#NOT TO MENTION her opinion about Octavia

[wishful-thinking64]

One Hell of an Unpopular Opinion #03

Characters like Barbie Wire, Chaz, Crimson, Octavia, and Stella only exist as plot devices to garner sympathy for other characters. _______ I knew fully well that Chaz and Crimson were going to merely be plot devices for Moxxie the more I watched Exes & Oohs. And sure enough, Chaz was killed at the end of that very episode and Crimson is yet another wacky cartoon villain that the narrative expects for you to take seriously. Both of these characters existed so that the audience could gain sympathy (or at least pity) for Moxxie being raised in a Mafia family and having been abused as a child along with being betrayed by his ex-boyfriend (who also happened to be Millie's ex-boyfriend for some reason.) Other than Moxxie's Mafia family upbringing making zero sense the more you think about it, Viv has basically done this exact backstory before in the form of Angel Dust (with the whole mobster backstory who was also abused by his father.) However, the Exes & Oohs episode and title actually stems from one of the HH mockup episodes that was originally about Charlie and Vaggie coming across Charlie's ex, Seviathan (yes, that's what Viv named him), and his sister, Helsa, while they were at a dinner party.

Now, do I think Chaz and Crimson could've had the potential to be good characters? In all honesty, no. Especially not Chaz. The guy is a harmful stereotype of pansexual people and how, "They'll sleep with anyone," which no, they won't. I'm not pansexual myself but that thought process is as gross as it is fucking stupid. The only person who I've seen even re-writing Chaz has been Loves Art23 (I mainly know her for YouTube videos being critical on Hazbin Hotel + Helluva Boss along with other shows like the disaster known as High Guardian Spice) and I think she's done a fairly good job so kudos to her for making him work. Personally, though I'm scrapping him as that gives me one less character to worry about when re-writing HB. Crimson would have to be heavily and I mean HEAVILY reworked/re-written in order for him to make any actual sense. That and I'm tired of every character having some variation of the same daddy issues in the Hellaverse. Which means he's also gonna get axed from me. Moving onto the ladies I mentioned, let's start off with Barbie Wire.

Having been foreshadowed since the pilot of I.M.P. (as seen when Tilla was still Barb's and Blitzo's older sister rather than their mother) Barbie Wire was an anticipated character by fans for years! And then her actual appearance finally happened in Unhappy Campers, an episode hated by practically everyone who saw it, and no one really cared about her showing up, other than the fact that the writers thought that having her seduce a BARELY legal adult would make for a good joke, when in reality, it only made everybody uncomfortable and several people dislike Barbie because of it. Sure, near the end of the episode she had that "emotional" scene with Blitzo that wants the viewers to feel bad for him and Barbie before she left but in the long run it didn't matter as fans barely even talk about it because of how uneventful it truly was. So, with that out of the way, would I keep Barbie Wire around for a rewrite of HB? To that I say, yes! There are several paths Barbie Wire's overall character could go in. If you're mainly sticking to canon, then what you have to work with is a former circus performer who lost her mother in a fire caused by her twin brother that left his own best friend to rot and be disabled for the rest of his life. It's very likely that this very fire, caused her to be out of a job and probably even homeless for a bit which could explain why she ended up becoming both a drug attic and a drug dealer. Homelessness is one of the few things that nobody wants to experience. It causes people to be filled with a sense of overwhelming loneliness and desperation as many of them either believe that there's nothing they can do or they do anything and everything that they can to get out of it even if that means resorting to crime. If you wanted to have her be loosely based on canon instead, you could make it to where she never learned about who started the fire and actually stuck with Blitzo well into adulthood. Have her become one of the members of I.M.P. and later down the line have her learn through someone like Fizz or maybe Cash (her and Blitzo's father) what actually went down that day. Have her be rightfully pissed off at Blitzo for screwing over multiple people along with being the one responsible for killing their mom. Anyway, let's proceed onto Stella and her daughter Octavia.

As much as the narrative wants me to hate Stella with a burning passion cause she hurts Stolas, I can't do it for multiple reasons but I'll list my top three. #01.) Stella's just as (if not even more so) stuck in this arranged loveless marriage as Stolas is. #02.) If the man I had no choice in marrying not only cheated on me with a man from one of the lowest classes in all of Hell but IN OUR OWN HOME & SHARED BEDROOM NO LESS? OH, FUCK NO!

#03.) This woman had to spend 9 months having to nourish and care for a baby inside her stomach that she had with a man that didn't even want to sleep with her. On top of that, she had to have become pregnant with Octavia when she was a young adult since current day Stolas and Stella are only in their mid 30s. I need you to let that information sink in.

In short, I can't hate Stella for loathing Viv's pathetic self insert bird twink with every fiber of her being.

Having said that, would I have Stella in my HB rewrite? Well, considering that I plan on keeping the war that happened in the bible that caused Lucifer and several angels to fall from grace, one of which being Stolas. Kind of. Allow me to elaborate, I would keep Stella as Octavia's mother but I wouldn't have her marry Stolas. I'd have her be a surrogate mother that way Stolas still gets an heir and Octavia could still exist. Speaking of Octavia...

We all know that she exists to make Stolas look like a better person as several stans of this show love to say how much of a good dad Stolas is when he isn't. He neglects Octavia frequently in favor of Blitzo and only pays attention to her when she's gone although EVEN THAT doesn't last long as shown in Seeing Stars where HE KNEW Octavia was missing on Earth but rather than ACTIVELY look for his daughter, what does he do? HE SITS THROUGH A STUPID LIVE COMEDY SHOW CAUSE BLITZO IS PERFORMING! HE COMPLETELY SIDELINES HIS OWN DAUGHTER IN FAVOR OF A LIVE COMEDY SHOW!

God, Octavia deserves so much better than to have a dad like him. I'm keeping Octavia for my HB rewrite so that this poor girl not only realizes how much of a bastard her dad is but eventually gets the found family she deserves. I don't plan for it to be through I.M.P. though. In closing, the characters of this show deserve to be better developed but especially the women in them.

_______

That was a long one to get through cause it's been on my mind for a while. Thank you all for reading through it and bye for now everybody!

[gudvina]

In regarding to Effie/Hayffie (just briefly mentioned but i will include it) I feel like Katniss being a limited narrator (in the sense that she doesn't take a third party approach, and tells her story from the point of view she held while living its events) is something that's important to take in consideration.

What we do know of book Haymitch and book Effie (more so the latter) is limited to what Katniss sees firsthand.

Solely speaking about Effie, Katniss tells us a few things:

1. she's compassionate towards her and Peeta, and towards other victors too ("Oh, not Cecilia..." and her talking about Chaff)

2. Haymitch has an habit of defending her, and she does the same in the limits of her capacity

3. She is very observant; she sees that Katniss isn't able to sleep and gives her sleeping pills. She cares.

4. She was the one who proposed the tokens for the 75th HG.

Of course we don't get her full point of view or opinion, but that'd because Katniss genuinely didn't know, nor does she know about what happened to her in MJ until Flavius, Venia and Octavia tell her.

There is a lot that's said between the lines, that's easily forgettable but that make up her character and give us more context about what goes on with her.

Again, she's a character that's highly open to interpretation, because we don't know anything about her apart from these little tidbits Katniss shows us, and so it goes with Hayffie, if we want to make a stretch.

We only know that they often bicker, but we also see her defend Haymitch's role as a mentor, ally with him for Katniss and Peeta's sake and, again, we are told Haymitch will defend Effie.

And we are also told, in the end, that Haymitch and Plutarch take great pain to keep her alive.

Can't stress enough that the interpretations are endless, but the idea of Effie being more than a morally grey character (like an antagonist, or worse, a villain) is a stretch, given what we do know about her.

[autumnmobile12]

Helluva Boss S2 Trailer:  “You don’t love mother and you don’t love me!”

I have a problem with this line, and I’ve had a problem with Octavia’s character for awhile now, so I’m going to talk about it.

To cut her some slack, her house and family life is a mess.  Fighting parents, cheating dad, feeling neglected by both parents, and she’s a teenager on top of that.  I get it.  Moody, angsty teen with a really good reason for being moody and angsty.

And Stolas isn’t blameless in all this.  With the cheating, he’s actively a problem, but we can see that he loves his ‘little owlet.’  But he is a terrible father.  In the Seeing Stars episode, I thought that it was going to be a lot more Stolas and Octavia-centric on their relationship, but no.  He and Blitzo spend most of the time looking for her just dicking around in some human comedy act when they really didn’t need to be there.  Seriously, it wouldn’t have been the first time Blitzo massacred a group of humans to get out of an awkward situation, but if Stolas is so concerned about his daughter, then why didn't he do something about their situation? If he loves his daughter so much, why is he okay with this distraction? He's not even the one who gets him out of it in the end.  That was the first time Helluva Boss actually disappointed me.  I don’t think the brief bit of backstory we got with Blitzo and Loona justified the rest of that whole bit, so it was really pointless.  That piece could have been handled better.

Throughout the Stolitz ship, Stolas is 100% ignoring Octavia.  But terrible dad aside, the line from the Season 2 trailer, “You don’t love Mother and you don’t love me!” should be emotional.

Except…. “You don’t love Mother….”

…why would he?

Does Octavia not see what a violent, toxic bitch her mom is?  She has seen her screaming, getting violent, and throwing things. I suppose Octavia could have the opinion that Stella's anger is justified with the cheating and all, but then that explanation implies she thinks reacting violently like that is acceptable behavior. And let’s not forget Stella straight up ordered a hit on Stolas, which nearly succeeded.  Does Octavia not know about this?  Again, Stolas being a terrible dad for not taking steps to get the daughter he supposedly loves away from the psycho who ordered an assassination, but did none of this get back to Octavia?

Not that any of it makes Stolas' infidelity okay. If you're unhappy in a relationship, leave it. But with the way Stella behaves, there's no rational way Octavia can expect her parents to love each other. It sucks to be the child in that position, especially a teen still figuring things out, but that is very much an 'it is what it is' situation and you gotta make the best of it in whatever way you can.

As it stands, it isn't fair for Octavia to entirely blame Stolas for their family falling apart.

"You don't love mother and you don't love me," makes it sound like Octavia is consciously choosing her violent, narcissistic witch of mother over her dad. This also doesn't make sense with the plot because there's no sign of Octavia having a close relationship with her mom. There are no portraits of them together in a loving embrace as we see with her and Stolas. Plus, Stella doesn't care about Octavia. The only two times in the show she vaguely mentions her is as the 'one egg that finally dropped out of her' and when she and Andrealphus are discussing the inheritance that will go to Octavia. She doesn't care about Stolas either. The only effect the cheating had on her was the idea of public embarrassment for their family.

Neither of Octavia's parents care for her the way they should, so for the, "You don't love mother and you don't love me," line to work to its fullest impact, it should have been phrased as, “You don’t love me!  Neither you or Mom love me!”

I do love Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel…but Octavia’s character is really poorly handled.  I remember it being said in an interview that Helluva Boss does have heavier focus on its male characters while Hazbin Hotel was supposed to be more female-centric, but when it comes to Octavia, that structure in the storytelling is crumbling under its own weight. There is a story here and it has some major gaps that need addressing.

To give them some benefit of doubt, maybe this’ll be addressed in an episode before that line hits, so maybe it’ll make more sense. Or they could make it clear she said it out of anger.  At least, I hope so because I really need some righteous retribution for how Stolas behaves with his daughter.

...

Edit for clarity: The point of this post is a criticism of the lack of story we get for Octavia that justifies her motives, not a criticism of why she herself behaves the way that she does. The dysfunctional family is heavy stuff and since it is a front and center issue with Stolas' background, it needs more attention than the series gives it.

[markerofthemidnight]

Why Is Alastor So Weirdly Protective Of Charlie (And/Or Why Does He Hate Lucifer So Much)?

So I’m sure we’ve all seen the newest episodes. Wow, am I right? A whole load to unpack there!

The main thing that really caught my attention, though, was Alastor. Specifically, his actions towards Charlie and especially Lucifer in episode 5.

Well… there’s not really much to say about why it’s weird, is there? So, without any further ado, here’s my thoughts.

In Dad Beat Dad, Alastor engages in a whole-ass musical number about how he’s better than Lucifer and, specifically, better at being Charlie’s dad than him. He seems to do this… solely to piss him off.

