Helluva Boss ☹️
Massive Spoilers Ahead!
Oh boy here we go. First, a disclaimer: I’m writing this under the assumption that you, the reader, has seen the show. If you haven’t, I recommend watching the show or skipping this post entirely. I’m not recapping everything. That’ll take too long.
The Premise and Setting
Helluva Boss takes place in the same universe as Hazbin Hotel, Hell. Here we follow Blitzo (the o is silent), a loudmouth, vulgar imp fittingly played by Brandon Rogers. He runs a business called I.M.P. (Immediate Murder Professionals) where he and his crew are hired by damned human spirits to kill those on Earth who have wronged them. His crew consists of, the neurotic Moxxie (Richard Horvitz), his ultra-competent wife Millie (Vivian Nixon), and Blitz’s adopted hellhound daughter Loona (Erica Lindbeck). To get to Earth, the crew uses Stolas’ grimoire, a powerful spell book. Stolas (Bryce Pinkman) is a prince in the royal Ars Goetia line of demons. He and Blitz have a transactional relationship. Stolas loans his grimoire to Blitz in exchange for sex. Eventually, he and Blitz are found out by his wife Stella (Georgina Leahy), utterly destroying their relationship— much to the heartbreak of their daughter, Octavia (Barrett Wilbert Weed).
Season 1 is mostly episodic. Each episode follows the IMP crew doing shenanigans in and outside of Hell. We get introduced to multiple antagonists and conflicts that seem to be set up for future episodes. It’s fun! It’s very crass, of course. Lots of swearing, lots of violence, lots of vulgarity. Typical lowbrow adult comedy show. However, that’s not what hooked me. What kept me going were the character interactions. Throughout the show, we get actual character exploration which I love but then grew to hate (we’ll get there). Plus I love the setting of Hell. No further notes on that. I think it’s neat.
Season One
E1 Murder Family (written by Vivienne Medrano and Brandon Rogers): Perfectly fine show starter. We get introduced to all the main players and the premise of the show. The only thing I want to note is Stolas setting new terms onto his deal with Blitz. On the full moon, Blitz must return the book in exchange for sex. I’m noting this because it is important.
E2 Loo Loo Land (written by Vivienne Medrano and Brandon Rogers): I have a soft spot for messy characters. Here, Stolas is a selfish fuck who openly flirts with his side bitch in front of his daughter in a rundown amusement park she no longer wants anything to do with. And then at the end, she tells him off and we see him struggle to explain himself because really? What can he say? This is something he has to confront within himself and reconcile. This is the part that I loved most because it sets him up for a redemption arc. Yes he is in a loveless marriage but cheating on his wife and ruining his daughter’s home life wasn’t right. He did wrong, but can he set things right with his daughter? Spoilers, no… and I would be fine with this if well… you’ll see.
E3 Spring Broken (written by Vivienne Medrano and Brandon Rogers): We are introduced to Verosika Mayday (Christina Vee), Blitz’s ex girlfriend. They have a spat. Meanwhile, Loona flirts with hunky hellhound Vortex (James Monroe Iglehart) only to find out he has a girlfriend. This one is fine. No notes.
E4 C.H.E.R.U.B.S. (written by Vivienne Medrano and Brandon Rogers): Cherubs from Heaven show up to disrupt an I.M.P. hit. Funny episode. Don’t have much to say about this one either.
E5 The Harvest Moon Festival (written by Vivienne Medrano and Brandon Rogers): The first Moxxie episode and it’s a good one. Moxxie is looked down upon by Millie’s family. His masculinity is challenged by Striker (Norman Reedus), the new farmhand, at every turn. After being throughly humiliated, Moxxie finds a special demon royalty-killing rifle in Striker’s room. He’s a hitman hired by Stella to kill Stolas. Striker is such a fun antagonist. Not only does he look cool, but he’s an actual threat. Powerful, ruthless, and intimidating. I love the part where he tries to coax Blitz into joining him in his conquest to kill the demonic elite. Blitz doesn’t go for it, but it’s such a cool set up and could add a lot of conflict in Blitz and Stolas’ life. I wonder what else they do with him?
E6 Truth Seekers (written by Vivienne Medrano and Brandon Rogers): Now this episode is fantastic! This was the episode that made me love the show. Moxxie and Blitz are caught by an organization of demon hunters. While in captivity, the demon hunters pump in some hallucinogenic truth-telling smoke that plunges them into their minds. I love how this scene looks and plays out. The music is on point, the staging is great, the lighting is great, and the animation is spectacular.
