#Nice Things People Say

[chaifootsteps]

You know Full Moon was a bad episode, when sanity is starting to spread in Hellaverse fandom.

I haven't been in Vivziepop critical community as long as many people in it, but God, after months and months of seeing fellow criticals that I follow get harrased and even slandered for pointing out pretty obvious and objective issues with the writing and bringing attention to shit Viv pulled, it's beyond satisfying to see more and more fans go "hey, the way this character is being written and developed is not good actually".

With Vivziepop digging herself into a bigger and bigger hole with merch and Helluva Boss crumbling apart to the point that Viv's mega devoted fanbase is starting to notice, I can confidently say that her downfall has properly begun. And not to be dramatic, but I'm extremely grateful that despite you probably getting burned the most from Viv's standom out of any Hellaverse critical, you stuck to your guns and remained a safe space for fellow criticals to rant without being exposing themselves. Thanks, Chai.

Hopefully, with it becoming more "acceptable" to critique Viv, you can eventually reveal the sensitive info entrusted to you. Because God knows how many people Viv actually screwed over and it would be nice for her to finally face the consequences for at least some of her actions.

Thank you, Anon. It ain't much, but it's honest work!

The reaction to Full Moon came as a surprise to me too. I was fully expecting the fandom to be almost unanimous in loving it, or at the very least loving the Stolitz stuff and siding with Stolas. The fact that there are so many people getting fed up with him, with this poorly written conflict, with this show in general, is a pretty hopeful sign.

[veliseraptor]

Reading your Xue Yang fics is so validating on a personal level because it seems like Performing Good Behavior often isn't enough for people. Not all of us do good things out of some innate altruistic yearning. Some of us do good because it makes our lives easier or makes a loved one happy. And it's hard not to feel upset and frustrated when people value a Good Heart over Good Behavior. It's really nice to read Xue Yang struggle with this and to feel understood.

oh man anon I'm glad this is valuable for you because it is something that is very important to me. the value of distinguishing between "doing the right thing is only enough if you're doing it for the right reasons" (internally determined, potentially unattainable standard) and "doing the right thing in and of itself is sufficient and what actually matters at the end of the day" (results-oriented, what's going to make an impact on other people) is a really important one to me

the former can be genuinely paralyzing, I think! even for people who might have an ~innate altruistic yearning~ (whatever the fuck that means) can get hung up on what is the right motivation, am I feeling the right motivation enough, if my motivations are selfish then does it really count/is it worth doing, etc. etc. obsession spiral.

in a lot of ways I really do think what counts is what a person actually does rather than whatever internal processes motivate that action, because ultimately peoples' motives are generally inscrutable to me but peoples' actions are what I feel/perceive. and, too, playing the game of suspecting other peoples' motives is an exhausting one and ultimately doesn't get a person very far.

so yeah. this is what I mean sometimes by not calling what I do with Xue Yang a ~redemption arc~, because it's not so much about fundamentally making a change in his motivations/moral standards (which I feel like people make a prerequisite for a "real" redemption arc, sometimes; the character must FEEL BAD about their previous actions and REPENT for them); it's about giving him reasons to make different choices going forward, whatever those reasons might be.

anyway, thank you, anon, and I'm glad that this particular piece of my writing can make you feel understood.

[salchat]

I'd just like to say that your artwork is stunning and I also really enjoy all the descriptions you add along with it.

Thank you very much! That's very nice of you to say.

Sometimes, when I'm drawing, I have a running commentary in my head of things I could write on a Tumblr post. But by the time I've finished, I've forgotten most of my vitally important points and all that's left in my head is an inarticulate: "Uh... I drew a thing." And then I either post without commentary or have to think up something sensible to say.

But I have a Sam nearly ready to post and will try to think up something sensible to write with him. I thought he was ready to post yesterday, but then I compared him with the reference and wow, did he look silly! He has tiny features in a massive face. But I think the only problem is actually his jawline isn't sharp enough and the rest is fine. I'll go and have a look in a minute.

[authenticcadence18]

I am worried now my tags will dissuade future readers from checking out my fic 😅

honestly? the tags were what made me WANT to read the fic!! the synopsis already seemed tempting, but the way you were so excited in the tags just convinced me further because if you were so happy with it then i would most definitely love it as well— and i did! some people are chronically online individuals who hate fun and whimsy, and if they want to talk trash, that’s their loss. the personality you put into your fics and tags is what makes them so great, and there are (and will ALWAYS be) so many more people who appreciate you for it. i hope you feel better soon and that we all appreciate you and your work 🩷🩷🩷

(also i accidentally unfollowed you while trying to send this ask ksbfks so that was my bad!!)

