By: Jenna Morgan | @jkmorgan-media

I ended up loving this show, even though it honestly took a few episodes to really get me. Hera was my favorite character almost all the way to the end. I mean, who doesn’t like a powerful woman, right? 

Seriously: DON’T MESS WITH A POWERFUL WOMAN WHO’S BEEN SCORN FOR DECADES BY HER HUSBAND! Not even by accident or indirectly. Just…trust no one. Ever. Truly, it’s what’s best…

Anyways! 

I have always loved the prince and pauper trope in media. From Once Upon a Times’ Prince Charming and his shepard brother to the Maximum Ride series’ characters of Ari and Max. But, despite loving the trope I’ve always felt pretty unfulfilled about it storywise. I think, to me, what it comes down to is the debate of nature vs nurture. I love the idea of basically the same person growing up in two different environments and seeing how all those variables change, how that person grows up and acts compared to their sibling counterpart, and how similar they still would be overall. Because the interest in environmental vs biological or nurture vs nature is something I’ve often thought about myself. A sentiment I’m sure others share. 

Heron is an example of being born with benefit and privilege, with the actual blood of Zeus, and still losing everything. Starting from ultimate power and more responsibility than he understood, he took his privacy for granted. He lost his mother to the hands of Seraphim, but the lose was ultimately from his actions. Only to later blame Zeus for not protecting them better when Zeus was doing all he felt he could. Then, he points the finger at Hera. And, Hera did send Seraphim to kill Heron and his mother, but she sees herself as justified since this is revenge for Zeus’ infidelity and Heron’s mother for being a homewrecker.

Meanwhile Seraphim is an example of having to work and find resourceful ways of gaining power. Despite being born a prince, he barely survived after being thrown off a cliff by his uncle when he was just a baby! Abandonment, disownment, and raised by a castle maid, he came from nothing. The woman that he knew as his mother was eventually killed, and from there went down a dark path. Eating the flesh of a dying body, the spawn of a titan, and turning demonic, he eventually kills the mother of a shepherd boy that he didn’t know was his birth mother all along. Hera’s truest and vile revenge. 

I couldn’t help but wanting them to eventually bond and work together to defeat the bigger evil, but–in the end–the flesh Seraphim consumed years before cursed him and causes his death, thus ending the show with him meeting Hades. The ‘coolest’ chaotic neutral mother forker that ever existed in any mythology, bay-beeeee! Just kidding, we barely see him, but here’s hoping for more!

I’m actually excited for Season 2, if they end up moving forward with it. An announcement was made in December 2020, so fingers crossed we get Season 2 soon!