Wild Zone - July 23

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but it does not stop Mr. Nolan from making an epic of a movie – but we talked about it the last time. Right now, though, I want to talk about Mr. Riordan’s franchise instead.

No, I mean yes, the 3^rd season of PJO is coming in November 2026, but so far, Disney+ and Mr. Riordan are keeping their mouths shut about what will change there from the book, so it is too early to tell as to what will happen there. What I want to mention here is ‘the wild zone’ – the latest project of the Riordan Man! Pause.

Here, I somewhat just wanted to go and rant about him, just because he turned his name and brand into an enormous moneymaking machine, but what is the point? He turned the Riordan name and brand into an enormous moneymaking machine, after all. He is a success! There are dozens of books, audiobooks, and comics claiming him as their author-

-and they are sitting on shelves, or just being sidelined otherwise. ‘Rick Riordan Presents’ has umbrella’d at least a dozen different authors under its brand, but… that is dying down too. Fewer novels are released under RRP umbrella, or are they?

Well, I have no idea – does the fact that Mr. Riordan is being a co-author more and more often lately counts? The two books dealing with Will and Nico, aka ‘The Sun and the Star’ and ‘The Court of the Dead’ are co-authored visibly, and ‘The Court’, in particular, was re-setting the Roman aspect of the PJ narrative quite subtly – but still re-setting. ‘The Wild Zone’ is being set up in the same vein, most likely. What next?

Well, the first book of the series is released at the end of September 2026, but there are still no particular details – though this time, Mr. Riordan is writing the first book with Ms. Jo Whittemore – or is it Annabelle Oh? Well, regardless of her trying to reinvent herself to become more politically correct and sellable, she is a woman of many hats – she wrote everything from fantasy to humorous contemporary, so she should have no problem in co-writing a YA/children’s fantasy novel with Mr. Riordan. It will probably be a success, who knows? Mr. Riordan will certainly make money from it.

…And all he had to do was to sell his soul (hopefully, metaphorically) to Disney. Real life feels especially sucky sometimes.

However, this is it for now. See you all soon!

Nolan's Odyssey - July 21

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks… and, apparently, Mr. Nolan feels the same way; he might be able to buy my immediate family, our expanded family, and me many, many times over, but his Odyssey-2026? Is still depressing as Tartarus.

Where to begin? The issue of controversy and Nolan pushing a progressive agenda forth in his film. Here is the thing: he does not. Oh, of course, he has minorities in his movie, both racial (Zendaya and Lupita Nyongo’o), and sexual (Elliot Page), but they are episodic characters; they come and go and while they help move the movie forward, ‘help’ is the key word: they aren’t on screen all that much, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. The actors behind the four main characters – Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, and Antinous – are all WASPs rather than POCs, but no one seems to mind too much. Next?

Right, Nolan supposedly using Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey as his choice for the source. I read excerpts of her translation of the epic in question, and there is no more political progressive agenda than there is in Nolan’s Odyssey movie. My opinions on Natalie Haynes and her books are not very flattering, I am afraid, but if you read her books, especially the non-fiction, (such as ‘Pandora’s Jar’ and ‘Divine Might’) you quickly realize that she does push forth political progressive agenda. The question here is whether she is a latecomer who is trying to compensate with a neophyte’s zeal for being late, or if she doesn’t believe in it at all, but is just trying – and succeeding - to make money from this political progressivism instead. From Emily Wilson’s Odyssey you do not get this vibe at all; it is ‘just’ a translation/adaption of the classic – nothing more.

Oh, sure, people will argue about the details of Wilson’s translations, but this type of argument attracts only a particular group of people; for the majority, her translation is acceptable – and so’s Nolan’s film. Just like Wilson’s translations, his adaptation changes the details of Homer’s epic, but keeps the main narrative the same. Right?

No. Some plot elements are outright removed, like Aeolus and the bag of winds, or Odysseus’s own parents, who play important roles in the epic. Other elements are conflated – like Calypso, the lotus-eaters, and the Phaeacians. The third are just simplified, like Polyphemus (Nolan’s movie does not name him), or Circe. All of those changes make Nolan’s Odyssey into something else… something not unlike MCU’s ‘Thor’ or DCEU’s ‘Batman’ franchises, just kind of, sort of, less tied to a particular franchise – much less tied…

Then there is the movie’s conclusion. Not only some suitors survived, but also Odysseus and Penelope leave in self-exile. There is a remnant of an apocrypha for Odysseus had to wander even more, till he found a place that didn’t know what an oar was, and so he buried his oar and went home at last, but it’s an apocrypha for several reasons, including ones where both Odysseus and Penelope are ambitious and power-greedy people on top of whatever else they are. Odysseus is coming home; Penelope is waiting for him; but Ithaca, its’ throne, are a part of the Odyssey as well. In Nolan’s film it is rather downplayed, again – Nolan sought to modernize the Odyssey, supposedly, and what did we get?

Well, in part we already answered this – a movie not unlike those made by MCU/DCEU, but also a movie where music sometimes overwhelms the dialogue, and so it’s hard to figure out who’s saying what – but it’s not important, you know the general details and plot beforehand, and everything else can be figured out without words. The plot of Nolan’s Odyssey is quite simple. The plot and the reasoning of Nolan’s Odyssey are secondary to the emotions. The acting, the visuals, the music, they all assault the senses, and the actors’, um, acting, deals the rest. Nolan’s Odyssey is an impressive movie… and as depressing as Tartarus; the only other piece of mass media that had as much angst is… MCU’s Zombies’ mini-series, seriously! In both this show and Nolan’s Odyssey, whenever possible, wherever possible, the worst choice was enacted, and the senses, the emotions, rather than the mind, were affected. MCU’s Zombies attempted to re-introduce Riri ‘Iron Heart’ Williams, after her own show failed; this attempt did not deliver either, and so, Riri does not seem to appear in the Avengers: Doomsday trailer. However, that is another story…

In this one, Nolan’s Odyssey works, but it works because it is a one-time – there is no sequel, no threesome between Odysseus, Penelope, and Calypso, for example. Once the characters and the movie are done, they are done, and we can move on.

Real life sucks. Nolan, apparently, agrees, even though he is famous and rich. I have to admit – I did not see this coming. Ah well, see you all soon!

About Nolan's 'Odyssey' - May 7

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so what does Mr. Nolan do? Plans to make an ‘Odyssey’ that will make RL even more so.

What is the biggest beef of people with the ‘Odyssey-2026’ (upcoming?). The American accents of the characters/cast and the contemporary language. Mr. Nolan openly refers such pieces of modern movie history as MCU and DCEU, (the latter is somewhat defunct now) as his role models. Pause.

MCU, in particular, tried to ground itself in realism, especially the first three phases, but it was ‘realism’, not ‘reality’- Pause. Stop.

Let us look at the trailer again. What do we see? For example, Antinous, treating Telemachus how Jaime Lannister could be treating Jon Snow (in the opening episodes of GoT). The problem here is not in Antinous treating Telemachus badly, but that it was already done in this style, Mr. Nolan is not creating something original, but borrowing someone else’s ideas.

Look at Mr. Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’-related interview. He is referring to Ms. Emily Wilson’s version of the ‘Odyssey’ as his source material. Stop.

Ms. Haynes – remember her – claimed to re-tell some original myths from a supposedly more woman-friendly approaches, but she did it in a manner that was inoffensive and intellectual. Yes, in her novels, (non-fiction is somewhat different) women are good (with exceptions), and men are bad (with exceptions), but those exceptions undercut her entire narrative on one hand, and on the other by offending no one, she is winning no one’s approval either. People, especially literary critics, are singing her praises, but pretty words butter no parsnips and all.

…Ms. Wilson’s re-telling/translation of the ‘Odyssey’ feels a lot like a sister project to Ms. Haynes’ novels – it allegedly might be more gender-equal, woman-friendly, but in reality, it is just another re-telling/translation of the ‘Odyssey’, as a translation/re-telling isn’t the same as writing an original work; Hollywood might be struggling with original works, but so does literature, it seems.

Moreover, just because Mr. Nolan is reading Ms. Wilson’s version of the ‘Odyssey’ does not mean that he will adapt it directly – since his characters are already talking like an average American does – he will not. In translations of the ‘Odyssey’, the characters – and the narrator – do not talk as modern people do; that is the epic’s charm. Well, a part of it anyhow. In Mr. Nolan’s film this will not happen – people are talking in modern American English, referring to the modern American culture (i.e. GoT), to begin with. Huzzah.

Pause. Aside from the language, my main problem are the Lestrygonians – what did they do to them? Listen, if for Homer the Phaeacians were the elves, the Seelie court, then the Lestrygonians were their opposite, the orcs/the Unseelie – and Mr. Nolan is ignoring it; his take on the ‘Odyssey’ already feels ‘inoffensive’ – just like Ms. Haynes’ novels, just like Mr. Serkis’s ‘Animal Farm’, (you didn’t think that I’ll forget it this soon?), despite his words and his allegedly politically progressive opinions, he isn’t trying to convert/convince anyone to join the party; he just wants to make a buck.

