iamadequate1

[iamadequate1]

It's not just in romcoms: these "Where are the storylines?!" people are the audience that has encouraged the death of television. Filler episodes or scenes that exist just for the sake of existing in the universe (and thus adding something to the worldbuilding or character quirks that aren't directly related to The Plot) are now seen as high crimes.

With OFMD, there is this utter confusion that a show can exist to tell a story about a relationship instead of treating characters, even the leads, as cogs to tell The Plot.

(And then the usual complete self absorption of confusing "I like Something" with "Something is good", and "I don't like Something" with "Something is bad")

I think one of the biggest patterns we've been seeing in critical reviews of OFMD is just this very blatant refusal to engage with the show on its own terms.

Obviously, it's fine to not like a show for whatever reason. OFMD hits the perfect sweet spot of emotional, dramatic, and funny for me, and not everyone is going to feel the same way. More than personal preference, though, I've so often seen a failure to understand the show on the most basic level.

OFMD is a romcom. The relationship between the two leads is The Point of the Show. That's why it absolutely baffles me when I keep hearing people say "there's no plot" - yes the fuck there is! It's right there! You wouldn't get mad turning on a romcom and being like "why are they focusing so much on the relationship between these two characters >:( where's the plot?"

I think part of the problem is there's not a lot of Western shows that are so focused on a storyline like this, but OFMD is very clear about what it's doing. It's a character-driven story to the extreme. The big end-season plots about the English aren't actually about the English, so the action beats and villian characters don't get the same attention they would in another show because they're not the point, they exist only to tell us things about Ed and Stede and force them into situations to drive development for our central relationship.

OFMD never compromises from what it is. It's a campy queer romcom, and it's about pirates but it's not about pirates. And if you refuse to engage with the story it's trying to tell you about the relationship between these two guys, if you're not willing to try to empathize with them, then yeah. You're probably not gonna like the show because you're not interested in what it's giving you and you're demanding it give you something else instead.

#our flag means death #ofmd #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

This keeps getting said and said, and the only rebuttal is "nuh uh!" and "that's your opinion!" or "*long pause* *ignore* Izzy taught Stede so much 😍" ... and in my previous post on this, "it's too long!"

Here is my analogy: Math is my jam. Algebra and calculus became second nature to me long, long ago and are easy enough to be consider the very baby step beginnings of "the basics." I have tutored in math before. In basic algebra, if I were to explain the concept of continuous functions to someone just learning the term and concept by using its technical definition (i.e., use the topology on the domain and range spaces and the preimage of the function), would that be effective? It would be true, and I technically would have "taught" them about it! Of course, they won't be able to use that in any meaningful way, and they absolutely would not retain what I showed them. If they do their own work and find/use a method that works in arena they're working in (e.g., you can draw the graph without lifting your pencil), can I clap and congratulate myself that I taught them that?

That's the thing about teaching: you have to have the knowledge and you have to be able to transfer it in a way that the other person can demonstrate the taught knowledge on their own. This is how it works in school and job training, and this is how it works in every aspect of our lives that involves knowledge transfer. If you just scream a wall of something at someone and they don't have a knowledge or performance upgrade, you taught them nothing. Since this is how it works in real life, this is how it works in media.

In OFMD, we saw Jim and Oluwande teach Stede the stun move, and we know they taught him because he uses it later. We saw Ed teach Stede how to survive being impaled on a sword, and we know he taught him because he uses it later. We saw Ed teach Stede how to be more threatening (ex: the eyeball stabbing threat that also made it to the "What is love?" montage, lol), and we know he taught him this because he uses it in "Unhand me or bleed." We saw Ed teach Stede the basics of swordfighting, and we see that he did teach him some elements because Stede is markedly improved in 2x8 (though not at expert level). Even in knowledge/skill improvement in series, we see a subtle evolution of Stede's ladder climbing abilities, pointing toward offscreen practice and possible training.

In the Izzy montage, we saw Izzy (1) sucker punch Stede, (2) push Stede at one go at a rope swing, and (3) have Stede take one shot at some bottles (that he misses). On (1), Stede already knows how to punch people, and it's explicitly stated on screen that Izzy's method is not how Stede works, and the punch on the cursed ship parallels "Unhand me or bleed," not whatever it was that Izzy was doing. On (2), lol, what? Stede never even tries to use this skill, and Izzy doesn't give any instruction or corrective pointers. On (3), again, Izzy doesn't give instruction or corrective pointers, and we see that Stede already knows how to fire a gun. He gives a warning shot at the end of 2x5, and shoots a guy point blank in 2x8, and I'm not even going to take you seriously if you try to claim that Stede needed Izzy to be able to do either of those things.

