imagine a Romeo and Juliet where they don’t love each other. imagine an oedipus where he doesn’t care that the prophecy has come to pass.
obviously adaptational changes exist, some for good and some for bad. but an Odysseus who doesn’t want to go home more than anything is beyond the pale.
like i fucking hate more than anything being in a position where i have to give credit to epic the musical. it’s eating me alive that there is a film adaptation of the odyssey that displays less understanding of the source material than epic the musical.
reiterating on this because i feel compelled to. these are all valid literary exercises. you can do whatever you want. but there is a point where once you change something that fundamental, you are engaging in an act of outright subversion rather than transformative adaptation. and you can do that. again, you can do whatever you want, but at that point it becomes facetious to call it the odyssey and say your main character is Odysseus. and people are allowed to frame their engagement with the film around “this isn’t the odyssey and that isn’t Odysseus.
