princes-and-problems-au

[princes-and-problems-au]

a comic I made a while back that I never posted

And then they stared at each other for a minute and awkwardly walked away. They never brought it up again.

jk I don’t actually know how this ends, maybe I’ll finish it after artfight. Anywho, context! Adam’s not meant to be down on earth because he’s dead, and a winner now. It’s against the rules because Heaven & Hell both decided that after a stressful couple of decades of intervention on earth, the two sides caused too much cause when interfering. Unless given specific authorization no demon or angel are allowed to roam earth. Adam does not have said authorization. Neither does Azrael.

Adam’s down there because Abel LOVES all the different sheep pokemon, and wants to collect them all and Emily desperately wants to see earth but isn’t allowed, ergo Adam sneaks down and tells them about it/brings them gifts. This is because I’ve decided in my au, he’s a total family man. Azrael is down there because earth is where they spend most of their time with the horsemen of the apocalypse, except that’s a huge secret. They also love Death-themed celebrations. Sue them, they like to feel APPRECIATED sometimes.

note, Azrael is higher than Adam in the heavenly hierarchy as a Prince. So for Adam this is like seeing your bosses friend who is also CEO at the grocery store. Except it’s not a grocery store, it’s a drug ring and you are both not meant to be there. For Azrael it’s like not going to your job for YEARS but not getting fired, and then suddenly seeing your colleague at a drug ring, and you’re 99% sure this is the same colleague that said some crazy shit on twitter (AKA is the head exterminator leading a genocide against hell).

Again, Awwkwwwarrrddd

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Outline of my Adam redesign, and can I just say, having two seperate outfits for when Adam's in Heaven vs the Extermination? Understandable, reasonable even from a storytelling perspective. The exterminations are meant to be secret, so putting as much visual space between Adam's regular outfit and his uniform is logical. Having those outfits being the exact same except for an inverted color scheme and having him keep the mask on at both times? Less understandable. But that's nitpicking sooo...

Man there really isn't much to say about his one, but his halo is cracked and its a mirror image of the crack in Lilith's horns so make what you will of that. I feel he'd have a pretty chill/not over the top fashion sense? Like even the priest overcoat, the arguably most 'formal' part is open, which is informal as hell. Also, Lute has a matching tragedy mask. I'll try to draw her next. Actually the feathers pointing out of his mask are earrings that are poking out of holes! He wears them casually too, I just forgot to draw them lol. It's meant to imitate how natural-born angels have small wings on their heads (Unless they deliberately choose not to, but even that is an ability limited to only a few angels). His Axe-Guitar is playable, but very limited in vocal range and Adam prefers playing regular guitars most of the time. It used to be a harp-halberd, but that one got split in half (Long story that involves Lilith, Lucifer, and the almost-second-War-in-Heaven) and when he was deciding on a new weapon he had recently fallen in love with guitars.

Note: Adam still has bright gold wings! Which is considered strange for winners, seeing as only natural-born angels have colored wings and winners usually have plain white ones! Maybe they'd have very light off-whiteish colors but not bright gold.

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What’s Adam’s opinion on the Archangels.

Man I really love Adam, because you can fit so much nuance into his character. lmao, just a bastard for no other reason than the love of the game? WRONG! TRAUMA!

Adam, even if just subconsciously, wants to prove himself to the Princes, and even make them a little proud of him. At least, that's what he thought during Eden and early arrival in heaven days. Even though, as previously stated, most of the Prince have neutral memories of Adam, Adam remembers the Princes as the people who made living in Eden super nice (Raphael, Uriel, Ariel Jophiel, Haniel whose jobs at the time was to care for and protect Eden and its inhabitants), or helped during those early post-Eden days when no one knew what to do, not even the other angels (Gabriel, who would send the occasional communication from heaven)

So, when he got into Heaven and realized that A LOT of people didn't trust him cause of the Apple, he genuinely worked to improve himself. Unfortunately, Michael was a dick to anyone who wasn't family at this point. Especially humans. Adam doesn't know it, but Michael was projecting his self-hatred onto humanity, and that made him cruel at times. Even if Adam won't admit it, he's kinda scared of Michael since he was always liable to snap at Adam when they weren't in public. Since Michael never apologized after retirement, its still pretty fraught between them.