No, seriously, the books, the TV series, the movies, the mass media of the centuries past tended to be opinionated if not controversial; each work of fiction, (or non-fiction) tended to push/promote the views of the author (and their cohorts, sometimes), and now this isn’t happening. In the past, mass media often stirred the pot on purpose, and now it does not. Instead, it stirs the pot unintentionally – just look at the Lestrygonians. Just who was the idiotic genius who came up with the medieval knight/Robocop™ idea here?

Alternatively, look at Mr. Nolan’s Scylla. It is supposedly a cephalopod-crustacean creature, according to him. Right, well, the crustaceans – crabs, lobsters, crayfish, and woodlice – are arthropods; they are related to spiders, scorpions, and insects. The cephalopods, on the other hand – octopi, squids, and cuttlefish – are mollusks; their relatives are snails and oysters, (broadly speaking). ‘A cephalopod-crustacean’ creature is just as unreal and mythical as the centaur or a harpy is. (Not the harpy eagle, ok?). Mr. Nolan is trying to be original. He is failing.

What else? No, this is pretty much it. Just as Ms. Haynes, Mr. Nolan is trying to be inoffensive, just as Mr. Serkis tried with the ‘Animal Farm’. The latter was a tire fire that everyone is ignoring, unlike ‘Prada-2’, because ‘Prada-2’ is actually well made from a technical angle; so are Ms. Haynes’ novels. Only, because ‘Prada-2’ is also much more visible than Ms. Haynes’ novels are, it is being discussed more than the latter…

In addition, consequently, will be Mr. Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ – already people are divided about it, and that is just the trailers. Of course, there is also the final trailer for the latest ‘Minions’ movie, and for the love of Zeus, why would anyone release this abomination on the screen? By now, it is the minions vs. the monsters based on Howard Lovecraft’s works, and this is just wrong. When the Western cinematograph tries to come up with something original, this is the best they can come up with? Maybe they should adapt Ms. Haynes’ novels instead – they’re just bland, the ‘Minions’ are worse… That is real life, however. It sucks.

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon.

Medea and Daredevil S2 - March 25

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Several of my documents were lost and I cannot recover them, I almost missed the Daredevil S2 premiere, and people are bothering me about the latest Ms. Haynes novel – ‘No friend to this house’ – that I should read it. Let me start with that one.

Am I going to read ‘No friend’? Well, eventually, maybe. Again, the reason why I’m not the biggest fan of Ms. Haynes is because she’s not the radical firebrand she’s assumed to be, it’s quite the reverse, (usually).

What does Ms. Haynes do? She re-tells the Greek myths, both as fiction and not. As not-fiction, her works are one thing, but her fiction – it is what it is. The Greek myths had been public property for a long time now, and people in general know how they go – Perseus will defeat Medusa and marry Andromeda, Atalanta will kill the boar and lose the race because of the apples, Odysseus is going to get to Ithaca and save his house, etc. Those stories are read, known, remembered, de-facto etched in stone. They can be re-worked, of course… and then they become something else entirely.

Let us get back to A.I. When I experimented with it to write fiction, I quickly uncovered that the fiction it writes follows certain guidelines – couples are heterosexual (unless made otherwise), social strata fall into the strata of priests, aristocrats and peasants, (no workers or entrepreneurs unless made otherwise), characters choose to remain themselves than to change to please others (unless made otherwise)… Pause.

Here is the thing. If you are using A.I., you are free to use it or not. No one forces you to rely on A.I. alone, even if you are commissioned to write something, it is you who is commissioned, not the A.I. You are free to write your own things, not follow the A.I.’s guidelines if you do not want to. Fiction?

By now, there is plenty of fictional novels that feature Greek mythical characters, including the Argonauts. They do not claim to be ‘a mixture of dark tragedy and witty satire’ as Ms. Haynes’ take on them is, supposedly, is, but they were often quite derived from the original Greek myths, much more so than Ms. Haynes’ novels are; she just tries to add the feminist angle to the myths; as a rule, her female characters are positive (unless otherwise), while her male characters are negative, (unless otherwise). Nothing exactly radical here. Yet she is praised for her derivative works so much that I wonder if her political progressiveness is a neophyte’s zeal… or a masterful plan of playing the political progressivity system for personal gain… just as the system is beginning to break for real thanks to the Donald’s meddling… where were we?

In her non-fiction book of essays on the mortal women of Greek Myths, (‘Pandora’s Jar’, PJ), Ms. Haynes talks about Medea and Jason, comparing them to a modern divorcing couple, save for the murdering of the children. Therefore, I am betting that this is how she is depicting them in ‘No Friend’ – as a modern couple, (where the wife is smarter than the husband is, just not that much smarter), save for the murdering of the children. Therefore, I am willing to wait a few months until the excitement dies down, (such as it is), and then read about a modern divorce dressed in ancient Greek trappings, such as the murdering of the children. Ms. Haynes does not really try to justify Medea’s actions, she just re-tells them in her own language, maybe dumbed down for her audience, maybe not, and moves on. (To Penelope of Ithaca, but that is unimportant). What else?

The Daredevil S2 premiere. From the technical P.O.V., it is stunning, but the content… MCU itself had Matt Murdoch point out that the Sokovia protocols are dead in the ‘She-Hulk’ the series, so why is Fisk running NYC as if it is? The AVTF (or whatever they are abbreviated to), may be his personal army, but how is he getting away with it? During the Donald’s first 4 years, Marvel comics tried to reflect reality, but the Joe Biden became the 46^th U.S. president, Marvel comics and MCU had to redirect themselves or whatever, and now, unlike Thanos of MCU, the Donald is back and is causing the U.S. and the cause of democracy a lot of damage, and MCU is going for Fisk in NYC instead. Bravo! Innovative stuff here indeed! Real life sucks!

No, wait, that’s probably Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie, as it has the Punisher in it too. That deserves its’ own discussion, and we will have it some other time.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Perseus and Medusa - Feb 28

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, let us talk about Medusa for a change.

Why? She is a fad. Let us begin.

Medusa’s origins are vaguer than you might think. In the modern version, she was a human transformed into a monster by Athena. Originally, she was never human, but some sort of a supernatural entity who was slain by Perseus in exchange for his mother’s freedom. Expanding further, we learn that Perseus was a son of Zeus. His mortal grandfather, Acrisius, put both him and his mother into a chest and set them adrift, for the oracle foretold that his grandson – i.e. Perseus – would end him. Acrisius tried to defy fate, but failed ultimately; this part of Perseus’ story is often left out, so let us put it aside for later. What next?

…Danae and Perseus ended on the island of Seriphos, whose king, Polydectes, wanted to marry Danae, but she refused. Since this myth is really a Bronze Age fairy tale, Danae managed to defy the king until Perseus became of age. Therefore, king Polydectes declared that he is marrying someone else and that everyone should bring them a present. Danae and Perseus were poor, so Perseus could not afford one, so the king sent him after Medusa’s head. The rest is known well, except for the death of Acrisius: he was the king of Argos, so when he heard that his demigod grandson was coming to visit, he fled, and lived in hiding for many years, until there were some proto-Olympian games. Acrisius attended them in disguise. Perseus was participating in discus throwing, and threw his discus so hard that it hit the audience stands, killing Acrisius. Therefore, Perseus had to purify himself, and leave Argos for several years – but that is another story. Back to Medusa?

Her role in the story is quite passive, in fact. Whatever her backstory is, when Perseus arrives, she is just there, confident that her deadly gaze will protect her. Since Perseus arrives fully equipped, (in the original, antique versions anyhow), she is slain instead, and – wait.

In the modern versions, Perseus uses Medusa’s head as an ultimate weapon, but originally – he did not. When it came to Andromeda, Perseus killed both the sea monster and her original suitor the old-fashioned way – wait. No, he didn’t… but what original groom?

After slaying the sea monster, (without using the head), Perseus and Andromeda have their wedding, and on the feast in walks Andromeda’s former suitor with a small army. He tries to force Perseus to back down, but Perseus stands is ground, and proceeds to slaughter a lot of enemy warriors, before he does have enough and uses Medusa’s head to petrify all those who remain, including the original suitor. (His name was Phineas, supposedly). Pause. You do not usually see this part of the myth in the modern interpretations either. However, what about Medusa?

In fact, she is a fad. Originally, she was the embodiment of death, a death goddess, the female counterpart to Thanatos, perhaps. Unlike modern depictions of her as a snake-woman, originally she had both arms and legs as well as a pair of wings, so she was quite mobile and could even fly. It goes for Thanatos too, but Medusa did conflict with the Olympian pantheon, especially Athena, and was destroyed; her head is carried either by Athena or by Zeus himself, perhaps signifying that the Olympians are immortal and are greater than death itself. Of Medusa there is just the Perseus’ myth, of Thanatos – slightly more, but not much. Pause.

