#sh asmodeus

It was so awesome! I was already pumped to see Alec going to a random warlock, the chit-chat at the start, Alec casually throwing a bag of gold on the table like it’s nothing. And then we learn of another way to talk to greater demons: channeling. It was so smart and it shows that Alec is on another level in relation to his siblings since they went straight to summoning Lilith, those dummies.

As for the conversation itself: gorgeous. Alec’s honesty and Asmodeus’ manipulation clashed beautifully. Alec went for the family angle, appealing for Asmodeus’ human side the same way he did with Lorenzo. But Alec miscalculated. Asmodeus isn’t human, he’s a demon. He doesn’t love Magnus, he loves the power that Magnus represents in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Asmodeus read Alec perfectly. He went for what hurt the most: he blamed Alec for all of Magnus’ suffering. It’s an easy connection to make: Magnus gave up his magic to help Alec. But that’s a fallacy. Magnus gave up his magic because Asmodeus set that up as a condition. Everything that is happening to Magnus is Asmodeus’ fault.

And it is happening by design. Asmodeus sees Magnus’ humanity as a weakness; he wants Magnus to embrace his demonic heritage. Therefore, Asmodeus wants to take away any links Magnus has to his humanity: love most of all. He cloaks that desire with worry for Magnus’ life (something that he knows Alec truly feels). A couple of well-chosen lies - lies similar enough to truths that Alec would believe and relate to - and Asmodeus was able to manipulate Alec into doing exactly what Asmodeus wants.

The key thing here is that Asmodeus can restore Magnus’ magic whenever he wants. He is choosing not to, he is choosing to let Magnus suffer and despair. If Magnus dies in 50 years of natural causes, it’s because Asmodeus decided so.

As much as I like the “wounded father” routine Asmodeus puts up, he’s still, you know, a demon. Believing he misses Magnus is like believing Lilith truly loves Jonathan. They don’t see Magnus/Jonathan as people. They see them as extensions of themselves. That is as far as they will ever love them.

So, Asmodeus is not really wounded that Magnus wants nothing to do with him. He is wounded that his powerful creation has a mind of his own. Thus, at the first opportunity, Asmodeus takes away Magnus’ power - or what Asmodeus believes to be Magnus’ power.

Because, yeah, magic is great. But magic isn’t what makes Magnus great. That would be Magnus’ intelligence, his compassion, his gentle heart, his bravery. In short, it is Magnus’ humanity that makes him a hero. 

But Asmodeus doesn’t particularly care about Magnus’ humanity. He probably sees it as his weakness because Magnus’ humanity pulls him away from Asmodeus. Anything that does that has got to be a weakness since Asmodeus is the most powerful Prince of Hell.

I could totally be wrong, but I thought that was intentional. By gaining Magnus' power he himself was more powerful than ever before (i.e trapping lilth, not needing the cane)

ladymatt replied to your post “I know Magnus banished him into limbo and all that jazz, but I for one...”

Yeah, same tbh! It may be another continuity error, but far more likely that the magic was used to heal himself imo!

That explanation would make sense if Asmodeus limping was due to some sort of injury, but in biblical/mythological depictions of him, Asmodeus limps because he has one animal foot (rooster leg/a claw, it depends). The limping was a nod to that.

I want to see Magnus doing the magical equivalent of punching Asmodeus square on the face. Though I would whoop if Magnus just punched him too.