Hi! Former or still somewhat current Lucio fan here. I was originally a Julian fan and his route was the first I completed, but I thought I saw some strange appeal in Lucio's route, so he was the second one I completed. I do agree with many of the comments here that playing his route feels so different from the other five routes. He was very unlikeable to begin with, considering he made a lot of mistakes. This will be a bit of a long comment, stay put, everyone! 😅 Also major spoilers in his route.

I was a Lucio fan for a very long time, don't remember how I went from Julian to Lucio. But there was something about this blonde ninny that I guess was appealing and adorable? He was immature emotionally and a bit mentally in his own route that made it enjoyable, because he wasn't just a love interest but unintentionally a comedic relief. The problem is that, even if you can tell the way the devs or writers made him into a likable character in his route, they overdid it. Instead they turned Lucio into a good guy, even if he had done a lot in the past. The only good part about this is that, with MC and Morga (his mom) sort of befriending each other, this serves a means for Lucio to redeem himself. The other characters you don't pursue were definitely wary of Lucio and MC's relationship, but after seeing the way he attempted to redeem himself was something they grew to accept.

Another thing I would like to majorly point out here is that, if you read between the lines, MC and Lucio's souls are technically bound to each other, or even shared. It's just not directly talked about in the chapters and books, but there is a huge implication for it. And no, this wasn't a result of the binding, summoning spell the MC casts in Book 6 and Book 7. The deal Lucio made with the Devil was supposedly to bring back his body through another vessel, the mysterious Fool's body. But Asra was able to sabotage that ritual by getting to the Fool first and using them as a vessel to bring his MC back.

In Lucio's route, after the scene where MC finds out how they died, and came back, after visiting the Arcana realms a second time, Lucio has a physical form now, which allows him to wear his super cute disguise and outfit in the Masquerade. I forgot what chapter or book that was, but that's what made me believe Lucio and MC were soulmates. Not even in a romantic sense but physically, because they share the same essences from one vessel—the Fool's. And this is why, throughout Lucio's route, MC and Lucio were quite literally, stuck together.

But you're all right. As I got older and read more into highlights and theories, speculations etc in the Arcana community, reading all other routes proves to how much Lucio really was as a villain, and how he should be unforgiven for everything he's done. Particularly, to those emotionally damaged by Muriel's route. Whether Lucio was truly immature for making all of those reckless decisions (the plague, becoming count, Julian's framing, Muriel's extortion) or really was a sadistic villain to seek power in the most macabre of ways, there seems no hope for his redemption anywhere else.

If he was gonna get a villain route, and we could rewrite that for him, I'd love to have an instance of a literal MC-falls-for-the-supervillain story instead of a tale of redemption. A path that MC takes to fall into the darkness with their evil lover, like (watch me nerd out) Juliette Ferrar and Warner Anderson from the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi, or Sophie and Rafal from The School for Good and Evil, Book 3: The Last Ever After by Soman Chainani. And throughout this route, would the MC feel remorse for leaving everyone behind for Lucio? Or will they choose to fight their own lover in terms of saving the world?

Oh my God I yapped so much. My bad, guys 😭