update! the story did take a turn and does not, in fact, condone the traditionalist desire to turn back time

also who knows, maybe the story takes a turn at some point? im nowhere close to the ending, so none of these conclusions are final

anyway i think im done, i just found it really interesting, especially in context of the rise of...conservative views around the world. not trying to imply anything about the team's stance, but rather musing about how our surroundings can influence the way we think without us necessarily noticing it

so yeah it must suck for the gods (the ruling class), but aren't we getting some clues in-game about mortalkind benefiting from this arrangement? sure, one tyranny for another if you think about it, so not great, but we're intentionally given the lens that obscures what else Chronos does

we only see what Mel sees, and she sees the foes he sent to stop (or stall) her, including the dead city on the surface, the state of which she extrapolates on the rest of humanity, and the havoc on Olympus — from Chronos attempting to topple the gods' rule (some stories have heroes defeat gods btw)

this is like a dictionary definition of a conservative, reactionary stance. but the game does good job making you root for Mel against Chronos, because we only know the things about him that play into that

because when you take away the personal touch, she's striving to defeat Chronos, but more specifically, to take things back to the way they once were (she doesn't remember the "good times", either) by *unmaking all the change Time has brought*

Melinoë, on the other hand, was brought up and trained with the single goal of defeating Chronos in mind. she doesn't really know the family she's fighting for at the start of the game (Zag only didn't know his mother) and it's kind of being dangled in front of her to make her battle more personal

but if you look closer, the big difference between the stories is this: Zagreus is proactive, Melinoë is reactive. Zagreus finds out about his mother, and what he does is make a decision to actively challenge the status quo and his father's authority to find her and bring about change

both games' protagonists' goals boil down to reuniting the family — for Zagreus to find and bring back his mother, and for Melinoë — everyone Chronos took. in that, they are similar, and it's good motivation. it worked once, why shouldn't it work twice

man i spent like four hours in hades 2 yesterday and only managed to get past hekate like, two times 😩 but it does still feel like I'm doing much better now than when i was starting hades 1!

despite it being a rather old one (performed and posted in 2010 as part of his first "words, words, words" special), the ideas he expressed in it are still there in his work all these years later. he keeps singing this one song, in different words and with different chords, but it's still there

I hear you loud and clear ✊ see also: vasily/sugimoto

nothing tragic, just another social media account (this one) that i made and was sure i'd maintain gets no updates because i forget about its existence

youtu.be/D6aj6AoiLbc?...

thank you 💖 yeah i just found myself full of Longing™ at the very appropriate hour of 1:30 a.m. don't mind me hahhahaha

when is it my turn to be inevitably drawn to a person that's meant to be, for us to stare into each others' complex and endlessly interesting souls, and have challenging circumstances forge an unbreakable bond??