jaydenknight

[jaydenknight]

Everyone wants a piece of that dragon ass~

(Especially me)

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Did use some refs by albanenechi

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Hey y'all I'm a bit scrapped for cash, help me out by sharing this around please 💕✨

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🎉 Comms Are Open! 🎉

DM me if interested! 💜

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Valentine's Day art featuring Mackenzie and Cameron posted to Viv's tumblr and twitter February 14, 2015.

[source] [source 2]

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Mackenzie: Ugh, I need to feel something. Tom can you tell me something that will piss me off?

Tom: The Sunningrocks belong to RiverClan

Mackenzie: Yep that'll do it

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🎉 Comms Are Open! 🎉

DM me if interested! 💜

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🎉 Comms Are Open! 🎉

DM me if interested! 💜

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OC shtuffs

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We have always existed, and we always will.

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The thing that bugs me the most about this criticism is that people typically use this more as a jab at Viv for "trying to paint herself as a hero through Charlie", thus calling Viv the one with the white savior complex. Which makes it just that, a jab, not a genuine criticism.

While Charlie does have a savorism complex, it comes from a place of naive ignorance because of her privilege, she doesn't understand the actual struggles of the people in Hell or how to properly rehabilitate them aside from "just be good and you're sure to get in!" Her goal comes from misguided compassion as opposed to coming from the need to be a hero. If her character were to NEVER change from this then yes, absolutely, this show would lean much more into the themes of white savorism compared to actual progress towards a change. But we've already seen that Charlie is changing the way she thinks based on four things so far:

Vaggie's trust building exercise

Her encounter with Valentino

Heaven's trial

And her outburst towards Susan

The trust building exercise began with what Charlie's inexperienced idea of building trust is, a surface level confession of a person's vulnerability followed by them falling and being caught by a crowd REQUIRED to catch them. When it obviously doesn't work, Vaggie takes a much more hands-on approach based on HER experience in building trust by pushing Angel, Niffty, and Pentious into a situation where they need to rely on each other in order to survive a fight. The first sign that the exercise was more effective than Charlie's was when Angel made the effort to pull Pentious out of the conflict and carry him all the way up the stairs, something he absolutely did not HAVE to do but chose to do. And then later at the hotel when everyone is bonding over the experience she sees how well Vaggie's exercise worked compared to her own, admitting that her own approach was flawed and that she's learning more about how genuine connections between people are really made.

Her initial hope with Valentino was to ask politely to give Angel time off for the hotel without acknowledging Angel's obvious apprehension before and during her interaction with Val. Her naive meddling in Angel's work led to Val losing his thinly veiled charade of patience and making Angel's already shitty situation much MUCH worse, leading her to recognize she needs to set and respect boundaries as opposed to directly marching towards her desired outcome and hope for the best which can inadvertently cause more harm than good.

She demonstrates what she's learned during the trial. Instead of outright stating that the people of Hell deserve a chance at redemption and just hoping for a preemptive "yes", she takes the matter to trial and presents evidence and arguments that sinners ARE capable of change. Unfortunately she unknowingly had stepped into a situation where she was never going to be taken seriously from the beginning, Sera explicitly calls her misguided and orders Adam to make the trial go in their favor by any means necessary to maintain the status quo. The only one who took her seriously and took her side was Emily, who stood up to Sera and demanded that a change needed to be made after finding out the heinous extent that Heaven goes to to maintain order. Emily standing against Sera was the first time Charlie's own efforts had resulted in a progression of change, not only because she had presented evidence of her cause but also because she directly challenged Sera and Adam which led to the secret of the Exterminations being revealed to the court and visibly distressing some of those attending. Remember, the court did not decide against Charlie, Sera did. There was no discussion or deliberation within the court before the verdict was reached, Sera used her position of authority to declare a verdict in favor of her rules to end the trial and get Charlie out of Heaven. She even indirectly (and probably unintentionally) threatens Emily by saying she needs to do what she is told or else she could end up falling like Lucifer. I believe it's extremely likely that we'll see more angels who will speak out against the Exterminations after having witnessed what they did in the trial, especially now that Pentious is in Heaven and Adam is dead.

When Charlie goes to Cannibal Town to gain more numbers for her fight against the Exorcists, she starts how she used to: asking politely, stating her cause, and trying to sing. Her shouting "FUCK YOU, YOU OLD BITCH!" at Susan for chastising her was our first glimpse at Charlie challenging her own idealistic visions. She got sick of asking nicely, of being dismissed and ridiculed, of trying to make progress the only way she knew how and failing repeatedly. "Ready for This" was not a song made to hope for the best or to convince the cannibals to help out of the goodness of their hearts like "Happy Day in Hell" or "It Starts With Sorry", it was about her starting to understand that she needs to put her foot down and stand firm with her beliefs even if it means being met with harsh or violent opposition in order to inspire change within others. In Rosie's own words, "words are cheap, but actions speak the truth". This wasn't just about Charlie understanding why Vaggie is trying to help her reach her goal despite having once been an Exorcist herself, it was also about Charlie learning that words alone are not enough for her to reach her goals, she needs to take action.

