A thing I keep wondering about in that famous scene is how Vox claims "as long as I wipe that smile off Alastor's fucking face, I don't care what happens"
To which Alastor only answers by smiling harder through the pain and fear because he'll die before giving an inch.
But I'm always asking myself, did Vox truly want to wipe out that smile ? Would he have been satisfied if Alastor has finally shown emotion, weakness, if he had cared about Vox ? Would that sight have been able to bring back Vox from the edge of madness, even for just one moment?
Or did it not matter anyway because the love he once held had died, and he just wanted to burn and drag everyone with him ?
If Alastor had stopped smiling...
Vox would have folded
Vox would still have blown up everything
I actually think if Alastor had stopped smiling, it would've made it worse. Vox would've seen it as him mocking him again, especially if it's after he specifically said that's what he wanted. Vox got publicly humiliated because he got tricked by Al, called a moron and a creep, and even at his most powerful still couldn't beat Alastor alone. Vox was in that state of mind for multiple reasons, so even if Al genuinely stopped smiling and started begging Vox to stop, I can't see him believing it. Not after everything. He feels like he lost everything, and he's staring down the figurehead of his woes for the last 70 years. This was his last grip of a sense of control and he wasn't going to let anyone take it away from him. Him going to a 0% approval rating being what I think truly pushed him to the point of being willing to blow up Pride. He found out the one win he had over Alastor after all these years was at least partially a trick, he spent most of season 2 pushing the people closest to him away, and the public no longer loves him. He thinks he's lost everything. No amount of pleading would talk him down, and he'd be damned if he let Alastor humiliate him again. If Alastor stopped smiling, Vox would think it's just so he could get close enough to laugh in his face.
So, I went with option 2.
Ooooh, interesting! I didn't consider it under this angle !
It does make sense : Alastor has lied and manipulated Vox all season, Vox has nothing solid to rely on and can't trust anything anymore, so even Alastor dropping the mask and being vulnerable could have looked like a trick.
But like you mentioned, at this point he's grasping at anything that could give him a semblance of control (like his delusion that he's becoming a god and that it's his Destiny : a last attempt at validating his actions). Alastor finally folding and giving him what he wants might look like control...but he was just proven that all this time, Alastor was the one manipulating everything, not Vox. He'll never be able to make Alastor do something against his will.
So it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't: no matter his actions, Alastor could never convince Vox it was a real victory. Thus Vox knows (instinctively) that any victory at this point would be hollow.
So might as well go out as HE decides, blazing in a trail of glory and taking out everyone who doubted him.
