#lore Olympus s2

[genericpuff]

For the sake of comedy, I redrew this iconic S1 panel in the S3 style. Better or worse? 💀😆 /s

edit: because i've gotten comments on both this post and the one i shared in the subreddit that seem to misinterpret why i made this, y'all this is meant to be satire, i'm not actually trying to 'outdo' the original panel, it's supposed to look like the S3 art style which looks boring and stiff compared to the original LMAO (I even used S3 panels as the base to work off of when creating this) so yes all the issues with the redrawn version are on purpose, i'm well aware it's not as good as the original and that the anatomy is wack, that just tells me i succeeded because it's p much exactly what S3 of LO looks like JFKDLAJFDASKLJKASLD

[vmprchn]

I’ll never forget when me & @meggie-moo made the decision to read like the first few chapter of Lore Olympus together, and when Ero was introduced we lost our god damn mind because he literally look like fucking JFK from clone high 😭😭😭

Tell me this isn’t literally JoanFK right there HSJHSHSHSHHSHS

[popcorn-null]

So let’s talk about the minecraft rabbit hole I have fallen into.

So for a while I’ve been hyper fixated on different minecraft YouTubers.

TheFamousFilms- I liked his old videos but honestly, opinions changed but uhhh….he chill, I guess. I don’t watch him anymore.

Minecraft Origins- This is a multiple series things. The main series I still like to this day despite the group disbanding is Fairytale origins S5 (Boatnose & CrazyMitch POV) Origins of Olympus S2 (Owtreyalp POV) OriginZ (Ritchie POV). Honestly, I still rewatch Fairytale Origins S5 from Lucas’s POV to this day. I honestly wish they could continue but I understand why it was canceled.

Fnaf Minigames- I use to love this series as a kid. I’d always remember what episodes are now currently missing and a lot of plot points. My favorite character has to be Bangle. Though, as I look back, I can tell it is really cheesy and doesn’t have stuff that makes sense, I mean, who the hell names a pair of twins both Elizabeth. I usually rewatched 3-4 old episodes when it was from Bangle’s POV and it’s usually from season 2. Never liked the switching POVs.

DSMP- can you blame me? I still have a flag from this series actually, I just don’t hang it. My favorite characters have to be Tommyinnit, Revivebur, Ghostbur, Technoblade, Quackity, and Awesamdude. (Note: I like the characters, I do not condone the actions of a specific individual or any other actions of other people.) I still partially hyperfixate to this day on this. I never really finished the series nor plan to. I know the ending for some of the characters but It’s not worth finishing this. Kinda sucks to find out how a lot of the people from this either suck, got actual trauma or disappeared.

PrettyDepressedProductions- I like his old Candy’s series. His new one is fine and I’m excited to see what happens, despite me skipping many videos. I also like his paranormal investigation series. It’s entertaining and this man has showed up in my dreams just to be stupid and honestly, I would’ve done the same and sit upside down on a couch while people talk about being concerned over me.

Empires Smp- I started watching this because of Rhapsoddity’s Vigilante Sheriff au as I’d at least like to know what I’m getting myself into. I watched season 1, turned out i didn’t need to. Then watched season 2 and enjoyed that.

Life series- this is where the rabbit hole realization began. I became extremely hyperfixated on Jimmy/Solidarity. I love the fact Evo was brought into this series by the fans and half the lore didn’t come from the actual people! It’s literally from the fans bringing it along to life series and it’s amazing. I’m hyped to see the next life series.

Aphmau- I’m in a chokehold with this series. I gotta say I really like Ein, Zane and Asch. Ein is my main guy, silly, chaotic while also needing the attention and time to grow as someone. I definitely didn’t skip over her series to a recap cause I’m lazy. I would’ve loved to see his character developed but again, this is a kids channel with mature series. Zane is honestly relatable with his Mystreet beginnings. Feeling overshadowed by your golden child, older brother and being insecure. His character had so much potential, yet in the Smp, he feels like a one note. Asch is a character that needs more attention and I love him.

Ethobot- I know the controversy but I more focus on the characters. Even though he’s similar to Aphmau, the biggest thing I love about this channel is the fact there’s a story in a way. We know Etho’s mom is dead, there was a time he was human, etc. so much potential, yet some stuff I wish was done better, even if it’s basically a kids channel. 1. Who in the right mind has a Teacher and daughter of the mafia, roam in the jacket and skirt, seems inconvenient, 2. Ruby does not look like she’s a technician and 3. Can we not have people obsessed with others, it’s annoying.

Boomiee- I have fallen into the rabbit hole. I saw TikTok’s about him awhile back and ignored it until I watched a video and then watched all of it and now I’m stuck here. I’m in love with the animation and character. I yearn for more!

The Central Lore of Showtime Smp- and I watched a few hours of Vods just for central lore and Boomie. I have fallen quite deep.

Fnaf Chronicals- Davis got great series. Molten is funny guy and Davis is a corpse!

Otso and Derpy- I like Otso. He chill and doesn’t seem threatening until you fuck up. I love his story and I’m glad for him. Uhhh….Derpy and Toby are doing something, idk what.

Spike the Bat?- it’s an old series I watched, can’t find it anymore but I had a favorite episode where Spike saw  hallucinations. I kinda miss it but I know the creator is doing other stuff.

Tailstheponyfox- I like a lot of the lore and videos. I wish he posted more. Though out of all series, he has my favorite William Afton. Everyone has the same thing, he’s either pure evil, mysterious, or someone fallen from grace. But, this version actually shows guilt! That he knows what he did and wants to be better!

