Fridge Brilliance
- In Devilman Satan refers to God as a cold and merciless being. The comic gives some context as to why Lucifer would form that opinion. God is depicted as a cosmic arbiter of balance, who is prim and proper and dedicated to the "letter of the law" rather than having any kind of wiggle room. God is not wrong on paper, but his sense of justice is like a cold, neutral hammer that smashes anything it sees as outside his concept of balance — even people he loves like Lucifer. This may mean that God has principles and he will not waiver from them, but such a cold, clinical intelligence made it difficult for Lucifer to think upon God as anything approaching a "loving father", even if God ultimately meant well.
- He can't be bargained with, he can't be reasoned with, he will not feel pity, remorse, nor can you make him falter through fear, and nothing will distract him from his mission. He absolutely will not stop — EVER — until you are caught within his cosmic sense of balance and justice. Are we talking about an eldritch abomination? No we're talking about God. When viewed through this lens, it makes sense why Lucifer would find God to be an overwhelming and somewhat unpleasant being to be around. Even if God's justice/sense of order is ultimately for our "own good" (and it might be fair to argue God knows better about the universe than we do, by a large margin) no intelligent being likes being talked down to and controlled — even if their path leads to self-destruction, it's better they be given the freedom to choose. Even if it meant facing such an unrelenting intelligence like God, Lucifer needed the freedom to make his own mistakes to be truly satisfied.
- What does it truly mean to be perfect? Perfection sounds nice in theory until you actually have it. Things can be accomplished by you with zero effort, and there will never be struggle for you ever again... unless you artificially impose it on yourself. There's no room for intelligence, improvement or imagination — it's effectively a dead end. Desiring something is more satisfying than having it, which is why a true scientist would want to reach for perfection but never attain it, because the idea of exceeding your grasp is more entertaining than actually grabbing what's on the other side. And once you're perfect what is left for you other than to share with others what you've made, and hope against all hope that they will reach insight that you yourself could not see? God's omnipotence has become his greatest weakness and has tortured him with an unending boredom.
- Why does God get surprised by Lucifer's antics, and gets caught off guard by Lucifer's downward spiral into insanity? Because he toned down his omnipotence as much as he could to maintain some sense of excitement with his existence in this universe. Think about what total omniscience (all-knowing) really means. It means that you experience the totality of all existence, and all possibilities at the exact same time. For God a conversation with Lucifer millions of years ago, a pleasant conversation with Michael in the 20th century, and Satan causing an apocalypse on Earth and God having to kill Satan are all equally real and all happening to God's senses at the exact same time. On one hand God doesn't want to live through the emotional whiplash of seeing happy and unpleasant scenes at the same time, but on the other hand if God can see it all it gets boring. If God can be surprised then at least there's potential for imagination, and potential for things to excite him. In a world of absolute certainty there is no room for faith. Even God desires the capacity to have faith, and seeing that his faith (hoping that good outcomes will occur) will be rewarded is an emotional need for the deity.
- Lucifer's association with lightning is fitting, since in the Bible Jesus claims he was a witness to Satan's fall from Heaven. Jesus specifically says "I saw Satan fall from Heaven like lightning." So there is a bit of irony that God remembers Satan's fall by associating him with his signature element. Personality wise Lucifer is also a lot like lightning. Volatile, intensely destructive, burning hot, and impossible to contain. Lucifer's mind is like a raging storm, so of course he would have lightning powers.
- In the Bible only two characters are described as the Morning Star: Lucifer and Jesus Christ. Theology surrounding Jesus is complicated, but insofar as you want to associate Jesus as an incarnation of God this means that Lucifer is a reflection of God's glory, and the one God put the extra effort into making truly special. In the Bible tradition Lucifer was effectively the Chosen One, given command over vast kingdoms both in the material world and the spiritual realms because he was uniquely beautiful and powerful. Lucifer's downfall when compared to God is a reflection of the fact that having a similar nature to God is not enough to guarantee success, and that power requires wisdom in order to employ properly. And if you want to view Jesus as God's Son rather than an incarnation of God's soul, God making a second Morning Star who reflected his glory and majesty, and who would not waiver when tested was God's second chance at getting this concept right.
