I don't know what I'm doing

birkin lore:

one does not simply walk into a hermès boutique and purchase a birkin. you have to be a long term customer and have good rapport with the sales associate before they “offer” you the opportunity to buy one.

on average, birkins cost between $13k and $30k.

the average emergency room resident makes around $70k per year. they’re also slammed with student loans.

the closest hermès store is in king of prussia PA, which is a 4 and a half drive away. it would take langdon 9 hours total to get this handbag which, again, he can’t get unless he’s been making this commute regularly to get on the sales associate’s good side.

facts about the langdon household:

langdon gambled a whopping $200 in order to potentially cover the cost of this purse.

it’s not a happy marriage. pball said that he clocked this immediately and even wondered why he needed to buy a dog to save this relationship.

dana mentions that abby is home with the kids all day, which makes this a one income household with two small children living on $70k a year. (obviously there’s nothing wrong with being a stay at home mom, this is just a statement about their financial situation.)

speculation:

the handbag seems like an apology. it’s like she said “oh, you got our kids a $1k puppy? well i want a $15k purse”

langdon comes from a working class appalachian background. when he meets the fort pitt actors, he says his parents took him there “when we came down to visit family”. the further north you get from pittsburgh, the further you get into the mountains and the more rural and blue collar the communities become. this theory is corroborated by pball’s playlist, which contains a lot of classic country including the famous appalachian folk song, “o death”.

pball also said that he played football in undergrad, and if he does come from a working class background there’s a chance he was a scholarship kid.

making a request this big shows that abby is used to having a lot of money. if we run with the theory that he’s from a working class background, it brings us to the possible conclusion that abby did grow up with money and has high expectations.

tldr: abby langdon, you NEED to divorce your husband and marry rich because his soulmate treats the stale pretzels he got her from the break room like they’re the body of Christ

The man literally sacrificed his life and health AGAIN to save everyone’s asses. Like, hello?? And Emily was the only one who actually helped him? Even when Alastor was literally bleeding out right in front of Charlie, she still ran straight to check on Emily only. That’s… ouch...

BUT! There is something I want to acknowledge, a topic discussed hand in hand with this one, and often used as an argument why Charlie doesn’t and shouldn’t give a shit about Al here.

The public humiliation.

I feel the need to point out that Charlie can’t be and isn’t mad at Al for the stage stunt.

Yes, she’s hurt and humiliated in the moment, her expression is betrayal and defeat. But that scene isn’t over, is it?

If you think “Charlie should hate Alastor after that.”, you forget what happens right after. Alastor frees himself, and takes Vox on, allowing Charlie to run away and other Vees to lose their respective fights (or you think Vox wouldn’t help them not to lose? Especially Vel, who is fighting for his servers?).

I’ve also heard arguments that “It’s Al’s fault that Vox fired the weapon”. It is. But is it tho?

Imagine Al frees himself and just… runs away? OR mildly sits there, not being free, for whatever reason (as if he never used the favour or Vox doesn’t lay a hand on Charlie)? What might happen next?

1) Vox gives chase, and everything ends with literally same outcome. OR

2) Vox goes to aid Vees in a fight, or sends shark. OR

3) Vox takes Charlie and Emily hostage, and still fires that weapon into heaven or angel army that would arrive. OR

4) Not really likely, but Vox straight up attacks Charlie or Veggi or both, and then possibly still turns to usage of weapon (say, against Carmilla or Emily if they interfere?).

OR combination of any of these... Enlighten me, how any of these outcomes are better for the sake of Charlie’s mission, and therefore future of hell?

Al’s way caused terrifying collateral damage, I acknowledge his hand in this devastation, in Emily’s injury, and in Vox’s breakdown (the whole point of Al giving himself up, tho judging by Alastor’s expression, even he didn’t expect such a crash out).

But Alastor’s actions helped to put a stop to Vox’s plans. Alastor was crucial in stopping the Vees, exactly because he made Vox less cunning-teamwork-dangerous, and more mad-suicidal-dangerous. Period. If you disagree, think again about how all this could’ve went down otherwise - hotel slander is not Al’s fault, rally is not Al’s fault, Lucifer’s capture and creation of The Might Of Lilith are not Al’s fault. And Vox “losing his shit” IS Al’s fault, and the best outcome our cast could have, because war against heaven hasn’t been provoked and/or no strike was made (again, all bc Vox was way too distracted with one deer).

