#hh meta

[felassan]

DA:TV spoilers/long post under cut. This post is a continuation of [this post], [this post] and [this post].

Another new Dalish clan name dropped, clan Nuvenis. :) Bellara says that she thinks Nuvenis are a clan that wander Ferelden. And another Sabrae clan reference! In the next dialogue line, Harding says of Sabrae,

"Oh, yeah! The Sabrae clan would show up occasionally to trade in my village." [in the Hinterlands]

Dumat's Toad maybe? 👁️ (see prev posts)

Cassandra Pentaghast, My Lady Paladin, My Everything, My Moon and Stars reference..🥺 I'm sorry to learn that her uncle Vestalus has died in the years since we last saw her. q.q

Lucanis discusses Zevran Arainai.

A carved rocking griffon undoubtedly made by Thom Rainier.

I liked that the information on how the Blight has been affecting and dealt with in Ferelden contained info on the Avvar and the Chasind as well as the Lowland Fereldans.

I wonder who leads the Marcher host. Acting Viscount Aveline? Prince Sebastian?

read in the meta sense, the "precious few" are our handful of beloved protagonists :')

The Formless One texts like Kai Leng

help, Antoine and Evka are so cute

These two missives are written by Vorgoth right? Vorgoth's subtitles has their words in capitals.

I was like oh! Elio Andante? for a moment til I remembered Veil Jumper Elio hh.

This is Bellara speaking when she's fixing the Lighthouse eluvian. unexpected Garrus Mass Effect.

No comment here other than this codex was rly funny :)

[trashogram]

Trashogram woke up and chose violent truths 😌 I feel like all Viviziepop's male characters are pretty much the same and their personalities is "I'm LGBT and I'm a sex addict", yay

👏 Seriously.

I’m tired of seeing all the male characters wanting to sex each other. Can I at least have female characters being horny too a story and some character development to go along with it? Can we get some variety too? Like not sexualities and genders but can I see some characters with sexual hang-ups and ass-backwards ideas about sex? Why do so many of these characters from different time periods, cultures and upbringings have the same open view on sex?

It’s such a weird thing to think about in a meta context too. HB/HH bank on their LGBTQ+ audience so the characters have a wide array of sexualities that are all accepted pretty much�� but these shows are set in Hell. So, where are all the bigots?

The only character that fits that criteria of bigot/homophobe that I can think of is Crimson. And even then, Vivziepop seems to favor the idea that he’s secretly gay and Moxxie’s mom was just his beard because she likes Criminale fan art on Twitter 😭 We can’t even have one character just be a heterosexual chauvinist even if that character is a VILLAIN.

I can’t believe I’m gonna say this but I miss Pilot!Travis — an insecure homophobe that talks down to the male prostitute he paid for to have gay sex with, which is exactly what you’d think Hell is full of — ilu little bitch come back

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Noah Berlatsky at Public Notice:

This is a very bleak moment for the United States and the world. Donald Trump takes office today promising to immediately start in on a litany of human rights abuses and other efforts to harm marginalized people. He’s promised a sweeping assault on immigrants in Chicago starting as early as this week. He’s said he will said he will sign executive orders to make trans people second class citizens (and effectively deny their existence). In recent days he’s indicated that he’s going to take his corrupt self-dealing to new levels by promoting numerous shady crypto schemes that will enrich himself and his family. And of course he’s pledged to pardon those convicted of violence associated with the January 6 coup attempt, reiterating his disdain for democracy and the rule of law.

The oncoming cruelty and horror is bad enough. But almost as painful has been the shameful rush by media, Democrats, and others who should know better to accommodate, palliate, and genuflect to the president-elect. It feels like those who oppose Trump, and those who he is about to target, have been abandoned by institutions and allies alike. The widespread resistance of 2017 appears to have vanished in a fetid wave of spinelessness. It's difficult to find much cause for hope right now. There is one mild glimmer of good news, though. The enthusiasm for Trump almost certainly won’t last. Trump has never had high approval ratings, in part because most of his policies are ill-thought out at best and deeply unpopular at worst. The beginning of a term is usually a honeymoon period when voters and other politicians give the president the benefit of the doubt. But that honeymoon is generally short, and there’s plenty of reason to believe that with Trump it will be even shorter.

The great nonresistance

The drumbeat of knees hitting the floor as Trump prepares to take office has been relentless and nauseating. Even before Trump won the election, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Washington Post, spiked his paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, did the same at his paper.

Since Trump’s victory, media oligarchs have accelerated the pace of their disgrace. As we chronicled in this newsletter, ABC doled out $16 million to settle an absurdly weak defamation lawsuit Trump brought against the network for George Stephanopoulos’s (accurate) coverage of the E. Jean Carroll case. The Washington Post killed an editorial cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winner Ann Telnaes which depicted Bezos and other oligarchs prostrate before Trump (Telnaes, honorably, quit). Mark Zuckerberg, billionaire CEO of Meta, ended factchecking to appease Trump and his movement, which thrives on lies. Meta also carefully removed anti-LGBTQ hate speech policies, since again Trump supports hatred of and discrimination directed towards LGBTQ people.

