This show is good! Strong 6 to a light
7 out of 10. But I was expecting to like it a lot more and I know you’d rather
hear me be negative… So let's indulge. Angel Dust has been besmirched as a
character. My perfect sexy spider, my favorite thing about Hazbin Hotel, besmirched. Easily one of the biggest problems
I had with season 1 of Hazbin Hotel was how Angel Dust was portrayed and just
generally handled. Chief issue being the way he treats and interacts with the other main
characters in the first half of the season. For that period, what feels like 90% of Angel’s
speaking lines consist of him directly referencing the fact that he is a sex worker and would have
sex with the other characters in a ridiculously over the top, and frankly mean, manner.
And him being a sex worker is obviously a huge part of his character but compared to the
pilot, he simply comes across as Flanderized. In the pilot Angel Dust also constantly
made sexually charged remarks but they were always phrased and delivered in such a way that
indicated Angel was primarily acting this way because he found his own actions and remarks
entertaining. In the first half of season 1, he comes across like he intentionally
pushes people's buttons because he wants to hurt their feelings, or agitate
them, or make them uncomfortable. It’s kinda a subtle difference and I can
understand how someone who wasn’t obsessed with Angel might see his depiction in season 1
and not notice much of a difference, but it is just night and day to me. And yes a large part
of this is obviously the voice actor change. I much prefer Micheal Kovic’s voice over Blake
Roman’s for this role but don’t mistake that as shade for the voice actor. Roman is clearly
a very capable and skilled voice actor and the issue I’m pointing out has just as much
to do with voice direction as it does the literal voice itself. You can very clearly
tell when Roman was told “ok this line here needs to be delivered as flamboyantly
horny as possible,” and it’s extremely apparent when you do a one to
one comparison with the pilot. [play clip] This is also an issue with script writing. Before
Angel rarely if ever outright insulted the other characters without provocation but in the first
half of the season, on more than one occasion he just bluntly calls Charlie and Vaggie’s
attempts to redeem sinners stupid. I thought the entire point of the scene I highlighted in
my first Hazbin Hotel video was to showcase Angel feeling bad for unintentionally hurting Charlie’s
feelings regarding the very same subject. Angel was obviously not averse to
making other characters uncomfortable, but it never came across as his primary
motivation. Whenever he makes sex jokes at Sir Pentious it’s because they were teed up for
him so he saw an opportunity to be funny. Plus, Sir Pentious was attacking him so making
jokes at his expense felt justified. When Angel makes an offensive remark to Vaggie,
it’s because he’s annoyed with her criticizing him for getting into a turf war which he
only did because he wanted to have fun, not because he wanted to ruin the Hotel’s image. When he hits on Husker all Angel knows about
him is that he’s the bartender. And immediately preceding this interaction is Angel expressing
how much he wants to keep the bar to Vaggie, so this interaction comes across like Angel
is trying to see if Husker is interested in him because if he is, Angel can
persuade him to give him booze. And moreover, these moments just
go by in a flash. They are not dwelled on at all, so it feels like even if
something was said or done mean spiritedly, everyone including the audience
is able to quickly move on. But in the series proper, there’s just generally
less of a sense of urgency. Conversations don’t have half second cutaways. They rarely get
abruptly interrupted by something completely unrelated and when they do, it always feels like
the conversation had reached a natural conclusion anyway. I do think this pacing is more appropriate
for a full season of television, but it just results in making Angel’s early scenes feel like
such an unlikable interpretation of his character. Like, you can insist all you want that he
only hits on Husker because it’s part of his fake persona that he feels the need to keep
up 24/7 but the way these scenes are executed, makes it *feel* like he just genuinely enjoys
making other people feel agitated and violated, especially when he didn’t
feel that way in the pilot. And I know someone is thinking “of course,
Angel is an unlikeable asshole at the start of the season, that’s the whole point
of the Hotel. To take in horrible, awful people and redeem them which is exactly
what happens with Angel Dust.” However, ignoring even the fact that we were
already introduced to a version of this character who was the opposite of
