Charles Vane meta post

Alright, so – here goes. Y’all wanted this – sorry if it gets long.

I think Vane’s character arc makes complete and utter sense but the writers handled it in a way that makes sense with his character but doesn’t inform the viewers what’s going on in his head. And there’s a lot going on in there – so much, actually, and it informs everything we see him do in the show. Unfortunately, without understanding what’s going on in his head, he looks like he’s all over the place and retconned to hell in later seasons. He’s not, I promise. He’s just not chatty like James.

We know that Vane was a slave. We see that he’s got scars a lot like Anne’s on his back from being beaten, and we get hints that he’s been sexually abused (his conversation about “a visit from the taskmaster in the middle of the night” with Jack), but it didn’t really hit me until later that as a natural consequence of what he went through, Charles Vane has absolutely no clue what to do when he has no orders. That’s what he’s dealing with for the first time in his life in s1 – he has no master. There’s no Albinus to beat him into obedience. There’s no Teach, telling him what to do and making him do it through bargains and debts owed when necessary. There’s no Eleanor, meaning well but also in charge of the island’s trade and very much accustomed to getting her way however she can. He’s got Jack, and Anne, and a crew he presumably built while Teach was still around or shortly thereafter, and he’s terrified.

Just look at the evidence. He all but begs Eleanor to let him back into her life, he’s drinking too much, smoking opium – he’s a damn mess, and I don’t think that it’s all to do with Eleanor. That’s what we as an audience largely got out of it, sure – messy breakup leads to Very Bad Decisions on his part especially (and no I’m not excusing what he did, it was heinous and wrong and I don’t blame anyone for hating him for it. Really, truly, I don’t). What I am saying is that I think there’s some highly toxic shit going on in his head that explains what he does but doesn’t excuse it by any means and that him killing Albinus is him fighting so very hard to stop wanting orders the way he was conditioned to when he was a child. That’s what his character arc is – him realizing that he’s been following someone’s orders all his life and that he needs to find a way to get out of that headspace where he needs someone telling him what to do. That’s what his “I didn’t do it for you” to Eleanor is about – it’s not him telling her he doesn’t care about her, it’s him telling her that he’s not taking orders anymore, that if they’re going to have a relationship, things have got to change.

Note: no matter what I might say next, I am not attempting to shit on Eleanor. I love her too. I feel for her, and my heart breaks for her, because on some level she’s still that terrified, hurting 13-year-old kid she was when the Spanish burned her home and killed her mother and she has good reasons for the things she does. She and Charles just – did. not. understand each other, not at all, and that’s a shame.

To continue on though – I think Charles gets to the end of s2 and finds a cause to fight for that has nothing to do with Eleanor, or with Teach, and that’s where he really starts to change, because he’s realized what being a slave did to him. He’s realized that he can’t continue on that way, and he’s come to the understanding that no one should have to live like that. He goes to Charlestown to get the Spanish war ship not because he necessarily wants it for his crew, but because he needs it to get the gold, or, barring that, he needs to find another way to make the money to fight for Nassau’s freedom. It actually works very well with historical Charles Vane, who was also looking for allies for this very reason and happened to go to Jamaica – another English colony, only one with a sympathetic governor, but I digress. Anyway – the end of s2 rolls around, Vane has an ally he never expected in Flint – and then s3 happens and turns everything Charles thought he knew on its head, because all of a sudden Teach is there, and Flint is gone, and Charles is having to make decisions. He’s having to really think for himself and live with the consequences of his decisions and with the reality of effectively ruling an island and he realizes that he’s frightened. And outnumbered. He says as much to Jack when he talks about feeling the uncertainty and the fear of his time as a slave coming back. He’s scared again, and that leads him to almost make the decision to let Teach be in charge of him again. We see him waffle. We see him start to doubt himself, but then we also have moments like the one with the Spanish soldier, and I didn’t realize this until recently, but that moment is an important clue as to what’s going on in Vane’s head.

The Spanish man he fights says that money makes sheep of us all. He tells Charles that he has a family at home who will starve unless he dies in battle, and we can see Charles’ face. We can see the disgust at what this man’s been made to do. We can see the moment that he thinks – isn’t this worth fighting against? We also can hear his confusion earlier when he tells Teach that everyone in Nassau thought he was mad when he talked like Teach – and I really think that moment’s not about Charles being relieved to have Teach back. That’s not it at all. It’s a moment of “you said this, but no one else thinks that, and why am I still listening to you? Why am I letting you take charge of me again, don’t I have my own thoughts?” The moment that Charles takes those Spanish intelligence papers, we can see that he doesn’t agree with Teach. He’s not done with Nassau, and he’s questioning, and doubting, and more importantly – he’s having to figure out his own answers to the questions he’s asking himself instead of having someone answer them for him the way perhaps Eleanor would have done once. Or Jack. Or whoever he was previously allowing to do the thinking for him, and that’s not happening anymore, and that’s exactly why he goes with James when he turns up looking like hell on Ocracoke.