Many Democrats, too, have been eager to besmirch themselves in the name of Trump and Trumpism. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis rushed to praise nightmare anti-vax goon and conspiracy theorist RFK Jr., who Trump has terrifyingly nominated to be secretary of health and human services (HHS). Maine Rep. Jared Golden has called for Democrats to support Trump’s economy-crushing, xenophobic tariff regime. Democratic Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer popped up to say Democrats could work with Trump on his half-brained, nativist scheme to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

Worst of all, Sens. Ruben Gallego and John Fetterman cosponsored the Laken Riley Act, a brutal anti-immigrant bill that mandates detention of undocumented people who are even accused of a crime. It’s a dystopian attack on due process — but that did not deter 10 Democratic senators from joining Republicans to advance it. The House still needs to vote on the Senate version, but Trump will likely be able to sign it in his first days in office. Of course, Republicans like Sen. Joni Ernst have also abandoned any semblance of principle to vote for Trump’s unqualified nominees. Celebrities like Snoop Dogg, who have criticized Trump in the past, lined up to perform at his inauguration. Even voters seem to have forgotten everything they knew about Trump. His favorability was -8.6 on the day of the election. Now it’s only -1.1, according to 538.

Trump will lose again

The context here, of course, is that Trump just won a presidential election. That win was narrow, but definite. Media leaders feel like Trump is a voice of the people, and they don’t want to annoy his followers, lose access, or be targeted for harassment by his administration. Democrats feel like Trump is the voice of the people, and they want to be more like Trump in hopes of maybe poaching his voters. Voters, for their part, like to feel optimistic at the start of a presidential term, and tell themselves that maybe this guy will be better this time, even when it’s obvious he won’t. And none of this is helped by the widespread recognition that Trump may use the federal government to personally target anyone who defies him. Trump’s mandate wasn’t especially clear or impressive. But whenever a president wins, people tend to think he’s got some magical ability to channel the will of the voters. The fact that Trump as a candidate was so obviously unfit — he was convicted of 34 felonies just months before the election — only intensifies his aura of invulnerability.

But honeymoons don’t last, and we have a lot of experience with Trump indicating that his, in particular, won’t. Trump entered his first term with slightly positive approval ratings, but a month in he was already six points underwater, and things only got worse for him from there. This wasn’t some sort of accident. Trump tends to be unpopular because he has no discipline, no knowledge of or interest in good government, and supports wildly unpopular policies. His first year in office during his first term was defined by his unpopular Muslim ban, his failed effort to repeal the ACA and strip healthcare from tens of millions of Americans, and the Unite The Right rally, when he referred to rioting neo-Nazis as “very fine people.”

Republicans are gearing up to push more unpopular policies and create more chaos and ugly stories of human rights abuses. In the abstract, people often say that they like the idea of deporting undocumented immigrants. But when people hear stories about actual individuals Trump is likely to deport — an “undocumented community volunteer who has lived in the US for 10 years and has no criminal record,” for example, or “an undocumented person who has lived in the US for 15 years and has US-born children” — deportations garner less than 25 percent support, according to surveys by Data for Progress. Similarly, people enjoy the nativist rush when Trump boasts about high tariffs. But they are unlikely to be enthusiastic when our main trading partners escalate a trade war, inflation spirals, and we end up in a miserable recession. And it goes without saying that slashing Social Security benefits, as per Republican plans, is going to be mightily unpopular — as will be any push to repeal the ACA or cut Medicare, both of which are very much on the table as Republicans try to figure out a way to pay for more tax cuts for the rich. In short, the nimbus of good feeling around Trump is unsustainable, for the straightforward reason that Trump is still Trump, the guy who has had dire approval ratings for virtually his entire 10-year public political career.

If you want good news: Illegitimate Felon Trump’s honeymoon period, if it exists at all, will be short-lived, just like his first term.

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump Now Has A Loyal Team, But Overreach Could Again Threaten His Success

[starflungwaddledee]

Hi Starstruck! 🪄💥🦋🥀 for Starstruck Dee? :)

🪄 (Magic Wand) - Are they capable of wielding magic? Is it a learned skill, or is it innate? What sorts of spells can they cast? Do they possess any magical items or artifacts? [e.g. the Dimensional Mantle]

yes she is, yes, yes, at least one really good one, and once upon a time.

💥 (Collision) - What’s your OC’s combat style like? Do they adhere to any particular code of honour or ethics in a fight, or are they totally unfettered by that sort of thing?

these days she's not much of a fighter, and she has a very "good" aligned set of morals and ethics; as picked up from those around her! under the care of bandee, kirby, king dedede and meta knight, she's learned only good and noble stuff like mercy, friendship, and patience! she understands sometimes you need to fight Bad Guys to save the world, but she's never personally participated in any of her friends adventures starstruck herself is very much a wet and soggy, incredibly conflict adverse little thing. and she's more likely to apologise to you if you hit her than the other way around. she not even very keen on standing up for herself even if she needs to, and i think if you wanted to actually get any sort of fight out of her, there'd really only be one way to go about it.