unlikable, a character being an awful person and a character being likable to
the audience are not mutually exclusive. Hazbin Hotel itself has countless examples of
this. Alastor for instance is a murderer/cannibal and yet remains one of, if not, the most
popular and beloved character in the show. And I’m not saying every character needs to be
charming and loveable regardless of their morally dubious actions. Hateable characters also serve a
very valuable purpose to storytelling. And again, I know Hazbin Hotel knows this because it has
a great example of an appropriately hateable character in the form of Adam. He is not your
classic renaissance Disney era villain. This guy is not fun to watch and it’s not because
he leads an annual mass murder of demon-kind. It’s because he constantly disrespects our
protagonists, blows smoke up his own ass, and is a massive misogynist. This
makes it satisfying to see him die. And therefore on the flipside of that coin,
it is most satisfying to see a character be redeemed when *are* likable, or at least when
they have a nugget of likability buried under all the evil. That’s what makes the audience
want to see them become a better person. Of course, some people will rightly
point out that experiencing abuse can very much make you an unlikable person, and
if that makes Angel more relatable to you, that is perfectly valid. No ifs ands or
buts. That’s just valid. The line for when unlikability stops being relatable and
starts being, well, just unlikable is gonna be different for everyone, and to me, early
season 1 Angel is just really riding that line. And listen, even though Angel is significantly
less likable in the series propper, he does still have a nugget of endearment to him, that
being his self pity stemming from the abuse he endures from Valentino. That nugget is just
a lot more buried than it was in the pilot, and for this reason it requires
a lot more time to clean all the gunk and grime off his character. Time
which season 1 evidently does not have. Halfway into the season we finally
bite into the meat and potatoes of what’s actually going on with Angel Dust
which is that he signed away his soul to a pimp named Valentino who forces him to
work grueling hours making adult films as well as emotionally manipulates, physically
assaults, and sexually exploits Angel regularly. And Angel Dust copes with this by
dissociating and using drugs to forget about how awful his life is, while
projecting an image of joyful, carefree, consequence free indulgence to everyone around
him, in order to maintain a good reputation, keep Val happy, and convince
himself that everything is fine. This is a dark as fuck story, to the extent that
I really don’t want to show the worst of it on Youtube. It is very deserving of its status
as the one episode in season 1 which is rated 18+ as opposed to 16+. But actually that’s
kinda where we run into issues. They had to fit the great majority of this dark, serious,
mature story into one episode and this is the source of many of my problems with how
Angel’s actual character arc is executed. First of all, in order to communicate all of
the content that is contained in this episode, it feels like they had to expedite
the process of informing the audience. This results in a substantial amount of
telling rather than showing. And look, I’ve really grown to really dislike the way
people use “show don’t tell” as a sweeping criticism of every show they don’t like
in efforts to sound like they understand writing better than the people whose job it
is to write the show, but I can’t act like there’s not a kernel of truth in the sentiment
and I think this episode demonstrates why. The way that they go about communicating
Angel’s problems, how he feels about them, and the way he changes his mindset
to more healthily respond to those problems is largely done directly through
dialogue, particularly involving Husker. At the beginning of the episode Angel
is showing off a porno he was in and Husker… I don’t know how to describe this
scene other than Husker goes out of his way to find an excuse to tell each of the
characters in no uncertain terms what their character flaws are. It’s passed off as him
ranting about, I can only assume being annoyed that the other characters get drunk and vent all
their issues to him because he’s the bartender. And that’s totally believable, but the fact
that this information is revealed so that we can immediately just tell the audience what each
character’s narrative arc is going to be makes it feel like this scene doesn’t actually care
about fleshing out a likable side character, but is instead just using him to push
along the other characters’ arcs. Side note, this scene illustrates another
problem with Angel being so unlikable in the first half of season 1. Because he has
so consistently intentionally made the other characters uncomfortable and agitated,