And it’s the beauty of Alastor’s plan - he was selfish and did everything for his own gain, and yet ended up STILL benefiting Charlie. Still looking like a good guy, who endured capture for hotel, who hurt her on the stage only to use it to free himself and fight for her.

That’s why Charlie is not mad at this red cunning bastard. At least clearly not mad in the end of season, I don’t trust writers not to pull this in S3. The more correct way to use this same argument would be to say “Alastor’s arrogance and stand against Vox was proof to observers that he’s quite alright and can handle some beating, since he gladly accepted Vox’s invitation to fight”.

King of hell, not king of sinners. He took care the entire hell while Lilith organised the sinners since she's closer race to human. That's why sinners respect Queen Lilith more than Lucifer himself. It's just my theory and headcanon tho.

Because I’ve been a villain and asshole simp since I was a kid and I barely had to deal with this until recently.

Like I love Rick from Rick and Morty and I’ve never had to pacify anyone by repeatedly saying I know he’s a terrible person and condemning his actions in real life. The best part of his character is him being a terrible person and laughing at his atrocities.

And back during the Gravity Falls days no fan of Bill Cipher had to defend his place as their favorite. Everyone loved him because he was a funny chaos demon monster.

And Loki!?!? We babied that man to hell and back and had a damn good time doing it. We did it so hard he got multiple redemption arcs.

And don’t even get me started on Hannibal. Both the bbc and silence of the lamb version.

Like I’m tired of repeating that I know murder is bad whenever I talk about Alastor.

I do not give a fuck that Alastor killed Racist Mcbackground character. I do not give a fuck that he is a murderer and cannibal. I do not give a fuck that he’s an asshole. And I’m tired of pretending that I do.

👑

ONE MORE TIME, FOR THOSE IN THE BACK!

Can we simply accept that we're watching a series where the characters were humans who ended up in Hell? They're human, and humans make mistakes.

Yes, there are those who want to redeem themselves and will work to achieve it, but none are innocent. To a greater or lesser degree, everyone did something to get to Hell in the first place, and that's perfectly fine.

Perhaps the characters have a backstory that explains their actions, but it doesn't justify them.

If, for example, your favorite character is Valentino, it doesn't mean you approve of the things he does, and it doesn't make you empathize with Angel any less.

If my favorite character is Alastor, it doesn't mean I'm going to do the same things he does in real life, but I will support everything he does in the series because I love him.

Watch how fast I turn into a lawyer, defending a character I like's actions just to piss you off because you couldn't let me like the fictional murderer

I think this quote from Oscar Wilde perfectly sums up how we pick our favorite characters,

"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

Charlie is trying to emulate that, but she has a severe misunderstanding of how sinners think, why they do what they do, and why they are the way they are, which is why a lot if her attempts fall flat

Vox doesn't have this issue, not only it he great at manipulating things to benefit him, he knows how sinners think (given that he is one) so he can properly manipulate them

Sinners were a lot more willingly to follow a fellow (albeit very powerful) sinner, than a royal that, from their perspective, has never cared about them or their wellbeing before

(Ironic since his name means Voice lmfao)

BUT Alastor is unable to be silenced even when his mouth his foribly shut. He can still speak his mind and CANNOT be muted against his will. His voice literally cannot be silenced by others.

Not only is this yet another awesome foil between the two (which is the obvious)

But it also represents that radio is actually STILL most reliable long distance method of communication to this very day (in terms of its failure rate)

For instance, during extreme weather, weather radios are almost always the LAST thing that fails. Typically everything else will fail first. Cell towers can get knocked out easily, especially making phones useless. Power poles and powerlines easily can fail, and when the power goes out it renders most television and desktops useless, and you only have so much battery on your moblie devices.

I have a nagging feeling that the real trick has something to do with voice/Vox wordplay. Like, their deal could’ve been along the lines of, “Help Charlie unite hell under one voice,” or “Help Charlie find a voice that empowers hell.” A deal that was intended to culminate with Charlie coming into Lilith’s power, but instead ended when Charlie endorsed Vox.

