#she's pretty much a mortal version of Artemis

[missing-sector]

I headcanon Leela as asexual too! 😄

A fellow intellectual I see 😎

[gliphyartfan]

Hi I saw your last headcanons about The heroes joining The Villains to take down Hylia for readers sake(I really liked The headcanons, They were really good) But i have my question about The zeldas, I cant stop thinking that They would get an interest in The Reader (Maybe Platónic, maybe Romántic Is up to you) And I cant stop thinking that they Would join The chains plan to take down Hylia(Maybe The Make a truce with The chain to take down Hylia with The less count of possible deceased people to finally kill The Villain) I dunno i had this idea and I had to say it, hope you have a nice day

First off…I’m not much of a fan of the princesses…

BUUUUT, I can accept coming up with ideas about them for others…BUT NOT OFTEN!

Anywho I haven’t put much thought on all of them so I’ll just do a few. Sorry 😅

Sun wouod have the most complicated feelings here since she’s literally Hylia reborn as a mortal. Her interest in Reader would likely be tied to a deep guilt and sense of responsibility, she’s living with the burden of what Hylia does to Reader. Yeah the Hylia that did it is FAAAR into the future, but it’ll a version of her who no longer is SUN.

She probably sees helping the Chain as a way to make amends, even if it means going against everything she was once meant to represent.

She probably sees Reader as almost sacred and feels like she owes them something she can’t fully repay.

She wants to protect them, and there’s this raw, almost reverent quality to it. She’s the one who might pull Reader aside to give them quiet reassurances, to show that she’s on their side despite the history that hangs over her head.

Some of the guys, like Time, Legend, and Warriors, maybe Wild might not fully trust her, understandably so.

They’d question her motives and wonder if, when it comes down to it, she’d side with Hylia.

Sun would be determined to prove her loyalty to Reader, and that might lead to some pretty heated arguments, especially with heroes who are cautious around her.

Artemis wouod be all about strategy really teaming up with the Chain as a logical choice to take down Hylia, not just for Reader’s sake but also for the sake of her people. Considering hers is literal a war-torn era and even if the timelines were repaired, the damage the war did to HER era specifically is still there .

She’s not sentimental about it; she just wants to get the job done with minimal fallout.

Buuut seeing how devoted the Chain is to Reader, she’d definitely gain a lot of respect for Reader.

She’d have a lot of admiration for Reader, seeing them as almost warrior like in their own right. She’s drawn to how Reader stands up to things way beyond their control and keeps pushing back. There would be no flowery language from her; she simply respects Reader, and it shows. (Friendship no jutsu will happen eventually, it just takes time for her to warm up to Reader.)

Tetra would be in this for her own reasons, but helping Reader aligns well with her goals. She, like Wind, isn’t familiar with Hylia but seeing the Chain actively fighting against her is all she needs to dive in. Especially when she warms up to Reader. She’d be on board to take Hylia down without a second thought.

She would be egging the Chain on to take bold steps against Hylia. There’s no hesitation on her end; she’d be telling them, “If you’re in, go all the way.” Her approach would definitely add some urgency to their plans, maybe pushing the Chain into action when they might otherwise hesitate. (She’s a pirate, what do you expect)

She’d be the semi-tsundere, definitely would warm up quickly to Reader, especially if Reader adores her pirating stories or genuine is interested in learning how ships works.

Aurora probably the most lowkey out of all of them, but don’t underestimate her. She’d see the Chain’s determination and want to support them out of a genuine belief that Reader deserves a better fate.

Her relationship with Reader would likely be gentle and kind, she’s the one offering small comforts.

She sees something special in Reader’s humanity and probably feels they’ve been through way too much already.

She’d be the one who connects with them in quiet moments.

She’d mediate between any Zeldas who don’t see eye to eye. If Artemis is pressing for strict strategy while Tetra is pushing for impulsive action, Aurora would be the voice of reason, urging a balanced approach to keep them all on track

And….thats all I could come up with. Sorry I couldn’t think of the others. I may come back to this later if I think up more.

(I won’t mind writing for the Zeldas. It’ll just take some time 😅)

[helenofsparta2]

kind of related to your post about zoe just now but: what do you think of the hunters in general? I've got a lot of thoughts on them myself.. most of them not that positive lmao lots of "could have been good, but very poor execution" and "sounds cool on the surface, but very questionable when thought about more"

First of all, thank you for the question :)))

Oh god, this might become a slightly longer post, because I have a lot to say about the hunters of Artemis.

From what you’ve written, it sounds like we might have a very similar opinion. I personally think they are one of the worst-written parts of the original Percy Jackson books. I love their idea, I love their basic concept, but their execution was pretty atrocious.

There are four main points regarding them that I want to talk about.

The portrayal of Artemis (though this one is by far not as bad as the others)

2. The behaviour of the huntresses

3. Bianca

4. Lacking Development

Artemis

Now, I know that the gods and goddesses of the Riordan verse, are sanitized caricatures, and shouldn’t be compared to their actual myth versions. I think everyone in this fandom has at least heard some well-founded criticisms regarding the portrayal of Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo or any of the other gods.  

I even understand why Rick Riordan made most of the decisions that he did. Obviously, the gods had to be sanitized for a book series primarily aimed at children, and, to be fair to him, even if their characterizations are a far-cry from their myths and sometimes overly stereotypical (Aphrodite), they are fulfilling the roles they have in this story as deeply flawed, but powerful individuals, because of whose careless mistakes and pride demigods, and other ‘lesser’ beings have to suffer.  

And I actually do not hate Artemis’ portrayal that much, if we exclude the behavior of her hunt, and the initiation of Bianca. Her taking Annabeth’s place in holding the sky and her loudly arguing against killing Percy and Thalia at the winter solstice was a great portrayal of her being a patron goddess of children, and the idea of including the hunters of Artemis as a group of girls, both from mortal and immortal parents, who have been hurt by the world, and found a safe place with one another is actually really great. Generally, whenever she appears in the books, I have the feeling she is handled with far more graze and respect than a lot of other godly beings.  

However, as someone who very much loves Greek mythology, I just want to point out some small parts, which are not entirely accurate, though, again,  I understand Rick’s reason for omitting them in the context of what he wanted to do with her character and the hunt , and I acknowledge that even in ancient times, there existed a variety of different interpretations of the gods.

(Please note, that while I read original sources like the works of Diodor, Apollodorus, Hesiod, and Euripides, I am not a classicist, and that my knowledge of the greek gods primarily stems from personal research and my own interest. If anyone knows more about Artemis, please feel free to correct me if necessary)  

While Artemis is primarily the goddess of the hunt, and in later interpretations of the moon, she is not only the protector of girls, but the patron goddess of children in general and a goddess closely linked to childbirth.

Yes, she expects her followers to remain chaste, but to say that she is completely against men would be a grave mistake. Male followers of Artemis did exist in mythology, most famously Orion, who later became a constellation, and Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyta.

So, her cold behavior towards Nico and her degrading words towards boys in general is an attribute primarily added by Rick Riordan.

Though, like I said, I understand making certain changes to gods and goddesses, or rather choosing different interpretations of them to have them fulfill a certain role in a book series, so Artemis portrayal itself doesn’t bother me that much.

But if we’re talking about the hunters themselves, things easily take a turn for the worse.  

The behavior of the hunters

Now, I understand the hunters point in the story.

A huge theme of Titan’s curse is to explore the difference between old ideals of what heroism entails and the modern take on it, represented through Theseus and Herakles on one side, and Percy on the other. The hunters, and especially Zöe, represent a group, who have suffered through the actions of those old, primarily male heroes, and have developed a strong bias against all boys and men as a result. A bias, Percy is supposed to break in this book.

This, in itself, is a pretty awesome concept. But, like I said, the execution mostly failed.

Most of the Hunters of Artemis in Titan’s curse were written without any nuance, without development and without any sense of self reflection.

To express it plainly, they completely suck. And that hurts to say, especially as someone who is asexual-sex-repulsed and aromantic, because, like I said, they could have been an absolutely amazing part of the overarching story and theme of the book series, but with the way Rick Riordan wrote them, they suck. They’re insufferable.  They’re a group of immortal teenagers with a superiority complex, who act the way right-wing republicans and trump supporters think feminists act like.

They’re completely antagonistic towards the campers at camp half-blood for absolutely no good reason, act really childish and immature, and their overwhelming bias against every male character, especially Percy and Nico, is just plain annoying and goes to a point, where it makes them act like absolute idiots and assholes.

Zöe’s behavior at the meeting to decide who should go on the quest to save Artemis is a pretty good representation of everything I dislike about the hunters.  

She doesn’t want to take campers with her on the quest, even though the oracle plainly stated that them working together was the only way for them to succeed:

“You’re missing something as usual,” Thalia said. “Campers and Hunters combined prevail. We’re supposed to do this together.”

“No!”, Zoe said. “The Hunters do not need thy help.”

Immediately afterwards, she makes fun of Silena Beauregard (who is around 14 or 15 at the time, might I add.):

“Percy is right,” Silena Beauregard said. “Two campers should go.”

“Oh, I see,” Zoe said sarcastically. “And I suppose you wish to volunteer?”

Silena blushed. “I’m not going anywhere with the hunters. Don’t look at me!”

“A daughter of Aphrodite does not wish to be looked at,” Zoe scoffed. “What would thy mother say?”

And then, she decisively refuses Percy’s help for the quest, even though he is objectively the best person for the job. I really can’t reiterate enough that Percy is the most accomplished hero present at that meeting. He has successfully led two quests, one to stop a civil war between the gods, the second to recover the golden fleece. Even in comparison to Thalia, Percy is more accomplished and has gained more respect within the mythological world.

As I walked back through the city of the gods, conversations stopped. The muses paused their concert. People and satyrs and naiads all turned towards me, their faces filled with respect and gratitude, and as I passed, they knelt, as if I were some kind of hero. (The lightning thief)

Yet Zoe refuses his help to save the goddess she serves and increases so the risk of failure, simply because he is a boy.

“Oh,” Grover said, suddenly aware of the problem. “Whoa, yeah. I forgot! Percy has to go. I didn’t mean… I’ll stay. Percy should go in my place.”

“He cannot,” Zoe said. “He’s a boy. I won’t have Hunters travelling with a boy.”

Another huge problem in their characterization is their immortality. Here I want to focus again on their ongoing beef with camp half-blood, because, yes, while the campers also act pretty antagonistic in return, I think it’s important to note that most kids at camp half blood are between the ages of 10 and I’d say maybe 17 years old, while the huntresses are immortal.

