Love Olympus: the "charming" lessons we learned from it
Hi! Are you searching for a good story, filled with creativity, care, coherence and beautiful art style? Then please, turn left and you will find something worth your time.
Here we will talk about that beautiful, terrible disaster that is Lore Olympus. Ah, it's always so nice to read a new retelling of Greek mythology and find out it's basically the same 200 stereotypes slapped together into something that's way older and staler than the original. What did my ancestor ever do to the world, to be treated like that.
But I've already talked about what a waste of potential Lore Olympus is, how pathetic the writing is and how bad the protagonists are. I've spent more than enough words commenting on why this series could've been great and came out like this.
Now there's only one thing left: to make fun of it. To draw our conclusions on the whole thing and the finale and find out what "wonderful" messages we got from it.
Don't worry: the messages are absolutely wonderful and I'm not sarcastic, not at aaaaall.
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Planning in advance is for the weak
Don't you know how to fill your third season, after the "battle" that closed season 2? No problem! People will read you anyway, so instead of planning and moving the plot forward, waste everyone's time writing chapter after chapter of pure nothingness: your characters can have discussions so stupid, that people will question if they have been written by using ChatGPT. That will surely prove what a great writer you are!
And don't worry too much about the plot: just wait until inspiration magically falls from the sky. That's how it works, isn't it? Stories are just random events slapped together, with no planning, care or coherence whatsoever. When we write a story, we don't want to treat our readers like intelligent human beings, oh no: people are idiots, so we can just throw them the first shit that pops out of our minds and everything will be fine.
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Coherence is for the weak
After waiting for inspiration (that somehow hasn't fallen from the sky yet, jeez I wonder why), you still don't know what to do with your plot? Easy, use one of the villains! Like the rapist guy! Now he's running for President.
Yes, we know there is a monarchy in this land, because there is a king, but it doesn't matter. The rapist is trying to be President now. President of what, you ask? It doesn't matter! Presidents exist, right? So he's trying to be one, that's all you need to know.
Will he become President? He's running from it, that's all! You don't need to know what happens after that! As we all know, stories do not have closed plot points, they're just random shit thrown around. So why care about solving a problem you just raised? Just forget it, it's not important.
Is the story supposed to take place in Olympus or, at least, in Greece? Well, what's the problem? As we all know, Europe and the US are basically the same thing, so how different can Greece and America be?
I mean: one is a huge country with many climate zones and wide areas, the other is a small, hot country mostly made of mountains and islands. One has a millennia-years-old culture that influenced the entirety of the West, the other is literally called the New World, to emphasize how young it is. Same place.
So, since they're so similar they're basically identical, just fill your Greece with American stuff and give your characters English names. Greece is notoriously full of English names. It's not like there are millions of people with similar names because parents give their own parents' names to their offspring and sometimes all siblings give their parents' names to all their children and the result is that your cousins all have the same goddamn name and you all came up with nicknames to distinguish between them.
No, that's not based on personal experience, what makes you think that.
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The protagonist is better than anyone else
Is Zeus telling you he wants to give his child to some nymphs, because he knows won't be a good father? Well, clearly the most normal thing to do is steal his baby. No, not because you're a psychopath, but because you clearly know how to handle the baby better than some nymphs. Remember: you are the protagonist, hence you are better at everything anyone can do, especially a stupid nymph. You will care for the baby more and better than anyone else, no doubt.
Is the child you stole running around without supervision? But you took care of him! You even hired a babysitter! No, of course you didn't spend time with him, you were busy! What? It could've been better to leave the child with the nymphs as Zeus wanted, because at least they would've spent their time with the child and not hired someone else to do it? Listen, we don't work with logic here and you are the protagonist, so of course all of your decisions are perfect and should never be questioned.
Speaking of kids: is your mother telling you she had a son who died? Time for some favoritism! Your husband is the god of the dead, so death isn't a problem anymore. What? Death is supposed to be impossible to overcome? But you're the protagonist, so the mere mortals' rules do not apply to you. Death is nothing, compared to your perfection.
Oh no, you accidentally caused winter! And a genocide! But remember: you're the protagonist, so of course you're always perfect. And you didn't do it on purpose, so you're automatically innocent and people attacking you are just mean and jealous.
See? You're so perfect, you found a way to solve the problem! How? Easy, by believing in yourself ✨✨✨ And by talking (badly) about how life and death are linked. Yes, we know it's the equivalent of saying that 2+2=4, but we don't want to treat our readers like intelligent people, here. All they have to do is just revel in your perfection.
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More villains! Because Yes!
Do you still have no idea what to do with your plot, after too many useless chapters? Easy, use the cartoonish supervillain! He will do the trick! And throw another naked woman to defeat him: it worked once, it'll work again.
Is your cartoonish supervillain actually useless? No problem, make another villain even more useless. And make him appear out of thin air for two chapters. And since readers are stupid, just tell them that he was the evil mastermind behind everything. They'll eat it up.
Oh, and President Loser is in cahoots with SuperMegaVillain now. Why? Because Yes, of course.
