Lemme preface this with I am not a mythology buff and most of my exposure to it is from the God of War games (because I barely remember reading the
Iliad and the
Odyssey back in school).
Book 1
-Great choice making Athena Uxie. Knowledge and wisdom go hand in hand after all. And I like it because her sharp, ice queen personality is a total contrast to my headcanon of Uxie being a bland, emotionless narcoleptic. Basically the exact opposite of Athena. And I know the gods argued in these mythos stories, but seeing Athena and Apollo bickering like siblings (albeit regal ones) made me smile.
“If I remember correctly, I sang so well- “
“Read, loudly.”
“-that some sort of red ichor was leaking from his nose before he collapsed. Judging from the reactions of the crowd, he may have died due to the sheer beauty of my voice.”
Athena sighed heavily. “Brother, did you use your Hyper Voice on a mortal again?”
Again, not familiar with mythos stuff, but I feel like the gods considered our frailty and mortality as a trivial matter. In which case, their casual dissmisal makes perfect sense.
-There’s always something fun about reading a scene where one character confronts another with tranquil fury. I appreciate that Athena’s dialogue and actions really spell out her bubbling anger, as opposed to just getting narration that said she was angry. It’s very entertaining. The parts where Thora realizes “Yeah my partner done goofed” were great too.
-And a fitting punishment. Arachne loses her mind (literally). I like Athena’s justification for it, too, as trying to correct a lack of wisdom and insight. Not because it’s good justification, but because it makes Athena seem hypocritical. Since a punishment like that doesn’t seem all that derived from logic and wisdom.
Book 2
-Of course we get a Xatu in a story revolving around visions and glimpses of the future. It’s their shtick.
-Admittedly I needed to do a little research for context. I’m familiar with Caesar and Augustus but not so much Mark Antony and Lepidus and the whole Second Triumvirate business. But it’s quite intriguing what with the double-crossing and betrayals that happened.
In some regards, things haven’t changed much in the political field. Although I think the mechanics of Pokémon might’ve betrayed this scene a bit. There’s something off about a part psychic-type like Gallade asking another psychic-type for a vision of the future. Like, I feel like a Gallade could sense a Xatu’s potential hostility and deal with it. Especially since Xatu could have type advantage. Either this is a “keep your friends close and enemies closer” tactic that the reader might want to be let onto, or this is your way of furthering Lepidus’ belief that Octavius is nothing but a useless brat. Those are the only interpretations I got from it, anyway.
-And the procession scene itself has a sense of scope and grandiose scale about it. Octavius’ speech matched that scale and wouldn’t feel all that out of place in a classical work (or dare I say some movie centering on that part of history). I don’t know if the intention was to show Octavius’ crowd-swaying abilities that probably helped him maintain his autocratic reign even while it looked like he was granting more freedom around the empire, but that’s what it felt like. Also, Riolus as Egyptians! D’aww… you guys are so terrified. As you should be!
Book 3
-Okay, I know NOTHING about Egyptian mythos other than tidbits relating to the Book of Exodus. That said, there’s a pretty clear picture painted as to just what the situation is with Set and Osiris (though I do not trust Nephthys and if that was your intention, good, it worked). But again, I can’t help but feel like certain Pokémon mechanics betray the scene. If Isis is a Cresselia are you really telling me she was unable to sense any sort of conflict in the Pharoah’s room? I guess you could handwave it with some sort of magical ward explanation or something. Still, it popped up in my mind.
-I can’t even make a snide remark about Lucario!Anubis, because dang it, I smiled when he summoned an ankh. And you even tied the aura sensing stuff into it, along with Suicune’s abilities to purify water (which only makes Isis’s oversights more glaring to me). I will make a snide remark about how Ra isn’t Solgaleo, though (I’m assuming its Thousand Arms means it’s Arceus). I get that Ra is comparable to Zeus and thus Arceus makes sense but, c’mon, SUN GOD. Okay, I’ll stop now. XP
The legs looked like a cat’s. Or were they more dog-like? The arms had become scaly and lizard-like. His tail was transformed to that of a fish, and the head? Utterly alien. His hawk-like head had grown a crest, the beak had fused with the face, and the whole of his head had lost all its color, rendering his visage a deathly white. Whether it was from the loss of blood or the dark magic, she could not say.
OHMYGOD it took me a moment to realize this but Set turned him into a Silvally! AHH! AHH! Excuse me while I go fanboy over in the corner for a minute. Actually, no, wait, I’m so sad. The Silvally’s dead. Cursed Egyptian gods! I do think it’s creative that the “embalming” process was akin to fitting on the control helmet that made it Type: Null. Definitely an improvement as far as adding Pokémon mechanics are concerned.
-I will also venture and take a wild guess that Set is Yveltal. What better Pokémon to turn Osiris into Type: Null than the devourer of souls?
Book 4
-Oh boy, norse mythology. Which I only really know of from Marvel movies.
I’m making a fool of myself, aren’t I? But awwww yeah, we got Gen V focus. While I will say picking Zekrom for Thor and Zoroark for Loki is extraordinarily obvious, it’s still fun to see the comparison. Zekrom’s acting like a hammy, overly-passionate guy, perfect for the whole “dragon of ideals” shtick. Along those lines, Odin’s hamminess brings to mind Arceus’s depiction in the dub of the Jewel of Life movie. And it’s beautiful. ^^
-The one thing that strikes me as odd is, again, more Pokémon mechanic related. You mean to tell me soulless, brainless Kyurem is a con artist and that a Virizion would willingly work for it? And, considering multiple mediums have shown Kyurem able to form gigantic ice palaces on its own, one doesn’t wonder why he can’t just do it himself. I guess my suspension of disbelief wasn’t willing to go for this one. I do get a chuckle out of Kyurem lounging about though.
-BWAHAHAHAHA okay that ending had me in stitches. Like, goodness, everyone’s personalities are so lively in this and you can just feel how utterly defeated Loki is by this whole ordeal. I’m not even going to question how any of that stuff works because, as Jeff Goldblum would remind us, “Ah, life, ah, finds a way.”
You were right. These were a lot of fun to read, despite my lack of mythos experience.
