#and also the people who are questioning why octavia is upset at stolas at all

[fizzyrodeo]

you know, i feel embarrassed for the hazbin/helluva fans who watch the show for the drama BUT have no sense of media literacy.

[jubileemon]

Helluva Boss: The Controversy Around Stella's Character

After "The Circus" premiered, there was a decent amount of controversy regarding her portrayal. There are a decent number of fans who were upset that Stella is portrayed as the bad guy in Stolas' marriage. This is mainly due to people hating Stolas because he cheated, not caring that Stella abused him for their entire marriage and made him miserable. Others aren't as mad, but wish Stella had more personality.

While others aren't as mad, some people wish Stella had more personality. Another group knows that Stella was always evil due to her prior appearances and were expecting something like this.

Stella Goetia's malevolent nature was evident from her youth, as depicted in a disturbing photograph where she is seen strangling her pet dogs. This early sign of cruelty foreshadows the abusive tendencies that manifest in her adult life. If that picture was meant to endear Stolas to the prospect of marrying her, it suggests either that Paimon has no qualms about animal abuse or that said cruelty has become "normalized" in the Goetia household.

As it turns out, Stolas only married Stella because his father Paimon arranged it in the hopes that Stolas would father a powerful new addition to the family. As this episode shows, their marriage was absolutely miserable, to the point that Stella threw parties about how they hadn't divorced yet and talks trash about him to her friends while he's in earshot. While Stella gossips with her friends, she tells them how terrible in bed Stolas was, and how he just blankly stared at the ceiling while she did all of the work. She then gloats how happy she was that at least an egg popped out of her so she didn't have to pretend like she wanted to have sex with Stolas, but all Stolas can do is glower and order something stronger than wine to calm himself.

Special mention to the part where Stella merely refers to Octavia as "an egg", further hinting at the neglectful nature of Stella's relationship to her own daughter at best and viewing her as little more than a necessity to the family at worst.

For many years, she has belittled and humiliated Stolas. As for why Stella's still hanging around the mansion at this point, well, if her behavior at the parties in the past didn't make it clear, she likes to see him suffer. Her admission that she derives pleasure from tormenting her husband reveals her sadistic tendencies. Even when faced with the consequences of her actions, Stella's response is to threaten further aggression and leverage her status to intimidate. Even if their marriage was arranged and he wasn't at all happy, even if he only tried to preserve it for the sake of Octavia's home life, Stolas has had enough and demands a divorce.

Stella's reaction doesn't make it much better. Not only is she more upset about her stung pride than anything else, she takes a vicious satisfaction in pointing out that Stolas has pretty much ruined his own reputation by now, and that he'll be punished for it. She also moves to try to hit Stolas for demanding a divorce and standing up to her, the fact he catches her hand so quickly as she tries to slap him suggests that she likely has physically abused him before. In a drastic escalation of her vindictive behavior, Stella hires an assassin to murder Stolas, showing a callous indifference to the emotional trauma this could inflict on Octavia, especially at a time when father and daughter are mending their relationship.

Stella is also rather single-minded and short-sighted in her efforts to kill Stolas. She was willing to demand Striker to kill him over the phone with both her husband and daughter present at the family’s dinner table, not even being sneaky about it. In "Western Energy", her inability to grasp the consequences of her husband's potential assassination, as pointed out by her brother Andrealphus, suggests a lack of understanding of the ramifications of her actions. This raises questions about her awareness of the inheritance laws in Hell, which would see her daughter Octavia inherit everything, leaving Stella with nothing post-divorce.

Stella's reliance on her brother Andrealphus during critical moments, such as the divorce proceedings and the decision to call off a hit on her husband, indicates a dependency on external guidance for decision-making. Andrealphus appears to be the voice of reason, prompting speculation about whether Stella's actions are driven by emotional impulsivity rather than calculated intent.

Now that we know Stella hates being married to Stolas as much as he hates being married to her, why didn't she signed up for divorce as soon as Octavia was hatched? Stolas endured for the sake of Octavia having a normal life, but for what reason Stella stayed? It couldn't be for the prestige, since Stella using her brother as leverage against Stolas implies it's actually she the one with a higher ranked family. So my theory is that Stella's life was in the line unless she accepted to marry Stolas. Probably her family only saw her as an exchange piece in the game of power, and if she didn't play along until death do her apart from Stolas, it would be her the one to be disposed of.

It will explain why she's just so angry all the time and the reason why she resents, belittles and abuses Stolas: she sees him as the reason of her own imprisonment in this unwanted marriage. And before someone says it's too much of a stretch, remember this is Hell. If she can contract a hitman on her husband within earshot of him and he doesn't bat an eye, who can tell nobles don't dispose of troublesome children that don't fall in line to the family's desires? After all, Paimon has a lot of kids, so the other families might as well; they have plenty of spares.

