#to get to my hazbin hotel opinions you must first read my pitch on how i would have written high school musical 3

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February 2024 Review Roundup

well i sure did watch some stuff and read one book this month

the things i finished this month reminded me that for every incredible piece of art i find myself enjoying, i end up watching some Hot Garbage immediately after to balance things out again. idk why i do this.

i have quite a bit to say about both the things i enjoyed and the things that brought me physical pain this month, so there is um. a lot under the cut. any previous desire for brevity i had in january has been completely thrown out the window as i use these roundups as an outlet to gush about things i like and complain about things i didn't. fair warning, if you open the readmore you will be scrolling for a while. enjoy i guess

House of Leaves

does any other book out there have the balls to write a completely fake interview with stephen king

House of Leaves is a novel you gotta throw around a little bit. It feels really weird that my copy is still in the pristine state I bought it in - It seems like it should have water damage and smell like mildew with its pages falling out and spine cracked into pieces. Getting the full story from this book requires flipping back and forth, turning it around, searching for answers. All things considered it’s not that difficult of a read, but its format still allows you to feel like you’re discovering every hidden piece for yourself, and I really liked that interactivity. I was engaged pretty much the whole way through.

I don’t really think I’ll be able to revisit this book anytime soon though. It’s difficult for me to format what else I’d like to say about it because to be honest, it caught me off guard and disturbed me on a fairly personal level. There’s a relief I feel when I remember that I don’t actually know what was going on with the house - maybe that was intentional on the book’s behalf, maybe I just didn’t look hard enough for answers. I don’t know. But the implication that something divine was down there was enough of an answer for me. The book's good. read it if you want a spooooooky time or if you never want to look at a hallway the same way again

Doctor Who (Series 1-4) (rewatch)

ok so this is a fuckload of doctor who to cover so i’m gonna give some thoughts on a few of the characters and my favorite + least favorite episodes

9th doctor: My favorite butch lesbian. Christopher Eccleston truly embodies the concept of The Doctor so, so well: otherworldly guy who knows too much, genuinely cares about life across the universe, and also has a bit of deep, unresolved rage. His moments of joy and careless fun stick with me the most, he absolutely radiates with life and brings so much to this character.

Rose: I first watched Doctor Who when I was in middle school, and I didn’t like Rose that much back then. And guys. I have bad news. I'm still not really much of a Rose fan

I definitely understood her more this watch through - that desire for adventure and some sort of control over her life, emotions so strong that she’s willing to throw near everything away. That’s just what being 19 is like sometimes. I think Rose is a very compelling character who just happens to frustrate me a bit. And that’s kinda the point, her co-dependent relationship with the Doctor is doomed to fail and it's meant to hurt. Ultimately, I think when I first watched the show I was too young to understand Rose, and now I’m just too old to relate to her.

Captain Jack: Jack is my favorite character. I fucking love this guy. Dude has the worst luck in the whole universe and still cannot be stopped. Legendary. Every episode with him is a goddamn delight because he has so much chemistry with every single cast member. No notes 10/10 i love my problematic bisexual king

10th doctor: About four episodes into David Tennant’s run I realized that he dresses like a Hazbin Hotel character and it made me very sad. Still, there’s a reason this guy inspired every middle schooler to buy a pair of converse in 2008. He has style, he has depth, he’s got the sauce. It’s genuinely terrifying to see his anger, I like that a lot of 10’s run is about his denial of godhood and power over life in the universe, something that the rest of the time lords desired. idk i like my sad pathetic little weasel but he's also a huge fucking asshole sometimes which sucks. especially when it's directed at Martha.

Martha: Martha I am so sorry for what this show put you through. Martha was my favorite companion when I first watched the show, and I still have a huge soft spot for her. Her ability to hold her own and navigate foreign worlds using her own intelligence absolutely rules, and her drive forward is unbreakable. But the show seems to put her down at every possible opportunity, most notably with how 10 treats her. Her struggles and wants are constantly ignored, and she's often treated as a rebound from Rose. And I like that she eventually chooses to end it by not traveling with 10 anymore, but it hurts because it feels like she was never given the same chance or care that Rose and Donna were. This era of Doctor Who really doesn’t treat its black companions well because Mickey goes through something similar - both Martha and Mickey are characters designed to be ignored or left behind, and it sucks.

Donna: Donna Noble is one of the greatest fictional characters to ever exist. Despite seemingly living a fairly average life and working a fairly average job, Donna reflects the idea that no one is truly "average" and every single person is brimming with personality, life, and love. I love that her relationship with 10 is purely platonic, personally their friendship feels like it has a lot more depth than either of the romance-oriented relationships 10 had with Rose and Martha. 10 and Donna bounce off of each other so well and it's delightful, Donna brings so much humor and life to every world she's taken to and it's incredible. I wish her and Captain Jack could have interacted more.

