unavoidable that you will be the villain in someone else's story. You will be painted in an unfavorable light. You will be the irredeemable one. and all of this will happen despite how nice you might usually be or how kind or how respectful or how warm. and you will just have to move on.

My hand moves through the steam like an oar, paddling the scent of it towards me. My eyes shut, focused only on this single sense as I decipher the nuanced notes.

It's giving Zombie Fic.

WARNING: VIVZIEPOP CRITICAL, STOLITZ CRITICAL CONTENT.

I get fairly mean in this one, you've been warned.

I am so sorry, Viv. You can't convince me to see Stolitz as anything beyond a toxic, doomed to fail, train wreck.

I'm SO down for a good toxic ship.

In fact, I found their pilot dynamic far more interesting than the current writing seems to be depicting.

I refuse to feel bad for a man that caught feelings for a childhood """friend""" so hard he ruined his own life. Blitz owes NOTHING to Stolas. He agreed to fuck him so he could run a business that is barely discussed, even though it was the original point of the show.

Does it suck that Stolas had to deal with an arranged marriage that he never wanted with a mean wife? Yeah.

You know what else sucks?

THAT STELLA HAD TO MARRY A MAN SHE NEVER WANTED, AND HAD TO GIVE BIRTH TO HIS CHILD. ALL WHILE HAVING A FUCKING CREEP OF A BROTHER. ALL WHILE BEING TREATED AS A MONSTER BY THE FANDOM THAT CAN'T UNDERSTAND HYPOCRISY IF IT BIT THEM IN THE FACE.

Like yes, she's a cantankerous bitch. But you can't seriously pretend like she isn't also suffering in this relationship. The only difference is she turns her pain into external anger, where as Stolas has been turned into uwu soft bird who can do no wrong.

Even though he destroyed his family in an extremely public way. Octavia is going to have to live with the impact of her father's decisions for the rest of her life. You can't seriously expect me to feel bad for a man that is the agent of his own destruction.

You also can't tell me that Blitz just needs to get over himself just so he can be with a man who's father BOUGHT HIM FOR HIS SON AS A PRESENT.

To reiterate. If this was meant to be read as a terrible toxic arrangement that just keeps happening? I'm down for that. But this is not, and will never be cute or healthy.

Blitz doesn't owe Stolas anything. He keeps up his end of the bargain. It's purely sexual, and just because Stolas can't accept that doesn't make it Blitz's problem.

Stolas needs to learn how to accept rejection and move the fuck on. He knew he would catch feelings and considering he basically has Blitz on a leash, that doesn't make this any less gross.

The fact that he knows Blitz will leave if he's given the power to go to earth on his own proves it.

Blitz has frankly done very little IF ANYTHING to warrant being subjected to this level of obsession on Stolas' part. He's just trying to make a living.

Frankly, if you wanted us to actually think Blitz was interested, you've totally missed the boat with that one. This should have been worked on ages ago and it makes it feel exceptionally rushed and out of character on Blitz's part.

At this point I'm starting to think Fizz and Ozzie are a fluke of good writing in a sea of godsawful shit. Charlie and Vaggie felt like a literal afterthought in their own show. Husk and Angel are so rushed it felt like watching a relationship at double speed. Are we even supposed to think Pen and Cherry are actually a thing? Because if I was Cherry I would have punched Pen for that shit.

Christ. I don't drink but Viv makes me feel like starting.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

Stolas is currently the main character of Helluva Boss, receiving more screen time than anyone else in the show. Vivziepop is giving him ample attention because she wants to victimize him as much as possible in a poor attempt to make him "sympathetic." 

However, all she's done is make Stolas into the most unbearable character in Helluva Boss, with Blitzo, Octavia, and Stella suffering the most. Instead of exploring the pain he's caused them, the show blames and villainizes them to make him into an "innocent victim" who's "incapable" of doing wrong.

Stolas has become the main character of Helluva Boss, and the worst one because of it.

I'm anticipating more of this manipulation in Full Moon.

The way The Circus was written clearly shows a form of metanarrative manipulation on account of the writers leveraging information against the characters to make events of the plot happen when they have not earned that ability and it solely plays into their need to control the narrative. Blitz sleeping with Stolas in the first place was the result of the writers using a violent form of manipulation on their own character to make him behave in a way that would benefit their idea of where the plot should go.

Based on the premise, I assume that this will be moved from the metanarrative to the narrative with Stolas playing manipulative mind games with Blitz. We see the prelude to it in Look My Way and how he anticipates Blitz to respond, and to "win", Stolas is planning to throw Blitz away first. This is classic manipulation, most often associated with severe disorders in the cluster b personality category.

So to continue playing on Blitz's character weakness and fear of losing others, which has not been shown to have diminished at all, and to plan a change in the narrative for Blitz to now start pursuing Stolas, they will essentially weaponize his abandonment trauma to make this relationship happen.

If you are not aware, this is the actual definition of Trauma Bonding.

Once again, Stolas is the abuser in the relationship and this abusive behavior is waved away and excused by way of mental illness. While Blitz is an asshole, he is not the asshole, as he has lacked any power in his relationship or dynamic. Stolas is the one with all the power and externalizing his own character faults and the consequences of his own actions onto his victim. At no point is the fact that this is a toxic and abusive manner to maintain a relationship addressed. It shows how and why fans of this show are so caught up in the characters, because their worst selves are being catered to, coddled, and vindicated in the real harm they have inflicted on others.

