Hazbin Hotel and VivziePop Drama
Iโve been hearing/seeing a lot of drama concerning Hazbin Hotel and itโs creator VivziePop, and while I donโt know her personally or really care what people think, I do hate slander and the spread of misinformation. Truly nothing in this world upsets me more thanย when people believe rumours while making no effort to fact check, and thatโs exactly whatโs happening right now. That said, I wanted to try and clear up some of the rumours going around about Vivzie and the show, because I think some of them are absolutely outrageous and need to be addressed.
1. Vivzie hired an abuser onto the show.
Now, Iโm not here to burn anyone at the stake, especially since I donโt know anything aboutย Chris Niosi (the alleged abuser), who I believe openly admitted to the allegations? Regardless, this is a moot point. Heโs not credited anywhere at the end of the episode. So either he was booted before production wrapped up or he had nothing to do with the show in the first place.
2. Vivzie supports bestiality.
Admittedly I thought this one might be true, since she draws so many anthropomorphic animals. In the very least, I figured she was probably a furry, but I havenโt seen any evidence supporting this accusation either. Near as I can tell, this rumour started for two reasons. One, because of her famous Zoophobia comic, which revolves around a therapist named Cameron who gets assigned to work with human-like animals. Ironically, poor Cameron suffers from crippling zoophobia, which makes for some pretty decent comedy. I didnโt read the whole comic because, quite frankly, itโs not my cup of tea and I just donโt have the time. But from what I saw there areย noย examples of bestiality anywhere in its contents.
Two, this message, which blew up all over social media:
To me, this just proves that people are more interested in virtue signalling than checking to see if their claims are actually true. Everything about this message is 100% false, which Iโll touch on in my next point.
3. Vivzie is a pedophile and sheโs drawn child porn.
This is hands down the worst allegation and holy shit, Iย reallyย wish people would stop using it to defame someone when they donโt have any proof. This is aย life-ruiningย accusation and youโre disgusting if you believe it based solely on hearsay. This rumour began to spread when Vivzie allegedly shipped the two underage characters in the above photo and drew them NSFW-style. At the time, one character was 19 while the other was 14, and the relationship was a very illegal student-teacher relationship.
This is WRONG! The characters wereย notย 14 and 19, they were actuallyย 18ย and 19, the legal age of consent! Additionally, the relationship wasnโt student-teacher. One character is a student and the other is Alumni (a student teacher). This one pisses me off the most because itโs obvious the person who sent that message didnโt even bother to conduct any research. They said, โHeโs a teacher,ย sheโsย a child.โ Both characters are MALE!
Since then, Vivzie has apologised for any NSFW art she drew in the past and stated that itโs not a reflection of her art today, and Iโm inclined to believe her. Almost every artist has drawn NSFW content at some point in their career, and hers wasnโt even distasteful. Other than this one example, there is no evidence anywhere that suggests sheโs drawn โchild pornโ. In fact, sheโs never even drawn explicit NSFW.
Pleaseย stop spreading this rumour. Itโs dangerous and completely incorrect.
4. Vivzie said the โNโ word!
No, she didnโt. It was a fabricated tweet. That is all.
5. Vivzie is copyright striking every video that criticises her!
No she isnโt. YouTubeโs DMCA isย automaticallyย strikingย people who are using full clips without permission. Vivzie has gone public several times, telling people exactly how to avoid getting a copy strike from the algorithm, which is something she absolutelyย does notย have to do. At this point, she doesnโt owe you anything. In my opinion, she should just sit back and watch these channels burn.
6. Vivzie copies and traces other artistsโ work.
This is another one Iโve seen going around, but I looked into it as thoroughly as I could and failed to find any concrete evidence to support the allegations. As of right now, there are only two examples of Vivzieย โcopyingโ orย โtracingโ other artistsโ work, and both of them can be explained. The first is a gif she made with a character from her Zoophobia comic, which looked a lot like the girl from ME!ME!ME!:
Damn, thatโs pretty incriminating. She obviously stoleโ oh, wait. This gif was part of a ME!ME!ME! MEP (multi editorโs project) and Vivzie didnโt take full credit, despite the fact that itโs not even a direct trace. Itโs supposed to look like the original, which she fully cited. The second example comes from a short dance sequence from her Timber video, which seems to have been inspired by several Disney movies. As Vivzie herself stated, that was an homage to the original animations. Lots of artists and shows do this, including the beloved Stephen Universe series.
