A Great Character

A/N: Very light spoiler alert for Lucifer.

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The Great Character is a character, who can save a show. It’s a character, who can take a book, a movie, or a TV-show and make it worth your while. You can, of course, argue that subjectivity plays a vital role in this – as it does in everything regarding the worlds of literature and media. Just because I find a show dull and a character entertaining, doesn’t mean that you do.

But often, we do agree. Quite a few people agree that Game of Thrones is a great show. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have the budget it has today. Sure, taste is subjective but there are certain things that speak to ninety-five percent of us. And ninety-five percent of seven billion is quite a lot of people. If ninety-five percent of people like something you’ve made, you’re set. Or should I say almost set? You do, after all, need to get their attention before you can impress them. But that’s a post for another time.

Right now, I want to talk about characters that impressed me – and then I hope that in this case, I’m part of the ninety-five percent and not the five. Otherwise, feel free to comment and let me know why you might disagree.

For this post, I’ll focus on the characters of the TV-show Lucifer, which is currently airing on Netflix. And why I think the characters are what makes Lucifer worthwhile to watch. Let’s see what we have to work with, shall we?

Lucifer Morningstar. Lucifer Morningstar is the main character of Lucifer. He’s charming, he’s funny, and he’s the actual Devil – currently on vacation. But he’s also honest, childish, and emotionally vulnerable. He’s a pretty sympathetic Devil. He’s flawed, but he tries his best with the things that matter and he’s so delightfully oblivious to his own emotions that we can’t help but feel for the charming, but clueless Devil. His witty comments are unparalleled – “I thought that since I’ll never likely penetrate you, I’d commemorate the one time you penetrated me” – and he makes us laugh and sympathise all at once. Lucifer is a surprisingly complex character, Tom Ellis portrays him to perfection, and we can’t help but fall in love with the Devil. Devil-face and all.

Mazikeen Smith. Mazikeen Smith, or Maze as she’s called, is a sadistic, confident and sexy demon with a complete disregard for social norms. But during the show, she proves herself to be far more than this. Trixie (another wonderful character) brings out her more vulnerable side, and Maze is quickly shown to be caring, loyal, and willing to do anything for her friends – occasionally going a bit far in her quest to do so. As with Lucifer, it’s this juxtaposition that makes her such an entertaining character.

And there are plenty of other great characters in this show. Who can help but love the mischievous Trixie or the adorkable Ella Lopez? Not to mention Linda Martin, possibly the only therapist alive who can handle the Devil as a client.

Lucifer is full of great characters and let’s face it… without them, the show would be decent at best. Crime solving detective? Yawn. Seen it a hundred times. Throw in some fantastical elements? A tad more different, but hardly worth the hours you need to invest.

No, it’s the characters that make Lucifer worth watching. Without them, it would most likely have died a swift and merciless death. And we see this in plenty of TV-shows, plenty of movies, and plenty of books. Often it’s not the outlandish plots or the adrenaline-pumping actions scenes that make us come back for more. No, often it’s the characters that keep us glued to the screen.

After all – what’s the fun in a journey if we hate our travel companion? We need someone who’s personality quirks we love, and Lucifer certainly gives us this – impertinent Devil that he is.

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