This is your hazbin hotel warning so sorry š«¶š«¶š«¶
OKAY SO, a thing I havenāt seen this fandom consider is that Alastor doesnāt deal in souls. Or, not often at least.
If there has Iād honestly like to see the posts bc this is a thought Iāve seen basically just me and my sister talk about. He doesnāt careāIād even argue he thinks heās too good to do so, thinks itās too easy.
Thereās a couple reasons I believe this, one of which being his backstory arriving in hell. Let it be known, the reason all of hell was impressed by his takeover as the radio demon was solely because he does not own any industry. He doesnāt have some company heās been building for several decades. He didnāt join in with other overlords for shared power. He arrived in hell, and disrupted the power structure of overlords, and sinners. (Weāll get back to this later)
And the reason all of these overlords own major industries, famous for their insane production value and craft, is because the way that overlords gain power is through souls. Employment therefore being THROUGH these contracts (Iām going to refer to deals having to do with souls as contracts from now on, just to make a distinction). This is why Angel is owned by Valentino as a pornstar. Itās why Vox can just ācall up the lowest earners this monthā for Valentino to shoot for sport. Itās why Velvette can call her models hideous and let Valentino tear apart her best model. None of these souls, these employees, have any say in what or when or who their employers say they have to do. They simply do not have the autonomy to do so.
Now this calls in the question then, how did Alastor gain his overlord powers? If he owns souls, they are either ones he was given or earned from other overlords (ex, Alastor wins all of huskerās souls in a game of poker, leaving him powerless, and making his deal in the first place), or they were given to him by an overlord themself. Alastor CAN make souls stay at the hotel, but presumably, itās not because he owns them.
If Alastor owned any other souls than Nifty and Huskās, they would already be working at the hotel. We get back to that employment dynamic, contracts are means of living. None of these sinners had a choice because sinners have to make contracts to live.
Now, okay, weāve established why Alastorās overlord status is confusing and honestly makes no sense, why overlords are even overlords in the first place, the class metaphor and dynamic of the whole situation, AND why we know Alastor doesnāt own that many souls.
Now, I present you this: Alastor does not want Charlieās soul. Alastor, wants to be rid of the overlord class completely.
LET ME PREFACE THIS BY SAYING: I KNOW The current ideas in the fandom of Alastor are that he wants more power. But, to be honest, the last scene with his character feels disingenuous to this idea.
Clearly, heās in a deal with someone else. Clearly, this system has affected him too. Clearly, he just wants an out in the first place.
So, letās go back to when Alastor first arrives in hell. Mimzy narrates how people dismissed him. How he wasnāt taken seriously. And then, proceeds to imply that targeting overlords for his radio show was to show said strength. Because Alastor was not someone to be dismissed.
And this characterization furthers in the episode itself: Alastor immediately has some beef with Lucifer because heās a far more powerful being who wanted to dismiss his presence in the first place, preferring his daughter. Where they then have a pissing contest musical number, and Alastor generally dislikes him afterwords. My man even wipes his hand on his shirt after shaking his staff.
Not only that, but when Husk even IMPLIES that heās not strong enough to handle whatever Mimzy has gotten herself into this time, that heās still someone on a leash, he rampages on a killing spree to prove that heās āstill the baddass radio demonā.
This isnāt even mentioning when Carmilla said she wasnāt curious as to why he was gone. He needs to be important, to be noticed.
I understand that Alastor is genuinely someone who must prove themself and show their strength. Itās probably why he became a serial killer in the first place.
However, I think thereās a deeper intention with solely targeting overlordsāone of his only contracts is with Husker, an ex overlord. The question would also be, why would he not put husk in his radio show as well?
Clearly, based on the fact that he warns him that Mimzy is just using him, that sheās a fake friend, they at the very least were amicable with each other. At some point. Maybe even still are. They STILL banter. And this isnāt to say itās some weird āIām in love with my kidnapper uwuā situation, this happened well before they were in a contract together in the first place.
Not only that, but Husker earned his souls, and therefore his power and overlord status, through gambling. He didnāt have some big scary industry, he wasnāt trapping people in these forever deals because they had no choice, he gained these through the unethical means of others. Maybeā¦ Alastor believed that the ways in which he dealt souls, were different.
I canāt help but think that the company entirely surrounding taking away consent is the ONE COMPANY/THREE OVERLORDS that Alastor simply does not fuck with.
Not only that, but the only other overlord heās friendly with is one thatā¦ just genuinely helps the people she employs? Just give them advice? Makes it THEIR CHOICE to march with someone else into battle? I love Rosie.
This isnāt to say Alastor is some saint that cares super oober deeply about consent. He doesnāt. If he did he wouldnāt be associating with overlords in the first place. He wouldnāt be taking advantage of people in such lowly positions.
All of this is to build the argument that Alastor does not own souls, nor associate with people who own them in irresponsible or unnecessarily cruel ways.
And, to further this point, Alastor most likely thinks itās stupid in the first place.
In the pilot (which I understand isnāt COMPLETELY canon but itās still Alastorās character so. Whatever) Alastor almost immediately tries to jump Charlie with a deal. Work at the hotel, in exchangeā¦?
But notice that this does not include ownership of her soul. At all.
In episode 7 before Charlie makes her deal, she asks, āYou wantā¦my soul?ā And while he has this weird radio-y affect that goes all over the place while he says āyour soulā, he also immediately replies in the most babying voice ever āHeavens no!ā Like the very idea of needing her soul was silly. Ridiculous. Idiotic.
And, not only this, but when Vaggie bursts in to try and āsaveā her, he also rolls his eyes as he says āoh relax, she still owns her soul.ā Again, babying. Infantilizing. Ridiculous.
It, again, feels like he doesnāt take the concept seriously. Like he thinks theyāre almost too easy. To me, itās clear he never wanted her soul. Heās always been far more interested in what Charlie can do for him, and what she can do with her dream.
Owning Charlieās soul would simply give power over her, and her alone. Even in the interpretation that he āwants more powerā sheās still just one person, one soul, one hell born. Itās so small inmemorable in the grand scheme of things. If he really wanted power through means of souls, he would fight the upward battle of capitalist destruction that is the overlord monetary system.
SO THIS IS ALL OVER THE PLACE, AND I ALSO WANTED TO WRAP THIS UP WITH ALASTORāS TRUE MOTIVATION BEING DISRUPTING POWERābut this is also far too long and Iāve been writing for like. An hour straight lmao. I need a break and I wanna post this. So.
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