I saw the Hadestown pro-shoot the other day and, maybe bc the arc 1 finale of cr4 is still fresh in my brain, I can't stop thinking about failed rebellions.
Obviously major spoilers for both Hadestown and cr4 below...
Ok, so critical role first. Hal's play tells the story of a failed rebellion against Azgrah. Centuries before the events of campaign 4, some tried to overthrow the oppression and tyranny of their god. They failed and were all killed. But after centuries, and I'm sure many many more failed attempts, some finally succeeded. And now, 70 years after the successful rebellion, they are still telling the story of a failed rebellion from centuries before-- and it resonates so deeply with the community as they face new oppression from the sundered houses. The story of Araman, the story being crafted by Critical Role, directly says that the failed rebellion from before lit the way for eventual success, and indirectly says that we can still learn important things from a failed rebellion centuries ago that help us with the oppression we're facing now. Both inside and outside the story, they tell us that stories of failed rebellion are important.
In Hadestown, Hades has oppressed the dead with exhausting work and propaganda-- "keep your head down if you want to keep your head" and the entirety of "Why We Build the Wall". This is a telling of Orpheus/Eurydice crafted during our modern times and the metaphor of the underworld being a factory floor of workers laboring through their death to build a wall to keep out nebulous "enemies" who are jealous of what we have/want to come steal from us should absolutely not be ignored. There are also lyrics explicitly tying Orpheus's presence and songs to inciting "rebellion" among the workers, including during Hades's deliberation of how to handle Orpheus's request bc saying no outright would turn Orpheus into a martyr and simply increase the rebellion (*cough* like the sundered houses executing Thjazi), but saying yes outright would make Hades look soft and he'd "never get [the workers] back under control". The chorus of the dead urge Orpheus to take Eurydice home because "if you can do it, she can do it. If she can do it, we can too", they ask him to "show us the way" out of oppression. And Orpheus fails. He doesn't manage it. He turns and looks back and Eurydice is sent straight back to the underworld.
And yet, we still tell the story. Even within this specific telling, Hadestown insists at both the beginning and the end that they will tell this story of Orpheus's failed rebellion again and again and again-- and maybe this time it'll turn out better. Because stories of failed rebellion tell us that success is eventually possible. Orpheus failed, and his story is a tragedy, and we'll never magically change the ending. But somebody, someday will succeed. So we keep telling the story. We keep trying. Maybe this time "they'll" (we'll) get out.
