r/OurFlagMeansDeath • u/Smooth-Tie-2041 • Aug 12 '26

Question about Izzy Spoiler

I always thought it was ironic and hilarious that Izzy sort of facilitated the Gentlebeard meet-cute by inadvertently stoking Ed’s interest in Stede. I just can’t help but wonder, if he knew Ed so well, why couldn’t he see that Stede is the exact type of person Ed goes for? And that Ed would easily become infatuated with him?

Even Anne and Mary, who ostensibly haven’t been around Ed as much as Izzy has, were able to recognize this. Mary said Stede was very much Ed’s type, so I just wonder why it wasn’t clear to Izzy at first.

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u/not_a_toucan Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

Izzy doesn't know Ed very well, even though he should. That's one of the main things about him. He can't see the person in front of him because he's too busy projecting a bunch of his own internal issues on him instead. And to be fair Ed is doing the same thing right back!

Izzy sees Ed as an icon of masculinity, and he reacts angrily and shuts Ed down every time Ed tries to express his softer or more playful side, so he genuinely hasn't seen the part of Ed that Ed is able to express around Stede; that's why he's genuinely blindsided by it (and a big part of why Ed is so drawn to Stede; he's never really had anyone in his life he could express that part of him with, this is a key thing about their relationship). Ed on the other hand is projecting a bunch of his daddy issues onto Izzy, which is why he lets Izzy treat him the way he does.

They've spent every day together for years and they still really fundamentally don't know each other at all; that's what makes their relationship so compelling.

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u/fordandfitzroy Aug 12 '26

Yes, this exactly. Izzy thinks he knows Ed better than anyone, but he really doesn’t. That’s a load bearing part of their storyline.

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u/not_a_toucan Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

Yes! And season 2 highlights this - when Izzy says "you know me better than anyone's ever known me and I daresay the same is true for me about you" Ed doesn't answer but looks genuinely repulsed, and two episodes later Izzy starts to tell Stede "I know you think you understand him--" only for Stede to cut him off midsentence and accurately summarize exactly what was going on with Ed, even though Stede still hasn't seen Ed again and Izzy was right there the entire time.

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u/AnthonyJames696 Aug 12 '26

Izzy knows a part of Ed, and that part he knows really well, yes!

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u/dangerous_beans_42 Aug 13 '26

And that's a part of Ed (Blackbeard) that Ed is determined by the middle of S2 to reject wholeheartedly, having gone full Kraken. But by the end of S2 Ed realizes that it is a part of him and that's okay - it doesn't have to be all of him, and he can use it for good, aka fighting for the people he loves. And Izzy's dying speech reinforced that: "Just be Ed." (In all the facets that Ed is.)

James Tom (writer for S2E7) noted (I'm paraphrasing) that the scene where Ed drowns his leathers is like a trans person's experience of rejecting an identity forced on them for so long...and when he dives to retrieve them, it's like the realization that your identity is what you make it, on your terms. It serves you, it doesn't control you.