No No, I Think It *is*, The Notes Might Be A Little Different But It’s *definitely* There. I Didn’t

Day 3 of my snarky sarcastic side speaking quotes from my page-a-day calendar!

“If you find a taco on the ground, eat it.

This is a gift from nature.”

The calendar is taking quotes from the @ unspirational Instagram account by Elan Gale.

Now, my snarky sarcastic side personified also happens to be the one who cares about my physical health so she also had to make this public service announcement-

“… please do not eat a taco you found on the ground.”

I figured at some point the quotes would turn to something she wouldn’t actually say, but I did not expect it to be a quote like this that started it out 😆

Hope you’re all enjoying your 2024 so far. I finished this sketch earlier today but once again didn’t post until the night. Ah well. Maybe one day I’ll post earlier.

My favorite Disney princess is mister jalapeño anyway

this is advice I've given friends directly before and I've probably also posted it but I really like giving it so here it is potentially again: do not create something for an imaginary bad faith reader.

there will always be someone who finds fault in your work. there will be people who read the messages on it wrong. there will be people who will take every compelling aspect about your work off of it so they can put in their own.

you cannot make art for these people.

you will never write a story that is free from criticism. you will never draw a piece that everyone finds appealing. you will never compose a song that everyone enjoys hearing. you cannot, fundamentally, set out to create something and only think of how you can avoid someone not liking it.

because, and this is key, there will be someone who sees every angle of your story and feels its intent in their heart and gushes to their friends about it. you will draw someone's favorite art and they will make it their phone wallpaper because they want to see it every day. someone will fall in love with your song and loop it on their way to work because it gets them through the day. and THOSE are the people your work is for. THOSE are the people you have to care about, because they love what you make for what it is - because it's itself.

if you set out to create something and file off every sharp edge, prune every thorn, you will be left with something fragile and weak, and it will be fragile and weak for the sake of someone who does not exist but that you were scared of anyway.

sharing art is complex and tangled and powerful, and anything you care enough to create deserves to flourish as itself. get sillay.

Days 15-21 of my snarky sarcastic side speaking quotes from my page-a-day calendar!!

The calendar is taking quotes from the @ unspirational Instagram account by Elan Gale.

Jan. 15:

““Morning people should all be”— OI!!”

“Look *I’m* not the one writing this script!!”

“I’M NOT DOING THIS ONE!!”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you!”

“FINE! I’ll do my own!!”

“How about this one- people who like staying up until 2 a.m. should all be in prison!!”

“HEY—“

(The original quote reads, “Morning people should all be in prison.”)

Jan. 16:

“Your Instagram followers feel bad for you.”

Jan. 17:

“The best things in life are completely out of your price range.”

Jan. 18:

“At least a broken clock is right twice a day.

Why can’t you be more like a broken clock?”

Jan. 19:

““I spend sixteen hours a day dreaming about the eight hours a day when I’m asleep.””

“Actually, I don’t sleep.

The others here sleep, but I don’t.”

“I do enjoy when they get to sleep each night though.”

Jan. 20-21:

“Your ex upgraded.”

(Yes I know, it’s the same pose as 16, I’m tired TvT)

WhOOF HAS THIS WEEK BEEN A WEEK. But I had fun with quite a few of these doodles!! I wonder who those others are

I’ll see you next Sunday (hopefully not so late) for next week’s batch!

GUYS ITS FINALLY CONFIRMED

WAIT HOLD ON is that Circe’s motif at around 1:48 of suffering? When “Penelope” is talking about Scylla?

I can’t really tell, but if it is, oh my gosh!! That would be amazing and add yet another layer to the song! After all, in several versions of myth Circe was the one to transform Scylla into what she is now!! That would be a really neat Easter egg if it was-

Thoughts on God Games

Don’t mind this post being on Wisdom when Vengeance already came out school is a lot okay-

So in a previous post, I mentioned how I was a little disappointed by the end of God Games. It came down to a combination of my expectations for the Zeus “round” versus the reality and some (well thought out) posts I read in my frazzled I-survived-the-wisdom-saga-livestream state critiquing Zeus’s character in Epic. I’m not going to go into more details than that for now.

While I was grappling with how I felt about God Games and how that impacted my thoughts on the Wisdom Saga and Epic as a whole, I started thinking about what I would have done differently, or what I would’ve liked to have seen done differently, in God Games. And this exercise turned out to be pretty fun and helped me with my thoughts and feelings about the actual God Games. So I decided to share some of my thoughts with you!!

So for my thought-scenario, I wanted to change God Games, but not drastically. I didn’t want to change any gods in the games or even alter how it ends. I just wanted to figure out how to tweak it just right. And I think I figured out the key: more time!

God Games is long by Epic song standards- at 5:19, it’s the longest song in the musical so far! And there’s one small word in the published song that’s distinctly different from the drafts Jay’s posted- Zeus’s “and me” versus “or me”. I have a small theory that there was originally going to be more to the song, that Zeus was going to be the final round instead of Hera. But that part likely got scrapped due to how long the song was/could’ve gotten. But hEY, THAT’S JUST A THEORY; A MUSICAL TH- I’m sorry I’ll go see myself out

So for my little re-imagine, the primary thing I’m doing is leaning *into* the length of the song! Make it longer! Honestly I was expecting more of an 8 minute song here and I’m impressed by Jorge’s ability to condense it all but still make it easily follow-able.

