#Ozzy does not look impressed

[morganbritton132]

A series of videos and pictures that made it onto the internet before, during, and after Corroded Coffins’ Friday night Vegas show:

(1) Robin posts to Tiktok a video of her, Steve, and Nancy driving to the venue from the airport. She’s in the backseat, panning the camera from Nancy driving to Steve in the passenger seat. They are jamming to TLC.

(2) There’s a real sweet video of Eddie asking Steve to paint his nails for good luck. Steve’s not the best but he’s improved a lot over the years. His little bats look like bats now instead of just smudges.

(3) There’s another video of Eddie putting eyeliner on Steve so he looks more badass. It’s got real ‘girl sitting on other girl while doing her makeup’ vibes. Steve insists that he’s already badass and Eddie fondly says back, “I know you are.”

(4) There is a compilation of everybody doing shots together multiple times before and after the show.

(5) In the background of so many videos posted, Steve and Eddie are making out like teenagers. No one even acknowledged it. This happens every time Steve is at a show.

(6) Some fans posted videos of Steve during the show. People who knew who Steve was were just excited that he was there. People who didn’t were confused as to why the guitarist was really focused on this one middle-aged dad.

(7) There are a lot of videos from after the show where the band and the party are hanging out at the hotel bar. One particular video that made the rounds is one of Jonathan and Argyle talking to each other. Steve is there, tucked under Argyle’s arm and far passed tipsy. He keeps interrupting the conversation to ask Jonathan if he’s photographed specific celebrities. Depending on his answer, Steve says ‘so cool’ or ‘bummer.’ The video cuts off a little after Eddie pulls Steve away by his belt loops. It’s the last time either of them are seen in any video that night.

(8) Gareth posts a picture to the official CC twitter page of him outside of his and Eddie’s hotel room. He’s got his hand covering the room number, but you can see the sign stuck to the door with gum. It says ‘Go away for one two hours. Steve’s here. Xoxo, Eddie’ and then a little crude drawing of two people kissing.

Gareth looks highly unimpressed but also not surprised.

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[maxwell-grant]

The Penguin Episode 7: "Top Hat" Breakdown

There’s a constant referencing of stunted childhood about Mr. Cobblepot – a baby grown enormous, grotesque and as needy as he ever was. The Hugh Hefner of crime. But the Penguin’s sublimated the desire for the tit for a desire for cash, power and empire. And this is why he’s Gotham’s greatest – and most outlandish – gangboss - TheMindlessOnes

The Penguin is the greatest Batman villain for the simple reason that he's the meanest. What the Penguin has that no one else has is a simple abundance of pure, unadulterated spite. In Batman's world there's madness, obsession, will and strength - but ultimately it all comes back to crime, pure and simple. The Penguin's motivations are pure because he simply resents the whole damn world and will not rest until he gets his. The Penguin is a criminal, nothing more and nothing less, with avarice in his heart and hatred in his eye. - Tegan O'Neil

(Episode 1) (Episode 2) (Episode 3) (Episode 4) (Episode 5) (Episode 6)

VLADIMIR CVETKO: We wanted Francis to never allow Oz to use his disability as a crutch, and to always have him be strong and move past it and use it to his benefit. But it is isolating. Like, it is. And so he'll never be the same as his brothers. And so there's an inherent jealousy of just his situation that's there - The Penguin Podcast Episode 7

RYDER ALLEN: He loves his brothers, but he loves his mom way more.

COLIN FARRELL: I think he probably all his life feels a little bit broken, and so he's constantly, constantly, looking for his mother's approval and her love. I think he's seen very up close and personal how his mother has toiled to provide for him and his brothers, and wants to give her a better life - Inside Episode 7

Massive props to all the actors here but especially to Ryder Allen, who is absolutely incredible as young Oz. It would be so, so easy to let this take on Colin Farrell's Penguin slip into pantomine but he makes it work brilliantly without feeling at all like an impression. He is so believable he even makes the adult version more believable. Like, that is the same guy, give or take decades of grime and grit and scars, but that's still the same little turd, just before he was truly practiced in hiding his simmering resentment, but already fast learning.

"My big strong bull of a boy", words that in Episode 01 embody such a dark aspect to their relationship began all the way here with Francis simply encouraging her sad little kid with a bum leg. I said as much in prior entries that it's Francis who lights the fire under him, that she is the force that pushed him from mere self-preservation into city-conquering ambition for her sake, and we see the most innocent form of that motivation here. Just a disabled kid whose mom loved him and wanted him to love himself more.

So the previous episodes had already given us small glimpses of what Jack and Benny were like when they were still alive - that Jack was presumably the older sibling and a baseball player and the de-facto "man of the house", given how readily Francis accepted the idea that he had gone downtown on his own to get the power back, and that Benny was presumably younger and more innocent or sweet, given she mistakes Victor for Benny and asks him to dance with her. The opening scene very much confirms and expands on these traits and already raises up Ozzie having a resentment for them, and where does that come from. That cocktail of self-preservation and insecurity and spite and overcompensating that defines him.

Because it's not even just that his mom loves them and he wants her to love just him, it's not pure greed, it also comes back to how little he thinks of himself, and how he's hyper aware of every advantage others have over him - He can't be the upstanding man Jack is, and he can't be the pure innocent source of joy that Benny is. He can't be trusted to talk to Rex like Jack, and he can't successfully drag her away from work to have fun like Benny. He can't go out and be relied on to take care of his mom like good and strong old Jack, and he can't run around the house like sweet and happy little Benny, can't join the three of them when they play and instead has to sit there and stew in rejection over all this love and affection he can't have.

I didn't think we'd get a glimpse of Rex, but the one we get is so fucking perfect. What we see so far shows he was basically just a piece of shit gangster, a cartoonishly evil Greaser extra with nothing special about him, he was just a guy Oz projected hardcore into because he got stuff done for Ma (and he wasn't even great for his mom, he underpaid her! Same shit Victor complained about with his own dad). Oswald stares at his money and his cigar and his attitude and already wants to be chummy with the guy while Rex doesn't even look at him, he talks to Jack only, and Francis doesn't want Oswald to be involved with him. But even so, he's the closest Ozzie has to an older male role model he looks up to.

And so it doesn't matter that Rex Calabrese's car wasn't actually made of gold,, because Oswald will grow up to tell his next little brother, the next Benny, about the gold cadillac of the man who blessed his block. It doesn't matter that Alberto Falcone was 100% right about Rex Calabrese being just a small-time asshole, because Oz elevated him into a post-mortem myth.

Really, he's doing the same thing Sofia does and that Bruce did, elevating paternal figures into personal saints and guiding lights on their great life missions, with Bruce shattered when he learned about Thomas' mistakes and how said failings shaped everything currently wrong with the city, and Sofia describing her abused scared but loving mother as "a force too great for the Falcones to handle")

I think, way more than the murder, this is the part that most speaks to me about this guy being fated to become The Penguin, that on some level beyond explanation this is just what he was going to be, that he can already think of nothing else but wanting to be this guy. Dude came out of the womb wanting to be a criminal.

Crucially important to where this is going is the fact that there was real love between these brothers. They play flashlight tag instead of regular tag so that Ozzie can be included. Jack is constantly trying to protect him, always shielding him from Rex, warning him that he's a bad guy, taking the two in the tunnels to protect them from the rain, telling them that Ma deserves way better than what Mr.Calabrese plays them. Benny wants to play zombies with Ozzie, wants them to go to the arcade and play Double Dragon forever, puts him up first at tag. And even if all Ozzie wants is to stay and help Ma, even if all his brothers do is get in the way of the only thing he wants, he also wants to play with them, he wants for Benny to think that Rex's car is cool, he is proud to tell Jack that he knows about Rex being a gangster, he wants them to like the things he likes and he wants to be involved when they play.

Just as important is the extent to which Oz was genuinely hurt by what they did at the tunnel - that to him, they pretended to include him in a fair game that was actively unfair, they broke the rules by leaving the area and then broke them further by hiding somewhere he couldn't physically get to and cheating at what they agreed to and laughed all the while, and that's why Ozzie angrily closes the door on them at first, to punish them for doing this to him.

Everything they do here, even Oz's decision to lock the door on them, is childish, because they're just kids playing around. Jack and Benny even apologize and say they'll start over, but then, what will become the pattern of his entire life begins. Naturally, we hear a rendition of his theme when this happens.

KEVIN BRAY: I don't think that Oz had an intention of taking his brothers out in that moment. We've all known that child as a child. We've known the child that just strikes too hard or hits somebody with something and never thought the consequences would cut them open and they'd have to go get stitches. And he didn't have the impulse control, you know, to think this through. - The Penguin Podcast Episode 7

LAUREN LEFRANC: In his mind, they go down the ladder into a deeper part of the tunnel because they know it's hard for him to get down there. That's not true, but that's what he thinks, because he personalizes things. And this is reflective of what we see from Oz in 101 with Alberto. Alberto demeans him, and Oz impulsively shoots him. As the water begins to rise and he knows the rain is coming down and he has every opportunity to stop it, he lets that impulsive act become permanent. It's not that he actively kills his brothers. It's that he actively does nothing to stop it. - Inside Episode 7

Penguin with the Iceberg Lounge built atop the 44 Below where the fucked up shit he's covering up happens / Penguin with the Underground Railroad built atop the foundation of his original moiders he's covering up

Thinking about a description that stuck with me from the podcast, that Francis sent him like a stealth bomber into the world. So stealthy that he even bombed her life and she didn't notice

"They're your boys, and they're freezing" For the entire show this has haunted Francis again and again, even right in front of Oz

I kinda expected, given the Pain and Prejudice mention, that Oswald was going to be indirectly or directly responsible for killing his brothers, and that this was going to have a vastly better idea for that concept, and that it did. I've seen lots of people describe this as the show asserting he was ontologically evil from birth and that's, well that's just dumb, and that would be too easy, that attributes foresight and planning to Oz's decision that simply wasn't there, and wildly misunderstands much of the point of the show. Oswald is not beyond reason or empathy or humanity or feeling, precisely the opposite - he is all too painfully human, all too painfully real, in the atrocities he does and the ones he does nothing to stop.

