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#So in my head Linda & Amenadiel & Maze all show up
enixamyram · 4 months
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I am truly struggling with the Lucifer series. I am literally getting by with watching a single episode a night but it's become such a chore. I just have so many problems with it so this is going to be a complete ranty negative post. Open at your own risk.
Lucifer is becoming less off a fun asshole and more of just an asshole asshole. It feels like he has no deep developement, like he's the same selfish dick he was in the first season except he shouldn't be because he's had no ends of lessons that should have helped him grow. But nope, he cares for Chloe but will still ignore and insult Maze or belittle Dan and put his own problems above Amenadiel and Linda and pretty much everyone else and so on and so on.
The romance between him and Chloe is so damn boring. I hate the will-they-won't-they at the best of times and this show seems to be doubling down on the trope twice as hard in all the worst ways. Every time Chloe and Lucifer have a new problem, I swear I want to ram my head against a wall. It's literally become a case of even when they're together and happy, I'm so sick of them.
Maze has the same twist every damn season. Like, seriously. How many more times is she going to betray Lucifer and side with that seasons antagonist? Her reasons may vary slightly but at the end, it's like clockwork and while I still love her and have great sympathy for her character, it's also still stupidly repetative.
The Dan hate is getting old too. I've never liked the trope of one character constantly getting kicked down on and despite Lucifer's nickname, Dan really isn't that bad a person. And if he is, it's only because of sympathetic circumstances pushing him to be. It was one thing when it was just Lucifer making fun of him but ever since Season 3 with Pierce, it feels like Chloe and everyone else is always smirking behind his back as well and it's just makes me dislike all of them.
On another Dan note, his treatment to finding out the truth is gross compared to the others. When Linda and Chloe found out, Lucifer was careful with them. He gave them space but was otherwise gentle because he understood how intense this information could be for a human. For Dan, he decides to try and make it worse by pranking him with a snake? Even Chloe, to me, is digustingly cold about it. She knows how scary it can be but she doesn't even try to reach out to him during this time. She's more concerned with Lucifer messing up her case than calling him out for pushing Dan during a sensative time? I dunno, it seems a bit sexist to me that the women got coddled and allowed to be emotional about it but the guy gets made fun of.
The only thing I'm looking forward to at this point is Eve returning and marrying Maze (I saw spoilers). But even that isn't going to be done all that well because with only one season to do it, we're not going to get any real development and build between them.
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amtrak12 · 1 year
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Lucifer Rewatch Liveblog: 1.04
My gym team lost and I am sad so we're watching Lucifer :(
I didn't even look at the title before hitting play. I have no idea what episode I'm looking at.
OH! Manly Whatnots. Okay I do know what episode this is now. Or at least certain parts of it lol
Okay but seeing Jimmy bang his head against the door until he bleeds would fuck you up. Watching anyone purposefully injure themselves like that would fuck you up.
Lucifer breaking into Chloe's place to cook breakfast is #justfanficthings cause that shit is creepy as fuck in real life.
'Ugh, I want to shoot you.' -- Soon enough, Chloe. Soon enough.
I am absolutely enjoying how much it's pissing Dan off though. LOL
'Really, Chloe? I'm disappointed in you.' -- Seriously, Dan? You think you have a leg to stand on in Season 1?
Oh, is this the ep Linda where realizes she should switch Lucifer's payment from sex to money like a normal therapist?
Is that a lemon print on that bench seat in Chloe's beach house? Or just a lemon colored print? Sorry it's spring and yet cold so I'm craving flower colors badly.
I may adore Chloe and Dan as exes, but it is uncomfortable thinking of them as married.
Maybe this isn't the ep Linda changes Lucifer's payment system lol Oops.
OH! I know this scene! It's the never going to sleep with you until hell freezes over scene! Love it!
I actually rewound it and watched it again without typing anything because it was even better in full than it was in fan vids and I deserve good things tonight.
I'm already uncomfortable with this club gathering thing.
Chloe beginning to accept that Lucifer has literally never been rejected by someone. You're right, Chloe. It does explain a lot of his behavior. Him being the literal Devil explains the rest of it, but it takes you a bit longer to realize that one.
Lucifer absolutely sucks at playing detective LOL
'Were you hit on the head when you were small'? -- not even close, Lucifer.
What is this seizure inducing bro-rock intro? o_O
This is the cis-het man version of the mlm cults isn't it? Terrifying.
Not what I expected to be called manly whatnots. Definitely expected something dirtier lol They're good at playing me with the episode titles.
Yep, literally putting Chloe in the spotlight for not having sex with you. Surefire way to change that! ROTFL
Clueless. He's utterly clueless.
Speaking of clueless.... hello, Amenadiel.
'little demon'... LITTLE DEMON!!! LITTLE DEMON????
Amenadiel, how the fuck did Maze sleep with you instead of murdering you for that one?? Your angel guts should be strewn all through Lux right now.
"It's a phase. It will pass." -- Ooph. Amenadiel is actually right on that one. Maze is lying to herself that Lucifer's new motives are just a phase.
wing scars wing scars wing scars *chants*
WING SCARS WING SCARS WING SCARS WING SCARS
WING SCARS!!!!!!!!!!! WING!!!!!!!!! SCARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FUUUUUCKK the 'don't... please' fucks me up as much as it does Chloe. Also I adore her immediate defensive and sharp look when Lucifer catches her wrist because yeah that's the correct reaction to someone unexpectedly grabbing you. And then it softens when Lucifer speaks and shows pain and vulnerability (!!) instead of aggression. OOPH it's so good.
I didn't even bother getting excited when the guy pointed the gun at Lucifer. *sigh* But one of these eps he'll finally get shot and realize the rules to his invulnerability have changed. And I will be fucking cheering about it! :D
'Um, I'm kind of a polarizing guy.' -- definitely one way to word that
'No they've hung up.' - ROTFL I was going to say, what in the TV rules is this?? Surely, the kidnappers have hung up already. And then they had lol
Oh shit, we're getting this car scene too in this episode? Fuck me, we're getting all the good S1 shit in ep 4.
Wait a second.... WAIT A SECOND....
IS HE GOING TO GET SHOT IN THIS EPISODE?????
I think he is omg *vibrates* That 'what does it feel like if you get shot' question was way too foreshadowing. Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit
'You're an atheist? How ironic' -- I mean, I'm pretty sure that is ironic given she's a gift from God.
THIS IS DEFINITELY WHERE HE GETS SHOT YOU GUYS! I RECOGNIZE THIS SET! *vibrates louder*
I think it would've been funnier if the brother had been flung fully to the ground when Lucifer let go of the bag. It would've more thoroughly demonstrated the angel strength vs human strength discrepancy.
This scene has everything OMG
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
*SCREAMS LOUDER  AND HIGHER UNTIL ONLY DOGS CAN HEAR*
I think it's absolutely hilarious that they have this lieutenant character in S1, promote her (or she becomes a politician, I can't remember) and later have Cain in S3, but otherwise, there just isn't a boss running things at the police station. Free range detectives only at that LAPD precinct. They don't believe in caging them with bosses and chains of command. :P
(They also don’t believe in having more than one lab tech. Ella Lopez is all they need! ROTFL)
Yeah you're not going to convince the kid of two cops that blood is ketchup.
Okay, Trixie drawing the conclusion that Chloe really likes Lucifer because she shot him is absolutely the punishment Chloe deserves for perpetuating that bullshit that if a boy picks on you, it means he has a crush on you.
THAT'S NOT WHAT IT MEANS! IT MEANS THAT KID IS AN ASSHOLE!
I'm so upset moving the show to Netflix meant tighter filming schedules (presumably) and thus less scenes with Trixie because she's adorable and I love Chloe as a mom.
And now Maze knows it's not just a phase. Thus her plan to work with Amenadiel is born.
(and sleep with him because only Chloe isn't allowed to sleep with the rest of the cast.)
(except CAIN but that's stupid and bullshit and stupid so we don't talk about it)
Okay and stopping the autoplay to see this header pic for the Lucifer menu is absolutely the reward I deserve for my gymnastics team missing out on nationals.
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HELLO EVE AND MAZE! MY BELOVEDS! <33333
(god I cannot wait until S4 when Eve comes into all of our lives and improves them. She's just so fucking perfect! *swoons* My girl!! My love of my life!! The #1 MILF in all of human history!! EVE!!!!)
Okay okay okay, now I have to backtrack and talk about The Scene that I was too busy watching to type through. Actually, we had FOUR 'The Scene's in this episode and that is three more than I expected from the title. But the ultimate SCENE is obviously the one where Chloe shoots Lucifer.
I adore Lucifer talking about punishments fitting the crime and how killing the guy for being an asshole wasn't justified. Because a) if Lucifer had still been in Hell, he wouldn't have cared less about humans killing each other for minor crimes. He would've just rolled his eyes at it and moved on. Or turned it into a sport like he basically did just two episodes ago with the paparazzi. Which brings me to b) it's a fabulous scene because it's already showing that Lucifer is thinking about these things, that he's learning and thus changing already after such a short time. And c) it's fabulous because again it's feeding into the series finale end game of helping the souls in Hell confront their guilt. In fact, I realized in this scene, that for cop propaganda (as virtually all American cop shows are propaganda), it's surprisingly anti-prison. Mainly in the metaphorical Hell sense of prison, but still. That's really interesting.
I also love the cut from 'Do I scare you?' / 'No.' to Chloe catching a glimpse of Lucifer's Devil face and immediately going 'ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck'. Clearly, there's a blatant Divine aura around both angel wings and Lucifer's Devil face that would rightfully freak out a mortal. Like we can sit here and tell ourselves that we wouldn't freak out if we saw either. We're staring right at his Devil face on screen and it isn't scary! Just red. But that's because we're watching a story. If you were actually in that world, and you saw the Devil flash that red and scarred face at you, you would indeed be pissing yourself. Because that's how the characters in the universe react to it. Therefore that's how a regular human being would react to it. Divinity is terrifying, or at the very least overwhelming, to humans in this universe. So I headcanon it as essentially an aura that you register but can't quite wrap your head around. You just know that it's Not Human. And Chloe is not immune to the effects of Divinity. She's only immune to Lucifer's desire power which is an important distinction for understanding her actions both here in this episode and later in S4, but it's also just an interesting distinction from a meta perspective that might deserve further musings. Hmm....
(Sidebar: RIP to that poor fic author who began their S2 fic with the note "I like to think Chloe would react better to Lucifer's Devil face than Linda did :)" because um... she did Not. And you really should've guessed that when just a glimpse of his Devil face out of the corner of her eye was enough to make her shoot him.)
Anyway it is now 11:20 and I have work in the morning. So cheers to a very sleepy Monday! :P At least I have a five day weekend coming up with Easter thanks to a mix of work holiday and vacation days. Catch you whenever I liveblog the next ep!
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ranger-of-estel · 4 years
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Deckerstar (friendship or OTP, I'm feeling angst) + “She’s at the hospital. I—I don’t know what happened.”
“She’s at the hospital. I—I don’t know what happened.” Deckerstar - Established (alternate S5 where Lucifer got to come back without Michael ever being involved)
 So...this one got away from me. And honestly I have at least double this amount in my head for a continuation on this. But if I wait until I have time to write all of it then it’s more of a short story than a prompt fill, so I finally decided to cut it here.
First time writing these characters, so here’s hoping I didn’t butcher them.
~~~~~~~~~
               They are at the precinct, Ella updating them with what she’s found on their most recent case. Chloe stepped out for a call, and conversation slips to local events while they wait for her to return.
               “I’m just saying,” Ella points at him with a thin piece of metal. “I’ve heard you perform, you’d sell out a concert.”
               “I am not disagreeing, Miss Lopez.” Lucifer shrugs, “but Lux stays quite full as it is.”
               “That’s not –” She cuts off as the door opens, “Chloe, tell Lucifer…” She frowns, voice suddenly concerned, “Chloe?”
               Lucifer turns to face his partner, a fear he hasn’t seen in their eyes since…”Trixie?”
               She nods, “The school just called. She’s at the hospital,” he voice cracks, “I don’t know what happened. All they’ll say is she fell and –”
               “Detective,” she takes a shuddering breath as he takes her hand. “That’s it.” He turns to Ella, “Miss Lopes, would you be so kind as to inform the Captain that Detective Decker has had a family emergency?”
               “Totally!” She comes around the table, pulling the detective into a tight hug. Ash she pulls away she looks up at him, “keep me posted.”
               He nods, “of course.” He follows as Chloe grabs her bag, waiting to take her arm until they are outside.
               “What are you doing?” Chloe glares as he leads her to the side of the precinct. “Lucifer, this isn’t the time for your theatrics.”
               “On the contrary, it seems like exactly the time.” He opens his wings, holding an arm out. “Even you can’t drive faster than an Angel flies.” He tilts his head, “unless you would rather deal with lunch hour traffic?”
               “No,” She allows him to tuck her into his side, arms around his neck as he grabs her by the waist. Her only warning is his grip tightening, and then they are moving. It’s all so fast she hardly has time to register, his hands steadying her as he lands in an ally.
               “Easy, Chloe.” Her hand goes to her head, which is spinning. “Unfortunately you humans don’t handle flight as well as we do.”
               “No kidding.” After another minute the spinning has stopped, she’s mildly nauseated but ignores it.
               “You go ahead,” he motions toward the hospital. Before she can protest he waves a hand dismissively, “I’m just going back for the car. You can hardly tell the Captain that the devil flew you to the hospital when if he asks why our cars were still parked.”
               She nods, “Lucifer!” she grabs his wrist, his wings dropping as he looks at her. “Thank you.”
               He softens, “you needn’t thank me, not for this.” He motions toward the building once more, “now go, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
               Once back to his car he breaks speed limits and a few traffic laws to get back to the hospital. Once he’s parked he makes his way to the front desk. “Trixie Decker,” he states before the young receptionist has time to speak.
               “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a Trixie in my system.” She replies with a frown.
               “Ah, my apologies dear. Try Beatrice Decker,”
               Another moment of typing and she nods to herself, “are you the father?”
               “No,” he shakes his head. “But she is….family.” There’s a sentence he’d never expected to say. The woman nods again, giving him the room number and brief directions.
               When Lucifer arrives Chloe is sitting next to the bed; Trixie is unconscious, a bandaged wrapped around her head. There’s a cold fury settling in his chest, but for now he buries the need to punish someone in favor of comforting his partner.
               Chloe looks up when he comes into the room, rising to close the distance between them. The fear has shifted into concern, a frown etched on her lips. “They think it’s a mild concussion.” She turns back to face the bed, arms crossing over her chest. “All the school rep said she fell.”
               “Was no one watching them? Didn’t anyone see what happened?” He asks, looking from Chloe to the child then back.
               “They don’t want to tell me anything other than they are ‘still gathering information.’” He assumes her tone is a direct mockery of the representative she’d spoken with. “Doctor said once she wakes up and they can run a few tests they’ll have a better idea of the extent of the damage…” her voice wavers, trailing off before she take a shuddering breath.
               “Hey,” he gently tugs at her wrist, Chloe instantly pushing into his chest as his arms wrap around her. “She’s a strong little creature…like her mother.” He rests his chin on the top of her head, “I suspect Trixie will be up and about in no time.”
               He waits until she begins to pull away to release her, reaching up to push loose hair from her face. She nods, giving him a weak smile. She reaches down, grabbing her phone as she takes another step away from him. “I should try and reach Dan again,” she runs a hand through her hair. “He’s camping and the school wasn’t able to reach him.”
               “If it’s all right with you, I’m going to go find where they sell caffeinated beverages.” He tilts his head, “Would you like anything?”
               “Actually, a coffee sounds amazing.” She smiles at him, and with a dip of his head he’s taken to the halls once more. It doesn’t take long for him to procure the coffees and a pastry. He stops in one of the waiting rooms, pulling out his own phone.
               He listens to it ring before finally there’s a female voice on the other side. “Hello?”
               “Doctor,” he greets. “I need your advice?”
               “Oh, um sure. What’s going on?” Linda asks, Charlie cooing in the background.
               “The Detec- Chloe’s daughter is in the hospital,” he’s suddenly cut off.
               “Oh my God Lucifier, what happened?” Linda’s voice has pitched and he sighs.
               “She apparently fell at school, they believe it’s a concussion.” He replies adding before she can cut him off once more. “I need to know how to help Chloe. All of my experience thus far has been her in the hospital, not someone she cares about.”
               Linda’s voice softens, “Lucifer, you’re already doing it. The best thing you can do for Chloe right now is be there to support her.” He hears Charlie begin to cry in the background, “look Lucifer, I have to go. But if there is anything you need just let us know.”
               “Of course. Thank you, Doctor.” He ends the call and after pocketing his phone grabs the drinks and pastry once more. It wasn’t the answer he had hoped for, but at least looking out for his partner was something he knew he could do.
               When he makes it back to the room Chloe is in the bedside chair once more, some of tension leaving her shoulders when she sees him. “I thought you might be hungry,” he offers the iced muffin alongside her coffee.
               She accepts them gratefully, motioning to the seat beside her. “Dan is on his way, but it will be a few hours before he can get here.”  
               “Well, until dear Daniel can arrive…I’m not going anywhere.” He reaches out to rest his hand on her leg. “I’m here as long as you need me.”
               “Damn it, Lucifer.” Chloe’s voice wavers, and he watches as she rubs her eyes with the back of her hand. Before he can voice concern she continues, “you’re going to make me cry…”
               “I’m…sorry?” He’s not sure exactly how to proceed, thankfully she doesn’t give him time to question himself.
               “No,” she sets the coffee down so she can grab his hands with hers. “I just…you’re…” she takes a slow breath. “It means a lot, that you’ll stay.” Her gaze drops to their hands, “There are so many questions, and I’m terrified…but you.” She looks up to give him a small smile. “You’re like an anchor, keeping me steady.” She leans, resting her head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”
               “As I said before, you needn’t thank me, love.” He runs his thumb over her knuckles. “I’ve no intention of leaving you to handle things alone, not anymore.” He presses a ghost of a kiss to her crown, “besides, the little gremlin has grown on me.”
