Also hate how Lilith is just pretty much a plot device. I don't know what the game is doing now but I hate that she's pretty much there to speedrun a relationship between MC and the brothers.
And that's when MC is already developing a genuine bond with some of them.
But if there are any other instances of her being a plot device, I'd love to hear it.
i do wanna make it clear that this contrived plot point that is lilith does not drive forward the relationship on ALL of the characters. just the most difficult two to really complete the list. i refuse to believe that mammon, satan, leviathan, asmo AND beel didnt care about MC before this turd-bomb of a plot point happened, but i absolutely do believe that is the case for lucifer and belphie for different reasons.
i believe it is a method to sort of "punish" belphie by the games weird rule of telling but not showing. it was the first sign of cowardice on the writing team back then for pulling their punches and taking judgement out of our hands; something they honestly do not often enough and too much at the same time with more mundane things, but with it being a multiple choice type game, options were never really ours to make. just the illusion of it.
by making us the very distant relative of lilith we are punishing belphie for his rash action to anger and and giving us a contrived reason to feel bad for him afterwards. which doesnt work when hes still got the blood on his hands, diavolo hot on his trail, and lucifer coming to his defense.
its a plot point for lucifer because until you earn the trust of all his brothers, he could pretend to care, hell he might even care a teensy bit, but no matter how he feels about you, if there is a shadow of a reason as to how you could betray him and his brothers and use them against their will, there is a shadow of a reason for lucifer to not hesitate to kill you.
picture a scenario where all of the boys save for belphie (and consequently lucifer himself) are forced via their pacts to attack belphie as revenge for him attacking you. with belphie out numbers and his own brothers losing control of themselves to potentially kill him, lucifer would be his last defense against those odds. lucifer is nothing if not cautious and powerful, so he could hopefully subdue his brothers in due time. it also helps that in comparison to lucifer, each of his brothers as you go further down the line have a unique type of fear of him that could in theory ensnare them from continuing their assault on belphie at your command. ie. mammon is really afraid of lucifers wrath and more than anything wasnt to avoid having his credit card taken and being strung up from the ceiling for hours. aside from everyone else in the house, mammon is more powerful than THEM compared to lucifer. then next comes levi, a sort of spineless coward-like person i feel (when it comes to a fight anyway, you basically NEVER see him stand up for himself) and wouldnt want to face lucifer and deal with the punishment of that. and then you go further and further down the list and they get weaker and weaker as we go. satan cant combat lucifers spells, he himself far too busy learning how to cast them rather than protect himself from them. asmo is much like levi in that he would rather not lift a finger, if not for fear of broken nail than broken bone. despite this, he could fold beel like laundry (which still doesnt make sense to me but whatever i guess?) and speaking of beel the guy is built like a truck. hes also the only other one lucifer has physically struck with intention to subdue that was tied to a serious event. and i believe it was more than once at that.
my point being they were very specific and careful about who came in the pecking order, and it was for precaution that lucifer be the one able to straighten them all out in the end.
if there is an MC out there hellbent on destroying belphie, that is a person lucifer will never trust. and so its rather coincidental that in the heat of the moment we choose to forgive belphie, or at the very least put it off, until "months later" since the game jumps ahead in time a LOT since the killing in c.16 and the end of the years program in c. 20.
lilith being our distant relative was for belphie to feel shame, then quickly feel attachment, only for lucifer to see that if we all get along (or perhaps fall in love with belphie in that short period of time for the belphifuckers out there) hes allowed to feel something finally too. or at least let it show more.
so it was a speedrun not for all of the brothers. lucifer, while he wouldnt hesitate in killing you in an instant before belphie got close with you, i wont say didnt feel anything beforehand. he just puts his brothers before anything and everything; something he makes clear time and time again. it was a speedrun ONLY for belphie. lucifer and MC have a sort of slowburn going on, but to say that their relationship is speedran from c.16 onwards is disregarding the little moments beforehand that were special to his character.
as for if and when shes used as a plot point again later, that requires i redownload OG and look around for it there and honestly playing in a pit of spikes sounds more fun than that. playing nightbringer is already such a painful chore....
edit: im also trapped in the early episodes of season 2 bc i flopped so hard at that boring ass gameplay in the first one lol
