#telemachus deserved better!

[katerinaaqu]

Epic Telemachus: Gonna sit here being a damsel in distress Disney princess in the stereotypical way, sing happy bubbly songs and have my ass handed to me at a fistfight even with Athena's help and be mostly watching in terror that monster chopping the heads of the men I hated off

Odyssey Telemachus: Depressed af hoping to escape the situation that almost have me cut my veins in here, with the help of Athena I travel to find information on my father and call upon the city council. Avoid an ambush thanks to Theoklymenos and come back to my mother and then help my father actively chop the heads off those damn suitors using the fighting skills I obviously have, hang 12 traitor slaves and help mutilating another one and standing by my father's side.

[oddyseye]

Imagine you’re Telemachus.

Go ahead, picture it. You’re a kid growing up on an island where your dad is literally a living legend, but he’s been MIA your entire life. Twenty years of being “the son of Odysseus’’ and having no idea what that even means. Your mother constantly compares you to a guy you’ve never met, the suitors trash your house, eat your food, and openly plan your mom’s wedding like you’re not even there. Your own people think you’re too green, too weak, too not your father to do anything about it. One day, Athena shows up in disguise (because gods love a good mask) and tells you to stop moping around and go find news of your father. So, you set sail with no real plan, no real power, and a whole lot of unresolved resentment. You brave the seas, deal with cryptic kings, and what do you find? Nothing concrete, just more stories about how amazing Odysseus is. And then, just when you’re starting to think you’ve wasted your time, he shows up. But he turns out to be a killing machine, and you’re in the middle of the bloodbath, trying to keep up while the suitors are out for your head. At one point, they literally use you as bait to corner the king. Your father.

The first words you hear him say? Not to you, but to his enemies: “My mercy has long since drowned. It died to bring me home.’’ Imagine, how does that sit with you? You’ve spent your whole life dreaming of this reunion, hoping for a lovely father, a protector, maybe even a friend. Instead, you get this: a stranger soaked in blood, declaring that mercy — the thing you’ve clung to, the thing your mother embodies — has no place in his world.

But then he turns to you.

And suddenly, everything shifts. He looks at you, really looks at you, and says, “Oh my boy, the sweetest joy I’ve known.’’ The walls he’s built, the hardness he’s worn like armor, crack just enough for you to see the man underneath. For the first time, he’s not Odysseus the warrior, or Odysseus, the son of Laertes. He’s your father. He is Odysseus, father of dear Telemachus.

It doesn’t erase the pain, the years of absence, or the violence you just witnessed. But for that moment, it doesn’t matter. Because for the first time in your life, the man who’s been a myth, a memory, and a mystery, is standing in front of you — and he’s calling you his joy.

[xixovart]

can you draw Penelope and Telemachus?

used to sloanslone's designs bc i have yet to come up with my own THEY ARE SO AKJWNAKBDNQ

[naminimimmifonn]

Fight little... WOLVES?

I present to u my first Telemachus and Ismene (Eurylochus daughter) designs!

More taking abt them below ↴

I made Ismene a long time ago but never had the time to give her an actual design. You can see how her clothing is similar to Perimedes' making reference to the fact that both of them are Eurylochus' children

After Eurylochus sailed to Troy Ctimene discovered that she was pregnant, and kept her husband updated trough letters, so even if Eurylochus knew abt his daughter, it wasnt a lot.

Since she was young, Ismene felt really interesting in learning how to fight, but couldn't learn bc she was a girl. However, Penelope & Ctimene, afraid of her security decided that she would train with her aunt.

When she grow up, she met Ares and he became his patron god and mentor, giving her the chance to fight against the suitors when they first arrived, with made them banned her from Ithaca.

When her mother remarried, she started telling Ismene abt how her real father would return and kill his step father, and that they will live happily. Ismene didnt have a good relation with her step father due to the fact that she remind him of Eurylochus.

