helluvaartcritique

[helluvaartcritique]

Why. The fuck. IS VOX A SHARK???

“It makes perfect sense! Velvette is a doll, Valentino is a moth, so what about Vox?” A TV. HE IS A TV. HE IS THE TV DEMON. HE HAS A TV.. FOR A HEAD. Vivziepop, wtf??

This is somehow one of the dumbest character choices she’s ever done. AND THAT IS SAYING A LOT.

[helluvaartcritique]

What are your least fav Viv designs, and why? (If u don't mind)

No worries, I don't mind!

My least favorite Vivziepop designs would go to Beelzebub and Vassago.

Beelzebub, due to the large amount of clutter and being absolute hell to animate. (I am so sorry to all the animators who have to animate her.)

Vassago, due to not resembling a pirate at all (I genuinely thought he was some kind of rockstar upon his first appearance)

Thanks for the ask!

[helluvaartcritique]

I think it’s kind crazy how Vivzie was exposed for demanding that other indie projects don’t pick up her animators

And fans are like “well she doesn’t want to overwork them!” Because of this comment here

Hello? That is not a fucking normal reaction to have. Animators aren’t her goddamn slaves, they’re allowed to have other jobs and aspirations. Vivzie herself is on record for saying that she wants her work to be the main priority for her team. Like lovebombing your crew while overworking them and refusing to let them find other jobs doesn’t sound abusive to you? Alright.

Vivzie is not concerned about her team having too much to work on, she’s concerned about them having other JOBS because it means her show isn’t going to be the main priority anymore. Hell she admits that her supervisor wants to get rid of several animators for doing this and Vivzie’s only concern is how many animators she might lose.

Like Vivziepop’s bizarre reaction to realizing that her animators might join other projects makes it kind of obvious that she very clearly did not prepare for this. She definitely expected her crew to be extremely loyal to her and only her, likely not picking any other job until the show was finished. She wanted to make two shows with a single team with fluid animation and extremely overly designed main characters and was somehow shocked when her animators wanted to leave or get a second job.

There is quite literally not a single justified reason for Vivzie to block her team from working on other projects. She’s just predatory and selfish.

[helluvaartcritique]

Learning he was supposed to be a pirate ruined me because wtf

He’s actually one of the better designed characters, which is saying something

[helluvaartcritique]

7 5 Deadly Sins Redesigns

[helluvaartcritique]

Guys, I think she genuinely believes she created the Dictionnaire Infernal.

[helluvaartcritique]

Liar.

[helluvaartcritique]

Viv, a fascist wannabe dictator somehow managed to con his way back into power. Now is not the time to be plugging your dumb demon cartoon.

[helluvaartcritique]

I think Viviziepop's biggest problem is oversaturation. Too much red, too many fucks, too much sex, the same humor and most importantly, too many ideas that aren't fleshed out on their own. Its the Star Wars quote, the creator had like 15 ideas and the people around him had to convince him to focus on just a few.

Take, for example, the Deadly Sins. On their own they have certain themes but the overarching one is that they're Circus-Themed. But some match that better than others, because their individual themes clash too much. Beelzebub, Queen Bee, does NOT match the circus theme. Her 'Party Girl' visual, while cluttered, takes precedent so the 'Animal Tamer' that she's supposed to be does not translate. Now, you could say "Well she's an animal! Right?" But Vivziepop has mentioned that relates to Beelzebub's depiction as a fly, so the bee part is not in fact connected to the circus. The fox? She said it's to differentiate her from the HellHounds. But if she wanted her to be circus-themed why not be a tiger? I have to wonder, was the circus theme not that important? Or did she forget? Or was it just too many ideas to keep track of?

[helluvaartcritique]

Looking at this, I can see why Charlie became a supporting character to her own show, especially since she got sidelined to both her father, who ended up fighting Adam with ease, and Alastor. Why make Charlie the main character if she ends up being sidelined? That's like if The Fairly Oddparents had Timmy got sidelined and ended up as a supporting character to his father and Mr. Crocker.

I don't know what Viv sees in these two, but if you're going to make Charlie the main character, just make Charlie the main character, simple ss that.

[helluvaartcritique]

So... What is the deal with Blitz's and Moxxie's upbringing?

Let's start by saying the obvious: Blitz’s and Moxxie’s families are almost exact mirrors to each other: They both have terrible, greedy fathers who just enjoy making their lives miserable and amazing dead mothers who we know nothing about except their cause of death and how much they are missed by their sons. 

The only significant distinctions are that Moxxie's story is splattered with glossy mafia paint and that his mother was drowned while he was still a very young child. On the other hand, Blitz's mother, Tilla, died when he was a teenager and was burned to death. The rest? Pretty much the same.

