Quest

(Though July is Pride Month in my city sooo also happy second Pride month eve!)

(GIF source: Stolas is Not Gay by artdoer93)

Delayed Onset PTSD. It's a thing. The diagnosis applies when full symptoms do not emerge until at least six months.

Major life changes caused by "take a guess", as well as Via telling him to go kick rocks probably made him unable to properly cope. And we saw in the first look that he was trying to fall back into his old coping method of trying to escape into his romance novel fantasies but clearly he just can't anymore. He can't manage the truma with Striker anymore so now his symptoms are starting to manifest. He's going to have to find a new (hopefully less destructive) coping method.

"I don't justify Stella..." is almost always followed by someone trying to justify her. A real Stella fan wouldn't feel the need to justify her, because we know she's wrong and is using Stolas as a scapegoat, because even she knows she can't the target the system (the real reason why she's in this situation).

he has some pretty severe PTSD, from his last time being helpless and tied up.

Where Stolas has to use his fun memories of BDSM with Blitz as a buffer and play for time.

And Stolas feels like he wss abandoned by Blitz.

Its going to make it hard for Stolas to put himself into Blitz's hands.

(I think they're probably end up switching things around because of this, after the angst)

Stolas is a sexual predator the uses he's past to guilt Blitz into being with him.

He used his grimoire and Blitz stealing it as black mail to rape Blitz monthly. He then gaslights Blitz into thinking he was wrong in his way of thinking, that being the relationship was entirely sexual, which it was. CONSTANTLY sexually harasses blitz despite him being uncomfortable with it! Literally treats him like a ash try despite Blitz having trauma with fire.

He treats his daughter like shit, prioritizing his wants over her NEEDS. It's heavily implied he doesnt give her an education or facilitate her having any sort of socialization, which is abuse! He acts sexually in front of her!!! He cared more about fooling around with Blitz rather then finding his daughter in a place he KNOWS has DEMON HUNTERS [DHORKS]. He tries to gaslight her into thinking everything she's feeling is wrong and incorrect!

He treats imps like accessories, servants and toys.

Yes, Stolas committed sexual coercion. The "contract" he makes with Blitz literally fits the definitions of sexual coercion.

And no, he didn't delete the comments, I can still comment on this post just fine.

And Blitz is a jerk to his employees... okay? Should that somehow erase what Stolas does or make it less bad? I mean, it just proves he's a racist son of a bitch.

And even though Blitz is a jerk, Millie has already partially called him out on it in Ghostuffers. Sure, it's not even a third of what he should be called out for the way he treats his employees, but it's way more than Stolas ever gets.

sexual coercion is defined as pressureing or manipulating somebody into having sex Stolas did neither of these things he clearly explained the circumstances of the deal. He asked blitz if he would agree to it and blitz did. Sex work should not be viewed as more crude or exploitative than any other form of work.

And I love it.

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.

The torture he went through was never something I could imagine him just getting over completely. It was way too serious and traumatic to be just pushed aside forever imo.

Now I'm hoping the show will eventually address the domestic abuse as well

I think it's just as important, both for his character dvlpmt and for his relationships with the people around him.

Like yes obviously politically it's a huge deal and obviously it's this dynamic shift in the whole course of the plot, yada yada yada... but like. the personal significance is huge in a way I don't see talked about, specifically because of Blitz's personal history.

Blitz is consistently in a protector role with those around him. That's not news. It probably started with Fizz (and perhaps Barbie?) and continues with Loona, with M&M... he's the guy who is putting himself on the line to take the fall when shit goes wrong.

The implication is pretty clear (and I suspect will become clearer as we get more information about the Buckzo family) that Blitz has been The One Responsible, for better or for worse, since he was very young. We see his father placing responsibility for the family finances on his shoulders when he's only grade school age. He is just as heavily parentified as Millie, although from a rather different angle, and the echoes of that abuse (and it is a form of abuse) are loud in Blitz's behavior throughout the series... and it shows up elsewhere, too.

Notably, it shows up in Barbie. I was hesitant to make any sweeping statements on her based on Unhappy Campers alone. One episode where she only appears for a few minutes at the end isn't enough to base major analysis on. But after the most recent short, I feel more comfortable saying that Barbie is very reluctant to take responsibility for her own actions... but all too happy to place blame on Blitz.

If it weren't for this, it would be easy to assume that Blitz probably spent his youth sharing the blame for childhood shenanigans with his twin. But Barbie is never responsible for anything that goes wrong, and Blitz? Blitz is always responsible for anything that goes wrong, in perception if not always in fact.

There's a lot we still don't know about the Buckzo family and how Barbie fit into the circus trio dynamic with Blitz and Fizzarolli. But I would wager that Blitz, who was very clearly The Idea Guy even as a kid, was the one taking the heat every time the circus trio got into some kind of trouble as children. That's a bit speculative, of course, but there's a very strong implication showing in his present-day dynamics with his loved ones that he has a history of being the one falling on the sword, taking the blame whenever anything bad happens.

But here's the thing: when Blitz was a kid, even if he was the one with all the fun, crazy ideas, he wasn't actually responsible for his sister's actions, or his friend's, even if he was likely punished as though he were. And when it comes to the grimoire... well, that wasn't all on him either, was it?

Which brings us back to Satan's court:

This would have been Blitz's final act— one last chance to jump on yet another grenade for the people he loves. He was fully prepared to take all the blame for the whole mess with the grimoire onto his own shoulders to spare his friends and his daughter from sharing in the punishment.

Whether or not an imp having access to a powerful spellbook is actually wrong is a whole other question (I would strongly contend that he and Stolas did nothing wrong and it is the laws of Hell which are wrong), but even with that in mind, it was technically illegal, and it was a crime he and Stolas committed together.

And for what might be the first time, someone who created trouble alongside Blitz stepped up to share the responsibility. Not just share responsibility, but wholly lift it from Blitz's shoulders, even though there was absolutely no obligation to do so.

How long has it been since anyone did this for Blitz? Has anyone ever done this for him? Has anyone ever planted themselves between him and blame or consequences and said "no, I had a share in this too, don't blame him alone" and taken the weight off him?

I love how the writers address trauma like this.

Literally any other show would not even consider that an experience like that would traumatize a person and make kink difficult

would take away something that usually brought them joy.

But they did.

Blitz was technically the one who came onto Stolas first, though at some point Stolas must have found out he was really there for the book, not him. generally speaking Blitz was constantly hot and cold with Stolas, and I think it's feasible that any time he caught himself enjoying it too much he'd probably back off very abruptly, giving Stolas EXTREMELY mixed signals

and then during the full moon there was the "I can always do better" line and him getting upset and trying to play a role which would have horrifying implications for Stolas, followed up by what must have looked a lot like a mask slipping and blitz yelling at him and telling him what he "really thinks of him"

but then after that when blitz has the crystal and never needs to see stolas again, he keeps coming back and (angrily) chasing him. as Stolas points out himself, why would he do that if he didn't care at all??