He just is fearless, and I think it has to do with his empathy. You’re going to go, “God, I hate this guy, but I see where that comes from and that does not make it okay.” There’s a sense of tragedy within all of that. -Matt Reeves

Oswald's decision to lock his brothers in a fit of cruel and stupid spite after they insulted him (even if by accident) mirrors his decision to shoot Alberto after he's insulted and his decision to rat out Sofia after being insulted. Oswald walking home and deciding to do nothing while telling a different story, because it ultimately benefits him to do so, mirrors his decade of silence over Sofia's imprisonment and his complicity in Carmine Falcone's murders while telling Eve a different story. It is, indeed, the worst thing Oz has done yet, but nothing about it is fundamentally different than the patterns by which he's acted since Episode 1.

It wasn't that his brothers were mean, not intentionally anyway, or even Oswald was always planning to kill them, he very clearly wasn't. But A: They did something that really hurt and upset and offended him, and so were the first to find out what happens when you do that to Oz. And B: They were the first people to be in the way of something Oz wanted, the only thing he ever really wanted which is his mother's love, and so it's good they had to go. Not a premedidated crime, not even something he actively wanted, but it was a happy acident turned chance, and he wound up taking it and doubling down on it.

It's evil and fucked up to the degree I think works best for Penguin being evil and fucked up: Not sadistic and over-the-top cruel, not the Joker or any of that fetishistically elaborate revenge bullshit he's had since Joker's Asylum, but as someone who profoundly does not care about what he has to do or who gets crushed along the way for him to get what he needs. Does not go out of his way to murder for the sake of it, but will not blink at whatever body count happens to get him what he wants, more indifferent than actively malicious and that doesn't actually make it a lot better.

I believe Oz to this day still loves his brothers. I believe he means it when he says "I lost em too", it's just he doesn't think about the contradiction involved.

As someone who never liked the hypothermia/forced into always going out with an umbrella origin (always thought the latter one was real forced and dumb as far as justifications for the umbrella-theme went), it's cool they actually did incorporate that classic Penguin origin element so strongly here. In the broadest strokes possible, they managed to work in "Penguin's mother lost her family due to hypothermia and so her smothering concerns for Oswald pushed him into situations where he was frequently belittled and mistreated until he became more and more insecure and spiteful and twisted"

That's the cornerstone around which everything is built, the rest of his life. And it certainly is the foundation, or the springboard upon which he is launched into the world, that decision that he makes as a child in that moment, and the reasons why he does it – so that he can have the isolation of his mother's love directed solely towards him." I think he washes his hands of it totally, and has convinced himself that it didn't happen the way it did. It's that grave. But it's in there somewhere – the darkness. - Colin Farrell

Something I should bring up is also the Portuguese title given to this episode: instead of translating Top Hat (which would be Cartola), they called it Manda-Chuva. Manda-chuva is a conjoined slang term for boss, big shot, head honcho, that kind of thing, but it translates more literally to "Rain sender/commander" (Manda = order/sender, Chuva = rain). Like you're the guy who makes it rain in the village, you command the rain and everything else. Fucking excellently horrible name choice here, like it better than the original title.

To quote @book--wyrm

the juxtaposition of the tapdancing and the raindrops and the slamming and the shooting and then the hum of the TV and the buzz of the streetlights (get back home when those go on) and the rushing of the water into the grillthat shot of the jar outside the window, all filled up with water, two toys floating in themthe highest point in his life. when his mom is still happy and whole and he doesnt' have to share her untainted love and he doesnt' have to think about the consequences of what he's done while his brothers are drowning in a sewer under the city

him literally turning away from the camera after the shot of his brothers screaming underwater, turning away from who he might have been—the steady, honest man, and the bright, innocent child as they drown horrifically, to stare at a glitzed and glamoured version of who he will eventually become

Oswald's first crime, the first time he learns he can get what he wants by skipping the line. That he actually can have everything if he just does things a certain way. It's the first time he won, the first time he managed to take out his enemies/competitors and won what he wanted for it, pushing his brothers out of the nest so he could hog mama all to himself.

Nobody has to know, nothing that could be done, they hurt me first, it didn't happen like that, I deserve this, I'm making her happy, I can take care of her.

"The city took them."

All he was doing was punishing them for playing a mean hurtful prank on him. And then he went home. And then at some point realized they were not going to come back, but he kept going. Isn't it warm here, with Ma? Isn't it everything he ever wanted? Look at the tv, the man with the top hat dancing away the night. Isn't it cool when he shoots down everyone in the back? Isn't it cool, this larger-than-life thing he will map his life around, showing him how much it rules to be like this? His very own Mask of Zorro, in Fred Astaire shooting his back-up dancers, The Gentleman Criminal taking form as he commits the most horrific despicable betrayal of his life. The fantasy he will spent the rest of his life grasping for and projecting on pieces of shit like Rex Calabrese and Carmine Falcone in the hopes of one day taking their place, while he at every turn works to destroy and undermine it.

It sprung from a very base animal selfishness, resulting from a perfectly understandable childish impulse, carried to unimaginably horrific proportions set to define the rest of his life. Ozzie Cobb never wanted to murder his brothers, but he got away with it, because The Penguin can get away with anything.

Oswald commits his first spiteful horrific childish self-serving murder, on the same day a sharp-dressed backstabbing criminal in a top hat dances before him and his adoring mother. He's seeing his future, the reward he gets for his first crime, and he likes it very much.

LAUREN LEFRANC: Without it sounding cheesy, love matters to him, and that doing right by whatever the (mafia) family traditionally would do isn't the most important to him. And that there's a brazenness to it, that he can do what he wants, and he can be with who he wants, and he'll make his family a mixed family. And that there's strength in that as well. That makes him a different man than we may have seen in different iterations of Salvatore Maroni -The Penguin Podcast Episode 7

"Fuck your guilt, just bring me an army" - That singlemindedness that makes Oz such a piece of shit, while also making him someone that you can follow and even look up to, a guy who can plausibly sell himself as Da Good Boss. He doesn't give Victor shit for what happened to his Ma, won't hear excuses and he doesn't care for them, we gotta get this done now. Like at the grave scene in Ep3, he doesn't want Victor's apologies, he wants him to get his shit together if he's gonna stick around (by what he thinks is entirely Victor's choice). He has no time for guilt or second-guessing or a conscience, not his nor anyone else's.

"Gentleman" is a term that's only been brought up once in some episodes and in the most bitterly ironic tones possible, here turned against Oswald by Sal berating him for having betrayed his gentleman's promise and thus now he'll get the same deal, which helped put something in perspective: Sal Maroni is right, he is a gentleman. In fact, if anyone in the entire show, if anyone in Gotham, could be described as a "gentleman criminal" the way Oz so desperately aspires to be, it would be Salvatore. And not only does he fail partially because of that, but Oz has nothing but contempt for him, only sees him as a sentimental preening idiot (exactly the way Carmine did) and not only that, he will spend the remainder of the episode dragging him down to his level and causing him to die for it.

I love that Oz tries twice to turn Sal against Sofia and it never works, not even a little. Zero pretense that she's not in control and Sal is fine with it, he just wants Oz dead more than anything else.

Definitely a good time to bring up that, the first time the name Oswald Cobblepot was ever introduced was in the Batman Sunday Classics newspaper strip, issue #119 in 1946, in a story about The Penguin's aunt who raised him, Miranda Cobblepot, coming to visit him after ten years, and him begging Batman to not reveal to her that he's a crook and hold off on arresting him until she's out of town. It's the first time we were also shown anything about Oswald's background and a maternal figure in his life, here seen as comically overbearing as well as completely oblivious to his criminal life, helping fight off mobsters and leaving while telling him to help his good friend Batman take these hoodlums to jail.

Miranda never really showed up again outside of this strip, but some of these ideas eventually carried over to mainline depictions of Penguin's mom, namely his dutifulness towards her and her control over him and her total obliviousness to his criminal deeds, which has always defined her. I bring this up because, while we've obviously seen before that Francis is his confidant and knows and encourages her son's brutality, dancing in giddyness when she hears about the Falcones being killed by him, it's a brutal contrast to her telling Sofia here that yes, she knows full well about the worst thing he had done up until the opening of this episode, she knows he burned alive a mother hugging her son, and she couldn't be prouder. Even now, she is the ultimate force in Oswald's life, the only authority he answers to and his guiding motivation, even as we learn now she was his greatest victim.

Francis burns with such eternal undying spite and hatred, the force that turned her boy from simple self-loathing self-preservation into city-conquering ambition, and she burns so strongly she trounces The Hangman in a verbal boxing match and cracks the façade that will be later shattered in the episode. Francis is tragic and sympathetic and loving only because she is interrupted with bouts of crushing despair and guilt and delude love brought on by her illness literally forcing these feelings on her, because otherwise she would be as good as, if not better, han her son at this. At steamrolling everything and everyone fueled by hatred, and hers still burns strongly at everything and everyone, except the person who most ruined her life.

Dr.Rush subtly but very clearly suggesting having Gia killed, lmao. I think it's good to have just one total pathosless bastard in the proceedings, when every other character has so much tragedy and history and whatnot. He has 100% wholly sublimated his guilt over the Arkham atrocities he was a part of into a drive to help his victim Sofia no matter what, and not actually improve as a person or rectify the problems he was a part of, thus becoming someone who can justify any atrocity because he's doing it in the name of someone else he must avenge and do right by.

