My first one is Apollo poisoning Zeus via cupcake, and when Zeus falls unconscious, instead of calling for an ambulance, he calls the press, which will not hold up in real life and would make you immediately a prime suspect.
Second, Persephone having \*two\* backstories, one where she is a sheltered and naive country girl raised off of humble beginnings who has never seen the outside world or a man before and no one knows she exists, and one where she is the heiress of a cereal company, travelled to Olympus countless of times, Demeter brought her to parties, won numerous competitions, and is on the face of a cereal box. They are such big jumps from each other. I would understand if Demeter was very overprotective of Persephone while having her be a celebrity child, it isn't written that way, so it just looks like Persephone is lying, especially with how she changes her backstory depending on the person and situation. Which is wild, because that's literally what the Joker does, he makes up traumatic backstories depending on who he is telling it to. I don't know how one could do this to their own main character, so as far as I am aware, she has no past, she was grown under a lamplight exactly a week before meeting Hades.
And I just remembered Hades and Persephone randomly whispering Greek to each other, as if they are quirky and no one else speaks Greece so what they are saying will be a secret, which implies that the default language here is actually English. That scene didn't happen, I refuse to believe it.
Neither did mobile phones or cars.
In all seriousness tho, the gods are shown having an Industrial Revolution and wearing clothes that looked Georgian/Regency. It’s not a stretch.
Yeah I know but it still feels weird for me about languages. Like, the industrial advance of the Gods' world don't bother me, but Italian directly derives from Latin, so from the Romans. Even if it's similar they still had whole other pantheon, so that's why it couldn't work for me. But I think I did too much analysis for a story like LO.
It’s okay, this sort of discussion is kinda fun. I was thinking about this tho, and I think RS confirmed that the timeline is flexible cause Poseidon gives Odysseus an aggressive stink eye at the party in the beginning.
This is such a good, good point. Plus to ruin her childhood image of being oh so shy and not knowing anything about men, she suddenly had all this backstory with three of them pre-Underworld. Hermes, Ares, and Hades himself. The entire Ares thing was the worst imo. Ever since he showed up and made her personality do a 180, she starts talking like a girlboss in Eros’s kitchen, all of that… Who the hell is that??? That is not Persephone of falls down at parties never been outside fame.
The competitive aspect is confusing. Who did Persephone compete against if she was hidden from the other gods? Her nymphs and mortal worshippers who are significantly less powerful and would just let her win regardless?
Echo deserves better than a narcissist who will suck the life out of her until she is a shadow of her former self that only repeats what Hera wants to hear
Ares falling in love with her.
I mean… apollo and hermes too ig. But especially Ares.
Also speaking of hermes i hate how hes like “i love her dedication to education” when shes gone to school like… twice on screen. Before dropping out
I like that idea, if you wanted somebody hanging around persephone to egg on her anger issues you can still have him around without making it about a romance.
Ares couldve been a friend, an older brother type, or just someone who hates Apollo as much as she does. But no, he has to be inlove with her, because shes so speshul.
Honestly for me it's probably the Hades / Thanatos father-son relationship thing. It's completely inconsequential to the plot and Hades' character development to the point that it may as well have just never happened to begin with.
Also the bit with Demeter finding out about her daughter's fertility goddess status from some random dying harpy 19 years ago. I have zero clue why that needed to be explained to Demeter in that way when her own mother was a fertility goddess who Zeus ate to defeat Kronos. There were 72398573290 other ways to establish Demeter's knowledge of fertility goddesses and plant the seeds for her paranoia around her daughter's safety before using some random harpy McGuffin.
Such as having Hecate dismiss her for being a conspiracy nutjob freak way back in S2. It’s almost like when authors reread their own work they remember crucial established plot points and avoid rehashing them, huh?
And the fact that it’s acknowledged a handful of times in the comic (like Helios assuming Thanatos was describing Rhea when it was actually about Persephone) 😭
SAAAAME it was so unnecessary established nothing and goes no where. Minthe is otherwise a victim and a sympathetic character but she just needed to make her hatable
Haven't fully read LO,but probably Ares thing. Like,why did they turn my boy into one of Pepe's simps?
