#the conversion of sinners

[xanvasofxords]

Jerza arts that live in my brain rentfree and 24/7

[demonic-ninja-cat]

Hazbin Hotel Criticism - Heaven, Hell, & 'Rehabilitation'

I'm gonna make a disclaimer that I haven't seen the show in full, but i have listened to a bunch of the songs and watched some clips and read/watched a lot of things about it.

Also, tbh, I'm against the idea of eternal torture afterlives in general, even if it is only horrible bad abhorrent people who are sent there, so that probably gives me some bias about this show.

I also have a bunch of christianity-specific religious trauma, so I'll be talking about Hazbin from that perspective. I'm gonna be very negative about christianity and it's afterlife system, so christians don't read or interact with this post!

I've seen tons of very valid criticisms on Hazbin Hotel, and I wanted to add my own to the table; especially since I haven't seen some of what I'm about to talk about, actually talked about before.

In this post I'm mainly gonna be talking about how it's main premise fails, and how there's some issues with it that I'm pretty sure aren't addressed at all in the show, and a bit on how some of the issues add fuel to the theory that Vivziepop isn't really wanting to critique christianity at all.

Onto the premise: the 'redemption' of 'Sinners' so they can get to Heaven. Even the premise itself is very pro-Christian, other than the edgy demon/hell coat of paint that turns Christians off. If it was about humans while they were still alive, instead of demons, the Christians would love it. This(and the fact that she refuses to have God in the show) is why i agree with the idea that Vivziepop isn't try to critique christianity really.

She might be trying to critique the specific flavor of christianity that believes in predestination(as some other posters have said), because in Hazbin she shows that she thinks people should be allowed to change and work to gain entrance to Heaven, but that Heaven & Hell should still exist. However, that doesn't critique all of christianity, and it shows that she likely doesn't think that christianity itself is bad and flawed and in need of real critique.

And even that aside, there are parts of the plot that don't work, especially if the intention is to show that Heaven and it's requirements to enter are flawed. Which it seemed that she was trying to do with the “nobody really knows what gets a human soul into heaven!” twist in the show.

For example, if they really wanted to show that Heaven's entry system is flawed/biased/rigged/unfair, they should have shown more 'sinner' demons in hell who were genuinely good people but were sent to hell for stupid and/or unknown reasons. Like, all the main characters who are 'sinners' are bad people(serial killers, cannibals, mafia members, abusers, etc.), so if you think that there should be an eternal punishment afterlife, these are exactly the kind of people who should be there and the system isn't as unfair as they claim.

In order to fix this, and really show that the system is flawed and unfair, they need to have actually good 'sinners'. People who were nice people in life(and maybe even are still nice), but who were sent to Hell because they broke one of Heaven's bullshit old testament-type rules(eg. killed someone in self-defense and/or accidentally, or did intoxicating substances but never hurt anyone, or was sexually active outside of marriage, or was gay/trans if you want to go that way with it).

They would also need to change the main characters' goal from "getting 'sinners' to Heaven", into something like "change the system" or "topple the angelic government" or "stop the exterminations and make hell a better place to live". They could have Charlie want to do the 'redemption hotel' thing at first, but learn that Heaven is fucked-up and unfair, and that she should be more proactive about bettering things for demonkind in hell and fighting the system made by heaven, instead of just working within the system to 'save' individual demons by sending them to Heaven.

Also, another flaw with the 'redemption to Heaven as the end goal' thing is that not all demons would want to go to heaven, even to escape the exterminations. And i'm not just talking about the ones who are fucked up assholes who want to keep the power they have in hell either. I'm talking about actual good-person demons, who would still choose not to go to the hotel or try for heaven, simply because they don't want to live with and as the species that has been trying to wipe their kind out for thousands of years.

And like, i know i'm white so i should leave most of the discussions about this to the actual POC, so i'll keep this segment short, but i agree with what i've seen in other posts about Charlie/the plot being very white savior-y. Yes Charlie is still a demon, but she's both a Hellborn(and thus not the main target of the exterminations) and is the Princess Of Hell(and is thus on the top of Hell's hierarchy/social classes). And the whole thing with wanting to 'rehabilitate' Demons so they are sent to Heaven and turned into Angels, also gives me icky "saving the backwards evil people by teaching them to be like the advanced good people and taking them away from their horrible scary homes!" style white savior narrative vibes(think “Willy Wonka with the Oompa Loompas” type shit).

I have no problem with people who were once bad people becoming better and going through redemption arcs and such, and i am very pro-therapy and rehabilitation(though i do think that abusers and r*pists and such should not just be allowed to walk around scot-free and able to hurt more victims). However, the way it's done in Hazbin Hotel and the reasoning behind it(mostly to escape being genocided by the very people they have to join if their rehabilitation is 'successful'), makes it come off more like conversion 'therapy' or forced cultural assimilation, rather than than actual rehabilitation, at least to me.

