#FEMINIST RETELLING NOW
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Not to be that person but i think we miiiight need to stop calling feminist retellings of popular stories feminist retellings and start calling them what they increasingly seem to be: attempts to make "villanous" female characters more likeable to modern sensibilities
#why are you making middle aged ambitious lady macbeth a 17 yr old in your feminist retelling bro#how are u less woke than a man born in the elizabethan era#give me back my unsex me now speech
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This little bit of the Iliad is so interesting like. Briseis mourning her own situation and describing her attachment to Patroclus for trying to âbetterâ her situation in attempting to give her the security of a marriage. Like it's horrible that being married to your familyâs killer is the 'best' possible option (and likely that her feelings towards one of her captors would be much, MUCH more complicated than depicted), but also believable as being a relief to someone in her position in this uber-patriarchal cultural context where this sort of thing is a fact of life.
And describing these other unnamed women (who are also captured in war and enslaved as wives/sexual partners for the men who have sacked their cities and killed their husbands/fathers/brothers/etc) going about the display of mourning for Patroclus and using it as a way to vent their grief about their situations. The POV fully understands that their grief isn't really about this Greek guy who's been sacking their cities being dead.
Like most of the Iliad doesnât really concern itself with the women that the story revolves around (and is of course completely and utterly of its time and context) but these very humanizing moments show an awareness of these people as full human beings who Do Not Like Their Situations (even as it effusively honors the people who have enslaved them). Itâs small in the grand scheme of things but very compelling and frankly a lot more nuanced than a lot of Feminist Greek Mythology Retellings tend to be without even trying.
#Not arguing that this is âfeministâ or proto feminist to be clear LMAO. Hopefully I'm getting my point across.#It's more just that it's concerned with the full humanity of these people while being completely of its historical context and#retellings that deprive them of this context kind of deprive them of their full humanity in a way#And also that it's just interesting on its own merits and the Iliad is a very interesting text#Ok I am done with my latest Greek mythos rant for now
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I get why so many people dislike certain retellings for being sanitized and inaccurate and often times betraying a disdain for the original mythos and ignorance for the culture of the time period âŠ.
âŠâŠ. But pointing at specifically feminist retelling, as if a lot of retellings donât fall into those pitfalls whether or not theyâre feminist, really makes you look like a huge dickhead âŠ.
#Discourse#Like I get it but pleaaaase stop putting all the blame on specifically feminist things#This wasnât something I realized before because literally everytime I hear people name drop feminist retellings itâs in criticism so it just#started fading into the background but like . Now thinking about it . It is the most blatantly misogynistic thing .#(Esp cause the reason a lot of people think some of them are badly written is just because theyâre aimed at teenage girls and we know how#ppl treat things girls like . but whatever I guess#)
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finding out that a person who makes unfunny tiktok skits abt greek mythology is also a published author of an Iliad retelling is such a horrifying reveal
#ââin this sapphic rivals to lovers feminist reimagining ofâââ#ââin this fake dating hades and persephone retellingâââ#end me now do it quickly. dear god.#textphelia
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Every generation of shows and media will always have their own version of superwholock. And as much as how the internet cringes at superwholock it's always gonna be an expected phenomenon because people will always find different media that they enjoy and they will always want to see them together. And there's nothing really that bad about it because it's made with pure fun.
So yeah, enjoy your superwholocks. Enjoy your Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragon. And enjoy your pinescones and morditwi. What matters is that your having fun with what you're doing. And if people are bothered by it then that's their problem.
#fandom stuff#posting this because I started looking into ben 10 crossovers again#gonna be honest it really does feel like its own genre#like the whole teenage chosen one needing to juggle highschool and saving the world thing#idk much thoughts about them and how the trauma and expectations placed on them is such a specific experience that#people from their world may not be able to understand hence why it's a fun idea to have ben 10 interact with people like jake long#also I grew up watching them and the idea of your favs interacting would have any 8 yr old foaming in the mouth#and I guess reading excerpts of greek heroes in legends along with common themes and archetypes in different stories and epics#makes me think about these tropes and archetypes and how these myths affect people#or is affecting me right now#but yeah the superwholock thing#I kinda remember how in the post-homerica and in retellings of jason and the argonauts they sometimes put in their have heroe in there#like oh yeah herakles was in the argo along with that one guy he supposedly killed in one of his myths#along with you oyher fave greek heroes#yeah they were all in the argo with Iason#and you know in the trojan war? actually the amazonian queen hyppolita was there and inspired a short lived feminist revolution in Troy#while killing so many of the greek armies#although I haven't checked my sources in a long time#but yeah humanity has always been putting their favorite heroes together for as long as we could remember#so the superwholock phenomena is pretty normal in literature and mythology#idk idk where I'm going with this now and I'm just rambling at this point and there's so much for me to think about#so yeah#marge's stuff#superwholock#rise of the brave tangled dragons#honestly idk how else to tag this#cringe culture is dead#have fun#disclaimer I am not in the superwholock fanbase nor the other one#the most I got into were gravity falls crossovers that happen here and there
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Re: my observation that the average undergraduate now seems to have much greater familiarity with Homeric epic and at least some Greek literature (esp. tragedy) than with the Aeneid or any Roman material, I think thereâs a myriad of things at work here but at least one is that weâve reverted to this weird cultural construct where ancient Greek myth and literature is viewed as universal while Roman literature is viewed as particular and this affects what books are taught e.g. in high school and college English classes but also what gets mined for retellings. and I also think Roman material is often imagined as being more deeply implicated in the ideological framework of patriarchal western imperial society and like, in some cases perhaps thatâs fair, but I would argue as a literary historian that Roman poetry is precisely where we see the cracks forming in Roman gendered imperialism just like Greek tragedy is where we see the cracks forming in Athenian gendered imperialism. whether we want to commit to any idea of authorial intent is a different question but imo itâs impossible to read e.g. Roman elegy or pastoral or even Lucan and come away with the pop-culture idea of the iconic masculine Roman subject (hell, I think even the Aeneid questions the conventional notion of masculine Roman virtus that Lucan absolutely shatters, but thatâs another discussion)
anyways this also gets combined with a dynamic thatâs really maddening to me as a classicist where anything Roman is almost exclusively gendered as masculine in popular culture (see the Roman Empire meme, but also the subculture of Jordan Peterson bros roleplaying as stoics and reading or pretending to read Marcus Aurelius) whereas on the Greek side we have Anne Carsonâs Sappho translations and a total saturation of feminist rewritings of Greek myth, Homeric epic, and tragedy. this is actually really weird from the perspective of a Roman social historian, given that women are far more visible in Roman material (esp. from the 1st century CE onward) than they are anywhere in classical Greek society, and it has the consequence that Roman poetry (except, like, Lucretius I guess) gets sidelined because the types of dudes that are going to maybe read Marcus Aurelius or Tacitus are definitely not going to read Catullus or Vergilâs Eclogues or even the Aeneid given that poetry itself is often gendered as feminine in the 21st century popular imagination, and the types of non-classicists who like Anne Carsonâs Sappho and feminist approaches to Greek myth are also probably not going to read Roman poetry
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psst. "feminist" retelling writers. yes, i'm talking to you. i have a gift for you: here are some interesting women from greek mythology that you can write about that are NOT medusa, persephone or clytemnestra! there ARE other women, shocking i know!
-medea: she literally killed her brother and her children, i thought "female rage" girlies would be all over her
-danae: her life is so crazy, imagine being imprisoned by you father, getting impregnated by a god, being locked in a box and left to die at sea and then basically becoming a hostage to a king while your son is sent to kill a monster. and she's one of the only ones who, to my knowledge, actually gets a happy ending!
-atalanta: basically the only female hero in greek mythology!! and she was an argonaut!! c'mon now there is so much potential here, why does nobody care for atalanta
-the amazons: penthesilea! hippolyta! literally any of them! you're telling me there is a whole society of female warriors and so called feminist writers aren't jumping at the opportunity??