Or maybe the deal doesn’t specifically mention Charlie. Because if his deal involves Charlie by name, then where has he been for the past eighty years? I don’t know. I’m spiraling.

No, exactly, though!

I'm just saying that it seemed to be Vox saying "Look Princess, Hel''s finally listening to you" that seemed to dissolve his leash. And that episode reminded us SO many times that Alastor is slippery with words. That he can and will twist everything to his advantage.

I don't know whether his Deal with Rosie went down exactly as it was shown in the flashback, but if it did, she didn't specify what task he had to do. She could have held that task over his head for years or decades until it was finally time to cash it in, kind of like Alastor did with his Favor from Charlie. Neither of them decided at the time of the Deal what the Favor would be, just that she wouldn't hurt anyone. What if it was the same for Alastor's Deal with Rosie, and she didn't have a specific task in mind at the time? Or, even if she did, maybe she didn't tell him any details. Maybe she still hasn't told him the full details, just what she felt he needed to know in order to get it done.

His task could have been to "get Hell to listen to Charlie", it could have been "get Charlie to use her authority as Princess of Hell", it could have been anything imaginable that Alastor could plausibly intentionally reinterpret for this situation to technically fit the bill.

Using the definition of vox is really clever, though! That’s a really good idea, props to you!

When Zeezi mentions Alastor's been defeated, the other demon immediately assumes it was by Lucifer, because who else could it be? She then refers to Vox as the "self absorbed TV head"

Then Prick and Hatchet (the western overlords) say they can't recall power shifting this fast and saying "with all his smarmy talk I thought Vox was just gassed up" then the other demon from the beginning says "he's surpassed all expectations"

Why, despite their empire, do none of the overlords seem to think highly of Vox specifically, of all the Vees I would assume he was the most professional and the one they would prefer to do business with, so what's up?

Is this Alastor's opinion influencing the public's view? or do all the overlords find the Vees tedious and annoying? Maybe they don't respect their business? Is it a respect thing? If none of them appreciated the way Vel acted during the meeting last season, and this attitude is common for her, that could be a factor in how they view Vox

You and the Vees are inane and uninformed Smug wannabes, who don’t heed when you’ve been warned

The Vees are implied to be seen as lesser because

a) they're new to overlording (at least or especially compared to other overlords)

b) the only reason they're powerful enough for a seat at the table is because they're in a trio.

Like, we see that Zestiel and Carmilla have something of an alliance/friendship but each of them has their own territory, their own high calibre power base before that bond forged. Each one is strong enough for a seat at the table by themself, where the Vees don't have that power.

And it's the thing, it's a really great example of us the audience having a "warped" (lack of better word) view of the world Scape. We filter everything though Charlie/the hotel and the characters we've bonded with. And their biggest problem is Vox/the Vees rather than the other overlords who aren't as involved. (Fun!) So it's a great opportunity to expand the world beyond what we the audience have seen so far.

I totally forgot about that line, I mostly think about that whole interaction as just involving Velvette, again forgetting that line where Carmilla calls the whole group out

That line I think is also telling

I don't know if the other overlords necessarily have the same views that Alastor has in regards to being part of a team (like you said, Carmilla and Zestial are close, plus Carmilla has a family she works with and protects, but we don't know about the other overlords) I think a lot of the distaste the the others have for the Vees is just as the song says, they have no respect

That meeting was supposed to be a formal gathering to discuss the exterminations, everybody else is cordial with one another, Alastor and Zestial make conversation on the way over, Carmilla notes his presence and welcomes him (we're following Alastor in this scene so of course these involve him, but I think its fair to assume the others are courteous to one another too)

Then Velvette barges in on the phone, interrupts the meeting, and makes them wait until she finishes the phone call where she's insulting everyone in the room, before starting a fight with the host

Now obviously as she is the one that attended the meeting and did this, she gets most of the heat, but I thought is was some bull when, in S2E6, when Velvette is complaining about Vox making her apologize and he makes a comment about how she screwed up the one meeting he had her take in his place and I was like, dude,

