#dat ask

What's the difference between a Vietnamese Restaurant and an Indian Restaurant?

One is a pho profit and the other is a naan profit.

so sorry for the delay, but you know i will never miss an opportunity to YAP about any of these freaks !!!

my beloved waava:

She actually did realize and then immediately forgot (if repressing feels was an olympic sport she’d have a silver metal (Shauna would have gold))

[context]

Yeah that's the thing about engaging with a canon that's not "closed" yet— you are allowed to have any kind of feelings you want about the direction a story is taking, but also you have to recognize that you don't know what the purpose of those writing choices is yet.

There is always room to be asking "is this bad writing that X wasn't addressed, or is it a possibility that this is something that will be explored in a future episode/season?" There is always room to be asking "did plot point Y not make sense, or is it a possibility that the questions you still have about Y are questions that will be answered when more information is revealed later?"

In my experience, when people online decry "bad writing," what they are actually describing is usually one of three things:

Writing that does not function well on a technical level

Writing that isn't to an individual's personal taste, or

Writing that does not match the expectations they had going in and caused cognitive dissonance between what they thought they were getting and what the writer(s) was actually attempting to do

You may notice that 2 and 3 are not actually bad writing. One is a matter of taste, and the other is a function of a clash between expectation and reality. I think most of the criticisms of the writing on Hazbin that I've seen over the years fall into these categories.

That doesn't mean that there are no criticisms that fall under category 1, of course. For instance, I think some of the writing on Hazbin suffers from the limited season length that has been externally imposed by Amazon— to tell the story Vivienne and the rest of the creative team are trying to tell, which is a story with an epic scope and a huge cast, these seasons really should be ten episodes at a minimum, and probably realistically should be at least 12. By trying to compress that into eight-episode seasons, it does mean that many of the major characters aren't quite as fleshed-out as one would wish after two seasons, and that is a technical flaw that's fair to talk about.

But the thing with an open canon that is still a work in progress is that sometimes you don't know what's a technical flaw and what's a "wait and see" until the thing is done. Maybe something that seems like a weird choice or that doesn't mesh with your (general "you" here) understanding of what the story was doing up until now actually is a technical flaw in the writing... or maybe you (again, general "you") have missed something in your analysis and the story is actually doing something different from what you initially thought and future installments will elaborate on what's actually happening.

I see this a lot because I have a habit of coming into fandoms either well after the canon is closed (seriously, my first internet fandom experience decades ago was for a show that went off the air before I was out of diapers) or when the canon is in its final chapters and very nearly complete already, so I will often go wading into the archives of fan writing and meta on the source material and see complaints people made about a series as it was airing and go "well this is nonsense, it's so obvious that X thing they were complaining about was a setup for Y that happened later in the season" but like.... you don't know that when you don't know what comes later because it hasn't been released yet.

i was a huuuuge fan of your "take the edge off" one shot. such a fan that me and my friend would routinely talk about it and sing it praises. i was wondering if you would ever plan on uploading it elsewhere? or if the removal was intentional and something had happened.

Looks like I need to update my fic index.

Commander Wake, last name "oops there goes gravity", died falling from space.

Oh yes.

I never thought about this one specifically (her other names are great but I'll Comme back to them later), but I believe that the names always have at least a bit of a link to the true nature of the character or their role in the story.

I don't think anyone in the tlt universe is able to understand it, except maybe John, as he does name people with the knowledge of what those names meant before he nuked everything. Like a twisted inside joke or a wish that it would "take". Kinda like some parents chose a name for it's associated virtues.

But on the other side, BoE has done kind of the same. They don't live forever and meaning will get lost over a myriad, so they tried to preserve their culture by giving names with meaning, but a lot of it is lost to them (I think they still have some context because a lot of those are way too close to their original meaning even if they don't seem to make any sense at first. They are the only one appart from God to use names like he does.

About Wake, I don't think anyone in BoE ever pronounced Wake's last names like in the song but there is no way Jod did not take psychic damage the first time he heard it. Because it is a stupid reminder of what he destroyed, and then erased from everyone he resurrected.

Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead:

From Shakespeare's Henry V, meaning "remind yourself of the great deeds of your ancestors". It speaks to Wake's strength and unification of BoE, she is the incarnation of the survivors or Jod's carnage, and of the rebellion's myriad of history.

But to me it also is a call for Gideon. The original sentence is meant to convince Henry V that he should raise an army to take back what is rightfully his, the throne of France. Gideon's heritage is the throne of god, and the command of BoE. We could say she took the first as prince Kiriona Gaia but she didn't do it by Valliance. To do that she would have to kill Jod.

"Awake", is also in a very simple way what she does, she has tried to wake Alecto, she "woke up" Pyrrah by giving her a reason to take control of Gide1n more frequently, she took control as soon as she was woken up as a ghost and became a revenant, and when her daughter's sword entered the mithraeum she regularly woke up as a dead lyctor. And she is of course the Sleeper, who won't stay sleeping. Like, almost on the nose there.

Kia Hua Ko Te Pai (let goodness flourish):

That one is a slap in Jod's face. He is at least mixed Maori/indigenous. This is a part of the Maori version of the New Zealand national anthem. New Zealand's beginnings were bloody and monstrously racist. Having the Maori version of God save New Zealand become an official anthem was the recognition of decades of fighting done by Maori activists for their rights, against the imperialism of the state. Jod's pretty recent ancestors have known that fight. And now he is that oppressing, cruel and inhuman empire. And Wake is throwing this reminder in his face.

If those choices are conscious from BoE then the choice of this precise verse could be used to ground Wake, ala "don't forget why you are doing this".

Snap back to reality, oops, there goes gravity

For BoE necromancy is a crime against nature, an unwelcome alteration of reality itself. And Jod is the incarnation of that. Killing him would make the world "snap back". It would also "kill" the sun again, creating a giant gravity well, absorbing everything in the system, or just disseapear, flinging the system all across the galaxy. Either way, gravity's gonna have quite an effect.

As the phrase comes from "loose yourself" by Eminem, it could also be taken as a reminder of the daunting task ahead and a way for Wake to steel herself and "take her shot".

And she, as you said, died falling out an airlock at the edge of space.

Our lady of the Passion:

This one may be one of the most fascinating. Sure she is passionate and all but, Pash is named after a painting, on of a madone and child. The lady in question is mourning the future suffering of her child, his Passion.

I think BoE names are codenames, given when entering service by a superior. Because Pash would not chose that name. But someone we know would choose a powerful sounding name while also being a sorrowful reminder of the pain this child entering a fighting force will face, Wake.

And suffer she did.