Ship Analysis: I Depend On You
First off, to get this out of the way, two of my favorite ships in recent memory are Chaggie (Charlie x Vaggie, Hazbin Hotel) and Abstragedy (Gangle x Zooble, The Amazing Digital Circus).
The reasoning behind my fondness of these two is that they're both overall wholesome pairings, but with a fair bit of tension once you look beyond the surface.
And the tension I sense in both of them directly correlates with this art trend:
Self-explanatory,
this trend has made me realize that there's an element of codependency in both Chaggie and Abstragedy.
Here's how it is:
She craved support for her dream, and she got nothing. Her father was too depressed and traumatized to express support for her pursuits, her mother was absent for the last seven years of her life, and all of Hell laughed, jeered, and booed about her optimism clashing with the overwhelming cesspool that is, well, Hell.
It's why she latches so strongly not just onto Vaggie, but Alastor as well; despite his shady nature and selfish reasons for his support, he is a surprisingly sincere man of his word.
Of course, there is an implication that Charlie puts those who support her on a bit of a pedestal--best shown by her reaction to the reveal that Vaggie was a former Exorcist and kept it a secret from Charlie. Now in all fairness, Charlie has been a pretty open book to Vaggie throughout their partnership.
"Three years! THREE YEARS I've been sharing my life with her, and I tell her EVERYTHING! My hopes, my dreams, my insecurities, my embarrassing habits, what fucking DEODORANT I like, and she keeps something, like this, from ME? Why would she lie for so long? Did she think I wouldn't accept her? What about me?"
So Charlie isn't wrong to think that Vaggie doesn't trust her, despite the two being together for more than a year at this point in the show's timeline. However, Vaggie's secret is a pretty shameful one--Exorcists are the direct antithesis to Charlie's rhetoric, so how would she feel if she found out her girlfriend used to be part of the enemy?
Thankfully, with some words of advice from Rosie, Charlie recognized that Vaggie, for all her issues, is still devoutly loyal to Charlie through her actions, and not her words.
As the Princess of Hell's girlfriend, she hates herself for being a part of the very thing her girlfriend opposes, so she devotes herself to supporting Charlie's goal of redemption.
It's particularly spelled out in the song "Whatever It Takes" from Ep. 3:
"When I saw your face, you made me feel like a stranger in a brand new place. And it feels so good, to be understood. There's so much I wish that I could say. So I - I'll be your armor. Do whatever it takes, I'll make the mistakes. I'll spend my life being your partner."
Indeed, she beats herself up quite a bit whenever it seems like she failed on that front, like when it the trust exercises from the same episode appeared to be a total bust.
It's also why she clashes a lot with Alastor, because he has more ulterior motives for helping Charlie and is a little too fond of messing with her and the others. And to be honest, it wouldn't be surprising if he took advantage of Vaggie's cautiousness in a gambit of sorts.
A few episodes later, when her secret gets out and Charlie is upset with her for keeping it from her, Vaggie is in a slump and fully expects the Exorcists to wipe the floor with the Hotel.
However, when she met with Carmilla Carmine in a bid to request her assistance in the upcoming fight, the latter instead gave her advice on the reason Vaggie is fighting in the first place: She desperately wants to protect Charlie. She's not like her former comrades, the Exorcists, who want to slaughter the Sinners--Vaggie fights to protect her loved ones.
So all in all, while the first season scratched the surface of Chaggie's codependent nature, they still have a long way to go before they can improve the relationship by loving themselves.
She rarely feels true happiness. And who can blame her? In addition to dealing with Jax's treatment of her, her human life was filled with failure in regards to her interest in art, and there are implications that she suffers from a sort of mental disorder.
She seeks escape through people who are sincere in their support of her--which is why she's the closest to Zooble out of all the players.
Despite their grumpiness, it's when they interact with Gangle that Zooble softens up, giving off a gentle, casual sort of kindness that doesn't overwhelm Gangle.
Of course, like Charlie above, there's an implication that Gangle puts Zooble on a pedestal. After they talk to Gangle about the importance of choosing self-love, Gangle has this to say:
"Have... you ever had to make that choice? ...S-Sorry. I mean... Of course not. You're Zooble."
What Gangle fails to consider is that Zooble isn't infallible; Their grumpiness is pretty detrimental for people like Ragatha and Caine, both of whom crave the love of others, and Jax, who runs off a shallow belief system in the Circus. In addition, Zooble doesn't have the best self-confidence themselves due to their mix-and-match avatar gimmick.
Perhaps if Zooble came clean to Gangle about their own issues with insecurity, then maybe Gangle would start to question the validity of their shared bond.
They don't love themselves. Not when their avatar shtick is changing a constantly-changing appearance that somehow doesn't have the options that feel right to them. There are implications that Zooble suffers from body dysmorphia.
So instead, they seek happiness through acts of service for the similarly-insecure Gangle. They put up the image of a "tough softie" who's able to protect her from the worst of Jax's behavior, and in Ep. 6, they preach the importance of self-love to Gangle.
"...'Cause it exists. It's a part of you that's real, and the only "you" that you should care about is the real you. You have to choose to love yourself, even if it doesn't make sense. It's not natural. It's intentional."
Of course, when Gangle asks about Zooble's own sense of self-love, this is their reaction.
They must have realized that they were being a big hypocrite here. How can they encourage the one they cherish to love herself when they can't even do it for themselves?
Even though Gangle chose not to press the topic further, her question still shook Zooble to their core. Thus, in the midst of the gun fight, Zooble decided to use their avatar gimmick to their advantage.
Interestingly enough, it also makes Zooble kind of like Ragatha--they both act protective for the people they cherish, but it's partially motivated by their non-existent self-confidence.
Overall, Gangle and Zooble both have little-to-no sense of self-love, much like Ragatha. Perhaps some introspection will help fix that for both of them.
In the end, while I am not a "serious" artist, I still credit this trend for allowing me to view two of my favorite ships from a different angle.
I have a newfound appreciation for both of them.
