#st critique

[goonflower]

this moment was so out of character what was this? 😩

like i get he felt like nancy wasn't being her true self (which was true imo) but yknow what would've been a BETTER way to show that? a FLASHBACK. like the numerous of will previously in this SAME episode. like how abt a flashback of nancy (maybe with barb considering what happens to her right after) before she dated steve, maybe jonathan dropping off will at the wheelers and getting a glimpse of her real self contrasted with how she's acting in this scene. then we would actually get some character development of nancy in this scene instead of her just being there for jonathan/steve to admire whilst also building a bond between jonathan and nancy, of jonathan seeing nancy as a real complex person.

the only reason for this scene to exist was for jonathan to take a pic of barb for nancy to see but even then nancy was already concerned abt barb going missing and so that scene of her looking for barb and running into a monster could've happened anyway.

this moment literally had no reason to exist and just made jonathan look really bad and showed off how LITTLE the duffers understand abt consent that they would write this as a sympathetic moment where the audience is supposed to root for jonathan taking his pics. when i think of this scene i just get annoyed at the duffers, not jonathan bc like jonathan is a fictional character and the duffers write for him to do this yk and also in my eyes its just really out of character for jonathan to do this.

like this scene is literally one of the biggest hurdles to shipping jancy for me. esp bc its played off as Not A Big Deal and nancy just doesn't care abt having her privacy invaded ig (very men writing women moment). like nancy deserved better than being creeped on and jonathan deserved better than being written as a creep

#stranger things #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #barb holland #steve harrington #stranger things s1 #st critique #duffer bros stop writing creepy “romance” scenes challenge #ik creepy nerds getting the girl was a big 80s trope and i know its set in the 80s but like it wasnt WRITTEN or viewed in the 80s #anti jancy #anti stancy #kind of #men writing women

[ineedmycoffeerightnow]

Why is my first favorite twink design in hellaverse so far also whitewashed version of the most tragic (and my favorite) character in the bible, WHY 😭

#st peter Hazbin hotel #Hazbin hotel st peter #Hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel critical #helluva boss critique #hazbin hotel critique #hazbin hotel criticism

[tired-hellowl]

here' a comprehensive list as to every problem I have with the current *unecessary characters known as 'Glitz and Glam'

Do they expand the story/worldbuilding in any meaningful way? Do they explore a new hidden dynamic/past conjunction with a differing character and is that explored meaningfully? What was the point of having them animated when Mammon can portray the same level of humiliation/degrading/on stage lack of positive reinforcements. 😐

I'm so sorry but I view these characters as necessary garbage that caused some animators arthritis via too many patterns, not enough screen time to have meat and potatoes worth of dialogue, or really any pretense within the story whatsoever and yes this extends towards every female character on screen but let's not worry about that !!! Even if they are IMPLIED to be from the ring of envy-a color or ring we haven't seen nor meaningfully conveyed to the audience that it even is possible to go in/exists- it isn't conveyed to the audience well enough besides the visual implication of colors???? Instead of having shitty b-plots that go nowhere via Stolas and Blitz goofing off in seeing stars, Moxxie and Millie getting C-plots for no reason, or loona getting a rabies shot- all of that time could have been exploring hell, going to different rings, focusing on other characters besides the main 5, literally I would prefer a quiet episode like BoJack Horsemans 'Fish out of Water'where we can actually see the personalities of the main characters be appreciated and shown to us but that's never gonna happen :/

What I've been worried about is not even the on screen racism/out of touch 'rap/hip-hop parody' leaves a terrible taste in my mouth, if that isn't enough then the sexualization/implication of an incest type dynamic and nothing else besides fetish bait with these characters constantly grabbing one another and not really acting like siblings moreso someone who has never had siblings attempting to write sibling banter and failing terribly :/

Why do you have a problem with 'Klown Bitch' it's so catchy! Uhm, no??? I feel bad for anyone who attempts to defend helluva/hazbin as good modern musicals let me grit my teeth in silence as to the glorification over white people dominating black culture

