Sometimes I do get annoyed by fanon reactions to Ed, and then I remember that the OFMD writers were very careful to ward off the already-silly "Ed is abusive!!" takes by having other characters say to Stede "do you think Ed is going to murder/hurt you" and then having Stede respond every time with "wtf what is wrong with you, no??" And then, of course, Stede (who textually knows and understands Ed best) is right about that, and once he's feeling safe and supported again Ed is literally just hanging out being a little kitty. So I guess RIP to everyone who thinks Ed sucks but I actually paid attention to the show and I'm different <3
LITERALLY like
Ed in his mind: extremely quick to anger and responds with violence at the drop of a hat
Ed irl: will let someone tackle him to the ground and will literally just cower about it and not lift a finger to defend himself, won't even yell back that this guy's a dick until he's rowed his little boat out of retaliation range
psst you ever think about how ed doing violence against hornigold even inside his own imagination isn't triggered by hornigold being aggro at ed himself, it's only when hornigold brings up stede?
and actually that's the pattern for EVERY time we see ed lose his temper to the point of becoming directly personally violent outside the context of a raid, every single time the last straw is when they bring up or threaten somebody else ed loves? his mom, "pining for his boyfriend," "your feelings for stede bonnet," the soldiers reading the letter, etc?
and in that context probably part of the point of the pop-pop scene is to establish that there's actually NO level of threat to ed himself and his own physical safety that drives him to violence, not even a situation any normal person would view as pure self-defense, as long as pop-pop doesn't threaten someone else he's perfectly safe?
i just think that's interesting. in light of, you know, everything.
I agree with all this, except I think we do see it once - with Lucius. Because Lucius isn't a threat to anyone, and I think it's interesting that it's the only time in the entire series we see him respond with violence to something that isn't clearly a threat.
I know there's been discourse about this, but I think it's notable in the context of this discussion. In this case I think it is to defend himself? But is it because Lucius saw Ed vulnerable? Is it because Lucius would make it too hard to be the Kraken (and thus put Ed at risk?) Is it because he was present for his vulnerable moments with and about Stede?
It's a moment that breaks a clearly established pattern for Ed
One of the reasons that moment is so terrifying is because it’s such a stark break for Ed—he becomes the monster he thinks he already is. It also has the flavor of “the fire killed those guys”—he does not murder Lucius directly, he pushes him off the ship (“the water killed that guy”).