Izzy Hands

Izzy Hands is a main character in the TV series Our Flag Means Death. He is loosely based on a historical figure and real life pirate, Israel Hands, best known for being second in command to Edward Teach (Blackbeard).
==Fandom==
Izzy is a popular but divisive character within OFMD fandom, particularly after season 1, where he took an antagonist role. A great deal of meta has been written analyzing Izzy's actions; fans intensely debated whether his actions in the first season should be understood sympathetically, and if not, whether he could, would or should be redeemed for them. Some fans argued that his hostile actions toward the main characters were ultimately well-intentioned, while others viewed his controlling relationship with Blackbeard as abusive. There were some who claimed he could not be redeemed for his actions, while others treated him much more sympathetically. A great deal of meta has been written analyzing Izzy's actions, including essays delving into issues of class, see It’s in the accent. It’s ALL in the accent., and Izzy's control of Blackbeard. 
In season 2, Izzy's canonical portrayal became more sympathetic and he reconciled with most of the other characters. After being mortally wounded at the end of the season, he apologized to Blackbeard for his previous treatment of him. 
Reactions post season-2 were if anything even more divisive than previously; some fans who had disliked Izzy in season 1 thawed on him, but others found his more sympathetic portrayal unconvincing, OOC, or simply less interesting than his previous antagonist status. Conversely, many fans who had viewed Izzy sympathetically in season 1 were critical of the fact that he was portrayed as apologizing to Blackbeard, arguing that he had done nothing to apologize for. Some of these fans were also hesitant to accept new Izzy fans, because Season 1 Izzy fans had felt mistreated by the wider fandom before Season 2 aired.
===Common Tropes in Fanworks===
*Redemption arc: due to his position in the series after season 1 there was a great deal of fanfiction focusing on a redemption arc for Izzy
*Hurt/Comfort: usually with Izzy being hurt and receiving comfort from various members of the crew. 
*Whump: Izzy whump is also fairly common, with stories including elements like Izzy being flogged, stabbed, or nearly drowning. 
*Modern AU: fanworks set outside the golden age of piracy in a modern setting. In these fanworks it is still not unusual to have Izzy be in some sort of high stress position, often being Ed's subordinate, business partner, or something of that nature. It is also not unusual to have fics where Izzy is connected to some sort of shady or less then legal pursuits, be it present or past tense.
*Ed's Ex: because the nature of Ed and Izzy's past relationship is complicated, or somewhat ambiguous, it is not unusual in fanworks to have Ed and Izzy as ex-romantic partners or friends that used to be sexually involved. This is pretty common in both pirate and modern settings, but may be more prevalent in modern era stories.
*Izzy's Ring: Izzy wears a ring on his cravat throughout the series. Fanworks will often explore the meaning of the ring. It was a very popular storyline in fanworks for the ring to have been given to Izzy by Ed when they we were younger or when Izzy became his first mate. Although, in other fanworks the ring had belonged to Izzy's mother, or was given to him by someone else from his past who meant a lot to Izzy.
*BDSM: because sometimes in canon Izzy seems to like when certain people are rough with him a lot of explicit Izzy fanworks will include BDSM elements and other kinks. Izzy is most popularly portrayed as a Sub in these types of fanworks. 
*Trans Izzy: portraying Izzy as a trans man is quite common in fanworks. This may have come about partly because the actor who plays Izzy, Con O'Neil, liked a tweet that showed Izzy with the trans flag.
*Pastfic: many fanworks will explore Izzy's past before the beginning of the series. Popular story elements to include are:
**Izzy was once in the British navy, and defected to become a pirate
**Izzy had been a member of Hornigold's crew, and that is how Ed and him met
**Izzy helped Ed, Jack, and others mutiny against Hornigold. After the mutiny Ed made Izzy his first mate
**Izzy and Ed having met when they were both young men, although their ages when this occurred varies a great deal
**After Izzy sang "la vie en rose" in season 2, some fans speculated that Izzy's mother may have been french, and that she taught him the song
**During season 2 Izzy was seen to have scars on his back most likely from a past whipping/flogging, fans will explore how and when he got those
*Jewish Izzy: there were a small number of fanworks that interpreted or headcanoned Izzy as JewishCould Izzy be Jewish? Some meta about the name Israel in the context of 17th/18th century English customs.Jewish Israel Hands tag at AO3.
