Stella apologists : "We don't want Stella's actions to be excused, we just want her to have more depth outside of being evil and abusive!"
Also Stella apologists : *whine about Stolas being an abuse victim because it makes him sympathetic, insist that Stolas being the abuser and Stella being the victim would automatically be better writing just because, never complain about Crimson or Mammon being one-dimensional abusers who are just evil for the sake of it, think cheating is worse than domestic abuse, think Stolas having depth means that the narrative is ignoring his flaws, literally admit that they wish Stella wasn't evil or abusive at all, still insist Stella is a better parent than Stolas, and accuse Viv of thinking all women are evil because she made one female domestic abuser character*
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You know something I find ironic about stella defenders and vivis critics? They love to talk a lot of shit about how bad vivi supposedly is at representing male victims of abuse all while defending and regurgitating arguments that are used to condemn and vilify male victims and defended his abuser!!!!
"Cheating is bad!! So stolas is bad!! And they just want to silence us into thinking that this is ok!!!!" No you brain dead peon! Cheating isn't always universally bad especially when it's been on someone who has done nothing but abuse them and actively talked shit about their performance as a way of disrespecting them!! And let's be very clear the only reason stella was upset is because it was an imp and stolas had finally gotten the Courage to stand up to her!!! And let's not forget that stella had been treating him like crap for years before this happened!
"He's a bad father!!" No he's not he's a struggling father. Neither he nor his daughter are bad people and neither of them deserved to be in the situation they were in. Should he have paid more attention to octiava yes. Is he a bad person and never cared about her because he didn't? Fuck no!! He messed up and he suffered the consequences and is trying to learn to better what more can you honestly ask if someone!?
"He's shouldn't have saved blitz because that showed octativa he was willing to die without caring about her!" Bull. Fucking. Shit!!!! How the fuck was he supposed to make a life or death descion and think about every possible situation this could result in when he had about 12 seconds to make sure the love of his life's head didn't go fucking choppy choppy!!!
"He's a coercive rapist reeeeee!!!" Look pal that agurment relies on a lot if's when it comes to bltizs ability to find a alternative means of getting to the human world so this argument is flimsy and relies on circumstances and speculation at best and is outright bullshit at worst. Even if this so called argument had any real validity then it should be clear to anyone with any brain power whatsoever that stolas never meant to coerce anyone!
"He is evil blueblood and deserves the guillotine" no stolas is as bout as much of a noble prick as a thumbtack and he had never once intentionally looked down on anyone and when he did it was never hateful it was simply out of ignorance unlike his wife who you constantly defend!
"Stella was made evil to justify his actions!" No you fools she was clearly always going to be a villain and contrary to what your pitiful Brains think females don't need to be sympathic or even competent and vivi isn't sexist for writing stella this way and for what it's worth I think stella serves her role quite well.
Every time I see someone hate on Stolas, their reasoning reeks of victim blaming. If any Stolas Haters come here to tell me that I am wrong they are going to be automatically blocked.
There’s this specific type of chronically online leftist who hates Helluva Boss for showing empathy towards royals while ignoring that a major part of Stolas character is how systems of hierarchy cannibalize their own people when they don’t conform to expectations. Which is like, very much a thing we’ve seen happen to members of the real life royal family.
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Fun Fact: A lot of the Stolas antis compare him to Valentino off all people
H. How. What show are these people watching.
Okay so, this has been sitting in my drafts for a while, but let's get down to it. This post got wildly out of hand.
TL;DR: Valentino and Stolas have some superficial similarities, but Valentino is an abusive overlord who gained his power through exploitation and uses it to be abusive, meanwhile Stolas was incidentally born into his power and at worst is ignorant but well-meaning. Their behavior onscreen and interactions with their subordinates and their partners is night and day.
Valentino: a human sinner who is an overlord, so he owns countless souls of other sinners. He "employs" others demons as erotic dancers, adult film actors, and sex workers. I say "employs" in quotes, because I get the feeling that a lot of these people don't necessarily get a choice. He's blatantly manipulative, physically and sexually abusive, and generally just an asshole. For the sake of this comparison, I'm going to focus on his relationship with Angel Dust.
