Yeah, I pretty much reblog anything I think is interesting or wonderful. These things include random art, video games, comic books/graphic novels, and TV shows/movies that I'm currently interested in at the time. Hopefully you will agree.
When you interrupt your dads during their morning chat over tea — [1.07 THIS IS HAPPENING]
It just occured to me that Ed is literally feeling out of place in here; he is worried he overstayed his welcome and upsetting the order of things. So when they dock in St. Augustine for oranges, Stede spends a fortune and buys the fake map. In as much as I love Lucius’ little monologue after the snake grilling scene, I never really understood what he meant by Stede “doing this all for (Ed).” It then occured to me that Lucius is the only person who sees Stede negotiate for that fake map. Stede must be like, “Lucius look at this! A treasure map!! This could be an adventure for me and Ed!!!” It is also important that it’s Lucius, also acting as an audience surrogate, who realizes there’s something going on between the two.
When Stede is discussing going to St Augustine with the crew, he asks if there’s anything there that “might impress a world-weary adventuring type”. It’s implied that from the moment Ed tells him that he’s going to move on to the “next adventure” because he’s “not built for sitting idle”, Stede is trying to figure out how to get him to stay. Naturally he decides to manufacture an adventure that he imagines a pirate would enjoy lmao.
And Stede pretty much tells Lucius that this is his intent with the outing when he says: “we’re going to have fun today and that’s an order! … Guys like Blackbeard, they live for adventure, it’s like nourishment for them. So we’re going to have an extremely fun, memorable, deeply cool adventure! Do I have your support on that?” Here he’s essentially telling Lucius: ‘I need you to help me make sure this adventure is fun because Blackbeard needs a fun adventure’. So by the time Lucius tells Ed off, he definitely has reason to say that Stede planned the outing for Ed!
@the-moon-loves-the-sea has a wonderful thread about The Chain in the context of Ed and Izzy’s relationship and it got me thinking…
one of the things ofmd does phenomenally is stand up to multiple lenses at once. i want to zoom out to the macro scale.
because The Chain is literally thee epic scene this season. that post about knowing exactly who’s got the gay pirate brain rot when the song started playing? there’s a reason for that. the kiss is understated-emotional. this is epic.
it comes on the heels of “fuck you, Jack. He’s my friend!”
there’s a shot that looks too close to a head-on version of Washington Crossing the Delaware to be pure coincidence. there’s bayonets and shoving and a sky-clad Buttons running about the deck. Frenchie’s just playing his lute and gets frickin wasted (rip Frenchie’s lute).
Badminton comes rolling over the side like a wave and the navy guys shove everyone’s faces in the deck to arrest them.
“you came back”
“never left.”
the wink! the toe touch!
this is it folks! this ship has sailed, if you didn’t believe Lucius last episode with the “oh my god this is happening” well they’re getting film language married next ep. (bless all you screencappers and artists for filling my dash with it mwah!)
but if it’s not about Izzy selling Ed out what’s it about???
It is about Izzy selling Ed out. and Spanish Jackie helped too. and Badminton directed the charge.
this is policing.
this is 2 different types of social norms policing their own. one just has to use the other in order to do it.
“he’s from my world, not yours”
Badminton is here to remind Stede of who he is supposed to be and how his transgressions against acceptable behavior have (lethal) consequences. Izzy is doing the exact same thing to Ed but he has to negotiate with the royal navy in order to do it.
this is about power. who has access to it. how it gets used. and who it marginalizes.
Stede and Ed are not following the rules and the roles that their societies deem appropriate. Stede stepped out of line, left his quiet, predictable, government approved, miserable family life for piracy. Ed stepped out of line, wearing down the spikey Hot Topic edges of piracy for something more human. Ed’s society is smaller, doesn’t have access to the kind of fire and manpower the crown can command. but Izzy will not let him go, and Badminton won’t let Stede get away.
the system self-polices, self-regulates, self-perpetuates. It is a chain of causality and a chain of restrictions.
and if the system doesn’t love you now, it never will. it will strangle you into a cog and keep on chugging. and it promises that it will never break.
and we, those unable or unwilling to go along with it, we’re running in the shadow.
and Ed is willing to trade one chain for another. to trade a piracy he seems successful in for a life of servitude as long as the chain might keep them together.
