Episode #39 - Hercules! Hercules!

Prophecy Radio: A Percy Jackson Podcast

Prophecy Radio episode #39 takes a look at Disney’s Hercules and compares his story to both Greek mythology and the way he’s portrayed in Percy Jackson. In addition, the hosts tackle all the latest news, completely geeking out over the type of technology Percy Jackson and the Olympians will be using on set, as well as read Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth chapters 11 and 12. New episodes of Prophecy Radio air weekly, and all ages are welcome to tune in.

News and Updates (00:01:26)

• Check out what Percy & Co. are doing this summer.
• Kristen had the perfect Father’s Day present for Percy to give to Poseidon.
• Next up, Read Riordan makes us feel old.
• We wish the Pride month post had been brought back.
• Let’s go through Rick’s June 28 blog post!
• It’s nice to hear how excited Rick is for the show.
• If you want to hear us geek out about the production stage the show will be using, you’re in luck!
• Not only is this awesome in terms of technological advancements, it’s also amazing for practical reasons (like the actors envisioning the environment around them).
• Here’s the Mandalorian BTS video we discussed.
• We’re wholly unprepared for how realistic the backgrounds are going to be.
• Let’s learn a little bit about game engine technology.
• There are so many benefits to using this kind of technology.
• Should we do a bigger, more in-depth episode about this technology?

Disney’s Hercules (00:18:28)

• We love this movie!
• But it’s interesting seeing it through a different lens.
• Hercules is a very colorful movie (probably for the kids, but we loved it too).
• Don’t watch this movie for an accurate account of Greek culture/history/mythology.
• We know why they had to Disney-fy this story.
• Did they do a role reversal between Hades and Zeus?
• They used roughly the same story and same players but made the heroes and villains much clearer.
• Justice for the cyclopes!
• We need the cast of Percy Jackson to watch this movie and give us reactions as their characters.
• Did you know anything about Philoctetes from myth? Because we definitely didn’t.
• Does it make sense that they turned him into a satyr?
• Now it’s time to get into Hercules’ tragic story.
• Did you catch all the references to the 12 Labors?
• At least the movie gives Meg a better role.
• Why isn’t Meg considered a princess!?
• How is Hercules usually portrayed in pop culture?
• Are there any bad representations of Hercules?
• Percy Jackson is one of the few that makes him more human and failable.
• This isn’t out of malice; it seems there are some very good reasons for this.
• We only touched the surface of Hercules’ myths—we didn’t even talk about the 12 Labors!
• What do you say to us revisiting this movie and talking about ALL the differences?
• And what about doing a Deep Dive into Hercules’ story from mythology?

Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth chapter reviews (00:50:27)

• It’s time to get back to Battle of the Labyrinth chapter 11.
• Do we like Hephaestus as a god?
• How long until we see Grover and Tyson again?
• Does Annabeth have a belly button?
• We figured out why the telkhines sounded so familiar.
• We’re so bad at pronunciation!
• What do we think about Percabeth’s first kiss?
• Is Percy OP if he can’t control his powers?
• Will he ever use that whistle?
• Now let’s get into Battle of the Labyrinth chapter 12.
• This chapter was necessary after everything Percy had just gone through.
• What do we think of Calypso? Did she have a good introduction?
• We’ll be curious to see her pop up again later.
• She and Percy have a very nuanced conversation about loyalty and good vs. evil.
• Hephaestus doesn’t pressure Percy to make a certain decision, and we appreciate that.
• Where is Annabeth right now? Where’s Rachel Elizabeth Dare?
• Rick was doing what ifs before we were!
• If the gods just communicated more, they would have fewer problems.

Feedback (01:26:30)

• Megan wrote in to ask us about dedicated episodes for each of the Rick Riordan Presents book.
• We also gave you a little insight into what we have coming up!

Thanks for listening, and tune in next time for episode 40, where we’ll do a deep dive into Athena, goddess of wisdom and war!

This episode’s hosts are: Karen Rought and Kristen Kranz.

Each episode, our Prophecy Radio hosts and their guests will keep you up to date on the latest information coming out of Camp Half-Blood, including upcoming books and adaptation news, discuss a topic of choice, and do a chapter by chapter reread of the Percy Jackson series.

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