Stolas: a hellborn Goetia prince, he is said to have legions to command and share his knowledge with, and he canonically and on screen has a staff of servants, security, etc made up of (that we've seen) imps and hellhounds. His staff seems to have standard jobs such as serving meals, delivering messages, cleaning up, and whatnot. We don't know much more about them, however. He's socially anxious and awkward, very intelligent, and he behaves publicly in a very regal and reserved manner expected of a prince. In private, however, he seems more friendly and polite to the people he interacts with, with the exception of people he dislikes (e.g. Stella, Striker, Andrealphus). I'll focus on his relationship with Blitz pre-Apology Tour for this comparison, but I'm also going to address his interactions with his staff.
Before anything else, I'm going to call Angel and Blitz their "partners" even though that's not technically accurate. I'm not actually suggesting that Val and Angel are in a relationship or are each other's partners, same for Stolas and Blitz, but I don't have a better word for "the other person in the relationship".
So what are their similarities?
Both Valentino and Stolas are of higher status than their partner.
They are both demons that have magical abilities while their partners do not. (Comparatively. Angel Dust may have some abilities, but we haven't really seen him display them beyond some glowing eyes)
They're both much more powerful than their partners, physically, magically, and socially.
They have some sort of contract with their partner (Pre-Full Moon)
They both have a lot of employees and staff working for them.
They have red eyes.
They're, um. Skinny? I'm running out of similarities.
So I would say that they do have a number of superficial similarities, but I want to dive in to these similarities a little deeper.
Stolas was born into his status as a prince, so was Blitz as an imp. Say what you want about the social hierarchy in Hell, but they do live in a society, and imps are basically the bottom of the pyramid in Hell. The point is, Stolas didn't choose to become a prince, he just is. Valentino, however, had to climb to achieve his status. He died and manifested in Hell same as any other sinner, but he managed to climb the ladder, made deals to own other sinners' souls, amassed power, and after however long, became an overlord. To each their own, but in my opinion, this means that he chose to become an overlord by exploiting other sinners, just like any real life business mogul. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a monarchist, but being born into power and taking it by choice are still very different.
Similarly, their magic is very different. We haven't seen much magic from Val, but we know that he has a certain amount of power over Angel, he produces that pink liquid with unclear properties, and we know from other overlords that he probably has more abilities that we haven't seen. We have seen a few displays of Stolas's power, though. He can use telekinesis, create portals, possess people, turn people into stone with a look, etc, and he can transform into a giant owl monster. So yeah, he's crazy powerful. But again, Stolas was born into his power, he's a Goetia prince, he inherited and honed his magical abilities through study and practice. Overlords seem to gain a lot of their power by owning souls, though this isn't actually totally clear. Regardless, Valentino has power over Angel as a direct result of his contract owning his soul.
So both of them have definite power differences with their partners. The key difference, however, is how they use this power imbalance in their relationships. Valentino literally owns Angel's soul, he uses his power over Angel to control him, manipulate him, force him to do things, abuse him, etc. He is blatantly physically abusive to Angel, we see him hit Angel, drag him around, push him down, grab him by the neck, and yank on his chains. He's also very psychologically abusive, he threatens him and his friends, insults and demeans him, and holds his contract in front of him to remind him of their deal and make Angel feel helpless. He's just awful.
Stolas is very very different in how he treats Blitz and their relationship. I mean there's the obvious, he is never physically abusive toward Blitz. And before any of the Stella sympathizers come at me, he's never been physically abusive toward her either, he just BLOCKED her hand as she attempted to strike him. If you ask me, it seems like she has probably done that before! He never intentionally demeaned Blitz, he never tried to hold their agreement over his head, he doesn't even seem to have forced Blitz to do anything sexually against his will. Plus he's a fucking bottom. He is aware of their difference in power, but he never intentionally abuses it. The only times he's ever insulted Blitz were either teasingly (e.g. "Oh and your memory is so perfect? What's [Moxxie's] phone number? Exactly.") or after he had already ended their arrangement and was upset with him (e.g. during their argument in Apology Tour). Even then, it really comes off as him pointing out Blitz's flaws and his hypocrisies after Blitz broke his heart. If you were to compare the beginning of Apology Tour to any scene between Val and Angel, the difference is crystal fucking clear.
