this line from volta intrigues me. namely, it seems to hint at how dealing with the devil effects one’s psyche, just as it does one’s physical appearance.
now don’t get me wrong, i’m not about to claim all the courtiers / lucio / anyone else in the devil’s employ are only the way they are due to their deals. volta is clearly a special case given she was tricked into making a deal when she was desperate, whereas the other courtiers seem to be willing participants.
i still think it’s worth exploring the potentiality that being chained to the devil amplifies one’s worst qualities, or otherwise makes the temptation to “give in” to one’s vices much harder to resist. particularly because i think this might uh, explain a lot re: lucio’s behaviour.
take a look at this description of the devil’s card:
The Devil card represents your shadow (or darker) side and the negative forces that constrain you and hold you back from being the best version of yourself. You may be at the effect of negative habits, dependencies, behaviours, thought patterns, relationships, and addictions. You have found yourself trapped between the short-term pleasure you receive and the longer-term pain you experience. Just as the Lovers card speaks to duality and choice, so too does the Devil; however, with the Devil, you are choosing the path of instant gratification, even if it is at the expense of your long-term well-being. In effect, you have sold your soul to the devil!
The Devil card often appears when you have been tricked into thinking you have no control over your shadow self or these negative forces, and that you can never break free from their hold. You believe you need it and you must have it, even if it means going against what you know to be right to obtain it. Deep down, though, you know it’s to your detriment, and you are only doing yourself (and often others) a disservice when you cave in to these lower needs and desires. To break free of these negative patterns, you need to acknowledge the hold they have over you and the impact they are having on your life. For example, the first step of Alcoholics Anonymous is an admission: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable.” - biddytarot[.]com (not linking because i want this damn post to show up in the tags. thanks tumblr.)
ever since dawn of the grub, lucio has been making deals with the devil whether he realized it or not. after all, vlastomil’s power ultimately came from the devil, and is nothing but a man without the devil’s power. subsequently, it stands to reason that lucio has chains of his own, and those chains – that attachment to the devil – has been utterly detrimental to him in terms of personal growth. now that isn’t to say lucio did nothing wrong prior to his deals; he’s obviously always been an obtuse prick. but i do think it’s entirely possible that he is, in a sense, stuck in a cycle of self-sabotage: lucio’s insecurities led him to deal with vlast because he just had to prove he could take over the clan, but of course he still needed to cheat to do so due to his own inadequacies. he still fails even still, and now for the next number of years he’s going to be constantly on the run and fearing for his life. this fear grows worse with close encounters with death, and the eventual realization that a literal plague follows him. in the meantime, likewise, his insecurities continue to fester, leading him to make more and more deals with the devil’s demons – and eventually the devil himself. and with every deal he makes, the more chains he accumulates, and the more dependant he is on said deals, said chains, and said vices (selfishness, narcissism, etc.) overrun his life, make him cruel, and ultimately? just like volta, prevents him from having what he actually wants. just as volta was always hungry, lucio is always hated.
again, don’t get me wrong. this is all self-inflicted, and volta is evidence enough that being chained to the devil doesn’t wholly corrupt one’s conscience. if lucio wants out of this cycle, he’s going to need to acknowledge where his faults lie and how this has affected the people around him. and maybe he will, maybe he won’t, but it’s worth thinking about i think.
(btw, further evidence that lucio is probably chained/corrupted in the same way the courtiers are: his appearance as a ghost. it’s described as “not quite” a ghost and looks a LOT like val’s corrupted form. i’ll hazard that all of these monster forms that the courtiers take on are what their souls’ look like out-of-body, and only valdemar was able to maintain the illusion of their human-esque form as a soul due to how long they’ve been at this.)
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