Wesley's team and stuff?

[Xin Rong]

I've been reflecting a lot on the character of Wesley recently, as I'm doing an Angel rewatch.

My question is where did he get his 'team' from, who seemed to be paid?

Where did he suddenly acquire money from to finance all his new gadgets and team etc?

How did he have any money when he was jobless and likely to be paying some form of medical bills on top of his usual ones?

Where did his 'team' suddenly disappear to?

These questions are making me realise that perhaps my gripe with the character might be rooted in the writers over use of deus ex machina type plots re his development.

Thoughts?

 

[Taake]

I would actually also really want to know. Firstly where they came from, though that's less important because like Gunn I suppose they could have been afflicted/aware of the supernatural world already, it's all a matter of finding people and knowing demon haunts and what not I guess Wesley would be able to do that... what's important is - where did they go? Even if Wesley re-joined Angel Inc it could have been useful with some helpful hands from this back up crew.

It's like the AI team is a clique and if you're in you can't have other friends anymore...

 

[thetopher]

Yeah, I think a team (I got the impression maybe three or four guys were working for Wes) would've been pretty useful when it comes to the whole demon-fighting business.

Where they came from- it's possible that Wes met some people durring his 'lone demon hunter' days before Angel Inc., but more likely he came across these people while he was 'pooling' his street contacts on the streets of L.A. Like how he met Merle and found out about Karitas.

They were supposed to be 'his' gang and they sort of totally vanish after a couple of episodes. I mean Gunn's drift from his own gang was poorly handled and slightly illogical (remember when Angel fired him and he just sort of 'hung around' Wes and Cordy instead of say, returning to his own gang and leading it?🙄) but at least it was addressed.

Wesley's never was, perhaps it was more of a loose association of demon fighters that teamed up to fight a particular nasty- although that doesn't explain why Wesley was clearly the one giving the orders.

Wasted oppurtunity? Poor writing? I guess so.

You wannna show Wesley as a badass leader of his own gang? Fine, but follow up on it otherwise it comes across as 'Ooh, look Wesley's effortlessly got his own gang of redshirts who are for some reason working for him, isn't he cool, aren't we impressed!'

Maybe that's where some of the ill feelings towards him come from in this case, the writers just clumsily try and show how much he's 'moved on' from Angel and the others. 🙁

 

[Taake]

Wesley's never was, perhaps it was more of a loose association of demon fighters that teamed up to fight a particular nasty- although that doesn't explain why Wesley was clearly the one giving the orders.

Wasted oppurtunity? Poor writing? I guess so.

You wannna show Wesley as a badass leader of his own gang? Fine, but follow up on it otherwise it comes across as 'Ooh, look Wesley's effortlessly got his own gang of redshirts who are for some reason working for him, isn't he cool, aren't we impressed!'

I don't have ill feelings for Wes at all but I totally agree - they should have followed up on this! It's really just sloppy workmanship that they didn't.