The Philosophy of Hades
Hades: How can Hell possibly be so fun?
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The compulsively-playable game Hades is set in the underworld, and involves completing repetitive tasks in hopes of achieving an unattainable goal. And yet, it's one heck of a good time. We'll explain why in this Wisecrack Edition: How to Have a Blast in Hell.
Special Thanks to the people who provided footage for this video!
Marcuz-X ► usworlds.info/tv/V6fC_cNXsqFbPLjKz_ABpg
Kenuty ► usworlds.info/tv/XGd7RegfStA25hUftOyVfw
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=== Watch More Episodes! ===
Cyberpunk 2077: Deep or Dumb? ► wscrk.com/3jNwpbK
The Philosophy of Bojack Horseman ► wscrk.com/2LNvvPW
The Last of Us Part 2: Why is it so Divisive? ► wscrk.com/373tA0S
Written by Ross McIndoe
Hosted by Dr. Kristopher Alexander
Directed by Michael Luxemburg
Motion Graphics by Jackson Maher
Edited by Andrew Nishimura
Video Title Card by Amanda Murphy
Produced by Evan Yee
#hades #supergiant #wisecrack
© 2021 Wisecrack / Omnia Media, Inc
I hope we see more of this guy and video game philosophy.
PLEASE DO XENOGEARS! ITS JUST HAD ITS ANNIVERSARY AND IT IS AMAZING AND I CAN NEVER TRULY UNDERSTAND IT AND NEED HELP! CMON WISECRACK, YOURE MY ONLY HOPE!
You should do an analysis of Demon Slayer, the anime and the movie. The movie became the most seen in Japan, even against a giant like Spirited Away
I have a hammer
There’s a ridiculous amount of spoilers in this
2:20 damn endgame spoiler just like that
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play
Hasanabi brought me here , subbed
gona have to finish it before I watch this...
"Like sisyphus, I am bound to hell" zefrank
HADES ISN'T HELL!!!!
Bring back Jared
poor sisiphus. there is a lot of positivity in this reading of the character from the game but to me the defining trait is his unwillingness to improve his lot. there is some peace to be found in accepting what is not within your control, be it disability, being born poor or even cursed by the god of the underworld to push an enormous boulder up a hill forever, but when it is actually handed to you on a silver platter like sis in the game, or within reach through opportunities or treatments within your means and you decide to do nothing that indicates a problem. it makes me think of those poor dogs in the electrified cages. they were put in a cage with a divider and one side of the floor was electrified to shock the doggo just after they ring a buzzer. they quickly learned the buzzer meant a shock and they would jump to the other side to safety . then the scientists would reset the experiment with both sides electrified and the doggos would learn there is no escape now. they would just lie down and cringe and stop trying to escape, just focus on enduring their misery. because they learned that they couldnt escape those same dogs would not try to escape after they learned their lesson even if the safe zone was restored for subsequent experiments. they would endure because they "knew" they could do nothing. it is learned helplessness. and this makes me think of learned helplessness with a positive attitude.
this guys so happy, i love that
Basically what King Solomon the Wise figured out in his Qoheleth.🤔🧐😳🤬
DUSA 👏 IS 👏 BEST 👏 GIRL
"Smash that subscribe button like it's Theseus's big smug face." I unsubscribed and subscribed just to smash
No run is a waste. Most if not every death progresses the story when you talk to everyone you can.
Really good video!
I dont think this quite acknowledges how much RPG like character progression you get in terms of stats and weapons. Zag aspects are generally shit especally when unupgraded. Mirror is fucking HUUUUUUGE game changer that gives you 3 death defiance, 2 dash, 50 extra starting health, more casts, a fuckload more damage, better boons, and boon rerolls. And you'll be farming darkness for a long ass time to get a full mirror. Upgraded weapons are stupidly OP. You're going from vanilla no bonus Rail to Eris rail's FREE STARTING 75% damage boost. The game doesn't even remotely feel like pushing a boulder up a hill any more than any other rogue lite and it feels LESS like pushing a boulder than rogue likes. I think the absurdist interpretation cannot be applied to this game. Zag doesnt treat it as a meaningless ordeal either because 1. he always has some objective to achieve with the run and 2. pushing a boulder sux. running through hell as fast as possible and deleting bosses with wombo combo boons doesn't suck. The game story doesn't feel pointless and when you look back on what you did, you've done so much and changed so much that it's insane to say you're "back where you started" because Zag isn't back where he started. Instead what happens is Zag does a run and then he goes "back HOME."
