Look, I know we’re all intrigued by the concept of Alastor’s angelic wound being healed by Lucifer, but. He is from the 30s. Is there also a possibility that he’s just gonna do some cocaine about it
I got my (now 18-year-old) daughter into Ao3 back in 2021. I taught her she should always comment - even if the fic looks old or abandoned or whatever. She did.
Well - she got this email this morning:
The fic was written in 2014 and essentially abandoned.
Bethy read and reviewed in 2021 (and was actually the only person who had commented at all).
Today in 2025 - the final chapter was posted by the author and this was her reply to Bethy’s comment.
———
Never question whether a fic is too old to comment on.
I just completed Chapter 1 of my new fic titled A Book, A Girl, and Some Mildly Infurating Teenagers. This fic was inspired by @whimsywillowwrites and her AMAZING fic titled Demon Summoning & Other Neat Party Tricks ( which you should check out by the way if you have not :D )
ANNYYWHOO…
Are you intruiged?
Is your curiousity piqued?
If so, take a gander!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Alastor knows that his deal is infallible and there are no loopholes to get around it, but he certainly knows he can bend the rules of his deal and take charge of his own fate. @ohbother2 made a good point about this.
Alastor always presents himself as cool, calm, and collected. It’s all a façade so he can make people believe that he always knows exactly what he’s doing, and make them believe that he’s always in control. He admitted it to Charlie when telling her to smile. It is also shown when Alastor treats Husk like his “pet” when he threatens him. He knows he has more control over Husk and he takes full advantage of it. He hates being seen as lesser than the other Overlords. He wants everyone in Hell to know his name, he wants to be known, to be feared, and he doesn’t like when he’s dismissed. During the Overlord meeting, be announces that he’s back, claiming, “I’m sure you’ve all been wondering” in reference to where he had disappeared to the past seven years. The reaction he had after Carmilla dismisses him just goes to show how much he dislikes not being viewed as the most powerful Overlord in Hell.
Lucifer too… Why does he instantly have a distaste towards him? Why does he instantly feel like he has to one-up him? Alastor knows Lucifer is more powerful than him, he easily outranks Alastor and that intimidates him. He also knows that realistically he will never be at the same power level as him… so he grabs ahold of something Lucifer can’t; a good relationship with Charlie.
Alastor is so incredibly calculated when it comes to finding others weaknesses, he’s had a lot of time to get used to it. He stings Lucifer where it hurts, and that’s how he gets under his skin. He mentored Charlie when she needed it, and was there for her when Lucifer wasn’t. He even claimed in the song that she could “call him dad.”
Why can’t he accept that he is powerful too? Why does he always have to be the best?
This abuse of power was shown once again in the hallway when Husk confronted him with, “big talk for someone who’s also on a leash.” His anger wasn’t cool, calm, and calculated. He wasn’t thinking, he was acting on a whim and it was shown when his jabs were personal against Husk which led him to also threaten to make him the next voice on the broadcast. There was nothing meticulous or collected about that response.
Everything about that response screamed fear. Alastor was fearful of his deal and fearful of the person he made it with. He wouldn’t have actually killed Husk, because if he wanted to, he would’ve already done so. Husk clearly serves a bigger purpose to Alastor, and Husk clearly knows a lot about Alastor, so I think that threat was genuinely to just shut him up… or to try and remind him that Alastor was powerful too. Alastor would hate if someone thought of him simply as a puppet bound to a leash.
Alastor is stuck at this hotel of redemption where he does not want to be, but where he has to be. He’s forced to follow Lilith's orders, he’s forced to deal with Lucifer who outranks him, so what can he do?
He can get Charlie’s soul.
And he did get Charlie’s soul. All it takes is a smile and some naivety and you’re already halfway there. He now has something to twist against Lucifer and Lilith. He has their daughter. This brings back some of his control. He finally feels powerful again.
Except for the fact that this stupid fucking hotel is growing on him.
He has been shown to protect the hotel, which simply is not part of his deal. He just has to be Lilith’s eyes, her camera. He’s to blame for his own attachment to the place. There is a scene where he admits to Niffty that he had grown accustomed to the place. He also assisted in the Extermination battle, and got Rosie to help with her Cannibals. He didn’t have to do that, but he chose to. He grew connected to the damn place and the damn people. He suffered because of it.
