#(WHICH. something he DIDN'T let Blitz have by the by.)

[flower-boi16]

I personally disagree with the claims that Stolas is a coercive rapist. I don't want to start an argument I just want to show you my perspective, alright here we go.

Let's start at Harvest Moon Festival: 'When this happens, it's not really something I fuss about...' and 'Well, I'm not a fan of someone I offered a job to about to off my easiest lengthy ticket to Earth behind my back.' Notice how Blitz says 'easiest lengthy ticket' here, not 'only ticket', and Blitz knows about Asmodean Crystals, as evidenced by Unhappy Campers where he forces someone to use it to create a portal to the living world, so the Grimoire was never the only option Blitz could've used to run I.M.P. Sure losing the grimoire would've disrupted business for a bit, but again, it was never Blitz's only option. It's also been confirmed in Ghostfuckers that I.M.P used to assassin jobs in Hell before Blitz got the Grimoire from Stolas, I.M.P was running fine without the Grimoire, if Blitz couldn't get his hands on the Grimoire or the Asmodeun Crystal he and his could always just run missions in Hell, so the coercion argument already falls flat there, but let's beat it up a bit further shall we?

Now let's look at Ozzies, at the ending of it Stolas never pressures or forces Blitz into having sex with him or quote 'We could talk, or… watch a movie, or… maybe cuddle?', Blitz turns Stolas down here, and Stolas never forces or pressures Blitz into doing said things with him, and you know what this also proves? It proves that Blitz has always the self-agency to tell Stolas 'no I don't want to fuck you', which also shows that Blitz actually wanted to have sex with Stolas, which we can prove by the text messages Stolas and Blitz had after Ozzie's.

The text messages at the end of Western Energy show that Stolas is actively giving Blitz the option to not fuck him, which also tells us that Blitz always had the option to tell Stolas no, and hell, we can see in the All 2 U song that Blitz turned down Stolas most likely asking Blitz to stay after the sex, proving even further Blitz always had the self-agency to tell Stolas no, which shows that Blitz wanted to have sex with Stolas.

And I'm not even counting everything about what happened in Full Moon. Blitz literally sings about how much he enjoys sex with Stolas, spends the whole day buying things to use on Stolas, begged for Stolas to keep the deal, said multiple times about how much the deal is something he enjoyed and wanted to keep, and told Loona and M&M about how Stolas never forced anything on him which lead to months without intimacy between them. Where is the coercion??? Simply, it's not there.

Now let's look at Apology Tour, Blitz wants the arrangement back, to fuck Stolas again. Which tells us something that the people peddling the nonsense 'Stolas is a rapist' argument entirely ignore, Blitz is the one unhappy with the arrangement ending, not Stolas, Blitz.

Also, Blitz has the Asmodeun Crystal by this point, He could've easily have just told Stolas to fuck off and leave if he was truly being coerced and raped by him, but he chooses to stay because at this point he thinks this gesture is a farewell gift from Stolas, and it's been made very clear that Blitz has strong feelings for Stolas by this point despite his self-hatred, that he doesn't want to lose Stolas, which also helps to further prove that Blitz wanted to have sex with Stolas out of his entire free will.

Blitz having sex with Stolas was a way for Blitz to be close to Stolas without having to be vulnerable, and when Stolas gets rid of the arrangement Blitz is scared because it would force Blitz to be vulnerable towards Stolas.

Is all of this really the behavior of a person who felt coerced into sex he didn't want to have? Because I think it's pretty clear that Blitz at no point felt coerced into having sex with Stolas, and the people that claim otherwise I have good grounds to believe aren't even watching the same show anymore.

.....sigh...

...before I start this long rant post I just want to say I'm grateful that your being civil in this ask. I'm glad you chose to state your reasoning rather than being made because I critisizied your favourite funny demon show.

However, I don't agree with any of this reasoning. There's a lot to break down here so I'll just split this post into two sections:

1. Stolitz IS Coercian, and Here's Why

So you start off by bringing up what Blitz says in The Harvest Moon Festival and how the grimoire isn't Blitz's only option for being able to do his job. That is true but...it doesn't change the fact that Stolas is threatening to take away an item that Blitz needs in order for his buisness to function in order to force Blitz into having consent with him, and so Blitz woulden't have that much of a choice.

Yes he could have gotten an Asmodean crystal but the fact he never did that in the first place is a plot hole in it of itself. And, if anything, the presence of other options just makes Stolas look even worse; Stolas could have just lent the book to Blitz in secret, or he could have just given Blitz the Asmodean crystal and move on with his day, but no, Stolas chose the option to put Blitz in a situation where Blitz HAD to consent to him or he'll lose the one thing he needs for his job.

And, Blitz fully believes the book to be his only option. The Full Moon literally has Blitz begging and pleading for Stolas to not end the deal because he needs the book. He would not have this reaction if he knew of other options, therefore he thinks that the book is his only real option (which makes very little sense but we'll just roll with it since that's what the show is presenting to us).

And then there's my last point which is Murder Family, the episode where Stolas first makes the deal with Blitz. This is the one scene people point to when they call Blitz corcian, and, there's a reason for that.

Stolas literally called Blitz when he was being chased by a lunatic with a shot gun. Blitz only consented because he was in an emotionally stressful state of mind and did not have any time to actually process or think about the deal, NOT because he was into having sex with Stolas, which makes the "Stolitz isn't coercian because Blitz had a choice" argument fall flat, because in the moment of the deal he didn't.

And even if he wasn't in a stressful emotional state, he is still being put in a situation where he HAS to consent or he'll lose the one thing he needs for his job by someone with much more power than him, and again, Blitz DOES THINK that the grimoire is his one option. Even if Blitz never felt coerced...he still was coerced. There isn't much changing that. Someone can say they weren't stabbed but they were still stabbed, someone can say they were SA'd but were still SA'd. This doesn't change shit.

It is deffiently true that there are hints for Blitz having affection for Stolas though, but the thing is, that makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. Why? Well, simple.

2. Blitz has NO REASON to Love Stolas (And Here's Why)

Yes. You read that title correctly. Blitz should not have ANY FORM of affection towards Stolas what so ever. If anything, he has every reason to dislike him.

Let's actually look at what Stolas has done to Blitz (both the good and bad).

THE GOOD:

Did some small nice things to Blitz like giving him gifts, laughing at his jokes, and generally showing that he did have some level of care for him...which were all off-screen....

...

...

......?

...........?

..................??????????

Ya...so....that's kind of it. And now...

THE BAD:

Forcing Blitz to consent to a deal where he HAD to consent with him or he will lose his job

Belittling, dehumanizing, and constantly invading Blitz's boundries

Flirting with Blitz even when he explicitly tells him that he's uncomfortable

Not taking Blitz's attempts at setting up boundries seriously

Ya. So. I rest my case. There is no reason for Blitz to have any form of affection or to want any form of affection out of Stolas given how Stolas has treated Blitz throughout the show; the few good things Stolas does for Blitz that we are supposed to see as the reasons for why Blitz would fall in love with him fall flat because not only are they off-screen, they also don't make up for the bad.

Sure, you could say that Blitz doesn't hold any of this against Stolas but...he should. He should be mad over Stolas constantly invading his boundries even when he tells him no, he should be mad over the deal, and he should be mad over Stolas constantly make him uncomfortable.

Yet, we are supposed to believe that Blitz has feelings for Stolas despite the fact he has no reason to. Also, if Stolas apperently always cared about Blitz's boundries...than explain Loo Loo Land. Explain why Stolas continued flirting with Blitz constantly even when he could clearly see that Blitz was uncomfortable. Explain why he consistantly dehumanized Blitz over the course of the show by treating him like a sex object. Explain why Stolas continued calling Blitz pet names in The Harvest Moon Festival in front of a whole crowd of people even when Blitz was, once again, annoyed and uncomfortable.

And you can't use the "Oh Stolas didn't know what he was doing was wrong/He meant well" because the fact that Stolas knows about the basic laws of consent means that he knew EXACTLY what he was doing in all of these scenes. He should reconized Blitz being uncomfortable when ever he made his advancements if he really cared about Blitz's consent, but, even then, he never did for some reason until now.

So I don't buy the idea that the deal was a way for Blitz to have sex with Stolas without being vulnerable because A. He did not consent to it willingly and B. There is no believable reason for why Blitz would have genuine feelings for Stolas after how we've seen Stolas treat him (and, being honest, Stolas shouldn't love Blitz either).

If you want me to believe that these two would ever fall in love, actually show scenes developing believable chemistry between them so I can see why they would love each other. For whatever reason Blitz may have to love Stolas, that reason should have been shown across the series rather than being kept on the back burner. It doesn't make sense for Blitz to love Stolas, sorry, but you can't convince that Blitz has any reason to fall in love with him.

