u/jazzpower1992

The fandom wants to defend the characterization of Val as deep, nuanced, and well written because they make him turn from the monster he was portrayed in Season One to this goofball villain who is treated as a lovable himbo they like sexualizing in their merchandise and giving silly quirks to laugh at. However, it is jarring because he's supposed to represent him as a rapist who has broken and manipulated Angel into being his toy, but at the same time we are supposed to feel sorry when he longs for Vox and they joke he doesn't know what consent is. I have seen tons of threads where people justify this as giving him depth when in reality it just a bunch of traits that don't fit together because they have softened on him and want the audience to make him seem like he's a lovable guy. They treat his rapist status as a quirk especially within that montage or in merchandise. And frankly it shows how they are not really treating his status as a rapist as seriously as they should. They say that if he was a rapist who thinks about rape all the time that would make him one note, but at the same time all they seem to talk about when in regards to him is how sad it is Vox ignores him, how tragic his past must be to be this way, or talk about his forced funny moments. All these moments just makes us forget his status as a rapist and ironically focus less how his actions affect his victims (especially Angel) and rather try to push himself as this figure we emphasize with. The people who defend this characterization as humanization at the end of the day they are emphasizing with a rapist who reeks of no moral weight to cry about being used and unloved when he's done the same thing to many people over the decades. It's also unnerving how the characterization put in the show also lets people downplay how much of a monster he is by saying his actions aren't as bad as everyone else's which is just showing how much the softening using those moments make people forget what Val should actually be portrayed as. The defenders say that wanting Val to be treated as a monster is harmful to victims when in reality I think him not being seen as a monster is making people too comfortable to the fact that they even think he tried to protect Angel sincerely from Vox. Also making him stupid really doesn't make sense how he was able to run anything or get people like Angel to sign to him. You need to be someone who can put on a faux charm in order to get people and the series version of him doesn't even have that. He only has that gas stuff but even that isn't enough. The idea all this mismatched inconsistently makes him human in their eyes really is more of how oblivious people are to actual abusers especially when abuse victims are coming out saying the portrayal of Val is tone deaf and cares more about getting off the abuser rather than actually focusing on the fact that he is a horrible person.

It always comes off as off putting to me as a Christian how a Bible figure like Adam who genuinely made mistakes but ultimately shown himself in folklore to make it to heaven and was devastated by Abel's death by Cain. However, they decided since Viv had a hate boner for the Bible version of Adam to make him into a demonized frat boy who is a sex addict and hates Abel, even though it makes no sense since his death was because of jealousy from his older brother. Meanwhile, Lucifer gets the draco in leather pants treatment where he's treated as a misunderstood dreamer who just wanted the best of humanity and is treated like this uwu baby who no one in heaven understood. This ignoring Lucifer caused sinner to corrupt humanity, never takes responsibilities for his actions and then victim blames humanity for misusing his gift when he was told it was a bad idea, is a serial homewrecker who gloats about stealing both of Adam's wives, and created a caste system in hell the exploits the lower classes like imps and hellhounds. But yeah, we are supposed to think Lucifer suffered so much and is a victim of a so-called unfair system in hell. Also making Adam into a one dimensional pos is just to try to avoid the fact this man screwed him over by having him get kicked out of paradise, corrupted his offspring, forced to suffer in the world protecting his family, and being forced to fight against the animal companions he had. When you think the Bible background of Adam and what Lucifer put him through it's less cathartic and more of a person being beat up by their past bully who the narrative sides with. Also the series wants us to think Adam is this gross dude bro but cheer when Lucifer boasts about sleeping with both of Adam's wives like that's a good thing. It again shows that despite the series claiming nuances it actually just takes biased sides to favored characters. Adam who you think deserves nuanced complex, tragic characterization is just a strawman so it's easier to side with Charlie, while Lucifer who is meant to come off as tragic is much more worse when you think about other factors like what we have seen in hell and the shit Adam had to go through when he was kicked out of the garden.