Overall thoughts about short 13 of helluva boss:
[Pt: Overall thoughts about short 13 of helluva boss]
I know I don't usually do "reviews" or talk much about plot centered criticism (representation is usually what I go for), but upon watching this short, I had a surprising amount of thoughts and feelings about it. So I figured it could be interesting! Let me know if you guys would like to hear more of this from me^^
Either way, on to my thoughts abt the short:
- if there's a SINGLE MORE MLM FREAKY SCENE of some RANDOM ASS CHARACTERS I'm fucking losing it. They're not beating the "underrepresenting sapphic relationships and keeping them """chaste"" on screen" argument before their billionth example of "freaky gay men as a punchline™".
- Stolas is such a painful Viv self insert in my eyes. It's so clear why he's her favorite and how hard she projects onto him this episode.
- in correlation to the former, I know it's the writing team putting all the quirks and cliches possible in a short bc there's the fun of the episode. But at the same time, it's so painfully clear how all these tropes—from the way the action packed scenes are written, to the dialogue, twists, characters, the cheesy one liners—are patterns the writing team itself is guilty of.
Therefore, I personally can't find any genuine enjoyment if the episode that's supposed to be the "purposefully badly written fanfic by the characters" is almost the exact same as any other episode of the show. To me, it fails tremendously at self awareness via pulling the same tricks they've shown in the plot itself, and keeping that very low bar of quality rather than having a compromise towards making a decent or even well written narrative. This "self awareness" only shows that they KNOW what they might be doing wrong in the show, and actively choose to ignore it with the excuse of "having fun with it" (saying that fun is subjective, but that it is an extremely bad excuse to justify writing a terrible story via implying that well written stories aren't "fun to make". Also clarifying that this is the unofficial, personal conclusion that I get from this, as a viewer.)
- There was a HUUGE missed chance to make Stolas use fiction as a coping mechanism towards his seemingly acquired trauma about the whole Striker thing (talking abt one very specific scene that had the exact same setup). And at the very least SHOW PREVIOUS SIGNS OF THAT HAPPENING. But fuck me for connecting the dots ig.
(this scene ↑) (+ edit: I'm now aware that in the S3 snippet he fell asleep whilst writing a fanfic, and THEN had the stereotypical and unrealistic PTSD from striker in said dream. It COULD be possible that he was coping via writing there? But as far as I know it's unspecified if he does that at all. Feel free to tell me if I'm missing something!)
- Also worth mentioning the Stolitz fanservice of "wow look at how much Stolas exacerbated how cool and badass blitz is!! Isn't that cute?" falls very flat imo. It's just tried so hard. And there could've been a really great chance to delve into whether or not Stolas romanticized Blitz's job, as he did romanticize his entire being in that one S3 snippet of his dreams. It could've really been a nice chance to show how Stolas idealized so much the report and had fun with Moxie, only for the latter to actually realize that Stolas GENUINELY romanticized all that and didn't see the gruel or extremely unsavory side of it all. And even worse, STILL held a notable preference towards romanticizing the working class itself.
- The relationship between Moxie and Stolas was very cute. Unfortunately, it's also something that I can't fully enjoy due to the trillion plot holes and missing development between the "autonomous hitman of an independent business struggling with keeping his job due to classicism and social stigma" and the "extremely classicist character who's lost all power and is now within the same business". The narrative simply wanted them to get along, and so they did. Although it may be cute, it is bland and "easy going" bc the writers want everyone to be fond of Stolas, rather than having him work towards being a better person and treating others right or even ACKNOWLEDGING that he may need to gain other's trust or that not everyone will support him due to his background and actitudes.
- major nitpick but I'm already so tired of the supposed "wow guys look they're besties on equal standing!" whilst Moxie is consistently calling Stolas "your highness" with the latter not correcting him. Ever.
If they really WERE getting closer, then Stolas—if he's as nice as the plot wants us to believe—would tell Moxie to call him just by his name. Because Stolas has absolutely nothing! He's not nobility anymore, he has no eldritch powers, no social political, social or economic power—his birth given status and title has been removed!
Why is he allowing his supposed "equals in the working environment" to still treat him as nobility when he's not?! (This makes for a great anti-stolas analysis, but also for a critique towards the writing bc they want us to see Stolas as just the same as the workers at I.M.P even though they make no effort towards addressing the former power imbalance/differing class experiences in their "pro working class show" smh)
- I am so glad I pirated it and no longer support SH nor Viv ♥️
