scribblingmuchlyrexan

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

@oregoncoastfox

comments are turned off on the post now, so reblogging instead lol. what series or story are you referring to? this sounds great

I feel like there's a parallel phenomenon to Western fantasy novels not knowing how long a thousand years is whereby JRPGs don't know how big a continent is.

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

rare fish. please no questions

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comment image descriptions under cut

[ image IDs from second post: three of tumblr comments. the first comment is from user starberrisoda and asks, I found that episode funny but also creepy when they were chained up at the table… but why id Darwin so adorable even as a Fascist….??? Like look at him, swinging his feet with those boots, dony pay attention to that crop tho.. user keysmash-is-asleep responds, a pretty big part of fascism is to present its leaders as appealing! it makes no sense to build an entire ideology around one singular guy and then have him be repulsive to everyone in your movement, so a cute fascist mascot isn't out of the question user overfedvenison responds to keysmash-is-asleep with: I mean, potentially true. ...But within the narrative of the episode, I think Darwin is extra-cute here because the contrast of this is just sort of innately funny. Sometimes stuff happens in shows which is more for humor than commentary, and it may be a misread to assume this is going for a point that deep when within context that's not really the way an audience is engaging with this scene But, if you need a deeper anti-fascist reason for it, it's because a punchline hitting this hard makes the entire point incredibly memorable, and that is important for good satire Therefore, I think that's why /end ID ]

do any of you remember that gumball episode where darwin becomes mega paranoid after watching a health and safety video so to quell his anxiety he goes out of his way to make everything kid friendly and inoffensive by propositioning it as being for the children and then he becomes a fascist at the end

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re-committing to memory that tumblr stops saving tags on a post after you've made 30 tags ;qksf;jskjq;jksk;j

(if you reblog tag comments past those 30, the rest will just get deleted. and i think i read something about how tumblr only spreads posts based on the first 20 or so tags. e.g. if you're actually using tags for character and series names to let people see it, tumblr still won't use some of the tags past a certain point)

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

I'm so thankful to see a fellow Hellaverse fan that criticizes the show normally, I swear it's either "if you say one bad thing, no matter how minor" pro or "everything that vivziepop does is awful" anti, I get not liking her shows it's a very much hit or miss but goddamn.

Anyways, I'm interested to see what little brainworms Spindle horse puts in my head for next seasons ❤️

oh haha hi!! this was a pleasant little message to see in my ask box!! :D

yeah her shows are wildly polarizing, especially online, for some reason. (i mean, there are a handful of reasons i can think of, but still none call for the level of dedicated anti-Vivziepop energy there is.) there's some balanced criticism out there, but it's rare enough that i've stopped looking jqksjfq;k;jqks;kjj;kq

i think Vivzie's/Spindlehorse's writing needs a lot more guidance (in my opinion, the highest quality writing of hers is the short Timber, and she had a professor mentor for that since it was her thesis short), but it's still often HIGHLY enjoyable to watch nonetheless XD

hoping to have some enjoyable rewatches of future Hazbin and Helluva seasons too! 💜💜 REALLY hoping i enjoy at least some of Hazbin season 2 enough to once again some of the episodes in every dub X'DD the brainrot goes deep and i welcome it jqkjk;sfkj;sj;k;j

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@anotherthrowawyaccount heyo! i just rambled you a "why i like Vivzie's content" reblog, but i also just remembered something that might be more in tune with what you're looking for, with actual analysis of the show: a professional opera singer and song writer is making a series of videos analyzing Hazbin Hotel's songs, and he's having a great time

he doesn't spend a lot of time on the plotting and character development aspects of Hazbin, but he's impressed with the singers and song writing and is simply enjoying the ride

his latest analysis (of episode 6 and the songs "Welcome to Heaven" and "You Didn't Know") might be the most information dense of his Hazbin videos so far. his video about the episode 1 song "Hell Is Forever" had a lot of awesome singing info i wasn't aware of before

so, starting at the third video in the playlist (because he originally was only watching the songs, not the show as a whole), you can see someone who's watching the show and bringing an analytical mindset to it. maybe this'll help! /gen

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

i'm shaking hands with you, prev.

op (anotherthrowawyaccount), you can probably look at my helluva boss and hazbin hotel tags on this blog and see that i have a lot of criticism for Vivzie's shows. i honestly have far more criticism than praise for them lol

at the same time, i really enjoy them. like, i call myself a major fan and have watched all of Hazbin in literally every language's dub (with exception of episode 3 lol. that's an especially poorly written episode).

but probably the most important thing i could say to you in this discussion would be: i differentiate between "good content" (good writing) and "enjoyable content" (i find them pleasant, fun, or in some manner enjoyable, no matter the quality of how the content is put together). Vivzie's shows are in the latter category for me -- they're enjoyable but not good

(five more paragraphs of word count under the cut lol)

i call Hazbin Hotel the "silly and pretty show." a majority of the jokes don't land, and i could list criticisms all day... BUT i enjoy the art style and voice acting (the voice actors do a great job, even when the scripts aren't great), and it's a show that's fun for me to rewatch. the end. that's why i like it.

