How Percy Jackson Modifications Medusa From the Books to Deal with Rape Delusion

SPOILER ALERT: This story comprises spoilers for “We Go to the Backyard Gnome Emporium,” Episode 3 of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.”

For followers of Rick Riordan‘s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” books, Medusa represents one among Percy’s first large victories: After being tricked into spending time with “Aunty Em,” he beheads the snake-haired girl, and her cursed, useless eyeballs are later used to show one other enemy into stone.

However for these with a deeper data of Greek mythology, and for a lot of ladies, Medusa is a logo of one thing darker.

Within the unique fable, Medusa is a human girl who takes a vow of celibacy out of devotion to Athena, the goddess of knowledge. Nonetheless, Medusa finally enters a relationship with sea god Poseidon that turns into sexual one night time. Many interpretations posit that the encounter, which came about in Athena’s temple, was nonconsensual, and that Poseidon raped Medusa. Athena decides to punish Medusa, robbing her of her magnificence by turning her right into a gorgon that petrifies anybody she makes eye contact with. The story ends with the demigod Perseus — who Percy Jackson is called after — decapitating Medusa and gifting her head to Athena.

The 2005 novel was written for a center faculty viewers and understandably didn’t delve into that backstory. However Percy is the son of Poseidon, and Annabeth, who joins him on his quest, is the daughter of Athena, so each have loaded lineages within the presence of Medusa. So within the TV adaptation of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” now airing on Disney+, the gorgon’s relationships with the children’ mother and father will get unpacked with extra depth.

Rebecca Riordan, who’s married to Rick and government produces the TV collection, says that “the one cause Medusa is just not extra fleshed out within the books was that it was Percy’s narrative and we don’t have her perspective,” because the books are written in first-person. “As a 12-year-old boy in 2005, I don’t suppose he had the bandwidth for deconstructing the patriarchy,” provides Rick. “He was taking a look at it as, ‘It is a scary girl who’s attempting to show me into stone.’”

However that modified upon coming into a TV writers room, the place different views develop into important. “It was one of many first issues we talked about, the best way to not have a patriarchal lens,” Rebecca says.

Medusa is first talked about within the pilot episode, when Percy’s (Walker Scobell) mom Sally (Virginia Kull) takes her younger son (performed in a flashback by Azriel Dalman) to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork and reveals him Antonio Canova’s early 1800s statue of Perseus holding Medusa’s severed head. “Not everybody who seems like a hero is a hero, and never everybody who seems like a monster is a monster,” she says to Percy.

Then, in Episode 3, Percy and his quest-mates, Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Grover (Aryan Simhadri), find yourself lunching with Medusa (Jessica Parker Kennedy). In contrast to within the “Lightning Thief” e book, the children notice who the gorgon is instantly, however Percy decides to take his possibilities together with her as she’s the children’ solely possibility for refuge whereas being chased by the Alecto (Megan Mullaly), one of many Furies despatched by Hades to seize Percy. Annabeth and Grover reluctantly observe. Then Medusa, sensing Annabeth’s anger in the direction of her and allegiance to Athena, tells her aspect of the story.

“Athena was the whole lot to me. I worshipped her; I prayed to her; I made choices. She by no means answered, not even an omen to counsel she appreciated my love,” Medusa says. Then, accurately assuming that Annabeth isn’t as near her mom as she’d wish to be, she provides, “I wasn’t like you, sweetheart. I was you. I’d have worshipped her that approach for a lifetime: in silence.”

“However then someday, one other god got here, and he broke that silence. Your father,” she continues, now chatting with Percy. “The ocean god advised me that he beloved me. I felt as if he noticed me in a approach I had by no means felt seen earlier than. However then Athena declared that I had embarrassed her and I wanted to be punished. Not him. Me. She determined that I’d by no means be seen once more by anybody who would survive.”

“Percy Jackson” co-creator and co-showrunner Jon Steinberg — who credit author Daphne Olive for steering a lot of this storyline — explains how the episode gestures on the unique fable whereas holding it age-appropriate: “If you realize what she’s speaking about, you realize what she’s speaking about. Should you’re too younger to be in that dialog, it received’t trouble you. You’re simply in a scene about this girl who appears difficult. And all people’s bought an opinion about what went down. There’s no model that’s the model. If Athena and Poseidon had been in that room, you’d get three completely different variations of that story.”

And although her character by no means makes use of the language of sexual assault, Kennedy felt resolute in her interpretation: “Jon wrote a narrative of [Medusa] considering that [Poseidon] was somebody she may belief, and he broke that belief. She was feeling secure, after which the scenario turned unsafe,” she says. “So I selected to play that she was a sufferer of rape and whole abandonment, not understanding why Athena would activate her.”

Equally, Rick’s clarification is straightforward: “There are lots of variations from historical instances of what occurred in that temple with Medusa and Poseidon and Athena. Who’s guilty? Who’s the abuser? What’s the true story? It’s fiction, but it surely actually is necessary to acknowledge that there’s abuse concerned right here. Abuse of energy.”

