Gloobule

Helluva Boss' style is very line and shape based. Movement, flow, elasticity, expressiveness and appealing drawings are favoured over form and consistency. This is something great for the show! The characters being able to survive being off model is great for the animators, aswell as for fan artists and generating fandom. But, makes it really hard for me to learn how to draw the characters! During this exercise I constantly struggled with discerning Blitz' proportions and his graphical lines and shapes, because there is very little consistency in the show. For example, Blitz is supposed to be about 4 heads tall, (minus his horns) but he can range from 3 to 5 heads tall! That's about this much difference:

Stolas couldn't be further away from this mind. That is, of course, until sneaking into the club behind M&M doesn't work and he has to improvise a quick plan B.

When the idea of using Stolas to get inside Ozzie's crosses his mind, he looks... frankly surprised with himself. Almost like he's thinking: "holy shit, I could pull that off. It would work."

Admittedly, Blitz doesn't think this through at all. But then again, I don't think he believes he needs to. He (thinks he) knows Stolas well enough by now to know he would probably say yes to going to a club, and he'd in all likelihood eat that faux-romantic shit up. After all, Stolas always initiates romantic shit with Blitz that he doesn't really mean. He (in Blitz's mind) gets a kick out of obnoxiously annoying Blitz with fake romantic nonsense that's really just the bird's way of asking to be fucked.

(What Blitz learned from this moment, probably: "Romantic candles and fairy lights? Yeah, that's just Stolas' prince-y way of saying 'ravish me, imp'.")

It's been many months since they reconnected and set up the deal, and Blitz knows their dynamic well by now: Stolas acts over-the-top romantic as a way to ask for sex, Blitz gives him a fantastic dicking, Stolas is satisfied and goes away for a while. He always ends up nagging Blitz again, but it's okay, because they have a system with very clear expectations, and it works. And, yeah, Stolas might be annoying, but he's easy to please and the sex is fucking great. So, all in all, fucking him for the book is a win-win.

Hell, this 'Stolas acting all romantic and shit when he's horny' thing isn't even exclusive to the private sphere. Stolas himself has already invited Blitz and his crew on several outings and then acted annoying the whole time. There's a precedent for them seeing each other (and being seen in public together) outside of their arrangement.

So, really, inviting Stolas to Ozzie's isn't a big deal. In fact, it's the perfect plan. They'll just do what they always do when they meet in public (Stolas swooning while Blitz exists in his general vicinity), Blitz will get to spy on M&M to his heart's content, and if Stolas asks to get dicked down again outside of a full moon, well, that's just the cherry on top to end the perfect night, right?

What could possibly go wrong?

2. How Blitz thought Stolas would act.

Here's the thing. Blitz has had many chances to interact with Stolas before Ozzie's. And that's why, at this point in time, he is confidently operating on the assumption that Stolas won't ask any complicated questions.

Because he never has. That's not what Stolas does.

Stolas assumes. Stolas comes up with nonsense explanations for what Blitz's motivations are, and uncritically believes them so long as Blitz doesn't contradict him. And, so far, this has invariably worked in Blitz's favour.

"I know you broke into my room to ravish me." (Got Blitz out of having to admit he was trying to steal the Grimoire).

"I know you took my book so we could see each other again." (Prevented Blitz from having to explain that he stole the damn thing).

"I know you're refusing to give my book back so we have an excuse to keep meeting." (Blitz doesn't even have to pitch his business idea to Stolas and grapple with how fucking illegal the whole thing is).

To Blitz, everything that comes out of Stolas' mouth is obviously bullshit, but it's very convenient bullshit. He doesn't even have to do anything! Just let Stolas decide what Blitz's motivations are and go from there. "Yes, Stolas, of course I want to fuck you, haha, that's why I broke into your house! You caught me, I totally wanted to ravish you again! Of course I want to keep doing it over and over! (Wow, is this guy really this fucking stupid? I can't believe my book-stealing plan actually worked. And all I have to do to keep the book is periodically fuck this horny bird's brains out?! Fucking jackpot!)"

