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badass_tiger) wrote2024-02-08 06:17 pm
badass_tiger) wrote2024-02-08 06:17 pm
Entry tags:
Zagreus
I was in such agonies while playing this game that it might seem I really hated it, and in fact, I felt as if I didn't like it, that I just wanted to finish it so that I could see the ending, which I hoped would be a happy one. It was only when I finished and got the ending I so craved that I realised I didn't hate this game. I love this game! But playing the game was so painful for me at first because I immediately realised that Hades was so torn up, in so much pain, throughout the main story, that it was unbearable.
All game spoilers:
So yes, I was in actual pains while playing this game because I hated seeing Hades in pain.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the things Hades says when Zagreus does reach him, each time, caused even more spasms of grief, to the point that I almost always needed to pause and breathe before going on to the fight because I couldn't bear it. I also didn't know what the ending was. In my heart, I told myself to expect a sad ending, or a bittersweet ending at best, because ... well ... Art Is Angsty seems really in trend these days! Just look at like, the Marvel movies. Superhero movies are supposed to be comfort movies but those things are devastating these days! And that's if you're lucky and the story is any good! Anyway, so I didn't realise that I actually enjoyed the game until I came to a completely and thoroughly happy ending and the burden was lifted.
This game has been a great catalyst for my love for Hades, yet I feel that I have always thought kindly of Hades from the whole Persephone thing, and that the game has more of a mutual relationship with my pre-existing bias for Hades. After all, I hardly knew anything about the game version of Hades when I started playing, but I was on his side the instant I saw him.
I didn't really care for Zagreus as a character at first. I didn't dislike him, I simply had no strong feelings for him either way. He came across as your typical cocky protagonist and I had to reach the ending to see him as more than that. But I came to see that Zagreus is a sweet kid, really. I don't know how else to describe it, but it's that same 'good kid' vibe that like, Phineas has lol. Like he's well meaning. He was brought up well. Ironically.
It touched me that his reply to Hades' apology was not forgiving, but contained the words, 'I understand, I think. I only wish I'd understood earlier.' Not only that, but he admits to Persephone that he doesn't hate Hades. The words 'I understand' are words I can't say. Hades does not consider himself worthy of forgiveness and thus doesn't ask for it, so Zagreus does not give it, but the leniency implied in 'I understand' is something I can't find within myself. I understand, but I won't say it, because I don't want to understand. Because of that, I really like Zagreus for saying he understands.
I'm a terrible Hades apologist but let me make it up by saying that the fact that Hades says he doesn't ask for forgiveness makes me like him more lol. It's just such a like, mature? responsible? idk? thing to say but that he acknowledges what he's done wrong to the extent that he doesn't ask to be forgiven is just, like, so cool lol. I really like him for saying that. And I think the fact that he says that, and that Zagreus replies that he understands, shows that forgiveness is possible. Even if neither of them say it, perhaps they can move past it enough that they don't think of it.
See, I'm not a Hades apologist because I'm a blind simp, I'm a Hades apologist because I know all his flaws and love him for it anyway lol. I wouldn't want to be his child, but there's all kinds of love, and you can acknowledge that someone is objectively terrible at certain kinds of love and still love them in a different way. You know what I mean?
They made this man way too smoochable, man, what's up with that.
All game spoilers:
So yes, I was in actual pains while playing this game because I hated seeing Hades in pain.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the things Hades says when Zagreus does reach him, each time, caused even more spasms of grief, to the point that I almost always needed to pause and breathe before going on to the fight because I couldn't bear it. I also didn't know what the ending was. In my heart, I told myself to expect a sad ending, or a bittersweet ending at best, because ... well ... Art Is Angsty seems really in trend these days! Just look at like, the Marvel movies. Superhero movies are supposed to be comfort movies but those things are devastating these days! And that's if you're lucky and the story is any good! Anyway, so I didn't realise that I actually enjoyed the game until I came to a completely and thoroughly happy ending and the burden was lifted.
This game has been a great catalyst for my love for Hades, yet I feel that I have always thought kindly of Hades from the whole Persephone thing, and that the game has more of a mutual relationship with my pre-existing bias for Hades. After all, I hardly knew anything about the game version of Hades when I started playing, but I was on his side the instant I saw him.
I didn't really care for Zagreus as a character at first. I didn't dislike him, I simply had no strong feelings for him either way. He came across as your typical cocky protagonist and I had to reach the ending to see him as more than that. But I came to see that Zagreus is a sweet kid, really. I don't know how else to describe it, but it's that same 'good kid' vibe that like, Phineas has lol. Like he's well meaning. He was brought up well. Ironically.
It touched me that his reply to Hades' apology was not forgiving, but contained the words, 'I understand, I think. I only wish I'd understood earlier.' Not only that, but he admits to Persephone that he doesn't hate Hades. The words 'I understand' are words I can't say. Hades does not consider himself worthy of forgiveness and thus doesn't ask for it, so Zagreus does not give it, but the leniency implied in 'I understand' is something I can't find within myself. I understand, but I won't say it, because I don't want to understand. Because of that, I really like Zagreus for saying he understands.
I'm a terrible Hades apologist but let me make it up by saying that the fact that Hades says he doesn't ask for forgiveness makes me like him more lol. It's just such a like, mature? responsible? idk? thing to say but that he acknowledges what he's done wrong to the extent that he doesn't ask to be forgiven is just, like, so cool lol. I really like him for saying that. And I think the fact that he says that, and that Zagreus replies that he understands, shows that forgiveness is possible. Even if neither of them say it, perhaps they can move past it enough that they don't think of it.
See, I'm not a Hades apologist because I'm a blind simp, I'm a Hades apologist because I know all his flaws and love him for it anyway lol. I wouldn't want to be his child, but there's all kinds of love, and you can acknowledge that someone is objectively terrible at certain kinds of love and still love them in a different way. You know what I mean?
They made this man way too smoochable, man, what's up with that.