My Thoughts On Helluva Boss: APOLOGY TOUR And FULL MOON

I think one of my favorite things about Blitzø is how feral cat-coded he is.

He was dumped on his own at too young an age without resources. He's an outcast with a rough past, used to relying on his own wit and tenacity to survive. He's energetic and determined. He bends/breaks rules as he deems necessary. His circus past gives him good balance/coordination (except for his goofy faceplants).

His tail swishes. He bites. He purrs.

Like a feral cat, he perceives most of the world as ready to hurt him and lashes out, often afraid of introspection. And he refuses to acknowledge when he's dangerously out of his level in a conflict.

It also takes a lot for him to realize when someone is, in fact, genuine. The world wants to hurt people, and he's constantly waiting for it to try again.

But when he does understand someone, or when he sees enough of himself in them, he doesn't need the claws anymore. He is all about nuzzles and cuddles and purrs and an absurd level of undying faith and protectiveness. Like a cat, his loyalty and affection are things he has to decide on himself. But once they're there, they're as upfront and outright as his self-defenses.

IDK I don't have anywhere special to go with this. As someone who's had a lot of experience with feral/found stray cats, I really came to appreciate his character so much the further I got into the show. Perhaps this is just a response to those people who feel his supportive nature with Stolas at the end of S2 'came out of nowhere.' Maybe they haven't had the same experience I have? Blitzø is that beaten up street cat who hisses and claws when you try to help or be kind to him, even though he badly needs help and kindness. But underneath all that is the Blitzø that wants to follow you home, swat at the other cats to protect you, and be your biggest cheerleader. Just, very stray cat coded. And I love it.

EDIT: OH you know what barn animals tend to befriend horses (Blitzø's animal obsession), to the extent of sleeping on their backs sometimes?

Yeah, cats.

I just need to yell about this moment here.

Millie, my girl Mills, bff, absolute queen! She was gonna keep looking at Blitz until he closed his eyes, she wasn’t gonna let him feel alone in this, not ever again. She couldn’t hold his hand, but she could give him the comfort of eye contact until the end, and my gosh, she’s so strong for that! (Not shitting on Moxxie and Loona here! Their not wanting to look is totally valid! Totally a normal response to such a thing!)

You can tell how thankful Blitz is to have someone to look at in the eyes one last time, as he says that he loves his found family. I just love how she wasn’t gonna let him ever go alone, she gave him the only comfort she could from where she was chained, and he appreciated that, so, so much! It’s all over his face here. (Imo)

After rewatching Mastermind, I feel like the episode actually draws a very interesting distinction between Blitzo’s and Stolas’s respective big ‘Heroic Sacrifice’ moments. Namely in whether they are genuinely necessary sacrifices or a wasteful moment of a character pointlessly throwing their life away.

You see, when Blitzo does his big ‘throwing himself on the sword’ moment where he takes all the blame on himself in order to get Moxxie, Millie and Loona spared, it’s a genuinely heroic, necessary act.

In this moment, Blitzo truly did have NO other options. They were ALL being threatened with death, so Blitzo leveraged the one tiny bit of power he held and took all the responsibility onto himself.

This is very much not a case of Blitzo ‘throwing his life away’. Right then, he was going to die no matter what. But through his sacrifice, Blitzo made sure that the people he loved would live.

Now let’s contrast this with what STOLAS did. He does do essentially the same thing Blitzo just did to save him just as Blitzo saved his loved ones.

But in context, Stolas’s big moment of sacrifice is a complete WASTE. Because while Blitzo truly had zero other options, Stolas DID.

I mean think about it; Stolas is a Goetia. He has POWER, he has influence. The ABILITY, at least potentially, to save Blitzo.

But did he attempt to use any of that? When he appeared in that courtroom, did Stolas try to argue Blitzo’s innocence? Try to push back against his brother-in-law’s scheming? Try literally anything OTHER than big dramatic self-sacrifice?

