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lost-crown · 1 month

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Holy shit I'm crying

STOLITZØ - TWENTY NINE

Blitzø’s mother helped him stand.

“I need to talk to you about Stolas.”

“Stolas?” Blitzø stammered. “What? Why?”

His mother raised an eyebrow at him.

Blitzø blushed.

She chuckled and rolled her eyes.

“I feel your perception of Stolas may leave a lot to be desired…”

Blitzø looked at her confused.

“You may see Stolas as this.”

Blitzø’s mother’s hand flourished and an image appeared of Stolas. It was as if she had plucked it directly from his acid trip nightmare.

Stolas lounged in a throne atop a gold gilded staircase. Shadowed silhouettes of Blitzø stood on either side of Stolas fanning him with great feathered fans. They were chained. Stolas smiled down at Blitzø seductivly, beckoning him to join him. Blitzø knew if he tried to climb those stairs he would just slip and fall over and over trying to reach the top. He also knew he could only reach the top if he crawled.

“You may see some self-important, entitled Royal, oblivious to the ways of the world and your feelings. Someone who enjoys making fun of your lower status and has a fetish for peasant sex and imp shaming.”

Blitzø cringed, blushed and looked away, ashamed.

“Or this.”

She waved her hand again, as if wiping a slate clean, and another image began to form.

Blitzø watched as the Stolas from the night in the human lab took shape. The massive black shape that devoured the light, all for the red glow from his silhouette and eyes (though it could have been the emergency lights, but Blitzø imagined it was Stolas’s demonic presence).

How could all of that fit inside such a twig of an owl?

He could hear Stolas’s voice in his head.

“Who dares threaten my impish little plaything?”

“What’s the matter, demon hunter? Never seen a REAL demon before?”

Blitzø shivered.

His mothers continued. “A terrifying, awe-inspiring force of power. An indestructible demon Prince. Something that could destroy you with a snap of its fingers.”

She snapped her fingers, startling Blitzø. The demonic Stolas disappeared and in its place appeared Stolas as Blitzø had first met him as a child. Bright and smiling and adorable as f*ck.

Blitzø smiled warmly.

“This is what Stolas truly is inside,” She gestured for Blitzø to go over.

Blitzø hesitated, looking at his mom for confirmation, she smiled warmly and shooed him off like a little kid scared to make new friends.

Blitzø walked over and crouched a few feet away. He watched as little Stolas ran around in a circle, making noises like he was an airplane, laughing the whole time. It was so f*cking wholesome.

“Stolas is a kind, hopeful child who was forced to grow up in a life beyond his choosing and was never truly allowed a childhood” Blitzø’s mother said behind him. She placed her hands on his shoulders.

“He may be wise beyond his years in his studies and the ways of the cosmos,” she gestured to the heavens and a swirl of stars and nebulas danced above their heads.

Blitzø watched in awe, his eyes shining with wonder.

“But Stolas was caged, abused and friendless his whole life…. Until he met you.”

Blitzø looked at his mother, shocked. She smiled warmly and nodded. His eyes welled with tears, but she wiped them away and kissed him on the forehead nodding for him to go back to little Stolas.

Blitzø watched fondly as little Stolas played. Then he remembered when he was first brought to the mansion and Stolas’s father had hit him for bowing to Blitzø…

That daddy f*cker…

Blitzø silently seethed wishing he could go back in time and do something very creative to Stolas’s father.

Blitzø watched little Stolas gleefully run in circles, giggling, hopping, spinning, arms wide like the airplane he was supposed to be.

A short while passed before Blitzø noticed something move in the middle of Stolas’s playful circle. He tried to make it out, but it was small and black so it blended in with its surroundings. Blitzø wouldn’t have even noticed it was there if it hadn’t moved.

“Wait…” Blitzø stood cautiously. “Mom… What’s that?” He pointed at the small black figure.

“Why don’t you go take a look?”

Blitzø looked back at his mother, unsure. She nodded in encouragement.

He made his way over to little Stolas, who stopped his airplaning and ran up to meet Blitzø with a giant smile on his face and sparkles in his eyes.

Blitzø’s heart skipped a beat and he smiled warmly down at little Stolas. This apparently made him very happy because he giggled with glee, grabbed Blitzø’s hand, and began pulling him forward. Blitzø blushed at the feeling of Stolas’s tiny hand in his.

Little Stolas cheerfully lead Blitzø over to a small black mass. They both looked down at it. It didn’t move. Stolas looked up at Blitzø with pleading eyes and tugged at his shirt end.

Christ on a stick. Can this bird get any fucking cuter? F*******ck meeeeeee…..

Blitzø crouched down to be eye-level with little Stolas. Stolas beamed, then pulled the hand he was holding toward the mass.

“You want me to touch it?” Blitzø whispered looking at little Stolas.

He nodded excitedly while making adorable hooting noises.

Blitzø blushed.

