DO YOU KNOW WHAT SPAWNED YOUR EXISTENCE?
[ID: Two lineless, digital paintings, both with warm, dark gray backgrounds. Both canvases are shaped like exact squares.
Painting one shows an adult Bill Cipher, a bright yellow triangle with a top hat, bow tie, cane, singular eye, and long lashes, reaching out to shake hands with the Axolotl, a pink axolotl with an electric blue tail. Bill is looking at the Axolotl casually, and his outstretched hand is engulfed in blue flames, while the Axolotl is smiling at Bill gently, reaching out to take his hand. There are stylized stars, similar to sparkles, in the top right and bottom lefthand corners of the painting. The painting is textured so that you can see the gray of the canvas very faintly through the brush strokes.
Painting two consists mostly of a short passage from Edwin Abbott Abbot's Flatland, written in light gray over the dark background. The passage is the beginning of chapter 7, and reads as follows:
"7. Concerning Irregular Figures
I for my part have never known and Irregular who was not also what Nature evidently intended him to be-- a hypocrite, a misanthropist, and, up to the limits of his power, a perpetrator of all manner of mischief..."
Below the quote, near the very bottom of the page, is a tiny illustration of a very young Bill Cipher. He is drawn completely in grayscale, and is looking down at the ground angrily, fists clenched. He is wearing a pauper's cap and has bandages wrapped around his rightmost angle, which is noticeably longer and more acute than his other angles.
End ID]
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I wish Hazbin had more than 8 episodes this season bc 1) the pacing is all over the place (outside of episode 4) and 2) it would’ve been so nice to actually see when and why Alastor started to genuinely care about the hotel.
The pilot and the first episode of the show characterize him as sticking around for the entertainment because of how silly the idea of redeeming a sinner is to him but then episode 5 has him fully backing up Charlie’s wishes for the hotel and even tells Mimzy she’s welcomed to stay if she actually wants to try redemption and was upset she had put the hotel in danger with her presence.
I think that turnaround in Alastor’s perspective is so interesting but when did that happen? Why did that happen? How did that happen? What made him care?
He clearly still has ulterior motives, there’s 0 denying that given his scene with Husk in the same episode, but he does seem to actually care about Charlie and her hotel. Which can be connected to the leash Husk claimed Alastor is bound by but Alastor is also the most distant from the cast.
We never see him around everyone for more than a few minutes at a time. Everyone went out to the club in episode 6 but Alastor is nowhere to be found in the entire episode.
That bond with anyone in the hotel, even Charlie, that would explain Alastor’s sudden support in the hotel has not been shown on screen and I really wish the show had more time to do that.
That’s really what Hazbin lacks. Time. Time to slow down and just let the characters breathe. Everything is moving so fast because they probably didn’t know a second season was coming until later which I can understand but that also means the plot takes priority over the characters and a majority of the cast is suffering from it.
Angel’s the only character who’s gotten an episode solely about him and exploring, expanding, and developing his character and his bonds in the hotel are what we see the most. This makes sense given he’s the main guest in the hotel but no other character has been able to have their own character and arc be explored the way Angel has.
The show needed more episodes like Masquerade to explore the cast before diving headfirst into the Heaven vs. Hell redemption conflict. That was always going to be the direction the show went in but they needed so much more time to do it because there are so many characters to juggle and so much is happening. Big moments that are supposed to matter don’t hit as hard as they should bc the cast is overstuffed and everyone is fighting for screen time.
This isn’t the teams fault, they’re doing a decent job with the limit time they were given but 8 episodes is not enough time for a show this ambitious with everything it’s trying to do. Doubling the episode count to 16 would’ve done wonders for the pacing and the show could slow down and take its time.
A lot of what Hazbin presents are good ideas. It’s all interesting but none of it is given enough time because the big Heaven and Hell plot has to take a majority of the shows focus. I do hope season 2 fixes this but that’s also gonna depend where the show is going after season 1 is over. We’ll see next week.
My main wish for the show going forward is each character gets their chance to be explored just as Angel has.
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So I’ve rewatched episode 5 of Hazbin Hotel like 10 times now, and I REALLY want to talk about Alastor in this episode since it seemed like it was an Alastor-focused episode disguised as a Charlie one.
First thing, the most popular theory is that Alastor is under contract with Lilith. Which I fully agree with. I also saw this one post about how Alastor might be under contract with someone else, but struck a deal with Lilith that she’d be able to set him free if he did some things for Lilith. Which I kinda hope is true instead because I like the complexity of that a lot more (especially since the only two people who could possibly put Alastor under contract is Lilith and Eve, and I’d love to see them both in this story). But either way, Alastor is 100% at the Hazbin Hotel under Lilith's orders.
And it was REALLY weird to see Alastor suddenly care about the hotel and about Charlie. Because he’s NEVER acted like that before, and it seemed like he was just doing it to piss Lucifer off. But why? Lucifer had no idea who Alastor was. Any beef that they had before that musical number was so one-sided it’s laughable. So here’s my theory: Alastor needs to be deemed as useful to Charlie in order to get whatever he wants from him and Lilith’s deal. And Lucifer, as the only one there that is stronger than him, was an active threat to his usefulness.
Alastor’s job in the hotel is to take care of it. He makes sure the place doesn’t fall into disrepair, and he does anything that Charlie asks him to in order to maintain it. And he ONLY does this because Charlie asks him to. You get a few hints that Alastor is only pretending to care in his conversation with Mimzy:
“You deliberately brought danger to this place. I can’t have that here.”
