Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
Nov. 25th, 2025 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
Daily Happiness
Nov. 24th, 2025 08:06 pmtorachan1. I got my hair cut this morning. Had to reschedule the appointment from last Monday because I had a work meeting conflict with it...and then the meeting was cancelled! Annoying, and my hair was definitely feeling longer than I usually like to let it get, but not the end of the world. Glad to have it cut again, though.
2. I got some tri-tip out of the freezer Saturday to have for dinner and it ended up being more than I thought it was once it was thawed and unwrapped, so I cut it into four small steaks and had one for dinner that day with rice and broccoli, made steak salad yesterday and today for lunch, and then had the final piece tonight in fried rice (which was very simple with only edamame in addition to the steak, and a fried egg on top). I'm glad I was able to make a variety of easy meals with it!
3. This window is one of Molly's favorite spots.
2. I got some tri-tip out of the freezer Saturday to have for dinner and it ended up being more than I thought it was once it was thawed and unwrapped, so I cut it into four small steaks and had one for dinner that day with rice and broccoli, made steak salad yesterday and today for lunch, and then had the final piece tonight in fried rice (which was very simple with only edamame in addition to the steak, and a fried egg on top). I'm glad I was able to make a variety of easy meals with it!
3. This window is one of Molly's favorite spots.
Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025
Nov. 24th, 2025 01:59 pmjames_davis_nicoll
Bundle of Holding's 13th annual feast of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks.
Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025
Discombobulation and dreamstuff
Nov. 24th, 2025 02:58 pmumadoshiI complain sometimes about time and the surreality of the passage thereof and whatnot, but this morning I had several minutes of genuinely wondering if the way the year is barreling toward its end meant the first Sunday of Advent had already passed without my even noticing. I'm not sure if something about the timing of US Thanksgiving threw me off, or if it's as simple as my not having put "Advent begins" on my calendar, which I think I usually note in advance. (In practical terms it'd be fine; as it happens, I'm planning to use a "burn a bit every day of December" Advent candle, which probably means not breaking out the wreath for the four Sundays. But still.)
I often have weird dreams and don't usually remember much about them, but until today I'm not sure I'd ever before woken up from a dream where I was watching a movie? In the case of this dream, I was at the theatre watching what was officially a Newsflesh film adaptation, but in the sense that (from what I know of it, never having seen it) the World War Z movie is based on that book, which is to say, really not at all. ("Lead" characters who were supposed to be Georgia and Shaun, yes, but nothing to do with [*checks notes*] characters-as-people, zombies, viruses, or politics, and possibly not journalism, either. I think there was some sort of lab creating humanoid/animal mixes of some sort, possibly giving them guns.) It went on for quite some time.
My dream-self was appalled, of course, but at least glad to think Seanan had presumably gotten a decent chunk of money for the rights. She's got cats to feed!
I often have weird dreams and don't usually remember much about them, but until today I'm not sure I'd ever before woken up from a dream where I was watching a movie? In the case of this dream, I was at the theatre watching what was officially a Newsflesh film adaptation, but in the sense that (from what I know of it, never having seen it) the World War Z movie is based on that book, which is to say, really not at all. ("Lead" characters who were supposed to be Georgia and Shaun, yes, but nothing to do with [*checks notes*] characters-as-people, zombies, viruses, or politics, and possibly not journalism, either. I think there was some sort of lab creating humanoid/animal mixes of some sort, possibly giving them guns.) It went on for quite some time.
My dream-self was appalled, of course, but at least glad to think Seanan had presumably gotten a decent chunk of money for the rights. She's got cats to feed!
Clarke Award Finalists 2023
Nov. 24th, 2025 09:19 amjames_davis_nicoll2023: King Charles III is the most unpopular British King in the last 60-odd years, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case’s comic routine is poorly received, and Sunak’s government ushers in a golden age of soaring STD rates.
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2023 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
Metronome by Tom Watson
Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
The Anomaly (translation of L'anomalie) by Hervé Le Tellier
The Coral Bones by E. J. Swift
The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
Poll #33874 Clarke Award Finalists 2023
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19
Which 2023 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
View Answers
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
4 (21.1%)
Metronome by Tom Watson
0 (0.0%)
Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
2 (10.5%)
The Anomaly (translation of L'anomalie) by Hervé Le Tellier
0 (0.0%)
The Coral Bones by E. J. Swift
0 (0.0%)
The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
15 (78.9%)
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2023 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
Metronome by Tom Watson
Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
The Anomaly (translation of L'anomalie) by Hervé Le Tellier
The Coral Bones by E. J. Swift
The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
The Coming Golden Age of Used Books
Nov. 24th, 2025 08:51 amjames_davis_nicoll
Just as the Great Fire of Rome was a boon for the building trade, so too will a modern catastrophe be a boon for used book stores.
