averyhollow said that this fanart “feels oddly prescient after the teaser” and I’ve been eating my furniture ever since

They should pay me to sort objects by color and shape and size all day I'd be good at it I'd be so fucking good at it

finally got the desktop update that removes the names an icons of people on a post...its so awful. Not only does it make posts p much illegible if there's more than one person on it, but now idk how to tell who posted art, i have no idea how to get to their page from their posts! Im so sick of these websites changing things for the worst constantly...

LIKE WHO POSTED THIS?? Theres no where for me to click and find op!! This is terrible for artists, how are they gonna be able to find us wihtout digging thru a bunch of shit? Its awful (thanks @/naycelium for the wonderful art example)

This is what it looks like when there are multiple different ppl on a post btw. It just looks like one person arguing with themselves.

Here's a dashboard unfucker if u can figure out how to use it!

I'm SO there for the new Izzy arc, I hope he suffers, I hope he cries, I hope he finds inner peace, I hope he bleeds profusely, I hope he gets thrown overboard, I hope he gets kissed gently, I hope they eat him, I hope he gets angry and violent, I hope he breaks, I hope he gets hugged, I hope someone makes him a warm cup of tea, I hope he gets chopped up,,

Your name is Israel Hands but now you go by Izzy. Your boss/friend/husband is changing into a man you don’t recognize. He’s falling out of love for you. He’s distracted by a rich prick who’s playing at being pirates. He broke his promise. He’s rewarding your loyalty by sending you away. You try to get him back. You fail. You hurt him. You hurt him again. He hurts you, big time. You’re even, you think, but He doesn’t talk to you anymore, doesn’t trust you like He used to, won’t let you call Him by His name. You regret everything. You’re in too deep to regret anything. You wear your full kit to bed because you’re scared but you won’t admit it. You’re running low on supplies. You’re fighting an infection. You’re suspicious of Jiménez, you know they’re looking for a moment of weakness. You start sleeping outside His door. You stop sleeping. You begin each morning greeting a Man you no longer recognize. He doesn’t recognize you either. And you tell yourself this is what you wanted, because you simply don’t have the imagination to ask for anything better.

begging everyone to think of this again in light of the s2 teaser bc i sure am

and when steddyhands becomes canon then you will all see the beauty of a cringefail polycule matelotage

#Somebody sedates me, he is so unwell

New Izzy Hands thing that I'm going a little feral over today: in the beginning of the season, we see that, just as there's a legend of Blackbeard that protects the real Ed Teach—a person who is not entirely divorced from Blackbeard, but who is so much more nuanced, with insecurities and a sweet side and a fear that he's this horrible monster which clashes with his deep need for love, understanding, & someone who is a little bit more like him in a lot of ways—there is also a First Mate Hands that protects the real Izzy.

Thinking about how Izzy acts in the first few episodes, when he is alone with Ed. He's pushing Ed to come up with a plan, but his outburst in the middle of the fourth episode seems abnormal, so much so that he actually tries to leave the next day. Mostly he's trying to press Ed because he's afraid to die. That fear isn't unfounded, either: it's a throwaway line, but he does tell Ed that multiple pirates died in the raid of the Spanish ship where they'd saved Stede.

After Ed tells him he's still needed, he remains gentle in private settings. In front of Ivan and Fang, he's harsh when he tells Ed that he's got to kill Stede. Privately? He's telling Ed, with absolutely no judgement, that he'd kill Stede for him. He knows Ed's private truth even if he doesn't know the reasons why.

So there's a sense of a public First Mate, a tough and nasty character who is cruel to the crew & thinks he can use bullying and shame against them (doesn't work with Stede's people, as we see when he tries it on Lucius). But there's also a private Izzy, who, yes, is prone to blowing up when stressed and being a nasty little dude as a result, but who also knows well enough to apologize for that behavior and tries to remove himself because he knows he crossed a line. The private version of Izzy, when he's told to stay, that he's needed, quietly offers up his services and all the way up to Act of Grace still truly seems to understand that Ed cares about Stede. He doesn't get it, but he gets something different than the hardass that the rest of the crew sees would get.

The other thing about both public and private Izzy is he's very rules oriented. He's mad about the ambush. He has an overly strong sense of hierarchy, where nobody is allowed to call Ed anything but Blackbeard or Captain, and in fact nobody is allowed to call Izzy the wrong thing either. He calls the crew Mister Spriggs and Mister Feeney, I'm pretty sure.

