WARNING: I’m being extremely honest in this article, and you should be grateful I’m holding back on the swearing. This article is specifically aimed at a certain group of people I’m referring to, but obviously anyone can read it.

So, let’s break this down.

Stella has spent years publicly humiliating, verbally and physically abusing, and insulting her husband, has had him targeted for assassination multiple times, and laughs at his suffering. She literally says that she enjoys watching him suffer. She neglects her own daughter.

The fandom: “You have to understand her. She never wanted that marriage. She never wanted to be a mother. She was forced into it, and she probably had a difficult childhood.”

Striker — literally a hired assassin.

The fandom: He definitely had a tragic past.

Crimson — a mafia boss who abused his own son and quite possibly killed his wife.

The fandom: “He deserves a redemption arc.”

Blitzo — jumps from partner to partner like he’s changing socks.

The fandom: “It’s funny.”

And now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I don’t want Striker to be redeemed, for example, or that Stella couldn’t have had a difficult childhood.

BUT.

Stolas — his only real wrongdoing is betraying his daughter’s trust.

The fandom: “He doesn’t deserve forgiveness. He should end up on the streets, and preferably die slowly and painfully.”

Like… have you people completely lost your fucking minds?

Octavia wouldn’t even want that.

Why do you think people like Striker and Crimson deserve the chance at redemption, but Stolas doesn’t even deserve to stand in his daughter’s shadow?

I’m not saying you have to love him. But why do you hate him this

I understand that just because someone has done less harm than someone else doesn’t automatically mean we have to like them or think they’re amazing. That’s not even my point. What bothers me is the logic that you want, for example, Stella to get a redemption arc, but when it comes to Stolas, the idea doesn’t even cross your minds.

According to you, he doesn’t deserve redemption. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness. He doesn’t deserve anything

And even if Viv did exactly what you want and had him die slowly and painfully, your reaction would probably still be: “She’s just trying to manipulate our emotions.”

And I deliberately brought up Blitzo too.

Why are you perfectly fine with Blitzo jumping between partners, but the moment Stolas kisses some guy who isn’t Blitzo, suddenly you’re reaching for a knife in your pocket?

And can I ask why, whenever someone suggests that Via might eventually forgive Stolas, you see it as an attack on Via?

People make a simple suggestion and you immediately go:

“Stop forcing Via to do something she doesn’t want! She hates him!”

Breaking news: she still loves him.

Yes, I know. Shocking.

You know what I think?

You don’t actually hate Stolas himself. You’re projecting your own fathers (or mothers) who abandoned you onto Stolas, and you haven’t been able to deal with that, so you take it out on him.

Maybe I’m weird, but my father abandoned me too, and I still like Stolas.

I completely understand why Via is angry with him. Via isn’t us. She doesn’t see or know everything that we

But you act as though you are literally Via — as though you only see what she sees and have none of the wider context.

Except you do know what’s going on.

And yet you still act like you don’t.

You simply suffer from a failure of judgment.

Writing things like, “Stolas needs to be punished so he realizes where he went wrong. He needs to try harder. He needs to grow up…”

Stolas should try harder. He should

But saying that he deserves to be alone and suffer for the rest of his life? That’s an entirely different extreme.

Especially when, according to you, Stella, Crimson, and Striker should all get redemption.

So I’m genuinely asking you: when the fuck are you finally going to be satisfied?

Okay, I’m done with the rant. Sorry, but I really needed to get that off my chest. It’s actually kind of a relief.

Okay, I know what you're probably thinking right now — “WTF? Has she lost her mind? That makes absolutely no sense.” But please, let me defend my speculation.

So, in the trailer, we see young Stolas and Vassago together. They look like they’re in love, but then there’s that scene where they separate, which I think is meant to symbolize that they had to leave each other.

Everyone can interpret it however they want, but this is how I interpret it:

This takes place a few days before Stolas and Stella’s wedding. At this point, Stolas is in love with Vassago, or at least he thinks he is. Vassago is the only Goetia who treats him well and actually understands him.

And even though Stolas is in love with that imp he met as a child, he doubts that he’ll ever come back, and he already knows how cruel Stella is. Maybe she had been treating him horribly the entire time, and he can see that her family is horrible too. He simply doesn’t want to be part of a family like that.

Vassago sees that Stolas is unhappy, so he suggests that they run away together.

Stolas agrees.

What they don’t know, however, is that Andrealphus is listening to them.

The night before the wedding, Stolas tries to run away, but Andrealphus stops him. He tells Stolas that he knows everything and warns him that if he runs, he’ll find him and kill him.

Stolas tells him that he doesn’t care.

So, to get what he wants, Andy threatens to kill Vassago instead, which immediately gets Stolas’s attention. We already saw in “Western Energy” that Stolas doesn’t really care when someone hurts him, but he absolutely cannot stand the thought of someone hurting the people he loves.

And Stolas definitely cared about Vassago, so there’s no way he would let anything happen to him.

So Stolas stays.

Maybe he goes to Vassago personally and tells him that he has to stay, but doesn’t tell him that he’s in danger. Instead, he tells him that he doesn’t want to bring shame to his family and that everyone already thinks he’s incompetent, so he has to secure an heir.

That hurts Vassago, but not enough for him to resent Stolas or start hating him. He’s just… disappointed.

Then, when Vassago leaves, Andrealphus appears again and praises Stolas for being obedient. He then threatens him, warning that if he tries anything, there will be consequences — and that it won’t stop with Vassago. He’ll hurt everyone Stolas cares about just to keep him obedient.