Zag should just hook up with Meg and get it over with.
Hades was the least rapey god
the bar is in tartarus
I wish I had a college professor like Dr. Alexander here.
Hmm... reminds me of Getting over it with Bennett Foddy
Completely off topic, but I have to vent. I f****n miss earthling cinema, and thug notes. F***
Hi Wisecrack! I just want to say I really really love this and I'm working on a academic paper on THIS EXACT IDEA thanks for the vote of confidence!!!
1:37 is were the video actually starts.
Unless you hate fun and if so why??? *Further we get into this video the more I like this host.*
This is the only buff Sisyphus I've seen in media; usually, he's depicted as aged, puny and so weak, every step with the boulder is a tribulation.
Omg, this was too "charred" for my taste. NOPE!
Awesome vid
Legit one of the best games of all time imo
nice to see this game being talked about in such a positive light
Where is earthling cinema?
Yeah, this is all based on a premise that there is no greater meaning that is came to with people who have no more answers then... "There are no more answers." Yeah, I'll go with god over that any day. Especially if god is who created the universe. A place without god would be as unrecognizable as a place without air or life or gravity or atoms. So I'm definitely taking my chances looking for something greater. Also... Just because the world is absurd doesn't mean it has to be or that is the only way it can be. That is a fallacy that "Things are right because they are as they are." Now while that is true for Atoms, is is vastly less true for murdering children due to our capacity for free will. Ir are potential for choice. *And it's a choice to believe there is no greater meaning, by no means is it a fact with any proof.*
I want the Hades narrative approach (drip feeding through gameplay loops) to be injected into every other genre. Give me a Dark Souls where the Firekeeper always has something new to say every respawn, or an XCOM where an extensive dialog tree evolves alongside squadmate relationships.
Whoever wrote this video completely missed the point on Camus. Other videos on this channel do a much better job with his brand of existentialism.
I spoted that kamu refrnce a mile ahead
What the fuck is that shirt you're wearing supposed to be? It's like you took a jean colored button-up shirt and stapled two pieces of a flannel shirt on the shoulders
We can learn a lot from Greek Mythology.
Incredible game, great video!
i hate his shirt.
i miss this guy
I loved this! Thank you!
I'm sooooooooo happy about this video we need more videos on this game
....
Hades came out in 2018 not 2020... That’s like saying 1995’s Donkey Kong Country 2 came out in 2020 just because it finally arrived on the Switch that year. 🙄
Hades went out of early access in 2020 so it did come out in 2020.
>Watch video >Add Hades to Steam wishlist
Oh my, what would Jared say if he saw what this channel has come to... Shoehorning philosophy ideas into random products is wearing a little thin here...
@Tyko Brian hmm, maybe its unfounded speculation. Guess i should have checked it out before making that comment. My bad
Lol HADES isn't just some random game!
I was playing Hades while watching this. Beat it on heat 13 with a dodge chance of 106%
I don't think Wisecrack realises this but they're perverting the myth of Sisyphus. If you replace the boulder with daily work and toil-you get a modern day lie; struggle and things will get better. There's something deeply wrong with how we apply this philosophy of struggle to our capitalistic, industrial modern lives. Add the fact that Sisyphus's boulder (work) may be contributing to climate change/environmental destruction; and you basically have him eroding away the foundation upon which he's rolling his boulder. What happens when the boulder falls off the eroded foundation into the abyss? i.e when we end up destroying our world through our toil. My guess is that Sisyphus will jump into the abyss of non being after his boulder; because its all he ever knew.
Zagreus IS the friends (and lovers) we've made along the way!
I look forward to experiencing this game … when its time comes. Supergiant keeps getting better and better it seems.
So, the friends one finds along the way of actually getting somewhere are not true friends.
Didn't even mention that he had a character named Zagreus in Camus first novel, A Happy Death. smh
Never played it but the game's message seems pretty clear lol still, good video
Life only means something in a moment, but in relation to how time can feel to other people, we have much more meaning. It's hard to be a source of contentment for ourselves, but it's pretty easy to find out how to make other people feel content. I'm general, but also specifically for another individual.
Animal Crossing is the true absurdist video game
Can you do a philosophy on Mel brooks?
Hades or how I learned to stop worrying and just run though the underworld
10:46 Hades is not hell. Tartaros is.