The Coming Golden Age of Used Books
Daily Happiness
Nov. 23rd, 2025 08:01 pmtorachan1. Last week when I was reorganizing stuff in the shed, we went over some items and decided we no longer needed to keep them, but since it was still raining off and on, I didn't put them out at the time. Today I got them out on the curb, along with a box of ornaments we decided we no longer want, so hopefully those all get picked up soon.
2. I did some cleaning out of kitchen cupboards and fridge drawers yesterday and today. There were a lot of snacks that are expiring within the next week or so and Carla's out of town and I'm not going to eat them on my own, so I took them up to the Little Free Library that's been converted to a mini food pantry and they were already all gone the next time I took a walk.
3. Look at this sweet Chloe.
2. I did some cleaning out of kitchen cupboards and fridge drawers yesterday and today. There were a lot of snacks that are expiring within the next week or so and Carla's out of town and I'm not going to eat them on my own, so I took them up to the Little Free Library that's been converted to a mini food pantry and they were already all gone the next time I took a walk.
3. Look at this sweet Chloe.
Weekly proof of life: reading | foodstuff | impending appliance shopping (>.<)
Nov. 23rd, 2025 04:07 pmumadoshiReading: I finished August Clarke's Metal from Heaven (really good, with gorgeous writing) and read Into the Broken Lands, which was my first Tanya Huff book in...probably a couple of decades, honestly. Also really good. (I have a bonus soft spot for her because she was GoH at the local SFF con one year when I went in high school.)
Currently reading: Rebecca Mahoney's The Memory Eater.
Andscruloose and I are close enough to the end of Network Effect that we could probably finish it tonight if we really tried; annoyingly, it's due back at something like 6 PM today, and we can't get it finished by then, so we're gonna have to renew it. >.<
Cooking/Baking: I mentioned having apples we needed to bake with early in the month, and what we wound up going with was the Easiest Ever MOIST Apple Cake from RecipeTin eats, chosen in large part based on our available springform pans. It's tasty (we took the last pieces out to thaw for this evening), but I can't say "moist" is one of the first words it brings to mind. (It's not dry or anything, just...a perfectly pleasantly-textured cake.)
Tonight's dinner plan is Smitten Kitchen's Roast Chicken with Schmaltzy Cabbage. (It calls for a green cabbage and we have a Savoy, but hopefully that'll be okay.) Last weekend when we were out erranding we bought said cabbage, some carrots, and some broccoli (all still in the fridge), and some spring mix (fortunately not still in the fridge), but then we had a HelloFresh box to get through.
Buying vegetables is presumably the first step to actually cooking them, and I made sure to at least mostly choose some that would last a while. >.> The Bee Wilson book I mentioned recently has a section specifically on learning/practicing different cooking techniques with carrots, so I'm hoping to actually make use of the bag of carrots with my own hands. We'll see how that goes.
Householding: The upright freezer in the garage has been making unhappy noises and needing to be poked at periodically to keep it running. Time to get a new one, I guess. >.< Everyone loves appliance shopping!
Currently reading: Rebecca Mahoney's The Memory Eater.
And
scruloose and I are close enough to the end of Network Effect that we could probably finish it tonight if we really tried; annoyingly, it's due back at something like 6 PM today, and we can't get it finished by then, so we're gonna have to renew it. >.<Cooking/Baking: I mentioned having apples we needed to bake with early in the month, and what we wound up going with was the Easiest Ever MOIST Apple Cake from RecipeTin eats, chosen in large part based on our available springform pans. It's tasty (we took the last pieces out to thaw for this evening), but I can't say "moist" is one of the first words it brings to mind. (It's not dry or anything, just...a perfectly pleasantly-textured cake.)
Tonight's dinner plan is Smitten Kitchen's Roast Chicken with Schmaltzy Cabbage. (It calls for a green cabbage and we have a Savoy, but hopefully that'll be okay.) Last weekend when we were out erranding we bought said cabbage, some carrots, and some broccoli (all still in the fridge), and some spring mix (fortunately not still in the fridge), but then we had a HelloFresh box to get through.
