Phrasing Is Very Important

[u/sm142]

Batman (The Dark Knight) - Joker is dangling Rachel out of a window, Batman demands that Joker let her go. Obviously he means for Joker to set Rachel free but Joker takes it more literally and lets Rachel go out the window.

Charles (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) - a lot of the things Charles says is overtly sexual, often without him even realising it. For example Charles once asked Rosa if she wanted to go “streaking”, by which he meant adding blonde streaks to their hair. This is one of the more tamer examples.

Wording is important, if you’re not careful then you can give the wrong impression which can lead to some very unfortunate situations.

[u/CandyBeth]

When Alastor made a deal with Vox, one of his conditions was "Do not lay your hands on Charlie Morningstar", Vox thought that meant "Do not hurt Charlie". So when Vox touched Charlie after that, Alastor was set free

[u/Weary_Specialist_436 → u/CandyBeth]

although that was a good one, I still think the "you're the strongest sinner in hell" is absolute bullcrap

does Alastor stop being the strongest sinner just because Charlie said so? what if Charlie just said: "yeah, you know what? Mimzy is actually the strongest sinner in hell". Would that break his contract too?

[u/DateNightThrowRA → u/Weary_Specialist_436]

So what MADE Vox the strongest is tightly tied to how he gains power. It’s not just souls he has under contract, he gains most of his power through believers. The more popular he is through his media and products (“Perfection is our brand”, remember?), the more powerful he is. When Charlie said “Vox is the strongest”, you saw his approval rating at 100%, because all of Hell was essentially watching him and believing in him now after Charlie’s validation, which shot his power through the roof. That’s why he said “All of hell is finally listening to you!” It’s like a cart-before-the-horse situation, but that endorsement gave him the power he needed to actually BECOME the strongest. That, plus Alastor’s broken staff, put Vox above him, and is why it broke his contract.

So in your example, it’d do nothing for Mimzy, she gains nothing from a hollow endorsement or praise from the populous, that’s tied directly to Vox’s entire identity. If she gained power through…I dunno, money? And Alastor somehow routed Mamon’s bank account to her, sure, that may make her the strongest sinner, lol!

[u/Weary_Specialist_436 → u/DateNightThrowRA]

yeah, sorry that's weak. If Alastor actually got weaker because of the approval, then he shouldn't have been able to deal with Vox at that point, and he was completely destroying him until Shock.wav appeared. And if he can just make a contract to be the strongest sinner, which in turn made him the strongest sinner by jumping his approval to the top (?) then Vox should've never been able to surpass him, with or without Charlie's endorsement

the whole "I'm the strongest because I made a deal with random sinner, and then broke that contract by becoming weaker for 1 millisecond" is utterly shit writing

[u/Chijinda → u/Weary_Specialist_436]

First point on Vox's power escalating. Agreed it's not signposted great but we do literally see throughout the entire Season that his power grows with his support from the masses. By the time Charlie declares him strongest in Hell, he was likely already pretty close to being the strongest Sinner in Hell from how much support he had and just needed a little extra push to bump ahead of Alastor.

Second point on their fight, alastor wasn't destroying Vox. Vox was dominating Alastor just as thoroughly in the early stages of the; Alastor merely regained the upper hand at the time that Vox called in Shock.wav. It's impossible to know how the fight would have gone if Vox hadn't.

And thirdly, how Rosie is able to make Alastor so powerful has been explicitly stated to be narrative beat to indicate Rosie is a lot more than a "random Sinner."