…If one treats Medusa as a fallen deity that became a mortal monster, then her story does become more interesting rather than just a mortal woman physically mutated into a monster; as a story of victim abuse, Medusa’s modern story is tragic, of course, but also limited; there’s nothing new, no divergence…

Natalie Haynes’ novel ‘Stone Blind’ is just another retelling of the same old story, with some new details, but the focus is mostly on Medusa and her backstory, (here she’s the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, at least); plus, in this novel the female characters are mostly positive, while the male are mostly negative – must be politically progressive, of course.

Bernard Evslin’s ‘Medusa’ book was written in the late 20^th century, quite earlier than ‘Stone Blind’ was, and this book, while quite slimmer than ‘Stone Blind’ is, manages to make Medusa a tragic character, while keeping Perseus the protagonist, and giving the entire Medusa-Danae-Perseus-Andromeda story an original twist – but Mr. Evslin wasn’t concerned with socio-politics unlike Ms. Haynes is, but we talked about her several times before, and let’s not start again.

So, in conclusion, Medusa’s story became quite limited, as is Perseus’; they are depicted in CGI online, but it is the same story, and as such, it risks to become unfashionable and forgotten; guess that the Olympians are having the last laugh over the gorgons’ after all. However, this is real life. It sucks.

…This is it for now. See you all soon.

Clothes make the woman - Feb 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so here's a drabble to cheer you up!

The empusa was still on the roof, tangled in the net like some sort of a giant moth or bat, her arms, legs and wings tangled in the wire.

Rafael approached the daemon carefully: “Still stuck?” he asked the obvious.

“Yes,” and his interlocutrix did not bother to hide the tears, and not just of frustration. “Can you please leave? If I am to die for real, I do not want an audience-“

Rafael took a deep breath and acting quickly, untangled the net, leaving the empusa on the roof, sitting on her butt without ceremony. “There, you’re free, now hide or whatever-“

“I can’t!” the empusa raced to him, still looking desperate. “I need human clothes, they’re in the apartment, the apartment’s locked and the key is inside. I need human clothing to make it through the day-!”

“I have only masculine clothing, and you’re standing on my leg,” Rafael muttered. “Listen, Lena-“

“You recognized me?”

“Up close – yes,” Rafael muttered as the two moved slowly into the building. “Hah, your hooves are soft-“

“And they need shoes,” Lena muttered, but then they entered Rafael’s apartment and she turned into a blur of motion as she grabbed shoes and clothing and raced with them into another other room, to change, apparently. Rafael just sighed:

“Same old Lena.”

Here you go, enjoy, see you all soon!

Story idea 1 - Jan 14

 Obligatory statement - real life sucks, so here's an idea for a fiction story if anyone's interested:

Story outline.

Aphrodite is a schemer, like most other Olympians are, and she planned to make one of her children into something more than just a demigod. Initially, she was going for Silena, grooming and preparing her for her potential destiny discreetly but Silena died during the war with Chronus, and Aphrodite had to start anew.

Not a problem, she has two candidates, the heir – Piper, and the spare – Drew. Well, Drew is mostly out because Piper seems to be perfect, doing exactly what Aphrodite wanted her to do, including saving Olympus from Gaia and the giants, but also a relationship with Jason.

Jason is the youngest son of Zeus/Jupiter, (so far, officially), and the latter has an ambiguous relationship with all of his sons: he keeps a close watch on them, and if they stand out and rebel (by the Thunderer’s standards), he ends them. Initially, Piper’s job was to occupy Jason’s attention and ensure that he did not do that – and in return, both she and her mother were to receive benefits from the king (and the queen) of Olympus.

At first, it worked, but when the pair moved to college, it stopped. The relationship ended, Jason stood up for Apollo, (who was in Zeus’s bad books now), and ended up dead with no chance of coming back, because you do not come back after you argue with Zeus. Hera is not happy and scheming, but Aphrodite and Piper are not a part of it.

Aphrodite tries to manipulate Piper by giving her Shel – who is almost a literal shell of a person, but it backfires: Piper is done with gods, demigods, and monsters, and takes what Shel de-facto offers her – a life as an ordinary mortal. (There is some squiggle room, but since Piper has de-facto renounced her status as the daughter of Aphrodite, none of the options are good). Aphrodite goes to Drew.

Drew knows that Aphrodite came to her only after Piper is done, and knows that for Aphrodite she is the last option. Still, Aphrodite is her mother, and so, when Aphrodite gets her to go on a quest, Drew accepts.

The quest is the first step out of several that are supposed to make Drew into something more than a demigod, almost like a junior partner for her mother. Drew suspects that something is off from the start, and though she loves and obeys her mother, she doesn’t do so without questions and doesn’t do all the right moves fully, and Aphrodite can’t manipulate/force her to do that, because that would ruin her whole plan – so now the mother and daughter are stuck in a very precarious position as both found themselves bound to each other by Aphrodite’s plot.

Add the Egyptian magicians, led by the Kane siblings. They do not know the Greek-Roman world too well, but Drew is helping them learn, (and learns back), and they recognize enough of Aphrodite’s plan to be wary. (Drew wants them to stop it, on some level). The story is set, and many people are going to have headaches before it ends.

This is it for now. See you all soon.

PJO S2, take 2 - Jan 13

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us return to PJO S2 once again.

We start with ‘the Sea of Monsters’, obviously. Riordan’s novel was one thing, and Disney+ went with something visibly influenced by the PotC franchise – remember the entire Depp vs. Hearst RL story? Yes, that PotC. Disney is continuing to play fast and loose with its properties – guess the Sequel Trilogy of SW did not teach them anything…

No, really, let us expand. In the SW 7-9 films, Disney tried to push female power and other progressive politics onto the movies’ audiences, and failed. The state of affairs where Disney/SW just swung back and forth between bending backwards to appease the viewers to flat-out defying them (Witcher S4 style) to elsewhere made it worse. In PJO S2, this state of affairs is not present, instead we have POCs, especially young women of Afro-American origin, being the main characters – mostly. Circe took over for Medusa here, (sort of – out of the two, Medusa is the more appealing character), and PJ (who is played by an Anglo-American male), and Grover, (who is a POC, but male, rather than female), are still important to the plot. However, otherwise? Athena is depicted here as a POC. Not a problem – she is a goddess; in Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ she tended to alter her appearance constantly whenever she was in the mortal world – she could appear as anyone, male or female, as well as human or bird. Right now, we behold her as a woman of color, just as Zeus is an Afro-American man – but that does not matter at all. Zeus courted Europa as a bull, Danae – as a shower of gold, Alcmene – as her legitimate husband, and Leda – as a swan to name a few; right now he looks like an Afro-American man; in the next moment he can look like an animal, an inanimate object, or, Tartarus, even a woman – he seduced and impregnated Callisto in the shape of his another daughter, Diana slash Artemis of the hunt, so, clearly, the divine equipment is different from the mortal on many levels…

Athena, of course, is supposed to be a virginal goddess. Pause. In the second series, Riordan made it so that Minerva is a virginal goddess, but Athena isn’t – and now, in ‘The Court of the Dead’, there are ‘legacy demigods’ of Minerva too. He is clearly doing his best to adapt to whatever Disney is doing with his franchise, for what else is there?

Calling it quits and leaving with some originality and integrity intact. As king Midas showed, you cannot have all the money in the world, and Croesus showed that you could be rich, but still have an unhappy ending to your life. (Neither appeared on PJO yet). Riordan has 15 books on the Greek-Roman myths, 3 on the Egyptian, and another 5 on the Norse – plus oodles of supplementary books. That is quite enough for a single person; the royalties for them should last him a lot – and then there are the ‘RR presents’ YA novels – but we’ll talk about them another time. Right now we reach the point that Riordan’s characters can be POC or WASP and move to the fact that Disney is trying to pull an ‘Ironheart’ here – Annabeth, Clarisse, even Thalia (in the flashback), all are POCs, and they almost steal the show from Percy, who is not. The show is good, but now the fans have reached the acceptance stage – they do not care about the race bending, (good for them), or about anything else. They just watch the episode of the week, and move on. Riordan and Disney tried to reinvigorate the franchise. It does not appear to have worked. Of course, if they kill Clarisse, (rather than Luke) on the show, I will be sad and disgruntled for one, but that is unimportant. I believe they are trying to make Clarisse almost like a mentor/big sister to Percy and that, again, is original content. Pause.

There is nothing wrong with original content; Hell, Tom Holland’s ‘Spider-Man’ movies are full of it, and if original content is delivered correctly, (in those movies it is), it works. Otherwise, you have ‘Ironheart’ or even ‘Marvel Zombies’, where it does not work. What next?