A thing that @davidmann95 brought up for last episode that became extremely relevant for this one

this ep also illuminated Oz's true power for me: he understands more than anyone else the power of This Fuckin' Guy, and thus builds all his rhetorical swerves and master plans around painting someone else as that

he can't make people stop hating him, but he can make anyone the person you hate slightly more

His power is hate and spite, as is true of the Penguin, as he gets from his Ma. The one that fuels him, and the one he can stoke on others. Every reason they gave on that meeting as to why he's the most hated crook in town was twisted into an additional reason why they should hate the people he's up against more. Here, Oz tries to turn Sal against Sofia, and it doesn't work, so he buys a distraction by reinforcing his status as That Fucking Guy. Sal has him dead to rights in every sense, and Oz stokes up so much hatred that the guy actually fucking dies from it.

Hey Vic, don't you hate that your parents died over nothing? Don't you hate that the Falcones get everything and you get nothing? Hey Sofia, don't you hate how these old bastards treat you? Don't you hate how our friend Alberto got killed? Hey Crown Point, don't you hate how you've been abandoned? Don't you wish there was someone helping you get back at the bastards that left you to rot? Hey Gangs of Gotham, don't you hate those bastards up town wiping you out even more than you hate me and each other? Hey Sal Maroni, don't you hate ME? Let me remind you of why you fucking hate me so badly your heart's gonna explode.

Brought this gentleman Salvatore down to his level so hard that he made classic Sal Maroni, the seething vengeful bastard who will burn your face off if it's the last thing he does, into existence.

CLANCY BROWN: Oz is an American. He wants to win, and he wants to win on his terms, and he wants everybody to know it. That's why he throws the body out, you know. He throws the body out, for crying out loud. That couldn't have been easy. He throws the body out where everyone can see it.

LAUREN LEFRANC: No one is seeing this happen, so that then you sense Oz's delusion, right? He's talking to a dead man, and then he shoots him anyway, because he wanted to shoot him because he wanted to. And so, he got what he wanted, and he made it happen, even though it's not actually the way he imagined it. And then, what Clancy's saying, he throws the body out and then takes credit, like, "I killed him. I did it." And from that point on, in Oz's mind, he killed Sal Maroni. There is no other alternative. No one else is going to know that Sal died on his own. This is part of Oz's constructed narrative. - The Penguin Podcast Episode 7

I love how Clancy Brown put it, that Sal was all heart and passion and rage and so eventually it just had to go out. Perfect death. He is not the guy who can burn himself forever in the name of vengeance, he is not Oz and Sofia, he is not a Batman villain - he's the guy who dies to make way for them, and here, he dies denying Oz the satisfaction of taking him out. C'mahn man, twice already the big bad bosses of Gotham die before he gets to actually kill them, first Carmine and now this. Popping punk scrub bitch Alberto just wasn't that satisfying, and Sofia's just making everything too weird. With the Falcones gone, this was the guy he wanted to genuinely brag about killing to his mom, and now it's just gonna be another lie and delusion that Oz spins into reality.

Also further contextualizes why Oz is gonna be the guy who picks fights with Mr Vengeance. All he wants is to prove himself, but all his biggest opponents so far died on him before he could get satisfaction. He's happy to profit from the ring and from taking credit for killing Sal, and he may even rewrite his memory so as to delusionally believe he actually killed Sal, but the truth of that moment was personally wildly unsatisfying. He needs to be the big shot who clawed his way up there, he needs to be alone at the top, and he needs to push everyone out of the nest, like he did his brothers.

The station coin he pulls out of the car attached to his lie that the city took his brothers, and the ring he pulls out of the same car with the lie that he killed Sal Maroni

Just once in his life, he wants to say "I got you, I FUCKING GOT YOU!" to a big bastard who thinks they're better than him and died by his hand, and to actually mean it and have it stick, no asterisks attached.

Rules that even before we can fully understand how deep in Batman Villain territory she is, Sofia is dressing up in wild hair and black furs and heavy eye to visit Gia. It is still visibly her covering up and dressing more conservatively than her past outfits, but she is so inseparable from her trademarks at this point that she goes to a children's mental hospital looking like she's hunting down the Baudelaire orphans for their inheritance money.

Sofia fully replicating the same attitude that was weaponized against her to cover up her mother's murder, and then when she sees the scars and realizes the degree to which she's created another Sofia, pivots instead to embracing her while telling her as openly as possible that yeah, I killed your mom and dad, you should be happy I did, they were scum, please be happy I murdered your family, you're free now like me. She won't accept becoming the same monster that they were to her, so instead she opts to become a different one.

As much as Eve was wrong about Sofia being the Hangman, she was right that she thinks in black and white: her worldview is based around compartmentalizing everyone between Victims and Victimizers. She very much placed Eve in the latter category at first and everything she was doing in that conversation at first, prodding her about performing for men, about her relationship with Oz, about her shallow lies to men, about being good at saying what people want to hear, seeing her as an extension of Oz, everything was to confirm and strengthen her already existing bias and intent to kill her, until The Hangman came and in part she realized that killing Eve would firmly make her a Victimizer.

Everyone she has killed up until this point? Victimizer. Alberto, who was very much complicit and aware of the fucked up shit Carmine did? Victim, because maybe he couldn't have known, he fought to keep her alive and get her out, she loved him, and he was killed by a Victimizer. The Crown Point followers of Oz she'll bomb later in the episode? Victimizers. Julian Rush? Victimizer, but he knows his place. Sal Maroni? Victimizer turned Victim. Oswald? Victim turned Victimizer a decade ago. Francis shook her up, but she can still justify doing horrific things to a mentally ill woman because she raised the monster who did all of this to her and is proud to have done so, ergo, Victimizer. But in Gia, her comic book view of morality shatters, because she's confronted with a Victim who is so because Sofia was her Victimizer and this is not fixable.

And to her detriment, Sofia has enough of a conscience to be aware that she created another Sofia, and so she speedruns self-awareness and reverts to the old Sofia, which causes her to start dying on the spot under the weight of everything that has happened to her and she's become. And so it falls to Dr.Rush to actually do what he should have always done for her and save her, as well as put her back on tracks to do the most fucked up thing she has ever done, steering her back into the mindset she needs to survive this.

She wants two wildly contradictory things, she wants to be free from it all and she wants her eternal revenge on her nemesis and she will forsake the former in pursuit of the latter. Her most sincere desire is freedom and peace away from this fucked up world her dad created for her, but she will never make it if she stops, and the only way she will make it is if she buries the part of her father's legacy that is still actively around and ruining her life. All she wants is to be free and she never will be until she kills him, until she kills everything he embodies in her life, and in her quest to kill him, she will most likely throw it all away.

As @book--wyrm put it, "Oswald is pursuing his dreams, and Sofia is running away from a nightmare". Sofia dreams of Arkham, of the yellow wallpaper, of Magpie chanting Haaangman inside endless dark metal walls. She dreams of her mother's corpse, of being hanged and murdered in her place, of Alberto's murder, and everything that causes her to scratch and tear at herself until she wakes up. Oswald? He dreams of Fred Astaire tap dancing and shooting his back-up dancers, and to even think of anything else is unthinkable. Nothing else matters.

But in spite of struggling with a conscience and an understanding of morality that Oz fundamentally lacks, I also like that Sofia is more imaginative in her cruelty than he is. She is sadistic to a careful, measured, elaborate extent Oz hasn't really learned to be yet. Even the burning of Nadia and Taj, as horrible and sadistic and premeditated as it is, was still rooted in self-preservation and a failsafe in case they backed out on the deal and petty revenge for stealing his shit and ruining his deal. But Sofia took the time to have Dr.Rush hypnotize Francis so they could learn the most thematically appropriate location to torture and kill the two and then engineered an outcome just to psychologically torture him before blowing him up, knowing he'd find a way to survive even that and setting this up just to flush him out of hiding.

For those keeping score at home, in this episode, Sofia Gigante attacked his sidekick with a crowbar, sicced her goons to beat him up and steal his shit, kidnapped his mom and had her sidekick, the Arkham doctor who begged to be her Harley Quinn, do hypnotic mental torture on her, baited Oz into a trap within a trap within a fake surrender and with an accompanying speech about how the old game is gone and she is playing new ones, bombed his Batcave and his loyal army, banked on him surviving that so she could send someone to pick him off as he escaped, and is now taking him and his mom to a showdown at a deeply and thematically important place for them, which is also a fucking theater by the way. I've been raving about her being the real Batman Villain of the show since Episode 03 but at this point, she is more Joker than the actual Joker in this saga. She's fully thrown herself into happily and merrily pulling a grand horrible caper on him and his entire life and everything he cares about with little practical consideration to her own criminal empire but extensive thought given into the panache and thematic meaning of what she's doing, it's amazing.

Fun thing to think about, whether Oz would have left Victor to die down there along with everyone else, or really just if he would have bothered to warn him before he bolted to the hole made just for him. We've already seen Oz quickly sell out one of Victor's friends out to die, someone who could have been Victor himself if he had gotten away. We've already seen in the burning of Taj and Nadia how monstrous Oz can be without Victor around. And now here we see how quickly and efficiently Oz can ditch all "the good people of Crown Point", the people who actively put themselves in danger to save him from Sal, to die at a moment's notice.

Credit to @book--wyrm for pointing how the bottom two rungs of the ladder he climbs are broken. The first two bodies he ever climbed over to get what he wants.

And thus we see by their last scene together how Oswald and Francis's present relationship began. The moment he transformed into the amalgamate of everything she lost and needed in her life, when he needed to step and be everything that Jack and Benny and dad and Rex had to be for her, because it's just the two of them now and forever, Kids raised by financially struggling single mothers often very much have to pull double or triple duty and work to compensate for much of what a husband or uncle or support network are supposed to do (speaking from personal experience here), and so from an early age Oswald already had to transform into the character he'd play as an adult.

He has to be the replacement man of the house who leaves her to get shit done for her, and he has to be her sweet boy who tends to her emotional needs, and he has to be her big strong bull of a boy who survived and stuck around and now grounds her in reality so she won't lose herself, and he has to be the provider and caretaker that her husband failed to be, and he has to be her Rex Calabrese who won't take shit from anyone and make sure she gets what she asks for even if it's by illegal underhanded means, and it's too much. Following his first crime and his first victory, we thus get the first moment that Oz began to spin far too many plates to keep his life in one piece and avoid consequences for the shit he put himself and someone else in.