Babygirl also returned to Ithaca to fought the suitors and kick their asses (like in the drawing)

She's also married with Megapenthes (Menelaus' son) in the future 🤍 so dw guys she will be happy

[myblacknightworld]

Reading the Oresteia, being just on page 9 and talking about Iphigenia's sacrifice, and Agamemnon's making me cry. He was so sad 😭😭😭

[thefage]

I love the Epic The Musical soundtrack so much for so many different reasons. First, it feels really cyclical, the stories were originally told in poetic verse in the form of hymns, then written down, and now they're once again being told in poetic verse in the form of songs, and I think that's beautiful. Humans can't stop telling stories and making poetry and singing songs, and the musical honors the spirit of the original medium of telling the story really well but pots a modern twist on it. I also love the range of emotions the songs stir up. Each one inspires me to create or learn in a different way. Some songs make me want to ice skate, some make me want to learn more about various weaponry, some make me want to play the cello, and some make we want to draw. The only exception to this being Legendary, which, for the first half, makes me want to skate, but then there's the jarring transition to the second half, which just makes me feel like I've been body-checked by a bunch of hockey players, and then it's supposed to be followed by Little Wolf, which is a song that just generally makes me want to climb the walls and do stuff.

[geneticdriftwood]

telemachus be nice to your mom challenge

[illeaadante]

Penelope: [looks at all of the dead suitors all over her house]

Odysseus: [looks at Penelope]

Penelope: so, I know that you've just gotten back from 10 years of war and 10 years of I'm not even sure I want to know what

Odysseus: you don't

Penelope: right. And this is kinda old news, but did you hear about Clytemnestra?

Odysseus: I haven't heard anything about her

Penelope: She killed Agamemnon

Odysseus: really? Good for her. Good for her, I knew she could do better.

Penelope: yeah, she was smote basically right after, but she Did kill him.

Odysseus: that sounds about right. Hope the gods gave her at least a little while to bask though, if anyone deserved it, it was her.

Penelope: that's what I thought. I mean, I know this is kinda small news comparatively but--

Odysseus: no, no. This is good. I missed this. Just us, talking.

Penelope: I missed this too. Hundreds of men in my house, and the only decent conversation I could get was with my own son.

Odysseus: .... y'know, I only killed a little over 100 just now...

Penelope: if some of our guests happened to fall off a balcony or two and into the sea, really it was their fault for standing so close to the edge of such old balconies.

Odysseus: we *haven't* replaced those balconies in a while. It's a shame, but there's nothing you could have done.

Penelope and Odysseus: [smile at each other]

Telemachus: [gagging in the corner because, ew, his parents are so in love and he's gonna need to move out for a *year* while they get 'reacquainted']

[katerinaaqu]

Take a moment to cry at how incredibly depressed Menelaus was. He admits that Telemachus is a spitting image of his father (noting his arms etc even the expression in his eyes being identical), he knew the guy for decades (from their youth from the Oath of Tyndareus till the 10 years of war at Troy) and yet he didn't recognize Telemachus 😭😭😭

Homer could have written Menelaus mistaking Telemachus for Odysseus and rushing at him or something but no! He did something better!

Menelaus was so depressed and sad for thinking Odysseus perished or imprisoned by Calypso that he looked Telemachus in the eye, spoke to him and STILL didn't see Odysseus in him and he needed Helen to point out the family resemblance! That level of depression is just amazingly written! 😭😭😭

Menelaus deserves more love and analysis!

[vyunok-obyknovenniy]

(From Fagles' translation) Book 17 Stranger at the Gates <...> Now, as they talked on, a dog that lay there lifted up his muzzle, pricked his ears … It was Argos, long-enduring Odysseus’ dog he trained as a puppy once, but little joy he got since all too soon he shipped to sacred Troy. In the old days young hunters loved to set him coursing after the wild goats and deer and hares. But now with his master gone he lay there, castaway, on piles of dung from mules and cattle, heaps collecting out before the gates till Odysseus’ serving-men could cart it off to manure the king’s estates. Infested with ticks, half-dead from neglect, here lay the hound, old Argos. But the moment he sensed Odysseus standing by he thumped his tail, nuzzling low, and his ears dropped, though he had no strength to drag himself an inch toward his master. Odysseus glanced to the side and flicked away a tear, hiding it from Eumaeus, diverting his friend in a hasty, offhand way: “Strange, Eumaeus, look, a dog like this, lying here on a dung-hill … what handsome lines! But I can’t say for sure if he had the running speed to match his looks or he was only the sort that gentry spoil at table, show-dogs masters pamper for their points.”

