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What's your opinion on the hazbin hotel songs?
(I've heard a few and i think they're okay..)
I'm so glad you asked bc I have some OPINIONS
(I'm not gonna talk about the pilot, just the episodes)
I've watched the first four episodes and they're better than I expected, but my expectations were on the floor
The first song is "Happy Day in Hell" from "Overture." Although this song/plotpoint should have been WAY later in the series, I like it. It feels like "Inside of Every Demon is a Rainbow" from the pilot, however both songs are on my playlist. It's a good song that serves as a recap of the pilot, showing Charlie's personality, motives, and her relationship with Vaggie (a little). It's a nice song with little substance, and feels like a Disney Princess' "i dream of something more" song. 7/10
In the same episode, we get "Hell is forever" sung by Adam. THE Adam. The first man Adam. Charlie meets with the Angels (just Adam and Lute, a girlboss exterminator who I think is in love with Adam?) and discusses her plan to redeem sinners. Adam laughs her off, singing "Hell is Forever," trying to convince Charlie that sinners can't change. Adam is such a dickbag that it's hard to like any part of this scene. He is really disrespectful towards women, grossly sexual, swears more than most characters in the show, and talks about being the "original dick." It wasn't unbearable, but it's probably the most forgettable song so far. 2/10
Next is "Stayed Gone" from the episode "Radio Killed the Video Star." It feels like a rap battle. It's a competitive song between Alastor and Vox that takes place over the radio and on TV respectively. A basic rundown is that Vox is kind of horny and down bad for Alastor, won't admit it. Vox is really pissed that Alastor came back (he was gone for 7 years) and is basically going on TV to shit on him. However, before he left, Vox had asked Alastor to join the Vees, (an influential group of overlords with names that start with 'V'; it's giving middle school popular girls) and Alastor refused. Vox is mad that Alastor didn't join, which leads Alastor to drop the iconic line "I said no and now he's pissy, that's the tea." This is probably one of my favorite songs in HH. It's catchy and unproblematic (which seems to be difficult for Viv). 8/10
"It starts with Sorry" is a song Charlie sings to Sir Pentious, telling him she'll accept him into the hotel if he owns up to his mistakes. It's an okay and forgettable song, but it's super ironic. A song about acknowledging you've hurt people, apologizing, and becoming a better person? In Vivienne fucking Medrano's show? Absolutely hilarious to listen to, if you go at it with a different perspective. Viv should take her own advice. 3/10
The episode "Scrambled Eggs" is based more around women (shocker, it wasn't written by Viv or Adam). The first song in this episode is "Respectless." It's sung by Velvette, one of the Vees, and Carmilla Carmine, an overlord. Velvette brings a decapitated angel head to an overlord meeting, and announces that angels CAN be killed, contrary to their previous belief. Velvette suggests they fight back against the angels and the exterminations, while Carmilla is adamant against it. The song's fine, but I especially love Velvette's lines. She has an English accent (Essex? I think?) and basically says "I'm not just a bitch. I'm THE bitch" and I love her for it. 5/10
Right after that, we find out that Carmilla killed the angel, which would have been shocking, but we only knew her for like, 5 minutes. The meeting's over, and it's just her and a few others. She says that she killed the angel to protect her daughters, and that going to war would endanger them again (basically "going to war endangers the people we started killing for"). She sings "Whatever it Takes" about protecting those she loves? I think, the song wasn't good enough to pay attention. This song's got a side-by-side with Vaggie, who's singing about wanting to protect Charlie. It's a sweet and nice song, but was just kinda mid. There's also a problem with Vaggie's singing, in which her voice is deep and monotonous, but her singing is light and high-pitched. 4/10
Oh boy. The next episode. "Masquerade." The first song is "Poison," sung by Angel Dust. It was released early, and got lots of hype and controversy. Similar to "Addict," it's a song where Angel talks about his struggles with addiction and his sexual abuse at the hands of his pimp, Valentino. Both of these songs are also on my playlist. It's catchy and fun to listen to, while also tackling deeper topics. Angel feels like his sexual abuse is his fault, and although he absolutely hates it, he feels like he has no choice but to stay. The song on its own? 9/10. Then the episode came out. The song shows Angel dancing and singing this song while graphic images flash behind him. Images of his rape and sexual assault. This episode had ZERO trigger warnings. The creators of this song were Viv and Raph (I can't find his last name right now). We can only speculate for Viv, but Raph 100% has a Rape kink. He ships Angel x Valentino, posts cosplay and art shipping them, publicly sexually harassed (asked for the nudes of?) a 15 year old, and essentially has admitted he finds rape and SA hot. He also lied about being an SA victim. Neither Viv nor Raph are SA victims. This song is just to fuel their rape kinks. Viv and Raph have yet to apologize for sexualizing SA, and have since doubled down on why this is "good representation." Truly disgusting, I have no choice but to say 0/10
"Loser, Baby" is similar to "Poison" in the sense that's it's fine until you REALLY think about it. In this song, Husk tells Angel that he used to be an overlord, but lost his power to Alastor. He says that he understands how Angel feels, since both their souls belong to overlords. The song is supposed to portray a "you're not alone, I understand what you're going through" message, but instead feels victim blame-y, with Husk kinda telling Angel that he should just try to ignore and move past it because everyone struggles. 6/10 song, 0/10 message
The songs were kinda disappointing, especially the last two. Fuck Vivienne Medrano
The Show and Fandom’s reaction to:
Stella: She’s a horrible, awful person! Who cares if she was brought up in the same environment and circumstances as Stolas. Some people are just born evil. If you try to give her any depth, you’re an abuser apologist! You don’t care about male domestic violence.
