Wesley and Fred -- Consistent Obsession
Apr. 22nd, 2004 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyIn the following, I'm a little less than my usual understanding and conciliatory self. I get a little testy, actually. It might even be considered a bit of a rant.
So, Wes is All About Fred. Why is this a shock to people? If it's bad characterization, it's bad characterization that started around Billy and never went away. He's obsessed with her as a symbol of What Makes the World Worth Fighting For -- actually, it might even be Billy that sets that view in stone for him, because she sees him at his worst and still wants to be his friend. You don't forget that kind of reaching out.
So, he fell in love. Maybe it was unhealthy, maybe still feeling it after so much time is also unhealthy, but unhealthy loves don't strike me as terribly unrealistic. People do horrible things all the time for people they claim to be in love with.
They've never shown any sign that Wes ever got over Fred. He was mooning over Fred while he was fucking Lilah (Supersymmetry -- and Wesley did come to care for Lilah very much). He was longing for her after the Lilah relationship had ended but before Lilah died (Soulless). He still loved her after the memory change (Life of the Party). He's loved her for so long, and he finally, finally had her choose him. She chooses him over another option (Knox). She kisses him. He got his moment of happiness, then like it happens so often in Joss-verse, he lost everything.
She kissed him and that confirmed to him that what he was feeling was right and true -- love enough and hard enough and sometimes dreams come true. Then, sometimes they become nightmares and Wesley watched the woman that he had loved for most of her time in his life die a painful, horrible death. From all that Wes believes, not only is Fred gone, but her soul is utterly destroyed.
Every single time that Wes chooses Fred, it seems like some people are surprised. He's been consistently choosing her, choosing to view her as paramount, for quite some time. It may be stupid or unhealthy or a sign of his personal brokenness, but it's an established character trait that's been in existence since early season three, before he even viewed Lilah as an individual person. For Fred, he'll help AI. For Fred, he'll kill what he thinks is his father. For Fred, he'll casually shoot someone in the knee and extract merciless revenge. For Fred's appearance and memories, he'll align himself with someone Angel considers an enemy (as Angel definitely did at the end of Shells). For the hope of knowing Fred, of knowing the past, of even the smallest hope of getting part of Fred back, he'll directly cross Angel. Fred isn't the only person that Wes pushes himself for (Angel definitely being on the list), but she definitely is someone he'll push past himself for.
So, Wes is All About Fred. Why is this a shock to people? If it's bad characterization, it's bad characterization that started around Billy and never went away. He's obsessed with her as a symbol of What Makes the World Worth Fighting For -- actually, it might even be Billy that sets that view in stone for him, because she sees him at his worst and still wants to be his friend. You don't forget that kind of reaching out.
So, he fell in love. Maybe it was unhealthy, maybe still feeling it after so much time is also unhealthy, but unhealthy loves don't strike me as terribly unrealistic. People do horrible things all the time for people they claim to be in love with.
They've never shown any sign that Wes ever got over Fred. He was mooning over Fred while he was fucking Lilah (Supersymmetry -- and Wesley did come to care for Lilah very much). He was longing for her after the Lilah relationship had ended but before Lilah died (Soulless). He still loved her after the memory change (Life of the Party). He's loved her for so long, and he finally, finally had her choose him. She chooses him over another option (Knox). She kisses him. He got his moment of happiness, then like it happens so often in Joss-verse, he lost everything.
She kissed him and that confirmed to him that what he was feeling was right and true -- love enough and hard enough and sometimes dreams come true. Then, sometimes they become nightmares and Wesley watched the woman that he had loved for most of her time in his life die a painful, horrible death. From all that Wes believes, not only is Fred gone, but her soul is utterly destroyed.
Every single time that Wes chooses Fred, it seems like some people are surprised. He's been consistently choosing her, choosing to view her as paramount, for quite some time. It may be stupid or unhealthy or a sign of his personal brokenness, but it's an established character trait that's been in existence since early season three, before he even viewed Lilah as an individual person. For Fred, he'll help AI. For Fred, he'll kill what he thinks is his father. For Fred, he'll casually shoot someone in the knee and extract merciless revenge. For Fred's appearance and memories, he'll align himself with someone Angel considers an enemy (as Angel definitely did at the end of Shells). For the hope of knowing Fred, of knowing the past, of even the smallest hope of getting part of Fred back, he'll directly cross Angel. Fred isn't the only person that Wes pushes himself for (Angel definitely being on the list), but she definitely is someone he'll push past himself for.