However, the similarities between their backstories are not really the problem; after all, in real life, we can find people who lived through similar traumas and that is a pretty interesting aspect to explore in fantastical stories as well. 

Many other shows have done it incredibly well (Bojack Horseman) but Helluva Boss failed in that department. 

The very interesting family dynamics were only bought at the surface level, not explored in any meaningful way except to give the characters “cheap trauma moments” that could potentially get ruined by either the insertion of out of place comedy or never mentioned again. 

How am I supposed to treat Crimson’s abuse of Moxxie as something serious when the minute before dildos popped out the walls for a joke? How did Blitz’s guilt over the fire and his mother’s death truly affect his relationships—romantic or otherwise? Was it all just a narrative plot to drag the Stolitz charade for as many episodes as possible? Heck, we do not even see Blitz and Mooixe interact more about their shared trauma! Or about how much they missed their mothers.

It is a little depressing because, despite knowing nothing about Moxxie and Blitz's mothers, we, the viewer, are expected to care about them and see their significance. Instead we are left with a million questions that will probably never have an answer. 

Were they really good parents or are their sons only remembering the good parts of their relationship because they are dead? 

How did they truly influence their kids? Did Moxxie’s love for musical theater come from his mother? Did Blitz’s fascination for horses be because of Tilla or was it someone else?

How was their relationship with their husbands and why did they stay even after the marriage went south? What brought them together in the first place? Because, in all honesty, both couples just don't seem compatible in any way, that one just can help but ask how did everything worked.

Sadly, we can only speculate. 

So, without further due, these are my speculations. Part of the great rewrite that I am doing of the series. Because sometimes terrible writing decisions just move my creative juices in the right direction. 

Tilla and Cash Buckzo.  “I do love you, as much as I am capable of loving anyone, which is never enough.”

What would have happened if Princess Carolyn and Bojack Horseman ignored all the red flags in their relationship and chose to get married anyway? That wouldn’t have been good, but that is exactly what happened to Tilla and Cash Buckzo—the result was a messy marriage where love could not overcome their different views on life and incompatible personalities.

So... why did they stay in a marriage that was not working? Simple, a divorce would mean financial ruin for both of them.

Let me explain. 

(Worldbuilding note: How marriage functions and how people in Hell generally view it is one aspect of the Hellaverse that truly baffles me. To avoid confusion, each ring in this revision will have its own set of marital norms and perspectives.)

(In the Greed Ring, marriage is nothing more than another business transaction and is treated as such. Two individuals may absolutely hate each other, but if the marriage will benefit them economically, then they will go through with it.)

The sole compelling argument for Cash and Tilla's marriage was that it was the wisest course of action to maintain and save their respective livelihoods. Imps are not permitted to own companies (as I stated in the Stolitz Non-Romance rewrite.) and in the Greed Ring, Mammon owns ALL of the entertainment industry (circuses included) and he will not hesitate to shut down a circus if it is not bringing the profit.

The small circuses Cash and Tilla were supervising were on the brink of bankrupsy, so what better solution than to marry each other and combine their assets? It will give them more time to survive.

In hindsight, their plan worked perfectly; Tilla and Cash were able to build up themselves financially, and using their combined business talents, they were able to expand their new big renovated circus and turn in a profit that would keep Mammon off their backs. 

They were great business partners, but as a couple, they lacked a lot. 

They did occasionally have tender moments, but they were squandered by arguments, lengthy silences, and extremely uncomfortable dinners. At one point, they even began sleeping in different beds, just to avoid fighting. Everybody who knew them could see that they were just not good for each other and could barely tolerate the other presence.

This begs the question: How did they manage to have Blitz and Barbie?

The decision to have a kid was straightforward and, like their marriage, based on business. They wanted a successor to take over their responsibilities when they died, as it was something now needed as the circus grew. So one night, they decided to get drunk and just get it over with.

But, to the surprise of themselves and everyone else, Tilla and Cash were their best selves throughout the pregnancy. 

During those four months that the pregnancy lasted, Cash and Tilla acted like a happy couple, anxiously waiting for the arrival of their beloved baby. They no longer fought; they were just too busy happily imagining a future where the three of them would be happy while preparing for their child.

Maybe everything would be okay; their relationship could only get better from now on, right? Once their beautiful little girl arrives, they will be a complete family of three with no intentions of adding more. 

Yikes.

In their defence, there are few medical facilities available to imps, and when they attended the controls, the physicians informed them that they would only be having one child, Barbie.