And, honestly, that makes sense. Because no matter how deadbeat a dad Lucifer was, Alastor is nowhere near better than him. This is the same dude who called Charlie’s dream wacky nonsense and continuously stressed that he was only there for the entertainment.

There’s no way in hell (ba-dum-tish) that that dude suddenly developed paternal instincts for her in what couldn’t have been more than a few months. So, clearly, it must be to piss him off. But why?

Well, one of the popular theories about Alastor is that the one who gave him his powers is Lilith. I shouldn’t have to explain why this makes sense: both gone for seven years, and of course the first time he’s seen since his disappearance is after Charlie’s voicemail to her mom.

And he must be very loyal to her, to assist her daughter in a dream that he explicitly states he thinks is bullshit.

It would also explain how pissed he is when Husk brings it up: maybe it wasn’t the fact that he brought up that he also made a deal, but that he implied that his relationship with said patron is less than healthy. You know, he don’t want people to speak about his girl like that. (guys don’t worry I know al is aroace it’s just a joke he’s her personal bodyguard)

So, it’s safe to say that Alastor is very loyal to and protective of Lilith, an attitude which must extend to Charlie, yes? Yes, but that doesn’t explain the general pettiness of his relationship with Lucifer.

Well, we just established that Alastor is loyal to and protective of Lilith, that would do practically anything for her. So do we know any character that Al has a similar relationship with?…

Oh, right.

His mother.

It’s been confirmed via Word of Vivienne that Alastor is totally a mama’s boy and adores her above all else. So, it’s not much of a stretch to say that he sees Lilith as a sort of second mother figure, right?

So, inversely, it’s not much of a stretch to say that he would associate Lucifer with his father.

Think about it. Have we ever heard his father be mentioned anywhere? No. And knowing that daddy issues are TOTALLY a long-running theme in Vivziepop stories by now (Blitz, Stolas, Moxxie, Octavia, technically Loona, Charlie, probably Angel to some extent), who’s to say Alastor can’t be the same?

Now, this is kind of a stretch, but I propose that Alastor’s first victim was his own father, whom he killed and cannibalised as revenge for years of abuse to him, and even more so, his mother.

That’s why he hates Lucifer so much. He doesn’t want to be anywhere near him, he doesn’t want him anywhere near Lilith, and it seems he especially doesn’t want him anywhere near Charlie.

Which makes sense, if we apply the logic from earlier to her. If he sees his mother in Lilith and his father in Lucifer, it’s possible he sees Charlie as a younger, more innocent version of himself: both theatrical dreamers, both never fully dressed without a smile, both incredibly emotional when it comes to the protection of those they care about.

It’s also safe to say that, no matter how egotistical he pretends to be, Alastor probably doesn’t have a very high opinion of himself, given how in the pilot he outright says that inside every demon (which INCLUDES himself, by the way) is a lost cause. Maybe it’s possible he sees her as himself before everything went wrong.

So, as it turns out, he’s actually less of a dad to Charlie and more of a big brother. And… I think that’s a lot more fitting for him.

TLDR: Alastor’s weird grudge against Lucifer is because he associates him with his abusive father. That and his loyalty to Lilith and Charlie are two things that, if I’m right, will probably prove to be very important to understanding Alastor as a character.

[flower-boi16]

Top 5 Best & Worst Characters in Hellaverse

So, for the most part, Hellaverse has pretty meh to bad characters. Buuuuut, there are a few decent/good ones, so, just for fun, let's go over the top 5 best AND worst characters in Hellaverse (in my opinion).

5. (Worst) Stella

So Stella. Stella, Stella, Stella...you had so much potential to be interesting...but you just...aren't. Just for the record I don't think making Stella abusive is a retcon since it doesn't contradict any of her past behavior in season 1 minus like...one background painting.

That's not really my problem with Stella being abusive. My problem is that it makes her boring and the show does that as a way to woobify Stolas. Really not much to say, she's just...boring.

5. (Best) Octavia

It's pretty funny how Octavia is pretty much the most beloved character in the critical community. She's both decently likable and is a bit interesting when you look at her, as she's a girl who was negatively affected by her fathers' actions and is dealing with the negative changes that have happened to her due to her parents always arguing...

...also her father is Stolas so she is therefore the most sympathetic character by default. Really, there aren't that many good characters in either Hazbin or Helluva, and Octavia isn't an amazing character, she only appears in like, two episodes, but she's still fine by herself and is one of Viv's better characters.

4. (Worst) Charlie

I already made a full post about the issues with my problems with Charlie as a character so I won't once again go very deeply here. You're probably wondering why Charlie is even here to begin with since I stated that I don't exactly hate her.

...well, just because I don't hate a character doesn't really mean I like that character. A majority of Hazbin's characters have similar problems of not being that developed at all and the development they do have often feels rushed. The reason why I put Charlie as the 4th worst character in Hellaverse is because, well, out of every character in Hazbin's main cast...Charlie is just kind of the one with the biggest issues.

Again, I already talked about my issues with Charlie in my post about her but just to recap; Charlie suffers from being heavily underdeveloped, she isn't a very compelling protagonist and has 0 growth throughout the show. She learns absolutely nothing. Her mentality is never once challenged by the narrative and she is always portrayed as right and anyone who disagrees with her is automatically wrong, and she also feels heavily overshadowed by the rest of the cast despite being the main character.

Charlie is also not the best person at times like some people have pointed out (she KNOWS THAT ANGEL IS BEING ABUSED and she chooses not to do anything about it. Wow, what a great friend), and overall she kinda sucks as a protagonist.

4. (Best) Lucifer

I've seen Lucifer gain a lot of flak from people with them calling him a bad person and it's not entirely unjustified. I can definitely understand why it may be hard to sympathize with the guy who literally greenlit annual genocides of his own people because he thought that they deserved death.

Not to mention him calling Charlie a "failure" in the pilot which is just...never addressed here. Also it's fairly weird that despite Lucifer being the sin of pride...he isn't really prideful of anything...? So ya, there a few issues with Lucifer as a character.

In spite of that though, I don't think that Lucifer is a particularly bad character. If anything, he's actually one of the more well-developed of the main cast and he has an arc that's decently compelling...?

He initially started out as a dreamer, someone with many creative and imaginative ideas for Heaven, but his ideas were always rejected and he was seen as a troublemaker by the elders of Heaven.

After he was cast down to Hell as punishment for accidentally letting evil seep into the world, he lost his will to dream and fell into depression, having a heavily cynical view of Heaven and Hell due to his past experiences. He closes himself off and doesn't stay in contact with his loved ones, mainly his daughter due to his depression. He tries convincing Charlie into his cynical views because he doesn't want his own daughter to face the same crushing rejection he faced.

However, he reconnects with his daughter and brings back a spark in him that was lost long ago, and he promises to support Charlie and her dreams, despite his depression not immediately disappearing.

Admittedly that part is pretty rushed, like Charlie just says "but dad...mah people!!!!" and he's just like "ok". Again, it's not perfect and has some small issues, but compared to most of Hazbin and Helluva's other characters, Lucifer's arc is far more well-developed and is interesting in it's own right. If anything, Lucifer thinking that his people deserve death simply shows his cynical mindset that he's had for years, and Charlie's able to bring back that dreamer that was crushed long ago.

So ya. Lucifer is not amazing, but I like him. He's neat.

3. (Worst) Chaz

Chaz sucks. Chaz is a character that only exists just to make a bunch of unfunny sex jokes and nothing else. He is completely one-dimensional and is nothing more than a walking sex joke. And his "jokes" aren't even remotely funny.

I really don't have much to even say about Chaz. He's just THAT one-note.

3. (Best) Velvvette

I've talked about my thoughts on Velvvette before so I won't go too in depth here again. Buuut needless to say I think she's probably my favorite character in hellaverse. She's one of the few antagonists Viv's made that's actually entertaining and fun to watch, with a well-developed and charismatic personality that's not just "asshole who swears a lot". She isn't the best character in hellaverse though, but she has far more depth as a character compared to most of the other antagonists.

2. (Worst) Adam

I've spoken about my thoughts on Adam before multiple times so at this point I don't know if I have anything left to say about him. Adam is a boring, one-dimensional character with very little depth or personality as a character. He only exists just to be a pure straw character so he can be proven wrong by Charlie.

He can't have any real depth as a character because he only exists just to be torn down by the story. Again, already talked about that in a previous post so I won't go too in-depth here, but needless to say...ya, Adam still sucks.

2. (Best) Alastor

Like Lucifer, I've seen Alastor gain a heavy amount of criticism but personally, like Lucifer, I think Alastor is one of the better characters in the main cast. The has a sense of mystery and intrigue to him that makes him pretty interesting as a character. You're left wondering what his whole deal is & what he's planning.

That combined with Alastor's charisma makes him an entertaining antagonist for the show. He's one of the few characters that I'm interested in to see what they do with in the next season. So ya, I like Alastor...

Now time to get to a character that makes me want to punch myself in the face.

1. (Worst) Stolas

.....Honeslty what can even be said about Stolas that hasn't already been said? I've made so many posts complaining about this stupid owl and you already know my opinion of him at this point. If you really want to know every single critique of Stolas I have, read every post I've made that's tagged "anti stolas". But...I'll just say this.

Stolas could have been a good character. Hell, he could have been the show's BEST character. He had all the potential to be super interesting and compelling character with a great arc...but instead, Viv decided to completely retcon everything season 1 established in order to try and make Stolas an UwU soft boy the show REALLY wants us to sympathize for, in spite of Stolas being a bad person.

I'm sorry if I can't sympathize with the guy who SA's an lower class imp for his own pleasure and frequently neglects his own daughter and pays more attention to st. imp. And, as an artificial way to make Stolas sympathetic, the narrative has to wipe away any actual flaws he has and demonize any character that even remotely gets upset at his actions (which I talk about here), because god forbid we hold Stolas accountable for ANYTHING right? We have to coddle and absolve him of ALL his mistakes despite his flaws being what made him interesting in the first place.

Stolas NEVER grows or develops as a character because of this and so he has basically no character arc. Not only is he a poorly written mess of a character...he's also just BORING now. There's nothing interesting about him anymore, he's just an UwU sad sack. He had so much potential to be interesting but that potential was completely wasted in favor of this bullshit.

And THAT's what makes Stolas SO FRUSTRATING. Really, he pretty much represents HB, and, to an extent, all of Hellaverse as a whole; it started out good with a lot of interesting ideas and potential but through bad writing, all of that potential got squandered and now we're just left with a completely disappointing mess.

Stolas is the worst character in the show because he's the only one who legitimately FRUSTERATES me. He's my least favorite character in all of fiction and a complete mess.

1. (Best) Sera

I already talked about Sera before in a previous post so I won’t go too in depth here, but Sera is one of hellaverse’ better antagonists for having more depth and nuance as a character. She’s the head seraphim of Heaven and greenlit exterminations in order to protect Heaven….and Emily.

In spite of that though, she clearly doesn’t want to do this and is only doing it because she wanted to try and protect her people, and Emily, who she clearly cares deeply for as her older sister. She’s a lot more compelling as a character that most of hellaverse’ antagonists, not being good or evil but rather morally grey, having nuances to her as a character.

To me, Sera is the best character in all of Hellaverse because she's the one with the most nuance and depth compared to 90% of Viv's other characters, especially her antagonists. She actually has REAL DEPTH and complexities to her that make her a lot more interesting compared to most of Viv's characters. Hell, most of the characters in the best list are put there BECAUSE they are just more developed than most of the other characters (which just shows how bad Viv is at character writing)

Like Alastor, she's one of the few characters that I am interested in seeing what they do next with season 2, as she is likely going to get a redemption there. Well just have to see. But for now, Sera is the best character in all of Hellaverse.

So...ya...that was my top 5 best and worst characters in Hellaverse...

....bye.

[thishazbinamistake]

In my opinion, Loona is a character with some of the most wasted potential in Helluva Boss.

Though we don't have a ton of information about her background, we do know she lived in a shelter for much (or maybe even all) of her childhood. Loona is cold and distant to her adoptive father, and outright rude to many others, particularly Moxxie, who she constantly mocks and belittles. I'm thinking that this behavior is either a result of her upbringing, or perhaps it was even the reason she was put into the shelter to begin with. But until more is revealed about her past, I want to complain about the way she's currently written.

