Telemachus Complains About A Headache And Athena Flips Her Shit Because God Damn It She's Already Trying

Telemachus complains about a headache and Athena flips her shit because God damn it she's already trying to make sure this kid's dad gets home in one piece she CANNOT try to guide him through a teen pregnancy on top of that

antisemitism is on the rise and it needs to be talked about but a lot of posts doing that belong to blogs that support imperialism, defend brutality, and deny apartheid. i know this is the "i don't do homework on OPs" website but fuck, please be careful

I know people really like disheveled Odysseus but like, wouldn't it be worse if during his stay at calypso's island he's the most cleaned up and groomed he's ever been during his voyage. His hair is long and silky smooth, his beard is trimmed, his clothes are pristine and hang nicely from his body. Calypso treats him like a prized possession, and how could she possibly let it (her pet? her toy?) get unkempt and scruffy? Idk something about him having a complete lack of agency and no choice in even the way he looks and his stay in a supposed paradise reflecting on his person

Does the tumblr side of the Epic fandom know the wholesome Antonious cover based on a snippet of a future song because I can’t get it out of my head

Honestly, this is a masterpiece in it's own right! Like, the way it's so beautifully animated, how the music changes with each princess and how the long quiet reacts in special ways with all of them. If this was what the countdown was building up to, I'd be satisfied.

The adversary is violent and abrubt, as strong, intense beats sing in the background.

The nightmare is a playful and the razor's is pretty similar to adversary, while lovely there ain't much to say about these two.

there's also the damsel, which I think is the saddest of all of them. The music is a (kinda) hopeful piano song, but it's also quite mournful. the long quiet is also notably less fearful, and his face when he sees the first being kind to him leave... it just breaks my heart a little.

And just the dance for you!

It’s interesting how both the Smitten and the Skeptic kill you.

If you kill the Princess, they both visit the same fate upon you, overriding your input. However, their respective motivations are very different.

The Smitten does it out of distraught, furious bereavement; he kills us as much out of rage and revenge as he does grief. The Skeptic, meanwhile, kills us when the Narrator traps us (the way he does in the good ending). However, the Skeptic is not like the Hero; he does not let us decide when he recognizes the circumstances we have found ourselves in.

One of the most generous ways to read the Smitten/Damsel relationship is that it represents the honeymoon phase. Smitten and Damsel have just met, think the world of each other, will do anything for each other, want to make each other happy, and dismiss each other's flaws when the Hero or the Narrator voices them. They are driven not by what they know but by their initial impressions and emotions.

This perspective leaves them both oblivious or apathetic to the Narrator’s machinations; they can ignore or overpower him. The shackle slips right off the Damsel's wrist. The locked door swings open. Even murdering the Damsel is not enough to dampen her love for you; all that does is turn it murderous again via the Burned Grey.

On the other hand, information drives the Skeptic and the Prisoner. They do not know each other. You took the blade when you went to meet her, and she killed you. These two can’t trust each other. Not completely. Because neither trusts without verifying first. And because, besides all that, there’s another factor in play: the Narrator.

Both the Skeptic and the Prisoner are aware of the Narrator. Both know that no matter what they want or do, something outside of them has the power to interfere. And their weapon of choice against him is information. The Prisoner plays dumb unless you “-give away the game,” and even then, she doesn’t reveal her plan. Not even to you. Instead, she hopes you take the hint and figure out what she wants you to do. Likewise, when you try to give her the knife to enact the plan, the Narrator tries to stop you as he did before, and the Skeptic thwarts him by pointing out how well that went the last time.

In contrast to the Damsel/Smitten pair, these two have one of the least emotionally charged dynamics of any Shifty/Quiet duo but have mutual respect and an understated sense of partnership that few other pairs start out with. Though the Drowned Grey’s motivation is not the explicit love of her counterpart, she’s still dressed like a widow to parallel the Burned Grey’s wedding dress.

And speaking of the Greys, they bring home the contrasting yet parallel dynamics between these Princesses and their Voices: one is fire, one is water. One has a passionate affect, the other a flat affect. One leaves behind only bones, the other a fleshy corpse. One is a bride, the other is a widow. Killing the Princess you defied the Narrator to save results in a Grey, a ghost dressed for marriage (future or past), that leads you to the basement of a dilapidated cabin that serves as your gruesome tomb.

The Damsel/Prisoner/Greys have many superficial differences that highlight how similar they are once you look beyond them. If played straight, the Damsel/Prisoner is a route where you continue to defy the narrator. The Damsel wants to leave? Pull off her chain and escort her out. The Prisoner wants to escape her chains? Give her the knife and take her head with you. Both are routes where you've established the best report with the Princess you could; you've literally died to protect her. Following this, you can take advantage of that goodwill and use it against the Narrator.

And in the case of the Greys, while the details are different (rain/desert, widow/bride, bones/corpse, drowning/burning) in both cases you're lead to your doom by a betrayed ghost of a Princess in a neglected cabin.

Various Voices and Princesses serve as foils and mirrors to each other (Rivalry and Submission, Terror and Longing, etc.), but none more closely than the Damsel/Prisoner Smitten/Skeptic. It makes them especially interesting and I'm excited to see what their future third chapters have in store.