Hades

**Hades** is the main antagonist of *Hercules*. He is the fast-talking god of the Underworld with a fiery temper and a vendetta against his eldest brother, Zeus. In secrecy, Hades hatches a scheme to take over Mount Olympus and the cosmos, but a prophecy by the Fates foretells that a hero will rise against him and end his reign.

While the Hades of Greek mythology was not particularly malevolent, the Disney version portrays him as an evil figure, albeit comedic. This interpretation of the character proved successful, making Hades one of the most popular Disney Villains, and a primary member of the franchise.

## Background

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 hinderance 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.

Hades is hot-headed, both figuratively and literally. When relaxed or upbeat, his flaming hair and skin retain a calming blue color. When angered, his hair and face become a passionate red/orange.

### Development

Originally, Hades was envisioned as a more somber and dramatic villain, in a similar vein of Ursula from *The Little Mermaid* or Jafar from *Aladdin*. This early, slow-talking portrayal of the character was intended to be played by Jack Nicholson; so much so, that character designer Gerald Scarfe's initial sketches of Hades bore a resemblance to Nicholson. Nicholson visited the studio and met with directors John Musker and Ron Clements in 1995 to familiarize himself with the character. However, Nicholson left the project because he demanded $10-$15 million, plus a 50% cut of all the proceeds from Hades merchandise, of which Disney declined.

### Voice

In addition to Nicholson, Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, and John Lithgow were once considered for the role of Hades. Lithgow was released from the role because the directors thought he did not work. Like with the original Nicholson version, Hades was still portrayed in a fairly serious light during auditions. The direction of the character altered greatly, however, when James Woods auditioned for the role. As the procedure with the previous actors, Woods was asked to give a straightforward performance. Under the belief that he wasn't right for that portrayal, Woods approached Hades casually, delivering dialogue as if he were sleazy car salesmen. This impressed the filmmakers so much that the character was rewritten into a comical villain with a heavy emphasis on humor. Some of Hades' most memorable lines were ad-libbed by Woods. In the decades following the release of *Hercules*, Woods has remained openly fond and protective of the role of Hades, and has gone on record saying he will always return to reprise the role should the character be used for any purpose—true to his word, Woods has voiced Hades in everything from television shows, video games, and theme park attractions for over two decades.

### 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.

### Physical 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 a more accurate yellow-orange). He has yellow eyes and sharp teeth.

### Powers and abilities

* **Immortality:** As a god, Hades lives eternally. He does not age, nor can he die.
* **Endurance:** Though his endurance is extremely high (being able to withstand lava and freezing cold temperatures), Hades is not impervious to pain, evidenced by his fear of Zeus and his lightning bolts.
* **Fire Manipulation:** Much like Zeus with clouds and lightning, Hades' power is mainly derived from fire and smoke (so much so, that his "hair" is made of flames). Hades can summon fire at will to attack his enemies and cause damage to anything in his vicinity. The extent of his literal firepower is practically unlimited, as he was able to burn an entire forest to the ground in a matter of seconds as a result of an outburst. His fire is fatal to mortals and can be severely damaging to otherworldly beings (as seen with Pain and Panic) or even deities (as seen with Hecate).
* **Smoke Manipulation:** With smoke, Hades can conjure objects and creatures from thin air. He also uses smoke as a means to teleport himself with the snap of a finger. Hades' cloak appears to be made of smoke, specifically at its base. Hades can also turn his arms into extendable, smokey appendages and use them to grab things (or people) from a distance.
* **Alchemy:** Hades appears to dabble in alchemical practices as he has a potion stored within the Underworld with the power to turn gods into mortals.
* **Dominion over the Dead:** As the Lord of the Underworld, Hades holds dominion over the dead and the spirits of those who died. Regardless, he does not *rule* the dead in the Underworld as the spirits in the River Styx have apparently threatened him at least once and they dragged him down the Styx upon his defeat.

## Appearances

### *Hercules*

Hades is first seen appearing on Mount Olympus during Hercules' christening. None of the gods are happy to see him. After greeting them, Hades goes up to Baby Hercules' crib and attempts to put a spiked skull-shaped pacifier into the baby's mouth. He almost succeeds, but then the baby grabs and squeezes his finger, causing him to drop the pacifier and he begins to insult Hercules under his breath. After Zeus fails to cheer him up, Hades leaves in pain. Humiliated by his brother in front of the other deities, he leaves Olympus to the Underworld to plan his takeover of Olympus. Hades asks Pain and Panic if the Fates have arrived before they reveal the Fates are waiting for him. Angered his minions had not previously alerted him, Hades goes and consults with the Fates on his plan to take over Mount Olympus. They tell him that when the planets align eighteen years later, Hades will be able to unleash the horrible Titans and that they would lead him to victory and power. However, if Hercules intervenes, this will all backfire.