You don't know how to defeat SuperMegaVillain? 🧑🤝🧑Avengers Assemble🧑🤝🧑and you're done. It worked for Marvel, it'll work for your story too. I know it's settled in Greece and fertility goddesses do not have resurrection powers or whatever the fuck they're doing, but shhhhh.
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Random justice is good
With all those villains to defeat, you forgot your story is supposed to be a retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone? No problem, just stick a "Gaia Ex-Machina" here and let her solve the story with a power and authority she doesn't have. No one will notice the difference.
Speaking of justice: is the rapist gonna get the punishment he deserves? Sure, get this: he will fall in love with you and turn himself in. And he will get community service as punishment.
Are you saying that this isn't a real punishment? But of course it is! He turned himself in! The victim isn't allowed to expose him, nor to see him actually getting punished. All the victim can do is walk away. It's not that lack of control is a big deal for a rape victim, right? And seeing the rapist finally get punished won't give them the catharsis they need, right? And it definitely won't free them of the huge weight they carry on, because of the awful, horrible act they suffered from, right?
Of course not, so ah ah ah, the rapist gets to build places, very funny. And aside from that stupid punishment, of course he's free to walk around and, who knows?, maybe rape someone else. Wow, justice truly works well in this place! I would feel so safe to go around there!
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Queer people are stupid too (and ghosts, sometimes)
All those villains could've been great in a story centered around Zeus? We don't work with Zeus here: we hate men, all men except for the capitalist hubby of our dreams. So Zeus is a useless piece of shit and he will keep being a useless piece of shit until the end. Also, he's not a real king anymore, because apparently democracy popped out of nowhere and everyone just rolls with it. I wonder why it too centuries to accept it all over the world...
And Hera is a lesbian now. Why? I already told you we don't work with logic here. She's a lesbian because queer people are idiots too, so thrown them a queer character and they will like it, doesn't matter if it makes zero sense.
Uh? Are you saying that asexual and aromantic people exist too? No, of course not: they're just waiting for the hot lesbian of their dreams or for the hubby that will turn them into wives and mothers.
Hence why the organization centered around celibacy closed: it was just a cover for lesbians after all! And we all know that women can only be lesbians or mothers. A woman doesn't want or feel any romantic attraction? She doesn't exist, then.
Wow people, I don't exist! I'm a ghost!
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Feminism means gender stereotypes
As Wikipedia says, feminism is:
"... a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes."
But Wikipedia is stupid, while we won a shit ton of prizes for some reason, so we're the good authors here. And we decided that feminism means "women good, men bad". This definitely isn't a point of view based on a warping of the original concept of feminism, that focused on helping women because, since societies are patriarchal, men already have a powerful position. Hence why, feminism fought (and fights) to give women a powerful position too: to make both genders on the same plane.
But nope, this is all stupid and wrong and doing research is underrated - after all, we wrote a story entirely based on the first shit that popped into our mind, so why do research about this? Let's focus on the superficial vision of feminism and fight for women's equality, by making them lesbians or mothers.
Because sure, feminism is good, but capitalism is better. And since capitalism wants you to have kids, go home to your rich hubby and have a ton of kids you definitely won't neglect, like the child you stole or the supposed godson you never cared about and only after he's an adult "sometimes" you have a conversation with. That's how a perfect, traditional family works, after all. And we know this didn't lead to any generational trauma at aaaaall.
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In conclusion
I don't know if you noticed the teeny tiny veil of sarcasm in my words. I know, it was so subtle, almost invisible. I made it oh-so-hard to find it, please let me know how hard it was.
But you know what? This story is over and I needed to let some sarcasm out. I am finally free to read something else, possibly (hopefully!) better.
And the next time I will approach another retelling... who am I kidding, I know I will fall for it like an idiot because that's what I do every time. They get me with something I love and once I find out it's shitty, I keep reading because I want to see how bad it is.
In this, Lore Olympus didn't disappoint: I expected something bad, I got something bad. And, sometimes, it was so bad, to make me laugh, so extra points for the stupidity: I appreciate something that makes me laugh, way more than something that makes me angry.
And, as I said in my previous posts, even something bad is useful, because it teaches you how NOT to do something.
So thank you, Lore Olympus, for being a terrible teacher. And thank you for making me appreciate the original myths even more. There's a reason why they still stand after millennials and can still capture the popular imagination, while this series will probably be forgotten in a couple years.
To you all, my readers: if you managed to reach the end of LO like me, congrats for surviving it, I hope you learned something useful about how to make better art.
But if you never approached Lore Olympus, don't do it: it's not worth the time you will lose.
Unless you want to see with your own eyes how does it look a story with zero planning and random ideas thrown everywhere. In that case, please, be my guest: read it and learn how not to write. You will learn a lot from this.
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(How about a coffee? ☕)
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Bridgerton season 3
All right, I loved the season so far, but that's my take, what could be improved with storyline (there were lots of bad writting choices as well as good one, but I want to outline my thoughts). So, I'll try to sum up, what could be written or added, that could make narration style more elegant and truthful to the viewers. Free to disagree. Sorry for the mistakes in advance. English is not my first language.
