#vaggie

First, Husk and Angel confide their problems in each other. Angel finally opens up to Husk about Val, Husk responds by opening up about Alastor. It allows them to each help each other out of their respective problems. Husk in Masquerade for Angel, Angel in Losin Streak for Husk.

With Chaggie, Charlie confides in and opens up to Vaggie, but Vaggie doesn’t confide in her nearly as often or as easily. It’s an important plot point in Season 1. Vaggie never told Charlie she was a fallen angel, and we have yet to see them talk about Vaggie’s side of that. They made up, but Vaggie didn’t sit down with Charlie nad talk to her about her life under Adam and Lute, her pain, her exile, etc. While it’s not 100% of the time, for the most part Vaggie doesn’t want Charlie to see her vulnerable.

In this parallel, Vox is that side of the Staticmoth dynamic. Val tells Vox how he’s feeling, about Angel, about Vox’s treatment, but Vox won’t open up to Val about Alastor (from what we’ve seen) or tell him about the source of his vulnerability. Val looks surprised in 2x04 when Al airs their dirty laundry. He hears about it through Alastor spilling the beans, not Vox. Vox and Vaggie are both too afraid of rejection - Vox that showing vulnerability will get him laughed at again, Vaggie that Charlie won’t love her if she ever “fails her”, possibly also from shame at her past deeds.

Second, Angel and Husk build each other up and respect each other while also being aware of, and calling each other out on, each other’s flaws. It’s the whole point of “Loser Baby” - you’re a “coked up, dick sucking’ ho/but Baby that’s fine by me.”

Charlie and Vox often struggle to build up their partners to the same degree that their partners build them up, because of their respective insecurities. They’re not without moments of admiring Vaggie and Val (“You do so much”/“Good man”), but it’s nothing compared to the rose-colored glasses through which Vaggie and Val see them. Vaggie and Val, as I said in an earlier post, both look at Charlie and Vox losing their goddamn minds and sigh dreamily. They both do interfere, yet I think it’s important that they have a hard time seeing when V&C are self-destructing because of that respect/admiration. Val fears that if Vox “glows nay brighter, he won’t see him anymore”, (I plan to do a whole analysis of Val's side of things at some point) so he has trouble building him up in a healthy way because if Vox gets too confident, he’ll leave him. Vox even shows signs of not really respecting Val, sniggering “sure you (have vision)”, not respecting his art, etc., and Charlie slips into anger at and disrespect towards Vaggie when they fight. 

It’s worth nothing that Huskerdust are way more Benedick and Beatrice-style, initially bickering and not liking each other before falling in love, while Chaggie and Staticmoth are both, on the surface, sweet and doting dynamics, but also struggle to have healthy respect for each other. While Husk and Angel come to admire each other (“This guy ain’t half bad”) after an initial period of insults, and therefore are comfortable with the idea that they both know the other ins’t perfect but still admire their good qualities, Chaggie and Staticmoth both seem to believe (Charlie the least of the four, but it’s there) that if they aren’t perfect, the other will leave them. Vox thinks if he’s weak and vulnerable around Val (or anyone) he’ll be laughed at again, Val and Vagige both fear their loves won’t accept them with all their flaws, so it’s hard for anyone to softly validate the other, or even handle a healthy fight.

Third, there’s the mutual support/self sacrifice thing. I think it’s striking that Husk and Angel both get angry at the other for putting themselves in danger to save them, unnecessarily, while Chaggie and Staticmoth don’t. Like, it’s complicated, but one of Chaggie’s more obvious problems is that Charlie gets unconditional support and self-sacrifice from Vaggie that she sometimes takes for granted, and not the other way around, and just accepts it rather than telling Vaggie off for being too self-sacrificing, like Husk and Angel do; Staticmoth also tend to expect the other to just drop everything and support them unconditionally (1x02/2x07) and we don’t see them get angry at the other for risking their life for protection. Both Huskerdust (and Cherriesnake, actually), have this bit of being angry at the other for self-sacrifice. It’s very Fullmetal Alchemist - self-sacrifice to the point of self-abnegation is a negative thing, and part of loving someone is telling them not to sacrifice themselves for you, in big things or in small ones, because you want them to value staying alive - you want them to care about taking care of themselves. Husk and Angel can do that (“I didn’t ask for you to save me”/“you jumped in front of a moving train, you idiot”); Chaggie and Staticmoth can’t, because they both struggle to see that self-sacrifice is actually a negative when it goes too far.

Fourth, Husk and Angel pay a healthy amount of attention to each other, while Chaggie and Staticmoth can struggle a bit with Vaggie nad Val wanting all of Charlie and Vox’s attention. In Staticmoth’s case it’s a more direct case of jealousy - in their opening scene, Val wants Vox to pay attention to his rant about Angel and not look at his phone, he tells him about Al probably t get him to care, and throughout s2 he has to watch as Vox gives all the obsession he wants (“You’re so obsessed with me”) to someone else. Vaggie is subtler in that she doesn’t have the same toxic possessiveness, but she doesn’t like Charlie sharking hands with Emily, she is often trying to get Charlie to calm down and just focus on her. Vaggie and Val both seem to have slipped into making Charlie and Vox the center of their lives (Vaggie more than Val, actually, at least Val has Velvette and his work), and they both are frustrated at not getting that degree of attention in return. Husk and Angel pay attention to and notice each other, probably more than anyone else, but they not only do so to a much more equal degree, but never to an unhealthy extent. Husk and Angel like each other, but they’re not obsessed with each other or co-dependent on each other.

Now don’t get me wrong. Husk and Angel aren’t perfect and Chaggie and Staticmoth aren’t doomed. There’s good things in the latter and problems in the former. At the moment though, Chaggie and Staticmoth are both struggling with a lack of mutuality and reciprocity in their relationships that Husk and Angel do have. They are all suffering from insecurity in their attachments and fear of rejection, with sleifhsness and all take and no give. Charlie of the four has probably done the most to work on herself and try to change, but we have yet to see Vaggie really recognize her own flaws - her co-dependency, her need to serve, her unwillingness to check Charlie or struggle to build her own identity - so that could be a problem. And of course Vox and Val are two flaming hot messes who haven’t done much reflection at all yet, and we’llseee that in future.