Stolas still doesn't understand social class
When the clip starts, we get thrown into a classic romance novel trope.
Stolas wears flowy clothes, literally all buttoned up. He smells flowers and wanders his world with a type of bright-eyed awe often reserved in media for children and Disney princesses. We take in a make-believe castle landscape that seems to . . . strangely have a lot in common with his actual palace and garden that he's been banished from.
He wanders into a stable which seems to be located on his driveway. There, he runs into Blitz, the stable boy. Is stable boy a little on the nose with the class stuff? No one actually calls him that. But look- based on what Blitz is wearing, and the context, and what does get said . . .
Okay, but am I reading into this a bit much? Doesn't Stolas just love Romance novels? It doesn't have to be about their real social positions.
It's a stereotype that came out of the Fabio era of romance novels (which Blitz's hair and general look in the fantasy is a direct reference to) that women who read romance fiction fantasize about being prim, proper, virginal noblewomen, who get ravished, sometimes in dub-con situations, by strong, tough, rough-around-the-edges, lower class dudes.
And yeah, there are exceptions, but the class thing is big in this trope. And not the only thing that's big. SNL knew it. Check out this Aidy Bryant sketch with John Cena and Kenan Thompson circa 2015. The entire joke is that we know this trope, and it's absurd.
The appeal, assuming the stereotypical audience is heterosexual women. . . is something about being desirable and repressed and pursued, and being so overwhelmed by the raw appeal of this sexy brute man that you give into something primal and animalistic and um . . . being freed. Notice Blitz literally opening up Stolas's shirt and letting all the chest fluff out.
The trope is as society-laden as any other trope. Which is to say, I fully support enjoying it, and I kind of get the appeal but. Social class is there. And I don't really think Blitz would like learning that in at least some of Stolas's fantasies, after everything, he's an actual stable boy, a servant, with his big hands and big bulge and big abs doing some serious heavy lifting when it comes to his look.
The problem is that Stolas actually is a prince, and no amount of banishment can make Blitz his social equal. It's no mistake on the part of the writers that the fantasy setting is just a transformed version of Stolas's own house.
Is Stolas aware? Not at all. If Blitz were to ask, Stolas would probably say that he understands now. He doesn't.
Now. Some good news. Stolas's fantasy world is unstable as it meets the reality of Blitz's life and the new situation Stolas finds himself in and the trauma and emotional baggage that Stolas is having trouble keeping separate.
I say good news because, while I'm sure it will be a long road with ups and probably devastating I'm not scared who's scared?? downs, Stolas's framework for understanding the world is crumbling, and he's going to have to rebuild something new.
This aspect of the clip just signals to me that addressing The Class Thing™️, really addressing it and the way it lingers in the corners of a mind that means well, is going to have to be part of that journey, and I'm so glad.
