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leikeliscomet · 6 months

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“But We Love Martha Jones!” - The Doctor Who Fandom’s Selective Memory of Racism

Chapter 1 - Everybody Hates Martha

Contrary to now popular Whovian belief, no, the fandom didn’t like Martha at first. In fact, most Martha praise wouldn't come until years after her exit. The issue came from the “Rose shadow” of RTD1. Rose’s traumatic exit hit Ten like a truck and this echoed throughout The Runaway Bride. The episode beautifully covers the stages of grief; his denial as he forgets he can’t have another Christmas on the Powell Estate; his anger at the Racnoss; his bargaining as he reminisces good times with Rose; his depression knowing her can’t get her back and eventual acceptance - ending the episode with a solemn “her name was Rose”. On paper, this was the perfect closure Ten needed for Rose and a lovely way to say goodbye to her even in her absence. But her shadow still covered the rest of S3 and S4. And not in a good way.

From the jump Ten tells Martha she could never replace her but mind you, Martha never claimed she would, but the fandom acted like she did and was. Her presence is mentioned throughout S3: the “not that you’re replacing her” in Smith and Jones; the “Rose would know” in Shakespeare Code; Ten taking Martha to the New New York slums in Gridlock when Rose got “glitter and cocktails”; the ink drawing of Rose popping out of Ten’s subconscious through John Smith in Human Nature/Family of Blood to Jack and Ten’s convo about her in Utopia to even the Master in Last of the Time Lords, calling Martha useless for not absorbing the Time Vortex like a certain companion. Can you guess who she is? Martha to this day is the only companion to be treated as the rebound to a previous companion and this bled into the fandom. Despite Donna’s growth in Partners in Crime working so well because of her growth after The Runaway Bride, it was still a common sentiment to “wish we went straight from Rose to Donna”. The S4 writing didn’t help Martha’s case either. Ten tells Donna about the crush and other “complications” while conveniently leaving out the mixed signals he sent to her. Plus, he admits his mistakes to well… Donna, and not to Martha’s face despite sharing three whole episodes with her. Martha spent those episodes being a host to a Sontaran clone and being kidnapped by the Hath so the “I’m sorry for underestimating you and comparing you to my previous companion, Martha Jones” never came out of Ten’s mouth. The show’s insistence on Martha as the “failed Rose replacement” gave the fandom great excuses to attack her and welcome a mountain of bad faith criticism that haunts Martha Jones discussions to this day.

It doesn’t matter Martha saved the Doctor with CPR in her debut episode, used the Gamma Strike to defeat the pig men on the spot, saved John Smith, Joan and the rest of the village from the Family of Blood despite how racist they all were towards her, came up with the right word to banish the Carrionites on the spot, got the DNA sample needed from Lazarus and distracted him for Ten, got the 42 crew to dump the sun particles in the fuel, warned Ten about Yana’s watch and most importantly, stayed alive in one of humanity’s most hellish years to restore the Doctor and defeat the Master - she was incompetent.

It doesn’t matter Martha never attacked, belittled or actually insulted Rose but was rather tired of being put down for her instead, or the fact Rose within minutes of seeing Martha said “I was here first” and “Who is she?” with disgust - Martha was jealous and bitter.

It doesn’t matter Ten kissed her for a DNA sample despite her cheek, forehead and hand being available, knew about Martha’s crush and still acted oblivious post-Smith and Jones, hugged her then blamed her for said hug, lied to her about Gallifrey but told Rose the truth in her 2nd episode, called her a novice and literally screamed in her face in Utopia - Martha 100% to blame for the failed TenMartha friendship but not our unproblematic fave Ten.

It doesn’t matter Ten was willing to protect and travel with Donna in The Runaway Bride minutes after losing Rose and Eleven having no issue welcoming Clara after watching another version of her, Amy and Rory die in front of him - Martha had to be belittled by Ten because of grief.

It doesn’t matter Rose and Donna, then Amy and Clara in the Moffat era would need supernatural intervention to gain their titles, or that Rose and Donna needed Ten’s help a few times in their series - Martha had no agency.

It doesn’t matter Ten fell in love with Rose, Madame de Pompadour, Joan Redfern, Queen Elizabeth I, River Song, Astrid Peth AND Lady Christina, or RTD1’s insistence of (heterosexual) romance being the most human trait of humanity (which is a whole other conversation) - Martha’s romantic feelings were a flaw she needed to correct.

It doesn’t matter Rose, Amy and Clara would fall in love with the Doctor to the point of being willing to abandon their families for him, forcibly kissing him or trying to be him - Martha was the clingy one. It doesn’t matter Professor Yana’s drumbeat began before he met the gang because it was Martha’s fault the Master came back too apparently. Remember little Tim Latimer stealing the fob because it was reaching out to him? The fans didn’t because Martha was blamed for losing the fob too! Martha’s not a flawless person but it can’t be denied Martha was critiqued for moments that were out of her control. From various nuanced plot points where she was a victim of circumstance to lacking hindsight she literally couldn't have had because she wasn’t in S1/S2, to being disliked for doing the exact same things her white female counterparts did, it’s highly unlikely the Martha Hate Train was born from constructive criticism.

<- Intro Chapter 2 ->

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iamfitzwilliamdarcy · 10 months

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Shawn just goes absolutely off the rails in the s7 opener after Henry’s been shot and I wanna talk about it!! It’s so interesting because we really genuinely haven’t seen him like this before - even Jules says as much — “I’ve never seen you like this! … you’re acting impulsively in a very dangerous way, you don’t see this behavior is erratic?!” — and it made me think

Of course we haven’t seen Shawn like this— this is the Worst Thing* that’s ever happened to him and he can’t deal! But you know who has seen him like this before?? Henry. Because the last Worst Thing* that ever happened to Shawn was the Divorce, and baby 18 year old Shawn…. Goes absolutely off the rails. Shawn remembers absolutely nothing of his senior year and apparently Gus has zero idea how bad Shawn has gotten at this time (I wanted to link @incomingalbatross here bc we had a whole post conversation on this last night but apparently you can’t hyperlink on the app??? This is why I once more must say I miss my laptop) — so we know he’s just spiraling. A lot here is inferencing but I think it’s a safe guess to say Shawn wants revenge— he wants to hurt his father the way he feels hurt, and he finally pushes his father to the edge and gets himself arrested and ends the Cop Dream. It’s reckless and self-destructive, but he succeeds in hurting his father and himself and apparently alienates himself from… pretty much everyone (I think we can safely presume Gus included).

And now in s7, a Bad Thing happens again and Shawn can’t deal, again. He is going on a reckless, destructive, revenge rampage. But the difference this time is he has a support network. He has people who love him. Gus is with him most of the way, he never actually takes the Out. Lassiter helps Shawn out and is even empathetic. And when Shawn DOES end up alone, facing down another barrel of a gun, when it seems like he’s blown it again— Jules saves him.

Jules saves him. i cannot stress how much I love this. I’ve been thinking about it all day. She saves him!! She loves him!!! And she’s been worried all episode and SHE SHOWS UP AND SAVES HIM.

He doesn’t have to be alone in this one. And then one step more— this time he does get to go home to his dad. What’s more!!! — it’s not JUST that he gets to go home to his dad— it’s that Henry’s grown too!! He is so furious by the time of the arrest— he’s worried about Shawn’s future and what kind of stuff he’s getting into! But instead of saying any of that out loud— he arrests him and tries to teach him a lesson. At the end, in the hospital too Henry starts in on criticizing— you’re an idiot, it was stupid to go after them— but STOPS— and says what he really means— “I’m glad you’re ok” — because that’s what he means!! He’s been worried!!

*I don’t think any of the serial killer episodes are the Worst Moment of Shawn’s Life because he Wins. No one he loves gets hurt. Here, he doesn’t win. He’s too late. Henry’s shot and almost dies.

#i was going to save this til tomorrow but i just had to get it out #Katie watches psych #psych #shawn spencer #once more i want my meta post to be better and maybe I’ll edit it in the morning but……..must be content w/ what i have #edited now lol #Henry’s love language is criticism <3 #Shawns is being Annoying

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disciple-of-owen · 10 months

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The Southern Raiders: Some Thoughts

Ah, The Southern Raiders: that pivotal episode in which Zuko and Katara bury the hatchet, allowing our favorite Fire Prince to finally become a full-fledged Gaangster. Fans have expressed wildly different takes regarding this episode over the years, so I thought I’d toss in my two cents.

An important disclaimer before beginning: I am NOT anti-Zuko, and it is not my intention for this to be an anti-Zuko post. Having said that, I think it’s important to accept that Zuko’s redemption, magnificent as it is, does not expunge his character of defects. He remains a flawed person to the end of series, and I think much of his behavior in this particular episode is deserving of criticism.

Anyway, let’s start with the moment when Zuko announces to the Gaang that he and Katara are planning to track down her mother’s killer. Anything in quotes is from the show’s transcript, which belongs to Bryke, Nickelodeon, Paramount, and whoever the hell else has their hooks in Avatar at this point.

Aang: “Um… and what exactly do you think this is going to accomplish?”

An important thing to note here: Aang is not starting this conversation with an ‘I’ statement (I think, I feel, etc.). Instead, he is keeping the focus on Katara by asking her to elaborate on her thought process.

Katara: “Ugh. I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

A bit harsh, but Katara is experiencing a huge amount of emotional pain with the reopening of this wound. She is in no mood to be questioned (which is not to say that she shouldn’t be questioned) and that is valid.

Aang: “Wait, stop! I do understand. You’re feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?”

Of all the moments that anti-Aang people disingenuously twist out of context, this is one of the most common. These individuals claim that Aang is belittling and dismissing Katara’s feelings by comparing the loss of her mother to the loss of Appa. This is a braindead take for three reasons:

Aang’s rage at the sandbenders wasn’t just about ‘losing Appa’. It was about being the sole survivor of a horrific genocide and losing the last piece he had of his people.

He puts Katara’s pain on the same level as the pain he feels regarding said genocide. If that isn’t taking her feelings seriously, I don’t know what the fuck is.

The whole reason he is making this comparison is not to determine whose trauma is greater, but to establish that he and Katara have common emotional ground upon which they can build a dialogue.

Zuko: “She needs this, Aang. This is about closure and justice.”