-hecuba: such a tragic and interesting figure, being the queen of troy, she lost her whole family in the war, i wish more people explored her relationship with her children (especially paris) and apollo
-andromache: i'm shocked andromache isn't more popular with the "tragic female characters" people, she literally lost everything basically because of men
-cassandra: i know cassandra is fairly popular, but i love her so much and i want more people to explore her relationship with her family, every dynamic has the possibility to be SO interesting
-electra: this whole family is a MESS and yet i see people mainly focusing on clytemnestra (with iphigenia), but not exploring the relationship between electra and clytemnestra is such a missed opportunity
-helen: i just want the focus of her story to be shifted from paris to the other people in her life, like her daughter hermione! how did they rebuild their relationship after troy? or her sister clytemnestra! what happened to her bond after the murder of agamemnon? or her brothers, castor and pollux! there is so much untapped potential
-demeter: there is a story about a mother's grief for her daughter, her journey looking for her, her anger, and yet every retelling of the homeric hymn to DEMETER focuses HADES to make him a dark romance mafia boss?? come on
and more!
conclusion: i'm tired of seeing the same stories being retold over and over again when there are so many characters to explore
#ancient greek mythology#greek mythology#greek myth retellings#medusa#persephone#clytemnestra#medea#danae#atalanta#the amazons#hippolyta#penthesilea#hecuba of troy#andromache of troy#cassandra of troy#electra#helen of troy#helen of sparta#demeter#the argonauts#jason and the argonauts#perseus#the iliad#homers iliad#homer's iliad#paris of troy#agamemnon#hades#tagamemnon
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odysseus is generally seen as 'morally ambiguous' due to his not always being seen as the best of people- but this is a very modern and feminist take, and whilst nothing is inherently wrong with the idea of feminist takes and retellings, it skews what we have and already know of the myths, and this can be seen most predominantly in the character of odysseus. odysseus is two things:
- not meant to a hero
- not meant to be good
he is written as a man faced with impossible odds, and who loses some- if not all- of his morality in doing so. BUT where does the idea of him being 'bad' come from? the penelopiad by margaret atwood, a woman known for being quite vitriolic towards men of any kind. in recent years, people have picked up on three major things from the odyssey:
- the hanging of the maids
- odysseus cheating on his wife
- odysseus going mad at the end
NOW, to break it into points:
the hanging of the maids is so often seen in a feminist light due to margaret atwood, where odysseus is painted as some cruel, vile, disgusting predator who loathes women. this isn't true to the odyssey AT ALL. in the odyssey it is explicitly stated by the nurse that raised telemachus: 'i shall single out those who betrayed you, my lord' and by one of the maids herself- melantho: 'if we sleep with the suitors, when they become king we will be in favour with him.' and THIS is why he killed the maids. not because he was insane, not because he was bad, but because they had betrayed not just him- but his wife. not all the maids were killed, only those who slept with the suitors. the argument most often used for this is that the women couldn't say no, but this goes against what the maids themselves say in the odyssey when they believe no one to be watching.
odysseus cheating on his wife HE DIDN'T. but he is a man, and as a man, he cannot be raped. he is a terrible man for sleeping with circe and calypso when he could have- as epic decides to say- say no. which is untrue!! these are goddesses. titanesses. circe is the daughter of helios, and calypso is daughter of atlas. they could overpower him simply by looking at him. circe turned his men to pigs, even with the moly she could have easily done the same- or worse- to him. the idea of him choosing to and being unfaithful stems from madeline miller's, Circe which whilst not inherently bad, goes out of its way to put all men in a terrible light, because the heroes deserves no rights in feminist retellings. odysseus wanted to say no, but could not as hermes explicitly told him he couldn't. on the flip side, calypso threatens, ensnares him and only releases him when told to by hermes and the council of the gods. in the odyssey it is literally stated: 'and odysseus stayed on the shores weeping for home before joining the nymph in her bed.' he did not WANT to sleep with calypso, but was left with no other choice but to do so. this is a recurring theme for calypso.
but he is blamed due to his gender, and the idea of 'feminism' and 'patriarchy'.
and now, the real reason for odysseus being seen badly:
the telegony the telegony is a myth written after the odyssey with telegonus- son of circe and odysseus- as the main character. in this he travels to find his father and meet him, but accidentally kills him on the shore. (peneleope marries telegonus, and circe marries telemachus) but this is where the idea of odysseus' insanity comes from. in the telegony, it is stated he went mad after the war, and couldn't survive without bloodshed, and so he went out seeking war, and women, and battle, and went mad in this.
the statement: 'generous to odysseus' is wholly unfair, because he is a man forced to lose everything, assaulted, violated, tortured and imprisoned with no hope of survival. he goes to war knowing he won't return for 20 years, won't see his wife, and won't watch his son grow. he is a man not a god, or a demigod. he's just some dude doing his best.
#greek mythology#tagamemnon#odysseus#the odyssey#the iliad#diomedes#homer#odypen#calypso#circe#mythos
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Lore Olympus just pulled off the biggest whiff in webtoon history.
I promised I would choose one of two headlines and of course, this is the one we wound up with. But should we really be surprised? Rachel herself seemed to be telling on herself down to the minutes leading up to the finale, fully confirming to us that yes, she's been writing this comic at the last minute, by the seat of her pants, for ages now.
(that second one was literally posted TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES BEFORE THE COMIC UPDATED.)
Welp, let's get into it. Possibly the last essay I'll ever write about this dumpster fire of a comic (but probably not, let's be real LOL)
CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND FASTPASS SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE AHEAD!
Holy crap, where to even start with this. I knew it was going to be bad. I knew it was going to be rushed. I knew it wasn't ever going to live up to what I had hoped it would be years ago when I was still a diehard fan.
But I didn't think it was going to fall quite this hard. Despite bracing myself for the worst, Rachel has once again let my expectations down through a final display of explosive mediocrity and disappointment.
Yes, the episode is called "You're Welcome", and yes, that instant "ick" you're feeling is the exact same as what we're all feeling. This title plays into the dialogue later, but what a shitty, lowkey mean-spirited title for the series finale.
Now, before we get into the actual episode, the WT ads for this are just... so desperate and misleading.
They are trying SO HARD to hype up something that isn't there, and at the last minute to boot, because Rachel definitely hadn't written any of this ahead of time.
First off, the bit about the gods being in "eternal chaos" of course isn't a stake worth worrying over because Gaia literally does away with Ouranos in the first 5 panels.
Did you really think I was joking about that 5 panels thing?
That's it. That's the death of Ouranos. As mysteriously and quickly as he arrived, he was gone, after Gaia ripped out of him what appeared to be some purple sunny side up - but it's actually, in fact, Apollo.
And that's when we start to get some of the worst dialogue I've ever seen throughout LO. Remember when I said LO's dialogue was like Shenmue 3? Welp, the finale decided to continue that tradition and further fuel the suspicion that this entire thing was written by ChatGPT.
Oh, by the way, that "thank you, ma'am" was Artemis' first and last line of the episode. So once again, just like in Episode 248, we're completely robbed of her reaction to Apollo being a rapist piece of shit and the character development she could have had as a supporting character. The women in this "feminist retelling" really couldn't be more half-baked.
Gaia stumbles upon Persephone, and I'm not even gonna fucking bother showing the panels where Gaia says it's time to "make things right" because they literally don't matter. Why don't they matter? Because Rachel just had to get in one more pointless time skip.
We're shown a sequence of pointless images that I'm not gonna show as I don't want to waste my image limit on them, depicting Hades having a sad day because his small wife isn't with him and oh nooo what could have happened?? Did Persephone finally divorce him ??
Nah, we couldn't possibly have an actually happy ending in this comic. Instead we get a completely pointless phone conversation between Hades and Hecate-
Not only is the grammar particularly bad in this episode, but the actual script-writing is atrocious. We literally did not need this phone conversation to happen because-
-we're cutting BACK TO THE PRESENT THAT WE JUST CUT AWAY FROM FOR A 3 MONTH TIME SKIP. FOR NO REASON BESIDES SHOWING HADES BE SAD OVER SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY ISN'T THAT BIG A DEAL, AS YOU'RE ABOUT TO SEE.