Buying vegetables is presumably the first step to actually cooking them, and I made sure to at least mostly choose some that would last a while. >.> The Bee Wilson book I mentioned recently has a section specifically on learning/practicing different cooking techniques with carrots, so I'm hoping to actually make use of the bag of carrots with my own hands. We'll see how that goes.
Householding: The upright freezer in the garage has been making unhappy noises and needing to be poked at periodically to keep it running. Time to get a new one, I guess. >.< Everyone loves appliance shopping!
Benefits by Zoë Fairbairns
Nov. 23rd, 2025 09:19 amjames_davis_nicoll
Mother's Benefits become the means by which British governments provide British women with the same benevolent management Britain once provided to India, Ireland, and Africa.
Benefits by Zoë Fairbairns
Daily Happiness
Nov. 22nd, 2025 05:39 pmtorachan1. I've got the house to myself for the next week and a half. Carla has gone to Wisconsin to spend Thanksgiving with her aunt and uncle and cousins. Took her to the airport this morning and she's arrived safely at the airport in Chicago and currently on the bus to their house.
2. I got some more wire rack shelving for the shed the other day and put the first of two shelves together today. They're pretty quick to do, but I don't actually have room to put them both in the shed until I rearrange some stuff, which I'll do tomorrow, and then I can put the second one together. We're storing some books (twelve boxes, actually, but thankfully we've got the space) for Alex* in there and they're all in random boxes that weren't really meant for books and don't stack well, so they've semi fallen over. I bought some bankers boxes to repack them and then put them on the shelves to make them more manageable.
*Our good friend who formerly went by Alexander is now going by Alex and using she/her pronouns, just FYI.
3. We got the big lego Christmas tree set that came out last month and I just finished putting it together today. It has twenty-four bags and I usually do a bag a day when working on a project, so it's taken me about two weeks. It's really impressive!
( Read more... )
4. Tuxie!
2. I got some more wire rack shelving for the shed the other day and put the first of two shelves together today. They're pretty quick to do, but I don't actually have room to put them both in the shed until I rearrange some stuff, which I'll do tomorrow, and then I can put the second one together. We're storing some books (twelve boxes, actually, but thankfully we've got the space) for Alex* in there and they're all in random boxes that weren't really meant for books and don't stack well, so they've semi fallen over. I bought some bankers boxes to repack them and then put them on the shelves to make them more manageable.
*Our good friend who formerly went by Alexander is now going by Alex and using she/her pronouns, just FYI.
3. We got the big lego Christmas tree set that came out last month and I just finished putting it together today. It has twenty-four bags and I usually do a bag a day when working on a project, so it's taken me about two weeks. It's really impressive!
( Read more... )
4. Tuxie!
Weekly Reading
Nov. 22nd, 2025 11:36 amtorachanRecently Finished
The Mill House Murders
I have read manga adaptations of two Ayatsuji Yukito novels (Another and The Decagon House Murders), but never actually read any of the books. And I guess I still haven't technically "read" any because this was an audiobook lol. I didn't realize that there's a loose series that covers this, The Decagon House Murders, and several others. I happened across this on Hoopla and the narrator was pleasant and had good pronounciation for the character names, though alas, the other two in the series that are out in translation don't have the same narrators and I listened to a preview and didn't like either of them. I'll pick them up as books, though, and also reread The Decagon House Murders because I don't remember the character who links the books lol. (I remember quite a bit about the rest of the plot, though!) Anyway, I didn't like this one as much as The Decagon House Murders but it was good. It seems all of the books in this series are linked by one character but also by the fact that they all take place in houses built by an architect who always added hidden rooms and odd features.
Strange Houses
I read the manga adaptation of this, but after seeingrachelmanija's review of the book and seeing a comment that the various adaptations are all somewhat different, I decided to check this out as well. It's actually a suuuuuuper short read because it's under 200 pages to begin with, but the floor plans are constantly reprinted as the characters reference different oddities, so the actual number of text pages is much less. In addition, the dialogue is all script style. I think this works better as a manga, but the story was still very compelling and I enjoyed it. The biggest difference that I could see from the novel and the manga (not comparing them side by side but just from memory) is that in the novel they never go visit the house where it all started.
Murder at the Foundling Hospital
Third in the Tate and Bell mystery series. I keep forgetting that I don't like the narrator so I got the audiobook again and then regretted it. I do like the series enough to keep reading, so I will make sure to stick actually reading from now on.
