*A few spoilers.*
Aw, Fang! What a delightful character. Like a number of the crew members, particularly from Ed’s crew, his role isn’t huge, but he adds to every scene he’s in.
When Izzy first encounters Stede and the crew of the Revenge, Fang and Ivan are along with him. Izzy is framed as the soft-spoken, menacing baddie, while the other two are the threatening muscle. After they snatch Stede’s British naval hostages out from under him, I believe Fang’s first line in the series comes as he’s hitting one of the hostages—as the hostage promises favor from the king if they’re released, Fang yells, “I’m your king now, bitch!”
But by the end of that same episode, Fang is whimpering after Izzy grabs him by the beard. Rather like Wee John, he can sometimes be framed as a big bad dude but is actually quite the softie. Despite his strength and capacity for violence—during the mutiny in season 2, he picks up Ed and body slams him to the deck—Fang is a gentle soul, a man who’s sweet and caring.
He flourishes under kindness and attention—Lucius easily gets out of doing laborious grunt work by complimenting Fang’s cheekbones and offering to sketch him. Fang is bashfully flattered by the sweet talk, and for the rest of season 1, he’s totally Team Lucius.
By contrast, Fang struggles a lot with sailing under Ed during the Kraken era of season 2. He still does what he can to help others, comforting Izzy when he’s at his wit’s end, but the despairing attitude that pervades the ship drags him down. When Ed shoots Izzy in the leg, Fang breaks down crying—both because Izzy has been shot and because Ed would do such a thing. It takes Jim telling him their own version of the wooden boy story to help calm him down.
However, once they rejoin the Revenge, Fang is one of the only members of the crew not to be suspicious and frightened of Ed. Because he regrets his own actions during the mutiny, he doesn’t define Ed by what he did during the Kraken era. In fact, when he sees Ed Doing the Most and kind of flailing in his attempts to make amends to the rest of the crew, he takes Ed under his wing and helps him find time to sit and reflect on his thoughts. Even if Fang doesn’t actively resent Ed for everything that went down, he’s under no obligation to help him. But he does, because Fang is a kind, caring person, and he’s able to get through to Ed with his gentle, nonjudgmental honesty.
I’ll end with a few favorite line readings from David Fane!
o When Fang is crying over the dog he was forced to put down, Ivan tries to comfort him, pointing out that he’s in doggie heaven – I love how earnestly Fang wails, “Yeah, but we go to different heavens!”
o After Lucius’s infected finger is amputated, Fang gives it a lovely eulogy before shouting, “Begone you foul thing!” and chucking it into the sea. Hee!
o As Jim is telling the wooden boy story, I like the softness in Fang’s voice as he gets a hold on his crying and gently urges them, “Do the voice” – So sweet!