My favorite episode: The Runaway Bride is hard to not choose as my favorite. I have a blast every time I watch this episode and it’s such a good introduction for Donna. Also the Tardis car chase kills me, I love when it cuts to the kids in the back of another car clapping and cheering. I was also surprised by the episode Midnight - it’s dreadful to watch and I kinda loved it. So much spirals out of control when shit hits the fan, even though no one has any idea what they’re trying to fight against. Really interesting exploration as to how fear can drive people apart.

My least favorite episode: It’s Love & Monsters. I wish I liked this episode - stories that follow regular ass people living in this world are often some of the best episodes in the series (Weeping Angels and all that). And this episode definitely has some of that. It’s honestly really touching to see this group of nerds get together and enjoy life in the first part of the episode. I think the antagonist of “guy who absorbs people” ends up dragging down any charm this story had because he just. eats all of the interesting characters. But despite me disliking this episode, I honestly have a deep respect for it - it’s fucking crazy. It ends with the main guy telling us about his sex life with his girlfriend who is now stuck in a piece of concrete. Where else are you going to get a story like this. It fucking sucks and that’s hilarious

oh also the production design: GODDDDDD I FUCKING LOVE THE PRODUCTION DESIGN AND SETS ON THIS SHOW. I love how dirty and rundown a lot of the spaceship sets look with wires and lights scattered everywhere. And a number of alien designs also go CRAZY with the prosthetics - I keep thinking about the Hath from The Doctor’s Daughter and how every head prosthetic had liquid inside it that could bubble. Absolutely crazy. I also love the moments where you can clearly see they did not have that much time and just had to throw something together or pain a bald cap green. Jank is the nature of sci-fi production design and I dearly love and miss that Doctor Who jank.

Rebuild of Evangelion

Last year after finishing the original Evangelion series + End of Evangelion, I remember going through the Evangelion tumblr tag and being very confused by the number of slice of life/found family-esque fanworks of the cast. It left me puzzled and thinking “...did we even watch the same thing??”

APPARENTLY NOT

[spoiler warning here because these movies are very good and i give the best parts away. if you want to watch these movies then DO IT NOW!!!!!!!!]

I honestly never expected a world where these characters got a happy ending. I so, so badly wish I could see 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 in theaters - these movies are stunning. I know I say things “go crazy” a lot, but man. They go fucking CRAZY.

While I have a few issues with how the first two movies adapted the original show, I do think the changes they made better serve the story this rebuild is trying to tell. For example, my favorite episode in the original Eva series is episode 18, where Toji is chosen to pilot Unit 03. It’s absolutely terrifying because Shinji doesn’t know who 03’s pilot is, yet he’s forced to be inside Unit 01 as it tears 03 apart. His resolve not to kill anyone despite not even knowing who’s in danger is an aspect of that episode I love and speaks to Shinji's inherent humanity, and when he learns Toji was in there it hurts even more. The rebuild movies change Unit 03’s pilot to Auska, and Shinji knows she’s in there from the start. I think this choice works for the movies and is still an effective emotional beat, but personally I still prefer the version where Shinji had no idea who was in there. That lack of knowledge is infinitely more terrifying to me.

I really like what these movies did with some of the angel designs though. The sixth angel (the fuckin. blue diamond cube thing) works really well in 3D/CG animation. The way the thing warps and moves is otherly and terrifying - and it’s just a fucking cube. I’ve always really loved how the Eva series approaches angel designs and the divine - despite the alien-like designs, there’s often something extremely familiar about them. They’re often reminiscent of an animal, a machine, or a human. This is also how they approached the anti-universe in these movies, I loved how it takes the form of various locations from the series and turns them into a movie set. It’s deeply familiar, but ultimately just an illusion of familiarity like the angels and the divine.

Also I gotta say. I fucking love Mari. I think she’s hilarious. She first meets Shinji by accidentally parachuting into him and then immediately starts crawling on all fours to sniff him. This girl also introduces “Beast Mode” where the Eva pilots can go wild turn their mechs into a fucking. superpowered beast of some sort. And also she defeats a whole army by using the Eiffel Tower as a spear. She’s such an absurd character and I honestly kinda love it. The only thing I knew about these movies before watching them was this gif of her Backing That Shit Up and she truly lives up to the insane nature of this shot.

