#I don’t know what discourse HH has

[sing-me-under]

I don’t follow the HH tag because I’m not interested in it, and I genuinely do not care about people’s opinions on the writers. But I do frequently dive into the HB tags, and every single day, there’s another person complaining about one character or plot point or another as if it’s the end times of good and pure society as if the the corporate theme song ends with “Kids Die For Free!” and as if their spam of posts preaching isn’t just showing their lack of media literacy. It’s not like clogging up the tag or anything, but it’s still there frequently enough that I think they do deserve dunce caps.

I’m glad HH doesn’t have as pervasive an issue of inappropriate tagging as HB’s tags seems to. You should be able to enjoy your fandom with minimal effort. But I WANT to follow the character tags of the characters I like. I shouldn’t have to avoid certain character tags just because people lack media literacy and don’t want to tag properly.

Tumblr needs a badge identifying people who post critical and anti shit in the main tags. The “I personally don’t like this so I’m going to make it everyone else’s problem and interrupt their fun with my unasked for takes” badge.

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

Morning this is your local Stritzo anon. I’ve got more shots and takes to say about HH/HB & the indie animation’s biggest fraud Viv. Yes someone put that as their title in their google doc chock full of evidence so I’m going to use that to insult her lol.

Suddenly, the fan redesigns are better than canon, at least not too much details are added, no eye scream for me thank god. Unfortunately I recall a popular YouTube artist LavenderTowne getting harassed over it. 😬 Guess the sheep followers just wanna hate for no good reason after all…

…

Wouldn’t it make more sense for sinners to be the lowest caste, just below the imps and hellhounds? I mean they’re former human mortals who did nasty crimes that barred them from entering Heaven. Or Purgatory kicking them out for being too much for their standards. Ex. Obsessive stalkerish behaviors of hate or love (refusing to let go of someone), murder out of selfish reasons, you get the gist. That’s just my opinion on this no?

I HC Purgatory to be a neutral yet judging ground for spirits, demons and angels. Any one of these three are allowed to stick around forever or await their trial.

One restricted area could be the spirits awaiting their trail bc their sins’ weight equals their virtues’ weight. This could be the judge and/or jury deciding their fate depending on the severity of their sins. “But he/she/they had many achievements like helping out their community!” “Yes but let’s not forget their literal crime(s)!”

In another restricted area, the most vile spirits and Demons meeting up angels like prisoners chatting with their friends and loved ones, separated by a clear barrier. Spirits saying their last words before their trial and demons given the rare chance to see the ones they genuinely care even after so long. The guards watch, making sure no foul play or sus behavior from either side is at hand.

However, the demons sent to Hell for lesser crimes have to wear a bracelet tracker that prevents them from escaping. They have more freedom to walk around certain areas and chat but aren’t allowed into Heaven.

…

Canon HB is now the walking stereotype of horrendously written yaoi instead of talking about assassins from Hell. Ngl, canon yaoi is worse than canon yaoi these days compared to the distant past of the 2000s. Because at least for some modern fanon Yaoi people, they are somewhat civil and don’t shove their precious ships down others’ throats. I mean some ppl at least did their research and be like, “huh, yaoi/yuri is no different than heterosexual ships. Just gotta keep things canon accurate, no bashing man.”

However! When there’s canon Yaoi, ppl usually become uber cultish. “But It’s can0N! How dare you!” Bitch what? I didn’t see such close minded behavior on the canon cishet ships!

When allegations of Viv popped up like years ago, several ppl and I thought that behavior callouts were small/petty compared to actual legitimate grievances. But when the real evidence of her genuine misdeeds showed up in the 2020s (underpaying workers, the playbill incident, etc.), I was like “if there’s hard evidence of the latter then those people were right about the former being a person with a nasty attitude.”

Ngl, preordered apps are more trustworthy than prepaid physical items bc you never know when you might get ‘em. I really dodged a bullet with the fraudster’s merch when it comes to online shopping. I’ll just go to other ppl’s shops thank you very much.

…

The anti/pro shipping discourse is petty compared to what’s mentioned above! Both sides have their extremists and close minded sheep! I’m an ex anti, I felt like a weight has been lifted after unfollowing some rabid antis years ago and deleting some anti reblogs. I applaud the antis who don’t associate themselves with the misinformation spreaders (doctored or just no evidence), harassers and doxxers ruining people’s lives over fiction. (Unless there’s clear hard evidence of that person doing criminal activity.) I also approve of the pro shippers who don’t but into other ppl’s turf that clearly said “DNI X”. I mean if someone’s not comfortable or detests certain things, just move on or even block. Not create a hate campaign on those users.

Not all antis and proshippers are the same! People have their own experiences! Yes, taste of fiction is subjective but if that preference is seen as genuinely problematic in rl, it’s best to not get too comfy showing that off. I mean why are most ppl giving y’all the side eye for that?

I agree. I was a fan when COVID hit and as a result I embraced the fandom. I really thought we were going to get something great with her verse, but as you said she's too much of a fangirl of her own work and not a creator who focuses on a good story. She favors the fandom part of the creation rather than the product of it. And all of what you said would have made a better story than what we got here.

[showtoonzfan]

So recently, I came across this-

https://twitter.com/LackadaisyCats/status/1694945289801433255

I dunno the full story, but Lackadaisy rejected the funds given by Viv and the spindlehorse team, and Vivziepop fans are going off, lol!

What do you think about it?

So yeah ofc Viv had to make it public and tweet to her million bootlicking fans that Lackadaisy rejected her donation, she knows what she’s doing otherwise she would have kept it private but she can’t bc she always wants sympathy points and wants people to start shit, which fans did and are still saying “Boycott Lackadaisy” as well as assholes like Sam Haft and Mel Mrozek tweeting about how “disappointed” they are. Tracy already said that she messaged Viv about the situation so there was literally no reason on why Viv made it public if this was already resolved. You know she’s seething and wants people to attack the LD crew and paint her as the superior one.

As for the issue itself, I have the feeling the donation was rejected because LD had already hit all their goals for the show, reaching up to their final $2,000,00 teir. I do feel like Tracy should have been more clear and upfront on what exactly happened tho, but again, if she already told Viv in private, then she already told Viv in private. At this point I’m just tired with this whole discourse. All this started bc a member of LD turned out to be an asshole….and it bugs me that somehow the HH/HB fandom got warped up until it and now people are acting like this is a huge war on Lackadaisy against HH/HB. Both creators/projects should just co exist but we can’t have that.

I want to be unbiased and share that on Tracy’s part, I still don’t agree with her response to Ze, she could have made an outright statement and been professional about it, but that’s pretty much it in terms of what she did wrong in my eyes and could be better at. Notice how this has nothing to do with Viv herself tho. This was drama in the LD fandom where the HB/HH fandom/crew had to stick their noses in, and I’m sorry, but Viv initiated it, and tweeting about how they rejected her donation was the final straw, because that was something she did not need to do and only did so her fan base can support and coddle her while trashing Tracy, despite none of us knowing the full story. I have no idea whether Tracy is aware that Viv is a horrible person and just wants nothing to do with her, or if the rejecting donation part was genuinely for a reason. We don’t know. I DO know that I’m tired of the unprofessionalism coming from Viv and the hypocrisy coming from her fandom.

They want to cancel Lackadaisy so badly bc ONE bad egg was on the crew despite the fact that Spindlehorse is filled with multiple shitty members like a pro shipper and someone who literally fetishizes rape, as well as entitled assholes who don’t care about the victims of Viv and just want to smear how innocent she is as well as Viv herself being outed multiple times for being an abuser. Now they’re also mad that they rejected Viv’s donation, a situation they know nothing about but they’re going to support their queen either way, and this is exactly what Viv wanted. It shouldn’t be a competition and yet it sadly is.

[icabod-i-s-cariot]

On this (honestly spur of the moment) side account I made to kind of interact with discourse that I felt was too adult for my “main” of sorts, I’ve mostly been perusing around the hh and hb critical scene and while I think a lot of you have great criticisms, I think a lot of it is just spite.

And to those who have been attached to the project and are disappointed by the final product, I completely get it — you likely feel like you’ve been personally let down and that a lot of potential has been squandered, that a lot of what you wanted to see is not there. It’s easy to kind of trap yourself in this cesspool of dissatisfaction and underwhelment, I’ve been through it before, so I come with an offering.

After having seen the show as an outsider, I had this nagging sensation that I had witnessed similar media before, but I could not remember what it was. Then I remembered it, so.