Helluva Boss continues to romanticize and justify abuse and mental illness through the thick lens of narcissism.

It is easy to see why, with the community she has fostered, Vivienne Medrano felt the need to retcon the Stolas/Blitz relationship. Having a very vocal minority of fans who find morally grey representation of queer characters somehow an attack on those who identify as LGBT. It comes from this purity mindset that queer characters must be portrayed as morally right as possible. As such, the inherent blackmail premise had to go. However, Medrano lacks the experience or skill to be a show runner and completely missed how this change made the relationship even worse.

In the initial premise, it appeared that Stolas took advantage of Blitz taking advantage of him. Seeing an opportunity to tie down someone without consequence and never having to face a fear of rejection due to Blitz's own inherent selfishness.

Blitz has the choice to decline the engagement for the book, and all he loses is his business. It is established that he has a found family in his business and coworkers, however, so there is that need to keep the business in order to preserve his new chosen family.

However, this keeps the emotional commitment tied to Blitz. As abstract a concept this is, ultimately, this setup keeps the stakes tied solely to Blitz. Radically speaking, this is Blitz's choice just as much as Stolas'. He could choose to start over at any time, and we see he is a character who has routinely done so in the past. Losing his business does not necessarily include losing his found family either. So the blackmail doesn't ever reach the same level of exploitation as the old homoerotic animes Vivienne and the rest of us grew up on, like NO MONEY. There is an option for Blitz to decline without any necessarily lasting damage to him

Additionally, by keeping the stakes as far removed from Stolas as possible in the beginning, it has a very clear starting point to travel from. Starting off at "This is a transaction" to "This is a relationship" very clearly lays out a plan of navigation. There are a multitude of ways to get to the same place in a narrative, so from the transactional starting point, have one or both of them find conflict in the relationship. Have one or both find themselves becoming genuine in their little game. There are many ways to do that, and this was the clearest idea we had at the start of the series. Effectively speaking, this was the DNA, or blueprint, of Helluva Boss.

However, the internet has changed, and what was once considered grown is more akin to an extended teenager. Factually speaking, there is plenty of evidence to show that humans are maturing even slower than previous generations, so the ability to think critically, conceptualize moral ambiguity, and rationalize around emotions has been delayed in the younger generation of those below the age of 26. Which unsurprisingly makes up the majority of Medrano's most vocal fanbase.

In the effort to make the story less problematic on the surface, it has become much darker than that. The childhood friends plot, as previously mentioned, killed any forward trajectory the story had. Rather, it literally restructured the plot to make the present also the end. But that also means the only reason Blitz and Stolas are together is because of that one day when they were children.

Place this in concept:

Blitz breaks into Stolas' home to steal the book and manages to keep Stolas occupied before trying to just leave. There is no implied desire that Blitz even has an ounce of attraction or even affection for Stolas within the dialogue or the animation. Instead, it maintains that everything Blitz is doing is for the sole purpose of getting the book.

Once Stolas is incapacitated and Blitz has the choice of his own to either follow through or grab the book and go, he chooses the latter. There is no sequence of Blitz being genuinely interested in the developments going on. Stolas is not also having an effect on him, and is shown to be instead playing up the personality in a comedic way to achieve the ultimate purpose of his being there: to get the book. It could have been that Blitz also became aroused during the foreplay and chose to instigate the sex on his own, taking Stolas' obvious enthusiasm as a means of "What the hell, why not? I'm feeling what he's putting down."

But that is not what happens. What occurs is that Blitz tries to leave, and the only thing that stops him is Stolas calling him his "first ever best friend." Seems like it's not meaningful, but the animation highlights an explicit desire to leave, but being torn against something else. Unfortunately, being someone's childhood best friend doesn't naturally conclude in sex, so the idea that just because they were friends should result in sex feels, bluntly put, rather incel-ish.

But what would result in this emotional conflict within Blitz is much darker. Imagine for a moment that you have isolated everyone you love in your life. Your family, your friends, everyone who ever knew you from that time in your life that you should be able to look back on happily, but can't. Everything is tainted by loss and resentment directed towards you, even if justifiably so. And then there is one person who remembers you from back then who doesn't hate you.

However, if you don't sleep with him and just steal his book, then he's going to hate you too.

That removes the ability of choice for Blitz. He either HAS to have sex with Stolas or lose that one thing we know is more important to Blitz than anything: his emotional connections. While there is no real emotional connection between Blitz, there is an argument to be made of having a true trigger response based on whatever happened between him and Fizzarolli. Additionally, one could conceptualize how Blitz may suddenly put so much more value into this relationship with Stolas now as a means to retroactively keep his past close.

It hamstrings Blitz to the point of there not being a choice. He can have sex with this weird guy he only met once when he was ten, or lose that very last person from his past who doesn't hate him, causing Stolas to hate him too. It would be the last nail in the coffin that Blitz is just unworthy of being loved by anyone. So he prostitutes himself.