Now, it’s obviously possible that most of them are still teenagers and haven’t been part of the hunt for that long, but considering the fact that Zoe is over 3000 years old, and could very well be older than most Olympians, the chance of most hunters being older than at least 30, is pretty high, which makes their behavior seem even more ridiculous.

And obviously the whole situation with Bianca paints the hunters in the worst light possible.

Bianca

There are already some pretty good and detailed posts on tumblr regarding the subject of Bianca and the hunters, so I don’t want to dig into this subject too deeply, because this post is already way too long, but you can’t possibly write about the hunters without mentioning her.

The hunters, especially Zoe and Artemis convinced Bianca to join them in a moment of huge distress. Bianca was a twelve-year-old, vulnerable girl, who just found out she was a demigod, almost got kidnapped by the manticore, and watched a girl fall down a cliff, yet they expect her to swear allegiance to them after only a couple of minutes of knowing them.

They paint her this beautiful picture of having no responsibility and a new family, telling her exactly, what she wanted to hear without giving her even a moment to breathe or give her time to talk to her brother or fully think this through.

I want to point out that at this point in time, Artemis had already decided that she needed to go after the monster alone, and knew, that her hunters would spend some time at camp half-blood. But instead of giving Bianca these couple days/ weeks to accept this new reality of the mythological world and get to know both camp half-blood and the hunters, she wants an answer at this very moment,

Yes, Bianca’s answer was rash, and yes, I do think it’s rather cold that she didn’t first talk to Nico about it, but it’s pretty plain to see that she was overwhelmed and pretty much manipulated during this entire conversation.

Later, Zoe decides to take her with her on the quest, even though Bianca is completely unprepared for it. She is probably, aside from Nico, the most unprepared person in the entirety of camp half-blood to go on a quest.  

I don’t think I have to explain how terrible of a decision that was.

The hunters are objectively the worst thing that could have ever happened to Bianca and the main reason why she died.

Lacking Development:

Now, all of this, every single flaw I just pointed out, could have actually worked out, if there would have been some sort of change in the hunters’ way of thinking and an acknowledgement that their opinions on boys and males in general are misguided and lead to more harm than good during the course of the books.

Especially after their actions led to Bianca’s death.

Them seeing how much love Nico had for his sister and how much he suffered from her death could have been a great moment for some character development.

But nothing happened.

Camp half blood and the hunters grieving together at the end of Titan’s curse for both Zoe and Bianca could have resulted in a genuine moment of friendship between the two groups, leading to understanding and change.  

But nothing happened.

The only person who took responsibility for Bianca’s death at the end of Titan’s curse was fourteen-year-old Percy. The only person who cared enough about Nico to search for him and make sure he was safe, was Percy. The hunters didn’t care at all. Took no responsibility whatsoever.

All that happened at the end of that book was that Thalia became a huntress, and that Zoe and Artemis acknowledged Percy as a hero.

This, while admittedly, a great moment for Percy’s characterization and also somewhat for the character development of Zoe, had very little effect otherwise.  

Because, in the end, Zoe and Artemis treated Percy as if he was the exception. As if they had been only wrong about him, and not boys in general. They didn’t revisit their line of thinking, they didn’t self-reflect and they didn’t acknowledge that their bias was utterly flawed, and that they should treat male demigods generally better.

She (Zöe) grasped it contently. “You spoke the truth, Percy Jackson. You are nothing like… like Hercules. I am honored that you carry this sword.”

Then, she (Artemis) turned to me. “You did well,” she said. “For a man.”

Percy Jackson is fundamentally a story about the circle of abuse, and, Percy specifically, breaking that circle, but nothing of note happened with the hunters.

Because even if Zoe had confronted her own bias, (and there is admittedly an argument to be made that she did) she would have been the only hunter to do so. And she died.

Thalia becoming the lieutenant of the hunters as someone who is best friends with Percy and Grover, and who misses Jason more than anything, could have confronted this distorted line of thinking, but the other hunters remain pretty much unchanged in the last Olympian and The Lost Hero.

There were hugs and greetings al around- or at least Thalia was friendly. The other hunters didn’t like being around campers, especially boys, but they didn’t shoot any of us, which for them was a pretty warm welcome. (The last Olympian, chapter 10)

“Oh, no way,” Leo said. “We’ve been sitting in a cave and you get a luxury tent? Somebody give me hypothermia. I want hot chocolate and a parka!”

Phoebe sniffed. “Boys,” she said, like it was the worst insult she could think of. (XXXVI Leo, the lost hero.)

Conclusion:

So, yeah. They had huge potential, both as individual characters and as part of the overarching plot and theme of Percy Jackson, but their execution was absolutely abysmal.

The only possible positive thing I could say about them is that they are at least better than the Amazons (though that is not particularly hard)

I hope my rambling was understandable, it's already pretty late:')

[namidew]

Olympian family headcanons (it’s for my story so I guess it’s technically not but still)

Originally I felt like my version of Ares gave off little brother energy, but now I think it’s more of an enthusiastic and very involved older brother. The type to not understand your hobbies in the slightest but still give a thumbs up. Pretty high emotional intelligence and response, the foil to Athena in that regard. Athena cares for her siblings to some regard (how much, i’m unsure) but isn’t the best at showing it.

Out of Artemis and Apollo, Artemis is more of the wild child and Apollo is more of the rule follower, though both can deviate. Apollo’s the most “mom-like” of the bunch, but also isn’t one to shy away from enabling Hermes’s pranks sometimes.

Hermes is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. “Where’s Hermes?” No one has a clue, but he’ll appear just a moment after. Need something? He has it. If the family were mortals, he would definitely be the one to give a smug smile and hold a hand out for payment in exchange for his silence if one of his siblings were to sneak out.

Dionysus, I’m not sure how he would be in terms of advice. He’d likely give out jokingly bad advice most of the time but have some genuinely good advice when the situation really needs it. Not sure if he’s more of a listener or a talker, but it would be fun to draw Ares talking dynamically while Dionysus sits and listens as he drinks wine. Speaking of, I should draw Dionysus some more, maybe with Hermes and Apollo.

I’d imagine that Aphrodite wouldn’t be swayed dramatically by every beauty standard, but she would change her appearance every now and then depending on what she feels like looking like, but moreso in the sense of style and dress, with her physical appearance staying pretty consistent.

I’ve yet to design Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Hestia, and Hephaestus, among several others. I’m likely going to make certain gods a bit less human depending on their domains (and whichever I feel like doing,) like Thanatos, Hypnos, or Eros. Maybe their motifs and symbols are directly a part of their bodies rather than their clothing.

Hmm… Thanatos with a sheep shepherding motif… because of the idea of gentle death and shepherding souls to the underworld, but also with a butterfly motif… (I just want to give him a cool staff and a gentle appearance)

I should draw Apollo with his hair styled into a bow like that statue (can’t recall the name)

[aliciavance4228]

Here Are Some Things From Greek Mythology That Are Purely Nightmare Fuel

Note: Long post because Greek Mythology is completely fucked up.

-Many of the monsters:

The Lernaean Hydra (a serpent with nine heads, that can continually regrow severed heads).

The Chimera (a hideous amalgamation of a lion, a goat and a dragon)

Cerberus (a vicious three-headed dog that in some myths had a back covered in living serpents).

Orthrus (Cerberus's two-headed, serpent-tailed little brother), and various other creatures definitely count.

Perhaps the worst is Typhon — father of the above along with the Mother of All Monsters, Echidna — Typhon is described by some writers as being as tall as the sky itself, and having a hundred dragon-like heads, all of which screamed and breathed fire. It's not hard to see why almost all the gods had a collective fear when he appeared, and fled Greece, leaving Zeus to face the creature by himself.

And then there's creatures like Scylla and, even worse, Charybdis, once beautiful women turned into eldritch things of pure horror. Scylla we at least know is horrifying to observe, looking like a giant, beautiful women from the waist up, with a scaled tail below, and the heads of six rabid wolves snapping at her waist.

Medusa, whose face was apparently so frightening that anyone who saw her turned into stone. Much like Scylla and Charybdis above, she also used to be a beautiful woman before the Gods transformed her, except when she was a monster from the beginning.

-Prometheus' fate of being chained to a rock and having an eagle peck out his liver each day. He endured it for hundreds of years before being released.

-Similarly, the fate Chiron faced before he sold his immortality: living forever, with the maddening poison of the Hydra eternally burning through his veins.

-The fate of mortals unfortunate enough to piss off the gods:

Actaeon, a man who accidentally walked in on a bathing Artemis, who turned him into a deer and had him killed by his own dogs.

Erysichthon, who chopped down one of Demeter's trees, was infected with eternal hunger and eventually ate himself.

Phineas, son of Poseidon, was randomly gifted with the ability to perceive past and future. This access to knowledge threatened the gods so Zeus struck him blind and further punished him with starvation by being attacked by Harpies every time he tried to eat. It’s a good thing that Jason came along and, with the aid of the Argonauts, was able to kill the Harpies so Phineas could eat again- some depictions have him so starved that he’s horrifically thin.

So, you're friends with Aphrodite, and she want to marry you, eldest son of Nereus, old man of the sea. That's good, right? Well, dad says no. You tell your girlfriend that, and even though it's not your fault, she turns you into a polyp.

-Ephilatus and Otus tried invading Olympus. They eternally drown in the center of a waterfall, tied by snakes to a pillar, while Fate watches them as an owl. Ouch!

-Some of the evil people whom Theseus defeated:

Procrustes, who tied his victims to a bed and either stretched them on a rack or chopped off body parts if they did not fit.

Sinis who bent down two pine trees with his great strength, tied the hands of passer-bys to the tips of the two trees, and then let go.

Sciron, another bandit, was tame by comparison, but still pretty terrifying—living on a cliff overlooking the sea, he posed as a kindly old man and asked travelers to help him wash his feet. If they accepted, he'd wait for them to kneel...then he'd kick them off the cliff. Depending on the version, they'd either fall to their deaths or be devoured by a giant turtle that lurked in the waves below. Either way, Sciron very clearly did this for fun.

Phaea, who terrorized Crommyon, had a gigantic man-eating sow for a pet that accompanied her on her raids on the eponymous town. Sure, Theseus killed her, but the fact that this old lady had a big-ass pig for a pet should say something about her personality.

-The Minotaur's young victims were imprisoned in the labyrinth and force to run for their lives until the beast catches and devours them or they drop dead of exhaustion, hunger and thirst. It's like the first teen slasher flick.

-The future Olympians were able to live and grow in Cronus' stomach. How exactly? Squick indeed.

-Antaeus the giant, who was building a temple using human skulls.

