How did you all feel about Medusa's eleventh hour deus ex machina during the final battle with Hades? It seemed to divide opinion, some people loved it, some people hated it. As for me, it really irked me, even more so than Medusa being just a pawn of Hades.
OH BOY OH BOY **rubs hands together** Where do I even BEGIN?
First of all: I loved it, I understand how it can feel "deus-ex machina-y", but it isn't as much, any other character could fill the role of buying time for Pit in a similar fashion (any god or Dark Pit, I mean, certainly Magnus or Gaol would be completely outmatched).
One thing we have to consider is the fact that for the first 9 chapters, the Medusa interacting with Pit and Palutena is a
fake, a quick copy made by Hades using random souls and part of her memories in order to distract everyone while he advances his own plans. In a game which already underutilizes her, not having her actually showing up would only add insult to injury, that punch is the only time we see the
real Medusa. The dialogue doesn't contradict the idol, those are 2 different things. The "keeps reviving me" part is a reference to the copy we fight at the beginning of the game, while the Medusa that punches Hades revived herself with Pit's help by Palutena's command after she felt an unknown presence (AKA, Medusa's surviving spirit) trying to emerge from Hades (remember, he consumed a bunch of souls to become the Hades we see in the end, it would make sense if he also consumed Medusa's soul).
Like
meleebrawler
said, that punch does open up interpretation for the character, even if you don't see it.
And this is my interpretation: That punch gave us a hint about 2 things that can add something to Medusa as a character, and also serves as a affirmation of something we already knew about her.
I'll start with what we already knew, which is simpler to explain. One of the defining words for Medusa in this series is
revenge, you screw with her, she'll screw you right back, it doesn't matter who you are. Palutena turned her into a monster, she wants to kill her. Pit killed her, she wants to kill him. Hades used a copy of her as a puppet, she wants to kill him. You ate her chocolate, she wants to kill you. The lesson here is 'don't screw with Medusa' no matter how delicious that chocolate might be.
The 2 new things we can take from that punch are... well, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that's kinda what interpretation is
1 - Her affiliaton, or better said, her independence. She's not with Skyworld anymore, she's isn't a part of the Underworld, either, she's her own faction. She wants to take control of all the worlds (this was either on an idol or the manga, I don't remeber which one) and she'll do it because she wants to, and she'll use whatever or whoever she wants. Hypothesis: Maybe Hades used her for his own plans (if Hades is retroactively added to the original Kid Icarus), but Medusa used him at the same time out of convenience, taking advantage of the Underworld army's power to overthrow Palutena, which would be just the beginning, she'd eventually overthrow Hades, too. She rebeled against Hades because she was always going to, and just how Medusa outlived her usefulness for Hades, so did he for her.
2 - Her strength, resolution, determination or conviction. The fact that she managed to get her soul out of Hades and revive herself (even with Pit's help) shows a tremendous ammount of determination, however misguided it is. She's tenacious, and she'll keep on fighting at all costs and against all odds.
These 2 things make her a strong character in my eyes (they also kinda fit her "rage and revenge" theme). She has her own plans, and she'll do whatever is needed to achieve them, doesn't matter who's blocking her path, she'll take them down. (There's also the whole symbol of feminism thing, which totally fits here, but I doubt Sakurai/whoever wrote the story had that in mind).
The fact that she died almost instantly is addressed in the idol, she was in a weakened state after reviving herself. I could write a wall of text talking about how Medusa's power level isn't shown at all in the game, with many variables and contradictions here and there, but that's a conversation for another day.
If there's gonna be a new Kid Icarus game, I doubt Sakurai will be doing it, he's not fond of sequels.
