Now, I'm just drinking and admiring nature.

alostloveletter:

Shauna Barbosa, from “GPS,” Cape Verdean Blues

nicey-sandokan:

altcomics:

Sandro Botticelli

from the illustrations for the Divine Comedy, specifically from Paradise

layofleithianshitposting:

If someone just kissed Izzy ONCE when he does that creep move where he angrily pulls someone close and stares at their lips, I think a demon would fly out of his mouth and the curse would finally be broken.

I’ve been thinking (oh dear) about how Ed and Izzy’s relationship usually is, how they usually work with Blackbeard, because we mostly see them interact in the extraordinary circumstance of Stede’s pirate adventure. We get some glimpses at the beginning, with Izzy coming back to update Edward and the early scenes in the Revenge. For the most part their interactions are easy and comfortable, Izzy speaks to him softly and calls him Ed and Edward in private. There’s familiarity in their back and forth. Even when Izzy considers that Ed is acting or thinking weirdly, like the orders to follow the Revenge and the frankfurter clouds scene, he goes along with the orders with a bit of a grumble and/or and humors Ed. When we do see him explode on Edward (and generally) it’s when he seems to be at the end of his rope. The resignation speech, when he is about to row away after the duel, and of course the provocation at the end of the season. When he disobeys Ed it’s always in regard to the threat that Stede represents, the duel and later selling him out to the British.

We know Ed is tired, but so is Izzy. He constantly has this exhausted air about him, and in the resignation speech it’s clear that he is letting out steam that has being accumulating for a long time and the swapping clothes joke when they should be thinking about what do about the Spanish was the last ridiculous straw for Izzy’s patience then.  Ed has some leeway as captain to act as he pleases, but Izzy as first mate must respond when Ed doesn’t (decide on a plan and such), must act as a buffer between Ed and the crew if the captain messed up or is reckless, etc. Ed listens to Izzy but often acts rather dismissive, he knows Izzy will do whatever he asks and doesn’t really step up to assure much beyond the scene where he promises to kill Stede. He knows he needs Izzy around to keep running things and to worry for the practical stuff while they are on the Revenge. By the time the duel happens, Izzy is probably desperate to get back to the Queen Anne. It’s been like two weeks on Stede’s ship, Ed has essentially taken an impromptu vacation and gives no sign of wanting to end it. Ed doesn’t do much to stop or reassure Izzy when he rows away, all jilted and upset. Izzy disobeyed him and he’ll just deal with him later.

Their relationship is as much in a rut as Ed feels as Blackbeard. Their positions in the crew have them working together all the time, day in and day out, and they likely made a fabulous team for a long time. Now Blackbeard and his crew/fleet are a well-oiled machine that still needs a lot of maintenance and work, and in recent time it’s probably Izzy who deals with a lot of the tedious, day to day stuff. They are exhausted, yet as pirates they don’t have much choice but to keep going.

It makes me wonder how much the Blackbeard persona can be considered a shared enterprise of sorts, something that has allowed them (and their crew) to survive as a team of outlaws for so long.  Ed is Blackbeard, his creation built on his actions and exploits. His fearsome and terrifying reputation grew in collaboration with other people as we are told that Ed himself hasn’t killed anyone with his own hands since his father (that he knows of). He is violent but has been delegating that last big dirty job to other people like Izzy and crew (which allows him to add some distance between himself and those deaths). It’s a character maintained by himself, his team, and other people’s rumors.

We can perceive Izzy’s fixation with the concept a of Blackbeard as his personal idea of Ed as an individual, but I think if they’ve been captain and first mate for so long, they’ve seen each other at many highs and lows. As the very human, messy people they are. Ed doesn’t really put a front for Izzy all the time. He is not oblivious to Ed’s moods as can be appreciated in the early episodes and he is privy to Ed’s heartbreak at the end, and initially tried to cover things for the crew until Ed felt better (like he has probably done in the past).  So yeah, it all makes me wonder if the preoccupation with Blackbeard and what it represents stems also from worry/fear/uncertainty not only for Ed but for what they’ve built and worked for to survive as they have until now. They haven’t gotten to that point in the high seas wrapped in silk gowns. Maybe Ed is not the only one trapped by Blackbeard.

sphealybojeely:

my three girlfriends and yes they smoke weed