Procrastinator 3000 @marukano - Tumblr Blog

So the thing about it is that Blitz is fundamentally an optimist. And I don't mean that in the pop psych sense of positive outlook vs negative outlook. I mean in the real psychological sense where we're talking about locus of control. He believes, fundamentally, that he has the agency to affect the changes he wants to make in his own life. The one notable exception, of course, is the area of his love life. Blitz is desperate for love to the point of obsession, but he also believes he'll never love somebody who could love him fully in return. We can probably tie this back to what a catastrophe his first serious attempt at a love confession turned into— it's unsurprising that his core insecurities are intimately intertwined with romance.

Stolas, on the other hand, has lived his life as a pessimist. Again, we're talking locus of control here. For most of his life, the world has happened to Stolas rather than him feeling like he has any ability to affect the outcome of his life. Fun side effect of 1) growing up in a cultlike environment and 2) being a literal agent of Fate for your day job I guess.

But what Stolas does believe in, almost to the point of absurdity, is love. Despite the ridiculous situation he and Blitz manage to maneuver themselves into, he tries so hard to put his trust in Blitz and hold onto the belief that they can be something more than just transactional fuckbuddies. And even after he has no more hope for a relationship, he still believes in the power of that love itself: so much so that it leads him to stake his life on it.

Because the thing is this: Blitz's refusal to accept arbitrary limitations inspires Stolas and sets him free from the boundaries he had accepted up until now that were slowly suffocating him. And Stolas's unconditional love proves Blitz so wrong and opens him up to the possibility that he really could have love in his life without being destroyed by it.

They're both rock-solid in the areas where the other needs the most shoring up and bring each other balance in these core ways, and I cannot stop thinking about it.

helluva-jester-nonconforming

need this thread to be on tumblr because getting this confirmed is huge for me

helluva-jester-nonconforming

Stolas willingly sleeping with an imp and calling for divorce reflects badly on Stella and on Goetia as a whole. It undermines the narrative Stella has set up for their entire relationship (that Stolas is spineless) and suggests that an imp could actually give him something he can’t get from another Goetia.

Stolas being raped by an imp only reflects badly on him and on all imps, thus restoring the status quo that Stolas is weak and pathetic, and that imps are nasty, worthless creatures. It takes away all of Stolas’ agency and choice in the situation, tainting him as a victim and nothing else, giving Andrealphus control over the narrative forever. Even if Blitz had died at the trial and Stolas tried to correct the story after, Andrealphus would just insist that Stolas had been brainwashed or had Stockholm Syndrome. Depending on the way the Goetia mental health system works, he and Stella probably could have easily gotten Stolas locked away in order to “help” and “protect” him, leaving them free reign of everything he owns.

This is the same jury of peers that thinks “he stared at the wall and I had to do all the work” is a hilarious joke. Andrealphus knew exactly what kind of system he was playing. And I’m sure he would have loved it if Stolas was permanently at his mercy, with no one left to crawl to.

uselesslilium

valahelart

i just think that if you're ten feet tall and so full of repressed sadness and anger, you should be allowed to explode everything 💥✨

goldenherm

So, imagine that you have a business idea. The idea is that you want to be a hitman and kill people for profit. Well, you are a hitman already but only in your little town, and your dreams are big. Intercontinental kind of big. You want more profitable targets, but in order to get to them, you need a vehicle.

Nor a car, nor a van, nor even a bus or a truck. You need something that you cannot buy, that is far more difficult to obtain: a private jet. Do you have a pilot license? No, you do not. Anyone at this point would have been fine with staying in the little town killing little people, but not you.

You remember that your father once sold you for a day as a playmate to a rich child you met once, and that child got a private jet as a birthday gift. So you go: "It's been 25 years, but I guess that rich guy still has the private jet. What if I get into his mansion and steal it?"

And you do, and you were caught. You thought you're fucked, but the rich guy takes you to the hangar, and flirts with you strongly. So you go: "You know? I could come on to him even more strongly to distract him and steal the private jet". At first it doesn't work, but then it does, and you have the chance to flee with your jet, but the guy says it feels good to be desired by his first ever friend, and you go: "Well, I fuck him first and then I'll leave with the jet".

You fuck the guy, you take the private jet and buy and office. You are ready to go with your international hitman business. But the rich guy finds you, thinks you took the private jet to get his attention (he thinks that because you come on to him, by the way) and you let him believe it because, what are you gonna say? That you stole it? Are you gonna give it back, and face the consequences? No, killing people across the globe is your dream and you'll do anything to achieve it.

So, the rich guy. He wants to fuck, and you go for it, for your hitman businesses, for the private jet you stole AND are not allowed to pilot. And the rich guy is happy, but now he's trying to leave with the private jet. You ask him if you can keep it for a while because you have always wanted to visit this one place, and the rich guy, who thinks you are genuinely interested in him, let you have the private jet for a while.

But you never gave the private jet back, and at some point the guy is like: "Hey, I need the private jet to take care of my business overseas. I know you've been using it for this international hitman business of yours, so what if you give it back once a month and, in exchange, we fuck?" And you say, yeah, okay, because you want the fucking jet.