This can only be framed in such a manner due to the addition of the childhood friends trope. Which somehow makes that connection also even creepier. That the only reason this becomes a case of true manipulation (intentional or not, the writers are aware of implications, or should be), and prostitution is because Children, adds a slime coating of ick to the idea of these two characters having a sexual relationship. That it isn't because they even know each other as adults. They don't but immediately culminate into sex based on their childhood selves, which is frankly disgusting.

So Medrano has not only kneecapped her own story moving forward, but has succeeded in rewriting the part of the show we actually wanted to happen into a disturbing quagmire of adults having a relationship involving prostitution and blackmail because of a fantasy idea one had of the other when they were both children that he has not only never let go of, but perverted and distorted to the point of debauchery.

Vivzepop will always be the biggest issue with her own show if she doesn't change. And i'm not saying that because I desperately want to shit on her but rather because it's so clear that her attitude is what made Hazbin Hotel be so dissapointing after the long wait. The pilot released four years ago and Viv had these characters for much longer than that. One could assume that with this much time on her hands she would have a concise plan for how a series of her story would play out (I can imagine that having an own show is a dream for lots of creative people out there). And I get that that plan might get screwed up by a shorter episode count then expected, but she should be the one who knows her story best and who should know what stuff could also be cut out. The first season of Hazbin Hotel is so incredibly overstuffed with characters and plot that it completely looses the main premise the show was originally pitched with (the idea of a hotel were sinners are redeemed. As it is now the hotel is really not important at all). People have talked endlessly about how Viv can't handle criticism and it really sucks because criticism is one of the best ways to improve your writing, drawings, music etc. Without criticism you won't refine the thing you're working on in a meaningful way. Of course it feels bad when you put something out there you wanted to share and then people critique it, but that's part of pretty much every creative journey, or atleast it should be and Vivzepop shouldn't get a pass from this just because she doesn't like it. And there are great shows, movies or books that are rarely or almost never criticised. But the artists behind these works probably went trough years of honing what they do by being criticised for the stuff they put out. And I don't want to say that Vivzepop didn't work hard to make Hazbin Hotel, but it is hard to claim that she improves in her craft, when everytime someone says they don't like her show she throws a hissy fit. She wants the same reactions that these other amazing pieces of media get without ever listening to criticism. Which she sees as a personal attack rather than a tool that could help her to achieve the same level of writing prowess the creators behind media like that have. She believes she is already on the same level as them, just because she basically shuts anyone out who disagrees with her. There's this clip at the end of a Drew Gooden Video which I think sums up the situation with Viv pretty good (the Video is called "Leaving the YouTube Bubble"). He is talking about Lily Singh and her talk show but I feel like a lot of the stuff he says about handling criticism applies to Vivzepop as well.

(you might have to turn up the audio).

Unprofessional behaviour like that might be excusable when the creator is pretty young or they are interacting with publicity for the first time really. But neither of that applies to Viv. And Hazbin Hotel isn't just an indie animation pilot on youtube anymore. It's now a fully realized show created with a pretty prominent studio on a major streaming network and it should be held to the same standards as other shows or movies alike (not saying indie animation or animation on youtube doesn't have a standard but with more budget and support, there's obviously going to be different expectations for the show now). There have been issues in Helluva Boss and the Hazbin Hotel pilot ever since their release which could've been handled with more time and the new show. But Vivzepop shows time and time again that she isn't willing to listen to people who criticise her, which could actually lead to her show getting better. I don't like Viv or her work a lot. I think she is incredibly unprofessional and she has done her fair share of questionable or problematic stuff, which often leads to issues in her shows. There have been some characters I like, some songs or scenes that were pretty well done, very cool animation and an actually interesting premise on paper in HH and HB. There are things that make me come back to these shows to watch the next episode. And i'm obviously passionate enough about these shows to make whole posts about what I think was done badly and what could be changed. But for the aspects of HH or HB I enjoy, there are soo many more problems I have with it. Problems that won't go away unless Viv stops seeing every criticism as a personal attack. Because if Vivzepop doesn't stop acting like her writing is some unreachable stuff that needs no changes I don't really see a point in assuming that these shows will ever get better.

Slay the Princess is one of the most beautifully cathartic games I've experienced in recent times. I feel so much and struggle to find words for most of it. I haven't been moved to tears over a game like that since Slime Rancher.

Throwing the word narcissism around without knowing what it means and how ableist it is to throw it around isn't what you think it is

So let's discuss Narcissism.

Firstly, we need to untangle four distinct terms that are being used simultaneously in this singular sense. This is a disservice to mental health and self improvement. Narcissism, Narcissistic, Narcissist, and a person with NPD are not the same thing.

Narcissism is a complex personality trait that is primarily defined by a sense of self-importance rooted in low self esteem. This is not a diagnosis.

Narcissistic is a descriptor for a pattern of behaviours associated with a need to exert one's own sense of self-importance to others. Usually shown through manipulation and intimidation. This comment itself is a display of weaponized manipulation and social intimidation, banking on the belief I do not, in fact, have a very thorough background in psychology. Especially cluster B personality disorders.

A narcissist is an individual displaying traits of narcissism, usually as a pattern of behavior. Often associated with a world view that feeds the maladaptive coping skills associated with alleviating the narcissism trigger. Unfortunately for those on the internet that believe this needs to be diagnosed, no, this is not a diagnosis. Everyone with NPD is a narcissist, but not all Narcissists qualify for NPD.