-A non-mortal prisoner of Tartarus was Arke, Iris' lesser known sister. It was said that during the Titanomachy, Arke had betrayed the Olympians in favor of the Titans and became their messenger. When the Olympians won the war, Zeus not only cast her into Tartarus along with the Titans, he also tore her wings off for good measure.

-Princess Elera was impregnated by Zeus abd then hidden. She gave birth to a giant named Tityos... and died during chilbirth.

It is written that once he came of age he tried to force himself on Leto. Fortunately, Artemis and Apollo heard their mother's cries of distress and killed Tityos by raining arrows upon him. As his afterlife punishment he gets sent off to Tartarus to be forever eaten alive by eagles not unlike Prometheus but without anyone freeing him.

-King Diomedes, who fed humans to his flesh-eating horses. In a Karmic Death and/or Ironic Death twist, he himself was fed to them.

-Oedipus; Imagine marrying your own mother and unknowingly having intercourse with her! Horrible! Then, to top it all off, Oedipus gouged his own eyes out after he discovered all of this. Honestly guys put the blame on Freud for all the "Joe Mama" jokes.

-The rape of Callisto. She was raped (once she realized who her attacker really was and what he was going to do she fought), by Zeus disguised as his daughter Artemis. Callisto was a follower of Artemis and one of the goddess’s favorite companions.In other words, Callisto was raped by a god in the form of her best friend. Callisto is cast out, turned into a bear, separated from her son for 15 years, and upon seeing him after those 15 years, is almost killed by him. (In some versions they are only spared by one killing the other or killing each other by Zeus literally invoking Mama Bear in turning the son into a bear cub, upon which all fighting ceases).

-Athena's birth. The clanging produced when Metis forged Athena's armor gave Zeus a massive headache, and he was willing to do anything to stop the headache...ANYTHING, including go to one of his least favorite people in the world, Hephaestus, and have him split his skull wide open. Then, Athena burst out of Zeus' bleeding skull, fully grown and armored, and letting out a battle cry.

-Her mother, Metis, was fated to give birth to a son more powerful than Zeus. So he turns her into a fly and swallows her whole.

-The Graeae. Dear Gods, the Graeae! Spooky old witches who only had one eye and one tooth among them. They shared both items among themselves and even fought over both! Even worse, some versions say that they were half-human and half-swan.

-Medea. Where to start? First, she killed her brother and threw his diced up corpse into the sea bit by bit to make sure she and her boytoy Jason escaped her father, the king of Colchis. When Jason dumped her for a princess, she then decided to murder the princess with a cloak that instantly turns the wearer into a fireball. She also kills Jasons' future father-in-law, and finished this up by killing the kids that the couple had together. She makes her get-away by flying into the sky on a chariot driven by Dragons. Finally, Medea manages to make peace with her father afterwards by killing her uncle, who had deposed the father as king. She is Nightmare Fuel for anyone who goes through messy divorces with psychopaths.

-Lycaon. He (or his sons, depending on the version) knew full well that Zeus makes a habit of dropping by in disguise to see if kings and hosts behave as they should, so when the big guy did show up, they suspected he might actually be Zeus. So what do they do to put him to the test? Why, kill a child from the next village over and serve him up as food. So Zeus turns them into the first werewolves, in some versions even noting that nothing about their behavior changed.

-The myth of Hades and Persephone has many interpretations, but the original, ancient tale is pure horror at its finest from both the perspective of Demeter and Persephone. Persephone is out picking flowers with her friends and strays from the group when she spots a narcissus, which is really a trap laid out by Hades to ensnare her. When Persephone plucks the flower Hades bursts out of the earth in his chariot and pulls her in while she is vainly attempting to fight him off and screaming for help, but they plunge to the earth before anyone can come to the goddess's aid. Hades arrives in his kingdom with his justifiably terrified bride-to-be and drops the bomb that they're getting married on her while the poor girl is still trying to process the fact that she was just snatched from her home, her beloved mother and everything else she's ever known, and is about become her abductor's wife and queen of his kingdom.

-Hera was a notoriously jealous goddess. While Zeus's infidelities were hardly admirable, her responses to them were nothing short of horrifying. She would wreak cruel vengeance against the women he slept with, including those who didn't know their lover's true identity and even women her husband raped. Not only that, she's incredibly malicious to his children, even though it's obviously not their fault they were fathered by the King of the Gods.

-In the Dionysiaca, we have Typhon spelling out to Zeus all the lovely things he plans on doing to the Olympians when he takes over.These include, but are not limited to...

Chaining up Poseidon with the same chains that Iapetus is bound by.

Sending a bigger, stronger eagle (possibly Typhon's own offspring) to peck out Hephaestus' liver to avenge Prometheus.

Trapping Hermes in a jar forever.

Forcibly marrying off Artemis, Leto and Athena and letting their husbands rape them.

Forcing Hera to marry him (Typhon) specifically.

-Think about what poor Leto had to go through when Hera found out she was pregnant with Zeus' twins—Hera basically tells Leto she's banned from giving birth literally anywhere on Earth, starts spying on her as she desperately searches for someplace to give birth and in some versions sends a freaking dragon to chase Leto as she wanders. And just when Leto finally found a haven (sometimes provided by Poseidon at Zeus' behest) to give birth, a massive storm happens and the Goddess of Childbirth (sometimes Hera, sometimes her daughter) refuses to help her, leaving poor Leto to desperately cling to her patch of land and give birth, hoping that the storm doesn't wash her away. Fortunately, she succeeds.

-Hades has a helmet that makes him invisible and according to some even intangible (meaning he can go through walls while wearing it). While he IS one of the nicer ones, that does beg the question... How does someone know that he's down where his job is and not, uh, right behind you?

[serenpedac]

Metamorphosis

Words: ~800

Rating: Teen and up

Relationship: Mina/Mason

Warnings: None

On a star-filled and chilly night, Mason finds Mina watching out over the bay near Wayhaven.

Notes

For @lovelyfoolish, because you’re a wonderful person and I wanted to give you a little something. I hope I did Mina and Mason justice <3 

There are many versions of myths surrounding Orion. In this fic, I’m referring to this one.

*~*~*~*~*~

The moonlight glitters on the rippling water of the bay. The onset of a breeze scatters the moving mosaic further, the light breaking, refracting patches of silver against the darkness of the water. 

Mina pushes her hands deeper into her coat pockets at the stinging chill in the air. The wind is stronger here, on top of the cliff that shelters Wayhaven’s bay. She hadn’t noticed how it had picked up, shielded as she had been, first by the houses of the town, then by the narrow patch of forest, as her feet trod the familiar path of one of her old routes. 

There is no real need for her to patrol, not with Unit Bravo stationed here, and not with how quiet things have been as of late. A quietude she should be grateful for—she is, she is—yet she can’t help but feel like it’s little more than a superficial stillness, like the mesmerising surface of the water of the bay hiding the currents below. Too much has happened, too much has changed, for her to trust she can rest now.

She startles at the sound of footsteps on the seashell path and twists around to find Mason several steps away. 

“What the hell are you doing out here?” he asks, closing the remaining distance. His shoulders are tense as if he would fight off the cold. 

She lifts a shoulder in something like a shrug. “This used to be the outermost part of my rounds.” 

It’s not really an answer, and, eyebrows drawn together in a tight frown, he examines her, relaxing a fraction when he finds— She’s not sure what he sees on her face, but it’s enough for him to join her in her silence.

As the moment stretches on, her gaze is drawn to the horizon, where the bay opens up to the ocean. There’s a tug in her chest, a feeling of falling, or maybe of the currents pulling her along out into those unknown depths. 

A glance to her side reveals Mason with his hands pushed into his pockets like a mirror image of her. Unlike her, his gaze is fixed up at the stars speckling the sky. High above the dark water of the ocean, the three stars of Orion’s belt burn a cold blue-white.

How fitting, she thinks, that he would look up to the sky with its near eternal stars, while she would be tied to the deep waters here, earth-bound and mortal.

“Did you know,” she begins, her voice soft, “that according to the legends, Orion was the son of Poseidon, god of the ocean?”

Mason doesn’t turn to her, but his hand skims hers. Once, enough to let her know he’s listening.

“It’s said that he was killed by the hand of his lover, Artemis, while swimming in this very ocean. Her brother had tricked her into doing it out of jealousy. Heartbroken, she placed Orion in the sky to grant him immortality, even if it meant they couldn’t be together anymore.”

“That’s a pretty depressing story, sweetheart.”

It is, isn’t it? She hadn’t meant for it to be. “It’s a story about love,” she says, though what was maybe meant as reassurance is tinged deeply with melancholy. 

Mason scoffs, looks at her. His grey eyes are swirling with— something. It reminds her of how he had looked at her months ago, that look that had drawn a confession from her, her hands shaking as she uttered how she didn’t want to die. He had told her she wouldn’t. He wouldn’t let her die. Is he thinking about those words now?

Moving slowly, he reaches out to push her hair behind her ear, his fingers brushing along the shell of her ear until reaching the small hoop of her earring, where he pulls back. She exhales at the loss of contact.

“It’s a story about some gods and their foolish quarrels.” Pale moonlight and shadows play over his features. Barely visible against those stark contrasts are the freckles dotting his skin, little flecks that soften the sharp lines of his face.

Mina strokes his cheekbone with her thumb, and his eyelids flutter closed for a moment at her touch. Cupping his jaw, she leans in to press her lips against his wind-chilled cheek, feeling the way his mouth curves into a smile. When he wraps his arms around her, she slips her hands underneath his jacket to tangle her fingers into his shirt, the delicately woven fabric soft and warm. 

Mason’s head is tipped down, his hair falling forward to tickle her face as she leans her forehead against his. Breathing in the same air, they stay like that while the stars wheel overhead and the tide of the ocean ebbs and flows.

