#I'm not like a helluva hater

[thedevilprobs]

Am I the only motherfucker who thought the mastermind episode was stupid and the song was the stupidest part?

[whichuniverseisthis]

My brain works that if someone gives me a reason to like a series, a character or whatever, I'll end up liking it, and if someone gives me a reason to hate on a series, a character or whatever, I'll end up ignoring that reason.

[sobeksewerrat]

*incomprehensible autistic screeching in the background*

[shilokopia]

part of me is scared of what the new helluva boss episodes will entail. i do not mean that in a good way

[idolomantises]

I find Sarcastic Chorus's video on why he's quitting Helluva Boss really interesting but I'm kind of baffled by the number of people straight up not understanding his reasoning for quitting. I think it's interesting how both his video and the online reaction to it is basically the consequences of modern fandoms treating art like its something to mindlessly consume and not worth analyzing and critiqing, or else you're consuming it "wrong".

Like his argument isn't that he hates the show or that he was forcing himself to criticize the show, in fact one of his main problems was that he couldn't be MORE honest in his reviews because of how fans would react to it. The problem was that when your job is to analyze a show, and it has way too many problems to ignore, and you're dealing with a hyper-sensitive fanbase that's hostile to criticism, you end up feeling exhausted or flat out disinterested in reviewing it.

I actually find it really concerning that fans are coping so hard with him quitting that they're framing it like its his problem because he was "looking for problems on purpose" when it was pretty obvious that it genuinely makes him kind of miserable trying to pick apart the show's issues. I remember when he was SO confident that Hazbin Hotel would be amazing and "prove the haters wrong" only for him to acknowledge that it was a complete mess. I'm honestly more confused by the fans who watch a reviewer and then get mad when he... reviews things. It's not even that they disagree with him, but the audacity to even point out very noticeable flaws in the product is enough to set them off and accuse him of being a clout chaser and a hater. Like do you want to see a review or did you just want to watch someone lie to you and blindly praise a series for 30 minutes, because i find it really odd that so many fans are insistent that he should've done the latter.

I also got pretty annoyed by this insistence that he wouldn't have turned on this show if he didnt criticize it and "turned his brain off" instead which is the same stupid excuse people gave for Hazbin's sloppy writing. and I just find that just... baffling? Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, as extremely flawed as they are, are clearly shows made with the clear intention of being taken seriously. Ffs the crew calls Helluva Boss "queer Bojack Horseman". Helluva Boss tackles topics like abuse, trauma, classism, racism, toxic relationships and redemption and Hazbin Hotel tackles themes like sexual trauma and abuse, redemption and religious oppression. But the problem is that both shows do it so poorly that people genuinely think that it's meant to be slop content that you're just supposed to turn your brain off and listen to.

I'm not going to forget when these fans were treating Helluva Boss's season 1 like peak queer representation and writing and insistent that Angel Dust was this amazingly well written gay male character that people only hated because he was messy and imperfect. Honestly kind of funny that I was chastised for saying that Angel Dust is just a sex joke only for the show, the crew, the merch, and even the damn playbill reduce him to just that. Slapping on trauma (especially knowing that its more of a fetish than a genuine exploration on male sexual abuse) doesn't really negate the fact that Angel Dust is poorly written. Side note: his fans are way too unhinged and aggressive, its getting very weird.

So its funny to me that now that Helluva Boss season 2 completely nose dived and Hazbin Hotel is a sloppy mess that feels more geared for children than adults, that now people are being told they're not allowed to analyze these shows or even pay attention to their problems, and are treated like idiots for doing so.

I think the problem is that I kind of think fans also notice the lowered quality of writing in both shows. because why aren't people actually defending the writing and character progression? instead of "Sarcastic Chorus is wrong because his criticism is incorrect and misses these points" its "Sarcastic Chorus is wrong because he should have shut his brain off and treated these shows like its cocomelon for adults"

[vivziepopcriticalconfessions]

"I know this might sound nit picky or I'm just being a hater but as someone who loves folklore and mythology I feel like hell in both helluva and hazbin aren't really...hellish..? like, hell is usually depicted as a place where sinners are tortured and suffer for all eternity. but, especially in helluva, it just seems like earth with edgy paint on it. residents go grocery shopping, get married, use modern technology. basically regular human stuff just with more violence and swearing. a really good depiction of hell in my opinion is ultra kill, for example."

Submitted by @ferret-queen

[atomicpowered]

So I watched Hazbin. Let the record show that I am not a hater unjustly or unduly. I will put in the effort to fully experience the thing people are dumping on to see if it's legitimate. I went in with as blind a mein as possible given that I am Online and dialed in to various goings on in my swamp. My curiosity finally got the better of me.

I know some of the background of the show and the creator of said show, I have heard rumblings from the edges of my dashes and things passing megafauna-like underneath me. These cries of 'worst fandom ever!!' are pretty overwrought for what, by my eyes, is the pretty standard slew of agitated bees that follows this kind of thing.

Before I get into some thoughts about the show I do know that there was some talk about people not being properly compensated for their work on the newest, hottest, invader zim animated television programme. I have heard various things about what vivziepop (might be spelling this wrong I'm on a fight and bored so I can't check) has done, what fans of this show are capable of blah, blah— I get it. When you've been around the loop of this stuff as long as I have you know what many fandoms and sole operators are capable of. By my metric these examples are all pretty bad. Not the worst but not the best either. Definitely stand out from the other fan based background radiation on websites and in real life.

But I'm gonna talk about only what I've directly seen (the amazon joint and youtube pilot) for both brevity and my sanity.