i go by the mantra "you don't need to defend what you like." so it's odd to me that you're essentially saying "people are wrong because other people write more than them." live and let live. there are people who enjoy it just because they enjoy it, and they wouldn't be able to write you an essay about it. that's probably a majority of fans for most content. most people don't write essays on what they read or watch once they're done with school lol

taking myself out of the "why do people enjoy Vivziepop's content" equation and making an extra simple answer: people have different preferences and taste. that variety is what makes the world go 'round.

it seems to me there's a chance you're giving more credence to people who criticize because criticism for some reason seems more "intelligent" and also often lets the critics feel as if they're in a superior class to those who aren't writing full essays about their topics of interest. so, whether that's going on for you here or not, watch out for that mindset in topics that are more important than this one. any mindset that leads to separation by superiority -- putting more inherent value on a select group of people and devaluing those outside the group -- can be dangerous (or, at the very least, harmful and isolating in the long run)

(my odds of responding back are fairly low, just because i have limited energy and am simply usually impulsive about my longer posts. i should've been brushing my teeth 20 minutes ago but wrote this instead because i thought it'd take three minutes lol. so, odds aren't zero i'll engage further, but they're low)

so like what's your idea of a good response?

Hoping to someone to properly debunk with source criticism normal people have. people have given very obtuse, non answer about how they like the art style or character but not really explaining why other that 'i like it' while critics have gone on multiple well written pages explaining why it's terrible.

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

#i love this movie guys. JINU SHOULD'VE HAD TO LIVE WITH HIMSELF THOUGH #self sacrifice is trite in media atp and it is NOT a profound enough contrast to his character theme of selfishness to warrant it. imo. #but anywayy

SOMEONE CALLING SELF-SACRIFICE IN MEDIA TRITE THANK U /GEN

i really wanted to rewatch the movie to extra admire the animation and appreciate the writing, but i needed about a week of cooldown because of my disappointment from Jinu's sacrifice moment 😭 (the following is just yapping for my own catharsis lol. feel free to ignore) self-sacrifice of an antagonist character is one of my least favorite tropes, especially when it would be so much more interesting or cathartic for them to need to live with and come to terms with their mistakes

his self-sacrifice also wasn't set up too well because, on a first watch, his theme seems more about regret rather than selfishness -- his main goal is to forget and that's what gets repeated the most. but Gwi-Ma's first line to him (~"In four hundred years, you've never done anything that doesn't serve yourself") matches a lot better with Jinu's final self-sacrifice scene

if for some reason his sacrifice needed to be kept (BUT IT PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF HE NEEDED TO LEARN TO LIVE WITH HIMSELF. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN AN AMAZING CONTRAST TO WANTING TO FORGET HIS PAST), his death would possibly have been more meaningful if the dialogue around it were changed. from ~(Jinu:) "I'm sorry, for everything." (Rumi:) "I wanted to set you free!" "You did. You gave me my soul back. And now, I give it to you"

to: "Jinu! No! Please don't!" "I'm finally doing something for someone else, and you're telling me not to? Heh... Well, here's one last thing..." and then his soul goes glowy and he breaks apart and the final scene goes the same, with exception of Rumi saying at one point that Jinu gave his soul to save her and everyone. (having written all that, tho, interpretation could be open to if he still survived in some form and might come back in a potential sequel lol)

or just something to verbally acknowledge "doing something for someone else" because, again, until i rewatched the movie, he seemed to have more of an "avoid the pain and regret" arc, not a "needs to be selfless" arc (altho, arguably, that's just me being forgetful lol)

(plus, with a change like that, i might have responded to the scene with "okay i GUESS" and been willing to rewatch the movie sooner lol rather than responding to the moment with "😒 😕")

i'm obsessed with the way the demon patterns in kdh don't just represent one thing. for jinu, they're his shame, his inability to forgive himself, his unproductive self-flagellation that keeps him trapped in the past and in service to gwi-ma. for rumi, they're an intrinsic part of herself that she didn't choose, everything about herself that she was taught to hate and strive to rid herself of, and they worsen the more afraid she becomes of her loved ones rejecting her—a perfect allegory for queerness, btw. rumi didn't have to forgive herself because her patterns aren't something to be forgiven, she needed unconditional acceptance and visibility. jinu didn't need to erase his patterns and his past, he needed to forgive himself and choose to change rather than continue to hide behind his guilt forever. rumi needed to heal her relationship with herself before she healed the honmoon; jinu needed to forge better connections with others before he realized it was possible to forge a better version of himself. their journeys weren't the same and the meaning of their patterns weren't the same but they inspired each other anyway

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

(idk if it's possible to do for individual posts, but this seems like an ideal one to turn on comments for! comments are currently off)

my tentative suggestion:

tweaking -> freaked locked in -> focused

freaked-or-focused

:)

hello my beautiful followers !

i have recently realised that the foundation of this blog is kind of built on ... butchering AAVE which is not great.

i'm gonna let the queue run out for now (theres only a few posts left) but i would like to keep running this blog, so any suggestions on alternatives we could use instead of 'locked in' and 'tweaking' are appreciated!

ideally the two options should kinda complement each other. so far all i've got is 'working hard' or 'hardly working' but i feel like there's gotta be more options surely