(Also, a few things; I'm pretty sure what the writers were trying to commuinicate with the full moon scene was that Blitz was trying to process Stolas' desicion to give him the crystal since he never experinced any kind of kindess like this before or something like that, so the argument that Blitz reacted the way he did because he loved Stolas falls flat)

3. Conclusion

Ya. So uh. I don't agree with any of this shit. I'm sorry but there's no defending this relationship lol. It's a complete mess of bad writting and I don't think you can change my mind on that. I could go into more detail but...I think I've said all I needed to say.

[carto0ncritter]

I just want to say that I personally disagree with the claims that Stolas is a coercive rapist. You don't have to agree with me. I just want to share my perspective. Alright, here we go.

Let's start at Harvest Moon Festival: 'When this happens, it's not really something I fuss about...' and 'Well, I'm not a fan of someone I offered a job to about to off my easiest lengthy ticket to Earth behind my back.' Notice how Blitz says 'easiest lengthy ticket' here, not 'only ticket', and Blitz knows about Asmodean Crystals, as evidenced by Unhappy Campers where he forces someone to use it to create a portal to the living world, so the Grimoire was never the only option Blitz could've used to run I.M.P. Sure losing the grimoire would've disrupted business for a bit, but again, it was never Blitz's only option. It's also been confirmed in Ghostfuckers that I.M.P used to assassin jobs in Hell before Blitz got the Grimoire from Stolas, I.M.P was running fine without the Grimoire, if Blitz couldn't get his hands on the Grimoire or the Asmodeun Crystal he and his could always just run missions in Hell, so the coercion argument already falls flat there, but let's beat it up a bit further shall we?

Now let's look at Ozzies, at the ending of it Stolas never pressures or forces Blitz into having sex with him or quote 'We could talk, or… watch a movie, or… maybe cuddle?', Blitz turns Stolas down here, and Stolas never forces or pressures Blitz into doing said things with him, and you know what this also proves? It proves that Blitz has always the self-agency to tell Stolas 'no I don't want to fuck you', which also shows that Blitz actually wanted to have sex with Stolas, which we can prove by the text messages Stolas and Blitz had after Ozzie's.

The text messages at the end of Western Energy show that Stolas is actively giving Blitz the option to not fuck him, which also tells us that Blitz always had the option to tell Stolas no, and hell, we can see in the All 2 U song that Blitz turned down Stolas most likely asking Blitz to stay after the sex, proving even further Blitz always had the self-agency to tell Stolas no, which shows that Blitz wanted to have sex with Stolas.

And I'm not even counting everything about what happened in Full Moon episode. Blitz literally sings about how much he enjoys sex with Stolas, spends the whole day buying things to use on Stolas, begged for Stolas to keep the deal, said multiple times about how much the deal is something he enjoyed and wanted to keep, and told Loona and M&M about how Stolas never forced anything on him which lead to months without intimacy between them. Where is the coercion??? Simply, it's not there.

Now let's look at Apology Tour, Blitz wants the arrangement back, to fuck Stolas again. Which tells us something that the people peddling the bullshit 'Stolas is a rapist' argument entirely ignore, Blitz is the one unhappy with the arrangement ending, not Stolas, Blitz.

Also, Blitz has the Asmodeun Crystal by this point, he could've easily have just told Stolas to fuck off and leave if he was truly being coerced and raped by him, but he chooses to stay because at this point he thinks this gesture is a farewell gift from Stolas, and it's been made very clear that Blitz has strong feelings for Stolas by this point despite his self-hatred, that he doesn't want to lose Stolas, which also helps to further prove that Blitz wanted to have sex with Stolas out of his entire free will.

Blitz having sex with Stolas was a way for Blitz to be close to Stolas without having to be vulnerable, and when Stolas gets rid of the arrangement Blitz is scared because it would force Blitz to be vulnerable towards Stolas.

Is all of this really the behavior of a person who felt coerced into sex he didn't want to have? Because I think it's pretty clear that Blitz at no point felt coerced into having sex with Stolas, and the people that claim otherwise I have good grounds to believe aren't even watching the same show anymore.

i think i can sum up everything you said here, from my pov, in one sentence: "A part of Blitz craved Stolas' "affection" and "interest" in him because he had never experienced true love before (+ all the trauma in his past really fucked him up when it comes to opening up his heart and recieveing love and not pushing people away), and pretty much got hooked to the "relationship" despite Stolas' gaslighting, name calling and manipulative tendencies"

long story short, blitz fell in love with his abuser and is unable to break free. symbolically, he cant break the chains

[stain-glass]

Okay I got bored and am now doing the math.

First thing firat, I did rewatch some of the episodes to be more accurate and make sure I didn't miss any tears.

So, Blitz is in all 18 episodes, so 100% of the show. Stolas is in 11 episodes (5 from season 1 and 6 from season 2 so far) so 61% of the times. This is not counting the shorts or music video, but if we did, it would be 23 with Blitz being physically (stary moon form does not count) in 21 (91.3%) and Stolas in 12 (52%) of them.

We want to make sure we are being consistent so we are only going to count visible tears that pop up in the eyes. If the tears stop and then pop up again, that is a different tear count.

Now with the re-watched, I found some interesting things. Blitz doesn't have any visible tears in Apology Tour. His eyes get big and watery looking, but no tears were drawn on the corners. But Blitz also hides his face whenever we see the eyes get big and he bites his lip/grinds his teeth, the only visible part of his face. The final shot he don't see Blitz, just his silhouette hitting the steering wheel. This is something we also see in Queen Bee, Blitz hiding his face in the couch when talking to Loona about how he will die alone.

Now I always interpreted these scenes as moments that Blitz cried, but no tears in eyes so they don't count. This also means the wake up that Stolas has in The Circus is not counted either as even though it looked like he cried at some point we didn't see those tears spill.

The next thing to do is ask ourselves are we just counting if they cried in general or the total times they cried? Let's go with both to see what difference it makes.

Stolas and Blitz have both cried in 4 different episodes.

Statistically this means that out of the 18 episodes Blitz is in, he has cried in 22.2% of them while out if the 11 episodes he has been in Stolas has cried in 36.36%. If we are counting the shorts then it is 19% for Blitz and 41.7% for Stolas. If we are not counting flashbacks, then Stolas is at 27.27% which is much closer to Blitz's number.

Interestingly, Stolas did not cry at all in season one while Blitz did at the end in Ep.7 (the final clue in for us the audience that he has more going on and is sad. Still a great final shot that haunts me.) Making the breakdown per season:

Blitz: season 1 - 12.5 % and season 2 - 30%

Stolas: season 1 - 0% and season 2 - 66.6%

This maybe why some people see Stolas as becoming weepy in season 2 but that is ignoring the other factor: Individual tears shed.

Stolas has 4 (5 if counting the music video) separate times he cries, just once each episode. Usually a single tear.

Blitz has 12.

He cries 2 times in Ozzie's, 4 in Oops (once is in the flashback right as he is throwing his letter to the ground and pushing the guy holding the cake, twice when talking to Fizz about the fire, and then once when Fizz hugs him). 2 in Full Moon, and 4 in Ghostfuckers (to his mom, to millie when saying he destorys everything he touches, once when looking at his memories and then he starts again when Rolando says he is going to back Millie hate him)

Now, I know that I can't say Blitz cried 12 times in 18 episodes and therefore spends 66.6% of the episodes crying. (Though I do like the 666 of it all). But I think it is unfair to say that Stolas is a cry baby for sheding a single tear on several occasions, and one breakdown (maybe 2 but it didn't happen on screen) and even then pulled himself together quickly.

Tldr: Rude to call Stolas a cry baby when Drunk is right there. And Blitz has a tendency to cry harder and more once we gets started

Plus Moxxie has cried more but I'm not doing the math on that one to check...Unless I get bored and want to do a rewatch again.

I don't like Stolas because j feel they've been doing him dirty and making him into a cry baby, that bad?

I honestly don't think Stolas is a cry baby, because he only really cries when something with extreme intense emotions happens and if anything he's really good at keeping his tears in check when needed (it's the years of "cease this bitch crying" abuse). The only reason we've been seeing him cry as much as he does, is because of how much suffering he's been put through lately.

Not to mention, it really bothers me how especially with male characters the moment they dare to cry about anything (even if it's literally traumatic), they're immediately labelled as a cry baby and it just adds to the toxic "show no emotions" facade they're forced to put up in society.

Also, even if he was a cry baby, who cares? I mean, I obviously don't expect you to read every single one of my posts, but I find it kinda funny you sent this not long after I talked about how much I love Sakura (from CCS) being a cry baby. More characters deserve to be cry babies, as a treat!