Frankly, I think it’s a bit audacious of Zuko to claim he knows what Katara needs when he’s been on normal speaking terms with her for a total of, what, 30 minutes? Still, I believe his heart is in the right place here.

Aang: “I don’t think so. I think it’s about getting revenge.”

And now, Aang voices his concern. Given how well Aang knows Katara, coupled with Zuko’s use of the word ‘justice’ regarding her mother’s killer, it is not at all unreasonable for him to assume that violent revenge might be on the cards. Katara immediately validates this assumption.

Katara: “Fine, maybe it is! Maybe that’s what I need! Maybe that’s what he deserves!”

I actually love this line; it’s not often that heroes in YA fantasies get to shed all pretense of morality and openly admit that base revenge is what they’re after. It makes Katara intensely believable in this episode.

Aang: “Katara, you sound like Jet.”

Aang reminds us of a vital lesson here: while it’s important to support your friends, it’s equally important to challenge them when you see them going down a potentially self-destructive path. That is what separates being a ride-or-die from being an enabler.

Katara: “It’s not the same! Jet attacked the innocent. This man, he’s a monster.”

Every word here is true, but the Gaang didn’t encounter Jet until he was many years into his unique brand of ‘freedom fighting’. Who’s to say he didn’t start out with Katara’s reasoning? Sokka seems to be thinking along these lines…

Sokka: “Katara, she was my mother too, but I think Aang might be right.”

Katara: “Then you didn’t love her the way I did!”

I have mixed feelings about this line. On the one hand, Katara is a child who has undergone immense trauma, and she has every right to express that. On the other, having trauma does not give you license to be cruel to others. There aren’t any easy answers here, which, again, is what makes Katara’s character especially fascinating in this episode.

Sokka: “Katara!”

Aang: “The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you’re being poisoned yourself.”

Some might say this line is a bit preachy. Myself, I think Aang is speaking the way the monks taught him to in moments of conflict. Metaphors can be powerful tools for conveying meaning when regular words aren’t cutting through.

Zuko: “That’s cute, but this isn’t Air Temple pre-school. It’s the real world.”

And here we have a deeply problematic comment from Zuko.

Now before the torches and pitchforks come out, let me clarify: I do not think Zuko is an active bigot. At all. It is indisputable, however, that he was brought up in a racist, imperialist society. Let’s take a closer look at what he says here:

“That’s cute, but this isn’t Air Temple pre-school.” What we have here is an example of infantilization; Zuko is essentially calling one of the pillars of Air Nomad culture childish nonsense.

“It’s the real world.” Implying that the Air Nomads’ worldview is simple-minded and incompatible with the world as it is.

Now let’s compare Zuko’s words to what Ozai says to Aang in their final struggle.

Ozai: “You are weak! Just like the rest of your people! They did not deserve to exist in this world!”

“That’s cute,”

“You are weak!”

“It’s the real world.”

“They did not deserve to exist in this world!”

I repeat, I don’t think Zuko is being consciously racist here, and I am certainly not comparing him as a person to his father. What I AM saying is that both Zuko and Ozai were raised on the same diet of Fire Nation propaganda, and that this propaganda still colours Zuko’s worldview to some extent.

Katara: “Now that I know he’s out there… now that I know we can find him, I feel like I have no choice.”

Katara is effectively and honestly communicating her feelings here.

Aang: “Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness.”

And Aang is seriously engaging with those feelings. Note: he isn’t saying that Katara has to forgive (he is perfectly content with her decision not to forgive Yon Rha at the episode’s conclusion); he is simply pointing out that she does, in fact, have a choice.

Zuko: “That’s the same as doing nothing!”

Not gonna lie, not a fan of Zuko in this moment. And if we ever needed proof that Aang is the more emotionally mature of the two, it comes with the next line.

Aang: “No, it isn’t. It’s easy to do nothing… but it’s hard to forgive.”

Some excellent wisdom, spoken from a place of experience.

Katara: “It’s not just hard. It’s impossible.”

Again, Katara expressing her truth. Again, totally valid.

I’m gonna skip ahead just a bit to when Aang and Sokka find Zuko and Katara preparing to steal Appa, as this is an important moment.

Katara: “Don’t try to stop us.”

Aang: “I wasn’t planning to. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man. But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.”

Aang has expressed his concerns, but he has also listened to Katara and recognizes that this is something she needs to do. He provides the use of Appa and offers some final words of wisdom, which have a huge impact on Katara later in the episode.

Zuko: “Okay, we’ll be sure to do that, guru goody-goody.”

Wow. Just… wow.

Katara: “Thank you for understanding.”

We all know how the story goes from here: Katara and Zuko go on their quest, Katara continues to spiral into darkness, and when the big moment finally comes, she chooses not to lower herself to Yon Rha’s level.

So, to conclude:

Thoughts on Katara: People should give Katara a break. Sure, she’s kind of a jerk in this episode, but she is also 14(15?) and dealing with a lot. We can be critical of some of the specific language she uses, but we shouldn’t be critical of her expressing her trauma.

Another point worth noting: while Aang’s advice does play a role in Katara’s ultimate decision not to murder Yon Rha (as per Bryke’s own words), she isn’t just blindly following his recommendations. She spares her mother’s killer, but she does it on her own terms. Which is excellent.

Thoughts on Zuko: As mentioned previously, I do think Zuko’s desire to help Katara in this episode is genuine. Having said that, I also think his judgement is being clouded both by his projected feelings towards Ozai (his own Yon Rha) and a desire to get what he wants (in this case, Katara’s approval). If Katara’s well-being were truly his ultimate motivator, I don’t believe he would have been so dismissive of Aang’s concerns.

Though, to his credit, Zuko does acknowledge in the end that Aang had been right all along.

Thoughts on Aang: In the DVD commentary for this episode, the creators talk about how, in many ways, The Southern Raiders is actually a story about Aang and Katara; that Aang’s words are present with Katara throughout the episode as her shoulder angel, not judging her or telling her what to do, but helping her find her way through the darkness. This is a beautiful (yet realistically imperfect) moment in their relationship, and I am here for it.

#avatar the last airbender #katara #zuko #aang #kataang

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woomycritiques543 · 1 year

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As a lackadaisy fan who dropped helluva 5 episodes in, I think you’re overestimating the effect of the fandom has on things outside of itself because you are inmeshed in it. You don’t have the outside view. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds like a toxic shit show, but it doesn’t have a ‘monopoly’. If all it took to gain a monopoly in entertainment was to have a horribly rabid fanbase that won’t take the smallest bit of criticism, the history of indie entertainment would be very different.

(TW: LONG POST, mentions of Vivziepop's behavior, also if you're another lackadaisy fan that's curious about what's been happening over at the Hazbin fandom PLEASE DONT SKIP THIS POST!)

"If all it took to gain a monopoly in entertainment was to have a horribly rabid fanbase that won’t take the smallest bit of criticism, the history of indie entertainment would be very different."

Hm...

As a Helluva Boss fan who's seen how many views most indie projects have nowdays, plus what Vivziepop did here, especially since this wasnt just about the fanbase to begin with:

(Psst. Vivienne, these people got bills and families to pay for, so maybe dont try to push them away from other projects just because you like Hazbin Hotel? You can hire other people, you've done it millions of times before- let other projects thrive, and let them have different projects so they can be successful too! Far-Fetched barely has as any workers compared to you, so maybe stop being selfish and share the load so other projects can get all the help they can get? Especially when you rush out 5+ episodes a year and treat your staff like shit? So maybe... I dont know... treat them better so "A BUNCH!" of people from Spindlehorse wont think of even having to do so much extra work, day jobs and all, when there's 40+ million bucks sitting from your shows RIGHT THERE?! There's a reason why "a bunch" of people would be brought to do other projects at the same time. -and it's not because of all the red...)

I think it's pretty safe to say that theres an obvious monopoly going on. Why else would these episodes be getting 20+ million at a time, for years, while other just as good projects get next to none in comparison. Honestly, look at how much views, how many trends the shows follow, how much mainstream appeal, how much merchandising fills the "shelves" of Sharkrobot, how many episodes were shilled out in 2021 alone, how much it dominates the indie industry, and try to tell me that Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel are " not a monopoly!" Shilling out multiple Helluva Boss episodes full of softcore porn and bright colors a year to keep Spindlehorse's shows on top of the trending tag on Youtube EVERY YEAR SINCE 2019! -and end being what millions end up being reccomended. Though many people dont know that HB exists, many others do, and it's almost constantly being mentioned with indie animation while equally beautiful looking, or much better written projects get only 50,000+ views. Even in spite of Exxes and Oohs situation:

Season Two's premiere got 4+ million views in 15 hours.

While when I was watching the premiere of Exxes and Oohs with my freinds a couple of weeks ago after it premiered:

I noticed that it only had 1 million views in 5 hours, and then pretty much stayed that way throughout the entire week with only about 3 million for several days after Ep 1 had 4+ mil in only 15 hours.

While the premeire of Season Two passed 4+ million in LESS THEN TWENTY FOUR HOURS! -and the last episode is barely over it's despite being over 5 months apart. It's been a whole month, yet Seeing Star's views are still similar to when it was released and Exxes and Oohs is barely surpassing Seeing Stars despite a whole month having passed, while for Season One, in 5 months there would be 20+ million views and at times... more!

-and just to make this worse...

Hazbin Hotel.. a show with a pilot with over 70+ million views:

It's anniversary/sneak peak into the official show got only-

Get this...

THREE MILLION VIEWS!

-when FIVE WHOLE MONTHS have already passed and the fandom's still popular! While most of the previews for the pilot got OVER 3.5 million and the most popular being 20+ mil!

So it's really just people not caring to see the literal anniversary of the show since most were turned off by Helluva Boss or moved on because they grew out of all the stereotypes. It's got only about 0.8% of the views Hazbin's pilot has gotten despite the fact that people have been waiting for this show for THREE YEARS now and the fandom is bigger than ever. So even for that monopoly, it's slowly falling, and people barely cared about Hazbin's anniversary and release date reveal despite having waited for 3+ years.

So "Seeing Stars's" views has barely budged since release, Season Two's premiere has 20+ mil, but has also been that way since over three months ago, Exxes and Oohs only had 1 mil after even 5+ hours and onward, and Hazbin Hotel, a show with billions of fans, it's anniversary got only 3 mil- while the past season made OVER A YEAR AGO continues to receive views regularly. Meanwhile, Lackadaisy, had 6+ million in only TWO WEEKS while Exxes and Oohs barely got passed that in that time period (I remember it having maybe 5+ mil in about two weeks last time I checked, or even less that that.) and has been stagnant in views for 3+ weeks while Lackadaisy got over half of that in only 2+ weeks.

