(soft rock music)
- [Kris] Yo what up, Wisecrack?
Kris here to talk about one of our
favorite releases of 2020,
Super Giants acclaimed underworld adventure, "Hades".
Now at first, the game seems like
a regular, old dungeon-crawling bout of mindless fun,
in which you befriend some gods -
(in-game Hermes voice-over)
- [Kris] and slash your way through the underworld.
(in-game slashing noises)
But what if the game's rogue-like mechanics are actually
making a super deep statement about how to get through life?
- [In-Game Voice] Just have to try again.
- We'll explain in this wisecrack edition on:
The philosophy of Hades.
And of course, spoilers ahead. (alarm sirens)
But before we get into it, I want to tell you guys about
our podcast, Show Me the Meaning.
It's where we geek out over the minutia of our favorite
films and the occasional TV show or video game.
This month, we're doing a totally unseasonal retrospective
on the work of horror King, John Carpenter,
Director of iconic films such as
"Halloween" and "The Thing".
Join our hosts Austin, Ryan, and Raymond
as they talked about their favorite Carpenter films.
You can catch the live stream of the podcast
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And if you miss the stream because of school, work,
or something else absurd and pointless,
check out the recorded episodes on our second channel,
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Subscribe to Show Me the Meaning on Apple podcasts, Spotify,
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Episodes come out every Friday,
so make sure you've got a way to tune in because
why would you want to miss out on the fun?
Unless you hate fun?
And if so, why?
Anyways, back to the show.
And now a quick recap: in Hades,
the player takes control of Prince Zagreus,
the rebellious heir to the underworld's throne.
Sick of living under his father, Hades's, thumb,
Zag is determined to fight his way up through
the world of the dead and make it to the surface.
Along the way, player receives messages and power-ups
from Zagreus's extended family on Mount Olympus, all of whom
are eager for him to make his escape and join them.
But no matter how many lightning bolts or love charms
they arm him with, Zagreus's endeavors always end with him
trudging back out of the pool of blood
to be greeted once again by his sneering father.
- [In-Game Hades] Stupid boy,
I told you nobody gets out of here, whether alive or dead.
- [Kris] And even when he does make it all the way to the
top, it turns out he can't live for more than a few minutes
on the surface. So each run really is doomed from the start.
- [In-Game Zagreus] I guess I'm just a little tired, that's
all. Not accustomed to the weather, as I think you call it.
- [Kris] And even after you make it to the top enough times
to complete the main story, the end credits roll with
Zagreus underground, right back where he started.
You can keep playing beyond that,
but the 100th run is guaranteed to end pretty much
the same way the very first one did.
So is the game just trying to make us lose our minds,
or is it saying something here?
Well, we think we can figure it out with one particular
inhabitant of the underworld and his favorite pet boulder:
- [In-Game Zagreus] Sisyphus, how can you stand it,
being here like this?
You always seem in such good spirits though.
- [In-Game Sisyphus] You push old Bouldy here sufficient
times, and you might get a different outlook on things too.
- [Kris] That's Sisyphus, from the Greek myth about a crafty
King who found a way to cheat death, and as punishment
was forced to push a boulder up a hill for eternity.
As an extra touch of torture,
Sisyphus could reach the top of the hill,
but the Boulder would promptly roll back down.
Bleak.
In the game, Sisyphus emerges as a sort of central
philosophical presence.
His repetitive, futile rock-pushing neatly mirrors
Zagareus's own doomed endeavors.
Like Sisyphus, the player goes about their quest only to
inevitably start right back at the bottom of that hill.
And even when you seem to have made it to the top or outside
of the underworld, you, like Sisyphus, are inevitably
dragged back down. Again.
Perhaps uncoincidentally, Sisyphus is foundational for the
philosophy of French novelist, Albert Camus.
The writer uses the King's plight as an allegory for
human life. Sisyphus pointlessly exerts effort that will
ultimately amount to nothing.
He has no higher purpose, no meaning,
just a futile existence.
Now, you might be rolling your eyes at me right now
because respawning and repetition is just a basic component
of almost every video game.
You're like, "Chris, if I play through Skyrim enough times,
am I, too, doing a Camus?"
But Hades is pretty intentional in making this game mechanic
a central part of the narrative.
It's not just the repetitive respawning, but the
constant sense that the game is messing with your head.
