-I had hope. Hope is now lost bc less than 20 seconds in there's already a fat Moxxie joke. I'm tired of it, Viv can't even make fat characters, they're all just sticks
-That... tone transition feels off? Maybe that's just me being nitpicky tho so meh
-Okay the horse picture made me laugh I'll give the show that. Confession time, I have been looking forward to this episode. Hopefully it's better than most helluva boss episodes
-Mysterious dude's voice rlly ain't vibing with me. Eh not the worst thing tho
-Oh hey! Callback to the worst episode! But nah the callback was actually well done, I'm surprised
-The designs so far are... eh? Music wasn't the best but at least it's not fucking RED
-Does Moxxie and Moxxie's dad have the same VA? Bc the dad sounds exactly like Moxxie but with a bad accent
-"I only let Moxxie call me that" okay that was witty
-Nvm they ruined it
-"looks like you're building a bit of a name for yourself" ARE THEY???? Like gen are they bc there hasn't been much talk about their business???
-Are they gonna have Moxxie's dad be abusive? Bc the way he's acting, unsure, scared, anxious, the nervous sir... all things point to abuse
-I will say the animation seems to be a lot better! I rlly like the background colors, makes the characters rlly stand out
-I was hoping to like Chaz's (is that how you spell it?) character. I am sorely disappointed. Also the tone shift was v abrupt and while it can work, I don't think it's rlly working that much rn
-W...why is he talking like that?? Is it supposed to be dramatic? Funny???
-Ohhh okay that one scene WAS a flashback. Kinda wish they'd given Moxxie different clothes but eh understandable
-Okay and the sex jokes ruined it wonderful. Idm sex jokes, I make them all the time. But at least make them funny and less awkward
-WAIT SO DID BLITZØ JUST NEVER FUCKIN ASK WHAT BROUGHT HIM THERE??? WHY WAS BLITZØ THERE????
-Is Moxxie's dad homophobic???
-I'm calling it, Moxxie's dad is abusive
-....okay I genuinely might not being able to watch this. This is why trigger warnings are fucking important, and not the dumbass passive aggressive one Viv has
-okay I'm sorry but i gen can't watch this episode in one sitting. maybe i'll finish watching later but for now I stopped at 11:51, my mental health isn't worth this shit.
So one thing has been bothering me about the Loo Loo Land episode.
How Stolas treats his daughter.
I know most people think “He treats his daughter just fine!” And I used to think that too but... yeah.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do genuinely think he loves his daughter. I just think he’s letting his selfishness take priority over his daughter.
Now let me put a disclaimer right here: I know that Helluva is just starting off, and that there is much more room to grow. I get that I really do, but it feels like the issues presented in episode 2 between Octavia and her dad might stay in episode 2. Now I could be wrong, and I will gladly be wrong if there is an episode where Stolas does address his selfishness in full with Octavia. This is just my opinion.
More under the cut
Let’s establish something right here and right now. When you’re a parent, you don’t come first anymore. Your kid does.
Now Stolas is cheating on his wife, which is a very bad and selfish thing to do. Granted, we don’t have much information regarding why he’s cheating so I won’t comment much on this other than it’s severely affecting Octavia. Which raises the question for me: how badly do you need to have intercourse (because that’s all it is now) with Blitzø that you must keep doing it, to the point it’s hurting your daughter? Can you not wait for 1-2 years (I keep forgetting if Octavia is 16 or 17 sorry) and she turns 18 and moves out of the house/palace/whatever to then pull that stunt? At least so your daughter doesn’t have to wake up to your wife throwing things at you?
Then there’s the whole sexual comments in front of Octavia thing. I get it’s played off for comedy but... I’ve been somewhat in Octavia’s place. My dad has made sexual comments about women in front of me, has talked about the strip club he provided security for in detail (while talking about tits), talked about how to run a successful strip club in front of me (16 years old), my little brother, and my little sister. Not to mention the movies like American Pie he has forced me and my little brother to watch. So I can say with 100% certainty, don’t make sexual comments in front of your kids. Her “what the fuck dad” was completely called for.
Now... onto the theme park actions. Stolas flirted with Blitzø... the entire time. Which would be uncomfortable for any kid, but especially because the whole reason for Stolas being there is for Octavia. He’s not even listening to her, he’s instead flirting with Blitzø. Blitzø’s whole job was to be a bodyguard. Stolas was overstepping professional boundaries, but that’s a whole different thing. Point is, he shouldn’t have flirted with Blitzø the entire time.
