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8. ZAGREUS' FAILURE TO MEET HADES' STANDARDS PUT STRAIN ON MEGZAG'S RELATIONSHIP

This is my own imagining of the events that led up to the break-up, which we know was anything but amicable. (I wrote a whole dang fic exploring some of what I think failed in MegZag 1.0, aside from my meta posts.)

At no point do we get any remembrances of Hades seeming pleased with Zagreus' performance at any of the tasks assigned to him. So, time passes, and Zagreus continues not to meet the standards of what he considers worthy. Hades' attempt to instill "the bearing of a god" via Achilles' training seem not to work in the expected way, and Meg's influence doesn't appear to curb his wilfulness either.

(To some extent, Zagreus does acknowledge himself that he used to be a lot more immature before canon, but that's a whole other post for another time.)

I think at this point, Hades probably begins to grow impatient with Meg, seeing no "improvement" in his son. This puts additional pressure on her to perform that duty, and by focusing on the "duty" aspect of the relationship, Zagreus begins to feel more and more disillusioned as his feelings appear to be unrequited; she would not have opened up about any feelings on her side.

This lack of communication eventually leads Zagreus to say some pretty hurtful things, which is what deals the final blow to the relationship. It's possible that he told her hated her, or something of that caliber, if we go by this apology in canon which seems oddly specific:

So yeah, lots of miscommunication, Zagreus grows frustrated and says some very insensitive things, and their relationship falls apart.

9. ZAGREUS FIRED FROM THE ADMINISTRATION CHAMBER

This is the second of the two flashbacks we get to see in canon. Zagreus, who seems to have become rather despondent at this point (he was napping! he overslept! whomst!), is running late to his shift in the Admin Chamber.

This one element in the timeline I'm 100% certain of. It is a flashback. Not only does it get prefaced with "Even earlier..." (contrasting the "Earlier..." that precedes the flashback of Zag finding Persephone's letter), it also shows us Zagreus on duty in the Admin Chamber at a time when the player has not yet been granted access to that room. We are witnessing the event that likely got Zag barred from there.

Note that Zagreus, in this conversation, shows again signs of dissatisfaction with life in the House (he sleeps his days-or-nights away, and complains that every moment is the same). I'll return to this later.

As the player, you interact with any number of tasks in the chamber and perform poorly at them all, leading to an argument with Hades.

This scene has a very "last straw" feel to it, at least to me. Every attempt that Hades has made to mold Zagreus into the son he wanted has failed. This no doubt also contributes to Zag's lack of self-esteem. I'm out of image space for this post, but Zagreus does say to Thanatos at one point, "I used to think I was no good for anything." Yeah.

When he wakes up from his "nap" (jump back to present time), Zagreus says, "At least I can't be late for that job anymore", which is further evidence that we're seeing a flashback.

The next post will be the last one!