Loona is abusive, plain and simple. The way she treats Blitz, her adoptive father, goes way past simple angsty teenage rebellion and well into the abuse territory. Any semblance of Loona being remotely sympathetic was thrown out the window in Seeing Stars, when she kicks Blitz in the groin, all because he was relieved to see her and wanted to give her a hug. And all of that after she gives Octavia the "cut your dad some slack" speech.

I've seen people try and defend this behavior by pointing out that Loona has childhood trauma, and this is why she has these behavioral issues. It's certainly not unheard of for victims of childhood abuse/neglect to have anger issues and poor emotional regulation, and I would have absolutely no problem with this being the case if it was shown to actually be a problem, but it isn't. Not once does Loona get called out for her behavior or face any sort of consequence for treating others poorly. If anything, this abusive behavior is treated as a joke more often than not.

It's extremely ironic that one of the most despised characters in Helluva Boss, Stella, receives so much hate for being abusive towards Stolas, when we've seen Loona do far worse to Blitz. I honestly cannot think of a logical reason as to why we're supposed to like Loona, while also hating Stella. We see Stella nearly hit Stolas and it's (rightfully) treated as being abusive. But when Loona is constantly beating up her dad for no good reason, we're just supposed to laugh? It seems extremely hypocritical on both the writers' part, as well as many of the fans'. I honestly can't tell if the writers genuinely think this behavior is okay (when it's coming from Loona) or if they just see it as a quirky character trait of hers.

If we're supposed to find Loona likeable, which we clearly are, then the writers seriously need to start making some changes. I'm not saying they should just completely retcon Loona's character and suddenly make her nice, but they do need to start being consistant with how they portray abuse, and they seriously need to stop excusing and coddling her horrible behavior, regardless of if she has childhood trauma. That is not how you grow as a person and overcome your issues. Yes, it's a process that is often long and difficult, but it hasn't been shown that Loona is actually trying to make any change at all, or that anyone is actually encouraging her to change.

If you want an actually halfway decent example of a character overcoming their trauma (at least within the Hellaverse) look no further than Blitz himself. It's clear his father was abusive and explotative towards him, not to mention he accidentally caused the death of his mother and the maiming of his close friend. Both of these things likely contributed to many of Blitz's flaws and issues as an adult. But the thing is, despite all that, Blitz himself isn't abusive to his daughter. He has shown nothing but unconditional love and devotion to his daughter despite his past. I'm not saying Blitz is a perfect character by any means (I won't excuse him literally threatening to rape his employees), but it really goes to show this whole argument of 'Loona acts the way she does because she has childhood trauma and that makes it okay' doesn't hold up to scrutiny as much as her stans seem to think.

I think a good idea would be to start showing more of how Loona's behavior negatively affects those around her, something which would give her the motivation to want to change. Show how hurt Blitz feels whenever Loona lashes out at him. We get a taste of this in Spring Broken when she hurts Blitz's feelings, but it's clear from both her dialogue in the scene as well as her later actions that the writers apparently don't want her to actually learn from her mistakes and grow as a character, which is such a shame.

Loona had the opportunity to be an extremely complex and compelling character if her aggression and violent outbursts were actually addressed as being a problem she needed to overcome, and if she actually tried changing herself for the better. Seeing the effort she puts into treating others better and breaking the cycle of abuse would have made her character feel so much stronger and more likeable. But instead, the show just treats this abusive behavior as a quirky, edgy joke and "lol that's just classic Loona!! What can ya do lol!!!"

She does have her moments where a good character actually shines through, but they're so few and far in between. I want to like Loona so much, but as it currently stands, I just can't, and that makes me sad.

[madreemeritus]

I really want to see Octavia's internal conflict about the situation around her and her own existence. Because, until now, we only see her dealing with her daddy issues problems (which I understand the criticism, it bothers me how she's one-dimensional at this point). But I want her to deal with the truth about her existence as a precotionary heir from an arranged marriage.

(TW: MENTIONS OF MARITAL R@P3 AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE)

Her parents were forced to marry. She only exists because her mother raped her father multiple times before getting pregnant (or whatever the term for bird/egg pregnancy is). If her father was able to choose and live the life he wanted since the start, she wouldn't exist. Her existence was forced upon the person that she loves the most (because yes, she clearly loves her father very much despite their complicated relationship). Octavia only exists because her father was forced into horrible, abusive circumstances.

Octavia was born to be an heir, to serve a family. She wasn't planned out of love, like other kids usually are, and this is extremely painful to know. Specially considering that she is the result of a marital rape. Yes, Stolas love her more than anything, he's doing his best to protect her and make her happy, but still, imagine dealing with the fact that you only exist because of coercion and abuse.

I'm also excited to see Octavia's relationship with Stella. She constantly witness her mother's abuse against her father, yet she still doesn't understand the situation completely. Fair, she's a kid and is living under terrible circumstances. But she needs to know the truth, maybe not every detail, though. Which lead me think: before, I thought Stolas is the one who needs to explain the situation for her... but now that I think about, I changed my opinion. Why? Because I doubt Octavia would believe him completely, since she could think he's "giving false excuses to justify his cheating". I think STELLA will be the one to explain everything to her.

Which is, you know, very dark and tragic. Imagine if Octavia ever confronts Stella about her behaviour towards Stolas, and then in respond she's dumped with terrible reveals about the nature of their marriage and maybe even more explicit details about the domestic violence. Idk, maybe she overhears Stella joking with her friends about the times when she raped Stolas, imagined how heartbroken and horrified she would be? But as the wise Mewtwo once said, "the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant, it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are." So yeah it doesnt matter if you were born throught a bad circumstances, you're worth and valid 🙌🏼

Angst aside, I want Octavia to be a savage and powerful witch, learn all the magic her father teaches and more. I want her to be a powerful witch princess, the one that puts fear onto humans and other demons. Let 👏🏼 her 👏🏼 be 👏🏼 unhinged 👏🏼 she's a royal demon after all

[tallymonster]

|| Memories of Us chapter 22: Spoonfuls of Romanticism || AO3

Life has absolutely been kicking my ass lately, hence the slow af uploads to the fic lol. On the plus side, I got my driver's license and I'm hoping to get a job soon so at least there's that.

Thanks to @cheesy-cryptid for supporting me, to @micropoe10 , @tragedybunny , and @mj-bites for being my hype squad. Y'all keep me going fr.

Oh yeah also thanks to @elorathebard and her gf Arwen for letting me pop them into my lil story.

Now onto the date!

The strong aromas of sweet foods, coffee, and various dishes waft throughout the small restaurant. Clinks of silverware hitting ceramic plates echo around Astarion as he and Octavia wait for someone to take their orders.

They sat in a booth at the back corner of the dining area, slightly obscured by a half wall adorned with frosted glass. Astarion watched Octavia flip through a menu full of food he could not eat. He glanced down at the sticky trifold he had been given by the extremely friendly waitress, grimacing at the fact he would have to order something to blend in.

“Sorry for the lack of wine.” Octavia teases, giggling.

“Ugh, I don't see how any restaurant can’t have wine, it's a necessity, in my opinion.” Astarion replies dryly, “What the hell is taking the waitress so long anyway?”

He shuts the menu and crosses his arms, still exasperated from having to babysit Gale and Sirilius while Octavia and Athena fucked off.

Astarion looks around hoping to get the attention of the bright haired waitress that was taking her sweet time chatting up an older couple at the other end of the restaurant. Astarion has no idea how much time passes before Octavia leans into his eyesight.

“Hey, are you trying to make her head explode or something? Everything okay? You seem off…” Octavia asks, gently trying to get a gauge on Astarion’s mood.

Astarion’s dark red eyes flick back and forth between Octavia and the waitress, before he sighs and slides back into the booth. He puts his legs up on the bench seat, with his back on the wall.

“I don't understand why I got left with the bickering children while you and Athena left. They kept getting into stupid arguments because of the tiefling’s arrogance. They finally stopped when I reminded them what their darling Athena wanted out of them. I don't see how that marriage is going to work out based on his behavior.” Astarion complains loudly, irritated to even be put in that position.

Astarion blankly stared at the wall across from them. The bitterness of having to host a wedding was clearly rattling him.

Why do I care, they're the idiots making a whole spectacle, let their families see how mismatched they are. Astarion’s thoughts were getting more and more acidic, making it difficult to enjoy the company he had.

Astarion looks at Octavia, he notices the concern and slight offense on her face, and scrambles to make an excuse, hoping that it would soothe over the frustrations he let slip.

“I’m sorry.” He clears his throat and continues, “This whole thing is just overwhelming, and it doesn't help when Sirilius is being extremely rude towards Gale.”

Astarion bristles, then sinks further into the seat.. A few moments of silence pass as Octavia continues to flip through the menu.

“How long have you been coming to this place? You mentioned coming here when you were looking for work in the city, but you seem comfortable here….you've been here before haven't you?” Astarion cautiously asks, changing the subject and causing Octavia to look up.

She smiles, closing the menu. “I used to come here with my parents. Usually after visiting the museum.” Octavia lowers her head in a small embarrassed chuckle. “Mom liked the coffee, Dad liked the eggs Benedict, I loved the waffles.”

“Ah, lucky guess about the waffles.” Astarion grins wide, he sits up leaning towards Octavia. He reaches his hand over, placing it atop hers. Octavia smiles shyly, lacing her fingers between Astarion’s, holding his hand properly.

A pleased hum makes its way out of Astarion’s mouth, he looks towards Octavia, noticing her staring back at him with a half-lidded dreamlike glaze over her eyes.

It seemed as if time had stopped while they kept eye contact, the dull sounds of the diner fading away as Astarion lost himself in her forest green gaze.

They are suddenly interrupted by the waitress, greeting them in an energetic excitement, “Hey guys! Welcome to Dennison’s Diner! My name is Elora and I'll be your waitress today!” Elora bounces on her heels as she smiles at the couple.

“Can I offer you some drinks? Are we ready to order?” speaking quickly, swaying back and forth, pulling her notepad and pen out.

Octavia pipes up and orders her food, “I’ll have the Cannon Blast, but can I get waffles instead of the pancakes? Oh and I'll have an iced white chocolate mocha.”

Elora writes down the order, looking towards Astarion patiently awaiting his response.

Astarion on the other hand, keeps his head down and pushes the menu towards her not ordering anything. “Uh, sir? Would you like to get something?”

“Unless you have wine you can magically manifest for me, I think not.” He replies sarcastically, wrinkling his nose in annoyance.

Octavia turns to glare Astarion, slightly shocked and irritated at his rudeness. Unfortunately for Astarion, the other woman dealing with him was quick on her feet.

“This diner may be named after the alcoholic father of our owner, but unfortunately for you and Mr. Dennison, his son was not as diligent about renewing our liquor license. Could I interest you in some coffee instead? It won't get you drunk, but you'll be wired as fuck because Arwen made it way too strong again.” Elora answers matter of fact.

Octavia smirks, while Astarion stares blankly at the younger woman. His face is a mixture of contempt, annoyance, and confusion. Elora, meanwhile, is still smiling, waiting for him to answer.

Astarion rolls his eyes and scoffs. “Fine, give me the stupid coffee. Black.”

“Oh, feeling adventurous, are we? Want anything to go with that? A donut? Maybe some cheesecake? Perhaps your date would appreciate a little sweet to tone down the sourness?” Another smooth sarcastic comeback from Elora.

Astarion closes his eyes and lets out a long, drawn out sigh. “Sure, whatever you recommend.” His voice is dripping with irritation, he musters enough energy to match her sardonic grin.

Octavia rolls her eyes and mouths a little “Sorry” towards Elora, who returns a nod to Octavia. With a head tilt she repeats the order and walks off. Astarion could have sworn she turned back around and stuck her tongue out at him, but he wasn't willing to do much about it.

“Astarion….what the fuck?” Octavia whispers in an irritated manner, clearly displeased with his attitude. “I would expect you to at least treat someone with the minimum amount of respect. Especially when they're only trying to do their job. It's not her fault that you got stuck with Gale and Sirilius.”

“Right, I guess I should take my annoyance out on the one whose fault it actually is?” He responds curtly.

“Me or Athena? I’m guessing it's me, since I'm the only one here.” Octavia answers him just as curt, letting her anger rise up to the surface. “Why do you have to take it out on some college kid who has nothing to do with it?”

“I’m doing no such thing!” Astarion protests.

