#need to go back to pissing about in rpgmaker so bad

[frootsnak]

🎵

[bgezal]

fuck hades the game for whatever that was.

it legitimately pisses me off sometimes that hades gets so much credit for its writing and direction. hades is nothing to write home about in terms of that, frankly. sure, congrats, theyre gay this time. it’s fun. it is cute if you can suspend your disbelief like an acme anvil. the sideplots are cute. from the snippets you get of them, the olympians fit very neatly into familial archetypes and are quickly well-established. the dialogue can be witty. the designs are nice.

but the structure of the main plot. 

the buildup is fantastic. the “daddy issues” game, as people so flippantly put it. oh, that zagreus, can’t do his job and complains about it, how stupid, dumb son, we’ve got something for just about everyone in that. and you get to fight the embodiment of it! you get to kill him. you finally get there. but it doesn’t mean shit. they’re gods, you know? something for everyone in that. catharsis with no consequences, right? killing is bad. 

and then persephone. these heartbreaking snippets where you learn, no. you’ll never be free. you’ll have to suffer over and over, kill your father and force his insults to roll off your back, over and over, to even see her. that had potential, you know. lot to get into. the kind of thing that shatters people. 

and that isn’t marketable. 

so the conclusion of hades is ... it’s a good thing. it’s a good thing all this happened. you repair these broken bonds and your mom and dad get together and eventually you’ll pull everyone together again, right? mom will come up with a plan, and we’ll all be back together for thanksgiving dinner. isn’t that everyone’s dream? isn’t that just so idyllic? you wouldnt have been able to date your childhood friends if you had stayed up there, you know. they never would have seen you again, you know. you can’t let go of something like that. and really you’re used to the fighting, you love it, you don’t know what else you’d do with your time really.

what kind of fucking direction is that? where nothing changes, except for presentation. you fighting out every day -- clearly it’s fun now that you’re used to it. now that you’ve agreed on it, your father’s insults aren’t abuse, they’re banter. it might be a little sad that you can’t leave, but look at all these consolation prizes.

look, maybe im the bitch who thinks rpgmaker games by traumatized children are the height of art (and im right /hj) but how is that anything? how is this still what gets praised as some kind of poignant beauty of a narrative? the weight of consequence is played for jokes, juggled, twisted into a balloon animal. and people fucking love that, apparently. people absolutely adore getting to blow the trauma they and others hold off like that. the insincerity and weightlessness of hades make it a mass-marketable indie game, and good for it. but also fuck it. fuck it for every kid who’s had to pry themself away from the dream of their parents apologizing and meaning it. or of a parent listening to their needs. or seeing their true strengths and providing for them. the truth is you don’t need it. you do not fucking need it. you can get away. the important things in life are not found from birthright.

conclusion: fuck hades, fuck its plastic ass family ideals, and choke if you’ve made jokes about the violence of hades towards his son.