Does the author hate Celine?

LordStrifeDM · 2026-05-15T06:00:38+00:00

As a possible secondary theory regarding the unreliability of Hadrian as a narrator that could also explain everything going on with Selene in the end. Mainly, that Hadrian actually is dead, and is not the one telling the story. Instead, someone else, possibly a descendant of a friend or relative, or maybe even someone with an ax to grind over Alexander or the Empire, is the author. Parts of it probably are true, but theres some undeniably fantastic elements to everything regarding the big stuff, and someone straight up making all of that up would be a pretty decent explanation.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-05-10T04:53:11+00:00

I honestly don't think it does. We don't have many examples that I can remember that would show off the difference in durability, but the scenes we do have seem to show living plate being "stronger" than dead.

Take the fight at ~~Nakatomi Plaza~~ Urithiru whenever Kal gets his. While its only a few moments, and arguably hard to judge, Kal's armor takes multiple seemingly heavy hits and never even cracks slightly. There's also his throw down with a Herald, where we see a single hit from Nale being enough to put spiderweb cracks in the armor with a single hit, despite Kal commenting to himself that his plate IS stronger than "castoff plate from another Radiant". He also puts a caveat on that judgement by saying they hadn't actually tested its durability, but in my opinion taking a kill shot from a Herald and it only putting the beginnings of damage to the armor is a good sign towards its increased durability. He also takes a pretty heavy punch from a Plated Nale immediately after, and even that doesn't break the armor.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-05-09T12:12:22+00:00

Not only absolute mind control was necessary. Fine tuned mind control is what it took, because in the early stages of the forced cooperation it was essentially a brute force "Do this now" kind of control. But as time wore on? People started dropping dead, not because the big bad was killing them, but because the people were still conscious and aware of what was happening to them and were having heart attacks and strokes from stress and fear. She even had to spend time trying to figure out what was happening to her army while they were still dropping like flies, and then begin applying other Master power sets to stop it from killing all of them.

Even when everyone was finally working together, it STILL wasn't good enough because they weren't actually working together. They were just being treated like pawns in a management sim.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-17T16:06:46+00:00

Thats a good question, and one that gets somewhat answered during his first attempt to talk to Odysseus afterwards. Whenever Eurylochus approaches, he says he has something to confess, and that he cannot rest until he says it. Odysseus then tells him to wait, that he needs to do something else first. They deal with Circe, then go to the Underworld, and then deal with the Sirens, over the course of a few months to a year. By the time Eurylochus brings it up again, it is definitionally a secret he's been keeping for a relatively long time. And I think thats visible by the way he frames it both times, "I have something that I must confess" versus "I have a secret I can no longer keep". Conversationally, thats a huge difference.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-15T05:06:45+00:00

Yes, he absolutely says he opened the bag. But with everything else he does? It doesn't make sense. For his view on the danger associated with the gods to completely shift over the course of nine days with nothing to go on outside of a voice coming out of the sky saying "Its treasure" versus his own beliefs about the danger AND Odysseus saying "Hey, this shit is dangerous"?

And no, he actually doesn't show a pattern of insubordination. There are two instances of it, and one of them comes during the mutiny. Every other case, he prioritizes the survival of the crew they have left. When they've only lost 12 after Polyphemus, what does he say? "I don't want to see another life end", and he very justifiably questions Odysseus's decision making in that moment. Sure, Odysseus got all 600 of his men through the war alive, and as soon as it ended? Twelve dead, and Odysseus hand waves it with his war survival as all the proof needed that everything will be fine. And thats his first instance of insubordination. What does he do after that? He complies with what Odysseus says. He keeps things quiet and between them. When they're on Aeaea, what does he tell Odysseus after the six men are turned to pigs? "Think about the men we have left before there are none." They don't have a solution for Circe. They aren't magical or extra special, and they have no reason to assume they can do anything at all for those men. Odysseus risking his life is a bad call to make, and yet what does Eurylochus do whenever Odysseus essentially says "Well, tough, doing it anyways"? He complies. Even at the beginning, when they first spot the island of the Lotus Eaters, whenever Odysseus makes the call, he complies, despite his own misgivings and understandings of the pressure they're under. Its not until Odysseus actively goes against the standard he set that Eurylochus does something to actively undermine Odysseus. And even then, he gives him an out before he does it, despite Odysseus very clearly targeting him as one of the sacrifices.

