In defence of Eurylochus-
I've seen many people analysing him in detail and I just wanted to add my two cents to the discussion by giving my interpretation of the four moments for which the fandom dislikes him the most:
Reason 1: He opened the windbag !
Context: Eurylochus is Odysseus's close friend, second in command and brother in law, which means he knows Odysseus in a personal level and therefore knows that Odysseus is a fucking liar. Odysseus lies and cheats and talks his way out of things, he is crafty, he is clever and he is cunning; core Odysseus triats.
So imagine you're Eurylochus and Odysseus just came back with the wind bag. He says it has the Storm and the Winions (agents of Wind God) say it's a treasure. Who do you believe the liar or the god?
Additionally Jorge was pretty clear Eurylochus represents the crew always in Epic the Musical, so the wind bag opening is not necessarily his idea particularly, any of the crew did it but their face/brand is Eurylochus.
I think in this scenario it's a mix case of Odysseus 'The Boy who cried Wolf' and Eurylochus 'Curiosity killed the Cat'
Reason 2: He tried to abandon his men to Circe
Context: Just the day they lost 557 men to a God (!) due to a mistake Eurylochus made, so his survivor's guilt is fully active and his mental state is not it.
Now after that happened, he took a team to scope the island and saw them turn into pigs by a Goddess (!).
He learned the hard way the same day that Gods are very dangerous and had the fear of God instilled in him, literally.
So logically speaking he was right in that they couldn't defeat Circe. The only reason Odysseus was successful was because of Hermes's help which was an option Eurylochus did not even know existed when he suggested abandoning the pigs-men to Circe.
I understand that this point is less about him wanting to abandon pig-men and more about the perceived hypocrisy in Mutiny, so next let's see;
Context: The lair of Scylla. Odysseus definitely knew what was going to happen there, but he did not warn the crew, he did not prepare the crew. Instead he used them as canon fodder which like you can argue that it was the only way to get home but Odysseus consciously lied to his crew and sacrificed them.
I wanted to talk about perceived hypocrisy that some people think Eurylochus's actions in being mad at Odysseus since he was ready to abandon his men with Circe. But the difference matters guys, Eurylochus 'abandons', Odysseus 'sacrifices'. The only equivalent to the situation is that if Eurylochus purposefully led his group to Circe's Palace knowing she would turn them into pigs. Eurylochus tries to make a hard decision to save whatever's left, that does not make him a hypocrite or uncaring and it does not negate his right to be mad/sad during Scylla/Mutiny.
He did not mutiny because he wanted power, he did it because he and the crew could no longer trust Odysseus to have their best interest in mind and in a sad kind of way, they are not wrong. Odysseus's number #1 priority is him making it home and the crew is #2.
Different Beast: "Sirens know every route in horizon, now I know how to get back to my island"
Mutiny: "Please don't do this? I need to get home"
and then we all know how Thunder Bringer goes.
He was hungry, starving and has zero hope he'll make it home. I'm sorry, you cannot be mad at him for this; this is the saddest thing I've ever seen.
But I'll go to the "Captain" he says after killing the cows.
"If you want all the power you must carry all the blame" Eurylochus is not calling Odysseus as Captain because he's trying to shift the blame imo. It's a reflex response, he hears the panic in Odysseus's voice and like he has done all his life (close friend and brother in law hello?), he looks for Odysseus for guidance. Eurylochus and all the crew immediately follow Odysseus's instructions afterwards proving that Mutiny was never about power and they still think Odysseus is the smartest man in Greece.
I also wanted to touch on the grief aspect of Odysseus and Eurylochus's relationship
In the Epic-verse; Odysseus, Eurylochus and Polites are childhood friends. After Polites's death Odysseus copes by trying to honor Polites's motto still 'Open Arms' and Eurylochus copes by being extra vigilant and cautious (Luck Runs Out).
Their ideology and way of coping with grief clashes with the others directly and that is the real tragedy of their relationship. These two men love each other very much, even after all that happens there is not a doubt that things fell about because they stopped loving each other. It's because both of them are heavily traumatized characters and they cope differently and in a way that opposes the others.
