People who have been following me since 2022 will know that I have a bad habit of becoming obsessed with things I haven't actually watched. The Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers film became my new special interest in 2022, but I didn't watch it in full until 2023, when I finally got Disney+.
Well, it's happening again.
Right now, I'm mildly obsessed with Hazbin Hotel.
Now, I haven't seen none of it. I've watched the pilot on YouTube, and I've watched the first episode of the Prime Video series (which is freely available on YouTube). I don't have Prime Video, so I haven't seen the rest of it.
But I have been listening to the songs, browsing Tumblr for talking points, and watching scattered clips and reviews and essays on YouTube - which is basically what I was doing with Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
I'm a Christian (awkward!), and it initially bothered me that the show didn't mention God or Jesus at all. Not that I'd have wanted them to poke fun at God or Jesus ... but I'd assumed the series was meant to be a satire of Christianity, pointing out how much it sucks that its believers can be so judgmental and unforgiving when the faith is supposed to be about love and forgiveness. So I was quite surprised by the reveal that the angels don't actually know what gets you into Heaven. What, you don't even have the Ten Commandments? You don't have any rules that you impose? You can't satirise Christianity if you don't understand what you're satirising!
But upon reflection, I guess Hazbin Hotel is meant to be seen more as a cautionary tale about hypocrisy and second chances and redemption - about those concepts in general, rather than how they're (mis)used specifically by Christians. It's about how the people preemptively labelled "bad" who do bad things are clearly proving they're bad, while the people labelled "good" who do bad things are defended and justified because there must have been a good reason for what they did. Even if a good reason isn't apparent. And the settings of Heaven and Hell are just being used as vehicles for that social commentary.
It seems as though Hazbin Hotel is not really about Heaven and Hell, it's about life on Earth. But there are still some things that are interesting to think about from a theological viewpoint.
To close this slightly rambling post, here are some even more scattered thoughts, which may evolve if I actually get to watch the full thing:
EMILY IS PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED!
"You Didn't Know" is a banger!
As is "Poison". Kind of reminds me of "All You Wanna Do" from Six: The Musical - in that it's a bop, but the lyrics are dark because they're about sexual abuse.
I really enjoy the "I'm a Disney Princess in a Hellish landscape" thing that Charlie's got going on.
EMILY IS PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED!
I hope we get to see more of Emily and more of Heaven in the second season.
I wasn't sure about Vaggie at first, but she's grown on me.
My favourite characters are Charlie, Vaggie, Emily and Angel Dust. I refer to them as Charlie's Angels.
EMILY IS PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED!
After a year of basically binge-watching loads of kids' cartoons on Disney+, it's still feels jarring to watch a cartoon where people say the F-word a lot.
Wait, Angel Dust has a twin sister? Molly? And she might be in Heaven? Is that girl with four legs we see in Heaven supposed to be Molly, or is she just a random background character? Why is she in Heaven when Angel Dust isn't? Are they going to be reunited? Is Molly friends with Emily?
EMILY IS PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED!
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Request Season❄️🌱🏖🍂
I'm take requests for:
the Wukong Verse🐒🐒🐒
Genderbent Evil Disney Princesses 👸
I Hate Fairyland with Male Gertrude
Cool World with Male Holli would
Genderbend SIX the Musical 🎼
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