[looseinthecatroom]

Something something of COURSE in the end it's Stolas who has the power to end the conversation and whisk Blitz away rather then keeping at it when things get rough, off script, and honest.

Stolas want's a storybook romance. He's had it fermenting and stagnating in his head since he was a kid.

Stolas grew up in an environment of putting on airs and pretending to be perfect.

Stolas has no reference point for FIGHTING in a relationship except for an arranged marriage that they both openly did not want to be in, with zero real emotional stakes re: their bond with each other. (The primary stakes were playing bare minimum nice for the kid. Which they still failed at, but that's another topic.)

Of COURSE he doesn't understand that love and resentment at past wrongs (that can be exhumed and dealt with) can exist simultaneously.

How could he? He's never had an emotional investment with an equal, a peer, at all. ;-;

Blitz is intensely fucked up. They're BOTH fucked up, obviously. But this one? Dang it Stolas. ;_; If they'd just continued the conversation instead of Stolas' actively ending it and teleporting Blitz away, they might have GOT somewhere.

[ssahotchnerr]

hey i tried to see if requests are open but can’t see anything, so hungover!reader x hotch? 🙏🙏

remedies

cw; fem bau!reader, drinking mentions, hangover talk and symptoms, fluff <3

There was a brief moment of peace when you stirred. Being pulled from such heavy sleep, a moment of solitude, before you met consciousness with excruciating pain. Regret was the next sensation to sweep through your body, until your awareness vaguely focused elsewhere. You either heard footsteps nearing, or it was the repetitive throb in your head.

Aaron had a key to your place and he had let himself in. You hadn't answered any calls or texts, and he was partially worried (he had known you were going out the night prior, and did return home safely). His concerned look turned to a sweetly pitiful one as he saw you lying there, hazily blinking up at him.

"Hi sweetheart."

"Aaron?" Your head rose, your voice hoarse as it exited your lips, your dry throat to blame. You cursed your hangover for dulling the usual excitement whenever you caught sight of him. "What're you doing here?"

"We had brunch plans."

Your brows scrunched in confusion, as well as your eyes as they attempted to adjust to the light. "What time is it?" You could've answered your own question by peering at the clock besides you, but you didn't dare turn your head. The more you moved, the worse.

Aaron checked his watch, moving his jacket sleeve to view it, "Half past noon."

At his words, your eyes widened. The sudden shock interfered with your head, causing the pounding to only elevate.

"Oh god I'm sorry." You facepalmed by use of your pillow, the momentary darkness enhancing the dizziness behind your eyelids. "I'm awful."

"I wouldn't go that far." Aaron teased lightly as he sat on the bed besides you, his hand finding your back and sliding his palm along it softly. "Crazy night with the girls?"

"Penelope tried- created a new concoction of drinks." A wave of nausea hit you from the memory, your stomach swirling. You scowled in disgust, "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

Aaron hummed in response, another pitiful smile tugging on his face as you groaned. He felt bad you felt bad. He's had his fair share of hangovers, sure, but never one at the hands of Penelope.

"I'm never drinking again." With all you had left in you, you forced your head to lift to defeatedly meet his eyes. "I'm sorry. I did have an alarm set. Or... I think? I must've slept through it."

"No it's okay, I figured. Knowing them, we shouldn't have made plans for the following morning." He flashed you an understanding smile, his hand stopping and giving you an affectionate tap.

"Probably a good idea."

"I can take an accurate guess, but how are you feeling?"

"Like the jet ran me over."

"That bad?"

"Penelope called her drink moonlight mojito blitz." Again, you nearly gagged at the thought, Aaron himself made a face. "Or something of the sort. I don't know, it had a complex name one way or another."

"Lucky for you then, I have more simply named reinforcements ." Aaron offered, gesturing to your bedside table. "Gatorade, water, ibuprofen, which I'm judging by the strain on your face, you should take now." He reached for the container, dumping the tablets into his palm. "Down the hatch."

You weakly sat up against your pillow, holding out your own hand. As you did what you were told, he produced the Gatorade.

"Drink up."

You winced at the words, "I'm having flashbacks."

He laughed softly, the sound enough to soothe any hangover, or plainly anything. "Sorry, but I'm serious. You need the electrolytes, I won't allow dehydration if I can help it. You'll need to eat something too, but that can wait at least. Until-"

You finished for him, taking a generous sip. "Until the room stops spinning."

"That's right," Aaron offered you another small, closed lip smile. "Can I get you anything else?"

You peered up at him, playing up the hopefulness in your eyes. The visual was for effect really, you knew he would implement anything you asked, as he always did. "My favorite pillow?"

"Sure honey, where-"

"You." You grabbed his wrist, weakly tugging him towards you and trying your hardest to not let your grasp drop despite the downward, heavy pull. "You're my favorite pillow."

Aaron slid besides you easily, and before he was thoroughly comfortable or settled, were you clinging onto him. Your face buried itself into the skin of his neck, while one of your legs lazily draped over his waist. He molded just as equally into your body too.

Your head was still spinning - part of you feared it would never cease - but Aaron's contact allowed some sense of stillness. Like you weren't going to be picked up and somehow carried away; he would ensure you were close and grounded.

"Is this really all you need?" Due to your close proximity, you could feel his voice vibrating through his chest. "Can't I do anything more? Is the room too warm? Too bright?"

You shook your head, tightening your leg's hold on him. There was a playful tone in your voice, "I may need you to hold my hair back later."

"You say the most romantic things to me." Aaron chuckled, his lips tugging into a smile before pressing his lips atop your head. He quipped back gently, "Looking forward to it."

[zombie-bait]

Full Moon

Ok so I don’t normally post about Helluva Boss but the newest episode touched on an interesting concept I haven’t necessarily seen represented in media. Back when I was on Twitter (derogatory) a few years ago there was this now deleted viral thread where someone discussed how their struggles with mental health affected their relationship with their partner and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. 

This is such a good, short example of how anxiety and depression can play tricks on you. It becomes so easy to envision yourself as a nuisance, a constant burden to those closest to you because they cannot possibly genuinely enjoy your company, right? But in doing so you create this arbitrarily cruel version of the people you love, people who would otherwise never behave like this outside of your own mind.

It's mean. Because your mind wants to be mean to you under these circumstances. It wants to put everyone else's emotions and desires above yours, both in worthiness and validity. And that starts bleeding into your understanding of other people, especially those you care about.

Now. Helluva Boss.

"Can I get a fucking MINUTE to think after everything you put me through you pompous rich ASSHOLE? Treat me like one of your little butler imps, you can’t just dismiss me like that! I mean, you royal fucks think you can do this every time, like you can just play with our feelings because we’re smaller and not as important. Well I’m not letting you, BITCH! Let’s go!" - Blitz

I find it really interesting how Helluva Boss decided to approach this conflict between Stolas and Blitz. Obviously, the difference in power matters. It's the underlying tension of their entire relationship and their lives. Stolas is burdened by the mountain of expectations thrust upon him from a very young age while Blitz is constantly reminded that he can NEVER be part of that world, that he is "smaller and not as important" not just in Hell's hierarchy but in his own life and family. Stolas very literally has power over Blitz (through the grimoire, the arrangement, his position in society) and Blitz uses their relationship as an excuse to reverse those roles. But that power dynamic, in one form or another, never truly goes away. And for Blitz, it's a lot easier to paint Stolas as this manipulative symbol of power and himself as nothing more than Stolas' plaything. It's easier to be angry than to be vulnerable and accept that someone might care about him.

"Dismiss" is the keyword in that quote. All that Blitz has been able to process is that Stolas has decided to end the relationship that they have. He feels ls like a choice has been taken away from him so he lashes out because he's not ready to emotionally tackle what the rest of Stolas' offer might entail. If Stolas hates him, just wants to play with him, then he is justified in his anger, his self-destruction, his isolation. If the world is mean, you're "allowed" to be mean back.

But

In that moment he forgets that Stolas is someone he actually cares about. Someone he's known for way too long and clearly wants to keep in his life, no matter how reluctant he can be to admit it. Someone who is not innately cruel or manipulative but sad and desperate for connections in a lot of the same ways that Blitz is. And Blitz immediately sees that he's miscalculated something.

Somewhere along the way the fictional version of Stolas that he's allowed himself to be mad at and the real one that he's not ready to admit he cares about have merged into something real that he has actual power over. Stolas can get hurt and Blitz can be the one who does it. He has once again allowed his greatest fears (which Stolas so frequently symbolizes) to co-opt his loved ones, to give him an "out" even though he didn't actually want one in the first place.

