Not only do i like to make plans, but i's also something i kind of have to do to picture the place and make it plausible and accurate - escpecially if i want to make a comic.

That plan fixes the mistakes i made for the lounge one i did last year. I still believe the lounge looks like this somewhat, but i picture it wider now, the room was too small. Making those plans i had to remember that a usual exy team can fit up to 30ish people in it, so common rooms had to be large, each locker room should be able to fit ~15 people and so forth.

you, the player, are aware there is a right choice for the wellbeing of the 'real' people of the game's world. you, the player, have also been playing an acutely suicidal protagonist for the majority of your playtime. what do you do? do you keep a child who has already been there for thousands if not millions of in-canvas years, a child who is meant to be dead, in perpetual misery for the rest of time, while allowing flesh-and-blood people outside of the canvas to waste their lives, wither and die? do you continue to puppet your dead brother's likeness against his will, and force him to perform unto eternity? or do you ostensibly commit genocide against these people you have been spending the entire game getting to know and love for the sake of the one family (that you, the player, deem to be) more real than the rest of them?

Hate hate hate what they did with Odysseus's characterization like you cannot be serious. Who is Odysseus if not a sly clever liar (affectionate).

Now he's just some modern goody two shoes inner dilemma hero in a sea of them. They stripped him of his whimsy and cruelty both.

#NotmyOdysseus

There's not one moment in the film where I could go, ahh there he is Odysseus being Odysseus. Not one instance of him being clever, he's just lucky...

Didn't add the 'Nobody' scene but still made him shoot at Polyphemus which starts it all which doesn't even make sense with his characterization in the movie. The Polyphemus scene is supposed to highlight Odysseus's cleverness and hubris but the movie version of him has no pride!

Don't even get me started on Athena & Odysseus! Odysseus famously Athena's star pupil is not.... Instead she's haunting his guilt? Athena who famously interfered in the book to aid Odysseus like a lot... directly and behind the scenes.

In the book Mentor was actually Athena in disguise so I was so hoping for it to be her since Telemachus remarks multiple times about 'wise eyes' but no... it was about how you shouldn't see gods in people blah blah BORING!!!!

'Defy the Gods' Ah yes Odysseus famously devout follower of Athena...

I couldn't help but notice how dirty the female characters were done compared to their Epic counterparts and the erasure of Anticlea during the Underworld scene.

And I'd like to talk more about it, starting with Athena! She is one of the active players who guides both Odysseus's and Telemachus's journey. When Odysseus reaches Ithaca it was Athena who makes him look like an old beggar. Even in the final battle against suitors she deflects their spears to protect Odysseus and afterwards when nobles are angry Odysseus essentially killed their sons Athena steps in herself to establish the peace.

She is integral to the story, there is no Odyssey without her!! Odysseus only survived and made it back home due to her guidance and interference, removing her entirely is a disservice to the actual Epic being adapted.

And second character is Penelope, my Queen!!! I want to get this out of the way Anne Hathaway is in my personal opinion the standout of this film, she did amazing with what she was given. However that is to say, they didn't give her much. They cut off many Penelope moments that give us a taste of her own cleverness (making her a true partner for Odysseus) in favor of some simple status pin which isn't a good trade off imo.

The Olive Tree Bed moment was also not in the movie to my disappointment. A scene that clearly demonstrates how she tricks her own extremely clever trickster husband rather than some pin symbolism.

Circe and Calypso.... the less said about them the better though I hated their costuming.... Where were Circe's nymphs? or not nymphs since Nolan is allergic to whimsy even handmaidens? Circe is a powerful GODDESS 😭(Why was a raven/crow her sister? Was it supposed to be Pasiphae? If yes then I have so many more questions.)

I hate Calypso so i won't waste any words on her but its so funny that they made Odysseus eat Lotus Flower like lmaoooo you can't make this shit up..

I didn't like the costuming, the hair, the armor, the lightening either. I hated the look of Ithaca's palace and the ending like Odysseus... leaves Ithaca and his son after just arriving????

I also think it's so peculiar how Nolan didn't want an orchestra in sound design when the Homeric era didn't have that and then have everything else inaccurate from the armor design to the choice of modernised dialogue (surprisingly I didn't mind the modernised dialogue, not when the movie had larger issues).

Though props to them for making the pig transformation disturbing & sickening and not props for making Scylla lame ass design when her description is genuinely so horrifying, I believe the Odyssey could have been Nolan's first venture into VFX- nothing wrong with a little of it especially while adapting mythological creatures though disappointingly Nolan still clings to his practical only approach.

