God Games - Blog Posts

Arés: The helmet stays on during sex!

Aphrodite: Babe I don’t care if you have a baby face, I think it’s adorable~

Arés: …you don’t?

Aphrodite: nope

[Concept/Fan Art: "Athena"]

"Goddess of Wisdom, Master of Wars and Queen of the best Strategies ever seen"

The journey continues! ✨ Presenting my take on Athena, the wise and formidable Olympian.

More Olympians coming soon—who do you want to see next? ⚡🦉

My old take of Apollo from Epic The Musical. Going to re-design this later^^

God Games

Athena: "Never once has he cheated on his wife".

Hera: ...

Aphrodite: *Gasps! Covers her mouth*

Ares: "Oh damn

Hephaestus: "Honestly, saw that coming"

Apollo: "Oh girly she got you there"

Dionysius: "Why are we surprised?"

Artmis: "That was honestly a roast"

Hestia: "Poor dear..."

Hades: "Why are we here??"

Persephone: "Don't know but this is entertaining."

Demeter: "This is honestly stupid".

Hera: *Glares at Zeus but doesn't see him there.*

Athena/Ares: "Anddddddddd 3.....2...

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1

INFIDELITY BOOM BOOM WEATHER

Hera: "ZEUS!"

More doodles

Lol i love god siblings

Short comic wip, and then Animatic

Trust me, I AM rushing

These sences broke my heart as an Athena lover

Me studying for exam but EPICs keep playing in my mind so I post this just to calm down my nerve:)

I love the idea that the Gods are closed siblings, some being biased and willing to fight just for nothing

Sketches before I can animate:D!

I've been working on every character's design since the end of last year. I mean, it is really annoying not to be able to do things I want (animating) haha

Watching others having their own designs for Hermes, I honestly want my Hermes to have sth special but I couldn't decide which style fits him well. But at the end of the day, I managed to make this, the final design for now, a postman. (It was a real pain)

I also drew Athena with him, but this will come out only when she argues with Ares in God Games

I mean, what if they were close friends (Actually like siblings) (I DEFINITELY will add this into my animatic if I can)

Just Odysseus being annoyed by 2 energetic gods

Ok, right now I have 2 things I'm obsessed with, TSBS and Epic the Musical. However, my brain can't decide who would be who. My brain started this with God Games, the original roles were:

Apollo: Sun

Hephaestus: Solar

Aphrodite: Earth

Ares: Eclipse

Hera: Moon

Zeus: Lunar

Lunar would be Zeus just for his lighting powers, but I don't think it fits very well with who Lunar is. Solar is Hephaestus because he is a handyman (I think that's what they call people who can do multiple jobs like: carpenter, electrician, programmer, etc.) and because I think Hephaestus lines go well with his story.

At first I thought Eclipse would be a good character for the role of Ares but then I remembered Bloodmoon and it makes a bit more sense because of his want/need of blood but I can only see Eclipse making a duo with Earth.

Then comes Earth, I don't think Aphrodite's dialogue fits her, after all, Earth tries to not be resentful or hate someone. That's how my brain said:-"Then put Roxanne Wolf in Aphrodite's part", and it made sense but that would make a weird duo even if it is Bloodmoon or Eclipse, not to mention that it would ruin the purpose of using just the Celestial Family.

As for Moon .... I don't know, it doesn't feel right but it doesn't feel wrong either. Once I thought about putting Sun has Hera because of his drinking era and in most animation you could see Hera drinking wine.

I saw someone make an animation of God Games and the Celestial Family but with their evil versions and it made a lot of sense but I want to use the normal family and my brain can't think of anything else and I hate being stuck or changing character mid song, I just can't decide, if anyone sees this, I would like to know your opinion, please help.

I apologize for the colors but it's been a while since I was here on Tumblr and I could have swear there were more colors.

Thoughts on God Games

Don’t mind this post being on Wisdom when Vengeance already came out school is a lot okay-

So in a previous post, I mentioned how I was a little disappointed by the end of God Games. It came down to a combination of my expectations for the Zeus “round” versus the reality and some (well thought out) posts I read in my frazzled I-survived-the-wisdom-saga-livestream state critiquing Zeus’s character in Epic. I’m not going to go into more details than that for now.