I'm definitely not the first person to say this but I think this is an example of the miscommunication trope done right. Their individual struggles are what cause them to be unable to connect during this conversation or to even have a proper conversation in the first place. There is no convenient misunderstanding or third party fabricating this rift. Both of them have preconceived ideas of what the other one is thinking but those ideas are flawed and rooted in self-hatred. They also both shutdown in their unique ways when the conversation starts heading in the direction they'd feared it would.

Blitz and Stolas work because they're both fucked up in similar ways, because they want similar things. That's the same reason why they're uniquely designed to hurt one another. A fear of rejection and a yearning for happiness. To borrow a quote that has been used by literally everyone from Spiderman to Evangelical preachers, "hurt people hurt people."

anyway, I really liked this episode.

(twitter thread screenshots sourced from this reddit post)

[mechaknight-98]

Kozy (NSFW) FT: Karina

Dating a celebrity was hard. Dating a possessive celebrity is more so. You had known this by watching several friends fall for the honey trap. So you tried so, but God has a wild sense of humor you learned.

You met Karina while in between paleontology digs. She came to one of the seminars you were giving on dinosaurs and she knew then that she had to have you. She approached you after the seminar and said that she really “digs” the info you “excavated” for everyone present. You laughed at her puns and that's when she asked you out. Not knowing who she was you readily accepted her advances and two weeks later the two of you are officially a couple. A week after that you noticed a “change” in her personality. When Karina was on she was the flirty socialite who wowed everyone with her passion and precise performances. When she was off she was kind of a loser. An extremely loveable and hard-working loser but a loser nonetheless. For example, when she first met your black friend named Vladimir she said “Aye what's up homie? You got any fresh stories.” in her most awkward tone possible. It also didn't help that Vlad was the smartest person you knew and was often very at times particular about how he was spoken to, but he laughed it off and Karina was able to ease and relax her awkward speech tendencies. The puns never went away though. She also always had this nervous energy in her that kept her moving and bouncing you see a lot of that in her nonperformance videos. It was endearing and always made you smile. Despite all of her “loser energy” she was so loving and doting…almost overbearingly so, but you were her man and she was going to spoil you as much as you would let her which for your disciplined ass wasn't much. You spent a lot of time traveling and helping with paleontology digs. Which led to what unfolded tonight

You arrived back at your small apartment where you and Karina would secretly retreat to. It wasn't big but considering the price of things it couldn't be helped. You open the door. You chuckle when you see Karina in her undies playing through Kingdom Hearts 2. A couple of soju bottles sit in front of her. She turns when she hears the door open and a smile quickly replaces her focused grimace.

“Oh babe good you're here I need help with beating Luxord,” Karina says to you

“Rina, you started this game a week ago how are you already at Luxord?” you asked concerned

“Well we just finished promotions and I needed something to do. Also aren't you the one who beat Persona 5 Royal in an unbroken marathon of 6 days?” Karina says teasingly. You chuckle as you nod at your girlfriend. Your eyes wander her body her curves look vivacious. You sit next to her and she burps. She turns to you and hands you the controller.

“You know sometimes I forget how sexy you are,” you say to her as you blitz through Luxord’s game boss fight. Karina smiles at you as she begins to kiss you intensely. You make sure to pause the game so you don't lose progress. You also set the controller down away from you. After that, your fireman carry Karina the your shared bedroom. Karina is all giggles as she loves being manhandled by you. When you lay her on the bed her eyes are narrow and hungry.

“You wearing too many clothes.” She says as she rips your shirt and pants off. You groan as you remember how expensive these all were. Karina sees the dejected look and quickly moves to reassure you.

“Oh babe I'm so sorry I got caught in the moment.”

“It's okay I forget you have the strength of gods sometimes,” you say Karina smiles and apologizes again for messing up your clothes. You forgive her as she starts leaving a trail of kisses down your abdomen.

“I'm going to devour you tonight,” Karina says seductively, “our schedules have been so busy and disconnected but that ends tonight. This cock is mine for the night.” you let Karina do her thing as she begins to suck. Before she can get really into though you get a call. Karina's eyes widen mischievously

“Answer it,” she says coming up f94 air. You eye her but she remains firm. As she pushed you onto the bed. “I said answer it,” she says before pinching your cock. To stop the minor pain you do as she asks. She goes back to kissing your cock.

“Yeah, this is Max. What's up?” you say.

“Oh good to hear you Max we just confirmed that the skull you found was a new skull of a dinosaur no one has ever found before. So Danger suggested that you name it.” your friend Galavant said excitedly. Karina excited for you sank her throat down further than she had ever taken it before. She gagged on your cock which was a new sensation you weren't used to.

“Oh well, that eh great. Gally. I'll have to think of a name later because right now I'm a bit preoccupied.”

“Okay well just wanted to let you know fearless leader that your research is going down in the history books with this one.” you chuckle as a feeble attempt to hide your moans. galavant figuring what going on hands up the call then you moan louder

“God Karina your so bad.” you huff as she continues to work your cock. Her cheeks are hollow as she takes another deep breath before throating you. “I need more,” Karina says as she goes deeper and deeper on your cock. You groan as no partner has taken you this far before, and in a second she bottoms out. Her face is reaching your pelvis as she looks up at you with a smile and a ruined face of makeup. She begins to bob up and down only retreating halfway before engorging herself once more. Tears streak her eyes as she takes you in. As she bobs around your cock her pace increases inching you closer and closer to release. Before she gets a call from her business phone. She tries to ignore it but it keeps going. So frustrated she answers it.

“Yeah. Oh, wait I got the deal?” she says as her body language and fine shifts from annoyed to excited “No I'll be there in 30 minutes.” she says. “Great see you then.” she hangs up then says “shit”

She looks at you then apologizes

“So honey that was SM I just got a call confirming I got the Pucci Korea ambassador gig.” you smile and clap for her. Which makes her do a little happy jig.

“So do you want to shower and then head out?” you ask.

Karina sighs and says, “yeah but as soon as I'm done were finishing this.”

you nod and respond, “remember to take your time don't get overzealous.” Karina rolls her eyes and says

“I know.”

[lost-romantique]

It really isn't hard to see why people ship Stolitz...

One thing I notice a lot of Anti-Stolitz shippers do is demonize one person over the other on what happened in Full Moon. Either Blitz is the most abusive asshole that was about to physically beat the shit out of Stolas, or Stolas is some rapist that got upset his victim didn't accept his grand love confession. Both of which are extremely bad takes.

If you blindly pick a side on who was right and who was wrong, than yeah it's no wonder you can't get aboard this ship and that's your own prerogative.

When people ask me why I ship Stolitz, I'll tell you why:

Because underneath all their resentment and anger they hold for one another, they both genuinely care so deeply about the other. Their interaction in the latter half of Apology Tour says as much:

Stolas, despite, having the right to completely blow off Blitz when he approached him. Chooses to instead hide Blitz's face as a way to protect him from being seen, just so they can have a chance to talk.

Despite how horribly Blitz treated him earlier in the day, Stolas still finds comfort just being held by him. Stolas still trusts Blitz, his little knight in shining armor to protect him.

Blitz is so gentle with Stolas throughout this interaction, when Stolas gets upset and falls dramatically off his lap, Blitz freaks out. The first thing Blitz does is curse at himself for fucking up, only to immediately get Stolas up on his feet and guide him to the couch.

Blitz does the right thing and allows Stolas to dance with BTB when he looks to him for permission because: Blitz understands that he wasn't in the right mindset to reciprocate the sort of affection Stolas was seeking at that moment, and because Blitz knew that Stolas deserved to have a night of fun.

BONUS:

This scene is so poignant and so powerful in my mind, that I honestly consider it one of the most beautifully heartbreaking moments of the show.

Blitz is forced to realize that by pushing people away, by building up all these walls that surround him, he essentially created this much carnage he never meant to.

To top it all off, this episode ends with Blitz letting Stolas go, even though he desperately doesn't want to.

(Someone give Blitz a hug please, my poor precious bean.)

I love the fact that these two men are genuinely what the other needs in their life.

A big reason as to why Stolas is in love with Blitz is because Blitz was the first person that introduced him to the concept of freedom. While Stolas just seemingly accepted his fate of dedicating his entire life to being a proper Prince of the Goetia.

Blitz wasn't like that, from the very beginning, Blitz was someone that dreamed of something bigger for himself, something better, something that usually an imp like himself could never hope to achieve. Blitz is a dreamer, and Stolas admired that.

As adults, Blitz taught Stolas that he had a right to pursue his own sense of freedom, that he didn't need to live a life trapped in the woes of being a Goetia in an abusive marriage.

Blitz, unknowingly, taught Stolas that he didn't need to be an owl trapped in a cage! Blitz taught Stolas that he had a right to pursue his own dreams, his own happiness.

If it wasn't for Blitz, Stolas would still be living that miserable life of conformity.

