Lucifer is one of the most popular Netflix shows, and it surely deserves all of the attention it has received. The show gives you a whole new perspective on some of the celestial beings you know from religious texts and other legends, thanks to an amazing storyline and fascinating characters. Although the series is based on a DC comic series, the adaptation departs from the source material. The fans are glued to the show because of the novelty of the story and the radically different portrayal of the devil. Tom Ellis plays the titular character, and his dynamic portrayal makes him the star of the film.
However, as we stated at the outset, many of the events depicted in the show diverge significantly from Biblical stories. Things have been twisted and changed to match the storyline, from the portrayal of demons to the narrative on Michael. But it appears to work just well because seeing a different aspect of the devil adds to the fun element! Where else can you find a good-hearted crime-fighting devil who is more likable than some of the so-called heroes? In this video, we have narrowed down some of the program’s characters who are very different from what you are used to!
Lucifer Morningstar
He claims to be a devil of his word, and he is as charming as James Bond at a party! Clearly, the differences from the actual portrayal of the Devil can be spotted from the very first episode. The series shows him as the Devil, the Lord of Hell, who is bored after spending an eternity in the world of the damned. Now, he wishes to have some fun, and what can be a better place than Los Angeles! So, he ends up in the middle of happening city life, and he owns a Nightclub named Lux. Lucifer becomes an unlikely ally to Detective Chloe (pronounced Chlo-see), and together they solve crimes, and the devil deals with the complexities of life on Earth.
If that is his character, in a nutshell, it is a far cry from the Biblical depictions of the Devil. The one from the Holy books is not someone you would want as your friend because contrary to the loveable character in the show, he is the epitome of all forms of evil. The infamous Biblical character does not evoke any sympathy, and he is known to lie and deceive people. He is the personification of evil, and he wants humanity to be corrupted and destroyed. According to mainstream Christianity, Lucifer is a fallen angel, who was sentenced to eternal life in hell after he rebelled against God. While this part has been retained in the narrative, the creators took the liberty of turning him into an anti-hero.
He is shown as someone who always speaks the truth, and there are times in the story when he doesn’t shy away from sacrificing himself in order to save his loved ones! Even his rift with God has been significantly mellowed down, and we have been handed a Devil who loathes criminals. In terms of appearance, the Biblical Devil has horns, a mutilated face, and a tail, but the one in the show is a rather handsome man. We do get glimpses of his disgusting devil face and body, but even that is not exactly how the Biblical descriptions sound like. However, it has to be said that the changes worked wonders because the character in the show will certainly be remembered for a very long time!
Lilith
If you have only watched Lilith in the show, you have no idea just how terrifying her Biblical character is! The Netflix series portrayed her as the mother of Mazikeen and other demons, but she appears to be a confident and attractive young lady. She was created by God to be Adam’s first wife, but she never loved him. For disobeying orders, she was cast out of heaven and Eve was created to replace her. She tamed the beasts of the night and she gave birth to several demonic children, including Mazikeen. When they were very young, she sent them all to hell to be a part of Lucifer’s army. She once contacted Lucifer and sought his assistance back in 1946, when she was a cabaret singer. She had lost her ring made of heavenly rocks, and Lucifer helped her get it back! She later features in an emotional journey for Mazikeen, when she discovers that she had been abandoned by her mother.
Now, forget the adorable stories we just told you because the reality is not quite so loveable! She has figured in various religious texts and all of them banish her as pure evil. Her origins can be found in Babylonian demonology, Biblical texts, and also Judaism texts. During the Renaissance, Michelangelo created Lilith as a half-woman, half-serpent, coiled around the Tree of Knowledge. Her bold struggle for independence from Adam, however, finds a few mentions, but she is not a character that you feel sorry for. She is a female demon, and her attractive outer appearance hides the beastly insides. In some religious texts, she is described as the demon that threatens the sexual and reproductive aspects of life. In several stories, Lilith is known to be a notorious murderer of children and seducer of men. Over the ages, literature, religious texts, and folklore have painted a horrifying picture of Lilith, and this mother of demons is not even a pale shadow of the adorable character on the show!
Mazikeen
You all know Mazikeen as the super hot and fearless demon, who is Lucifer’s trusted comrade on Earth. She is mean and enjoys violence, but she is far from evil. In fact, she is shown to punish the bad guys along with Lucifer and Detective Chloe, and her rude behavior is only a cover for her emotional side.
She is one of Lilith’s children and worked for Lucifer in Hell. When he left Hell for a new life on Earth, she followed and adjusted to the new life. However, you will be surprised to know that no such character exists in the Bible in the first place! But Mazikeen is not entirely made up as well. This demon-turned-bounty-hunter working alongside Lucifer finds mention in ancient texts that prove her credentials as a threatening demon.
In Jewish mythology, a kind of deadly invisible demon is called Mazikeen. They can be a cause for great annoyance, and they can also bring about great danger. The Hebrew meaning of the word Mazikeen is that of harm, and Jewish central texts also refer to these demons as the Talmud. These are basically a type of terrifying demons that can be encountered in everyday life, and they are extremely harmful. She is not exactly the alluring lady if the descriptions from the texts are to be trusted. We did see her demonic skinless mutilated face in series, but they were only momentary when she was vulnerable.
The show did try and experiment with some characters that are not directly mentioned in the Bible. Amanadiel, the angel from heaven, one of the protagonists of the show, is also a fictional character created simply for the purpose of the narrative. However, such characters do bear some resemblance to some real ones from religious texts. While Amanadiel has a lot of characteristics of Archangel Gabriel, Mazikeen the demon is derived from Jewish texts. But once again, she has been changed into a loveable character who seeks love and redemption and her evil side is mostly reserved for the bad guys in the show.
