In Defense of Charlie Morningstar

Spindlehorse Toons, A24, Amazon Prime

With season 2 of Hazbin Hotel come and gone, we got a lot of questions answered, and a lot of new questions that hopefully would be answered in season 3. We also ended up getting a brand new slew of hate from the hatedom that I ended up predicting since the leaks (which I thankfully and surprisingly avoided) came out last year. One pieces of hate was one that hit me in the heart and inspired this blog in the first place: the overabundance of hate on our main character, Charlie Morningstar.

Not that there was not already a slew of hate for Charlie during season 1. At the time, she was seen as oblivious and childish, and someone who disrespected the boundaries of the people she loved. In season 2, however, these views of Charlie have been amplified to the point where some of those who still like Charlie are being called the worst names imaginable. Thankfully, I have never been called any of these names, and if I did, I would have blocked them immediately. Ever since episode 3 of season 2, "Hazbin Hotel: Behind Closed Doors," the hate for Charlie skyrocketed and more defense pieces started popping up in the weeks following the episode's airing.

The third and fourth episodes of season 2 shows Charlie acting impulsively after finding out Sir Pentious was in Heaven and Vox was manipulating the rest of Hell into believing that that Hazbin Hotel was not worth anyone's time. More and more people were driven away from the hotel as the season progressed and Charlie began to get desperate to prove to people that the hotel worked to the point where she invited the Vees over for an interview and ended up using Angel Dust as a test guinea pig to show them that redemption works. This would end up driving Angel away and putting a bigger rift in their relationship than there ever was before.

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In the fourth episode, Charlie went on Channel 666 News to prove to the masses that the hotel was helpful and working, and brought Niffty on the show to help her. This ended up being a disaster as well and ended up making everything worse. It was not until the fifth episode of the season when Vaggi finally called her out and gave her the reality check that she needed the entire time. This characterization cause Charlie to become one of the most hated characters on the show in almost twenty-four hours. With that, this also allowed Charlie's defenders to speak out after the pair of episodes aired.

I ended up being one of Charlie's defenders after I watched episode 3 in particular and saw the sheer amount of Tumblr posts defending her. The episode also put me in an emotional state because I was invested in Charlie and Angel Dust's friendship since day one in this fandom and seeing their rift not resolved once the season ended and he ended up leaving the hotel because he felt like he could not trust himself anymore left a sharp feeling in my heart. Knowing that Viv mentioned that we would most likely be waiting the same amount of time between seasons 2 and 3 as we did between seasons 1 and 2, which means that we are mote than likely going to wait until the summer of 2027 to see where this goes.

Will I be defending Charlie's actions? Not necessarily, but I will defending the reasons for Charlie's actions, which are much more nuanced than a lot of people realize. The first and most obvious reason behind Charlie's actions is the fact that she is the daughter of the Sin of Pride, which means one of her biggest flaws is that she is prideful. She tends to make impulsive decisions without thinking about how it will affect the people around her, case in point with her speed run to redemption with Angel. She was not thinking about how it will affect Angel because she was too busy thinking about her reputation with the public and saving it by proving that redemption is possible. Showing the prideful part of Charlie's character puts into perspective of the fact that she was raised by the Sin of Pride.

Another big reason for Charlie's actions in season 2 is her grieving for Sir Pentious. She just found out that Sir Pentious was in heaven after Emily told her at the end of episode 1, so in turn, she ended up acting impulsively in order to prove that redemption is possible, despite having no proof that Sir Pentious was redeemed. Think about a time you, the reader, has felt grief, or any undesired emotion, for that matter. The chances of you doing something impulsive at any point of that process is going to be high. Maybe not the the extent Charlie has done this season, but there is a low chance that you never acted on impulse during a time of processing undesired emotions your entire life. That was the case with Charlie throughout most of the season. She was going through a lot of undesired emotions that she ended up acting impulsively, which resulted in a lot of the people she cares about being driven away from her.

Spindlehorse Toons, A24, Amazon Prime

And now for the biggest reason I wrote this defense piece and the reason that most people do not talk about; the misogyny, ableism, and aspie supremacy aspect. We have seen a lot of critiques on the show about how the writers do not know how to handle their female characters, however, I believe the most misogynist part of the show is the fanbase. If you ask a good chunk of the fanbase who their favorite characters are, they would likely say Alastor, Angel Dust, Vox, or Lucifer. What do these characters all have in common? That's right; they're all male. However, two of those characters I mentioned have done arguably worse things than Charlie ever has, yet the fanbase will defend them with their last breath. Misogyny has been a part of fandom since the early days, but more awareness has been spread about it since the internet became mainstream. Noticing how much harder the actions of the female characters are critiqued than the male characters is further proof that this fandom has a misogyny problem that needs to be addressed.