Which now makes it Helluva Boss's very first competitor.

While Murder Drones has Seeing Star's level of views after an ENTIRE YEAR so this is really saying something about the quality of Helluva Boss's latest episodes as Season One still skyrockets, the latest episodes stay stagnant even after 3+ weeks, and Helluva Boss now has a direct competitior due to this lowering in quality and just how many reviews are now criticizing it while Lackadaisy's reviews are majority positive with little to no hiccups in between.

Not joking, the first thing you get when you search "Seeing Stars Review" is thousands of negative reviews because of Vivienne, Adam, and Brandon Rodger's refusing to improve in their WRITING- you know... WHAT THEY WROTE ON A DOCUMENT?! The thing people have been CRITIQUEING?! Not "a personal, useless preference" but ACTUAL CRITICISM that they keep ignoring to look "near perfect" and to keep the monopoly going while other indie shows continue to get mediocure level views in comparison to Helluva Boss.

The views have been stagnant since near release. I remember seeing 17 million 3 weeks after it came out- and now it wont budge!

Yeah, im sure those statistics and thousands of people getting upset for actual reasons are "bad faith!" too. Adam- FUCK OFF! People aren't "bad faith" for telling you that using anti-black and fatphobic stereotypes in your show is awful! Also- you're show is now getting genuine competition so I suggest not being an egotistical jerk to your own fans and to actually listen to them for once before shit hits the fan and you have to further get hit by your own karma!

While look at all of the positive reviews Lackadaisy's getting!

Lackadaisy has almost all positive reviews, is catching up with Helluva Boss's latest episodes, all the other episodes in Season Two are also still static in views and Season One continues to get thousands on a daily basis, and yet is still- and I mean- still, Barely scratching Daisy's success! In comparison to how you'd think these "still being rewatched a lot" last episodes would be doing since this is HB, the monopoly of indie animation, that we're talking about!

So i'd say that Helluva Boss Season Two has been getting it really rough for the past 8 months in comparison to the success Season One still has, and even then, the first episode still has 54+ mil and yet most of the episodes continued to decrease by the millions each release. So even in Season One, the signs that people were losing interest were already there. -and Ozzies and Truth Seekers have just now caught up with Season Two's first episode (You know... the one people got hyped as all hell by but then lost interest once the episode started getting slammed for how terrible it was?) despite being the ones that are praised often, while Season Two's premiere has barely budged for the past year- making this a receipe for MILLIONS of lost views in total, and this is a fandom that constantly says "I binge watch the episodes a ton!" and yet Season One has barely budged in one and a half years. Its been in 30+ mil I think since last year... it's April now. -and they're now all catching up to each other and are about the same views, which would mean that they're barely going up by the thousands for ENTIRE MONTHS and Season Two, is getting even less because of the negative reviews from not a "useless personal opinion" but OBJECTIVELY BAD WRITING!

Season Two stays stagnant in views even after 5+ weeks and onward since the difference in views is that small.

THEY NOW HAVE A COMPETITOR! So Vivienne really needs to start giving a shit or WOOAH boy things are going to get intense!

So though Helluva Boss is still on top, it's falling over, and now has competition to worry about after only two weeks.

-and even then, it's still on top, because of Vivienne manipulating both her audience and staff into meeting constant demands and giving it constant praise regardless of quality under the threat of being seen as a "bad person" for not doing so.

Helluva Boss having almost billions of dollars in merch, 40+ million views with many of their episodes, a majority celebrity cast with little to no indie actors, Vivziepop having basically tried to put down Far Fetch from having any actual success by trying to not get her team with a show of BILLIONS of views to not work on it just because Hazbin is her "favorite project!" when these people have BILLS TO PAY and a FAMILY that can't be held up just by one project- which is why people like Erin had to work extra jobs, overnight, despite this show getting millions of dollars each day, in the first place! Yet to Vivienne, what mattered the most was her project, and not their lives. Which is the reason why she overworks her staff, and according to people who worked there, aren't even actually allowed to work on other projects, including Far-Fetched, either. While Far Fetched has not nearly as many people working on it and everything we see there has with has 100,000+ or less while Helluva Boss continues to monopolize the industry. (in case you're asking: Yes, it was also her supervisor's fault, but she's a million dollar creator, can't she just hire someone else instead of getting in the way of other people's lives other a cartoon show? Most freelancers do multiple projects, how else are they going to pay the bills?)

Yeah, Erin was lifted from a few things- but did they still have to work an extra job just to support themselves despite working for a 40+ million dollar show, did most people in Spindlehorse end up having to suffer even worse to meet those kinds of demands?

YES!

So does that make all the "Erin's not a real victim" or "Erin Frost's mistakes, as a human being, makes everything people say about Vivienne's behavior "not true" just because we beleive people who bootlick Vivienne but not people that she's hurt despite both people "only" using word of mouth. Except no, because no the ex-staff have evidence and yet the current staff who threatened to punch the people who spoke out about Vivziepop's behavior have nothing but word of mouth but we'll still beleive them just because they give us softcore porn! :D" comments now complete bullshit?

YES!

-and with Ashley Nichols in particular:

You'd think that Vivziepop would try to help Ashley... A LOT!

-since Ashley gave her projects millions of views in publicity and support with Hunicast and having actually worked on Hazbin!

But instead, Viv prioritized herself in the situation, fired all of her indie voice actors and replaced most of them with celebrities when she could have easily found other indie vcs but choose to use her status to get an actor from Grey's Anatomy and NORMAN REEDUS- and most likely will get more celeberties for Hazbin just because "famous = don't accociate with indie actors." appparently despite her main thing being "Support indie creators guys! :("

Vivziepop, again, pulling herself up while she's already been the top of the indie industry for the past 4+ years, while other projects continue to be pushed into the mud of a "cult classic" grave.

So in reality- Helluva Boss isnt "helping" the indie industry grow stronger, it's causing a monopoly which gets in the way of people's shows, their careers, their jobs, and even their mental health.

-and many people having little to no mentions of other projects outside of "Look at this pretty cool project I found- Ok, BACK TO HELLUVA BOSS AND HAZBIN HOTEL WOOOOAH LOOK THIS IS THE BEST INDIE SHOW EVAR!1!" is a literal monopoly in it's most capitalistic, trend serving, overproduced form.

Ashley even saw Vivienne trying to blacklist yet another staff member just because that staff member was upset about how much they were being rushed and overworked in order to meet even near the same demands, even with a few things being lifted since they have ADHD, they were still overworked, and for the rest of the staff it was even worse since they were overworked and bullied in order to meet the demands of said monopoly and stay in Spindlehorse.

Far Fetched got announced years ago- yet Vivziepop hasnt even mentioned it once as far as ive seen, she fired Ashley's partner and seeing how HB is, is likely going to replace him with an non-indie voice actor when apparently she could have easily kept them if she just paid a fee, when she has MILLIONS of dollars in support for her show now, lives in LA, and could easily use her platform to support THOUSANDS of indie projects. But as usual, she pulls herself up, bullies her own fandom by saying that they're "NOT A WRITER!" and "CANT UNDERSTAND WRITING!" for giving her any feedback and has basically manipulated her audience into seeing her and her shows as "NEAR PERFECT!" to continue said monopoly with HB's continous trending and high reviews regardless of quality. While other projects are only "secondairy". -and despite having worked on Hazbin Hotel, Far Fetched has gotten the average amount of acknowledgement for indie animation- Which, isnt much... at all.

Compared to that of mainstream shows, and especially Hazbin Hotel!

Yet as usual, Vivziepop manipulates her followers into contuining to put her on top regardless of her channel's ever reducing quality, and even views since it's lost millions since debut. With people constantly making excuses such as "ITS JUST BEEN UP LONGER!" and "ITS NOT LOSING VIEWS THE PANDEMIC HAS JUST ENDED AND PEOPLE ARE OFFLINE MORE NOW!"

Yeah-

Say that to how Lackadaisy has 6+ million in only two weeks despite being another show altogether, despite the show also having been produced in the pandemic since 2019.

It's been only two weeks yet it already has almost just as many views, and if this keeps up, will likely even have more than HB's latest episode while "EXXES AND OOHS!" has been only at 13+ since it was released. It barely has moved on inch in a entire month while Lackadaisy keeps going... and going... and going...

While Helluva Boss's latest episode has barely scratched the surface despite being just as new with only a month difference.

It's honestly messed up how Ashley was shafted after supporting Vivziepop and working for her after all this time. Same for all the other artists who worked for her. -and as Erin said:

-and seeing how Far Fetched is doing right now, this couldnt be any more evident of just how much of a capitalistic, worker mistreating, monopoly that Vivziepop's channel has become to the point where people who worked with her FOR YEARS still end up getting the short end of the stick or even outright harassed by her and her fandom, and she doesnt even defend them, she just... let's the bullying happen, let's her ex staff get slandered, let's her staff threaten to HIT THEM while only caring about shippings involving literal FICTIONAL CHARACTERS! -and last time I checked... going to the levels of not just trying to manipulate people into thinking that Vivienne is a "perfect little lamb" to gaslight people into not looking into how she treats her staff- but also THREATENING VIOLENCE over the fact that someone was actually honest about what was happening in Spindlehorse- Isnt exactly what i'd like to call "good treatment" of your staff since Vivienne let you do this to people. Hell- is- IS THIS EVEN ALLOWED ON TWITTER?! Is it even allowed for people on the platform to threaten to hurt someone on Twitter in their guidelines, hell, is it even legal to threaten to hurt someone like this at all?! Especially if it's being used to threaten people into not speaking out about actual workplace mistreatment?!

HOLY SHIT! Just let these people tell you that you need to do better, and going to the levels of threatening to hit someone for critiqueing Vivienne for her behavior even once and then going out of your way to call them "GLASS JAWED MOTHER FUCKERS!" is genuine hostility and honestly, I dont even think it's even legal to verbally harass and threaten people to this extent. WHAT THE FUCK?!

I looked into this and... yeah! What Monica did was against Twitter guidelines by threatening to hit people who were in the studio that said anything about how Viv was actually acting.