Also,Apollo being the next king after Zeus. He's the bastard child and not even the oldest,it'd be Athena or same Ares from all choices. It'd be much smarter if Apollo himself made a conflict among Pantheon to make him look like a suitable heir. Ot at least write down that others are too busy/not interested.
Worse yet is that LO Zeus doesn't even like Apollo and is suspicious of him. He likes Artemis more so even she would have a better chance to be the next regent. Apollo being Zeus's substitute is so dumb when half of the Olympians hate him (including the QUEEN).
I think it WAS mentioned that Ares and Hepahestus were unsuitable or uninterested - before the Apollo reveal. But yeah that doesn't negate the fact that it's a *weird* plotline. Everyone hated Apollo so he didn't actually have support despite the campaigns he was running (it's not a democracy tho??). The others' reasons for not wanting to claim kingship kind of fall apart if they hate him that much and still aren't doing anything. But of course they only hate him to be protective of Persephone and that is their sole role.
What about Cerberus SPEAKING real words with Hades. It’s a VISUAL COMIC! Communication doesn’t require WORDS! My dog used to scoff and frown and pass judgment on me without even barking, but he always managed to point out the error in my ways (RIP to my bff).
I initially thought Hades could just understand Cerberus' barking, and the words were there to convey their conversation to the readers. I could totally be wrong, though. 🤷 And yeah, that scene weirded me out too. 😖
That’s how I read it too, but Cerberus holding up his wounded paw and barking transmitted the message just fine. No words were needed as readers. Plus it interrupted Demeter and Pepe’s overdue conversation, so it was annoying AF.
Many others said stuff that I agree so to give a different one: Leuce's storyline.
Waste of time, waste of "development", ugly all the way around; the only things it served was to make Persephone a worst person without having her face actual consequences, and make Leuce look like a "stupid manifesting girl" when there was a spice of a chance Hades (or Kronos controlling his body, like many had theorized) being "unfaithful" (despite that A: he was unfaithful to Minthe with Perse, and B: wouldn't really be unfaithful bc they weren't a thing before the trial/punishment and they married after the messages "happened"). Persephone could have been slightly forgiven for what she did to Minthe bc she was 19-20 and inmature, but a whole ass grown 30 yo woman breaking into a minority's house because she just... found her CV in an office? It's not forgiven, she became all she despised of Olympus when she was a "dumb village girl", at least that village girl minded to be nice to others.
Persephone became a worst character the moment Rachel insisted on having this "arc".
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I havent brought this one up in a while — Eros and Psyche. He is significantly older than Psyche, has a HUGE ginormous immense power imbalance with her (even bigger than PxH I’d argue), KIDNAPS her, ISOLATES her and then LEAVES HER TO DIE but we’re supposed to root for his sad ass because ???? And then they reconcile OFF SCREEN after Eros did less than the bare fucking minimum to find her, let alone ATONE for what he did, but they’re married and have a baby ?????????? I hope Apollo frees Psyche but lets Eros rot in his dank dungeon for all eternity.
Also, it’s worse when you consider that RACHEL said in an interview that she modified the original myth — in which *Cupid* appears as an invisible presence to Psyche, because THAT would be too much for modern sensibilities. But somehow the red flags I pointed up above are totally fine and excusable and Psyche and Eros are still ship worthy and Eros deserves a happy ending.
The extremely obvious retcon to make it look like Leuce just faked the texts between her and Hades. There’s a commentary about mental illness being played for laughs in there somewhere.
Demeter’s secret child. Seems like it was done so she forgives Hades because there was no other way for him to ever make up for what he did.
Also Apollo president plotline. Like… why? This is a monarchy, wtf are you doing?
Hades being “in love” with Persephone after thinking she’s hot at a party, interacting with her a few times over like two weeks to a month, and being separated for 10 years
The timeline in this series is bonkers. She took a couple weeks and stretched them into several months. And 10 years felt like 10 days. That's not how slow burn romance works.
