THEY KISSED TWICE

THEY KISSED TWICE

THEY KISSED TWICE

THEY KISSED TWICE

THEY KISSED TWICE

the moment Ed fell in love with Stede- S1E5 analysis

( for context: i wrote this draft back in january but didn’t had the courage to post it at that time :P today i finally decided to give it a shot because i still think it’s an interesting idea soooo yeah, hope it makes some sense hehe enjoy! :D )

sooo i was looking through some gifs that i have saved on my phone (as one does) and there’s a little detail that really caught my attention in the “you wear fine things well” scene from season 1. i believe that we can literally see the moment where Ed realizes he’s in love with Stede in that scene!! :DD so let’s take a look at it!!

i ask you guys to pay really close attention to the way lighting is being used in this particular moment because it’s absolutely genius and it’s able to convey so much about what the characters are feeling and thinking but not saying out laud! so here we go:

(gif by @/livelovecaliforniadreams)

DID YOU GUYS SEE IT???

THE SMALL, WARM FLASH OF LIGHT BRIEFLY SHINING ON ED’S FOREHEAD AND THEN DISAPPEARING?? 😭😭😭 THAT LITTLE LIGHT RIGHT THERE REPRESENTS HIS FEELINGS FOR STEDE FINALLY GETTING ENLIGHTENED-

please allow me to explain-

i remember reading a post here on tumblr a year ago (sorry, i can’t remember who’s post it was 😭😭) where the op explained that in film, when a half of a characters face is covered by a shadow while the other half is completely light it can indicate that something the character is feeling or thinking in that moment is being hidden or kept a secret. and we can perfectly apply this thought to this scene between Stede and Ed!

notice how half of Ed’s and Stede’s faces are covered by shadows while the other half is being veiled by moonlight? applying what we just learned to this scene we can easily identify that they’re both hiding something from each other, that being their romantic feelings! but then, something really interesting happens: Ed’s hidden feelings (the part of his face covered by the shadows) get briefly enlightened (they literally “come to light”) like a little light bulb, making him aware of them!

the fact that the light only appears when he’s about to lift his head up to look at Stede after glancing at the red silk folded in his pocket, as if something was suddenly awakened inside of him by the way Stede handled the silk (his heart)-

we can even see how his expression changes as soon as the light hits his face! while glancing at the silk he has this confused look that quickly melts into tenderness! there is so much love in the way Ed looks at Stede in this scene, it’s so strong and intense and beautiful and there is so much passion burning in his eyes that we can see he even has to take a second just to let everything sink in-

OOOHHH and don’t even get me started on Stede being completely enlightened by that same light ON THE SAME SIDE OF HIS FACE (THE SHADOW SIDE/HIS HIDDEN FEELINGS), EXCEPT ITS ACTUALLY HITTING THE BACK OF HIS HEAD INSTEAD OF DIRECTLY HITTING HIS FACE BECAUSE AT THAT POINT HE HAS NOT FULLY ACKNOWLEDGED HIS FEELINGS FOR ED YET- *explodes*

me when *canonically autistic Sherlock*:

me when “would you like to hold hands or talk about your emotions?”:

me when “i like you as you are”:

YEESSSS‼️‼️

Jack tried so hard to make Stede hate Ed, to make him become afraid of Ed, to turn them against each other by exposing some obscure aspects of Ed’s past, but that just proves how much Jack doesn’t know Stede and his love for Ed! cause if he did he would know that his plan would’ve NEVER worked on Stede and that there is nothing he could say about Ed that would make Stede see him as a monster <33 (this makes me think of that verse from Mary on a Cross by Ghost “your beauty never ever scared me”- 😭😭)

Stede not only knows how much Ed regrets the violence that he committed in the past and how painful those memories are for him; he knows firsthand what the urge to free yourself from your past feels like!