I sell at conventions for a living, I've done so for years and have also been at that long enough to see swells and ebbs of trends that match up with their digital counterparts. Hazbin is… special. Not often do you see merchants throwing table balance to the winds to have MULTIPLE Hazbin (Helluva thrown in there too they're basically the same thing) monocultures for what they are hawking. I get the drive behind it too, no shade, make your bag, sex sells, but I can't overstate how rare this is! Even during the heyday of Genshin (lessening now) you still had different properties orbiting the cash cow on your display. Nobody just brought one thing and one thing only.

Now, on to what I have to say about the show. I'm sure some of these points have been echoed by a pngtuber with crossed arms but I feel compelled to throw my two bits in.

The show is all together, not good. Not horrific (barring some specific instances), but firmly overwhelmingly mediocre.I watched all of it, including the pilot, and besides occasional drama crossing my dash didn't interact with it much beyond that until now. Now that I have, I am very confident with my pre-watch assertions I made based on spitballing what I saw represented on and off line. I'm good at this kinda thing, you see certain patterns emerge from the data and you can make some accurate generalizations no problem. I frequently withheld a question when I would see groups of 14 year olds in pinstripe suits looking at my prints at weeaboo united or whatever convention I was at that particular weekend. Why are kids watching this show?

I know Why kids are watching the show, Hazbin is made (probably unwittingly) to appeal to kids! This is a neutral statement, I'm not saying it was to entrap kids or anything like that. The kids are a side effect drawn to what Hazbin Is. Not a target.

The appeal comes from a few main points. The characters are all designed like babies' first OCs, they drip little details and playground style power layouts. (My mermaid tail is blue and rainbow and I can shoot lighting and I have a pet sea turtle so obviously it is good or better than your flame covered tail and psychic abilities.) They are all based on a template that is easy to replicate and iterate on with enough play in secondary characteristics to make a bonafide example of some prime Do Not Steal. (Think Sonic, My Little Pony, Homestuck.) This playbook of style is sugar on a kitchen floor to ants.

The characters all say and do stuff with no deeper implication or subtlety, conflicts are raised and finished in minutes if not at least by the end of the episode. They have large gestures, big emotions, little depth, and huge expressions. They are stage acting, and the flat compositions in the storyboarding and directing reflect that. They are tell and almost never show. They walk on the screen and go I'M SAD or I'M MAD with no real subtle work. Yes there's sex, drugs, and alcohol, but, like. Conceptually you easily have characters acting like they're in saturday morning cartoons.

The overacting is great when you're sakuga brained like I am but it is so all the time and in your face that it just ends up feeling like those twitter videos of 60fps interpolated anime openings. (God I fucking hate those things.) Every character is moving and talking and wiggling around so much that it's like parents trying to catch the attention of a crying baby with hastily jingled keys. Even the swearing and the depictions of the more devious acts are so… juvenile. Everything feels like a combination of boys talking in hushed giggles at the back of the bus and what you scribbled in the back of your history notes among the drawings of the best realistic eye you could put out at the time. Like I highly doubt any of the audience knows what 'bolivian marching powder' is or does. And I don't think its main writer does either? Like one of the characters is in high profile porn, like at least make his vice a designer drug? It's like when kids speculate on what it would be like to be white girl wasted with barely trying a sip of Mom's vodka out of the cabinet.

So you got the combo of these character designs which mirror every tumblr sexyman since the bronze age and a very paint by numbers barbie house of characters. Of COURSE it bags kids like fortnight und cola. But like, why are people in charge just letting this rock? Is more my question. Who is letting Timmy get at a new glossary of stuff to yell at his substitute teacher? Don't answer, this is rhetorical. I'm all for letting kids self select but I kinda worry about this one and what it's doing to the teens. I'm sure someone more willing to explore that has said smarter stuff than me. But what I can see is you have the volatile type of person (kid or not) who is attracted to what I just listed grappling with badly handled (fumbled most of the time, let's be honest) adult stuff. This is the recipe in how you get a fandom that acts like this one acts.

My next thoughts concern Concepts and Themes. The ones here of heaven and hell are just kinda skated over as set dressing. In fact everything in the show is more like the plato's allegory of shit to stand on. It's basic on basic. Hell being an alright bunch and heaven being snooty know it alls has been done, demons that are niceys has been done, even interpersonal relationships set with a backdrop of a home for wayward characters has been done. Like again color by numbers isn't BAD! Just because these things have all been done doesn't mean you can't learn from and uplift your own idea with what came before. In fact, when you're having trouble making something a quote always comes to mind.

Wholesale ripping a chunk out of red letter media here: "Now I need to explain that I don’t think that all movies," ((Shows for my use case)) "-should be the same, or conform to the same kind of structure, but it works well in certain kinda movies. So unless you’re the Coen Brothers, David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Lars Von Trier, David Cronenberg, Gus Van Sant, Quentin Tarantino, John Waters, Wes Anderson, Sam Peckinpah, Terry Gilliam, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, or Jim Jarmusch, you really shouldn’t stray away too far from this kind of formula."

It's clear that this show has its roots in musicals. (Not just in the presence of musical interludes, the talky bits too.) Musicals often are color by numbers stories that expertly perform these fundamentals. They are a perfectly cooked egg. Simple, but a test. If you can't do the basics you cannot be expected to deliver on anything more complicated! It's also obvious that Hazbin's nest was lined with disney musicals specifically. I have my qualms about disney, especially the disney of today, but that's not for right now. Disney by and large knows how to color in said book to the point that it's a formula, and if you can't study this formula to excel at the formulaic you kinda deserve the crit.

