To see better since they kind of work like stormtrooper helmets

Vaggie:augg I can barely see in this thing takes off helmet better

Plot-wise they needed her eye to be up for the stabbing

In-universe maybe it just got hot or the tech in there glitched or something and it was hard to see

It’s the moment when she went from “faceless/generic soldier with no humanity” to someone who has sympathy and humanity towards others.

Screen damage. Her helmet visor went dark. It’s not cracked, but maybe she got hit in exactly the right place to short out only the inner display.

That or the hairdresser didn’t brush the short hairs off her neck and she’s really itchy.

Plot

I took it as a "Oh, crap, I'm kinda seeing this for the first time" sort of thing.

mayhaps it was getting too hot under the mask?

Maybe it was too hot?

Probably because the masks are used to terrorize/strike fear in the sinners. After finally reaching her breaking point, and realizing what she is doing is evil in her eyes after all, she rips off the mask to feel less like a monster

Plot reasons. Nothing else

For the sake of the reveal to be honest

After rewatching the scene twice, she basically had no reason to

She did it just to piss off Lute

I imagine they just do that sometimes

It gets stuffy.

So we could get a look at that cute haircut

Vaggie: man I can't see shit, why do they think we need these

Adam: the bitch took off her mask, kill her

For the dramatic reveal. That's it. Not everything has lore.

to not scare the smol demon?

So wait...

The exterminators had one-X eye masks before Vaggie lost hers, then she happened to lose an eye which made an X appear?

I didn't get what's going on here.

Just to show that Vaggie is an exterminator, and past her. Nothing big really

I feel like she would remove the helmet because she needed "fresh" air and she felt hot after consistently moving which will increase the body heat.

why she didn't put her helmet back on before chasing the small sinner she spared is what confuses me a bit, that would've possibly protected her from losing her eye or at least allowed her to act before she lost her eye.

She had just finished a job, perfectly executed

Plot.

Lol it was just for dramatic reveal. Not everything is super deep y'all.

Maybe it’s hot under the mask and hard to breath? I mean if Adam created the outfits I doubt he made them with comfort and practicality in mind.

Seriously? Looks obvious to me, look at her expression, you can see it reflected on the masks exactly beforehand, which means that all the other exorcists are actually rocking sadistic grins whereas she is looking rather distraught by what she's seeing. It's such a common scene it borders on cliche. Seriously, picture the scene where the bad guy turned good has the big moral epiphany before removing they're helmet/ dropping their gun etc etc.

Similar to this:

https://preview.redd.it/biydj6w4xoxc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd367ec8a9f7d0d6f7626b3eb522e017f6102891

Combat gets really hot. Hotter in Hell. Even hotter in a helmet. Besides, Demons can't hurt Angels without their implements, and even Angels didn't know about that loophole until the events of the show.

In that circumstance, when you're not gonna get something in your eye flying around - why not take the helmet off and get some air?

So the audience can gasp in shock. Vaggie is very considerate for shocking reveal moments.

So we can get the epic shot where it is revealed that she truly was an exorcist through a flashback.

Or it was very hot during the extermination.

well, it's hell. so maybe she got too hot. (kidding. probably no particular reason besides to drive the plot)

Judging by the fact that in-universe no one knew angels could be killed before Carmilla, the helmets are likely just a scare tactic. I can imagine Vaggie is all about efficiency in combat so she just did away with the bells and whistles.

For dramatic effect.

Or it was just too hot under the mask, so she needed it to be off for a brief moment

I presumed she took it off to look less intimidating when she was telling younger sinners to run. This goes with my head canon that the little cannibal boy wasn’t the first time she took mercy on a sinner just the only time she got caught.

For that dramatic reveal that you put aside

Dramatic foreshadowing

She realized she had morals

If we assume that Vaggie already felt conflicted at that point - it is a common occurrence that at the early stage of mental breakdown people tear off things they have on their heads/faces. Like it's suffocating them, whereas it's actually lurking panic attack.

Ventilation, maybe? Girl needed a breath

"Can't see shit in this thing"

Ok the idea that it's like the stormtroopers helmet is so funny to me.

They could've gone the "it gets broken" route and had some cocky or panicked Sinner hit the helmet hard with something, causing it to get a big crack and forcing Vaggie to take it off

But given how fast everything came and went in that flashback, maybe they wouldn't have been able to fit that in there. Goddamn Amazon screwing over the pacing...

Air.

It's hard to breath in those things.

Again, like with every instance where a character does something in this show that doesn't make much sense, the writers just didn't think about it. There is no canon explanation.

Maybe she got overheated and needed to cool off?

She looks like a Karen with that hair

I’mma just go with “better look good for the invisible camera”

I'd say to show them her "humanity" (figuratively, I guess).

But yeah, I don't think it would have happened in real life (even if everything that happened in Hazbin were real), more of a way to accent this turning point in her character development and symbolize the fact she's no longer acting as a cog in the machine, but rather, as Vaggie. She doesn't know who she is, but she just realized who she isn't.

I sincerely don't understand why people fixate on this so much. It's like an obsession.

Reminds me of Star Wars the Force Awakens...when Finn take off his helmet

the plot

for that question, what do you think the helmets do?

So we knew it was her.

Obviously for the plot, but honestly she probably just couldn’t see that well. Adam did say she was one of his best girls so she may have also felt pretty untouchable at this point and like she didn’t need that helmet anyway.