Yeah ok. Here I go. Just touching some random thing cuz a kid told me to… Please don’t eat my f*cking hand…

Blitzø reached out and lightly touched it. It was soft. Really soft. It shivered under his touch.

He looked at little Stolas.

“What…?”

The thing moved under his hand, startling him. He jerked his hand back and fell on his ass.

It shook like a cat stretching off its sleep. And a very faint red glow began to emit from it.

Blitzø realized what it was.

F*ck…

“Don’t be afraid,” His mother was beside him now. “It can’t harm you here. Not that it ever would”

Blitzø crawled over to it pspsps-ing at it like it was a cat.

The f*ck am I doing? This won’t work… Holy f*cking sh*t! It’s working!

It turned to look at him. And very cautiously began to creep over to his outstretched hand.

“This is Stolas’s demon isn’t it?” He asked his mother.

“It is.”

“Why is it so small?”

“This is how he sees himself and his power.”

The tiny demon cat-like owl sniffed Blitzø’s fingers then began stropping itself all over his hand, seeming very happy with the affection.

Blitzø obligingly pet demon Stolas, relishing in his softness and the thrum of power that emanated off his body.

The tiny demon clambered up onto Blitzø’s lap, curled up, and coo’ed contentedly.

Blitzø bit his lip hard.

F**********ck. I’m going to explode from CUTENESS! F*CK ME!

“Why would he see himself so small?” Blitzø asked.

His mother knelt beside him.

“Stolas has been made to feel small his entire life.”

Blitzø’s heart sank. He looked at demon Stolas sadly.

“His father neglected and belittled him. His wife abuses him. She’s even gone so far as to hire Striker.”

Blitzø felt a rage like he’d never experienced building inside him.

“Striker…” Blitzø growled.

“Blitzo.” His mother placed a hand on his cheek. “I expect you to work through that information with Stolas and NOT act on it. Do. You. Under. Stand. Me?”

The look in her eyes and her words brokered no negotiation. All the wind left Blitzø’s sails and his rage was doused to a seething simmer.

“Yes, momma,” he mumbled.

Blitzø looked down at demon Stolas and pet his deliciously soft feathers. Stolas’s warm glow and snoring coos comforted Blitzø and helped to calm him.

*****

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lost-crown · 1 month

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Today I wanna rant talk about this

Versus

This

A lot, and I mean A LOT of people use these two moments as a way to compare Stolas and Blitzø with Fizz and Asmodeus. Specifically, Asmodeus with Stolas. And I get it, both Tiny Clown Imp with Giant Bird Aristocracy. Both dealing in different ways with the social hierarchy of hell. People keep using it as a “well Stolas HID while Asmodeus declared” and yes, that’s true but I don’t actually think we’re meant to be comparing Stolas and Asmodeus, at least not about this specific thing.

Blitzo doesn’t need someone to declare their love for him, he needs to declare his love for someone else.

People put the “Stolas is ashamed of Blitzo because of his station” on Stolas a lot and it is shown multiple times that it is not a factor for Stolas. He even like…sings about how it’s not an issue? Explicitly. The different stations was an issue for Asmodeus for awhile based on thier convos and the hiding. And it was for Fizz, though for different reasons I’ll get into in another post cause this is already going to be long as fuck. But this social hierarchy, famous person conflict is 100% Blitzo.

Blitzø is the only person who should be interpreting Stolas hiding his face as being because of the social disparity because that is a hangup of his. We, the audience, should know better because we’ve been shown the truth, or the reality of the situation in the scope of the show, MULTIPLE times. Blitzø is the one who harps on the class disparity, he’s the one who has the perception that Stolas is only looking for a fetishcentric fuck with the common rabble. The audience is supposed to see Blitzø’s reaction and know he is wrong, that this interpretation is because of one of his character flaws of feeling not good enough, and being compared to people, not because of the reality, because we have proof otherwise. Including the canon song where Stolas fucking says it outright.

There is a lot of talk about the “solution to Stolitz” being Stolas loudly and publicly declaring their relationship ala Asmodeus. But…Stolas already did his big public declaration at the BEGINNING way BEFORE Asmodeus. Stolas did it in The Circus flashback. He reinforced it at the Harvest Moon festival. He reinforced it at Ozzie’s.

His initial public declaration was following up a Imp leaving his bedroom in front of the Ars Goetia yelling “Sorry I fucked your husband” after a big aristocratic party by coming out well fucked and loudly screaming he was getting a FUCKing DIVORCE and ripping a banner in front of some of the most socially influential people in Hell. He then publicly thirsts over Blitzø at the Harvest Moon festival, multiple times and by name AND species. He takes Blitzo’s hand, and goes on a public romantic date with him, even reminding the doorman of who he was and who he was with and THEN when all eyes are still on them after the song at Ozzie’s, despite everything said, reaches out to him across the table and then gets up and leaves with him even taking his car home when he has the ability to just portal. No one who converses with him about Blitzø is left with any ambiguity that they are involved, not Stella, not Striker, not Octavia, he loudly declares he is into the imp to anyone who will listen, often in front of Blitzø, which he cringes away from and insists is just a transactional fucking.