“Bullshit. Now, play nice, or this date is over.” Octavia hands Astarion the rope, hoping he wouldn't hang himself with it.

Thankfully, he senses her seriousness, and leans back, shrinking into the seat, hoping it would swallow him whole.

It was ridiculous that he was letting the whole thing affect him so much. Was it jealousy that she chose to leave with Athena? Was it the fact that he felt forgotten?

What the fuck is wrong with me? He battles internally, biting the inside of his cheek.

“Hello again! I got an iced coffe and waffles for the pretty lady…” Elora gently placed Octavia’s food in front of her; before her voice drops and becomes more dry and direct, placing down a full mug, “And a black coffee.”

Elora hung around, smiling awkwardly. Astarion looks up at her with a wide eyed confusion. “Uh…thank you? I appreciate it.” Astarion says softly, taking a slow drink of the coffee.

To his utter disdain, it was delicious.

“Ah, the sassy elf is satisfied?” Elora quips, a giant snarky grin and a wiggle of her red eyebrows. She holds the tray close to her waist and swings her shoulders triumphantly.

“Will agreeing with you make you go away faster?” Astarion asks pointedly. He takes another slow sip of coffee, it must be incredibly strong for him to even be able to taste it.

“Possibly, but you're lucky I want to go hang out with the cute girl who made your coffee much more than I wish to spend any more time with you.” with that, Elora turns on her heel and walks away again.

Octavia’s eyes follow her for a few seconds before turning back to her food. The waffles on the plate looked particularly appetizing, the warm lighting from the restaurant glimmering off the amber colored syrup made her stomach growl.

“Go on, you don't have to hold back on my accord.” Astarion playfully mumbles into his coffee.

“I don't intend to, how's the coffee, by the way? Need me to prick my finger and stir some blood into it?” Octavia teases back, she notices Astarion’s brows shoot up in surprise.

He lets out a loud laugh and with a sultry tone replies, “Don't threaten me with a luxurious treat, my dear. I may take you up on it.”

Astarion places the cup down, turning his attention back to Octavia as she shoves some eggs into her mouth. “To answer your question, it's not bad…but to be fair, most things taste like ash or vinegar to me. This is pretty strong so I actually taste the coffee a bit, but if your offer still stands after we leave, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to having some dessert at my place?”

Octavia looks back at Astarion, her cheeks flush, “Astarion!! Could you at least wait until we're completely alone to be so…you?” She coyishly scolds him, softly kicking him under the seat.

“Darling, it's not my fault you're so generous. Maybe you shouldn't be so charitable with such an enticing and desirable treat?” Astarion’s eyes roam her face, thriving on the way she smiles as she stares back.

She's trying hard not to let him know how his words and glances make her body react, but fails. Octavia shifts in her seat a bit, the pinkish hue of her cheeks very obvious to Astarion.

Octavia continues to eat her food; Astarion keeps staring at her with a far off look, as if he's fighting with himself to say something.

“Do I have something on my face?” Octavia asks.

“What?” Astarion blinks rapidly as he's ripped away from his inner thoughts of her sticky lips on him. “Oh…no dear, I was just lost in thought…I uh…was just wondering if it's normal to have breakfast for dinner nowadays. You know, old man and all.” He laughs hoping to fool her yet again.

Octavia huffs out a soft giggle, “Are you jealous that you can't taste the syrup?” She shoved another piece of waffle in her mouth with a cocky smile.

Astarion, however, has an even more smug look than usual. “No, darling, I have my sights on a much more luxurious treat.” His voice dropped to a lower, much more seductive timbre. He keeps his eyes locked onto Octavia, causing her to choke a bit in return, coughing some and swallowing hard.

She gasps for air and takes a drink of her iced coffee. After she places the glass down, Astarion notices a bit of syrup that slid from the corner of her lip.

He reaches over and wipes it off slowly, caressing her lips in the process. Astarion brings his hand back and licks it off his thumb. “Well, I guess now I got a taste of some of that syrup of yours…but I don't think I got enough to really enjoy it. Perhaps we could turn this breakfast for dinner into breakfast in bed?”

Octavia’s eyes widen and she huffs out a shaky breath. She stutters a bit before recovering “You want to have breakfast in bed?”

Astarion’s thoughts falter, he didn't assume he would get this far ahead. Before he could answer, Octavia murmurs, “Well, we were at my place last time…”

“We were. Would you like to see mine? I did mention a private tour after all.” Astarion’s voice lowered to an almost whisper, if his heart could beat, it would burst out of his chest.

He wanted to take her to his home, to allow her sweet scent to wash over his bed, to take her into his arms and make her his once more.

Was he truly this far gone?

“I know it's probably coming out of nowhere, but I wanted to tell you something, and I think it would be the best place for it.” Astarion reaches out again, finding her fingers and interlacing his own into them. He stares at their hands, embracing the warmth that encompasses them.

Octavia smiles softly, she squeezes her fingers in his. The rest of the diner seemed to fade away as they looked at each other's hands intertwined on the surface of the table.

“Alright, let's go.”

Octavia’s voice cut through the haze they were caught up in. Astarion looks up at her dreamy green eyes and nods. “I’ll pay. Meet me outside?”

“Oh, how could I say no? What a gentleman.” Octavia teases playfully as she gathers her bag.

Astarion rolls his eyes with a smirk, he gets out of the booth and holds his hand out to help Octavia stand. “Hey, I’m taking you on a high quality date here. I know how to entice the object of my affection.”

As Octavia stands, Astarion brings her hand to his lips and gives it a kiss. Octavia couldn't help the giggle that bubbled out. She quickly covered her mouth with the other hand.

“Wonder what other noises I can get you to make.” Astarion purrs, pulling her close and giving her a peck on the cheek. “Go, I'll catch up.”

Octavia nods, and walks down the little corridor. Astarion followed behind, he couldn't help but stare at the sway of her hips. A little shudder of anticipation made its way down his spine.

As Octavia reaches the door, she looks back at him and smiles. Astarion watches as she exits the diner, sitting outside on a metal bench. Astarion comes up to the counter where, Elora, the red haired waitress was speaking with a shorter elven girl.

He clears his throat loudly, causing the two of them to stop giggling and turn to look at him.

“So, he makes his return! Did our humble offerings appease your highness?” Elora starts with a laugh, putting down a glass she was drying.

“Elora! Remember what Miss Serafina told you, some people don't have our sense of humor.” The other girl whispered loudly behind the counter.

“This one’s cool though, Arwen! You are cool, right?” Elora’s voice wavered a bit, sounding slightly anxious.

Astarion laughs causing Elora to relax a bit. “Yeah, I’m cool. You had just caught me after a very stressful day at work, I apologize.”

“Oh. Well, thank you. Most people would just tell me to get over it and that it’s part of my job.” Elora seems pleasantly surprised, Astarion in turn takes out more than enough to pay for himself and Octavia.

He slides the money over to Elora, making her gasp softly as she looks in between him and the money. “That's a lot of cash.” she says before slapping both hands over her mouth. “Are you-”

“Yes, I’m sure. Take it as an appropriate tip for my bullshit.” Astarion laughs as the two girls keep staring at with wide eyes.

“Wow! Your date must be going really well!” Arwen quipped, the smaller girl hid behind Elora, a big smile on her plump cheeks.

“It is, thanks to those waffles and strong coffee.” Astarion winks, making Arwen giggle in return.

“Enjoy the rest of it then, she's really pretty.” Arwen turns and leaves. Elora, meanwhile, was still in a state of disbelief.

“Are you alright?” Astarion asks with genuine concern.

Elora’s eyes snap up, a wild glee painted on her face. “HELLS YES! APOLOGY ACCEPTED! More rich people like you should stop by. You know, if you and your date ever get married, we do catering.”

Astarion blinks a bit before Elora laughs loudly, “Nah, I'm just messin’ with you. Now I just gotta figure out what gift to get Arwen with this sweet tip! Thanks again, Lord Benedick!” She proceeds to use her apron to give Astarion a dramatic curtsey and bow, before she quickly runs into the kitchen.

Astarion takes his leave as he hears the two girls talking excitedly. Outside, he finds Octavia sitting down. She’s leafing through a notebook that she used to keep track of Athena’s requests.

Astarion walks up to her with a mild confused look on his face. “I think the waitress called me a bendy dick after I gave her and what I assume is her girlfriend a nice apology tip.” He rolls his eyes, shaking his head. “Promise me that we will never get catering from here.”

Octavia gives him a strange look, and laughs “She did what?? I don't believe you, what did she actually say?” Octavia shuts the notebook and scoots over, allowing Astarion space to sit next to her. He placed his head on Octavia’s shoulder, pouting dramatically up at her.

“She called me Lord bendy dick. My dick is not bendy.”

Octavia bursts out in an incredulous laugh, small tears begin to pool at the corners of her eyes. “Astarion! She was calling you Lord Benedick, not bendy dick!! It's from a play! Good gods, that's clever.” She wipes her face, her giggles slowing down and subsiding.

“Oh that was funny, I gotta give it to her, she really knew how to get under your skin didn't she?” Octavia turns to kiss Astarion’s forehead, nuzzling against his hair.

Astarion throws his head back, and groans loudly. Octavia could tell something was really bothering him.

“Alright, what's going on? You've been a lot more exasperated than usual, and you're letting some college kid get to you. Talk.” She rubs Astarion’s arm, attempting to soothe him.

“If it's all the same to you, I'd really like to have this conversation in a more secluded area? There's a spot at the museum I wanted to show you. That might be better.” He glances over at her, giving a small smile.

Octavia nods, then stands. “Lead the way.”

_______________________________________________

They walk on the familiar streets that lead back to the museum, the lampposts illuminated their steps as the night sky glittered above them.

Astarion held on to Octavia’s hand, silently guiding her to a small gazebo that was hidden by the gates of the garden. He often came here to relax in the glow of the moon and stars, the sounds of the nocturnal creatures that shared his evening habits, and the cold breezes that would embrace him.

Astarion guided Octavia to the iron bench that was surrounded with wisteria vines flowing around the banisters of the gazebo. He held onto Octavia’s hand, nervously fiddling with his fingers, squeezing her hand a bit before relaxing.

He sighs before Octavia rubs those small circles on his palm, “Astarion, are you alright? You seem a bit agitated, did the waitress annoy you that much?”

Astarion looks up at her, Octavia stares at him with a soft look that turns worried. The corner of his mouth turns up in a wry smile, before falling into a pout.

“This whole wedding thing is going to be so much work, I keep thinking that we're going to be making a huge mistake doing it.” Astarion takes a second, sighing and looking down at their hands.

Astarion scoffs and releases his hand from hers, “It just feels completely unnecessary. Why make it into such a big thing?”

Octavia returns his scoff and replies “How unlike you to deny the opulence of a grand party for no reason.”

“Maybe I just can't get behind the idea of it all.” Astarion grumbles and immediately bites his lip.

“I sense you aren't a fan of weddings?” Octavia tentatively asks, as if she's bracing herself for his answer.

“I just think it's all incredibly tedious and tiresome. Just fuck off and sign your stupid papers. Why show off?” He bitterly responds, crossing his arms and sinking into the bench.

“Haven't you ever met anyone that you'd want to spend your life with?” Octavia asks nervously.

“I-I’ve had partners before, long term ones, short term, but all mortal. It seems cruel to me, to know that I will outlive them all, and to promise my everlasting life to them seems like a lie.” Astarion responds, his voice full of regret.

“What about friends like Gale? Do you regret helping him knowing that this is going to remind you of that? His family has a second chance and it's all thanks to you for allowing them to come together and have this wedding at the museum.”

Octavia reaches out and places her hand on Astarion’s. She feels him tense up and turn his head to look at her hand. He exhales and squeezes his hand.

“You're awfully good at that, you know.” He breathes out softly.

“Good at what? Making you see what a grump you're being?” Octavia teases a bit, bumping her shoulder into his and making Astarion laugh back in a slightly mocking tone.

“No, you brat.” He responds with a smirk, “You're good at reminding me that I have a heart sometimes.” Astarion lifts her hand and kisses it.

“I care about you so much, Octavia. More than I have cared about anyone in a long time.” His eyes soften, and she notices his smirk drop. Octavia gasps, her heart begins to race. Astarion is watching her as her body reacts to his words. Her blood pumping through her veins rings in his ears, making his pupils dilate.

Astarion shakes off the rush of hunger that creeps into his mind, this is too important to be ruined by his visceral cravings.

