It bothers me to see folks complaining that Ed can’t possibly be abused or feel fear or make mistakes because that would make him weak, and obviously he is not weak.
Ed is the big, tattooed, badass pirate. That’s a part of who he is. He’s a brilliant sailor and tactician; he understands drama and how to use fear. He can put on his armor and emerge from the sea and use the violence that he understands intimately to fight for the people he loves.
He has also been craving softness and tenderness for years. That’s what his story is about—he's been trapped in this hypermasculine role, likely originally to protect himself and to fit into the society that would absolutely break him if he was anything else. But from the moment we see him as a child, he's wanted the silk. He wants that gentle hand that will touch his heart and tell him that fine things belong to him, and that those fine things are not shameful or embarrassing. He’s scared of becoming the Kraken; he’s traumatized, he’s afraid of being killed or hurt, and the only way he knows to stop that is to be the meanest, biggest, baddest pirate he can be. He flinches when people get too close to his face. He’s afraid to show his emotions because what if others think he’s weak and use that against him?
Ed's softness is right below the surface. Stede just has to talk to him for half an hour to bring it out—hell, the gentleness with which Ed treats Stede even before that reveals his softness. And that's not "weakness"—that’s care and compassion that toxic masculinity tries to couch as weakness.
Ed’s entire arc uses the concept of how exhausting it is being constantly STRONG, when strength means not having emotions other than anger or showing any sign of vulnerability. He shows that exhaustion the first time we meet him. Everyone depends on him; he can't show fear because then everyone else will be scared too. Not even being able to talk about your fears or even the things that make you happy. He can’t even be joyful! That just shows that he’s crazy!
He and Stede become co-captains almost immediately, even if they don’t call themselves that, because suddenly the weight can come off of Ed and he can indeed be creative and let his mind work again.
Ed is told that all the things he wants are weakness, and all the things that Stede represents are weakness. He has to be violent. He has to destroy the things he loves. And he has, in the past. He’s hurt people and he’s been cruel to people and he’s destroyed things and other people. He’s been shaped by violence and told that’s all he is. He can’t be in love and he can’t be soft and he can’t even have fun—having fun is weakness too.
And the show clearly develops that the things he’s told about strength, about what "being a man" means, is abuse! He’s being abused—both by a culture and by an individual (yes, by Izzy) who is himself trapped in that culture. He can’t love anything; he has to kill it, to show that he’s still Blackbeard. And constantly having to kill those things is destroying him bit by bit because he thinks that’s all he is and all he deserves.
Ed is not "weak." Ed has survived in a world where he's been told everything gentle in him is a weakness and that world has still failed to kill those things. It takes a few minutes of conversation with a man who understands that experience to bring those things out and for him to see that he might be safe with this person.
Ed decides to live. He decides to overcome all the bullshit that has been thrown at him, including by people who claim to love him, and to say that it's not true he's a monster and he's unlovable. He decides to shed the persona that has shielded him because it's now trapping him, and to put it on again in order to protect the man he loves. He decides to trust Stede again. He decides to tell Stede he loves him.
He's exceptionally brave.
dededos
blakekathryn
stormborns
pixelskylines
turnnoffyourmind
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