Clarisse’s heartfelt speech in the scene with Scylla. Of all the depictions they could have taken with the sea monster, this one was disappointing – a watered-down version of the PotC Kraken. Seriously, they just could have made her a giant squid and be done with it, ‘cause why not? In addition, on another note, it is Epic: the Musical. What?

In JRH’s version, Odysseus sacrificed a random half-a-dozen of his crew so that he, and the rest, could get through and to Ithaca, eventually. In Homer, Odysseus prepared to fight Scylla, but since six heads can be smarter than one, Scylla launched a surprise sneak attack and stole six of Odysseus’ crew before Odysseus could do anything. In addition, here, in PJO S2, we have Clarisse and co. doing their best to save Clarisse’s crew (who are not entirely human themselves, but Scylla does not care)… with mixed success, but still. I honestly wonder if the script of Epic: the Musical, (there the Scylla episode is something of a response to the ‘Survive’ song set in Polyphemus’ cave), hadn’t influenced Disney’s PJO script writers and they went the other way…

Polyphemus, of course, is Polyphemus, (just as Tyson is Tyson). Here, the PJO script did something different from the book again – the Tyson vs. Polyphemus fight, for example. Clearly, the PJO scriptwriters felt that they needed to do something different from the book (and the movie) here, and they did. It was certainly dramatic, too. Good for them. Pause.

Do I like the PJO S2? It is not bad. It is full of progressive politics, just like Ms. Haynes’ books, and as I wrote before, Ms. Haynes seems to be doing her best to be noticed by Disney and co. – but she does not appear to have much luck in this direction. As it was written earlier, her writing usually does not have any passion, any investment – it is not written by an A.I., but that is not necessarily an improvement.

What is the advantage of A.I.? It allows you to bounce your ideas around, to see what they look like as a draft.

…Ok, it can enable you to do a lot more – write an official letter, an essay, explain a complex myth to your child and so on. The A.I. is here to stay, but you must learn how to handle it precisely – a slight mistake and the result is nothing that you wanted. If this sounds familiar, it is. It is Athena and her wisdom – she can help you see clearly, (or clearer), what you want, but nothing else. You are in charge, in fact, you decide where to go from there, what to do with this advice, and so on. The ‘Odyssey’ shows this clearly – Athena, disguised as Mentor, (a man – therefore, for all that we know, she was hanging around Annabeth regularly, Annabeth just never knew that it was her mum), helps Telemachus to organize his thoughts, make up his mind, design his plan, and go off to execute it. It is clean, precise, methodical, and not exactly humans – but the gods of Olympus are not exactly human to begin with, and neither is A.I. I am not saying that Annabeth is the daughter of a divine Skynet, but wouldn’t it be cool if it were?

Back to PJO… it was not written by A.I., or at least – not purely by A.I., and neither were Riordan’s original YA novels, and therefore, the PJ franchise feels more emotional than Ms. Haynes’ works. Her non-fiction works are something else, and ‘1000 ships’… well, it has Odysseus and Penelope in it, and so it is a much more interesting read than ‘Stone’; as for ‘House’ (her upcoming 2006 novel), we will just have to wait and see.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon.

 

PJO, Riordan, and Ms. Haynes - Jan 11

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. My apologizes for vanishing for the rest of 2025, but real life sucks, and I did not have a regular access to computer until now. I really hate my life, you know? That said, the ‘Endlings’ have ended for now, (and we will talk about them some other time), MCU is about to bring forth ‘Wonder-Man’ by the end of Jan 2026, (and we will talk about it then), so what is left?

The second season of PJO, mostly. After the excitement of the first season, the second is going down much quietly, people have accepted this PJ reality and just go with it – or not. The sirens, for example, clearly designed via 3.5 edition’s D&D Monster Manual II, are just… not working. This probably brings us to Annabeth (and Clarisse). Pause.

Once upon a time, there was plenty of racebending artwork – not just of PJ, but also of HP and the like – and then the first season of PJO came out, and racebending became official, and unofficially? The racebending stopped. Even via the AI, as well as the more traditional artwork. In fact, the popularity of the entire Riordan franchise still appears to be gradually dying down, which brings us to Ms. Natalie Haynes.

Ms. Haynes, judging by her books, both fiction and non-fiction, wouldn’t object being noticed by Disney or someone like that; to achieve this, she’s trying to be politically progressive, especially in ‘Deific Might’ (that features a particularly cheeky goddess Athena on the cover)… just when the progressive politics are dying – thanks to the Donald (at the moment). Moreover, as I wrote in 2025, most of the time, Ms. Haynes’ prose is more mind than passion, more Athena than Medusa (by her standards), and while she does get passionate (say, about Phaedra in ‘Pandora’s Jar’), most of the time she is not. Therefore, it is rather hard to get excited/involved/etc. in her writings as well. You read them, and you are done. Onto Athena?

Athena… is a special case for Ms. Haynes – she is clearly her favorite goddess, she tries to put her into every entry of PJ and DM. Ms. Haynes tends to be long-winded anyhow, (and it doesn’t always work in her favor), but when Athena, (or Odysseus, Penelope, or Homer), is talked about, she becomes especially so. Ms. Haynes has her favorites, and no matter how hard she tries to some across as a politically progressive person, she does not always achieve this. So what does Riordan has to do with this?

As we have seen the goddess Athena in PJO, she too is now Afro-American, as is Annabeth, her daughter. This means nothing, because Athena is a fully blooded goddess and can look like everyone. This is traditional, in fact, because in Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’, (as well as the later works, especially Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’) Athena was quite fond of disguises and could be anyone, before revealing her godly might and surprising the unlucky mortal. She got it from Zeus, of course – the king of gods and mortals really loved disguises, especially when it came to seduction; he usually didn’t go as himself (unless the other party themselves was divine, like Leto or Maia), but rather as someone else – as the lawful husband when he sired Heracles, as his own daughter when he seduced Calypso, as a bull, or a golden rain, or – you get the idea. How does Athena fit here?

Zeus was worried about himself being dethroned. After all, his father, who was dethroned by Zeus himself, so there was tradition, dethroned his grandfather and since it was in Zeus’s disfavor, he did not like it. Therefore, his Olympian children were rather worried about him whipping out his old thunderbolt and sending them off the Olympus into who knows where. There are actually myths about Apollo (and sometimes Poseidon) having this sort of experience – usually serving mortals as well. Riordan’s TTOA books have precedent on their side.

For Athena’s part, she was the daughter of Metis. Zeus was worried that Metis will bear a son, who will dethrone him, so he swallowed her, and Metis bore Athena, a daughter, instead. I.e., Athena is the son that Zeus always wanted – a daughter who cannot inherit his throne (or deposit him – theoretically). In addition, for her part Athena is always obedient to Zeus in the canon and usually does what he wants and nothing more. That is one.

Two is that Athena is wisdom, true, but… the wisdom she gives is the one that the person already has. Look at Aphrodite. As love, she can be anyone, so all of those depictions of her are all true – she can take any shape, from a skinny blonde-haired woman to a short and busty redhead, to anyone else – and she will always be Aphrodite. Athena, too, can be anyone or anything – an old woman, a bird (and not just an owl), your best friend or even your sibling – and she will always give wise advice. Only… everyone has their own wisdom (and common sense), and that is what Athena does. She tells the person not so much what they want to hear, but rather what they are already thinking; she helps them work through the thinking process and arrive where they want to go mentally – and that can be dangerous. In the ‘Iliad’, for example, Athena pretended to be one of Hector’s brothers (who wasn’t Paris), who promised to help Hector with his fight with Achilles – and so Hector went to fight Achilles, and his brother (let alone Athena) wasn’t there to help him, and that was one of the reasons he died.

The rub there, of course, is that it might’ve been one of Hector’s brothers (who wasn’t Paris), who wanted Hector to die so that he can be the next commander in chief of the Trojan forces, and Athena just helped him figure out how to do it – how to set Hector up. Athena, the wisdom, does what you want to do, she helps you get to your goal without caring about morality, and if you fail, or succeed, and the price is paid – Athena is already gone; she usually does not care about mortals, normally she does not care about the mortals at all…

You know who, or what, this sounds like? An AI or a robot. Athena is almost all intellect, normally; she does not have much emotions. Poor Annabeth has her work cut out for her trying to impress her divine parent – it is not that Athena does not care about her children; it’s that she doesn’t do that emotionally. Moreover, I do not think that she would have children without Zeus’ permission – he is not exactly grandfather material, he is always suspecting that there is a rival within his family and so he keeps his thunderbolt ready and primed. If he suspected that Athena was not loyal to him, he would smite her too – as he did with Apollo, most likely. Therefore, Athena can prance before Ares and proclaim that she is better than he is at war and his domains, but in reality? It is a superiority of a computer/robot over a human being (in a matter of speaking), and we all know how it goes does in a sci-fi movie (or a TV series) – the human eventually triumphs…

It would have been an interesting twist, if in PJO Riordan did not make Ares the villain in the ‘Lightning Thief’ book, but rather Athena: she could have started as this flawless, perfect being, and then gradually the titular hero and his friends realized that this perfection is hollow and that Athena is manipulating everyone without caring about anyone. Chronus, of course, would still be the puppeteer; Athena would be free from his control and would spend at least a couple of books putting her life back together after this disaster. (Instead of Trials of Apollo, we could have Trials of Athena – that would be interesting too). However, no – Ares is a stereotypical villain, Percy defeats him, and Ares recovers his standing by the third book of PJO, the end. Clichéd and boring – no wonder that Riordan’s world is slowly fading into overall oblivion, Disney+ series or not. Meanwhile, Ms. Haynes?

