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The desperation in this guy's eyes.

My boy nearly died (presumably forced to protect Charlie by his deal), and wants to escape and strike back more than anything.

Requested, image description/edit: Alastor having a breakdown from nearly getting killed by Adam, hands grabbing his head, his red eyes darting around and his perpetual smile is extremely strained, baring gum.

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Alastor panicked and incredulous at him almost dying trying to protect and help people of all things is glorious, my poor baby.

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who taught his great depression ass this slang 😭😭😭

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The Hazbin Hotel Valentine cards are WILD!

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Imagine spending all your energy being cool and mysterious 24/7.

What an idiot have I mentioned I love him?

Idea came from a cool post @nouverx made about Alastor’s possible sleeping habits. 💕

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So glad they didn’t put this in the show bc I genuinely would’ve spontaneously combusted.

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been reading non-hannibal fanfic for the first time in like 2 years and have come to the tragic realisation that the hannibal fandom has ruined me when it comes to fic quality

like my standards are so ridiculously high now. the bar is on the moon

you've all ruined me. RUINED ME I SAY

#everything else is shit #nothing else is up to par

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Something I really like about both Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss is that while romance is a big aspect of both shows, they aren't actually all that much about characters falling in love so much as they are about BEING in love. Or rather, in a relationship.

Just look at how many romances are already firmly established at the start of the respective shows: The M&Ms and Fizzarolli/Ozzie in Helluva Boss, heck the main heroine of Hazbin STARTS the show already in a loving relationship with her partner.

And as for the two major developing 'slow-burn' romances, those are clearly not about something as simple as two characters 'having to admit their feelings' but rather more about two people needing to work and figure out an actual relationship with each other.

Heck, Blitzo and Stolas are technically already in a relationship, just a super messy and dysfunctional one that can't continue in it's current state and needs both members to work out something better. Meanwhile Angel and Husk have more or less made their mutual attraction fairly apparent at this point, and it's clear that any real challenge in building a relationship will come in working through their respective issues.

There really aren't any major romances in either of these shows that are the standard, straightforward 'these two just need to admit their feelings and have a big confession and everything's great' love story. Instead they're much more about people in or figuring out actual relationships.

And I think that makes them both feel like something really special.

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What a lot of Helluva Boss fans have in common with Blitzo...

Something I’ve realized recently is that there is this great, fascinating irony in this fixation that much of the Helluva Boss fandom has on the idea of some simple ‘wholesome’ family dynamic between Blitzo, Stolas, Loona and Octavia. Where Blitzo and Stolas are in some happy marriage and raising Loona and Octavia and everything is sweet and wholesome.

Because you know who ELSE is super-fixated on finding some idealized ‘wholesome family dynamic’?

Blitzo.

And after watching Seeing Stars, I think we can say pretty definitively that this very fixation is one of the biggest PROBLEMS with Blitzo and one of the main reasons his relationship with Loona is so dysfunctional.

Looking back in hindsight, it’s pretty clear that Bltizo’s decision to adopt a hellhound was driven by his desperate need for emotional connection to someone. Because that’s the crux of Blitzo’s entire character: Thanks to his metric shitton of childhood trauma and baggage, he is absolutely desperate for emotional connection and validation, while simultaneous being absolutely TERRIFIED of any kind of commitment or letting himself be vulnerable. It’s why he burned down his relationship with Verosika, it’s the source of his relationship problems with Stolas, it’s why he’s so obsessed with the M&Ms (because he’s desperate for what they have) and it’s why he’s such a dysfunctional father-figure to Loona.

Because looking at the flashback in Seeing Stars, we can easily infer that Blitzo wasn’t looking to adopt some disaffected, traumatized loner just about to age out of the adoption system like Loona, but rather an actual child. Instead, the entire reason he adopted Loona was because her situation and the words of the overseer positively smashed Blitzo’s sympathetic trauma button and caused him to adopt Loona right there and then. I mean, think of it this way: Adopting Loona was effectively an impulse buy from Blitzo.

