Darci ♡

This is how I feel about people saying that every good/vulnerable moment in the show is actually “Anthony” shining through and not “Angel.” I need everyone and their mom to stop attributing his good traits/moments in the show solely to his past identity. We don’t know what his past identity was like. He very well could’ve been a bad person, or not. We don’t know yet. Instead, we should give Angel the credit he deserves for his growth AS ANGEL… because that’s who he is now. Like… PLEASE!!

“Angel is bad SA rep because Viv fetishizes his abuse by having him perform pop songs while he’s getting assaulted.” I fear you missed the entire point of the scene. Poison is showing us how Angel has to reframe his own life in order to cope. Not just his life, but his feelings towards everything. He tells us in the song that he has to dissociate from his reality in order to continue functioning. He knows that he’s being swallowed up and spit out by Val and his predatory industry, but he can’t find the strength to fully escape from it. He tries to pretend it’s all ok and he’s enjoying himself, while knowing full well that it isn’t ok and he’s suffering. The lyrics in Poison are all Angel’s thoughts. He’s blaming himself for his suffering, acknowledging that it hurts but doesn’t know how to give it up, and he’s wishing for a better tomorrow. The visuals of Poison tell a different story, wherein he’s smiling and dancing and having a “great time”, trying to convince himself he’s fully into it and wants it. The entire scene is a juxtaposition. We understand what juxtaposition is, right?