u/generic-puff

Yes, this was inspired by the Trump Without Trump series. Fortunately Rachel Smythe isn't a tyrannical alt-right dictator (thank god) but there's one thing those two DO share, and it's sounding completely nonsensical to the point of incoherent in their interview quotes, while simultaneously contradicting their own previous statements.

I picked a short and simple one for y'all today. I think this one's ironic on multiple levels, because not only has the answer changed on a dime from "because he has a high sex drive" to "because purple is the color of thunder" to "because he's royalty" but back when she still responded to Tumblr asks, she also claimed Apollo and Artemis weren't gonna be related to Zeus... and yet made them the only other two strikingly purple characters anyways.

So were Apollo and Artemis also going to be related to thunder in that way despite her original plan to make them unrelated to Zeus? Or was she implying that Artemis, a virgin goddess, had a high sex drive? Or was she inadvertently claiming that Apollo's sex drive had anything to do with him being a rapist? Granted, iirc that Tumblr answer re: sex drives was provided before the comic was remade and the SA plotline was introduced, but it's still very 😬 in hindsight and I think overall, no matter which angle you choose to over-analyze that quote from, it really goes to show that Rachel was kind of just making shit up as she went along with no real plan.

-that would make her too much of a whore 🥴💀 (credit to adorable-pink-cinnamon-roll on Tumblr for digging up these old Tumblr asks)

It's absolutely wild of Rachel to claim that she wanted to fight the patriarchy through LO, to give women a platform for their stories and experiences, only to turn around and validate the patriarchy through blind implementations of male-perpetuated tropes like that of Born Sexy Yesterday. Sure, it would be neat if the comic actually had something to say about these tropes, but it doesn't - because the only thing it wants to accomplish is proving that Hades isn't like all those other guys, he's one of the good ones, and Persephone is clearly a consenting mature adult who chose to be with him and totally wasn't groomed or manipulated or love-bombed, despite all evidence to the contrary, like the fact that she apparently doesn't understand the very concept of clothing.

Never mind the fact that she grew up among many other women who regularly wore clothing.

Never mind the fact that we're told and shown throughout the comic that she had spent her whole life training for her role in the Goddesses of Eternal Maidenhood, a celibacy club, which would, logically, include purity-focused curriculum like how to dress modestly.

Never mind the fact that criticizing purity culture was something that Rachel CLAIMED WAS THE POINT OF THE COMIC, but apparently evidently couldn't commit to actually doing, either because she was too afraid to confront the true nature of her self-ship power fantasy, or because her desire to criticize purity culture was beaten out by her desire to satisfy her DDLG fetish as she had been doing for the past 20 years already. Or, y'know, at best, she just sucks at writing and thinks it's sufficient to say what her intention is while the execution of her writing says the complete opposite, which is something she's also done on numerous occasions.

And this isn't just exclusive to this one uncovered ask, I remember YEARS ago during a scene when Hades mentioned to Persephone to 'put on her pyjamas' and she was confused, Rachel later claimed on Twitter it was because 'Persephone doesn't know what pyjamas are'. So this wasn't even just a relic of the pilot comic or the earlier part of the series, this was canon throughout the Originals series too. (*note: the Discord screenshot is from 2023, it's my explanation of what happened, unfortunately I cannot find the original tweet but if I find it I'll link it here, I KNOW it existed because I was there when it happened)

The more we find these old asks and posts, the more plainly obvious LO's failings become, as if they weren't obvious enough. The writing isn't just on the wall, it's in the goddamn comic. Rachel may have claimed that Lore Olympus was an attempt to criticize purity culture and the patriarchy, but that attempt was clumsy, lazy, and insincere, and it ultimately did far more to perpetuate those norms than it did to actually challenge them.

I've seen a lot of older Tumblr asks from Rachel's Tumblr accounts (including both her own account and a Lore Olympus ask blog she ran for a little bit back in like 2017-2018) but I'm just now seeing this one for the first time after it was recovered by some fellow lost media pals. Shoutout to them btw for putting in the amount of time and effort they do into this, I don't really have either of those things nowadays so I'm grateful for the amazing folks who have stepped up and found so many unearthed treasures.