Even now, there's so much Stolas could learn from Blitz, and Stolas recognizes that: "Maybe there's somethin' here for us to glean. For you to teach, and me to try to learn."

What Stolas can do for Blitz, is be that pillar of support Blitz desperately needs in his life. Someone that will always be by his side when his self-hatred starts to take control.

Blitz needs someone in his life that can be there to remind him that he too has a right to be happy, that he too has a right to be loved.

And there is no person better for that job than Stolas, who *still* holds so much love for this little red lizard.

Stolas can be there to teach Blitz to be better for others, and be kinder to himself.

Also, low-key...

These two are so fucking hot together, like goddamn.

[warblogs17282]

Blitz and self-hatred, plus his self-forgiveness journey.

Aka, watch me try to make sense of the massive lore drops in ghostfuckers. (Long post alert, my first meta post after ghostfuckers dropped)

Section 1: The roots of Blitz's self-hatred.

The circus fire. We know what Blitz's actions were that day, he saw Fizzarolli, and tried to call for help, but then he realized that Tilla was also caught up in the fire, and instantly rushed over to attempt to save her the moment Blitz realized that fact.

We know that Fizzarolli getting severely hurt in that fire affected Blitz very deeply, considering that it was one of the memories in that slideshow.

If you look at this frame by frame, you can see some sort of face in the fire when Blitz is rushing to save Tilla from the fire. The face in that fire looks like a mix of an angry face and a screaming face at the same time. Signaling that Tilla has been consumed by the flames. That she's dead.

There's an interesting detail within the hallucination sequence as well.

"This is your life." The fact that the fire in this sequence starts right at Blitz's hand is really telling. It tells us that Blitz still blames himself for accidentally causing the fire. Blitz blames himself for the fire that severely hurt Fizzarolli, and the fire that killed Tilla. Blitz feels like he hurt Fizzarolli and killed Tilla, his own mother.

Look at Blitz's hand during this memory, you can very clearly see that it's quite badly burned, including some that haven't even fully scarred properly yet, placing this memory very shortly after the fire happened. During this scene, Cash hits Blitz, and it's very clearly a memory that still deeply affects Blitz, a memory that most likely reinforced Blitz's own self hatred, because he's blaming himself for Tilla's death and Fizzarolli's injuries at this point, and his dad is just rubbing that in a lot by getting extremely pissed off with Blitz and hitting him because of the circus fire.

Plus, just look at Blitz's reaction to this memory, look at Blitz flinch, look at Blitz starting to struggle against the chains the moment this memory comes up. Blitz's reaction to this just proves how deeply it affects him to this day, and also proves that Cash hitting Blitz added to Blitz's self-hatred over the circus fire. Also, just how many times did Cash physically abuse Blitz like this over the course of his life so far?

Finally, we have the memory of Cash keeping Blitz from seeing Fizzarolli at the hospital. "But they told me you didn't want to see me.", Cash lied to Blitz and most likely the hospital staff as well considering the 'they' used, saying that Fizzarolli didn't want to see Blitz again, having strong implications to Blitz that Fizzarolli hated him. He also lied to Fizzarolli and said that Blitz never even visited him in the hospital. Further adding to Blitz's self hatred over the circus fire.

Section 2: Everything that has reinforced Blitz's self hatred, and is important on Blitz's self-forgiveness journey.

Let's start with Loona, we see her two times during the memories sequence.

The first having this exchange of dialogue.

Blitzo: Because, I adopted you! And that should mean something!

Loona: Oh, what does it matter?! You're not my real dad! I was almost eighteen!

Blitzo: It still counts!

Loona: Well, it shouldn't! I didn't need you then, asshole! I don't, now!

Notice the word 'need.', it's something that Blitz has internalized by now, Blitz thinks that if the people in his life don't 'need' him, they'll just leave him. Another thing that this shows is that Blitz is worried about if Loona hates him.

And it's very clear that Blitz is still effected by this exchange in s1 e3, even quite a while later. In s2 e2, we see Loona kick Blitz right in the balls, and just look at Loona's face in this scene, what Blitz sees here is his fear that Loona hates him, which is why it's in the memory sequence, and there's also these pieces of dialogue to consider.

Loona: If I'm so terrible, how about you just grow a pair and replace me?

Blitzo: Okay, well, maybe I- Maybe I might.

Blitzo: Oh, Loona, my sweet baby girl! I'm so sorry, I'll never replace you no matter what you--

Blitz is still concerned that Loona hasn't forgiven him/hates him for saying that he might replace her, hence why he instantly says he'll never replace her the moment Blitz sees her again, and that face and kick in the balls definitely fed into Blitz's fear that Loona hates Blitz.

And this fear that Blitz has about people who he cares about hating him seems to be something that applies to a lot of different people.

We see this fear in Fizzarolli, because this is one of the memories that comes up in that sequence. The malice-filled stare Fizzarolli gave Blitz during Ozzie's, and we all know Cash was the reason why Fizzarolli hated Blitz for so long, because he lied to Fizzarolli and said he started the fire on purpose, and said that he never visited him once. Alongside other things like Cash making Fizzarolli the golden child. So even all those years later, Cash is still contributing to Blitz's fear of the people he cares about hating him.

Don't be mistaken as well, just because they made up in s2 e6 doesn't make this fear of Blitz's go away, doesn't make the pain of the malice-filled stare go away, which this memory being brought up proves.

And, as I've said before, Blitz still blames himself for accidentally causing the fire that severely hurt him, also adding to the fear and self-hatred.

Barbie Wire, we can see this fear play out with her as well.

"I never wanna see you ever!"

Looking at both Blitz's face at the time and the fact that this scene made it into the memories sequence, it just shows us that Blitz has this fear for Barbie Wire as well, just like how he had it for Fizzarolli. The fact that Barbie Wire doesn't even want to see Blitz again just confirms that fear he has, that Barbie Wire hates him, and the memory of it also confirms just how deeply her saying that effected Blitz.

"Are you worried I may have enough of it one day as well?"

Truth Seekers, the fact that this is Blitz's subconscious telling him this is proof of the fact he has this fear that Moxxie will get tired of Blitz's behavior, that Moxxie will hate him and just, leave.

And the sequence with all the dead Millies and her appearance in the memories sequence also confirms that Blitz has this fear when it comes to Millie as well. Plus, the sequence with the dead Millies also tells us quite a few things, but I think the main ones are the insecurities Blitz has that he 'keeps fucking people's lives up' and 'leaving them worse and more broken than he found them', which both add to the fear that the people in Blitz's life who he cares for hates him.

The last person, Stolas.

There's three memories in ghostfuckers of him I'd like to bring up here.

The first being the All 2 U song memory, just look at how angry Stolas looks to Blitz in this specific memory, while singing lines like "'Cause I don't think it meant a thing at all!"

This one, Stolas was literally just crying a moment ago with all the makeup streaming down his face, but Blitz doesn't seem to remember that fact, instead, he's more focused on what Stolas said, more specifically, "You! Why are you here? I don't want you here, go home, please! Let me not feel so sad!"

And the final one, Stolas and the BTB guy. It's not jealousy, it's god damn heartbreak, especially considering the 'I mean you're a fucking prince. How could you ever actually care for an imp... Me? How could anybody?' Which shows us that Blitz thinks Stolas deserves a better partner, and then a guy literally with a shirt named 'Better than Blitzo' came in, with them dancing and enjoying each other, something that Blitz most likely wished he could do.

Plus, it had been around 24 hours since Stolas' confession to Blitz, and to Blitz, Stolas is already with someone else, someone 'better' than him. With the moment of the BTB guy kissing Stolas being all the confirmation Blitz needed, that he'll never be enough for Stolas, that Stolas has found someone better than him. That he's unlovable.

With all these three memories just massively contributing to Blitz's fear that Stolas hates him, and his self-hatred in general.

(Obviously Stolas doesn't hate Blitz, and that the BTB dude is a one night stand at most, but I'm speaking like how Blitz sees things rn)

Something else that's also relevant is this memory of Verosika, and the reason why this is specifically in the reel is because this was the moment that Verosika said "A reckless, heartbreaking freak!", all while Stolas was watching, which is something Blitz very clearly noted in his memories of the event, showing how much this effected him as well.

And to show that even more, this is the exact point that gets Blitz's tears flowing.

Another thing I want to quickly mention is that Blitz struggles to understand concepts and such of love, outside of a transactional context. Like, correct me if I'm overthinking this, but the 'unconditional support' card is yet another example of Blitz doing this kind of stuff. Everytime they give Blitz 'unconditional support', Blitz punches a hole in the card, with the one at the end being that Blitz has to leave M&M alone for one date, like, my babygirl, that isn't unconditional.

