Hades is a game that's been sitting in my backlog of titles for 2 years now. I'm honestly not sure why it took me this long to pick it up. Having played it now I can confirm it's as good as everyone says it is, and I have to actively stop myself from getting too obsessed lest I spend far too much of my time with the title. I think if I had to guess it's because despite having played all of Supergiant's previous titles and in retrospect enjoying them, I find my experiences with them somewhat rocky. This is true with Pyre especially which I dropped initially before picking it back up later to finish. I knew people loved these games and the fact I couldn't do so on the same level I'm guessing is what made me more apprehensive to start Hades. That and Hades seemed like a much larger commitment of a game than the previous, shorter titles. Which, to be fair, was true given I've played double the hours of all the other Supergiant titles combined.

I unfortunately struggle to find too much to say about it however. I had a similar problem with talking about Balatro in February. A game can be great, enjoyable and suck many hours of my life away from me but it doesn't strictly equate to having interesting things to say about the work. Obviously I love the art, the music, the gameplay, the feel. I love that Hades really leans into integrating the roguelike mechanics into its story concept. I like the game's spin on Greek Mythology. But saying anything more than this? I'm currently at a loss for what to discuss. This has annoyed me in the past but I think I have to accept that not all games will present me with interesting things to discuss or talk about. That isn't to say that they don't hold interesting aspects that others might pick up on but that for me personally I just can't find that interest. Maybe as I try to write more about games I'll be better at picking up small details to pick at and discuss.

[Minor Spoilers Start]

When I learnt that the majority of the text in Hylics was partially randomly generated I found myself disappointed. Whenever NPCs would speak they'd say what seemed to be gibberish, but gibberish that felt poetic at times. It must be deliberate I thought. It must all mean something. All throughout playing I felt like there must be more going on, something much vaster and deeper than I was picking up. It's a game who's high level of artistry is so self evident its blinding. It must be trying to say something profound. In essence I realise the thought I was having was that the art in itself cannot be the substance. It must exist as a conduit for some greater message. In philosophy we'd call this a category error. The classic example is being shown around a university and seeing the libraries, the departments, the accommodation buildings and asking "but where's the university". The mistake is thinking that the university exists in the same category of thing as the former three, rather than encompassing all of it. In the same way I was looking at the art, the music, the vibes and following it up with "but where is the purpose?". The purpose, the point, the substance is in the style. Style IS Substance.

[Minor Spoilers End]

I wanted to follow this up with doing a second playthrough, however I didn't end up finding the time. It's a shame but time constraints are time constraints. I'll still do it of course, I don't only do things for my blog (I promise), but it may not be written down. I suppose that's the unfortunate nature of a blog - it cannot fully capture my evolving feelings to a piece of work. My review of Undertale Yellow for example now feels outdated as I've had newer things to think about. Perhaps I'll endeavour to create a post with updated thoughts in it at some point - but also I may decide to just accept that blogs can only give one a 2D snapshot of a 3D idea.

[Major Spoilers Start]

Having looked at some of the talk online about this film (especially from non-trans audience members) I really feel like people focus far too much on trying to explain the literal text. Questions about whether the Pink Opaque are real and if Owen is in fact the character Isabel. I had thought the movie had made it quite clear that Pink Opaque the show was really not the relevant part to consider. Near the end of the film, Owen rewatches the Pink Opaque, only to realise it's nothing like they remember. When Maddy comes back to meet with Owen, Maddy continually asks Owen if the Pink Opaque was "just a show they watched as teens". It's clear in the text itself that the show is a vessel that Owen and Maddy use to explore their queerness and identities. Is Owen Isabel is a question that exists to implicitly ask if Owen is transgender. I feel like in general there's such a strong push to make art explainable - that I need to break down and understand how the pieces of the narrative logically fit together (I'd call this the redditification of media but perhaps this is too derogatory). Focus more on how it makes you feel - I personally think it'd pretty clear that the film is interested in instilling the feeling of what it is like to be transgender. Be open to receiving this message.

[Major Spoilers End]

For the longest time now, I've been very 'anti-rewatch'. The rationale I'd usually give to this is something along the lines of "there's so much good content out there, why would I want to not spend my time indulging in new good experiences rather than ones I've already experienced". I think this mentality really codified itself for me back when I was really heavily into Anime. There's this website, MyAnimeList (MAL) which is a database site for anime, which allows you to catalogue and rate the shows you'd seen. Importantly here, while it does have support to catalogue rewatches, its not super fleshed out since the website is clearly more catered towards a collective approach to cataloguing. For me at least, there's an allure to seeing a list getting longer; a number going up. It's a symptom of the commodification of art, and an aversion to rewatches is no different. The rationale I gave above relies on the assumption that one can 'extract' the value of a piece of art wholly through a single engagement with it - that one can have an epistemic domination over its contents in a single go-around. This assumption just isn't true, and I feel like I've really internalised that through rewatching Steven Universe recently. So allow me to talk to you about that new value I've experienced from the show.

In my first watch of Steven Universe, I remember my primary interest being in the lore and main story. Wanting to learn more about the Gems, the world Steven inhabited and how the main conflict would resolve really fuelled my interest while watching. I remember when batches of episodes would drop I would eagerly await the next bit of 'real story' that would drop and push the plot forward. Now coming back to this I know (most) of what happened. I also have the benefit of not having to wait months between new episode releases. All this combined allows me to wholly focus on the other things Steven Universe has to offer as a show. Its artistic direction. Its amazing music. Its great characters and character dynamics. In the lead up to deciding to rewatch Steven Universe, I found myself rewatching important plot scenes yes, but mostly character moments. Compilations fans made of their favourite moments of Garnet, or Pearl or any other character they loved. It was this that pulled me in (alongside a desire to rewatch SU before watching it's sequel series Steven Universe Future for the first time). It's actually insane how good the characters are in this show and if you end up watching SU, don't neglect this part of the show.