it doesn’t feel that out of the ordinary when he snaps at husker here. Imagine how
much more impactful it would have been to hear Angel spitefully say “fuck you” if he had
been acting the way he acted in the pilot this whole time. It would have been immediately and
clearly apparent that Husker had hit a nerve. Anyway, the point about Husker feeling
like he only exists as a catalyst for Angel’s development continues
past just this scene but first I gotta describe how Angel actually
develops in order to discuss that. So, when Husker confronts Angel
near the end of the episode, he convinces Angel to let his walls down and
be vulnerable and honest with him by telling him about how he’s made bad choices that he
has to live with too. And the visuals inform the audience that this bad decision was making
a deal with Alastor. Then they sing a song where Angel internalizes the fact that he’s not
alone in feeling like a hopeless fuck up. Now again, this is all perfectly believable, and
frankly the lesson learned by the end of it is everything I could have hoped for with Angel’s
arc. But again, the fact that we speed through it all in one episode introduces technical
problems. There wasn’t enough time given for Husker to seem like he was figuring out that
Angel was hiding something. And most of all, there wasn’t enough time given for
Angel to undo his mental hangups. This is the other thing I was getting
at when pointing out how serious and mature this story is, and the truth of the
matter is that you just don’t cure addiction and fix an abuse victem’s mental health over
the course of one conversation and a song. But that really is the way Hazbin Hotel
treats Angel immediately following his musical number with Husker. And for the rest
of the season, Angel seems perfectly healthy. Suddenly he’s openly venting about how awful
Valentino is and how horribly he’s being treated in the studio. And not even just to Husker.
Just out loud in the Hotel foyer for anyone in the room to hear. It would have been so much more
emotionally compelling and realistic if Angel only felt comfortable opening up like this to the
one other person in the hotel he believes understands him. And because the show fails to
capitalize on the intimate connection that Angel and Husker supposedly formed in episode 4, it
again reinforces the feeling that Husker’s role in that episode wasn’t to actually become
a deeper character, but rather to be mouth that just says whatever must be said to drag
Angel through his own arc, and drop him off at the finish line as soon as we’re done with
the “Angel character development” episode. That's hardly an exaggeration. Angel
really does seem to be cured of his addiction and dependency on Val following
episode 4. And this is lowkey confirmed by the singular time his abuse is meaningfully
addressed in the latter half of the season, when he encounters Valentino at
a bar the gang is hanging out at. When speaking to Val, Angel remains extremely
calm and self confident despite the fact that re-encountering one’s abuser is one
of the most triggering things an abuse victim can experience, not to mention
that Valentino still owns Angel’s soul. Based on some personal experience, research I
did, and discussions I’ve had, I would say that when someone has emotional and tangible power over
you, you feel that shit. You can be cognitively aware that you should say or do something
to confront them, but mentally, emotionally, the prospect of doing so is analogous to being
told to swim across the Atlantic ocean. It’s just impossible. And it’s quite common for victims to
report feelings that their abuser still has power over them even *after* a significant amount of
time spent separated before re-encountering them. Honestly, one of my favorite things about Hazbin
Hotel is that it visualized these abusive power dynamics with chains because… yeah. That’s how
it feels. And believe me I haven’t experienced nearly as severe treatment as what Angel goes
through regularly so, putting myself in his shoes, I can only imagine how immovable of a
force Val *would* seem like for Angel. And for this reason, I really find it hard
to believe that Angel would be this capable of standing up to Valentino after so little work
being done to prepare him to do so. And even if I accept that the power of music can overcome any
emotional hurdles which is why he’s so calm here, Angel knows Val well enough to know
that antagonizing him the way he does, will only end badly for him. This may shock you, but abusers very rarely respond
with remorse when being confronted. The show ignores the very tangible reality of Angel’s situation which like I said is
a very dark and serious tangible reality, which is made apparent by the fact that After
