#which makes me fragile
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homestuck is getting SAD and i donāt WANT THIS i want to read about shitty children lovingly bullying each other i donāt want to watch them sobbing over each otherās corpses :/
#Iāve gotten stuck in reread village#just refinished act 3. skipping the stupid intermission. so not too long from now I will be right back at the sad parts#itās just like. i think part of the reason i latched onto hs over christmas is bc a piece of engaging media with an interesting plot/#relatable and lovable characters/CRUCIALLY a very stupid sense of humor was exactly what I needed#and now Iām like. invested and itās getting angsty. which I am into!!! but Iām like. v stressed out rn#which makes me fragile#and so I want my fiction to be an escape yk? which it canāt really be (at least not that kind of escape) if it gets my emotions up#but itās like I rly want to get to act 6#Iām 2/3(?) of the way through 5.2 so Iām almost there#and I really want them all to get together + Iāve been promised lots of juicy character development and relationship building#but I also know it keeps getting angstier#and so idk what to do lol!!!#whatever rant over Iāll figure it out#my friend and I have been reading out loud a lot so thatās probably how Iāll do it#bc itās more fun plus I can yell with her and also hit her when Iām mad that I started it in the first place lol#bc of the angst#(sheās starting htn soon and I canāt wait for the roles to be reversed teehee)#anyway. rant over for real now#if youre still reading this send me a spoiler free ask about how much you love terezi or kanaya or something#op#hs
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i'm starting to sense a certain pattern here...
#and no it's not that i like to take pictures at a certain angleā¢#the angleā¢ just... scratches my brain alright? alright.#it's a certain type of pixel girlie that just makes me go off my fragile hinges and howl into the moon at night#i also realised that like 80% of my caps from Odyssey that ain't scenery are low-key like Kassandra's bicep appreciation#what can i say.#š¤”š¤”š¤”#i'm a clown for women. but especially the very hench ones. as you can probaby see following me here...#i become less hinged about it with each passing year.#which... sometimes makes me think if i'm as bi as i think i am.#oh well. that's another pickle for another day to evaluate. i guess.#irregular tag ramble#lady's screencaps
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why is life nothing but misery and pain for some people?
#and i know many many ppl have it sm worse than me#which makes me wonder why even more#why am i like this? why cant i enjoy my life?#i do feel awful bc like gosh there is so much suffering in the world#and i am in relation to most of it safe#why am i like this still? why am i constantly anxious and stressed and in pain?#i dont understand. and it makes me so mad#it could've been so many different things more wrong and bad in my life#that wouldve really been a reason and a cause#but now im like... i should be able to just live life andenjoy it so why fucking cant i?????#itmakes me so frustrated.#even if yes i do very much believe every person's pain is valid for them no matter what#i sometimes hear what other ppl has been thru and im like wow my stuff pales in comparison why cant i even function????#like i know it isnt a competition but thats not what i mean.. i cant explain what i mean#maybe that i know that if *i* was going thru that i wouldve not been able to mentally endure it bc my mind is fragile#and i am simply lucky for not going thru those things... yet i can still not deal with life.. so idk... *screams*
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my favourite writing device is having an un-Rei-liable narrator
#rei#volo#cheren#// tikposting#// character meta#the crowd booes me off the stage#forgive the pun XDDD his name is too easy to pun on#the way i write it it's not a conscious choice. it's just how the pov character (rei) experiences and contextualises the world#revealing backstory and personality and mindset through narration !!!!#not necessarily out of malice it's just. how he views things#interpreting new and foreign experiences through the lens of what came before...#conversations which read differently to different people.#in the context of rei that's stuff like unease around authority figures#always choosing his words carefully to project an image of competence (he has to be needed)#distrust and not taking things at face value but also paradoxically a fragile and nurtured sense of almost blind optimism#when it comes to friendships. like volo. (everyone turned on me when the sky turned red but it all resolved itself in the end didn't it?)#(what makes this different? / a lot of things. / i choose to believe)#volo [directly]: āi won't be stopped from my goalā rei thoughts: we can work with this!!!!#and everything with Arceus too and his divine blessings and a plan that will work out in the end#if Rei can just... figure out what part he's meant to play. interpreting events as a narrative hurtling towards some unknown conclusion#i am talking about rei here specifically but this writing device is so good in general#would be fun to try get inside volo's head. there's so much going on there i don't understand yet#quite fond of that one analysis post about how volo lacks emotional intelligence and sees relationships as transactions#not necessarily out of malice it's just how he views things. whether because of past experience or brain chemistry#also need to give a shout to cheren my guy who is an outsider pov who projects his own experiences onto new things so that he Understands#(an outsider to Hilbert and N's clash of truth and ideals. life changing experience and knowledge but felt just a little off to the left)#(the narrative repeated again with new heroes. all he can do is help them but it falls on their shoulders in the end)#(no wonder he tries to insert himself into Situations)#anyway tag ramble over feel free to also ramble to me about your takes XD#rei pokemon
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what is it about lesbian media that fills me with the heaviest & most profound sadness in the pit of my stomach, in my throat, under my heart.
#keeping it fun and funky fresh#personal#matty watches#i am not even talking about things like carol (which absolutely did leave me with an indescribable aching sensation for days)#or bloom into you which i am watching now (i can't get the opening song out of my head and it feels like it's stealing my breath)#i'm talking about fucking Enchanting Grom Fright from the owl house! which made me so so so sad when i watched it back in aug 2020#and WHY. and for WHAT.#god.#it's like. it's some Gender Feelings for sure. plus ya know. my overall shall we say delicate mental state (:#but for god's sake i can't even watch some yuri without wanting to curl up and weep and subsume into the mossy forest floor#gender blogging#matty's mental health#i watched carol when it came out in 2015 while having the worst time of my life working on ssv oliver hazard perry#and like i said. already was having a horrible horrible time. and left the theatre absolutely emotionally devastated#feeling like i'd been shattered & the pieces just leaned back against each other#and not... really knowing why it was hitting me so hard or why i was feeling so fucking fragile about it#and that. was definitely an Egg Moment. i'd started id'ing as nonbinary like 6 months earlier.#idk. this got away from me#what i'm trying to say is. i'm watching bloom into you and i'm feeling incredibly fragile about it.#but also Why do i feel so incredibly fragile about every single fucking piece of lesbian media i've ever seen#ALSO INB4: I AM ALREADY A GIRL BY NOW AND AM A LESBIAN SO IF ANYONE IS GONNA MAKE AN ~I SUGGEST FORCEFEM~ JOKE PLS DON'T
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today just will not let me rest huh. reasons are in the tags but i get very emotional just be warned
#hush n shush wifi#just a tad sad#actually more like angry as shit#okay let me TELL YALL about my day#first: the annoying#i was going shopping at a grocery warehouse and you know how those parking lots are always super crowded?#well it was. there were no parking spots and there were so many cars and people trying to go everywhere#i scraped my wheels too which is fine but one of my relatives who likes cars acts like it's a sin#so that shook me up enough that i didn't go outside for the rest of the day#and THEN#OHHHH AND FUCKING THEN.#if anyone remembers the absolute ass of a person from last year who i thought was my friend but said horrible things to me out of the blue#WELL THEY CAME BACK#i never got a chance to block them initially because they blocked me first#BUT I GOT FUCKING MESSAGES FROM THEM TONIGHT#AND ALL THEY WERE SAYING WAS ESSENTIALLY THAT THEY MEANT WHAT THEY SAID#they said some bullshit about the execution being wrong and that their ex wrote it for them#which by the way is just scummy on its own#and that they get mad emotionally which is a horrible excuse#and had the AUDACITY TO ASK IF I HAD ANY QUESTIONS#IN WHAT DELUDED SELF CENTERED WORLD DO YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN TO THINK I WOULD EVER WANT TO TALK TO YOU AGAIN#my trust is a VERY VERY FRAGILE THING#AND THIS IS A VERY LARGE CONTRIBUTOR TO IT#this isn't an apology. they regret none of it#this is a way for them to make themself feel better#the scariest part is that this person by now is almost/IS an adult#which is terrifying if that means there are more people like that out there#i try not to wish ill will but i genuinely hope no one ever has to suffer through being their 'friend' ever again#anyways they're blocked on all of my platforms now.#if the person is somehow reading this. hi! never talk to me again. you're a horrible human being with no consideration for other's feelings
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No Man's Sky
#this is the other one i was waiting for YIPPEEEEE#this game has had a few diff versions of box art and i dont think this is the current one anymore?#or at least not the new cover art on xbox and steam(?) and such since that changed with the last update#(i assume it changed on steam idk i play on xbox)#but like. perhaps i'll get shot 47 times for this but the original box art is i think my favorite iteration of this game's art#like. the current ones are great. but the original one could make me cry#like the new ones are a way better representation of the current game which i think is important#considering how different it is from launch. it gives off more 'woaahh cool space adventure!!! look at all this neat stuff!!!!'#the original is like 'i am the beauty and fragility of the universe. the serenity and danger and loneliness of the unfamiliar. bask in it'#'bask in it. bitch'#i think its the pink grass teal sky color combo tbh
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i need 2 be on a boat or a dock at sunset. that would fix me i think.