However, we can see that Izzy is a very bad teacher: he doesn't adjust his techniques to aid in Stede's learning, he doesn't give feedback, and we never see Stede using the "skills" that Izzy taught him. Izzy did some stuff, and nothing happened afterward that indicated that Izzy actually taught anything. This is very telling as the show has demonstrated that it knows how to communicate that a teaching/knowledge transfer has happened. Since they very specifically did not show Izzy being successful in teaching, we cannot say that Izzy taught Stede anything.

More importantly, 2x5 all happened in like a day, so the montage happened in less than an hour most likely, and the only time in canon that Izzy would have had to teach Stede anything is in the offscreen gap between 2x5 and 2x6 (since starting in 2x6, we can well track the events to the end of the season and there is no breathing space for inserted "Izzy learns how to be a teacher and then teaches Stede some stuff"); to declare that this must have happened, we have to assume that Stede gave up time with his actual pirate mentor, Ed. And, lol. No. Even giving up the flirty aspect, Ed is shown to be a much better teacher and a much more skilled pirate.

ETA: Another important point that keeps getting forgotten is that Stede spent three months with Oluwande in the Republic of Pirates at the beginning of the season. Oluwande was his go-to pirate mentor before Ed, and I think it's very telling that people insist that Izzy taught Stede sooooooooo much in the small possible window offscreen, but it's inconceivable that Oluwande is more likely to be responsible for any offscreen training.

OK, but ignoring the whole weird Stizzy thing for a minute, let’s discuss that little arc with the training montage.

Because of course we see Izzy failing utterly at training Stede, and we see confirmation that Stede is not good at that kind of physical action: we see him unable to throw a punch, unable to hit a target, unable to swing on a rope. There’s no buildup cuts where he gets gradually better at it (as there usually is in training montages) and we never see anything that implies that Izzy helped him get better (not least because there’s no point later on where we SEE him being better). But we do hear Stede say that “his body takes over” when he gets into the midst of action, and he points out that he did indeed defeat Izzy in a duel.

Later, we see Stede defend himself—he punches the guy who attacks him from the wardrobe before Izzy can even get his sword out. He turns and fires the gun in the air before any of the more experienced pirates can move to defend him. He does, in fact, respond quickly and effectively in the heat of battle. Which he has always done—he draws a knife on Izzy the first time they meet. Doug grabs his shoulder and he moves to defend himself.

At no point do we see that Stede’s technical skills have particularly improved—he tries the same moves with Zheng that he did in the first duel with Izzy and he loses to her. He gets his sword stuck in a guy’s stomach. But what we do see, and have seen, consistently through both seasons, is Stede’s ability to survive. He’s not predictable, he’s not technically skilled, and he NEVER learns those skills with any degree of proficiency. But he is very adept at survival. He uses his unpredictability to his advantage and he makes it out alive. Not only that, his intuition and inventiveness help OTHER people to survive.

Stede didn’t win the duel with Izzy on a technicality; he won according to the rules while at the same time ignoring all the rules of dueling (he doesn’t know them!). He doesn’t survive in spite of his lack of technical skills; he survives because of that. And there’s no such thing as surviving on a technicality—you’re either alive or you’re dead, and Stede’s alive.

Which is exactly what Ed says to him when they first meet: “Most of the pirates I know? They’re dead. So you’re doing a lot better than them.”

#our flag means death #ofmd #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

This is from Radiradirah. It's a bunch of sketches, and the one everyone has seen the most is Space Waltz.

The full thing is on YouTube, and uh... it's not for the faint of heart, let's just say, though I have a fondness for Space Waltz and this Robin Hood type sketch where Rhys is a proto-Stede

I was looking for a gif for something else and I came across this one. Does anyone have any idea what this is from? It looks fantasy themed and Rhys in it, so hell yeah, I want to see it!

#rhys darby #radiradirah

[iamadequate1]

Stede to Izzy in 2x3:

Stede doesn't have time for that nonsense

#our flag means death #ofmd #stede bonnet #izzy hands #“i know you think you know him” lol #the pathetic confession in 2x1 and trying to commiserate as equals in 2x7 #sit down man #you were never in the game #Youtube

[iamadequate1]

Right, Officer Hornberry (lostakasha in comments)! Lol... I'd also put down Magic Man as a maybe.

