Izzy Hands Appreciation Station

33, bisexual, she/her. ♥️♥️♥️Izzy Hands 4 lyfe❤️❤️❤️ multishipper and meta chewer

[delcat177]

I need help reading this listing...

What flavor of sketchy is this

Casing da joint

Basic B&E

Buggin da joint

I will give you $50 for every toilet cam you install

Something?? Legal???

Everything is legal if you're a landlord (derogatory)

I have a drill! (Results)

Voting ended onFeb 15, 2024

[allelitewrestlings]

[serial-unaliver-deactivated2024]

someone: hi

me: did you know the narrative that school shooters in the US are all bullying victims is false and originates from inaccurate coverage of one of the most infamous school shootings, the columbine shooting? in reality the columbine shooters were reactionaries who isolated themselves deliberately and followed an ideology that positioned them "above" the rest. so, a lot of school shooters are actually ideologically motivated rather than revenge motivated. no one knows this and the media paints these murderers as victims. do you want to know what the columbine effect is? also I have a lot to say about "stranger danger" as a conservative fear campaign to promote the isolated nuclear family

[suppenzeit]

So I trade licks with the muddy waters

[izzysillyhandsy]

Rewatching OFMD (again) with a friend who's never even heard of the show is an eye-opening experience.

At S1 episode 4 she said something like: "I think Edward offloads all the heavy stuff onto Izzy - he wants to be liked and admired and Izzy has to keep everyone and everything in line. And everyone including Ed hates him for it? No wonder he seems exhausted."

She was really upset by how little respect Izzy got from everyone around him and "how badly the crew treated Izzy" in Ep 5.

We're at episode 6 now and she's horrified - "The uszh meant that Izzy would've had to kill all the people on this ship, didn't it? Probably even including Stede?"

Sometimes, with all the discourse about who's to blame and why is it Izzy, I forgot how tough Izzy's deal was as Blackbeard's first mate.

Of course he gladly put up with it for Ed and their special bond (and she also saw that immediately), but as soon as Stede waltzed in and it all fell apart poor Iz was in hell...

And yeah, of course it's more complex than that (I can't wait for us to get to the last 2 episodes and S2), and this is obviously not a remotely new or original take.

It's just so nice to see my friend discovering my favourite character (and character dynamics, namely Ed and Izzy) and immediately latching onto him/them ❤

[carrymelikeimcute]

Ed is literally one of those 'weekend dads' who never wants to be the bad guy and then wonders why his wife (who hasn't slept in 5 years and just found the kitchen in a mess) hates him.

[izzysillyhandsy]

And one day, out of the blue, he takes them and 2 of their kids to his fancy secretary's house and just... stays there, flirting and having the time of his life while his wife's still kinda responsible for the housework.

When she tries to leave, he promises her to end it and a new dishwasher or sth because "he needs her here."

That never happens.

(Ed voice: "What's your problem? We could have worked this out!")

[thenew-unicorn]

People on Twitter are so fucking mean about izzy fans my God

[samuelroukin]

CON O'NEILL as uncle ray in CIDER WITH ROSIE (1998)

[still-the-seventh]

Some shirtless Con in these trying times.

[elliottenjoyer]

WIP of my dearest Israel Hands🌹🖤

[pirategrime]

cringe to say perhaps but putting aside all the (thoughtful, well-reasoned, sensitive) meta about why the optics are bad: it just makes me sad. yes i am biased. yes he was my favorite. i liked him a lot and he was maimed and hurt and died in a way no one else did. his blood was splashed all over that ship. not even touching what it does to his story or ed's and speaking purely subjectively it just makes me so so sad.

[maryallen138]

afterparty 'cause I need something cute (ಡ‸ಡ) ||as print?||

[rowenablade]

Broke: Izzy said “I want to go” because he legitimately believed his life’s journey had reached its end.

Woke: Izzy said it so that Edward could move on, a comforting lie in the service of seeing to his beloved captain’s emotional needs one last time.

Bespoke: Izzy went into the gravy basket when he got shot, where Sea Witch Buttons appeared to him and told him if he chose life, his ultimate fate was handling the customer complaint department at Ed & Stede’s Bed & Breakfast & Seafood Restaurant & Freelance Carpentry Business, and knowing this, chose death.