#do you know how long it's been since i've seen a sunset over water? years. actually years. which is so fucked up it makes me sick to my#stomach. i need to see the light over the mountains on the hudson and the way the sky got pale and fragile by shades & watch the#waves breaking against the hull or sit on a dock and listen to it creak and pick up water caltrops and driftwood....... godd.#hey the winters have a cabin in the woods right. maybe i put ashe winters in my favorite place in the world. that might fix me.#txt
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Jesus H Christopher, Pia. Your writing load is insane.
Maybe you should cut back on how many chapters you release for certain stories? Like Stain and Palma (since these stories dont equal income) until UtB the other Underline stories are almost done. Just a thought
Because I feel burnt out just by thinking of writing that much, so I can only imagine how you feel. Please take care of yourself
Hi anon,
TL;DR: My brain is stupid, which is why I can't do this, even though it makes sense and is logical.
Unfortunately the fanfiction is what often makes the original fiction possible, or more enjoyable.
If I lock myself down into too much schedule and rigidity, or if I only focus on writing for money, I actually start to hate writing, even if I love the stories. There is nothing like 'will this earn money, do people like this, would people pay, what if they all decide to stop paying for this, why would they pay for this, would I pay for this, how much would people pay for this, is there any incentive for them to pay for this, actually if I wrote a ton of different tropes maybe I'd make more for this, but that's depressing, but I need the money, shit what do I do, what if I lose my income, what if it all stops tomorrow, I need to write more, I need to write more, I need to write more' that is actually very exhausting and makes writing not much fun at all.
And to deliberately break out of that headspace as much as possible, I write fanfiction. Because that headspace (the one I wrote about above), on its own, even if I'm only writing two stories, can and has led to burnout and depressive episodes. I don't recommend it.
In a way, one of the reasons I can write so many stories right now (ADHD meds aside) is that I am letting myself break out and just have fun with fanfiction, and remember that my original writing is meant to be fun too. But without fanfiction, I lose sight of that very quickly.
Fanfiction means that when an original story chapter does super badly, generally there are still excited comments elsewhere that keep me going. That's how I survived The Ice Plague, and that story would never have been completed without fanfiction, because that was my worst performer of any story I've ever written. It also means if a lot of subscribers leave at once, I don't feel like The Worst Writer In The World. So having fanfiction behind me was like...a literal safety net or my security blanket.
If I have to discard my security blankets or use them less often in order to keep writing the original stuff, I might as well just stop entirely, because my longest hiatuses from Patreon (i.e. one lasted 1.5 years, many have lasted 4-6 months) have been when I'm mostly just writing original fiction, and am not writing much fanfiction, or not deliberately finding time for it, and finally get so stressed out re: money I literally have to stop. I'm on a (partial) Disability Pension.
A long time ago some professional people told me I probably shouldn't be working at all because of my mental illnesses and then paid me money because of the severity of those mental illnesses. My dumbass brain be pretty fragile, actually, and keeps chugging away because I make bad business decisions and write stuff I enjoy instead of writing to market, or doing rapid release, or releasing more novels (or novels). Writing does ironically help when I'm stressed, but not when I'm stressed about making money because of writing.
I will cut at my income before I cut at my love of this job, and unfortunately fanfiction keeps me going in this job, which means I can't really cut at that first.
(Also from a business perspective, it's actually a very good funnel to the original stuff and then subscription. Most of you wouldn't be here if you hadn't read one of my fanfics first and then gave the original stuff a try - I try not to think about that too much because I need fanfic to not be about money, but the fact is, I would not have this career without fanfic).
I do have plans to take two weeks off in January from posting chapters (I can still post rewards in the second half of January) and that's not too far away.
And the reality is that I probably would have kept going okay if real life hadn't imploded on top of everything like the world's worst bukkake party.
#asks and answers#personal#pia on writing#i am not a smart business owner#i'm an emotional fragile mentally ill one#who has to make decisions that keep me wanting to do this job#because at the end of the day#my severe treatment-resistant mental illnesses#do not do well with the pressure of making money#and feeling like a failure#so i need to actually do things that aren't about money at all#to remind myself that i don't need to have a breakdown#over never making a minimum wage#(i'm getting closer though which is probably why this burnout came on)#(i've been pushing a lot harder than normal because... well... i'd like to make#an average income one day)#(i may not be smart enough or well enough to do that)#(but i will keep trying)#i just have to keep trying as someone with a very broken mind#who copes with that brokenness through working hard#breaks are stressful and i have to think hard about what's best
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Yes, I would be very interested hearing your head canon (@tim-ribbert-56) (in response to this post)
I have decided for my personal entertainment that Clarisse de Cagliostro is related to Lupin III, and here's why.
-pulls out ArsĆØne Lupin's Wikipedia page-
In the novel La Comtesse de Cagliostro, a young ArsĆØne Lupin (at the time going by the name Raoul d'AndrĆ©sy) was courting Clarisse d'Etigues, a young lady of a well-to-do family, and trying to win her hand, despite her father's disapproval.
Throughout the course of the novel, Lupin meets and falls in love with JosƩphine Balsamo, aka the Countess of Cagliostro, and abandons Clarisse in favour of her. To clarify, JosƩphine is not actually countess of anything, she is (or claims to be) a descendant of Giuseppe Balsamo aka the Count of Cagliostro (who was also count of jack shit), a famous conman from the 18th century.
Shenanigans ensue, which I will not go into in details on, but oh my god I am insane about Raoul and JosƩphine, I want to dissect them and study them under a microscope. It turns out JosƩphine aka Cagliostro is evil as fuck, Raoul/Lupin realizes that and goes back to Clarisse (whom he had previously abandoned like an old sock, I fucking hate this guy), marries her, and a few years later has her kid.
Unfortunately Clarisse dies in childbirth, and JosƩphine, who was still around and very very pissed at Lupin (and jealous as hell of Clarisse whom, may I mention, had never personally antagonized her in any way whatsoever, JosƩphine is just fucking bonkers). JosƩphine also kidnaps Lupin and Clarisse's son, Jean, and raises him as her own son. (I have not yet read the following novel The revenge of Cagliostro so I don't really know what Jean's deal is, I just know he's an antagonist).
The following is my headcanon, based on these events. In the universe of Lupin III, JosƩphine Balsamo was actually countess of the small kingdom of Cagliostro (maybe Giuseppe was count, maybe he conned his way into becoming count, maybe he bought the land and built a fake kingdom with a fake history, who knows).
After the events of The revenge of Cagliostro, Jean settles down in the country of Cagliostro, gets married, has a child, and that child will later have a daughter of their own, who they name Clarisse, after their late grandmother. Clarisse de Cagliostro, of Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro fame, would thus be the great-grand-daughter of ArsĆØne Lupin, making her Lupin III's cousin/niece/whatever you call this specific degree of separation.
I am choosing to make Clarisse de Cagliostro a great-granddaughter of ArsĆØne Lupin, rather than a granddaughter, because ArsĆØne Lupin was very young when the events I described unfolded: he is 20 years old when he meets Clarisse d'Etigues and the whole Cagliostro debacle happens, and 25 by the time Jean is born. I'm assuming he had Lupin II much later in his life. So Jean and Lupin II (half-brothers) would have a significant difference in age, and so Jean's hypothetical child (grandchild of ArsĆØne Lupin, so of the same generation of Lupin III) would be much older than Lupin III. Clarisse de Cagliostro is younger than him, maybe around the same age if you stretch it, so she's have to be a great-grandchild.
