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a concept: stolas going to hell’s equivalent of substance use treatment and getting barbie as a peer support/sponsor. they hit it off, are able to be real with each other in a way that is really healing for them both, but one time when stolas is low barbie shares about her relationship with her brother and stolas is losing his mind thinking “…no fucking way. it can’t be.” but it is.

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stolas & octavia make me want to sob. everything terrible in stolas' life transpired for the creation of octavia. octavia's creation saved stolas from everything terrible that transpired in his life. both of these statements are true.

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tbh if you want to muse on stolas’ intentions and decision-making you need to be be considering the fact that he spent 17+ years trying to escape the unwanted life set out for him by 1) drinking 2) consuming romantic fiction

it will help you immensely i promise

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Stolas really is a character of all time because every first impression you have of him is dead wrong or twisted sideways.

He’s hyper-sexual to the point of being overbearing? He’s hasn’t been sexually satisfied until well into adulthood and only becomes so when someone comes onto him. He’s pursuing an affair, so he must be self-absorbed? He’s given up his entire life to his father’s wishes and his daughter’s needs; this affair is the only thing he’s ever chosen for himself. He’s a bad husband? He’s been continuously abused by his wife for years and is finally breaking free of her influence. He doesn’t care about Blitzø’s feelings? The second Blitzø grants him a glance into his emotional state Stolas course corrects to try to do well by him.

The over-confident, in control, selfish apparition we’re presented with is wiped away until we see the caged, lonely, self-sacrificing demon underneath.

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tbh I don’t think Stolas stopped using the Blitzy nickname in s2ep2 because he suddenly came to the realization that Blitzø found its diminutive nature demeaning. Blitzø… could not be emotionally vulnerable enough to explain to Stolas why he had misgivings about it. Stolas isn’t a mind reader! I think he stopped using it because he had meant the nickname as something sweet and affectionate (unbeknownst to Blitzø, who really couldn’t fathom that intention for various reasons), and he didn’t believe it would be appropriate to use something like that after the fight they had on how their relationship WASN’T sweet and affectionate at the end of season one. That’s why it creeps back in in s2ep4 when Stolas’ main emotional arc becomes trying to figure out ‘Does Blitzø like me romantically or is it just a transaction between us?’

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Would love to see fandom pump out some speculative content on Charlie & Husk’s relationship.

How does Husk square Charlie’s positive influence on sinners he’s become close to, like Angel, while knowing the Overload who has his soul on contract is her greatest benefactor and someone she holds in esteem? Is Charlie somewhat oblivious to the power Alastor holds over Husk? Wouldn’t she be furious if she knew Alastor had Husk cowering in front him? He is her bartender, after all, and the sinners of the hotel are her family.

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The conflict inherent to Stoliz is a feature, not a bug.

To preface: these are two demons who want to be together. That really isn't in question. They keep pictures of each other on their phones, help each other out when it comes to what's important (their daughters), and save each other's asses. Stolas thinks Blitzø's jokes are the height of comedy, and Blitzø has in Stolas someone who appreciates his fascinating attempts at humor; this, more than anything else, speaks to a base compatibility.

Why aren't they together is the question, and, happily, it leads to an interesting answer! If you're holding your couple apart, there should be good reasons for that. Nothing turns one off a couple like forced conflict. If conflict is convoluted, one can start questioning: why are these characters so incompetent? If they can't figure out something so simple how can we expect them to navigate an established relationship? Stoliz, well... they have so much shit to navigate I really can't blame them for fucking it up.

Yes, there's the external pressures. Striker is a reflection of it; he highlights the class divide between Blitzø and Stolas every time he comes on screen. Something Blitzø is deeply aware of and Stolas is coming to realize.

There's also major personality characteristics that mesh so poorly one might want to bang their head against the wall. Luckily, these characteristics are actually things that Blitzø and Stolas need to grow out of to be more functional for themselves. The fact that it will lead to them being capable of holding a relationship together is a sweet consequence of the fact, and, if I dare say so, damn good writing.

Stolas is a character who is haunted by inaction. He's passive and has been since childhood. His relationship with Stella is a reflection of that. It's not something to blame him for, but it doesn't serve him in getting what he needs. It makes him fairly miserable, in fact. The show isn't subtle about it; he needs happy pills to get through the day.

You can see this trait come out in his relationship with Blitzø when, confronted with his obligations, he hides behind a menu at Ozzie's to avoid dealing with the repercussions of standing up for himself and his wants. This is something he's been working on, and we can see it in his relationship with Stella: against his father's wishes and royal society, he demands a divorce and engages in a not-relationship with Blitzø. This puts him in active danger; Stella wants his head. Things with Octavia become more complicated. And yet: he needs to do it, in order to make life more than merely bearable for himself.

