T/N: A filler chapter, leave your brain here and proceed.
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As the saying goes, only the mediocre never attract jealousy.
In the entertainment industry, if a work is popular, most of the time people will say the work is controversial.
Those works without controversy, where the reviews are completely one-sided, often share another characteristic, no one watches them.
And Amphoreus, unlike the mediocre, without a doubt belongs to the most popular category.
And the level of discussion it has sparked within Greece itself has even surpassed that of many other well-known works.
Because the story of Amphoreus, for the Greek people, carries extraordinary meaning.
...
Within Greece, anyone with even a bit of free time have been discussing the controversial aspects of the two characters in the second episode of Amphoreus.
After classes, university students in the cafeteria are gathering in small groups, chatting while eating.
But beside a long table in one corner of the cafeteria. More than a dozen people are crowded together.
Some are standing, others have dragged chairs over from nearby tables.
A laptop was placed in the center of the table.
Displayed on the screen are screenshots from Amphoreus. These college students are watching the story while eating, while also engaging in heated debate.
"No, you need to carefully rewatch the part where Mydei kills his father!"
A girl with a ponytail said loudly, "That section is written with too much depth. It's not Euripides' style. Euripides would have the character openly defend himself in dialogue, but Mydei's scene clearly suppresses the dramatic tension!"
"You call that restraint?"
The boy across from her pointed incredulously at the screenshot on the screen and said, "Restraint to the point where the patricide isn't accidental, but intentional, and even carries a sense of sacrifice? How is that restraint at all!"
The girl cut him off decisively. "You simply didn't understand it."
The boy laughed in exasperation and spread his hands. "Then tell me, what exactly didn't I understand?"
The two argued across the table. The surrounding students watching the debate occasionally chimed in.
The focus of their argument was the bold narrative approach used with Mydei's character.
Traditional patricide stories usually involve a person killing their father due to humanity's darker nature, whether actively or passively.
But Mydei does it intentionally. And the result and symbolism of the act are positive.
That alone hits right in the sweet spot for these Greek students.
They stubbornly believe, that behind MiHoYo's decision must lie some deeper intention and motivation that ordinary people cannot easily comprehend.
While the two continued arguing. A bald professor sitting among the crowd silently took a sip of coffee.
His heart filled with emotion. The students themselves had not realized it, but the professor, as an observer, had long seen the truth.
No matter how the two argued. They could not change one fact that Mydei, the patricide, more closely fits the essence and ideals of Greek tragedy.
The most classic example of patricide is the story where the son kills his father and marries his mother, the tale of Oedipus.
Without knowing it, he killed his own father and married his own mother. Later, the great tragedian Sophocles expanded this story further, making it widely known.
Of course, aside from Greeks and certain scholarly circles. Most ordinary people who hear this story will just look at you with a teasing expression.
Because the most widely known aspect of the story is Oedipus's mother complex.
In the eyes of modern Greeks, the moral foundation of such a character is problematic.
Even though later interpretations reframed it as resistance against prophecy and fate.
Still, if you asked a Greek person whether they liked it.
The answer would be no.
It is a tragedy. The reason it still appears in Greek textbooks, and remains alive in memory is mainly because of the historical background behind it.
When Freud used this story in his theories, it was during a time when authoritarian structures were prevalent. He used the story to challenge authority.
But Mydei is different. He perfectly matches the Greek imagination of tragedy, of heroes, and of the patricide figure.
Positive, determined, yet still tragic. He kills his father, fulfills his mother's final wish, and across the scale of time and space, gives a response to fate itself.
In the end, he alone becomes bound by responsibility, trapped within Castrum Kremnos.
"The Mydei written by MiHoYo has portrayed exactly what every Greek tragic hero ought to be."
"So why is that?"
"If we had created such a character people would definitely say it was unrealistic, overly fantastical."
"But MiHoYo simply went ahead and did it." The professor sighed in admiration while pondering deeply.
In the end, a thought appeared in his mind.
"Perhaps if I want to truly understand this, I need to start reading through their history."
"Within history, perhaps I can find the foundation for this kind of creation."
Just as this thought arose in the professor's mind.
The argument between the two students beside him had already reached its most intense moment.
Watching them, the professor felt a quiet sense of reassurance.
No matter what. After watching the Honkai: Star Rail storyline, these students had reignited a new passion for drama and classical works.
...