Now I need to read The revenge of Cagliostro and study ArsĆØne Lupin's wikipedia page in more detail to determine when exactly Lupin II was born and who his mother was. And also where Albert's family branched out, because the fact that he's called D'AndrĆ©sy should theoretically place him as a descendant of ArsĆØne Lupin's mother but not of ArsĆØne Lupin himself; but Jean was also going by that last name, so who fucking knows.
No I am not insane I promise, I am just a gigantic nerd.
#i have very mixed feelings about Papy Lupin Original Flavour#cuz you see in the first books he was pretty much like his grandson#a charming little bastard; smug as hell but also charming enough to make up for it#like. an ego the size of the eiffel tower but it's highly deserved#if he robbed me i would just thank him#you wanna punch him in the face but like. lovingly#then around The Hollow Needle he started acting weird#and after that his ego grew into a god complex the size of the eiffel tower and he just lost all the charm#like. just a huge dick honestly.#i thought that was a logical evolution after (SPOILER FOR THE HOLLOW NEEDLE) his wife got brutally murdered in front of his eyes#mere HOURS after they got married and he gave up his whole career as a thief for her#which would be an understandable evolution#but no he's also retroactively an asshole in The Countess of Cagliostro which is a prequel#i guess leblanc just decided 'lupin's a dick now'#which sucks#but on the other hand it's very funny to kinda hate-read The Countess of Cagliostro#i was honestly rooting for JosƩphine for most of the book#she is fucking insane which is exactly what raoul/lupin deserve#you know that Mountain Goats song 'no children' ?#'hand in unloveable hand; i hope you die i hope with both die'#or that post that says 'i don't ship them they're too toxic / well i hope they kill each other mid-fuck'#well that's me with them#just reading on to see how many more life-ruining decisions raoul can bodily throw himself at#also leblanc did josƩphine dirty!!!!!!!!#LET MY GIRL BE EVIL FOR GOD'S SAKE#none of that 'her fragile feminine nature' and fainting after murdering someone because deep down she can't bear her own cruelty#what the fuck#let her be genuinely unhinged!! let her bash raoul's head in with a meat hammer!!!!#(yes that is something that she tried to do)#anyway. justice for JosƩphine Balsamo. god forbid women do anything
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for months i genuinely wholeheartedly could not tell the 911 guys apart and this is so important for me to stress bc throughout my life i have prided myself on being able to tell twins apart really easily and liking being that person to connect faces to other things ive watched or honestly just seen in passing like i could track down a random commercial actress and shit and i mean i suppose part of that is not knowing their characters and they just twin all the time but i apologize still im aware that mans last name is diaz and now i feel like im sitting here laid up @ all the tumblr lesbians like haha damn so thats buck x eddie? that said idk if im like happy i know any of this.
#but itās chill it feels like a good part of the tumblr ecosystem most of the time iām like just there enough to be like yuppp i know that#guy. sometimes u talk abt them and im like i just donāt know if its that crazy. then u say some other stuff and iām like ok that is lowkey#crazy but still i think even if i ever watched it. which i dont rlly plan on. but if it happened i think id have to move in silence#oh god a skunk went off right outside my window man ššššššš anywayzuh i donāt think i need to contribute to any of these conversations but#god knows i love to jump on anything to give my thoughts. so. we shallnt#abby talks#and well u know iām sorry i think u have to know iām on a fragile branch (my way of saying thin ice obnoxiously)#when it comes to any of these shows. let alone these circumstances. like u have to know iām looking any going hmmā¦ is this really just some#guy tho. bc like many such cases. it feels good to know itās a lot of dykes but like when is the last time everyone flocked to a character#as such. iām blanking. it certainly canāt be unprecendented.#what are u SAYING bro š¤£šā¼ļøš#ok woah this is so terrible im hungry i dont want to go downstairs and make food come back up and have to go down and brush my teeth again#but i donāt think i have anything up hereeeeā¦ and either way it smells of a skunk fucking everywhereeee. i say from the place ive been#sitting the past 15 minutes. in my bed <3#i feel like iām confessing my sins#but what i was getting at is thereās certainly something there. compels me#who said that president snow or smth
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(SCRAPPED CONCEPT) THE BARON OF DEATH
This is a Scrapped Concept, for reasons I describe here: https://www.deviantart.com/thegirlwhodidntsmile/art/Scrapped-Concept-Maman-la-Vie-dress-1-1086509787Ā
My Biggest Lā¦ This was an incredibly tasteless concept that I truly regret, founded on ignorance and poor research. If for some reason you wanted to review the original commentary, it can be found in its original state below.
This is my take on a āBaron Samediā/"Papa Gede"-type Hazbin Hotel character.
Extended commentary below:
I want to make this very clear right from the jump: This character is not actually Baron Samedi. The whole joke with him is that there is literally a trope on TvTropes.org about how everyone steals the look of Baron Samedi, because heās literally got the most legendary Scary Skeleton Man drip of all time.
The actual Baron Samedi is just:Ā
Everyone thinks heās the Scary Skeleton Man, until THIS GUY walks in the room!
This guyās got the coolest look EVER!!!
Show me one man more SCARY and SKELETON than this man!
SCARY!
SKELETON!
MAN!
Immaculate drip. I have no notes.
Admittedly, this is more how he is portrayed in popular media than how he actually looks, where he gets mixed up with Papa Gede and other stuff. But yeah. Top hat, cigar, skull for a face. He looks so fucking cool. I would totally put him on my pirate crew!
So my Deviantart OC didn't just steal his look, he stole his name too. He is the Borrowin' Samedi King!
With that out of the way, MANā¦ This guy was SO CHALLENGING to try to design! I am really bad at thisā¦ I just fumbled on his face - his face should look WAY cooler than this! A LOT of things could be tweaked here. If you put a Baron Samedi-type character into the show, he literally has to have the coolest look of any character in all of the Hellaverse.
HE CANNOT BE DISCOUNT D. OCTOR FACILIER!!!!!!!Ā
The universal reaction to this man has to be: āOH SHIT! This guy looks so fucking cool heās going in my pirate crew Iām making him my first mate!ā
Ā ā¦Sadly, I am just far too lame and cringe to not fail this assignmentā¦ He looks SO MUCH cooler in my brain because his entire outfit is WAY more detailed than this! He is just covered in skull and skeleton details EVERYWHERE! That cross heās got on his hat has little skull details in it. There are details ALL over his coat, and the bracelet he wears on his left hand is detailed too. The skull he has tattooed on his face is WAY more detailed than shown, but you have to simplify everything down because heās a cartoon character. Unfortunately, itās just really hard for me to select which traits to simplify and which traits not to. But I still wanted to take a stab at it, because it bothers me so much that people get Baron Samedi mixed up with Papa Legba. We have American Horror Story to thank for thatā¦
As I have written elsewhere, I have struggled to find definitive evidence that Baron Samedi (or Papa Gede, or Kalfou) were worshiped in New Orleans prior to the revitalization movement of the late 20th century. I hypothesize that one of two things is true:Ā
In Haiti, the Dahomean trickster deity Legba did not refract into Papa Legba, Kalfou, Papa Gede, and Baron Samedi until after the Haitian Revolution. As such, Kalfou, Papa Gede, and Baron Samedi were never transmitted to America during the post-Revolution migration wave.Ā
In Haiti, the Dahomean trickster deity Legba refracted into Papa Legba, Kalfou, Papa Gede, and Baron Samedi before the Haitian Revolution. There is no record of worship of Papa Gede, Kalfou, or Baron Samedi because they were worshiped in secret.
I actually it is plausible that #2 is correct, especially with respect to Papa Gede. 19th- and 20th-century sources describe a top hat-wearing āDevilā and purple robes to honor a āSpirit of Deathā . These details align with the description of the Haitian Papa Gede, as he appeared in the 1940s. I could be wrong, but I think Dahomean Legba might have split into Papa Legba and Papa Gede (and possibly the āgreat big black manā - Kalfou) before the Haitian Revolution!
