Anise messy desk

There are a few reasons for this. Namely;

The context in which we see him

His relationship to and placement within the Vees

The presentation of his rivalry with Alastor.

The in-character Instagram accounts made to promote the Hellaverse obviously show a softer, domestic side to Vox. While in the first season we don't even see him leaving the V Tower, or do anything besides working and being a pain in Alastor's neck, in the Instagram posts he's hanging out with the Vees, playing with his pet( which is much cuter looking than the sharks we ended up getting in the show itself) and just being a little goofy, wearing ugly clothes or flashing hearts on his screen while he's taking a photo with Val. In effect this means that the pilot!Vox appears to have much more of a life outside of his Tech Empire and his obsession with Alastor. In fact, I don't believe Alastor was mentioned even once in "his" posts!

(the posts shown here are as archived by @/hh-voxtagram-archive)

Now, his relationship to the Vees, that's a big one.

Among the characters that we've seen in the pilot who later got to play an active role in the show, Velvette is probably one who underwent that most changes. Which in turn also has affected how Vox's character can be read. Currently, Velvette is "the backbone of the Vees". But pre-show that role seemed to fall on Vox's shoulders. The pilot Velvette appears to be chaotic and childish. She calls the other Vees her dad's and indeed behaves as much younger than they are. And since Val was established to be emotional and not very bright right from the get-go, while it wasn't ever stated directly, it seemed logical to assume that Vox was the reasonable one in their dynamic. Especially with his side of the empire focusing technology - it is a pretty common trope after all for tech based characters to play the the competent and smart role.

Velvette's previous characterization had also other effects on how both Vox and Valentino came across. Because of her childish demeanor and how she was referring to them, the Vees same more like a traditional family unit. Which, in turn, also warmed up Vox's image. We actually see him acting a little bit like a parental figure to her, in refusing to give her a new pet because she has killed those she had before. (Valentino does something like that too, in trying to stop her from eating from the floor.) All together it leads to a possible read of Vox as the character "holding the Vees together".

(Now, already you could probably say that I was reaching. Maybe even a lot. But remember, it's not like there was a ton of content befor we got the show. I was working with the information I had and trying to piece it together into a coherent whole.)

Pilot!Valentino's relationship to pilot!Vox is just as important to how he ended up coming across, even if it's not as different from how it ended up being finalized in the show as pilot!Velvette is. Still, their dynamic seems almost a liiittle bit flipped compared to the show. Vox is seen again and again trying to appease Valentino this way and that, giving him presents and "making up to him" for apparent mistakes. He's always the one trying to win Valentino over, not the other way around. It could almost be read as Vox being the one in love with a Valentino, while he uses him for sex and influence. Especially coupled with what I'm can't call anything other than a big blunder from the in-character accounts...

As you can see in those posts, Valentino is depicted breaking Vox's screen. It was supposed to come across as slapstick, showcasing that their relationship is mutually toxic.

But the fans, me included, interpreted it as a sign that Valentino is abusive toward Vox. And I don't think that those assumptions were unfounded. For one, at this point with mostly seen Valentino as Angel's abuser. His relationship with Vox didn't seem super healthy either - so of course that seeing him get violent with Vox would suggest that he was repeating the same pattern with him. Yes, in the first post related to this topic we can see Vox being a horrible boyfriend. But compared to the rest it just doesn't carry the same weight. In fact, for a while I didn't even remember how much over jerk he was before Valentino broke his screen. It just didn't make the same impression on me, as seeing him later gluing together his broken face seemingly all alone in a dimly lit room. If it was just those two first posts, it could read as slapstick. But including this third pic made it seem like something serious, something with long-lasting consequences. Imagine if instead of fixing his screen, Vox was bandaging up a broken nose here - it instantly feels much darker than what the creators apparently intended.

Compare it to the gag in the second season with the same setup of Vox being a jerk and then getting his screen broken.

The timing is snappy and we cut away quickly after the damage is done. Furthermore, Vox isn't just being a bad, dismissive boyfriend - he's been undervaluing his partners for two episodes now, he's just tried to hypnotize Valentino and then on top of all that, he was racist to him! He clearly deserves some kind of comeuppance and it's very satisfying to see him get it. Also, his screen being broken isn't treated with the same weight. It's quick, it's cartoony, it's clearly reads as a instance of physical comedy instead of a look into a messed up, toxic and abusive dynamic. We don't feel bad for Vox, we're glad he's been put in his place for being a jerk.

