has anyone done a gifset thatâs just comparing izzy tearing up when ed chokes him/The Whole Toe thing?Â
i only ask because i need to stare at izzy âfuck you we were NOT MUPPETS YESTERDAY oh shit, oh fuuuuuck yes itâs happening, glory hallelujah my boyfriend captain is back, iâm done being gaslit by you wholesome felt twatsâ hands experiencing the realignment of his fucked up little world on an endless loop.
I MEAN. if you think about it, izzyâs from the version of black sails Certain Oblivious People thought that show was before the âtheyâre gay pirates, harold, deal with it or be unable to watch this show because theyâre getting their gay all over the main thrust of the narrative as we speakâ beat dropped.Â
this means he is subtextually gay as shit for blackbeard in freaky/violent, public ways and even fucking gayer still for edward in âŚalso freaky/violent, but softer and more private ways and all the while textually speaking, Theyâre Just Good Friends forever and ever amen.
izzy is from a world where there is a rule: you work out the way you wanna fuck the guy you spend all your time with by stabbing things together. other people, each other, all phallic imagery is allowed and indeed, encouraged, so long as you use objects that evoke âsoooo, this is supposed to be a dick thing, right?â but never push it beyond the realm of subtext. izzy can have loyalty and shared power, and as long as he cashes in his tokens sparingly meaningful gazes and clasping arms or patting each other on the shoulder and letting the touch linger juuuuust long enough to make it kinda gay are all on the approved list. in izzyâs world you bleed for each other, you kill and die for each other, you are the most important people in each otherâs livesâas long as the text retains plausible deniability itâs Not Like That.Â
maybe you can have a lil itâs not gay if itâs in a threeway (or a love triangle!) action as a treat and if somebody almost dies/is thought to be dead a hug is allowed, but your love better not even fucking think about speaking its name.Â
honestly, even if izzy felt like pushing that barrier, what would he say? the sacred texts to translate what izzy feels for the man who becomes edward when theyâre alone donât even exist where heâs from. they have words for what he might want do in bed and what the world thinks of men like him, but loveâs just not applicable. the songs he sings are not ones of love because not to put too fine a point on it, but: in izzyâs world, love is for men who donât have boners you can see from space for other men. heâs swallowed all the lies the world told him about love whole and made them part of his identity.
with all that in mind, letâs look at how if you tilt your head and squint, ofmd is not just a joyful and affirming celebration of finding your community of equally if not identically bizarre fellows, but also a deeply depressing pirate love story as experienced by izzy âthe only non-muppet around and not okay with itâ hands.
before i get into the actual meat of the two scenes, i want to stop and marvel at one specific part of the leadup and why ed decides to try and introduce the front of izzyâs neck to the back. quote time!!!!
Not some namby-pamby in a silk gown, pining for his boyfriend.Â
like, CHRIST. fucking WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE. why are they so good? i gotta take a quick structural analysis break to handle the way the writers packed like⌠a whole fucking essay on izzyâs deeply toxic pirate masculinity and summed up a point i will spend this whole insane post trying to express in one tidy line. i ache to be this efficient a writer.
iâm gonna break it into pieces, because they all deserve attention.
we start out with whatâs edging into a gentle slur, but is ultimately defanged by being nowhere close to on par with the uglier ways a modern audience knows he could phrase that. i think itâs worth spotlighting how izzy never quite says anything on its face hateful that i can think of? heâs not supportive, thatâs for fucking certain, but unless iâve forgotten something (very possible, often true) this is the closest he comes to fulfilling the homophobic gay trope in the content of his speech and not just how he says things/his vibes.Â
(though let us make no mistake here, his vibes are rock fucking hard homophobic gay. jesus christ with this one, bless his heart.)
i canât tell if itâs a writer choice or character choice. my instinct says itâs both! anyway, either way iâm into it. could even be a subtle hint izzyâs closer to dragging the canon kicking and screaming into the dark where he feels more comfortable.Â
now we move over to izzy mocking edwardâs dressing gown. this team HATES ME, because itâs not enough to just have him essentially say âtake off that soft fancy shit and rub some dirt on it, real men donât cryâ. oh no, not for these absolute combopack monster/lighthouses! of course they have izzy leave off dressing and just say gown. of COURSE. we understand as an audience they donât mean gown as in dress because the visuals fill that gap for us, but by deleting one word they effectively have izzy imply edwardâs a big fucking girl without needing to have him actually say it.