Kiritothewolfox_- I liked him when I was kid. Long videos and decent videos. I stopped watching him because his lore became convoluted. Gods and other stuff. I lost interest because of that and honestly, his old videos aren’t that great. He’s doing something now but I don’t keep up with him.

Itsatwinthing72- I loved this series! It was great, it was funny when they kept moving and that Bonnie was really good. I have no clue what’s going on with it since it’s been 2 years without mentions of what happened. My favorite episode was when Bonnie was hiding from Thinkly and Maddie due to being antisocial and shy. It’s so relatable, I behave in a similar way cause I wanna talk to you but i do things to grab your attention to at least have you start the conversation.

Nick the Skeleton- I’ve been interested in his Life story series and Glitch Generations. I’ve also watched his Fairytale origins s5. He doesn’t post at the moment but his series are good, if you ignore his repeating lines. I wanna see where his stories go when he comes back though

Lefty’s Diner- great series but bad dynamics. Season 1 was peak but had many flaws. People falling in love way too quickly and why the hell would you be stupidly open about your abuse!? Funtime freddy shouldn’t have been that open! Also, WHO THAT FALLS IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE OVER GAY BACON!? It’s funny cause gay bacon but why would Molten automatically fall for Lefty?! They just met! Season 2 isn’t too great and has flaws and I refuse to watch season 3, I hate switching POV. It’s bothersome and I watch these channels for 1 POV or sometime 2. I ain’t a fan of what they did to Frostbear, Dreadbear and Grim Foxy. Why do they have to be gods?! Why not do what Limited did and make them spirits?

Fnaf Limited- I like how we have a British Frostbear. I can’t say much as it ended and never really finished.

I’ve been stuck in this rabbit holes for way too long QuQ

[euphoriesx]

"CLUB EUPHORIES"

"i'm feelin' fantastic, i'm fuckin' fantastic, i wanna get drunk and ..."

in another another universe, there's a string of underground clubs, where even the most illicit of affairs is accepted - hell, even glorified. far from the city lights, CLUB EUPHORIES is a great escape, especially for those young and wild.

the 'heiress' is usually down here. dubbed the heiress because her aunt and uncle are the morally grey personas who own these clubs, ROMI's nights are mostly spent on the stage of club euphories, with the rest of her band and her trusty guitar. bribe her with a few drinks, and maybe she'll pay a little more attention to you. or throw her money from below the stage, she'll play you an extra riff.

the drummer's down here too. he only accepted being part of the heiress' band because there's a 'SPIDERMAN INVITED' sign hung on the front of the door. the heiress dubs him boycrush. because, you know. who doesn't like cute dark-haired drummers?

come over to club euphories, maybe? just kidding. you don't have a choice.

"MEET THE HEIRESS"

tonight the guitarist isn't on stage. there's a vocalist doing a solo, instead. good for you, i guess. gives you time to find out more.

romi, 19. malaysian-chinese, but track me n im down under

i do smaus and occasionally short drabbles. i also only write for fem!reader, unless specified otherwise. requests r usually open, but if i get too many the way i post WILL become deemed by myself.

ari, 'brina carpenter, liv rodrigo, conan, ayesha, odetari, 6arleyhuman, asteria (fbm) dom fike, girl in red, king princess, also into alotta kpop so hmu

i fw series like blue lock, tokrev, jjk (which is the only one i write for), bsd, kny, mha (hv been since the cringe fandom phase), tbh js ask bc i forget alot of the fandoms that im in lmfao

used to play genshin impact n hsr.

books include pjo, hoo, toa, tsats, magnus, kc, anything uncle rick coded tbh, agggtm, one of us is lying, planning to read fota, i read lotr but dont expect any of it to hv gone into my head xcept the fact i crushed on legolas once

webtoons include duchess in ruins, skl bus graveyard, so not my type, the remarried empress, the mafia nanny, osora, killer peter, to whom it no longer concerns, baby tyrant, dagger to the heart, cinderelle, operation tru love (i do not fw s2 rn), my inlaws r obsessed w me, obsidian bride, childhood friend complex, angel of death, lore olympus, i read too many hmu if u wanna kno whether ive read a series or not

hmu if u over 5'3 n play soccer (jk)

[moony-2001]

Lore Olympus ep. 255 critique

Boy oh boy.

No remorse and tonal whiplash

We open this chapter with Persephone waking up not dead, total shock in Hades' arms, asking him if what happened was all a bad dream.

When Hades responds that what happened was not all in her head, we as the readers would expect Persephone to react with shock, remorse, something. Nope. Instead, we get this:

"Oh dear" with the most expressionless face ever. Our empathetic, caring protagonist everyone.

Now maybe I'm being too harsh. However, I feel like most people upon being confronted with the fact that they caused mass destruction would be pretty upset, if not incredibly so. But that's just my 2 cents.

We immediately transition into a party that's being set up for Persephone by all her friends and cohorts. We're then treated to this lovely image:

Thanks Captain Obvious.

While Hermes and Megaera argue over whether or not carrot cake is good, Thanatos pulls Hecate aside and notes about the massive uptick in incoming deaths which confirms what I said in my last critique post. While initially denying it, Hecate quickly realizes that something is very very wrong and that's when Hades and Persephone burst through the doors. Persephone bursts into tears and we get the most tone-deaf sentence ever:

Wow. Haha so funny. Comedy. Given the context of what just happened, this attempt at humor fell so flat.

