I've seen people accuse Angeal of being a coward.
Either for choosing to die, or for making Zack kill him instead of doing it himself.
Angeal Hewley was a hero.
I didn't see anything cowardly in his behavior. I only saw a person willing to sacrifice his life to protect others.
Not just the story but imagery and motifs support it too: his name, being the only one of the trio having a white wing, being called Angeal Penance in the final fight, the way he's depicted at the end...
As for the story, what drove Angeal to get Zack to kill him wasn't cowardice, but a wish to protect others. Suddenly faced with Genesis and unaware of motives for his desertion and behavior, Angeal disappeared in Wutai because he didn't want to drag Zack into the whole mess while Angeal takes time to reason with Genesis to come back. Being a SOLDIER had come to mean so much to Angeal but he left without hesitation to protect Zack. He left to get Genesis back.
Yet, despite Angeal's love for his friend, he stands between Genesis and Zack in the Banora factory, because protecting is what he does.
Angeal never joined Genesis because he couldn't justify the violence. Angeal was there only to convince Genesis to return with him to Shinra. Of course, once Angeal learned the truth of the horrible experiments that created them, and of all the disgusting things Shinra did, he couldn't morally justify returning either. He was left in a limbo.
On top of that, his own degradation got triggered and affected his mind and made him confused and unable to think clearly (G-SOLDIER degradation makes them irrational and more prone to violence), and he wrestled with the newfound knowledge of his twisted origins, his mother's willing participation in it, her lies, and that the fact that it was actually the sleazy lowlife Hollander who was his biological father (and not the man he respected and loved all his life and who was so proud of Angeal he had sacrificed everything for Angeal to have the Buster Sword). Hollander used Angeal's moment of helplessness to harvest his cells and with them started creating Angeal copies. Angeal never consented to this. Sephiroth's conclusions that both Angeal and Genesis are in league with Hollander when he saw Angeal copy is incorrect and comes from Sephiroth's own issues.
Yet, Angeal's own existence created the one thing he strove all his life to prevent. A danger to others. Aside from Lazard, all Angeal copies were monsters, not humans. And monster are dangerous. They attack people. They kill. They create suffering.
If he were to prevent it, he had to destroy the source of the cells - himself, or the world would never be safe from Angeal copies.
Now, it's very important to note that this decision to destroy himself was very different than the self-loathing wish to die he expressed to Zack in Banora, or the pointless attempt to get Zack to kill him on the bottom of the plate above the Sector 5 church.
By this point, Angeal had managed to overcome the degradation's effects on his mind by using his willpower and his SOLDIER honor, and he was not searching to die to end his own shame, he was searching to do his duty.
We see this change in him when he starts helping Zack and Sephiroth deflect Genesis' and Hollander's attacks, protecting people in Shinra Building, and informing Lazard of their plans, although never officially returning to Shinra. He retained the spirit of what it means to be an honorable SOLDIER without supporting Shinra that created it all.
Now, with his mind clear and his honor restored he does not loathe himself, but he can clearly see his copies have to be destroyed. And there is sadly no other way to do this than to absorb them and destroy himself in the process.
He is not a coward, he is selfless and brave for willing to die to protect others.
He did not saddle Zack with this. Zack consented. Zack agreed that their enemy is all that creates suffering, even if he didn't fully understand what that would entail. At that point Angeal probably didn't either.
But think about Zack's personality. Killing his mentor and friend is unthinkable to him, but how would he feel if he had refused and then Angeal copies killed innocent civilians? If they killed a little kid? Zack was devastated but ultimately it was Angeal's free decision. How much more devastated would Zack be if his refusal to fight Angeal led to deaths of people who had no choice in the matter unlike Angeal?
From what I saw of their last fight, Angeal faced several issues:
to collect his copies and destroy them
to prevent Hollander from getting more samples from him
to find a way to destroy himself while being merged with the copies which seems to rob him of self-awareness. He didn't seem at all in control as Angeal Penance, so how could he destroy himself?
So, what course of action is left? Who can Angeal trust?
Who is strong and skilled enough to fight a SOLDIER 1st Class strengthened by degradation? Who can be trusted to prevent Hollander from collecting more samples? Who cares enough about protecting others to crush his own feelings by killing his friend? Who has mental fortitude and emotional support to do it and come out on the other side still himself?
Gensis is still obsessed with a cure and revenge and is creating untold suffering himself, and Sephiroth was taught that collateral damage is no big deal and doesn't care about much except his friends. And besides, Angeal already saw Sephiroth had started spiraling into despair.
And Angeal prepared Zack. He prepared him by training him, by loving him, by teaching him about being an honorable and moral SOLDIER. He certainly couldn't even dream this is what he was preparing him for, but he inadvertently did. Zack is powerful enough, and cares enough, and is emotionally strong enough. Zack is the most emotionally strong person Angeal had ever met.
Only thing left to do was to convince Zack to do it because Zack has shown he would rather die than fight Angeal. But while Zack was alright with sacrificing himself, he wouldn't hurt Aerith by never returning to her (which very nicely makes Crisis Core even more tragic).
Angeal did everything in his power to make sure Zack would be alright. He checked to made sure Zack has emotional support after Angeal is gone. He went to the Church to meet Aerith.
He made sure she is the kind of person to be there for Zack.
He made sure to leave one of his copies he could influence from the Lifestream to protect Aerith.
And Angeal knew Zack is emotionally strong enough to handle it.
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