HERES A HISTORY OF FEMALE HIPHOP ARTISTS: X

Pictured above is very old concept art about twin characters and its the same hairshape viv kept to transfer over to glitz/glam- despite clearly being over designed and way too much going on Alá vivzie style. It just goes to show she recycles even from herself and not every design is always new hot and fresh :/ AND SPEAKING OF CONCEPT ART-

Also also don't forget salems' concept designs thst got passed even though they loon toony, loony, clown enough, and definitely majorly way easier to have animated besides the mess that is the current design meta ???

Love how you can clearly see the silhouettes being so easily identifiable comparably towards the actual amalgamated mess that is their current limbs attempting to hold onto their toothpick body for their head.

All this screams to me is viv using the artists thst try to come onto helluva and they try their best with what their given, viv only picks the best bits SHE thinks is worth her time rather then thinking about the audience or animating anything else besides overglorified white people rap 🤔

Also the episode literally presents its full internalized misogyny/racism within this episode because vivzie herself literally admitted to typing into script with a full chest that

'Women just ain't funny'

. . .

why present misogyny within the series if you as a creator aren't willing to tackle the subject matter? Why write about it or present it as if you're smart over including the joke in your script when it isn't even funny because it just further pushes women out of the entertainment/comedy business which mind you IS ALREADY VERY WELL MALE DOMINATED SO PUTTING OTHER WOMEN DOWN TO PUT YOURSELF UP ISNT HELPING YOUR CASE VIV???

So then what was the point of adding female clowns if all you were going to do with them was make fun of them out of their expense and then profit off of the fact that they are incest coded????????????

?????????Are we watching the same fucking series????????

#vivziepop critical #i'll add more later #helluva critique #helluva critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss is homophobic #helluva boss critical #i hate it here #anti hazbin hotel #anti spindlehorse #anti helluva boss #anti vivziepop #cw inc*st #I hate glitz and glam so much

[bumblingbabooshka]

Tuvok and Neelix need to share a kiss for plot related reasons (maybe a classic 'avoiding detection by pretending to be a kissing couple' since bad guys always fall for that one) so they can both independently think "This dude sucks at kissing."

#Tuvok #Neelix #having a sad day but then thought about them both thinking 'this dude sucks at kissing' and laughed #st voy #Neelix: Was that your first kiss Mr. Vulcan~? / Tuvok: No. / Neelix: Then I have some critiques. Tiiiiny critiques.

[memesomething]

i am aware 'i love you' is probably a death sentence. it changes nothing. i love you i love you i love you

#muse thoughts #have thoughts in all directions mostly it's ow/en st/rand in the crossover critique though lkdjflkdsjf

[sinclairstarz]

for the cinephile byler truthers. i made the party’s modern au letterboxd accounts

in my head mike wheeler is the film bro cinephile of the party. hes a big brad pitt fan and fincher is his favorite director if you even care.. dirty dancing would be in his top 4 if he was honest. he went to see dune cause hes a scifi nerd, ended up hating it so much and complained about it to will but still gave it 2 stars cause it was pretty. did leave a very mean review. very critical rater but mostly leaves high ratings because he just doesn’t watch things he doesnt wanna see.

alternative movies i considered putting: pulp fiction (5 stars), the killer (1 star), se7en (5 stars), across the spiderverse (5 stars), nope (5 stars) , the batman 2022 (4 stars), once upon a time in hollywood (5 stars), inglorious basterds (5 stars), the matrix (half a star)

the thing is so good and he has a poster of it on his wall in canon so it felt right. it just feels wrong not to do ghostbusters (plus its one of my favorite movies…) and yall need to hear me out on brokeback 😭😭😭 ur telling me he wouldnt bawl his eyes out??? ur wrong. will byers is a jake gyllenhaal lover. he watches dirty dancing a lot for mike, and loves ghibli movies a lot. he cried during rain man. honest rater but doesnt take it too seriously, mostly 4/5 star ratings

