dark academia reject

just like everyone else around her who knew grace.

carl’s hair is gray, there’s bags under his eyes. the agents and the engineers have prominent lines on their faces. the diplomats are balding.

but she watches grace. she hears his laugh that doesn’t have the strain that hers does nowadays.

he is as young as the night, as warm as the sun. just as witty as she remembers.

as brave as the day he ran away.

as soft as the day she killed him.

at least i never have to hear you say, “i told you so.”

even though you were right.

The Greeks used the excuse of a woman and the war of gods to wage war with an economic competitor, then showed up on their enemy's shores and broke their own laws of hospitality to win the war and ransacked the city and its people. The story of those actions traveled the world, making everyone afraid of the "people from the sea," even the Greeks who WERE the people from the sea.

The suitors cried about the laws not being upheld for them but were unwilling to uphold them themselves. The same society was terrified of this invisible enemy that would invade because of their lack of morals, unaware that THEY are the ones who broke the laws first. They are their own boogeyman. The fear of foreignors was never about the actions of foreignors but their own actions.

The gods haunt the narrative as an ideal. If they were confirmed real, then this movie becomes a warning against breaking away from "the correct religion." Instead, it is a warning of how mutual care and respect for your fellow man, whether gods exist or not, is the backbone of society, and without it, morality becomes something to twist and fear monger.

The gods couldn't exist in this adaptation, so a lot of the plot points involving the gods had to be changed or left out. "Nobody" only matters if Odysseus doxxes himself for poseidon to punish. (The crew members insisting that they definitely heard the cyclops say posiedon and jumping to the conclusion that he was poseidon's son and they were cursed was a great change in my opinion.) The wind bag can only exist if the gods exist. Athena can only guide Telemechus and Odysseus if the gods exist. ("Athena" potentially only being Odysseus's guilt for the preistess he let die who only shows up in times where his actions in Troy are thematically important was *chef's kiss*.) The Trojan War is only a war sanctioned by the gods if the gods exist. Odysseus being stuck with Calypso for so long needs another reason (the lotus) if it's not by the will of the gods. What would Circe and Calypso be like if they weren't eternal goddesses? Did the crew go to Hades, or did they just perform a spell that raised the dead?

Magic and Monsters can still exist without the gods, and everything else can be explained by superstition, nature, and bad luck. The ideal of the gods haunt the narrative so wonderfully.

I'm not a fan of Nolan's directorial aesthetic, but for the themes he wanted to explore, I think this was a fantastic retelling of the original. Accuracy isn't and shouldn't always be the goal. Sometimes, taking an existing story and making something new in order to speak to a different aspect of humanity is all we can really hope for.

Also me, scrolling the tag for (1) minute:

Ive seen a lot of criticism for it, especially here on Tumblr, and I understand it, but there's something we need to take into account.

This is an adaptation of the classic, it is not going to be the same. This is not the classic odyssey, and I believe the major difference is that it is teaching a different lesson/theme.

The classic's lesson/theme is to not be hubristic, do not think yourself above the gods, and do not make stupid decisions based on pride.

The movie's lesson/theme is not to do things you would not like to be done to you, to follow Zeus's law, and that society falls when people do not treat eachother well.

So the movie is written differently, it focuses much less on Odysseus's hubris, and more on what he did in Troy.

I think one of the biggest criticisms Ive seen is actually one that supports my point on the movie being written with a different message. And that is the exclusion of the nobody scene.

In the classic, that was Odysseus's big moment of hubris, it was the moment that dammed him and his crew. It is a key point in the theme of the classic odyssey.

In the movie, it is not there, because it is not needed for the new theme. The key point in the movie is what Odysseus did to Troy, how he broke the rules and did something incredibly cruel, and how he continued some of that cruelty, how he became "the people from the sea". The nobody scene was cut out because it did not fit the new theme.

Now I hear you asking, why would they change the theme? Wanna know why? Because the world has changed a lot since the classic was written. The movie was written for a modern audience, and the classic for an ancient one. (Note that I am not saying that the classic is no longer applicable or good, I love the classic).

When you look at the two themes I have presented, which one is more applicable to a modern world? Don't belive yourself better than the gods, or treat others how you want to be treated? I think the second one applies to the world we currently live in much more.

The story the classic odyssey told is one we all know well, and the movie decided to do what a good adaptation should and it made it more applicable to a modern audience, and made interesting and creative changes.

Ok, Ill wrap this up now, but one last thing.

I don't think the type of people on Tumblr were the target audience. And thats ok. The target audience was not those of us that love Greek mythology and Epic the musical (both of which I adore), and thats ok. We don't need to be the target audience. The target audience was mainly people who love action movies, epic adventures, and have not touched Greek mythology since high-school. And thats ok. Who knows, maybe this movie will get more people into Greek mythology and history, and they'll learn more, and thats awesome!

just made some bullshitttt this time rocky trying out a human body avatar style HAHAHA

he can only do expressions subconsciously lmao he probably has the meanest stink eye

Ambush hunters

Part 3 of the comic

I like to think that Grace often does little daily affirmations with Prism

Thank you for putting Prism on artfight @sharkfiinn, they're so cute!