He broke her due to his need for her love, and she broke him due to her need for his love. He turned her selfish and cruel and broken like him, and she turned him into someone who would never, ever grow up and change past this. Oswald's maturity and Francis' hopes died with the two and now, as Oz said to Benny 2 back in Episode 3, "there is just this - survival".

So obviously the climax of the show / Oz's relationship with his mom is gonna happen in a theater club, of course. Of course it's the same place that he swore as a child his eternal mission to do right by her.

Though he lacks the money and the umbrella gadgets and bird armies and supervillain resources, they've managed to firmly establish what the Penguin has in extreme abundance, the superpowers in his soul that allowed him to make his way through the world and win.

Ozzie's failings are human failings, Ozzie's attitudes are human attitudes, everything done in the flashback, even the closing of the door, was fixable. But The Penguin is unmatched at getting away, with an almost preternatural ability to fuck people over to get ahead, to slip from a catastrophe and land right into another one. This is a guy who is, in his own way, every bit the absurd uncanny freak that any other version of Oswald Cobblepot has ever been, and if his lack of evening wear and verbosity makes him distinct from classically-flavored Penguins, everything that matters to the character is and always has been there.

This is a guy who is better than anyone at "the wiley schemes and the quick, last minute escapes, who always has a trap door, an unbrellachute, some other trick up his sleeve to thwart and evade his dark nemesis at the eleventh hour". This is a guy deep in unshakeable childish delusion and devotion to the hustle, who burns a bottomless black hole of ambition in his gut and who was born with cigarette ash for blood and a top hat instead of a heart. He may not have been born evil, but he was born ready. Ready to be the embodiment of Gotham's criminal element, to be a child's idea of a master criminal in much the same way Batman is a child's idea of crimefighter, born ready to do this shit forever and ever.

[fujomoder]

some thoughts about Blitz’s feelings for Stolas throughout the show

the idea that Blitz’s feelings for Stolas in Apology Tour are unfounded is interesting to me. Blitz is very much afraid of love. his feelings would’ve never manifested any way as flagrant as Stolas’

you first have to acknowledge that Blitz is simply not aware of his feelings, nor does he want to be. you then have to believe that his feelings can be found in his rejection of Stolas

their relationship beginning as transactional is important; what is initially give and take, a familiar and digestible dynamic that Blitz can easily navigate, is gradually becoming something more unbeknownst to him

he stumbles over his words when describing what should just be a business relationship to Striker while Millie and Moxxie giggle in the background

at Ozzie’s, Stolas gives Blitz the impression that he is ashamed of being with an Imp when he shrinks behind his Menu at Asmodeus’ comments. and Blitz has always made it a point to refer to their class differences— Stolas is a pompous asshole, a rich bastard, a spoiled brat, he degrades himself as being just his little Imp boytoy, and Stolas’, frankly cringey, idea of dirty talk really only affirms that thought. He expects Stolas to look down on him, he expects Stolas to be ashamed of being with him fully clothed. he has primed himself to see Stolas in nothing but the bleak light of his social status. He’s convinced he’s nothing but being used and he himself is using Stolas here to spy on M&M. and yet he can’t help feeling betrayed by this

when Stolas clumsily asks him inside to do chaste couple-y things to make up for the night, Blitz dismisses him and says Stolas already made it clear that he only wants sex with a pained expression. it’s not just that he thinks Stolas has ulterior motives, he feels further betrayed by what he sees as Stolas veiling his intentions under the guise of spending time with him. because in his mind, Stolas has just affirmed his belief that he is incapable of being seen as an equal

blitzo isn’t the kind of person who takes transparency in the form Stolas gives it, he needs things to be spelled out for him, bold, italicized, underlined and highlighted. he needs to be able to see himself on your level, which might involve breaking down and exhausting yourself. his stubbornness isn’t the kind to be yielded by a night of cuddling because there will always be impure intentions behind those actions for him. because he is always comparing himself to people, always operating under the belief that no body appreciates him for what he is and scrutinizes him only for what he lacks (which is not entirely unfounded but i digress)

this is why it takes Fizzie breaking down during their kidnapping in OOPS for the pedestal Blitz places him on to crumble, for him to cry and admit to his faults and apologize and to tell Fizzie the ways in which the fire weighs on his heart too. it’s why it takes Stolas crying in The Full Moon for Blitz to realize he’s misjudged his intentions, and drinking so heavily in a debauched and unprincley manner in Apology Tour for Blitz to see just how hurt he is

following Ozzie’s, Stolas attempts to give him space. up until that point he’d believed that Blitz was enjoying their arrangement as much as he was, and despite the terms of their relationship being predicated on Stolas’ fantastical idea of romance, i think Blitz did appear to respond well to Stolas’ fierce attraction to him, at least to the point where nobody believed what they had was purely business. Stolas putting a hold on their monthly trysts, to Blitz, meant that Stolas had finally grown tired of him

my favorite display of this though, is in The Full Moon. Stolas’ confession is fundamentally flawed and dismissive of Blitz’s feelings in how he begins by just asking for “his grimoire back,” let’s be clear

but when he gives Blitz the Asmodeus crystal and tells him Blitz doesn’t have to stay if he doesn’t want to, he asks Stolas if it’s because he’s not good enough, tells him he can “do better.” he hates Stolas seeing him as a living dildo but abhors the idea of not having been able to please him. when Stolas then properly confesses and acknowledges the iniquities of their arrangement, Blitz then sexualizes the situation, causing Stolas to feel he is being mocked

this is all while he has already been given the crystal. despite constantly telling himself, telling everyone, that Stolas is just his meal ticket, that he fucks who he wants when he wants, he is extremely unwilling to just accept the crystal. and he would rather carry on with a relationship that made him feel used over both acknowledging Stolas’ sincerity, that his own feelings for Stolas are more complicated than he wants to admit and taking the out?

if nothing changes, he can keep “just” fucking stolas, which is as close as he’ll allow himself to get without the emotional intelligence it takes to work through why he wants that in the first place when he’s already been given the means to run his business without Stolas, without having to re-examine their relationship with this new understanding of Stolas as not being as fake as he’d believed. but he only wanted to be rid of him right? right…?

this all culminates at the party where Stolas is sucking faces with BTB guy and Blitz is very explicitly angry at him for stealing his bird. Blitz has never been so overt about his feelings for Stolas, but he’s also never seen Stolas with anyone else. for all the issues their situationship had, Stolas was loyal to and exclusively seeing Blitz, and examining why your “transactional fuck buddy” getting frisky with some dude makes you angry when you haven’t exactly been faithful yourself would naturally come with many self discoveries, realizations and regrets. which was what Apology Tour was all about for Blitz! realizing! realizing that he is loved, realizing his commitment issues, realizing the flaws in his character and how he’s hurt the people who actually gave a fuck about him. realizing he loves Stolas. even if he’s not ready to accept the implications of that yet

well that is my rant. i have been in Stolitz hell recently

[chaifootsteps]

I think one thing Viv just doesn't get as a writer is that the stuff we see onscreen makes the bigger impression on the audience

we see Stolas repeatedly neglect Via for Blitz and spend most of his screentime after his wife has tried to have him killed obsessing over Blitz? the fans are going to think he's a neglectful dad who cares more about sex/his love life than his own daughter

we see Stolas repeatedly demean Blitz, treat him like a sex object and keep a coercive deal going after he's decided he's in love with him? the fans are going to think he's a hypocrite for claiming otherwise

inserting retcons and exposition text into the dialogue about what a good person Stolas is doesn't fix this. for the retcons it's just whitewashing what already happened instead of addressing it and the offscreen stuff will never make as strong an impression as what we actually see. it's lazy to fix things this way and then blame the fans for not prioritizing

Blitz claiming Stolas was nice to him over the phone on occasion over how he acts every time he's onscreen. Stolas stans love to claim criticals lack comprehension by pointing at what Blitz said in Ozzie's and going 'see? Stolas did treat him nice, Blitz should know better!' and then they ignore that all this happened in the context of a coercive deal we saw Stolas make when Blitz was getting shot at, as if one makes as big an impression or makes up for the other

And for what little we do see the fans who are paying attention tend to notice he's still not as nice as the show claims - just look at the blink and you miss it text exchanges where he offers a total non-apology for Ozzies and still doesn't get what's wrong after being told, then spends the rest of the time being vague and sending mixed signals while Blitz is clear and consistent that he knows the dynamic is: Full Moon is Stolas' night, he pulls the strings, he gets to say what goes and that's still the case in the months Stolas spent dithering around trying to have it both ways.

And when the show is trying to write him as being nice, like in Full Moon, he frequently comes off worse than ever. The way a big part of the fandom is turning on him due to the last two episodes says it all to me - they're starting to remember everything we saw on screen and noticing that the Stolas the show keeps telling us exists and is his true self does not match up with the Stolas we've been shown i.e. the one with all the emotional intelligence of a potted plant

Viv seems to view her shows not so much as stories for the audience, but as glimpses of her very fluctuating headcanons that she's paying someone (albeit not very well) to animate. She doesn't seem to realize that she can't just show her audience one thing and say another on Twitter, and if she decides she doesn't like what she showed everyone, "fix" it with a completely contradicting scene 12 episodes later.

Acceptable things to leave offscreen: the details of frightening scenes so as to make them scarier, the relationships between side-characters, small details like people eating and peeing.

Unacceptable things to leave offscreen: Literally any indication that your main character likes being around his love interest.

[showtoonzfan]

Hey it’s been a bit! The Mammon episode finally came out, so here’s my review!

Pros:

- The sign language scene was cute. Kinda weird that a kid was seeing a show that was clearly for adults but I love me some representation so it gets a pass.

