#then i take her back to the hotel

[giyuulatte]

in my very own james helps sirius escape his house situation

i’m james

[flufflecat]

this is the most beautiful creature on earth and I will kill someone if it asks me to

[inamindfarfaraway]

The Exorcists’ Masks of Virtue

The vast majority of Exorcists in Hazbin Hotel have a notable design element that other angels don’t: their masks are missing an eye. Specifically, the right eye.

I believe this is a reference to the Bible, Matthew 5:29. Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

He’s being hyperbolic. Mr Free Healthcare was not pro-mutilation. What he means is that you have to be willing to make sacrifices to prevent sin. The context of the eye metaphor is him condemning adultery and warning that even something as easy, casual and small as a look full of lustful intent can lead to further, worse sin if you don’t notice your sin, hold yourself accountable for it and do the work to not let it influence your decisions. This will probably be hard. It could be very, very painful. Changing your perspective can feel as horrible as plucking out your eye, so many people can’t bring themselves to do it. But although it won’t feel that way in the moment, it’s healthier for our general wellbeing in the long run to abandon traits and behaviours that damage ourselves and/or others.

(You may notice that Jesus’s teaching that you can have sinned, redeem yourself by giving up sin and thus escape damnation is the founding principle of the Hazbin Hotel. You may also notice that it contradicts everything the Exorcists believe.)

The Exorcists seem to follow this idea of painfully excising badness for the sake of the greater good devoutly to the point of placing it above teachings like ‘Thou shalt not kill’, with their job being to remove sin, in the form of sinners, to protect Heaven. Hence the missing right eyes. They’re a declaration of moral righteousness and inability to stumble.

But the truth is that the Exorcists all have their right eyes. Their flawlessness is a facade. Underneath, they are untouched, think themselves morally untouchable and, as shown by their horror and outrage when even one of them is killed, would much rather be physically untouchable too. This perfectly represents their complete unwillingness to acknowledge their own faults, let alone improve. They are never the ones who sacrifice. They force the sinners to sacrifice and don’t compensate it with any salvation. They metaphorically rip out the sinners’ eyes, but still condemn their entire bodies as inherently, permanently sinful. So they’ll just have to do another Extermination to get the other eyes! And another one to cut off their right hands! And so on until there’s nothing left.

The only exception to the rule is Vaggie, both in appearance and character. Her mask has the left eye crossed out instead. Even before her expulsion, she’s set apart to the audience as an Exorcist who has the capacity to, shall we say, see a different side of things. Her mask having its ‘sinful’ right eye reflects her understanding that the Exorcist worldview is wrong.

When she almost kills a demon child, her hateful vision clears. She discards the part of herself that’s an unquestioning, merciless agent of death, terror and grief… and as punishment for what Lute perceives as treacherous weakness, gets her eye plucked out.

Of course Lute leaves her with only the ‘sinful’ eye. It brands Vaggie forever as the inversion, a perversion, of what the Exorcists are meant to be.

You know, all this talk of eye removal in the Bible reminds of another line - ‘an eye for an eye’. Adam directly quotes it in “Hell is Forever”. He uses it to frame the Exterminations as Old Testament-style punitive justice; the sinners did harm and so they receive it. But putting aside the debate about how ethical the concept of revenge is, the entire point of taking an eye for an eye is that it’s proportional. The punishment fits the crime. If someone cuts your eye out, you shouldn’t murder their whole family in front of them and then slowly disembowel them to death. That would be the sin of wrath. You should just make them pay without excessive pain or collateral damage. This is the fairest form of revenge.

The Exorcists don’t do that! The Exterminations aren’t proportional to the wrongs of all they hurt, nor was Vaggie’s brutal punishment equivalent to her extremely mild insubordination. Lute literally takes Vaggie’s eye, and more, after Vaggie does nothing to her! That’s the opposite of the phrase! Adam and his soldiers are wrathful and cruel, deriving satisfaction from others’ suffering. But they just can’t stop going on and on about how disgustingly evil the sinners are, in total hypocrisy… despite some of the sinners being far better people than the genocidal Exorcists are… it’s like they’re obsessed with specks of dust in the sinners’ eyes when they have massive logs stuck in their own. Oh hey, that’s in the Bible too!

[erotesic]

her pilot design has such a chokehold on me

[inkperch]

Hmm mm not a fan of the way the fandom saw the vaguest hint that a mother might be morally grey and jumped to her being the worst character in the show no, nope, nope, not a fan-

[money-and-dandellions]

Characters pulling their dear ones out of danger but, instead, taking the damage themselves

and smiling because their dear ones are fine and safe and—

why are they crying?

[gumm1defloor]

Personally speaking if I had to pick one rairpair out of the entire hellaverse I would want to see canon it would be Velvette x Verosica but man it is going to be the most lavish, fluffy, intensely intimate, passionate, rancid & disastrous 24/7 trending full blown shitstorm hell has ever seen I don't think anyone is going to be ready. Not even these two. Dear god especially not these two.