The same thing. Her fiction books, feel like they have been written by an A.I. (or Athena) – smooth, flawless, easily forgettable. Her non-fiction books… Ms. Haynes tries to be politically progressive, but sometimes she sounds like a neophyte who arrived at progressive politics late in her life and who tries to compensate for this fact with extra zeal – and sometimes she sounds more like an opportunist, who doesn’t care about the progressive politics but wants to use them to get ahead… isn’t that Disney? It sure is – no wonder Ms. Haynes is trying to hit all the right notes and be notices – after all, if Disney worked for Riordan, and made him successful and rich, why not for her?

…Because Riordan actually has passion in his writing and emotion. Some of his novels – especially the second pentalogy, where Percy and friends meet the Romans and have to ally with them to defeat the giants – are quite good. Ms. Haynes’ novels are not so much. (In addition, authors are publishing fictive books based on Greek myths quite regularly in the last few years, so Ms. Haynes is also getting lost in the crowd). However, hey, Athena would be proud!

…Athena is not the goddess of creativity or literature – that is the role of the Muses and Apollo. Riordan invested into the latter a lot – five entire books, a whole series. Maybe Ms. Haynes should try to do something similar rather than sticking with ‘girl power’ – something that Athena does not have much in common with anyhow. (Seriously, Athena does not care all that much for mortal women, unlike the other Olympian gods and goddesses). However, hey, it is her call. (The real life sucks, again – unlike the sirens of PJO who are not even good or bad – just bizarre, and looking like some animatronics gone wrong – but that is a rant for another time).

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Phaedra and Natalie Haynes

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, let us talk about Ms. Haynes and her book ‘Pandora’s Jar’ once more, or, more specifically, about the Phaedra entry.

Now, who is Phaedra? Ariadne’s younger sister, who did marry Theseus and it cost all of them dearly. More generally, she is a one-story character – she is here to mess Theseus’ established family, to cause the death of his son Hippolytus from Theseus’ previous relationship, and that is it. She is done and gone… but Ms. Hayes is not.

By now, people are beginning to accept/realize officially that in some aspects, women are not different from men; they have had a piece of the power pie for a few decades now, and the world has not become a better place. Sure, it is all the fault of men, no doubt, but even KK’s Netflix series, ‘All’s Fair’, was unable to sell itself on this premise. Maybe all is the fault of men, but the society did not care, and ‘All’s Fair’ is a failure rather than a success.

Ms. Haynes takes a somewhat different approach than KK and the rest of the K-clan; her fiction (like ‘Stone Blind’ and ‘1000 Ships’) often portrait women as a part of an all-encompassing sisterhood; almost all of them can get along, regardless of the meddling men, but her language is smooth and politically correct and detached; almost emotionless, (more Athena than Medusa) and easily forgettable.

‘PJ’ is largely like this too, even though it is non-fiction; some of the women discussed in this essay collection, such as Clytemnestra and Medea, are ambiguous, but Ms. Haynes is not ruffled, she deals with them as they come along. Then there is Phaedra, and unexpectedly Ms. Haynes’ tone shifts – now she is quite loud and driven and makes her point clearly: Phaedra is not wicked or a liar, (not really); the men who proclaim her so are the true villains and misogynists; just look at their treatment of Hades and Persephone!

…What Hades and Persephone have to do with Phaedra and co.? Here is the thing. Each entry in ‘PJ’ goes as follows: first Ms. Haynes retells the story of each female character (using info that is easily found on Wiki or Google), then she lists and/or re-tells one or another famous ancient play where this character starred; then she talks (or re-tells) a more modern adaptation of the play; and then she discusses some of the artwork – ancient or otherwise – that also feature this character. Pause.

More precisely, a lot of information Ms. Haynes tells us is either available in public domains, or she is just re-telling one or another ancient play (or modern movie, etc.), in her own words. Not quite the champion that girl power needs. She is better than KK who just has beautiful aesthetics covering up an empty void, but then again, it is KK. Anyone is better than she is.

The ‘Phaedra’ entry, meanwhile, is not too different from the other entries; the complication here is that there is not a lot of information about Phaedra, unlike, say, Medea or Penelope, so Ms. Haynes spends a lot of time discussing, first, the fate of Hades and Persephone, and then re-telling the Euripides’ play ‘Hippolytus’.

Again, this is not unique; a big amount of the ‘Eurydice’ chapter is given to Admetus and Alcestis; there is not a lot to tell about Eurydice either, and Ms. Haynes was paid by page, or was commissioned to write a set number of pages (and about a certain list of characters), so she had to improvise. She did, but she was nowhere as fired up about Eurydice as she was about Phaedra. Maybe something about Phaedra’s situation hit Ms. Haynes close to home? Who knows, we will never do.

As for Phaedra’s story per se… For a start, the main trio of characters are not exactly human. Theseus is the demigod son of Poseidon, of course, and his son Hippolytus is Poseidon’s grandson, true, but his mother was an Amazon.

The Amazons were liminal figures In the Greco-Roman culture; they dwelled in the space between RL and fiction. The meetings of Greeks and Romans with women of other cultures – Scythians, Celts, Teutons, who did not believe, or could not afford, the Greco-Roman sexual-social segregation inspired them. See, this way of life is taxing on both men and women – women have no independence and are completely dependent on men (a humiliating position), while men have to carry out all of the financial strain of their family – a position that is not much better. Therefore, it is safe to say, that in the ancient times sexism and misogyny were features of the elite – the lower classes could not afford them and so they were not as sexist or misogynist as their superiors, who ignored them. Pause. What about the Amazons?

The Amazons did not fit into this worldview at all – they distorted or challenged it. Their kingdom was a kingdom of women who were the ones in charge, the politicians, the warriors, and so on, and the men were subservient, if they were there at all. If the Amazons were cats, frogs, or something similar, it would not be a problem, but the Amazons were humans and that what made the Greeks (and the Romans, and the other Europeans) so angry: here was an alternate society that worked. Of course, it was also a work of fiction, and so the ancient authors had no problem in sending various male heroes, such as Heracles and Theseus, against the Amazons, and defeat them, even though the Amazons were supernaturally strong and supernaturally beautiful – no glory in defeating a land full of homely women, now is there?

Of course, sometimes it went the other way around – after Theseus married his Amazon lover, and the pair had had Hippolytus, the Amazons got their act together to invade Greece and besiege Athens, all in proper, military manner. The Amazons have to be formidable and competent, or else there is no glory in defeating them, you know? Only, in this case, the victory came with an unexpected cost – Theseus’ own Amazon wife died, leaving behind a son, Hippolytus, who was slightly more than an ordinary puny mortal – this is why Aphrodite became so peeved when Hippolytus threw his lot with Artemis, not with her.

However, this is also why she has to be subtle – Hippolytus is also the grandson of Poseidon, and everyone on Olympus treated the earth-shaking god-king of the sea gently, (except for Zeus – but he does not feature here, so let us bypass him). The direct approach wouldn’t work here – there was a chance, no matter how slim, that Aphrodite’s meddling would get back to Poseidon, who might decide to come over to Aphrodite’s home one night with his trident, his crown, and a pack of condoms to do onto her what he did onto Medusa, since Aphrodite’s meddling with Theseus and Hippolytus gave him a legitimate opening and who can resist the goddess of Love? Therefore, Aphrodite went with the roundabout option via Phaedra.

Phaedra is a one-story character, but she is also a member of the Cretan royal house. Her father is Minos … whether or not the same Minos who was the son of Zeus and Europa is open to debate, but Phaedra still has the blood of Zeus on her father’s side, and her mother’s Pasiphae, the queen of Crete, the daughter of Helios and a sea nymph, a demigoddess who was able to get intimate with Poseidon’s white bull and bear the Minotaur. A daughter of such a woman (and a man), you would think that Hippolytus would have no chance against her, but Hippolytus did not succumb, and rejected his stepmother, (whose age in regards to him is unknown); he did not bring shame onto his father’s home – and died.

