#lore olympus salt

[garussy]

Hades and Persephone series but make it more like Beauty and the Beast

Persephone refusing to do ANYTHING until Hades fixes his act and treats her like a living being

Several months of Persephone giving Hades nothing but attitude because he is being disrespectful and literally kidnapped her

And continuing that until he apologizes and gives her space to roam around the underworld

And Persephone likes Cerberus more because that dog is the only one who treated her well and not like she was just Hades’ bride and even after her and Hades get together she still prefers Cerberus because she bonded with him

[noperopesaredope]

Persephone Retelling Idea

So I was watching a video essay on Lore Olympus and its flaws, and there was a part where the video creator talked about how, in Persephone retellings, Demeter is always villainized whilst Hades is glorified. I thought about this for a bit, and realized two things:

1) The most likely reason we want Persephone and Hades’ relationship to be mutually loving is because we hate the idea of a girl being kidnapped and forced into an unwanted marriage for the rest of eternity whilst her loving mother watches on helplessly. That’s why we make up versions where Persephone isn’t suffering: because it’s horrifying otherwise.

2) It would be so much more interesting to see a retelling of the myth that portrays Demeter and Persephone’s relationship as healthy and loving, then exploring their shared grief over being forcibly separated from each other 6 months a year. That would be fascinating to me, and focus on the love and loss between a mother and daughter. It could be bittersweet and beautiful.

That’s when I ended up writing this comment (then putting it in a Google Doc for later):

I have an idea for a Persephone Myth retelling that I think would be pretty fun without really villainizing anyone (besides maybe Zeus because I hate him? But he's like, not even really in it, so there's that). It mainly focuses on Persephone and Demeter, and is slightly based on my relationship with my mom as I've started getting ready for college (particularly as an autistic young adult who needs supports to function). It also later takes the idea of the Dread Queen Persephone as she girlbosses her way into a true goddess. 

Basically, Persephone is a young adult goddess (still hundreds of years old) who has a great relationship with her mother, but is still trying to figure herself out, and slightly wants to leave the nest. She isn't quite sure how to be independent in the big wide world, and she's a bit nervous. So for now, she likes to spend her time talking with her nymph friends about life and stuff. 

Meanwhile, in the underworld, Thanatos is...busy...with a situation, so Hades is forced to temporarily take over the role of death, a job he is very reluctant to do. Why doesn't some other underworld person take care of it? Because shut up. So, Hades takes the list of people he needs to take down (to the undERWORLD THAT IS!!! *Airhorn noises*) and just kinda comes out of the earth, snatches people out of their bodies, and dips, taking them along with him. Unfortunately, one of the Fates "misspelled" a name, so instead of taking Persebhone (or maybe Kora, because Persephone’s name might be Kore for the first half), he accidently ends up taking Persephone, not realizing who she is since he really needs to get out more often. 

So Persephone finds herself in the underworld after Hades abruptly dropped her off there and went to his palace. She goes to the trial place where souls are typically tried, and the judges are surprised when they realize that she is an immortal god. They assume she got lost or something trying to visit Hades, so they send her over to his palace. She sits in the waiting room for a bit, where they are serving out underworld pomegranates as refreshments. Persephone doesn't know about the rules of the underworld, so she eats one. Dun dun dun. Then she has a meeting with Hades, who is confused until she starts explaining that she really isn't supposed to be here and why. He understandably panics at this, aware that Demeter will definitely kill him. 

Meanwhile, Demeter is having a panic attack, because she doesn't know where her daughter is. The other gods are trying to comfort her, but nothing is working, and in this arc of the story, during the parts where we see what's happening in the overworld, we will explore themes of mental health, depression, and what it is like to have a missing child. The other gods will also be having a sort of mystery thing where they try to find the missing goddess. 

Meanwhile AGAIN, Hades is trying to figure out how to contact the other gods to sort things out, but the exit to the underworld is blocked or something (basically, no one can leave rn), and he can't communicate with the other gods. They are kinda trapped rn. So he tries his best to keep Persephone calm and comfortable because NOTHING IS WRONG AT ALL- (he does break the truth to her once he realizes it really will be a few months until he can contact the others, but at first he will pretend that things are mostly fine) 

Persephone herself is feeling very overwhelmed in this crazy new place, and is more than a little stressed out. But as time goes by, Persephone finds that she really likes it in the underworld, and can find some type of beauty in it. She also discovers new parts of herself with each person she meets. But this first arc mainly explores her trying to find a place in the world without that type of support that Demeter gave her, and wondering how her growing desire to stay in the underworld will affect her relationship with her mother. 

Eventually, we get a beautiful reunion between the two, but tragically discover that Persephone eating the pomegranate seeds have permanently tied her to the underworld. So then they need to figure things out about how to live independently from each other as Persephone starts living in the underworld officially and growing into a potentially badass Dread Queen of the Underworld, Demeter tries to cope with Empty Nest Syndrome (I actually love the idea of exploring a character in her changing situation), and Hades tries to get used to living with another person and also secretly attempts to handle his new guilt complex over accidentally trapping Persephone in the Underworld.

I have a lot more ideas, but that's the basic premise.

Hades and Persephone's dynamic will be so much fun. It isn't quite romantic so much as it is besties or something (I'm gonna make them slightly close in age, since Demeter is the 2nd oldest out of the siblings, and Hades is the 4th. Zeus was also pretty young when he freed his siblings. So Hades would be a bit young around the time Persephone is born. Not super young, but young enough to seem more like an older brother or something). They are so socially awkward that they end up becoming basically friends. Since Persephone basically lives here now, Hades wants to at least make her feel comfortable and welcome, so he hangs out with her sometimes, and eventually even invites her to start helping him out with underworld stuff. They just work together well and get along pretty great in all honesty.

Persephone and Demeter's relationship would be the main focus of the story, as well as Persephone's coming-of-age. Demeter, as I mentioned above, is a mother who is dealing with grief from her child going missing, and later deals with the pieces of trauma that come with that (which she will refuse to acknowledge at first), then dealing with Empty Nest Syndrome as she has a bit of a personal crisis over that, possibly even a bit of a mid life crisis. Then she needs to deal with the realization of how happy Persephone is as she becomes an independent adult. I love the idea of working with this woman as she goes through this nonsense. She’s dealing with a lot. I love this version of her that I have in my head.

Persephone is also conflicted and unsure of herself as she begins to develop mild independence anxiety during the first arc, and her own little identity crisis during the arc after she and Demeter (temporarily) reunite.

Basically, young adult leaves for college for the first time as she and her mom both have mental breakdowns, while the young adult's cool new roommate and accidental kidnapper tries to learn social skills in the background. It's fun (and low-key funny in certain ways).