While I was grappling with how I felt about God Games and how that impacted my thoughts on the Wisdom Saga and Epic as a whole, I started thinking about what I would have done differently, or what I would’ve liked to have seen done differently, in God Games. And this exercise turned out to be pretty fun and helped me with my thoughts and feelings about the actual God Games. So I decided to share some of my thoughts with you!!

So for my thought-scenario, I wanted to change God Games, but not drastically. I didn’t want to change any gods in the games or even alter how it ends. I just wanted to figure out how to tweak it just right. And I think I figured out the key: more time!

God Games is long by Epic song standards- at 5:19, it’s the longest song in the musical so far! And there’s one small word in the published song that’s distinctly different from the drafts Jay’s posted- Zeus’s “and me” versus “or me”. I have a small theory that there was originally going to be more to the song, that Zeus was going to be the final round instead of Hera. But that part likely got scrapped due to how long the song was/could’ve gotten. But hEY, THAT’S JUST A THEORY; A MUSICAL TH- I’m sorry I’ll go see myself out

So for my little re-imagine, the primary thing I’m doing is leaning *into* the length of the song! Make it longer! Honestly I was expecting more of an 8 minute song here and I’m impressed by Jorge’s ability to condense it all but still make it easily follow-able.

First change we’re making- turn that “or” back into “and”! There’s no choose whom to convince situation here, Zeus is clearly the final round.

Moving swiftly forward to Apollo and Hephaestus! Both of these verses are great on their own, but for this I’m thinking we extend them by just a couple extra lines.

Perhaps Apollo doesn’t need more convincing, but he says an extra quip towards Athena to sort of pay homage to the Odyssey, where he’s also watching over Odysseus (I think, I’m not a Greek mythology or Homer expert). Something like…

Apollo: “You’re not the only one who’s watched over him” ;)

Athena: “… Thank you.”

Apollo: “Release him!”

Or something similar. Hephaestus, now, I don’t have any specific ideas on how to make his verse longer, but I’d just add a couple other back-and-forth lines before he says to release Odysseus.

Aphrodite and Ares were perfect. They were great, I love them. Athena could potentially have an extra line towards Aphrodite about how, even though he missed his mother’s passing, if he’s released he won’t waste another second to get home to the rest of his family he loves. Not entirely sure how to condense that into a witty verse, but there ya go 😅

Hera!!! Hera’s… is perfect. I can’t see any good way to stretch it out, and I love how succinct it is. So leave that verse 100% as-is.

Now for the big one- Zeus! In this version of God Games, Zeus is the final round, so Athena hasn’t won yet. The verse even starts with Zeus instead of Athena. I’d pay homage to the original Odyssey again here, and have Zeus ask Athena why she desires to go against the fates, which is what ultimately landed Odysseus on Calypso’s island in the first place (by spiting Poseidon’s son and the cattle incident, even though it wasn’t Odysseus who killed the cow in the first place) (once again, not an expert, I’ve read this part of the Odyssey only once, so I could be forgetting/misremembering some details).

Athena may reply with something like “he’s paid his fair due, he deserves to go back home”, and also challenges(?) fate as to leaving Odysseus on Calypso’s island for such a long time. Athena’s and Zeus’s lines in this part are longer than most of the other gods’ lines in their verses.

Alternatively, instead of saying “fate” is what led Odysseus to the island, it’s Zeus’s divine punishment to Odysseus for the mistakes he’s made on the voyage home, and for the cyclops and cow and all the crew who died. In this case, Athena is (in)directly challenging Zeus’s authority on the matter. Maybe there’s another couple lines back and forth here, but it winds up to Athena directly calling Zeus out for Odysseus’s pain and demanding that Zeus release him as he’s suffered enough. And *thiiis* is what sets Zeus off.