He gives all of this up when he goes to the British for help in killing Stede. Going to the state to betray a fellow pirate feels like it crosses lines, the way it's portrayed in the show. Spanish Jackie outright states she doesn't like having the British in her bar, an indication that this is well outside of the norm. At this point, Izzy is so desperate in thinking that he needs to "save" his captain that he's willing to break the code he's lived with his entire teen adult life.

At this point, the private version of Izzy is on his way out the door. If rules are a part of his sense of self, breaking the rules is a betrayal of that self. Calico Jack mentions that Izzy had specifically wanted Ed to stay safe, calling Izzy "sentimental" in the process. And in episode 10, we see that part of Izzy—the part that understands Ed can't kill, that tried to leave when he thought he'd crossed too many lines with Ed in the 4th episode—disappear as well.

Izzy, the real person behind the First Mate persona, is crushed out of existence. He's tried to be, in his mind at least, sentimental. He's tried to follow the rules, challenging Stede to a duel he would've won except for a technicality, and it's his insistence on following the rules that gets Izzy in the end. What's left is the cruel persona of First Mate Hands, the only thing that can keep him from dying. Izzy serves Ed, with all that nuance and understanding, but First Mate Hands serves the legend and can't survive with either Ed or Izzy.

Anyway, as I was writing this, Con dropped some new bullsh on Twitter so I'm gonna end it there

I had so much more I wanted to say on this, especially that scene where he's lying to the crew about Ed being in fine spirits and how he's even trying what he thinks is positivity while still protecting Ed's private self & it's not working because at the end of the day it's still lying to people who've been let in & who Ed will let in, & how Izzy doesn't get it but there's still like a sense of "try this thing to keep Ed safe"

But then Con O'Neill went and posted "slut" at himself on Twitter and I literally can't think of anything else??? help?????

Looking back at this, there are some things I think I got wrong (I think the deal with the English was probably more paralleled to Jackie sending Geraldo to set Stede & Jim up with the Spanish, so not that outside the norm). But man I think I got that "public Blackbeard & First Mate vs private Ed & Izzy" bit right

Since the vanity fair article, I've seen some people speculating on what Con said. Specifically about Izzy realizing who he was in love with. Why talk around the name, when everyone knows who he's talking about? For the drama? Surprise new love interest?

My proposal: Izzy thought he was in love with Blackbeard.

In season 2, he realizes that he's always been in love with Ed.

And that's why he has to go get Stede.

To clarify

The whole "Izzy is in love with the idea of Blackbeard, rather than the man" has been around since the show aired. And at first I agreed with it.

But as time went by and I became more interested with Izzy as a character, the less it made sense to me. He only seems to call Ed by Blackbeard when making a point, whether it be to the crew, Stede, or Ed himself. Usually he just calls him by name, or boss depending on the level of formality and power dynamic.

And throughout the show it seems like he knows Ed. Familiar with how he works, can tell he's getting attached, knows that he won't have the follow through to kill Stede (despite promising Izzy, which he very clearly saw as something that should carry weight). Even when intimidating others and trying to protect Blackbeard's reputation, I never got the impression he actually wanted that image to be who Ed is. After all, Blackbeard is even less likely to give Izzy what he wants than Ed is.

Yet the sticking point, and why everyone says Izzy is in love with the nine gun welding idea of a pirate: Izzy himself tells us so. Blatantly, in that scene post gentlebeard breakup.

And I think he, like the fandom, believes that about himself at the time. But he was lying to us, and lying to himself.

Day 17. Overboard

Yeah guys I'm kinda lazy today but

Actually, I had no idea what to draw today

they said that the love story is convoluted, and i was hoping that ed and izzy would have some depressed angry angsty sex before they find stede again, but I'll settle for Izzy teaming up with stede to win ed back

today in Jim Jimenez: are we as a bunch of perverts and Izzy Hands enjoyers talking about Jim's e8 priest voice just being a Con O'Neill impression? I feel like we could maybe stand to talk about that

Frenchie's new outfit is great

Architects: David Gallaugher, Kevin James, & Jacob Jebailey

FRENCHIE BACKSTORY IN SEASON 2 PLS

like to charge, reblog to cast