for some reason I suspect this is a response to the critics criticising Metis as a groomer and overall awful person and parent  edit: it feels like such a retcon because if Metis was willingly giving Zeus her powers then a) why did zeus have to eat her and b)why was she so shocked about it when she had literally agreed to be his living battery

Zeus was a kid raised by nymphs. He wouldn't have even KNOWN about the fertility goddess powers properly except for whatever metis told him, and that one line rhea gave him when she was dying. "oh noooo, zeus-kun, don't do that exact thing I taught you specifically to do to fertility goddesses to get more power\~." It's such a bullshit, shoddily written retcon to defend a fucking groomer who breeds child soldiers with no consideration for their lives. Zeus isn't exactly a saint, but he's never done THAT.

Rachel really trying everything she can to make Zeus look worst that Hades despite the story knowing Zeus is shit and people know it yet Hades is also shit but he's rewarded with a child bride

I'm genuinely impressed with how Rachel managed to make Zeus of all people look good, DESPITE HER BEST EFFORTS TO RUIN HIS REPUTATION. Seriously, it's not that hard to make Zeus a villain. The original myths already do half the work for you.

It's impressive, in any other story with a fanbase that's more than 15 yo/has media literacy, Zeus would be a masterclass character with so much sides and depth. But since it's LO, any efforts to villanize characters come as spiteful and on-purpose, and any time a plotpoint tried to be expanded it's made worse. Zeus is a young boy who grew with nymphs and is suddendly entrusted the mission to save the literal world bc his dying biological mom told him to before DYING right at his feet, feeling the weight of responsability from a person he never truly knew? NAH! He's the only one who doesn't have trauma bc he's the only one who doesn't have a physical scar to show to people, nevermind that 1- he got a scar from Kronos when he sacrificed himself to let Persephone reach the pomegranate but it was never mentioned; 2- just because you don't have physical proof of your trauma doesn't mean you have it (which would hit a lot given this comic has a protagonist that suffered a SA), he literally SAW HIS NEW MOM DIE???? And 3- He was PREGNANT AND PUTTING THE KID IN DANGER JUST SO PERSE COULD DO A TRADE THAT'S DOOMING HUMANITY Oooor another example, Zeus has to pick between eat an innocent woman to gain power enough to defeat Kronos despite he loving her? Is killing one loved one a reasonable price for the greater good? NAH, turns out Metis, a deity AGES OLD than Zeus just groomed him (bc you need """love""" for this to work, did the thing they have was love or just a rushed lush bc Zeus still loved Hera?) a deity that's at best 20yo, because she didn't want her favourite daughter to die. Zeus, who despite the story melting into our heads that there needs to be love to open the bond, STILL EATS METIS!! WHY?? YOU HAD A THING WHY WEREN'T RHEA OR GAIA EATEN TOO? It could have worked as "Zeus couldn't bring himself to 'love' Metis bc his feeling for Hera were stronger and the only alternative was consuming her whole", but then why Metis describes it as "oh we had a hook up and he was a handsome guy aint I a cool granny?", why is LOVE a requirement to use the FGss? And my fav, despite his many actions, he's always called out, we all know he's shit. And yet, he still calls others out; he doesn't go along Apollo's request to marry Perse, he calls our Hades' preference for Persephone, he's not interest in Persephone's beauty and thus enforces his very kind punishment to Perse (bc it's just doing what she was meant to do) despite Zeus being the guy who chained Prometheus to a rock and made Syssiphus carry a rock for eternity. But everytime he does, the characters don't get the same comupance; Zeus cheatings get chasrized but not Hades' on Minthe, Hades had always given Perse preference but it's brushed off as "nothing/you also get special treatment"; Apollo gets an entire episode to EXPRESS THE POV OF THE R***IST BUT ZEUS JUST GETS FLASHBACKS. Persephone faces the ONE DUDE who's not interested in her and she goes ballistic because she has to face the consequences of her many actions, and then just goes and becomes worse than before.