I- I LITERALLY HAVE NO WORDS. I HAVE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS. ALL I CAN HEAR IN MY BRAIN IS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA ITEM GET MUSIC-
youtube
-BECAUSE THIS WHOLE THING SUDDENLY SOUNDS LIKE SOME CONTRIVED FETCH QUEST. WHAT DO YOU MEAN HADES AND PERSEPHONE HAVE PROVEN 'TRUE LOVE' IS REAL? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY HAVEN'T USED 'LOVE' AS A FORCE FOR DESTRUCTION?? ARE WE FORGETTING THAT HADES MUTILATED A GUY IN THE NAME OF 'LOVE'? THAT PERSEPHONE LITERALLY INVADED THE HOME OF HADES' CANONICAL FIRST WIFE BECAUSE SHE FELT MILDLY THREATENED BY HER?
This whole concept of "true love" that Rachel is trying to convey feels so juvenile especially for a series that has sold itself as being mature and thought-provoking and progressive.
HAHAHA SO FUNNYYYYYYY why does Rachel write like this. this is, at best, the writing of a 13 year old on fanfiction.net, which I SHOULD KNOW, because I WAS ONE OF THEM. BUT I'M 28 NOW AND RACHEL HAS ANOTHER 10 YEARS ON ME.
Okay, this is the part where I'm CONVINCED Rachel either just mashed this into the episode in the MINUTES leading up to its release, or she used ChatGPT or something. Because NONE of this dialogue makes any sense. Beyond how stilted and lifeless it is (seriously, this dialogue reads like something from Empress Theresa) Gaia is clearly meant to 'replace' Erebus here which I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO EVEN EXPLAIN IS SO FUCKING DUMB, but ALSO what is even Persephone trying to communicate here? "That is true, but it was a deal I was willing to make and ties me to the Underworld. Please don't change me." What? Gaia hasn't even insinuated that she's going to do anything to Persephone, why is Persephone immediately jumping to this conclusion? What does 'changing' her mean? Is she asking Gaia not to force her to sacrifice something (which she never did)? Or is she asking Gaia not to strip her of her Underworld status? Because again, why is that even something Gaia would do?
Maybe this is harsh but I'm pretty sure even Empress Theresa is more coherent than this, what in the flying fuck is Gaia talking about?
"I can just see the potential for conflict! To relieve you from the burden of the whats, the hows, and wheres." Like... okay, first of all, that second sentence isn't even a complete sentence, it's a dependent clause left hanging, but also what the fuck does this MEAN. Is she EXCITED for the conflict but then contradicting herself by saying she wants to relieve Persephone of that conflict? Or is she saying she can see the conflict it would cause for Persephone to have to perform duties in both realms and trying to insinuate that she's going to relieve her of those complications?
Here's what I think happened - I think that second 'sentence' wasn't supposed to be a sentence, but the start of the sentence to the next panel-
So with that theory in mind, the sentence becomes, "To relieve you from the burden of the whats, the hows, and wheres, you are to spend three months in the Mortal Realm to do spring and the rest of the year in the Underworld. That seems fair to me."
It's still a very poorly written line of dialogue, but at least with that fix in mind it makes sense. But man, you can really fucking tell this episode was submitted at the last minute because that's a serious syntax error that should NOT have happened in this two-time-Eisner-winning comic.
Errors aside, it's clear that Rachel is following through on having Persephone spend only three months in the Mortal Realm, rather than the traditional six. There ARE other translations that have that number closer to four, but those four are the time she spends in the UNDERWORLD, meaning she's always spending either equal or MORE time in the Mortal Realm. Of course, Rachel doesn't want her self-insert small wife power fantasy to actually have to be separated from Hades despite this being a retelling of The Abduction of Persephone, so instead of her spending three months in the Underworld, she's now spending them in the Mortal Realm, literally doubling the MINIMUM amount of time (four months) she was originally meant to reside in the Underworld.
But oh no, apparently those three months are STILL NOT SHORT ENOUGH FOR PERSEPHONE-
Of course, Rachel "Retcon" Smythe had to have her cake and eat it too. I always worried something like this was a possibility, but I never thought she would actually prove me right - not only is Persephone only separated from Hades for three months out of the year, but actually he can visit her any time he wants to, so really, they're not separating at all.
I think Rachel needs to look up "reunion" in the dictionary, because if you can visit each other any time, then that means the 'reunions' are no longer special occasions. This completely removes any semblance of depth or meaning from all of the storytelling leading up to this, all of it with the expectation that this was a retelling of the Abduction of Persephone, because that's what Rachel said it was going to be. At this point it's safe to say that Rachel has zero business attempting to "retell" mythological stories, because she doesn't even seem to grasp the concept of why they were written the way they were to begin with. Either that, or she really just doesn't care, and the only reason for making LO a Greek myth comic at all was to propel her career.
This also brings me back to those promotional ads, the other one that posed the question, "Will sacrifice be enough to bring these two back together?"
This is stating the obvious, but I need to make it perfectly clear - Hades and Persephone have never sacrificed a single thing. The only thing they could POSSIBLY quantify as a "sacrifice" is "not being tied at the hip for a few hours", because even Persephone going on the equivalent of a work trip next door is apparently enough to make Hades sad as we saw in the 3 month time skip panels. Why is Hades so sad and lonely if he can visit her any time? Why is he acting like he hasn't seen her in years when he's actually on his way to reunite with her? Why is Hecate calling to ask him if he's "okay" as if he JUST got separated from her, but actually he's about to literally go to the Mortal Realm to reunite with her?
Hades hasn't 'sacrificed' a damn thing, neither has Persephone. They've both always gotten exactly what they wanted, even at the cost of breaking the story's own established rules. Their 'sacrifice' is equivalent to what billionaires think are 'sacrifices' when they can't buy another yacht or go on that third overseas vacation for the month.
And even outside of this episode, when have these two ever sacrificed anything?
I've tried so hard to think of what sacrifices have been made by the characters within LO, and I genuinely can only think of one - and that was when Artemis chose to go to the Mortal Realm with Persephone instead of staying with her family in Olympus. That was a genuine, selfless sacrifice, made by a character who has been shelved in favor of focusing on the self-centered pink and blue airheads.
Being forced to be apart for a couple days to do the equivalent of a day job and whining about it the whole time is not a 'sacrifice'. Neither of these characters have ever sacrificed anything, they just feel like sacrifices because they have the integrity and empathy of soggy cardboard.
sigh Anyways, we're back in the present and Hades and Persephone immediately decide they're gonna have sex because ofc, and then we get this gem of a panel-
MMMMMM
FUNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JOKE
For some reason it's just a common thing for people to just be in Hades' home, and they can't seem to get any privacy as a result of this, but I digress. Turns out they still need to have that coronation for Persephone.
There is... so much wrong in these three panels.
First, to state the immediate issues - why the fuck are they mentioning Apollo at Persephone's coronation? Like first of all, no shit Apollo isn't gonna be there, but also, if this is supposed to be an event for and about Persephone becoming Queen of the Underworld, then why in the WORLD is Apollo even being mentioned? This is supposed to be a "feminist retelling" where the victims are empowered and heal from their trauma, but LO once again can't try to show any sort of positive growth for the victims without bringing up the assaulters and giving them screen time. It just goes to show that Rachel's idea of "healing" is purely rooted in the revenge, and not the growth. It's a very high schooler approach to this subject, hellbent on showcasing how all the meanies from the past are losers now and life just sucked for them forever, but inadvertently proving its own point that the victims haven't and can't move on because the narrative is spending so much time on caring what's going on with the abusers. It's the "I don't care! Look at how little I care! I'll prove it to you by putting in the effort of showing you how little I care!" approach, it doesn't really feel like moving on.
It's not about how Persephone and his other victims could have grown and healed, no, Rachel always needs to highlight just how much worse the bullies and haters and abusers are doing to make the victims seem like they've healed by comparison. Don't get me wrong, I can understand wanting to showcase the downfall of a character like Apollo, but this just... isn't the right context for that? Because it's once again taking attention away from the victim to focus on the abuser. It's once again spending screentime on the voices of the oppressors rather than the oppressed.
