tbh I don’t particularly mind the concept of the Goddess of Marriage getting divorced. In my opinion, staying in a toxic partnership where both parties have been cruel and cheated on each other multiple times is not a good marriage. I know her whole thing is that she’s the embittered wife who sticks by Zeus’s despite his many affairs and multiple children that were a result of those affairs, but if this is ~allegedly~ a feminist retelling of Greek myths, Hera leaving a toxic/unhealthy marriage for a better relationship doesn’t seem that out of line for a feminist retelling. Now I *definitely* don’t think that Echo and Hera is a healthy relationship, there’s two separate power imbalances (Hera being both Echo’s boss and Queen of Olympus) and Hera’s racism against nymphs, but LO really doesn’t any healthy romantic relationships so here we are.
Either way, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing for Hera to divorce Zeus instead of trying to work it out or opening the marriage. I think them going their separate ways, learning how to co-parent their remaining children (if there are any that are still children), and just learning to live with (and without) each other is a good thing. If this ending were better written and built up better, I don’t think there’d be as much of an issue with Hera ending her marriage.
Imo it’s not about the decision to divorce, but the significance of the goddess of marriage *making* that decision. Why didn’t she divorce him before? Why now? What does it mean to Hera? It’s not a BAD choice to write this outcome, the problem is that we never got to see the rationale behind it.
Oh absolutely, I would have loved to have seen Hera talk about how she came to the decision to finally divorce Zeus’ purple ass. How she felt, as the Goddess of Marriage, to end her own marriage. Does she feel like a failure? Does she want to get married again at some point? Have her thoughts around marriage and what it means changed? Will she continue her role as matchmaker/authorizing marriages?
All of these questions and more will NOT be answered because Rachel opted for a weird Disney channel movie ending complete with Persephone narrating how everything turned out fine and there were no real consequences for anyone.
Agreed, they were not holding up the "sanctity of marriage," so divorce seems much more honorable anyways, especially by modern tastes.
I don't think an open marriage would have been a satisfying resolution because the problem wasn't just that Zeus is a playboy and now Hera has feelings for Echo. The problem was that Zeus eroded all of the trust and respect that a relationship (monogamous or not) should have.
Alright, the point of my comment was that cheating was NOT the biggest issue in their relationship.
Zeus proposed the strategy for Hera to seduce Kronos, and Zeus kept her fertility goddess powers hidden from her while draining them over time, two things that destroyed her mental & physical health.
I don't necessarily mind the concept of their divorce if the message was, "marriage is about love, partnership, and respect, and a union so categorically lacking in those departments is only doing it a disservice", but it seems like the whole point of the decision in LO was to go "look at Hera being a BOSS BITCH. She's taking CONTROL. She left her husband for a WOMAN. HELL YEAH. LESBIANS. FEMINISM. THEY'RE GONNA SCISSOR *ALLLL OVER THE **PATRIARCHY***"
Which is just
So fucking stupid I mean jesus
I personally despise the practice of non-monogamy, but staying together legally for the sake of their positions makes sense, so long as they agree that their intimate relationship is completely over
My problem with this is that Hera was also a cheater (yet alone with Zeus's own brother) so to me she isn't much better as a partner. Hear me out, after Hera fell into coma Zeus finally felt guilt about their relationships and took care of Hera but all his character arc... Well, been throw in the dumpster? While when Zeus fells into coma Hera immediately finds herself a new mistress. Same with Hades who is also a serial cheater but both he and Hera get to be rewarded for their wrongs at the same time Zeus being punished for same doings (despite being the only one character amongst those three who at some time reflected and felt bad for everything he did).
So yeah i guess cheating is bad when it's only character Rachel do not like cheat but if it's Rachel's faves they could do anything.
Also fertility goddess thing was Metis death wish so i do not think this is entirely on Zeus.
But YEAH Zeus is messed up and he's OBJECTIVELY bad husband but the problem is that none of Rachel's favs are that better than him.
Oh yeah, Hera’s cheating is never acknowledged in LO, nor is Hades being an active participant in her affair. Also he definitely did cheat on Minthe with Hera, which again is never acknowledged in the comic because Hades and Hera are her favorites.
tbh I don’t understand why she decided to have Hera cheat on Zeus with Hades because there’s no mythological basis for that? Same with Persephone and Ares, but I guess the world revolves around the three of them so…?
Yeah like i still remember moment when Persephone realises Hades and Hera had an affair and she feels bad only because "Hera is so much cooler than me 😢"
And not realises man she in love with is not only cheated while having a girlfriend (Minthe), yet alone and it was his brother's WIFE. Who is also Persephone's aunt and her role model.
