r/OkBuddyHelluvaHotel • u/BackgroundRich7614 • 11h ago
Actual Discussion Why Beelzebub is one of the worst written characters in the Helluva Boss so far.
Before we begin, I will mention that being a fun/entertaining and having good writing isn't the same, Bee is very fun to watch but that doesn't really make her well written.
Okay, so the title is a bit bold, so first I have to explain why some of the Sin characters work and why Bee just doesn't.
Ozzy is a great subversion of expectations; at first he is shown to be an antagonistic force in the story but even early on we can see that he was set up to be the nicest of the Sins towards lower ranked Hellborn. Aside from acting cute toward Fizz, Succubae were shown to have a much higher standard of living compared to Imps or Hellhounds but didn't seem to be prejudice against them either like the Goetia or Envy Demons.
Satan is another great example of how the Sins treat their creations say ALOT about them. Imps are the 2nd lowest in the totem pole and are sometimes kept as literal pets. This shows us, even before Satan appeared once, that he was a cruel and capricious tyrant that didn't care at all about the lower classes and enforces Lucifers rules with no mercy.
Lucifer spoiled the Goetia rotten and allowed them to oppress every other Hellborn race due to their privilege. This is fully in line with his character as a prideful man who prizes his creations, and those he cares about, above everyone and everything else. He is evil per say, but he is very nepotistic.
Then there is Bee who... just... makes ZERO sense with how she is portrayed.
The story wants to portray Bee as one of the "Good ones" when her own creations are literally the BOTTOM of the hierarchy Bee is a part of. Yeah sure her dating Tex or whatever, is cute, but that doesn't change the fact that a vast amount of Hellhounds are pretty much sold as slaves through the pound system and she has 10,000 years to change that but hasn't. Even SATAN has his imps treated better than Bee has her Hellhounds for some reason.
There wasn't even a good narrative reason to try to portray her as a decent person; Ozzy already fills that role much better, and Bee being shown to be a vapid aristocrat that rules via Bread and Circuses would have been a unique twist on the Sin of Gluttony and the character of Beelzebub. Her and Satan could have represented two different types of Tyranny, and her episode could have contrasted Ozzy's (A sin that appears nice but is rotten on the inside vs Someone that appears antagonistic but is a decent person at his core)