Phaedra left a note accusing Hippolytus of raping her, and committed suicide. Theseus invoked Poseidon and cursed Hippolytus, proclaiming that his son should die. He is the asshole here, not Phaedra or Hippolytus, and Poseidon, who granted his wish, is barely better – of all the gods that could have issue with sexual abuse he is in the far end of the line…

Regardless, a bull of sea – maybe the same one who fathered the Minotaur, cough, came from the sea and caused Hippolytus to perish from a chariot crash. The truth about Phaedra's lie was revealed too late. The scene was set for Theseus’ further (and final) fall from grace. How Hippolytus and Phaedra fare on the other side is unknown. What is left?

…The pointedly partisan stance of Ms. Haynes on the story – she is normally not like this, but pointedly fair and neutral, this is why her fiction is quite forgettable. Yes, the women are in general good and better than the men are, but some men are also decent fellows – and this approach takes the bite from her bark, makes her fiction, well, into fiction… as in fan fiction, written about ancient Greek (and Roman) myths. She is trying to revolutionize the world’s view about via re-telling of the ancient classical myths. She gets accolades for that, but no lasting impact, it looks like. Pity, if she was more as how she was in ‘Phaedra’ and less like how she is via ‘Stone Blind’ or ‘1000 ships’, she might have actually succeeded. Instead, she is more successful than KK was, but only just. The patriarchy – or rather, the patrilinage – will go on. Real life sucks, you know?

Well, this is it for now – see you all soon!

Endlings: Thylacine (and the Gorgon) - Nov 10

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about Ms. Haynes’ Medusa-based novel? Pause

In truth, I wanted to talk about BB/Endlings ‘Thylacine’ episode, but not unlike what we had with the Florida panther last month, BB/Endlings found their stride: it is dutiful retelling of Wikipedia articles, including the Thylacine one. When the ‘Wild Kratts’ cartoon series had the titular characters travel back in time to see the Thylacine and its’ extinction, it was actually a more derived take – and ‘Wild Kratts’ is a children’s cartoon!.. Where were we?

Here is the thing. Ms. Haynes positions herself as a progressive person, she talks about the Greek myths from a more feminist/feminine P.O.V., but…

…but these days (mid-2020s) it might not be enough. Obviously, kudos to her for not talking smack about other mythological writers, but it does make her essays – about Helen, Medusa, the Amazons – feel rather flat and one-dimensional: they are dutiful retellings of the depictions of the mythical women in the modern or post-Medieval art, writing and sometimes in other media, such as TV series. There also dutiful retellings of the myths of the mythical women in question; they are broken by sarcastic comments (that do not amount to anything and serve to better depict Ms. Haynes as a person), by rhetorical questions (that are not usually followed up), and by the like. One can imagine Ms. Haynes as, say, a university or a college teacher, who is delivering lectures to her class, engaging them in discussion and conversation, trying to make them think about her subject, and largely forgetting about them once they graduate and leave her class behind. There will always be exceptions, of course, but usually the effort behind those exceptions will come from the other people, not her. Ms. Haynes non-fiction book, ‘Pandora’s Jar’, has the same feeling. It is quite informative, of course, but not particularly progressive – or ‘progressive’; in a Protestant/post-Protestant world of the modern Western culture, this can make the difference between eternity (remembrance) and oblivion…

As for her fiction books… ‘A Thousand Ships’ is based on various Greek (and Roman?) plays about what happened during the last days of the Trojan War and what happened after, including the Odyssey and a few other chapters. Here, Ms. Haynes tries something different, such as Penelope’s personal development, but-

-but what can you do, if you are writing a novel (or another piece) based on someone else’s story, such as the Greek literary works and folk myths, and not your own? Most often, one out of the three: you can dutifully retell the myth such as it is, (Mr. Pullman did in his book of the Greek myths), you can write something that is entirely your own, (aka your own work, which can be argued pro and contra, but it’s yours), or you can re-tell the original story (for example Perseus’ and Medusa’s) with just a few different tweaks ‘behind the scenes’, a sort of crypto-history, put otherwise. In addition, this is how Ms. Haynes’ novels feel like – dutiful re-telling of the traditional myths, with a few comments – sarcastic, poignant, etc., it doesn’t matter – scattered here and there; they don’t amount to anything but to make her novels stand out from the rest and make them more sellable. It is not a bad strategy, it certainly is sensible, but, again, it makes her books, novels and otherwise, a one-hit wonder, forgettable quite easily.

… ‘Stone Blind’ is the telling of Medusa, Perseus, and Athena; Ms. Haynes is being sympathetic towards Medusa, making Perseus a coward, and the decapitated head of the Gorgon eventually petrify Athena, who thus finds peace in death. This is actually quite clever, but the mild, respectful, (and sometimes sarcastic) language of the novel wears away any controversial bits, making the readers of ‘Stone Blind’ feel stone cold towards the novel’s characters. The Gorgons are not bad. Athena is cold. Perseus is a coward, apparently. So on, but currently there is plenty of fan works that drive the same point home; in ‘Thousand Ships’ Ms. Haynes made Penny the Amazon queen suicidal – that is something else, but we’ll talk about it some other time. What about ‘Endlings’?

Same thing that goes down with Ms. Haynes, really. The first episode, about the passenger pigeons was intriguing and thought provoking because there was talk about bringing the avian back (and we talked about it). The second was also interesting, because of the silphium’s ambiguity, (and we talked about it too). However, the next episode – the Florida panther – and this episode – the Thylacine – are straightforward: the pumas are dying out in Florida because (insert your reason here), and the Thylacine is gone because (insert your reason here II). Maybe it disappeared in the second half of the 20^th century, not the first, but it is still gone, and it cannot be brought back (because humans don’t want to, apparently – is it so much harder to bring back the Thylacine than the dire wolf or the giant moa?). Aye, ‘Endlings’ are supposed to be sad – but sad because of the inevitable extinction, not because they are just that depressive and simply-made… Ah well, this is real life. It sucks, remember?

…Well, this is it for now, see you all soon!

Helen

 Something quite different: a short drabble about queen Helen of Sparta, (because real life still sucks):

The pearly glow never faded. Not at dawn, not in the echoing halls, not even in the deepest, darkest corners of Olympus. Helen, the woman who launched a thousand ships, was perpetually bathed in it. It was the light of her perfection, a gift… or perhaps a curse, depending on the day.

She was, as the gods intended, a masterpiece frozen in time. Her skin, alabaster smooth; her eyes, a startling violet; her lips, eternally curved in a serene, almost ethereal smile. The ultimate objet d'art. And utterly, desperately, bored.

She drifted through the eternal gardens, the nectarine scent of the ambrosia blossoms doing little to alleviate the ennui that gnawed at her divine existence. The gods admired her, of course. They paid her lip service, told her tales of her legendary beauty. But they didn't see her. They saw the idea of her. The tragedy, the catalyst. Not Helen herself.

Her thoughts, as they often did, drifted to Penelope. Penelope of Ithaca. Her cousin. Penelope, who wasn’t blessed (or burdened) with such blinding beauty. Penelope, whose face, Helen remembered, bore the marks of worry lines and the soft creases around her eyes that came from years of laughter and, yes, tears.

Penelope, who aged.

Helen closed her eyes. She remembered a childhood visit to Ithaca. Penelope, already a woman, tending her olive groves. The earthy scent of the oil, the calloused hands that held Helen’s own smooth, pampered ones. Helen had been captivated by Penelope’s quiet strength, her unwavering loyalty.

Now, in her eternal state, Helen understood.

Penelope’s story, though not as loudly sung, was ultimately more resonant. A husband lost, presumed dead. Years spent fending off aggressive suitors with cunning and weaving. A love story sustained by hope and fidelity.

Helen had been a prize, a pawn in a game played by kings and gods. Penelope had been a fortress, a steadfast beacon in a tempestuous sea.

Sometimes, staring at her own flawless reflection in the still waters of the nymph's pool, Helen would whisper a silent wish: to trade the eternal prison of her perfect beauty for one single day in Penelope's weathered, yet infinitely more fulfilling, shoes. To feel the sun on her face, the earth beneath her feet, and the embrace of a love earned, not decreed. A day filled with the imperfections that made life, and Penelope's life especially, so beautifully real.

So, what do you think?

'Pandora's Jar' - Nov 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, let us talk about Ms. Haynes’ book, ‘Pandora’s Jar’, (PJ) instead. Released in 2020, this is a series of essays about the state of women in the Greek myths, and-

-And let us first call a dog a dog – the Greeks (and the Romans) treated their women quite badly, they established the foundations of the more modern misogyny in their ancient times.

Let us elaborate. On one level – biological and anatomical, humans have two sexes that are anatomically very different, to say nothing of the entire issue of pregnancy and childbirth. But when it comes to society and politics, men and women are not so different; since the 1990s, I think, women are playing an increasingly larger role in the global politics, business, and the like…and the human society hasn’t improved/changed too much – when it comes to values and morals, men and women aren’t so different at all. Natalie Haynes?