Now, this alone isn’t necessarily a sign of bad parenting from Blitzo. The problem is that it’s pretty clear Blitzo never adjusted his expectations of what a daughter like Loona actually needs. Because he seems to have been so fixated on creating some wholesome father-daughter relationship that would solve all his perceived problems, he’s therefore fixated on treating Loona like she’s some troubled child or teenager, rather than a young woman in her early twenties, something Moxie pointed out as early as the pilot. We see this in basically all of Blitzo’s interactions with Loona, particularly in how overly protective, overly affectionate and generally ‘clingy’ Blitzo gets towards Loona.

And combined with how Blitzo’s approach towards fatherhood seems to consist entirely of ‘don’t be like MY dad’, this seeming unwillingness/inability to see Loona as an adult rather than a child looks to be one of the central reasons for Blitzo being such a disaster of a parent and his generally dysfunctional relationship with Loona. Which we in turn see play out across the show and is on full display at the beginning of Seeing Stars:

Blitzo seems to be working from the idea of ‘be everything my dad wasn’t’, so his approach to parenting seems to be little more than ‘shower Loona in praise and affection and give her anything and everything he thinks she wants’. Which happens to be just about the exact OPPOSITE parenting/help someone like Loona actually needs. Because all he’s doing is basically enabling all of Loona’s unhealthy, anti-social, hyper-defensive coping mechanisms for her own trauma.

Like I’ve seen a number of people take issue with how so-called ‘abusive’ Loona is towards Blitzo with how much she physically lashes out at him, such as when she gives him a nutshot at the end of Seeing Stars. But frankly, that behavior should NOT be surprising at all, given what we’ve seen of them: As we see with both Loona and the M&Ms, Blitzo has basically zero respect for or even concept of personal boundaries and has a tendency to get super clingy and overly-affectionate. So is it any wonder that someone like Loona who is extremely defensive both emotionally and physically, after what has clearly been a VERY traumatic childhood would almost reflexively respond the way she does?*

That’s not to say that Loona’s tendency to beat the crap out of Blitzo is a good thing, but rather it’s a symptom of both their dysfunctional relationship and how Blitzo clearly has NO IDEA how to be a functional parent. Blitzo’s overly-affectionate, protective, clingy nature keeps Loona retreating into her shell, and his unwillingness to set any kind of boundaries for her and give her anything she wants simply allows Loona to stay in her hyper-defensive comfort zone.

It’s why despite Loona being 22 years old, she generally acts not much older than Octavia, someone at least 4 years her junior. Because in many respects she’s likely still much the same as she was when Blitzo adopted her. Blitzo’s parenting has enabled all of her pre-existing issues and allowed her to simply stay as she was while growing and maturing very little.**

Which of course is not to say that Blitzo doesn’t love his daughter. Far from it, in fact. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the overarching narrative point of the problems both Blitzo and Stolas have with their respective daughters, and which Loona highlighted in Seeing Stars can be summed up as: It is entirely possible for one to both genuinely, unconditionally care for and love their child and want nothing but the best for them, AND be an utter DISASTER of a parent.

Which all ties back to the grand irony I opened with: How much of the fandom is fixated on Blitzo, Stolas, Loona and Octavia being some simple, wholesome, happy family while Blitzo’s obsessive fixation on having that exact sort of family dynamic with Loona is presented as one of his biggest FLAWS as a character.

Just compare Blitzo’s fixation on being a wholesome, doting father to a clearly unreceptive Loona to how much of the fandom seems to view Blitzo and Stolas as already being married and Loona and Octavia as already being sisters.

Or just as Blitzo seems unwilling/unable to view Loona as a young adult rather than a child, look at how much of the fandom seems to want to view Loona and especially Octavia as children being raised by their two dads, rather than the two young adults that the show clearly seems to be treating them as.

