#samie rambles

From a narrative point of view, Lucifer is the most important brother. I don’t think that’s up for debate. 

He’s the reason everyone fell, the reason they’re all bound to Diavolo, he’s the one who locked Belphegor away, he’s the one credited for choosing you for the program, and he’s the one “in charge” of you [Mammon is your guardian, but that choice was Lucifer’s, not Mammon or Diavolo’s]. It’s his trust you’re breaking, his respect you’re trying to get. 

The narrative focuses on him more than anyone else. And this isn’t technically his “route” yet either. [If they do specific routes, that is. We’re on wait and see for that.]

But, as you say, Mammon is the one with you all the time, so why isn’t he the “Main” Love Interest? 

Well, because his narrative role in the story is often more of the clown or, in general, a humorous one. He is actively shown to have a crush on you, and is greedy for affection/attention from you, but his potential romance scenes never quite hit in the way they should if he was meant to be the main. 

When Levi goes to attack you, its not Mammon who saves you. It’s not even whoever you call for. It’s specifically Lucifer swooping in because Mammon couldn’t. 

When you go to the retreat, it’s Lucifer who swoops in to steal you for a dance when Mammon is [rather obviously] trying to ask you. 

He does this again in the hard lessons while in London. 

Lucifer is the one to turn Mammon’s idea of matching keychains between you and him into a group thing. [And it’s mentioned later on only for Lucifer.] 

There might be more examples, but I’m going off of what I remember. And from a narrative perspective, Mammon’s attempts at romance lean towards silly, light hearted, etc. If this were a traditional love story, he’d be meant to be the awkward loser with a crush. Used as a foil to show you how cool the real love interest is.

From a Marketing Perspective, which is what I was referring to with typical Otome game pushing their “Main”, it’s a little foggier, and it makes me think that Mammon and the other brothers “tested” better than expected. 

In nearly all marketing material that include all of the brothers, he is at the fore. He’s either first if it’s a list, or in the center if it’s a spread. 

His CGs tend to be featured the most often in the ads, and even the anime intro focused on him more than any other brother, more similar to if he were the protagonist.

[”But Samie!” You say, “he’s the oldest, so of course he is often first/featured!” Well, sure, but that was a narrative choice, as traditional demonology does not have them consistently aged/ranked like the game. Hell, Lucifer isn’t even universally grouped with these specific demons. Only the Laterne of Light and Binsfield’s [the “seven sins model”] classifications even include Lucifer.  But I digress…]

Also of note, in otome game marketing, in terms of how the Shall We Date? Games tend to market/focus on their characters, I’ll look at all of NTT Solmare’s Ninja series’s. [Ninja Love, Ninja Shadow, Ninja Assassin], They tend to have a formula for their “mains”, which is noticeable, but changes as they add more options. The Official Leader of the group is rarely the emotional leader of the group, who is almost always the “main” romance option. Which. Diavolo, as a currently unromanceable character who is literally the next in line to the throne, fills that role. [Hanzo, Makoto, Kinshiro]. 

Lucifer is second in command to Diavolo, though, which is actually notoriously their favourite spot for the “main romance”. [Saizo, Ukyo, Soji.] Mammon falls in third “role”, which in all of these examples, is the more flirty/cool character [Goemon, Asagi, Aoi]. 

I’ve written more than I intended, so I’m now all kind of rambled out, even tho I could probably go more in depth with the thought process behind the marketing and why I believe that they altered plans when Lucifer wasn’t as popular as expected. [Mammon definitely stole the show in the beta.]

And once again, since this is an otome game, there’s no correct answer to who you’re supposed to romance, so they can only clearly cut off a romance option in a specific route. Which, we haven’t reached their romance routes yet, so I might be proven wrong.

Also, alternatively, my view of Lucifer as the “Main” love interest could be because he was originally planned to be the “main” antagonist instead. It’s hard to say for sure.

I also didn’t proofread this or anything, so. Sorry if it’s only marginally coherent.