Hades

Hades is the Greek God of the Underworld and the main antagonist of Disney's 1997 film Hercules and its television series. While the Hades of Greek Mythology was not particularly malevolent, he is made into an evil Satan-like figure in the Disney film, where he attempts to steal his brother Zeus's throne as ruler of Mount Olympus. He is voiced by James Woods.

Personality
Hades appears as a blue-grey humanoid with flaming hair and a smoky base who is normally eccentric and cynical, but is very easily angered. Also in the movie, and TV series Hades is referred to as Zeus's younger brother when in fact he is the eldest brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, and Hera. Hestia is also his sister but she is older than him.

Powers and Abilities
As a god and one of the sons of Kronos Hades is a very powerful being though his powers are surpassed by his brother Zeus, and are rivaled by his brother Poseidon.

He has many powers, including immortality, regeneration, teleportation, levitation, intangibility, and control over fire and smoke. Over his many appearences he has displayed a wide range of additional magical power including stripping Hercules of his strength, conjuring plagues, size adjustment and granting vast magical powers to others as well as restoring them to life. He possesses some level of superhuman strength, but it is below that of Hercules and presumable his brother Zeus. As an immortal he cannot die, but can still feel pain such as from Zeus's thunderbolts.

Hades is also a very talented trickster and fast talker, able to convince almost anyone to work for him. He frequently makes promises to fulfill the wishes of others, but is usually working his own angle.

Role in the film
Early in the film, Hades 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 unleash the horrible Titans and that they would lead him to victory. However, if Hercules fought, Hades would fail.

Hades decides to nip the Hercules threat in the bud by having Pain and Panic feed the infant Hercules a potion that will make him mortal,. However, Hercules doesn't drink the last drop of the potion, meaning he still retains his godlike strength. Years later, when Hades discovers Hercules was still alive, he takes matters into his own hands, attempting to recruit an army of monsters to defeat Hercules.

When Hades discovers that Hercules could not be defeated by his monsters, he sends Megara to seduce Hercules and find his weakness. She falls in love with Hercules on their date and forgets about the mission, simply saying that he has no weakness. Hades deducts that Hercules's love for Megera is his weakness and uses her to trick Hercules into giving up his godlike strength for Meg's safety. Hercules agrees, and Hades, knowing Hercules will not interfere, not only unleashes the Titans but also sends the Cyclops to kill Hercules while he is powerless.

During the Cyclops's 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, defeating the Titans and thwarting Hades' invasion. However, Meg has died because of her injuries, 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 him to return Meg. Hades smugly explains to Hercules that Meg is dead, and he can't 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 in that he shouts that he'll be dead before he can get to her. 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, and Hades, astounded, attempts to smooth-talk Hercules again, who angrily punches him, sending Hades into the Styx, where he is swarmed by the souls trapped inside and dragged into its depths.

Seeing as Hades is a god and therefore immortal, and the fact that no chronological sequel to Hercules exists, Hades' ultimate fate is uncertain, but so far his most likely fate is that he remains trapped in the River Styx - at least until a sequel lets him climb out.

In the end, Hades caused his own downfall; Hades' efforts to neutralize Hercules were what caused him to learn of his plans and provoked him to fight against Hades, and inevitably resulted in his god-hood being restored. Hercules knocks him into the River Styx where the souls attack him pulling him down. He is presumable still trapped in the river.

Hercules: The Animated Series
Hades makes numerous appearances in the series based off Hercules's film. 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. In one episode, he notably teamed up with Jafar from Aladdin, but their subsequent attempts to defeat each other's enemies 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.

House of Mouse
Hades makes many appearances in the animated series House of Mouse. Hades has several notable appearances on the series. In one episode, 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. Hades attempts to take his anger out on Mickey until Maleficent discover how cruel he is being to Mickey and decides to date him.

Another notable appearance by Hades in House of Mouse is 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).

Hades is also 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.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Hades convinces Terra to duel Zack for him in the Coliseum. He flees when Zack is defeated, but reappears when Aqua arrives. Hades challenges Aqua, fighting her alongside the Ice Colossus, but is defeated.

Kingdom Hearts
When Maleficent began her conquest of the worlds, Hades became one of her allies, and apparently was the most powerful villain on her team aside from her. He utilized the Heartless by supplying them as monsters to the Olympus Coliseum, for heroes to battle as usual. However, he also gained the assistance of Cloud Strife by making a deal: if Cloud kills Hercules, Hades will lead him to Sephiroth (who he apparently does know the location of, as Sephiroth is indeed at the coliseum). Hades additionally provided Sora with a pass to enter the coliseum games. When Sora appeared to be winning in the Coliseum however, Hades instructed Cloud to kill Sora as well. When the plan failed (either with Cloud refusing to deal the final blow to Sora, or with Sora defeating Cloud; it depends on the result of the battle), Hades had Cerberus attack Cloud. However, Hercules rescued Cloud and Sora defeated Cerberus.

As Sora left the Coliseum, Maleficent warned Hades not to be overcome by the darkness. Hades sent Maleficent away, claiming he could handle it. Though he ironically was not overcome at all (while the rest of Maleficent's followers and Maleficent herself ended up being overcome, with the other exception of Captain Hook). Strangely, Maleficent overlooked the fact that Hades was the immortal god of the dark underworld. This lead to the inevitable irony of Hades outliving Maleficent as well as being currently the only villain in the whole series to show up in all the games and survive and will probably continue to survive due to him being a god.

