(I wrote big analysis youtube comment and thought... that's too long for youtube. Not to long for tumblr though!!! 😆)
(I don't know why I scribbled out my name. Oh well. I just put these here to add context. Also, I can't shut up.)
Why I think Alastor of Hazbin Hotel has Trauma and not Insanity. You are welcome (to apose by view in the comments lol)
(One more note, quickly. I totally forgot the question. So I am also answering why I think Alastor is a serial killer even though Cannon has shown no evidence of this yet in Alastor's Earth Life. We're all excited for it in season 2 baby! But... I did that. Sorry not sorry)
@ThatOneInnaMillion A lot of it is from psychology. Researching how attachment theory works. Personal Experience.
I have CPTSD. PTSD, DID. I came from two families with strong generational trauma. My father's mother was a schizophrenic refuge from world war 2 who I never got to know. My mother's parents were abusive, manipulative, and she holds it to this day.
When my father got angry - and we never knew why - he had a bad habbit of throwing things. My mother has enough trust issues to blow up the sun. They both act in similar ways. Getting angry and defensive. A coping mechanism I have seen often before.
I myself, as a five year old, have a vivid memory of trying to dissociate from panic attacks. I'd imagine my favourite characters being tortured, only for their friends to have to pick up the pieces, in a way that was sweet, but sad. The image I had seen, the stereotypes of the genius who killed animals for fun made no sense to me. If they never saw it, how did they get that image. (Now, I'd never seen a pony dipped in multen lava as a five year old, but I think the sting was what was there. Anyway)
I don't know if Vivzie-Pop even recognises if she wrote Alastor this way.
Attachment theory wise, there are 3 attachment styles. They come from how our parents treated us (first 6 years is everything, a DID standard. Not proven but standard. Also in Where Did We Come From - a book written with Oprah and a professional someone) The general thing is that there are two sides. You're either anxiously attached - scared reacting to parent - or avoidant - trying to keep away from the other and not get attached - and these styles typically are life long and reflect how your parents made you feel as a child. It can also be both.
The way Alastor reacts to people, as I mentioned, I would say falls under bother. When people are triggered (Like how he reacted to Sir Pentious tearing his coat) they go a bit off the deep end. A flashback, even if just emotional. I think that would explain how he could have a calm conversation with Charlie, Vox, or Lucifer even, looking calm and sophisticated, but then, suddenly, act all crazy and enjoy shaking sir pentious for the absolute love of it. Finishing the cycle, like with Sir Pentious in the prologue, he was able to shake the triggers off and react accordingly. The first thing he though about after his triggers was a comfort action. Fix his coat, his mother and food and homemade food. Away from the triggering sensations and situations, and in the point of food, or a tradition of getting coat adjustments, a calming, physically grounding repetition. That's how you ground after an anxiety attack or a flashback. Even if he doesn't know he has PTSD of any sort, he acts accordingly.
Now, attachment wise, I think this plays best with Lucifer's seen. You could also compare Lucifer's song with his deal with Charlie. To give a baseboard, the calmness he experiences when verbally sparing Vox from afar, the way he swings back, doesn't react chaotically at all. Charming, swooningly so. I think that is his base level. Away from everyone, in his radio tower, telling the truth and outing people. There is a build to winning, that's when he started reacting big, when he knew he one. Towering. Making sure everyone was scared of him. We see this with Charlie as well, the way his stitches split at their deal, the way he stands over her, touches her, asserts dominance, to some degree. I think it shows he has a pattern. When he thinks he is winning, he expects to be brought down a peg. Another great example of this is in the pilot, when Charlie allows him to stay in the hotel. He starts humming, walking around. You could say it is grounding, settling. But then, he goes to Vaggie (the woman with an angel spear. Who could probably kill him) and riles her up. He thought he won, but he expects someone to come back to get him, so he bites at whoever is around to make sure it doesn't happen. Vaggie is probably the only one who could do that. Not that she would, she isn't as powerful as him. But it's a threat enough. She is made, distracted, and not fighting back. After that, he seems to settle again, until his song. Each time he reveals his intentions, he pushes Vaggie out of the way. I think that could be a sign as well.
If I'm not stating it clearly, put it like this. All Bark, no Bite. The fight response is a trauma response in which you fight to stay alive when threatened. In social situations, this looks like threatening violence back. If you threaten the other person first, they may be too scared to come back and get you. He does it with Vaggie, and Lucifer especially.