I feel like the first third of this chapter kind of speaks for itself in terms of the writing and art, which is not good. There's just no emotion at all. I get the feeling that we're supposed to feel bad for Persephone and I just... don't. I don't have a whole lot more to say about this portion of the chapter; just that when I read it, I strained my eyeballs from rolling them so hard.

Hades tries not to make everything about himself challenge: Impossible

We transition into the post-party disaster cleanup where Persephone is hiding out in a greenhouse and Hades and Hecate are inside. Hades takes this opportunity to make everything about himself.

First of all, you're not and you're not.

But on a more serious note, this is not the first time we see Hades take a situation that has either nothing or almost nothing to do with him and make it all about himself. In fact, this is something he does frequently throughout the comic. Hades, in my opinion, very much has a "me, me, me, it's all about me" mindset.

One instance that comes to mind is this scene that happens in early s2 after Persephone opens up about her childhood and AOW. She barely has had time to share and process her traumatic experiences when Hades decides that this is the perfect time to dump 2000 years' worth of pent-up trauma onto a girl he's known for maybe 2 weeks at that point. Yet, he refuses to actively seek help during his time before meeting Persephone and even calls his therapist a hack.

Another instance is when Persephone confronts Hades about ripping out Alex's eye in s1 (when she was still somewhat empathetic to nymphs and whatnot).

Hades, when torturing Alex, very quickly shifts from the mentality of "you could've really damaged Persephone's reputation" to "I'm going to punish you because I view Persephone as my property and how dare you do this to me?"

Hades even outright admits it when confronted. He took a situation that had nothing to do with him and completely made it about himself.

Another instance is when Persephone tells Hades about what Apollo did to her and Hades flies off the handle and makes her trauma about himself. About what he is going to do even though that is not his decision to make.

It baffles me how conceited Hades is despite claiming to care about Persephone. I don't understand how you can look at a person who is going through a hell of a time and think "Let's make this about me". But that's a whole other post for the future

Zeus and Apollo

Skipping to the end of the episode, Apollo calls Hades (with Zeus' phone?) and tells him that he wants to take Persephone off Hades' hands.

Straight up, I don't like Hades and Persephone either as characters or together as a couple. I think they bring out the worst in each other. But Persephone is not some dog that needs to be rehomed and frankly, the whiplash Rachel is giving her audience in regards to Apollo's character is going to put me in a neck brace for life. She keeps flip-flopping between trying to make Apollo this sad, sympathetic anti-hero and the most egregious villain to walk the earth. You can not be both Zuko and Azula Rachel. You need to pick a lane and stay in it.

Apollo reveals that Zeus is in a coma and Hermes conveniently has the news up and running so we as the audience can be greeted with this:

"Attempted murder" you say? Of a being that literally can't die? Rachel, do you even know what attempted murder means?

"The defendant took at least one direct (but ineffective) step towards killing another person" and "The defendant intended to kill that person (malice aforethought)" -> California Law and Sentencing

While both of these are true in the fact that Apollo took the steps to kill Zeus and also intended to kill Zeus, they're gods. You can't murder a god. In order for murder to be attempted, or to even happen, the person in question has to be able to die. But then they're a human, not a god.

I feel like a more accurate report would be something along the lines of "Zeus has fallen victim to what seems to be a violent coup that has left him seriously incapacitated." Maybe that's not the best sentence to ever grace the writing scene, but hopefully my point is clear.

Also, how are people still oblivious to the fact that Apollo is, at the very least, incredibly suspicious right now. I mean his father has just been announced to be "dying" and instead of taking the time to mourn or even appear upset, he immediately slides into the position of power as King of the gods.

This chapter definitely wasn't as bad as 254, but it did make my brain hurt. Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Holidays to those of you who don't celebrate Christmas. See you all soon.

[t4tails]

all im seeing from this liveblog is that lore olympus actually has the most awful and inconsistent artstyle ever. its just all horrendous i dont think ive seen a good panel yet

i was posting compilations of panels i liked at the beginning, but ever since i got to s2 i cant even do that because the art has gotten so shit. its never been consistent but there used to be at least ocassional nice pieces

[mickc-rants]

Helluva Boss S2 E7 review

Lemme guess, Mammon is Vivzie’s self projection. Her alleged attitude that was called out by former workers displayed similar attitudes with Mammon in the show. Other than attitude, his comment on Fizz’s body type makes sense since he told Fizz that people like it skinny (most characters she designed are skinny and Viv thought skinny is great). He was voiced by Michael Cusack, the creator of Smiling Friends and Koala Man.

For Fizz, he’s an unproblematic fav of the fandom or one of the unproblematic characters in HB. His backstory with Blitzø should have an episode on its own (from childhood to their falling out). At least we got to know why he’s uncomfortable with people thirsting over him (it was hinted in Ozzie’s). His relationship with Ozzie was alright. It reminded me of Hades x Persephone in Lore Olympus but maybe better.

Music was alright. Glitz and Glam segment should have its own music video. I didn’t expect Tom Cardy to be in the show but I liked his segment (I liked his songs and his comedy style and this dude covered a Flight of the Conchords song).

Overall, it’s not a 10/10 but I’ll give it a 8/10. The swearing jokes and circus stuff are getting older already.