🥀 (Wilted Rose) - Do they have a Soul form? What would it look and act like? How much control over themselves do they have? Is it still possible to save them, or are they too far gone?

i am going to cop out on this one for now and instead link to this amazing art by @kamalemons and this amazing art by @moonsharks-ex 😂😂 surely we would just expect her bow to become enormous, right...?? what else could possibly happen... hh.. hahaahah...

🦋 answered here!

[thats-ill-eagle]

So, Sarcastic Chorus dropped two reviews about the first four episodes of HH

https://youtu.be/_3QrRw6GrTo?si=Ni1dafuI2hxwvwHt

https://youtu.be/aqhe55FrxXs?si=VRAipT9dB_v0Gje2

What did you guys think about them? (You know HH has issues, when this guy is willing to call them out.)

Personally, I think he went a little easy on HH in some places and I, of course, don't agree with every single point he made (*cough* Loser Baby song *cough*), but he definitely perfectly put into words some glaring issues of HH.

He hit the nail right on the head about jokes rarely landing, often because they are too dragged out or repetitive.

And I know the critical community already scrutinised HH for losing sight of its original premise, but I LOVED his statement that the main plotline is constantly competing with whatever else is happening in the episode (not in a good way). Perfectly described the roots of the problem.

Regarding the Poison scene, while he didn't discuss all the meta context of it, his point on it 1) coming too early in Angel's supposed arc 2) being a MASSIVE mood/vibe change from previous episodes was right on the money (as far as I'm aware, SC is not a SA/r@pe victim, so I don't blame him for not diving too deep into the scene).

[krispdreemurr]

since you called for theory asks, conspiracy theory for you: in the earthbound halloween hack the game "ends" by forcing the player to finish the game (kill dr. andonuts) because the only action you can take when confronted with 'kill the monster?' is 'yes', and clicking the blank spot where 'no' should be only prompts the narrator to say it's not a choice. killing him ends the game prematurely, but if you spontaneously decide to press "B" here u go into his mind instead, accessing the true ending. not positing some matpat thing where the halloween hack is necessary to understand deltarune but it seemed to me that deltarune is sort of an introspective game in some ways for toby fox in the creative sense, with some references to the HH (ch 1 releasing on halloween, kris's falling sprite being based on the same of varik's per toby fox's own admission, etc) and i think that this concept may be refined into deltarune's ending, putting a bow on the 'choices dont matter' motif. like its less "somehow teen toby was a mastermind foreshadowing deltarune nearly 20 years in advance" and more "i think toby wants to do justice to a story thing he tried to do less skillfully as a kid" i therefore predict deltarune will "end" with the Roaring Knight successfully eradicating the world (or whatever) and killing all the protagonists (if i'm bold enough to go into specifics, the cutscene will be borderline identical to when you give up in the game over screen: the roaring happens, "darkness falls" plays, and the game crashes itself), but then an action similarly simple, meta, and difficult to think of in the heat of the moment as pressing "B" was in the halloween hack, will be the key to reverting or preventing this from happening, accessing the real ending of deltarune. maybe that thing will be copying the same save file 3 times over since thats the one that makes gaster say "PREPARATIONS ARE COMPLETE" iirc. what r ur thoughts wise krispdreemurr... i pick thine brain...

i can definitely see something like this, yeah. i think that most likely it won't be something immediately accessible without having done something previously; like, not to go back to device theory, but I think it's most likely going to be getting the shadow crystals, especially since those go between save files/are by far the easiest thing to "backtrack" for due to that and the chapter select (eggs could be it too but I believe it when they're said to be not that important). maybe it's as simple as using the purified crystal from the inventory in front of the boss instead of talking to them.

i do also wonder, parallel to this, if there will be at some point some option to let Kris make a choice; it doesnt have to be as major a moment as This, but I think a lot about the times where the cursor has a default lean or flickers briefly to one option. I can see some scenario where if you wait long enough on a choice or select the blank option in between Kris makes the decision.

[aspoonofsugar]

Hi! Can you analyse "More Than Anything" from HH?

Hi!

Sure! More Than Anything is actually my favourite song of season 1! It is so sweet and very loaded thematically and character-wise!

I have briefly talked about it in this meta, but here it comes a deeper analysis!

LUCIFER AND CHARLIE: DREAMING OF LOVE

More Than Anything has two main themes that come together in Lucifer and Charlie's relationship:

Love

Dreams

The father-daughter bond is rooted in both. Specifically, they express love through dreams. Or if you prefer, they dream of love.

This is explored in the first two stanzas.