You told the stranger, Eumaeus, loyal swineherd, “Here—it’s all too true—here’s the dog of a man who died in foreign parts. But if he had now the form and flair he had in his glory days— as Odysseus left him, sailing off to Troy— you’d be amazed to see such speed, such strength. No quarry he chased in the deepest, darkest woods could ever slip this hound. A champion tracker too! Ah, but he’s run out of luck now, poor fellow … his master’s dead and gone, so far from home, and the heartless women tend him not at all. Slaves, with their lords no longer there to crack the whip, lose all zest to perform their duties well. Zeus, the Old Thunderer, robs a man of half his virtue the day the yoke clamps down around his neck.” With that he entered the well-constructed palace, strode through the halls and joined the proud suitors. But the dark shadow of death closed down on Argos’ eyes the instant he saw Odysseus, twenty years away. <...>

one last job

[numbuh24insane]

Ares: Bend your knees, bounce on the balls of your feet, always keep moving when in a fight. You’re smaller! You’re weaker! You’re pathetic! So, you better make up for your failures with moxie! Once you get hits in, never stop letting up!

Telemachus: I uhh, okay sir! But you said you knew my dad. What is he like?

Ares: . . . A far better warrior than I deserved.

Telemachus: Huh?

Ares: I said a far better man than you are! Now give me twenty laps! Your weak body needs work if we you are to kill those suitors!

[xixovart]

even before the wisdom saga and the love in paradise moment, i always thought that odysseus claiming he’d die for penelope and/or telemachus was kind of. yk. far off? not that he wouldn’t die for them, because he would, that just doesn’t mean much coming from him.

idk if i make sense, but what i mean is the threat of dying isn’t so heavy on odysseus as it is on everyone else. he doesn’t edge away from death. especially after thunder bringer, odysseus would welcome death with open arms (i didn’t realize tyat until i typed it i am so, so sorry. not gonna erase it though. it enhances my point.) it’s not something he fears, it’s something he longs for. he wants to let go. he wants to close his eyes and be done with all this. with the suffering and heartache. so saying he’d die for penelope and telemachus is hardly the sentiment it would be for most people.

now, saying he’d live, that’s another topic.

[wukyma]

yeeop hi, it’s me, the loser who’s writing fanfic for your ghost antinous au! i’ve got some vague and ideas and a decent amount of words done but i saw one of your posts saying you’re writing a document for the au?

i’m thinking i’ll be waiting for that before i make any other big writing decisions, i’m very excited for it :D

Ahhh sorry for the confusion, that was for another thing :'D

Regardless, I do have some ideas for ghost Antinous if you're interested!

(sorry for mentioning but u said u were interested too so @bb-bugspot)

Yappery under the cut 👇

You know that Hermes was also a guide for the dead? One of his "jobs" was bringing souls of mortals to the underworld – the 108 suitors as well, apparently, and whether they were buried appropriately or not doesn't really matter here

What happens? A certain ghosty someone (Antinous) spends the whole day trying to strangle both Odysseus and Telemachus (spoiler: he can't), missing Hermes' arrival to Ithaca like a loser ☆ﾟ⁠.⁠*⁠･⁠｡ﾟ

Hermes bringing a hoard of souls to the underworld: let's see... One, two, three, four... ten......... nah I'm too lazy to do that, bye idiots *flies away*

Now we have Antinous, stuck in the mortal plane where no one can see him, having to watch the happy and thriving family, annoyed, jealous, and alone. Like he deserves tbh

