Popular Hades & Persephone "retellings" are, rightly, getting dunked on all over the socials right now and, as a Pagan who has an altar to the Queen, I could not be happier. But also, I feel like a lot of people miss WHY they're bad - aside from just plain bad writing and lazy tropes. Which are, yeah, also REALLY bad.
Pretty much all retellings try to wave away, or excuse, or twist the whole kidnapping bit. And I actually do have sympathy and understanding for why, when speaking from a modern perspective.
But honestly...you gotta get over it. There are other stories to play fix-it with, not this one.
The Abduction is The Thing.
Were I a little more sober I could bring up chapter and verse of the Hymn to Demeter but frankly, if you know even the middle school mythology curriculum version of the story, you SHOULD know the themes. The story of Persephone was one mothers and daughters in the ancient world held dear, because it was a reality: you will, one day, be swept away from your home to go cleave to a man you most likely know nothing about. You will miss your mother, but chances are very good that he will be a good husband, once you get to know him, certainly better than Zeus or Ares, and he will make you a queen of his home.
Leaving home to marry was often scary, and violent (look up the history of the tradition of Bridesmaids, if you don't already know it - they were originally decoys on the marriage road). Centuries later we'd have tales like Beauty & The Beast serving the same function: comfort, hope, you are leaving your safe loving home to figure life out with a (often older, powerful) stranger. Your trauma over this sudden ending of your childhood made manifest in a Beast, or a God of The Underworld.
It's wonderful that we don't NEED stories like this anymore to comfort us (here, at least, in this culture). But if you try to force them into modern vernacular it just will not work, not really, because you're gutting out the whole point just to have a more tidy romantic male hero.
I have read MANY very good ...novelizations? fanfic(? however you would frame them, but they're certainly not "retellings"), etc. that simply take advantage of the blank spaces in the myth, and there are many!
It's not explicit that sexual assault happens - "The Rape of Persephone" as a title was coined in much earlier eras, when the word was just as often used to simply refer to abduction.
"She was starving!" the gods didn't need to eat. So it's easy to read her eating the Pom seeds as a deliberate choice on her part. Like, shit, people, scholars have written whole papers on the symbolism of this moment, between marriage rites and even yeah, Seph choosing both worlds with her husband's knowing consent.
And that, I think, is the real heart of the thing. People want an utterly mundane, spelled-out story here, as opposed to what it really is, has always been, just like any other myth or religious parable: IT'S A METAPHOOOOOOR.
They don't need to be destined, or meet at a goddamned BALL and then CONSPIRE to fake her kidnapping, or shit, I once saw one where Hades got MIND CONTROLLED by Zeus?! Jesus.
Persephone was yoinked into the Underworld against her will.
That's how it went.
I don't mean this in a "stay out of my belief system!" way, shit I'm a white American chick with delusions of witchery. I mean this in a "stop stressing yourself out trying to make things palatable" way:
This is a very real, very precious myth to many people, BECAUSE for at least that one event, Persephone had no autonomy, BECAUSE for thousands of years most women had no autonomy. Erasing that, sanitizing the fact that a girl is ripped out of the spring, from her mother's arms, is erasing the thing that gave comfort to women for centuries. And people can and should still find power and healing in it now!
Fill in the blanks the story leaves in whatever manner seems fit to you, there's plenty of room, but. Come the fuck on.
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I have been thinking about the blackening (as one does)…
…and it’s so interesting to me, the penalty Shen Qingqiu is faced with should he not decide to yeet his disciple into hell.
Account termination. Instant death. Sent directly home to his already-long-dead body, and that’s it for the villain of the piece who outright refuses his villainy. The protagonist needs a blackening for the story to continue, and Shen Qingqiu is going to provide it or get written out of the narrative. Either way, Luo Binghe is going to lose him. Either way, this is a turning point.
I wouldn’t claim that this is the intent of the penalty, but it fascinates me that the System has, potentially, backed the plotline into a corner - because Binghe still stands to be blackened even if Shen Qingqiu took the other choice.
