Since I put together a rather massive thread about the probable S3 final fuckeries on the dead-parrot site, I figure I'll bring it over here as well :) This is bearing in mind that the show loved using history when it was useful or funny.
Blackbeard's death was in a battle and afterwards, his head was cut off and hung from the bowsprit of the ship, then later as a warning by a harbour. Urban legend said that his headless body swam around the ship, trying to find the head. Stede, meanwhile, was executed by hanging after being captured and tried in Charles Town.
My theory is a giant faking-their-deaths fuckery and this is the collection of extensive foreshadowing in sequential order.
1x01 - He's holding his own head! That's terrifying!
The Swede's flag with a skeleton holding his own head. Given Ed's flair for the dramatic and the urban legend that BB's body swam, headless, around the ship, this feels like a very him thing to do. (also ties in with Blackbeard's flag with just the skeleton in S1)
1x01 - Stede's first fuckery
Stede using mannequins as a diversion so they can escape from the British Navy and the British Navy fall for it. Also, significantly, one of the fake heads falls off.
1x03 - Stede hanged
I facepalmed so hard when I realised that we had already seen Stede get hanged and survive it. Also, the fact that the person who intended to kill him by hanging is the one who dies first? INCHRESTING.
1x04 - "People just see the flag - I don't even have to be on the boat. I'm a ghost"
And he won't be on the boat in the end :D (@wastingyourgum reminded me of this one :D)
1x04 - "He's wearing Blackbeard's clothes. He's on Blackbeard's ship".
Combining this with Stede's fake-heads-to-escape idea, Blackbeard's official 'death' is tied up with a bow :D They just need to find a suitable person to sub in *coughHornigoldcough*
1x06 - "Over here, child!"
HOOBOY this entire episode is basically emphatically pointing at Ed's skill in the art of misdirection. Ed is an expert at fooling people into seeing what he wants them to see. The Master of the Theatre of Fear.
1x06 - The crew fuckery
Stede, the Swede and Black Pete literally holding heads that aren't theirs And once again the allusion to swapping faces/places. "Are those supposed to be the same guy?" "But with very different hairstyles, ja?"
1x06 - "I'm supposed to burn your face off and take your identity"
Stede getting another layer of "how to get away with dying/disappearing" added to his arsenal of knowledge.
1x08 - The Unicorn's head
Oh look. A mythical creature's head is removed by the English, when Ed has been compared to a demon, devil, vampire and kraken. I wonder what that could be foreshadowing 🙃
1x09 - "You've kept the clippings so we can make fake heads and escape"
When in doubt, Stede turns to arts and crafts.
1x10 - "Now that's a fuckery"
Stede has already faked his own death not once, not twice, but three times in ten minutes. Now that's overkill 😂He's done it before, he'll do it again! In Stede's town, wearing Stede's clothes.
2x01 - "He can't possibly look like this"
The S1 propaganda pics are all full/half body, but now, he's reduced down to a head with very snaky looking hair. "He can't possibly look like that" (and this ties into something from 2x04 as well)
In related things, there is one historic piece of art referring to Blackbeard like this, as a disembodied head and I feel like there's a bit of a resemblance going on.
2x02 - "There's some beheadings on here"
Okay, yes, this one is a stretch, but head removal, people. We have more head removal :D
2x03 - "I'm not me, I'm you"
Yes, I know, in the context of the Gravy Basket, but there would be some poetrical vibes if Hornigold's body was the one left in Ed's place so Ed can live a long and happy life. (And yes, fully convinced he was an S3 villain)
2x03 - "I knew they killed him"
Will fully admit I yelped a bit when I saw this scene in higher res than a stream because with the drape of cloth over his head matching the colour of the surroundings, it's gives the illusion of a headless body.
2x04 - "He can't hear you. He's got no head"
Again, the symbolism of the mythical creature without a head. Especially when we see Izzy yelling at it as if its Blackbeard, his own personal figurehead.
2x04 - "Pulls his entire fucking face off. Turns out this one had stolen the face off some Brit and come to my rescue"
Of all the specialist skills for someone in Ed's old crew to have, disguising themselves with someone else's face? :D (That's romance ;))
2x04 - The Head of Medusa
Buttons' transmogrification bowl is under a painting of The head of Medusa (Caravaggio). In the story of Perseus, he used Medusa's severed head to defeat a terrible sea monster (hello, kraken :D) and a King.
And I mentioned earlier Ed's wanted poster had a connection to this episode and look at these images side by side:
anyway the season 3 premiere opens on a closeup shot of Izzy opening his eyes, washed in a blue hue <3 he's waking up in the gravy basket :3 he meets buttons there and they walk around talking, pretty much having the same conversation to the one Ed had with Hornigold - about his reasons to keep living, pros and cons, all that. and he decides to live.
stede and ed have been quietly coming to izzy's grave without telling the other, but they both know. one day/night one of them is keeping watch, when he hears something stirring in the grave.
The episode ends on a shot of a hand sporting a spade tattoo popping up from beneath the soft earth <3333
"And then the third season would be about what happens when the couple is a little bit older and maybe they try to run a business together. How does that go? How do they keep the relationship together? Seeing stuff like that in a fantasy setting between these two characters would be great, because there's a lot of naturalistic stories you can do in this comedy world. I want to see them hang onto each other as they move into a different phase of their lives."
I want to see them run a bed and breakfast SO BAD.
I think in season 3 we need to have Ed visiting Izzy’s grave regularly. Like in the first episode we look at Ed and Stede’s life as innkeepers and it’s become a daily thing that Ed will go to Izzy’s grave and sit with him. Sometimes he just sits there in silence, sometimes he cries, sometimes he talks to him about his day, sometimes he rehashes old memories of the two of them from the good ol’ days. Most of the time he does it alone but some days Stede goes with him to support him when it’s too painful. No matter what he goes every day.
This also is the perfect opportunity to bring Con back to film some flashbacks from before season 1
Imagine a S3 where the Revenge gets a letter (series of drawings) by carrier bird (Buttons) and Frenchie announces to the crew, "We've been invited to a party for hoity toity people" with a smile and then it flashes to an over the top amalgam of the French party and Calypso's birthday but it's Ed and Stede's wedding.