I imagine his lines here are pretty similar to the ones he actually sings, but tweaked (obviously) to fit this new situation. Something like

“You dare to defy me?! To make me feel shame?! Your foolish pride is what will make you LOSE MY GAME”

I’m not entirely sure on the pride line, I know there’s something in Greek Mythos about pride/hubris being a solely *human* thing, something that the gods just don’t have problems with? But on the other hand, to Zeus this is Athena rising above her place and defying his authority, something he needs to put out right *now*. What would it be if not some sort of pride? (Obviously it stems more from Athena’s friendship with/care for Odysseus but that’s not gonna factor into Zeus’s perspective)

And from here on, the rest of the song goes as it was. Thunder bringer, the flashback, Athena standing her ground, and her making her final plea to Zeus.

And those were my thoughts on how I would expand God Games and fit a whole round with Zeus in it! I had a lot of fun coming up with this reimagining, and it’s actually helped me enjoy the God Games we got more too! I’m always blown away by how musically Epic(TM) the songs are every time I listen to them and the voice acting is absolutely phenomenal. Maybe God Games didn’t go the way I originally expected it to go but it’s a great piece of work, and I like seeing the depths of character Jorge’s able to convey in each song- even with Zeus!

And the biggest moral of the story for me is to not browse tumblr until my brain breaks the morning after a saga livestream. Good lessons, good lessons.

If you’ve made it this far I hope you enjoyed my God Game ramblings and could see a little bit of my vision with expanding the length of the song!

Also no Athena’s not dead, it’s not denial, it’s called foreshadowing with Calypso’s line and the fact that Athena doesn’t even get *close* to death in the Odyssey- I know Epic’s a loose adaptation but there’s no way Jay would deviate *that* much and kill her off, if Athena’s actually dead I’m gonna flip out probably I’m going to be *so* upset—

My thoughts on the Wisdom Saga

Legendary

TELEMACHUS MY BOY!!!

Honestly most of the stuff I have to say about him deals with the next two songs instead of this one…

Okay, but the more I listen to Antonius the more his voice is just ✨✨✨? Like Calypso’s voice being gorgeous was on SIGHT (on… hear? Heard? Audio?), but Antonius keeps getting better the more I listen to him. Don’t get me wrong he’s a bad dude, but his voice acting? Beautiful

I love the setup in this song, you don’t even notice because it’s so catchy

ARGUS CRUSHED MY HEART IN THE ANIMATIC (like I knew he would) poor dog boi… if Jorge doesn’t have Odysseus say hello to him in a song I will be heartbroken.

Little Wolf

This song… the appearance of Athena in this song brought my prospective ranking of it from likely low to battling it out with Love in Paradise for top spot (I’m STILL not sure which one I like more).

When Athena first appeared in the livestream I (mentally) SCREAMED- MY FAV IS BACK SHE’S BACK AND I LOVE HER (very platonically)

I love the little interlude with her and Telemachus- speaking of which-

I’ve seen some people mention how Telemachus seems much younger than 20/21. Something about the portrayal of Telemachus as this naïve inexperienced child? I’m not sure. But I have my own thoughts to share on this, because as someone who’s close to that young adult age, I think it’s actually pretty accurate for Telemachus’s character. He’s lived in the palace all his life, he’s longing to adventure in the world beyond, but he doesn’t know how to fight… I mean, I don’t specifically relate to Telemachus but I can see aspects of this in my own life. I’ve taken my first baby steps into the big adult world, and it’s intimidating and scary, and I don’t know how anything works, but I’m trying anyways. Point being, I don’t understand how people think that Telemachus has to be younger just because he doesn’t have certain life experiences or knowledge yet. I think it’s a very good portrayal of a young adult being unsure of his coming into the world but excited for it anyways.

Anyways back to ATHENA MY GIRL

I love that we get an in-musical explanation of Quick Thought!! I think it’s really important for a musical to be self-contained with its important lore/information and Jorge does such a great job with that.

Athena’s entire speech about the suitors and bullies and inspiring Telemachus and reframing his “Little Wolf” title CHUCKED THIS SONG SO HIGH IN MY BOOK I need to find a character of mine to associate this part to

The little “ooohhhh, maybe I pushed him a bit to hard” is hilarious

Interesting thing we’re doing with transitions into the next songs with this saga. I do agree with some of the people who said it sounds kind of off in this song; I think it might’ve flowed better if it introduced the next one, but honestly, I’m entirely willing to ignore that because this song is *so* good

We’ll be Fine

I have one glaring complaint about this song…. WHY ISNT IT LONGER?!?! I NEED MORE OF THIS

I can honestly see this becoming a comfort song for me, it holds such great messages to remember

“Cause I got in a fight, and I didn’t die!” The bar is on the FLOOR with Telemachus

The voice actors are rocking their respective high notes! Jorge pushed them and they owned it!!

