#waaaay worse than blitzo or stolas

[justanotherhh]

every day i contain my desire to slander lucifer on this blog.

[flower-boi16]

What’s an example of a HB episode you thought was written well, and an episode you thought was written terribly? Can be a fun thought exercise

I think season 1's episodes are decently enjoyable even if the season shows clear signs of the problems that would be made more obvious in season 2. I mainly liked episode 2, I thought it was a heartfelt episode exploring Stolas' relationship with Octavia and the scene where Stolas talks to Octavia is actually pretty sweet.

As for an episode that was written terribly...well, I've said it before that I don't like this episode so I might as well just state my reasoning for this.

I think Oops is the worst episode of the show. Of all the episodes so far, it's the one with the most issues I can name. It's definitely the worst-written episode of the show.

First problem: the pacing. It's waaaay too damn fast. It feels like none of the scenes have a chance to breathe because we need to get to point A to B as fast as possible. And this is a problem that will be made worse once we get to a certain scene.

Then there's the Stolas and Asmodeus subplot...

Why? Why does this subplot exist? What's the point of it if Stolas and Asmodeus weren't even going to do anything throughout the whole episode? This could have literally been something that was happening off-screen, we didn't need to cut back to it throughout the episode.

Then we get the reveal of the incident that broke Blitz and Fizzarolli's friendship, where Blitz accidentally set the whole circus on fire permanently making Fizzoroli lose his limbs...

Here's why this scene doesn't work; it has no impact. The bad pacing combined with the tonal problems make this scene have no impact whatsoever, the show never even builds up to this reveal, it just randomly slaps you in the face with a 10-second flashback and you aren't given much time to process it.

This also leads me to my next problem with this episode; the resolution to Blitz and Fizzarolli's friendship feels insanely rushed, there's a 10-second flashback about what happened and then they just forgive each other like that. Do you see what I mean when I say this episode is badly paced?

Then there is the worst scene in the episode. The one where while Blitz and Fizzarolli are in the cell, Blitz vents about how Stolas pretends to like him despite only wanting to have sex with Blitz and nothing else even though he supposedly does all these nice things to Blitz.

Do you want to know why I don't like this scene? Simple; It's a retcon. The entire point of Blitz and Stolas's relationship in season 1 was that Stolas only wanted to sleep with Blitz and nothing else, to turn around and say "oh look Stolas did all of these nice things for Blitz guys!" feels like an attempt to try and make Stolitz look less toxic than it really is. We are told that Stolas did all of these nice things for Blitz, rather than shown. It's lazy.

Then there's the next problem with this scene; the show treats Blitz as though he is in the wrong for thinking Stols only loves him for his dick and nothing else. The show gaslights Blitz for being upset at this and it's kinda gross? Like the show is getting mad at a victim for getting mad at their abuser for only being interested in them for sex, I don't know if I would say this is victim blaming...but still.

Oh I'm still not done, because then after that scene we get the reveal that Blitz had a knife in his shoe the whole time and-

WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE IF HE HAD THAT THIS WHOLE TIME THEN WHY DIDN'T HE USE IT EARLIER??!?! WHY WASN'T PULLING THIS THING OUT THE FIRST THING HE DID WHEN WE GOT INTO THE CELL??!

Also wow, just how convenient that Blitzo has this in his shoe when we've never seen him use it before so they could escape. Wow, that is totally not contrived and lazy writing at all.

I know this post turned into me ranting about Oops, but I think the episode is an example of how badly written the show is mainly in season 2. There are probably more problems I can name when I rewatch it, and the fact that the fandom hailed this as an amazing episode is just...baffling to me.

Especially when the episode decides to ignore the whole point of Blitz and Stolas' relationship in season 1 and retcons it to make the ship look less toxic than it actually is.