Pure Good Proposal: Angel Gabby from Angel Hare

She is the precious defender, the great harbinger of hope and the one true savior of Analog Horror.

Ok. Yeah, I never thought this discussion would ever happen but after looking the show again and talking to some friends, I have decided that Gabby is worth a genuine Pure Good discussion and now is the perfect time to do so considering that Season 3 has just released and the two week deadline has just expired. Originally, I ruled her a non-qualifier on the basis of mitigating and corrupting factors to the point where I even made her Magnificent Baddie discussion and upvoted her Near Pure Good Proposal. Now personally, I feel she still keeps as an MB since I believe the factors that make her bad enough do have sufficient Fridge Horror behind them for her to keep for that trope. As for Jonah, while the new season did give some potential mitigators, I honestly don't think that he needs a new discussion like Bill Cipher as I feel they can simply be addressed in the upcoming PG Page (which I'm still working on BTW). Anyways, while did partially make the post as an excuse to discuss one of my favorite heroes in not just analog horror, but in fiction, I have genuine counterarguments to handle all of Gabby's potential mitigators. And given how complex she is, this will definitely be a rather long Effort Post so I suggest that you fully read the actual proposal and arguments before voting.

What's the Work?

Angel Hare is an Analog Horror series made by the East Patch. It follows Jonah Whitman as he tries to find his old friend, Angel Gabby and resurfaces past memories. Unlike most Analog Horror, Angel Hare is a relatively wholesome series and subverts traditional tropes of the sub-genre despite having some unsettling moments and aspects from time to time. The full show has three seasons and is on YouTube.

Who is She?

Angel Gabby is the deuteragonist of the Angel Hare. Originally, she seems to simply be a simple cartoon mascot for Angel Hare but eventually, it is revealed that she is the Archangel Gabriel who served as the guardian angel of Jonah, the main protagonist of the show. As his guardian angel, Angel Gabby served as essential emotional support for the young boy after becoming aware of his abusive father. Future seasons reveal that she isn't the only angel with the reveal of Angel Zag and Camael, who basically try to help other children like Gabby in their own way.

What Has She Done?

Note: This is copied from Gabby's biography section on the Heroes Wiki but I made that part of her page so it shouldn't go against the rules of the site.

Past

Prior to meeting Gabby, Jonah lived with both his parents. Back when he was just six years old, he suffered severe physical abuse by his father with the implication that his mother was another victim. Eventually, the abuse caused many notable scars and left the young child emotionally broken, causing Jonah to live in constant fear of his father. Later, he discovered the show, Angel Hare, and met Angel Gabby, who revealed herself to be the Archangel Gabriel and reached out to Jonah. Soon, Gabby learned about Jonah's rough home life and taught him ways to endure his father's abuse. At some point, Jonah's father carelessly left a weapon on the table, heavily implied to be a firearm, causing Gabriel to instruct Jonah on how to disassemble it and hide all the pieces. It is implied that due to this incident, Jonah asked Gabriel to kill his father as she would ask Jonah how she should handle the situation with the father disappearing shorty after. Gabby would then erase Jonah's memories of the incident, allowing him to live a normal life.

Were YOU An "Angel Hare" child?

Jonah buys a VHS copy of Angel Hare, a show he watched during his childhood, out of nostalgia. As soon as it finishes, however, he realizes they were key differences between the copy and the original version he watched as a child. He takes two scenes in particularly. In the first scene of the VHS copy, Angel Gabby is shown introducing herself to the viewer after talking to Francis. However, the original VCR recording shows Gabby referring to Jonah by name and hoping she could be a good friend. After this, Gabby is shown referencing Jonah's favorite book in a later segment. The episode ends with Jonah gaining a new resolve to learn what he can about the show in order to find Gabby.

Angel Hare's Cursed Lessons uncut

Jonah begins with research he has done into the show. This is the first glimpse at the show's two versions and the two companies behind them, Wreath of Life and Kieth Publishing. He then proceeds to point out differences between the two. Jonah then shows the two tapes.