This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (and Why It Matters)
Fun book about maps by the guys from the Map Men youtube channel, which I love.
My Home Hero vol. 13-15
The Mill House Murders
I have read manga adaptations of two Ayatsuji Yukito novels (Another and The Decagon House Murders), but never actually read any of the books. And I guess I still haven't technically "read" any because this was an audiobook lol. I didn't realize that there's a loose series that covers this, The Decagon House Murders, and several others. I happened across this on Hoopla and the narrator was pleasant and had good pronounciation for the character names, though alas, the other two in the series that are out in translation don't have the same narrators and I listened to a preview and didn't like either of them. I'll pick them up as books, though, and also reread The Decagon House Murders because I don't remember the character who links the books lol. (I remember quite a bit about the rest of the plot, though!) Anyway, I didn't like this one as much as The Decagon House Murders but it was good. It seems all of the books in this series are linked by one character but also by the fact that they all take place in houses built by an architect who always added hidden rooms and odd features.
Strange Houses
I read the manga adaptation of this, but after seeing
rachelmanija's review of the book and seeing a comment that the various adaptations are all somewhat different, I decided to check this out as well. It's actually a suuuuuuper short read because it's under 200 pages to begin with, but the floor plans are constantly reprinted as the characters reference different oddities, so the actual number of text pages is much less. In addition, the dialogue is all script style. I think this works better as a manga, but the story was still very compelling and I enjoyed it. The biggest difference that I could see from the novel and the manga (not comparing them side by side but just from memory) is that in the novel they never go visit the house where it all started.Murder at the Foundling Hospital
Third in the Tate and Bell mystery series. I keep forgetting that I don't like the narrator so I got the audiobook again and then regretted it. I do like the series enough to keep reading, so I will make sure to stick actually reading from now on.
This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (and Why It Matters)
Fun book about maps by the guys from the Map Men youtube channel, which I love.
My Home Hero vol. 13-15
Books Received, November 15 to November 21, 2025
Nov. 22nd, 2025 09:13 amjames_davis_nicoll
Three books new to me. All are fantasies, two are series.
Books Received, November 15 to November 21, 2025
Poll #33866 Books Received, November 15 to November 21, 2025
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 46
Which of these upcoming books look interesting?
View Answers
Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent (March 2026)
4 (8.7%)
Tides of Fortune by Lauryn Hamilton Murray (June 2026)
1 (2.2%)
Everybody’s Perfect by Jo Walton (June 2026)
35 (76.1%)
Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)
Cats!
32 (69.6%)
Daily Happiness
Nov. 21st, 2025 08:48 pmtorachan1. Finished up another puzzle tonight.
This is one that Carla bought on a whim and is not something I would have chosen myself due to the limited color palette, but it actually ended up being a lot more enjoyable than I'd anticipated. I've definitely gotten better at puzzles over the past six months since I started doing them (I would guess I probably hadn't done any physical jigsaw puzzles since childhood, though had occasionally done digital ones, but even those not in years) and I was very rusty at the time. This was still a challenge, but it only took about ten days, and aside from the border and a few other bits that Carla did, I did most of it myself.
2. It's the weekend! Not only that, but since I have next Thursday off for Thanksgiving, I decided to put in PTO for Friday as well to make it a four day weekend. I think most people in the office will be doing the same lol.
3. It was raining when I woke up, but by the time I went out for my walk about twenty minutes later, it had already pretty much finished, and that was it for the day. No more rain on the forecast, so that's nice. We got a good amount, but I'm ready to be dry again.
4. I got a ticket to see Mika next May. And learned that not only does he have a new album coming out at the end of this year, he also had a French-language album out a couple years ago that I totally missed.
5. Peek-a-boo!
This is one that Carla bought on a whim and is not something I would have chosen myself due to the limited color palette, but it actually ended up being a lot more enjoyable than I'd anticipated. I've definitely gotten better at puzzles over the past six months since I started doing them (I would guess I probably hadn't done any physical jigsaw puzzles since childhood, though had occasionally done digital ones, but even those not in years) and I was very rusty at the time. This was still a challenge, but it only took about ten days, and aside from the border and a few other bits that Carla did, I did most of it myself.
2. It's the weekend! Not only that, but since I have next Thursday off for Thanksgiving, I decided to put in PTO for Friday as well to make it a four day weekend. I think most people in the office will be doing the same lol.