[saltynsassy31]

I have never read Lore Olympus, I don't really plan to? I've just sorta dropped into the rabbit hole of LO Critical stuff after Instagram suggested me this one account I now follow

And like, I technically have started reading it? But only in search of a very specific scene i have no hint of knowing where it is besides it being later episodes

So I'm jumping back between episodes, scrolling and skipping many stuff in search of it and I came across this episode

(S2) Episode 193

And

Huh?????? Whu??????

My???? Heart?????

One thing I'll admit, without context, without properly reading everything + based on what people have said, I feel bad for EVERYONE except Persephone and Hades

Though I'm also getting mixed feeling about Hera but that would for another rant

And this has shown to be especially true in this episode, from what people have been saying is that Zeus is made to be the bad guy but ?????? That moment he had with Artemis is killing me ?????? Maybe it has to do with the fact that I had a rocky relationship with my dad (it's getting better but still) and stuff like that absolutely send my heart and makes me weak, and I tend to love bad(not necessarily evil, just...morally complicated) guys who are actually good dads regardless (ex. Vlad with Danny, Techno with Tommy, Ganon with link (tho it depends on a lotta stuff), etc.), so like, I'm probably not the best judge for this.

So tell me LO Critical people, what should I worry about this man? Or has he just been misrepresented by Rachel like so many others?

I need to know! Cuz I'm (unfortunately) sorta attached????? Not to mention how I've seen so many sweet moments, it's hard to believe he should be worse than Apollo 😭😭😭 (he isn't perfect, but no one is, especially not in this series lmao)

[rightwheretheyleftme]

Just off the top of my head:

Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief (2005): Hades is the father of Hitler while Zeus and Poseidon are the fathers of the Allied powers leaders.

Wonder Woman film (2009): Drawn with a comically evil design. Uses the dead as his servants.

Percy Jackson film (2010): Hades is the devil. Literally. He looks like this.

Justice League tv show (2001-2004): The devil. Goatee and everything.

Clash of the Titans (2010): Perseus is the heroic protagonist while Hades is the evil, mass murderous villain.

Once Upon a Time (2011-2018): A villain. Him and Cerberus get killed by the heroes.

God of War lll (2010): Antagonist of the game. Kratos brutally kills him.

Smallville (2001-2011): The demonic villain Darkseid was known to humans by many names, such as Hades and Lucifer.

Blood of Zeus S2 (2024): Hades is the main antagonist who schemes to rule Olympus.

High School DxD (2008-2018): Main antagonist, commands a legion of grim reapers.

I know that greek mythology twitter and tumblr talks a lot about Lore Olympus and other dark romance books that idealize Hades and Persephone’s relationship, but the truth is that those works are not known to the average person.

Most people don’t read dark romance greek mythology retellings. Blockbuster films, tv shows, and best-selling books are what influence the culture- and in those areas, Hades is still overwhelmingly portrayed as the greek Satan.

Everyone always talks about Haides being demonized in media, but I feel like that hasn't been a part of his popular reception since the 90s??

[pixie-mask]

My "Media of 2024"

All of the media consumed for this year

Movies

Violent Night

The Ice Road

Bad Trip

Thanksgiving

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Dark Harvest (2023)

Batman: Assault on Arkham

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay

Imaginary

Abigail (2023)

Under Paris

The Monkey King Reborn

Deadpool & Wolverine

Black Belt Officer

Eye in the Sky

Migration (2023)

No One Lives

Abigail (2024)

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Shows, Anime, & Cartoons

Physical 100 S2

Knuckles

Arcane: League of Legends S2

Dandadan S1

Invincible S2

Video Games

Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil

Princess Peach: Showtime!

Yakuza 4

Stray Gods

Stray Gods: Orpheus

Prince of Persia: The Last Crown

Unicorn Overlord

No Straight Roads: Encore Edition

Novels

Comics & Manga

The Daughters of Ys

Lore Olympus vol. 4

Lore Olympus vol. 5

Judas

Suicide Squad (2016)

Suicide Squad (1987)

Suicide Squad (2011)

Bokurano

Hard-Boiled Stories from the Cat Bar

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You vol. 2

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You vol. 3

Thief of Thieves vol. 1-6 re-read

Thief of Thieves vol. 7

Middlewest vol. 1-2 re-read

Marionetta S1+

Ossan Idol! vol. 1-4

[genericpuff]

The Extended Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Finale Premiere (Pt 2)

Alrighty, I promised a part two back in the first part of this analysis, but found myself busy with Rekindled and my day job, so I'm finally sitting down and finishing this up. If you haven't read that first part yet, please go check it out!

CAUTION: THERE BE FASTPASS SPOILERS AHEAD!

We left off with Hebe and Apollo roleplaying that one scene from The Lion King, albeit with a lot less sense or nuance. Literally all the "drama" so far feels purely manufactured for cheap plot progression and tension and it hardly feels authentic. But now we gotta talk about the second half of this episode, where we finally address the cliffhanger that the FP midseason finale episode left off on - Persephone causing winter.

And what better way to kick it off than with a completely off-base Persephone monologue?

Now, what's shown here is actually a flashback to the job interview scene from S1, when Persephone asked to see the snow in the Underworld. But it's written as if Persephone has some intimate relationship with snow as a whole, as if she's experienced more than this one time which... she hasn't. There was nothing "romantic" really about that scene following the job interview, she literally just wanted to go out and see something she hadn't seen before.

