Chapter Text
"Because, my love, I'm still a musician at heart."
Initial Thoughts
When I set out to rewrite Ned, I wanted to incorporate as much of his canonical presentation as possible. The pretense of wealth, the love of torture, and especially the desire to harm those who outshine him, musically or otherwise. The death of his brother was implied, in canon, to be his doing. I wanted to keep that, but warp it into something interesting.
There were some elements I outright eliminated:
- The bigotry against Blackbeard. As much as bigotry from poor whites towards indigenous individuals is a very real thing, I didn't want that to pull away from the themes I actually wanted to play with. Racism will overshadow any other aspect of a character, making it difficult to have a truly nuanced portrayal.
- The implied wealthy background. Ned wears all the trappings of wealth, but having him be yet another entitled rich guy felt so boring. But what if he grew up poor, and merely stole the trappings of wealth for himself? That gives me something to play with.
- Ned Low's intent to kill his brother. It was too mustache twirling, and the two of them historically got on. I wanted to shift this: What if it was an accident? What if Ned simply wanted to hurt him, and went too far?
- On that note, I didn't want to write him as a sociopath. That offers very little room for nuance; someone only out for themselves does not make a compelling romantic partner. But a psychopath who legitimately and wholeheartedly loves you, but can't or won't stop hurting you? There's more to play with, there.
- Ned Low's outright stupidity in telling mercenaries they didn't have feelings. How did they not mutiny one week into his captaincy, much less the years it would have taken for him to become established as a presence within the ROP? How did he ever get the record? It felt like a shoehorned excuse for Stede to win, which fell apart with any examination.
Next, I decided to focus in a bit on Lucius. How did they meet? Was their relationship sexual, and did I want to tell a story about sexual assault?
My own answer was no, I didn't want an overt sexual assault for similar reasons to not wanting overt racism—I wanted a nuanced portrayal, not a mustache twirling villain. Ned's behavior certainly has themes of violation of bodily autonomy, and there are definitely vibes there. Spin off your own stories at your own pleasure; I'm certainly doing the same. But it didn't feel nuanced enough for the narrative of the fic I was working on, so I made their relationship platonic.
On the flip side, there were elements I absolutely wanted to keep:
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Bronson Pinchot, the actor who portrayed Ned Low, used charcoal in his mouth and nose to signal that Ned was a person rotting from the inside. I fucking VIBE with that, and I wanted that to reflect in his journey. He consistently makes insidious choices that slowly destroy every relationship that matters to him. His internal narrative that he can't change—or more precisely, won't change—is the rot he refuses to cut out.
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From his very first scene, Ned has a profound lack of empathy for the suffering of people he doesn't care about. While this makes sense with his sadism, it's also a separate element in and of itself, allowing for his callous and sadistic behavior.
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This man reads as a hopeless romantic, who has created a life where true intimacy is impossible. This is evident in the way he treats the man at the lighthouse (along with others). He treats people as overly familiar/intimate, in a futile attempt to connect with another person.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because, my love. I'm still a musician at heart."
This forced intimacy through torture was a sign of a painfully lonely man, isolated by his own controlling and manipulative behavior. By pushing everyone he loves away, he is left with only one recourse: Taking intimacy through force.
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His visual character design was impeccable. Zero notes.
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What drives someone to try to kill an entire group of people for a broken record? Deep seated insecurities and a need for control. The latter became a driving force in my characterization of Ned.
Then, finally, there were elements I wanted to add.
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I knew I wanted to go for the whole "Ned Low as a narrative foil to Edward Teach" angle. I wanted to tell a story about love, and whether or not love alone can be enough. So I thought: What if Ned is capable of love, and loves as deeply and as fully as the rest of us?
Even further, what happens when the unstoppable force of Ned's obsessive love meets the immovable object that is Izzy's devotion?
Bad things. That's what.
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As another part of Ned's foiling of Edward: I wanted Ned to be manipulative. We all saw 1x4. We all saw Edward's face when he turned away from Izzy at the end of that episode. Edward knew he was uncertain, and he made promises anyways. Making Ned a manipulator, given his need for control, seemed an obvious choice.
From here, my next step was digging into his major relationships, determining more distinctly how each character relates to him, iterating on his backstory and continuing until I had something solid.