Guess he isn't as ruthless as he makes himself look in the picture frame. Unofficial animatic by Laritamiauu, just to take into consideration of the lyrics' context, this being the most accurate in detail.
| “ | And now it is finally time to say goodbye, today you die! Unless, of course, you apologize for my son's pain and all his cries. | „ |
| ~ Key sentence on the lyrics. |
It's been awhile since I've last wrote anything from here, but I got only one reason available; college stuff. No questions asked.
That aside, lately in the last following months I've been listening to the hit musical album saga everybody's going crazy over since around the rise of its popularity on TikTok and following media sources like YouTube animatics, and they've been hitting beeps and bops left and right since then. It took stronger curiosity for me to join in the club and immediately fall in love with all the music albums present to the point I ended up listening weekly 24/7 non-stop. Now I got "Epic Syndrome", I keep singing the songs and hear them whenever I ain't listening since then, and as of late I cannot get them out of my head, hehehe... HELP!
But for reals, and at good timing too, because the more I delve into the lyrics, the more a certain candidate approved months back was warranted a re-discussion on mitigations and has been wholeheartedly agreed to be in need of a removal. Now said buddy of mine below is kinda busy at the moment, so the opportunity was landed into the palm of my hands like a sharpened pencil, and a lot better than a sharpened trident lmao, if you get the gist who's the candidate in question today. Of course I am talking about the God of the Tides, the wave-bringer himself... Poseidon. Special thanks to The Pro-Wrestler for the permish.
Hold up... why do I hear choir music from the background? (slow realization). Ah... f-cking dammit, of course this was gonna happen. Proceed as you read, people. This is gonna be awhile.
What's the Work?[]
EPIC: The Musical is the 2022 "epic" musical concept album created, written, and sun by Jorge Rivera-Herrans and all of his friends coming together, inspired by the famous poem made by Homer, originally titled "The Odyssey". Basically a modern-day retelling of the titular epic.
After the Trojan War, Odysseus - the Warrior of the Mind - and his brothers set sail back to Ithaca to reunite with their loved ones, particularly for the former is his beloved wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Unfortunately, the journey back home isn't without even further strife and chaos going up against Gods, monsters, sirens, y'know, and to quote Eurylochus, "You know the roster! These were creatures that we can resist!". In order to make it back to his wife and son, Odysseus has to swallow his pride and sacrifice everything and everyone he cared for in order to survive in a world where "ruthlessness" prevails. In which Ody himself has to become the "Monster" (rawr!), though this took him around 20 long years to get back due to aforementioned obstacles stated above.
Who is He? What has He Done?[]
Poseidon is the God of the Tides and part of the Olympian Pantheon who seeks revenge against Odysseus and his crew for blinding his cyclops son, Polyphemus, sparing him and utmost importantly damaging his pride. He serves as Ody's biggest adversary and archenemy.
Introduced in The Ocean Saga, Poseidon makes haste on taunting Ody before his men, ridiculing him for choosing to resort to much merciful means like sparing Polyphemus after blinding him and teaching him the infamous philosophy; "Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves". Poseidon preps on drowning Ody's men, but the latter pleaded that they did what they did in self-defense and escape from his son. Not that Poseidon gives a shet to their defense as he gives Ody the harshest reality check that the world is dark and that his heart is better off closed, then single-handedly createing tidal waves that drowned 558 men under Ody's command, and reminisces the same words back at him when he first gouged his son, stating he is his "darkest moment". Ody, being the warrior of the mind he is, uses the windbag from Aeolus to escape Poseidon's wrath, all while he uttered "Remember Me" as he vanquished elsewhere in a personal manhunt for Ody.
