To clarify what I mean when I say I don't think Ed is an angry person--
Anger is a secondary emotion that's a defensive response to a primary emotion. Emotions that can lead to anger include grief, frustration, annoyance, hurt, embarrassment, anxiety, shame/guilt, etc. Anger comes into play as a defensive reaction to those emotions--you've been emotionally injured in some way and anger helps alert you into protecting yourself. That's why anger management isn't about not feeling angry-- anger is helpful and important, after all-- it's about learning to manage the underlying emotional triggers in a more soothing way when possible.
And I personally don't see a lot of Ed getting to that secondary step outside of when he's provoked in a way that would make most people angry. Angry People™ are short-tempered and have out of proportion emotional responses to minor what-they-view-as-slights against them. I don't see particular evidence that that's a persistent, go-to state for Ed.
When he gets upset at the Blackbeard illustration, I'd argue that he's not angry, he's just tiredly frustrated. When he elaborates, it's about how bored he is now that everyone's so intimidated, which the illustration expresses and perpetuates, rather than a "how dare they" (defensive) response.
When Izzy gets up in his face, he's mostly just kind of baffled. I would expect an Angry Person™ to have a fairly intense reaction to someone insulting them, flipping them off, and yelling at them that they're a twat-- Izzy is literally verbally attacking him; a baseline angry person would probably react to that in defense. Hell, even a lot of people who aren't angry as a general character trait would react to that.
I would expect an Angry Person™ to have a much more volatile reaction to their impending doom because their plan fell through (i.e. lashing out due to feeling stupid or frustration that it was all left up to them, challenging the Spanish to fucking dare try to kill them, etc.) than just resignation and lamentation that their death is going to be uninteresting.
The first time we see Ed angry is when the French captain insults him. And note that even then, he asks "what's that supposed to mean" as checking if this is something that warrants getting upset about. And it turns out it is and that hurt from an insult that taps into deep trauma sets him to protecting himself by lashing out. Anger in this case is a reasonable response, not him being thin-skinned in the way Angry People™ are, and the flashback shows us the trauma that he's protecting himself against. The only issue is that due to being a fuckin' pirate, his response is physical violence, which is cathartic and protective but doesn't address the pain underneath.
And then sure enough on the other side of that flashback we see him contemplating the silk. He's emoting hurt and sorrow and possibly shame and hopelessness. He's not angry anymore, which we see clearly when Stede brings the guy up again and Ed just tries to save face. Anger isn't a persistent state for him even when he's hurting emotionally.
At the party before the dinner, Stede multiple times tries to stop Ed from defaulting to pirate-y stories so as to not be ostracized. But pirate stories are all Ed has, and an Angry Person™ would likely interpret that censorship as rejection and be much more snappish than the slightly desperate and frustrated confusion we see him go through when trying to save his "killed a Prussian once" line. And when Stede tries to warn him not to trust the aristocrats, he again doesn't take that as a slight against him.
And then dinner. He gets a bit flustered and panicked when they laugh at his flinch when Antoinette touches the bow in his beard but he recovers quickly, doesn't get angry. When Gabriel passive aggressively insults him, Ed is at first just assertive on calling him out on being a dick. And then when Gabriel doubles down, pretends that Ed is overreacting and he's innocent, that's when Ed gets angry-- and not even that angry at first! Sure, he threatens to kill them but again, he's a fuckin' pirate, that's how you reestablish respect. He doesn't cuss them out, he doesn't pull a weapon, he just tries to put his foot down pirate-style. Then they laugh at him even worse and he gets upset, embarrassed, panicked, and flees. He's not angry at first when he finds Stede, he's just humiliated and hurt. He has to work up to his anger and even then he's easily talked down.
The next time I would expect more reaction from an Angry Person™ is when Izzy leaves him literally hanging and then tells him he's letting his emotions get in the way of his job and he needs to kill Stede. Hanging from a harness for 20 minutes is probably embarrassing, Ed had expressed discomfort even before Izzy accidentally tightened it, and Ed's response isn't so much "what the fuck" (how dare you, defensive) as "what gives, man?" (mildly annoyed, chiding). And when Izzy puts his foot down about killing Stede, Ed doesn't take it as a slight against himself even though Izzy's basically giving his captain orders and calling him emotionally compromised. An Angry Person™ could easily take that as a challenge and insult, especially when it's about something that's going to be painful, but Ed just gets thoughtful and sad.
