Hades (Kid Icarus)

"Sorry to keep YOU waiting. But now that I'm here, let's get this party started!"

- Hades "Let me get a closer look of that shiny new toy of yours!"

- Hades mocking the Great Sacred Treasure.

Hades (ハデス Hadesu) is the true main antagonist of Kid Icarus: Uprising and also the overall main antagonist of the Kid Icarus series. He is the extremely powerful God of Evil who rules over the Underworld and strives to take over the entire creation.

Appearance
Hades appears as a demonic humanoid deity with purple skin and a red tattoo on his eyes. He is absolutely gigantic, standing over a hundred meters tall. He has long red, green, and pink-colored hair. He wears very grotesquely designed robes and clothing with asymmetrical shapes and a cape seemingly composed of darkness and fire. He has red lines that run up both his arms and legs. The inside of his body is completely chaotic in design, with even skies, grind rails and surreal structures found commonly throughout the levels of Uprising.

Personality
At first glance, Hades is shown to be a mischievous, manipulative trickster. When engaging in conversation, his tone is playfully dull, yet brimming with sarcasm and cruelty. He has a sense of showmanship, using a combination of witty remarks and belittling insults when talking to and about others. He also has a bit of a flirtatious side, constantly making unwanted passes and flattering remarks to and about all the female characters. Hades is considerably arrogant, brushing off any matter as no importance.

However, his nonchalant demeanor belies his true dark and destructive personality. At his core, Hades is a merciless psychopath with an utter disregard for life. His lust for killing makes him seem completely unconcerned when his commanders fall in battle, stating that his army is too stupid to have an actual ranking, and has no problem killing off Medusa when she interferes during Hades's final battle against Pit. He also sees souls as nothing more than either as materials to create his monsters or a means of empowering nourishment, indifferent to the fact that his action is upsetting the natural balance of the world due to his selfish greed and hunger.

Despite all his malicious tendencies, he does have a genuine sense of humor and enjoys telling jokes and making puns at even the most odd or inappropriate of times. He also shows genuine respect for Pit as a worthy adversary, holding no grudge against Pit after the latter killed him and destroyed his body, and even complimented his abilities, albeit still throwing a few nasty remarks in his direction.

History
25 years after the defeat of Medusa, Hades resurrects her to distract Pit while gathering the souls of those who died during their conflict to increase his power and army, he also engineers Dark Pit's creation and after Medusa's defeat he personally reveals himself.

Hades Makes his Appearance
After Pit defeats Medusa for a second time, it appeared that the game was over as the "end credits" were rolling. However, a mysterious voice could be heard. Just then, a large arm appeared, and ripped the "end credit" off the screen, revealing the God of the Underworld; Hades. Hades proclaimed that he was the one responsible of the events in the first Kid Icarus game. He even said that now that he's entered the game, he's going to make Medusa look like a sweet cuddly bunny compared to him.

After making his appearance, Hades sent his minions to a volcano where the Wish Seed was located. Both Pit and Palutena questioned Hades why he was after the Wish Seed, to which he explains why. Hades explains that a little girl lost her parents via a chariot accident. He told them that once he gets the Wish Seed, he was going to wish the girl's parents to be revived, and once that they were revive, the family was going to gain fame and fortune. However, Palutena didn't buy Hades at all, and questioned if the Wish Seed was real or not. Hades quickly revealed that the Wish Seed was indeed fake, and the only reason why it was created was because he knew that people was so greedy that they are willing to go through extreme lengths just to acquire a wish-granting item. To prevents this, Pit had to fight the guardian of the fake Wish Seed, and destroy the Wish Seed to prevent a war from brewing. Pit managed to defeat the Phoenix, and destroy the Wish Seed, however Hades anticipated this, as a large signal emerged from the phoenix. This was a sign informing the humans that the Wish Seed has been taken, and now it's up for grabs. To increase the human's greed, Hades sent a message to all mortals that the Wish Seed was taken and all they have to do in order to claim it was to fight each other until there was only one left. This cause a massive war between various armies all to claim the Wish Seed.

Hades this all this so that the humans could slaughter themselves, so the reapers would claim their souls and the souls would be turned into mindless monsters and servants for the Underworld Army. Hades plans were coming to fruition, until Viridi and the Forces of Nature arrived and halted Hades' plans. Hades sent the Underworld Army to stop the Forces of Nature and continue with his plans, to the point where he had to revive Thanatos. Hades observed as Thanatos was defeated by Phosphora. Despite Thanatos' defeat, Hades proclaimed that his army don't need a commander to lead them, as he wasn't sure if any of his minions have any brains.

