Hi there! I have a ticket to a con with Hazbin VAs in attendance, and I want to try and meet at least one of the VAs there. I'm a grown adult who's been going to cons for over a decade, so very much not a new con-goer. I've just never been into the "meeting celebrities" aspect of it -- but for this one, I kinda wanna give it a try.

If you join the line to see one of the VAs, does that mean they expect you to buy one of their prints to get autographed (or give them something else for autographing, for that matter)? Is it rude if you join the line without the intention of spending money and just want to say hi? I definitely only have money for one autograph, so this'll determine whether I wanna take a shot at meeting some of the others as well.

Also, sharing any experiences of the process would be appreciated! I always feel a lot more comfortable if I have some idea of what it's going to be like. Thank you!

> Since, my friend, you have revealed your deepest fear
I sentence you to be exposed before your peers
Tear down the wall!

(from Pink Floyd's The Wall, track The Trial. these lyrics are spoken by a talking arse on legs, by the way)

---

Two months ago I saw this post, and had no idea what to say to it. I had no idea what ending I wanted for Valentino, to be honest. The side of me that's a Val stan and loves it when horrible characters do horrible things would be quite happy to see him go on forever just as he is. The side of me that wants Hazbin Hotel to be a good story... yeah, this guy needs a downfall.

I've just realised what I want for him. I don't claim for any of this to be "theory" or plot prediction or anything. It's character analysis, really, but it does point towards a possible direction for him in Season 3.

Val's Masks -- and What's Underneath

For the sake of this post, I'm gonna name three different aspects of Val's personality: Pimp, Public and Personal. (I've had a post drafted for literal months about Val's presentation, especially re: gender, in different situations and with different people. The section below has of that, but not all, and is also making me realise I have so much more I want to say...!)

Pimp:

When he's pimping or producing porn, Val displays the most limited version of his personality. He's calm and collected with an occasional hint of sneer, or he's flying into rages with the purpose of punishing whoever crosses him and asserting dominance over anyone who happens to be a witness. There is no in between.

It's the most limited version of his wardrobe and voice, too. He dresses in fully masculine outfits, with the flamboyance limited to what you might expect from a pimp -- no miniskirts here, that's for sure. He doesn't even have an accent or use Spanish on the job. This version of Val is who he needs to be to maintain dominance at work -- and it excludes a lot of who he is otherwise. I see this as a mask more than as an expression of the actual Val.

Public:

Whenever he's not with his direct employees, Val seems comfortable enough to let his hair down (... metaphorically, that is). He can talk casually in the club, with no need to maintain any social standing beyond that of a regular social situation. He'll manipulate or threaten if it's useful, sure, but on the whole he allows himself a much broader range of expression. You certainly wouldn't see this degree of giddy glee from him on the job. He gets to be a lot more himself, too. He switches up the accent, peppers in some Spanish. And this is where he breaks out the genderfucky outfits, and good lord do I adore him for it.

Val cares a lot about his presentation. He chooses his outfit and modulates his voice with intention, or perhaps even without noticing, as an unconscious aspect of how he. Check out the accent flips in his voicemails to Angel -- the seductive Spanish, the unaccented anger. Dumbass though he may be, he has the social intelligence down pat. He knows what to use, when, and why.

Can we call his public personality a mask? Only about as much as anyone's is -- we're not all going down the street venting our deepest emotions. This side of him is, more or less, the genuine Valentino.

It's also worth noting that Val as head of VoxTek, as briefly seen at the end of Season 2, seems to be a blend of Pimp and Public. He's dressing pimpwise, though more flamboyantly than we've ever seen him do that, and he's also talking like a fucking valley girl. I guess at this point he's introducing himself in a way he's never really had to before. As the face of VoxTek, of course he's known as The Pimp One, but he doesn't really do corporate in the same way as Vox -- having a corporate persona demands at least some degree of friendliness, and that's not something the pimp persona has room for. Combining these aspects might be a difficult line to walk. We'll see.

Personal:

This is what Val holds closest to his chest. He displays it in vulnerable moments, when he's alone, or when he's muttering away in Spanish expecting that no one will understand him. This is Val when he has nothing to hide.

We haven't seen much of this just yet. Val's not had much individual focus so far (though I can only expect that's going to change). But it's still worth looking at what he shows and what he hides. Check out this one little segment, taken from the transcript to S02E06 Scream Rain. Bold text is what Val says in Spanish -- what he explicitly chooses to hide from Vox:

> Valentino: And this whole thing (Valentino waves a hand at Alastor), it's getting old fast, Vox. (Valentino storms away off screen, muttering:) Ay, ya no puedo con este. Ay que estúpido demonio con ese estúpido hijo de la gran puta, yo no entiendo lo que él ve en ese imbécil, porque yo estoy aqui bello, ¡bellisimo! (Oh, I can't take this anymore. Oh, what a stupid demon, that stupid son of a bitch! I don't understand what he sees in that imbecile, because I'm here, beautiful, absolutely beautiful!)

So he externalises a certain catty frustration to Vox directly. But he hides just how much it's getting to him -- the way he's made himself so beautiful, and this fucker ignores it all to go chase deer.