My favorite section of these movies is definitely the first part of 3.0+1.0 where the pilots are basically just living a domestic life in a small town - it’s truly beautiful. The growth that Rei’s copy goes through here is fantastic, I love stories about seemingly emotionless beings learning how to live. And right after she dies, we get the shot that absolutely broke me the first time I saw it:

This shit. The way you can just barely tell he’s been crying from the red around his eyes. They don't talk about it, they barely linger on it, but it's allowed just enough time to punch you in the gut. I don’t know why this shot got me as hard as it did but goddamn. jesus christ. i want to throw up

There’s some goofy shit in these movies. The infinite synch rate. Misato’s stupidass hat and sunglasses. Some goofy ass 3D animation that doesn’t age super well. The rainbow that shows up every time an angel dies. But these things really didn’t take me out of the core of these films, and there’s so much genuine emotion and beauty in this series that had me absolutely hooked - especially in the last two films. They go crazy. My favorite line is 100% “The only thing a son can do for his father is pat him on the shoulder… or kill him.” and man. ain’t that what Evangelion is all about. i love these movies

High School Musical 3

kinda slaps just a little bit

High School Musical 3 starts with a finale number. The last high school basketball game of Troy Bolton’s life - and it goes kinda hard. The classic pep band brass that’s essential to so many High School Musical numbers returns, and the constant theme of two feuding cheer teams in the background? Genius. This is truly art. I love listening to Now or Never without visuals because in the middle Troy just starts coughing and gagging seemingly out of nowhere

Unfortunately, starting the movie at such a high point means that the rest of the runtime doesn’t quite match up to it. The story lags and meanders quite a bit, but part of me kinda appreciates that - it’s their last semester of high school, which is always a time of confusion and turmoil. However, I do have a pitch for how they could have countered the constant falling action this movie seems to go through:

The Wildcats should have lost their last game at the beginning of the movie.

What if the game is instead the inciting incident that leads Troy and his besties through their tumultuous last semester? Troy is still torn between basketball and theater, but his identity would be even further challenged here - is winning and success all that matters for him, or is it the love of sport and performance that keeps him going? idk whatever this movie came out 16 years ago i can’t be out here writing AUs for it jgnfsgfnjdksg

Some miscellaneous thoughts about this movie that i don’t care about formatting into larger paragraphs:

Ryan and Sharpay’s number (I Want It All) slaps as usual. The part where Ryan shouts “MADISON SQUARE GARDEN!!!!!!!” makes me so happy every time i hear it

The production design and sets go absolutely fucking crazy. I still have no idea how they pulled off the spinning hallway in Scream.

One of the classic staples of HSM is Chad’s shirts. Most of them are fairly silly and like something you would expect to find in the walmart clearance section. However, there’s one shirt he has in this movie that confused the hell out of me. It’s this one:

What the FUCK does Greenster mean. Is it just a combination of Green and Monster?? Why??? What green monster are we talking about here????? Where the fuck did this shirt come from?????????

Avatar The Last Airbender (2024)

There’s really only one word I can think of to describe what this show is like: sauceless. No flavor. No depth. No character. No sauce. This show is honestly so fucking boring and seems to fundamentally misunderstand what the appeal of the original Avatar series is - not necessarily because things are changed or removed from the original, but because nothing of substance is added in return. 

Most of the characters are mere echoes of their original counterparts when compared to their source material. Sokka is reduced to a guy who wants to fight good, Katara’s stubborn and confrontational nature is very rarely utilized, and Aang’s mischievous antics and love of fun is sorely missing. One of the major reasons for the dull interpretations seems to be the directing - While I have faith that most of these actors are trying their best (especially since a number of them are kids/young adults), the direction seems to be incredibly lackluster and takes away nearly every cast member’s stage presence or personality. There’s a number of reaction shots of the main trio that just look like this: 😐😐😐 as if they were just told to “look concerned” at the events unfolding before them. And these issues are apparent in the majority of the performances - for example, General Zhao talks like he’s in a board meeting up until the last episode, and it’s an incredibly flat performance. He talks somewhat monotone in the original series as well, but this live-action take on the character often meanders with his dialogue and lacks that sharp, terrifying quality that I think this character needs. Uncle Iroh also feels incredibly stiff in this adaptation, and it’s a goddamn crime that they took away the cunty little outfit and chains he was originally wearing when he gets captured by earthbenders. wait who said that