Firstly, Lucifer explains that his dreams were broken:

You didn't know that when I tried this all before My dreams were too hard to defend And in the end, I won't lose it all again

And that Charlie is now the only dream left, which is why he will protect her:

Now you're the only thing worth fighting for More than anything, more than anything I'll shelter and adore you more than anything

Charlie replies that it was Lucifer who inspired her dreams:

So in the end, it's the view I had of you That showed me dreams can be worth fighting for

And adds that her dream is for her people to be safe:

More than anything, more than anything I need to save my people more than anything

So, father and daughter are the opposite and the same.

On the one hand Lucifer believes fighting for dreams isn't worth it (my dreams were too hard to defend). On the other hand Charlie insists that it is (dreams can be worth fighting for). At the same time, Lucifer dreams of protecting (loving) Charlie, whereas Charlie dreams of protecting (loving) all her people. Desperation and microchosm vs hope and macrochosm. This is the root of Lucifer and Charlie's foiling at the beginning of the song. How does this juxtaposition develop? Let's go deeper by exploring some imagery present in the song.

LIGHT AND SHADOW

More Than Anything uses a light/shadow motif to express the two main themes:

Love (1): lights and shadows comment Lucifer and Charlie's bond. They both have been hiding parts of themselves (shadow), but throughout the song they show their true selves (light)

Dreams (2): light is a metaphor of dreams and of how the characters relate to them

1- More than Anything starts with Lucifer and Charlie distant and in the shadows.

They are repressing a lot and have no idea who the other is. Still, as the song goes on, they get to understand each other:

All that I'm hopin',now that my eyes are open Is that we can start again, not be pulled apart again 'Cause in the end, you are part of who I am

And in the end they embrace in the light.

What is initially in the shadow comes to light. So, Lucifer and Charlie see each other for who they are.

2- Lucifer mentions his past dreams and summons light. However, he throws it away because he has given up on his ideals:

Charlie hurries to pick the light up, just like she is pursuing Lucifer's discarded beliefs with her Hazbin Hotel project. Still, Lucifer stops her and holds her hands. His daughter is his new dream and he is ready to throw everything away, if he can protect her.

This resolution is highlighted in the next sequence:

Lucifer remembers the Elders of Heaven attacking him, then he imagines their weapons pointed at Charlie. Out of fear he drags her away. What's interesting is that Charlie is targeted when she stands in the light, while the moment Lucifer pulls her to safety, she steps into the shadows. The meaning is clear. Lucifer fears that if Charlie takes the spotlight, she will attract Heaven's anger. So, he wants her hidden and sheltered in the shadows. Just like a child. This is why his hug is sweet, but also suffocating:

Charlie wants a different kind of love. She needs the father who inspired her with dreams and stories. Specifically, Charlie remembers a light show Lucifer put up for her on the spot:

This scene is key and it combines the light/shadow symbolism with another motif.

THE UGLY DUCKLING

In their flashback, Lucifer tells Charlie a fairy tale by using light as a medium. The story itself is pretty obvious:

I never dreamed of so much happiness when I was the Ugly Duckling!

A little duck swims in a pool of water, but suddenly grows into a beautiful swan. Lucifer's Ugly Duckling is a metaphor of his situation, as the swan has six seraphim wings and shines at the centre of the universe. Specifically, Lucifer's fairy tale is the inversion of his own story.

Lucifer used to be a beautiful seraphim, but fell from Heaven and lost his family (the angels). He is now stuck in Hell, as a little duck:

Lucifer: Now presenting… the magic-tastical back flipping rubber duck! Haha! That spits fire!

Oh look! Lucifer himself is a magic-tastical duck, who spits fire :P

So, his fairy tale gives a happy ending to his own tragedy. It is a wish. A dream. It indirectly shows how Lucifer has been handling pain and misery by creating. It also suggests that Lucifer puts himself at the centre of his dreams. He is the ugly duckling.

At the same time, Charlie's narration tells us about herself and how she sees her father.

When I was young, I didn't really know you at all I always felt so small But I hеard your stories and I was enthralled Thе tales about your lofty dreams, I listened breathlessly Imagining it could be me

First of all, Charlie states she never knew who her father was. It is implied Lucifer kept his distance because of depression:

Charlie: We just have never been close. After he and mom split, he never really wanted to see me. He calls, sometimes, but only if he's bored or like needs me to do something.

This is highlighted in Charlie's memory too, as Lucifer appears in a dark study room. Not only that, but he is in the spotlight, while Charlie is in the shadow, which is a metaphor of how she felt distant from him:

Still, Lucifer embraces little Charlie and shows her some light. He reveals a caring and idealistic self that Charlie is initially unaware of. And this version of Lucifer inspires his daughter.

This affirms that Lucifer's dreams aren't useless. Sure, they are left unfulfilled, but they still motivate Charlie. They are why Charlie is who she is. Moreover, Charlie is enchanted by a simple story, not a big manifestation of power. It isn't a theme park or a circus or human free will. It is a short fairy tale Lucifer comes up with in a matter of seconds. No matter how small, a dream always touches dreamers.

