#if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

so much of the post s2 reaction from some izzy fans has been incredibly mask-off but i think by far one of the most blatant moments has been seeing all the ppl who think the season should’ve ended with izzy being made captain. aside from how in s1 his main textual arc was that he craves leadership and yet is incredibly ill-suited for it (source: those goddamn alex sherman DMs from last year) and how in s2 his arc has nothing to do with desiring leadership or being a capable leader. aside from that. there are multiple other people who DO have arcs or at least characterizations that would be better suited to being captain, such as:

frenchie, who is actually canonically made captain at the end of the show

oluwande, who was voted captain by the crew in episode 9 of last season

zheng, who has experience captaining an entire fleet of pirate ships

and i’m gonna come out of left field with this one but how about spanish jackie, who knows how to run a business and how to lead a group of 20 people with no problem. her management style might have to change a bit if she’s in charge of the revenge instead of her 20 husbands but ffs there’s still more to support having her as a captain than izzy

and i just gotta wonder 🤔 what does izzy have that these four characters don’t that makes some fans think izzy would somehow be a better captain??? 🤔🤔 rlly makes you think 🤔🤔🤔

#obligatory not all izzy fans disclaimer #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #frenchie #frenchie ofmd #oluwande boodhari #ofmd oluwande #zheng yi sao #ofmd zheng yi sao #spanish jackie #ofmd spanish jackie #izzy hands #dizzy izzy #israel hands #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #txt #og #mine

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

thinking abt one of my favorite asinine izzy takes which is that a conversation starting with “i should’ve let the english kill you” and ending with “[you] better watch your fucking step” contains absolutely zero death threats

#ofmd #our flag means death #izzy hands #dizzy izzy #israel hands #s1e10 #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #txt #mine #og #i miss s1 deranged izzy so much tho he was so fun #why do ppl want to argue that this isn’t a death threat it’s so much juicer if it is???? #the DRAMA yall cmon. stop making izzy boring

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ofmd fandom debating if poop jokes are ableist

#op turned off reblogs on that post lol #which is fair #but frankly the whole thing was rlly funny so i’m preserving my joke in a rebloggable shitpost #if u missed it just scroll on my blog a bit i don’t think it’s that far down #txt #mine #og #ofmd #ofmd fandom crit #ofmd fandom critical #<-? idk #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #image id in alt text

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

The main reason I cannot take the toe scene seriously is because, in the endless debates on whether Ed was justified in a pirate comedy show which regularly uses violence as a punchline, I have never once seen anyone point out Ed responded to the injunction he “better watch his fucking step” by *cutting off the toe* of the person who said it. Comedy rules, baby. Setup, payoff, take a bow.

anon ur so fucking right and i am kissing u on the mouth. fuck all those long ass paragraphs i wrote this is the only analysis of the toe scene that fucking matters

#anon #ofmd #our flag means death #izzy hands #edward teach born on a beach #edward teach #blackbeard #txt #mine #ask #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #s1e10 #ofmd meta #meta #og #dizzy izzy

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

when has anyone EVER said that homophobia is izzy’s only motivation. i’m on team “gay homophobe izzy” and i do not think this is his only motivation. i don’t even think it’s his primary motivation. it is another layer of complexity on a fascinating character. he is gay and in unrequited love with ed. he craves power and leadership but he is not good at managing those things when he gets them. he thinks men should behave a certain way and is aggressive and cruel to the men who don’t meet his standards. men having sex with each other is fine, but men falling in love with men falls outside of his rigid idea of how men should behave. he lacks the emotional maturity to be able to identify his feelings towards ed. he is so repressed he only accepts intimacy in the form of physical violence. he blames stede for ed changing. he hates stede because ed is changing. to izzy, the worst part about stede changing ed is the fact that stede is such a pathetic excuse of a man it shatters izzy’s image of ed to think that ed could find anything about stede appealing. he’s dedicated his life to the version of ed that he’s made up in his head. he is possessive of being the only one to call him ed, to be the only one who gets to call the legendary blackbeard by his name. but izzy has never been able to see ed without blackbeard. to him, knowing ed is a privilege only because ed is who’s behind the legendary blackbeard’s curtain.