Meanwhile, on the internet.
A well-known Greek television program was currently airing.
It was an old program, focusing on domestic theater commentary and improving audience appreciation.
Before Honkai: Star Rail appeared, the show's ratings had been lukewarm.
But after the Amphoreus broadcast, the program instantly became a top hit.
At this moment, the host on the screen was giving an interpretation.
The screen behind him was focused on the moment when Tribios said, "See you tomorrow."
"So what you mean is that Tribios actually fits the definition of classical Greek art?"
The host looked toward the special guest. A veteran playwright famous for defending tradition.
"I didn't say it doesn't fit Greek culture."
The playwright's tone was extremely cautious. He didn't fall for the host's trap and carefully said, "I'm only pointing out a fact. The philosophical ideas carried by the character Tribios go far beyond… far beyond the limits of modern adaptations of drama."
A glint flashed in the host's eyes as he pressed further. "Is that statement of yours praise, or-?"
"It's confusion." The playwright spoke slowly. "After watching it, I also studied it, trying to determine whether Tribios's story fits within the style Greek tragedy, and whether the way she confronts fate violates classical tradition."
"And your answer?" The host asked again.
"I don't know." After a moment of silence, the playwright answered seriously, "From the outside, she is undoubtedly Greek. In spirit, in essence, she is as well. But there are too many traces of modern within her. She isn't 'classical.'"
When the host heard this, he suddenly laughed. To him, this statement sounded like praise for the character.
It was obvious. He was a loyal fan of Honkai: Star Rail.
"Indeed. If we measure her by Aristotle's concept she qualifies."
"If we view her through Nietzsche's spirit, she still stands firm."
"Perhaps that is exactly where the charm of this character lies."
The host raised his eyebrows and continued speaking at length. It was also what he had wanted to say through this program.
After a pause, he finally looked seriously into the camera, then at the playwright, and continued:
The playwright remained silent.
And through this program, planting his ideas in the audience's minds was exactly what he wanted to do.
....
Scenes like this were common across Greece.
Men and women, young and old, almost everyone had joined this discussion.
Ordinary people might find it hard to understand such enthusiasm.
They might say this is only a TV series.
But for the Greeks, their reality is that Greece has been rapidly falling behind in the postmodern era.
Only the fading glow of the past can still unite the entire nation. Yet even those once-brilliant traditions have begun to lose their luster amid the colorful entertainment of the postmodern age.
They want to shout in unison. They want culture to lead them to rediscover their confidence.
But they cannot do it.
At the same time, there drama and performances were unable to keep up with modern entertainment.
If Greece were just an ordinary country, it would probably have simply given up.
But they are not, so they refuse to sink into decline like this. Then, MiHoYo, suddenly entered the scene.
They gave a stage to the Okhema theatre members to spread their wings and fly.
From a traditional perspective, MiHoYo obviously cannot reach that level of historical significance. But in terms of entertainment influence, MiHoYo not only has it, it has a lot of it.
No endorsement is needed. Once Amphoreus appeared, Greeks naturally began to feel this way.
And then, with unease, anxiety, and anticipation, they waited for Amphoreus' story.
The good news: MiHoYo respects Greek culture very much. The bad news: they respect it a little too much.
So much so that the story they wrote feels even more Greek than Greece itself.
"I don't like this work." Someone said this online, yet it received countless likes, because the comment captured the complicated feelings of many people.
"I don't like this work. It's too perfect. So perfect that… I've started to feel jealous."
"Not only on a technical level, but also on a cultural level."
"Technically speaking, its audiovisual language, rhythm control, and performance precision are all world-class and flawless."
"But that's not the problem. The problem lies at the cultural level: it tells a Greek story in a way that is even more Greek than we are."
"I don't like it, but I don't reject it. I'm just uneasy."
"So I'm jealous."
At first glance, the comment looks very serious. And upon closer inspection, it still looks very serious.
But in the eyes of Eastern audiences, the comment appears strangely unserious.
Of course, setting aside the audience's amused perspective, from the viewpoint of Greeks alone, this comment perfectly expresses their feelings.
By this point, the impact of the second episode was even greater than all the consultants and analysts had expected.
Meanwhile, in a forgotten corner, the production of "Olympian King of the Gods: The Legend of Prometheus" had completely fallen into the awkward situation where the media kept praising it, but absolutely nobody was talking about it.