[symbioticsimplicity]

Re-watching Hell's Greatest Dad for rhe millionth time and just-- the audacity on Alastor's part. Literally no one else would ever. Lucifer met this dude for all of two seconds, and got pulled into two fights with him. He doesn't know a goddamn thing about him.

[spotlightstudios]

Why I drew this I do not know, but say hello to possibly the most toxic relationship I've ever put my ocs into 🙏 (Sphynx is on the left, Baddie(Aubade) on the right!)

Bonus version w/o the lighting! And quick lore for these two because idk if I ever posted about Sphynx?

Sphynx is a sinner! He died in the mid 1920s in a grave-robbing incident in Egypt. He had siblings back home that needed money, and he was already known for stealing, breaking and entering, and unsavory deals, so he joined a group of guys and ended up in the business of grave-robbing hoping to make a fortune off the gold.

Of course, after a few successful trips and sales, his crew got trapped in a cave-in, and he left them behind hoping to get out with the gold... only to fall comedically into a trap-pit and be entombed as well.

Sphynx is a lesser-known Overlord (he'd be in the council if he cared, but he doesn't) who makes pacts with sinners for protection. They work for him, gather 'riches' or do tasks, and in turn he ensures no one harms them. Their souls give him enough power to protect them. His main weapon is a golden rope, which has a snake-motif on the end. It can be used to summon little beasts not unlike Alastor's summoned guys, and it can also consume sinners to turn into these henchmen.

Baddie on the other hand is half-imp and half-succubi. Not the most surprising thing, but he's got negative rizz. Everything he says does like, the opposite of a sirens song. He has a knack for ruining nearly any situation he finds himself in. So, he's used to fleeing between the mortal realm and hell and between the rings and more. Several powerful hellborn want him dead (several hundred bounties at this point) and he's just really really good at running away.

His main weapon is a grenade, though guns work too. He's usually seen lingering in the Lust ring since it's harder to recognize him lingering among the other succubi. At least, that was until he was employed by Sphynx.

Sphynx and Baddie are in a situationship? Sphynx is always looking for people who need protection, so he assumed the person being ganged up on in the street was a new and fragile soul just fallen to hell. And he was dead wrong. Scattering the crowd revealed a pretty little imp. Who immediately managed to tick off Sphynx. He tried to walk away, Baddie followed, and things went from there. Baddie murders people for Sphynx when they don't want to be connected or seen in public (especially when it's hellborn, which he shouldn't really kill). Meanwhile, Baddie hides from his hundreds of enemies by staying with Sphynx. Their interactions (when they aren't working) usually consist of Baddie saying something, Sphynx immediately telling him to shut up, and Baddie talking anyways while trying to find a way to sprawl across Sphynx's lap.

They have this weird like, kinda relationship going? Like, toxic employer/employee relationship, but neither one of them are really grasping what they're supposed to be toxic about.

Anyways, I like them a lot. Sphynx has a soft side he doesn't hide, but sure doesn't bring up. Baddie is just a little prick to everyone he meets unless he likes them a lot.

[alrightbuckaroo]

Thanks for the tags @carlos-in-glasses, @jesuisici33, @heartstringsduet, @carlos-tk and @freneticfloetry! I ended up finding all of these in the Old West AU so enjoy some 1899 ruckus.

RULES: use this generator to generate three random words (or however many you’d like to do!) and share the lines where they show up in your wips!

jest

TK chuckles at the mention of Judd, though it’s done more in jeer than jest. He often compares his working relationship with Judd to oil and an open flame. Perfect for destruction, awful for peace. 

awful

“You know,” O’Brien starts and TK flexes his jaw, like he’s biting back all the words he wants to say. “You remind me a lot of your father.” 

“What an awful thing to say to someone.” 

fear

All at once; he’s feeling this rushing sense of emotion that over washes him like a wave. Under the surface of adrenaline, there’s a lingering sense of fear.

getting to this a little late so apologies if you've already done this: @strandnreyes, @orchidscript, @three-drink-amy, @theghostofashton, @lemonlyman-dotcom, @lightningboltreader, @bonheur-cafe and open tag for anyone who wants to join in!

[blinkbones]

Nana, Émile Zola

Finally getting some French lit in. To be completely honest, I've had this book for almost a decade, and I never read it. Well, actually, apparently I tried at some point, because I found some underlined bits very early on -- but it's clear that I gave up. I remember struggling with it back then. I didn't, this time. It's nice to see proof of my improvement, although I'm not sure what specific skill is concerned.