Hades sends Pain and Panic to turn Hercules mortal with a special potion so that they can kill him, but as Hercules does not drink the last drop, he retains his godlike strength and uses it to defend himself. Pain and Panic cover for their failure by claiming they killed Hercules, allowing Hades to continue with his planning. In the mix, he comes across a girl named Megara who sells her soul to him in order to save her boyfriend's life. However, once he has revived, the boy abandons Meg for another woman, breaking her heart and leaving her in Hades' hands. Since then, Meg has been working with Hades to rule Olympus, though she merely does so because she has no choice, and often mocks the god's temper with a sarcastic quip. Years later, Hades sends Meg to recruit Nessus. This backfires, however, when Hercules intervenes. When Hades discovers through this that Hercules was still alive, he takes matters into his own hands, by sending an army of monsters to defeat Hercules, beginning with the Hydra. But when his monsters fail to defeat Hercules, he sends Megara to seduce Hercules and find his weakness.

Megara falls in love with Hercules on their following date and forgets about the mission, simply saying that he has no weakness when he asks. Hades deduces that Hercules' love for Megara is his weakness and uses her to trick Hercules into giving up his godlike strength for a day for Meg's safety. Hercules agrees and Hades, knowing Hercules will not interfere, not only unleashes the Titans at last but also sends the Cyclops to kill Hercules while he is powerless. Meanwhile, Hades ignites an attack on Mount Olympus, successfully imprisoning Zeus and the others deities in the process, thus allowing the throne to fall into his hands. During the Cyclops' attack on Hercules, a pillar falls on Meg, severely injuring her. This breaks Hades' promise that Meg would not be hurt, causing Hercules to regain his strength. Hercules proceeds to go to Mount Olympus, where he engages the Titans and eventually defeats them, thwarting Hades's invasion. However, Meg has died because of her injuries (thanks to the Fates clipping her life thread) and Hades claims her soul as his consolation prize, knowing how much her death will hurt Hercules.

Hercules storms into the Underworld subdues Cerberus and confronts Hades, demanding he returns Meg to him. Hades smugly explains to Hercules that Meg is dead and he cannot have her back. Hercules offers his soul in exchange for Meg's and Hades displays a moment of being genre savvy, seeing the deal as almost too good to be true. However, he decides to agree on the condition that Hercules must retrieve her himself. It is not until Hercules has already dived into the River Styx that Hades shouts that the former will be dead before he can reach Meg. The Fates attempt to cut Hercules' life thread, but are unable to. Hercules' genuinely heroic sacrifice causes him to become a god, making him immortal. Hercules emerges from the river, carrying Meg's soul. Hades, astounded, attempts to smooth-talk Hercules again, who angrily punches him, sending Hades into the river, where he is swarmed by the souls trapped inside and dragged into its depths. It is unknown what happened to him afterward, though Pain and Panic's commentary implies that Hades may be trapped within the river for quite some time, if not eternity.

During the end credits when the thanks to the staff are shown, Hades' voice is heard saying that everyone's got a happy ending but him. Then he asks if anyone's listening and if he's talking to hyperspace.

### *Hercules: The Animated Series*

Contrary to film canon, where Hades was unaware of Hercules' survival until the demigod was 18, the animated series shows that Hades often faces off against a teenage Hercules. Hades tries many different schemes to destroy Hercules and take over Olympus, plans including exposing the other gods to water from the river Lethe- thus making them all forget their original roles and leaving him free to take over -diverting the River Styx into Greece, or killing Zeus when he temporarily made himself mortal to prove a point to Hercules. Despite all these transgressions, he is never expelled from godhood, frequently being summoned to Mount Olympus for job-related matters afterward.

Hades is shown to have a very poor working relationship with those in his service, primarily the witch Hecate, who frequently attempts to usurp control of the underworld out from under him. Despite Hades attempts to frequently abandon the underworld for Mount Olympus, he seems protective of the job when it is threatened to be taken away from him.

In one episode, he notably teamed up with Aladdin's deceased arch-enemy Jafar and used subsequent attempts to defeat each other's enemies. They didn't always get along however and sometimes argued. Hades found Jafar annoying because he hated his puns and evil laugh, thinking of him as a freak. Their evil plans failed when they underestimated the value of Hercules's strength and Aladdin's ingenuity, culminating in the two teaming up to stop Hades and send Jafar back to the Underworld for good.