[godsofhumanity]

Can you make more headcannons about Artemis and Orion?

hmm. ok.

the Orion x Artemis myth is tricky because there are sooo many different versions about what really happened, who liked who, who killed who, etc. etc. so i'm taking a lot of creative license here and going with the story that i think makes the most sense.

the account where Eos falls in love with Orion and takes him away to Delos is a Roman account, i think, but it's the one i've always known so i like it.

i don't think it's out of character for Eos to kidnap young and handsome mortals.. she's done it before!!

so i think Orion's story begins with Eos catching sight of him.. probably as she rose to bring about the dawn, she saw him hunting and instantly loved him.

and i think she takes him to Delos so that other gods won't take him from her.

i hc that Eos takes Orion to Delos precisely because it is sacred to Artemis and Apollo, and Eos knows that Artemis has no interested in men or love, so she perceives that Orion will be safe with her ((i don't think Apollo spends much time at Delos because he's a pretty social guy and is always travelling anywhere and everywhere, as opposed to Artemis who keeps to herself and her hunters and wants as little to do with the other gods as possible)).

but strangely, Artemis does fall in love with Orion. i think it's because he's the only hunter who can keep up with her.

and as long as Orion stays on Delos, the pair become really close... very close.

i don't think Eos is ever bitter with Artemis because i've always thought of Eos as very kind and mild-mannered. so i think, more than anything, she'd have been impressed that Orion was actually able to melt the heart of cold Artemis.

so i think Eos would have blessed Artemis and agreed to let go of Orion. i say this also because Eos, being a second gen. titan, i hc to be many eons older than Artemis. she would have lived a very long life, and i don't think she'd get caught up on these kinds of things... a plenty-of-fish-in-the-sea-sort-of mentality.

but there is someone who doesn't like the relationship developing between Artemis and Orion... Apollo.

i think the reason he hates Orion is because Orion threatens Artemis' importance as a goddess.

i like the idea that vows and promises are very sacred to Apollo. he doesn't go back on his word, nor does he like others going back on their word- this makes sense to me if you consider the punishment of Cassandra (if we are to take the version where Cassandra goes back on her promise to Apollo after receiving his gift).

and Apollo understands how important it is that Artemis remain unwed and chaste, simply the leader of the hunt, and how vital she was as a patron of young girls.. if she married then, it would contradict her role.

so Apollo contrives to destroy the threat to his sister.

personally, i think the version where Apollo tricks Artemis into shooting Orion from a distance is too cruel. i don't think it fits Apollo.

but i do think it could be characteristic for Apollo to send call forth the Scorpion and have it kill Orion.

and thus ends the myth.

[princessmeepa]

Can you tell the difference game from mine version or LO/RS version

Note that I do not own the characters from the Greek Myth, I was doing this for fun.

My Dionysus

Fan Fact he is forever 14 years old (note I really don’t know about his age, Sense he is a god after all and they say that he is a beautiful youth)

Dionysus is the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, he is the god of wine, madness, fertility and joy. He is the youngest brother of Athena, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Persephone, Artemis, Apollo and many more, He is the husband of the beautiful princess Ariadne and he is the father of Priapus, Hymen, Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, Comus, Phthonus, the Graces, Deianira.

Likes: Parties, Wine making, his beautiful wife Ariadne, cats, making Theseus’ life miserable, or torturing him, music, painting art with wine, cross dressing, pretending to be a cat boy and say nyan, making love or spending time with Ariadne, spending time with his children and hanging out with his older step brothers (Hermes and Apollo).

Dislikes: Theseus doing what ever he wants or demanding him to the divorce his wife Ariadne, Zeus, Ariadne’s siblings, Aura, cold winters, no wine and losing his wife Ariadne.

Friends/Allies: pretty much every one, because he is a fun guy to hang out with,

Enemies: Hera(because she tries to kill him and she kills his adopted family and his mother), Zeus (because he kills his mother and he rapes him), Aura (because she bullies and makes fun of him, because he looks like a girl), Theseus (because he abuse Ariadne)

Personally: he is a very fun guy, who loves to party and making wine, but he has to make sure that the wine is save or good enough to drink. He can be a deredere with his wife Ariadne, by giving her flowers or making her beautiful crowns from stars, he can go mad or quick to anger, when someone like Theseus who enjoys hurting his love ones and he can violently kills them.

LO Dionysus

Dionysus is the adopted son of Pink RS and long nose Papa Smurf

Personally: he is a goody two shoes Mary sue mama’s boy, who hates parties and drinking wine, because there are for “Wild Animals” and he is a prince after all



[verdant-nem]

Keeping my promise and giving a bonus drawing reimagining the bathing scene prior to the wedding (which from what I could find is actually a tradition in ancient greek weddings)

I apologize if it looks wonky and flat, my phone is not cooperating as of recently ^_^

(it also has my Daphne redesign)

"We are with you Kore, we'll help you get through this"

Alright! Now below are my ideas (ramblings) for rewriting the wedding scene and part of the trial arc (the Kronos arc will have to wait ) sorry I wrote a lot and I still

Some footnotes for the design of Hades and Persephone's dress:

• I wanted the brothers to look related, so I am going to use different shades of blue for their skin but try to make them look somewhat similar in body type and structure, even if Hades is a more emaciated (I really need some reference sheets because I'm bad at drawing that body type)

•Made his hair lighter like it was in the first chapters, adding a star/galaxy motif to look more like his father, and red eyes when he is calm and a dark blue when angered

•As for Persephone, I wanted it to be more of a statement. She is marrying Hades out of need and I would like it if she made that clear. The black dress is meant to evoke the pomegranate she will eat with the sleeves and collar. Her necklace has the nine seeds on them, while her hair was Hades' choice and was made to resemble Rhea's (He canonically has Oedipus's complex so I wanted to do something for it)

Now for the plot:

• In Withering Spring (my rewrite/reimagining) the wedding between Persephone and Hades happens a lot earlier since my Persephone is already more than a century old

•It's actually what I'm working on, but the panels in the trial with hades and Persephone fading away could have worked better if it was Demeter and her.

• It is a consequence of Persephone's trial, in which Zeus decrees that she be put in the care of Hades in the underworld to take care of the souls of mortals she killed in her act of wrath. Since I liked the idea that Zeus is helping Hades get with Persephone, I think he would also do this to "reward" Hades for reporting Kore (instead of Apollo, who in this au is part of the later plot to overthrow Zeus with Athena and Hera , tries to convince her too)

• Hades basically tricks Persephone into staying in the underworld under his protection during the trial, in which Kore actually communicates with nymphs that grew up and lived with Demeter to search for her outside the underworld.

•For Kore's punishment to end, she has to marry Hades in order to get the power and influence necessary to actually help the shades

• A small thing I am still questioning whether to put or not: Persephone's powers fading away as a result of staying too long in the underworld (even in her internship, she didn't stay more than a few days at a time before returning to Artemis with Hermes). It would add stakes as to why she needs to marry Hades so quickly and the Kronos plot too. If anyone has any corrections/suggestions I'm all ears.

• Back to the verdicts, Demeter is sent to the Mortal Realm and stripped of her powers for abusing them to keep the truth from Zeus. Demeter's storyline follows that of the Hymn.

• Since my version of Kore is quite stubborn, I think she would try to escape and rejoin her mother in the mortal realm,in which she is pretty good at blending in with mortals. I didn't mention much Leto until now, my redesign for her is still in the works as I try to find more on her, but she and Demeter are close friends in Withering Spring (Demeter sympathises with her) and she is quite good at hiding from wrathful gods she is the one who reunites the two.

•The proposal scene turns instead into the kidnapping of Persephone (Really like the framing in there and the moths/butterflies, a few adjustments and it would fit the original myth beautifully)

• Something that irks me is how we are always told she is the most compassionate goddess and how she is so kind to minorities but it goes nowhere and is even shown otherwise in the narrative. So in WS, one small change is the majority of the underworld loves their new queen and even prefers her to Hades (who is shown they are afraid of)

The wedding

Introducing my full Hades redesign and me trying to correct persephone's gown to actually have a meaning

I will reblog later with a few design notes and story ideas related to the kidnapping and the wedding

[dump-the-ashes]

Overthinking Xena: Warrior Princess #2- The Gods You Don’t Know

i always wondered about this. i was watching looking death in the eye and they switch over to olympus where athena’s having like a batmitzvah party with ALL DEEZ GODS???

WHO ARE THEY. Did they just peace out during the twilight and drink wine all day while Xena was wrecking up their family?

Ares, Athena, Hades, Hephaestus and Celesta all check out. And there are obviously some other gods who didn’t get invited or whatever like Aphrodite, Cupid, Discord, Deimos, Charon, The Furies, and The Fates.  

So I’m gunna go pretty headcanon here but I tried figuring out who the rest were. I think these two peeps might be Apollo and Artemis.

I know Artemis shows up later and looks totally different. But to be fair Hades and Hephaestus also have other actors AND are also in this shot. 

So, Apollo is the god of the sun, usually described as having golden hair. This guy is also wearing a lot of gold and blue, the colors of the sun and the sky. One of his famous quotes is “everything in moderation” which is important because he is one of the only gods here not chugging down some booze.

His twin sister is Artemis, who he is very close to in mythology. It makes sense then that he would also be standing next to her during an awkward family reunion. This version of Artemis has blonde hair like her brother. She is the goddess of the wild, hunting, and the moon. Her clothes here are either silver or gold and have more of a leafy pattern. She is also a lot less moderate than Apollo and is drinking in pretty much every frame we see her in.

Ok we all know Poseidon looks like a waterpark but I’m about to dive deep here. My thought is that maybe his giant CGI body is more like a powerplay but not actually his true form. Maybe he shows up like this to intimidate mortals or only looks like that while in the water. 

During the first episode with Ares in Hercules the Legendary Journeys, the god of war took the form of a giant ogre with glowing eyes. He also appeared as a skull in reflections or in the moonlight before we finally got Kevin Smith. So it’s not too out of nowhere to think that other gods might pull some of the same tricks. 

This guy in this Olympian party dorm has a crown and beard close to what we’ve seen of Poseidon so far. He also looks as old as Zeus did, which makes sense as being one of his brothers. Maybe Hades just got all the good genes in the family.

The rest of the gods were harder to figure out. BUT I’m still gunna make some wild guesses so here we go.

The first guy on the left I’m going to guess is Dionysus. Bacchus had an episode in season 2 where he was the Tim Curry devil from Legend. This could be the same situation as the monster forms of Ares and Poseidon. This here is just Bacchus in his true form. Another thought is that the show does actually make a point a few times of mentioning the Greek name “Dionysus” a few times. So I feel like they are actually two different gods. The only reason I have for guessing this guy is Dionysus though is because he is holding a drink and his shirt looks like a bundle of grapes.

Behind him might be the goddess of the dawn, Eos. She is described a lot as having rosy fingers and this lady is wearing red gloves. Plus the red and gold in her dress do look like dawn colors.

Across from her is a woman in a black dress and blonde hair. If anyone, I would guess this is Persephone. As queen of the Underworld, it makes sense that she would wear black. As the goddess of springtime she was usually said to have blonde hair and to be surrounded by flowers. Unlike most of the crowns that the gods are wearing, hers looks like it is made out of black flowers.