But what about the ableism and aspie supremacy aspect? This is where I delve into my own headcanons about Charlie. Most people who know me know that I headcanon Charlie as autistic, mainly because as an autistic woman myself, I see a lot of autistic traits in her that I see in myself. Traits such as acting impulsively, tunnel vision, and repeating mistakes multiple times are common traits in autistic individuals. This can bleed into aspie supremacy because I have seen a lot of comments on the internet that can boil down to "well, I'm autistic and I don't do this trait." This is a common aspie supremacy saying because it boils down to trying to differentiate oneself from "those" autistics, thus, being see as "superior" or "more valuable" than moderate or high support needs autistics to do have these traits.

The one trait I want to point out in particular is repeating mistakes multiple times because that is the one most critics point to when it comes to pointing out Charlie's behavior during the season. Lots of people do believe that repeating mistakes multiple times is a red flag, and while that is true, what makes it a red flag is the unwillingness to change in the first place. It takes much longer than people realize to build new habits, especially if you are autistic, since one of the most common traits in autism is sticking with familiarity and resistance to change. This is where I believe more people should give more grace, with the exception of abusive situations. When Angel mentioned Charlie's lesson on boundaries, people assumed she did not learn anything from her own lesson, even though it would not have been a year that has passed since between the events of the end of "Masquarade" and the events of the end of "Hazbin Hotel: Behind Closed Doors." For me, at least, that does not sound like enough time to build a new habit and stick with it. While it tends to be believed that it takes approximately sixty-six days (a little bit over two months) to form a habit, for autistics, that could take much longer.

Spindlehorse Toons, A24, Amazon Prime

Let me go off on a tangent and tell you a personal story. There is this girl I know who was in a relationship for about seven months. She had quite a few habits that she built up throughout the years that were not the healthiest, and her significant other mentioned this. One of those habits she picked up without realizing was posting others on social media without asking them, because she was taught that you do not have to ask anyone to post their face on social media unless explicitly stated they do not want their faces on there, which he did not in the first place. He mentioned this and she promised not to do it again without asking. One day, she thought about making a post and including him because she did not want to exclude him, and she was always one to include everyone. She posted the pictures and figured he may have that as an exception, and when she mentioned it, he said exactly that. It was not until two weeks later until he told her his actual feelings about the post and how he did not appreciate how she dismissed what he said. She tried to explain that she wanted to include him and that was the point, he still did not appreciate that she did not ask him first.

This is the best example I can think of about the fact that it takes longer than people realize to build a habit and stick with it. This was a story that hit me in the gut especially, because that girl was me. I was the one who was in the situation that I pushed a lot of people away because building new habits is hard for me and takes me quite a long time to stick with them. Even as a woman that is almost thirty years old, I still need to remind myself to do certain things or if someone told me that they do not feel comfortable with certain things; and sometimes, I forget, even when it has to do with someone that I care for deeply. Both being autistic and having ADHD affects the way I live my everyday life, so certain habits would be ingrained into my head and I would have to force myself to build new ones. That does not make me morally inferior or not worthy of someone to love me for me. It just means that I need a little bit more patience when it comes to growth and change.

This is how I see Charlie throughout this season. She acted impulsively in response to finding out Sir Pentious was in heaven, and ended up pushing everyone away throughout season 2. She also has a difficult time building new and healthier habits, so what she needs is patience and understanding from the people she loves in order to grow and develop as a character. Erika Henningsen did mention at a panel to be patient, and I could not agree more with anyone at the moment. We have at least two more seasons, and hopefully more, to develop and flesh out Charlie, and a main character having flaws is not the worst thing to happen to this show or fandom. If anything, a flawed main character, especially this early in the show, is one of the best things this show can have. Charlie is a kind, optimistic, loving, silly, sweet, and childlike character, and all of those traits are just as important in well-written characters that people can relate to as any other trait would be. I cannot wait until I get to see how Charlie is going to develop in future seasons.