Angel Dust (Anthony by birth) is a character from the animated television series Hazbin Hotel, created by Vivienne Medrano for A24. Angel is a resident of hell who is formerly a human. Having sinned in his mortal life, he is now a demon who resembles a spider.

Angel is also a famous porn star in hell who is often busy filming and performing for his boss, Valentino. In the show, Angel agrees to stay in Charlie Morningstar’s hotel in order to be redeemed. He doesn’t believe this is possible, and is using Charlie and her establishment for free accommodation.

In 2019, the Hazbin Hotel pilot was released to YouTube. Created by YouTuber Vivziepop and uploaded to her channel in late October, it quickly became one of the most popular and successful cartoon pilots ever published. I didn’t like it. Not only did I find the pilot itself confusing and filled to the brim with excessive sound effects and poor dialogue, I had a strong dislike for the character Angel Dust - a demon whose dialogue consisted mostly of insisting on his sexuality and his obsession with sex and drugs. As someone who identified with similar labels to the character at the time, I was critical of the choice to represent the LGBTQ+ community with such a stereotypical sex-obsessed character.

This dislike turned into something of a joke between friends. I would make edits and memes of the character, and he quickly became my Discord profile picture - a staple of my social media accounts to this day. Over time, this dislike and mockery blossomed into something I’d never experienced before - a form of ironic fondness for the character.

Over time, more would develop alongside the show - A24 would be announced to pick up the series, and character redesigns would slowly trickle out to demonstrate the progress of the full show. In 2023, real footage began to surface of the show, and the new cast were announced alongside it. After years of joking about the character based on a 30 minute pilot, there’d finally be a fully realised version of the character which would be released to the masses.

It was around this time that I realised my ironic love for the character was no longer disingenuous or filled with tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement - I genuinely liked the character and was somewhat excited to see the show release. Over those final months before the show aired, it became apparent that Angel would be developed more as a character and that the show had more to say and do than what was demonstrated in the pilot.

After the show’s release, I’ve completely fallen in love with the character. Not only has Angel become a part of my digital identity since I first changed my profile picture as a joke, but his character as written in the show and his incredible actor Blake Roman have sold me completely on the character himself. I’m super excited to see what’s next for Angel Dust and the show Hazbin Hotel!