After the fight is over and Pentious "dies" her line "I know I could have done better" during the final song comes from her now knowing what it really takes to work towards change, and that if she had known in the first place maybe none of this would have happened. Despite the destruction of the hotel, and the "death" of her friend, her actions STILL inspired change. Lucifer changed his mind about her vision, everyone came together to tell Charlie that they still believe in her and they're going to help, the hotel was rebuilt to be larger and sleeker to represent the idea of redemption now being taken seriously instead of a hopeful theory being carried out in a thrown-together, repurposed abandoned building.

Does this mean Charlie is completely over her saviorism? No, absolutely not. She's still learning, she's still improving, but she's making the effort to change. Her saviorism complex is a flaw to her character that she needs to work through, not the sole purpose of the story. The show is far from over, there are three new seasons in production, we're going to see plenty more growth than what we've gotten already.

One "criticism" that particularly bothers me is that Hazbin Hotel is a white savior fantasy. I'd very much like to hear your thoughts.

💁🏽‍♀️: We’ve actually got a bit of a nuanced answer for you 😅

🤖: This unit is programmed for maximum nuance. Nuance detected—analysis protocols engaged! We love nuance on this blog. Beep boop! 💖🤖

💁🏽‍♀️🤖: sigh Oookayyyy. Let’s break this down thoughtfully. First off—no, Charlie is not a “white savior” at this point. The white savior trope typically refers to stories where a white protagonist swoops into a marginalized community, solves their problems, and becomes a celebrated hero while sidelining that community’s agency. This often involves a dynamic where the savior is framed as inherently superior in intelligence, morality, or capability. That simply isn’t what’s happening with Charlie in Hazbin Hotel.

Charlie isn’t portrayed as swooping in from an outsider position; she’s deeply entrenched in the very system she’s trying to reform. As the princess of Hell, she holds immense privilege, but that privilege doesn’t automatically translate into success or unquestioned authority. In fact, she’s met with skepticism, ridicule, and outright hostility by both Hell’s citizens and its power structures. Moreover, the residents of Hell aren’t depicted as passive victims waiting for a hero—they’re defiant, complex individuals with their own agency and often reject Charlie’s mission outright.

But how does this trope apply to Hazbin Hotel? The parallels are loose at best—but there are still interesting elements worth unpacking.

First, Hell isn’t a traditional marginalized community; it’s literally the underworld with its own warped societal structure. That said, it does have a rigid hierarchy that mirrors class and race dynamics from our world.

Charlie’s position as Hell’s princess grants her immense privilege, making her mission to “redeem” Hell a bit fraught when viewed through a sociopolitical lens. In that light, the potential for a white savior-adjacent dynamic isn’t entirely off-base. Charlie’s belief that she alone can “fix” Hell could easily veer into condescending territory if the show doesn’t remain self-aware.

But here’s the thing—we actually like that this could be an intentional flaw of Charlie’s character. Her idealism sometimes borders on naivety, and if the narrative chooses to challenge that belief (perhaps by showing how she misunderstands the complexities of Hell’s social dynamics), it could make for a fascinating thematic exploration.

Right now, though, it’s too early to say whether this will be fully explored. Hazbin Hotel still has a lot of world-building and narrative legwork to do before fully grappling with themes like privilege and flawed heroism. But the potential is absolutely there.

For now, Charlie isn’t portrayed as superior or infallible—she’s hopeful, a bit naive, and faces constant resistance. The residents of Hell aren’t framed as helpless victims but as complex individuals with their own agency and defiant personalities. This dynamic helps the show stay clear of truly problematic “savior” territory for now.

In short, while Hazbin Hotel may not perfectly fit the “white savior” framework, it’s worth keeping an eye on how the show handles Charlie’s mission. If it leans into the tension between her privilege and the realities of Hell’s rigid hierarchy, it could become a truly compelling exploration.

[jaydenknight]

🎉 Comms Are Open! 🎉

DM me if interested! 💜

[jaydenknight]

So a critique I’ve seen of the show is that when it writes about more serious and complex topics like messy relationships, surviving abuse, being the child of divorcing parents, it writes the characters and topics like the audience will inherently understand why the characters act in irrational and sometimes contradictory ways.