If you follow the train of thought – Charles has spent three seasons learning to think for himself. He’s been up and down and lashed out at just about everyone when they even remotely attempt to control him (or if he perceives that they’re trying to), and that’s why when James Flint turns up on Ocracoke Island, it’s so very important that he basically tells Charles “you don’t owe me shit. I’m not going to leverage some debt, or call in a favor, or coerce you into this. Decide what YOU want. Decide who you are.” That’s a far damn cry from Teach rolling up to Nassau, apparently intent upon saving Charles from himself, and in the process more or less blackmailing him into coming away. It’s also exactly the only thing that James could have said to Charles that would have convinced him. He doesn’t need to be coerced again. He doesn’t need or want to be manipulated or ordered about. He wants to be his own person, with his own agenda, and that’s the moment that settles him on it. It’s a big deal, and it’s a big part of the reason that his speech about “no measure of comfort worth that price” works, because Charles has worked hard to get to that point. He’s been told over and over again “submit and we’ll give you what you need.” And he’s realized that no matter what’s promised, it’s not worth the loss of autonomy.

And that’s why I think if Charles had been there to see the end of the series, he’d have gone absolutely nuclear. That’s why he had to die for the series to end the way it did – because Charles Vane would never, ever have accepted any treaty. He’d never have been pacified, he’d never have given England or Spain even one ounce of what they wanted, because he worked too damn hard to stop wanting orders, and realize what they did to him. And unfortunately exactly none of this is ever talked about out loud in the series, and we never hear it from Vane himself except in oblique references. I really wish we’d gotten just one conversation maybe between Jack and Anne or Jack and Flint about Charles and what exactly drove him, because I wouldn’t have had to sit down and puzzle this all out myself. On the other hand, I now have feels about my strong, resilient, incredibly stubborn garbage son who went through so much and fought so hard just to be free.

So, headcanon time- Gates is Avery. He’s just about the right age, and history tells us that Avery was shortish, stoutish, and had a “merry complexion” and a sort of dangerous air about him. Oh, also Gates’ first name is Hal, which is short for Henry, and he wanted Avery’s journals but doesn’t seem to have needed to read them. Can we say “they’re actually his and he didn’t want anyone else recognizing that handwriting”?

wolfstarforever:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Vane was sexually abused as a child.

He has a brand on his shoulder from Albinus. We meet several of Albinus’s slaves and only one has the brand (At least that we can see), The child. The ONLY child.

When he has to return to Albinus to get a crew he can’t meet Albinus’s eyes. This is Charles Vane, he’d stare down death itself, but with his former master…

When Albinus reveals his brand to the others Charles can no longer meet any of their eyes. He looks ashamed. These are Albinus’s slaves as well, why should he be ashamed?

He’s terrified and trying to hide it every time Albinus speaks to him.

He says he was “the lowest among” the slaves

He keeps looking to the boy, horrified that there is another like him. He knew Albinus would still have slaves. He shouldn’t be shocked, but he is

“You think if you refrain from beating them, it’s any better? It isn’t the violence. It isn’t the labor or the hunger or the heat or the chains. You know what those men fear right now? It’s the unknown. Lash that comes from nowhere for reasons never explained. A visit from the taskmaster in the dead of night. But I remember that fear. Right now, I feel it returning.”

In Conclusion Vane was raped repeatedly as a child by Albinus (and mostly likely his taskmaster). He managed to get away and tried to forget it. When he saw the boy with the same brand he realized it wasn’t him. He wasn’t the reason for what had happened. Vane had always blamed himself, but in that moment he realized it was Albinus. He realized Albinus was a sick fuck who raped children for pleasure. That’s why he murdered him.

I kinda think John Silver is not Silver’s name. He introduces himself as a cook and the ship’s journals probably had the crew’s names written down like: “John Silver, cook”. So Silver took the guy’s name. Of course, it’s possible that he never claimed that he worked on that ship as a cook, but merely that he has cooking skills that nobody knew about and John Silver is his real name.

Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit, Anon, if the original John Silver died in scene 1 of episode 1 and the guy we followed through season 4 was named, oh, idk – Solomon Little, at a guess. I’d be willing to lay good money that whatever that man’s name is, it’s not John Silver. I mean – he’s in the galley when they find him. There’s only one good reason for anyone to be down there when pirates attack, and a merchant ship isn’t going to carry more than one cook at a time. We’re not talking about a ship that would have a lot of men to feed. That means, by necessity, Silver claiming to be the cook kind of knocks the other guy out of his actual function, and since the ship’s log would in fact list “John Silver, cook”… yeah. RIP John Silver, we never actually knew ye.

1/2 Re TI saying Flint died in Savannah… I actually think it proves that they got out? TI says a few members of his former crew were with him when he died. They were witnesses. How would anyone know Flint is in Savannah is he is locked up for decades? How would they see him dying if he is behind those walls?

2/2 Perhaps after Thomas dies of old age, Flint goes to tavern to drown himself in rum (it would take some time) and mentions that he used to be Flint (not as bragging, but because he doesn’t give a fuck anymore). Or maybe someone who knows him happens to be there and recognises him. And the word goes out and his crew hears it and feels nostalgic (like they do in TI) and some of them go there.

It’s a point, Anon. It could very well be read that they escaped and that James simply came back to Savannah or that they stayed in Savannah all that time after they escaped, but I have a hard time imagining Thomas particularly being ok with that. He’s been enslaved for ten years, and I can’t imagine him actually feeling all that safe staying in one place considering that he was stolen from his own home at the start of that imprisonment. It just seems like the kind of experience that would make one want or even need to travel, and of course James would come with him.

Hey, I was just curious to hear more of your thoughts on the writers intent re the plantation? It’s something I’ve felt conflicted over since I watched the ending (yes, I’ve been conflicted about this going on an entire year now). I know where I stand (I think your thoughts line up pretty closely with mine), but the lack of clarity over whether or not the writers felt that the plantation was actually not such a bad place is the one thing about the ending that left me slightly uncomfortable

2/To add to my previous ask, I never actually read any of the writers interviews after watching the finale, mostly because I just wanted to sit with my own thoughts and feelings about it and I’m generally a fan of death of the author, so my vague idea of what they have said is largely out of context quotes from people on tumblr. Right after I watched the finale it didn’t actually occur to me that the plantation could be interpreted as anything but completely awful

Honestly – I think the writers did something… not very subtle at all with the end of the show and the plantation and I think that what I have a problem with is not what they wrote but with the way that people didn’t really dig into what’s there in the show. I haven’t read too many creator interviews because I’m very much of the school where the author is dead and what is in the show is what I spend my time on. Anything else is just too exhausting, and having come to Black Sails from the Tolkien fandom, I’ve learned my lesson about “well Tolkien said this,” because let me tell you that man contradicted himself a lot. So – bottom line, I see the plantation as a negative that is being painted as a positive by two people in the show who have very, very good reasons to lie to themselves about what they’re doing to other people. We hear that the plantation is a place where people are sent to be taken care of from Max, and we hear from Silver that it’s a place where people go to disappear.

Unfortunately, in both of these cases, we’re also presented with the knowledge that the person speaking is speaking to someone they need to have on their side. Max is speaking to Silver, who has her as a captive in an upstairs room of the tavern. She can’t afford to tell him that she was planning on seeing him enslaved as the perceived lesser of two evils because who sits there and hears that and doesn’t get furious at the person who planned to do that to them? She also needs to believe, for her own peace of mind, that she WAS choosing the lesser evil, I think. I think Silver needs that same belief so he can live with himself at the end of the story, and I think that Madi is there specifically for us to see the hypocrisy of the story that both Silver and Max are telling themselves. It’s the ultimate callout, really – Silver is standing there telling his BLACK FORMER SLAVE girlfriend that he sold her friend, essentially, and then asking her to believe him when he says that he did right. We also have the metaphor about strangling the cat earlier in the show, and I think we’re meant to see that analogy in use with the plantation, and see the horror of both situations. In a just world, the cat would not get strangled. The abusive bastard husband who is beating his child for being kind would be the one punished. Similarly, in James’ case, in a just world, he would not be punished for effectively yowling at the door – for fighting for a better world. Instead, the institution that created the problem he’s fighting should be torn down, but instead, Silver elects to strangle the cat as the simplest way to make what he sees as an untenable situation stop without any real justice. I think what the writers put out there is pretty clear – the plantation is not a good place. It’s not a just place. It’s a solution – but not a good one or a pretty one (in fact it’s what I’d call a fucking disgusting one). Look at the way they say that there’s tragedy to what’s been done at the end of the show – they’re saying that what happens to James and Thomas isn’t right, and I have to agree with them. It isn’t.