The contrast to be drawn between Asmodeus making a public declaration shouldn’t be on Stolas but BLITZØ. He’s the one who needs to declare it, Stolas already has, repeatedly and out loud, and in public already.

Blitzø is the one who can’t say it out loud. He’s the one who shies away from conversations about it and dismisses it when anyone brings it up. He uses the excuses of social class and it being only for sex to justify his own inability to own it. There’s a reason all his exes are massively famous people who got famous after he destroyed the relationship. With Verosika it’s pretty clear she was super into him and he dipped. It’s not clear if it was because she was getting famous, that might be revealed, but the hints we have (her tattoo, his stealing her credit cards and disappearing) is that the end of that relationship was all Blitzø. When people find out he was in a relationship with her he is uncomfortable with the fact that she is famous, he goes out of his way to separate himself from her fame. Because people react exactly as he expected them to, incredulous someone famous could be into nobody Blitzø.

Somewhat ditto with Fizz, at least at first. Fizz was shown to be already pretty well known by the end of their friendship. Because of Blitzø’s self worth issues he doesn’t believe someone like Fizz could reciprocate his feelings, he sees him surrounded by people and doesn’t feel worthy to be one of them so he turns away and accidentally burns down a circus doing so. While a confession from Fizz first, if he felt the same way, might have prevented the catastrophe we have no way of knowing if Blitzø would have done the same thing to Fizz he did to Verosika and let his self worth issues eventually destroy their relationship too, especially after he signs on with Mammon. A big theme of their comments to each other before their reconciliation are about the disparity in fame, Fizz is also an imp so it’s not social class, but that Fizz is a beloved, famous figure and Blitzø failed at becoming one.

The Circus illustrates this so well, Blitzø is the failure who keeps trying his hardest and Fizz is the one who steps in and just kind of naturally does it. Blitzø’s dad makes no secret of the fact that Fizz is the more desired one. We also see Stolas appreciating Blitzø for who he is. Laughing against the crowd, just like during the sitcom taping, he doesn’t care about the public’s reaction to Blitzø, it doesn’t lessen Blitzø in his eyes at all.

We have also seen Blitzø be told very publicly a person loved him already as well and it STILL wasn’t what he needed. Verosika has it literally tattooed in a prominent place on her body, out there for everyone to see.

He doesn’t want a public declaration, he fears making one of his own and being compared to the one he declared for. “That guy is with THEM?!” It happens when Verosika steals his parking space and everyone realizes they dated, and it happens when the crazy fan goes after Fizz. People dismiss Blitzø in favor of the famous person he is with.

Hearing that, again, would invite the scrutiny that would just further validate that he’s not good enough, that he’s lesser and lower. That’s been his experience so far. Stolas declaring it would just put the spotlight on him once more, and I think it would actually make things worse for him mentally and emotionally. His reaction to Ozzie outing Stolas as his date to the crowd shows us this. I believe it’s why he split up with Verosika, the more famous she got the more eyes on him that could find him lacking. He’d be in the spotlight and his act wouldn’t be able to measure up to hers.

Just like at the circus with Fizz when they were kids, or during the sitcom, when eyes are on Blitzø he fails. Stolas gave him a bit more confidence each time. Not by loudly yelling “Hey, I like him!”to sway the audience, but just by quietly and genuinely laughing at his jokes and appreciating Blitzø for who he is. Stolas I think realizes this consciously, he sings it in Look My Way that the realm doesn’t appreciate what Blitzø is and because of this Blitzø built up walls around himself to protect from that lack of appreciation. Stolas tries to hype Blitzø up, he does so in the Harvest Moon Festival early on in their relationship but it makes Blitzø uncomfortable because the public declarations bring eyes to him. He has like….relationship stage fright in a sense. Imo the last thing Blitzø needs is another loud declaration.

Stolas though, he does NEED it. He has had one romantic partner publicly declare they don’t love him to all who will listen for like well over a decade, and now he needs a partner who will make it really really clear they do and I think preferably out loud where others can hear.

Stolas’s conflict and flaw is his family and his desire for reciprocal love. The shame of being an adulterer, of destroying the idealized family he strived for and the image he projected for so many years. And especially, the loneliness of his “romances” being one sided. With the exception of Octavia all of Stolas’s surrounding family and “friends” don’t give a fuck about him and he knows it. Why would Blitzø be any different? He also needs someone to choose him outside of a business or familial relationship. Stella was an arranged marriage to produce a heir. Blitzø was a sexual transaction for the grimoire. Octavia is his daughter. His relationship with his father shows that he isn’t special to him either. Paimon doesn’t even know his name. Stolas has no one declaring for him.