Credit where credit is due, there’s a few cast members that seem to be giving their best. It’s clear that Aang’s actor enjoys the role and does pretty well despite the lackluster direction and dialogue he’s given. On top of that, I think Zuko’s actor is honestly the best part of the show. His take on Zuko leans much more into teenage tendencies and sarcasm, which, although it can be silly, is a welcome take of the character in my opinion and pretty fun to watch. There’s this one line he has at the beginning of episode 2 where, in an incredibly whiny tone of voice, he goes “He RAN! The ultimate warrior! He’s a Coward :((((“ and the read is so. fucking funny

The case of bad direction isn’t limited to the performances, however. It’s also stunningly apparent in how everything is shot. Despite being in a widescreen format, most shots are incredibly centered - you could crop the entire runtime into a 4:3 frame and you wouldn’t be cutting out much of anything. I’ve seen some speculation that this was an intentional choice to make things more adaptable or readable for TikTok/phone video, but honestly I think that’s a dumb take. I think the issue stems from a lack of creativity and thoughtless composition. Keeping everything staged in the center can make shots feel disjointed, lacking much depth, or completely empty. It’s a boring way to shoot and indicates that the show lacks any unique vision at all.

Overall, this show doesn't really seem to understand what makes Avatar interesting in the first place. It's more interested in spectacle and action than the characters' relationships, emotions, and mistakes. I try not to compare it too much to the original since it's allowed to take liberties with its adaptation, but very few of its changes add much to the end result or give it a unique voice. It's just sauceless and boring.

Some YouTube videos i liked in February:

💥 My House.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod (some supplemental House of Leaves material for ya) 💥 Martha Jones Deserved Better (this video explains how Doctor Who did Martha dirty better than i ever could) 💥 bringing JUSTICE to the worst garfield game 💥 Selling Kids for Clout: The Downfall of Family Channels

And that’s my roundup for February! Thank you for reading, I promise there are no more reviews left to scroll through below this goodbye. Nope, nothing else I watched this month. Bye!

…ok is everyone gone. phew, i’m glad no one noticed i pulled an hbomberguy and hid the largest part of this post under a false ending. Anyway holy shit i need to talk about hazbin hotel

Hazbin Hotel

well i didn’t like it

Hazbin Hotel is a weird, fascinating mess of a show. Every episode left me wondering what creative decisions (or lack thereof) led to the sequence of images I just watched. There’s been a lot of discussion of this show recently and I’m not interested in covering every critique I have, but there’s a few things that I'd like to talk about somewhat in-depth.

Hell is real and it's just Red Chicago

The setting of Hell is kinda boring in this show.

Let me try to put this into perspective. Aside from the hotel, here’s a list of the locations we see in Hell:

A boardroom

A video store

Vox’s evil lair (it has cyber sharks which is kinda cool)

Various streets

Another boardroom

A BDSM club

Carmilla’s house (it’s gray and has. balconies?)

A porn studio

A bar

Another bar

A town square (full of cannibals)

None of these locations really take on any sort of otherworldly form besides some vague demonic imagery scattered throughout (and the cannibals. i guess. whatever). In short, Hazbin Hotel’s setting resembles Chicago more than it does Hell.

I can see a world where that’s intentional. Perhaps making Hell resemble a modern city could be used as a thematic tool or point of relatability? But Hazbin doesn’t really do anything like that - since the characters rarely ever interact with their environments, these locations end up seeming like they lack creativity, like they’re just cardboard sets where characters go to swear. They all start to blend together after a while - every street feels the same, every boardroom fades into the background, and every bar feels like a google image search result for the word “club.” This world feels stunningly empty despite the busy designs and colors. Even though the backgrounds are painted and designed fairly well, nothing of substance is ever really added to them through the story.

However, a few musical numbers take effort to break away from these settings. This felt like a weight off of my shoulders whenever it happened, it was nice to see some interesting setpieces and backgrounds that weren’t red. I liked the bombastic and over-the-top broadway lights in Loser and the glowing alternate world in Charlie and Lucifer’s song. But these moments are few and crowded by the dull locations in Hell - or worse, the Hotel itself.

Despite being the namesake of the show, the actual Hazbin Hotel is… lifeless. Which, yeah, it’s a hotel where dead people go in the afterlife, but it’s missing any sort of personality or history besides “it’s old and falling apart.” I expected the hotel to be full of secrets - like maybe some hidden passages or rooms, or mysterious cabinets full of rotted meats, or old valuables hidden under the rugs by the previous owners. Something for the cast to explore and discover, and as they get closer to each other they also start to understand the hotel more. Alastor seems very intent on keeping the physical hotel standing for some reason, but I never really understood why. There’s nothing there. And that nothingness is fully realized when at the end of the show, they just rebuild the entire hotel to be grand and beautiful - an emotional beat that didn’t hit me at all because I never felt like I knew the hotel in the first place. Despite rebuilding it from the ground up, it will feel just as empty.