And speaking of, what the fuck is this punishment even? I knew Rachel wasn't gonna be able to resolve this plotline properly, she never had the capability to, but ... community service? Are you fucking for real? What is this even a punishment for even? Was this EXCLUSIVELY the SA, or does this ALSO include his attempts to overthrow Zeus by poisoning him, nearly killing Daphne, Eris, Eros and Psyche, trapping Eros and Psyche in an enchanted basement, and framing his father's 'death' on his half-sister? Because if so, how in the world is anyone content with community service? He hasn't even been turned into a mortal, HE'S STILL A GOD, so what's to stop him from going "WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDERMAN" and trying something else? How is this a reasonable resolution in ANY context?
This is why I talked at length about what an issue it was to hide what Apollo really admitted to. Because now we really don't know what exactly he confessed to, and thus we can never really see the point of views of the victims outside of just Persephone - and we still don't even get Persephone's, because she just walks away from him and then he gets eaten by Ouranos and next we see of him is him doing community service! Once again, any emotional development that could be given to Persephone and the other victims is stripped away to make room for the point of views of the oppressive men. In this, the two-time-Eisner-winning "feminist comic" that is LO.
And that brings us to the "where are they now" segment. Yes, as we all feared, there's a "where are they now" segment, and it's as rushed and underwhelming as we ought to have expected it to be.
There is just... so much to unpack here, and yes, all of it is delivered in the dumbest way possible that only raises more questions than answers.
So Rhea and Metis are just back and we're not gonna talk about the implications of them being alive again?
Dionysus is a 3 month year old in the body of a teenager / young adult, and his mom is just alive now because Hades conveniently got his hands on more ambrosia and brought her back to life offscreen? But somehow Triptomelus and Hedone are still child-sized relative to their ages?
How did they 'heal Zeus'? And why is he so content with losing his power as King and Apollo being sentenced to community service after making an attempt on his life? How does he feel about the letter that Hera gave him? Did he even read it?
Where the fuck is Hebe in all of this? Is she okay? Do people still think it was her who put Zeus in a coma? Or did Apollo confess to that, too?
You're telling me Hera and Echo are just in a relationship now despite the fact that Hera is literally racist towards nymphs and there is ZERO reason for them to have a relationship in the comic beyond the fans making gratuitous headcanons out of it? How is Rachel, a bisexual woman, so bad at writing actual lesbian relationships and giving them the same amount of attention as the heterocis ones without shoving them into the background as props for insincere queer rep? And what about Hera herself? How did she overcome her role as the Goddess of Marriage to finally divorce Zeus?
"Ares is still a dog!" Haha! Ares is still a Persephone simp! Happy end!
Why is Eros just standing there smiling at the camera struggling to be seen past Hedone who's just floating right in front of him? You're telling me there wasn't a better place to put her out of that entire panel?
"Hades and Thanatos have been making more time for each other. Sometimes they even have a conversation." I'm sorry, is this supposed to be funny? The man abused Thanatos for years, treated him as just a lowly employee when he was literally his adopted son, and now you're trying to play it off as a joke that they're "making more time for each other"? What the fuck is this?
TGOEM disbanded? Why? What about the women who were genuinely a part of it?
Also, Artemis and Selene are just good friends now because reasons? Because they're both affiliated with the moon, I guess? Why is Selene even in this comic-
"They are still looking for Kassandra". Who? And why? This feels like such a last minute addition to acknowledge a character that the comic spent WEEKS foreshadowing only to have her finally appear as a pointless McGuffin, but it's so last minute that it does nothing. I'm assuming it's Eros and Psyche looking for her, but like... why can't they find her? They're gods, tracking down one mortal shouldn't be that difficult LOL ???
And also, where the fuck is Leto?? You're telling me she was an accessory - maybe manipulating Apollo, maybe not - but we don't see what happened to her? Is she just back to being a social outcast then? jesus christ this comic isn't finished-
Kassandra is where the "where are they now" sequence ends, and we're treated to one final horribly written dialogue scene between Hades and Persephone, where they tell each other how much they love each other in a desperate attempt to convince the audience that this is, in fact, a romance.
There's this thing in romances called chemistry, and if you're good at writing it, you shouldn't have to write dialogue like this. You should be able to see how much the characters love each other through their actions, through their small behaviors around each other. It's not always about what they say out loud, it's about what they don't have to say, because when two people really share that close of a bond based on love and trust and chemistry, words often aren't necessary.
Hades and Persephone do not have that chemistry. It has been apparent for years now, but this final exchange really is the nail in the coffin. There are no microexpressions or subtle emotions, no subtlety in their word choice, and nothing unique setting their voices apart. It's all just "wow thank you for being such a wonderful amazing partner, you are amazing and I love you" word salad that has to do all the heavy lifting for the completely non-existent chemistry that's been at its absolute worst throughout this entire season.
And worst of all, despite this story trying so hard to be focused around Persephone, around her story, her trauma and her healing, her voice... it's still all just about Hades. In the end, she's thanking Hades, and forcing him to say "you're welcome". All of it is trying so hard to convince us that Hades has been a positive addition to her life, that she 'owes' so much to him, but we've obviously seen plenty throughout the comic that begs to differ. And even if he were a better person than he is, it still doesn't change the fact that once again, the men are being held up above the women, with the women being grateful to the men who choose them. LO can try its hardest to convince people that it's feminist, but it is, at best, reinforcing the very same structures of the patriarchal system that it claims to despise and rebel against.
We do get one line from Hades acknowledging Persephone's part in the relationship-
-and it falls so fucking flat because it's still about him and what she does for him, and because nothing about their relationship was built on any sort of organic chemistry. There was a lot more chemistry back in S1, but it was still predicated on Hades lusting after a vulnerable 19 year old girl.
Yep, and that's it. That's the end.
Except it isn't because Rachel wanted to try and be smart by including an 'epilogue' that's really just stretching the episode out pointlessly for another few panels. And of course, we had to get another time skip, just a final dose of salt in the wound, this time to years ahead when we inevitably had to reconnect with Persephone and Hades in the future after Melinoe was born.
To recap, Melinoe doesn't remember... because Hades had Morpheus erase her memories.
This plotline has really started to give me the ick because it actually feels very familiar. Bear with me here, because I'm gonna go on a bit of a tangent about my own original work, but it's because I wrote a plotline exactly like this years ago.
There's this... turning point, in Time Gate: Reaper, when the main character Uzuki is kidnapped by a Reaper (see: undead) who wants to experiment on her in the hopes that he can somehow gain her abilities to bond her soul with others (which later allows her to literally possess people after she becomes a Reaper herself). Mitsuhiro, the male deuteragonist who kickstarts the plot by telling Uzuki she's got a limited amount of time left to live (which he knows thanks to his magical death timers that mark themselves on his skin), feels an immense amount of guilt after finding out she was kidnapped by the Reapers (at this point she's been gone for three months), as they were originally after him; he worries that she was made a target simply due to him associating himself with her, and vows to rescue her.
With the help of some other spunky teenagers and anime trope characters, Mitsuhiro does eventually rescue Uzuki - but for the three months she had been gone, she had been tortured, abused, and experimented on, causing her mind to split and for her to lose any sense of awareness of who Mitsuhiro or her other friends were. She was no longer herself after the hell she had been through.
Mitsuhiro's solution to this is to have Springlock - another Reaper with motivations that are not yet clear to the cast - erase her memory. This is not a light decision that comes without consequences - for the remaining duration of the story, Uzuki is plagued by night terrors and panic attacks, unable to really remember what happened to her aside from whatever brief flashbacks her brain recalls in its haze of memory loss. She is traumatized, both physically and mentally. She has lost three months of her life and memories, and doesn't know how to explain why she's covered in scars that are still healing, why she's missing organs, why she's now blind in one eye, and why the sound of scraping metal and ticking clocks gives her panic attacks. Mitsuhiro has convinced her friends that she's suffering from memory loss due to trauma, but only he knows the truth that he forcefully took her memories away from her, without her consent. This was not the right choice to make. It was not noble of him, it was not a grand gesture of love, he made a decision on her behalf without her consent that has now resulted in her becoming a nervous wreck. Sure, she still would have had PTSD if she remembered what happened, but at least she would know why and could then seek adequate help. Without those memories, she has nowhere to begin to heal. And so we see the consequences of this throughout [AFTERBIRTH] and even the upcoming Thread of Fate. It is a long-term problem that is not going to be solved overnight, especially not with Mitsuhiro withholding information from her.