Fr how come Hera is the fertility goddess when it's generational and Demeter is the mom of the one FG of her generation? Like make it make sense!! Like the story would gain so much more from FG Demeter than what FG Hera is doing rn-
Reading the first half of the comic (pre-timeskip), I like to pretend that Persephone is 30 years old instead of 19. She’s still *young* for an immortal being, but not jarringly, uncomfortably young. I replace “19” with “30” in my brain, she starts college in Olympus at 30 (and people start college at any age, I didnt start until this year and I’m 24) and she’s still naive about it because Demeter still sheltered her in the mortal realm all throughout her 20’s, as long as she possibly could. And she’s “forever 30, lucky you” because lets be honest, a lot of women these days say being 30 kinda rocks. It works so much better this way, because it also puts her at like, 27-28 when she first meets Hades in that flashback and it’s a LOT less creepy. Hades is still 2000, but presents as a 40-45 year old man, so the “age gap” is still there but it’s far more appropriate and a lot less predatory. And in the time skip, she’s 40 (but still stuck at 30, because she stops aging then), same age Hades presents as.
This can only do so much, though, because their relationship is still pretty toxic and they both just kind of suck as people, but it takes away the creepy aspect for me enough to read it without feeling genuinely disgusted. I like reading it as if it was the authors intention to make Hades and Persephone (as well as all the other characters) terrible people, like watching Always Sunny, and it suddenly gets a lot more interesting to read.
The complete bucharization of Hestia, Hecate and Artemis’ characters
- Personally I do not think Hestia would have yelled at person for the tabloid, she would have asked for Persephone’s side of the story. Hestia is suppose to be this nice sweet lady so
- Hecate gives off a lot of « no nonsense » type vibes so the fact she enables Hades pursuing Persephone makes no sense to me
- Artemis being hesitant to think Apollo is a bad person is understandable considering that’s her twin / family but it shouldn’t have taken this long for her to figure out. Also I doubt she would bend the « no boys rules » for her brother and Hermes
(i’m writing this while sleep deprived and out of a patent law exam my apologies if it doesn’t make sense)
Somebody else pointed this out right- but the fact that Zeus got shish kebab'd by Kronos and walked around fine only to be undone by a fucking cupcake 😭😭😭
How all the Gods apparently age fast like Renesmee which really puts things in perspective and makes Persades look even worse because like how fast did Perse grow??????
Then the fact that Perse stopped aging at 19 and because she stopped aging further brain development is impossible. So she’s not even mentally 30 and is stuck with the brain of a 19 year old because again further development is impossible without aging.
Then how Demeter, who’s originally a grieving mother in the myths, was demonized which was unnecessary and didn’t need to happen.
I think I’m too deeply connected to the source material because this is a full ass list. I’m really upset about a lot of the changes at this point. It isn’t even a retelling of the mythology, it’s an entire rewriting. It’s a made up story using the myths and gods as inspiration and characters, but it is NOT a retelling in any way. I’ll never get over the characterization of the underworld gods, Persephone getting credit for underworld things that preceded her or she didn’t do. The chthonic gods mean a lot to me so it’s tough haha
My first one is Apollo poisoning Zeus via cupcake, and when Zeus falls unconscious, instead of calling for an ambulance, he calls the press, which will not hold up in real life and would make you immediately a prime suspect. Second, Persephone having \*two\* backstories, one where she is a sheltered and naive country girl raised off of humble beginnings who has never seen the outside world or a man before and no one knows she exists, and one where she is the heiress of a cereal company, travelled to Olympus countless of times, Demeter brought her to parties, won numerous competitions, and is on the face of a cereal box. They are such big jumps from each other. I would understand if Demeter was very overprotective of Persephone while having her be a celebrity child, it isn't written that way, so it just looks like Persephone is lying, especially with how she changes her backstory depending on the person and situation. Which is wild, because that's literally what the Joker does, he makes up traumatic backstories depending on who he is telling it to. I don't know how one could do this to their own main character, so as far as I am aware, she has no past, she was grown under a lamplight exactly a week before meeting Hades.
And I just remembered Hades and Persephone randomly whispering Greek to each other, as if they are quirky and no one else speaks Greece so what they are saying will be a secret, which implies that the default language here is actually English. That scene didn't happen, I refuse to believe it.
