After years of condemning gamers for enjoying attractive female character designs, the Western video game industry has showcased hypocrisy in its reaction to the character designs in Hades II. Proudly proclaiming their desire for each character, the industry demonstrates a “Rules for thee, not for me” mentality.
During a three-hour livestream hosted by Supergiant Games on April 17th, players were treated to the first glimpse of the updated appearances of several Greek gods set to return from the first game: Demeter, Artemis, Selene, and Aphrodite. Additionally, they were introduced to newcomer Hephaesteus, depicted as a portly and wheelchair-bound amputee in this incarnation.
In stark contradiction to their recent accusations, which targeted those who appreciated the attractive design of Stellar Blade protagonist Eve, the wider video game industry, particularly video game journalists, swiftly embraced and celebrated the alluring designs of the Greek gods revealed in Hades II.
Lex Luddy, Editor-in-Chief of the video game news site startmenu, humorously highlighted this shift, stating, “It is very funny that there are chuds out there being like ‘THE WOKE GAMING JOURNALISTS HATE SEXY WOMEN!’ meanwhile my entire timeline is hootin’ and hollerin’ about these Hades 2 character portraits.”
Gaming Outlet Comments
“How did they make them even hotter,” replied GamesRadar and GamesIndustry contributor Alicia Haddick, “they must be stopped.”
Likewise, The Last of Us II Senior Technical Gameplay Animator Maebe Raines exclaimed, “THEY MADE THEM HOTTER”.
Kotaku senior editor Alyssa Mercante – who readers may know for having authored the site’s now notorious defense of Sweet Baby Inc. – took particular interest in Aphrodite, retweeting her design and questioning, “Mommy? Sorry”
Dominic Tarason went on to tweet the following regarding the Hades 2 game updated designs:
Gaming Industry Hypocrisy
Players couldn’t help but notice the stark hypocrisy within the industry as it openly embraced the attractive designs of the Hades II characters, despite previously condemning similar behavior towards characters like NieR: Automata’s 2B, Bayonetta, and Stellar Blade’s Eve.
This inconsistency led to direct calls calling out the industry for its “What you like bad, what I like good” attitude towards media consumption. Instead of acknowledging this hypocrisy or any bias towards conventionally attractive characters, the industry opted to justify its double standard.
In her Kotaku piece titled “Hades II Is The Kind Of Hot We Need Right Now,” Mercante argues that the sexiness of Hades characters is integral to their personalities, akin to their wants, needs, and emotions. She emphasizes that their bodies, despite being scantily clad or portrayed in a salacious manner, are static, unlike characters that can be manipulated or posed. Mercante defends her and her ideological allies’ admiration of these characters by likening it to viewing statues or paintings of gods, where desire is tempered by the inability to physically interact.
She suggests that the allure lies in the power and reclamation embodied by these characters and draws a comparison to the concept of “look, but don’t touch,” often seen in lucrative strip clubs with strict rules on physical contact with performers.
Games Radar staff writer Jasmine Gould-Wilson echoed a sentiment shared on Twitter by user @veedztweets, who remarked, “Aphrodite knows she’s hot, you can tell by how she looks at you. Eve doesn’t. She’s posed but expressionless. Hades 2 has a wide range of character skin tones, ages, body type. Stellar Blade’s women seem to only look like Eve.
Sexy isn’t bad, pretending there’s only one type is.” Gould-Wilson supplemented this by commenting, “Camera angles say it all. Aphrodite is shown from a low angle; she has agency, she is a powerful and intimidating figure. Eve stares blankly at you head-on when you’re not sitting right behind her spandex-covered ass, observing her from above because you have power over her.”
As of now, Stellar Blade is gearing up for its scheduled release on April 26th.
Meanwhile, Hades II is still on course to descend from the heavens sometime in March 2025.
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