Ok, so I still haven’t seen any of the actual new Hazbin Hotel. But seeing that other video got me thinking about Charlie’s redesign – and I actually do have some important notes on it. Much like with Alastor, there was one monumentally important element changed in her design. And I’m not entirely sure of the reasoning behind it.
That is, her shape language.
The shape language of Charlie from the pilot was very rounded, something that easily communicated her softness and kindness visually – before we as the audience got a chance to see her put that into action. It’s psychological, characters with a round or circular shape language are often shown as soft or kind because people have a tendency to apply these traits to round shapes.
Have you ever heard of Kiki and Bouba? It’s a famous psychological experiment in which participants were supplied with two random shapes and two random names – a round shape and a spiky shape, Kiki and Bouba. The participants were given a free choice as to which name to give to which shape, yet for some nearly everyone agreed that Bouba was the rounded shape, and Kiki was the sharp and angular one. The rounded shape got the soft and gentle name, where the spiky shape got the sharper sounding one. This often plays into character design, and the story it can tell you about that character.
Charlie’s round shape language from the pilot was only ever broken up by the sharpness of her horns, which only appeared when she was either angry or off-the-rails. This implies that this use of shape language was an intentional decision.
Which brings me to my point. Charlie now has a consistently triangular shape language. You can see it in her hair, her clothes, body shape, expression, and posing. Characters with a triangular shape language are often seen as more aggressive, more chaotic, and colder. Both Alastor and Vaggie from the pilot were examples of triangular shape language in action, matching with their personalities. And now, from a visual perspective, Charlie has very much lost her softness.
My question is this. Does this mean the Charlie in the new show will be a more proactive version of herself? Perhaps aligned more chaotic-good than just good? Or was this sharpness added for no reason?
Was it just because her character is a demon? Because if so, honestly, I’d be disappointed.
I guess for the time being, I’ll wait and see.