If you want content that plays with similar ideas, aka sins, hell and religious critique, please read Ava’s Demon. It is an indie comic about a young girl and the demon that has been locked inside her and slowly ruining her life from the moment she was born. It has amazing artwork, great character designs, diversity and most of all; an emotionally provoking and powerful story.

I think everyone has gotten caught in this cycle of hatred, and I don’t think you can really criticize artwork with just hatred, you have to do it because you love art, and you love it’s possibilities. Spite is just gonna get you trapped in an unending spiral and I’ve seen this happen a lot in critical spaces — being critical is not the point of the problem, it’s the disdain and often times it’s also a sense of arrogance people develop towards the works and the people at the center of them. I get that there’s a lot to hate — I hate it too, but you can’t really work to criticize something with only malice. So, I recommend everyone read Ava’s demon, it’s not a perfect piece of work, but I think rereading it reminded me of the limitless potential stories like this have, and I think other people need that, to put all this energy into something positive. There are other works of religious commentary with a supernatural and fun twist out there too, I definitely don’t know them all, but I think Ava’s demon is worth more attention, especially with all of the interesting concepts at hand, and I’m definitely a fan of the work. I feel the artist behind the work deserves more support as well, to whom this work is very interconnected to their own life.

I have no real clue why I’m saying this, maybe it’s just because I tend to run in critical areas of a community and I always notice when it starts to teeter into going too far, maybe it’s because I’ve caught myself in this cycle at least more times than I can count. It’s important as an artist or as someone interested in the arts to remember what you love about art, getting caught up in flaw will only make things worse. You have to take both in a balance.

[opinion-piecemeal]

Just to preface: this post is not about Vivzie. She is kind of a scummy creator and I’ve recently learned about several controversial things she’s done. No I’m not talking about lewd art, I could not care less about that. She has done some scummy questionable things to real life people that she’s interacted with and I implore you to look into it on your own time. Just wanted to get that out of the way because I won’t be addressing it further but I want it known that I do in fact know some of the things she’s done.

I think most of the discourse on Hazbin Hotel is done, but I didn’t have this tumblr when it came out. So fuck it here’s my opinion now:

I really liked the Hazbin Hotel pilot when it came out, like genuinely. It was a decently made piece of indie animation, and they did a lot with a little amount of time. I even kinda liked Helluva Boss when that show came out, it toned down a lot of the more obnoxious elements of the HH pilot, the designs became less cluttered and the sound effects were toned down, the writing was even decent, it was funny sometimes, and it could tell an emotional story if it wanted. I didn’t care for the musical numbers (not because they were bad, I don’t even remember them it’s been years. I just don’t care for most musicals, if any at all), but I could get through those portions and it was fine. Some decent jokes, and I didn’t hate the characters.

So I was relatively…. Marginally slightly elevated when I heard Hazbin was getting an actual show release. That’s pretty cool, indie animation getting bigger and getting more funding? Hell yeah we love to see that. It’s been a minute since I watched through HH, but I remember my reactions to it and some key points of criticism.

This is gonna be just a compilation of ramblings and rantings because I do have a lot of disparate things to say about the show. Bear with me here.

Just gonna start off with: it’s one of the worst animated shows I have ever seen. I’m being 100% serious. It’s not paced well, none of the elements of the show itself are utilized properly, and every musical number has to be worse than nails on a chalkboard. It’s not funny, and it has NO idea how to structure interesting storylines to tell their stories effectively.

I heard nothing but praise for HH when it first came out from queer people I know. Being a queer myself, I understand why that is. It’s colorful, has a lot of vulgar yet not actually edgy jokes, has some gay characters in it, has some “CrYpTiD” character that everybody loves for some reason, and it’s about demons. This shit screams that it’s supposed to be appeal to YOU 🫵 THE AVERAGE QUEER! I know my vague description here might not be screaming “gay culture” but if you’re a queer in your 20’s in the year of our lord 2024 I think you know what I mean. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying media meant to appeal to you!!! Not even enjoying stuff that’s obvious pandering, I have my own media that is very meaningful to me because it tries to appeal to my sensibilities in an obvious way. But HH is. It’s bad for other reasons, this is just why I think a lot of LGBTQ+ people were hyping it up like it was a gift from… god? Gay Satan? Yeah anyway.

Just gonna rant about some things I remember, bear in mind I haven’t rewatched the show in a minute, but I’ll do my best not to say anything blatantly inaccurate to the general sentiment of the show.

The first episode of the show was an immediate dropping of the ball. It’s trying to act like a re-pilot, and yet if you haven’t watched the pilot there’s details you aren’t ever going to get. It starts with a really boring stylized exposition dump about the setting. I think it’s insanely mishandled because EVERYTHING that’s explained in it you can gather from context clues throughout the show. It genuinely might have been a stronger overall show if the entire exposition intro was entirely removed. It explains the angels doing the yearly culling, something you learn about by the end of this episode after the intro, you learn about Charlie’s parents, something you learn about much later and is introduced better in the original pilot through naturalistic dialogue. We learn about ummmm. That’s it as far as I can remember? I guess the setup for hell happens. Idk it feels like a clunky way to try to introduce new people to the show. Genuinely think a cold open to the moments after the intro would make for a stronger overall episode.

I do not like Adam. I know that’s the point, but I hate that he isn’t even scary. Like they don’t try to make him the least bit threatening, or intelligent, or at all… idk, cool? He’s a lame college frat boy dickhead stereotype, and I don’t even hate that on its face. If it was done in a way where we could see how he’s been leading heaven’s armies, maybe something a little more subtle, something a little tiny bit more interesting. It doesn’t make sense that any of heaven’s forces take him seriously. Like maybe it’s actually a reveal in the court scene that Adam is actually just the worst, instead of just “no actually he sucks the whole fucking show”. Not that he has to be a good guy, obviously, I just wish he was done with ANY amount of restraint to make him interesting. But he’s just a frat boy toxic masculinity stereotype that says very little about that stereotype itself besides “lol isn’t heaven hypocritical???” Like yeah. We knew that in the first episode when Adam did each of the 7 deadly sins in his literal first interaction. It’s so heavy handed.

Tbh I do wanna say that there are elements I like from the show, it just sucks because there’s always something with how they’re executed that just infuriates me. Like I enjoy the idea of portraying Angeldust in the way he’s portrayed, and exploring his trauma and awful situation, and overall they handled it decently. I don’t like the song, and I think the song has some questionable decisions with how it comes across, but overall it’s pretty clear that were meant to be sympathizing with Angel, even if it’s in poor taste to do a pop song over horrific abuse, which it absolutely is. It does fit his character overall, it’s how he copes. He takes control of his sexuality in order to hold onto some facet of control over his life, even if that means distancing himself from reality and constantly putting himself in dangerous situations. But like I said, something has to ruin any good thing within the show. It was extremely poor taste to put Poison and Loser, Baby right next to each other. I understand they wanted to add levity after the darkness of the previous section, but it’s poorly done to have The Arbiter (I forgot both his character’s name and his actor’s name and this is way funnier) go “oh I understand your plight! I’m a gambling addict!” Like no. Those aren’t comparable. I understand the point of it, it’s just horribly done because the team of writers who worked on the show were so chock full of ideas and they couldn’t reign it in to focus on other elements and space out these character arcs.

Angeldust in general suffers from wasted potential. You can see the potential of his character in the obvious arc they were trying for, that sinners can not only be redeemed but that anyone no matter how “far gone” they may believe themselves to be can come back from a horrific situation, or even can take some control. They can choose to do better, and can choose not to let their hardships define them and instead influence them in a healthy way. You can see the pieces of the arc they wanted, but because there’s all of 2 or 3 scenes dedicated to it in total it doesn’t come across like an earned change in Angel’s character. He just. Is suddenly a good person now. All of his progress started in one episode, was never expanded upon, and otherwise happened off-screen and was only really addressed towards the very end.

They completely tossed Sir Pentious’ potential out the window. He just. Comes around to the gang and is a good guy after the first episode he’s introduced. Doesn’t even TRY to space it out in any way. It’s just like. Yup. Sure is a good guy now. Found family!!! Yippee!!! It just doesn’t feel earned. It feels like there was no buildup or actual work into changing. He’s just. Basically good now just because. His egg boys are my favorite though, unironically love those little guys. Besides that though, there’s clearly some small sliver of growth shining through with him. He goes from a timid demon, unwilling to just be openly vulnerable and instead coming across as pathetic, to a confident and slightly more assertive demon who can take charge and be honest with himself about what he cares about. And then he gets disintegrated the moment after this for a cheap laugh. And then he… goes to heaven??? Idk how that works and why other demons aren’t already in heaven then???

