Hades

Hades is an antagonist and a member of The Villains.

## Character Information

### Personality

Persuasive, hot-tempered, mysterious, wrathful, evil, sleazy, funny, uncaring, sarcastic, manipulative, envious, laid-back, talkative, selfish, power-hungry, murderous, cunning, sadistic, brazen, conceited, meticulous, blasphemous, comical, abusive, cold, frustrated, paranoid, obsessive, vengeful, spiteful, ruthless, angry, jealous, resentful, egotistical, arrogant

### Goal

To prevent the breaking of the villain contract/To stop the heroes

## **BIOGRAPHY**

Hades was granted ownership of the Underworld by Zeus, unwillingly. Unbeknownst to Zeus and the other deities, however, Hades despises the Underworld, as well as his job, finding them both gloomy, depressing, and overbearing. Because of this, Hades secretly plots to overthrow Zeus and rule Mount Olympus as the King of Deities, himself. Though powerful in his own right, Hades is considerably weaker than Zeus and cannot overthrow him alone. As such, he often allies himself with various beasts and creatures lurking through Greece, hiring them to do his bidding; the most notable example being the Titans, who were imprisoned by Zeus eons ago.

In the Underworld, Hades is aided by his two shapeshifting lackeys, Pain and Panic. The two fear Hades immensely and are used as punching-bags during his outbursts, typically as punishment for their incompetence being a recurring hindrance in Hades' schemes. Despite their constant colossal failures and lies, Hades seems to have a surprising amount of faith in these imps as he continuously sends them out with various missions and tasks, most of which are rather major.

Outside of the Underworld, he is also a member of the villains and protector of a contract Homura Akemi signed.

## **APPEARANCE**

Hades appears as a blue-gray humanoid with flaming blue hair, wearing a black robe and a smoky base. When he gets angry, his skin turns red and he bursts into flames (especially his hair, which becomes yellow-orange). He has yellow eyes and sharp teeth.

## **PERSONALITY**

Hades is generally calm, cool, and collected. Though his machinations are cruel, Hades' informal approach to villainy makes him a widely comedic character with a self-aware and irreverent style of humor (though his jokes are usually played for his own, twisted amusement, and at the expense of others). However, this is partly surface-level; Hades is eternally bitter and imperious, with his most famous trait being his uncontrollably fervid temper. At times, the smallest inconveniences can send Hades over the edge, causing fiery fits and extreme damage to the area and people around him, depending on the situation. This quality makes him a feared figure among Greece and beyond, especially in the eyes of his minions, Pain, and Panic.

For all his power, Hades is no match for his eldest brother. What Hades lacks in physical strength, however, he makes up for in cunning. He is incredibly meticulous with his scheming, going so far as to patiently wait eighteen years to unleash an attack upon Mount Olympus. He is also rather analytical; upon witnessing Hercules' strength firsthand, Hades instantly knew that his newborn nephew could cause issues with his plans and sought to eliminate the problem immediately, albeit unsuccessfully.

In addition to his own intellect, Hades relies on schmoozing to get what he wants, more so than his godly power—acting along the lines of a seedy car salesman or con-artist. Even so, he's an honest god and keeps his end of the bargain with every deal, no matter what the stakes are. Additionally, Hades seems to be willing to give people second chances, as he is constantly giving Pain and Panic important tasks in spite of their constant failures. He is also implied to be somewhat sympathetic to Megara, as he is willing to free Meg (or at least reduce her time of servitude) as long as she helps him conquer the Olympus. Also, when reminding her of how she ended up as his prisoner, Hades called Megara's ex-boyfriend a "creep", implying that even Hades was disgusted by what he did after Meg saved him.

## **TRIVIA**

* Hades' personality and Yiddish mannerisms are said to be based on Jeffrey Katzenberg, a former Disney Studios Chairman who left the company on bad terms to start DreamWorks Animation.
* Hades is one of the few classic villains without a memorable song. However, he does have a recurring instrumental theme, which may be found as "Speak of the Devil" on the *Hercules* soundtrack. In the *Hercules* TV series, Hades sings "My Town" when he takes over Athens.
* It is unclear as to why Hades was not aware that Hercules had not been killed by Pain and Panic back when Hercules was a baby, seeing that he is the Lord of the Dead; the most likely explanation is that he does not keep track of specific details about his role and simply assumed that all had gone according to plan. But in the series, Hades claimed that if someone was dead, he would know about it.
* Hades' appearance in the TV series contradicts the film as he believed that Hercules was dead when he was a teenager during the film. This is an open inconsistency with the production crew to allow him to be written into episodes.
* The Greek god Hades was not evil - in fact, he was one of the more personable deities of Ancient Greece, despite his job as lord of the dead. However, many other versions (for instance *Clash of Titans*) depict him as a villain, like the Disney version.
	+ Another detail regarding Hades that was left out of the film was that he was married to Persephone, the goddess of spring, and the two had a functional relationship. Persephone had been planned to be written into an episode of the *Hercules* animated series as the subject of a custody battle between Hades and Demeter. While Persephone received a design for the show, the episode ultimately went unproduced due to the heavy nature of its plot.
* In the original myths, Hades was one of the six children of the Titan Kronos and the grandson of Gaia, the Earth. The Disney version does not implicate his relationship to Hera, Demeter, or Hestia (who were his sisters in the myth), but it is shown that he, Zeus, and Poseidon are brothers like in mythology (although the myths had Hades as the oldest brother, whereas the Disney version has this the other way around).