This is also the set up for Blitz’s arc. Here we learn that Blitz turns everyone away by being toxic and overly combative despite him fearing loneliness. Blitz is afraid of letting people in. He is afraid of intimacy, but yet he craves it and seeks it out. He’s too afraid to love people, but yet he craves it and seeks it out! He’s a walking contradiction. He is his own worst enemy. He is afraid of losing his friends and Stolas because he will be left alone. It’s so interesting! In this sequence, while Subconscious Moxxie scolds Blitz for being afraid of intimacy, we see Stolas sitting on a throne atop a golden staircase. As Blitz climbs up, shackles appear around his wrists and neck. Stolas drags him up by a chain. This imagery got my brain ticking so hard when I first watched it. The imagery coupled with Moxxie’s monologue got me to think Blitz actually likes Stolas but the power imbalance and social hierarchy is keeping him chained. He will always be a plaything to Stolas, shackled to his whims. Goddamn is that so fascinating. There’s so much good shit there to sink your teeth into and dissect. Once they come to, Moxxie and Blitz have a heart to heart, where Blitz boosts Moxxie’s confidence and compliments him. Aww.
Meanwhile, Millie and Loona sneak into the demon hunter headquarters and slash their way to the boys. We get a great action scene and, once shit hits the fan and they’re backed into a corner, Stolas summons himself to save them. Stolas going full demon satisfies that 12 year old part of my brain that loves edgy cool shit. It’s awesome. I rewatch the scene often because it so cool. I love this episode. 10/10.
E7 Ozzie’s (written by Vivienne Medrano): I used to really like this one, but now I don’t after rewatching the whole show. Blitz stalks Moxxie and Millie while they’re on a date. He brings Stolas along so that he could get into Ozzy’s, a famous club. Poor Moxxie gets humiliated off stage by the demon of lust Asmodeus (James Monroe Iglehart) and Fizzarolli (Alex Brightman), an old friend-turned-enemy of Blitz. I like really Asmodeus’ song. James Iglehart has the voice of a god. I can listen to him read the dictionary. After being thoroughly shit on by everyone, Blitz and Stolas leave. Stolas attempts to invite Blitz in so that they could talk, but Blitz turns him away, citing how he’s not interested in sleeping with Stolas. “Don’t act like what we have is any more than me wanting to fuck you. You make that really clear all the time,” says Blitz. There’s that pushing people away thing he always does, but it’s not like he’s wrong. Before this point, we’ve only seen Stolas condescend to Blitz, even when he saves them from the demon hunters. But it feels weird here because Stolas is shown to genuinely like Blitz and is trying to form a real connection. It feels off. This is where the writers start to rewrite Stolas, turning him into the shitshow he is now. They start erasing a lot of his edges here, making him out to be the more sympathetic one who wants a deeper connection with Blitz, but Blitz is the one who refuses to open up. Because of that, I don’t like this episode nowadays as it’s a dark omen of things to come, but I liked it when I first watched it. Hindsight really is 20/20.
E8 Queen Bee (written by Vivienne Medrano and Brandon Rodgers): This is the Kesha episode. It’s super fucking cool that they were able to get Kesha to star in one of their episodes. For those of you who somehow don’t know, Vivziepop became known for creating an animated music video of Die Young by Kesha. The video is no longer available as it got copyright struck into oblivion, but hey! Getting Kesha to play Beezelbub, the demon of gluttony, is super cool. She even wrote some new songs for them. She doesn’t sing them but hey, the songs are great and she does a great job playing Bee. She’s very fun. I like how Bee is actually sweet to Loona and likes her awkwardness. She even expresses genuine concern for Blitz when he’s partying a bit too hard (even though it conflicts with her being the demon of gluttony. Like, shouldn’t she be cool with that. Eh, whatever. I like the scene.)
Anyway Loona goes to a hellhound party. She is socially awkward and almost leaves the party with Blitz but she gets roped back into it when a new hellhound guy checks her out. Then she starts having fun with Blitz. I really like this one. It’s super funny and I love seeing Loona stand up for Blitz and have fun with him. She even makes some friends, which is great. Loona is the most underutilized character, next to Millie. I like Loona. I wish she was on screen more.
Season 2
I don’t mind that StolasxBlitz hijacked the show, but the poor writing kills a lot of it.