Regardless, this doesnโt count as stealing character designs or plagiarising someoneโs work. Itโs meant to be respectful, an admiration of other projects. Other than these two instances, however, there isย noย evidence of her tracing or stealing other peopleโs art. From what Iโve discovered, all other designs sheโs been accused of โstealingโ are characters she bought and paid for. Theyโre quite literally HER characters.
7. Vivzie supports problematic creators.
Iโm getting really tired of guilt by association. Vivzie follows and enjoys some controversial figures, but who cares? We can argue all day about whether or not the accusations against them are true, but it ultimately has nothing to do with the show or Vivzie as a person. I do the exact same thing, to be honestโ follow and listen to people on all sides so I can learn, understand, and form my own opinions. The fact that some people think this is bad, to me, is absolutely mesmerising. Vivzie doesnโt control what the people she follows post, and if they do something overly questionable she publicly criticises and denounces it.
Now that thatโs been dealt with, Iโd like to address some complaints/claims about the actual show.
8. Vaggie is an angry Latina stereotype and a lesbian stereotype. Vivzie is appropriating Hispanic culture and misrepresentingย the gay for profit.
First off, I see a lot of people passing around yet more misinformation regarding Vivzieโs race. So many people seem to think sheโs white? Well, Iโm here to tell you theyโre wrong. Very incorrect. Vivzie is in fact Latina, and Vaggie is meant to mirror some of her own personality traits.
Second, who is Vaggie mad at? Context matters, and if we take a look at the episode, we see that Vaggie is literally only mad at two specific people: Angel Dust and Alastor. Why? Well, for starters, itโs her girlfriendโs dream to run a rehab hotel for sinners, and Angel Dust nearly demolishes that dream single-handedly. Vaggie has every right to be over-the-top vitriolic. Then thereโs Alastor, a known sadist, narcissist, and murderer who loves trapping people in his nefarious schemes. He invites himself in, effectively takes over the hotel, and pushes both her and Charlie aside. At one point he even sexually assaults her by slapping her butt during his musical number. So yeah, I think her seething ire is totally justified. Keep in mind, however, that when sheโs around Charlie sheโs calm, collected, and happy. I wouldnโt call that a stereotype.
Thirdly, the lesbian stereotypes. I keep hearing this argument but I really donโt see it. Both Vaggie and Charlie have so much personality and trust for each other. Maybe Iโm wrong, but the stereotype I know always totes a more butch, tomboyish woman with a ditsy, innocent, naive woman. Charlie is optimistic, but she isnโt stupid. She refuses to shake Alastorโs hand because she knows heโs likely trying to screw her over. Sheโs also not entirely innocent herself and uses words like โfuckโ and โshitโ. I also wouldnโt call Vaggie butch or tomboyish. She has a cute, girly presentation, complete with a pink ribbon in her hair, lace stockings, and a dress. Sheโs protective of her girlfriend, as I think we all are with our partners, and thereโs nothing wrong with that. Theyโre flawed characters, as every character is meant to be. This isnโt a problem.
9. The show is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, blah, blah, blah.
Iโm amazed this is even an argument. The show is supposed to be a dark comedy that takes place in HELL. You know, the place the worst of the worst end up after they die? What were you expecting? Everyone gets a shot or two fired at them, but that doesnโt make them bad characters nor does it make the show itself horrible. Take, for example, Katie Killjoy, the news reporter so many people are up in arms about. She says she doesnโtย โtouch the gaysโ because she hasย โstandardsโ. Well, hereโs a newsflash of my own: weโre not supposed to like her! Sheโs anย antagonist. Not to mention ten seconds later Charlie insults her and isnโt the least bit slighted by her pretentious attitude. The characters are strong and donโt take shit from anyone, because to some degree theyโre all terrible people who can throw down when itโs called for.
Obviously if you donโt like the show or think itโs offensive, Iโm probably not going to change your mind. Thatโs perfectly fine. Youโre entitled to your opinions and you donโt have to watch the show. Just stop lying and stop trying to take it away from everybody else. Stop attacking Vivzie and spreading misinformation without checking the facts. I realise a lot of people probably arenโt trying to be vindictive and only want to do something good, but just remember this: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
