pri0r:
The Good Counselor Chapter 2: New ancient faces and cry me a river, Kokytos! Pri0r’s weekly...
The Good Counselor Chapter 2: New ancient faces and cry me a river, Kokytos!Pri0r’s weekly review of @therkalexander’s previews of her latest novel, The Good Counselor.
[Spoilers ahead]
Persephone: 1
People who don’t know their damn place: 0
Honestly? Kokytos got EXACTLY what he deserved. Having him be overtaken by mint was more than I could have ever imagined, and ended up being pretty damn poetic, if you think about it; he degraded his daughter so horribly that Minthe ended up normalizing Demeter’s manipulative schemes and willingly participated in them.
I say willingly with an air of caution, however, because from certain perspectives, it would seem as if Minthe was given no choice but to do what she did, but even from the beginning of RoM, we can see how much she feared Demeter’s authority at times, yet once she was “working” for Persephone, she was almost immediately granted as much freedom as she pleased. If Minthe wasn’t so violated and broken from her father’s court, she would never have seen the worth of Demeter’s plans and continued on despite being offered the ability to come, go, and do as she pleased.
And let’s just note that if Persephone, the goddess of vengeance and carrier of curses and destroyer of light, can forgive Minthe for trying to pretty much rape Hades, then blaming Minthe alone is pretty much a huge reduction of character and (in my opinion) seems like a narrow understanding, considering Persephone was enacting justice as her Praxidike epithet decrees.
And then we find that beyond literally selling his daughter to the highest bidder, Kokytos is just fucking horrible, dude. I don’t know if cannibalism is the right word for what he did, considering he’s not a human, but inviting humans in as guests and then eating them after murdering them in cold blood? Boy…he really didn’t pay attention to Ixion’s story, huh? (Sure, Ixion did a hell of a lot worse, but still!) So, all I have to say is boy bye! Good riddance, and cry me a river! There’s a reason why the Cocytus is known as the river of tears.
The second half of the chapter had me bouncing in my seat with excitement. In RoM and DoL, there were plenty of allusions towards Hera and Hestia, as expected, but I wasn’t expecting to see them so soon, or in such an informal setting. Also I love that Hestia’s trick to calming Hera down is having her literally smoke a bowl. Hey, if it can calm even Hera, there’s no question why it’s legal here in sunny California! Regardless, it puts into perspective just how close Hestia and Hera must be. Hera obviously trusts her sister more than most, though I’m sure there isn’t much competition in that regard, considering how gossipy and scheme-y Olympus is.
But whether they like it or not, the sisters share that gossipy nature with the other Olympians, and they had plenty to say. It seems as if Hera doesn’t quite understand the full scope of just how powerful Persephone really is, but that’s understandable. First of all, Persephone never really had much love for Olympus, or reason to even go (both her mother and her husband keep a considerable distance from it, and her visit in DoL was…well. You know), and secondly, Hera doesn’t even like Persephone — with good reason! None of us would expect Persephone to like a child Aidon had with someone else (not that this would ever happen), so it’s reasonable why Hera dislikes her. But this meeting of queens might help with that, so long as Hera stops saying she’ll have “Praxidike as a pet”, and we find out more about Hera and Amphitrite’s supposed feud. Plots and manipulations and politics oh my!
The Good Counselor is the continuation of Rachel Alexander’s Hades and Persephone series, and follows her first two publications: Receiver of Many and Destroyer of Light. You can catch weekly chapter previews up to the eighth chapter every Wednesday at midnight PST. Follow @therkalexander for more details!
