When dealing with a cult, any form of descent is blasphemy and needs to be stamped out. It’s not about this guy, it’s about making sure someone bigger doesn’t do it.
And it’s easier (on paper) make an example of him because he’s a smaller guy.
Edit:
I call that fighting your own story. The set up has a specific place that the story wants to go. This would be like, totally random thought, making the main villain of a story the father of one of the main heroes. Obviously these two need to duke it out, because why else would you set it up this way? However Writers/creators will sometimes fight it because they want to be subversive to a crippling degree, so they will fight against the story. See Miraculous for several examples. Viv has set ups with very obvious implications, however she’s fighting it tooth and nail because she love herself some toxic yaoi and fans will twist themselves into pretzels trying to justify her main characters.
There's a lot of subtext about systems/institutions that both Hazbin and Helluva just
refuse to talk about. A bureaucratic Heaven, a princess of Hell that wants to "affect positive change," and a caste system all have legitimate implications. And they're rarely, if ever, explored. Neither Heaven nor the princess knew what redemption was, the princess has no "institutional literacy," and the caste system only matters once in a blue moon. Hazbin in particular acts like it's always an Adam or a Sera or a V, when sometimes systems themselves are the problem.
Exploring redemption though characters themselves, through personal agency, is all well and good. But even then there's barely any impact because they rarely emphasize personal responsibility. The very foundation of redemption. And when there's no responsibility, there's no agency. There's no reason to actually care about these characters. Vox's grand conspiracy ended with a whisper, and the other Vs just get a knowing look as they help the heroes through the power of
self-preservation friendship. Charlie will get her way even though she sucks. Things fall onto her lap because she's the protagonist. Vaggie has a character on paper, but it's rarely acknowledged and might as well not exist. We all know Angel Dust is going to come back, and no one gives a fuck about Alastor because we know he's going to lose. He'll job. He's a fucking joke.
And again, most sinners don't care about redemption in the first place. Why would they? They can just wallow in themselves, do scummy hedonistic things, and kill each other ad nauseum. They can respawn save for angel weapons. And even if they don't become one with Hell and enter perma-spectate mode, they have little to live for, and little waiting for them in Heaven. They're satisfied down there and, should they find out, don't want to live in Weenie Hut Jr's. It really does raise the question of: if the characters themselves don't care, why should I? I can see Viv having redeemed sinners make Heaven spicy, but that's kind of contrived. It will amount to "we'll make it a rave party with cool drugs and alcohol and it's going to be awesome!" We'll just add black lines and it'd look so much better! She won't address Heaven's issues, or Hell's, so they might as well not exist either.
When you put systems in a show, bake them into your premise, and do little with them, that is a massive oversight. It makes Angel's therapy sessions or Sera's feelings of guilt less compelling, not more, because the show would rather have songs and drama than actually explore them. Those things hurt the characters and their agency too, since they're not "interrogated" as much as they should. They go through the motions over and over. It all just bleeds with Viv's tendency to ignore context, second/third-order effects, and, well, how harm works. Because all she took from Bojack was ~hurt people~ trauma dumping and feeling sorry for themselves, none of the personal responsibility theming. Something Hazbin is begging for. Whether you think it's Viv being completely sheltered and coasting on systems her whole life, her not wanting people to hate her characters, ADHD, or just incompetence, it's a specific kind of fighting your story. She came up with something that's completely antithetical to her worldview
by accident, and sunk cost fallacy means she'll keep mashing her dolls together without cleaning up the dollhouse.
