#also they're kind of an ex hellhound

[aroaceleovaldez]

do you have anymore rogue demigod headcanons? recently i've been thinking of my own rogue demigod ocs and trying to come up with ideas for them

BOY DO I

Okay i have a lot of very niche thoughts about how rogue demigods work and the sort of loose culture they have as a collective group. I'll go over the main thoughts I have and throw some bonus loose rogue concepts at the bottom of the post just for fun if anyone wants oc ideas. Below a cut cause i've thought about this a lot so there's. a lot:

Most rogues take the "names have power" thing a lot more seriously than campers do, since they don't have the protection of the camps to help them. As a result, many rogues go by "rogue names" or pseudonyms. Some chose their names on the spot, others slowly gained a name over time or were nicknamed by other rogues. Some may choose to not go by a rogue name, but many at least have one even if they don't always use it. Some rogue name hcs I have for specific canon characters include: "Hound" or "Hound of Hades" for Nico (cause hellhounds, also rogues making jokes about him being "the camps'/Olympians' dog"), "Rue" for Chris (named himself after Clarisse cause he missed her, though he's too bashful about it to admit it), Luke's was "Titan," and Hylla's being "Twice-Kill" is just canon. It's also fun to play around with how common some rogue names might be ("Wolf" and other animal names are definitely popular), how silly some might be (Just the first thing that popped into their head, their old street/town name, a famous actor or character, a youtuber's name/handle, cryptids, etc etc. "Ender" is also definitely popular. yknow. from Minecraft), and what stereotypes might be associated with rogue names/common rogue names. You can get real funky with it really easily. I'm personally a big fan of there being a rogue joke about people with animal-themed rogue names, just because of how common they probably are. It's probably rare that somebody earns an animal-themed rogue name from the collective community rather than just picking it themself. Also easy jokes about rogues sliding by with youtuber names or similar just cause most rogues can't access the internet, so they don't get the reference.

Almost all rogues knew about other mythologies/pantheons way before the camps did. It's a very open-secret type of thing. It's pretty impossible for them to not run into demigods from other pantheons living like they do. They just generally don't tell camper demigods about it, partially because it's sort of an unspoken rogue agreement to keep it secret from them for general demigod safety and also because most rogues don't like campers, so it's kind of a joke to keep them in the dark. Titan Army demigods were very well aware of both camps in particular.

The Amazons, Hunters, Circe's Sorceresses, and other rogue groups are also fully aware of this but don't ever mention it, even if they're camp-affiliated. The sorceresses just generally didn't run into campers enough for it to be relevant (and the campers they did run into probably never went back). For Amazons they're probably just too focused in profits to bother stirring up trouble by telling the camps about it. The Hunters probably don't mention it for the safety of the camps.

Camp Jupiter is very anti-rogue and hostile towards rogues in general. It's very rare that rogues are able to join the legion, and anyone who leaves to become a rogue is formally exiled and can't ever return. Most people who join the legion have to either be sponsored by a retired legionnaire family living outside of camp or just wholly directed to camp by a god (or representative of a god - see: Nico for Hazel). Rogues particularly hate CJ because of that. CHB on the other hand is perfectly willing to take in former rogues and there are plenty of ex-rogues in CHB who are fully aware of other pantheons. They just. Don't feel like ever mentioning it. Rogues are generally a bit kinder towards CHB because of their more open friendliness towards rogues, and will help direct new demigods towards CHB fairly often. They're still not fans of it most of the time, but they understand rogue life isn't for everyone and that it's safer, at least.

A lot of rogues take mercenary work, or other hired jobs. Technically this one is just kind of canon. See: Lots of TOA rogues, even some rogues from PJO and HoO are implied to have been hired by the Titan Army or Giant Army (or Octavian). This line of work is seen as totally legitimate to rogues, though there's a lot of different opinions within rogue circles about how it should be gone about. The most common opinion is that it's taboo to take or hire hits on those who run safehouses. Rogue safehouses are usually considered off-limits for any kind of targeting, and trying to target them is sure to ruin your reputation. Stealing or inter-rogue violence is generally considered on the table though. It's largely a lawless space. If you're particularly cruel or try to throw your weight around a lot though, you're sure to be ostracized by other rogues. Because of this, groups like the Titan Army who vocally advertised a lot of trying to make life better for rogues were popular, but other groups like the Giant Army or Tri are significantly less popular because they're seen as just power-grabs trying to hire extra muscle because they can't handle their petty squabbles on their own. Most rogues who joined the Giant Army or Tri were either indebted to them somehow or really desperate and willing to take more dubious jobs.

