JustaBard

Something something Trucy and Apollo have a conversation after they Find Out (TM) and Thalassia is there and Apollo is hurt/mad at Phoenix but I think Trucy would be hurt/mad at her and both of them are kind of defending them to each other until they realize they're both feeling similar emotions just delivered in different ways.

Like I always felt like Trucy and Apollo would understand that Thalassia did have an accident that impacted her memory but whereas Apollo feels hurt at Phoenix bc of his relationship with him/how Phoenix has hid stuff from him before Trucy would feel that way towards Thalassia. Why didn't she says anything sooner/what is it about her that kept her away. Of course it's nothing like that but she doesn't know!! Apollo coming back after SOJ to try and sort through this/get to know his Mom and Trucy just feeling like she's outside looking in. Apollo is getting back a mother he never knew due to circumstance. Trucy is getting back a mother who's nothing like the memory she has. She's a stranger to them both but in different ways!! Trucy trying to sort out how she fits into this.

My hot take is that I really dig the story ending? I'm just in the beginning stages of post-credit so I have a lot of side plot lines to get through/bonds to finish forging but I liked it a lot. It's been said before on here but the fact that Mel's game takes a lot from the Odyssey - mirroring so many themes and structure - just brilliant. I'm not upset about the Cronos twist bc Zagreus has never listened to anyone in the first game and tbh I felt it was going that way in this one. Every time he would ask Mel to explain the plan again, it gave me the feeling that a twist was coming. He's in the past! He gets a weird dream for like, 6 nights, from a sister who's not yet born telling him a the vaguest details for a vengeance plan for something that hasn't occurred. I never expected to fully kill Cronos, especially when a couple of characters point out the question "Wait, what WILL happen if we just...destroy the embodiment of time?"

If there are things to explore emotionally, I think that's fair and I understand some of the critique that Mel should have played a bigger role with the Cronos decision (maybe her going back with Zagreus?) I would like to see that play out. At the same time, I can understand why they kept it streamlined. For an indie game company making their first sequel, I think the game play mechanics and story are developed nicely in Hades 2. I had ideas about where the plot was going but I'm not mad it didn't end up there.

Idk, this is a rogue-like game at the end of the day and I think having to build in a story that's done on repeat for players in a unique way is an accomplishment and so I don't hate how it's played out here.

I think the slight tragedy of Mel's life being upended to be different then what she expected TWICE (as a baby and now as a Silver Sister) mirrors Zag's bittersweet ending in the first game.

I do like the idea of Mel and Zag having an emotional scene at some point so that's definitely for the fanfic.