Hello! It has been brought to my attention by a very helpful viewer that Vivienne Medrano has confirmed in a livestream that Alastor is Creole. I'll admit I'm not the biggest studier of paratexts, but I did want to acknowledge this here.
Also the Pilot is free on TH-cam! The majority of spoken content, rather than visuals, are still canon and relevant to the story of the Amazon Series. There he mentions how he’ll make them all his mother’s Jambalaya after his KO of Sir Pentious. He also confirms when he lived: “why I haven’t seen something more entertaining since the stock market crash of 1929! So many orphans…” And it’s been referenced to oblivion through livestreams, implications, and general lore that he’s mixed race. So much so that it’s canon. Also the Voodoo-like symbols and imagery are still maintained in the Amazon show, showing that yes: creole man from Louisiana is still the angle the series is continuing with. Also pay close attention to his natural accent when he says “your choice” to Vaggie in Episode 1. Whatever accent that was is completely missed by a lot of fans and isn’t talked about a lot!
@FallenApprentice Well, I hadn't really looked into the veves until you brought them up, but yep, they're right there. I've already walked back "where is this coming from?" but I do think that it's worth holding space between paratext like the pilot, livestreams, and writers' notes. I, personally, have a pretty strict preference for text over paratext, so while I don't disregard it out of hand, I don't like bringing it into my analysis, either, at least not as a key data point. That goes double for fan speculation, and, to be clear, I include my own videos in that category. Nobody should cite me as a source, lol. I don't say that to dodge responsibility but to illustrate that, as a secondary source, I can participate in the discourse but don't have any authorship of my own. Even if something i say catches on, if Medrano decides to contradict it in the text of the show, then that's canon. Same if she contradicts her paratext in later seasons. It's not locked in if its just a livestream or just her notes, even if thise notes leak, and they can guide an analysis but can't be the basis of the analysis. What I'm getting at is that the veves are a much better indicator that he practices voodoo, has practiced voodoo, or has had voodoo practiced upon him than the comments about jambalaya in the pilot or Medrano's comments in the livestream, so thank you for in-show the reference.
@chloeeastwood6696 His accent is the Transatlantic accent that was made so that radio hosts can be heard, it's clear and understandable for the general population. And he's the Radio demon, not the Creole demon, it's a persona that he based off of his golden years, his pride and joy. And it's a mask that doesn't let others see the real him, just as his smile is. And the people whining about him using voodoo: for one, it's religious superstition, it's not real. Two, it's Louisiana voodoo, so you can literally go down there right now and learn it from a practitioner, anyone who's willing to learn is welcomed to join. And not to mention this is only the 1st season, Viv and her crew have barely scratched the surface of the cast's character arcs and such, you're not supposed to have all the pieces of the puzzle right off the bat, so it's no surprise that we don't know why he hides most of his past and culture.
Well, exactly. There's a lot that hasn't made it into the show, and I don't think it's right to do analysis of unpublished work, except maybe as a supplement to a larger point. For example, video three has some paratext, but if I had taken it out, all my points still stand. I just don't want to hold Medrano's offhand comments or writer's notes to the same level as her published text. Also, I just want to make sure I understand that you're drawing a distinction between the version of voodoo that we see in the fun demon show that makes soul binding deals vs a religious practice that brings real people spiritual fulfillment, right? We also don't know what religion he or any of the characters follow. Vox and Alastor both borrow from a catholic esthetic in episodes 2 and 5, but who knows if that's supposed to mean anything or if it's just imagery? A lot of voodoo practitioners follow more than one religion, like mixing their practice with catholicism. I'm not trying to suggest that we know nothing about him, but rather that we don't have the information to support a lot of the definitive claims going around.
@@chloeeastwood6696 About the religion, as you said this is fiction, this isn't the first time someone has loosely used a religion as a creative tool. Christianity, Judaism, Norse, Greek, etc. This should be no different, so there's no use whining about this one, especially when they're not being particularly negative about it, just that Alastor is using it for his own way. And the only people whining about it are people who know nothing about to the point they don't even WANT to try to understand why they're wrong about it being a "closed religion". And the nun thing was him having a play on words, "day one" "nun", kinda self-explanitory. And with Vox, apparently he was a cult leader when he was alive, makes sense as to why he's such a control freak and has the ability to hypnotize people.
9:33 When it comes to physical contact there's a big difference between touching other people, and other people touching you in terms of how it makes either person feel. When we say Alastor is adverse to touch the fanbase means the latter. In paratext (as you call it) lore, Viv has said that Alastor has double standards when it comes to his moral code- he doesn't hold himself to the same rules as he holds others to, and that can be seen in how he handles physical contact. He may be touchy with others (and I theorize he does it to make others feel he's dominant over them, and as some level of control freak that in turn gives him a sense of security), but when he's not, he's almost always positioned at a distance from others. The times where other people touch him are a lot fewer in number and all have one thing in common- females he trusts (Mimzy, Niffty, Charlie); he seems physically guarded around everyone else. In episode 5 after his kaijuu moment he even takes Mimzy's hand off him, so perhaps he has a limit to how long others can touch him?