Man Verosica is just 2 for 1 on short gremlin kings who are also coincidentally emotionally constipated walking talking sacks of untreated mental illnesses wrapped up in 3 layers of intimacy issues isn't she but hey at least this one's pretty much guaranteed never to steal your credit card for horse riding lessons and most definitely won't be caught one ring down in wrath in the middle of fuck knows where with said credit card so.... yay improvement?

[furubatsu]

Credit where it is due, Vivziepop did the damn thing. As far as I'm aware this isn't some Taylor Swift situation where her dad bought her an animation studio to make her show. She made the pilot and gathered the hype to get it picked up. So congratulations.

But I can't help but feel like her entire life online has become this weird oroboras of discourse. When the pilot first aired on YouTube, let's face it there were a LOT of bad faith takes, people dragging up drama that was already a decade old and a cursory look into can show that it was things taken out of context or things she had already tried to make amends for. So naturally people there were her haters and her defenders. The haters are still around, naturally but it's created this very victimised attack dog response in her fandom I found.

Any criticism, legit or not is now lumped with these same haters who approached her works with the eye of twisted teenage drama that got spread around. Which causes Viv and her fans to lash out at them as if they are the same, which causes more criticism and so on and so forth.

[miodiodavinci]

good news: we have water again ! ! ! a pipe had burst somewhere up the street so the city came out and fixed it today (we still need to run the tap to get rid of the air and muddy water but. it's something.)

bad news: i had to go to my partner's to do laundry and shower so i missed out on work time today (bad) (anxiety inducing) (i don't need this right now)

worst news: i have a killer headache and my throat is suspiciously stiff 👁 👁

[lettherebemonsters]

To anyone confused AF as to exactly WHAT I was hinting at last night, here's the post I found.

Now, it could be nothing, but Viv never does anything without a reason. So it makes you wonder....

[loustyleshtommo]

Do you have any favorites off the new album yet?

The Alchemy & Peter spoke to my soul at first listen. Taylor released them to be mine, so I’m taking custody accordingly. What about you, anon? Any favorite yet?

[only-one-brain-cell]

Zahra catching Henry in Alex’s room is a cinematic masterpiece.

[furshrimps]

Now that Sammy's been doing better for a while I've started thinking again that it would be a good time to see if I can find a better home for him.

In my logical mind it seems the better choice for each of us, overall. For him, for me, even for Bats. I would sorely miss his incredible over-the-top goofiness and that he so easily is motivated to play with or without toys, and just his personal quirky flavor of endless love and affection, his abundant happiness. Knowing myself, I'll probably even miss the challenges in some way. A very bright light of love would be disappearing from my life, and just thinking about losing it makes me cry. The other thing I'm not looking forward to is that I probably should inform his breeder, and I probably could do without whatever she has to say about it. I'm imagining it wouldn't be something nice necessarily, based on my previous experiences with her (although I'd be happy to be proven wrong about that, it could very well be just my fear of rejection speaking). Still, I think she deserves to know IF I indeed find someone I'd trust him with.

On the other hand. To know him in good hands that can provide more training, more enrichment, better/ easier vet care as he gets even older. All things I do struggle with a lot since my health took a turn for the worse, and which I already did struggle with from the start, albeit much more low key. It would lift a huge responsibility from my shoulders, and maybe grant him the chance of a more fulfilled life in the years he has left. I knew from the start he's not the dog for me, that he requires more energy than I have to give, even though I tried my best to provide him with everything I could give him during our years together. And we definitely did give each other a large amount of great experiences that I wanna say we both don't want to have missed.

But I think I at least should try. I'm thinking of making it a requirement that any interested person will visit us a number of times to spend time with him and do things with him, so I can see if he starts opening up to them at all, and maybe see how they handle him in his not-so-good moments. Ultimately, I would leave that decision for Sammy himself, though, since animals tend to have a good idea about where they need to go themselves. I think he deserves to be given that chance. If it works, it works, and I'd be happy to let him go to a better life. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't, then he stays here for the rest of his life and we'll make it work somehow. However that is, but in some way we'll make it work if it comes to that.

[softquietsteadylove]

I don’t know wich AU it would fit so I just make a prompt and you decide :)

Thenamesh decides to go to the beach for a day. They both get quite the attention but Thena is the one who is a bit possessive and tiny bit jealous (she would never admit) when 4 woman decide to flirt with him and get too close to him :D would be funny

All she wanted was to take a brief little trip to the Paldea region to find a Ceruledge (or a Charcadet, rather). It was a pokemon with swords for hands--it was like it was destined to be on her team!

But the trip to Paldea was coming at a heavy cost, Thena was discovering.

"Wow, so you're a pokemon ranger?"

"We don't have those here!"

"So, what is it that you do?"

Thena tugged at the wide brim of her sunhat, which was currently shielding both her and Teddiursa from the unforgiving - oddly strong for the winter - sun. She was sitting on her beach towel, laid out next to Gil's.

