My thoughts on Epic: The Musical, The Ithaca Saga:

(Spoilers Ahead)

• I first listened at midnight after a long Christmas Eve, but I thought it was good.
• I was so tired that I didn’t really understand what was happening though, and I didn’t realize Telemachus was speaking at some points.
• Overall I really liked this saga.
• I still haven’t had the time to listen to the entire musical in order yet, I probably will on Monday.
• I’m not sure if there’s really supposed to be any message or moral to the story, maybe just that no matter what there will be people that love you.
• Cause I originally thought it was meant to be “Open Arms” vs. “Ruthlessness” but that only works if you completely subscribe to ruthlessness being the “Right” thing to do.
• I was thinking it was going to be a “you need a balance between the two” kind of thing, but in the end Odysseus lets go of “Open Arms” entirely, although Athena has picked it up.
• I really thought that Jorge would change it, and Odysseus would spare that one guy (I vaguely know he was more or less innocent in the Odyssey) with Polites singing “Open Arms” in his mind. (There was an Open Arms reference in that scene, so I was right about that I guess.)
• To be fair, I don’t think there was really any sort of moral or message to The Odyssey either, it’s just a story of this guy’s long trip home. (I’m sure there are small story points and stuff, I just mean like an overarching thing across the whole story.)
• As always the vocals, music, and animations are all amazing.
• I love all the songs, but I think my favorite is “I Can’t Help but Wonder”
• Something I have seen debated lately is the change that the suitors explicitly attempt to (or plan to) rape Penelope. I’ll be honest, I think it’s fine, I don’t think it was entirely necessary to make quite so explicit when previously such matters were only alluded to, but I don’t mind it.
• I don’t think the video of Jorge explaining that Calypso “is a child in an adult body” completely means that she didn’t assault him, he’s saying she is childish in that she doesn’t understand what would typically be acceptable behavior, but I don’t think that means she would be literally like a child. (But that’s just my interpretation.)
• I know a lot of people find it annoying that the suitors are made “worse” when Calypso was downplayed in the musical. But I’ve seen arguments that the suitors never intended to assault Penelope… and like, I don’t know, that seems a bit obstinate to me.
• Like sure, you can argue that it did not need to be as explicit as it was in the musical, but to say it was never there in the story seems like willful ignorance.
• Do you really think they would have been like “Great, I am now king, Penelope is my queen and I have murdered her son, I will never lay my hands upon her because I respect her as a human being with autonomy. What a good day.”
• And look, I’m not gonna say that the gender of the victim doesn’t make a difference, cause I’m sure it’s a part of why it was made more explicit for Penelope, but I don’t necessarily think that it’s why it is less explicit for Odysseus.
• From what I understand, as I still have not read the Odyssey, in the books, Odysseus’s assaults are framed as him being so good in bed that even Goddesses want him, it is still framed in a way that makes him “powerful” and in a way that it is his “"choice”“ to sleep with them. (I’m not sure that came out right, I guess I just mean it’s not said in a way that most assaults on women are typically written, far less violent and explicit I’m sure that it was framed in this way because many people [now and then] think that men can’t be victims of rape.)
• Anyway what I’m getting at is that the people who assault Odysseus are literally not human. Meanwhile the suitors are humans. So for me, the suitor are always going to be worse in my mind, they are humans, they know exactly what they are doing and the harm they are inflicting. Not that the harm non-humans (Gods/Goddesses in this case) inflict is lesser, just that they’re not necessarily going to consider humans on the same level as them (especially in this case)
• So I feel like maybe that’s why the suitors were made explicitly intending to rape Penelope.
• In the end, I really enjoy the story, and I’m excited to see what will come next for Epic.