Thank you! I think a lot of authors ignore the Canon unconscious bias that Stolas has and as a near adult at this point I think it would be pretty ingrained but not so much as in Canon since I think a lot of it has been affirmed by Stella's treatment of their imp staff.
In canon adult Stolas even himself either abuses the imp staff without really noticing it himself (by clutching the imp servant who is holding up the phone for him while arguing with Stella or by creating an unnecessary mess for the imp servant to clean in "When I see him") or he doesn't comment on the imp staff being abused by Stella, for example when Stella throws the servant during their fight. By the way Octavia also doesn't seem to notice her father chocking the imp servant and doesn't intervene, as she is focused on her own plan to see the stars with her father.
Treating imps as part of the furniture which you can crush or throw when you are angry, seems to be the norm in their society, but at the age when Stolas and Blitz first met and he treated Blitz as an equal, little Stolas has not absorbed these ideas yet. I could imagine that he got more "lessons" from his father or other members of his society that have influenced him in this negative way even before Stella. But if Stella was a better person she might have influenced him positively. But she is even more intentionally abusive. Stolas does not go out of his way to beat up his staff or something like that, but he seems indifferent and self-absorbed, which is often worse than hatred though.
Ok sorry this went on too long. Indeed it is often omitted but it is an important obstacle for Stolas to overcome, in order to have a healthy relationship with Blitz. I'm looking forward to seeing what you will do with this. I'm looking forward to the continuation!
So i had responded to this but I think it was when AO3 was having issues and it got deleted. I will try my best to keep the main points.
In regard to canon Stolas, I definitely don’t think there is intentional physical mistreatment of staff, but it is very easy for him to brush off due to the extent of Stella’s mistreatment. I believe it is a combination of factors starting with normalization and then escalation.
With what we understand of Stolas’ childhood, he was incredibly isolated without friends. I am sure he was forced to social gathering such as balls and galas, but it is safe to assume that he spent much of his time as the only Goetia in the palace. There would not be the physical mistreatment of imp staff at social gatherings I imagine because it would be seen as crass and indicative of a loss of control (rather than there being any concern of the staff’s wellbeing). He would have seen very little physical mistreatment of imps but probably a lot of dismissive and demeaning behavior. His Dad probably physically abused his staff but there’s two factors here that come to mind for me. The first is that Stolas and Paimon rarely saw each other. The 2nd is that Stolas became disillusioned to Paimon around his teen years and would not have approved of Paimon’s behavior if he witnessed it.
Which then, why would he then be influenced by Stella who he also does not like? I think the difference is exposure. He would have been conditioned to accept the general mistreatment and then not say anything about physical abuse of staff. Eventually this behavior becomes normalized and when you are in an abusive relationship you are not spending the mental energy on assessing your poor behavior outside of what is necessary to survive which also damages your ability to empathize with others in many cases. So when you combine these you can get an escalation of behaviors and a shifting of beliefs that you may not have previously aligned with. But it is easier to force yourself to be complacent to avoid mistreatment and then you start believing on some level the problematic idea.
So with him not having that extensive time with Stella, he would have maintained some empathy and also connection with the imp staff that probably raised him. He still has twisted views about imps and their “purpose” and “station” but he probably cares about them and is attached. The other thing about this is our morals and values are still incredibly flexible at this age, we’re still actively developing and establishing our baselines and even the smallest interactions can shift them.
I got incredibly rambly and ended up longer than my initial comment. I was just enjoying explaining my thought process.
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