Granted, the evidence is not entirely conclusive. It could be a Damballah/Grand Zombi situation, where these deities resemble Papa Gede but arenāt actually him. For this reason, one could argue that Ogou Feray (or even Agassu and Ayizan Velekete) should replace Baron Samedi and Maman Brigitte in the five-member jazz band. Especially Ogou Feray.Ā
I decided to include Baron Samedi (and Maman Brigitte) for several key reasons, including:
His widespread popularity.
One of the Loa (Hazbin Hotel) must embody the spirits of the dead, due to the importance of ancestor veneration in New Orleans Voodoo.
As the Loa of the Dead, he is actually the one who fits best into the world of Hazbin Hotel, which takes place in the afterlife.
My desire to delineate him from Papa Legba.
The Real Hell mechanic, which should totally be his signature move!
For now, I am operating under the assumption that Papa Gede might have been worshiped as āthe Spirit of Deathā / āThe Devilā in America. If I am wrong about this, justā¦just let me get out that clown makeupā¦ Unfortunately, I couldnāt find a lot of information about āthe Devilā in the āhigh silk hatā, or the āSpirit of Deathā that Marie Laveau might have worshiped. Since Hazbin Hotel takes place in a fictional setting with its own mythology, this character cannot be the actual Baron Samedi, or Papa Gede. Because Alastor was born right at the end of the 19th century, I think the āSpirit of Deathā should embody the angered, ancestral spirits of New Orleans, who were persecuted and targeted by raids following the Haitian Revolution - especially in the years leading up to the Civil War. I have chosen to make him AFAB / female-to-male transgender because the primary targets of these raids were Black and AFAB (I elaborate on this later).
In creating this character, I attempted to incorporate elements from Haitian Vodou. This is to honor his origins as a Haitian deity. Many of the lwa ā such as Papa Legba, Damballah, and Ogou Feray ā can trace their origins back to Dahomean and/or Yoruba mythology. The Gede (and by extension, the Bawons) are unique in that they are native to Haiti.Ā Ā
To quote Zora Neale Hurstonās Tell My Horse (1938):Ā Ā
GuedƩ has another distinction. It is the one loa which is entirely Haitian. There is neither European nor African background for it. It sprang up or was called up by some local need and now is firmly established among the blacks.
This character is not actually Baron Samedi, but can be viewed as a tribute to two different Haitian deities: Baron Samedi and Papa Gede. Ironically, I think heās probably got more Papa Gede in him than Baron Samedi, though heās definitely supposed to combine elements from both. More broadly, he is a tribute to the Gede and Bawons as a whole, as the actual Baron Samedi rules over the Gede. In real life, Baron Samedi and Papa Gede are not the same deity, but in this fictional work I think itās prudent to merge them into one character. I just donāt see how you can work both of them into Hazbin Hotel when the cast is already so packed. (This might be the one L I have ever taken in my entire goddamn lifeā¦!)
I have more to say on this matter, but in a nutshell: If you put the Loa in Hazbin Hotel, I think itās a huge mistake to limit them to how they are portrayed in New Orleans Voodoo. In real life, the lwa are worshiped all across the African diaspora. As such, the Loa themselves should pull from multiple traditions, such as New Orleans Voodoo, Haitian Vodou, SanterĆa, etc... That way, you can naturally introduce characters from other regions of the diaspora (e.g. The Caribbean, West Africa, Latin Americaā¦) who also worship and use the magic of the Loa (and Orisha). In real life, it is important not to conflate these religions. But because Hazbin Hotel does not take place in the real world, I think it is totally warranted to do this.Ā
Granted, it is very important to document which elements come from which tradition, so that non-casual fans can learn about the differences between New Orleans Voodoo, Haitian Vodou, SanterĆa, etcā¦
As for the non-Haitian elements, this character is designed to embody every aspect of New Orleans Voodoo (Vodou) that was feared and branded as āevilā by the white, slave-owning class. He also personifies the aforementioned spirits of the dead, as ancestor veneration has always been such an important aspect of New Orleans Vodou. āBig Papaā serves as commentary on the demonization of the real-life Papa Legba (and by extension, Vodou as a whole); āThe Baronā is commentary on the misrepresentation of Vodou as āblack magicā.
I must stress that my Original Character Do Not StealTM is VERY different from the deities who inspired him. The same can be said for āBig Papaā. There are many differences between them and the actual deities! I just want The Baron to be a crazy One Piece character that can kill anyone by touching them and make black holes of tortureā¦ HE MUST BE BIG PAPAāS FIRST MATE!!!!!
I totally think the single coolest mechanic that could be introduced to Hazbin Hotel is Real Hell. That should 100% be the signature move of The Loa of the Dead from Voodoo. Real Hell is in fact Baron Samedi (Hazbin Hotel)ās signature move. Itās called ETERNAL TORMENT, where he slows down time exponentially from your perspective while he rips apart your soul in the most excruciating way possible. In other words, you experience torture forever. It is Real Hell.Ā
I know this is not how time dilation actually works. Itās not really a black hole, it just looks like a black hole because black holes are cool as fuck!
There are a couple of other people who can make The Black Hole of Torture, but they can only make one at a time. (I am going to cry myself to sleep every night if ALASTOR RA D. IO D. EMON doesnāt know how to make REAL HELL!!!) It is very difficult for them to make even one of these Black Holes. On the other hand, it is really easy for The Loa of DEATH to make these BLACK HOLES OF TORTURE. If you think about it, this is actually a really weak move for THE GOD OF DEATH, as it only destroys a single human soul. This is the man who can kill EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE instantaneously without breaking a sweat!! Thatās why itās a similar situation to BIG PAPAās inter-dimensional portals, where he can make trillions of these BLACK HOLES OF TORTURE all at once, without any difficulty at all.Ā
He turns his head into a SKULL (as in, an actual SKULL!) and swallows the BLACK HOLES when heās done. He literally feeds off pain and fear! For this reason he also likes to pop into peopleās dreams and infect them with horrifying nightmares. (In real life, the lwa are described as communicating with humans via dreams)
Baron Samedi (Hazbin Hotel) is THE GOD OF DEATH, for he can kill a human by looking at them, touching them, or standing near them. He radiates death because his magic - BLACK MAGIC - is simply DEATH itself. He is actually restraining his power by a HUGE AMOUNT all of the time; if he stopped restraining his power, he could kill every human in existence all at once, VERY easily!
His role in the Hellaverse is to serve as the grim reaper. As THE GOD OF DEATH, he moves freely between the living and the afterlife. He actually has complete control over who lives and dies, as a human does not actually die until he touches their soul with his Scary Skeleton Hands! (or just looks at them hard) (or just stands close to them) (or just wills them to die) (usually he just appears out of nowhere and touches you with his Scary Skeleton Hands because heās not that creative, but he has TONS of different ways he can kill you!) Due to his extremely ruthless and sadistic nature, you really have to be in his good graces for him not to kill you or your loved ones. He really likes killing people! But heās very wise, and he really doesnāt want to get fired from his job (he loves killing people!) so he generally doesnāt kill people before itās their time. Every human sees him at least once, but most humans are so terrified of him that they black out the memory. He escorts all souls to their final destination: Heaven or Hell.Ā
There is also a third option - The Underworld. This is a primordial realm that he personally rules, populated by the Gede. Very few people go to the Underworld, as he only offers this to his favorite humans, and he doesnāt give a shit about the vast majority of humans! There is a great benefit to joining the Gede, as those who join are personally empowered by the killing and healing magic of the Baron and Maman. This makes them much stronger than ordinary angels and demons! However, most people decide not to join the Gede, either because they are too scared / distrusting of the Baron, or because they want to rejoin their family in Heaven. As a consequence of this, the vast majority of those who join the Gede are Black, dark-skinned, and LGBTQ - specifically, those who didnāt have anyone waiting for them in Heaven.
On the subject of his Scary Skeleton Hands, those are made out of his magic, which is literally the color black. He is not actually the scary skeleton man, but a giant spirit made of black-colored magic! So his āhairā is not actually hair, itās magic. One of his bullshit anime superpowers is that he can concentrate his black-colored magic into spikes of pure PAIN, or other shapes. Do you have any idea how STRONG this guyās magic is? HEāS THE GOD WITH THE HIGHEST ATTACK STAT!!! You really donāt want to get fucked on by this guyā¦! If thereās enough of his magic that is super-concentrated into three-dimensional space, so much so that a human eye can see it, it just does INFINITE DAMAGE to a fragile human soul. Thatās what heās doing with his hands and hair.Ā
If you ever touch his hands or hair, youāre super dead!