I'm saying all of this not to argue in that pre-show Vox's and Valentino's relationship was meant to be physically abusive, but rather to make it clear that this assumption about it didn't come out of thin air. There's quite a few fanfictions, especially within the radiostatic corner of the fandom, which portray Vox as a victim of abuse and I've seen people complain about it, to the tune of seeing it as a result of ship wars or just in general a symptom of Valentino hate. But it's not! Or at least, that's not all that there is to it. There was a point in time during which it was perfectly reasonable to read Valentino as an abuser to not only Angel, but Vox as well.

And some people simply found it compelling. Because there is a potential to it, I think, there is something rather complex to have a character who is explicitly villainous and antagonistic toward the "good guys" and also a victim of domestic violence. Angel is a brave and nuanced take on the topic of imperfect victim. Having Vox, someone much more powerful, influential and morally dubious, be in the same boat as him, could serve to further this nuance. He could be a narrative foil to Angel. An ally, perhaps? Or, more likely, an enabler to Valentino, who refuses to see his situation as abusive, because it's not like he's on the same level as Angel, so weak and helpless, unlike him, an Overlord?

One other thing that I would like to point out about pilot!Vox's placement within the Vees is that you could probably argue that he comes off as the softest of the three. Both Velvette and Valentino have killed their pets in the past. Vox, on the other hand, calls his " baby" and part of the family. And, unlike both of them, we never see him engaging in violence.

And as for his rivalry with Alastor… Well, as I've already said, there wasn't all that much about it published just yet. At least nothing pointing to the level of obsession that Vox turned out to have with him. (Yes, I know about the body pillow joke from the streams. I wasn't watching the streams, I don't think I've heard about it when it was introduced. If I did, then I took it as nothing more than just that, a joke. It didn't really fit in with other information I had at the time.)

To my knowledge, the only piece of official content featuring the two of them interacting was the prequel comic "A day in the afterlife". There, Alastor is shown approaching a wall of screens and then leaving, cursing under his breath, after Vox personally manifests on them to stare down at him with a smile.

There are no signs of a short temper and anger issues. Not only Vox doesn't lose his cool, in fact, Alastair is the one to walk away from their confrontation upset. The dynamic at play stands in stark contrast to the one they have as of now. Pilot!Vox comes off as much more calm and collected, if a little conceited. Also, because Alastor has been established as a force to be reckoned with, the fact that he is able to so easily throw him off balance, without a single word, makes him look… Well, honestly pretty cool! It also contrasts with how pilot!Vox is depicted around his friends/found family and thus further suggests that he is a character with a couple of different sides to him.

To tie this all up, when you have so little info about a character, the most practical thing to do probably to compare them with various tropes at your disposal. Personally, I thought that Vox was going to be either "Affably Evil" type of villain (that was the one I hope him to be, since I found this trope to be really amusing and rather charming, while at the same time relatively rare) or a sympathetic/misunderstood one (which I wouldn't mind, but I would much prefer him to be sympathetic and evil rather than about to turn a new leaf). Either way, an obsessive stalker with an explosive temper and a shaky sense of self worth wasn't on my bingo card for him.

In fact, after the first season my feelings about him have been very mixed. If you've been following me, then you might have seen some of those mixed feelings expressed, because I won't lie to you, those are some biiig feelings, haha! I've come to love and appreciate him for what he is (which is one hot mess) but it definitely differs from the character I expected him to be. In my mind, there is a firm separation between Vox, the character as presented in Hazbin Hotel and Vox, the character as I have imagined him to be while I was waiting for the show to air (and while we're being honest, has had and still have quite a bit of crush on. Come on, like I said, he's cute! In a busukawaii kind of way, with his big mismatched eyes and what is it, droll? Constantly dripping from his mouth, paired with adorkable personality. He's got some amazing fanarts right from the getgo! I'm just a man!) But, of course, that doesn't mean my feelings about one or the other don't bleed through and affect each other.