In the VHS tape, Francis sits below a tree with a garden of honey after a long rain storm, being sad and cold. Gabby then comes and tries to encourage him to enjoy to beautiful day but Francis is too upset to do so. In response, Gabby uses keywords faith and hope in a lesson on fortitude, causing Francis to feel better. In the VCR recording however, Gabby is troubled as she warns Jonah that the sun, despite its warmth, can be dangerous.

In a different scene, Francis is looking at a river and is dismayed on how to pass. Gabby then appears and provides a new option on how Francis could continue down the path with a new path rather than giving to despair. The VCR recording strays far from the original show as Gabby leaves Francis and flies to her house. She then uses a chair to barricade the door and remarks how Jonah could use it as a lock and key. She instructs him to enter the closet where she states darkness can be peaceful and teaches him breathing exercise to reduce stress. She explains that Jonah can feel safe "even if he finds you". This causes Jonah to realize that he had a cruel and abusive father.

What Big Ears You Have

Jonah explains that his mother may have mislead him about his early childhood, explaining that the scars likely came from his father. He then notes that Gabby once again broke character in the show. Immediately showing the VHS tape and not the VCR recording, Jonah shows footage of Gabby interrupting Francis during the lesson and asks Jonah to "nod once if he's not coming back for a while." Afterwards, Gabby leaves Francis to instruct Jonah on how to dissemble an object into pieces, presumably a gun. After Jonah hides the pieces, Gabby dawns the armor of god and hopes to Jonah that she won't have to use a weapon but is ready to do so anyways as his guardian angel. After the footage ends, Jonah wonders what happened to Gabby.

Little White Alibis

As Jonah's worry increases, he disregards the craziness of his situation in order to try and search for Gabby, showing the next episode of the show. In the VHS copy, Francis stole one of Gabby's angel feathers and confronts him, saying she's upset about the deception. She asks the viewers whether to forgive Francis or not, citing Proverbs 19. Afterwards, Gabby forgives Francis, much to his delight. In the VCR recording, Gabby is much more harsh on Francis and is even looking scornfully at him. She cites to Jonah Revelations to describe the place prepared for liars and insists Jonah shouldn't lie. Instead she suggests that he should have an alibi for an upcoming event when questioned. Gabby asks Jonah what she should do and agrees to the request without revealing it on tape. Jonah tried to look into it but all the records in the Municipal Building were destroyed by a flood, implied to have been caused by Angel Gabby.

Footage Not Found

Jonah is shown arriving to his mother's house to check for clues at his childhood house. As a montage of archival recordings related to child psychology is playing in the background. He finds and collects a box of childhood artifacts primarily related to Angel Hare and finds out about the search his mother was going through in order to find more about Angel Hare, trying to look through Kieth Publishing. Jonah ultimately decides to not press his mother about it and go searching on his own about what happened to Gabby despite not having enough pieces.

A Final Call

As snippets of Jonah's time with Gabby play in the background, he slowly realizes that he could get Gabby back by live-streaming the show on the air. After doing so on his laptop, Jonah was surprised when Gabby hesitated to introduce herself. After introducing himself again, Gabby's expression becomes more warm with her animation turning more fluid as she goes closer to the screen, stating how well Jonah grew and holds her hand to the screen. In response, Jonah raises his hand to meet it, having found his guardian angel.

The Easter Tape - Cracked Shells

On Easter, Jonah finds an Easter Tape of Angel Hare and decides to view the recording. In the recording, Gabby along with Francis prepare an Easter activity with Jonah that involves painting eggs. The activity goes wrong however as Francis drew symbols which annoyed Gabby while Jonah apparently made a mess of the activity. Eventually, Gabby concedes that the egg was simply for fun and that she wanted Jonah to understand that someone was willing to die to protect him from harm. As the recording finishes, Jonah decides to share the memories of Easter with Gabby. However, she makes no appearance as Francis tries to call out for her.

