HOW DID I NOT KNOW UNTIL NOW (in The MIDDLE Of The Wisdom Saga Stream) THAT IT WAS STRATEGIES AND NOT

Here are mine! Mostly the same 😂

And a bonus mention of Suffering; I enjoy going back and forth between that and Scylla a bunch.

Every Saga has that One Song

The one that you listen to more than the others. The one that you played on repeat when you heard it for the first time. What were those songs for you? These are mine:

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—

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-

So uhh. If you feel like talking about it. As someone who lives in the US, how are you being kind to yourself on this upsetting morning <3

Checked in with my loved ones first and foremost.

It's interesting. The vibe I've been getting from my circle is very different from 2016. Much less… dread and horror at a realignment of the understanding of what can and can't happen here, now, in this place and day and age. More "fuck, guys. again? whatever. enjoy your consequences, maybe you'll manage to learn something this time."

Frustration and anger is not the most positive feeling, or even the most fair one to express, but it is a protective one. It hurts a lot less than most alternatives.

And it's quite a shift. It was earthshattering back then. How could this have been allowed to happen? Why couldn't it be stopped? Why couldn't we stop it? Why couldn't I stop it? Why couldn't everyone see what this meant? Why couldn't I make them understand? Did they really not care? What did that mean about humanity as a whole? Were we so thoughtless? How could anyone be trusted?

It seems… much less earthshattering to see it happen twice. Disappointing, sure. Frustrating. But nowhere near as devastating as the first time I saw it unfold. We already knew it could happen. I've already had time to digest the implications. Now I'm just freshly disappointed.

It also feels less indicative of Crushing Truths Of Reality this time. We've seen shit get bad. We've also seen shit get better from here! We know both outcomes are possible, even inevitable. We know hoping for a better future is always worthwhile. This isn't the apocalypse. It's an unremarkably bad turn of events brought on by unremarkably self-centered well-documented human impulses. It's utterly mundane in its unpleasantness. It doesn't need to be dignified with despair.

A democratic election, no matter the outcome or the side we're on, makes us all acutely aware of how outnumbered we are by people whose worldviews and priorities are demonstrably incomprehensible to us. And the first time you get outnumbered, it's a shock. Defeat is haunting. It didn't matter how badly you wanted it; by the very function of democracy, you do not have the power to override greater numbers. (insert electoral college caveat here)

The second time through, I find myself focusing on a different facet that has dramatically reduced the amount of spiralling I'm doing. I don't expect this to work for everyone, but for me specifically, it helped to crystallize a few thoughts:

You don't have the power to control anyone else. You don't. You can't share your worldview and your revelations with them. You can't make them think or understand anything. You can lay it all out for them, but you can't make them listen, and you can't make it click. A mentor can't make their student learn a lesson; that's why teaching is so complicated and hard. An active choice must be made by the person to enable themselves to understand, and they must put the pieces together in their own mind before it makes sense to them, and the pieces must have been presented in a way that makes sense to them in the first place. Lead a horse to water, can't make them drink.

These elections highlight a disconnect in what different groups of people care about; and no matter how clearly you explain yourself or how passionately you perform, caring cannot be forced on someone. Understanding and connection cannot be forced. You cannot make anything or anyone matter to someone. They have to choose to see how it matters in order to internalize it. If they choose not to, that is not your failing. You couldn't have made them do it by just Explaining Better. They are not your responsibility. They make their own choices. You can't reach inside their head and connect the dots for them.

I'm a storyteller. I make stories and put them out into the world. I hope people get something good out of them, but I have no control over what that something is. I want people to be thoughtful and kind and compassionate and hopeful and see themselves reflected in stranges, no matter their differences. I can craft stories that I hope encourage this. But that is the extent of my ability and the extent of my responsibility. I control no-one's actions but my own, and so while I am not having the best day, I am at least content that I am doing what I can, and I am not shattering myself against impossibilities trying to control the things I can't.

Sometimes, people make decisions that I think are really bad. I can't make that not happen. All I can do is try to make decisions that will result in things I think are good. Today, that means checking in on people, and not assigning too much dramatic narrative weight to an ultimately mundane set of unremarkable bad decisions outside of my control. We'll take life as it comes and help each other out when and how we can. Everything else is out of our hands.