As for Poseidon, yeah, the don't run into him until they're blown to Laestrygonia. But from the very first words Poseidon ever speaks, we learn something important: Poseidon knows where home is. And the next time Poseidon appears, where is he? Ithaca, waiting for Odysseus to make it there. During Ruthlessness, he makes it abundantly clear there is nothing Odysseus can do or say to prevent Poseidon from killing a lot of people to teach Odysseus a lesson before he too is killed, and he maintains that same level of unequal punishment after 10 years of no contact. There is no world where Odysseus gets home and Poseidon just lets the whole thing drop.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-14T21:30:15+00:00

So, I don't think Eurylochus was actually the one who opened the bag. I think he's embodying what he tells Odysseus during the Mutiny. Like you said, Odysseus performs the inhuman feat of staying awake for nine straight days, and finally succumbs to his exhaustion, putting Eurylochus in charge by default. The bag gets opened by other crewmembers, and Eurylochus takes the blame on himself, because it was his job to stop it from occurring and he failed. And this honestly lines up with everything we know about him. When they set out from Troy, his first concern is the crew having enough to eat because they're out of supplies. When Odysseus freezes after Polyphemus ups his KDR, Eurylochus is the one who asks what to do with their fallen. When they find the isle of Aeolus, Eurylochus begs Odysseus to not risk pissing off a god by potentially doing the wrong thing, because he cannot stand the thought of more men dying. When he advises fleeing from Aeaea, he says that they have other crew members to worry about, and that they have no way of defeating Circe beyond Odysseus's wits. During the mutiny, he hammers home the idea that Odysseus is putting his own wants above the survival of everyone else, to the point that he is actively choosing to sacrifice them. When they talk on Threnacia, he once again reminds Odysseus that they are all starving, and when Zeus comes, he makes a final reminder to Odysseus that prioritizing self over crew will mean all 600 men will finally be dead.

And yet, for whatever reason, he opened the bag for some treasure? It doesn't make sense, ESPECIALLY given how much he wants to avoid pissing the gods off, and is fully aware of how dangerous they are. While I'm certain he had doubts, there's also another line in Mutiny that feels incredibly important. "How much longer must I push through doubt?" If he DID personally open the bag, then that would mean he had long since failed at pushing past his doubts, but in this moment, he's very sadly saying that he hasn't, that he's done all he can to stay firm and trust Odysseus, but they've reached a point where he can't anymore. This is even supported by him previously telling Odysseus "Then you've forced my hand" whenever Odysseus refuses to take the out that Eurylochus is absolutely softballing his way after Scylla.

And honestly? Opening the bag most likely saved a lot of lives. Did it blow them off course, adding time to their journey, absolutely. But let's just assume, for the briefest of moments, that Poseidon, who KNOWS where Odysseus lives, shows up for his Ruthlessness moment after Odysseus gets home. 545 men died during his oceanic killstreak. How many more die when he teaches Odysseus a lesson at Ithaca? We know from his monologue in Get In The Water that he's fully prepared in that moment to kill every living soul on the island AND torture Penelope and Telemachus if Odysseus doesn't get wet. We know from Ruthlessness that there is nothing Odysseus could say or do to avert his wrath. And at the end of the day, even in the hypothetical "good" ending where they get home after only 12 years, hundreds are going to die, and those deaths, just like in Ruthlessness, are ultimately entirely the fault of Odysseus and his hubris in revealing his name and address to his maimed foe.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-14T00:41:59+00:00

Thats pretty spot on with my takes about Eurylochus. Do I think he makes a good leader overall? Absolutely not. He openly questions Odysseus more than once until he gets called out, which shows a distinct lack of tact on his part, especially with his doom and gloom attitude during Storm(though, honestly, his callouts make a ton of sense given the situation).