His one verse alone in When I Think About The Future is what really drives it home. He's expressing his own insecurities, rationalising away Vox's bad behaviour, and revealing just how much he has a need to be seen by Vox. He's got the full-on accent here -- he drops it when Velvette comes along, but he also doesn't hide what he's been feeling. He has at least one person in his life who he trusts with that full range of expression, who gives him empathy in return. (Maybe two people, when Vox is in a good mood? He sure can express his feelings to Vox, and Vox knows he can calm him down. We've not exactly seen empathy from Vox, though, and Vox's vulnerability mostly relates to Alastor.)

Outfit-wise, I feel what he'd choose to wear if he had no one to please... is still basically in line with his public persona. Regardless, I do think it's thematically relevant that, the only time we see him completely alone, he's wearing just about nothing at all. Nothing to present, nothing to hide.

(Although -- wasn't he just about to go and see Vox in that scene? Trying to win him back round with a little sex appeal? Keep that in the back of your mind for the next section, that's all I'll say.)

Val's Downfall

As mentioned previously, Val is in uncharted territory as New Boss Daddy™ of VoxTek. It's not a perfect match for either his pimp or his public personas. Being a PR-friendly pimp may be an... interesting challenge for him.

Privately, though, Val needs love. Winning Vox's attention is no longer a concern, now that he's been cut down to size (1440p, more or less). Something else that has to happen, though, is Angel Dust's reckoning. He's back with Val for the time being, and Val's damn pleased with himself for that. But it can't last forever, because dammit, the show believes in Angel. Hazbin isn't going to end with him still under Val's thumb, and the amount of change it'd require to make that relationship healthy is basically impossible. Sometime in this show, the break-up is happening -- for good.

I think Season 3, for Val, is going to be a disorienting trip around his different personas. There's a lot of contradictions to work around -- being the friendly face of VoxTek while also being someone who has no qualms hitting Angel in public. And with Angel somehow getting himself outta there in the end, I think we have a solid cause for it to get to breaking point.

What I want for Val is for him to be stripped down to his core, in public. With Val's track record, there's nooooo way he'll let Angel go easily -- or quietly. I anticipate pistols and pleading, with Vox's PR advice far too diminished to stop him from playing it all out in public. Every side that there is to Val, anything that could possibly help, gets thrown Angel in quick succession. All the contradictions, exposed. Until, eventually, we've seen all there is to see.

Perhaps he ends up literally stripped down. It's not like Val has an issue with showing skin, but he does select his outfits for whatever personality he wants to display, and I think there's a thematic resonance to him ending up with nothing. I'm thinking back to what I mentioned with When I Think About the Future, with his attempt to win Vox over with sex appeal -- stripped all the way down, only for it to be useless to even try, leaving him vulnerable and alone.

I think this would break him. When Val's tried everything he's got, he's also exposed everything that he is. When it comes to Angel, what there is at Val's core is a pathetic man who wants so desperately to be loved, and will deal out any amount of pain to avoid the pain of losing a lover. It's about time that all of Hell saw that. He's not a viable threat if you really can just leave, and he's certainly not a reliable corporate executive. He won't be someone that Hell can see as credible any more.

Compared to Vox...

... yeah, this was pretty much what happened to Vox too, wasn't it? He goes from 100% approval one second, with the hearts and minds of Hell behind him -- and then he's usurped by Alastor, and he fucking breaks. Punctures through the propaganda in practically an instant. He turns the Might of Lilith on Pentagram City, and is immediately exposed as someone who doesn't give a shit about any of the sinners he claims to champion. He wants to rule. He wants to dominate. He wants to wipe that fucking smile off Alastor's face. And when he doesn't get that, he throws a fucking tantrum, on a public broadcast. There goes that approval rating.

And when all of this is done, what Vox has left is the Vees. Velvette, the whole time, is true to her hope of "maybe then he'll chill again and realise who he missed" -- even when Vox is an arsehole, she just wants him to snap the fuck out of it. And it's Val who cares enough to rip his fucking head off (always blows my mind that of all the things Val's done, tearing his lover's head off is one of his most genuinely caring acts, but it's true), save him from his own damn rampage, and take him back home. Giving him the cold shoulder, yeah, but keeping him alive.

Vox's own situation in Season 3 deserves essays of its own. Here he is, humbled beyond measure, no longer trusted with the company named after him. He's left to the mercy of the Vees, and thank fuck for his sake that they actually are merciful, right? Well, I think Vox can be merciful, too. When he's not lost in his own damn powertripping -- and at this point, he's certainly not -- he's shown that he can be protective of Velvette. So I think, in keeping with Hazbin's overall theme of building each other up and giving second chances, that Val's downfall would have the potential to elicit a shred of fucking empathy from him.

Velvette and Val have already shown how they're prepared to pick up the pieces of their fellow Vees, no matter how catastrophically they fuck up and even hurt each other in the process. Vox hasn't shown that yet -- but I'd hope, when Val inevitably goes down, he has Vox there for him as well. Terrible people that they are, they don't deserve much. But they do deserve each other.

the fic

video proof of Amir writing it (with bonus shenanigans)

it's very amusing. bonus points for those who know exactly which star trek episode it's based on :P