alternatives: saltburn (half a star), asteroid city (5 stars), blackkklansman (5 stars), the force awakens (3.5 stars), the perks of being a wallflower (4.5 stars), back to the future (5 stars)

rogue one because lucas has taste. its the best star wars movie, if u care. he would love how fun and goofy ghostbusters 2 is. in my head Wes Anderson is like the party’s claimed director and they all watch his movies together and do marathons because the weirdness, comedy, and emotional commentary is a perfect mix for them. so. bottle rocket. lucas’ favorite wes anderson is the grand budapest hotel if u wanted to know. he rates things pretty highly and isn’t super critical.

alternatives: dodgeball (5 stars), scream 5 (4 stars), the matrix (3 stars), good will hunting (5 stars), jurassic park (5 stars), die hard (5 stars),

likes making lucas watch gone girl on valentines day and telling him shes gonna do that to him next time he annoys her. v for vendetta is her favorite romance movie and shes a big marvel fan (in a cool way. kind of .) but thor ragnarok is probably one of her fav marvels, along with spiderman far from home and iron man. i just know she watches Casino Royale and decided she hated James Bond and then ended up watching all the Daniel Craig Bonds with Mike and loved Skyfall so much. the song is on her playlist and she did cry after No Time To Die.

Alternatives: Superbad (5 stars), baby driver (5 stars), bottoms (5 stars), 10 things i hate about you (3.5 stars), scream (5 stars), kill bill (5 stars), lord of the rings: the return of the king (1.5 stars)

also a bit of a film nerd. i considered giving him a star wars and i know in my heart he’d probably have empire somewhere in his top 4. but star wars is lame and i wanted to give him se7en so he fucking gets se7en. he knows john wick is objectively dumb but he doesnt care hes just here for a good time. the party probably watched saltburn together and all fucking hated it. I just know hes a kurosawa nerd and always goes when the local theatres do very rare special showings of his movies.

alternatives: baby driver (4 stars), the ewok adventure (5 stars) hot fuzz (5 stars) harry potter and the sorcerers stone (4 stars) legally blonde (5 stars) spirited away (5 stars) dazed and confused (5 stars)

she likes movies that make her feel all warm and fuzzy and hopeful. i wanted to give her breakfast club, but i think she’d honestly like sixteen candles more (even though breakfast club’s better). she cried at almost every movie in her top 4 and makes max rewatch juno with her like once a month. she gives most movies 5 stars unless she really hates them, and loves any movie thats fun to watch, even if its bad. she likes movies with pretty girls and fun colors.

alternatives: barbie (5 stars), legally blonde (5 stars), inception (2 stars), heathers (5 stars) pretty in pink (4.5 stars (she was mad andi didn’t end up with ducky)) my neighbor totoro (5 stars)

in conclusion if you haven’t seen They Cloned Tyron (2023) go watch it it deserved the oscar

#THIS ONES FOR YOU CINEPHILE ST FANS #this is so self indulgent #i love having fun #ive seen every movie on here so basically im 100% right and theres no room for critique #there should be more star wars. because theyre all nerd #but star wars is so dumb and i wanted to put movies that i like so #literally ignore how low quality the posters all are #i downloaded them directly from letterboxd so #slipped a couple of my niche faves in there #cinephile mike wheeler is real to me. #stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #el hopper #cinephile byler #cinephile mike wheeler #the party #stranger things headcanons #the party headcanons #stranger things favorite movies #favorite movies #letterboxd #modern au #modern ​stranger things

[queerxqueen]

mike wheeler + looking at Will in That scene

#byler #mike wheeler is gay #mike wheeler is not straight #mike wheeler i know what you are #mike wheeler #will byer #stranger things 4 #st spoilers #stranger things #the third one and the last two he is objectively in love #i will not be accepting critiques at this time ty #my gifs

[tackletofset]

I made this back in august

(screenshot from the DH ARC)

