On Val's feelings towards Vox and Angel
or: Val Would Always Choose Vox
This isn't meant to argue with anybody in particular! I've just seen it mentioned a few times the past month that Val's obsession with Angel Dust should be read in parallel / equal intensity to Vox's obsession with Alastor, and I don't really agree - so I want to present an alternate interpretation while we all hang out in the empty space before S3!
My case for why Val's priority is firmly with Vox rather than Angel is made quickly, with Val's introductory scene as an easy reference:
The first impulse he has when Angel moves into the hotel is to get Vox's attention. Yes, he says that he wants to chase Angel down guns blazing, but that's not what he actually did in the heat of his anger. What he did instead was throw a fit to make Vox come for him.
Velvette may be being flippant here, but it's noteworthy that this is the trait that Val is introduced on (before we even learn about the reason for his tantrum): when Val is upset, he wants Vox with him.
And after Vox talks him down from the initial fury, Val remains remarkably chill about the situation (...for Val standards). He sends Angel tons of needy abusive messages, but he does not make an active attempt to return him to the tower.
Nor does he sing a dramatic musical number about the anguish of his abandonment. Hazbin is a musical, so the placement of songs should roughly correlate with the intensity of character feelings.
Now, part of the reason Val doesn't try to get Angel back is surely that he is unwillingly spying for the Vees.... but that is Vox's plan, and one Val is visibly unhappy about yet goes through with. And that reason stops holding when Angel decides to make a grand stand for friendship and redemption by fighting the Exorcist army with Charlie at the end of S1.
At this point, the Vees (and everyone else in hell) are convinced that everyone at the hotel is going to die - but does Val freak out about Angel's impending demise? Let's take a look:
He spends the whole of the battle live stream texting Velvette across the couch, frustrated with Vox's enthusiasm about the Alastor part of the situation. Angel's imminent death is surely an annoyance to him, but not one he feels compelled to try and prevent.
Begrudgingly, Angel can choose other people and/or death over Val.
When Vox attempts the same, Val walks right up to a super weapon (that is actively melting down) just so he can save Vox's life.
Vox is the one Val looks to as a real partner - someone whom he wants to see and respect him, someone whose love he craves.
Angel is a chew toy by comparison. He is certainly Val's favorite on that front, but he's not granted the same amount of power over him, nor the same amount of genuine affection and consideration.
Val loves Vox enough to let Vox make him feel bad, but Angel only exists to make him feel better - to demonstrate his power.
Interesting in that regard is that Val and Angel are obviously visually similar. It isn't far fetched to think that their resemblance is a large part of what made Val latch onto Angel in the first place.
If you subscribe to the theory that Val was a sex worker in life, this adds an interesting wrinkle to the situation: by enacting power over Angel, Val is proving to himself that he has surpassed his own past. Violating Angel means propping himself up above what he used to be.
And how ironic does that make the way Vox, in his jealousy, disparages Angel for being a lowly whore? The more Vox rejects Angel for the traits Val once shared, the more Val has to prove and the more attention he bestows on Angel to confirm over and over that he isn't like Angel anymore - that unlike Angel, he is worthy of Vox.
Vox and Val's respective insecurities play off each other perfectly to one unfortunate end: increasing Angel Dust's cycle of misery, as he stands in the middle of a romance he never asked to be part of.
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