i think izzy is fascinating. he's a fantastic character. he is incredibly well written. he plays a crucial role in the narrative. this show would not be the same without him.

im telling you now, having spent my time in this fandom primarily interacting with people who also read izzy as homophobic, anyone who is using this interpretation to reduce izzy's complexity is by far in the minority with that take.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #txt #meta #mine #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #izzy hands #ik the majority of the canyon def has me blocked lol. i mean this genuinely tho when i say: good for them #anyone in the world is free to block me for any reason #i block liberally and with abandon. i once blocked someone for having an annoying tagging system #which is HUGELY hypocritical of me bc i have an INSANE tagging system #anyway point is. uh. wait i forget what is the point. oH OK wait i remembered #point is i doubt this'll actually reach anyone who needs to hear it lol but im putting this out there anyway #so the next time someone says i reduce izzy to any one specific thing i can just link them to this #og

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

went for a rare visit to twitter bc i heard con o'neill said some things abt ofmd and i wanted to see what was up, and i ended up seeing a lot of “ed is abusive” and “this show condones abuse and abuse apologism to a dangerous degree” takes. a lot of talking abt how the show was an irresponsible portrayal of domestic violence. a lot of relating the violence in ofmd to real-world domestic abuse.

and i’m sorry but i just can’t take that criticism of the show seriously bc the portrayal of domestic violence that they were talking about was literally. amputation and forced autocannibalism.

like. cmon. real-world domestic abuse does not typically involve forced autocannibalism.

we have word-of-god confirmation from djenks himself that in the context of the fictional pirate world of ofmd, the toe stuff is pretty normal pirate stuff, and only shooting izzy’s leg was “a bit much.” and of course fans are free to analyze the show however they want and feel whatever way they want to feel about the way the show depicts physical violence. but personally i just cannot lend credence to the belief that this show handles domestic violence in a harmful way because the physical violence in ofmd is so gratuitously and ridiculously over the top that i frankly find it silly to try and relate it to real-world domestic violence.

#when i say “the portrayal of domestic violence that they were talking abt” i do mean “that THEY were talking about” #like the toe stuff SPECIFICALLY is what they were citing as a portrayal of domestic abuse in ofmd #and like im not the boss of those ppl they can do whatever they want. but looking at the show that way just seems silly!!! sorry!!!! #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #ofmd fandom crit #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #txt #meta #mine #og

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

loving the toe scene discourse 2.0 i love having the same argument over and over again.

anyway the comment section on this reddit post pretty much sums up where im at with the leaked scene and with what we know abt s2:

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2 speculation #izzy hands #dizzy izzy #edward teach #ed teach #edward teach born on a beach #israel hands #txt #link #sc #og #mine #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #im not actually doing toe scene discourse 2.0 im too tired this time. i'll reblog shit but im not fucking getting into it. #i want to enjoy this show not fight over whether ed doing violent pirate things on a violent pirate show makes him evil #my prediction is that however they handle “redeeming” ed is not going to satisfy the ppl who are so fucking horrified #to find out that the guy who said he used to feed ppl their own toes for a laugh. is feeding a guy his own toes again #ed is going to do physical violence to izzy and the show is not going to spend its precious 4 hours of screentime #dedicated to an extensive storyline about ed earning izzy's forgiveness. it's just not. sorry.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

love how the only two criticisms of izzy dying that have any substance to them are “it was rushed” when literally everything that wasn’t ed/stede was rushed bc of budget cuts and then just applying the overwatch diversity tool to izzy to try and prove that it was Problematic™ to kill him off as if he’s not a white side character whose entire purpose in the show from the very beginning has been to further the indigenous lead character’s story arc