Ms. Haynes is trying to champion the female cause – her PJ is all about the injustice that the ancient Greeks (and Romans) did to the female characters in their myths, legends, and so on. That is quite so, Ms. Haynes did a great job in PJ, but… this fact is already admitted by plenty of people, she hasn’t quite discovered anything new, uncovered something previously unknown; rather, she dutifully re-told what already was established, while working in the sufficiently safe territory – the Greek-Roman myths, who offend no one and are a part of the Western culture these days.

The language of Ms. Haynes in PJ is specific also – it is professional, weighted and measured, with sources and outsources, footnotes and endnotes, references and insights… It is the language of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, not of Medusa, who was a being of emotion instead.

Pause. Since we are talking about the obvious and the established by now, let us call out Medusa for what she was (also) – a goddess of death, the embodiment of death… Her head is the head of a corpse; her petrifying gaze is the killing gaze, no more, no less… By going after her head, Perseus goes into the Underworld, into the Afterlife – no wonder he needed the help of the Olympians, Hermes and Athena, to succeed… The feud between Athena and Medusa is probably a later addition, when Medusa was re-cast as a priestess of Athena, who was violated by Poseidon, and Athena transformed/killed her on top of the sexual abuse… Fun… Natalie Haynes?

Ms. Haynes dutifully discussed Medusa’s plight in PJ (2020) and later on in her own fictive novel, ‘Medusa’s Story’ (2024). In the latter, she added her own twists and tweaks, but the basic story is the old one; feel free to read it for yourselves to decide on your own; Medusa (and to a lesser extent) her sisters became celebrities only to succumb to obscurity once more… Pause.

No, seriously, Medusa, her sisters, Perseus, Athena, etc. – they were never real, not in the way they are depicted in the stories at any rate. However, the world runs on stories, and Medusa and Perseus’ story used to be good, (still probably is), but now it is well established, rather worn, and people are not influenced by it as they were before. Fame and celebrity is fleeting, and after fame often comes obscurity, as the movie ‘Amadeus’ showed. Medusa is not like Mozart’s nemesis (in ‘Amadeus’), but not unlike him, she was first made famous as a symbol of a strong, independent woman, and now she is no longer needed.

Elaborating. Throughout the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, Medusa was often used as a feminist icon, but now the feminist movement itself changed. Therefore, Medusa is quietly slipping into obscurity once more, alongside Perseus, Andromeda, and so on. Athena, of course, is doing better, as she is a goddess who figures in many stories, but still…

The difference between gods and demigods is that the gods pop up in many stories, especially if there is a beautiful woman (or a handsome man) involved. Demigods and heroes, (regardless of their gender), usually have only one story to themselves, and once it is done, it is done. Oh, it can be retold, but it is still the same old story, unless you do the Riordan treatment and tell an entirely new one, (but not even Mr. Riordan changed the Medusa and Perseus story) – but that has pratfalls of its own…

Moreover, it is a different story altogether, and we will talk another time about it. For now let’s just point out that Ms. Haynes is trying to dutifully retell the old stories while pretending that she is telling something cutting-edge new (she isn’t), and be done for it. If you disagree with my statement about it, I am ready to listen.

For now though, this is it. See you all soon!

 

‘YFNSM’ + 'Circe' - Feb 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the next three episodes of ‘YFNSM’, yes?

…Well, that was the plan, but somehow I ended up reading Ms. Miller’s novel ‘Circe’, and-

-And the novel is a mash-up of various myths, some about Circe, and some not really. What caught my eye is the novel’s treatment of Circe, Picus, and Scylla.

First, Scylla. In the ‘Odyssey’, she is an immortal evil, undefeatable by anyone, so Odysseus does not try to begin with. In the ‘Aeneid’, Aeneas and his fleet just avoid her (and Charybdis – the duo are a matched set, JRH breaking them up is something new), and in the ‘Metamorphoses’, she is an empty-brained and hollow-hearted girl who denies Glaucus his love for her, and Circe – who’s been jilted by the sea god in question – turns her into the monster that Odysseus meets… and who eventually turns into a sea reef (according to ‘Metamorphoses’). What next?

In ‘Circe’ this pretty much what happens; the only twist here is that the team of Circe, Telegonus (Circe’s son by Odysseus), Penelope, and Telemachus ends Scylla. Pause.

Leaving aside the soap opera morality of Odysseus’ two sons marrying each other’s mother, (this has happened, in fact, in some of semi-apocryphal conclusions to the ‘Odyssey’), what about female empowerment? Wouldn’t it make more sense for Circe to undo her enchantment and return Scylla to her original self (before swimming off into the sunset with her new trophy husband, his mother, and her son who’s married to her new mother in law)? No? So much for progressive values – first Circe de-facto mutilates another woman for the sake of a man (that she quickly moves on from, to boot), and then she ends her, heroically, of course. Wow.

As for Picus, he just is not here. His story is also told in ‘Metamorphoses’: he was a pre-Trojan Latium king who refused to cheat on his wife with Circe and transformed into a woodpecker instead. His wife failed to recognize that, and wasted away. ‘Circe’ just ignores this story…wonder why.

…The point here is that Ms. Miller tried to tell Circe’s story anew, in a new, progressive way, but what she told instead is a now-old story of a powerful woman who rises to match the men-folk around her…and becomes just like them, albeit gender-flipped. Pause.

‘YFNSM’, meanwhile, is trying to tell the origin story of the titular character also in a new way, but somehow it all feels empty, pointless. The 1990’s ‘Spider-Man’ series already did that, and in a much grander manner than the 2025’s version, which is doing its’ best to be politically inoffensive. Sigh. By losing the elections-2024, the Democrats have really dropped the ball, shot themselves in the foot, stabbed their non-politician allies in the back and so forth. In addition, team Marvel (and Disney?) are having a giveaway of a Marvel encyclopedia at the same time as this cartoon airs, and so they are trying to generate the primary excitement for the giveaway, not the cartoon. The universe might really hate the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise for real, after all.

…Well, this is it for now – see you all soon!

Madame Web - Feb 15

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Recently, we were setting down to discuss yet another Pathfinder (1^st ed.) campaign, set in Osirion, when one of our party people came distinctly disgruntled: he found a book of Greek and Norse myths, dated 1987, written for fifth and sixth graders… and it talked how the readers can use the mythical names in their own fantasy RPG games. Which games, what games, it is unsaid, but our friend did not handle this state of affairs too well, and spent all of our planning time half-ranting and raving. Sad and awkward, let me tell you. Onto ‘Madame Web’?

‘Madame Web’ – I will try not to get into the spoilers’ territory, but regardless – has several major flaws. First, its’ plot is taken, lock, stock and barrel, from the very first ‘Terminator’ film. People are not calling the movie out on it, but this is what happens. Mr. Ezekiel is the ‘Terminator’ analogue, while the female characters are something of a collective Sarah Connors instead.

Second, unlike ‘Terminator’, ‘Madame Web’ comes across as asexual, regardless of whether it was intended to, nor not. This is not new, there are plenty of films that had this sort of thing, and not just ‘CATS-2019’ – there’s ‘Over the Moon’, there’s ‘Quiz Lady’, there’s plenty of other equally forgettable films… though Disney isn’t a part of this tendency. ‘Frozen-2’ – there are Anna and Kristoff; ‘Encanto’ – there is Dolores and her own swain; ‘The Marvels’, (come on, they are also a part of Disney) – there’s Carol Danvers and her new husband (?); and so on. Romance does make a movie more memorable in the minds and memories of fans and audiences, you know! ‘Madame Web’ tries to avoid that, and so it does, and so many people just do not know why they should root for the titular character and her posse…

This brings us to the third – the feminist angle. These days, it is not enough to win an audience over and become a socio-political darling; you actually need to work to accomplish this and ‘Madame Web’… does not. Instead, it tries to tie into Peter Parker himself to push itself above the rest… whatever ‘the rest’ are. The first Tom Hardy ‘Venom’ was, in fact, original, even if it struggled with its’ script and everything else – and so, it was the movie’s originality that enabled it to work. The second ‘Venom’ film, featuring Carnage, was actually more of a reboot of the franchise, and ‘Morbius’ was… bad, but more of ‘Doolittle-2020’ rather than ‘CATS-2019’ bad, i.e. lackluster and lazy rather than a burning trash fire. On the other hand, ‘Madame Web’ is… cut out of the same cloth, in fact, as ‘Morbius’ is – lackluster and kind of directionless. In fact, some of the crew from ‘Morbius’ have, apparently, worked in this movie too – not exactly a good sign.

Again, the ‘Terminator’-like premise of ‘Madame Web’ is not bad, self-fulfilling prophecies and all. Its’ execution, however, is bad, simply bad, and the aromantic angle, (the Parkers aside), does not help it. Consequently, it just collapses, as our latest RPG attempt had, a teenage book of Greek and Norse myths notwithstanding.