Reading about Melinoe having dreams about her experiences trapped in Tartarus with Kronos ... it felt familiar enough that I had to talk about why the insinuations of this are so fucked up. I know there are people who are gonna handwave it away as "she's just a kid", "these are gods so what does it matter", etc. but ... it just feels like such an oversight to have Hades effectively erase her memory of her trauma and then hint at them still being present in her mind through her dreams. She did not ask for that. And the fact that she's now dreaming about it all does not bode well. But we're supposed to think Hades made the correct choice, regardless.
But none of this is effectively expanded on or explained, because we get one final scene of Melinoe and Demeter visiting Persephone, who has just given birth to... Makaria?
So it turns out Persephone and Hades are just able to have biological children now. Don't know why, but of course they both look exactly like Hades.
What I was really confused by though is the fact that it's Makaria and not Brimos. Do you remember Brimos? The child that was foreshadowed in Hades' original fantasy dream sequence about his future children about Persephone?
Either Rachel completely forgot about him, or she saw all the criticism over the fact that Brimos isn't a confirmed child of Hades and Persephone (rather, an epithet that can apply to basically any Underworld god including Persephone and Hades) and that her "research" was dependent on a book she read when she was 13 and decided to axe that. But she went to the effort of establishing that all the dreams Hades had were , in fact, canon visions of the future, so good job Rachel, you created yet another plothole on top of the hundreds of others.
And that's where the series ends, on a final nuclear-family-photo of Persephone, Hades, Melinoe, and Makaria. Of course, Dionysus and Thanatos aren't present in this shot because this is Lore Olympus and only biological children count /hj
Why Rachel couldn't move the "the end" portion to THIS part, I don't know, but I'm also expecting way too much of the person who finished this 20 minutes before it was due.
So that's it. Six years and that's what we get. I didn't expect much, but I was still incredibly disappointed, as were many others who walked away from this dazed and confused. Maybe it's all the "haters" deserve at this point. But what of the fans? While many of them are celebrating this ending at best and tolerating it at worst, I can't help but think of the fans of this comic who hung on for so long in the hopes it would "pay off", just for it to go out as gloriously as a wet fart.
As for me, I have such mixed feelings about Lore Olympus ending, but none of them pertain to the comic itself. Most of what I'll miss from this comic isn't the comic itself, but the people who have made reading it every week so fun, the artists and writers who have enriched the content with their own interpretations of what could have been, and the experiences of being part of such an amazing community made up of people who are as long-term-obsessed about this piece of media as I am.
I get people who ask me a lot if it's "worth it" to be so engrossed in the LO slander, who assume that I'm going to "regret" ever being a part of it all... but from where I'm standing right now, I couldn't ask for a better view.
Even if I didn't love every minute of it, everything I have here I owe to this comic. This stupid, wonderful, boring, amazing, pile of shit comic.
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Can you elaborate on your god of war post please?
sure -- basically, i think that by taking the bloodsoaked gritty cartoonish machismo of the early 2000s AAA video game and interpolating it into the setting of greek mythology, god of war was engaging with the greek ideas of masculinity, heroism, and violence that greek myths themselves are very caught up in. now, i'm not sure i can say that engagement was particularly deep or trenchant, but it was an engagement -- a lot of self-proclaimed 'feminist' or 'queer' retellings of greek mythology instead (imo) seek to pointblank refuse to engage with ancient greek ideas about gender or sexuality and instead simply ctrl+f and replace them with modern-day liberal queer-positive feminism. and to be clear this is a criticism of a trend i've noticed in self-proclaimed 'feminist retellings', not me asserting it is impossible to fruitfully and interestingly engage with the substance of greek mythology from a feminist perspectives obvsies
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I know you've consigned sinfest to the dustbin of irrelevance but the latest arc is so mask off about his feelings regarding porn and woman. It's weird. It's so open and out there about his whole madonna/whore issues but he doesn't attempt to even address it. His whole ass is on display and i don't know if he's even aware.
I suppose I appreciate that heâs taking a break from the racist caricatures, even if the Wojak Popemen are tremendously lazy an-
Is that the Nostalgia Critic?
Anyway, while this story is stupid and offensive itâs at least Tatsâ own bizarre hangups again and not warmed over /pol/ memes. I guess he needed his own brand of insanity to fill the gap of 4chan going down, but that makes this storyline useful in that itâs maybe the clearest window into whatâs left of Tatâs mind.
So, Snow White is tricked into eating an apple. This makes her âlove the strangerâ and not be hateful, which is presented as a bad thing.
Specifically because sheâs kind to âcreepyâ animals, which the name of the strip makes clear are a metaphor for nonwhite people. There was a long time where I thought âTatsuya Ishidaâ was a pen name and he was a white dude IRL, like marvel contemporary âAkira Yoshidaâ. Some research revealed that he was using the name Tatsuya Ishida for his college strips so I figured that was his real name because no way was he that committed to the bit. But there are times when I wonder, man.
But anyway, Snow White is a Pure White Wahmen whoâs been converted to being liberal/leftist by an evil queen. Who is a trans woman. Which you might go âObviouslyâ over except remember that Tats hates Jews now and considers them in charge of everyone else he doesnât like. But here with Snow White trans women are back as the main Thing Tats Hates, which is certainly interesting.
Prince Charming sets out to rescue her and is constantly distracted by various racist things happening by. Also Tats hates Trump this week.
Or, sorry, Drumpf, which is a nickname resist libs gave Trump in 2017 thatâs so tired that the guy who came up with it publicly apologized. Iâve seen /pol/ types refer to Trump as âDrumpfâ when mocking liberals (as in âThisâll get Drumpf for sure guysâ sarcasm) so itâsâ kind of bizarre that Tats is using it unironically as an insulting nickname here.
Charming finds that Snow White is a lib now and calls her a slut for it.
Which makes this Snake imagery very Eyes Emoji, but moving on
Prince Charming saves Snow White from being an eGirl, and a bunch of other women are like âHey we are also being sexually oppressed help a bitch out?â and he heroically refuses because he can care about exactly his women and zero others. Given how Sinfestâs descent started with him become a Radical Feminist who hated porn (and that was his only feminist belief), this is kind of a wild shift.
But on the way home the Prince suddenly gets horny for a second. Religion shows up so that Tats can be mad about them for a bit.
Then the prince escapes through a vagina-shaped portal (symbolism protip: A man literally entering a vagina is possibly a metaphor for sex!), but when he gets back Snow White is still and eGirl and heâs still horny for her. He tries to stop being horny, but that is also bad apparently.
Not quite aligning the top and bottom text of your meme? Veeeery naughty!
Finally, they collapse into failure, surrounded by snakes which, remember, are penises here.
So, what can we divine from this? First off that Tatâs worldview is incredibly bleak. Thatâs not news, really, but Iâm increasingly worried heâs going to shoot someone for real. This is such a dark place to be in, mentally.
Itâs also, perhaps, as close as weâll get to an origin story for Tatâs weird turns. Itâs been speculated for years that Tats had a girlfriend who got him into the radfem stuff, and thereâs been all sorts of wild speculation that she left him for a trans woman or something but I think this is the actual story, albeit through Tatâs warped and self-serving retelling. Hereâs my theory:
Tatsuya Ishida had a girlfriend. She was very left-wing, and also didnât like pornography. Tats glommed onto the porn connection since that was a long-standing bugaboo of his own, and made that his personality for a few years. Then Tats started getting really right-wing and the girlfriend didnât like it and they broke up (this might be before the anti-trans turn in 2019) and he never got over it and then Covid happened and he was a conservative old dude in a bad mental place during Covid and went down the same facebook rabbit hole all our collective dads did. He tried to fill the hole in his heart with right-wing boomer 4chan memes and the spark of joy that gave him is burning out and the comicâs becoming more aimless (to the extent âhateâ is an aim). Wouldnât be shocked if he made another weird-ass political shift soon that seems left-field but in retrospect is obvious. Maybe heâll be a âwellnessâ crank next and start tanning his balls.