- Despite Blitz not really needing to be in this episode, I thank god he had little screen time and more time was dedicated to Fizz.

- The fish ladies (despite having wonky color palettes that made them EXTREMELY hard to look at) were cute.

Cons:

- Mammon is so flat and uninteresting but I don’t know what I expected from a creator who always hypes her characters up that always end up being one of the three go-to personalities she picks for her male characters. In Mammon’s case he’s just a loud mouth cursing bum so way to ruin another Deadly Sin and make them boring af, moving on.

- I don’t like how Mammon and Fizz’s relationship are similar of Val and Angel’s, Viv keeps recycling stories, characters and plot lines ect, it makes Angel’s story for Hazbin really predictable/underwhelming and not exciting to look forward too especially since we already have the “mafia bad daddy” aspect to him too that they pulled for Moxxie. I guess the idea of Mammon being a controlling ruler is fine on paper but not much is done with it, Fizz just quits in the end like it was easy with zero consequences so what was all that build up for.

- Fizz himself once again feels REALLY out of character, he’s just too soft compared to how he was introduced in season 1. He’s constantly nervous in this episode and insecure, as well as walking on eggshells, and even in Oops he wasn’t THIS sensitive. I’m all for characters struggling and being kicked down but it has to make sense and not feel forced, and once again it feels like Viv is trying way to hard to make the characters she once introduced as snarky assholes to uwu innocent babies. I refuse to believe Fizz was actually INTIMIDATED by this random geeky imp who insulted him, as well as the fish ladies whom he was weirdly nice and welcoming to. It’s also weird seeing how uncomfortable/nervous he was around his fans when I thought the whole point was that he LOVED praise and loved being famous, at least that was season 1 Fizz. Now he feels retconned. Seeing him say “I just need this gig” is weird too, the explanation to why he went through all of this makes no sense, Fizz still has Ozzie and is famous in the Lust ring, and I understand Mammon is his idle but to go through all that abuse for so long for something that could have been so easily avoided feels forced to fit the plot, but it also makes Fizz look dumb.

- There’s confusing lore stuff regarding Mammon and Ozzie, and it makes me realize that Viv should have picked ONE storyline aka ONE Seven Deadly sin to go with Fizz’s story because this is getting mixed up. Fizz acts like if he looses this completion, he looses everything, which confused the heck out of me because no he wouldn’t have? First of all, Ozzie is a fucking powerful sin, how would you loose him? Second, from what we know from season 1, Fizz is a jester who performs at Ozzie’s club. It was Ozzie who built the sex robots across the rings of hell, NOT Mammon, and in season 2 we see that Fizz is under Ozzie’s care and lives in his house. Yet for some weird reason Mammon also represents Fizz and uses him for profit, but it’s not really explained in a way that makes sense, like Love’s art had said in her Fizz redesign video, Fizz’s job is really confusing on what exactly he does. Having both Ozzie and Mammon represent him overcomplicates things and the show did a poor job at explaining how this goes.

- Once again Viv dumps trauma and struggle onto her characters without building it up first. When did Fizz ever give off the impression that he was being controlled or abused, or even that he was so insecure and constantly walked on eggshells to be perfect. In Oops he was happy to be in the spotlight and happy to get the attention, he bragged to Blitz about how successful he was. He seemed happy to perform for Mammon and talked of him highly, and now you’re pulling an Angel Dust situation where he’s expected to be perfect 24/7 and it gets to him emotionally, while also being someone who’s physically and mentally abused. Yet another season 2 episode that wasn’t planned, same as how Millie wanting to feel important wasn’t planned, same as how Stolas seeing Blitz as genuine love wasn’t planned. Different episode, same issues.

- I’m so done with the Hell lore bro, this place officially has no rules and demons can just do anything without consequences. There’s no class system, there’s no rankings, there’s no power dynamics, screw anything that Viv says. There was no fucking reason why Ozzie and Fizz’s relationship needed to be a secret. There was no reason showing Ozzie threatening his workers to not tell anyone about his love life if he was just going to admit it to EVERYONE THE NEXT EPISODE IN FRONT OF ANOTHER SIN ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME— what was the POINT. What is the point of Stolas and Blitz’s conflict. What is the point of Stella being classist. What is the point of these class systems and rules if you can just announce that you technically broke a hell rule and no one gives a fuck and you get off scott free. Mammon telling Ozzie “you’ll regret that” like a cartoon villain doesn’t do anything either. What is he ganna do? Tell Lucifer, the character that canonically won’t appear in HB because the sins won’t appear in HH? If Lucifer rules over the sinners, who the fuck is in charge for the rest of Hell. Where’s the authority? And Mammon is just ganna come back for another episode to give the gang trouble cause lord knows we don’t have enough fucking villains already.

- It feels weird that Ozzie would just sit back while someone whom he knows is a piece of shit is treating his loved one badly. I get he was concerned but you’d think one of the seven deadly sins would have more power and authority.

- I was expecting some big gross bug-like thing to appear when Mammon was transforming into his final form, only for it to the exact same design but with small extra eyes and a spider lower half that isn’t even visible in most shots….GOD VIV.

Watching this episode also made me remind myself that this is supposed to be Hell. Seeing Fizz feel better and stand up for himself was sweet but these soft lessons and morals don’t belong in a show like this, and it’s extra aggravating regarding Viv’s double standard, how she can just pick and choose which characters she wants to be evil and which characters are saints. Overall not anywhere near the worst episode of season 2, but I am officially done with Helluva Boss so-

[ilovetheriddler]

For your Halloween fic prompts, could you do (BTAS) Penguin x Gn!reader where he gets dragged to a haunted house and reader is one of the main monsters/scarers? Thank youu

I loveeee horror and I also love your work ^_^

(Also, you can add smut if you want, but if you do could you do top reader bc I swear no one thinks about how good Ozzie would look getting roughed up 👁️)

Oh! I love this! I hope that you enjoy it!

Halloween Fic Event.

Penguins in a haunted house? It's more likely than you think!

(Oswald Cobblepot x GN!Reader.)

Contents: a bit of scaring, slight jealousy.

Oswald wasn't too keen on the idea of wasting his time visiting a haunted house... but you had insisted that he just had to go, which wouldn't have been unbearable if you had been available to join him, but you told him that you'd be busy with some job you'd recently gotten, what job could possibly be more important than him?! He'd be more than willing to provide you with anything you wanted, yet you insisted on working all these odd jobs here and there. It was baffling to him.

It was so poorly lit in here. How was he expected to even see five feet in front of himself in these conditions?! As he walked, he couldn't understand how anyone could find something this tame so scary? At least not until someone jumped out in front of him and made him feel like he was about to pass out from how high his heart rate skyrocketed. As he tried to calm his nerves, he heard a familiar laughter.

"M-my Beloved? Is that you?"

"Hehe... yep! Did I scare you?"

It was just you, dressed up in a fairly impressive costume. You had gotten a job to work here during the short time that it was opened. You'd always loved horror and thought it would be fun to scare some people... Oswald included, of course! You couldn't help yourself. He looked adorable when he was all startled and flustered! You reached your hand out and helped him stabilize himself.

"You... could have just simply informed me that you worked here instead of giving me a near heart attack!"

"I know, but it was honestly too tempting, you know?"

"... So, they're paying well, right? You enjoy this job?"

"Yeah, it's nice, and I get paid more than I thought i would so..."

He let out a hum of approval as he looked you up and down, taking note of how you looked all dressed up to be terrifying, out of all of the different partners he's had over the years, you were definitely his favorite. You were always so sweet to him, amusing, and your interests were quite unique. He always loved hearing you talk about them.

"So... What time do you get off? I'd love to take you to that new place uptown..."

"Hmm... that does sound nice... i get off in a few hours."

"...Very well then, I'll come back and pick you up then."

He figured it was best to leave you to your work until later. He didn't want to distract you after all. He didn't go far, though. He just sat outside the haunted house.... waiting. He occasionally worried about your well-being a bit too much, but Gotham was a dangerous city after all! It was reasonable worry as far as he was concerned.

He knew the city better than anyone else and also knew the dangerous people that lurked within it, like the joker. He'd do everything in his power to make sure you never ran into that guy. Or Jonathan Crane.... but that was less out of fear for your safety and more out of fear that Crane might be into you if he ever met you, and he'd let that happen over his dead body!

[darkmasterofcupcakes]

I honestly love the fact that both of the characters we've met that represent that seven deadly sins have actually been pretty decent people overall?

Bee is implied to feed off her party guests energy...but there's no indication at all that it hurts them, and they seem to have a good time at her parties. And she clearly cares about her subjects and just people who come to the parties she throws. Obviously she's still got flaws as a person, but overall, she's pretty cool.

Ozzie is a bit more abrasive, though not by much and he only really seems to act that way when it kind of seems like he has reason to? He mocks Moxxie for his love song at the club, yes. But even then, it comes across as more light ribbing (Fizz is the one being more overtly rude), and he never discourages Moxxie from singing or tells him to get off the stage - he just tells him to add a bit more lust to the song so it fits what the club is going for. He does "call out" Stolas for having an affair with Blitzo, but when you actually look at what he's saying, it comes across more like Ozzie himself sees what he's saying as praise? Like the whole song he's more or less been telling Moxxie to be more lustful, and now he's showing Stolas as an "example" of someone who's so familiar with what lust actually means that he was willing to throw away his life for what seems to be assumed is just a hook-up situation. And then he only kicks Moxxie and Millie out after Millie physically assaults Fizz.

And in the newest episode, he's actually pretty polite to Stolas, seeming to be open to the idea of giving Blitzo a crystal if not for the fact that he's aware that Fizz really hates the other imp. As soon as Fizz indirectly says they made amends, it seems like Ozzie is on board with doing what Stolas asked, with no strings attached as far as we can tell. There's also the whole thing of him being against the idea of trying to force lust, which also gives off the impression he's against stuff like trying to force someone to engage in acts of lust.

