Adam from 'Hazbin Hotel' as a redemption candidate? That's a twist I never saw coming until I stumbled into the tag, and honestly, it's a fascinating blank slate. The guy's basically a footnote in canon, which gives fanfic writers all the room to ask: what if the first man screwed up so colossally that Heaven's bureaucracy kicked him out? I've seen a few that explore his fall from grace, painting him as a bitter, washed-up soul who ends up in Pentagram City after a failed rebellion or some cosmic clerical error.
Most of these stories hinge on him crossing paths with Charlie, not as a distant angelic figure but as another lost soul checking into the hotel. The dynamic shift is everything—instead of a patronizing overlord, he's a jaded peer who thinks her mission is naive, which forces Charlie to refine her arguments. There's one fic, can't recall the name, where he starts off trying to sabotage the hotel to prove redemption is impossible, only to get slowly entangled in the residents' lives. The real redemption arc isn't about him earning wings back; it's about him learning to care about someone other than himself, maybe through a reluctant mentorship with Sir Pentious or dealing with Angel Dust's brand of chaos.
What sells it for me is when writers don't make it easy. A good Adam redemption isn't a saintly transformation—it's him grappling with centuries of pride, having his worldview dismantled by a demon who's kinder than any angel he knew, and finally, hesitantly, trying to apologize. It's messy, it's slow, and it often ends with him choosing to protect the hotel family, not for a reward, but because it's the first genuine home he's ever had.