No. Literally the first thing Stolas did was go straight to throwing everything away, INCLUDING HIS LIFE to save Blitzo. Admitting to whatever made-up bullshit Andrealphus used to frame Blitzo and co. in the first place and just throwing himself on the sword right off the bat.

And that’s not a good thing!

Blitzo was ready to sacrifice his life after it became clear that there was no other way to save his loved ones.

Stolas was ready to sacrifice his life because it seems to have been the first thing he could think of.

Do I really need to spell out how this is a VERY BAD THING for Stolas?

Especially given that one of those things he immediately decided to throw away without a second thought to save Blitzo happens to be HIS DAUGHTER.

I mean, you want a character contrast?

One of the last things Blitzo says is to ask his two best friends to take care of his daughter.

While I think it's pretty goddamn clear Stolas wasn't even THINKING about his daughter.

And before anyone pipes in with any trite about how their precious-little-blorbo-who-can-do-no-wrong ‘didn’t have time to think of anything else’ and ‘was just trying to protect the man he loved’,

Again; LITERALLY THE FIRST AND ONLY THING HE COULD THINK OF WAS THROWING HIS LIFE (and daughter) AWAY TO SAVE BLITZO. How the FUCK is that supposed to be ‘good’ or ‘excusable’?

And despite the ‘wholesome Stolitz domesticity’ ending note, Stolas’s reaction makes it pretty clear he is currently processing just how MASSIVELY and UTTERLY he just FUCKED UP. Particularly the whole ‘Oh shit I just threw away my daughter…’ reaction to Blitzo and Loona embracing.

Overall I think this is very much a deliberate contrast meant to highlight these characters’ growth, or lack thereof, as well as showing how they deal with a moment of true crisis.

For Blitzo, this is very much a make-or-break, back-against-the-wall moment where he demonstrates how much he truly loves his new family with a truly heroic act of self-sacrifice. Blitzo knew he was going to die no matter what, but he made sure that his loved ones would be saved.

Which of course is meant to sharply contrast how STOLAS handles the situation.

Blitzo’s moment of self-sacrifice demonstrated how much he loves and cares for his new family, to the point where he will lay down his own life to keep them safe. Whereas Stolas’s moment of self-sacrifice demonstrated how little he cares for HIMSELF, or anything other than Blitzo. To the point where his first response was to throw away everything, including his LIFE, and his DAUGHTER, to keep Blitzo safe.

Octavia joining the family

foreshadowing and shit 🙂

Blitz answer her dad call

His phone number is saved as dad (with a few *s)

Alo can't tell me Via long winded dunk on Blitz; isn't a little similar to his on Stolas in the pilot

Blitz says let's go find our daughters, refering to Loona and Via.

(Yes I know English is a silly imprecise language, but I'm counting it).

And this moment had a big effect on Stolas

They have the same taste in music 🎶

Blitz uses the same pet name for Octavia, as he does for Loona

They have the same reaction to Stolas being overly PDA

They both Hate Fizzbot

And both think Stolas' damsel in distress act is bit much

They have a very similar sarcastic snarky wit

(She was having so much fun making Loo loo sweat)

And Stolas treats them in a similar way when they snark

He fires back with a minor piss take of his own. (Think one of the reasons Stolas wasn't as put of by Blitz's walls early on is because of understanding Via).

You can see how well this plays together when they back eachother up taking this mick out of Andy

Blaming @quillyfied for this one but she's in front of both of them saying this.

This resonates SO much with me! Just because I’m Ace doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the emotional aspect of a relationship, so watching people flip out over Alastor being shipped with anyone is especially frustrating. It’s like they can’t believe an Asexual has the capability of getting close to anyone, and their treatment of Alastor when it comes to ships just proves that.

Thats why this is such a great message! Really appreciate this take

I wish there were more fanart with such a message, so that it would finally reach these otherwise intelligent people. Because I'm so tired of reading "but he's aroace" comments☝️🤓 or that I can't ship a certain ship.

People, calm down! You're not even right lol.. Normal ace/aro/aroace people don't have a problem with it, not like you fanatics.

Just let people do what makes them happy...

I think people don't take into consideration enough that Blitz likely struggles with chronic pain.

