helluvaartcritique - Tumblr blog

[helluvaartcritique]

Oh my God. I hope Squid is doing alright. That's genuinely upsetting...

did you know glitz and glams storyboard designs were this

vivzie. im gonna riot .

Oh wow! Definitely fits in with the clown theme more than the official designs.

Props to the artist who did theses designs, they look fantastic!

[helluvaartcritique]

did you know glitz and glams storyboard designs were this

vivzie. im gonna riot .

Oh wow! Definitely fits in with the clown theme more than the official designs.

Props to the artist who did theses designs, they look fantastic!

[helluvaartcritique]

I really need your help to rescue my children to a safe place as soon as possible🥹https://gofund.me/e50566a8

Of course! I'll do all that I can!

[helluvaartcritique]

Can you give my family's GFM push‼️ We still haven't reached our short-term goal of $9k We only need $300🙏 I'm doing my best to save my family in northern Gaza from war and starvation 🙏🏻 Pls donate and amplify this as much as you can https://gofund.me/6a6be4ab

Help em out, everyone!

[helluvaartcritique]

Hello this is me Aya.. ‏🇵🇸

Imagine having everything and suddenly you wake up with nothing left.That's exactly what happened with us .we moved from having everything to having nothing.In a blink of an eye ,we lost everything, our house ,dreams,

memories belongings and our works. We are starting from zero and need your help to climb the leader step by step from scratch.

All the positive words cannot express how generous you are, especially in sharing my posts to inform other donors about the people of Gaza who are still suffering from the terrible conditions caused by the unjust war on Gaza!

Please continue to support us by donating directly or by sharing the link to let others know. Don't hesitate to help people in difficult and miserable times until the dark days are over.

https://gofund.me/c4c2cf82

I'm more than happy to help you out! To my followers, please donate if you have money to spare!

[helluvaartcritique]

Characters who don’t know Stolas or barely do are defending him because Vivziepop doesn’t want him to face criticism and consequences for his actions.

In “Seeing Stars,” Loona defends Stolas, claiming he’s trying his “best” as a father and that Octavia shouldn’t be upset because he loves her, which should be enough. However, she shouldn’t have sided with the Goetia prince since she doesn’t know him or his relationship with his daughter. Loona hasn’t even spoken a word to Stolas, so she has no reason to believe he’s a “good father” and defend his parenting. 

Fizzarolli is another character who shouldn’t have defended Stolas. In "Ozzie's," he was mocking the Goetia prince’s affair and how it ruined his family. Yet, in "Oops," Fizzarolli is defending Stolas and criticizing Blitzo for being upset over his mistreatment. The jester believes Blitzo is in denial about his romantic feelings and is overreacting to how he’s being treated. Fizzarolli has no reason to defend Stolas, especially since he should be able to relate to Blitzo's situation and understand where he's coming from.

As for Verosika, she only defended Stolas because she believes they’re both “victims” of Blitzo. She bought his sob story without a second thought and sympathizes with him since she thinks they share the same “heartache.” However, if Verosika asked Blitzo about his relationship with Stolas and learned how poorly he’s been treated, then she would’ve sided with him despite her resentment.

Characters are siding with Stolas against his victims because Vivziepop hates the idea of anyone calling him out and holding him responsible for his action.

[helluvaartcritique]

It’s disgusting how Vivziepop is going to have Octavia chastise Stolas for using antidepressants in a future episode. She favors this pathetic owl so much that she’s going to have his own daughter insult his mental illness to make him more "sympathetic."

This is just further proof of the extreme lengths Vivziepop is going to go to victimize Stolas. She's going to continue demonizing other characters so he looks “better" by comparison.

EDIT: Here's the full video, thanks to Chai for sharing it on his blog. 

[helluvaartcritique]

I want to look into the Erin Frost situation, I was wondering if you have any links/screenshots or a document of their side.

[helluvaartcritique]

Yeah, it's clear she only posted about this because everyone else was posting about it.

