Stolas

"I would feel bad if I hurt you, but we both know I didn't do that. You and I were arranged for one reason - to birth a precautionary heir to the Goetia Family, nothing more. I tried so many years to make it comfortable for us, to have this family. But, it was never enough. The only reason I have endured your constant insults and cruelty was for that girl to have a normal life."

- Stolas, to Stella

Stolas is a Goetic Prince of Hell and a major supporting character in Helluva Boss. He is the father of Octavia and the husband of Stella.

Appearance
Stolas is an anthropomorphic owl demon. He is tall and slender, with a white, heart-shaped facial disk and small black beak, resembling that of an owl. He has two pairs of almond-shaped red eyes, one set atop the other, with no visible irises or pupils, albeit white highlights do occasionally appear when he is excited.

Stolas has gray-blue feathers, which gradients to dark gray-blue on his head and long, plume-like tail. He has a lighter gray-blue puff of fur on his chest.

His limbs are long, thin, and black, and his feet are tipped with owl claws.

Although he frequently changes clothes, Stolas is often seen wearing a deep red tunic with six linked golden buttons down the breast, and beige breeches. He accessorizes with a feathery tophat that features a regal gold crown encircling it, as well as a long burgundy cape, tattered at the hemline, with a plush ermine-look fur collar, and long black gloves with white feathered trims at the elbows.

Personality
Stolas gives the immediate impression of someone regal and ostentatious, as would be expected for a royal of his station. He dresses in clothing befitting his role, and his mansion is decadent, containing many large, elaborately framed portraits of himself and his small family.

Underneath these dignified trappings, however, Stolas is shown to be a flamboyant, dramatic, eccentric, and often giddy person. Someone who does not take his royal reputation as seriously as the people around him expect him to, and is prone to act quickly on his easily excitable emotions.

Stolas can also often get caught up in pursuing his own present interests and fails to pay attention to the more pressing issues around him, including the feelings and needs of others. He has even dismissed their wishes under the belief that, as long as he was happy, everybody else was as well, even when he was told otherwise. He also has trouble expressing his emotions when facing bigger dilemmas such as having a hard time explaining to Octavia that his marriage was never good or standing up to Stella before his affair and having trouble talking to Blitzo about his true feelings toward him.

Although, these tendencies can make him appear selfish and even airheaded to some people in his life, he isn't oblivious to correction or regret and this is something he makes an effort to improve on, specifically in regards to his beloved daughter, Octavia.

Stolas is also shown to be very lonely, seemingly isolated and cloistered in his position. In “The Circus”, when he was a child, he told a young Blitzo that he never had anybody to share his books with, further supporting this notion. Although, he is married, it is clear that he and his wife are not on affectionate terms, and that their marriage is implied to have been somewhat cold for a long while.

Stolas has, perhaps surprisingly, an equally romantic and explicit side, something he looks to indulge in with Blitzo, an Imp, considered 'lower-class' among his peers, whom he is currently engaged in a complicated extramarital affair with. Stolas is invested in Hell's soap operas as comfort shows, enjoys the process of getting ready for rendezvous, and swoons over idealized ideas of amorous romance. He is also very uncensored in discussing his many bedroom preferences, using highly explicit and flowery language, sometimes in front of others, and is interested in aspects of BDSM, such as bondage.

As with many demons, and the denizens of Hell in general, Stolas has a somewhat questionable moral compass and is implied to interfere with the affairs of humans for his own benefit. He can easily cross the boundary between Hell and the living world with his own personal Demonic seal, and seems to enjoy striking fear into humans as a powerful Goetia.

Despite this, he is also gentle and nurturing to those he cares for, showing open devotion to his daughter, concern towards Blitzo and his coworkers, as well as attentiveness to his large and lavish garden of carnivorous Hell-plants.

Skillset

 * Musical Talent - Stolas is shown to be very adept at singing, comforting his daughter with ballad-style lullabies.
 * Gardening - This comes naturally with his love of plants. He has an extravagant collection of Hell-flora, which he lovingly tends to.

Natural Abilities

 * Demon Transformation - Stolas can transform into a huge, monsterous demon form, with jet-black feathers, large wings, jagged teeth, and two sets of glowing red eyes.
 * Flexible Head - Like most owls, Stolas can turn his head 180 degrees with little to no effort and without any signs of discomfort or pain.

