when the piece of media explores themes of humanity versus monstrosity. on one hand, it’s “how far can I go before I am just as monstrous as those I deem my enemies? the further i go the more certain i am that i’ve crossed a line. am I even human anymore?” and on the other hand it’s “was the monster always a monster? what makes it evil, what makes it inhuman? what has it done that i fear it?”
in both cases it is “i am looking at the creature I am fighting and i see a mirror of myself. was i always this way? was it always this way?”
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I cannot stop thinking about Armand, an ex slave who worked in a brothel where he was constantly abused, getting together with Louis, an ex pimp, just to prove himself that he is stronger now and that no one can hurt him anymore (it's not true)
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one of my favourite things about epic the musical is the reused sets and aspects. for example, the "i'm just a man" was introduced in the first saga, troy, and is still being used in recent and upcoming songs, because it's such an important concept and piece about odysseus and his journey. same goes for "man vs. monster" but it's from the same song. the cool thing is (in my humble opinion) is that in ruthlessness from the ocean saga, IS also a new aspect that is being played now. in BOTH "the underworld" and "monster" from the underworld saga ody sings "ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves..." and "[...] if ruthlessness is mercy"
and that's SO smart. like hello? introducing new moral values/views is so AAA.
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when does a comet become a meteor?
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How do you know when something is healthy? What percentage of it is supposed to be vegetables? What's the upper limit for salt before it becomes "unhealthy"?
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WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT A FUCKING SECOND WAIT
Odysseus singing with Scylla "we are the same you and I" or whatever the lyrics were
Scylla aiming for the six men holding the torches
The suitors in King going "keep your head down he's aiming for the torches"
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I remember when I knew little to nothing about the Odyssey and its story, I made my own conclusions on how the story was going to go. When I first heard the song ‘no longer you’, I thought that the prophet was telling him that another one of his men would be the one who made it home, so I assumed that Odysseus becoming the ‘monster’ would be him killing that crew member so it would go back to being him.
LITTLE DID I KNOW THAT WHAT HAPPENED IN THE THUNDER SAGA IS A HUNDRED TIMES WORSE THAN WHAT I EVER THOUGHT.
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I was watching a reaction to Ruthlessness and the "when does a man become monster" line came on. And for the strangest reason, I imagined Odysseus doing the "I'm a savage" dance. I know it's like a dead trend but I would love to see someone animate that
I’m gonna be completely honest, I had to look up what it was (I am not caught up on any sort of dance trends). It would be hilarious though to see!!!
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“You’ve hurt me enough” / “When I kill you my pain is over” / “You won’t live through this day, now die”
-Polyphemus in Survive
I just find this part interesting because Polyphemus had every right to be mad and upset because:
1) Host rules— in Ancient Greek, there was a policy called ξενία (English: Xenia) which consisted of two rules- Respect from Hosts to Guests, Respect from Guests to Hosts. Odysseus was a guest in Polyphemus’ cave and broke the rules of ξενία by killing Polyphemus’ favorite sheep and was a threat.
2) After the “gift exchange” (aka Odysseus giving Polyphemus the wine), Polyphemus thought he was being nice by letting Odysseus be the final man to die— because he gets to live longer than the rest and keep in mind that Polyphemus doesn’t understand human customs, he’s a cyclops and a monster.
….
“We are a different beast now” / “No more of us deceased now cause we won’t take more suffering from you” / “You are a threat no longer”
-Odysseus and the Crew in Different Beast
This draws parallels to Polyphemus because the sirens never directly hurt Odysseus or the crew (yet), so it made no sense for it to be “We won’t take more suffering from YOU” if they never hurt them. So it makes sense for it to be a parallel to be to Polyphemus and when their suffering and all their problems started. It also details how, if Odysseus had the chance he would kill Polyphemus (also related to “I made a mistake like this, it almost cost my life. I can’t take more risks on not seeing my wife.”) and then Odysseus cut off their tails.
It just shows how in this situation, Odysseus is the monster and causing the suffering. Not the monsters themselves. Throughout Epic it’s about Odysseus learning to be ruthless but in the process he has to become a monster, which kind of draws the question of are the monsters “monsters” because they’re just following what they were made to do and just following their instincts? Or, alternatively; When does a man become a monster :)
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the fact that throughout this saga the monsters aren't really looming dangers the way polyphemus and circe were - and in fact it's odysseus, eurylochus and zeus who are the 'bad guys'
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