Is Melinoe meant to be a good person? (dialog spoiler)

[Jonny]

So I just beat Chronos for the first time (yay). I'm going through her dialog with him, and she just said something that seems very out of place.

"Our family. And what do I care? I don't even know them"

This is in response to Chronos talking about how he's likely to start worsening his treatment of her captive family when he revives, as your punishment for killing him.

So.... she doesn't care at all if her family suffers/is mistreated/is tortured? This a) seems contrary to her entire character motivation so far and b) is not something a good person says, and I do assume the developers think she is meant to be a good character.

You might want to consider re-writing this.

[READ PALE]

Or: she lied to act tough.

[MidnightMist]

No, because she's not a person. She's a god.

[Wormerine]

This line took me by surprise, and I do hope it is a sign of things to come rather than "act tough" moment. She could be bluffing - she is unable to rescue her family as of yet, and she can't afford to leave Chronos be. So if he wants to punish her family for her defiance - she doesn't exactly have many options.

If the line was a sign of things to come - Melinoe not actually caring for her family that can't even remember... that would be an interesting twist on the character. She does hint couple times that she sees Headmistress more as her mother. She is a being raised from a child with a goal of ending Chronos - she might not end up being a goodie to shoes.

[JinxTheWorld]

She said she has very little attachment to her family multiple times before then, and even in the beginning of the game. It's pretty on point. On top of that she is told that her existence is to end chronos... the end. She has been indoctrinated from a young age to just think "death to chronos".

So nothing needs to be rewritten, since that is just how her character is written.

[Jonny]

It's one thing to not be close to your family. It's another thing entirely to be actively uncaring that your actions will directly result in your family's suffering. Good people do not want to make their family suffer, regardless of how directly close they are. She should be angry about Chronos' threat, and make her hate him more. Showing indifference and uncaring is NOT a good character trait, and comes off extremely jarring in a game where the entire plot is revolving around the family as a whole. She certainly seems to show caring towards Hades when she finds him shackled, so why the sudden turn around here?

[Jonny]

Originally posted by READ PALE:

Or: she lied to act tough.

Which isn't something tough people actually do, and she shouldn't feel the need to act tough in front of an enemy she's literally just defeated. I.e. she has no reason to act tough when she's already proven she actually IS tough.

[Count Dripulla]

Yea this line also surprised me a little but I assumed she was bluffing, if not then the line just seems very out of character.

[READ PALE]

Originally posted by Jonny:

Originally posted by READ PALE:

Or: she lied to act tough.

Which isn't something tough people actually do, and she shouldn't feel the need to act tough in front of an enemy she's literally just defeated. I.e. she has no reason to act tough when she's already proven she actually IS tough.

Your immortal enemy threatens to harm your family for your actions, which is something you can't exactly prevent for now. Your options to respond:

1. "Please don't."
2. "I don't care."

I know which one I'd pick whether I care for my family or not.

[Jonny]

Originally posted by READ PALE:

Originally posted by Jonny:

Which isn't something tough people actually do, and she shouldn't feel the need to act tough in front of an enemy she's literally just defeated. I.e. she has no reason to act tough when she's already proven she actually IS tough.

Your immortal enemy threatens to harm your family for your actions, which is something you can't exactly prevent for now. Your options to respond:

1. "Please don't."
2. "I don't care."

I know which one I'd pick whether I care for my family or not.

Or, you counter-threat the enemy you literally just beat:
"Anything you do to them I will do to you ten-fold". Or something to that effect. At this point, you've proven you have the power. If not to end his existence, to make his existence miserable. There's no need to capitulate or feign indifference.

You're also making a big assumption she is feigning it, because we receive no additional text to suggest her internal thoughts are in anyway contrary to her spoken words (which would be a solution to the problem if that's what they're going for). As far as it is made known to us as the player, she just genuinely doesn't care, which is bad for the reasons already stated.

[werwolfgaming]

Originally posted by Jonny:

Originally posted by READ PALE:

Your immortal enemy threatens to harm your family for your actions, which is something you can't exactly prevent for now. Your options to respond:

1. "Please don't."
2. "I don't care."

I know which one I'd pick whether I care for my family or not.

Or, you counter-threat the enemy you literally just beat:
"Anything you do to them I will do to you ten-fold". Or something to that effect. At this point, you've proven you have the power. If not to end his existence, to make his existence miserable. There's no need to capitulate or feign indifference.

You're also making a big assumption she is feigning it, because we receive no additional text to suggest her internal thoughts are in anyway contrary to her spoken words (which would be a solution to the problem if that's what they're going for). As far as it is made known to us as the player, she just genuinely doesn't care, which is bad for the reasons already stated.

i mean her talks to hades does seem to point to the fact she has some care for them even going as far as wanting to take the chains off hades wich he refuses to let her so it dosent anger chronos even more.

so clearly her family is people she cares and treats as allies maybe not seeing them as a family since she never got to know them as a family

[AquariaMoon]

Personally I'm not sure focusing on whether or not she is a 'good person' based on a single line is very fair? I think there's a myriad of interesting reasons for that line and many of them might be true at the same time. But people are messy.
Even if she is struggling with how she relates to her family, and it's obvious that she does struggle with how she relates to them, deciding to be flippant in front of Chronos is hardly an indicator of where she'll end up. Or even whether she's a good person. If she truly didn't care on a personal level she would still care on principle. And it wouldn't make her a 'bad person'. Feelings are more complicated than that.

Not to mention as people have pointed out, pretending not to care would have highest chance of Chronos NOT treating them worse. If she asks him not to that'd be an indicator he can get to her through torturing her family. Getting heated and saying 'I'll get you back tenfold if you do that' does the same thing. She's been trained to be methodical and tactical. That was a very tactical move.

...But even if it wasn't I don't think 'does that mean she's a good or bad person' is a very interesting way to engage with the nuance on display. Her saying that line is good writing to me. Goes to show how different people are I suppose!

[Slaytherine]

A bit out of character, but maybe there's more to it?

[Brynub]

I read it more as Melinoe just calling Chronos's bluff by acting uncaring since she knows it'll take awhile for him to reform and gain his power back for their next battle, so he probably won't have enough resources to worsen his captives' condition, at least for a time. If she panicked or pleaded with him not to do it, he'd 10000% torture them. Acting indifferent makes Chronos consider other avenues of resisting her attacks.

[UNBREAKABLE]

Besides maybe the queen - what could Chronos do to Hades and Zag beyond restraining them? We know fulll well they'll just respawn in the pool if he killed them and the codex even says Hades can't be killed.

[Dwarvin' Marvin]

Could use a little touch up. Maybe an extra line or two from Homer or Mel herself with context clues for clearing up the disparity between her behaviour at the end, and her behaviour with Hades like 5 minutes prior.