An individual with NPD is someone who has a complex diagnosed disorder in which they have a disordered personality, or consistent and repeat cycles of thought and behavior that actively harms their quality of life. There are far more symptoms and traits associated with NPD, but it primarily requires the individual to feel that their narcissistic personality trait is the cause of their dissatisfaction with the quality of their life.

As such, to relegate terms such as narcissism and narcissistic to being the sole traits of individuals who are broken, damaged, suffering, or mentally sick is ableist.

Whereas normalizing that narcissism and it's associated behaviors are a human trait we all work towards mitigating and not something only evil or unwell people experience can help promote the idea that Narcissism, diagnosable or otherwise, is something manageable and treatable, and encourage those individuals to keep doing better.

If you wish to know more about Narcissism, here is Dr. Ramani discussing the topic. And here she is discussing Covert Narcissism specifically.

If you were to write a thesis on Vivziepop, what would you write about?

I may unironically publish this legitimately. Not just some blog post online, just a genuine review of our failures in mental health, media education, and online echo chamber culture bred out of the #relateable content mill of apps like TikTok.

There's nuance to all of this. It's not a one finger pointing at Vivziepop necessarily. But an acknowledgment of how her rise as an artistic content creator directly correlated to multiple systemic failures of society in regards to mental and physical health, education, economics, social liberties, and civil and governmental unrest over the last decade.

The pandemic in specific played a massive role in her ability to cultivate a foothold in animation and media. The lack of new content from any major studios, as well as the accessibility granted through venues like social media, added with the government imposes isolation of quarantine and the desperation to connect through parasocial relationships are merely what pushed her over that last hurdle.

The ideal human condition is to create. And when placed in this ideal, this is what she created. Taking advantage of chaos, uncertainty, and insecurity, she dug through the dredges of the internet's most unstable and susceptible people to get to where she is. Combing for people desperate for attention, catharsis, and community. It's why the fanbase (and even the critics) mirrors many high-control religious groups in tone and behavior.

There's so much more I could go into in regards to philosophy and even theology on the matter. But maybe I should just write.

It is easy to see why, with the community she has fostered, Vivienne Medrano felt the need to retcon the Stolas/Blitz relationship. Having a very vocal minority of fans who find morally grey representation of queer characters somehow an attack on those who identify as LGBT. It comes from this purity mindset that queer characters must be portrayed as morally right as possible. As such, the inherent blackmail premise had to go. However, Medrano lacks the experience or skill to be a show runner and completely missed how this change made the relationship even worse.

In the initial premise, it appeared that Stolas took advantage of Blitz taking advantage of him. Seeing an opportunity to tie down someone without consequence and never having to face a fear of rejection due to Blitz's own inherent selfishness.

Blitz has the choice to decline the engagement for the book, and all he loses is his business. It is established that he has a found family in his business and coworkers, however, so there is that need to keep the business in order to preserve his new chosen family.

However, this keeps the emotional commitment tied to Blitz. As abstract a concept this is, ultimately, this setup keeps the stakes tied solely to Blitz. Radically speaking, this is Blitz's choice just as much as Stolas'. He could choose to start over at any time, and we see he is a character who has routinely done so in the past. Losing his business does not necessarily include losing his found family either. So the blackmail doesn't ever reach the same level of exploitation as the old homoerotic animes Vivienne and the rest of us grew up on, like NO MONEY. There is an option for Blitz to decline without any necessarily lasting damage to him

Additionally, by keeping the stakes as far removed from Stolas as possible in the beginning, it has a very clear starting point to travel from. Starting off at "This is a transaction" to "This is a relationship" very clearly lays out a plan of navigation. There are a multitude of ways to get to the same place in a narrative, so from the transactional starting point, have one or both of them find conflict in the relationship. Have one or both find themselves becoming genuine in their little game. There are many ways to do that, and this was the clearest idea we had at the start of the series. Effectively speaking, this was the DNA, or blueprint, of Helluva Boss.

However, the internet has changed, and what was once considered grown is more akin to an extended teenager. Factually speaking, there is plenty of evidence to show that humans are maturing even slower than previous generations, so the ability to think critically, conceptualize moral ambiguity, and rationalize around emotions has been delayed in the younger generation of those below the age of 26. Which unsurprisingly makes up the majority of Medrano's most vocal fanbase.

In the effort to make the story less problematic on the surface, it has become much darker than that. The childhood friends plot, as previously mentioned, killed any forward trajectory the story had. Rather, it literally restructured the plot to make the present also the end. But that also means the only reason Blitz and Stolas are together is because of that one day when they were children.

Place this in concept:

Blitz breaks into Stolas' home to steal the book and manages to keep Stolas occupied before trying to just leave. There is no implied desire that Blitz even has an ounce of attraction or even affection for Stolas within the dialogue or the animation. Instead, it maintains that everything Blitz is doing is for the sole purpose of getting the book.