For instance, you escape the underworld only to realize
you can't survive up there. Then the metaphorical boulder
is rolled right back down the hill.
And then the game asks you to escape again and again.
And when you finally beat it, there's still no rest.
Zagreus realizes he has to endlessly escape,
die, and rise again from his pool of blood
as a means to distract the gods.
At the same time, he continues to test his father's guards
almost like a security consultant for the underworld.
And sure. We might get some experience points or get better
at the game, but are we just some version of Sisyphus
growing faster and stronger as we push our boulder?
So why even try? Well, let's look at in-game Sisyphus.
As he and Zagreus bond over the shared futility of their
endeavors, Sisyphus reveals that he has accepted that this
pointless boulder-pushing is simply his lot in life -
or death.
- [In-Game Sisyphus] Save those sympathies for someone else,
your Highness. I could be Prometheus, spending an eternity
having my liver gobbled up-
- [Kris] In his acceptance, he finds contentment -
happily going about his task without ever expecting to
achieve anything by it. This, it turns out, is the
concluding statement of Camus' essay:
"One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
The point for Camus is that we live in an absurd world.
One where our trials and tribulations, whether
reuniting with our mother or showing up for work on time,
are as pointless as pushing a Boulder up a hill.
At the same time, we can - and should -
find joy in this absurdity.
And by and large, Zagareus conducts himself with the same
cheerful attitude as Sisyphus-
poking fun at various enemies he encounters along each run
and generally enjoying his fruitless tasks.
- [In-Game Voice] Get back in the magma
and no one gets hurt.
- [Kris] Unlike many games, enjoyment in Hades comes less
from winning, and more from just embracing each new attempt.
Thanks to the generally excellent design of the game itself,
the player gets to share in this enjoyment. Armed with
a host of different weapons or borrowed powers,
playing as Zagareus still feels fresh -
even on the 50th run. In the game,
Sisyphus seems so happy that even after
Zagareus finds a way to free him from his servitude,
Sisyphus decides to keep pushing his boulder anyway.
- [In-Game Zagreus] I located the contract binding you, and
bought it out. It's null and void. You're free to go.
- [In-Game Sisyphus] Oh! Indeed,
then, does this mean, Prince, then.. the Fury Sisters,
they won't come around as often anymore?
- [In-Game Zagreus] Not just, Sisyphus!
You can make your way someplace else, where other decent
shades reside! You know, somewhere with fewer chains
and torture devices and such?
- [In-Game Sisyphus] You're much too kind to this old soul,
Prince Zed. The thing is, this is home for me and Bouldy.
It is what it is.
- [Kris] Now. Unlike his French peers who favorite
existentialism, Camus didn't think that we should actually
seek meaning within our meaningless world.
Like in-game Sisyphus, we should accept our
meaningless exploits and find happiness in our
pointless boulder-pushing.
Of course, that's not to say that Zagareus's story is just
about going around in circles.
Hades isn't just about accepting our fate. While its basic
premise seems to be Camus's myth of Sisyphus,
it doesn't share the writer's total rejection of meaning.
As Zagareus wanders the underworld, he encounters a number
of mythic figures who have fallen into a kind of
nihilistic funk - characters like Orpheus and Patroclus,
who are too heartbroken to care about what happens to them.
- [In-Game Orpheus] It's that I've lost my muse, my friend.
It isn't harder to explain than that.
Have you not had such moments in your life,
where you had lost the will to chase your passions?
- [Kris] By emphasizing the importance of forming
connections with others, Hades shifts away from Camus's
belief that life is essentially absurd.
Zagareus's relationships offer him the chance to find
meaning that goes beyond just sitting back and laughing at
the futility of it all. To see how,
let's take a look back into in-game Sisyphus.
Because in Hades, Sisyphus hasn't just embraced the fact
that he can do nothing but keep pushing that boulder -
he has embraced the boulder itself, naming it Bouldy,
and treating it as a cherished friend.
It's basically the deepest bond we've seen between men
and inanimate's fear since "Castaway".
(Voice clip from Castaway)
- [Kris] It's the warm companionship he finds in his
Rocky friend, and then later with Zagareus,
that allows him to endure and even enjoy his fate.
- [In-Game Zagreus] Does Bouldy really keep you company?