I also checked to make sure, but.... yeah, she actually wanted to hit people for saying that Vivienne was overworking her own staff by rushing and also having to work full day jobs despite Helluva Boss continuisly ranking in millions of dollars. Which means that they were getting a small percentage of pay compared to what ends up being used for Vivziepop's "spectacle!" animation. So this isn't just acephobia, but also threatening genuine violence towards people for saying that they don't deserve to be mistreated. This is vile.

Hell, even without those guidelines- it's disgusting that Vivienne let her staff talk to people this way and then also mistreated Spindlehose for all these years too. NO ONE deserves to be treat this way for speaking out, especially if all they're doing is saying what happened to them in a studio that they worked in, and the fact that everyone demonizes Erin Frost for a few mistakes but then lets Vivziepop's "favorites" threaten to HIT SOMEONE is actually horrifying.

Honestly.

Helluva Boss isnt even "INDIE" anymore, it just fills up space in the indie community while clearly being a million dollar, mainstream show that has Norman Reedus and other celebrities in it to give the "We're indie so we can do what we want just because we're smaller than Disney!" excuse to be assholes to other people for even saying something as simple as "tone down the saturation a bit."

It's a monopoly. A monopoly built on years of breaking trust, threats, more bullying, betrayal, prioritizing in fame over indie creators, worker mistreatment, rushed projects, fanbase manipulation, and it's why I have so much faith in Lackadaisy. It gives me hope, it gives me hope that one day Vivienne will finally get told to "WAKE UP!" through all that's been happening. That the monopoly will end, that the indie industry will become more balanced again, that freelance artists will be treated better and receive more respect for their craft instead of just being used to meet corperate demands. That hope... is why, that though I like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, that I also wish for other creators to get the spotlight and that one day... maybe... just maybe... that a new franchise will take Helluva Boss's place.

So to answer your question:

Yes. By defintion Helluva Boss has become a monopoly. It's taking a large chunk of the indie animation industry, and the creators overworked their staff to meet high demands for it to get trending almost every year through high amounts of demand and episodes in 2021 alone. It's taken a large amount of control over the industry and it's come to a point where creators have to rely on supporting Vivziepop to even get a piece of what HB has. Honestly, how is that fair? How is it "fair" to overwork her staff and appeal to even the bottom of the barrels of trends to keep her show trending while most of the other indie shows on Youtube suffer for it?!

It's making the indie animation community almost as corperate as the very companies that caused these people to steer towards indie animation in the first place. Which is such a shame, because there's so many good projects out there- yet to be discovered by most people. -and yet HB gets the trending almost every time because it appeals to as many mainstream trends and porn accounts as possible through all it's fetish and ship bait content and mass amounts of merchandising, and from mass amounts I mean HUNDREDS OF PIECES OF MERCHANDISING every year, even after the show already has 40+ million dollars in it's budget so it's just capitalism and mainstream pandering at this point. The indie community went from going against corperations and capitalism to BECOMING corperate and capitalistic.

It makes me miss back when all we had mostly were just fun short films and play dough animations. It's like people in the indie community have forgotten why we even make all these animations in the first place.. Not just for money and sucess....

But for fun, to animate away from corperations... for fun.

#helluva boss season two #helluva boss criticism #lackadaisy #helluva boss critical #not putting this in helluva bosses tag since im not in the mood to be harassed and sent racial slurs by hazbin fans today.

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thatgirl4815 · 2 years

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Pete is deprived. This episode proves that Pete is thirsty to the hundredth degree. Thirsty to the point of being unhinged. Thirsty enough that I can offer it as solid evidence of his deep-rooted emotional turmoil.

I’ve had time to sit with my thoughts, but I still can’t decide if Pete surprised me this episode or if I knew it all along.

It’s not just that Pete literally turns Vegas around and plants the kiss of the century on him (though that’s monumental on its own)--it’s that he literally pushes the rope into Vegas’s hands. I don’t know about you, but the way he holds them up doesn’t seem like a mere suggestion--it’s someone who knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to go after it. (Did he forget that Vegas is literally his captor? The man who brutally tortured him on multiple occasions?? THE ENEMY???)

The second insane aspect of this is that Pete enjoys being at Vegas’s mercy, even after everything he’s done. Now, I can understand someone enjoying this type of thing--like what you like--but not from the man who, as I said, brutally tortured him. Where’s the trauma? Where are the torture flashbacks as Vegas stands over him?? Where is the jolt of fear as his hands come in contact with the chains??? Hell, Build said he was having a hard time recovering from the torture scene, and he’s only acting it out, not literally living it.

I realize this all sounds like a giant criticism, but I assure you that what I’m trying to say is that Vegas is 100% right in his dialogue this episode: “Don’t try to hold it. I know you’re suffering inside. Let it out.” And Pete took that as a challenge.

I made a post a while back about how Pete certainly does not enjoy the pain Vegas inflicts upon him during the torture scene--there’s nothing remotely romantic about it in that context. But this scene tells a different story. And it just reminds me that Pete has his own issues. He’s broken in his own way. We can infer that his father’s abuse did some damage, but his desperation here suggests that it goes much, much deeper.

This all reminds me how much VegasPete’s relationship centers around Vegas. And I get it. He’s the villain, so it’s no wonder they’re putting a lot of effort into humanizing him. But I think Pete deserves to be talked about a lot this episode, because I’m just going to say it: I don’t care how many casual interactions you’ve had with Vegas the last few days--having sex with the man who left all those scars on your chest is the boldest move Pete could’ve made.

And to think, this is what we’re left with:

Just look at that smile. Dare I say Vegas himself seems surprised by it? Once again, Pete is flooring Vegas the same way he has floored me.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk on emotional deprivation. *jumps off a cliff*

#kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #vegaspete #I always feel the need to apologize for these little thought bursts #I just cannot help myself it seems #But I'm doing fine thanks for asking #Not like I think about this at least a hundred times a day #I will get over it eventually I WILL #vegas x pete #pete kinnporsche #pete saengtham #vegas theerapanyakul #vegas kinnporsche #kinnporsche meta #kinn porsche

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dapperinsanity · 3 months

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Here’s some of my thoughts about the last two episodes of HH season 1. I will start with some more organized criticism and then I’ll share my complaints at the end of this post.

Overall:

These last 2 episodes were frustrating in general. I mean, was there some moments I liked? Yes but only a few. Otherwise the show becomes laughable, not because it’s funny, but rather the execution is bad that it had me laughing at serious moments. My first issue is that the pacing was too fast but it’s been like that the entire show so it was nothing new for me. I get they only had a certain amount of episodes and time but if you want to have a decent show, you should cut out some parts of the side stories instead of trying to shove the side stories into one episode. Since you’d be cutting out the side stories it also gives the artist a chance to continue the show through other types of media whether it be a comic, writing, or video. I know we’d all like to have the full story in 2 seasons but if you rush it, the show in general suffers and people won’t care about the story as much as they would if they had to wait for the artist to continue their project on their own if they can’t get more episodes. Besides, once the show is over you get total control over everything again and don’t have to worry about things you would like to portray in your story being cut out when collaborating with other artists on a show.

Also, side thought: If you’re going to go corporate/work with bigger companies, expect to work with others and except professional criticism. Just because she can’t handle criticism and likes things her way, she should’ve never gone “corporate”. Instead, she decided to use people who genuinely wanted to work on your passion project and were willing to do it for free, only to screw them over and use them to get into shitty companies just so you could meet celebrities and use them instead. Also, the more I learn about the facts behind the pilot and how everyone was basically let go, it’s blatantly obvious that she never intended to keep them in the first place. IMO, I think part of the reason behind firing everyone, was because she wanted to meet celebrities and use their status to get more traction. (Also, celebrities and broadway don’t guarantee automatic success just because you have them on the show)

Again, this is purely speculation and my opinion. I could be wrong so take it with a grain of salt. While spindlehorse was an indie project with people who were so gracious to work for free purely because of their passion, she took away the passion of the original project. Now it’s corporate slop. That’s not to say some workers from the collaborating companies don’t have the passion, sometimes they just do their job and work on things they enjoy more as an artist on the side. She doesn’t care about the hard work that was put both into the pilot and the show.

It’s “funny” to me that spindlehorse use to be an indie company (?) and had grown only for bigger corporate companies to take it over. She didn’t even write most of the pilot and relied more on other people that cared about her own project more than she does. Instead, she rushed through an entire season and will do the same thing in the next one. She’d rather tell (rather than show but sometimes telling works too) the audience everything about her characters and the plot but won’t take the time to full develop everything.

These are her OC’s and her ideas but she doesn’t care about the quality of her work. She rather use other people and quickly write down a poorly written show. All she cares about is that she’s rather have more views, make money off of merch, and appease the fans rather than doing her own thing because she wants to do it for herself. She cares about fame, praise, and popularity and the passion doesn’t shine through her own work. People enjoyed the pilot because of the passion of the crew and IMO, after learning more about the process behind the pilot, it feels like she didn’t do shit at all. She had the ideas and characters and plot points but everyone else managed to execute it in a way where it showed that the workers truly cared about the quality of their work. Again, this is my opinion and my first impression as I continue to learn more about everything. Now that’s out of my system, I’ll turn my focus purely to the show now.

The songs were a miss for me because a majority of them I didn’t care about and I’m a person who loves musicals and music in general. It’s not the music itself but rather the lyrics. Like most of the lyrics are just a character responding or talking to another character but instead of talking, it’s singing. The only songs I enjoyed were “Stayed Gone”, “Respectless”, “You Didn’t Know?” and “Out For Love.” I can handle cheesy songs but man, once I got the main point of the song, I skipped to the end. I wish the songs focused more about internal feelings or something that is meaningful to the character but instead the lyrics are just “meh”. I hope you understand the point I’m trying to make, I just can’t quite find the proper words to describe why I have issues with the songs.

Focusing on only episode 7, we meet Rosie. What did I like? I enjoyed Al and Rosie of course. I expected Charlie to be upset at Vaggie but I thought her talk with Rosie was cute. I could give less of a shit about Vaggie getting her wings back, probably because they spoiled it even though I knew I was correct about Vaggie being an exterminator before it was spoiled.