#how sarcean antis read it: critiquing the queer villain and reclaiming the classic hero #dr meme #dark heir #dark rise #will kempen #sarcean #james st clair #cs pacat

[thestobingirlie]

There’s one steddie fic I read once where Dustin questions why Eddie would ever want to date Steve cause Steve is a loser and Eddie is so cool??? Which is very out of character for Dustin imo. Sure teenagers get moody and sassy but Dustin loves them both and clearly WORSHIPS Steve enough to talk about him to Eddie 24/7. I think a lot of it is projection tbh cause wtf

oh god.

dustin thinks steve is cool!!!!!! eddie himself said that dustin worships steve!! that came right out of eddie’s fucking mouth! you’d think these authors would pay enough attention to eddie to listen to his lines, considering they want to fuck him so badly.

honestly the way fandom treats eddie and dustin makes me not like their friendship. just the way it’s constantly compared and prioritised over steve and dustin’s annoys me so much.

#steve harrington #eddie munson #dustin henderson #stranger things #st fic critiques

[mickc-rants]

Helluva Boss S2 E5 spoilers

TW // mentions of incest and grooming

I’m kinda glad it’s another episode of IMP doing their job, except it features Blitz’s sister. At least it’s a Millie episode which she isn’t a bait to another character’s time to shine.

To be honest, I’ve seen Moxxie being tortured a lot in the show and not being to well-liked by several people. It’s gross.

Speaking of gross thing (or icky things), there’s bunch of incest “jokes” and grooming implied in the show. I mean the Barbie Wire and the counselor (somewhere in the age of 18-19) where she stated they’re easy to manipulate despite being in her 30s.

#tw: inc*st #tw: grooming #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #anti vivziepop

[gritsandbrits]

He told me he likes it when my big booty jiggles

#st peter hazbin hotel #hazbin critical #hazbin critique

[ineedmycoffeerightnow]

Lil reminder for all of you guys

#hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel critique #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel saint peter #hazbin hotel st peter

[laundrybiscuits]

Do you think Eddie was flagging in the show?

If this approaches discourse, I'll understand if you choose not to respond.

This is kind of a multi-layered question, but I think it’s worth talking about in the context of broader approaches to fandom.

I haven’t seen these terms used for a while, but fans used to talk about “Watsonian” and “Doylist” explanations as a good shorthand for “in-universe logic/rationale” and “out-of-universe motivations.” For example, the Watsonian (as in what John Watson might think) explanation for a villain monologue might be that the character wanted to prolong his moment of victory because he wasn’t ready to let the feud go. The Doylist (as in what Arthur Conan Doyle might think) explanation might be that the author needed to pad out the wordcount. 

The important part is that neither of those lenses is wrong. They’re just different ways of looking at a text. 

Word of God (i.e. what the creators say about a work in interviews etc.) is not the same as canon, and canon is not sacred. It’s just what’s on the screen or page.

I’m going to be a little self-indulgent here and bring in some Death of the Author by Roland Barthes, because I literally have a page of quotes stored on my tumblr. Admittedly, the translation I have is a little dense, but I think I’ve pulled out the key points. (Also, caveat that this is not the only valid way to do lit crit, but I think it can be very helpful in fandom.)

“The text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture.” 

I think about this all the time in regard to fandom, because it reminds me that texts don’t spring fully-formed from some ethereal plane. The cultural and literary references you grew up with, as well as the ones you continue to consume, feed directly into whatever you produce as a creator. That’s why my number one tip for young creatives who want to improve is to be intentional about the media they consume*. That’s where inspiration comes from: just tip more material into the slurry of your subconscious, and see what alchemized new thing bubbles to the surface. 

That also means that as critical readers, we can always try to see connections and patterns, regardless of Word of God. However, it’s important to remember that those connections and patterns are not necessarily lodged within the text itself…and that brings me to my next quote.

“The unity of a text is not in its origin, it is in its destination.” 