In the various interviews the creators say that Flint had to end up in Savannah because in the treasure island it is said that he died there and they wanted to be faithful to the book. this makes me think that James and Thomas remain at the plantation until death because if they manage to escape I do not understand why they decide to remain Savannah? What is your idea?

Honestly, I can see what the writers were doing. I recognize that they’ve made a decision but I’m also electing to ignore it, because it implies that the two of them stay enslaved for the rest of their lives and nope nope nope that is not in any way, shape, or form something I can see James Flint McGraw allowing to happen to either of them. He loves Thomas far too much to allow him to stay a slave, and likewise Thomas loves James far too much to allow that to happen to him either. I’m going to go with “Treasure Island is quite obviously a fabrication/something we’re not meant to take as canon given some of the other changes made to the narrative in s4,” and assume that James and Thomas either escape or are broken out of the plantation by an irate Madi, because there’s also no way she’d allow them to stay there.

diff anon Also, taking in disgraced members of aristocratic families was an additional source of profit, not a main one. I highly doubt there were many of them. Half a dozen at most. It’s not like aristocratic families were staging deaths of their family members on regular basis. Everyone else are convicts from British prisons, so nobody pays for them. And from what we’ve seen it’s a huge plantation with vast sugar cane fields. Lots of work.

diff anon, let’s not forget that Oglethorpe solicits convicts from prisons in England and I do not think anyone pays for them, I am wrong?

You are not wrong, Anon. Oglethorpe does in fact solicit convicts from English prisons – Max says as much. He still might get paid for them, but it would be a much smaller fee given that it would be the English court system essentially thanking him for taking them off their hands and saving them the cost of feeding, housing, and eventually burying them. It’s far more likely, though, that Oglethorpe is essentially buying men from England and transporting them to the New World to work on his farm, and to continue doing that, he’d have to make much more profit than he’d make off the disgraced relatives of the nobility when they actually had someone to dispose of.

Edit: As a related note – there were about a billion crimes that you could be imprisoned for in English law at the time which is to say that their prison system was just as much legalized slavery as the American one is today. Even were those men all convicted murderers, though, no one deserves to be enslaved. Ever.

I found this comment about the farm on a forum :”The farm’s business is NOT growing and selling stuff, that’s just a cover. It is actually supported on the money the workers’ families pay. So lowering production costs and growing more vegetables is irrelevant to the farm owners; they don’t need to exploit the workers.” I am perplexed,,,,what do you think about it?

Uh. huh. Sure. I’ll be over here, wondering how in the flying blue fuck anyone doesn’t get that it doesn’t matter what Oglethorpe states his mission to be, his actions make him a fucking slaver.

Oglethorpe is making money off of keeping his workers there. That much is absolutely true. He is getting paid by these people’s families to take them off their hands, and what we see in the show seems to imply that it’s a one-time transaction. Money changes hands, men are brought to the place against their will – and then they… what, according to this person? Just randomly volunteer to, what, help Mr. Magnanimous Oglethorpe to bring in his crops? They just willingly pick up tools they’ve never before had to touch or even consider in their lives? Give themselves blisters and do back-breaking work out of the goodness of their noble, privileged, wealthy hearts? That’s why there are guards with guns and cudgels watching the field, because they’re there voluntarily?

Bullshit, Anon. Oglethorpe is making those men work, and he’s doing it with the specific intent of making money off their labor which they will never see any of. I don’t give two shits what Oglethorpe tells himself at night so he can sleep in his feather bed while the men on his farm presumably lie down on straw mattresses or blankets – he’s a goddamn slaver in that he brings men to his farm against their wills, forces them to work, and has no intention of ever letting them leave. I don’t care what portion of his profits come from the farm itself, even if it’s fucking miniscule, and I guarantee you that it’s not, because, newsflash, rich men don’t ever, ever, ever give up any profit they can possibly make. Slavery is slavery is goddamn slavery. I’m honestly kind of sickened at the argument presented, because they’re essentially going “the prisoners aren’t making Oglethorpe much profit so therefore it’s not slavery.” Um… excuse me? Just….

No. Absolutely no. Fuck this argument and fuck the person who made it.

I saw your tags about Vane being an ambush hunter and I agree! Esp when an integral part of his ambush is setting Anne on someone.

See, the thing is that when he’s using that tactic, he has a habit of using himself as the bait. If Anne’s getting involved in something, that’s usually a sign that he’s not bothering with stealth. Look at the complete lack of subtlety on display in s1, vs when Vane is on his own, sans Jack and Anne. He becomes a lot more strategic when he doesn’t have them with him, because he knows he can’t afford to make mistakes the way he can with Jack and Anne to back him up.