3. It was raining when I woke up, but by the time I went out for my walk about twenty minutes later, it had already pretty much finished, and that was it for the day. No more rain on the forecast, so that's nice. We got a good amount, but I'm ready to be dry again.
4. I got a ticket to see Mika next May. And learned that not only does he have a new album coming out at the end of this year, he also had a French-language album out a couple years ago that I totally missed.
5. Peek-a-boo!
If I ever found myself in possession of a vast fortune
Nov. 21st, 2025 10:56 pmjames_davis_nicollI would definitely found an SF magazine.
Most mags struggle with handling submissions but I had a moment of insight: all I need to do is tell writers to send me _good_ stories. Their crap, they can submit elsewhere. Bang! Workload down by 99%.
Most mags struggle with handling submissions but I had a moment of insight: all I need to do is tell writers to send me _good_ stories. Their crap, they can submit elsewhere. Bang! Workload down by 99%.
The Door on the Sea (The Raven and the Eagle, volume 1) by Caskey Russell
Nov. 21st, 2025 09:10 amjames_davis_nicoll
A young scholar and his diverse companions are dispatched on an intelligence-gathering mission deep into enemy territory.
The Door on the Sea (The Raven and the Eagle, volume 1) by Caskey Russell
Daily Happiness
Nov. 20th, 2025 07:50 pmtorachan1. Originally the rain was supposed to start early this morning, but it was clear when I took my morning walk and still clear when I took an after-lunch walk around noon, which was nice. It did start raining sometime in the afternoon (was coming down steadily when I left work) and has not stopped since then, but I'm glad it wasn't rainy the whole day.
2. I feel like I've been making good progress on stuff at work. Still feeling vaguely stressed about the whole thing, but feeling overall more positive about it than last week.
3. Caught Gemma watching me while I was outside the other day.
2. I feel like I've been making good progress on stuff at work. Still feeling vaguely stressed about the whole thing, but feeling overall more positive about it than last week.
3. Caught Gemma watching me while I was outside the other day.
Erin Watches: The Switch + Hazbin Hotel S2
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:37 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
erinptah_feedThe Switch is a tiny little 1-season, 6-episode comedy about a trans woman living in Vancouver. It’s part quirky workplace comedy, part quirky roommate comedy, and part “she moves in with her ex who’s secretly an assassin, who spends the whole season trying to dodge the investigation for an executive they recently killed, but, like, in a funny way.”
Half the cast is trans, a ton of the crew is trans, so it’s a big part of the show in a way that feels genuine and natural. Even though the show in general has a fun heightened-reality vibe. (The original Kickstarter campaign mentions a sorceress character. She’s not in the final cut at all, which I kinda suspect was a broader “oops, we’re trying to stuff too much in 6 episodes, we need to cut the magic subplot” decision. But, listen, if they had made a second season where Sabrina the Teenage Witch moved in down the hall, it wouldn’t feel out-of-place.)
I watched the whole thing for free on Tubi! There are some other streaming options on their official website. They also just straight-up tell you “want to be a pirate? here are the torrents” — but give them some ad revenue, if you can.
—
So I guess I’m a Hazbin Hotel fan now, huh?
FFA did a rewatch of season 1 in the leadup to season 2, so I rewatched it along with that. Then ended up watching S2 as it came out (dropping two episodes a week), because now I’m invested enough that I didn’t want spoilers.
(Couldn’t totally avoid them, because…listen, there is a deep vault of Fandom Lore here, which I have never actually looked at. So there were regular comments like “sure, we already basically knows Plot Point X, because of the leaks/interviews/character designs posted on DA in 2012” where I had no idea about X at all. It worked out fine, though, because sometimes the fandom was wrong! And I had no way to predict when.)
All the music is good, and some of it is great. Their animation budget must be incredible, and you can see it paying off — Vox Populi showcases some amazing dynamic tracking shots, and the reprise Vox Dei has them just showing off. It has the same overstuffed pacing as S1, where they’re trying to pack about a thousand different character beats into eight episodes — there are setups that never get payoffs, and payoffs to things that weren’t actually set up — but the central arc of the season does hold together, and all the individual moments are fun to watch.
There’s a recurring theme of “look, this is shameless pandering to the iddiest of fandom desires” that goes so hard, you have to respect it. The saddest woobie with the softest vulnerable heart gets manhandled in all-new ways!