E1 The Circus (written by Vivienne Medrano. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): I hate this episode so damn much. There are so many things. I never liked the long lost friend trope. It’s pretty abysmal here. It recontextualizes Stolas’ character which I hate. It creates a contradiction— a split between S1 Stolas and S2 Stolas.
When Blitz is captured for breaking into his house, Stolas assumes Blitz is there for him. Blitz thinks he’s hitting on him because for some reason Stolas goes on this cringey hopeless romantic scree about Blitz coming to ravish him or something. Blitz comes onto him to distract him so he could grab the book. This leads to him pushing Stolas onto the bed and tying him up, much to Stolas’ excitement. Just as he’s about to bail, Blitz decides to pity-fuck Stolas. And I guess Stolas allowed Blitz to borrow the book because the sex was that good I suppose. After all this, Stolas declares that he wants a divorce to Stella at a party. This scene is so messy. It makes me cringe super hard. That and it’s obvious that it’s written this way so that both of them can come out mostly clean for stating this relationship. Can’t have Stolas come onto him for real (even though he has all the power) because he’s a good boy who can do no wrong. And I guess Blitz felt too bad for him which feels odd for his character. He could’ve just bailed. He didn’t have to do anything. Then again, Stolas is a Goetia Prince so he could’ve easily hunted him down and killed him but the power imbalance is never addressed so who cares? They’re jumping through so many hoops just so that both boys— namely Stolas— can look good in this situation.
In S1 E1, we see Stolas set up the deal. “Favors for favors” he says. Now that he’s been recontextualized, I’m left questioning why he did that if he always had a crush on him? If he likes him for him, sex aside, why did he talk down to him in S1 and treat him like a plaything? Why did he insist on calling Blitz cringey pet-names he clearly didn’t like? Why did he make the deal if he and Stella were already divorced (or going through with the divorce. The timeline is wack) after their first hook-up? He could’ve just tried to reconnect with Blitz. Stolas is never called out for setting up the transaction, but we’re supposed to believe he always liked Blitz for him and not his body. I watched season one! Why did he keep objectifying Blitz if he always liked him for him? Ugh!
The power imbalance between them is never addressed. He is a Goetia Prince who is so used to being on top that he doesn’t see imps as people except Blitz. He’s never challenged on that. Realizing that imbalance, realizing that he did objectify him, and apologizing to Blitz for creating the deal in the first place would’ve been a good thing for his character and their relationship. But no. Stolas did nothing wrong. They also made Stella into a 1 dimensional villain here. She was already unlikeable but I hate how she’s so irredeemable now. Stolas cheating on her is being justified. All of my hate and rage.
E2 Seeing Stars (written by Adam Neylan. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): Okay so this one. Stolas misses a big event with Octavia because he’s busy sorting stuff out with Stella. Octavia storms away, steals the grimoire from Blitz, and teleports to Los Angeles. The gang go to fetch her before she gets hurt. But uh oh, shenanigans. Blitz is mistaken for Brandon Rodgers and he is forced to do a show. Stolas goes with him when he should be looking for his fucking daughter. Moxxie and Millie get hounded by starving artists and Moxxie just can’t help himself. He has to support the art community. Loona is the only one who does anything.
I don’t care for the majority of the episode. It’s too fast-paced and our main cast, except Loona, are doing nothing. However, I do like it for what it does for Loona’s character. She comforts Octavia by saying dads may fuck up— perhaps all the time— but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. Stolas did come all this way to get her. I think that‘s a nice sentiment. Loona is using her experience with Blitz to comfort Octavia which is really sweet. I like this little moment between them even if I don’t agree with the message as it pertains to Stolas. It feels more like an excuse for his inaction. Like in reality, sure yeah. She has a point, but Octavia’s dad sucks. He’s too busy flirting with Blitz in the background to look for her! You would think this would lead to a whole arc for Stolas where he puts his daughter first, especially after this where she left out of frustration because of him but nah. Octavia stops existing and she is not spoken of until the finale. You would also think this would lead into an arc where Loona and Octavia become friends, but nah. That doesn’t happen either. Loona is relegated to a background cameo. Also all of Loona’s development in this scene and in Queen Bee is stripped away at the very end where she kicks Blitz when he tries to show her affection. One step forward, two steps back.