And since I was leaning into comedy in the beginning, Telemachus starting to hear (and later even see; idk maybe Hermes' heritage activated or smth) him is a source of all kinds of moments where he has to act like ✨ everything is fine ✨ while there's an angry dude screaming in his ear "PAY ATTENTION TO ME"

If we sprinkle it with sad vibes then Antinous is pestering Telemachus for two reasons:

he hates him and has nothing better to do anyway

it's the closest thing to human interaction he has now lol

Basically talking to (read: pissing off) Telemachus is the only entertainment, and as time passes he just becomes something of a voice of conscience but diametrically opposed, and by that I mean:

"Who does this prick think he is?! Kick his ass Tele KICK HIS ASS"

"Wow, loser (Peisistratus probably idk) actually likes you, what a moron. You too btw"

Probably the first thing Telemachus sees in the morning too,, poor boy; maybe Antinous even tries to trip him up from time to time (they can't touch each other but small things like these work), invades his personal space, swipes off random objects from their designated surfaces, talks shit during family dinners (Telemachus actually thinks some of it is funny but he won't say that out loud, nuh uh) Penelope and Odysseus are a bit concerned about the strange expressions he makes XD

That dynamic goes on until the moment Antinous says a particularly foul joke and Telemachus slaps him (not really hoping for anything since every time he tried his hand just went through); the hit lands, both are like wtf just happened??? That puts an end to random chaos because (1) Telemachus is older now and will/can beat the shit out of him (2) Antinous just doesn't find the same satisfaction in annoying the prince like before, for some reason

So they just....... come to accept the situation and stick together like the weirdest pair of mismatched socks. END

(one more crumb of comedy material: Antinous now drops random objects on people's heads when they disrespect Telemachus or some similar thing)

That's it! There's one important thing I wanna say tho,, what I wrote is just my vision, if you had something else in mind and it doesn't align with this don't worry too much!! I want to know your ideas as well, and honestly, there wasn't a lot of thought put in cooking up an actual plot on my side; write whatever you feel like writing, I'm already happy those sketches inspired somebody X)

(And! Guys!! A bit of disclaimer: it's not like I'm sticking fingers in ears and going lalalalalala when it comes to Antinous' canon jerk behavior, or justify him – this whole au retains ✨funsies rights✨, don't take it too seriously please)

[minjeungsno1fan]

DRDT x EPIC (part one?)

design notes for the nerds like me v

DAVID

He is wearing a diadem, which is the crown worn by Ancient Greek kings, as he is the King of Ithaca in this AU.

The chain holding his glove on is made of silver, which is the same material Min’s armour is made of.

His cape was a gift from Teruko (Penelope) that she gave him before he left to go to war.

After Survive, he takes Eden’s gem and uses it as the clip holding his cape on.

After My Goodbye, he loses his gloves as he no longer has connection to Min.

After Ruthlessness, Xander gives him his bandana.

After Monster, he loses his diadem as he is no longer the merciful King of Ithaca that left for war all those years ago.

EDEN

She is holding a lotus fruit, which she got when she and David went to the island of the lotus-eaters.

David takes the gem on her belt when she dies and replaces the star on his cape with it.

She’s the only mortal character with non-fingerless gloves.

XANDER

He actually still has his eye (until Mutiny, when David pulls it out during their fight), he wears the eyepatch to help him see better out of his other eye while fighting.

He’s the only mortal character to always hold a weapon to foreshadow him leading the mutiny against David.

He gives David his bandana after Ruthlessness as a silent apology for opening the bag.

MIN

She’s the only character who only wears silver armour/accessories to separate her from the mortal characters.

After We’ll Be Fine, she adds a wolf pin to her cape to symbolise her friendship with Nico (Telemachus).

She’s glowing because she is a goddess.

Her spear is made of gold as it is a more precious metal than bronze, and gods deserve the best of the best.

Her arm-guard have feathers engraved in them.

The type of owl she’s specifically based on is the tawny owl, which are brown and white/silver.

