HOLY MUFFINS

"Hades is about escaping hell but he doesn't even escape hell" I mean, are you 100% sure that's the actual story here? I feel like it's more about fixing broken and estranged relationships. You get Patroclus and Achilles back together. You get Orpheus and Euridice back together. Both romances start not as you first meeting each other, but as two broken relationships. Theseus has reached out to the man he killed and apparently made amends, to the point that they are now friends (if not lovers). I think it ending with "and then you get your parents back together, and then you get your dad's family back together" is, in fact, completely tonally consistent, even if the story starts with Zagreus going "fuck this shit I'm out."

"the story is cordoned off in a corner and not during gameplay" your romance options are one of the bosses and a random event room. the olympians youre trying to connect with are constantly giving powerups tied to their personality and domain. when you initiate contact with someone they give you a passive buff, and when you reach a tutning point in certain relationships they give you a super attack. the final boss of every run is your shitty dad.

Do you think Naomi Novik ever looks at AO3

For context: this came out in 2011 in Australia. Same-sex marriage would not be legalized until December 2017.