“Octavia, I have a confession to make.” He plays with his fingers in her palm, making small shapes.

“You're right. I did have someone I wanted to spend my life with, but I was a different person then, scared, weak, insecure. I was so used to people using me and taking parts of me leaving only the discarded remains that weren't interesting or alluring enough; until I met someone who cared. They pulled me out of my darkness and in my selfishness and fear, I left them. I didn't think I was capable of caring about someone like that ever again, and then after decades of self imposed loneliness, I met you.”

Astarion turns his body to fully face Octavia, he could see her cheeks redden, he heard the thundering in her chest. Her pouty lip quivers, she stopped it by biting down on it.

“In almost a year you've reminded me that I'm worthy of being cared for and it scares me. I don't want to hurt you like I know I'm capable of, I know I wouldn't be the most attentive, or emotional, but something keeps pulling me out of my fears and pushes me into your arms instead. You have astounded me, pulled me from my misery, and held my hand when I pushed it away.”

Astarion melts into her hand when she brings it up to cup his cheek, her eyes are so beautiful, he could lose himself in them. He falters a bit when she pulls him close and kisses his cheek.

“Don't stop,” she says, her voice quiet, he can barely hear it over the croaking of the frogs in the pond nearby.

“As you wish.” He smiles with a laugh, “When you look my way, it's as if the angels have smiled upon me. Your laugh is like the sweetest music, only composed for me to revel in. Your affections are like the warmth of a summer's day, they fill me with such happiness that I could die over and over again being burned by your brightness. I’ve done so many stupid and selfish things in the past, many of which I regret, but doing this with you isn't part of that. On the contrary, you’ve given me something I haven't had for a long time. Hope for the future.”

At that, Octavia sighs, she hides behind a hand that came up to her face. A quiet giddy giggle hiccuped out of her mouth. “Astarion…Where is this coming from?”

Astarion clears his throat, the nerves getting the better of him, which they never had before. “I came to realize when you were gone that we hadn't spent much time apart, aside from you going home for the night, and it was killing me. I actually thought about surprising you at your father's before Gale reminded me that I had no idea where your father lived, and I didn't want to be seen as a creep who followed you.”

He laughs awkwardly, delaying the inevitable. “Also, I hadn't felt that kind of loneliness for a while, it was soul crushing. I haven't felt like this in so long, so I was kind of processing all of these things coming up while you were away.”

Octavia stayed quiet, her eyes were wide, unsure of where this was going.

“Being close to someone, that kind of intimacy was something I used to perform…for others. I know it's different with us, but it still feels somewhat tainted and it will sometimes bring up those feelings of failure and regret. I'm afraid I won't know how to be with someone after all these years. No matter how much I want to.”

Astarion keeps holding onto Octavia’s right hand, a small tremble begins to form as his throat dries up. He coughs a bit and continues on.

“I was hesitant to admit how much I missed you while you were away, I hated it. I hadn't felt that kind of thing in so long that I forgot how miserable it felt.” Astarion lets out a little nervous squeak of a laugh. “The longer you were away, the more those feelings of affection and attraction only grew and became more obvious. I can't imagine my life without you now. You're the first and last thing I think of when I wake, you're the first true emotional connection I've had in a very long time and I can't stop denying it any longer…I love you, Octavia, so deeply, and it terrifies me.”

Octavia gasps softly. She was staring at him with a shocked expression, her gaze burned him, and his mind began to panic.

Astarion’s face drops, Octavia could see small tears gathering at his eyes, she brings up her left hand and strokes his cheek with her thumb, catching one of the tears that fell and wiping it away. “Please don't tell me I just made a giant fool out of-”

“I love you, too, you silly man.” Octavia cuts him off, grabbing his left hand with her right, while her left hand wipes away the wet pearls that streamed down his skin.

A quiet beat passes, she hears Astarion gasp softly, “Really?”

“Very much. You're wonderful, Astarion.” Octavia pulls him close, pressing their foreheads together.

Astarion takes a chance and kisses her. He feels her tense up before relaxing and melting into their kiss. Astarion can feel himself sinking into the comfort that radiates off her. He wraps his arms around her waist lifting her onto his lap, not once breaking contact.

They continue their kisses for a few moments before Astarion pulls away, looking back at Octavia’s blown pupils, flushed cheeks, and darkened lips. She sighed happily and placed her arms on his shoulders. “What’s wrong?” She asks.

“Are you sure about this? I mean…after everything I just said?” Astarion’s voice was doubtful, and Octavia smiles at him and plays with the curls on his neck.

“You just poured your heart out to me, kissed me and put me on your lap, and you're questioning whether or not I'm sure?” Octavia giggles and rubs her nose on his, “I’m sure.”

Octavia pulls him in and begins to kiss him slowly, letting their breaths intermingle, heavy and hot.

Astarion pulls her closer onto his lap, spreading her thighs open. Octavia gasps as his hands run under the hem of her skirt. His nails drag along the stockings she wore. Astarion begins to kiss down her jaw and nips at her neck playfully.

“You know, I never got to eat my dinner…” he taunts, biting down softly but not penetrating. Octavia shivers at the pressure on her skin, throwing her head back with a stilted groan.

Astarion’s hands make their way up Octavia’s backside, squeezing her ass. She giggles and moans when one of Astarion’s hands breaks away and roams up the inside of her thigh.

Slowly, tantalizingly, Astarion presses his fingertips to the soft fabric covering her legs. He stops before touching where Octavia desperately wants him to. She whines, biting at her bottom lip. Astarion chuckles deeply, holding her at the edge.

“Fuck..” she draws out, lifting her head to stare at him with lust glazed eyes.

“Don't worry, I will.” He laughs against her shoulder as he continues to kiss down towards her chest.

Octavia huffs and pulls at the curls near Astarion’s ear causing him to tremble underneath her. She smiles at his reaction, leaning forward to press her chest up against his. She takes his face into her hands and stares into his gorgeous maroon eyes.

“Gods, you're beautiful.” She breathes out making Astarion blush slightly.

“As are you, gorgeous. Why don't we take this inside? I can give you that private tour I promised you earlier..” Astarion turns his head a bit, catching one of her thumbs in his mouth, sucking and biting on the tip.

Octavia lets out a shuddering breath and nods, “I bet you take all the pretty girls who sit on your lap there.”

Astarion’s smirk falters some, the cocky veneer replaced yet again with something more bashful and hesitant. His eyes soften a bit before speaking, “No actually, you're the only person I've allowed into my personal space. You're the only one I have given any thought to bring to my private quarters.”

Octavia can sense the shift, she kisses his neck softly to soothe over the hurt. The delicate ripples of the fountains running embrace them, she shifts off his lap and holds a hand out to him.

“Show me”, Octavia breathlessly replies, “I want to see it. Where you hide away when the doors close and the patrons leave and the halls silence. Where you go when you sneak up on me, like a ghost in the halls. I want to see you when I wake, the light from your candles glowing around you. To see you as you truly are. Please, I want to go with you.”

[blossomthepinkbunny]

Stolas & Loona should have friends

(something I feel would work well for their characters)

I feel like Loona's and Stolas' character would really benefit from giving them friendships. Relationships that could help to humanize them, make them more sympathetic or help to develop/change them as people.

For Loona it makes sense to go into that direction because this huge part of her character is dealing with the fact that she grew up sheltered and never had someone who really cared for her. Blitzø is the first real parental figure she has in her life and she is often pretty cruel to him because she never learned to interact with others who genuinely wanted to be kind to her.

I think giving her more of a social life and potential friendships like we kinda got to see in the Beelzebub episode is something they are working up to with her character, though I find it weird that we didn't really get to see her in the new s2 trailer (or in any of the last 5 episodes for that matter). It seems like Loona wont have any focus on her which is dissapointing because right now her character is in a state where she is still pretty unlikable and comes off as just rude more often.

The show had three good opportunities to give Loona someone to be friends with. First one was Tex which didn't work out because she had a crush on him and even after meeting his girlfriend being defensive and jealous rather than realizing that maybe they'd be better as just friends. Second one could've been Beelzebub (if you ignore the fact that she's the one organizing the pounds for hellhounds) but she is Tex's girlfriend so Loona immediately doesn't like her. And lastly Loona and Octavia, who they were kinda setting up as having a sister-like bond in "Seeing Stars".

But Loona and Octavia have never interacted after that as far as we know. Like I said, Loona basically hasn't shown up in a relevant way for 5 episodes now. It could've been small stuff even. Like maybe in "Western energy" instead of having the stupid nursery subplot it could've just been mentioned that Loona and Octavia are hanging out while Stolas is on his meeting with Stella and Andrealphus. Or just see them chilling together in the background of some episodes.

Giving Loona friends would give her someone she could share her feelings with and that could make her less toxic because she can get her emotions out in a non destructive way. She needs someone who isn't Blitzø, someone who is closer to her in age and someone who will understand her and help her with socializing. And in my opinion that someone shouldn't necessarily be a love interest either. We already have so many romantic/sexual relationships in HB and rarely see relevant friendships which I think is a huge missed opportunity, especially in Loonas case.

And for Stolas, giving him a friend would maybe show more of the sympathetic aspects of his character. Right now I don't like Stolas at all and I don't see a reason to either. He forced Blitzø into a sexual relationship so he can do his job and then starts to whine about Blitzø not loving him back. Knowingly or not, he made great use of hells classist system and basically neglects his daughter as well in the process (though the show will tell you that he actually cares a lot despite us not really seeing that on screen).

What pisses me off most about his character is that they don't acknowledge him being a terrible person. I don't care if he's bad as long as the show doesn't try to woobify him out of nowhere. If they pointed out what he does and he would recieve consequences that aren't treated as unfair or mean i'd like him a lot more because then they could also genuinely show him becoming a better person. A characterization similar to Rex Splode from Invincible would really do wonders for him (I've only watched the show for Invincible so I dont know if/how they move his character forward, but so far I really like it).

Anyways, giving him a friend or something could also help. HB tries to make a big point about people having layers and showing that someone who does harmful stuff can still have sympathetic sides to them. Stolas' problem is, that the only focus he ever gets is in relationships where he is acting bad. I already mentioned how he treats Blitzø and with how hard they're pushing them as a couple they're showing Stolas to be pretty terrible in retrospective. We also don't really get to see how hard he apparently cares for Octavia. Giving him a relationship that shows the sympathetic sides to his character could be done by making his relationship with Octavia be actually good. Like showing them hanging out, actively interacting in positive ways and basically making him a great dad but bad partner sort of guy. Giving him a friend would also work as I said. Maybe Asmodeus could've been that or just a new character. Something that makes him more sympathetic because we get to see a positive side to him with how he cares for this other person.

I really hope they put some focus on Loona again because I kinda care for her and I think dealing with what she has going on could be nice and cute. And for Stolas idk. It might already be too late to make me not dislike him. He is just way too far into being victimized already for me to assume that i will sympathize with him anytime soon.

[crooked-wasteland]

How would you rank every HB episode from worst to best?

This took me some time to think on, but thank you for the ask.

So all the Helluva Boss episodes ranked worst to best (in my opinion):

The Circus

I have to place the season 2 premiere as the worst episode of the entire series, simply because it cemented the direction the story was going to go with all of the worst ideas floating to the top. The relationship mystery between Stolas and Blitz gets watered down to a childhood crush based on nothing. It is love at first sight, but then the writing performs gymnastics in order to justify Stolas’ attraction after the fact. It’s so painful in Seeing Stars and Oops how the writers really want us to believe that Stolas liked him as a person first and that is supposed to be shown in how Stolas thinks Blitz is funny when no one else does, but the series of events in the Circus will forever undermine that narrative. He finds Blitz funny because he is attracted to him. Not the other way around.

Aside from the issues with the overarching story, the entire structure of the episode fails. The idea of Chekhov’s Gun is one I believe holds merit as a fundamental tool. If you are going to introduce something like theft, acknowledge the danger of the event, repeatedly draw attention to the theft, and then just never mention any sort of natural conclusion to that plot point. If anything, Blitz returning to Stolas’ home 25 years later to do the exact same thing, necessitated a coming full circle moment of that particular plot point. The failure to identify even the most basic of narrative principles that was a solid through line of character, story and themes told me everything I needed to know about how the series was going to be handled.

