Charlie Morningstar is probably one of the worst written characters Iâve seen in the series.
(This oneâs gonna be a long oneâŚ)
OkâŚ. So I watched all six episodes and to be honest Iâm pretty much pissed off by this character specifically. This might be more of a rant rather than a critique, so I do understand that not everything I say in this will end up being as constructive exactly but I genuinely need to get this off my chest, especially since she is a character Iâve specifically and recently been hyper fixating on before the show releasedâŚ
(Side note: I realized the post was very long so, to have it be easier to read I added titles for each section! Hope this helps)
!!WARNING FOR SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES BTW!!
> Charlie lacks the qualities of being a main character.
Now besides the piss poor excuse of an introduction for her (and the rest of the cast) in the main series, I honestly question why exactly Charlie specifically is the âprotagonistâ in the first place (and I say protagonist with the biggest of quotes here, youâll see why).
In the first episode of the series âovertureâ, we donât really see much of her character, most of the time weâre shown screen time of Vicky (a nickname I made for v*ggie since Iâm not gonna call her by her genitalia thank you) trying to make an ad for the hotel and even when we do get the screen time of her, sheâs barely doing anything other than hearing vivâs self insert- I mean- Adam just go on and on about whatever heâs talking about.
And when Charlie does go on to explain her plan to redeem sinners sheâs just interrupted and then stands there when they start singing hell is forever, she doesnât âgo offâ like the hazbin Twitter says, she just stands there and then tries to say something only to get interrupted again and again and then gets pushed out of the meeting room before going back to the hotel to see itâs spread across in the news that the next extermination happens in 6 months.
Now although one might argue âWell didnât Charlie at one point said in the show that giving orders is so mean?â Well yes but again, Charlie is literally the princess of pride ring, you would think that since her parents are literally rulers of pride, they wouldâve probably teach her how to stand on her two feat, especially if your RUNNING A HOTEL. And the thing is, she has stood up and did so in episode 6 and the goddamn pilot (which is at this point is probably canon due to Charlie calling it the hazbin hotel instead of happy hotel), even going as far as to fight Katie Killjoy because she thought it was stupid.
Not only that but the episodes after overture, her screen time lessens until somewhat in 5 and 6. She doesnât really appear that much in the between these episodes to the point where she feels like a supporting character rather than a protagonist. And when she does get screen time, sheâs either forgettable at best and infuriating at worst.
> Charlieâs character is poorly written and just dumb.
In the episodes past overture, sheâs literally rock solid stupid that I literally screamed in real life multiple times âyouâre a fucking idiotâ because of how frustrated I was from what she was doing, In episode 2 she literally trusted sir pentious to go to her hotel even though he almost destroyed her place and in episode 6 thought it was a hunky dory idea to let a person who literally exploded buildings to take charge of giving her employees a âgood timeâ. Yes it could be played off as her being naive but if sheâs that naive of a person then maybe she shouldnât be a boss of a hotel to rehabilitate sinners.
Heck, in episode 4, Charlie gets pissed off and turns into her demon form because val literally started hurting Angel when he followed him into the room (and rightfully so) but when angel tells her to leave and drags her out of the studio, sheâs just in her normal form and fucks off??? Reminder sheâs literally the princess of hell! She could beat the shit out of val if she wants to, why did she just fucked off after angel had her leave?
âBut Kat, what if something bad happens to angel if valentino dies?â Like what? If it was explained that if an overlord dies then the sinners that made a deal with them die too or something like that then yeah, that would make sense but we donât know that whether or not thatâs the case, if anything angel could be just fine after Valentino dies but we donât know that.
And even when Charlie had the opportunity to go out there and apologize to him herself after he stormed out of the hotel, she and Vicky just send Husk to do it. And I have to ask, WHY? HUSK didnât know what was happening to Angel earlier. HUSK wasnât at the porn studio that Angel was working at. CHARLIE WASâŚ.
âWell Kat, what if Charlie was scared about making things worse?â Fair enough, but again sending Husk is a stupid idea, I feel like it wouldâve AT LEAST made sense if she sent Vicky out there. Because Charlie didnât know if husk could fight (if you could even call it that, all he did was throw cards at people), BUT SHE KNEW VICKY COULD THOUGH. But nah we gotta do it for the ship right?
And then Charlie had the gull to be crying that angel forgave her after she fucked up, like shut the fuck up⌠itâs like if viv looked at a bunch of chars that had the optimistic care-free âish personality and thought that meant making her as pathetic as a baby crying that they didnât get a lollipop from their mommy.
Like Iâm gonna be honest with you, itâs literally gone to a point where I think Orel Puppington (aka the 11 yo Christian kid who worships Jesus and gets harmful lessons from other Christians) makes a better Charlie Morningstar than the Charlie Morningstar herself!
And that thought is justified when he tried to go help people in Sinville, âKat he ended up turning into a pimp at the end of the episodeâ yeah but AT LEAST HE TRIED TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING! Which leads me to another questionâŚ.
> How is Charlie gonna redeem sinners exactly???
Like honestly, Iâm serous with this one. How is Charlie gonna redeem these guys?
I ask this because in the series, she barely does ANYTHING to help these guys, she and the rest of the characters just sit around and then do an activity that is the equivalent of something you would do in kindergarten except itâs with ADULTS.
I donât know about you but If your idea of helping people is doing just that and nothing else, then the only thing the people around you are gonna get is them being annoyed at first and eventually walking out with thinking your not helping them but rather just treating them like a baby who doesnât know anything, and the only thing your gonna get personally is nothing because you did dick all.
Like other than that she pretty much just whines about sinners not going to her hotel and oh gee I wonder why, itâs not like your not doing anything to help these sinners not committing sins anymore, oh definitely not, your absolutely being helpful.
âOh but Kat! Charlie was born in hell, how can she know how to help people? Sheâs not from the human world so, she wouldnât exactly know how to help these people!â I would tell you to look at the world building for the series and itâs spin off but thatâs a whole other can of beans that I donât wanna cover today and this is already getting to long, so yâknow what? Weâll go with that.
If Charlie didnât know how to help people and was trying to figure out what she can do to help sinners get better, then why didnât she just ask her employees for suggestions? Yâknow, the other sinners who were from the human world and had experiences while they were alive and such?
Yeah, I get that not all of their advice would be exactly good or healthy (since theyâre sinners whoâve done many bad things after all) BUT ITS AT LEAST SOMETHING FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!
She literally does nothing, she just expects you to immediately get better after some improvisations or whatever other activities she does and once youâve done one nice thing then boom youâre close to redemption.
Charlie Morningstar is (like I said in the beginning) probably one of the worst characters in the hazbin hotel series, she at best a stereotype of the âeverything is sunshines and rainbowsâ character tropes and at worst is a pathetic excuse of a main character and is nothing but a rotten shell of her character from the pilot.
I would go on about how her designâs also bad but Iâm sure millions of people have already said the same issues and Iâve already posted my redesign of her before the show dropped.
I might plan on posting a rewrite of her or maybe explain my problems with another character or episode but I donât know.
But until then, Iâll see yâall later!