Here for the Worst Hazbin Ships

There's Something Wrong With Valentino

PGs 8-10

Summary: After the events of S2, Valentino displays some strange behaviors that utterly baffle his partners.

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Can Valentino be redeemed?

YES. And no. Let's talk about it...

Firstly, redemption means different things to different people/characters. Redemption, in essence, is atoning and striving to atone for previous bad actions. Now a lot of what our current culture sees in redemption is rooted in concepts from the Bible and Christianity.

As such, we are locked in a puritanical mindset when it comes to the discussion of evil characters like Valentino possibly getting a redemption.

If you define redemption for Val as him going to Heaven and being forgiven by Angel and other victims, then... no, that's not it.

Because what does that achieve? It's not cathartic for the victims of Valentino either.

But one could argue that Angel would possibly want Valentino to die and Val should comply with that desire in the end, but the thing is, would it help Angel? Does Angel truly want that? Maybe he does. I can't tell the future of the show, but due to the aspects of abuse and trauma bonding, Angel may be further disturbed by it.

I don't know. Angel's catharsis is the most important thing to consider but I don't know what he would want. We will have to see.

So what would redemption mean for Valentino? Well, first we would have to see him defeated. A number of things could happen.

Val has to fail. So far, his actions have brought him success, wealth, and power. He's never known another way to get ahead outside of sexualizing and comodifying his body and others. Why should he think he's wrong? Val is the hero of his own story and it's working out so far.

In S2, we saw friction to his status quo. We see what Valentino fears when he's alone using his own voice. "Don't get upset. Don't break up the band." We see what Val cares for when he's alone and no cameras are at him. He loves the Vees. It's his only good trait.

So if Valentino (and the Vees, of course) fail, we can see the status quo torn away from him. He can lose his status, his beauty and he could lose Vox and Velvette. With all that punishment, why would ANYONE want Val to simply die off? I think it's more powerful for Val to fail.

Okay, so Val won't be killed off and will fail logically for the story's themes to shine through. What then?

Well, all Val would have left is the relationships he hasn't fucked up, the ones he's always cared about. Val can't get to Heaven and why would he even want to?

The Vees are better together. Horrid, but the current status quo nearly made them fall apart in S2. Vox and Val's lack of communication hurt both of them. It's clear that if the Vees succeed, it's because of all three of them together. And I think Val knows that deep down.

With his industries destroyed and their status quos upset, we could see Valentino learn to be a better version of himself. Change is small. Incremental. It wouldn't be a flash that gets him to Heaven like Pentious but a breaking a cycle of abuse. Letting go of Angel and control.

It's not a reward, it would be an uprooting of everything Val knows and has, a feeling of the agony and destruction he's inflicted on others. A learning experience. A dismantle of the sex abuse industry he and Angel are locked into, that they both are symptoms of.

It'll be painful. Val could lose everything and be left with only Vel and Vox at the end of it. It would be the start of change that actually betters Hell by crushing the exploitative industries of the Vees. Ultimately not everyone can go to Heaven.

But HELL CAN BE BETTER. Charlie is right. Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Any soul can change. And that's why the Hear My Hope scene is so powerful imo. Every evil soul stopped and showed their potential for good, their alliance to Charlie's dream.

Even if it meant taking Charlie's hand, Val and Vel would save each other and Vox. The scene shows that they have potential for goodness even if its selfish. It's not mutually exclusive.

Val can grow. He can change. He's a character with more dimension than his surface introduction.

Redemption isn't being forgiven by victims. That makes no sense. It puts the burden on a victim and that's not right. Redemption comes from a person changing and becoming better. Not even good, just better. It's continuous improvement, an evolution.

If I had to guess, that is what I believe Vivzie wants to tell us with such a flawed and morally ambiguous cast like Hazbin.

I don't know what will happen to Val. Maybe he will die but I just don't think so. His storytelling potential cannot be stated enough.

He is a thematic and narrative tool of abuse, the sex industry, redemption, and growth. And I think it would behoove the fandom to think a little deeper beyond the flat themes of "but forgiving and rewarding the abuser" to see it.

There's Something Wrong With Valentino

PGs 5-7

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Summary: After the events of S2, Valentino displays some strange behaviors that utterly baffle his partners.

There's Something Wrong With Valentino

PGs 3-4

Summary: After the events of S2, Valentino displays some strange behaviors that utterly baffle his partners.