Flirting With the Void

As a montage of Gabby's time with Jonah plays, Jonah contemplates the possible reasons as to why Gabby was unable to come back. He, along with Francis and Zag, come up with a plan to find her that involves streaming as many screens as possible so that Gabby can come back. While they are doing so, Jonah tries to acquire more information about the Angels and Wreath of Life from Zag who confronts Jonah and reminds him that finding Gabby and knowing she's safe is all he needs to know. Soon after, it is revealed to Jonah, Zag and Francis that Gabby never left but was instead split across several screens.

Lady Come Down

As Gabby appears on the screens, Jonah realizes that she attempted to help the whole Internet filled with troubled kids which is why she is in this state. As Gabby talks to Zag, whose full name is revealed to be Zagzagel, Jonah tries to accept responsibility and asks Gabby to wipe his memory, believing he is the reason why Gabby was feeling troubled. Fortunately, Gabby rejects this and comforts Jonah once again, gives Jonah an alternative of being the new Wreath of Life CEO. Jonah happily accepts the offer, allowing Gabby to resume her normal position with the help of Francis, Francine and Zag.

Cast Down

At the end of the episode, after Segen shares his video about his experience with Hyrax in The Rocks, paralleling Jonah's experiences with Angel Hare, Jonah picks up the disc of the game Gabby asks him to wait.

Difficult Settings

Angel Gabby along with Zagzagel explain the nature of the game, expressing their belief that it involves Angel Camael, a third angel of the trio. As Zag explains the potential risks of the game, Gabby remains determined to try and help Camael. At the end, Jonah boots up the game and Gabby hopes that Camael is safe.

Reformatting

After the idea of both angels going inside the game itself is suggested, Gabby decides to take the role of the Rogue while Zag and Jonah select the Paladin and Mage respectively. As Gabby and Zag go through the introduction of the game, Jonah uses a cheat to skip to the cave to find the jester who Camael's Fran was meant to be. However, Gabby soon realizes that Camael's assistant was gone.

Disconnected

As the team process what's happening, Jonah decides to move to the forest to progress. However, Gabby and Zag are left behind as Jonah skips to the forest. Jonah returns to the cave to explain the situation to the two angels, with Gabby explaining that running a game is a different experience than running a show which likely resulted in Camael developing a different mindset to her and Zag. She then advises Jonah to look out for himself before he leaves to the forest again.

Fail State

At the end of the game, Jonah calls Zagzagel and Gabriel to finish it. As the credits roll, Jonah explains his revelation that Camael himself took the role of everything in the game like the characters and world. When the game starts up again, Gabby tries to call out to Camael only for him to ignore her and Zag before forcefully pulling him out of the game.

Save and Continue

As Angel Cammy recovers from his experience, Gabby and Zag try to offer him help. Eventually, Cammy opens up and explains why he tried to teach Segen the way he did, explaining that Jonah wasn't the greatest friend to him. Gabby defends him, explaining that he went through a lot at the time. Both angels question Cammy's approach with him remaining adament that it worked. Despite Gabby's concern towards Cammy and his game being considered "dead media", he still refuses to accept help. At this, Jonah explains that Cammy doesn't have to accept it but that he shouldn't ignore his own problems either. He then encourages Cammy to work on himself to which Cammy agrees. He then goes back to the game to start his own "quest" for as long as he needed.

Mitigating Factors

Yeah, this was honestly the part I was stuck on. Gabby has...many potential mitigators to tackle in an official discussion. Obviously, some are more concerning than others but those few particularly troubling factors were honestly the main reason why I ruled her out as a potential candidate. However, after much deliberation, I've come up with rational counter arguments to each of these points so I'll present each of them here. She's an Analog Horror Character and is still more complex than most benevolent angels so I'm still fairly unsure on this though.

Is She Evil?

"Be not afraid, my child". Honestly one of the phrases that defines Gabby's very character and it's from the Bible itself. Despite how she comes off to some, Gabby can indeed be trusted.

