#polydectes

In Shadow of Perseus Polydectes not only that has a tragic background story (being a man who worked hard and won people's trust in order to become king and then tragically lost his wife and daughter) in order to appear more sympathetic, but it gets to a point where Danaë herself wants to marry him and we're supposed to appreciate him even more for willingly wanting to marry a woman above 35 with a child. 🙄

The sanitization of his character is just another way the author proves not only that her irrational hatred towards Perseus made her portray the actual big bad guy and final boss in a good light, but also that she doesn't understand how does abuse work. Polydectes wanted to marry Danaë against her own will and then, after she rejected him, he planned to send Perseus on a safe suicide mission in order to marry her, in some source he goes far enough to rape or enslave her. Just because she's not your conventional victim because she wasn’t young neither childless that doesn’t mean that her trauma is less important. Not to mention the fact that people tend to hyperfixate on physical appearence and claim that Danaë couldn't have been desired because she was no longer beautiful enough, when in most cases the most common reason behind SA is NOT sexual attraction but domination or control, and in this case particularly we have a man in power being uncapable of accepting that a single mother and vulnerable woman such as Danaë would refuse the advances of a goddamn king.

Speaking about Danaë, I find it deeply ironic that a so-called Feminist Retelling wasn't able to acknowledge the fact that a woman choosing not to marry even the king of an island despite of currently living in a fisherman's household and probably confronting her with the social stigma of being an unmarried woman Ancient Greece was ahead of those times. Danaë was actually the type of woman who didn't desire a husband even for a higher social status or financial stability, and you're here having her fall in love with that piece of shit because... because?!

Next we have Perseus, who, being the male guardian of his mother, feels entitled to her and doesn't allow her to marry Polydectes because he knows that he will become her protective figure then. It gets to a point of over-possessiveness that gives Perseus some freudian tendencies, even having him claiming that Polydectes wants to keep his mother all for himself. Which not only that is disgusting af, but directly erases the most important aspect of Perseus and Danaë's relationship from the original myths, namely that Perseus cared for his mother's wishes and would've done anything she wanted him to do. In some versions he doesn't even despise Polydectes but perceives him as a father-figure (before he betrayed him), and the only reason why he disapproved this marriage was because his mother didn't want to marry him.

Polydectes believed Medusa little more than a children's story, thought Perseus was going off on a wild goose chase, a snipe hunt. His courtiers were not so foolish however and when Perseus said he brought back Medusa's head, they wisely made their exit.

Perseus dreamed of dark and light, dreamed he was a king, dreamed he was a god's son, dreamed that Polydectes' limbs grew heavy and his limbs turned to sand and that he cried out. Perseus knew both dark and light, Perseus would go on to become the founder of Mycenae, Perseus was the son of Zeus and to save his mother from the tyrant Polydectes, he did see his limbs grow heavy, but if his blood turned to sand, who can say?

(which has to be why Ovid's version is more popular, because I've never met another person besides me who prefers Greek born as a monster Medusa actually sympathize with her)

Say EVERYTHING about Perseus's story stays the same except Medusa is a just a normal looking mortal women. Sure, people would still sympathize with Perseus and Danaë, but no one would ever agree that a random lady deserved to be killed by Perseus so Polydectes wouldn't get his way with Danaë.

But because Medusa's a monster with scary powers, she must have done something wrong (even though no one ever provides proof of her alleged crimes) and Perseus fans are totally fine justifying Medusa's death for Perseus and Danaë's happy ending when what Polydectes was doing wasn't Medusa's fault.

Why does Medusa get more hate than the actual villain that all 3 of these characters are a victim of? (Perseus because Polydectes tried to get him killed, Danaë because Polydectes was trying to rape her and force her into an unwanted marriage, & Medusa because Polydectes sent someone to kill her unprovoked)

Why can't people be upset on Medusa's behalf or hate Perseus for killing a stranger? (because again, despite the situation with Danaë, it wasn't Medusa's problem or her fault, and she didn't deserve to die for a stranger's happiness)

Danae not being mentioned in the synopsis is worrying, Andromeda is turned into a warrior-princess but hey at least Perseus is fighting for her instead of the gorgon(the bar is THAT low)