This is Nikvoodoo talking. Sorry this is so screwy. So here's the recap of what we were talking over in Chapter 20-1 discussion. These messages are the ones I can't merge because they contain Chapter 20 talk. So in the quote blocks in this post are things I had to move, and then I had to put them into ra1th's post here because it won't move around in the order. So....hope that makes sense.
Normally, you’re one of the last people I want to debate, but when it comes to a subject like this one, I’ll go to the end of the world and back. So to start it off, Michael was not given leadership. Angel was in charge originally in episode 1. Michael took leadership by gaining Saul’s allegiance and basically undermining Angel’s orders, by breaking into the armory. Same thing with Burt, Burt was (arguably) not given leadership. Michael’s absence left a power vacuum. It didn’t end with the people of the power begging Burt to become leader. While Angel was fumbling around, trying to get people to listen to him, Burt ran in headfirst, barked out orders, and took charge.
It’s the same scenario with our country even. Leadership is not just given to our president. For six months, candidates duke it out in the elections fighting tooth and nail for command and leadership of this country. We, the people don’t just bestow leadership, they fight to show the voters that they are the best candidate for the job.
This one made me think. I literally spent about an hour just seething over this looking for a way to poke a hole in this, to somehow find a counterpoint. And I couldn’t find one. Until I started thinking about the reason people did things for Burt and Michael that they didn’t for Angel. Confidence. Angel lacks confidence in himself. Because here’s the thing, people WILL do things for Angel, and there are very specific examples of this, ALL of which are in the field. Angel’s team mates will follow his orders in the field. Here are the examples:
When Riley and Datu were about to turn back and head home in defeat after Michael’s supposed death at the pumping station, Angel showed some pretty damn good textbook style charisma, and the others fell in line and followed his lead.
The second example of this is with Kalani on the mission for MREs. He showed some damn good leadership and charisma here as well. Of course here’s where people might say, oh Kalani was rebelling and rebutting the whole time, and if Michael was in charge, this would never have happened. But I’d like to direct your eyes to the episode where Michael and co. rescued DARK (Datu, angel, riley, Kalani). Kalani was half dead and was still giving Michael shit the ENTIRE car ride back WHILE being chased by zombies. (This should just tell you a lot about Kalani’s personality.) And let me tell you, Michael wasn’t handling kalani any better than Angel was. Now back to the original point, Kalani was kicking, screaming and bitching the whole way, but Angel still maintained command. You can see this in when Kalani at multiple points want to leave the supplies and go home. Angel stays true to the mission, and DRAGS Kalani with him and FORCES Kalani into helping him complete the mission. If that isn’t charisma, then nothing is.
So basically the whole point of that tirade was to establish this, Angel shows charisma in the field. Why? Because Angel is confident in the field, he’s confident in his abilities, he’s confident in his experiences, and he knows exactly what the hell he’s doing. Because Angel displays this confidence in the field, people will follow his leadership. Angel lacks confidence to lead the tower as a whole, and confidence, is why people will do things for Michael that they won’t do for Angel.
So at the end of the day, I suppose I can’t really prove you wrong, (as much as I really want to) Every character in this series goes through development, but I’d like to argue that Angel goes through, and I’m predicting that he will continue to go through more development than the others. And one of the biggest themes surrounding Angel’s growth, is leadership. Angel was trained to be a leader, and he was not up to the task in so many ways. With this character, his development revolves around him gaining the experience and finding the confidence to finally fill that leadership role that he was originally meant to fill but failed.
Here’s something I think might be very possible, If you were to throw Burt, Angel and Michael into the field, Angel would be clashing with the others over the best course of action, because Angel is confident in the field, he knows what he’s doing, he knows what he’s up against. And with that confidence, will come the “fire” to want to take leadership, and the charisma that will have others follow his orders.
So at the end of the day, add confidence to the list of shit angel has to achieve before he’s ready for leadership
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