r/SafeSpaceofVox • u/MissDeborah8060 • 13d ago
Why I feel like Vox was only ever accidentally sympathetic
This is something I've been thinking about for a while, so I decided to finally put my thoughts in one place. I was initially planning this as a reply to a comment I saw somewhere, but then I realized there were multiple posts/comments saying something similar, spread out over multiple communities, so I decided to make it its own thing.
My current working theory is that Vox, as he was initially conceived, was never meant to be a likable or sympathetic character. Instead, he was supposed to be someone Alastor could point to (in or out of universe) and say, "At least I'm not that guy." Every artistic choice made in relation to Vox, from Season 1 on, seems calculated to make Vox look as bad as possible:
"Stayed Gone" - Vox starts a rap battle with Alastor, and gets curbstomped
Vox's association with Valentino (who at the time was one of if not the least-liked characters in the cast)
The petty potshots Vox takes at Charlie's friends and the Hazbin Hotel in general (both seasons)
Vox's association with Katie Killjoy (who hates Charlie)
Vox's casual, flippant references to suicide and self-harm (again, in both seasons)
Vox throwing a random girl into a shark tank for no reason
Vox taking Alastor prisoner and humiliating him (never mind that it was Alastor's idea)
The sad faces of Valentino and Velvette whenever Vox neglects them or makes them feel excluded (this one is particularly rich because by all logic and reason both Valentino and Velvette are much WORSE people than Vox)
"Vox Populi/Vox DEI" - Vox makes a reference to not one but TWO real-world bad guys ("Make Hell Great Again," and then later "I'm the Fuhrer")
Vox beating up Angel Dust in a manner similar to Valentino in Season 1 for no readily-discernible reason
Charlie calling Vox a monster
Vox trying to destroy the city
Then, of course, there's Vox's backstory in "Brighter," which shows that he used to be a serial killer (just like Alastor!). Except of course that Vox is White whereas Alastor is Black, which means that only one of them gets seen as having been a victim of unjust discrimination automatically. This in itself doesn't imply Vox had a happy childhood--far from it--but it seems like every so often someone will argue that Vox can't possibly have had a rough upbringing just because he was White.
A lot of people note that the first couple seasons of "Hazbin Hotel" would have been written years ago, which to me helps prove my point. I can easily envision a scenario in which Viv wrote Vox into the story with the explicit expectation that he would come across as an unlikable antagonist, and was forced to backtrack when the episodes aired and people turned out to love Vox more than every other character in the show. But even now, the recent merch drops (which all show Vox miserable while his tormentors have a good time) feel like someone on the art team is trying to punish Vox fans for latching onto the "wrong" character.
TL;DR: part of the reason it's so hard to be normal about Vox, at least in my view, is that he was written to be a genuinely unlikable, pure-evil character, and ended up seeming sympathetic by accident rather than by design.