That's my idea. Yeah.

Hopefully healthier than Lore Olympus.

--------

So, I may or may not make a small webcomic using this idea. The art style will likely be simple because not only is said art style still in the works with no fully fleshed out, overcomplicated character designs, but I want it to be relatively easy to work on and write with ease. May make this, may not. Hopefully it could be fun though, since I love Greek Mythology, and I find retellings of it to be fascinating and fun. Tell me what ya’ll think of this concept, and if it sounds interesting.

[genericpuff]

Hey so I have a question-

Is Rachel even contributing to LO's art anymore? Like, at all?

CAUTION: MILD FASTPASS SPOILERS AHEAD !!!

I've talked at length about the 'tells' of each assistant and artist, and while it doesn't guarantee that I can tell exactly who drew each panel, there's one thing there's been a lot less of in the most recent episodes that have caught my attention - things that I know Rachel would typically contribute.

And most of it comes down to her lineart.

The shading was always her, no doubt about that, you could tell with how consistently awful it is, how she would take actual decent flats from her assistants and proceed to butcher them with muddied shading.

AmyKim89's flats vs. after Rachel's gotten her hands on them:

(seriously Rachel why tf did you darken Persephone's legs here, it looked so much better before ??)

But there was also her lineart which, at first, I didn't realize who was drawing it. It didn't show up super often in LO but it was always very noticeable when it did so I knew it had to be someone on the team doing it:

The thickness of the lines and the extra little strokes added in along the knuckles and bends, that wasn't something that was really common in LO at this point... at least it hasn't been since S1:

And when comparing it to the lineart she used to do in The Doctor Pepper/Foxglove Show:

(look at the mouth in The Doctor Foxglove Show vs. Hera in the pilot version of LO, they're literally the same)

So yeah, it was certainly the revelation to discover that that one instance of "weirdly detailed lineart" wasn't one of her assistants having a little extra fun, it was Rachel herself. It was already so uncommon for her to contribute all the way back in S2 that her contributions seemed to be more of the exception rather than the norm.

And since seeing the art that's been in the newest FP episodes following the return of the series... is Rachel even drawing at all anymore? Because lately the lineart has felt very thin, in a way that I can't tell if it's her assistants just doing all the lineart now or if she's trying to emulate S1 LO more by using less lineart. But S1 didn't have thin lineart, it had very thick lineart, BUT only being used where necessary to emphasis shadows and depth.

Now the lineart feels very... dinky? Especially when you look at the eyelashes.

That said, there are moments from S1 that had similarly 'dinky' lineart, so take this with grains of salt. It still didn't feel as dinky though as it does today where the lines are practically non-existent in how thin they are.

There are also times when you can tell they're really trying to emulate that S1 look, the pieces are there but they aren't being put together very well:

So yeah at this point I wouldn't even be shocked if all Rachel's doing at this point is scripting and roughs. And considering there are definitely times where she'll just draw without knowing what to write, the 'scripting' is also practically non-existent. It's just her leaving her roughs off to the last second for her assistants to whip out with very little time to pay attention to what's being submitted.

Once again it's Rachel fundamentally missing the point of the criticism that's being made of her work. She's trying to forcefully emulate something that she didn't even have a process behind. I can attest as someone who's been trying to do studies of her past work to recreate it as faithfully as possible through Rekindled, it's very difficult to achieve the 'old LO' look because 'old LO' was literally just Rachel slapping down brush strokes until they looked good, there was no specific process or guidelines that she followed, she just made things look textured and colorful. Everything else was basically up to her figuring out what actually looked good, with panels often having their own vibes separate from others in isolation of one another.

Now she's trying to replicate that look while missing the point entirely that it's not something she can really replicate anymore. Though we do get the odd panel that's way closer to the point, those panels have one thing that she's clearly not putting into the comic as a whole anymore - love and effort.

(fr this panel is so gorgeous but I feel like at this point it was more sheer luck because of how rare it is to see panels like these nowadays, this feels like an accident LOL)

Case in point, this honorable mention towards Persephone's outfit which is literally just a color-swapped version of the sketch that Rachel posted to Blue Sky that got meme'd to death in the ULO sub:

Did you catch that though? The weird dark patch over her boob and the gap in the lineart of her cleavage?

That's because they copy pasted the first panel and then erased out the hands, but missed the part of the hand shading that was overlapping the breast and the gap in the lineart.

I shit you not, Rachel coming up with memes on Blue Sky that she's scraped out of shows she watched 20 years ago is basically the full extent of her writing at this point.

Haha take a thing and make it bigger! So funnyyyy!

(seriously Rachel's 'humor' feels like it's stuck in 2010)

Yep, you're really earning that #1 NYT Bestseller label that you haven't even gotten since Volume 3, Rachel. Put your hand down, there are no high fives for you here.

[raedshadowlegends]

Why Lore Olympus and Miraculous Ladybug are the Same Thing but in Different Fonts

Good evening, good day, hello and howdy. I am INCREDIBLY bored and I'm here to go on a nonsensical tangent about two pieces of media that I hate and have dedicated a vast amount of my free time to. This is all in good fun and all of my rudeness is intended to be satirical and/or comical unless indicated otherwise.

Now just to preface, if you know me then you know how much I dislike Miraculous Ladybug. Folks in my circle got to watch as I descended into madness writing a 64k word review on season 5. So I've spent an uncomfortable amount of time dissecting this show.

I have also spent an uncomfortable amount of time engaging with the shitshow that is Lore Olympus. And now my ass is gonna try and compare the two because there's a lot of shit going on here.

None of this is going to matter and it's all in good fun. Like I said, I am bored. And sometimes it's fun to compare stuff you hate.

Now let the insanity ensue. FP spoilers and MLB s5 spoilers below the cut btw.

To get a major difference out of the way, Miraculous Ladybug is a tv show. Lore Olympus is a webcomic.

But mediums aside, these two things still have a lot in common. So for the first comparison, I'd like to talk about the insecurity in both properties.

Insecurity

What I define as insecurity in this context is a piece of media that is too afraid to commit or adhere to a certain tone, story, style, etc. In short-- they don't know what they want to be.

Insecurity in Lore Olympus is a bit more obvious than with Miraculous so I'm gonna rant about that first.

Lore Olympus just straight up does not have a story to tell.

There are too many random ass plots being added and discarded on a whim for it to be a coherent story. A good way to explain it is kinda like this-- In this episode of LO, something cool new and interesting is set up and you have to keep reading to see what happens! And then nothing ever happens. Or it happens because the audience won't let the author forget so there's a half-assed attempt to wrap up that plot point.