First change we’re making- turn that “or” back into “and”! There’s no choose whom to convince situation here, Zeus is clearly the final round.

Moving swiftly forward to Apollo and Hephaestus! Both of these verses are great on their own, but for this I’m thinking we extend them by just a couple extra lines.

Perhaps Apollo doesn’t need more convincing, but he says an extra quip towards Athena to sort of pay homage to the Odyssey, where he’s also watching over Odysseus (I think, I’m not a Greek mythology or Homer expert). Something like…

Apollo: “You’re not the only one who’s watched over him” ;)

Athena: “… Thank you.”

Apollo: “Release him!”

Or something similar. Hephaestus, now, I don’t have any specific ideas on how to make his verse longer, but I’d just add a couple other back-and-forth lines before he says to release Odysseus.

Aphrodite and Ares were perfect. They were great, I love them. Athena could potentially have an extra line towards Aphrodite about how, even though he missed his mother’s passing, if he’s released he won’t waste another second to get home to the rest of his family he loves. Not entirely sure how to condense that into a witty verse, but there ya go 😅

Hera!!! Hera’s… is perfect. I can’t see any good way to stretch it out, and I love how succinct it is. So leave that verse 100% as-is.

Now for the big one- Zeus! In this version of God Games, Zeus is the final round, so Athena hasn’t won yet. The verse even starts with Zeus instead of Athena. I’d pay homage to the original Odyssey again here, and have Zeus ask Athena why she desires to go against the fates, which is what ultimately landed Odysseus on Calypso’s island in the first place (by spiting Poseidon’s son and the cattle incident, even though it wasn’t Odysseus who killed the cow in the first place) (once again, not an expert, I’ve read this part of the Odyssey only once, so I could be forgetting/misremembering some details).

Athena may reply with something like “he’s paid his fair due, he deserves to go back home”, and also challenges(?) fate as to leaving Odysseus on Calypso’s island for such a long time. Athena’s and Zeus’s lines in this part are longer than most of the other gods’ lines in their verses.

Alternatively, instead of saying “fate” is what led Odysseus to the island, it’s Zeus’s divine punishment to Odysseus for the mistakes he’s made on the voyage home, and for the cyclops and cow and all the crew who died. In this case, Athena is (in)directly challenging Zeus’s authority on the matter. Maybe there’s another couple lines back and forth here, but it winds up to Athena directly calling Zeus out for Odysseus’s pain and demanding that Zeus release him as he’s suffered enough. And *thiiis* is what sets Zeus off.

I imagine his lines here are pretty similar to the ones he actually sings, but tweaked (obviously) to fit this new situation. Something like

“You dare to defy me?! To make me feel shame?! Your foolish pride is what will make you LOSE MY GAME”

I’m not entirely sure on the pride line, I know there’s something in Greek Mythos about pride/hubris being a solely *human* thing, something that the gods just don’t have problems with? But on the other hand, to Zeus this is Athena rising above her place and defying his authority, something he needs to put out right *now*. What would it be if not some sort of pride? (Obviously it stems more from Athena’s friendship with/care for Odysseus but that’s not gonna factor into Zeus’s perspective)

And from here on, the rest of the song goes as it was. Thunder bringer, the flashback, Athena standing her ground, and her making her final plea to Zeus.

And those were my thoughts on how I would expand God Games and fit a whole round with Zeus in it! I had a lot of fun coming up with this reimagining, and it’s actually helped me enjoy the God Games we got more too! I’m always blown away by how musically Epic(TM) the songs are every time I listen to them and the voice acting is absolutely phenomenal. Maybe God Games didn’t go the way I originally expected it to go but it’s a great piece of work, and I like seeing the depths of character Jorge’s able to convey in each song- even with Zeus!

And the biggest moral of the story for me is to not browse tumblr until my brain breaks the morning after a saga livestream. Good lessons, good lessons.

If you’ve made it this far I hope you enjoyed my God Game ramblings and could see a little bit of my vision with expanding the length of the song!

Also no Athena’s not dead, it’s not denial, it’s called foreshadowing with Calypso’s line and the fact that Athena doesn’t even get *close* to death in the Odyssey- I know Epic’s a loose adaptation but there’s no way Jay would deviate *that* much and kill her off, if Athena’s actually dead I’m gonna flip out probably I’m going to be *so* upset—

IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED—

The way that in the remastered version of Warrior of the Mind you can tell the “enlighten me what’s your name” is stressed, because so many people heard it as “you lied to me” in the first version-

I KNEW IT

I KNEW SHE WAS ALIVE I KNEW SHE WAS ALIVE I KNEW SHE WAS ALIVE I KNEW SHE WAS ALIVE ATHENA MY GIRL YES

I need to go to sleep but someone remind me to ramble about Scylla for 20 hours tomorrow

Day 6 (and 7) of my snarky sarcastic side speaking quotes from my page-a-day calendar!!

“EVERY day could be your last!”

The calendar is taking quotes from the @ unspirational Instagram account by Elan Gale.

This calendar has one page for the weekend days, it seems. It’s not my favorite thing with calendars, but was extra useful this weekend as I’m on the road most of the day today. So I was able to doodle this out yesterday, and post today! Most of these weekend-quote posts will likely happen on Sundays.

I took the quote to heart, and since this weekend could be my last, I decided to ink this doodle as well. I don’t usually use ink as I’m extremely of messing up the line work, but since it may be my last day I decided to go for it. I like how it turned out!! I need to practice using ink more.