Charles Vane: What? Lead? Me? No, no, no. No leading. Bad things happen when I lead. We get lost, people die, and the next thing you know I’m stranded somewhere without any pants.
A while ago (I mean a WHILE ago I’m talking like last year) there was a Charles Vane memorial week in the fandom (or something like that), and I wanted to draw something but never really did. All I had was this doodle I did very quickly while watching the s2 DVD in an attempt to figure out how his face worked, and for some reason I never even scanned it until now. Oh Charles, you could be a giant dick but man were you gorgeous. I do him no justice.
When Vane’s going on about how he can’t even imagine “the energy it must take to maintain [a furnished house],” I know that he’s probably talking about like. cleaning, day-to-day tasks, maybe even a bit of metaphor in there, etc. etc. BUT, since he referenced how delicate all the objects in the house are directly before this, I like to think that he just considers Not Breaking Things to be incomprehensibly strenuous.
thinking about the tragedy of jack rackham and charles vane. there’s so much going on. “charles vane is something you and i survived”. yes, he is, but he is also their friend and their brother, maybe even jack’s lover, depending on how you read it. they spend so long on their own sides, wary of each other, and then they reconcile, and it’s so obvious jack doesn’t consider charles just “something he survived”. it’s so obvious they love each other, however you interpret it, and they have so little time together in the end. “there’s not a man in that parlor who would lift a finger in your defense, yet you would die in theirs.” “jack would. jack has.” (“godspeed, charles.” “fuck you, jack.”)
and then jack makes a terrible mistake, and charles dies because of it. and it haunts him. he tries so hard to fill his shoes. “i will be our charles vane.” and jack has always had this conflict with his own masculinity and how he’s perceived, but it becomes stronger now. he isn’t charles vane, and he isn’t teach, and, anyway, it becomes apparent that he can’t be them and survive. they’re legends from a dying age. jack’s forging his own legend as we watch. i don’t think charles would ever accept the compromise they come to as a valid solution, but jack does. i wonder if charles would hate him for it, and he probably does too. “charles vane is dead. i do it for us. that’s how it started. that’s how it’s going to end.”
i don’t know, it’s kind of heartbreaking. jack gets a relatively happy ending, and he betrays charles in exchange. and how could he not? charles wouldn’t want him chasing after a ghost anyway. would he hate him? he doesn’t know, but charles is dead. the future is for the living, after all. choices are for the living.
“charles vane was my closest friend in the world.”