i mean⌠come on. come ON.
pining and boyfriend are also excellent choices; pining implies weakness and fading from a former glory, and boyfriend is uh⌠boyfriend! what it says on the tin, but it also throws in tones of infantilization by leaning on âboyâ instead of a more adult-associated choice like lover.Â
anyway onto what iâm supposed to be doing:Â crying about how con is lowkey playing out a grand fucking greek tragedy in the background at literally every second heâs on-screen as izzy and iâve gone down the rabbit hole about it. honestly they should give that man extra hazard pay, he could have hurt himself going this hard.
look at the way his face softens when edward chokes him. look at the tears in his eyes and the tremble in his hand when he reaches out, the un-fucking-bearable tenderness. the way he doesnât fight edâs violence, he encourages and leans into it. (because once upon a time in private, izzy was allowed to know that blackbeard could be edward; he was the only person who knew that, before stede rolled on up in his stupid fucking boat and his stupid fucking pants and unearthed ed and ruined izzyâs whole fucking life.)
Blackbeard is my captain. I serve Blackbeard, not Edward. Edward better watch his fucking step.
the way i feel about âi serve blackbeardâ does not even need to be EXPLAINED. if youâre bothering to read this shit you know the face i made when that line entered my ears and lodged itself in my brain, never to leave, because you made it too. i wonât profane even this Most Unholy post with my feelings about the use of that particular verb there. itâs good. i like it. well done team, no notes and the end. nobody fucking perceive me.
more high mindedly: i love how izzy uses edward here, not ed. it reframes the âusing edward is a privilege i am given by my captainâ to âsaying edward is a gift i can take back until you prove youâre my captain againâ. as far as izzy is concerned, ed doesnât even exist. blackbeardâs his captain and always has been and thus commands his loyalty, but edwardâs in the doghouse until he thinks long and hard about what heâs done.
thereâs also a beat there that i think stands as what izzy considers Having a Talk About Their Relationship.
(âŚwell fuck. well, FUCK. izzy thought they were dating, didnât he? he totally did. holy shit thatâs perfect. they were subtextually dating and stede started actually dating ed and thatâs just another level of his reality stede broke. oh my god, this little ratman. this fucking IDIOT. his life is the worst. itâs amazing and so funny and also no-jokes sad. SO GOOD.)
so i guess that means in izzyâs world, that was how you say âwe might still have to work together, but youâre sleeping on the fucking couch until i sort out how i feel about your little flingâ. blackbeard is his captain and he serves him; thatâs business. edward is his Subtextual Boyfriend, and from izzyâs perspective edward has been really shitting the bed lately.
honestly: awww, look at him go! trying to communicate like a real boy. thatâs one mangled âyou triedâ star for izzy.
all that would be enough to make me want to fling myself into the sun, it really would. i would still be screaming about izzy and the way con makes sure izzyâs gaze always comes back to rest on ed in every scene theyâre in together, no matter what else is going on, for the rest of my life.
but oh wait, it GETS WORSE. because here it comes: the toe scene. buckle up, get ready for this to Go Places because i am going full galaxy brain. letâs talk about love as consumption re: izzyâs feelings about doing the Weird Vore.
thereâs the unavoidable jesus shit all up in this sceneâs guts so i honestly could stop here and just scream WHY? WHY, WHY DO A FUCKING COMMUNION METAPHOR WITH HIS OWN TOE STANDING IN FOR THE HOLY HOST? YOUâRE SICK. YOUâRE SICK AND I LOVE IT!!! SIT AND THINK ABOUT YOUR CHOICES AND THEN NEVER EVER CHANGE, AND IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT: GO AHEAD AND GET WORSE for a couple hours instead of moving on, but iâll get there eventually.Â
aka: if you ever thought to yourself âi wonder if anybodyâs gonna talk way too long about the constant and super amazing queering and/or subversion of christian imagery and the religion itself in this showâ i got your back there, just you hold tight. ohhhhh baby i got so! many! thoughts! on! that!