That is the mentality that Blitz is still operating on at the beginning of Ozzie's: one where he and Stolas are just using each other, and this is just one more way for Blitz to use him, and all he'll have to do to pull this off is roll along with whatever stupid fantasy Stolas conjures up and go from there.

And at first, things kind of go as expected.

Stolas does what he's always done: he makes an assumption. That Blitz invited him out of affection and a desire to spend time together, and that this is a real date. (Which, to be fair, is the most grounded assumption Stolas has made this entire time. It's pretty reasonable to assume an invitation to hang out is genuine, especially when you're as oblivious to social cues as Stolas is. Certainly more realistic than assuming someone you barely know broke into your house to fuck you).

Blitz doesn't contradict him, of course; he never has before, and that's not how they operate. If Stolas says this is a date, then it's a date. Blitz can totally humour him.

But something's already off.

Look at that face. That's the face of a man who is thinking "First date? Shit, that kinda gives this moment more weight than I expected."

This comment from Stolas sets this encounter apart from their Loo Loo Land and Harvest Moon Festival outings, and even from their Truth Seekers out-of-deal fuck sesh.

This is a first. This is new. This is off.

3. How Ozzie's changes things

But it's okay. Despite the weird start to their supposed date, Blitz perseveres. He's here to stalk M&M, dammit, not to think about his own sorry life. That's why he got Stolas to get him in. "Plus," Blitz probably argues to himself, "Stolas doesn't need help conjuring his romantic fantasies." Blitz just existing near him should give him enough fuel to power an hour-long horny rant.

It's not like Stolas actually cares enough about him to conduct a genuine conversation, anyway! He made that very clear at the beginning, when Blitz tried to talk to him like a normal person and Stolas turned it into sex.

Sex is all he wants from Blitz. It always has been, and it always will be.

... Right?

Uh-oh. Small talk. In the form of questions. That's new. They haven't done that since Stolas asked if he was still a circus clown on their very first reunion as adults.

Ugh, whatever. Blitz can power through this. He'll just give bullshit replies. Any minute now, Stolas will snap out of it and go on a sexual tangent, and he'll be able to focus on living vicariously through his employees' romantic life.

Except...

Wait... what?

Since when does Stolas ask Blitz for a reason why he does the things he does?

This isn't right. This is very far from right. Stolas should be giving Blitz a bullshit explanation he can work with as to why they're here! Blitz shouldn't have to be the one coming up with a reason!

But now Stolas is asking. And Blitz stalls. What can he possibly say? That he's just using Stolas to spy on his employees? That they "obviously" don't care about each other outside of sex?

He's way out of his depth and starting to freak out. This isn't supposed to happen. This isn't how things work between them. Why is Stolas doing this, all of a sudden? Why is he messing up with Blitz?

Luckily, Fizz interrupts and Blitz gets out of having to reply. Soon after, any tiny spark of hope Blitz might be feeling that Stolas actually gives a shit about him gets crushed when Stolas covers his face when called out on sleeping with him, and by the time they get to Stolas' palace and the Prince asks him to spend the night, Blitz is positive beyond a trace of doubt that Stolas is just trying to get in his pants in new and inventive ways.

Stolas only wants sex out of him. Nothing more. And usually, that's okay. But not tonight. Just not tonight.

Blitz doesn't yet understand what he's set in motion. He doesn't know that by being the one to invite Stolas out, by then bursting Stolas' bubble about what the two of them really have, he's made Stolas begin to ask himself where they stand, and whether the way he treated Blitz was fair or grounded in reality.

And so the comfortable dynamic they had, where Blitz got exactly what he wanted without having to explain himself, is irrevocably shattered.

Instead, Stolas wants something different from Blitz now. Something far harder for him to give than sex.

Stolas wants answers. Clarification. Honesty.

And no matter how much Blitz tries to avoid his questions and get things back to how they worked before their disastrous Ozzie's date...