Then the apology. It felt... weak but I’ll address that when I review the second episode. (Review for the first episode is on its way!)
And next.. the ending. Stolas didn’t need a bodyguard. The whole point he got a bodyguard was to flirt. To flirt. During a trip that was supposed to be about his daughter.
And finally.... Octavia doesn’t like Blitzø. She (kinda rightfully) sees him as a home wrecker. She doesnt like him nor should she have to. If your child doesn’t get along with/doesn’t like who you’re dating, stop dating them. Simple as that.
Sorry if this wasn’t very concise, it’s 00:18 here ^^;
I finally figured out why Helluva Boss’s first trans character bugs the crap outta me
Please please please remember that this is just my opinion. These are my personal feelings about this. I am not a transwoman nor is it my intention to speak over transwomen, I am just a simple non-binary that really isn’t 100% happy with the rep us trans/non-binary people got.
And yes, I know the internet has a problem with people whining over non-perfect rep, I’m not forcing any of y’all to read my opinion on this.
Opinion under cut
One thing I would like to point out though is that I am very happy that Sally Mae was not misgendered and was voiced by a transwoman. Don’t get me wrong.
But she also had very little lines. (Three I believe)
That’s what bugs me. Think about it. Blitzo and Moxxie are pan and bi respectfully, we don’t know Millie or Loona’s sexualities, and Stolas is definitely not straight. And I’m gonna take it a step further: Angel Dust is gay, Vaggie is a lesbian, Charlie is bi, Alastor is aroace, and Husk is pan.
And confirmed out of all of these characters... we have one trans character.
Sally Mae.
And she appears once.
To me, she’s not perfect rep nothing is tbh, she’s not bad rep (although having her be violent when transwomen, especially those of color, are stereotyped as very violent...), she’s just not rep. Period. Tbh she just feels like an afterthought :/
I really, really wish our first confirmed trans character had a bigger role than Sally Mae did...
A.k.a, things I disliked about it. Pros are here.
Friendly reminder that this is just my opinion, thank you!
Now here are the things I will address under the cut:
-Comedy
-Art
-Character Development
-Lore/Writing
Comedy
I will admit, it is very easy to make me laugh, I’m easy to entertain. Although I did find some jokes in this episode to be funny, a good half, maybe more, fell flat. For example: The children all fainting, Moxxie’s mob boss joke, the Stolas button (which I will go more into detail with under Character Development), and Blitzø’s doggy treat joke. Now I’m no expert on comedy, but I’ve been (forced) to watch many, many shitty comedies with no replay value. From what I’ve seen, to truly make a joke land is it’s timing and relevance to either the character’s personality and/or plot. These jokes offer nothing, there’s no set-up (like with Moxxie’s mob boss joke/impression hehe imp), not relevant to the plot or character’s personality, or just bad. I’d say the main joke-killer in this episode was the severe lack of set-up. Jokes coming out of nowhere can be funny, I personally found Ms. Mayberry throwing the girl into ceiling funny because it was out of nowhere, but that is very hard to pull off and just using the same formula is very tiresome and repetitive.
Good comedy tends to have a lot of different types of humor, like Rise of Teenage Mutant Turtles (rottmnt is my latest hyperfixation sue me) has a variety of humor like slap-stick, one-liners and puns, and visual gags, all of which have proper set-up and relevance to either the plot or the characters. Granted rottmnt and Helluva are very different, and rottmnt is not in any way perfect but it does execute comedy that is funny to not only it’s target audience (9-12 year old boys) but to many adults/teens as well, something that Helluva struggled to do even with it’s target audience.
Art
I personally liked the art on Helluva so no comment.
Character Development
Strap in your seat belts, this is gonna be a long one and it’s mostly about Stolas.
Stolas is... not the best character in this. For one example, on a list of buttons that Blitzø is implied to have as “panic buttons” has Stolas on one of them. That implies that Blitzø panics or is severely uncomfortable when Stolas is in the room, which is not a good thing to have, if your end goal is to have them get together.
And then his phone call with Blitzø oh good lord... it was very sexually charged, unnecessarily so, especially since Blitzø was being very clear on how unwanted the sexual undertones were. He repeatedly said “now is not the time” or something very similar, which Stolas completely ignored. All that is telling me is either Stolas sucks at picking up hints (which I highly doubt and would make no sense with his character arch) or he just doesn’t give two fucks. I’m more inclined to the latter, considering he was still talking when Moxxie ran by, telling me that he didn’t care if Blitzø was listening. Honestly, Stolas in general makes me uncomfortable with his sexually charged comments, and I’m someone who’s used to this shit both from movies and irl from my dad.