There’s a reason most of Stolas’s issues are told though “images”. The family portraits, the Sinstagram posts of Blitzø appearing annoyed or disinterested while Stolas does not see the picture Blitzø took, because that is his primary issue, he destroyed the image of himself he was trying to project for a chance at a reciprocal relationship. That image maintenance has nothing to do with Blitzø’s imp status, but more the public lack of perceived reciprocity in his romantic dealings.

He knows he looks like a fool, putting himself out there and not getting a confirmation back. This is why every problem Stolas had with his marriage seemed to come down not to attraction or status but mutual feeling. He doesn’t feel bad for cheating because Stella made it clear she didn’t care about him for him. Stella tells everyone loudly and publicly, even before Stolas cheated, how she feels about him. So as soon as Stolas can he jumps at the chance to say “HEY EVERYONE SOMEONE DOES LIKE ME! HE HAD SEX WITH ME AND EVERYTHING”and yelling out “THE ONLY MAN WHO CAN FUCK ME”. Flirting with Blitzø in front a crowd of people. He desperately wants to be publicly desired, to know he’s loved and for others to know he’s loved too.

I don’t think it matters to Stolas at all that who he cheated with was below him in terms of social hierarchy, or that people know about it, and he hasn’t ever indicated visually or with words that Blitzø being an imp was the root of those issues for him. Stella brings it up because she’s obsessed with status and EVERYONE KNOWS that her husband fucked an imp and is now divorcing her. Asmodeus brings it up because the entire Lust song at Ozzie’s is to distract the audience from his very real love affair with Fizz and maintain the public fiction that what he and Fizz have is just physical.

The whole social hierarchy issue is a deflection, and a misdirection.

This is further emphasized by the fact that Fizz and Asmodeus fucking isn’t even really an issue? People seemed to know they were fucking, like them being walked in on at breakfast and loudly declaring “ we are just banging, we are not in love”. The social hierarchy conflict as an external factor kind of falls apart on that alone but let’s move on. It’s not 100% clear if people outside of the household knew about Fizz and Asmodeus so we can maybe assume the public at large did not. But higher level demons being in a relationship with lower level ones doesn’t appear to be an issue? Like most of the powerful demons we see are actually in relationships with someone from a lower class. Even Mammon surrounds himself with imps and relies on one for his business.

Blitzø sure as fuck brings it up as a justification for why he’s not good enough. But Stolas doesn’t.

He’s even been shown visually and deliberately as forgetting that it’s even a factor, starting with his bowing to Blitzø as a baby owl and then again as an adult. So the comparison of these two moments as being about shame regarding social status for Stolas doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t think it’s about social status at all really. I think that’s the excuse Blitzø uses to push people away and that’s just as much about social status as it is their fame. I’m not saying it’s not a larger theme of the show, but I think in this instance and for Stolitz it’s a distraction from the larger issues Blitzø has.

Stolas doesn’t need to publicly declare their relationship for an audience to solve their relationship issues because he already did, and I think we’ll see that the reason it’s such a huge plot point for Asmodeus and Fizz (beyond it being tied to their specific roles in Hell as the King of Lust and a public figure) is that it needled to be removed as an obstacle in BLITZØ’S mind.

Blitzø was the one present to witness the public declaration between Asmodeus and Fizz at the competition, not Stolas. If the comparison was between Stolas’s behavior and Asmodeus’s he would BE there, we, the audience, would have him there to connect that conflict in our mind as being rooted in Stolas. But he isn’t, because that conflict is 100% Blitzø. He won’t be able to use the imp versus demon thing as an excuse anymore as there is a very public example of someone even higher than Stolas loving an imp that he personally knows. Not only that but we see no indication in the episodes after Ozzie’s that there was ANY fallout for Stolas or Blitzø having their relationship outted so publicly. We see a big press todo about Stolas going to the hospital but not a single scene of like press asking Blitzø or Stolas about their relationship or the scene at Ozzie’s. Because no one but Blitzø actually cares? Scenes in media show us what’s important and if it was actually important to the larger world of Helluva Boss we’d have scenes to show that. There is no press coverage after the Not Divorced party, none after the Harvest Festival and none after Stolas officially makes moves to divorce Stella. He has assassins follow him around but not press. We DO get those press scenes when Fizzarolli and Asmodeus come out as being in love, because they are big public figures, but the only people who even mention Stolas and Blitzø are contained to Ozzie’s alone, and really it’s just Wally, Fizz and Asmodeus. The rest of the club is just interested in the spectacle.

