#if things were really going his way

[snowyh2o]

More late night thoughts on Hazbin Hotel Episode 5:

It’s kinda funny to me, how when episode 5 first dropped everyone in the Alastor tag were freaking out over how horrible a person he was to be treating Husk like that and that he and Valentino were exactly the same or that if this is how he treats Husk imagine how he treats his other friends/Nifty!

But my first thought, my gut reaction, was ALASTOR’S ON A LEASH?! And Wow, what a loss of control there pal.

Because Alastor’s a character who, at his core, likes to be in control. Of himself, his reactions, and the situations he finds himself in. He has a pathological need to always be smiling because it gives him a sense of control over himself and projects the idea to others that nothing bothers him and everything is always going his way.

So to lose that composure, that act so completely in front of Husk? Because of one little comment? And show exactly how much that little taunt had affected him?

That was the thing that stuck out to me. Not his treatment of Husk or their relationship. Because that was a little snippet into Alastor’s head, how he ticks, how he reacts, what sets him off.

It’s very very telling how afterwards he acts like nothing is wrong, like he hadn’t just threatened to tear Husk’s soul apart and broadcast his screams across hell. He even plays a little jaunty tune, forces levity into the situation, and pretends like there’s nothing wrong. It’s clear he’s clamping down on his emotions, and taking back control of the situation, of himself, by doing that. Like taking a deep breath after a sudden rush of intense uncontrolled emotion.

Because in a way it’s almost, embarrassing? To lose control like that, especially towards someone who’s soul he outright owns. Usually when people get on his nerves (and he thinks he can get away with it), he taunts them, mocks them, and treats them condescendingly until they take themselves out in anger, or the conversation shifts away from the topic that had him on edge. (And he tries that with Husk at first, except Husk is too perceptive and not afraid to call someone out on their bullshit.)

So for Alastor to feel like he’d lost control of the situation so much that he’d grasp at it by forcibly reminding Husk how he controls his soul is just, wow. Reminding himself of the control he has on someone else’s soul to forget he’s lost control of his own soul. Dude REALLY doesn’t have it all together as he’d like for others to believe.

Anyways, stream of consciousness thoughts. But all this to say that I’m like, 99% sure Alastor’s a little in over his head? With whatever the fucks going on with his “leash”. And he’s very desperately trying to pretend that Everything is Fine even when it’s Clearly Not.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I've never been more normal in my life.

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[ciderjacks]

despite Laios low self esteem making him think that if he’d been eaten, Chilchuck and Marcille wouldn’t have helped Falin,

theres a small part of me that thinks the reason Chilchuck stayed with the party and went back in the dungeon in the first place was because he didn’t want to leave Laios alone. That Laios was moreso the reason he stayed.

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[turtleblogatlast]

Every day I’m haunted by the fact the boys happily swim in sewer water

Even if it’s filtered somehow there’s no way it’s not still nasty 😭 Bet they can defeat any of their villains just by accidentally giving them diseases I swear

[vaxxman]

height ahh difference

[mxrisacoulter]

love that the overall message of barbenheimer is that men love horses they're so real for that

[sysig]

Good skeles, like you lots (Patreon)

[teethlordd]

Putting some guys in some fancy outfits

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

eternally thinking about alex giggling through his lyrics when miles tries to kiss him

[sherbetyy]

i think it’s funny he has a tie of himself

[puppyeared]

boys night

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Council of lovefools.

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[front-facing-pokemon]

[pcktknife]

wait bitch do sanjis eyebrows go the same way

[galacticlamps]

ok I have A Lot of thoughts about the staircase confession (well really about Edwin's whole character arc, but all roads lead to rome) but for now I just wanna say that, yes, I was bracing myself for something to go terribly wrong when I first watched it, and yes, part of me was initially worried its placement might be an uncharacteristically foolish choice made in the name of Drama or Pacing or Making a Compelling Episode of Television but at the expense of narrative sense--

But I wanna say that having taken all that into account, and watched it play out, and sat with it - and honestly become rather transfixed by it - I really think it's a beautifully crafted moment and truly the only way that arc could've arrived at such a satisfying conclusion.

And if I had to pinpoint why I not only buy it but also have come to really treasure it, I'd have to put it down to the fact that it genuinely is a confession, and nothing else.

That moment is an announcement of what Edwin has come to understand about himself, but because it takes the form of a character admitting romantic feelings for such a close friend, I think it can be very easy, when writing that kind of thing, to imbue it with other elements like a plea or a request or even the start of a new relationship that, intentionally or not, would change the shape of the moment and can quickly overshadow what a huge deal the telling is all on its own. But that's not the case here. Since it is only a confession, unaccompanied by anything else, and since we see afterward how it was enough, evidently, to fix the strangeness that had grown between him & Charles, we're forced to understand that it was never Edwin's feelings that were actually making things difficult for him - it was not being able to tell Charles about them. 'Terrified' as he's been of this, Edwin learns that his feelings don't need to either disappear completely or be totally reciprocated in order for him to be able to return to the peace, stability, and security of the relationship with which he defines his existence - and the scale of that relief a) tells us a hell of a lot about Edwin as a character and b) totally justifies the way his declaration just bursts out of him at what would otherwise be such a poorly chosen moment, in my opinion.

Whether or not they are or ever could be reciprocated, Edwin's feelings are definitively proven not to be the problem here - only his potential choice to bottle it up - his repression - is. And where that repression had once been mainly involuntary, a product of what he'd been through, now that he's got this new awareness of himself, if he still fails to admit what he's found either to himself or to the one person he's so unambiguously close with, then that repression will be by his own choice and actions.

And he won't do that. Among other things, he's coming into this scene having just (unknowingly) absolved the soul of his own school bully and accidental killer by pointing out a fact that is every bit as central to his self-discovery as anything about his sexuality or his attraction to Charles is: the idea that "If you punish yourself, everywhere becomes Hell"

So narratively speaking, of course it makes sense that Edwin literally cannot get out of Hell until he stops punishing himself - and right now, the thing that's torturing him is something he has control over. It's not who he is or what he feels, but what he chooses to do with those feelings that's hurting him, and he's even already made the conscious choice to tell Charles about them, he was just interrupted. But now that they're back together and he's literally in the middle of an attempt to escape Hell, there is absolutely no way he can so much as stop for breath without telling Charles the truth. Even the stopping for breath is so loaded - because they're ghosts, they don't need to breathe, but also they're in Hell, so the one thing they can feel is pain, however nonsensical. And Edwin certainly is in pain. But whether he knows what he's about to do or not when he says he 'just needs a tick,' a breather is absolutely not what's gonna give him enough relief to keep climbing - it's fixing that other hurt, though, that will.

Like everything else in that scene, there's a lot of layers to him promising Charles "You don't have to feel the same way, I just needed you to know" - but I don't think that means it isn't also true on a surface level. It's the act of telling Charles that matters so much more than whatever follows it, and while that might have gone unnoticed if anything else major had happened in the same conversation, now we're forced to acknowledge its staggering and singular importance for what it is. The moment is well-earned and properly built up to, but until we see it happen in all its wonderful simplicity, and we see the aftermath (or lack thereof, even), we couldn't properly anticipate how much of a weight off Edwin's shoulders merely getting to share the truth with Charles was going to be, why he couldn't wait for a better, safer opportunity before giving in to that desire, or how badly he needed to say it and nothing else - and I really, really love the weight that act of just being honest, seen, and known is given in their story/relationship.