This is a subject I’ve seen a few posts comment on, usually getting a lot of backlash in the comments defending Alastor’s hotness/rizz cred. I thought it’d be interesting to dive in and try to parse out both whether Alastor is considered unattractive in-universe (as a demon, not a human) and possibly also how he feels about that.
First, as a preliminary statement: Of course Alastor is objectively hot, as a demon. IRL, he’s the most thirsted after character for a reason, after all. He’s gorgeous. But we’re not talking about objective, our world facts here. We’re talking about how he’s perceived in-unvierse. Is anyone in hell (other than Vox, obviously) attracted to this guy, from either a sexual or a platonic standpoint?
Let’s look at the hotel staff first. Charlie? Well, we see Alastor slinking and slithering around her bedroom in ways that would make Vox/most of the fandom orgasm, and she’s mostly weirded or creeped out by it. No signs of attraction there, and while she does come to consider him a friend and is briefly taken in when he flatters her in Dad Beat Dad, for the most part she doesn’t seem to find him charming or personable. Lucifer, definitely not. We’ve seen how he talks to Al. The minute he sees him he dislikes him, he fantasizes about killing him, he insults, derides, and clearly finds him irritating at best. I know people ship them, but there’s no in-universe scene where Lu seems to find Al attractive or charming.
Vaggie seems to find Al a massive headache to talk to and insults him to his face. I know we like to head canon Husk was charmed by him, but he doesn’t reference that. He says he lost his power to him in a card game. It would have been easy to parallel that with Husk and Angel, if Val charmed Angel into his contract and Al did the same. But no. He gambled him for it. Niffty definitely enjoys Alastor’s company, but even she, who comes on to every “bad boy” she meets, doesn’t seem to find him sexually attractive. That leaves Angel, who did briefly come onto Alastor in 1x01. But even Angel calls him “Mr. Fancy Talk Creepy Voice”, and only hits on him once, compared with Husk who he comes onto at every available opportunity. So even the hotel’s horniest staff member doesn’t seem to find Alastor all that attractive, and aside from Nifty, nobody at the hotel seems to like hanging with Al much.
What about the rest of hell? Well, Val and Vel clearly don’t find Al attractive; Val says he doesn’t understand what Vox sees in “that imbecile, when I am here, beautiful, beautiful!”, implying that Alastor isn’t good looking. The people on Vel’s livestream say his hair looks greasy; we haven’t seen any thirst tweets about him in-unvierse as far as I can tell, whereas thirst tweets have been made on the livestreams about every other character who pops up on screen. All 3 vees and Charlie, even at her most unpopular with the public, got thirst tweets. So clearly being an overlord or unpopular with the public doesn’t disqualify you from thirst tweets. There’s Mimzy, who seems to like his company somewhat, but she did know him asa human, so it’s debatable if that counts. I can’t find anyone in-nuvierse who has called Alastor attractive, and very few who seem to find him charming or personable. (An interesting contrast with Vox, whose charisma is basically his only superpower.)
Now, I also don’t think this is for lack of Alastor trying! It’s not that he just doesn’t give a fuck, since obviously he needs people to trust or work with him. He does try often to be charming and pleasant on first meeting. In the “Day in the Afterlife” comic, it even seems to somewhat bother him that people run away on seeing him. He’s really irritated that Lucifer almost immediately hates him, since his initial comments to the king are mostly pleasant. He’s annoyed that Carmilla doesn’t want to pay attention to him. He definitely wants to be able to charm people into doing what he wants, like he could in real life. For instance, when Husk talks to him in 1x05, his first instinct is to charm and sweet talk him into not worrying about it. Husk pushes him too far and he finally snaps and relies on intimidation. But charm is clearly his go-to instinct: He tries to charm Rosie into letting him quit the hotel in 2x04, He obviously weaponizes his charm and sex appeal against Vox in s2, the only person it actually works on, he tries to smooth talk Charlie in 1x07 and she’s having none of it; he has to basically blackmail her into making a deal with him. This all contrasts dramatically with Vox, who when he’s at his best can persuade other Overlords, who you’d assume would be smarter than that, into going along with his ridiculous plans on sheer charisma points alone.
What does make this interesting, too, is that in contrast, alongside his rizz points, Vox appears to be an in-universe sex symbol. He’s part of the Vees, who are considered hot, and in-universe was voted the hottest person in hell. Which on the surface makes no sense. Alastor is a humanoid bishonen with a slightly awkward haircut and creepy smile, Vox has a freaking TV for a head. (Not saying I don’t get the IRL Vox thirst, I 1000% do). But objectively speaking, it doesn’t make any sense that hell finds TV-head man hotter than Alastor. I think it’s somewhat comparable to Toons in Roger Rabbit - Roger is to Toons a more eligible catch than Jessica because he’s funnier and a star, whereas humans see a pinup dating a goofy bunny. Maybe since most of hell is demonoid, sex appeal has less to do with being conventionally pretty and more to do with vibes and aura. But in any case, it is pretty clear that in-unvierse Alastor is considered less attractive than Vox, and indeed doesn’t seem to be regarded as attractive, charming, or appealing - facts that obviously annoy him, despite how much he likes being feared, probably because 1, he was used to being able to smooth-talk and charm people as a human, and 2. It makes to harder to get what he wants. However, it’s also true that this doesn’t seem to bother him as much as you’d think it would, and while a lot of that maybe yes, is because he likes being feared, I think there’s another factor in why he isn’t quite so miffed as you’d think he’d be:
Because he’s spent 70+ years with Vox being obsessed with him. He’s had someone who must make him feel attractive and sexy, who is so weak for him it makes him stupid, for most of his afterlife. Even if most of hell finds him creepy and off-putting, and even if Vox is constantly trying to pretend he’s over him, Vox finds him attractive, and I’d imagine alongside Vox’s adoration for his other qualities, that’s gotta make Alastor feel good. So I’d imagine that he’s never become too insecure about his appeal because hey, if hell’s “hottest” bachelor is still into him, then he must still have it. I’d imagine that validation has felt pretty good, especially if everyone else acts like he’s creepy and unappealing now. Among, of course, the other forms of validation Vox’s interest in him has provided.
I mean, like the posts have said, I’m sure Alastor does in part enjoy being feared and seen as scary, but I also think he doesn’t like that people aren’t as easily drawn in by him as they used to be. This post theorized it’s part of his punishment (especially of the theory that he drew his victims in with his femme fatale-style seduction is true, probably meant to be part of his karma) to be seen as less pretty in hell. Alastor does rely on charisma as much as on fear, and I think it does in fact annoy him that it doesn’t work as well anymore. Except with Vox. Who won’t be available to thirst after him in the near future. Very interesting to see how Alastor will cope with the only person in hell who seems to find him attractive being MIA now.
Again, objectively, Alastor is hot and charismatic. It just seems like nobody, one TV-headed idiot excepted, seems to find him so in-universe.
bridgets_garden: @josephineskriver
Happy birthday to my eternal queen jojo ❤️❤️❤️
You are really beautiful inside and out😻
Your smile always makes me happy 🌷
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