Happy Pride Month.

Happy Pride Month.

I've noticed that a lot of folks think, "Izzy thought Stede and Edward were fucking on the deck" during the "run me through" scene.

Which isn't something I even considered until I saw people talking about it, as if that was what had happened.

I don't think Izzy would have been nearly as upset (or to be exact, the type of upset that he was - scared, confused, horrified, crying and then storming off) if he had seen them fucking. I think we would have got a reaction similar to the ones where he walked in on Lucius and Pete/Fang (frustrated, annoyed, confused, pissed off and vocal about it).

Izzy is a queer codded "villain" in a gay rom/com. He's not functioning on the same rules as eveyone else, becouse he's playing a different genre.

In Izzy's genre/world, sex isn't an ultimate expression of romance - violence is.

Homoerotic sword stabbing is a part of his world, not Bonnet's. Edward is sharing something far more intimate than an orgasm with Stede, he's sharing his mortality with him, his blood, his life. Stede is incapable of understanding this action, in fact he's disturbed and unsettled by it. In Stede's world there isn't anything romantic or sexual about impaling another man with a sword, becouse in Stede's world/genre, he can kiss Edward softly and (at least make plans to) run away with him to live happily ever after.

However, for Izzy - Violence is Love. Being pinned to a wall and choked is beautiful, having your toe cut off and forcibly autocannablized is euphoric. Of course, these things are also traumatizing, becouse love for the Hays Code queer is traumatizing.

So, I don't think Izzy thought Stede and Ed were having sex. I think he was aware that Ed was being stabbed, which for Israel Hands, is a form of intimacy far more meaningful and he was emotionally devastated by this, to the point of crying becouse he felt betrayed. Violence (and specificly homoerotic violence) is supposed to be his thing, their thing, a part of Blackbeard's world, that Bonnet isn't supposed to be privy to.

Just a small thing I noticed while being totally normal about the gay pirates:

I've watched The Kiss™ way too many times a normal number of times and my favorite moment is the series of microexpressions Rhys cycles through while Stede is reacting to "what makes Ed happy is...you" because it's just so lovely and masterfully done. While trying to find a good gif of just that moment (no luck so far!) I noticed something that happens while Ed is pulling Stede in.

Stede, darling honey light of my life, clueless useless "oblivious" gay that he is, tilts his head a bit and leans into the kiss too. Before it's even started. On some level he registers that This Is Happening in time to react in a positive way, even before their lips have touched.

Our boy is a creature of instinct, and when he acts on his emotional instincts without thinking too much he knocks so much shit out of the park. Instinct is part of why "you wear fine things well" hits as hard as it does. Instinct is how he can woo Ed as easily as he does. Instinct is how they were able connect so deeply so quickly, because his instinct is to be open and non-judgemental to this beautiful man waiting beside his sickbed and asking about fine fabrics.

Stede's thoughts are still too clouded by his trauma and self-loathing to be useful for him, and he can end up thinking too much about what he "should" do or what other people do. Thinking is part of the reason he's so quick to believe Chauncey in the woods. Thinking means succumbing to beliefs about his perceived worthlessness, which leads to his biggest mistakes. Thinking tells him to adjust what he says about Blackbeard in that tavern of townies, when his instinct was to say how "absolutely lovely" Ed is.

Obviously man cannot live by instinct alone, like he definitely should have thought for a minute about making a deal with Geraldo to fence the hostage. Stede needs to learn to balance the two and when to listen to either/both of them. But I was just so excited to see him leaning in the way he does because it underlines a feeling I've had for a minute, which is that Stede's instincts are those of someone crushing and then falling in love, and that never wavers.

He lacks the context and vocabulary to identify what's going on without outside intervention, but he also deeply gets it in a way that's extremely queer and that I hope starts showing up more in the fanon. I do a little happy dance every time I see this in people's fics and I just need so many more of them! Give me more eager Stede who is Ready To Go once he's given the right context for his feelings about Ed!

don't forget to be really stupid and weird at school, or work, or simply in the comfort of your home today

People often complain about "how many genders there are". When you go through school, you learn that there are three states of matter. You also learn that there are two genders. Of course, this is not the reality. You may learn that plasma is a fourth state of matter, and that there are transgender or nonbinary people.

Let's take a look at the true number of states of matter...

I feel that if Bose-Einstein condensate is a valid state of matter, then girlflux is a valid label.

The real world is FAR from simple. Not even matter is binary (or quaternary).

i identify as whatever the vibe is, my gender is screaming into the void and my pronouns are the void telling me to shut the fuck up