It pulls a laugh from her, and for now that is enough.
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qqueenofhades · 3 years
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did you watch lucifer season six and what are your thoughts pls and ty
Ahaha. Yes. Yes I did watch it. Then I cried for a literal hour and attempted to compose myself, only to start crying again when I lay down and kept on thinking about it. Then I had more feelings. Then I slept like the dead due to emotional trauma. Then I reblogged gifsets and had More feelings. Then @buffaluff and @flynnanimal watched it and also required emotional support due to drowning in their own tears. So, uh... we're all fine here now. How are you?
My main takeaway from the final season was the sheer amount of love for the characters, story, and fans that you could feel shining through all the episodes, and which made SUCH a refreshing change. I had feelings in my tags the other day about how a show about the devil was constantly goofy, hopeful, loving, and uplifting, rather than all the grimdark nonsense they could have easily done with it. (As I said, just imagine it as written by the GOT idiots?? NO THANK YOU.) The writing really loved everyone and wanted to give them a proper ending and emotional journey, and it wanted to show the fans that they weren't stupid for having invested six seasons of effort and emotion into this, and just... that is so much rarer than it should be? Compare all the movies and TV shows that treat their fans like the enemy, that want to outsmart them at all costs even if it means changing major plot elements, that ferociously guard spoilers and think that "shock value" means good writing, by throwing hackneyed cliche upon cliche and making everything Depressing, and just... Lucifer had its hiccups and slow points and missteps, of course, but I am SO glad they didn't do that. The entire show consisted of Lucifer slowly but steadily progressing toward being a better man, despite mistakes and setbacks and sometimes a little too much will-they-won't-they. (Season 3 was the only one where I got bored and skipped over the filler episodes with Pierce/Lucifer/Chloe in order to get to the end).
That is an essentially simple premise, but they stuck to it, and they didn't try to create more drama by randomly wrecking what they had already established. I wrote a fic all the way back in mid-season 2 (In Nomine Patris) that ended up predicting quite a few of the future characters who had not yet appeared on the show at that time, including Eve, Michael, and Azrael, and several plot points, including the very major one of Lucifer returning to hell for the sake of his daughter with Chloe. And while this might mean that I am just that good at guessing TV shows (I would like to think this....) it also means that the writers set expectations, followed through on those expectations, and didn't suddenly derail everything or turn it totally on its head just for the sake of cheap shocks. As we can all attest, they certainly caused PLENTY of drama, anguish, pain, and suffering, but they did it in a way that remained faithful to the overall premises of the story and the characters, and wanted to see them become the best versions of themselves. I cried my eyes out at the end and then thought, "hey, I might want to watch the whole series again," which, if you ask me, is the mark of doing your job right. There have been so few TV endings recently where I didn't immediately swear off the whole thing or have to pretend that canon didn't exist, so yeah.
As I said, it was just refreshing to watch something that had that essential deep generosity at its core, where the message is that everyone is worthy of love if they make the hard and painful effort to change and become better, and that even if earthly things feel small next to all this messy celestial drama, they still matter, and that you are loved no matter what. I loved that Amenadiel became God and Lucifer returned to hell as a choice in order to help all the trapped souls be able to work through their guilt and go to heaven. There were obviously certain echoes of The Good Place in that ending; I don't know if it was something they had planned all along or if the success of TGP, another series asking deep questions about life, death, morality, and human nature within the framework of a goofy heaven-and-hell sitcom, influenced it, but either way, it worked so well. Even if it tore my heart out and stomped on it on the ground, it was fitting and oh so lovely to see Lucifer, once the most selfish being in the entire universe, following in Linda's footsteps and becoming selflessly dedicated to helping other people. Just. Chef's kiss.
And of course, Deckerstar. The Hades and Persephone vibes were IMMACULATE this season, and while it did take Lucifer and Chloe the best part of four seasons to get together, they never significantly backslid, never had third-party issues or cheap cheating storylines once they were officially a couple, and Tom Ellis and Lauren German REALLY killed it this season in particular. It was never easy for them and sometimes the drama went on a little too long over the course of said six seasons, but the love story was beautiful and incredibly meaningful and always true to the fact that the actors and characters and writers (not to mention the fans) all loved it so much. They were so much the emotional heart of this, and when they went to hell together in episode 6x03 (where they turned into cartoons because wHAT even IS this show), Joe Henderson said in an interview that this was to give the fans a view into Lucifer and Chloe's future (after) lives post-6x10, and to offer them a basis to write fanfiction. I mean... the showrunner saying to the fans "here, we love you, have something to write fic about!" is likewise pretty shockingly rare. It's again an example of how this show always audaciously poked fun at itself, never took itself TOO seriously, and was always welcoming its fans and the people who loved it to do so, rather than making them feel stupid or taking joy in wrecking beloved characters or plots.
Obviously, I loved Rory, the badass lesbian half-angel goth Deckerstar child straight out of My Immortal (seriously, she was SO edgy, it was amazing), because of the fact that Lucifer's entire arc was always about feeling abandoned by his father and that he was going to have to face it for himself. Dorky Devil Dad Lucifer trying his absolute HARDEST to bond with his daughter was simultaneously hilarious, adorable, and heart-wrenching, and yet again, the Growth. We all remember when he could barely tolerate Trixie touching him, and now we're here. Also, any variation whatsoever of "this is just a brief moment of time that we must be apart, love is eternal and stronger than death and we will never really leave each other" as a line is guaranteed to make me bawl my eyes out. So that was fun.
I got a big kick out of Ghost Dan running around and trying to get everyone to see him, and had feelings about seeing him in heaven with Charlotte and his beloved Pudding Pops at the end. I had feelings about how they handled Ella finding out the truth (or rather demanding to know why nobody had told her) and of course, I obviously loved Maze and Eve and their goth/femme wedding and the fact that they got a good three-season romantic arc (indeed, I wanted more of them). My god, Trixie is SO BIG, she used to be a tiny little nugget. I love that Linda was the moral and emotional rock all along, from the first episode to the very last, and that Amenadiel was Deeply Vindicated when Charlie's wings appeared at his first birthday party. I love how Lucifer in s6 is absolute thousands of light years from Lucifer in s1. And as ever, Chloe was Perfect. I am happy that I spent six seasons with these characters and saw them become better, and that I was never made to feel like an idiot for trusting the writers to end everything in a beautiful and emotional way. Because, well. They did. Sure, maybe I could go back and pick at a plotline here or a detail there, but I don't terribly feel the need to do so? It might not have been perfect, but it was perfect, and I am so grateful that it existed.
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treblrebl · 3 years
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I don't know whether it's the finality of the show ending, or just the utter maelstrom of emotions this last season's elicited but I genuinely feel like I'm going through a grieving process.
I think I've made my peace with one aspect, and then another sucker punches me.
I stop sobbing over the piano scene - and then I remember Chloe walking down the precinct steps with her box of belongings and going back to her old desk but with Lucifer never to sit at her side again. Deal with that, and I think of Lucifer in his Hell simulation of Linda's office having a minor emotional realisation and walking out eagerly to deal with it only to be confronted by the unending, ashy corridors.
I think of Lux and how the newcomers to the club will never hear Lucifer perform again. I think of the precint and how the rookies will hear of the legend of the Lucifer-Chloe partnership but never witness it themselves.
I think of Trixie looking at their board games and not bringing them out since it won't be the same without Lucifer. I think of her being angry at him at first, but then she sees that her mom is - if not completely happy, atleast not the wreck she was when he left the first time. I think of Chloe telling her the full story when she thinks Trixie is old enough - because it's too difficult to lie to both her daughters - and Trixie trying her best to be supportive. She doesn't understand fully but she promises never to tell Rory the truth. She desperately regrets her word when a young Rory comes to her big sister and cries for the first time about why her Dad never comes to see them. She thinks she understands what this costs her mom and Lucifer.
I think of Amenadiel and Lucifer meeting up regularly to compare notes. Lucifer is Amenadiel's sounding board for the changes he's implementing, and Amenadiel is Lucifer's proxy presence for all those he left behind. He visits Chloe sometimes - never at her house, or at Linda's, but at Maze and Eve's.
Lucifer visits Earth relatively regularly at first - but then every time he does he can't help but calculate how old Rory would be. Each time it gets that much harder to stop himself from going to see his little girl. One of his visits coincides with Rory's birthday entirely by accident - and that's when he breaks. He goes back to Hell and throws himself into the Healing loops - he doesn't need to eat or sleep he can keep going, loop after loop after loop. And he does. Time never has any meaning down there anyway, and when he finally manages to get his head out from under the water, he finds that ten years have gone by on Earth and Linda is gone. His baby girl is now in her late teens and despises his existence. Trixie is now a grown woman with her own life and lives halfway across the country. He doesn't visit Chloe.
He doesn't go back to Earth for quite some time. He still goes up to Heaven, to see the siblings he likes, and to talk to Dan. When Linda makes it up there, he tells her about the system he's set up for souls to work through their guilt. It's not therapy as we know it on Earth, but it's Lucifer style therapy designed around Hell's needs. She's so proud of him.
He never stops waiting.
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nelavili · 3 years
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I'm still processing Season 6 and as an unpopular opinion I'm not too happy about it as a whole. I feel horrible for not enjoying it as much as the Cast/Crew would like me to, but I just can’t change this feeling I have.
Just to clear my head I'll write the things down that irked me. I don't want to start any discussion, they're only my thoughts on stuff ‘n thangs. Huge spoilers ahead, please don’t read if you haven’t watched.
Michael
I admit it, I have probably more sympathy for the bad twin than I should. And after the whole S5 I thought we get a bit more closure with him. I didn’t expect a redemption arc, after Michael killed Remiel, Dan and Chloe it would have felt wrong. But after the “Everyone deserves a second chance” the dude is down in hell, scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush. Really, Lucifer? That’s cruel after such a righteous line.
When Luci realized he could help everyone, even if he hated them, I hoped for a dive into the twins’ relationship but it was like Michael didn’t even existed anymore. And if someone needed therapy it would be the twin with the huge inferior complex. That could have been so interesting. (I had hoped that he'd sat on the couch at the end, but noooo we get the Frenchman.. such a disappointment.)
Maybe Tom Ellis didn’t want to play 2 roles again, or there was no time, but I feel that was a huge opportunity wasted.
What even was the plan of Michael? To get God to retire and wreck havoc on earth to get Dad back, so Mickey can take over as the new God? And then what? Wipe out humanity? I see no endgame here.
Ella
I liked Ella’s Story so far. But she stole the personal file of Carol and even broke into his house.. and everybody is cool with this? Carol might be crushing on Ella pretty hard but if somebody tells you they broke into your house, because they feared you were hiding something bad, You run for the hills. But the dude isn’t even phased.
I’m glad Carol is a good guy, though. Even if he’s kind of bland.
Ella finding out the truth on her own came out of nowhere. I would have found it better if they would have her act a little suspicious over the whole S5. But since they wrote S6 while S5 was shot, a little to late for this.
The scene at the wedding was amazing. I had so much fun with her outburst there.
Dan
Ghost!Dan was my favorite by far in this season. And I really liked how he wanted to help and tried to find out what he still felt guilty about.
I am so glad he got to spend his afterlife with Charlotte and I laughed so hard with the pudding. Didn’t expect that, in a positive matter. :D
The scene with Trixie killed me. Bawled so hard as soon as Kevin got teary eyes. That really gripped at my heartstrings.
But how could he go to heaven while in a body of a killer when his daughter stands right next to that killer?
Comedy-wise Dan is top notch
Trixie
I missed her so much.
It felt like she was an afterthought with everything. She recently lost her Dad and Chloe spends most of the time with Lucifer. I really missed the scenes with her and Luci, they always were so adorable.
They explain it later that she’s at a science camp, but I honestly thought Chloe chooses Lucifer (and later Rory too) over her.
She wasn’t at Chloe’s deathbed but here I’m not sure if the scene with Rory isn’t placed somewhere at the threshold to heaven where only celestials are able to enter. But if she wasn’t there because Chloe sidelined her in favor of Rory, then I can understand her absence.
Linda
I love Linda, she always gives good advice but nobody’s ever took it.
Her book probably would fly under the fantasy tag if she ever published it. Still, it felt cringey.
It was so sad that she thought she was a bad therapist.
Apparently she wants to keep helping celestials because it’s better than helping humans. In the end, celestials have the same problems as humans just on a bigger scale. But okay.
Amenadiel
Amenacop was good, and a nice nod to Dan who put in the application.
It made him realize that he only can change things when he has more power. I’m white and no american so I don’t know if the BLM theme there was well enough executed. Got me wondering.
The apocalypse just being Angels who are incompetent was a letdown. Like this whole season.
I really like him as god. And I am glad he took the position in the end. Even if he could have decided this a bit earlier.
Rory
I like her sarcasm and her character.
Didn’t like the whole time travel, time loop and daughter spiel. I’m not a big fan of time travels or couples getting a kid just for the sake of a happy end or to add extra drama. I could have lived without a Deckerstar baby. Instead they could have focused on Trixie for a change.
The time she spent with Lucifer on the 4th August was precious though.
How in hell did the Frenchman capture her? How did he even know how she looked? IIRC Dan hasn’t seen Rory while in that body. Dan just went over to Trixie that’s why I thought he’d capture her and not Rory.
Lucifer
He found his calling to help the souls in hell only because Rory traveled back in time? No man, he already took the step with Jimmy Barnes in preparation to take over as god. I don’t think it’s far fetched to believe that he would have the same epiphany without Rory there.
But without Rory, he wouldn’t have been helping Ghost!Dan to go to heaven. Though, before Rory traveled back in time, Lucifer was already trying to help Dan. They probably would have needed more time to figure out about what Dan felt guilty about, but figure it out anyways.
How did he even got Chloe pregnant? Was it his subconscious deciding he was ready to be a father? Amenadiel had to believe that he was human to get Linda pregnant. Or maybe it’s because they always thought they couldn’t impregnate a human and self-actualized it that way. Anyways, it’s a tiny hang-up I have with it.
Somebody else besides me thought that the scene in the panic room was awkwardly long? I know they thought Lucifer would vanish somehow, but it seemed too much to me.
His singsong while the magician talked about the trick. :D
I don’t want to even get into the whole time loop thing because I think it’s ridiculous(ly bad).
It took a lot of time for him to realize that he didn’t want to be god, after he put it on hold for a second time. Even Chloe could have asked him if that is really what he wanted. Could have spared us an episode or so. Why is the communication on this show so bad? Q.Q
I loved that he helped Maze with Eve to get the wedding back on after their fight.
He didn’t say goodbye to Trixie  - again. What a nice step-devil..
It’s been Chloe, Rory and his family since he found out she’s his daughter. Not even mentioning the one kid who probably loved him before even Chloe fell for him.
For someone who is all about free will and led a rebellion against God for it, he was quick to accept that he has a “fate”. I thought he’d find another way, or at least try to. Nope, he just did what his child wanted. And they disguised it at his “choice”. Doesn’t look like a choice to me if your daughter begs you for it and you have to promise it. Just getting along with what your child wants.
Why does everyone need to shoot him? Just cut him until he bleeds. The Americans and their fixation on guns. Nice parallel to Chloe though.
Lucifer trying to fix the relationship to Rory with gifts was so cringey. I don’t know why but I couldn’t watch him sing/dance in that scene.
Both him and Amenadiel didn’t want to become like their Dad because of the reasons stated in S5, yet Lucifer exactly did. Another letdown.
 
Chloe
As soon as she knew Rory was her and Lucifer’s daughter it was all only about Lucifer and Rory. No thought of Trixie? I understand she was worried about being a bad mother to Rory, but come on, you’re being a bad mother to your first child right now.
She was ready to go to heaven with Lucifer. And Trixie does what exactly without her parents? Living with her Grandma because one of her parent died and the other one is abandoning her? It’s like the writers forgot about Trixie while forcing Rory on us.
The addiction to the necklace got old pretty fast.
And that whole fight against Lucifer felt unnecessary just to add more drama.
She gets mad at Lucifer for not telling her everything while not telling him that she went back to the LAPD. It’s Lucifer, he always has things on his plate. Double moral, pretty much.
She looked so gorgeous at the wedding, oh my god.
Most of the Deckerstar scenes were good. I got tired of the obvious naked cuddle times, surprisingly. Somehow it felt not like the ones in S5 and it bothered me.
I thought Chloe would finally get to know about everything Lucifer did for her, but I didn’t expect her to read it in Linda’s book. And that she only took away that he left her every time they had an emotional breakthrough.
They spend Lucifer’s last day at the beach and once again, no thought of Trixie. I’m sorry I repeat myself here so often. But this whole season wronged Trixie so much.
They face the baddie without any backup.  At least get Amenadiel with you.
Other things
The use of music between scenes was too much for me. Got annoying at some point.
I appreciate that they wanted to show us snippets of past Deckerstar scenes but here too, I felt like it was too much.
Couldn’t really follow the timeline. Maybe it were the cuts.
What’s been the point of bringing Adam into the mix? Just to wrap up Maze and Eve’s story? For Linda having another celestial to therapy?
The animation in the Jimmy Barnes Hell loop was AMAZING. I laughed so hard.
I’m not saying that Deckerstar shouldn’t have sacrificed everything for the time loop to stay intact, I say that the whole daughter-time travel plot shouldn’t have had happened. They never even talked about having kids, and then ignore the whole existence of the one kid that’s already there.
I really need all the Michaella fanfics, please. My first ship that’s actually a raft, because they never officially have met. RIP lmao
The acting was great as usual, all my problems come from the writing and the plot.
