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thebratqueenMy post in response to this discussion about Wes and crying.
I'll beat the drum of "Do not fem up your slash men!!" as loud as the next girl, but Wes has cried or been close to tears more than once on AtS. True that Billy was extreme circumstances, but in "Expecting" he tears up at the idea of being a member of Angel and Cordy's family and in "She" the shooting script tells Alexis to play it as "emotional" when Angel doesn't fire him.
From there the writer can take it where he or she will. I agree that as of the ending of season 3 Wes is definitely big on swallowing his pain and coping with alcohol and Lilah. It would take some work on the part of the writer to convince me he's been quietly sobbing in the men's room the whole time, but I'm not saying you couldn't get me there from here.
IMO the key thing is noticing what makes Wes cry. The 3 canonical times we can point to all have one major thing in common - they're not about Wes being hurt they're about him being accepted. 1. Angel and Cordy say he's one of the family 2. Angel doesn't fire him like the Council did 3. Fred tells Wes that in spite of Billy he's a good man.
Crucial times that we do not see Wes cry include conversations back home, times when he is in physical pain or times when he's suffering great emotional upset. And therein, I think, lies the British thing. Wes would stiff upper lip his way through being set on fire. However he will get surprised by moments of people accepting and validating him because they're so rare, and when these moments come from the people that he canonically cares the most about (such as the Angel he hero-worshipped in season one and Fred who he supposedly loved in season three) I definitely buy that the otherwise emotionally stoic Wes will, as he has onscreen, be moved to tears.
Does Wes cry in fanon more often than on the show? Yes. But that doesn't mean he isn't canonically a crier. That just means that not all authors understand what makes Wes cry.
And as a disclaimer - I'm not saying every story with Wes has to have him squiriting a few, I'm just saying that it's not out of left field to say he can be moved to tears.
I'll beat the drum of "Do not fem up your slash men!!" as loud as the next girl, but Wes has cried or been close to tears more than once on AtS. True that Billy was extreme circumstances, but in "Expecting" he tears up at the idea of being a member of Angel and Cordy's family and in "She" the shooting script tells Alexis to play it as "emotional" when Angel doesn't fire him.
From there the writer can take it where he or she will. I agree that as of the ending of season 3 Wes is definitely big on swallowing his pain and coping with alcohol and Lilah. It would take some work on the part of the writer to convince me he's been quietly sobbing in the men's room the whole time, but I'm not saying you couldn't get me there from here.
IMO the key thing is noticing what makes Wes cry. The 3 canonical times we can point to all have one major thing in common - they're not about Wes being hurt they're about him being accepted. 1. Angel and Cordy say he's one of the family 2. Angel doesn't fire him like the Council did 3. Fred tells Wes that in spite of Billy he's a good man.
Crucial times that we do not see Wes cry include conversations back home, times when he is in physical pain or times when he's suffering great emotional upset. And therein, I think, lies the British thing. Wes would stiff upper lip his way through being set on fire. However he will get surprised by moments of people accepting and validating him because they're so rare, and when these moments come from the people that he canonically cares the most about (such as the Angel he hero-worshipped in season one and Fred who he supposedly loved in season three) I definitely buy that the otherwise emotionally stoic Wes will, as he has onscreen, be moved to tears.
Does Wes cry in fanon more often than on the show? Yes. But that doesn't mean he isn't canonically a crier. That just means that not all authors understand what makes Wes cry.
And as a disclaimer - I'm not saying every story with Wes has to have him squiriting a few, I'm just saying that it's not out of left field to say he can be moved to tears.