Colin's character arc. A lot of the things we got was told through the dialogue or was subtle, but not in between. I had a feeling that they haven't developed him enough to really show his inner conflict. Sometimes he was a side-character in his own show(part 2 did him bad), while the thing he should be the main one, because it shows his dynamic with Penelope/Lady Whistledown and key to understand their dynamic as a couple and his character arc. Other leading male characters had that physiological touch/depth to their character, while Colin somehow didn't. What we needed: flashback to his travels and small plot about loosing himself there or maybe gaining false confidence(could be done with him alone reading the lines of his letters), study of the middle-child complex(scenes with small Colin and Antony, who was the father figure for him, or brother dynamics with parents that could outline his people pleaser arc), more journaling, including the scene we got, but also about his writting challangies, more details about his likes and dislikes as a writer(favourite authors, could be the scene with Benny, because writting and art is quiet close). Maybe, not him tellling of his jealousy, but again creating scene that show views that he feels inferior. All other thing they did alright, I guess.
Penelope's character arc. I guess I kinda like a lot of things, but I didn't like the ending with the message of 'woman couldn't have dreams, but their husbands could'. It doesn't matter for me was 'child; in the ending or not, but they should have given her character career arc plus. It might have been just a hint of her, talking about wrtitting a book or developing her gossip column into somethins more serious, like critique. Not her mentioning JUST editing Colin's book with a happy smile on her face, watching a newborn. That was the worst writting decision, because it proves Portia words. The whole point of Lady Whistledown was hiding under the mask and trying to gain control and power through her her, because Penelope was too afraid to bloom. In fact that power was within her, and although they did the choice of her uncovering face and name in the end, it didn't end well in her arc. It could have done way better, considering the point they made in the begining. I would also love to see more of her experience sexual awakening after episode five as a slow process of gaining that condifence and gaining control in bedroom(that will be my 3 bullet point about them together) by proceeding it through imagining, talking with friends or dreaming. Besides, I'd like to add that tv show would have benefited from scenes, where she's not only writting, but also looking at the mirror, kinda trying to see, what she really is every now and then(we had one of that scene in green dress). Could be in her bedroom before mirror scene, but after carriage one. It would have made sense, how perception of her body changed, and the mirror scene would have hit stronger. Could be done during her struggles of Whistledown reveal too.
Now let's focus on main couple, and what could have gone better, if writers didn't try to fit 10 storylines in 8 series and literally tried to write their leads attentively and thoughtfully. Polin. First and foremost, that talk about how they met (again bad creative decision, story should show, not hit right between your eyes) MUST have been a flashback. I don't take no as an aswer. It was the only part lacking through their development from season one. This one flshback could have fixed lots of things. + I think audience need a bit more warm-up with just the two of them in the first part of the show(more charming lessons, at least one more befoe the kiss, where Colin starts to get confused about his feelings, and it would have worked perfectly with all the other things). + him really going through the process of figuring out that she is Lady Whistledown. I feel like Luke played subtle emotions perfectly, but we didn't get build up of him, slowly noticing things from his POV(there were chances in the show and lines in the dialogues, ink scene, where they could have hinted on Colin's expression, even in the 1 part, that he could have found some of the Pen's action suspicious, but didn't question it or didn't want to believe in it because of the feelings, until finally he would have followed her to the dark streets of the town). Next thing, they should have shown the process of following her to raise the suspense, him hoping that was another person, her being in shadows in her cloackm, and that at the same time this build-up would have made Luck's acting incredible fulfilling and impactive) + after the reveal it's out of his character to leave her alone, and I guess writers lost themselves elsewhere + more dialogues with them not talking about their relationship, but art and craft of writting(again they share many common interests, why didn't they show us that before the fight and after they made up) + more dialogues with them being cute and teasy as in church and after the sex+ prolonging scene, where he reads her letters, but not just showing the letter, but hearing her voice in his ears + longing should have had more scenes and more touching and being hot and cold, not only him sleeping on the couch(this just one creative indea, but it's not enough, but by talking also), going back and forth after the fight, just the night encounter next to modiste and blue gown(in this particular one they didn't embodied the tension, my idea that although Colin wouldn't like the intimacy, when he is angry, but the stare wan't enough, he should have come, touched her and then made himself stop with a line or without it), these scenes were not enough to show their struggle there + longer scene of them making up after the ball and chage of sexual dynamic, because this is important to her character arc and him accepting her. This scene should have been the third long steamy scene, not 20 seconds with the attention to the details and how they do through trust and communicating with each other, it could have been wrtitten beautifully and releasing the tension of conflict between them by swapping roles, and Colin by that finding out he loves it, while Pen finally taking control as she wanted and as her real character is after revealing her indenty + having him coming to his senses before her speech and him holding her hand instead of her mother + the love confession which is not about just drama, but also bout them as friends and their dynamics
I am not sure I need to write the second part, about other nuanciens aspects and acrs, but this what I would have done if I had a chance to be in the writting room with them
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