Hey everyone, happy new year! This will be my first post of 2026. I hope you like it!
There's a lot of shit to talk about this season, but there's something I feel like we need to talk about.
How Stella is treated by the narrative and fandom versus how Vox and Val are treated.
Why Vox and Valentino can gain a moment of empathy from the series and be treated cutely by the fandom (with people making cute headcanons of them and cute comics) but Stella can't?
What I'm trying to say is:
Why can Vox and Valentino be humanized and Stella cannot?
It's funny how this fandom loves to humanize Vox and Valentino by saying things like "even abusers are human too."
And well, they're not wrong about that.
But the irony is that when you try to do the same thing with Stella, you get attacked by them and you're not allowed to humanize her.
"Oh, you're trying to make her out to be a tragic abuser, but she's not, and she doesn't care about the arranged marriage."
Oh yes, but you can humanize rapists and human traffickers, right?
I'm not one to accuse others of things, but the reason of this is 100% sexism: the helluvaverse shows have an awful habit of finding ways to minimize and demonize women for every little thing they do. stella was cheated on by stolas and wants vengance for the damage he's done? no nuance allowed, she's just a crazy and all of a sudden stupid woman who is an abuser so you CANT like her, but lets make a bunch of merch of her anyways
meanwhile valentino and vox get infinitely more screen time than her, more praise and excuses, validation, affection and support. idek how to explain what is going on here because the jokes just write themselves.