3 SHOTS THAT DRIVE ME CRAZY

I was truly baffled at how some of these scenes are timed and put together. Multiple sequences left me feeling nauseous and dazed - the camera moves like it’s being swung on the end of a rope, and there’s so many misplaced or meaningless cuts scattered through these episodes.

There’s a sequence of three shots in the first episode that I want to dissect. I will fully admit that I'm breaching nitpicking territory here, but the shot composition issues in this show are pretty rampant and my analysis here is just a hyper-specific look at a single part of that larger problem. Hopefully you can also use it as a quick storyboarding lesson too idk

First, we see Adam teasing Charlie.

Then, it cuts straight to this shot:

A few things here. 

Shot 2 is just closer on the characters, which is not a great idea to cut to after the previous waist-up shot. On top of being a jarring jump cut, there is no purpose for this new shot. All the information we see here (Adam laughs, Charlie fake laughs) could have just been conveyed in the previous shot.

Despite the characters being in the same position as the last shot, the background changes. This straight up just feels like an error. I think the idea is supposed to be that the camera is at a different angle, but the position of the characters does not convey that. It looks like reality changes behind them.

And if that’s not enough, this is the shot we get immediately after those two:

In this shot, the residents of the hotel sit on the couch as Vaggie walks into the shot, framing them between her legs. But there’s something… off.

Vaggie either looks like she’s floating or she’s three stories tall. Quick storyboard lesson as to why:

The main problem with this shot is that the perspective of the background doesn’t match up with where Vaggie is placed. The couch is framed as if the camera were above it, but Vaggie is framed like the camera is floor-level below her. I’ve traced the shot and added a perspective grid to hopefully better illustrate this:

Do you see what I mean? If the camera WAS actually on the floor like Vaggie’s position in the shot suggests, the composition would look more like this:

Notice how much closer the floor grid is to the bottom of the frame and how you can see the underside of the couch.

And to be fair, this is probably what the original storyboard for this shot looked like! Personally I think something went wrong in the compositing stage - this might be a couch background from another shot that was reused here to save time, or whoever approved this shot just let the error slide since the shot is so short (i've been there. sometimes you let the jank slide). Most animated shows will have some poorly framed shots and continuity errors because mistakes are bound to happen, but two egregious ones right next to each other like this is. pretty bad. It's so noticeable from a directing perspective.

Here’s the thing: these three shots happen in the span of like 10 seconds. Most viewers probably wouldn’t notice these issues, and that's fine. But even though these errors are quick, they stack upon each other so fast that even if you can’t pinpoint exactly what’s wrong, something still feels wrong. There’s so many other moments where the show breaks extremely basic shot composition, continuity, and staging rules - for example, the second musical number of the show breaks the 180 rule like four times for no good reason. The whole show feels like a dizzy, nauseating mess because the shots rarely feel like they form anything cohesive.

MY ROOMMATE TOLD ME TO GO TO BED SO HERE ARE SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

Here’s a rundown on some other thoughts that I don’t care to format into larger sections:

The show seems to lack much to say about sin and redemption other than “redemption good.” like sure, but what are they being redeemed from? Is heaven truly the place they deserve to go after being redeemed, even though it’s shown to be unjust? Are there sins that are too great to be redeemed from, or others that shouldn't be considered sins at all? I asked myself a number of questions like this, but never got many answers from Hazbin.

This show has a bad relationship with kink and sex. Both are mostly used as a punchline or a form of control. I didn’t like it. Perhaps the reason Hazbin never really comments on the nature of sin is because it needs you to consider sex and kink sinful or otherly for these jokes to hit.

Some of the animation is crazy good. I will praise any animator that even attempts to make these character designs move. A number of extremely talented people worked on this show, a few of the musical sequences in particular have some incredible movement.

Alastor is a very boring character. It’s wild that most of the side characters in this show only exist to talk about how much they like or hate Alastor, he mostly just stands to the side of some shots or kills random nameless goons. I expected him to have a much larger role in the story, but he just gets his ass kicked in the final episode and then crawls back to the hotel.

Episode 4 is the most cohesive, and i think Angel is the best character in the show. Unfortunately, the fact that Hazbin takes so much effort to show Angel’s misery left me… concerned? None of the other characters get treated as poorly as Angel by the narrative. There’s a few smaller explorations of trauma, but nothing remotely compares to what Angel is put through on-screen. This isn’t to say that I think the whole cast needs to be extremely traumatized and constantly miserable, but rather that I find it concerning that the only character subjected to incredibly graphic abuse and torture (that we see or hear about) is the gay sex worker. Which sucks, because I think the concept of hypersexuality resulted from sexual abuse is an important topic worthy of discussing in adult media. I just think they tried to execute this theme without much critical thought beforehand.