AWWWWWWW this warms my heart thank you so much!!!!!! I’m glad my tags engaged you. And SAME TRULY.

And for REAL at the end of the day everyone there is a user on a fanfic reading website it is not that serious sbsbsbsbsb. I am definitely feeling a lot better, thank you 😁😁

(HDHDHDHD no worries!!)

[chronically-ghosted]

Please don’t ever stop writing about dieter 🥺 I think you just write him the best. You always get his personality so perfect and I just love it so so much. That last one was so perfect, the little bit of angst but then at the end, we know they’re happy together every day and he loves her 😭

You’re the best dieter writer and please tell me you have more requests for him 🥺🥺

okay ngl this made me squeal in delight. i know dieter is not the fandom's favorite, but he is mine -- i don't know why i've imprinted on him like a duckling but i have and it's not going away 😭

in my humble ass opinion, i think for dieter there's a super fine line between idiot and childish. I've read a lot of fics where he's almost mean with his disregard for other people, and while he certainly has an ego, i think he does have a soft side that he doesn't really know how to nurture? i think on some level he is deeply unhappy and he doesn't like to be alone as result of it, but there is a part of him that really loves what he does and he does try to be happy. on a good day, dieter is funny, curious, a little silly/dramatic, and he draws his energy from other people. on a bad day, dieter is selfish, self-destructive, egotistical, and paranoid.

i know you didn't ask for a freakin' character analysis but i could literally write an essay on dieter bravo. but to actually refer to your ask: yes, i do! I have one more for the 100 followers event: “We should probably leave, before we start a scandal" -- I'm trying to do a foodie dieter with this one, so stay tuned!

i find it personally offensive that pedro had a say in how dieter dressed, with the rings, the bracelet, and earrings. if i ever meet the man, that's going to be my one question: "do you know what you did to me with that character?"

thank you so much and this ask genuinely means the world to me!

[chronic-ghost]

aw 😭 the thought of Dieter feeling like PDA is childish and he shouldn’t do it makes me 😭🥺

Can someone (Natalie lmao) just like pet his hair and hug him for a while? Because I think he might need that…

I did notice that he often does things for Chloe instead of for himself. Like the running. He does it because Chloe thinks it’s a good idea but he fucking hates it so it just doesn’t have that much of an effect on him? I hope he finds something that he likes doing to help with recovery and all that! It sounds mean to say but with the situation he was in, it felt like he was just doomed to relapse. (and I’m not saying fail because relapsing isn’t failing!!!! You didn’t fail dieter 🥺😂)

I’m excited for him to address the root of his problems eventually and actually find his own way in life.

Addiction is definitely a really hard topic to write about and I so so appreciate you taking it serious and writing it so well! I think you’re doing a great job!

I can’t wait to see how things go with these 2 and what will happen and how they figure everything out! And to eventually read Natalies thoughts and feelings!! So exciting!!

He always looks like he’s been yanking on his hair and that always just made my heart hurt for some reason. I think there’s definitely some cuddling in their future 💕

What you said about him doing things for other people - he is a performer after all! 🤷‍♀️😭

Anxiety makes you doubt yourself and your choices and I think that’s why Dieter kind of lets himself be led around. But ultimately he does want to be successful and happy and I think that’s important. No one can get better if they don’t want to and I think he genuinely does! He just doesn’t know how 🙃

I’m happy to hear you feel I’ve portrayed addiction well! It is a subject that should be handled with care and ultimately I just want to be the one to hold Dieter!!

Again I forever love your insights! If you ever want to talk more, jump into my DMs! I’ve made some of my best friends through fic! ☺️

[spngeorg]

Mittens! A hundred episodes! That's almost 2 whole years of the podcast! Congratulations! And an early happy anniversary!

Aw thank you! I should check and see when the actual anniversary date is so i can have some pie to celebrate :'D

[leaveharmony]

Guys  🥺🥹😭

Now I feel a lil guilty about that unfinished bottom!Tana sitting on the old ipad collecting dust

[thayerkerbasy]

I feel like I need to thank you, because every time you like one of my posts, I get a lovely picture of Crowley with a heart next to him in my notifications and it's like a free shot of dopamine, lol. Cheers! 💙

Aww, that's wonderful! Crowley doesn't give me happy brain chemicals anymore, but I don't think I'll ever change my icon. It was painted specially for me and I adore it. I'm glad it's spreading joy.

