As someone who adores the song of achilles and literally analyzed it in one of my lit classes in high school (everyone else who took ap lit iykyk): it's so incredibly important for people to understand that despite ilya being the spitting image of achilles, he ISN'T HIM.
Achilles is someone who, from birth, has been hailed as the greatest fighter in the world. He has parents who love him (ignoring the circumstances of their "marriage" and the marital rape that birthed achilles himself; they hate each other but love him; if anything, I'd be interested in seeing a comparison between yuna, an otherwise healthy parent who pushes her son too much without realizing, and thetis, a goddess with a hatred of all men except for her son, who both desires greatness from and devastatingly loves him in a way that isn't quite what he needs). More importantly, he has mountains of pressure on his shoulders to live up to the legend behind his name, leading to him making bad choices after becoming obsessed with his legacy.
Who does that sound like?
Patroclus, on the other hand, was born to a king clinging onto power, desiring more at any cost, and a child bride whose heavily implied mental illness passed onto patroclus himself. At the first mistake he's discarded by his father to be sent to a foreign land, where he becomes the best friend and confidante to another prince. They should hate one another, but end up being equals in a way they aren't with anyone else, and fall in love because there's no world in which they aren't soulmates. Patroclus would give everything for achilles, and achilles would give everything for patroclus, even as both of them are cursed by fate and the higher powers.
Who does that sound like?
And lets be honest, ilya impulsively dressing up in shane's armour to rally their troops, and shane razing the earth in grief after his death feels so much like them. Whoever the equivalent to priam is having to beg shane to let him bury his dead son's body, because shane's rage and grief is so all consuming he has no mercy or leniency left to give. Ilya's heart breaking from beyond the grave watching his love become a self fulfilling prophecy, losing his will to live without him. SHANE IS ACHILLES, ILYA IS PATROCLUS, YOU'RE ONLY BOOING ME BECAUSE I'M RIGHT‼️
tangentwithtanner
izzy806
amandla
blakekathryn
origamiaround
prguitarman
