spill the beans: Why do you like Vaggi? The fans want to know. 😋
Oh boy lemme just-
Short answer : Pure unfilthered ANGST
(longer answer - 4980 words - 4 hours of read ahead)
I’m going to nerd out about storytelling for a moment~
Vaggi is a heartbreaking character and honestly I thought that was it but I couldn't tell why SHE's my fave, because Angel also suffers a LOT yet he's not my favourite (he was in my TOP3 post S1 so he's still high).
What makes Vaggi heartbreaking isn’t that she suffers. It’s the way the narrative treats her suffering as mundane because she treats it that way herself.
Most stories handle trauma like this:
1- The character is visibly distressed and someone notices, validating the pain.
2- The character wears a social mask, consciously hiding their feelings until it eventually cracks. Angel is a professionnal when it comes to that one
(We see both of these with Vaggi at different points, although we never had the 2nd one in a scene except for when she was hiding her secret, which isn't really about her raw emotions and more about secrecy)
But there’s a 3rd approach, and it’s the cruelest one: When a character's reality is painful but the character themselves don't acknowledge it.
Vaggi is traumatized, she doesn’t hide it, she doesn’t 'dwell' on it either. She puts it aside and just...goes back to work.
This is obviously due to her past as an exorcist but I do believe it also serves her main/fatal flaw.
When she's hurt, what's her next move? She goes make a deal with Carmilla, she goes support her gf during a trial, she takes a brief moment then come back to apologize to Charlie.
(I couldn't find the GIF so here's my self promo)
After a PTSD episode, she returns to handling tasks for the guest. Despite being emotionnally ignored by Charlie most of S2, she still reassures her and says it's okay because she loves her.
She litteraly threw her owns wings (confirmed by Vivziepop), hide her uniform, isolates herself and waits to die.
It's not as simple as 'she's mentally strong' it's deeper, it's litteraly self erasure.
On the surface, Vaggi appears fine. But someone whose first instinct after failure is saying “If I can’t help you, what’s the point of me?” is NOT fine.
(fun fact it's actually this specific line that got me instantly interested in Vaggi)
She isn’t hiding this belief out of shame. She thinks it's justified. That’s why I don’t think she wears a social mask when it comes to her self-worth (at least not from what I saw in S1 & 2) even though she carefully filters many other parts of herself. There's an 'oblivious' despair not in a sense that she doesn't know she's traumatized but more like she thinks she's processing it properly by compartmentalizing her emotions and never acknowledging her past.
This is not okay, and that’s exactly why it’s so compelling to me.
I’m waiting for the moment when the others truly notice. Not just for a brief scene or a quick 'read' from Husk but for good. That’s what I'm craving for.
I want Charlie to truly notice her pain, to TALK about her past (Like I'm pretty sure Charlie doesn't know about the woman from Vaggi's past), and to take better care of her. I want Carmilla to become this mother figure and give her some tough love, I want her to be friend with Nifty, Angel, Baxter, Alastor etc. Every time a wholesome moment happens to Vaggi, it feels incredibly rewarding. That kind of comfort is addictive.
But I also don’t want the angst to disappear. I want Vaggi to confront the uncomfortable parts of herself. I want her to face her fear of abandonment and learn how to exist as an individual, not just as someone defined by devotion.
That tension is exactly why I love this character. It hits the perfect emotional soft spot for me, while also being endlessly fascinating to analyze from a creator’s perspective.
(I didn't mention it but I also love characters who are unapologetically devoted to their love, but I feel like it's more Chaggie related than just about Vaggi)