You have rules and lore set by your world and you don't follow through with anything, your plots all revolve around introducing the coolest character yet or making your favorites even cooler but not like. Actually. Exemplifying what the hell is going on. I know people here are going to counter that they didn't have time it was only a handful of episodes with no knowledge if they were gonna get more, but so much of the show is donated to bad dialogue that goes nowhere, points and facts that the audience knows that are reiterated half a dozen times for no reason. They had TONS of time.

While I'm on the subject of dialogue, the dialogue is one of the things that is not mediocre but straight up bad. I already listed why above but to cite a specific example of something I haven't touched on, dear god you cannot lampshade your own bad writing by having the characters calling it bad. It is Marvel style spandex is stupid and comics are silly am I right guys 'jokes'. This 'joke' happens at least three different times in vitro and it made me audibly groan every time.

I am not a musical person nor am I musically trained but many of the songs are lyrically poor, abruptly plonked into the narrative, unfitting compositionally or, uh, poorly sung.The cast of VAs is insane, (looking at you David) and also often badly vocally directed. They are trying their best with the script but I'm more talking about how they are mixed. I found it hard to understand what was being said much of the time due to technical failures. Guys like Keith David can phone in a performance and Sell it to me better than some of the other actors putting their foot into it and that juxtaposition is also a form of whiplash that the show excels in. Vaggie is probably the worst offender for not being able to pick up the slack in this regard.

The characters being over and somehow under done lies also in their designs and the style that the show wants. I could talk for days about how much I dislike the sticks with a bunch of junk hanging off of them type of look. Nightmare to animate, no good character variation. I didn't even know what some characters were supposed to BE or represent. Alistor is a deer? Charlie is a faun of some sort? Where? Huh?

Too much red!!!! Too much!!!!! Red backgrounds, red characters, everything is a MESS, this is one of the things that actually gets me mad. There are no values! Everything fades into visual noise, which when you pair it with the animation constantly gesticulating at you and everything being bolted on with spirit halloween leftovers makes a leaf and stick tornado. (Nitpicky as well but pick a line weight and color and stick with it.) When blue or yellow came on screen I would audibly shout in excitement.

Multiple characters have tophats. Stop.

I'm not going to go into what I would do to fix the plot or design documents, I know it's been done to death.

God, where was I, I think I'll just finish this off with thoughts about the characters and then open the floor to comments or questions. I don't mean to make this a proper essay.

Charlie: I really dislike her, she's a weak character that has the IM TELLING HOW IM FEELING AND HOW YOU, THE VIEWER, IS SUPPOSED TO FEEL disease bad. Her design is one of the worst. I don't root for her much! Which is bad because she's the main character and I'm at least supposed to feel for her?

The snake guy: He had an arc. He's probably the most endearing.

Angel dust: the pathos they tried with his story beats is ruined by whipping back and forth between irreverent and WAY too heavy handed. People cried? What? Also the pig showing up for its two appearances to sell irl plushies was bad. His back and forth with other characters is hard to watch, and his capitulation to be better both feels forced and confusing. I don't think they know what to do with him. Why is porn bad in hell.

Husk: hi keith david. Bad design so fucking busy. They scaled him back from the pilot and I still flinch thinking about those tie downs. Why is alcoholism bad in hell.

Tv guy: better episode time than most of the other characters to the point where I suspect multiple writers to have been put in the time out chair

Nifty: Gir redux but with none of the heart

Vaggie: they were going for a wholesome lesbian relationship or toxic codependency and managed to do neither well. She has the weakest vocal performance, the name thing is bad, I thought she was supposed to be based off an owl or bird of prey but apparently not?

Mimzy: why are you even here

Lucifer: design so bad he falls into the background when he should stand out THE MOST. No episode, saying you're depressed and estranged from your daughter isn't an emotive beat you have to Show that by doing things.

There's so much I could say about carmella, the overlords, the other V's, adam, heaven in general, the over-designed incidentals, the exorcists, but I'm TIRED.

Alistor.

Man. This fucking guy.

His ethos is one of the worst in that hes just dripping in conflicting ideas from toe to head. He's based off voodoo? He's the 'coolest' one?!?!? He's word salad. Eldritch, forest, radio, dapper, fox like, the teeth, the staff, the vocal filter, he's a deer????! cannibal chaotic neutral shadow manipulator play pretty. He takes valuable screen time from everyone to blow keyframes and my time in being the 'coolest' most bad ass for real bro made in a lab to clinch a demographic annoyance.

Where do you go when you die in hell? If you died in heaven do you go back there? Nobody tried to crack getting into heaven before? Expediting a culling six months when you do it every year isn't as punitive as it comes off, where are the steaks? Why does charlie care so much about hell? Where are 'her people'? Why does charlie know that heaven wants to quell an uprising? Why don't angels know they can be hurt? Why does Vaggie not know? Why aren't people in hell doing like. Actual for real bad things most of time? You have a whole town of cannibals, something that's pretty rare, but barely anyone on any kind of watch list. Why is Lucifer estranged when he's clearly just awkward and it gets better almost immediately? Why does charlie not know anything about her country despite living there?

Auhhhhgh okay I'm done, I'm done. Like I'm frustrated okay!!!

[chaifootsteps]

The annoying thing is that, since the episodes will release on yt a month after they release on amazon, and given how restrictive the laws became lately in my country when downloading movies from not so legal sites, I'll have to either pay to watch this shitshow (which, no.) or I'll have to wait a month (except if some kind soul puts them in a Google drive or something).

Does vivziepop think we are THAT invested in her show (that's been steadily declining on views)? Because we aren't. I AM willing to wait the month. I'm even willing to wait 2 months if it means that I don't have to pay to watch helluva boss.