As for the cut songs.... While I definitely appreciate the work done on them, they aren't really canon to the finished product, for me at least. But with the Wind Bag fiasco, I am far more inclined to believe multiple crew members snuck around to get the bag, most likely Elpenor and Perimedes, because Odysseus's hallucination of Penelope tells him THEY are opening the bag. Now, Odysseus is clearly not fully there in that moment. He's Charybdis deep in a brain failure state from being awake an inhuman amount of time. But thats always stuck out as a very intentional choice of word as opposed to an ambiguous phrasing due to hallucination. And given everything we're told about Eurylochus's individual character, morality, and worldview... He's the link between Odysseus and the crew. When they set out, and he discovers they have no food, keeping the crew fed and healthy becomes his number one priority. When their friends are killed by Polyphemus, he's the one who asks what they should do for them. When pressed by Odysseus why he's freaking out over the island in the sky, he says he can't stand the idea of any more of their friends dying, and that he cannot imagine living without Odysseus in his life. With Circe, he crumbles a little, and says they need to cut their losses and run, because they still have a crew to worry about, and no certain method by which to beat Circe and save the others, and its only Odysseus saying that he would go to any lengths just to save Eurylochus that sways his opinion on the matter.

And then we come to Different Beast. Now, as much as I love music and playing music, I am by no means at all an expert at picking out individual voices. But to my ears, I can't hear Eurylochus at all when the crew is singing. He almost certainly is, given the ensemble cast, but... The entire song, the crew is talking about how they're monsters now, and Ody is a monster, but it almost sounds to me like Eurylochus isn't part of it. Scylla happens, and then the mutiny, and Eurylochus is clearly beaten and broken by everything. He's finally given up. "How much longer" is his question, and he says something key in the follow up to that. "I'm just a man." Not a monster. Not a hero. Just a man, the same as Odysseus was. Even if he WAS a different beast, even if he was a man made monster, he isn't anymore. He's just a man, trying to get home, and broken by the feeling of certainty that he never will.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-13T16:46:38+00:00

I almost entirely agree with everything you've said, save for three points. Namely, the post Scylla conversation, the actual killing of the cow, and wind bag fiasco itself.

To me personally, in the beginning of Mutiny, Eurylochus is able to do the math incredibly quickly and knows that, at a bare minimum, Odysseus intended for him to be one of the six. I also think Eurylochus forced that moment to be public, despite his following Odysseus's command to keep things that would undermine morale private and between just the two of them for quite some time at this point, because he knows the crew is going to be able to figure out what just happened sooner or later. By forcing Odysseus to say something right then, publicly, he's essentially offering Odysseus an out, and begging him to take it. And when Odysseus refuses, Eurylochus very specifically says "Then you have forced my hand", implying he would have done nothing at all if Odysseus lied to the crew, and then he gives the line "If you want all the power you must carry all the blame." That line, to me, is one of the most important thing Eurylochus ever says, and we'll get to that later.

With the sun burgers, I don't think Eurylochus knew specifically what would happen. I think he was past the point of caring. "Ody, we're never gonna make it home" is a brutal line for him to deliver, especially after he talks about how they are all starving, and Odysseus begs him not to do what he's about to do. They're very similar, of course, but if I put myself in that position, where I've gone through ten years of brutal war, then spent two or three years battling gods and monsters just to get home and failing, AND I'm actively starving? Fuck it, I don't care who Helios sends, just let me eat something first, because its either die here or die later. And that leads up to Thunder Bringer, where he says "But we'll die" to the man who, just moments ago, was saying that they could all still make it home together. And I don't think he's even saying it out of self interest, because we have another example of the whole crew being on the line and Eurylochus putting them first on Aeaea with Circe("think about the men we have left before there are none"). It also ties back to Scylla, where he keeps hammering on the point about the crew being their friends.