The point of the hiding Stolas’s face behind the menu was not to tell audience he was ashamed of Blitzø, or that his being with Blitzø is a problem for him socially, but to reinforce Blitzø’s excuses to himself that it is, and highlight Blitzø’s self worth issues. This is further confirmed when Stolas reaches out to him across the table even though they are still in public and then later when he verbally expresses to Blitzø that he’d like to spend time with him without sex, tells him he enjoyed spending time with him outside of the arrangement, makes himself physically uncomfortable in the van just to spend more time with him. All of which Blitzø refuses to believe and dismisses. All of their interactions are shown as Stolas being the one to put himself out there, sometimes to a desperate cringe inducing degree, and Blitzø shutting it down and only expressing that his external protestations are not his true feelings by his avoidant looks, stumbling over his words and excuses, and his “protesting too much”. We as the audience see he’s full of shit through the reactions of others, Millie and Moxxie and Fizz specifically calling Stolas his boyfriend or being skeptical of the bullshit Blitzø spews to diminish the relationship.

For Stolas the song at Ozzie’s was a reminder that he had done something that fucked up his family and frankly his life as he knew it, tarnishing his image as a husband and father, and that fuck up has nothing to do with Blitzø being an imp, everyone knew that already for the most part from the very first time they had sex, but because Blitzø was the catalyst for the risk he took. He used to have the image of his family and his Princely appearance to hide behind and now we’ve shone a spotlight on who he really is, a lonely, soon to be divorcee, on a date with a demon who has acted completely dismissive of him, even outright ignoring him and ghosting at times.

A good way to highlight this issue with image is when Stolas nervously giggles and tries to over the top declare “we are having a perfectly normal date!” to the waitress by playing it off as being okay and trying desperately to get Blitzø to participate. He’s being publicly humiliated again and he tries to play it off and cover it up.

We see it again in his text messages from after Ozzie’s, he is so desperately trying to show Blitzø that it didn’t bother him, but that if it bothered Blitzø he’d like to talk about it. He tries to front it as “I don’t mind jokes about myself, it was pretty funny hahaha” but we as the audience see it for the pathetic attempt at faking it is. Laughing it off and pretending it doesn’t bother him is what Stolas does but he still made an attempt, he still tried. Stolas is from what we see extremely comfortable expressing his feelings, loudly and at length. It when he gets rejected for them that he pretends it’s not how he feels. And once again, he reaches out to Blitzø, gets shut down after putting himself out there and then acts as if everything is fine.

During the song at Ozzie’s , when the spotlight comes to Stolas, Asmodeus starts reminding him he “destroyed” his life, his family, and his image for a dude who does not outwardly appear to return his feelings, who is in fact just fucking him, and not even because he is interested in Stolas, but because he is using Stolas for the book. Every time Stolas tries for more he gets slapped back. He threw everything away for more of what he already had, a loveless business arrangement. He’s not shamed by the fact that Blitzø is an imp but that he ripped apart his picture perfect life for a guy who was acting distracted and ignoring him, who at times is completely turned away from him, and who is sitting across from him visibly uncomfortable at being called out as being on a date with him, and who he cannot get to agree to anything more despite his desperately trying.

Stolas’s part of the Ozzie’s episode opens with Gabriela yelling “Why won’t you LOVE ME ALEJANDRO” and then the man puts a streak in his hair to call back to it and people are still thinking it’s about status for him?

He just watched Blitzø stand up for Moxxie and Millie but when the focus turns to Stolas Blitzø cringes and makes himself small.

Lets break down what actually happens on screen because it is ALL in the visual choices made by the artists and what the song is actually about, lust being more acceptable than love because love is embarrassing and Blitzø hates to be embarrassed:

Moxxie starts singing, and after he sings “I loooove you” the shot jumps to Blitzø who CRINGES and shrinks a bit behind his menu. Publicly declaring your love for someone in public like that? Fucking Yikes. Bro.

Blitzø stands up and defends Moxxie and Millie but not necessarily to support their love, but their sexual relationship. This says a lot about which one Blitzø thinks of as being publicly acceptable.

Fizz turns his attention to Blitzø and the entire call out is about his bad love life, not his social status, and not even necessarily his level of fame but his failures as a romantic partner and the state of his relationships. It’s interesting that the song turns to this lack of love since just a few verses previously they act as though a romantic relationship is anthema to what they are all about. As soon as Fizz starts talking about his LOVE life Blitzø looks nervously at Stolas out of the corner of his eye.

Stolas is shocked as the song starts in on Blitzø but he doesn’t leave or shrink away immediately, he makes this absolutely hysterical face when Verosika is singing.

Blitzø does NOT like that Verosika is singing about their relationship. He crosses his arms and gets very sour pussed.

Then when Verosika starts getting more predatory, and going in on Blitzø physically, Stolas STANDS UP and looks as though he’s going to intervene.

The Wally Whackford yells “Are you sleeping with an Imp?” And Stolas remains standing, in the spotlight for several seconds. He doesn’t even start to move away to get out of it until Asmodeus comes up into his space and the scrutiny is all on him. He still doesn’t hide his face nor does it look necessarily shamed, it looks surprised and scared with where this is going and to have the attention on him but he does not look shamed. In fact, he doesn’t react to the imp comment at all, he is just as shocked and surprised as before Wally yelled as he is after. He keeps making this same shocked and scared face the whole time. We continue to see the crowd throughout all this and the scene is from a wide shot. It’s from the main POV, which is largely Blitzø’s.

