I have no issues with shipping, and I’m not gonna condone the things Stolas has done or how he’s gone about it.... but let’s please stop the “Stolas ruined a perfect happy family” narrative........ if anything, he ruined the facade of a happy family. A thread! (1/?)

[SMALL DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to vilify Stella. She has a right to be pissed and we don’t know much about her. At all. I know it’s sometimes common to see a female character shat on, especially if she interferes with a popular ship (in this case, stolitz) - (2/?)

I’m actually really excited to see more of her and learn more about her whole deal. I don’t think this ep was the end of this diving into Stolas background/home life and hope to see more soon! I just hope to provide some additional context for those new to the fandom. ] (3/?)

If you’re not following the instagram accounts, Stolas has one! He posts pretty frequently about all sorts of things - selfies, thirst posts, lots of Via and lots of Blitzo. out of his current 65 posts, his wife has been referenced directly 2x + 3x indirectly. (4/?)

In every photo they’re both featured, Stolas looks visibly uncomfortable. he barely even seems to return her hand holding (+ the implied freudian slip w/ emojis, lmao) (5/?)

the 3 other times she’s reference he’s seen: bored having tea w/ her + her friends (possibly other royals?), caught wearing her robe (+ the implication that she yelled at him for it), and the most recent on where she’s chucking a plant at him (posted as ep 2 dropped). (6/?)

BEYOND THIS, there is also a small indicator of this being arranged on Blitzo’s instagram, when he came across this old motivational poster while skulking around Stolas’ palace. It’s comical, yeah, but also implies they were fucking for a purpose/motivation was necessary. (7/?)

Beyond those posts, there are subtle hints in Ep 2 to imply things have been this way for some time. The visual distance between them at the very start of the ep. Stolas implying they should both go to Via and her telling him to do it (tho that’s kind of typical of parents) (8/?)

During Stolas Lullaby, he references that he “thought love would be fun/was for fun” (on the extended demo of the song) - another implication their marriage is loveless/serves a purpose. (9/?)

While berating Stolas, Stella harps on the fact that he slept with an imp (which have been confirmed to be the “lower class” of hellborne creatures in this universe); Stolas isn’t so much sorry for the infidelity, just that it was spur of the moment & he used their bed. (10/?)

This ones a bit of a reach, but the body language of Stella in this portrait appears closed off/she’s less thrilled to be there than the other two. (11/?)

The other part is Stolas conversation with Via - he has difficulty putting it into words what he and her mother have, but the half statements he makes... “She’s always been-“ “I’ve never been-“ “We were never-“, implying there’s a lot more going on than we’re privy to. (12/?)

Possibly that they were “never” in love, or that Stella has wanted more than Stolas is able to give.

All that context provided, I’ll give my own opinion: (13/?)

I believe this was an arranged marriage to produce an heir. Whether there were feelings in the beginning, it’s hard to say! I’m sure they tried and were able to keep up the facade for a long time - possibly for Via’s sake, and certainly for image sake. (14/?)

Others perception of her and her family obviously means a lot to Stella. She’s a lot better at putting on face than Stolas, seen in the posts of them together. Her anger seems to stem from him choosing to sleep with an imp and NOT being discreet about it in any way. (15/?)

And she has a right to be pissed! Stolas is disturbing the status quo, not just for her, but for their daughter and their royal image.

From following his instagram, I get the impression that Stolas is a powerful but fairly lonely homebody. (16/?)

Meeting Blitzo not only brought the idea of romance/lust back into his life, but he sees this little chaotic, confident, “wild and free”-ass imp & it’s exciting & he wants to be apart of that! So much so that he’s willing to illegally let IMP use his very powerful grimoire.(17/?)

He’s vocalized multiple times that he wishes he could join IMP in their shenanigans, but can’t because he’s needed at home.

(I also personally think Stolas is gay, though he could also be bi or pan. That’s my own take based on all we’ve seen, lol.)(18/?)

The instagrams and crew have been pretty mum about Stella and her and Stolas’ relationship - she didnt even have an publicly established name until ep 2. So I think a lot of this will play out in-show. (19/?)

I’ll end with this: Stolas is a really fun, complex character with good and bad qualities - just as I’m sure Stella has her good and bad qualities. Like any interesting character does! Let’s try not to reduce characters to one thing they’ve done when it’s only ep 2. (20/?)

I think all the characters have some growing to do and I’m really excited to see it unfold. Also, check out the instagrams! They’re really fun and recent posts often tie into the eps as they’re released (21/21)