It’s rarely useful or interesting, in the context of fandom, to treat a text as an artifact to be excavated. It’s much more relevant and functional to ask what you as an individual get from the text—what your own relationship is to the themes, motifs, ideas, messages you’ve gleaned from your experience of reading/watching. Every reader has a different relationship to the text, because every reader is a different person with a different history. 

The difference between fandom and Extended Universe-type stuff isn’t just licensing. Frankly, I personally would find that a pretty boring fandom experience, if absolutely everything were strictly canon-compliant and cross-referenced. Fandom is transformative, which means it interprets and reinterprets texts as a form of consumption/creation, and that necessarily means a willingness to discard anything that doesn’t suit whatever story we’re trying to tell. 

In other words, Eddie doesn’t have a canon sexuality. Hell, very few characters in general do. As I mentioned in the first footnote to my last reply, it’s useful to think about sexuality as behavior + identity + desire; we often see behavior on screen, but we rarely see the other two in an explicit way. We can read him as flirting with Steve, we can read him as flirting with Chrissy, or both, or neither. That’s how fandom works. 

So, do I think Eddie was flagging in the show?

Let’s break that question down into a few different aspects.

Doylist: do I personally believe that the various people involved in the show deliberately intended Eddie to flag as a(n implicitly MSM) sado top? 

No. I don’t. Honestly, I simply don’t trust them that much. I don’t think they had queerness explicitly in mind when they created Eddie, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is queer-coded, much like a Disney villain. He represents anxieties about nonconformity and morality—of course he’s going to resonate with queer people. 

Ultimately, though, I don't really care about this particular creative team's intent. It's not interesting to me. There are so many shows that I enjoy more than ST for their artistic choices, and I'm interested in hearing the intent behind those, but specifically what I personally enjoy about ST is the stories its components let other people tell.

Watsonian (1): do I personally believe it’s within Eddie’s canon characterization to be flagging? 

It’s not impossible. It’s also not impossible that he’s just aping more generic metal accessories. Personally, I think it’s somewhat unlikely that at 19-20, living in the middle of nowhere and with the various plates he’s spinning, Eddie’s had enough exposure to kink to be really confident and knowledgeable about flagging. But I’ve also heard some pretty wild stories about small town gays back in the day, so I’m willing to be convinced either way.

Watsonian (2): do I personally believe it’s within Eddie’s canon characterization to be a sado top?

This is venturing into some even trickier waters, but my answer’s very similar to the last question—it’s not impossible. You don’t need to be a particular kind of person to be a top/bottom/dom/sub, no matter what the old fandom flamewars may have claimed. (Being in my early teens and witnessing the SasuNaru vs NaruSasu discourse was not a good way to learn about this.) Different parts of the same experience can resonate with people for different reasons, and there’s more than enough wiggle room to interpret literally any character in any way. 

(I will say that people who actively seek out DMing tend to enjoy controlling a scene to evoke particular emotional responses from players, and that's the angle I find most plausible for Eddie.)

I am personally agnostic on the matter of Eddie’s sexual preferences. As a reader, it’s most important to me that those preferences are coherent with the rest of the characterization within the fic. As a writer, I tend to characterize him as pretty switchy for the same reason I tend to characterize him as gay and into mythology: I am just projecting onto a blorbo.

That’s all any of this really is. 

*On a practical level: I often suggest to young creatives that they make a habit of identifying at least one thing they like AND at least one thing they don’t like about art, whatever form that art comes in. It builds critical faculties by making sure you actually digest the art you're consuming, and it’s also a good reminder that even the worst piece of dreck (probably) has something worth learning from—and even the most sublime masterpiece has flaws.

