Lore Olympus -- Go read it, or I will train my cats to hunt you down and do terrible things to you · 9:59pm Oct 19th, 2020
Welp. I never thought I'd be attracted to a banker iteration of Hades. But, here we are.
It's been a while since I saw something I highly recommend to others. As it so happens, Lore Olympus, by one Rachel Smythe and her associates on WEBTOON, is one of them. A romantic tale of two divine souls, different in so many, many ways, yet so almost naturally closely connected together by passion and personality. Based off Ancient Greece's myth of The Abduction of Persephone -- with a modernized twist, of course -- it bundles up its source material into a great ball of thread, then unravels it in a way that weaves the whole world around it into one vibrant tapestry. And it's not simply a story involving but two gods in its fold, but the whole pantheon as well. And then some!
Rachel Smythe knows how to tell a tale, lads. Every last character forged by her hand from myth and legend is pretty much made by their strengths and flaws, and their places in the story are quite delectably determined by how their natures struggle or flow against them or one anothers'. The mature manner by which Rachel handles these characters in her setting, and realistically develops them throughout her story, is something to truly behold. Every direction she takes you in -- twists and turns and straight paths alike, from the main plot to side stories delving into the lives of other divine characters besides our leads, to the scrumptiously well-foreshadowed flashbacks quite thoroughly abound -- will feel both fantastic and real, and leave you squealing at the edge of your seat with breath-stealing delight, desperate for more.
As a final bit, I wish to give some words of caution; I did not lie about this story's maturity. Lore Olympus may be a borderline whimsical tale of romance, but it deals as well in telling two important plot points of the more tense variety, those being the concepts of sexual assault and domestic abuse. To those who are put off by those subjects for personal reasons, I tell you this now. The instances displayed are not overly graphic, but they do get their messages across, and realistically so. I give you this as but a humble heads-up, as does Rachel, which she does by giving warning about the actions in the chapters, and later on precise panels, to which the instances occur.
P.S. -- Things to know:
1. For you fellow Greek Mythology lovers: as something of an unspoken feature of the webcomic (but indeed shown, for the most part), Rachel Smythe changed up the Olympian Gods' bloodline a wee bit for her story, probably to avoid having to constantly bring to eye the issue of their whole incestuous affairs over (it would be kind of awkward if, in this modern day-esque Olympian society, that Zeus called Hera "wife" interchangeably with "sister," even if such a concept didn't apply to gods as it does to humans). While Zeus, Poseidon and Hades are all brothers, they are depicted as the only children of Cronus and Rhea. Hera, Demeter, and presumably Hestia, were all apparently children of other titans. I, for one, though I am a bit of a neat freak when it comes to adaptations of source materials both ancient and recent, am fine with that.
2. Eros is best boy.
3. Hera and Hecate are strong contenders for MVG (Most Valuable Goddess).
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out.
Your pick is timely as a whole new generation of gamers are reacquainting themselves with the Greek Mythos thanks to the excellent game Hades available on Steam.
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A fantastic game, indeed.