Stolas’ song is a poorly-performed nonsensical word salad that I found lacked any cohesion to the character in the previous episode or the next. It’s an ugly song with maybe 2 decent verses where Stolas acknowledges that this was all playing pretend, but that eventually goes nowhere.

Additionally, Stella was officially ruined as a character, which ultimately ruined Stolas as a character. By not giving Stella depth, Stolas was also stripped of any depth or complexity. His reason for staying is dumbed down to “for the child”, and Stella’s motivation is thrown out the window in favor of “she’s awful and please don’t try to make her understandable, because then what if Stolas is held accountable for anything?” Stella is too important a character in Stolas’ story, to make her one dimensional is to make Stolas less interesting. Everything is interwoven in a story, pulling a thread in one place unravels the garment elsewhere.

In a single episode, it encompasses everything that is wrong with the series, past and future.

0/10

Seeing Stars

To be honest, I feel Seeing Stars is most people’s worst episode due to some sense of denial when the season premiered and expected the show to at least continue with some kind of coherent story/timeline. I don’t think it would be as hated if Medrano had tightened up the narrative and made Seeing Stars connect to Ozzie’s more.

However, I would still put it at number 2, even if it had. Mainly because Seeing Stars is the worst sense of characterization and dynamics I have ever seen. And when you are trying to sell a character-driven story, some kind of consistency is required. This episode cemented Loona as being an abusive, manipulative, and entitled “bitch” of a person. Octavia is written like she is 13, not 17. Blitz and Stolas have the darkest timeline where Stolas continues to sexualize Blitz after being told off in the last episode and seemingly acknowledging that he defined the dynamic without any input from Blitz. Then forces him on stage despite Blitz being on the verge of a panic attack. But most of all, it has Stolas and Blitz both completely forget why they are even in this situation, because they are supposed to be looking for Octavia.

There was no lesson Blitz needed to learn, if anything he needed to be instilled with more self esteem where possible. And Stolas already had this story arc done much better in Loo Loo Land. His character actively regresses to redo the exact plot thread, but worse. Much like The Circus, Seeing Stars set the stage for what we could look forward to in regards to the series from here on out, and the utter disrespect leveled at the original 6 episodes.

That’s not even counting how the episode is the exact same plot and story beats as Loo Loo Land, highlighting the extent of how creatively bankrupt the series is.

.5/10

Exes and Ohs

If it comes to personal most hated episode, it would be Exes and Ohs for me. The only reason it is number 3 and not number 1 is because it is a narrative cul-de-sac where the larger story is not affected by it at all.

However, it is still an objectively awful episode. Starting with the premise. The whole plot is a stolen South Park joke. It’s the Steal underpants episode, stretched out into something longer, and not nearly as funny. If you are wholesale ripping off another show, that’s plagiarism. This episode is creatively bankrupt, shouldn’t exist, has no purpose and serves no benefit. People try to argue that it has value due to Moxxie’s backstory, but what does it even serve? Sure, I know it now, but not a single character does. Millie doesn’t even find out. Even moreso, Millie’s entire connection to Chaz goes nowhere and is for nothing. We never know how, when or why she dated Chaz, it's shown she hates him, but she doesn’t even kill him. The whole episode would have ended exactly the same with Crim killing Chaz once he realized the shark demon was lying about having money.

It’s not good when the major complaints of the episode are actually what is saving it from being the worst episode.

2/10

Musical Special

The retconning of this episode, changing who Fizz was as a child to try and justify his uselessness in Oops retroactively is beyond frustrating. There is so much I could go on about in terms of character, but just focusing on this episode.

Mainly, the mildly perturbing extent Medrano goes to hetero-normalize her queer relationships. Every single relationship in the series is stereotypically designed as “Protector” and “Protected”. Stolas, Fizzarolli, and Moxxie are all characters who require constant support and protection from other factors in the plot.

Stolas needed to be protected from Striker. Moxxie needs to be protected from most things in his plots. Season 1 it was the fish monster, Striker, the agents, and finally Ozzie and Fizz. Season 2 we have him needing to be defended from his father and Chaz.

This episode it's all about Fizzarolli and him needing to be defended from his crippling low self-esteem that is only relevant to have him needing to be saved from something. The flashback serves to further retcon Fizz’s personality because a strong and confident performer doesn’t need to be saved from anyone, and in order to have the codependent romance where Fizz needs Ozzie, we need to fundamentally weaken him as a person. It’s a special episode, so the argument that it doesn’t need to exist is rather moot. Regardless, the characters and story are worse off for its addition to the narrative.

2/10

Queen Bee

Another special episode, so the argument of narrative value is once again disregarded. I dislike this episode for how one dimensional every female character is in this story. It highlights all the ongoing issues with misogynistic writing. Loona’s character is a wildly swinging pendulum from being antagonistic towards Blitz to being endeared with little motivation and ultimately being reduced to the caretaker of men. When she and Bee get into an argument, she only deescalates when she sees Tex be uncomfortable. The initial hostility itself is founded on nothing, Loona is immediately resentful of Bee because she’s attractive and people like her, specifically Tex. And her being sweet towards Blitz is entirely based on the fact that her relationship to him makes her look good due to his accomplishment of beating Beelzebub in a drink-off. It doesn’t read sincere, but rather she would look bad if she didn’t take care of him after identifying him as her “dad” when it suited her.

This entire episode works to assassinate Loona’s character and any hope of her being likable and growing. Everything about her motivation is purely selfish and consistently reinforced in big ways, so moving forward it will be very hard to realistically prove she does anything for not her own benefit.

The song was nice for about one minute, then it became unbearably repetitive.

1.5/10

Western Energy

This episode was altered and rewritten, which doesn’t inherently make it bad. It’s just that it was changed due to fans pointing out the glaring plot hole that is why Stella would want to kill Stolas when a divorce would benefit her more. Instead of critically assessing that question and focusing more on world building to create a logical justification for Stella’s actions, the writers shrug their shoulders and just can’t think of anything. It’s a special form of fridge horror as a writer to realize the major plot that was intended to push Blitz and Stolas closer together was so underdeveloped that when at all questioned resulted in the entire plot being unwritten. It’s transparently bad writing, but worse yet is that it is lazy.

This episode is what I use to show an example of how fans inject headcannon and plot into the series that the creators have no interest in spending the energy on. This isn’t James Cameron’s Avatar where there is a massively rich world around a lackluster story that has been crafted with such detail that it feels alive. Helluva Boss, and in extension Hazbin Hotel, have no world building and resort to the most superficial answers to any narrative roadblock at the expense of the characters and understanding their motivations. It shows resentment for not just the audience, but writing as an artform.

3/10

Ozzie's (with season 2 context)

I had to put Ozzie’s on the list twice due to this episode in specific having vastly different reads and reception before and after season 2 premiered. After The Circus, the episode loses all continuity with the original season. Stolas is pining and lovesick over Blitz, he doesn’t actually care about his wife and daughter leaving him. He just wishes more than anything to have his rugged peasant return his affections.

It is a plummet of quality and character in this episode that only comes to fruition with the understanding that Stolas has had an unreciprocated crush for two and a half decades.

With the context of season 2, Stolas doesn’t actually care about his daughter and how his affair, the marriage falling apart, their status, etc. affected her and his family. He only cares about the little boy he got a crush on, who his father rented out like a Lexus and then 25 years later Stolas demanded sex from. Stolas has a complete personality change and isn’t at all who he was the entire series to this point. Everything you thought mattered to him doesn’t, the ways we have come to expect this character to react to things is suddenly entirely different. His expectations are unexplainable and so far out to left field than what we previously established. This is one of the worst written episodes based on the major retconning of a keystone character and no effort being made to connect these changes in the narrative.

This was the warning shot we didn’t know we were given.

1/10

Spring Broken

Spring Broken to Unhappy Campers are the range of utterly ambivalence I have.

The song is poorly incorporated into the episode. Verosika isn’t ever fleshed out. Tex and Loona start off cute, and you can see a starting point of a dynamic between Loona and Blitz and you want her to treat him better while also recognizing that he infantalizes her constantly and doesn’t ever treat her like the adult she is. Could have been really good writing if it went anywhere. This episode establishes Loona abuses Blitz and does so intentionally because it gets her her way. It isn’t malicious, but immature and incredibly cruel, and there is a desire to see her become a better person and grow from this point.

Too bad.

4/10

C.H.E.R.U.B

I know this episode gets a ton of criticism for being a joke/filler episode that goes too long. And that is absolutely correct. However it is still better in that being filler, it is not seeking to be anything more than it is. It is just some dumb fun with a few jokes that come anywhere close to landing. But it doesn’t harm the characters or their stories, unlike the rest of the list up to this point

3/10

Oops

This episode is a hard one to place because I consider the first 7 of this list to be bad episodes. Then 8-12 are those that aren’t good with varying scales of enjoyment on my part. However I think Oops is neither good nor enjoyable. But it has some good story ideas that deserve some credit, regardless of how the writing and pacing consistently tries to undermine them.

The scene of Blitz and Fizzarolli in the alleyway is contrived and feels confused, but it does manage to land some points such as Fizz’s insecurity of being owned by his partner (too bad that goes nowhere and is immediately ignored in favor of Fizz NEEDS Ozzie, so essentially ownership is good actually) and Fizz hanging Blitz’s insecurity and guilt over his head.

The forced engagement, rapid fire pacing, and immediate resolution thoroughly dismantles any good points the episode started to set up. I have to admit the animation is pretty solid, people worked very hard on this for less pay than this quality deserves. But this episode struggles to find a place it belongs on my list because. It almost sees the light only to bury its head in the sand writing-wise.

2/10

Unhappy Campers

Unhappy Campers sits in the same pool with Oops and how it is objectively a terrible episode, but the portions involving Blitz and Barbie are genuinely interesting and I think relatively well done when compared to the rest of the season. Millie has some fun moments herself, though the whole portion of the episode surrounding her and Moxxie could have been cut and it would only serve to elevate the material overall. So even if she is the best part of the worst portion of the story, it still isn’t something I deem worth salvaging.

It would have been an excellent 5 minute episode.

2/10

Murder Family

It’s the first episode. It did well reintroducing the characters from the pilot. It had enough intrigue to see where it would go and how it would expand the world and characters. It. Was genuinely fun and impressive for a YouTube animation, with horror notes and black comedy. There was a sense of character that we could maybe get to know over time and see them struggle and change. It started off very superficial, which was fine.

The blank canvas of what could have been.

5/10

Ozzie's (Before season 2)

Having to remember Ozzie’s premiere after an entire season of thinking we were getting to know the characters, their dynamics, personality, wants, etc. So the personality change in Stolas is given more leeway as LooLooLand set up that he really wished he could find love and his wife and daughter leaving has changed his routine to the point he is in a depression. It even seems Stella took the staff with her in the separation and he’s genuinely all alone.

So him sitting in front of a television asking why nobody will love him makes sense and doesn’t feel out of character when given the room to rationalize and try to piece together the character from past instances. Additionally, him becoming overjoyed at Blitz calling him out is just as easy to rationalize away. I recall watching the episode and interpreting that Stolas was needy, desperate and earnest, not for Blitz, but just in general. And Blitz making himself available to Stolas is why Stolas tries so hard to make this pretend date legitimate. It also explains Blitz’s own utter disinterest in the scenario.

Ironically, looking back, Blitz feels like an Audience insert with how utterly confused and dismissive he is of Stolas’ targeted affection. He sees their relationship like the audience does: one of convenience and mutual benefit. Blitz calling Stolas out is him cashin in on this messed up coercive sex deal they have. Him calling Stolas out and using him for his own gains is only seen as fair in his eyes. And Stolas’ attempts to legitimize the date is a continuation of his own hedonistic selfishness. So when Stolas tries to leave Blitz or otherwise removes himself by covering his face, Blitz’s anger and resentment is valid. Because there’s a lot of confusion taking place at the moment, but Stolas is responsible for all of it and instead runs away.

The exact same escapist behavior that ended up with him in bed with Blitz in the first place.

This is all really compelling drama and without the codependent neediness of the second season, it ties together in what feels like a real season finale for the characters. Everything up to now was a prologue, an introduction of the world, characters and conflicts. Ozzie actually took the characters and faced them off against each other directly. Showing all of their worst traits and building more intrigue to Blitz’s past and his relationships. This was an episode of great potential when it was first released.