Norse rogues are actually significantly more common than Greek or Roman rogues, as they don't have any options for a camp to train at instead of living as a rogue, and get hunted down by monsters once they become old enough often regardless of specific parentage. Norse rogues are often more willing to take more dangerous work, as they hope it will either attract the attention of their godly parents to help them or if they build up reputation and die valiantly it will be enough to get them into Valhalla.

Safehouses are rare, but not unheard of. They're mostly just rare because their success rates vary wildly, and many try to build one but fail. The successful ones are often widely known in rogue circles, and there are some that are trade/gathering hubs to find work or restock supplies (and catch up on news). Most are considered peaceful zones, though there are some where combat is allowed, or may even have spectator sports like gladiator battles or etc where rogues can try to build up their reputations and notoriety.

Not every demigod benefited from Percy's deal that the Olympians had to claim all their kids - for some, they could have otherwise slid under the radar, but being claimed caught the attention of monsters and forced them on the run. Some got claimed in the middle of doing something in their mundane lives (with the gods doing some mass-claimings after the war) and had to run away on the spot, and resent Percy/CHB/The Olympians for it.

Free to use rogue demigod concepts:

Amazons and Hunters count as rogues! Anything with them is always fun. Ex-Circe sorceresses are also very fun.

Titan Army, Giant Army, and Tri rogues are also always very fun to play with.

Rogue satyrs, fauns, and nymphs! Or monsters/part-monsters, even!

Cursed rogues! Maybe they're part-monster, and/or the curse is part of them being banished/exiled somehow.

Rogues who run safehouses, or rogues who don't run safehouses but live there. What's their community like? How does it function? What are the rules there, and what's life like there? What's their role?

Think of a rogue name and then make a character themed around that. It's VERY fun I highly recommend it, especially if the names are leaning silly. Rogues stealing youtuber names, or their favorite anime characters, or some other pop-culture reference and hoping nobody notices. Rogue named Vriska or Sans or something. Rogues named after Pokemon. Get funky with it.

Rogues who work with monsters, or have alliances with them! How did their alliance come to be? Is it reliable? Why do they work together - what do either of them get out of it? etc etc.

Mercenary rogues, or other rogues who do hired work. Who are their clients, and what does their work entail? How does that impact their reputations?

Rogues who were revived with the Doors of Death. what were their lives like before they died? How did they die? How did they come back? Were they ever part of the Giant Army? What's their second life like?

Multiple generation rogues! Second-gen or third-gen rogues who were born into rogue life outside the camps but have always known about demigod communities.

Demigod who got claimed unexpectedly from the post-Titan War mass-claiming stuff and was forced on the run.

Norse rogues! Rogues from different pantheons! Or even rogue magicians! How do their lives differ from Greek/Roman demigods? What do they get up to?

[phightingaus]

Okay so answering some of Mod Captain's questions, the AU is still kinda unfinished so feel free to add on stuff!

A. They both can still talk, Boom just has the gnarp gnorp accent and Shuri can't pronounce the letter R

B. Okay so first off, the guild uses codenames for their hunters for the sake of not letting the cops get their information. Rocket's a bounty hunter but is also the one getting hunted by the same time, does things in his father's gear workshop that he inherited(Zuka got found by Blackrock and, unfortunately, executed). Rocket feels a little guilty for not cleaning and paying much respect to the place due to how busy he gets. Goes via Buster. Sword is an ex government assassin(hired by Lost Temple a few years back, but his contract got cut after he refused to join the Church for Venomshank's sake) who went into bounty hunting cause that's the closest thing to his previous job so he didn't have to adapt that much, goes by Sci-fi. Slingshot went into it for funsies and the chance to get intel on where Shuriken and Boombox have gone, he specifically applied for the spying on blackrock position for the sake of getting any lab reports, goes by Curse or Cat. Skateboard became a bounty hunter when his street gang needed some money, specifically when a younger member needed surgery after getting experimented on and tossed back out into the streets and it was the quickest way to make some cash, visits his gang to this day(they're all like family to him). Skate goes by Hover in the guild.