I think the voice cast does a fantastic job for the most part. Keith David is way too good for Husk.

I really liked the one shot where Charlie opens her phone and we see that she has a contact for every individual egg minion.

I was very brave and got through this whole review without talking about my new least favorite character of all time, Vox. here’s what I think of him:

The overall vision and end result of Hazbin Hotel is just mediocre. While I don’t know what led to the messy state this show ended up in, my guess is that it was probably the result of inadequate direction, sloppy writing, and lacking creative support from the studios involved. Because of this, please understand that I have no desire or intention to put down any individual artists that worked on this show - I hope it's clear that most of my criticisms are directed at the larger vision these artists were given to execute and/or the lack of creative support they received while working on this show.

I also don’t really have much desire to participate in any further Hazbin discussion or discourse because it has wasted enough of my time already and I want to be free of this curse. please spare my inbox from hazbin hotel discourse. please. i'm begging.

You want to know what the most fucked up thing about this is though? Despite everything I said about Hazbin, Avatar the Last Airbender 2024 is still the worst show I watched this month. I would take Hazbin over Avatar 2024 literally any day.

well if you got this far. thanks for reading. also sorry you read all that. whelp alright back into my hole i go bye bye

#to get to my hazbin hotel opinions you must first read my pitch on how i would have written high school musical 3 #jesus christ. either i gotta watch less things or learn to shut the hell up next month this is a longass post #review roundup #long post

[showtoonzfan]

Why Charlie is NOT a Good Friend to Vaggie: Hazbin Hotel Rant And Analysis

Hey y’all! So....y’all remember when I made my “Why Stolas is NOT a good dad” post? Well, it’s finally time to do the same thing again, this time analyzing the relationship between Charlie and Vaggie, and sharing why I think Charlie is not a good friend. FRIEND, because they were canonically written as friends in the pilot until Viv changed it last minute. Also, Charlie was originally intended to have a DIFFERENT love interest, until Viv changed it, yes she confirmed that. Before I start, I want to say that I have NOTHING against people who ship these two. I still ship them myself, I believe their relationship has a chance to grow and be better, so the reason I am making this post is NOT to jab at people who ship them and tell them not to, I’m just expressing my personal opinion, and why I have an issue with them. Remember, don’t let my opinions ruin your love for the show. Thank you. With that out of the way, let’s get started!

So when it came to Charlie and Vaggie’s relationship in Hazbin Hotel, I of course used to like it. When the trailer came out, their dynamic seemed cute, with Charlie being an innocent pure bubbly gal, and Vaggie, while being more aware and emotional, cared about her deeply. I used to also look at Viv’s old art of them, so they seemed like a cute couple. However, all that changed when the pilot came out.

Before we get to the actual pilot though, just WHO are these characters? And yes, I know if you’re reading this you must OBVIOUSLY know, but it’s part of the analysis. So, who is Charlie? Charlie is the daughter of Lucifer, king of Hell. She is the princess who was born in hell, a gal who is the opposite of her father. She is kind hearted, optimistic, and with her bubbly attitude, she believes that all demons have good inside of them, no matter how bad they are. After witnessing countless massacres of her people being killed every year of a traditional extermination hell has, she decides to open up “The Happy Hotel��, a rehabilitation center that will hopefully redeem damned souls into getting into heaven. Sadly, no one takes her seriously. Her father sees her as a failure, and the citizens of hell think her dream is far fetched, impossible, and downright hilarious. There is NO one on Charlie’s side, no one to support or help her make this dream come true, that is...expect for a sinner named Vaggie.

Vaggie is described to be Charlie’s best friend in the 2018 character description reveal Viv made on Twitter. While she’s a “control freak” and someone with a fiery temper, she cares for Charlie, and helps her try to make this hotel project come true. Viv has said that Vaggie is more “human” than the other characters, and it makes sense. She’s the more reasonable one, a person who is the VOICE of reason, and responsible. Now, I WAS going to talk about each clip Vaggie was in to analyze what I thought at the time, but that would make this post unnecessarily long. Instead, I’ll go over it AS I discuss their scenes in the pilot, so let’s get to it!

So the first time Charlie and Vaggie interact is during the News segment, where Charlie is getting ready to pitch her idea to the citizens of hell.

