Honestly, I think it's a mix of both people taking everything from the original Odyssey as gospel and the fact that Calypso is a dark skinned woman of color that she's being treated as this evil being not deserving of any amount of nuance.

I saw the exact same level of hatred and vitriol towards Eurylochus immediately following Thunder Saga, and as far back as the casting of Ares. Characters and actors with darker skin either get harshly criticized, or in some cases, heavily fetishized (you would not believe some of the shit I've seen regarding Antonius). It's just that Tumblr isn't nearly as open about this as tiktok.

Jay has made it a point to only allude to certain elements of the myths. He has NEVER been explicit about there being actual assault like that in the musical towards certain characters on screen in the present time. It's only ever been implied threats or referenced in backstory. He's been good about avoiding certain topics when adapting the myth to his vision. Unless he comes out and says "yes, Calypso did that", we can't just assume she did in Epic the Musical.

I think the fandom really needs to chill and recheck their biases. They don't have to like Calypso. I certainly don't. But the level of hate I'm seeing towards her in comparison to the other gods? Seriously making me second guess being in this fandom.

I haven’t read The Odyssey, but I know that EPIC made a lot of changes, so it’s weird to me that people would stick so closely to that interpretation of Calypso, especially when people seem to really like Circe, who I think also assaults Odysseus (or at least coerces him?)

But yeah, it’s also probably a lot of racism and sexism that has made her so hated. It is truly shocking sometimes how some people will be so harsh and critical to a character (or actual real life humans) just because of their skin tone, cause you know they turn the other cheek for the same actions or worse if they’re done by someone pale and hot.

Yeah, I think Jorge does a good job at only alluding to things like that, not that those kind of things should be ignored, and I think if people want to analyze the original source material through a modern lens that’s all fine and good. But that’s not what EPIC: The Musical is about, and to try and handle that subject well would take too much time; it’s just not the story that is being told here.

(Within the Musical itself, if people want to explore such things in fanfic, go off I guess? But also maybe if you’re on the topic of someone forcing themselves onto an unwilling partner, maybe talk about some other characters than just Calypso. *Side eyes Antinous and Circe)

That’s completely fair, but I’ll be honest, if you don’t want to be in a fandom with any racism or sexism (Or any kind of bigotry) then you’ll basically have to never be in a fandom. There’s always going to be hateful people about those kinds of things, so I just avoid them and try not to let it ruin the rest of my fandom experience.

(Also sorry, wasn’t trying to lecture you, just saying that I don’t think we should let those people drive us out of fandoms we want to enjoy) (also if you just decide to take a step back and only consume the source media, that’s also fair)