PoeticallyPsyco
2020-12-03, 04:33 AM
The Hazbin Hotel website (https://www.hazbinhotel.com/) is now home to two short webcomics. Chapter 1: Dirty Healings has been there for a few months now, and features the story of how Charlie recruited Angel Dust in the first place.
Now there's a second one, The Radio Demon, a short day-in-the-life of the titular Alastor. It really plays up his status as The Dreaded; other demons are visibly terrified as soon as they recognize him, and many just run away immediately.
We also learn a few new things about him.
Alastor appears to be either genuinely chivalrous or making that a consistent part of his persona for some reason. The only demons who don't seem scared of him are the female ones, who appear delighted to see him (one group) or at least unafraid (the victim; see below). He chats pleasantly with the first group, and throws them his hat as he leaves, which they seem very happy about (though that bit is probably a deliberate Apple of Discord, a trope Alastor seems fond of). After dealing with a violent butcher demon for some fresh meat, he politely holds the door for a cute female demon. The butcher promptly tries to kill her (or at least chop her up for meat; this is Hell, so she'd regenerate eventually unless that cleaver is angelic); Alastor hasn't had any problems with the violence in Hell around him so far, but targeting those "of fairer means" is apparently a something he isn't willing to tolerate, and he deals with the butcher the other way, ripping him into shreds that he then proceeds to eat.
Which brings us to the second new thing. The pilot shows that the Alastor we see might not be the true form, with him getting static, weird symbols, and radio imagery occasionally, especially when people aren't looking at him. At the most extreme (https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hazbin_nightmare_fuel.png), he looks almost zombie-like. When he flips out in this webcomic (https://www.hazbinhotel.com/alastor-comic/page-15), though, he doesn't look anything like that. Instead, he looks rather like one of the classic depictions of a Wendigo: enormous antlers, hunched back, giant size, claws. This also fits extremely well with the scene, what with how he's buying meat, apparently always tries out new meat shops, prefers venison (close to cannibalism for a deer demon like himself), and of course the fact that he proceeds to literally cannibalize the butcher. (The butcher also may have been killing his customers to serve as meat, furthering the theme). The question is: do these things suggest that Alastor is a Wendigo, or did he just take that form because it was appropriate to the situation? Either way is pretty interesting, I think.
EDIT: Actually, now I'm not sure whether the title is "The Radio Demon" like I've been assuming based on the home page, or "A Day in the After Life".
EDIT VII: 1,300 2,300 3,100 4,100 5,500 7,000 views and no replies? How weird. Do I win a prize?
Surely at least one of you has something to say?
Now there's a second one, The Radio Demon, a short day-in-the-life of the titular Alastor. It really plays up his status as The Dreaded; other demons are visibly terrified as soon as they recognize him, and many just run away immediately.
We also learn a few new things about him.
Alastor appears to be either genuinely chivalrous or making that a consistent part of his persona for some reason. The only demons who don't seem scared of him are the female ones, who appear delighted to see him (one group) or at least unafraid (the victim; see below). He chats pleasantly with the first group, and throws them his hat as he leaves, which they seem very happy about (though that bit is probably a deliberate Apple of Discord, a trope Alastor seems fond of). After dealing with a violent butcher demon for some fresh meat, he politely holds the door for a cute female demon. The butcher promptly tries to kill her (or at least chop her up for meat; this is Hell, so she'd regenerate eventually unless that cleaver is angelic); Alastor hasn't had any problems with the violence in Hell around him so far, but targeting those "of fairer means" is apparently a something he isn't willing to tolerate, and he deals with the butcher the other way, ripping him into shreds that he then proceeds to eat.
Which brings us to the second new thing. The pilot shows that the Alastor we see might not be the true form, with him getting static, weird symbols, and radio imagery occasionally, especially when people aren't looking at him. At the most extreme (https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hazbin_nightmare_fuel.png), he looks almost zombie-like. When he flips out in this webcomic (https://www.hazbinhotel.com/alastor-comic/page-15), though, he doesn't look anything like that. Instead, he looks rather like one of the classic depictions of a Wendigo: enormous antlers, hunched back, giant size, claws. This also fits extremely well with the scene, what with how he's buying meat, apparently always tries out new meat shops, prefers venison (close to cannibalism for a deer demon like himself), and of course the fact that he proceeds to literally cannibalize the butcher. (The butcher also may have been killing his customers to serve as meat, furthering the theme). The question is: do these things suggest that Alastor is a Wendigo, or did he just take that form because it was appropriate to the situation? Either way is pretty interesting, I think.
EDIT: Actually, now I'm not sure whether the title is "The Radio Demon" like I've been assuming based on the home page, or "A Day in the After Life".
EDIT VII: 1,300 2,300 3,100 4,100 5,500 7,000 views and no replies? How weird. Do I win a prize?
Surely at least one of you has something to say?