Funny little thing i noticed in Hazbin hat i think would intrest you, is that, in Valentinos part of "when i think about the future" he makes a fuck ton of references too "jesus christ super star" and every line that is from that movie/rock opera, that he says, is directed to/ to be about Jesus, but Val is singing about Vox. This really emphasises that Vox never ever will be satisfied. He is already loved, and even seen as this godly figure by Val, but still he doesnt see what he has because he is reaching forward for more.
Oh that's interesting - I just don't know enough musical theater to catch those kinds of references.
But yeah, that's the tragedy of Vox: it will NEVER be enough. His entire being is driven by envy and jealousy, and an incessant and intractable need for more and more and more. Power, control, validation. More. Always more.
That's the arc of Brighter - it is Vox committing brutality after brutality, constantly in pursuit of More Spotlight, constantly jealously eyeing someone, somewhere, who has something he does not have, and destroying them so he can take it.
He has a very good thing going in Hell, with Val and Velvette. They are, as he says, "the biggest fish in Hell" (Lucifer and the Sins nonwithstanding). He has power, he has fandom, he has control, he has influence, and he has partners who genuinely seem to like him and appreciate him for who he is, who are his friends, even.
And it's not enough. It can't be enough. There's all that golden light shining up in Heaven, and why isn't it shining on me? It should shine on me, I deserve to have it shining on me! I deserve to be a god - this is my moment! My fucking destiny! He openly plans to cast the other Vees out from his light upon his ascension, to throw them aside the moment he is powerful enough not to need them, and with every step he comes closer to victory, he treats them worse and worse and worse.
Vox will burn everything he has, and sacrifice any friend who cares for him, to pursue that constant wanting. Alastor diagnoses him in "When I Think About The Future": "You'll never fill your cup // You're broken from the start, no victory will ever be enough" which, side-note, makes me wonder idly what, exactly, it would take to fill Alastor's cup, because that man is pretty hungry for power himself.
I think Alastor is able to so successfully manipulate Vox in no small part because the two of them are more alike than Alastor would like to admit. I think that'd be a good explanation for why he hates and disdains Vox so much: Vox is Alastor if he was infinitely worse at hiding his flaws and weaknesses. Alastor looks at Vox and sees all the problems he hates in himself, and it makes him cringe in disgust.
But yeah, Vox is deeply tragic in that way. He has a void inside that he cannot fill because he has no idea what he is actually missing. All he knows how to do is pile on the power and admiration, charm a cult following and sacrifice them to the black pit in his heart, for the temporary relief it gives him until he inevitably needs more.
Val and Velvette, awful as they are, are frankly better friends than he deserves. And maybe that will be the grace that one day saves him. Who knows?