Lucifer. Hated how he was done. Like okay, I like him as a character, but the actual function he served in the plot was to resolve Charlie’s daddy issues in half an episode and then disappear for most of the rest of the show so he could come back in at the end and handily stomp Adam without even trying. Thereby completely removing the win from Charlie and her friends. Like. They really could have had something with the ending if he wasn’t in the show at all so Charlie would have to win this battle with Adam by the skin of her teeth with the help of all the friends at the hotel to, at the very least, try and tie together these people into a cohesive unit.

The dragons appearing for half a second and then immediately getting killed. Like why even bother including them?!?!

Oh my god. They didn’t even focus on the redemption aspect. Literally the entire premise of the hotel and they cast aside that entire plot idea so they can focus on the slaughter instead of. Um. Actually interesting funny episodes about demons trying to redeem themselves??? Like I think we should be seeing the hotel get more populated throughout the season with different demons who DO want to redeem themselves and give up some of their vices to get into heaven. But nah, let’s have 8 episodes of meandering plot with no consistency in terms of pacing or time in between episodes. Let’s just completely throw out that whole entire original idea, we just have too many good ideas guys we need to include everything!!!! Like idk maybe I’m not articulating this part well but it’s such a wasted opportunity. They could have had this first season be an episodic relatively formulaic series of episodes where Charlie is trying to prove to herself and to the rest of the demons of hell that she can and WILL help these souls be redeemed one demon at a time. So we meet a new character every episode and get a rundown of why they’re in hell and then we get Charlie trying to determine how to properly address the core issue causing their sin in the first place, and then that character kind of gets relegated to the background. We can actually see the progress of the hotel in a very consistent easy to follow way, and instead of focusing on this half baked plot line about Heaven coming down to purge the numbers in Hell (which could help to set the stage for the stakes still but be relegated to the background). We would instead be focusing on the actual premise of redeeming the demons and proving to heaven that they can be saved. And we could still have this plot line of the angels coming down to kill demons once a year, and Charlie trying to stop the next one from happening. Maybe Adam gives her a number of demons she needs to redeem by the time the next purge would be, and then even if she reaches it he goes “haha no we’re gonna fucking come kill you anyway” which would let them get into it in the next season and explore the hypocrisy of heaven still in a more cohesive and earned way. Like yeah, Charlie ACTUALLY did her best and she ACTUALLY managed to show that demons, on a base level, are capable of change if they see the benefit of changing. But nah. They did all of it in the worst most uncontrolled way possible with no restraint.

I did not care for the way the plot was paced out. In fact, I would say the worst part about the show was the pacing. Even people who liked the show thought it was poorly paced, and it is. They did eight episodes. EIGHT. Each one 20 minutes, and Vivziepop couldn’t help herself but to try to cram in each and every single idea she possibly had into the season. A season where they KNEW they had another season lined up. They had 10 writers. More writers than fucking episodes for God’s sake, and they decided not to attempt to pace it out using the knowledge that they had another season to work with. Nah they just decided not to let any of their scenes breath, let’s cram in constant cuts, constant dialogue, constant jokes. Oh and we NEED to have 2 songs per episode. Episodes that were woefully underwritten to begin with. They could have only done just ONE musical number per episode and at the very least this would have given them more room to breath with the rest of it. But nah. Gotta cram in as many underwritten musical numbers as physically possible and further destroy the pacing.

I hated every musical number. They aren’t interesting fun songs to me, they aren’t lyrically good or subtle or funny, and almost every singer is pitch corrected for no reason. I’m not gonna talk about any of the numbers individually, as it would get redundant. They would have appealed to me at 12 in terms of their comedic value.

I could genuinely keep going here, I have a ludicrous amount of thoughts about this show. It’s incredibly disappointing for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it was made, and I’m glad the audience that loved it DID love it so so much, I am appreciative of the fact that it was originally an indie project that could have had an even worse go of things. But they did not do the original pilot justice and it sucks to see. HH could have been one of my favorite shows, or at least one I appreciate greatly for what it managed to do, but as it is it’s a half baked overstuffed pastry of pure ambition and hubris, with none of the charisma to pull that off. From a story writing perspective, it’s very poorly executed and does not properly explore any of the concepts it touches on.

I will never escape Hazbin Hotel. It infects every single corner of the internet that I interact with. Memes from the least funny people you know with random pictures of these characters, characters which, themselves, also aren’t funny keep cropping up in group chats and discord servers, and every time I hear about the show it makes me see fucking red. I HAD to get this shit out somewhere because the only partner I have that would be interested in talking about the show itself actually kind of likes it and I know they would hate to hear me endlessly shitting on it.

And if you managed to get through this long as fuck text post, and you’re a mega fan of this show, just know that I’m so glad you got something out of it. I just thought it was poorly done.

And for everyone else who managed to read through the whole thing, thanks for taking the time this thing turned out to be so so long.

Anyway. That’s just like, my opinion, man.

[artsydudejude]

(screenshotting this ask cus i don’t want it showing up in the hh tags, and response under the cut cuz don’t want it filling up my blog)

i don’t really gonna get into the discourse surrounding the creator, since there’s a fuckload of it (some of which i'm aware has been exaggerated/apologized for, even if there’s still plenty to criticize and said ‘apologies’ seemed halfhearted at best), so let’s just focus on the show itself, which i watched out of curiosity a few weeks ago.

pros:

overall concept had potential

songs were pretty good, both in composition and lyrics

a lot of the animation was very professional-looking/fluid, and god knows i’m dying for ANY decent 2d productions these days

i actually liked some of the character designs, though the main characters were not among them

cons (in no particular order because JESUS where do i begin???):

the tone, to me, seemed extremely weird/inconsistent. all of the bits that were supposed to be sympathetic/sad felt completely disjointed alongside the show’s brand of humor (this is something pretty common with adult cartoons, though i've seen some of them make it work).

visually... bad, overall. between the eyebleeding pinks and reds that were rarely broken up by anything else, and the way nearly every shot was super busy/cluttered, and (to my memory) the complete lack of using focal blurs, it was often hard to figure out what was going on or focus on any single thing in frame.

with that in mind, the second musical number was so goddamn fast in addition to the colors/clutter that i nearly had a sensory overload.

like i said, none of the main characters’ designs appealed to me at all. lots of samebody syndrome and everyone had similar palettes of high-contrast red and pink. the worst offender was al*stor, whose concept and voice acting i actually really liked, but his emo-adjacent cat-eared character design completely clashed with the whole ‘vintage radio announcer’ angle.

y’know that post going around that’s like “hazmat hotel is like south park for people who shipped b*lldip”? not an exaggeration. the jokes are the same basic “sex and violence and swearing funnie” edgy teen fodder, with the same occasional disjointed attempts to add in heartfelt-ish bits. though given the way it’s more weird and less moral-tale driven, i'd compare it to superjail and not south park (a show i watched in its entirety before i was aware of how harmful a lot of the content was). superjail, however, was visually appealing and tonally consistent.

something something shitty LGBT stereotypes that i really don’t feel like getting into cus i’m fuckin tired of typing at this pojnt and i'm sure other people have said it better

conclusion: bleh

[the-resurrection-3d]

Please elaborate I’m so intrigued

Well, since you said please --

A common vibe I get from a lot of criticism of both series is that This Wasn't Meant For You, Anyway. I've seen so many tweets and articles complaining about things in the reboot that are also 100% true of the original 1993 show, such as the plethora of pop-cultural references and how much of the Warners' gags revolve around being dickheads IRL cyberbullies. You don't have to like these elements, but if I were a professional critic, I also would not be faulting a reboot for capturing the personality of the original.

A lot of criticism from the anti Vivziepop community that's sprung up on here is basically the same. There are SO many posts that just boil down to OP's refusal to admit that Hazbin was never going to be something they enjoyed. One example is complaining about how none of the characters are sympathetic and make us "want to see them redeemed." I will admit, I definitely think they should have included more of, say, Angel Dust's tragic backstory in the pilot (any benefit from withholding it has kinda been lost since they’ve already shown Val being an abuser in both the prequel comic and the Addict music video), but Viv has outright stated that she wanted to make a show about assholes. The show itself is so uninterested in redemption that we still don’t know whether it’s even possible! "Unsympathetic" is only a worthwhile criticism when the narrative is trying for that and fails.