Yes, I actually do have to address this in a Pure Good Proposal of all things. Now, some of you in the Angel Hare Fandom might be aware that there are a fair amount of people who mistrust Angel Gabby and see her as evil, with the most notable of them being Wendigoon. In fact, one theory I heard suggested that both Gabby and Zagzagel were secretly Gnostic demons who pretended to be angels to lure children for nefarious purposes (which is somewhat similar to Mandela Catalogue Satan). However, despite how she might initially come off, the story makes it clear that Gabby is a genuinely benevolent entity and even Word Of God (in the form of comments and live streams) clarifies that Gabby is truly good. Any speculations that imply she is evil are just that, speculations. This is without mentioning that Gabby herself is a subversion of how most supernatural entities in Analog Horror are secretly evil since her benevolent nature is shown to be genuine. The thumbnails of the videos themselves might imply a darker aspect of Gabby's character but they're ultimately just thumbnails meant to misdirect the viewer so they can't be trusted to give canon info on Gabby's personality. Now, some of you might argue that some of Gabby's actions and her overall presentation can be seen as mitigating given how off-putting she can come across but they honestly deserve separate sections on their own. Here, I'm just trying to prove why Gabby isn't evil or even morally ambiguous.

Seriousness

Admittedly, this is less of an issue than with Jonah, especially since Gabby is visibly more bright and optimistic than him. However, I still decided that this is worth addressing in her case since some of her moments can come off as creepy and even somewhat scary to the audience which is intentional as stated by the Mangan Sisters. Despite that, I don't think they are detracting in her case. Generally, these moments are a result of the audience initially mistrusting Gabby as a character rather than moments meant to darken the mood. As such, they generally result from misdirection by the creators rather than any dark aspect of Gabby's own character. It helps that Gabby is the main threat to HIM, the actual Knight of Cerberus of the show. Additionally, future seasons don't have any of these moments at all since it's verified that Gabby can be completely trusted. Honestly feel like she's a complete opposite of Pure Evils such as Aku and Mahito in this department.

Moral Agency

This wasn't really a concern for me at all but I'll still address this since Gabby is technically an angel. Gabby is indeed a cosmic entity who is angelic by nature. However, nothing suggests in-universe that she is only capable of good deeds. This is supported by her generally pragmatic nature throughout the series. For example, she was able to teach Jonah how to hide an implied firearm without getting into trouble and even explained why putting it in the kitchen was a bad idea. Furthermore, in the next tape, Gabby is shown diverting from the lessons of her in-universe counterpart as while she didn't tell Jonah to lie, she did state that he should get an alibi for what was presumably a murder plan, proving that she can go against traditional morals to an extent. There is also an implication that she's behind the flood and murder of Jonah's father which indicates that she is indeed capable of doing bad deeds. Obviously, I don't consider those two actions preventing which I will explain later but they do show that Gabby can go against her own ideals to help others, proving that she's not acting solely on instinct.

Strictness

As kind and gentle as Gabby is, she definitely knows when to take it up a notch after considering the situation.

Something I'll address is that Gabby can be strict at times which can make her come off as a jerk to some people. However, I feel like most of those instances are justified and warranted when considering the context of those scenes. To start off, she does hold a serious tone when teaching Jonah specific lessons. However, since those lessons revolved around trying to help Jonah get through his tough childhood, her tone is justified so that the lessons themselves sink in and she never acts rude to Jonah throughout them so I don't think her serious nature by itself is a prevention. Another thing I would like to mention is that Gabby did show reluctance in forgiving Francis for stealing her Angel Feather. However, this isn't really portrayed in a corrupting light as Gabby does state that no one has to give forgiveness and with how the situation is portrayed, it's clear that Gabby is less focused on Francis taking her feather and more focused on the relationship between Jonah and his father. As such, her reluctance in forgiving Francis is clearly meant to be a metaphor to help Jonah decide whether to forgive his father or not so this doesn't imply that Gabby holds any ill will to Francis, meaning that this shouldn't make her a jerk. Now, the main thing that might concern you is the Easter Tape but I personally never saw it as an issue to her counting. In this episode, Gabby is visibly upset at Francis for the patterns he made on some of his eggs and rejects them before grumbling at the last one. However, she only seems to express annoyance at worst and never yells at or insults Francis, only showing displeasure over the egg's patterns. It should also be mentioned that the patterns themselves depicted occult imagery with the third even having a skull so it's likely that she didn't want Jonah to be negatively influenced by them. The scene itself is clearly not meant to be taken seriously so I doubt that we're meant to view it in a corrupting or even negative light. This is without mentioning that this trait is only prominent in past tapes and not really the present since in future seasons and episodes, Gabby is shown to be less strict to those around her. Also, the first QnA in Season 3 reveals that she didn't try to punish Francis for reading her mail in her absence so I don't think her relationship with Francis has any corrupting aspects to it. She is generally a good friend to him and he even states in the QnA sessions as well as in his own song that Gabby was an important help in his darkest time and is the sole reason why he is living a better life. Overall, while Gabby can be strict and stern at times to those around her, this is mainly because she wants them to stay safe and remain on the right path instead of trying to be rude or a jerk which means that they can be dismissed as brief heating up periods, especially since they aren't prominent after Season 1.

