YMMV / Helluva Boss S2E1 "The Circus"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Stella claiming Stolas is bad in bed. Is he really? Or was it her trying to insult him once again? Going off what the show has shown of Stolas in bed, he's implied to be pretty intense, so someone claiming that he's bad in bed seems to contradict what we had heard previously. Additionally, considering the fact that Stolas is basically confirmed in this episode to Aggressive Submissive in bed, was Stella trying to force him to be the dominant one? Or is it a side-effect of either his lack of love towards her or Incompatible Orientation? It's also possible Stolas took on that Aggressive Submissive persona for the first time since Blitzo was basically functioning as a Closet Key for him.
  • Have they even ever had sex for real? Artificial insemination exists and Stella openly says she doesn't want to fuck Stolas either, so she could just be saying this to humiliate him and/or give excuses to her friends for why she hates him.
  • While it doesn't excuse her actions towards Stolas, some fans have pointed out that Stella is as much of a victim of the Arranged Marriage as much as he was. The difference is that while Stolas internalized his suffering to try to make it work, Stella openly expresses her displeasure at having him as a husband, especially because Stolas doesn't behave like the nobleman he is supposed to be. And the fact that, despite hating her situation as much as he, she seems to not have the authority to end their "deal" as soon as she fulfilled her duty of laying Octavia's egg, so she's as trapped in the marriage as Stolas is.
  • Is Stella actually just still there to torture Stolas or does she have other motives? Considering how we see her brother hitting on her in a later episode, she might have Fridge Horror reasons for not wanting to go back to her family.
  • Was Blitzo's father eager to sell him to Paimon because of his poor performance in the circus? Or did he figure that, as his son, Blitzo might be more easily manipulated into stealing from royalty than Fizzarolli?
  • Did Blitzo recognize Stolas or not? He seemed to remember about the Grimoire, but it's just as possible he heard about it on the street. He also seemed to react when Stolas called him his first friend, but was that just out of pity that Stolas was so lonely that he had "deluded" himself into believing his friend had come back for him?
  • Does Stolas now understand what the problem is in his relationship with Blitz, or not? The cliffhanger ending of OZZIE's had Blitz chew him out for Stolas trying to act like he wanted anything more than sex from Blitz, which was warranted given how Stolas has been treating him up until this point. Stolas gets something off a My God, What Have I Done? expression, but his song in this episode refers to the arrangement as a 'comfortable lie', suggesting he blames Blitz for his heartbreak despite being the one to coerce him into the Full Moon deal, or that Stolas had assumed there was more to their relationship despite its transactional nature.
  • While Fizz is clearly overshadowing Blitzo in the circus scene, does he himself realise that or does he think they're just doing a double act?
• Broken Base: This episode had caused a bit of stir in the fandom for the revelations that occurred.
  • The revelation that Stella is a sadistic, hateful woman that enjoyed making Stolas miserable had caused some upset in the fandom. Some of Stella's staunch supporters cried foul, accusing the writers of purposefully writing her as such to downplay Stolas' infidelity, and make him come across in a more sympathetic light. The way it was hammered in with the subtlety of a shotgun blast only added fuel to the fire. The other side argues that Stella was always meant to be an awful person, pointing out hints in previous episodes that foreshadowed this reveal. Fans in this camp will usually accuse those who complained about the reveal of clinging on to a toxic Double Standard and argue that if Stella and Stolas had been gender-swapped, no one would defend Stella, though some countered that Stella would actually be defended more based off how female characters are usually treated in the series. A third party argues that while they had no issue with Stella being portrayed as a evil sadist, they do feel that her characterization comes off as flat and one-note, especially when compared to the other characters in this show, and just wish that she had a motivation for torturing Stolas beyond just pure sadism.
  • The fact that Blitzo and Stolas had met as children. Some feel it added more depth and context to Stolas and Blitzo's relationship, as well as a bit of tragedy considering how 'Ozzie's' ended. The other side however feel that them meeting as children came off as a tired cliche and muddied up (if not ruined) the complex toxic relationship the two had established in season one, plus felt it was an attempt to try and make their relationship less problematic. Whether or not this was a Retcon that was shoehorned in is also debated, especially given neither Blitzo nor Stolas ever mention or imply that they met as children in the first season, which is particularly egregious given that in "Loo Loo Land" they go to a circus - the same place they first met.