At first I was think "ugh another Myth of Sisyphus video" but this was really interesting and added in the relationship element rather than just the same basic boulder up a hill idea. Great video!!!
The only part of this video that I object to is Zeus being included on the "friends and family" slide like he isn't Completely Terrible. Zeus does not deserve to share the same frame with Best Boy Cerberus, okay.
Why does he look like an elongated gary coleman?
Any cod fans recognize the song at 11:20?
Do people here understand that the Underworld is not Hell? Because most of the comments are calling this place Hell.
we are one a grain of dust in the universe.
All good, but what happened to Thug Notes?
Enlightening!
Love this idea
There's also the fact that Achilles muses in the codex that Zagreus is the god of Blood and Life, completing the metaphor
It felt good to see Wisecrack kind of go back and do entertainment essays through philosophy. It's the reason I followed this channel in the 1st place
Wait, did Supergiant imagine Sisyphus happy?
You do the dishes enough times, you begin to accept it. Do the dishes even more times and you begin to enjoy it.
Don’t enjoy the thunderbolts. Don’t stop and smell the roses. This is Hell. Stop and pet the dog. Always.
Cool video!
I saw Camus so I clicked!
A smart black person hmmmm
A very well done video
Please bro shut up you hurt my feelings on this one please take back everything you said. It can’t be bro it just can’t be.
So,the fallout series...
Heavy FUCKING Spoilers!!!!
should've been game of the year
It is
I think the greater message of Hades can be summed into that famous lyrics: "You can't always get what you want But if you try sometime you find You get what you need" While Zagreus cannot find the final capital M Meaning of life, the universe and everything, because they might as well not be one from an absurdist point of view, by trying to find what he decides is the ultimate goal (Live with his mother in the surface world), he finds what he 'needs'. By which I mean he creates a much better existence from him the the House of Hades. It goes beyond imaging sisyphus happy. All the underworld inhabitants who are 'resigned' to their lot, Achilles, Dusa, Orpheus, Hades himself, are miserable, or just numb and depressed. Zagreus quest shakes the status quo and even if nothing fundamentally changes about their lives (or deaths), as they remain pretty close to where they started, the little that Zagreus convinces them to move out of their comfort zone is enough to seemingly make them significantly happier. I'd argue that the message in Hades is that merely being content to push our boulder is not the way to go. We should not just imagine Sisyphus happy, but we must imagine sisyphus optimistic. By putting genuine effort and perseverance towards a given goal, by being earnest and honest and relentless, even if we can't find the big M Meaning of it all, even if there's no big M Meaning, we can still create a better life for those around us. I think Hades is a message against resignation, ennui and blasé approach to life. It's Zagreus fiery passion that ignites significant change.
Fuck you. No spoiler alert.
Man I really hope we get to see more of Christ in the future. His the kind of guy that you would listen to as he geeks out about anything and also feeling exited of what he is talking.
People are what gives life meaning and purpose,we can blame people for bringing us here, and we can use them to make it worthwhile. It is all about the "friends you make along the way".
"Am I too, doing a Camus" Love it lol
The lesson I learnt is always take the double dash boon. ALWAYS!
Just shows that lessons learned from Greek Mythology is still relevant today.
Hades is not hell though. I recommend Miscellaneous Myths: Hades and Persephone by overly sarcastic podcast. Calling Hades hell is sort of calling pockemons demons. Something inpotrant has got lost in translation. ps sorry about the spelling.
"Am I too, doing a Camu?" LOL. love the presenter of this episode, great watch
Wouldn´t sisyphus living in a plato cave?
Don’t know if you guys at wisecrack have seen it, but I’d love to see either a “Deep or Dumb” or a “What went wrong?” about the movie The Cycle based on the book by Dave Edgars. The book was pretty well received and considered thought provoking, but the movie totally flopped. I’m curious of your take on it.
Maybe the real Hell was the friends we made along the way.
Jean-Paul Sartre said, "Hell is other people." Ross Scott retorted, "Hell is just your teammates."
This game gets a lot of Greek mythology wrong. I don't really like analyzing the underworld as hell. Both good and bad people go there in Greek mythology. It isn't really like the Christian hell.
I like this guy
Philosophy of Trigun! Philosophy of Trigun! Philosophy of Trigun! Philosophy of Trigun! Philosophy of Trigun!
Ya know, you'd love Metal Gear Rising
Anyone with good sense should reject resignation, defeatism, fatalism and narrow thinking. Trash game. 0/10.