The POV then switches to ONLY Stolas’s, we are seeing THROUGH his eyes and what HE sees is his family turning away from him and then they shove Blitzø in a chair, make him the center of Stolas’s vision and he’s left with Blitzø’s embarrassed, cringing face. The crowd, the club, everything else is painted out. From Stolas’s POV he doesn’t see or register the public, he sees and registers his family and Blitzø. They are center of his vision and the club and its patrons aren’t even present in the shot. If the issue was the social status we would have no need to remind the audience of Stella and Octavia by projecting their images and then having a sequence where they turn, walk away and burst into flames. Wally’s comment would be enough to establish it. The crowd would be visible because they would be what matters to Stolas. But it isn’t, we have to dive into Stolas’s POV, get a visual reminder of his family and see how Blitzo looks from Stolas’s POV.

We pull back to the outside POV and Stolas sits and stares for an entire beat after the POV shift (a technique used to tell the audience THIS was how Stolas saw the situation, now we’re back to the main POV), Blitzø is still shrinking away from him and THEN after Asmodeus says “you sold your life for a thrust” is when he hides his face. Yes, I did slow down the animation to actually see the sequence shot for shot and yes, it is a sign I have lost my mind.

But it’s important! This technique is really common in literature and media, you introduce one character’s conflict or flaw and then, to show that it contrasts with another character’s situation you jump into their POV, this is to remind the audience that there is a difference between them, that they are seeing this situation from two different places. The shots are wide for the social status implication that speaks to Blitzø’s issues with public declarations and his own self worth and we jump into Stolas’s just to remind the audience HEY, THIS IS ISNT WHAT STOLAS IS THINKING IN CASE YOU FORGOT ABOUT THE MAIN REASON THEY ARE NOT ON THE SAME PAGE, and then we just jump back to wide shots and bringing Blitzø back as the character whose flaw is being depicted.

The rest of the shots are from main POV and show Blitzo reacting to that. A deliberate contrast is set between what Stolas perceived and what Blitzø did. They present this direct visual contrast using a POV switch to show it. From Stolas’s POV he is being shamed not by the public, who didn’t factor into his POV at all, but by the loss or strain of his familial relationships and by Blitzø presenting himself completely differently when the focus is on HIS relationship with Stolas versus how he reacted to Moxxie/Millie and even Verosika.

From Stolas’s perspective and the audiences Blitzø was relatively okay up until Verosika pushed him, then we see Stolas’s reaction to that. That’s when Blitzø’s entire demeanor changes. He wilts, he shrinks, he makes himself small. Before that he winced a little but mostly he seemed annoyed. Until it gets turned on his date with Stolas. And we see this confirmed through Stolas’s POV, that we are seeing Blitzø how Stolas is seeing him looking sheepish and unhappy right in the center of the shot.

You sold your life for a thrust” is so important in this sequence, Blitzo just basically confirmed from his contrasting reactions and body language throughout the song that what they have is just sex, and we know from Stolas asking Asmodeus about the crystal and following up on it that he is really focusing on the transactional aspect of it and the situation he put an unwilling (at least in his mind) Blitzø in. This is just another bad arrangement like his marriage.

We don’t have onscreen confirmation, so this is more speculation but I imagine Stolas is probably comparing himself to Paimon a bit. His father purchased an unwilling imp to play with him as a child, the imp pretended to be into him to use him for the family treasure and now he’s essentially purchasing the same imp and that same imp appears to once again just be tolerating him for material gain.

Anyway, enough thoughts that depress the fuck out of me.

When we switch back to Blitzø after M&M finish their song we see the public again through their clapping and see his reaction. Now the issue at large is firmly back to the inferiority complex. Blitzø started shrinking and cringing away as soon as the famousness of his date was revealed, as soon as the crowd does exactly what he fears, comparing him to his partner and finding him lacking. Then we have Stolas reaching out, with no regard for the crowd who is back around them in the shots until the hand close up, and Blitzø shuts him down. Again. Once more we have Stolas visibly reaching out and trying to give Blitzø what Blitzø is outwardly projecting he wants (just like Stolas does with the dirty talk), and Blitzø being the one to say something annoyed or dismiss it. There is literally nothing Stolas can do to resolve this, because it’s an internal issue for Blitzø. Stolas externally declaring to every realm in hell won’t fix Blitzø needing to believe it and declare it for himself.

The conversation at Stolas’s house after reinforces everything, that Stolas is trying to do what Blitzø is projecting he wants. Blitzø appears to have an issue with their relationship being just about sex, the same person who goes out of his way to force all his non-familial relationships to be just about sex (even Moxxie and Millie, and when he turns a heartfelt reconciliation sexual with Fizz by asking to make out) and Stolas offers him multiple options for more of a romantic or comforting evening, because it’s what he wants as well, and Blitzø ignores that entirely, just outright refuses to acknowledge it. In the hospital we see Stolas tried AGAIN after Ozzie’s via text to work it out, and talk it out, but when Blitzø shuts it down again and when his initial approach didn’t work, Stolas tries just brushing it off and putting up that happy EVERYTHING IS OKAY image again.