That quickly soured a lot of Adam's... Not innocence, but his trust in the Princes. In present day, he respects them to an extent, but he's bitter towards them. Maybe except for Gabriel, since he had developed a friendship with Eve during post-Eden days and seemed to genuinely want to help. Otherwise, Raphael, Uriel, Ariel, and Haniel are treated with mild indifference, or the same casual disrespect that Adam shows everyone else. Adam can respect their work, and some of their attributes, such as Haniel's protective streak or Ariel's creativity, but he isn't so stary-eyed about them anymore. Though, he still subconsciously doesn't want them to be stressed, or unhappy, because of lingering emotions from earlier days.

The only Princes I'd say Adam has a more positive leaning relationships with aren't actually that positive from his point of view lol. For example, Jophiel is trying to befriend Adam and help him with his problems, but he is very suspicious and snappy with her, which Jophiel can understand given the circumstances. Azrael is also more positive, but Adam is also really confused about them, because he's like 50-something-percent sure that they know about the exterminations, and abhor them, but they aren't doing anything? They also have really weird beef with Sera(? maybe? The two don't actual seem to fight, just skin each other in their heads when they see the other?), which Adam finds funny.

There's also the fact that Adam 100% has abandonment issues from being kicked out of Eden, and is also 100% in denial about it, which does NOT help.

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What are all the Archangels’s opinion on Adam ?

AHHHHH! Thank you so much for asking!! Pardon the rant-

Adam is, well, a sore subject for a majority of the higher ranking angels in Heaven. In my personal headcannon, Adam used to be a genuinely compassionate individual, trying his best with the cards life dealt him. Of course, anyone can change with time, and Adam took a sharp turn for the worst. He grew egotistical about his place in Heaven, and developed a complex that grew worse over time about who did and did not belong in paradise. It's a tad bit more complicated than that, but that's the basics of it.

The Princes specifically have a lot of feelings about it, because they've been around from Adam's creation, and knew who he used to be. While most of them had fond/positive feelings towards humanity, and by proxy Adam, that became complicated after the Apple Incident, since that really marked the turning point for everything going bad. Even when Adam arrived in Heaven, there was a lot of doubt about whether he belonged, which pushed him to extremes to try and regain any semblance of trust. Slowly, he lost the traits that got him to Heaven in the first place. When the exterminations began, it was hidden from the Princes, with only Sera and a few other higher ranking angels knowing, and Adam played a major part in that. He feels guilty about it, but he believes its for the greater good, and considers the exterminations part of his repentance to become 'worthy' of heaven, so he does it anyways.

Michael, specifically, treated him badly. Never physically, but he was harsh nonetheless. Adam, in his mind, was a physical reminder of his failure to protect Eden and make it prosper. After retirement, and therapy, Michael realized he'd been projecting his own self-hatred onto Adam, and humanity as a whole. Despite this, he never got around to apologizing so things are still very tense between them.

Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, and Ariel didn't have any personal connections to Adam, but they do acknowledge that the system as a whole did probably fail the first three humans (I.E Adam & Eve getting kicked out for being lied to, despite lies not really being a thing at that point, Lilith feeling so isolated and thinking the only way to escape the box she was put in was to rebel, etc). Gabriel knew Adam & Eve because he was the one to personally send messages to the two after they were cast out, but he was closer to Eve, tho he still has more positive leaning feelings then neutral or negative.

Raphael and Uriel, by far the most nuetral, would probably intervene, but they have two very big and important domains to look after (Healing & Wisdom respectively), so all they can really do is make a few pointed comments about Zadkiel's therapy office that's right down the road, and try to mitigate previous mistakes made on their parts. Ariel also has a big domain (Nature), but she's a bit more negative then neutral on Adam, so she'd probably ignore the problem either way.