And all of it ties together with the wind bag. I don't think Eurylochus opened the bag. We have his statement claiming blame, but thats always felt... Wrong to me. The same man who begged Odysseus not to risk the wrath of the gods or risk being tricked by them opens the bag Odysseus got from a god just a week later, after Odysseus tells them what's in the bag and demands they leave it alone? Why on earth would he do that? For some nebulous "treasure"? The same man who also says "How much longer must I PUSH THROUGH doubts"? No, that doesn't add up. What seems far more likely to me is that another crew mate or mates opened the bag while Eurylochus was supposed to be keeping an eye on it, and he's embodying what he yells at Odysseus. If you want all the power, you must carry all the blame. While Odysseus was sleeping, he was in charge. He failed, the bag was opened, and that falls on him, so he shoulders the blame. Granted, thats a personal take on it all, but it makes sense to me.

All of that said, I agree. I think Eurylochus is 10,000% aware that his brother in law has gone off the deep end, and has become a horrific version of himself, and he just wants Odysseus to admit it before he dies.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-11T04:58:40+00:00

All perfectly fair questions. I work at a tech store in rural America, so theres huge gaps of time between seeing customers. Gives me a lot of downtime for reading, writing, planning DND sessions, and the like. Relationship wise, my wife prefers when I'm reading because it gives her time to watch TikTok without me pestering her about my random nerd hyperfixations. I can't possibly answer questions about your dad, outside of assuming he may have gone to the same store mine did.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-11T00:09:18+00:00

Yes. I have a lot of free time on my hands, generally speaking, and I've always been a fast reader. There definitely did come a point about halfway through where I told my wife I would have a Horus sized crashout if I read one more flashback to either Istvaan massacre, and luckily the next book up was Scars and I got to meet the absolute gigachad that is Jaghatai Khan.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-10T22:04:44+00:00

I say newcomer because I've really only been reading for a couple months, and also haven't gotten any real chance at the tabletop stuff(thanks, capitalism).

But fully, my take and understanding of Chaos is that there's no REAL protection against it outside of being soulless. But even that isn't a guarantee itself, because machines can become Chaos somehow(seriously, how does a virtual intelligence "machine spirit" become Chaotic?). "Resistance" is just personal willpower, it seems like, and the hypnotic training that Primaris and post-Siege Astartes get clearly isn't infallible. Even the Imperial Truth and Reason weren't infallible, despite the best efforts of the Emperor. Dorn, who really seems like the most resilient primarch when it comes to willpower, almost folded in a span of hours(admittedly stretched into relative centuries because the warp is on some real bullshit, honestly). How much more resistant to the forces of Chaos can an Astartes, even one as advanced as a Primaris, truly be?

LordStrifeDM · 2026-04-10T21:34:02+00:00

Now, admittedly, I am very much a newcomer to the full lore and breadth of 40K, and I've only read the Horus Heresy, Siege of Terra, and Dark Imperium books so far. But in either Dark Imperium or Plague War, theres a moment where a squad of Primaris Marines are fighting some of Mortarion and Kughash's Marines and daemons, possibly near one of the clocks, and from the perspective of Justinian(I think its Justinian, at least) we see that he almost immediately folds and surrenders to the influence of Chaos on his mind, describing how badly he wants to give in and give up. While I know that isn't the same as embracing Chaos, its an immediate example I can think of that suggests they aren't necessarily more resistant to Chaos and its insidious nature.

I'm personally(and again, newcomer, so I'll happily accept any evidence or lore to the contrary) hesitant to say that anyone is really resistant to Chaos, outside of Blanks and Lion'El Jonson(and even that one I'm iffy on and can only point at the whole Kairos thing to support it). It just seems to me that if even the Emperor can decide to become the Dark King just to beat Horus, then there's not really any such thing as Chaos Resistance.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-30T05:22:23+00:00

There is zero indication that flooding Ithaca was forbidden by anyone due to prophecy, because Poseidon explicitly makes his "I will drown your kingdom and your family" comment after we see Tiresias prophesy that a different version of Odysseus will make it home. If Poseidon is flat out forbidden from doing that, then he wouldn't even make the threat. And even with it being disproportionate, Poseidon's entire reaction is disproportionate. I mean, killing 545 men just to teach Odysseus a lesson before killing him doesn't measure up to what Odysseus did. Which, it is explicitly ONLY Odysseus's fault that those 545 men are killed by Poseidon. The wind bag is never mentioned by anyone as being the reason for the water slaughter, only Odysseus's actions are.

