Yes let's talk about how much Jack loved Vane, how he realized after he was gone and how he try to honor him w his life work. Like, it's not the first time Black Sails has a man loving another man and fighting a war in their memory.
yes, LETS. it kills me that even after vane’s death, jack continued to do his damnedest (if not try even harder) to make vane proud and live up to the potential that vane saw in him. for years, jack unconsciously absorbed vane’s ideals, witnessed vane’s weaknesses, admired vane’s unapologetic nature & singleminded determination, and ultimately used all of that to try to fill the void that vane left behind. even in jack’s relationship with teach, there are so many echoes of vane - prominently the way his need for approval shifts: if he cant prove himself to charles directly, teach’s acknowledgement is the next best thing. his fixation with vane becomes so potent after it’s too late, and it just kills me. in my headcanon, jack wonders: if vane could see what he’s made of himself, if that would have changed things between them. if vane’s attention would have finally shifted in his direction, if vane would have finally seen him and appreciated his contributions to the cause. i see vane as having kept jack just out of arm’s reach, emotionally, for their entire relationship, occasionally offering up scraps of attention or affection or vulnerability to keep jack loyal and invested in their partnership, and it worked, because vane was a self-reliant loner, and being needed by a man who doesn’t need anyone is extremely validating.
so yes, jack loved vane. and in fact, i see a lot of parallels between the jack/vane relationship and silverflint, except jack/vane is like the bittersweet dream version, because their relationship never quite gets the chance to be realized or actualized in any way. by the end, flint and silver reach a level of mutual respect and fondness and emotional intimacy, they develop a system of compromise, there’s a push-and-pull between them that enriches and strengthens their partnership. but vane never allows any of that that to happen for him and jack, probably out of sheer stubbornness, and at least partially because he’s simply too obsessed with eleanor. only in his final moments does vane finally offer up that last guarded piece of himself – in the act of sacrificing his life, he sends the message i care about your fate, i trust you to pick up the pieces and succeed where i failed, and i think that sentiment becomes invaluable to jack, and has much to do with why jack goes on to idealize & romanticize vane so heavily after he’s gone.
