Angel Dust

"This body is flawless! Everyone wants summa me, and I've got the creepy fan letters to prove it!"

- Angel Dust, boasting to Charlie and Vaggie

Anthony, more commonly known as Angel Dust, is an adult film star in Hell and one of the main protagonists in Hazbin Hotel.

A Sinner Demon who was elected to be the first patient the Happy Hotel attempts to redeem, Angel's selfish actions of using the hotel as a rent-free living space threaten to jeopardize Charlie's dream.

Appearance
Angel has a slender build and is the tallest of the main cast of characters. He is estimated to stand around 8 feet with his heels on.

His fur is white and he has a mop of fluffy white hair that extends from both the front and back of his head, with splotches of light-pink across it. He also has a distinctive and focal light-pink heart pattern on the back of his head. The light-pink outline of a heart also encircles his chest, the bottom point of which extends past his waistband and down to his crotch area.

His eyelids are light-pink and the color extends up to his eyebrows, giving the effect of eye-shadow, and his lashes are dark and thick. His irises are cerise-pink, and his left eye has a dark sclera and no pupil. He has a wide mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth and possesses a single golden fang that sits slightly to his right of center, a feature he shares with his boss, Valentino. He has three cerise-pink dots under each of his eyes, which are intended to evoke freckles, although they are actually another set of smaller eyes.

One of Angel's most noticeable features is his prominent chest, which often confuses fans and other characters alike regarding his gender. The chest is actually composed entirely of fluffy fur, however, which Angel intentionally pushes up into a breast-like formation with his tightly pinned jacket for show.

Angel's everyday attire consists of a long white suit-blazer with horizontal pink stripes down the length, a reddish-grey bowtie with a cerise-pink center, a reddish-grey choker, long cerise-pink gloves, a reddish-grey miniskirt, and long reddish-grey thigh-high heeled boots.

Though usually depicted with six limbs, Angel has a third retractable set of arms that he can summon at will.

Personality
Angel is sassy and sarcastic, with a sharp wit. He will often use these traits to deflect criticism or insults, and side-step responsibility.

He will switch between playful and destructive as he pleases, and his humor tends to be crude and crass, with an emphasis on dirty jokes and innuendo. He is stylish and projects an excessive amount of confidence with his public persona, being wildly flirtatious and interested in receiving positive attention for his looks and the profile he has made for himself in Hell. He also makes a show of looking down others for their looks, declaring the other denizens of Hell to be mostly "ugly freaks".

As a result, Angel can often appear flippant and callous, but in reality, he is preemptively defensive and hides much of his true, more sensitive, self for his own protection, not expecting those around him to show him kindness.

Angel does have friends, and while he cares about them and will sometimes show signs of wanting to reach out, he keeps many walls up between himself and others, and avoids holding overly emotional relationships. He holds cynical views on the idea of redemption, although he seems to still hold onto a small hope it may be possible for him.

The on-going controlling and abusive situation he is in with his boss, Valentino, puts him under a great deal of stress at his work, and he is implied to be somewhat traumatized as a result.

Skillset

 * Bilingualism: Angel is fluent in both Italian and English.
 * Weapon Proficiency: Angel can handle weapons with ease, specifically firearms and explosives.
 * Sensitivity: Angel can sense incoming storms from a mile away.
 * Flexibility: Angel demonstrates some impressive flexiblity as he is able to remove chains that were restraining him with ease, as well as pole dance at Valentino's club.
 * Athleticism: Since Angel is based on the jumping spider, he is able to jump incredible heights.

Unique Abilities

 * Retractable Arms: Angel has a third set of arms that he keeps hidden and only uses them as his last resort.

Weaponry

 * Firearms: Angel has a vast collection of firearms that he uses throughout his battles. He is first seen handling a Thompson gun in the pilot and can be seen handling six other guns in the prequel comic.

Galleries

 * Angel Dust/Gallery
 * Angel Dust/Designs

Concept & Creation
Angel was one of the first characters that would eventually feature in Hazbin Hotel to be created by VivziePop, and he remains one of her personal favorites. Angel was created during her later college years and she recalls how she would draw him excessively, to the point her classmates would comment on it.

Angel, along with his brother, Arackniss, were originally conceived as part of a 2013 stand-alone "film noir-esque mafia demons" short story for Vivziepop's animation thesis, titled The Spider Brothers.

The Spider Brothers as a thesis was eventually abandoned, with Vivziepop realizing that the film was "just too complex and too demanding" for her current level of animation and she began to look towards having Angel feature in an arc of her then-running webcomic, Zoophobia, titled "Angels and Demons" instead.

VivziePop eventually realized that the collection of misfit demons she had designed to appear within the comic had the potential for their own self-contained story, and shifted them, including Angel, over to the first draft of what would eventually become Hazbin Hotel.

