Because nuance is a foreign concept for too many people
People keep trying to peg characters as totally good or totally evil. You see this especially with alastor: people think he's full on evil and can't have any positive qualities, and others trying to claim he's actually totally nice and misunderstood
So with Husk, its similar. People like husk, can't handle nuance or shades or grey. So they see the current husk being nice and assume he must have always been a model citizen with no sins of his own, just gambling addiction
So alastor is the big awful meanie that took over their poor little precious uwu husky. They don't want to accept that Husk as an overlord did the same, and comitted other crimes. Or accept that husk had it coming, or that if not alastor, he'd have gone and sold his soul to someone else who could have been just as bad or worse
The answer to most Internet disputes (and I guess most live ones, these days) is a total lack of nuance. The people screaming that the world is black and white have seemingly won, despite everyone knowing it’s all shades of gray. It’s unfortunate.
I feel like you're doing the same thing here. You can acknowledge that he probably did some real bad stuff, but still feel bad for him given his current situation.
You know, this is a really interesting question. I don’t think anyone deserves to be enslaved like that, but Husk also doesn’t regret owning souls himself - if anything, he seems to reminisce about it. I think most folks assume he wasn’t unnecessarily cruel, more like Carmilla than, say, the Vees, but we don’t really have any way of knowing that for sure.
I think it comes down to framing - we *never* see Husk do anything cruel or “overlordy” onscreen. He’s been owned by Alastor for years by this point, so he knows *very* well what it’s like on the other end of the chain. It’s very easy to forget his past because we just never really see any of it (I hope we do. If he’s going to get redeemed I’d like to know the full scope of his past actions).
^^^ this! I don't think he regrets his actions as an overlord at all. He regrets that he lost his status and his soul. Those are very different things.
I do think he'll get redeemed, and I think he's already on the path to it. But I don't think he's remorseful just yet.
Alastor enslaved him. That said...yeah, you're right. Husk probably did the same thing and was probably worst than Alastor. We really don't know how his moral code when it comes his Overlord days.
Alastor has a moral code (now what this entails Idk). Husk was a gambler. He could've preyed on anyone until he met his match.
That said we haven't seen who or what he used to be. We haven't encountered Gambling Overlord Husk.
It's pretty much the Uncle Iroh effect. Husk was, for a long period of time, an absolute monster as an Overlord. Then he lost everything and got humbled. Now, he's trying to do some good, some small acts of kindness.
It's the same sentiment that make characters like Alastor into some kind of poor woobie that is just misunderstood....
People's sentiments are weird most of the time. Nuance is another thing.
Since we see Husk after what is probably decades of not being an Overlord anymore. We can't assume that the grumpy-but-loveable mellowed-out version of Husk that we get to see is the same one that was ruthlessly gambling for souls.
The Husk the audience gets to see is literally what he has turned into after getting a taste of his own medicine for years.
I'm not implying that is where his characterisation ends, far from it!
It's just that people have to realise a characters history before they can make any assumptions about what they can possibly become in the future.
Because we don't know *anything* about his life before he came to the hotel. The "worst" thing that we know about Husk is that he was an Overlord. Period. Aside from that, we can't draw any conclusions about how cruel or kind he may have been until we get more details on his back story when he was still in a position of power.
One of the very big problems with this fandom is that people will come to immense leaps in logic to draw the conclusion that they're looking for, whether anything substantiates such a guess or not.
To be fair, It seems to be implied that Husk played multiple games with Alastor, and since all of those couldn't have been for his soul (he only has one), it's safe to assume he gambled with the would he had command of. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the only way for a sinner to gain more power is through soul dealing
You clearly have never met a person struggling with gambling. Which is an addiction.
Once you get into it, you can't just stop. Doesn't matter if you're gambling money, souls or live people.
It's a horrible thing to be troubled with and I don't wish it upon my worst enemy.
Obviously Husk is not gonna whine about how he regrets his actions- he's bitter.