Jophiel doesn't hate anyone, she sees the Beauty in everything, because that's her domain, and originally reached out to Adam when he first arrived in Heaven. She doesn't approve of who he became, or some of the belief he holds, but she's trying her best to help him, especially since her siblings won't intervene. Adam is suspicious at this. Haniel has a begrudging respect of Adam, mainly because of his protective nature towards his family and those he considers friends. Haniel, as the Prince of Protection, can understand that, and Adam begrudgingly respects her too for about the same reasons.

Azrael is... Well, they certainly have feelings about Adam. While most of the other Princes are aware that they, specifically Michael, may have mistreated Adam or have been biased against him, Azrael does not spend that much time in Heaven, too busy on earth. Suffice to say they're pretty politically inept about Heaven. They know about the exterminations though, as the Prince of Death, and they know Adam plays a part in it, and despite hating it they keep quiet about it for reasons they don't bother to explain. Adam has his suspicions that Azrael knows but isn't sure. Its tense for sure, especially since Azrael is a full believer in change, since souls don't stagnate after death, while Adam believes that change is nigh impossible. The tension also might be a bit more then ideological on Adam's part, if you get what I'm saying-

Long story short, trauma all around for all of them! None of them escape unscathed! Everyone's too overworked and don't have enough time to communicate, or work through their problems.

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Michael: THE VOICES

Yeah, leading heaven is kinda stressful not gonna lie. When Lucifer and Lilith tempted Adam and Eve with the apple, it brough heaven into an all-out war. Heaven won and those that side with L&L fell to hell with them, while Adam & Eve were banished to earth, no longer 'pure'. God, who up till this point was a disembodied voice guiding the angels, became a sparse presence. Only rarely speaking to Michael, who at that point became burdened with the leading heaven forward.

Lucifer's betrayal, alongside the growing absence of God, weighed on Michael, and he began to grow paranoid, constantly expecting another betrayal from his siblings, his fellow Princes who ruled their over their own sub-domains in heaven (I.E Gabriel is the Prince of Communication, Raphael is the Prince of Healing, Uriel is the Prince of Wisdom, etc).

Taking note of these dangerous bouts of paranoia, Michael's siblings staged an intervention, and sent a young Seraph, named Sera, to try and calm Michael's nerves. This did not work well, as Michael perceived Sera as some sort of spy from the others, and Sera was quickly facing the reality that her once idol-like role model was not truly what she once perceived. However, over time the two did bond and things seemed to be improving.

Then, Michael had one final burst of paranoia, getting it into his head that Hell was simmering for a second rebellion. In his panic, over a span of years, Michael created hundreds, even thousands, of weapons specifically designed to completely exterminate souls. Sera caught on. Seeing her mentor, someone who she cared very much about, slowly fall into madness again made her call for a final intervention, were Michael realized that he may have gone too far. So, he retired and passed along his title and duties to Sera.

Without the burden of leadership, Michael's mental state began to improve, especially with the support of Sera and his siblings, as well as weekly therapy sessions. Eventually, he created the beaches of heaven, inspired by its earth counterparts, which is where he can be found at any given time. Still dour and serious, Michael is attempting to not fall victim to his own thoughts ever again.

Honestly, this guy deserves all the calm and relaxation in the world.

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I have some old references for some of my archangel characters that I recently dug up, and I guess now's a good time as any to post these things, especially since I'm probably going to redo them all. These are in order of age/creation

First Up! Michael:

Pre and Post retirement from his job as leader of heaven, I distinctly remember spending ages looking up stained glass depictions of angels because I didn't want to just give any of them plain white wings. Guy was overworked pre, and is taking a well-earned break post lmao.

Gabriel:

I actually loved coming up with Gabriel's, like, backstory. He used to be in charge of communication in heaven, but at some point it got like, super automated so he doesn't need to be involved as much and let his apprentice, Zagagel, take over and now spends his time traveling earth and LOVES collecting souvenirs. And tie-dye shirts. Tho, I'm probably going to change his angel design/uniform.

Raphael:

The first guy who ISN'T retired lol, he runs heaven's medical center. Unlike Michael + Gabriel, he tries to have a balanced work-life. Pretty chill overall, and he is one of the few angels that has a true form he uses on a daily basis, except he has ear-wings that he doesn't use in an attempt to appear more human in an attempt to comfort winners.