Their budget and plans were severely ruined by Blitz's unexpected arrival because they were only ready to provide full care for one baby, not two. If Mammon kept the majority of the profits, how would they be able to buy two of everything? 

They would endure a long period of hardship and didn’t they enter this marriage to prevent just that?!

Tilla, being the mother and the one who gave birth, accepted this change, promising to love both children equally; sadly, Cash didn’t.

It didn’t take too long before they started fighting again, even if it was in front of their kids. As you can imagine, growing up with parents who fought even for the most minimal of problems leaves a long-lasting impression on a child and how they will handle their own relationships in the future. 

To this day, Barbie still has problems telling her girlfriends when something is wrong or is upsetting her. On the other hand, Blitz gets overwhelmed when he notices things going south in a relationship and leaves it all together. 

Things didn’t really improve much as the twins grew up. 

Sure, the family had their relative moments of peace, but Cash only paid real love and attention to Barbie, being the child he really wanted while completely ignoring Blitz. Tilla, upset about this but knowing that Cash won’t change, tried to give more attention to her son, accidentally ignoring her daughter’s needs.

Yes, Tilla was not a “perfect, angelic mother," canon portrayed her as. If anything, she was a little bit overbearing when it came to Blitz, as she felt she needed to make up for his father’s abandonment. She genuinely believed that Barbie didn’t need her as much, and the girl liked to spend more time with her father anyway, who needed to train her to take over the circus.

At this point, their family was divided into two separate families that just happened to live in the same house: one consisted of a kind but overprotective mother and her son; the other, a strict but understanding father and his daughter/heir. The only point in which Tilla and Cash interacted was when they worked on the circus, or when they were fighting for the most minimal things. 

Their family dynamic was mostly like that... until Tilla died.

Blitz remembers only the good moments he spent with her, looking at her actions and life with rose-colored glasses of love. For him, Tilla was the perfect mother who basically could do no wrong. 

However, if you ask Barbie, she’ll say that while she is sad that her mother passed away, she is unable to truly feel devastated since she never knew the woman well enough. Barbie is even a bit resentful for the times Tilla chose to spend time with Blitz instead of her.

And with Cash... How would you think Bojack would react if PC died before him? 

Now… what about Moxxie’s family?

Crimson and Belia (Name I am giving Moxxie’s mom)

"You better grow up to be something great, to make up for all the damage you done."

One particular thing that I noticed about Crimson is how young he looks despite being Moxxie’s dad. If I knew nothing about Helluva Boss and someone showed me a picture of those two, I would 100% believe they are siblings, not father and son.

While we can attribute this to Vivzie's inability to draw older men, why not play with this?

Let's set up the stage.

When Moxxie entered the picture, Crimson and Belia were just seventeen years old and not even dating. However, I suppose that when you are a careless teenager, the consequences of forgetting the condom don't truly hit you until something goes wrong.

As one may expect, Crimson was not happy with the news and was even more angry when Belia told him that she wanted to keep the baby and sustained her ground no matter how many times Crimson told her to get rid of the pregnancy. Why not? They were both fucking teenagers, just fooling around and he had no intentions of becoming a father, at least not this young! What was truly stopping her?

Nobody truly knows why Belia chose to keep her son to this day. 

When alive, she would tell you without a doubt that she loved her child from the first moment and couldn't bear to let him go, even in the face of less than perfect circumstances. But Moxxie hasn't believed that version of the story in a very long time. 

Moxxie now thinks that the main reason why Belia had him was because she didn't want to endure the awful and harsh conditions of an Imp Health Center. Due to the horrible way the doctors treated the imp patients, lack of medicine and equipment, most imps avoided those places like the plage.

Unfortunately, sick imps had no other choice but to go to the centers for treatment. Because if an imp even dares to step a hoof on the more well equipped hospitals in Sloth or Lust, they would be immediately kicked out no matter the emergency.

For more serious issues, wealthy imps (like Crimson's family) would hire a private physician. However, Belia was aware that Crimson would never spend that kind of money on her. 

Or maybe Belia didn’t want to give Crimson the satisfaction of getting out of his responsibilities. 

When Crimson's own father learned about the, at that point, already advanced pregancy, he forced Crimson and Belia to get married. Given the Knowlastname family's significant power in Greed's imp neighborhoods, Crimson's status as an unmarried young father would be viewed as a shameful scandal.

Belia only consented to the marriage because she had nowhere else to go. When her parents found out that their seventeen-year-old daughter was expecting, they were so disappointed that they disinherited and prohibited her from ever returning home.