What an interesting thought. I'm not sure I would hold one's aversion to physical touch to a moral standard. One's morals and ethics are very different from the elements that make up one's physical and psychological comfort. I just want to clarify that before anything. Second, I can't take credit for the idea of paratext, as cool as it would be to coin such a term. It's just the lit crit word for materials supplied by the authors, publishers, editors, etc... Epitext has a place in literary criticism, but it's never going to be my main source, and, generally speaking, it weakens an argument to rely too heavily on it. With that said, we're just going to have to agree to disagree with regard to his body language. It looks to me to me very clear that he doesn't mind physical contact, whereas you see him shy away from touch, but unless substantiated by textual evidence, this is a matter of interpretation.
The pilot made it kinda clear that it's not just about people suffering. It's about them trying to better themselves and failing at that. He wants to watch people repeatedly try and fail at what he sees as a hopeless task.
Alastor doesn’t wear gloves, those are his actual hands. His arms and legs are pitch black, fading into normal skin between his elbows and shoulders, and knees and waist respectively. We never have, and likely never will, see his exposed limbs in the show itself, but Viv canonized what they look like in a response to a piece of fanart of Alastor in a Hawaiian Shirt, and swim trunks, saying that they got the design of his limbs right. He also has hooves, like Charlie.
if you zoom in, alastor did pull out his hair. it’s easy to miss but i’ve watched the scene over and over and i can say there is hair in his hand. also he doesn’t have gloves they are just his hands lol. if you want me to i can post a video circling exactly where the hair is if you’d like.
Even when Amazon picked the series, this is still, at heart, an indie project and for most indie projects, some information is expected to come from outside sources. Even big multimillion projects like War of Warcraft do it where you need to buy extra material to have the full lore, that doesn't mean is not canon or a theory. Facts are that Alastor is a mixed creolle, was from New Orleans around the 30s, was a serial killer and radio host, was a mama's boy, had a moral code similar to Dexter's, was mistaken for a deer and was shot in the head and that's why he's a deer demon in Hell. There is a prequel comic that is canon and the pilot too, this last one more in facts than imaginery. Also, those are his hands and he really pulled his hair, there is a tuff of hair in his hand.
Hi, thanks for the comment! You're right that this project has a lot of paratext to choose from to supplement your watching, if you so choose. It sure is fun to hunt down new lenses through which to enjoy your media while waiting for more content to drop. Yet, there are some problems with taking paratext as gospel - see the "Dumbledore was gay" debate. If you're not overly familiar, I made a video on it about a year ago called Dumbledore isn't gay. Basically, author head canon is all well and good, but their ideas have to make it into the work. Other commenters have already pointed out the veves as an indicator that Alastor has a connection to voodoo, which is textual evidence, and I've actually caught one more New Orleans reference that I'm going to dig into in a future video, so I won't spoil it here, but it's good and nobody's talking about it... yet!
@@chloeeastwood6696 Looks like the same, not the same. Rowling wanted social points for Dumbledore sexuality. Viv had no idea if her project was about to take fly, she had others projects that never took off. In fact Hazbin cames from one of those projects: Zoophobia. She made streams talking about the characters, she drew a lot on those streams, answered questions, trying to gather interest in them and the story. She said a lot of things people almost ignored (like saying that Lucifer was a goofball... People saw the pilot, ignored that and we have fanart and fansongs that doesn't reflect that, that versión people assumed he was for Charlie's words. How is Lucifer? A goofball). Doesn't mean they aren't, simply they didn't show them in the show yet. Viv said next season we'll some backstories, I hope Alastor is included. Sure there are headcanons about him (aka the scars on his body for example) but others are simply things showed or talked previously that surely will come to the series sooner or later
@Vengerin When they come out, they will be canon, but until then, they're simply paratext. They can guide an analysis of the text, but they can't replace or supercede text. Of course, one can do an analysis of paratext as text, but at that point, one would be analyzing livestreams rather than Hazbin, and I'm not really interested in doing that. Further, I agree that there are subtle differences between the two case studies, but those are external to the point I was making.
@@chloeeastwood6696 They will be canon, when they show up in the cartoon is certainly a way of seeing It but you talked about "debunking theories" like in something made up by people, when is previously known information released by the creator to place some bases. In fact, there are easter eggs to that knowledge in the cartoon itself. Mimzy's part in Hell's greatest dad, for example, her part is aimed to old fans, waiting to see her for the first time. Theories are Alastor is full of scars or him being aromantic, that one was debunked by Viv and Amir... Alastor is creolle is not a theory, is previously released knowledge. You can call It paratext but that previous knowledge is becoming canon. For example today they presented a clip for next season with Baxter in it, a new character that we all old time fans knew perfectly who he was.
