BONUS: Lore Olympus and the Art of Depicting Intimate Partner Abuse, Part Three: Hades
Team Hadesephone or should it be Persephades? Or is it Korades? Hadore?
Tags: #LoreOlympus #greekmythology #abusiverelationships #Webtoon #positiverelationships #healthyrelationships #rolemodels
Content Warning: This blog contains themes of sexual abuse and intimate partner violence. Reader’s discretion is advised. Please consult your local crisis center if you require any support. International helplines can be found at https://ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Note: This is Part Three of “Lore Olympus and the Art of Depicting Intimate Partner Abuse”. For an overview on media’s depictions of IPA and sexual violence, and Lore Olympus’ portrayal of Apollo as a sex offender, check out Part One. For the ways survivors are depicted and the webtoon’s portrayal of Persephone, as a survivor, check out Part Two. This final part will take a closer look at healthy romantic/intimate relationships.
There are a few keys to having a successful relationship: healthy relationships are defined by mutual understanding, promotion of growth and wellbeing, being attentive to other people’s needs, good communication, problem solving, mutual respect, making compromises, managing responsibilities together, sharing values and life goals, sharing time together, healthy intimacy and passion, trust, and freedom from abuse (e.g. Brazelton & Greenspan 2000; Hromek and A. Walsh 2012; Noble and McGrath 2012; O’Brien & Mosco 2012; Roffrey 2012; Gottman & Silver 2015). Mutual understanding and respect as well as being attentive to others' needs are traits that are severely underrepresented and undervalued in media portrayals of couples (although there are other great standout examples: just wait for October). Instead, the media has a long tradition of perpetuating harmful stereotypes of romance and love with a particular focus on excusing, if not romanticising, violence against women. Across different mediums, including comic books – and by extension webtoons – abuse by (mostly) men against (mostly) women within intimate relationships is often normalised if not encouraged (e.g. Bates 2017; Garland et al 2016; Kitzinger 2009; Lumsden & Morgan 2017; Powell and Henry 2014). However, there is one work that has been doing a lot of heavy lifting. Not only does it do an exceptional job of explaining the reality and context of abuse, it doubles down, and portrays a rare case of a healthy relationship that is super into respecting boundaries.
Persephone is going through a lot in the first two seasons of Lore Olympus. Most of the characters are; theater, and more specifically drama, was first recorded in ancient Greece, after all (Damon 2021). Hades, though, stands out from the Olympus crowd, not only in colour, but because he’s just a chill dude living with his dogs in his fancy house (and trying to work through his extensive childhood trauma *being eaten by his father* with his therapist). Based on his own personal experiences, he is more aware of his actions and the effects they have on others. Even so, like all Olympians – and we suppose humans as well, he does have flaws: hiding an affair with Hera (his sister-in-law); continuing a doomed relationship with Minthe, his secretary, whom he has power over in the workplace; petitioning the Fate’s for memories without all participant’s consent, which might not be an everyday human occurrence, but could be correlated with stalker behaviour in the mortal realm. In spite of all this, the ways in which he communicates with Persephone continuously show his desire to do better and respect her boundaries above all. Lore Olympus does a bang-up job depicting IPA, but it also shows some very healthy relationship traits between, particularly, Hades and Persephone.
Hades: the sweetest immortal alive and most unproblematic individual amongst the gods
From Hades’ perspective, the first time he meets Persephone is at a party in Olympus. Because he dares to comment that Persephone “puts Aphrodite to shame” (Lore Olympus, ep 3), Aphrodite and Eros drug her and stick the unconscious Persephone in Hades’ car. Only noticing her upon his return to the underworld, Hades carries her out of the car, gives her some water and then puts her in a guest room to sleep it off as he does not know her address and is not a fucking sex offender (Lore Olympus, ep 5). The next morning, after some awkward conversation and an adorable exchange involving a coat and Hades looking out for Persephone and her needs, Hades respectfully drives her home. Being attentive to your partner's needs should not need to be explicitly said, but we will.
While Persephone does reach out through text, it is not until after Apollo assaults her, that the two begin midnight comfort (they both have insomnia) phone calls (Lore Olympus, ep 28-29). This can be seen as not only good communication, but promotion of wellbeing and healthy intimacy. It is also the foundation of trust and the discovery of each other's values and life goals that will continue throughout their developing relationship.
Consistently, Hades and Persephone respect each other's boundaries (Lore Olympus, ep 59). Several times, Persephone tells Hades what she is comfortable with and he listens, apologizes if he accidentally oversteps, and does not repeat the mistake again (Lore Olympus, ep 91). He offers his support if Persephone should require it, and is actually there when she needs him – pat pat (Lore Olympus, ep 112). Hades also offers advice and shares his personal experiences whenever he and Persephone discuss trauma; both are providing a safe space to express their wellbeing (Lore Olympus, ep 138).
While Hades is still technically with Minthe, he begins a tentative friendship with Persephone; which is stunted when he realizes how old Persephone is – she is 19 to his 2000 or so. However, due to some meddling from Hera and Eros, Persephone is granted an internship in the underworld (Lore Olympus, ep 30). To his credit, Hades does endeavour to keep distance between them, rejecting her baklava, once she starts to work for him (so he can learn from his mistakes, cough, cough, Minthe) (Lore Olympus, ep 51). And, in fact, he does start an ill-fated attempt at a relationship with Minthe in order to suppress his growing feelings for Persephone. He tries to be attentive to both Minthe and Persephone’s needs and communicate the nature of their relationships, while also acknowledging the power dynamics in play. Finally though, he admits to himself that it is not fair to anyone to continue the relationship with Minthe (Lore Olympus, ep 104) and ends things, opening up to Persephone and beginning to develop their friendship into something more.
In season two of Lore Olympus, Hades goes above and beyond for Persephone, hiding her from Zeus and putting her needs above his own. He takes time off from work to track her down and then make sure she feels safe in the underworld staying with him. When she requests more clothing, they go on an adorable date (Lore Olympus, ep 142); when she decides to go to therapy, he waits patiently with flowers (Lore Olympus, ep 161); and when she finally discloses Apollo’s abuse, he goes full on Titan mode, but stops to respect her wishes and care for her needs (Lore Olympus, ep 182-3). He also defies his brothers at their dumb trial and represents Persephone as her lawyer. Hades seeks to help solve Persephone’s problems without expecting anything in return. They are fostering healthy intimacy and encouraging each other to grow. Hades and Persephone are integrating their lives together in supportive ways in season two, while making compromises to ensure the others’ needs are met.
Conclusion
It’s not only that Hades respects Persephone's boundaries, but that he asks her to respect his. While their relationship may have started unconventionally, they still established a strong friendship before attempting to expand into a romance. Hopefully, moving forward into the end of season two and beyond, we will get to see more of their budding relationship; continuing to respect boundaries, openly communicate, be attentive to one another, solve problems and share time together and be free from abuse. Truly this is a great example, something Apollo or Zeus should consider when they are forced to look at their own love-lives; which to be clear – they are both abusers and have horrible trainwreck personalities. #TeamPersephades
Sources
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Smythe, R. (2018). Lore Olympus. Webtoons. https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-olympus/list?title_no=1320&page=1
Image Credit
Racheal@Lore Olympus [@used_bandaid] (2020). “I made this!" 06 November, https://twitter.com/used_bandaid/status/1324456749269618688