When it was first revealed to us that Persephone had committed an act of wrath before moving to Olympus many fan came up with theories about what could have happened, a recurring theme in many of these theory’s is that Persephone indirectly caused the death of a few mortals, as she was shown to have compassion for the mortals and her personality was that of a cinnamon bun, it seemed unlikely to us fans that she would purposefully cause harm to others.
Oh how wrong we were.
Many of the fan were shocked at this unhinged version of Persephone and felt uncomfortable with this new direction her character was being taken in, some have even speculated that the event has been exaggerated by the anti-persie gang, which is very possible. In my opinion however, I think the events shown to us in ep.115 were most likely true.
Let me explain (please keep in mind this is my opinion, if you disagree with what I have to say that’s fine) As I said before Persephone is a very kind and compassionate woman, however she also has a very dark side to her, in fact she has been shown to be very sadistic.
Just look at the way she killed the mortals impaling them through their stomachs, they would not die from that wound alone thus leaving them hanging there in agony until they bled out, all the while Persephone stood there with a smile on her face watching it happen.
Now as I said, the events in ep.115 could have been exaggerated, but I have more proof of Persephone's sadistic side from previous episodes.
Take ep.54 for example, she grabs the reporter (Hera in disguise) harshly and leers in his face menacingly, she only lets him go when he vocalises his discomfort, and all the while she’s smiling, yes she doesn’t go any further than that, most likely due to the fact that Hades was with her, but the intent to hurt is clear as day.
Then take ep.86, while not being openly sadistic she is called out for it, Ares is an expert when is comes to wrath and rage, he does not underestimate her and is aware she did something to earn herself the name, Death Bringer. He can sense her desire to hurt others and uses that information to provoke her.
And then we have ep.98, the way Persephone words this is really crucial to the point I’m trying to make, she could have said, “ Quietly watch your frustration from a distance” but she didn’t say that, she said “ Quietly enjoy your frustration from a distance”.
Sadists love to watch people suffer, they take pleasure from it, and this statement along with what we know now about her act of wrath just further shows that she is anything but a simple village girl.
The Persephone from ancient Greek Mythology was often described as being more fearsome and cruel than Hades and that most of the harshest punishment were often carried out by her, Hades was the more chill one guys. So as I said I’m not surprised in the slightest that her character has been taken in such a dark direction and I look forward to seeing it be elaborated on in season 2.
In conclusion to this very long analysis, Persephone is not evil but she is not pure and innocent either, she is still the kind and loving Goddess of Spring we’ve known since ep.1, however we need to accept that she is also the cruel and sadistic Bringer of Death.
In my previous post regarding the choice Rachel made on Persephone's floral headwear I came to the conclusion that Persephone’s red vines are not a symbol of her rage but a symbol of her stifling her rage. (read here)
But if that’s the case than why are the red flowers present in Persephone’s act of wrath? And is this the first time we’ve seen them?
Lets find out.
The first thing we need to address is the importance of Persephone’s headwear, most of the time it is a flower crown of some sort, at the moment there are three distinct colours that show both Persephone's feelings and the journey her character is going through.
The first colour is white, and it seems to be her default colour of headwear, white is often associated with purity and innocence which are both characteristics that Persephone herself seem uncomfortable being associated with, but due to her upbringing with the very controlling Demeter and the very image focused Hestia, it seems she has been forced into this role that she never really consented to or wanted, which gives the white flower crown a darker meaning, associating it with grooming and psychological abuse.
The next colour is green, which is shown to symbolise Persephone’s jealousy and anxiety, this colour of headwear is seen in situations involving both Minthe and Apollo and also in the tower 4 incident, these emotions are very new to Persephone and she is shown to be having a hard time accepting them and/or coping with them.
And the final, and most self explanatory colour, is blue, this colour of headwear I heavily linked to Hades and symbolises her love for him, it also shows us when she’s feeling truly happy and/or comfortable, e.g. pretty much every scene where she’s with Hades, and also the scene where she see Ares for the second time, yes she finds him annoying but she is comfortable and feels safe around him.