Stella is a cautionary tale about people being born into privilege who think their status allows them to get away with everything She'll genuinely believe that because she's a denizen of Hell who's born into royalty, Stella can get off with abusing Stolas scot-free.

[snorkling-in-sodasea]

Moments of Stupidity 17

Here we go. Apology Tour. Just... there are so many moments that are flat out nonsensical from a writer's viewpoint but, as previously established, I'm just going over the decisions that don't make sense story-wise.

I guess for starters, Blitzo for going out of his way to talk to Stolas. Maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome or he's getting so desperate for someone to be there to care that he dies and thinks he's not really having that with Loona or Millie or Moxxie and he's burned so many bridges that Stolas managed to be the one that Blitzo will settle for, but I cannot think of any logical reason otherwise that Blitzo would try talking things out with Stolas. After all, Blitzo's got a crystal now; he's even used it in this episode a few times. Blitzo doesn't have to do anything with an owl who coerced him into a sex deal, constantly demeaned and belittled him, and is actively acting like he never did such things or that he's off the hook just because of the initiative to call of the deal. So why the fuck is Blitzo wanting to patch things up with Stolas? He could get another hookup to have angry sex with or have a transactional relationship if that's what he wants, and it'll actually be on his terms that time. (Again, I got my theories but I got no indicator in the show if I'm right on either one and it's the most improbable thing ever that the show will actually go any other route than romantic endgame).

I also don't get why the fuck Blitzo doesn't bring up some damn good points in that argument with Stolas, either. Striker has never been a fucking friend, especially not when Millie and Moxxie, imps that Stolas should at least know are associated with Blitzo, fought Striker to save his fucking life. Why the hell would Blitzo want his declared family to around a guy who wouldn't think twice about killing them? Blitzo's not that callous. Plus, there's also the fact that Stolas was entirely blasé about being kidnapped, gave no useful information on how to find him and Striker, and Blitzo talked about how Loona, his daughter, is finally getting a shot she needs and she can't afford to miss it. Where is that very good memory you gloated about having, Stolas? But again, I don't get why Blitzo never brought any of that up, like how Husk didn't bring up that Angel harassed him and pushed his boundaries when told by Vaggie to go get him. (Is the hellaverse a world you're allowed to sexually harass people if you're not as bad as certain other people and so there's no point even bringing up that you're sexually harassing people like it's anything important, especially when you're upset about something?) But I digress

Finally, I don't get Blitz's fucking apology list. Martha because not only she was a hit, meaning that Moxxie is just as guilty and Millie, too, but also that the bitch tried to kill them. I agree with Millie. You don't have to feel too bad about killing people if they try killing you (I just would rather it was self-defense than killing you back). The Dhorks agents make even less sense because they were the ones who started shit first, with the kidnapping and the later attempted murder. There's also Brennan Ragers, since Octavia is actually the one to kill him even if it was just an accident. Oh, and I rather don't like that Moxxie's name was on that list but there was a question mark next to it, like Blitzo is genuinely unsure if he ever did anything to Moxxie to be sorry for

Finally, there's Blitzo's just showing up at the party where all his exes are. Considering that he apparently has broken up with so many people who thoroughly hate him to the point where they get together every year to hate their mutual ex, then why the fuck would Blitzo not bother with a disguise right from the get go? Maybe to an extent, the partygoers, unless drunk or whatever shit, are too stupid to notice their most hated ex just being at the fucking party

Of course, there's goddamn fucking Stolas. His moments are mostly more subdued but they're still noticeable and it has lasting power. Like I said above, Stolas is actively acting like he was never a condescending prick and it's not entirely his fucking fault that Blitzo sees him the way he does. Like... Stolas... if you mean to tell me you truly never thought you were behaving badly in the sense of looking down on Blitzo... then what the fuck did you think you were doing? There's missing social cues and stuff and then there's fucking social braindead-ness. How the fuck does someone end up this socially inept? Even though Stolas was isolated in childhood save for some imp servants, but then he got to be around more people when he became an adult. Considering how eager for friends he was when Blitzo was bought to be his playmate and how Stolas is stuck with an angry woman he doesn't even like, you'd think Stolas would be eager to try talking to other nobles at the very least. We know that he attends parties even if they're by Stella's design and there's no literally no reason to think that Stolas can't go to other events hosted by others. Yet Stolas remains just as socially inept even when surrounded by more people, even if it's just in comparison to his childhood. So how the fuck does Stolas live his life around others and think that it's flattering to be called a plaything? In fact, just the way he handled breaking off the deal in Full Moon was stupid but I'll get to that when I talk about the post exclusively about the Stolitz relationship (And holy fuck, do I have a list over how much I think it sucks and why and to think, the show's not over yet)