#shoutout to fanby for beta reading this

[i-write-sin-not-tragedy]

I am here to give a small rant because i keep seeing the same take/sentiment in this fandom on the topic of Charlie and Vaggie and how they treat Angel and its been bothering me so much the last few day i just. Need to rant.

I really REALLY hate the mischarazation of Charlie (but also Vaggie as well) and their relationship to Angel. Specifically, the number of people who completely ignore any and all context behind WHY they acted the way they did with him at first and the fact that it has canonly changed.

A lot of people go HARD on them being forceful, disregarding and uncaring towards his situation, and they completely ignore the story telling and context canon gives us about it.

Vaggie is dismissive and uncaring/frustrated with him because her first impressions of him are him not giving a fuck, insulting her, and making everything a joke.

Charlie sees good in him, but simply thinks hes being stubborn and shes aware enough to know forcing recovery *doesn't work*. She doesn't think hes taking it seriously because he TELLS HER. MULTIPLE TIMES that he doesn't.

Its not until episode 4 that EITHER of the girls get context for his situation.

He has been canonly hiding the fact that hes abused from them— shown when he hides his phone from Charlie and explains away Vals agressive texts, telling her "my boss is just stressed about the news".

This is a very blunt context clue that Charlie isn't aware of his situation. She knows what he does for work (and has no issues with it, she was genuinely excited to visit his work and see him working WHY do yall think shes a prude jfc) but she is never told about Val beyond what Angel tells her, and hes clearly hiding it from her.

(Which is extremely normal in abuse victims.)

Its VERY notable that their attitude towards him shifts after Masquerade.

Charlie is even MORE hard on her stance that he IS a good person, and defends *him specifically* to all of heaven and is ready to kill when Lute says its his own fault.

You can literally SEE the moment she connects the dots in masquerade about Angel and Val and the only thing that stops her from ripping him to shreds is Angel stepping in.

Vaggie is a lot softer with him, and doesn't snap nearly as much after that, presumably because when Charlie came home upset and sobbing, she told Vaggie *exactly* what was going on. And this is a situation that is more than likely a little close to home for Vaggie. (Even if Charlie doesn't know that yet

Ofc she does sometimes still get annoyed with Angel because he still teases her, but you can tell they both now have an infinitely better understanding of Angel as a person, and they both have CONTEXT for his attitude.

And in turn he also understands they're NOT like Val. They genuinely care and want to help, and hes slowly letting it in.

He accepts Charlies very real apology and acknowledges that she had the best intentions, and probably wouldn't have gone had he told her the full story.

Not to mention, Charlie spends most of "You Didn't Know" defending Angel specifically. Not the whole group, HIM. He is her plea. She wants him to be safe, to feel loved to have a better chance.

So to just. Reset them completely and say they wouldn't care/would basically victim blame Angel feels INSANE and it bothers me so SO much how often i see it in this fandom.