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

(i'm responding to a comment from over on this post!)

my tags: #i criticize and (usually at least half-jokingly) complain about Vivzie's writing a lot #(because while there's a lot to be desired i also unironically enjoy her shows) #but one thing her shows consistently do well is visual communication with concepts like this.#idk how much of a hand Vivzie has in these details or if that's mainly from the artists' ideas #but either way it's cool that she allows or encourages this kind of detail work. #wonderful wonderful analysis

response from @timkontheunsure: @rebloggingrexan realistically Viv is the only one who can be asking for this asking for theses details 🙂. She an animator too as well as the head writer. And most of these backgrounds details add to the plot, fleshing out points that can be rushed in dialogue, because of time pressures. If it was just coming from the animation team alone you'd expected it to only being one time gags. But these are coordinated with the rest of the story telling elements. So yer, it the person with the several character bibles, who plotted out everyone motivations.🙂

(the following potentially sounds more abrasive than i intend it to. i'm mainly trying to sound neutral and state how i view Vivzie's shows, which is "i enjoy them but find the writing quality often -- but not always -- lacking." if it sounds like i'm disagreeing in a rude way, sorry 😬)

writing can be incredibly collaborative, and in-story topics and designs can come up when discussed by artists or the other writers. Spindlehorse usually has two or more writers per episode in both Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. but it's the interactions between people who are "mostly artist" with "mostly writer" that i suspect lead to a lot of the background art details that i especially appreciate.

(and i'm going to be upfront and say i don't think there's anything anyone could say rn that would get me calling Vivzie a "consistently good writer." maybe if future Hazbin or Helluva seasons improve in my eyes, i could. but atm, nah. for me, writing quality is fantastic in some episodes and abysmal in others, and the flipflop is so unpredictable that it seems to me a lot of Spindlehorse's "good" writing is by luck)

however, your comment did indirectly remind me of just how much worldbuilding detail there is put into Vivzie's Hell (the link ends with a tongue in cheek criticism of Vivzie's writing as a whole -- i'm linking only for the worldbuilding details, not that last gif), so you could be right. these details could all or mostly be directly from Vivzie. i'm just inclined to think many of them are from writer and artist discussions/collaborations

tl;dr - you're right, i'm not aware of how the background details are discussed and designed at Spindlehorse. Vivzie might deserve more credit on those than i give her. at the same time, i don't think there's anything anyone could currently say or show to me that would convince me to think of Vivzie as a good writer. (at best, i think i might go "okay she's a better writer than i'd thought" lol)

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AGH THE ADHD IS KICKING MY BUTT (BUT MOSTLY MY BRAIN) TODAY

Future Me often likes to see how Past Me (currently Present Me lol) has handled that because it tends to change by the month or year, so today my semi-unusual and new solution was:

have a live Focumon training room scrolling on my left computer window (joined Focumon at the end of May!! :) enjoying and appreciating it so far. "Focumon" = Focus-mon lol)

have a playlist rocketing forward at 1.75x speed

this combo of Focumon scroll+fast music worked because i was just doing a simple no-brain-needed task of saving links and text from a friend's tumblr messages, so any task-switching would have taken juuuuust enough brainpower to disorient me and get me asking myself, "wait, what am i / was i doing?"

the visual movement combined with the faster music gave JUST ENOUGH overwhelm to work. the music on its own wouldn't have been enough rn, although sometimes it is. (if i were doing a more complex task, i may have only done the Focumon scroll or put on some ambiance video at higher speed, like "duck pond ambiance" at 1.75x so the birds are unusual and overhyped lol)

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

Ship #1-Lucifer And Lilith

I have decided to start our adventure into Lucifer's ships with a completely basic pick--Lucifer And Lilith. It has the privilege of being canon, yes, but is it the best?

Luckily I have a few categories to score it by!

(Overanalysis below cut)

Random Technicalities:

Before we see them together, I need to analyze whether they could be together. Overall it's looking good across the board here--the age comparison is probably one of the best when considering most of Lucifer's ships, they're not related, and their power seems fairly equal even when disregarding mental states--though I will admit we don't know much about Lilith's power.

Pros:

I think it's clear that canonically, Lucifer adores Lilith. If you look purely off of his official playlist(full of sad breakup songs) and the fact that he's wearing his ring the entire series, you can chalk it up that he would be a very loyal partner to her if they chose to get back together. Besides that, he looks back on their time as a family fondly considering the pictures in his room.

Unfortunately, we haven't gotten much of Lilith's side of the story besides the exposition in the beginning of Episode one: she found a kindred with Lucifer in heaven. If we want to theorize(and we will be, this is what this entire post is about), it seems like pre-hell they had a bit of a Romeo and Juliet love story. Both are unhappy in the roles they've been told to play--Lucifer as an angel and Lilith as the first woman--and therefore choose to fight the system together.

I get how this could be very appealing to some people--A kind of Mortica and Gomez Adams power couple kind of relationship. And yes, if that's the case it would be very sweet!

...

Er...If you like this ship you should probably stop reading now...

Cons:

I, JumperMoon, one who's opinions are law and cannot be disputed, do not enjoy the Lucifer x Lilith ship. There are a lot of reasons for this, so buckle up nerds.