Let's be real about Izzy: I don't know a thing about him as an individual person divorced from his role as a plot device! I don't know anything about his backstory (and I lean towards the naval background most IRL pirates had because of how comfortable he was with them), and I don't know anything that he likes besides lying, yelling at Ed, yelling at people to behave "properly," and pretending he's waaaaayy more important than he is. There are no cute throwaway lines that people can spin off developed character traits on and creatively develop in different ways in AUs (like "seven sugars" or "I used to make dresses with my mother"). I know that some popular fics have created a Tragic Backstory for him that some people demand be treated as canon in discussion, but, lol. No. This is why fanfic that heavily features Izzy will never work for me: canon traits are almost always tossed out (or extremely problematic elements added) to make a story work. Softer fanfic around him may as well just use an OC with an author's note of "imagine Con O'Neill is playing him."

Rarepairs and crackships have to cling to scraps like the imaginary "mentor" arc with Stede or the one second cigarette sharing with Lucius (in the same episode he proposes to Pete...). It all feels like 2004 slashfic with everything people do with Izzy, and I'm not into that, and I'm certainly tired of people insisting that it was a plausible canon consideration

AND ANOTHER THING. Say Ed did ACTUALLY leave and never come back (which he wouldn’t, because that’s his guy). First, Stede would be wildly depressed for months. Second, when he did reach a point where he could talk to someone about it, he would not open up to the guy whose name he struggles to remember and who sold them out to the English. He’d talk to Lucius. He’d talk to Olu. He’d talk to EVERYONE. It would be everyone’s problem. He’d have group therapy sessions.

The only plausible scenario where Izzy works his way into being Stede’s confidant is the whole grooming thing that has been discussed and that is indeed something that could happen, but even then it takes a major fucking leap for that to turn into a sexual/romantic relationship, given who STEDE is. More likely he would get further isolated and we all know what happens when Izzy tries to isolate and manipulates people.

Anyway, now I’ve grossed myself out.

#our flag means death #ofmd #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

Where are these awful takes coming from? 🤣

The only instances of Ed (briefly) leaving Stede have Izzy as a participant: Izzy sends CJ to The Revenge to take advantage of Ed's misplaced obligations in 1x8, Izzy votes to banish Ed from the ship in 2x4, and then in a comedy of accidents, Izzy interrupts Ed and Stede's conversation about avoiding near death situations and their line of work before they can share real thoughts (and inadvertently talks Ed into going for his fisherman dream) in 2x7. In a scenario where Ed leaves for good, according to the narrative, Izzy would most likely be heavily involved in it, and that doesn't seem conducive to seducing Stede were Stede to lose all his senses and taste in men.

Stede doesn't care about Iggy. If he was going to hook up with another older man also having later in life self discoveries (who wasn't Ed), after a proper grieving process and discussions with the crew, he'd go snag Jeffrey! Fettering! He's awesome and really builds Stede up.

AND ANOTHER THING. Say Ed did ACTUALLY leave and never come back (which he wouldn’t, because that’s his guy). First, Stede would be wildly depressed for months. Second, when he did reach a point where he could talk to someone about it, he would not open up to the guy whose name he struggles to remember and who sold them out to the English. He’d talk to Lucius. He’d talk to Olu. He’d talk to EVERYONE. It would be everyone’s problem. He’d have group therapy sessions.

The only plausible scenario where Izzy works his way into being Stede’s confidant is the whole grooming thing that has been discussed and that is indeed something that could happen, but even then it takes a major fucking leap for that to turn into a sexual/romantic relationship, given who STEDE is. More likely he would get further isolated and we all know what happens when Izzy tries to isolate and manipulates people.

Anyway, now I’ve grossed myself out.

#our flag means death #ofmd #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

re: 353 you are right of course. Obviously steddyhands would not plausibly make a single one of the characters happy, ESPECIALLY not Izzy. There's a lot of things open to interpretation about Izzy but his ideal relationship obviously does not involve two guys who cannot stop doing insufferable in-jokey improv bits with each other. He would hate it if they ignored him to do that and he would hate it even more if they made any attempt to involve him in it. Even if he managed to get to a place where he could have healthy friendships with both Ed and Stede individually he would find spending time around their couple dynamic to be unbearably annoying.

But the point of steddyhands isn't to make any of the characters happy, at least not in the sense of actually exploring what any one of them brings to a relationship with the others. The point of steddyhands is to correct a perceived flaw in the narrative of ofmd.