Uriel:

Actually, this design was my favorite. I LOVED coming up with it, and I was so proud of the lava design. Mainly a loner who spends their time either with their twin, Jophiel, or on her own, Uriel was one of the angels that had the most dramatic difference between angel and human-ish form. She's also the last one I got to before Art Block conked me over the head.

I remember the order was going to be, Jophiel, Ariel, Haniel, Azrael, and then just random angels from there. I did adore doing these designs, but I was exhausted by the end of it.

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Man, this was not intended to take so long to make, but my device crashed like... 6 times? Anywho I love these stupid guys-

Fanart for @latentwingz, featuring Tundra, the not-quiet-fallen-angel-overlord, and Vox, supremely sick-of-their-shit. Love Tundra's design <3 The easiest way to my aesthetic heart is stars lol

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When you hate each other more than anything else, except you were made for each, the perfect lock and key except you've bent each other out of shape and now you no longer fit, why do they get everything i've ever wanted? Meant to be entwined together like roots, but you choke each other out like snakes in a suffocating embrace, no one knows you better than the stranger parallel to you, in perfect motion yet never overlapping, one side of a coin that cannot see the other, in this essay I will describe why Adam and Lilith have so much more potential than just exes-

just kidding, lol, featuring my ever-changing redesigns. Man I love these two, I have no clue what there relationship will be like in the show, but I really like the idea of them being like, complicated. After all they were made for each other, and yet they can't seem to coexist at all. I like to think they're matching in completely opposite directions, like sun and moon themed, like literally sun-and-moon-themed-h

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sooooo its been a while, hasn’t it?

I’m hopping to post more often, but ehhhh we’ll see what happens in life. Anyhow-

my art has improved!!! Suprise! Practice does in fact help!!! Shocker!!! I’ve been around with brushes, and eeeeee I’m so happy with the results!!! I’m actually working on a separate art piece that is… taking some time, but I swear it’ll be worth it!! Eventually!!! Lmao.

also, alternate bg and no bg under the cut!

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asks are always welcome! Please!

Reblog if you’re OK with people sending you asks about your OCs, ‘sonas or even about yourself

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Just a lil thing of my Lucifer redesign while I work on my Nifty, Husk, and Alastor redesign! Doesn’t he just look so mischievous?

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Class is in session for @punkstarlet ‘s OC Shilo!

She’s from a wonderful fic which can be found on Punksatrlet’s tumblr, or on ao3 under the name ‘Fallen Stone’! I really love it, and can’t wait to see what happens next <3

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Charlie and Vaggie redesign!!!

Okay, right off the bat I just want to say that making the skin tones of the humanoid characters grayish instead of like, tan or brown, was always odd to me. Like, why? Just give them melanin without washing it out please.

Anyways, as I’ve stated before in my Lucifer and Lilith’s redesign, I never really saw the goat or doll features on Charlie or Lucifer, and goats are more identified with wrath, so I dumped the concept entirely. Instead Charlie is a Peahen! She matches her dad <3

I also dumped the red color scheme, instead I went for blue and yellow. I’d like to think when Charlie was first starting out on her idea, she searched up the meanings of different colors and landed on happiness of yellow and calmness of blue.

Despite her Peahen features, Charlie takes after her mother quite a lot, specifically her skin tone and body type. I’d like to think that my redesign/rewrite, Charlie doesn’t have the best relationship with her father. As I’ve stated previously, Lucifer looked down on her ideas and tried to get her to stop multiple times, and Charlie’s self-esteem took a blow. But, she still wanted to help people and so carried forward, trying to keep her head held high.

She tries her best, but she isn’t licensed and has no experience with redemption or running a hotel, and I’d like to think over the course of the series she learns alongside the other cast members about the ups and downs of redemption.

Vaggie, of course, would be by her side throughout it all. I’m going to be honest, Vaggie doesn’t strike me as a former soldier, and she doesn’t have much in her character other than ‘Charlie’s Girlfriend’, which I feel is a lot of wasted potential, seeing as Vaggie is very recently from heaven!