I hear what you're saying, and I want to clarify a couple of things. First, I've already walked back my claim that Alastor being Creole is a fan theory. I've also been presented with pararextual AND textual evidence since then, and I've found additional textual evidence that I'll present in an upcoming video. It's really cool, so I can't wait to share. Second, drawing a distinction between text and paratext is an important and necessary practice in literary criticism, no matter the import you place on one or the other. Personally, I'm not a death of the author type, but I also don't prefer to engage in analysis that relies on paratext. When this information is in the text in future seasons, that's when I'll do analysis of it, but it's not proper to do analysis of it beforehand. As for dropped scenes, I love them and think they're great, but again, I'm not going to touch them critically until we have more context. I've done a video on the importance of context in close readings, too - it's the one on Hell's Greatest Dad. Ultimately, our disagreement is one of how much importance one should place on paratext, and I think that's an area where scholars can disagree.
Really great video, looking forward to seeing the next parts! I also noticed alot of popular fan theories that seemed to come out of nowhere. I've only watched the pilot and the first season, but I haven't seen anything else like the streams from back then when the pilot was being made. From reading comments and looking at videos from around when the pilot came out, I have a feeling that maybe these theories are being carried over from before the show on Amazon. There are already quite a few differences from the pilot and the series, so I can see that long time fans would assume all the lore that they have learned from years ago would apply to the series now, even though that won't necessarily be the case. As an example, just from watching the pilot, I guess I could see where people are getting the "Alastor is Creole and from Louisiana" bit from since Alastor says he's hungry for Jambalaya at the end of the pilot. But it's not clear if that really is the case for the Amazon series.
Thank you so much for saying so! There's certainly a lot of lore around the show and a lot of it is really weird and misleading, too. I totally forgot that he said that about the jambalaya in the pilot, haha. I don't watch it on repeat like I do the main series. There's also this weird fan wiki that apparently has been the root of a lot of the misinformation going around. Some innocuous stuff like listing a birthdate for Angel Dust that Viv never said. They tweeted at her like, "happy birthday to Angel!" and she was like, "did I give him a bday?" And then some weirder stuff like describing seasons that haven't been written and a whole subsection of straight up lies, like that Fat Nuggets was killed by Valentino and that Vaggie got killed off at some point. That stuff literally never happened. There's someone in my personal life who might put together something on it. They don't want to put it out with their face and name attached for professional reasons, so I might get to present it here. Not to mention the one former staff writer who leaked a bunch of stuff that didn't get authorized. Idk. I really feel for Medrano these days. It's got to be hard to have a show that people just overwrite the way this fandom has done.
I don't think his initial rise to power was fueled by a contract or voodoo powers, at least not entirely. He wouldn't have been the first to have that sort of opportunity after all. Rather I think it was an opportunity he got from the use of radio technology which was novel to Hell and could be used to outwit the less clever of the older overlords. He's very much a brains over brawn kind of fighter and tends to underestimate foes such as Adam that he views as intellectually inferior even if they are much stronger than him, while he respects the ones such as Zestial whom he views as an intellectual equal. When H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds was read out loud as a radio broadcast listeners literally thought that it was news coverage of an actual alien invasion. Knowing that imagine the kinds of tricks Alastor could play on the denizens of Hell to make himself seem more powerful than he actually is. A fake it till you make it strategy if you will. But eventually technology progressed and in order to keep up with that level of power Alastor knew he would have to make some kind of deal so after his failure to defeat the Vees he went on his 7 year "sabbatical" during which he made a deal and trained in the use of some new powers, fully expecting he would be clever enough to weasel out of the deal somehow of course. Interestingly his dislike of modern technology is never portrayed as a weakness. First of all, he is shown to be skilled with making a video using a digital camera, and he seems to know quite a bit of modern tech lingo and has understanding of how Vox's technology works. Secondly Vox's technology is shown to hypnotize and brainwash its users so that the viewer gets the distinct impression that Alastor is smart for avoiding it. I suspect Vaggie's deal with him is going to bite her in the ass when he turns out to be able to easily defeat Vox but refuses to do anytime about it unless Vaggie makes a different kind of deal with him.
As far as the first point goes alastor was indeed confirmed to be mixed creole and was a resident of new orleans at the time of his death, and the symbols that appear around him are from Voodoo, which in real life was a religion formed by creole peoples specifically from haiti, so the proximity to new orleans, his favorite dish being jambalaya, which originated from creole peoples in new orleans, and the fact that viv confirmed him as mixed creole, likely means that he is creole, but since he's mixed its likely that his accent came from the other parent. The other two points are very valid however, and I do agree that there is absolutely a problem in the fandom with certain head cannons becoming a toxic part of the fandom because they get pissy when it turns out not to be true.
Yes. I have heard that he is Creole through fan wikis but haven't been able to find a source for this statement. Do you have one? I would love the confirmation. Text is best, but paratext from Medrano would be nice, too.