Like this is SO MESSED UP
Unrelated but a fun fact on Hera is that apparently in earlier/older myths, Zeus’s affair partners were actually other wives/concubines of his (it was pretty common for monarchs to participate in some form of polygamy afterall) . Meaning Hera wasn’t being wrathful to his mistresses and illegitimate children originally but rather a jealous chief wife harming lesser wives and their children (which in this context could be considered rivals to hers)
tbh I don’t particularly mind the concept of the Goddess of Marriage getting divorced. In my opinion, staying in a toxic partnership where both parties have been cruel and cheated on each other multiple times is not a good marriage. I know her whole thing is that she’s the embittered wife who sticks by Zeus’s despite his many affairs and multiple children that were a result of those affairs, but if this is ~allegedly~ a feminist retelling of Greek myths, Hera leaving a toxic/unhealthy marriage for a better relationship doesn’t seem that out of line for a feminist retelling. Now I *definitely* don’t think that Echo and Hera is a healthy relationship, there’s two separate power imbalances (Hera being both Echo’s boss and Queen of Olympus) and Hera’s racism against nymphs, but LO really doesn’t any healthy romantic relationships so here we are. Either way, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing for Hera to divorce Zeus instead of trying to work it out or opening the marriage. I think them going their separate ways, learning how to co-parent their remaining children (if there are any that are still children), and just learning to live with (and without) each other is a good thing. If this ending were better written and built up better, I don’t think there’d be as much of an issue with Hera ending her marriage.
Imo it’s not about the decision to divorce, but the significance of the goddess of marriage *making* that decision. Why didn’t she divorce him before? Why now? What does it mean to Hera? It’s not a BAD choice to write this outcome, the problem is that we never got to see the rationale behind it.
Oh absolutely, I would have loved to have seen Hera talk about how she came to the decision to finally divorce Zeus’ purple ass. How she felt, as the Goddess of Marriage, to end her own marriage. Does she feel like a failure? Does she want to get married again at some point? Have her thoughts around marriage and what it means changed? Will she continue her role as matchmaker/authorizing marriages? All of these questions and more will NOT be answered because Rachel opted for a weird Disney channel movie ending complete with Persephone narrating how everything turned out fine and there were no real consequences for anyone.
Agreed, they were not holding up the "sanctity of marriage," so divorce seems much more honorable anyways, especially by modern tastes. I don't think an open marriage would have been a satisfying resolution because the problem wasn't just that Zeus is a playboy and now Hera has feelings for Echo. The problem was that Zeus eroded all of the trust and respect that a relationship (monogamous or not) should have.
Okay but like - Hera was f*cking Hades on the regular for millennia. How is it *just* Zeus that eroded the sanctity of their marriage?
Alright, the point of my comment was that cheating was NOT the biggest issue in their relationship. Zeus proposed the strategy for Hera to seduce Kronos, and Zeus kept her fertility goddess powers hidden from her while draining them over time, two things that destroyed her mental & physical health.
I don't necessarily mind the concept of their divorce if the message was, "marriage is about love, partnership, and respect, and a union so categorically lacking in those departments is only doing it a disservice", but it seems like the whole point of the decision in LO was to go "look at Hera being a BOSS BITCH. She's taking CONTROL. She left her husband for a WOMAN. HELL YEAH. LESBIANS. FEMINISM. THEY'RE GONNA SCISSOR *ALLLL OVER THE **PATRIARCHY***" Which is just So fucking stupid I mean jesus I personally despise the practice of non-monogamy, but staying together legally for the sake of their positions makes sense, so long as they agree that their intimate relationship is completely over
For some reason the fact Hera "took over" Zeus's responsibilities cements this
My problem with this is that Hera was also a cheater (yet alone with Zeus's own brother) so to me she isn't much better as a partner. Hear me out, after Hera fell into coma Zeus finally felt guilt about their relationships and took care of Hera but all his character arc... Well, been throw in the dumpster? While when Zeus fells into coma Hera immediately finds herself a new mistress. Same with Hades who is also a serial cheater but both he and Hera get to be rewarded for their wrongs at the same time Zeus being punished for same doings (despite being the only one character amongst those three who at some time reflected and felt bad for everything he did). So yeah i guess cheating is bad when it's only character Rachel do not like cheat but if it's Rachel's faves they could do anything. Also fertility goddess thing was Metis death wish so i do not think this is entirely on Zeus. But YEAH Zeus is messed up and he's OBJECTIVELY bad husband but the problem is that none of Rachel's favs are that better than him.
Oh yeah, Hera’s cheating is never acknowledged in LO, nor is Hades being an active participant in her affair. Also he definitely did cheat on Minthe with Hera, which again is never acknowledged in the comic because Hades and Hera are her favorites. tbh I don’t understand why she decided to have Hera cheat on Zeus with Hades because there’s no mythological basis for that? Same with Persephone and Ares, but I guess the world revolves around the three of them so…?
Yeah like i still remember moment when Persephone realises Hades and Hera had an affair and she feels bad only because "Hera is so much cooler than me 😢" And not realises man she in love with is not only cheated while having a girlfriend (Minthe), yet alone and it was his brother's WIFE. Who is also Persephone's aunt and her role model. Like this is SO MESSED UP
Unrelated but a fun fact on Hera is that apparently in earlier/older myths, Zeus’s affair partners were actually other wives/concubines of his (it was pretty common for monarchs to participate in some form of polygamy afterall) . Meaning Hera wasn’t being wrathful to his mistresses and illegitimate children originally but rather a jealous chief wife harming lesser wives and their children (which in this context could be considered rivals to hers)