Firstly, I've read several people believe that Lilith was abusive either physically or mentally. I don't really believe that's the case. There isn't really enough evidence to support that. But I also don't think the way they dealt with their trauma lined up. 'But what does that mean?' EXCELLENT QUESTION.

Lilith and Lucifer have been together for eons.

They have been together in heaven. They have been together in hell. They were together when raising Charlie(probably not I'll get to that). They were together when they built their kingdom and together when they ruled it.

Throughout this incredibly long period of time, both were forced to change. And they changed in very different directions.

Lilith became a powerful ruler, a force to be reckoned with, and even used her power of song as a tool of persuasion. In fact, she mimics Lucifer's actions in Eden through that form of deception. She becomes a leader.

Lucifer became doubtful of himself and his ideas, secluding himself and becoming fiercely protective of his family in unison. He allows Lilith to rule hell on her own, leaving her to deal with his own guilt.

This kind of drastic change makes--say it with me kids--strain.

This is a stressful situation to be in. The situation in which they fell in love is entirely eradicated--the excitement of a forbidden romance, the loyalty that caused them to fall together, the dreams and wonder.

They're left on opposite sides of a scale. Lilith thrived in hell and Lucifer suffered in it. While I'd like to say that Lilith lent her strength to her husband, the fact that he's in a depressive shut-in state in the beginning of the series lends to the idea that he was left to cope alone.

SPEAKING OF ALONE, we're talking about Charlie now so get ready.

I think that Lilith specifically chose to keep her daughter's interactions with Lucifer to a minimum when she was young.

This is mostly because of the flashback in More Than Anything, of course--

--But you have to look at this scene from a writing standpoint. The flashback didn't have to end like this, but it was specifically cut short by Lilith. That says something for a show with limited run time and limited scenes with Liliht. Besides that, Lucifer wants to be a father, he wants to interact with Charlie. And so does she. I choose to believe it means something that Lilith doesn't notice with Lucifer at all in this scene--her eyes aren't visible, she doesn't turn around to look at him, and her expression is blank.

Besides that, you must see this situation from Lilith's standpoint. Lucifer is a very real threat to her. He went from a bright young man to a nervous shell, and her fear of what he might do to her daughter--namely Charlie becoming a younger version of him, is what makes her minimize their interactions. It makes sense. But that doesn't make this situation ideal.

Besides that, you know if you've read Lucifer's Library that my opinion on Lilith is that she should become an antagonist. A very complicated and strange antagonist in my case, but still someone with overall negative effects. The way that Charlie calls her over and over again, the ease that she holds herself in heaven, and the way Lute threatens to 'not let her stay' all lend to a selfish motivation on her part.

I don't think Lucifer is thriving by being in a relationship with her and her leaving doesn't signify that he gives her what she needs either.

Canon-ness:

No, that's not a word. But you know what I mean. And overall, I'll admit that this one has a very high possibility of becoming canon again. That is if they even split in the first place.

Would I be happy about this? Possibly! There is a chance that Lucilith could be saved for me. But it would take definite character development on both sides of the coin. Character development that I'm not sure Vivzie is willing to spend the necessary time on. I wish she would, but there are so many plot threads set up in season one and apparently...(comedic groaning) A Vox one planned as well.

So...Can You Get To The Point Already?

This is probably my least favorite ship involving Lucifer. I like both characters, but I like them much more separate. So my overall rating is probably...a 4/10.

Can I Argue With You In The Comments?

GASP. You want to talk to me? Please do. I'll honestly edit this post if one of you convinces me they are the best. And, of course, let me know of any other Lucifer ships your're interested in me analyzing.

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

tumblr ad moment

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

HEEHEE HOOHOO HEROIC AU RAMBLES. (i call mine the Valorous AU because its sound is closer to Villainous and that's fun for an AU name :D i allow anyone to use that name if they wish. i just also get this comic going through my head each time i use the name -- "yet ANOTHER name to mean 'Villainous reverse AU' " -- but i won't stop XD ):

ANYWAY

...THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A "BARE BONES BRIEF RAMBLE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS" BUT I'M INCAPABLE OF THAT. (THIS IS STILL A VERY PARTIAL SUMMARY OF THESE CHARACTERS XD) EAT UP, HEROIC AU ENJOYERS

(i might edit this in the next week or smth to include some little doodles of the characters and personality charts :p)

🔹 🐜 🌵 💣 🦡 🔹 🐜 🌵 💣 🦡 🔹 🐜 🌵 💣 🦡 🔹

🐜 WHITE HAT 🐜

cinnamon roll-est of cinnamon rolls. i tried really hard early on to figure out in what situations he might get some really cool "angry sharp toothed grin" moments because i LOVE that and. that's just not him. XD he is cinnamon roll

he WILL, however, lose his default small smile and sometimes even lose form or vaguely dissipate around the edges if he gets incredibly angry, sometimes in especially severe instances, even channeling some of his energy to carefully chosen (and maybe even purposefully created) lifeless universes just to release some of that otherwise destructive anger

he's almost like a scholar of human behavior in how he interacts with people. there's a lot of information for him to sift through, so he's often behind on things, but overall he has a calm demeanor that people appreciate and a lot of wisdom from living through hundreds, thousands, or more universes' lifespans

one concept that's important to me about my version of White Hat essentially equates to "avoiding activist burnout." it's a common thing in activism -- sometimes before someone even actually gets started -- to burn out and stop because you're trying to participate in too many causes or you see too little effect from what you're doing.