While Charlie is excited, determined, and hopeful, Vaggie is the opposite. Sure, she should be happy, but she’s more serious and concerned with how things will play out, ESPECIALLY with how Charlie is. The two have obviously known each other for a long time, with Vaggie even saying she’ll help her out when she makes her speech. Charlie is instead, annoyed rather, not really wanting to stick to their supposed plan and spice things up a bit with a song. It is understandable that Charlie would want to do something like this, of course it fits her personality and her character flaws, but this particular scene is our introduction to how Charlie doesn’t necessarily LISTEN to Vaggie. While we see that the two clearly care for one another, Charlie is clearly more interested in doing things her way, even after she said she wouldn’t sing when Vaggie begged her not to and to just go over their script. Now the immediate thing I want to say is no, I’m not saying Charlie should listen to Vaggie 24/7. Charlie is obviously her OWN person and can do whatever she wants, but we all know how air-headed and blind she is, she’s not necessarily SMART like Vaggie is. If she was, she would have did what her and Vaggie went over instead of going off script, wether wanting to spice things up or not. Speaking of that, we all knew this was coming, Charlie ends up singing indeed, with Vaggie facepalming all the way through. You can tell that stuff like this has happened before, it’s why Vaggie is somewhat controlling because Charlie doesn’t always make the best decisions. There’s nothing I can say that anyone else hasn’t already said here. Charlie should have just listened to Vaggie, and by not doing so, she made herself look like a fool on front of all of Hell, so moving on.

Before we get to the limo scene, I want to say what happened after the crowd laughed at Charlie. I already made a post about this, but basically I disliked how Charlie didn’t even MENTION how Vaggie was helping her. She’s quick to brag about Angel, a famous porn star who doesn’t even believe in her cause nor give a shit about her, but not the person she’s known for so long, has her back 24/7, helps her out, and genuinely cares about her??? And if she didn’t want to mention Vaggie directly, fine, but at least say “I have someone amazing helping me” or “there’s already a person who believes in me” SOMETHING like that to at least show that she freaking APPRECIATES her. I don’t care if it had to do with Angel as a patron or had to do with clients at the hotel, all I wish she would have done was acknowledge Vaggie’s existence. But no, much like Viv herself, she doesn’t acknowledge Vaggie.

With that said, let’s get to the limo scene.

Of course, this scene is just infuriating to watch for me because not ONCE does Charlie stick up for Vaggie, or even HERSELF for that matter. After they pick up Angel, Vaggie gets on his case about what he did, and Angel clearly doesn’t care, laughing and joking about all of this, and jabbing at them both and the project. Since Charlie is uwu sad from the fiasco at the news station, she sulks like a child the entire time while this ugly candy cane constantly insults and ridicules her friend. Now before people come at me, yes, I KNOW Vaggie is a full grown adult and isn’t some damsel in distress, she’s perfectly capable of standing up for herself. However, it just bothers me that Charlie doesn’t do or say shit, Angel even flat out calls her a bitch and Charlie just sits there, hell, there’s literally a shot of Charlie SMILING for some reason while Vaggie is pissed. These two are supposed to be FRIENDS, yet not only does Charlie just sit there and take the bullshit Angel gives her, but she doesn’t even correct or discipline Angel for his shitty actions towards her partner. Once again, it’s so funny that Viv tries to showcase how Charlie “knows she’s in hell” and can take care of herself, yet here she just lets Angel ridicule her and Vaggie, someone who THEIR housing with THIER money. Charlie only gets one line to react to this whole thing, which is “That was really uncool you know Angel”- and that’s it. No “you’re not going to talk to us that way”, no “you’re going to timeout”, no “don’t speak to vaggie that way” none of that. I mention the whole “time out” thing because Viv has stated that that’s how she would discipline misbehaved demons, yet here she doesn’t do anything for Angel. She’s just proving to him that he can do whatever the hell he wants with no consequences, and that he can continue to fuck with Vaggie without her saying anything. Some friend she is.

So, I want to mention one more thing before we get to the clusterfuck that is Alastor, but I think some people might see this and say “Well maybe Charlie was too vulnerable in this scene to do anything”- and to that I say, yeah, she was in the beginning, but literally after Angel asks for the liquor, she’s sitting up and listening instead of curling up in a ball and pouting like she was in the beginning of the scene. Even her lame line she said about Angel shows that she was capable of putting her foot down, yet since she’s too childish, she didn’t. I also understand that you could say she probably didn’t want to jab at Angel because she’s trying to be kind to all demons to help them better, but telling Angel to knock it off isn’t that hard. It’s so funny because this scene kinda showcases how Vaggie is more of the one who’s actually putting in the work for this hotel and cares, while Charlie just sits back and acts dimwitted. She’s the one in charge of this whole thing, it should have been HER talking to Angel, not Vaggie.

