#anyway to anyone who reads my long winded rambling abt this podcast:

[braintapes]

Each of the three new staff have made it a significant point in their narration to explain how they “see the Hotel differently” than the guests do. Differently than even the staff do, which brings on a whole host of very interesting implications.

I want to bring up the idea of contrasting ‘light’ and ‘dark,’ since that comes up a lot in relation to the Hotel herself. She is, herself, darkness. The natural state of the universe. Not quite nothingness, but the specific, cold, absence of life. The Hotel, from lobby to elevators to stairs and hallways to rooms, is death. Those inside the Hotel are lights, stars glimmering in Her vast darkness.

(On an unrelated note, it’s my personal view that when the Staff describe Madam Hotel as having eyes like starlight, it’s them catching glimpses of her full form. Condensed infinity of hotel.)

We know from the finale of Season 2 that the Hotel herself tried to “put out” those “three lights of [her] own making” and couldn’t do so without nearly unraveling herself. She also refers to the guests as lights, both in that episode and later on when we get narration from her, such as in 4.8:

Now aside from me losing my mind now at how much you could parallel the three guests of that episode to the first three staff and not realizing this before...

We also know that the early staff don’t see the Hotel the same way the guests do. Often, they’ll comment on the guests seeing or reacting to things that aren’t within the staff’s perception. Things that can cause them to react and behave as if they were in a regular hotel up until the very end. The staff are aware that both their own, and the guests, perception can be shaped and warped by the Hotel’s whims. But still, the Hotel appears as a hotel to the first three staff.

The new gang has a decidedly different perspective. The Bellhop sees the Hotel as a massive amalgamation of meat and guts ( :-] ). The Concierge paints a picture of the Hotel’s structure as this....paper mache formality, as something that hides the true cosmic colors and shapes that underpin every part of the place. And the Auditor in the new ep introducing her refers constantly to darkness. The darkness from which they all come from, and which they will all return to.

The new staff are perceiving the Hotel as....herself, essentially.

That’s curious, because this set of staff is, at least as I understand it currently, fresh outta the oven. Created by Her as the result of the lead up and events of the Curtain arc.

This new set starts out with this...reverence towards the Hotel. This admiration and awe and wonder of Her. I wonder if this is because of their perception, or if it’s because they’re new. 

There’s clear character development with our first set of staff, mostly because...Well, obviously. There’s no avoiding that. Admittedly, while I adore S1 very much, I don’t know how ‘canon’ their early characterization actually is since it seems to be around S2 that the series settles into itself.

But purely in-universe, I wonder if the reason the Hotel is bringing on these fresh employees now is because she’s noticed that the first three staff are becoming more human. More...like the guests. They first perceived themselves as part of a company structure (at least, the Owner did.) after all. Much less cosmic wonder, more powers that be in the sense of your vague, far away corporate overlord, y’know? And they grew to care for each other, to form bonds with one another despite starting out as infinite copies of a basic idea. Somehow, they found a way to persist. To become and individuate, not unlike the guests.

Buuuut, welllllll....What does that say, when the staff are just like the guests? How professional is that? We’ve got an operation to run here! And all this in-fighting and protectiveness and blah blah blah is getting. in. the. WAY! (Never mind that Madam Hotel was getting, in the way of them)

So, what to do? Can’t, er...fire them. Or rather, extinguish them. They may be more like the guests now, but they’re also her in a way. So integral that ridding herself of them would be unspooling herself. Her brute force punishments of S2 and the Curtain arc have only strengthened the old three’s resolve. The whole of S3 was both, I believe the staff’s origin and also end? and also another attempt from the Hotel Herself to get them to understand her. to understand their world. That worked....temporarily.

Maybe they need some encouragement! Some positive role models! Some good influences to rub off on them and get eeeeverybody on the right track again! And this time, let’s fix some of the old model’s problems while we’re at it. These three will get to see, from the start, what and how and why she is.

The only question remains, how will these new staff members change over time? What will happen if she loses control of them in the long run, too?