#literally hades/persephone

[desidarling123]

[each-uisge-enthusiast]

the modern villainisation of demeter will never cease to enrage me bc it wasn’t ENOUGH to just take a story of a girl being torn from her home from everyone who loved her and dragged away to be forced into marriage and twist and corrupt it until it was a romance story about female empowerment that wasn’t ENOUGH they HAD to take the original hero of the story the mother who went to every length to find her daughter again to bring her home and demonise her character until she was this horrific overbearing unloving mother. overprotective controlling without love. they turn the story of her grief at her YOUNG daughter being torn from her without her knowledge into the story of a misunderstood bad boy and a horrible cruel mother who won’t give him a chance and i really find it sickening. it’s ironic, that the ever misogynist age of hellenistic greece, has a better grasp of how disgusting and horrifying this situation was that a modern, self proclaimed ‘feminist’ era.

[gncrezan]

@chrysanthemumgames celebrates four years so here i am, forcing everyone to see all the various playthroughs i have ! thank you, as always, for a game that i adore to little pieces <3

(well to be more accurate i'm drawing 75 but still)

[somepinkthing]

Its very interesting how many people are saying zagreus "had a childhood" in comparison to melinoe given that he had his father and the house of hades at the time, either forgetting what hades was like or not clocking just how shit of a dad hades actually was. I'm here to inform you that they BOTH had a childhood! It just was two different variations of suck. Melinoe's longing is only because she's been raised to idealize the life she might have had after zag's efforts to fix things paid off. That doesn't mean zagreus lived a childhood worth longing after.

Zagreus wasn't running away just to be rebellious and difficult, it was just framed that way because that's how Hades saw it. Hades's only good point as a dad back then was that he at least wasn't as bad as his own dad.... who ate him. Bar was literally set in hell and hades barely hovered right above it. Even discounting the implication that he was even worse back when zagreus was a small child, hades was already every flavor of emotionally and physically abusive there was—hell he was abusive as a manager, let alone a dad. He would literally rather personally beat and kill you than talk to you about why he's banned surface visiting. And this is only after manipulating ppl you care about into doing the same. The house of hades may be melinoe's dream, but it was zagreus's prison. Literally. Like he wasn't allowed to leave. The whole premise of the first game was that all of this trouble was gone through just so zagreus could even so much as take a walk. And hades frames that as something reasonable and we are the unreasonable ones for not seeing that

Sure, zag had one parent and a house (prison) to go back to. But that doesn't mean that either of them have a childhood worth envying. You could point out that zag had stability (if the house of hades could be counted as stability). I could point out that at least melinoe was always made to feel wanted and important (if being seen as a savior counts). It's an oversimplification on both ends because while both of them did have people who cared and things about their life that they loved, neither of them grew up in a stellar environment. Zagreus wasn't a brat, he was as reasonable as his circumstances were allowing.

TLDR Hades was a much worse dad than the people who seem to think zagreus had it soo much easier are clocking and zagreus grew up in an environment that was actually extremely abusive (a fact that he himself doesn't appear aware of throughout the whole game, even after persephone points it out).

[genericpuff]

In which Persephone is told she can't game the system- (TEXT EDIT)

no art was edited here, just text to make this more realistic to how this scene WOULD have gone if it was an actual courtroom with real rules LOL I find it a little weird that Rachel wrote a courtroom drama arc like this and then twisted it this much to benefit Persephone because like... clearly she was inspired by courtroom drama shows, and I can't help but wonder if she got all of her basic courtroom knowledge from like, Spongebob or some shit LOL

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

I find the demonization of Demeter in supposedly feminist retellings of the Hades and Persephone story thoroughly fascinating because she was actually the myth's protagonist

A lot of retellings focus on the "lovebirds" but the myth was moreso focused on Demeter's quest to bring her daughter home than any romance they might've had. In fact, the original source material is entitled "Homeric Hymn to Demeter"

It followed the goddess of harvest searching desperately for the whereabouts of her kidnapped daughter, enlisting the help of deities and mortals alike along the way, and eventually forcing Zeus himself to come to a compromise through sheer stubborness and pure love for her child

An interpretation I really like is that the tale is an allegory for mothers in Ancient Greece whose daughters were taken away from them to be married off without them having any say in the matter

Putting all that aside, I'm really curious as to what prompted people to portray Demeter as a control freak who doesn't want to see her daughter happy with the one she loves when originally, she was simply a mother who fought tooth and nail to see her Persephone returned to her

[gingermintpepper]

You're not wrong, but all the gods are terrible in Blood of Zeus. It's why Gaea goes scorched earth.