But that calls into question - why does Persephone constantly act like she has an intimate relationship with snow when it doesn't occur in the Mortal Realm? She even says in the honeymoon episode that it's hot all the time in the Mortal Realm, and the temperature only drops every now and then during rainy days... and she somehow makes this about Hades when it literally has nothing to do with him lmao Persephone monologues are some of the worst /r/im14andthisisdeep moments in the series because she's constantly using word salad to describe feelings we never saw or scenes that never happened.

And this scene is no different. She says that snow is something that's interwoven with her most 'treasured moments' but all the visuals have to show for is that one scene from S1 that, again, didn't even come across as a 'treasured moment', it was just her seeing the snow for the first time, there was nothing 'romantic' about it in a vacuum. All the moments from the series you could call ACTUALLY TREASURED milestones of Hades and Persephone's relationship - and Persephone's supposed "love" for the Underworld - are scenes where snow was completely absent (ex. the scene of Persephone and Hades talking about Sicily in Zeus and Hera's garden, Persephone and Hades spending the night in the cabin during the trial arc, etc.)

But then, to make it even more confusing, she goes on to describe her losing her powers and causing winter a "betrayal". As if the concept of winter owes her anything. As if Erebus owes her anything.

The allusion to Erebus itself in the visuals implies that she feels "betrayed" over this happening, as if it wasn't made ABUNDANTLY CLEAR TO HER that she would have to sacrifice something. She's gone SO LONG without knowing or caring about what she could have possibly given up, that by the time it finally revealed itself, she's acting all shocked Pikachu because there's finally something she can't just have. Everything that could make her seem imperfect has been washed away, from her SA trauma to those pesky green hands. Now we finally ARE seeing her affected by her own choices and she's basically waxing poetic about how sad it is that her actions have consequences.

That said, she does seem to have a moment of self-awareness here... but I can't be confident it will actually amount to anything seeing as how all the past attempts at 'growth' have been overshadowed by her vanity and ego.

This line is really confusing / weird in the way that it's written but I think she's trying to say that the source of the cold is from her, she can't pin it on any sort of 'big bad' like she could with Apollo and Kronos. It's just her.

And again, this could be a moment of realization for her that her actions are her own regardless of whatever she wants to pin it on-

But she rejects it instead. She's still not capable of acknowledging that her choices affect others, that her actions have consequences, that she's finally paying the price for something she knew had a cost.

If this were any other comic, I would accept her rejection of this, I would have confidence in knowing she may recognize it eventually. But this is LO and we're three seasons in, she's technically already gotten her happily ever after in the form of becoming Queen and married to her 'true love', so all of this feels like a very last-minute attempt to paint Persephone as this "struggling" character. But she's not "struggling", she's just finally experiencing karma catching up to her and as expected for a person like Persephone, she's already cracking under the pressure of realization that she can't have everything she wants.

Again, in any other comic, this would feel satisfying or endearing to see her fall on her own sword, but to me it just feels frustrating in the context of LO because we've spent five years seeing her get everything she wants with barely any real struggle that wasn't manufactured - with all of it painted as a GOOD THING - while still getting away with treating the people around her like shit.

And when I say she rejects this concept of having humility, I don't just mean through her monologuing, but also through her actions.

If I were to critique LO the same way I would an actual functional series, I would say that this should be the point of realization, the point where we see her crumble under the weight of her not being perfect, not being able to "fix" everything. It all stems back to her entitlement as a bratty main character, someone who can't fathom not being the main character or the "hero".

Because she's not the hero. Demeter is - or at least, she tries to be.

Again, it's hard to know if this is intentional or if this is yet another attempt to present Demeter as an "overbearing mom", but Persephone here looks and sounds like she's been reduced back to the state of a child crying for her mother in the face of her own failures. Despite now technically being a mother herself (through literal babynapping sigh) Persephone is still not a mature adult. Aging her up 10 years and giving her a husband and baby will not make her an actual functional independent adult who's capable of taking care of themselves or making the right decisions... unlike Demeter who is still, ultimately, more skilled than Persephone. She is an actual experienced and mature adult who's capable of rationalizing and decision making, and knowing when it's time to put aside your ego, walk away and let someone else who's far more qualified take care of things.

What Demeter has is something that one can only gain through true hardship, failing, learning from one's own mistakes, and experience, all of which Persephone does not have because she transitioned from a cage of her own imagination where hard work and responsibility was a virtue, into a gilded cage where true hard work can be passed onto someone else whose efforts she could take credit for while sitting on a throne and buying anything and everything she could ever want.

Despite everything Persephone and the narrative claims to have 'earned', she's still a child. The adults have to take over.

And like a child, she doesn't let them.

This is not an 'anime moment'. This is not a moment of redemption. This is immaturity and irresponsibility in its most visible form for Persephone - refusing to let go of her ego and shortcomings to "prove herself", even if it means making things worse.

And Hades enables it.

I want to make it clear there is a massive difference between not being controlling over someone, and actually enabling them.

This is not some small hill to die on. Persephone is literally causing winter, which could very well kill the Mortals. As we've seen in that prior Hebe scene from the first part of this essay, the snow is showing up in Olympus. This isn't something that's happening in the isolation of this single scene, this is happening everywhere and instead of taking the L, Persephone is trying to make things 'better' by simply 'trying harder' which is just not the solution here, Demeter knows this, but Hades is playing the "girlboss" version of a "good husband" by not even bothering to try and convince her to do otherwise. Hades above everyone else should be the one stepping in because he'd likely be the only one she'd actually listen to, but he's refusing to because he has to be the "good husband" who doesn't control the actions of his wife.

