“Hell is not SUPPOSED to be what the overlords are trying to make it.” Is a sentiment related to a thought I’ve had about Alastors character for soooo long. I think Alastor, if you stripped him down to his barest essences, would be made out of blood, pixie dust, and his paramount value for his freedom; autarky. Sure, he’ll give up some of that autonomy to pursue a future goal—but that future goal, at least from wha we’ve seen, has always about securing liberty for himself.
The deal with Vox: An absurd, convoluted plan to free himself of the deal with Rosie, the deal he had concluded wasn’t properly working in his favor regarding the end goal of independence. The deal with Rosie: A (poorly-researched) effort to control the narrative in a place he knew he wouldn’t have an upper-hand. It’s not like he’s ever had the upper hand in the first place, but this time he can prepare, instead of being thrown face first into adversity. What do they say about learning from past mistakes? Like the soul dealing equivalent of “I should’ve bought a house in 1901 when the were 10 dollars. I guess now my only choice is to invest in bitcoin”.
Anyway, what I’m trying to get at here: what Alastor deems as the superior by-product in the cartoonishly grand bid for power isn’t for control over others, but rather control over himself. Sure, controlling others is a fun novelty, but at some point the cat gets bored of batting around a mouse limb-locked into premature rigor mortis and gets up to go lick itself for the rest of the day. Being a leader, someone in an administrative position of power—there’s no appeal in that sort of thing to somebody like Alastor. Because at that point, you’re at the top, but you’re not really independent anymore, are you? I imagine fantasies about ruling hell for some might ring more like a chore to Alastor.
Completely 100% agree. This is part of why Vox's whole Heaven takeover thing was so ridiculous to Alastor: why would you ever want to? That sounds like an enormous amount of work and for what payoff, exactly? To be the king of the mountain? Alright. Then what? What is the POINT.
I also think this is potentially an area from which one could mine immense tragedy of missed opportunities, if you connect it to Vox's whole partnership offer. In terms of like, "having their own hobbies/interests and not being all that engaged by the whole Leadership Thing," Valentino and Velvette have a lot in common with Alastor. And (current circumstances excepted) they reap substantial benefits from being partnered with a guy whose primary hobby is, in fact, being in charge and organized and The Leader. I feel like, if Alastor said yes to Vox's offer way back when, the most immediate upside he would discover would be that Vox is more than happy to accept all responsibility for all administrative leadership tasks in exchange for nothing. He loves that shit. And Alastor still largely wouldn't see the appeal to being as organized as Vox is so intent on being, but if he had to? If there ever came a time where he didn't have a choice? He would be thrilled to pass those chores along.
Like, picture this. Alastor and Vox have their little partnership. We arrive at the time period of the beginning of the show, and let's say that for the purposes of this AU Alastor still has kept the Rosie deal a secret because, you know, he is just deeply embarrassed about it, at bottom.
As a consequence, Vox is just under the impression that Alastor gets bizarre and inconvenient ideas sometimes with no apparent upside, presumably out of boredom, and that Vox just has to go along with this shit when it happens. Usually it's not that long lived or inconvenient (although the 7 year roadtrip/mid-afterlife-crisis was NOT IDEAL).
So, you're Vox. Your (business) partner has finally come back from his latest insane and extremely concerning flight of fancy, and a few very short weeks later he starts telling you about this........................ redemption hotel, which is apparently the wildly-misguided Princess's new passion project. And Alastor wants to be involved.
Why does Alastor want to be involved? Well, Alastor is a crazy person, that probably has something to do with it. Alastor is prone to getting drawn in by unproductive and ridiculous new ideas. And Alastor cannot stand to be bored for even ten minutes.
Okay, fine. This cannot possibly be a worse idea than him disappearing to do god knows what god knows where for almost a decade with little more than periodic check-ins over the radio. So you're Vox, and you decide to support him in this weird and obviously doomed-to-fail venture. Maybe it will at least get your actually functional businesses attention from the monarchy, which would be good? At least there is any conceivable upside to Alastor doing this, unlike the last thing.
So you are like okay Alastor. Sounds like a great idea. Have fun. Tell me all about it.
Then, not two weeks into doing this weird and unprofitable thing ostensibly for fun, Alastor starts coming home annoyed and complaining about it to you at every opportunity, and you're like. So quit??? It sounds like these people do nothing but annoy you?? Also it kind of sounds like they're the types to take a mile when you give an inch, which is not that surprising from royalty but like-- why not stop then?
And Alastor answers all of these very reasonable and very logical suggestions with a mhhhhrrrreeeeeeh no. I don't want to. I want to keep working with them.
But he also wants to keep coming home miserable and complain-y and overworked, because Alastor's idea of being overworked, by this point in his afterlife, is "working a regular job for regular hours."
So, you're Vox. And you are in love with really really fond of Alastor.
And now you're sponsoring the fucking Hazbin Hotel.
Now you are, in fact, placing Voxtek employees as semi-permanent staff members of the Hazbin Hotel, because Alastor's idea of staffing the place was selecting his one most manic and one most depressed contractee (both former Overlords, by the way, which- what the fuck, but anyway) to install as ONE maid and ONE bartender, which is something that only a crazy person would expect to suffice for a successful business.
Because Alastor is not a businessman. He is a crazy person. You have known this all along.
And Alastor's idea of "too much work" is working a single full-time job, but now he is not working a full-time job. He is, instead, advising the Princess of Hell in what appears to be the not-at-all-veiled role of Evil Vizier. And you are working TWO full time jobs-- the regular one that you have as, you know, an Overlord of Hell (and CEO of Voxtek, by the way, and its Chairman of the Board, and-), and also facilities manager of the world's most bizarre and doomed-to-fail hotel.
And at the same time, you are trying to explain to the other Overlords of Hell why you two are doing this ridiculous thing, because it makes no sense and is wildly out of character. If not for Alastor (because Alastor does ridiculous things that make no sense with immense frequency) then at least for you.
And you sort of cobble together, as a terrible excuse, that this is potentially the best option that Hell has available to convince Heaven to stop sending down exorcist angels, which is bad for everyone's business and diminishing everyone's soul holdings.
And everyone thinks that this is bullshit. And everyone thinks that you are just getting dragged along on your face behind Alastor because you love him are very fond of him and he has a zaney idea.
And then Charlie GETS A MEETING WITH HEAVEN.
And the other Overlords are like.
(literally barely able to believe his good fortune)
see? I have all of the best ideas. You should never doubt me, Vox, because only I have the vision required to anticipate these sorts of outcomes.