The problem with naming and inscribing things (e.g., calling your experience of malaise, "the Pit of Despair" and talking about what that feels like) is that you get better at identifying what's happening internally. Rather than doing strange things for mysterious reasons, you are doing things for obvious reasons! Not...you know, good reasons, but still, you can turn the lights on and watch the creepy, scuttling things in your subconscious writhe around in full view.
This might sound like a positive thing, but the problem is that you are nevertheless still missing step two, which is: how the hell do you fix it.
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fandom psa; there is nothing whatsoever that is inherently "problematic" about shipping characters who are "found family."
Adoption is not found family. A blended family is not found family. A found family or chosen family is a group which, through circumstances or simply mutual affection, hold their relationship to one another with equal care and importance as family members ought to. It's not the same type of relationship.
It's not incest. It's not even pseudo-incest unless you want it to be. I personally don't care what people ship, but I'm absolutely tired of people misusing the term "found family" to just recreate the idea of a nuclear family and force those roles onto the entirety of a fandom. Sure, maybe characters who are found family may view themselves like siblings, or like a parent and child or aunt and niece, but they might also just see each other as friends-- and guess what? romantic partners too! That's technically the most widely-accepted form of found family/chosen family there is!
The whole point of found family/chosen family is to have the importance of "family" on relationships that lie outside the commonly-understood bounds of that relationship. Not to recreate the "mommy-daddy-daughter-son" dynamic with unrelated characters and use that headcanon or fanon dynamic to enforce your own morality or preferences on other fans.
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“deep down you hide a reason for shame”
Eurylochus shameful that he’s the one who opened the bag while Odysseus was asleep. Odysseus hiding the fact he knew what would happen in Scylla’s lair.
“deep down you know that we are the same”
Eurylochus wanting to escape Circe’s island with Odysseus and leave the rest of the crew behind, letting them die by being eaten as pigs. Odysseus leading six men to their deaths by intentionally handing out six torches. Scylla has six heads
“leaving them feeling betrayed, breaking the bonds that you’ve made”
Eurylochus betraying Odysseus as a second in command (and friend) by openly doubting him and opening the bag when expressly told not. Odysseus breaking Eurylochus’s trust as a captain by leading his crew to the lair and sacrificing six men, six friends, one of them being Eurylochus (until another member of the crew pushes him out of the way and sacrifices themself)
“there is no price we won’t pay”
Odysseus pays the price of Eurylochus choosing to mutinize (and kill the cow) in an attempt to save himself and the crew (the latter although reckless and basically an unintentional death sentence being done so they all wouldn’t starve). Eurylochus (and the crew) pays the price of Odysseus choosing to save himself when Zeus arrives.
“we both know what it takes to survive”
Interestingly, during the mutiny Eurylochus and the crew chose not to kill Odysseus (at least not in the moment) and even bandaged his wounds that they inflicted while he was unconscious to prevent him from bleeding out. In that moment, they chose to show mercy. However, there is no mercy on Odysseus’s end when Zeus tells him to make a choice. There is only ruthlessness done out of desperation, as the only person Odysseus chooses to show mercy to is himself.
Both know exactly what it takes to survive, as Odysseus voice shakes with despair knowing what he’s about to do while Eurylochus, soundly sadly resigned, accepts his fate. There is a brother’s final stand coming to its end and both know it. And they know only one of them will make it out alive
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