[jannecapelleart]

so whos up for ignoring 2x08 with me?🫱🏽‍🫲🏼

[thenew-unicorn]

"it's not okay to yell at the actors and creators for--"

yeah no one is doing that and I'm blocking blogs with this take

[nanoland]

ofmd s2 incoherent rambling ahoy: about the women

now that

WE WON THE RUGBY WORLD CUP

, i've had enough raw joy injected into my veins to enable me to actually discuss ofmd!

................. aaaaaand now that That Episode has soured my good will, i gotta say: i do not love how this show depicts women.

to be clear: taken on an individual basis, every actress did a terrific job and their time on screen was a delight. nothing but admiration on that front.

however. in terms of how they were WRITTEN. well.

okay, so it was. perhaps. a little Huh when in s1 you had the two most prominent lady characters being mary and jackie. and mary was a white hetero abled woman, and jackie was a black queer disabled woman.

and mary was sweet, and a mother, and long-suffering, and artistic, and her finally attempting to kill stede was the culmination of his being a shitty husband for years and years. and she got a whole arc to herself and a charming happy ending.

and jackie was.... well, JACKIE. 100% girl boss. tough as nails, takes no shit, puts arrogant men in their place, nose jar, etc. not much of an arc. no happy ending. she finishes the same way she starts.

AGAIN! not saying that Jackie is a bad character. she's a great character, steals every scene she's in.

but. the contrast, yeah?

but hey, we can set that aside because while mary and jackie were the most prominent women in s1, they weren't the ONLY women. you also had jaguar lady and nana. they were both tough as nails, and took no shit, and put arrogant men in their place. it's ok! it's ok.

then.... s2.

lots more ladies! awesome!

we got zheng, who is tough as nails and takes no shit and puts arrogant men in their place.

we got auntie, who is tough as nails and takes no shit and puts arrogant men in their place.

we got anne and mary, who are both tough as nails and take no shit and put arrogant men in their place.

yeah. see?

meanwhile the guys are all over the spectrum in terms of competence, power, intelligence, courage, etc. lucius is an intelligent coward, pete's a brave idiot, roach is a cheerful sadist/masochist with no fucks left to give, ed's the best pirate who ever lived (allegedly-_-) while also being the worst captain in the world, oluwande's kind and vulnerable, frenchie has Seen Some Shit, izzy is doggedly devoted to his job no matter how many times the universe signals that it's time to pack it in, stede's smart but naive and gentle but mean-spirited.

(NOTABLE EXCEPTION: archie! archie's weird and feral and resigned to life and gets her ass kicked and i love her. she's clearly not a girl boss. however, also the only woman on the whole ship.)

now, obvs we get to see the boys being more nuanced characters than the girls because, on the whole, we spend FAR more time with the boys than the girls.

and i'm not objecting to that! OFMD is a show about queer men. that's fine. that's GREAT. it's totally allowed to be that. queer men rock and deserve the world.

but. still. if you're writing ofmd, and you know that you're only going to be introducing a handful of women and not giving them much to do.....

.......you kinda need to double check to make sure you aren't giving 80% of them very similar personalities, yeah?

[ladyluscinia]

"What if it weren't like that?"

...or I'd like to propose a different theory of what's going on in Edward's head.

Going into the S2 finale, I feel like there's once again a huge consensus that Edward and piracy are an unsustainable mix, and he has to quit. Specifically after 2x07 he knows for sure, 100% that he wants to quit, and he's pulling away from Stede because he doesn't know how to communicate that certainty to him.

There's a very established meta framework backing up this belief. It's not new, just everyone pointing and saying "look! - the show is affirming us" at the same time. And it does make a lot of points about foundational trauma, the violence of the lifestyle, etc. I don't need to break it down for you. If you're seeing this post then you've seen the arguments before.

The thing is... I'm not actually sold on this read.

Edward is a complicated guy and I love to try and peel back his layers, and I'm not sure that retirement is truly his endgame. And maybe more importantly... I'm not sure retirement endgame is quite the thematic crescendo it's being presented as.

So let's talk a bit about Edward, particularly in 2x06 and 2x07.

---

Edward's Ongoing Depression Spiral

The thing about backsliding - and the Kraken was a pretty monumental backslide - is that even if you gain a lot of ground afterward, you still might not be much further than where you started.

