Bayonetta 3 Released, and Hellena Taylor's Fourteen Recommended Charities

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - A follow-up. As usual, the mob won't like my take.

Congratulations to character action game aficionados: Bayonetta 3 exclusively for Nintendo Switch has launched, and I see a lot of positivity around the game. Here's the age-restricted launch trailer, followed by a screen capture from it to get around that issue.

If I wore glasses and needed to push them up, I'd use my limbs, not my gun. (I think this one is called Orange Blossom, of the Colour My World set.)

I'm never going to get Bayonetta 3, since I'm not interested in the genre. Instead, I want to follow up with the story about Bayonetta's bitter former voice actress, Hellena Taylor. (Jennifer Hale is the new voice actress in Bayonetta 3—if you listened to the age-restricted launch trailer, Ms. Hale did a decent enough job that no one should be upset.)

As a quick timeline, she initially asked every Bayonetta fan to boycott Bayonetta 3 because she chose not to take the job to voice-act Bayonetta 3 out of an exaggerated sense of self-worth. My first reaction was skepticism of her claims (coupled with disgust at her clingy attack on Jennifer Hale and the weird Biblical condemnation of PlatinumGames and Nintendo), and the fact that even if they were true, boycotting the product still doesn't make sense. But many people who base their life views on hating corporations and supporting “the little guy” or “the struggling artist” leapt to Hellena's cause, without applying any scrutiny to her story, looking over any evidence, or hearing and evaluating the opposite point of view. (This, of course, meant that my skepticism and labelling as Hellena as having petty grievances that she wanted to weaponise through Bayonetta fans was... unpopular.)

Eventually, “journalists” who work at misinformation media outlets claimed they actually saw the details from anonymous PlatinumGames employees of Hellena's proposed contract and negotiations, and according to those, her sob story was filled with lies and lies of omission. Hellena Taylor rejected that she lied, but in the process, confirmed the journalists’ sources were correct, so she really confessed. (She also answered the question that I had e-mailed her on how much she was paid for the first two Bayonetta games, which is far, far less than what she was being offered for Bayonetta 3.)

Lost in this discussion was the line near the end of her first video (which currently has 11.1 million views on Twitter), which, by the way, is way more than the entire Bayonetta series has cumulatively sold in copies. (The subsequent video parts are all between 100,000 and 500,000 views, which is why my initial article published transcripts of all four videos. The people that didn't hear both sides of the story didn't even finish hearing one side of the story before making a judgment!) Anyway, the “I am asking the fans to boycott this game, and instead spend the money that you would have spent on this game, donating it to charity.” line. What charity? Well, nearly two weeks later, and after lots of people doubted that she would actually name any charities, she has named fourteen charities. I'm going to go over all of them and provide my thoughts. Note that I'm not a charity expert. I refer to Charity Navigator ratings when available, but since Hellena is British and Charity Navigator is for American charities (and I haven't been able to find equivalent rating systems for United Kingdom charities), they're often not available.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières

Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people in crisis. This includes things like providing vaccines in Africa, providing “safe abortion care” for “mothers” (they also believe men can become pregnant), and assisting those who have been ravaged by natural disasters or wars.

EIN: 13-3433452

USA branch highly ranked by Charity Navigator as accountable and transparent.

They've raised over half a billion dollars in the most recent year available (this is rising every year), with an 85.8% program expense ratio.

The Silver Line

A United Kingdom-based hotline for elderly people to help stave off feelings of isolation.

Registered Charity Number: 1147330

Raised 2.6 million GBP (or about 3 million USD) in the most recent year; this number is declining as the years go by. Looks like a 93% program expense ratio in 2020.

Humanimal Trust

Researching a “One Medicine” philosophy that seems to be looking into human and animal medical advancement but without animal testing or animal harm.

Registered Charity Numbers: 1156927 | SC048960 (Scottish, too)

In 2020, had total income of 169,295 GBP (nearly 200,000 USD). About a 77% program expense ratio and in quite a bit of debt.

Pets For Vets

American charity that connects trained animal companions (mostly dogs) with veterans (at no cost to vets), helping save both animal lives and easing the post-traumatic stress disorder of returning military veterans.

EIN: 27-1250302

Also highly rated by Charity Navigator, with a 97.

They've raised nearly a million USD in the most recent year. Has an 83.24% program expense ratio.

The “student pizza fund” at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is where Hellena Taylor got her actress training (and others get trained in dramatic arts and music as a higher education provider), but I have no idea what the “student pizza fund” is or where to donate to it. Maybe it's a tongue-in-cheek reference to their Student Hardship Fund or the Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund? There is no relevant search result for pizza on LAMDA's site.

Charity number: 312821

LAMDA as a whole has an income of around 11 million GBP (about 12.6 million USD), though details on the financials of the “student pizza fund” are unknown. Their program expense ratio was 95.5% in 2020, giving scholarships and such to those who go there... and of course, paying the staff.

Dogs Trust

A United Kingdom charity for dog welfare, such as helping dogs find homes, neutering them, and rehabilitating their behavioural challenges.