I’ve spoken before at length about my issues with the fandom’s fixation on Loona and Octavia having a ‘simple and wholesome family relationship’, both with each other and their fathers. And this might be the biggest reason I simply DON’T see the show going in this direction that a lot of the fandom is thinking/hoping it will.

Because it runs counter to what is looking to be a major aspect of Blitzo’s character arc as both a father and a person in general: Learning to stop chasing the nebulous, vaguely defined idealized relationships he’s been so obsessively fixated on, and realizing that he CAN have the close, happy, validating personal connections he’s so desperate for if he simply opens up emotionally to the people around him and recognize how much they DO actually care about him. Like how Moxie may not appreciate his clingy attempts at being a family, but clearly would be happy to have Blitzo as a close friend. Or how Loona isn’t and was never the young, innocent child Blitzo wanted her to be, but she still appreciates him as a father who has helped her.

As I detailed in another post; Helluva Boss seems to be a story all about showing characters in messy, dysfunctional, dare I say… problematic relationships, yet also showing those characters that do genuinely care about each other can still work through and overcome their problems to find genuine happiness and fulfillment with each other. Not in some idealized ‘perfect’ sense, but one that works nonetheless.

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*Which becomes rather tragically ironic when we see that Loona does recognize and appreciate the fact that Blitzo cares about her. And even recognizes how dysfunctional their relationship is, given her ‘this kind of shit gets messy’ and ‘everybody’s got issues’ lines. But while Loona might recognize this, Blitzo clearly does NOT. And given how neither of the two are any good at meaningful communication, it gives the sense that Loona’s lashing out at Blitzo is in part kind of the only way she has to enforce personal boundaries around him.

**This actually makes it all the more ironic that when Loona and Octavia actually meet, Octavia’s mere presence seems to immediately encourage Loona to start acting more mature and insightful than we’ve ever seen her. Which in turn is why I think it’s pretty clear that a friendship between these two is so significant: Loona and Octavia each represent something the other desperately needs in her life, and a clear contrast from their complicated, dysfunctional relationships with their respective fathers.

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Things my gay friend who's never watched Hannibal said while flipping through my Hannibal art book:

"I would smash Will"

"But why would Hannibal eat Will? And please don't say it's a way to show his ultimate love"

"Is Hannibal on pills? He should be on pills."

"The art is gorgeous but I feel like everyone in your fandom has mental issues"

Him: Does Will have mental issues?

Me: yes

Him: why

Me: he is quite unstable and-

Him: that's not such a bad thing tho

Me: he also really enjoys killing people who deserve to be killed

Him: ...

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hey sorry your boyfriend started a doomed revolution, yeah he called out to the people to join him and they said no. he's facing down the national guard rn. don't want to rub it in but he's holding hands with his narrative foil in their last moments as I type this. no I don't think he's coming back. sorry.

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Whether you interpret Enjolras as a raging homosexual or a proud aroace lad, I find it a little funny that everyone collectively agrees that man does NOT like women. Sure, it’s explicitly in the text, but usually you’d get at least a few people desperately trying to cope otherwise.

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Since it’s come up yet again: no, Victor Hugo was not paid by the word to write Les Misérables, nor any of his other notable works.

While Hugo may have been paid a word rate for his early serialised fiction, by the time of Les Mis’ authorship he was sufficiently famous that he was able to command advance payment in a lump sum.

Indeed, he famously caused his publisher a great deal of anxiety by refusing to discuss how long Les Mis would be, leading to fears that he was planning to turn in a tiny pamphlet-length piece, then take the advance and run. His editors were reportedly extremely surprised at what they actually received!

The reason that Les Mis is the way that it is is because Victor Hugo is just Like That.

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Stop glamorising "the Grind" and start glamorising whatever this is

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les mis: takes place over 15+ years

phantom of the opera: at least 3 months

hamilton: 28-ish years

wicked: between 2 and 5 years

west side story: just a really stressful 48 hours for everyone involved