Loona: HAHA FUNNY! It’s slapstick. She came from a harsh environment. Blitz shouldn’t have criticized her. Can’t you take a joke?!
Honestly, I really enjoy seeing the redesigns of the characters, normally the artists just draw them for fun, or as an exercise, not because "I can do it better", and it's sad to see that they put lots of love into making their redesigns just for the toxic fans to attack them, saying that the designs sucks or that the artist hates the show...
Recently an artist made a new redesign of Angel Dust, posted it and lots of toxic fans attacked the artist insulting them, I understand why they don't want to make more redesigns, it's sad that someone makes something that they're proud of just to be torn apart by the toxic fans...
Let’s be honest here, the only reason why Viv’s fans attack anyone that draws redesigns is because said redesigns are better than the source material.
Why is that people who don’t work on the show get that Angel and Vaggie are supposed to have a spider and moth motif, but Viv (The person who created these characters.) doesn’t?
Even the people who don’t know anything about demonology get that Beelzebub makes more sense as a giant bee/fly than a sparkle dog.
Most animated shows have a bunch of character designers on staff, so they can share ideas when it comes to a character’s design.
But not Viv’s shows! Viv is only one who has final say on what the main cast should look like, while the character designers are only allowed to design a bunch of background incidentals, who end up looking a hell of a lot more appealing than the main cast.
If you’re an artist who enjoys drawing redesigns, please don’t let Viv and her fandom’s toxic behavior discourage you from doing what you love.
Yes, there are artists who only draw redesigns because they wanna “Fix” a certain design, and those assholes shouldn’t be given any attention, but most of the people who do redesigns of Viv’s characters do it for fun.
With that being said, if you are an artist who’s thinking about posting your Hazbin/Helluva redesigns online, please be aware that the fans will end up harassing you, so be careful out there.
Also, I don’t blame anyone who says that they don’t want to draw redesigns of Viv’s characters because of how toxic the fanbase is.
HH & HB Worldbuilding Part #01
Worldbuilding, a beautiful and vital thing for all stories to have, is, for some reason, absent in the Hellaverse. Let’s change that.
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“When was Hell created?” ‣ I’ve decided to base Hell’s creation on how long the Earth has been around for which would mean that Hell was made around 4.5 billion years ago. I went this route because it makes the most sense from a logical and theological standpoint as God only made the Earth after he found out that Adam & Eve had disobeyed him by eating The Forbidden Fruit of Knowledge.
“How many Rings of Hell are there?” ‣ Usually there are only Seven Rings of Hell but I’m taking a page out of Dante’s Inferno for this and having there be Nine Rings instead. However, the order of these Nine Rings is rather different. First and foremost, one of the only things staying from the canon Hellaverse is that the Pride Ring is the very first Ring of Hell as I see it as the only Ring meant to house Sinners on account of the majority of humanities crimes stemming from the sin of Pride by believing that they are better than something else whether it be their fellow man, machine, or beast. As far as the other big Six Rings of Hell go after Pride it would be Lust in 2nd, Gluttony in 3rd, Sloth in 4th, Greed in 5th, Wrath in 6th, and Envy in 7th.
