Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved Tumblr but was hopeless at using it. This is her story, told in clips and pieces and desperate attempts to Tumble.
Hi Tumblr! I have a new gaming channel! It's my first every video so I'm still learning but I think it came out pretty well. I'd love if you came check it out!
And I don't just mean like - Are they fucking? Of course they're fucking. They're in some sort of sexual relationship and we've seen that on several occasions. And I know that they're in the Vees with Velvette, and that she's a lesbian and not fucking either of them. So yes, they're friends and they're teammates and they're sleeping together, but for the life of me I do not understand their dynamic. Hear me out:
Spoilers Under The Cut
After the most recent episode of Hazbin Hotel (Season 2 Ep 4 as of the writing of this post) there's been a lot of attention turned towards Vox's relationship with Alastor. And I get it- I never really shipped RadioStatic before but now I think I might. It's toxic yaoi at it's best but I'm so incredibly tuned in (Pun intended). It's compelling. But the more that we examine their relationship the more curious I am about whatever the hell is happening between Vox and Valentino.
When we first meet them, Val is throwing a tantrum over Angel leaving for the hotel and Velvette tells Vox that his "little boy toy" is wrecking her department and for him to deal with it. He is...less than enthused.
Valentino seems like a nuisance, someone they put up with because he's someone of reasonable power and reputation that they want on the team but don't seem to care for on a personal level. Vox spends a lot of that first episode basically just managing Valentino and reminding him not to do anything stupid and ruin the team's image. There are times in later episodes where they get along better, where they're watching TV or celebrating Adam's death, but as far as their "romance," it's hardly romantic and is largely dispassionate. There's nothing soft or gentle about it which I hadn't expected in the first place given that we are talking about a rapist pimp and a cult leader in Hell. I may have just assumed that's how they were, except for the fact that both of them are obsessed with other people.
You know where all of their passion is? It's not with each other, but rather it's focused on their individual objects of obsession. For Val it's his abusive "relationship" with Angel, and for Vox it's his vendetta against Alastor. Val trashes his dressing room and throws fits when Angel leaves and texts him whole novels vacillating between cajoling remarks, derogatory threats, and often times just stream of consciousness ideas for porn plots he thought about. Meanwhile Vox loses his goddamn mind any time Alastor is so much as brought up. Their focus is so not on each other. Hell, Vox left in the middle of sex with Val to go fight Alastor and if that isn't telling enough, I don't know what is.
And then we got that flashback...
... and we got to see what Vox is actually like when he has a crush on someone. The answer is kinda shy and embarrassed and all kinds of things that we never see from present day Vox and all I can think about is how Alastor's rejection in this scene worked to shape his future relationships, specifically the fuck-buddies thing he's got going on with Val.
I'm a little conflicted honestly and can't quite figure out where they land. Because on the one hand it seems like Vox tolerates Val for the sake of the team and they've just got a casual sex thing going on also. I don't have any illusions about Val being romantically interested- I'm pretty sure Val just likes sex with the hot TV man. Val seems to like sex with basically anyone. I'm not here to analyze Val. If there was ever an antagonist that didn't need to be humanized: It's Val. And that's fine.
But Vox- I would be so close to saying that he really didn't give a shit if it wasn't for the occasional bouts of jealousy. Him and Val clearly don't have any kind of exclusivity here and yet he seems super annoyed with anyone else Val is sleeping with. He hates Angel and I can only imagine it's due to Val's obsession with him. And then in season 2 when Val brings a girl with him to the meeting Vox doesn't hesitate to yeet her into the shark tank. So then I think that maybe Vox does care a little. I'd say he was worried about Val getting distracted from the team, but Val isn't the kind of person to fall in love with any of them so there's not really a threat there. Maybe he's just possessive?
I don't have any concrete answers- I'm really just thinking out loud here. Share your thoughts!
...y'all know that, right? Because having watched episodes 3 and 4 of Hazbin Hotel, I'm looking at the discourse and it feels like maybe some of you don't.
Spoilers under the cut
For this, we are going to be specifically discussing the relationship between Alastor and Vox that was explored in that flashback in episode 4.
Now let me tell you- After everything that Vox did in episode 3 I was ready to kill him myself, but then they showed the scene of baby Vox asking Alastor to team up with him and having Alastor crush his little heart. And I know that Vox wasn't REALLY a baby there- he died as an adult. But he definitely had a crush on Alastor and was being downright adorable about it. He was shy and blushing and just looked so damn hopeful.
And you might notice here that as I'm discussing the scene, it's making Vox sound like a human being with feelings...because he is. Because they all are. That's one of the things that Hazbin Hotel explores- the concept of humanity. But if you listen to the discourse around that scene I'm pretty sure that a lot of you aren't getting that.