Also, some hardcore reaching to make the shows problematic. This is far more true of anti HH takes, partly because the show already has some big fuck-ups (remember when Viv made the only Asian character literally yellow?), but God damn guys, some of y’all act like the show single-handedly invented homophobia/racism. I’ve actually seen people wish death on Viv for including incomplete, Chinese bootleg versions of some voodoo symbols in a few frames and unironically claim she’s now endangering minors. (For Animaniacs, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, people started discoursing about Yakko being an abusive sibling before the show even came out, and more recently, someone on twitter tried to start a boycott because the show “makes fun of abuse victims” in a visual gag that’s actually a reference to the “johhny johnny yes papa” meme.) 

TL;DR: It’s okay to just say “this is not for me” and move the fuck on. 

[opalai-pixel-witch]

“Thank you!! I’m happy to hear you liked that one ^__^ Kittens seem to make everything cuter…even if I’m not so good at drawing them ;;=o=;;”

–The kittens you drew are cute :3

“Yeah, I remember the first time I finished the main story and I was super excited to see that there was more I could do after the credits! I was surprised to see Death in Bjørn’s house and watching him and Pesto interact was a lot of fun ^o^ PP’s games are full of surprises it would seem, you have no idea how excited I got when I heard my son’s singing voice ;u;”

–You mean the scene where he sings to a scared viking friend?

I like that scena too, I even started to sing cuz I alredy knew the lyrics ;) I like see Pesto play the bass :D

“Oooh, do you think that Red-Eye is one of those two dead guys in the background of War’s introduction? :o Makes me wonder just how far back the creators have been planning…and that’s a really interesting take on what they could be doing! When I think about Milky and his team I think about the show Truth Seekers—I dunno if you’ve seen or heard of that, but basically there’s a guy who investigates the paranormal in his spare time and he’s somehow recruited a few people into his investigations, and eventually they uncover a cult putting some shady nanotech in peoples’ brains. It’s really good in my opinion, but anyhow I like looking at that kind of thing and Milky makes me think of that o.o”

–“Truth Seekers”, it´s the first time I… read(? XD )that name ^^;

Red eye thing in the background was said by one of the developers, search “Manual Samuel week” on Youtube and you will find Ozan’s videos, he talks a bit about how MS and HH are connected ;) 👍

“Well in that case, I’m glad that I could pique your interest! >u> I admittedly have trouble with feeling like I “belawng” anywhere and keep getting paranoid that I’m just intruding in whatever fandom I join, which makes my hesitation towards making new stuff and trying new things even more of a pain =A=”

–Feel I’m just intruding in whatever fandom I join also happens to me :,v

There is a web serie called “Tres Acordes” and I liked it a lots; one week and I started to draw it and I feel bad because didn´t one month from I started to see the serie, I fel I musted wait more, but I didn´t share them cuz ; when one month and the serie liked, I that feeling and started to post my drawings

Currently I follow the serie, I don´t know if the fans or the creator like my drawings, but I have fun, at least I know I don´t uncomfortable them, I draw the characters representing some episode or some trait of their personality ^^

“Honestly I tend to have more fun participating in smaller fandoms because it feels like…there’s more heart put into them, if that makes any sense??? I’m not entirely sure how to word it :P I have yet to run into any crazy fandom discourse so far (knock on wood), but I understand that that’s also a danger when it comes to bigger fandoms ;;o_o;; Regardless, however, I love the PP fandom and I’m really happy to have found a friend to talk to about it!!”

–Yes, that´s true, in small fandoms there´s more heart, cuz it´s about supporting the original work and its creators, I also prefer small fandoms, in the Tres Acordes there are few that are dedicated to create something for the serie, that´s great, I feel more free to create and it hasn´t become toxic; there is a small fandom that I like to create content for, but there´s a group of fugoshis who make it toxic, they only post NSFW work and only support that content, which makes you don´t want to be in the fandom (I left it for a while thanks to they), in my case, I try to support all decent works to motivate people, and thanks to that I met a group of people who have healthy fun in that little fandom and we support each other ^^

…

(New drawings) ;v  : 

https://sta.sh/22aj2xyaqwj3?edit=1

…

“I watched a review of Helheim Hassle in which some guy was calling Bjørn a complete loser and now I am enraged”

–That´s it! I´m killing this guy! I don´t care if it´s written or not! Throw me in Human Jail! I don´t CARE! >:v

--------

Aw thanks!! I’m glad you think so ;u;

Yeah, when I got to that scene and Pesto said “you start singing, Bjoharn” I paused the game and freaked out for a moment, all “AGDHFMXKDISKSB I GET TO HEAR MY SON SING?????” I love that scene sooooo much ;;o;;

ALSO Pesto just has the most amazing bass skills...like she learns everything by ear and has a great memory for how it goes and seems to know exactly where to put her fingers, and all she needs to be able to do that is to listen to the actual song once and then just a brief recap of it??? Pesto’s bass-playing just kicks a whole lot of ass >o>

It’s a great show in my opinion, it’s very interesting! I think it’s by the same people behind the Cornetto trilogy, if you’ve heard of that :o I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in that sorta premise ^_^ (...unless they happen to be sensitive to the “eye scream” trope)

I watched that entire series before writing this reply, it was a lot of fun to watch! I think I missed any mention he might’ve made about Red Eye, but it’s pretty cool to know that those three guys in the background are creator cameos o:

Fandoms are a tricky thing indeed...it feels like NSFW artwork is kinda unavoidable no matter what fandom you’re in, and while I don’t make NSFW stuff myself I know that people are gonna draw what they’re gonna draw, and as long as it isn’t hurting anybody or portraying anything unethical it’s not really my business to call them out on it. However if people are gonna post stuff like that, they should be very responsible about making sure the wrong demographic doesn’t see it, giving plenty of warnings and tagging stuff appropriately, all that stuff. I don’t know what protocol there usually is for that sorta thing, but everyone should make sure that nobody gets scarred for life by anything and that everybody gets along and doesn’t make anybody else feel unsafe!

You shouldn’t have to feel like you’re intruding in fandoms! If your contributions to the PP community are any indication, you probably bring a lot of cool stuff to any fandom you join! Personally I look forward to you submitting things here and I always love seeing your new drawings ^__^ It’s always fun to be able to talk to you about what we both love in the PP verse and swap headcannons and stuff!

Your new drawings are, as always, absolutely brilliant!! I love the reverse AU one (Skeleton Bjørn = very yes) and also the one with you (if that person is you?) hugging Death |D His expression is great, all “yep, this is my life now”

...I see you brought Pesto with you...might I join you on your quest? I must avenge my viking son >_>

[just-another-warsmith]

Saturnine, or I how I learned to stop holding onto old continuity with 40K

(Warning: this post pretty massively spoils the latest Siege of Terra novel, Saturnine by Dan Abnett. Still going under a cut, but you have been warned.)

So a few months ago, when the limited edition of Dan Abnett’s Saturnine came out, there was a bit of, shall we say, discourse over several elements of the plot.

Nah, that’s putting it mildly, there was a serious amount of genuine anger over two particular plot points; the story of Olly Piers and how that served as part of the origin of Ollanious Pious, patron saint of the Imperial Guard, and the revelations of Erda, a female Perpetual and former associate of the Emperor. The former was a minor shitshow, the latter one that was pretty damn colossal and I wound up unfollowing a few people, several of whom I can tell now hadn’t read the book or had read it poorly, just because they were blowing up my dash about it and they didn’t do the decent thing of spoiler tags. Abnett doesn’t care about continuity! Abnett is just making stuff up and Black Library lets him! I don’t care what that Erda lady says, the plot points she’s contradicting are fact!

Oh. Oh dear. 

So let’s address these, shall we?

Ollanious Pious, Patron Saint of the Imperial Guard, Astra Militarium Imperial Fist and Custodian of the Emperor.

Through the course of the book, we meet a normal human soldier, Olly Piers, who gradually a legend begins to build up about how he is some sort of defender of the Emperor for an action where he and others defend a banner of the Emperor. At the very end of that plot thread, Olly stands alone, in front of the same banner, facing down nothing less than Angron. He dies, of course, defending said banner. People went off on this because it seemed to be contradicting 40K lore, the lore of how Ollanious Pious stood in front of the Emperor when he was fighting Horus and defended him against the traitor, his death serving as the moment when the Emperor finally realized how far gone Horus was and moved to kill him. 