[semidea7]

First Impression (Huskerdust, Fizzarozzie)

"You know, I was honestly surprised when you told Fizzie about your boyfriend." Asmodeus put his now empty drink back on the table, facing the spider demon. "I can't lie, we were actually a bit worried. We didn't know what to expect." The Sin kept going, his tone way less panicked and concerned than the one Angel had heard on the phone the previous day.

Angel smiled, quite amused by his words. He directed his gaze to Fizzarolli and Husk, who left to order a second round of shots, but were actually engaging in a conversation.

"And now that you've seen him?" Angel asked, eyes still on the two shorties ahead of them, his voice cracking a bit despite his smile. Asmodeus could not know how much Angel valued his judgment, or how much he trusted him.

He had made the mistake to not listen Asmodeus once, and now Valentino had his soul. He would never repeat the same mistake twice, not even regarding foolish matters.

Asmodeus cared for the sinner as well, almost in a paternal way, especially since Angel had grown so close to his Froggie.

"We never meet your dates in a place other than a club." The big demon smiled, leaning with one arm on the table, while only gaining a puzzled look from Angel.

"Yeah, so what?" The sinner asked, not sure what was Asmodeus' point. "Husk likes drinking, but he's not a party person. He prefers a more quite setting where people can actually talk." Angel shrugged, watching over his boyfriend, noticing the smile as the cat tried to follow Fizz's expression and quick talking, the latter looking rather comfortable, which only made Angel's heart flutter.

"Valentino does not know about him, does he?" Asmodeus asked again, his smile still there, but his tone slightly more serious. "I mean, it's clear it's not one of his clients."

'He actually treats you like a human being and does not costantly lash on the money spent on you,' the demon would have added, but Angel's widened eyes already confirmed his suspicion, so there was no need to bring back bad memories.

Angel sighed, finally taking off his attention from Husk, a hand on his cheek, as his smile vanished completely. "I can't let Valentino know about him." He spoke, the anxiety and fear clear in his demeanour and in his words. "I don't know what he could do. So please, don't let him know anything, mh?" the spider asked.

Asmodeus knitted his brows in confusion, and if he didn't know it was just Angel's anxiety speaking, he would have actually got offended.

"Of course I ain't gonna do anything that dumb, sweetheart." The Sin shook his head, sighing. "But are you sure you don't want me to do something for Valentino?" Asmodeus leaned close to Angel, whispering to him.

The spider immediately shook his head, quick to react. "We've already talked about this, of course not!" he looked at him with a stubborn expression.

"You already do so much, always checking on me sending him those threats-"

"But if they don't fucking work!" Asmodeus found himself shouting louder, fists on the table, as the bar grew silent. The Sin's rage was soon replaced by embarassment, especially when his boyfriend came by his side.

"Hey, Ozzie, everything alright?" Fizzarolli asked, cupping his boyfriend's cheeks, as the bigger demon nodded.

Husk was quickly behind Angel as well, his hands on the spider's shoulders, drawing circles on his fur by using his fingers. "What were you talking about?" the cat demon asked, sensing there was something wrong.

At that, Angel and Asmodeus exchanged a look, before both of them laughed. "You got us waiting too long, you mean teases!" Asmodeus cheerfully said, pullying Fizzarolli close to him, taking the imp off guard as he also found himself chuckling.

"We were about to get impatient." Asmodeus kept going, as Fizzarolli rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please, we've left for five minutes." The clown tilted his head, before finding himself accepting a quick peck on his lips.

"Still too long." Asmodeus whispered in that soothing voice of his, making Fizzarolli sweeten his smile.

On the other hand, Husk didn't seem that convinced - Angel knew that by the way his boyfriend was trying to analyze him, as he'd usually do - but he let it slide, shrugging as he sat near Angel, whose eyes lightened up as the cat did so.

"Ya know, this guy is the coolest!" Fizzarolli said, pointing at Husk, before stopping his talking to take the new drinks the waiter brought them, sliding them to the others. "He said if I wanted he could teach me how to play poker." The imp happily said, as Angel returned the smile.

"I mean," Husk accepted Angel's hand as it found his paw, "It's pretty strange you never picked up on the rules while working for the Sin of Greed." Husk pointed out, making Fizzarolli exhale an exhasperated sigh.

"Please, do you think he'd ever let me do something fun while working for him? Hell, no, that bastard" The imp shook his head, looking down as he gripped the glass more tightly.

"Well, it's good you cut ties with him. And I'm glad I met you in person, you aren't as dumb or stuck-up as you appeared in public." Husk went on, looking annoyed as he received a light pat from Angel, who looked quite pissed.

"Did you fucking have to tell him that?" the spider whispered embarassed, before both Asmodeus and Fizzarolli found themselves laughing.

"No, no, it's alright, he's only speaking facts, doll. At least I'm glad you changed your mind on me, cause I kinda like you too, Husk!" Fizzarolli replied, shooting a knowing grin in Angel's direction, the spider rolling his eyes as he smiled at his friend.

"It's just- we didn't expect to see someone like you when Angel suggested to meet up." Asmodeus admitted, cracking a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck. "How can I say..." he started to gesture, as if to find the right words, before Fizzarolli chipped in with an unamused expression. "Yeah, he usually goes out with dickheads with a dick bigger than their brain, who give dick, but are also dicks, ya follow me?" the imp asked, as Angel narrowed his eyes at him.

"What? I was complimenting you! You certainly upgraded your standards!" Fizzarolli raised his hands defensively, as Husk's smirk only widened at the interaction.

"If Angel does not, I'll accept the compliment for him." The cat demon looked at his boyfriend, as Angel let go of his hand. "Oh, fuck off, as if I've ever wanted to date those idiots in the first place." He crossed his arms, as Fizzarolli commented something about him always having to be a fucking drama queen.

As Fizzarolli started to shame Angel's exes one by one and the spider kept bickering with him in return, Asmodeus interrupted the argument. "I genuinely hope you stay together for a long while" the Sin said, feeling warm as he looked at the nice picture that Angel and Husk made. "I love the way you two look at each other. It's...I'm sorry, I don't even know how to prhase it" Asmodeus added, sniffing as he was staring to feel a bit emotional.

The Sin of Lust saying such romantic things as if he was a school girl? Husk surely found it weird, but at this point, he knew better than to judge someone by their title.

And of course, this was just their first night out, more time had to pass before Asmodeus would tell Husk about how much of a failure he'd felt anytime he couldn't help with relieving Angel's pain, anytime the spider could only receive empty advice from him, anytime he couldn't save Angel from a new heartbreak...the same feel of shame when he couldn't do anything for his lover working for that bastard of Mammon.

Fizzarolli kissed Asmodeus' cheek as the Sin's lip started to quiver, as he was silently muttering swears. Angel took Asmodeus' hand, holding it alongside with Husk's, exchanging a brief, sweet look with him.

Angel sighed, leaning his head on Husk's shoulder, closing his eyes for a brief moment. He felt a kiss on his forehead, so he opened his eyes to see Husk looking down at him, while Fizzarolli was sweetalking Asmodeus at the other side of the table, trying to calm the big demon down.

"Does this mean I made a good first impression?" Husk whispered, his smile and his voice softening as he was holding who for him was the most precious being in the world. Alongside with these dorky, adorable new friends, of course.

Angel raised his head, smiling in return, nodding contently. "You did a great job, darling, thank you." He answered, kissing Husk's knuckles, a wicked smile forming on his face. "They seem to truly adore you." He addes, pointing to Asmodeus and Fizz, not taking his eyes away from Husk.

"So, you can already start thinking of your reward, baby~" the spider whispered, as Husk playfully rolled his eyes, shaking his head, giving another kiss to Angel's forehead. His boyfriend was really something else, but since Husk was a mess as well, he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll take the offer once we are back to the Hotel, alright?" Husk smiled, taking Angel's chin, gently holding it.

"Ya know, I can come up with some suggestions for ya! Bet you still don't know how many kinks-"

"Fizz, fucking no!"

[thatstonedwriter]

⋆｡˚ 「 Froggy and Bee 」 ⋆｡˚

◉ Sinopsis; what would a friendship between Beelzebub and Fizzarolli look like?

We may not have seen them interact yet, but I bet Fizzarolli and Beelzebub would meet eventually. Personally, I think they'd get along so fucking well.

Initially, Fizz would be very intimidated and pretty awkward. But of course, he does his best to make a good impression. Meanwhile we have Bee who goes "Nice to meet'cha, Bitch!" and hugs Fizz

And now, suddenly, Fizz has a drink in his hand while Bee fills him in on all the Deadly Sins drama. (Like how Belphagor won't lend Bee party drugs anymore. So lame.)

The absolutely bond over performance art, are you kidding me? Fizz will go on about the Art of Clowning (his words, not mine), and his favorite aspects of performing and the beautiful fan interactions he's had. (Absolutely talks about how precious Oliver was)

Does Bee ask if Fizz will perform with her and one of her parties? Duh- and dude she'd go all out with her own clown aesthetic. Of course. Fizz and Bee's collabs are everything. They both decide to go all out every time, so it ends up with a huge crowd where Fizz can have a healthy amount of fan interactions and Bee can keep making honey.

When they're not partying and performing, Fizz and Bee can be found gossiping on the couch or on the phone. Bee goes off on a lot of tangents, all of which Fizz is happy to listen to.

Like Ozzie, Bee probably gets pissed when she learns about Mammon's exploitation. Considering her relationship with Vortex, it's easy for her to empathize. She may not go through with revenge, but she gives Fizz all the tea on Mammon.

I also think Bee and Fizz would go to hair and nail salons together. Literally a day for the girls and the gays. They indulge in all the pampering they can

their friendship would include self-care days, going to karaoke bars, and idea-bouncing for songs and performances.

