i feel like ppl (izzy fans especially) rlly get hung up on the toe scene and seeing it like "what if this happened in real life??" or even just "what if this happened in a realistic show that placed moral judgement on characters for enacting physical violence??" and like YEAH in real life i think having your toe cut off and fed to you would be Pretty Fucking Traumatizing and you'd probably be the victim of the situation, not the guy feeding you your own toe. and in MOST shows, if someone's feeding ppl their own toes, that's probably a bad guy
but one of my favorite things abt ofmd is how it DOESNT make moral statements about physical violence. like, ever. this show never takes a stance on when it's okay to kill people, or how much violence you can do while still being a good person. because all the important characters are fucking pirates! if this show tried to take a realistic approach to the morality of physical violence it would get really hypocritical really, really fast!
what matters in ofmd isn't whether the characters are physically violent or not, it's how the characters feel about being the ones to enact violence.
buttons and roach both enjoy violence in a slapstick goofy way that's meant as comedic relief. jim clearly has no regrets about murdering the man who killed their family, but they're not that enthusiastic about going on a whole revenge killing spree and hunting down six (or five, now) other guys. stede at the beginning is somewhat afraid of violence, and is insecure about how afraid he is, but i do think his feelings about violence are changing and will continue to change in the next season(s).
izzy considers violence a requirement to be a real pirate (aka a Real Man) and is loyal to ed so long as he thinks ed is willing to use violence to maintain power and control
and ed. ed actually doesn't like physically hurting people! he's deeply traumatized by murdering his own father, so much so that he's made up weird rules about when someone's death is his fault as a way to distance himself from the violence that is necessitated by his profession! when those rules are called into question, and his responsibility in people's death scrutinized, he gets uncomfortable! all ed wants is to leave behind his violent lifestyle and go enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle for the rest of his life!!
but it's not that ofmd doesn't have a moral compass. in the fictional world of ofmd, "morality" (aka When Characters Are Rewarded/Punished By The Narrative) has two axes: colonialism and emotional vulnerability
the first one is pretty straight forward and has been talked abt a lot already so quick summary: in ofmd, when characters are explicitly and maliciously racist (british navy in e1, rich french people in e5) or side with european colonizers (izzy in e9), they face physical harm. british soldiers in e1 get beat up, the french ppl in e5 get their ship burnt down, and izzy nearly gets thrown overboard in e9, and in e10... yknow. toes.
as for Emotional Vulnerability, that's the whole fucking core of the show. people being their authentic selves, openly expressing their emotions and clearly stating their emotional needs, that's the end goal for every character who's gonna get a happy ending. characters denying parts of themselves, suppressing their desires and contorting themselves to fit into a certain box they feel obligated to get into—that's what our protagonists are trying to unlearn.
in e10, izzy is trying to force ed back into the blackbeard box. he demands ed return to the role that makes him unhappy, a role that requires physical violence to maintain. and ed goes, and we know, we are told, like, multiple fucking times before and after that this is not what ed wants to be doing. ed has stated, over and over again, that he's tired of being blackbeard, that he wants to pack it all in, that he wants to do the things that make ed happy. we learn in e6 that he's actually been traumatized by his OWN PHYSICAL VIOLENCE!!! and he even talks about feeding ppl their own toes as a fucking example of shit he Does Not Want To Do!!!! and the last fucking shot of him we have is him literally sobbing his eyes out!!!!!!!
yes, in real fucking life, and in almost any other story, izzy would be the victim of the toe scene
in the fictional world of ofmd, in the narrative of a slapstick pirate romcom that we're being told, ED IS THE PRIMARY VICTIM IN THE TOE SCENE. ED IS THE ONE WHO IS SUFFERS MORE IN THAT SCENE
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ok but real talk about the Fontaine quest, why are we(the traveler) fine with Childe being around as a Fatui Harbinger, but the second someone brings up Lyney and Lynette being raised in the House of Hearth, we(the traveler) get all huffy like this was some form of betrayal. Like we have this one ginger who seems really really into us, this one transmasc emo boy who's now being rehabilitated by the child goddess of wisdom, we've run into many fatui agents who like - this is just their job man they aren't involved in world domination. I don't know, I just think we're past the point where we(the traveler) should keep clutching our pearls at the mention of people possibly being involved with Genshin Russia.
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(flea anon i shall be jumping in sometimes bc im rotating ur art in my brain)
my narcolepsy leads me to having hallucinations and its always horrifying shit so do you think ace also gets those maybe imagining sabo and coupled with the inteusive thoughts he just is having Terrible time (hes just like me fr,,,,,)
Im glad you're rotating my art, it's loves to be rotated 🙏
Ace would definitely have hallucinations, maybe groggily waking up at night in the tree house to see Sabo at the door way, but when he does a double take it's just a tree branch that accidentally got caught in the open entrance.... And yeah, alongside intrusive thoughts he'd just be having a bad time even if Luffy is there because the thoughts are harmless, wanting to hurt him would occasionally occur. Maybe to add on the pile of reason why he reached out to Makino to help him be a better brother and learn to be kinder
Also sorry about the Narcolepsy anon, fight through those hallucinations well 👊 😔
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