Odysseus *comes home after 20 years of trials and tribulations and changing himself to into a cold hearted monster*: Penelope I’m home! But I’m different now.😔 I’m a monster 👿 , I’ve done awful things. I’m no longer the kind hearted man you married. Can you still love me please??🥺
Penelope “ I see thru your bs” of Ithaca: hmm get rid of the bed and maybe I will.
Odysseus: wait no why🥺🥺 I love you, that’s from our wedding.🩵 I made that💪🏽 why🥺🥺😭
Penelope: “changed” my ass🙄.. you’re still my husband dummy ofc I still love you🥺🥰 say something dumb like that again😐 I dare you
Odysseus: but I-
Penelope: the fuck did I just say Odysseus 🤨 I waited 20 years for this, I’m not gonna stop loving you now that you’re finally back bc you maybe killed a few ppl.🙄
I always found it funny how we joke at the fact that in My Goodbye Athena is saying goodbye so many times and Ody’s kinda just being “okay then leaVE!”
But one day I was listening and thought how the last couple times she says it in the end sound a little different each time. I was kinda thinking “huh, they have a different tone, she’s fr going thru the seven stages of- oh..” and then put off thinking about it bc it made me sad lmao
but now I’m listening again and she says “goodbye” a total of 6 times… she doesn’t say it a seventh time…
So in conclusion I’m taking this as a “Athena was going through the 7 stages of grief when she’s firing her best warrior (cough- friend- cough) but couldn’t bring herself to accept that bc then she knows she’ll truly be alone and that’s how later on she finds the courage to come back and help Ody and Telemachus” and running with it🥰
It’s been almost a month and I still can’t get over WYFILWMA. All the emotions in both their voices are so strong and intense it makes me want to tear up each time!! Especially Penelope.
Her first fear when she sees Ody isn’t how he’s changed or anything like that, that doesn’t even cross her mind until he mentions it, her first fear is “is he really here or am I making it up again.” She’s already gone through the heartbreak of realizing she hallucinates him every so often in the past 20 years and now that she sees him again after the whole thing w the suitors it’s almost too much at once! So she asks him if it’s really him this time bc she doesn’t know how much heartbreak she can take.
And what does Ody do!?😭 “I am not the man you fell in love with..” can you IMAGINE the anguish that Pen went through upon hearing those words?? 😭 for a moment he confirmed what she was scared of, that he still hasn’t made it home and is not truly there.
It kinda makes the rest of the song a little funny to me bc they spend it trying to prove their point to eachother and kinda argue about how much they’ve been through w/o the other and you can hear it all in their voices.
All of their sadness, their anger, their suffering, their love, pain, relief and happiness you can hear it all.. GOD I love this song and those two dummies😭
Idk about y’all but when Poseidon asked “how will you sleep at night after everything you’ve done?” And Odysseus said “next to my wife……” I was GAGGED!!😭😭 like that was actually so cold omg.. Penelope that guy is like obsessed with you😍
I like the difference between Odysseus and Telemachus when it comes to monsters.
Let’s see if I can properly explain myself.
Since the beginning of the musical Odysseus has struggled with what it is that makes a man turn into a monster. Wondering where that line is, what it takes to cross it and its consequences on their vey being. He’s suffered at the hand of monsters the entire journey home (cyclops and gods, beings that aren’t human like him and his crew) to the point he allowed himself to become one too. Not only that but he also humanizes them when he takes into consideration what lead them to be the way they were and also uses that same logic for himself to justify his past and future actions. Once he does turn he’s able to find the means to abandon remorse and even the playing field by striking back (attacking the sirens first, and willingly sacrificing his men to Scylla) at the monsters.
Meanwhile you have Telemachus who has nothing but the stories of his father and other heroes battling all these great monsters and making a name for themselves. It seems like a right of passage for him, something to look forward to and not necessarily fear or think too much about what those battles mean. But when the suitors come into play that is when we see his perspective on what makes someone a monster. All he and his mom had to deal with for years at the hand of their guests, not gods or sirens or cyclops, but their fellow man. He talks about how dangerous they are but not he monsters from the stories.
I wonder what Telemachus would think when he meets his dad for the first time and finds out he’s a man made monster too and if he’ll also have a switch where he’ll be able to humanize the actions of his dad.
~*~*~
Also side note. I really like the lyric, “he is the man made monster,” because in my head it plays two different ways depending on how you write it.
It can be “man made monster” like a man turned into one by his situation.
Or it can be “man-made monster” as in a monster created by man himself.
Idk if that made sense it it does perfectly in my head😂
Okay so this last saga had me in TEARS! There’s sm to talk about and I don’t think I have the ability to put it all into writing so… here’s this spn gif that’s pretty close to how I was while listening
Yall ever think about how sick it is that in Keep your friends close, Odysseus is begging and promising his family that he hasn’t changed and he’s still the same person he always has been but in the last song of the act he promises to throw all of that away and change into someone monstrous and unrecognizable in order to get back to them???? Bc I do. And I cry every time.