C. Hyperlaser is a mercenary but also currently hunterd by the Blackrock government for refusing orders(Order 66 means kill all jedi and Katana in this au is well, a Jedi). The two drinking buddies now are looking for someplace to settle. Somewhere really far away from Blackrock and Lost Temple.

D. Correction I'm sorry I forgot to mention that: Valk is a registrar, he handles signing up new mercenaries and explaining missions. Dom is an accountant, handling the money and paperwork

E. Blackrock has a lot of extremely cold areas so all their bases outside of the home planet are underground(referencing Medkit's "I didn't see the sun" line from his birthday QNA), like the rebel base on Hoth in The Empire strikes back. They also have a lot of people escaping so the governemnt is switching their army to biografts, so they're kind of a mix of the Empire and the Separatists. Lost Temple has a lot of gold mines and is basically a desert, they have a lot of rebel groups in the vast deserts(look up Tatooine and you'll get the idea of how it looks) and a lot of transportation is via trains. Playground has occupied a lot of planets with lower gravity and gas planets, so their cities are floating in the sky and a lot of the time you could just look at the space between two sidewalks and it's a 20000 kilometer drop to the surface, their big cities are multi-layered and built like a mini Coruscant. Thieve's Den has occupied other planets the most recently so they only took a ton of moons, the landspaces are vast and very different because they literally took whatever was left all across the solar system, but they have a unique place that is a moon in an asteroid ring between Playground and Blackrock planets which has a little lower than Earth gravity and the climate of a chilly mountainous area in southeast asia. Sorry if this paragraph was worded weirdly I'm not the best with landscapes.

Also some extras: Coil was also a crystal experiment victim, that's how he got the tubes on his arms. He goined the bounty hunting guild as it was the only job he could take without much of a problem besides minimum wage and goes by Hellhound, he was a professional boxer before the experiments, that's how he cane up with his codename. Steampunk owns a workshop, he's not a bounty hunter but a lot of not-so-law-abiding people slip in for weapon and ship repairs. He doesn't snitch on them because who would want to be on the bad side of a person who kills other people for s living? Scythe is a bounty hunter for the Church, all of her profit goes there. She is actually a very high-ranking merc there, goes by Rifle. Banhammer is still a government official but he has a lot more pain in the ass now with how big the bounty hunting guild is getting. Broker applied as an accountant for the guild but only got the position of janitor(whow ould trust this guy with papers). Medkit is a simple doctor, he goes by the law but still helps out criminals if they pay him enough, also part of the True Eye. Traffic is a humble merchant, he travels the galaxy on a very old and rusty starfighter and sells people stuff, he's actually also a weapon seller, a lot of bounty hunters and collectors get their hands on unique weapons from him.

I hope that answered the questions you may have had!

- Star wars anon

well that's a LOT..........

ok steampunk having a workshop fits for the guy (cause he isn't the best boxer for reference see coil's trailer)

oof zuka's dead

dang traffic seams really nice in this AU, also as a name for his ship how about "the rust bucket"

*to BLACKROCK* NO SOLDIERS ?

also the flipside thing was a joke cause i think it's funny that after kinda just trying attempting to force make my friends watch hunter: the parenting, witch also has a accountant character who is also a vampire wizard who i was referencing please watch it i beg of thee

also FINALY hyper rebelling from BLACKROCK

uhhhh if i have more i will reblog

[sweetshelluvaau]

World/Lore Building - What are, or WHAT IS an Ars Goetia

So this was something that's been bothering me for a while being I was always confused with how the Ars Goetia worked and it just made me think over it in the case of my AU how to have it make sense and this is what I've came up with:

Ars Goetia is a title given to those who are descendants of the original 72 Ars Goetia suppose to Ars Goetia being a tpye of demon to begin with.