Here’s what I didn’t like. One major thing that bothered me was when Charlie made the complaint of Al being sadistic even though it was obvious Al was going to do whatever he wanted and had bad intentions. (At first) I understand why Charlie wanted to give Al a chance but it was too obvious that Al had some bad intentions. I’d rather be safe than sorry. Why risk having someone who is a genuine threat and enjoys the suffering of others? Also, Charlie making a deal with Al is still stupid even if he didn’t take her soul. I wish Charlie wasn’t written as naive because it was obvious he cared more about power over his potential “friends”. He even directly said in the pilot (and vaguely in the 1st episode of at some point in the show) that he wanted sinners to fail at redemption. I’ll go into detail about this later as I have a lot thoughts on Al after everything was revealed in these last episodes.

Another thing about episode 7 is the way Al treats Charlie and it feels like they’re going to go down the “Al is a father figure” route. Personally, I don’t see this as a good thing as we hardly see Charlie and Al interacting until this episode. If anything, Charlie and Al are just two friends/business partners. If they do go down that route, Al being a father figure is out of character imo.

As for the final episode, I couldn’t take the battle seriously. I wasn’t worried for anyone and the “comedic” moments didn’t help. I normally don’t mind cheesy writing but man, this was so cheesy and it’s the main reason why I couldn’t take it seriously. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sir Pent. as a character but his death was hilarious. Adam immediately shoots a giant ass laser to vaporize Sir Pent out of existence the minute he sees them. Then suddenly we’re supposed to be in shock and feel sad about his death. I wasn’t and I was more shocked about how comedic it was for me.

Also, Vaggie should have killed Lute. I get the whole point about mercy and all but do you think that’ll stop Lute from exterminating demons and being an active threat? No. The same goes for Adam and Charlie giving him mercy. I’m glad Nifty stabbed him. I could care less about who killed Adam but when Nifty stabbed him, but the attempt at a joke just kind of ruined all the vibes overall.

Then we get a glimpse of Sir Pent being redeemed and showing up in heaven at the end of the episode. Ok, well could the same thing happen during an extermination? Let me go back to the episode where Vaggie was kicked out of heaven for not killing a kid.I don’t know why a kid was in hell in the first place but Vaggie could’ve killed the child and still manage to be redeemed in heaven. (Unless the child is a hell born) Now it’s possible the angel spears just kill them but remember, Sir Pent was killed directly by Adam, an angel himself….with a laser. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was possible for someone to be redeemed even if they were stabbed by an angel spear.

Redemption is confusing. Firstly, the angels were killing them so why would anyone want to be redeemed to be in the same realm as the exterminators? Secondly, why do they have to “die”? Sir Pent sacrificed himself for his friends so is this the only way to get redeemed? From what we got, Sir Pent could’ve easily had been redeemed earlier in the show without needing to die. I know we don’t know how someone gets into heaven but it brings up a lot of questions for me. If the only way to get to heaven is for them to die then what does that mean for the exterminators? Because if it’s purely by dying, that means there might’ve been some demons that showed up in heaven during the extermination.

Also, another thought. In the episode where we meet Emily and Sera, I genuinely thought Sir Pent would’ve the first choice when Charlie wanted to show the angels about the progress of the hotel rehabilitating sinners. Then it was AngelDust, where we haven’t seen him truly improve. And somehow, Angel standing up to Val was somehow the “progress” of him improving?

I feel bad for Angeldust and am confused about his (nonexistent) redemption arc. How was standing up to Val progress in redemption? I understand that Val abusing AngelDust is the main factor of him being a drug addict. Yet no one helped him to find a way to get out of Val’s contract when none of the main characters found out that he was being abused? Or help him in general?

Also, Charlie is the princess of hell and supposedly, by rank, strong than Alastor and maybe just as strong as her Dad. She never uses that power to help Angeldust. But what’s the point of her being a princess and her status if she doesn’t do shit in the show? Remover her status and she’s just a wimpy naive hell born demon girl.

Sir Pent would’ve been a good example. I feel like showing Angel standing up to his abuser makes it feel like the show is lowkey blaming Angel for his situation. Deal or not, what Val is doing is not okay. If the progress was about Angel trying to watch over Nifty instead of letting her do what she wants, then how does that show progress as well? Like anyone would want to protect their friend from Val if they are aware that he is abusing Angel. I’m sure that most demons there would’ve tried to get nifty away because again, it’s Val. Angel knows what it’s like firsthand when dealing with Val and naturally, he’s gonna help Nifty. It’s just something that isn’t related to redemption ya know?

While I’m glad Nifty is safe, she indirectly caused more trouble for Angel just because he stood up for himself and for Nifty. Now Val is pissed and will take it out on Angel for sure. This isn’t about redemption, it’s about Angel suffering abuse so his friends aren’t harmed by him. And if that’s the progress where talking about here, that’s really fucked up to stand by and have Angel take all the punches while no one helps him. To me, progress for AngelDust involves Angel learning boundaries because he has a bad habit of sexual assaulting others (mainly Husk), trying to sober up, and develop some sense of awareness and consideration towards everyone in the hotel. As Vaggie pointed out, Angel did not give a shit about the hotel in the first place nor did he try to attempt to better himself. I understand Angel needed a safe space to live but if you’re going to accept help from Charlie and Vaggie, he should treat them better.

*sighs*

Here’s where the complaints begin. Let’s talk about Al now.

Look I knew he was weak from the start and all but you’re telling me he’s nothing without his mic? Even though he is an overlord? I mean, cmon I know I’m a major fan of Al and all but there’s was something so frustrating about the fact that all it took was one hit and breaking his mic/staff. He was useless.

But hey, I enjoyed watching Adam winning and bruising Al’s ego but the fight did not deliver any excitement when Al was losing. Usually, when it comes to the villain/antagonist being defeated, the audience is hyped up over a stressful battle between the hero and villain and want that satisfaction of the villain being defeated. With Al and Adam, I didn’t get that satisfaction. Also, I know Al is all talk but some of me expected the show to show off how powerful he actually is. Mainly because the public is terrified of him, including Husk who was supposedly an overlord. The other overlords are not scared of Al at all but I would assume when it comes to Husk, it’s a bit difficult to scare him when being threatened. Unless it’s Al, you can guarantee he will be put “in his place”. Now let’s focus back on the battle between him and Adam.

I thought Al would try to continue to fight so that he can maintain his appearance, attempt to control the situation, and try to cover up the fact that he was losing. But no, he just gets thrown into the concrete wall, his torso is slashed, and Adam easily breaks his mic/staff. Then Al runs away. Why would someone as powerful as an overlord run away so quickly? This is why I have issues with the fact that all it takes is breaking Al’s mic/staff he becomes powerless. I know Adam took his shield down but Al managed to create a huge ass shield to protect the hotel. In episode 5, Al turns huge and has black tendrils coming out of his back and eats all the sharks that were after Mimzy.

I assumed that Al’s powers weren’t entirely stuffed into his mic and that it was in his body. Like he was just inherently powerful to a point in the same way Charlie is powerful because she is the princess of hell. Alastor can make deals by shaking his hand with the victim. Alastor can change his appearance and height and has slenderman tendrils. This is the same dude he also made his way up to becoming an overlord.

My initial assumption was that Alastor was powerful, just not as powerful as Charlie or Lucifer. We know that Vaggie is an ex-exterminator but I think he can handle an exterminator personally. Plus it doesn’t help that the exterminators spears kill Angels so the exterminators aren’t that powerful when you take out their spears. We could’ve gotten a longer fight between him and Adam and I wouldn’t mind watching Al basically eat his own words and pride.I believe that Al is powerful, but if it’s Adam he’s against, I believe Adam would win. I’m sure Al could put up a good fight but eventually, Adam would win.

When it comes to Alastor’s deal and assuming that the Eve and Lilith theory is correct, that means there’s a chance that he made a deal with one of the ladies. Who? We don’t know but taking the theory into account, there’s a chance that his powers were given to him but why would they purely be in the mic? Unless, he already had his powers and that he just got stronger because of the deal. It could explain how Al managed to work his way up to becoming overlord.

Then I had another thought. Cause you’re telling me that ANYONE in hell could have stolen his mic (if they’re sneaky enough to fool Al) and break it and he would be just a regular old demon without powers? Or at least, become significantly weaker.

I don’t know. Al is written to be intimidating and then we have the story of him working his way up to overlord, and being feared by most demons. He takes on the status of an overlord and I assume overlord’s are powerful to a point? They focused so much on Al being intimidating, displayed his power, and you’re telling me it takes one hit from Adam to knock him down and destroying his mic causes him to be weak? How is this the same Al?

I was disappointed. My initial reaction can be summed up by this image.

Then we see Al freak out because he realized that he was risking his life to protect his friends when initially he didn’t care that much about them. There’s no subtle hints of him becoming more tolerant of everyone and here is where I’m a little confused. I always knew that Al could be written in 2 specific ways while managing to stay consistent as a character. Either he would become fond of Charlie and everyone else (which I predicted before episode 8 came out but really before the whole show aired.) and that he would at least, tone down the evilness slightly.

Then we have the second route. Al would continue to be his evil self and try to fulfill his motive (whatever that is) without caring about how it might affect other people/demons. The show establishes scenes where we see Al using other’s for his own benefit. Either he could continue manipulating Charlie and others for his own benefit or come to a point of realization that he’s gotten used to Charlie and the others in the hotel.

Speaking of Al becoming fond of his friends, either route the show takes I hope thy can manage to do it well. I don’t want Al turning into another soft boi like other character we’ve seen in HH and HB. I really did come into this show with an open mind when it came to Al but I fear that they may screw up his character as it’s slowly been happening.

Lastly, Al shows up the last second and Charlie, Vaggie, are happy to see him. The rest of them dont like him but they are still shown on screen. I’m thinking to myself, “the only people who would want Al back would be Charlie and Nifty. The rest would be happy if he was gone or dead.” So yeah. Sorry if these thoughts are disorganized I tried my best lol.

#hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel episode 8 #Hazbin hotel episode 7 #hazbin hotel spoilers #adam rambles

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the-irreverend · 1 year

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Has the latest episode of Helluva Boss left you a little conflicted about Loona? Well, you’re not the only one.

There’s no doubt that this episode has had some of the best Loona scenes in the show. From her backstory of why Blitzo adopted her, to that goddamn scene with Octavia.

It's no wonder my supply of tissue paper has suddenly depleted.

But while there are plenty of sweet and touching moments involving our favourite hellhound, it’s also been overshadowed by some scenes that are a little more… bitter-tasting.