Think about what that would look like, to him. He’s at the Immortal Alliance Conference, and everything is going wrong. He’s been outed as a demon, and not just a demon - the top tier of demon, as bad as it gets from the perspective of a righteous cultivator. His beloved teacher, the person who has been kindest to him and opened his home and heart to him, is standing there with his sword in hand, deciding what he’s going to do about what must look, to him, like a horrific betrayal. Binghe is apologizing. Binghe is begging for his life.
Shen Qingqiu hears him. Maybe it shows on his face, or in his voice, that he already knew; maybe there’s no hint at all, but Shen Qingqiu is suddenly talking quickly with an abrupt sense of urgency that Luo Binghe is having a hard time keeping up with. Telling him he’ll be wonderful - telling him he’s the best. Telling him the world will be his, with emotions cracking through that aloof mask that Binghe has never seen on Shizun’s face before, and it’s terrifying for reasons that Binghe cannot identify.
(He will, later. When he has time to think, he’ll realize it sounded like a goodbye.)
And then Shen Qingqiu is bleeding. And then Shen Qingqiu is on the ground. And then Shen Qingqiu is dead. There’s no countdown for Binghe - there’s no System, there’s no warning, there’s no answers.
Luo Binghe is a heavenly demon in the middle of a conference sabotaged by demons. Luo Binghe is alone. His fellow competing disciples are scattered, some dead or injured. The Peak Lord of Qing Jing Peak, the second in command of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, maybe the only person he loved and who loved him back, is dead at his feet. No one will believe him if he says it isn’t his fault.
(He can’t believe it isn’t his fault.)
What choice does he have but to run? The last heavenly demon the cultivation world went up against has been sealed under a mountain for years, and one of the people responsible for that is probably looking for Shen Qingqiu already. They’ll be looking for him, too. There isn’t anywhere to hide; there isn’t any time to mourn.
There isn’t even enough time to ask why. Why again.
There is no closure waiting for him, because there is nothing to explain what happened. It just is.
It would be a different kind of blackening, certainly - less intense, probably, less of a warping, desperate thing. But how many times can one person have all the love and safety in their world torn out from under them before it starts to show? Before they just don’t allow things like love and safety to touch them, because that’s the better option?
Interesting to consider that, simply by offering the choices it did, the System rigged the story to guarantee that Luo Binghe would end up in hell (deliberate or not).
Interesting to consider that, even if Shen Qingqiu made what might have seemed like a kinder choice, there was every chance it wouldn’t have been.
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Playful prompts for tadc cast playing hide and seek with hider reader?
Awe this is a cute idea! (not including Caine bc I see him as the one organizing this game).
.........
Pomni
During her first week inside the Digital Circus, she's slowly adapting to everything...although she refuses to give up on finding an exit.
But when Caine forced everybody to play some hide n' seek, with you being the hider, she really doesn't want any part of it.
However you convinced her to play along, whispering that if she found you first, you'll share what you remembered from your old life as a "prize".
Although initially annoyed you wouldn't just tell her, she becomes motivated searching high and low, opening doors, looking down barrels, etc.
When she finally finds you (courtesy of a glitching object), she's anxious to hear what you had to say-
Unfortunately Caine decides to pop in and put on a big celebration for Pomni winning the game...which goes on the whole damn day up until everybody goes to bed that night.
You seemingly forgot what you were gonna tell her, to which she gets upset and angry that you gave her false hope, sulking in her room.
But you slide a note under her door, explaining that you only recently remembered your real name.
Suddenly she realizes that maybe her memories weren't 100% gone.
If you could suddenly remember your name, then....surely she can, too!
Gangle
After Jax was mean to her during the last hide n' seek game, you try cheering her up by playing another one.
It didn't involve Caine or anybody else. Just you two.
She mopes about being a terrible seeker. But since you're her best friend (and you promised her a prize), she'll go along if it makes you happy.
You decide to hide in spots that she would 100% think to check, deliberately allowing her to win.