Note: I did take the descendants idea from Lovearts23's Stolas' redesign video, but the Ars Goetia being a tile is mine (as far as I know. I haven't seen anyone else with a familiar idea).

Ex: Helluva!Stolas is not the same Stolas from The Lesser Key of Solomon but part of a line of other Stolas’ throughout time with our!Stolas being the recent one with Octavia is ‘supposed’ to be the next if/when her dad kicks the bucket.

Helluva!Pamion is not named Pamion in my AU but ‘‘Stolas The whatever-number-in-line-we-were-once-at-’cause-I-haven’t-figured-out-how-long-the-lineage-is-yet” but it’s long.

Also worth noting is that with each descendant, while they're still powerful demons, become weaker and more closer to mortal the longer the line becomes. Our!Stolas isn't exactly immortal but can live for a really long time and can only be taken down by angelic weapons.

So if Ars Goetia aren't a type of noble, who are the bird people we see in the show?

I'm still trying to figure this out but I like the idea of there being different types of clans/royals of various kind of demons/species. Maybe their descendants from somewhere/angels that joined Lucifer's side (We've seen in Hazbin that the seraphim do have a bit of a bird motif to them so it's possible), maybe some were creatures that lived in Hell before it was called Hell (Hellhounds are this in my AU but more on that later). I need to work this out more and once I do I'll make a post regarding this.

So is anyone still in charge of the Ars Goetia? How do they keep track of descendants?

Still figuring this part out. I may still keep it as Asmodeus, or have Ozzie at the very least in change of record keeping and Bael or another King having the final say in regard to politics around the Goetia. Plus ya know, Ozzie is one of the Deadly Sins and and has his own ring to rule on top of his side ventures man is busy as it is. (Ozzie and Bael are one of the few OG ars goetias).

Again gonna have to do a bit of biblical research along with thinking more on this.

[ipromiseimawriter]

would LOVE to hear you talk more about Welcome to Purgatory 👀👀👀👀

!!!!!!!! god where do i START (also i apologize if i'm answering this wrong? brain went NYOOM at this q tysm)

i'm working on getting better at organizing my thoughts, so like. allow me a sec to describe this absolute chaos zone of a wip

essentially!! our two protags - Victor and Amelia, childhood friends who grew apart - are reunited under tragic circumstances (the mysterious death of an old friend) (a special tool we'll use for later) and very quickly have to learn how to act as a team again when they're literally being chased by something they didn't even realize existed (aka a big ol hellhound (or something v adjacent, i'm working out the Lore)) --

and it turns out they're being chased because they're the children of legacy "hunters", so to speak, ones who had completely given up the fight. by said former hunter / co-founder of the Revenants (a fucked up harbinger of justice kinda cult sitch), Jules Herrick. Victor and Amelia end up a.) rescued by the bare bones of a new organization called Purgatory, more dedicated to researching and protecting creatures and humans alike and understanding Things In General -- but also like, they've got a new shitshow of a job.

(One of the founders of Purgatory is Jules' ex-bff, Simon, who was one of the last regular people to see him alive decades ago; along with his daughter Rosalie who's old enough to remember Jules before he went fucking haywire)

and b.) because of how they end up stopping their pursuer (a rogue demon-type and its hound), Victor and Amelia become kind-of infamous (as the Soul Snatcher and the Hound Thief, respectively) and inextricably soul-linked -- by harboring the purged soul of the demon and the spiritual repossession of its guard dog (lot to unpack here). this will have some fun and sexy consequences for them both

so over the course of it - and maybe other installments, WE'LL SEE - it's about the formation and work and survival of Purgatory, in order to like -- idk stop the Revenants from going scorched Earth on literally everything and everyone. probably get some condemned souls out of ""purgatory"" (lmao). there's more characters too, both within Purgatory and the Revenants, and on the outside through other's stories. they are all near and dear to me, even the ones who I would love to see in a wood chipper.

