I don't hate Hazbin Hotel

I know this has been a sort of debate around the internet and surrounding the shows Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, i'm only going to be talking about Hazbin Hotel here, but I want to get this out real quick. I do not like Vivziepop, just generally, there have just been so many things in her past that add up to recently of her being weird in general or defending and infantillizing her most problematic characters and I just don't like her. So many people defend her and if your one of them that's your decision so don't take my opinion as a stranger on the internet to heart. 

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First off I want to talk about the writing, character designs, and general pacing of the show. I'm sure we can all agree that the pacing in this show is horrendous and leaves a lot to be desired, in both general plot and character writing. In the first season it just makes me so mad and disappointed that they had to fit about a six month timeline into just eight episodes and it just shows that it was one of the worse things that could have happened. There are so many "arcs" and secondary plots with the characters that we see them have to speedrun through 10 minutes each and maybe a single if we're lucky, and I say 10 minutes because there are about 3 different plots going on through this show. We will see in one episode multiple different conflicts and emotional pulls in different directions and it just makes it all moot. 

In the same episode where we are supposed to be exploring the traumatic events that is Angel Dust being in this codependent and literally soul bound relationship with his abuser and r*pist, we also are supposed to be tethered to this emotional scene with Angel and Husk where they sing their song and make their connection, and it's in my opinion a very good song and in any other episode, even one later after we as the audience have time to process Angel's situation and the emotional impact of his character, but because it happens in the same episode and only minutes after each other it just sort of falls flat with trying to connect to the audience. 

There are many ways you can write s*xual abuse and abuse in general, and I thought in the first part of the episode they were actually going to do a pretty decent job, especially when they actually give the audience the chance to see smaller moments of Angel getting constant messages and calls from Valentino and we get to the more climactic part of the episode where we see first hand the abuse his character endures. 

This is to me, mostly a pacing issue and paired with Hazbin's more juvenile writing style it just doesn't land they want it to, and that really sucks because yes the characters are very interesting, and the music is great and even gives the characters a different way to connect that gives the audience a way to see more into their perspectives, but Hazbin doesn't use these tools or the story they have to the fullest. 

Segwaying into the character designs as well and how they're not really used the way I would hope they would be. A lot of the character designs are fun and vibrant and really out there, and that's what makes them stand out from every other adult animated shows, but they don't do anything for me as the viewer, when I know that a lot of these designs were either repurposed from a long time ago or were stand alone oc's for a time away from the series. That itself isn't a bad thing, but when you have such an interesting concept of heaven and hell and this colorful cast of characters but they don't actually have much of a rhyme or reason to them it again, falls flat to the viewers. 

I've tried to see some structure in some of the character designs, because to an extent you can see the connection from the sinners to their sins during life. Like with Beelzebub as a wolf-bee hybrid thing and insect sinners being linked to gluttony, or some other characters like Mimzy (supposedly) being a hen and the sin Asmodeus having a rooster motif. I love those parts of character designs, but there are so many where you just have not idea what's going on. Like Mimzy, who I just mentioned, she is supposed to be a hen but you wouldn't guess it by her design, perhaps the couple feather on the top of her hair, but besides that it doesn't make much sense. 

Another example is Velvette and Vox, I'm not entirely sure what sin Velvette is supposed to have "represented", and I guess you could say Vox is a mix of greed and envy (the capitalistic and fish stuff) but even then its kind of stretching it. Also have no idea where Pentious would fit in here, maybe we could say sinners with more general animal looks/characteristics died with the sin of pride?

I got a little of track there but you get the point, I just have so many different critiques for the character designs, but I can also see why they're so appealing, because they are just fun. I have seen so much amazing fanart, cosplays, and renditions of these characters that allow people to have room to be creative with them and be creative with their own OCS/inserts. I'm not going to get into the entire shows color pallet, we're all thinking it and know it's faults. The clashing colors and tones make it hard to really enjoy the backgrounds or characters to the fullest because the just don't give you the space to. 

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Next I want to talk about the songs and the voice actors. I want to start off with every single one of these actors are so incredibly talented along with the song writers and producers. I really think another big part of the hype for this show is how good the music is, and no matter how many people say it's cringe and out of place, will not change my mind. To a degree it is campy and it's amazing how far the actors and composers can take both the characters and story. There are so many different genres and varients of music in the show, and this isn't to disregard that there are a few things here and there that do give me pause that don't quite fit, especially with the first couple episodes but I really wanted to give credit where credit is due. 

In season one we have Happy Day in Hell, that's supposed to be reminisce of a Disney princess song, specifically the "I want song" and in the same episode we also have Hell I'd forever, which is a gospel rock song. Later on we have Poison that's a pop song and goes along with a music video route, and You Didn't Know which as far as season one goes, the song that is most like a fully structured musical song. 

There are songs like Respect less where I thought they could have done a little better with establishing a music for the characters, and sure Velvette had a bit of a more modern techno sound, and Carmilla had her Spanish guitar (a whole other can of worms) but there wasn't a sound that stayed true to the character or truly felt like them. A show that does this really well is Steven Universe, it's a kids show sure, but each character has a distinctive sound and aura when they sing, dance, or fuse. It's what makes their interactions and songs feel so much like the characters. 

