Everything I Hated About Hazbin Hotel S2.
I'd like to start this off by saying, I loved Viv's work for SO long, I was watching her stuff and reading Zoophobia well before the HH pilot came out, so I really wanted to root for her but this is just absurd. I will only be talking about the content *within* the show, so Viv interviews from post-s1 era will not be included.
This is gonna be a long post, so there will be a tldr at the end for those of you who don't feel like rehashing the entire season <3.
Also: !!Spoilers Ahead!! (although I am several months late so idk how much everyone cares :P)
I don't think we need to rehash everything from s1 about her being named after the vagina, but I feel like taunting the audience for the whole show with a name change, only to remove an "e' was a very intentional slap. It feels very petty and gross, even just ignoring the issue would have been better imo.
My main issue with Vaggi this season was her lack of a character at all. Vaggi fails the fundamental idea of the Bechdel Test, which is made to show that a female character is defined by more than just their connection to another. Vaggi is ONLY Charlie's girlfriend. She never does anything that isn't for Charlie, never has a conversation that doesn't mention Charlie, and doesn't have a single song where she's not saying how much she loves Charlie. It's absurd. Just because she's a lesbian doesn't mean that she is exempt from the rule.
In fact, I would argue that many of the female characters (except maybe Emily and Sera) have almost no personal depth at all and are defined solely by their connections to other people. Even Cherri, who is supposed to be super independent and badass, is only shown attached to either Angel Dust, or the idea of Pentious.
Oh lord, I loved Lucifer in season 1, I really did. I think he was a really interesting guy, and super sweet. The main thing though, is in season 1 he wasn't outright stupid. He talks about issues and wariness of Heaven, almost to the point of paranoia. I find it incredibly hard to believe that someone who felt so betrayed by his own kin and was so hostile to the idea of losing again would be as stupid and clueless as Lucifer acted. I mean, he was put in Hell to witness all of the sin HE brought about, and we're supposed to think he's still this happy-go-lucky guy with no survival instinct?? Crazy. Insane even. Bro is literally tortured and it is treated as a joke/afterthought, but we'll get to THAT later.
Vox is actually, I think, a very hateable and compelling villain, and I do really like the hints to American politics within VOX POPULI. He is the kind to twist your words, and shove them back in your mouth, and that's SO aggravating. The problem is, that I feel like it's never given the proper weight. I personally dealt with this kind of person growing up, and it's SO damaging. He should not be a character people like imo, and I feel like the show should reflect that. I mean, he LITERALLY forces Alastor to watch him and Valentino have sex. That's VILE, but *no* it's treated as a 'ha ha Alastor's in the cuck chair!' like what!?
I *hate* RadioStatic, and I hate even more how Viv fed into it. I feel like Alastor had a very compelling narrative this season, and he was the only character to have real development and payoff imo. That being said. Vivzie, when you make an Asexual character, you gotta *actually* respect them. I know, crazy concept. Alastor is not only canonically ace, but was also quoted to be aromantic in post-pilot pre-s1 QnAs. Season 1 did a great job of showing Alastor's strengths and rivalry with Lucifer without BLATANTLY SEXUALIZING HIM. Instead, in season 2, we are shown every single interaction between Vox and Alastor as 'rife with sexual tension'. It would be different is Alastor was ace as sexualized himself as a method of control, but that's not what's happening. He is continuously put in compromising positions by the story and other characters. I have no doubt that if a woman assaulted Angel Dust, it would have been treated as the end of the world, but when Vox does everything short of sticking a hand down Alastor's pants it's a joke?? Absurd.
I wanna start this section off by saying, that I love Angel to death. As someone who has also used hypersexuality as a coping mechanism, I felt he was a good representation, at first. He was done so dirty this season, and not in just the mental sense, but as a character.
The reveal that Vox was controlling Angel felt like it came almost out of the blue. The ONLY hint we ever really got was the fact that Vox seemed so chill when Lucifer came to scare him. It felt like shock value, and it honestly felt like one of the only scenes that actually held emotional weight. The composition and tone are finally serious, and yet the audience is almost completely blindsided by the reveal, which makes it feel kind of forced/uninspired in my opinion.
Secondly, Angel's ending, going back to Valentino, is bullshit. The WHOLE of season one was about him finding a sense of self, and while I understand him regressing because of Vox, I feel like it would have been much better to have Angel run away and isolate himself. Instead, the end of s2 basically leaves Angel's arc as a circle, starting back where s1 began. This takes on an especially sour tone when you add in how Valentino was treated throughout the series.
I am of the firm belief that almost every crime can have moral reasoning behind it. Thievery can be to have food for loved ones, murder can be in self defense, etc. etc. The main exceptions I think of to this rule, are Rape and Sexual Assault. Stop trying to humanize the rapist character. Stop trying to make us feel bad for him for his relationship to Vox. Stop trying to make him likeable, a lot of rapists and sexual assaulters are likeable, that's how they get away with this shit. It's gross.
She called for a culling and a genocide. Heaven should have started with *her* trial, not Pentious'. Sera deserves to fall, even with her regret, I understand the whole show is about redemption but there is, in fact, a way to take it too far.
8.) Pacing, Mood, and 'Comedy'
Let's face it, the pacing of s2 was horrendous. Tell me how Husk is drinking himself to ruins over Angel (with no prior hinting at this reaction) and then they're flirting after Losing Streak in the SAME EPISODE. Girl. The whole show feels like a mashup of 'impactful' moments, with just enough of a plot thread to make it make sense. I mentioned it before, but Alastor's story was the only one that felt like it had any payoff by the end of season 2, and it's because of this mindset. The whole show lacks buildup, fear, and tone. The line between the portrayal of joke and tragedy in HH is so thin it may as well be a coffee filter. I feel like part of it is done on purpose, to be able to excuse some of the clear jokes as 'serious moments' and vice versa, but it damages the show and its impact as a whole, and stops it from being any kind of compelling story. No character is allowed to sit and stew in their trauma because it will slow things down too much. We don't see Husk's decline until right before it resolves, Charlie starts freaking out only for Vaggi to jump into song, and Abel goes from panic to action in less than 30 seconds.
I genuinely think that Abel and Lute could have been SUCH compelling characters with really interesting arcs, and I know they had the time to do that because they spent longer trying to make us feel bad for VALENTINO, than they did developing these characters.
It's lazy, it's fake representation, and it's just plain gross.
I am just overall disappointed. I really want to love Hazbin Hotel, but I just genuinely can't. I know it's meant to be a show about Hell and the worst of humanity, but the framing tries to make you feel for the wrong people, and the tragedy always falls flat. I will not argue with anyone about Hazbin Hotel and it's issues, but I will be 100% open to respectful debates in the comments if anyone has opinions they wanna share. I don't judge anyone for liking the show, and I don't know how I feel about Viv as a person, but I do know that HH as it is is propagating harmful stereotypes, messages, and seems just generally uninspired from where it began.
TLDR: Vaggi has no character beyond being Charlie's gf. Lucifer has been dumbed down and infantilized despite his past. Hazbin spends too long trying to make us feel bad for Vox and Valentino (Vox is slightly more reasonable imo but still bro...). RadioStatic and how Viv lets it grow is gross. Al is ace, it shouldn't be this hard to respect your own characters. Angel Dust is no longer the representation he was meant to be. And the framing, pacing, and dialogue of the show leads almost all 'impactful' moments falling flat.
I would love to hear y'all's thoughts though.
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