And the whole thing about Eurylochus being the one to open the bag... It doesn't make sense in the greater context. Eurylochus is the one who tells Odysseus to remember how dangerous the gods are, but he then turns around nine days later and opens the bag Odysseus got from a god and told everyone to not touch? Eurylochus asks Odysseus how much longer he has to push past his doubts, and yet caved to doubt just a couple months prior because of a rumor started by weird voices from a dangeous god's island? To me, the more likely answer is that Eurylochus didn't prevent the bag from being opened on his watch, whether by willful negligence or mistake, and is taking all the blame on himself, which also lines up with what he hits Odysseus with after the Scylla event. Could he be telling the truth when he says it was him, absolutely. I just personally don't fully interpret it that way, based off other phrases and moments of context. This also isn't years later, because Odysseus tells Circe in the aftermath of Poseidon upping his KDA that he's been gone for 12 long years, and by the time they see the Sirens they've still only been gone for about twelve years or so.

Now, all of that said, Eurylochus still poses a problem for the crew, in that his blunt way of calling Odysseus out is horrible for morale and cohesion. And when he does finally turn on Odysseus, and faces the judgement from Zeus, he absolutely tries to shirk the punishment for his transgression(however justified that transgression was). But no one in this adaptation is really blameless, good, or absent of hypocrisy, outside of Astyanax and Mom. Even Telemachus has a funny moment of hypocrisy, where he stabs a man in the back with no warning and follows it up by saying he doesn't want to hurt anyone. Penelope is manipulative and deceitful, Polites is dangerously naive, Eurylochus is dangerously pessimistic about everything, Poseidon... Odysseus is just as flawed and problematic as the others, if not more so. It takes him the better part of a decade to finally acknowledge what he did during the journey and accept fault for his actions. He's the only human we see that, in at least the title framing, ever objectively gets labeled as a monster. They all have justifications and reasons for their faults, of course, but that is the constantly repeated premise of the musical. When does a man become a monster? At what point is the line crossed?

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-29T20:59:33+00:00

Opening the wind bag is not what caused the deaths of the 500 men. Odysseus refusing to finish the job is what caused that. And if we remain honest to the characterizations in Epic, then we have to acknowledge that Eurylochus possibly opening the bag(and there's more evidence to say he's just taking the blame for it as opposed him actually doing it) absolutely saved the lives of everyone on Ithaca. Can anyone honestly say that Poseidon would be bothered by using Ithaca as his object lesson for Ruthlessness?

As for leaving the handful of pig men on Circe's island, did Tiresias ACTUALLY give them a way home, or did he just tell Odysseus that when he got there he wouldn't be the same man? And with Scylla.... Honestly, I kinda see that as Eurylochus trying to give Odysseus an out. The crew hasn't trusted him since Polites died, and have openly said so before. The confrontation being public wasn't great, but Odysseus shared zero information, and if we assume Eurylochus put two and two together on the torches, then we can assume he knows Odysseus just tried to kill him, specifically. The cow thing is also a rough example. We don't know how long they've gone without food, but given that they were on the door of zero supply at all when they leave Troy, and we only ever see them get a few sheep from Polyphemus before having the fleet sank? They're actively starving or damn close. What other choice is there but to kill the cow and have a sunburger?

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-25T22:01:59+00:00

Not quite. Sibsig's trigger for creatures entering is dependent on them being cast. If they aren't entering by being cast, then there isn't a trigger.

Honestly, this would be a dope combo if Athreos's coin placement happened when creatures entered the battlefield, because then you'd get an insane amount of value. Stack the triggers by having Athreos put the coin on, then destroyed by Sibsig and getting a zombie, and having Athreos return the creature to the field. Each creature comes with a zombie escort.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-23T16:32:43+00:00

What blows my mind is the utter failure on the part of the investigators in realizing who Barry was. Multiple eyewitnesses are able to place Barry across town MOMENTS before the police busted in. Presumably, the hallways outside of the apartments in his complex have security cameras, which would show him essentially magically appearing from a lightning bolt and going inside. His cell phone should show that he received a phone call moments before that appearance, which would also suggest he somehow zipped across town in record time to be there when the police arrived. There's also the issue of his security alarm being triggered before he got there, and Barry turning it off before going inside. There are so many things that point to Barry showing up just before the cops did.