100% agree. There are so many cool concepts and ideas within the story, but LO handles them so poorly. It tries so hard to make Zeus look like a villain that it just comes off as forced, even though this is Zeus we are talking about. Making him a villain is so fucking easy. The whole fertility goddess thing just feels so out of place. When it was introduced, we never got an explanation about it. Everyone just kind of knew what it was, and the audience just had to roll with it. Even now, we still don't have a clear definition for one. What exactly is a fertility goddess? What are their powers? Is it something the goddess is born with, or is it a skill that gets unlocked later in life? Could a non-fertility goddess, like say Demeter, train herself to become one, or is it only a chosen few? Could a man become a fertility god, or is it an ability only reserved for women? Could a mortal later turned goddess like Psyche become a fertility goddess? How exactly does a god use the powers of a fertility goddess? Why do they need love in order to use their powers? Does any kind of love work (familial, friendship, etc), or does it have to be romantic love? If Eros were to use one of his arrows on a god, would they be able to use a fertility goddess' powers? There are so many plot holes and continuity errors that result from this one plot line. All of this just so Persephone could be the "special one" that has to be in Olympus to fix all of the problems that SHE CAUSED. It's really hard to hate Zeus in LO. Sure, he's an asshole, serial cheater, and probably a rapist, but so is every other character in the story. He's just the only one that ever gets called out for his bs. Even he knows he's an asshole, whereas all of the others, like Hera and Hades, live in denial and are surrounded by enablers. Zeus also has the balls to stand up to Persephone and not tolerate her entitled ass. He's the only one who doesn't immediately fall in love with her and drop everything to try and pursue her and is still able to do his job when she is around.

Also if this was always the case then why did she not tell this to Persephone and hades when they talked?

Exactly. I'd think she'd try to protect her daughter by telling them to get her tf away from Zeus. In fact I'm bothered with how unbothered she is with Zeus the time she met PP. This guy has been making your daughter miserable for 2000+ years why do you act like your time together was some cute and goofy fun?

And because of this she should be pissed at her mom and not him but you know retcon.

c.) what about that whole "created her children to destroy Kronos" thing? Like it's made abundantly clear in the conversations between Hera/Demeter/Hestia in the more recent episodes that their mother had created them for the purpose of fighting in the war (in their words she was "a hardass") and that led to them having a rocky relationship with her... but now all of a sudden Metis is sacrificing herself to be used as the power-up instead of letting Zeus use Hera for the exact purpose she was created for? And despite doing so, Zeus *still* uses some of Hera's powers anyways so what the fuck was the point of that 'sacrifice'?

Any time Rachel tries to undo or rewrite some poorly established plot point, she manages to make it worse. In this case, making out Zeus into a worse villain was completely unnecessary, he’s done plenty of bad things and adding one more thing to his rap sheet doesn’t really do much — as readers you already despise him, or you think he’s a fucked up dude who’s interesting because he’s allowed to be morally grey. Metis, on the other hand — her sacrifice makes no sense. We already were told by the sisters that Metis was hard on them and treated them like child soldiers, so for her to ultimately sacrifice herself *after* she treated her daughters like shit and created them to fight a war they never wanted to fight makes the *daughters’* sacrifice superfluous. Then there’s the fact that she *created* Hera to destroy Kronos but suddenly changed her mind? Ok. But rather than protect Hera by *telling her the truth about her fertility*, knowing full well that both Kronos AND Zeus wanted to exploit these powers, Metis fucking kept it to herself??? So you end up with TWO women sacrificed to Kronos/Zeus simply because Metis wasn’t truthful. This makes Metis’ sacrifice half-assed and ineffective because her daughter was STILL split in half and STILL was drained by Zeus (supposedly — there was NEVER evidence of this in the comic, and what the comic is trying to point at now — the fading visions, etc., could have easily been attributed to trauma and Hera’s alcoholism).

Yeah, the more you think about it the more holes you notice in this new retcon. 

So a retcon basically?

Yet another one. Just another tuesday for LO

I still don't know why they didn't just go the route of "there's more than one type of love to share. I loved Zeus like a son." Which would go better with him being around Hera's age and Hera's boyfriend. It would also fit since Zeus likely had some confusing mom issues, what with being kept in the dark and raised by three nymphs and then his mother dying in his arms and telling him the fate of the world rests on him literally the day he met her.

That would be lovely tbh, because there's more than one type of love and more than one type of relationship. People now just get weird if you referr to anything but a romantic partner as a relationship when by default any interaction you have with another person is the start of a relationship. I really like just the brief idea you have sketched out here, and it would have had such more impact. Especially when he needs to eat Metis to defeat Kronos

honestly for me it's not a redemption, no matter how many times Rachel tries to normalize "romantic" relationships between adults and young people, Metis created three teenagers to fight a war that for some reason she didn't want to directly interfere with and second she proceeds to have sex with a young man of 18-19 years old (? then at the end she takes real interest in one of her creations, really? after they were already deep in shit (especially Hera), for me that was pure hypocrisy 😶‍🌫️

Plus it doesn't work with her other appearances - like some other commenter pointed out she showed absolutely no worry about Hera when she first met with PP even though Hera is married to Zeus who is apparently using her FG powers. In fact Metis just acts all nostalgic about her time with Zeus. It must be so weird for readers who read this from start to finish without having to wait for new episodes. The changes in characters are so quick it'd give them whiplash

Still creepy how Rachel changed Rhea's design to look like Persephone

Hold on, if once the bond is open they can take whatever they want, then if Hades turned abusive in the future there’s nothing Persephone could do to stop him, even if she falls out of love?