Now, if helluva boss had good writing and coherent story maybe I would consider paying. Maybe. But it doesn't.

Anyway, I really hope people will start putting the episodes out for grabs for the rest of us (also it just occurred to me but I don't think viv realise that the views on yt will drop even more when people will have another platform to watch her show, especially since they'll be releasing there first).

There are already people in the fandom (actual fans, not even crusty old haters like me) promising to download and release the episodes as soon as they drop. Viv and Amazon really didn't think this through.

[hazbin-but-good]

another hazbin hotel rewrite/redesign?

yup! and i'm so serious about it that i made a whole blog for it. i'm a white queer ex-cath tran doing this as an art and writing exercise, so feedback from other creatives + jewish and/or racialized folks is especially welcome.

i'm putting this post and only this post in the main tags for visibility. also, not gonna link my main, but i do make my own original stuff, and i encourage fans and haters alike to do the same.

anyway, here's a mostly good-faith 1.7k-word essay on the original. i think it's pretty funny and brings up some less talked-about points. correct me on the facts, disagree with my opinions, and ask clarifying questions, but don't come at me with any piss-poor reading comprehension.

the hellaverse is garbage, and here's why

cw: strong language, stronger opinions, intersectional feminist critical discourse analysis

1. vivienne medrano, the person

medrano was born as a well-off white-passing latina (salvadoran-american) in bougieass frederick, maryland. while attending new york's top art school, she got popular on deviantart-tumblr-twitter by being a prolific multifandom fujoshi furry who's more into ornamental character design than storytelling. upon graduation, she leveraged her fanbase and industry connections to make the hazbin and helluva boss pilots, get helluva made for youtube, and get hazbin made for amazon prime.

like every woman online, she gets harassed for no good reason, and as a certified autist, i will defend her right to be dumb, weird, annoying, and bad with words. however, there are legit reasons to criticize her:

racism, misogyny, homophobia, fatphobia, some antisemitism, past transphobia, past ableism

shitty boss, bad friend

cowardly, vindictive, manipulative, thoughtless behavior

skeevy friends

sucks at taking criticism

in short, i think she desperately needs a PR person and someone to clean up her digital footprint.

2. medrano's art

incurious

inauthentic

noncommittal

creatively stagnant

overindulgent, and the indulgence isn't even fun

shallow and childish framed as complex and mature

bland and boring framed as shocking and subversive

to be clear, i'm at peace with the existence of suckass art like this; i just think the money, attention, and praise it gets are unearned and should go to more interesting works, of which there are infinite.

medrano's had the time, money, and social cache to grow as an artist, learn from the best, and take creative risks, but she hasn't. if she truly has nothing more to offer, she should let her collaborators take the wheel, but she doesn't do that either. instead, she keeps getting more and more resources to make the same baby bullshit, and that pisses me off. she could be the nicest person ever, and this fundamental arrogance would still make her art blow.

stop with the pointless guilt: liking medrano's work does not make you stupid or evil. however, if you stay in the kiddie pool of culture, if you refuse to engage with a diversity of art, if the hellaverse is your point of reference for anything media-related, you can't expect to have your opinions on art, media, or culture taken seriously. you have not earned a seat at the table. you gotta hit the books first.

i cannot emphasize enough how much incredible stuff is out there if you're willing to look further than what social media and streaming services put right in front of you. if you come away from this blog having learned about just one new artist or piece of art, i'll be a happy camper.

3. the hellaverse

a. empty and confused

hazbin and helluva's content and marketing has no clear target audience. the subjects are inappropiate for teens, but the execution is too childish for adults, and lemme tell you what i don't mean by that, first.

not inherently inappropriate for teens:

sex and sexuality

violence, including when it intersects with the above

politics and religion

not inherently childish:

animation (any style)

comedy

episodic writing and/or loose continuity

young characters

fun, happiness, optimism, the power of friendship, cuteness, tenderness, sincerity, etc.

what i mean is that these shows are literally about adult characters who fuck, smoke, drink, do drugs, go clubbing, work full-time, manage their own finances, and deal with stuff like bureaucracy, sexual violence, domestic abuse, marriage, divorce, late adoption, and family estrangement.

however, none of these "adult" things are given enough specificity to create drama or comedy. it's all too stock, vague, flat, weirdly sanitized, and thus utterly banal—pure aesthetics on top of bad saturday morning cartoons. it's exactly what i'd expect from a sheltered disney kid who needs to log off and get into their local gay scene ASAP so their only contact with things like poverty, policing, addiction, and sex work stops being facile movies and TV.

if the shows were aware of this and played with it, that could be amazing, but they're not. they give you the mickey mouse version of the world with a straight face and then play looney tunes sound effects to try to make you laugh and sad_violin.mp3 to try to make you cry. now that's funny.

b. old and tired

let's make like americans and pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist. even within the confines of the USA, home of the hays code, the red scare, and reaganite propaganda, this neopuritan fascist state ruled by 1000 megachurches in a trenchcoat, the indie/underground animation scene has been doing crazier shit for decades. anti-war films in the 60's, bakshi movies in the 70's, the simpsons shorts and r-rated movies in the 80's, adult swim and MTV in the 90's, flash/newgrounds/youtube in the 00's, streaming in the 2010's—so what are we doing in the 2020's with this wet white rice drowned in expired ketchup? i feel crazy making this point because it's obvious if you've watched these things, but if you haven't, you're gonna be like "well, there's gotta be something new here". no! there isn't! in the words of jimmy "the scot" jordan, nothing, nothing, NOTHING!