Actually, I'd argue that we only see a case for the older Olympians* being terrible and even then, it's not all of them: Poseidon, for one, is a really good example of someone who understood that mistakes were made, that something had to give, and was more that ready to set old conflicts aside in order to move forward in the wake of Zeus' death. Hera also seems to be genuinely reflective and apologetic for the crimes she wrought and wanted, more than anything, to be given the opportunity to make amends for her actions by doing the one thing everyone thought she never could; give up her power.

Going down the line, the talking point of "oh, all the gods in Blood of Zeus are terrible" becomes weaker and weaker: Apollo's only actual crime is being too filial/his contempt of Hera, but he shows more compassion and understanding than anything - both while comforting Electra about the nature of her son and by welcoming and supporting Heron, Hermes is also similarly shown with a very strong familial loyalty, but prioritises his work above all else, Hephaestus is a councillor and assistant, Athena is protective and shown, not only rallying together her siblings in order to properly inform them of the nature of the foe they were facing (even when they had been on different sides of the Hera/Zeus conflict and even when it casts Hera in a good light and plainly makes it known that she's being framed) but also getting Persephone to fess up her part in the scheme without resorting to violence.

The only gods that were portrayed poorly in Season 2 were Ares, who feels like he'd be better off being called Damian Wayne with how intensely he's preoccupied with blood purity and being Zeus' legitimate son, Aphrodite who sides with him (but even then is shown feeling ill at ease at going along with his treachery prior to the Eleusinian Stone trial), and Demeter who is so far removed from simply 'being an asshole' that she's hurtled headfirst into being a sadistic supervillain.

(Of course Hades is also a tyrant and an asshole but I also consider him too wishy-washy and inconsistent to figure out what angle they were trying to take with him. I can't think of him as good or bad, merely confusing)

Anyway, I think people hold on to the idea that the gods in BoZ are all assholes too closely because Heron and Seraphim, our main characters, hold on to the idea that ALL gods are assholes due to being the pawn of -counts on fingers- exactly two of them. With the exception of Ares, all of the other gods have been nothing but welcoming and supportive of Heron! And what Hades does to Heron in S2 has nothing to do with his feelings about Heron himself but rather with his own goals and desperations that have been multiplied by Demeter's machinations and his own frustrations at being unable to keep his family together.

[wonderb0n]

sigh

the real culprit behind the current misinformation surrounding greek mythology is the mass consumption of altered or adapted content.

our main example being the obsessive fascination with giving to the myth of Hades and Persephone characteristics already existing in the great unfortunately forgotten myth of Eros and Psyche. in this essay I will-

[sarafangirlart]

Ares with Aphrodite:

[littleeliza-lotte]

Hadestown 07/28/24 Act 1 and Act 2

Not my recording, shared with permission from @thebeardedcosplayer . Please do not share outside of tumblr

[pastelpousay]

I’ve been meaning to draw more of her!!! She’s so fun to drawww!!!

IM SORRY HADES SLEEPS SHIRTLESS BRO I CANT IMAGINE HIM SLEEEPING ANY OTHER WAYY😭💀

Taglist!!

@re3tro0 @persephoneflowerpetals @maddieinheaven @glacier-alchemist @delicatestringbean @dreamwinged

[restlessgem]

The day I find a Hades and Persephone retelling with Demeter as the main character is the day I can finally rest

[janadoesstuffwrong]

We all know and love zutara's Hades & Persephone parallels. Complimentary opposites constantly being misunderstood as a captor/victim- badboy/goodgirl- edgy/sunshine trope despite significant nuances; being torn between familial and spousal devotion; ruling over their kingdom as equally powerful forces of nature... Good good stuff.

But may I humbly suggest that we have been woefully neglecting the sheer dramatic potential of taang x Eros & Psyche.

[persephoneflowerpetals]

Persephone: *just came home from spring and is passed out on the bed, snoring loudly and drooling in her sleep*

Hades:

[pizrad]

Listen here Horikoshi, if Afo and Inko don't have the same vibes as Hades and Persephone, don't expect mercy🥲😤. I don't know if these are official arts or not, but I like them😫😍

[genericpuff]

i have nothing to say about the newest episodes of LO

so I'll let past me from the year 2022 say it instead

because everything they said a year and a half ago ironically still applies today and i don't even know how that's possible but it's where we are 💀😭