Lily

we saw it throughout the climax: hori's regret, hori and the mother's reconciliation, minato's acceptance—these are all forgiveness in some ways, for another persons and for yourself. forgiveness seemed impossible for saori whose anger had been shrugged off and for hori who had almost jumped even and for minato who ruined someone's life for his own safety and so it is something grand, something that's almost a victory won after long, straining battle where everything in your world has piled up into a mess, and so it's fitting that forgiveness is the breaking point allowing everything to go back to the very beginning—allowing rebirth.

the bad end route doesn't satisfy me because it doesn't allow rebirth to fully happen: what kind of second chance the mother and hori will get without minato-yori? it strips the kids away from the very stories that would allow the mother and hori to have a second chance. what kind of second chance minato gets with himself in a world that doesn't bother him, where he could live his life to the fullest anyways? that strips his struggle away from the very story that even allowed him to forgive himself in the first place.

minato-yori dying would leave the stories in the living world empty they would become completely different stories. like you don't get an ending with an afterlife bc nothing happens and nothing would break it's just A Thing and I feel like it would betray the whole movie which has grabbed us by the collar to show the complexities of humans n their social lives. you won't get an ending in the real life either—whatever it was that they have faced, they would have to face it again.

Such a bittersweet movie. Deserves all the awards.

The difference between food allergy, sensitivity, and intolerance.

Allergy. This is the classic anaphylaxis.

Sensitivity. This is caused by allergies, but the risk here isn't anaphylaxis. It's inflammation in gut that can cause fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, generalized ick feeling.

Intolerance. Your body is literally unable to process the food. It lacks the ability to, which means the food causes inflammation in the gut, causing similar symptoms as sensitivity.

Sensitivities will show up on an allergy test. Intolerance has to take a different test specific for that type of intolerance.

I mention this because I see a lot of fake claiming food allergies that's like "Yeah but I cross contaminated the food with eggs and that didn't kill her. She must be lying." Yeah food sensitivities can be pretty mild. Where if you give them an egg salad, they're gonna be having a bad day. But if you rub egg on their burger, they may not even notice.

Also like there's a lot of medical conditions that can affect a person's diet. They may have stomach issues that means they can't eat a lot of acidic foods, and if saying "Hey, I'm allergic to pineapple" gets you to not put pineapple juice in their drink because it'll cause a flare-up. I'm all for people doing whatever they need to make sure their health is taken seriously. Even if it's outright lying because food allergies is the only fucking thing people seem to take seriously in this world.

Anyways take people's "I can't eat this food" seriously. And don't fake claim them if they go "I can't eat this food but I'm not at risk if there's cross contamination"

Mary and Thomas are so alike as lonely souls who try to be honest with themselves and go against social conventions. It makes them bitter people under cold facades, constantly lashing out only to be more misunderstood. They have so much to offer to the world but have always met with disappointments. Their existential angst is real and that's why I love them.

Only wish more people could see their true selves.

THIS IS NOT A STOLAS SLANDER POST. I'm coming from a place where I've seen Blitz being mostly, if not entirely blamed for their lack of communication most of the time.

Moving on...

People keep going like "Well if imps are so low in the hierarchy..." - Let's take a break to think. Blitz isn't rich, he's just getting by really. And how is he getting by?

By prostituting himself. To the upper class.

That's what it is, he's a certified whxre. Things may have evolved in the meantime, but that's how it started. Blitz got asked for the deal while being chased by a crazy lady and him, wanting to keep his business and livelihood, said yes, obviously.

Now Stolas was suddenly taking the book back with no apparent explanation (until they got to the crystal), so of course Blitz thought he was doomed. On a side note, why couldn't Stolas say "You won't need the book, I have an alternative" instead of the ominous "I'll need the book back, permanently. I have made up my mind." I would be scared out of my mind.

He teared up immediately and started pleading, you could already see what was going through his head. He won't have the means to support his business anymore, to pay his employees, to afford a home, he'll be homeless and have no means to take care of Loona. Everyone will leave him again and he will starve on the streets all alone.

He'd do anything to be able to live a life a bit better than miserable, of course he would.

And this brings me to Stolas's treatment of Blitz. I see that everything tends to fall on Blitz, and I'm not saying he has no fault (in fact I didn't even like him at the beginning of the series too much), but Stolas treated him like a peasant. Just the episode before Ozzie's he's called him his "impish little plaything" and asked for a reward for the rescue. He put out cigarettes on his horns, he ignored his "stop" most times, he addressed him in this little baby voice with babying diminutives. "Itty bitty" imp.

And I am sure Stolas is socially clueless. He was brought up alone and sheltered, taught to be a prince first and foremost.

Stolas probably saw this as playful banter, as something that is inoffensive, silly. It was only in the Ozzie's episode that he finally saw that actually, his silly play served to make Blitz feel smaller.

And of course in this scenario, Blitz would see this coming out of the nether. He reacted quite badly, but why would this prince be actually in love with him? As he said, he needed to have a minute (or several) to think about everything. They needed to talk this out, and Blitz was about to apologize when Stolas cast him out.

They were both emotionally charged. They fucked up. But I can see Blitz's side. And the power imbalance is so evident, that hierarchy that everyone keeps saying is irrelevant - in a moment's notice, he could have his life swept from underneath him. Just like he thought it happened in that split moment; it worried him so much that he cried and pleaded (and that's not in Blitz's character to do).

And then he was so scared of not being enough too, ugh, his little "I can always do better!". He's so used to everyone just seeing him as a lost cause, better to be discarded. With this amalgamation of things, no wonder he can't believe Stolas would have feelings for him.

So uh, I don't know what the conclusion to this is. Normalize getting imps some actual comfort? So far the only really privileged imp in Helluva Boss is Fizz after getting rid of Mammon. And when I say priviledged, I'm referring to wealth and upper class, not taking into account personal issues such as disability and so forth.

Blitz, who isn’t good with expressing his emotions to begin with, is overloaded by this and lashes out like FUCK YOU HOLD THE FUCK UP GIVE ME A MINUTE DONT JUST WALK AWAY YOU ASSHOLE WE AREN’T DONE YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST THROW ME AWAY YOU RICH ASS BITCH???

So OF COURSE this confirms for Stolas that Blitz doesn’t feel the same way AND EVEN WORSE doesn’t even LIKE him

SO HE THROWS HIM OUT

RIGHT as Blitz was starting to understand

RIGHT when it clicked

RIGHT when it could have turned into a real conversation

RIGHT WHEN BLITZ REALIZES STOLAS ACTUALLY DOES CARE AND ACTUALLY DOES LOVE HIM