Since Medusa is historically regarded as a villain — and he or she does attempt to flip the children into stone on the finish of the episode — introducing a nuanced narrative of abuse required some care within the design of the character. She wears a flowy beige robe with an identical hat that simply barely covers her harmful eyes, together with excessive heels, pink lipstick and a gold necklace. Briefly, she’s not monstrous. She’s lovely.

“Some of the attention-grabbing modifications that knowledgeable the way in which she seems is that in Medusa’s standpoint, the true curse wasn’t making her ugly. It was making her invisible,” Rick says. “She has chosen, on this model, to personal that. To be seen. To be elegant. She turns folks into stone and makes use of that as artwork.”

Petrifying her enemies, as Rebecca factors out, is how Medusa emotionally processes Athena’s curse: “She has been bodily modified. She’s accepted herself the way in which she is, and the ability that she has, however she’s additionally been traumatized,” she says.

Kennedy says she started to totally hook up with this expression of Medusa as soon as she acquired her costume. “She’s so fashionable and grounded and calm, and that’s vastly a entrance for the trauma she’s attempting to cover,” she says. “She does all of those actually terrible issues, and turns into a horrible individual, however I needed her to really feel virtually frighteningly calm and sort. I didn’t need her to have a scary voice. I needed it to really feel mild, however I additionally needed to go away a layer of how we all know shit’s gonna go unhealthy.”

“One other factor we did was present all people the statue of Medusa holding Perseus’ head — the inverted story,” Rick says of Luciano Garbati’s 2008 statue that reimagines and reverses Medusa’s demise. The piece has develop into a logo of the #MeToo motion. “It’s a robust piece of artwork to start out a dialog about who’s telling the story.” Kennedy additionally credit this statue for serving to her create her model of Medusa.

This nuanced, kinder model of Medusa begins off with some model of fine intentions when she meets Percy. She acknowledges that like her, he struggles with feeling that Poseidon deserted him.

“The studio execs had been like, ‘Oh, that is going to be a narrative about Percy gaining his father’s love and respect?’ And it’s like, ‘No, that’s not the story!’ He has to undergo: ‘What has my father carried out? Has he modified? How do I see myself in relationship to that?’” Rebecca says. “Percy can solely decide his father by the wreckage he has left behind,” says Rick.

As soon as she will get a second alone with him, Medusa affords to assist Percy save his mom from Hades, which is his actual objective on the search, although he’s been instructed to prioritize retrieving Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt. However to avoid wasting Sally, Medusa implies, they would wish to petrify Annabeth and Grover — a punishment for his or her loyalty to the gods. “There’s part of Medusa that actually thinks she will flip Percy,” Kennedy says. “She’s on the lookout for allies, whereas figuring out, ‘I’m gonna must kill these children. However perhaps I can persuade them: I’m the great man. Your mother is just not an excellent individual. Your dad is just not an excellent individual. I used to be there for them. They weren’t there for me.’”

After all, Percy refuses to fall into her entice. He finally ends up following within the footsteps of his namesake and beheading Medusa. However he does this to guard his associates, not Poseidon and Athena. Regardless of her demise, Medusa does actual injury to Percy and Annabeth’s notion of their mother and father.

“The place [Percy and Annabeth] are most completely different is when it comes to their upbringing,” Steinberg says, as Annabeth had been at Camp Halfblood for years, whereas Percy has solely identified that he’s a demigod for every week. “Annabeth is totally steeped within the the Olympian tradition, the household tradition of what you owe up [to the gods] in tribute and obligation.”

So for the primary time, Annabeth has that tradition challenged. “She has a calcified imaginative and prescient of her mom that has to alter with a purpose to get by this season and develop as an individual,” Becky says. “That is the episode the place you see that begin. ‘Perhaps my mother is just not who I feel she is. Perhaps I don’t must revere her.’”

And Percy, who was already offended about his father’s absence in his life, is shaken by Medusa’s suggestion that his mom’s relationship to Poseidon could not have been as sunny as she made it appear.

“There’s a 3rd act to that subplot of Medusa and Poseidon and Sally that you simply haven’t seen it but. It is available in Episode 7, a extremely highly effective flashback scene the place you see Sally and Poseidon collectively,” Rick says.

“What’s most attention-grabbing to me [about Episode 3] is the place it positions Medusa with respect to Sally, and an consciousness that they each dated the identical man and had very completely different experiences,” Steinberg says. “I like that the story perceives that relationship from Percy’s standpoint. It’s not totally clear: Did they love one another? It looks as if they did, however what went incorrect? Did something go incorrect? Is it potential that Medusa had an terrible expertise with Poseidon and Sally didn’t?”

“It was necessary to go away {that a} thriller, however to not go away it unaddressed,” he concludes. “As we get deeper into the season, sure, that is Percy’s journey, however parenting that child is an journey unto itself. A scary one. We needed to inform that story too, and I don’t suppose you may inform that story with out understanding what Poseidon and Sally had been to one another. Lengthy story quick: That they had a sophisticated relationship.”