I’ve Been Reading So Many Post-war Snarry Fics, That I Think I’ve Successfully Gaslighted Myself

It's always "How dare Eurylochus call Odysseus captain after mutinying" and never "How dare Odysseus call his crew his brothers after sacrificing six of them to a sea monster."

Like, the latter strikes me as far more absurd. In Eurylochus' case, its the equivalent of reaching out for help after jumping off a cliff; he's afraid because he just did something that would seal his fate, and he's reaching out to the captain he once knew, the one that was clever enough and cared enough to get them through 10 years of war without any of their lives lost.

In Odysseus' case, he's just sacrificed six men to Scylla, and then when his crew is rightfully upset about it, he hits them with the "My brothers...why?" like tf do you mean "why" bro 😭.

Eurylochus calling Odysseus captain is a representation of the love he still has for him. Odysseus calling the crew his brothers is to me, a representation of the intense self centeredness of Odysseus in this situation, where he's too focused on getting home and ensuring his own happiness to understand that if you show that you're willing to callously send people to their deaths, then they arent your brothers anymore.

Who wants a rant on why Eurylochus (in Epic) did nothing wrong? No one? TOO DAMN BAD!

SO! 1.) The wind bag. See, Odysseus did NOT, in fact, tell them what was in the bag. In the Odyssey, Odysseus tells no one what the wind bag is. In Epic, he tells Elpenor and Perimedes. None of that would matter, though, because Odysseus is also a well known liar. If the guy who lies constantly, including at points where there is literally no reason to lie, tells you the bag which is almost certainly full of treasure is actually full of air, that bag is full of treasure.

2.) Circe's island (with relation to his reaction to Scylla) Suggesting they leave the 14(?) men who Circe had taken is not the same as outright sacrificing six men. Circe is an extremely powerful spellcaster, much more powerful than anyone Ithaca had to offer. That meant that, if they got the men back, they would very likely still be pigs. Only Circe and a handful of other extremely powerful spellcasters could turn them back into men. meaning that they wouldn't actually be saving the men at all, they would be acquiring pigs. These pigs would be pigs until they died. It would be much better to simply leave the pigs with Circe and her nymphs, knowing they'd be taken care of, than to bring them on a perilous journey by ship when they knew they were being hunted by Poseidon.

3.) The mutiny. Valid crash-out, outright. Jorge has said that Eurylochus acts as the voice of the crew, and the crew has just lost six members. They're tired, they're angry, and the main things they probably remember right then are Scylla and Polyphemus. Whether or not any of this is Odysseus' fault, they (very fairly) blame him. If your boss is willing to fire you to get home a little earlier, report him to HR. If your captain is willing to kill you to get home, mutiny.

4.) The cows. By this point, the crew haven't eaten in days. This is inevitably leading to a Donner Party style situation, and looky here, there are a bunch of cows. And look again, LYING MOTHERFUCKIN ODYSSEUS says that you CAN'T eat these cows! Why? He won't say! (he doesn't in the song. He does in the myth, I think, but again, LYING Odysseus.) Hunger rewires your brain chemistry to do things that are utterly illogical for food. The other important thing to remember is that Eurylochus quite likely does not believe they're going to survive at all. They can't, actually. If they leave the island and the cows, they'll likely starve to death. As a demigod of sorts, Odysseus will take a somewhat longer time to starve to death, but the rest of the crew will very likely be dead in a week. If starvation doesn't take them, Poseidon is still trying to kill them! If Poseidon doesn't kill them, these men are still aging. If it takes them another year, even another six months to get home, they're not young men. More of them will die on the journey. They can't fight or run like they could 12 years ago, any danger they encounter will kill more of them. Dying here, with full stomachs on nice grass, very likely seems like the best option to the starved minds of the crew.