Lore/Writing
So... the human world, huh? Genuine question, is it purposefully portrayed as this shitty for lore/plot or is it for the sake of comedy (which falls flat). If it’s comedy then... not a really good joke, it’s a very overused trope that I’m tired of seeing. Same thing regarding if it’s just for plot/lore, it’s very overused and depressing.
The voice acting was... kinda meh, especially for Martha’s husband but that’s just me being nitpicky so take it with a grain of salt if you want.
One thing that has bugged me for a little while is how Ms. Mayberry knew Martha survived and got famous. Didn’t she commit suicide? If so, how did she figure it out? And why did the police explode the house? Did Moxxie inform them about the stuff going on? But that would warrant investigation, not immediate explosion. And there are kids in that house. I get that cops can be, will be, and are shitty, but they still have laws and rules to follow and just straight up bombing a house is not allowed in any situation, not with the children there and how little information and proof there was.
Also the atmosphere of Moxxie discovering how vicious and evil the family was very jarring, and I really can’t tell if that was the intent or not :/
The ending... was horrible. Everyone ignored Moxxie’s feelings and it just felt so fake. To be fair, I hate endings where everyone laughs and laughs. Unless you’re MLP, that shit usually just makes me wince from the fakeness.
Also why the sex scenes? It could just me being ace but having Martha being fucked while being called a hero was... not necessary at all.
Overall, I’d give the episode a 6, maybe 7 out of ten. It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst. It’s a good start to the series.
A.k.a, things I liked about it. Cons are here.
Friendly reminder that this is just my opinion, thank you!
Now here are the things I will address under the cut:
-Comedy
-Art
-Character Development
-Lore/Writing
Comedy
Now it’s very easy to make me laugh, and some of the jokes in this episode I found genuinely hilarious, with great timing. Like with Ms. Mayberry throwing that girl into the ceiling. It had great timing in my opinion, with her just moments before being cheerful and happy and loving.
I also really liked the wordplay/oneliner Bliztø made with Moxxie. “But we’re killing a family!” “No, we’re killing a mother. We’re ruining a family.” I’m always a sucker for oneliners and wordplays, especially clever ones, and this episode did pretty okay with them.
The banter was pretty good as well, especially with the fire scene, which I’ll talk about more under Lore/Writing.
Art
I like the little visual hints about the true nature of the family, that was very clever.
I LOVED the imagery on Stolas’s side of the phonecall, although it might be because I am very partial to blue and purple and it was a nice refresher from the harsh, bright colors of the rest of the show.
Character Development
I’ll start with Bliztø because why not. In general, he was an asshole, but in a way that was understandable. He’s an asshole sure, but he lives in Hell so I would assume that’s the default personality. His annoyance at Moxxie for setting the office on fire was very understandable, considering he set the office on fire in front a client. While he was very harsh, again his upbringing. I can also understand the frustration and anger with Moxxie messing up Bliztø‘s perfect shot, they nearly died. It doesn’t excuse him being an asshole, but it’s explainable as to why he is one.
Moxxie I really loved in this episode. While I can understand why Millie was trying to get Moxxie to just take the shot, it is their job after all. But I also love Moxxie’s comment about being more selective, and I hope that is brought up again in the future. The way he called the police to give the children a chance at a better life legitimately made me happy, and Moxxie is quickly becoming my favorite character. One thing I hope they address in future episodes is Moxxie’s anxiety (at least I believe it is anxiety).
Also I’d like to point out how Ms. Mayberry handled the realization that it was her husband’s birthday. She was very silent, and snapped the chalk which tells me “hey, this woman isn’t as cheerful and happy as she seems” which makes the step up to murder just a little less jarring.
Lore/Writing
We were given some interesting bits of lore here! One of those pieces was how Millie, Loona, and Bliztø naturally assume the worst of humans. Millie said so herself about how many humans end up in Hell, which is a clever way of showing and not telling the I.M.P.S thoughts on humans. I like the subtle world building they did with the Imp firefighters. Hellfire not being able to harm demons is definitely a very interesting piece of lore to bring up. Normal fire won’t hurt them and yet bullets will... brings up some questions for me.
Now for the writing, I liked the cute little song at the beginning of the episode, it was very fun. The tone change to when Moxxie was captured and stuck with the children was a bit jarring, although that might be the intention. I love how the atmosphere was set up while Bliztø was being chased by Martha though, I could really feel his panic.
Overall, I’d give the episode a 6, maybe 7 out of ten. It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst. It’s a good start to the series.