So all this billion words and unhinged analysis to say that Stolas is not Asmodeus, he isn’t the one who needs to make the declaration, that won’t actually solve Blitzø’s problem and he already has put himself out there multiple times. Stolas is Fizz, obsessed with putting on a show.

Blitzø’s issues are internal and multiple people have tried to show him in external ways they love him and he either relates it back to sex, dismisses it entirely or physically removes himself from their lives. This is understandable considering when he does put himself out there he gets rejected, (circus audience, Barbie, his various gigs before I.M.P, Loona sometimes) or people act incredulous that someone could be with him. So the only way for him to complete this character journey is to internally reconcile and externally express.

Stolas is much more external about his issues, he tries putting on a happy face, laughing things off, trying to have a perfect day at LooLoo Land with a disinterested daughter, flirting outrageously with a disinterested partner, he wants the external situation to reflect what he feels inside but those around him don’t give that to him. He tries to have a perfect marriage, he gets a partner who throws obnoxious parties for what appears to be the chance to ridicule him publicly. He tries to have a perfect day at LooLoo Land to recapture happier times and accidentally alienates his daughter. He talks about how much he wants to bone Blitzø because that’s how Blitzø approached him and what he seems to be into in his relationships and is the only way he allows Stolas into his life at all, and in return he gets annoyed looks and insults.

“Or Is it Me?” In Look My Way makes me tear up every goddamn time because Stolas believes there is some internal problem within himself, that he cannot give Blitzø what he needs because he’s BEEN TRYING to be what Blitzø seems to want and gets nothing back no matter what approach he takes. No one will externally acknowledge him. Stolas doesn’t have an internal problem accepting his feelings and who they are for, regardless of status or consequences, he clearly says this in Look My Way and shows it before that with his over the top behavior, he needs someone from outside himself to acknowledge and reciprocate it.

So yeah, I disagree with the idea that Blitzø is the one who needs a public declaration. He might need a private one to take away his excuses but I don’t think he needs Stolas to do what Asmodeus did. What Blitzø seems to need is to be brave enough to declare his feelings for once and not shy away from the attention that comes with that. To accept himself as he is, like Stolas accepts him, and that realize he is just as worthy of love as the other people in his life. Stolas needs a declaration to validate his internal feelings, ease some of his loneliness with confirmed reciprocity and to have outwardly what he wants inwardly.

Thanks for reading if you did. I am sorry for being the way I am.

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lost-crown · 1 month

Text

I'm going to cry this is so good

STOLITZØ - TWENTY THREE

Blitzø felt trapped. Paralyzed. He’d been racing across a vast emptiness for what felt like hours, chasing a beautiful light, warm and comforting, but it was always just out of reach. Growing further away. And further. And dimmer. And dimmer. And now he stood alone in the void, that distant light completely extinguished, his hope gone with it.

The inky darkness around him began to seep up from below and ooze down from above, and yet he was rooted to this spot, unable to escape.

This is fine. This is what I deserve.

Blitzø felt heavier and heavier as if the dark were a thick tar swallowing him alive, beckoning him to its depths. He felt like he wanted to lay down. Sleep. Join the nothing.

I’m tired… so, so tired.

He didn’t need to lay down though. The darkness was slowly oozing up his feet and dripping down his horns.

Blitzø felt something touch the back of his hand. A light warm pressure.

“Darling.”

Blitzø shivered.

Stolas.

“Blitzø, darling.”

He felt a warm caress across his cheek. He closed his eyes and tried to lean into it.

“Stolas.”

Blitzø’s eyes welled with tears. “F*ck… I miss you… So much… I wish you were here.”

“Darling. I’m here… I’ll always be here. As long as you want me.”

Blitzø began to cry. Satan how he wished he weren’t alone. The darkness had crept up his legs and held the tips of his fingers as his arms had hung by his sides. He could feel a weight sliding down him.

Eyes closed against the darkness, he willed that tiny bit of warmth on his cheek to be real. Convinced himself, at least for these last few moments, that Stolas was truly there.

He took a deep breath, wrenched a hand free from the tarry void that was pulling him in, and clasped tight to the warmth on his cheek.

Blitzø opened his eyes and there was Stolas. Kneeling before him. As bright and golden as the sun. Glowing and warm and absolutely fucking perfect in this dark place.

“Stolas.”

“Darling.” Stolas smiled at him. Blitzø wanted to reach out and hold Stolas to him. But it was all he could do to break the one hand free and it was currently holding Stolas’s hand to his cheek. Blitzø didn’t plan on letting go of that hand until Heaven burned to dust.