I also suspect that this has roots with Cash as well, considering that Cash was 100% the type of person to only see their value as 'how much money they can make him', and that the less they make for him, the less that Cash will 'love' them, something that is extremely clear in the difference that Cash treated Blitz and Fizzarolli on multiple occurrences. Like, here for example. Plus, there's also the fact that Blitz was bought by Paimon to be friends with Stolas as a kid.

And well, I think we all know what the biggest example of this kind of relationship has been throughout the show, it being something that only ended a few episodes ago.

Of course, I have to mention "I believe your subconscious is trying to tell you that you simply cannot fathom proper intimacy, but… also crave it as well.", which is something that is extremely intertwined with this subject, and the best example of this is probably s2 e8.

Something else in the memories sequence that this line from truth seekers also heavily applies to are these memories.

It shows us very clearly that Blitz is rather envious of the relationship that Moxxie and Millie have, because Blitz craves proper intimacy, so what Blitz sees is something he wants, but something he feels like he can't obtain.

Finally, the last subject I'd like to talk about is the fact that Blitz, hasn't really been able to see much of the good things he's done for the people he cares about or that he straight up doesn't know, by just being himself.

Blitz saved Moxxie from a life with Crimson and also busted him out of prison, Blitz gave Millie a life, a husband, and a purpose, Blitz gave Loona a home and a loving father, right before she was about to get kicked out the system, and Blitz gave Stolas the courage to stand up to his abuser, to allow him to choose for himself and get that divorce.

But, the sad part is that Blitz doesn't really see much of that.

Section 3: The progress Blitz has made on self-forgiveness journey so far.

S2 E6, the fact that Blitz and Fizzarolli was able to make up after so long removed a huge roadblock in the way of Blitz's self-forgiveness journey. The fact that Fizzarolli no longer hates Blitz. While there are still memories about Fizzarolli that still haunt Blitz, as I've shown in this post, this is still a huge step forward for Blitz being able to repair his relationships.

The first real heart-to-heart Blitz and Millie conversation, a lot gets brought up here, just exactly how Blitz has improved Millie's life for the better, confirmation to Blitz that Millie never hated Blitz and the fact that they're best friends. Of course, there's also Millie's apology to Blitz, with this conversation being something that Blitz desperately needed to hear, and I really hope everyone else eventually tells Blitz just how much he's changed their lives for the better.

And the second conversation between the two, the first thing that Blitz mentions is Millie's best friend comment, and that is huge for Blitz, because it signals the start of Blitz learning that people in his life can care for Blitz unconditionally. That Blitz can just have friends in his life, as the line "I- I've never had a real friend that I didn't want to fuck."

(hit the image limit, so time for timestamps!) Timestamp 24:31

(Timestamp, 24:45) "The bird got to you that bad, huh?", it just means so much to me that Blitz has finally admitted the fact that Blitz has feelings for Stolas, because it shows that Blitz is slowly, but surely starting to open up, and this is gonna be a huge thing for Blitz's relationships, including when Stolitz finally gets back together.

[eldritchcreatureofwords]

So, here's the thing. It's not just about control or appearances, about Blitz being a lying liar who lies about being a top.

Let's do an experiment for a moment. You are Blitz. You have just been through two really shitty days.

Your situationship / friends with benefits just dumped a crap ton of emotional shit on you, didn't give you even a second to process any of it, and then broke up with you when you didn't react the way he thought you should. Then proceeded to stonewall you when you try to talk the next day, go to a party that is explicitly and blatantly a bully party thrown by a bunch of people who hate you, enjoy himself at this party, and finally hook up with another guy.

A guy who hates you.

You have been told in no uncertain terms by two or more people that you are a piece of shit, told to give up on and let go of your ex situationship even though you think you might have feelings for him, and offered no support, compassion, or empathy whatsoever.

Being Blitz, you've never reached out for it because you don't think you deserve it. You feel you fully deserve everything that has ever happened to you for the past two days, because none of those people at that party could possibly hate you more than you hate yourself.

Your confidence is shattered. The one thing you have always been very good at besides killing people, which is fucking, has been mocked, degraded, and rejected.

The one way you know how to connect to people, show your love and affection for people, and prove your worth to people has been rejected by the person who ostensibly used to adore it.

Add to this that you are constantly exposed to two people who have the one thing you want more than anything, but don't think you deserve or should have. You are bitterly, viciously jealous of them and their love for each other, wanting to share in it but knowing it's not for you and that you don't deserve something like that anyway. You are drowning, floundering, and struggling, and you don't know where to turn or what to do.

Your opinion of yourself has rarely been lower. And so you try to bury yourself and work. You do your jobs, you try to pretend to be normal, you move on with your life and try to just exist as per usual as if none of this shit has happened.

And then on one job, quite possibly here first after the worst two nights in a while, you find yourself and your team in a life-threatening situation. You are unable to defend or protect them, and then your only way out, which has thus far cooperated flawlessly with you, stops working. And there is nothing you can do to make it work again.

As they watch, judging you, you flounder, fight, and struggle with it, having to admit that you don't really know what you're doing. And you can feel them. Watching. Judging. Wondering how you fucked this up.

Wondering how you're so God damn incompetent.

Wondering how you keep getting the most simple shit wrong.

So you get stressed and anxious. But of course, means that you fuck up even harder and it works even less well.

You start making simple mistakes at basic things like the alphabet, which is difficult anyway because reading and language is difficult for you. You can feel the judgment from them for that, too.

Why are you so stupid?

How was this hard?

And the questions start bouncing around in YOUR head, too.

Why are you locking up?

Why isn't this working?

This is not hard. This shouldn't be hard.

So why can't you do it?

Why can't you just be smarter?

Be more gentle?

Be stronger?

Be kinder?

Why can't you just do better?

Are you ever, ever, enough?

No wonder your father hated you. You're just a giant screw up.

Anytime it matters, you can't pull it off.

You've experianced this before, time and again.

And now, you're in the situation once more. Yet again, with eyes on you and people waiting for you to do the right thing to get results, you can't.

And then, as has always been in your life, someone who was better than you get tired of your floundering, steps in, and gets it done effortlessly.

Yeah, seeing something familiar here?

A common thread between Cash, and Blitz's life in the circus, and what just happened in Antarctica?

I don't know what's worse.

That Blitz was very likely full on triggered in the scene, having a panic attack on top of the emotional distress he was already in from what happened with Stolas, or that Moxxie and Millie didn't notice.

[flower-boi16]

Stolas' "Character Growth" of Making Amends With Blitz is Poor as Hell

Something many critics don't seem to mention when talking about Stolas' characterization in Season 2 is how the season tries (keyword tries) to have Stolas go through an arc of fixing his mistake in regards to making the deal with Blitz and, ya know, sexually abusing him. The show is acknowledging that Stolas fucked up, which means it isn't coddling him...right?

Well, this arc first gets kickstarted in Ozzie's when Blitz explicitly tells Stolas to "not pretend like anything we have is anything but you wanting me to fuck you", showing to Stolas that Blitz doesn't feel the same way about him as Stolas feels about Blitz, which gives Stolas a moment to reflect on their relationship.

The Circus then shows that Stolas believed that for once, he had a genuine mutually affectionate relationship with someone, that someone being Blitzo, as Stolas felt some kind of happiness he never felt before and could never get with Stella, only to realize that it was all a lie and Blitzo doesn't feel the same way as Stolas did for him. Stolas desired genuine intamite affection and thought he had that but he didn't, and so he looks to a book to try and find Blitz an alternative so he can continue his job without staying in the deal, chosing to free Blitz.

Oops then shows Stolas going to Ozzie's place to get the Ausmodean Crystal for Blitz, and The Full Moon shows Stolas giving the crystal to Blitz, now learning to let him go, putting his own selfish desires for affection aside and reconizing what he did to Blitz was wrong and choosing to let him be free from the deal.

So...this, on paper, sounds fantastic, right? The show is making an arc of Stolas growing from his mistakes, realizing the deal is wrong and choosing to let him go while acknoweldging Blitz's mistakes right....right?????

Well...no. While this is a compelling arc in isolation, there are several issues that taint it. For one, the arc revolves around multiple plot holes and contrivinces in order to work. I've already mentioned this several times but, Stolas and Blitz being childhood friends feels like a retcon and it doesn't really line up with any of their interactions in the first season, and this arc relies on the two's past friendship in order to work.

Further more, there's the fact that Stolas shoulden't even have any real love for Blitz in the first place considering that Blitz stole from him not once, but twice. First Blitz steals all of Stolas' items when they were kids for his dad by tricking him into a game and the second time Blitz takes advantage of Stolas again to Steal the grimoire. Did Stolas REALLY just...not realize that Blitz took advantage of him in either of those instances????