Edward believing change is possible with Button's 2x04 guidance + his & Stede's conversation about taking it slow at the end of 2x05 are both huge steps for a guy that was openly suicidal at the beginning of the season. However, in the grand scheme of things, he's pretty much cycled back to the dilemma he was facing in S1 - continuing life as it was is intolerable, but he doesn't actually have a solid idea of what he wants. "Stede" is not a real, actionable answer.

In S1, this caused him to run recklessly into extremes of vulnerability with Stede because Stede was doing something different. He tried to metaphorically cut loose his entire history - as a pirate, as Blackbeard, as Edward Teach - and become a new "Ed" with no baggage, who was free to live an endless vacation honeymoon with his new boyfriend. And when the consequences of their own actions came crashing back in - an abandoned Izzy, Spanish Jackie, and Chauncey Badminton - Edward's desperate actions to save Stede turned into over-commitment to a guy he barely knows, a reckless plan to run halfway around the world to escape himself, and then a truly disastrous downturn when that blew up in his face.

Wherever you go, there you are - except Edward hates that guy. Edward's only concrete want so far for the new direction of his life is the one thing that's impossible - to not be Edward Teach.

So now, back to contemplating the same unknown future he was trying to chase in S1, the Kraken Era has given Edward new perspective, for better and worse. (I'm gonna link my rambling BlackHands / Kraken Era thoughts from 2x01 - 2x03 just because.) He's learned caution and is dipping his toes in self-reflection - Stede's love alone is not enough to save him, and his self-loathing has been acknowledged. Reckless pursuit of change without growth was doomed - an important lesson both Stede and Edward have started to learn.

Unfortunately, growth requires looking backwards, and if Edward was already disinclined to that due to killing his dad, he's struggling so much worse now that he's got months of fresh atrocities that he absolutely did not need to commit.

---

Drowning in Guilt

Edward's core trauma that he flashes to constantly goes back to killing his dad that night - something notably not associated with piracy. That guilt is the root of his self-loathing, but Edward is a rather troubled grown man with guilt aplenty, especially after the first two episodes of S2.

In 2x05 Edward starts with a CEO scripted non-apology firmly recategorizing all of his Kraken actions as "whatever that nasty dark stuff was that brought us here... it's in the past", and then his discussion with Stede does not involve too much reflection on why this probation is necessary and drops this gem:

"Oh fuck no. Apologizing? Nah. Didn't apologize for jack shit."

However - demonstrating self awareness / growth - he's also clearly projecting guilt and a desire (that's almost too big to look at) to apologize to Izzy for everything, and then he honestly talks with Fang (who he's known for 20 years!) about how he can not be understandably mad at him, after Fang pushes back on Edward's toxic rewriting of Knife Parade. He even learns to sit with himself!

All of which makes the start of 2x06 so layered.

We open with Edward sitting with himself, looking out over the ocean and stewing in guilt - in order: his dad, the storm, Izzy's toe, shooting Izzy, driving the crew to mutiny - and then the conversation that Edward was haunted by all last episode comes to him. He's back in his leathers - playacting the penitent with the onesie and cat bell got old after a day, and he had never truly linked his probation rules with any of his earnest feelings of remorse. Just a necessary performance to appease the crew.

Now he's himself again, as uncomfortable in his own skin as ever, and Edward Teach apologizes for Izzy's leg. He isn't being demanded to apologize by Izzy (no matter how much he may deserve it). Izzy is fully prepared to pretend it never happened despite the evidence of his body. But Edward wants to - needs to for the babiest step toward his own peace of mind - and so he does.

And then he flees from one guilt and accidentally stumbles into another. Stede has so helpfully pulled all Edward's Kraken treasure into one place, and Edward lampshades it:

"Excellent. A reminder of all my guilt. A guilt room."

Now, Stede has a decent idea here. His "poison into positivity" bit is not bad (and it echoes the language Izzy and Edward used - though I think it's a tossup whether Stede heard about that or if the parallel is purely on a Doylist level). It definitely lifts Edward's mood for the day and pulls him out of his guilt spiral for a bit.

Until it comes back so much worse.

Ned Low. Oh fuck the implications of Ned Low.

So here's the thing. People have rightly observed that Edward broke Ned's record intentionally during Kraken Era. In fact, since he makes the comment about "We got a record to break" after the wedding boat aka the last ship he takes, and Ned isn't coming after him for a tie, presumably he set the new record and then proceeded to break it over and over again. Just to rub it in. Just to really piss the sadist off.