Days 22-28 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.

Also I SWEAR I had everything doodled well before this hour I just had other stuff happen and then I forgot ._.

Jan. 22:

“It looks like I’m trying to help, but I’m actually pushing the “close door” button as fast as I can.”

Jan. 23:

“Save the planet.

Stop making people.”

Jan. 24:

“Everyone remembers every dumb thing you’ve ever done.”

Jan. 25:

“You are entitled to your opinion, just like we are entitled to ignore it.”

Jan. 26:

“Positivity are for people who don’t know better.”

Jan. 27/28:

“Strength is an admirable quality.

Consider getting some.”

Another WHOOF of a week. But I do quite like how most of these turned out! I’m on the home stretch now- I’ve decided I’m going to keep making these daily doodles until January ends, and then I’ll be cutting back on them. More about that in that post probably.

These quotes were a lot of fun. I personally feel the elevator one- that is me every single time, even when there’s nobody there. xD

A silly doodle I made as the year ended, featuring my silly friend group. Happy 2024!!

I’m 12 years late to it but let’s ramble about Scylla

Of course it took the Wisdom Saga nearly dropping for me to finally finish this

This may be a collective organized rant or it’s (more likely) gonna be a super-ramble nonsense jumble pile of me trying to words

A bit of background- I got into Epic right around the time the Ocean Saga released; I quickly got obsessed (as one does) and have watched a bunch of Jorge’s older shorts on the making of different songs, including just about everything I could find on Scylla’s song. I was enamored by the vocals Jorge teased us with and as the Thunder Saga drew nearer, Scylla was hands-down the song I was most hyped for.

And BY GOLLY I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED. I was blown away by Scylla on the livestream. Everything- the vocals, the instrumentals, the visuals- came together beautifully and I’m gonna ramble about it

But to really see Odysseus through this we gotta start with Suffering (which is an absolute bop); specifically when the siren tells Odysseus about Scylla. When she first says Scylla, Odysseus is repellent of that option, judging by his immediate “no”. He isn’t immediately on board. He doesn’t want to sacrifice his crew. And (even though we all knew this was coming) it takes the rest of Suffering and Different Beast before we finally see that he’s willing to go through with it in the opening of Scylla (what with him saying “this is our only way home” and all that).

Parts of Scylla sound like a waltz!! I haven’t noticed anyone else mention that yet. Maybe it’s just me. But in the first section during the “deep down”s and Ody/Eury dialogue the chords all sound waltz-y to me.

Odysseus only has a few lines in this song as well as some interesting parts when he doesn’t speak.

His very first lines- “the lair of Scylla… this is our only way home” aren’t in the same harsh tone as Different Beast. To me it sounds like he’s trying to justify his decision to himself. He has to go through with this. It’s the only way that he’ll get back to Ithica.

Contrast this with his tone as he speaks to Eurylochus- “not much to say”. It’s back to being rough and hard. He’s closing himself off to the rest of his crew, including Eurylochus. He’s becoming the monster to them. (Rawr rawr rawr)

The confession scene- THE CONFESSION SCENE MY GOODNESS. Honestly I wasn’t exactly expecting Eurylochus to have opened the bag but I’m not surprised either. It was a very “ahhh” moment for me. And Scylla’s words-

I’ve seen a few posts talking about how they believed Scylla’s words were directed to Eurylochus in this scene, but I never thought that was the case. I think Jay deliberately created the parallel there, but Eurylochus doesn’t seem like he’s *hearing* Scylla yet. (Remember- later on, he says “something approaches” as if that’s the first he’s seeing/hearing of Scylla.) No, these lyrics are meant for Odysseus, and what he’s about to do. Not to say there isn’t any relevance to Eurylochus here- “you hide a reason for shame … leaving them feeling betrayed / breaking the bonds that you’ve made” alternate with Eurylochus’s apology, as they shed light on what Eurylochus *had* done as well as what Odysseus was *going* to do. There is a strong parallel here- but it’s not Eurylochus Scylla is talking to. (This is also supported by the lyrics “you know that we are the same” and “we both know what it takes to survive”, neither of which have much relevance to Eurylochus here.) The lyric “you know that we are the same” is an interesting one, but I’ll get back to it later.