I mean, when you see Loona talk to Octavia about how she should learn to understand your father despite his flaws and then in the following scene get physical with Blitzo (twice) after he finds her, it would certainly leave a bit of a bad taste in the mouth.

And don’t even get me started on what happened at the beginning.

You know, the part that tried to brutally maim Blitzo just because he wanted to talk to her about her work behaviour and spent more time complimenting her throwing skills than giving actual criticism.

Also, body-shaming Moxxie.

That's just not cool.

All of these scenes certainly make a tough pill to swallow for even the most dedicated Loona fan. But despite everything, I'm still gonna swallow said pill anyway, and I'll explain why (because, funnily enough, this isn't the first time I've written a post like this).

First of all, just look at where she was raised.

This isn’t an orphanage. It’s a goddamned prison (literally, because, you know, it's in hell). And it should come as no surprise that a place like this would be a hotbed of neglect and abuse, things that are not conducive to healthy emotional development.

So it should also come as no surprise that a person who was raised in an environment where care and affection are hunted to extinction would have difficulties processing care and affection as well as expressing it. So the fact that she can feel love and affection despite all the trauma she went through is nothing short of miraculous.

(Y'all remember this scene? Still a favourite)

And believe me, there are plenty of moments that show Loona does care for Blitzo, even if she doesn’t show it as much as she should. But I said earlier. There’s a lot more that’s holding her feelings back besides teenage angst.

But the real reason I’m still standing by Loona despite her problematic relationship with Blitzo is not just because of what caused the problems but that she is more than capable of resolving them.

Look at what happened with the relationship between Stolas and Blitzo.

Anyone paying attention to Helluva Boss knows that Blitzo’s relationship with Stolas is ANYTHING but perfect, as there has been plenty of questionable behaviour and unreciprocated love. Just look at the shit that went down in the finale of season 1.

Take a look at where we are now, and you'll see just how far these two have come.

Of course, their relationship still could use improvement, but rest assured, it is improving. And if the relationship between Blitzo and Stolas can improve, why can’t the relationship between Blitzo and Loona?

This is certainly not going to be the last appearance of Loona, nor will it be the only time that the show focuses on their relationship, which can only mean that there's gonna be plenty of opportunities for things to get better.

I know Loona (and Blitzo as he’s not quite a perfect father) still have a lot to get through. But they can get through. They are getting through. And they will get through.

Because as I said in a rant not unlike this one: sometimes when a character’s progress takes a step back it’s because it’s about to take a bounding leap.

So don’t judge a book by its cover...

...and don’t judge a character before their arc is finished.

P.S. Also, if you have your own thoughts and opinions to share about the episode or the characters, by all means, feel free to do so. I'm eager to hear what you have to say.

#helluva boss #loona #helluva boss loona #helluva loona #helluva boss seeing stars #seeing stars #helluva boss season 2 #blitzo #helluva blitzo #helluva boss blitzo #helluva boss s2 #helluva boss stolas #stolas #helluva stolas #helluva boss season two #stolas goetia

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caddeter · 1 year

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Skimming through the RWDE tag after the Volume 9 final aired reminds me of how the FNDM will defend the show by saying ‘people make mistakes’ and ‘the writers are only human’ because now the show seems to be sending that message. It also reminded me that I wrote over 1000 words explaining why I think that’s terrible.

‘People make mistakes’ is the absolute worst argument in defense of something that I have every heard. I find it even more insulting than the infamous ‘don’t like, don’t watch,’ because it implies that putting effort into your craft is optional. What this argument says is that I am in the wrong for expecting anything more than garbage. You are legitimately saying, ‘It could have been better, but you’re wrong for saying so.’ Yes, I realize that nobody is perfect and that they are going to screw up every now and again. That’s why I’m criticizing it. I mean, when was the last time you heard people get criticized for doing something right.

This argument of ‘people make mistakes so you can’t complain’ also ignores the moment after, where they look back on what they did wrong and learn from it. That’s why we make mistakes, so that we can grow as people. Why should we try to improve ourselves if we’re already ‘good enough.’ ‘People make mistakes,’ is a fact of life, but that does not mean we should throw up our hands and give up all attempts to get better and it certainly doesn’t mean we should accepting bad stories.

But enough about my philosophy on mistakes, let’s talk about this one, specifically how situational it is:

Twilight is recognized across the globe as one of the worst books ever written. Even ignoring the way it bastardizes the concept of Vampires, it’s a story that reads less like a romance and more like a drug addiction. The lead characters have all the chemistry of a brick and a dead rat. The relationship it tries to push as beautiful and grand is downright abusive at points. And this isn’t even getting into all the misogyny and racism and pedophilia in those books. But people make mistakes, so I guess we shouldn’t hold it against Myers.

Sword Art Online is one of the most infamous anime there is. Despite its large following, whenever someone looks over it with a critical lens, they come to the conclusion that it’s utter crap. The plot and worldbuilding are inconsistent. The characters (Kirito especially) exist more to fill out roles in a fantasy than as actual people. It’s all about making Kirito look good and ensuring he comes out better than when he came in, no matter what. It goes out of its way to include some kind of sexual assault of the lead female character in a given arc with no respect for the subject matter, to the point where it’s hard to tell if Reki Kawahara thinks rape is the worst crime a man could commit or if he has a fetish for it. But people make mistakes, so the critics are more in the wrong for making videos on it.

In spite of (Or rather, because of) its troubled production, Sonic 06 is one of the worst video games in existence. It’s so glitchy, it borders on unplayable. The story is bland at best, flat out terrible at worst. The new characters it introduced were all unlikable for one reason or another. Level design was horrendous and boring. People have made numerous videos and blogposts explaining why it is one of Sonic’s worst games, if not one of the worst games period. But people make mistakes, so we should stop complaining.

Post season 4, Spongebob Squarepants took a downward dive. Characters became little more than one unlikable trait. It crossed the line from mischief to malice, so good characters suffered while the bad ones triumphed. It was extremely evident that they had already run out of ideas, because they kept rehashing the same episode plot over and over again and needed to pad out some episodes. But people make mistakes, so they should never have tried to fix this.

Lucy is the most boring movie I ever sat through. It’s just ‘This girl gains reality altering powers, be amazed at how easy everything is for her.’ There is never any point where she is in any sort of real danger or anything actually threatens her. She loses all empathy for her fellow man and has no problem throwing them away like broken toys (In an Asian country when our main character is white, mind you), yet it expects you to see her as the good guy throughout. Instead of being terrified by her rampage, it expects you to be amazed. And maybe that would have worked if it used said reality altering powers in more creative ways. But people make mistakes, so I guess it’s a good movie.

I could go on for ages and never run out of examples for any given form of media. And this is all ignoring examples that are actively malicious, like stories that are intentionally sexist, racist, or homophobic.

And then there’s that other group of people this argument conveniently doesn’t apply to: The critics. If people make mistakes and you think we should just ignore that, then you can’t challenge the critics on any ground, because they made a mistake by talking about the writer’s mistakes. If we are not allowed to judge your writer, then why are you allowed to judge ours?

Not to mention how this logic is almost self-refuting. When you say this, what you are saying is that the only thing wrong with the criticism is that it is criticism.

Furthermore, this argument also somewhat undermines the effort other artists and writers will put into their craft in order to make something as best as they possibly could. If we should all just accept when someone fails to make something good, then why should we recognize how Fictional Games ensured that Amnesia The Dark Descent had an atmosphere which on its own could leave you terrified rather than relying on cheap jumpscares? Why should we praise Tatsuya Endo’s writing for blending heartfelt, humorous, and action-packed when he wrote SpyXFamily? Why should we celebrate Avatar the Last Airbender not just for its amazing story of multiple cultures coming together and strengthening one another, but also for its fully realized and fantastical world?

By saying that we should accept mistakes and that it’s wrong to criticize bad writing, you wind up saying that all of their effort was pointless. Why bother trying to make something as best you can when people will accept anything? If we’re not going to pay attention to what a story or writer did wrong, why should we pay attention to what a story or writer did right?

‘People make mistakes,’ means just that, that people make mistakes. So how about we treat those mistakes as mistakes and hold people accountable for them, rather than act like everyone and everything is perfect and infallible?

#rwde-ish #does this count as rwde #like #accepting yourself is a good message #but there's a difference between loving yourself while recognizing your flaws #and loving yourself because you REFUSE to recognize your flaws #people strive to get better #in multiple senses of the word #and from what I've heard #it sounds like rw/by is trying to say 'you don't need to'

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forgiveness-in-the-misery · 6 months

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Our Flag Means Death and a massive lack of fandom understanding:

It took a while for OFMD to be green lit for a second season, like to the point the crew seemed to be accepting it might just never happen. Then it was green lit and they got to start work.

But then we found out they gave them significantly less money to make season two, they gave them less time to film season two, gave a shorter deadline for them to send in the final cut, and found out season two would have less episodes.

Once the season was finished and edited we waited….and then we found out HBO deleted Batgirl, a movie they put an ungodly amount of money into making, they decided they didn’t want it and removed it from existence before anybody could watch it. They became very blatant that they could do this to literally any project.

We saw the people who worked on OFMD say they didn’t even know when or if season two would actually premiere. They knew fuck all. Then HBO did bare minimum to promote it or let people know when it was coming back as if they were praying it would bomb.

Season two is fucking amazing and it is better than season one was for me personally.

I really hate how people complain about season two being too short and being rushed and how they should have drawn things out more etc

Because those complaints are not valid criticism. You’re opinion is wrong, because it is about something the showrunners had no control over. People assume it is getting a third season as if season two existing isn’t a bizarre miracle in of itself. If you are told to tell chapter two of your story in 100 words or less and told you may never get to write a third chapter then yeah it will be a bit rushed because there is a 100 word limit and somebody warning you that they can fire you at any time and burn your writing up if they choose to do so.

The show worked with what little it was given and it did great. There was a method with Buffy the Vampire Slayer that seasons would end as if it was the finale of the series. Why? Because it is insane to just assume you get another season to continue your story.

And it worked. Nobody complained about it. The Righteous Gemstones and What We Do in the Shadows and countless other shows have season finales that feel as if they could easily be a series finale. I don’t get why with OFMD people are upset by this? Especially considering a lot of the same people are angry that Good Omens ended with a cliffhanger which don’t get me wrong I agree. It is dumb as fuck of Neil Gaiman to assume Amazon will give a season three.

