Tou [2] Cans.. Empty

(disclaimer, I love Vox, he's my goober and I am the number one vox fanboy)

There are things to appreciate with the route they took of having Vox be a serial killer in life. It helps add to his parallels with Alastor, for one, like how Alastor seems to have targeted those who belittled him (like the racist) and killed for fun, whereas Vox killed solely for position and power and nothing more.

It also provides some fun comparisons between Vox's other victims and Alastor: Alastor is the only person we have ever seen Vox let overshadow him (being down bad will do that to ya) and he is at his most relaxed with Alastor in the flashback.

But after Alastor's rejection, Vox's obsession is two-pronged - he's the one who got away, and he's the one who got away. The unrequited love and the one person that Vox hasn't been able to kill.

It also makes Vox's sin technically envy (vs. Alastor's wrath), which is very fitting for him.

They have my praise in that. There are upsides to this choice.

Buuuuuut...

I do still think that the serial killer angle was a miss. Not only is it the same shit we've seen before through Alastor (and Angel, whose grand sin is also murder, it seems) but there's just so much potential that they didn't elaborate on with the cult leader shtick.

Vox's big strength is that he's a smooth-talker, a manipulator, a cult of personality. He doesn't have to resort to violence, and thus, all these murders seem almost... crude for him. Not that he's above killing - precise, pre-meditated murders do feel in line for his scheming nature - but it shouldn't have been his primary sin.

Consider with me a timeline with less emphasis on the fame and more emphasis on the cult. Instead of his most notable sin being murder, it's manipulation. Tricking people into following him and his "movement" for his own benefit, with no regards to the deadly consequences that would befall them.

Not only would this be foreshadowing the way he would manipulate both Heaven and the other Vees for his own power later, but it would then precisely parallel the entire concept of the hotel. To be redeemed, you have to act against your sins in life. Vox would be repeating them, over and over and over, damning himself further and getting farther and farther from the concept of redemption.

Pride. Hubris. The same hubris that Alastor uses against him time after time to manipulate him. Vox would be a truer incarnation of the sin of pride than Lucifer himself.

I'd keep his death the same, including the death of all of his followers when he's electrocuted. It seems that blood on your hands like that in life is common for overlords (Rosie, Alastor, Vox) or at the very least helps you to rise to power in that way, and it shows that he doesn't care for the people he uses to gain power.

But it'd also further foreshadow the way he was willing to let his new followers - Hell - die for his personal cause as well.

And here's the kicker: Vox being a "lesser offender" of a sinner initially makes the modern incarnation of Vox a monster of Alastor's own making, and it also lays out the groundwork for greater parallel: to impress and/or rival/defeat Alastor, Vox became like him.

Listen: my one big complaint with Vox being a serial killer is that it takes importance away from the flashback. The flashback is powerful in part because it creates the notion that Vox only became the monster he is in the modern day because of Alastor's rejection - he's a worse, more violent version of himself that wouldn't have come to fruition otherwise.

But if Vox has always been a killer? Has always been that way? Then why should I care about this sideplot in the grand scheme of things? It has an effect on their relationship, which is Vox's downfall in the end, but it does not have the greater impact that it could: if Vox had only been the way he is now because of Alastor, then it would make Alastor indirectly responsible for the entirety of Vox's takeover. If he hadn't laughed, none of this would be happening. Isn't that so much more powerful?

I mean, it's like he said. Once he broke free of his soul deal, he'd be pulling the strings - except he'd have been doing it all along.

tldr: if there had been more emphasis on vox's reason for being in hell being fatally manipulating others to further his personal goals rather than just killing, then he would be the literal antithesis to the concept of redemption by repeating his sins over and over, adding weight to his defeat

So this scene:

is very interesting. Because this isn't the first time Aziraphale has lied. In fact, Aziraphale has already lied directly to God's face before this moment - of his own accord, no coaxing from Crowley.

He lied in Eden, when God asked him what happened to the flaming sword.

And after this point, the idea of lying to Heaven would come up two more times within the flashbacks.

One happens here in medieval Europe when Crowley first proposes The Arrangement.

Crowley: It'd be easier if we both stayed home. If we just.. sent messages back to our head offices saying we'd done everything they asked for, wouldn't it?

Aziraphale: But that would be lying!

Crowley: Ehh, possibly, but the end result would be the same. Cancel each other out.

Aziraphale: But my dear fellow, well- they'd check! Michael's.. a bit of a stickler. And you don't wanna get Gabriel mad at you.

The other one is in The Globe Theatre in London, when Crowley suggests one of them goes to Edinburgh instead of both, and just does both the blessing and a tempting while there.

Here, Aziraphale lies basically immediately, for one:

But then when the idea of lying to Heaven and Hell come up, he says this:

It seems to me that Aziraphale doesn't actually care about the morality of lying. He's more worried about disobedience - and more specifically, the punishment.

Yet, he lied to the Almighty on his own accord?

Because he's not afraid of incurring God's anger. He's afraid of inciting Gabriel's. He's not afraid of Heaven as in God, he's afraid of heaven as in its angels.

And in a similar vein, when Crowley suggests the Edinburgh idea, there's Aziraphale, aware that they haven't been punished for the Arrangement, and yet still hesitant about lying purely because of the possibility that Hell would hurt Crowley if they found out, just as Heaven would hurt Aziraphale.