And if Edward's attempt to take the whole ship and crew down with a storm at his lowest point was bad, what he was courting by baiting Ned before the season even started was worse. This is a man who would have tortured everyone on the breakup boat to death when he caught up to them, and Edward was passively planning on letting him do it.

Edward knows this.

Poison into positivity just became "oh shit I forgot I'm the most poisonous thing any of these people have ever run into," and he's just getting started. It's hard to shove it down and brush it off and pretend it was no big deal when Stede starts getting the hot poker to the chest.

He doesn't want to kill Ned because he's not worth the poison, but the poison is already here.

When Stede kills Ned, Edward has already spiraled. He's already got a whole narrative in his head about how this is all his fault, how this is his poison, his guilt, his Kraken surfacing to ruin Stede too.

"I'm not a good person, Stede. That's why I don't have any friends," Edward chokes out.

"It all boils down to this - You're afraid you're unlovable," snarls Hornigold's ghost in the gravy basket.

"I hate myself," Edward realizes.

"Don't do it, Stede. Killing in cold blood" - like I did - "you can't come back from that" - like I haven't.

Edward's guilt is projecting all over this scene. He's made some baby steps toward seeing Stede as a flawed person vs mythical mermaid whose love can save him, but the idealization is still coloring both their views. Stede still hasn't told Edward about any of his childhood traumas or deep seated insecurities, and Edward has continuously avoided putting together that Stede is fucked up as well. He's convinced himself that killing Ned Low is a great tragedy that will permanently scar Stede's previously unblemished goodness in a way that is all Edward's fault, and he's sticking to it despite how completely it does not apply.

Reality has never been much good at breaking through his self-loathing before.

Izzy tries to warn him to give Stede a minute, but Edward doesn't listen. And while there's a good amount of concerned boyfriend in that act, I also suspect there's more than a little self-harm. Edward's spiraling about what he's wrought. He shows up at Stede's door already paralleling this to killing his dad. Of course he wants to be in the blast radius.

Apparently, having sex about it.

---

"Bye-Bye" Blackbeard, See You Again Soon

Last season, when Edward's ignoring his past went poorly, he tried to metaphorically bundle Blackbeard and all his traumas up and cast them into the sea. He was "Edward Teach Born-on-a-Beach," and then "No-Beard" who found folding stuff in prison fun, and then he's kissing Stede and getting excited about picking new, cool names for China, because:

"Our old lives would be gone. Dead. Never were."

Edward, babygirl, that is not how that works.

Now, he's actively backsliding down a guilt spiral, just had ill-advised sex a day after the "take it slow" talk that he's already regretting, and he gets up in the morning, pulls on another goddamn robe, and goes to literally bundle Blackbeard up and cast him into the sea.

Babe you already tried this.

I don't think it's a coincidence that disposing of his leathers signals Edward is back to reckless change instead of intentional change. He tries to make breakfast in bed despite never having ever made breakfast before and explains his twine as a panicked decision. The idealization of Stede is back in force - he chooses now to tell him about the mermaid vision - "fantastic," he describes him - and thanks him for saving his life. (Once again, in times of trouble, Edward is the one offering up rosy imaginations for their relationship that swallow him whole and Stede is shoving his recent childhood trauma flashbacks down to be Normal™.)

In the Republic, Edward does avoid becoming straight up jealous of all Stede's positive infamy, but he's also doing his hardcore all or nothing thing again - this time running away from himself toward a grubby, poor, "nobody" version of Ed (or do we think he's gonna try "Jeff" again?). Jackie calls his attention to how his new life direction (as of 6 hours ago) is not necessarily aligned with Stede's, and - rather than doing something as crazy as talking - he mutters "shit" and heads to the docks where Izzy finds him.

For a guy who felt "Fucking great" throwing away his leathers, Edward sounds kind of sarcastic, even if I'm sure he's feeling just as light as he was on that Naval Academy beach. But Izzy - going through his own shit but still trying to be supportive - opened this conversation with a joke about Stede and I suspect thinks they are talking about putting the "Edward retiring to be with Stede" plan back on the table. (Edward could clear this up, but he's still not communicating his emotions to Izzy.) So Izzy encourages him:

"Maybe you should listen to it."