And let's talk about their contracts. Valentino, as previously stated, literally OWNS Angel's SOUL. It's written in ink and legally and magically binding. Literally. Whatever deal Angel made with Valentino is basically irrelevant since at the point in the show that we see, the only thing he really gets from Valentino is a job. He used to get housing, it seems, but he gave that up to live at the hotel. I don't think he gets any kind of protection, but that's just speculation on my part. For Angel, it seems like there is no way out of his deal with Valentino, only Val can release him, and he doesn't want to because Angel makes him money. Stolas and Blitz have basically a verbal agreement, made over the phone. "Favors for favors." Stolas lets Blitz use his grimoire, the spell book given to him to perform his royal duties, something that he's definitely not supposed to be lending out to anyone, let alone an imp. Blitz needs the grimoire to be able to get to Earth, which is the most important aspect of his business in killing living people. Stolas also needs the grimoire for his job, but he lends it to Blitz for all but one day of the month. In return, he asks Blitz to spend the night with him so they can have sex. Blitz agrees to this arrangement, very willingly, and in my opinion, he gets the better end of the deal, especially considering the fact that he seems to like fucking Stolas. Now, by definition, this arrangement lowkey makes Blitz a prostitute. He is exchanging sex for the ability to run his business. But this arrangement is not written down anywhere, it's just an agreement between Blitz and Stolas while they're both happy with their end of the deal. Eventually, however, Stolas doesn't feel happy with it anymore because he's developed genuine feelings for Blitz and is uncomfortable that he feels like he's exploiting Blitz. So he calls off the arrangement in the hopes that they can start a new relationship on equal footing. He gives Blitz the Asmodean Crystal, arguably a better tool for Blitz's business than the grimoire was because it's easier to use, and they no longer have to exchange sex for the grimoire. He gifts the crystal to Blitz, no strings attached, and tells him that he cares for him and wants him to stay. Even when the conversation goes south, Stolas doesn't take back the crystal or even indicate that it's something that he would do. It's Blitz who's then uncomfortable because he feels like he needs to be doing something to "earn" the crystal. But that's his baggage, and not the point right now. The point is that in Val and Angel's contract, Val has the more favorable end of the deal, and he's the only one who can end the contract between them, and he probably won't. In Stolas and Blitz's arrangement, Blitz had the better end of the deal, and either of them could have backed out of the deal, but ultimately Stolas chose to end it, and he made sure that Blitz didn't suffer any consequences to his business as a result of their deal ending.
Now moving away from the relationships with Angel and Blitz, both Val and Stolas have employees, lower status demons working for them. Val's employees are mostly sinners whose souls he (or one of the other Vee's) owns, and then there's Kitty, the off-brand Robo-Fizz. Based on how he treats Angel and the other actors and people around him, I think it's fair to say that he's not a very kind and considerate boss. He's physically and verbally abusive, he's controlling and demanding, he's short-tempered and violent, and he clearly has no respect for scheduled work hours since he calls Angel in whenever he fucking wants. We don't see Stolas interacting with his staff as much, but what we do see is pretty standard for how a royal might treat a servant, with a neutral and stoic attitude. He's not necessarily friendly to his staff from what we see, but at least he's not actively abusive. I mean compare how Stella treats the imp butler and how Stolas does.
She grabs him by the arm and throws him full force at the wall during an argument with Stolas, while also dehumanizing him (de-demonizing?). He shows up again a little later in a state. Poor guy. The worst he ever gets from Stolas is this:
Not great, but definitely not as violent as Stella. My interpretation of Stolas with his imp staff is that he's at worst negligent and careless with them, but he's not nearly as intentionally violent.
And I was joking about the physical similarities, the majority of the cast have red eyes. I'm not even taking shots at Vivzie's character design.
I don't know how this got so long, I just had a lot of thoughts.
EDIT BC I FORGOT-TW FOR MENTION OF ABUSE, INCEST, PEDO, AND RACISM
o done with stolitz and stolas antis atp
Idc if you ship blitz with a character other than stolas as long as it’s not problematic(like incest or adult/child)
But I’m so done with stolas and stolitz antis. SO DONE
If you follow me and are a stolas basher/claim that he’s not a victim and a horrible demon, unfollow me. Please.
It’s almost like characters raised in an environment filled with racism and bigoted things will turn out to have that ingrained in them and o need to work on that
It’s also almost like characters who are systematically abused and forced to mature too quickly and feel horrible all the time don’t have the energy or time to work on their issues
It’s almost like characters who are ALSO abused and go through the trauma of losing their family way too early with no support, and have deep rooted self hatred that will take a LONG time to root out and deal with aren’t the characters to help other characters deal with their ingrained racism on top of abuse and early maturity(imagine yourself having a kid at 18. Stolas did. He was abused during this time.)
Yes they both have issues, yes they both have trauma, yes Stolas was/is abused/being abused by Stella
I love you Stolas, no one could EVER make me hate you. I love extremely complex, morally fucked up characters who have done fucked up things and are trying to fix it the best way they can.