Also I have watched hundreds of shows and main characters can be killed. So I don’t get people acting like the show can’t exist without Izzy when most people wanted him killed off in season one. Buffy killed off Buffy, not for long, but they did. Metalocalypse killed off Charles temporarily. The Magicians killed off Quinten the guy that was the main main character for most of the show. Countless shows kill off main characters either temporarily or permanently.

It isn’t a personal vendetta against you or the actor. It just happens.

Also this is gonna be my last post in regards to Our Flag Means Death because honestly after that finale a lot of my interests in looking at the show tag and interacting with shit just died with seeing how deranged and just gross a lot of people were behaving on here.

If people abandon the fandom it isn’t cause the finale. It’s cause the toxic psychosis.

#our flag means death

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destinygoldenstar · 2 years

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In defense of Noah.

So I got noted quite a bit in my Owen post (which blew up A LOT more than I initiated. Wow.) that I did not mention that Noah was... not the nicest person in the world to Owen in RR, and yet I claimed they were friends.

I wanted to say my thoughts on that.

Will this be bias because I love Noah? Yeah. Probably.

I’m not gonna act like Noah was traditionally nice to Owen. Not ever, actually. He did laugh at Owen’s milk snot in World Tour, and a couple times I’m too lazy to recall right now, but not much else that can be deemed as ‘friendly.’

Really, has Noah EVER been traditionally a friendly person? To ANYONE?

He deals with his interactions with a smirk and a rude demeanor. With the exception of Emma, who I will get to later, he talks in the sarcastic tone we love about him.

I understand where that criticism comes from. Despite becoming good friends with Owen and staying with him on multiple reality shows, he doesn’t really show that much kindness towards him. Heck, he doesn’t really show that to anyone and constantly forces people to do the hard work for him. Dodgebrawl? The Tyler stretching incident? That’s not OOC.

But... I honestly liked it. And here’s why.

It was just really wholesome to see this stone faced lazy guy get slapped in the face with sincerity and make a much healthier life for himself. Better than working for Chris anyway.

Noah’s someone very introverted and, lets face it, spoiled. The game might actually be the first time he was rejected ever. After Island, he became Chris’s little assistant, and that says all, and in World Tour, he actually does try to dodge hard challenges first (remember the pinball challenge?) And who forces him into a position to always be on guard? Owen. Mostly because Owen is probably gonna (accidentally) kill Noah. And Alejandro, who is sus.

I See London is the first episode where Noah legit takes charge in something. He’s not nice about it, I don’t expect him to be, but they had to win the challenge. It’s not the rules were gonna change on them at the last minute- oh wait.

(I mean, it’s Total Drama. Hosted by Chris McLean. So... I’m not as mad about that as you think I would be.)

But let me ask this: If Noah had no care for Owen whatsoever, WHY would he even stay with Owen for so many reality shows?

I’ll wait.

Of course Noah isn’t gonna outright say he cares about him, or even be good at encouraging his partner. “You’re about as picky as a raccoon”, is essentially his poor way of encouraging that he can do it. Unlike Emma, who only saw Kitty as an asset to winning the money at first, Noah knows who Owen is, and tries to help them both. Could he be nicer about it? Yes. But that’s not the point. The point is ‘how would this be an in character way for them to deal the situation?’

“Hold on, but he developed all these feelings for Emma and constantly tried to impress her” -The reblog section

Here’s the big case.

That whole thing is only proof that Owen’s good nature DOES rub off on Noah. Better yet, being forced into situations where he has to actually TRY to make it and survive.

And a crush? Yeah, that’ll let that all out at once. It’s basically, Noah recognizes that he legit WANTS something that’s hard to get. Of course he’s bad at dealing with emotion and struggling with something that seems so... sappy. This is a whole new experience for him.

And as much as you may want to deny it, Noah is NOT just an emotionless sarcastic machine. If that were the case, he wouldn’t laugh at Owen’s milk shake at all, which that too, could’ve easily come across as unconventional for him.

(I don’t want to talk about the ‘But there were hints that Noah was gay, and yet he becomes straight’ stuff. I don’t hate it, and that’s coming from someone graysexual. Total Drama is bad at representation. The fandom just wants to ignore the facts because they love the show and the characters anyway. If I wrote Total Drama, would I have made Noah gay? Coin toss. But what’s canon is canon, write a fanfic instead of whining to the writers. Over.)

For me at least, I just found it really wholesome to see this brainiac become way more understanding and better at relationships as the show went on.

With Emma, it’s understanding her boundaries in order to properly be with her.

With Owen, he does actually get better at showing his care for Owen as RR goes on. It’s Owen who helps him in the air guitar challenge, and from there, the bossiness towards the big guy becomes way less frequent.

Total Drama doesn’t have it’s characters blatantly say, “I’m sorry I treated you badly” or “I’ll try to be better” or “I care about you and I want you around”. Some shows do that, in my writing I do that, but that’s never been this show’s style. So of course Noah isn’t gonna blatantly apologize or say “I need you.”

Would I have liked for Noah to have said this sort of stuff out loud? Yeah.

Would I have liked for Noah to have more screen time to flesh out what I’m talking about? YES.

But for what we have, I still love Noah as a character. He’s not the best written character in the show, but sometimes you don’t care.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll make a Noah centric fic that takes place in an alternate timeline of the show. where he DOES get the screen time to flesh out what I’m trying to say. No promises though.

#Total Drama #Td Noah #Td Owen #Td Emma #Nemma #total drama ridonculous race #in defense #defending a character #i'm biased

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fictive-fodder · 1 year

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Hello! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve made a post regarding the social and creative reclamation of harry potter and I wanted to provide some resources that have really helped me, heartened me, and deepened my appreciation for my queer community! I feel like every time I see Joanne continue to be harmful, it’s like a fresh slap. Somehow, I’m always surprised that it’s just as bad, that its getting worse. There must just be some part of me that is naive to how ingrained hatred for trans liberation runs, because every time I see it happening it feels like I’ve swallowed ice. If you’ve been in search of support, of analysis and comfort I have been keeping a list of people and content that has really helped me that I am happy to share, so without further ado~ Witch Please - This is an amazing podcast hosted by two incredibly intelligent people, Hannah and Marcelle who are both professors and scholars. Every episode takes a larger scholarly theme, defines it, exemplifies it within a larger context and then finally zeros in on how it relates to a specific book in the harry potter series. My first episode of theirs was Queer Theory and I was absolutely hooked as soon as I finished the episode. Not only do you learn a lot listening to this show, but it feels a bit like being in the most engaging critical thinking class you could imagine. Their guest hosts are also all scholar experts for the episode theme. Jessie Gender’s Response Video - This is really recent news, but this is an amazing response from a trans gamer regarding financially supporting officially licensed harry potter merchandise after Joanne attacked this creator on twitter. Transgender Rights II: Last Week Tonight - This focuses on American politics and news, but is a really powerful, comprehensive look at some of the struggles trans* people face regarding law as well as social liberty. I wanted to include this because it has some great points that even some of my closest friends didn’t know about what the process is for transitioning and how its affected legally and socially.

J. K. Rowling | ContraPoints - This video essay by Natalie Wynn goes into how bigotry towards trans liberation works and where it stems from, in part. It also looks specifically into statements Joanne has made and deconstructs the issues within her arguments.

So if you’re feeling like you need to hear some strong voices reject all of her hate, here you are <3

#harry potter #JK Rowling #trans rights

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juniperhillpatient · 2 months

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despite a few things im blah about with the netflix LA and still more excited about it that that avatar studios and im a kataang fan so i should be happy right? but no i got such low faith in bryan/mike after lok it felt they just didnt understand their own characters .. im in the mostly neutral camp about em no hate/deep love but their choices in LOK baffle me to this day ..

I haven’t watched LoK but anyone who follows me or has talked to me probably knows my “there are no comics on Rose’s blog” rule so yeah I have simillar mixed feelings on the og creators 🥲 I still love the original show with my entire heart. I know I’ve been pretty critical this rewatch around but I’ve done more thoughtful analysis with a more positive spin in the past so right now I’m doing a lot of “hey that sucks” live posting lol

I was initially more hopeful about the live action than I am now but some of the stuff I’ve seen about it…. Mm. 😬 We’ll see I guess!

Preparing for the LA was my original reason for my rewatch & I wasn’t sure I’d do it in time & here we are I’m getting ready to start the last episode either now or tomorrow but… I’m not even sure I still want to watch the LA 💀 I just got too salty about certain things even reading quotes about it & seeing trailers & I know myself I get sooo unnecessarily worked up sometimes about my characters & it’s not always a good look lmao sooo maybe I should… not watch. Idk. Can’t decide.

I’m glad you’re feeling optimistic though! I hope it turns out decent…. Or at least mediocre maybe?

For me personally the original ATLA will always be a beloved classic ❤️ Not above reproach certainly but just absolutely a beautiful story with amazing animation. Nothing can ever change that for me.

#asks #answered #thanks for the ask! sorry I’m so negative!

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mlobsters · 10 months

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supernatural s7e2 hello, cruel world (w. ben edlund)

HALLUCIFER Right. You think this fruit-bat fever dream is reality? You come back, I'm sorry, with no soul like some peppy American Psycho, till Saint Dean glues you back together again by buying you some magic amnesia. You’re real. I’m very real. Everything between is what we call set dressing.

heart is breaking for sam already

HALLUCIFER You’re still in my cell. You’re my bunkmate, buddy. You’re my little bitch, in every sense of the term.

in general i am overly literal and what i see is what i get when it comes to show canon but i'm trying so hard to hold tight to the illusion in my mind that hell-torture for sam and dean didn't involve rape but they're making it really fucking hard. there's been other references, i think one in the last ep no less. just keep thinking to myself "gloss over it, they're just being edgy, they don't actually mean it". i start to get real upset if i think about it so yeah.

i know i'm wearing the wincest goggles but again i feel like i am capable of picking up what a show is putting down regardless of a ship i might be invested in, but i feel like i'm losing it with cas and dean's relationship level. i feel like we have seen so little of cas in general, that they keep TALKING about how they're all close but we've seen so little of it?? i'd think with 22 episodes a season they'd have room to establish this onscreen 🥴 but here's dean crying over presumed-dead cas. i guess i'm just gonna have to go with it and stop complaining about sHoW doN't TeLL

god what is this weird music transition into the doobie brothers black water - just because the lyrics work does not mean the music does :P hard left turn after mushy dead cas scene. i fear i have slipped into overly critical mode

short and gruff version of hannibal tending will graham's wounded hands post-tier

i get that dean's freaked out and scared but he's being such an asshole to sam

what an exceptionally cruel hallucination they're giving sam. i might need to look up how long he deals with this before it gets fixed because.....