Since she's all ribbons, it's easy for her to slink around and squeeze into tight spaces.
After finding you three times, she gets suspicious that you're purposefully going easy on her-
But she stops her accusations as you finally present her prize:
It's a brand new comedy mask!! Except this one wasn't made of porcelain or ceramic, instead being unbreakable material (or at least material that's couldn't casually be broken by anyone, especially Jax).
Gangle sobs with happiness before putting the mask on, squealing over how perfectly it fits, and hugging you tightly.
Thanks to you, she can finally feel joyful again!
Zooble
They'd rather do anything else....
But since this little hide n' seek "adventure" was all Caine's idea, she has no choice but to go along with it.
Even so, she puts the least amount effort into the game.
When you're the hider and she's the seeker, they just pray to whatever god is in this world (besides Caine) that you aren't anywhere in the Gloink cavern.
She'd rather not get discombobulated again.
Sometimes, she'll throw parts of herself in the direction where she thinks you're hiding, hoping to startle you into giving away your location so this dumb game can finally end.
Lucky for you, you know their tricks and keep quiet.
She doesn't expect any prizes (unless it's a limb that makes her body not look like a hot mess).
If they find you, she'll be like "yay I win..now I'm going back to my room" and saunter off.
Kinger
Like Zooble, he'd much rather do something else.
But he goes along with Caine's game anyways after you enticed him into playing for a prize.
Whatever momentarily stops his sanity from spiraling, I guess.
He searches high and low, getting nervous when he can't find you anywhere in the places he'd 100% expect you to be.
Lowkey starts to wonder if something terrible actually happened to you--like if you were trapped and not even Caine could help you.
The last place he could think of was your room but.....he doesn't have your key.
At the same time, he knew you weren't a cheater. You wouldn't hide somewhere that nobody else (except Jax) could access!
In the end, he goes back to his fort to sulk, openly declaring that you've won the game.
As it turns out, you chose to hide in that same fort, and you jump out with a grin, feeling victorious.
Kinger just stares at you for a solid 10 seconds.....before he suddenly screams and asks why tf you were in there.
You feel bad for scaring him, so you reward him for at least trying: a jar with a caterpillar currently wrapped up in a chrysalis.
He LOVES it, but now he carries around the jar every second of the day, staring at it until the little bug hatches.
At least now he has a reason not to fall off the deep end just yet.
Jax
Hide n' seek is like child's play to him.
Somehow this cheeky bastard knows exactly where you're hiding no matter what, even if it's outside the tent (like at the lake or fair).
It's definitely tarnishing your reputation as the best "hider" out of all of the gang.
When you ask him how tf he knew, he just shrugs and says "you're too predictable, try a better spot next time".
Hiding in your room is definitely not an option, as he's stolen your key (and would point out that would be cheating if someone else was the seeker instead)--so there truly is no place to hide.
Like Zooble, he's not in it for some prize.
It is, however, quite rewarding seeing you get so frustrated when he effortlessly finds you.
And that's enough for him
If it's a game involving everyone, then he just straight-up mocks the others for not realizing the very obvious spot (or at least to him it was obvious) you were hiding in.
Ragatha
She's probably the most enthusiastic about Hide n' seek (like you have mentioned, it's a good distraction from the stresses of being stuck in this virtual world).
Is also a fair and honest player, never once peeking while she counts to 10.
Like Pomni, she does her best to find you first, searching places she knows you frequent--or mentioned liking in the past.
But you're definitely the best hider out of everyone, so it's a little challenging.
Still, she refuses to give up!
When she does successfully find you, you and Caine decided that she should get a prize for being such a great seeker.
It's her very own centipede-repellent spray bottle.
While it won't stop Jax from trying to sneak those little pests into her room, the mist will deter them from coming near her at all and help her conquer her fear.
She's forever grateful and sprays it around her bed every night before she sleeps.
Oh, and she'll definitely threaten Jax with it if he even mentioned centipedes around her.
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