Also props for a good Eurylochus, making me side eye him and still making me feel sorry for him at the same time.

Side minor note: icky that they cast a black woman for Helen only for her to be abused and miserable when the source material makes no note of it, not a good look imo.

Also since they did deviate from the Poem of the Odyssey and included references to other Epic cycles, I wish they could have added Palamedes and Odysseus acting insane since I felt like the setup for it was there in the film with the scene of Odysseus and Penelope before war and it could be a scene to show again, his prominent cleverness that's direly missing from the film.

When the Trojans put a spear in the horse to verify, I had thought in that moment it was a reference to the omen of Laocoon and sea serpents would appear next but then it happened again and again and was just a tool to create tension.

(Again before anyone says Laoccon is not canon to Homer but neither is anything about the Trojan Horse except a few mentions in the Odyssey. If the sack of Troy has been expanded it would have been nice to see other epics being referenced.)

Why was Apollo the Sun God? What is this Percy Jackson?

All in all, if it was just any other standalone it would be strong 3.5 to 3.75 but as something that has source material an underwhelming 2.5 to 3.

The rating 3 is the average and generous because the film does look good so there's that.

Taking creative liberties in adapting an already existing source material is a thing but it's forgivable and completely understandable only as long as it serves its purpose to enchance the original material for a new medium but I feel like this movie changed the core of who Odysseus is as a character/person completely, erased his mentorship bond with Athena, erased his cleverness and trickster nature, whitewashed him and in the end the character isn't even identifiable as Odysseus anymore.

From Time Magazine interview that Nolan did it was noted that,

For Nolan, one of the hardest things about adapting The Odyssey is that in The Iliad, Odysseus has a relatively minor role. “A lot of the characteristics of Odysseus that can be really admirable in a supporting character, like being a bit clever, being a bit slick, when your hero is like that, it doesn’t always work,” he says. “There’s a reason that in Star Wars, you’ve got Han Solo, but you’ve also got Luke Skywalker, a heroic figure that’s a little more pure and transparent. So the challenge was to be true to the complexity of Odysseus but make him relatable for the audience.”

This line is so foundational to Andrew's character! I always see folk talk as if Andrew is neurologically incapable of regret, as if he cannot actually feel the emotion of regret. I think that Andrew can, and perhaps does, feel regret in canon. What the "Andrew doesn't believe in regret" line actually shows is that Andrew works hard to only make decisions that he can stand by - including his decision to be with Neil.

The idea that Andrew doesn't do regret comes up twice - and both times it's used to reassure Neil that Andrew wants him!

Renee says it first, after explaining how she and Andrew split protection of the Foxes:

At this point, andreil is well under way. Neil knows that Andrew likes him, and Neil is falling HARD for Andrew (This conversation w/ Renee happens immediately after the rooftop "90% / I want to see you lose control" conversation). In this context, telling Neil that Andrew doesn't believe in regret tells Neil that Andrew doesn't regret keeping him, that Andrew doesn't regret any of it: not the power that he's handed Neil, not Neil's interfering with his and Aaron's relationship, not any feelings that might be developing between them. It reaffirms Neil's vision of Andrew as strong, in control, a pillar that Neil can lean on without breaking - all the things that make Neil fall in love with Andrew.

The second mention of Andrew not doing regret is during Andrew and Neil's first kiss:

Here, Neil really wants to kiss Andrew! He is trying to reassure himself that it's ok to keep kissing him, given that Neil is convinced that he's going to die soon. This is the day that Neil calls Andrew for help mid panic attack, and the day that he buys Andrew the Maserati. Neil is fully aware that Andrew is important to him and already committed to not hurting him. So he takes Renee's words and uses them to reassure himself that Andrew IS strong enough and willing enough to take the consequences of his decisions, even if those consequences mean letting Neil in for this little bit of intimacy before Neil's inevitable death.

Funnily enough, when Neil is NOT trying to reassure himself that Andrew doesn't regret Neil himself, this is Neil's assessment of Andrew's capacity for regret:

Neil clearly disapproves of the Upperclassmen's attitude to Andrew. A missplaced sense of necessity - in other words, Neil thinks that Andrew is capable of regretting his actions and of understanding other people's anger. The Upperclassmen are wrong to think that Andrew is just wired to not feel emotion (wrong to think he's a "sociopath"). When really, Andrew does not regret his actions simply because he thinks that they were correct. [And this scene comes in between the 2 examples above, so we're not seeing Neil change his mind - we're literally seeing him clinging to the idea that Andrew doesn't regret when it comes to NEIL specifically!]