@@chloeeastwood6696 These two links are from Livestreams Viv did, and I believe this is where she confirmed this. Link 1.th-cam.com/video/JQTHw79skuE/w-d-xo.html at 8:40 Link 2. th-cam.com/video/y5ONxBZoR0A/w-d-xo.html at 1:43:57
Thanks for the links! V cool. I hadn't seen any of the livestreams before and had been going off of the show (guess I'm a bit of a death of the author purist haha) but these are very interesting. I hope we see some of this in later seasons. :)
I haven't heard anyone bring this up but I'm not convinced Alastor really killed the other overlords just because they disappeared and people heard screaming on the radio. Nobody ever saw a body, actually saw Alastor abduct them, or is confirmed to have recognized the voices on the radio as specific overlords. I'm not set on that and I don't have a huge alternate theory, I just wouldn't be surprised if there was more to that story. Also, if his rise to power is so unusual it makes sense there would be some kind of trickery or deal-making involved. It doesn't clearly say he gained his powers by killing overlords, just that that's what made people take him seriously. Yeah they don't need to spell out every single thing about how it works and this could be inferred but the fact that it's not stated leaves the door open for a surprise reveal.
@chloeeastwood6696 i thought about it more and thought of another angle. his reputation is the most important thing to him and it all hangs on that story. if someone could prove it wasn't true that would be HUGE leverage over him. like just think what Vox would say about it. it wouldn't matter what other powers he has, everyone would lose respect for him. and wouldn't that be like the definition of a deal coming back to bite you. like if he made a deal with someone more powerful like Lilith to set that all up for him not realizing they could hold it over him forever & how much it would matter later. because he had just gotten to hell and didn't understand about deals. oooh I'm starting to be more convinced of this idea
I do not know if this is going to be a part of your four part dissection but i did want to saw something about Alistor as Ase rep. (Yes i abbreviate asexual as ase not ace.) I have been out as asexual for longer than the pilot has been out. Alistor is a bit controversial in the ase community as he embodies a lot of the negative stereotypes that we get attached over. His narcissism and associated traits like a lack of empathy and being a mysterious loner. Being extremely manipulatively. His violence and cannibalism and sadism are trope more broadly used to demonize the LGBT. I can explain in detail why any one of these is an issue if anyone wants. Just a short statement about the two more tightly linked to the asexual phobia. To many not being sexually attractive is inherently narcissistic. Narcissus himself was too obsessed with himself to be interested in anyone. Some phobes think this is how asexuals work, if they were less self obsessed then they would be normal and attracted to people. Being manipulative works very similarly. Asexual not could in theory manipulate people though sexual mean while not “being vonerable” to the same. None of this is how asexuals work. But a lot of people do not know that so having a solitary asexual character play into these damaging stereotypes is a problem. There are plenty of ases who like him as a character and or do not mind him as representation. That’s fine. I will say he is a rare ase of color which we need more of. I think medrano can do better and give the ases in her fan base more than alistor. Non thrilled about Manmon as he has similar issues to Alisor but Octavia could be good representation assuming the writing comes together. This is not an i hade Medrano or i hate alistor or i am mad at the fandom’s handling of this character. Just pointing something out about representation. The ases tend to get really sad scraps and i am hoping for better in the future.
Hi, thank you so much for watching. It's definitely a part of fandom discourse I've seen a lot, from even before I watched the show. Very interesting, and, as you can see if you care to watch my Good Omens video, I've talked about the importance of ace representation before. It's a topic that matters a lot to me. At this time, I don't have a lot to add to that discourse. It's a topic that feels to have run its course, not in the broader social context, but in analysis of season 1 of Hazbin, including by yourself, as you so eloquently articulate the issue. I might weigh in, in the future, depending on where the show goes and what happens in the real world to prompt it, but once I finish editing my Alastor videos I'm planning to pivot to either Charlie or Angel Dust.
I personally hate it when people ship him with other characters because he's canonically aro/ace and they whine because they can't accept queer people.
Yeah, it really feels like a failure of creativity, too. Like, is that the only characters dynamic you find interesting? Obviously not, since you liked a character who was aro/ace! It's why I made this series-- let's take a look at the character we all like so much and get to know him FOR HIM.
@@chloeeastwood6696 I'm queer as well, Bi/genderfluid/grey asexual ('greyA' at least in the past 15 or so years hormonally driven I'm sure), so yeah I get it.
![Hazbin Hotel was Garbage, Here's Why [Part 1]](/img/n.gif)
Hello! It has been brought to my attention by a very helpful viewer that Vivienne Medrano has confirmed in a livestream that Alastor is Creole. I'll admit I'm not the biggest studier of paratexts, but I did want to acknowledge this here.