Dromos
There is a very interesting story arc in Lucifer, which deals with Father William Kinley, a priest who discovered the real identity of Lucifer Morningstar. He was obsessed with the prophecy involving Lucifer and his first love causing the destruction of the Earth, and he could go to any length to stop the carnage. When he learned about Lucifer’s soft spot for Detective Chloe, he left no stones unturned in trying to turn her against him. However, the ploy does not succeed, and he is finally killed by Eve. But the story doesn’t end here because a notorious demon from Hell, Dromos, takes shelter in his body. Dromos was previously one of Lucifer’s main lieutenants in Hell, and he took over the body of the Priest in order to take Lucifer back to hell.
Dromos is one of the several demonic children that Lilith had, and he was perceived as someone dimwitted by both Lucifer and his sister Mazikeen. He possessed the body of Father Kinley and he wanted to go ahead with the entire procedure that the Father had planned to banish Lucifer back to hell. However, it did not work, and after failing to take Lucifer, Dromos had some other plans. He kidnapped Amanadiel’s infant son Charlie and tried to organize a coronation event to make him the new king of hell.
Only a celestial being could rule Hell, and thus, the son of an angel was the perfect fit. Just as he was performing the ceremony, he was interrupted by Lucifer, Mazikeen, Chloe, and Amanadiel. After a brief fight, Lucifer took his true devil form, and it was enough to scare Dromos into submission. He was then commanded to go back to hell along with the other demons. Christian demonology does mention a demon called Dromos, but apart from his evil ways, there are few similarities with the on-screen character. For instance, the Biblical Dromos wouldn’t dream of taking on the Devil himself, and he is simply a submissive soldier in the Devil’s army.
Belios
While there is no direct mention of Belios in the Bible, this demon is probably derived from the Ascension of Isaiah, where Belial is referred as the angel of lawlessness. In this narrative, he is no less than Satan and is a similar embodiment of pure evil. In the show Lucifer, Belios is one of the demons from hell, and one of the many children of Lilith. He is portrayed to be a crucial servant of Lucifer, who helps him torture some of the damned souls in hell.
In this context, it has to be mentioned that the concept of hell in the show is very different from the hell that is described in the Bible. In the show, hell is nothing but a person reliving his guilt again in again. This unending vicious loop makes the person experience the trauma continuously, and various people have various memories that are used to create this hell loop. Belios helps in enacting some of the characters in these hell loops. He appears to be a fearsome and terrifying demon, but he is shown to be rather charming and charismatic. He obeys the orders of Lucifer, and he is shown to have a quick wit even in his tortures. If Belial is indeed the Biblical character that Belios is inspired by, it is certainly a mellowed version to suit the entertainment purposes!
Goddess – the villain and the protagonist
The show has a diverse depiction of the Goddess of all creations, the co-creator of the world. She is shown to be the ex-wife of God, and she seems to have a troubled relationship with God. She possessed the body of a lawyer named Charlotte Richards after she was murdered, and she served as the main antagonist in Season 2. She caused a lot of trouble for Lucifer and her real intentions were cleverly hidden in her actions. She simply wanted her sons to unify and fight God once again in another epic battle. This celestial entity caused enough problems, and Lucifer and Amanadiel had to clear up the mess that she had created. However, the show ultimately made her reconcile with God, and she doesn’t end as a villainous character.
It is shown that the rift between Goddess and God was created because the latter was too busy with his creations. This gradually built a lot of hatred in Goddess for the humans, and she caused floods and deadly diseases so that her husband spent more time in the relationship. This angered God, who cast her into Hell and she had her own torture methods to deal with. After eons of torment, she finally managed to escape Hell and arrived on Earth. The Bible does not mention the mother of Lucifer, and he is believed to have been created out of fire. Other folklore mentions Lucifer to be the son of goddess Aurora, who is the personification of dawn and awakening. Whatever be the case, the character played by Tricia Helfer, was widely popular among the fans and the transformation of this character was heart-warming.
Michael
It is no secret that the show Lucifer thrives on extreme contrasts. While it has so-called evil characters as the unlikely good guys, it also portrays some of the supposedly pure celestials as antagonists. Michael is an Archangel, and he is the twin brother of Lucifer Morningstar. He is shown to be a manipulative character, who has manipulated God over the years to make sure that he takes over the charges of heaven after God.
When Lucifer starts to gain a reputation for his actions on Earth, Michael grows jealous of his spurned brother, and he carries out certain nefarious acts to show him in a bad light. He manipulates everyone around Lucifer against him, and he preys upon the worst fears of individuals to get his job done. It is later learned that Michael was the one who instigated Lucifer’s rebellion against God in the first place. The show boils down to an intense final confrontation between the two brothers, where Lucifer prevails. But he forgives his brother Michael and offers him a chance to redeem himself.
While Michael might seem like the worst brother ever, the actual Biblical character is actually exactly the opposite. He is the protector of heaven and the savior of mankind. According to Judaism, Michael’s enmity with Samael or Lucifer begins from the time when the latter was banished for a life in hell. Samael tried to drag Michael down as well, but God saved the Archangel. Christianity views Michael as a healer, and a positive force, who does God’s work. In fact, there is a famous battle fought between Lucifer and Michael in the religious texts just like in the show. However, in this case, Michael was the one who fought to save heaven and he single-handedly took on the Devil and his army of demonic creatures. The Michael from the Lucifer TV series would not be pleased to see how much the creators of the show dragged him down!
I think the most entertaining part of the show was the variation that surprised the audience. We all know about the iconic characters portrayed, but the way the stories have been woven around them is what makes the show fascinating. If you haven’t watched it already, it is high time you checked out this popular series for a different perspective on the familiar characters.