(Later, when I rewrite Exes and Oh's, I will go into more detail about what Crimson’s family does in the Greed Ring. They are still involved in “less than legal” practices and loan sharking, but is a little bit different than in canon since now I based the Greed Ring in the entertainment industry.)

Of course, as one may expect, things in that marriage went south real fast. 

Every time Crimson looked at Moxxie and Belia, he saw nothing but the two demons who took away his carefree teenhood together with the respect of his father, and with each passing year, he just became more and more cruel. At one point, he simply started physically abusing his wife, who always put herself as a buffer between Moxxie and Crimson.

If Belia dared to raise her voice against her husband, Crimson would merely tell her that the opportunity to leave him went away the minute she decided to bring “that brat” into hell without his permission. Now she was just reaping what she sowed.

Being physically and mentally abused by her husband (who, as a bonus, also turned everyone in the household against her) took a toll on Belia’s mental health. She still wanted to be the best mother she could be, but how can you raise a child in an environment where everybody sees them as the enemy? When your mind makes your body so heavy that getting out of bed becomes an impossible task?

More than once, Belia considered taking her son and moving back to Wrath. But then, to where? Her parents didn’t want to see her; she lost contact with her friends, and since she never finished school, she had no hireable qualities. How would she support herself and Mooxie if she decides to leave? Being a single imp mother in hell is not easy!

It was impossible! At this point, she just needed to endure. 

She will not let Crimson win; she will not let that man break her and Moxxie. While Crimson was definitely stronger than her, putting on a smile after a beating that sent Crimson into a frustrated frenzy was all she needed to feel she had won, even if her body stated otherwise.

There were also the times she and Moxxie went on hikes together, pretending that they were going on a grand adventure as far away from Crimson as possible. Being happy when Crimson didn’t want them to was the little act of rebellion she needed to stay sane.

However, Belia’s breaking point came after Moxxie’s seventh birthday, just a few months after Crimson’s father died, when her “beloved” husband brought home another pregnant imp. 

Belia was no idiot; she knew that her husband had been cheating on her for years, but she never said anything because she didn’t care enough to do it. So, Crimson had a side piece? big deal, she stopped loving him a long time ago. 

However, it was too much to bear to watch Crimson, a guy she believed to be utterly cruel, be a loving and caring partner to this imp and be so thrilled about the birth of their cherished child.

I mean, when you witness the same man who repeatedly denigrated your son, cursed and beat you for being pregnant, joyfully decorating a nursery while choosing baby names and spoiling his new partner, whom he never raised his voice at, it can and will break something in you. 

Ultimately, what could be worse? Accepting that your partner will never change? Or realizing that you were never worth the positive change they could bring about?

What did she do wrong?

Moxxie still doesn’t know what happened to his mom; what is certain is that one day he woke up and she was not there. While part of him is sure that Crimson killed her so he could marry his new partner, there is a part of him, small but loud, that tells him that Belia abandoned him at the mercy of his father. 

Why would she not? Moxxie knows that he looks a lot like Crimson, so it was possible that at some point, his poor mother couldn’t look at him anymore without remembering her abuser. He is also familiar with the sad reality that, if Belia tried escaping with him, the possibilities of re-doing her life with a kid on her toe would have been very slim.

Not to mention impossible.

After his mother disappeared, Moxxie became a ghost in his own house. Apart from giving orders and degrading him, Crimson was more focused on his new family and new children to “waste energy” in a son he never wanted. While Moxxie’s step-parent was not physically violent, their constant degrading of Belia and their attempts to erase all trace of her existence really put Moxxie on edge.

Sadly, he couldn’t say anything because the first and only time Mooxie tried to go against their wishes, Crimson put a stop to that real fast. 

Moxxie had to see firsthand how Crimson was a true, loving father to his stepsiblings. He listened to them constantly, never yelled at them, and never struck them—things he never did with his first kid. He also made sure to teach them how their big brother was nothing but a failure and to stay clear of him since “wimpyness” could be contagious.

Moxxie wishes he could know them better.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o00

And this is all for today. I will give more information about Mooxie’s family (as well as his relationship with Chaz) when I rewrite Exes and Oh’s. Remember that these are mostly my first draft thoughts and can and probably will be changed for the final product. 

I hope you enjoy! I love when you comment!

[helluvaartcritique]

Yep...it's confirmed that Ashley was the one Viv was targeting with those awful rumors. Knew this for a while but wanted to wait for it to be made public. Viv accused the person who gave her free advertising and helped build the community and popularity of her wack as hell series....of being an abusive sexual predator who is abusing their BF.

Wow...why does that sound so familiar....

[The one who ran the Instagram accounts]

Her lying and spreading rumors...noooo...it can't be....

