Oh boy have some ep6 and 7 rewatch thoughts!
First off, please enjoy these lines I didn't appreciate enough the first time around:
I feel better about our fellas after a rewatch too. Cuz they were doing pretty ok actually?
Like look at Ed here, even after the torture bits he's having such a nice time right up until the moment Stede goes to kill Ned
Lookit that lil face. He's so proud of his bb. Stede did the pirate thing without hurting anyone. Win win.
Then this shot of Ned is so telling:
The yellow and blue is obvs reminiscent of Ed's vision and mermaid Stede- but this time something's sinking. Makes sense, this is the catalyst that leads to them starting to fissure.
Loved this over the shoulder shot of Ed throwing away his leathers
Reminds me very much of him embracing Blackbeard from last season:
He's throwing it all away again, starting new, just this time it's Blackbeard he's tossing out the side of the ship.
And then the fact that Stede's new 'crew' is all in leathers just like Blackbeard's isn't an accident.
But they were still doing so well! The fact that they tell each other things - the mermaid and the letters - they're starting to let their guards down, show more of themselves...
They both have these moments of vulnerability during ep 7, where they say something kinda silly, where they could have been hurt... and then show each other right away that their trust wasn't misplaced:
It was all going so well dammit!
Another thing I noticed is that Ed completely makes his decision to leave without talking to Stede once more. He gets so in his head about it. And i think here, it was him reaching out:
He doesn't want to leave. But fisherman and pirates can't work out. Its so simple if he puts it like that. But it felt like he wanted Stede to say something, convince him he's wrong, say that he'll be a fisherman too if that's what Ed wants, say he doesn't just like him cuz he's a pirate, say that he loves Ed more than he loves pirating.
But instead poor Stede does the worst possible thing he can, challenges Ed's already shaky sense of self. Which is why it's so easy for Ed to then lean hard into the idea.
Black and white thinking. I get it my poor adhd riddled darling.
And just one more thing, this moment between Stede and Izzy was really nice :)
