On this special episode of Video Game Fashion Review I am joined by Josh from Spoiler Warning who provides some historical context to the character designs in Hades.
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Such a good review! Athena and Nyx were my favorite designs but there's so many things to talk about from this.
Minor correction on the story of Lot and his wife: SHE'S actually the one that looked back, at their city that was being destroyed and that they were fleeing from. Still a big parallel though.
I think I'm the game Eurydice is supposed to be a dryad. Not sure if that's something from the myth or not. She talks at one point about how it's frustrating that she's like a god but can still actually die, so it could be they made her a dryad to have a chance to talk about mythological beings that are still mortal, since death is such an obviously huge theme in the game?
Also, one of my favorite parts in Nyx's design is how she's wearing the game's currency "darkness" as jewellery! Since you use it to power yourself up in a mirror gifted by her. Charon has a similar thing going on, where he wears obols, which you use to purchase things from his shop.
And one last thing, on Hermes–although his design doesn't reflect the elements from mythology that were talking about, a lot of other things surrounding him do! He's one of the only gods with a connection to the underworld (since he works with Charon, who is the game's merchant), he has a boon called "side hustle" that gives you coins every time you enter a room, he's implied to be responsible for other help you're getting from the underworld, that he might have snuck in… So the crossing of boundaries and the merchant/thief duality is expressed in the game, just in other ways.
a few aditional details
Hades. I belive the reason for his large amount of jewels is that he is also god of wealth (to some degree. shareing some with Hermes god of trade)
Ares: i belive the olive branch is withered because it's usually a symbol of peace, his bird on his chest is most likely a vulture, a bird feasting on corpses often seen on battlefields due to a large amount of it's food,
Dionysus. regarding the beer point, Beer is so old that it is assumed by some that they figured out beer and then went, hey we can make bread with this stuff too! so yeah old as dirt. Regarding his good thigh game, most likely not related to it but he was described as very androgynous at times and maybe it's to point out a more feminin side. The pelt may be due to him often being depicted with his sacred animal the leopard
Orpheus: side note, the idear of not looking at somebody in the realm of the dead also appears in Japan with Izanami
as someone who has a degree in ancient history, knows ancient greek and latin, and is currently writing a thesis on greek myth, this video is DEFINITELY catering to me haha. and hey, for only recently listening to some greek myth lectures josh did a pretty good job! another comment pointed out that dionysus is wearing a pelt due to his association with the leopard (also sometimes panther? he liked turning into animals!) but thought i'd also point out that the stick he's holding is another of his symbols, called a Thyrsus! its a fennel staff topped with a pinecone. a LOT of the designs have those touches (athena with her owl, artemis with her antlers, etc.)
tbh i think one of my favourite designs has to be nyx. even if the olympians have fresh interesting designs, they're still very recognisable to wide audience. i feel like they had the freedom to interpret nyx however they wanted and she's just STUNNING. im not sure if all the drapery is supposed to evoke ~billowing darkness~ or something, but the hair/ribbon/gown/sashes all look so good.
would love to see a vid on the rest of the cast, but i'm sure i'll enjoy the next vid whatever the subject is :p
Zagreus didn't really come off as angsty.
Alex doesn't tag these videos with "featuring X" so going into these videos I never know if someone's going to be guest starring. It was a nice surprise to see Josh join her here, it was a nice follow-up to the latest Spoiler Warning episode.
I did a quick google and Dionysus's staff seems to be a Thyrsus. Never heard of them before!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyrsus
I thought it was an artichoke on the staff, turns out it's a pinecone.
Nyx said let me stunt on these children real quick
On Orpheus, the voice actor sounds androgynous or feminine to me. It definitely seems intentional they casted the character that way!
Every other design: we did so much research into the lord of the character to make it perfect!
Orpheus: what if it was David Bowie but Greek?
And it was one of the best designs they did.
I've not been seeing references to Dream which Orpheus's design is heavily based on my opinion
I had done a few papers on Greek Mythology, so when I’m playing Hades I think of all these things too lol. I like how it’s Supergiants’ own version of these Greek Myths.
It's been a bit since this came out, but when I first saw Orpheus in the game my very first thought was "oh, they made him goth." The idea of him being a bit decrepit and corpse-like didn't really occur to me, but of course that's part of the goth look; everything is dark and gloomy, and the makeup and hair especially call to mind members of The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Which made perfect sense to me, considering he's, y'know, a musician. Who is dead.
They're all great, anyway.
Loved the art in this game!