While he is extremely ruthless and sadistic, The Baron is not actually evil. He killed Anne Frank AND Adolf Hitler! He is neither Good nor Evil, and is actually very wise. The only people smarter than this guy are just completely next-level and insane in their intelligence. Due to his OUTRAGEOUSLY high power level, heās a really good ally to have in your corner!
He is the tallest of the Loa that isnāt a fucking Gary Stu and has the deepest voice. I havenāt defined his height yet, but heās supposed to be roughly a head taller than Big Papa and a bit taller than Zestial (Big Papa likes to shapeshift his height a lot, but his default height is around a head shorter than The Baronā¦at least, there is a visible height gap that is no more than a head) Zestial is a pretty good approximation for how tall he is, although he is slightly taller than him. To be precise, this is how he appears before humans. Heights get NUTS in Hazbin Hotel, so when heās around non humans heāll make his height taller. Heās just a crazy One Piece character in terms of height! His voice is somehow very rough and very suave at the same time.Ā
He has two musical themes to him: heavy metal and rap/hip hop. While he loves hip hop, his single favorite musical genre is heavy metal. But heās not just from any heavy metal scene. He is specifically inspired by the underground metal scene from Botswana. Thatās why heās got chains and cowboy boots on.
Those guys look so fucking cool.
They all wear cowboy hats.
This is the best fashion trend since zoots!
It is probably impossible for him to pick a single favorite metal band. But if you forced him to answer, on a given day the probability is highest that he would say Judas Priest. He can play all their songs on the electric guitar. His coat is supposed to make him look a bit like Rob Halford, specifically this fit:
I donāt think the Judas Priest influence is obvious enough, so he also has Judas Priest on the bottom of his boot.Ā
He really likes Judas Priest. (His voice is WAY THE FUCK deeper than Rob Halfordās though!!) But he loves tons of other bands too. The skull he wears on his belt is inspired by a Motƶrhead Warpig. He can play pretty much any quality metal track on the electric guitar. I also want him to look a bit like a Battle Angel Alita character, because Battle Angel Alita is METAL AS HELL!
Did you know that Alitaās younger brother is female-to-male transgender?
Baronās second favorite musical genre is rap/hip hop, specifically West Coast hip hop. Because I am FULLY INSANE I have thought up an alternate universe of an alternate timeline of American history where the boys arenāt gods, theyāre humans instead. In this alternate universe of an alternate timeline of American history, Baron is actually not from New Orleans. Heās a dude who immigrated from Haiti to Los Angeles when he was like 5 years old (originally, he was going to be from South Africa, but Haiti makes more sense. this has been retconned!). How the fuck did he end up in New Orleans? Thatās a story for another time! But this is why itās specifically West Coast hip hop. His single favorite hip hop artist is Tupac Shakur.Ā
I decided to link him to Tupac after reading Zora Neale Hurstonās description of Papa Gede, found in Tell My Horse (1938):Ā Ā
One can see the hand of the Haitian peasant in that boisterous god, GuedĆ©, because he does and says the things that the peasants would like to do and say. You can see him in the market women, in the domestic servant who now and then appears before her employer āmountedā by this god who takes occasion to say many stinging things to the boss. You can see him in the field hand, and certainly in the group of women about a public well or spring, chattering, gossiping and dragging out the shortcomings of their employers and the people like him. Nothing in Haiti is quite so obvious as that this loa is the deification of the common people of Haiti. The mulattoes give this spirit no food and pay it no attention at all. He belongs to the blacks and the uneducated blacks at that. He is a hilarious divinity and full of the stuff of burlesque. This manifestation comes as near a social criticism of the classes by the masses as anything in all Haiti. GuedĆ© has another distinction. It is the one loa which is entirely Haitian. There is neither European nor African background for it. It sprang up or was called up by some local need and now is firmly established among the blacks.
Papa Gede is not just associated with sexual/gender minorities, but the Black proletariat. In a similar fashion, Tupac - really, the genre of hip hop as a whole - was a voice for those at the bottom of race and class hierarchies. The profanity of the genre alienates the privileged classes, but the wisdom speaks to the poor and Black. This is why his shirtless appearance is specifically inspired by the album cover of All Eyez On Me. But unlike Tupac, he wears a black inverted cross. Technically, they are shape-shifting crosses. At the beginning of time, they looked like regular crosses, but by the end of the 19th century, he switched the default state to an inverted cross. He shapeshifts them between regular and inverted crosses, depending on who he is talking to.
His second favorite hip hop artist is Kendrick Lamar. One of the weird things about this dude is that he doesnāt actually have hair. He just makes magic come out of his head! Donāt think too hard about thisā¦ But if he was a human, his hairstyle should a bit like this photo of Kendrick Lamar:Ā
If you are wondering why his cross is inverted, it is because the resident Voodoo magic wielder - Alastor - features a prominent black, inverted cross on his chest. I assume there is a reason for this. If not, letā¦let me just get out that clown noseā¦! But if we approach Alastor from a realistic perspective, his black inverted cross must have significance, as he must have been raised Catholic by his mother. The coolest (and dare I say, most logical!) explanation for this trait would be if heās resentful of the white Catholic church, who harassed, raided, and persecuted his people!Ā
Assuming Alastorās inverted cross has narrative significance, The Baron has chosen to wear inverted crosses as a deliberate challenge to the white Catholic church. He is not critical of the Black Catholics who worship him, but despises the white Catholics who persecuted the Vodouisants. If you are one of the few people he actually likes and you are Catholic / Christian, he shapeshifts the crosses to make it look like regular crosses. Many of the things he does seem to be obscenity for the sake of obscenity, when they are actually full of hidden wisdom. For example, his magic is the color black as a jab at those who believe Vodou is āblack magicā. He constantly indulges in sexual orgies as a āfuck youā to the newspapers who defamed Vodouisants with false accusations of sexual orgies. Everything about his physical form is designed to inspire hatred and fear in those who enslaved his people. This āhidden wisdomā is actually something he shares with the real life Gede and hip hop artists ā both known for gratuitous profanity that is actually deliberate social commentary!
The ideal person to voice him would be someone with a really cool, rough, deep voice, who LOVES West Coast hip hop and heavy metal, who really knows how to rap, and he doesnāt have to be transgender. Like, broā¦ Heās been on testosterone for over a decadeā¦ We are so far past āyou sound so masculineā.
The skeleton markings he has tattooed onto his body are inspired by the Chimbu tribe of Papua New Guinea. I already mentioned this, but top surgery scars are not normally this disfiguring. He just likes disfiguring himself ON PURPOSE to make himself look as freakish and frightening as possible! Additionally, the skulls he forms with his magic (shown here and here) are inspired by the paintings of Frantz ZĆ©phirin, specifically the piece Death is about to carry out two contracts.
As a tribute to the Gede as a whole, Baron embodies every aspect of masculine sexuality - especially that which is taboo. This is one reason he has chosen to assume the form of a female-to-male transsexual. The more important reason is to inspire fear.
The demonization of Black female sexuality factors greatly into the persecution of New Orleans Vodou. Following the Haitian Revolution, the white ruling class became scared of the power the lwa and gris-gris could have to inspire slave insurrections. Slanderous, sensationalist news pieces spread - especially in the years leading up to the Civil War, when paranoia reached a peak. This is why New Orleans Voodoo has a bad name ā even to this day! Itās not because Voodoo is actually evil, but because the community was aggressively defamed and persecuted by white authorities due to the threat it posed to āthe safety of the institution of slaveryā. Tragically, this attitude spread into the African American community, which is why the word āvoodooā is sometimes used as a synonym for āblack magicā / ābad workā. This forced Vodouisants to go underground, which is why New Orleans Voodoo remains a closed religion in the present day.Ā
Two of the most common types of accusations lodged against Vodouisants were false claims of sexual orgies and prostitution. These were generally directed against Voodoo priestesses, especially Black priestesses. The Black high priestess Betsy Toledano - a figure who has been pushed to the margins of history - was a main target of the raids that took place during the mid 19th century. The late and great Marie Laveau largely (but by no means exclusively!) served white and light-skinned clients, but Betsy Toledano was known for serving a diverse crowd. The Daily Crescent vividly described her followers like so (as you can imagine, the language is super racist):Ā
"Great was the scattering of the inmates of the rude chapel in which the legends of motherland were chaunted in Ethiopia's choicest strains-- and quickly did the police pursue the dusky forms which flitted hither and thither, to avoid the clutches of the Law! The assemblage was composed of every grade of color, from the lightest tinge of the flat-nosed race to the brightest ebony that ever glowed in the cotton field."