Way in the back is another woman who is also in a black dress with blonde hair like Persephone is. I’ll peg her as Persephone’s overly protective mom Demeter. She is in mourning for half the year while Persephone is stuck in the Underworld so wearing black or trying to match her daughter at a party seems like a very Demeter thing to do. As the goddess of the harvest, she is also usually described as having long wheat colored hair.

The last two shots in the dark I have are the guy on the right being Hermes. My only thought here is that he looks kind of young and is wearing a cape, which as a god of travelers, Hermes is usually seen wearing or carrying.

The last one I have is the dude on the way left. He doesn’t have sleeves so I thought he might be a warrior god since that’s usually a look saved for fighters in XWP. But I went with Morpheus just because of the long dark robes that seemed very night-like and they reminded me a little bit of the Mystic’s robes in Dreamworker.

Ok that’s it. Everyone else is just a bunch of foreheads. But this always made me super curious and I wanted to know who was who. Does anyone else have any ideas? Or am I overthinking this?

[koiotic]

Okay Hades and Persephone au lore/exposition bc I’m in love with this atm

Zuko is basically Hades, god of the dead, but it’s basically a government job and he doesn’t get time off so he’s a ball of stress and anxiety

Toph’s mother, Poppy is Demeter, harvest goddess. She’s incredibly overprotective of Toph

Toph is Persephone; still blind and sees through the Earth. Her connection to plants/wildlife is stronger so she’s basically a Disney princess but way more open to murder

She doesn’t get kidnapped, she kidnaps herself. She meets Zuko one day when he’s out for a walk (ie. running away from the underworld to have a panic attack in peace for ten minutes) and decides that they’re friends now whether he likes it or not

He ends up coming up from the underworld to hang out with her a lot, until Poppy finds out and tries to stop Toph from ever seeing him again, thinking he’ll hurt her

Toph says ‘fuck that’, breaks out and kidnaps herself to the underworld. Zuko is very anxious about the whole thing but eventually realises that the whole ruling hell thing is 100x easier with help, especially if that help is named Toph and willing to fight people for him

She eats pomegranate seeds and refuses to leave, but Poppy refuses to let her go and curses the mortal world, creating winter and won’t let summer return. The other gods intervene, and Toph agrees to stay half of the year in the underworld and go back for the other half. She doesn’t forgive her mother for a long time, but they come to a sort of peace

She platonically marries Zuko because ‘queen of hell’ is a badass title and they have an awesome qpr (aro ace solidarity!). When her mother is around, she pretends it’s actually a romantic relationship to piss her off

I just have a lot of feelings about their friendship okay

Anyway, plot

Sokka and Katara are both technically demigod children of Kya, a sea nymph, but only Katara got water control abilities

Sokka got wit and wisdom, and, he insists, mythically good looks

Aang is a demigod, and his father is Gyatso, god of the southern wind. He pretty much still has airbending (and his dope tattoos lol) but not the other elements

He’s sent on 12 quests (ripoff 12 labours of Heracles) and the last one is to capture the three headed guardian of the underworld

Which is a dragon

Which is Ran, Shaw and Druk (Zuko refuses to give them all one name because it seems unfair because they all have their own personalities and he’s an absolute softie for his dragons)

[the fic is in progress!!]

Misc things

Mai is Thanatos (death). She’s dating Ty Lee, who is Elpis (hope) and it’s very symbolic and romantic

Jet is Hermes, and just a casual agent of chaos

Ozai was a Titan, and so was Azula. Zuko fought and defeated Ozai, who was sent to Tartarus. Azula is held elsewhere in the underworld, but Zuko hopes he can help/rehabilitate her instead of locking her up. Lo and Li are the furies and basically her carers/therapists

Iroh was also a Titan who took the side of the gods when they fought them, and basically retired afterwards to hang out in the mortal world and hand out tea and advice. Zuko visits him every year and still can’t understand his tea or his advice

Lu Ten was a god, killed by Ozai

Yue is Selene, Suki is Artemis, and the Kyoshi Warriors are her huntresses. The moon is inherently sapphic so Yueki

Zuko feels terrible about the Orpheus Incident™️

This universe’s version of Secret Tunnel is about Toph building the tunnel to the underworld so she can hang out with Zuko, then marrying him for tax purposes (Toph loudly sings it at any given opportunity)

[antiloreolympus]

7 Anti LO Asks

1. Do you know what really gets my blood boiling about this comic? Persephone and Demeter's relationship.

In the myths, Demeter and Persephone loved each other more than anything. Their reunion is so important - it marked the coming of spring and growth. A whole cult was dedicated to this for crying out loud. Yes, the myths were far from perfect, but the Persephone and Demeter myth showed the strength of a loving mother-daughter relationship with Demeter searching endlessly to find her child that was ripped away and had her innocence forcibly taken.

Now, RS is not the only author to make Demeter this over-bearing mother type in order to put more positivity onto the Hades-Persephone relationship. However, RS takes this trend to a whole new level - to the point where I would even consider it misogyny.

How is it, she takes this beautiful mother-daughter relationship and makes it out to be an abusive and controlling one, and then takes the Hades-Persephone relationship from a forceful one to a loving, perfect relationship with no problems? How is it ok to ruin one relationship to elevate another?

I understand that many versions of the myth try to downplay Hades' actions, and even make it so Persephone actually falls in love with him and there is no rape. But it doesn't change that this relationship was problematic, and meant to represent the loss of innocence.

Then fans have the gall to claim this comic is feminist and then claim on top of that that Demeter and Persephone's relationship was the same in the myth? These fans clearly don't know the myths, and neither does RS.

Making Hades a good person is fine. Changing it up a bit to make Persephone's loss of innocence something else is also fine. But ruining Demeter and Persephone's relationship? Especially when Persephone has to spend half the year with her? So horrible. 

2. im sorry, but rachel cant introduce KRONOS coming back and then dropping it for several episodes to focus on a stake-less trail and persephone not knowing what lingerie to seduce hades in. like thats too much of an earth shaking development and huge stake plot point to just ignore for months to focus instead on something as minor as hxp's relationship, which only points out a huge flaw: why is hxp's relationship so minor in this? isnt the whole point supposed to be about them?

3. I think LO completely dropped the ball over Hades’ characterization. 

From the first ep I thought ok, this is good, we have some bones to see he’s not that lucky in love and is just tired and lonely, and while ignoring the creepy actions towards Persephone, I thought ok, Artemis hates him, Hestia hates, even Ares hates him, maybe once Persephone finally sees the underworld and probably gets to know him it’ll be a clever twist and they’ll be proven wrong. The underworld will turn out to be fair and just, the citizens will love Hades, he’ll be revealed to be a good leader and king and not like his brothers, it’ll be like everyone saying Hades of myth isn’t actually that bad, and it’ll help reinforce why this sweet and bubbly Persephone wants him, she sees the real him, not the mean rumors and assumptions, this is perfect.

And then it just didn’t happen. The exact opposite happened, actually.

We’re shown the LO underworld is cruel and unjust, where the poor dead are forced into slavery and Hades created a harsh class divide with him and him only on top, the citizens hate him, the underworld gods don’t trust him and openly seem ok if he’s taken out of power, he’s not a good leader and king and doesn’t even want the job yet keeps it for his own ego and grip of power m, and on top of it all he is just like his brothers, if not worse. He loves to get violent over any little slight against him, he hoards wealth and resources to enrich himself while his citizens starve and struggle to survive, he’s corrupt, he controls all the media and laws to bend to his will, sleeps with his brothers wife for centuries behind his back while claiming to be holier than thou, he has sex with his secretaries who are made dependent on him for any way to survive, and now he lusts after his barely legal intern who is also now dependent on him for her way to survive, and that’s only what I remember off the top of my head.

LO perfectly set up to prove Hades isn’t the devil or the false pop culture assumption that he’s evil and to show some actual facts from myth, and yet Rachel only ended up reinforcing exactly that and even making him even worse with her made up ideas, all while thinking having Persephone ignore or excuse it somehow makes it not bad or even a good thing. It’s honestly kind of impressive just how bad of writing that actually is. 

4. Chapter 172 is not that interesting. It’s setup had me excited to see Hephaestus and Hera and learning more about echo, but it’s cut so short. Because again the story can’t leave HXP out for 2 seconds.

I can also see why Zeus is gonna go insane. 

5. i agree w/ other anon. LO should have pulled a PJO or a BoZ and just made up OCs and have them interact with the gods than whatever Rachel thinks shes doing, which is lying she's being accurate and faithful while completely changing all of it, removing what is needed, and adding what isnt so that it lines up with no actual myth besides like, various 50 shades fanfic she read in 2015 and some popular tumblr text posts.

6 . the animation studio behind blood of zeus literally can only draw one face for the men and one face for the women and they were still able to make the gods all look distinct and hot while LO can't even bother to use more than 6 colors and can only have the women look as tiny as possible with the biggest boobs while the men are all just lego men.

7. ////FP SPOILERS////

Okay so like I stopped reading LO way back before season 1 ended, and a majority of my knowledge of the series comes from what I read here on your blog which is enough for me lol and I decided to read the latest 5 chapters just to see what's up (on zahard. I refuse to give the actual series any views)

And I just. Could not take the whole scene with Daphne running from Apollo seriously? The anatomy and art inconsistency was so distracting that i genuinely could not find it serious. Even when Thanatos discovers her hibernated body I couldn't take it seriously because of how she looked?

And when Hades had that call (??? Was it a call? Or his inner dialogue? I couldn't really tell ngl) with Zeus and said he's causing Persephone unnecessary distress, and that she didn't pose any threat. B!tch??? She killed a ton of mortals??? She has no control over her powers???? She's literally a fugitive for the aforementioned things??? She apparently woke Kronos up? (Idk if anyone knows about that, again my knowledge only spans to whatever I read here) Hello????

And I have a lot to say about the chapters starting the trial but I'll only mention one thing; Hades saying "I don't think blindly supporting my little brother would be doing him any favours (as a ruler)" had me cackling. This is coming from a guy blindly supporting a girl he's literally only known for a few weeks, who's like what, only recently turned 20? Sit tf down Hades you're not cool, you creepy ass overgrown smurf.

Overall I still hate this series lmao. Regarding art though I feel like I wouldn't be so miffed about the anatomy much if the character designs were consistent and the story was compelling. They literally change hairstyles and body types frame by frame, and it's distracting.

The timeline from what I read here is laughable. 4 years in publication with almost 200 chapters and you're telling me only like a month has passed canonically. That's wild and such poor writing.

And as someone who literally will sympathise with any lead character pretty quickly, the story makes me hate them. It makes me want to root against them. I also hate the fact this trash is somehow top ranked on webtoons when so many other stories are far better then it.