Registered Charity Numbers 227523 | SC037843 (in Scotland)

Massive income of almost $120 million GBP. Only 72% or so program expense ratio; they spend a lot of their money to raise more money. Very suspiciously, their fundraising promise page says they have no government funding, but the Charity Commission for England and Wales states they got 5.04 million GBP in 2020 in government grants, and 1.72 million GBP in grants in 2021.

“Your local branch” of Missionaries of Charity

A Catholic community founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta to aid the poor. I'm not sure how to evaluate this because it's not set up like other charities are, and their website is atrocious.

Team Rubicon

Veteran-led humanitarian organisation based in the USA (but will help in other countries) that assists people facing disasters and crises. This includes the crisis in Ukraine and hurricanes and floods in America. Their uniform involves wearing a grey shirt. Not to be confused with Team Rocket.

EIN: 27-1720480

Charity Navigator gave them a 96.46. Tulsi Gabbard also follows them on Twitter, so I view that as a big sign of trust.

88.1% program expense ratio. They raised over 50 million USD in the most recent year available.

Billboards for Life

Kentucky (USA)-based organisation that “blanket[s] cities and towns with Catholic Pro-Life Billboards raising public awareness of the sanctity of all Human Life.”

Their website lacks information on charity numbers or finance reports.

The HALO Trust

Charity that clears landmines, letting people live in peace without the fear of being blown up. (Earth is actually full of millions of these that are still active, even if planted many years ago.)

Registered Charity Number: 1001813

About 99.5% of their expenses goes to charitable activities. They made about 94 million GBP in fiscal year 2022, which is about 110 million USD.

St. Monica Catholic Community

A Los Angeles-area church. Does whatever Catholic churches do, like helping local homeless people.

EIN: 95-1642385

Not rated by Charity Navigator because it's a church. Funding doesn't seem to be available.

Brother Andre Medical Centre

Kenyan (Dandora) healthcare centre, opened by the Congregation of Holy Cross. They do things like help babies be born and dentistry. Funding details couldn't be located.

Kevin Cruise Foundation

They subsidise theatre performances so young people can go watch them.

Registered Charity Number: 1183164

They only had about 24,000 GBP in income in 2021, or about 28,000 USD. I'd imagine they use it all on charitable work, but it's too few numbers for that to be reported out.

Aid to the Church in Need UK

A Catholic charity that supports persecuted Christians around the world. These include in African and Islamic dominated countries where they kill nuns and burn down churches, such as Lebanon and Nigeria, where the Islamic State in West Africa hangs out. (Why are they still around?)

Registered Charity Number: 4000664

They most recently raised about 10.2 million GBP (or almost 12 million USD), and has about a 90.5% program expense ratio.

Hellena Taylor clearly likes dogs. Can we send every Greavard in Paldea to Dogs Trust to try to remedy their behaviour of sucking life-force from everyone around them?

She also is clearly a proud Catholic, supporting Catholic-initiated charities around the world. These help various disadvantaged groups, including the unborn. Unfortunately, a lot of people are attacking Hellena Taylor for asking you to donate $60 to Billboards for Life. That donation will apparently go to putting up billboards like this somewhere in the United States of America:

The weird image quality is their doing, not mine. This is... tacky at best.

I'm totally for calling Hellena Taylor a bad person (even if she donates money to some decent causes) and someone that shouldn't be hired in the videogame industry (or anywhere else that requires maintaining confidentiality) for a long time, if ever again. But I'm very much against trying to bad-mouth someone just because they believe in the sanctity of life, and people attacking Hellena Taylor for just that reason should be ashamed of themselves. (But they won't be, likely because they're demonic in nature.)

That said, Billboards for Life is an incredibly suspicious organisation, just based on browsing their website (even KoopaTV appears less suspicious as an organisation), and if I wanted to donate to pro-life causes, I'd never consider one that plasters billboards as their mission. I'd want to help fund foster care and adoption services. Hellena Taylor seems quite fine donating to services that help dogs find new owners. Why not help abandoned babies find new parents? There are dedicated Catholic charities for that, if you want to do it the Catholic way.

There is a long-running effort to try to drive pro-life people in the videogame industry (or creative media in general) out of their jobs just because they are pro-life. No such effort exists for pro-choice people, and Hellena Taylor herself isn't even against her money going to help pro-abortion causes, or else she wouldn't put Doctors Without Borders as her first-listed charity.

Also, it's not just that it's a pro-life “charity” that puts up billboards, or even that it's a pro-life charity of any sort. Some of these detractors are against charities of ANY religious affiliation. That is fundamentally antithetical to diversity of thought, and certainly a problem in many other moral respects. It wouldn't be a problem if these people with deep-seated hatred in their hearts were a vocal minority, but they are... gaining in power, and in political power, and the vocal minority of today might be the generation-dooming rulers of tomorrow. (For now, people are voicing that they're against “anti-choice” groups, though some are saying all Catholic-based charities are “anti-choice”.)

...Also, you really shouldn't choose between donating to charity and buying a new videogame to entertain yourself. If you're considering either buying a new game or donating to charity, you probably have the wealth to do both. You should never feel guilty about playing videogames as a hobby.


If you want to donate to KoopaTV, send some cryptocurrency to koopatv.eth. That's KoopaTV's only donation method. There's no feel-good story about helping puppies, clearing land mines, or helping college students eat pizza, but it would be appreciated.