At the gates of Olympus a thunderbolt and a voice tell Aeneas to go back. Athena tells him it is over; Ares beats him to the marble; Zeus, his own grandfather, declares the gods will be clean of Troy, and when Aeneas calls him a coward he strikes him dead without turning around. On the grey shore of the dead Hades is kind to him, shows him Creusa on the far bank and asks what he would give for a new chance with her. Aeneas signs in lead without reading, Poseidon rises behind him, and at dawn two figures walk into the camp.
1. Aeneas reaches the gates of Olympus. A thunderbolt splits the stair in front of him and a voice from the storm orders him back: he is not wanted here. He will not go before he has looked them in the face.2. Athena steps out between the pillars: let it go, it is over. He throws the ten years and the wooden horse at her; she answers that Troy was decided long before him. He walks past her, and she warns him about her brother.3. In the court beyond the gate Ares is waiting, delighted. He lets the 'little prince' raise his spear, then beats him to the marble and tells him his mother begged Zeus for him on her knees. Nobody listened.4. Ares walks off laughing. Aeneas crawls toward the great hall, and Zeus appears at the top of the steps: the voice was his. His verdict: from now on none of them does anything in the gods' name; the gods will be clean of his kind.5. Aeneas screams Creusa's name: the Greeks took his home, his family, the woman he loves, and now this? Zeus looks over his head. 'I am your daughter's son,' Aeneas shouts. 'Say it to my face, grandfather.'6. Zeus turns his back without a word. 'A coward on a high seat,' Aeneas calls after him, and the lightning falls. He did not even turn around.7. Aeneas wakes on the grey shore of the river of the dead. Hades kneels beside him: 'Welcome, warrior.' Nothing hurts here. The first thing Aeneas asks for is Creusa.8. She stands on the far bank among the pale shades, looking back at him. He begs Hades to take him across. 'Are you sure?' Without her nothing matters; he has already lost everything. What would he give for a new chance with her, in the sun? 'Everything.'9. Hades lays a sheet of lead before him, and Aeneas presses his thumb into it without reading a word. Poseidon rises from the river behind him: Troy's kings never paid him for their walls, and now the debt is Aeneas's. At dawn two figures walk into the camp, hand in hand.
The cast
AeneasDardanian prince, son of Anchises and Aphrodite. A soldier of Troy on the night it ends.AnchisesAeneas's father. Old, scarred by lightning, keeper of the household gods.CreusaAeneas's wife, daughter of King Priam.AscaniusAeneas and Creusa's young son.AchatesAeneas's closest friend and shield-brother.PriamKing of Troy.PolitesPriam's youngest son.NeoptolemusSon of Achilles. The man standing over Priam at the altar.ZeusKing of the gods, and Aeneas's grandfather through Aphrodite. He speaks once, then turns his back.AthenaGoddess of wisdom and war-craft. She stood with the Greeks, and she tells Aeneas it is over.AresGod of war, Aeneas's uncle. He loves the fight more than any side in it.HadesLord of the dead. The only god who is kind to Aeneas, and the one who offers him a bargain.PoseidonGod of the sea. The kings of Troy never paid him for their walls.
How it was made
1. New cast: the gods
Zeus, Athena, Ares, Hades and Poseidon joined the cast with reference sheets before a single panel was drawn, so every god keeps one face through the whole episode.
2. From the author's beats to 37 panels
The author's beats became a 9-page, 37-panel script in two parts: Olympus and the far bank. Every panel carries its shot, its cast, the words, and what each face must show.
3. The faces carry this episode
Grief, contempt, pity, indifference, compassion: every panel tells the artist what each face shows, brows, eyes and mouth. Nobody smiles who shouldn't.
4. Nine pages, lettered
One tap composes the pages: every balloon goes above the one who speaks and none covers another. The episode sits in the book after Episode 2 and exports as PDF or CBZ.
Written and directed by the author, drafted and drawn with the AI tools in Boost Your Imagination.
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