In the end, I really feel frustrated, underwhelmed and disappointed by the whole season. I didn’t have high expectations other than the same writing quality like S5. My excitement for that Season died as soon as Rory told Lucifer that she’s his daughter, to be honest. I waited for a plot twist that never came. Then the whole time loop shit.  I’d rather have waited one more year for S6 if the plot would have made more sense, since this felt like a first draft of a whole other show. And now I wished that S5 would have been the last season. If I could travel back in time, I’d rather not watch S6.
I can honestly live with the fact that Luci and Chloe are in hell, trying to help souls to get to heaven. (But hello, not the murderers perhaps? Or I want Michael sitting on that couch right now.) But the fact that both “chose” to sacrifice their time together with their family and friends just because it’s fate now and parents have to make sacrifices for their children; and anyways there’s an afterlife because (human) life is just a blip in our existence… nah thank you. I do not want it.
I’m probably not gonna rewatch S6 anytime soon.
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lalaith217 · 3 years
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This is something a little different from what I usually post, but 2x13 is one of my favorite episodes and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this one. It's a sort of "She thinks, he thinks"-type of thing and it's pretty long, but I hope you enjoy.
Waking up
When Chloe wakes up, she feels his presence in the room before she even opens her eyes. It doesn't surprise her that he's here though, she's actually been waiting for him for a couple of hours now, wondering when he'd show up. The nurses told her that there had been "complications" and, ever the realist, she had known they had been downplaying the severity of her situation. She had seen what the professor's poison had done to the first victim and as soon as her nose had started bleeding, fear had overcome her. But now, she felt okay, still a little weak, but fine. The nap she had just woken up from had helped. And him sitting at her bedside helps too.
"Well. Look who's back. You didn't die after all. That makes one of us."
She opens her eyes and a smile plays on her lips. He's making even less sense than usual, but she doesn't really care right now. She is happy he's here, at her side, and that whatever he did to save her has worked. Does she really need to know what it was? There is time for that later, he'll probably tell her in excruciating detail anyway. And then, they'll talk about what she really wants to talk about right now. Them.
"I heard you saved me."
She puts her hand on his hands, both of them by her side as if he had been praying (which is ridiculous, she knows). She isn't sure, but, for a moment, she thinks he wants to pull back, looking down at both their hands. But he doesn't and his skin feels warm and for a brief moment, her mind flashes back to their dinner in his penthouse. She had taken his hand then, too, and he had looked at her almost the same way: a mix of surprise, disbelief and, most of all, warmth. This time however, a fourth feeling creeps in his eyes that she can't quite place. It is not a good feeling however.
"Well... much as I'd like to take all the credit, this one was a... a team effort."
She is a little surprised he doesn't want all the glory for this one, but a part of her tells her that this one hit way too close to home for him to be making jokes. She remembers his face when her nosebleed wouldn't stop and when she showed him the puncture mark that the professor's needle had left. He hadn't made any jokes then and when Lucifer stopped making comments and jokes, things were as serious as they got.
"You look heaven sent."
The last time he talked to her before things got worse, he looked more worried than she had ever seen him. He put up a front, fighting with Dan over bringing her to the hospital (which she explicitly asked him not to do), but she knew her partner. And she knew things were getting worse by the minute. When she had collapsed at that party, she had known that maybe her reluctance to go the hospital was not the best way of dealing with things. But when she saw Lucifer all worried in that hospital room, she knew things were going seriously wrong.
Still, she refused to give up and was more worried about what Trixie would think. As Lucifer always told the truth, she asked him if her being strapped to this hospital bed, tubes going in and coming out of her, would scare Trixie. He answered in his typical Lucifer fashion, making a quip, she thought, but they way he looked at her, she somehow knew he was not making a joke. Her heart skipped a beat, but the moment passed and Lucifer left. She didn't see him again, even when she was seizing, and she missed him. If things were as bad as they seemed, why wasn't he by her side? But she knew he was doing everything in his power to save her. And he had.
It had taken her a while to come to terms with her feelings for him. A few weeks, hell, even a few days ago, she had been sure that they were not going to work. They were just too different, she had thought, well, she still believes that they are very different people. But when he had sent her away and saved those college kids, she had realized that, despite that all being true, despite everything, the thought of him hurt, the thought of him not being around annoying her every day, had scared her more than she had have ever thought.
And then he had just walked down the steps as if nothing had happened, a smug smile on his handsome face, and she couldn't believe he didn't even have a scratch. But more importantly she had realized that she couldn't fight what she was feeling for him anymore. Nor did she want to. On instinct, she had hugged him tight, and, with hesitation, he had hugged her back. She suspected that Lucifer didn't have much experience with physical contact that wasn't sexual, so she didn't take his hesitation personally. How could she when the look in his eyes, full of wonder and adoration, told her everything that she needed to know in this moment. They were real, that's what she knew and damn, she wouldn't let stupid poison come between them.
"You know, this whole poisoning thing has just... really put a pause on everything that's been going on with you and I, so... should we just pick up where we left off?"
The words came out of her mouth before she could actually really think them through. She fears for a moment they might be too straightforward and he might get overwhelmed, but she is still holding his hand, his thumb drawing lazy circles on her skin and he is still looking at her with those deep brown eyes, and she just doesn't feel like holding back anymore. She has been fighting her feelings for quite some time now and she doesn't want to do it anymore.
"I think, right now, you just need to focus on feeling better, Detective."
He has let go of her hand and moves to stand up. She is surprised he is leaving right now, but she must look worse than she thought. And maybe he just needs to process. And as he said, he just wants her to get better and she can't really sleep while he's here, can she? Although... No, they have all the time in the world once she feels better. They'll figure everything out. Together.
"Would you have someone bring Trixie in?"
"Yes. Yes, of course."
He moves away from her now and she feels that so much is left unsaid. This is clearly not the time though, at least for him. But she needs to tell him, one more time, in her way, that she wants this, that she wants him. Ever since they kissed on the beach she has been struggling to tell him, in her own dorky way, how she wants this, how she wants him.
"And we'll talk. We'll talk later, yeah?"
He doesn't answer. His mouth opens, but words don't come out. She wonders why he's not really responding to her question, but maybe he just needs time to process. She still needs time to process and she is much, much better with the "touchy-feely stuff" than him. Not that that is any kind of challenge. She remembers, how he reacted the first time she told him she could be vulnerable around him. What had been intended as a way of telling him how she felt, had resulted in him acting even stranger than usual, touching her back and asking all kinds of strange questions.
She looks after him when he leaves her hospital room. She is smiling and for the first time in a while she feels better. They'll talk and figure this out, she knows they will. No more denial, no more interruptions.
**********************************
When she finally opens her eyes, his heart does a somersault. Only a few hours ago he didn't even know if she would make it and now she is looking at him with those big grey-blue eyes of hers as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn't been close to... He can't even think about it anymore. Can't think about what losing her would mean.
"Well. Look who's back. You didn't die after all. That makes one of us."
Watching her sleep, he had had time to think about what he had done. For her. Ever since he had left hell, he had been sure of one thing: he wouldn't go back to that place, not in a million years. And yet he had gone back. For her. And he would do it again. And again. But she would never know, could never know.
"I heard you saved me."
She has put her hand on both of his and, for a moment, he thinks about pulling away from her. It feels wrong for her to be touching him like this, when he knows everything she is feeling for him is a lie, a manipulation. But her hand on his feels soft and the way she looks at him now makes him feel all sorts of things. Things that he has never felt before. Things that made him go to hell for her. Literally.
"Well... much as I'd like to take all the credit, this one was a... a team effort."
Always the truth, that was what he tried to live by. Without Amenadiel, Linda, Maze and most of all his mom, he wouldn't have made it out of that place. The memory of Uriel haunts him, the way he plunged the knife into his gut, again and again. The guilt of killing his own brother kept him in his own personal hell. Only when his mom had come and reminded him of why he was down there, her, he had come to his senses.
"Chloe."
Hearing her name down there had snapped him out of his daze. The memory of her lying in that hospital bed, dying of some poison, and him being the only one who could save her, had brought him back to reality. He had to save her, his partner, his detective. There was nothing he wouldn't do to save her life.
When he had gone to her house to confront her about... nevermind... to talk to her, and saw her nose-bleed, he was terrified. They had seen what the poison had done to the student at Malibu State and the professor had just killed himself, with the recipe for the antidote in his head of course. Driving her to the next hospital was his first instinct, but when she refused to go and reminded him of how the hospital hadn't helped any of the other victims, he turned around and promised to do things her way. Sometimes she was as stubborn as she accused him of being and the annoying part was that she was usually right.
This time however, not even her refusal to give in could stop the effects of the poison on her. He was mildly surprised when she held onto his arm going down the stairs at that rich douchebag's party, usually refusing any assistance, even in high heels, but then she collapsed at the bottom of the stairs. His heart sank remembering her unresponsive in his arms, fragile, vulnerable. This could not be happening to her, not now, not ever. He could not lose her like this, not after she had kissed him like that at the beach, not after she made him feel... everything he felt.
"You know, this whole poisoning thing has just... really put a pause on everything that's been going on with you and I, so... should we just pick up where we left off?"
He hasn't even realized that his thumb has been drawing lazy circles on her skin, warm against his. Lost in thought the detective's suggestion brings him back to here and now, back to reality. A reality in which his father has put the detective into his path. A reality in which all that he has been feeling for her, all that she has been feeling for him, is a manipulation, a cruel trick his father has played on them.
"I think, right now, you just need to focus on feeling better, Detective."
He lets go of her hand and stands up, wanting to break the connection that pulls him closer to her. She didn't have a choice. She doesn't have a choice. Her feelings are not real, he reminds himself, and neither are they. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt and it doesn't mean he would rather stay here, with her, by her side, until she felt better. With her eyes always looking at her the way she does now, full of... emotions. Emotions that aren't real, but still emotions that she feels. And so does he.
"Would you have someone bring Trixie in?"
"Yes. Yes, of course."
Right, the urchin. Probably worried about her mother almost as much as he was. A visit from her will distract her. He has almost reached the door of her hospital room now. He'll be finally able to breathe again without her looking at him with those eyes. He will be able to remember that all of this is nothing but a bloody manipulation and not real.
"And we'll talk. We'll talk later, yeah?"
His heart does that stupid thing again when it skips a beat. She sounds so sincere and hopeful, he almost wants to turn around and kiss her senseless. He wants to tell her what that moment at Pasadena State meant to him, when she hugged him, just like that. When he could see in her eyes that she felt the same way as him. When he felt, for a few blissful hours, that they could make this work. That he... that they could be happy. He had felt invincible.
But he doesn't turn around and he doesn't tell her. He leaves her room without looking back. He has to leave, get out of here now, and he doesn't just mean out of this hospital room. How can he stay around her, when every time she looks at him, he feels like this. Feels the betrayal and the pain and... that other feeling he now pushes down, way down, as he walks along the hospital hallway, straight to the exit.
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tarysande · 4 years
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It’s the Dose that Makes the Poison: Lucifer Thoughts and Speculation
I’m going to throw the entirety of this under a cut because spoilers. I’ve been rearranging the pieces on the table and I have some meta and a plausible(?) theory about how things might shake out.
...this is almost four thousand words long, and frankly? I feel I’ve barely grazed the surface.
Also, I put it on AO3 for ease of reading and/or in case anyone wants to have, idk, threaded conversations ;D
Okay. Here are a bunch of the pieces. (Or the piece is here, as it were.)
First: The show has always been about redemption; the showrunners throw that word around all the time. Second: I don’t think we’re going to see an endgame or a narrative where God is evil. So, how to make the concept of literal Hell work, then? How to explain or justify the idea of a father who a) kicked his kid out of the house and sent him to Hell for-literal-ever and b) created children for specific “of God” purposes.
Hell
In 5x01, Lee says, “Whose Hell is this, anyway?” and ... I think that’s the crux of the matter. In S3, Lucifer realizes he gave himself the face of a monster because he felt monstrous. But the truth is, he didn’t just give himself the face.
He gave himself the place, too. 5x01 is littered with clues that indicate this. Lucifer says “you to your torture and me to mine.” Lee’s entire speech—the one that pushes all Lucifer’s buttons because of course Lucifer’s projecting all over Lee’s “worst memory”—might as well be Lucifer talking to himself (not unlike Uriel in Lucifer’s hell loop). You know, the part of Lucifer that’s starting to understand all the psychological stuff Linda’s been yammering on about.
Lucifer created Hell. To torture himself for what he believes he did. He created the mechanism that you can walk out any time you like—but no one ever does. None of the doors are locked, right? 
On some level, Lucifer, who is all about fairness and justice, looked at what he did and decided the Hell as we’ve seen it was the appropriate punishment. And with Lee, Lucifer almost figures out that the goal of “Hell” isn’t to eternally loop through guilt-fueled self-torture but to forgive yourself and apologize or make amends or not repeat the mistakes. Most of all, learn that nothing changes if you stay in the loop and the only way to break the loop is to take risk that you might fuck up and do something that you feel guilty for again. 
Names/Family
Something that’s always jumped out at me is that no matter how many millennia have passed, Lucifer—to whom nicknames and names are canonically really goddamned important—always refers to his family by their familial connection to him “brother, sister, Mum, Dad.” When he banished himself from Heaven—and I’m starting to think he did—he didn’t stop feeling like he was a part of his family. Even when he wanted to eat Amenadiel’s heart someday, he still called him “brother.” Even when Uriel was threatening Chloe (and Mum), he was still “brother.”
For that matter, isn’t it interesting that all Lucifer’s estranged siblings refer to him by the name he chose for himself—not the one he was given? Except, of course, when they want to hurt him. We’ve known since what, S1? That Lucifer cannot abide the name Samael. Even Uriel calls him Lucifer. Or Luci. Mum calls him Lucifer. Lucifer was given Poison of God and he chose Bringer of Light. And everyone who loved (and loves) him said, “All right. Lucifer it is.” And though Lucifer is originally a little eye-rolly with nicknames—Luce, Luci—it’s fond, not the “I’m going to rip out your spine and beat you to death with it” response Samael elicits. Essentially, Samael is Lucifer’s deadname. And people who use intentionally are dismissing and rejecting the identity Lucifer chose, which is vile.
When I was researching/writing Taking the Fall and I knew I wanted to talk about the name thing, I came across this quotation ascribed to Paracelsus, and it really resonated: “All things are poison, and nothing is without poison, the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.” The dosage, in fact, is the difference between whether something is a poison or a cure. And if that doesn’t align with the themes of the show, I don’t know what does. 
Lucifer has spent all this time thinking he is a poison; he has never imagined that he might be a cure. (To angels embracing their free will; to ending the sharp black and white segregation between Heaven and Hell; to darkness, to fear. Yet the more Lucifer learns and the healthier he gets, the more we see cures in what he does: i.e., Brody and also, you know, solving crimes.)
Michael, on the other hand, means “Who is like God?” It’s meant to be a rhetorical question, but in the universe of the show, I think Michael’s twisted version is that he used the question “Who is like God?” to plant the seed of Lucifer’s rebellion ... and is now answering the question “Who is like God?” with the reply, “I am."
Maze
But just in case we head too far down the Lucifer is Great line of thinking, we’ve got a big old example of how he’s still a poison, too.
Contrast this discussion of family with the lesson Lucifer still needs to learn about Maze—he’s managed to absorb that she’s not his servant anymore, but he’s still clinging to that soulless demon/just a demon dismissiveness. And despite self-worth coming from within, bitches, Maze still hasn’t truly absorbed that. She still looks outside for validation—and resents or backslides when she doesn’t get it. Especially from Lucifer. Because Lucifer was the first being to treat her like she mattered. She admires him. Looks up to him. Loves him. In many ways, Maze is the shadow of Chloe—drawn to Lucifer but never, from his perspective, his equal or his partner.
And he, for all the strides he’s made, still default to “demon” as derogatory and dismissive. Something she can’t transcend, even though all the evidence suggests the contrary. As long as Lucifer sees Maze as just a demon, she can’t truly escape from that identity. 
Why does Maze keep “betraying” Lucifer? It’s tempting to think it’s because she’s a demon. Because she doesn’t have “a soul.” But that’s not true. She can learn; she learns from “betraying” Chloe and doesn’t do it a second time. She learns from “betraying” Linda and Trixie. Even she and Amenadiel seem to have reached a real (and much more healthy) understanding of who they are to each other.
She keeps betraying Lucifer because he keeps deserving it.  
Servants 
The thing is, I think there’s something important in Lucifer’s “You’re not my servant anymore” to Maze. Because I think angels believe they are God’s servants. And I suspect the reason God’s been so AFK is because he really wanted them to ... break free of that. On their own. Without him telling them to—because if he told them, it wouldn’t be choice anymore. It wouldn’t be free will. It would be Following The Will of DadGod. 
Here’s another relevant Paracelsus quotation: “No one who can stand alone by himself should be the servant of another.” 
Angels self-actualize. They have powers. Sometimes those powers change (as with Amenadiel). I don’t think angels ever lacked free will. 
What is self-actualization but literal free will? You become what you believe you are; you do what you think you’re supposed to. You literally change based on your choices and feelings about those choices. Angels basically have human free will on a kind of EXTREME SCALE that they’ve remained mostly ignorant of throughout time. But how do you get your kids to figure something out without telling them how to figure it out when they’ve all got this WILL OF DAD complex? He gave them the tool of self-actualization. When they didn’t ... do that, he created humanity. He tinkered with the model. Took away the names and the powers that were such a stumbling block for his angels and such a shining example of how he failed them. If someone hangs on your every word, if you are not just their father but their master, how can they ever know love? Trust? How can they ever be free? Be themselves? I think God wanted his angel children to learn from his human children and was disappointed when they pretty much decided to just be remote and Angelically Superior All The Time, instead. Of course, that's mostly on him, too.
