One of the best pieces of writing advice that a pro can give you is: Save your best lines for your secondary characters. Since the audience is already following the protagonist and its journey, you need to make his or her allies as interesting as him or her. Luckily for Hazbin Hotel, this works perfectly and is what makes Season 2 the best one yet. Let’s talk about how it pulled it off and got it right, while we talk about a series that didn’t.
In case you are interested, you only need this to make a good story: a protagonist, an antagonist, a love interest and a best friend/ally. Sometimes the last two can be one and the same or you can even have the two and other additional characters. In this case, we can place Charlie Morningstar as Season 2 protagonist and Vox as antagonist. Meanwhile, Vaggi falls into the love interest and other cast members are allies and friends.
Since we already got a Season 1, we spent enough time with Charlie to know how she is, her traits and her obsessions. Since she was the spotlight in the first season of Hazbin Hotel, Season 2 can use the time to introduce us more deeply to Charlie’s allies. However, that’s not enough, since the show must do one very important thing: make us care. Which forces Hazbin Hotel to make Charlie’s allies compelling enough for us to want to know more about them in this new season, enough so we can let Charlie rest from the protagonist burden.
We got Sir Pentious’s struggle to adjust to heaven, Cherri longing to meet Pentious again, Nifty’s not so obvious desire to help Charlie and Husker’s own addictions. Each one of these characters are relatable, flawed, and has a story of their own. However, this wasn’t possible in Season 1. First we had to believe that Charlie’s wish could make an impact on her allies. Now that they believe in her dreams and we got enough time with the protagonist, we can allow ourselves to see more interesting characters than her.
As I said earlier, there was a show that failed at this. It had potential due to its creator but lastly, failed at fulfilling this rule: Close Enough. Created by the guy that made Regular Show, the first season of Close Enough made us spend more time with the protagonists and their adventure adjusting towards parenting. This success led to them having a Season 2. When this premiered, it committed the biggest sin ever: the secondary characters…weren’t good.
And not in a sense of good morals, they were just not that interesting. There was a time that the secondary characters’ adventures were…boring, hollow. Hell, it even makes you miss the protagonists, and while that’s not bad, it’s not good either. If the audience is already following the protagonist, you make the secondary characters better than them so they can shine as bright as the MC’s. Sadly, this didn’t work, and Close Enough was cancelled.
The second season of Hazbin Hotel was a masterclass in expectation, subverting those expectations and in creating captivating, interesting characters. It shows that, in the end, as long as you make interesting allies for your protagonist and give them the best bits, you will create memorable moments that stick with your audience. This writing trickery didn’t necessarily make Hazbin Hotel Season 2 great, but it helped make it an everlasting hit.