So, I gave her more muscle, and scars to go with them. I’d like to think previously that she didn’t have many as an exorcist, but after her fall they accumulated. I went for a simple uniform that matches Charlie, and pinkish highlights to bring some contrast to the design! I made Vaggie’s missing eye on display, because I’d like to think that she really dislikes the feeling of eyepatches over it.

She’s still very supportive of Charlie, helping whenever she can, but she also takes far more suspicion and caution than Charlie, mainly because of her exorcist background. But, she does have a soft spot for the people who do get through her rough exterior. An almost kinship with the people at the hotel, because they were all disregarded and thrown out. Most people at the Hazbin Hotel are cats-outs who have no other choice for housing, and Vaggie can relate to having nowhere else to go.

despite outside appearances, Vaggie can be very empathetic to the others, often times taking over the trust exercises and role plays in a very effective manner. Vaggie has worked with lost souls before, and can sometimes be better than Charlie at understanding the others.

Long story short, Charlie is a mess who’s trying her very best, and Vaggie is surprisingly (or not really, considering the fact she’s an angel) good at helping people. Next time I think I’ll do Alastor, Niffty, and Husk.

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Lilith redesign and Lucifer re-redesign! Forewarning: This is all in good fun, I don't mean to pretend I can do better than the show, or that the show's designs are bad. I just want to have a nice time redrawing some characters! <3

Now that that's out the way, lets get to the actual art! I've stated some of this before, but I don't really like Lucifer's design in the actual show. He does have some cool motifs, I.E the circus theme, but it's really drowned out by the fact that he shares a lot of features with other cast members. I've also been heard that Lucifer, and by proxy Charlie, are meant to have Goat/Doll features, which I just... Don't see.

So, I decided to get rid of some redundant features (Bowtie, the red color scheme, and the vest) and really tried to highlight the royalty aspect. His top is partially inspired by an Indian Sherwani, though I've cut it off at the waist rather than let it flow down. I like his original white coat, so I tried to keep it similar. I thought giving him peacock features would represent his pride more than a goat. Goats are more connected to Satan and wrath, and sometimes Lucifer and Satan are interchangeable, but it doesn't seem the case in hazbin. Peacocks also have eye patterns, which would maybe connect him more to angels seeing as Lucifer is a fallen angel. Made him albino/leucistic because I wanted to keep the lighter/white color scheme as well. I decided to not give him shoes, since bird claws, but I did give him these leather strap things. Now, my favorite part of his design, The Jewelry and Cane! I wanted a really pronounced crown, one that wouldn't be ignorable, and I wanted the yellow chains to be a sort-of stand in for a halo, Lucifer clinging to his former angelic status. I hope I pulled it off lol. For the cane, I had once been taught that we don't actually know what fruit was on the tree in Eden and that some people thought it was a pomegranate, and I really love pomegranates soooo..... Rotting pomegranate cane! I decided to make it rotten because I honestly thought it fit him better, a decaying symbol of what caused his fall in the first place.

I didn't really like what they did with Lucifer in the show. Don't get me wrong, I really like the goofy, supportive dad angle they went with, but I feel there could have been more conflict. Have Lucifer be a genuinely disillusioned guy who thinks humanity is a rotten species that can never change. He's been there for literally all of humanities sins, he's seen the depravities of man. Further more, have him be too prideful to admit his wrongness. From what I was taught, Lucifer first tempted Eve to prove that humanity was flawed, and that he was better than them. Have him cling to the idea that there's no way that humanity could change because that would prove him false. Have him be a final boss of sorts, the first season could have built Charlie up, no mentions of Heaven interfering or anything. Instead it's made up of character development and minor antagonists (Maybe the vees?) and Lucifer could be mentioned as this guy who only brings Charlie down with his doubt. Then, the finale could be him deciding that Charlie's 'useless pet project' has gotten too out of hand, and have him visit the hotel. Over the course of the episode get him to be a real asshole, maybe he purposely tries to tempt the hotel guests to give in to their vices, like he did with Eve, and have him be proved wrong at the end of it all. Sort of like the Welcome To Heaven episode, have the sinners prove him wrong. Maybe he doesn't completely change his mind, but enough that he realize that Charlie's idea isn't completely stupid. And that's when he schedules a meeting with heaven, allowing for the angels and the whole 'heaven isn't actually that good' revelation to be properly built up in a second season.

