Epic The Musical X A Christmas Carol
Eurylochus's Christmas Carol Au
Hello everyone, I would like to share an au I'm very proud of. It's called the Eurylochus's Christmas Carol Au.
What's Eurylochus's Carol Au?
Well Eurylochus's Christmas Carol is an au where after the events in Polyphemus's Cave, the fates in a rare case have changed their mind s. They no longer wish to see the string of Odysseus's Crew cut right away.
What's done is done though right? Wrong the fates see another way after realising Eurylochus's thread surrounds the crew showing he is their protector whilst Odysseus is their leader. Not only that but it is clear that the windbag is part of Poseidon's plan. He's depending on Odysseus trying and failing to stop his storm.
So the three sisters come up with a cunning plan. They summon Athena, Aphrodite and Hermes and task them with warning Eurylochus what will happen if he is not honest with Odysseus and continues to follow a path of doubt that will to first lead to opening the windbag and then death.
The three God's agree to the task and become God's with knowledge of the past, present and future.
Then it begins on Odysseus's first night with the windbag. Eurylochus is madly worried and contemplating opening the bag until the mangled ghost of Polites comes to visit him and bring him a warning.
So yeah that's the concept. There are many adaptations of a Christmas Carol but this au idea will be
1: Without Christmas Elements
2: Inspired By Star Kids VHS Christmas Carol and Mlp FIM's "A Hearth's Warming Tale" where three ghosts are sent to stop Snowfall Frost from casting a spell to erase the holiday.
In this au it's three Gods here to stop Eurylochus from opening the windbag.
So now I've explained the premise. Let me introduce you to the cast.
So when I say cast, I mean epic characters who will be filling in the Christmas Carol roles. Of course a lot of roles have been cut out as they're not essential to the story I'm trying to tell but the roles that are cast were fun to think about.
Eurylochus > Ebenezer Scrooge
Eurylochus is no Scrooge the two could be far from similar but the thing is Eurylochus's story actually makes for a really good Christmas Carol permise.
His fatal flaw isn't greed instead his main flaws are Mistrust, Miscommunication and Devotion.
His devotion to the crew leads to his down fall as not only does he come to mistrust Odysseus but he fails to communicate with Odysseus just like Odysseus fails to communicate with the crew. Not only that but every mistake he makes is due to him trying to be the crews voice.
He's a very tragic character who's trauma has stuck him in a box he can't escape from. His caution is reasonable but not balanced.
I really think Eurylochus going on a Christmas Carol like journey would help him to learn to balance both ruthlessness and mercy and let go of his fear.
Eurylochus is not a coward, he just needs to learn to let go of his anxiety and fear.
That being said though he's human and I love him for that. I feel so bad for putting him through this au.
Now before you throw your pitch forks and knifes, hear me out.
Just like Eurylochus is not Scrooge, Polites is not at all like Jacob Marley.
However I do think that Polites being the one to warn Eurylochus of his fate fits perfectly.
The characterisation would be based off VHS Jacob but still Polites at his core. To me Polites would blame himself for his death and feel very guilty about it. He was the one that blindly trusted the Lotus Eaters directions. The cave might have been avoided if Polites hadn't latched onto open arms like a blanket.
So I think naturally Polites would want to warn Eurylochus that his flaws if he doesn't overcome them will lead to his death as well.
Polites's tragedy is that essentially he is chained to wander Styx until he can recieve burial rights.
So overall I think it fits that he'd be the one to warn Eurylochus of where his fate could go if he doesn't listen to the three God's.
Athena > The Ghost Of Christmas Past
I'm not going to lie casting the Ghosts was really hard but in the end for the Ghost Of Christmas past I went with Athena.
Athena and Eurylochus really parallel each other in a way nobody really talks about it. One key one is that they see Odysseus the general over Odysseus the friend. They're not afraid to confront Odysseus for his flaws.
Therefore given that Athena has just recently timeline wise made the mistake of abandoning Odysseus I think that she fits the most as the guide to the past. Especially since her quick thought allows her to flashback to a person's past.
Unlike the boar flashback with Odysseus, I think Eurylochus would actually learn from her reminders.
Aphrodite > The Ghost Of Christmas Present
This was honestly the hardest one to pick. Apart from Aeolus, none of the God's in Epic are really bubbly and optimistic which is essential for a Ghost Of Christmas Present. So I decided to flip the switch and think about who would be best to warn Eurylochus of the current state of Ithaca? Who would be best to warn Eurylochus of the heart ache of his wife and all the other men's families? Who could show him how fractured the crew have become?