So he flat out enables her instead by not even bothering to try and reason with her, to help her see that what she's doing is not helping. Not even so much as a "Persephone, I know you want to help but it's clear something is wrong and if Demeter can figure out what to do to fix this, we should let her", just him saying to Demeter who wants to stop her that he can't stop her from trying... ignoring the fact that he should at least try.

And that's the difference between being controlling and being an enabler. He's not keeping her from doing something that benefits her and doesn't harm him or others. He's not micromanaging her decisions or trying to tell her she's not capable. Now, don't get me wrong, there are definitely things that make Hades a walking red flag especially when it comes to him being a groomer, but when it comes to directly controlling Persephone, most of the time she's doing things of her own accord convinced that it's "the right thing" (which is still just a side effect of the obvious grooming because I really doubt S1 Persephone would have done this shit lmao).

Here, he's not stepping in to even try to reason with her because "well I'd be a bad husband if I stepped in", completely ignoring the fact that it makes him a terrible person, period, to not at least try to calmly reason with his wife and explain to her that her 'help' is not going to help here. Just like when he rewarded her with sex for abusing a nymph in her own home, he's completely complacent to Persephone's actions and doesn't step in to try and help because, according to Wattpad and TikTok, a "good husband" is someone who looks the other way while his life partner does whatever she wants regardless of the consequences to herself and others. "Happy wife, happy life, who cares if the wife wants to be an actual piece of shit to people if it makes her happy".

And thus she makes things worse in her pursuit of "happiness", while Hades stands idly by, watching it all unfold as if he's just an innocent bystander who can absolve himself of any responsibility in this situation. As if she didn't become this way because she ate the pomegranate to be with him and a part of his world.

Now, there's one other sort-of-blatant smoking gun that I want to talk about that I haven't really seen anyone else mention since this episode went up. Granted, this might be me reading far too much into it, but hey, that's what this blog is for and I think it's something that absolutely needs to be mentioned.

Persephone goes on about how her powers aren't just gone, they've been replaced, all she can create is decay, and more specifically-

Now... think of the context of LO's narrative, what it's told us both literally and through subtext, intentional or not.

What does this sound like?

Hades lost his ability to produce children when he ate the pomegranate. He can no longer "create life".

And now, Persephone is finding herself in a similar situation, unable to "create life" the way she knows how. I'd like to think this isn't literal, but it really feels like there's a metaphorical implication here that Persephone losing her ability to create life is meant to be taken literally, that she not only can't create flowers and plant life anymore, but she's lost her fertility entirely. You can go even further back in this when it was established Persephone didn't eat six seeds, but nine, which originally felt like a weirdly random choice, but now seems intentional. I know some people have theorized that it has to do with her possibly being pregnant, but I don't think that's the case, I think it's the opposite - that the 9 months was a metaphor for the 9 months of childbearing that Persephone can no longer do.

And if that's the case... LO truly is no longer a "feminist" piece of work. It barely was before, but if the point of all this winds up being an attempt by Rachel to give Persephone a "flaw" by taking away her ability to bear children... that'll be a punch to the gut.

That said, if it does go somewhere, maybe the point will be Persephone learning she doesn't need to be able to reproduce to have value as a woman. But considering LO's track record with these sorts of plotlines, I can't be confident in the slightest that's where it'll end up. What I can be confident in is that Persephone will likely not stay this way. Like her green hands, she'll likely get her powers back, maybe after the resolution that she's still a real woman deserving of love even if she can't reproduce. I can't possibly know at this point where it's going, all I do know is that LO hasn't done a great job at resolving these sorts of deeper narratives so this just feels like another dart on the wall of bad ideas. Because it's, again, all being framed through Persephone being the "perfect woman", without there being any actual subtext throughout the narrative to imply that this may be a flawed ideology to have, it's just what Persephone has to be and it's sold in the narrative as a positive.

There's one term to describe this with that's rather consistent throughout LO when you peel back the layers of both the comic and Rachel's past work - white feminism. Despite LO's attempts to be "feminist", it's still ultimately being written through a heteronormative male gaze, that women are only "valuable" so long as they're youthful, that any goals or dreams a woman may have should be dropped as soon as they fall in love with a rich and powerful man, and that "other women" who don't fit into that mould of being rich, white, and heterocis are not worthy of love, empathy, or understanding. It's hard to trust that LO will actually challenge these norms when it's been practically enforcing them for five years.

But ultimately, that's a very loaded topic and right now, we don't know where this is going... I'm just not so sure I want to see it after all the missteps the series has pulled over the past half a decade. Like the miracle of childbirth, it's gonna take a miracle for LO to actually stick this landing.

Now, I'm assuming you read this line of dialogue, and you understood it. Yes? You positive? Okay, great. Why am I asking you this question as if you're an infant who doesn't understand what being "passed out" means? Well, you'll see what I mean in a minute.

Now, again, like with the whole "I can't bring life to anything anymore" thought process I just went through, I can't know exactly what they're trying to do here, but Demeter is fully in the right. I want to make that abundantly clear that Demeter was right the whole time and it's pretty telling that even a lot of the people reading the comic in good faith are pointing this out in the discussion circles they can actually access.