My point with this stupid analogy is that it seems people keep saying Blitzø was coerced by Stolas, and I think that's because they draw a parallel with real life as if Stolas was Blitzø's boss, he caught him stealing office supplies and asked for sex in order not to fire him, when a more accurate parallelism will be THAT BLITZØ STOLE A PRIVATE JET FROM STOLAS AFTER HE MADE HIM BELIEVE HE WAS SEXUALLY INTERESTED IN HIM TO ACCESS SAID JET, AND STOLAS, WHOSE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IS NOT SO GOOD, THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A GREAT IDEA TO LEND HIM HIS PRIVATE JET IF THEY FUCK.

It's transactional? Yes. It's a little fuck up? Also yes. It's a situation BOTH OF THEM HAD GET INTO AFTER A SERIES OF MANY, MANY BAD DECISIONS? Fuck yes! THAT'S THE FUCKING POINT, MAN. Their situation is nuts and IS BOTH THEIR FAULT!

hellamews

the valentines drop thrust me into a fugue state

vvenuspng

a well deserved rest ♡･:*₊‧✩

hellamews

owls what?

jester-nonconforming

the thing is. it’s just really easy to tell when someone talking about Stolas thinks that long term abuse is something that just makes you kinda sad and sympathetic, instead of something that completely changes the way you interact with the entire world. it can fundamentally change the way you view loved ones, strangers, your own brain and body. it can make it impossible to tell what’s “normal,” what’s “appropriate,” what’s necessary or kind or cruel. it’s not something that just goes away when your abuser isn’t in front of you.

handsaniti

I am once again asking everyone to remember that the sad, wistful abuse survivor who sheds a single tear before going off into the good night has never been and will never be real.

Of course you can heal and move on from your trauma. But you never get to a place where it didn’t happen. It changes you as a person forever. You will never know the person you were before it happened. You just are who you are now.

elf-kid2

I've recently seen a discussion on the fact that Stolas fundamentally does not trust the Authorities and The System to protect him-- as demonstrated by the fact that he never even considered calling the cops about Blitz robbing his house. Or Striker trying to kill him. Or told anyone about the fact that he KNOWS Stella was the one to hire the assassin who tortured and tried to kill him.

The decades of emotional abuse did not give that man a good sense of when it might be good to ask for help. It did not leave him with the belief that he would actually GET help, if he asked for it.

He kept Stella's assassination-attempts to himself, just like everything else. Smile for the family portraits.

helluvalaura

#yes! #and ngl this is one of the many reasons why stolas is so endearing to me #ive seen human fics where blitz has to explain to him why he’s not safe around authority figured and i get why #bc yes stolas is very privileged and doesn’t have the same kind of bad experiences that blitz would have #but in canon stolas has always been supportive of blitz going against authority figures and protective of his safety #his ignorance didn’t come from him thinking that blitz would receive a slap on the wrist #it came from thinking that HE would get his head chopped off just as easily as blitz could #he’s never been someone who saw the system as fair but rather someone who saw himself as equally trapped under the system as blitz #which is still ignorance and still incorrect. but a very different kind

@jester-nonconforming you're not leaving this in the tags

uselesslilium

Incredible that both Blitz and Stolas think the other initiated their first hook-up, AND ALSO think that the other is the one who ended things between them. Stunning. Phenomenal work. Who’s doing it like them?

uselesslilium

Thinking again about how Stolas was as much a fantasy for Blitz as Blitz was for Stolas - specifically, he was a fantasy of 'someone Blitz couldn't hurt'.

There was no need to be afraid of any physical harm coming to Stolas - he's immortal, has crazy strong magic, and is generally invulnerable to any real danger (lol). And emotional harm was even less of a threat. And he saw Stolas as so high above him, their arrangement couldn't ever be more than a fun diversion for a bored prince (lmao). If Stolas never cared about him, then Blitz could never really do anything to hurt him either. It was the safest kind of relationship Blitz could imagine, and he took comfort in it even as he also resented it.

But also... I think the roots of that fantasy go back a lot further than just their arrangement. I think that Blitz has been thinking of Stolas this way since the fire.

It's a pretty common interpretation that their one-day play date meant a lot less to Blitz than it did to Stolas. He had other friends, and a busier life, so it seems like the natural conclusion that he wouldn't cling to that single encounter the same way Stolas did. And I agree that at the start, he probably didn't. But then the fire happened, and overnight Blitz lost everything. He lost his best friend, his family, his home and job, all over a single accident he felt responsible for.

After that, the only person from Blitz's childhood who remained unharmed by him... was Stolas. He was still safe, off far away in his palace. He didn't hate Blitz, didn't blame him for anything. That little puffball of a prince who believed in his dreams and thought he'd be a good boss someday had suddenly become the only friend Blitz ever had who he didn't wind up ruining. If he looked him up in the aftermath and heard about Stolas getting married and having a kid, clearly thriving and living his best life, it probably would've reassured him even more. Even if it was only one person, it was proof that Blitz could have a relationship with someone and not destroy them.

I think that does a lot to explain why Blitz was so receptive to Stolas in the first place, and why he seems to have a level of feeling for him right from Mission: Zero (not romantic feelings yet, but he's visibly shaken and drawn in by Stolas calling him 'his first friend', and seems genuinely sorry to have caused problems with his wife afterwards). The BDSM arrangement they wind up with - seeing firsthand how fast Stolas can heal from literally anything Blitz can do to him - seems to not only confirm that, but reinforces it. Stolas is powerful and immortal and nothing Blitz can do will ever truly affect him. He doesn't have to worry like he did with other relationships. Stolas is someone 'safe', to Blitz but also from Blitz. Always has been, always will be.

(/Western Energy looms ominously in the background)