That flaw of course is the fact that Izzy's whiteness and masculinity did not afford him protagonist status like it's supposed to. People are so used to narratives centering whiteness and centering gender-conforming masculinity on such a deep level that they're not even conscious of that being why Izzy's supporting character status feels like such a deep and visceral wrongness to them; all they know is that it has to be corrected.

They see that the narrative of OFMD focuses on Stede and on Ed and on Stede and Ed's love for each other, and so the only way to give Izzy the protagonist status he deserves without changing what the story is about is to involve Izzy in that love and focus the attention of both Ed and Stede on him, just like the narrative's attention ought to be focused on him. The fact that this wouldn't logically make Izzy happy is beside the point: it would bring a sense of rightness to the story, so it simply has to be what would make Izzy happy too by giving him the narrative status that is his by right.

#363.

related posts: #353

#our flag meets death #ofmd #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

when people talk about ed being abusive specifically because of izzy's toes i always imagine a scene where daffy duck and porky pig are talking to wile e. coyote and they say something like "we think you're in an unhealthy relationship with the roadrunner, he's dropped at least two more anvils on your head this week" and then i come on the internet and find people complaining in completely serious tones that this means we the audience were meant to think the roadrunner is a domestic abuser

#374.

#our flag means death #ofmd #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

Agreed. It is a very bad ship, but that does explain why people are SO attached to the "mentor" angle despite having no canon support.

The additional point is that there really aren't any cute canon parallels with Stizzy you could toss into fanfic... except maybe the shirt cut up? They don't have any remarkable interactions. A ship that is as prolific as Stizzy is somehow churning out fics without being able to have any strong canon callbacks... which is not a concern with that ship, I would say. Fanfics where you can Ctrl+H and swap character names and not lose any impact of the story are not interesting. But I am saying this while there is nothing in the world that has ever and would ever get me to read a Stizzy fic.

Here’s the thing (I didn’t want to keep ranting on that poor person’s post): I really don’t think that you can divorce OFMD’s canon dynamics, and what canon is explicitly saying about abuse and race and masculinity, from ships like Stizzy. Yes, there is an interpretation based on canon that can argue that Izzy is (consciously or not) grooming Stede to become a “New Blackbeard.” It’s a stretch to say that any of that is sexual (if you buy that interpretation), but I guess you can get there.

For that to be a positive thing that in some way upends or supersedes Stede’s feelings for Ed AND transfers them to Izzy, even in a scenario where Ed doesn’t come back, requires taking the perspective that Izzy is the secret, real protagonist and that Stede is his reward.

And this is always the problem. What the show does will always bite you in the ass. You can’t remove issues of race and abuse and masculinity from those characters and have them remain the same characters, without falling into deeply problematic tropes that involve racism and rape culture (and queer characters are not somehow exempt from those things). Because there is actually a reason why this show is not about Izzy Hands and why it’s not Black Sails. There is a reason why Stede falls in love with Ed and not with Izzy. And it’s not solely “because we wanted him to.” It has more complex meaning than that.

This shit is absolutely racist and is absolutely reinforcing rape culture. Is it the most egregious sin that fandom has ever committed? No, but it is there. It is a thing. It’s really not a good idea to pretend that it isn’t.

#our flag means death #ofmd #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

I am not familiar with that incident at all. Yikes.

I am, however, aware of The Slavery Fic and the backlash against the racist elements and harassment of those who pointed out the racism, and in Canyon History, it's now being passed around that the backlash was about "Izzy's redemption" in the story.

356 anon, friend, you are new here. You missed the whole background on how this "fandom rift" came to be. but the nutshell is, no one hates anyone just for liking Izzy, but a subset of people who are REALLY into Izzy have gone around picking fights with everyone who doesn't agree with their completely nonsensical interpretations of canon, to the extent of claiming, unironically, that Izzy is "jesus-coded" and also the real protagonist and also super competent and always right about everything and super loyal... even as he's shown onscreen to willfully lie to and betray Ed repeatedly, while not being all that good at his job and just kind of generally being a dick.

It's understandable that it doesn't make sense without the background of having seen the repeated rounds of bs those particular Izzy fans who call themselves "the canyon" have created over and over, but if you pay attention and remember what actually happens in the show, you'll see it too soon enough.