A decade onward to The Vengeance Saga, Poseidon finally corners Ody just when he was finally going to make it back to his palace, taunting him about his plans to drown all of Ithaca by rising tidal waves so high, profound especially, enough to drown Penelope and Telemachus, even gouging our poor bean's eyes out for the hell of it... unless Ody chooses to die, and Poseidon makes it clear none of them are tough bluffs to crack, he means serious business. When Ody tried to reason with him and find it in his oh-so ruthless heart to forgive than seek revenge, Poseidon doesn't take kindly to 'forgiveness' as he ruthlessly tries drowning Ody to death. Though with the windbag as a last resort leads to Ody having the upper-hand in sending out "600 strikes" against Poseidon. Though as warned by Hermes, opening the windbag will unleash Poseidon's storm, blocking Ody's way back home, the latter takes Poseidon's advice to his closed heart and ruthlessly used his trident to tortuously impale him until he seized the storm.
He complies... but not without trying to torment Ody that with everything he's done up to becoming the monster (rawr rawr rawr!), how will he sleep at night, he wondered? Ody's response; "Next to my wife". Goddaaammmn! Aaannnddd that's the last time we heard from good ol' Poseidon.
Why He Doesn't Qualify?[]
| “ | Poseidon: I'll take your son and gouge his eyes. That is unless you choose to die! Get in the water! Odysseus: Aren't you tired, Poseidon? It's been ten years, how long will this go? We're both hurting from losses, so why not leave this here and just go home? Poseidon: ...I can't. |
„ |
| ~ I'm not gonna lie, I felt that one where depending on ambiguity, Poseidon legit sounded to be in grief and pain. |
Throughout the songs "Ruthlessness" and "Get in the Water", there are specific lyrics connecting back in regards to previous concerns involving his care for his son Polyphemus. Now, yes, before it was assumed to Poseidon himself, he never ounces to bring back on mentioning Polyphemus being the main reason he's after Ody in the latter song, strongly implying first-hand that his pride is damaged and seeks retribution for it or else everyone would think he's grown soft and no longer cold-hearted in the eyes of his peers should Ody walk free to make it home. That's when my thoughts began collecting themselves every time I listen to the lyrics looking back, and contextualization kinda matters at hand.
Granted, everything with his beef on Ody could've been avoided had he just killed Polyphemus, that he seems perfectly and nonchalantly okay with just to further spite him. However, just before drowning his 558 of his men, Poseidon sung-quoted above that he demand Odysseus apologizes for Polyphemus' blindness, pain, and cries. There's no proper subversion nor does it come around as a mere taunt onward, as he had no reasons to lie or feign on this. Even when unbothered with the thought of his son's death brackets on his philosophical ruthlessness, the lyrics cuts deeper into wordplay and fronts that for all priorities set on pride alone, Poseidon was genuinely upset with his son's pain inflicted to him and when Ody tries justifying in their defense, one could argue he couldn't care less, which is perhaps in some sense, Poseidon was not amused by the way Ody put it on how he hurt his son. And after drowning his men he remarks the same words he said to Polyphemus, "I am your darkest moment", which correlates to personal retribution for his son.
If that's not enough evidential credence to context, Poseidon's claim of gouging Telemachus' eyes out seems like another means to hurt Ody for his pride. However, if we take Polyphemus into consideration, this is an "eye for an eye" ordeal just to exactly make Ody feel the same pain he felt in the form of his son dealing with the same pain Polyphemus felt. Even Odysseus himself acknowledged that both of them are in pain over their losses, which gave a moment of pause for Poseidon and hesitantly utter "I can't..." in rather subtle denial (should also be noted how somber music begins to slowly play when Ody tried to reason with him). Call it ambiguous as you may, but there's no denying how strong the lyrics indicate that underneath his prideful bravado, Poseidon is no different than Odysseus when it comes to family, as his driven agenda to avenge Polyphemus' blindness does not have boundaries as much as Ody is determined to get back home to his wife and son no matter how many years it took (or what he had to sacrifice).
It's rather minor, yes, still no means downplaying the fact that Poseidon alone is still the most heinous and evil God present in the story of EPIC with his personal villainy to poor ol' Ody and wide-escalated threats on Ithaca. Sometimes even the slightest of nuances have their way around to make certain baddies a bit more humane but at the same time make them worst in person considering all they've done so casually, to some extent, of course. As said and put, Poseidon's relationship to his son is still pretty damning for the warrant.
Final Verdict[]
Odysseus: Poseidon! Look at me! (proceeds to impale with trident for the cut).