Secondly, Charlie sees herself as the protagonist of the story. She wants to be at the centre of her father's universe and to make him proud. Well, Charlie is going to do exactly this. She is Lucifer's dream. She will fulfill his ambitions. She is turning into a beautiful swan.

Lucifer's arc starts when he understands this:

I've been dyin' to find out who you are I've been waiting, wanting the same thing Looks like the apple doesn't fall far Took you a while I've missed that smile

The King of Hell has been stuck in his own head, consumed by his depression. This is why he is initially alone and surrounded by mediocre rubber ducks. He can't create anything new because he is too focused on himself. The moment he opens his eyes and looks at Charlie, he finds hope again:

I'll support your dream, whatever lies in store And who could ask for more?

Charlie is his new dream, so he should do his best to help her become who she has the potential to be.

When Charlie is a child, Lucifer tells her a story, where he himself is the protagonist. Now that Charlie is an adult, Lucifer must accept Charlie is the protagonist of her own story. And he must help turning this story into reality. This will be his greatest creation. A duckling becoming a swan. A daughter growing-up.

PASSING THE TORCH

This frame has Lucifer:

Use his light again

Spread his wings

He starts the song by throwing his light away, but ends it by summoning a bigger and brighter torch. Similarly, he starts the episode making rubber ducks out of depression, but ends it with beautiful swan wings.

This metamorphosis happens because Lucifer isn't putting himself at the centre of the universe anymore. Rather, Charlie is his universe.

Lucifer creates a pocket-dimension, which is a bigger version of the fairy-tale of the flashback and has Charlie be its protagonist. He has her play with water, like the little duckling:

And has her fly at the centre of the scene like the swan:

In this scene, he gives her the spotlight, both in how he exits the frame and in how he has the light follow her. Charlie is the swan shining brightly at the centre of Lucifer's world (the circus).

More Than Anything starts with Lucifer desperate and focused on the microchosm. It ends with him finding hope in Charlie, who becomes the key to a bigger and more beautiful reality.

Lucifer's biggest success is that he gave birth to Charlie and showed her the light (dreams), even when he himself felt engulfed by the darkness (hell).

[crooked-wasteland]

a review said it best that Charlie was just repackaged Christianity, and that HH is just a meta commentary about viv trying to pitch the show to studios, like Charlie is trying to pitch the hotel to heaven, except we’re being gaslighted by a manipulator. With everything that happened BTS of the show being pitched and VAs being recasted, viv pretty much just burned bridges and backstabbed the people that helped her make it but plays victim. Charlie comes across as bratty and entitled, so the writers have to make everyone shitty to make Charlie look like the victim, Charlie is supposed to be underdog but she’s powerful, rich and the princess of hell, has been alive for thousands of years, but she’s sheltered by her parents, the only thing she’s got going is that her parents are divorced. I hate how angel had to be the one to apologize and appreciate Charlie when she didn’t do anything except make his day worse. People harp on alastor for being useless and he is, he didn’t do anything for the entire season except get his ass locked by Adam, but charlie just as worse because the show tries to make it seem like she did everything herself when she didn’t do shit.

That's honestly a pretty decent reading of the series. And Sir Pentious stumbling his way into Heaven would be like Helluva Boss' season 1 maintaining consistently strong viewership until the final episode. An underdog proof of concept that her idea could work.

However that's also a bit disturbing. Something in my Media Literacy essay I was looking to bring up touches on how there is no such thing as art solely for entertainment. Even the most vapid and superficial artistic endeavors have something to say. If it isn't a curated message that has been carefully crafted through the characters and narrative, it is always an accidental self portrait of the creator and their priorities.

You will always say more about yourself than you realize when making art. Unless you are exceptionally self aware of what you are creating, you will only ever create your own reflection. And the idea that Charlie and the hotel is merely an allegory for Vivziepop and her shows lines up almost perfectly, both in concept and how Medrano recounts her own mythological rise to success.

[darkmaga-returns]

And so it comes down to this. Oh, the humanity.

The self-styled “Medical Freedom Movement” is turning its guns on yet another of its heroes, HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Circular firing squads are a chronic cultural feature of Washington, DC bureaucracy, giving rise to the insider aphorism “Keep your head down, if they can’t see you they can’t shoot you.” Right up there with another of my favorites from dealing with the DC inside-the-beltway crowd: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” Understand those two, and you are a long way down the road toward understanding DC culture.

By way of disclosure and transparency, I have personally experienced the “Medical Freedom Movement” circular firing squad attacks (including from many associated with the Children’s Health Defense organization) for at least four years now. So, I have become a bit jaded and biased and refuse to associate myself with this “Movement.” 

As far as I am concerned, the meta-issues are freedom in general, “Western” (US sphere of influence) government deployment of modern PsyWar, propaganda, and censorship technology against its own citizens, and the rise of a globalized centralized planning “government” structure grounded in utilitarian, neo-Malthusian, corporatist-socialist “stakeholder capitalism” logic.