Edward's face falls, he looks back down at the fishing boat, and apparently gets himself a new job. He just needs to go dump his boyfriend about it. They're simply incompatible, you see?

Edward's a fisherman now. He's gonna sit with himself until he finds a better guy in there, just like Fang taught him. (Don't blame Fang for this 😆 he just wanted Edward to stop talking!)

Now there's a lot going on in the breakup scene, but I want to talk about one statement Edward makes (keeping in mind he's already spiraled all the way into his new fisherman identity):

"I don't even know who I am! Alright, I know I don't want to be a pirate, but you..."

Because, see - I don't think the second part of that is necessarily true.

It's not that Edward doesn't want to be "a pirate". That's what he's using as shorthand (and a way to strongly delineate his new career from Stede: "Fishermen and pirates - they're nothing alike.").

What he's not saying is, once again, I know I don't want to be Edward Teach.

And, babygirl, I love you... but too fucking bad.

---

Better Piracy as a Theme

There's a lot of meta around about how Edward views piracy as a kind of enforced toxic masculinity. How his traumas are woven so thoroughly into his Blackbeard career that the thought of continuing as a pirate is killing him. He has to retire. It's the only way he'll truly be happy as "just Edward."

And I question that framing.

Like... Edward clearly has trauma tied up in piracy. His time on Hornigold's ship appears to have defined his (and Calico's Jack's) fairly fucked up approach to casual violence. His time as Blackbeard has enabled his poor impulses, and he is absolutely sick of piracy as he's experienced it the first time we meet him. That's not in question.

But while leaving is one solution, I think change is another.

In the OFMD universe, piracy is not a stand-in for toxic masculinity. Stede, an outsider, describes it as a "culture of abuse" in the first episode, but it's the culture of piracy where we see openly gay relationships, polyamory, freedom of expression in clothing and presentation, the oppressed having power... to treat piracy as inherently toxic is to deny that the culture of piracy is what gave life to Calypso's Birthday party. Our main characters are pirates.

There is a lot of violence and most pirates are very troubled people, but it's not piracy's fault. That's getting the cause and effect reversed. The "problem" with piracy and pirate culture is that the people coming into it and building this community are already traumatized.

As Edward points out to Stede:

"It's usually something like that. It's often family-based stuff."

(Also the problem might be the pirate Captains, lol. I mean, if you start listing the major drivers and enablers of toxic culture... Hornigold, Ned Low, Calico Jack, Blackbeard. Fortunate, then, that the crew of the Revenge is demonstrating that piracy can also be about workers' unions and supporting each other against your shitty boss while operating in a thriving community. He can play nice or get out.)

Oluwande tells us from the start that people don't choose to be pirates - they get forced into it by terrible circumstances in a terrible society. Piracy is the community that accepts the outcasts, but it can't magically fix them. They have to do that themselves, which our crew is showing can be done.

Stede did not swan in with all the answers, but he gave his crew the space and all the confused-yet-well-meant support they needed to strengthen their own bonds and community. Oluwande and Frenchie especially have been really stepping up in leadership positions. Like, the whole plot of 2x05 was showing they have successfully formed a union and that they will operate as a united front against their captains if need arises. It's so good!

They are living that better culture that Stede wanted so bad, and it's not just our crew.

Piracy influenced by the Revenge crew has been shown as helpful and even desirable to chase.

Hellcat Maggie and the rest of Low's crew don't sail off to get new jobs - they are resuming piracy but this time talking about profit sharing. Anne and Mary, our oh so aggressive BlackBonnet mirrors, retired from piracy together like Edward was dreaming of in 1x09, and what "fixes" them is burning it all down and returning to piracy (rejecting Mary's fears) with their love at the forefront of their minds.

Edward wants to leave piracy behind forever because he has depression and hates himself, but the biggest thing he hates himself for isn't even a thing he did as a pirate. He's pushing back on his Hornigold trauma from the moment we meet him - in fact, I have a whole other meta idea I need to pull together after the season about how he has potentially thought he was doing "soft piracy" in spite of Hornigold this whole time - but the guilt he feels about killing his dad is still too big for him to even look at. And that won't go away even if he could cut 20+ years of Blackbeard out of his chest.

He's bored. He was stagnating. He needs to address that knot of self-loathing before it successfully drowns him.