Temporary Alliance
This war between the Underworld Army, the Forces of Nature, and Palutena's Army resulted in an unknown alien race to invade; the Aurum. The Aurum invaded Earth because they are attached by battle and conflict. This large alien invasion resulted in a temporary alliance with the three armies, and the self-proclaimed God of the Sun Pyrrhon. Despite Hades agreeing with the alliance, he still found ways to taunt Pit and the other gods, including placing a Mimicutie for Pit to find so it could attack him. During an attack against the Aurum, Hades thought it was the perfect opportunity to take one of the Aurum's destroyers and use it to increase the power of his army. However, while Pit was trying to find an entrance to get to the Aurum Generator, Hades decided to improvise and use the Destroyer he acquire to create an entrance for Pit. Hades forces continued to assist with Palutena's Army and the Forces of Nature until the Aurum were defeated.

Three Years Later
After the Aurum were defeated, Hades returned to his old ways and continued with his plans. Sometime in between the three year time gap, Hades managed to place Pit's soul into a ring. While this was going on, Hades was still confronting the Force of Nature.

After Pit's soul returned to his body and discovered that "Palutena" has declared war against humanity, both he and Viridi went to Chariot Master to claim the Lightning Chariot. However, Hades discovered what they were planning and sent his troops so he can acquire the chariot. While Pit was scaling the tower, Hades revealed that he was the one who placed his soul into the Ring of Chaos. Unfortunately, Pit managed to claim the Lightning Chariot after the Chariot Master passed it down to him.

While Pit was storming the destroyed Palutena's Temple to rescue Palutena, Hades kept annoying Pit, and even sent a few of his troops to hinder his progress, but to no avail.

After hearing that Pit was badly injured, after rescuing Palutena's soul from the Chaos Kin, and Dark Pit was tasked to head to the Rewind Spring, Hades sent a large number of troops to attack Dark Pit to prevent him from reaching the spring. Hades even warned Dark Pit about a monster that lurks in the Underworld, that was most likely sent by him to kill Dark Pit. He also watched as Dark Pit confronting a newly revived Pandora, as well as being shocked to see Amazon Pandora.

After Pit's wings were repaired thanks to the Rewind Spring, he strapped on the Three Sacred Treasures to confront the God of the Underworld. Pit made his way through the Underworld Army, until Hades appeared out of nowhere and attacked him. Pit tried to use the Three Sacred Treasures to defeat Hades while dealing with a small group of Hades' minions, but with one attack, which was a sneeze, the treasures were destroyed. Despite the Three Sacred Treasures were destroyed, Pit kept fighting Hades. After sustaining enough damage, Hades decided to eat Pit. Pit survived, but was trapped inside Hades. Pit tried to make contact with Palutena, but was unable due to Hades having a stomach of iron. Pit made his was though various areas inside Hades, while Hades was sending cellular versions of his minion to destroy Pit. During all this Hades questioned why Pit was trying to stop him. In response, Pit said that he was exploiting the dead, and that souls can't be reincarnated after Hades devours them. Hades the replied that he never understood the concept of reincarnation, as well as saying that it's in everyone's nature to eat, even gods. Getting nowhere with Hades, Pit continued onward. During all this, the Forces of Nature arrived and attacked the Underworld Army. While Hades did enjoy annoying Pit, he stated that he had to cut this short and deal with Viridi's army.

Eventually, Pit came to a location where Hades' Heart was. After Hades' Heart was destroyed, a giant beam of light emerged from Hades' chest, which resulted in Dark Pit, arriving with the Lighting Chariot to rescue Pit. Despite his heart was destroyed, Hades still lived, proclaiming that nothing major was destroyed.

With the Three Sacred Treasures destroyed, Pit needed a new weapon to defeat the God of the Underworld. With the help of Dyntos, and successfully completing the three trials, Pit was able to acquire the Great Scared Treasure.

Final Battle
With the newly acquired Great Sacred Treasure, Pit returned to the Underworld to put an end to Hades trinity. Shortly after arriving, Hades emerged, in a battle form. The two confronted each other. Eventually, Hades decided to take the battle above ground. In the middle of their battle, Pit managed to slice Hades in two. Despite this, Hades managed to reach the surface world, and eventually regrow an new pair of legs. The two continued, until Hades managed perform a sneak attack, and nearly destroyed the Great Sacred Treasure. Weaken, and virtually helpless, Pit watched as Hades was about to unleash a powerful beam to destroy his rival. However, Palutena and Viridi sensed someone, and all Pit had to do was wait a few second until the help arrived.