Except Lucifer. Because Lucifer’s curiosity (yes, from the beginning of time) kept bringing him so close to figuring things out. (Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven, amirite, Paradise Lost?) And as close as he was to figuring things out, Lucifer was still prideful and selfish and superior. The result was what happened with (and in) Hell. Things got twisted down there; he was in a God role over the demons and he was not hands-off. Cue endless loops of pain and torture and despair and self-recrimination and poison. Lilith may have started their pain, but Lucifer, however unintentionally or ignorantly, continued it. 
At least Lucifer could escape it sometimes. Those poor demons. Those poor abandoned children. They had two rocks.
Pretty sure there’s going to be an echo of Dad abandonment with his angel kids and Lilith of her demon kids, by the by. Because abandonment is a theme. And good intentions or not, well, you know what they say about the road to Hell.
Humanity The more Lucifer interacted with humanity, the more he learned from humanity. And, of course, the entire journey of the series has been about Lucifer learning, growing, adapting, changing because of this. And not in a Superior Angelic Way, but in a person-to-person real way. Not just with Chloe. With everyone.  But yeah, Chloe is the catalyst—precisely because (as Amenadiel says) she’s the only mortal who sees Lucifer for who he really is, without her reflected desires getting in the way. No one, no one else can truly reflect back to him his worthiness or lack thereof.
Does Chloe have a power? It’s not laser-beam hands. But I’ve always thought Chloe has the power of seeing things and, in seeing, encouraging others to see, too. And this is most obvious with Lucifer, whose power has never let him be seen. Because of his power, he can never know if the reactions of others are about him or about their own desires. 
What agony for someone whose chosen path is bringing light: to be forever hidden in the shadow of the light others see.
Until Chloe.
Michael tells Lucifer his greatest fear is that of being unworthy. We know Lucifer has always feared he’s not worthy of Chloe. But now that she’s told him, shown him, his worthiness? You’d better believe that he will never, ever abandon her—will never, ever let her suffer from her worst fear. Gosh, and by suddenly being invulnerable again, it’s almost like he’s assured that, isn’t it? “You make me vulnerable” was about his walls. “My invulnerability ensures I will never, ever abandon you,” is all about hers.
So, back to learning from humanity. We’ve seen Lucifer and Amenadiel do it. It’s been hinted that Azrael has done it, at least a little. Then we have Michael’s frustrated tale of how the other angel siblings are taking note of Lucifer’s actions—with the implication being that maybe they’re learning, too. Maybe they’re starting to understand that they can be more than they think they have been made to be. More than just a “Something” of God.
Control 
Meanwhile, of course, Michael’s concocted some kind of Make Heaven Great Again plot—ironically, it appears, by doing exactly what he accused Lucifer of doing: believing he can run things better than Dad. And, I suspect, by trying to set himself as Master and his siblings (and other assorted peons) as his servants. Only, he’s not doing it in Lucifer’s ultimately forthright (and even honest) way of “This sucks and I’m rebelling” but in a conniving, secretive, Machiavellian way that probably sounds a lot like “Dad says” or “Dad’s not here” or “Who is closer to God than I?” ...
Who is like God, indeed. He even throws down the word archangel when he speaks to Dan: an angel above even other angels. I’m 99% sure that word’s never been used before on the show. Because that’s what Michael desires. To be more. To be everything. To control.
He’s what Lucifer was as the Lord of Hell. He’s everything Lucifer has made such progress toward overcoming.
Incidentally, and also essay-worthy: This is why the progression of the scene where Lucifer and Chloe make love is so incredibly (heh) important: Lucifer of the perfect appearance, perfect pocket square, perfect car, perfectly clean apartment; Lucifer of control control control control ... surrenders. He offers. She accepts. And in these first moments—“Incredible,” he breathes before they’ve done anything more than kiss—she is above him, in control ... and nothing bad happens. Nothing hurts him even though she makes him hurt-able. She doesn’t take advantage of him. She loves him; she treasures him; she protects him. It’s beautiful. It’s everything he’s been so afraid he could never have.
And for the first time (very possibly) ever, he sees himself as worthy. He sees himself as belonging. He believes he is not alone; he is not lonely.
Power
Amenadiel “lost” his power to stop time when he decided he didn’t want to stand apart from humanity anymore. Essentially, just as he lost his wings when he was so horrified and disgusted by what he’d done (to Lucifer, with Malcolm, etc.) he caused himself to Fall. He regained his wings when he made it his purpose to bring Charlotte to Heaven. He stopped time again in S5 when the question of humanity—of his own child being human, and thus ‘not like him’ or ... not that ‘special’—reared its head. With the nuns, he reflects their love of God, right? And in part, that’s because he’s in this father (or Father) role now. 
Angel powers, like all power really, are double-edged. In the wrong hands or twisted the wrong way, a good power can bring about evil. Look at the almost throwaway line with Brody in 5x02: Lucifer’s “desire” power—so often spun as about sin or hedonism—brought Brody peace and forgiveness. That Lucifer doesn’t lie or take without giving in return indicates that, on some level, the level that values true justice—and even a bit of mercy—he was never able to use that power against others (the way we see Michael do with his); he didn’t want to use as he felt he’d been used; he also didn’t want to feel used by those whose desires he provided (this is why the parade of one-night stands and “it was just sex—great sex, but just sex” partners upset him so much back in S2). Favors—and even the give and take of sex—were a way to balance that scale. Again, this could be a whole essay all its own.
This makes me suspect that the dark side of Lucifer’s powers played some part in his Rebellion. That he abused desire the way we’ve seen Michael abuse fear. 
So, about that power of fear, then. I mean, it just sounds negative. How can FEAR be positive, right? But if Michael were using his powers to draw out fears so they’re named and dealt with (LIKE PEOPLE DO IN THERAPY???) instead of manipulated for personal gain—it could be a very healing power (LIKE THERAPY???).
Greatest Strength/Greatest Weakness
The absolute thematic and narrative brilliance of twin brothers having the powers of fear and desire whilst also being held back BY the “power” of their twin is so amazing it really needs its own essay. But I do want to mention this relative to the overall arc heading forward. Much of Lucifer’s work with Linda has been about addressing his fears; he’s made a ton of progress with this. As I mentioned earlier, with Linda’s guidance, Lucifer has been drawing out his fears in a safe(r) space and learning to deal with them and heal. And, in doing so, his own power of reflecting desire has increasingly been less and less about artisanal honey and car batteries and more about drawing out desires that help others heal, grow, become their best selves, release their inner demons.
Michael is (both literally and figuratively) twisted by his desires (to be powerful, to be stronger/better/more admired than his brother). I’ll bet some cold hard cash that if Lucifer’s the source of the original injury to his shoulder/wing, Michael has self-actualized into keeping that injury—perhaps even magnifying it—to a) manipulate others into feeling sorry for him, b) to remind everyone who looks at him how awful Lucifer is, and c) to trick people into believing he’s weaker than he is. 
At the end of the day, fear and desire are two of the strongest motivating forces in the world (universe); the show is showing us all the messy ways those forces come into play. And it’s also showing how connection and love and trust are the forces that both fight the worse facets of these powers and that let these forces be useful in helpful and ultimately healing ways.
Because THERAPY.
Home
So, we know we’re rolling toward what was meant to be a series finale; it’s time to start tying loose ends together, right? Again and again, the question of home comes up. Lucifer only ever refers to Los Angeles as his home. Maze, on the other hand, still defaults to Hell as home. 
Hell as we know it is over. But Hell as a place where Maze tries to impart the lessons she’s learned on Earth to her abandoned, twisted-by-hate-and-loneliness-and-Lilith siblings? Perhaps even with Eve “mother of all humanity” at her side to help clean up some of the mess Lilith made when she decided to abandon connection in favor of more selfish desire? I think that’s plausible, while also managing a significant nod at where Mazikeen ends up in the comics and a heavy dash of “the things we learn from therapy and/or being best friends with a therapist.” 
Now, I know the question of how things will end for Chloe and Lucifer is contentious in fandom. So, you know, grain of salt. I don’t think Lucifer’s home is Los Angeles; the Los Angeles in Hell wasn’t enough because it didn’t have her in it. In a literal embodiment of “Home is where the heart is,” Lucifer’s home is with Chloe. And since Chloe’s worst fear is abandonment, Lucifer will do what it takes to stay with her—because that’s what’s most important to him. The utterly unselfish choice. I think there’s some pretty reasonable foreshadowing (Lilith’s choice—if that choice was even real, of course—for example) that Lucifer may choose to renounce his immortality. Or to give it to someone else. Or that immortality won’t matter at all anymore. 
From his reactions in 5x07/08, we know that Lucifer’s identity and ideas of usefulness/self-worth/worthiness of love are still connected to his identity as an immortal with powers; I think, though, he’s beginning to piece together the complications therein, especially regarding questions of partnership and vulnerability and equality. 
Personally, Human!Lucifer has never been my preferred outcome, but I can see how it might work/might be what they’re heading for. Even if I’d still prefer the “you can use me as a bullet shield” partnership with supernatural elements—because those have always been at the heart of their partnership. The strengths of one make up for the weaknesses in the other (and vice versa).
Hell (Redux)
Finally, I’m still pretty sure we’re going to see a complete overhaul of the Heaven/Hell dichotomy. One with a lot less THIS IS THE WAY IT IS BECAUSE CONTROL and a lot more CHOICES MATTER (maybe Linda can have a turn as a salamander after all). And a major catalyst, of course, is Lucifer and his love for the chosen family on earth (and through them, a renewed love for the estranged family he’s never actually stopped loving; 5x01 basically makes canon that it's not that Lucifer hates his family—it's that he's terrified of disappointing them again, of causing problems again). 
So why does Hell have to change?
Because right now, every human he loves is sure they’re going to Hell. And after all the time and all these friendships, can you really see Lucifer being okay with that? Okay with Ella or Linda or Dan or Trixie tormenting themselves for all eternity? When he wasn’t even okay with Mr. Said Out Bitch doing so? When he gave this guy who he barely knows every opportunity to change his fate in ways he’s never done for any other tortured soul? Because they had a tenuous connection on earth?
Can you see him being okay with Chloe choosing Hell to be with him?
When it boils right down to it, Lucifer has learned to love others. And I think, especially given his revelations about self-loathing last season, that love isn’t going to let him be okay with or encourage the self-loathing in others. Love—selfless love, real love—is, in fact, the cure to the very concept of Hell. 
And it’s also the cure to the very concept of Heaven, too.
How could Heaven ever be perfect if the people you love aren’t in it?
It can’t. It might be more silver and have fewer demons, but I don’t think it’s any less an eternal torture. Eve basically tells us as much.
So, on that note, I’ll leave you with another fine quotation from Paracelsus:
“When a man undertakes to create something, he establishes a new heaven, as it were, and from it the work that he desires to create flows into him... For such is the immensity of man that he is greater than heaven and earth.”
And that, I think, is going to be the takeaway. We create what we are; we choose what we create. And in the act of that creation, we choose whether we are the poison or the remedy. And if we make mistakes, slip up, hurt people, hurt ourselves—it’s not a Hell-sentence. It’s the dose that makes the poison. We learn, we grow, we apologize, we strive to make things better, we love and love and love and love, and we never stop striving to be the cure.   
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ok so i'm mid-episode-7 right now and I'll just try to take a little break and wrap my head around all of this a little and collect my thoughts before I move on (spoilers!)
So far, episode 6 and Amenadiel's storyline is my favourite because it had actual emotional impact for me. I actually wish they had started this plot in the very first episode of the season so that we could spend more time on the problem.
Overall, I feel like the show really lacks the established structure it had since the beginning. Which were the murders and solve them. Most episodes were contained by one case with two sides: The actual police work which is where Chloe had her time to shine and then Lucifer dealing with whatever issues he is tackling in that episode, doing his projecting thing and maybe undergoing some personal growth. So we get a fully story per episode while the stakes of the season arc become higher and higher in the background. With Chloe and Lucifer no longer solving cases, this structure is gone. It feels like we're just spending time with some characters going this way or that at random, moving from plot-point to plot-point with very little pay-off. Everything just...blurs.
The stakes aren't really getting higher at all so far, there is no rising action as far as I can tell?
Like, in season 5 everything hit the fan constantly - Lucifer is actually Michael! Chloe gets abducted! Big battle at the precinct and God is there! Mojo switch! God is retiring! Vulnerability is gone! Lucifer is goign to become God! Dan dies! -- it was actually too much for me, towards the end, to the point where everything felt meaningless because the stakes were high beyond the frame of comprehension the show gives us, but this time...it's just seemingly not moving towards a climax.
In fact, they seem to be going down.
Rory is introduced as this big, bad mysterious figure who really, really wants Lucifer dead - and now it feels like she's just been an emo teen hanging out with him and Chloe for weeks? months? doing random stuff - until she remembers that she's pissed at Lucifer again and stomps off and it kinda f eels like it's been going on for ages. Which is okay, I actually like her but it kind of falls flat from her original introduction.
I could live with that if they gave me something to actually worry about. Show me Rory actually getting used to the world around her, finding out things about the people she thinks she knows - or thinks she knows. Going back in time, that's a gigantic premise! I actually really loved seeing her talk about Trixie and knowing immediately where she would hide her chocolate - I would love more stuff like this. I would love to see more stuff about what it was like for her to grow up knowing her father is/was the devil! About growing up as a half-angel. About Charlie who is also a half-angel but actually has a father. Stuff like that.
Then we have the "becoming God"/"becoming Queen of Hell" thing that the entire last season build up to, the biggest fattest finale they ever had- that was a really huge deal. But now both Maze and Lucifer just kinda decided they'd rather not do that and found reasons to hang around. And when a frog started coming from heaven and Ella says she can't feel god anymore and Lucifer runs to Linda so that she can teach him how to care- I thought things are building up now and we're going to have some WandaVision style reality collapse at our hands, I was hyped for that - buuuut nah, they're just all kind of hanging around.
Actually, pay-off in general seems to be kind of a problem. For example, Rory not calling Maze 'aunt' and not knowing Amenadiel appeare to set off an exciting little mystery - and considering that we're now no longer solving crimes, I would love if they really delved into the celestial side of mysterious. I would have loved to figure out some time-travel sheningans - buuuuut it was a joke.
See, I love Dan but honestly I'm kind of at odds with how to deal with his characterisation rn? Because he's been in hell for a thousand years, hanging out with demons and stuff and it's been a thousand years down there, that is torture even without the torture and I would have expected a bit more anything. The same thing with Chloe and the blade, tbh, I feel like this could have been so much bigger?
Overall, I feel like there are missing so many opportunities that I think the show would not only not have missed in seasons 1 or 2, but would have actively used:
The whole thing was always Lucifer projecting his problems on the cases and (maybe) learning something about himself on a good day. Now, let's take the Jimmy Barnes episode. I loved when Chloe looked at the throne and was like: "It looks so lonely" and Lucifer says "it was" - that was such a great moment. - because so far, Chloe doesn't know hell. She doesn't know the reality of hell or what it meant for Lucifer to rule over this place and it seemed like a great set-up for her to finally see his world and to understand what it meant for him to leave this place - but also to be sent back down there again and again. And also for Lucifer to actually see one of his most painful experiences acknowledged by the woman he loves and to actually...talk to her about that. After all, this is the big reversal: So far, Lucifer was the consultant on Chloe's cases, and now Chloe became the consultant and helping Lucifer tackle his celestial issues. So to see her go to hell and actually learn about the place seemed like a really cool start - and then we learn that Jimmy Barnes' backstory is about a son left behind by a parent! And Chloe even talks about how horrible and alone he must have felt! And let's not forget Chloe's own backstory - her father didn't leave, she lost him because he was killed, but she also once sat at home and realised her Dad wouldn't come home and then she got a phone call and realised he would never come home - but for entirely different reasons than Lucifer who was cast out or Jimmy Barnes who got left behind. It seemed like exactly the kind of threads that this show would bring together and have the character discuss and reflect on at the end of the episode. But they didn't. They...rarely do that, this season and it just feels like something is missing from the format - and its emotional impact.
Sometimes I actually used to feel like the show had a tendency of spelling out too much, being too direct - but this season around it's not like they're less subtle. It's just not really acknowledged and it doesn't feel organic.
Another example is in the episode where Lucifer seeks out his old lovers to find out whether they're Rory's mothers.
This obviously gave me vibes right from Stewardess Interruptus which is one of my all-time favourite episodes.
Stewardess Interruptus is one of my favourite episodes because it told us so much about our characters. Also, our characters learn about each other and themselves here: Along with Chloe, we learn Lucifer isn't just a person who really likes having a lot of sex, but that he actually has a pretty dysfunctional relationship with sexuality. We also learn how much Chloe, while actually trying to date Lucifer, struggles with the sex-life he has because for her its symptomatic of their very different lifestyles and it makes her wonder how compatible they are. We go from Chloe asking Lucifer's ex-partners whether he "basically used you for sex and then moved on" to realising that actually...it's kinda the other way around. Lucifer is the one who's letting himself be used because he doesn't know how else to connect with people. That was a good episode - - - now that we went on a similar journey in the season 6 episode, I was actually very interested! Especially now that Lucifer is in a proper relationship and I would have loved to see that brought up - for example if Chloe had been presented with the "meaningless"-thing again and we actually had a moment where Lucifer and her talk about what it means to have a "meaningful" relationship. Like, Chloe tells him that it's okay if he had a relationship before her or loved one of these women - which yes! of course it is! - actually, it would have been interesting to see them discuss what it means that he didn't have that kind of connection before despite being almost old as time.
I was especially interested in Esther as a character - who says she became a Rabbi because of Lucifer which is...something really, really interesting. For one, because this show has such a long history of acting like Christianity is the only religion in the world or at least as if the Christian take on the devil is universal (Amenadiel even says in the first season that "every religion has its version of the devil" and that he's always a "rebellious son" which...no. That's not true. At all.) when really, it's not. (I actually remember reading a really good fic once about Lucifer meeting a Rabbi and discussing the different ideas of evil but that's a whole different matter.)