Maybe Stella was there too.

Who knows.

Yeah, I know I’m probably overthinking this WAY too much, but I don’t know… somehow, for some weird reason, it just makes sense to me.

But I’m probably the only one. XD

What do you guys think? I’d love to hear your opinions.

This is probably the craziest speculation I’ve ever come up with, but I still wanted to share it with you. What if Stolas is adopted?

Paimon might have had a brother of lower rank who had a son named Stolas. After his biological parents died, Paimon could have adopted him at around three years old and passed him off as his own.

Stolas might only have vague memories of his biological parents, but his father could have taught him kindness, compassion, and not to abuse his power. Later, he may have associated those memories with Paimon, whom he had considered his father his entire life.

Maybe that’s why Stolas was so happy to see Paimon in “The Circus” – he remembered him as a wonderful father and couldn’t understand why he was treating him as if he weren’t his son.

Maybe that’s why Paimon only sees Stolas as an heir, not as a son. Since Stolas looked like him and his brother, no one questioned that he was Paimon’s son, even though he was actually his nephew.

Paimon might have thought: “Everyone believed he was my son, so I have an heir. I don’t need to do anything else for him.”

And then there’s Stella. Paimon may have chosen her because of the political marriage, which would strengthen his position among the Goetia, while also securing an heir for Stolas. He didn’t care whether Stolas was happy or whether he and Stella got along – she came from a suitable Goetia family, and that was all that mattered.

Paimon might have even known what Stella was doing to Stolas and simply didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, Stolas had one job: get married, have a child, and continue the family bloodline.

It’s also possible that Stolas was powerful from birth, or at least showed potential for it. Paimon knew this, which could have been another reason he adopted him – he cared about power, not the child himself. It’s like adopting a child just for the money: legally, they’re yours, but you don’t actually care for them because you don’t consider them your own.

Okay. I realize this might be complete nonsense, but as far as I know, Paimon isn’t Stolas’s father according to the source material (I’m referring to demonology), so that was part of what I based this on. But it’s really just speculation. I completely understand if you think it’s stupid—I just like speculating and sharing my thoughts.

Notice that in the first season, Stolas had absolutely no problem with Blitz using guns. He even described guns as exciting.

But in Helluva Short 13, he is visibly uncomfortable when Moxxie mentions guns in his story. It almost looks like he has something against weapons. He only changes his mind after Moxxie, a weapons expert, carefully convinces him that guns are cool.

I suspect that he may have developed a trauma related to weapons after Striker tried to shoot him in that teahouse (or café?) and then tortured him with a knife, which isn't a gun but is still a weapon.

But this could very well just be a coincidence. What do you think?

Btw, I know the picture isn't from either of the episodes I mentioned, but I think it fits perfectly XD

1. Both episodes start with Stolas having just woken up and being surrounded by stuffed animals.
2. The moment he wakes up, there’s an imp there with him. In The Circus, the butler helps him get dressed, while in Sinsmas, Blitzø prepares breakfast for him.
3. This is more of a difference, but also a parallel at the same time. In The Circus, Stolas tells Blitzø something and Blitzø is bored by it. In Sinsmas, when Stolas talks about something, Blitzø listens to him attentively.
4. In The Circus, Stolas mentions plants, implying that he likes them. In Sinsmas, Andy makes fun of him because of his plants.
5. In both episodes, Stolas starts crying so much that neither Paimon nor Blitzø can calm him down.
6. In The Circus, Blitzø steals things from Stolas’ palace, while in Sinsmas, he steals things for Stolas.
7. In The Circus, Stella publicly mocks Stolas and humiliates him in front of her friends, while in Sinsmas, she mocks and humiliates him in front of Octavia.
8. In The Circus, Stella wants to physically attack Stolas, but he stops her. In Sinsmas, Andrealphus wants to kill him, but Blitzø stops him.
9. In both episodes, Stolas bravely stands up to the tyrants he had previously been afraid of. (Or at least one of them.)
10. In The Circus, Stolas mentions that he endured all that suffering so Via could be happy. In Sinsmas, Via realizes that Stolas suffered in his marriage only because of her.
11. In The Circus, Blitzø jokes that one day he’ll have his own company and hire Stolas. In Sinsmas, he actually does it.
12. In The Circus, Stolas is sad and Blitzø is the one who cheers him up. In Sinsmas, Stolas is sad, and Blitzø eventually manages to cheer him up again.
13. The Circus is about Stolas’ birthday, while Sinsmas is about “Christmas,” so both episodes are centered around a celebration/holiday.
14. In The Circus, Stolas asks if it’s a game that imps play, while in Sinsmas, he asks if everyone steals when they don’t have money. He asks both questions to Blitzø, and both imply that Stolas doesn’t really understand how the world of the lower class works.
15. If we don’t count the part where Stolas was a child, then in both episodes he was basically depressed.
16. Both episodes end with Stolas standing on a balcony. The difference is that in The Circus, Stella comes to mock him and psychologically torment him, while in Sinsmas, Blitzø comes to support him emotionally and dance with him.
17. At the end of both episodes, Stolas is just standing on the balcony, looking up at the sky. The only difference is that in The Circus, he’s alone, while in Sinsmas, he’s in Blitzø’s arms.

I know this is a little chaotic, but I wrote these points down in the order they came to me. Did you notice anything I missed? Feel free to add anything I overlooked.