the hanged man oxidises

For starters the name of the character, no Odysseus there, however the full album and story takes heavily from The Iliad in fact almost the same general plot and resolution, changing the political and romantic conflict to a revolutionary and still heavily political but in a different way conflict (not mention of Helen or a parallel of her at all).

So Ulysses is Ulysses and has not gone through an Odyssey yet they did spent over twenty years at war and then in regret. Original Odysseus wanted nothing more than to get back home, to his kingdom and son but mostly to his dear Penelope, a woman who did everything to wait for him, in fact what else she did was focused on making sure everything was in place for when he got back. So obviously The Mechs (in meta) wanted to avoid that stereotype (that in some ways was set by the legend of Penelope herself) but this is where we do get to how UDAD does in fact relate to The Odyssey, somewhat.

Ulysses wins the war and regrets the massacre if not outright genocide they committed so they spend a decade or more drunk, high and or fucking but no Penelope to go back to. We find out in the end is because she is dead, but for how long? When did she die?

Admittedly I haven't read all of the lore posts so this whole thing might have been answered already but when she died is important here. If she died before the war on Ilium it sets Ulysses' mind (did the people of Ilium kill her somehow?) during the war also could have affected them (did she participate?) Or was it after the war? And for how long?

The tree next to which she is buried is stated to have been a beacon of rebellion that at least Ulysses if not her as well wanted to use, long ago. That beacon, that thing it symbolizes is death. True death, death as freedom, as liberation from the oppression of The Olympians.

That is what Ulysses is after, truly, they want to return to Penelope, to reunite with her, which they can only do in death.

oh yeah no i painstakingly pieced it together from the backgrounds of the udad vids on youtube

heres some more stuff, far from all of it but hopefully i get it all eventually lol

The Mechanisms - Fringe Fliers

Once Upon A Time In Space - 2012

Ulysses Dies At Dawn - 2013

High Noon Over Camelot - 2014

Combined - 2015

bc like losing track is an act 1 finale if ive ever heard it but red signal could be SUCH an act 2 opener bc like can you imagine.

Honey Heist (December 2018) - Two episodes  The first special I listened to! It’s entirely comedy so no need to keep track of a plot. It features Helen Gould and Bryn Monroe, who you won’t know if you haven’t listened to RQG before, as well as Ben and Alex. They play the rules light Grant Howitt game Honey Heist in which you, a team of literal bears, attempt to infiltrate Honey Con 2018. 

Fiasco Holiday Special 2017 - Two episodes 

The first half made me cry laughing and the second half made me. Well. Just cry. Like the ending is incredibly sad please read the TWs but it’s so good? Features Alex, Ben, Lydia, Anil and Bryn playing a game of Fiasco and without spoiling too much it involves ice skating, a jouranlistic feud, attempting to win your ex back via ice skating, the HR manager from your nightmares, and excessive reference to “Yuri on Ice” because it was 2017 and it was gay ice skating special of course there was. 

Monster of the Week - Three episodes + A setup 

This one has some actual serious plot to it! Ben DMs a game of Monster of the Week (Like from TAZ:A) for Helen, Alex and Sasha Sienna. It’s also quite sad in the end but just generally really excellent. Helen and Sasha play girlfriends, though only one of them is aware of this because she’s a ghost and the other thinks she’s dead. Alex plays the non-binary child whos stolen car they’re riding around the 80′s English countryside in. 

Space Pals - Two episodes 

Alex, Helen, Lydia, Ben and Tim Meredith play Space Pals, a DMless, diceless improv set on a space ship. It has no real plot it’s really just incredibly funny chaos and it’s one to jump in to if you’re a Stellar Firma fan because Ben and Tim continue to be Like That 

There’s also another two specials (Deadlands and Duskhollow PD) posted to the TMA feed which I assume people have listened to but are also delightful if you haven’t (Both features Jonny and Alex, I think the first one has Ben, Bryn and James Ross, and the second has Sasha, Frank Voss and Lowri Ann Davis)