Any time Vox's feelings for Al come up there is inevitably a comment like, "You know he's literally a cult leader, right?" Yes. Yes we do. He is a cult leader in Hell. But that doesn't change the fact that he had soft, mushy feelings for Alastor. Because people who do bad things (like possibly leading a cult) are still capable of feeling normal human emotions. They're still people.
Additionally, we don't even really know that he was leading a cult, or what kind of cult it may have been. We know that Val called it a cult, but Vox only gave a wishy washy sort of "Well, you could call it that," kind of answer which has led to the speculation that maybe it wasn't a cult at all. Or if it was, maybe he didn't realize it at the time. if Sir Pentious getting sent to Hell for the crime of inaction (and maybe voyeurism) has taught me anything it's that the scales of justice here in the Hellaverse are STRICT. There's a lot that we don't know yet about the rubric that souls are measured against but it seems likely that Vox would have ended up in Hell for his participation in a cult, even if he hadn't thought it was a cult when he was leading it. I saw someone pitch the idea that maybe he was a televangelist who fully bought into the religion he was selling to his followers, up until they all drank the Flavoraid and woke up in hellfire. Now, might this be an excuse to woobify him because he spent some time being adorable and sad? Perhaps. Nothing wins over the fandom like some sad wet cat time. But it's honestly as plausible as any other theory we've got.
I can understand the desire to want to justify his actions if I'm honest, because flash back Vox didn't seem anything like current day Vox. He seemed younger and more hopeful. Happy. Even knowing how he ends up, while watching that scene Vox seemed sweet. I just wanted to knit him a sweater and feed him soup. But it is worth noting that that scene was solely between Vox and Alastor- the person he had romantic feelings for. We didn't see how Vox interacted with anyone else so we don't really know what he was like then. After all, are we not our best selves around the people we love? The true measure of a person's nature is how they treat the people they dislike, or are indifferent towards, and that isn't something we've witnessed from Vox at that time.
Overall though, I suppose my point is simply that I think it's really dumb when people act like Vox had to have had ulterior motives for wanting to join forces with Alastor. That he had to have been trying to manipulate him. That it's impossible for him to have had soft feelings just because Vox was maybe probably a cult leader.
I'm not saying Vox is a good person. He categorically is not. His songs are great and I think he's funny but half the time that he's on screen I want to strangle him with his own bow tie. He's a bad person- but he's still a person. He has feelings. And they were hurt. Because the world isn't black and white. Being an immoral person doesn't erase your ability to feel. That's part of what makes the characters so compelling. Because maybe Vox was just being an asshole when he asked Charlie if he could be redeemed, but maybe some part of him honestly wanted to know.
TlDr: Y'all are killing me by having the worst fucking takes ever. Not you arguing about how Alastor, a literal confirmed serial killer, truly cares for Nifty and the members of the hotel, and then turning around and saying that Vox can't ever feel anything nice because he might have led a cult once. Please. Be for real.
Does anyone have recommendations for mainstream polyamorous romance novels that are actually romance and not just erotica? I don't just want three way smut or a why choose where the FMC is dating multiple men- I want them all to be dating and I want them all to be in love with each other. I see it a lot in fanfiction, and that's great, but do they have any actual novels that I can buy with that sort of premise? Bonus points if there is an enemies to lovers plot, insecurity, miscommunication, and angst but with a HEA.
When it comes to gay movies, I’ve found that they can usually be divided into 3 categories:
Happy Ending
Happy Platonic Ending
Tragic (Sad) Ending
After a movie marathon, I have decided to construct a list for the good of the world. As the marathon is ongoing, I will be editing this list as I go. It is important to note that I am only listing movies that I would personally recommend. If you don’t see a movie on this list it is either because I didn’t watch it (Maybe it just wasn’t my kind of movie) or because I didn’t find it to be good enough to deserve a mention.
**- I especially loved it
(N)- movie is on Netflix
Happy Endings - In which there is a love story that actually pans out ( AKA: I didn’t just invest 1 ½ hours of my life in a relationship that ultimately fails in favor of a life lesson)
Beautiful Thing **
Shelter **
Is It Just Me?
The Perfect Wedding
Alex Strangelove (N)
Love, Simon
The Way He Looks (N)
Being 17 (N)
God’s Own Country (N)
eCupid
Big Eden
The Ten Year Plan (N)
Happy Platonic Ending - In which either the love story was obviously not the point of the film , or I really did just invest over an hour of my life in a relationship that doesn’t work out. In that case, the relationship is usually a learning experience used to emphasize some sort of life lesson.