As for Andrew himself, he says the word "regret" only once in canon.... and it's when he agrees to go to the Hemmicks' for dinner. He tells Neil that: "we're all going to regret this". Which I mean, ouch. But also the line is "we" , which very clearly includes Andrew himself in the group of people who he expects to feel regret.

Tellingly, Neil's response to "we're all going to regret this" is to ask if Andrew really killed Tilda, and Andrew makes it clear that (a) he did kill her and (b) he doesn't regret it. I think it's interesting that the text is placed this way - as if to point out that Andrew's lack of remorse over Tilda is not because of his neurological wiring or even his trauma, but because his fully considered take on the situation is still that he did the right thing. Unlike going to the Hemmicks', which he doesn't think is the correct thing to do, and so is something he expects to regret.

This desire to keep a tight lid on his emotions by strictly controlling situations is completely in character for Andrew (and he doesn't just do it with regret! Fear too: "what were you doing on the roof?" "Feeling"). It's also in character to want complete control over his own actions - Andrew over-analyses and seeks to control every aspect of a situation so that his own actions are completely under his control, are exactly what HE wants to do (which is also why the medication is so very terrible for him!). Andrew doesn't believe in regret not because he doesn't feel the emotion, but because he is extremely CAREFUL to make choices that he will not regret. Regret is pointless (like guilt or shame) in the sense that if you have analysed the situation, set your mind on the outcome you want & acted accordingly, then what is there to be regret?

To be clear, I don't deny that Andrew experiences less emotion in general than is typical. We know that Andrew experiences numbness, and that he cares about very few things. Nora says in the EC that even post-canon he doesn't sulk or get grumpy, he's way more likely to just shut down entirely instead. @andrewminyard-josten says in this post that Andrew's apathy is both natural to him and a controlled self-defence mechanism - and I essentially agree with this. Andrew may experience less emotion because his neurology/trauma makes him prone to numbness - but at the same time he goes to efforts to manage and control the emotions that he DOES experience. Crucially, the full range of emotions are available to Andrew. He might feel them in a more muted way, or he might sometimes shut down rather than feel them - but avoiding an emotion like regret all together (not "believing" in regret) comes from his actions.

Are we even reading the same books????

Yall think Kevin, who as a Raven stood alone admiring the Trojans (because even Jean thought their kindness and fairplay were useless), who sent Jean to the Trojans because he wanted Jean to heal in a place where he could experience Exy without violence, this Kevin is gonna somehow be mad Jean has assimilated well to the team and their playstyle???

For fucks sake

"oh, but Kevin will be mad they are losing"...Kevin literally lost with the Foxes in their first game of the season, to a team he would have crushed with the Ravens, and he didnt throw a tantrum. He then lost to the Ravens and his attitude in the end of the game was to go help Andrew and give the Foxes attention. He has already lost games in way worst circunstances. I am pretty sure losing to the team he admires the most wont be what causes him to have a meltdown.

"oh but he will be frustrated he cant get through Jean" That man literally re-learned the entire game with his non dominant hand. This means he failed for MONTHS at things he used to do with his eyes closed. This means he had a hard time going through absolutely mediocre backliners in the beggining. And no, he didnt throw a tantrum or got out of the court stomping. He went back and practiced more and more and more and more. I am sure having a hard time against the best backliner in the league whom he deeply cares about and whose talent he deeply admires wont make him mad at all.

Not only I am sure. I know canonically what happens when someone talented poses a challenge for Kevin: he blooms in the best of all senses. Just take a look at TKM when Andrew finally decided to play at night practice and Kevin lost himself in their game.

Because the number one thing about Kevin's relation to Exy is that yes, he loves winning, but he loves the game much more. Kevin actually loves Exy itself. He wants to be the best, but he wants to be challenged. He wants to have other amazing players around him and against him too. The game is fun because there are other talented people that make It a challenge(If after everything you havent understood this very basic fact about him, then you shouldnt be analysing his character at all)

So no, he wont be mad Jean is amazing. Kevin knows Jean is amazing. He said It himself that Jean deserved nothing less than a big three team.

He also wont be mad that Jean is playing like a Trojan. That was the whole fucking point.

And no, he wont throw a tantrum about losing. Kevin spent his whole life accepting a second place that wasnt his because of spoiled child. He lost literally everything he had worked for, including his contract with the US Court. He lost against mediocre teams (at best). He lost to his old abusive team. I GUARANTEE yall that losing to the Trojans is not what will make him blow.