Tiresias: A horrible man will be with your wife

Odysseus:..... I am the monster rawr rawr rawr?

gonna go insane about 'So much has changed but I'm the same / Yes I'm the same' in Keep Your Friends Close, compared to 'I see a man who gets to make it home alive / But it's no longer you' in No Longer You

no but can you imagine how helpless and furious and DESPERATE to get home odysseus must've felt after he travelled through hells and into the underworld itself only for the prophet to reveal that he not only sees YOUR PALACE covered in red but also sees your WIFE, who odysseus hasn't seen in years, with a man "who is haunting"  and has a "trail of BODIES". imagine being odysseus and thinking there is another man with your beloved wife, and a mostrous one at that, while you are miles away unable to do anything about it. man was on his knees with desperation and buddy i'd be the same if not worse. 

So I put epic the musical on shuffle and look what it tried to do to me!

I'm not doing that, it's gonna make me cry!

"All i hear are screams" Because that's what he wants to hear. He's fine with people blaming him and yelling at him. He doesn't want to hear Polites gently singing his motto. He doesn't want to hear his mom's soft voice saying how much she loves him.

He wants to be hated and punished, he doesn't want to hear that they believed in him until the end.

So all he chooses to hear are screams

What’s so interesting to me about Odysseus’s transition in Monster is that he hasn’t changed all that much. He was always capable of violence and we know that because of everything he’s done in the war and in his journey. The only change that occurs is he’s chosen to no longer feel guilty, and to stop hesitating when it comes to violence.

Not the realization that Tiresias repeating his prophecy in No Longer You is him desperately trying to get Odysseus to heed his warnings after seeing the monster in him during his angry outburst of “WHO?!?!?”. The prophet knowing he can’t offer any reassurances that things will turn out alright, so all he can do is try to get Odysseus to understand what he’s already said.

In honour of the end of the first act:

no but the final thoughts thing. what kind of thought process did Polites have that after fighting a cyclops and getting hit by his club in his last moment of consciousness he thinks about kindness again???

The "captain, captain, captain" refrain sending chills down my spine

Do you think Odysseus realizes that Tiresias never refers to “them” getting home in the plural sense? It’s only singular. It’s only Odysseus. Do you think he realizes that?? Odysseus uses plural terms to refer to him and his men, and Tiresias is very careful and cryptic with his words, but his prophecies are true, even if the meaning is not clear at the time, and he is referring to a single, not a plural, for the entire prophecy.

Odysseus going from singing to practically shouting in The Underword after he sees his mom, like shouting is going to erase all the nightmares of those who've died and the knowledge that his mom was thinking of him until her last moments-

The "captain, captain, captain" refrain sending chills down my spine

Odysseus: I lost my mentor—

Athena: Nah, I just dumped your ass.

We're not gonna talk about the backing vocals of No Longer You being, "Say it ain't so! Say no more! Make it end! Nothing More!" cuz I broke down when I realized 😭

Jorge Rivera-Herrans I hope you know you have singlehandedly inspired me to go into history & Greek Mythology in college. Literally going to be learning Latin because this man caused such brainrot.