(There is also her Queen of the Underworld crown which just shows us her future of becoming a powerful and confident woman )
So we’ve discussed the importance of the most frequently shown flower crowns, but what about the most recently reveled colour, red.
The first time we actually see the red flower crown is in ep.86, when Ares is asking Persephone about her act of wrath, we see a very striking image of Persephone looking sad, covered in mortal blood and displaying a head of red flowers, I believe this image shows us Persephone just after her act of wrath, she’s lost her leaf cape and wings and is staring in horror and what she’s done, the flower crown remains however as she is most likely still harboring the rage she felt towards her mother in ep.115.
We see the red flower crown again in ep.98, the uncontrollable anger that was once directed at the mortals for taking the lives of her beloved flower nymphs, is now being directed towards Apollo for being yet another person who is taking away her right to choose for herself, and as I have previously stated in my ‘Persephone's sadistic side’ theory (read here) when she finally snaps, and believe me she will, she is going to enjoy watching him suffer just as much as those mortals.
So what do the red flower crowns really mean?, the red flower crowns are a symbol of Persephone’s uncontrolled rage and hate, and show that the wild Goddess of Spring cannot and will no longer be controlled.
And that dear readers, is my theory on why Persephone is missing her red vines in ep.115.
(I hope your liked it and please remember this is all just my opinion so if you disagree with me that's fine just please don’t spread any hate, thank you)
Many fans have pointed out that Persephone’s new wrath form is missing her red vines, which have been a continuous symbol of her anger through out the comic, so it seems strange that Rachel would choose to replace them with red flowers.
Some have even used the lack of red vines as evidence towards the theory that the anti-persie gang are exaggerating the events shown to us in ep.115, but what if there was another reason they were absent.
Ep.115 is the first time we have actually seen Persephone loose it, yes she has gotten angry before but its always been controlled anger, and that's the point I'm trying to make.
For her entire life Persephone has been raised to be a happy & innocent child, there is no doubt in my mind that Demeter has taught Persie that rage is an unacceptable emotion for her to have, and has often scolded or even punished her for showing any sign of negative emotion (which we do kinda see in ep.115 when Persie is grounded for having an opinion on her own life :/ )
And after Persephone's act of wrath she must have been horrified at what she’d done, and regressed back to her mothers old teachings and locked away her anger deep inside of herself, but as we can see though out the comic that anger is not so easily contained.
We first see Persephone's red vines in ep.37, as we can see here she is trying to peacefully confront Apollo about the night the he r*ped her, trying to get him to understand that she didn’t enjoy it and that it can never happen again, all of which he arrogantly ignores, and all the while the red vines slowly sprout from her head, showing her true feelings on the situation, she’s angry but is refusing to let it show.
The next time we see the red vines is in ep.51, here is when Persephone almost tells Artemis about what happened with Apollo, but at the last second shuts down, I think the background really tells us what is going on inside Persie’s head, her anger is immense it’s consuming her but due to her trauma from her act of wrath, she is refusing to let it out, we can see her sweating not only due to her uncertainty on the Apollo situation but also in an effort to keep her anger at bay.
The next instance I want to discus is ep.97-98, this panel while it seems insignificant actually shows a lot, if the wolf in the background wasn’t a big enough clue to Persie’s emotional state in these episodes just look at the petals falling from her head, white & red,(red petals huh sounds familiar) Persie is at war with herself right now trying with all her might to stay calm and not let loose on one of the pantheons most popular Olympians.
And again here you can clearly see the red petals being manifested from her rage which she quickly tries to stop which causes the red vines the sprout from her head yet again, reading these episodes again made me realise just how close to exploding Persephone really was, these moments are kinda scary now that we know just what Persephone's capable of.
So what does this all mean, well I believe that the red vines aren't a symbol of her rage (not exactly anyway) what I think they symbolise is Persephone trying to stifle her rage in an effort to not hurt anyone else.
To put it simply - Red vines = controlled/stifled anger.
But then what is the meaning behind the red flowers?