Anyway, many thanks to this blog for existing and allowing me to dump so much text here to vent out my hate for this series lmao. You the mvp fam, hope you're having a good day 🥂🥂🥂

[foeofcolor]

References to Greek Mythology in Disco Elysium

Note : I have not yet finished the game, I’ll likely make a second part, if there’s more.

Let’s look at the original title of the game. 

“No truce with the furies” 

The furies, Chthonic Deities Of Vengeance,  in Greek Mythology relentlessly hunt down those who commit crimes.

This is seen best in the Oresteia, where the titular character Orestes is hunted down by the furies because he killed his mother after a vision from the God Apollo, who told him to seek revenge for his father’s ( Agamemnon ) murder by her hand for sacrificing one of their daughters to the Goddess Artemis. 

These furies hunt him down, they follow him even to his dreams, and only he can see them. They follow him where everywhere he goes, without fail. 

The furies for Harry during the game are of course, are his inability to let mysteries go, his compulsions and his mistakes. They much like the furies, follow him. Relentlessly.

Yet there is some semblance of relief.

In the original play, Orestes runs to Athens and the Goddess Athena, in order to save him from the furies, sets up the world’s first trial. She gives him a chance to redeem himself, to free himself of what haunts him.

For Harry, Martinaise is his Athens. There is no divine entity to help him just yet, but here, lacking all his memories, he has a chance to rebuild. To remorse, to restore what he destroyed. It is not complete, it is not easy, it is not immediate and yet there is a chance. There is hope to get rid of what haunts, even if not fully.

Let’s look at the actual title of the game.

 “Disco Elysium”.

Elysium in Greek mythology is basically the Greek Version of heaven. Elysium falls early on the river Styx and is where all the Greek Heros and the mortals favored by the Gods.

Elysium is a place where they can live in peace and security. ( Technically there are two isles in Elysium but that’s for later )

In game, Elysium is not achieved. Things aren’t perfect. The game isn’t about the big peace, it’s about little pieces of Elysium stolen against time. It’s about the journey.

And Now, the quote at the starting of the game. 

“The furies are at home in the mirror” 

This one’s pretty clear! It’s from a poem by R.S. Thomas, much like the old title. This is pretty clearly referring to how Harry’s demons, or his furies are self caused.

I personally divide them into

His inability to let mysteries go    

His compulsions 

His mistakes                     

(Broad Categories, I know and I’d like to tie each one to a fury but it’s not meant to be taken that literally.)

I think the scene with mirror and the expression might be a reference to that. ( Of course, it represents other things too but again, I’m going off topic)

And Now the dream (?) with the Corpse Of The Bloated Drunk. 

One of the dialogue options is “You’ve fucked/missed Elysium 3 times” or something along those lines.

Now, about the 2 isles of Elysium, they are The Islands of the Blessed and The Lethean fields of Hades/Haides.

The average Elysium dweller ends up in The Lethean fields of Hades/Haides, named after the River Lethe, which had the power to erase memories.

A lesser known fact about greek myth that a soul who reaches The Leathean fields can chose to be reborn and if a person is reborn 3 times, and everytime they reach Elysium, they’ll be taken to The Islands of the Blessed.

The implication here is that Harry had 3 chances to reach The Blessed Isles, 2 chances given to him pre-canon by his colleagues, and the one he seems to have squandered at the start of the game. The corpse is telling him “You’ve ruined your chances. You can’t get in now” 

He’s wrong of course, since Harry can still get clean and fix his act, his rebirth and attempt for elysium isn’t yet over. There’s still hope. 

And, That’s all I’ve encountered in my playthrough yet!

[seattlesea]

Why Percabeth Isn’t a Good Ship (Sorry 2x)

I’m definitely getting cancelled- 

1. Annabeth is physically abusive. The fandom makes this point seem controversial and debatable, but it’s really not. The definition of abuse is hitting someone. Annabeth hit Percy. Therefore, Annabeth abused Percy. Is that really that hard to understand? Annabeth hit Percy for the first time in The Titan’s Curse when she, Percy, and Thalia were looking for the di Angelo siblings. She punched him in the gut when he asked her who he should ask to dance with him. Annabeth knows that Percy can be oblivious at times...but punishes him when it benefits her? The second time was in The Mark of Athena, when she judo-flipped him because she missed him. That’s...what?? Usually when people are worried about someone else, they hug or kiss them, not flip them over their shoulder. And yes Annabeth kissed him first, but the judo-flip was completely unnecessary. Annabeth punished Percy for ‘leaving’ her despite him being kidnapped and his memory wiped. And everyone’s like ‘But Percy didn’t feel any pain!!11!!1!’ The chapter wasn’t in his point of view, so that claim is a guess. Just cause he didn’t say ‘Ow’ doesn’t mean he wasn’t in pain. Also- Annabeth slammed him on a stone pavement on his back. That definitely hurts, even if Percy is a demigod, physically strong, and has gotten hurt a lot. There’s a difference between ‘playful hitting’ and actually hurting someone. Yes they trained a lot, but this isn’t training. This is Annabeth punishing Percy for being traumatized with yet another life-threatening quest and being kidnapped. I don’t remember Percy judo-flipping Annabeth after he saw her again when she got kidnapped in TTC. Besides, the Romans were about to take out their weapons when they saw Annabeth attack Percy, so if all of them thought it was an attack...it was most likely an attack. Even Annabeth said herself “I only attack my boyfriend like that”. The thing is, if it was Percy who flipped Annabeth over his shoulder and slammed her on her back or punched her in the gut, all the fans immediately would’ve freaked out and cancelled him, calling him a horrible and abusive boyfriend, but because it’s the girl hitting the guy, it’s fine apparently. Nothing wrong with it, right? And then Riordan (and the fandom) had the audacity to romanticize that abuse. Abuse isn’t a sweet, romantic gesture. Stop making it seem like it is. That’s disgusting. 

2. Annabeth is also verbally abusive and toxic. Annabeth canonically lowered Percy’s self-esteem, constantly insulted him and his intelligence despite knowing he was insecure about it and always getting kicked out of schools and getting bad grades (even with her so-called ‘endearing’ name for him ‘Seaweed Brain’), and the overall idea of Percabeth is a super smart, pretty girl making a guy with below average intelligence feel insecure about himself. Percy’s self-esteem has plummeted since he met Annabeth and her behavior is never called out or even noticed, which implies some manipulation going on. Annabeth is shown to be extremely capable of manipulating her enemies and anyone else she pleases, and there are quite a few signs she’s using it against Percy (his feelings of obligation, fear, and guilt of and over her, questioning himself, having strings attached, always only thinking of her and no one else in his life, etc.), especially since Percy begins to gradually stop noticing Annabeth’s wrong and toxic behavior as the story progresses. 

3. Annabeth only likes Percy cause he’s the chosen one. Annabeth only hung around Percy since The Lightning Thief cause she thought he was ‘the one’ and so she could finally go on a quest. She literally used Percy to go out to the mortal world and ‘prove herself’ cause really, all she cares about is glory, which is shown multiple times throughout the series with all her pride and ambitions. Plus the fact that Chiron made Annabeth swear on the River Styx that she would keep Percy from danger is a pretty clear sign she didn’t stick around him just cause she wanted to, but because she felt obligated to and cause it would benefit her. Take all of this and it’s kind of obvious Annabeth only hung around Percy cause he was the chosen one of the prophecy, a son of one of the Big Three, and was destined to go on multiple quests and play a big part in the mythological world, which is what she always wanted since book one.

4. It was forced. Since the beginning of book one, it was so obvious that Percy and Annabeth were going to get together that their relationship ended up being boring, dull, and flat. Riordan made it so obvious they were going to be a couple that nothing that happened to their relationship really mattered, cause everyone knew it would work out in the end (which is probably why everyone *wrongly* hated on Rachel) so what happened in between didn’t matter. Their relationship was the typical ‘male lead and female lead’, ‘bad boy trouble-maker skater and nerdy good girl’ power couple that was way too clear. And Riordan made it worse by pushing their relationship and shoving it into the readers’ faces way too much. In MoA Annabeth states that she’s always had a crush on Percy (since they were twelve) which immediately rips all the development their relationship (which was supposedly ‘friends to lovers’, but not anymore) had away. Riordan made up a bunch of honestly dumb scenarios that were legit cringe to make Percabeth seem like ‘OTP’ that really didn’t make sense.

5. It ruined their characters. Percy and Annabeth would’ve been way better off as just friends. After they got together in HoO, all their personality and everything else that made them independent was destroyed to make room for more ‘Percabeth’. All of Annabeth’s skills, bravery, intelligence, pride, ferocity, judgmentalism, and all the other traits and flaws that made her a well-written character were never utilized or even mentioned. All she thought about was Percy, and the same goes for him. His loyalty, sarcasm, humor, obliviousness, etc. disappeared to make room for arrogant Annabeth fanboy. In PJO, they were amazingly well-written and great role models for younger readers (especially Annabeth), but in HoO their characters were exclusively ‘Annabeth’s boyfriend’ and ‘Percy’s girlfriend’. Their characters were completely dependent on each other, and they were way better off as just friends. 

6. Annabeth is way too possessive. And creepy. It’s fine and honestly normal for people to get jealous when another person likes someone they do, but Annabeth’s jealousy was downright creepy. Not only did she not know if her feelings for Percy were reciprocated or not, but she also didn’t know if Percy and Rachel liked each other, either. The very first time she met Rachel she immediately hated her. That’s not ‘I’m jealous cause this girl likes the guy I do’, that’s ‘I’m jealous cause the guy I like has another female friend’. She had no reason to believe that Rachel and Percy liked each other and has no say in who they can like, either. She thought that she and Percy absolutely had to be in a relationship and that he couldn’t even have friends with different genitals than him. And remember when Annabeth literally stalked Percy in The Sea of Monsters? Like when she creeped by his window, constantly watched him, and kept tabs on him just cause she ‘couldn’t find the right time’ to tell him something cause he was ‘never alone’ despite him being alone multiple times and despite the fact that she literally could’ve just knocked on his door like a normal person instead of creeping around his cabin and staring at him through the windows? Again- switch the roles. If it was Percy who was stalking Annabeth, everyone would’ve immediately called him a creep. If- according to Tumblr and almost everyone who read Twilight- Edward is a creep for stalking Bella, then Annabeth is a creep for stalking Percy. 