Now, in case anyone hasn't noticed, it's clear that Demeter herself is drawing upon the fertility magic of Gaia or Rachel is just alluding to Gaia for some reason. At first I thought it was supposed to be her form of "wrath" until I remembered that (unfortunately) Eris was the only reason for Persephone's wrath, so this is clearly meant to be some allusion to Gaia. Considering the fertility powers were passed down purely through Gaia and Ouranos, this means Demeter is a descendant of Gaia, which... calls into question Rachel's attempts to "remove the incest" from LO, but that's for another topic.

Either way, Demeter is fully in the right here. Hades is a fucking idiot - a useless lump - for not only enabling the shitty actions of his shitty wife, but for not taking even any amount of accountability for the fact that Persephone found out about the pomegranate through him.

"But Puff, she had to eat the pomegranate to beat Kronos!" Did she? Or was that purely manufactured for Rachel's sake because she just had to have an MCU Evil-Robot-Jeff-Bridges villain despite the fact that this FANTASY ROMANCE series didn't need one? The fact that it was written purely to 'force' Persephone into doing something she already wanted to do was completely redundant, it wasn't a 'sacrifice' she made, it was made pretty clear in Episode 165 that she wanted to eat the pomegranate as soon as she found out about it and while that decision is certainly her own, that does not absolve Hades of responsibility for not questioning his future wife's fascination with it or realizing that he unlocked the inner Pandora's Box of Persephone's mind.

And so, Demeter holds him responsible. As she should.

Okay, you read that, right? But remember that line I asked you about before? We should all know Demeter doesn't mean this literally. We have brains and we should all have a minimum amount of media literacy to understand that Hades was telling the truth when he literally said Persephone was "passed out".

We finish the episode on this panel, which I swear to christ I couldn't tell you in all of my own divine wisdom of the arts what in the world is going on in this panel. I'm literally looking at salad.

Is it Demeter and Persephone? Just some dying plants? I have no fucking clue, your guess is as good as mine.

But we're not done. Because we have one more glaring issue to talk about with this episode, and it comes in the form of an author's note that was inserted at the end of the episode. It is truly, despite EVERYTHING we've talked about in both parts of this analysis, the dumbest, most airheaded and egregiously pretentious thing I've seen in this entire episode.

Rachel quite literally put in a fucking disclaimer telling her audience what Hades already told us point blank in the comic - "Don't worry, audience members, Persephone is not literally dead, it's a metaphor for her spring powers being dead!"

I literally can't even express to you how pretentious and shitty this is of her to do. I can't tell if it's legitimately her thinking her writing is "too smart" for even her older audience members to grasp, or if she just wants to dispel the theories that people would want to make about this, or if she completely misconstrued the criticism about her writing not being "clear enough" and thinks that THIS is what people meant. Pardon my tone because I've kept it together relatively well throughout this post, but this is some 2009-era Fanfiction.net level of author's note bullshit.

If she thinks her writing is "too smart" for her audience to grasp, I'm sorry Rachel, but you're just wrong and this is incredibly shitty of you. You think the 14 year olds in your community aren't also reading other webtoons that have deeper writing than LO? I read Death Note when I was fucking 14 and I knew exactly the point of what the story was getting at by the time it was over, despite all the other stories I read at that age that completely flew over my head. And you think LO is somehow more complicated than Death Note, baby's first introduction to the grey areas of morality and justice?

If she's trying to dispel the theories... that actually holds some merit because not only is Rachel notoriously bad at not letting her fandom just talk about their theories without her swooping in to "um actually" them (even if it means killing the fun of theorizing), but the official FP page on FB was closed to new submissions in the hours following this episode and it since hasn't posted any new content. Is it because people aren't posting? Absolutely not. The mods are quite literally holding these posts hostage through the submission and approval system. People are legitimately trying to submit only for the mods to block it entirely from going through. If this is Rachel's attempts at trying to "protect herself" from the criticism this episode has surely earned, then all she's really doing is punishing her own fans who want to talk about it. It doesn't matter anymore that the discussion groups are finally back from 3-4 months of being shut down over the hiatus, they're still not being allowed to operate. The best there is now is the Discord and it's undoubtedly just as heavy moderated as the FB groups.

And as for the third possibility, this also feels like an attempt at Rachel trying to make her writing "more clear" without actually putting in the work of writing a good story. She's undoubtedly seen the criticisms towards LO as a whole that it doesn't express itself clearly, that it constantly flip flops on character motivations and information that has been established, and that any monologuing that's done implies things or events that we've never seen unfold on screen (case in point, the Persephone monologue from the start of this episode) but she seems to have either misconstrued or ignored the point of that criticism entirely by solving it with a quick and shitty author's note at the end explaining her intentions with a scene that was already clearly laid out to us. Instead of putting in the work to write a concise story to explain the things that are a bit more under-developed, she's slapping in a spoonfed explanation for scenes that literally don't need explaining and that ultimately cheapens the scenes that are TRYING to have impact, bringing them down to the same level of mediocrity as the scenes that never had the impact they intended to have to begin with. "You've killed the Goddess of Spring" was plenty clear after Hades said she was passed out, Rachel. Taking the time to explain it in a note at the end is just sad and it really goes to show what you think of your audience, especially when it comes to how you treat your fans in regards to community accessibility in the official discussion groups.

"The haters" didn't set this comic onto the path that it's on or ruin the fanbase experience, Rachel - you did.

[misterbardman]

Any recommendations on what to watch/read? Looking for more modern Greek mythology stuff or just Greek mythology in general?