Honestly the more I think about it the more I'm impressed by how mature and complex the characters are on reflection. Pretty much all of the main cast has some complicated relationship with the others which informs the way they interact and parse more emotional interpersonal moments. Not only this but the show is very interested in its characters inner lives, and as such exploring the inner turmoil of different characters. I felt like I was going on a therapeutic mental health journey watching the show because of how much it focused on that aspect of its characters. I might have known a lot of it but that didn't dimmish its impact. It's amazing that a kids show tackles this aspect of living when so many other shows do not.

As an aside I need to talk about the music again. The songs in Steven Universe are brilliant. I've been listening to both albums on repeat for the past 2 months. Steven Universe is currently my most listened to artist on Spotify in recent times. If there's at least one reason to watch Steven Universe, besides the amazing plot, great characters, poignant emotional beats - it's the music. And as a final note if you will watch Steven Universe, yes season 1 isn't amazing. It's great in its own right but trust me it gets better every season. So if it's good in season 1 imagine how good it is in season 5.

[Minor Spoilers Start]

One of Steven Universe's strong points has been its music. Speaking personally, I have most of the soundtrack in personal playlists at this point and have been listening non-stop for about a month. One of Steven Universe's best and most fondly remembered episodes is "Mr. Greg" which was a purely musical episode with its stand out song, "It's over, isn't it?" so succinctly capturing Pearl's emotional struggles with her lesbian situationship that it makes you forget how annoying of a character she was for the previous 85 episodes. Point is, the decision to make the movie a musical was an amazing choice, and the fact that the entire movie is full of bangers after bangers is simply the cherry on top.

[Minor Spoilers End]

Steven Universe: The Movie feels like it sits in a very interesting place within the series at large. It was made ostensibly to promote Steven Universe Future in the eyes of Cartoon Network, who greenlit the film on the promise that it was promoting a follow-up season. Seen that way the film feels like it sets up a lot of what we will see get explored much further/heavily in Future. That isn't to discount what the film itself is doing mind, but that I think it's useful to see it as doing partially the work of setting up Steven Universe Future, which given it chronologically sits right next to makes a lot of sense.

[Major Spoilers Start]

One thing I want to talk about is the ending. I think that a lot of people find the ending a little odd. To summarise, Spinel - a character who was abandoned by her only friend for 6000 years wrecks havoc on earth to essentially vent out her frustrations for how she was treated and hurt what Pink/Steven loved to make up for the pain Spinel endured. In a story like this you'd expect Spinel to be entered into the cast in the end - as a new friend with Steven promising to right his mother's wrong. Instead, Spinel joins the Diamonds, who want her around because she reminds them of Pink Diamond. Now I don't have a problem with this. As Steven Universe future goes on to explore more - it isn't on Steven to fix all his mother's problems. And while Steven can get along with Spinel, I think it's clear that Steven can't be what Spinel wants - and he knows that. Instead of forcing himself to be a false friend to Spinel - only perpetuating the problem that his mum did 6000 years ago - Spinel needs to find people who want her for her. And while yes, the diamonds might not be the best candidates, they make it clear in their song they don't see Spinel as a Pink substitute but do want her around for the value Spinel can bring into their lives. It's in the end I think a good enough message that you can't be friends with everyone and you need to find people who will find value in who you are and what you do. In that sense I think the ending is good.

[Major Spoilers End]

Steven Universe Future looked me directly in the eye and said "I know what you're going through". In previous instalments of this blog series I've touched on games that try to elucidate some form of what it is like to deal with depression, or mental health more broadly. Depression Quest and Re:Kinder specifically. While both do a good job at capturing the objective effects of depression on oneself and others, I don't think that any capture the pathos as well as Steven Universe Future does. I saw myself in Steven. I am him.

[Major Spoilers Start]

Before watching Steven Universe Future I kept seeing memes around that paraphrased go something like: "Steven in Steven Universe: Life is great and I have so much hope and happiness; Steven In Steven Universe Future: I'm depressed and sad now" - the meme trying to highlight what some saw as a big shift in the priorities of the two shows. And yes, I don't disagree entirely with the observation that the balance has shifted but I want to combat this idea that it is sudden or not a natural continuation of Steven Universe as a show. As mentioned above, Steven Universe has always been interested in the psycology of its characters, and Steven is no expection. In fact of all the characters who get resolutions or at least make strong progress on their traumas, Steven ends up not resolving a lot of it. Stuff to do with his mum, his family, the people he couldn't save and having to stop a space dictatorship at age 14. This isn't even implied problems, we get episodes where we see inside Steven's head and we know it bothers him. I would already say that exploring mental health was a big priority for the original show and all SU future does is bring it more into the foreground. It ties together so many loose ends and since it's primarily focused in as a character study on Steven can give us a very concentrated exploration of who this person really is. It's amazing. It fits the show so well, it works perfectly for an epilogue and it impacted me greatly.

[Major Spoilers End]

In the penultimate episode "I am my monster", I found myself crying at the final scene, and cried all throughout the final episode and kept crying afterwards. It is hard to put into words I think how much Steven Universe as a show means to me, but it means a hell of a lot. I'm very glad it exists and that I was able to experience it all.