Flyby Stardancer

Okay, so I have thoughts I need to scream out into the void of the Internet (even if no one sees it), related to Blitzø, Stolas, assassination attempts, and Blitzø telling Stolas about Striker.

First off, let’s all agree that Blitzø’s belief in Stolas’ power and invulnerability was NEVER based in logic, which rendered him unable to properly assess the threat to Stolas that Striker represented. You can’t logic your way out of a position that you arrived at emotionally. Okay? Okay.

With that preface out of the way, let’s get to my thoughts.

So, I think that there’s a bit of a parallel going on, with Stolitz, sex, and assassinations. Stolas pointed out in Full Moon that Blitzø was assuming everything was about sex, with a bit of an undercurrent of him being aware & sad that it was his (S) fault that Blitzø was making that assumption. Then in Apology Tour, he was (rightfully) upset that Blitzø didn’t think Striker’s first assassination attempt was serious enough to warrant giving Stolas a warning.

In Blitzø’s defense: Stolas was the one to make assassination attempts an unserious, everyday thing to begin with. He hired IMP to bodyguard him at LooLoo Land, but both he and Blitzø knew damn well that Stolas didn't actually need protection. That this was just an excuse for Stolas to play damsel in distress and have Blitzø come and save him. At no point during the excursion was Stolas in any real distress, and in fact by the end of the episode proved that he could handle the assassins just fine on his own. This establishes that assassination attempts are a routine, expected thing for Stolas anytime he leaves the palace grounds. It's not actually a big deal.

Fast forward to the Harvest Moon Festival, and Striker's attempt on Stolas. From Blitzø's perspective, it's a combination of exactly what he told Striker (offended that someone offered a job to going behind his back) and taking care of a nuisance for Stolas. But ultimately, it's not a big deal. Stolas always has assassins after him, why would this attempt be any different than LooLoo Land and thus be worthy of comment? (And yes, the angelic gun should have clued Blitzø in that Striker was a different breed of assassin, but clearly it didn't. See my point at the top of the post.)

Next we have Striker's second attempt in Western Energy. When Stolas calls him, Stolas himself wasn't even taking it seriously. It was still being couched in damsel in distress/knight in shining armor play. It's not until Striker butts in to their conversation that they realize that the situation is far more serious than they initially assumed. However, Blitzø's certainty in Stolas' power and invulnerability allows him to be persuaded by Moxxie and Millie that the two of them could handle Striker without Blitzø and Loona's help.

Then Moxxie and Millie arrive at the hospital after everything, with a badly injured Stolas. Blitzø has that gut punch that Stolas can get hurt. Here is where he must have realized that he screwed up bad by not warning Stolas about Striker. To quote Rosie from Hazbin Hotel, "It can be difficult to admit to things you're not proud of, especially if those things hurt the ones you love." It's entirely reasonable to believe that Blitzø would feel guilty about not warning Stolas, thus making him want to bury the event instead of the difficult conversation that would come (and did come!) from admitting it.

So while understandable that Stolas was hurt by Blitzø not warning him, it really isn't any more reasonable for him to expect Blitzø to take assassination attempts on Stolas seriously as it was for him to expect Blitzø to expect their interactions to be about anything other than merely sex.

I also have another thought as to why Blitzø didn't expect Striker to be a reoccurring threat, but this strays into speculation & headcanon territory, and thus is on shakier ground and even more likely to get jossed than the above.

So, as a reinforcement to the idea that Striker was not going to be a big threat to Stolas, IMP had confiscated his angelic rifle. Given the way Moxxie nearly creamed himself at the sight of the rifle, I think it's a reasonable assumption that angelic weaponry is something that's very expensive and difficult to get a hold of, especially for imps. That would make it understandable (though not smart) to assume the rifle was Striker's only angelic weapon, and that he'd have a hard time replacing it. And he didn't have the blessed rope, angelic knife, or angelic pistols on him during the Festival attempt, so either he hadn't brought them with him or he acquired them later.

Blitzø still doesn't know that Striker was hired by Stella. Given his speech to Blitzø, Blitzø likely thought Striker had saved up to buy the rifle and was making the attempt for his own political reasons. I don't think it would occur to Blitzø that Striker was actually working for someone wealthy enough to potentially buy him replacement angelic weapons. So in Blitzø's mind, once they took the rifle off of Striker, they took away what little genuine threat he posed to Stolas. And then in the second attempt, Stolas only mentioned the rope on the phone, and even then he worded it as, "limits my ability to free myself." That phrasing leaves enough ambiguity that it could mean that he had fewer ways to free himself, not that he was completely incapable of freeing himself. There's still enough plausible deniability for Blitzø's belief in Stolas' invulnerability to work with.

And to those who would look at my speculated thought process and argue that it contradicts the idea that Blitzø sees Stolas as invulnerable, thus they can't both be true... People are great at mental gymnastics, and believing in completely contradictory ideas at the same time. Thought processes are not 100% logical, especially when dealing with very strongly held beliefs that were arrived at emotionally.

TL;DR— Stolas holds some blame for making it seem like assassination attempts weren't something that Blitzø needed to mention to him, thus making it reasonable for Blitzø to not tell him about Striker's Festival attempt in its immediate aftermath.