[sabbathbloodysabbeth]

Steve Headcannon

I believe that Steve picks up things that his friends like, or what is very important to them and locks that information up to keep. Like he doesn’t think it’s a huge deal so he doesn’t really let anyone in on it. Problem is he picks these things up and they start to be apart of his own life. Like Robin, her rambling non stop when she’s nervous. He’s started to pick that up himself. Something he’s never had the problem with, he has always been smooth. That and her movie taste. His shelf is full of movies that Robin loves and he loves as well. He’s also picked up some body movements Robin does as well. He doesn’t mean to it just happens, along with a few slang words. He’s started to call Dustin Dingus and Eddie Dingbat. Though no ones to shocked by that, they are pretty much twins.

With Dustin, he starts to pick up some of the wording the other uses. Starts to learn more or a dictionary of words that he never knew excited before. Though he never uses them in front of the group he has started to use them in front of his parents and it has been impressing them and getting them off his back. Along with that Steve has started to take a interest into more nerdy comic books. He’s opened a few of Dustin’s that were laying around and now he has his own secret collection.

Then there’s Eddie. Wild and loud in nature. It doesn’t take Steve long to pick up some of the others interests. Steve may not like all of the others music but he has picked up a few Ozzy records and Black Sabbath tapes he’s liked. Listening to them on his free time. That and he likes keeping the tapes Eddie listens to on repeat. A few Metallica and Iron Maiden tapes. Hidden along with his comics (not well) in his room. They are actually in the open. Steve has also discovered a few darker themed sweaters that he really likes that reminds him of Eddie and he wears them around the house. And necklaces. He’s started to wear a bit more jewelry because Eddie looks cool so why can’t he.

Just Steve picking up a lot of things from everyone else. Habits or hobbies to mix with his own. He loves all of them and forces himself to find one common interest with them. Because that is the friend he is.

Bonus: sometimes Steve slips up (he’s not really hiding it) and asks Eddie for a specific song to be played and the guy nearly runs into a tree. Trying to find which track it is and Steve snorts, saying the album and the track number. He’s had to memorize them in a way so he could change the song for the other

[morganbritton132]

Hi, I binge read the entirety of your EMTTS and i absolutely love it! I wanted to thank you for your dedication and for how much you made me laugh. It's really great to find a saga that's funny and also gut-wrenching and written by someone who's a) very talented and b) clearly loves the characters and makes them very well rounded even in little snippets of life. So thank you!!

I also can't stop thinking about the initial "is Dustin a person or a dog" confusion and how much it reminds me of that episode of B99 where everyone's asking subtle questions to their coworker to understand if Kelly is his wife or dog, like "did you two go on any nice walks recently?" and i can see someone like David trying it and failing

Thank you so much for so many kind words and I’m glad that you’re enjoying the series because I am too! (Also, super impressed you got through it because it’s a lot!). I love that cold opening of Brooklyn 99 and it was the inspiration for that tag.

Also, I love the idea of the first-year teachers trying to figure out if Dustin is a person or a dog. That’s brilliant!

And what’s funny is that David’s not even wrong in this situation.

He is like 99% sure that Dustin is the name of Steve’s brother, but he’s been wrong about literally everything else, so this debate continues into its third week at their table in the teacher’s lounge.

David argues, “I’ve heard him refer to Dustin as a kid.”

“People call their dogs their fur babies all the time,” Marissa argues back. “He’s had that dog for a few years, right? Certainly not a baby anymore so, kid.”

It is not helped by the fact that none of them have any memory of ever hearing Steve address his service dog by name. They’ve heard him call him ‘buddy.’ They’ve heard him say ‘c’mon, pal.’ There was even an unenthused ‘Ozz-some’ last week when Ozzy alerted Steve to an impending seizure during his lunch break.

Have any of them thought of looking at the dog’s collar? No.

They haven’t even considered asking a student.

They are in the middle of this debate when Steve comes into the teacher’s lounge to refill his coffee mug for the third time that day. If he notices that the room goes quiet every time he walks in, he doesn’t make any indication of it when he smiles tiredly, “Hey, guys.”

They murmur their hellos and give each other significant looks, daring the others to ask the important questions. No one asks. No one actually says anything until Steve yawns.

“Long night?”

“Yeah, definitely. Dustin had me up ‘til two in the morning,” Steve yawns again. He doesn’t notice how everybody perks up at that. “Poor guy gets so anxious this time of year.”

“Oh, really?” Marissa asks, giving David a look that says ‘see, dog.’. “Because of the homecoming fireworks?”

Steve hums in agreement and shakes his head like he sometimes does when he’s shaking a memory loose. He’s speaking more to himself when he adds, “I think I’m going to take him to the park after work. Get some fresh air, some exercise. He’s been cooped up for too long.”

“Anyways,” Steve says with a smile, tipping his coffee mug to them. “Gotta get back to grading papers.”  

[babybluebex]

amnesia | eddie munson blurb

eddie survives the demobats by the skin of his teeth and, when he wakes up, he doesn’t remember you. (remember i told y’all that this is short lmao)

You were thankful that you were able to get him to a hospital. It was a miracle in itself that you and Dustin had managed to get Eddie out of the Upside Down by yourselves, and it was even more impressive that you were able to get him into the van and to the hospital. The nurse asked you for a lot of information when they first took Eddie back for emergency surgery, and you had said that he had gotten hurt during the earthquake. It made sense to you, and the nurse didn’t ask any further questions about it, so that was what officially happened. As you tried to sleep in the hard chairs of the hospital waiting room, that was what you willed into truth; no bats, no Vecna, just an earthquake. 

The doctor pulled you back into his room several hours later, and you were beyond relieved that he was awake in the bed. He definitely seemed out of it, probably hopped up on pain meds and everything, but you grabbed his hand and stroked the back of his palm as the doctor talked. “Head trauma,” he said. “Concussion. He might have memory issues for a few days, but it’ll all come back to him soon.”

“Oh, good,” you sighed, looking at Eddie. He was looking at you with confusion, like he didn’t know who you were, and your heart sank. Oh God. “Eddie?” you asked carefully. “Do you know who I am?” 

“No,” Eddie replied. “Should I?” 

Yes, you wanted to tell him. I’m your girlfriend, I’m the reason you went into the Upside Down in the first place— you only wanted to protect me. We’ve been together for three months, since Christmas. I steal your cigarettes and you steal kisses. Remember me! Instead, you only sniffled and wiped your nose on your wrist. “No,” you told him. “Don’t worry about it, sweetie.”

“I-I feel like I should know you,” Eddie said, his words slurring slightly. He had only just gotten out of surgery maybe an hour ago, hardly awake from the anesthetic, and you figured that that probably contributed to his memory lapse, along with the concussion, but it only hurt your heart. “I know you, I call you something silly…” 

“Well, you call me all sorts of things,” you chuckled lightly. “Sweetheart and baby and princess, all kinds of… Of silly stuff.” 

Eddie’s eyes widened a bit, and he looked down at his hand in yours for a moment before he said, “Are you my girlfriend?” 

You sniffled again. “Yeah, bud,” you replied. “I’m your girlfriend.” 

“Oh my God,” Eddie said. “Wow! I have a girlfriend! I never thought I’d have one of those…”

“Aw, Ed,” you whispered, and you reached up, carefully brushing his hair behind his ear. You always did that before you kissed him, admiring his dark eyes before you leaned in. “Well, you have a girlfriend. How does it feel?” 

“Real good,” Eddie said. “And you’re so pretty too! Do you play Dungeons and Dragons?” 

You laughed. “Yeah,” you said. “That’s how we met; I joined the Hellfire Club and got a huge crush on you.”

“Do you like metal?” he asked next, still gazing at you in wonder. It’s like he couldn’t believe that you were real and in front of him, and you couldn’t help your giggle. 

“I mean,” you shrugged. “I’ll listen to it if you put it on. You know what I did for your birthday, though?” 

“What?” Eddie asked.

“I got you Ozzy tickets,” you told him. “And Metallica was opening for them. The concert was supposed to be last night, but…” 

“But what?” Eddie asked. “Is that why I’m here? I got hurt in the pit or somethin’? Most metal ever!”

Your heart thumped at the repetition of the same words he had said after, truly, one of the most metal performances ever, and you swallowed thickly. “No, Ed,”you said softly. “I’ll explain more later—“ The doctor hadn’t left the room yet— “But there was an earthquake last night, just before we were supposed to leave for the concert. You got hurt. I was worried that… Well, that you had been hurt really badly. That you were dying or dead or…” You sighed, and you said, “I’m just glad you’re okay. Your memory will come back, and everything will be alright.” 

[fanfic-the-wish-your-heart-makes]

Nygmobblepot x Reader Jealousy Over the Reader's Ex Wanting Them Back (Headcanons)

@i-smoke-chapstick requested: absolutely ADORE your writing <3 if requests are still open id love to see some poly!nygmobblepot x reader jealousy headcanons? maybe just how these two deal with readers ex coming back for them 😂 take your time! Reader: gender-neutral (no pronouns) for both the reader and the ex Warnings: the love-interests having thoughts of murder & non-specified torture of the reader's ex, spoilers for what positions they're in in season 3 episode 5

•You're at an event with them, a gathering with people of various social classes, including your ex for some reason •Your boyfriends haven't outed you as their official date of course, that would be too dangerous with Oswald in such a high position, two positions, if you count his illegal business •He and Ed regret you being single in the eye of the public however, when they find out that your ex is there - before even knowing that the ex wants you back •Actually, just seeing you with someone else incites jealousy in both, knowing your past relationship or not

•Then they hear the ex bringing up your previous relationship and "how much they regret things not having worked the first time". •"First time"? More like last time!

•Forget Ed's "Love is about sacrifice, it's about putting someone else's needs before your own". He's a huge hypocrite. Yes, he'd sacrifice things for you, but he won't let you sacrifice even a little of your own happiness to make your ex feel better. Is that because he's jealous? Partly yes. A bigger part of it 🤫

•With Oswald, it depends on how much Ed and you have expressed that you dislike jealousy, cause he'll reign it in if it prevents you from being sad or angry at him, and keep the murder fantasies to a minimum...