Once Stolas is incapacitated and Blitz has the choice of his own to either follow through or grab the book and go, he chooses the latter. There is no sequence of Blitz being genuinely interested in the developments going on. Stolas is not also having an effect on him, and is shown to be instead playing up the personality in a comedic way to achieve the ultimate purpose of his being there: to get the book. It could have been that Blitz also became aroused during the foreplay and chose to instigate the sex on his own, taking Stolas' obvious enthusiasm as a means of "What the hell, why not? I'm feeling what he's putting down."

But that is not what happens. What occurs is that Blitz tries to leave, and the only thing that stops him is Stolas calling him his "first ever best friend." Seems like it's not meaningful, but the animation highlights an explicit desire to leave, but being torn against something else. Unfortunately, being someone's childhood best friend doesn't naturally conclude in sex, so the idea that just because they were friends should result in sex feels, bluntly put, rather incel-ish.

But what would result in this emotional conflict within Blitz is much darker. Imagine for a moment that you have isolated everyone you love in your life. Your family, your friends, everyone who ever knew you from that time in your life that you should be able to look back on happily, but can't. Everything is tainted by loss and resentment directed towards you, even if justifiably so. And then there is one person who remembers you from back then who doesn't hate you.

However, if you don't sleep with him and just steal his book, then he's going to hate you too.

That removes the ability of choice for Blitz. He either HAS to have sex with Stolas or lose that one thing we know is more important to Blitz than anything: his emotional connections. While there is no real emotional connection between Blitz, there is an argument to be made of having a true trigger response based on whatever happened between him and Fizzarolli. Additionally, one could conceptualize how Blitz may suddenly put so much more value into this relationship with Stolas now as a means to retroactively keep his past close.

It hamstrings Blitz to the point of there not being a choice. He can have sex with this weird guy he only met once when he was ten, or lose that very last person from his past who doesn't hate him, causing Stolas to hate him too. It would be the last nail in the coffin that Blitz is just unworthy of being loved by anyone. So he prostitutes himself.

This can only be framed in such a manner due to the addition of the childhood friends trope. Which somehow makes that connection also even creepier. That the only reason this becomes a case of true manipulation (intentional or not, the writers are aware of implications, or should be), and prostitution is because Children, adds a slime coating of ick to the idea of these two characters having a sexual relationship. That it isn't because they even know each other as adults. They don't but immediately culminate into sex based on their childhood selves, which is frankly disgusting.

So Medrano has not only kneecapped her own story moving forward, but has succeeded in rewriting the part of the show we actually wanted to happen into a disturbing quagmire of adults having a relationship involving prostitution and blackmail because of a fantasy idea one had of the other when they were both children that he has not only never let go of, but perverted and distorted to the point of debauchery.

I think Look My Way didn’t hit it off as much as an episode would, because nobody can even agree what it’s about. And it is very confusing. When you ask a fan what it’s about, they barely give a coherent answer. Paranoid DJ explicitly called stolas arrogant for being upset that he can’t purchase love and needing to stop his obsession and rethink what he’s done for his daughters sake. Which was very interesting. This one is just, Wet Hellfire. Addict is fun, this isn’t fun at all, for anybody.

When anyone who hasn’t seen the show asks what it’s about, the conversation becomes extremely uncomfortable extremely fast.

“Well…there was this deal with his magic book that. He’d let this guy travel and once a month he’d have to sleep with him, no it’s all consensual at least he thought it was? He actually lead him on!

What one granted “mercy” is talking about? Okay mayyybe he kinda coerced him into sex but it was by accident? It was a misunderstanding, he’s a good guy, he is just a silly billy and doesn’t know what consent even is! he has an abusive wife. How old is he? He’s like 37 I think. The guy he’s sleeping with is a thief by the way, did I mention that?

But uh, he feels really bad and is stopping this deal! He learned and he’s changed! Uh why is he crying like he doesn’t want to do this then? Um..cause they can’t have sex anymore. Why not? Well he wouldn’t want to without the book. What an asshole right? No, not wanting sex doesn’t make him an ass, but he should at least give him a chance instead of making him celibate involuntarily. Yknow what let’s just watch smiling friends instead.

Like you realllyyy have to tie yourself in logical knots to feel bad for stolas in this scenario. The awful marriage yes, but this? It’s like the arranged marriage on crack. Forcing stolas into sex for his family business is the most heinous act in the world, but him making another guy do it? Uh. That’s fine.

Anon, just know that I wish I could cut this entire ask into lines and snort it. "Wet Hellfire" in particular has me rolling.

<3

People really need to realise that “media can affect real life” doesn’t mean “this character does bad things so people will read that and start doing bad things” and actually means “ideas in fiction especially stereotypes about minority groups can affect how the reader views those groups, an authors implicit prejudices can be passed on to readers”

I'm not gonna get too annoyed by it bcause the episode isn't out yet, but if that synopsis is accurate then the full moon promises to get worse by the minute

like, framing their next meeting in the plot like it's some kind of anniversary?? and doing this while simultaneously tacitly acknowledging Blitzo is sleeping with him to keep his business going - because why else is he so worried about pleasing Stolas and finding new things to try right this second if not for the book? isn't Stolas supposed to be sooo chill about their deal that he doesn't even force Blitzo to sleep with him on months when he's recovering from a panic attack? that just proves he's 'one of the good ones' as far as bluebloods go!

back when the instas used to update on the full moon it seemed like a long time between posts. but like, it just hit me again how if this has been going on for a year now of in-story time, that's an entire twelve months it took Stolas to realise he should call off the deal (and even that gives him way too much credit given the story is leaning into him calling it off because Stolas wants Blitzo to love him and has realized he doesn't and can't coerce genuine feeling out of him - in other words calling off the deal not because he realized what he's doing is wrong but because he isn't getting enough anymore and at least partly believes Blitzo is lying and deceiving him).