In this episode, Lucifer is now confronted with someone who didn't find the encounter she had with him meaningless at all - she literally changed her life because of it. Also, when she says she became a Rabbi because of him and he's like "oh yeah guess I got that from your desires..." - much like in the Jimmy Barnes episode, I prepared myself for the classic twist at the end of the episode that the show would usually have had. The moment where Lucifer's immediate assumptions would be challenged. I was expecting that by the end of the episode, she would say something: "Hey, it was not actually your mojo, but ---" and we would learn something about her and have Lucifer reconsider his assumptions - For example her saying he seemed lost and that it inspired her to take on a role where she could offer people guidance. Or it would have been interesting if, like Father Frank, she actually realised at some point that he's really the devil and that made her think more deeply about her faith. That could have been really interesting. Like...I feel like in the first seasons of the show, this would definitely have lead to some emotional twist and impact, even in one of the weaker episodes. Some revelation or insight. Something memorable. But here...it's not.
In a similar vein, that kind of emotional twist is something I would have loved to see in Lucifer's interactions with Rory.
One of my favourite moments in the show was when Maze gave Linda that blanket for Charlie - and says that she got him something that she wished she had as a child.
That was so simple! So effective! Strong story-telling! We understood and learnt so much about what made Maze into Maze in just a few lines of dialogue! It's heart-wrenching! It was amazing. - and honestly, it would be so simple to give Lucifer and Rory a similar moment. Again and again we hear Lucifer insist that it cannot be true, he would never abandon his child but it's very "tell" and not much "show" - when Lucifer tries so desperately to find something that he can give Rory it would have been a really strong moment between Christmas-es and driving lessons and parties, if we had a scene where Lucifer tries to do something similar to what Maze did for Charlie:
Have him actually talk to Rory about what he felt like being abandoned by his father and try to give her something that he would have wanted or say something the would have wanted to hear. We would have learnt more about Lucifer, we would have more of an emotional impact beyond him just saying over and over again that he wouldn't abandon his child, we would actually see some development in the relationship between Lucifer and Rory, Rory might actually get a similar opportunity to shine when she reacts to that - giving her more depth and illustrating her pain in a new way rather than just the same thing over and over again. Their relationship has been seemingly stagnant for ages now. It would have been good.
Another example: Adam kidnaps Linda, Maze and Eve work together to get their hands on Adam because they have no idea what he did to her - and then get a really, really long scene discussion their wedding and relationship and stuff. And then, right at the end of the scene they're like: "oh uh btw we have to find Linda"- that one was...almost funny, because it was so bad and weirdly paced. This is Maze we're talking about! Maze who throws hands with everyone who even looks at her friends funny! And who just recently learnt what it felt like to lose a friend!
I feel like there is a similar tell vs. show problem with Eve and Maze and her family. I really, really liked the dinner-scene in the first episode of the season where Linda keeps asking Eve about what she was going to do in hell, about what her role would be, how she sees hell - and Eve keeps being really light-hearted and seemingly naive about it.
Because Eve's entire character flaw (by which I don't mean that it's "bad" or "evil" - but that it's actually something that causes Eve a lot of pain and holds her back) is that she always 100% adjusts herself to her current partner. That she wants to back them completely and be perfect for them. That is what made her so great in season 4: She was neither "the mean new woman ruining things between Chloe and Lucifer >:( " nor was she someone dangled over Chloe as "here is how you are a really good girlfriend to Lucifer" - no, the reason why she was seemingly perfect for Lucifer was was because she was making herself be perfect for him - to the point of self-negation where he cannot get her to break up with him, because she keeps and keeps and keeps adjusting to him. That is why their relationship was dysfunctional and eventually toxic. When she says in season 4 that Lucifer and her will simply go to hell and keep the party going there - that was the pinnacle of her self-deceit, that was the shining moment where we could tell just how desperate she is for love and acknowledgement and companionship that she's literally willing to go to HELL if that's what it takes.
When the dinner scene in 6.1 started, I was very excited to see this issue build up and then be resolved between Maze and her. I was looking forward to see Maze realise what Eve's actual issue is and to come to some clever solution over the course of the season, but so far...that's not really happening.
And yes, Eve wants to get to know Maze's siblings while Maze keeps saying that no, demons are evil - which would also be a super interesting conflict but it's again lacking the emotional impact because we know so little about the demons on the show and what the world-building is. It's much like with God and the fam in the last season: Up to that point, they were really, really wrapped in huge mystery but that's really why it falls kind of flat. But whereas God and especially the angels fell flat for me because I had them build up in this big, uncanny celestial mystery and they couldn't live up to that once they appeared in the flesh, here it's the opposite. I know so little about the actual horrors of hell that I struggle to sympathise with Maze's fears. If I knew literally any demons' thoughts on Maze being the new queen or having a human royal consort or anything, there would be real stakes. But this way, they can just shake anything out of their sleeves and that's it.
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nanoland · 3 years
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new chapter (lucifer fic)
Ponder on the Narrow House, part 6 
Mazikeen/Eve/Michael  
(Whole thing can be read on AO3.) 
0  
Fuck the next bounty.
After thinking about it for ten seconds, Mazikeen turned them around and started driving straight for Los Angeles.
Eve can talk to him. Not me. He needs to talk to someone, and Eve will do.
Barely half a mile later, Amenadiel dropped out of the sky and landed in the middle of the road, just far enough away for her to bring the car to a screeching halt before it would otherwise have slammed into him like wet clay into a steel wall.
“We’ve got a problem,” he said, looking exhausted.
She snorted and pointed skyward. “Yeah. This? Not gonna lie, I was expecting something like this. But I thought it would take, like, at least a month.”
Wincing, Amenadiel said, “No, that’s… that’s a different problem and Chloe’s promised to discuss it with him. Maze, we need you back at Lux. Now.”
“Hi, Amenadiel!” Eve called, waving.
He succeeded in smiling at her without even glancing at Michael, despite his younger brother sitting right at her side, glaring fixedly.
“Why?” demanded Mazikeen, tensely drumming her fingers on the wheel. (Inner voice hissing, Shouldn’t have left him alone, you dumb bitch, you’ve been doing this for centuries and you know what he’s like when you leave him alone for more than five minutes.) “Seriously – what could he possibly need me for? He’s God.”
Sighing, Amenadiel put his wings away. “Mazikeen, we’re all well aware that Lucy often… has difficulty focusing. To put it mildly. There’s a lot more for him to focus on now than ever before. He’s trying to undo climate change. To that end, he started refreezing all the melted ice in the Arctic. But he did it too quickly and, resultantly, there are several hundred trapped ships we need to save and several thousand dead penguins to resurrect and, to be honest, he hasn’t really got the hang of resurrection yet – you remember what Dan looked like for the first few hours after Lucifer brought him back to life…”
“Eurgh. Yeah. Yuck. Totes not the kinda shit you’d wanna see in Happy Feet.”
Michael was snickering.
“Right. And then there are all the changes he’s been making locally,” Amenadiel went on. “The expansion of Lux, the overnight disappearance of all Los Angeles’ firearms, his deciding that the city’s white supremacist population should grow a third ear so they can be easily identified, and, well, it turns out that a lot of Chloe’s colleagues at the police station-…”
“I get it, I get it. Chaos everywhere. As usual. What, exactly, is the problem he wants me to fix?”
Amenadiel exhaled heavily. “The demons. The ones you brought from Hell to help us defeat Michael.”
“Oh, so you do remember I exist,” Michael muttered.
Stonily ignoring him, Amenadiel said, “They’re still on Earth and they’re causing trouble. The one called Dromos, in particular. He’s gathered followers and they’ve surrounded Lux.”
Her brother’s face – his real face, not the human puppet he wore – flashed through her mind’s eye; a memory from when they were unruly children and had raced through Hell together, using the stone pillars that they’d not yet known were cells as an obstacle course. She’d been faster; he, more athletic. Together with a few cousins, they’d made a fearsome team, and not even their meanest older siblings had bullied them.
She folded her arms and looked away. “They’re demons. Lucifer can deal with them. Snap his fingers and turn them into rats or whatever. Make them explode.”
“Mazikeen,” Eve murmured, soft and low, touching her shoulder. “You don’t want that. They’re your family.”
Amenadiel blinked, as though that hadn’t occurred to him. “Er… yes, there’s that. There’s also the fact that Lucifer doesn’t want all of humanity to see him as the type of God who casually annihilates his enemies; a harsh, vindictive God. He wants to be liked. To be loved.”
“Fine. So why don’t you and the other angels sort it out?”
“Come now, Maze. A bunch of angels and a bunch of demons waging war in the midst of a bustling city? Humans will die. But you’re the Queen of Hell now and, by extension, the Queen of Demons. If you command Dromos to stand down, he will. This can all be resolved peacefully.”
Eve’s fingertips were cool against her skin.
Mazikeen looked back at the sky. The cloud letters were starting to dissolve. “What does he want?”
“Who?”
“Dromos. He doesn’t act on instinct. He’s a planner. He wants something.”
Shrugging, Amenadiel said, “He shouted at me about demanding an audience with the king. I didn’t ask for details. I don’t really care. Dromos isn’t someone I’m inclined to listen to at the best of times. The last time the wretch showed his face on Earth, he kidnapped my son.”
“Mmm. Kinda like your sister was gonna do. Kinda like you were gonna do, now that I think about it.”
“Maze!” he gasped, sounding shocked and hurt. “You can’t compared poor Remiel’s misguided actions to-…”
“I’ll do it,” she interrupted. “Take me to Lux. Now.”
“Excuse me? What about us?” snapped Michael.
Mazikeen met Eve’s gentle gaze. “You don’t need to be involved in this. My family drama, it – it’s not pretty.”
“My son killed my son,” said Eve, taking her hand. “My husband loved another woman. I’m used to drama.”
Swallowing, Mazikeen glanced at Michael. “And you, wimp?”
Feigning disinterest – feigning it badly – he said, “You showed up to my last domestic dispute. Guess this’ll make us square.”
“I’ve only got two arms. I can’t carry all of you,” Amenadiel pointed out.
Mazikeen rubbed her chin. “No… but you can carry the car, right?”
0
He didn’t have time for this. There was so much to do.
“World hunger,” he recited as he bounced from one laptop to the next, all twenty-three of them displaying a different article or video by a leading scientific or sociological mind, “wealth inequality, pollution, cancer, droughts, racism, elderly abuse, housing shortages, cruelty to animals…”
“Lucifer,” said Linda patiently, sitting on his best couch with her legs crossed, a cup of coffee and a laptop of her own beside her. “You said you wanted my advice as to how you should manage this whole ‘being God’ business.”
“I do, doctor! Very much. Your input is invaluable. Blast, where did I put that map of Alaska? I’m thinking of making it bigger; slotting it in alongside the Arctic to help stabilise all that new ice.”
“Right. Thanks. So here – here is what I’m suggesting now; slow down. Seriously. Take a breath, step back, and think your next move through.”
He scoffed. “‘Slow down’? Doctor, I need to work at least three times faster if I’m to keep up with everything. There are people suffering everywhere, millions of them! There are sinners in need of punishment! I’m seriously considering asking Chloe to be my Deputy God. I never imagined omnipotence would entail so much paperwork and she’s always been better at that than me.”
Outside the penthouse, many stories below, the chanting grew louder. None of the human police officers, journalists, and gawkers who’d gathered to watch could understand it; it was in Lilim.
Cursing, Lucifer strode to the balcony and shouted down, “For the last time, would you all kindly piss off? I’m trying to fix an entire planet here!”
He heard the elevator open and moaned. “Detective, not now. Please. I’m very sorry I haven’t returned your calls – I swear I’m not avoiding you – it’s just that I’ve got a lot on my plate today and we did already agree to meet for supper at-…”
“Lucifer,” said Linda, sounding terrified.
“Lucifer,” said someone else, sounding irritable.
Now that he was God, rage didn’t turn his eyes red anymore. It turned them gold and blindingly bright, like spotlights. Fists clenched, he turned to see Dromos step into the penthouse, once again clad in the flesh of the late Father Kinley and wearing a leather jacket.
“Nice trick, making all the doors disappear. Finally decided to climb up the side of the building with a sledgehammer and burrow my way through into the elevator shaft,” said the demon, hands in his pockets and concrete dust coating his beard and his bald head. “I want to talk to you, sire.”
Storming across the room while Linda remained frozen, white-faced, on the couch, Lucifer snarled, “You! You have the nerve to come here, to stand before me, after what you did to my nephew?”
He took Dromos by the neck and lifted him off the ground, his wings opening in fury (he had six of them now).
Stoical even as he choked, Dromos said, “I need. To talk. I will leave immediately afterwards.”
“Oh, you’ll leave, alright! You’ll be lucky if I don’t throw you into an active volcano, you accursed traitor!”
Dromos’ stolen skin began to sizzle beneath his fingers. He waited until the demon’s face was wrinkled with pain before throwing him to the floor hard enough to crack the wood and make a crater.
“I will leave,” Dromos gasped, coughing up blood, “when I have spoken.”
“What could you possibly have to say for yourself? Kidnapper. Child-thief.”
Still on the couch, Linda said tremulously, “Lucifer, you’re… you’re hurting him. Stop it. Please.”
“Let us stay!” shouted Dromos, and coughed again before dragging himself up onto his knees. “On Earth. That’s what I came to say. Let your erstwhile subjects stay on Earth if they choose – at least, those who served you in the battle against Michael. Don’t force them to return to Hell. Let them, let us choose where we live, going forward. That’s my request, your Majesty. My only request.”
Lucifer boggled at him. “Is that a joke? Demons? On Earth, indefinitely, unsupervised? Are you out of your tiny mind, Dromos?”
Baring teeth, Dromos said, “Why not? What does it matter to you now? You’ve got everything you could possibly want. Everything anyone could possibly want! All we’re asking is the freedom to come and go as we please.”
“No.”
He spoke the word bluntly, and then he stepped back, adjusting his cuffs. Regaining his composure. “Never. You’re dangerous and untrustworthy. This world is for humans, not you. Good grief, haven’t I got enough to preoccupy my mind, without the added stress of demons rampaging around town?”
“We won’t rampage. We just-…”
“Why are you even coming to me with this? Mazikeen’s the new Queen of Hell. Didn’t you get the memo?”
Dromos wiped blood from his lips. “I don’t know if my sister and I are on speaking terms right now. And she may be Queen, but you’re God; I assumed you would be tasked with such decisions. After all, there’s never been a demon in charge of Hell before. We were told – we were always told – that only angels could rule us. I don’t doubt Mazikeen’s competence, but I…”
He seemed to run out of steam, spreading his hands and finishing weakly, “Lucifer, you’re the king. You’ve been the king for millions of years. For my entire life. Look, if you really don’t want us leaving Hell, then can you at least use your newfound power to improve it? Let us have the things mortals enjoy? Pianos, dogs, blankets, weekends, all that stuff?”
Lucifer rolled his eyes. “That would rather defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it? Hell is supposed to be a place of punishment. The ultimate consequence awaiting sinners. I need a carrot and a stick, Dromos. How else am I supposed to convince people to behave if I don’t? Imagine a rapist arriving in Hell and being confronted with demons playing pianos and walking their dogs. Wouldn’t have quite the desired effect, would it?”
Dromos was quiet for a moment, then said without inflection, “Perhaps you could find somewhere else to put rapists. Somewhere other than our home.”
Throwing up his arms, Lucifer said, “More demands! Don’t you see how selfish you’re being? Here I am, doing my best to end all suffering, and you’re complaining about babysitting a few evil-doers – which, might I remind you, is your job. Nay, your very reason for existence. Always has been. Why’re you getting stroppy about it now?”
“I think,” Linda began, taking a tentative step forward before stopping and clearing her throat. “Excuse me. May I interrupt? Um. Okay, so I think that maybe Dromos has a point here, Lucifer.”
“Doctor! This is the creature that stole your baby!”
“Yes, I know. And I’m not saying I forgive him for that, but…”
“I wasn’t going to eat the brat,” Dromos grumbled. “I was going to make him a king.”
“You took him away from his mother!” Lucifer shouted.
“Gentlemen!” said Linda, sharply. “Please! Let’s try to talk this through like adults.”
Overcome with frustration, and only vaguely aware that he’d not been sleeping well lately, Lucifer kicked the nearest chair. “I can’t believe you’re siding with him, doctor.”
“I’m not siding with anyone. I-…”
“You don’t know these people like I do. You didn’t spend millions of years in Hell alongside them. The only demon you’ve ever gotten acquainted with is Maze, and she’s not like the others; even without a soul, she’s learned how to behave like a more-or-less civilised adult, barring the occasional tantrum. But your average, baseline demon has nothing to them besides wrath and cruelty. Lilith made them to be weapons and that’s all they really are. I mean – just imagine, for a moment, how hard it was for me. To go from the Silver City, the most beautiful place ever created, to a lightless nightmare realm full of these bloodthirsty animals. To be surrounded by them, for endless eons, while they nattered mindlessly on and on about how much they love torture and pain and…”  
He trailed off. Linda and Dromos were both looking past him.
To the elevator. Where – oh – Mazikeen was standing.
Where Mazikeen was crying.
No sobs, not like when Dan had died. No expression at all, really. Just open eyes, motionless muscles, and steady tears.
Before Lucifer could say a word, she pressed the button to close the elevator doors.
“Wait!” he yelped, sprinting over to stop them.
He needn’t have bothered. Now that he was God, objects did whatever he told them to do. The doors stilled, half-open.
“That sounded wrong,” he acknowledged, clasping her shoulders in apology. “You completely missed the context. What I was trying to say was-…”
“Don’t touch me.”
It was a phrase he’d heard many times before from mortal lovers to whom he had accidentally revealed his Devil Face. Some of them said it in horror. Some of them, the religious ones, said it in anger.
Mazikeen looked neither horrified nor angry. She looked sick. As though the very sight of him turned her stomach.