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #izzy hands #dizzy izzy #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #txt #mine #og #me two days ago: ok i will dip one toe into discourse #me now after being exposed to some of the worst takes known to man: aw shit here we go again

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

now that i’m thinking abt poop jokes in ofmd tho

there’s that part in 1.08 where ed says someone shat everywhere but the bedpan and using context clues it rlly sounds like he was talking abt jack (using “he” in the bedpan story and then moving onto his next story w “and then there’s the time he saved my life” and it sounds like ed’s talking abt the same “he”). and the whole crew laughs at this story but also they still think jack is cool and fun and they keep trying to impress him for the rest of the episode up until the bird murder

vs izzy having this nickname “izzy the spewer” that he’s terrified of the crew finding out about and lucius using this as leverage to get out of doing things that aren’t in his job description

#txt #mine #og #izzy hands #calico jack #israel hands #dizzy izzy #calico jack rackham #s1e05 #s1e08 #crew of the revenge #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

i have such a weird time reading post s2 metas from izzy enjoyers who are still mad abt the season tho bc they are so clearly reading against the text that at times im convinced they HAVE to be aware of it (“the season isn’t a happy ending it’s a horror story waiting to happen”) but then other times they’re pulling scenes clips from the show as evidence for their takes (ed head butting stede in s4 when his brain is couscous and he can’t even talk is proof that he’s going to physically abuse stede) and i’m like, are you trying to convince me that this is the Correct Reading Of The Show? and do you think the Correct Reading is the same as the Intended Reading That The Writers Were Trying To Convey? or are you looking at this like we’re analyzing real people with free will who are capable of making their own autonomous decisions? or is it some other thing that makes this The Correct Way To Interpret OFMD?

bc a lot of these metas are like, Arguing A Point and i’m not sure what metric they’re using to judge themselves as Correct. like the “ed is a domestic abuser” interpretation: do they think that’s the story the writers intended to tell? or do they think that’s just the objective moral facts of ed’s actions????

that read is wild to me too bc if that IS what they think the writers were intentionally trying to do with ed idk why their criticism of s2 is “they killed ed’s abuse victim” and not “they wrote the indigenous lead in a romcom to be a domestic abuser which was like, really fucking racist of them” like they should’ve been angry at the writing in this show WAY before izzy was killed off but lol whateverrrr

#ofmd #our flag means death #txt #meta #mine #og #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #ofmd fandom crit

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

yknow i would give more merit to the interpretation that izzy in 1.10 was acting out of genuine care for ed’s physical and mental well-being if ppl who believed this interpretation focused less on absolving izzy of any responsibility for ed’s suicidal spiral and more on the sheer comedy of characterizing izzy as a someone who is emotionally intelligent enough to recognize ed’s behavior as a mental breakdown but not emotionally intelligent enough to come up with a better opener to his intervention than “i should’ve let you fucking die. it would literally be better if you were dead right now. what’s happening right now is worse than if you were dead.”

i would also grant this interpretation more merit if izzy didn’t literally say on his deathbed “i have not been acting in your best interests for years and i have been motivated by my own self-interests” but yknow. we’ve been over that

#txt #mine #og #izzy hands #izzy critical #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #ofmd #s1e10 #s2e08 #also in case u can’t read: no izzy is not singularly responsible for ed’s suicidal spiral and yes ed is responsible for his own actions

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

"why would ed be scared of izzy" this rancid chihuahua brought the british navy down on ed(‘s boyfriend) bc he was mad ed didn’t want to play with him anymore. i think being afraid of what this insane creep will do when he says “edward better watch his fucking step” makes a lot of sense, actually.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #izzy hands #edward teach #edward teach born on a beach #blackbeard #ofmd blackbeard #dizzy izzy #txt #meta #mine #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #s1e10 #s1e09 #og #izzy critical #saw someone on twitter say this a few weeks ago and like. are y’all forgetting abt izzy gaslighting ed abt stede’s execution #while ed is literally abt to witness said execution??? ed has a RIGHT to be scared of izzy

