Lily makes me scratch my head so much as to why she’s there to begin with especially when everyone else is written better and the only other weirdo of her ilk is Rei’s ara ara mom who is written off as a joke that Rei desperately is trying to avoid. Especially knowing what her character is later it’s a genuine confusion to me why was written the way she is.
Lily is a complete mess since shes literally just the mouthpiece for the author to primarily discuss their views on the japanese LGBT community and its handling in society, something that was handled well in the Misha: "Rae, are you what they call Gay?" discussion and then is handled poorly in Yu's Secret and then terribly in the Nur Empire trial. The Author clearly decided they liked her and continues using her after that initial scene, welding multiple other character relations onto her, and keeping her around way longer then any plan called for so she keeps inheriting things that break the character's internal logic further. As i said, she borders on earning a Mary Sue status, as an Author Insert Sue. basically the only reason she isnt, is because Rae is the designate author mouthpiece as all 4 sexuality monologues are dictated by her
the real problem, and i only started bringing this up once the manga brought her in since she comes off as a retcon in the novels, is Pope Clarise and how she breaks Lily's entire story by existing.
Apparently theres a distinctly separate Rei Ohashi clone who Lily has as her Direct Superior, and is just as much of a raging lesbian as Rae Taylor, who doesnt have The Talk with a cardinal who is very clearly emotionally suffering from being publicly outed. And dont say its out of character for the Pope to abuse positional authority with her subordinate, we know shes not above committing sexual assault with a married woman.