#vees

1️⃣. "Valentino ripped off Vox's head because he cares about him" is a common view in the Vees Fans side of the fandom lol, but -- VERY REASONABLY /GEN -- many other Hazbin viewers seem to interpret it merely as extreme violence toward Vox.

(or, if it ever gets mentioned in fics not written by Vees fans, often it gets tied to Valentino expressing that he doesn't see any value in Vox. i can't entirely tell if the authors sincerely interpret it that way, or if it's just an easy interpretation to run with so that moving Vox to a different ship is easier, which is fair lol /gen. gotta write those fanfics)

to expand further in case that's needed, Valentino knew he wouldn't kill Vox even if he tore off his head. Vox would be fine -- he's changed his head half a dozen times. but Valentino also needed to stop him from literally killing himself and the other Vees.

plus, Val's first line after stopping Vox is "WE'RE LEAVING!" and then he picks up both Vox and Velvette, prepared to take off. he still refers to all of them "we," doesn't stop to scold or insult Vox, and keeps Vox with all of them rather than discarding his head.

Valentino still views all of the Vees as a connected unit, even in the middle of such a dangerous moment, even though the danger of that moment was caused by Vox.

as another fan already pointed out, Valentino views himself as valuable and powerful based on his sexual prowess. yet he DISCARDED VOX'S BODY AND KEPT ONLY HIS HEAD. (admittedly, Vox and Val can still do plenty of freaky things just with that, but lots of sexual activities are now limited.)

Valentino cares about Vox for being Vox, not solely as a sexual partner. he could have easily literally thrown Vox away or left him behind. (and then he did toss him away much later. tossing him into V Tower. but not outside.)

(i AM interested to see the Vees' dynamic in season 3. Valentino later denying knowing Vox throws a huge wrench into things* -- i'm hoping it was just a statement for publicity maybe combined with fair frustration with Vox, but that it didn't necessarily indicate abandonment of him -- but the rest of the season seems to show the Vees care a lot about each other, even if in their maladapted way.)

edit Sunday 2 Aug.: this post reminded me that many viewers maybe didn't notice Valentino first trying to reach out to Vox before the decapitation, but Vox hit him away -- ripping off Vox's head wasn't his first choice.

(i also didn't make the connection myself while making this post of "this was yet another example of Valentino in this scene showing how he cares about Vox." which is funny because the first image in section 2 has had "enraged Vox hits away Valentino" as its alt text since this post's first version lol)

the Vees try to de-escalate Vox's rage (ineffectively), but he rebuffs all their attempts; he pulls away from Valentino when he's approached again and even hits him away

but despite all that, and on to the second point:

2️⃣. GETTING SUDDENLY AND UNEXPECTEDLY DECAPITATED I ASSUME WOULD BE A HORRIFYING EXPERIENCE.

i want Vox jolting away if someone grabs the sides of his screen, even if grabbed gently and with the intention of kissing or harmlessly getting closer to him.

i want him associating that type of touch with pain and TERROR, and i want him to maybe be angry at himself and at whoever is around him for that "weakling" response of his, once he figures out what the involuntary reaction was even about.

yes, Valentino took a reasonable and quick-thinking action in the moment, but it's STILL TRAUMATIZING, AND I DOUBT VOX APPRECIATES VAL'S CHOICE AT ALL.

if Val ever figures out what's going on and why Vox flinches or suddenly and seemingly inexplicably flies into a (psychologically self-defensive) rage at times, he'll probably get angry at Vox about it. ~"don't you understand why i did that? and now you're making me into a bad guy for doing it?"

the Vees love each other, but they SUCK lol. i want to see their love acknowledged, and i also want to see Vox's trauma from being subjected to such extreme violence. (if you're new to the "Vees Fans side of the fandom," please note none of this post is me saying these are "good guy" characters. even with everything i say here, they're all terrible people.)

honestly, maybe the reason i haven't seen any fanworks that acknowledge this is because of Vox's expressions mainly being comedic right after. there's the shocking moment of his head getting torn off, and then Vox is just:

and yeah lol, totally fair. plus, it seems likely enough canon won't do anything with this aspect, even if just for pacing reasons.

but i want the angst lol. it's common enough that, even if traumatizing events don't feel like a big deal in the moment, they can resurface and cause issues later on. so Vox hating the sides of his screen getting held after this doesn't feel like a stretch of a headcanon, at least.

anyway, if anyone knows of fics, comics, etc. where Vox has touch memory of his head getting ripped off and he flinches or otherwise reacts negatively because of it, i would greatly appreciate getting linked to them! i wanna read them! :'D

BIG BONUS if they're mutual StaticMoth -- i.e. it's understood that Valentino did that because he cares about Vox -- but that's not required. i haven't necessarily gone looking for such fics or posts, but i'm nonetheless surprised i haven't read or found any yet.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

side note: i've had this post drafted for a while, and, some point after drafting it, i sAW THIS AMAZING COMIC.

YES ON VAL AND VOX SCREAMING AT EACH OTHER AND VAL SAYING HE DID THAT TO SAVE VOX AND VOX STILL TAKING IT AS VAL BETRAYING HIM. YESYESYESYES. I LOVE THIS COMIC.

*as a final aside and jumping back to Valentino at the end of the season going "Do I know Vox? (showy and dismissive:) NOOO! I've never heard of him":

getting meta about making TV shows and such, from what i've noticed, the Vees' musical character motifs are very similar to each other. (here are links to Vox's theme isolated so you can learn what to listen for: link 1 + link 2)

i've been wanting to do an instrumental montage of each time any of their themes play like i did for Lucifer in season 1, just to be sure i'm correct in my observation about their themes being similar and so i can figure out what separates each motif. (if anyone beats me to that project, please link me to it!! :D)