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IN BETWEEN. charlie bushnell x reader â 02
02 | WELCOME TO NY previous | next | masterfile
SYNPOSIS. when a girl's co-star is good to her and now she wants it more than everything in between. (smau)
A/N. wow actual content who knew! i give some tidbits about rina and lukes dynamic as well for funsies (takes place at the start of the season premiere to probably episode 4-5 ish)

liked by iamcharliebushnell, walker.scobell, and 322,778 others thelnarchive best people to star in my first show with actually
walker.scobell pov: you at the end of this sentence đ€đ âł thelnarchive that** âł leahsavajeffries destroyed him with one word that's insane
user1Â she's so gorgeous it's killing me
user2Â her photo dumps are so cute it's so RAHHHHH âł user3Â thank you yn for keeping us fed
iamcharliebushnell no photo creds? thats crazy...... âł thelnarchive đž: charlie bushnell Ⳡiamcharliebushnell thank you đ
user4Â she's so pretty, i would go to hell and back for her. she could be sent to the underworld and i would go and traverse the entire underworld for her and bring her back, have hades let me walk out with her only if i don't turn my back and bet you baby i'm no orpheus because you're coming home âł user5Â this is so real but also what the fuck
dior.n.goodjohn PRETTIEST IN CAMP HALFBLOOD Ⳡthelnarchive NO YOU!
iamcharliebushnell for everyone's information, she yapped for like the 2 hour makeup and hair session âł thelnarchive you weren't interested in the cultural impact of feminist retellings of mythology? đ âł iamcharliebushnell i didn't say i didn't listen to every bit
user6Â yn ln being a yapper and charlie being a listener was not in my 2024 bingo card but it is pleasantly accepted âł user7Â the chemistry is kind of crazy
bellie đ @G1LLMOREGRLS theres like less than 3 minutes of luke and rina screen time but the way they look at each other is insane. ik luke visiting rina before leaving was implied and like them him contacting her even after the attempt too i still want to see some because the potential angst is so insane đš 19 comments đ 129 retweets â€ïž 707 likes
user1 "i lost luke three times in my life." if they remove this it better be for something even more heartbreaking
user2 honestly truth i'm manifesting so hard to see some of their iris messages like i can just imagine it âł G1LLMOREGRLS oh my fucking god that's so true, i want to see luke begging her to come with him and then her begging him to change his mind
user3 i want the new seasons to come sooner because i trust in rick's capability to give us what we want đłđłđł âł user4 i trust in the editor's to make what rick gives us even better brah âł user5 what if i said lascotellan to a hozier song
user6 the show ate with levitating as the replacement for poker face in e6 so i'm expecting a tragic song for their scenes too âł G1LLMOREGRLS dare i say we get a scene of luke regretting his actions juxtaposed with a scene of him and rina arguing with her telling him to silver springs by fleetwood mac âł user6 LUKE AND RINA ARGUING OVER HIS ACTIONS TO SILVER SPRINGS. YOU'RE A FUCKING GENIUS OOMF âł G1LLMOREGRLS luke thinking about her constantly when he thinks abt why he shouldn't have done it is so "you'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you"????
user7 YOU'RE SO CORRECT FOR THIS âŒïžâŒïž i'm so insane over them, tragic greek couple of the century
user8 i fear no one will ever beat rina saying she wanted to go to the underworld to get him back but deciding not to and letting him repent in elysium or try for reincarnation

liked by thelnarchives, dior.n.goodjohn, and 350,232 others iamcharliebushnell hanging out with the muse
thelnarchives you call me "the muse" so often i'm starting to think you don't know my first name anymore.... đ€šđ€šđ€š âł iamcharliebushnell đ i would never do that to you muse âł thelnarchives i'm gonna start calling you traitor. âł user1 wat why would she call him traitor âł user2 oh you sweet summer child
user3 picture 3 is so cute i love her so much !!! and charlie's there too i guess
dior.n.goodjohn why are you hanging out with MY girlfriend âł iamcharliebushnell you snooze you lose :/
walker.scobell you owe me like 2 meals from our past bets and you keep saying your busy but obviously you're not??? âł iamcharliebushnell hanging out with the muse is a trip priority, man đ€·
user4 i'm obsessed with how charlie calls her muse they're so i want to Bite them. âł user5 he ate with the pet name
user6 that's actually me in the second photo guys
user7 WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT HER HAND PLACEMENT IN THE THIRD PHOTO??? âł user8 girlie's just scratching her own cat
#luke castellan imagines#luke castellan x reader#percy jackson imagines#percy jackson and the olympians imagines#percy jackson#percy jackson and the olympians#percy series#pjo#pjo series#pjotv#heroes of olympus#luke castellan#charlie bushnell x reader#charlie bushnell#charlie bushnell imagines#smau#pjo smau#pjo tv show#percy jackson tv show#percy jackon and the olympians#percy jackson smau#pjo au
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hi! i noticed you learnt about what ryan condal said regarding blood and cheese. it wasâŠsomething. i would like to know your thoughts on the matter. though it would be completely understandable if you need sometime to gather them together or if you would rather not at all! thank you and bye!
Hello beloved, thank you so much for asking me! Iâd love to share my opinion!
If anyoneâs wondering, @rhaenelle is referring to this interview where Ryan Condal essentially says he believes that Blood & Cheeseâs brutality and heinousness was exaggerated by the Greens in a propagandistic attempt to convince their subjects that Rhaenyra and Daemon are the worst villains ever born, hence why he toned the event down; to show us what he thinks is the accurate version of Jaehaerysâ murder.
Now, I am aware that Condal had already warned us that HOTD was going to be a feminist retelling of the events of F&B, which practically means that his plan has always been to whitewash the everlasting fuck out of Rhaenyra. So what do I think about this?
Well, for starters, I think that Ryan Condal is an excellent businessman. He knows what kind of tropes are going to make the audience engage with his show. He understands that people need a hero to cheer for and a villain to hate, therefore he removed the moral ambiguity from all of the characters and divided them into two categories: the Blacks, enlightened revolutionaries full of passion, deserving of admiration and correct in everything they do, and the Greens, pious fools with a moral superiority complex who are stack in the ways of the past and commit despicable crimes. The average viewer does not possess the intelligence to comprehend that both parties have their good and bad moments, and that theyâre both correct in fighting for what each believes is rightfully theirs. Simultaneously, he benefits from the modern trends that want women in media to take revenge when they are wronged and emerge as triumphant girlbosses, because of course a white upper class womanâs suffering in a western world (or Westeros) society has everything to do with her gender and nothing to do with her personality or decisions (even if this works solely for Rhaenyra, because Alicent seems to be held accountable for every single one of her actions). Finally, it is obvious that Condal is trying to appease disgruntled Daenerys fans, so he has rebuilt Rhaenyra into this tortured martyr that wishes to change the world for the better in an attempt to make her resemble her great granddaughter six times removed.
For all of these reasons, I find it very logical that he is going out of his way to minimise the tragedy the Greens experience. It just doesnât make Rhaenyra look good and honestly, who wants that? The producers saw how unhappy Dannyâs stans were when they made her lose her shit; theyâre not going to make the same mistake twice. They donât want their show to tank like the last season of GOT did, so theyâll do everything in their power to keep the audience happy. And itâs working! Whatâs the last thing Condal says in this clip? âYou kinda start rooting for [Blood and Cheese]!â and boy oh boy, the TB stans sure do! Literally hundreds of memes that rejoiced at Jaehaerysâ death were posted on X this week, with tens of thousands of likes. But when Lucerys died, it was presented as the most foul thing to ever happen in the ASOIAF universe. It is the TB supporters that dictate which child murder is good and which is bad, and that decision usually depends on which child came out Rhaenyraâs womb, not letâs say, the fact that one kid was a toddler that could barely walk, while the other was a teenager that laughed at the disabled person he mutilated himself.
