Decided To Rant About Striker's Character And Why I Think He Works (Warning: This Ended Up Being Massive)

Decided to rant about Striker's character and why I think he works (Warning: This ended up being massive)

The best analogy about Striker that I can make is that he isn't really a cowboy, but a comic book villain who themes himself around being a cowboy. Now that I've done the meme-y version, allow me to actually explain.

A lot of people seem to overlook that there is a single thread that holds together Striker's personality, and is the root of most of his characterization. And that thread is a need for respect.

Let's look through his appearances and explore how his obsession manifests:

Harvest Moon Festival:

In his first episode, Striker presents himself as a model Wrath imp in order to gain the trust of Millie's family and Blitz. The only person he breaks character around is Moxxie, since he assumes Moxxie's insecurity about not being good enough in the eyes of his in-laws will make him automatically respect someone who they do approve of.

He later breaks character when Blitz catches him, he tries to convince Blitz that they're too good to live their lives around the whims of nobles, he tries to show himself as someone who can get Blitz what he wants, or rather, what Striker thinks Blitz wants, again to seem like someone who's "got it figured out" .

Another note worthy thing is his very professional way of speaking with Stella in both this and the next episode he's in, we'll get back to this later.

Western Energy:

The first point of interest is easy to miss the significance of, when breaking into the Richest Cup he makes it as dramatic as possible, he's trying to show himself as dangerous enough to warrant such cocky recklessness while surrounded by goetic demons.

After he takes Stolas we see his hideout which is full of scavenged western imagery that looks like an ominous lair, but upon closer inspection is actually a meager living arrangement for a deeply troubled demon.

His actual rant to Stolas includes a line about nobles taking everything lower class demons care about, showing WHY respect is important to him, he's never felt that he, or the part of society he belongs to, have been respected, or as he later says, all nobles do is try to talk over them.

Striker torturing Stolas shows how his need for respect is reflected in him being an assassin, he thinks he can get respect through fear, that having the most primal form of authority over someone will make him feel more significant. And this is why Stolas and I.M.P. are his greatest enemies, their irreverence makes them the only targets that don't play his game, that remind him of what he really is, a desperate, fragile, hero in his own mind, willing to do whatever it takes to prove his importance, not to others, but to himself.

Once again, he's begrudgingly cordial towards Stella despite his hatred of royals, in an effort to get even a fleeting acknowledgement of his worth. Showing that his belief that he can play into people's minds to get what he wants extends to his emotional wants as well.

Oops:

Here we see Striker in a much different light, mostly due to his new employer. First off, he's much more open with his frustration and moments of weakness, despite Crimson actually being physically present there and being able to see and hear everything. I think this is because Crim is a rare example of someone Striker doesn't feel he needs respect from. Crimson is, at least in Striker's eyes, an imp who has found moderate success by mimicking the lifestyle of a royal. He might not show it, but Striker probably resents Crimson just as much as, if not more than, he resents Blitz and Fizz, since Crimson has no actual royal support (that we know of).

Speaking of Blitz and Fizz, in his interaction with them in the cage scene we get the most blatant example of Striker thinking that his victimhood as an imp makes his "accomplishments" more worthy of respect, as he completely skirts around the fact he's the only hybrid out of the three, and we also learn he's aware of all this on at least some level when he threatens Fizzarolli for comparing him to a royal due to his arrogance.

And lastly, the climax when he grabs Fizz and the moment when we get the immortal line "Why is it always a sex thing!?", and why is it always a sex thing? Why do the members of IMP and those close to them not fall for his act? Put simply, it's due to trust, no matter how skilled or intimidating he is, Striker is still a loner with no one and nothing to fall back on beside his own skill. In sharp contrast to this the main cast have strong enough bonds that they know someone will oppose him. For example, Striker's attempt at demoralizing Stolas fails because he didn't think Blitz would trust his employees enough to do the saving.

So, yeah, I think Striker currently has a better thematic through line than any other villain in the series and I'm interested in seeing where they take him next. That being said, I feel Crim could be just as great and will probably make a similar post for him after his third episode.

