#1 women fan

hi!

short answer: hm, i don't see it that way but i also don't object that vision

long answer: I just would like to explain what I think about Delilah and love overall, in order to justify my ambivalent stance on this. When talking about her relationships, it's worth mentioning her overall approach to romance, and it's possible to track a common character trait that her canon lovers are known to have. Among the ones that we know of are: Arnold Timsh, who sponsored her artistic pursuits and was a training dummy for her painting possession, Breanna, who was sort of an executive director of the coven while Delilah was the owner, Luca who might have been just a one-sided admirer for all we know, but his infatuation was not overlooked by Delilah in order for him to get the coup rolling. One of the popular headcanons that also supports that trope is that Billie was also seduced by Delilah, which I like but won't be counting for the purposes of working with what we know for certain.

All of them possess various degrees of influence and strength of personality. It's the power she's attracted to, and wants to possess it or whoever has it (sometimes too literally). "I'm forever grateful for being your instrument," Breanna writes; and being an instrument for Delilah is the closest thing that comes to be loved by Delilah. While she enjoys blind worship, her character is all about the conquering rather than reaping the fruit of her conquests, it's never enough for Delilah, she takes and takes and she takes. So I think she enjoys a challenge that comes with gaining affection of powerful individuals, a sense of achievement of a sort. As soon as the relationship loses that challenge in her eyes or the practical benefit, it ceases to be of interest for Delilah – which I think what happened to Breanna, it's above Her Majesty Delilah to associate herself with someone so powerless. (Though why it didn't occur to her to give that power back when Breanna proved herself to be very capable without Delilah is beyond me. Possibly because the failure to brainwash the Oracular Order was too big an L? – questions that the writers never asked themselves)

I'm just not sure if the Brigmore coven, consisting mostly of downtrodden women, is an "achievement" and attraction enough for Delilah, and I tend to mentally reference Billie's line in DH2, "Delilah wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire," when thinking about their relationship.

However that does not exclude the possibility of something more trivial going on between Delilah and the witches, I bet she thinks of them as her property and does with them as she sees fit. It's clear that the 99% of them have an unhealthy amount of blind adoration for Delilah, so I could see the possibility of some one-sided affection and desire on witches' side that Delilah could occasionally humor for personal amusement and whatnot. Another headcanon of mine is that similar-ish to the effects of Daud's mark, which is described by the Heart to hold the Whalers in some sort of mind fog, Delilah's powers infuse the receiver with (or maybe only amplify) deep adoration for her. Also kind of a mind fog/brainwash, just more tailored to its creator.