#hb stella

[birdy-babe]

Sinsmas theory?

So in this scene we see that Stella and Octavia are at Stolas’ palace- which Andrelphus now owns it seems

And then in the s2 trailer we see

Andrelphus defending (now Iced) Stolas’ Palace and Blitzo/Stolas fighting him.

We now know that Stolas has no powers (which answers why Blitzo is fighting for him)

But with this new context I think the plot of Sinsmas is gonna be Blitzo (and Stolas… maybe IMP too… and maybe all the “interns” they collect) breaking into the palace to steal Octavia back.

They are fighting to talk to her or to rescue her, is my prediction here.

(And I fear she won’t see reason based on the “you never loved mother and you don’t love me, you love HIM” line from the trailer)

[blitzsicedcoffee]

People are gonna be thrown off I guess when Octavia is mad at Stolas next episode even as he's trying to go get her. Even though she's obviously being emotionally manipulated by Stella. Many say that Octavia will be the one that saves Blitz and Stolas from Andy next ep and like-no. She hates her dad right now. He literally broke his promise. That he'd never leave her, and he was about to DIE. Literally leave all of Hell, for Blitz. Of course she's gonna hate him for a little while. And Stella is just gonna fuel that fire.

[fujosh1dreamer]

"When I'm gone you will be ok"

Let's talk about Stolas and his lack of fear towards death. Way back in episode two we hear him singing to Octavia about how when he's dead she will be alright no matter what. That's the legacy he set up for her.

In season two episode one he when he and Stella have their confrontation he talks about putting up with abuse so Octavia can have a normal life.

Poor stolas believed that he had her legacy and safety secured, specifically in the case of his death. She would have power and status that came from him and she would be safe, even from her mother.

It's why when stolas realized he was being banished and stripped of his powers he asked about her. He not only lost his powers, but the custody battle as well. He won't be able to see his daughter, and more importantly because of his scheming wife and her brother, Octavia has no power or position in which to protect herself.

Stolas truly believed that in death she would be safe, unfortunately for him he's still alive and she's more vulnerable than ever. Poor girl, she's going to be manipulated into thinking stolas never cared about her when he actually suffered with Stella for years just to keep her happy.

[dwewi66]

smol octavia🤲🤲🤲

[chaifootsteps]

https://x.com/Flak0ps/status/1863246667882885342

https://x.com/Idolomantises/status/1863600132190515264

HB Critical Tweets!

It's a trope you usually find in the fanfics of teenage girls circa the early 2000s, but of course, Viv never grew out of it.

[ohmyglobwhatthefrickamievendoing]

Blitz started out the day excited to have sex with stolas, he was giddy

and then stolas says that blitz no longer has any obligation to "touch me, bed me" instead of just stopping at to "see me" which would cover all bases, as if he thought separate from the whole deal Blitz found the idea of sex itself with stolas repulsive

How badly do you think all the shit stella said about his body and their sex life affected stolas?

[laputaskies]

[funhouse-mirror-barbie]

Nuanced and Multifaceted Conflict vs. “Good v. Evil” in fiction

So. This is another thing I’ve wanted to talk about for a while. I promise I won’t always be focusing on Helluva Boss in my critiques, and I actually have quite a few other series I want to talk about.

There’s a big chance that I’ll be saying everything other people have already said, but I can’t help but WANT to talk about this specific character in regard to the story’s conflict. I think that it’s important to recognize when a character is written to be a complex person, and when a character is written to be an enemy to be defeated, and how not following through with your set-up can affect your story.

And HB does that A LOT in my opinion.

So. Let’s get into it. This time I’ll be talking about complex conflict between characters vs. black and white conflict, and I’ll also be touching on story set-ups and audience expectations.

I want to talk about a character who could have really made some of the internal character conflicts have so much more depth and intrigue. I want to talk about Stella Goetia

*as a side note this post is MUCH longer than I intended but I really wanted to get into a lot of the background and reasons for how Stella’s character development has actually completely changed what HB’d story conflict could have looked like. I’ll try and sum up everything in the end in a TLDR for y’all

So. Most of the reviews of her character I see talk about how she’s been “ruined” by the writing team revealing that she’s always been very abusive towards Stolas

I have to start off by saying I actually don’t think that Stella or her portrayal was “ruined” by the writing direction her character has been taken in.