Also the Pilot is free on TH-cam! The majority of spoken content, rather than visuals, are still canon and relevant to the story of the Amazon Series. There he mentions how he’ll make them all his mother’s Jambalaya after his KO of Sir Pentious. He also confirms when he lived: “why I haven’t seen something more entertaining since the stock market crash of 1929! So many orphans…”
And it’s been referenced to oblivion through livestreams, implications, and general lore that he’s mixed race. So much so that it’s canon. Also the Voodoo-like symbols and imagery are still maintained in the Amazon show, showing that yes: creole man from Louisiana is still the angle the series is continuing with.
Also pay close attention to his natural accent when he says “your choice” to Vaggie in Episode 1. Whatever accent that was is completely missed by a lot of fans and isn’t talked about a lot!
@FallenApprentice Well, I hadn't really looked into the veves until you brought them up, but yep, they're right there.
I've already walked back "where is this coming from?" but I do think that it's worth holding space between paratext like the pilot, livestreams, and writers' notes. I, personally, have a pretty strict preference for text over paratext, so while I don't disregard it out of hand, I don't like bringing it into my analysis, either, at least not as a key data point. That goes double for fan speculation, and, to be clear, I include my own videos in that category. Nobody should cite me as a source, lol. I don't say that to dodge responsibility but to illustrate that, as a secondary source, I can participate in the discourse but don't have any authorship of my own. Even if something i say catches on, if Medrano decides to contradict it in the text of the show, then that's canon. Same if she contradicts her paratext in later seasons. It's not locked in if its just a livestream or just her notes, even if thise notes leak, and they can guide an analysis but can't be the basis of the analysis.
What I'm getting at is that the veves are a much better indicator that he practices voodoo, has practiced voodoo, or has had voodoo practiced upon him than the comments about jambalaya in the pilot or Medrano's comments in the livestream, so thank you for in-show the reference.
@chloeeastwood6696 His accent is the Transatlantic accent that was made so that radio hosts can be heard, it's clear and understandable for the general population. And he's the Radio demon, not the Creole demon, it's a persona that he based off of his golden years, his pride and joy. And it's a mask that doesn't let others see the real him, just as his smile is.
And the people whining about him using voodoo: for one, it's religious superstition, it's not real. Two, it's Louisiana voodoo, so you can literally go down there right now and learn it from a practitioner, anyone who's willing to learn is welcomed to join.
And not to mention this is only the 1st season, Viv and her crew have barely scratched the surface of the cast's character arcs and such, you're not supposed to have all the pieces of the puzzle right off the bat, so it's no surprise that we don't know why he hides most of his past and culture.
Well, exactly. There's a lot that hasn't made it into the show, and I don't think it's right to do analysis of unpublished work, except maybe as a supplement to a larger point. For example, video three has some paratext, but if I had taken it out, all my points still stand. I just don't want to hold Medrano's offhand comments or writer's notes to the same level as her published text.
Also, I just want to make sure I understand that you're drawing a distinction between the version of voodoo that we see in the fun demon show that makes soul binding deals vs a religious practice that brings real people spiritual fulfillment, right?
We also don't know what religion he or any of the characters follow. Vox and Alastor both borrow from a catholic esthetic in episodes 2 and 5, but who knows if that's supposed to mean anything or if it's just imagery? A lot of voodoo practitioners follow more than one religion, like mixing their practice with catholicism. I'm not trying to suggest that we know nothing about him, but rather that we don't have the information to support a lot of the definitive claims going around.
@@chloeeastwood6696 About the religion, as you said this is fiction, this isn't the first time someone has loosely used a religion as a creative tool. Christianity, Judaism, Norse, Greek, etc. This should be no different, so there's no use whining about this one, especially when they're not being particularly negative about it, just that Alastor is using it for his own way. And the only people whining about it are people who know nothing about to the point they don't even WANT to try to understand why they're wrong about it being a "closed religion".
And the nun thing was him having a play on words, "day one" "nun", kinda self-explanitory. And with Vox, apparently he was a cult leader when he was alive, makes sense as to why he's such a control freak and has the ability to hypnotize people.
9:33 When it comes to physical contact there's a big difference between touching other people, and other people touching you in terms of how it makes either person feel. When we say Alastor is adverse to touch the fanbase means the latter. In paratext (as you call it) lore, Viv has said that Alastor has double standards when it comes to his moral code- he doesn't hold himself to the same rules as he holds others to, and that can be seen in how he handles physical contact. He may be touchy with others (and I theorize he does it to make others feel he's dominant over them, and as some level of control freak that in turn gives him a sense of security), but when he's not, he's almost always positioned at a distance from others. The times where other people touch him are a lot fewer in number and all have one thing in common- females he trusts (Mimzy, Niffty, Charlie); he seems physically guarded around everyone else. In episode 5 after his kaijuu moment he even takes Mimzy's hand off him, so perhaps he has a limit to how long others can touch him?
What an interesting thought. I'm not sure I would hold one's aversion to physical touch to a moral standard. One's morals and ethics are very different from the elements that make up one's physical and psychological comfort. I just want to clarify that before anything.