  • Then, of course, is the debate as to whether or not this is even a Childhood Friend Romance. Some viewers think it is due to employing tropes such as Stolas falling for Blitzo at first sight and the sweet time they have together. While others consider it more of a subversion or deconstruction of the trope, due to Stolas only thinking it was a Childhood Friends to Lovers Romance when it was actually one-sided, as well as their fall out in OZZIE's. It is also uncomfortable to consider it a Childhood Friend Romance considering Paimon bought Blitzo as company for Stolas, he wasn't there willingly; something Stolas is unaware of but Blitzo certainly is since he arguably did not see Stolas as his childhood friend as his real childhood friend was Fizz. Whether or not this will be revealed in the future is unclear.
  • In the party scene, Stella made a throwaway line about how 'Stolas is terrible in bed' and how he just sat there while she did all the work. This had lead some fans to assume that Stella had sexually assaulted Stolas, leading Stella to become even more vilified, and fans and defenders of her to be labeled as rape/abuse apologists. Defenders came forth, arguing that they were reading too much into one line, and even brought up how Stella herself didn't want to have sex with him with her following line about 'pretending to want to fuck him' with the consensus being they're both victims of the Ars Goetia family's expectations, with some going as far to say that Stella, while may not be justified in her hatred of Stolas, is a bigger victim, being robbed of her bodily autonomy from being forced to have a child with a man she hates.
• Catharsis Factor: Both scenes when Stolas calls a divorce on Stella are utterly satisfying, especially since it has been established since the start of the episode flashback that he was terrified of her and never wanted to marry her in the first place.
  • The first one was the morning after his first affair with Blitzo, with him being so sexually satisfied and emotionally emboldened that he screams the divorce from the top of his lungs, in front of her friends, to add further humiliation to Blitzo ruining her breakfast.
  • On the second, he stops her clean from hitting him, and tells her straight to the face he wants her out of his house and his life, no longer caring what society (and her brother) think and with their only reason to be together being close to adulthood.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: Revealing Stella was evil since childhood and nothing but abusive of Stolas long before his resulting infidelity had some fans feel it was trying too hard to excuse Stolas's wrongdoings and negated the moral grayness/ambiguity that made it compelling. It also became part of the series growing criticism of shafting female characters, reducing Stella to a one-dimensional Hate Sink deprived of any depth or agency beyond propping up male characters conflicts.
• Fan Nickname: Stolas' younger self in this episode is nicknamed "Smolas."
• He Really Can Act: Between this episode and "OZZIE'S", Bryce Pinkham has truly shown his talents in portraying Stolas' emotional turmoil. His broken rant to Stella about just how much he's gone through in trying to give his daughter a normal home life, finally culminating in telling Stella to get the hell out of his life has been widely lauded by fans as one of Pinkham's best performances.
• Memetic Mutation: Stolas' reaction at Stella's photo quickly became a meme. It consists of changing the photo to show any other character for him to cry at, or to change it to showcase a young Blitzo and edit his reaction to a blush.
• Moe: The entire fandom unanimously agreed that kid Blitzo, Fizzarolli, and especially Stolas are the biggest selling point of the episode.
• Moral Event Horizon: Any sympathy we might have for Stella goes out the window once it becomes clear she's spent her entire marriage making Stolas miserable because she loves watching him squirm, with her reaction to Stolas demanding a divorce also indicating that she's regularly hit him for possibly the flimsiest of reasons.
• Narm: Stella saying "I like tormenting you" to Stolas can come across as very on the nose. Not helped by Georgina Leahy's sounding like a Saturday morning cartoon villain while delivering the line. Its narminess part of the reason it got memed.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: When Blitz was forced to spend the day with Stolas, Blitzo, under his father's command, tricks Stolas into helping him rob the palace blind, and would eventually pass the loot over to Cash, and people assume that there would be ramifications for this, especially for Blitzo and the Circus. However, this robbery is never brought up again, as we never get to see others' reaction to the palace being looted, and Stolas doesn't bring it up when he sees Blitzo again later in the episode. And as revealed in 'Oops', Blitzo and the circus was still intact well into his teen years before an unrelated incident involving a cake destroyed everything.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Despite having black horns with thin white lines which signifies a female imp, the imp servant who replied to Stolas when he asked for harder liquor can be easily mistaken for male due to her gruff voice.

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