Speaking of those good encouraging messages- I absolutely adore Telemachus’s chorus. Every time I listen to it, my brain auto-fills the lyrics ahead, and I hear, “maybe it’s all gonna be okay,” but then Telemachus actually sings the verse and it’s “maybe it’s all gonna turn out great!” And that’s just… such a good thing to think about. Yeah, it’s gonna be okay in the end, but what if it was better than okay? What if it turned out to be absolutely amazing?? That’s… such a positive way to view things and I need it more in my life. Of course it could get toxic but for me, it’s a great reminder of how good things can become

Love in Paradise

I read a post that mentioned how the happiest song in the Thunder Saga is called Suffering, and the saddest song in the Wisdom Saga is called Love in Paradise, and I hate how accurate that is T^T

THE TIME DIVE MONTAGE WAS SO GOOOD- such a fun mini mash-up of the rest of the songs! I wish I had more to say about it because I want to keep gushing over it but I’m just gonna end up repeating myself saying it’s so good

The little replay of the “Captain?” “I have to see her” ;-;

WANGUI’S VOCALS— I CAN’T— THEY’RE SO GORGEOUS *unintelligible squealing*

“She’s my wife”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Anyways-“

Her voice is so pretty help I don’t approve of her actions but her VOICE HER VOICE

Can I also just say the animatic/visuals for this section were also gorgeous, such a great compliment to the audio

The way it goes from all sweet and bouncy to “oh ****” and right back to sweet was so good

“Last I checked goddesses can’t die!!” *cue the Wisdom Saga stream crash of 2024*

The cliff scene… oh my goodness it’s so *good* it’s all so *good* Jorge how are you so good at writing

He pays such close attention to characters and motifs and lines too- you can hear how Calypso triggers Odysseus’s flashback.

NOT TO MENTION- when Odysseus yells his line “All I hear are SCREAMS”, it’s in response to Calypso’s line “I’ll stay inside your heart”- which is Odysseus’s mom’s lyric from the underworld!! I literally just noticed the connection between the line and his reaction and I haven’t seen anyone else mention it before so-

And Athena’s little “he needs my help”- aaaaaa we all feel the pain

God Games

Oh *boy howdy* this one is a doozy

The intro is great, I adore Zeus’s voice- this cast is just FULL of talented voice actors man

“… Hera!…. Or me” …. A-wha-huh? I’m sorry didn’t you used to be “and”???

I was intrigued what Apollo’s grievance would be based on the whole “who’s cows” debacle- the sirens kinda threw me off guard xD

His voice is ✨✨✨ though, I love listening to him

JORGE’S DAD HEPHAESTUS!!!!! Aghhh his voice was so good for the part! And I loved the commentary on trust too

Aphrodite’s and Ares’s parts are still amazing even after all this time- I LOVE the details of Ares’s musical motif! He has the same melody as Athena, but played on this raw-sounding violin/cello? And he *also* has quick thought- but it still all feels different from Athena’s too! Because they’re both gods of war but with different domains and attributes AAAA so good!

And Athena’s lyrics in response- I love the re-do and the little extra quirks in it, like the extra growl on “ARES!!!” And the little riff(?) on “his son’s my FRIIIIEND”

Hera’s part was amazing. 100/10. Her voice was a lot… smoother than I was expecting honestly. It took a bit of getting used to but now I love it. And I am HERE for the dance battle

“Never once has he cheated on his wife”

“Release him.”

10/10 ✨✨✨

I was… really excited for an Athena/Zeus debate in this song when listening to all the snippets. I couldn’t wait to see how Athena would try and persuade Zeus, what arguments he would use specifically, how it would all go down… instead I got uh-

“I played your game and won! Release him.”