Second, I can't take credit for the idea of paratext, as cool as it would be to coin such a term. It's just the lit crit word for materials supplied by the authors, publishers, editors, etc... Epitext has a place in literary criticism, but it's never going to be my main source, and, generally speaking, it weakens an argument to rely too heavily on it.
With that said, we're just going to have to agree to disagree with regard to his body language. It looks to me to me very clear that he doesn't mind physical contact, whereas you see him shy away from touch, but unless substantiated by textual evidence, this is a matter of interpretation.
The pilot made it kinda clear that it's not just about people suffering. It's about them trying to better themselves and failing at that. He wants to watch people repeatedly try and fail at what he sees as a hopeless task.
Yeah! He actually says that in the show, too! I think you'll be interested in where this series is going, so stay tuned.
Alastor doesn’t wear gloves, those are his actual hands. His arms and legs are pitch black, fading into normal skin between his elbows and shoulders, and knees and waist respectively. We never have, and likely never will, see his exposed limbs in the show itself, but Viv canonized what they look like in a response to a piece of fanart of Alastor in a Hawaiian Shirt, and swim trunks, saying that they got the design of his limbs right. He also has hooves, like Charlie.
if you zoom in, alastor did pull out his hair. it’s easy to miss but i’ve watched the scene over and over and i can say there is hair in his hand. also he doesn’t have gloves they are just his hands lol.
if you want me to i can post a video circling exactly where the hair is if you’d like.
Alright, eagle-eyes! You got me good. :)
Even when Amazon picked the series, this is still, at heart, an indie project and for most indie projects, some information is expected to come from outside sources. Even big multimillion projects like War of Warcraft do it where you need to buy extra material to have the full lore, that doesn't mean is not canon or a theory. Facts are that Alastor is a mixed creolle, was from New Orleans around the 30s, was a serial killer and radio host, was a mama's boy, had a moral code similar to Dexter's, was mistaken for a deer and was shot in the head and that's why he's a deer demon in Hell. There is a prequel comic that is canon and the pilot too, this last one more in facts than imaginery. Also, those are his hands and he really pulled his hair, there is a tuff of hair in his hand.
Hi, thanks for the comment! You're right that this project has a lot of paratext to choose from to supplement your watching, if you so choose. It sure is fun to hunt down new lenses through which to enjoy your media while waiting for more content to drop. Yet, there are some problems with taking paratext as gospel - see the "Dumbledore was gay" debate. If you're not overly familiar, I made a video on it about a year ago called Dumbledore isn't gay. Basically, author head canon is all well and good, but their ideas have to make it into the work. Other commenters have already pointed out the veves as an indicator that Alastor has a connection to voodoo, which is textual evidence, and I've actually caught one more New Orleans reference that I'm going to dig into in a future video, so I won't spoil it here, but it's good and nobody's talking about it... yet!
@@chloeeastwood6696 Looks like the same, not the same. Rowling wanted social points for Dumbledore sexuality. Viv had no idea if her project was about to take fly, she had others projects that never took off. In fact Hazbin cames from one of those projects: Zoophobia. She made streams talking about the characters, she drew a lot on those streams, answered questions, trying to gather interest in them and the story. She said a lot of things people almost ignored (like saying that Lucifer was a goofball... People saw the pilot, ignored that and we have fanart and fansongs that doesn't reflect that, that versión people assumed he was for Charlie's words. How is Lucifer? A goofball). Doesn't mean they aren't, simply they didn't show them in the show yet. Viv said next season we'll some backstories, I hope Alastor is included. Sure there are headcanons about him (aka the scars on his body for example) but others are simply things showed or talked previously that surely will come to the series sooner or later
@Vengerin When they come out, they will be canon, but until then, they're simply paratext. They can guide an analysis of the text, but they can't replace or supercede text. Of course, one can do an analysis of paratext as text, but at that point, one would be analyzing livestreams rather than Hazbin, and I'm not really interested in doing that.
Further, I agree that there are subtle differences between the two case studies, but those are external to the point I was making.
@@chloeeastwood6696 They will be canon, when they show up in the cartoon is certainly a way of seeing It but you talked about "debunking theories" like in something made up by people, when is previously known information released by the creator to place some bases. In fact, there are easter eggs to that knowledge in the cartoon itself. Mimzy's part in Hell's greatest dad, for example, her part is aimed to old fans, waiting to see her for the first time. Theories are Alastor is full of scars or him being aromantic, that one was debunked by Viv and Amir... Alastor is creolle is not a theory, is previously released knowledge. You can call It paratext but that previous knowledge is becoming canon. For example today they presented a clip for next season with Baxter in it, a new character that we all old time fans knew perfectly who he was.
I hear what you're saying, and I want to clarify a couple of things. First, I've already walked back my claim that Alastor being Creole is a fan theory. I've also been presented with pararextual AND textual evidence since then, and I've found additional textual evidence that I'll present in an upcoming video. It's really cool, so I can't wait to share.
