I genuinly want a hh/hb rewrite it would be peak
If I were to write the story from the ground up, I would have focused more on the idea that Heaven and Hell are unimportant. I actually liked the idea of people being sent to either one on arbitrary criteria that exists outside of morality, as I am a moral nihilist.
I would have focused the plot of Angel Dust on the idea that redemption is personal. You aren't seeking to be redeemed by others for them not being able to use you. The idea of owing others is debilitating psychologically. There are consequences to actions and people have a right to their feelings, but you don't owe others happiness or fulfillment. The only person who you should seek to redeem yourself to is yourself.
Psychologically speaking, expectation is the death of happiness. When one expects to receive a gift, they will be emotionally devastated when that expectation isn't met. Additionally, we as a generation (at least my fellow millennials) were raised to deflect negativity inward. What about us is wrong or failing to explain why others don't want to meet our expectations. It's a cycle of demoralization, low self esteem, identity crisis, imposter syndrome, and ultimately poor mental health.
As such, I would have framed Hell as Camus frames the universe: apathetic and uncaring to you, your happiness, your pain, your existence. And Angel Dust would have been my philosophical vehicle to how one would find happiness in the face of that. Because that is what Camus argues for in The Myth of Sisyphus.
We have to be comfortable being alone before we can have a healthy relationship with anyone else.
The best visualization of humanity, person to person, has to be in The Midnight Gospel where Clancy and his mother are visualized as planets. Whole worlds of their own that sustain themselves. And while he loses pieces of himself as she leaves him, engulfed in a black hole, he is still alive and is expected to move forward, for no one's benefit but his own. The idea that he is a planet shows how that expectation manifests. We have pieces of ourselves tied to others, but our ecosystem is self-regulated.
And Angel Dust as a character is the perfect example of someone who is incapable of being alone. He sold his soul to Valentino for some gold plated validation. The appearance of security, that someone else would take care of him for him. And when Valentino shows himself to be a bad actor, Angel Dust does nothing in the main series. He keeps the status quo, at most whining and complaining about how he does nothing, until he has some other person to chase.
The flaw of Angel Dust's character is his personal disregard for himself. His self destruction is a solid trait to focus on, but not validate. I would push Angel in finding happiness in the face of his choices. Learning to be proactive for himself in a way the show actually seems to devalue. Angel Dust is framed as a better person for allowing himself to be taken advantage of, but protecting his friends. But that sort of mentality is no different than him hoping someone will break him or save him to get him out of his choices.
It also leaves people who identify with Angel Dust waiting on a savior that will never come.
Slowing down the narrative and focusing heavily on characters and their wants vs needs is more important to me as someone in my 30s. I would imagine my audience being older teens to young adults who are just realizing that 18 isn't the end. You aren't going to wake up on your birthday and suddenly have it all figured out for another decade, but you are suddenly thrown into a world that has no concern for you. All your protections as children are stripped away, no one is looking out for you. Meanwhile, you have no idea who you are or how you fit into this circus called society.
Especially now with politics and the social climate we are in, I would treat it as a way of educating this demographic on how to care for themselves metaphysically through philosophy and psychology. Stripping the concepts of religion from the idea of a god, because he will never answer you. You will not be saved.
I would have probably designed my story around the idea of Steven Universe, but for adults. Bojack Horseman, but for people who don't understand the existential philosophy surrounding the plot.
And ultimately I think that is where Hazbin fell off at the starting line. It didn't have a concept of why it exists or for whom. It's a show for Vivienne Medrano that offers nothing for anyone watching. It wasn't designed for an audience, and any audience who felt it was is only providing validation to Medrano herself. It is a vapid empathy sink that only cashes back in Medrano's ego when storytelling has always been about more than just the author.
Mary Shelley writing about Frankenstein was one part a friendly competition to see who could write the most scary story. But it was another two parts of Shelley injecting questions of her soul:
Scientific study was on the rise and religion vs science was having a resurgence. For many people in her time, science was a means of replacing God. It isn't a coincidence that Frankenstein was written in 1816 and philosopher Frederick Nietzsche was born in 1844. He would have grown up alongside this work that has never fallen from popularity. The entire 19th century was marked by exponential scientific growth and philosophical recalibration.
As such, Shelley's work tackled many of the concepts philosophers would argue over in the coming two centuries. Especially so early in the era, Frankenstein explicitly tackled the idea "what if God was so horrified by his creation that he abandoned it?" It's why Frankenstein exists not just as science fiction, but existential horror.
I'm posting this picture again, because this will always matter, always be relevant, and always help when formulating a creative idea.
I apologize for not having a real rewrite, as I don't have much desire to think point by point how I would have done the show differently. Mainly because television requires some flexibility in where the story will go, but I have foundational rules and structural concepts as to what is important to tell or why this story exists.
