This Is Specifically About Ppl Claiming Vox Is Abused Or Even Manipulated By Val - Tumblr Posts
StaticMoth Abuse
Featuring mentions of Angel Dust's relationship with Val
TW: ABUSE, SA
SPOILERS AHEAD ↓
Here's a fact. Vox is not being abused by Valentino.
This fandom is so deep in fanon content that it heavily intertwines with canon. But let's try to understand where Val abusing Vox came from, why it's not true and how it correlates to Angel Dust's relationship with Val.
Let's begin:
In the, now archived, posts on Instagram (or voxtagram), it was revealed that Vox and Val were in a situation-ship, and canon officially confirmed it.
Now, Val as a character is heavily hated and for good reasons while Vox is not. Many people adore Vox and for that, his relationship with Val can be conflicting, adding a bit of difficulty in justifying their like for him.
Here's where Valentino's relationship with Angel Dust comes in.
Val has been shown to be abusive and to SA Angel Dust. First example of that being the Addict music video.
This has created the need for people to give a reason behind Vox's relationship with Val and make excuses for him so they can validate their favoritism.
"Val is so awful! He must be abusing Vox! Breaking his screen and whatnot!"
What people don't take into consideration is the difference in their power imbalance or lack thereof.
One of the core factors in Angel Dust's relationship with Val is the power difference between them.
Val is an overlord while Angel is a sinner.
A sinner that signed a contract with Val and gave his soul. That alone makes their dynamic vastly different. Val feels it's within his right to abuse Angel, to test his limits until he breaks. And up until episode 4, Angel believed he deserved it because whatever Val did to have him sign the contract must have been his fault. Although that's not true, Angel felt so. Heck, he wanted to break himself so that Val would let him go.
Vox and Val, on the other hand, don't have that. Both of them are overlords.
They are on equal footing. There is no power imbalance. In fact, the Vees could have not existed and both Vox and Val, including Velvette, would be completely fine without each other and continue to have their respective overlord status.
The reason it exists is exploitation.
All three can and do use each other so they can have a more powerful front. A mutual alliance of exploitation. Within this, they have created their own fucked up bond. As a result of that, Val and Vox have an on-again, off-again relationship. It's far from healthy, but it's not an abusive one.
Vox knows of Valentino's behavior but as long as it's not effecting their shared partnership, he will not interfere nor will he care about it.
Or maybe the next seasons will give me the middle finger and I'm completely wrong. Who knows? I just read a fic and saw posts about Vox being abused by Val and wanted to give my two cents on the topic.