They can never go back. Because Stolas never didn't care.

Stolas, as blind, and oblivious, and objectifying, and exorbitantly horny as he acted, has always wanted genuine connection with Blitz, and sooner or later Blitz will have to grapple with the fact that Stolas always cared about him.

-

I was rewatching 'Ozzie's' again, and something occurred to me about their conversation after.

Stolas gets out of the car, probably after quite the long awkward silence. Blitz is clearly stewing in displeasure.

And then, what does he say? What's the kind of message he chooses to send, in-between his invitation?

'Hey Blitz, *thank you for asking me out, this was nice.*'

He doesn't completely skirt around the obvious issue that things ended on a sour note, but he skips over it quickly, in a hurry to avoid seeming unhappy or ungrateful or upset.

Now, after the whole debacle, Blitz knows damn well this was a mess from start to finish. He invited him out on a fake date, couldn't be arsed to really pay attention to him because he was still caught up in his Original Plan of spying on MnM, and not even minutes later, being unable to keep his gob shut, he ends up attracting the attention of everyone and their mama to him and Stolas, to get them both sublimely roasted in public.

'I enjoyed spending time with you', says Stolas.

'Bullshit', thinks Blitz.

No, he didn't. He got dragged into a sassy rogue's hare-brained scheme like the naive princey he is, tidily sat aside while Blitz thoughtlessly treated him like distraction at best, got publicly humiliated by the top dog of the Lust ring to the point of cringeing and hiding away, and got carted on home in a cramped messy car with a thundercloud in the driver's seat.

-

Stolas' intention isn't to bullshit Blitz. He knows his friend knows he knows this went terribly awry, but in his social circles, something so obvious doesn't have to be stated aloud. It'd even be incredibly unbecoming to complain openly, let alone to have a bitch fit and express frustration the way 'a lower class person' with no filter might.

He can tell Blitz isn't happy with things, and it's perfectly understandable and thoughtful of him to try to think of a way to salvage the evening, rather than to get hung up on whatever the fuck that whole mess just was. He knows Blitz isn't likely to be eager to talk about 'it', whatever 'it' might be, but they don't have to - if they can just spend a bit of time with each other to ensure things are alright between them, they can part ways with some peace of mind.

So that's what he does: he sidles around the unpleasant elephant in the room, like any properly behaved Goetia would, and extends a courteous, polite invitation to wave it all off and have a pleasant evening regardless.

Stolas spent his entire life 'on stage'. He's an actor, both due to a genuine, benign penchant for dramatics, and out of pure necessity to get by when surrounded by high society folk, and living in a household where conflict would be never-ending if he doesn't go out of his way to diplomatically calm things down. He has more than two decades of active training in 'how to ignore the ever-growing pile of crap, and put on your tidiest smile'.

-

By comparison, Blitz is *explicitly* vocal about what he thinks. The day they met, he wasn't shy at all about telling little Stols that his books are boring, and as an adult he's still impulsive and bluntly honest. He's used to open conflict and butting heads with people, and expects others to 'come and give it to him' if they have a problem.

From Blitz' perspective, Stolas' earnestly motivated behaviour has to come off as a bit 'fake', like an actor walking through a script.

Calling Stolas out by going 'oh come off it, you and I are just sex and nothing else' may sound incredibly blind, or deliberately obtuse, but I think he may have partially meant that to say 'can we not with the whole pretend-nice play acting right now, let me remind you of what's real here, and I'm not in the mood for messing around with whatever you think you're doing here'.

He really doesn't think Stolas inviting him to come in and hang out like friends is genuine, and in a sense - why would he? They just had a disaster of a night, and this weird prissy owl isn't starting a shouting match or crying or bitching about it - clearly he's up to something, but it's for sure not 'in earnest'. If it was, they'd be having an argument, or at the very least be talking about the whole thing.