Where were you? Why weren't you there? You gave her the angel head and expected, what exactly? Like if it was so important, you should have gone, that's on you too, not just her

And to the other overlords, that meeting was important, and they see Vox, whose been around since the 50s, and Valentino, whose been around since the 70s, both deem it beneath them to show up and instead send their youngest most inexperienced member instead, and they don't appreciate it

I don't know if its the partnership the overlords have an issue with, more so their ego and entitlement they seem to have that the other overlords don't want to deal with whatsoever

Additionally, I also think a lot of them don't like Vox specifically because of what he considers "jokes"

During "Bad With Us", he seems to genuinely be trying to sell the others on joining him, we all know the issue with his attempt with Carmilla, though I don't think he intended it to be offensive, he was blatantly disrespectful when pitching to Zestial ("old boring shit", "eldercare"), one of the oldest overlords, if not the oldest, is indicative of what he really thinks of those outside his immediate circle, and the other overlords see this

(Also, during his party he made a godzilla joke about Zeezi, which she did not appreciate)

She send power out during "Hear my Hope" Angel, Cherri, and Baxter don't because they don't have that kind of power, but apparently Niffty does

What are they? how strong is she? Does Alastor know?

I forget, is it ever outright said whether he owns Niffty or not?

She helps at the hotel because he asked and she immediately goes to help him fight the Vees (he does not call for her), but she also doesn't hide that she genuinely likes Alastor, so there nothing definitively saying he owns her

He has also shown several times to have real affection towards her (the whole king roach conversation and the fact that he kept the crown and he stopped the fight with Vox only when her life was at risk), so

Given that her mind is a bit scrambled, does he own her soul as a way to protect/hide/take advantage of her powers? Or does he not own her at all and she's more so in the same category as Mimzy, he doesn't really force her to help with the hotel like he did/does with Husk, again shes happy to help him and she actually enjoys her job there so...

Everyones power in "Hear My Hope" is unique to them, Husk is playing card suits, Charlie is music notes, Alastor and Rosie's are the same magic we've seen them display in the past, etc.

Niffty's are these rectangles, that at first don't seem like much of anything

But then in this shot, was I the only one who immediately thought it looked like film reels? Was Niffty an actress?

She send power out during "Hear my Hope" Angel, Cherri, and Baxter don't because they don't have that kind of power, but apparently Niffty does

What are they? how strong is she? Does Alastor know?

I forget, is it ever outright said whether he owns Niffty or not?

She helps at the hotel because he asked and she immediately goes to help him fight the Vees (he does not call for her), but she also doesn't hide that she genuinely likes Alastor, so there nothing definitively saying he owns her

He has also shown several times to have real affection towards her (the whole king roach conversation and the fact that he kept the crown and he stopped the fight with Vox only when her life was at risk), so

Given that her mind is a bit scrambled, does he own her soul as a way to protect/hide/take advantage of her powers? Or does he not own her at all and she's more so in the same category as Mimzy, he doesn't really force her to help with the hotel like he did/does with Husk, again shes happy to help him and she actually enjoys her job there so...

Everyones power in "Hear My Hope" is unique to them, Husk is playing card suits, Charlie is music notes, Alastor and Rosie's are the same magic we've seen them display in the past, etc.

Niffty's are these rectangles, that at first don't seem like much of anything

But then in this shot, was I the only one who immediately thought it looked like film reels? Was Niffty an actress?

So there's winners and sinners. Normal winners aren't called angels, just the exorcist and archangels. In "When We Get Up There," I recall that when the Vees refer to angels, they mainly visualize the Exorcists. And it makes sense, the winners would just be more souls for them to own and wouldn't be a threat like the Exorcists, but I digress.

The reverse is kinda true also. Sinners are demons, the main distinctions being that they aren't hellborn. But sinners don't call themselves demons in the show (if I'm wrong, call me out, but I can't recall a time in the show where sinners call themselves demons).

(Now, maybe some of the Angels call Sinners demons, but it makes sense for them to group them all together. They're racist, it don't count, lol.)

The exception to this naming rule seems to only be Alastor.