They claim "everyone else hates Izzy fans just for liking Izzy" and related stuff about how they're the victims and "everyone's" mean to them "for no reason", meanwhile they go around dogpiling anyone who calls any of them out for actual real-world bad behavior and pretending it's just "persecution of Izzy fans" to point out that one Izzy fan in particular said something really racist, behaved inappropriately with someone's personal information, created sockpuppet accounts to block-evade and harass people, etc etc ...but on the one or two occasions that someone did really cross a line toward an izzy fan, it's PROOF that the whole rest of the fandom is "out to get them" even if everyone else actually jumped on board with smacking down the out of line guy, and they will literally never stop milking it for victim points. Believe me, the rest of us all wish they'd knock it off too.

#365.

related posts: #356

#ofmd #our flag means death #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

On the last point, for people newer to fandom: the canyon will always relate their Canyon History stories to new fans to include "back in the day, someone doxxed an Izzy fan, and now we have to always protect ourselves!!!!" and never mention the fact that 99.9% of the non-canyon fans condemned and ostracized the doxxer. They also conveniently never mention at least one major doxxing event this year perpetuated by people in the canyon, an event that is still an active threat, because it doesn't fit their victim narrative.

356 anon, friend, you are new here. You missed the whole background on how this "fandom rift" came to be. but the nutshell is, no one hates anyone just for liking Izzy, but a subset of people who are REALLY into Izzy have gone around picking fights with everyone who doesn't agree with their completely nonsensical interpretations of canon, to the extent of claiming, unironically, that Izzy is "jesus-coded" and also the real protagonist and also super competent and always right about everything and super loyal... even as he's shown onscreen to willfully lie to and betray Ed repeatedly, while not being all that good at his job and just kind of generally being a dick.

It's understandable that it doesn't make sense without the background of having seen the repeated rounds of bs those particular Izzy fans who call themselves "the canyon" have created over and over, but if you pay attention and remember what actually happens in the show, you'll see it too soon enough.

They claim "everyone else hates Izzy fans just for liking Izzy" and related stuff about how they're the victims and "everyone's" mean to them "for no reason", meanwhile they go around dogpiling anyone who calls any of them out for actual real-world bad behavior and pretending it's just "persecution of Izzy fans" to point out that one Izzy fan in particular said something really racist, behaved inappropriately with someone's personal information, created sockpuppet accounts to block-evade and harass people, etc etc ...but on the one or two occasions that someone did really cross a line toward an izzy fan, it's PROOF that the whole rest of the fandom is "out to get them" even if everyone else actually jumped on board with smacking down the out of line guy, and they will literally never stop milking it for victim points. Believe me, the rest of us all wish they'd knock it off too.

#365.

related posts: #356

#ofmd #our flag means death #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

A diagram

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd bts #ofmd fanart #ofmd fanart 2024 #people are fast! #love this fandom

[iamadequate1]

I think people keep forgetting that this is a romcom that is focused on Ed and Stede. The example I keep using is Pride & Prejudice. Handing Ed or Stede to Izzy for a ship is the same as handing Elizabeth or Darcy to Wickham for a ship. There is a story centered on a loving and happy couple, and there is an antagonist who caused them very real damage. Doing what-ifs involving Ed/Izzy or Stede/Izzy is VERY DIFFERENT than doing what-if silly shipping (that are actual crackships that you know won't be canon and rely on "work with me in this absurdity!") like Stede/Lucius, Ed/Frenchie, or Stede/Magic Man. In P&P, similarly, doing what-ifs involving Elizabeth/Wickham or Darcy/Wickham is VERY DIFFERENT than doing what-if silly shipping like Elizabeth/Collins or Darcy/Bingley.

In shipping, you have to think in BOTH WAYS on why a ship would work.

In a more extreme example... I like DS9, and I know there are/were people who try out Kira/Dukat and try/tried to pass it off as just as legitimate as her canon consensual relationships (iykyk, that's very messed up).

Here’s the thing (I didn’t want to keep ranting on that poor person’s post): I really don’t think that you can divorce OFMD’s canon dynamics, and what canon is explicitly saying about abuse and race and masculinity, from ships like Stizzy. Yes, there is an interpretation based on canon that can argue that Izzy is (consciously or not) grooming Stede to become a “New Blackbeard.” It’s a stretch to say that any of that is sexual (if you buy that interpretation), but I guess you can get there.

For that to be a positive thing that in some way upends or supersedes Stede’s feelings for Ed AND transfers them to Izzy, even in a scenario where Ed doesn’t come back, requires taking the perspective that Izzy is the secret, real protagonist and that Stede is his reward.

