Hi Phoenix!! This is Comsic from AO3 🤗💕 First off, I hope things have been okay with you, and the writing process has been going well (I mean, as well as writing can go, anyway 😅) I saw your tweets regarding Ep 6 of HB (not to mention that lovely fanart!!!) and I hope you don’t mind if I share some of my own thoughts, because hoooo boy, is there a lot to unpack.
So. Blitzo has a MASSIVE inferiority complex. I figured as much from the previous episodes, but this really hammered home for me that he has huge issues regarding his sense of self-esteem/self-worth. I definitely think he feels unworthy of Stolas and fears he means nothing to Stolas in the long run/is seen only as a plaything—this was made especially evident this episode by those two silhouettes of him fanning Stolas during the vision sequence: he quite literally faded into the background. And not to mention that he crawled up the stairs, as opposed to walking upright on his own two feet. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely think that he feels SOMETHING for Stolas (there’s surely a reason that the bit with Stolas is the only one that isn’t visually dark during his vision) but like, yeah… our boys have a LOT of work to do.
Now, this may be an unpopular opinion, but when I first watched the episode, I thought the kiss between Blitzo and Stolas was very… sudden??? I mean, I’m sure they’ve made out a lot offscreen, but I suppose I was caught off-guard by how quickly they shared a kiss together onscreen: I suppose I just wasn’t expecting that to actually happen until some of their personal issues were resolved, i.e. I had it in my head Blitzo had a “no kissing outside the bedroom” rule on account of that being too “intimate”. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like maybe it wasn’t so sudden.
Like, I don’t think this was their Big Damn Kiss; it wasn’t really the “focus” of the scene, if you catch my meaning. They seem to be shaping up to be the main couple of the show (will they/won’t they), and I feel that The Kiss between them will have a whole scene/episode building up to that moment, rather than it being almost… downplayed???? That kiss, I think, will come after a couple seasons’ worth of character development ☺️☺️
Not to get Angsty on you, but that whole vision fucked with Blitzo’s psyche, I have no doubt about that, and I think that he’s going to freak out about the fact his feelings for Stolas aren’t as straightforward as he may have been trying to convince himself they were, and he’ll call their relationship off/self-sabotage/do something to Stolas that may or may not be related to THAT scene from the teaser trailer :( I don’t think the photos exposing them are going to bite them in the ass just yet, it’s way too soon, but the fact that Stolas’ image was shown onscreen the longest at the very tail end of the episode suggests he’s going to be the one hit the hardest by whatever punishment awaits.
I’m this was so ridiculously long, but I just have a lot of Thoughts about this episode, and I figured you would understand 😂😂 take care!! 💕
Hi there, Comsic! 🤗💕 On the writing side, I'm in a bit of a transitional phase right now deciding between working on either TUT ch5 or P&B ch4, especially since both of them have such different atmospheres—and I'd just seen ep6 of 'Helluva Boss,' so that's fresh in my mind—and writing styles. Eventually I'll make up my mind but I'm stuck in indecisive limbo right now, ha.
(This is me^ with my two WIPs, and having to decide which one.)
I love your analysis. I totally understand. I'm flattered that you had a lot to say and went to my Ask to unload THE FEELS from ep6. Because I, too, was hit with THE FEELS. (Ah, the pain train especially. I anticipate we're in for a bumpy rollercoaster ride of suffering in the later episodes, but from a writer's perspective, it's necessary because in order to get the deserved Happy Ending, the main characters have to experience character growth and development. The mutual pining is a staple, as well as establishing character flaws and things that'll need to be resolved between them as well as the context of the hurdles they'll have to face, before we get to the well-deserved "actualized" relationship. I fully hope we get something close to what we saw in the Instas as we progress, with the fluffier times between them.) If we don't see "Stepdad Blitzo" in the show canon, I hope for a "Boyfriend Blitzo" with him officially and openly with Stolas in a relationship in a later season, with him shown to somewhat mesh well with Octavia eventually and maybe the two girls getting along too. I want to continue seeing the chemistry between Blitzo and Stolas, even if there needs to be a brief period of separation to get their sh*t together. I'm putting my expectations low, so that if HB exceeds any of it, I can happily lose my mind and scream.
Blitzo's inferiority complex will have to be addressed in canon eventually. Right now, we see it being set up. The kernels should eventually lead to a situation where Blitzo can't take it anymore (possibly leading to an emotional eruption) and there should be an episode that serves as the "healing episode" where he'll need to learn how to deal with it. It's ok if you got angsty on me, haha. Oh gawd, I'm not ready but I wouldn't be surprised if we see Blitzo self-sabotaging himself in the show. Or it could be a moment where Stolas is forced to stop "their arrangement" (leading to an unhappy owl) and Blitzo can have that time to himself to realize that he's being a dumb-dumb. Personal issues take time to be resolved, and I hope the show shows that growth before awarding us (so that it feels EVEN MORE SATISFACTORY).
I'd liked how the Vivziepop crew went for the open-to-interpretation symbolism in ep6. It makes the writer in me salivate. Of course, I see some takes that jumped the shark a bit too much in the speculation imo, but I think most of us saw what the crew was trying to convey. I can see the foreshadowing and the building blocks that the show is trying to set up for future confrontation(s)/ episodes. It will be painful, but what's a little pain and suffering when we get to the promiseland (hopefully; crossing my fingers and knocking on wood)?
Ah, the kiss. Haha, tbh, I get it. On my side of things, I'm rather desensitized to it as a slowburn writer myself who has to write about people kissing and leading up to them doing the horizontal tango. I didn't expect to see a heavy tongue makeout session in ep6, but I could tell the animators—and especially the storyboard artist who'd worked on those frames and tweeted it—really wanted to give the fans some food. I like the hc myself of Blitzo being uncomfortable with kissing outside of their arrangement in bed, with him slowly growing comfortable reciprocating gestures of affection and even initiating a kiss himself once he gets to a certain point. But it's ok. I don't see it as their "Big Damn Kiss" moment personally as well; I took it as a fanservice gift which I appreciated. I hope in a future season and episode though, when they lay their emotions bare, it's an over-the-top dramatic or touching moment where they actually kiss and it's a point of the story where it means something emotionally (like, yes, this is their happy moment, so they deserve this kiss and it's worth celebrating and losing our minds over).
The last few minutes where we see them recorded on footage...hahaha. The conflict has been established. This is indeed gonna come bite them in the ass. It was a nice touch for the crew to have Stolas say about not wanting to get in trouble, and like a self-prophecy, at the end of the episode we see that he will indeed most likely get in trouble (either with the higher-ups or humans, or what have you). It was a nice cliffhanger to establish a future conflict. (Gotta keep us on the edge of our toes and make the story interesting.)
Take care as well! Stay safe and healthy! 💕💕