Matching Mixed Media - Supergiant's Hades Series / Netflix's Kaos / Hadestown
February's Matching
Welcome back to Matching Mixed Media. It’s the end of the month somehow (it’s because February is aggressively short) which means I have assembled another media matching, which I would liken to a wine pairing with food, except that I don’t really like the taste of alcohol. But the spirit of the exercise remains the same.
I have a list of these that should carry me through most of the year, so of course for February, I’m going off book entirely largely because the universe had another plans for me.
Supergiant decided to interrupt my work week and everyone else’s work week with the surprise drop of Hades II’s second major early access update, the Warsong Update.
Now for those who may need a refresher, Hades II is notable because it is the first time Supergiant has ever done a direct sequel and it is also the longest interval between full game releases, as typically there were only three years between games (I have written about that whole dynamic at length if you want even more words from me today). Hades II entered early access in 2024, four years after the full release of the original, and it slated to release properly sometime this year. I have already sunken more than 100 hours in and I’ll likely sink in another hundred before it’s all said and done.
So, one of the non-roguelike reasons I adore this series is that it is such a smart reinterpretation of Greek mythology. I, and I imagine many others in my demographics would agree, have loved Greek mythology since early childhood. It was one of my favorite topics in middle school. I remember my sixth grade English handing me a copy of Antigone because she thought I’d appreciate the challenge. I remember reading the Iliad and the Odyssey. I remember watching Jason and the Argonauts and that weird 1997 NBC adaptation of the Odyssey. My love of mythology was so potent that I even petitioned my parents to let me play my first T Rated game at 12 because I really wanted to play Age of Mythology.
All of this to say, when Supergiant released the original Hades, I was enamored by lots of things, although the thing I think I appreciated the most was the diverse representation of the Gods. I remember the devs talking about the fact that the the Greek Gods were Gods because they were worshiped by Greeks, not because there were ethnically Greek. Kotaku has the full write up.
So spurned yet again by my revitalized interest in Greek Mythology, I wanted to talk about Hades II, and the natural pairing was the fellow 2024 Greek mythos retelling of KAOS.
It’s funny how sometimes media across mediums sync up. KAOS was unfortunately cancelled, so the story will remain unfinished right now, but it is easily one of the most intriguing eight episodes of television you could watch. It takes some of the more well known myths and some that I’m pretty sure the average person wouldn’t know unless they had taken some very specific Classics classes, but it weaves the story beautifully, with gorgeous cinematography, direction, and music.
And thinking about this particular Eurydice has also reminded that Hadestown is yet another brilliant retelling, so maybe this is a triad. Maybe that’s why I was hesitant to calling this a pairing.
And appropriately, Hadestown within its framing explains why these stories are so relevant. Why myth persists and is told and retold over and over and over gain. It’s all cyclical, one way or another.
I like to imagine in a different life, I’m teaching a cross comparison media course where these three franchises are the tentpole of a unit. The enduring nature of love and loss. The willingness of heroes to descend/ascend, to rage against the gods, to fight for family and friend.
And that’s where I’ll leave us this month.