LO is so insecure about what it is, it feels the need to add more and more to make it actually something. But what it is is a hollow story that lacks substance. So all of these new random plot points are kinda like bandaid solutions if that makes sense.

There are so many unfinished/under-utilized plot points that if you were to count out each and every one, you'd probably keel over dead before you finished. There's that many.

It's too insecure to commit to any one of them in the grand scheme of things.

I don't know how coherent all of that was so here's a shitty tl;dr

LO doesn't know what it wants to say anymore so it's just adding more shit to keep the reader "invested."

Yeah ok I think that makes more sense. As for Miraculous...

God. I fucking hate Miraculous.

It's insecure as hell and you can smell that shit from ten miles away. It's insecure with it's premise, I think.

If it just kept to the simple "monster-of-the-week" formula, I do not think I would have written so many words on it's fifth season.

Miraculous (apparently) had a grander story to tell beyond the "monster-of-the-week revert back to the status quo each episode."

But we don't see any of that in full swing till season 3, really. Which is a long ass time to get the ball rolling imo.

It's a little jarring to see the show go from the stupid kid status quo adventures to a heavy and emotional story??? And I say heavy and emotional with the most sarcastic tone possible because the only emotion I feel watching this shit is rage.

Despite wanting to make that shift to a serialized type of show, Miraculous was too scared to stray from the successful status quo format.

To explain a bit more I wanna talk about my review of the season.

While it is mostly filled with rude jokes and incomprehensible jargon, I bring up a lot of points in it regarding the state of things.

One of those things being the show's hesitancy to move the story along.

The fifth season was supposed to be a grand final battle and a conclusion to this story arc. But it was too scared to commit to that so there's way more episodes that are nothing but shipping fodder.

There are many episodes that season that just... feel the same. Just with different coats of paint. "Marinette is trying to date Adrien but she's awkward and clumsy and oh no! shenanigans ensue!" We've been doing this for 8 years.

If they want to tell a serialized story then they need to grow some balls and cut the shit we've seen a million times before.

Their insistence to stick to the status quo makes the writing exceptionally weak downright painful to sift through. It was too scared, too insecure, to stray from its formula.

That's a part of the reason why I think the season is paced so bad. There's so little time spent on the interesting parts of the story because they had to cram in as much shipping shit as possible. So by proxy, there was less time to tell a good story.

Both of these stupid ass properties don't know what they want to be. There are too many things being added and not enough balls to commit to any of them.

Now with both LO and MLB, we can all agree that the writing is pretty shit. Nothing new there. But shitty writing often bleeds into the characters and making them shitty by exposure. Almost like a spill of toxic waste, infecting anything near it and turning into a rotten pile of sludge and chemicals.

So yeah, the characters are ass as well. But I only wanna complain about the female leads for both of these things.

But just to mention Adrien and Hades, they are pretty similar. I won't go into detail but the short of it is, "Character with deep seated issues that could have been interesting, has a lot of potential, but is just kinda garbage in the end."

At least Adrien Agreste isn't monetizing death and has a bunch of shades in his basement doing his work.

Persephone and Marinette

So I always say that I don't like using the term 'Mary Sue' to describe a character. But as it turns out, I use that term a lot. So I'm not gonna lie about that anymore.

These two characters are Mary Sues.

Persephone first

Oh my god I hate Persephone a lot. She just ticks every box on my list of 'THINGS I HATE IN A CHARACTER.'

Which is funny because her character had a lot of promise and heart in the beginning.

I related to her a LOT when I picked up this comic before my frontal cortex developed. I related with her character and her struggles. Especially after the Apollo incident. That really stuck out to me. It was so powerful.

But all of those tiny things I liked about her character were stripped away. Her ambition to study in school? Poof, gone. Her charm? Not charming anymore. That kindness everyone in the story gushes about? I don't even think it was there in the first place.

Truth be told, I do need to reread this comic because the beginning is fuzzy as fuck in my walnut-sized brain. But I can tell you for certain that the way she was in the beginning is not who she is now.

And this isn't the case of a character going through an arc and developing and changing. She's just getting worse and the narrative treats it as a GOOD THING.

"Oh yeah, Persephone trashed Leuce's apartment instead of talking to her husband like an adult. She threatened to kill this nymph but you're supposed to find that endearing." Like, what??? I will not have a story try and get me to believe this is a good thing.

If this were a good story, Persephone's actions in that episode WOULDN'T BE REWARDED. But she's rewarded with sex for being a fucking psychopath towards a random nymph. Wow.

And that leads into my next point-- she can never be in the wrong ever.

AOW? Retconned, not her fault. It wasn't her fault she killed all those people. It's actually Eris' fault because she gave her wrath.

Trashing Leuce's apartment? She was in the right for that, apparently.

Killing people in a famine during the 10 year banishment? That's never explored, we just know she killed people, burned a library or something, and probably shot the president too. But it's fine, she's the good guy.

And most recently (and potentially the most frustrating);

Persephone causes winter.

Not her mother, Demeter, no fuck the myths. Persephone is the one who caused winter actually. AND SHE DID IT ON ACCIDENT SO TECHNICALLY IT IS NOT HER FAULT CAUSE SHE DIDNT MEAN TOOOO UWU She also probably killed a million flower nymphs in that snap freeze but its ok it doesn't matter.

WHAT?

WHAT THE FUCK? CMON NOW.

She's not going to receive any consequences for anything because she is just too perfect.

She's smarter than Athena, prettier than Aphrodite, better than her mother in every way, all the boys want her, she has a perfect body, she's pink, her eyes go red when she's angy, she has the most power of everyone in the world, she's a super rare fertility goddess, she has all the gifts, all the blessings, and none of the development.

It almost feels like a wattpad fanfic.

"My mom doesn't like me so she sold me to one direction and then I became queen of the underworld."

Yeah, I don't like her.

And the same can be applied to Marinette!

A character who is so blatantly perfect, the narrative fucking BENDS TO HER WILL.

She's a creepy ass stalker and has done some weird ass things to get close to this random famous white boy and it's all excused.

It's literally excused.

There is a rule about character backstories. They are supposed to provide an explanation for a character's behavior, not an excuse for it.

In season 5, episode 14 - Derision, we see a bit of Marinette backstory. Some stupid bullshit happens and Marinette essentially says she isn't going to say 'I love you' to anyone unless she knows literally everything about them.

She says a lot in that stupid ass scene but it's basically just saying that all of her stalking and creepy behavior is justified. Which it is not.

Marinette can do no wrong. The narrative won't allow it.