so, while this White Hat theoretically could access all of the multiverse, he mainly focuses on a relatively small cluster of universes. he definitely doesn't reach as many universes as Black Hat, but i like to think it's even possible that Black Hat doesn't know about "White Hat's universes" because White Hat's keeping them essentially hidden and protected from cosmic influences such as Black Hat's

this doesn't mean everything is perfect in White Hat's universes, since he tries, to a certain extent, to let them develop on their own, but ye :)

explanation for him getting the ant emoji near the end of the post, in the "some extra trivia" section XD

🌵 ALEGRÍA 🌵

I LOVE DEMENCIA. A SHOW CAN'T GIVE ME A HYPERACTIVE PUNK-SPIKE LIZARD-BASED CHARACTER (WHO'S OBSESSED WITH MY OWN FAVORITE CHARACTER OF THE SHOW LOL) AND EXPECT ME TO CHANGE THEM A LOT. THAT'D BE CRUEL AND UNUSUAL TORTURE

so Alegría ("joy" in Spanish -- she can go by the nickname Alé) loves making everything possible into a game and is a small local celebrity of an athlete and hero. her main job is teaching self-defense, altho she also does hero work when it makes sense. she sometimes volunteers at schools to get kids interested in physical education and health

she has a cactus-and-lizard motif going on mainly because i was trying to figure out how to give her a more cohesive color scheme, not for any symbolism of emotional prickliness XD she likes giving random gifts to people and leaves small items around town for people to pick up

i was delighted when i first watched the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) because, since at least 2019 or 2020, i've had the idea of Alegría having desktop cacti that she puts googly eyes on. she likes cacti, and she likes to humanize them in a silly way. some of the larger cacti she owns, that wouldn't affect their growth too much by the extra weight, she even puts spiked punk bracelets and chokers on

she's distractible and forgetful, so she both carries a waterproof notebook with her as well as, among her arm-covering tattoos, has a tattoo that's essentially a drawing of a notebook page so she can write reminders there when needed

💣 DR. GULF 💣

GULF IS FLUG SPELLED BACKWARD AND A GULF IS "A LARGE AREA OF A SEA OR OCEAN PARTIALLY ENCLOSED BY LAND, ESPECIALLY A LONG LANDLOCKED PORTION OF SEA OPENING THROUGH A STRAIT," SO A SEA OR OCEAN TERM IS PERFECT FOR THIS SUBMARINE-OBSESSED MAN, ESPECIALLY SINCE FLUG'S NAME IN THE FIRST PLACE JUST MEANS "FLIGHT" (OR "PLANE CRASH" AS THE FULL "FLUGSLYS")

his starting concept was "has no respect for White Hat" because the first art i ever saw of a reverse Flug interacting with a White Hat was the AU Flug sitting in White Hat's lap but holding a gun to the latter's head. i was trying to come up with characters that more or less matched what other people had already come up with, to make playing off each other easier, but i couldn't find a whole lot of collected Heroic AU content at the time, so "no respect for his boss" seemed like a fair starting point XD (and i was still fine with whatever variations happened to arise)

Gulf originally ended up at White Hat's island because he wanted to get rid of and kill White Hat to help his family's weapon selling business. his family's doing just fine and is even incredibly powerful and wealthy, but he likes taking initiative and is considered the family's golden child. (that part stems from the current fan theory that Goldheart is Flug's brother, and that Flug was often kept at an emotional distance from his family.)

Gulf's plan failed, of course, and, through more attempts and then even some subsequent social interactions with White Hat, he..... is not quite FRIENDS with White Hat, but he realized he doesn't fully agree with what his family does, and he and White Hat are now quietly working together to figure out how to dismantle the power Gulf's family has over so many places of the world

also he has anger issues and White Hat lets him shoot him and try to blow him up on occasion to handle that anger. bomb emoji because he explodes stuff and White Hat

🦡 0.5.0. 🦡

pronounced "oh-five-oh." he's. just a bear. with unnatural coloring and a Venus fly trap on his head. canon 5.0.5.'s big thing to me was his anthropomorphization, so. yeah. 0.5.0. is just a bear XD if i were to make an 0.5.0. playlist, it might only have this one video (cussing warning)

he gets angry at Dr. Gulf at times, but he's trained well (read: possibly traumatized), and he doesn't cause messes, even sometimes doubling as an extra shelf or an assistant for incredibly basic things, such as fetching items

currently, he most frequently acts as an indirect bodyguard to Gulf ("indirect bodyguard" as in "most people won't go near a clearly agitated bear") and social interaction deterrent. he was one of Gulf's earliest experiments -- possibly even made as early as elementary school, hence the "fifty" as his name -- but Gulf kept him, and especially his surprisingly robust healing abilities, a secret from everyone, including his family, until he moved in with White Hat. (the only people who ever knew of 0.5.0. before then were torture subjects of Gulf and were killed shortly after.) so, at least Gulf's family can't just go "hey, look, a guy with massive orange bear. THAT'S where our boy went." (the name "Gulf" is probably an alias)

his emoji is a badger rather than a bear because he's very honey badger-esque (cussing and animals eating other animals warning) to anyone who's not Gulf (altho he's still often resentful toward Gulf), Alegría, or White Hat. (the latter two can hold their ground with him, so they're the only ones who can give him scritches. and they're the only ones who are WILLING to give him scritches.) (...oh hey, the honey badger video is a SECOND video i could add to a hypothetical 0.5.0. playlist XD)