7. It’s mostly fan love. Honestly, the fandom is the only thing that fuels Percabeth. Riordan just destroys it. He shoved it down the readers’ throats, forced it way too much with really dumb and honestly unrealistic scenarios, and made it abusive and toxic. On its own, Percabeth freaking sucks. The fandom’s version of Percabeth is 1000x better than whatever the hell Riordan was doing, but even that version is toxic. Like, I’ve seen way too many jokes about Annabeth hitting Percy (as if abuse is hilarious and amazing meme fuel and not an extremely sensitive topic that triggers multiple people who actually went through it). Half the time, the fandom fixes Percabeth and the other half of the time they over-glorify and ruin it. The fandom over exaggerates and over glorifies it way too much. It’s not that great of a relationship, to be honest. Most of y’all only like it in the first place cause Riordan made it canon.

8. It was cringey. Like I said above, Riordan wrote some really dumb scenes for Percabeth. I mean- the matching gray streaks in their hair despite Atlas and Artemis not getting any? Percy’s tie to the mortal world while bathing in the River Styx being Annabeth and not his mom, Grover, etc.? Percy only remembering Annabeth, the girl he’s only known for four years and not his mom, the only woman who actually cared for and took care of him or Grover, his best friend who protected and continuously cared about him? Percy turning down immortality only for Annabeth and not even bothering to mention the pain of leaving behind his life, friends, family, memories, etc. behind if he accepted it? The romanticized judo-flip? The whole ‘dark-haired rebellious bad boy/nerdy blonde good girl who can be bad’ trope? Even the boring predictability of Percabeth is cringe. 

9. It’s a bad influence on younger readers. Basically the lesson of Percabeth is ‘Once you get a love interest nothing else in your life matters’. Besides that one single scene that took like three lines in The Son of Neptune, Percy never even thought of his own mom, nor did he think about any of his friends or passed allies like his dad, Rachel, Grover, Paul, Silena, Luke, Ethan, Bob/Iapetus, Tyson, Calypso, Charles, Michael (whose death he accidentally caused), Bianca, Zoë, etc. Even when in Tartarus with the curse of the Arai being forced to remember all the people he forgot and feeling guilty about abandoning Bob and Calypso, all he thought about was Annabeth. Even when faced with the man who broke the heart of the girl who sacrificed herself for him, Percy didn’t even think of her, only his jealousy of Jason. Same thing with Annabeth. She never thought about her mom, Luke, Thalia, her step-mom or step-brothers, etc. It was all about Percy. Cause yes, Riordan, that’s exactly the lesson you should teach your younger readers- forget everyone you ever knew the moment you get a partner. Besides that, it also teaches readers that being rude to people who like the same person as you is completely okay cause no one will care and once you start being rude, bitter, and possessive you’ll get exactly what you want (that’s literally what happened, with Annabeth and with Calypso, too). He also teaches that after you get a partner, everything that makes you you will disappear and you’ll be completely dependent on them and nothing in your life will matter, even your own independent life and personality. 

10. The fandom tries to excuse and explain Annabeth’s behavior??? What??? Since when does explaining and excusing hitting people put you in the right again? And the excuses aren’t even good, too! Percabeth fans use-  Annabeth was full of emotions/mad and doesn’t know how to deal with emotions. Annabeth really loved Percy. It was only one time. Annabeth was worried about Percy and mad that she left him. Annabeth didn’t mean to hurt him. Annabeth didn’t know what she was doing cause she was full of emotions. ??? Annabeth was full of emotions/mad and doesn’t know how to deal with emotions- Annabeth was seventeen years old, the daughter of the wisdom goddess, and is supposedly the smartest character in the series who is shown to be extremely good at reading people and their emotions. And y’all are really trying to say she doesn’t know how to deal with her emotions?  Annabeth really loved Percy- SO? A mother might really love her child, does that excuse her for hitting them for dumb reasons? It was only one time- actually, it was twice, and so what? If someone was slapped across the face ‘only one time’, does that mean they weren’t abused? ‘Abuse’ doesn’t mean ‘hit constantly’, it means ‘hit’. If someone was hit, they were abused. Is that really not a known fact in this fandom? Annabeth was worried about Percy and mad that she left him- last time I checked, people didn’t hit others when they were worried about them. If I was worried that my friend was going to get hurt, I wouldn’t hurt them myself. That literally makes no sense. And again- Percy didn’t leave Annabeth. He was kidnapped. Do y’all not know the definition of that, either? Annabeth didn’t mean to hurt him- yes, cause that’s why she decided to flip him over her shoulder, slam him on a stone pavement on his back, and punish him for ‘leaving her’.  Annabeth didn’t know what she was doing cause she was full of emotions- Annabeth??? the daughter of the wisdom goddess??? not knowing what she’s doing??? huh??? I mean, would any of you really, legitimately try to use any of these dumb excuses to excuse a man from hitting his wife? Hopefully not. And if you did, you would immediately get hated on and legit cancelled. So what makes this any different? Also- I see the excuse ‘Annabeth didn’t know Percy lost his Achilles Heel and thought he was still invincible’. Under different circumstances I’d accept that, but Annabeth knew that Percy’s Achilles Heel was on the small of his back...BUT SHE SLAMMED HIM ON HIS BACK. If Percy hadn’t lost the Achilles Heel, Annabeth literally would’ve killed him. Abusive enough for y’all? Or is attempted murder excusable and still ‘OTP’? 

11. They had no chemistry whatsoever. Was I the only one who felt...absolutely no chemistry between Percy and Annabeth? Like some of their moments were cute, their friendship was really good, and they had a lot of potential, but they didn’t feel right for each other. Remember- opposites don’t attract (they just argue, and no one has ‘another half’ that needs to ‘complete them’, everyone is their own person), they cancel each other out. I mean, Reyna and Annabeth had more chemistry in that one chapter of the New Rome tour in MoA than Percy and Annabeth had in 12+ books. They’re just...not right for each other, I guess. 

I’m definitely getting cancelled-

Edit 2: Sorry if I offended anyone with that last note. Just wanted to let y’all know that I am not here to start any drama, hurt anyone, or disrespect any Percabeth shippers. I respect your opinions 100% and only ask you do the same for me. Like I literally only wrote this at 12 am when I was bored and had nothing else to do and couldn’t sleep (same goes for pretty much everything else I write about PJ). Besides, why argue and start drama over dumb stuff like that when we can just find something we agree on? Don’t like Piper McLean? Let’s talk about that. Think Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano is a queen? Let’s talk about that. Think Nico di Angelo is freaking amazing? Let’s talk about that. Think Theyna would be adorable? Let’s talk about that. Want someone to vent to about writer’s block? Why the hell not? Want random writing advice and tips for writer’s block? Sure, I got plenty. Instead of arguing and starting beef over trivial fictional ships. 

[c-is-for-circinate]

do you have a favorite god to get boons from in hades? (mines is dionysus, he always manages to give me good boons like the bestie he is)

Dionysus is a super chill bro and I support you :)  He is a ton of fun to run into, and status effects are always clutch.  Some of his higher-level boons are awesome, too.  (Looking at you, Dionysus/Zeus duo boon that can just wipe out whole swathes of the field with a Festive Fog lightning storm.)  Also, he recently proposed we prank Orpheus together, and I died laughing.  (My friend​, who is not playing the game but is hearing me ramble about it A LOT on discord, looked up Zagreus on Wikipedia where I dare not yet tread for fear of spoilers several days ago, and they mentioned the whole “sometimes mythical Zagreus is conflated with Dionysus!  Have you met Dionysus yet?  Are you SURE you’re not also Dionysus?” a few times before that happened.  I am so proud of my booze bro for making that happen.)

Honorable mention also goes to Aphrodite, who comes with some really great status effects (I think she might have my favorite Aid, and that Aphrodite/Zeus duo boon that charges it up super fast makes it incredibly useful, just a constant spam of charm spells) and really fun interactions.  She was never my favorite Olympian as a kid (yes, of course I was a Greek myth kid, what do you take me for), but I appreciate how much she is exactly what she appears to be in this game, you know?  She’s a little shallow but she’s not ashamed of herself for it.  She’s free with affection and happy to share.  We all know she’s the kind of lady who loves watching some drama go down, and she is not above starting some shit, but she’s not actually making any pretenses about that and I appreciate that on her.  I legit believe she’s trying to help me get out of Hades because she thinks it’s just awful that anybody who counts as a real person should be stuck down there in that dark awful place (mortals don’t count as real people but, y’know, it’s the Greek gods, that’s sort of a given).  And, ok, maybe I have a little extra affection for any version of Aphrodite who’s not just “ooh, she’s a slutty mean shallow girl who likes to manipulate everybody to stroke her own ego, we’re so ~edgy~ for thinking she’s awful”.  They did a good job making an Aphrodite I can support, and I am glad for that.

Poseidon probably has the boons with my favorite effects (tidal dash is great and I love it), and Zeus, Athena, and Ares all have specific boons that I really enjoy in certain circumstances.  Favorite character, though, hands down, is ABSOLUTELY Artemis.

Some of this is definitely pre-existing bias--I was always somewhere between Artemis and Athena for favorite deity back during my time as a Greek myth kid, although I like her way more than Athena here.  Most of it is just that the way she’s written is so great.  She’s awkward!  She leaves me awkward voicemails because she doesn’t know what to say!  She’s not super comfortable around all of her loud, competitive, extroverted relatives with all their enormous personalities and equally enormous egos.  She is so obviously the sort of person who doesn’t entirely know what to do with herself when she doesn’t have a job to do, and, really, the world just makes so much more sense when she’s out in the woods on a hunt by herself taking things seriously and getting her work done.  She is explicitly hanging out with her family right now for the express purpose of working together to save me, and you can hear in her voice how it’s making her a little tense having them around all the time but she’s doing it anyway because this is important.  Her duo boon dialogue with Zeus!  Dad acting all indulgent about his odd daughter who won’t do the sensible thing and take a husband or at least a lover, for Olympus’s sake, and Artemis who is like, ‘really, you really don’t get why I would rather be out in the woods than committing myself to dealing with the sort of guys we have around our family’.  (The mention of preferring to be alone or with her nymph friends has big ace/lesbian crossover energy, and as a vaguely-aceish vaguely-lesbianish queer lady I am all about it.)  And yet she still invites us to come hunt with her once we get out of the Underworld up to Olympus.  Her safe alone space, away from her overwhelming family, and she’s willing to welcome Zagreus into it after she helps him get away from his family. 