She's perfect in every way. And even when SHE is in the wrong, characters somehow find a way to apologize to her. Either that or she turns a situation about someone else into one about her self.

She's just the perfect character who ends up saving the world.

Fuck having Chat Noir face against his dad in the finale, Marinette has to girlboss all over the place and save the day but then actually lose because the "plot" demands it.

Oh yeah and she's probably never going to tell Adrien that his abusive dad was the villain they had been fighting for months. Do you think that's a good choice? I'll give you a hint; it is not.

It makes Marinette look like a HORRIBLE character but it's painted in a way that makes the viewer believe this is the right decision.

I don't think I need to get into specifics as to why that is wrong and disgusting.

If I had to make a prediction for this show going forward, she isn't going to tell him. It's going to be forgotten and she's going to be painted as the hero.

No flaws, no accountability, nothing.

Garbage character. Fucking hate it.

Both of these characters will never see consequences for their actions. Their bad actions are either excused or retconned out of existence. And that's not how you write a character btw. If you want them to be real, give them consequences. The world should not revolve around them. They should have flaws and issues that should be explored. But apparently that's too much work.

It's funny how both of these properties claim to be about feminism and somehow completely miss what feminism is

Miraculous thinks that feminism means "Girl power! Girls are better than guys in every way!" And Lore Olympus makes no attempt to be feminist at all. Women hate other women, and they don't get a lot of opportunities to explore and express themselves.

I could get into the whole purity culture shtick but that's a shitty rant for another day.

I've been ranting about this for a while and I got the big ones out of the way, methinks. I do want to get into the creators of both of these things but that is also a rant for another day.

Cause if I got into that now, we'd be here a while.

So let me just make a final comparison and wrap things up here. I don't think any of this makes a lot of sense but I hate both things and I'm passionate about it so I'm gonna keep rambling.

Miraculous Ladybug and Lore Olympus never attempt to grow as stories. They are both scared to try new things and to stick with it. Most of the time this results in rushed writing and horribly done characters.

It's so clear that both of these things are desperate to be something great but they just can't put in the work to get there.

Honestly, they both feel like the product of a team of yes-men. Bad decisions and errors slip by WAY too often and it's kind of embarrassing.

These are popular pieces of media and they have the resources to be great but they just aren't.

They're both too insecure to make something of themselves.

It's honestly really sad and I don't want this for either of these things. I want LO to be stunning and retell the myth of Persephone with the respect it deserves. I want MLB to be a serialized show with focus on the lore. Sure it can start as episodic but it can ease us into a deeper story and intrigue the viewer. But I want it to flesh out the world and be an entertaining experience.

It's sad but it's the way it is.

Who knows, maybe MLB season 6 will be good. And maybe LO will have a 4th season and it'll fix all the problems it has.

I dunno.

Thanks for reading this incoherent nonsense.

[moony-2001]

Some notes

Overall I wanted to put our leading ladies into mortal realm wear because why… would they be wearing modern clothes… thousands of years before they’re in fashion in the mortal realm

Métis I wanted to keep in blue since they’re opposite on the color wheel. I just made it a darker blue and since one of her symbols is an owl, I added the circles to be the eyes.

Truly they more look like the evil eye but oh well, it still looks cool

Rhea hurt me. She and Persephone are so damn similar in color and style I wanted to do a hard left. Gave her the iconic circle crown back, made her thicker, and made her hair more closely resemble a lion’s mane

I also did more of a dark teal as opposed to the more true mint I put Persephone in. Both still have pink but persephone’s is definitely baby pink vs Rhea who leans more towards white/gray

I think Rhea’s outfit is the least “ancient Greek” which does make me cringe a bit internally but I tried to mimic how the fabric would fold and crease… Greek citizens please have mercy 🙇🏼‍♀️

Oh also Rhea has what are supposed to be moss agate on the hem of her dress. Moss agate is *supposedly* what her representative gemstone is but Google is Google so grains of salt

Hera looks great in green. I really leaned into the peacock motif and gave her that spiky crown thing she normally wears (even though it’s not accurate)

It was so damn hard to hide all those ribbons

I think my edit of Hera is a little gaudy… but when in Rome I suppose

Hope you enjoy and see you next week for the finale of Lore Olympus

[dross-the-fish]

Read your lore olympus post and I find it interesting that you look at it as someone in hade's shoes vs persephone's.

I'll admit I'm not the target audience for Lore Olympus so take my criticisms with a grain of salt. I've only read whatever has been shown to me by friends and yeah, I'm a masc person in their mid 30's. Of course I'm not going to relate to the 19 year old girl I'm going to wind up looking at it from the perspective of the guy who has to put up with the burden of being the other half of a relationship with a 19 year old girl. At my current age and life phase I cannot FATHOM that there is a single desirable quality to this character. She's completely helpless, has the personality of wet toast, no real ambitions or prospects of her own and no knowledge of how the adult world works. She ends up being "the other woman" in a love triangle of sorts and doesn't seem to have a single clue of the gravity of that or any concern for what that says about Hades, that he's more or less cheating, or thinking of cheating, on is current partner with her. I feel like we're supposed to think she's just innocent or sweet but the reality is that she's not cute, she's just insipid.

Until she tries to be a girl boss then she's just grating. Like...no, honey, you barely know what taxes are. Daddy had to get you a job at his company, stop acting like you're suddenly a badass. This kid needs a parent, not a partner. I can't picture any kind of relationship with an individual like that where the other half doesn't end up feeling like they're raising a child. This isn't wife material, it's a pink infant with huge tits.

[alligatorjesie]

*glances at the raging cunt who keeps posting harassment to this fandom's tags every month or so*

You know the last time I checked you're not a fucking reylo so beats the fuck out of us why you're up in our goddamn shit so often @watchingtheearthrise

Cait Corrain isn't active in this fandom. She's hardly a reylo, and if she's gonna act like that she's not fuckin' welcome here.

I think they may have wrote a few reylo fics a long time ago but they're not a big name writer and the fandom as a whole don't really know who the fuck this person is.

I've seen a few people online mention Cait's book is published reylo fanfiction but I can't find anything from the writer confirming it so we’re all just assuming it started out as a reylo fic.

Looking at it, it seems more like lore olympus fanfiction than reylo but again, until the author says otherwise we’re just assuming.

Cait did however talk a gullible friend into helping her sabotage other people's book reviews and when the lacky she coerced did it wrong because she didn't really explain her dastardly plan very well and the moment she realized how badly the 'friend' fucked up she threw that kid under the bus.

But even that shit is kinda sus because these timestamps don't fucking line up. This conversation looks doctored to a lot of people meaning the only person responsible for being a cunt here is cait and you @watchingtheearthrise.