Lumbering over, Dromos stepped into the elevator alongside her and pointedly pressed the button again. With no idea what to do or say, Lucifer allowed the machinery to work.
The elevator closed.
“What have I done?” he asked Linda.
0
Nothing I didn’t know.
“Maze?” called Eve, waiting by the car with the others as Mazikeen stepped out of Lux’s front door and into the sunlight.
The door hadn’t been there when they’d arrived. She’d been forced to use Dromos’ route. Lucifer must have decided to put it back. He could do that now. Just decide things. Didn’t need servants, nor followers, nor anyone. Sure didn’t need a ‘more-or-less civilised adult’ whose kin were animals.
“Maze! Wait!”
Mazikeen didn’t know where she was going, only that she was walking very quickly and felt that she’d die if she stopped. She heard Eve’s heels patter on the pavement and heard her say her name a third time, quiet and worried, and that was what stilled her feet.
“What happened?” murmured Eve, cupping her face.
The fifty or so demons who’d been standing around outside Lux when Amenadiel had set the car and its passengers down were still there. Instead of chanting to get their king’s attention, they were now looking at her.
Michael and Amenadiel stood among them, the latter having been trying to convince them to stop blocking traffic.
Which was what she should have been doing. It was what he’d brought her here to do. But she’d been gripped by a sudden, violent need to see Lucifer, to check on him, just quickly, before tending to her siblings. Once a bodyguard, always a bodyguard.
Except that wasn’t what I was. Not to him. To him, I was a Rottweiler on a leash.
“Are you alright?” asked Amenadiel, his eyes overflowing with concern.
That was what cracked her.
To him. Not to everyone. Not to Eve, or Amenadiel, or Linda. It’s not that I’m incapable of earning love and respect.
I’m just incapable of earning his.
Her legs gave out. She crumpled against Lux’s outside wall and started to weep properly, loud and bitter.
Eve immediately dropped down beside her, holding her tight. Michael shuffled closer, rubbing his shoulder while his mouth opened and shut, testing out sentences that were never spoken.
Then Dromos was there, kneeling, his face sad and tired.
“We did what we were told,” she said to him in Lilim, through sniffles. “We obeyed. We were loyal. We… we…”
“We are alone, sister,” he replied. “But I think we always were.”
“We obeyed!”
“We obeyed Lilith and she left. We obeyed Lucifer and he left. No one wants us, Mazikeen. It’s just the truth.”
She took a shuddering breath and squeezed her eyes shut. “No. I want us.”
Seizing his jacket’s shoulder, she hauled herself to her feet and addressed the crowd, her voice raw: “I want you! You’re my family and I want you! And I swear I will be the queen you deserve, for as long as you’ll have me!”
Her human skin fell away, the left side of her face turning cold, bony, and brittle.
Stepping back to join their siblings, Dromos asked hesitantly, “What would you have us do, then, my queen? What are your orders?”
Hurriedly drying her eyes, she studied them one by one. “Whoever wants to can stay here. But I’m going home. Hell is going to be ours, Dromos. No more damned souls. No more angels. It’s ours now and we’re going to make it into something we can love.”
She turned to face Eve and Michael, her heart pounding. “You’ll come with me, yeah? You’ll stand with me?”
“Always,” said Eve, closing in to kiss her.
“Whatever,” Michael muttered, clearly just relieved that the crying part was over.
Amenadiel sighed, shaking his head gravely. “Mazikeen, are you sure this is what you want? You won’t be able to leave Hell on your own – you’ll need to contact me.”
“Yeah. At least until this one grows his feathers back,” she said, gesturing at Michael. “That’s okay. You’ll always come when I call, right?”
“Of course. You’re my friend, Maze. I’m sorry if I haven’t said that often enough.”
Fuck it. Cringing on the inside, Mazikeen drew Amenadiel into a quick, gruff hug. “You too, idiot.”
5 notes · View notes
sanoiro · 4 years
Text
Lucifer 5x09 - Family Dinner -Spoilers & Speculation
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Written by Joe Henderson
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Directed by Nathan Hope
Nathan Hope has directed
1x02 - Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil 1x13 - Take Me Back to Hell 2x01 - Everything's Coming Up Lucifer 2x07 - Trip to Stabby Town  2x10 - Quid Pro Ho 3x05 - Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards 3x19 - Orange Is the New Maze 5x07 - Our Mojo He will also direct Episode 2 or 3 of S6
Behind The Scenes Video 
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Ignore the fact that I accidentally watermarked it with the number 519... 
The Case & Deckerstar
Now we can start with the case of the week.
The murder happens at Golf n Stuff which is rather popular due to the scenes that were shot there for The Karate Kid. Rafferty was actually giddy over that.
So we have a murder. After over 70 episodes we know that the case of the week is somehow connected to the main plot and that it leads to a resolving of Lucifer’s issues or at least a small or big breakthrough.
The victim in this case was burned to death or at least he was… charred. A bit like how Mum ‘enlightened’ Jared in 2x17 but worse.
(In order to make sure most bts are included I have put them in the same file in their original resolution and you need to open the image and zoom. You can do it from your PC, MAC or mobile)
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The mini golf has several fun statues like knights and pirates but what was not supposed to be there was the figure at the hole where nearby the victim was found. To be more You might have guessed it has many teeth by the photo and the answer is, it’s a reddish dragon head.
Back in December I came across the props building it and I thought it was cool but I wasn’t aware it was for Lucifer as the account is not affiliated with our crew or production. So imagine my surprise when a friend told me about what she had seen on the lot and going through the archived bts I found the victim photo as well.
You may have noticed it but in two particular episodes more dragons made their appearance. First it was at the second showrunner’s office in 503. There we see a dragon impelled by a sword, it seemed really out of place but I then correlated it with Baphament’s blade which is a representation of Azrael’s blade.
Later on I saw something else. In 508 Pete’s apartment had shelves dedicated to dragon figures as well as some knights. All along I was wondering can I even meta about that? What can it symbolise if it means anything at all? For some reason all I could think was the movie ‘Dragonheart’.
But let’s assume they have laid some hints, so far we have seen that they go very basic on bible and comic material so it’s funny how dragon-like Lucifer was presented in Series 3 of the black label of DC/ vertigo. But there are also more tidbits.
Now in 1x12 you all remember the Angel who was defeating a very Lucifer-looking Satan?
That was a prop. But it is derived by the work of Guido Reni ‘Michael and Satan’ (1636) Who was in turn influenced by Raphael’s painting ‘St. Michael Vanquishing Satan’ (1518) and if we go to Raphael’s early works... St. Michael (1504-1505)
Anyways!
The investigation of this ‘week’s’ case has its usual suspect chase which leads us to an arcade where we can spot some members of the crew doing rounds with the go-carts on that location. What I do know is that we are looking for someone young as far as guest posts go but other than that not much is known. The case seems to be progressing slowly but at some point the murderer appears to want to skip town so the leads bring us to L.A.’s train Union Station.
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We also have scenes at the precinct during the case as we have seen from Aimee’s bts but not much is known there. 
Now the suspect might be played by the elusive guest of this episode John Clover whose appearance was posted on Reddit and had sparked the first speculations over the title of the episode.
We should now wonder whether the theme of this episode’s case which takes us to gaming areas has anything to do with how Lucifer views his Father’s appearance in the mid-season finale and whether it will provide him with a resolution to not act in a rush way. The same after all happened with Mum.
Do not forget that Lucifer in Season 2 and especially at the beginning with Mum and when he thought Earl Johnson was his Father, Lucifer’s plans changed as his vengeance turned to a slow paced questioning over why their relationship deteriorated. 
For an Angel who was ‘forced’ - not yet clarified so let’s not take that for granted- to punish the guilty Lucifer seems to be more merciful, understanding and open to explanations in the long run especially with the people who wronged him. Amenadiel, Michael, Uriel, Azrael, Mum, and Earl ‘God’ Johnson.
As Amenadiel said in the Pilot Lucifer away from Hell showed restrain and mercy… Perhaps it is true that we cannot escape from what we truly are. In any case that’s meta talk!
Back to the Union Station. 
In the train station we have a bts where we can see Chloe and Lucifer chasing the suspect and from the photos and videos outside of it we can safely say they are successful on apprehending the murderer.
Now a funny incident was that during the shooting the area was closed to the actual travelers but somehow a Japanese tourist ended up sitting where the background actors were. No idea if it was her Pizza or it was given by the craft service but the girl was obviously bewildered on what was happening. It’s the little absurdities of life I guess…
It seems though as a lighthearted episode at first...
Do not be mistaken, the writers, cast and showrunners have revealed that in S5P2 we enter the emotional and equally dark (In P1 I missed the darkness aside from Pete of course) part of this season. It means that by the end of 5x09 as we roll on the last minutes of this episode, Lucifer is heavily conflicted and a resolution is needed, one that seems to be somewhat provided.
Since P1 I thought it would be weird to have Deckerstar break up for effect, in order to break us, especially since S5 was supposed to be the last season and S6 is effectively from what they imply (again cast and showrunners) an epilogue. So do not expect Deckerstar to break up but on the contrary as we saw Lucifer and Chloe in 507 they pull each other back up. 
It is why I’m wondering what will be unraveled after the arrest of 5x09’s murderer.
The end of the episode takes us at night to L.A.’s Grand Park. The Grand Park is across the City Hall by the way, and for the Christmas season it was decorated with a Christmas tree made out of light bulbs.
In the bts the prominent colour of that tree is deep lilac. That’s where our next Deckerstar moment will unravel. We should also be ready for the Lucifer Universe to acknowledge yet another holiday of the human world, Christmas!
A tiny break here but you should remember that on each side of the elevator we have two bronze plates depicting the transfer of Christ after he was taken down dead from the Cross. So in the most discrete of ways Lucifer’s Universe has acknowledged Christ and perhaps it was because before the Sumerian text set Amenadiel as the favourite son, in Season 1 and for the majority of S2 we knew Lucifer as the favourite one.
On the cross Christ (no I didn’t write Lucifer at first :P) according to the scripts in a moment of lapsed faith “Father, Father why do you abandon me?”. In a way we might meta that for 516 but also for what Lucifer has experienced so far and has so eloquently expressed in 3x11 and in 1x09.  
But back to the Deckerstar moment…
It takes place on the ‘balcony’ above the fountain as the purple Christmas tree is behind them. The setting happens at night and provides the place for our characters to talk, to open up and perhaps even express certain fears but also be urged to take advantage of the current circumstances.
From my perspective is the scene of a couple that talks a difficult matter but at the end of that talk they know each has the other’s back so they can step forward, take that chance and their partner will always be there to catch them if they fall. It is also how we will experience Lucifer finally opening up without Linda probing him. But whatever comes forward also gives space to truths and a realisation which will break our Devil as we have seen from the bts of the next episodes.
We might even have an understanding why ‘I love you’s’ are difficult for Lucifer and for Chloe to also realise that. We might even get Lucifer to say it. Here is to hoping…
On a final note. Maze in this episode seems to have gone MIA but many times we do not see the bts of every scene so all we have is Lesley-Ann’s bts from her trailer during that time. Also do not forget how things ended in 508. Maze did betray Lucifer and with God on Earth... 
The Dinner
This episode is expected to open back to the precinct. The reason is because it is a mid-season finale which means that the in between scenes are not implied but also because of some spoilers we had back in December.
As you remember the actress who played officer Cacuzza had posted on Twitter that she and Lauren were in a ‘very small’ room which had just been painted. That room we can safely say is the ‘evidence room’ and that Cacuzza managed finally to find a way to close the surveillance in order to take a nap.
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Now do remember that back in S4 Cacuzza was also the officer who let Lucifer ‘sample’ the drug busts… I’m not sure if that will come back somehow but we do know that Cacuzza will appear later this season, whether alive or not is yet to be seen.
What we do know is from the clues that were given by the actress.
1) She will be in the same room as Chloe meaning we will revisit the evidence room once Dad arrives and perhaps it will be a comic moment? Perhaps a random human will figure things out? But what was interesting is that according to the bts photo we see the actress and Lauren in their own clothes while Dennis is in his ‘Dad/God’ clothes.
2) Both Chloe and Officer Cacuzza were supposed to act distressed and shaken. If we take the ‘I love you’ element from that scene for Chloe let’s remember that the evidence is suddenly a bit of a mess. A glass has broken, the sound and effect will be heard once the time has started running again and they are two cops in a room with no idea of what is happening outside. So perhaps the shaken and distressed effect comes before they open the door (or walk out) and are sure there is no imminent threat.
3) In my opinion in this episode Cacuzza has some lines no matter how brief they might be.
Now the question here is how to proceed.
We obviously have a Family Dinner from which only two bts exist. 
If we assume that the Family Dinner is arranged after the brothers have hid their wings and then Dad has met Linda then the dinner is set up by a very flabbergasted Linda.
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I do expect Linda to bow by the way and for this dinner to bring some elements from 1x10 Pops. For this speculation I’ll include the video of the scene from that episode and I’ll try to tie them up with 5x09.
All the episodes in P2 are meant to do a full circle and the writers have based most of their storytelling on the events of S1 and S2.
So first the spoilers of what we know from 5x09 and then the ties we may find with 1x10 and some more past episodes.  
The 11 minutes are quite long but is it really all things concerning? 
Henderson tweeted that there will be 5 actors but as we know know Ellis plays two characters which is why the dinner scene may have taken three days to shoot so we should count six people at the Dinner Table.
The location will be (most probably) at Linda’s house as we have seen from a bts that her main table is full of different varieties of fruits and food in an attempt to recreate an Olympian affluent meal. For Linda is only normal to be out of her element and try to impress God. So far she has been almost killed by his ex, has a child that can be snatched away to the Silver City if she is not deemed worthy perhaps or even because of Charlie’s half genetic code.
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Remember there was a stand in actor for Michael 
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The problem Linda also faces is that she has supported Lucifer. Yes, he is her friend but how will God react to that? Having a human siding with His rebellious son? Linda as it has been written knows how far pissed off celestials can go and I’m sure she remembers Lucifer’s agony and fear over his Father where Chloe was concerned. So she tries, really tries to present a wonderful setting for the grandfather of her child.
So we do have Linda in the mix. Obviously God, Amenadiel, Lucifer and Michael. That makes us five characters and four actors. Little Charlie also makes an appearance as far as I’m aware as the twin babies were on set and that also contributes on why the scene took so long to be shot. However the babies do not count as the sixth character. Chloe though does.
In short we have:
Linda
God/Dad
Amenadiel
Lucifer
Michael
Chloe
and
Charlie
Another thing we should take into account for this scene is Rafferty’s posted script page of the midseason finale.
While Amenadiel and Lucifer appear shocked and in awe, Michael seems rather pleased. I mean he literally ‘Grins with excitement’.
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Amenadiel in 5x03 said that the only one who was talking to the throne meanwhile Henderson as far as I remember in one of the post P1 interviews, revealed that God and Michael have a relationship that Lucifer wishes he had with Him. D.B on one of the virtual cons (or ET interview. I have issues with keeping track of them now) have said that the scene at the family dinner would be gut wrenching and absolutely fall down hilarious’.
So in this dinner we will get to know our characters more and as Ildy and Henderson have said Lucifer will go back being a 14 year old at the Thanksgiving table. That perhaps is the reason why the script episodes 510 and 511were reversed. The last time that had happened was in S1 in order for Lucifer’s vulnerability to not come too soon in the season. In the case of these two episodes I believe it has to do with Lucifer’s emotional state but also the constant collisions he will have with his father in the Family Dinner but also during the Musical episode.
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Another aspect to consider is that if 5x09 reminds us a lot of 1x10 -Pops right now and 5x10 the Musical episode is directly influenced by 2x16 - God Johnson.
The next section will now be dedicated to a quick recap of 1x10 - Pops and the possible connection to Michael and his story.
Michael in 5x09 teases Chloe as she is kept captive that there is a bigger plan and ‘Spoiler Alert’ it will be EPIC. That can be left alone as a promise to see more of that plan in S5P2 but before we go forward we should also go back in 2x04 - Weaponiser.
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Do you see the parallel? How far Uriel’s view of the ‘Patterns’ could go was always a meta I couldn’t crack. Sure Michael hinted as per one Anon hinted on Tumblr that Michael might have been the one to urge Uriel on Earth to kill Mum and hopefully Lucifer as well. It is also perhaps why we were reminded of Azrael’s Blade in 5x03 - Diablo with Baphament’s blade, the only blade that could kill the Devil. Perhaps that was Michael’s plan back then but it didn’t work out.
But is Michael the big villain? According to the showrunners no. There are more things happening but Michael has a reasoning, has a story, one that explains his deformity and is the hero of his own story as all  the other season ‘villains’ so far were. Mum, Amenadiel, Malcolm, Kinley, even Cain.
What the Interviews say about Michael:
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Beginning with the parallel between the dinner we had in 1x10’s dinner and plot, and in what may have in episode 5x09 I would like to remind you- 
- at this point I have censored some spoilers, not speculations, spoilers for episodes of P2 that will not be added in the S&S -
I’ll return to this topic and explore it thoroughly as the S&S are written but for now remember that 1x10 might tell us more than what we think right now and it might take us as a point of reference even up to 5x16.
Between 1x10 and 5x09 we can also wonder what are God’s intentions, can we attribute them all to Michael’s manipulation or it goes beyond that because the showrunners have promised us an emotional P2. I do believe issues are addressed and Lucifer will have to come face to face with some hard truths without that meaning that Dad was always right.
In the Pilot - wait.. Pilot? Yes, 5x09 is an episode that slowly builds us to the very end. There are spoilers and references that need to be addressed from past and future episodes before and after 5x09.
We need to address that in the Pilot, Lucifer told Delilah the very truth he uttered to Linda where he was concerned in S4 (4x08). God has nothing to do with your mess. Like Delilah, Lucifer was putting the blame to others, circumstances and even questioned God. He was wasting his eternal life and his talent, which he eventually found in crime solving.