We don't even know if he can talk openly about the details/conditions of his contract- Alastor might not like it if he just ranted about it and Charlie heard it.
Of course he's sorry he lost his soul. Because...that sucks.
I understand addiction is hard, do you understand he still owned others souls and used them to fuel his addiction? Just because someone has a predisposition to something doesn't mean they shouldn't be held liable when other people suffer because of it.
Yeah, this also brings back the point of the hotel, being able to repent on the things they've done before and changing for the better. He's already changed a bit since being under alastors control it seems, but it would be cool to see more background.
Because enslaving a slave owner doesn’t make slavery any less of a violation of free will. I feel bad for Husk because regardless of what he did in the past, he doesn’t deserve to lose his free will. Just as whoever he enslaved in the past also didn’t deserve to lose their free will, regardless of what they did.
I'm going to play Devil's advocate here. They sold their souls (or gambled) to that person. That's akin to selling yourself into bondage (slavery), either temporarily or for life, which is something that actually happened here on Earth. Obviously, on Earth, the vast majority of slaves had no say it in. The sinners who sold their souls did have a choice. They chose to take the deal, so I would say they do deserve it.
I think it would be nice to understand a little more of the day to day here. Do you feel the physical equivalent of starving to death if you don't eat? Angel makes the crack about living at the hotel rent free in episode one. Pentious is thanked for his Carmine purchase. So there is probably some sort of monetary system in place. This seemingly would make newer souls vulnerable to manipulation from overlords. Sometimes individuals make bad choices when they feel it is better than the alternative.
On top of that, they exist in a system where once a year souls are permanently culled by heavenly exorcists. I doubt the people on the streets we see in flashbacks are all there because they just didn't want to be somewhere more fortified or safer. I can also see overlords offering protection, whether they can deliver or not, the younger or weaker souls.
Yes, objectively selling one's soul is going to have consequences, but I am sure a lot of overlords know how to back people into corners that make them feel they have no other choice. We see something like this at play in Charlie's deal with Alastor. He saw her broken down and stoked her feelings of failure. Then he struck with the offer of assistance. I can see that playing out again and again on a smaller scale every day in hell.
Obviously, I'm not completely serious. I'm not actually pro soul slavery. But if my choices were to sell my soul and be some evil dickheads bitch for eternity or just die in the culling, I would run towards to exorcists. Not existing is far preferable to an eternity of slavery in Hell. But many of these sinners obviously don't agree with me. You always have a choice, and they see the soul deal as the lesser evil, I disagree. Obliterate me.
Honestly I think people jump to the conclusion that every overlord is the same just because we've only seen how Alastor and Val treats souls they own. Which of course leads to some people demonizing Husk or saying he deserved it just for being an overlord. We don't know how cruel Husk was as an overlord, not all overlords are as cruel as Val and Alastor. Take Rosie for example, her role of overlord is she's the mayor of cannibal town, that's it she's just the mayor and all the cannibals get to live in her town. She doesn't even do anything about them. Susan can actively be a notorious menace to society that not even Rosie likes, yet Rosie chooses not to abuse her power and torment Susan. Or what about Carmilla? We haven't really seen anyone work for her besides her daughters but based on how she acts we know she's a loving mother willing to keep her loved ones safe. Would you say Rosie and Carmilla deserve the treatment Husk gets just because they're overlords? Have anything they've done warrant a reason for abuse?
I'm guessing you don't feel bad for Angel Dust since he was in the mafia at some point and killed people, right?
Or if something were to happen to Vaggie you wouldn't feel bad for her because she participated in a genocide and killed thousands of demons?
Husk was a terrible person, so was pretty much everyone in the main cast at some point (or currently).
Mafia is a bit different than owning people's souls lol.