Stuff I’ve already read/watched:

•Percy Jackson series

•Lore by Alexandra Bracken

•Blood of Zeus - Netflix show (waiting for s2)

Specifically anything with Apollo? I heard of lore of Olympus but I heard,,, it’s not very good

[mickc-rants]

Blood of Zeus S2 should have been better if they didn't portray Demeter as an overbearing abusive mother to Persephone for the sake of getting in a way of the relationship of Hades and Persephone. Like, there's a lot of retellings of the myth like Lore Olympus who didn't give the myth justice because of how they make Demeter an overbearing mom. Even Punderworld isn't safe from this criticism from earlier episodes of the comics, but I won't be surprised if they give Demeter a redemption arc of becoming a good mom to Persephone.

Well at the least there's Blood of Zeus that actually is made by Greeks and has a better plot of Hera trying to overthrow Zeus because they were inspired by THE ACTUAL MYTHS.

(Yep. BoZ is literally the only adaptation so far that actually was made with the kind of integrity that you would expect from a cultural perspective. The fact that it was made by actual Greek people and actively puts certain forms of criticism into light give it nuance.)

(Although it isn't 100% unfilteredly accurate, it still does a better job than many adaptations. The only other one is Hades from Supergiant.)

(My only criticism?)

(Ares and Demeter had been done...so bad)

(like....my bro Ares would never treat another goddess like that...like...if I remember correctly, one of the myths he DOES court Persephone but she rejects him and it's considered another part of his list of 'failures'.)

(Demeter in BoZ went full blown Nurgle with their cordyceps fungi like WHY. It's so uncharacteristically brutal. She withdrew her harvests and plants not straight up killed people like that)

(either way, the show also calls back to classic Universal Studios/Hollywood themes with their soundtrack. That's a MASSIVE bonus for me)

[euphoriesx]

"CLUB EUPHORIES"

they were at the arcade. inconspicuously at a claw machine, losing every single game.

'claw machines in this place are fucked,' they mutter, throwing another few tokens into the slot and trying their luck again. while, obviously not at a claw machine yourself, tried your own.

↦ 'i'm here for club euphories.' ↦ walk away.

you pick the first option, and say it out loud. the person quirks a dark eyebrow, hands pausing on the claw machine controls. then they turn around. 'round the back. make any trouble with our operators, and you'll be placed on a ban list. and trust me, you do not wanna be on a ban list.'

↦ 'thank you.' ↦ walk away without a word.

you pick the second option. don't trust anyone around this place.

romi, 19. malaysian-chinese, but track me n im down under

i do smaus and occasionally short drabbles. i also only write for fem!reader, unless specified otherwise. requests r usually open, but if i get too many the way i post WILL become deemed by myself.

ari, 'brina carpenter, liv rodrigo, conan, ayesha, odetari, 6arleyhuman, asteria (fbm) dom fike, girl in red, king princess, also into alotta kpop so hmu

i fw series like blue lock, tokrev, jjk (which is the only one i write for), bsd, kny, mha (hv been since the cringe fandom phase), tbh js ask bc i forget alot of the fandoms that im in lmfao

used to play genshin impact n hsr.

books include pjo, hoo, toa, tsats, magnus, kc, anything uncle rick coded tbh, agggtm, one of us is lying, planning to read fota, i read lotr but dont expect any of it to hv gone into my head xcept the fact i crushed on legolas once

webtoons include duchess in ruins, skl bus graveyard, so not my type, the remarried empress, the mafia nanny, osora, killer peter, to whom it no longer concerns, baby tyrant, dagger to the heart, cinderelle, operation tru love (i do not fw s2 rn), my inlaws r obsessed w me, obsidian bride, childhood friend complex, angel of death, lore olympus, i read too many hmu if u wanna kno whether ive read a series or not

hmu if u over 5'3 n play soccer (jk)

[ryndicate]

Watching: Sousou no frieren (Ep12), JJK s2 (Ep19), Buddy Daddies (Ep 6), Bleach TYBW s2 (Ep26), Ragna Crimson (Ep7), Spy x Family (Ep), Apothecary Diaries (Ep11)

Watched: I had to make a list it was too long In the Queue: (ie the stuff I want to watch but haven't made time for) Vinland Saga s2, Beastars s2, Loving Yamada at LV999, Beserk, The Rising of Shield Hero, High School of the Dead, The Fire Hunter, Itakiss, Overlord s3,

Reading: (I'm marking these with the last chapter I read)

Jujutsu Kaisen (234) Blue Lock (26) Tokyo Revengers (122) Chainsaw Man (109) JigoKuraku (27)

Read: was gonna make a list but it wasn’t long enough for a link. AoT and Wotakoi are the only manga I’ve finished lol. I did read TR but i read it too fast and didnt really retain it.

Manhwa/Webtoon: Under the Oak Tree, Isnelda, Let’s play, Lore Olympus, Fly Me to the Moon, Moonrise by the Cliff, Finding Camelia (god i cant wait for next season), The Tainted Half, Lady Devil, My Dear Maid & The Losing Streak and so so many more.

Playing: Lethal Company, Stardew Valley

Played Recently: Valheim, 7 days to die, project zomboid

wants to play so bad but is broke: BALDUR'S GATE wants to play but doesn't have the time: sons of the forest 2, the walking dead telltale (all of them except the vr only one), travellers rest, monster hunter wants to play but the game is still in dev: Vampire Dynasty

[zbearhugz]

Hebe's all grown up?! That means it's been like what 10+ years? 😮