Thoughts on the "Devil wears an OL LOOK" event
Okay, first of all, tell me why it took me this long to realize the title was a "Devil wears Prada" reference XDD
Before we start, since this wasn't an event I particularly enjoyed, I wanna make it very clear what this post is and isn't going to be.
I don't mean to, in any way, be the killjoy of the situation, if you enjoyed this event all the power to you!
This is also not going to be a post where I only complain, it's not like I hated the entirety of the event. It's just that obviously the complaint list is going to be longer than it usually is.
Having said that, what I am going to do is list the things I liked, the things I didn't like, a couple of opinions on the direction I thought the story was gonna take and what I think the main problems were, but I'm going to try and keep this lighthearted.
Okay, cool? Cool! Let's go!
Now, I know It's sort of a controversial opinion in the fandom, but I really like Levi. I think he's super pretty, for one, and I also think he looks very good when crossdressing! Honestly... That skirt and that lingerie suit him so well~ I can only say: "Thank you for the meal!" š
I also enjoyed Beel and Luci's fight (the one in the flashback, I mean. Not the one that sparked the war. That-- ... I'll get to that later...). Like, a lot. For one I liked that I could understand where Beel was coming from, for once. Also. Pfftt... I adore it when my hubby gets a little sassy~ "I still haven't invented a cure for stupidity, but when I do, you can trust you'll have the first sample" DAAAMN!! š«¢š«¢ššš
Also... Let me talk about my ship for a moment here. Beel and Levi were so cute in that scene! š„° Now, honestly, I believe, aside from the fact the two are complete opposites, personality wise, the other reason why Luci and Beel don't get along is because Beel generally cares a lot about Levi, and given his past, he tends to hate Heaven related things even more. So, I like to read the beginning of the flashback fight as Beel feeling a surge of protectviness towards Levi, and I found it very cute š„° What I found even cuter was that Beel started playing with his hair and Levi... Just let him! He sat there, without saying anything! I don't know about you, but that's one of the biggest sign of affection I've ever seen from him! š„°
BABY ORIAS!!! WOHOO!! ššš Okay, so, aside from being cute like very few other things in this life, I also adored the moment in general! The image of this baby crawling around the battlefield, stabbing enemies left and right, is exactly the kind of absurd, nonsense humor that attracted me to this game in the first place! Me and my friend actually have a list of our favorite absurd moments in the game, but maybe that's for another post ^^; Just know baby Orias made the cut in said list ^^
Despite the way the fight started... I also found it genuinely sweet how Beel and Luci apologized to each other, the way Luci said he shouldn't have let the argument get this out of hand, Beel saying he was also sorry although he was still pissed at him and so it came out very rude, Luci finding it cute-- Heck! I also found it cute, for what it was worth! Overall it was a very tender moment ^^
... Okay. Let's get it over with.
For an event named after Leviathan, I did not feel his weight in the story. I mean, sure. He set in motion the Lemiel plot, but I'll get to my problems with that later. And, speaking of which, he did not even solve said problem! Orias did! Ironically, he had more weight in the story than the devil the event was named after! Also, Levi, I love you. But you did not even do that much to stop the civil war like you said you would. You literally showed up, was pretty, said one sentence and then went away! Luci and Beel basically solved their conflict by themself...
... Okay. I'm just going to say it... I think Usiel and Lemiel were not handled well. Don't get me wrong, I adore their design, and Lemiel was handled slightly better... But Usiel especially was so forgettable... I remember the fandom being so hyped up about him, and then he just showed up and died after one scene. Now, again, Lemiel was handled slightly better, his conflict with Beel was valid. With Luci... Eh... It was sort of childish, but I could still consider it believable. Having said this, I feel like for the main antagonist of the story, his character was not as impactful as it could have been. Especially his death, as funny as I found Baby Orias, fell super flat when it should have been an epic moment! Given that self-destructive angels are, like, one of Hell's biggest threats!!
And now, let's get to the main issue... The inciting incident was so fucking stupid. Like, I read all the theories flying around, I had theories of my own, even! Maybe it was because of Levi's past. Maybe it was about the Seraph Beel ate. The only thing everyone was sure of was that it must have been something big.
... But nope. It was because Beel insulted Lucifer's hair.
Oh my God... I would've much rather they hadn't told us and let us speculate. I wasn't this petty even in middle school!
And you wanna know why this bothers me so much? It was mainly for two reasons:
1) How they wrote Lucifer. Now, Luci has consistently been written as a pretty rational character, often taking the role of "the voice of reason" together with Asmodeus. Now, sure. There have been moments where he did not act the most rational, but, at least in my opinion, it has always been justifiable by either his personality or backstory... Here it isn't! I genuinely can't see him as the type who would start (Yes, because they specify he was the one who started it. That's my main problem! I wouldn't be this angry if it wasn't clear or if it was Beel who declared it) a damn civil war over something as petty as that! But it's not a matter of him being my favorite character and I can't handle that he did something morally wrong. It's about him being completely out of character!
One of the staples of Lucifer's writing is that he's the kind of person who puts his family over everything else. Both his brothers in Heaven and his new family in Hell. He specifically put himself in a neutral position in the war between the two realms because he didn't want to harm his brothers. In the Idol event he was willing to let himself die yes, out of guilt and mostly because he kinda takes everything bad that happens in his life as divine will, but also because he didn't want either Michael or Gamigin to get hurt. In the same event he erased his subjects' and the Seraphims' memories because he knew what they had done would have been an impossibly heavy burden and he didn't want them to bear that. Hell! Last event he told Gaap, verbatum: "A vassal must be prepared to offer his life for his Lord. My brothers have no need to die for me. Nor would I allow it."!
And yet now he does, what? Declare war against Abyssos and consequently send his subjects to get hurt and possibly die? Over something this small??? I'm sorry. But that's just not coherent.
2) At least in my opinion, there was a very simple way to fix this. I know they are kinda becoming a deus ex machina, but I was convinced that all of this was happening because of the red talismans. Especially since in the bit where Zepar contacted Zagan, the word tragedy was put in quotation marks. I had interpreted as it being emphasized for some sort of story related reasons... And it would have been so easy to just put Zepar ominously chuckling while caressing one of the talismans as an ending scene. After all, we've seen people acting out of character because of the effect they had given them... But no. It was all because of a childish fight. Okay. OKAY.
In conclusion, what's the event's main problem?
I observed it being a problem in past events as well, especially back in the beginning when they did not do two parters, but it just feels like they tried too tell too much at the same time and the pacing became a mess as a result.
What I mean is that the main plot is already a lot to unpack, the subplot of OL Levi and the one about Lemiel soldiers just become way too much for the short time the story has if put together. Like, I'm sorry. But either set aside Lemiel and focus on Levi being a diplomatic or erase Levi from the equation and give Lemiel the story impact he deserved! One subplot simply takes way too much time from the other and they both end up feeling frivolous.
... Anyway, this is everything I had to say. I'm sorry if this is all over the place, and this is probably the most whiny I'll ever get in this blog. Thank you so much for reading me ramble, this has been my opinion and I'm open to discussion if you think differently. Let's just try to keep it civil in case. Until next time~