there's found family (both affectionate and derogatory)!! there's action and adventure and horror! there's creature and ghost/spirit lore i'm still splicing together! there's so many gay people! there's tragedy and humor and catharsis, queerplatonic relationships and redefining love in all its forms and toxic doomed old man yearning!! WHO KNOWS

to me: Purgatory (the organization) is like if the Men of Letters ever had admitted to doing anything wrong, and wanted to be less wrong and more for the world they live in (and also actually trusted non-humans).

tune in next time as elliot learns for the 1000th time how to make a coherent synopsis and timeline

[skullfacedog]

I accidentally stumbled upon a text document of my old journal thread from a therian forum from when I was a teen and now I'm going thru it bc I'm really curious of the signs I had headmates or repressed memories back then

-so far, I've described myself as "being able to switch personalities easily" and wondering if I was half demon or had a demon headmate all along that I didn't know about because I had multiple sides of me that felt very contradictory. I am hellhoundkin but I feel like a lot of the demonic feels I had as a teen have worn off a lot, especially since my mental health has gotten better.

it's crazy reading these old posts bc I'm like a totally different person now lmao. I rlly said "I have violent urges and it's hard to hold back from hurting ppl just to hear them scream" YOU COULDN'T EVEN HURT A FLY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUTTTT

-another thing that's kinda weird is that I was really obsessed with outer space at some point and mentioned that in my journal and mentioned questioning being stardragonkin but now it's like ?? I mean space is cool but it's nowhere near one of my main interests. I'm more of a fantasy person than a scifi person. naturey shit is wayyyy cooler than stars sorry.

-post about feeling sick for no reason like not having a cold or anything and being unable to eat but I thought it was species dysphoria??

-post complaining that I "don't feel like myself lately". depression or headmate??

-previously talked about feeling hellhound shifts that feel different from normal and kind of having a weird change in mindset. then in this post I mention I have a hellhound headmate named xarashi. that's them!!! that's the hellhound I "shifted" into!! also happy bc I fully forgot their name and it's been killing me that I didn't remember their name and just referred to them as "the hellhound headmate I had as a teenager". I wonder if they're still around but I feel like if I ask I would get an answer just bc I asked, does that make sense?? like I'm afraid my brain is making shit up but also, they were 100% a headmate at one point so it's not crazy to think they could still be there somewhere.

-also mentioned eshari who was a little demon girl headmate I had for a short time who was weirdly malicious. I distinctly remember like having a fight or something triggering me really badly with my internet friend and I just started feeling entirely emotionless and dissociatey and responded to my friend in ways I would not normally. and later I realized that was a headmate and tried talking to her. I genuinely thought she was an evil demon or something but I'm pretty sure she was a persecutor?? girl I'm so sorry I was so fucking dumb. anyway the lore goes that xarashi chased off eshari and kind of replaced her.

-not related to the general post idea here ig I'm just giving a live reaction at this point but I got to the point where I posted about meeting my ex abuser irl when we were dating and I said "I've never been that nervous in my life" "he kept hugging and petting me, it made me a bit uncomfortable bc I'm not used to him, but I liked it!" BITCH YOU ARE LYING TO YOURSELF BECAUSE HE LOVEBOMBED YOU AND YOU SO DESPERATELY WANT TO BE LOVED AND FEEL USEFUL YOU WILL CONVINCE YOURSELF YOU'RE OKAY WITH UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS!!! STOP!!!!!!

literally the next post I made was the announcement of our breakup LMAO

also I still wonder if he reminded me of my CSA abuser bc I was literally IMMEDIATELY wildly uncomfortable when I saw him for the first time irl and I've always kinda been uncomfortable around men with his body type, like kinda big and masculine and with facial hair. I could not date someone who looks like that and I swear it has nothing to do with attractiveness like I'm demiro I do not give a fuck if someone isn't the standard of attraction but I can't date someone too big and masculine bc they scare me?? I'm so thankful my partner is the same height as me and skinny and always shaves. I mean he's cute with facial hair at least, not like overly masculine.