c. ideological purgatory

actually, there is one thing in these shows i've never seen before: the presbysterianism. shout out some interesting or at least intentional presbysterian art in the comments, because the way these ideas are presented here is not compelling. it just makes the rainbow neoliberalism even more confusing and contradictory.

i guess the big presbysterian things are protestanism, calvinism, and, uh, big church government? presbysterians, get your shit together. get your brand down. catholics have BDSM and vampires, evangelicals have TV and corporatism; what do you have? celtic crosses? no wonder medrano has such uninspired ideas on divinity.

d. queer deficiency

when i look at a piece of art, i ask myself: "what does this give me that i can't get from the hunchback of notre dame (1996)?" if the answer is as limp as "uhh, gay people, i guess", i can probably look for my gay shit elsewhere and rewatch the hunchback of notre dame (1996) in the meantime.

but let's say that you have no standards. you've been waiting for ages for a show about gays by the gays for the gays, and by god you're gonna get it. this is it! here we go! time for some

generic twink obliteration

male sexuality as aggression and dominance displays

WLW (sex and chemistry not included)

a couple straight femdoms

and the stalest sex jokes known to man

...yeah, it's not very queer. and by "queer", i mean "questioning or subverting gender norms (including sexual roles) within a given cultural context regardless of creator identity and intent". i'm not a queer studies scholar so LMK if there's a more specific term for this, but whatever you call it, it's not in the hellaverse much.

there's not even any transness, literal or metaphorical, just ancient drag jokes. i guess the writers thought we would've been too controversial. so much for an indie animation studio that prides itself in the diversity of its staff both above and below the line, bakshi-style. i wonder how medrano, a bisexual woman, would've felt if told that a lesbian main couple in hazbin would be "too controversial".

4. spindlehorse and the vivziepop brand

spindlehorse toons underpays its overworked staff and keeps outsourcing more and more labor to even more overworked freelancers overseas to cut costs. a rainbow sweatshop is still a sweatshop, and just because these practices may be "industry standard" doesn't make them any more ethical.

the studio has also been repeatedly accused by current and former employees and contractors of creating a hostile and abusive workplace. AFAIK, it still has no dedicated HR person, and victims are too afraid of retaliation like blacklisting and online harassment to speak out.

this is exactly the stuff that unions exist to prevent. as i'm writing this, the IATSE (the parent union of TAG, which is the parent union of all US animation unions) is negotiating with entertainment industry executives for better working conditions, and if the execs fuck around like last year, it's strike time again. so watch this space, voice your support, and don't cross any picket lines.

i hope spindlehorse unionizes, but until then and for these reasons, i don't think you should give money to the company.

first of all, all content on amazon-owned platforms is ok to pirate, and all youtube ads are ok to block. everyone involved in making the episodes has (or should have) been paid upfront, so you're not taking the bread out of anyone's mouth.

next, let's look at the succulent offerings of the official vivziepop merch shop:

$10 pins and keychains

$15 sticker packs

$20 mugs and acrylic cutouts

$25 shirts

$30 metal cards (not even tarot)

$40 lounge pants

$50 mini backpacks

random $80 skateboard deck

forgive my latin americanness, but this is all stuff you can get made by a local metalsmith, print/sublimation shop, or just crafty people in your life. it's cheaper, customizable, and better for the environment to skip all the shipping and packaging. also, not painting your own skateboard is poser shit.

the hazbin website also has $15 pins, one $20 keychain, and $6 trading card packs. people are weird about trading cards, so if for some reason you wanna gamble for a mass-produced bit of cardboard, plastic, and tinfoil, at least bulk-order for all the vivziepoppers in your area so it's less of a huge waste. better yet, trace the designs and make infinite bootlegs.

at the end of the day, buying merch is not activism. your bulk order of trading cards will not save any wage slaves from getting evicted from their overpriced studio apartments. however, the shop links you to all the credited artists/designers, and more of your bucks will actually reach them if you buy their designs directly, then turn them into body pillows or life-sized bronze statues or whatever the fuck.

go through the credits of any episode of helluva or hazbin, and you'll find even more creatives you might wanna support. get jinkx monsoon's albums on CD. subscribe to actually good artist, animator, and composer gooseworx. lots of voice actors now have patreon, cameo, or self-hosted pages where you can write better lines for their characters and have them read it. these things may not look as shiny as Official Merch™, but we all need less plastic shit and more culture anyway.

[lore-gore]

I think the reason us helluva boss/hazbin hotel fans get so defensive about criticism is because a lot of the "critics" just hate vivzie and the shows themselves. It's come to the point that any criticism for this show feels like an angry mob. In any other fandom I'm fine with criticism, but the fact that "critics" have said that they can't wait for viv's downfall + even wished that she died has made me hostile towards it. Haters have taken over the critique part of the fandom and turned it into a cesspool of disgusting rage. That level of hate towards a creator is unfathomable. Why do they think this is okay?

[doodler16]

I can't be the only one who notices that Vivziepop literally took multiple elements from Lord Hater from Wander Over Yonder and put them into 3 separate characters for Hazbin Hotel, I mean, seriously, does she even have a single creative bone in her body.

The characters that I'm referring to are Adam, Sir. Pentious, and Valentino, sorta on the last one...

The comparisons with Lord Hater to Adam and Sir. Pentious are pretty obvious, I mean, there are reddit posts that have listed off the similarities between these characters. https://www.reddit.com/r/DeathBattleMatchups/comments/1denh05/sir_pentious_vs_lord_hater_hazbin_hotel_vs_wander/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DeathBattleMatchups/comments/1bgg1nz/hate_is_forever_lord_hater_vs_adam_wander_over/

With Valentino however, it's more in terms of dynamics, particularly his relationship with Vox. As honestly, I kinda see that it's similar to Lord Hater and Commander Peepers' relationship, uh, in Season 2 that is, where Peepers is fed up and annoyed with Hater.