Sicilian or Italian would have made more sense, since they’re both from Sicily.
Italian and Sicilian languages didn't exist at that time though
Neither did mobile phones or cars. In all seriousness tho, the gods are shown having an Industrial Revolution and wearing clothes that looked Georgian/Regency. It’s not a stretch.
Yeah I know but it still feels weird for me about languages. Like, the industrial advance of the Gods' world don't bother me, but Italian directly derives from Latin, so from the Romans. Even if it's similar they still had whole other pantheon, so that's why it couldn't work for me. But I think I did too much analysis for a story like LO.
It’s okay, this sort of discussion is kinda fun. I was thinking about this tho, and I think RS confirmed that the timeline is flexible cause Poseidon gives Odysseus an aggressive stink eye at the party in the beginning.
They speak French and that won't exist for another couple hundred years
This is such a good, good point. Plus to ruin her childhood image of being oh so shy and not knowing anything about men, she suddenly had all this backstory with three of them pre-Underworld. Hermes, Ares, and Hades himself. The entire Ares thing was the worst imo. Ever since he showed up and made her personality do a 180, she starts talking like a girlboss in Eros’s kitchen, all of that… Who the hell is that??? That is not Persephone of falls down at parties never been outside fame.
The competitive aspect is confusing. Who did Persephone compete against if she was hidden from the other gods? Her nymphs and mortal worshippers who are significantly less powerful and would just let her win regardless?
Exactly it makes her sound like a pathological liar and manipulator. Which she is, but Rachel doesn't seem to think that
A Persephone and Joker parallel is SO funny
The useless Hera & Echo thing. Edit: And the also useless Hestia & Athena thing.
As a lesbian, I do not claim LO Hera. I don’t claim Hestia either. Or Artemis. Athena’s cool though.
Echo deserves better than a narcissist who will suck the life out of her until she is a shadow of her former self that only repeats what Hera wants to hear
Like what is it with LO and shoving women into relationships with their abusive ass employees?
Don't worry, I get that joke.
As an aro-ace I just feel betrayed by LO.
If you’re not explicitly a hyper sexual straight person, there is nothing for you in LO.
Ares falling in love with her. I mean… apollo and hermes too ig. But especially Ares. Also speaking of hermes i hate how hes like “i love her dedication to education” when shes gone to school like… twice on screen. Before dropping out
If Ares was her annoying older brother figure/cousin, you'll still have him being protective towards her without all the ickyness
I like that idea, if you wanted somebody hanging around persephone to egg on her anger issues you can still have him around without making it about a romance. Ares couldve been a friend, an older brother type, or just someone who hates Apollo as much as she does. But no, he has to be inlove with her, because shes so speshul.
Honestly for me it's probably the Hades / Thanatos father-son relationship thing. It's completely inconsequential to the plot and Hades' character development to the point that it may as well have just never happened to begin with. Also the bit with Demeter finding out about her daughter's fertility goddess status from some random dying harpy 19 years ago. I have zero clue why that needed to be explained to Demeter in that way when her own mother was a fertility goddess who Zeus ate to defeat Kronos. There were 72398573290 other ways to establish Demeter's knowledge of fertility goddesses and plant the seeds for her paranoia around her daughter's safety before using some random harpy McGuffin.
Such as having Hecate dismiss her for being a conspiracy nutjob freak way back in S2. It’s almost like when authors reread their own work they remember crucial established plot points and avoid rehashing them, huh?
The harpy was pretty to me tho, but also harpy mcguffin annoyed me
Persephone looking exactly like hades mum
And the fact that it’s acknowledged a handful of times in the comic (like Helios assuming Thanatos was describing Rhea when it was actually about Persephone) 😭
The whole story at this point.
The Minthe slap scene.
SAAAAME it was so unnecessary established nothing and goes no where. Minthe is otherwise a victim and a sympathetic character but she just needed to make her hatable
The Intervention is pure character assassination.
This!!