In fact, this critique bothers me, because it doesn’t really get to what I think the actual root of why people are disappointed in Stella’s characterization, and the type of conflict that now exists between her and Stolas.

The main reason I believe people are unsatisfied with Stella is because they believed that her character was being set up for a complex and nuanced conflict between her and Stolas, and then that turned out not to be the case.

A quick disclaimer- I do think it’s possible to subvert audience expectations about story and characters in a satisfying way. But it has to be done in a way that respects the audiences intelligence and willingness to think about the story.

If your plot-twist, unreliable narrator, subversion, or what-have-you is done well, the audience should be able to either figure out what’s going based on the little information you’ve given them, and if they don’t, the change or subversion should still make sense and CLICK in hindsight.

Otherwise, your subversion will end up feeling cheap or confusing. Or worse, like a lie.

And this is one of the MAIN issues I think people have with Stella.

As the audience, we were NOT given enough information on her or her character before it’s revealed that she’s just “evil” and always has been, apparently since she was a literal child.

Again, I don’t think it’s an inherently bad decision to have a flat or pure evil villain. I’m fine with Stella being one, even if it’s less interesting to me personally.

But it’s definitely very different from what was initially implied and set-up, and the audience can pick up on that.

Before S2E1 “The Circus” we see Stella a total of 3 times in person, with one time being a flashback.

I’m going to go over those times to analyze if anything set-up in Stella’s appearances points towards her being. Well, totally and irredeemably awful and abusive I guess.

The very first time we see Stella is in the same bed with Stolas—Octavia calls for her parents, both Stolas AND Stella. Stella grumbles and refuses to get up and tells Stolas to go. This doesn’t immediately strike me as a sign of her being a terrible person. That exact scenario is present in a lot of family comedies, kids’ movies, and sitcoms.

Nothing about this screams that Stella is a terrible parent or an abusive partner to me. It just tells me she’s tired and doesn’t want to get up, which again, is not uncommon.

The next time we see her, she’s yelling at Stolas, and she throws a servant at him in anger.

Now, there’s no excuse for this, her behavior here is not okay, regardless of her feelings. But we understand why she’s acting the way she is--she’s furious with Stolas for cheating on her. At this point with the information we have, it’s also very reasonable to believe her feelings have been hurt.

Later Octavia talks about how her parents didn’t used to hate each other, and the way Stolas’ tries to explain their failing marriage to her comes across like his relationship with Stella is one that’s always had difficulties that they have tried and failed to overcome.

None of this information is enough to really convey or hint that Stella is and has always been abusive or evil. It shows that Stella and Stolas have a very rough relationship, and that Stella most likely has anger management difficulties, but you have to do lot of extra work to come to the conclusion that Stella is completely at fault here.

The next time we see her though, things have clearly escalated, because it’s revealed that she’s one that hired Striker to assassinate Stolas.

Now. Usually. Yeah. That would be a HUGE red flag. And I mean. It still obviously is.

But, and I never thought I’d use this uno reverse card, this is one of the few times where the explanation of “But it’s hell, what did you expect???” actually makes sense to me.

Because yeah, it is hell. It’s the end of episode 5 when we learn this, and our protagonists have killed and assassinated multiple people. Taking a hit out on people really doesn’t seem to be that uncommon of a thing in hell.

Even the next scene after the reveal that Stella is the one who hired Striker makes light of how serious this is, by showing that Stella was basically yelling her assassination plot right to Stolas’ face.

This is played for laughs! I genuinely am not sure if the writers intended for this to be foreshadowing of Stella’s abuse or not because if so, they turned her attempting to kill her husband into a joke!

If you cannot keep your themes or tone consistent, how is the audience supposed to follow your story?

There is subtle storytelling, and then there’s tacking information and character points later on in your writing. And this can have two causes.