Source: āThe Rites of Voudouā. The Daily Crescent. (New Orleans, LA), Jul. 31 1850, p. 3 https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82015378/1850-07-31/ed-1/?sp=3Ā
Among those she served were enslaved, dark-skinned Black women, including a girl (possibly, woman) who was literally named āDarkieā. She was one of the enslaved girls/women arrested alongside Toledano:
"The parties taken into custody were Betsy Toledano, a free colored woman, and two slave girls, Leonora, belonging to Mr. Grivot, and Darkie, belonging to Mr. McCracken...A number of colored women were present, who escaped. Betsy Toledano, the chief priestess of the heathen temple, stoutly defended the ceremonies from any wrong construction; said that its signs and symbols were derived from the mother-land, and that the incantations were harmless...The charge in this case was that of an unlawful assemblage of free people and slaves, and on this charge the accused are required to answer at a future day."
Source: āThe Rites of Voudouā. The Daily Crescent. (New Orleans, LA), Jul. 31 1850, p. 3 https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82015378/1850-07-31/ed-1/?sp=3Ā
This is not the only time Toledano was harassed and arrested. In A New Orleans Voudou Priestess (2007), Carolyn Morrow Long describes how Toledano was repeatedly targeted by white reporters and law enforcement, accused of luring ārespectable womenā into harlotry.Ā
It is due to this history that The Baron has chosen to inhabit an AFAB body. It is an intentional choice to embody everything white, Christian slave owners feared and hated about Voodoo ā including, in the most literal sense, the sex organs of the Black female.
(In the deepest lore of my non-canon fanfiction, all of the Loa (Hazbin Hotel) are lesser gods that have existed since the beginning of time. But as the Loa of the Dead, The Baron can somehow merge the spirits of the dead into himā¦ It is weirdly implied that Besty Tole D. Ano and the two enslaved girls/women (and others) are somehow Stevenās Universe fused into this guy. But in this crazy alternate timeline, I guess Toledano was enslaved for at least the beginning of her lifeā¦!)
(But ironically, this guy totally settled on an FTM trans avatar way back at the beginning of time, because he knows it freaks humans out and he thinks orgasms feel best in this formā¦!) Iām goin on ALL SORTS of tangents now, but the politics of race might actually explain why it is difficult to find clear evidence that Baron Samedi / Papa Gede were worshiped by Vodouisants of 19th Century New Orleans. As previously quoted, Papa Gede was a favorite deity of poor, Black Haitians, and is usually depicted as dark-skinned. Being Creole, Marie Laveau may have neglected to worship him, in favor of Damballah, who is often depicted as light-skinned. This may explain why āthe Devilā in the āhigh silk hatā is found among the poor African Americans of the South, rather than Marie Laveau and her followers. As I have written elsewhere, it might be relevant that āthe Devilā was often described as a less evil entity by African Americans from the South.
Because he is similar to the real-life Papa Gede, Baron is essentially a spirit of masculine sexuality itself. By inhabiting an AFAB body, he immediately transforms it into an aggressively masculine and sexual trans man. He is also LGBTQ to draw historical parallels between 19th century raids of Voodoo ceremonies and the 20th century raids of gay and lesbian bars.Ā
There is a claim floating around the internet that Baron Samedi is sometimes depicted as a ābisexual dandyā. I myself quoted this, but have since realized that this claim is actually quite dubious. (I may have thus contributed to the spread of misinformationā¦) I still chose to make the Baron queer, so that he can embody every aspect of masculine sexuality - including the queer aspect. In making him queer, I attempted to stay pretty close to Eziaku Nwokochaās description of Papa Gede in Vodou en Vogue (2023), which I quote in a later section. The labels ābisexualā or āpansexualā could be used to describe him, but his queer sexuality is supposed to be understood through a Haitian or African American framework.Ā
I donāt know if he would actually identify with labels like ābisexualā or āpansexualā, due to feeling alienated by predominantly white LGBTQ communities. This is how I would describe the āqueernessā of his sexuality: While he is queer, his attraction is not split 50/50. Around 90% (or more!) of his sexual attraction is directed towards women. But if he wants to screw a guy, heāll screw a guy! No matter who heās sticking it into, he is usually very dominating. But if he wants to take it up the front and/or back holes, heāll do that too! Most of the time, he is a CRAZY sexual sadist, but on rare occasion he is a CRAZY sexual masochist. He is the opposite of Alastor D. Ace Radio Demon. He loves every form of sex, and does whatever the fuck he wants!
The Baron is a god of Sadomasochism ā the perfect melding of violence (that which kills) with sex (that which gives life). He is extreme in his sexual sadism, and extreme in his sexual masochism. He is ultra violent and obscene.
It would be completely inappropriate to suggest that the actual Baron Samedi or the actual Papa Gede are AFAB. But because he's not actually Baron Samedi or Papa Gede - rather, a tribute to the Gede as a whole - I would argue that he is actually the best candidate to make transgender!
Believe it or not, the two best candidates are actually 'The Doorkeeper' character or āThe Loa of the Deadā / āThe Ruler of the Gedeā character. In real life, the Legba and Gede are deities of liminality. The Legba occupy the liminal space between human and divine, while the Gede occupy the liminal space between life and death. Between the two, the Gede are probably more important to the side of Vodou that is LGBTQ-positive. Because the Gede are these spirits of liminality, they embody the taboo, and are associated with marginalized gender and sexual identities (at least, in some places of the world). As I elaborate on later, Papa Gede himself is sometimes associated with female-to-male gender transformations and queer sexuality. Additionally, one of the Gede (Gede Nibo) is unapologetically Black AND queer! For this reason, I just think it would be really fucking cool if āthe Ruler of the Gedeā character was transgender himself!Ā
I must emphasize that this is not at all true for the actual Baron Samedi; he is very aggressively AMAB. In making this character transgender, I do not want to emasculate him at all. This is why I chose to make him a completely masculine-presenting, binary trans man, who is still very phallic and aggressive in his sexuality. He sounds totally indistinguishable from a cishet man, and it is completely impossible to tell that he is trans when he is fully dressed.
The creative team behind Hazbin Hotel is so LGBTQ positive, they're really good about queer and trans representation (especially in Helluva Boss!) For this reason, I think it would be really cool if one of the Loa was transgender! It would be a unique opportunity to show the side of Vodou / Voodoo that is LGBTQ positive. While I tried to incorporate more elements from Haitian Vodou, there is also a side of New Orleans Voodoo that is LGBTQ positive, where there are trans and queer people who are part of the community. This is another positive aspect of Voodoo (Vodou) that is never shown in popular media!
Additionally, diverse representation of trans men is totally lacking. Historically, trans men have been invisible in popular media. The few examples that exist are overwhelmingly white and/or emasculated, usually both. There are very few good examples of Black trans men ā more broadly, trans men of color. Generally speaking, trans men of color are not given anything more than a minor role, and are often whitewashed and/or emasculated in some way. Speaking to my experience as a biracial transgender broke bitch, thereās a lot of transphobia in real life, where people literally donāt think masculine trans men of color exist, and liken all trans men to women! It would be awesome to have an important character who is an unapologetically Black, masculine, trans man!