And yeah, you know, that’s indeed in the original short story that William King wrote back in the 90s depicting the battle between the Emperor and Horus. Ollanious Pious, defending the Emperor unto the death...

Except for a later version where it was an Imperial Fist who died defending the Emperor unto the death. But nah, it must have been Ollanious Pious...

Except for another later version of the same story where it was a Custodian who died defending the Emperor unto death. 

I own all three versions, by the way, through various books published over the past twenty years. That has never been a constant point in the lore, it’s just been reworked over the years as the background of the game has evolved and changed and some things have left or just don’t fit anymore. We’ll come back to this.

Erda, Buggering Up Yet More Articles From White Dwarf.

The thing that set off the discourse hardcore though was the appearance of Erda, a previously unseen female Perpetual who claims to be the “mother” of the Primarchs by being the female genetic source for all of them, and more importantly, being the person who scattered the Primarchs across the galaxy, taking them away from the Emperor. She also gives the name she knew the Emperor by several thousand years ago (she explicitly says that was just what he was calling himself, and it wasn’t his actual name) and gives some info dumps that try to patch over why the Emperor seems to be a non-stop fuck up. Humanity is supposed to evolve into Perpetuals, near-immortal psykers, over a long scale of time; the Emperor, though, does not want to wait, and he’s trying to get millions of years of evolution done in a few thousand.

Oh boy.

Now what interests me about this is that a lot of people did not go off so much on the revelation that there was a “mother” to the Primarchs (though yeah of course they did) but the fact that Erda says she scattered the Primarchs. “NO WAY. BULLSHIT. IT WAS CHAOS! NOT SOME CHARACTER WE’VE NEVER HEARD OF!”

Sigh.

Over the years in the old White Dwarf magazine, Games Workshop published articles about each of the major Space Marine chapters in a series called Index Astartes. They were collected in a series of books called, you guessed it, Index Astartes. I own several of them, and here’s a thing about them. When talking about the scattering of the Primarchs, there is always-always-a massive level of ambiguity about how it happened. If I had a dime for every time one of the articles said something like “whether by accident, the design of the Emperor, or the machinations of Chaos, the Primarchs were scattered across the Galaxy”..well, I’d have a dollar and eighty cents maximum, but you get the point. How the Primarchs were spread across the galaxy has always been ambiguous. Erda saying she did it does not contradict the lore, simply because that’s all she says. She could have been a willing or unwilling agent of Chaos. She could be an unreliable narrator. She could be lying. She could have been manipulated into doing it by the Emperor. We don’t know yet.

(I have zero problem with Erda being the “mother” of the Primarchs, by the way. The Primarchs were never said to be straight clones of the Emperor, so it stands to reason that there was, at some point, a female genetic donor. Abnett just wrote about her. She does not supplant any parental figure that the Primarchs had. Hilariously, I saw someone say that Erda did not replace Tarasha Euten as Guilliman’s mother. This is hilarious because Tarasha Euten was...created by Dan Abnett in the novel The Unremembered Empire. And is equally as unsupported by the previous lore as Erda is.)

See, here’s the problem, and I have to say this gently: a lot of people have latched onto particular versions of the lore without acknowledging or even knowing that there’s always a certain level of ambiguity built into the lore on purpose. That the lore has been built, piecemeal and without much regard to the previous versions, largely to serve as cool background to sell a tabletop game and a shit load of models. If you have latched onto one version of it as a headcanon, well, okay, I can’t fault you there, but you’re not acknowledging that (1) the lore has never been constant and (2) it’s Games Workshop’s IP, they can change it if they want to, and probably will. Hell the Forge World Black Books on the Horus Heresy contradict some of the earliest HH novels.

I have never understood why people will fight like cats and dogs over recent changes in continuity and aren’t fighting for the original, normal human General Horus, the original start of the rebellion against the Emperor, or for the half human, half Eldar Ultramarine. No, no, actually I do understand it. Most people don’t even know about it. They get into 40K at a particular time and that’s their golden lore, their fluff. They don’t know how often it’s changed, how many times the backstory has been tweaked and altered and reworked. They hear at one point that the Emperor was suggested to be a person born out of a bunch of shamans combining their power together, and that’s all he ever was. They hear the Primarchs were spread by Chaos in one story and that’s all that ever was.

Saturnine does nothing that Games Workshop hasn’t done themselves over and over again, and will probably do over and over again so long as the IP exists. 

Oh, the book itself? Is bloody brilliant. The slow build into the non stop action of the last third of the book is amazing, and that last third is just ridiculously good. 

[vegeebs]

The Hazbin Hotel discourse is so stupid. "The whole pilot is transphobic, and homophobic" like, where? Still havent had anyone show me the "proof". Yet these people still support The Arcana whose creators are blatant pedos/incest fetishists and has a ton of problematic themes within the story. (If im talking out of my ass i'm willing to be proved wrong) I just find it ridiculous you got attacked for reblogging art you liked :/

Goddammit even if I haven't watched HH I would've reblogged the art anyway bc I love Kawacys work. If anon was deeply disturbed by the show then fine I respect that but don't throw ur views of what should and shouldn't be offensive to a random stranger just bc u find it that way. Yea there are actually some parts in HH I do not agree with but I do not go around saying all HH fans are transphobic, homophobic, racist or whatever. These words are rlly harsh to call someone u know nothing about smh. I mean... The point of the pilot was to be offensive adult humor anyway 😭

[sixty-minutemaam]

I think Joshua’s redemption is supposed to be an arduous process, one that doesn’t simply end with him being set alight at the grand canyon. Clearly to him, violence is his solution to so much because of how long he has been surrounded by it, and it envelops all his decisions (much like the player.)

I don’t think that arguing that his Mormonism or Christianity is him trying to absolve himself of his actions, because first of all, pre-war religion is not comparable to post-war ones, all movements must have significant differences from their past even if they use the same book. The Mormons are a lot smaller of a group than they used to be in Utah, and they also call themselves by a different name (New Canaanites.) Joshua came back from the grand canyon obviously paying for his crimes with his burns, and his family was apprehensive about him before he returned, showing that most mormons thought of him as a blight. Joshua crawls back to his family, and they welcome him not because they forgive and forget, but because he too has been through horrific things, it doesn’t matter if he “deserved” it or if he “did it to himself” because the theme for most of the DLC’s is letting go of your past, and how some people are so scarred by it they can’t.

Joshua does show that he still relies on violence, because of course he does, he tries to atone for his crimes by training a defenseless tribe for war they didn’t ask for. The Mormons were killed, his own tribe, by the legion and so indirectly by himself. He knows this, and feels so much hate and rage about this because it is his fault, and it’s “deserved” considering what he did for 30 years. Joshua is a lot like Ulysses by the time we see him in HH, a traumatized, broken man doing what he does best to try to fix the hole The Legion has put there. The difference between the 2 is that Ulysses didn’t ask for his circumstances, and Joshua did. Does that mean that Joshua deserves all the pain he endures? Of course not. He DOES learn from his actions at the end of honest hearts, he sees how his violence is just him lashing out against a cruel world he helped create, and he comes away from it a better person.

I think Joshua is a very well written character because he causes so much discourse, he’s an awful man who has done things many would consider unforgivable, but that doesn’t stop the fact he is alive, and killing him or trying to bring some sort of “justice” to him won’t fix anything he’s done. All he can do is learn, and do better, which he does. I think it’s a very uplifting story of a rise from ashes that many people in the wasteland don’t get a change to receive, a good example of a bad man being enveloped in evil, and yet choosing to be good in the end.

I just finished honest hearts for the first time and i really did not like Joshua. I was pretty stoked to finally meet him because of all the legion fear mongering of ""the burned man"" but he ended up being a profoundly weird and kind of unlikable character. I feel like the game is trying really hard to portray him as good/sympathetic which i just...can't see? Ignoring my own moral stances on mormons and missionary work, Joshua feels like a really hypocritical selfish man that keeps failing to learn anything from the tragedies that happen in his life.