[mariacallous]

At his rally on Sunday at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that if elected he would allow wellness conspiracist and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “go wild on health.” Kennedy, a former Democrat and scion of the famous political family, initially ran as an independent third-party and potential spoiler candidate, and has spent the better part of two decades spreading conspiracy theories that would likely inform the policies of a Trump administration.

In August, Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and threw his weight behind Trump. (Both the Trump and Kennedy campaigns received support from billionaire donor Timothy Mellon.) There were early indications that he might have a place in a possible Trump administration, particularly in some areas focused on health. Kennedy himself even created a spinoff of Trump’s MAGA slogan with his own Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA. But Trump’s speech seems to indicate that Kennedy would indeed have a place in the cabinet, perhaps running Health and Human Services (HHS).

Kennedy has since hit the campaign trail stumping for Trump alongside another former Democrat and conspiracy theorist, Tulsi Gabbard.

Kennedy has spent years spreading health mis- and disinformation, particularly about vaccines. In 2014, Kennedy joined Children’s Health Defense (CHD) as a member of its board. CHD pushes debunked conspiracy theories linking conditions like autism with vaccines and other environmental factors. In 2021, Meta banned Kennedy’s Instagram account for spreading disinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine, and he was named by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) as one of 12 people responsible for 65 percent of vaccine disinformation across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kennedy’s own profile, as well as that of CHD, began to rise. CHD raised more money in 2021 than it ever had before.

Meta reinstated Kennedy’s Instagram account last year when he announced his run for the presidency, and it remains up, despite the fact that he is no longer running for office. CHD remains banned from Meta’s platforms. More recently, Kennedy has echoed unfounded conspiracies that could undermine faith in the integrity of the 2024 elections.

During his presidential campaign, Kennedy tried to distance himself from the anti-vax movement. Still, he continued to spread disinformation, like falsely saying that the Biden administration had violated the Nuremburg Code by mandating vaccines. And his vision for making America healthy again is drastic. Last Friday, he posted on X to warn the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that its “aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, [and] hydroxychloroquine” was about to end.

The Department of Health and Human Services oversees 13 agencies, including the FDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In an interview with NBC News while he was still running for president, Kennedy said he would gut those agencies, which he has said are now captured by corporations. He would also impose more testing on already existing vaccines, which health experts told NBC would result in many children being unable to get vaccinated. (Trump, for his part, has claimed he would withhold funding from schools that require vaccination.) Kennedy’s plan would also include dismissing scientists at the NIH who study infectious diseases, focusing instead on the environmental factors and vaccines that he believes cause illnesses.

During his campaign, he held a health policy roundtable with doctors that pushed fake Covid-19 treatments.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told WIRED that “President Trump announced a Trump-Vance transition leadership group to initiate the process of preparing for what comes after the election. But formal discussions of who will serve in a second Trump Administration is [sic] premature.”

[t4tails]

Speaking of hh, what's ur opinion on it? I live in the hell of knowing it can't be that good but friends really like

i liked the pilot back in middle school but im obviously not a fan anymore lol. theres meta reasons like the racism (already posted about it but tldr almost no black characters and the ones there are are coded horribly, and alastor is based off a native spirirt he really shouldnt be, and vivzie has a bad history so i have trouble thinking this was just ignorance) but overall, despite all the sex jokes, the humor and writing just feels like it was written for middle schoolers. its incredibly immature and doesnt think about how it might be contradicting itself, so it does so a lot. and most of the character designs are ...okay... alone but when you put them all in the same room its like oh god whats happening why is there so much red

[xxvampcakezxx]

[SPOILERS FOR MONSTER ROADTRIP] it's been two months or so? since i last played monster roadtrip and OH. MY. GOD. I LOVE THE NEW LOCATION. I LOVE THE META-CABIN. i went for the third option and picked the riskiest choice AND GOT THIS

and just. it worked. IT WORKED!!! SHE'S FINALLY HERE!!! BUT TO MY SURPRISE SHE'S... WASHING MACHINE DAHLIA LMAO XD tbh this is why i love monster prom and all the games so much, they're meta but in a clever way, not in a sarcastic and throws shade on their own game kind of way. i love that they're aware of dahlia not being a hh and made this instead. i haven't finished my gameplay but this is amazing

[alice-after-dark]

Thoughts About Sinners Only Being in the Pride Ring and Not Being Able to Traverse the Rings

Point blank, I don't like it.

So, on Sinners only being in the Pride Ring, I think this makes no sense. Like...why? You can't tell me all Sinners who end up in Hell ended up there because their sin was Pride. There's 7 deadly sins for a reason. Like, I understand for meta reasons why they're doing it. Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel take place in the same universe, but can't have a cross over because Amazon owns HH while they don't own HB (and other legal mumbo jumbo), so they need an excuse for them to not go to the other rings and also for why the Extermination is only happening in Pride. However, that's the meta. In-universe? It makes no sense. It's basically a cop out to avoid actually dealing with the issues of the writing. There should be Sinners in every ring of Hell.