‣ That just leaves me with the 8th & 9th Rings which cannot be accessed via regular means (for instance, Hell’s Metro system for Hellborn citizens) or standard irregular means (like The Marked Alleyways in Pride that’s used by normal Hellborn citizens and Sinners alike.) The 8th Ring is known as The Ring of Treachery and very few know of its existence and even fewer are aware of the evil it holds. On the other hand, the Final Ring is one that every demon knows and fears as that’s where those found guilty in The Serpent’s Courtroom are forced to serve capital punishment (yes, there are things far worse than the death penalty in Hell) and go to suffer for the rest of eternity, in the Ring fittingly named, The Abyss. “What are the laws of Hell?” ‣ Obviously, if Hell has some kind of courtroom then there are some type of rules set in place. How said rules work differ depending on four major factors: which Ring you’re in, your place in Hell’s hierarchy, your race, and whether you’re a Hellborn citizen or not. Which doesn’t sound as bad as it could be until you take into consideration that Hellborn groups like Imps have to constantly be updated on and follow the laws in ALL Seven Rings, be "reminded" about their place in Hell by basically everyone around them, and overall be treated less than a Sinner would be because, “at least Sinners EARNED their right to be here.” The only Hellborn groups to have it worse than Imps are Half-Breeds (like Blitzø, Barbie, and Striker) as they’re expected to memorize DOUBLE the set of rules compared to everybody else and Hellhounds who have the most amount of rules while also having the least amount of freedoms thanks to them being often seen as pets or servants and nothing more. “Will the entirety of Hell be some various shades of red?” ‣ Short answer, no. Long answer, each of the Rings will be various shades of their specific Sin’s corresponding color. For example, the entire Pride Ring is going to be some tint or shade of purple. The only Rings I can’t really do this for are Lust, Treachery, and The Abyss. For the latter two it’s because they don’t exist in the traditional sense and as far as the Lust Ring goes, I’ll have to change the color to pink as Lust’s true signature color is blue however Sloth is light blue which means one of them has to change and I don't know about you but a blue Lust Ring just doesn't sound or look right to me.
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While I was doing this I hadn't realized just how much Vivziepop & Spindlehorse managed to accomplish NOT making Hell feel like Hell. Both Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are solely set in Hell for the sake of being edgy and so that one show can do the done to death trope of, "angels are the real bad guys," while the other show devolved into a convoluted melodrama.
With a story setting like Hell you, as the writer/director, have to understand that you can't just visually show the readers/viewers that this story could only be set in Hell but you also have to make them FEEL like it could ONLY be set in Hell. Viv somewhat grasps the visual aesthetic of Hell but she's completely lost on how to appeal to an even wider audience due to her shows failing to convince people that FEEL like either show truly takes place in Hell. There's no real ongoing suffering happening to the Sinners in Hazbin Hotel (I'm not counting Angel Dust and his problems because they've opted for him to have rushed and off screen character development) as the Extermination only happens once a year and with Helluva Boss, it REFUSES to go all in on depicting high class Hellborn citizens taking advantage of those beneath them in Hell's society (gee, I wonder why/s.) That aside, I hope that you liked the worldbuilding that I've come up with so far and before the day is over I'll probably make a post dissecting Chaggie and why they should've stayed as best friends like they were originally planned to be in HH before Viv changed her mind last minute. Happy Valentine's Day everybody!
One Hell of an Unpopular Opinion #06
There's no point in the Hellaverse having eleven confirmed Overlords when only seven (really six) of them are going to be prominent in Hazbin Hotel's narrative.
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The more I think about the Overlords, the more confused I become. We only know six out of the confirmed eleven Overlords do while we know next to nothing about the others. - Alastor is a radio host. - Carmilla is Hell's top arms dealer. - Rosie is a matchmaker. - Valentino runs most of the porn industry in the Pride Ring. - Vox controls the majority of social media. - Velvette is a fashionista who capitalizes on fast fashion.
The only other Overlord we have any kind of relevant information about is Zestial, a character who I don't think should've been introduced to the audience THIS early on within the series. All we really know about Zestial is that he's the oldest and longest reigning Overlord in all of Hell as he died sometime in the 16th century. Sure, there's also his friendship with Carmilla but that doesn't really tell us anything about who he is or what he does. Other than Zestial, there are four other Overlords we either know very little about or we know nothing about. These four Overlords are Fredrick & Bethesda Von Elderitch who are supposedly friends with Lucifer & Lilith, Zeezi who had all of one line in the entire show, and then there's that burning skull Overlord that none of us know the name of.
The Vees are going to be our primary antagonists in Season #02 of Hazbin Hotel and while I really think that's a terrible idea, I know that two of them are relevant to two other characters of our main cast. We all know that Vox is Alastor's foil and Valentino is the bane of Angel Dust's existence. I have no idea what the hell they'll have Velvette do although I hope she'll at least get some good moments in this season as the writers at Spindlehorse are, more than likely, going to heavily sideline her character yet again.
In any case, Rosie is Alastor's bestie so she's bound to come back and I'm confident that we'll eventually see Carmilla and Zestial return as well. As to when the other Overlords will ever be relevant... Who knows? But also will we really care when and if they do matter later on??? ________ This opinion is much shorter than my HB opinion from yesterday but that's just how it is sometimes. I hope you had fun reading my thoughts and I'll see you later!