-mentioned always having been closed off to my parents, not telling them that I wished I was a dog (in an otherkin way before I found the community online) or that I "didn't want to go to heaven". why was I such a weird ass kid lmao I remember I wanted to go to hell purely so that I could fight the devil myself and bc "heaven seems boring" ?? why did 7 year old me have like a self sacrifice complex or smth idk like I was OBSESSED with the idea of me going thru pain for other ppl even as a very young child. I have nooo clue if that could be SA related but it is certainly Odd

-mentioned being able to do a really good impression of karkat from homestuck (according to my friends) and wanting to cosplay him. I sorta wondered at the time if I had a karkat headmate bc I could like Become him really easily it was weird. and he has like the complete opposite personality of me.

-mentioned dissociation like. many times throughout the entire journal

that's all but I may do similar posts with some other stuff I can find online from my past bc I need to psychoanalyze myself and search for every little sign that something was Wrong that I didn't notice at the time. the internet being forever is a good thing for me rn because I threw out every single physical journal I had which makes me so sad bc I would've lovedddd to read my old cringey journals, not just to search for trauma signs but also for entertainment purposes </3

[huntershowl-moving]

@sevenbulletsavior said: 🚢

do i ship our characters together?: yes | no | not yet but maybe soon

would i like to ship with you?: yes | maybe, i'm willing to try | no

type of relationship i could see: childhood or high school sweethearts | exes | engaged | married | long-term relationship | crushes | unrequited love | fling | long distance | online relationship | just dating | new relationship | toxic lovers | friends with benefits

tropes i'd enjoy writing for them: friends to lovers | enemies to lovers | exes to lovers | fake relationship / dating | forbidden love | grumpy and sunshine | star-crossed lovers | surprise pregnancy | second chance | soulmates | amnesia / mistaken identity | forced proximity | secret relationship | slow burn relationship

would i rather plot first or jump right in and see where it goes?: develop their relationship first | jump right in | something in between ( what specifically? )

what now?: let's plot something | send me shippy memes | i'll send you shippy memes | write me a random starter | i'll write you a random starter

anything else i want you to know about me / my character / my shipping habits: karen, my love, i am so sorry in advance. hellhound is a fun shipping partner but can also be soooo frustrating because they're sooOOOOOO STUBBORN. and so self-destructive, fearful, and especially in the present day, views herself as an undeserving and corrupted thing.

a couple potentially fun opportunities though (cut for length):

1) keep going the way we're going, plot some conflicts that keep them being drawn to each other and seeing where the chemistry takes them. always a good option.

2) hellhound wasn't always like this, karen wasn't always like this. both of them were tangled up in some shit before they became who they are today — persephone, not yet hellhound, was fresh off a failed escape attempt for the unseen (and, yknow, losing her arms + being reconditioned as a result) and desperately trying to prove herself trustworthy again. conflicted between a groomed toxic devotion to her boss and a relentless desire to rebel and be her own person. was a lot more of a Person then, more spunky, happier, still close with her twin brother, but also still part of a crime syndicate. i could see a drug-related link between them in their past, maybe leading to a fling or two — or whatever we end up plotting — before seph disappears for 2 years and comes back as This(tm). karen, too, is a very different person. they see each other again, and we can play with the mutual shock of what the fuck happened to them & the resulting conflict.

3) some kind of AU for seph — i have a less intense, less dark verse for seph where she's a bit younger, more of an ex-problem child/current petty criminal caught up in a drug ring that scares the shit out of her and she is in WAY too deep. WHILE struggling through jobs and school. still angry, traumatized and volatile, but dealing with fewer odds stacked against her (and those odds are much less powerful) which makes it easier overall for her to warm up to people.

4) some kind of AU for karen — queenpin AU could be fun to play with, given seph's potential to be an extremely devoted right hand/guard dog. i have a General Verse Path that i like to present to crime boss characters, where their organization manages to fully dismantle the unseen, but either:

A) the boss built in some kind of large-scale self-destruct mechanism that destroys the organization before someone else can take it over. the entire inner circle is killed, and so are many of the smaller scale members; the rest are scattered into pieces, leaving a power vacuum for the other character's organization to fill. seph, due to her paranoia and inhuman force of will, survives — but her entire world is shattered and she becomes the new boss's right hand. lost a potential organization, but inherited one (1) hound. this verse creates a little more of a Toxic Devotion dynamic that i personally LOVE to play with but ik it's not everyone's cup of tea!