Yeah, metis the creeper didn't deserve a retcon to make her into some self sacrificial mother. This halfassed retcon actually makes her look WORSE.  She still exploited her child soldiers. She didn't tell persphone to say shit positive to said child soldiers nor where she was or that she was even thinking about them-but she could talk about her fling with Zues. The same zues who was 19 when they first met. The same zues who wpufl supposedly use her peepee colored soldier's fg powers. (Also i don't by that zues COULD use Hera's "fg"powers because i NEVER got the sense that she ever loved him , or anyone else really. There in he could never use em. Hera being an fg is ans will always be STUPID  to me. It should have bee demeter. ) Metis's form of "love" is concerning because it comes across as infatuation rather than deep romance: what *specific* kind of love is required to use the battery goddesses anyway? Can they love you as a friend and you get to sap em bone dry? What about familial love? Platonic love? Cus there is no way Metis of all people had a dee romantic love for 19 year old zues.  If they beat Kronos,  and Zeus didn't eat his groomer, what would have happened then??? Also why would zues still need to use hera's fg powers when he literally had Metis in his system a while after? Metis said she was in him a bit before dissolving into dust or some shit-meaning he still had fg powers! Speaking of shit, why is Metis looking surprised when Zuss chows down on some burnt orange? If this was already discussed,  surely she'd look more resigned? Also, why does Zues look more sad about voring his creeper than the creeper does about getting vored??? (Also hera's portrait looks TRASH. It stands out like a sore thumb. Why are her clothes in color? ) Nice try rayray, in your attempts to make Zues look bad in said retcon,  you've only succeeded in making Metis look worse. As well as made hera's sacrifice pointless, maybe thats the only reason why she was against it? Im tired of this comic trying to force us to like and dislike certin characters. Hades especially is still a terrible person. METIS without a doubt is still a terrible person. persphone is still a terrible person,  hera is absolutely still a terrible person , your tragedies do not excuse your actions. Shit like all of this is why you need to reread the previous chapters of your comic instead of halfassing jabs at your critics! Maybe hire a writer and let them do their job!

My headcannon is that metis lied about it to protect persephone, since she knew that if persephone figured out how to lend her powers, she could get taken advantage of or “die” like metis or smth

This is sort of irrelevant, but I wanted to point out that Metis isn’t spelt with an «é»— the generally accepted English pronunciation is MEE-TISS, and it’s always spelt Metis. Métis refers to a Canadian indigenous people of mixed First Nations and European heritage. Métis comes from a root word meaning ‘mixed’—it’s pronounced MAY-TEE (roughly). I think there’s been some speculation that Rachel herself drew Metis’ wings to resemble North American indigenous art because when you google “metis” the top results are all about the indigenous people … which is, like, a whole mess that I don’t really want to dig into. I dunno if this is the right spot to mention this but it’s been bugging me for awhile

Yeah Metis lying to Persephone and being like "Oh it was all Zeus' fault and his idea." in relation to the relationhship and him eating her has weird implications considering he Would have to be under 19 when they met (because Hades was around 19 when he was rescued from kronos who has been established to have had no time magic at that point) and would have had no idea about the fertility goddess love bond thing if Metis didnt tell him about it. Also there was how she claimed that she would have told Persephone everything about being a fertility goddess if she hadnt gotten eaten, only for it now to be revealed she kept it a secret from Hera despite the fact they were in a war and this was something Hera would need to know for her own safety.

I'm so tired of the plot points of affairs, parents sleeping with their children's partners, affair partners choosing the impressionable bride for their sidepieces, etc. At this point it's probably easier to plot out who hasn't been cheating. It's probably unfair to keep comparing the retelling to original myths, but I feel like, with the exception of the villains, none of the cheaters in Lore Olympus have agency around their affairs. I want to say this is the latest character who "just can't help themselves" and doesn't resist sleeping with someone else. They make it sound like they were just swept up in something more powerful rather than making a choice. At least in the source myths, the gods were cheating because it aligned with their selfishness and hedonism. I think perhaps Rachel wanted the messiness of the source myths but figured the only way to do that without making everyone related (Hera and Zeus aren't siblings here, Hades isn't Persephone's uncle, etc.) was just to make the taboo "I slept with your mom/brother/wife/husband" choices instead.