[maple-and-pie]

Pride Eeveelutions!

Edit: now as stickers!

[chaifootsteps]

Hey Chai,

This is a long one, so I’m gonna start out by first thanking you for this blog you’ve created as a safe place to share your thoughts and those of others, including when they disagree with you! You are both admirably unabashed and pleasantly down to earth in how you carry yourself on here! Now to get into the meat of it, I felt like sending in my thoughts on the idea of “wasted potential” as applied specifically to Lucifer from Haz_bin Ho_tel, and to ask you for your thoughts on that concept and Lucifer as a specific example (if you wanted to share them, of course)! I want to clarify that I’ve never personally liked referring to characters, story beats, or theme explorations in a piece of fictional media as “wasted potential” because some part of me feels that I don’t get to make that judgement call when I wasn’t the one writing. This isn’t me claiming that I am better or more mature than people who discuss wasted potential within media analysis - I am well aware that I am entitled to dislike the direction a character or story is heading as much as any human - this is just me saying that I personally never try and act like I could speak on knowing what was better for someone else’s creative vision, so I just tend to keep my thoughts to myself. Until I witnessed what Vi_v did to Lucifer. Memes are funniest when quoted ironically, but it was after episode six that I sincerely said out loud to myself “look how they massacred my boy!”

In the days of the pilot and promotional character art, Lucifer was my favorite character. Viewers barely knew anything about him, but the little we did know was OVERFLOWING WITH POTENTIAL. He was my favorite character design in the entire show, and a near hyperfixation in my mind. The limited information and visuals we were given were those of a well dressed, unwaveringly confident, and - seemingly - unapologetically aware player in a story about the slaughter of sinners and the near-lost cause of Charlie’s efforts towards their redemption. He was the King of Hell, husband to the first woman in existence, instigator of human sin, and REBEL AGAINST GOD. Even juicier, assuming we never got to see him as his own character, there was at least the mystique of the domino affect he had on the characters of the show including Charlie, Alastor, and even Vaggie as Charlie’s girlfriend and a fallen angel, herself. The second-hand accounts we heard of him through Charlie - specifically “I think dad was right about me-“ and “- you don’t take shit from other demons!” - depicted a character who had little sympathy for Charlie’s goal or the sinners while still showing his care for her in his own, twisted way. All of this oozed with POTENTIAL for the enormity of this character and his weight on the story as the embodiment of pride and as the King of Hell.

And we, the audience of the final product, got NONE OF THAT. The final character - the canon depiction thrown at our faces following over four years of anticipation - was a self-pitying, judgmental, immature, wishy-washy, absentee father who remained WILLFULLY unaware of the life and ambitions of the singular child he claimed he wanted a better relationship with and took ZERO accountability in running the very people and kingdom he had been stuck with for 10,000 years! He didn’t even know his daughter, the princess of Hell and his most treasured family, had a girlfriend of multiple years. In a lot of ways, he was a well-dressed man-child constantly shouting some version of “I DON’T WANNA!”. 

And GOD did that hurt to see. How it hurt to see his wasted potential. 

There were so many things he could have been starting in late 2019, so many things that seemed perfect for both a character and story beat as would have explored the greater themes of the show itself. Unfortunately, he wasn’t any of them on that particular day in late January of 2024. The CLOSEST he ever gets to embodying that potential was when he was protecting his daughter while beating the holy light out of Adam in the finale, but even his statement of “You’re in my house, bitch!” doesn’t depict the imposing and unmeasurably egotistical being of pride he seemed to be in 2019, it just sounds like something any person would say in a cocky manner punching down on someone who broke into their house. For me, it took the wind out of my sails to see how far my once adored character had fallen from the character he COULD have been. How he had been denied all the potential that he once had. Potential that, through writing choices by the creative team, was decidedly "wasted".

So those are my feelings as applies to both the concept of “wasted potential” in writing and to the character of Lucifer in Haz_bin Ho_tel. I apologize again for how long this whole rant has been, but if you have any of your own thoughts or want to comment on my whole spiel around how we describe wasted potential as viewers and Lucifer as a possible example, I would be excited to hear them!

Thank you again for this space you have created and keep fighting the good fight, even if that’s just for the freedom to our own opinions on popular media!