G.B.F (N)
White Frog
4th Man Out ** (N)
Handsome Devil (N)
Weekend
Tragic (Sad) Ending- In which the ending is generally sad and often (though not always) tragic. Usually the stereotypical gay character commits suicide’ trope, but there is some variation. As I do not like sad movies, these are ones I’ve found on accident.
What books would you recommend similar to the Captive prince series?
Hello darling, I’m really glad that you enjoyed Captive Prince. Included are some of my favourite books, hope you will find something that catches your eye🌹
Hello! Good Morning! Hi there! I am just making a little self-promotional post to whoever is still reading this blog that somewhere in the September/October timeframe, I plan to launch my new Youtube channel! It's going to be a mix of manga discussions and cozy game let's-plays. I don't really have anything to direct you to at the moment, because I'm still in the planning stages but I just wanted to start getting the word out! If any of that sounds interesting to you, I am GalacticHoneyBee over there as well!
I am so utterly fascinated by “Saki”, the 18-year-running mahjong manga in which you, the reader, become gradually, frog-boilingly aware (over the course of nearly two decades’ worth of mahjong tournaments) that none of these girls are wearing underwear and most of their boobs are slowly expanding.
I need you to understand that I have, like, an anthropological level fascination with this comic. From the perspective of someone who is also a comic artist and writer, two things delight me about it:
the fact that I understand completely how an artist gets from “the fans can have a little hint of skirted asscheek” to “the pussy is completely out on center page” over the course of 18 years; and
the way in which the pussy being out is treated by the characters and diegesis as being utterly unremarkable.
Okay. Point 1. The frog-boiling.
Let me put this in perspective for you. There was already a meme about how the characters in “Saki” don’t wear underwear when I was in middle school. I am thirty now. Okay? And it’s still going.
In the time since, this has stopped being a joke. It is now indisputable canon. This is not because anyone outright says it at any point. It’s because the underwear ran out of places to hide. I’m obsessed with this thought: somewhere in the over 20 volumes of “Saki”, there is a panel in which underwear was objectively deconfirmed. And it would be so hard to figure out where that panel actually is. Maybe the artist didn’t even realize it when she drew it! The frog? Boiling!!
And of course there is also the breast expansion. I don’t know how to put a spin on this. They are just expanding. Like, this happens a lot with artists: you define a character as being, in your mind, “the one with the big boobs”, and over the years you emphasize that trait further and further so that the signal doesn’t get lost in the noise. It’s just that normally—in like a wildly popular manga series about mahjong published by literally Square Enix, for example—normally there would be a point at which the boobs stopped getting bigger. Like, an editor would step in or something. Or you would get to the point where you cannot draw the character in the same panel as her mahjong tiles without her breasts spilling over the tiles, and you’d go, “Well, this is now untenable.”
That did not happen. There is no ceiling. The frog is soup.
Point 2. The complete and utter mundanity of all of this.
It’s like this, okay: there’s no shortage of trashy ecchi manga out there. There’s a million other comics doing wildly bawdier things with wildly more improbable bishoujos.
The vibe with “Saki” is different.
It’s hard to explain this, but it feels like the world of the comic is fundamentally uninterested in the fanservice happening on the page. I cannot describe it as “leering”, because I cannot conceive of a person in the story from whose point of view one would leer. I think the artist is probably into it—I can’t imagine anyone is making her do this—but “Saki” the comic has no opinion on the matter.
There are essentially no male characters in “Saki”. Like, there was one guy? Kind of? At the very beginning? But he is gone now. They put him back in the toybox. He does not exist. It appears to be some level of canonical that in the world of “Saki”, almost all humans are women. Those women are sometimes romantically into each other. According to comments the artist has made on Twitter (which I cannot source), they have lesbian baby technology, so it’s no problem. It’s so much not a problem that the story is about mahjong, instead of any of that.
So, like, the fiction here appears to be this: this is the, like, meta-narrative of the fanservice of “Saki”, right: it’s just normal that they don’t wear underwear and their boobs are arbitrarily big. It’s been normal. It was normal before the story of the manga began. It’s just how things are. Nobody bats an eye about it, and if they do, it’s in sort of a lesbian kind of way so like what’s the problem, we love lesbians here. This is literally normal for girls.
The fanservice simply diffuses into this all-encompassing aura of disembodied, ambient sluttiness. The framing of the panels demands you acknowledge it, and the story demands you already be over it, because it’s mahjong time now, and we’re playing mahjong.
Do you get??? why I’m so fascinated??? Are you not a little enraptured???
Anyway, I have no idea how to end this weird post. I guess the conclusion is that women stay winning????
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