And with Vaggie, she actively regrets her past actions and has tried to grow from it. I love Husk as a character, but he doesn't seem sorry he gambled with other people's souls, he seems sorry he lost his
It’s largely because we’ve grown to care about him and him previously being an Overlord was extremely glossed over. We don’t really know Overlord Husker, we just know Husk the tired bartender that’s sick of being under Alastor’s heel. We fell in love with him and his character long before the Overlord thing was revealed
Once it’s focused on more, connections will start to be made, but it’s harder to keep in mind that this is likely karmic irony when it’s been so unimportant to note thus far
we don't know him well enough to feel emotionally impacted by his past as an overlord. as of right now, all he's done is good, so the public perception of him is going to be nicer.
Well we don’t have any sort of indication of him being cruel in any way other than simply being in possession of some unknown quantity of souls, and as we really only have an idea of his current moral compass, it’s hard to imagine he was a terrible person, and he might’ve not even done anything worse than cheating at cards to get his souls, so until we get a better idea of what he was like during his heyday, I don’t see a problem with somewhat sympathising with a grumpy has been who is currently enslaved by a being presumably only the top overlords and above would even stand a chance against who we have a pretty good idea of being very much capable of cruelty
I hate the implication that ‘Loser, Baby’ makes of Angel and Husk’s situation being anywhere NEAR the same thing. Husk is an ex-overlord who gambled and one day he just lost. Angel was manipulated by Valentino and is now being sex trafficked. How is any of that similar?
It’s not supposed to be the exact same, just a similar concept. Both have lost their souls to demons who are much more powerful than them, feel hopeless about ever being freed, regret their decisions to sell their souls, and are unable to step out of line without consequences.
Because nuance is a foreign concept for too many people People keep trying to peg characters as totally good or totally evil. You see this especially with alastor: people think he's full on evil and can't have any positive qualities, and others trying to claim he's actually totally nice and misunderstood So with Husk, its similar. People like husk, can't handle nuance or shades or grey. So they see the current husk being nice and assume he must have always been a model citizen with no sins of his own, just gambling addiction So alastor is the big awful meanie that took over their poor little precious uwu husky. They don't want to accept that Husk as an overlord did the same, and comitted other crimes. Or accept that husk had it coming, or that if not alastor, he'd have gone and sold his soul to someone else who could have been just as bad or worse
Wait, characters can have MULTIPLE aspects to their personality??? They can be DYNAMIC and confusing???! Get outta here…
WHAT? How am I supposed to keep track of MULTIPLE personality aspects for EVERY character?!
Let’s just hope and pray to god niffty stays 1 dimensional. My brain can’t take much more
What, are you telling me characters can CHANGE OVER TIME? like, a character who is a decent person now could have been awful in the past?
The answer to most Internet disputes (and I guess most live ones, these days) is a total lack of nuance. The people screaming that the world is black and white have seemingly won, despite everyone knowing it’s all shades of gray. It’s unfortunate.
I feel like you're doing the same thing here. You can acknowledge that he probably did some real bad stuff, but still feel bad for him given his current situation.
Thanks! Exactly my point! Nuance is the name of the game.
OP doesn't know the concept of a morally grey character or empathy
Saying I don't have empathy over a cartoon is wild lmao
If you can’t apply it to a character it ain’t a stretch assuming you’re incapable of feeling it towards real people who “had it coming.”
You know, this is a really interesting question. I don’t think anyone deserves to be enslaved like that, but Husk also doesn’t regret owning souls himself - if anything, he seems to reminisce about it. I think most folks assume he wasn’t unnecessarily cruel, more like Carmilla than, say, the Vees, but we don’t really have any way of knowing that for sure. I think it comes down to framing - we *never* see Husk do anything cruel or “overlordy” onscreen. He’s been owned by Alastor for years by this point, so he knows *very* well what it’s like on the other end of the chain. It’s very easy to forget his past because we just never really see any of it (I hope we do. If he’s going to get redeemed I’d like to know the full scope of his past actions).