*Izzy's Leg: Izzy loses part of his leg in season 2, many fans will explore his disability in their fanworks. It is even quite common for fans to keep Izzy's loss of a limb in fanworks set in modern or other AU settings, although how Izzy loses his leg is often changed from canon, usually with Izzy losing the leg in an accident or due to infection. However, a few fans will diverge from canon after season 1 and avoid Izzy losing his leg all together.
*Labeling Fanworks Izzy Safe/Friendly: because of the drastically different characterizations of Izzy within the fandom after season 1, it was sometimes hard for Izzy fans to enjoy fanworks focused on other pairings or characters like Ed/Stede, so some fans would rec fic and let other fans know that it was safe for Izzy fans to read, because Izzy is treated well in it or at least not character bashedComment on fail_fandomanon, Sept 18, 2023Comment on fail_fandomanon, August 29, 2023
===Izzyverse===
In December 2022 fans of Izzy on Twitter created what is known as the Izzyverse also called AU!Izzy, alternative universes where Izzy is different in each universe depending on which person/captain he served under. This was supposedly the inciting tweet:
It caused much discussion among Izzy fans about what him would be like if he had never served under Ed/Blackbeard, and lead to the creation of several AU Izzys, some examples being:
*Hornigold's Izzy (also referred to as Baz)
*Mary's Izzy
*Jack's Izzy
*Jim's Izzy
*Stede's Izzy
*Evelyn's Izzy
This also lead to the creation of fanworks featuring the different Izzys, and sometimes having them interacting or visiting their different universes.
Example fanworks:
* art by favouritefi
*Hornigold's dog, now Baz fic series by jaybirbbbb, featuring Hornigold's Izzy
* art by sunspeckfreckle
===Shipping===
Izzy is canonically implied to have some unrequited love for Edward Teach, whose canonical love interest is Stede Bonnet; accordingly, Izzy treats Stede as a rival for most of the show, but they begin to develop a friendlier relationship in the second half of season two. Izzy also has some hostile but sexually charged interactions with Lucius Spriggs in canon.
Because of the somewhat one-sided love triangle, Izzy is shipped with Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet, or both in an OT3 called Steddyhands. Israel Hands/Lucius Spriggs is also very popular. Izzy is also a bit of a little black dress in the fandom, being shipped with almost anyone he shared screen time with, and some he didn't. Popular ships include:
*Edward Teach/Izzy Hands (Blackhands)
*Stede Bonnet/Israel Hands (Stizzy or Gentlehands)
*Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet/Israel Hands (Steddyhands)
*Israel Hands/Lucius Spriggs (Spriggyhands or Sprizzy)
*Israel Hands/"Calico" Jack Rackham (Cjizzy)
*Israel Hands/Roach (Rizzy)
*Frenchie/Israel Hands (Ouizzy)
*Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy/Israel Hands (Bellhands) - Sam Bellamy is a real life historical pirate who does not appear in the series, but he was still a popular choice for being a former lover of Izzy's
== Fandom Divisiveness and Controversy ==
Izzy is a controversial character within fandom as he started out in an antagonist role in canon but swiftly became a beloved favorite with a particular subset of the fandom, leading to intense debate over how his role in canon should be understood.. 
Many Izzy fans felt that they were excluded and persecuted by the wider fandom and argued that a great deal of the wider fandom's discussion and portrayal of Izzy amounted to character bashing. OFMD fans who took a less sympathetic view of Izzy expressed frustration about being accused of character bashing for talking about a character they viewed as canonically an antagonist in those termsI’m still irritated that I can’t talk about my blorbo in his own character tag, post at canonizzyhoursit always comes back to 'stop posting stuff i don't personally like', Dec 24, 2023 Tumblr postOne of the most frustrating things that happened to this fandom wrt Izzy is that it's almost impossible to talk about the canon guy anymore, and argued that portrayals and interpretations that framed Izzy sympathetically often did so at the expense of other charactershttps://www.tumblr.com/asneakyfox/743161434787151872/tbh-i-dont-think-anyone-seriously-says-stede-is?source=shareNew Year New Vent, and this one's coming in hot, post at canonizzyhoursGood time to stake up one of those "in this house we belive" flags in my yard, particularly characters of color.Hi! I’m sorry if this is dumb but I’m not understanding why the Ed hate is racist?was chatting with @knowlesian and it really helped me crystalize that the reason i don’t care for most flavors of izzy/ednever forget last year when i announced my "no izzy" ofmd server and immediately got like 5 anons telling me i'm alienating poc izzy stans Izzy's dark canonical relationship with Blackbeard became a particular focus of debate, with many fans arguing that Blackbeard's treatment of Izzy amounted to domestic abuseHoooweeee call me Izzy Hands cuz this gifset caught me by the throatthis is super long and maybe mostly rambly and idk who will read it but i hope it finds the right audience, or no audience at all haha and many others arguing that Izzy was Blackbeard's abuserIzzy is abusive towards Edcan we talk about how the dialogue in episodes 3 and 4https://www.tumblr.com/asneakyfox/738596559784116224/yeah-its-really-useful-to-imagine-other-ways-the?source=share. Fans on both sides of this debate frequently accused their opponents of abuse apologism.