Look at his face when he says he “can’t have that here”. He’s kicking Mimzy out because he HAS to, not because he wants to. He’s clearly upset he has to say it in the first place, and Mimzy says later that Alastor loves taking care of her. Considering the way they interact and the way Alastor brushes off Husker’s concerns about Mimzy causing trouble, it seems like he actually does. Him and Mimzy are close, and he’s powerful, so cleaning up her messes is just a minor inconvenience for him that’s typically worth it. But here? Alastor can’t afford danger to come here. Because he has a job at the hotel, and he needs to stay on Charlie’s good side. He HAS to be useful to her, not a menace. And that means pushing away the friends he cares about.
Husk is also very well aware of this. That’s why he warned Alastor in the first place. Considering the things Husk said in this scene, wherever Alastor has been for the last 7 years, he took Husk with him. First because Husk knows that Alastor is also “on a leash”, but also just because of the way he said another thing in this scene:
“I mean, you’ve been gone a while. And it’s not like anybody knows why.”
To me, this sounds like Husk does know. Especially since it seems like Alastor uses Husk the most out of all the souls he controls, since Husk is so useful as an ex-overlord. Which is why he tries to warn Alastor about Mimzy. He knows the detail of whatever deal Alastor has, and he knows Mimzy could mess everything up. If she was just an annoyance, I doubt Husk would go out of his way to tell the boss he clearly hates to get rid of her. But if Alastor fails, then Husk is probably at risk too, as a soul under his control. So it’s in Husk’s best interest to keep Alastor afloat as much as he can (especially since Alastor is clearly not as nice to his souls as people may hope, since he left Husk shaking with just a threat. So if Alastor gets into trouble, I wouldn’t be surprised if Husk might face a consequence for “not warning him”).
So, Alastor has to be useful to Charlie. Whatever he does, he has to do his best to stay on her good side. His whole soul is probably dependent on Charlie eventually giving a report to Lilith about how helpful Alastor was. But also, Lilith probably hates Lucifer. I’ve never heard of a divorced couple that doesn’t completely hate each other, and considering Lilith literally took Charlie away from her dad, Lilith probably doesn’t want Lucifer in the picture for whatever reason. So, if Alastor NEEDS to be on Charlie’s good side with this hotel, but then it gets back to Lilith that LUCIFER of all people came back and helped more than Alastor did? He’d be fucked. Say goodbye to whatever hope Alastor had for this deal, because his soul’s getting destroyed and permanently erased with those odds.
And we know Alastor doesn’t do well with people hurting his pride. Considering his face when Carmilla insulted him, Alastor wants to be all powerful and feared by everyone. So if Lucifer came into the hotel and started doing BETTER than him in his one-day stay than Alastor had in five months? Alastor CAN’T have that.
He knows this the second he sees Lucifer. Maybe Lilith warned Alastor about him, or he knows immediately that Lucifer is a threat to his image. Either way, Alastor is immediately in defense mode. And he starts IMMEDIATELY trying to get onto Charlie’s side. Because he NEEDS Charlie to think he’s better than Lucifer, and he needs Lucifer out of there ASAP.
And thus, hence the most confusing moments in this whole episode:
He immediately starts complimenting Charlie, reminding her of how much he’s done for her. Saying he’s proud to fulfill her “bizarre requests” (while also sneakily insulting her in a way that she won’t notice).
And Charlie is desperate for someone’s approval on this project she cares so much about, so she takes the bait. She also probably has developed a soft spot for Alastor after all this time, so she’s happy she’s finally getting her love returned.
The only upper hand that Lucifer has over Charlie’s good word is the fact that he’s her dad, and Charlie is ALSO desperate to have her father back. So what’s the quickest way to not only piss Lucifer off, but remind Charlie of how much he’s done for her and keep himself on her good side?
Well first, reminding her of his constant loyalty:
“Who has been here since day one? Who’s been faithful as a nun?”
Second, saying they’re “like family” and has been more of a dad to her in these five months than Lucifer has ever been:
“You’re like the child that I wish that I had. I care for you just like a daughter I spawned.”
And third, implying that he’s more useful to her than Lucifer could ever be because he’s “the easier help”:
“It’s smart to choose the path of least resistance.”
There’s multiple other moments in this song alone where Alastor tries to up himself over Lucifer, typically by using the “found family” argument to say him and Charlie are closer and that Lucifer “is a dud”. Alastor’s been around long enough to know how to manipulate Charlie’s feelings, and he’s using that to his full advantage to make sure Lucifer doesn’t get in his way with an ally he desperately needs.
It’s all pure manipulation. Alastor may have a soft side that we see with Mimzy, but the Hazbin Hotel is just a means to an end for him. And once Lucifer and Charlie make up, we don’t really see Alastor again. Which makes me wonder how he was feeling after Lucifer was able to get Charlie a meeting with Heaven, something Alastor would never be able to do.
I honestly can’t wait to see how Alastor acts in later episodes. With the extermination coming up, and the reveal of him being under another contract, I feel like we’re going to get more snippets of Alastor’s true motivations, mixed with how Alastor acts towards the souls that HE’S in charge of. Reminding us once again that Alastor may have been human, but he’s still one fucked up dude who has well earned his place in Hell.
This is gonna be a wild next two episodes.
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