TW: This rant includes depictions of grooming and sexual assault. Viewer discretion is advised

     I know this may come as a shock to most people, but I really do not like the WEBTOON Lore Olympus. I think it's one of the worser WEBTOONs the platform has to offer. For me to come to that conclusion, it stems from three things: the writing, how the author handles criticism, and the artwork.

     Let's begin with a brief introduction for those of you who don't know what Lore Olympus is. Lore Olympus is a web novel created by Rachel Smythe that is supposed to be a modern day retelling of the relationship between Hades and Persephone. It began publication in March of 2018 and is currently wrapping up as this coming month.

     But what exactly is wrong with the comic you might ask? That is what I'm about to explain to you all as you continue reading my thoughts on this WEBTOON as a whole. Let's begin now!

     1. The Writing

     The writing in Lore Olympus is very abysmal. There's so many plot holes, so many unfinished character arcs, and so many random story lines happening in the story that I can't keep things straight. Most of the timeline for the story in arc 1 happens in the span of two weeks. That really isn't enough time to properly develop relationships between the characters and flesh out their motivations.

     A crucial plot line in the story is Persephone's sexual assault. The story plays it off as a joke, like it never even happened at all until the plot demands it be bought back up. Persephone is never given the proper time to heal and reflect on her trauma, instead other characters continue to downplay her experience and minimize her feelings.

Example 1: Hades

     Later on in the story Hades finds out about Persephones sexual assault. Instead of comforting her about it he instead forces her to tell him about it despite Persephone explicitly being uncomfortable and in a vulnerable state of mind. In the end SHE, the victim, had to comfort Hades about HER experience and Hades (who mind you is her partner at this time) gets upset with her for not telling him.

Example 2: Hera

     Hera only finds out about Persephones assault based off of pure suspicion. When she finally connects the dots (via transforming into Persephone and confronting Apollo herself), she not only goes on a tangent but also confronts Persephone about it. Persephone yet again is forced to tell someone about her experience despite being uncomfortable doing so.

     Another plot line in the story would be the age difference between Hades and Persephone. Hades is canonically 2000+ years old and Persephone just turned 19 when the story takes place. There is a HUGE age gap between the two of them, not to mention an unfair power imbalance in their relationship. The emotional maturity between someone who is still freshly 19 and someone who has literal centuries of life experience is still very telling. There's numerous parts during the comic where Hades abuses his power over Persephone and forces her into situations she isn't comfortable in.

     Whenever someone (ex Demeter, Hera at the beginning of the comic) calls Hades out for being a creep for lusting over a literal 19 year old, the writing just plays it off as one big joke. Keep in mind this is all within the first 20 EPISODES of the comic. It still continues on as the series progresses but the characters (except for Demeter because she's a "bad mom for not letting Persephone be with a guy much older than her") all seemingly forget the massive age gap between the two.

     A common misconception in the story that I will also address is that Hades always respects women. He doesn't. There's been NUMEROUS points throughout the comic where he constantly demeans and diminishes women just to better his own ego. He also openly treats them like servants and will fire them at his own convenience, not to mention OPENLY SEXUALIZING THEM IN PUBLIC. If you're trying to write Hades to be a guy who respects women, then clearly you're going a shit job at it Rachel.

     The character writing in Lore Olympus isn't that good either. Persephone gets played off as a Mary-Sue who could do absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever, Hades is the conveniently rich guy who gets little to no development throughout the story, Demeter is a 'helicopter parent', Hera exists, Apollo is your typical antagonist who's trying to break the main couple up, and everyone is is just there for the ride. Yep, that pretty much sums up all of Lore Olympus's characters in a nutshell..

     2. How the author handles criticism

     Rachel Smythe cannot handle criticism well. It may not be obvious judging from her numerous interviews or how she conducts herself online but she does make it quite obvious during some scenes in her comic about how she views her critics. She shoves their words into different characters mouths and tries to force her narrative onto us that it's OUR fault for perceiving certain things as what they are.

Example 1: Persephone

     "You have always perceived me as a stupid little girl. The maiden, non-threatening, easily manipulated." - Persephone to Apollo in chapter 276.

     Here Rachel is trying to make us believe that Persephone isn't a young naive girl despite there being MANY instances in the comic contracting it. She intentionally had her be ignorant about how she got into her current position of power (ex being groomed by Hades into becoming his wife). The funny thing about that is many readers of Lore Olympus and those outside the community perceive Persephone to be this "itty bitty baby bean that must be protected at all times." Shes shown to be childish, rude, impulsive, and incredibly naive (blindly taking people's words when they don't mean it). Persephone hasn't matured in the comic at all, so I don't know why Rachel is still forcing that belief onto us when it's been proven time again that Persephone is not a non-threatening maiden and an incredibly crappy person at heart.

     Oh but Rachel, you're the one empathizing certain character traits that your characters are expressing in your story. You can't just turn around and go "but they've changed and grown" without showing it and then trying to shove some bullshit excuse down our throats.

     Rachel will also go out of her way to block all critics on her social media pages. If you comment something that even remotely criticizes the WEBTOON, either you're getting a horde of toxic fans coming your direction or the author herself is going to be blocking you. There really isn't no way to win.

3. The artwork

     I'll be the first one to tell you all that the artwork during arc 1 and partially during arc 2 of Lore Olympus was extremely beautiful and well detailed. Unfortunately the artwork fell off halfway during arc 2 of the comic and became extremely rushed and poorly done. I know this is probably because of the deadline that all WEBTOON creators must follow (fast past), but it's still no excuse to be lazy.

     The characters are constantly off model and the anatomy consistently gets worse as the story progresses. Like, why is Persephones eyes and mouth taking up her whole face? What is with the receding hairline? Why is Hades nose suddenly sharp enough to pierce through a fire nation aircraft? Why does everyone go from having distinct body types to being a carbon clone of Persephone?

     Some scenes in the comic are just drawn very poorly. Like why is Leuce suddenly Spinel from Steven Universe with those stretchy ass limbs of hers? And why do the main characters look like they can be stereotypical background characters? Make it make sense!

     If I were to go on about the artstyle in Lore Olympus and how it progressively has gotten worser overtime, I would have to make a extremely deep analysis with images proving my point (since wattpad doesn't want to upload images anymore). For now I'm just going to leave my complaints at that and continue on with my rant.

Conclusion:

     Lore Olympus is one of the worser WEBTOONs on the social media platform. The writing, how the author handles criticism, and the artwork constantly off-puts me into actually giving the WEBTOON itself a good rating. I may not be a professional writer and artist myself, but I do know what classifies as a good webcomic with a good author and Rachel Smythes Lore Olympus is just not it for me.

     And yes I written this all at 1am in the morning, just had to get this rant off my chest.

- Ash