Second, drawing a distinction between text and paratext is an important and necessary practice in literary criticism, no matter the import you place on one or the other. Personally, I'm not a death of the author type, but I also don't prefer to engage in analysis that relies on paratext. When this information is in the text in future seasons, that's when I'll do analysis of it, but it's not proper to do analysis of it beforehand.
As for dropped scenes, I love them and think they're great, but again, I'm not going to touch them critically until we have more context. I've done a video on the importance of context in close readings, too - it's the one on Hell's Greatest Dad.
Ultimately, our disagreement is one of how much importance one should place on paratext, and I think that's an area where scholars can disagree.
Really great video, looking forward to seeing the next parts!
I also noticed alot of popular fan theories that seemed to come out of nowhere. I've only watched the pilot and the first season, but I haven't seen anything else like the streams from back then when the pilot was being made. From reading comments and looking at videos from around when the pilot came out, I have a feeling that maybe these theories are being carried over from before the show on Amazon. There are already quite a few differences from the pilot and the series, so I can see that long time fans would assume all the lore that they have learned from years ago would apply to the series now, even though that won't necessarily be the case.
As an example, just from watching the pilot, I guess I could see where people are getting the "Alastor is Creole and from Louisiana" bit from since Alastor says he's hungry for Jambalaya at the end of the pilot. But it's not clear if that really is the case for the Amazon series.
Thank you so much for saying so! There's certainly a lot of lore around the show and a lot of it is really weird and misleading, too. I totally forgot that he said that about the jambalaya in the pilot, haha. I don't watch it on repeat like I do the main series.
There's also this weird fan wiki that apparently has been the root of a lot of the misinformation going around. Some innocuous stuff like listing a birthdate for Angel Dust that Viv never said. They tweeted at her like, "happy birthday to Angel!" and she was like, "did I give him a bday?" And then some weirder stuff like describing seasons that haven't been written and a whole subsection of straight up lies, like that Fat Nuggets was killed by Valentino and that Vaggie got killed off at some point. That stuff literally never happened. There's someone in my personal life who might put together something on it. They don't want to put it out with their face and name attached for professional reasons, so I might get to present it here.
Not to mention the one former staff writer who leaked a bunch of stuff that didn't get authorized. Idk. I really feel for Medrano these days. It's got to be hard to have a show that people just overwrite the way this fandom has done.
I am so excited to see one of four!!!!!
Thank you! I really enjoyed making this series and I'm so excited to share it with the other fans!
I don't think his initial rise to power was fueled by a contract or voodoo powers, at least not entirely. He wouldn't have been the first to have that sort of opportunity after all. Rather I think it was an opportunity he got from the use of radio technology which was novel to Hell and could be used to outwit the less clever of the older overlords. He's very much a brains over brawn kind of fighter and tends to underestimate foes such as Adam that he views as intellectually inferior even if they are much stronger than him, while he respects the ones such as Zestial whom he views as an intellectual equal. When H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds was read out loud as a radio broadcast listeners literally thought that it was news coverage of an actual alien invasion. Knowing that imagine the kinds of tricks Alastor could play on the denizens of Hell to make himself seem more powerful than he actually is. A fake it till you make it strategy if you will.
But eventually technology progressed and in order to keep up with that level of power Alastor knew he would have to make some kind of deal so after his failure to defeat the Vees he went on his 7 year "sabbatical" during which he made a deal and trained in the use of some new powers, fully expecting he would be clever enough to weasel out of the deal somehow of course.
Interestingly his dislike of modern technology is never portrayed as a weakness. First of all, he is shown to be skilled with making a video using a digital camera, and he seems to know quite a bit of modern tech lingo and has understanding of how Vox's technology works. Secondly Vox's technology is shown to hypnotize and brainwash its users so that the viewer gets the distinct impression that Alastor is smart for avoiding it. I suspect Vaggie's deal with him is going to bite her in the ass when he turns out to be able to easily defeat Vox but refuses to do anytime about it unless Vaggie makes a different kind of deal with him.
As far as the first point goes alastor was indeed confirmed to be mixed creole and was a resident of new orleans at the time of his death, and the symbols that appear around him are from Voodoo, which in real life was a religion formed by creole peoples specifically from haiti, so the proximity to new orleans, his favorite dish being jambalaya, which originated from creole peoples in new orleans, and the fact that viv confirmed him as mixed creole, likely means that he is creole, but since he's mixed its likely that his accent came from the other parent. The other two points are very valid however, and I do agree that there is absolutely a problem in the fandom with certain head cannons becoming a toxic part of the fandom because they get pissy when it turns out not to be true.
You know, I've heard tell of this, but I'm having a hard time finding a source that doesn't terminate in a fan wiki. Can you link me to the source?
@@chloeeastwood6696 A source for the confirmation?