When Hades learned of Maleficent's demise, he took matters into his own hands. Hades, determined on personally defeating both Hercules and Sora, opened the Hades Cup in the Coliseum. The long, grueling tournament had a battle with him near the end. Unfortunately for Hades, Sora defeated him in the battle, knocking him into a cell where he was beaten up by someone. After a few more battles in the cup, though, Hades decided on a way for revenge.

In events very much like those in Hercules, Hades unleashed the four Titans upon the world (although only two are seen, it can be guessed that the other two and possibly the Cyclops were as well). When Sora reached the final rank in the tournament, he had to combat the Rock Titan. Upon its defeat, Hades apparently went into hiding.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
When Sora and his friends are in Castle Oblivion, Hades makes an appearance as a figment of Sora's memories. He, like before, hired Cloud to defeat Hercules. Hades made a deal with Cloud to restore Cloud's lost memories. Eventually Cloud was unable to defeat Hercules so the Lord of the Dead was forced to fight Hercules personally. Sora intervenes which leads to a battle against him. Defeating him grants you his character card.

First Visit
Hades again appears as an antagonist when a re-awakened Sora visits the Coliseum, but most of his dealings take place in the Underworld in this game. This time, in an effort to destroy Hercules, he tries to strike a deal with the dead Auron (whom he calls "The Mother of All Bad Guys"). He offers him his life back with a clean slate, on the condition that he "Fight Hercules. In the Coliseum. To the death!" Auron refuses this offer. When Hades reminds him that he is talking to the Lord of the Dead, he responds "No wonder no one wants to die." Hades becomes enraged, and almost strikes Auron down until Sora arrives, needing to speak to him. But it ended up with Sora and gang running for it as Hades is invincible within his domain, and they are weakened by the Underworld's curse.

Pete suggests waiting for the Heartless to take care of Sora and company, but Hades knows better and dispatches Cerberus to take care of them instead. However, Sora and Auron defeat Cerberus and escape when Sora unlocks a door with the Keyblade. Learning that the Keyblade can open any lock, Hades decides to steal it and reopen the Underdrome, a coliseum locked up by Zeus long ago that makes the Olympus Coliseum itself "look like an Olympic kiddie pool". When Pete informs him that the Keyblade won't work for just anyone and the fact that Sora is a lot tougher than he looks, Hades decides to apply "a woman's touch" to his plans. To this end, he kidnaps Meg and traps her in the Underdrome. This means Sora must use the Keyblade to rescue her, unsealing the Underdrome in the process. Hades also sent a Hydra after Hercules so he would be out of the way. Hades's plan worked and Sora opened the Underdrome to save Meg. Pete was waiting in ambush, but Sora still managed to save Meg with Hercules' help. He tells Sora to take Meg as he confronts Pete, but Sora, after taking Meg to safety, returns and together they beat Pete who retreats. At the exit of the Underworld Hades confronts them and reminds Hercules about the Hydra which he had neglected to finish off completely. They entered the Coliseum to see it in ruins with the Hydra towering over it. The Hydra is defeated, but Hercules lost his strength and will, because of the guilt that he had since he had not completely destroyed the Hydra.

Second Visit
To celebrate the Underdrome's re-opening, Hades decides to hold the Hades Cup, in the hopes of killing the weakened Hercules once again. Trapping Auron's soul in a statue, he ordered him to take care of Hercules and Sora once and for all. But inevitably, the scheme fails, as Sora found Auron's statue and gave him back his soul. A furious Hades dumps Meg into the River Styx with Hercules diving after her. Confident they'll be dead within moments, Hades overpowered Sora and gang until Hercules emerged, his full power restored by willing to risk his life to save Meg. Hades was soon quickly defeated and, while attempting to avoid a hit from Sora, loses his footing and falls down into the River Styx. Despite this, Hades manages to escape, though he doesn't appear to cause Hercules and co. much trouble after that.

Kingdom Hearts coded
In Kingdom Hearts coded, a Data version of Hades makes a deal with the Data Cloud: if Cloud destroys Sora and Hercules, Hades will give him the power to go to other worlds by telling him "The Secret of Heroes", and make him become stronger. However, he later double crosses Cloud, and reveals that he isn't the source of Olympus Coliseum's Blocks. After the defeat of the Data Cerberus, the real source of the world's Blocks, Hades battles the trio of data heroes.

Disney Parks


Hades makes occasional appearances in the Disney Parks, usually in Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Fantasmic!
Hades is one of the villains summoned by The Queen to destroy Mickey Mouse in the Florida version of Fantasmic! Once Hades is summoned, he then summons Chernabog. Hades is defeated with the other villains at the end.

Mickey's Philharmagic
In the computer animated show Hades does not appear, but he appears in the entrance on a poster along with other Disney characters such as Genie, Jose Carioca, Panchito Pistoles and more.

Trivia

 * The Greek god Hades was not evil - in fact he was one of the more personable gods 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.
 * A different version of Hades appears in the Silly Symphony The Goddess of Spring.
 * In Hercules, Hades has smoke emitting from the base of his robe, however, this trait is missing in Kingdom Hearts.
 * In all of his Kingdom Hearts series appearances, with the exception of Birth By Sleep, Hades tries using a character from Final Fantasy to get rid of Hercules. In Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts coded, it is Cloud, in Kingdom Hearts II, it is Auron. In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, he does this with Zack, albeit for a different reason.
 * 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 significence. Others include John Ratcliffe, Chernabog, Arawn, and The Hun Army.
 * Hades is the only villain to meet another Disney villian in media canon to his film of origin.

Hades