However, I do feel that Vox and Valentino's dynamic could work similar to LH and CP's if it was done right, like if it started out more like their Season 1 dynamic where CP was, at first, scared and intimidated by LH, but then over time reaching up to Season 2, CP was getting fed and annoyed by Lord Hater and started standing up for himself.

But then again, this is coming from the person who head canons Tom Kenny, using his Commander Peepers voice, as the role of Vox for my own Hazbin/Helluva rewrite. Which you gotta admit, would got pretty hard, uh, that is if the character wasn't written by Vivziepop. Anyways, that's enough of my rambling.

Reddit post comparisons (Sir Pentious and Lord Hater):

Reddit post comparisons (Adam and Lord Hater):

Vivziepop is a fan of Wander over Yonder, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she got heavily inspired.

[sweetnekoheart]

My Intro Post

Okay... Here's Where I Start

Hello People, My Name Is Helen, I Came From DeviantArt, Pinterest, Wattpad, And X, I'm An Autistic Girl Who Loves Nostalgic And Other Things So It's Not Bad At All, I Only Post Any Stuff Here

💞 Information 💞

Name 📝: Helen

Gender: Female

Birthday 🎂: 13th May

Pronouns ✏️: She/Her

Zodiac: Taurus ♉️

Religion: Christian ✝️

Nationality: American-Guatemalan

🌎 Where I Live 🌎: United States 🇺🇸

Language Spoken: English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese Mandarin, Filipino Tagalog And Others

🌈🎨📖 Interests And Hobbies 📖🎨🌈

🎀💕 Stuff I Do 💕🎀

Drawing, Making Picmix And Blingee Edits, Making Templates, Making Moodboards, Sleeping, Other Things I Do For Fun, Characters Sleeping, Retro Stuff, Some Things Of My Childhood, 2000's And 2010's Media, Gyaru Stuff, Vintage Stuff, Gothic Stuff, Scene/Emo Things, Aesthetic Stuff

✅💕🥰 Favorite Things 🥰💕✅

📺 Favorite TV Show 📺: South Park, Sailor Moon, Precure, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, My Little Pony, Butch Hartman Shows, Which Are Fairly Odd Parents (Original And A New Wish), TUFF Puppy, Danny Phantom And Bunsen Is A Beast, Hailey's On It, The Ghost & Molly McGee, The Loud House, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil Grojband And Others

🎞️🍿 Favorite Movies 🍿🎞️: UglyDolls, My Little Pony: The Movie (2017 Film) The Mitchells Vs The Machines, South Park: Bigger Longer And Uncut, Wreck It Ralph, Classic Disney Movies And Others

🖥️ Favorite Web Series 🖥️: Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, TADC, BFDI Inanimate Insanity And Eddsworld

🧍🏻Favorite Character🧍🏻: Damien Thorn, Dudley Puppy, Peri Or Poof Fairywinkle Cosma, Cure Summer (Manatsu Natsumi), Kick Buttowski, Usagi Tsukino, Ami Onuki, Firey, Rayman

🎮 Favorite Game 🎮: Rayman, Gacha Club, Flash Games I Played Since Childhood, Dress Up Games, Pony Town, Cookie Run, Roblox, FNAF, Sakura School Simulator

👩🏻‍🎤 Favorite Musical Artist And Bands 👩🏻‍🎤: Taylor Swift, Shakira Michael Jackson, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Aiza "Ice" Seguerra, Tino Rossi, Foxy Shazam, Nirvana, The Crane Wives, Melanie Martinez, Weird Al Yankovic, Any Lullaby Musical Artists,

🔊 Favorite Sounds 🔊: Anime Wow Sound Effect (Neither Other Sounds I Like I Can Say)

🍽️ Favorite Food 🍽️: Pizza, Cookies, Ice Cream, Sushi, Korean Food

🚫💔😡 Least Favorite Things 😡💔🚫

💔 Least Favorite Interrests 💔

Being Bullied, NSFW, Death Threats, Drama, Trolling, Cyberbullying, Haters Of My Fandoms, P3d0philes, Gr00mers, Pr0$h1ppers R4c1$m, 1nc3$st, Child Abuse, Bl00d, G0re, Stuff That Ruined My Childhood And Others

📺 Least Favorite TV Show 📺: Block 13, King Star King, The Problem Solverz, Teen Titans Go, Secret Mount Fort Awesome, Peppa Pig, Super Why, Barney & Friends, The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Oddler, The Powerpuff Girls (2016 Reboot), Boku No Pico, Inapropp1at3 H3nta1 Anime Series, Miracle Star, Caillou, Mr Pickles, Velma (2023 Series) And Others

🎞️🍿 Least Favorite Movies 🍿🎞️: Sausage Party, Strays (2023 Film), Horror Films (But The Omen Is The Only One I Like) Cats (2019 Film), Caillou's Holiday Movie, Foodfight (2012 Film) The Banana Splits Movie (Horror Film), Norm Of The North, Cuties (2020 Netflix Film)

🖥️ Least Favorite Web Series 🖥️: Happy Tree Friends

🧍🏻Least Favorite Character 🧍🏻: Vicky The Babysitter, Scott Tenorman, PC Babies, Flower (BFDI), Barney The Dinosaur, Verosika Mayday, Trina Riffin, Amanda Killman, Angelica Pickles, Brad Buttowski

🎮 Least Favorite Game 🎮: Baby Basher, Bubsy Bobcat, Superman 64, Crazy Frog Racer 1 And 2, Hong Kong 97, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Fortnite And Others

