#And I didn't have any skin-tone colored pencils so that's why Demencia got left white

[doctorlombax]

So I fell down the hyper-fixation hole with a new show- Villainous. I especially love the dynamic between Black Hat and Demencia, with her being a crazed fan-girl and him not reciprocating in the slightest. However I couldn’t help but notice there appears to be a little more going on beneath the surface with these two.

For one thing, Black Hat never directly turns her down. In fact, some fans have pointed out that he has acted flirtatious towards her, only to realize his mistake when she responds in kind. He calls her pet names, gets in her personal space, and treats her with less hostility than he does with Flug or 5.0.5. despite the fact that it’s clear he has no romantic interest. It’s strange because Black Hat is not a fool and Demencia is not subtle about how she feels. It’s not like he’s unaware of her infatuation. So why encourage it? I was pondering this while drawing and I think I might have a theory.

I believe that Black Hat uses charm as an intimidation tool. We get to see a pretty clear example of this in the beginning of episode 3 (The VVV) with the Luchador’s wife, Adilita. Despite the fact that she shows up in the middle of the night, Black Hat welcomes her into his office warmly even going so far as to take her hand in his (and for a second it looked like he was going to kiss it). For anyone who wasn’t familiar with Black Hat, he would appear for all the world like a well-mannered gentleman greeting a business client.

But of course, Adilita knows who he is. After all, she was the one who sought out his expertise. Side Note: I have to give props to the animators. I’m impressed with how they conveyed her expressions behind the mask solely through her eyes and by shivering. The audience could really see that she was terrified but resolute in her mission.

But to my point, I think that’s probably how things go for Black Hat most of the time. He doesn’t even have to try to be frightening, he can be the exact opposite and his reputation does all the work for him. My guess is he learned early on in his experiences with humanity that he can unsettle people just by getting into their personal space, using manners in a creepy way, and smiling. Thousands of years of positive reinforcement (his adversaries shaking, whimpering, crying, etc) have hard-wired him to act this way.

And then he meets Demencia. Oh man. I like to imagine how that first meeting went. How he would have smiled wide, showing his teeth while leaning closer, expecting to disarm her but instead she just goes full AWOOGA-mode. His brain then probably blue-screened, and he would have evaporated into shadows to get away, vowing to never do that around her again.

But here’s the problem- Black Hat is an ancient being. He’s stuck in his ways and as such has come to rely on instinct to guide his behavior. He can’t just change how he acts. Unfortunately for him, this means he is trapped in a cycle of flirting with Demencia and then being shocked and repulsed when she tries to jump him because you simply cannot teach this millennia-old dog any new tricks and I for one find that deeply hilarious.