Lethality

I'm gonna be blunt here. If you're so neglectful as a parent that your own child has to rely on VHS tapes to maintain his sanity, you deserve to be murdered and condemned to hell by the precious defender.

Ok. Gabby, while benevolent and kind, is a pragmatist in some of her actions while being ruthless to an extent. In her past, it is heavily implied that she killed Jonah's father or at least played a role in his disappearance which is supported by the fact that he never makes any appearances after the fourth tape. However, I don't think this holds up as a prevention for two reasons. One is that the details of the incident are ultimately left vague as the series never truly explores it so we don't even know for sure if Gabby is actually a murderer or if Jonah's father is dead. All that is known is that Gabby encouraged Jonah to make an alibi for an "incident" and that she tried to satisfy an important request he asked of her. While it's possible that Jonah asked Gabby to kill his father, there's also a possibility that he just asked to be safe and that in response, Gabby took non-lethal measures to ensure that HE wouldn't remain a threat to Jonah's life. However, even if Gabby was confirmed to have killed Jonah's father, I still don't think it would count as a prevention in her case. This is mainly because HE is a Hate Sink whose unspecified condemnation was played for satisfaction and was warranted given the situation. In this case, HE was a child abuser who served as a dangerous threat to Jonah and could've ruined his life. This is supported by supplementary shorts given by the Mangan Sisters which imply that without Angel Gabby's assistance, Jonah would've likely become an abuser similar to HIM. In this particular short (where Mandela Catalogue Satan and Gabby switch places), Satan (or True Gabriel) states that whatever actions he took were done out of necessity while (False) Gabby encourages Jonah to act on his violent urges towards a little kid. This further indicates that Jonah was ultimately better off without his father which Gabby was aware of. Another thing to mention is that in Tape 3, after teaching Jonah to dismantle the firearm, Gabby hoped that she wouldn't have to draw a weapon which indicates that her potential killing of HIM was only done as a last resort. Overall, considering that HE gave Jonah visible scars that stayed with him as an adult, carelessly left a firearm on a table in the same room his own son, likely attempted to use said gun to kill someone and horribly neglected Jonah to the point where he had to rely on VHS Tapes to stay sane, Gabby killing him would be 100% justified since HE was a genuine threat to not only Jonah but also the town that they lived in.

The Flood Act

Yeah, while Gabby is definitely justified here given the context, this is still one of the most unnerving moments in Analog Horror for me at least.