And this is always the problem. What the show does will always bite you in the ass. You can’t remove issues of race and abuse and masculinity from those characters and have them remain the same characters, without falling into deeply problematic tropes that involve racism and rape culture (and queer characters are not somehow exempt from those things). Because there is actually a reason why this show is not about Izzy Hands and why it’s not Black Sails. There is a reason why Stede falls in love with Ed and not with Izzy. And it’s not solely “because we wanted him to.” It has more complex meaning than that.

This shit is absolutely racist and is absolutely reinforcing rape culture. Is it the most egregious sin that fandom has ever committed? No, but it is there. It is a thing. It’s really not a good idea to pretend that it isn’t.

#our flag means death #ofmd #fandom critical

[iamadequate1]

Anyway, I have just read the words "EdStede are now technically AU" and I'm going to go lie down for a while.

If you want to write a ship and not grapple with its issues within canon, then maybe you shouldn't write the ship. Just sayin'.

#wtf #our flag meets death #ofmd #blackbonnet #gentlebeard

[iamadequate1]

If your response to a show with healthy BIPOC representation is transplanting the BIPOC lead's personality onto the white antagonist to have meta and fanon discussion, allowing fanon that has the BIPOC lead turning to the slave trade and serial killing and constant irrational anger (while the white antagonist is turned much reasonable) to replace canon, not seeing any issue with in canon the white antagonist setting up the white romcom lead for execution and taking custody of the BIPOC romcom lead as reward, declaring that the white antagonist was just being "mean" when he said the BIPOC romcom lead was too openly gay and soft and needs to be more performatively violent to justify their continued existence, frantically agreeing with between-season-speculation that the white antagonist is going to have to "protect" all the characters from the BIPOC romcom lead's "rage", nodding along to takes that declare the BIPOC lead to be abusive instead of discussing what the show is actually trying to tell us, pushing takes that the BIPOC lead is definitely going to abuse (or worse) their white partner (and call them "the next victim") just after the season closes on the canon main couple's happy end scene, thinking that it just made sense for canon to break up the BIPOC lead's romance by handing their white partner to the white antagonist as a reward or to add the white antagonist to it, declaring that your ships with the white antagonist and the lead(s) are just as valid as the canon main couple in the romcom centered on the canon main couple and discussions on the ship don't need CWs in general chats, refusing to criticize this behavior in fandom (and thus tacitly enabling it) because the people saying it are on your "side", etc. is "Stop calling us/me racist! That makes us feel bad!" or "Ship and let ship" or "The showrunner/creator should've changed their story to accommodate our fanon because it means so much to so many!".... is the majority of the fandom "bullies" and making you feel "unsafe/uncomfortable/unwelcome" for getting tired of that and wanting distance from you?

#fandom critical #iykyk

[iamadequate1]

I am very tired of this "Izzy is a mentor figure" insistence when Izzy spent an hour, tops, "training" Stede. That he didn't actually teach Stede anything seems irrelevant. (Stressing again and again: if Izzy knew how to be a competent pirate, it is irrelevant to being a mentor if he can't transfer knowledge properly. Canon showed neither the competence nor knowledge transfer) Inappropriate and unwelcome touching of what they declare to be a "mentor figure" is a whole new problem. Ed didn't start fondling Stede without permission, and Ed x Stede has beautiful consent dynamics.

If this weren't a romcom and Ed x Stede weren't the whole point of the show, there would be an enemies-to-lovers trope from 1x2 as a ripe opportunity for a rarepair Izzy x Stede in silly fanfic. This is everywhere. I wish people would stick to that instead of inventing characteristics and roles that Izzy never had, especially since this is an avenue that could be worked without removing Ed (most especially if it starts before Stede even meets Ed) or transferring Ed's personality onto Izzy.

I've been encountering more Stizzy out there lately, and whatever, ships aren't moral indicators, don't like don't read, etc. And so I do not read!

But, like. What do Stizzy folks do with Ed?

Stede adores Ed and would never so much as consider someone else, especially not someone he has a mostly antagonistic relationship with. In-show-Izzy is so tied up with Ed that I don't even know what you'd do with him in an Ed-free environment. Do Stizzy writers kill Ed off? Make up whole new universes where Ed never existed (and in that case, why don't Stede and Izzy just hate each other forever without Ed to bring them together)?

I don't like any Izzy ships because I think everyone else on the show deserves better, but this is really the only one that makes absolutely no sense to me, not even as an enemies-to-lovers situation.

#our flag means death #ofmd #fandom criticism

[iamadequate1]

Friendly reminder that toxic positivity is damaging!

If someone is being a toxic bully, you don't have to grin and bear it, and you don't have to encourage victim mentality!

#toxic positivity #iykyk