Aphrodite as The Goddess Of Love fits perfectly since all relationships including platon are all under her domain. She is ultimately the best Goddess for the job as she wants to make Eurylochus understand the turmoil amongst the crew and the turmoil in Ithaca. Eurylochus would hate the suitors and I have a feeling Aphrodite would be very successful in emphasising their threat.
Hermes > The Ghost Of Christmas Future
Again this might be very controversial since The Ghost Of Christmas Future is a silent eiery figure but here me out.
Mlp in their version made Princess Luna the Ghost and I think it worked very well. Even with her voice she still kept that very mysterious and creepy essence.
I believe the same could be said for Hermes if he takes on the role.
Hermes Is The Great Grandfather Of Odysseus and Eurylochus married into the family so he's now party of that cunning lineage.
As someone who guides the dead I absolutely believe Hermes would do anything to drive Eurylochus away from death. Behind that trickster persona is a sinister nature he'd exploit greatly here.
I believe he'd be able to warn Eurylochus successfully and complete his transition to a better path.
So believe me when I say it can work.
Now I've shared the concept and castings, I'm very excited to share the designs of the au. Each of the God's are designed to send a message via how they present themselves to Eurylochus. Polites's design is very dark as it's meant to show Eurylochus the brutality of his death and warn him of his potential fate.
So basically to summarise all the designs are meant to traumatise Eurylochus.
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So for Polites I decided to go all out with the gore because I hate to break it to you folks but realistically Polites's Corpse/Ghost would not look pretty or clean at all.
I'm going with the beetlejuice concept here where your ghost mirrors how you died. At least for this au.
So his cape is torn and his arms are mangled too.
The Green chains are to symbolise not only him being chained by death and unable to cross styx but also the fact that Hermes is the one that brought him out from The Underworld.
Now the hardest part was figuring out how to show that Polites was a ghost. I at first thought that designing Polites with blue skin would be cool but it didn't turn out well. So instead I decided to give him a blue glow and blue eyes to symbolise his ghostly status.
Despite everything though I'm really proud of this design.
Athena As The Ghost Of Christmas Past
Okay so Athena's design was not in question. The aesthetic I was going for is that she dresses like Odysseus and Penelope to remind Eurylochus of the past he is trying to run away from.
She keeps her colours but in essence now dresses like a Royal Mortal. Her hair is done up in a bun with a golden tiara, she wears bangles and a golden necklace. As for the cape it is like Odysseus's but without any tares or signs of age.
Her chiton is dark silver with a feather print on the bottom, a blue belt and gold trim. And to top it all of she wears sandles like Odysseus too.
My favourite part though is not her make up but instead the fact she presents herself with a boar scar in the same spot as Odys. It's again there to subtly remind Eurylochus of the past.
I'd present this design in a better quality but sadly the file is too large for my phone. I hope this good enough.
Aphrodite As The Ghost Of Christmas Present
Doing a design for Aphrodite was challenging as there are barley any references out there of her cannon design but a las I did my best.
Now Aphrodite is basically dressing exactly like Ctimene to not only taunt Eurylochus but remind him of who is waiting for him back in Ithaca. Since Epic Ctimene doesn't have a cannon design since she's not in it, I decided to gain inspiration from @notsolonedesert who's Ctimene design is amazing.
So I decided to dress Aphrodite in pink and red for her main outfit whilst her acessories are gold. The eyeshadow is meanwhile meant to represent a sunflower, a flower that I love to represent Ctimene and Eurylochus and their love with. Just as the olive tree represents Odysseus and Penelopes.
My favourite part of this design though has to be the subtle purple in Aphrodite's hair which is Eurylochus's colour and meant to show who is in the present.
Despite the struggles I do like how the design turned out. My absolute favourite of the designs is Hermes and you'll soon see why.
Hermes As The Ghost Of Christmas Future
Hermes is the coolest design out of the bunch as I really wanted to make sure I took his design from epic and spookyfied him. The first thing I made sure to add was a dark green cloak to sort of give that eire feel of death.
The second thing is that his whole design is foreshadowing Eurylochus's death at the hands of Zeus after he slays Helios's Cattle. To show this Hermes is still dressed in his own colours but his outfit is a fusion of Zeus and my Epic Helios design. Thunder is also all over Hermes from scarring on his face to thunderbolts on his clothes.
His staff is now longer to give a sense or authority and he wears Green Chains to represent the Chains of death following Eurylochus. As an Underworld God he can also use them to drag people to the Underworld.
Overall it's a very spooky design I like.
And so that is my Eurylochus's Christmas Carol au and all of the designs. I hope you enjoyed this little post. I'd normally save sharing my au's until I'm in the writing process but this is one I wanted to make an exception for.
A Christmas Carol is one of my favourite stories so it's really fun to take it and blend it in with Epic.
Its so interesting to think about what Eurylochus do if he knew how things would turn out.