Why would he have ANY love towards him after he did those things? He should HATE Blitz for taking advantage of his feelings, but he doesn't. There's also the fact that this arc is just a complete replacement of Stolas' character in the first season, fully comitting to his sudden shift from a man who made mistakes that hurt others to a UwU gay sad soft boy who just wanted genuine affection, which is a jarring change for him as a character, and this arc competely relies on this sudden shift.

It removes everything that made Stolas an interesting character in the first season and replaces it with something unreconizable from his previous iteration, so this arc ends up feeling like an unnatural direction for Stolas' character to go to. The other big problem with this arc is how it codes Stolas' actions in a sympathetic light - as in, he only made the deal because he believed he had real affection with Blitz.

The thing is, this whole thing ends up making Stolas even less sympathetic than before. You'd think that Stolas would care about his childhood friend's consent in this matter because even if he thought that Blitz liked being his plaything he would still care about his boundries since well, he is supposed to be Stolas' childhood friend...right??? But instead of that he decided to put his childhood friend in a situation where he HAS to accept the deal or else he'll lose his job, and he's doing that through coersion, which is a horrific thing to do to someone especially someone you CLAIM to be your first ever friend.

None of Stolas and Blitzo's interactions in the first season come across as Stolas being oblivous to Blitz being uncomfortable rather it's Stolas not caring about Blitz being uncomfortable and not taking it seriously because he only cares about his own sexual pleasure. While Stolas' actions are still painted negetavily the show is using a sympathetic reason for his actions but that sympathetic reasoning doesn't end up working and if anything makes him look even less sympathetic than before. It's supposed to be "bad actions codded with sympathetic motivations" but it doesn't work because the actions he's done don't make sense with the motivation the show outlines.

And this brings me to the last, and, probably the biggest issue with Stolas' "growth arc" in Season 2; the show's refusal to admit the full extent of Stolas' what Stolas has done to Blitz. Season 1 had Stolas consistantly belittle and talk down to Blitz, ignoring his boundries and constantly dehumanizing him into just being his "impish little plaything", yet, the show pretends as if making the deal was the only bad thing Stolas ever did to Blitz and just ignores all the other stuff that he did in the first season.

It contributes to the problem of the show refusing to acknowledge Stolas' mistakes and instead choosing to downplay them or demonize those who dislike him for valid reasons (also, no, the description acknowledging Stolas' lack of self-awarness doesn't work because if Stolas is meant to be in the wrong during the episode than it should be frammed as such, yet the episode just frames him as solely the victim. That ain't good writting). And there's the fact that this arc would be rendered null anyway because well all know that Blitz and Stolas are going to get together anyway by the end of the show meaning that Stolas never had to let go of Blitz in the first place because then he'll get back to him.

So, overall, while this arc is fine in isolation, it falls apart due to it relying on too many plot holes and not actually having Stolas reconize the full extent of his mistakes, and so saying that the show is coddling Stolas is still a valid critique given that this arc is still codding his actions under a sympathetic light.

[shhrrroooommmmmyyyyyy]

HB Generational Trauma: Paimon → Stolas

→ Octavia

*Before I get attacked, nothing I say is to defend the actions described. I am simply trying to explain and make sense of it.*

Many fans approach the topic of Stolas being a good or bad father with either black and white-good or bad or completely gray answers. The black and white are pretty straightforward, usually going something like "he says this but does this anyway" or "he's neglectful", which are all valid opinions here. As well as the gray opinions, usually saying "he really tries, he just doesn't get it right".

Honesty, I can't say I disagree with any of these opinions honestly. I don't have evidence to back this up, but I have a feeling I know where the writers are going with this. I think they will, maybe sometime soon after hearing via's line in the trailer, have Stolas sort of "wake up" in a sense and realize what exactly he does. Get hit by the good ol' self awareness train, if you will. It's called character development.

I've seen many people call this bad writing but I disagree. I think that's the direction they're going for Stolas's character development. I think with the episodes so spread out, people forget we're only three episodes away from only being halfway through the series as a whole. There's still plenty of room for development.

Anyways, back on topic. Let's look at Paimon and Stolas from the Circus episode. I love the Loo Loo Land parallel with it.

Paimon enjoying himself from home while Stolas is miserable and clearly doesn't want to be there. The only thing that gets him through it without crashing out is Blitzø. Paimon seems to not notice he's even there at all until he starts enjoying himself watching Blitzø. And when he figures out what's making him so happy, he literally buys Blitzø later to keep himself from having to deal with him all day. Of course Stolas is too oblivious and distracted by Blitzø to realize, but that makes complete sense seeing how oblivious he is as an adult.

So now let's look at Stolas and Octavia in the Loo Loo Land episode.

Stolas is enjoying himself, but actually present. Him actually being there is an improvement; however, Octavia's not enjoying herself. She already didn't want to go because she was too old to enjoy it. And on top of that, Stolas flirting with Blitzø the whole time made her uncomfortable (which he was also too oblivious to realize).

I think the parallels here are interesting. Overall I think the writers ave done an excellent job of writing generational trauma, hence the title of this post. Now let's look at Stolas' line from Western Energy:

This line made a slight change in their dynamic from my perspective. It's clear he loves her and would do anything to protect her. Much different from Paimon. I think he tries so hard to be better than Paimon that he subconsciously ends up doing what Paimon does. This is called the ironic process theory or ironic rebound (psychology nerd here, as you can tell). However, the difference between him and Paimon is that he apologizes and recognizes that he made a mistake. He's trying. And even so, what examples of a good dad would he have had growing up that would've guided him in the right direction?

Although he keeps making mistakes, he is still trying. He's not prefect. I think Via knows this; nevertheless, it's hard for her not to get frustrated at him for making them sometimes. Especially when he promised he would do something with her and didn't in Seeing Stars.

No matter the extremity of the efforts made toward doing so, generational trauma will never be completely healed in one generation (look at me using smart words). While Stolas has made a pretty big dent in the healing process, it takes more than one person to erase the trauma. Although Via is as far as the line will go with her being confirmed asexual, I think Stolas has done a lot more for Via than people realize.

I have a few notes about Blitz and Loona on this topic as well. I might wait till after Ghostfuckers in case it gives more info to put in that post

[xxextrie]

Stella's "Development"

Stolas seems to have this list of "why you can't be mad at him," which is just writers trying to defend their own ugly morals by using things that often don't apply to them so they can say, "Nuh, uh, you just don't like him because of XY and Z."

Moving on to Stella, all of her "development" consists of giving Stolas empathy points. Stella hasn't even had a conversation with Via. Stolas mistreat Blitz? Well, Stella hits him. Well Stolas has daddy issues, but Stella has been evil since she was born. Stolas is a villian? Stella's attempting to murder him. She is used to make Stolas look better in comparison. Because what would we have without the excuse-based shit?

A noble's youngest daughter who was forced into a marriage with a man she didn't love and was forced to have a kid with, who again she had to give birth to. Her husband is higher up in society than her and her family, so she has to remain with him despite she hates him. Also finding out that her husband had been repeatedly cheating on to her, the MOTHER of his child, while also risking Via's future by giving his daughter's heirloom to a stranger he met once when he was younger, endangering their daughters future. And then after the affair is exposed, no one cares, showcasing his elevated status by how little anyone challenges him. He can cheat without consequence because She is unable to leave him, due to her lower social class, the divorce would take away her life, status, and connection to her daughter—who AGAIN she was forced to have with this man—and her knowledge that she had no choice but to stay with him.

Like this is a royal hiarchy in hell; no way a woman could divorce her husband, let alone be respected if she did.

Think of the situation the characters find themselves and the potential reasons behind their actions rather than only taking in the perspectives of others about them. (That doesn't means she can abuse her husband.) But she is not this tyrannical, evil, all-powerful being that they portray her as. Considering she doesn't have much standing, why else wouldn't she have divorce him?

"Oh she likes tormenting him" is dumb—just something evil they wanted her to say to prevent people from empathizing because an attack on Stolas is an attack on Viv because Stolas is only a puppet. She chooses the plot and what role he plays in it. A character may do actions of a villian but the perspective their given shows where the creators morals lie.

Also on my account i have reposted links to GoFundMe's that could be life or death to people every bit counts if you dont have five dollars you can venmo @artisticantics on youtube they donate the money from the venue as a lump-sum.

Thank you for your time.

[demon-country]

One thing I like about Stolas is that he learns, and then he takes action of his own accord. He's not stagnant. Sure, he can be a bit oblivious and lost in his own head, but once he's finally informed that there is a problem he always makes a real effort to reflect on it and then do something about it.

We see it as early as Loo Loo Land, where he misses all the cues that Octavia is upset, but once she actually tells him what's wrong he immediately reassures her. He then promptly leaves with her, asks her what she wants to do instead, and takes her there despite not understanding the appeal. His focus is on her the whole time from the moment he finds her crying. He even carries her like she's a small child again the entire way back to the van, and she lets him because physical comfort is something she needs and he knows it.