#askbox #WHY NOT witter on for 1k words about a knot of hot-button issues for my 100th post. why not. christ. #overusing the word 'personally' to emphasize that IT'S ALL SUBJECTIVE art is fake critique is fake live ur life #I'm just...the kind of insufferable person who has a color-coded spreadsheet rating all the musicals and plays I see #again: I will delete & block at the first sign of discourse! can u tell I have like. tumblr trauma from 2013 #ST meta for TS

[n3felibata]

#saint peter vs whatever that thing Viv drew is #brother eugh #i will never shut up about this #hellaverse #hazbin hotel #hazbin #saint peter #st peter #st peter hazbin hotel #saint peter hazbin hotel #bax's critiques #helluva critical #hazbin critical

[st-danger]

Hey st!

I was wondering if you had any tips for writing in general? I've been trying to write more often, but it all feels clunky and gross😭

Also, your ficlets have got me in a literal choke hold in the best way possible

Hope you're well and that you have a good day:)

~inky-ghoul

Hi Inky!

I feel highly unqualified to be offering any kind of advice, but! If I were to offer something, it would be the following:

Write the clunky gross stuff. Who cares. A lot of writing that both you and I do will be mediocre at best. If I hadn't purged my fanfiction I wrote in high school from the internet, I would gladly share it because it really Wasn't Great (tm). I cannot express to you how much terrible writing I have done. WHO CARES. Write it. You can only improve, so stop worrying about only writing "good stuff" because...

...you can edit. But this comes with a caveat- you can only edit if there are words on the page to do so. And it might take multiple edits and revisions! It probably will! I know it's been said a hundred times before, but first drafts are FIRST DRAFTS and they are not meant to be final products. They are not meant to be perfect. They are your starting point. Also, you don't have to nitpick and revise everything you write to death. I think it's useful because you teach yourself what to look for, and I think it helps develop your personal voice and style, but what the fuck do I know, I'm literally Some Guy and my word is not law.

Don't edit as you go. Don't write a sentence and think to yourself UGH I WONDER IF THERE'S A DIFFERENT WAY TO SAY THESE NINE WORDS. IT DOESN'T REALLY FLOW. You'll never get anything on the page. I say this as someone who's biggest challenge is not editing as I go. It will take forever, you'll end up stuck, and you'll drive yourself crazy trying to make everything immediately perfect instead of getting out the thoughts and revisiting (see #2).

Can't think of something? One of the most interesting nuggets of advice I've read is instead of getting caught up reading about vintage teapots because you want to describe something and feel you have to do allllll the research immediately- use "~" and then type in something like ~vintage teapot description here. When you've finished with your draft, you can use the find in page function, search for "~", and it will show you the spots you marked for later.

Read Stephen King's "On Writing".

Pick and choose what works for you. Outline or don't. Make involved character sheets or don't. There is no wrong way to write. The only wrong way is to get in your own way and not write at all.

#also you can ask for critiques #when you spend a lot of time staring at a piece #sometimes you get a little blind to things and don't have perspective #can be helpful to get another viewpoint from someone who isn't close to the project #st-speaks

[bumblingbabooshka]

T’Pol & T’Pel

#T'Pol #T'Pel #I jazzed up T'Pol's uniform bc I do hate it #I'll say it a thousand times - if you're gonna make a sexy outfit at least look like you put some thought into it #I scribbled some fake Vulcan shit on there and added a flare cut bc she reminds me of the 70's #T'Pel's long ass dress that Tuvok pictures her in is so impractical for Vulcan sands so I added that its worn & a bit tattered #T'Pel doesn't like buying new clothes she's gonna wear it until it falls apart #I can appreciate a woman in a big cape-cloak thing though #T'Pol also got chunky lightly platformed boots #bc I like the thought of her taking them off and being SHORT #anyway...two ladies <3 #they are both both older and younger than each other #and they're both in love #T'Pol art #T'Pel art #st ent art #st voyager art #star trek art #also when I say 'it's impractical for Vulcan sands' that's not a critique - love the drama #also it might just BE practical bc a lot of Vulcans wear those long ass robes - maybe it protects their skin #by 'impractical' I mean 'it's gonna get dirty' but hey...nothing wrong with that #bea art tag