back on the striker defending train as i’m his biggest defender. before i begin i’d just like to say that as much as i love helluva boss, it’s not a perfect show, and it’s writing definitely isn’t lord of the rings level. i have my own criticisms of it, but the whole “striker was ruined” argument is not one of them.
lets start off with the statue.
i do not care if you hate the statue gag or think it was a “left over chaz joke”. you cannot ignore everything else striker did in the episode like kidnapping stolas, performing stunt doubles on his horse, and almost killing stolas and m&m in the span of ten minutes just because of a two second statue gag which was dismissed by striker himself. stolas was the one who pointed out the statue in the first place. striker dismissed him and changed the subject immediately. he did not suddenly have a “massive ego” or turn into a “chaz knockoff” during western energy and if you genuinely believe that then you must be watching a different show.
if you seriously believe that striker’s entire character has gone down the plug hole because he owns a statue of himself then i don’t know what to tell you. need i remind you that this is the same man who got up on stage in his debut episode and sang a song with the lyrics “super cool me handsome guy”. he had more of an ego in the entirety of HMF than he did in season 2.
and to say that striker is no longer a badass or “less competent” is insane because let me tell you. striker is more of a badass and more competent in season 2 than he was in season 1, and that’s just facts. during harvest moon festival, instead of him doing his job, he instead spends the episode bullying moxxie, and then when he finally gets round to doing what he’s supposed to be doing, he ends up getting beaten up by blitz, and when cornered, he runs away. in season 2, he almost murders three main characters and effortlessly fights M&M in a 2v1 in the span of one episode, and was seconds away from killing stolas before stella called off the hit. then, in his next episode, the second crimson asks him to deliver something of value, he does it by lassoing two full grown imps through a window like it was nothing.
in season 2, every time a client has asked him to do something, he has done it. therefore, the “striker sucks at his job” argument is complete nonsense.
“but he’s never killed anyone on screen!!”
and? what is it you want? an entire flashback of striker murdering every single target he’s ever taken out? there’s never been a need for that, and if they were to do something like that in the show, it’d be better off in an episode centred around his backstory. not to mention he’s only been in three episodes total and only been on one hit job throughout the show. and the only reason that target (stolas) isn’t dead is because stella called it off. as for him failing to kill IMP, they also failed to kill him. why is it always “striker can’t kill IMP” and not “IMP can’t kill striker”. there’s three of them and one of him. IMP can take out an entire government and a mafia single-handedly but can’t kill one cowboy. obviously the reason for this is because they’re both on the same level of competence and are therefore able to fight back against each other.
“but in season 2, he runs away from the fight like a coward!!”
because he was about to die?? he had a huge statue dropped on him and was set on LITERAL FIRE? i will NEVER understand the people who complain about striker escaping during the end of oops and call him a coward. he was on fire. what the hell do you WANT him to do? stand up and do the macarena? OF COURSE HES GOING TO ROLL AROUND TO EXTINGUISH THE FLAMES AND RUN AWAY, THATS LITERALLY THE MOST LOGICAL RESPONSE. and it’s hilarious to me how striker literally did the exact same thing in season 1. in fact, he was more of a coward in season 1 because he was being cornered by two guys and just decided to run away. you’d think in his line of work he’d be able to take on two guys just fine, but no.
but of course, we have the fact that during season 1, people based striker’s entire character around the fact he was voiced by norman reedus. you couldn’t bring up striker without bringing up norman reedus. people called him the daryl dixon of helluva boss. but here’s the thing.
striker is not daryl dixon, nor is he norman reedus. striker is striker. he is his own character. and the fact that western energy expanded on that character and showed that striker is not in fact the hell version of daryl dixon like people wanted, coupling that with the voice actor change, clearly upset people because he wasn’t the one dimensional evil cowboy stereotype they wanted.
striker is the only character who’s character was associated so heavily with his VA. even fizz, who’s voiced by alex brightman, was still seen as his own character and not just the hell version of beetlejuice just because his VA plays that role.
characters act differently when in different settings and interacting with different characters. expecting striker to act the way he did towards blitz and moxxie, two men he just met, the same way he acts towards stolas, a man who’s part of a group of people who ruined his life, is absolutely insane. the fact that people were mad that striker was more angry in western energy is just proof of dying media literacy because striker himself tells the audience the basis of why he hates royals by implying they took EVERYTHING FROM HIM, and people expect him to be completely chill while he’s being mocked in his own home BY A ROYAL. he had every right to be angry.
