I think that if Adam and Demyan ever met, Adam would teach him that humanity, while far from perfect, does not deserve the end of the world; that this world is beautiful, no matter how terrible it may seem; and that there is always a way out, even when it feels like everything is doomed and there is no choice left. There is always a choice.
Even though the ending with the “end of the world” feels strange and a little unclear to me, I really like the concept that, given different circumstances in the Antichrist’s life, the outcome could have been completely different.
Adam had a loving family and devoted friends. He felt needed. He had Tadfield and Hockbackwood, which were his whole world. He knew the beauty of this world, but when he learned about its horrors, he wanted to change it, to make it better for everyone. Of course, the voices in his head, slowly driving him mad, played a role in that as well. But in the end, he managed to overcome them and understand that no matter how imperfect the world is, and no matter how imperfect humanity is, it deserves the chance to learn, to try, to love, to make mistakes. It deserves to live. Because sometimes beauty is hidden precisely in imperfection.
Demyan, on the other hand, was born in Chertanovo, Moscow. He lives in a communal apartment with a fairly manipulative mother, a sick grandmother, and a teenage sister. He works his ass off at Pyaterochka for peanuts, barely making ends meet, and the only thing keeping him anchored to this world is his fiancée, the woman he loves, who was his light and the reason he kept going. I could argue that he was probably depressed, and Galya was simply keeping him afloat by being there for him.
As long as she was alive, he stubbornly refused to bring about Armageddon, told Satan to go fuck himself, and so on. But after she died, he slowly, little by little, began to lose his mind. He couldn't see any reason to keep fighting without her. And then he realized that if Armageddon happened, he might be able to bring the dead back to life — including Galya — and he agreed.
Depression had already been weighing heavily on him, and he wasn't exactly mentally well to begin with, but love was what kept him from drowning. Once that love was gone, it was as though everything else inside him disappeared with it.
As far as his family goes, the only person he had a relatively warm relationship with was his sick, disabled grandmother. He didn't have a loving family or loyal friends. He didn't have a world of his own, except for that godforsaken communal apartment in Chertanovo.
As the story progresses, he encounters corruption and injustice, deaths; seeing how the rich can escape prison even for the most despicable acts; he sees the fucked up system, and so on. He comes to believe that humanity and the world simply don't deserve to live. He decides that he will spare only his mother and sister, while everyone else can fucking die because they're scum and they deserve it. Though, in the end, we never actually see the Armageddon happen, so it's left unclear whether it happened at all.
I just find the contrast incredibly telling.
A child who had loving parents, good friends, and a world of his own, even after learning about all the horrors of the world, decided that it deserved to live — not despite its imperfections, but in a way, because of them. He loved this world. He had imagination, hope, and love, and those things helped him choose his own path.
Demyan, on the other hand... well, I've already laid out my thoughts on him above.
Apparently, if they really were taking inspiration from Good Omens, even Pratchett's optimism is powerless against rusreal lol.