[Kendraws]

No way she would ever do such a thing ever. Nope. Not little ole Vivienne Medrano. She's a good girl with nothing but golden stars.☝️🙂‍↕️

If it wasn't already made obvious, I think Viv is a joke of a person who is too insecure, weak, and irrelevant when by herself to even get this far. She hops off others to even get a semblance of attention, and many steal the show most times anyway. She clearly was jealous of Ashley and so did all sorts of crappy things to get back at them...because she is insecure. If you disagree, that's cool. I am saying it as it is because the writing was always in the wall. Look no further than her own franchise to get a glimpse of what type of person she is.

[helluvaartcritique]

What working with Viv is like - from former employees

These are not in chronological order. I am not making accusations, simply documenting and compiling what has been said about Viv, and other people's experiences working at Spindlehorse.

*DO NOT HARASS THE PEOPLE IN THIS POST*

Erin + Ashley

Erin's story in full here (link):

Erin tried reaching out to others for help, to no avail

More Erin testimony

Dave (Hazbin pilot writer, co-creator of Far-Fetched)

Viv told him not to hire people from her staff, confirming that Erin's experience was not a one-off. Her team is mostly comprised of freelancers who went months without any communication or new work, and were severely underpaid, needing every job they could get.

Original Pilot Cast

I'm sure everyone's aware that Viv replaced her entire pilot cast. This was after she claimed she would try to keep them on to the actual series.

Viv's email to the pilot crew. Viv could have definitely kept them on if she wanted to and chose not to.

Dave's response to the recast news:

Blackgryphon (Gabriel) - Alastor's pilot singing voice

Ed could not participate in the "Thank You and Goodnight" song without jeopardizing his role in Helluva Boss.

Faustisse - Comic Artist

Salem - SalemTheSquidder

M. Thomas - former Vivziepop collaborator

Nicholas

Nicholas is far from the only person who contributed to Hazbin or Helluva and not received credit for what they did. This is a pattern with Spindlehorse.

[Viv's response to the initial tweet was deleted.]

joyark_toons

Current Spindlehorse employee says that Viv is a bad boss in response to a question about her behavior.

KenDraw

This is not an exhaustive list, but I have exhausted Tumblr's image limit, so I will end this here.

[helluvaartcritique]

Revives the diversity…

just a small crappy edit- having these all altered made me realize just how amazing it would be to have diversity in literally anything. Not just race but age, weight, noses, skin tone (for white ppl too), anything—

[helluvaartcritique]

I was thinking about doing one with Cole. This idea seems like a lot of fun!

I'mma be honest, I'm loving seeing the self aware accounts of the characters roleplaying in my feed and interacting with each other, it makes me remember the old Instagram interactions we had before Viv came along and shat all over it because the writers / roleplayers behind the accounts made the characters too compelling for her.

What I'm saying is, I'm loving this, I'm loving it quite a lot and I hope to see more interactions, hell, even selfies (art of the characters) between the accounts to fully bring back the Instagram experience that we had lost.

Though, I wonder if the current bandwagon would allow Instagram Stolas to be self-aware, since he isn't canon Stolas... Oh well, keep going y'all! 💙

[helluvaartcritique]

"I'm probably going to be cooked alive for this but some of y'all need to chill the fuck out in the crit community. As awful as Viv is, wishing death upon her and/or trying to armchair diagnose her with NPD ot lablelling her a narcissist is fucking awful to say the least. Not only are you not acting better like the stans you hate, you're actively engaging in hardcore ableism towards those with NPD and personality disorders in general. You're adding to the stigma that ppl with NPD/Narcissists are all (inherently) shitty people or shitty people because they're "narcissists". Trump has been labeled a narcissist, JKR has been labeled a narcissist, Viv has been labeled a narcissist. Do you not see a pattern here? There are a thousand other words to describe these people without resorting to this. The same goes for characters like Stolas or Stella. You cant be calling out Viv and her stans for awful behavior and then engage in it yourself.

- a tired anon with NPD"

Submitted by anonymous

[helluvaartcritique]

HA! That got a good laugh out of me

(From left to right: Cole, Clifford. Copper, Clay, and Sallie Mae)

Something I noticed is despite Millie having 4 brothers and 1 sister, Copper doesn't seem to show up in the episodes involving Millie's family despite the others being there

(Clay was shown at Sallie Mae's introduction scene)

I wonder if the crew removed him or if it's just an error. I'm aware it's a small thing compared to the rest, but it's pretty odd considering how he has a reference and everything (although this is the same studio that erased Cole's transgender identity, so who knows if we're going to get an answer.)