Here for the Worst Hazbin Ships

In my 30s, fanartist and writer, She/Her. Just my little corner to draw my problematic faves.

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"It's all for sale... Always."

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Something I've been thinking about lately:

Can Valentino be redeemed?

YES. And no. Let's talk about it...

Firstly, redemption means different things to different people/characters. Redemption, in essence, is atoning and striving to atone for previous bad actions. Now a lot of what our current culture sees in redemption is rooted in concepts from the Bible and Christianity.

As such, we are locked in a puritanical mindset when it comes to the discussion of evil characters like Valentino possibly getting a redemption.

If you define redemption for Val as him going to Heaven and being forgiven by Angel and other victims, then... no, that's not it.

Because what does that achieve? It's not cathartic for the victims of Valentino either.

But one could argue that Angel would possibly want Valentino to die and Val should comply with that desire in the end, but the thing is, would it help Angel? Does Angel truly want that? Maybe he does. I can't tell the future of the show, but due to the aspects of abuse and trauma bonding, Angel may be further disturbed by it.

I don't know. Angel's catharsis is the most important thing to consider but I don't know what he would want. We will have to see.

So what would redemption mean for Valentino? Well, first we would have to see him defeated. A number of things could happen.

Val has to fail. So far, his actions have brought him success, wealth, and power. He's never known another way to get ahead outside of sexualizing and comodifying his body and others. Why should he think he's wrong? Val is the hero of his own story and it's working out so far.

In S2, we saw friction to his status quo. We see what Valentino fears when he's alone using his own voice. "Don't get upset. Don't break up the band." We see what Val cares for when he's alone and no cameras are at him. He loves the Vees. It's his only good trait.

So if Valentino (and the Vees, of course) fail, we can see the status quo torn away from him. He can lose his status, his beauty and he could lose Vox and Velvette. With all that punishment, why would ANYONE want Val to simply die off? I think it's more powerful for Val to fail.

Okay, so Val won't be killed off and will fail logically for the story's themes to shine through. What then?

Well, all Val would have left is the relationships he hasn't fucked up, the ones he's always cared about. Val can't get to Heaven and why would he even want to?

The Vees are better together. Horrid, but the current status quo nearly made them fall apart in S2. Vox and Val's lack of communication hurt both of them. It's clear that if the Vees succeed, it's because of all three of them together. And I think Val knows that deep down.

With his industries destroyed and their status quos upset, we could see Valentino learn to be a better version of himself. Change is small. Incremental. It wouldn't be a flash that gets him to Heaven like Pentious but a breaking a cycle of abuse. Letting go of Angel and control.

It's not a reward, it would be an uprooting of everything Val knows and has, a feeling of the agony and destruction he's inflicted on others. A learning experience. A dismantle of the sex abuse industry he and Angel are locked into, that they both are symptoms of.

It'll be painful. Val could lose everything and be left with only Vel and Vox at the end of it. It would be the start of change that actually betters Hell by crushing the exploitative industries of the Vees. Ultimately not everyone can go to Heaven.

But HELL CAN BE BETTER. Charlie is right. Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Any soul can change. And that's why the Hear My Hope scene is so powerful imo. Every evil soul stopped and showed their potential for good, their alliance to Charlie's dream.

Even if it meant taking Charlie's hand, Val and Vel would save each other and Vox. The scene shows that they have potential for goodness even if its selfish. It's not mutually exclusive.

Val can grow. He can change. He's a character with more dimension than his surface introduction.

Redemption isn't being forgiven by victims. That makes no sense. It puts the burden on a victim and that's not right. Redemption comes from a person changing and becoming better. Not even good, just better. It's continuous improvement, an evolution.

If I had to guess, that is what I believe Vivzie wants to tell us with such a flawed and morally ambiguous cast like Hazbin.

I don't know what will happen to Val. Maybe he will die but I just don't think so. His storytelling potential cannot be stated enough.

He is a thematic and narrative tool of abuse, the sex industry, redemption, and growth. And I think it would behoove the fandom to think a little deeper beyond the flat themes of "but forgiving and rewarding the abuser" to see it.

In the end, we can all be better.

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I draw Val for my mental health at some point.

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There's Something Wrong With Valentino

PGs 5-7

Previous Pages

Summary: After the events of S2, Valentino displays some strange behaviors that utterly baffle his partners.

(A schedule for seeing Vox? It surely means nothing. It's just business!)

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Best girl with the bestest outfit~

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Do you also have a bsky or are you thinking about making acount there? I would love to see your art uncensored but I boycott twitter so I was just wondering

Yes, I do have a Bluesky. Here. And very understandable. Twitter ain't pleasant for the most part. I'll try to post more at Bsky too. ^^

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There's Something Wrong With Valentino

PGs 3-4

Summary: After the events of S2, Valentino displays some strange behaviors that utterly baffle his partners.