Maybe people are right and he could be the one pirate to find peace operating a bed and breakfast? Maybe he'll follow in Jackie's footsteps and stay connected to the community by running a gay bar or something?

But I also think, maybe, he has a community surrounding him, a home and love on the sea, and a career with plenty of aspects he did enjoy - sailing, fuckeries, luxuries, creative problem solving - and he might just need to join everyone in striving for a better culture?

And step one would be realizing that wherever he goes, he's still Edward Teach, and he's got to stop running from that fact.

[ladyluscinia]

2x08 Reaction #7

Ok, last episode thing in this series I've finally circled around to being pissed about is framing Izzy as a mentor to Edward.

Because what the fuck.

When they had Stede do the whole "taught him everything he knows" bit in 2x05 I thought it was pure flattery, to the point I thought it was wild that Izzy even gave a little shrug like he might believe it. I thought we had established pretty clearly in S1 that Edward was the creative thinker and leader in their dynamic.

Izzy was useful - probably even essential - but he was the support. The tool. Good at the execution.

And he certainly seemed to know this. In 1x04 where they establish their pre-Stede dynamic, Izzy expects Edward to come up with a brilliant plan and tell him what to do. He only doubts him enough to try and take charge at the last possible second, seems mostly aware his own idea is "get shot fighting back instead of sitting and dying", and feels genuine regret for both having to shoot down Edward's first plan and insulting him at all once he saves them in the end.

Because Edward is brilliant. He's earned his place as the leader between them. As Blackbeard.

Which makes it absolutely infuriating that in pivoting him into a "wise mentor" role they have Ricky say to Izzy's face that he was the brains behind Blackbeard and Izzy doesn't even refute it??? Paired with killing him off as the mentor (supposedly), and paralleling him to Auntie as they really double down on the "mentor who has authority over strategy and is proud of you" thing, and the displays of respect in 2x07... it kinda feels like the show is saying Edward learned most or all of his shit from Izzy.

And, like... if they just meant swordfighting and getting an approving nod when he pulled off a complicated disarm that would be one thing, but they kept focusing on things like "brains of the operation" and "how to lead the crew as a Captain" lessons.

And Edward is so much less interesting if Izzy actually taught him how to be Blackbeard, or if he was doing things as Blackbeard for Izzy's approval.

Like I guess I'm glad they didn't flesh it out enough to make the implications fully textual so you can fudge them away from that direction, but they don't really tell you not to read it that way. The man is even giving emotional development advice for fuck's sake. The mentor thing is jarring enough because the authority and respect dynamic really never flowed in Izzy's direction, but it's also putting Izzy in a position where I feel like they are implying he made Edward the man he was for better and worse, and... no. Don't do that.

Stop giving Edward's anxiety-ridden henchman credit for his atrocities - he worked hard on those.

(Plus we literally already know the first authoritative figure in piracy he got round two of Daddy Issues and his fucked up ideas about piracy from. How many symbolic fathers pushing him in dark directions does one man need to kill / be visited by in purgatory / watch die before he can start addressing those???)

[tizzyizzy]

The thing about bad writing is that it apes the beats of good writing without a true understanding of what actually makes those beats work. So it isn't uncommon to be affected by it as your mind supplies resolution and details that aren't actually there to fill in the gaps.

Izzy's death scene has all the hallmarks of a classic Sad Death Scene. Con O'neill is acting his heart out. Ed acknowledges he was terrible to Izzy and calls him family. Izzy tells Ed he's ready to go, so it isn't too sad. He apologizes, accepts Ed as Ed, and tells Ed not to be sad because he is surrounded by family.

It all feels sad but fitting and beautiful...until you start to think about it.

"Wait, what was the line about the crew being family? They haven't forgiven Ed, and Ed stays on land with Stede."

"Wait, I get that Izzy did try to influence Ed not to fall for Stede in s1, but he also accepted Ed's retirement? The pain Ed caused Izzy got way more attention and was much worse, but his apology was barely an apology?"

"Wait, it feels like Izzy dying was supposed to be the final death of Blackbeard, but wasn't the whole point of Izzy's arc healing from that stuff? Ed already decided to leave Blackbeard behind, didn't he?"

"Wait, was that really how Izzy died? They didn't take the gun off the hostage? No heroic last act or sacrifice? Just...random bad luck? And a shot in the side, that no one ever dies from in this universe?"