I Want To Talk About Stede Bonnet's Very Strange Day. Let's Look At The Progression Of Just What Stede

I want to talk about Stede Bonnet's very strange day. Let's look at the progression of just what Stede sees.

He spends the night with his boyfriend for the first time, and his boyfriend brings him breakfast in bed like Doug did for Mary. They talk about their reunion. Stede is very happy right now!

His boyfriend tells him that he envisioned him as a beautiful merperson and that he thinks he saved his life.

They get dressed, and they go out on a breakfast date on the town. Stede tells Ed about the letters he wrote, and Ed loved that!

Stede then discovers he has a fanclub! Ed laughs and is happy for him! They're going to go down to Jackie's so Stede can enjoy this some more!

Ed throws in some light banter/teasing about this turn of events, and Stede literally squeals before they run off giggling together.

They get to Jackie's, and Ed continues to encourage Stede!

Ed leaves him to it! "Enjoy the night" are his parting words.

So Stede enjoys the night!

He's being accepted! And he still talks about his boyfriend while being fawned over!

Everyone tells him he's awesome! He offs an assassin while saying something cool! No one is making fun of him!

After a bit, he goes to find Ed to share in his fun! He's had a great day.

Only, he's immediately met with this with no context: Ed regrets being with him! Ed is leaving immediately!

Remember: Ed's last words to him were "Enjoy the night!" This is complete emotional whiplash. Stede knows right away what the problem is, but Ed shuts it down.

Ed wants to be a fisherman! A proclamation completely out of the blue! Stede tries to talk him down. That fish wasn't so awesome that it should completely change Ed's life trajectory, casting Stede out of the way.

Ed disagrees and abandons Stede with no real explanation or listening to what Stede was trying to say, which isn't a great move for a healthy relationship.

Basically, Stede spent a few hours (only a few hours!) enjoying himself (in a manner that Ed encouraged him to!). He did nothing awful (because murder is cool in this show), and was a lot tamer than what Ed and company were doing in 1x8 (turtle vs crab is mean!).

I'm going to go more into Stede defense in another post. "Last night was a mistake" is an egregious phrasing to use with the man you love who has self esteem and trauma issues (we know what he means but it can be interpreted much worse), but Stede took it in stride. But for some reason people act like Stede committed war crimes with the fish comment? Ed sharing his day and Ed excising himself from Stede's life are different contexts and the fish is viewed differently in each lens. It was an OK fish, and Stede did nothing wrong. Stede is right that Ed is a coward, and I don't think Stede saying a few slightly harsh things in the heat of the moment when being blindsided like this is a character flaw.

Ed behaved appallingly in shutting down the conversation and refusing to even give context to what was going on. With 1x9&10 and Stede deciding Ed was better off without him, I saw plenty of comments about how Stede couldn't make a major life decision for Ed like that. With this, Ed has made a major life decision for Stede (I'm going to dump him and remove myself before he can choose piracy over me!), but I have yet to see the same comments, and I know exactly why that is.

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More Stede defense!:

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Mel

After seeing some rather awful bad faith takes flying around after 2x7, I'm throwing out a beginning defense of Stede Bonnet (loml). It seem

I have to get some sleep, but I just wanted to come on here and say how much "Our Flag Means Death" has healed me as both a queer person and a fandom participant. I'm on cloud 9 right now. David Jenkins has my entire heart and soul!

I mean, I'm not mad at what we got. XD

Gif from @edwards-teach

I really hope Lucius walks in on Ed and Stede cuddling a la Jim and Oluwande. I need that callback! I even wrote it into a fic I never published. It would be so goddamn funny!

Are you okay?

Izzy trying to push half of the responsibility for Ed's Kraken heel turn onto Stede is honestly so annoying. He was healing just fine before you, his friend and righthand man, told him he'd be better off dead than being himself. Fuck outta here with that crap.

I really hope this is acknowledged one way or the other this season. I hope Ed tells Stede about that conversation and he knows that, while he did hurt Ed badly, Izzy's words are what pushed him over the edge. I'm all for Izzy redeeming himself, but not to Stede's detriment. If Izzy truly wants redemption, he needs to be honest with himself about his role in all this.

In the immortal words of Captain Stede Bonnet, "Oh, that hurt!".

This right here is my biggest fear. One of the top 3 worst endings we could get, tbh, and I am terrified. Let gay people be happy!

If I were in charge of writing the s2 finale, here’s what I would do.

After Ed and Stede make up and work together to kill the clock asshole, I think Ed would admit to Stede that he doesn’t want this life anymore, that all he wants is a life of simplicity and domesticity.

I think Stede, upon hearing this, would offer to give up everything to stay with Ed and to build that life with him.

But Ed knows Stede, and he’s seen that pirating makes him happy, and he knows that the crew of the Revenge needs him, and that the life that Ed so desperately wants is the one that Stede ran away from, and I think Ed would reject Stede’s offer and say “No. Don’t give up now on my account, you go be the Gentleman Pirate, and when you’re ready, I’ll be here. I’ll wait for you.”

And Stede does, leaving Ed (with a tearful goodbye kiss, of course) with the promise to return. And they both get to live the lives they always wanted, and it’s not perfect but it’s enough for now, and they live knowing that they are loved.

That’s where I’d leave them.

Apart, but hopeful.