The recent success of Netflix’s original animated ventures didn’t happen overnight, and a lion’s share of the credit should go to some of the streaming service’s earliest animated titles, Castlevania and Blood of Zeus. While the first one redefines the established game lore of the same name with a quasi-historical setting and modern sensibility, Blood of Zeus depends on the age-old formula of demigod legacy, challenging the established status quo of the divine creators, inspired by legends like Perseus or Hercules.
Free from the burden of stringent adherence to a singular lore, Greek mythology is effectively a treasure trove for experimentation on character dynamics. The makers of Blood of Zeus utilized this aspect in the best possible way as they took viewers through the journey of Heron and Seraphim while navigating through the world of gods and monsters, questioning the humanity of the associated characters the whole while. Despite the fact that the first season, released back in 2020, had gained strong reception, it took a considerably long time for Netflix to come up with a second season, which will release in the upcoming week. To help viewers jog their memory a bit, we would like to discuss the events that took place during the course of the first season.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did the Era of Demons Begin?
In the reimagined version of Greek mythology in Blood of Zeus, the race of demons plays a key role in the narrative. After the gods of Olympus defeated the primordial beings of darkness known as Titans during the great war, monstrous giants arose from the remains of the last slain Titan. The only purpose for the existence of the Giants was to annihilate the realm of the gods, and as Gigantomachy began, a significant number of gods and Giants perished in the battle. Zeus, the supreme leader of the gods, used his guile to turn the Giants against each other, which resulted in the end of the Giants. Zeus’ son Hermes was instructed to collect the souls of the Giants, and the bodies of the Giants were submerged at the bottom of the oceans. During the present timeline of the series, a bunch of god-despising humans gained access to the body of a Giant, consuming which they turned into vicious, evil demons who started terrorizing people across the world and often mingled with the masses using their shapeshifting powers.
At the beginning of the series, the leader of the Amazons, Grand Archon Alexia, is seen leading her warrior bands and hunting down a couple of demons. As the demons infiltrate a village, Alexia leads her troops to search for them, and at the village market, viewers get introduced to Heron, a brave, kind-hearted young man who lives outside the periphery of the village along with his mother, Elektra. Heron unwittingly gets involved in a bloody struggle with one of the demons and shows great courage and strength during combat, allowing Alexia to capture the demon and expose it among the rest of the villagers. Alexia gains a map from the slain demon and asks Heron to join her band of warriors, but Heron refuses the proposal.
What Is the Relationship Between Heron and Seraphim?
Later, Heron learns about the great war, Gigantomachy, and the rise of the demons from Elias, an elderly miner who is the only person to have shown Heron and Electra some kindness in their lives as outcasts. As the villagers continue to show their hatred for Heron and Electra, Elias warns the young lad about an impending war and forges him a mystical sword made of adamantine ore for protection. As Heron gets troubled by visions of a past life, Electra reveals to her son that she was the wife of Periander, the tyrant of Corinth; during that time, she got herself unwittingly involved in an affair with Zeus. Goddess Hera, Zeus’ wife, became infuriated after knowing about this affair, and with the help of Oneiroi (dark celestial beings who have visions, dreams, and illusions), she warned Periander about the situation. As Electra gave birth to twins, Hera’s warning allowed the tyrant king to identify Heron, who was born out of an illegitimate relationship, and Periander tried to kill the child in anger. Upon Electra’s request, Zeus interfered, allowing Electra to kill Periander and escape with Heron. In later years, Zeus protected the duo by forming a cloud over them to keep them out of Hera’s vision and taking the guise of a mortal as Elias, who has always been present to keep them from harm’s way. Obviously, the revelation doesn’t sit too well with Heron, who feels the gods are to blame for their misery. Zeus reveals his identity to Heron and asks for forgiveness, but to little avail. Later, Zeus returns to Olympus to threaten Hera with consequences if she doesn’t leave Heron and Electra to the Fates.
Meanwhile, Alexia loses all her warrior companions as Seraphim, the first demon, brutally kills all of them and sends the three-headed hound Cerberus to find her and obtain the map. As Alexia returns to Heron’s place while fleeing, Seraphim and his demons reach there and plunder the locality. As Zeus breaks his own word and tries to interfere and save Alexia and the rest of them from the demons, Hera exposes his double standards, and to maintain peace in Olympus, the rest of the gods stop Zeus from interfering. Ultimately, Seraphim manages to kill Electra and takes Heron captive to turn him into a demon.
