RIP Polities Forever In Our Hearts

Sideblog for Jorge (Jay) Rivera-Herrans’ EPIC: The Musical concept album. Call me Ella! She/they. I’m very normal about these songs and characters and can be trusted with them promise

[the-ace-reader]

Antinous, to the other suitors: Aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you want to go APE SHIT?

Odysseus, standing behind him: Yes. :)

Antinous, .2 seconds before death: Oh, shi-

[roseofithaca]

Calypso: For once I wish you would lie and say-

Odysseus: I love you.

Calypso: You do?

Odysseus: But not in the way that you want me to.

Calypso: So....like a friend?

Odysseus: No, like Stockholm Syndrome.

[heliomanteia]

I actually like how Epic did Calypso.

It did not shy away from her dangerous/forceful nature in the previous saga and in this one she's just deeply non-sympathetic while compelling. Her vocals are overpowering Odysseus, she's overtaking the narrative. She shouldn't be but she is, and it fits her mythical character.

Not Sorry for Loving You is such a backwards "apology" and I love it because it fits Calypso perfectly. It's weird to say but I'm actually glad they didn't shy away from correctly portraying a character that never "learned to be better" in the original source.

Like, this is a Goddess, not a human. She does not have human morality, she is wrong for what she did to Odysseus. Her emotions are selfish, she's incapable of understanding that she hurt this mortal. She's convinced she's the one hurt and the world is unfair, and that's unreliable narration but it's so good.

Calypso I hate you and I love you.

[im-fine-polities]

Odysseus: wait, if you didn’t fight for me, then who?

Hermes:

[lovely-p-issues]

[im-fine-polities]

He still tried. After everything. Odysseus still tried for mercy. He claims time and time again to have thrown away his morals but that man cannot stop himself from trying.

He wanted it to be over. He wanted to go home. Haven’t the both lost enough? Poseidon’s son is blind. Odysseus’ crew is dead. Aren’t the both tired? Don’t they want to stop? Despite everything, in spite of it even, can’t they both rest?

But Poseidon says no.

And what else can Odysseus do? You want him to become a monster? Fine. He’ll be a monster.

[botanicallyinclinednerd]

Absolutely adore and am devastated by how in Dangerous the start of Full Speed Ahead is mirrored, but in the spot where the crew would say, "Make it back alive to our homeland," there's nothing! Because Odysseus is alone. His crew is dead. They did not achieve their goal. 600 men never get to make it home.

[botanicallyinclinednerd]

Congratulations, Poseidon! You taught Odysseus a lesson on ruthlessness! You successfully made a man into a monster! Now reap what ya sowed, buddy

[glacierruler]

Yeah your fav just tortured a god. Yeah it's the same god that's been tormenting him since he left the cyclops cave. Yeah, the god didn't see this coming either.

[astrothii]

odysseus tried to stop poseidon with the power of friendship and when that didn’t work went immediately to the power of Extreme Violence

[mumder]

Wouldn't you like ✨️

[sourgrapelaffytaffy]

"How will you sleep at night?"

"Next to my wife."

[epicthemusicalstuff]

[epicthemusicalstuff]

HE DID NOT JUST-

[epicthemusicalstuff]

Want to hear a random Epic head canon I have, that has absolutely no ties to canon but I like it because it’s heart wrenching?

That the tune that Anticlea sings Waiting to, that the tune is that of an old lullaby Anticlea used to sing to baby Odysseus. I like to think that one part of the musical is actually sung, that in the underworld she sings to same song, maybe even the lyrics were once a part of a lullaby. Odysseus is then haunted not only by his mother, but by a song from when he was a child- adding another layer of nostalgia and heartbreak-

[epicthemusicalstuff]

I love y’all too <3

[specialagentartemis]

Re-listening to the Troy Saga and. I know we dunk on Polites a lot for his "greet the world with open arms" attitude coming immediately off a ten-year war but also. Listening to it again is making me go. He knows what he's doing. It's deliberate, it's conscious. "You can relax, my friend." "I know that you're tired of the war and bloodshed / Tell me, is this how we're supposed to live?" The war is over. Let it be over. We're going home. "Look at how you grip your sword; enough said." You're carrying the war with you. Don't bring the pain and death and fear and grief of the war home with you. You don't have to keep being like this. It's over. Greet the world with open arms; the war is over and we can start over. We don't have to approach the world like we're at war with it anymore. Isn't that better, that we don't have to anymore? Can't you let it be better now?

(Yes, this is a very modern mindset about war, not a Homeric Greek one. Epic is a modern story. Deal.)

So when Polites dies, it's not just the death of Odysseus's hope and optimism and moral compass, personified; it's the death of the option to let it be over. It's the death of his ability to Just Go Home. Especially as Polites's death leads directly to Odysseus's response ("The next time that you dare choose not to spare, remember them... remember us... remember me.") "Open Arms" really contributes in setting up the thematic throughline of mercy vs. ruthlessness, kindness vs. violence, but more than just making a moral argument for mercy and kindness, it dangles the hope that the ruthless, violent attitude that won the war can be put away, and Odysseus won't need it anymore. And then, well, that hope gets very violently taken away.

[coquexari]

This life is amazing...