#im obsessed w whatever relationship she might have shared with venat and hermes as a result i cant even lie to you

[makersruin]

speaking of crazy woman, what do you think of athena?

athena is the exact type of morally repugnant evil scientist trope that i have been obsessed with since elementary school so you can imagine the equal parts delight and horror i felt when i first experienced the Full Athena. i caught up when we only had the second tier of pandaemonium so when we got the third tier i was so excited.

i really enjoyed mulling over the question of whether she was always this evil or if the heart of sabik corrupted what was originally good intentions. lahabrea lands on the former if i'm remembering correctly and though he probably decides this because he's very pragmatic and realizes that a dead man's sentiments towards his dead wife is unhelpful, i'm inclined to agree with him for thematic reasons. having noble dreams being corrupted by a cosmic power is something hermes/fandaniel is already doing (albeit slightly differently) and her true nature being an evil maternal figure works well against venat's maternal goodness. to me, she represents the absolute worst of the ancients, not just because she's an evil scientist who does evil experiments, but because she's the worst iteration of the ancients' obsession with control. in a world where people are blessed with the power of creation, they made rigid rules and standards to ensure peace, but it comes at the cost of individuality and moral principles, and she's the extreme end of it -- manipulating lahabrea, abusing erichthonios, brain-washing her underlings to ensure their undying loyalty. so i'm really glad we got to have her, not only for her part in being a fantastic foil to venat and hermes, but because her existence is irrefutable proof that the ancient world was not as wonderful as emet-selch's rose-colored recollections described and validates hermes's despair.