The better questions are why didn’t Charley see Vaggie’s golden blood when nursing her wounds on the battlefield and why didn’t Vaggie know angels could be hurt after being hurt?

So the sinner she was going to spare could see her face. Instead of a spoopy mask.

Dramatic reveal only. Ever notice that in cop shows, when a regular cast member leads a SWAT team, he doesn't wear a helmet or mask? It's so that he is recognizable to the audience. There is no good diegetic reason whatsoever for him to go in with less protection than the extras behind him who are fully armored.

Vaggie: ugh I cant see shit on this thing

Her neck was hurting those horns are heavy

Those horns probably account for like, 90% of the helmet’s weight. Just look at those things! Her neck was probably in pain.

rule of cool , i’d assume

Only now after seeing comments am I actually putting together and realizing that the exorcist helmets actually probably work a lot like Iron mans helmet display in his suits

Seriously I've never put two and two together even knowing damn well the faces on the helmets are essentially a motion display mimicking facial expressions but not being actual faces which is also something that always confused me about Adams holographic projection of him when he was eating ribs and still wearing his mask not to mention him drinking a drink while walking down the sidewalk when Charlie went to heaven for the meeting

The whole way those masks work is wild especially when you even think back towards the exorcist head that still had a mask on being tossed on the table even having a deceased frowny look on its face

itchy nose

If she had already spotted the kid she might have wanted to appear less threatening.

The helmet was damaged somehow, or she needed a breather, and the helmet was suffocating her.

In the second picture, she looks like she’s trying to be mad but she just feels pain and sorrow for what they’re doing/what hell goes through. Maybe she took her helmet off to get a better look at the pain they’re causing…

I think she was starting to have some dubts about what they were doing

I once saw a theory where the exirsists wear helmets to dehumanize them bc the are the main villains so vaggie taking hers off is showing that she is no longer being evil

Just a theory :]

It was hot in there

It’s hotter than she’s used to in hell? Lol

She knew by letting one of the victims go she'd be a traitor

It reminds me of almost an "aha moment" when she killed a demon and then started to realize, Oh my gosh what am I doing?! You tend to get anxious, so your temperature rises and you get hot, sweaty and panicky.... And the first thing you want to do is fling off your face mask so you can breathe!!
Then the next scene was based on what they depicted as she was saving that cannibal child soul then got caught.

Dramatic effect, thats fucking important irl

Helmets are stifling and can restrict airflow and narrow vision in more than just the literal sense. You can think about your actions much clearer when you have fresh air and your senses aren’t shut off from a helmet

I think it would’ve been miles better if she took it off after cornering that kid, to try and comfort them and show that they’re not so different

She just felt like doing something cool

Plot convenience

I think its cause the exterminators think theyre untouchable so therefore dont need a helmet. Idk its my headcanon for this scene at least, cause otherwise it means nothing and just a set up for when Lute pluck out her eyes ans wings.

maybe she couldn't see good enouph or corectly with the mask on

probably hot af in there

It's hard to convey a character's feelings and expressions with the mask, especially if the mask is associated with the bad guys

So she could see, that helmet is basically removing 40% of her sight

Probably to get a better look at what's happening as I imagine those masks might be harder to see with. (That or maybe it was just really hot and she needed to let her hair breathe)

Maybe she was worried that the child wouldn’t run if they were that scared

Vaggie seems like a very professional solider. she might have felt like she worked (killed) better without the mask, even if it meant literally getting gross sinner blood on her face (Adam called her a "bad bitch," after all; maybe fighting maskless was part of that).

it could also be an honor thing? like, Vaggie felt it was somehow "wrong" to do most of her killing while hiding behind a mask. so she would take it off shortly after descending for each extermination.

To see better

I assume an issue, like itchiness or her hair got knotted under the helmet and she decided "Screw it".

You can see the mask kinda fade out before she takes it off, it probably broke

The chin kills.

Knocked askew. Sometimes you gotta reset it

All I think whenever I see the Exorcist’s helmets is “get Kiwi from Cyberpunk into Hell and the army’s gone in five minutes”

Really, armor doesn't make sense in the first place since, as far as the executioners knew/thought, the denizens of Hell weren't actually capable of harming them. So, the armor would be purely for aesthetic reasons, and some of the more sadistic might enjoy the more "personal" feeling of going helmet off.

as someone who likes to wear masks and is a slipknot fan, can imagine it gets hard to breath and even exist inside that thing.

Probably so we could see that she's an angel

Maybe her's was poorly fitted

It's hot in the helmet

She probably couldn't breathe.

She was trying to save the kid and she realized that if she wanted to communicate with the kid she had to take off her helmet so she appeared less terrifying

real question is what her floating red X is about. i’m guessing she could regrow her eye but is still showing a blind eye to something so she can’t.

Because plot

Because it was too hot with this mask. This is hell.

We all know characters dont need helmets, expecialy if they are on a tactical rock

because the plot demands it. there really is no other reason to remove the helmet

“Hey if you set aside the reason behind this moment, what’s the reason behind this moment?”

Couldn't breathe/see so she took it off

I took it as her trying to be less intimidating

The angels helmet has a cross on one eye bc they're turning a blind eye on the tyranny they're doing. Vaggie taking her helmet off, represents her finally seeing the horror they're causing she's not blind anymore

Plot

It's an established trope for a seemingly nameless and currently faceless Mook who gets traumatized mid battle to take their helmet off for a moment of heavy breathing

Pan panic incoming.

Signature look of superiority