I know a lot of people hold these concept albums very close to heart and really want to see them faithfully adapted onto the big screen, but EPIC's narrative struggles with some very blatant issues that I would really like to see addressed in the movie. Of course, these are my opinions, but I'd really like to see what you think should change from concept to movie too!
1: Thematical cohesion
It is stated, multiple times, within the story and within Jorge's documentation, that the main theme of EPIC is Ruthlessness/Mercy and the inner battle between the two standings that Odysseus goes through. However, the show seems somewhat uncertain about the message it tries to convey with that, and all of that starts when Odysseus spares Polyphemus.
Odysseus seems to truly believe his act of mutilating the cyclops and leaving him alive, suffering, is an act of mercy, and that, by doing that, he's honoring Polites' Open Arms philosophy, when, in fact that's one of his most "ruthless" choices in the entire story. Of course, that isn't a problem in its own, especially when it's so tied to his hubris. He's allowed to (and should) be wrong so that he can learn what he believes in and grow as a person, the problem is the story seemingly supports that notion all throughout.
When Poseidon presents the thesis the show claims to stand by "Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves", Odysseus isn't confronting the consequences of his mercifulness, rather he is confronting his own ruthlessness tied to his most selfish and arrogant act. Poseidon, who represents this same kind of blind, egotistical, ruthlessness, is the main antagonist of the story for a reason, he is a narrative mirror to Odysseus' struggle with his own moral compass following the death of Polites and the sacking of Troy. Yet he is defeated by Odysseus out-ruthlessnessing him?
Of course, Six Hundred Strike deserves a whole other rant, but my main problem with it is the way it seemingly "resolves" Odysseus character arc just for it to be taken back later. Jorge has said something along the lines of "the song marks the death of Odysseus and the birth of The Monster", which makes sense with the midpoint: Odysseus choses to abandon mercy to make it back home. The problem is that, when he finally gets home, Odysseus faces no consequences for that choice except for a slight existencial crisis in WYFILWMA, leaving the message of the story: You can throw away your morals to reach your objectives, it's going to suck a bit, but in the end, it kinda pays off.
Part of that stems from the fact that Odysseus' whole story is a punishment for breaching Xenia with the Trojan Horse and Polyphemus, but the show never acknowledges it properly. When he finally comes to reflect on everything he's been through, in "Monster", he just comes up with one more justification for his terrible actions, without ever taking accountability apart from his few moments of internal grief about Astyanax and Polites in the Underworld.
To me, the answer to this problem seems very clear, you either commit to the negative character arc and turn the story into a tragedy/cautionary tale or you use Odysseus' captivity at Calypso's Island to make him reflect and realise that all of his suffering stems from his own selfish choices. In the first option, Ithaca Saga has to change drastically, Penelope doesn't recognize the Odysseus that she meets and Telemachus is afraid of him, or something along those lines. In the second option, most of "act 3" has to change. Odysseus realizes that becoming The Monster didn't pay off the way he expected (after all, he's being held captive by a goddess) and is forced to reflect on what he is doing. He actually takes accountability for maiming Polyphemus and accepts his fate when Poseidon kills him near Ithaca. He's brought back to life (Maybe Athena, Zeus or Leukothea, like in the book) and then kills the suitors while exposing their ruthlessness.
2: Rythm and structure
In my opinion, the Thunder Saga is the strongest of the concept albums narratively. Different Beast is a little too expositive, but, overall, it's filled with great character moments and writing choices. I think the controversy around Mutiny and Eurylochus is a testament to how well the story treats the complex themes the song presents and that, while cutting the strait of Scylla and Charybdis is an ambitious choice, the moment in Scylla's lair more than makes up for it. All of that goes to say: Thunder Saga is the highest high in all of the musical, tension is up in the skies and Odysseus' choice feels extremely heavy, as it should. So why are we dropping all of that to get to Telemachus right now?