Gil had excitedly gone exploring on the beach, observing all the different pokemon they had yet to encounter back home. Between the species dimorphism and the ecological differences and the generally pleasant weather, he was in bliss.

"You're so strong, Mister Ranger," a swimmer giggled in a faintly accented voice, her shoulders bouncing as she did. It really served to emphasize the expensive looking pink bikini she had on. "Is it a very demanding job?"

"I guess the hours are kinda long," Gil shrugged (not picking up on the woman's blatant flirting). He was in the middle of making some notes for his own observation and research. The four women flocked around him were simply present.

Thena knew this--she knew that in Gil's mind they were just strangers sharing the beach space with them. But from her vantage, it was definitely four female trainers, all very obviously hitting on Gilgamesh.

Her Gilgamesh.

"Teddiursa?" the little cub turned in Thena's arms and looked up at her curiously. He had squirmed all through Thena applying sunblock to the inside of his ears and paw pads, but then she had gone mysteriously quiet instead of playing with him.

Thena continued to watch the interaction like a Braviary, "we'll play in just a minute, sweetheart."

Teddiursa pouted at the denial to his request.

"There are swimming competitions, Mister Ranger," another of the women, this one with long, dark hair and a black one-piece on tilted her head at him. "For people and pokemon--surely you could win."

Gil just blinked at them, "oh, I don't have any pokemon with me like that. Rangers don't actually keep pokemon. We have kind of an open door policy with them, I guess."

"Ah!" the shortest of the women gasped with a hand held up to her bright red lips, "no pokemon! Mister Ranger, what if you find yourself in trouble?"

"I'm sure he'd be fine," the fourth and tallest one cooed, even leaning against Gil's arm - visibly against his will - as she said it, "look at these muscles."

"Teddi," Thena muttered, somewhat spooking the cub in her arms. "Why don't you go over there and tell Papa that it's playtime."

Teddiursa obeyed, happy to have the time to play, no matter how oddly his Mama had asked him to do so. He ran on all fours, letting his puff ball tail wiggle around as he trotted over the slippery sands.

"Ursa!"

"Papa?" all four women turned and startled back a few paces at the strange pokemon. Obviously he was young, but he was still a pokemon they had never seen before.

"Hey, buddy!" Gil greeted the cub with a beaming smile, picking him up and holding him on his shoulder. "You ready for some fun?"

"Teddi!" the bear laughed, happily holding onto Gil's head as he stood. "Ted?"

"Yeah, I'm all done my research, we can go and play," Gil patted the little pokemon's head.

"I thought you said you didn't have any pokemon with you."

"Well," Gil shrugged the shoulder without precious cargo on it, "he's not just mine, is the thing."

"Well, who-"

"There you are!"

All four women backed up another few paces as Thena walked over, having left her hat and unbraided her hair. It picked up in the ocean breeze, rustling around her shoulders. "I see."

"Were you good about getting your sunscreen put on?" Gil asked Teddi, who nodded so hard his ears flapped a little.

"He was a little squirmy," Thena corrected, tapping their little bear on the nose, "but yes, he was very good."

"Hasta luego, Mister Ranger," the swimming trainers waved to him as they dragged themselves away from the family unit. "Your Maushold is very lovely."

"Maushold," Gil mumbled, trying to recall what pokemon that was. He would have to look it up in the Paldean pokemon guidebook later.

"Did you discover all the scientific things you were hoping for?" Thena asked with clear humour in her voice.

"As a matter of fact, I did," Gil grinned, waving around his little notebook before zipping it and his pen into the waterproof compartment of his rented swim trunks. "I can't wait to tell Dragonite all about it."

Dragonite had flown them, but declined the beach day in favour of touring the food offerings of Porto Marinada. He had found that being a free walking pokemon didn't deter businesses from serving him so long as he had cash. He had already consumed an ice cream stand out of its entire stock for the weekend.

Thena tilted her head at the green trunks, which Gil had chosen specifically for the waterproof pocket. "Are you going to take more notes if you go swimming and find some cave?"

"Hey, what's this 'you' business?" he grinned, braiding her hair back again for her, "you're coming with us."

"No, I--Gil?"

"Ey, Hot Stuff!" two passing men whistled and shouted to them, waving at Thena. "Care to join us? We could be great Flamigos, no?"

"She's not interested!" Gil barked at them, pulling Thena flush against him with her chest pressed into his, hiding as much of her - and her rented white bikini - as possible.

"Teddi!" Teddiursa added, mostly to mimic Gil and not necessarily in any understanding of what was going on.

Thena blinked, her hands pressed to Gil's chest as he held her, even wrapping his other arm around her waist while his hand grasped her bare shoulder. She had never seen him like this.

Maybe the beach wasn't such a bad idea.

[flintstill]

God I loved that in my neighborhood back where my lease is that the grass gets mowed at like 5pm or a bit later

Fuck ye outside my window I’m trying to go back to sleep

[seagullcharmer]

been a loooong day. very sleepy. but! making progress on fi