for today though, iâm gonna stick with the way izzy processes love and his relationship with ed.
the way ed gets rid of lucius, layers his armor back on piece by piece, and then sees himself reflected in an implement of violence and names himself a monster, not a lighthouse, before he goes to visit izzy is⌠A Lot. i want to talk more later! but it felt worth mentioning here as his gateway between the new world he thinks stede denied him and the old world he used to share with izzy.Â
similarly, the way we get a shot of izzyâs bare, vulnerable feet and black loincloth thing-y before ed takes his toe makes me want to wade right into the proverbial sea!!! i hate this show.
the mix of tenderness and menace taika flips between here is just⌠like, i know this post is about con and izzy and i will GET THERE but because taikaâs affect entirely changing here is important to izzy, i get to gush about it. heâs just so good.Â
anyway, izzy. izzy, who has a mouth full of his own toe and edward all up in his grill and thanks to the Weird Vore is having a religious and a sexual experience all at once. izzy, with a love song for broken men in his heart and tears in his eyes, because in this moment he is full of nothing but awe.
the way we use âawesomeâ now is pretty casual; it means we like something. that something is good. my lunch was awesome, your hat is awesome, we had an awesome time. good, but not necessarily noteworthy. you forget awesome things that happen to you all the time.
in the bible, when something is worthy of awe, you drop to your knees and cry and beg for mercy because the glory and power of what you have just witnessed cannot be expressed by clumsy human tongues; to be in even an echo of the presence of god is to experience the overwhelming urge to absolutely shit yourself. edwardâs hand around his throat gave him hope, but this clicks everything back into place for him because the violent, ugly evidence of edwardâs love for him is working its way down his gullet. hurrah! life is good again, and by good izzy means horrifying.
so yeah, izzy is chock-full of awe. edward is the face of his god and real flesh his communion; this is a motherfucking religious experience. bow down bitches, because he is worshipping.
(also, he probably came in his pants.)
the thing that really takes me to âfuck it, iâm out, i canât anymoreâ place is the way the method of consumption proves the lie of izzyâs ecstasy. edward isnât providing him any real nourishment, ed is feeding izzy himself, shoving his own toxic notions of love down his throat and making sure he chews them real good first. heâs not consuming the man he loves, heâs eating his own fucking tail.
i just wanna talk to the person who came up with this idea. maybe iâll beat them up in the parking lot of a dennyâs, maybe iâll cry on them forever. maybe iâll buy them a fruit basket so expensive i will have to go into debt forever. who knows! i am both a monster and a lighthouse, myself.
the tatty scrap izzy clutches close to his chest and calls his heart might only exist in metaphor, but itâs just as red as edâs and unlike our boy, the claret being spilled by izzyâs love most fucking certainly isnât wine. violent and transactional, nasty brutish and short; these are the words izzy learned for the feelings in his chest. itâs like jack said before buttons took his ass out with what i can only assume is the power of having the most amazing facial expressions i have ever seen: pirates donât have friends, and they donât fall in love. theyâre just in various stages of fucking each other over and in izzyâs sad, repressed world, they donât even get to fuck each other in the bargain.
but thatâs okay: he doesnât need that. the story izzy lived in before stede ruined his life told him time and time again: itâs not about that.Â
so this is good, and this is right. with edward looming over him, subtextually fucking the shit out of him but not making it gay in a way a straight audience would be unable to ignore, the world makes sense again. heâs got the taste of his own flesh in his mouth and blood on his teeth. heâs home.Â
so long to that muppet bullshit about âtalking out our feelingsâ and âgiving each other hugsâ and âoh my FUCKING GOD get some therapy you leather-clad sad sack who is 1000000% going to die alone in a puddle of his own piss if he doesnât get it togetherâ. fuck emotional literacy right in the ear! whoâs she? izzyâs proud to say heâs never met her.Â
all that joy, the glimpse into a world where love is a word that could ever apply izzy was all a bad dream, and now heâs awake. this is the real world: this is as close to a love song as men like izzy can ever hope to shape with their untrained tongues.Â
hey la, hey la, motherfuckers. his boyfriendâs back.
âŚso yeah anyway, anybody seen that gifset?
theartofmadeline
stormborns
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