Snowflake Challenge Day #2

Challenge #2

In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom.

Alright, I don't think I have the energy to do an entire promo, character analysis, etc., because those things are usually 1000s of words and I don't have time for that, but I will try and explain why I like one of my new favourite characters, if I can.

First off, you should all watch Our Flag Means Death, the first season is on HBO (also on Crave in Canada). If you know of the show then you've probably all heard the common reasons for watching it: gay pirates, comedy, M/M romance between two middle-aged men, A Non-binary/M romance, lots of kooky side characters, and cameo appearances from Leslie Jones among others. But, I'm not here to tell you about all that, I here to talk about this little rat man:



Israel Hands, know on the show as Izzy Hands. He is one of the antagonists of season 1, but not the big bad (that's the British navy). Is he a good guy? No. Is he evil? No. He is a deeply repressed man, that makes all the wrong decisions, but I think in his head they probably all make some sense. He also in love with this guy:



Edward Teach aka Blackbeard (also known as Ed), who probably sees Izzy as nothing more than his First Mate. Although their relationship has all sorts of interesting dynamics to play with.

The main rival for Edward's affections is this man:



Stede Bonnet aka the Gentleman Pirate. Ed and Stede fall in love over the course of the season, Izzy and Stede can't stand each other, so of course I ship them in a OT3! HA!

Now why do I like Izzy? That is probably going to be a little harder to explain. Izzy is all about responsibility, loyalty, and duty, so the fact that Stede's crew does nothing but play all day drives him nuts, which makes for innately funny scenarios, but is also something I relate to. Izzy's back story is basically a clean slate, at least until season 2 airs, even if you use the historical Israel Hands as a model not a whole lot is known about him other than he served with Blackbeard and sometimes used the Blackbeard moniker himself. I've read fic where he is a trans man, Jewish, raised by puritans, a deserter from the Royal Navy, among others, and they all have interesting takes on the character. The power dynamics between Ed and Izzy can be interesting, and Izzy prefers Ed's dark Blackbeard persona, and actually seems to like when Ed is rough with him. This has lead to a lot of fic with hard kinks and BDSM, that's not necessarily my thing, but if you like that Izzy fics will keep you well fed.

When I first started this show I did not expect for this to turn out to be my favourite character, I liked everyone else, thought the show was wonderfully fun, but Izzy is the only character I found myself consistently thinking about after the show ended, and he's only one I really want to write fic about. I think he has the makings of maybe they only truly tragic figures on this feel good comedy show.

Lastly, "Izzy has often been called the only human pirate on a ship full of muppets" and I can't think of a better descriptor for the character.

(One note: Izzy is a divisive character in the fandom, people seem to either love him to death or hate him with a fiery passion, so mind the tags if you go looking in fandom spaces)

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