#anti lo

[yourlocalbruja]

y’all i really HATE this trope of male characters that are bad people but are coddled by the narrative and/or the fandom because they have a “sad backstory” or they’re just “misunderstood.”

i hate how their actions get brushed off like STOP CODDLING MEN.

[0lympian-c0uncil]

When I tell you this might be the funniest thing I have seen in awhile

(Also strangely accurate)

[adorable-pink-cinnamon-roll]

This is why I don't use Google. /hj (≖ロ≖╬)

[apollomes-supremacy]

Has been a while since I drew my redesing for Lore Olympus’ Apollo, so here’s the icon!

I designed him around 2022, and back then I had a whole rewrite of the comic in mind. But at this point I’m so over H/P retellings that I can’t even bother to think of a way of making it good lol. I first thought of him as an academic rival to Persephone, but I don’t think that’s very interesting now. Overall, he’s still an antagonist. Not a r*pist, just a slightly evil twink. And I like drawing him because he’s cunty

[maddness-time-bby]

I hope op knows how correct they are and both sides of their pillow are cold tonight and many nights more

[swallowtail-cherry]

Oh Demeter, how I hate the way you were tossed aside in your own hymn in this comic

[mythsandheather]

Repost from reddit of my thoughts on the LO figurines as an artist from New Zealand.

So the figurines don’t look good.

This isn’t news to anyone at this point. There’s still no clear reason as to how they turned out this way, but I do feel the need to come to the defence of Weta Workshop at least a little bit, as I’m seeing a lot of people lobbying blame and criticism at them.

Weta Workshop, as many of you know, is an NZ special effects company and has worked on projects like the Lord of the Rings, the Dune films, Wakanda Forever, the X trilogy, Mad Max: Fury Road, M3GAN and James Cameron’s Avatar films. They know what they’re doing and their work spans a multitude of genres.

At the bottom of the listing for any figurine on the website, they list the principal sculptor, so I found the one for the LO figurines. His name is Daniel Holland his specialty is 3D textures.

I also included some snippets of his other projects where he was the principal sculptor, including the detail work. These are…in a word…spectacular. The real kicker is the Sauruman sculpture is only about $30-$40 more expensive than the LO ones.

So Weta Workshop knows their craft and so does the sculptor who oversaw the creation of the LO prototypes (which I mention in case they turn out looking better yet).

The final two images have a quote from Rachel about what it’s like to see how people see her characters and that she provided feedback…

…and Weta Workshop explaining the features of the Persephone sculpture and how it was made in collaboration.

Was a conscious decision made to make the characters look as simple as possible to appeal to the LO audience rather than the usual LOTR fans who buy most the site’s figurines? Are these just very rough prototypes and they’ll end up looking better yet? But if that’s the case, why would they showcase these rough early versions for approval and potential sales?

It’s all baffling and feels very odd, but as I said, I felt the need as an artist in NZ to come to Weta Workshop’s defence. This isn’t the usual quality of their work and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they didn’t create more detailed sculptures when they certainly have the means to do so, yet I also can’t figure out why Rachel would sign off on her characters looking so bad.

[meltedbrains]

LO's Persephone says more about the author than I think they realise

'She only eats sweet, sugary food, like a hummingbird. She's so cute!'

Except she doesn't eat a lot, like a hummingbird, and she doesn't expend a lot of energy, like a hummingbird. So it's more like she's a child with a sweet tooth, except, again, she's not very energetic. Any behaviour that could be read as childish seems more affected than genuine, in an oopsie-doopsie-I'm-so-cute-and-silly kind of way, there's not a lot of running around or hyperactivity, she doesn't exercise or go to the gym. Although apparently flying takes a lot of energy....

Overall she's pretty reserved; some of this can be waved away with Demeter's depiction as an overbearing and controlling mother. But even 'free' of Demeter she can come across as cold, unempathetic, and self-centred. Even when she's angry it's rarely uncontrolled and explosive, instead she seems to be modelled on character archetypes like Alicia in The Good Wife, or Veronica in Riverdale, Emily in Gilmore Girls, or Emily, and particularly Amanda, in Revenge.

LO Persephone is actually a rich, WASP, housewife.

Unlike her altercation with Minthe in the myths, where she tramples her underfoot, in the comic she chases after her (or possibly a fast walk) and then Minthe just sort of turns into a potted plant. In her confrontation with Leuce she threatens and condescends to a complete non-threat in a painfully 'girlboss' manner.

It's interesting that in her confrontation with Leuce she wears a dress with an obvious 50s Dior silhouette. She has very little life outside of her mother and her husband. In a similar manner to ancient Greece (or Sicily) she spends very little time on her own, soon after moving out of Demeter's house she meets Hades and they start dating. Her school life and job take a back seat to her romantic endeavours. And they get married as soon as possible. The 10 year time skip happens off screen and we hardly spend any time in her new apartment before she kidnaps Dionysus and moves in with Hades.

This could not be more similar to the wife and kids nuclear family that was pushed so hard on women post WWII (and the resurgent tradwife movement) if it tried. Persephone going from intern/secretary to queen of the underworld sounds like a tradwife wet dream or a mad men B plot. She's cunty, she's serving, she's girl bossing, she's inherently subservient to the men in her life and accrues power through marriage.

It's pretty difficult to create anything without imprinting it with your culture and experience. But LO is intentionally recreating the not so modern US with a thin veneer of Greek mythology.

Other people have talked about the (presumably unintentional) race dynamic between gods and nymphs. If the gods had races Persephone would be greek (or Italian I guess?!?). Putting aside the debated race of northern Mediterranean countries, LO's Persephone is clearly written as a white woman, self insert or not, RS has written/drawn out her experiences and power fantasies and in doing so has imbued Persephone with a WASPishness that is difficult to ignore.

The way she acts and particularly how she treats people lesser than her is directly related to the creators background. From the clothing to the behaviour and language LO is rooted in rich white privilege and RS continually disregards the Greek origins. Seriously, they don't even have baklava.

I don't really have a conclusion to this rambling I just dislike Persephone's characterisation and how it slots into the culture of retelling greek myths in a 'US culture is universal' sort of way