-

Heck, the very first time they met was a whole mess of confusing communication, with the very first thing Stolas says to him after closing the door to his room being something straight out of a sexy roleplay. Talk about making a brand new first impression on Blitz as someone who apparently just Does That Kinda Thing like the massive nerd he is.

I really think Blitz struggles to interpret some of Stolas' behaviour correctly, or at least, in the way Stolas is going for. Their social surroundings and habits are so vastly different there really is no meeting in the middle at times. They're not just not on the same page, but reading a whole different novel.

-

And hey, this goes the other way, too.

During Full Moon, Blitz goes after him when Stolas withdraws from the interaction( wich is what you would do if in the middle of a fancy party, your emotions start to boil over - you excuse yourself to have a breakdown where nobody has to be annoyed over it).

Someone following him when he departs can either mean they cares about what's going on and are invested enough to want to be there while he's upset, OR it's a case of someone like Stella just not being done ripping him a new one. The way Blitz comports himself does *not* make it one bit clear that him chasing after Stolas is 'because he cares', not when mister hot-headed 'I turn fear into fury' Blitz is going off on a hostile tirade.

'LET'S GO!!' he shouts.

It's literally a case of someone screaming to be engaged with. 'Get back here you bastard we're not DONE.'

This is Blitz 'being real' with people, as unpleasant and aggressive (and in its own way a defensive front) as it is. This is Blitz ready to tear through the haze of indirect, vague communication, expecting, wanting Stolas to stop running, turn around, and give him a piece of his mind properly. If Stolas is upset, angry, hurt... he should just say so, damnit!

That's the social rules he lives by: you throw out a provocation, and the other party responds in the same way, clapping back with whatever crap it is that's got their panties in a twist, and whatever comes out of such a tiff would at least register as 'honest' to someone like Blitz.

This is how he interacts with Verosika. It's how he interacts with Fizz during their conflicts. It's how Barbie interacts with him. It's just 'how you do things' by Blitz' script.

*None* of that aligns with Stolas' expectations or understanding. To him, acting like that is just rude, aggressive, and mean, and he's not the kind of person to match that energy in kind.

-

And this is where in Apology Tour, there is a noticeable and critical change in Stolas' behaviour: for the first time, he gets *snarky*.

He shows Blitz his disapproval, his impatience, his frustration. He blocks him off, pushes back, argues with him. He legit gives Blitz 'a bit of a hard time', well-deservedly, even if for the most part he's still aiming to cut communication short and go back to handling his feelings in private.

Later at night during the party, when he's drunk off his ass and his usual patience and self-control are running on fumes, Blitz approaches him rather demurely, ready to at least try to make amends. It's at this point that Stolas' communication turns into a style Blitz understands: blunt, expressive, and unrestrained. He finally stops holding back, and lets his feelings, notably anger and hurt, show plainly.

Snark and sarcasm, immediate clap-backs - that's the language Blitz speaks fluently. That's what, to him, registers as 'honest', as real, as true. That is the point at which he no longer has any instinctive reason to think Stolas is just putting on a fancy show, because that's how 'normal people talk'.

-

I very much think that as much as Blitz already had intense latent feelings for him, it's the point at which Stolas showed him something 'real', something relatable and understandable and trustworthy, that the imp fell even harder for him.

It broke through the distortion caused by Stolas constantly holding back, and Blitz being quite aware that Stolas, in a sense, constantly put on a performance for him.

In short...

Blitzø spent his childhood being constantly second to Fizz, scraped himself from nothing after the fire, and lived even as a young adult in Fizz's shadow (he worked balloons at Loo Loo Land when Via was young and Fizz/the Fizzbots were already a big thing). We've had hints like in Truth Seekers that he tried going solo, and it didn't work out. He's gotten to the point he is in the story by fighting for absolutely everything he has and refusing to be put down by anyone. It's the only way his voice is ever heard.

