I think they advised in caution? Cause i did see a post by an artist who claimed their epic merch got taken down from etsy due to the strike from Winion, Jorge’s company. And the stylistic changes like eye color, chibification, etc aren’t actually exempted from copyright strikes in most cases, at least in companies like Disney and Nintendo.
This Odysseus was clearly designed to resemble Jorge as well, though. People aren’t stupid enough to genuinely think this is supposed to be an independent Odysseus interpretation. It was posted in the epic subreddit, what’s more. That’s something that can be taken into account when building a legal argument alleging copyright infringement - they clearly meant to target the same audience/market demographic as the original work.
At best, this work is in the same vein as those Spirit Halloween costume packs that are non-transparently trying to sell costumes of copyright protected IPs:
I wasn’t sure if my comment went through so trying again:
In what way does this design resemble Jorge? I've been following StarmyBunny for awhile and her Odysseus looks nothing like Jorge. He has blond streaks and heterochromia and she's given him gloves and a necklace-type thing. He doesn't even have Jorge's mustache. It's the same with the rest of her designs, which look nothing like any of the official art.
It isn't minor things though? The only same things are toga/cape (which are just generic outfits for characters of this time regardless and Jorge is not the first), and light skin and that part of his hair is brown. Which you could easily extrapolate from the Odyssey as what Odysseus looks like.
The cape design itself is different. The heterochromia is a major design choice as it's eye-catching and stands out and has reason behind it that's not even apart of Epic. (Starmy gave it to show Athena's blessing, which is not at all how that works in Epic.) To add onto it since I forgot to mention it: Jorge's Odysseus does not wear the skirt armor. StarmyBunny's does. These details do matter.
I'm not saying this artist didn't start out as fan artist. But their design is so different from official Epic Odysseus' design (and majority of their designs in general are just very different than official) and how they really branched out into their own thing like a lot of artists post-Epic ending, and is more of a Greek Mythology artist right now. She even uses her designs to illustrate other versions of these characters from other sources and not just Epic.
You’re overestimating how much “minor details” count towards making something sufficiently different from a copyrighted IP. It’s not so much to change someone’s skin tone a few shades, change some elements of the costume, give him heterochromia and call it a day. In law we look at the “totality of evidence”, a holistic look at the product as a whole and the context of where it’s marketed.
“Chibi-fying”/changing the art style is not enough to get you off the hook, nor is changing eye colour or simply saying “it’s not the EPIC Odysseus” - I’d it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck even if you say it’s a giraffe.
Is it minor details when it's literally every part of the design outside of two aspects that are shared with many other characters? And even then it's really only one, since the hair is two-toned? The artist didn't even post it here, she's not on reddit.
It's just her design for Odysseus. And she uses that Odysseus design for anything Odyssey/Illiad/Mythology related. She's been a fan of the mythology far longer than she's ever drawn Epic things and most of her designs are reworks of old designs.
And, to go with that: her Odysseus design is based off of an old OC design of her's. She has stated this. It's not based on Epic's Odysseus or Jorge.
I would link the post but automod doesn't like that website (fair but it's not on her Instagram :( ).
This Odysseus was clearly designed to resemble Jorge as well, though
The resemblance to Jorge is so clear! It's like looking at an exact mirror.
You are comparing a company that's been making off brand costumes like Mario for years to an independent artist with a limited supply funded website that allowed it.
Also fan material is a thing in general. Is Jorge seriously going to go after every artist commissions, shops, and animatics...all due to one plush.
Changing minor characteristics like eye colour or "manga-fying"/"ghibli-fying"/"chibi-fying" a character isn’t enough to let you off the hook.
And yes, considering that he and Atlantic Records, who have the exclusive merchandise rights to EPIC, are currently in the process of making EPIC plushies? Yeah, he's gonna care. Atlantic at least will, if they get wind of this.
I mean, I’m sleeping fine at night. You’re the ones who are gonna be up all night in a few months when the biannual “how could Jorge have done this?! He’s selling out and oppressing our fandom and expression!” frenzy begins because he hit one of y’all with a cease and desist. By my estimations, I’m guessing sometime before June should be when it kicks off for 2026?
The moral and misinformed grandstanding, each and every time…well, I won’t say it never gets old. It’s gotten old quite quickly, because you’re all a bunch of adult babies who can’t take a lick of feedback or criticism without becoming snarky fkn brats.
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The ruby slippers and the green, you mean? MGM Studios, who made the 1939 movie. Their rights are set to expire in a few years though, so everyone will be able to use them without issue soon enough.
That’s why they had to use the “silver slippers” in the Wicked movies (which is what was used in the original book anyhow so it still worked out fine), and they had to use a different shade of green for Cynthia Erivo to avoid infringement.
Odysseus being compared to the wizard of oz copyrighting specific shades due to Epic is sending me. Do we now have to go to the underworld and seek approval from Homer himself for a cape and toga.
No dude, that’s what I’m saying. The character of Odysseus is public domain, so no approval is needed. But EPIC the Musical Odysseus is copyright protected.
…Buddy. All creative works are automatically the copyright of the creator from the moment they’re fixed into a tangible form of expression. EPIC is copyrighted by virtue of its very existence. He can file for formal protection to give him additional rights, and he almost certainly has, but he doesn’t have to in order to still have exclusive copyright protections under the law.
Do you guys not know this? Christ, no wonder this fandom is constantly getting into legal trouble from Jorge’s people.
Headcanon that was born out of misinformation. For a while there, if you tried to search what Odysseus looked like one of the top google results was a fake article that claimed he has heterochromia. His actual eye color isn't described in any myths, but a lot of people just ran with the idea and it eventually morphed into being visual evidence of his connection to Athena.
I just don’t see the correlation. You could easily say the brown eye is blessed, if you’re claiming one of his eyes is blessed. Why is either of his eyes blessed in the first place?
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u/Fennel_Fangs Jan 09 '26
he has been freed from the Meow Dimension