Previous Pages

Next Pages

(I really am hoping to get these out faster... but enjoy!)

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There's Something Wrong With Valentino

PGs 1-2

Next Pages

After the events of S2, Valentino displays some strange behaviors that utterly baffle his partners.

(Full version on my Twitter. I spent an hour inking Val's sweet backside and alas Tumblr...)

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Let me be clear, Valentino haters are one thing and understandable, but I do not trust takes from people who don't like Charlie or think that she's poorly written.

It's all poorly repackaged Steven Universe criticism or at this point, blatant misogyny. And it is so, so tiring.

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Okay, I wanna talk about the disingenuous take of "Charlie smiled at a rapist!" in the Hear My Hope segment.

Charlie smiling at Val and Vel joining the song isn't her "smiling and suddenly condoning abuse". Charlie is seeing all of Hell show a speck of goodness within them.

Charlie is seeing the thing her father, Lucifer, cannot see from Hell. The moment where all of it comes together for both selfish and selfless reasons to save it. Val and Velvette are terrible, abusive people, but the thing is, they have the capacity for good.

Val and Velvette love Vox and their family that they have with him. It's not much. It doesn't excuse them. But it shows that even they have the capacity to *do* a good thing. They won't though because it's easy to abuse and exploit like how they do to others.

That's the complicated thing here. What's redemption for the Vees? Arguably there is no redeeming and forgiving what they do and what they will continue to do. But there is always hope that they can still be better. Charlie is seeing that hope for once in Hell.

She is seeing a moment where the worst of people don't shove her aside or anything but accept her and take their place beside her to stop a threat that will kill them all.

As said in the song "We'll take your hand, not what we planned..."

Going back to Charlie, she has been spiraling this season with the thoughts and fears that her dream isn't real. Her mother left her (which she blames herself for) and her father said he was going to support her but deep down, he hates Sinners and doesn't see the good in them.

Her friend, Pentious, *died* and is away from his friends for her misguided dream. Everyone in Hell, especially Vox, shoves in Charlie's face that she's a joke for trying to even see the good in Sinners. That's why, for a moment, Charlie smiled because all of Hell's worst came together and showed that they could all be not even good, but *better*.

There could be a world were her people of Hell can be better and happier than what they are.

They can all be more than what they are right now. Things can change. Charlie needed a moment to see what she strives for, as misguided and naive as she is at human nature, is not for nothing.

She is smiling at hope for the future of Hell.

And that's the truth of the scene that gets swallowed up by such shitty takes like "Oh no, Charlie is smiling at a rapist and an enabler! Vivzie has a rape fetish blah blah". Is this the level of good faith criticism for this show? I highly doubt it.

I am begging you to do better, guys. I need you to actually ignore reactionary bs takes from people who get their info about this show of hope and redemption from clips on TikTok and to actually consider the characters and motives and what the narrative actually wants you to understand.

It is there, trust me.

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Little screenshot redraw for the love of the Valentiddies

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Oh friends, I so fw Stella. I am an evil woman lover to my core~

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This fandom's whole tendency to write Valentino off as a one-note, not very interesting character is so frustrating because they're just... objectively wrong.

Val has demonstrated that he is more than a one-dimensional character.

He has actively gone against his initially established personality traits and actions. He's cruel and treats others like objects to be used for himself. On the other hand, he is the most loyal and family-oriented of the Vees. He's violent and sadistic, but is also vulnerable and emotional.

This is called "dimension" in a villainous character and you know what? It's fucking awesome! You don't have to like Val. Far from it, but don't just lower him down to "just a rapist" when the writers actively give him different aspects to his character. Just because it's easier for you to ignore it.

The thing is that a story for me, at least, is a two-way street. And a lot of the time in fandoms, the audience is not putting in the work.

When Valentino is shown doing anything in the show, such as singing and being vulnerable in small moments of S2, a large portion of the fandom cries out "EW! Why is Vivziepop and crew making us feel for an abuser? Why are they woobifying him???"

When that happens, I wish... I just wish the fanbase would pause for a second and ask themselves: "Is Vivzie trying to make us sympathize for an abusive rapist? Or is she trying to make me understand that he has these humanizing traits? And if it's the latter, why does that bother me? Why does it bother me that I might find a horrible character funny or sad? Could it be... that the writers want us to recognize sympathetic traits in horrific individuals because that's how real life abusers are?" I want people to understand how critical thinking works. People need to ask themselves more questions about the media they consume and not jump to the most insidious conclusion. What is the creator or writer trying to convey by saying something? What did they actually say? Where did they fall short? That's where you find the issues in a narrative, not with all these disingenuous, surface-level assumptions about the creators.

Valentino is a character who is charming, funny, high-energy and flirtatious. He has a lot of charisma and he's attractive. Look at his character design.