She had no issue with eating at McDonald's, KFC and Starbucks nine months ago.

Out of all the Hazbin Hotel cast members, Amir Talai was the only one who was talking about Palestine non stop on Twitter. Everyone else just pretended like everything was normal.

Viv never struck me as someone who gave a shit about world issues, she's always had a "Fuck you, I got mine" attitude when it comes to everything.

And like most celebrities and public figures who were talking about Rafah, she's gone back to ignoring everything in favor of focusing on her shows.

Her fans will praise this performative nonsense because they pretty much worship the ground she walks on, but everyone else saw right through the facade.

Anyway, please don't stop talking about Palestine.

[helluvaartcritique]

Maybe I’m just getting older, but I really don't get this notion that people have when it comes to media criticism. 

Nobody is sitting here saying that all criticism is good and that you should listen to every piece of criticism you get. Because guess what? Not all criticism is argued in good faith, nor does anybody like getting criticized. 

But it’s important to learn how to deal with criticism, otherwise how are we supposed to improve? 

I also hate how some folks assume that just because I’m critical of Viv and her shows, then that must mean I have some sort of personal vendetta against her. When I really don’t. 

Truth be told, I legit hate that people think that I’m a Viv anti or that I only made this blog to criticize her shows. As anybody who actually bothered to browse through my archive would know that I’ve talked about (and criticized) other things that aren’t related to Viv. 

My life doesn’t revolve around Viv you guys, I don’t wake up every morning and think “I wonder what Viv is up to?” I just go about my day like every other human being. 

The reason I criticize Viv so much is that I’m genuinely curious as to why so many people within the animation industry hold her in such high regard. Is it because she came from an indie background? Do people love the “Indie creator gets her own show” narrative so much that they’re willing to overlook all her creative shortcomings? 

It’s weird watching the same folks who were dunking on Velma praise Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, because you damn well know that if Velma did the “Characters are in a room that’s decorated in dildos and vibrators” gag, Twitter would have a collective meltdown. 

And yet for some odd reason, Viv’s shows are held to such higher standards that I honestly start to wonder if all these industry professionals watched the same shows that I did. Because I’m struggling to think of a single Hazbin Hotel or Helluva Boss joke that genuinely got a laugh out of me. 

“But humor is subjective” okay, then why does Viv get so defensive whenever someone criticizes the humor that’s found in her shows? 

Really don’t understand why she goes out of her way to complain about her critics when she could easily ignore them. She’s under no obligation to respond to her critics, but she keeps vague posting about all the criticism she gets because she literally cannot handle getting criticized. 

Here’s the thing, Viv’s fans tend to assume that just because I'm critical of something that’s popular, then that means I don’t get criticized. When that certainly isn’t the case. 

I’ve been criticized for being critical of the current state of indie animation, I got a bunch of hate from racist nerds for liking the My Adventures With Superman version of Livewire, and recently someone responded with a full length essay to a post of mine that was critical of Primos. 

But the difference between me and Viv is that I don’t constantly post vague backhanded insults regarding my critics on social media. If I feel a piece of criticism is worth addressing, then I’ll address it and if not? Then I’m not going to bother. 

Trust me, I haven’t lost any sleep over the fact that a bunch of random internet folks don’t like me.

[helluvaartcritique]

Sitting here thinking about how much better this show would have been if the storyboard artists and character designers had any say when it came to the character designs.

Designing a character is pretty hard, I’m not denying that, but Viv just sucks when comes to designing characters.

I hate how Martha’s horns look like something that’s stuck in her hair, rather than actual horns that are growing out of her head. And the heart shaped eye patch is a billion times better than the finished design.

You can tell that there are plenty of talented artists working on this show, but none of them are allowed to showcase their talents because Viv has to have final say on everything.

[helluvaartcritique]

Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, And Disability

I am disabled. This is something I've talked about a handful of times on this blog and on my Twitter, and anyone who knows me knows I am a disabled man. As a result, while I do enjoy dissecting media and politics, the need to be an advocate for disability issues would have fallen on me to some extent regardless. Disabled folks are often left out of conversations regarding diversity in media, in a continued oversight from able bodied peers.