Now, onto Lilith! I don't know how I feel about Lilith's design. It's just very... Eh. Nothing really stands out to me, and that sucks! I think the horns look cool, and that's all I can really say about the design. I also didn't really like how pale she was? I mean, coupled with Adam, this makes me worry their going to make the three original humans all white which is... A choice. So the first thing I did was give her some melanin. Lilith is from both Judaism and Mesopotamian mythos. While her name is mentioned in both places it's debated whether or not their the same being. I liked the idea of her being both, so that's what I went with. In Judaism, her name in Hebrew is often translated to "night creatures", "night monster", "night hag", or "screech owl". So I took that as inspo for the design. First off! I tried to make her appear more owl like, with the upper face seemingly connected to her hair and giving her bird feet, which a statue actually does give her bird feet lol. She was also often times related to amulets that, from what I understand were often used as stand-ins as a declaration of divorce, which in context of the show is... So funny. In her other hand is what Lilith's magic looks like. I'd like to think she was a very powerful being. Her dress was really fun to do. The under one is really tight, and reflective of the night sky, while the loser cloth I tried to give more twilight vibes. I like the idea that she and Lucifer match, Morningstar and Night Creature. The disc between her horns reflects the moons position, seeing as Lilith is also connected to the moon a lot. Lilith is said to steal husbands away in the night, which funny visual to me personally.

We don't have much on Lilith so far so I'm giving myself free-reign to do whatever I want personality wise! Lilith is a dangerous woman, and ruled hell in an iron fist. In this redesign, she and Lucifer separated long ago, both agreeing that life was taking them to different places. They ended up with split custody of Charlie. However, one day, she disappeared. This wasn't very suspicious, Lilith was often gone for long periods of time doing unspecified projects, but this time she didn't return. Charlie, who at this point was a teenager developmentally, was heartbroken. To this day she sends Lilith's old number voice messages on how her life is going, hoping one day her mother will answer her. No one knows what happened. Some suspected fowl play, others thought this was a long game for one of Lilith's plots.

So long story short, one neglectful parent and another disappeared parent makes for a very insecure, lonely child. Poor Charlie. Anyways, I'm thinking of redesigning Charlie and Vaggie next. I love questions, and thank you for reading this far!

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Adam and Azrael’s relationship in a nutshell:

Azrael does know about the exterminations, since it’s kinda hard to hide thousands of souls dying from the literal incarnation of Death, and they utterly despise the idea of it. They believe full heartedly in the idea that anyone can change, for better or for worse. (Example: Adam, he wasn’t always like this.)

Adam on the other hand is…. Adam, head exterminator. Couple in the internalized homophobia and you get wonderful interactions such as the one depicted above! Truly, the wonders of miscommunication. No seriously, half of heaven’s problems could be solved if everyone was forced into a room to talk it out, but that’s a rant I’m saving for a later date!

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redesign? REDESIGN!

I’ve been meaning to redesign Azrael for a while and just never got the chance to. I’m really happy with how it turned out!

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I did it! Figured it out! Don’t expect it to stay consistent! I spent so long trying to figure out how to make it unique and distinct, but I think it’s good now.

Little fun fact: Adam and Azrael have a… strange relationship. Azrael is disappointed in Adam, they saw him change from first ascending to heaven to what he is now.

I like to think Adam was originally a good person, but just like how sinners can change, winners can change too. Adam grew idol in his paradise, he thought that now he was heaven he could enjoy himself, and he did! For a while he was happy. And then he started to think himself better than others.

Not a lot of people fit the criteria for heaven at first, which made Adam upset, but then he got it in his head that they just weren’t worth heaven, and that’s why they didn’t make, that he was just a better person. He grew egotistical, leading to the asshole behavior we know now.

Azrael at first had a positive relationship with Adam, but after he began to change, Azrael grew distant. They tried to help, but it didn’t help. So the current relationship is… strained.