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

nobody thinks izzy is mean to ed “for no reason” btw. he’s got reasons! he’s got motivations! but izzy’s reasons don’t excuse him, and they’re not written to excuse him. izzy’s actions are justifiable from his perspective, but the show doesn’t agree with his perspective. yknow, because he’s an antagonist?

and an antagonist’s actions can be unjustified AND sympathetic, actually. i personally don’t find izzy to be sympathetic, but that’s just my taste in blorbos. just for an example tho: azula from avatar the last airbender is very sympathetic to me, but that doesn’t make her actions justified, yknow? she was helping her dad commit genocide. no amount of childhood trauma excuses that.

that’s where the “villain discourse” around izzy comes from. when there’s a post talking about how fucked up it was that izzy called ye olde SWAT team on the Revenge and someone argues “well, he just wanted his captain back! ed was changing and leaving izzy behind! he felt betrayed and heartbroken!” it’s like… yeah, we know??? that doesn’t make calling the navy not fucked up????

or a post about how cruel izzy’s being when he says “i should’ve let the english kill you. this… whatever it is you’ve become is a fate worse than death. edward better watch his fucking step” getting countered with “izzy thinks ed needs to be tough or else the crew is going to lose respect for ed and their respect for ed is the only reason izzy didn’t get thrown overboard” or “izzy doesn’t understand how ed is changing and he doesn’t like it” like yeah we all know that, the thing is that izzy is wrong and that’s the whole point.

idk. liking and sympathizing with izzy doesn’t have to mean misunderstanding his narrative role in season 1, y’all. he’s an antagonist, and his reasons are not meant to be excuses. if he gets a redemption arc, it’s going to be a redemption arc, not an “izzy-was-justified-the-whole-time” arc. and as long as the fandom understands that, then we’re all in agreement!

#mine #izzy hands #izzy critical #txt #meta #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #ofmd #ofmd meta #atla #i wish i could believe everyone understood what an izzy redemption arc would look like #but i’ve seen with my own eyes the “izzy doesn’t need to change to be redeemed!!” post #which is like. buddy what do you think a redemption arc IS #anyway sorry for putting this in a few main tags but i’m insane about organizing my blog #og

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

oh baby if this fandom can’t even agree on if a one-minute clip of izzy whimpering like a feral chihuahua is meant to be comedic relief or not then it’s gonna be a bloodbath in here once we start getting actual episodes

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #izzy hands #dizzy izzy #txt #mine #og #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #not saying anyone’s wrong for sympathizing with him or feeling bad for him #i’m just saying. nobody better get mad at me for laughing at the scene that is clearly meant to be laughed at

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

“izzy is dedicated and hardworking and hates when people are lazy slackers” is such a funny interpretation to me bc when have we ever seen izzy work hard at anything aside from trying to tell other people what to do

#bro he even whines when ed is like “can you go run a very simple errand and invite this guy aboard my ship” #he’s such a hypocrite about “your lot’s days of laying around” bro all you do is pout in the corner! #ofmd #our flag means death #izzy hands #izzy critical #dizzy izzy #mine #txt #og #also he’s very bad at telling people what to do. his strategy is just “be mean about it” which is a TERRIBLE leadership/management strategy #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

i am fully aware that saying "the scene where a man's toe is cut off and gets force-fed to him was more traumatizing for the man doing the amputation and force-feeding, and actually the guy who ate his own toe was kinda into it" makes me look fucking insane lol but listen, im just describing what i saw. i didn't make that happen. the writers, directors, actors, editors, etc etc etc are the ones who put that scene together. they're the ones who made that happen. if you think it's fucked up to say that izzy got a boner in the toe scene don't look at me, man. i didn't write the show, i just watched it with my eyes. and having watched it with my eyes i can confidently say that the toe scene was more traumatizing for ed.

#mine #txt #if this post is in the izcourse tag no it isnt u just dont know how to use tumblr #s1e10 #izzy hands #edward teach #og