We see it again after Ozzie's, where Blitz is finally honest about his belief that Stolas wants him for nothing but sex. After a night of heavy drinking, he immediately starts to reflect on things and comes to the correct conclusion that their deal needs to end, because in hindsight Blitz didn't seem happy or like he was having a good time like Stolas previously assumed, and then he tries to find Blitz a way to stay in business without relying on him. He gets a little side tracked because of the divorce, but he never gives up on getting Blitz an Asmodean Crystal, even when it requires him to wait several hours in Asmodeus' waiting room fresh out of the hospital.

We also see it in Apology Tour, where he reflects in his song and starts to realize that his behavior early on wasn't taken as him being cute and playful like he intended, but pushy and overbearing. Despite how Blitz hurt and yelled at him both that morning and the night before, he acknowledges that it wasn't malicious and doesn't try to put the blame for things going wrong on Blitz, although he doesn't yet realize that it's not because Blitz doesn't care, it's because he cares too much and is scared of that.

Stolas is learning and changing, but it's a slow process. It comes in pieces. Which is generally how it goes in real life, too. People don't usually change overnight, it can take years and years to fully unlearn bad behaviors and do better, but fuck if he isn't trying.

He needs problems spelled out for him though. He's been extremely sheltered and socially isolated his whole life, and there are a lot of things pointing to him being autistic as well. He's going to miss or misinterpret things that are just implied, there's simply no getting around that. For example, he was never going to realize that there are problems with how he treats imps in general without prompting, because that's been normalized for him and he's high enough on the food chain that almost no one is going to correct his unconscious bigotry. That is, until Blitz, who is perhaps the only person of a lower class Stolas knows who's not intimated by him in the slightest (other than Striker, who was torturing him at the time, which is yet another trauma barrier that will make it hard for him to reconcile with his racism/classism), tells him in a fit of rage. 

I'm sure he'll reflect on Blitz's words and what they mean about how he acts when it's not less than 24 hours since he got his heart smashed to pieces. I don't know about you guys, but I know firsthand that the humiliation and betrayal he likely felt after having his feelings mocked not once, but twice (first on accident, but the next very much on purpose. Oh Blitz, the self-sabotage is so painful to see) take a little while to get over. Let him reflect on how his over-enthusiasm had him running roughshod over Blitz first for a bit, which he's already in the process of doing, then when things aren't so fresh he'll be in a better headspace to consider his overarching biases.

And from a narrative standpoint, the fact that it's taking a while for him to work through everything is a good thing. Expecting him to just Know Better is unrealistic and would cheapen his character arc. He's fighting to do better for the people he loves despite his trauma and implicit biases making that hard for him, and if he is autistic then there are just some things he will always struggle with, like reading social cues. But for any of his improvement to feel satisfying for the viewers then it has to move at a reasonable pace, and unfortunately that kind of change takes time. It's difficult, but he's actually doing a pretty good job so far. He's making a real effort to fix his behavior. But you gotta be patient, he's basically fumbling blindly through this alone.

Anyway, I just really love that, slowly but surely, he's learning. He's not being babied by the narrative or the creators, he's holding himself accountable and changing himself for the better. If you want realistic characters with nuance and depth then you have to let them actually act in the messy, imperfect ways real people do. This is true for Blitz and his character arc as well, but that's for a whole other post.

[lacrimosathedark]

I need to know what the fuck is wrong with Radioapple Haters.

I don't mean the people who just don't like the ship, I presume most of them are fine. I mean Haters.

I mean the people who hate it vehemently enough that they attack the creator for advertising duo art.

Apparently (correction: a member of the social media team on Viv's account) posted the new signed Alastor and Lucifer poster on Youtube, and people threw a goddamn fit, enough that that post is now down. I've seen screenshots, but the page itself is gone. It has since been replaced clearly without the ship name.

Like, seriously? All that because you hate a ship? Because they called out the Radioapple fans for art of the pair just in a poster together? The image isn't even ship art, Lucifer is glaring daggers at Alastor, as per usual.

Viv grew in fandom spaces. Alastor is literally an edgy Deviantart OC. She just released a Helluva Boss minisode with the cringiest weeb fan swooning over Blitz when he kills her FOR SHIPPING SOMETHING.

Radioapple is popular, EVERYONE knows this, it's only expected they would capitalize on it, even if just as a joke. (they do so regularly on tiktok)

The whole duo image (correct me if I'm wrong) was AMIR TALAI'S IDEA. Alastor's voice actor is REGULARLY joking around with Radioapple shippers. It's practically his hobby at this point.

Like, this was literally him the other day.

Like??? Calm yourselves.

And as for Viv herself, she has Liked a lot of ship art, including Radioapple.

The creator doesn't mind it, one of the actors finds it hilarious, and the other actor to my knowledge hasn't spoken on the ship but DID sign those posters, WHICH IS ALL THAT POST WAS ABOUT ANYWAY. A poster of two well-loved characters signed by their well-loved voice actors.

Look, 98% chance that Radioapple isn't going to happen, if only to make Alastor's sexuality and the ace rep ABUNDANTLY clear. But if Viv did decide to go that route? Okay? It's her show, not yours? Fuck off???

If you want to consider this duo art Radioapple, then there were ALSO Radiodust and Charlastor posters in the same vein and I didn't see people flipping shit about that despite, yknow, Chaggie and Huskerdust.

The canon of a series you otherwise enjoy can and will disappoint you. As a former of the Supernatural fandom, I am deeply aware of this. When Castiel went season after season with queerbaiting, when they killed off the beloved badass lesbian character Charlie, when Sam had a cool deaf hunter gf who disappeared and never came back, you know what the fandom did?

They made fanfiction about it. And let me tell you, some of it is much better than the series.

You could do that. Or, fuck, maybe someone else already has and you can go read that instead.

You don't like the way the series is going? That's fine. It's no longer for you. Stop watching. Make your own versions of them. But don't go off attacking people for enjoying the idea of Lucifer and Alastor being in close proximity.

The creative team, creator, actors, and artists/animators, is Radioapple friendly. If you can't handle that without throwing a tantrum, find the goddamn door.

I'm not telling you you have to like any ship. I sure as shit don't. But don't be an asshole about it.

[chaifootsteps]

just a warning - this is slightly nsfw

so back in season one I assumed the show was actually doing something smart with the way Stolas, despite being the more sexually aggressive one, was the bottom and Blitz the top

I thought it was supposed to be a reflection of the relationship - that Blitz has to put in all the work to please Stolas while his own needs go ignored. that it was reflective of Stolas being a prince and wanting Blitz to serve him, merrily ignoring Blitz's own preferences or comfort the entire time

but looking back on it I notice that while Stolas did still say things that imply he was the receiver in the early episodes of the show (Murder Family rant down the phone) there were also lines suggesting some level of force from his side, too - in Loo Loo Land Blitz says 'wait til her dad tries to diddle your holes' and tells Stolas directly 'if you try fucking my ass in that park', which imply they were switches at some point in time and that Stolas certainly molested him in addition to demanding Blitz sleep with him

but the minute the writers decided Stolas was the good guy, he basically became the bottom in the relationship and nothing else. what had looked like a sophisticated portrait from Viv about how the 'submissive' or bottom partner can be the abuser and the top/dominant one can be the one being used turned into her trying desperately to imply that because Blitz is the one who's 'in control' in the bedroom it can't possibly be coercive on Stolas' part; it's a friends with benefits deal and she'd like everyone to stop reading into it, thank you very much.

as far as the show seems to be concerned, only the active participant in sex can be the abuser! now let's sit back and watch the fandom apply this exact logic to Stella because she was proactive about having one egg so she didn't have to sleep with Stolas anymore whereas Stolas was just passive

all of this gets even grosser considering Barbie's human form has brown skin, effectively coding Blitz as a POC and Stolas as his rich white master. And it's not uncommon even today for black men to be treated like sexual fetishes, just 'studs' for the pleasure of white women (or white twink owls as is the case w/Stolas) which certainly seems to be the case with Stolas reading 'imps in the sheets' books. but the show doesn't really want to engage with the fact that fetishization is just a different kind of degradation on Stolas' part.

Glad you pointed this one out, because it's easily overlooked and usually is. It's also pretty telltale...the period of time in which Stolas was unambiguously an antagonistic figure and nobody argued this point was synonymous with the period of time in which he played a more dominant role sexually.

"If you try fucking my little ass..."

"Wait 'til her dad tries to diddle your holes."

The belief that passive, penetrated partners are more submissive and can't be abusers is one that should have died over a decade ago, but here we are.