So I decided to make a video about the mildest take I have about Hazbin Hotel rather than my wildest. Mostly because talking about how my favourite pilot character Angel Dust got FLANDERIZED, and somehow ended up as my LEAST favourite season 1 character, seems like a great way to start an internet flame war. This seems less likely to. It’s also something I’ve seen almost no one talk about.
Vaggie’s character ‘arc’ is more of a circle.
Now, you might be shaking your head and thinking, Vaggie has no character arc. Conversely, you might be thinking to yourself that she does have a character arc about that whole ‘fighting for love’ thing.
And sure, you’re awesome, talented, funny, and smart. But here’s why you’re wrong, about this.
Firstly, Vaggie’s character has no actual arc to learn to fight for love. She literally sings about being Charlie’s armour and doing this for her a few episodes before the ‘you should fight for love’ scene, with no hints between the two that her attitude has changed.
Secondly she does, despite this, have an arc. It’s just not presented in a linear fashion. It starts in spoiler country, with her backstory.
Vaggie starts off as a soldier and bodyguard, working to further the goals of someone around whom her life revolves. She puts these goals before her own. This person doesn’t have a lot of boundaries with her, and appears to make sexual advances towards her. If Adam naming her after… um… ‘his favourite thing ever’ is any indication. This is presented as a bad situation because the person she’s putting before her own interests is a bad person.
Then, Vaggie rebels because she’s asked to kill a child. Ok. The reason she rebels is specifically because she’s asked to do something bad.
Then, after being injured and discarded for this act of rebellion she-
Immediately, literally immediately, meets the next person around whom her life will revolve. Someone whose goals she puts before her own. Someone she works as a soldier and bodyguard for. This person doesn’t have a lot of boundaries with her, and they are in (a less exploitative but still) intimate relationship. This is presented as a good situation because the person she’s putting before herself is a good person.
This isn’t really that different of a situation.
It’s kind of like a character ‘arc’ in a sitcom, where a character ends up almost exactly where they started with very little introspection. But… this is not a sitcom or a storyline that’s played for humour. In my opinion, it just doesn’t work.
Devoting her life to “good person Charlie”, rather than “bad person Adam”, still doesn’t fix the underlying problem - which is that Vaggie defines herself by other people and the goals of other people, and as far as we know she has very little identity of her own.
If the writers need a character arc for season 2, they could try this for something less circular. Vaggie realises how similarly she acts to when she was an angel, and starts rebelling against Charlie in some way shape or form. She does this expecting to get rejected, but she isn’t. Vaggie escalates the rebellion, until it causes a major problem for the hotel. Her and Charlie get into a big fight, and Vaggie STILL doesn’t get rejected. This leads to her realising how badly she was handling this, apologising, but also explaining that she needs boundaries. And I don’t know, maybe Charlie gives her Thursdays off from the hotel and she uses those days to learn more about herself and grow as an individual.
There you go, I didn’t put a huge amount of effort into that, but it’s an arc and not a circle.
Anyway, did you personally find Vaggie’s season 1 character circle satisfying? What kind of character arc would you prefer to see in season 2? Please comment below.
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