Stolas is also someone who is not great at reading other people's emotional states. His relationship conflicts with Octavia are a reflection of that. There are multiple episodes where he doesn't catch onto her sadness or dislike. But he always, always, apologies and attempts to empathize the second he is made aware of his ignorance. He loves very deeply and very much, and he wants what's best for those he cares about. Octavia is a teenager, so it's understandable that she has trouble conveying what she needs from her father as her family fractures around her. But this brings us to...

Blitzø. Because Blitzø struggles heavily with communicating his needs. Worse, he seems to only be semi-aware of what his needs are. He shies away from even acknowledging he has a thing for Stolas, because it would force him to acknowledge other things that are hard for him: that he's vulnerable, that he's hopeful, that he wants to try despite everything. He holds everything in, denying himself, until it bursts out or reveals itself in twisted up ways. Such as obsessing over Millie and Moxxie's loving relationship, something he can't bring himself to admit he wants, or his near breakdown in the car after Ozzie's, where he finally reveals parts of himself he's been holding separate from Stolas.

Blitzø also has severe self-worth issues and barricades his heart behind two tons of concrete. It's not something to blame him for, but it doesn't serve him in getting what he needs. He almost requires that Stolas be a towering figure incapable of getting hurt, someone who only wants to use him for sexual favors, because it confirms his worldview. The belief that he's not able to hold a loving relationship and that everything he touches is made a mess. We hear him tell Fizz that Stolas has been asking over him, trying to connect, but Blitzø in unwilling to consider positive meanings for any of it. He’s stuck inside his bubble of critical reflection.

Mid-way through season two, and we've reached a delicious crossroads. Stolas is aware, now, that their arrangement has been hurting Blitzø, because of his outburst after their date at Ozzie's. He's been reflecting on it ever since. We can glean this through his songs, and the way he's been looking into obtaining a crystal for Blitzø that will break-off their arrangement all throughout season two.

Neither of these two are good at being upfront and honest. Their text-log that's shown following Stolas' hospitalization is a lesson in writing miscommunication and fits their particular brands of communicative failure perfectly (it's a bit of a crime they're so blink-and-you-miss-it). They've been avoiding the very real break in their relationship following Ozzie's... until. Now. Soon. Stolas is going to give Blitzø the crystal. And it’s going to be a hard tilt into something real that frankly they very likely are not ready for.

It’s prime drama. It’s necessary tension. And it’s compelling as fuck. Both characters are sketched out nicely, and it tickles to see them bump up against each other. It's because they're both so fully realized, with their own individual flaws, that they're able to have this conflict. I love them for those flaws. I love them because it’s a struggle to get on the same page. It does not come naturally, and yet they keep trying because they’re pulled to each other. Mwah. The effort, the mutual effort, they have to put in makes it more special.

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I’ve never felt more aroace than when playing Baldur’s Gate 3. I figure if you know, You Know.

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Wyllstarion but with the monster/monster hunter vibes brought to the forefront.

Wyll, in any universe where they’re not sharing tadpoles, staking Astarion through the heart and patting himself on the back for a job well done. Perhaps later crafting a story for The Blade of Frontiers where he valiantly defeats a vampire lord and, as an afterthought, throws in the detail that he killed a vamp-spawn as collateral (he only remembers this nameless foe because he had pretty hair, unlike the rest).

Wyll easily getting along with Karlach because she’s not a devil she’s a tiefling, it was all a trick by his evil patron to make him mistakenly take innocent life, but Astarion is different. Astarion is very much a vampire spawn and so cannot be moved like Karlach into a neat box labeled ‘person’, where charm and kindness and openness are earned. Astarion will always crave blood, crave life.

The constant hyper-vigilant vibes of: ‘If you try anything I’ll kill you, and I’m always expecting you to try something’. Every cruel choice made by Astarion taken and added to a tally in Wyll’s mind to condemn him, and every neutral action, every flippant joke that really is just a joke, twisted into something more sinister.

Wyll, being forced into a devilish form by Mizora, thinking: who could understand? No one but the other monster at camp. The disgust at finding familiarity in the monstrous. The black-and-white thinking being churned into a pit of grey. Astarion is good-looking in the same breath as Astarion is an abomination. Every simple, beautiful heroic tale Wyll loves being shredded as he finds himself longing for the imperfect but comforting embrace of the undead.

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I think some things about Astarion’s writing would start making sense to people if it was understood that Larian had their cake and ate it too.

He is a character with a narrative plagued by issues of consent and trauma, and he is also the game’s purposeful sex symbol.

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wyllstarion is top tier because you know they would get in constant arguments with each other (esp. early on) and, contrary to what one would expect, this would be the best thing for them individually.

These two men are so stubborn and so entrenched in their understanding of their place in the world that they really need to romance someone coming at them from a different angle, with the same ferocity, to knock them a bit askew.

They would inspire growth in each other through sheer force of presence and then stick around, as the push-pull attraction deepened into commitment, to kiss the growing pains.