To Rachel's credit, most of the stuff we come across from Rachel's old blogs are nothingburgers, but sometimes we come across stuff that's genuinely fascinating, whether it be old asks or art, oftentimes shedding more light on Rachel's design choices or hidden lore of the comic.

But then we find stuff like this and... besides the fact that it confirms a separate RS statement that Demeter was designed "after a flower" (this non-descript flower specifically, I guess LOL) it also really adds a lot more (horribly aged imo) context to Rachel's thought process in how she designed Persephone. I think it's very damning that someone told her they found Persephone's body type and stretch marks empowering, just for Rachel to think it was validation towards OP by claiming that clearly Persephone had to be super hot if so many men were pursuing her. Besides the very large fact that women deserve empowerment separate from that of the male gaze, this comic was written during the height of the #MeToo movement when women and girls were standing up and telling their abuse and assault stories, many of whom experienced assault regardless of how attractive they were, what they were wearing, etc.

And the cherry on top is the last paragraph mentioning she finds stretch marks fascinating... maybe I'm over-analyzing this, but what I find fascinating is how she inherently ties stretch marks to puberty and how she went from being a girl to a woman really fast with 'no in-between', and yet somehow she wasn't able to connect how that experience is something many victims of SA and grooming have gone through, which was often twisted into justification for the harm that was inflicted upon them by predatory men ("she looked 18!" "she clearly wants the attention!" etc.) Almost eerily similar to what was done to Persephone throughout LO by literally every man in the comic, including Hades, who's celebrated not for reducing harm towards women or contributing to dismantling a patriarchal system... but for pursuing a 19 year old girl and accelerating her into a position of power that's still inherently tied to him.

But what do you think? I've reblogged this post already and shared my own thoughts on it both in the tags and in response to a follow-up ask, but I'm interested to hear other people's perspectives and points on this outside of just Tumblr and Discord, ideally beyond just the standard "Persephone look like a toddler" shtick because we hear it every day here, and while it's definitely worth discussing, I think reducing it to that is severely undermining the why. Recovered RS posts like this can at least give us a better framework for answering that question, but whether or not it's a red herring or a red flag? Well, I'll leave that up to you all to discuss.

To conclude this kind of heavy post, just wanna throw out this brief but necessary PSA - violence against women is a men's problem and it's just as much if not more the men's responsibility to solve that problem. If you're a man, the best way you can contribute to solving this problem is holding both yourself and your male friends accountable. Shaming women, rating and comparing their bodies, conflating their physical health with sexual desirability, all of these things are inherent symptoms of a toxic patriarchal system and if you actually care about not being a statistic in the "not all men" debate, you'll knock it off and tell your male friends to do the same. Enough is enough. Not all men, but always a man.

Read it on Tumblr!

Read it on NamiComi!

(had to re-upload with a bikini drawn on her because reddit sucks, rip)

Sometime in the distant past, we discovered a book in Rachel's resume called Gothology, a collaborative comic anthology that she had presumably contributed art to. With no clue where to actually find this book from 2009, all I was really left with was hope that it might some day, miraculously, turn up.

Welp, that miracle finally happened. After an amazing anon swooped into my inbox with a link to an ebay listing, I finally got my hands on this small lost piece of art (and goth) history.

While there unfortunately isn't any other work from her in here, this piece on its own is a wonderful memento of her pre-LO career! And there's a tooon of other amazing artists in here, many of whom have gone on to have really fulfilling careers themselves (including one artist who actually worked on The Amazing Digital Circus' finale!) All in all, it makes this book a wonderful time capsule of works that are practically lost media today.

This is now the oldest piece of physical (and official) Rachel Smythe art I own, taking the crown from my copy of Ladies of Literature Volume 1 which contains one of Rachel's earliest online drawings of Persephone, long before she was ever the pink cinnamon roll we've come to loathe today.

I hope you all enjoy this piece of Rachel Smythe history! Next up on the acquisition list: a (hopefully playable) copy of PorcelainToy's Contrite Elegant Rebel, and an original zine print of The Doctor Foxglove Show.

Read it on Tumblr!

Read it on NamiComi!

This is a hard one, folks. Please tread forward with care <3

Read it on Tumblr!

Read it on NamiComi!