I'm not music expert and I don't have much insight when it comes to the actual writing to these songs, but as my opinion as a viewer, a lot of the songs are really good and are furthered by the amazing cast, and some other songs I skip when listening to the album. And it doesn't mean they're bad it just means they're not as strong or listening to them just doesn't give the same depth as the rest. 

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I wanted to do this one last because I know this specifically has been something a lot of people, including myself, have had a problem with, and it's the dialogue. I said it earlier but I'm going to say it again, I think Hazbin's writing is very juvenile and it's really disappointing, and I'm not talking about just them using an overkill of cuss words or them being more vulgure than not, but it's just the general dialogue and characters. 

So many times the characters are reduced to cheesy one liners or infantillization from others and the general narrative. One character is particular, and I hate to say it, Alastor. His character is supposed to come off as mysterious and very much this over powered scary cannibal overlord, and there are scenes where I think they do accomplish this, but overall his character is just reduced to those cheesy one liners and being an edge lord. And it's not subtle where we as the audience can say we see right through him, and the characters still think he's mysterious and terrifying, but he's like a coin with heads on both sides, there's no difference to how he acts. 

He tries to manipulate and mock everyone, we never see any real genuine emotion from him expect anger or embarrassment, and this is all happening transparently in front of other characters so it doesn't add much depth that the audience can see. If anything we're given half attempts of him being "soft" or "sympathetic" to other characters, as the viewer we're being treated as the characters should, and seeing this as a surprise when we should be able to see these emotions separately. 

Which is very dissapointing to the character, because as someone who did watch the pilot when it was fairly recent it doen't have the same effect. And yes I know it's going to be the same counter argument that it was literally just a pilot and there wasn't much of a character there int he first place, but I really do disagree. In the pilot alone that aired on YouTube, we see so much more of this character that is supposed to be seen as this crazy manic and mysterious overlord, we don't know the half of his motivations and his attitude is different. In the pilot compared to the show, the character of Alastor is much more secure in his power and his stance as an overlord, but in the show he just seems so insecure and it's very plain to see. Pilot v.s show Alastor woudl be believable to actually be helping the hotel just for fun because he thinks it would be funny, show Alastor doesn't. I say this as someone who does legitemitely enjoys the character, I just wish they wrote him and his characters better.

Two characters I also see the infantilization a lot with are Charlie and Lucifer. From the get go we see that Charlie is a bit of a cry baby and sort of naive when it comes to actual sinners, and at first it was charming because it was a way to push off her character and see how they might write her into a more leadership role and make her more sympathetic and connected to sinners, but I don't really see that with her. I'll say I would really hope that a lot of her character would be a direct consequence of her being the daughter of the sin of pride, but I don't think that's really what the writers were going for just because of the way she's treated by the other characters. 

She is constantly babied by her partner and others and a lot of her actions are dismissed because she's seen as someone just trying to do good, so when she does mess up it's just her trying to help others just misguided. And I do agree with that on a couple occasions but it just keeps happening and it gets frustrating to see it repeat over and over. It doesn't make the times where she does actually take a leadership role as impactful, because it doesn't feel like she earned it, it just seems like she gets it by default and it's not rewarding to the audience. 

I would have loved to see how she would be written for her flaws to be her being the literal princess of pride, and how stronger she could have gotten with both her leadership and maybe even magic, but it's just underwhelming. She never feels like she really connects to the sinners, or we just aren't given the chance to see it because for the main character and the driving point of the series, shes back seated for a good chunk of the episodes and just given fast and quickly resolved mini arcs to make it seem like she's developing. She talks and acts like she's in a constant state of not knowing her actions had consequences, and when they do more often than nto when we're supposed to be perceiving her as growing a back bone it just comes off as her throwing a tantrum. 

And like I mentioned Lucifer is also a victim of this. At first I also found this part of his character very charming, and I still do, he's one of my favorite characters but he's just very flat as a character. The idea of the king of hell just being someones dad at this point in the story and just coasting on by is a funny concept that could have been done very well, like Bowser with his kids, he's seen as scary and has all this power but when it comes to his kids he's just a softy. But, it permeates into his whole character, even when he is in fact eating as the sin of pride he's very much treated as "little guy" and he's treated like that as his actual character trait. When that becomes most of the character and not just a small part it's not as fun to see. 

I think in season two when he's so desperate to see Charlie again that he goes to a creepy abandoned warehouse and that itself is funny, that the gag and it works, and it also works that after this he doesn't react almost at all when he realizes it's Vox because he as the sin of pride doesn't see sinners as anything more than sinners, so he doesn't see himself as in any danger. That also I think is very good writing, his sin and overview away from the people has made him believe that they could never touch him and they would never find a way to. The writing during and between these scenes is what makes it again, not as impactful as it should be. 

His entire dialogue is him not saying as the king of hell, or an actually confident character but as a "silly guy" who like Charlie doesn't grasp onto certain things or concepts because of them being babied by their own characterization. And I believe they did better in terms of these issues in season two, but it's still very much there. 

No I am not going to talk about the end song and their "power of friendship" that was something I actually really liked. It was satisfying to see, yes in a cheesy, power ballad of all the characters singing because that is one of the core elements of the story. It uses the power of friendship multiple times in the show and I love it. 

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As of now that's all I have to say that I feel more strongly about, and if you actually read all of that, thank you. I'd love to hear any other opinions about the characters or any points I talked about. Maybe you agree with me or think i'm dead wrong, i'd love to hear your thoughts! I might do another rant about Helluva Boss later also.