What does this have to do with the Hellaverse?

Both shows contain at least some small amount of disability representation; specifically, they both have characters that are physically disabled. In Hazbin Hotel this is Vaggie, as she is missing an eye and prior to the finale had lost her wings. In Helluva Boss, the characters would be Fizzarolli, a quad amputee, and the unnamed deaf child in the special. The only character I ever see talked about in regards to their disability by the wider fanbase is the unnamed child, and on a smaller scale in critical spaces I occasionally see remarks on Fizzarolli's disability.

This is a problem.

For as much as fans of one or both shows would love to claim diversity in their shows, the lack of disability representation and the lackluster portrayal of the minimal representation is poor. And I haven't seen any of my fellow critics discuss this, which I feel is an oversight, though I don't fault them for this as there are many problems with both shows and they tend to have their hands full. However, this angle of viewing the shows has been overlooked, which is why I wish to discuss it today.

Firstly, I'd like to specify what I mean when I discuss disability. While the conversation regarding the Hellaverse is primarily centered around physical disability as this is the only form of disability portrayed in the shows, coded or otherwise, disability comes in many different forms. Intellectual disabilities and mental disabilities are just as important for representation in the media as physical disabilities. Among physical disabilities, there's also a difference in visible and invisible disabilities, the latter of which is hardly ever shown in media compared to the former. Ideally all forms of disability would be portrayed equally and with respect, but unfortunately this isn't the case. I also don't expect every show to tackle every demographic at once; this isn't a reasonable request, and to be very clear, my issue with the representation in HH/HB does not come from every single unique experience with disability not being covered, but rather with the narrative the creatives behind the show and the show's fans continue to push: that both shows are diverse and are, in some way, more progressive than other shows.

This isn't the case for many reasons. Fellow critics have gone into depth about the show's lack of representation of women in nuanced roles, the lack of queer women, the racist ways in which the very few characters of colour are presented, the lack of trans representation, and even the way sex and sexuality is presented being rather conservative at times. That isn't the focus of this essay, but I would implore anyone who is reading this who is somehow unaware of the previous issues to seek out essays that talk about those points; Cassidy Whiskey on YouTube has a three-part series that covers a multitude of topics, not just issues of representation, and I would have recommended helluvareceipts on Twitter, but her account has sadly been deactivated. I'm sure there are others, but I'll lose focus if I try to name every single person to go to. If you're willing to trawl through general pettiness in the critical tag (which, let's be real, that is probably how you found this post) you'll find well-worded critiques as well.

Back to the topic at hand. The lack of representation of people with disabilities is already frustrating, but there isn't a complete drought: Vaggie, Fizzarolli, and the unnamed imp child do exist, after all. However, their representation is not just flawed, but even exploitative in some ways.

First we have Vaggie. Aside from the visual of her missing eye and seeing the incident in which she lost that eye, nothing comes of it. She never has to contend with the difficulties that come with impaired sight, and it's never brought up by other characters. In the training scene between her and Carmilla, it's not a factor: instead, her greater flaw in the physical realm when it comes to combat is having longer hair. This is an extreme oversight, which I believe shows that Vivienne and the various writers for the show never actually take into consideration what should be a major element of a character, that being her impaired vision. Furthermore, the loss of her wings isn't even considered at all, with her somehow gaining them back at the end of her training montage with Carmilla. This could have been an excellent vector to discuss physical disability in a coded form, with her wings being a stand in for more traditional forms of limb loss. Still not ideal, as I believe it's better to have forthright depictions of disability over metaphors, but it would have been something. Instead, it's never a factor, and worse, it's effectively cured. As far as representation goes, Vaggie might as well not even count.

That's all that exists for Hazbin Hotel. In Helluva Boss, we have two characters, and I will save the unnamed child for last, because that is where the real issue with the representation is on full display.