Yes. I have heard that he is Creole through fan wikis but haven't been able to find a source for this statement. Do you have one? I would love the confirmation. Text is best, but paratext from Medrano would be nice, too.
@@chloeeastwood6696 These two links are from Livestreams Viv did, and I believe this is where she confirmed this.
Link 1.th-cam.com/video/JQTHw79skuE/w-d-xo.html at 8:40
Link 2. th-cam.com/video/y5ONxBZoR0A/w-d-xo.html at 1:43:57
Thanks for the links! V cool. I hadn't seen any of the livestreams before and had been going off of the show (guess I'm a bit of a death of the author purist haha) but these are very interesting. I hope we see some of this in later seasons. :)
I haven't heard anyone bring this up but I'm not convinced Alastor really killed the other overlords just because they disappeared and people heard screaming on the radio. Nobody ever saw a body, actually saw Alastor abduct them, or is confirmed to have recognized the voices on the radio as specific overlords. I'm not set on that and I don't have a huge alternate theory, I just wouldn't be surprised if there was more to that story. Also, if his rise to power is so unusual it makes sense there would be some kind of trickery or deal-making involved. It doesn't clearly say he gained his powers by killing overlords, just that that's what made people take him seriously. Yeah they don't need to spell out every single thing about how it works and this could be inferred but the fact that it's not stated leaves the door open for a surprise reveal.
Now THAT'S interesting! My second video is on this topic, and I definitely didn't think of it. What a cool idea
@chloeeastwood6696 looking forward to watching the rest of this series!
Thank you! That's amazing to hear. :)
@chloeeastwood6696 i thought about it more and thought of another angle. his reputation is the most important thing to him and it all hangs on that story. if someone could prove it wasn't true that would be HUGE leverage over him. like just think what Vox would say about it. it wouldn't matter what other powers he has, everyone would lose respect for him. and wouldn't that be like the definition of a deal coming back to bite you. like if he made a deal with someone more powerful like Lilith to set that all up for him not realizing they could hold it over him forever & how much it would matter later. because he had just gotten to hell and didn't understand about deals. oooh I'm starting to be more convinced of this idea
You're going to love my second and fourth videos!
I do not know if this is going to be a part of your four part dissection but i did want to saw something about Alistor as Ase rep. (Yes i abbreviate asexual as ase not ace.)
I have been out as asexual for longer than the pilot has been out. Alistor is a bit controversial in the ase community as he embodies a lot of the negative stereotypes that we get attached over. His narcissism and associated traits like a lack of empathy and being a mysterious loner. Being extremely manipulatively. His violence and cannibalism and sadism are trope more broadly used to demonize the LGBT.
I can explain in detail why any one of these is an issue if anyone wants. Just a short statement about the two more tightly linked to the asexual phobia. To many not being sexually attractive is inherently narcissistic. Narcissus himself was too obsessed with himself to be interested in anyone. Some phobes think this is how asexuals work, if they were less self obsessed then they would be normal and attracted to people. Being manipulative works very similarly. Asexual not could in theory manipulate people though sexual mean while not “being vonerable” to the same.
None of this is how asexuals work. But a lot of people do not know that so having a solitary asexual character play into these damaging stereotypes is a problem.
There are plenty of ases who like him as a character and or do not mind him as representation. That’s fine. I will say he is a rare ase of color which we need more of.
I think medrano can do better and give the ases in her fan base more than alistor. Non thrilled about Manmon as he has similar issues to Alisor but Octavia could be good representation assuming the writing comes together.
This is not an i hade Medrano or i hate alistor or i am mad at the fandom’s handling of this character. Just pointing something out about representation. The ases tend to get really sad scraps and i am hoping for better in the future.
Hi, thank you so much for watching. It's definitely a part of fandom discourse I've seen a lot, from even before I watched the show. Very interesting, and, as you can see if you care to watch my Good Omens video, I've talked about the importance of ace representation before. It's a topic that matters a lot to me.
At this time, I don't have a lot to add to that discourse. It's a topic that feels to have run its course, not in the broader social context, but in analysis of season 1 of Hazbin, including by yourself, as you so eloquently articulate the issue.
I might weigh in, in the future, depending on where the show goes and what happens in the real world to prompt it, but once I finish editing my Alastor videos I'm planning to pivot to either Charlie or Angel Dust.
I personally hate it when people ship him with other characters because he's canonically aro/ace and they whine because they can't accept queer people.
Yeah, it really feels like a failure of creativity, too. Like, is that the only characters dynamic you find interesting? Obviously not, since you liked a character who was aro/ace! It's why I made this series-- let's take a look at the character we all like so much and get to know him FOR HIM.
@@chloeeastwood6696 I'm queer as well, Bi/genderfluid/grey asexual ('greyA' at least in the past 15 or so years hormonally driven I'm sure), so yeah I get it.
Haha you get it!
He's just ACE, not aro, that has been said by both Viv and his VA Amir
@@Vengerin Citations needed