Either your audience has to do the work of story-telling for you and make up their own reasons for what’s happening to make the story coherent OR they will be disappointed and dissatisfied by the final product.

I think that’s the main reason why S2E1 of Helluva Boss felt so jarring story-wise, and why Stella, to me at least, suddenly felt like a brand new character.

Like I haven’t been this confused by a character being suddenly evil since Hans from Frozen.

(like seriously why the hell did they put this scene in if not to just trick the audience. This isn’t giving us any plot info it’s only giving us contradictory info on his character. Like I talked about before, Hans’ heel-face-turn doesn’t feel like a twist. It feels like a lie.)

Okay so, how does any of this actually affect anything? Who cares if Stella is evil, that doesn’t automatically make the story bad!

Well. Yeah, of course not. Ironically, having the main conflict your story being a battle between “Good v. Bad” characters is neither good nor bad. It’s just a story decision. And ultimately at the end of the day, the writers of Helluva Boss can choose to tell their story however they’d like.

But, depending on how this is executed, good v evil stories can be a lot less interesting than morally grey or complicated conflicts and characters.

I am more interested in the version of the story where Stella and Stolas are imperfect and messy people. I am more interested in the story where Stolas has an affair to escape being in an arranged marriage, and Stella overreacts by arranging a hit on her husband (unless calling out a hit is normal in hell, but we can’t know b/c there is no baseline for what is considered normal in hell)

I am so much more interested in the story where Stolas and Stella are both depicted as being in the wrong, as being incredibly hurt by each other’s actions, and as not knowing how to repair their broken relationship for the sake of their daughter.

That story feels very real to me. It’s one I want to engage and invest in.

I want to see if these characters can grow to accept their mistakes and learn and change for the sake of Octavia and having to co-exist with each other, or if they’ll slip back into mutual destruction and toxicity.

But that’s not the story we’ll get to see, because it seems like the writers are more interested in keeping Stolas from having to grow as a character. And because of that, Stella has been turned into an evil obstacle that must be defeated, instead of a nuanced and real person.

I also feel like I have to say. I know I would be MUCH less frustrated by this if I hadn’t seen an HB crew member talking about how their show is similar to Bojack Horseman.

Because. It’s just not. I’m sorry, I’m not saying that to be mean, or condescending, or rude, but the way characters are written in Helluva Boss is almost completely black and white at this point.

Regardless of the writer’s intent, the vast majority of the choices they have made in Season 2 come off as explanations to excuse the protagonist’s mistakes, and give them a “get out of being potentially in the wrong” free card.

Compared to the writing decisions in Bojack, which almost always has characters confront their wrongdoings, for better or worse, HB honestly feels like it’s the Anti-Bojack.

It would take a TON of character development and time to make HB’s characters as interesting, fleshed-out, and as real as Bojack’s are, and at this point that’s I don’t think it will ever happen.

Again. Having black and white conflict is FINE. It is a choice in story telling that can be done very effectively. But if you are making a black and white story where one side is always terrible and evil, and one side can do no wrong, you can’t act like you’ve written something that is deeper and more emotionally complex and grey than that.

And the first time the writers gave Stella more than 3 sentences to string together, they made it very clear that any chance of her being a more complex and engaging character was being tossed out the window.

————

TLDR:

The main reason people are upset about Stella being shown as abusive in S2E1 of HB is probably because the initial depictions of her didn’t give us enough information on her character to tell that she was just evil/a terrible person.

The way the story was written in S1 to set up the possibility of a very interesting and complex conflict between Stella and Stolas, and when it was revealed that she’s just. The worst. There were people that were disappointed by this, because they expected more.

Audiences actually aren’t idiots, and when you subtly foreshadow something and then completely change things, that can be frustrating.

It’s MORE than okay to write a straightforward good v evil story, but it depending on the way it’s written and executed, it may not be as interesting to mature audiences as a more morally grey story would be.

If you can’t write characters confronting their flaws and being in the wrong, please don’t compare your writing to Bojack, I mean. C’mon.