The friend is mentioned to be a reylo but you can't really put much of the blame on them since they were just doing what their cool(shitty) published writer friend asked them to do, assuming this friend is even real.

Cait didn't get mad she did a bad thing. She got mad she did it poorly and got caught. Which speaks volumes about Cait.

You being here assuming the worst out of this fandom every time someone so much as sneezes without saying 'god bless you' speaks volumes about you @watchingtheearthrise.

Please for the love of fuck would you find a fucking hobby to pour this endless passion into.

You know something really fun that I've spent a lot of mental energy on over the years and has brought me great pride and joy is this Star Wars Episode 9 rewrite comic I've been working on.

Legit!

I got character sheets and new alien designs.

Most of the script is wrote out, I'm currently working on storyboards and page framing.

I'm only as far as I am because I have a life outside the computer and can't dedicate endless hours a pet project but it's got 2 of my favorite things in it:

A narratively cohesive continuation of The Last Jedi-

And furries.

Because fuckit why not it's my fucking comic.

You're welcome to laugh, and I know you will because you're a huge pile of shit, but doing this has been incredibly cathartic.

we live in a world were we have increasingly little control over basic shit in it. Media can feel like it wants to make money more than it cares about the story and character development and if I want media I’ll actually enjoy well goddamnit I guess I’ll make it myself.

I want it to be good. I want the salt of the fact a random furry wrote and created a better Star Wars EP9 to burn. I think thats funny.

I personally didn't like EP9

(Notice how I dislike EP9 but don't go out of my way to harass people who like it @watchingtheearthrise?)

So I decided to just make my own. Instead of being asshole to people in a fandom who do like it.

(Notice what I'm doing there @watchingtheearthrise?)

I don't see you in here when the fandom does nice shit like donating a shit ton of money to Adam Driver's arts for the military foundation.

I didn't see you in here when Thea Guanzon, a southeast asian reylo's published book became a new york times bestseller.

I don't fucking see you pop in when the dedicated members of this fandom post art and stories and celebrate the thing they love.

Don't let a single person who is acting shitty color your entire opinion about a whole ass fandom man. God fucking knows if I took this approach with finnreys I would just assume all of them are huge pieces of shit because nine times out of ten the people posting anti hate to the reylo tag are finnreys.

But since I'm not a complete fucking dumbass Like Some People Here

I'm able to use some common fucking sense and see it's not the finnreys that are shit.

finnreys are fine.

It's just like... 4 unique people with a lot of extra accounts.

real fucking bold to comment on someone making extra accounts to do nefarious things online from someone who already does that.

I’m pretty fucking sure at least 6 of the antis I regularly come across in this tag Are Your Accounts @watchingtheearthrise. You admit to 2 extra ones you’ve used to harass people in this fandom in the past In Your Fucking Bio

( I love hate how you have reylos in your DNI but paradoxically will not stop posting to this fucking fandoms’s tag I swear to Jesus Fucking Chri-)

God fucking bless you @watchingtheearthrise I hope you find someone who helps you learn how to not be such a festering cunt.

I started out this post not even know who the fuck Cait Corrain is. I still don't give a fuck because shit people can go fuck off into oblivion for all the fucks I don't give but since some asshat antis can’t be fucked to do a goddamn second of research I guess much like that ep9 I'm rewriting I’ll just fucking do this too.

Cait's a reylo about as much as you @watchingtheearthrise and you’re both welcome to let the door hit y’all on the ass on the way out.

[winns-stuff]

See I think a part of the problem for me in reading LO is that because nothing in it really resembles Greek myth or culture I tend to just treat the characters like RS' OC's.

Like I used to Really hate Minthe and was waiting for her to get turned into a plant (I actually think the the og myths Persephone actually goes to Demeter to complain about it and Demeter is actually the one to turn Minthe into a plant? I could be wrong so don't quote me on this) and I was really invested in HxP (Although the boss x employee dynamic and age gap still bothered me I was willing to overlook it because I thought it would be addressed and then it wasn't). I never really thought of it as feminist media or an accurate portrayal of Greek myth. (I don't really know why RS Americanized it so much, she herself isnt American). Mainly I was reading it for the art. And then I found some anti lo blogs that Really opened my eyes to some of the problematic elements of the story and since then I've become a lot more critical myself (which I think people should be allowed to do, I don't know when or why fandom spaces became positivity only / "courteous to not post salt" or something).

I think my main concern is LO is supposed to be a retelling of Greek myth yet Greek culture is nowhere to be seen. And look if people wanna just enjoy it for being a story, fine. What's not so great is when people don't read the og myths and take RS' version at face value.

Also if you look up LO it says it's a modern day and deconstruction of the abduction of Persephone (Hades doesn't even kidnap her tho. It's because another woman is jealous over persephones looks being praised that she decides to have her son drug her and dump her into a strange mans car... That's not very feminist).

I’m sorry, I’ve been busy all day so I’m answering this somewhere during the night. But I agree with all of your points! I didn’t even count Lore Olympus as a feminist retelling honestly, even when I was a fan of the series it’s never crossed my mind that it was actually supposed to be empowering to women. But I also don’t enjoy the way she went about Minthe’s character, it just felt like chapter after chapter her character was getting absolutely obliterated by the comic and it was for no purpose at all except make Persephone the better woman. Also, I can’t believe so many people just overlook the way Persephone and Hades met, it was so incredibly creepy. I’m not exactly understanding how that’s supposed to be romantic.

[jxrm]