The most Tumblr Sexyman spends multiple episodes tied up and gagged, strapped to a chair, in his jealous rival’s bedroom!
There are moments that honestly feel like “the show won’t bother going too deep into this, because they know they can just toss the idea in front of their audience, and wait for a million fics to fill in the gaps.” And given the size of the fandom, I don’t think they’re wrong, either.
…The size of the fandom means there’s an overwhelming number of Youtube videos. But a lot of the ones I’ve watched are, well. Bad? Like “hidden details you missed” but it just lists basic plot points, or “fixing the character designs” but it’s fixating on things that aren’t problems.
Have a few recs, because these deserve to be watched without viewers having to dig them out of the heap first:
- An Exhausted Defense Of Angel Dust (posted before S2, has some heavy discussion about sexual assault)
- The Character Design of Hazbin Hotel (also posted before S2, the only video about the designs where I haven’t gotten exasperated and stopped watching)
- Collider Ladies Night interview with Vivziepop (released after S2, plenty of spoilers)
Erin Watches: The Switch + Hazbin Hotel S2
Nov. 20th, 2025 09:37 pmerinptahThe Switch is a tiny little 1-season, 6-episode comedy about a trans woman living in Vancouver. It’s part quirky workplace comedy, part quirky roommate comedy, and part “she moves in with her ex who’s secretly an assassin, who spends the whole season trying to dodge the investigation for an executive they recently killed, but, like, in a funny way.”
Half the cast is trans, a ton of the crew is trans, so it’s a big part of the show in a way that feels genuine and natural. Even though the show in general has a fun heightened-reality vibe. (The original Kickstarter campaign mentions a sorceress character. She’s not in the final cut at all, which I kinda suspect was a broader “oops, we’re trying to stuff too much in 6 episodes, we need to cut the magic subplot” decision. But, listen, if they had made a second season where Sabrina the Teenage Witch moved in down the hall, it wouldn’t feel out-of-place.)
I watched the whole thing for free on Tubi! There are some other streaming options on their official website. They also just straight-up tell you “want to be a pirate? here are the torrents” — but give them some ad revenue, if you can.
—
So I guess I’m a Hazbin Hotel fan now, huh?
FFA did a rewatch of season 1 in the leadup to season 2, so I rewatched it along with that. Then ended up watching S2 as it came out (dropping two episodes a week), because now I’m invested enough that I didn’t want spoilers.
(Couldn’t totally avoid them, because…listen, there is a deep vault of Fandom Lore here, which I have never actually looked at. So there were regular comments like “sure, we already basically knows Plot Point X, because of the leaks/interviews/character designs posted on DA in 2012” where I had no idea about X at all. It worked out fine, though, because sometimes the fandom was wrong! And I had no way to predict when.)
All the music is good, and some of it is great. Their animation budget must be incredible, and you can see it paying off — Vox Populi showcases some amazing dynamic tracking shots, and the reprise Vox Dei has them just showing off. It has the same overstuffed pacing as S1, where they’re trying to pack about a thousand different character beats into eight episodes — there are setups that never get payoffs, and payoffs to things that weren’t actually set up — but the central arc of the season does hold together, and all the individual moments are fun to watch.
There’s a recurring theme of “look, this is shameless pandering to the iddiest of fandom desires” that goes so hard, you have to respect it. The saddest woobie with the softest vulnerable heart gets manhandled in all-new ways!
The most Tumblr Sexyman spends multiple episodes tied up and gagged, strapped to a chair, in his jealous rival’s bedroom!
There are moments that honestly feel like “the show won’t bother going too deep into this, because they know they can just toss the idea in front of their audience, and wait for a million fics to fill in the gaps.” And given the size of the fandom, I don’t think they’re wrong, either.
…The size of the fandom means there’s an overwhelming number of Youtube videos. But a lot of the ones I’ve watched are, well. Bad? Like “hidden details you missed” but it just lists basic plot points, or “fixing the character designs” but it’s fixating on things that aren’t problems.
Have a few recs, because these deserve to be watched without viewers having to dig them out of the heap first:
- An Exhausted Defense Of Angel Dust (posted before S2, has some heavy discussion about sexual assault)
- The Character Design of Hazbin Hotel (also posted before S2, the only video about the designs where I haven’t gotten exasperated and stopped watching)
- Collider Ladies Night interview with Vivziepop (released after S2, plenty of spoilers)