[funky-lizard-imp]

I know this was sad and Stella was very cruel but just-

I just find these subtitles funny for no good reason.

[hogwartshotel]

Oh no maybe I am going to make a bunch of text posts now. Hadn't seen this one done yet.

[prof-ramses]

More Golden Goose (Mammon x Stella) stuff! (and some other HCs)

Much like the last volume, this batch of ideas will contain some HCs that are only included by virtue of association with a Golden Goose one.

Mammon doesn't have any chefs in his house staff, partly because he doesn't want the extra expense, but also because he actually enjoys cooking and is very skilled at it. This comes as a pleasant surprise to Stella and Octavia.

Contrasting the last one, Ozzie is actually a pretty sloppy cook and doesn't know many recipes, it's just that, unlike Fizz, the things he makes can at least be called food. The only reason they didn't have a chef was to lessen the risk of someone "discovering" their relationship. The first thing Asmodeus did after the mid-season special was put out a chef wanted ad.

Stella will often tell Mam stories about Via as a little kid and show him any accompanying photos she has. He's always enthralled by these and starts his own family photo album shortly after the first time Stella does this. Mammon sometimes spends minutes on end looking at the album, it's come closer than anything else to making him run late for a meeting.

Whenever they cross paths Mam chews out Stolas for treating his family like shit. Stolas tries the defend himself the first time but Mammon doesn't let him pull his scummy excuses. After that, Stolas would just fume in silence and shame whenever this happens.

Via eventually starts writing and composing her own songs and puts together an album. Mam and Stella are super proud but also not sure what to do when it comes to releasing it. After a long family discussion, Mam decides Via can perform it, but only at an exclusive royal gathering, while it's publicly released later under the stage name Great Eclipse, with a slight voice modifier.

Stella has a deep appreciation of art, especially performance art. Any performance that's any performance will have Greed's royal family in the audience. Stella also often listens to Via's songs in her free time.

Stella sometimes calls Mammon "Muffin" as a pet name. Her reasoning is that he's big, warm, soft and sweet (and she loves the way he tastes).

Lastly, for some angst and comfort: Early into the relationship Stella often felt a sense of not being good enough for or being a burden to Mam, as she didn't have much varied life experience. This would sometimes throw her into manic depressive states and bring out her more aggressive side. The first time this happened Mam freaked out and was terrified that he'd lose Stella. Luckily, Via was able to smooth out the situation and tell Mammon about her mom's problems and the signs that she's having a "mood". Ever since then, if Mam even thinks that Stella is having those self deprecating intrusive thoughts he makes sure to do something extra just for her. No matter how small it is, Stella always cherishes it and these issues almost completely disappear by the time they get married.

[helluva-boss-girls-collages]

[thatguywhodoesstuff]

Golden Goose Date Aftermath

Stella: Mammon kissed me!

Camio: Oh my stars! Oh my stars! Oh my stars!

Stella: It was unbelievable!

Camio: Oh my stars! Oh my stars! Oh my stars!

Furfur: Okay, we want to hear everything. Camio, get the wine and unplug the phone. Stella, does this end well or do we need tissues?

Stella: Oh, it ended very well~

Camio: (Walks back into the room, wine in hand) Don’t start without me! Do not start without me!

Furfur: Okay, alright let’s hear about the kiss. Was it a soft brush against your lips or was it like a, you know, “I have you now” kind of thing.

Stella: Well, at first it was really intense, you know? And then, oh fuck, and then we just sort of sunk into it.

Camio: Ohh… So, okay, was he holding you? Or was his hands on your back?

Stella: (Smiles fondly) First they were on my waist and then they slid up and then they were in my feathers.

Camio & Furfur: Ohhh.

-Meanwhile-

Mammon: And, uh, then I kissed her

Lucifer: (Thinks on it) Tongue?

Mammon: Yeah.

Bee: Cool.

[rpicons]

179 icons of stella from hb s2ep11. Like or reblog if using icons. Download: here.

[dwewi66]

Magically, I endow all of Vivz's female characters with a personality

[chaifootsteps]

Have some precious sanity.