E3 Exes and Oohs (written by Adam Neylan. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): Another Moxxie episode. Here we learn he is the son of a mafia don named Crimson (Richard Horvitz). He tries to marry Moxxie off to some sleaze bag named Chaz (Eric Schwartz) for Chaz’s money. It doesn’t work out. I don’t have much to say about this one. It’s fine.
E4 Western Energy (written by Vivienne Medrano. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): Stolas gets kidnapped by Striker (now voiced by Edward Bosco). Stella still has the hit out on him because she’s evil and nothing else. I guess she doesn’t give a shit about her daughter at all. Yeah let’s just kill her father because Stella’s evil, shallow, and dumb. Fuck it. We gotta make Stolas look like the better parent in comparison. Anyway, Stolas asks Blitz for help but uh oh he’s too busy wrangling Loona for her shots. It’s up to Moxxie and Millie to save the day. I hate this episode. It feels pointless and unserious. While Striker is torturing Stolas, we keep cutting back to Loona getting her shots. Why was this choice made?
Striker has been completely stripped of what made him a good villain to begin with. I really hate how, once Stella calls off the hit, he just listens to her. Like, what about all that talk about being trampled on by the royals and getting a one up on them? Why doesn’t he just say fuck it and continue to kill Stolas anyway for his own satisfaction? Stolas even calls out his hypocrisy but Striker doesn’t address it. The narrative doesn’t address this ever! What is this? Striker was so cool! What the fuck?! Oh and we get introduced to Stella’s brother, Andrealphus (Jason LaShea). He’s generically evil too. I don’t like him. Fuck this episode. So much potential just thrown away and for what?!
E5 Unhappy Campers (written by Adam Neylan. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): What a disaster this is! We have yet another Moxxie episode but this time he’s jealous of his wife’s competence and behaves like a fucking whiny teenager the whole time. It’s the cringiest shit. Worst episode of the whole show. Meanwhile, we finally see Blitz’s sister, Barbie Wire (Jinhee Joung) who hates him. Cool. NEXT.
E6 Opps (written by Vivienne Medrano. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): Yay, a good episode! Asmodeus and Fizz are back and surprise surprise, they’re dating but they don’t want anyone to know. It would look bad on Asmodeus if people found out the demon of lust was in love with an imp. Fizz goes out and runs into Blitz and they have a spat. Crimson and Striker captures them and hold them for ransom. Meanwhile, Stolas meets with Asmodeus to discuss getting a teleporting crystal for Blitz.
So this episode has two points: to show a similar but healthy highclass/lowclass relationship with Oz and Fizz and to kick start Blitz’s journey of rebuilding the relationships he ruined in the past, starting with Fizz. I really like Blitz and Fizz’s backstory. While they were at the circus, Blitz accidentally started a tent fire, burning himself, nearly killing Fizz, and killing his mother. This is an event that ruined him emotionally. Pretty powerful scene. It’s a great episode. Another favorite of mine.
E7 Mammon’s Magnificent Musical Mid-Season Special (written by Vivienne Medrano. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): This is another great one. We explore Fizzaroli, his struggles with fame, the pressure Mammon (Micheal Cusack) puts him under, his dynamics with Asmodeus, and his fear of aging. It’s all done extremely well and shows how good the show can be. I actually recommend those who have not seen the show to watch this one. It’s really good.
E8 The Full Moon (written by Vivienne Medrano and Adam Neylan. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): The cherubs and the demon hunters but they’re filler so who cares? We got shipping to do. S2 Stolas breaks off the transactional relationship with Blitz and opens his heart out to him but Blitz does not believe him. This is where Stolas’ character reaches the point of no return. The writers are completely on his side and have thus rewrote him to be the opposite of who he was before. It feels weird for Blitz to say that Stolas looks down on him when all throughout the season we’ve seen Stolas respect him highly. The writers completely rewrote him so that Blitz could look worse. Again, if S1 Stolas was still here, Blitz would actually have a point. S2 Stolas is the one we got so Blitz looks like an asshole for rejecting him. This is fanfiction writing. It only gets worse in Apology Tour.
And frankly, it doesn’t even make sense for Blitz to reject him here after his talk with Fizz an episode ago. Really none of this makes sense because everyone has been assassinated all for the sake of shipping drama. This sucks so hard!
E9 Apology Tour (written by Vivienne Medrano. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): The ultimate “Blitz sucks” episode. Verosika throws a Blitz Sucks party where everyone he has wronged comes to celebrate his downfall. Fucking insane.