So, Fizzarolli. He is a quad amputee and potentially hearing impaired, though the latter is speculated on due to a single scene which I discuss later. Since that scene is the only time it ever comes up, I will focus on his amputee status. He lost his limbs in a fire, something we see on screen. I will disagree with some of my fellow critics in that this scene should have been more detailed; I feel that had the scene shown more of the damage dealt to Fizz's body it would have come across in poor taste, and focusing on the tragic aspect of disability usually ends up feeling like trauma porn in the hands of poor writers, which Vivienne most certainly is. I do not trust her to handle a more detailed scene with grace, especially given her track record (more on that later). It is ultimately for the best that the scene is mostly brushed over, even if it would have been better in the hands of someone with the maturity and sensitivity to cover such a topic for more to be shown in regards to his injuries.

Otherwise, Fizzarolli is mostly fine. He's shown not just surviving but thriving, he has a loving partner (criticisms of the portrayal of said relationship not withstanding) and generally sees success in his life while still having to grapple with the realities of his disability when it comes to his prosthetics being prone to damage and potentially shutting down. I would, in the hands of anyone else, like to see more of this character and what his daily routine looks like as a disabled man.

Unfortunately all the good will built with Fizz comes crashing down when we get to the unnamed imp child in the Fizzarolli special episode. This child is the poster child for virtue signalling. Frankly, it's disgusting how a majority of the fandom seemed to ignore how fetishistic this portrayal was. This is where the real meat of the essay comes in to play.

This unnamed child is given a single scene, and is then promptly forgotten about and never mentioned again. They are introduced as being a fan of Fizz here to view the competition, there is a brief exchange between the two, and then we all move on. And yet this scene was championed as somehow revolutionary or a sign of the top-tier diversity and progressiveness in Helluva, when in reality this type of scene has been done to death. This is tokenism.

One major stumbling block many of the people championing this scene seem to get tripped up on is a very simple question: why was this child a child to begin with? Really, this seems like a simple question, it shouldn't have much thought. Sometimes characters are kids. But within the episode it's clearly shown through multiple different avenues that this is an adult show. The performances are dripping with sexuality, several of the fans of Fizzarolli are there because Mammon sells sex robots of the guy, there is no mistaking that this is something no child should be at, let alone by themselves.

So why was this child a child? Simple: brownie points.

It's a lot more difficult for people to share clips of a wholesome moment from your show if the person Fizz was interacting with was an adult. People are ableist, this is pretty par for the course; as a disabled person I find it generally safer to assume people are ableist before proven otherwise. I can guarantee if this scene were to be between Fizzarolli and a deaf adult fan as opposed to a young child, it would not have been championed as this amazing representation by mostly able bodied fans. And that is by design: if Vivienne genuinely cared about representation, if she truly wanted to show something meaningful to her adult fans in her adult show, she would have had the interaction be with an adult. But that doesn't get her clip shared around on social media. That doesn't get her brownie points for inclusion. It's safe, it's palatable, it's sickeningly wholesome, and it's insulting for that. This is a show for adults, something Vivienne and company is adamant on, and yet they treat their audience like children. As a fan, you should be insulted to have this key-jingling one minute clip presented to you. You should demand more, demand better.

Unfortunately I do not see ever getting better from Vivienne. She has made it very clear she truly does not care about creating art, she really only stumbled into being championed as a paragon for animation because her majority white and able bodied fans saw the inclusion of primarily gay men and thought that was good enough. She does not give a damn about disabled people, and she never will. To expect good disabled representation from her is like expecting good queer representation from a Marvel movie; she is in it for the money, and it just so happens that the inclusion of that scene makes money.

