I’ve only ever read the Achilles going super saiyan parts for a class before, so it’s my first crack at the bulk of the text. The thing impressing me the most so far is the way that the mass death is approached; even as rando soldiers are being slaughtered, most of them get named, often with some lines about their families at home, and a lot of them even get some words about who they were and the life they’d lived:

Then Diomedes, master of the war cry, slaughtered the son of Teuthras, Axylus, who used to live in beautiful Arisbe. He had a rich estate and wealthy home, and everybody loved him. He was kind, and generous and welcomed everyone who passed that way as guests inside his home. None of his friends stepped in to help him now. No one protected him from bitter death.

There’s so many passages like that! Comes across as very respectful of the gravity of war and death in a way that I really, really wasn’t expecting (and that is admittedly extremely incongruous with how callously other aspects of wartime are treated (e.g. the trophy women))


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