•...unlike Ed. He'll see you talking with your ex and picture himself walking over to plunge a knife into the offending person's chest. His imagination can be rather vivid 💀. •Oswald has to shake him out of the fantasy, feeling rather lonely by now •Ed sees Oswald's worry and jumps into action: •He walks over to you and introduces your boyfriend to your ex, aiming to make a professional impression •With Oswald possibly still being more shaken, Ed does the talking, mentioning many a great deed of them while testing the stranger's knowledge •He does this using riddles that neither you nor Oswald can answer •To be honest, this makes Ozzie pretty insecure. He knows that Ed is showing off & using extra difficult questions but the ex forensic science technician looks at you as if only the people who know the answer were worthy of your love

•Oswald is quick to drag you away, not even giving your ex an explanation. He's a feared man, he doesn't need to justify himself. •Away from the party guests, Ozzie pads you down to look for harm •Ed asks whether you want them to take care of "the problem" •Both are very eager to make propositions about what they could do to your ex •They can get pretty graphic •Oswald could describe torture and Ed would admire him with heart eyes 😍😂

•After their initial rambling, your partners listen very closely to what you have to say •If the ex was abusive or is creeping you out...well, Owald slowly starts to smile rather innocently and is soon joined by Ed 🙃😂

•Until you know what you want to be done with your ex, Oswald's henchmen can always deal with the unwanted guest •Oswald can make use of his mayor security for you •They'll definitely do a background check, just to be sure. This is Gotham, they can't trust just about anyone, good taste or not 😉

•Now Ed is freaking out about the chances of you still being interested in your ex, even without having heard what you've got to say about it •Oswald is a little calmer and musters up the courage to ask about your feelings

•If you tell them that you still find your ex attractive, they're heartbroken. Two smart men reduced to sad kicked puppies. What did they do wrong?! Or what did your ex do so right? Can they do something? Anything? They'd worry about it a lot

•If you say that you "just" like your ex as a friend, they're still agitated •They probably both propose to out themselves as your boyfriend, only to follow it up with promising not to for your safety

•Unfortunately, the event must continue and so your ex talks to you again, much to your boyfriends' misery •They're very protective of each other and would normally offer to kill whoever's upsetting the other in a heartbeat •Now they just throw each other worried glances and direct glares at your ex together

•When the event is over - naturally or after a word from the mayor - you're quickly whisked away by them •Once alone with you, they're less agited •Perhaps you want to share your true hatred for your ex now? Or tell them what you love about them? Please 😢 •They need it

•After some time Ed calms down, not having Oswald's reflexes to analyze people's every micro expression •He'll show you why you should stay with him

Let's just say I wouldn't say no to making a one-shot with this topic in the future - because Ozzie definitely takes longer to be assured ;)

Author's note: Wow, those headcanons got quite long 😄🤗 Y'all let me know what you think :)

[ravenalla]

Just watched the new helluva episode and..ugh okay opinions under the cut.

Some people are saying this episode is better than the others of season 2. And while visually it’s stunning and not as directly insulting as some of the others, I think this episode is one of the best examples of how these writers don’t understand pacing, comedic timing, or creating a coherent plot. The cuts between locations happen way too fast, some scenes feel like they were written under a minute just to add fluff (like the Moxxie hat fight, Blitz talking with the woman in the waiting room and the entire joke once again just being a character saying curse words or insults multiple times in a sentence, camera crews conveniently being at the hospital to see Stolas hurt for some reason.) Also god Stella. At least when they made her a one-dimensional boring villain she was competent at being one. Now she just looks like a whiny idiot so they could have her brother be there for no reason.

Speaking of which, that was a damn terrible introduction to Andrealphus. Unless your following updates about the show on Twitter, you don’t know who the fuck that is, why he’s here or what his connection to either Stella or Stolas is until now, there’s only been one passing mention she even had a brother before this. He’s just suddenly there with no proper introduction, and then Striker just appears now to kidnap Stolas in front of tons of other people (I guess him trying to kill Stolas with the angelic weapon hidden in the shadows didn’t matter that much after all) and take him back to an underground lair he has for some reason. He also brings up the classist system and Stolas’s bigotry but it doesn’t matter because he hurt the poor uwu prince baby 🙄 I swear it feels like this show is AI generated at this point, or at the very least the writers know that the pretty animation and shipping fuel will keep diehard fans around so they don’t actually have to make anything tightly written and can just do whatever random hodgepodge of scenes and dialogue they like. Which whatever its clear this show is just “the sex joke” show most of the time, but don’t then try to tell me this is some masterclass of writing and character development when the entire climax of Stolas and Blitz’s relationship problems at Ozzie’s was addresses ENTIRELY OFFSCREEN THROUGH TEXT MESSAGES. Even if you ship Stolas and Blitz, how the hell can you accept that? That’s the sloppiest way they could have handled that, I don’t even like this show and I feel disrespected lmao.

And just the way they tried to make us “feel” for their relationship this episode. Why the hell would Blitz be so shocked Stolas could get hurt, you literally fought Striker before because he was two seconds away from killing Stolas instantly otherwise?? You were hired to be his bodyguard in one episode! Like yeah maybe actually seeing it happen is causing the reality of it to sink in for Blitz, but everything we’ve been shown so far INCLUDING IN THIS EPISODE shows how much he does not care that much about Stolas and at best has a mild acceptance of him (at least outside of seeing stars which everybody’s already talked about how weird that entire thing was). I literally have no idea why we are suppose to be rooting for these two to get together at this point. It’s just watching uwu Stolas get hurt over and over again so we can pity the guy and wonder why Blitz wont love him boohoo 🙄 it’s annoying and not fun to watch. Also this might be more of a nitpick, but did anyone else think characters looked weirdly off model a lot in this episode? Like yeah the animation was impressive at some points during the action scenes but during regular dialogue it looked like it was done by a completely different studio than the other episodes, especially with Stella, Andrealphus, Millie, and Moxxie. Not sure what that’s about or if I’m just imagining it.

[arabriddler]

Ozzie’s got lots of tricks ( pun intended ) up his sleeves. He has a large selection of skills, he’s average at most of them, but still, he could do little tricks. This is caused by several things, first of all, He was raised poor in the narrows way up till his late teens. He never went to school, they couldn’t afford it, but often accompanied his mother on her various jobs, and when her mental and physical health grew too bad, he’d take on the weight of supporting the family on his own at a young age. Growing up like that forced him to learn skills like, cooking, lying, acting, lock-picking, killing, sewing… etc etc. he also gained knowledge about a various of topics because he often did his best to overhear conversation. Knowledge and information are valuable . He learned that early.

Another reason that sort of follows up on that is that, when he managed to introduce himself to Gotham high society, he was, well, ashamed of his past. He needed to impress his people, and his looks didn’t do much, nor his limps All he had is knowledge, if he knows enough, if he can act well enough, he can be just like every other gotham snob who’s parents paid their educational expanses only for them to attend parties and mingle, heck, even better. No one can know about how he grew up. It took him so much to get this high up. It took him too much to create this perfect clean respectable image of Oswald cobblepot.

The third reason is more of a … mental reason. He has ADHD, simple as that. He picks up interests randomly, stays up eating up books and learning all he could before getting bored or moving on. Clothes, Make-up, birds, insects, plants, Physics, cults, religions, etc etc… especially since his plans require lots of patience and waiting, this does help fill the time.

the thing about all these skills and knowledge he has is that they’re his greatest weapons. He can engage with anyone, the poor and the rich, the good and the bad, the healthy and the disturbed. He has connections all over, and is a force to be reckoned with.

[spotlightlowlife]

Who's in charge? They are charged after all.

According to Blitzø, Mammon, whose face is on the bank notes, 'bitched about taxes'', so it seems he's unlikely that he's also that greedy banker sat at the top of the federal reserve on top of a all else. Like the sins we met before him, he works his trade and benefits from those at the bottom.

The taxes remark was no doubt a way of letting us to how greedy Mammon is without an afterthought, but it set up an economical structure that couldn't be blamed on him, greed.

So who is receiving taxes?

Are fines issued?

Now that Hazbin has pushed Lucifer as a misunderstood, bullied hero and visionary with a successful uplifting wife and angles are bad and heaven is bad. Since those who sit at the top now aren't so bad...

When and why would taxes factor in?

When did the concept come into existence?

Ozzie's nightclub was just some place Moxxie was interested in and had no issue entering, Blitzø got in pretty easy too, there was nothing exclusive about this place, it was run by royalty but there's no proof that anyone knew or cared and price was no objective. Likewise, Bee hosted a party that was easily accessible for any rando, friendless Loona chose to go and Blitzø rocked up there with no issue, the same night he did at Ozzie's, all her guests need to do is 'make honey'. Honey and adult toys could be a decent money spin but why does business seem like just a hobby to those who we are set up to like? To what degree do they have a choice?

The distinct impression of these sins having a job to do is given, the distinct impression that they directly benefit from others behaving in a lustful or gluttonous manner is given, yet only Mammon is seen happily handling money at an event where a red carpet was rolled out, a stadium was filled and kids will blow their saving to attend.

Do they have to meet quotas?

Who are they answering to?

Not just the alleged higher ups, but how are the likes of Blitzø managing, we have little reason to believe that his business is doing well yet he has a vehicle, spacious home, daughter to support and a small workforce? How was Millie and Moxxie, a young couple who come from backgrounds both modest and estrangement managing in their own place with I.M.P. being their source of income?

Nobody mentions money being tight, having to look for work elsewhere, business closure, unemployment and what the options are, etc.

Where do new dinners, fresh in hell, Blitzø's target audience, get the money to pay him?

Money seems to just pop up as proof that a bad guy is a greedy bad guy.

How are taxes distributed?

Do the poor 'bitch about taxes'?

How much of a dump is hell if you can get by on nothing?