Itâs all just marketing
That being said, I want to clarify that I understand why Condal and the HOTD producers do what they do, but being a good entrepreneur does not necessarily make you a literary genius. Now, Iâm not gonna explain why stripping Rhaenyra off of every character trait that made her interesting is a bad decision and that in their attempt to remove the blame from her so that they can elevate her as this righteous patron of feminism, theyâre accidentally removing all of her agency and turning her simply into a victim, because I have a whole blog dedicated to that. But letâs just say that presenting Rhaenyra as this sexually liberated idol thatâs incapable of evil, when in fact sheâs an entitled aristocrat whoâs completely at the mercy of men around her, from her father to her husbuncle, is the most performative activism move ever pulled in recent TV history, as well as pushing the narrative that Alicent suffers from internalised misogyny because duh, a woman can only be good and a feminist if she supports Rhaenyra, not when she pursues her own interests.
Ultimately, I think we just have to accept that this show is not meant for TG fans. We are not going to find any satisfaction in it. Everything that was unique and admirable about the Greens in the book has vanished. Their family dynamic is fucked up, Alicentâs children hate her, Aegon and Halaena cannot stand one another, Alicent is constantly a victim and never someone that chases her own ambitions, Halaena is very vague, Aemond appears to be more angsty than angry, Aegon is a stupid rapist, Jaehaerysâ death was turned into a mockery, Alicole was weaponised in order to make us shit on Alicent and Criston even more and so on. This show barely caters to us because weâre not making them any money.
The reason that there are more TB than TG stans is because (Iâm gonna get so much fucking hate for this) most people who watch TV are fucking morons. I swear, when F&B came out 6 years ago, no one gave a flying fuck about Rhaenyra, because we all understood that everyone involved in the Dance of the Dragons was fucked up in their own way and that the message of this story, just like the general message of ASOIAF, is that nobody deserves to sit on that fucking throne. We were all in agreement about that. But then this fucking show came along and all the oblivious simpletons that swallowed whatever the producers shoved down their throats, grabbed the book and decided that âWoah, this book is obviously a critique on patriarchy and Rhaenyra is obviously the victim of the storyâ! As if GRRM, the man who said that he doesnât sit down and think âOh, Iâm going to write a woman nowâ but instead he believes women to be people just like men, with complex personalities, would ever do that. And they just canât believe that it is possible for book!Rhaenyra to be an evil racist classist full of entitlement! Surely it must be because the Greens are rewriting history! Thereâs no way GRRM, the man that created Cersei fucking Lannister, would ever make a female character thatâs vicious and crazy just because she feels like it! Yâall need to sit down for a moment. I say this as a radical feminist that supports the 4B movement: youâre projecting your own ideas onto Georgeâs work. Not all the media we consume has to reflect our ideologies, but if you think that it has to, then this book isnât the anti misogynistic masterpiece you wish it was.
Like, when it comes to F&B, I am firmly anti Targaryen and did not wish for any side to win. I wanted them all wiped out to be honest. But when it comes to HOTD, Iâm TG basically out of spite at this point.
All in all, I just think that things are going to go downhill for us from this point on. Theyâll just keep glorifying the Blacks until the very end.
#house of the dragon#pro team green#hotd#anti rhaenyra targaryen#team green#anti team black#pro alicent hightower#alicent hightower#pro alicent stans#pro aemond targaryen#pro helaena targaryen#blood and cheese#hotd season two#hotd critical#hotd thoughts#hotd hbo#anti hotd#anti rhaenyra stans#anti daemyra#anti daemon x rhaenyra#anti rhaenys targaryen#anti daemon stans#anti targ restoration#anti targ stans#house hightower#asoiaf#got#grrm#grrm critical#feminism
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Reading Shadow Of Perseus So You Don't Have To

Okay, before starting to actually dissect this book I cannot help but notice that the author inserted these fragments in her novel:

"Oh, look at me! I just copy n' pasted some random ancient texts in my shitty retelling to prove that I did my own search and I know what I'm supposed to write about. I'm so smart y'all! đ€"
Anyway, this book is written from the POVs of different women from the life of Perseus. First we have DanaĂ«'s POV, then Medusaâs, then Andromeda's and then DanaĂ«âs again. *sighs*
Chapter One
Danaë has a handmaid named Korinna. Which yes, I know that it's actually a greek name and that it comes from kore, but it's kinda funny to me since here Corina is that one middle-aged woman who sits on the balcony while gossiping the entire town and spitting seeds in your head.
Danaë is currently in Larissa, giving offerings at the temple of... Apollo and Artemis?! I'm sorry, but the author does know that these two generally had separate temples, right? Right?!

Are you gonna tell me that Danaë's mother is dead or something?! Or that Acrisius wants to remarry a girl who's probably younger than his own daughter instead of expecting a grandchild from her instead?! Bitch, that man was probably so old he needed two packages of Viagra⹠and a hot chick to put a finger in his ass in order to get a boner if the best he was able to do in his prime was one or two daughters.
Side Note: We're still at the second page of this retelling, by the way...
Okay, we're told that Danaë never left Argos before but would want to travel around the world because... her cool uncle told her many stories throughout time. Are you gonna tell me that you're going to turn even Proteus into a nice guy just so that your Perseus would look like the ultimate Genghis Khan with a personality disorder?! Really?! I mean, SERIOUSLY?!
After leaving the temple the two women make their way to the city. But Danae knew they had no reason to fear. No one in Argos would dare harm the daughter of Akrisios, nor one of his slaves. Alright, quick question: How do people, who lived in an era where stuff such as television, photography, posters etc. didn't exist, knew how does the princess of Argos looks like unless she traveled so oftenly that citizens got used of her face? Especially considering the fact that back then women usually had a more secluded life.
"Argos had no shortage of men hoping to marry Akrisiosâs only daughter. But as each one presented himself, her father found a reason to reject them. They were too fat, too thin, too poor, too wealthy, too foolish, too clever."
Sooo... basically any average balkan father? I'm confused, is this supposed to depict him in a worse light? Anyway, Danaë is now musing about how many men her father rejected even when she found them handsome and wanted to marry them for the rest of this chapter or so.
Chapter Two
Danaë turns back to the "Golden House" (which honestly sounds like some sort of a hotel which makes this retelling even more absurd) where she finds her father and uncle complaining again.

Not gonna lie, this is the most accurate fragment from this book so far.
Danaë then joins her cousins at the table, which by the way have the exact same personality (none, that is), divided into three.
"Like his twin brother, Danaeâs uncle had begotten no sons, and yet he did not seem to resent the fact. He doted on his three daughters as if they were the greatest gifts the gods could have bestowed."
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First of all, Megapenthes is right here! Second of all, the greatest irony out there is that Acrisius DID love and care for his daughter before finding out about the prophecy, which makes her imprisonment even more tragic. Sanitizing the exact same depraved fossil who assaulted Danaë and even his own daughter in one obscure source in a so-called "Feminist" retelling should perhaps make you consider to abandon writing this book. Unfortunately we're only at chapter 2 and there are 44 more chapters that will follow. *sighs*
"Her grandmother used to say that they had quarreled even when they were in the womb, and although Danae knew she was joking it didnât seem improbable."
Oh trust me, she was NOT joking! By the way, did you know that DanaĂ«âs mother died when she was little? Because why would one explore the bond between a mother and a daughter when you could have her be in a good relationship with her pedo uncle? Booooooooooring!
Acrisius' chief emissary then suddenly appears, telling him that they received a message from the Oracle and has to talk to him in private. Acrisius then finds out that he won't be the one who'll have a son, but his daughter, and that said son will eventually kill him. Acrisius is not so happy y'all.
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Chapter Three
Danaë is currently in her prison for two days. I'm sorry, but this is supposed to be a disturbing, hearbreaking moment and yet this is how it reads like:

Her uncle shows herself to be appalled by his brother's actions and wants to see his niece, because of fricking course! đ
Because sitting in a room all day is boring and she runs out of hobbies Danaë asks one of her servants to bring her a lyre to occupy herself with, which she does. This chapter ends with Danaë playing the instrument while crying because of her paranoic father.
