ExploretheEccentricities

AroAce/Writer/Fan of Many Things! Ravenclaw. This blog mostly contains analyses, fanfics, fan art, reviews, and general posts from and about multiple fandoms! Disney lover. Current fixations include Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Frozen, and more.

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The start of a long decline

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People are unhappy with Lute dissing on Abel, and fair play. But I'm cackling at the potential dynamic these three had.

Like half of Heaven probably knows the gossip of this weird little marching band drummer boy whose dad is Heaven's #1 eligible bachelor and has a weird situationship with his not-step-mom who acts like she can't stand him. I don't think Adam and Lute intentionally excluded Abel and talked smack about him behind his back - I think it's more likely they were a dysfunctional little family and Lute just magnifies Adam's small annoyances with Abel whenever she feels like it, because what is she, his mom?

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Growing up is watching Gilmore Girls again and getting irritated when Rory or Lorelai complain about the good things Emily and Richard give them, like money or food or just generally good company, even if it comes with strings. Idk if it's the insipid 'being poor and depriving your kids is cool' epidemic across America but Emily's and Richard's control would be the least of their problems in the real world, and there is so much more problematic with this idea that intentionally putting yourself through humiliation and hardship, refusing to better yourself, mocking the wealthy, and taking pride in your inability to provide for your family is somehow normal. It's much harder to have a controlling family if you come from a poor background.

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I'm thinking of juicy head canons story-wise for Abel running away and hiding when he gets stressed or scared.

More specifically, the fact that he looks like a kid watching his parents' divorce and was probably remembering Cain raising a rock over his head the way Lute raised a sword over Vaggie's.

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Would be both tragic and funny if Lute's hallucination of Adam constantly disliking Abel comes from a misconstrued interaction or two from Adam that had nothing intently malicious about it.

What I mean is a drunk Adam off-handedly saying "it hurts to look at the kid" because maybe he meant he remembers Eve or how Abel died, but Lute just takes it on board with "yeah it's painful to look at him because he UgLy and wRoNg." Adam sighs in frustration like once because Abel left a candy wrapper around and Lute's brain goes "ha I was right that little shit doesn't deserve to live twice".

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Mixed feelings about Abel's standoff with Lute because on one hand it was necessary, she was actively trying to kill Vaggie and Charlie, and she did need to think rationally, but on the other...

Is it...something to be proud of? The fact that Abel is stepping into his father's shoes - the father notorious (in the show) for being violent, narcissistic, and casually using misogynistic language? The fact that...he is going to start actually being hard on the Exorcists as well? The same Exorcists mistreated by Adam and Lute previously.

I like Adam as a character but the show spends so much time actively demonising him and insisting he was a one-dimensional bloodthirsty power-hungry villain, so trying to portray Abel adopting his behaviour or language doesn't feel like a victory, it feels like a warning.

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Okay, I'm thinking there's different ways we can go about the setup of Charlie and Abel meeting for the first time (because for all it's great stuff, most people feel season 2 could have done it better in the rush of things).

Have them meet personally and directly, directly contrasting it with Charlie's first meeting with Adam. Have Charlie at first be assured or calm by the fact that Abel seems more pacifist than Adam, but then quickly become annoyed or panicked when she realises that Abel has no strong opinions about anything - including her dream or her intents for diplomacy - and is too scared to make literally any decision, which means she doesn't have as much support as she thought.

Or Abel slowly learning to step up after being inspired by Charlie's transformation in leadership (because she herself was very hesitant to pick fights and take charge in season 1).

Or have there be a contrast between Charlie and Abel to foil or complement eachother some way - Charlie is desperately seeking to be the leader her Mom was and probably wanted her to be, while Abel is trying to be more like his father. Or have Charlie and Abel bond over their similar father issues and ....suspiciously...disappeared mothers.

I wrote something similar before where Abel can be on board with Charlie's idea of redemption but walks into Hell and hates the sinners/becomes disheartened and realises that his dad was right or becomes more 'against' Charlie.

If anyone ever dares, the Charlie x Abel thing is an option (heir of Lilith and heir of Adam, coming together in ways their parents couldn't and building a new future, yada yada), but we love and respect Chaggie and AbelxEmily. Or Abel having a puppy crush.

Last note but it's weird that Abel's design/ how they treated him seemed more infantilising than Charlie, even though he's probably many years older than her.

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I hate Valentino so much. Why the heck does the show expect me to be angry when Adam grabs Vaggie's arm, but not when Valentino openly boasts about owning angelic sex slaves and essentially raping the Exorcists/Winners?

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Every other day I contemplate writing a fic where Adam ends up redeemed after dying in the last Extermination, but people either don't notice because it's overshadowed by Pentious' entrance or it's brought up late enough that the season begins. There was gonna be something about Eve being Adam's redemption and it turning out that in his afterlife, he spent far more time caring about her/their kids, and doing things in a twisted intent to protect them, than killing the sinners (which happened once every year for as long as Charlie was growing up - holding up against 10,000 years when he wasn't doing That).