Blitzø’s heart clenched. He swallowed hard to get down the lump in his throat.

“There’s so much I need to say.”

“You don’t need to say anything...”

Stolas…

Blitzø cried inside. He squeezed Stolas’s hand, reminding himself of how it felt. He took a deep breath.

“Please... I have to tell you...”

“What is it, darling?”

“I’m f*cked up. I don’t know how to communicate and I push away the people I care about the most. Because I’m afraid. Afraid I’ll get hurt. Or worse, I’ll hurt them… And I care… SO much about you Stolas… But I’ve done so many shitty things to you already. I don’t deserve you…

“When we were kids my dad told me I’d been sold to be your playmate for the day. Then he said that I had to rob your family in order to help my mom. That stupid pirate game? I was robbing you. ‘Cuz my dad valued money over me. And I’m ashamed I did it.. Because when I got to know you? I had so much fun with you. You were such a nerd about your books and I thought it was so f*cking cute. You were kind. I wasn’t used to that, especially from royals.”

Blitzø paused to take a shaky breath. He couldn’t bear to look at Stolas or he’d lose his nerve.

“The day I crashed your party? I’m so sorry. I wasn’t there for you. At all... I was a piece of sh*t and was only there to steal your book. I remembered you told me it gave you access to the human world.

“I was flirty and aggressive ‘cuz I could tell you were into me. And the absolute trash heap I was, I didn’t care about tying you up, stealing from you and bouncing… But then you went off about how long you’d wanted passion like that… And said you were so happy that the one who wanted you was your first friend… Me. ME. A nobody like me meant that much to you…”

Blitzø couldn’t stop himself from crying.

“I like to pretend that I stayed because it was out of pity or guilt, but really?… Most of me was SO happy to hear that I was wanted. That I made someone else feel wanted. I’d never had that before. I never realized that was something I truly wanted before… That it was something I was ALLOWED to want…”

Blitzø swallowed hard. It was getting difficult to breathe. The darkness was weighing down more and more.

“And then when we… F*ck… Wow, Stolas… Just… WOW… I mean, other than your weird, excessive f*cking dirty talk… I’ve never had better.”

Blitzø shivered and squeezed Stolas’s hand against his cheek.

“Oh. About that… What's up with the vulgar porn monologuing? You’re so prim and proper but then, Christ on a stick Stolas, you become some damn freak when sex is involved… Why the Heaven do you think I gag you so often? The dirty talk freaks me the f*ck out…”

“Sorry. I digress…” Blitzø laughed nervously.

“Where was I? Right… I’m so f*cking sorry, but I only invited you out to Ozzie’s that night because I needed a date to get in the door. I wanted to be able to spy on Mox and Millie’s date.

“Why do I spy on them? That’s a whole other thing that boils down to them having the perfect relationship and me wanting to be a part of it or know what it’s like to be in one. Because hey… spying is a lot easier than finding a good relationship for myself… or something along those lines… At least that’s what my therapist told me before I fired him.”

Blitzø felt like time was running out. More and more of his self was being devoured by the darkness by the second. He clung tighter to the sight of Stolas and the warmth of his hand.

“I’m an idiot imp who doesn’t deserve your attention so I get why you’d be embarrassed of being seen with me. I didn’t expect it. So it hurt. I guess I took your attention for genuine affection and I took it all for granted. But that’s my fault.

“I took things you did out of context. Thought you cared more than you do. But regardless… All the bullshit has been my fault…

“I deserve your offhanded, demeaning, and frankly, casually racist comments… Being your impish little plaything. And called an itty-bitty imp… I’m so far below you, Stolas. I can’t believe I ever thought I could… That I’d ever be good enough… You deserve so much better than me... Than that piece of sh*t wife of yours… Than the life you’re trapped in…”

Blitzø swallowed hard.

“I should have been there to save you from Striker. Yes, Loona is the most important person in my life. But her appointment could have been moved. Her life wasn’t in danger. Yours was. I just had no real idea how vulnerable you truly were or could be.

“When you saved me in the human world you were so powerful. The most awe inspiring and beautiful thing I had ever seen… I didn’t think anything could hurt you… So it broke me when I saw you wheeled into that hospital on that gurney knowing I could have prevented it. I could have saved you. You got hurt because of me. I couldn’t bring myself to show my face because of that. And I was too afraid to see you hurt and in pain. I was so ashamed.”

It was getting harder and harder to see the image of Stolas; the only comfort he had left…

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, for all the sh*tty things I’ve done and said. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Blitzø…”

Blitzø felt the darkness close in all around him. He couldn’t see Stolas anymore. Just a soft glow where Stolas’s image had knelt and the faint whisper of warmth on his cheek.

“Please, Stolas… Stay… Don’t throw me away…”

Blitzø closed his eyes and let the light and warmth disappear.

*****

#blitzø #stolas #stolitz #helluva boss

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