🔹 WHITE HAT FOUNDATION 🔹 (AND ITS BUILDING'S PROPERTY)

even before i knew about canon HatBots, i just knew that there had to be a lot more people working for White Hat than just Gulf and Alegría (although Alegría doesn't even really work for specifically White Hat so much in this AU). (i was actually surprised and a bit sad to learn about HatBots because i liked the idea of Flug doing almost everything on his own. if it HAD been only Flug, his situation would have fit even more into the "overworked employee and abusive boss" concept XD)

so there's a good amount of people researching mainly medical things, and White Hat makes sure the whole process stays ethical

but the White Hat building actually is mainly a collection of locals' businesses, one of which is Alegría's self-defense studio, with a large eatery on the ground floor that's popular with the people who work there and who live in the area. (...now that i write this, i realize it's more or less a miniature mall, and i'm okay with that XDD)

the people who work there mostly know each other, and they've developed a half-joking half-serious group chat called the "Gulf Tracker" to note when anyone notices him leave or enter the building so they can stay out of his way.

some extra trivia:

when i first came up with the characters in a few minutes (of course they've developed over time and gotten more detailed -- i didn't come up with -WAVES ARMS AT POST- all of THIS in a few minutes), i didn't realize that the main "opposite" traits i did for Demencia and Flug's reverses were "their relationship to their Black Hat analog." XD so Alegría started with "in a healthy relationship with White Hat" (to contrast with Dem's unrequited obsession/"love"), and Gulf started with "no respect for White Hat (and also likes submarines as the opposite of airplanes)."

------ (i purposefully came up with their base concepts quickly because i WANTED them to be based on the most "obvious" opposite traits lol)

------ but Black Hat and 5.0.5. were already my favorites for themselves, so White Hat = kind, calm, and patient. if i made White Hat after seeing the pilot and first season, he'd probably be a lot more expressive -- i'd only been familiar with Black Hat's super expressive and easily angered 15 second-to-1 minute showman/businessman shorts, and Black Hat is a lot more self-contained (usually) in the final series.

------ 0.5.0. = yeah. just a bear to contrast with 5.0.5.'s anthropomorphizing XD

because i have ADHD and autism and have been a One Piece fan since before middle school (yes that's a relevant comment lol), i thought for most my life that special interests were a thing EVERYONE had. every One Piece character has a special goal and at least one thing they're especially interested in (even if that "one thing" only gets mentioned in question corners in between chapters), so i gave each of the (anthropomorphic) Valorous characters a special interest:

------ Gulf = submarines, Alegría = cacti (altho she's comparatively casual about them and is more just "they're cool :D" while having a lot), White Hat = insects but especially ants (with still strong interests in subjects like etymology [the study of the origin of words] and geology [he likes the comparatively slow changes of geographic formations on earth, compared to how much so many other things change] )

this didn't quite fit in anywhere else in the post, but Gulf often travels through the White Hat building... by going through the vents. so he can avoid people. he trained 0.5.0. on the paths through the building, so 0.5.0. can follow him or otherwise just go wherever Gulf is headed

extra White Hat ramble, a bit more "for ages 16+" or whatever:

another thing that i really wanted when i started thinking about White Hat was to figure out a way to get him in a healthy, possibly sexual, relationship with someone, probably the AU's reverse Demencia since one of Demencia's big things is unrequited love toward Black Hat. buuuuuut instead i learned my guy's just asexual

i didn't like that bias of mine for him because i felt like there were possibly unintentional undertones of "sex is evil/impure" from that. then i felt a lot better when i watched one of the first of the 2023 Doctor Who specials, and there was a moment with the Doctor (who's also a long-lived human-helping non-human cosmic being):

companion about to leave Earth to travel with the Doctor, talking to her family: "Just me and the Doctor. Is that alright?" companion's husband who'll be staying behind: "Yeah, 'course it is! :) (genuinely unconcerned)" companion: "Well, a lot of husbands would worry. (awkward laugh) Y'know, me, in a [space-traveling] box, with another man." husband: "(baffled) Yeah... (whispers) But not him."

so now White Hat is ace XDD (i know there's all sorts of stuff that can be said about ace, aro, and aroace relationships, but yeah, i was really concerned for a while about "am i implying 'sex is evil,' and am i unintentionally informing White Hat's characterization with that concept? i don't like that")

i still go back and forth on if he and Alegría have any type of exclusive relationship going on, and, unless i actually come up with a storyline, i'm okay with that indecisiveness, because that says to me that they both stand well on their own as characters, which is INCREDIBLY important for coupled characters (and coupled people! "you complete me / i'm nothing without you" is a[n i GUESS] romantic but unhealthy and possibly damaging mindset)

okay I'm bored and have uni work to do

anyone wanna share their version of heroic/valiant au lore 👉👈 what's your White Hat like and what's the organisation like etc etc