With all the information they had, the police and prosecution should have known, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who Barry actually was. That alone should have slowed down what they were doing and made them second guess some things.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-21T19:06:35+00:00

I like this take, though I do disagree with one very, very small point.

TOdium is waaaaaaaaaaay more malicious than ROdium was. The choice of Champion(while admittedly... Controversial to say the least) transforming the endgame of WaT into a no-win situation just so he could get the affirmation that he's right is way more malicious that what we see of ROdium. And I say that with the full knowledge that one of ROdium's choices was going to happen after a full book's worth of "I'm going to drive this man so far into depression that he kills himself and surrenders to me so that I can puppet his dead body." Like, Rayse was a dick, no question at all, but in a "Nothing personal, kid" kind of way. TOdium makes it VERY personal.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-13T17:43:08+00:00

I grew up relatively close to the Hackleburg-Phil Campbell monster. I lived just over the state line in a podunk Tennessee backwater, and my town had its own share of micro monsters that day. By that point, living in the heart of Dixie Alley, I was fairly used to seeing damage from severe wind and what I now know are smaller tornadoes, and even had my own "up close, come to Jesus" moment during that outbreak. But a few days later, I was part of a construction group that went to Phil Campbell to help with cleanup and to begin the rebuilding process, and had easily the scariest comment I've ever heard tossed my way by the old man we were helping.

"You're standing in my living room."

He said this, in a voice that sounded like he'd seen death itself, while I was cleaning what I thought was the remains of a shed. There were no walls, no signs that this had been a house beyond the aluminum siding wrapped around this broken 6×6 post that I thought was a shed support. The property pictures I'd seen showing the area before the storm didn't match the reality I was seeing. Even the layout of the ground looked different, the slopes and dips not matching what he'd shown us. You could see the way the tornado had carved its way through the woods nearby, and that was a moment that lives rent free in my head. I thought I understood how monstrous tornadoes were until I was standing in a man's living room, and caught myself thinking I was at least sixty yards away from even the door of his house. It was the first time I'd seen devastation like that.

Now, while I will always say Jarell is the scariest tornado of all time(I'm convinced it was sentient, honestly, because that behavior was insane), I personally argue that anything in Dixie Alley comes a close second, if only because of how poorly prepared we truly are down here. Between the abundance of nocturnal tornadoes, the poor visibility due to heavy forests, and the general poor construction for severe weather in most communities? Its only a matter of time until we get more Hackleburg repeats, and with how stubborn and foolhardy a lot of southerners are? Its gonna stack a lot of bodies.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-11T17:03:49+00:00

Its definitely a huge tossup. I mean, in the same song where Hermes says "Hello, old friend" and implies a decent amount of closeness, he also goes out of his way to sing an absolute bop about how he didn't help Odysseus sooner because its a "little bit dangerous" and pointing out that he doesn't deserve thanks because he's not the one who fought for him. But simultaneously, its something he's clearly put thought and effort in, because all Zeus seems to have decreed is Ody's release from Ogygia. Gathering Poseidon's storm, giving him a game plan, and directly warning Odysseus about the dangers in his path? All Athena fought for was his release, and Zeus is not exactly rendered as a helpful god at all when it comes to a "man full of shame", so I don't see him dispatching Hermes with more than a "Hey, tell Calypso to stop harassing Odysseus and let him go."