B) the character performs a coup, Kills the boss, and takes their place. seph is probably more conflicted here, and how it plays out depends heavily on how the character reacts to taking power. do they take an iron-fist approach with the unseen's inner circle, or do they free them from the bonds of leverage The Tower kept them in?

ummmmm anyway that's my text wall infodump! mostly ideas i gleaned from seeing ur threads play out on my dash, learning about ur different AUs and my knowledge of karen & seph's histories :)

BONUS: i havent even gone into writing seph's two main antagonists with karen but that's also an option for whatever verse(s) we end up writing! prolly further down the line (... well. unless there's a backstory connection which there certainly could be, given that one of them is a socialist city politician) but just throwing that out there :D

[ofbugsandmonsters]

Their name’s Socks. They hate hot weather and shoes.

[ihopesocomic]

Is it true that you don't like Helluva Boss? I really don't like it because I find the humor very dull and I'm not a fan of demon/hell stuff lol, but what's your reason? :0

tw for helluva boss mention

-

Our views on Helluva Boss are essentially the same as My Pride: we like the sheer amount of effort that goes into it as an indie project completely done via Discord but we're not fans of the writing.

Mainly because we're confused on whether we should be rooting for these characters or not. We're meant to feel sad for Blitzo but he's an ableist, abusive and generally unpleasant character? Yes, it's set in Hell but when you're giving prompts for your audience to feel any emotion for him other than disgust or second hand embarrassment, that kinda interferes with the setting and atmosphere a tad.

The same goes for Stolas. The show portrays him as somebody who doesn't respect Blitzo's personal space and outright intimidates/frightens him sometimes but oh, we have to have feelings for him because he sings lullabies to his daughter and he's going through a messy divorce (which is entirely of his own making, arranged marriage or not - which is also not even clear nor developed enough for us to sympathise with him) and he actually legit loves Blitzo even though it's a bit late in the hour to turn it into an healthy relationship when you tried to portray it as creepy and inconvenient to Blitzo at the beginning for what appears to be comic effect?

We love the relationship between Moxxie and Millie, however. If the show had been purely about them and had been a sitcom where they're loving couple with an adopted hellhound daughter who also happen to be be professional assassins, we would've been all over that. Blitzo just seems to be there to be as obnoxious and rude as possible (an Eric Cartman-esque figure, if you will) and we just don't think him being the main protagonist with protagonist problems fits into that very well.

It appears to have the same issues as My Pride where it doesn't have a very good sense of identity. While it's entirely possible, it's very difficult to combine genres like comedy, musical and drama, especially when the comedy is very obviously adult-based. Because what can happen is that the genres can collide and conflict with each other if you're not careful and that's what we feel has happened with Helluva Boss. It started out as an adult comedy series but it also tries to be a complex, emotional drama whenever it simply feels like it and, unfortunately, that is not how these sort of things work. There has to be structure for these sort of things, or the characters and their motivations can come across as confusing and inconsistent.

Not saying these things should never be combined ever. They totally should and they can work together. It is possible to have an adult based comedy drama that's also a musical but you still have to have an identity first. Like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend kind of does that and it does have its more serious moments but it is still ultimately a comedy. It's like they we're trying to do a South Park/Ren and Stimpy combo but make it a musical but then try to pull it off as Bojack Horseman (which, based on a cameo of Bojack's heroin in Hazbin Hotel, is probably an inspiration) and Charlie's Angels at the same time.

There's also the fact that it's also only the first season and we've had six or so antagonists with their own storylines so far? It just feels kinda crowded at this point. Like the whole set up with Striker is interesting but then we completely forget about it for two whole episodes? It's a shame because him and his motivation as a bad guy has been the strongest of what we've been presented so far.