The tricky thing about Artemis is that nearly all of her boons are crit-related, which officially makes them the boon set I am usually least interested in.  Part of this is absolutely math fallacies because math brain works very very hard at my actual job and does not want to come out and play during video game time, so it rebels against actually sitting down and calculating what percentage crit rate might do more good with my particular playstyle with various weapons than simply a flat damage increase from another boon.  Part of it’s the fact that I can see the impact of other boons, but not the increased critrate (because everything is always going much too fast to notice a single individual crit when it happens).  Part of it’s just how I tend to react to buffs and builds: law of large numbers aside, a flat bonus/effect applied to every single hit is always going to be more consistent and reliable than the crapshoot of a crit chance, and coming from a turn-based combat background, consistent and reliable is still a (possibly undeserving) priority to my game-strategy brain.

On the other hand, Artemis also has one of my favorite boons in the entire game in Support Fire--you know, the boon that fires off a bonus target-seeking arrow every single time you hit an enemy with your weapon in any way, or cast, even if you don’t hit anything.  It’s pretty good with sword/shield/spear.  It’s great with the fists, where you’re going to be multi-hitting anyway, and absolutely essential with the railgun if you’re me and can barely use the railgun.  Exit Wounds, where enemies take damage when they drop the cast, is also really great.  Both of those are boons with prereqs, so I’ll often hope for an Artemis boon early in the game (usually her cast boon or that boon that gives you a low crit chance on all damage, because that one doesn’t preclude putting other specific strike/flourish/dash boons on) to try and set myself up to get them later.  It tends to work pretty well, plus then I get to hang out with Artemis more, and that is always a winner.

(Yep, I sure did write a six-paragraph response to a two-line ask.  For everyone who’s followed me in the past couple of weeks--you MUST be aware by now that this is how I do.  You MUST have figured out what you signed up for.  I am not sorry.  (I’m a little sorry.))

[cozy-the-overlord]

Look at Me

Summary: Medusa didn't get many visitors. Those she did usually were there seeking her head. But there's something different about this stranger ...

Word Count: 1,799

Pairing: Loki x Medusa, Loki x OFC (I guess? Since she’s my version of Medusa? I’m not sure if this counts ...)

A/N: So in the middle of my Greek Mythology class, during a lecture about Perseus and Medusa, I made the profound connection that both Loki and Medusa are associated with snakes (I know, my genius is truly unparalleled). And then I wrote this. I'm not entirely certain what "this" is, but I wrote it and it's here. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading! :)

Warnings: none

Tags: @lucywrites02 @gaitwae @whatafuckingdumbass

If you want to be tagged, feel free to send an ask/message :)

Read it on Ao3!

The man arrived just as she was finishing cooking dinner. It hadn’t been anything special—just an unfortunate duck she had managed to skewer as it came to rest on the side of the lake. Medusa had gotten pretty good at shooting without looking. It had been a real problem at first—she hadn’t been a particularly good archer to begin with, and one wayward glance would turn whatever creature she was stalking into a piece of marble. The woods around her cave were littered with life-sized statues of birds and rabbits and other little animals from hunting expeditions gone wrong. For a while, she had feared she’d garner Artemis’ wrath on top of all the other deities who hated her, and the thought had made her bow even more unsteady. But the years went on without incident. And as with anything else, she adapted. She still wasn’t perfect, but at least she could hit her target without turning it to stone.

She had been a bit caught off-guard by the man. He was quieter than most, and more cautious— he didn’t approach her cave, didn’t even bother to raise his sword, electing to linger amongst the brush in silent observation. On her own, she might not have even noticed his presence. But there was little that went past the snakes, and when her hair stood on end, hissing and spitting at something behind her, Medusa knew she had company.

She sighed, careful not to turn away from her pot. “I know you’re there, hero. You might as well come out.”

He did so without a fuss, his footsteps so light on the stone that she had to crane her ears to hear them. That was strange. Medusa had never known a man to step so softly.

“Impressive.” His voice was smooth, like polished marble, and it carried an accent that she didn’t recognize. “They said you had eyes in the back of your head, but mortals are known to exaggerate.”

She fought back another sigh. Ah, yes, yet another mortal fool who thinks himself a god. It had been so long since one intruded upon her lair, Medusa had begun to hope that perhaps they had finally elected to leave her in peace. She supposed that was too unrealistic to ask.

“Perhaps you could learn a lesson or two from them,” Medusa straightened up, still facing the cracked stone of the cavern walls rather than her visitor. Her hair was still twisting around her neck—it would take a few hours for the snakes to calm down again. She bit her lip. “I have no interest in killing you, hero. But you haven’t a chance at killing me. Just look to your predecessors.”

She motioned towards the statues that littered her the clearing, snarling warriors frozen in mid attack, time slowly chipping away at their features until their visages were near unrecognizable. How many times had she said these words? How many times had she been ignored?

Still, she tried each time. “You have nothing to gain here. Please, seek your accolades elsewhere.”

She waited for his taunts, his insults. “I fear no beast on this earth, creature, not even one as vile as yourself!” It was all the same. They’d rush forward with their sword and a battle cry and she’d turn around and watch as their skin cracked and hardened and their screams died in their throats.

But the man only chuckled, a warm, welcoming sound that seemed as foreign as his accent. “Oh, I’m afraid you misunderstand my purpose here, my lady,” he said. “I’m no hero. And I most certainly have no intention to kill you.” He was walking towards her, but it was a leisurely stroll, his steps gentle and measured, nothing threating about it. “As for having nothing to gain here,” he added. “I’d prefer to reach my own conclusions.”

To say she was perplexed would have been an understatement. “But, if you haven’t come to kill me,” she frowned, “May I inquire as to the purpose of your visit?”

“The truth?” he asked. “Simple curiosity.” He was standing quite near to her now, and Medusa wondered for a moment if this was his plan—distract her with his oddities so that he could have a closer shot at her, but he only sat back against a rock with a satisfied huff. “I’ve heard an awful lot about you since I first came to this land,” he continued. “I was eager to learn if there was any truth to the stories.” He let out another little chuckle, so soft it seemed like a secret. “Besides, I’ve been told I have an affinity for snakes.”

“Is that so?” It was nice, just talking to someone. She hadn’t talked to anyone in ages—there wasn’t anyone to talk to around here, unless you counted her snakes, but they only really served as obnoxious reminders of her curse. And there was something amusing about this stranger, something smooth and sociable that she hadn’t realized she missed. She wondered what he looked like. “Well then, not-hero, have I met your lofty expectations?”

“Oh, you’ve far and away surpassed them, my lady. You’re truly a magnificent presence.”

She laughed. “Do you waste so many pretty words upon every monster you come across?”

“Waste?” His voice brimmed with faux offense. “I assure you, my lady, I spend my words quite carefully. I lavish them only upon the deserving.” There was a pause, and for a moment Medusa feared that perhaps he was truly insulted.

“Besides,” he continued finally, with a purposeful kind of nonchalance that hadn’t been there before. “You’re no monster.”

The statement was so ludicrous that she laughed again. “Do you not see the statues?”

“I do,” he replied. His voice had turned quite serious, and Medusa could hear him shifting as he leaned forward on the rock. “I see cowards frozen for eternity in the act of attacking a woman who has brought them no harm whilst her back is turned, like the shameful curs they were. I also see that you could have marbleized me just like them in half a second, but you chose not to. Instead, even though you had no way of knowing my intentions, you warned me. In your position, I can’t say I would’ve done the same.” He inhaled. “And that’s not even mentioning how this whole time we’ve been talking, you’ve not once risked turning your face to me, despite how vulnerable it leaves you. That doesn’t seem very monstrous to me.”

Medusa swallowed. There was a dull sort of ache in her chest, a cold throbbing that never really went away, but seemed even sharper in the moment.

You’re no monster.

No one said that to her. No one believed it. There wasn’t a single person in all of Greece who saw her that way. Even the gods despised her. Medusa shook her head, as if to shake away the tears burning in her eyes.

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what I’ve done.”

“Who’s to say I don’t?” he asked. “I’ve heard the stories. But I see no monster before me—only a person who’s suffered alone for far too long.”

She gulped, the snakes still writing around her face. How long had it been since she awoke on the cold floor of the temple, shivering and aching and praying that the night before had been but a dream? She remembered the priestesses who walked in to find her, how they screamed when they laid eyes on her, how quickly their screams froze in their throat when she looked up.

Terrified, the people had chased her from the city premises, waving torches and blades and spitting venom farther than the snakes snapping in her hair. She had taken shelter in the forest, clawing at the green scales on her arms as if ripping them off would restore her old skin. Her barbed nails only drew blood.

Back in the cave, Medusa stifled her whimper. It had been years since that fateful morning, and yet the terror still came rushing back like an overflowing river. Behind her the man stood, and she could hear the concern in his voice as he approached her.

“Forgive me. I didn’t mean to bring you pain.”

She inhaled. “Are you a god?” Because surely, he wasn’t human. No mortal man would seek her out for such a conversation. Although she couldn’t imagine the gods suddenly taking pity on her after all this time either.

He let out a breathy chuckle. “Not in the way you’re thinking. But I can help you, if you’ll allow me.”

She shook her head. It hurt too much to hope. “No one can help me.”

“I’ll show you,” he said. “Look at me.”

Medusa gaped. He couldn’t be serious. “Are you mad?”

“Not in this. Look at me.”

She turned slowly, eyes closed, palms quivering. He was standing near to her—she could feel the way he shifted as she moved to face him. Was he as nervous as she was? Would he realize the absolute idiocy of his request? But his voice held nothing but gentle confidence.

“Just trust me, Medusa.” She could hear his smile, soft and encouraging. “Look at me.”

And so, she opened her eyes.

She expected to be greeted with the cold crackling of marble spreading across skin, the horrible empty silence that always followed once the lungs turned to stone. But she wasn’t. Medusa blinked, but nothing changed—the man who stood before her remained,

He was slender and lithe, with long hair that tumbled over his shoulders, black as raven’s wing. His armor—was it armor?— was unlike anything Medusa had ever seen before, some strange mix of gold and leather that clung to his form in a way that seemed so much lighter than the bulky chest plates of her usual visitors. His eyes found hers, sparkling emeralds in the sunlight, and Medusa suddenly realized that, for the first time in ages, someone was returning her gaze.

“How?” she choked. Her voice didn’t seem to be working. Perhaps this was the dream, and she’d awaken in the corner of the cave alone and cold once more.

“Just a little trick I picked up,” he said. “I know quite a few of them.”

She stared at him. That was a marvel in it of itself, just to be able to stare at someone, but there was also something otherworldly floating about him that she couldn’t quite pinpoint.

“Who are you?” Medusa asked.

“They call me Loki.” He held out his hand towards her, simultaneously strong and soft. The snakes in her hair relaxed against her scalp. Loki smiled. “Come with me. There’s much I wish to show you.”