The Symbolism of Hearts in Hazbin Hotel
In the bizarre drug trip hallucination that is Hazbin Hotel, I find it interesting that the repeating theme of hearts only revolves around a single character: Angel Dust. Angel has two hearts on his body, and three men connected to Angel have hearts in their designs too. And while thinking on it, I realized that they tell us something about Angel and the show. So, what do the hearts represent? Well, as boring and obvious as it sounds, they represent love. Affection. Or even their literal heart. Where these hearts are located might tell us something about the character.
Starting with the heart on Angel’s fur boobs, when Angel is wearing clothes, this heart is hidden. So for anyone to see this heart means that Angel must expose himself. He must shed his clothing and allow himself to be vulnerable. I believe that the heart on Angel’s chest symbolizes how he gives so much of himself to others, and his job as a stripper/porn star whose job it is to expose this mark on his chest means that he exposes this intimate place to many who don’t deserve to see it. But perhaps more interesting is the trail leading from his heart down to his crotch area. Then I looked at the stripes on his arms, and began to wonder if this was meant to look like he’s tied up or bound, caught in a rope or spider web? As such, his heart (big as it is) is a prisoner of his loins. He can’t, won’t, or avoids letting himself legitimately feel love because his heart is the prisoner of his crotch. He’s a porn star. His body belongs to the public. As such, he feels that he can’t sell public property to a private collector.
The heart on the back of Angel’s head has a few possible interpretations. Maybe it symbolizes how he’s turned his back on his feelings and emotions. It could be that it points out that even though he can’t see it, there’s love and affection in his life. Something interesting that I notice is that the heart on Angel’s chest is much more visible, much bigger, and hollow, while the heart on the back of his head is small, hidden, but full. The fact that we see the back of Angel’s head so little could mean that the heart on his chest is the fake affection he shows the world, while the hidden heart is the real feelings he hides and doesn’t show people. It being much smaller speaks that Angel isn’t nearly as romantic/sexual as the hollow heart on his chest implies, and his true heart is much smaller and much less available to the masses.
Cherri Bomb’s tattoo is very small and almost shunted to the side. Knowing that their relationship is very close and extremely platonic, I think what her little tattoo represents is that her affection isn’t romantic. She can’t offer it. That’s why it’s so small. While she has love to give, she can’t offer much because she’s not a romantic option. The placement seems to suggest that this is where Angel belongs. At her side. Arm in arm. As friends. She’s the shoulder he can lean on. The shoulder he can cry on.
Valentino has many hearts on his fur collar, clasps, and sunglasses, but all of these things are articles of clothing. They’re fake. He can put them on and take them off. This speaks not only of his relationship with Angel, but his relationship with Vox as well. He claims to love Vox, but when he gets the wrong drink, he smashes his boyfriend’s screen face. With Valentino, all love and affection is fake. Surface level. Something he puts on and takes off as easily as clothing. He doesn’t look at anyone with loving eyes. It’s an act. We see him without hearts on him quite often on Instagram, proving that his love isn’t reliable. He can take it off and put it away whenever he wants to, much as how abusive boyfriends will put on an act of love and affection to keep their abuse victim sympathetic and compliant.
Travis’ only heart on his entire design is located inside of his eye. The heart in his eye is likely a symbol of coveting and objectification. He values things for physical beauty or superficial worth. Heart eyes in cartoons are often used to represent a crush or an attraction to something or someone new. I think this placement is meant to tell us that Travis’ affections and love are based solely on appearance. But only one eye is a heart. This suggests that Travis is partially blinded by lust. Part of him knows he shouldn’t be getting involved with Angel. Part of him isn’t blind to this. But that heart eye is blinded. It only sees lust. As far as Angel is observed, that heart eye sees Angel as an object. A beautiful trinket he covets. That’s usually why a cartoon character has heart eyes. It’s not usually used for characters in a relationship with each other. It’s saved for crushes. For desires. For something the character wants to possess. And that’s all Angel is to him. A pretty face for him to chase. If he actually had Angel, he’d get tired of him, and start chasing someone else.
Most of the hearts on Husk are tiny. Honestly, I didn’t even notice the ones on his face the first time I watched the pilot. Based on my reading of the heart on the back of Angel’s head, I think the small hearts in easy-to-see places are meant to be how he presents his love being (tiny and hard to see) but then he has the gigantic hearts on his palms. Now, palms are somewhat easy to hide. We can’t see them all the time. But when they show, it’s difficult not to notice them, especially because their color is heavily contrasted by his fur, making them highly visible. So I think the hearts on his palms represents the love he tries to hide, but shows the love he has to offer if he’s willing to show it to another person. The placement may also be a play on the saying “wearing your heart on your sleeve”, painting Husk as someone whose feelings are very apparent, but he tries to hide them. He’s not good at pretending he doesn’t feel a certain way and is very expressive and vocal about how he feels. The hearts on his palms could also visually represent holding his heart in his hands as if offering it to others. The palm heart is also the same color as his eyes, symbolically suggesting that the hearts on his hands speak to the true desires of his soul, as eyes are the window to the soul. Thus, they point the way to his true heart’s desire, which is to offer his heart to another, even if he tries to hide it.
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