When you speak to him about the legion he says that he just "got caught up in it all" and that ceasar kept asking him to do more and more henious acts as if he was some sort of prisoner to ceasar with no choice and not literally the co-founder of the legion. He STARTED the legion, if he was so morally against it why didn't he just bail out? I get that ceasar eventually gains enough power that the possibility of deserting becomes very dangerous, but he has plenty of time to leave in the beggining? The game mentions numerous times that Joshua wasn't just a normal legionary, but a merciless, unkillable, ruthless murder machine. Who am i supposed to believe here? I feel like if he really felt as bad as he did about all the evil shit the legion was doing then he probably wouldn't have that kind of reputation following him.

Then he gets deep fried at the canyon and goes back to his own community that accepts him back as if nothing happened (thanks, christianity). I'd be willing to accept that getting your entire body roasted and tossed down a literal canyon (and the chronic pain that will follow him forever) would probably be punishment enough for his numerous war crimes but like. Thats it? Not even a slap on the wrist from his former family? The family that he abbandoned and whose ideology he directly opposed by smiting the tribes they were trying to """help""" (again, mormon missionary work cringe)?????? And then hes all like "i know god has forgiven me for my sins and im fine with that" like???? I am familliar with the christian concept of gods forgivness, but Josh wasn't "lost in sin" as in like, he indulged himself in one of the main sins or was a general asshole, he killed people! He participated in the slavery and extermination of many tribes/cultures! And the only reason he stopped doing that is because after 30 fucking years, which i had to google by the way, ceasar, a known motherfucker and absolute lunatic, finally turned on HIM. For 30 fucking years the evils of the legion were nothing more than a "hm. This is kind of evil. Oh well!" thought to Joshua and ONLY when he suffered under it he finally realized that oh shit, the legion is evil. Literally no empathy or ability of critical thought is present in this man UNTIL he is the one affected. Is the power of christianity really so strong that literally none of the new caananites looked at this pathetic wet toilet paper roll of a man and were even a LITTLE bothered by what he did?

And like, at this point, im a bit skeptical but i try to rationalize it. I think to myself well, atleast he's trying to do better now. I guess forgivness and growth is what his main character motive is supposed to be. Except no, it's not, because 3 seconds later he runs across the entire map to the sorrows camp purely so he can quote the bible at me and ask me to EXTERMINATE A WHOLE TRIBE. Now, i understand his animosity towards the white legs. The white legs are fucking assholes. I finished lonesome road before honest hearts so i was already fully aware of what assholes they were. HOWEVER. LET US NOT FORGET. The reason the white legs are assholes is because they desperately want to sit with ceasar at the cool lunch table. To do that, they were ordered to kill the new caananites specifically to hurt Joshua because Ceasar knew he was alive. So, the reason the white legs are the agressive assholes that they are is almost purely because of the legion. WHICH JOSHUA CO-FOUNDED. It's almost beautifully ironic in a way that his deeds came back to haunt him. "I didn't know they would exterminate and enslave MY tribe!" Says man who voted for the "exterminating and enslaving the mojave tribes" faction. And still, Joshua learns absolutely fucking nothing from this.

I actually decided to side with joshua instead of daniel. It was for a multitude of reasons, including thinking the dlc was just gonna end if i side with daniel for whatever reason, but i kind of hoped and prayed there was a way to STILL resolve the whole thing peacefully and to talk him out of murdering them all. I was not happy about having to side with Joshua. While Daniel's plan was also potentially stupid and awful, the least Daniel did was respect the tribes' traditions and pacifistic ways. He did not want to turn the sorrows and dead horses into murderers because he thought another option (leaving zion) was available. Joshua wanting to defend the tribes' land was the one selling point on him that had me going "oh shit, maybe i misjudged this guy!" but i didn't. Talk to him for 3 seconds and its so painfully obvious that his motivations for killing the white legs is not "protect the dead horses and sorrows" but his own personal revenge for the slaughter of the new caananites. Which like, fine, understandable, but it just pissed me off so bad because he learned NOTHING from his years as a reformed war criminal. He talks so much about being changed and finding himself again after years of living in sin and the imidiate first thing he does is indulge in exterminating a tribe for his own selfish revenge reasons."I dont enjoy killing, but when done rightously, it is a job like any other" yeah, okay Joshua. Talk to me when you're not legging it down a cliff to shove a .45 down some poor bastards throat from halfway across the map because he looked at you funny. The way he acts as a temporary companion also contributes to my point here - refuses to do shit for you, does not listen, and eventually abandons you after like 15 minutes to go on his own because you're not killing the white legs fast enough. Unfortunately, i think the way he refuses to do shit for you is funny, so this is a point in his favour.

The one part that actually had me sympathizing with him was his speech upon being asked to spare salt-upon-wounds. I happen to like playing new vegas the "bullshit my way out of situations" way so thank god my speech was maxxed out, because if it wasn't, my dislike of joshua would be immesurable. The specific part when he says "i wanted to make my anger gods anger. To justify the things i've done" had me stunned because holy shit, you finally get it buddy! You finally understand that you were not a reformed man, you were still the same selfish bastard you were when in the legion! And i'm very glad this specific ending reflects that. However, if you dont have an ungodly high speech skill, you cannot spare salt-upon-wounds and Joshuas endings fucking suck. Especially the one in which he is the one to kill salt, he just starts another mini ceasars legion, having learned absolutely nothing in life.

Overall, i do think Joshua is an interesting character, somewhat. I enjoy his backstory a lot as some sort of boogeyman villiam and i do think the fact that hes complex enough to piss me off the way he does is a good thing. I think the narrative kinda fails him because it desperately tries to paint him as a redeemed good guy (seriously, why is joshua the only "companion" with good karma? If anything, he makes the most sense as a neutral karma character) instead of just a dude you can form your own opinion on.

[nofeartina]

I think you're great and you're my favorite blog, and I don't want to start discourse. But honestly, I wonder why it's ok that years after a show has ended it's ok that fans are still attached to it and spend hours analyzing it, and creating art about it, but then if an actor/ actress that participated on that piece of art that the fans love so much has trouble moving on from it (for whatever reason, because we don't really know what's going on with HH, no one except him knows), then they get

hate. Is it really fair? People need to stop projecting their success expectations on others, on the people they are fans of. And turn against them because they don't fulfill them. He is what, 22 years old? I was a regular lame ass student at that age. Just let people be.

Hi sweet anon.

I would never give Henrik hate for still being into Skam. And I agree that it would be weird to do so when we’re all still so attached to the show. 

For me it’s never been about Henrik not moving on, I love that he still gets so excited about Skam and talking about it. :) It was about him not looking well. He looks better in those latest pictures from Malta, and I guess vacation will do that to people. :D

I just want him to be happy. Really. And I’m pretty sure that most of fandom feels like that as well. :)

Thank you for all the kind words about my blog, and I hope you have a nice evening. :)

[kittykatknits]

Hi! So I came across (several) posts stating how Sansa is "removed" from everything Northern and how Lady's death means she's less of a Stark and that she doesn't fit in the North arc as her arc is completely different from her siblings (which is magical),the Northerners won't accept her,SR destroying snow castle means she'll never return to WF etc. My question: Do you think Sansa will return North? Do you think she'll ever reunite w/ her siblings and stay in WF? Thanks

Oh yes, to both questions. Easily. I’d also say Sansa will be the first Stark to cross the gates into Winterfell and it’s quite possible she’ll serve as a focal or rallying point for her siblings.

As for the rest, Sansa suffers from a negative POV bias in the first book, and honestly, I’m often left with the feeling that the old adage is true, first impressions matter. I’m not going to get into the narrative structure of Sansa’s chapters or character in this but we can tackle the rest of it.

I’ll go through those comments, point by point, below. This is long because I don’t know how to shut up.

(1)First, Sansa isn’t removed from everything Northern. She happens to be the only Starkling born in winter, and as we know, winter is a time for wolves. Not only that, much of her story line is about her ties to the north, it’s why she’s being used for her claim. It’s also important to note Sansa’s claim is not just over Winterfell, it’s about her name. Sansa is a Stark, she’s descended from a line going back several thousand years. That matters a lot in Westerosi politics, where name and status mean so much. The girl has power and her story is very much about her learning to wield it.

Her strongest desire is to go home, back to Winterfell, back to the north, to the place her family has lived in and ruled over since Bran the Builder. She also has the distinction of featuring snow and winter imagery in her chapters. In fact, the prominence of both only increases as the books go on. I’d say of the Starklings, she shares it with Jon the most. Here are a few lines from aFfC below:

So lovely. The snow-clad summit of the Giant’s Lance loomed above her, an immensity of stone and ice that dwarfed the castle perched upon its shoulder.