7/10

Loo Loo Land

I’ll be honest, the more I think on this episode the more I believe its placement is more out of pettiness than actual quality. While a song that made me invested at the time, You Will Be Okay is a poorly written musical song. Specifically in how it fails to actually build on the themes we were having presented. Because if you really listen to it, the song foreshadows how little Stolas actually cares about Octavia.

The only part of the song that builds character is the one when he speaks of how his marriage is cold and loveless and how “all [his] stories have been told, except for one.” Which one would think that untold story has something to do with Octavia. He’s singing the song for her, to her. He’s presumably alluding to the fact that she’s his only joy in life.

But the very next line is talking about Armageddon. Like the end of everything, the death of the universe, some heavenly judgement. That’s why everyone and their off brand YouTube clone was talking about Stolas dying at some point in the series. Because the song fails to adequately communicate the character and his feelings and how that wraps into the plot. It’s a pretty song to the ears, but fails as a musical.

Additionally, I feel I may still have such a soft spot for this episode in how it often contradicts the current direction the story has attempted to go. Details, dialogue, timeline discrepancies, all of that has continued to hinder the second season in trying to retcon the entire story to this lesser version of itself and Loo Loo land as an episode is just so tightly written that it has become a thorn.

All the portions with Blitz and RoboFizz are great. Great character, great foreshadowing (to nothing unfortunately), great pacing. Those scenes have some legitimately funny jokes. Stolas stole the show it seems, much to the series detriment, but the real stellar parts of the episode were for once the actual main character.

6/10

Truth Seekers

This episode would have been my favorite due to Blitz’s bad trip and the animation involved throughout. However, the fact that the show has entirely dropped the relevant and interesting portions of the episode, overused and abused Stolas’ demon design since this episode, and the animators have since been confirmed to not be paid fairly for the work they do, this gets to be number 2.

Like Loo Loo Land, Truth Seekers is a primary source of contradiction in the new direction the story has gone and a constant reminder of how little work has been put into the narrative. It’s one of the strongest episodes of the series as a whole, but it has been almost entirely retconned.

I have seen some mention of the agents returning to the story and if that does come to pass, this will be hilarious in trying to reconcile what parts of Truth Seekers is canon and what isn’t any longer. And the realization that all the best parts are the ones ending up on the cutting room floor.

7/10

Harvest Moon

Striker was an intimidating figure. Genuinely. There was a real sense of weight to this episode in the animation and visual storytelling. It’s a solid episode for what it is and far and above better than even Truth Seekers because it required Medrano and her staff to actually address the episode and make obvious efforts to retcon it. That is how solid an episode this is.

Stolas is not too creepy and dominating, but nor is he seen as the delicate princess who is always crying over some guy who doesn’t return his feelings. He is fun, and it starts the nudge towards maybe something a bit more amicable on Blitz’s end.

Millie absolutely deserved more time for her character seeing as they were staying with her family and she having an episode of standing by her husband and defending her choices in who she loves would have been far more engaging than Murder Family pt. 2, Moxxie lacks confidence and self esteem forever and always.

The song was so inconsequential. It was a funny segue with Striker basically upstaging Moxxie at every turn, but that doesn’t actually go anywhere when in regards to the plot overall.

And Stella putting a hit on her husband, to his face, was hilarious and would have been so interesting to have seen it played more than a joke. Like Stolas knows she wants to kill him, and he is just vaguely fine with that. Maybe thinking his letting her try to kill him would have her stay and not file for divorce. Have it been this macabre comedic sitcom where she’s always trying to kill him and hates his guts for being a subpar husband, but he takes it as some kind of tit-for-tat and plays along with it. She gets to send assassins after him, he gets to have sex with his rugged assassin imp. It’s a ridiculous level of absurdity that still allows for all the characters to be dimensional.

That got a little away from me there. Basically, this episode was the strongest overall. Animation wise, writing wise, story potential wise. This episode is the most solid Helluva Boss episode.

7.8/10

[lovegiroke]

top 10 Helluva Boss characters in my opinion

in short

10. Octavia

9. Striker

8. Sally Mae

7. Verosika

6. Asmodious/Ozzie

5. Millie

4. Moxxie

3. Blitzø

2. Fizzarolli

Stolas

Honorable mention: Vassago

Bellow is going to be an in depth review on why these are my favorite and why they are placed like this.. and it’s long

Number 10: Octavia

Octavia as a great character in my opinion, even though the episodes she was in are not my absolute favorites. I do enjoy her whenever she appears, and when I found out that she is most likely getting a song, I was so happy.

With that being said, she isn’t that compelling to me compared to other characters in mind

Number 9: Striker

Striker is a character that always hypes me when he appears. He easily earns me respect for being a guy who just does his job, and isn’t afraid to cause damage or kill other characters (like Stolas)

He’s also very interesting and easily likable, but not as much as the other 8 ahead of him

Number 8: Sally Mae

I loved her from the first time I saw her in episode 5, and the new short made me love her even more. Her relationship with Millie has to be one of my favorites in helluva boss. Not to mention a well represented trans character. So she earns my respect without a doubt

Number 7: Verosika Mayday

As Blitzø’s ex, she’s very interesting. There are many reasons why I like her. She’s blitz’s ex and we don’t know why they broke up (we got hints, but not a full explanation) I love her sassy personality and she’s hot(not that the other characters are hot, they are but Veroskia is a sucubus, not that it really matters but still). The reason why she’s higher then Sallie Mae is because we’ve had a lot more time with her.

I also can’t wait for apology tour, witch come out in my birth month

Number 6: Asmodeus/Ozzie

I Love the house of asmodeus so much and Ozzie just gets better from here, from a lustful sin to a sweet parter. He deserves to be in top 10

Reason why he’s here is because not because he sucks, but that other top 5 I like more then him for their own reasons, with that being

Number 5: Millie

I love her personality and her strength throughout the show. She’s brave, loves her husband, and is a very caring person who cares about her friends/family.

she’s only lower then her husband because we haven’t got a lot of time with her, but she’s still amazing which is why she is this high.

Number 4: Moxxie

His arc has to be one of my favorites, and he is very entertaining. I think he and Millie are some of the best characters in the show and that’s why they are both in my top 5, next to each other. But he’s only higher because he has more screentime.

Number 3: Blitzø

He’s always been a very interesting character, from the beginning where he was basically an animated Brenden Rogers (I enjoy his work BTW and recommend to those who like helluva boss) to where he got more and more complex and now, I just want to give him a big hug. But there are 2 more characters that are ahead of him

Number 2: Fizzarolli

Who DOESN’T like this dude, he’s so cute and funny and I love him. Of course with his more serious moments. That just makes me respect him even more. Ozzie’s, Opps, and Mammons magnificent musical mid-season special have to be some of my favorite partially (or entirely) because of him.

Honorable Mention: Vassago

Before I get to number one, I thought I should mention him. We haven’t seen him in the show yet, but I already like him since we got the information from Vivziepop that he’s a good boy (please let the be the truth Vivzie). That’s all

Number 1: Stolas

This is my favorite helluva boss character, this bird boy has always had my attention with his personality and complexity of his character. I’m very glad that he is getting a divorce with that toxic Stella (who I hate) and his loving relationship with his daughter Octavia (who I mentioned before as my number 10). I loved those last 5 minutes of full moon hearing his side of the story and giving the Asmodian crystal to Blitzø.

(AND I SWEAR TO GOD VIVZIE THAT IF THEY DONT GET BACK TOGETHER BY THE END OF THE SEASON)

[wishful-thinking64]

Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss Rewrite Ideas #02

Hello! Hello! I've come to bring rewrite ideas for both shows once again! People seemed to like the first one and I like coming up with story ideas with and for practically everyone so here are seven more rewrite ideas for Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss! ______

#01.) Have Alastor's magic sigils be radio symbols over Vodou symbols as it not only makes way more sense with Alastor being the Radio Demon but to not play into a harmful stereotype about a real life religion.

#02.) On the topic of religion, don't be afraid to add a few more religious figures from the Bible or the Torah! As long as you're being mindful about the material you're pulling from, I really don't see this as much of an issue. People make their own spin on angels, demons, Jesus, and God all the time! But for once, this is where Viv gets cold feet even though she already has Adam & Eve there but not their two main children? Or the reason behind why their parents and everything else exists?? Seriously Viv??? #03.) In any case, if you do add the first two siblings then I suggest having Cain possibly work at the Hotel as some kind of repentance considering he's both the first real Sinner and for the fact that he feels guilt over killing his little brother. #04.) Alright, now for some ideas for Helluva Boss! I feel like we've all grown tired of seeing the, "Two people arranged in a loveless marriage," trope with how often it's been appearing and HB is no stranger to this trope and tries to use it as a way to rectify Stolas' affair with Blitzo.

I mentioned this in my third One Hell of an Unpopular Opinion series but if you want to stick loosely to HB's canon then you'd probably be better off with making Stella a surrogate mother as we still haven't seen her interact with Octavia and there was no real point in having Stolas marry Stella if all he needed to do was secure an heir. Besides I'm pretty sure that's what Paimon did in order to get Stolas as we see no signs that he had a mom growing up with how he was raised by a butler. On the contrary, should you wish to keep Stella as Stolas' wife, I'd recommend going the path not taken. By which I mean, have Stella and Stolas marry because, at one point, they did genuinely love each other but over the years that love dwindled and eventually faded out. Even though they'd be better off parting ways they choose to stay together as Great Horned Owls (the owl that the actual Stolas from the actual Ars Goetia seems to be based off of) and Snow Geese (I refuse to believe she's a swan especially since her brother has ice powers and lives in an ice castle) typically mate for life. From here, I'd have Octavia not be born out of the "necessity" of an heir but rather as a last ditch effort to see if their relationship can be rekindled as many couples in real life think that having a child or children will "fix" their relationship. #05.) Sorry for getting somewhat depressing with that last bit. To make up for it, write a fun chapter about I.M.P. having fun by rewriting Episode #05 of Season #01, The Harvest Moon Festival! A lot of people like The Harvest Moon Festival as it is though the majority agrees that it should've been a Millie centric episode. So have her be the reason they go to the Harvest Moon Festival over Stolas, show her competing in the Pain Games, and have her stand up for her husband due to having enough of her family constantly shit talking him. Overall, have Millie excel at being the bad ass girlboss that HB makes her out to be! #06.) Give Octavia some type of found family or friend group. Have her attend a prestigious private school (I doubt Stella will have her daughter attend a regular public high school) and have her become friends with the school's outcasts. The reason this group could be outcasts is because they actually earned their right to be there by getting good grades while most of the students are probably the offspring of Hell's high ranking officials. But seriously, this girl needs (and deserves) a support system STAT! #07.) Properly explain what it takes to get a soul into Heaven. I don't care if you explain this via The Ten Commandments, trusting that Jesus died for humanity's sins, or by using another set of rules from a different religion that isn't Christianity just be certain that your explanation is clear and concise and makes sense for what you have already pre-established for your rewrite. Don't do what the HH series did by saying, "Yeah, we don't know," because that is genuinely how you lose an audience. You can't have the ENTIRE premise of the show being about wanting Sinners to get into Heaven when HEAVEN doesn't even know what gets a soul there in the first place! ______ Well, those are all of the ideas I've got for now! See ya guys!

[glitchy-anime-fan]

Sinners aren’t the only ones who can be overlords (theory)

⚠️ HAZBIN HOTEL SPOILERS ⚠️

I’m not sure if anyone else noticed this (hopefully I’m not late to this idea) but I’m pretty sure overlord status isn’t solely given to sinner demons. I'll be focusing on Rosie and Carmilla but I'm also going to include other characters for comparison sake. I'm also going to reference the Wiki page for the characters as well as things that Faustisse has said in the past while they were still working on the series. Take these with a grain of salt, this is just a theory after all, if I'm proven wrong by the show then so be it lol.

I've seen some talk in the fandom regarding not only Carmilla and her daughters but also Rosie and the residents of Cannible Town. I think the biggest thing I've seen is people being confused as to how Carmilla could have daughters since sinner demons cannot reproduce. A lot of the confusion is regarding how Carmilla could have daughters if she's a sinner given the reproduction issue. I think one of the popular theories is that Odette and Clara happened to die as adults and reunited with Carmilla in hell which makes sense if we are looking at them as sinners. However, while I was looking at the wiki page for Rosie I noticed a pattern with the other characters; their species are typically specified as more than just "demon" if applicable. For example; Moxxie, Milly, and Blitzo are all specified as "imp demons" while Alstor, Vox, and Valentino are specified as "sinner demons" showing that they are different.

