A post I've been meaning to make but keep forgetting to is the fact that the way steadyhands can actually win is they need the three of them to balance eachother out.
Between them, we usually have only two of them freaking out at a time (unless I'm missing something) for example, s1e4. Stede and Izzy are both freaked abt the approaching Spanish navy, Ed is calm (even tho he kinda does rile them up a bit but I think he thinks he's playing, like with fang and the knife parade)
When stede is knocked off balance by killing Ned Low, izzy advises Ed to give him a minute. Ed doesn't really take that advice and goes forward anyway, which we see Ed later considers a mistake.
Again, we see Izzy take the role of mediator when Ed decides to leave, he goes to comfort Stede and suggests he gets back to the ship before he ends up on the wrong side of a sword (he knows stede is fucked up abt Ed and wants to get him somewhere safe before he takes those negative feelings out on someone else)
When Ed is still trying to claw his way out of the gravy basket and izzy is lost in his grief and booze, Stede comes to him to ask his opinion of Ed, knowing he cares deeply for him and hoping he will want him to stay, but he also expresses concern with izzys drinking and even scolds the unicorn when Izzy starts yelling at it in solidarity without a hint of sarcasm to it.
I don't think it's healthy in the long run, but I do think that until they get to a point where they are communicating properly and learning to manage their own mental health, it helps when one of them is the fulcrum while the others try to balance. Izzy is obviously trying to show his support for Ed and Stede in the only way he knows how, training him and giving him positive reinforcement when he does well at the things he's trying to do well. He talks to Ed abt his feelings after he tosses his leathers overboard and encourages him to do the thing he think might make him happy. And even tho this leads to Ed breaking things off with stede for the time being, that's not izzys fault that that's the direction he takes this. Remember, both Ed and Izzy recently attempted to take their own lives so I'm not gonna expect either of them to be in the right headspace.
I would like to see the inverse. One is upset with the other two trying to stabilize, but that's a ways out bc rn they're all upset all the time. Maybe one day they can all be happy and getting along at the same time. I dunno.
