#Wow that's a lot of words plbtbtbtb

[danteinthedevildom]

@levis-little-nuggie said:

The current Thing I'm trying to find throughout the lessons is the brothers each talking to MC about Lilith, and if any of them, asides from Belphie, tell MC that they know MC isn't Lilith, that they don't love MC bc they're a descendent of Lilith. Belphie was very clear about that, and it was amazing and so sweet, but I'm on Lesson 33 and I don't recall any of the other brothers make that same statement.

I know you put this on another reblog but I ended up writin a fair bit so I’m givin it its own post bc this is. Interestin (TM)

Now while I am gonna say “don’t quote me on this”, from my own recollection, the other bros don’t mention not seeing MC as Lilith? Or if they do it’s hella not as memorable as Belphie’s. 

A good story reason for this if the other bros don’t have a similar convo with MC is that Lilith was Belphie’s bugbear. It was bc of her that he hated humans; it was bc of her that he accepted MC initially. All of Belphie’s feelings towards MC stem from their heritage. Without her, he likely never would have cared for MC at all. 

Bc the fact of the matter is, Belphie didn’t have any actual attachment to MC prior to finding out they’re a descendent of Lilith. There wasn’t any time to. He was too wrapped up in his own hurt and hate, in his own revenge plot, to see MC as anything other than a human he could use to his advantage. 

Unlike the other brothers, he only cared about MC bc of Lilith. Everyone else had time to know and care for MC as a person outside of the revelation of their lineage. Finding out their connection to Lilith was likely an added bonus, but most of MC’s relationships with the bros are formed by that point. Their feelings for MC were already strong and decided. But for Belphie, MC was still just a random human he’d been plotting to use and kill to make a statement against the Exchange Programme. 

What matters most, then, is seeing Belphie say it. It’s the affirmation that we’re not just Lilith - or some faint connection to her - in his eyes. It’s getting the closure that while Lilith may have been the reason he came to like them at first, he’s come to care for them as their own person. 

In other words, it’s the active acknowledgement that a fundamental change has occurred in their relationship with him. He now sees what the brothers have been seeing since MC came to the Devildom. 

It’s also why closure with Lilith is given primarily to Belphie over the other bros: the scene where he finally says goodbye to her memory, and the pain and hatred that had stemmed from his over-zealous attachment to it. 

Because while the other bros miss and love her, only Belphie was so horrifically affected by her death as to want to annihilate what he saw as the culprit (humanity). Her memory (and his trauma surrounding it) was still an incredible part of his daily life. 

It was important for us to see these two scenes so that Belphie’s character arc - and the story arc for Act 1 of Obey Me - could come to a close.

It’s less important for us to see the other bros reassert that they don’t view MC as Lilith 2.0, therefore. Story-wise, it was Belphie’s relationship with Lilith that defined/dominated Act 1, so focus was always going to be aimed towards him; and while they each have their own struggles with her death, they all viewed MC as significant to them prior to the Lilith Heritage Debacle in a way that differentiated them from Belphie and MC’s precarious and questionable relationship. Pretty much, we were meant to feel more sure of their relationship with MC because of the time we spent with them over the course of Act 1. 

Ofc I could be wrong, bc my memory ain’t always great, and if the other bros do say this then the above is a good way to explain why Belphie’s conversation is so much more memorable. But I’d almost argue that having that convo with anyone but Belphie would be bad storytelling. 

Bc, in a way, what would be the point of having Levi, for instance, say that he doesn’t see MC as Lilith? He spent the better part of a year seeing MC as his Henry. Of course he doesn’t see MC as Lilith; that relationship existed well before he learnt MC’s heritage, and was cemented enough that he was upset at seeing MC dying just because MC was dying. Bc he cared for MC and that was a kind of fucked up thing to see happen to someone you care about. 

If he suddenly turned around and said that he doesn’t see MC as Lilith, it’d feel... a little jarring. 

Because he’d basically be saying, “I know we had built up an entire relationship based on who you are as a person, but the fact that you’re related to my dead sister absolutely, plausibly might have been more important to me than the friendship we have and the person you are that I’ve come to care for”. 

Especially considering the revelation doesn’t change their relationship in such a staggeringly drastic way like it does between MC and Belphie. In a paradoxical way, it’d actually be kind of hurtful, not reassuring, bc we don’t need that closure from them the same way we do from Belphie. 

I absolutely got ramblin on that, fuck. But yeah. That’s what I can remember and also my thoughts on it from a purely story-based standpoint. I think rather than “I don’t see you as Lilith” convos from the other bros, what’d be better is more “I’m still messed up abt Lilith’s death bc I haven’t been able to speak abt it for millenia; now that we’ve got the ban lifted and I feel safe with you, I want to tell you abt how I feel” convos. Just... things to develop them and give them the closure they maybe didn’t get around the end of Act 1, without accidentally jeopardisin MC’s relationship with them.