Vivziepop then slowly started to move away from Angel's grubbier, more masculine origins, beginning to incorporate more elements of gender expressiveness into his character, leaning into earlier hinted at enjoyment of cross-dressing and, later, drag. His biggest thematic design shift happened around 2015, with Angel moving fully to a pinker-toned character with more gender-presentation duality -- his Hell-career working in porn and as a sex worker was established soon after, as was his gay orientation, all elements that would carry through to the pilot.

Trivia

 * The name Anthony may come from the word "antonia", which means "priceless/praiseworthy and or beautiful".
 * "Angel Dust" is Angel's chosen all-encompassing persona name, and one he uses exclusively in place of his actual name. It is intended as multipurpose for both his drag queen persona and his sex-work persona. It's also a possible reference to his mode of death, a drug overdose.
 * Angel was from New York when living.
 * Angel has two siblings, an older brother, Arackniss, and a fraternal twin sister, Molly.
 * Angel comes from an extended mob family, who are all "horrible people", and are mostly also all in Hell. They all appear as spider-based demons due to their "web of crime", and the majority of Angel's immediate family have drug-themed names.
 * Angel was of Italian heritage.
 * Angel has a drug addiction problem, which is shown in the pilot when he is paying for the drug, angel dust, from a vending machine.
 * Angel got into sex work pretty early upon arriving in Hell, rejecting his family’s mob dealings, something that VivziePop plans to explore on the show.
 * VivziePop describes Angel as somewhat like the Hell-equivalent to Paris Hilton or the Kardashians, in that he is a well-known star of a particular type in this world. Adult-film actors are the regular stars of Hell, and Angel is one of the bigger stars working at one of the biggest studios.
 * Due to the fact he frequently stars in pornography now, Angel no longer watches pornography himself.
 * Angel enjoys drag and although he was not directly inspired by any real life drag queens, VivziePop cites ' as something of a style influence for his wigs, and compared his humor and attitude to ' and  (although she noted Mattel to be "too wholesome" and "not trashy enough" compared to Angel).
 * Angel is gay, but is willing to sleep with women as part of sex work for money, as shown in the prequel comic, although it is not his personal preference to do so and he will charge extra for his effort.
 * Although Angel has slept with many people, according to VivziePop, he has not been in as many relationships and the ones he has been in haven't worked out.
 * Angel has personal kinks that he is into.
 * Whenever Angel is not working and doesn't feel the need to maintain his public persona, he prefers to dress in very cosy, comfortable, unsexualized clothing.
 * VivziePop described Angel as a character with very strong themes of duality, citing his drag persona specifically as a big part of it. His very inhuman form reflects the subject of self-image, describing it as a more universally understandable issue that could be conveyed with a less humanoid character like his.
 * When discussing Angel's extra set of retractable extra arms, VivziePop mentioned them being thematically appropriate for his character, as Angel is trying to hide much of his true self behind walls and does not have a lot of trust.
 * Although Angel likes and embraces his demon form, the one thing Angel doesn't like about it is his feet. Where possible, he would avoid sex work that involved his feet, or else he would be angry about it if it was unavoidable.
 * In artwork used for backgrounds in the pilot, Angel's feet resemble those of a spider's.
 * When asked about the dots underneath Angel's eyes, Vivziepop revealed they are actually two sets of smaller eyes, but they are also designed to resemble freckles.
 * In an earlier development stream, when asked if Angel is venomous, Vivziepop stated she did not think Angel was venomous due to being based on the jumping spider. However, she returns to this in a later stream, stating that Angel's bite may be venomous, but that venom in Hell can't actually kill anyone, it just causes temporary pain or disfigurement and making them fall ill.
 * Angel's favorite color is pink.
 * According to VivziePop, there is a reason Angel is so brightly colored and this is something she wants to explore on the show.
 * In the music video, ADDICT, Angel is shown having PTSD-esque flashbacks and dealing with possible depression after having to endure serious abuse at the hands of his sadistic boss, Valentino.
 * VivziePop thinks that Angel is somewhat indifferent to keeping up with trends in Hell. He is interested in keeping up with fashion, but is not particularly interested in technology in general. He’s on the fence with the more online aspects of tech, with VivziePop speculating that he would be something of a troll.
 * She also doesn't think Angel would be good at using Hell's equivalent of a mobile phone for its intended purpose, rather that he would enjoy its capacity to take photos.
 * Angel is not a picky eater, as he enjoys food in general, especially Italian dishes and well-prepared meals. But, he is also not opposed to junk food every so often.
 * Angel is described as a relatively good cook, especially when it comes to Italian dishes.
 * Angel doesn't care much for candy, but really enjoys fruit. The closest thing to candy he would enjoy would be chocolate covered strawberries.
 * Angel can play both the trumpet and accordion, although neither especially well. He can also read sheet music.
 * Angel remarks in the pilot that he has no interest in the politics of Hell.
 * According to Vivizepop, Angel has a soft spot for children and he would be the "friendly irresponsible" type. He wouldn't behave inappropriately around them, but would still swear. If he were to find a lost baby, he wouldn't hurt them, but he would take them to inappropriate places while finding their parents.
 * When asked why Angel likes kids, VivziePop explained that, although it probably wouldn’t be explored with regards to children in the show, there are reasons for Angel's sentimentality and his instinctually seeing innocence as a thing to be valued. This was also the reason given for his loving Fat Nuggets so much.
 * Angel genuinely likes fish and his favorite kinds are said to be the blobfish and angelfish.
 * During the second chorus of the ADDICT music video, Angel and Cherri Bomb are shown in a club that features a ceiling-high aquarium in the background. In what may be a small easter egg, a blobfish and a handful of angelfish can be seen in one of the shots.
 * During the gang war with Sir Pentious, when Angel's shadow is cast behind him, it appears much larger than him, with six arms and glowing red eyes. This implies that Angel can possibly transform into a larger form like other sinner demons, such as Alastor.