Personally I would resent the giant boulder that keeps
tumbling back down a hill after I push it
all the way up there.
- [In-Game Sisyphus] Oh, bouldy's not so bad.
I mean, he's a good listener, a good shoulder to lean on,
doesn't wield a whip.. I rightly can't complain!
Good having company down here.
- [Kris] Even after Sisyphus has been freed from his
contract with Hades, he chooses to stay where he is so
he can keep hanging out with Bouldy and the Prince.
- [In-Game Sisyphus] And if I were to leave, why,
we would not be having these exchanges now and then.
I happen to enjoy them quite a bit!
- [Kris] As the game goes on, we learn more about its
wide cast of hell-bound characters as Zagareus grows closer
to each of them. While every run ends with Zagareus being
stripped of his new powers and forced to start again more or
less from scratch, the progress he makes with each new
friend remains - allowing him to strengthen these
connections over time.
And as they open up to him, he encourages them to break free
from their depressive state by reaching out
to those they love. Dusa is a prime example.
The ever-nervous gorgon is tasked with
cleaning the entirety of Hades house,
trapping her in an impossible endless cycle of work.
The Prince can't do much to lessen her workload,
but by befriending her,
he's able to encourage her to find some joy in life.
- [In-Game Dusa] You've been so kind to me, and I'm glad
we've had a chance to get to know each other more.
It's really nice, sometimes..
knowing somebody really cares about me here?
- [Kris] The same is true for all of Zagareus's friends down
in the underworld. They can't escape their situation
any more than he can, but the connections they build
allow them to create a kind of community,
which gives everything a sense of meaning.
These aren't just your usual side quests or romantic
subplots, where the hero pores gifts into an NPC until they
give them a new item - or agree to sleep with him;
The process of forming relationships is really at the heart
of the game. The backstory makes this clear.
The reasons Zagreus starts ransacking his father's kingdom
in the first place is because the growling patriarch refuses
to bond with him or tell him anything about his parentage.
This leaves Zagareus feeling alienated - randomly dropped
into a world that seems to have no meaningful place for him.
So he starts out on his absurd quest to reach the surface -
mostly as an act of pure rebellion, a way of
laughing in the face of his prescribed fate.
But when he makes it to the top and
meets his birth mother for the first time, his quest becomes
about reconnecting with her. From then on, he is willing
to walk through the fires of hell again and again for
the chance to spend a few more moments with his mom.
- [In-Game Nyx] Tell me something.. If you knew that
you could only see Persephone for but a moment's time..
would you still make the journey to her, there?
- [In-Game Zagreus] Yes. Yes I would.
- [Kris] So maybe this really is a story about
the friends we make along the way.
And while that can easily sound a little too cherry for a
game about hell, there's some depth here.
The idea of social bonds being one of our best solutions
to an existential crisis is pretty well-established.
In fact, it goes all the way back to Aristotle who saw
friendship as a vital part of any well-lived life,
claiming that "In poverty and other misfortunes of life,
true friends are a sure refuge".
For existentialists like John Paul Sartre,
working together presents our best hope for overcoming
the alienation that plagues us all.
So sure. Zagareus might not be all that different from
Sisyphus, but at least he has his friends and family as he
endlessly battles his way through the underworld.
While the world of Hades is a long way removed from our own
somewhat doom-filled domain,
the sense of going around and around
on the same hamster wheel can be uncomfortably familiar -
especially in recent lockdown times.
And the atmospheric visuals and slick gameplay alone could
ensure that battling through the game's beautifully-crafted
hellscapes would stay entertaining for a long time.
But Hades achieves a deeper sort of resonance
by depicting Zagareus as a godly being
facing down into an essentially human problem.
Hades presents life as an absurd game where we can only
defy death for so long before we end up in the red -
but it does so without abandoning hope altogether.
Zagareus's quest becomes bearable because of his dedication
to those around him who are toiling together
under the same absurd punishing circumstance.
- [In-Game Nyx] Steady your resolve, and find her there,
again. And use well what brief time you have with one
another, whilst you can.
As mortals do.
- [Kris] What do you think, Wisecrack?
Should we stop overthinking it all
and just enjoy the thunderbolts?
Or is there a deeper reason that Hades has struck a chord
with so many players? Let us know in the comments.
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As always, thanks for watching. Peace.
(groovy music)