Red Balloon

a tiny dumb ramble below

That's it.

Would I accept a redeemed Chloe? Yes.

Do I like Chloe being brought back every full moon to remind us her upbringing made her a walking pile of human garbage?

Absolutely the fuck not.

I don't like Chloe because of my mistreatment from classmates, therefore, I dislike seeing her when she's being horrible.

People who hate Chloe don't wanna see her. People who love Chloe don't wanna see her like this.

So what was QOTD for? Who was the audience?

You'd think if Thomas hated Chloe soooo much, he'd stop talking about her. He's the type of guy to bring up their horrible ex, even when they're dead and gone.

Some of y'all really need to learn to say, "I don't like this character" or, "I don't find them interesting." Vaggi is a load-bearing character in S2, and cannot be removed without bringing the entire plot down.

Here is a legitimate example of "Vaggi could be removed and the plot wouldn't change": Baxter is a key player in the hotel crew's plan, and he decides to help them because his sheets were folded to his liking. You could very easily replace that with his newfound friendship with Niffty and continue with the plot as usual.

Here is an example of removing her that wouldn't technically change the plot, but would absolutely weaken it: Lucifer tries to crash Vox's rally because Vaggi asked him to do something. This leads to Charlie getting mad at both of them and Lucifer leaving the hotel, which then leaves him in a position where he can be captured later. And you could achieve that same plot beat with something like Charlie venting to him and him going after Vox on his own, only to find out it didn't help after all. Except we would lose the exposition about his inability to harm sinners. Which is kind of incredibly plot-relevant.

Also, Charlie's personal arc this season was about getting so caught up in her own head that she was pushing her friends away, both by accident and on purpose. Removing one of the people closest to her, and one of the only ones she pushes away on purpose, weakens her arc.

And now, an example of removing Vaggi that would bring the entire plot down: she's running the hotel. She is the one keeping things going while Charlie is having assorted personal crises, and there is no other character who could fill that role. Husk is already doing extra work by taking over the therapy sessions, so he can't run things. Niffty isn't suited to that kind of work. Lucifer is depressed and withdrawn and doesn't like sinners anyway. Alastor is the only one I could see being capable of taking over, but the plot needs him somewhere else, and he's exhausted and in constant pain throughout this season. To the point where, by the time he tries to quit the hotel, he can't even hide how much it's affecting him. He couldn't take over if he wanted to.

Vaggi is the literal only reason Charlie's dreams do not, in fact, die. No other character with the skills to take over has the energy or the emotional bandwidth to deal with running a business on top of their personal issues. Without her, the hotel would have died, Charlie probably would have given up, and the plot would have changed dramatically.

I was not addressing the criticism that Vaggi is a boring character. I was addressing the first criticism I ever saw about her after getting into this fandom. The enjoyability of a character is subjective, and if you don't find them interesting, you're entitled to your opinion.

That being said.

The one and only thing she gets for herself is trying to change her name? Really? So this is somehow about Charlie, I suppose?

Fascinating, considering they hadn't even met yet.

Vaggi has an entire Charlie-free backstory that informs who she is in the present day. Her aggressive, sometimes militaristic mannerisms come from her time as an Exorcist. Her kindness and protective nature are quite explicitly part of who she is, not something Charlie cultivated in her. And she has blatant trauma which is completely unrelated to Charlie. Trauma that will doubtless be explored further as Lute comes into her own as a major villain with a major vendetta against Vaggi.

A vendetta which, by the way, is not rooted in Vaggi being close to Charlie. Lute specifically targets Vaggi as a traitor during the S1 finale, before Adam's death. And then Vaggi gets the upper hand and refuses to kill her. An amazing character moment, because showing mercy was what caused Vaggi's fall in the first place, and she actively weaponizes it against Lute. She doesn't let her live because "that's what Charlie would want", she does it because, in Lute's eyes, it's the worst thing she could possibly do.

As for the changing her name thing? First, I never got the impression that she actually wanted to change it. She says it feels like she has to give herself a name (not "I feel like", "It feels like"), and all her ideas keep the "Vag" part until Husk comments on it. And sure, you can argue that it's just bad writing, since we don't get an explanation for why she ultimately just changes the spelling. But to me, the whole thing feels like an expression of the above-mentioned trauma; her problem is the association with Adam, not the name itself. And she's already changed the pronunciation, so why not just change the spelling too, and truly make it her own?

Second, changing her name is part of Vaggi's character arc, and it's not required for every piece of character development to impact the plot.

And yes! Vaggi has a character arc! She starts out quick to anger, slow to trust, and relatively closed off to everyone but Charlie. Then her secret comes out and she starts to open up. In S2, she's more relaxed, more friendly, and more even-tempered. She ties her hair back instead of wearing it down. She goes from "I'm supposed to never fail you" and "If I can't help you, then what's the point of me?" to confidently running the hotel so Charlie can focus on other things. And yeah, the focus on helping Charlie makes them kind of the same thing, but they aren't.

Vaggi is growing from someone who was meant to follow orders and serve a purpose into someone who can take charge and feel like she's doing the right thing. She is gaining self-esteem and figuring out who she wants to be now that she doesn't have to hide who she was. And deciding she wants to keep parts of who she was, like her name, are a valid part of that process. So is building relationships with other people, like Carmilla (someone Charlie has barely interacted with).

Y’all would DEADASS form a hate campaign against Caine when he’s just doing his job and then turn around and fall more in love with Jax after he literally caused a whole kingdom to go extinct?

New hero on the block

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