He has the name "The Radio Demon" and no other character has a similar moniker. Vox isn't called the TV Demon in canon, he's the Media Overlord. Alastor calls himself a demon in the season 2 finale after breaking both his deals. Husk calls Alastor a demon in "Loser Baby." It's interesting that Husk and Angel sing the line "I'm trapped and it gets worse with every hour" together, but not the line "now I'm on that demon's leash" even though both lines apply to their situation.

Unless Alastor's wasn't fully human when he was alive, and this was a subtle way of pointing this out.

Now there's other stuff to support this theory: Alastor walks away from Adam's attack when it should've killed him (and he doesn't survive because he's so strong or lucky, if he was fully human he would've died no matter what). There's old Zoophobia lore I'm not qualified to even get into (it's a rabbit hole that's worth going down, I just find it to be a lot— Alastor's got demon blood, that's all you gotta understand).

But I wanted to focus on how the word demon is used within the show. If I'm right, then the writers are using the same wordplay trickery that Alastor played on Vox, which would just be amazing.

can alastor like comprehend this at all.

like we've talked about how all of alastor's relationships are transactional right, like how even with mimzy she always wanted something when she came to him

I saw a person tnat pointed out during this scene, every character that Alastor threatens here are actually the people be cares about the most. Whether in some sort of transactional way or just thinking they're enteraining to genuine fondness. And what they pointed to for damning evidence was the fact that Niffty was there and she was the only one smiling. And it is VERY clear that Alastor geninuely likes and enjoys Niffty's company.

One of the people here is EMILY. Which is someone he has not had a single conversation with, nor knew much of anything about her outside of she was an archangel.

Alastor put Emily on the similar level as the Hotel crew who's he's known for about a year, Husk, someone he's known since the 70s and values as a very important soul he owns

And yes, when he gave himself up to the Vees, what made him offer WAS seeing Niffty at gunpoint, but he ALSO saved Husk to through his demand for the Vees to spare his "little nobodies." And fun fact, Amir said that line was improv, because he considered the original line was a bit too fond for Alastor. But considering that was the line that went through many revisions to the finalized script and was fully approved by the writers AND Viv, and it took until Amir said something during recording, still means something imo.

So the fact Alastor put Emily here AT ALL, among everyone else, absolutely means her going out of her way to save his life without a second thought when she knew almost NOTHING about him or how evil he truly is, and the fact she was willing to even sacrifice herself to save his life and lost a wing in the process, clearly tells me he heavily appreciatiated that fact she took. Emily has absolutely no idea about the deep rooted personal beef and rivalry Vox and Alastor had, she has no idea what she just did for him. Vox, his arch-rival, would've took his life wasn't for her. And you can tell in the moment when Vox had the radical aimed at him that Alastor was GENINUELY thinking he was about to die.

Also consider the fact that the Hotel, after beilevinf Alastor died at the hands of Adam, hardly paid much attention compared to Sir Pentious, a sinner Alastor likely considers a nobody. And sure, most were happy and relieved when Alastor showed up again. But they hardly show appreciation for him. Alastor said to Niffty, who he clearly trusts the most, that he was growing accustomed to the Hotel and the people there. He was growing fond of them and admitted it to the person he trusted most.

And after he almost died and has a NASTY wound, Alastor starts panicking realizing just how far he went for these people. And yes, he was only there against his will, BUT he didn't HAVE to chose pick a fight with Adam. Even if he thought he could genuinely win, he still did it to protect the Hotel reguardless if he was forced to be there or not. Alastor was almost certainly either talked into this or offered from the very beginning.

Also the animators clearly wanted Alastor to be clearly in frame so we got see his reaction to Emily getting injured while she saved his life. It would've been SO EASY to just have the a close up shot focused on Emily alone, but they didn't.

But man, Alastor is such a good manipulator that it had the entire fandom convinced that Vox was shit for needing people 😭

I keep seeing takes defending Vox for getting all these people and elements together to achieve his end goal and criticizing Alastor for diminishing those achievements

And I'm just like, my guys, he is MANIPULATING him, he is trying to throw him off, and even if he wasn't, in what world is Alastor going to genuinely acknowledge Vox's success?

What Vox did, even with the help of others, is impressive