Lucifer is someone way more powerful than Alastor. To the point he could probably end his life with relative ease. The same could be said for Adam. Anyone with a trauma disorder knows what danger looks like. Alastor put himself out of kahoots with Mimizy earlier, knowing how serious and dangerous that could be for him. And then, he fought Adam. As soon as he threatened to kill Adam right at the start, I think that was him. Scared, and threatening. It was explained to everyone angels couldn't be killed without Angelic Weapons, and Alastor was told to be a serial killer. Vivzie confirmed that as being true in her reaction to the fan song 'Daisies', and further, in a visual commic she realided on Alastor (that I have not read, but apparently some of the scenes and themes match up)
I think that it fits his character. Planning and calculated are words I think fit Alastor. Another trauma response is Fawning. Acting pleasently to the people who have power over you. Trying to get in their good graces. Alastor does this (but he isn't very good, I think that's why it rubs people the wrong way), and the way he does it gives serial killer vibes because that's what he thinks is right and good. Killing and threatening to live another day. He praises Charlie for it, and he sounds Genuine when he does the same to Rosie. It sounds like he's sucking up when he says she's 'strong and most deadly on this side of the pentegram'. I think that's because he is, she loves the way he is praising her. If he said the same to Lucifer, Lucifer would be insulted. Even Charlie is. But Rosie and Alastor's morals line up, because they are both calculated people proud of surviving. They both judge people based on how well they can survive, another thing people with trauma do. When you face loss, and you loose people you love, and it happens over and over, the best thing you can do is find people who don't dissapear. People with survival skills.
I think this especially shows with his first interactions with most people. With Angel Dust, the first thing he asks is 'what do you do.' Not, who are you, not how are you, not a judge of his personality or temperaments. A riling question asked in a way that makes threats of the person in question not being good enough. To want to prove themselves. Cuts straight to the point. He saw one look at Vaggie's fighting and heard her talking Charlie and saw her worth, to some degree. And Charlie is an unkillable person, more powerful than most people in the room, so she's good. Again, with Sir Pentious, especially with his first appearance in episode 2, Alastor threatens him by saying he isn't worth remembering. Forgettable. And it makes Sir Pentious act sneaky, wanting respect. It trigger's Alastor, but when Alastor sees him again, he reacts the same way. A threat, waiting for a rebuttal. And then, he sees the man learning from Charlie, changing, being respectful. It means he's not a threat. Weak willed maybe, but not a threat to Alastor in that way. He was more worried about Vox. But he didn't trust Pentious to be a tool Vox could use anymore, because of how he saw Pentious's character from their interactions. Judging from afar.
Alastor did try and rile Lucifer up to start with, but Lucifer refused to take the bait. To some degree, if Alastor didn't keep pushing, he would have never gotten to see how Lucifer truly acted. An unknown player is worse than any other player on the board, specifically because you don't know how they would react. A thing I know from person experience with these disorders. Keeping yourself on guard all the time over something you don't know the capabilities of is a lot of energy that could be spent on something else. If Lucifer was powerful and territorial over his daughter he could have teleported Alastor into a separate room and wrung his neck easy as. But, he also may not be as powerful, sickened from mental illness, scardy, not wanting to hurt things, a morally sound peacekeeper. And since he is also a recluse, Alastor couldn't tell, not really. The enemy you understand is better and more efficient than the enemy you don't know. Something I think that also shows with how freaked out Alastor gets when talking about his deal after the fight. He doesn't know what they could and will decide to do, and they have control of his every move. Whoever owns Alastor's soul could force him to give up everything he has worked hard to build up, like the Hotel and his relationship with Charlie, whenever they want to. They haven't. But it's the sort of exhausting thing where you keep waiting for it to happen, even when it doesn't, even when it never has, even if it's been years. You wait and it doesn't happen and you wait some more. Because it only has to happen once. And it will happen, most likely, when you aren't expecting it.
This is another trauma characteristic. To never be weak, to always be smiling. It makes it so people can't judge when you are vulnerable. Another fight-response characteristic. Because when you are weak, and someone stabs you, it will hurt more, it will take longer to heal. Emotionally, physically. Like how Charlie reacted to loosing the court case AND THEN Vaggie being outed - she couldn't handle it. Alastor knows that if any single thing falls down, any person who has something against him will come swooping down. And he can't afford for that to happen.