book log - 2023

the librarianist by patrick dewitt

same time next year by tessa bailey

did you hear about kitty karr? by crystal smith paul

lore olympus: volume one by rachel smythe

a court if thorns and roses by sarah j. mass

summer sisters by judy blume

the demigod files by rick riordan

mistletoe and mayhem by carly winter

you shouldn’t have come here by jeneva rose

a house with good bones by t. kingfisher

christmas presents by lisa unger

z: a novel of zelda fitzgerald

the storm runner by j.c. cervantes

just another missing person by gillian mcallister

take me home by beth moran

blood sugar by sascha rothchild

a court of mist and fury by sarah j. mass

the christmas orphans club by becca freeman

under her care by lucinda berry

paris: the memoir by paris hilton

our wives under the sea by julie armfield

the celebrants by steven rowley

keep it in the family by john marrs

housemoms by jen lancaster

the woman in me by britney spears

just like home by sarah gailey

trespasses by louise kennedy

silence for the dead by simone st. james

a good family by matt goldman

the fire keeper by j.c. cervantes

dead silence by s.a. barnes

sunshine nails by mai nguyen

lore olympus: volume one by rachel smythe

the mystery guest by nita prose

her little flowers by shannon morgan

woke up like this by amy lea

legendary children by tom fitzgerald

midnight is the darkest hour by ashley winstead

the leftover women by jean kwok

everyone here is lying by shari lapena

mother-daughter murder night by nina simon

you may now kill the bride by r.l. stone

the man i never met by elle cook

hold my girl by charlene carr

legends & lattes by travis baldree

the golden spoon by jessa maxwell

bright young women by jessica kroll

suddenly a murder by lauren munoz

the only one left by riley sager

zero days by ruth ware

good bad girl by alice feeney

the christmas wager by holly cassidy

fortune by elle won steil

theme music by t. marie vandelly

close to home by cara hunter

the true love experiment by christina lauren

penelope in retrograde by brooke abrams

everyone in my family has killed someone by benjamin stevenson

the modern girl’s guide to magic by lindsay hall

i feed her to the beast and the beast is me by jamison shea

hello stranger by katherine center

the unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry by rachel joyce

gone tonight by sarah pekkanen

the library of the dead by t.l. huchu

what never happened by rachel howzell hall

look out for the little guy by scott lang

the christmas mourner by marian mccarthy

every little breath by keri beevis

this might hurt by stephanie wrobel

the last word by taylor adams

a court of wings and ruin by sarah j. mass

forth wing by rebecca yaros

hello beautiful by ann napolitano

summer rental by rektok ross

the house across the lake by riley sager

a cursed covenant by leigh ferguson

her rebel highness by diana ma

stone heart by katee robert

the perfect match by dandy smith

camp zero by michelle min sterling

one by one by frieda mcfadden

the wishing game by meg shaffer

a court of frost and starlight by sarah j. mass

that summer feeling by bridget morissey

to die for by lisa grey

the wrong family by tarryn fisher

heiress apparently by diana ma

the school for good mothers by jessamine chin

tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow by gabrielle zevin

she started it by sian gilbert

best friends forever by shannon hollinger

the housekeepers by alex hay

secluded cabin sleeps six by lisa unger

lore olympus: volume two by rachel smythe

of women and salt by gabriela garcia

kismet by amina akhtar

the devil wears scrubs by frieda mcfadden

girl, forgotten by karin slaughter

come closer by sara gran

the exorcist’s house by nick roberts

august blue by deborah levy

hang the moon by jeannette walls

the thursday murder club by richard osman

a whole new world by liz braswell

run on red by noelle w. ihli

the last thing he told me by laura dave

lore olympus: volume three by rachel smythe

how to sell a haunted house by grady hendrix

the dead romantics by ashley poston

cassandra in reverse by holly smale

i used to be fun by melanie summers

the showrunner by kim moritsugu

runaway groomsman by meghan quinn

i want to die but i want to eat tteokpokki by baek she-hee

the whispers by ashley audrain

e. aster bunnymund and the warrior eggs at the earth’s core! by william joyce

allergies: poems on grieving and loving by maggie bowyer

hermione granger and the philosopher’s stone by sara baines-miller

the summer house by keri beevis

exiles by jane harper

just the nicest couple by mary kubica

the very secret society of irregular witches by sangu mandanna

have you seen her by catherine mckenzie

the shallows by holly craig

a love letter to whiskey by kandi steiner

hermione granger and the chamber of secrets by sara baines-miller

the coworker by frieda mcfadden

tiny beautiful things by cheryl strayed

you’re not supposed to die tonight by kalynn bayron

the little old lady who broke all the rules by catharina ingelman-sundberg

hermione granger and the prisoner of azkaban by sara baines-miller

the blonde identity by ally carter

nicolas st. north and the battle of the nightmare king by william joyce

women in white coats by olivia campbell

the ex talk by rachel lynn solomon

hermione granger and the goblet of fire by sara baines-miller

the wife before by shanora williams

gone again by minka kent

know my name by chanel miller

in the lives of puppets by t.j. klune

the homewreckers by mary kay andrews

going dark by melissa de la cruz

all the dangerous things by stacy willingham

counterfit by kirsten chen

the rewind by allison winn scotch

have i told you this already? by lauren graham

beyond the wand by tom felton

jana goes wild by farah heron

the perfect son by frieda mcfadden

america’s next reality star by laura heffernan

the new mother by nora murphy

georgie, all along by kate clayborn

the storied life of a.j. fikry by gabrielle zevin

a flicker in the dark by stacy willingham

the villa by rachel hawkins

device free weekend by sean doolittle

what the neighbors saw by melissa adelman

the library of lost and found by phaedra patrick

motherthing by ainslie hogarth

the block party by jamie day

tanqueray by stephanie johnston

the ex hex by erin sterling

rock paper scissors by alice feeney

the kiss curse by erin sterling

it ends with us - colleen hoover

the summer of broken rules by k.l. walther

the wife stalker by liv constantine

in my dreams i hold a knife by ashley winstead

the family remains by lisa jewell

my secret sister by lauren westwood

the engagement by samantha hayes

if we were villains by m.l. rio

the sleepover by keri beevis

twenty years later by charlie donlea

the doctor’s wife by daniel hurst

[capinejghafa]

I have some A Touch of Darkness thoughts. im so sorry it's not even that deep lol

i'm halfway through and it's honestly not terrible? It's not the best thing I have ever read, but please take that with a grain of salt bc I have read a lot of bad books in the last few months. The prose could use a little work, Persephone is a little inconsistent as a character (I'm trying to decide if this because of her age or the author trying to give her alllll the traits), and yep it definitely reads like a fic you picked out at midnight and you need to read something from your ship. This entire time I'm picturing Lore Olympus characters... embarrassing? no because it reads like LO fanfic lol

That being said, there's something that reads very 2000s fanfic, where Character A is like I'm gonna be mad at Character B this entire time and have that be part of their personality lol This type of fics/trope is part of a bygone era for sure... but you can see lingering aspects with some current authors. I'm begging you pick another way to get characters to dislike each other lol It's the forced enemies to lovers because the plot demands it! This is also weird because I do think Persephone and Hades are perfect for the trope if done properly. Especially because only few days have passed... ONLY A FEW DAYS.

Pacing is also a bit of an issue... you can spread out the time too.

Anyways I'm still reading but it's such a weird read because I'm not actively hating but I'm not actively loving it. I don't know what to do with that lol

[genericpuff]

i came home from my trip to find some HOT STEAMING TEA.

so it's been sorta talked about for a while now that there was an incident a long time ago involving a Minthe cosplayer and an in-character caption that Rachel responded to with... well, not grace, let's just put it that way lmao but it's always just been sorta mentioned in passing, never really fully confirmed beyond hearsay, so we didn't have any details or information to back up the claims.

but we FINALLY got actual definitive proof of it not JUST in the form of screenshots-

-but then we were BLESSED by the appearance of the PERSON WHO HAD DONE THIS COSPLAY.

