Im always a fan of characters who can and will back up their pride. Like Vox in the s2 finale is fully willing to blow up everyone including himself and everyone he loves, and doesn't back down from this position until the situation is well and truly over. Velvette staring down Vaggi's angelic spear until Vox bundles her away because he's more scared of it than she is. Alastor's everything. Lucifer taunting Vox from the box.
Something I really like about hazbin hotel is that they write EVERYONE like this. Everyone always keeps their dignity through every situation. Nobody's ever really bluffing, or if they are, they don't happen to be called on it. Even in the situations most like one's bluff being called, like Husk leaving in Scream Rain, backing down if anything affords him MORE dignity.
Alastor is the most extreme example of this, which is just one reason why I'm as obsessed with him as I am. Even after he's shown to be genuinely terrified of Vox's cannon in the shot before Vox nearly gets him with it (incidentally, how the FUCK did shok.wav survive that????) Alastor's not willing to drop the grin when Vox threatens him over it. Is it the smart course of action? Decidedly the fuck not. But that's the fun part of hazbin's writing: when characters make very stupid very bad decisions, it's alwways in stubborness of holding on to themselves; if they ever back down, it's always when they are right to.
And you just know that the reason why Alastor is afforded Emily's rescue against his will is because he would NOT have asked for it or reached out if that were what it took. And thing is, Charlie most definitely knows this, and if she told Emily anything at all about Alastor, Emily knows this too. They're not leaving it up to Alastor to ask for help because they know that in that scenario he'll just die.
And that's respect, tbh. They're letting him Not Ask. Anyone, I think, who respects Alastor and is his actual friend, leaves him the space to be recalcitrant and stubborn. Mimzy refrains from explicitly calling him a friend, and while she calls him soft and nice behind his back, to his face it's "heartless son of a bitch". Husk makes sure to get Alastor alone before trying to talk him out of a bad decision. Niffty does not expect to be called to help Alastor in a fight, she just runs off on her own initiative.
(It's pleasing to me, too, that all of the above except Emily's rescue are terrible decisions that are bad. Characters acting like themselves is clearer and sharper edged when they are not really correct to act that way)
(Rosie, of course, absolutely wants Alastor to prostrate himself and accept humiliation. She, ah, gets nowhere near the backfire she deserves for that, tbh. Because Alastor is way too nice for his own good and you know that's canon.)
I just really really like it when a character goes "well the consequences of my decisions are mine to deal with and I'll see this through". For some of them it means putting themselves in danger and for some of them it means an attempt at omnicide, and it's like, I'm not necessarily sympathetic towards that decision, right? But boy do I love to watch it.
(Lute in Gravity. The hotel's cast in Hear My Hope. Angel going back to Val. You know what I meannnnnn)