The small diamond-shaped panes of the window were obscured by frost. Alayne rubbed at one with the heel of her hand, enough to glimpse a brilliant blue sky and a blaze of white from the mountainside. The Eyrie was wrapped in an icy mantle, the Giant’s Lance above buried in waist-deep snows.

Old snow cloaked the courtyard, and icicles hung down like crystal spears from the terraces and towers. The Eyrie was built of fine white stone, and winter’s mantle made it whiter still.

Shards of ice and snow rained down on them, and the oak creaked and strained. Robert gave a gasp and clung to her, burying his face between her breasts.

There are lots more I could mention but let’s focus on that last one. Shards of ice and snow are raining down on them. Literally, winter is falling in that quote and Sansa is the one leading Sweetrobin down the mountain. Remember what she said in SoS? She’s stronger within the walls of Winterfell. She’s stronger when winter falls. If that isn’t Northern, I don’t know what is.

Beyond that, this girl is a wolf, or more accurately, she can sometimes be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. However, Sansa never forgets who she is and she lets her fangs show at times:

A kind of madness took over her then, and she heard herself say, “Maybe my brother will give me your head.”

She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters,

When Sansa had first beheld the Great Sept with its marble walls and seven crystal towers, she’d thought it was the most beautiful building in the world, but that had been before Joffrey beheaded her father on its steps. “I want it burned.”

Let his sword break and his shield shatter, Sansa thought coldly as she shoved out through the doors, let his courage fail him and every man desert him.

We also get one of my favorite exchanges in the series:

“…Harrenhal has withered every hand to touch it.“

“Then give it to Lord Frey.”

-Alayne I, aFfC

None of the above are words or thoughts from a character that should be perceived as meek or passive. Sansa is one the most empathetic characters in the series and one of the kindest but she can be fierce too.

Now, as to Lady, the discourse tends to focus so much on whether Sansa got her wolf killed, even though the entire answer isn’t so simple. What happens after often gets overlooked:

When it was over, he said, “Choose four men and have them take the body north. Bury her at Winterfell.”

“All that way?” Jory said, astonished.

“All that way,” Ned affirmed. “The Lannister woman shall never have this skin.”

- Eddard III, GoT

So, if the wolves are representations of the Stark children, then Sansa is currently the only Stark to have a piece of her soul within the grounds of Winterfell, none of the rest can make that claim. More than that, let’s look at what Ned is saying here, it’s foreshadowing. The Lannisters tried to lay claim to Lady but, ultimately, they failed. It’s the same with Sansa, they had her as a prisoner but they never got her skin. Ned also says that Lady will be taken north, all that way, with four men to act as an honor guard. Sansa is going to go north, with an army of men, and she will be able to do it, in part, because of the relationships her father built so long ago. Lady connects Sansa to the north.

(2)I’m really not sure what to make of her arc as being different from her siblings because of the lack of magic. For starters it’s horribly reductive, for all of them, not just Sansa. Jon’s arc is just as much about politics, negotiation, diplomacy, and leadership. Heck, part of his story in Dance is to count hams. Where’s the magic in that? It’s the same with Arya. Her arc also includes themes of leadership, identity, and justice v. vengeance. All of that matters as much as the magic.

Sansa is also a warg, just like her siblings. She’s mentioned by the Ghost of HH which connects her to magic. She has magical stories being told of her. And you’ll rip my Sansa is an empath theory out of my cold, undead, wightified hands. I’ll grant that magic is not as prevalent in her story line but completely devoid? Nope.

She also happens to have very similar story lines to both Bran and Arya. They start the series secure, are held prisoner, forced to hide behind false identities, have taken up with mentors that all have…well…dubious motives. All three are moving towards a point where they will somehow outsmart their teachers, reclaim their identity, and make their way home.

(3) I’m not going to break down the entire snow castle scene, its been done many times before and I don’t have much new to add at this point. However, as it relates to her, it’s the symbolism that matters.The giant managed to knock over a couple of tower roofs and part of a wall. The giant didn’t destroy WF, Sansa stopped him. Even more, the snow castle scene gives us this line:

She wondered where this courage had come from, to speak to him so frankly. From Winterfell, she thought. I am stronger within the walls of Winterfell.

Not only that, we get this gem later:”You were bold enough in the snow.“

Lysa says that to Sansa just before trying to shove her out the moon door but it’s a heck of a line. Snow makes Sansa bold, she’s stronger where winter falls.

(4) The northerners are fighting to save The Ned’s little girl, so not sure why this would not also apply to Sansa? The challenge with her is that no one knows where she is or how to get to her. The whereabouts and “identity” of Jeyne Poole are well known.

Sansa was forced to marry, just as Jeyne was. If Sansa and Tyrion returned north, under similar circumstances, it would only be a matter of time until Sansa was made a widow. Not only that, it’s made explicitly clear why northerners are fighting:

"Ned’s girl,” said Morgan Liddle. He was the second of three sons, so the other wolves called him Middle Liddle, though not often in his hearing. It was Morgan who had almost slain Asha in the fight by Deepwood Motte. He had come to her later, on the march, to beg her pardon … for calling her cunt in his battle lust, not for trying to split her head open with an axe.“Ned’s girl,” echoed Big Bucket Wull. “And we should have had her and the castle both if you prancing southron jackanapes didn’t piss your satin breeches at a little snow.”

..and later (in one of my favorite passages in the entire series)…

That seemed to amuse the northman. “I want to live forever in a land where summer lasts a thousand years. I want a castle in the clouds where I can look down over the world. I want to be six-and-twenty again. When I was six-and-twenty I could fight all day and fuck all night. What men want does not matter."Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned’s little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks. No one sings songs of men who die like that. As for me, I am old. This will be my last winter. Let me bathe in Bolton blood before I die. I want to feel it spatter across my face when my axe bites deep into a Bolton skull. I want to lick it off my lips and die with the taste of it on my tongue.”“Aye!” shouted Morgan Liddle. “Blood and battle!” Then all the hillmen were shouting, banging their cups and drinking horns on the table, filling the king’s tent with the clangor.

-The King’s Prize, aDwD (bold emphasis mine)

What about the above would lead the reader to believe they would not care about Sansa? They are fighting for Ned’s girl and House Stark, they don’t care about a crown or the Iron Throne.

Let’s switch gears to Manderly now:

“The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer’s farce is almost done. My son is home.”  

-Davos IV, aDwD

Manderly got his son back and now he’s honoring his promise, because he remembers. He wants his liege lord back and he’s at Winterfell, making it pretty clear to us, the readers, that his mission is a suicide mission.

Also, let’s not forget the Umbers, they remember as well. Whoresbane is repeatedly described as old. Not only that, the Umber forces are divided so the green boys are with his brother while he has the old men. Whoresbane is planning to turn his cloak and go down fighting, exactly as described earlier.

With all of the above, I’d sooner think Sansa, the girl who is believed to have killed Joffrey, will be welcomed home.

Sansa is a Stark and a Wolf. She’s going home and she’s going home soon. If I’m wrong (and I’m not), I’ll eat my hat.

[helahades]

tagging system

honestly, saying there’s a system gives myself way too much credit but here are some of my common tags. post will be edited as things change.

general:

masterlist - the big posts where i link my works. i have a main one, and i have ones for series. main one is linked in my bio

hh masterlist - the main one

hh info - stuff you should know about me or my blog.

long posts - thumb cramper bitches

triggers:

note: there are all sorts of triggers. if you need something tagged, just ask.

all triggers are tagged “tw ____”, insert the trigger in the blank.

food tag - only exception to format.