S2 Stolas is in full swing here. The writers really want us to forget that Stolas did belittle Blitz and treat him like a plaything. They want us to pretend like he always cared about him from the start. He did no wrong. Blitz is being unreasonable because he refuses to open up and embrace intimacy. Stolas is a good boy. Cheating on his wife was justified. Flirting with his side bitch in front of his daughter just didn’t happen. Spending a day with Blitz in Seeing Stars instead of razing Hell to find his daughter was perfectly fine because Loona justified his little effort. Vivziepop and her crew want you to love Stolas because he did no wrong! He’s a great dad and Blitz is being unreasonable. All of my fucking hate.
Also we get this moment in the beginning where Blitz lets it slip that Striker had tried to kill Stolas before at the Harvest Moon Festival which, for some reason, is a shock to Stolas. Like bruh, you were in the room with Stella when she was setting up the hit. Did you forget?? I guess Blitz should’ve told him but he already knew! People trying to kill the Goetia is something he’s used to. That was implied in episode 2 of the whole damn show! What the fuck? Am I missing something?
Okay so onto stuff I like. This episode is about Blitz going around and apologizing to those he has wronged. It culminates with him talking to drunk S2 Stolas and trying to apologize. Meh. I want to like the scene but they massacred my boy so… I actually like his heart-to-heart with Verosika at the party. I like seeing Blitz listen to her and genuinely apologize for what he did. It’s a good moment for him.
All in all, didn’t like this one that much.
E10 Ghostfuckers (written by Brandon Rodgers. Story by Vivienne Medrano and Adam Neylan): It’s fine. I’m glad we got some backstory for Millie, I like the trippy nightmare sequence Blitz has, and I like the villain. Pretty alright episode.
E11 Mastermind (written by Vivienne Madrano): Oh this episode sucks. Stella tells her brother, Andrealphus, about Stolas allowing Blitz to use his book, which is a crime. Blitz and the crew get arrested and put on trial, judged by Satan (Patrick Page). Andrealphus accusing Blitz for, SOMEHOW, forcing himself onto Stolas to steal the grimoire for his business. This makes no sense because Stolas is a Goetia Prince. He’s incredibly strong. There’s no way in hell Blitz, an imp with no powers, can get one up on an goetic demon. But no one objects to this. Andrealphus then goes on to say Blitz was the one who called the hit on Stolas and brings Striker to confirm the accusation. Blitz questions why he would hire someone to kill him if he could’ve done it himself, a valid point that goes unaddressed. No one even questions exactly how another imp would kill a Goetia Prince. There’s no word on the blessed weaponry Striker has. You would think knowing that imps are getting their hands on incredibly powerful weapons would disturb the higher ups but it doesn’t. Who cares I guess. Stolas then storms in and takes the blame. I don’t know why he doesn’t just admit the truth that he allowed Blitz to use the grimoire in exchange for sex. Like why are we pretending Blitz is some sort of revolutionary and Stolas was conspiring with him to do… I don’t fucking know! To explore Earth?? I’m so confused as to why they went this route and no one questions Stolas’ logic. He also says nothing about the assassination attempt! He doesn’t bring up the blessed weaponry. He doesn’t bring up that Stella called the hit, something he fucking knows to be true! He doesn’t say shit!
Blitz is let go and Stolas readily places his head on the chopping block, 100% ready to die for Blitz, but since he’s a royal he doesn’t get killed. Instead, he gets stripped of his powers and is forced to live amongst the commoners.
I hate this episode. Andrealphus’ plan makes no sense. He is accusing Blitz of forcing himself onto Stolas, stealing his grimoire, and then colluding with Striker to kill Stolas so he could do his business unperturbed. …Why is he giving Stolas a way out? Doesn’t he hate Stolas? Doesn’t he want his estate? When Vassago (Harvey Guillén), a brand new character and Stolas’ biggest glazer, asks where Stolas is for his testimony, Andrealphus is like “We don’t him to be traumatized by seeing his attempted murderer” or something. What? Why do you care? Wouldn’t you want him there so he could accuse himself? They already committed a crime. Why are you accusing Blitz of crimes far worse than what he did and then give Stolas a way out of it all? It doesn’t make sense. What is Andrealphus trying to achieve here? Is he just trying to hurt Stolas by killing the guy he likes? I don’t understand this. Or is he omniscient? Did he just know that Stolas was going to be watching tv at that moment and would decide at the apex of the trial to storm in and rescue Blitz?? That’s insanely convoluted. I’m so confused!