However, if you go down this road, I cannot stress how important it is to establish that this character is not actually Baron Samedi. I would argue that, after Papa Legba, Baron Samedi is the second most misrepresented of lwa in popular media, by virtue of being the most visible one. Major complaints include that he is emasculated and turned into a racist stereotype of Black men. He is also often turned into a villain, even though the actual deity isnāt evil. Baron Samedi is also linked to male sexuality. The autocratic, Haitian president FranƧois Duvalier co-opted his image because he symbolizes male sexual power over the female.Ā
It is actually Papa Gede who has some association with female-to-male gender transformations. In Vodou, females are spiritually transformed into men when they are possessed (āmountedā) by masculine lwa, such as Ogou (spirit of masculinity) and Papa Gede (spirit of masculine sexuality). Eziaku Nwokocha documents this in her book Vodou en Vogue (2023). Specifically, the section titled āLook at Me!ā: Dressing Gede to the Nines describes at length the āmountingā of Manbo Maude Evans by Papa Gede. From the description and photographs of Manbo Maude and other priestesses, one can easily draw comparisons to drag kings and the transmasculine spectrum. Nwokocha elaborates on the āqueernessā and sexual masculinity of Papa Gede, stating: āOften Gedeās interactions with men walk the line between flirtatious and dominatingā¦Gedeās potentially dominating overtures toward men during ceremonies indicate the queerness of the spirit, yet that queerness is not centered; it is not the aspect of his persona that is emphasized in Manbo Maudeās ceremonies. The focus is trained on his masculinity and his predilection for sexual contact, particularly with women. Frequently, there is an outward embrace of cisgender heterosexual constructions of gender and sexuality that is simultaneously contradicted by the spirits and the practicalities of performing religious rituals. This duality is inherent to Manbo Maudeās ceremonies: it is a feature, not a bug, and it expresses the possibilities of gender fluidity present in Vodou practices.ā
There are a few additional sources that suggest that Papa Gede ā possibly even Baron Samedi! āĀ was historically associated with sexual / gender queerness.Ā
Zora Neale Hurstonās Tell My Horse (1938) describes Baron Samedi as forcing humans to dress and behave in a ātransgenderedā manner:Ā
Baron Samedi delights in dressing his āhorsesā in shabby and fantastic clothes like Papa GuedĆ©. Women dressed like men and men like women. Often the men, in addition to wearing female clothes, thrust a calabash up under their skirts to simulate pregnancy. Women put on menās coats and prance about with a stick between their legs to imitate the male sex organs.Ā
Famous African American dancer and social activist Katherine Dunham says the following about Baron Samedi in Dances of Haiti (1983):
One of the common and fearsome possessions is by Papa Gede, whose special emissary is Baron Samedi. Baron Samedi fancies himself quite a dandy, is a heavy drinker, and expresses himself in foul language and lascivious movements. He wears a top hat, a black tail coat, a skirt of cloth or grass, and at times dark glasses. If dark glasses are not available, he may simply wear battered rims without lenses. Baron Samedi's dual sexuality is expressed in gesture and language as well as clothing.
Famous Ukrainian dancer and ethnographer Maya Deren ā herself inspired by Dunham ā attributes similar ātransgenderedā qualities to Papa Gede (Ghede) in Divine Horsemen (1953):Ā
Although Ghede's vast range of power and information never confuses him, he may delight in using it to confound others. He is both tattered and beautiful. He confounds sex with sex, dressing women as men and men as women.*Ā
*Though it is rarely explicit, there is frequently a suggestion of Ghede as a hermaphroditic deity, like Legba.
Notably, all of these sources conducted their ethnographic work in the 1930s-40s ā a time period closer to that of Alastorās death. That being said, it is possible that these accounts contain inaccuracies, as all three were written by outsiders to Haitian culture. Especially in Baron Samediās case, I think he might have been confused for some other deity.
As it is crucial to immediately establish that this character is not the actual Baron Samedi or Papa Gede, I propose two possible approaches:
APPROACH 1: At some point, just show these two framed pictures on a wall with the names āBaron Samediā and āPapa Gedeā on them. Inside the frames are the actual Baron Samedi and the actual Papa Gede (or, two characters who look physically identical to them). The actual deities canāt be part of the jazz band, since Hazbin Hotel doesnāt take place in the real world and has its own mythology. So I guess those two just decided to go on vacation and put this guy in charge insteadā¦ Itās really funny if you stop and think who my DeviantArt OC would actually be.Ā
Heās just some guy who joined the Gede!
To make it even more obvious, you can also reveal that āBaron Samediā is not his real name. He just forces everyone to call him that because he hates being called his legal name.
(It is implied that his real name is just Borrowin Samedi)
(But you canāt put this in the show, because it makes him look lame)
(Vivienne D. Me D. rano would just have to Tweet / livestream about this!)
If you somehow figure out what this dudeās legal name is and call him that, he takes it as disrespect. Everyone who calls him that gets thrown in a BLACK HOLE OF TORTURE!
APPROACH 2: Just donāt name him Baron Samedi. Give him a different name.Ā
The only reason I have not done this is because it breaks the naming convention of Hazbin Hotel. But Iām really starting to question if this was the right choice. With every passing day, itās getting weirder to me that these cartoon characters have the same names as the actual deities. At some point, I really gotta sit down and think about this seriouslyā¦Ā
Anyways, it will never not be funny to me that this guy is not just stealing the actual Baron Samedi's look. He's also stealing the look of Croco D. Ile (One Piece)!
As he should. Those two are the most stylish men who ever fucking lived!
Also I forgot to mention this but he also cut off his tongue in addition to his hands nose and earsā¦ Heās just freaky in every fucking way!
* * *
ENDNOTE: Regarding the origins of Baron Samedi
In this commentary, I mentioned that Papa Gede is Haitian in origin, asserting that Bawons āby extensionā are also Haitian in origin. To be precise, I should have said that the Bawons are Haitian origin, in the sense that they are presently defined by their role in relation to the Gede. I actually donāt know off the top of my head if the Bawons can trace their roots back to an African, or non-Haitian deity.Ā
There is a section of Maya Derenās Divine Horsemen in which she states the following:Ā
āAbove all, America contributed the complex divinity Baron Samedi, at once Lord of the Cemetery, of the cross-roads (as brother to Mait Carrefour, the Petro equivalent of Legba) and of the magic related to both the Dead and the cross-roads, whose major, or at least, best-known expression is the zombie. Both the word zombie and Samedi are from the Indian Zemi which connotes both the spirit of the dead, the soulless living, and the fetish stone by which magic is accomplished."
Source: Deren, M. (1983). Divine Horsemen: the living gods of Haiti. New Paltz, NY, McPherson, pp. 69-70: https://archive.org/details/divinehorsemenli00dere/page/68/mode/2upĀ
Although she uses the word āAmericaā, I think what she means by this is āNative Americanā. The word āZemiā isnāt really Native American, but comes from the indigenous TaĆno people of the Caribbean. But I suppose they could be described as āNative Americanā, since TaĆno trace their roots back to South America.Ā
It is due to his alleged origins in TaĆno spirituality that I think Baron Samedi is also indigenous to Haiti. I could be wrong about this, though. It might just be the Gede who are truly Haitian in origin, not the Bawons.
#PAPYRUS D. UNDERTALE!!!!!!#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel ocs#Heās also stealing the looks of Rob Halford and Tupac Shakurā¦ heās stealing the looks of like 5 different dudesā¦!#but yeah. If you put āāBaron Samediāā-type character in this show#you HAVE to go the extra mile and ENDEAVOR to make him look as COOL as your fragile human hands can make him#which is why i wrote a small book on this matterā¦#i REALLY do not like how I drew this guyās faceā¦ he totally just looks like Papyrus Un D. Ertale but somehow less scary...#let me just self-cancel myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!#the baron of death (hazbin hotel)#dude rereading my dumbass commentary makes me actually want to self-immolate myself!!!!!!!
