Hazbin Hotel and VivziePop Drama
Iāve been hearing/seeing a lot of drama concerning Hazbin Hotel and itās creator VivziePop, and while I donāt 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 thanĀ when people believe rumours while making no effort to fact check, and thatās exactly whatās 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, Iām not here to burn anyone at the stake, especially since I donāt know anything aboutĀ Chris Niosi (the alleged abuser), who I believe openly admitted to the allegations? Regardless, this is a moot point. Heās 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 havenāt 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 didnāt read the whole comic because, quite frankly, itās not my cup of tea and I just donāt have the time. But from what I saw there areĀ noĀ 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 Iāll touch on in my next point.
3. Vivzie is a pedophile and sheās drawn child porn.
This is hands down the worst allegation and holy shit, IĀ reallyĀ wish people would stop using it to defame someone when they donāt have any proof. This is aĀ life-ruiningĀ accusation and youāre 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 wereĀ notĀ 14 and 19, they were actuallyĀ 18Ā and 19, the legal age of consent! Additionally, the relationship wasnāt student-teacher. One character is a student and the other is Alumni (a student teacher). This one pisses me off the most because itās obvious the person who sent that message didnāt even bother to conduct any research. They said, āHeās a teacher,Ā sheāsĀ a child.ā Both characters are MALE!
Since then, Vivzie has apologised for any NSFW art she drew in the past and stated that itās not a reflection of her art today, and Iām inclined to believe her. Almost every artist has drawn NSFW content at some point in their career, and hers wasnāt even distasteful. Other than this one example, there is no evidence anywhere that suggests sheās drawn āchild pornā. In fact, sheās never even drawn explicit NSFW.
PleaseĀ stop spreading this rumour. Itās dangerous and completely incorrect.
4. Vivzie said the āNā word!
This is the only claim I found that was actually credible. Yes, she did indeed say the āNā word on Twitter, and it was pretty brutal. However, she was only 17 and it was meant to be an edgy inside joke with her friends. Am I making excuses for her? No. Was she wrong for saying it? Definitely. But this was over 5 years ago, and sheās apologised for it ad infinitum. People change, and I donāt think itās fair to hold her accountable for something she said when she was a dumb teenager. She hasnāt repeated the mishap since, so as far as Iām concerned thereās no reason to dwell on it. I mean, how do you expect people to mature and grow as individuals when you constantly rake them over the coals for something they did when they were barely out of puberty?
5. Vivzie is copyright striking every video that criticises her!
No she isnāt. YouTubeās DMCA isĀ automaticallyĀ strikingĀ 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 absolutelyĀ does notĀ have to do. At this point, she doesnāt owe you anything. In my opinion, she should just sit back and watch these channels burn.
6. Vivzie copies and traces other artistsā work.
This is another one Iāve 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 VivzieĀ ācopyingā orĀ ātracingā other artistsā 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, thatās pretty incriminating. She obviously stoleā oh, wait. This gif was part of a ME!ME!ME! MEP (multi editorās project) and Vivzie didnāt take full credit, despite the fact that itās not even a direct trace. Itās 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 doesnāt count as stealing character designs or plagiarising someoneās work. Itās meant to be respectful, an admiration of other projects. Other than these two instances, however, there isĀ noĀ evidence of her tracing or stealing other peopleās art. From what Iāve discovered, all other designs sheās been accused of āstealingā are characters she bought and paid for. Theyāre quite literally HER characters.
7. Vivzie supports problematic creators.
Iām 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 honestā 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 doesnāt control what the people she follows post, and if they do something overly questionable she publicly criticises and denounces it.
Now that thatās been dealt with, Iād 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 misrepresentingĀ the gay for profit.
First off, I see a lot of people passing around yet more misinformation regarding Vivzieās race. So many people seem to think sheās white? Well, Iām here to tell you theyāre 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, itās her girlfriendās 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 thereās 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 sheās around Charlie sheās calm, collected, and happy. I wouldnāt call that a stereotype.
Thirdly, the lesbian stereotypes. I keep hearing this argument but I really donāt see it. Both Vaggie and Charlie have so much personality and trust for each other. Maybe Iām wrong, but the stereotype I know always totes a more butch, tomboyish woman with a ditsy, innocent, naive woman. Charlie is optimistic, but she isnāt stupid. She refuses to shake Alastorās hand because she knows heās likely trying to screw her over. Sheās also not entirely innocent herself and uses words like āfuckā and āshitā. I also wouldnāt call Vaggie butch or tomboyish. She has a cute, girly presentation, complete with a pink ribbon in her hair, lace stockings, and a dress. Sheās protective of her girlfriend, as I think we all are with our partners, and thereās nothing wrong with that. Theyāre flawed characters, as every character is meant to be. This isnāt a problem.
9. The show is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, blah, blah, blah.
Iām 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 doesnāt 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 doesnātĀ ātouch the gaysā because she hasĀ āstandardsā. Well, hereās a newsflash of my own: weāre not supposed to like her! Sheās anĀ antagonist. Not to mention ten seconds later Charlie insults her and isnāt the least bit slighted by her pretentious attitude. The characters are strong and donāt take shit from anyone, because to some degree theyāre all terrible people who can throw down when itās called for.
Obviously if you donāt like the show or think itās offensive, Iām probably not going to change your mind. Thatās perfectly fine. Youāre entitled to your opinions and you donāt 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 arenāt trying to be vindictive and only want to do something good, but just remember this: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
janainaart
izzy806
yousharknotpass
ellievsbear
dededos
kianamaiart