During the battle with Adam, the most daunting thing to him was slinking away and “cowering”. The last thing Alastor would’ve wanted to do at that moment is retreat from the battle. He had no other choice. It was losing, or death. Both of which are two important things to him. He was willing to take the sacrifice of his status over death. Knowing how much Alastor craves control, craves status, that shows you just how terrified he is of death. The wild look in his eyes too? Ugh.
If Lilith’s deal with him is centred around keeping an eye on Charlie, it makes sense why Alastor was absolutely horrified that he nearly died for them. He’s horrified at what the deal is forcing him to do, who it’s forcing him to be. When he originally made the deal there was no harm done, no real threat to him. But now he was sent to keep an eye on Charlie who was pissing off the entirety of Heaven and taking her father with her? Well, Christ. He really fucked up this time!
He had a panic attack in that damn Radio Tower, because he is absolutely fucking terrified. He’s losing control, everything that is happening around him is something he cannot control, and unless he finds a way around his deal, it’s not changing. He was literally pulling the hair out of his head because he couldn't believe what he was doing. It horrified him to no end.
To Summarize:
Alastor is a brilliantly methodically well crafted character. (Anyone who wants to say I’m looking too far into this, Alastor has been around since Viv was in high school so she has had a lot of time to let his personality and backstory cook.) He’s clever, and he’s powerful, but he’s also a little bit of a fool. He made a deal to gain control, and in return, it came back to bite him in the ass after a few decades. He knows he is nothing without his deal, but he also knows that his deal could ruin him.
He’s stuck in the most masterful way possible, and unless he figures out how to twist this all. Maybe use Charlie as his puppet? He’s going to continue to be a slave to his contract.
Okay. I've been working on a major story idea, and In order to properly plan it out. I need to figure out Alastor as a whole. I need to dissect the absolute shit out of him, and you're coming with me for the ride.
One: Alastor's Deal Making Tactics:
Alastor is a master manipulator who meticulously plans out all of his deals. He knows exactly how to get under peoples skin and he knows exactly how to gain a sense of false trust with his victims. He uses the same manipulation tactic on all of the victims shown. @vaggietheangel came up with a really cool theory that I'll elaborate on.
Alastor knows how naïve poor Charlie can be when it comes to trusting others. Even after all of the warnings she has received from Vaggie, she still manages to make a deal with him. His offer is small, there is no harm done to her, but it still is a deal that furthers Charlie's trust with him.
I also find it quite interesting after the explanation Vaggie gave of Alastor, and all the warnings she given Charlie at just how dangerous he truly is, she makes a deal with him herself. It's minor, but it is still a leg of trust that she is offering him. It just shows you how masterful Alastor is at getting under peoples skin and manipulating others to get what he wants, even those who thought they were being safe by “not making deals with him.”
With Husk, he most likely strategically gained his trust. Offered him small deals for his own gain, then eventually added more risk to the offers until he meticulously had Husk wrapped around his finger and he knew that he wasn't going to be able to get out of it.
(This connects back to something @artykyn said and I thought it was interesting too.) This all goes to show that Alastor knows his way around deal making. He knows the ins, the outs, how to bend the rules. He is a skillful manipulator that knows how to word his deals in a way that'll make sure he's always the one that wins in the end. But Alastor, knowing all of the loopholes of deal making, can't even find a loophole in his OWN contract that he made with whoever gained his soul. We all know that it’s what’s holding him back, especially considering he craves power and this deal is preventing that. He needs to be the predator in every situation. This is crazy because it just shows how much power they truly have over Alastor, and the fact that there is someone more cunning and powerful than Alastor with deal making is just terrifying especially after everything that we already know about how skillful he is.
It also offers a further question: Knowing Alastor's morals, knowing his absolute distaste for others that are more powerful... what compelled him to not only sell his soul, but sell his soul in a contract with NO KNOWN LOOPHOLES?
Two: Alastor's Personal Contract:
There have been many theories floating around about who owns Alastor's soul, but my personal favourite one is the Lilith theory.