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On cue we get to the scene with Chloe asking God what she is doing to a bar with Lucifer. And what follows is Chloe telling Lucifer how she saw things differently from everyone and she paid for it. That story for me at least rings a bell.
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We still do not know why Lucifer was cast out, the actual reason. No matter the sexescapeding with Eve or the rebellion what was the core of all that acting out as Linda called it in season 2? Whatever it was if we go back to 3x11 we will see that Chloe in the Pilot is basically Lucifer in 3x11.
They feel alone, misjudged and while Chloe tries to move on and later in S1 finds what actually happened, in Lucifer’s case he gives up on waiting for forgiveness from his Father until Michael comes, and tells him that even his Fall was a manipulation.
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In Pops Lucifer asked something very interesting what did the sous chef wanted? And the answer was to surpass Pops. I do wonder if that’s what Lucifer wanted in a way and of course Michael on Lucifer’s expense. Two ‘children’ fighting for attention but only one was groomed to take over.
Speaking of taking over at the end of the episode of 1x10 we learn that Pops despite what Junior had done still had his son in his mind for taking over the restaurant. Pops believed in his son but allowed him space to grow eventually when everything failed.
If you remember Zadkiel’s spoiler we see that in 5x15 for some reason Lucifer wants to re-join the Host. That aside from a reconciliation shows that like Junior, Lucifer for his own reasons - we do not know what has happened but we will go back to that in the S&S of 5x15 - wants what divine power has to offer.
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What happens next is again interesting -censored-. I just want you to see how we do not deal with standalones but everything progresses towards a point, a familiar yet innovative point for the series.
In episode 2x01, Lucifer asks mockingly an offended Chloe who did she thought he took after, his Dad? That happened because Lucifer believed to have taken more after his mother but as we know genetics is a funny thing, Celestial genetics even more so.
God’s absence from Lucifer’s life shaped him. He did drove Lucifer to become something he wasn’t but after 4.5 seasons can we claim that Lucifer and God are nothing alike? 
Maze I believe was spot on on the similarities God and Lucifer held.
Lucifer believes in justice, in truth and is able to love. He has been more of an Angel than any non fallen Angel has ever been so far. 
Amenadiel tricked a dead human to kill Lucifer thus condemning him again in Hell however as we know from Charlotte’s case a redemption was not impossible. 
Uriel wanted to kill his mother and wouldn’t hesitate to kill Chloe in the process. Azrael is basically a liar and manipulator, Remiel would gleefully cut open a human for their half-celestial baby while Michael is really-really messed up.
So what has happened?
Like with Junior, Lucifer was pushed by his Father to become the man he is today. And Lucifer likes what he is, who he is because he sees the change and is even afraid of not being real when that change is questioned or exposed to him.
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The same happened with Amenadiel, once he decided to embrace humanity and brotherhood. He changed for the better and became more ‘angelic’.
So yes, Junior’s story does apply to Lucifer on many levels. But Junior didn’t have that dinner with his Father, Lucifer will as they will do two more of his siblings. Some will be hurt, some will feel betrayed and some may walk out.
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Which brings us to a very big question. 
Was Mum truthful when she said to Lucifer, his Dad wanted to destroy him? If the answer is yes, how will both deal with that? Because Lucifer may have not totally believed Mum.
If that answer comes to play we should consider it as the common question children come forward to when they learn they were not planned or their parents had opted at first to have an abortion. The fact that they didn’t get on with the abortion or had willingly made a child does affect their feelings towards that child now? Do they regret it? Do they want what that child has become?
These are all tough questions and sometimes the answers are not easy either. Mainly because humans like celestials with human emotions as it seems, are secure and balanced only with the totality of a circumstance. Everything or nothing, the rest in between are not welcome and it’s bound to hurt.
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Finally, on this 1x10 weird reminisce. Can we say that Lucifer will be allowed in the end to create something that represents him? I think he may but more about that in 5x16 S&S.
Probably the story will not end with redemption but with Lucifer finally becoming his own person one that resembles a lot of Dad and Dad may accept or even encourage that path. That does not mean he will start anew though
Which brings us back to the adversary of 1x10 - Pops. The sous chef believed that Junior was not worthy of his father’s tolerance and reward so she made sure to destroy his reputation and went as far as trying to kill him. That sounds a lot like Michael.
Michael’s speech towards Maze about what was happening in the Silver City in 5x02 did echo the sous chef words:
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So we should wonder if Michael will succeed to a point to ruin Lucifer’s chances and leave Lucifer live with the consequences in the end as our hero learns to move on from whatever injustice happened or the writers will provide a catharsis.
And a final question here… Is Amenadiel really the favourite son? I somehow doubt that, perhaps I’ll be proved wrong as in many interviews Henderson has gone back to Amenadiel’s arc as he learns he is the ‘favourite’ and so far he has not said anything to contradict the belief 2x17 brought to us with so many translated Sumerian words.
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But as we said teh Dinner will not be cathartic on the contrary so does that mean that Lucifer eventually walks away? Probably.
At the photos that were posted near Christmas we have two bts one crystal clear and the other more hazy which shows Lucifer at the Penthouse and Dad being there in his white cardigan. I do suspect that meeting at the penthouse happens after the dinner but it does not resolve things between Father and son. it is also possible that it’s why we need the very emotional scene from the musical to be moved forward and 511 script to become 5x10 aired episode.
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Perhaps the comment on it’s not just Lucifer who hits the keys was referring to Dad and not Maze in 5x01.
Although we cannot be sure on what will happen in the penthouse and whether Scarlet was meant to join that scene or simply was on set for the day (highly probable) for another scene, we do know that in this episode we had a LUX night. A most perhaps unconventional one.
By this point you know that the writers are ready to address everything or at least make parallels and so somehow we have one with 1x09 - A Priest Walks Into A Bar. This time however it is seems like God Walks Into His Son’s Bar.
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If the camera is clear enough we can see God (?) talking to a white person. I would have loved it if it was Dan but I cannot tell for sure.
Whether that visit happens before or after the family dinner I believe it may happen before as the clothes Dennis wore at the lot around that time were different from the white we saw him appear with in the end of 5x08. Of course that does not say much as we will see Dad in the same/similar white clothes in at least three different episodes in Part 2.
Therefore in the conclusion of this S&S we should speculate that the Dinner is placed at the middle of the episode and a resolution is reached for Deckerstar in the end of the episode but Lucifer’s turmoil did fit better through the musical episode hence the change. 
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walkwithheroes84 · 4 years
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Lucifer: Season 5, Part 1 Thoughts
Part 1 of Season 5 of Lucifer came out on Netflix on August 21. And you bet your bottom dollar that I binged all 8 episodes. I stayed up until 2 am on August 22, but it was worth it. I’m not sure if the cast, crew, writers, and producers went into this season thinking it was their last (It’s not, Part 2 of Season 5 is rumored to be out in February of 2021, with the final season, Season 6, rumored to be released in early-mid 2022.) or what, but they really brought their A game for the first 8 episodes of the season.
What follows are some random thoughts I have on the season. Yes, there may be spoilers!
- I really like that the last couple of seasons have explored  the supporting cast more. Maze, Ella, Linda, Dan - they are being fleshed out a lot and I am living for it. 
- Seeing more of Linda’s backstory was great. And, I liked the way it tied into Maze’s own feelings regarding Lilith and abandonment. I am here for Linda x Maze, may that be a deep friendship or something more. I always love them together.  
- Speaking of Maze - it is getting repetitive to see her be pissed at Lucifer (who really needs to step up and see that she is her own demon with thoughts and feelings.) or being down on herself for not being able to make solid connections. Maze, you have connections: You have a best friend in Linda, friends in Chloe, Ella,  Amenadiel, Trixie, Charlie. These people are your found family! They love you, Maze. But, Maze has to learn to love herself. Stop betraying them because she’s upset. All that said, Lesley-Ann Brandt always brings her A-game. 
- I didn’t care for Lilith. I get what she was trying to do and that, in the end, she wanted mortally and love, but even she couldn’t find it. But, she abandoned her children. :( I’m thinking her ring will play a key role down the road: either to give Maze mortally/a soul, give Eve immortally (so she and Maze can be together?), make Lucifer human, save Chloe, something! That ring is coming back into play.
-Amenadiel worrying about being a good father to baby Charlie. It was really cute, as is his friendship with Dan. The scenes with Dan, Amenadiel, Lucifer, and Jed trying to calm the baby were comedy gold. I also really loved seeing Amedadiel working a case with Chloe. He’s just grown so much as a character during the last five seasons and I’m here for it. 
- Dan finding out about Lucifer was a bit of a surprise. Poor guy. He’s been lost since Charlotte’s death and all this new age stuff seems to be his way of trying to find meaning in his life. And, now he has to deal with the fact that EVERYTHING is real and his ex-wife/friend is in love with the actual Devil. And, he has this great fear that he’ll go to Hell, because of all he’s done - and knowing the Devil is real - of course that is going to mess with his mind! And, Michael - playing on fears - knew just want to do with that. I’m interested to see where Dan goes during Part 2 of the season. 
-I felt so bad for Ella. She decided that she wasn’t going to go for the “bad boys” and that she was going to look for a nice, normal man for a normal romance and what does she find? A freaking serial killer! Who was using her and planning to kill her! Like, Ella, girl, take a break from dating for a while. She either dates men with no futures, serial killers, or Dan.
- I have to give it up to Tom Ellis in his portrayal of Micheal. So twisted and cowardly and yet weirdly I get it? From what the show has told us or implied - before his fall, Lucifer was one of their parents favorites, made Michael miserable, was a favorite of some of the other siblings. I can see a twin becoming jealous and causing issues. It’s interesting that Michael straight out stated he planted the idea of rebellion in Lucifer’s head. Michael planted the idea of causing Eve to sin. Of coming to Los Angeles. I’m wondering how much of it is true and how much was Michael just speaking nonsense. And, what else has Michael planted in Lucifer (or anyone else’s) head? Did he plant Chloe in God/Dad’s head? Did he pretend to be God/Dad and tell Amenadiel to bless the Decker’s with a baby? Oh, the possibilities. 
-While I didn’t love episode 4 (it felt a bit like filler) - it was so good to see  Tricia Helfer, back on the show. I miss Mom and Charlotte. 
-Chloe finding out she was a blessing/gift from God/Dad? I am so thrilled they didn’t get too angsty with it and played it perfectly. Yes, she had every right to be confused and upset. But, thank goodness they didn’t drag that out! The writers really hit a lot of great beats with Chloe this season.
-  I have read that some viewers were annoyed that Chloe was/is worried that Lucifer doesn’t lover her back - when he has shown his love via actions - but, I get it. Lucifer is Lucifer. He self sabotages, he refuses to deal with issues, and he tends to pull away. He become invulnerable - right after it was more or less agreed by everyone that Lucifer chooses to be vulnerable around Chloe because of his love for her. She might be thinking: “Okay, will he get bored? Is this real? Will something else happen that makes him pull away?” Chloe needs to have a solid talk with Lucifer, and it’s a talk that he may not be ready to have. As a show-runner hinted: “You can’t fully be in love with someone until you fully love yourself.” And, we all know that Lucifer is still working on loving himself. 
- I was really proud of Lucifer during the first half of the season. He stayed in Hell to protect Charlie, Chloe, and the world. He only left to deal with Michael and he was smart enough to leave Amendadiel in charge. He was honest with Chloe, he tried (in his own way and to the best of his abilities) to give her space, he bonded with Dan, he got jealous (that was hilarious), he moved forward with Chloe, he tried (again in his own way and to the best of his abilities) to not freak out over losing his “mojo”, he admitted (to others and himself) that he NEEDS Chloe, he found Chloe. He showed some nice growth. He’s by no means a mature and fully realized “person” yet, but it’s clear he is trying. 
- When Dad/God showed up? I had no idea Dennis Haysbert had been cast in the role, so I was so excited. He’s a great choice. I love that he came down from the Silver City to break up a fight between some of his children. His ex walking around Earth? Demons coming to Earth? A half-angel being born? Eve coming down? Cain and Lucifer fighting? Dad/God’s not bothered by that. He’s not coming down for that. But, his children fighting? Yeah, he’s physically and completely coming down to break that stuff up. I’m excited. 
- So, 5A mentioned the Silver City and some of the other angels often. We learned that many of Lucifer and Amenadadiel ‘s siblings are praising Lucifer for going back to Hell to protect Earth. Something which Michael can’t stand. We also learn that Dad/God has locked himself away and that Michael is the only one he speaks to. You guys - I NEED to see some of the other angels or at least hear about them. Maybe even hints of what the Silver City looks like? Uriel may be dead, but Azrael and  Remiel are still in the Silver City. And, the show has mentioned a Castiel, who enjoys music. We’ve also heard about Gabriel and Raphael, who are apparently proud of Lucifer for being mature enough to return to Hell on his own. I’m actually wondering how many children Dad/God and Mom actually had together? So far we have nine angels/children. Did they have hundreds? Thousands? Just those nine? 
- Let’s talk Deckerstar. If you are a fan of Deckerstar, as I am, then you were loving 5A. There was awkwardness, angst, cuteness, sweetness. They were flirty and playful. When they FINALLY had sex? Linda and Ella weren’t the only one celebrating. And, I loved that it really seemed that BOTH Chloe and Lucifer spent 5A trying to be honest and straight forward with one another. They seem to have realized that they’ve wasted too much time and they have to try and be honest with one another, even if it is very hard. 
- Overall, I LOVED Part 1 of Season 5 and CANNOT wait for Part 2. 2021 cannot come soon enough! 
-And, I’m sorry, but Lucifer gifs are lined up in my queue for days to come. 
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lassieposting · 4 years
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What do you think it says that in S1 Lucifer didn’t really have an emotional reaction to Amenadiel wanting/trying to kill him? Manipulating, yes. But not killing? Seems like killing would be the worse of the two, overall.
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it depends on when in s1 you mean, because his reaction evolves over the season. so let’s start with very, very early on in s1 lucifer. 
this is a man who’s spent the vast majority of his life in hell, in a culture built on violence and power plays. this is a man who’s been on earth for five years and only really formed surface relationships with the people around him - he clearly cares about delilah in his stilted, emotionally backwards way, but they aren’t close the way that he’s close with linda and ella and even dan, and it’s implied he hasn’t really seen her since she stopped working for him. 
this lucifer is deeply traumatised, terrified of rejection, burying himself in sex and drugs to try and cope, and has an entire lifetime of being told how awful and worthless he is keeping him from really connecting with anyone. 
(my personal headcanon is that baby demons will actually attack and kill their weaker siblings in the nest, eliminating the competition for food, so actually, fratricide would not be as unthinkable to lucifer as it is to us. more kind of...vaguely distasteful.)
pretty much every relationship in hell is skewed towards the dark and aggressive. look at maze, lucifer’s oldest and closest friend - their fights are vicious, they don’t communicate well at all, they resolve conflicts mostly by beating the shit out of each other...my point is that this lucifer not only expects the people around him to hurt him, he accepts it as normal. 
(it’s also worth noting that amenadiel’s hatred for lucifer is obvious whenever they interact - he’s treating luci the way he does deliberately, because at this point he sees lucifer as The Reason Everything Went Wrong. lucifer, on the other hand, swings between deadly serious ( “don’t threaten me, amenadiel. you don’t want to start a war.” ) and being almost playful ( “and you, my friend, can go to hell.” 
sometimes it’s a genuinely hate-filled exchange. sometimes lucifer is just being an annoying little shit of a baby brother, hell-style. which, to amenadiel, comes across as open hostility, and deepens the dislike between them.)
it’s important to understand, i think, that lucifer at this point is? basically shut down. he’s closed off all the parts of him that are gentle and loving and good, because those parts of him will either get him killed or pull him apart in hell. he’s running survival.exe, and everything else is closed. he doesn’t trust anyone, keeps his friends close and his enemies closer, and believes everyone is out to get him because for most of his life they were. it’s been five years since he left hell, but he hasn’t moved on from the trauma at all. he’s stagnant.
so at this point in his life? he sees his relationship with amenadiel as normal sibling behaviour. so yeah, no reaction to amenadiel trying to kill him. just sort of, sigh, brothers, amiright? he can’t afford to care, can’t afford not to expect that from amenadiel anyway. he doesn’t know how to stop living in the past. 
and then he meets linda. 
and suddenly we have a lucifer who is starting to get to grips with his own emotions, starting to get some much-needed perspective on what is and isn’t normal. i don’t think he actually realised just how abusive his family - not just dad, but his siblings too - were until he let linda in. 
he bonds with chloe, and for the first time he’s got someone in his life who chooses to support him, who doesn’t take his shit but doesn’t go for his throat either, and now he’s starting to learn the give-and-take nature of a normal, healthy relationship. he watches her with trixie, with dan, and starts to understand what family ought to look like. he’s soaking shit up like a sponge at this point and he’s realising that his family isn’t normal. 
he puts his fist through linda’s wall, the only way he knows how to express how angry and hurt he is by what she’s saying to him, and she keeps seeing him anyway, and he starts to realise that he’s never had that kind of support from his own family, and he should have, and it hurts.
and we start to see him react to amenadiel differently. he goes to amenadiel to ask for help retrieving his wings. that’s the first time we’ve seen lucifer treat amenadiel like a big brother. and amenadiel flings it back in his face ( “clean up your own mess, for once.” ). lucifer wants the sort of relationship he knows he should have with his brother - the human idea of a good sibling relationship - but amenadiel has also been his primary abuser for eons. the trust isn’t there, they don’t know how to care about each other, they’re both dealing with trauma and grief over lucifer’s fall, there’s so much going on there. 