people also act differently in public than they do in private. striker was in his home. there was no need for him to put up his “suave, manipulative” facade because there was no one to manipulate. he was there to do his job. which was to torture and kill stolas. is he just not allowed to express other emotions besides “cool evil cowboy”? is he not allowed to be angry when he has every right to be? you can call him a bad person and a hypocrite as much as you like, it doesn’t make his experience any more invalid. he’s clearly still traumatised by what happened based on the way he spoke and the facial expressions he made. you could see the hurt in his eyes when he stabbed stolas.
and when i watched western energy for the first time, i did not think striker had been ruined at all because i don’t revolve his entire character based on whether or not norman reedus voices him. i also don’t assume i know everything about a character after one appearance, and i also don’t put my entire focus on the fact that striker just so happens to own a statue of himself.
and if you preferred norman’s voice, that’s fine. but DO NOT use it to drag down edward bosco, who has not only worked with viv for over a decade, but provided us with pilot alastor and has done more for this fandom than norman reedus has ever done. the disrespect i’ve seen thrown his way appalls me as someone who’s been in this community since the hazbin pilot came out, because he’s done so much and given so much to this fandom and he deserves respect for it.
you can complain all day long about how striker has been “ruined”, but do NOT bring edward bosco into it and drag his name down because your favourite celebrity didn’t come back to voice a cartoon snake cowboy.
as for the whole “they turned striker into a joke” argument, that exact phrase has been said so many times that it doesn’t even mean anything anymore. turned him into a joke? what’s the joke? that he doesn’t like it when characters make sexual innuendos towards him? that literally shows that he’s the only damn character in the show who actually takes stuff seriously.
i’ve even seen people claim that season 2 made him more “goofy”. this makes no sense. there hasn’t been a single moment in the show where he’s acted goofy. it’s everyone else that’s acting goofy towards HIM. he’s like the most normal person in the entire show and that’s part of the reason why he’s losing his damn mind.
and to say “none of the characters take him seriously anymore” is completely false because everyone takes him seriously. if IMP didn’t take striker seriously, why have they been trying to murder him every time they cross paths? m&m were taking him seriously during the fight, blitz was taking him seriously while he held fizz at gunpoint, and stolas, while messing around at first, was taking him seriously after he was tortured and after the comment about via. and i can excuse stolas making jokes during the start of his kidnapping because it’s how he deals with stuff. we’ve seen this behaviour from him before. stolas is snarky, and he’s also had assassination attempts on him before. he’s no stranger to this, and was under the impression that blitz was coming. and striker getting angry at him was perfectly in character considering his entire life was ruined by royals and having a royal mock you to your face would surely upset him to some degree. i can also excuse fizz’s comment while he was being held at gunpoint. he’s dating the king of lust. also, he literally doesn’t even know striker. he only just met him that episode, he knows nothing about the man.
in conclusion, i absolutely hate the way this fandom treats striker, because it all comes down to lack of media literacy and a voice actor change upsetting people. the fandom treats him way, way worse than the show does. the show has made it clear that he’s a dangerous person who’s capable of insane things and can go toe to toe with the main characters almost effortlessly, but people will instead choose to ignore that and focus on a two second statue gag or the fact that “you can beat him with sex jokes”. which is false considering it was a huge falling statue and being blown up and burnt alive that stopped him, not a sex joke. the sex jokes are just there to show us that they annoy him because he actually takes stuff seriously and isn’t a sex pest.
striker is not a one dimensional evil cowboy who’s always calm and chill wherever he goes. he has trauma and a past, and lost everything he had. the only thing he has left is his reputation. he is now losing that and as a result is losing his mind in the process. striker going insane is a huge part of his character arc and is the beginning of more of a revelation of his character. his past, his motives, and why he became a hitman in the first place.
what i think is going to happen is that his backstory will come out and will reveal what exactly he lost. based on what he said, he lost everything, so it was probably a lot of things. it was implied on twitter it’s grief related, so someone he loved was 100% killed. and once it’s revealed who it was, everyone will turn around and say they love him, just like they did with fizz and verosika after their pasts were revealed.
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