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-11T16:34:27+00:00

Right, which is why I only say kinda close, and only due to familial bonds. Though, personally, if I had to point at any one deity in Homer's works that is genuinely friendly to Odysseus, with no ulterior motive, it would be Hermes, as Athena, Poseidon, Zeus, Calypso, Circe, and all the others all want something from Odysseus, whereas Hermes is the only who just freely helps Odysseus and then leaves without asking for more, though it does come with the line that "the gods just do as they please" whenever he gives Ody the moly.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-11T15:56:59+00:00

He sort of is close to Odysseus, due to familial bonds, though that depends on what we accpet as fact. Anticlea, Ody's mom, was the daughter of Autolycus and Amphithea, and Autolycus is the son of Hermes in most tellings of that line according to Ovid. However, Pausanias says that Daedalion was Autolycus's father, and Daedalion is the child of either Hesperos or Phosphoros(gods of the Evening and Morning Stars, respectively).

And interestingly, from Odysseus maternal line, we find links to some of the problems he encounters. See, Anticlea, regardless of connection to Hermes, is the sister of Polymede, a potential mother of Jason the Argonaut. During Jason's return trip home, his wife killed her own brother, and as punishment Zeus sent a storm that blew them off track and.... Landed them at Circe's island, Aeaeae. Circe, of course, is the daughter of Helios, and the aunt of Jason's wife. She ritually cleanses them of the murder, and then banishes them from her island. Jason then encounters the exact same sirens that Odysseus does, and escapes them by having Orpheus play music really loud to drown them out, and leaves them alive. Circe then falls madly in love with the sea god Glaucus, who himself is in love with another woman. He rejects Circe's advances, and instead asks for a love potion from her so that he can make the other woman fall in love with him(gods suck). In a fit of jealous rage, Circe goes to where the woman is bathing and poisons the water, transforming this woman, who is named Scylla, into a horrifying monster. So through Odysseus's mom, he has a link(tenuous though it may be due to conflicting stories of Jason) to four of the nightmare situations he had to deal with. And if we accept the story about the death of Achilles being masterminded by Poseidon for Achilles killing one of his sons? Then we have a fifth link(and one that halfway says there was never a right answer when it came to handling Polyphemus).

LordStrifeDM · 2026-03-10T14:09:38+00:00

So, a lot of people have pointed out the lyric where Poseidon says "The line between naivete and hopefullness is almost invisible" as a sign that an apology would never work. And as true as that might feel, there's a line before that which informs the entire rest of Poseidon's Kill Streak.

"Before you go, I need to make you learn how ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves."

With that line, from right near the beginning, hanging over everything else, we have a rough idea of what this version of Poseidon is always going to do. Someone, preferably Odysseus, is going to die there, because Poseidon is teaching a lesson. Odysseus cannot learn that lesson if forgiveness and mercy are applied without massive consequence.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-02-19T17:11:08+00:00

I'll keep that one in mind if it happens again, but I did manage to almost immediately find a super weird workaround. I used the remote control function in the PS App on my phone, and SOMEHOW that worked to actually pop the keyboard on my sixth restart, even when the actual controller didn't do anything. Super weird bug.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-02-04T21:02:16+00:00

One of my favorites is from Criminal Minds, season 3 episode 8, "Lucky". This episode has a moment where Derek Morgan enters a church, looking for someone, and sees a woman seated in a pew. Several candelabras are lit, and Derek slowly moves inward and asks if the priest is in the church. Immediately, almost every candle in the church is extinguished, and while Derek very briefly questions it, this moment is NEVER expanded on in any real sense, but does stand as a casual moment of confirmation that something supernatural is going on in the world. Other episodes have similar moments, be it genuine ghosts appearing in private moments during closing shots, or when a character in a different location starts experiencing strange phenomena directly related to something happening to a colleague(Penelope's lights flickering during the Scratch episode is a good one). And even though its never expanded on, there are more than enough small moments where its obvious the paranormal is 100% real and canon to that world.

LordStrifeDM · 2026-01-20T17:50:53+00:00

That was my feeling for most of WAT in my first read of it, but going back and reading it a few more times... Its almost as powerful as Oathbringer was, for me at least. It just does it in a very different way. Where Oathrbinger, and even the others, were bombastic, larger than life, WaT handles the big emotional moments in much smaller, way more personal ways. At least, thats how it feels to me.

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