#people can like hazbin hotel and ANY other piece of media while still being aware of it's problems. grow up!

[impunkster-syndrome]

Things I like about the comic:

There is a saturation toggle, especially with the eyestrain in the art that can make it inaccessible. I noticed in the preboot that the media is perfectly aware of how overwhelming it can be on the eyes, so I do appreciate a toggler since I am photosensitive.

The transcripts.

There's some acknowledgement of how it can feel weird to have your possessions and clothes taken from you for hospitalization. Characters wear hospital gowns which adds to the alienation of being visibly ill or disabled in some way. Especially with how some psych ward clothes can feel violating to wear because of being stripped of something so personal to you.

Doom's ears becoming more triangular really helps him not be confused with Mood. It also stylistically sets him apart as being more jaded by using the sharp features as a shorthand.

The things I don't:

Lack of page numbers in a volume. It makes it harder to reference specific pages if this is not listed on the site. It's in the links to the page sure, but it would be great to be able to easily see what page you are on and to be able to skip to specific pages.

Important worldbuilding information is not directly found in the comic. The meanings of the color schemes, what the roles of doctors and nurses are, and more are not easily deciphered via the text and have to be found in supplemental media. I call this kind of problem "Author brainspace expectation" because the media is not made with absolute beginners in mind and the author expects people who have never heard of it before to have the same level of knowledge as them, thus raising the barrier to entry for being able to understand the media. Other pieces of media that suffer from this same problem are Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel. Kingdom Hearts gets a pass because it became more like that as time went on but the first game is still understandable for people new to it.

The themes of the website changing for specific sections. This can add more contrast and keep things less accessible due to the contrast not allowing it to be easy to read.

The shaky text. Sorry but I don't like feeling sick as I try to read.

Nurses being completely good while doctors are completely evil. It's not a nuanced take and ignores systemic problems, plus how nurses can mistreat people. Things like Nurse Mood's refusal to write down medical history due to not caring to believe a patient is actually a form of normalized ableism that can really impact people. Happened to me and due to that I could barely eat any food brought to me while hospitalized due to my celiac and that not being on my chart despite me telling people over and over.

Jay's mobility aid is used as a plot device and then never seen again.

While every artist dreams of just being able to be paid for making art, that means that whatever you are releasing is open to criticism and that needs to be acknowledged. The patreon means this is making money and has to make a profit to sustain itself. It's not just a personal vent project anymore due to that and having staff. Kittycorn and staff need to accept that and not use the author (That they tend to tokenize, mind you) and kits trauma as a shield for any critique.

Cut down on the controlling rules for the media. You cannot control what someone does with your characters once you've made them more public. The rule that everyone must hate Cuddles and similar rules are overreaching and not a reasonable boundary to be enforced. Related to above, it's one thing to just talk about thoughts on media in a public space no matter how negative it is (acceptable), and something else entirely to send anon hate to staff and the author or to directly spam them with links to criticism directly unless they make it clear it is fine to do so (unacceptable). I see a lot more people complaining about the first when it is perfectly fine to have opinions about media and not the second. People having conflicted or not entirely positive thoughts on media is not a bad thing and actually fosters a deeper discussion of the media.

FAQs are for additional information and making things clear that are maybe unclear in the text, not for exposition and worldbuilding information.

The AUs of a paid project are forcing the comic to come to a halt. Breaks are fine, sure, but you need to be releasing things consistently for the project that people are paying you to make. A complete stop for months and no public progress makes this feel scam-adjacent.

The staff. If you find yourself attacking critics for existing while you yourself are on staff, you should not be on staff and should not be interacting with the fanbase at all. Both ZCP members I have spoken to initiated contact with me without ever reading any of my criticism and taking anything stated to them as bad faith when I would not allow them to be hostile with me. If you cannot have some level of separation between you and your fanbase, you need to create that so people do not see you/your staff as entitled assholes. Make internal rules to not publicly respond to criticism but still read it so you all can improve. I know this is the "piss on the poor" site but staff of a webcomic being so defensive to people who give valid critique are in the wrong and all it does is give everyone a poor view of the comic.

Tonal whiplash from dealing with ableism to ship content is jarring. You can't just flip between one or another constantly and expect either to mean anything to the reader.

Barruni needs to not be pushed as aggressively. It alienates anyone from the comic who wants to see anyone but them.

#long post #sparklecare critical #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #blackbox thoughts

[sr-6910]

Rules

Hey there! @pumpkinpyre here! I’m 30+, and pronouns are whatever the hell you feel like, I couldn’t care less. Thought I’d try to make the rules page a post this time, make it easier to access from mobile. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet!

This is an 18+ blog! SR might be a bit of a nicer Rick, all things considered, but this is still a Rick and Morty blog! There will be mentions of alcohol and drug use, violence, sexual situations, and all other manner of things you’d expect to see in the show as well. If you need something specific tagged, feel free to let me know, but honestly it’s going to pretty much be a free for all.

This is a blogstyle blog! Meaning that SR is making all the posts, himself, unless I tag it as OOC or use ((double parentheses)) to indicate otherwise. Think of it as Rick’s blog! He’s making posts from his own phone or computer. Now, I know that most other people tend to do face to face interactions on Tumblr, so I might dabble a bit with that. Anything like that will be tagged F2F to differentiate it. But mostly I do face to face, in person interactions on Discord. I’m not comfortable posting it publicly, but if you want to trade Discord IDs, just hit me up in DMs!