For a quick & anachronistic summary, it's the story of a 19th century escort girl who makes it big in paris.

I was actually surprised by how easy to read this was. I kind of expected very difficult language. It is poetic, but not actually difficult. The text is easy to follow, almost journalistic. Poetic journalism.

I really, really enjoyed Nana. It's a long ride, and what a ride. It reads, at times, like a soap opera, with how she has a roster of desperate men orbiting around her. She really is the sun of her novel -- and it is her novel. I entered this book ignorantly (despite being French and a ~lit student, I'm not actually well-versed in my country's literature) and it kept surprising me. Where I expected a moralizing tale, or at least a pessimistic outlook on the arrogant seductress, I got the unstoppable, inescapable success of Nana. It's almost a power fantasy, although I doubt Zola saw it through this angle. I mean, it does end badly. Spoilers, but she fully dies in a disfiguring manner. And there is this underlying theme of Nana, the beautiful Venus from the lower classes, bringing the rot of the sewers to the silk sheets of the aristocracy. She all but ruins the entire upper class with the raw power of her sex-appeal, and I thought that there was something cosmic about it. By the time she's at her apex, she herself does not have control of her situation. She becomes like an empire, constantly conquering further reaches to maintain peace and prosperity throughout her imperial reign. She devours. And yet she's so incredibly human. She felt to me like a deity unaware of its power, and, in that sense, her death (especially because it's in the full bloom of her youth and legendary status) felt more like a shedding of the mortal form. Admittedly, I also just find it more fun to interpret it that way. I'm reading for fun, after all. Ah, the specter of academic seriousness hangs over me.

I think Nana is an easy entry point into that sort of literature. Yes, it's part of some long-ass series, but no, you don't need to read the previous books (I didn't). It's very self-contained. It's a long, very eventful ride, through Nana's chaotic and glamorous world. It's long but it feels like going downhill on a bike, and like everything's going too fast still. And it's fucking funny.

And for you, tumblr, my beloved, yes, you will find some messy queers in there. I only talked about Nana herself here, but Nana holds a whole ensemble cast of secondary characters, many interesting women (a wealth of them, really), that are really a whole other serving of delights that I just didn't have time to talk about here. But seriously, just about every character, especially the women, is interesting.

[xluciifer]

Me, waking to Vox roleplayers talking and agreeing that it's not hard for someone above Vox's overlord status to be able to bed him.

Me, roleplaying Lucifer, literally at the top of the food chain, taking notes because the potential of Lucifer/Vox is so real:

[herbofgraceandpeace]

gratitude posting!

[aromanticasterisms]

OH SHITT

[dinomites]

also while I haven't finished canto 6 entirely yet. ( as 6-41 is destroying me rn. I know the requirements but im struggling the survival part ) BUT IM THINKING

heath and aelia need to tALK spoilers up to 6-41 ( ish )

the whole thought of another world heath existing and well trying to kill heath gives aelia an absolute reminder of one of her main traumas which was part of the cause of why she is the sprout of light

because she saw a familiar face from another world and it turned out to never be nice.

she is also tormented by the thought of knowing her existence was meant to be left dead. And she is one of the aelias that are alive.

because her own dad from another world told her that she is dead.

If there is a heath out there out killing others she is afraid to think of the possibility there is a aelia being the absolute worst.

[prompt-master]

Thinking again about how Cool Adam could have been if he was like. Written so that he was a terrible person when he went to Hell for exterminations.

I just love the ethical dilemma it could create, because the people of heaven could easily see it as Adam being influenced by Hell instead of him being the asshole he is. And then it becomes a game of proving that Adam only pretends to be a good person when under the eyes of God, and the second he's out of sight he let's loose.

It would also explain why Adam is so adamant on getting to continue extermination. In a sense it'd be his only chance to let loose and be himself, to dabble in the taboo he never gets to. And why the Angels see nothing wrong with Adam and the exterminations.

[kitausuret]

Second half! 39 Share a snippet from a WIP, 42 What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?, 58 What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc) 65 Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project, and 71 When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

39. Share a snippet from a WIP

I deliberately waited to answer this ask so I could share this.. this thing I began. I can't even explain it:

-----

He laid the ten-dollar bill on the table. "This man is Alexander Hamilton. Not a president. And neither was—"

"—Benjamin Franklin," Flash finished. "On the hundred. But no one around here is carrying hundred dollar bills and walking into this bar, big guy."

"Oh, he's smart, Eddie," Anne said with an amused raise of her eyebrows. 

"And," Flash added with a wink, "good at pool."

The man scoffed again, less derisive this time. "Do you make a habit of propositioning strangers at billiard clubs?" 

"Only for pool games I can win."