Fans have been targeted by harassment and doxxing both for being fans of Izzy and for criticizing Izzyme: izzy fans are sending me transphobic hateShoutout to #266 because everything that's happened on Twitter in the last few days has confirmed your take. posted to canonizzyhourshttps://www.tumblr.com/scarrletmoon/744500464225320960/adding-my-disorganized-accidental-thread-from-this?source=share. An anonymous tumblr called izzy-anti-archive was created to document reports of harassment aimed at Izzy fansIzzy Anti Archive; another blog, canonizzyhours, was created for readers to anonymously submit meta and opinions critical of Izzy that they were afraid to post on their own blogs for fear of attracting harassment.canonizzyhours tumblr blog
Because of the intensity of the divide, many fans who adopted a sympathetic view of Izzy from the start of the show often view themselves as a separate community from the larger OFMD fandom and call their subfandom the Izzy Canyon. Some canyon fans refer to members of the OFMD fandom outside the Izzy Canyon as either "gentlebeardies" (referring to the main canon pairing of Gentlebeard) or as "Izzy antis". Fans who enjoy Izzy but view him as an antagonist throughout season 1, and therefore do not identify as a member of the Izzy Canyon, sometimes call themselves "jar guys," referring to a joke about wanting to put Izzy in a jar and shake it to see what happens.https://www.tumblr.com/asneakyfox/743340026788757504/im-new-to-the-fandom-i-just-started-seeing-all?source=share
===Comments About Hate Towards Izzy Fans===
===Comments About Hate Towards Fans that Disliked Izzy===
== Izzy's Death, Bury Your Gays, and Ableism ==
Many fans were intensely critical of Izzy's death in the season 2 finale, with some arguing that it was a case of Bury Your Gays, and others saying it was ableist, or a combination of both:
Many fans were upset with the disrespect they saw in Izzy's burial and grave:
 
Others fans also pointed out that Izzy's death really didn't fit tone of the show and what they thought they had been watching:
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanart===
* by tuherrus
* by hcnnibal
* by kiodja
* by hansoeii
* by mistysblueboxstuff
===Fanfiction===
*bang bang, he shot me down by idyllic_idioms - the first Israel Hands/Lucius Spriggs fanfiction posted to Archive Of Our Own
*Communicating Want by DictionaryWrites - the most bookmarked fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own focusing on Izzy (addresses his past, including a matelotage -- pirate marriage)
===Vids===
*What’s the deal with your friend Stede? by theydjarin
*Jolene (OFMD vid) by duchesscloverly
*Uh Huh by SweetPollyOliver
*Short Kings Anthem by Emeraldcas
*Bad Guy by Sandra Mills
=== Meta ===
*I’ve considered why I like Izzy. So, what now? by biheretic (2022)
*Who are all of these people who are drowning in pro-Izzy content to the exclusion of all other characters by ladyluscinia, meta that examines Izzy stats and the myth that Izzy is overtaking the fandom (2022)
=== Zines ===
* Above All Else: Izzy Hands Zine
* Izzy Hands Lives!
* OFMD Party Zine
==Archives & Resources==
*Israel Hands tag (only OFMD's fandom) at AO3
== Further Reading ==
* by Linda Codega, for gizmodo.com
*#CanyonConOnMastodon, an Izzy Canyon fan event to encourage Mastodon usage
==References==
Category:Our Flag Means Death Characters