#hellubaboss

Biggest problem: the rampant fatphobia. I came always judge whether a character is intended to be likable or not almost entirely off of whether or not they're a stick figure. The sin of Greed is a fat man intentionally shown maneuvering his gut as an indicator to the audience how repulsive he is, while the sin of Gluttony, who is always seen eating junkfood, is a narrow waisted slim-thick type. Adam from the adjacent show is a subtler example of this, his body sloping down rather than bending inwards (and the first interaction of him is of him stuffing his face). If an antagonistic character is thin, he is to be engaging; interesting for us to watch. If he is fat or just not thin then we are to find him nauseating.

Second biggest problem: The undercurrent of misogyny and more general sexism. Most girls (or feminine) characters, unless they are the daughter or wife of one of our male protagonists, are portrayed as busybody brats who are often scapegoated. They're the ones shown as prudes, or puritans, or needlessly cruel.

Stella is a genuinely interesting character in that she's a royal who's sole duty in life was to breed, who never loved the husband she was assigned to live with, and who turned around to take it out on her designated mate rather than those under her power (namely her servants). Her characterization works pretty well in hindsight with a few blinding exceptions. I do not think that she didn’t report Stolas sooner because she didn’t think to, I think it is because tormenting him was fun and reporting would take away her toy.

All that said, I took one look at her design when she was first premiered and kind of knew she was someone I was supposed to hate. She's feminine, she wears dresses, she sips on tea while planning parties; of course they were going to shunt the blame onto her to try and persuade us that Stolas was a pure innocent.

A good deal of this criticism is rescinded after Millie's part in the ghost episode, which retroactively paint her minimalist role in episodes as her being something if a strong silent type (which I have come to love; she's a rancher, of course she keeps her cool and says little).

The criticism retains some weight by virtue of how the customers are shown, with women being insufferable, snotty karens and the men being wacky.

Nit pick: Loona and Blitz' relationship is weird. Before it was characterized through recurrent parental abuse as Loona tried beating Blitz over being asked to adjust her performance, then there's an attempted reclarification that she only does this because Blitz constantly pushes her boundaries by trying to act as if he'd raised her from birth, but all the while the narrative treats Blitz as in the right?

Why do they have Loona call him dad. This is my problem; why does she call him that? How come, in the beach episode, does she nearly accidentally call him that? For those of you who have been raised solely by your birth parents, allow me to relay that we don’t tend to call someone “Mom” or “Dad” unless it is a conscious decision which is often negotiated between those involved. It only becomes reflexive after doing it for a long while, and the relationship is made no less valid if the child refers to their parental figure by their first name.

Assuming that Loona grew up in the pound and had no family, it is even more strange that she'd call him that.

It throws me every time. It's weird, I am weirded.

Not a criticism but is something interesting: I've been scratching my head at the attempted social commentary for a while now. Recent episodes have done a better job at qualifying the assertions, but all of the businesses we've seen are run by imps, imps own their own stores, everyone in the office building in the oh so exclusive ring seems to be an imp or someone working for an imp, etcetera.

I thought it was all just hollow preaching, and it mostly is, but now realize that the issue stems from the characters talking as if they are marginalized people in our modern world, while living in a society more akin to pre-revolution France. Factor that difference in and the story becomes a whole lot more cohesive.

Tangent: in defense of Ozzie, what could he have really said at the trial? The accusations Blitz was being prosecuted for were illegal access to the human world, which he had. He'd been the one to initiate it, he was the one profiting, and Osmodious knew this because Stolas had told him. The other accusations were just to get the red bird to back down and to cover his and Stella's tracks (as the assassin they hired had been pardoned, thus they'd be in the clear).

Compliment: The writers have gotten a lot better at portraying emotional depth and dramatic scenes in that the people involved feel like people. Octavia's cascade at her father was well deserved and well carried, which is a far cry from the balcony scene between her and Loona several episodes before. The creative team have akways been good at drama but they are now good at using those skills in a manner that doesn’t give off harmful messages. Read: I like this, more please.

TLDR: Stop being fat phobic, consider how the non-related or married women are portrayed, and you're getting pretty good with the narrative.