#also I just love the image of someone with infernal blood dreaming of being divine

[dent-de-leon]

This snippet of dialogue from Romeo & Juliet always gives me heavy Lucien vibes and I need to share the brainrot with you

aHH oh I can definitely see it...I especially love the phrase, "Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical," because it reminds me of when Matt was describing some of the imagery that inspired Lucien's transformation.

In response to Aabria asking, "And why is he mostly naked?"--which, already an amazing and hilarious start--Matt gives us this amazing allusion, "It is very much that angelic, biblical kind of visual--that classic painting I reference. And I wanted...wanted to see his muscles--"

And although Matt never confirms which painting Lucien's Neo Somnovem form is based off of, I always had a feeling it was Fallen Angel. Instantly recognizable, incredibly poignant and tragic. The anger in his eyes, yet the vulnerability of his pose. The way he's grounded down on earth while the rest of the angels are free to fly. Cast down and forgotten--very Lucien to me.

There's also just this facinating parallel to me of those with infernal blood being given wings or other angelic features--as a mark of being so far gone and corrupted. Obann's coveted wings, thematically ripped apart by a real angel when he's struck down. The fiendish Lord of the Hells, Asmodeus, once a "celestial of light"--"Perhaps at one point he wore a golden face...That's long gone."

And then Lucien, who always dreamed of being a butterfly. Transforming into something free and beautiful. Yet his metamorphosis ends in only blood and ruin, wings of bone that will never be able to take flight. He believed himself to be a divinely ordained god, yet when he's finally granted wings, he's more doomed than ever.

And just...the way that Lucien was demonized for his blood for so long, seen as nothing more than a monster. Someone who could never possibly be loved. Even Jester playfully teasing, "I think you're dreamy," takes him completely by surprise. “That��s a new one, as the years went on. Didn’t start that way. Not a lot of folks are eager and kind--especially in Shadycreek Run, growing up--to those of infernal blood.” I think there's also something to be said for Tealeaf literally being someone of infernal blood who uses their blood magic to inflict radiant damage. Something about divine punishment from a demon.

Mollymauk is even called the devil at one point, and it's a moment where we see why Lucien always clung so desperately to being fate touched, to the faint hope that he was destined for more, that there was a future where he would no longer have to be an outcast and a monster, always betrayed and alone. "'The world is yours...We gladly give it to thee...' 'How will I take it? What will it cost?' 'Pain and pain and pain. A dear price for a man, a pittance to a king. And nothing to a God, cosmically ordained...Long may you reign.'" "She's right, this is awfully coincidental...But then, you don't believe in coincidences, do you, Chosen One?"

Going back to theatre and tragedies for a moment--I truly can't get over the fact that Lucien liked performing in plays as a child, and that his parents always cast him as the villain. Lucien portraying the heartless, tyrant knight, demanding that a king murder his own queen if he wants to save his kingdom. "Your lands are surrounded, your castle besieged. Send out your lady love, strike her down before my armies. Her blood for your freedom!"

And I do kind of wonder if the queen's tragic end foreshadows Molly's own choice to tear himself apart to save the rest of the Nein. Lucien the heartless knight, demanding the king sacrifice his beloved queen. Lucien repeatedly telling the Nein to just let go of Mollymauk, to forsake the one person they came this far for. The Mighty Nein risking everything for one doomed, shattered soul. "Not the queen! Not the queen! For our king loves her beyond measure, and she is vanity itself. The kingdom for one soul, and the price never to be paid!" Molly ultimately choosing to give up himself, even though the Nein couldn't. Wholeheartedly believing, "It was worth it. It was worth it--"

Lucien's role in the tragedy also reminds me a bit of the opening for King Richard III. Lucien being as much of a romantic as Mollymauk, but deciding that if he'll never be loved or saved, then he might as well be the coldhearted villain that the whole world tried to make him. "And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover/To entertain these fair, well-spoken days/I am determined to prove a villain."

Resenting Mollymauk for the fact that his soul is so free and full of joy, that this "forgotten fragment," is so adored by the same world that despised him. Begrudging Molly for all the happiness and comforts he never indulged in. Clinging so fiercely to the belief that he was chosen by destiny, some sort of god or king. That he was always meant for more than this tragic, inescapable fate--