Now as for them not being able to travel the rings, that I think holds more merit as I could see it being a method of not allowing them to escape their specific torment, but I think it makes it a lot more interesting for them to be able to move between the rings. I understand for meta reasons why they can't have this, but it would still be so much more interesting to have them traveling through the different rings and dealing with the differing politics and maybe even different Overlords for each ring. It would also be cool to see Sinners from different rings coming to Pride and making themselves an afterlife there.

I just think these things were kinda fucked over by meta and not really properly addressed or dealt with in a way that made sense in-universe.

[aspoonofsugar]

Top 10 Hellverse characters please! HH + HB!

Hi!

Thank you for this nice ask :) I wanna speak of the series more (I wanna write more metas in general, but it is a super busy time)

Anyway. I listed my fave Hazbin Hotel's characters here.

I think that my top five slightly changed though, as it is now I would say:

Lucifer

Charlie

Vaggie

Angel

Alastor

Basically Vaggie has grown a lot on me <3<3<3

I love how her arc is built in season 1, with episode 3 foreshadowing the reveal of episode 6 and how they were able to convey her past as a child soldier in a way that ties very well with her personality. Moreover, her foiling with Charlie is great.

As for my top five HB's characters...

1 - Fizzarolli

Ooops and Mammon's musical are my two favourite episodes and Fizz is my kind of character, as he manages to have a wonderful and deep arc in a very short time. I love his foiling with Blitz and his relationship with Asmodeus is wonderful. It is a great subversion of the dychotomy between Lust and Love and it embodies the main themes of the series.

2- Blitz and Stolas

A great protagonist and deuteragonist respectively <3 I received an ask on them, so I am gonna go quick here.

Blitz is a great protagonist because he subverts expectations. He is set up as the classical jerk wiht a heart of gold. The asshole who became an asshole because everyone around him treats him badly. This is true in a sense, as it is shown his father neglecting and abusing him... However, we slowly realize he is mostly lonely because he himself pushes his loved ones away and hurts them. The story is sympathetic towards his circumstances, but it doesn't justify nor excuse him and that is very refreshing.

Stolas is a great deuteragonist because he is exactly the same, but opposite to Blitz. He is a royal, whereas Blitz is an IMP. He has a nuclear family, which seems perfect on the surface, but is actually terrible. Blitz instead has a chaotic and dysfunctional found family made of people, who deep down love each other. Both struggle with their relationship with a daughter, but for opposite reasons. Both self-sabotage their relationship, but for opposite reasons. Both idealize the other, but in opposite ways. Stolas sees Blitz as a Knight in Shining Armor. Blitz sees Stolas as a Royal.

In short, they are great.

4 - The Sins

I just love the thought put behind their designs and their thematic resonance. I would love to write about them soon because they are really incredibly made and offer interesting interpretations of their respective vices. Plus they are cool.

5- Loona and Octavia

They are bound to become adoptive sisters! Anyway, I love them and how just like their dads they appear opposites, but are actually the same. Loona has a nice arc, despite appearing less than others, and I like how the story has so far balanced her personal development with her role in Blitz's story. Octavia is mostly there for Stolas, but I like her characterization and the challenge she poses to her father. In general, you can clearly see Vivzie adores father-daughter relatioinship between this and hazbin :''').

If I were to make a top ten list of characters from both series....

Lucifer

Charlie

Vaggie

Fizzarolli/Angel

Alastor/Stoliz

Adam

The Sins

Thank you for the ask!

[ichooseviolence]

I honestly can't take the 'Sansa stays in the Vale and never comes back North and never sees her family again' metas aka headcanons seriously because it seems a vaaast majority of people who perpetuate this take are Sansa antis who are shaking, crying, and throwing up at the thought of Sansa and Jon being reunited first and potentially working together to take back Winterfell lol. I'm not a J0nsa shipper, I'm a Sansa stan who dislikes Jon so I don't even want that ship to happen, but the absolute seething from Sansa antis at the thought of Jon and Sansa even sharing page space together as totally platonic siblings/cousins/friends or whatever is so, so delicious. Anyway, idk if TWOW will ever even be published so this may all be moot but lmao. They need to worry less about Sansa and more about their faves!

Oh agreed. And it just makes no sense, it's a pointless place for her to end her story. "Robin will die and she'll end up ruling the Eyrie with HH." I'm 98% convinced Harry the Heir is going to die.

"And may your horse stumble, Harry the Heir, so you fall on your stupid head in your first tilt." -Alayne I TWOW

Not looking good for young Harry. After all, the last time Sansa wished for someone to fall during a tourney, they did.

"I hope [Ser Morros] falls and shames himself, she thought bitterly. I hope Ser Balon kills him." -Sansa I ACOK

Of course, Morros isn't killed, but he did fall and shame himself in the process. It's my assumption that this time death will be the result of his injury. On top of all that, Harry's a jerk. So unless he somehow survives, is humbled by his fall, and stops his habit of knocking up ladies and then dumping them just because they can't lose their pregnancy weight fast enough, I don't want him near Sansa. It's ridiculous the amount of gross men she has to put up with.