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

OOOOO YAY AN ADAM SIMP (Adam's one of my favorite characters)

i can't do a full response rn (and there's a chance i might not be able to for at least a few days or until the end of the week), but, going on a tangent, i just recently made a post--AH OKAY YOU LIKED IT LOL. idk if you saw the second part where i had an idea how Adam could be brought back as a sinner and what his redemption might be like, but yeah Adam still has a lot of potential

(i don't have a lot of hope that Vivzie has it in mind to bring him back, but she seems to jump between ideas so much based on fan response, that, if he doesn't return as a sinner or anything in seasons 2 or 3, he might get brought back in season 4 or later, if the show goes for that long. [i say season 4 or later, since up to season 3 seems to already be set in stone from voice recording being done] )

while i super duper love Hazbin Hotel, i probably have more criticisms of it than praise. anyway, point of this post:

if i were to make one video critiquing Hazbin, it'd be about my concerns regarding how future seasons might handle Angel Dust's arc

Vivzie has shown that she's more interested in spectacle than showing care toward a spotlight character's arc, in "Mammon's Magnificent Musical Mid-Season Special" when Ozzie steps in, and Hazbin's season 1 finale episode when Lucifer fights Adam instead of Charlie (Helluva Boss season 2 ep 7, and Hazbin Hotel season 1 ep 8, respectively)

a writer CAN have a physically stronger character "handle" an altercation without detracting from the "protected character's" storyline, but she didn't. the moments became more about Ozzie and Lucifer than about Fizz or Charlie

i'm worried that, if there's a huge "contract breaking" scene for Angel Dust with Valentino, the scene will end up more about Charlie or Lucifer than Angel

i don't trust that i'll be able to put together a video on this before season 2 ("SEASON 2 IS COMING SOON TO PRIME VIDEO" AAAAAAAAAA I'M SO HYYYYYPE), so, just in case, i wanted to put this out there (and stake a claim on this take, with a date on it, to say i said it first :p)

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

oooohhh!! thanks for this response!! :D much appreciated! /gen (and @suzaojou, you're tagged because i respond to you later in the post. thanks for your comment too!!)

i actually forgot about the term "deus ex machina" when i made this post lol. my definition of deus ex machina is "someone or something essentially coming out of nowhere to resolve a conflict," so i'd argue Ozzie's not an example of that (he was there the whole time and we're aware Sins are incredibly powerful), but Lucifer DEFINITELY is

when i watched episode 8 with a friend later without her knowing anything about what was going to happen in the episode, she commented in boredom and annoyance (and she also likes Hazbin's Lucifer lol), "Lucifer ex machina." (the original phrase essentially means "God from a machine," so she changed it to "Lucifer from a machine")

(from an INCREDIBLY subjective and probably-contradictory-to-the-rest-of-what-i-say-in-this-post standpoint, i actually love how Adam got killed XD but i can agree that, if we only look at his death from a thematic standpoint, it should have been done differently. i'd argue that Niffty could possibly have still killed him even while staying in the show's thematic goals, but i'd be getting distracted lol)

in my opinion, the Ozzie moment isn't done well not because it's deus ex machina, but because it draws the attention in the moment away from Fizz. in that ending scene, when people draw fanart or talk about that moment, it's always about Ozzie, not Fizz, and i was actually immediately annoyed by the scene even before i knew what the other fans' responses would be

i was annoyed because, narratively and thematically, what was the point of it? (thematically,) why is Ozzie the center of the moment now? the scene easily could have ended after Fizz's song, or Mammon could have done a non-powered-up diatribe at Fizz where Fizz did a final smug/confident/angry/whatever "I'm done, Mammon. I quit." or, if Mammon did still power up, the audience could have boo'd him so much that he backed off. or Fizz could have very nervously still stood up to powered-up Mammon as Ozzie was preparing to step in, but Mammon, without noticing Ozzie, backed off before Ozzie could interfere. and there's still even more options outside these ideas!

to me, the answer to "what was the point of Mammon being a physical threat in the moment," is "give Ozzie a chance to look cool + to set up future conflict between Ozzie and Mammon." the writing could have still done the latter without taking away from Fizz's moment

Sir Pentious's death is a whole 'nother topic to me lol. to me, it's a topic of "muddled tone and intention" -- was it meant to be humorous or serious? serious moments can be done humorously, but it's INCREDIBLY tricky to get that balance right, and the mixture for this moment in Hazbin wasn't done well. i absolutely agree it was handled poorly

in response to @suzaojou's comment (profile header screenshot here only to make skimming this long response easier lol):