Stolas, on the other hand, was raised to believe he should not fight, and that being open and honest will never get him what he wants because nobody really cares about that unless they're benefiting. His feelings like excitement or sadness were unbecoming or downright ugly. His marriage was 'non-negotiable.' His job was chosen for him. His palace according to the exterior sigil was Paimon's before it was officially Stolas'. Having a child was forced upon him. And honestly, he was given a job that revolves around prophecies, which are by nature inescapable. Expressing himself either made no difference or got him admonished. He was married to an abusive woman who probably blew every little habit of his out of proportion and he walked on eggshells constantly - de-escalating things, like you said about being accustomed to deflating situations. Based on The Circus, Stella even clamped down on interests/important traits like his singing. He had Via and was quickly thrown into a caretaker role, where he threw his own life under the bus to keep her stable and happy. "Fighting" or having conflict for him = giving up to make the person happy, either because was doing what he deemed best for a child or because the other person didn't want to hash things out - they wanted him to shut up and be compliant.

So between the overt societal niceness and the willingness to just give up, Blitzø does convince himself that Stolas' feelings don't run that deep. If he actually had them, surely they would've had it out a little more at the end of Ozzie's? But no, when called out, Stolas just says goodnight and lets Blitzø go. So he definitely can't care enough, right?

And that definitely comes to a head in Full Moon. Blitzø pretty perfectly set off Stolas' PTSD-type response by following him and screaming. He was hurt and confused and desperate to be heard - fighting things out is the only way he's listened to. He was, at his core, terrified of being dropped and begging for honesty. But Stolas has learned to shut down and give up. An argument means someone doesn't like him. He just wanted to get away and break down somewhere where his tears wouldn't be called ugly again.

Apology Tour Stolas has dropped the societal niceties toward Blitzø, which fights against the "he was just faking it" that Blitzø convinced himself of, but he's also given up. The morning conflict with Blitzø hammers it in even more - Blitzø is still focused on sex, refusing to acknowledge that Stolas cares about him, and accidentally lets slip that Stolas had an assassination attempt while doubling down that he doesn't see it as a big deal. He gives a big "Weeelll fuck you!" at the concept of addressing his own self-hatred. Stolas comes to the conclusion that he really was far more emotionally invested than Blitzø ever was. He gives up again and just leaves.

I think you're absolutely right that the drunken conversation at the party turned a very significant corner with Blitzø and making him fall more heavily - or at bare minimum at least realize that it was happening. And I think the All 2 U song really set the stage for that. Because that song was a perfect combination - Stolas was singing about his pain, but all the personality undertones that Blitzø was convinced were fake were there. He wasn't angry or fighting in that instance. He sang an entire song about giving up the idea that he ever meant anything to Blitzø, while also giving Blitzø a slight benefit of the doubt in "I don't think you meant to hurt me." There is no reason to put on fake politeness here; the people around him want him to be vindictive and to lash out, and he simply doesn't. He basically gives up all over again. And I think Blitzø finally faces that the overt politeness and acquiescing were never an act, just behavior that's been ingrained into the owl.

And that in turn probably makes Blitzø absorb the drunken conversation afterward even more, because he also doesn't convince himself that Stolas' attitude is any sort of class-based condescension. He's seeing Stolas as the complex individual well beyond the royal Goetia - but he's too overwhelmed by it to express himself in the moment, and Stolas is too drunk and despondent to realize he's making any sort of emotional impact. It's still stuck in his head - when people follow him while he's upset, it's bad. It's specifically to hurt him or put him down. So why is Blitzø still here? We've already opened this wound multiple times - do we really have to throw salt in it, too?

It will be really interesting to see how Stolas develops with snark/sass vs. the ingrained politeness/giving up going into S3. He's reached another point where he's largely 'given up' on himself and therefore lost a lot of the mannerisms plastered onto him. Though not entirely. "Go enjoy your Sinsmas, Blitzø. I'm fine," is yet another case of him minimizing his feelings and being too polite for someone else's sake.

It'll also be interesting to see Blitzø probably become increasingly vulnerable around him, which is something I don't think Stolas has expected. At least, not to this degree.