So finally, let’s get to when ALASTOR arrives. Whoo boy.

Once Alastor enters the picture, everyone kinda just ignores Vaggie. She’s pushed to the side, and when she TRIES to speak and voice her concerns, nobody listens to her. Let’s start at the beginning though. When Al knocks on the door, Vaggie says to not let Alastor in because they both know he’s dangerous (even though Charlie’s more powerful than him so I don’t know why she’s so afraid) but she doesn’t listen and let’s him in. I obviously don’t have a problem with that, what I DO have a problem with is Alastor constantly harassing Vaggie RIGHT IN FRONT of Charlie, while she just stares there blankly. Throughout the rest of the pilot, Alastor is constantly pushing Vaggie to the side, shoving her away, or even outright assaulting her, and the ENTIRE time, Charlie is either blind and doesn’t notice, or is watching this unfold with her OWN eyes and doesn’t do shit. She’s either too distracted by Al, or blatantly watches this asshat push her friend around, just letting it happen. Oh I’m sorry, not just Alastor, but ANGEL as well. If the limo scene wasn’t enough, once Al brings the bar in for Husk, Vaggie protests but Angel literally TACKLES HER TO THE DAMN GROUND, putting his hands on her and telling her to shut up RIGHT IN FRONT OF CHARLIE. And what does Charlie do? Nothing. It’s not even Angel’s fucking CALL to have a bar in a hotel, he’s not the one in charge, Charlie is, and yet she just goes with it and doesn’t say shit to him about pushing vaggie to the side. It’s fucking ridiculous how all of this shit is happening right in front of her face, yet she doesn’t do or say anything.

So of course, let’s talk about the scene where Vaggie pulls Charlie to the side and talks to her. Charlie does bring up a valid reason to let him help because if she didn’t it would be going against what she believes in, but she says she can take care of herself when.....well she’s literally done nothing BUT prove to everyone that they can walk all over her but whatever. The part that’s important is that Charlie for fucking ONCE actually listens to Vaggie and doesn’t make a deal with Al. I’m actually AMAZED, but still....that doesn’t let Charlie off the hook at all. Not only does she not do shit when the other characters push her friend around and treat her like garbage, but once Al wins her over, she’s so blind to notice how WORRIED and upset Vaggie is. Vaggie throughout Alastor’s song is constantly trying to get to Charlie but Al purposely pulls her away, and you feel so fucking bad for her because Charlie doesn’t even NOTICE.

It’s disgusting how much of a PUNCHING bag character Vaggie is, just like Moxxie from Helluva Boss. It also hurts that even BEFORE Al came, Charlie never listened to Vaggie anyway, but now that this big powerful helping demon has entered the picture, she sure as hell won’t now. I SWEAR, Charlie is one of those characters where if you were Vaggie and said Alastor did something out of pocket, she would just go “Oh just go with it” or “oh it’s not THAT bad”. And here’s the thing. To wrap this all up, I KNOW that Charlie is naive, I KNOW that she can make her own decisions when you get to it without Vaggie, but the reason why I truly think she’s a bad friend is just that she simply doesn’t support Vaggie in the same way Vaggie supports HER. Vaggie will always be by Charlie’s side, but Charlie is just too blind and stupid to care about what Vaggie says, or even take into CONSIDERATION what she says. She didn’t listen to her about the singing, she didn’t stick by her side when Angel ridiculed her, and she didn’t do anything when Al pushed her around. She may be caring, but she doesn’t support her, stand by her side, stick up for her, or do ANYTHING to help her the way vaggie helps her. From Charlie’s perspective, I GUESS you could say she’s just so happy that Al is making her dream a reality, but I’m sorry, I just feel so bad for Vaggie. I really hope since in the show they’ll be actually written as GIRLFRIENDS this time, Charlie’s shitty flaws will change, and she’ll learn to respect Vaggie, as well as Viv getting off of her idiotic “punching bag fetish” she has with certain characters, because VAGGIE..👏....DESERVES...👏.....BETTER. 👏

So I hope y’all enjoyed this post, I want to apologize because this specific post is certainly more ranty and short than the Stolas one, but hopefully you got something out of it. With that said, what are YOUR thoughts on Charlie and Vaggie’s relationship? Do you think they should be girlfriends? Do you think they should just be friends? Do you think Vaggie deserves better, or Charlie? Let me know if you want!

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