-----

Another #Flash Thompson is Their Third? Well. 😏

Inspired by this panel from Spider-Man Blue, so Flash is like. Twenty.

42. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

The last fic I read was a Harry Osborn/Liz Allan one-shot, Did you think this seat was taken? by @oliveroctavius, and it was absolutely incredible. How to get your feelings destroyed in 1k or less words.

I also read Redline like, literally six times after it came out, but a probably-less-polarizing fic that I reread recently was the Eddie Brock-focused, circa Anti-Venom era (but not really? idk just read it for context) sinner has a future also by @softgrungeprophet. It's Eddie's turn to be somebody's third (fourth). The latter I for sure recommend. The former is probably a lot more niche but I think if you're even morbidly curious about a really fucking good Mac Gargan/Peter Parker you should read Redline. 😌

58. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc) 

I love brainstorming. Like, legit. It's so much fun to just toss batshit insane ideas back and forth. It's satisfying to actually get the ideas down, and into a coherent story, but brainstorming is pure joy.

65. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Well, I'm looking forward to (fucking finally) finishing chapter 14 of Dust to Dust. Yes, still. BUT. I am bound and determined that I absolutely MUST finish it before May 30, which is the 5th anniversary of Flash dying in ASM #800, so I gotta get it out before then, so that while everyone is wailing and gnashing their teeth over whatever is published on 5/31/2023 for Amazing Spider-Man #25, I can go "you know what the BEST response to an awful thing in comics is?" and bam! fic.

71. was answered here! (:

[enbycrip]

Late-night conversation with my OH idea: a remake of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo in the mould of Confessions of a Justified Sinner, where the protagonist first slowly comes to realise that Skippy is pushing the kids into wells, into the path of bushfires etc etc, then even more slowly comes to realise that Skippy is either some part of himself, his dark alter ego, or the devil himself in the form of an increasingly homicidal mangaroo…

[akuzeisms]

   ⬐ @seeasunset ⬎

❛  we’re gonna survive this, right?  ❜

Kat wished she had an answer to that. She wished she could tell Vasco that yes, they would; but even she didn’t know. What they were doing was something completely unheard of in the history of the galaxy, and while it wasn’t the first time she’d been part of something like that… This wasn’t the kind of thing they had any statistics on. She could hope, but hope didn’t bring certainty.

“Honestly? I don’t know.” Getting there, she was sure they could pull off. They’d likely be able to pass through the relay without any issues. Getting back was another story. “We’re up against a lot of odds that aren’t exactly stacked in our favour. We know people have tried to go through the Omega-4 Relay, and that they haven’t come back—but we don’t know what that means. We don’t know if it means that they’ve crashed going there, ended up barrelling into a star in the galactic core, or just got there and couldn’t make it back through, meaning… running out of supplies, starvation, you get the idea.” Realistically, the IFF should at least get them through safely, but she wasn’t sure if it would allow them to get back through, not until they’d tried it.

Leaning against the wall as she looked out the viewport, Kat crossed her arms, watching the darkness of space filled with stars idly pass by, distorted only by the rippling of the ship’s mass effect field. “I’m not saying that I don’t think there’s a chance that we’re coming back. There’s always a chance. But I’d honestly say… there’s a higher chance we don’t make it back. Although…” There was one factor to consider, one that the Reapers—and the Collectors—probably weren’t counting on.

“I think if we can make it through safely, without crashing, then… making it back shouldn’t be as much of an issue.” Between Joker and EDI, and the fact that they were working in sync now with little to no issues… They were going to be a danger to contend with.

[tabernacleheart]

The first duty of authority is to try to understand the force of the temptations which drove the sinner to sin and the seductiveness of the circumstances in which sin became so attractive. No man can pass judgment on another unless he at least tries to understand what the other has come through. The second duty of authority is to seek to reclaim the wrongdoer. Any authority which is solely concerned with punishment is wrong; any authority, which, in its exercise, drives a wrongdoer either to despair or to resentment, is a failure. The function of authority is not to banish the sinner from all decent society, [and never] to wipe him out; it is to make him into a good man. The man set in authority must be like a wise physician; his one desire must be to heal... [and yet] it is always wrong to regard people as things [to fix]; it is always unchristian to regard people as "cases"...The minute people become things the spirit of Christianity is dead. [In truth,] the Bible thinks of people first and foremost, not as fractions of the mass, or abstractions, or ideas, or cases, but as persons, [each one known, loved, and called by name by God.] God uses His authority to love men into goodness; to God no person ever becomes a thing. We must use such authority as we have always to understand and always at least to try to mend the person who has made the mistake; and we will never even begin to do that unless we remember that every man and woman is a person, not a thing.

William Barclay

[redjaybird]

"Bitch needs to get his ears checked."