I know you don’t care about the shorts anymore, but I’m still gonna summarize it. Stolas is told by blitz to make a follow up report so IMP looks good in reviews of whatever, so Moxxie helps and they essentially write shitty fan fic about how blitz killed his target, for the day. Moxxie is an obnoxious suck up to stolas, and Stolas keeps interjects mlm porn. In the end Moxxie helps Stolas write porn because he wants to be an editor. The end.
Fun fact, Stolas doesn’t call Moxxie by his name and neither does Moxxie but Moxxie says they have good chemistry when all Moxxie does is suck up to stolas/pedantically posture over him “no you’re highness you need to explain why the target is being kidnapped. No your highness you can’t have loose plot threads” it was fine for what it was, but I hate how IMP are just sucking ups/cheerleaders for Stolas now
I'm moreso focused on the fact that the people who cannot write wrote an episode where one character is trying to give writing advice and the writing advice is bad.
I can't even tell if they are trying to be satirical because the exact advice given:
“All stories are better with a gun.”
“We need some more immediate action.”
“What about the dangling plot threads?”
“See how it all ties together?”
“Sometimes it’s better to not overstay your welcome.”
Why do I almost hear the writers room? Not a single one of these gives any decent suggestions. None of these are worded well. These are the exact things you would say as a writer to end up making Helluva Boss. So when you have Moxxie and Stolas bonding over a poorly conceived penny dreadful that is written like how the writers write the show, the house of mirrors is now your home.
So are they admitting they write absolute garbage with any modicum of self awareness? Based on the outcome, I could almost say yes. I could almost believe every single line is a joke from them working well together to Stolas' objectively bad writing to Moxxie's "editing advice" being superficial, ill-defined, and fundamentally misunderstanding what actually is happening on a technical level. Which you need for an editor.
Moxxie is acting more like a fanfiction BetaReader but the writer is a horny edgy 16 yr old and the beta is a 14 yr old middle schooler who has a B in English.
But my main gripe is that it doesn't seem like the joke is "the characters write badly". It feels like the episode is mocking people who care about writing by mocking the process of making art.
The art itself is praised for being garbage because somewhere two gooners are giggling in a closet. And look, for fanfiction that's fine. This is a professional project, guys. Even in the short, the report is for financial reasons. No, your enjoyment is not the thing that counts, especially when the "chemistry" actively makes both characters even less likeable.