Then I realise I'd have to actually tackle the implications of Adam being alive on his poor little loser son and poor psychopathic grieving lieutenant, and then I get lazy lmao.

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Every other day I contemplate writing a fic where Adam ends up redeemed after dying in the last Extermination, but people either don't notice because it's overshadowed by Pentious' entrance or it's brought up late enough that the season begins. There was gonna be something about Eve being Adam's redemption and it turning out that in his afterlife, he spent far more time caring about her/their kids, and doing things in a twisted intent to protect them, than killing the sinners (which happened once every year for as long as Charlie was growing up - holding up against 10,000 years when he wasn't doing That).

Then I realise I'd have to actually tackle the implications of Adam being alive on his poor little loser son and poor psychopathic grieving lieutenant, and then I get lazy lmao.

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Sometimes I wonder if my issue with Charlie, narratively speaking, is that she's a good friend to bad people and a bad friend to good people.

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I'm wishing they really DIDN'T just insist that Adam was a one-dimensional misogynistic or abusive leader because there was so much more they could have done with him being morally grey or similar to Lucifer, paralleling or even foiling him, getting involved with Hell or developing Heaven into the story somehow!

It just feels having Abel take his place when he refuses to take a side, doesn't add anything narratively to the story and gets constantly infantilised is just. No.

This, of all places, is where Adam would thrive and the nuances of his character, the stuff he could add to Charlie's development, advice on leadership, etc. would have been GOLD. Confrontation with overlords and the masses? Being able to say, straight up, "fuck you, I do what I want?"

He would have been the first to shoot down the idea of sorries and gift baskets. Have him be stuck in this weird in-between where he is as shocked as everyone when it comes to Sir Pentious' redemption and challenged for his views, but not be so cripplingly self-doubting or loathing the way Sera and Emily are. Have him halfway-helping Charlie and being unwillingly added to her list of begrudging father figures when he realises that not all sinners/hellborn are the same and that she wants to stand against Vox while also making concessions with Heaven.

Just...anything but "I like killing and I dislike women" :)

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I will say (because I have been very light on criticism so far), one thing that really bugged me about this episode (5) was how useless Abel turned out to be. Like there was hype about his first meeting with Charlie and it just boiled down to Charlie meeting all of them at once and panickedly telling them to go down and tell people the truth (and on Emily's pushing, that they're sorry).

But Abel becomes really insistent on giving these gift bags for an apology and a literal "sowwy" written over it.

Fine, I can get his disillusion after living in heaven with the likes of Emily and Peter, and the fact that he hasn't dealt with the likes of Vox. It's just...there's little reason to infantilise him. Even if he was killed relatively young, he was not a child. And unlike Emily, he didn't always have a sheltered life - he knew struggle on Earth, even briefly. He knows what murder is and why it's wrong, and that it's too grave to be made up for by a simple sorry (I'm not siding with Vox here, he's not actually sympathetic to the sinners and has actively hurt people too but come on).

Abel of all people should know. He was the first murder victim.

Back to the subject. Charlie rambles. Abel doesn't exactly jump in to take initiative because, well, why would he? First post and he's looking to Sera for the big decisions, obviously. That's fine.

But then Vox lashes out at all of the angels, and Sera and Emily are reasonably shaken.

But Abel is...shaken? By Hell and their anger and their general reactions?

He was glad to take up the mantle of the Head of Exorcists, didn't he? He openly said he'd take it. He seemingly knew about these Exterminations, and unlike Emily - who we know found out about it later than everyone and was openly horrified by it - he's not a stranger to violence. He didn't blink an eye (in horror, that is lol)at the implication of going down to Hell for revenge, even if he was hesitant about it.

Live footage of what his dad has been ordering and overseeing for years is news to him? What did he think being the Head of Exorcists was really about? How could he be chill with all of that - the reality of what his father did, and not with Vox's and the crowd's anger? Vaggie has traumatic flashbacks of how the Exorcists were treated. Does Abel just not know, or did he know and not care?

Is he apathetic or just disconnected from the reality of things?

Is being yelled at by an angry TV head really the most traumatic thing that he has gone through?

It stops being cute when it's lowkey sinister, but the show doesn't pick a side. It doesn't have Abel be someone more nuanced who, while ultimately wanting peace, is willing to resort to violence if necessary. It doesn't have Abel be someone who, while put off by violence, isn't afraid to remember or acknowledge difficult truths about human conflict that he is privy to (and that Emily wouldn't understand given her angelic background).

It just wants to insist that Abel is like Emily and Charlie - that he's cute, that he just wants peace, that he genuinely doesn't realise he pisses people off or that the world is cruel.