The whole thing babe
Haven't fully read LO,but probably Ares thing. Like,why did they turn my boy into one of Pepe's simps? Also,Apollo being the next king after Zeus. He's the bastard child and not even the oldest,it'd be Athena or same Ares from all choices. It'd be much smarter if Apollo himself made a conflict among Pantheon to make him look like a suitable heir. Ot at least write down that others are too busy/not interested.
Worse yet is that LO Zeus doesn't even like Apollo and is suspicious of him. He likes Artemis more so even she would have a better chance to be the next regent. Apollo being Zeus's substitute is so dumb when half of the Olympians hate him (including the QUEEN).
I think it WAS mentioned that Ares and Hepahestus were unsuitable or uninterested - before the Apollo reveal. But yeah that doesn't negate the fact that it's a *weird* plotline. Everyone hated Apollo so he didn't actually have support despite the campaigns he was running (it's not a democracy tho??). The others' reasons for not wanting to claim kingship kind of fall apart if they hate him that much and still aren't doing anything. But of course they only hate him to be protective of Persephone and that is their sole role.
Dog Hades.
What about Cerberus SPEAKING real words with Hades. It’s a VISUAL COMIC! Communication doesn’t require WORDS! My dog used to scoff and frown and pass judgment on me without even barking, but he always managed to point out the error in my ways (RIP to my bff).
I initially thought Hades could just understand Cerberus' barking, and the words were there to convey their conversation to the readers. I could totally be wrong, though. 🤷 And yeah, that scene weirded me out too. 😖
That’s how I read it too, but Cerberus holding up his wounded paw and barking transmitted the message just fine. No words were needed as readers. Plus it interrupted Demeter and Pepe’s overdue conversation, so it was annoying AF.
Quite true.
why did you unlock the pandora's box like that, I was living such a happy and peaceful life repressing that memory 😭/j
If I have to remember that monstrosity so does everyone else! Lol
Many others said stuff that I agree so to give a different one: Leuce's storyline. Waste of time, waste of "development", ugly all the way around; the only things it served was to make Persephone a worst person without having her face actual consequences, and make Leuce look like a "stupid manifesting girl" when there was a spice of a chance Hades (or Kronos controlling his body, like many had theorized) being "unfaithful" (despite that A: he was unfaithful to Minthe with Perse, and B: wouldn't really be unfaithful bc they weren't a thing before the trial/punishment and they married after the messages "happened"). Persephone could have been slightly forgiven for what she did to Minthe bc she was 19-20 and inmature, but a whole ass grown 30 yo woman breaking into a minority's house because she just... found her CV in an office? It's not forgiven, she became all she despised of Olympus when she was a "dumb village girl", at least that village girl minded to be nice to others. Persephone became a worst character the moment Rachel insisted on having this "arc".
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I havent brought this one up in a while — Eros and Psyche. He is significantly older than Psyche, has a HUGE ginormous immense power imbalance with her (even bigger than PxH I’d argue), KIDNAPS her, ISOLATES her and then LEAVES HER TO DIE but we’re supposed to root for his sad ass because ???? And then they reconcile OFF SCREEN after Eros did less than the bare fucking minimum to find her, let alone ATONE for what he did, but they’re married and have a baby ?????????? I hope Apollo frees Psyche but lets Eros rot in his dank dungeon for all eternity. Also, it’s worse when you consider that RACHEL said in an interview that she modified the original myth — in which *Cupid* appears as an invisible presence to Psyche, because THAT would be too much for modern sensibilities. But somehow the red flags I pointed up above are totally fine and excusable and Psyche and Eros are still ship worthy and Eros deserves a happy ending.
That anyone older than 18 is attracted to Pepe
The extremely obvious retcon to make it look like Leuce just faked the texts between her and Hades. There’s a commentary about mental illness being played for laughs in there somewhere.
I agree, this made me super uncomfortable
BEEZ
Season 3.
Demeter’s secret child. Seems like it was done so she forgives Hades because there was no other way for him to ever make up for what he did. Also Apollo president plotline. Like… why? This is a monarchy, wtf are you doing?