Chapter Four
One week later Danaë receives a visit from the baker's son named Myron, which turns out to be some uncooked OC (pun intended). By the way, Myron is a stupid name to choose for someone from the Late Bronze Age (we have it too under the variant of Miron), since it literally comes from myrrh which has a greater importance in Abrahamic religions especially. Back to the plot, Myron tells Danaë that he has heard her playing the lyre and fell in love with her music so he decided to visit her, and gave her a cake as a gift before leaving, promising her it's not the first time when he'll pay her a visit.
This is the dumbest chapter so far, because what do you mean Acrisius is senile enough to let his daughter in a chamber anyone could enter in without much difficulty if the entire point of her imprisonment was to keep her a virgin so that she won't give birth to a son?! And before asking: No, that guy didn't came in through the window, because that room has no windows to begin with; he simply used the door just like any normal person. At this point I'm wondering how is Danaë supposed to be isolated if all she would have to do to escape is to open that fucking door, and those guardians are clearly not doing their job.
Chapter Five
Danaë is now waiting for the uncooked OC to come to her that night (pretty sure the accidental innuendo was actually intended). He turns back with another piece of cake, then starts to tell her about his family drama, poverty and how he intends to live Argos with a ship. Danaë is all in heat because it's the first time she's so close to a boy, and he's also quite nice and handsome too.

"friend" pretty sure this guy will soon father Perseus, so before reaching another chapter here's my advice:
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Chapter Six
The uncooked OC is visiting Danaë every night. Danae realized she had never really had a friend before. A true friend. Not her cousins bound to her by blood and forced proximity, or her handmaid bound by servitude. Myron owed her no loyalty. He asked for nothing from her. Don't you guys love it when a supposedly feminist retelling has a woman having a stronger bond with a male OC than with the canonical female figures she might have actually been close to? I know!
One day Danaë receives a visit from her father, after about a month or so ever since he locked her away. Danaë then begs him to release her, telling him that as long as he rejects any suitors or makes a priestess she won't bear any children, to which he makes it clear that she could still get pregnant via seduction or rape and this is the safest possible way to avoid the prophecy, then leaves.
"And it was then that she knew his true fear. He did not fear her but her bodyâthe life it could bring, and the death. Its permeability, its fatal fecundity. This was no new threat. He had defended against it all her life. The oracle had only made his fear greater, the stakes higher. And with that realization she knew she was lost."
Something tells me that the author was thinking "I'm a genius." while writing this and started to self-compliment herself as if she wrote Oppenheimer's "Now I am become Death." speech.
The uncooked OC visits her that night again and Danaë tells him about her conversation with her father. He then tries to comfort her, and they start to kiss and fuck.
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Chapter Seven
This chapter is only three pages (not that the other would be much longer anyway), and it's basically just the uncooked OC telling Danaë that he could help her escape, and run together far from Argos. But they don't really come with any plan at all, because Danaë still hopes that her father will change his mind one day and free her anyway.

I'm sorry girl, but just because you don't believe in prophecies or in getting pregnant after the first time that doesnât mean that your father shares the exact same beliefs as yours, nor that he will free you for asking him politely.
Chapter Eight
Danaë discovers that: "Oh well, you could ACTUALLY get pregnant after the first time!" and realizes how stupid and desperate she was all this time. Her servant is the one who observed her nauseous moods sooner and informs her father about it, and he quickly realizes that his daughter might be in fact pregnant.
But DanaĂ« still didn't figure out that the handmaid already suspects something, so she cuts her tight with a knife and stains her rags and wool with blood so that she would believe she didnât lose her periods. But exactly in this moment her father enters her chambers and discovers her trickery.
Friendly reminder that the original Danaë managed to keep Perseus hidden for three or four years, while this one wasn't able to hide her pregnancy in the first place.
Chapter Nine
Danaë is held captive for a while, this time in her older bedroom instead of her prison, crying about how she can no longer see her beloved uncooked OC boyfriend again until her father asks her to come with him. They travel during nighttime in a wagon for a while, before they stop nearby the sea. Acrisius then asks his men to bind his daughter and throw her in a boat, then cast the boat into the see because he is a "pious men" and would rather know his daughter killed by the waves of Poseidon than his own hands. Danaë begs for forgiveness when her pedo uncle suddenly appears:

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Proteus wasn't able to save his niece, so she's tied thrown into the boat anyway.
Chapter Ten
Danaë bemoans her own fate while pregnant and tied into the boat, praying that Poseidon won't cast any storm. I'm sorry, but this chapter alone is only three or four pages, and extremely dumb for numerous reasons:
1) The chances of a pregnant woman devoided of any food to not die are very low, let aside to not lose her pregnancy. Perseus was already a baby or a small child and Danaë wasn't tied in the original myth. Not to mention the fact that here she isn't in a chest but in a boat, making her more vulnerable and exposet to any danger.
2) Danaë and Perseus weren't completely abandoned, but protected and safely carried away by Poseidon and the Nereids. But because in this shitty retelling there are no gods the fact that her and her fetus somehow survived is less credible.
3) This is the distance between Argos and Seriphos, by the way:

There's no way that trip lasted for only one day or a few hours.
That boat is eventually found by Dictys and other fishermen, who manages to safely rescue Danaë.
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I GUESS we can focus Persephone and her complete non-issue of a focus on purity culture and finding herself. I GUESS we can focus on Heraâs racist ass realising she likes girls. I GUESS we can have them go into their ugly ass giant forms and everyone has a #girlboss moment where they kinda kick Apollo a whole bunch. I GUESS we can focus on the bad things that happened to Queen Purse and Queen Haemorrhoid that are not based in actual myth in any way. Itâs fine, I suppose. I mean itâs really fucking not but whatever itâs fine.
But if I said a far more interesting story would be watching Leto, turned into a typical, evil, scheming, bland, coddling mother, and how she became that way? What if we did the impossible for LO by tackling actually both feminine struggles and Greek mythology instead of tiptoeing around them?
Leto, the titaness, goddess of motherhood, and described as quiet, polite, modest, shy, gentle and warm yet fiercely protective of her children and those she watches over.
Leto who is seduced and then abandoned by Zeus who offers her no meaningful protection as Heraâs rage turns the entire world against her and attacks anyone who dares help her.
Leto who is cursed by Hera to not be able to give birth on land or sea and has to run all over the country side, rejected by everyone and chased by the angry queen of the gods.
Leto who laboured for TWO WEEKS because Hera kept Elythia, the goddess of childbirth, distracted so she couldnât go to aid Leto.
Leto who, upon her return to Olympus, is supposedly now under Zeusâs protection but is still harassed and threatened by Hera.
In actual myth, Leto never retaliates against Hera (except for this one line where she absolutely GAGS Hera by essentially telling her to stop fronting like sheâs better than everyone because when Zeus cheats on her again, sheâll be back to a crying mess) and continues her role as a protector of mothers and children.
The version we see in LOïżŒ is, obviously, nothing like her. Itâs interesting and very easy to think that her mistreatment by the royalty of Olympus would have destabilised and jaded her. Conveniently though, for the supposed feminist retelling, no voice is given to Leto.
So what if I said that watching Leto as she was before, watching her then be seduced, used and abandoned by Zeus and then not protected by him as Hera rains down nothing but abuse and terror on her, turning her into the person she is nowâŠwhat if I said that that would be a much better story? What then, hm?
#lo critical#lore olympus critical#anti lore olympus#antiloreolympus#lo criticism#lore olympus criticism#anti lo#Leto
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Not to be a doomer but we used to get well meaning but poorly written âfeministâ retellings but now weâre getting retellings that arenât retellings at all, but just bad authors cashing in on mythology like itâs a trend when their books have nothing to do with mythology. Iâm really worried this would become normalized bc itâs barely getting called outâŠ
#between this Academy of Villains and Blood of Hercules book⊠I donât like where this is going#greek mythology#ancient greek mythology#greek pantheon#greek mythology retelling
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