hey since you're so good at ofmd meta, what's your take on why ed wants to meet stede in the first place? like after the scene at Jackie's I get it, it's the fact that this guy is apparently the only person not terrified of/filled with reverence for the myth of Blackbeard. But before that? Is it the fuckery Stede pulled with the hostages or the fact he compromised by splitting them up? Just the weird rumours Ed has heard about Stede in general? What makes him tell Izzy to invite him onto the ship after the hostage situation?
Hah, well thank you for the compliment about the quality of my OFMD posts!
As we know, before meeting Stede, Ed is suffering from ennui~ and other French diseases of the soul. Izzy is clearly full of all kinds of invective about Stede, but what Ed immediately takes from it is that something different has happened.
Izzy was doing the same-old, same-old and this fancy man, whom Izzy has undoubtedly said is a completely incompetent moron, still managed to best Izzy at his field of expertise--Ed SPECIFICALLY points out that Stede beat him at swordplay--make a deal, and get away with it.
And Izzy tries to point out the technicality. Oh, it was an ambush! It was unprofessional! (Which btw is a silly excuse since most of what pirates do is ambush people lol.) But Ed is, as we know, a creative thinker, and that's where so much of his brilliance comes from.
Izzy looks at Stede and goes, "He didn't do things the way they're Done!" and means it as a condemnation, but it's the biggest recommendation possible for Ed. Ed who is, himself, not only crushingly bored at the moment, but in general, weird and eccentric and whimsical.
(There's probably something to be said about the fact that Izzy has been Ed's first mate for years but is so unimaginative and inflexible that he still has so little understanding of Ed or rapport with him that he just fundamentally does not get this about how Ed thinks and operates, but I'll leave it to be said by someone who cares way more about Izzy than I do.)
So, Izzy shows up to report and goes, "The op went a little sideways because I met this absolute fucking weirdo and he was the worst." And Ed hears: "I just met the most interesting person you've heard of in years."
Like OF COURSE Ed wants to meet him after that!
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