Stede- through the entirety of season 1- is being constantly haunted by aspects of his past that disturbed him and which he tried to escape by leaving to become a pirate; people like Jack and Izzy representing the idealized vision of masculinity that he never managed to achieve -which led to him being ridiculed by people like his dad or the Badminton’s who saw his tenderness as a weakness-, the rich assholes in S1E5 being the embodiment of the society that oppressed him and made him feel worthless, his guilt for leaving Mary and his children behind and the fear that they’re suffering as a result of the choices he made, etc

I wanted to repost these bigger, because, first, good acting choices. Second, the progression of their faces as Jack talks about Ed's past really does tell a story about how they're both perceiving the conversation.

Stede's initial reaction is surprise, but it quickly slides into trying to discern how Ed is reacting to what Jack says.

Ed never really looks at Stede as soon as Jack brings up the burning ship. He dissociates almost immediately. Even when Stede directly speaks to him, he won't meet Stede's eyes, and keeps avoiding his gaze throughout the scene.

It lays the groundwork of Ed's fears that Stede will eventually realize what a monster he is. It's also the first time that Stede is really facing the reality of Ed's past—Ed's reaction indicates that Jack's not lying—and he's increasingly distressed by it.

Stede brings up Ed having "given up the killing," a reference to their conversation in the bathtub. Stede doesn't know that Ed has only ever told him about this, but of course it resonates with Ed. And Stede does seem to be looking for reassurance, or for some explanation, since what Jack is saying and the man that Stede knows seem to be two different people.

Though Ed doesn't look at Stede, Stede looks at Ed. He looks at him more than he looks at Jack, and he watches his responses. Stede has very little emotional insight into himself, but boy does he have a lot into Ed. You can see the progress of his thoughts across his face, even as he doesn't put them into words.

The whole episode isn't just about Ed looking at his past, but Stede looking at Ed's past. Ultimately Stede's conclusion is that Ed's past is Ed's business, but it's also important Stede himself knows more of who Ed is now. He's learned more facets—Ed has indeed been Blackbeard, the man who burned a ship full of people, and who made turtles fight crabs. Stede can either accept that about him or deny it, but denying it means that he denies a part of who Ed has been.

It is not that Stede decides to ignore Ed's past violence, but to accept what it is—a part of piracy, something that Ed has done and that he's moved beyond. Because Stede does not see a man laughing and joking about burning people alive, as Jack does, but a man deeply ashamed of having done it. Stede later tells Jack that maybe Ed isn't the same man he knew, and he means that.

This feeds into Stede's love of Ed, as well as the basis for Ed's self-loathing. Where Ed believes that this is "what I am," and where his shame at bringing violence onto Stede's ship makes him want to run before he can hurt or be hurt, he misses that Stede sees him clearly. Stede neither rejects Ed based on Jack's stories, nor does he disbelieve those stories. It gets threaded into the fabric of his love—his recognition of Ed's past, his belief that Ed is a good man (because he has seen more evidence of that than anything else), and his acceptance that this good man has done bad things.

Once more, Stede does understand Ed. He does love everything about him. He doesn't excuse Ed's past violence, he doesn't disbelieve or pretend it doesn't exist, but he also doesn't treat it as the sum total of the man. Stede sees the man who murdered his father to protect his mother, the man who went on a treasure hunt for a petrified orange and who takes seven sugars in his tea, the man who has treated him and his crew with kindness and gentleness, the man who planned to kill him but didn't, the man who has cried in the bathtub and also threatened to skin a racist. Stede never sees Ed as a monster, even when told the most monstrous things he's done. He sees him as a flawed, damaged, gentle man. And he loves him for all of it.

♪ love you whenever we're together, love you when we're apart

IM SOOOO EXCITED!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE ITS ACTUALLY HAPPENING!!!! CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THEM AGAIN I MISS THEM SO SO MUCH- OAHKWVWJWVHWVWHKAHAJ

Good night everyone!! :D

Happy OFMD-eve! Don't forget to leave a jar of marmalade out for Ed and Stede!