**Warning for spoilers and discussions of sexual assault**
So I caved and watched Hazbin Hotel. Tonally, its kinda all over the place. One episode they’re singing a really sugary song that sounds like it could’ve came from MLP (until they start swearing again -_-), then another ep they’ll be showing a character getting SA’d and abused on screen. On top of that, it doesn’t feel like they have the world planned out well? One of the angel executioners winds up decapitated without them really explaining how it happened. Was it with a regular weapon demons have access to? Are there demon weapons? Were they killed by their own weapon? Who knows. And a question I’ve had since I’ve seen the pilot is how Charlie plans to get them into Heaven without connections. And this question still isn’t answered. Its sort of brought up but not answered. At least they didn’t have Charlie lie about getting a connection, leading to cringe-y liar/reveal plot later.

I know that the only thing that would permanently kill a demon is an angel weapon but its not explained well in the show, so theres a throw away line about a bg character getting torn apart and needing to “put themselves back together” and I have to wonder if someone who has no background knowledge will understand the logic and way the executions are meant to be a big deal if characters are implied to recover from death. Also Charlie needs more backbone. She shouldn’t be pushed around so much by sinner. What happened to “you don’t take shit from other demons!”?

Now the weird SA music video in the 4th ep. Yea its pretty uncomfortable, there aren’t any specific warnings about it, just the standard one that plays over every ep. It just flashes the SA in between the music video dancing. I’ll be honest, I’m sure there were better ways of getting this idea across then just out right flashing it on screen (they pulled it off in Addict, so…). There was a lack of focus on showing that it was a porn production (it just shows Angel getting forced w/o a shot of lights or cameras). Now its no secret that the people that worked on this have a fetish for this sort of content, so ymmv on the sincerity you think is behind a scene like this. In this context, I personally don’t think it started from sincerity. The way its animated just feels like a wink nod to people that like that sort of material while hiding behind the “victim representation” after the fact.

The ep then ends with Angel and Husk getting a duet where Husk basically makes light of the situation. Theres just a wild disconnect where the you just saw a character get SA’d and now they’re treating it like the characters just can’t get a date or something. I understand they didn’t want to leave the ep off after that one scene, but why not just have the two characters bond over talking shit about the demons making their afterlife miserable? Husk has no clue what Angel went through, but maybe they can still shoot the shit and lighten it up without downplaying what the audience just saw? It’s because theres probably going to be some favoritism with Valentino (the rapist). I’d be surprised if the writers ever wind up tearing him down some pegs before the end of the show.

On another note, I found a review on Vanity Fair:

What a polite way of saying “this person’s aesthetic hasn’t changed since 2009”. Also it had a few comments and people were already getting pissed. Vivziepop fandom stay classy.