DEAN Yeah, well. I’m not Sam, okay? I keep my marbles in a lead friggin' box. I’m fine. Really.

big fat fuck you, dean. you can't out tough psychosis.

BOBBY Of course. Yeah. You just lost one of the best friends you ever had, your brother’s in the bell jar, and Purgatory’s most wanted are surfing the sewer lines, but yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re – you're fine.

one of the best friends you ever had. ok. O K. (nevermind how depressingly in-the-basement-low the bar is being the number of people he could call friends he's had)

looks like bobby's computer got an upgrade! seems untitled 1 and 2 desktop has made it to the actual desktop 😂

s6e4 weekend at bobby's his 3.1 desktop LOL

okay so hell politics, heaven politics, the clear next step is purgatory politics. who is the boss of the leviathans *pulls out the org chart* (god i just don't care)

sam's hallucinating dean now, great. do not like

DEAN This is real. Not a year ago, not in Hell, now. I was with you when you cut it, I sewed it up! Look!

little gift to wincest kink writers everywhere, dean helping sam by inflicting pain

DEAN Hey. I am your flesh-and-blood brother, okay? I’m the only one who can legitimately kick your ass in real time. You got away. We got you out, Sammy. DEAN Believe in that! Believe me, okay? You gotta believe me. You gotta make it stone number one and build on it. You understand? SAM Yeah. Yeah, okay.

dean looks like he might fall over he's so relieved.

DEAN (on phone) You cannot be in that crater back there. I can’t… If you’re gone, I swear, I am going to strap my Beautiful Mind brother into the car and I’m gonna drive us off the pier. You asked me how I was doing? Well, not good! Now you said you’d be here. Where are you?

well this is awful. first hallucifer encouraging sam to kill himself repeatedly and now dean saying this. also do not like.

(also very serious things happening and then that cheesy ass special effects on the leviathan's face -_-)

the winchesters getting an ambulance and going to the hospital for an injury, wonders never cease.

#supernatural #spnwatch #spn 7x02 #ben edlund #spn desktop background update

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woozapooza · 6 months

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Miscellaneous post-s4 Sopranos thoughts

I’m still trying to figure out why so many viewers hate Meadow so much. She’s had her moments of selfishness and immaturity and even cruelty, but she's been improving. In 4x12, she comes off very mature and gracious, whereas her mother keeps picking fights with her and refusing to take the opportunities Meadow gives her to talk about what’s bothering her.

Actually, Tony was surprisingly mature in that episode as well, at least in familial matters. Sure, early on he complained that Carmela could be “a moody bitch” (you’re one to talk, king), but in the rest of the episode he actually does a pretty good job being a diplomat between his wife and daughter. In my journal entry for this episode (I’ve been doing one for every episode since partway through season 3) I wrote “he put the bar on the floor, then he sailed over it.”

It didn’t last long, though. He was back to being despicable in 4x13, whereas I can’t think of a single moment in 4x13 where I wasn’t cheering for poor Carmela.

One of like a million ways Christopher mirrors Tony: in 4x13, he says that while he doesn't intend to apologize to the people his addiction hurt, he might send flowers or money in a few cases. Those are both things Tony has given in lieu of actually making things right: earlier this season, he sent Melfi flowers after blowing up at her about Gloria’s death, and last season, when he felt bad about getting the cop that ticketed him demoted, he tried to slip him some cash. Neither Melfi nor the cop was receptive to these gestures. He’s had better luck buying Carmela’s forgiveness, or at least forbearance, but even she’s getting sick of it: Whitecaps is "just a bigger version of an emerald ring, so you can keep on with your other life.”

Another character in the same boat, thematically speaking, as Tony and Christopher is Paulie. In 4x12, he tries to blame his fall from grace in Tony’s eyes on Silvio: “It's your fault anyway. All this shit started with that Russian prick when I had to go pick up your $5,000.” As if it’s Silvio’s fault that Paulie bungled that mission! (That reminds me, I still haven’t written the Pine Barrens post I want to write.) Then again, I’m not sure Paulie really believes what he’s saying. He’s just lashing out because he’s mad at Silvio for (very gently) warning him that “certain people are starting to wonder where your heart is.” That’s the sort of thing Tony does all the time: dredge up flimsy old grievances as a shield against completely reasonable criticisms of him.

Oh, speaking of Silvio, I really enjoyed his little moments of rebellion against Tony earlier in the season (“No Show” and “Christopher” are the only examples I can think of). I hope that theme comes back in the future.

I don’t understand why Johnny hasn’t said anything about Paulie to Carmine! The mob politics are very interesting but I’m usually just barely following what’s going on. Well, maybe it will become clear.

I ended up really enjoying Ralphie! I miss him.

To be honest, I don’t care about Junior that much. He’s fine when he’s just interacting with other characters, but I don’t really care about his storyline. Most of the time, when there’s a Junior-centric scene, I’m just waiting to get back to the characters I actually care about (i.e., almost everyone else).

I read in a review of “From Where to Eternity” that Michael Imperioli has been criticized for giving his own character too big a role in the episodes that he wrote. I told this to my friend who’s watching the show along with me, and we both agreed that we would never criticize him for that because Christopher is one of the most interesting characters and we can’t get enough of him. Well, I’ve now seen four out of the five Imperioli episodes, and not one of them has put enough weight on Christopher for this criticism to make sense, so what the fuck? Where are these Christopher-heavy episodes we were promised? “Marco Polo” had better deliver, or I may cry.

Melfi is only in eight out of thirteen episodes next season because David Chase hates me personally and wants me to suffer. However, I read online that back when the show was airing, some people thought that Tony quitting therapy was Chase preparing to remove Melfi from the show entirely, so I guess I should count my blessings that he didn’t go that route. God, I’m so in love with her. She’s so incredibly important to me.

#The Sopranos #Anna watches The Sopranos #Anna watches tv #x

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woomycritiques543 · 11 months

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Honestly.

People cry and scream about people critiqueing HB or Hazbin for any reason whatsoever-

As if people were dogpilling a “real” person and they were “defending” them or feeling exhausted and sad that so many people are “unjustifyngly hateful” towards a real person by constantly sending bad faith criticism towards them-

When Hazbin and Helluva Boss characters….

ARE NOT REAL!

So if people want to say “Stolas is a bad person!” or “HB should have been written better” is that some “harassment you need to fight against!”?

No, because Stolas is NOT REAL!

He’s fictional, he’s a drawing with directions written by a person on a laptop! People are allowed to supposedly “dogpile” a cartoon show with fictional characters by pointing out plot issues to help themselves or other writers improve so they can try to write well-

Because that cartoon- is NOT A PERSON!

It’s a drawing on a piece of paper!

So do people need to go private as if they were wanting to dogpile a real person with insults and harassment? No, because in reality, those people are talking about not some human being they shouldn’t dogpile, but making a critique about FICTIONAL CHARACTERS!

It’s so fucking funny, because people will be saying mostly non-hateful critique while people in Hazbin or HB’s fandom will dogpile people with comments like “YOU NEVER DESERVED YOUR FOLLOWERS!” or “YOU’RE A [insert ableist comment here] or will be posting about how “criticism is bad don’t hawass my blorbos!”…. as a criticism post, towards the criticism… which is still criticism. Which makes said posts a complete waste of time, because it’s not even something important to talk about it’s just some random people disliking a cartoon clown! You really can just block and move on, hell, if anything causes you genuine distress- move on, dont harass people over material things such as “but I like this character!” or “it’s my favorite show!” or it just comes off as being selfish.

Being able to handle any different opinion at all is called being an adult. I swear these people wouldnt have been able to survive being one of the creators critiqued for the Sonic movie trailer.

-and you know what happened with that trailer?

People saw it. critiqued it. clowned on a fictional character, gave him redesigns: aka the exact thing the non-stans have been doing with Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss since day one!

-and instead of pitching a fit about these people being "HATERS!" to "GO WATCH SOMETHING ELSE!" or "GOOD WRITERS DONT CRITICIZE OTHER WRITERS OWO!" the creators accepted the criticism, and gave movie sonic a redesign! The sonic movie improved and became 100+ million dollar hit! In fact, the film got 100+ viewers and made even more money in it's sequel!

While Vivziepop is slowly losing large sums of money because she lets her fans harass people over SIMPLE criticism. Same for her accociated that do the same. -and though the softcore porn will still bring in viewers temporarily, eventually they get bored of it due to the badly written plot and lack of plot direction and world building... and move onto Pornhub. In 9 days, the last episode had over 13 million, while for this episode, it has only 8 million and got only 1 million in a 6+ hours while episode 3 got FIVE MILLION in about six hours!

While anyone who just wanted a plot moves on immediatly after seeing just ONE episode, which is why HB has been losing over 9 mil viewers since day ONE! It’s just now noticeable because season two is causing them to lose viewers even FASTER and the losses have now added up a TON! Over 30 mil!, so you know what harassing people over basic feedback does? It makes you lose respect-

-AND MONEY!

So you either be a decent human to your fans, or you lose a dime!

It’s not kindergarten where you can cry about a kid liking the blur crayon and not the one you have, and it still be acceptable behavior. You’re an adult, most of you are even nearing your thirties yet here you are, excusing transphobia, ableism, and using whether people like a cartoon or not to fuel your bigotry and use that as a chance to harass them, or sending dogpiling or death threats over any critique at all. You cant force someone to like something, that’s just being a hateful asshole, not a “positive and nice fan!” when you’re bashing your keyboard with dogpilling and slurs towards random people you’ve never even met before.

Saying critique out of good faith and love for a show or to help other writers doesn’t make you a “hater” for doing it. A “hater” is being-

HATEFUL!

-as in dogpiling, harassment through public slander, and threatening people, aka what the standom has been doing since day one:

Being a HATER!

#hazbin hotel #helluva boss #helluva boss criticism #hazbin hotel criticism #you're not kind you lose a dime!

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