This was pretty much the main reason why I was unsure on proposing her here for so long and proposed her on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki. Honestly, I'm still incredible unsure on this but I do have counter-arguments to present for why I don't see this as mitigating. Now, it is heavily implied that to keep Jonah safe, Gabby flooded the Municipal Building to destroy any records of the unspecified incident and one could argue that she endangered innocent people with this act. However, similar to Gabby's potential murder, the flood itself is left rather vague when it comes to details. From what little that is shown of the flood, while some damage was done, nothing implies or even indicates that any innocents were harmed in this act as none of the reports state that anyone was hurt. All that is known about the flood is that it destroyed all the records of the Municipal Building. Additionally, Jonah never tries to explore the cause of the flood so there isn't any definitive proof that Gabby did cause it. However, even if Gabby did cause the flood, I still don't think it would be corrupting. Like I said, all that is known about the flood is that it destroyed all records of the Municipal Building and nothing indicates anyone was hurt. Since this was a last resort, Gabby took no enjoyment in causing it and only destroyed the records to try and protect Jonah. As such, this act could constitute pragmatic heroism since she didn't seem to have any other options with it being treated as the only way to keep Jonah safe, especially when considering the short by the Mangan Sisters. Another thing to mention is that the records themselves only seemed to include information on the incident so nothing indicates that Gabby destroyed any important legal documents of the town or even that the building itself was directly damaged. Something else I probably should address is that Gabby's actions did indirectly lead to Jonah's mother, Euleila B. Whitman, to try and investigate Kieth Publishing to learn about what was going on with her son by harassing some of their employees and even meeting Giles Kieth under false pretenses which got her a cease and desist letter from Kieth Publishing. However, I feel Gabby's role in this is too indirect to deem this as a prevention as it was never Gabby's intention to get Euleila to do all this. Also, I don't think that Gabby could've reasonably predicted that Jonah's mother would act in such a way to investigate what was going on and considering that she didn't even know about Segen, a childhood friend of Jonah's, until Season 3, I don't believe there could've been any way for Gabby to find out about the mother's investigations, especially with how Euleila did them privately with Jonah himself only finding out after revisiting her in Tape 5. Now, one might argue that Gabby basically made Jonah an accomplice to murder with how she asked him to make an alibi and flooded the building to presumably cover up the evidence. However, even ignoring the fact that it's unknown if the abuser died (which would be a righteous kill), Jonah's role in the incident is left completely up to speculation as he never really tries to explore that in depth so we don't know if Gabby tried to have Jonah help in the potential murder plot and it's possible that she wanted him away so that she could deal with HIM without harming Jonah and so that he wouldn't be harshly questioned by the police. Additionally, given how protective and pragmatic she can be over matters involving Jonah, she likely had a perfect plan to ensure that Jonah would remain safe so I can't say that she endangered him at all with all this. Overall, I think the act involving the flood is just vague enough to be classified as an act of pragmatic heroism.

Anything Else

Here, I'll just briefly explain issues that I didn't feel warranted their own section which are mainly in season 3. In two instances, Gabby does express shock when Zagzagel implies Jonah is easy to manipulate and when Jonah outright states that Camael is rather abrasive. However, those two instances are incredibly brief and I don't think they are even enough to be classified as Heating-Up Periods. Another thing is that Gabby does forcefully pull Camael outside of the game which does cause him some pain. However, similar to her other actions, the situation did warrant this response as she did try to get him to come out by asking him to do so but only relented to force when she and Zagzagel realized that Cammy needed help and was suffering from a major problem. It should also be mentioned that Camael was completely ignoring Gabby and Zag so she couldn't know of any other option to choose from. The finale even verified that Cammy had a self-destructive mindset due to constantly over working himself so using force would've likely been the only option. Outside of all that, nothing else. Season 3 doesn't prominently show Gabby as much as in Season 1 so there's not much that could prevent her from counting.

Admirable Standards

Sets it. She helps support Jonah through his troubled childhood by teaching him personalized lessons to ensure his well-being, serving as a parental substitute during this harsh time. She then instructs Jonah to disassemble what is presumably a firearm which would've likely been used by his father to murder innocent people, implying that Gabby spared multiple lives from the abuser. Eventually, she (presumably) eliminates HIM for good, ensuring that Jonah could live a normal, happy life. In Season 2, she tries to help an entire internet full of troubled kids despite being caught in a FWTD before being rescued by Jonah, who helps her do that at a healthier rate. Considering what Zagzagel and Jonah say on the situation, Gabby was trying to help millions of kids on the internet. Honestly was never truly concerned on this part of the proposal.

Verdict

Even with all these arguments, I'm still incredibly unsure on whether she counts and if she does get approved, she'll probably be an incredibly technical qualifier since some of her mitigating factors are fairly ambiguous. After this proposal ends, I'll definitely take a long break from Fandom as it was honestly exhausting to finish. Whether this gets approved or not, I feel like I truly deserve an award for making this Effort Post alone.