#Like when the second in command is like 'tell me you didn't sacrife six men' his VOICE

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

They killed his sheep. It was his favorite sheep, bro :(

[mythicalcrumb]

i think it was a smart move to make eurylochus confess at the beginning of 'scylla'. when you listen to it for the first time you could think scylla is talking to him. 'you have a reason for shame', 'leaving them feeling betrayed, breaking the bonds that you've made'. it makes listening to the song for the second time even better, because not only do we realize she was talking to odysseus, but that odysseus had, by the time they get to the lair of scylla, already planned to sacrifice 6 of his men. it wasn't an accident, it wasn't a bad decision made in a rush. he had already thought about this.

and, i'm taking it a bit further, eurylochus knew about it. he notices odysseus is abnormally calm, 'you're quiet today'. he should have looked like he was thinking of a plan, because surely if he had one he would have shared it with the crew, right? instead he looks resigned. and when scylla appears, he just calmy orders eurylochus to grab 6 torches (specifically 6, because he had already thought about it).

eurylochus didn't want to believe it. he kinda offers odysseus the benefit of the doubt, 'tell me you did not know that would happen', 'that you did not just sacrifice 6 men'. and when odysseus doesn't refute it, eurylochus is forced to accept that odysseus did plan for 6 men's death, 'then you have forced my hand'.

i see a lot of people call eurylochus a hypocrite for being so eager to abandon his men on circe's island but drawing the line at odysseus sacrificing 6 men. he didn't resent odysseus either for the friends they lost to polyphemus. but if we look at it from a slightly different angle, maybe it's not about the deads but why they died. if 6 men had died in scylla's lair because of lack of strenght, bad luck, being unprepared, i don't think eurylochus would have reacted the same.

epic is written so that we feel for odysseus. it's meant to make us love him. he's portrayed as everything most love, he's smart and strong but also funny and a little bit pathetic and everyone went wild over his 'you know i'm too shy and terrified' bit. but even if he has a lot of bad luck and the gods are against him, he's still in the wrong.

'mutiny' was never about the death of those six men, but because odysseus had failed them as a captain. and for once eurylochus plays his role as second-in-command when he challenges odysseus for the crew's sake. i'm not saying odysseus could have avoided what happened, but he knew what to expect and chose to keep it from his crew.

as scylla predicts it in 'scylla'

[bleedingintogold]

Leader woke up to a constant beep at his side, adding to the headache forming from too bright lights over his head. The first thing he registers is the familar scratchy blanket of the medical bay as he sits himself up. His head throbs as he tries to recall what got him here. The bandages around his skull not doing much to remind him.

He hears the voice of his superior outside the bay door, along with the thump of boots on tile. The man himself enters, two medical staff at his heels with clipboards.

"General, Leader has not woken up yet. He suffered head trauma and is still being monitored-"

"Look, the fucker is already awake! Leave so I can talk to him. That's an order!" He barked before his eyes landed on Leader. Leader felt his breath get stuck in his throat as General walked right to his bed. He couldn't even get a salutation out before he was dragged out of the bed by the back of his medical gown.

"General!" the medical officer attempted to get Leader away from him, catching the injured man before he hit the ground.

"I ordered you to go on a simple mission, in and out. At most, it was a mid-tier mission any of the lower ranked squadrons could have completed. So tell me, Leader. How did you fuck this up? How did you get a whole squadron sacrificed?"

"What?" Leader croaked, still winded from being yanked out of bed so suddenly. This did nothing but anger the General more. His brain was desperately trying to process his superior's words but he kept drawing blanks.

"You don't remember what you've done, Leader? I'll fucking show you,"

General pulled Leader in front of a curtain which had shielded the view of two other beds. The motion left Leader dizzy and the medical officer protesting angrily to leave their patient alone. He yanked the curtain to show him two members of Leader's squadron of six, Medic and Second-in-Command. Both of them were terribly injured, Medic with what looked like pressure bandages on most of his torso and a breathing tube down his throat. General harshly pulled Leader to Second-in-Command, forcing him to look at her with his hand tight around the back of Leader's neck. Second was awake but could only spare Leader a small glance before she drifted back off. She wasn't much better off than Medic, one leg in a thick cast and the other seemed to be missing under her blanket.

"Take a good look at them, Leader. Take a good look at the men you failed," Leader started to remember how Second-in-Command had pushed him out of the way of falling rubble and how Medic had warned him that the place was too dangerous.

"Leader, we can't proceed with this mission. The stakes are too high. This won't be worth it,"

"We'll be fine. Just keep your head in the game, Medic,"

But this was only two of them. Where were the other three?

"Wh-where..."

"The rest of your men, Leader? Come with me, and I'll show you,"

"General, please! Leader can hardly stand properly!" one of the senior doctors was here now, attempting to loosen the grip on Leader's gown.

"Yeah? Well he's much better off than his men now isn't he?" General manhandled guided Leader out of the main bay, towards a different one. The younger man clutched at the collar of his hospital gown to prevent it from choking him as it pulled on his neck. Leader's heart sunk when he realized which bay they were heading to. The one bay where patients who entered only exited to be buried.

"No," Leader said under his breath. His bare feet suddenly felt terribly cold on the tile.

He had gotten them killed?

General pushed his way through the medical staff who were putting the bodies in body bags. Leader looked down at them, Technician and...Youngest? Youngest didn't have a face anymore. He must have been shot directly at point blank range. The only thing that Leader could identify him with was the tattoo on his arm. A tattoo he had helped Youngest design just a month prior. He had been so proud of it, showing it off during training to the rest of the squadron. Technician's lower and upper body was seperated, held close by supports but not together. Leader felt sick.

"You see that, Leader? You see what you've done to my men? The fifth one was taken. Not only did you put your team out of commission, you also managed to get one of them snatched under your watch,"

General finally let go of Leader's neck, causing him to fall limply to his knees. He yanked Leader's head up to face him by a hand fisted in the younger man's hair.

Leader didn't hear the words General said to him, his vision blurring as voices and noise became muffled. He didn't react when a knuckle connected with his jaw and the voices around him became panicked and frantic.

"I'm sending you back to re-training tommorow, Leader. Maybe you can still be useful as a lesson to the others,"

It didn't matter what they did to him now. As far as Leader knows, he died with his squadron.

-----

Was inspired by a scene in The Bravest on Netflix where the captain was grabbed by the neck by another and forcibly dragged to look at some of the injured men.