And there is a reason for this. Abusers are highly charismatic people. That's how they draw you in.

But the unfortunate truth is that abusers are still human too. They get sad and they can love and they can have best friends who enable them. They often are another cog in a cycle of abuse too which could, for Valentino, be the nature of the sex/porn industry itself.

Does this excuse them? FUCK NO.

But you, as an audience member watching a rated 16+ series, should not need hand-holding to know this. You shouldn't have to diminish Val's entire character to "just a rapist" just to justify your misreadings of a narrative and what it is saying.

Tl;DR: Valentino is a compelling character and I'm sick of the fandom pretending otherwise because of purity culture plaguing their critical reading skills.

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Some Holyblades made with love for @misstrashchan

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I believe in Val Tiddies Supremacy!

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I've seen a lot of headcanons about Valentino's past as a human and a popular suggestion is that Valentino was a sex worker when alive.

If I had to put my finger on it, I would say the best idea I have is that Val's history (whatever the show decides to give us anyways) will mirror Angel Dust's.

If we ignore Vox being the de facto leader of the Vees for a moment and center Val as the main one (which he will be next season), then Valentino strongly parallels Angel. He's energetic, flirtatious, charming, funny, often femme-presenting (though he does both) and uncomfortably sexual around others. He's a bug demon just like Angel. He also has an older love interest in Vox who calms him down and that he's softer towards much how like Angel is with in his prospective relationship with Husk. And much like Angel and Cherri, Val has a best friend in Velvette who enables him and stands by him.

So, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Val's experiences in his past would mirror or parallel Angel's current predicament in some way.

That said, let's look at some surface observations that fit closely with the "Val was an abused sex worker in his human life" narrative:

- Valentino will always sexualize and paint himself as desirable every chance he gets. His penthouse is full of posters of himself being a performer. He seems to enjoy and relish in being wanted and desired and never second guesses it. There's even a point to be made about how his spit is commodified into a substance that can make love potions/r*pe drugs. Valentino doesn't hesitate to shed his clothing or dress scantily clad in nearly every scene he's in save for when he's wearing more masculine clothing at work.

It's almost like it's second nature for Valentino and that he knows his entire value is wrapped up in how desired he is. Performing is natural to him.

- Valentino's concept of love seems to be based around it being conditional. He lovebombs people, notably Angel and overwhelms them with his lover boy persona and gets them dependent on him. He's uncomfortably good at what he does and it's not crazy to wonder where he's learned such tactics from. Vivzie noted that while Val is Vox's dumb trophy wife, he's still "very good at what he does". And he is. Emotionally, he's quite adept at manipulating the scenario in Ep 4 until Angel demands for Charlie to leave himself so Val didn't have to. So... one could easily speculate he knows how to manipulate others emotionally because he has experienced it himself through a brutal sex industry in the 70s.

-Look at everything Val does to excuse Vox's behavior in S2. He calls himself dramatic, says Vox is "Just a man". He mutters to himself and walks off after Vox slaps his ass, but still lets Vox get his way while his frustration builds. After the way Vox treats him, Val just... does as Vox wants and gives him Angel too. We know Val's feelings for Vox are something different and real in contrast how he works on others he treats as disposable. The only line Vox crosses is when he tries to blow himself and everyone else up at the end of the season and only then does Val jump in to stop him with Velvette.

But this vulnerable side is definitely curious from Val, who is no stranger to violently ripping apart his best friend's models when he feels his tantrums aren't being listened to.

-Valentino doesn't know what consent means. Take this with a pinch of salt with Vivzie and the crew just joking on the commentary track, but ithe comment is notable. The only reason Val would not know this word is because it was never once used with him in any context in his actual life.

-Val, while being an attention whore, isn't put off by being under constant surveillance from Vox. It's normal to him. Keep in mind, Val has about six cameras in his penthouse on him alone and feels completely comfortable with it.

-Val more than likely has an ED, a trait so many sex workers amd performers struggle with in the industry. Angel also alludes to having something similar when he tells Husk that his lunch was "three cigarettes" in S2 Ep6.

-Val can take being stabbed with really so much as blinking at it. He's also notably great at brawling with his fists. Even though he's usually portrayed with his gun, he seems more adept at scraping by with his hands. It's like he's used to physical pain.

-Vox is prone to grabbing Val and shaking him roughly and Val doesn't have much of a reaction to it at all.

-Valentino is a moth, commonly a preyed upon insect. Spiders eat moths, fun coincidence. Also, moth was once considered slang for a prostitute because moths would linger under lamp posts much like sex workers.

In essence, I think there's a lot of evidence to point to Val's backstory being a big commentary on both the cycle of abuse and the dangers in the sex industry as well as being a tool of contrast for Angel Dust's character as a whole. That said, we don't know if we will get that much, but it is still interesting to speculate and I do believe the subtext is definitely there.