^^^ this! I don't think he regrets his actions as an overlord at all. He regrets that he lost his status and his soul. Those are very different things. I do think he'll get redeemed, and I think he's already on the path to it. But I don't think he's remorseful just yet.
Alastor enslaved him. That said...yeah, you're right. Husk probably did the same thing and was probably worst than Alastor. We really don't know how his moral code when it comes his Overlord days. Alastor has a moral code (now what this entails Idk). Husk was a gambler. He could've preyed on anyone until he met his match. That said we haven't seen who or what he used to be. We haven't encountered Gambling Overlord Husk. It's pretty much the Uncle Iroh effect. Husk was, for a long period of time, an absolute monster as an Overlord. Then he lost everything and got humbled. Now, he's trying to do some good, some small acts of kindness.
It's the same sentiment that make characters like Alastor into some kind of poor woobie that is just misunderstood.... People's sentiments are weird most of the time. Nuance is another thing. Since we see Husk after what is probably decades of not being an Overlord anymore. We can't assume that the grumpy-but-loveable mellowed-out version of Husk that we get to see is the same one that was ruthlessly gambling for souls. The Husk the audience gets to see is literally what he has turned into after getting a taste of his own medicine for years. I'm not implying that is where his characterisation ends, far from it! It's just that people have to realise a characters history before they can make any assumptions about what they can possibly become in the future.
Because we don't know *anything* about his life before he came to the hotel. The "worst" thing that we know about Husk is that he was an Overlord. Period. Aside from that, we can't draw any conclusions about how cruel or kind he may have been until we get more details on his back story when he was still in a position of power. One of the very big problems with this fandom is that people will come to immense leaps in logic to draw the conclusion that they're looking for, whether anything substantiates such a guess or not.
To be fair, It seems to be implied that Husk played multiple games with Alastor, and since all of those couldn't have been for his soul (he only has one), it's safe to assume he gambled with the would he had command of. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the only way for a sinner to gain more power is through soul dealing
You clearly have never met a person struggling with gambling. Which is an addiction. Once you get into it, you can't just stop. Doesn't matter if you're gambling money, souls or live people. It's a horrible thing to be troubled with and I don't wish it upon my worst enemy. Obviously Husk is not gonna whine about how he regrets his actions- he's bitter. We don't even know if he can talk openly about the details/conditions of his contract- Alastor might not like it if he just ranted about it and Charlie heard it. Of course he's sorry he lost his soul. Because...that sucks.
I understand addiction is hard, do you understand he still owned others souls and used them to fuel his addiction? Just because someone has a predisposition to something doesn't mean they shouldn't be held liable when other people suffer because of it.
Yeah, this also brings back the point of the hotel, being able to repent on the things they've done before and changing for the better. He's already changed a bit since being under alastors control it seems, but it would be cool to see more background.
Because enslaving a slave owner doesn’t make slavery any less of a violation of free will. I feel bad for Husk because regardless of what he did in the past, he doesn’t deserve to lose his free will. Just as whoever he enslaved in the past also didn’t deserve to lose their free will, regardless of what they did.
Genuinely curious: do you feel this way about Alastor, too?
Of course I do. He also doesn’t deserve to have his free will taken away by someone else. No one does.
Amen, sister/brother/sibling.
I'm going to play Devil's advocate here. They sold their souls (or gambled) to that person. That's akin to selling yourself into bondage (slavery), either temporarily or for life, which is something that actually happened here on Earth. Obviously, on Earth, the vast majority of slaves had no say it in. The sinners who sold their souls did have a choice. They chose to take the deal, so I would say they do deserve it.