Well TBF in both instances, Fizz really did need someone to back him up. Imp Vs Sin was not gonna rule in his favor. And it was Fizz who made the first move to get away from Mammon. Kinda like how Nami needed someone to help her get away from Arlong. As for Charlie vs Adam, Charlie does have very strong pacifist tendencies and does not seem to have much training with her powers. She still did quite a bit of damage to Adam and even nullified his attack later (something Adam think possible). Charlie at her barely realized potential lost to Adam at his fullest, who later lost to Lucifer who had no issues and was the only one to be uninjured after the fight. That being said, Charlie lost the (physical) battle but is set up to win the war. Sinners can be redeemed vs Only get one shot and they blew it. Tho yeah, as much as I want Charlie to grow in badassery, I do sometimes worry about how they will handle Angel Dust (and Husk). I've heard of some interesting theories floating around, from Royals able to break a contract to Val is shit at contracts so its ripe with loopholes.

i actually love this response so much because i was going to use One Piece -- specifically Nami's moment in Arlong Park!! :D -- as an example of this concept being done well, the concept of someone physically stronger stepping in to resolve a conflict! i won't go into the details here because it's a whooooole 'nother post (or video lol), but that moment and storyline is still all about Nami, even though Luffy gets the climactic battle

once i started thinking about this topic a while ago, i realized it's actually a pattern in One Piece that that's how it goes -- Luffy (OH MY GOOOOSH. MUSCLE MEMORY GOT ME TO TYPE "LUCIFY" AT FIRST, MIXING "LUCIFER" AND "LUFFY" BECAUSE I'VE BEEN RAMBLING ABOUT LUCIFER SO MUCH IN THE LAST YEAR LOL)

BACK ON TOPIC: Luffy almost always (or actually always??) has the keystone or climax fight of a storyline, yet i don't think most people would say each storyline is about Luffy, or even that the final moment of many of his major fights are about him

if you skipped to my response to you, you can also get more info on my opinion about the Ozzie moment if you look three (or four lol?) paragraphs before my response, to the paragraph starting with "in my opinion, the Ozzie moment isn't done well because"

edit: oh wait hold on i got so excited at the Arlong Park mention that i forgot to respond to the rest of your comment XD will be working on that for the next few minutes lol

...okay, i guess i don't have a lot to say, because you have a lot of good points from a worldbuilding and character writing perspective, and i'm more focusing on a thematic perspective, a perspective of "how does this scene serve the theme/the point the show is trying to make." so, i agree with the observations about Charlie's pacifist tendencies, her being able to physically stop an attack from Adam even though she's still seemingly so new in using her powers, and that she "lost the (physical) battle but is set up to win the war" (the war of proving redemption is possible)

about Angel Dust escaping or nullifying Valentino's contract, i've been under the assumption that Vivzie at some point in a past livestream mentioned that royals have the power to break contracts, altho you made me realize i don't know for certain if she ever said that -- maybe it's just a popular fan theory or popular idea, and i should definitely find out for sure before i write a script about this concept lol. thank you! i haven't heard the "Val is bad at contracts" theory, so that's fun! /gen

while i super duper love Hazbin Hotel, i probably have more criticisms of it than praise. anyway, point of this post:

if i were to make one video critiquing Hazbin, it'd be about my concerns regarding how future seasons might handle Angel Dust's arc

Vivzie has shown that she's more interested in spectacle than showing care toward a spotlight character's arc, in "Mammon's Magnificent Musical Mid-Season Special" when Ozzie steps in, and Hazbin's season 1 finale episode when Lucifer fights Adam instead of Charlie (Helluva Boss season 2 ep 7, and Hazbin Hotel season 1 ep 8, respectively)

a writer CAN have a physically stronger character "handle" an altercation without detracting from the "protected character's" storyline, but she didn't. the moments became more about Ozzie and Lucifer than about Fizz or Charlie

i'm worried that, if there's a huge "contract breaking" scene for Angel Dust with Valentino, the scene will end up more about Charlie or Lucifer than Angel

i don't trust that i'll be able to put together a video on this before season 2 ("SEASON 2 IS COMING SOON TO PRIME VIDEO" AAAAAAAAAA I'M SO HYYYYYPE), so, just in case, i wanted to put this out there (and stake a claim on this take, with a date on it, to say i said it first :p)

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

while i super duper love Hazbin Hotel, i probably have more criticisms of it than praise. anyway, point of this post:

if i were to make one video critiquing Hazbin, it'd be about my concerns regarding how future seasons might handle Angel Dust's arc

Vivzie has shown that she's more interested in spectacle than showing care toward a spotlight character's arc, in "Mammon's Magnificent Musical Mid-Season Special" when Ozzie steps in, and Hazbin's season 1 finale episode when Lucifer fights Adam instead of Charlie (Helluva Boss season 2 ep 7, and Hazbin Hotel season 1 ep 8, respectively)

a writer CAN have a physically stronger character "handle" an altercation without detracting from the "protected character's" storyline, but she didn't. the moments became more about Ozzie and Lucifer than about Fizz or Charlie

i'm worried that, if there's a huge "contract breaking" scene for Angel Dust with Valentino, the scene will end up more about Charlie or Lucifer than Angel

i don't trust that i'll be able to put together a video on this before season 2 ("SEASON 2 IS COMING SOON TO PRIME VIDEO" AAAAAAAAAA I'M SO HYYYYYPE), so, just in case, i wanted to put this out there (and stake a claim on this take, with a date on it, to say i said it first :p)