Addendum thoughts that were too long to put into the tags: I would like to make it clear that disability, because it presents very differently, is experienced very differently by many different people. If you felt seen or represented by the disability representation in either show, that's fine, and I don't want you to feel bad for feeling seen. Ultimately disabled people are largely given scraps; I have not once seen someone with my particular physical disability portrayed in media. Sometimes we latch onto things that are subpar or lacking; my criticism of reception to this scene is targeted primarily at able bodied audience members who may be lacking in this perspective and to also champion fellow disabled people to rightfully demand and expect better. Thank you for your time.

[helluvaartcritique]

I think two things that could help the Hellaverse designs (mainly Hazbin but even Helluva) is making the rings' colors matter, and making time periods matter. What I mean by making the colors matter is by using them in the sinner's designs. Like, if your main sin is pride yes you are red, if it's wrath you get orange, so on so forth. Best part? Humans are complicated! You can use multiple colors for their sins, it can help the color palettes be varied, give you insight to characters (even the ones who try to hide their main colors cause some would) and help you think of things! Now, the time period part is more obvious than the color, but I want to go into another idea for them. Let's take Angel Dust for example, he's from the 1930s, right? But would he like that time period, where he couldn't be himself and was working in a very dangerous situation with a family he mostly didn't like? I think not, and on top of that his soul is owned by a man from not the 1930s, Valentino is from the 70s. So, in my own rewrite, Angel is dressed in a very 70s outfit, not only cause I think Val would make him to fit his own tastes, but also I think Angel would rather the free love vibe of the 70s to the things he associates with the 30s. Even with that the time periods still matter! It gets things across to the audience, even if they are misleading things to a certain extent. I feel like you could do so much with their designs if you just added these two concepts to them,

Exactly!

It would be a nice break to see the sinner designs as the colors of the sins they've committed, as you said. It'd give some break from all the red and allows the characters to stand out more.

And the idea you suggest for Angel Dust makes so much sense and I really like it!

One of my main criticisms with the character designs in general is how no one looks like they died in that Era, or what kind of thing they're based off of.

Lucifer, Alastor, Sir Pentious, and Vox all have shoulder padded suits with bow ties or ties, despite them being decades (or in Lucifer's case, millennia) apart.

Variety and diversity is important in character design, and unfortunately Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss didn't exactly get this.

[helluvaartcritique]

i wanna make this point clear

there is a MAJOR difference between fixing art and redesigns

fixing art is more or so done with ill intent, while redesigns are basically done for criticism stuff

also, why is Viv exempt from her characters being redesigned while other shows are not?

i'm sensing a problem here

[helluvaartcritique]

I’m happy for the former Spindlehorse employees, who were able to find jobs at different animation studios that treat and pay them better than Vivziepop ever did.

[helluvaartcritique]

During season one and the first half of season two of Helluva Boss, Vivziepop released merchandise less frequently. However, since February of this year, she has been releasing merchandise back-to-back with few breaks in-between them. 

Vivziepop is doing this because she’s losing money due to Helluva Boss’ declining views, resorting to more frequent merchandise sales in an attempt to recoup her losses. She’s also releasing extra YouTube videos to rake in more views to keep the money flowing. Vivziepop is outsourcing Spindlehorse’s animation not only because of employees quitting but also due to it being a cheaper option. She can save money on her animation by having foreign studios work for her for a lower price than her employees already do. 

Vivziepop is wasting money on expensive voice actors, Broadway shows, and traveling that should be going towards paying her employees better. She has made MILLIONS from YouTube, Patreon, and merchandise sales combined. However, Viviziepop is squandering her money instead of budgeting and is trying to milk her fans for every penny they’ve got.

[helluvaartcritique]

I seriously don’t wanna hear “Vivzepop isn’t racist” shit anymore because this woman has black characters with grey ashy skin color she originally planned to have Val sound like a dark skin man she sees voodoo as some dark magic aesthetic thought having slurs on a shirt was funny and now the supposedly “black” character just got a figure that is straight up black because it’s shadow design (even though he didn’t fucking looked like that) like I’m pretty sure she’s knows about the blackface cosplayer but since she has the brain of a edgy 14 year old I wouldn’t be surprised viv made it black on purpose