Hades 2 and Ageism

[Vinx]

I kinda hate myself for saying it, but sometimes you just gotta say it.

I've been taking this game slowly, obviously, so maybe some latter-game stuff contradicts what I'm about to point out, but so far there has been a distinct and very strange ageist leaning to the interactions between characters. The older a character looks, the more likely they are to be portrayed as grumpy, arrogant, or foolish, or all of the above. This is true of male and female, black and white, and feels very out-of-place in a game that has gone so far in trying to be all-the-PC-words.

Part of this might be due to the fact that a lot of the characters are simply not as pleasant, friendly, or fun as the characters from the first game, but there are still friendly exceptions among the younger-looking characters. And this isn't an actual age thing; the oldest being in the game has only grown younger(?)-looking with time, and yet is deeply respected and spoken well of by the other characters. This trend appears to be connected to the appearance. If you look old, you're probably grumpy, dumb, and shouldn't be taken seriously.

Legitimately, the game actually deeply damaged my first impressions of the main villain and the quality of character of so-called Good Guys because of this. Judge people based on their actions, not their ages, and avoid cliche negative stereotypes. And yet, unfortunately, for a game so concerned with being fair and representative to all sorts of people, they seem to have forgotten our older friends.

Ooooor, maybe I just haven't gotten far enough in the game to meet the loving, kindly old woman character, or the wise old man mentor. Let's hope for that.
~A Hopeful Early-Access Backer.

[😎Astran😾]

The ability to differ the reality from a fantasy is a definition of sanity

[Big Mistake]

Hephaestus - softens up the moment he sees you with Zoraphete

Hestia: Has incredibly warm grandmotherly vibes basically from the first moment you run into her

Demeter: Was clearly still reeling from her daughter's flight in the first game, has moments of showing tenderness to Melinoe despite her characterization as hardened and jaded.

Poseidon: Is still his overly optimistic goofy self, despite clearly having aged since the first game.

Spoilers for Tartarus NPC: Hades is, compared to how he treated Zag, as kind and fatherly as someone in his circumstance can be, and certainly seems to have been aged by imprisonment

The list goes on, play the game more and you'll see the old characters aren't all written as crotchety dumb boomer gods.

[Potjack]

This post made me more ageist.

[Hidebehind]

Dora is a great character! I like her the best of all the characters in both games!

[SpaceCat]

I mean, the Greek gods are usually portrayed as extremely moody, arrogant, and resistant to change. They are also presumably ageless, and just have forms they like to take. I do miss my man Dionysus though.

[Watcher Rat]

Publicado originalmente por Vinx:

A few brief good-faith responses:
~ I did not include any specifics except the big one because I wanted to avoid spoilers. However, for the sake of clarity: Hestia, Demeter, Zeus, Chronos, Poseidion, and Chronos-again are the early-game examples of what I'm referring to.

To go over some of those...

Demeter is certainly a pretty accurate portrayal to the stories in mythology, they were stubborn, stern, and pretty much willing to freeze the entire earth forever if Hades had not returned Persephone to her; her stories are used as an explanation for why we have winter (the world freezes when Persephone has to return to the underworld, and warms when she can leave and be near her mother).

Zeus, Chronos/Kronus and Poseidon are absolutely in the right vein. The Greek gods, and thus their father as well, were consistently portrayed as flawed, arrogant, and capricious. Zeus in particular is a bit of a prick when you look at more or less every single thing he's ever done, ever. XD

As for Hestia, in this game she's designed to be Demeter's opposite: warm instead of cold, friendly instead of stern, etc. Since it's Ice/Fire, their portrayal makes perfect sense, as does their relative ages to one another.

[Carighan]

Publicado originalmente por Wintermute:

Hecate literally tells you that Chronos is "old, arrogant and dumb, as most old people are", pretty early in. "With age comes illusion of wisdom".

Congratulations, you now have one example. So it's the exception that the old characters are arrogant and dumb, right?

[-=MM=-Savage]

Publicado originalmente por Carighan:

Publicado originalmente por Wintermute:

Hecate literally tells you that Chronos is "old, arrogant and dumb, as most old people are", pretty early in. "With age comes illusion of wisdom".

Congratulations, you now have one example. So it's the exception that the old characters are arrogant and dumb, right?

They dont have an example. They have one in character opinion, and zero characterisations.

[hilfazer]

If the behaviour is connected to the looks rather than the age then it's not ageism but rather, i don't know, lookism?

[GrimAtrament]

A short run down of some gods other gods.

Chonos ate his own children.

Zues is an unfaithful adulter and also once killed Helios son for miss using the sun chariots. Zues was well known for his short temper. Also he is the root cause of Pandora's box. As he gave her the box in revenge over Prometheus giving humans fire.

As for Possiden I suggest you look into the myth of Medusa(sexually assaulted Medusa.) and the Odyssey(granted some of his actions were justified in this one.). As well as the contest of Athena and Possiden.(Got mad at losing the contest and tried to destroy a city with an earthquake.)

Demeter was extremely grumpy all the time in mythology don't forget she causes eternal winter over Hades and Persephone.