So Odysseus basically ghosts Eurylochus- and yes he’s probably furious about the wind bag incident but I think another reason for his silence is because he’s been hearing Scylla. Odysseus can’t forgive nor blame Eurylochus because he’s about to betray Eurylochus right back. Maybe he just can’t face speaking to Eurylochus with what he’s about to do.

Did anyone else at this point realize the sole purpose of the song “Full Speed Ahead” was for nothing more than to create a motif to be used absolutely everywhere

Then we get to Odysseus’s first words to Eurylochus! When first listening I could feel my heart dropping, as did likely everyone else who knew about Scylla from the Odyssey. But the DELIVERY. The simple DELIVERY of those CONDEMNING LINES- Eurylochus doesn’t even react to this order. This is really how you know that he- and the rest of the crew- don’t know where they’re headed. (I’ve seen plenty of people talk about Eurylochus’s thoughts during this scene and afterward so I’m not gonna tread over that same ground.) All I can say is my heart sank.

Did anyone else think about the lack of a “danger is near” motif in this song? I’ve heard a possible modified version in the song (1:14 if anyone wants to listen for it), but it doesn’t fully fit, and nowhere else is a hint of this theme shown. And there’s clearly about to be danger in this song- for six of Odysseus’s crew, that is. I think the reason we can’t hear a “danger is near” motif in this song because there isn’t a danger for Odysseus, and that’s who the danger is near motif is for. After all, the motif was present in “Mutiny”, right *after* they got through the danger of Scylla. Just another something cool I’ve found that I haven’t seen anyone else comment on before.

“Captain, something approaches”

“Hello.”

The DRUMS ON EACH BEAT, the VIOLIN RUNS, all with the background SHEPARD TONES falling and then rising, the SUSPENSE- THE ***SUSPENSE***

Before Scylla came out, I repeatedly watched the Scylla audition call video Jay put out, and from that I had the thought that the buildup section would be much shorter. Boy was that not the case and boy was that such a good decision the more I think about it. You really feel the suspense gradually build like it does for the crew, first seeing the vague shapes of Scylla and slowly having more and more revealed in the torchlight before the heads pounce.

Not to mention Scylla’s voice actor is amazing. She does a wonderful job of the smooth, almost angelic voice at the beginning and end, but in the chorus?! Jay’s videos on it didn’t do this justice! The MONSTROUS way she growls, the HARMONIES that come in in the second chorus- not to mention the crazy drums and other music in the background adding to the chaos.

And in the background you can *hear* when each man is scooped up, when each man is being devoured. Once again you’re right there with the crew, hearing your fellow friends get eaten. It’s not something I would expect to hear in the official song when their deaths aren’t the main focus during the chorus (the main focus being Scylla herself), but props to Jay for adding that detail.

One thing I noticed in the amazing animatic done for this section that I haven’t noticed many people specifically point out yet, is how Eurylochus doesn’t seem to catch on it’s the torches that are signaling to Scylla which men to eat until *after* he passes his own on. You can see it in the horror on his face as he looks at the second-to-last torch drop, then as he turns to the final man, the man he’d given his torch to (as he presumably went to try and help someone else from getting eaten? That’s how I interpret him leaving the torch with the final guy, like a “I need both hands for this” kind of thing).

Then the END- after the rampage- the final “We must do what it takes to survive”- it quiets down, the waltzy pattern comes back out, and the final line- “We are the same, you and I”

Back to that previous lyric I mentioned, “you know that we are the same”. Near the beginning of the song when I heard it, the lyric recalled to my mind that villain trope of “we’re not so different” (I think that’s a trope). And here at the end of the song that sentiment is repeated- and Odysseus SINGS WIRH HER. He AGREES. Up until now Odysseus hasn’t acknowledged Scylla talking to him, but here he’s given into the thought that yes, now he *is* the monster - to both his enemies *and* his crew. (Rawr rawr rawr)

And that’s how Scylla’s become one of my absolute favorite songs from Epic

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.

The people have spoken

white people go like “is anyone going to redesign this nonhuman evil character as a poc?” and not wait for an answer