Wow, this is kind of a mess. I started out with some sort of structure for this fill, but writing about god is always kind of weird for me because there's the god-within-the-text to whom I can give a voice, an a god-outside-the-text that I stopped believing in about ten years ago but still have uneasy pricklings about when I try to fictionalize him.
But I hope it's sort of clear from the ending that the god-inside-the-text quite likes Matt (because none of what the devil told Matt would come to be happens in S1*) and that Matt, treading a thin line as he is, is actually doing pretty good, doing mysterious work while mystified. I couldn't think of any non-hamhanded way to imply more strongly that the Actual Right Thing for Matt to do is be both his lawyer self and vigilante self, and also to keep on struggling with the ethics of that, like... liminal identity, or whatever.
It is also my personal belief/headcanon that Matt needs to constantly struggle with it for it to stay Right, that there is something genuinely thorny here and the moment he gets complacent or manages to compartmentalize what he's doing, it becomes less right, although that didn't make it in.
*except Karen's thing, which I hope will be addressed in S2 - I WANT MY BEAUTIFUL IDEALISTIC DUMB BABY MUCKRAKER to come clean to her friends and be happyyyy and I am convinced it's going to happen and she's going to be okay.
On the devil: I originally set out trying to be true to the prompt and making him this neutral figure who was just going to sit down with Matt and be fair about the gray areas Matt was straying into, but his traditional role as a tempter was so interesting to me, because Matt wants such contradictory things in life and I thought it would be really fun to dangle those in front of his face, and also examine how not pursuing those were making him unhappy.
Anyway I've written this kind of bloated pretentious thing that hopefully is interesting to some fans who have the same buttons I have, and I've tried to explain what these buttons actually were for me because I'm worried I did a terrible job of making those buttons into a story + pressing them.
quick filler's note (bc I have feeeeelings as both a fangirl and an ex-Christian)
But I hope it's sort of clear from the ending that the god-inside-the-text quite likes Matt (because none of what the devil told Matt would come to be happens in S1*) and that Matt, treading a thin line as he is, is actually doing pretty good, doing mysterious work while mystified. I couldn't think of any non-hamhanded way to imply more strongly that the Actual Right Thing for Matt to do is be both his lawyer self and vigilante self, and also to keep on struggling with the ethics of that, like... liminal identity, or whatever.
It is also my personal belief/headcanon that Matt needs to constantly struggle with it for it to stay Right, that there is something genuinely thorny here and the moment he gets complacent or manages to compartmentalize what he's doing, it becomes less right, although that didn't make it in.
*except Karen's thing, which I hope will be addressed in S2 - I WANT MY BEAUTIFUL IDEALISTIC DUMB BABY MUCKRAKER to come clean to her friends and be happyyyy and I am convinced it's going to happen and she's going to be okay.
On the devil: I originally set out trying to be true to the prompt and making him this neutral figure who was just going to sit down with Matt and be fair about the gray areas Matt was straying into, but his traditional role as a tempter was so interesting to me, because Matt wants such contradictory things in life and I thought it would be really fun to dangle those in front of his face, and also examine how not pursuing those were making him unhappy.
Anyway I've written this kind of bloated pretentious thing that hopefully is interesting to some fans who have the same buttons I have, and I've tried to explain what these buttons actually were for me because I'm worried I did a terrible job of making those buttons into a story + pressing them.
thanks for reading!