#SORRY NOT SORRY FOR THE RAMBLE SDSFGFRERGHGFD

[kindred-spirit-93]

helloo who is your favourite character in epic the musical

hi anon!! polites my beloved darling pancake bespectacled loml <3

good lord i just realised ive never had the chance to really go insane about how much i love him and how i interpret his character & the headcanons and lore i have for him bc of studies and exams. but now that im free..... muehehehe >:3

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AIGHT SO my first biggest and most prominent and by far the dearest headcanon to my heart (which is literally canon atp lol) is him being a medic! my bias for medical/ healthcare centric characters is showing lmao. sue me

as a medical student theres so much you learn about life and death both literally and metaphorically while studying. so many disciplines intersect with one another to create the art of healing, and albeit different from what is studied today, civilisations past had all sorts of fascinating ideas and concepts and cures and protocols when it came to health and wellness, ancient greece was no different!

to me he learnt all about medicine by shadowing the palace physician, possibly even being his apprentice, and benefiting from the royal library. courtesy of prince odysseus lol

(the lore i have isnt solid and still needs to be worked on, like for the oc twin sister i gave him hes the medic and shes the apothecary, but for epic purposes he serves as both lol. and is a childhood friend of ody and natives of ithaca. anyway)

and during troy he manages the medical tent and oversees it, leaving little time for actual soldier-ing, but dont let his kind smile and soft hands fool you, he can and will deck you before you can say suture.

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something i see a lot of in the fandom with his philosophy of open arms is equating him to a smol bean whos too pure for this world and avoided fighting bc it made him sad uwu. and while he is indeed the most cinammon roll to exist i couldnt disagree more;

my mans lived through a decade of war u can bet his headband he slayed, literally and metaphorically, on the battlefield like it was nobodies business *snort*. he too has got blood on his hands and it isnt necessarily from patching up wounds.

if theres one thing medicine teaches you its both the beauty and tragedy that is life (and to me the wonder of creation); to know and understand deeply how imbalance affects the body and leads to illness isnt easy, studies have been shown that those in healthcare experience the pain of their patients.

being in charge of the livlihood of others can be extremely draining, bedside manner and taking the patients psychology into account are crucial and factor into the healing process. being a medic is no simple feat and needs a lot of resilience and healthy coping mechanisms to avoid burn out and a myriad of long term problems.

anyway all this to say if anyone dares to say polites is weak or innocent i will disembowel them with a rusty spoon. i havent reached my clinical years yet and im already done with everyhting. i can write volumes abt this honestly but this is getting long enough already lol

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back to post troy when polites tells odysseus to take it easy "do yourself a service, and try to relax, my friend", in my heart of hearts the way i see this is as polites recognising how much damage ody has been dealt during the war, being hypervigilant and ready for combat at all times takes its toll on you and he sees that; "look at how you grip your sword, enough said", right after he advises him to extend trust and start with kindness.

the reason being the outside world isnt a battle field and he (along with the entire army ofc) needs to ease into society and life beyond war. now polites being a medic one of the things he exercises is compartmentalisation (which u need to stay sane. source: me) and this is what he teaches ody. "here we have a chance for some adjustment"

life is indeed amazing when you learn to greet it with an open heart and mind, and even tho we all know the fates are much less benevolent, i fully believe its still an important mentality to embrace and in many ways a skill to hone.

"id like to show my friend that kindness is brave" this is conjecture on my part but i like to think polites is reaffirming to ody that kindness isnt a weakness but a strength, again not out of naivety but of wisdom and experience, that doing good is more rewarding than not, but esp this next bit:

"i see in your face, there is so much guilt inside your heart so why not replace it and light up the world?" i will cry if i think about this too hard, but in essence poli has diagnosed so to speak ody and its has prescribed and walked him through a regimen of compassion and leading with peace.

odysseus has masterminded a decade long war, where he had to use trickery and guile and lies and strategy to win and make his way back home. ig its up to you how u want to see how odysseus deals with the pain and trauma of war and the suffering hes played a part in (if were sticking with epic we know fs that his actions haunt his days as seen throughout the musical esp via repeating motifs) and its taken its toll and polites bless him is guiding his friend through his grief, a grief he is no stranger to. ofc hes skeptical at first "thats what wed get with pen arms" but follows through with the philosophy and the rest is history lol

in all honesty i have no idea how much mental health and the psyche featured in the epics nor to what extent it was studied in ancient greece from a medical point of view but this is my interpretation i can do whatever i want let me have this pls :')

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AND THEN we get to the ithaca saga when le suitor proposes to ody to have open arms instead, lots of posts circulated abt polites passing out in the underworld bc of the violence and generally disagreeing with odys iconic "no." and to those people im shaking u by the shoulders and begging u to understand that polites is wearing war paint and the stupid foam finger with #1 monster scribbled on it and probably deafening tiresias as he watches the carnage.

his philosophy has been disgraced and used as a last ditch effort at saving his own neck (you cant convince me he was being serious lol, pretty sure he was trying to buy time bc aint no way 10 years of desecrating ur kings palace and hes going to let yall go just like that? nah son) of course hes losing his shit and yelling at ody to beat their asses and make them pay for plotting against tele and penelope.

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anyway yes hes my bean i adore him hes just like me frfr i look forward to writing for him (and maybe polibia hehe) in the future :3 tysm to anyone reading this far lmao.

@howmanyholesinswisscheese its ya boi :]