Hera meets Seraphim to gain his allegiance and reveals his true past to him, as it is revealed that he was the firstborn of Periander, who was separated from Electra and Heron during birth. Periander’s brother Acrisius had tried to kill him during infancy to get the throne for himself, but Seraphim survived with the help of a maid of the royal palace, who reared him with the help of a mother bear and her cubs. Eventually, as Seraphim grew up, he witnessed Acrisius’ son murder the maid whom he considered his real mother, and eventually he took revenge by killing him after reaching adulthood. After being chased by the authorities, Seraphim found the remains of Giants near the city of Malidoni, and provoked by the corpse’s dark influences, he consumed the flesh of deceased Giants, becoming the first demon in the process. Since then, he has made it his goal to make Acrisius and similar nobles pay, and to do so, he has amassed an army of demons by forcefully converting mortals into the dreadful creatures. Hera offers Seraphim assistance in locating Acrisius and turns him against Zeus by insinuating that the god of thunder orchestrated the events for Seraphim to kill Electra, his real birth mother. In this context, Seraphim and Heron are half-brothers, an aspect that gains central focus in the narrative in the first season and will also have an effect in the upcoming one.
Did Heron survive the wrath of Seraphim?
Despite surviving the onslaught of Seraphim and his demons, Alexia eventually gets captured after her former mentor, Chiron, decides to betray her to protect his people from Seraphim. Provoked by Hera’s words, Seraphim takes the adamantine sword from Heron’s place, and just as Heron almost manages to break free from the clutches of the demons by orchestrating a prison break in the galleys, Seraphim comes close to annihilating him. Zeus’ interference once again saves Heron’s life.
Alexia and Heron are taken to Olympus, where, alongside their new companions—a ragtag bunch of small-time criminals—they decide to follow the directions of the map to reach the labyrinth of Malidoni, where the bodies of the Giants can be found, and upon its destruction, the age of demons will come to a close. Chiron, repentant for his past actions, decides to help the band, while Heron trains to become an empowered warrior under Zeus’ mentorship. Failing to control his anger and resentment towards Zeus, Heron reprimands him for not saving Electra, and Zeus reveals Seraphim to be his half brother.
On the other hand, Hera continues to use Seraphim as her puppet and asks him to obtain the Cauldron of Darkness—the vessel that contains the souls of the Giants, unleashing which can wreak havoc upon Zeus’ kingdom. Zeus tries to reason with Seraphim, revealing to him that, contrary to Hera’s claims, he had secretly been present as a protective force throughout Seraphim’s life, and even helping him to locate Acrisius to get his revenge on him. However, by this point, the sordid experiences of life have pushed Seraphim too far towards the darkness, and, unwilling to change his ways, he captures Heron, Alexia, and their companions. Seraphim tries to convince Heron to join his side, mentioning how the whims of the gods have dearly cost both of them, which needs to be avenged by ending the rule of the gods. Heron refuses to do so and once again manages to escape from Seraphim. Gaining possession of Hermes’ soul-capturing gauntlet, Hera also obtains the Cauldron of Darkness, which Seraphim manages to gain by defeating the guardian automaton Talos using Heron’s enchanted sword.
Hera unleashes the Giants once again by releasing their souls, and a vicious battle begins between the gods, Giants, and demons. The chief of the Giants turns on Hera, and to protect her, Zeus sacrifices his life. As Seraphim decides to take control of the situation by stealing the cauldron from Hera, he and Heron engage in a final climactic battle, which ends with Heron killing his half brother by invoking the power of Zeus. After gaining the cauldron, Heron manages to trap the souls of the Giants once again, thereby ending the battle, at least for the time being. In the final moments of the first season of Blood of Zeus, it is revealed that Alexia and Heron are accepted by Heron’s demigod brethren in Olympus, while the spirit of Seraphim converses with Hades, the god of the underworld. In the upcoming season, Heron’s newfound life as a god of Olympus will gain major focus, and at the same time, it seems Seraphim will continue to play a key role in the storyline, despite being in his spirit form. Hades and Persephone, the rulers of the Underworld, will have major roles to play in the upcoming season as well, as hinted by the trailers, and the Olympian hierarchy will face unprecedented challenges as a result.
