#especially since Atreus is on his Epic journey

[evilbeing]

Im taking for granted that Angrboda and Skjöldr are friends bc they met (thats it, thats my reason idc)

But how would their friendship be like ???

Please I need headcanons for them PLEASE EHAHSHSH

[littlesparklight]

"Then the son of Atreus drew his sword, and drove at the projecting part of his helmet, but the sword fell shivered in three or four pieces from his hand."

There's one thing that's kind of funny when it comes to Paris that that quote from the duel in Book 3 sort of is connected to. Some unfortunate event that by all appearances have no divine involvement, yet works out in Paris' favour. And, unlike Menelaos' sword shattering into pieces*, the other two events I'm thinking of look a lot worse and more suspicious, if you're a character in-world and have only partial knowledge. (*Obviously, realistically, breaking your sword, especially when slamming it into such a spot, isn't particularly impossible. But given that weapons aren't generally prone to break in epic unless a god was involved, the fact that there doesn't seem to be any involved here looks... funny, doesn't it? Menelaos certainly at least complains to Zeus after this, especially as he also attempted to call on Zeus before he attacked Paris.)

The first of those two Very Suspicious-Looking Events is the death of the Dioskouroi.

Mainstream/standard later version makes very clear there never was divine involvement in the events that led to Kastor's death/resurrection and Polydeukes being given immortality, aside from Zeus backing up Polydeukes. Paris is never anywhere near them, and rather, as is the version in the Bibliotheke, immediately ends up in Sparta. But in the Epic Cycle's Kypria, Paris is first hosted (not in Sparta) by the Dioskouroi. The only reason he's sent on to Helen and Menelaos by the Dioskouroi is... because the Apharetidai turns up and want to go on a raid with Kastor and Polydeukes. The raid that leads to Kastor being killed.

Funny timing, isn't it? And yet - nowhere is there any whiff of a suggestion that any god (not Aphrodite, not anyone else) or fate has anything to do with this. It's just events that work out in Paris' favour. (Doubly so since it removes the Dioskouroi from pursuing him or taking part in the war.)

The second event is the death of Katreus.

Getting informed of his grandfather's impending funeral is what gets Menelaos to leave Sparta, leaving the field open for Shenanigans to happen (much more easily than they otherwise could have).

It is very, very convenient, isn't it?

And yet, here is what Bibliotheke has to say: [3.2.1] But Catreus, son of Minos, had three daughters, Aerope, Clymene, and Apemosyne, and a son, Althaemenes. When Catreus inquired of the oracle how his life should end, the god said that he would die by the hand of one of his children. [...]

(Katreus hides the oracles, seeming to be ready to do what few others being told adverse oracles do in Greek myth; do nothing. But his son finds out and leaves, taking one of his sisters with him.)

Bibliotheke again: But afterwards in the grip of old age Catreus yearned to transmit the kingdom to his son Althaemenes, and went for that purpose to Rhodes. And having landed from the ship with the heroes at a desert place of the island, he was chased by the cowherds, who imagined that they were pirates on a raid. He told them the truth, but they could not hear him for the barking of the dogs, and while they pelted him Althaemenes arrived and killed him with the cast of a javelin, not knowing him to be Catreus.

Whether Katreus knows (as here) where his son is or not, it'd take time for him to get to Rhodes. It'd take even more if he doesn't know the location of his son and has to search the whole damn sea for him. Either way, he would certainly have left for his journey somewhere before Paris even steps foot on Lakedaimonian soil. And again, we have no gods involved in this; just an old man wishing to retire/hand over his crown with grace to his son, and thus seeking him out. Fate takes its course, as the prophecy he was once given said it would, long, long before Paris ever judged any goddesses - more than that, long before he was even born!

But if you're a character that is part of the world, and doesn't know all these separate steps and events... again, it looks quite suspicious, doesn't it?

Disaster seems to follow in Paris' soft-stepping wake.