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Being a human is literally like this weird combo of being okay and not okay that goes on forever except there is also death
#(i'm fine)#(personally) (mostly) (really)#this has just been an absolutely terrible year for our planet and its people and animals#and it's fucking insane that as an american living in relative safety and comfort and experiencing the pleasures and guilt of that...#...i can experience this horrible yet ENTIRELY SURVIVABLE blend of acute pain over so many things at once#including war and genocide and the utter hopelessness of that#and also things like being really really sad that matthew perry's life was so hard and he died#and also so many bad and weird things have happened to family members this year but we mostly have the resources to come together and deal#which is amazing and bolstering and exhausting#and my brain still has space to be excited about writing and numb to writing and angry/impotent about writing#desperate for feedback yet private and retreat-y and weird#always hoping to hit upon The Perfect Thing :-/#and i live in a place that basically is not a democracy any more and also the u.s. is so cursed we've never been what we said we were#so a lot of my own perceived safety is incredibly fragile#but still so much more solid than what the people i am mourning for had#and none of the comparisons make a lick of sense and are in and of themselves deeply unfair#to the point that it's humiliating to feel guilt (making it about me) and simultaneously humiliating that i don't feel guilt *constantly*#and i have therapy this week but also this deep sense that while my therapist will be a fine person to talk to it will feel unuseful#i've always been a muddle of optimism and pessimism and i am very adamant that life is super beautiful and this is precisely why...#...all the violence in the world is so brutally devastating#it's just that the casserole of all these thoughts feels increasingly horrible#and feeling that way is 100% sane#and even intersectional frameworks and intentional attempts at gentleness only get you so far in the grapple#for meaning and for ideas of what to do#so i end up contacting my reps about various awful things#and zooming in and out on my fixations and having excellent days and terrible days#often dependent on what feels like a camera setting i only partially control#and i'm sure i'm not alone in feeling embarrassed that deep empathy and grief for people i've not met somehow ends up being...#...at least a sliver about ME and my little world#about me
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Inquisitor: The Evanuris were elven mages? How did they come to be remembered as gods? Solas: Slowly. It started with a war. War breeds fear. Fear breeds a desire for simplicity. Good and evil. Right and wrong. Chains of command. After the war ended, generals became respected elders, then kings, and finally gods. The Evanuris. Inquisitor: You said that the elven gods went too far. What did they do that made you move against them? Solas: They killed Mythal. (Chuckles.) A crime for which an eternity of torment is the only fitting punishment. Inquisitor: I thought Mythal was one of the Evanuris? Solas: She was the best of them. She cared for her people. She protected them. She was a voice of reason. And in their lust for power, they killed her.
You know, sometimes I wonder about him in regards to Mythal. Not only over how intensely he struck down those who slayed her (and the severe repercussions thereof, even if he didn't realize they'd occur as they did), but the sheer conviction he holds in regards to the future. He banished the Evanuris, and in doing so, single-handedly brought devastation to his people, and Mythal's, leaving their descendants scarred and 'weak', shadows of their former selves. But it's the 'and Mythal's' that gets me. He 'avenged' her and in turn, became the 'undoing' of the elven civilization she'd loved and protected above all?
Inquisitor: That's the past. What about the future? Solas: (...) My people fell for what I did to strike the Evanuris down, but still some hope remains for restoration. I will save the Elven people, even if it means this world must die.
#solas. [ what would you have had me say? that i was the great adversary in your people's mythology? ]#solas: little notes. [ but nature is and always has been; grey. a spirit is a purpose. a demon is that purpose perverted. ]#solas: mythal. [ they killed her. a crime for which an eternity of torment is the only fitting punishment. ]#just so i can help find this back.#... i'm so happy to be coming back to this character with a fresh pair of eyes. untainted. no bias of perspective.#and i truly wonder about his relation to mythal. or his view of her at least beyond the immense respect-- okay listen.#i'm sorry actually but i can't call this just respect. who does /that/ in response the death of one you speak about like this?#i don't like to insinuate but also.#just re-listening to this. and the fragility of his voice. but also the chuckle. it's too pointed. it's too specific timing-wise actually.#but this actually has their decision for his romance choices make /absolute/ sense to me.#'we didn't want him to potentially fall into a trope' my ass. i still don't think gaider's intention was ever to kill solas.#i still don't think that's where they're going. he's too rooted in loneliness. and i don't think they want to /end/ that.#āthey killed mythal. a crime for which an eternity of torment is the only fitting punishment.ā yeah okay past me.#how did i not-- /how did i not/.
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god bless and protect queer elders
#i got fired from one of my jobs today and i was so tired and done with everything#then on the bus this lovely old man sat next to me and told me he loved my style and asked how my day was#i told him its been a long one and he said his was too and apparently he was wearing fem clothes earlier in dt and got harassed earlier#for it which made me so so sad and so he had to throw on some track pants to cover up his leggings (which is insane in this heat)#and i told him i was sorry he had to go through that but that i hope he stays safe in his self expression and then he asked me what made my#day long and i told him#n he said 'its okay. this is going to be an opportunity for something better to come along. you're just making some space for it right now'#and i literally almost criedbmdhsnsbdhd#he kept telling me not to stress too much because stress is bad for the body and to take care of myself and ohhh my god i very nearly sobbed#i was holding on by a thread i was sooo so fragile#sweetest man alive i sincerely hope he is okay and happy and stays safe#i was like so tired and overwhelmed and i feel like i didnt talk or say nearly as much as i wanted to because my stop was also coming up#so i had to cut the convo short#but god. i hope he is happy and safe#vent cw#vent tw
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do you ever find a song that reminds you so violently of a favourite character that you kind of just like. freeze there once the realization hits
so anyway I found a new Dorothy song and Iāve paused everything I was doing to talk about it because. oh my god. come cry with me.
Flowers by Marina, hereāre the lyrics:
obviously Iāve related this back to her marriage with/& divorce from stan, but I feel like this song really encapsulates how easy it is/has been for Dorothy to fall right back into his arms at the slightest show of affection, regardless of how far along she is in her own healing journey, and how awful she knows he is. āAnd itās most tempting to give in when you hear the firin shots, when youāre steps from winning back all the happiness you lost.ā
Sheās very weak to emotional temptation, itās one of her biggest character flaws. It doesnāt take much to convince her to do something she has already been yearning for even slightly. (I could connect this back to her recovering gambling addiction on so many different levels but thats another post entirely, and kind of self explanatory) ie: the episode stan takes a wife, where he shows affection for Sophia in crisis, keeps dorothy company, and now - regardless of the fact that sheās about to ruin a planned wedding and that, stan is stan - dorothy is determined to take stan back and completely convinced that he wants her back, too. We see dorothy in a similar situation with stan in season one also, to a little bit of a lesser extent. There are so many big and small examples of this that it would be impossible to name them all individually, but I think the examples involving stanley are most relevant here. oh god, not to mention the time they almost actually get married again ā¦ spare me. Eventually, everytime, when he proves once again to be the asshole that cheated & left her, she comes to her senses. But oh my god sometimes it just takes so much for her to see that someone is bad for her. āābut I would rather not, betray myself, just to keep your love at any costā
Sophia comments on this flaw once or twice in canon too (OUCH, BTW.) and it just ā¦ dorothy is always so defensive. girl your mother is correct I fear!!!
āIf youād just bought me flowers, maybe I would have stayedāā¦ the slightest show of affection would have kept her there with him for even longer, Iām so sure of it ā thank god he stayed gone for as long as he did. Should have been forever!!!!!!! she had been slipping away from him since day one.
Do I even need to start talking about āand now my future gleams with colours bold and bright, in a home thatās filled with love and hope and a life that just feels right.ā PLEASE. PLEASEā¦ Iām so fragile ā¦ā¦ please ā¦ I feel like this one speaks for itself. And right after a line that so perfectly describes her home life while married to stan? Iām not well oh my god this is sick
#sorry I know these thoughts were all over the place and made no sense but when the song came on shuffle and I made the connection#I about died#every lyric here is so exactly her. it didnāt talk about every one (although I wanted to badly) because#it would have been me rambling about things that are very self explanatory I think - but I just had to get some kind of ramble out on this#I canāt deal with this one flaw of hersā¦ I feel like itās the type of thing youād never expect from someone like her but oh boy.#sheās just :( she just wants to be loved. truly wholly loved#sheās not scary. shes not what people perceive her to be on the surface - sheās gentle & kind & so deeply fragile#the golden girls#dorothy zbornak#like she is the LAST person youād expect to be taking back her lying cheating broke exhusband#sheās the kind of person to tell you NOT to do that!!!!! sheād KILL for you in a situation like that!!!!#but show her any kindness & she disregards every horrible thing about you. she yearns to feel loved so badly that in the moment#all that matters is the feeling that someone might actually love her.#there is also the connection to stan that I donāt think sheāll ever really be able to look past. which does unfortunately make sense to me#i mean. heās the father of her children. she had to spend 38 years of her life with him - obviously thatās going to leave a scar#okay ramble over there are just so many thoughts but Iāve already started repeating things Iāve rambled on already š
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