Lucious Lyon is a hating a** hater. As each episode of Empire passes, I become more and more convinced that he doesn’t love his family. He doesn’t love anyone. I doubt he loves himself. With Lucious being the main guardian of the boys growing up, it’s amazing they’re as well adjusted as they are.
Out of all the Lyon boys, Andre probably struggles the most. He was already singled out for not having a musical talent. But that was only one of the many ways he’s disappointed his father. Lucious doesn’t approve of his marriage, relegating it to nothing more than attempt for Andre to sit at the table with white people.
This causes Lucious to ignore Andre, and as a result, Andre becomes isolated from his family. Rarely does he share scenes with his mother or his brothers. He doesn’t interact with them to even fight with them, except for one incident with Hakeem. This is telling, since he’s the oldest, and oldest children are known for being protective of their younger siblings.
Jamal is everything Lucious wanted in a son: extremely talented, level headed, assertive, and competent. There’s only one major problem. His sexuality. Lucious has tried his best to get to turn Jamal straight: beat it out of him, put it (him) in the trash, make him get married, cut him off, and who knows what else. But Lucious would rather lose everything than accept his gay son.
I think the problem is Lucious sees so much of himself in Jamal. He’s a new and improved Lucious without the questionable morals. It seemed like Lucious was coming around and then he reverted back to his old self. Maybe deep down, he sees Jamal as a threat. So Lucious picks apart his one (perceived) major flaw.
Hakeem is depicted as Lucious’s favorite son. But Hakeem isn’t so much the favorite but the last man standing. After the disappointment of his first two sons, Lucious’s putting all of his eggs in Hakeem’s basket. Lucious will look over the fact the Hakeem is obviously less talented than his brother. Lucious dotes on Hakeem, but I get the sense that their relationship is kiddie pool deep. Lucious probably has to put Hakeem’s birthday in his Google Calendar to remember it.
Lucious romantic relationships are a mess, too. Even from the first episode, it was clear that there something off about Lucious’s relationship with Anika. As time passed, it became clear that he was keeping her around for what she could do for him, not because of love. Her doctor father was a big draw. He doesn’t even try to hide his affection for Cookie from her, and Cookie has become her sworn enemy.
One could argue that Cookie is Lucious’s one true love, but I’m not convinced. Maybe once upon a time, he loved her. Now, I think any “love” he feels is carnal attraction and familiarity. She is the mother of his children. Any “love” he shows toward Cookie is likely a subconscious attempt to uphold his idea of family. He can’t even summon up enough love and courage to leave Anika for Cookie.
As much as Lucious Lyon talks about family and how he wants to leave a legacy for them, he probably just wants his family to preserve his legacy. The way he pushes everyone away from him, it’ll be a miracle if he doesn’t die alone. I don’t know. Maybe his daughter/granddaughter that everyone refuses to get a paternity for can melt his cold black heart. I’m not counting on it, though.