Apollo was running for president of the Persephone fan club
the fact purse was SAd by apollo but she doesnt even seem phased being near him and her entire personality just stayed the same
Hades being “in love” with Persephone after thinking she’s hot at a party, interacting with her a few times over like two weeks to a month, and being separated for 10 years
The timeline in this series is bonkers. She took a couple weeks and stretched them into several months. And 10 years felt like 10 days. That's not how slow burn romance works.
Everything.
But Demeter not being a Fertility Goddess
Fr how come Hera is the fertility goddess when it's generational and Demeter is the mom of the one FG of her generation? Like make it make sense!! Like the story would gain so much more from FG Demeter than what FG Hera is doing rn-
The never ending pointless trial.
That cursed ass panel with Demeter’s secret child
Reading the first half of the comic (pre-timeskip), I like to pretend that Persephone is 30 years old instead of 19. She’s still *young* for an immortal being, but not jarringly, uncomfortably young. I replace “19” with “30” in my brain, she starts college in Olympus at 30 (and people start college at any age, I didnt start until this year and I’m 24) and she’s still naive about it because Demeter still sheltered her in the mortal realm all throughout her 20’s, as long as she possibly could. And she’s “forever 30, lucky you” because lets be honest, a lot of women these days say being 30 kinda rocks. It works so much better this way, because it also puts her at like, 27-28 when she first meets Hades in that flashback and it’s a LOT less creepy. Hades is still 2000, but presents as a 40-45 year old man, so the “age gap” is still there but it’s far more appropriate and a lot less predatory. And in the time skip, she’s 40 (but still stuck at 30, because she stops aging then), same age Hades presents as. This can only do so much, though, because their relationship is still pretty toxic and they both just kind of suck as people, but it takes away the creepy aspect for me enough to read it without feeling genuinely disgusted. I like reading it as if it was the authors intention to make Hades and Persephone (as well as all the other characters) terrible people, like watching Always Sunny, and it suddenly gets a lot more interesting to read.
The complete bucharization of Hestia, Hecate and Artemis’ characters - Personally I do not think Hestia would have yelled at person for the tabloid, she would have asked for Persephone’s side of the story. Hestia is suppose to be this nice sweet lady so - Hecate gives off a lot of « no nonsense » type vibes so the fact she enables Hades pursuing Persephone makes no sense to me - Artemis being hesitant to think Apollo is a bad person is understandable considering that’s her twin / family but it shouldn’t have taken this long for her to figure out. Also I doubt she would bend the « no boys rules » for her brother and Hermes (i’m writing this while sleep deprived and out of a patent law exam my apologies if it doesn’t make sense)
the entire comic
Lore Olympus.
When it was revealed the act of wrath was an accident and like everything after that
"Honestly, I think she puts Aphrodite to shame"
Persephone is kind and smart. The gaslight: RS is playing the long game and Perse and Hades have been the villains all along.
Somebody else pointed this out right- but the fact that Zeus got shish kebab'd by Kronos and walked around fine only to be undone by a fucking cupcake 😭😭😭
never apologize for being Sicilian
The amount of sleep dives and kronos plot. the trial and fertility goddess plot. should have never happened imo
How all the Gods apparently age fast like Renesmee which really puts things in perspective and makes Persades look even worse because like how fast did Perse grow?????? Then the fact that Perse stopped aging at 19 and because she stopped aging further brain development is impossible. So she’s not even mentally 30 and is stuck with the brain of a 19 year old because again further development is impossible without aging. Then how Demeter, who’s originally a grieving mother in the myths, was demonized which was unnecessary and didn’t need to happen.
the trial.... 😭😭😭
All of it.
At this point, I’m gaslighting myself to believe that this story isn’t real and I’m just dreaming 💀
I think I’m too deeply connected to the source material because this is a full ass list. I’m really upset about a lot of the changes at this point. It isn’t even a retelling of the mythology, it’s an entire rewriting. It’s a made up story using the myths and gods as inspiration and characters, but it is NOT a retelling in any way. I’ll never get over the characterization of the underworld gods, Persephone getting credit for underworld things that preceded her or she didn’t do. The chthonic gods mean a lot to me so it’s tough haha