Previous Pages

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There's Something Wrong With Valentino

PGs 1-2

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After the events of S2, Valentino displays some strange behaviors that utterly baffle his partners.

Charlie smiling at Val and Vel joining the song isn't her "smiling and suddenly condoning abuse". Charlie is seeing all of Hell show a speck of goodness within them.

Charlie is seeing the thing her father, Lucifer, cannot see from Hell. The moment where all of it comes together for both selfish and selfless reasons to save it. Val and Velvette are terrible, abusive people, but the thing is, they have the capacity for good.

Val and Velvette love Vox and their family that they have with him. It's not much. It doesn't excuse them. But it shows that even they have the capacity to *do* a good thing. They won't though because it's easy to abuse and exploit like how they do to others.

That's the complicated thing here. What's redemption for the Vees? Arguably there is no redeeming and forgiving what they do and what they will continue to do. But there is always hope that they can still be better. Charlie is seeing that hope for once in Hell.

She is seeing a moment where the worst of people don't shove her aside or anything but accept her and take their place beside her to stop a threat that will kill them all.

As said in the song "We'll take your hand, not what we planned..."

Going back to Charlie, she has been spiraling this season with the thoughts and fears that her dream isn't real. Her mother left her (which she blames herself for) and her father said he was going to support her but deep down, he hates Sinners and doesn't see the good in them.

Her friend, Pentious, *died* and is away from his friends for her misguided dream. Everyone in Hell, especially Vox, shoves in Charlie's face that she's a joke for trying to even see the good in Sinners. That's why, for a moment, Charlie smiled because all of Hell's worst came together and showed that they could all be not even good, but *better*.

There could be a world were her people of Hell can be better and happier than what they are.

They can all be more than what they are right now. Things can change. Charlie needed a moment to see what she strives for, as misguided and naive as she is at human nature, is not for nothing.

She is smiling at hope for the future of Hell.

And that's the truth of the scene that gets swallowed up by such shitty takes like "Oh no, Charlie is smiling at a rapist and an enabler! Vivzie has a rape fetish blah blah". Is this the level of good faith criticism for this show? I highly doubt it.

I am begging you to do better, guys. I need you to actually ignore reactionary bs takes from people who get their info about this show of hope and redemption from clips on TikTok and to actually consider the characters and motives and what the narrative actually wants you to understand.

Val has demonstrated that he is more than a one-dimensional character.

He has actively gone against his initially established personality traits and actions. He's cruel and treats others like objects to be used for himself. On the other hand, he is the most loyal and family-oriented of the Vees. He's violent and sadistic, but is also vulnerable and emotional.

This is called "dimension" in a villainous character and you know what? It's fucking awesome! You don't have to like Val. Far from it, but don't just lower him down to "just a rapist" when the writers actively give him different aspects to his character. Just because it's easier for you to ignore it.

The thing is that a story for me, at least, is a two-way street. And a lot of the time in fandoms, the audience is not putting in the work.

When Valentino is shown doing anything in the show, such as singing and being vulnerable in small moments of S2, a large portion of the fandom cries out "EW! Why is Vivziepop and crew making us feel for an abuser? Why are they woobifying him???"

When that happens, I wish... I just wish the fanbase would pause for a second and ask themselves: "Is Vivzie trying to make us sympathize for an abusive rapist? Or is she trying to make me understand that he has these humanizing traits? And if it's the latter, why does that bother me? Why does it bother me that I might find a horrible character funny or sad? Could it be... that the writers want us to recognize sympathetic traits in horrific individuals because that's how real life abusers are?" I want people to understand how critical thinking works. People need to ask themselves more questions about the media they consume and not jump to the most insidious conclusion. What is the creator or writer trying to convey by saying something? What did they actually say? Where did they fall short? That's where you find the issues in a narrative, not with all these disingenuous, surface-level assumptions about the creators.

Valentino is a character who is charming, funny, high-energy and flirtatious. He has a lot of charisma and he's attractive. Look at his character design.

And there is a reason for this. Abusers are highly charismatic people. That's how they draw you in.

But the unfortunate truth is that abusers are still human too. They get sad and they can love and they can have best friends who enable them. They often are another cog in a cycle of abuse too which could, for Valentino, be the nature of the sex/porn industry itself.

Does this excuse them? FUCK NO.

But you, as an audience member watching a rated 16+ series, should not need hand-holding to know this. You shouldn't have to diminish Val's entire character to "just a rapist" just to justify your misreadings of a narrative and what it is saying.