…This is for now, then. See you all soon.

Io - Greek myths - Feb 11

Let us talk about Io.

Io is more than just two letters, she is one of Zeus’s/Jupiter’s many paramours. Therefore, what is special about her? Let us ponder.

How does the myth go, in general? Io was a nymph or a human princess, daughter of Inachus, himself a river god or a human king. She caught the eye and attention of Jupiter. The greatest of the Greco-Roman gods began to court her. This caught Hera’s/Juno’s attention. Trying to do something about it, Jupiter turned Io into a cow. It did not work. Juno demanded the cow for herself. For some reason – to save his own ass, maybe – Jupiter complied, and Io was put to pasture under the watchful gaze of Juno’s primary minion of that time – the hundred-eyed Argus. After a while, the king of the gods, the legend among mortals, Jupiter, realized that you know, this is not right, he got Io into this mess, so who but… Hermes/Mercury to get her out of it? The latter agreed, went to the pasture, put Argus down, and released Io. However, he did not turn her back into a human/nymph, and in addition, Juno sent a gadfly, (a biting fly), to harass Io further. After many other trials and tribulations, Io reached Egypt, where she stopped being a cow, and became a goddess instead – usually Isis or Hathor, as far as Greeks and Romans were concerned. Juno’d put Argus’ eyes onto a peacock’s tail, the end. Where to start?

It is an old myth. It is a myth about the gods. There are no mortals there. Unlike modern times, such as Mr. Riordan’s novels and other fiction, back then the gods and goddesses weren’t just characters as Odysseus or Perseus were, for example; rather, they were personifications of concepts, allegories, ideas, and so on, and so forth. Hera/Juno, for example, was a goddess of marriages and families; she stood for family unity and loyalty, which is why, despite all of her husband’s infidelities, when a mortal named Ixion tried to seduce her, she… either refused him, or gave him a minor goddess, (a cloud goddess), named Nephele, as a wife instead. Post mortem, Ixion is in the underworld, rolling around in a flaming wheel… that sounds suspiciously like a sun metaphor. Ditto for Sisyphus’ punishment – a stone that goes first uphill and then downhill sounds suspiciously like a sun metaphor.

For the Greeks and especially the Romans, the only Olympian sun god was Apollo, who himself almost ended up in Tartarus. He had a son named Asclepius, who – first – healed the sick, and then resurrected the dead. Pause. Unlike the New Testament, where the Savior got into trouble for completely different reasons, Asclepius was smitten down with a thunderbolt precisely for resurrection and defying the natural order.

Apollo did not care – Asclepius was still his son, so he grabbed his trusty solar bow and shot the Elder Cyclopes who used to forge the thunderbolts dead.

The Thunderer was not impressed either. He grabbed Apollo and would have sent him into Tartarus after Asclepius, when in rushed Leto – Apollo’s mother and Jupiter’s paramour, who did the unmentionable and saved Apollo from that final fate, reducing his punishment to some sort of an exile instead.

Why Leto’s actions were unmentionable? Because it is never said, what they actually were – all we know is that she was able to suck-up to Jupiter for the last time, to save her son’s life. (In a manner of speaking, but still). After this incident, she remained on Olympus, (probably), but purely as a part of entourage, never doing anything, while Artemis gradually moved away from Olympus, becoming a goddess of the wild places, (among other domains, but not so much the moon), and Apollo remained a very important god, but a solar god? Not so much. These days, people associate the sun with Helios as much as they would with Apollo; for Homer in his ‘Odyssey’, the sun was flat-out Helios rather than Apollo. …What Io has to do with this?

Let us try again. Zeus/Jupiter was the king of the gods, but he was also a thunder god, and his immediate siblings too were gods of nature, rather than of human aspects, (i.e. Athene and Hermes, as examples). Poseidon embodied the sea. Hades – the Underworld. Demeter (and her daughter Kore) was the earth, (the fertile ‘civilized’ part of it). Hestia, (who was the least developed of all the deities associated with Olympus), was the fire – the hearth-fire, but that is not important. So why is Hera not a ‘natural’ goddess, but of human marriages and families?

She was not. Not at first. Just as the peafowl was not her sacred animal at first either. The peafowl live in India and South-East Asia, and were introduced to the Mediterranean Europe at least from the time of Alexander the Great’s conquests, if not later. (The closest relative of the Asian peafowl is the Congo peafowl of Africa, but the ancient Greeks and Romans did not know it). Before then, the sacred animal of Hera/Juno might have been the cow instead, for one of her epithets is ‘cow-eyed’, and it was considered flattering in ancient world. Moreover, the cow is a good mother (and wife, to a point), on one hand, and can be associated with a rain cloud as well. Put otherwise, Zeus and Hera, Jupiter and Juno, could have been a couple from the start – Zeus/Jupiter being the destructive aspect, thunder and lightning, whereas Hera/Juno being the more benign, the life giving rain aspect instead. In some of the older myths, Zeus and Hera become a couple during a storm: Zeus confronts Hera disguised as a cuckoo, Hera shelters it from the storm, Zeus becomes himself and wins Hera over – or that is how the story goes.

The European cuckoo is 110% brood parasite, rather like the cowbirds of North America and the honeyguide bird of Africa. (This is one of the reasons as to why this story does not come up too often these days). That said, Zeus/Jupiter was a bad husband not because of all the children that he had sired, but also because he was a bad husband. He married Metis, the mother of Athene, and swallowed her, and so Athene emerged from him alone, (and had many issues). He had a relationship with Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, and see above, as to how that seemed to have ended. And Hera/Juno?

Let us get onto Io. She was turned into a cow, of all things. However, if Hera/Juno was also a cow, at least some of times, (and remember, Zeus/Jupiter himself used to be a bull from time to time, and Demeter/Ceres, their sister, was associated with horses), she would hate it even more, and assume that her husband was trying to replace her. Hence, her claim to Io the cow. So, why does her husband comply?

…In the ‘Iliad’, Zeus claims to be the strongest on Olympus, able to defeat all the others in a tug-of-war over Tartarus. Hera… is not impressed; at one point, she uses her beauty and brains to distract Zeus while her allies are giving the Greek forces a hands-up over the Trojan host. While Zeus does eventually catch-up onto her, this does not stop him from proclaiming his love for her, claiming that she got his entire lovers’ list beat. Kind of both humiliating and sweet at the same time. Put otherwise, Zeus might’ve authentically fallen in love with his sister-wife by then, (and vice versa?), plus he’s aware that physically, she’s no slouch herself – in another part of the ‘Iliad’, she beats the crap out of Artemis, when the latter challenged her; by contrast, Hermes surrenders to the twins’ mother Leto without actually doing anything – back to Io?

In Io’s story, Jupiter may be trying to replace Juno with a different wife, but he is not ready to challenge her openly yet, this could be messy. Therefore, he complies, and Juno puts Io into charge of Argus, the embodiment of the starry sky.

Wait a second, isn’t her husband’s domain also the sky? Yes, and so’s hers, and while she is not trying to replace him precisely, she is trying to build-up a challenger for the sky-god’s title. Enter Hermes, slash Mercury.

…Does anyone ever notice that the latter is acting atypically for him? Hermes/Mercury is a messenger of the gods, he is the patron of thieves, politicians, bards, merchants, and many more, but he does not murder people, let alone other immortals, for fun. Here he does, using a sickle-shaped sword of all weapons. (Later on, he loans it to Perseus to slay Medusa).

…A sickle-shaped sword? A lunar crescent! Being stuck in Argus’ stellar nighttime sky-pasture, Io the full-moon-cow threatens to ruin the entire lunar calendar. Enter Mercury with a crescent moon sword, (either new or old crescent, details are tricky), to end Argus and let Io the moon free. She is still a cow, however, and stays as such until she gets to Egypt, where she becomes a goddess instead – either Isis or Hathor. Both goddesses were associated with Juno by the Romans. Clearly, Jupiter had invested a lot of power into Io being the new Juno back then, and it worked-out… in a way that no one involved expected it to.

What else is left? In Ovid’s version, Mercury puts Argus to sleep by telling him the tale of Pan and Syrinx, the nymph who refused the former by turning into a reed, i.e. dying in an atypical way. Pan used the reeds to make his first panpipes, i.e. giving Syrinx an entire new life, (or at least existence). This is what happens to Argus as well – he dies and stops being Argus, but his eyes go onto a peacock’s tail, and so, he gets reborn – isn’t mythology fun?

That said, this was also the de-facto end of the tale of Io, with only ties left to wrap-up is her son, Epaphus, who became friends with a boy named Phaeton. The latter was the son of Helios, and tried to ride his father’s solar chariot through the sky, only to be struck down by Jupiter (in order to save the world, of course). Helios was devastated, (and there were some rumors that it was he who was struck down by Jupiter instead). Being a solar god with Zeus/Jupiter around is flat-out bad, it looks like – but that is another story.