“Racebending” in the Hades series isn’t “breaking immersion”
Supergiant’s Hades and Hades II are arguably the “it girls” of Greek mythology video games.
And don’t just take it from me.
Hades is often ranked in one of the top spots—even the top spot for The Gamer and Cultured Vultures—in best Greek mythology video games lists. The series’ first installment, Hades, released in 2020. It was immediately decorated with critical acclaim and awards, and won more than fifty Game of the Year awards. The sequel, Hades II, was announced at The Game Awards 2022, and nominated the following year for Most Anticipated Game. Last month, its early access release doubled Hades’ all-time peak player count on Steam, breaking the original game’s record in less than 24 hours.
So, who exactly are the people expressing their dissatisfaction, claiming that the character designs of Hades’ Greek pantheon break their immersion?
When early access and art of Hades II released in early May, people took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to criticize Hestia and Hermes’ character designs. One user's post read, “Everybody talking about Hestia in Hades 2 but can we also acknowledge that Hermes literally looks ASIAN / These are all Greek gods, why do some characters not look Greek?”
After the post started to gain traction and gather heated discourse, the original user followed up with, “(...) this has nothing to do with culture war bullsh*t, it has everything to do with design choices that take me out of the story because they're out of place and don't make sense.”
Several replies under the post echoed the same sentiment, with one reply adding that western studios, namely Supergiant, “do things that don’t necessarily make sense in the name of diversity and inclusion, sadly not immersion.” Another reply simply declares, “Because woke infected them and they cannot NOT make a mythologically accurate game.”
It would be too easy of a blow to say that citing “the woke” makes this line of argument ineffective.
However, unpacking the points claiming that “racebending” Greek pantheon as people of color is “inaccurate” and “immersion-breaking” would easily reveal where that argument falls short, and maybe—dare I be hopeful in the hellscape of internet discourse—change some minds and bring them over to the “woke” side. So let’s do it anyway.
Essentially, the argument that “racebending” the characters Hades and Hades 2 “breaks immersion” completely misses the point of the video game series and mythology.
At the very least, the argument is weak and limited, misunderstanding what Supergiant is trying to achieve with Hades and Hades 2. By design, the video game series is not necessarily about page-to-screen accuracy, but rather creative interpretation, and Supergiant never tries to fool the player into thinking it’s meant to be otherwise.
In an interview with Kotaku, Greg Kasavin, the creative director of Supergiant Games, addressed the breadth of diverse character designs of the Greek pantheon.
Kasavin explained, “As we discussed and researched the Olympians from canon sources, something stood out that in retrospect was obvious: They’re called the Greek gods because they were worshiped in ancient Greece, not because they themselves are ethnically Greek. (...) Zeus rules all the heavens, not just the airspace over Greece. Poseidon rules all the sea and land. They sprang from the Titans, who sprang from primordial Chaos, the source of all creation. So it stands to reason that the gods represent all the people of the world, at least indirectly.”
Basically, Supergiant is dealing with ancient Greek mythology. An abstract tale from an ancient land, that is unlike our current notion of Greece and whatever racial demographic we have come to expect of that land. Therefore, there is no canon to a racial portrayal of a Greek pantheon, and so, there can be no “racebending” that can break your immersion.
This is why I have written and will write “racebending” in quotation marks throughout this article—there is no race to bend.
The rules of a canon don’t apply to mythology that are, as it is written, so open to interpretation.
It is entirely unnecessary to limit mythology to a singular interpretation that perpetuates a singular approach to storytelling, divinity and society. Even more so, it is entirely unnecessary to do so in an explicitly generous reimagination of Greek mythology, where even its origins are already so nonsensical, to be frank. Limiting yourself to the “original Greek mythology canon” would be to attach yourself to the Zeus that had children with multiple women in multiple non-human forms without consent.
If you limit your immersion into that singular canon, then claim that “racebending” would be inaccurate and break your immersion, you would be admitting that people of color are the only thing that disturbs you.
At its worst, the argument is exclusionary and prejudiced, rejecting the notion that people of color could rightfully belong in mythology and video games. By claiming there is one true version of Greek mythology in which representing people of color would be a distortion of, there is the implication that race is a line in mythology, and by extension, divinity and storytelling.
Historically speaking, that line will always be biased and intolerant. While this argument might initially appear to be based on objective facts, a closer look at how truth and storytelling has been upheld will reveal that the canon always depends on those in power and control.
The canon, if there is one, will always serve those with a voice and neglects those who are silenced.
This is why racebending characters of color to be White does not have the same discriminatory effect, because it would be operating on the same power dynamic of White superiority.
When characters of color are racebent as White, the same message is being said: These characters should be White. That would be accurate, that would be immersive—that would be right.
But what you are doing is reinforcing what should and should not be, which isn’t the same thing as what is right and wrong.
And that’s not really coming from a place of caring about Greek mythology, is it?
If I haven’t lost you yet, heed me before you go: stop using “woke” and “Greek mythology” in the same sentence, much less within the same argument. Please, it just isn’t right. The ancient Greeks are turning in their graves.
Maybe this is your first time encountering Greek mythology interpretations outside busty young girls in anime, but I promise there’s nothing to be scared about. In fact, welcome! Leave your prejudices at the door, and please stay.
Within Supergiant’s Hades video game series, you’ll find that characters of color, queer characters, disabled characters, and a Zeus that isn’t a freak, are merely just a part of interpreting Greek mythology today.
If we are to hope for an inclusive culture of storytelling and art, then we have to believe that everyone deserves to be a deity.