I think it is apparent by now that Hollyberry Cookie is Cookie Odysseus. (Spoilers for Crispia, Beast-Yeast, and Timeline of Fate)
So, story time! Last year in May, when they did the Eternal Sugar Cookie update, I saw all those memes using “Love in Paradise” where Hollyberry Cookie was Odysseus and Eternal Sugar Cookie was Calypso. That ended up with me going down a rabbit hole where I listened to the entirety of Epic the Musical on repeat. And after a while, I kept thinking “Wow, a lot of the songs in Epic the Musical fit Hollyberry Cookie really well, actually, that’s weird…” And then it occurred to me.
The Grandberry Market and Hollyberry Palace episodes of Crispia are a significantly less violent version of Odysseus’ return to Ithaca. Mostly the whole “competition to see who can rule” part of it. I’ll do a quick recap/summary of it.
So the story starts out with Pitaya Dragon getting impatient waiting for Hollyberry Cookie, and Jungleberry Cookie promising to find a warrior that can fight them, and later on holding the “Princess Contest”. Princess Cookie herself is just coming back from her escapades in the Tropical Soda islands when, lo and behold, she and Knight cookie get attacked from a Cookievorous, only to be rescued by a Hollyberry Cookie in disguise.
Princess Cookie goes through the competition with a bunch of other competitors, including Raspberry Cookie, until a cookie literally called “Shady Noble” rage-baits a drunk Pitaya Dragon (I assume they were drunk they had A LOT of juice.) into a rampage, where Hollyberry Cookie essentially takes her disguise off and reveals that not only is she back, but she really is the only one worthy enough to wield the Shield Of Passion.
A similar thing happens in Ithaca in the Odyssey. Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, had left to find his father. His title as heir to the throne is being challenged by a very loud and rude threat; Penelope’s suitors, who had decided to kill Telemachus for daring to find his father.
Odysseus returns in disguise, and helps out his son. After meeting disguised Odysseus herself, unaware that was her husband, Penelope decides then to make a challenge where whichever suitor is able to restring Odysseus’ bow (that was previously owned by Heracles, fun fact), will take the throne. Odysseus strings his bow and with his son’s help kills all the suitors while Athena does him a solid and also one of the first Deus Ex Machina’s in literature by appeasing the angry Ithacans whose family he just killed.
In the Red Dragon Story, Pitaya’s response to seeing the Dragon’s Valley was that “It’s been ssso long.” And it’s been confirmed that it had been waiting for Hollyberry Cookie to return, even though she left “eons ago” according to Jungleberry Cookie. So we could argue that Pitaya Dragon might have waited about 18-20 years for Hollyberry to fight them again.
In the Odyssey, Telemachus was an infant when Odysseus was made to embark on the Trojan War (fuck Agamemnon), and only returned 20 years later, where a determined and loyal Penelope waited for him even though everyone else believed he died.
So in both cases, we have:
- A Hero who had left for a decade or two and returned to their kingdom in disguise: Hollyberry/Odysseus
- A young relative and heir to a kingdom’s throne who was an infant when the hero left and is an adult who is similar to the hero when they return: Princess Cookie/Telemachus
- An imminent threat to the throne that needs to be dealt with by the hero for the safety of their family: Pitaya/the suitors.
- A faithful partner/ally from a warrior culture who has been waiting with determination for a decade or two while wholly believing that not only does no one else compare to the hero, but that the hero is still alive: Also Pitaya/Penelope
- A contest that is being held involving a specific legendary weapon that ONLY the hero could use in order to actually sustain the throne/the heir’s claim to it: Hollyberry’s Shield/Odysseus’ bow.
The other princesses also fit the role of the suitors in the capacity that they are fighting for the throne, and Jungleberry cookie also serves as part of Penelope’s character as she is the one who held the Princess contest.
At this point I still need to finish the “Golden Dragon’s Domain” but I’ve already seen the spoilers/screenshots that are showing that Hollyberry Cookie is going to travel to the underworld with the need for answers and the goal of properly reuniting with Pitaya Dragon Cookie. (I’ll reblog with my reaction properly to the chapter but still).
And here is where I pose a theory of mine. Not only is Hollyberry Cookie Odysseus… but she’s going through the Odyssey in reverse. Because so far we have (in Epic the Musical terms)
- The Ithaca Saga - Hollyberry’s return to her kingdom.
- The Calypso Part of the Wisdom Saga- Hollyberry’s confrontation with Eternal Sugar Cookie
- The Underworld Saga - Hollyberry going down to the underworld herself to get some answers.
I have a feeling that when we get to Lotus Dragon, we’re going to be seeing them pull some serious Circe shit before Hollyberry Cookie helps them and convinces them to help her save Pitaya Dragon. They’d have every reason to do so.
It’s probable from their perspective that Hollyberry cookie would be showing up out of fucking nowhere, with a clear connection to a different dragon (either through her armor or her making a lantern wish to save Pitaya like a goofball). That alone would be questionable if not concerning to Lotus Dragon, but on top of that she has a baby flower dragon beside her. It wouldn’t surprise me if their first course of action was to trick Hollyberry Cookie or something along those lines to separate her from Snapdragon and raise them for themselves. Cunning and Magic are both things Lotus Dragon and Circe have in common, after all.
All this to say that if I had a nickel for every time a gatcha game from Korea decided to make Odysseus a sapphic badass I’d have two nickels, but it’s AMAZING that it’s happened twice.