And as for Robin, I'm very confident he will live. And if that's the case, The Vale will be his. He has plenty of confidants who will be by his side and help him rule. He doesn't need Sansa for that. And based off his current affection for Sansa, she won't need to marry him to gain his alliance or support. Having her remain in The Vale to "control Sweetrobin" would diminish her as another LF or Varys pulling puppet strings on premature, young leaders. That's ooc for her imo. She's not interested in power. In the first book she brags about one day becoming queen, after she is betrothed to Joffrey (I'd brag about it too tbh) but we haven't seen that since. Even when she thinks about her claim to Winterfell, there's no shred of desire to actually rule. It just depresses her because she realizes she's being used and abused for her claim. What she desires most of all is to be loved, and to find someone to love. (But I guess it makes her a bitch for wanting to be with someone she finds attractive and...fucking normal in the head.)

They also argue that she'll be married to Aegon. And that makes little sense to me as well. Sansa goes from being used by Littlefinger to now being used by Varys? What's the point? What can she offer Aegon that would be better than what Arianne is about to offer him? "They'll be sister brides!" Neither one of them would go for that idea.. Sansa actually has a plot in her story, and Aegon doesn't fit into it.

"She's going to be dragged back to KL to have a final showdown with Cersei!" She doesn't need a showdown with Cersei. Sansa doesn't even think about Cersei, and to me that's proof that she has no power over her.

I've also seen theories where both Arya and Sansa are/were on a path of turning into their Aunt Lysa. Apparently Arya has passed the test, but Sansa hasn't. The most bizarre thing I've ever heard tbh. Neither of these girls are, or were ever, in danger of becoming their Aunt Lysa. They share qualities with Ned and Cat. Lysa's journey was very different from these girls'. She became obsessed with the man who loved her sister, her father forced an abortion on her, she was married off to an old man that she didn't want to be with. She was used and groomed by the man she "loved". She raped LF. Are we really going to compare these girls to their Aunt Lysa? Their stories and actions don't match up at all. I'm not sure why this idea is even entertained.

People will come up with anything to keep her away from her own home. Sansa being "less of a Stark" and "less connected to Winterfell" has been a baseless argument for a long time now. Her narrative contradicts those claims. And as for her ending, I think she will end the story in an influential position. It would be cool if she ended as queen regnant, but I don't think it's super likely. I think it's more likely she'll be queen consort, queen regent (if Rickon lives), or the lady of a major house. Personally, I ship her with Willas Tyrell <3. But I don't think that's likely to happen as she'll probably choose to stay in Winterfell by the end of the series.

Hehe, I've actually been feeling very positive with TWOW release lately. I think it's closer than we think. I could be wrong though, and tbf I haven't been waiting an entire decade since I began reading the series very late. For now, I just daydream a happy ending. <3

[evulosie]

It's super interesting to me, as I delve into the different interpretations of biblical lore, is that 'official' HH lore, the fruit 'given' to Eve by Lucifer is 'the magic of free will'.

Per JW teachings, the serpent tricked Eve into eating the fruit by claiming that she would 'be like God,' - the forbidden tree in the garden wasn't 'The Tree of Life' or 'Free Will', it was the 'The Tree of Knowledge'

Adam & Eve [ or at least, for my Eve's canon + her recollection ] were comparable to children; they relied on God for knowledge [ and... for some reason that I could never get an answer for, God wanted to test this on, what's essentially, his newborn children? Test their loyalty. That's a meta for another day though; really grinds my gears ]

Tʜᴇ ᴛʀᴇᴇ ᴡᴀs ᴛʜᴇʀᴇғᴏʀᴇ ᴀ ғɪᴛᴛɪɴɢ sʏᴍʙᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴇᴛᴇʀᴍɪɴᴇ ᴏʀ sᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀɴᴅᴀʀᴅs ᴏғ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴀᴅ, ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ʀɪɢʜᴛ Gᴏᴅ ʀᴇsᴇʀᴠᴇᴅ ғᴏʀ Hɪᴍsᴇʟғ ʙʏ ғᴏʀʙɪᴅᴅɪɴɢ Aᴅᴀᴍ ᴛᴏ ᴇᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇᴏғ.

What's even funnier is that Adam was actually / allegedly, a little offended when confronted after he ate the fruit - he told God, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree and so I ate.” [ Gen. 3:12 ] The 'sin', in eating the fruit, was pride, an 'attack' on their Father's sovereignty,

All this to say, none of this affects other muses, but for ( my ) Lute / Eve, these are the events that she remembers. Imagine when, long after her death, turns out that half of what she was led to believe / her memories were kind of, you know, a lie? A lot of it was skewed + human souls were not meant to go to an afterlife, so her memory has essentially been completely corrupted & / or purposefully manipulated to keep her in check. This is also another reason why she's so fiercely loyal to Adam; she depends on him, to 'guide' her on what's right & wrong because she can't even trust herself,