I just think that well...he could have foiled that. He could be the Vaggie to Emily's Charlie, or all of the above.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like this idea of him having repressed anything and everything about negativity and violence as a consequence of what happened with his violent brother, only to have things unexpectedly resurface. I like the idea of cute characters having hidden rage or darkness. Maybe more will be shown in the upcoming episodes.

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The good news about the episodes is that it's a turning wheel for both Charlie's and (hopefully) Emily's growth - they're forced outside of their relatively naive worldviews by other people, realise the world may be more screwed up than they imagined, and that they need to focus on defending and strengthening themselves.

On another note, I'm realising how interesting it was that they foiled Charlie with Emily. Charlie is having an understandable breakdown because she's stressed and feels abandoned. Her conflict resolution isn't the best because she has never had to deal with this before, people are criticising her left and right, the only people who could have helped her left, and when people do try to help, Vox and her foes end up spinning it around to impact her negatively. But she confides in Vaggie, she talks things out, she plans her next moves.

Emily's reaction to Vox's accusations are much more like a child being told off for the first time. And that's actually understandable. Because even though she's not "technically" a child in human years or in the angelic ranks, her realm of responsibility is COMPLETELY different. She's used to being the one to make people happy, not lead important negotiations or battles. She doesn't know how to cope with someone mocking her attempts at peace, yelling at her, accusing her of things. Unlike Charlie, she doesn't even get angry or defensive. She straight up breaks down because she feels she personally failed them. And because many of the people who she has been sympathising so much with without knowing them...actually detest her, granted for unfair reason (it wasn't Emily who allowed the exterminations or ever agreed with them once she did find out).

And for all its flaws, it's really nice that the episode allows the characters this vulnerability, even if it comes with a harsh back-handed slap that is the cruel reality of the world they live in. Two sugary sweet idealistic characters, brought to tears and personal emotional turmoil.

Hopefully to bounce back up again.

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Seeing how badly Vaggie and the other Exorcists were treated makes me upset, and the fact that it goes unnoticed by most of the other cast except Carmila is especially bothersome. Does Sera simply not care about the other angels (who, for all we know, she had created specifically to be soldiers) because they're 'lower-ranked' compared to the Seraphim and humans? Are we really supposed to not wince or feel angry when Emily and Abel act all sympathetic and innocent regarding "those poor souls in Hell" when we don't see them ever address, notice or blink an eye regarding that treatment?

Poor Vaggie has so much trauma and I hope she gets the comfort and appreciation she deserves.

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Broke: "Adam dislikes Abel because Abel is nice and takes after his mom."

Woke: "Adam dislikes Abel because he reminds Adam of the time when life made some sort of sense and he had purpose on Earth, no matter how twisted, and when Adam had a genuine family and a reason to make the love of his life laugh and hold his crying kids on his knee in the horrible difficulties and happiness they all experienced on Earth, and how all that was abruptly cut off and they were thrown into this weird and wonderful Heaven where no one understands them, nothing makes sense but it gives them the peace and freedom they've always needed that Earth just never could give. "

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Something I wish Hazbin did more was focus on Charlie. I know Vivzie once said that Hazbin is supposed to be a woman-led story as Helluvaboss is male-led, but it doesn't really feel that way. It feels like everyone gets focus except Charlie, especially male characters. The main conflicts in Hell that push character development or contribute to world-building is mostly between Vox and Alastor, and between Valentino and Angel Dust. In Heaven, the centre focus is put on Sir Pentious, whereas Sera's conflict and Lilith's/Eve's general appearance appears in the background. Emily's only role in Heaven is emotional support. And we already know Abel's "daddy issues" with Adam are gonna be a thing, given the pattern.

Charlie is supposed to be the main or at least "lead" protagonist, but there's relatively less on her development. We get a bit of "she's stressed and needs to learn to stand up for herself", which happens more than once. We get a bit of "she's not coping well with her situation and her hotel staff suffer for it". It always happens in the aftermath of some issue with Angel Dust or Sir Pentious or whomever, and it always has Vaggie going "I'm here for you!" to make her feel better.

And that's...it.

What I'd love is an episode actually centred around Charlie, not just her support of other guests but her as a person - what happened in her past to make her feel or act the way she does?

There's a lot of interesting material to be inferred by her behaviour and character - she's understandably tired of being mocked, silenced and walked over by other people in Hell, but at the same time, she's hard on herself when it comes to leadership.

What happened, or what was told to her, to make her believe so strongly in the idea that "anyone can be redeemed?"

She's morally conflicted but at the same time passionate about something controversial to Hell's population and Heaven alike.

She wants to stay connected to both her parents' but has to grow to accept that they're also morally conflicted people.

She's traumatised by everything that happened.

There's so much that's interesting about her that can and should be brought forth, because it would only enrich the story. Maybe we're getting that soon!