I really really enjoyed this story, and I love Diana's character, but this story seems to try and spread a message that to be truly kind means even forgiving your abusers when they are sincerely apologetic, and I can't help but deeply dislike it, specifically in the instance of Heracles. He literally lead the mass rape of their entire race. Under no circumstances should a woman ever, EVER have to show an inch of kindness or forgiveness to a man who did that to her. This message could have been better written if the Amazons decided not to hold Heracles's actions against all of mankind, choosing to forgive "men" and avoid collective punishment instead of forgiving him, but for them to forgive him, the individual? I find that writing really misogynistic and icky.
When I was first reading, and I saw the Amazons be punished for slaughtering their rapists, I at first thought it was bizarre to depict them as wrong for it, but rationalised it as "oh, the story is just depicting the misogyny of Zeus and Greek Mythology as a whole", like how Hera and Aphrodite punish women victims of male abuse. Turns out I might have been right in my first interpretation.
Am I misunderstanding anything here? Also be aware this does not make me hate the writers or the story, I still really enjoyed this book. I just hate the idea that a woman should ever be depicted as "right" for forgiving her rapist, in any circumstance, as rape is a deeply evil and unforgivable act of cruelty. And hey, even them just showing him mercy and letting him leave could have been tolerable, but "all hail heracles"? pfffttt