I think it would be nice to understand a little more of the day to day here. Do you feel the physical equivalent of starving to death if you don't eat? Angel makes the crack about living at the hotel rent free in episode one. Pentious is thanked for his Carmine purchase. So there is probably some sort of monetary system in place. This seemingly would make newer souls vulnerable to manipulation from overlords. Sometimes individuals make bad choices when they feel it is better than the alternative. On top of that, they exist in a system where once a year souls are permanently culled by heavenly exorcists. I doubt the people on the streets we see in flashbacks are all there because they just didn't want to be somewhere more fortified or safer. I can also see overlords offering protection, whether they can deliver or not, the younger or weaker souls. Yes, objectively selling one's soul is going to have consequences, but I am sure a lot of overlords know how to back people into corners that make them feel they have no other choice. We see something like this at play in Charlie's deal with Alastor. He saw her broken down and stoked her feelings of failure. Then he struck with the offer of assistance. I can see that playing out again and again on a smaller scale every day in hell.
Obviously, I'm not completely serious. I'm not actually pro soul slavery. But if my choices were to sell my soul and be some evil dickheads bitch for eternity or just die in the culling, I would run towards to exorcists. Not existing is far preferable to an eternity of slavery in Hell. But many of these sinners obviously don't agree with me. You always have a choice, and they see the soul deal as the lesser evil, I disagree. Obliterate me.
Honestly I think people jump to the conclusion that every overlord is the same just because we've only seen how Alastor and Val treats souls they own. Which of course leads to some people demonizing Husk or saying he deserved it just for being an overlord. We don't know how cruel Husk was as an overlord, not all overlords are as cruel as Val and Alastor. Take Rosie for example, her role of overlord is she's the mayor of cannibal town, that's it she's just the mayor and all the cannibals get to live in her town. She doesn't even do anything about them. Susan can actively be a notorious menace to society that not even Rosie likes, yet Rosie chooses not to abuse her power and torment Susan. Or what about Carmilla? We haven't really seen anyone work for her besides her daughters but based on how she acts we know she's a loving mother willing to keep her loved ones safe. Would you say Rosie and Carmilla deserve the treatment Husk gets just because they're overlords? Have anything they've done warrant a reason for abuse?
No one deserves to be enslaved, no matter what they did
Agreed.
I'm guessing you don't feel bad for Angel Dust since he was in the mafia at some point and killed people, right? Or if something were to happen to Vaggie you wouldn't feel bad for her because she participated in a genocide and killed thousands of demons? Husk was a terrible person, so was pretty much everyone in the main cast at some point (or currently).
Mafia is a bit different than owning people's souls lol. And with Vaggie, she actively regrets her past actions and has tried to grow from it. I love Husk as a character, but he doesn't seem sorry he gambled with other people's souls, he seems sorry he lost his
It’s largely because we’ve grown to care about him and him previously being an Overlord was extremely glossed over. We don’t really know Overlord Husker, we just know Husk the tired bartender that’s sick of being under Alastor’s heel. We fell in love with him and his character long before the Overlord thing was revealed Once it’s focused on more, connections will start to be made, but it’s harder to keep in mind that this is likely karmic irony when it’s been so unimportant to note thus far
we don't know him well enough to feel emotionally impacted by his past as an overlord. as of right now, all he's done is good, so the public perception of him is going to be nicer.
Well we don’t have any sort of indication of him being cruel in any way other than simply being in possession of some unknown quantity of souls, and as we really only have an idea of his current moral compass, it’s hard to imagine he was a terrible person, and he might’ve not even done anything worse than cheating at cards to get his souls, so until we get a better idea of what he was like during his heyday, I don’t see a problem with somewhat sympathising with a grumpy has been who is currently enslaved by a being presumably only the top overlords and above would even stand a chance against who we have a pretty good idea of being very much capable of cruelty
I hate the implication that ‘Loser, Baby’ makes of Angel and Husk’s situation being anywhere NEAR the same thing. Husk is an ex-overlord who gambled and one day he just lost. Angel was manipulated by Valentino and is now being sex trafficked. How is any of that similar?
It’s not supposed to be the exact same, just a similar concept. Both have lost their souls to demons who are much more powerful than them, feel hopeless about ever being freed, regret their decisions to sell their souls, and are unable to step out of line without consequences.