Is Alastor from Prime Video’s Hazbin Hotel asexual?

To mark Asexual Awareness Week, we are shining a light on Hazbin Hotel‘s resident demon Alastor.

Ace Week runs until Saturday (26 October) and seeks to celebrate and raise awareness of asexuality, dispel myths and foster understanding and acceptance both within the LGBTQ+ community and wider society.

Asexuality is a valid identity within the LGBTQ+ community but is often misunderstood and disregarded, leaving “ace” people feeling isolated and under-represented.

Having asexual characters in television and films, such as Heartstopper’s Isaac and Todd from BoJack Horseman, offers representation to people who otherwise might feel alone in their day-to-day lives, and allows the wide spectrum of their experiences to be seen and understood, without shame or prejudice.

So, is Alastor asexual?

Alastor, also known as The Radio Demon, is a charismatic but mysterious character created by animator Vivienne Medrano and appears in Prime Video’s adult animated musical series Hazbin Hotel.

Voiced by Amir Talai, Alastor helps the princess of hell, Charlie, with her dream of running a hotel which redeems sinners’ souls to help them get into heaven. A powerful overlord of hell, he has been shown to be as sadistic as he is eccentric and his true motives for supporting Charlie are unknown. But is he asexual?

The answer is: yes, 100 per cent.

Despite never explicitly saying the words “I am asexual,” Alastor has been confirmed to be asexual by Medrano on numerous occasions.

In 2020, during a stream, in response to a question from Gabriel Brown – Alastor’s singing voice actor in the original YouTube pilot – Medrano replied that he is canonically ace.

Two years earlier, Medrano shared a sketch of Alastor, Charlie and other Hazbin Hotel character Angel Dust to mark National Coming Out Day.

In the picture, Angel Dust, who is gay, has a rainbow heart next to him while Alastor has a slightly melty heart which features the colours of the asexual flag: black, grey, white and purple.

Angel and Alastor are old men who don't understand anything anymore 👍 I hope everyone on this #NationalComingOutDay2018 stays safe and stays proud 🥰 pic.twitter.com/iQLf6dyFHk

— Vivienne Medrano 💖 (@VivziePop) October 11, 2018

There are a few nods to his asexuality in the show too.

In one episode, Angel Dust makes a pass at Alastor which he sarcastically laughs off before adding a firm “no”. Elsewhere, overlord Rosie describes him as an “ace in the hole”.

The comment has a double meaning, firstly as a reference to his ace identity and second as an idiom which refers to a hidden advantage or resource given his mysterious nature.

What is asexuality?

Asexuality, or being ace, is an umbrella term for an identity characterised by a person’s lack of sexual attraction (desire) towards others and incorporates other ace-spec identities such as demisexuality and greysexuality. It is distinct from aromanticism (being aro), which refers to a lack of romantic attraction, although some ace people are also aromantic.

People who are ace might also use terms such as lesbian, gay and bisexual to describe themselves.

Being ace is not the same as being celibate or abstinent, which are choices made for personal, social or religious reasons – people do not choose to be asexual – and can mean different things to different people.

As asexuality is a spectrum, the levels of sexual attraction people experience can vary from sex-averse, meaning they find the thought of sex unappealing, to sex-indifferent, meaning they don’t feel strongly either way, or sex-favourable, meaning they enjoy some aspects of sex even if they don’t experience that sort of attraction.

Previous research undertaken to mark Asexual Awareness Week found that one in every 10 queer youngsters in the US identifies as asexual or on the ace spectrum. Myeshia Price, a research scientist at The Trevor Project, said that ace youngsters are “often forgotten in both research and outreach efforts”.

Hazbin Hotel is available to watch on Prime Video.

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