A hot tip for analyzing Diablo lore
(+smth about Meph & Lili)
Ready for it guys?
A DEMON IS A LIAR SOMETIMES. Angels occasionally too. You simply cannot take everything they say as the absolute truth, because most of them are genuinely not good people and have their hidden agendas to which they are pretty eager to gaslight gatekeep girlboss their way into.
I’ve seen a few people try to explain events and plotpoints with evidence coming from character dialogue, however forgetting entirely to analyze the circumstances in which the dialogue was spoken. I wanna point out a certain instance where in my opinion (please don’t crucify me) the speaker was lying:
Mephisto in the story quest ”Death”
(Btw I love love love this quest for the way it ends Lilith’s character arc in the DLC, but that isn’t the part I’m meaning to focus on here)
In this quest, the Wanderer gets yanked into their soul-world-thingy because Mephisto, despite Lilith’s efforts to keep him at bay, is getting dangerously close to consuming and destroying their soul. As the Wanderer and Lilith fight their way through the spreading corruption, Mephisto decides to… talk to her?
I won’t post the whole bit here, but the point boils down to Mephisto telling Lilith to stop protecting the Wanderer because it isn’t worth it for her, as her children (aka humans) have never given her anything in return for her efforts anyway.
Mephisto: ”All your life… you’ve surprised me, daughter. You might be the closest thing I have to an equal.”
”Okay?” I hear you ask, ”Mephisto is telling Lilith that he values her and understands her struggle?” *loud buzzer sound*
WRONG. This is an attempt at manipulation from our Lord of Hatred. He wants to win at all costs and succeed at tainting humanity using the pools, and the Wanderer is the only loose end in his plan, a danger factor who just now succeeded at building a powerful weapon (Lilith’s blade) capable of hurting him. Mephisto wants the Wanderer dead, but his brat-of-a-daughter is the one thing standing in the way of that. Time is running short, and he wants to win.
So, driven by those motivations, Mephisto attempts to break Lilith’s resolve, manipulating her into abandoning the Wanderer. All those sweet things about Lilith ”being his equal”? Mephisto is reminding Lilith of what she is, a powerful demon, the Daughter of Hatred. Powerful demons don’t serve, don’t help, don’t protect. Mephisto is mocking her about her doing something completely beneath her, aka, protecting this itsy bitsy little human. She should feel silly, embarrassed even, stooping so low.
And speaking of humans; Mephisto tries to get into Lilith’s head with manipulation both logical and emotional. She created humans, and has done so much for them, yet has she ever gotten anything from that in return? No. It’s madness, he says, continuing to fight for the sake of those foolish, ungrateful and flawed creations who, despite everything, hate their creator, their mother.
Doesn’t Lilith feel exhausted? Doesn’t she feel angry? She bends and bends, but it won’t ever be enough. She won’t be enough for them. She isn’t enough, she wasn’t made to be. Mephisto knows it well. He made her, didn’t he?
Wouldn’t it be just easier to give up and run back to papa, to play their games once more?
…
Luckily for the Wanderer, Lilith knows her father’s tricks and walls off the manipulative words. Her father doesn’t have sympathy for anyone, especially her. It’s foolish to think Mephisto would ever let her off the hook for her little act of rebellion, and even more foolish to think his words, whatever they may be, as anything else but an instrument for his malicious goals.
Thank you coming to my ted talk, and, say it with me now folks:
A DEMON IS A LIAR SOMETIMES