Even if you assume it's more like ten if the instas where they didn't meet up a couple times are canon, that's still at least ten times where they met up and Blitzo was the victim of sexual extortion.

any other show would have some self-awareness about giving a deal like this 'an anniversary' and that it's a horrifying framing for anyone to treat it that way, whether it's Stolas (self-delusion) or Blitzo (rationalizing the abuse).

I really honestly don't think I can stomach getting through the next ep or any more of the show if that happens. every time I think something like 'it can't get worse' it usually does, but even for HB this is impressive levels of mental backends to go to. and all this is happening alongside a plotline about DHORKs and maybe CHERUB? just how much of a trainwreck can this episode be???

Yeah...not gonna lie, it sounds like it's going to be pretty repulsive. And of course, Viv's fandom will dogpile anyone who criticizes it, even in a charitable way. It's all just so ugly and likely to get uglier.

Hazbin Hotel Live Blog: Hello Rosie

I’ve realized that I spent a long time belaboring the accomplishments of other writers, but I don’t think I ever touched on Ariel Ladensohn. Responsible for the episodes Scrambled Eggs and Hello Rosie, she is credited for shows like Solar Opposites and Futurama, however she has only written a single episode for the Futurama reboot that I can find whereas she is a producer for the show otherwise. Meanwhile, she has minor, single episode writing credits for series like My Little Pony Friendship is magic in 2019 (A Horse Shoe-in), and Clifford the Big Red Dog. In fact, the most credit to her name is under Justin Roiland’s Solar Opposites where she started as a consistent script writer and eventually entered middle management as a story editor. She has a family history within show business through her mother Cybill Sheperd, a well-known celebrity and model of the previous generations. Based on Scrambled Eggs, I will say that episode feels like Justin Roiland fare, and I don’t expect much different from this episode.

Even the series seems self aware at times with Angel Dust proclaiming all of Charlie’s ideas thus so far being failures and Husk even pointing out that the more Charlie tries to do, the worse it gets for everyone else. Charlie lives in this place of protection because of Lucifer, supposedly. This idea that Lucifer is trying to protect her and it’s why she is never in danger during the exterminations isn’t one I’ve actually seen confirmed in the show in any way. It’s alluded to, but with how much of the show is unspoken and outright fabricated with deceit being framed in the last episode as “It’s a lie because otherwise nothing makes sense” when the world building as a whole doesn’t make any sense, I don’t trust the show. I don’t trust the show or writers to know what they are talking about and reluctant to give them any grace in that way. Seven episodes into an 8 episode series and all you’ve accomplished is confusing me. Has Charlie ever even been helpful? We still don’t know what progress is supposed to look like. And we are supposed to think Angel Dust in episode 4 sees Charlie as a friend he can protect while she’s still the Princess of Hell for one and, two, here we see him lamenting her meddling entirely. No one has faith in her but Vaggie, and even then, having faith in Charlie is her entire personality.

Side point, but Vaggie adding”In our room” didn’t sound or feel like she was sad. Rather, we just added that line for some reason? Am I supposed to get the vibe that Charlie and her are broken up in some way from the angel reveal? Or is this the dialogue stating out loud that it is their shared room and that they are in fact a couple because otherwise there is massive room for doubt due to how sanitized the lesbian relationship is in this series. I don’t know, I can’t tell, both can be true because there is so much and yet nothing at all in this series on every level.

If only the show actually showed that the Egg Bois were unreliable narrators at some point. Instead the few times we see them it is that they have difficulty following orders. Not that they actually are unreliable in everything.

So going back to this massive plot point of Angels only being harmed by Angelic weapons, like I said last post, this huge reveal fails to land or build any interest for numerous reasons. For one, Carmilla’s whole business is arms dealing with angelic weapons that Angels just leave behind. Like, a cornerstone of the lore of Hazbin is that angelic weapons are just dumped like litter into Hell every extermination, so one would think that if angelic weapons are the only thing capable or harming angels, Sera would have had a very tight rule about making sure all these weapons are returned to Heaven for their own safety. Even if you want to make the argument Adam and Lute don’t know this, Sera definitely would. And her entire hope for keeping Heaven safe is entirely negated because Adam’s goons are just supplying Hell with the only weapons that can kill angels every year. Second, as stated previously, Vaggie was injured by angelic weapons when Lute attacked her and carved out her eye. It makes no sense that she wouldn’t know the power of angelic weapons. Point three, Vaggie’s wings were torn off by Lute’s bare hands. I’m reminded of Dan Olsen’s video essay The Art of Editing and Suicide Squad where he talks about the use of the Unicorn plushy in the film and the way a narrative must reinforce an idea for these sort of plot points to be effective.