I just want to add that this will probably happen, It's been confirmed a future episode will have a flashback with Millie and Chaz so there's a chance that could factor into it somehow, one way or another we will get Millie centric content.

There's few things I'd like to potentially see in future Helluva Boss stuff (and likely will imagine to happen at some point even if we don't see it in the show itself), but there's one thing that I kind of feel we need to get at some point.

And that is, we need an episode where Millie gets focus...and Moxxie has little to no real involvement. Or, at the very least, he can't be a major part of the plot or conflict. Because ultimately, that's been why Millie's still kind of a flat character, despite being in basically every single episode and having a decent amount of screen time in each of them. Even when episodes offer a pretty easy way to give Millie some real development or attention....Moxxie basically steals the attention from her? Either because the conflict is more focused on how he feels/his development (Harvest Moon Festival and Unhappy Campers), or Millie's motivation in the episode is all about Moxxie (Truth Seekers).

At this point, I really do think the only way Millie will be able to get an episode that really gives her the depth she needs, is if Moxxie is given as small of a role in that episode as possible.

I know we all joke about how shitty of a bodyguard Alessio is, but all that tells me is that when someone, probably Moxxie, goes for Crim's throat, Ale will go fucking berserk and show us why he's Crimson's number one. I just REALLY hope this doesn't lead to him dying since he's honestly one of the best side characters.

I agree with literally all of this. Have a nice day.

Bits from the trailer I found notable

1: Pomni in a normal office (I am 99% sure this is from her being confronted with a trauma)

2: Caine being eerily still/vacant. this feels like it's gonna be a part of the pilot when Pomni truly grasps how horrifyingly detached/clueless Caine is. and she just stares at him while something awful is happening.

3: Ragatha gets yoinked (in this short clip it looked like she was talking, possibly trying to reason with whoever grabbed her? but the grabber kinda looks like a black cloth substance, which none of our pre-established characters really have.

4: these little goobers, they pop up twice in the trailer, I wonder what they are. Ragatha said that if you reach your breaking point something "really terrible" can happen, if that happens do you turn into a goober?

5: The outside of the DC! I was wondering if there was an outside or if if the DC was solely indoors.

6: weird white-grey cube room (with a dash of Caine being terrifying)

7: silly Jax face hehe

8: why is there a trash can, why does it have 2 shower caps(?) in it? also bonus goober

9: Pomni's hand glitches out for a sec (i couldn't screenshot the frame even on 0.25x playback speed, so you'll have to deal with the youtube overlay)

10: Pomni does the insane anime face

non-screenshottable note: We didn't hear Gangle, Kinger, or Bubble in the trailer

The people of the fandom need to see this comment.

You guys think Mammon runs a legally distinct strip club named "Aussie's"?... I'll see myself out.

oh my god im so sorry i just read your analysis and i have to ask; have you got any theories on striker's past? ever since s2e6 a common one has been that he was once in a relationship with a royal, and exactly like how fizzarozzie are a bright, hopeful reflection of what stoliz could be, striker's past relationship could serve to show how rotten, discriminatory or fetishistic a relationship between a low rank demon and a royal could be..... an angle i'd wholeheartedly welcome!!

I'm glad you liked my analysis, to answer your question, I'm not dedicated to any given theory about Striker's past, though there are 2 that I keep coming back to from time to time.

One is that his family was displaced from their rural home and that this directly lead to their premature deaths, the main evidence is that his family is the most likely thing for him to be referring to when talking about having things taken away, maybe he even has some slight sympathy/empathy for Stella if he was particularly close with his own mother.

The other one, which has some overlap with the first, is that one of his parents, likely his dad, is a noble and Striker being his illegitimate child lead to him abandoning Striker's mother to protect his image and publicly denouncing her if she spoke out about it, maybe even eventually having her "taken care of". I've seen an extreme version of this propose his father is Leviathan, hence why the show is taking it's time to address Envy as a ring. Some evidence is that he's literally green-eyed (a term for being jealous/envious) and his serpent features, though I don't really buy this version of the theory.

I also don't really buy the "royal ex" theory, I see where it's coming from but I just don't see it being right. There's better things to parallel stolitz with.