5.) The final, all encompassing, important point. Odysseus is familiar with the gods. His great-grandfathers are Hermes and Zeus, he was trained by Athena. This means that he likely has a much more grounded, personified idea of the gods. Eurylochus, and by extension, the rest of the crew, do not. Poseidon's wrath is not something to be avoided, it's the unquestionable end. Circe's curse isn't something to be undone, it's permanent. Helios' grief isn't something to be a little wary of, it's the very welcome grand finale to their journey. It will leave them as a tragedy, but it will end them, finally.

friendship

companionship

loyalty

THE OG GOOBERS 😭 I need to go to my roots more often theyre so wonderful

eagerly awaiting chapter 3/4 so I can get my hopes up again to see my BOYS

The newsletters are…..ACCEPTABLE for now 🙄

Oh yeah and Kris and everyone else that I love, theyll all be there too. yeah.

ik its just one surface level drawing but…..for some reason it comes with the same amount of yapping as a typical Forgettable AU fanart (why do I do this to myself)

The thought was “its a running gag that Sans eats condiments straight up, I wouldn’t put it above him to eat the leftover stuff when baking.

THEN that spiraled into “omg new headcanon, Papyrus… WE LOVE HIM BUT UNDYNE DOES NOT HELP WITH KNOWING HOW TO COOK so what if hes not all that great at cooking but like INCREDIBLE at baking, just doesnt do it as much cause thats not Undynes style”

Toriel Undyne and Papyrus cooking together- i gotta draw that I have so many interactions in my head already 😭 like

Undyne: NO!!!! STIR HARDER!!!

Toriel: You’ll just make a mess that way!

Undyne: THATS THE POINT, NGAAAAHHHHHHHH *grabs papyrus’ arm and fucks up everything*

No but cooking is like- BAKING MAKES SENSE for Papyrus to be like really good at cause its NUMBERS its a PUZZLE its measurements, seems more his style (autism)

also I was totally giggling adding the stars on his sweater hehehe hes a star

also I had way too much fun drawing Sans licking the spatula without a tongue or opening his mouth

he absorbs it through his teeth

yknow

like a normal person

duh

I find Eurylochus to be a funny character, whoever, people put to much blame on his shoulders because of stuff like the bag, and leaving men in Circe's island or for Mutiny.

But I'm not here to talk about that, I want to talk about his wife Ctimene, because I saw a video of her being rightfully mad that she doesn't see her husband. And most of not all of the comments are "Well if SOMEONE hadn't done X, Y and X".

And like... That is not the point.

How I see it, Ctimene loved her husband as much as Odysseus loves Penelope, and she trusted her BROTHER to bring back her husband safe, which he didn't do.

And maybe I'm over stepping but if my SISTER trusted me with bringing her husband back, who is also my friend and second in command, bitch even with all three things that he did I have to bring him with me, I have to keep him alive even if I'm mad at him just for the sake of my sister being happy.

But he didn't do anything, Odysseus was selfish, he was so far down in his monster era that he forgot that Penelope, Telemachus and Ithaca as a whole weren't the only ones waiting for him. His sister was waiting for him, and his sister was waiting for her husband the second in command.

Let's even flip and add to the script here, if we had been told that Eurylochus opened the bag because he wanted at least one thing of the treasure inside just to give it to his wife, would you still be mad at him for doing so?

Am I being mean to Odysseus and I hate him? No. Am I babying Eurylochus and making excuses for him? No.

They each have their faults and those hurt the people around them, and in Odysseus case he hurt his sister.

friendship

companionship

loyalty

stancest is healthier than billford ok byeee

LMAOOOO

Why does life kick the ass of our best fanfiction writers? I'm talking the dozens of chapters, 200k words, slowburn, rated E, hurt/comfort, angst, every character is perfect, 900,000 hits, 250k kudos (not to be a kudo snob) fanfic writers.

They leave for a year and come back with a gut-wrenching story just to have to leave again to face more trauma. And come back another 2 years with even more gut-wrenching trauma.

Support our fanfic writers. We need a wounded warrior fund for them or something. An AO3 veteran affairs. Take all the money going to Isreal and set up a therapy line for them.

Fanfic writers. I love you.

Messaging people for the first time is so hard. What am I supposed to say? Like, "You seem really odd and your blog intrigues me. Do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters?" What! Whatever. I will just follow you back and stare at your blog with my big beautiful brown eyes.