“Then, in the tower brawl, Captain Boomerang is wrestling with a tar monster who stabs him right in the heart. And for a second you go ‘oh no!’- but, Being a savvy and attentive viewer, you immediately go ‘ah wait, the unicorn!’ And you pat yourself in the back as Boomerang pulls out the knife stuck in a wad of money.”

This feels like the Suicide Squad Unicorn situation. There is so much going on and no one in the room was able to catch these contradictions in the production. By the narrative denaturing on such a foundational world building level, the weight of every reveal and plot point is about the equivalent of a paper ball. It fails to ground the world, abide by its own rules, and thus never succeeds as a show. It is a concept that never pounded out the impurities and results in a confusing waste of time.

Wait, did Charlie forget about Cannibalism Town? Episode one she made a point to declare it in the song and how everyone was bright and smiling. So it shows an understanding of what foreshadowing is as a concept, but because no one else remembers or knows anything about Cannibal Town, Ariel was forced to reintroduce the setting in such a way that feels like bad writing. My point is, Ariel is doing the best she can here, the issue lies with Medrano and how she drew attention to Cannibal Town when it wasn’t relevant but never reinforced the plot point. Again, the unicorn plush situation pops up. Because she failed to incorporate Cannibal Town throughout the series, we needed this whiplash redo of the setting to actually immerse the audience in a way that makes narrative sense. Ariel is doing the best she can and it should be noted that this was the best way to rush this plot point because Medrano did nothing she needed to do up to this moment. Cannibal Town needed to be explored a little every episode and incorporated in all of the plots for this to work. By just announcing it in the first episode to try and hint this was going to be important, and then go another 2 and a half hours of content with no reminders at all, Ariel’s only hope was making this a plot hole to try and smooth over the train wreck this whole aspect of the show turned into.

In fact, I just remembered Ariel did Scrambled Eggs, which would have been perfect to set up the reminder of Cannibal Town and its importance by focusing on Rosie. Instead, the episode focused on Zestial and having him and Alastor catch up when it very obviously should have been Rosie for this specific purpose. Was Kritzer more expensive than James? Why focus on this character so long when all he serves is as a vessel to Carmella confessing her involvement in the killing when Rosie is far more important a player? I’m not saying they should have cut him out entirely, but that time would have been better suited with giving Rosie more to do.

My nitpick of the episode is that Rosie’s voice and character bothers me and rips me out of any level of immersion I could have. The accent is noticeably fake to the point it is distracting and the dialogue and pacing is so paint by numbers Jewish mother stereotype that is actually feels too slow. If this makes sense, she isn’t delivering the lines fast enough for it not to feel like a blatant caricature. It’s a stereotype that feels like a stereotype because it hits just off the mark ever so slightly that it draws all the more attention to it. For a show with breakneck pacing, these scenes drag and it is due to the delivery entirely. And before someone does attempt to argue the actress, Leslie Kritzer, is in fact Jewish, yes, she is half Jewish on her father’s side with a Puerto Rican mother. Kritzer was raised Catholic and was not privy to the Jewish Mother character growing up, despite being ethnically half Jewish. That does matter.

The terrifying thing is how the whole negotiation scene with Rosie is so rushed. She says she likes Charlie’s moxie when all Charlie has done is have the prelude of a mental breakdown in front of her. She made it clear how everything is her fault, how everyone she cares for is in danger and pretty much doomed. The literal definition of Moxie is “Force of character or determination” when all Rosie has seen is Charlie actively caving under the weight of everything. That is, in fact, the opposite of moxie. Sure, we have seen her stand up to Sera and stand up for her beliefs, but Rosie has not. This is a common issue in Medrano’s writing where she fails to know which characters know what. They are ignorant when it is convenient and just as equally omnipotent when required. And, like I said, they also feel too slow. The delivery is just too slow and the scenes are too fast, too much happens when it makes no sense and everything just feels like a waste of time.

I just realized why this scene feels like such a waste of time: it lacks tension. The sequence where Rosie walks up to Alastor is such a wide shot, her asking about his plan bears no weight. This is genuinely some of the worst scene composition. This is an expensive shot with Charlie, Rosie and Alastor as well as the need to use filler background characters in the corner to make the space feel lived-in. But this whole issue would have been resolved by utilizing he exact scene direction that follows. Have Rosie close the distance between her and Alastor and have it cut to a 1/3rd body shot of the two. Have Charlie cut from the scene as neither are even acknowledging her in this moment and it shows how Alastor and Rosie see her as a child, ignoring her despite being the princess of Hell. Have Rosie’s approach be an over-shoulder closeup from Alastor’s side, and instead of cutting off Rosie’s face, have the characters get closer together as the camera zooms in. Make the connection between Alastor and Rosie stronger so her words feel slightly ominous when she says “Alastor has never done me wrong before”. Where you wonder if you can trust Rosie, or if maybe Rosie doesn’t really trust Alastor and is giving a subtle warning. The utter lack of nonverbal storytelling sucks all depth and nuance out of the episode.