During the time dive in Love in Paradise, her cape turns into a functional pair of wings. She also uses this while arguing for David’s sake in God Games.

Her hair is not actually pink, it’s just glowing.

[animangalover-writes]

Yk it really bothers me when I see people talking about eurylochus and the crew like they were the problem. It just feels like everyone is just missing the point. Yes they stopped listening to ody, yes eurylochus opened the wind bag, but that's what makes them so human.

Picture this, you leave your home to fight in a war. It takes literal years for this war to be over. You've lost friends, you miss your family, you've been through hell. You're starving and your captain tells you they found food on this island.

And then the cyclops happens. More friends die, you barely escape with your life, and your captain gives his name to the creature that killed your friends.

And everything after that is a direct cause of that decision.

So you hesitate to trust him. Yes he's smart, he's capable, he always has a plan. But he would do anything to get home, and you know that. So when he comes back to the ship claiming to have a bag full of wind, and when he refuses to let anyone near, refuses to trust his own crew, you get suspicious.

Its been about a decade by this point, and your captain seems to get more and more desperate to get home. A god is after you. Odysseus is forcing himself to stay away, all to make sure nobody touches that bag.

Its human, it's realistic, it makes sense that someone would open the bag. Because odysseus stopped trusting you, and so you stop trusting him. So you open the bag.

I just find it frustrating that people look at the crew/eurylochus as bad guys because of this, as pawns for ody to get home and thats it. The point of the show is that ody has become a monster, has dealt with and left behind his humanity. We, as listeners, root for him. We give him grace because of his circumstances. Because he's the main character.

But for some reason, people don't give that same grace to the crew. They're human, their circumstances are awful too. They have no idea if they will get home, they aren't sure then can trust their captain anymore. They question things. They make mistakes. They cause the deaths of others. It's human, its that feeling you get when you think that maybe hope is lost after all, it's what this story is about. Mistakes and loss and blame.

People dislike Eurylochus because he opened the bag. But odysseus gave the cyclops his name. And polites trusted the lotus eaters. And Athena told odysseus to be cruel to a fault. Nobody here is innocent, not really. And none of them knew better either. They were working with what they had, with the terrible circumstances at hand. It's no wonder they made mistakes. It's no wonder people died.

Why are we ignoring the humanity of the crew? Why are we arguing that they, or that eurylochus, deserved it? If the story was about them, odysseus would be seen as the bad guy. But he's the main character, so the others are stupid and wrong, right? All that matters is that odysseus gets home, right? Even if it costs the lives of his crew. His crew who stopped trusting him when he stopped trusting them. His crew who he sacrificed to get home.

I think we're missing the point here. Odysseus did become a monster, and although we cheer for him getting home and Penelope and Telemachus forgive him, we have to acknowledge that he did do terrible things. Those men will never see their families again. Why are we erasing that humanity in them?

Humans do bad things for the sake of saving themselves or the ones they love. That includes Odysseus. That includes Eurylochus. That includes the crew. And that includes every other character in this musical.

[firestrike004]

Ok, so I'm posting again, only a few minutes after the last one, but who cares. I need to get my thoughts out about "Keep your friends close".

Odysseus talks about how he has stayed wide awake for nine days. We then see (in Gigi's animatic, at least) Penelope and Telemachus. The thing is, while Penelope is whole, we can see all of her and hear her voice just fine, we do not see that with Telemachus.

Telemachus' face is obscured, because Odysseus cannot imagine what his face looks like. He hasn't seen his son since he was just a newborn, so to imagine his face would be almost impossible.

I'm guessing that the reason we can see (Odysseus can imagine) the rest of Telemachus is because he imagines him as a mini version of himself. In his mind Telemachus has most of his genes, which is why he probably sees him so much alike himself at that age.

Additionally, we can't hear Telemachus' voice properly either. His voice is only barely heard in the background of Penelopes. This is because he can neither imagine his sons face or his voice.

It hurts my soul to think about. Odysseus deserves better :(