Angel Tells Val off, Val physically assaults him in public and promises to abuse Angel
in the studio even harder moving forward. But this scene is kinda treated like Val is
salty because Angel just served him a sick burn. They even do a goofy Nifty joke at Val’s
expense as if he’s been narratively disarmed. And no, we never see or hear about Angel
in the studio again after this scene so I can only assume that he’s just still being
treated like shit, only now the show doesn’t consider it important enough to show
onscreen or even address in dialogue. And I’m not saying that the entire
show should have been a grueling trial of unpacking and picking apart
trauma, but a lot of mileage could have been made out of just a few scenes
being added, modified, or redistributed. Like, what if they found a way to reveal
that Husker sold his soul to Alastor *before* having Husker become Angel’s
therapist? Then Husker would have come off like more of a character and less of a
plot device, and the audience would better resonate with why Husker suspects Angel is
hiding something. Hell, while we’re at it, what if Angel just accidentally walked in on
Alastor summoning Husker’s chains? Then it would be a lot more believable when Angel lets his
walls down and internalizes the fact that he’s not alone. It would feel like this is the natural
point of collision for these two characters. As is, I feel that the experience of
being an abuse victim and an addict has been simplified to the extent of being not
as relatable as it could be to real people who struggle with these issues and want to
see them represented onscreen. And again, this perspective is just based on the
information I have available to me. I do not intend to erase your experience if you
did feel represented by Angel’s portrayal. Hey so this is me cutting in here to say that I
have recently seen some more direct comments from people who relate to Angel Dust in this episode
and are frustrated with people claiming that this episode is “bad SA representation” and as a
preemptive response to those sentiments, I’d just like to say that if my critique of Angel in season
one is interpreted as such, I’ve failed at my job. The actual assault which is depicted
happening to Angel Dust is very impactful, and while it’s not my place to say how
realistic it is, I’ve seen multiple people claim that it is accurate to their experience.
What I’m describing when I say that season one simplifies the experience of being an abuse
victim to the extent of being less relatable has to do not with the abuse itself, but the way
it is responded to and treated as a problem that exists only in a state of either being fixed,
or not fixed with very very little gray area. I can’t know for sure, but I do believe
that if the Hazbin Hotel team were given more screen time to allocate to season one, this
problem would have been mitigated. And moreover, I would not be surprised if this problem ends up
being mitigated in season 2 for the same reason. Anyway, now that that’s cleared up, I mean obviously stories are by and large about
entertaining an audience first and foremost, and this very much is entertaining, but I
think it’s reasonable to say that Angel’s arc was probably intended to do more than
just entertain, so I feel it’s reasonable to point out how it could have improved at
what it seemed like it was trying to do. And look, I’m not criticizing the fact
that Angel sings a song and it makes all his mental hang ups disappear.
This is a musical. You can get away with making a character just sing a
song and all their problems go away. I think it’s really hard to make that work
with topics as serious as the ones covered in episode 4, especially because *tangible events*
which progress Angel’s arc needed more priority, but in general, musical’s are
about communicating powerful, often complex emotions and emotional revelations
through song. The same way a masterfully staged, animated, and edited cut of animation can
communicate a wealth of emotion in just a few seconds, a masterfully composed
and performed song can communicate a series of events or changes in a
character’s perspective effectively. At this point I would branch off into another
conversation about the music in Hazbin Hotel but honestly, I did not intend for just
this section on Angel Dust to end up as long as it did and I do not want this to
become another video I spend a year making so I’m just gonna make a clean cut here and
have this be an Angel Dust specific video. Lastly, I want to make abundantly clear that the
people who made this show did a very good job. The human labor that went into and continues to
go into this creative project is admirable and a landmark for the animation industry. I’m just some
asshole who let her expectations get too high. Anyway, stick around for when I talk about
the rest of the show if you feel like it.