(Below is screenshots of the wiki pages from each character mentioned above so you can see what I mean)

Similarly, if we look at Stolas, Charlie, and Octavia, their wiki pages have them labelled as just demons, with no specification, however, we know all three of them are hellborns.

Now I bring this up because if we look at Carmilla and her daughter's Wiki pages, they are denoted as a demon with no further specification.

If we are to take this in the same context as Stolas and Charlie, it's a fair assumption to make that they are all hellborn demons. We don't exactly know how many different subspecies of hellborns there are aside from the ones that have been shown in Helluva Boss. To quote the HH wiki describing the hierarchy, hellborn demons include "Succubi and Incubi, among other unknown demon species of Hell". Who's to say that Carmilla and her daughters aren't part of this unknown subspecies of demons? This I think could help explain how Carmilla has two daughters as a demon.

Now in episode seven, we do see that Carmilla and her daughters were attacked by exorcists. As part of the extermination deal between Lucifer and Heaven, the exorcists are not allowed to kill hellborns. If this is the case, why would the exorcists attack Carmilla? Well, there could be a few reasons. The first reason could be that the exorcists mistook Carmilla and her daughters as sinners. Who knows how much the exorcists are taught about demons and the differences between hellborns and sinners. It could be that these angels mistook them as sinners whether it be because Carmilla looks similar to other sinners, or the exorcists were just caught up in th moment and attacked and demon who passed by. We could also guess that most angels just assume that all the demons in Pride are sinners since it seems that most hellborn demons originate from other rings.

On the other hand, perhaps the exorcist just didn't care. Who knows how long Adam had been planning to move up the exterminations. Who knows how the other exorcists see the exterminations from an individual standpoint. Lute obviously has her own opinions of demons and the exterminations so who knows what the other angels feel. These could have been exorcists who didn't care about the deal. Maybe they thought because they're angles they're better than demons and could perhaps get away with killing a hellborn (the hubris am I right?)? Maybe they thought they could come up with some kind of excuse to get themselves out of it. Who knows.

In a similar vein, I've seen once or twice people on Twitter talk about how the cannibals in Cannibal Town all look relatively similar despite it being shown that sinner demons have unique demon forms (obviously with some similarities if it's between families like Angel and his brother/father for example). I think I saw one tweet suggesting that the cannibals are another subspecies of hellborns (I unfortunately only saw it in passing and don't know the user off the top of my head) and I actually think this could have some merit to it.

Jumping back to the wiki pages, if you look at Rosie's page she also has the "demon" title without any sort of additional specification. Already this matches with what I mentioned at the very beginning regarding Charlie and Stolas. Faustisse also mentions that Rosie didn't die (it's included in Rosie's trivia section) alluding to the idea that she is, in fact, a hellborn demon.

Likewise, while I was looking at the wiki page for Cannibal Town, I noticed this little gem in the trivia section. I think it's safe to assume that the reason all of the cannibal demons look the same/similar is that they are just another subspecies of demons native to Pride. This, again, can explain how there are children in Cannibal Town despite sinners not being able to reproduce; none of them are actually sinners.

Now why do I bring this up? Well for two reasons; one it's just kind of cool to know that sinners aren't the only demons who can potentially gain overlord status. This means that, in theory, other hellborns could also gain higher status if they can make deals and collect souls. There is actually a good chunk of overlords that aren't specified as sinners, such as Velvette and Zestial alongside Carmilla and Rosie. As far as I can tell only Alastor, Vox, and Valentino are sinner demon overlords (we could also include Husk if we take into account that he used to be an overlord before the events of the show). This is just a cool little detail that I didn't catch at first that could end up being important or not important at all later in the show. And again, it can also show that those in the lower ranks of the hierarchy could potentially move up in status, not just the sinners.

The second reason I am bringing up this theory is that it adds another layer to Alastor's plan during the finale. So in the last episode, Alastor brings Charlie to Rosie to ask for assistance in fighting Adam. Now on the surface, we could read into this as Alastor knows Rosie will help because they're friends and he knows she'd be willing to support Charlie. This did likely play a part in why Alastor chose to go to Rosie.

However, if the cannibals are hellborns then perhaps he thought that the hotel would get some kind of win no matter what happened. I mentioned before that as part of the agreement for the exterminations to happen the exorcists can't kill hellborns. Perhaps Alastor took into account that with the cannibals around, the angels would have a harder time getting to the hotel as they would be trying to avoid killing demons that they aren't allowed to kill. This would allow the others more chances to sneak in and kill the exorcists while they're distracted.

On the other hand, he could have assumed that if the exorcists or Adam didn't care about the deal anymore then they would get in major trouble with the rest of Heaven for killing the cannibals. One way or another the Hotel is getting some kind of upper hand in the fight regardless; either they have a way to distract the angles or they put the angels in a position where they get in trouble later.

I tried looking back in the episode to see if any of the cannibals actually died and I couldn't see any. Perhaps it was just for the ease of animating or because it wasn't a huge focus in the battle so the effect the battle had on the cannibals just wasn't shown. Though, if I had to guess since Lucifer didn't show up until after Dazzle died and Charlie was in real trouble then none of the cannibals were injured or killed.

Overall I just think this is kind of a cool theory that I think adds some depth to the characters and/or their actions. Again, this is also just a fan theory so please don't take it as gospel. If anyone on the Hazbin team comes out and expands more on the cannibals and Carmilla that completely contradicts this then it is what it is! This was just something that I noticed today while I was working on a different Hazbin post and I had to write it somewhere lol.

sorry this got super long, I hope it makes sense. Sometimes I have trouble articulating my thoughts when I have ideas like this lol.

[twisting-echo]

So ¿what in your opinion are Danny fenton's top 5 cutest crossover ships? In both het and slash.

So ¿two top 5's? I don't know.

Well, this is going to be fun because I have more than just 5 hehehe 😼

1) Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Manny Rivera/El Tigre (TigerGhost/TigerSpirit) I just fell in love with their dynamic, thanks to @/nicktoonsunite

I love Danny and Manny because Danny tends to be a little more serious and easily stressed out than Manny. And Manny's laid-back and fun loving personality helps balance that out for Danny. But the main draw for me is that they both understand what it's like to have separate identities that clash with their lives and the responsibility of protecting others. Even though they may feel like their powers get in the way of their normal lives sometimes, they will always put aside their own needs to do what's right.

2) Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x SpongeBob SquarePants (SpongeBoo) because of @/nicktoonsunite (and because I remember playing Nicktoons Volcano Island on my old GameCube and Nicktoons Globs of Doom on my old PS2). 

Danny and SpongeBob are just cute, queerplatonic partners, and their personalities mesh well together. I love how close and comforting they are in @/nicktoonsunite's universe. If there was something that was bothering them both, they would be the first people they chose to confide in. 

3) Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom and Octavia Goetia (Spectral Owl) because of you and how cute they are. I honestly love the idea of Danny and Via healthily trauma bonding over the upbringings they had in their family homes. I love how shy and awkward they would be with each other.

I imagine Octavia helping Danny ghost hunt with her magic and knowledge of the supernatural, but I think what I love most is how slowly and gently Danny gets Octavia to put her walls down and trust him. They would be absolutely good for each other as a couple, and I headcanon that Danny will grow to be 6′ 1″ and Octavia will be 6′ 7″. Danny and Octavia will be a tall and adorable king and queen couple one day. (He will always nickname her Spooky.)

4) Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Betty Barrett/Atomic Betty (Galactic Ghost) Now I was a huge Atomic Betty and Danny Phantom fan in my childhood (still am) so that's how this ship came to be.

I ship Betty and Danny for the same reasons I ship Danny and Manny but Danny becomes a galactic guardian and Betty becomes a ghost buster lol.

5) Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Little Cato (Spectral Space/Spooky Cat/Ghostly Hellions) (I need more ship names for these two).

I'm a huge Little Cato fan, and this is one of my favorite ships that I've come up with for him. I like to imagine that Little Cato gets his first intense crush on Danny, and Danny is completely oblivious (for awhile) about it. Little Cato just thinks that Danny is the coolest person he's ever met, and laughs at all of his silly jokes. Danny can't help but think how cute Little Cato is and finds himself enjoying every moment that they spend together. That's all I'm going to say about this ship because I plan to make a post about them in the future.

Honorable Mentions:

Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Jenny Wakeman/XJ-9

Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Billy Joe Cobra

Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Lydia Deetz (Because Lydia is sweet and kind and everything Sam isn't)

Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Spencer Wright

Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Verosika Mayday

Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom x Loona the hellhound 

 There's probably more that I like but can't think of any more right now.

Thanks for the ask @amethystoceandespiser

[taterforlife]

Also, okay, people are saying that people are often too sympathetic to Stolas because "he still hasn't apologized for treating Blitzø like an object!"

Have we forgotten that actions can also speak just as loud as words, if not more so? Stolas might not have apologized outright, but he has engaged in a LOT more actions than Blitzø has to make things right. And he has said to Blitzø outright that he doesn't want their relationship to be a transaction anymore, and literally gave him freedom to do what he needed with the Osmodean Crystal. He set Blitzø free. He stopped calling him cutesty nicknames and referred to him by his true name. He tried multiple times to try to get to know him without any physical action involved. He started asking Blitzø about his day and his hobbies and started treating Blitzø like an equal.

Blitzø, however, has done essentially nothing. He even tried to keep it transactional by transpassing into his property and telling him he feels like he has to "earn" his way to the human realm. He was actively trying to make it toxic again, because for Blitzø, it felt safer and more like what he's used to.

Stolas absolutely regrets how he treated Blitzø and, as a result, he set him free to make amends, ready to leave him alone so he can be heartbroken without burdening Blitzø with those feelings.

Blitzø is the one who is refusing to accept it. Even if Stolas DID verbally say, "I am sorry for making you feel lesser than me by treating you like my plaything", Blitzø most likely would have just rolled his eyes and told him to stop being "so gay about it."

Honestly, in my opinion, it isn't Blitzø that Stolas needs to continue making amends to. For me, that's Octavia. He needs to spend time with her without Blitzø or the divorce ever being mentioned at all. THAT should be Stolas' next thing to focus on, because he should have done that long before trying to make amends with Blitzø.

Still love our owl man, 100% (and I used to not like him), but yeah. I still think Octavia deserves more from him at this point. But I'm not too mad about it because I know he adores her and only obsessed over Stolas because he never got much say over his life. But the children should always come first regardless.

[goetiiaprince]

Not that I owe anyone an explanation, and please DO NOT reblog this, but I want to give a little background to my stance/opinion/whatever you want to call it...

Relationships are complex and messy, just as people are. We are multifaceted beings with emotions, impulses, desires, etc.. I stand by what I said about Stolas being a victim of abuse and I will absolutely portray him as such. As a victim of abuse, manipulation, and someone who lives in an occasionally hazardous home environment, I am entitled to my own opinion on this matter. And to be quite honest, if you are going to actively think of Stolas as anything other than a victim, please do not engage with me. I'll put the rest under a read more for the sake of not taking up too much space on the dash + it's personal, blah blah blah.

I am NOT excusing Stolas's behavior or his own faults. He is FLAWED. He has made mistakes, he needs to own up to the things he has done and do a LOT of unpacking of internalized misconceptions. He absolutely did Blitz dirty and owes him countless apologies, and he was an absent parent to Octavia (bro could have done better, I'll be real about that but I've BEEN in Octavia's position to recognize the WHY and what's going on; Stolas doesn't even properly talk to her about everything). That being said, we are actively given hints and gestures that show us he LOVES both of them dearly; they are likely his reason for living.

But as someone who has had my way of thinking shaped, my ability to effectively communicate my feelings stunted, and who has been on the receiving end of verbal and physically abusive behaviors -- I find his character incredibly validating and easy to connect with. Stella actively and openly ridicules him, yells at him, and throws objects (not to mention one of the imps). We receive a scene where she is about to physically assault him, and he stops her.

Anyway, I don't fully know where I am going with this anymore but yep. My portrayal will absolutely explore and reflect the fact that he is a victim of abuse. It will not be solely centered on that, but it is a MAJOR part of his character and elements he needs to actively work on/through.

peace out, thanks for reading! also I am OKAY plz don't dote on me or worry!