Immediately after everything, Stolas is just ready to die for Blitz. He doesn’t try to defend himself. He doesn’t try to plead. Octavia sees all of this by the way. He doesn’t think about his daughter at all until his powers are stripped. Only then does he say “But what about my daughter?” Bitch what the fuck?!
Who the fuck is this Vassago guy? Why does he like Stolas so much? Why is he the only one standing up for him? Asmodeus so right there! He could’ve been the one to say something in Stolas’ defense. He could’ve also defended Blitz! The court has no evidence again Blitz. It’s literally just Andrealphus’ word against Blitz’s. He has no evidence that Blitz was using the grimoire to access the mortal realm. He does have a legal Asmodian crystal on his person, so Asmodeus could have backed him up. But he doesn’t do shit! This Vassago guy comes out nowhere and dickrides for Stolas when it was established earlier that Stolas is an outcast amongst the Goetia. He didn’t have friends before Blitz. I don’t understand this choice.
Terrible episode. I hate it so much.
E12 Sinmas (written by Vivienne Medrano. Story by Vivienne Medrano, Brandon Rogers, and Adam Neylan): Now Stolas gives a damn about his daughter. Octavia finally appears again after TEN episodes. Stolas is depressed and is trying to contact Octavia but her shitty mother and uncle won’t let her see him. Blah blah blah, big fight with Andrealphus happens, Octavia shows up and finally talks to her shitty dad. She rightfully tells him off for choosing Blitz over her and for loving him more than her and her mother. Earlier in the episode she found Stolas’ antidepressants. This makes her realize just how unhappy he was and since Stolas hasn’t spoken to her about his situation at any point, she jumps to the conclusion that he stayed in this unhappy relationship with Stella for so long for her sake. To know your father, someone you love and respect, had to take medication to remain in a shitty relationship for your sake will fuck you up. Octavia ultimately blames herself for her unhappiness. That’s fucked! No child should feel like they’re the reason why their parents are unhappy, but Stolas made her think so because he never spoke to her! She nor Stella were enough for him. If Stolas had, at any point, sat her down and explained himself and his actions, this would not have happened. Him laying his life down for Blitz was the final straw for her so she broke things off.
This event feels both earned and unearned. Earned because we’ve seen Stolas be a bad dad all throughout the show. Octavia deciding that she has had enough of the heartbreak makes perfect sense and feels right for the situation. I’m glad to see him finally getting some consequences for his actions. But it’s feels unearned because the narrative broke its back rewriting Stolas to be the bestest guy around who did no wrong for an either season! I feel this whole thing would’ve been more impactful if selfish S1 Stolas was still here with us, instead of this sanded down good boy whom we’re supposed to side with on everything. I wish Stolas’ hypocrisy was called out in the narrative. I wish we saw him actually grapple with his faults— with Octavia and with Blitz— instead of them being erased completely until the last second. At least Octavia turning her back on him may lead to him finally grappling with his issues but I don’t have high hopes. My fear is that they’re going to put all the blame on her for not understanding her father who didn’t tell her shit. I hope not, but… 😞
Oh Millie is pregnant. I don’t care. I’m so tired.
The Botched Development of Stolitz
I actually like Stolitz. I like the two of them and I don’t really care that the show pivoted to focus on them. Blitz is toxic and pushes people away when they show him intimacy even though he wants it. Stolas is a selfish prince who is unhappy in his marriage and so seeks excitement from those socially beneath him. Their “relationship” was cold and business-like. To do his job, Blitz needed the grimoire and Stolas allowed him to use it in exchange for rough sex. Doing this has ruined Stolas’ marriage and his relationship with his daughter. Blitz doesn’t like being tied to Stolas this way as he doesn’t like being a plaything for a royal, but he does it because he needs the book for his work. Then Truth Seekers happens where we learn that Blitz may actually like Stolas but feels like the Goetia Prince is too high up for him and doesn’t see him as a person. Blitz is chained to Stolas. And then at the end we see Stolas rescue Blitz and even check on him to make sure he was okay before tearing into them for being caught by humans. This shows that Stolas does care about Blitz’s wellbeing even though he’s still condescending. THIS is what hooked me on their potential relationship. The power imbalance, Blitz’s hidden feelings, the classism, Stolas’ familial drama, Blitz’s fear (and desire) of intimacy, his fear of being alone, and their potential to grow as people and come together. There’s bones here that could’ve been built on, but what did we get? Character assassination. Stolas was rewritten completely to make him more artificially sympathetic and all the blame was put onto Blitz for not reciprocating Stolas’ feelings and for thinking so lowly of him. Fuck you.