Development

 * Angel's human name, during early development, was originally intended to be "Martin", which was a reference to Martin Scorsese, but it was later changed to "Anthony".
 * During earlier development for his character, Angel was at one time planned to be from Los Angeles. VivziePop settled on New York, however, wishing to give Angel a setting more appropriate for the traditional Brooklyn gangster voice she envisioned for him, and one that none of the other characters originated from.
 * In earlier reference sheets for his character, VivziePop described Angel as "very genderfluid", but later moved on from that identity as she continued to develop the character. In a 2016 speed draw video, she stated that she didn't think the genderfluid label applied to him much anymore and that he just isn't offended when people misgender him. She went on to say that, unless in drag, he identifies as male.
 * In a much earlier draft of the story that featured one of Angel's earlier design iterations, Vivziepop briefly attempted to see if Angel and an earlier version of Vaggie's character would work as a romantic couple within the version of the story she was currently working on. She eventually decided against it and moved on, continuing to develop the characters in other directions, describing them as "no longer compatible".
 * VivziePop cited Roger from American Dad’ as a source of inspiration when creating Angel Dust's character. In his original draft, Angel apparently shared more traits in common with him, being a "ridiculous drugged-out psychopath". Where they now differ is in Roger's intentional lack of depth and empathy for the comedy show he exists in, whereas Angel now has more of a complex interior life with motivations and feelings.
 * After Angel received his biggest thematic redesign around 2015, shifting him from the more masculine gangster to the more femme-embracing porn-star, Vivziepop received some confusion from fans, who perceived his redesign as lacking flaws. This prompted Vivziepop to explain in depth that Angel is a "preservative, insensitive asshole, who points out the flaws in others to make up for his own crippling insecurities". She continued to explain that Angel resorts to selling his image for drug money, in order to repress his inner demons and embedded self-loathing, and that he is able to put on whatever mask he feels the person he is with wants to see. She concluded by describing Angel as "cynical, guarded, and not afraid to hurt others to protect himself", highlighting how all his problems are of his own making. As Angel's character was still firmly in later-stage development, it's unclear how accurate this remains for his character, but elements of it are reflected clearly in the pilot and prequel comic.
 * Vivziepop talked about Angel being a particularly tricky character for her to write, admitting that she felt he had a wit and a snark that somewhat eluded her skill level, and that she had to get into a very specific head-space to tap into his confidence.
 * Angel's birthday was once under some ambiguity. VivziePop felt that Angel's birthday was April 1st, although, at the time, she couldn't say for certain. However, the following year, she wished him a happy birthday on April 1st in another Tweet.
 * The date of Angel's creation as one of VivziePop's characters is February 9.
 * VivziePop also expressed her wish to give Angel a group of drag queen and stripper friends from his workplace within the show, who would ideally be voiced by real porn stars.
 * When asked whether Angel will experience sadness or heartbreak on the show, VivziePop replied “one hundred percent”, stating that Angel is one of the more emotional characters on the show, with Dave Capdevielle adding, “There's a bit of drama, for sure”.
 * At the Momocon 2019 Hazbin Hotel panel, VivziePop mentioned that Angel would be getting a love interest during the show. She gave no indication as to whom it may be, talking about how difficult she finds keeping upcoming couples on her projects quiet (something she has failed to do in the past), but is determined when it comes to Hazbin Hotel.
 * A poster for Angel Dust appears in the Lust Ring in the Helluva Boss episode "Ozzie's".