Author’s Notes for Rise of the Olympians:
This story was the trickiest out of all of them. I hoped I pulled it off.
From the dialogue to the characters to the environment needed to be on point, and I am sure I will edit this to improve the dialogue, but until then, I genuinely hope I nailed this. If you’re curious, I will tell you about the more modern literature that helped inspire some of the characteristics and dialogue for certain characters.
While I wrote their lines to be original and make the personality unique to me, I did not want to ignore the fact that others have their own interpretations that have helped fuel some of my writing.
Hestia was inspired by Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan as well as the love of Andrew Sarran’s The Mythology Guy. (Hestia is Bestia after all)
Demeter was inspired by the television show Sarah Wilson’s portrayal in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, Percy Jackson, and Laila Berzins’ portrayal in Hades and Hades II made by Supergiant Games.
Artemis was inspired by the Olympus Bound series by Jordanna Max Brodsky, Jamie Landrum’s portrayal in Hades and Hades II, and Lore Olympus.
Apollo was inspired by Scott Michaelson’s portrayal in Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, Hades II, Lore Olympus, and Olympus Bound.
Aphrodite was inspired by Record of Ragnarök by Shinya Umemura and Takumi Fukui, Alexandra Huntingdon Tydings’ portrayal in Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, Courtney Vineys’ portrayal in Hades & Hades II, and April Stewart’s portrayal in God of War III by Santa Monica Studios.
Poseidon was inspired by Logan Cunningham’s portrayal in Hades & Hades II, Record of Ragnarök, Toby Stephens’ portrayal of Poseidon in Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Captain James Flint in Black Sails, Gideon Emery’s portrayal in God of War III, and some motifs from Disney’s Hercules.
Ares was inspired by Kevin Smith’s portrayal on Hercules: the Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, Cyrus Nemati’s portrayal in Hades, a little by Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland in Percy Jackson and the Olympians but more by his wrestling career, and Olympus Bound.
Athena was inspired by Jorge Rivera-Herrans' Epic: The Musical (both the musical and many animatics on YouTube), Marin M. Miller’s portrayal in Hades & Hades II, Percy Jackson, Erin Torpey’s performance in the God of War series, and Disney’s Hercules.
Hermes was inspired by Paul Shaffer and David Letterman, Paul Shaffer’s portrayal in Disney’s Hercules, Andrew Marks’ portrayal in Hades & Hades II, Neon Gods by Katee Roberts, and God of War III. The announcement of the Olympians was very much helped along by Paul Bettany’s Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale as well as wrestling commentators like Jim Ross, Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura, and Michael Cole with a special thanks to wrestling ring announcer Tony Chimel.
Hephaestus was inspired by Olympus Bound and Dave B. Mitchell’s portrayal in Hades II.
Zeus was inspired by Jeff Goldblum’s portrayal in Kaos, Peter Canavese’s portrayal in Hades & Hades II, Lore Olympus, almost every Zeus from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (specifically Anthony Quinn, Charles Keating, and Roy Dotrice), Rip Torn from Disney’s Hercules, Richard Newman from GoodTimes: Hercules, Sean Bean from 2011’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Lance Riddick (RiP) from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Jason O'Mara’s portrayal in Blood of Zeus, Luke Evans from 2011’s Immortals, and Liam Neeson from Clash of the Titans (2010) and Wrath of the Titans (2012).
Hera was inspired by Glyn Iliffe’s Heracles Trilogy, Hera: A Novel by Jennifer Saint, Kathleen Barr’s portrayal in GoodTimes: Hercules was especially helpful when coming up for her design and voice, Claudia Christian’s portrayal in Blood of Zeus and design was helpful, some key passages from Stephen Fry’s Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold, a little from Hades II, including Josette Eales’ performance, and Adrienne Barbeau’s portrayal in God of War III.
Prometheus was helped along by Stephen Dillane’s portrayal in Kaos as well as Ben Starr’s portrayal in Hades II.
With all that said, a lot of this story has its foundation in the material of Hesiod’s Theogony and Apollodorus’ The Library that I mention in my usual disclaimer. However, especially after about eighty thousand words of just this story, I wanted to make sure those who came before me get the flowers they are due since they all either wrote wonderful stories in their own right, acted the hell out of some characters, or (in the case of The Mythology Guy and See U in History/Mythology) made myths accessible for the everyday person.
I cranked this sucker out for NaNoWri 2024, so I hope it is not especially derivative. The next story in the series will be The Coup. I hope to have not only feedback (both positive and negative), but your continued support.
Thank you a hundred times over for reading. While these stories are inspired by those stories and my imagination, I would not continue writing if I did not have an audience to write for, so thank you a hundred, thousand, a million times over.