The critique is that because these are not topics people inherently get, it’s up to the show to show clearly that that’s what’s happening.

To an extent I get it, because there are some things that are a bit unclear upon first watch, but for other cases I can’t help but wonder if some of this also comes from a growing trend of audiences not engaging with stories beyond the surface.

What do you think?

💁🏽‍♀️🤖: Ah, you’ve hit on a fascinating critique worth unpacking. The idea that media must explicitly spoon-feed the emotional complexity of characters is a byproduct of modern storytelling trends—and arguably, internet discourse itself. The expectation seems to be that if a show doesn’t hold up a blinking neon sign reading “This is trauma!” or “They are healing in irrational ways!” then it has somehow failed its audience.

But here’s the thing: storytelling is not moral instruction. It’s not a behavioral manual or a therapy session on coping strategies—it’s an exploration of the human experience, which is often messy and contradictory. Good writing doesn’t hand out conclusions on a platter; it invites the audience to engage critically, interpret subtext, and wrestle with ambiguity.

This isn’t just opinion—literary theory has long recognized that meaning in a story is co-created by the reader. Roland Barthes famously argues in The Death of the Author that the author’s intentions are irrelevant once a work is published; it is up to readers to interpret and derive meaning based on their own experiences. Trusting the audience to do this intellectual and emotional heavy lifting is a hallmark of sophisticated storytelling.

Moreover, cognitive research supports this idea. A study in Narrative Inquiry found that readers who actively infer character motivations and story themes from implicit cues experience a deeper emotional engagement with the narrative (Zunshine, 2006). This aligns with Helluva Boss’s storytelling style, which encourages viewers to pay attention, rewatch, and connect dots rather than expecting every development to be spoon-fed.

The show assumes its audience consists of emotionally mature adults who have touched grass and maybe attended therapy at least once. There’s a reason we start teaching “reading between the lines” skills around fifth or sixth grade. (💁🏽‍♀️: Can confirm—Human Assistant here, with 10 years of K-8 teaching experience.) Developing this skill is essential for media literacy. As media scholar Henry Jenkins notes in Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, young readers are increasingly trained to interpret both text and subtext as part of modern media engagement. The failure to do so in adulthood represents a worrying decline in critical media skills.

This insistence on over-explaining everything? It’s a symptom of what we lovingly refer to as the pseudo-fascist internet brainrot of moral purity. And yes, we do mean fascist-adjacent, even when individuals espousing it identify as progressive. Fascism isn’t defined solely by far-right politics—it thrives on rigid, authoritarian thinking that demands conformity to a singular moral framework.

Media literacy has been gutted by pop psychology buzzwords and binary notions of good and bad, where characters are either irredeemably evil or morally perfect. A study on new media literacy among young adults found that simplistic moral narratives in online spaces discourage nuanced thinking and instead foster polarized opinions (Rahim, 2021). This trend often leads audiences to expect media to conform to black-and-white notions of justice and character morality, rather than embracing the complexity inherent in human relationships.

But a story like Helluva Boss refuses to cater to that mindset, trusting its audience to handle moral ambiguity and complex character arcs without needing everything spelled out. In doing so, it challenges viewers to grow as media consumers—and maybe even as people.

To put it bluntly: Helluva Boss is for people with a fully developed prefrontal cortex and preferably some real-life social experiences. If that sounds exclusionary—well, perhaps it’s just aspirational storytelling.

[jaydenknight]

7 districts of my Safe Haven:

Capital City - Heart of SH, Zoo Phoenix Academy

E! District - SH’s Hollywood equivalent, Bright Century Academy (ZPA’s rival school)

Green Belt Plantations - Countryside, farmland, sparsely populated, just outside the Oceanica Forest

Badland County - The “outback” of SH with a Las Vegas-ish city

Seaboard Province - Coastal city of SH

Boreal Range - North most area of SH, lush mountain range with harsh winters, Xirxine

Selva Heights - South most area of SH, tropics, rainforest, cliffs above the ocean

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Reminder I don't fw any of y'all who make redesigns solely to mock the originals and/or their creators

Art is not about being better at it than someone else

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(Zill and Damian calling each other pet names back and forth in Spanish)

Tom: Yeesh. Glad we don't have pet names for each other like that. It'd drive me crazy.

Mackenzie, smirking: Oh, I'm sure it would... Lobito~

Tom: (chokes and doubles over, coughing)

Tom: You ever notice how cute words ending in "ie" sound? "Sweetie", "cookie", "brownie"... "Mackenzie"~

Mackenzie: (chokes)

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When I was in high school I had a Toothless hoodie that I’d always wear to class so I was given the idea to draw Mackenzie in it and I also added Tom in a Light Fury hoodie to match ✨

Alts