👩🏻‍🎤 Least Favorite Musical Artists And Bands👩🏻‍🎤: Lottie Dottie Chicken, Pinkfong, Lil Pump, Justin Bieber, Silentó

🔊 Least Favorite Sound 🔊: Baby Kate Crying Sound Effect (I Had It Since 2020 And For 5 Years) Cat Yowling Sound Effect, Kids Cheering Sound Effect (I Lost Interrest On It 3 Days Ago) Eric Cartman Crying Sound Effect And Foop Crying Sound Effect

🍽️ Least Favorite Food 🍽️: Broccoli, Green Beans, Chili

That Is All, So Feel Free To Make Fanart And Nice Stuff For Me But No Problematic Stuff! 🤗

[the-last-clydlex-shipper]

Hello, and welcome to my blog! Here's a bit of info about this blog!

~~~

Nicknames (you can use any of these)

Plushie - Rose - Varian - Ellie - Angie - Fizz - Dai - Cly - Salli - Ashy - Gabri - Puff - Directz

~~~

Genderfluid - Any pronouns - ADHD - Social anxiety - Queer - Asexual - Hypersexuality - Minor - Hellenist - Furry

~~~

Fandoms

Sonic - Tangled - The Music Freaks - Hazbin Hotel - Helluva Boss - Mouthwashing - Dreams of an Insomniac - Creepypasta - The Walten Files - The Mandela Catalogue - Dream SMP - Serverblight

~~~

Likes:

Reading - Writing - Practicing art - Sleeping

~~~

Dislikes:

Basil from OMORI - Basil from OMORI - Basil from OMORI - Basil from OMORI - Sonamy - Basil from OMORI

~~~

Ships (all fandoms):

Shadilver - Shadamy - Sonadow - Knuxouge - Sonknux - Kittails - Surgamy - Blazamy - Blazurge - Scurgiona - Uknighted Dream - Varigo - Amburu - Drakean - Daide - Drelliot - Milliot - Lander - Staria - Henriam - Zoelia - HuskerDust - Radioapple - Chaggvette - StaticMoth - GoldenAngelMaid - Stolitz - M&M - Stellbie - Fizzmodeous - BeeTex - HoneyMoon - MoneyFish - Jimcurl (pre-crash) - Clydlex - CarrotCake

~~~

DNI:

Pedophiles - Zoophiles - Queerphobes - Antishippers - Haters - Generally Shitty People - Explicit IRL NSFW/porn accounts - Shotacons - Lolicons - Kodacons - Radqueer - MAGA - Nercophiles

If you are any of those, I'm going to Jeff the Kill you /j

~~~

AUs:

Russian Roulette (Sonic) - Phobophobia (Sonic) - Destiny's Trail (Sonic) - Archangelic (Sonic) - Mouthwashing x Sonic

~~~

CW:

Phobias - SH - SA - Abuse - Suicide - A bunch of gay furries/people - Suggestive content - Written mild NSFW

~~~

Socials

YouTube:

BlueSky:

RedNote:

Pinterest:

Chai: Search (FaePlush)

C.AI: https://share.character.ai/70U7/28nkj832

Unvale:

Reddit:

~~~

(All art and animations by @lgbtqtext)

[ordinaryschmuck]

You know, I'll never say Hazbin Hotel or Helluva Boss are without flaws, but I still find it so annoying to see videos and posts saying how they're actually terrible and "commits all the sins of modern writing" or something stupid like that. Like if you don't enjoy it fine, but....it's just so dumb to see people act like these shows are some new low or something and not just popular shows with some issues.

That really does feel like the case, unfortunately. Hazbin/Helluva aren't perfect--FAR from it. But, I mean, we've seen lower, haven't we?

It's even more annoying with people who made their entire personality HATING both shows. I get not liking the show, and if you have issues you have every right to say them...ONCE. You can say them ONCE and then leave things alone from there. If you keep returning to either show so you could talk about how awful they are...what does that do for you? The best attention you can give something you DON'T like is NO attention at all.

"Well, I'm stopping people from wasting their time with a bad show!"

No, you're stopping people from watching something you don't personally enjoy. That's it, full stop.

And don't get me started on the people who's idea of praising other independent projects...is by saying that they're better than Hazbin/Helluva.

"Watch The Gaslight District! It's one pilot handles Hazbin/Helluva's themes better than the entire shows!"

"Watch The Amazing Digital Circus! It has WAY better compelling characters than Hazbin/Helluva!"

"Watch Lackadaisy...Hazbin/Helluva SUCKS!"

Keep in mind, I love ALL those shows, and a part of me even agrees with SOME statements people make. Heck, I actually think The Gaslight District has potential to be more of what people wanted from Helluva Boss specifically if that particular show is no longer your thing...POTENTIAL. Note that I'm saying POTENTIAL. The Gaslight District's pilot is GREAT, but it's still just a pilot and the official show itself can always "take a turn for the worst" like Helluva Boss supposedly did.

And don't get me started on the twats who think that the creators of these shows are only doing it to STICK IT to Viv. I actually saw someone say that creators of TDAC or The Gaslight District are making their shows so they could stop Viv from being the "pioneer" of independent animation and showing that Hazbin/Helluva aren't what people should strive for. Except...NO. That's not the case. That's NEVER the case. These are just people who wanted to make something AMAZING and got lucky that their content gained a following almost immediately. And even then, I'd never say Viv, Gooseworx, or Nick Szopko are the pioneers of independent animation. That's Eddsworld erasure and we all know it.

(I'm only PARTIALLY joking about that)

Hazbin/Helluva haters remind me a LOT about MCU haters: They're equally--if not MORE--annoying than the cult-like fans and followers who refuse to see a problem with ANYTHING in this franchise. Blindly choosing ignorance with the problems isn't good or healthy either, and their over-enthusiasm is just as likely to push someone away, but I can at least see how people are trying to have FUN with this thing. Literally, what's fun about hating something that you don't like?

[petitprincess1]

Can I just say that the "hazbin/helluva curses too much!!" croud isnt just annoying and ridiculous (like ok we get it, you're kids afraid of bad words and shouldnt even be watching these shows in the first place), but it's also... so classist sometimes?

Like. Take Helluva for an example. Low class imps say a LOT of curse. It's like, in their normal vocabulary. The anti-Viv croud love to play performative activism but will act like a horrified victorian lady when they find out that yes, *low-class people in real life tend to curse A LOT more.* I'm Brazilian, I'm very much low-class (I live in what Americans will call "gheto", not exactly a favela but close), and we curse. Like. A lot. Not even in a offensive way, we just say it. I wonder if white middle class performative activists like most Viv haters ever come to Brazil once and witness our language, they would be screaming like "the horror!" and making a callout post on their Twitter about how much we are ✨toxic✨

"brazil was written by vivziepop" am I allowed to make this joke... respectfully because I dont mean it in a negative way lol....

There are plenty of Americans (no matter the class level) who curse a ton, especially online. So, I really don't get the complaint other than ppl wanting to yap about nothing. It's more of a nuisance, if anything.

Also, you're perfectly fine to use that joke x3c It's not like it's a slur or whatever. Which reminds me of a lot of Hazbin critics who will censor Hazbin Hotel as if it were a slur....and then demand respect. They're so weird.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Before i begin if this is too discourse-y i deeply apologize and understand if you need to delete this! I don't think it should be but I'm very bad about understanding what is or isn't. /gen

Why, is it so hard for headmates who have "problematic" sources to exist in other plural spaces, whether or not the introject/headmate ids with source or not?

Hazbin hotel/helluva, Harry Potter, etc. I can understand why one may not want to make content for it, but i feel like if i make content myself for us then i feel like I'll have people try to cancel me or bully me. When i already know its problematic and no way do i support the creators.

It just feels like now days people aren't allowed to like/enjoy things that are problematic while KNOWING its problematic because you either get lumped in with Haters Who Watch it and aren't actually critical just, hater bullies, or, people who love it sm they dont see flaws.

i guess tldr version is i hate that at least for ours/us , problematic introjects ( fictional or factives ) are supposed to just.. go into hiding or not use their names.

this did get a bit long and also a bit discoursey. but we really feel you here anon. our response is below the cut.

hey, we’re sorry, we know exactly what you’re talking about, but we do not have a good answer for you. it really is so unfortunate that introjects with problematic sources are so often scorned, cast aside, ignored, or unable to live their lives in ways which are affirming to them.

engaging with ““bad”” or problematic media doesn’t make you a bad person. thought crimes aren’t real. people are capable of consuming media without being like the people within the work and making the same choices. you’re allowed to like hazbin hotel or harry potter or whatever. literally it’s fine. some amount of critical thinking may be necessary (for example, enjoying hp while understanding the author’s bigotry and how that may have influenced the work), but again, consuming problematic media is fine. besides, engaging with media with problematic themes may be cathartic for a lot of people and can even help folks come to terms with their own pasts and trauma histories.

we’re huge proponents of do no harm, take no shit, ie consuming problematic media doesn’t harm anyone. but engaging in harmful or problematic behavior does, so check yourself, and be open to being called out if consuming certain things has influenced you to start acting in harmful ways. as an example of this, our system really loves breaking bad. a character on that show says “bitch” a lot, and that got incorporated into our own lexicon. it was on us though to learn how to curb our language and when it was and wasn’t appropriate to use that word. that doesn’t mean we can no longer enjoy breaking bad. it just means that we have to be cognizant about how the media we love has been influencing us.

but when introjects are involved, people seriously need to understand that these system members are not literally their sources, even if they are extremely source connected. introjects (and we do mean all introjects, not just fictives!) with problematic sources are real. they exist in the real world, and they deserve to be treated as people and respected as equals, not as discourse points or something that exists in theory but not in real life. a hazbin hotel introject making fanart or writing fanfic of their source does not benefit the creator of the original work in any way, and should not be a reflection on that introject or their system’s character. and quite frankly it is no one else’s business how an introject chooses to engage with their source.

we do think that introjects whose source is a real person who committed atrocities or caused grave harm should absolutely keep their source’s victims in mind when they discuss their source in order to be respectful towards other real people who have been harmed. but we believe that just takes cognizance and self awareness with a willingness to center compassion and respect for others and primarily victims of your source in the ways you engage with it publicly.

idk we could go on about this for much longer but in the end:

1. it’s okay to enjoy problematic or flawed media. it’s okay to make fan works for said media. you’re not supporting the original artists or creators by enjoying their flawed work and making fan works of your own.

2. introjects need to be treated as people with rights and agency first and foremost, even if they are incredibly source attached. that means they should have the agency to use their own names or appearances and identifying how they wish. it’s their lives, after all.

3. people in general and especially in the plural community should strive to be more understanding towards introjects, many of which did not get to choose their source, many of which may have complicated relationships with their source, and none of which need to be lectured or preached at about how their source is harmful. like. chances are, they already know.

idk. sorry if this is messy or all over the place, feel free to reach out if you need any clarification or have further questions. introjects with problematic sources will always be welcome on our blog, no questions asked. and we hope to help cultivate a plural community which is kinder and more understanding towards introjects of all stripes.