(names have been censored for obvious privacy reasons)

sooo yeah. It's been a great day for tea. But I also feel really bad for the cosplayer, I'm glad she's moved past it but the fact that she was made to feel targeted like that just for playing one of Rachel's own characters from her own comic? Rachel, honey, please, for the love of god, get a grip. I would have been willing to be a bit less scrutinizing if this thing that happened 4 years ago was obviously something she had grown from, but no, she's doubled down in her behavior over the past 4 years and now her comic has fallen to the same level of shittiness to boot.

Anyways, to the Minthe cosplayer, I hope you're still cosplaying, even if it's not LO anymore. I'm glad you've moved past it and hopefully gone on to better things :' ) You def didn't deserve any of that shit and it's frankly appalling that the LO fanbase and its creator still manage to get away with this childish af behavior four years later.

[gritsandbrits]

Woa what's lore olympus fandom syndrome??

Something I came up with after observing how certain types of LO stans cannot accept valid criticism of theirr sainted webcomic. More specifically the idea that bad people can have good qualities/things and that good people can have bad things happen to them that's not easily solved, or capable of doing bad themselves. Worse when the canon itself enables this type of behavior by depicting every antagonist as stupid/EVIL™ such with Zeus and Minthe; as if they can't be people with their own positive traits/sympathetic moments. Meanwhile Persephone and Hades have their share of flaws but gets handwaved or excused by the fans bc the story tells them to. Next level Designated Heroes/Villains trope but 5000% more Greek!

These posts by @cuppykin goes a bit into detail. It's not a new phenomenon but something I noticed with LO fandom 👀 but in general it just demonstrates how stans ignore the concept of grey morality

[justmenoworries]

Can we talk about how Smythe seems incapable of giving her female characters backstories that aren’t inherently linked to some form of sexual trauma?

Persephone is assaulted by Apollo and was almost tricked into sex by Ares in the past.

Aphrodite has to sleep with Zeus to cover Eros’ ass.

Psyche is almost made to marry an abusive old creep, which most likely would have led to marital r*pe.

Hera was forced to play honey trap for Kronos.

Minthe was roped into an unhealthy imbalanced boss-subordinate relationship with Hades.

Like, fucking hell, you can make a woman’s backstory tragic without making it all about sexual violence!

[connelwaldron]

lore olympus has been slumping for a little bit now but the whole trial arch is so incredibly boring??? and persephone has gotten completely insufferable?? 

[noctilionoidea]

greek mythology inspired media as rated by a gothy teen

one should note that this is only the things I’ve seen/read personally, therefore things like Percy Jackson and lore Olympus aren’t on here. It wouldn’t be fair for me to act like I know about the quality of those things when I haven’t read them.

Disney’s Hercules- Very clearly not myth accurate (Heracles) but really fun. It’s more akin to what little I know about the Etruscan Hercle with the way they handled his backstory. The timeline is strange because the took the Mycenaean setting of the original story (as that’s what the Greeks deemed as the age of heroes) and made it set in archaeic to classical Greece instead. But the other myths are still ancient??? though a complete bastardization of god, Hades is undoubtedly the best character. I’d give it a 2/10 on accuracy but a solid 6/10 as a movie.

Disney’s Hercules; the animated series- this is set in an alternate universe than the movie, as Hades is aware of Hercules’ existence. It changes a bunch of plotholes from the movie and even references individual myths. My favorite is the Circe episode solely for the song number. I highly recommend it, it’s even better than the movie. My only real issue is the character of Icarus. It’s fine when he isn’t around Cassandra (once again, weird timeline, but at least other heroes are contemporary here), but when she is there he’s constantly harassing her because he thinks that they’re dating. Yup, the “lovable” pervert. not my favorite, but he can be really funny. Also they give a direct timeframe because the Persian war has happened, Athens and Sparta aren’t actively fighting but very hostile to each other, and Pericles as very alive. For accuracy I’d actually give it a 4/10 (they referenced the Midas donkey ears, which I thought was a joke till I read the sources on Midas) and an 8/10 on entertainment. It’s one of my favorite shows.

Hades (video game)- do I need to say anything? I may not game (so you can take this with a heaping of salt I guess) but I’ve seen enough lets-plays to see how utterly well written and beautiful this game is. The soundtrack alone just slaps, and uggggghhhhhh so good. It also has a good representation of Hades as an antagonist without being severely inaccurate to the actual god. It does make a handful of revisions to the myths, but all for the point of the story. For accuracy I’d give 7-8/10 and 10/10 for entertainment, because if a lets-play doesn’t bore me at any points that’s a miracle.

class of the Titans- the story is about the descendants of heroes being recruited by the gods to fight in a prophecy against Chronos , who has escaped from Tartarus. It does do with the demigod powers (one of my pet peeves about Greek myth content) but generally it’s a really great interpretation of Greek mythology meets the 2000s. There’s not recurring characters I particularly hate and they don’t force the romance between characters down your throat. also Neil is the best character. I love that selfish brat. However, the route they went with Dionysos was abominable. We do not speak of it. other deities are safe. Persephone isn’t just some wholesome flower girl (and her extreme and dangerous side isn’t confirmed as relating to her marriage at all) and if you’ve ever wished for a Hades who was the epitome of dorky, here. In general, I’d give it a 6/10 for accuracy and a 7.5/10 for entertainment. I’m still mad about Dionysos

Percy Jackson and the lightning thief (film)- ew. Not even familiar with the original, this is just bad. only three lines were good. 2/10 for both accuracy and quality.

tween girl myth retellings- this is more of a genre and I can’t find it anywhere but it was literally my introduction to Greek myth. They were never very accurate but they were super fun to read. So as a general Category I give forth 5/10 and 6/10 to all the things I read. My poor younger self, if only you knew what this would lead to.

blood of Zeus- I’m not finished with it but whatever, I’m tired of this being in my drafts. its a little rough at the start imo but it really begins to pick up at the third episode or so. It differs a lot from the myths, mainly in the demons being more akin to the anime variety than the more traditional daemon gods of human nature. but I also am really mad they left out ichor! That is literally what Zeus’ blood is. But the characterization of the gods is super well done (so far). It‘s very akin to much of the sources so far in how they’re written. unfortunately it‘s too serious for my favorite characterization to be used, rip Aristophanes. BUT I CANT GET OVER THE FACT THEY NAMED A MAIN CHARACTER SERAPHIM. BRO. Bro. Seraphim is a Hebrew word, and a plural one at that. It’s very Abrahamic. That’s the wrong religious origins. 5/10 accuracy, 7/10 enjoyment so far.

okay having now finished it it’s at around a 5/10 on both. Like it’s okay and got good design but it’s just… doesn’t hit.