tw flashing

tw abuse

tw blood

fic reblogging:

comment reblog - someone commented on my story and I reblogged it

sweet reader - a comment reblog that is special to me

timezone reblog - a scheduled reblog of a new fic. they happen at different times during the day to maximize y’all seeing new content. :)

note: i reblog comments in addition to the normally scheduled timezone reblogs. if you’re seeing too much of me on the timeline, i suggest blacklisting one of these tags

im up to something + writer stuff:

update - usually if it’s been a while since I’ve posted, these posts tell you what I’m up to

future fic hints - usually me dropping the moodboard for a new story, or reblogging something on theme with it

writing resources - usually info on how to spice up vocab, or general reference things

fic ideas rising - something inspired me and i may write something about it

various vibes tags:

the vibes - things that just have the vibes

pretty pocket of peace - peaceful places

dream tag - my longing

florals? in the spring? - pictures of flowers

clutch your pearls (nsfw):

domme tag - uh things that make me snap into domme mode

men i could eat up - men that make me snap into domme mode

get me pregnant - hot guys doing hot things

the way women just - me dying over how lovely women are

whew - usually a smut reblog, or just general sin

steamy - usually like... a nsfw scene from a show or maybe actually porn, but don’t worry i have a porn blog for the worst of it. ( @helawhore )

character / people tags:

my baby daddy / space king / my sun and stars - thor

my darling - steve rogers

andrew the thot destroyer - andy barber

space queen - brunnhilde

my sweet boy - bucky barnes

space baby - poe dameron (star wars)

amor de mis amores - oscar isaac

mi amor fatal - natasha romanoff

my witchy lover - wanda maximoff

my long haired warrior daddies - bucky x thor

chris evans tags:

note: i was putting him with everyone else, but he has too many im sorry sksksk

my husband

chris

chris details - little things about him, usually physical details like his HANDS

reasons to love chris - yknow

chris is a black queen loving king - where i catalogue the receipts of that statement

daddy christopher - he did something hot

personal things:

self care tag - friendly reminders to myself and to you

happy tag - a variety of things for me to look at if im feeling sad

its a baby! - usually a cute animal or baby or both

love tag - just love. either pictures of intimacy or just concepts or art.

in the feelings tag - something that made me emotional, not necessarily—not usually, in a happy way

ouch - something angsty

that shit hurted ouch - something angsty

im upset about something:

rant tag - me ranting

marvel fucks up tag - usually me reblogging discourse about those fucks mistreating our characters

outside world stuff:

film and tv

real history - the kind of historical stuff that was omitted from history books and covered up, or not widely known

black lives matter - anything blm. i don’t tag every single thing though.

blm resources - ways you can donate, stay safe, or protest.

[minblush]

Hi, it's the anon that first sent the ask about the credits and how the explain my lack of connection. I agree with you completely, I feel like this album has been a giant business move where bighit is trying to milk the billboard win as much as possible. It's quite literal even in how they've incorporated the subject into the songs. So they probably rushed wanting to put out something so that they can ride that american zeitgeist high you know. I love bts, like truly (cont->)

Anonymous said:cont- They helped me in a time where I felt really lonely and isolated, I'm always a bit of an outsider just my personality and I felt that they were too (this is early 2015). I loved how they were themselves so honestly in performances and that they incorporated that identity into the music as well. Now they kind of feel like the popular kids if that makes sense. Bragging about how successful they are and or talking about soulmates and finding the one. None of which I can relate to.. -->

Anonymous said:Sorry this got so ranty, but I still love them and for the fans that think that us criticizing this comeback means that we are worse fans or whatever that's just not true. I literally love them with every part of my being and will always support them, I just hope the next releases are a bit different that's all. You're allowed to have expectations and sometimes they aren't met. It's okay.

yeah i felt that way too, honestly i felt it was a bit awkward that they really put the speech in there, it was a big moment but i wish they recorded a skit where they talk about it or what it means to them, instead of putting it in there, it felt kinda hueh? to me, especially followed with mic drop hh... and yeah it was the same for me, and i feel like they shed that outsider and shielding image with the rebranding and this album just confirms that, they said it was a turning point and it just depends whether they’re turning to something you like or you don’t like, tbh i don’t like it, but i love them as people so much that i’m trying to swallow all the marketing stuff, it’s just hard these days... like i know they have to sell themselves but they had a lot of involvement with their music and they talked to us fans all the time through means that you didn’t really have to pay for, but now it’s harder to get past all the pr talk and the distance when they are kinda far away and we are getting so much less free content than before... anyway sorry i went on an unrelated rant too phewph... but yeah, i hope it’s not going to be forever like this, then it’d be so hard to stay a fan for me, their personalities can only do so much when there’s less and less channels to see them through

Anonymous said:i really vibe w that anon who was disappointed bc this is their first comeback bc i'm in the same situation... everything was hyped so much and it seemed like everyone had a great time with wings and i was so excited!!! but now it's just... not rly what i was expecting based on their past works n i feel kinda like the person who arrived to the party late while everyones packing up lmao but. i am Trying To Stay Positive nonetheless :/ thanks for listening to me ramble hhh

wow i’m really sorry you feel that way, honestly wings was the best era for me as a fan cause it had no scandals or injuries in the main duration of it, the music was all great and mostly really personal and you could see that from how the boys talked about it, now it’s kind of... yeah... i hope you can get past it and i hope that the next time will be better if you hang in there ;-;

Anonymous said: with all the new attention from the West. and the teasers came out and the music was kind of promising with the whistle part, although I really didn't like the concept of 'her' and romance, and frankly the clothes in teaser 3&4 were not my fav. Then the music video came out, and I just lost interest in the first 10 secs. I get that they wanted to be more Western, so they danced in a box, and it was so Kookie focused (and no hate cause i really do love him), but the other members should

Anonymous said: should have the chance to shine too. It's probably an unfavourable comment but it feels like kookie & the boys instead of BTS? So I have completely lost interest in this comeback, and it's such a conflicting feeling because I really do love the boys, and I want them to break all kinds of records, but I don't want them to break the records with this album because it's just not them. & now reading about the credits, it's just so heart-breaking. Sorry, I had to rant about my feelings :(

sorry seems like tumblr swallowed some parts of what you were trying to say 3: but i feel you about the mv, i honestly... haven’t even finished watching it, i thought it looked really ugly and busy and the song seemed awful to me, i still only listened to it just once, but i was really happy that i liked most of the other songs on the album so it wasn’t a tragedy lol ;-; i don’t know about the kookie focused stuff, i never got into the discourse about certain members getting less spotlight and stuff, cause i feel it changes every time, with wings hobi had a whole lot of attention on him for example, now jimin had a whole trailer to himself too, so i really think that’s fine, but then again i didn’t finish watching the mv so i can’t say whether it really was excessive or not.... and yeah, i wish they could break the records with a better album, hopefully next time? idek... there is only so much they can do with the power of their fandom, cause lbr the title track isn’t something that you would hear on the radio often anyway

[sonicfrontiers]

tagged by @shibbe !!!! thank you friend!!!!

Nickname: technically lin is a nickname (the full name is linnada but who the heck would call me that), linathan happened for a while, also there was linflation but don’t.

Star sign: aquarius!!

Gender: bigender (female/agender)

MBTI Type: intp!!

Height:  5′8″ ovo

Time: 2:32pm

Birthday: january 26th!!

Favorite bands: hh ok so i love bts and red velvet and ikon but sf9 and bigbang and blackpink have REALLY good music too as well as a buncha other groups, in terms of non-kpop bands i really love alt-j sagnjfbgjhfda 

Favorite solo artists: adam young (owl city) like god dude. what a legend 

Song stuck in my head: it was rookie by red velvet like two minutes ago but now it’s doom dada by top ,, it changes every five minutes god help me

Last movie I watched: spiderman homecoming (for the second time whoops)

Last show I watched: i don’t have live tv and i don’t rlly care either shjkghfkdgf

Other blogs: @noaphobesallowed (discourse blog) @arfid-thoughts (arfid blog)

When I created my blog: about four months ago is when i deleted my old one i think? and i remade like a day later

What I post about: hell if i know

Last thing I googled: cat stockings, i wanted a ref for smth i was drawign dfhjgd

Following: 239

Followers: 150 (!!!)

Favorite colors: i like blue, in most forms n stuff! light blue, dark blue, teals, etc

Average hours of sleep: in the summer it’s been from 9-12 hours hjsghjdf but during school it’s like, 4-5 hours

Lucky number: i don’t know tbh? i always just say 13 bc like,, it sounds cool

Instruments: i used to play the violin for school but i remember none of it now

What I’m wearing: a fuckin homestuck tshirt and shorts

How many blankets I sleep with: 1, 2, or 3, depending on the temp

Dream job: ethologist!!!!

Dream trip: france, or cedar point (world’s largest amusement park!!!)

Favorite food: mostly anything that has butter n salt on it so pasta, popcorn, etc

Nationality: irish / french!!

i tag: anyone can do this n say that i tagged you, and if i tag you but you don’t wanna you don’t have to!!! @spiritpotion @thekdo @fantasybee @oops-i-accidentally @pocket-spas @minacid and uhh more ppl i’m probably forgetting sdhgshjd sorry