I think it's time to do a proper Angeal analysis writeup. It will probably take a couple days, but I finally feel like I understand him enough to do a proper analysis of the character with regard to motivations and how that impacted the storyline, the way I have for others in the past. (Genesis, Gillian, Claudia, Lucrecia, Sephiroth, the Beaker Brigade, I do this a lot.)
I've held off on this for a long time, not only because I've literally been told to kill myself for talking offhand about how a large portion of the tragedy in his story was self-inflicted, but also because I didn't really feel like I understood his motivations enough to do that level of analysis. Most of my fandom rambles related to the character are very much rambles, meandering monologues for which I don't have a particularly organized thesis, but with First SOLDIER I really think I've finally figured him out.
And...honestly, it just makes me really fucking sad. Like the more I think about it, the less anger I have toward him as a 'person' and the more pity I feel toward the guy. I've always thought he was well-written, but I was missing this one piece, this one implication that serves to explain literally everything—and it's a piece I personally, intimately understand.
Mind you, others have done this before, and probably better than I will, but the points I want to hit aren't really discussed in other places, so I feel like it would definitely add something to the conversation.
I dunno, man, I just think he's a really good character, and that people are doing him a huge disservice by pretending he really is everything he says he is. I think writing off his flaws and negative aspects reduces him to less than a caricature, and he's so well-written he deserves better. Those flaws are what make his storyline make sense, and what make it so fucking sad. Those flaws are what justify his behavior, such as it even can be justified, and they make him so much more than the "good guy in a bad situation" that most people portray him as.
