Okay can I talk about episode 3 for a minute? Because I was watching episode 3 again and the way Stede interacts with Lucius once they're at the Republic of Pirates jumped out to me this time.
Because, like, Stede is on some level seeing some of himself in Lucius, right? I'm reminded of @nicnacsnonsense's post pointing out Stede saying "I'm glad you're making friends, but tighten up" like he was a little worried about the effeminate, slightly bitchy guy who reads more than the people around him having trouble fitting in, for utterly unfathomable and entirely non-personal reasons.
And then we get to the Republic of Pirates, and Lucius is clearly just as new to this environment as Stede is, and he's dragging his feet and just generally not enthused about the situation and maybe a little overwhelmed, but he's not, like, actually distraught.
(He does a little cry after getting smeared with blood, but it's clearly a venting-through-being-dramatic, "I kind of hate this and I just want everyone to be aware of that" thing, rather than an involuntary "I am in real distress and it's not something I can deal with" cry -- it's the kind of thing you do to make yourself feel better when you're unclogging the shower drain and it's REALLY gross and maybe a bit of gross shower water got inside your glove but you've just gotta keep going and get through it.)
So Lucius is not at ease with the situation, but he's not not okay, and it's his job to follow Stede around and be his biographer/companion, after all. And Stede, beautiful imperfect autistic wonderful hero that he is (I want to autistically kiss him on the mouth always), who has been in scary new situations before, doesn't tell him off for whining, just goes "come on, we're going! follow me!" and then
(this is the part that jumped out at me this time)
They get to Spanish Jackie's, and Stede turns to him and says, "Now it does look a bit scary in there, so I'm going to need you to hold it together and come in." (And I could go on for days about how this may not be Lucius's communication style or what he was hoping to hear in this situation, but from an autistic point of view, Stede has just given 1) forewarning and an idea of what to expect, 2) clear, manageable, and concrete explanation of what he expects of Lucius, 3) non-judgmental acknowledgment that Lucius is experiencing difficulty, and 4) an impression of confidence that suggests Stede has it covered and will get them through it fine -- but the REAL thing I'm getting at here is --)
Lucius then tries to wriggle out of it again -- "Oh, well if it's scary, I'll probably just head back to the ship --"
-- and Stede immediately seizes on a nearby thing that 1) is interesting, 2) gives Lucius an immediate (and easy, and familiar) job to do to distract him, 3) reinforces the framing of "this is fun and exciting! we're making memories!", and 4) gets Lucius a little physically closer to the bar.
Anyway, I have definitely not paused right in the middle of the episode to cry about how Stede consistently deliberately responds to situations for his crew the way he would have wanted someone to do for him in a similar situation. (Especially not when I should have been in bed several hours ago.)
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a nose jar to see.
origamiaround
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