(and amenadiel is beginning to change too, though much slower than lucifer. they banter a little in this episode. he’s very much the exasperated older brother at a few points, but without the loathing from episode 1. linda is already affecting him, too, in very subtle ways; she’s showing him it’s possible to care about lucifer.)
and by the time we have malcolm telling luci that amenadiel sent him to shoot him, he definitely has an emotional reaction ( “so my holier-than-thou brother sent someone to kill me! well, this really is opposite day.” ). 
by now, we have a lucifer with a support system. we have a lucifer who’s been sat on linda’s couch for months(?) having his pain and his fears and his trauma validated, and learning how to deal with the fallout. we have a lucifer who knows what family should look like, who knows his brother is treating him badly, and that it’s not normal, and that it’s not okay. and he’s hurt. he’s frustrated. he’s angry. 
(he’s also putting on a front, because he thinks he’s mortal and someone is pointing a gun at him. and when lucifer is threatened, he makes himself as big and intimidating as possible and bluffs. he doesn’t have time to really sort through his feelings about amenadiel, because he’s focusing on trying to scare malcolm off with his devil face)
i think this - the end of s1 - is really where their relationship began the long slow process of healing. lucifer wants to get in a fight with his brother against campolongo’s men. amenadiel takes the olive branch and there’s even a semi-affectionate moment when it’s all over ( “and to think we spent all those millennia fighting each other.” ). lucifer stops chasing malcolm to try and save amenadiel’s life. amenadiel realises he’s responsible for his own actions and tries to right his wrongs. and lucifer admits fear in front of his brother and shares the burden of their mom having escaped. 
(and can i just scream for a second about how good lucifer is? he’s been rejected and reviled and treated so badly so many times and yet he still keeps reaching out, keeps trying to help his brother, and it hurts my heart so much)
(also i love the progression of this relationship so much, how you can see the tiny little steps they’re taking towards a human-standards Good Relationship. amenadiel's realization that he’s been a terrible big brother and his awkward attempts at being a better one, offering lucifer advice and reassurance. lucifer - trust issues personified - in turn tentatively starting to ask for amenadiel’s input and beginning to trust him more ( “am i boyfriend material?” )
the backslide when amenadiel tells lucifer he loves and supports him and lucifer panics and lashes out hard, because receiving unconditional love from a family member is so alien that the alarms in his head, honed in hell, are screaming wrong wrong wrong wrong and amenadiel’s sad but accepting reiteration that he understands what lucifer is doing and loves him anyway. these two??? kill me)
SO ANYWAY TL;DR: he didn’t react because he was shut down and his Normal Meter was 50 shades of broken. also i have a lot of feelings about amenadiel and lucifer and i love them so much so this got kinda off track sorry
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thewillowbends · 4 years
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Lucifer Fanfiction Recs
It's about time I did one of these for this fandom! This is by no means comprehensive or even everything I've read that's saved in my bookmarks. You can see more of them here if you want to see a fuller listing here. Instead, I've just randomly selected a few of my favorites that I'd like to boost for now, and I'll likely do another eventually with more.
Multi-Chapter Fics:
A Refraction of Light Author: Matchstick_Dolly Rating: M Genre: Adventure/Romance/Drama (Pick one, there are many!) Characters: Whole Cast, OCs Status: Complete Summary:The Sinnerman's legacy lives on in the LAPD as a new street drug is tied to a string of heinous murders. While Lucifer and Chloe struggle to solve the mystery plaguing Los Angeles, they discover they're stronger together than apart. In Hell, Cain climbs his way to the top. Why I Loved It: There's a lot of really good longfics in this fandom, but this one is definitely up there as one of my favorites. Elegantly structured with a complex, provocative, and excellently woven plot, it's an AU that takes off where season 3 ended and goes on a winding journey exploring Deckerstar, the meaning of miracles, and the nature of Heaven and Hell. This story is a monster - it's literally second place for highest word count on Ao3's Lucifer section - but it's worth the time it takes to watch it unfold. It's one of the few that I've seen really tackle the moral question of damnation and what the existence of Hell tells us about God in a thoughtful way. I started following this back when it was only at nineteen chapters and enjoyed it every step of there way. There's not one event or character that winds up wasted. I'd love to see it get more love.
Title: A Bloodless Cut Author: Moan Diary Rating: G Genre: Gen Characters: Chloe Decker Status: Complete Summary: She’s not the first woman to find herself alone in front of her bathroom mirror, scissors in hand, martyred hair littering the sink, suddenly face-to-face with the cold certainty that she’s made a terrible mistake. Why I Loved It: Post-S4 was ripe for a lot of Chloe character pieces, and this one stood out for me in terms of how it engaged her mistakes and flaws frankly while still giving her space to grow and excel without Lucifer.
Title: A More Gradual Descent Author: Liannabob Rating: M Genre: Gen Characters: Amenadiel, Lucifer Morningstar Status: Complete Summary: Amenadiel brings Samael back to Hell. Again. And again. And again. Why I Loved It: The relationship between the brothers has a lot of space for exploration, but few fics have done it to the extent and complexity as this one. It tracks the relationship between the two of them through history, from shortly after the fall right up to the start of the second season, and also their differing relationship to humanity as the world changes over and over with human industrial revolution. This is something I wish the show had thought about doing, even on a lesser scale, so it was satisfying to see a talented author take this on.
Title: A Divine Spark Author: umbrafix Rating: T Genre: Gen Characters: Lucifer Morningstar, Linda Martin, related cast Status: Complete Summary: There have been no new angels created in the time since Lucifer was cast down from heaven. What if God wanted something different in the deal that Lucifer made with him? AU from S1 Ep13. Why I Loved It: This was such an unexpected pleasure. I clicked on it out of curiosity and wound up devouring it in one night. This is a notable divergence post-S1 - there's no Goddess, for instance - and it definitely has some flavor of the comics to it, but what's so compelling about it is how provocatively it examines Lucifer's character, particularly in relation to Linda. Very creatively done with such a unique concept.
One-Shots:
Title: Devil Wind Author: mishasan7 Rating: M Genre: Comedy Characters: Lucifer Morningstar, Mazikeen, OCs Summary: Two cops are called to a disturbance down on the beachfront... a 911 call reported cannon fire, random screaming, and... tornadoes? It's just another day at the office for Long Beach PD at this time of year... or is it? Why I Loved It: It's funny as hell. It's the sequel to her previous fic, "Devil's Haircut," which is a spec fic about how Lucifer and Maze decided to head to Los Angeles prior to the reveal in "City of Angels." Just lots of fun and cleverly done from the perspective of two original characters who just...absolutely do not know how to deal with two infernal idiots.
Title: Perspective Author: Ithil Rating: T Genre: Drama, Character Piece Characters: Lucifer Morningstar, God Summary: The king was back, and order would be restored. Lucifer returns to rule hell, only to hear a very familiar voice offer HIM a deal. Why I Loved It: I've known this author since Underworld fandom, and I've always enjoyed the sharp, biting humor of her style. It's a great character piece and a caustic look at the troubled relationship between Lucifer and Hell and God.
Title: Let Me Down Slowly Author: Verbyna Rating: M Genre: Drama, Character Piece Characters: Chloe Decker, Daniel Espinoza Summary: A tear-out poster of Chloe in a bikini was tacked up in the break room for a whole day until Dan Espinoza tore it down. Why I Loved It: One of the few attempts I've seen tackle the tumultuous relationship between Chloe and Dan, tracking their relationship back to when it started all the way through to when it fell apart. Very sharply written character examination.
Title: The Long Reign Author: Baby Spinach Rating: G Genre: Angst Characters: Lucifer Morningstar Summary: Now returned to Hell for good, Lucifer seeks diversion among familiar faces. Why I Loved It: A very bittersweet look at Lucifer following S4. It just hits that perfect sense of melancholy in examining what a sacrifice entails while being a great character piece. The companion fic examines the story from Chloe's perspective and is, of course, worth reading, too.
Title: Loopholes Author: SpinnerDolphin Rating: T Genre: Dramedy Characters: Chloe Decker, Overworked Demons Summary: It wasn’t a perfect system, or even a very good one, but it was something, anyway. Season 4 spoilers. (Lucifer finds a way to contact Chloe. Kind of.) Why I Loved It: Told with humor and affection, it's a great post-S4 speculative piece that plays around with the concept of demon possession and how it may be utilized. It's sweet and romantic and perfectly bittersweet.
Title: Nothing Mortal Author: Erinyes_kiss Rating: E Genre: Drama, Romance Characters: Chloe Decker, Mazikeen Summary: Mazikeen finds the small joys of incarnation Why I Loved It: Gorgeously written Chlaze fic, a pairing that is sadly underutilized by the fandom. It was written during S1 and has that darker, biting tone of the story at that point. Just beautifully done all around.
Title: my piano sits against the wall Author: Cloudnine101 Rating: T Genre: Character Piece Characters: Lucifer Morningstar Summary: When Lucifer falls, all he can think is bloody finally. Why I Loved It: Excellent S1 character piece looking at Lucifer as both fallen angel to a man falling unexpectedly in love with a mortal.
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mantra4ia · 4 years
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Lucifer 5x01 "Really Sad Devil Guy" Reaction'd w/spoilers
August 22nd 2020.
Mr. Said Out Bitch tradition continues. Lee Garner. I am so glad he gets another episode!!
Fishizzle II and a giant gold turtle, the comedy of this show just keeps rolling in. I bet Lee melted down one of Lucifer's gold bars to plate that tortoise. Great job set dressers.
"What the hell? / Precisely." Time to start my one-liner tally clicker. #1
BTW, I fully approve of fully bearded Lucifer. Well done Tom.
Oh, I suppose Lee Garner is getting a full dedicated episode. Props, the man and his wonderful undergarments deserve it. He put in the work! But how are they going to bring him back for season 6 now that he's dead...hmmmm.
Maze as the "new Lucifer" is a seamless transition.
The Snuggle is Real shirt. Ella's t-shirt game is still fire! B++
It's only been two months, really?! I need a bigger time jump. Charlie needs to be a toddler and Trixie needs to be old enough to drive with Lucifer.
Amenadiel running the club, yes! Checks the desires box. And in a suit no less.
Glimpse of hell - fantastic. I love to see more of how this works. Nice time manipulation element.
How many fun demon names are we going to get this season do you think? And is there just a plain old Greg or Bob somewhere, like the NBC Superstore of demons? Please say yes.
"I learned from the best." Muah, chef's kiss. Still solving cases worlds apart, that's quite poetic.
Kswiss, 8ball, and Dirty Doug, some cheesiness in this dramedy never changes. I swear, Dirty Doug reminds me of one of Jason's friends from The Good Place. That would be a hell of a crossover.
Rachel Harris is a gift. Helicoptering Charlie's education. So cute. Well at least she didn't put him in an angelic onsie.
Dan and essential oils. Such a California west coast thing.
"There was a sign, it was clearly forebidden" Muahaha! Amenadiel...are you delving into Lucifer's line of work? Catching the guilty...are you going to start punishing. Oh, this could be seasonal foreshadowing.
Gold coin marker huh...Pentacosal throwback reference?
Sensible Pantsuit and Bond Girl duo accomplished, I can take that off the list of things that I desired. Chloe doesn't mess around, and she is right. Maze's dress and that thigh slit leave no room for error. Kudos to her for running in it and simultaneously punching two potential perps.
Demon messenger from hell. Yaaaaaaaaaaaasssss, laughing so hard. The thumbs up really had me. I would have snorted if the thumb had been broken, bloody and disjointed like the rest of the criminal corpse. I swear this show is combining all my favorite situational comedy elements. Santa Clarita Diet anyone?
"Clever, manipulative bastard." Also nice throwback to "cruel, manipulative bastard" circa season 1.
Trixie!!!!!!!!! My all-star. Making goofy faces, girl after my own heart.
DAN: "we all think our kids can walk on water" LINDA: "Hadn't thought of that. Cancel swimming lessons." One line clicker #2
Ella's "I love science" shirt with an arrow through the brain, solid: B.
Of course he's a teen skittles dealer. Oh Amenadiel.
Awwwwwwwwww...Mazikeen my angel demon you are breaking my heart. Girl needs some happiness.
"Excuses, they're like assholes, everybody has one and nobody wants to hear it." Never was there a more Lucifer thing to say. One line clicker #3.
OMG, Lee's storyline is a whole metaphor for Lucifer's fall and I am crying! "You know it's just a matter of time before you screw up again" 😭😭😭
"I should have got out of the car and walked through the door. I missed my chance, what about you?" <Called it, It is a little bit of Lucifer's own hell loop.
Excellent firefight Detective. I fully approve of heads through plaster.
"I thought you could use a hand but it seems someone beat me to it." One line click #4
Oh nooooooooo, not the iconic piano, all that history! It never stood a chance. Point to Maze.
Ella and Dirty Doug, another point Maze...well well, Ella really does go for the bad and broken boys. I am taking bets now: who wants to bet Ella is a faux-Lucifer-Michael magnet?
And there it is. There's the Michael reveal. Flawlessly executed! Great musical choice to compliment the moment, "so happy together." Impeccable irony.
Grade: 7/10 "DETECTIVES!"
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aion-rsa · 3 years
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Lucifer Season 6 Episode 8 Review: Save the Devil, Save the World
https://ift.tt/3hobonK
This Lucifer review contains spoilers.
Lucifer Season 6 Episode 8
“This is the worst idea the doctor has ever had.”
It’s the rare episode of Lucifer that moves outside its comfort zone of dead bodies, shady suspects, and puzzling evidence, but “Save the Devil, Save the World” does just that as it hones in on a much bigger problem. The end of the world appears nigh, and no one knows why. 
While the introspective offering ventures into clip-show territory, the past scenes never feel obtrusive, nor do they stand in the way of fresh, new material. It’s fascinating to learn how others see you, and that’s certainly a big part of “Save the Devil, Save the World.” But it’s how we see ourselves that becomes the focal point of Team Lucifer’s reaction to Doctor Linda’s book about their leader. Of course, the greatest revelation is Lucifer’s confession that “I don’t want to be God,” since it opens several narrative doors along the way. Who will take over for Dear Old Dad now that Lucifer has taken his name out of the running, and does this mean that the celestial war was fought for nothing?
It’s not clear whether Linda deliberately brings her manuscript into the open, but it does appear she needs some validation, not only for the work she’s done with Lucifer but the others as well. That it’s only a first draft is made abundantly clear on several occasions, and it’s not surprising that everyone’s eager to dive into the material for a myriad of reasons. 
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Lucifer Season 6 Episode 6 Review: A Lot Dirtier Than That
By Dave Vitagliano
For the most part, I’m not sure we really need all the forays into the past to tell this story, however, where Ella is concerned, these flashbacks paint a compelling tale of the power of faith. “Was it fun for you guys watching me walk around without a clue?” Yes, she’s hurt that the others didn’t feel they could trust her with the truth, nevertheless, Lucifer makes certain she knows she’s never been alone through all her trials. It’s her faith in the absence of proof that warrants admiration even though she still faces serious spiritual doubts. And then there’s the exchange she has with Carol in front of Lux when we know she’s bursting to tell him everything she’s learned. “It’s not my secret to share,” and his reaction reinforces everything we’ve learned about Chloe’s LAPD replacement. He’s a good guy.
In many respects this is Dr. Linda Martin’s story, and it opens with an inexplicable scene in which we see the aftermath of her sexual encounter with an unnamed dude. Though he’s made significant progress in his five years on the couch, Lucifer seems oblivious to what’s going on. More to the point, did something happen between Linda and Amenadiel? Regardless, once her manuscript becomes the focal point of the team’s search for answers, the questions become muddled. Linda wonders what her Hell loop would look like as she dodges accusations and criticisms of her character assessments. There’s no reason to think she hasn’t resolved her guilt related issues with Adriana, so her preoccupation with Hell seems unfounded.
At one time or another, all members of Team Lucifer find their way to Linda’s couch, and while she offers suggestions, answers must come from within. Lucifer, however, takes her decision to withhold the book’s ending as a sign she feels he’ll fail in his quest to become God, and while there doesn’t seem to be any truth to that assessment, it does provide a catalyst for Lucifer’s nuclear family to work through their abandonment issues. 
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Lucifer Season 6 Episode 5 Review: The Murder of Lucifer Morningstar
By Dave Vitagliano
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Lucifer Season 6 Episode 4 Review: Pin the Tail on the Daddy
By Dave Vitagliano
You have to give credit to Rory because as forsaken as she feels, she’s still willing to give her father another chance. And this time it appears Lucifer may have finally broken through her guarded exterior. In an episode of call backs, allowing Rory to take a shot at her dad, ironically solidifies the family bond. Though she’s not part of the original group, Rory now sees her father in an entirely different light, and while we still don’t learn the circumstances behind Lucifer’s absence during her life, she now knows that he loves her unequivocally. 
Even though we don’t see Eve in this chapter of the story, Mazikeen’s personal and emotional growth continues to shine, and her encounter with Dan stands as one of the episode highlights. Dan still struggles with his current state and remains unable to determine the guilt that prevents him from entering Heaven. “I’m going to torture your ass right into Heaven,” Maze tells him, but even she strikes out in the attempt to learn the source of his subconscious remorse.
It’s easy and understandable that we get caught up in the various characters’ angst driven reactions to passages in Linda’s manuscript, but Ella seems to be the only one truly focused on the coming apocalypse. With one of the snappier lines in the episode, Lucifer notes that Dad “probably thinks the apocalypse is a teachable moment,” but we also have to question how seriously he’s taking the situation. Still, it’s Ella’s insistence that ecological and environmental changes seem to presage the end of the world scenario that she describes and make for a nice piece of relatively unobtrusive social commentary.  
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As we head into the final few episodes of Lucifer, an apocalyptic scenario looms overhead, leading viewers to finally get serious regarding the series’ conclusion. Nod to Heroes aside, someone needs to take charge, save the world, and ascend to God’s throne. A classic setup episode, “Save the Devil, Save the World” arranges the pieces on the board, and now that Amenadiel has returned with an answer, it won’t be long until the end of the series. 
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