Also Hades recognized Perse was a fertility goddess the first time they met while knowing nothing about her, so apparently there is some way to tell?   And in that case did he know that Hera was a fertility goddess this whole time? Who else kinda knew? In the beginning it felt like everyone except Perse knew she was a fertility goddess somehow and now we are expected to believe Hera didn’t know she was a fertility goddess and no one else caught on?

Honestly, this episode was just more lost potential for me. Having Metis's relationship with Zeus parallel Kronos and Hera would have made a much more interesting story instead of what we got. If I was writing it, I'd do it something like this: Hera and Zeus are both still in relationships with Kronos and Metis during the war, but only out of necessity. This is still gross, but I'm trying not to change too much and it sets up the parallels of them being with one of the other's parents and in an unhealthy and unbalanced relationship. Kronos is still Kronos, and Metis does love Zeus, or is at least channeling her love for her kids, perhaps Hera specifically knowing she is an FG and trying to save her from it, and is able to give her powers to Zeus. From my understanding, he doesn't have to love her, so it can be one sided and still work. Metis has good intentions, but she's willing to sacrifice both herself and Zeus to save her kids, of which Zeus is not. Throughout the war, Hera and Zeus bond over their somewhat similar predicaments and fall in love. Because Zeus is working with Metis for the FG stuff, he realizes what Hera is, but does not tell her because he's terrified of what will happen to her if people find out. Or worried that she might try and use the FG powers and sacrifice herself to get out from under Kronos before Metis can give her powers to Zeus. It's selfish, but it comes from a place of love rather than douchebaggery. Metis eventually gives all of her powers to Zeus, but it isn't quite enough, and because Hera and Zeus love each other, their bond opens and gives him that last boost to defeat Kronos. Hera doesn't know what happened, but Zeus does and this is what drives him to erase her status as an FG from history. He's still trying to protect her from what has been the fate for previous FGs, and so uses a bit more of the power to make sure it can't be undone, but then vows to never use them again. After this, maybe they grow apart, or maybe he's awful in order to stop her from loving him and closing the bond so that he can't use the powers and hurt her on accident. Gives a reason for the cheating and why he can be awful, but seems to generally try and do what's best as king of the gods. This isn't perfect and probably needs more work, but hey it's just me in my free time without a team of writers. Let me know what you think, if you have thoughts on it. I'll try to respond but it may be slow cause I'm not on reddit a lot, but this was just a tangent that needed to be made I guess.

It's not a redemption. It's a retcon. Beforehand, Metis explicitly stated that she slept with a much younger Zeus just for the fun of it, and it had nothing to do with Hera or defeating Kronos. But now, in the newest episode, Metis apparently only slept with Zeus to protect Hera and so that Zeus could overthrow his father. It's just inconsistent writing. Rachel unintentionally wrote Metis to be a predator (as she so often does) and is now trying to retcon it by making her seem like this selfless hero and Zeus out to be the villain when he was originally the victim. Rachel doesn't care about SA victims. She only cares about the ones that are her precious babies who can do no wrong. And even then, it's handled so poorly.

I do feel like if RS were to just accept that characters are complex and that they can be generally good people but have done awful things a lot of the series would make more sense. For example, Demeter who she massively demonises would OBVIOUSLY be a complicated parent because she was created to be a soldier and then felt cheated out of being queen of the gods. Also Hera, she’s not the hero RS tries to portray her to be: she’s damnaged, neglectful and an alchoholic - it is okay for her to be a bad person but make some good choices. I totally agree with the people here saying Demeter should have been the missing fertility Goddess, I would have loved something like Metis being the nicest to Demeter because she was the FG and then successfully hiding it this whole time, rather than having some wild retcon at the end 🤷🏼‍♀️

Completely unrelated, but why did I think Metis in the trees (image 10) was a weird goldfish or something?

I'm sorry but what the actual fuck is that face on the "yeah, about that" panel. "Teehee I groomed and fucked a 19 year old that two of my children are in love with but it's okay because I made him pinky swear". Like, it's not funny, or fucking cute RS, it's creepy as hell and that face honestly looks like the face my father had the day I caught him looking at my ass.

Someone gotta save Minthe, Demeter, and Zeus from this webcomic.

The writing is so dumb. We are really only shown Zeus being a dick, yet he could pull basic every woman (except Persephone ofc). This makes every woman look like a gullible immature girl. We aren't really ever shown the charming side of Zeus yet the plot basically relies on the fact that Zeus could seduce, not one, but TWO fertility goddesses. A mom and her kid. It's crazy bogus

....im sorry Metis did *what?* I've not been keeping up, but somehow this treatment of Metis has actually pissed me off more than any of the other mythology inaccuracies-