I won’t tag for fandoms. I’ve got buddies from all over the place, and so there’s a strong possibility of me interacting with characters from as many different forms of media from Hazbin Hotel, to Yu-Gi-Oh, to Undertale. I will tag users’ urls, but when I tagged for specific fandoms I felt icky as fuck, like I was agreeing it was something that needed to be hidden away. Block and blacklist any urls you need to, but just be aware that something you don’t like could crop up.

Single verse. It’s just easier for me to keep track that way. I’ve got so many muses as it is, so many sideblogs, that I don’t need to go splitting one blog up into even more pieces.

I don’t trust callouts, I don’t trust blacklists. Don’t treat real people like fictional characters, and don’t treat fictional characters like real people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I just can’t stand people that try to bully others while trying to use “morality” as an excuse. Ship and let ship, kink tomato, ect. You can think something is fucking nasty while not being a massive dick to strangers on the internet.

Okay I think that’s it! :D I’ll add more if I think of it, or if anything else comes up. Feel free to ask me if there’s something you’re unsure about!

#rules #OOC

[arethereanyoriginalusernames]

Advice for ppl in the Vivziepop fanbase (who haven't been involved in the recent drama) + a brief explanation about wtf is happening

Hey guys. While I haven't touched any Vivz drama related stuff in a while, I wanted to talk about a couple things.

1. What's happening and why it matters

2. Suggestions for what to do

Keep in mind that I am no omnipresent god, and you can take or leave anything I'm going to say here. Also, I will do my best to remain neutral both in this post + in any future mentions of drama. This is not because I don't think it's important, but moreso because I don't want to get too involved with it (for me personally, getting involved in drama isn't a great idea. Especially now)

If anyone would like to correct any misinformation here, feel free. Just try to be respectful. I want to make something that serves as a springboard for people fighting each other. Debate and discussion is fine, threats and insults are not.

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1. What's happening now?

A couple things.

First is the issue pertaining to the misuse of vodou symbols in the Hazbin Hotel pilot and Vivz's reaction. As many may know, the character Alastor is associated with vodou, and vodou symbols appear when he's being evil or whatever

Now, what's the problem with this? Many people may be familiar with the issue of cultural appropriation, and the problem with people misusing something from a culture that they are not apart of. In this case, Vivz does not come from a culture that practices vodou, nor does she practice it herself. There also appears to be nobody on staff who is any different.

I am no practitioner of vodou, nor am I an expert, but you can find posts explaining the problem with the symbols used.

This is an issue I wanted to touch on in particular, bc unfortunately I've encountered quite a few people who don't see these issues as anything serious. Also, before someone comments on how nobody is complaining about the use of christian symbols and references, keep in mind that vodou and christianity are not the same. Christianity is more open, and uses stuff from it doesn't disrespect it. Vodou is different, as it is more exclusive. Basically, you need to be in vodou in order to use it, plus there are consequences to using certain symbols.

Another issue people have brought up is how Hazbin is representing vodou as evil by having an evil character use it. Before anyone brings up how the show uses offensive comedy, I'm going to stop you right there because that doesn't matter. Vodou has been demonized for a long time in various pieces of media. To dismiss something like this is unfair and immoral. Also, there's a difference between comedy and representation. If your only vodou using character is a cannibalistic serial killer, you're representing vodou as evil. That's not me trying to be an SJW, that's basic literarily analysis.

Vivz hasn't really helped her case by blocking people who have pointed out the misuse of vodou. While I would normally say that taking criticism is her choice to make, this pertains to a serious issue. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to turn her into a villain. People fuck up, and calling them out isn't always meant to cancel them. You can realize when somebody you like has messed up, and not hate the person. In this case, yes, Vivz has fucked up, and she ought to at least apologize for the misuse, and take care not to do so again in the future. One way that I can think of off the top of my head is to consult an actual practitioner of vodou when creating HH, and/or having more than one type of character use vodou.

I realize that this is just one controversy out of several, but, again, this is one I wanted to address since I know a lot of people don't take something like this seriously. I don't have the energy nor the mental health to get into every single thing, so I won't.

-------------------------------------------

2. How do we deal?

The simple answer is to not be a dickhead, but allow me to elaborate.

Don't dismiss the issue because you personally don't think it's a big deal, especially if you're not someone directly affected by it. I've already seen this with Black Lives Matter, where people have treated it like it's the overreaction of a group of SJWs. Representation does matter, and it's fine to acknowledge flaws in media you love. This isn't a call to boycott Hazbin Hotel or Vivziepop. You can still love something while recognizing the problems in it. For instance, works such as Shakespeare's plays have elements that wouldn't fly today (such as the ages of Romeo and Juliet in their titular story). That doesn't mean that you're an awful person for liking them.

What makes you a horrible person is ignoring the flaws, and/or believing that something like this is okay.

There's already been problems with racism and homophobia on Twitter and Facebook (which, bc I don't use either, I wasn't aware of until recently). Let's not make things any more of a dumpster fire.

I apologize for wasting your time

- Spooky S Skeletons

#zoophobia #hazbin hotel