To some degree, this says he is already weak. And he acts like he has a disabling trauma disorder, he acts like he has flashbacks, so maybe he is. Or maybe, it happened in the past, and he doesn't think his mind could handle it happening again. Either way, he is so terrified that it might happen that he spends every waking moment putting on a facade of being perfectly alright. Another trauma response. Any normal person would think it is a waste of time. Anyone without trust issues would think it's useless or stupid. It's signalling that he has something to hide. All the time. And when Alastor goes from scared and chill cucumber to murdering hoards of demons like he does in Episode 5, it shows. It shows how much of liar he is, his instability (which scares people away), but for people like Lucifer it gives away that he isn't as powerful as he says he is. It gives desperation. It gives scared mouse energy. Which is extremely dangerous for people like Alastor. Because, it builds into the narrative, it gives people a reason to go after him, because he is weak, because he will go down hard. It is clearly a matter of when, which means Alastor can't afford to be caught out and so he has to spend a lot of energy making sure nobody can tell if he's at a weakened state or not, which makes the worry worth it and continues the spiral.
(I live like this, personally. I don't recommended. 0 out of 10 stars)
When the idea that everything is going to fall apart is over your head, you make sure to cover all your bases. The fact that Alastor kills the demons in episode 5 like they mean nothing, and further sir pentious, make me think there is a practiced safety to killing other demons, along with Vaggie and Mimzy saying it and the rumours. But it seems almost cathartic, makes Alastor almodt giddy, like it's the only time he gets stress relief and doesn't have to worry about keeping up his mental facade in the whole cycle. Same as his deal making. This is something we call a negative-coping-mechanism. An Unhealthy-coping-mechanism.
People with stable attachment styles (developed the first 6-ish years of their life with stable parents and proper fostering) typically develop healthy coping mechanisms, even if life goes to shit after that point, it takes a lot more effort to keep them down, and they typically rebound really fast with minimal support (again, it's in that Where Do You Come From book, if you want a resource. By Oprah. I got rid of it but it was extremely useful and good). In contrast, people with a bad first 6 years typically don't have any coping mechanisms that help, so they scramble for whatever they can get. And it takes a lot more and therapy, and a lot less effort on the universes parts for them to fall down again. In therapy, you basically have to do 'reparentification' in that situation. When something goes wrong, you have to sit yourself down, like a child, and give yourself calming a reassurance. It takes time and energy and is exhausting, and typically humiliating and embarrassing for a person who sees the rest of the world not having to partake. And that shame an embarrassment leads to needing more coping mechanisms, and so they turn back to what they know best.
When nothing else worked for Alastor, he resorted to killing people. That's why I believe the serial killer rumours are true. If he can't manipulate a way to get people to show their cards and act in line, he murders people.
I also think it might explain how he fought with Adam. It really struck me as out of character how the fight went down. But, I think it may have been the first time in a while where he actually wasfighting for something that wasn't himself. He always takes on weaker people because it makes him look stronger.He took out the bigger overlordsprivately, nobody in Hell knew where they went. But to me, it wouldn't suit Alastor's character for him to fight with a loosing chance at most things. I think he might have been used to finding their weaknesses in advance, or for going after one-shot killing blows. Waiting for a vulnerability like his shadow found in Adam. I wonder if any overlord had ever even had to see Alastor big and surrounded by shadow minions. Because it seems like the sort of thing he'd only let people who were too weak to matter see, whether or not they lived to see the tale.
If that is the case, it feels like we got to see the Alastor everyone else kn Hell sees first hand in the Finale. Because that's what he wanted us to see. But then, he got hit by Adam. I don't see a place in any book where that is a good look for Alastor. Which makes me think it wasn't planned. But Alastor strikes me as the type who needs a plan for everything, otherwise he starts going insane, like he did with his deal, and how he reacted to that in the finale song.
That's what I have in summary. Psychology notes (I tried to diagnose myself as a kid. That was ten years ago. I wouldn't go to anyone unless I was 100% sure, so I spent a lot of time on it), personal experiences, canon evidence I believe fits the bill. You could say this was a theory. But in my opinion? If Vivzie doesn't consider half of this before writing Alastor's next moves, it would be a big mistake. She wrote such a specific character. He wasn't written just for jokes or burns. He is complex. On purpose, and I believe for a good reason. The stars are all lined up, coincident or not, a think she should use them. It would be really good rep. And further, I think it is the answer to the Hazbin Hotel moral dilemma. Nobody chooses to be bad, unless it benefits them. Immoral behaviours are practiced unhealthy coping mechanisms, soothing repitition. Hell should probably be a psych ward. But we'll see how that goes.