Carmella is a top tier character in a woefully subpar story. She is everything its clear Medrano’s wishes Alastor was. She is intimidating and intelligent. It tips a bit too far into ludicrous levels of knowledge that, if thought about, feels like it is the writer cheating. And it is. This absolutely is cheating, because the characters who should know Vaggie is an angel, for example, don’t. Alastor, Charlie, and Lucifer are either totally ignorant of Vaggie being an angel or are playing stupid. The reason Carmella has made is that it benefits her to not draw attention to herself, but Alastor should be able to make the same level of inference on Vaggie and doesn’t. To say he does but says nothing makes no sense because he could have been playing puppet master this whole time by using Vaggie’s angel status to control her and/or Charlie in any number of ways. And if anyone would know about Vaggie, it should be Lucifer. And Lucifer should be distrusting of Vaggie at the least. So Carmella is a cool character, but if we really think about it, it’s obvious that she’s just OP to serve a purpose in the plot.

I love Carmella’s long hair design, but the hair just is down in a microsecond of a scene. It was a change in a single frame that went by faster than a blink. It needed to have more emphasis for the reason to be understood: Vaggie is making excuses. It doesn’t translate clearly that Carmella is trying to pull the “equal footing” trope because there was no weight to her letting her hair down. It needed to at least be given a second to focus, not even a verbal acknowledgment, but just have Carmella let down her hair and make eye contact for a second before beating Vaggie up further.

I feel the need to have a small personal rant here, I have ballroom experience, I am also a Latino. The scene and song were ideally set to have a partner-based dance influence. I mainly dance waltz, but I feel a tango was ideal for this sort of song. The beat is too slow for a salsa. There are many different types of Latin dances to choose from (cha cha, salsa, tango, samba). The lack of appropriate Latin influences for a Latina coded character who is also heavily inspired by dancers, and yet none of the proper dance influences were taken advantage of. This entire character concept was fumbled hard. On top of it all, by not selecting a coherent dance style, the fight-dance choreography doesn’t make use of each person’s different strengths. Carmella uses her legs as her weapons while Vaggie has her spear in her arms. So Vaggie mirroring Carmella does nothing to improve her understanding of combat.

Steven Universe focused its use of music to individual instruments. Garnet was a synth bass instrument which heavily influenced her entire character design. Synth Basses are the backbone for many contemporary music genres, especially hip-hop. And Garnet’s character design from being black-coded to her dance style being Waacking, a form of street dance associated with the gay disco clubs of 1970s LA, specifically credited to black choreographer Tyrone Proctor. This is how you utilize ethnic coding in an animated musical. Instead, Carmella is Latina-coded with a Spanish guitar as her musical motif, with very specific native latin American motifs to her movements like maracas and a jaguar with a ballet style dance. This is a cacophony of influence with no understanding of any of them being forced together in a Frankenstein amalgamation of disappointment. Especially the minor use of maracas in Carmella’s character as they are very unique and important to Mexican and Latin culture.

Charlie’s feelings about Vaggie comes off extremely selfish. Vaggie was an exorcist which is hinted at to be a human soul, which means her neglecting to tell Charlie she was an exorcist wasn’t a lie. She was a fallen soul by that point, just like any other person in Hell. She has a history like the rest of them, but her time in heaven would be just a relevant as her time alive, which the show has made clear doesn’t matter to anyone in the series. So having Charlie need this sort of pep talk shows why her hotel is a failure more than anything: she doesn’t really believe in anything she is saying. As a concept, sure, but in practice, her sense of redemption has never previously required confession. Only when she feels entitled to another person does it suddenly matter. She doesn’t care about who Angel Dust or Sir Pentious were before coming to the hotel. Them killing other sinners doesn’t affect her at all. It is only when it’s someone she feels personally entitled to, or a sense of ownership over, that suddenly someone’s past matters. And that’s hypocritical. In fact, it goes deeper still in how Charlie is only interested in who Vaggie was before and no one else, but that comes from a sense of owning Vaggie. Everyone else, Charlie rejects on a fundamental value. Angel Dust’s hypersexuality is uncomfortable for her and she wishes he wasn’t that way. Nifty’s sadistic weirdness is uncomfortable for her and she wants that to change too. Husk’s aloof alcoholism is also a problem for her. Even with the Cannibals, she demands them to change (tone it down) to fit her sensibilities even as she is asking them to possibly die for her. I have seen people claim that the whole criticism of Heaven is hypocricy, I’ve said before it isn’t. I’ll assert it again: Heaven isn’t the hypocrite, Charlie is.

The first thing I said upon finishing this episode was “I would have rather seen the episode of Angel, Pent, Nifty, and Husk resolving to stick together despite thinking they had been abandoned. The character drama and the conclusion of them really coming together would have been far more intimate and cathartic than seeing Charlie and Vaggie “make up” by talking with complete strangers.

3/10

people always talk about leaving comments on ao3 like it's a nice thing to do, or the best way to encourage writers to keep writing, or overall like it's how you Do Your Part in fandom

and yeah, all those things are true, but having spent the past few months leaving enthusiastic comments on as many things as i can, i have a different perspective

you should leave comments on fics because it's fun

taking the time to stop and focus on what i like about a story has made me way more aware of what's going on in stories and what i like about them. there's bit more actual comprehension and appreciation and not just beaming content into my eyes to fill time

i like noticing cool little things in fics, or riffing on funny events. i've never been very good at speculating or picking apart characters, but sometimes something clicks and it rocks.

and of course it's pretty nice when you get a response and it's clear you've made another person happy

so yeah, you should leave comments for your own sake, too. it makes reading better!