Unique Abilities

 * Petrification - Stolas can turn his targets into stone with a simple glare.
 * Telekinesis - Stolas can use telekinesis, both passively and aggressively. He uses the power to lift his grimoire into his hands so that he can comfort his daughter, and also to violently hurl monitors across the room in the D.H.O.R.K.S. headquarters.
 * Possession - Stolas can possess humans on Earth by spiritually entering them. The possession causes the host to spasm and they gain red eyes, sharp teeth, and Stolas's eye stripes. Furthermore, when they stand on his seal, they can serve as a medium to summon Stolas's physical form to Earth.
 * Reanimation - Stolas can temporarily animate the corpses of deceased humans, which he demonstrates on a group of D.H.O.R.K.S. agents, using them to draw out his seal in order to give him access to the Human World without the use of the grimoire.
 * Electrokinesis - Stolas showcases this ability in "Truth Seekers" when he disrupts the electric signal of the security cameras' monitors in D.H.O.R.K.S.' headquarters.
 * Portal creation - Stolas is able to create portals to seemingly anywhere without using his grimoire. This ability first appears in "Truth Seekers" when he creates one from Earth back to Hell, and in the episode "Ozzie's", he is also able to fabricate portals to access another Ring of Hell. In "Seeing Stars", it is confirmed that these portals can cross into the living world.

Gallery

 * Stolas/Gallery
 * Stolas/Designs

Concept & Creation
Stolas is based on a Great Prince of Hell of the same name from the Ars Goetia chapter of the The Lesser Key of Solomon demonology grimoire, who is also depicted as a crowned owl with long legs.

Trivia

 * VivziePop clarified that Stolas is not an Overlord, but, is part of this separate hierarchical tier, which are also referred to as 'the Goetia Demons'. Stolas alludes to the order in "Loo Loo Land".
 * The seal of the Goetic demon can be seen on the balcony of Stolas's mansion.
 * As seen in "The Circus", before having the ownership of the mansion handed down to Stolas by his father, Paimon used to have his goetic seal on the outer wall before Stolas changed it to his own.
 * Stolas' love of gardening and plants, as well as his astrological theming, both reference how the mythological Stolas teaches astronomy and is knowledgeable about herbs, plants, and precious stones. Prior to "Loo Loo Land", Stolas' gardening hobby was foreshadowed in a post from the unofficial Voxtagram account.
 * Stolas exhibits some owl-like behaviors, such as making hooting noises at the end of his laughs. It's also shown in "Loo Loo Land" that he keeps a ziplock bag of dead rodents in his refrigerator.
 * Stolas can use his grimoire to access locations away from Earth, transporting himself and his daughter to an asteroid in outer-space so that she can watch the spectacle of a collision.
 * Although VivziePop admitted she hadn't given the idea much thought, she described Stolas as being more powerful than Alastor, although she also mentioned that their powers work differently from each other.
 * In "Loo Loo Land", it appears that Stolas is actually very lightweight, as Blitzo is able to princess-carry him up steps to his seat without any struggle.
 * Pinkham's favorite line as Stolas in season one is "We're rich and we're hot!" from "Loo Loo Land".
 * It is shown in "Murder Family" that Blitzo has multiple security buttons under his desk as he frantically presses one to try and alert the others in reception. As listed on the lights on Loona's desk, one of the scenarios for one of the buttons include Stolas himself.
 * In "The Circus" it is shown that Stolas takes Belphegor-branded "Happy Pills". This is fitting, as Belphegor being the Prince of Sloth works well with the intended effects of the medicine - a means to tone down the consumer's stress.
 * It is revealed in "The Circus" that Stolas has numerous unnamed siblings on his father's side.
 * After being reminded of Stolas' name by Mister Butler, Paimon refers to the former as "The owl boy", insinuating that his other children are of other bird-like breeds or different animals entirely.
 * It is revealed in "The Circus" that Stolas became acquainted with Stella and Blitzo on his birthday, when he was informed he was arranged to be engaged to the former by Paimon. He then developed a crush on Blitzo that day after first witnessing his performance at the circus.
 * According to the lead storyboard artist for Helluva Boss, Stolas has a cloaca.
 * When Stolas was a child, he had a stuff animal that bears resemblance to Max from "Sam & Max". He had it ever since he was a newborn baby.
 * In "Seeing Stars" it is implied Stolas can use any of the spells within the grimoire if he remembers them.

Development

 * During one of the Helluva Boss Q&As, Bryce Pinkham described Stolas' view of Blitzo as "someone he can be his true self with" and expressed his happiness for the character in finding that in someone. He described it as a relationship that had obvious physicality, but, which also had "something deeper going on", and that he saw both the characters as having to wrestle with that.
 * When auditioning for the role of Stolas, Bryce mentioned having two prompts that he took in with him, one of them being King George from Hamilton. He also leaned into that playful British speech pattern, which he then went on to describe as ending up half Mrs. Doubtfire and half his British dance teacher grandmother-in-law.
 * The designs for Stolas's outfit changes for the episode "Loo Loo Land" were first revealed during the BLM Charity Stream.