I have so many ideas on what this pairing could’ve led to but I don’t feel like writing all that down in this post. Plus I don’t like writing fanfiction as I can’t get over the idea of writing other people’s characters. But the missed potential that is the Stolitz pairing has piqued my interest in exploring the is type of thing in my own stuff. So I’ll give Helluva Boss that. It gave me ideas.
Scattered Thoughts
The Rushed, Disjointed Feel to Everything: Even though season two is serialized, it feels episodic. Big emotional moments feel out of nowhere because we get no proper buildup to it. The demon hunters and the cherubs returning feel pointless because they were hardly built up and they were defeated in the episode they returned in. You would think the cherubs and the humans finding a way into Hell would cause bigger issues amongst the ruling class, but it doesn’t. You would think Stolas being kidnapped would’ve led to a full fledged investigation but no. Things just happen with little to no buildup or affect to the world at large. A lot of times the episodes feel bloated with crap that has nothing to do with the plot. Hazbin Hotel has the same problem. They’re doing too much and don’t allow moments or characters to stop and breathe.
Loona and Octavia: I really wish we saw Loona befriend Octavia. I don’t understand why we didn’t get that when it would’ve benefited both of their stories. Let’s give Octavia some much needed characteristics outside her dad because she really needs it.
Millie: She’s so flat. I want to like Millie but she just boils down to extremely protective and loyal to those she loves and super competent and talented. That’s it.
Lowclass vs. Highclass: This irks me to no end. We have this running classism theme and it’s never really focused on in a way that’s impactful. They pay lip service to it, but it’s not explored throughly. This is what I wish Striker challenged inside of Blitz. If Stolas wasn’t assassinated and still looked down on Blitz for the most part, I think while he struggled with his feelings for Stolas, Striker’s class warfare talk could have convinced him that pursuing Stolas is a waste of time. This can also cause conflict within Stolas. There’s a whole story that could’ve been explored here. They could actually say something about how unfairly the lower class are treated using the Stolitz storyline but nah.
The Swearing and Humor: I swear like a sailor so I don’t have much sway here, but this show has the same issue Castlevania has (I love Castlevania btw). The swearing is very out of place at times and feels forced. The “if this Vivziepop wrote this” meme became meme for a reason. The writing is very cringe at times. They’re doing the Marvel thing where something serious happens and a character undermines it with a stupid joke, killing the emotional weight of the scene. In Exes and Oohs, Crimson hits Moxxie across the face and then a few moments later he presses a button that reveals a whole mess of hidden dildos. Then they continue to have a serious conversation while the dildos bounce around in the background. It’s jarring.
Stolas and Stella’s Betrothal: We learn in The Circus that Stella was only paired with Stolas so that they could produce an heir. Once Octavia was born, they didn’t need to stay together at all. I wish reputation was something that actually mattered in the Ars Goetia because it would make more sense as to why Stolas and Stella didn’t break up immediately after Octavia’s birth. They didn’t because doing so looks real bad on them within the family. It’s implied that Stella cares but like… she threw a “Not Divorced” party and loudly complained about Stolas in front of everyone so she doesn’t care that much. Staying in a toxic relationship for the sake of your child really isn’t the best thing for that child’s development, in most scenarios. They openly hated each other so it wasn’t like they pretended to like each other in front of their daughter. I honestly wish that was the case. We don’t really know as we don’t get a chance to see what life was like before Blitz came in. They should’ve broken up ages ago. I hate the lack of nuance in their relationship. It’s so lame.
I am not a hater. I actually do like this show. It’s just that season two greatly disappointed me overall. They spent an entire season ruining my favorite character, utterly shattering my hopes and dreams, only at the last second to give him what I wanted. The whiplash hurts so much!
I have mixed hopes for season three. Yes, despite my complaining, I’m gonna keep watching the show because I want to see what happens with Blitz and Stolas now that they’re together. I want to see more Octavia as I really like her and her drama. I hope they don’t fuck her up like they did her dad. Helluva Boss is like Warrior Cats to me at this point. I know it’s mostly bad but there are nuggets of goodness that keep hooking me. So like Warriors, my expectations are in the gutter but I have slight hope it could bounce back fully. But if it goes any deeper into that hole, I am done.