When Frenchie tells him Stede has reimagined the raid, Ed isn't like "why the fuck would he do that? especially without telling/asking me?" He's just like ??? and goes with the flow.
When Stede inadvertently triggers him (and as some have pointed out, it wouldn't have been a trigger or at least would have been much more manageable on a less emotionally fraught day), an Angry Person™ in a violent flashback space would absolutely lash out. But, despite the anger we see when he choked his father, Ed's not angry in the present even though Stede did something that hurt him and isn't giving him space, both the kinds of slights a characteristically angry person would jump at. He's forlorn, lonely, ashamed, and incredibly vulnerable. But he's not defensive.
Ed is definitely kinda angry at the start of the treasure hunt (treasure hunting is embarrassing, flies are annoying, dangerous snakes falling out of the sky into your arms is nerve-wracking). But he's also starving and had been planning to nap instead. And as we know from Snickers commercials, we're not ourselves when we're hungry 😉. And sure enough once they've had lunch, Ed is much more patient and can even take in Lucius' reprimand without taking it personally or getting defensive. Him threatening to stab Lucius in the face is, again, how pirates reestablish respect (and in this case, boundaries).
Then fucking Calico Jack. Ed goes quiet and haunted when Jack ignores his trying to shut down the gruesome recounting--doesn't even go for the usual threat, I'd argue because he's ashamed whereas the other times he was mostly embarrassed. When Stede tells him he doesn't like who he is around Jack, Ed can't really *not* take it personally but he still doesn't get defensive. An Angry Person™ would easily be *at least* at the "the fuck is that supposed to mean" stage in prep for being angry, but could easily blow right through that into anger. But Ed's just confused and a little hurt, which grows and shifts later in the day into resignation (bitterness? hopelessness? sorrow?) rather than anger. And then we see him angry again but not (just) in defense of himself, but in defense of Stede and fearing for his safety 🥺 And when he sees Izzy again, he's angry at Izzy for betraying them and getting Stede sentenced to death. And as Izzy himself says: that's fair.
He's not angry at being captured or sentenced to death himself, he's not angry about signing ten years of his life over in order to save Stede's, he's not angry at the British officers joking about what a catch he is (just uncomfortable and hurt), he's not angry about being at the privateering academy (the dork is excited about soap, I love him), he's not angry that Stede doesn't respond well to his beard being gone.
He's not angry at Stede for standing him up.
He's incredibly hurt and confused, but he's not angry. He's actually doing a decent job at self-soothing, especially once he accepts Lucius' help.
Then Izzy says Ed would be better off dead than in a place of healing. And Ed gives Izzy a very calm chance to take it back before reacting, something that's incredibly difficult for angry-as-a-personality-trait people to do. And Izzy doubles down with insults, reducing Ed to nothing but his violence, dehumanizing him, disrespecting him and what he enjoys, and mocking his pain over Stede's rejection, and Ed goes on the defensive by lashing out. Again, anger is a healthy defense response to a very hurtful attack here. The issue is Ed defaulting back to violence to demand respect, which feels like a relapse to him at that stage, and it seems to give Izzy what he wanted: a proper pirate. Ed doesn't yet have the tools to handle the anger once it does come up in a way that actually helps him work through the hurt. So Izzy wins the interaction and leaves with essentially a threat to kill Ed if he doesn't go back to what Izzy wants.
I'm on the fence about whether there's anger in his transition into the Kraken. It's very much a defensive response, but it feels too hollow to be angry. And when we see him alone, not having to perform or compartmentalize or codeswitch, he's expressing anguish, sadness, and heartbreak, not anger.
Way too long; didn't read: there are so many instances where Ed could have gotten angry and just didn't. I can't find any evidence that there's a persistent anger in him just below the surface. The few times we do see him angry are when it's a reasonable emotional response or when he's very hungry. Getting angry occasionally as an appropriate, adaptive response does not an Angry Person™ make.
(5/23/22 edit: changed most instances of "angry person" to "Angry Person™" to help with clarity)