It’s not just the, "both Alastor and Lilith were gone for the same amount of time"l theory. It is a good point, but I believe it goes much deeper than that.
Lilith has been described in the show as someone who absolutely refuses to submit to the will of others. She is always the one in control. She has also been described to "empower demon kind with her voice." This may be a slight stretch, but does that not sound like gaining the trust of others? Offering trust in exchange for something larger? Alastor's tactic is manipulation; giving people a false sense of hope. Does that description not also seem like it could apply to Lilith simply based on the fact that she is teased to be coercive just like Alastor is…?
I'm not sure how accurate this information is, but I heard once that Viv confirmed that Mimzy's explanation of Alastor was accurate... so I'm using this to my advantage when I say this:
Mimzy said he was dismissed when he first manifested in Hell. He was essentially powerless and grew his power almost overnight. Realistically, the only possible way that this could've happened was if he made a deal with someone much more powerful than him for status and power... (Lilith). She let him have his fun. She let him kill Overlords to gain control, she let him build his name up, get used to deal making and learn the loopholes of it. Lilith gave him a false sense of control. She gave him decades of time to build his experience, before she really let her fun begin with him once she found out about Charlie and the hotel. Charlie was shown to be calling her mother around the same time that Alastor gained a sudden interest in her and the hotel. Odd coincidence If I do say so myself!
…What if Lilith's status in Heaven was due to a deal she made herself? If she can keep Hell under control... she can remain in Heaven? (Now I'm not sure why she'd want to be in Heaven, that'd be a whole other discussion post) Lucifer has stated that he has tried something similar to what Charlie is attempting, and he continuously was dismissed. If that's the case, Lilith was/is his wife, and it wouldn't be hard to notice Charlie attempting the same thing she watched her husband do. This would obviously cause a disruption in Heaven, so she calls upon her puppet that she has built from the ground up; Alastor. She sends him to the hotel to be her eyes.
I don't believe Alastor's powers are his own either.
I became more open to this idea after seeing @anthurak’s post about the same thing.
First off, aesthetically, the Overlord's powers match them. Valentino's are pink pheromones that move like air. It's sultry, It's sexy, It's everything that Valentino embodies. Vox has the ability to hypnotize people into listening to him, and he can manipulate other forms of technology. He is a literal television so yes, this too makes sense.
Alastor though? His entire character is composed of shades of red so why is it when he is using his powers, they're neon green and appear to be almost electric? Plus the tentacles? He is a deer, and there is no indication that he would have tentacles simply due to that fact It makes no sense. Whenever he uses his powers, It looks like he's throwing on an extension of himself. It doesn't seem like Alastor.
I'd also like to point out the green stitching along his mouth during the scene where he's making a deal with Charlie. A lot of people have said that it looks like they're keeping him smiling... but I think the opposite. His smile looks jagged almost like it was torn open, I think the thread is just a connotation to how he has to keep his mouth shut about his deal. Alastor uses his smile as a grapple on himself. He's losing control, and the best he can do is put a smile on and play a character.
The chains during the scene where he intimidates Husk too, aren't connected to him like they are shown to be with other Overlords... they're connected to his staff. This leads me to believe that the staff was given to him from (in this theory) Lilith. This links back to my, "Alastor is Lilith's eyes" theory, especially considering that there is an eye on his staff. That could be Lilith's way of spying.
This would also explain why Alastor suddenly became so powerless once it was broken during the Extermination scene. Alastor is nothing without that staff. It's his connection to Lilith, to his powers. His staff makes or breaks him. It would also explain why Husk seemed to have seemed to have believed he was out of his contract. If all the powers are held through the staff... Did he technically lose all his soul contracts?
Almost dying to Adam had an impact on him big time too. He spent years of being untouchably strong and easily overtaking everyone to the point it made his ego so large he thought he could take on THE Adam. Whether he lost due to powers being stripped or simply because it was Adam that he was attempting to take on, he definitely thought he’d have more power than he did. He realized he is as powerful as any other Sinner without his staff and powers. His deal makes him, but it's also going to break him and god that's insufferable in his eyes.
PART TWO LINK:
(MAJOR SPOILERS)
Alastor’s Way of Coping With His Deal:
Alastor knows that his deal is infallible and there are no loopholes to get around
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