Media Essays: Why Adam Is Better Than Scourge

Written by The Wandering Fox

Important disclaimer: I just want to tell you this topic contains elements of the Bible. If you are religious I hope this doesn’t offend you.

Look at this then, I’m actually writing up a essay which could leave loads of people chatting amongst themselves, I might even be called horrid names by Scourge’s fans, but hey y’know what? I feel like I have to talk about this, of who the better villain is out of Adam and Scourge, yet by the title you know I know who I feel is better.

I’m the Wandering Fox and I’m here to discuss Adam and Scourge, the former of who is a main villain in Hazbin Hotel, Scourge is a doppelgänger of Sonic.

Who’s Who?

Adam is the Hazbin Hotel’s take on the biblical mythical figure of the same name. His story is mostly the same, the first human to exist, was with Lilith but he was overly demanding of her so she left the Garden of Eden, then Adam created Eve from his rib with them both to begin humanity. Yet the Apple event occurred which saw the creation of Hell and mankind though granted free will also turned evil. Adam is a angel in heaven who leads the Exorcists into Hell to kill as many sinners as they can to control the population of Hell.

Scourge is Evil Sonic from Moebius, where the characters we know as heroes in the main universe are villains here. Scourge was blue until he teamed with Rouge and tapped into the Master Emerald’s power, turning himself green then calling himself Scourge, went on to manipulate a victim of his in joining him, conquered Moebius, killed his father and Evil Knuckles, was arrested then sent to the No Zone jail but broke out. Since then he’s been banished to the depths of copyright laws, hopefully to never return.

What Makes Adam “Evil” And Why He’s A Great Villain?

Adam is a bad guy, there’s no getting away from it. There will be those out there who will be offended by the show’s depiction of him, but surprisingly the biblical Adam had some of the same negative traits the Hazbin Adam has.

For starters Adam was controlling of Lilith and wanted her to obey him but this quote below explains how it went down:

“In the 13th-century writings of Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she had coupled with the archangel Samael.”

The Hazbin Hotel series takes elements of the biblical text and adapts it to its universe, so you don’t have to look at this and think its the actual Adam, just how Adam is depicted in universe. With this though, it takes a piece of the Biblical mythos and helps characterise Hazbin Adam as a mysognystic, controlling egotistical guy, written to be detestable yet sprinkles in tiny elements of sympathy which I’ll elaborate on later in the blog.

Adam is great as a villain is he thinks he’s in the right and he can be entertaining hence whenever he’s onscreen you balance the detesting side of him with some entertainment which still has you root for the heroes. For why Adam thinks he’s in the right, you can easily see how.

Think of it, you’re the first human, created to start a whole race, it gives you this mindset you are right, never wrong, yet whenever someone like this is pointed out to be wrong, they lose their temper, they don’t understand why they’re wrong, hence Adam doesn’t understand why Lilith left him for Lucifer. Then Adam sees Eve taking a bite out of the Apple after Lucifer tempts her, which in this universe Lucifer wanted to create humanity his own way yet accidentally created evil. From Adam’s view, everything destined for him, what he was to do, it was all ruined by Lucifer, who took his original wife then tempted his other wife, thus the world Adam wanted turned to ruin. If this Adam had the same backstory as Biblical Adam, then look what gone down between Cain and Abel, Cain killed Abel out of jealousy and for Cain he was cursed. These were Adam’s sons, he’d likely blame Lucifer for what had happened, explaining his hatred for human sinners.

This sympathetic element is somewhat visually hinted at after he’s unmasked, revealing him to be this tired, miserable looking almost worn out human under his grinning mask, confronted by Lucifer again he has a near mental breakdown before slipping back into his overly negative self with him demanding they all bow to him, showing the man who was controlling of Lilith was still there.

From Adam’s view he is right, hence you do see why he thinks human sinners can never be redeemed, yet the show still portrays him as a rude, mysoginistic man who doesn’t want to listen to Charlie and constantly talks down on her and his sadistic side does have him end up in hot water with Sera after he lets slip to other angels of the Exterminations. He’s an example of a villain who thinks he’s the good guy but is the bad guy with utmost disgusting things to him. He punished Vaggie for sparring a kid who sinned, just because Vaggie showed compassion. He is a manipulative douche who even blackmails Vaggie in trying to stop Charlie’s dreams or he’d reveal she’s an angel.

Yet as an entertaining villain, Adam does keep you entertained with his musical numbers which amps up his ego and sadism and only has you root for Charlie more. He has a great singing voice with him voiced by Alex Brightman.

The series doesn’t shy away from Adam’s horrid darkness while offering little elements of sympathy though these don’t justify his controlling chauvinist behaviour, hence you just love it with Lucifer kicking the crap out of him or Nifty killing him, though you feel entertained by his singing which makes him far from boring. I have this feeling Adam’s story is not over yet which could only delve more in him.

Why Isn’t The Same Said For Scourge?

The problem with Scourge is how he’s clearly a Creator’s Pet with the negative traits of the Sonic community made official in the form of how he is a recolour of Sonic and comes off as this edgy generic “Oh look I’m so cool” kind of villain, and the guy who wrote for him doesn’t want to acknowledge some of the horrible things he’s done. The only moment in which Scourge killing his father is brought up is done to make him look sympathetic for Anti-Jules paid him no mind, all the while Scourge has conquered his own planet, enslaved innocents, raped several girls while he was still blue and tried to murder Sonic in his sleep. Nothing justifies those crimes, not even having a neglecting father. Doesn’t help one of the girls he raped blindly joined him with her own morals and traits thrown under the gutter and was then turned into an arm candy bimbo for him.

Evil Sonic did start at least as a parody of 90's punk antiheroes, but the problem is Flynn tried to say “Oh, there’s a reason why, he’s just a scared kid, don’t worry, you can understand him, I can make him KEWL”. What? You mean turning Sonic green, sticking bacon on his chest, have him wear a leather coat and give him a sympathetic backstory to justify his horrid behaviour makes him a better villain? No Ian. Nor does it help you have him be ridiculously overpowered over the experienced Sonic and Shadow. That screams of a fanboy going “My OC is better”.

It doesn’t help Scourge was only just one of many green Sonics Flynn has created from his fanfic days, such as using the glitch of Sonic “Ashura” as Sonic’s twin in a fanfic of his, then brought Surge in, she’s green, has blue eyes and her name sounds like Scourge. Well, at least Surge isn’t a rapist, but in trying to make her sympathetic Flynn has to make Sonic look like an asshole, such as how Sonic smugly talked down to her while she is hanging off the ledge and is having a breakdown. Then after Surge seemingly commits suicide, Sonic brushes it off.

What I’m saying is Flynn grabs at straws to try and make his “bad guy” more “complex” without committing to just the one thing. Scourge is EVIL. EVIL. He is not meant to have anything sympathetic to him, he’s the opposite of the hero Sonic.

The concept of Sonic turning evil could’ve been interesting years ago, but these days it's about as tired and boring as Evil Superman. If you want an evil Superman, you have Zod. You want an evil Sonic, you have Metal Sonic. You don’t need some Injustice Superman or Scourge the Hedgehog if you’re gonna screw up so badly on their characterisations or if you have better characters there.

Scourge is about as generic as you can get with a bad guy, you dress him to make him look edgy and "KEWL" while making everyone around them act like idiots or act inexperienced, then offer us a sympathetic backstory which makes no sense for the character.

There's my conclusions. If you would like to offer your thoughts, do tell below, though I want you to be respectful in the comments.