Look, I understand loving the character and finding him hot or whatever, but please have some sense when talking about him, especially while joking about hey little songbird, or behind closed doors – the situation, in general.
People might not get the subtext, and ok, sure, it happens. But blatantly ignoring it, and just avoiding the topic in any way in favor of treating him like a sad misunderstood little guy who could do no harm :(( , is gutting his character, along with undermining literally everyone elses, and excluding a whole aspect of the show itself.
I feel like so many people don't understand how horrifying Eurydice's situation is, even before the memory effects. She is a trafficking victim; she was pushed into "choosing" between a (physical, literal) death, and working in a completely unfamiliar place. Hades has an abysmal power over her, he can literally do anything he wants with minimal to no consequence. He can arbitrarily choose everything for her, where she'll work, where she'll sleep, and by extension, how much she'll earn.
And have this in mind, Eurydice does not have any condition to debate, or step out of line. Hades cultivates an extremely xenophobic mindset for Hadestown, against the people who will "bring poverty" if they manage to enter. Eurydice is the enemy in why we build the wall, along with Orpheus. She lost her backpack, so there's no possibility she has the documents to legally get in Hadestown, and she was given the tickets by Hades himself. He knows all of this. If she doesn't follow what he says, he can easily arrest her in a immigration raid (Papers was one, originally, although it targeted Orpheus).
About the sexual assault aspect, I have no doubt that Eurydice expected something like that would happen. Even if nothing ended up happening, we know by the nature of her character that she would expect it to, even more considering Hades' demeanor in hey little songbird, and that little interaction in way down hadestown.
And before someone tries to argue that he loves Persephone too much to do something like that, the whole objective of all of this was to make her jealous, in a very misogynistic way. He literally spills some incel bullshit in chant reprise, his love does not equal seeing her as a person in his own level. He might deify her in a way she doesn't even look human anymore while still deeply resenting her, for example. And if the sexual assault seems too far of a thing for him to do, he uses fascist propaganda as his main way of staying in power, and systematically enslaves and imprisons people.
Sexual assault is done by people who need to feel in control. Hades is a deeply insecure character, he does all this to try to make Persephone closer to him in any way. And if we take the "riots to quell" line in hey little songbird, it could add to that. He uses Eurydice to make Persephone jealous, to feel in control of the workers, and to reinforce his misogynist beliefs, that women will go after wealth and poweful men, and leave you just as easily.
So, take a look at this text, maybe read it again, see the world's political situation, and reflect a little. Think about the characters, even the ones not directly involved in this, how they might connect to actions and reactions that we see irl.
prguitarman
turnnoffyourmind
janainaart
izzy806
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