No apologies, Anon, and thank you for the kind words! Everyone should feel like they have a safe, fun place to bitch about how much they dislike popular media...whether HH runs for one more season or 10, I'll do my best to keep this little pocket available!

Thank you for your heartfelt Lucifer thoughts. I know back in the day, when I still loved and had high hopes for this show and actually hoped Viv could get Weird Al to voice Lucifer, this was the thing that made me really fall in love with him. If I'd known back then that he'd turn into a crude, idiotic frat boy, I wouldn't have bothered.

I think the longer these shows run, the more it gets to be that people are mourning their favorite characters and the potential they could have had. It's pretty painful to love a character so deeply, to be so excited to see what they become, and to be rewarded with the worst possible version of them you could imagine. Happened with Stolas for me, with Lucifer for you...it's a story you hear time and time again.

It sucks.

[veliseraptor]

maybe this is a little strange message to receive but most days i belive i'm not deserving of kindness or any sort of positive attention i don't think i'm a very good person and it's nice to read your xue yang fics where he gets to have nice things. i feel the way he feels in some ways. your fics are a fantasy i can find some (hate this word but can't think of a better one) comfort in. you treat him with SO much love it's tangible. even if you have him go through some rough stuff there is always an end. the suffering is not forever. so thank you for that!

here's a secret, anon: I do a lot of my writing about characters who "don't deserve" (heavy scare quotes) nice things because it makes me feel a little better about how I "don't deserve" nice things.

so you're really getting something that I'm putting out there, because that's in a lot of ways one of the big emotions I write from. sympathy for fictional characters because I struggle with sympathy for myself. honesty hour here on this blog.

anyway: this is to say, I'm glad that my writing with xue yang in particular can bring you some comfort. and as far as you yourself go, try to be kind to yourself. to deserve or not deserve is an arbitrary concept with shifting goalposts; honestly, my recommendation is to try to ease the phrase as it applies to yourself out of your vocabulary.

[heartorbit]

find another role, carry on the show

[authenticcadence18]

Random thought: someone complimented my character writing in the brazilian telenovela non-canon ship fic I'm writing at the moment and I instantly thought about you saying that I was really good at nailing characterization at every fandom you knew that you'd seen me write in because it's my favorite fic compliment I've ever received and you're the best

AWWWWEEEEEEEE and it is SO TRUE you literally. are so dang good at characterization I love love love your stuff I love this for you !!!!! YOURE THE BEST

[chronically-ghosted]

Stopping by to give you a kiss and some writing motivation 😚🩷 you’re kicking ass!

i am giving you a dozen??? kisses! thank you SO MUCH my dear! 🤍🤍

[chronic-ghost]

Aw I’m so sorry you’re having a rough day! ♥️ I hope you feel better soon, don’t forget to take care of yourself!

I’m glad you wouldn’t do that to Natalie and us hahaha! And I agree! I know loads of people love sad stories and endings but real life is already shitty enough! I’m always here for a good happy ending! And I’m glad things are going to get better from now on because the bbs deserve it 🥺

The whole thing from when Dieter found her and the waiting and their talk. Literally sat here like this 🥺 trying to hold back tears! Natalie saying she ruined his life and Dieter telling her he has to go away for a while and her asking if she can see him when she’s better.. TEARS!!! 😭

And yes! That was definitely a moment to really realise that she’s still young. I just wanted to hug her and tell her everything will be okay again!

OMITB Oliver would definitely be horrified! 😂 my brain just keeps seeing him swooping around lmao (I also love the show! One of my faves, it’s so good and all the actors are amazing!!)

Absolutely never any need to thank me! I need to thank you for writing and sharing this absolute masterpiece. I really really loved this chapter and I cannot wait for the next one and I’m already so sad that it’s eventually going to end because I love Natalie and Dieter!

Like seriously, I’m obsessed with this story! It’s one of the best I’ve read so far (and I’ve been reading fanfics for like 15 years now!) and you’re truly an amazing writer and I also can’t wait to read everything else you’re gonna write! I loved that Dieter story idea someone sent in!!

Never ever doubt yourself and be proud of yourself because you’re amazing!! Take care of yourself and I’m so glad my message helped a bit! So much love to you! ♥️♥️♥️♥️

you're just making me blush now!!! fanfiction has been important to me for so many years and i love the community that spawns from it!

if you ever want to come off anon, i promise i don't bite! (we leave that up to Max 😉)