Gods’ School- gods school reminds me a lot of Ever After High, and that’s a good thing because I really do miss that series. All the character designs are great (I am Including Edward Cullen looking Hades y’all are weak smh) and get across the general purpose of that deity. Eris is scraggly, Aphrodite is pink, minthe is kinda punchable. It diverges a lot from myths, but with a highschool au that’s always kinda a given. it gets a 4/10 accuracy and a 7-8/10 on entertainment value. If you like Ever After High and don’t mind waiting a long time for new episodes I would recommend. It’s a fun little webseries.

tales around the world; Hades and Persephone- I don’t know if that is the right title but that’s how I remember it. this one is a stop motion animated retelling just a little censored for kids. It’s a wonderful version! I didn’t expect that much quality from this series. I found the Vhs rip uploaded to YouTube so! it does a nice job of fusing both interpretations of the abduction. My biggest issue is that Demeter is very much the helicopter parent, but I guess that’s sensible for a Hera syncretism. If you like hades and Persephone i really suggest this. 7/10 for both.

anyways, these are the ones I can think of. I don’t read much other than classics and history (because I have a long list and I don’t need more) so sadly I cannot add any newer books here, which SUCKS but whatever. I might do another for later or maybe for a different pantheon, but I don’t really think there’s a lot out there for them.

[emperorbubblegum]

Alright so I just finished Shimousa in preparation for Heian-Kyo, so here's a longer-than-usual post about my thoughts on it. I think I'm gonna do this everytime I beat a story chapter actually.

Oh and, obligitory spoiler warning. Go play Shimousa if you don't want to be spoiled, especially if you've finished Olympus and are waiting patiently for LB5.5 like me.

First off is the story itself, which I actually liked a lot. I haven't finished Shinjuku or Agartha so take this with a grain of salt, but I think this is the second best Epic of Remnant chapter. Or at the very least my second favorite. It felt very anime-cliche, with the basic summary being "Main character gets transported to another world and has to defeat the guy commanding all the evil demons" but I like that sort of stuff so it doesn't bother me. The twist that Yagyu was the Saber of Empiero was a genuine shock to me, or it would of been if I hadn't been spoiled. Oh yeah, speaking of shocks, I lost my shit when it revealed that Amakusa was the Sorcerer. I know the shaded out sprites has been criticized as stupid, but I'm used to his Apocrypha design. So the entire time I thought he was a new NPC and not just an ascension I didn't recognize. I was so hyped for seeing who this new, unknown figure was than when he turned out to be someone I already knew I flipped.

The bossfights were kind of... eh. They weren't too difficult, and I liked the challenge of being forced to use Musashi. I think it worked for this chapter better than it did for, say, LB5.2 (go fuck yourself Demeter). Once I beat Solomon I focused on this chapter so I could get the True Name of Paraiso, since she was my first non-tutorial 4*. I didn't play it again until after Olympus so Orion made a lot of the bossfights really trival (as he does for everything pre-lostbelt). The final fight being a 1v1 between Kojirou and Musashi was really hype though. I think that was my favorite fight.

I've already talked about how Vegas caused me to heavily dislike Musashi, and she did grow on me during Olympus, but this chapter made me really like her. Which is good, because Miyamoto Musashi is one of my favorite historical figures and it'd be a shame if the version we see of him in Fate was unlikeable, even if it's not our Musashi. Everything that I found obnoxious about her in Summer 4 was somehow likeable in Shimousa, and I don't know if that because of writers or the fact that this was a serious chapter and not a gag event, but it makes Musashi one of my favorite Sabers (that list isn't very long though tbf).

Unlike Musashi, I loved Kotarou in Summer 4, so seeing him have actual story significance was really exciting for me. I knew where his arc with Danzo was headed, but it was still sad for me to watch him struggle with it. I'm definitely going to put some levels into him once I have exp to spare.

Paraiso didn't have too big of a part to play, but this is probably one of the only times I'll get to talk about her, so whatever. I really like Paraiso. Partly because I've had her since I started playing, and partly because I feel like she's the only one of the Heroic Spirit Swordmasters whose lore fit the themes of the Heroic Spirit Swordmasters. Inshun, Raikou, and Shuten all hd their spirit origins tampered with, Yagyu's a dick, and I honestly don't remember Tomoe's arc. But Paraiso, to me, embodied the idea of a Heroic Spirit who's been cursed with evil blood. And I like that. Her design's also really cool but if I went off about her anymore this post would devolve from my thoughts organized into text to just insane ramblings about my first true Servant.

Danzo's also worth noting because I feel like her character arc is very similar to Altera's, seeing as they both struggle between doing what's right and doing what they're made to do. Obviously, since Altera got her own game I feel like her's was done better, but Danzo's still spoke to me the same way Altera's did. Plus how can you go wrong with a robot waifu? It's too bad I already have Paraiso, otherwise I'd roll for her on her next banner.

Muramasa's up next on the list of things I want to talk about. I feel like most people either love or hate Pseudo-servants, but I'm kind of ambivalent towards them. I like Muramasa as a historical figure so it was really cool seeing him in Fate. I thought it was cool how they paired a renowned swordmaker of history with a renowned swordmaker of Fate lore. Actually I think he'd actually be worse off as a character if he wasn't a Shirouface (even though I hate that term) especially with Rasputin possessing Kirei and them working together in Part 2, but that's a topic for another day. My only problem with him is that whenever he popped on screen it distracted me from the dialogue because Shirou is fucking ripped. I can't wait for him to come to NA.

Amakusa's the final thing I have thoughts on regarding this chapter, even though it's mostly because I'm an idiot. Seeing this version of Amakusa, who survived Shimabara and was driven to hatred and madness as a result, really sent home the parallels between him and Jeanne, which is something that flew over my head during Apocrypha becuase I didn't know who Amakusa really was. I have a personnal connection to villains whose motive is that the being they had a stronger-than-average belief in something (be it a god, king, or system) that ended up failing them. It's why I like Jalter and Gilles as much as I do. So seeing another one of those in this already amazing chapter made me like it even more.

In short, Salem will always be my favorite chapter from Part 1.5, but Shimousa is definitely a close second. It's such a shame that such a great and important chapter is just made optional, even though I get why they did it. The characters were great, the story was right up my alley, and the boss fights were really fun.