Stiffness, soreness, and an inability to handle textures or clothing types-we see Blitz either in oversized clothes or super skin tight clothes, nothing in between.

In other words, clothes that are so tight they can't rub, or clothes so big they're not going to. He likes soft things, like sweaters and hoodies, and seems to have a preference for very specific blankets.

The idea thay Blitz had to figure this all out on his own, with painful trial and error, discovering what hurts and what doesn't, what he can tolerate and what he can't. Stumbling over compression gloves by sheer accident, self medicating with booze and huge, soft sweaters on bad days, hurts my soul.

The idea that even Millie doesn't know, that bad pain days are just Blitz drunk again, fucked off in his apartment because he feels like it, or hung over and doesn't feel like coming in, with no one, not even Loona, realizing that every movement makes his skin feel rashy, raw, tight, painful-that his joints ache and his vision is blurry and his face hurts like someone's holding a flame to it.

I absolutely love Blitzø’s reaction to Stolas mentioning his horse collection!

This lovable dork is absolutely ecstatic that Stolas is talking about his collection. Blitzø is proud of his horse collection, and he’s more than ready to geek out about it with someone he loves.

The feels man, I just can’t with this gremlin lizard! 🥰

The happy faces Blitzø makes when he can get his found family to laugh

Something about Sinsmas

It’s this scene right here that’s stuck with me ever since the episode released. Blitz is the happiest he’s been in a while. Not to mention the most open and unguarded. The most relaxed. Which brings me to my sticking point.

Those marks under Blitz’s eyes? They aren’t stress/tension marks. You know, those little marks under the eyes that artists use to highlight the strong emotion in characters in certain scenes. No, those marks under Blitz’s eyes are eye bags.

Blitz is exhausted, and he has been for a good while now (those eye bags have been there in earlier episodes too). And now? With him pushing everything to the back-burner to take care of Stolas and Millie’s possible pregnancy reveal in the future? Season 3 could very easily have Blitz getting better at self care with the help/for the sake of his found family. Or maybe even having him break under the pressure prior to that growth.

Honestly, I’m just excited that there’s something else for me to lookout for in Season 3.

Some examples of high energy scenes with highlights under the eyes (that I couldn’t help but include):

Random thought: Do the other Sins have their own versions of Asmodean Crystals?

I’ve been thinking about Barbie Wire a lot lately. So of course I can’t help but notice (and become absolutely obsessed with) the way her Asmodean Crystal differs from all the other ones we’ve seen so far.

Now granted, I may be overthinking things again and it’s just a matter of Barbie needing a different version of an Asmodean Crystal due to her being an imp that doesn’t have the magic needed to make a human disguise herself. Or it’s just a repurposed crystal that was stolen from one of Asmodeus’ workers and altered somehow.

But I REALLY like the idea that it’s actually an Asmodean Crystal knockoff made by another Sin.

Mammon in particular is already known for stealing the ideas of his fellow Sins for his own gain. Loo Loo Land being a cheap copy of Lucifer’s Lu Lu World being a prime example. I can easily believe Mammon would copy Asmodeus’ actually legal Asmodean Crystal with a “cheap” illegal version that unsavory businesses like Barbie’s would use to get to Earth when they usually couldn’t. And with Mammon holding a grudge against Asmodeus in particular over Fizzarolli quitting, he’d be more than willing to make knockoffs that could be blamed on Asmodeus since they’re Lust’s design and jurisdiction.

And that’s before even considering Leviathan!

Envy is notorious for generally being a sin portrayed as jealous of what others have and wanting it for themselves. Sometimes going so far as being portrayed as wanting to BECOME a different person altogether (think Fullmetal Alchemist). I can definitely see Leviathan as a sin of envy making knockoff Asmodean Crystals, but with her own spin on it to make it “better” somehow.

Or, maybe she’d even work with Mammon on making their own version. After all, Greed and Envy are pretty compatible sins, and that trial in Mastermind did reveal an interesting dynamic. I can definitely see them using each other for their own gains.