Some small insights into Charles before he was kidnapped at the tender age of seven.

Born to Benedict Charles Vane and his wife, Katherine Marie Vane (

Barrett ) an EITC overseer and the wits behind his operation respectively, Charles was a shockingly healthy child. While many mothers in their vicinity fretted over fevers and coughs, baby Charles weathered through his early winters with his only cries being for food, changes and the insistence on being held. 

By the time he was five, he had moved from England to Singapore and discovered a love of climbing and of bugs. One of Benedict’s friends was a naturalist by name of Alexander Warren, who informed the young boy that a great deal about our world and how to live in it could be learned through the study of nature and most particularly, the hardy insects. This lead to the early formation of a fascination that never leaves Charles, though unfortunately for dear Katherine her son’s understanding of “bug” was rather — broad. 

To Charles a bug was just about anything he didn’t know the name of, or happened to think looked interesting. This would then be brought to Mister Warren for information, though when the man was not around it would result in all manner of creepies and crawlies being discovered by Mrs. Vane or her staff on hand, set in a teacup or even the teapot itself. This ranged from, but was not limited to, salamanders, toads, tadpoles and on one remarkable occasion, a very small and likely newly hatched crocodile. 

Then, of course, there was the climbing. Charles

loved to climb literally everything and his poor father was perpetually having to get him down, cause like a big dumb cat Charles could Get Up There but was utterly incapable of getting back down.
Katherine would try and insist he get himself out of his own trouble, but then he’d start to cry so she’d huff and send Benedict up to retrieve him. 

Aside from this particular display, Charles was not in fact very prone to tantrums as a child. He actually tended to just watch a lot and he didn’t like confrontation, so when the other kids got real loud and rowdy he would scuttle away rather than join suit. When he was really upset or angry about something he would end up crying and holding his fists at his sides as he hyperventilated because he literally couldn’t connect to his words when he had Big Feelings. 

This eventually transformed into staring as intimidatingly as possible. As an adult, Charles’ eyes widen whenever he is feeling Big Emotions because he learned that was a way to keep tears at bay. It ensures that he controls himself, regardless of what might be coursing through him at any given moment. 

When particularly emotional as an adult, Charles stammers and it becomes a real struggle because not only does he not verbally connect well once his emotions start churning, he is also dealing with the fact that when Emotional he starts thinking more in Papiamento than in English so there’s also language barrier struggles that cause him to kind of….stall. We see this a few times in the show, particularly with Eleanor, and his eyes widening in emotional moments is something I expanded on based on the actual canon so, watching closely for that is a wild ride let me tell you.