In "Hercules and the Tapestry of Fate", thanks to Icarus' and Hercules' messing with the Tapestry of Fate, Hades is alerted to the Tapestry's existence, allowing him to create an alternate reality where Hades is King of Olympus, while Zeus became Lord of the Underworld. They eventually got into a fight nearing the end of the episode, and the reality was undone after Hercules destroyed the tapestry binding the reality together (which also resulted in Hercules getting tickets to a canceled concert that he had earlier not been able to get due to Prince Adonis beating him out of it).

### *House of Mouse*

Hades has several notable appearances on the series. In one episode, "Halloween With Hades", Hades had a crush on Maleficent. His first attempt to woo Maleficent fails, so he goes to Mickey Mouse for advice. Mickey tells Hades to try to be nice, but this fails too since Maleficent loathes him being nice. Hades attempts to take his anger out on Mickey until Maleficent discovers how cruel he is towards Mickey and decides to date him.

Another notable appearance by Hades in *House of Mouse* is "Suddenly Hades", where Pete destroys the House's thermostat and all the guests leave due to the heat, except for Hades, who enjoys the heat. Mickey and friends then try their best to keep Hades in the House (since Mickey's contract states that the House stays open as long as the show goes on, he would be obliged to close the House down if there were no guests whatsoever). One way in which Mickey tried to keep Hades included an act from Chernabog, a sort of fast-forward version of Night on Bald Mountain. Hades loved it ("Hey! It's the old act! I love this guy!"). Hades eventually left when Pete flooded the House, but this allowed *The Little Mermaid* characters to enter the House instead.

In the episode "House Ghosts", his bloopers reel was shown on the big screen, humiliating him so badly that he tortures his minion's Pain and Panic for no particular reason.

Hades is one of the main villains in *Mickey's House of Villains* as well, though he does not take part in the initial scheming at the beginning of the film. Hades was also seen in *Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse*, alongside Jafar and Captain Hook during the finale song.

### Other appearances

In the *Descendants: Wicked World* episode "Pair of Sneakers", Hades appears as a statue in a shop on the Isle of the Lost.

## 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).
* He seems to have a strong hatred for the Goddess of the Night, Hecate, calling her a "witch" at the conference of the Olympians. She, in turn, wants his throne and steals his power.
* Hades is one of the few villains with historic significance. Others include Prince John, John Ratcliffe, Chernabog, Arawn, and the Hun Army.
* Hades is the only villain to meet another Disney villain in media canon to his film of origin, having conspired with Jafar in the *Hercules* TV series.
* In the film, Hades is also the only deity that lacks a glowing aura, instead possessing smoke emitting from the base of his robe.
* Hades is depicted in the Disney movie with control over fire, pyromancy, whereas fire is actually an element not related with Hades, being earth and gold, actually the closest element to Hades; the fire is probably to give him some association with the common idea of the Devil, augmenting the idea of villain and comically with his "hot-head" personality.
* Because blue flame burns at a higher temperature than regular red/orange flame, the implication that Hades turns red when he gets angry he "heats-up" is inaccurate. Technically, Hades is hotter when he is calm than when he is angry. However, blue is a color calmness and red is one of anger, so it could just simply be the color scheme.
* Hades is probably the oldest of the Disney Villains, due to him being an immortal god.
* Hades' name is used in the name of a level in *Disney Heroes: Battle Mode*, called "Hades Street".
* Hades become Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's enemy in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle Meets Hercules.*
* Hades guest star to get revenge on Thomas, Twilight and their friends for foiling his plans to take over Mount Olympus.

## Gallery

Hades with his brother, ZeusHades and Charon.Hades with the FatesHades with his minions Pain and Panic."Whoa, is my hair out?"Hades' defeat.Hades during one of his fiery tantrums.Hades and Megara."What?!"Hades with Jafar in Hercules and the Arabian Night.Hades imitating Jafar.Hades with one of his big brothers, Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea in the Hercules series.Hades in Hercules: the Animated Series.Hades in Mickey's House of Villains.Hades with Captain Hook and Cruella De VilHades using Lumière to light his headHades and Mr. T in House of Mouse.Hades in love with Maleficent in House of Mouse.Hades dress as Mickey MouseZeus blows out Hades' "hair" in Toon Disney's Magical World of Toons intro.Hades in Descendants 3