Oh so, no Zeus round? Ohh this is why it got changed to “or” isn’t it-

“You DARE to defy me?”

Huh-

“To make me feel shame?”

What’s happeni-

“No one beats me, NO ONE WINS MY GAME!!”

Oh boy howdy-

“THUNDER BRING HER THROUGH THE WRINGER, SHOW HER I’M THE JUDGEMENT CALL, THE ONE WHO MAKES HER KINGDOM FAAAAALL—“

I’M SORRY THIS WENT FROM 10 TO 100 SO FAST WHAT IS HAPPENING?!—

Athena in the flashback scene- holding baby Telemachus- the music- my HEART

And the end instrumental is so triumphant aaaaaa

“Let him gooooo! Please-“ JORGE WHEN I GET YOU JORGE—

Uh, so

My thoughts on God Games right after it came out were

Mixed

At first I was so absolutely frazzled from the livestream I could barely put thoughts together outside of incoherent screaming

But then I read a few tumblr posts about how some others were disappointed in how God Games ended and Zeus’s character- and I found myself agreeing :/

I do have a propensity for latching onto different opinions because I think they’re the “expected” one for me to have- and I totally think a bit of that was going on here- so I took some time off of tumblr/limiting my scrolling (which needed to be stopped anyways-) to really sort out how I felt on this

And I think I feel a bit stilted by God Games from its ending. The ending was… underwhelming? Which sounds INSANE considering the end of the stream but it’s underwhelming less because of actual shock factor and more because of what specifically happens versus my expectations.

Zeus just kind of… blasts Athena in the face??? Without provocation?? Athena DID win his game, she passed the terms he set out, she did all of that… and he shocks her anyways. It just. Doesn’t really sit right with me.

But I love Epic, and want to enjoy every song I come across, and I REALLY didn’t want this view of the ending of God Games to taint the rest of the song or the rest of the musical. So in my next big post, I’m going to do a mini “rewrite”/reworking of God Games that I’ve been toying around with in my mind for a little while now!!

I’ll explain more about why and what and the details in that post but for now, just know that it’s been a helpful exercise in enjoying God Games as it is too, and I’ll get to posting that the next time school isn’t absolutely crushing me with long homework assignments

Anyways, those are my kinda-in-depth thoughts about the Wisdom Saga!! I’ve been so excited to write this out and I’m happy to be posting it finally

AAAAAA IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL

I’ve been waiting for this song to be released for so long! And now, my take on it is finally here!

“My brain is rotting from the Wisdom Saga” has got to be some sort of paradox hasn’t it

i drew athena in my sketchbook! i like how it turned out

I love to think Hermes was in the audience cheering for Athena during God Games

Hermes: Yes dawling, disobey your father!

*turns to Hestia*

Hermes: She's defending my great grandson, you know.

Me on a Monday

(Credit to @nothing-impt for the crispy Athena, THIS IS NOT MY ART)

Can we talk about how PERFECTLY Jorge cast his characters? And what a good job they did? Like yes they absolutely embody the characters they're voicing, and they made the characters theirs as much as they are Jorge's.

This post is inspired by me listening to God Games again and being absolutely amazed at the gods in particular.

ESPECIALLY Aphrodite's lines like please Janani K Jha did NOT have to be that good but she knocked it out of the park. I can't even tell you how often the line "you're a little high and mighty" gets stuck in my head.

It ABSOLUTELY KILLS ME that Athena has NO ANSWER to Ares and Aphrodite's arguments, and just opts to tell Aphrodite to suck it up and bribe Ares

Like-

Aphrodite: "He left his elderly mother to die alone to fight a war."

Ares: "He has shown cowardice on numerous instances, categorically refusing to face problems with honor and all but sacrificing his comrads."

Athena, mentally: 'Shit. Fuck. They're objectively correct. Uhhhhh'

Athena: "Aphrodite stop being a bitch and Ares oooooooo look at the Murder you like the murder oooooo"

—

And this just- works??? Honestly so proud of her for pulling this off.

Parte favorita de god games 3 2 1 vai

Release him.

Like damn Athena u were supposed to convince them not obliterate them like that-

Urge

I wwanna draw the Olympians so badly bto