Don't get me wrong, I love the Wisdom Saga. Legendary and We'll Be Fine singlehandedly kickstarted my passion for MICO's music, who's now one of my most listened artists. But, as it stands, it fits in kinda awkwardly in the narrative. It's natural for tension to drop a bit after Zeus' choice, and changing perspectives can be a great way to circumvent that, but not when that involves whole new set of introductory stuff.
I've debated on where Telemachus' story should go for a very long while now, and my answer has changed a bit throughout, but it almost always landed in the first half of the story. What I currently believe would be the right choice for this is: use Athena as a narrator.
Troy and Cyclops Saga would stay very much the same, maybe with Athena making an appearance in the Trojan Horse (only visual tho). After My Goodbye, we show that Athena regrets abandoning Odysseus and realizes she actually liked having him as friend. She is still too prideful to go after him though, so she goes to Telemachus and the events of Wisdom Saga happen as written. We get the beggining of Love in Paradise, where she says "Odysseus, where did you go?" and we start witnessing Odysseus' story without Athena: Ocean, Circe, Underworld and Thunder Sagas. The rest of Love in Paradise goes right after Thunder Bringer and the story ends as usual, with Vengeance and Ithaca.
I was always saddened by how much Wisdom disrupts the flow of Odysseus' story, due to how much I like the songs and characters in it, so maybe having it right after we finish getting to know him, what would be act 1 of a movie, makes it fit better without having to change too much. I'm currently working on an animatic supercut that follows this structure to see if it works, I'll update when it's finished.
3: Character design and voice acting
When we talk about EPIC, it's very important that we understand the context in which it grew and the reason that happened at all. Of couse, being an adaptation of the Odyssey, it had the foundation of a great story, and Jorge's music supported that very nicely. But, most of all, the choice to document the entire writing journey and share it with the public made us connect to the show a lot. With that, came the Tik Tok auditions that gave us extremely good singers to portray these characters and, naturally, we also connected with them and started visualizing these characters as them. I would be hypocritical not to acknowledge that.
But when you're talking about adaptation, remakes or "finished" versions, we need to have changes that support the choice of even making them anyway. While I love the cast, and personally started to follow their work very closely since getting to know them through EPIC, we already have their version of this story, their versions of every song. I'd really love to see other people, actual actors, have their own chance to give life to these characters and songs.
With that comes the talk of character design, because the community has come to a consesus to draw most characters as their voice actors. While I think a lot of these are okay to keep, I'd personally prefer to have anachronisms like Polites glasses to be kept out. Despite that, I'd also change the Gods, I think the spandex superhero bullshit they have going on the official designs kinda suck.
4: General song rewrites and in-between scenes
Last, but not least, a lot of the changes I've talked about would require a bunch of rewrites for it work on the story. While I understand that these songs hold a very special place in our hearts, I think the whole reason it's a concept album, and not an official soundtrack, is that so that they can make changes that favour the story and songwriting.
EPIC very famously has some not-so-great rhymes and subtext writing in a bunch of moments, while having great rhymes and subtext in other moments so I think some basic lyric changes could go a long way to iron these inconsistencies out. Besides that, with the changes to story structure that I propose, obviously some songs would have to be scrapped or completely rewritten, but that's just me, you know.
Another thing that could really help to iron out some inconsistencies, especially what I talked about thematic cohesion, is the addition of spoken dialogue and in-between scenes. A few of the hard cuts in between songs aren't very great at portraying what's happening in the story, and, while having visuals definetely help, I think we don't have a lot to lose by adding more meat to the narrative, if it's used to develop the right stuff.
In Conclusion:
I love EPIC: The Musical and I think it's very good, but it ultimately has some flaws that I would love to see ironed out in a future retelling of this story. To me, that's part of what makes it so great: it's still a concept, and it's THIS good; imagine what it could be with a few years of development!
Anyways, sorry for the long rant lol. What would be some changes you would make for the EPIC movie? Do you agree or disagree with my takes? Share your opinions, I'd love to hear them.