Just as Hades was about to unleash his ultimate attack, Medusa arrived and performed an uppercut so hard, that Hades ended up losing his head, but at the cost of Medusa losing one of her arms. Medusa explained that she was revived for a third time by Hades, but she no longer wanted to be his' puppet anymore. Medusa attempted to finish Hades, but Hades grabbed her, and ripped off her remaining arm. Enraged, Hades finished off Medusa claiming that she's no longer any use for him. He then grew a new head that was engulfed in fire. With Medusa destroyed, Hades continued his attack on Pit. Pit then grabbed the remaining piece of the Great Sacred Treasure, a laser cannon, in hopes to defeat Hades. Palutena used her godly powers to charge up the laser cannon, with Pit was dodging Hades' lasers. When the laser was fully charges, Pit unleashed the energy blast, obliterating Hades. Before Hades was destroyed he congratulated Pit for defeating him. With Hades destroyed, the threat against the Underworld Army had ended.

Hades Still Lives
Despite Hades' body was destroyed, he still lived as a disembodied voice. Hades congratulated both Pit and the player for completing the game. He also said that since Pit defeated Hades, it meant he was the most powerful hero Nintendo has created, and that 8-bit Pit couldn't compete with this incarnation. Hades then proclaimed that he's going to erase the data and game file, only to reveal that he was just kidding. Hades said that he wouldn't be able to do it even if he could as he has no body. He wasn't even sure if he could be resurrected at this point. He speculated that the next Kid Icarus game will be released in another 25 years, so he'll come up with some plan during that time. Hades then finishes by saying that the player can continue playing the levels on much harder difficulties, as well as a Boss Rush mode that's now unlock because he's not a sore loser, and even proclaimed that Kid Icarus: Uprising is now his new favorite game.

Powers and Abilities
Hades was an extremely powerful entity, easily one of the most powerful characters in the game, second in power only to Dyntos, the god of the forge. Hades is easily the mightiest opponent in the game, being the only character that, in a canon sense, defeated Pit.

Hades was able to easily destroy the Three Sacred Treasures with one blast wave done through a burp, and almost completely destroyed the Great Sacred Treasure with one attack.

Given his giant size, Hades was incredibly strong and durable, able to obliterate most of Medusa's body and kill her with a single punch, and survive devastating injuries, like being bisected and beheaded, only to regrow those body parts and not even be slowed down. Hades was tremendously fast as well, possibly the fastest character in the game, able to move at near-light speed.

On top of his physical prowess, Hades had tremendous magical and weapon prowess as well, able to easily create power tornadoes in an instant, including a giant one around himself that could destroy anything in a given path by spinning rapidly. He was also able to fire off powerful blasts of energy from different points of his body, like his hands and his eyes, that dealt great damage to an opponent if they got hit.

Hades had a suit of armor he called his "Devastation Ensemble", which was covered with various weapons that, just like himself personally, Hades could fire off powerful energy blasts and lasers from. As the god of the Underworld, Hades had full power of control over his realm and anything pertaining to death, despite not being the god of that, able to use the souls sent to his domain after death to revive fallen allies and increase his power and the size of his army.

Unlike Medusa, Hades could reside literally anywhere in the Underworld he wanted, even the darkness itself and didn't need a castle to live in. Like the other gods in the game, Hades could telepathically communicate with the other gods and protect a giant astral hologram of himself when and where he wanted.

Trivia

 * He was named after the Greek god of the underworld.
 * His English voice actor S. Scott Bullock also voiced Barthandelus.
 * His Japanese voice actor Hōchū Ōtsuka also voiced Xigbar.
 * Hades was assumed to be the most powerful of the gods, but in Chapter 24, it was hinted that Lord Dyntos was more powerful because he could create an army that would be stronger than the Underworld Army. This was never actually proven in the chapter though. However, the in-game idol information states that the fact that Dyntos is able to "put Palutena to sleep miles away...is evidence that Dyntos's power exceeds even that of Hades."
 * Hades has appeared in many Greek myths and legends as Poseidon and Zeus's brother. Although Poseidon was in the game, he mentioned nothing about Hades, so there is no way to see if this applies to the game.
 * Due to his personality, fans have considered Hades to be the King of Trolls.
 * He's also become popular on the internet due to a segment known as; Hades Riffs. This is where Hades both insults, and makes fun of videos including; video games, parodies, animations, reviews, countdowns, Lets plays, and short films.
 * Hades is believed to be one of the three most powerful Nintendo villains, behind only Giygas (an entity of darkness who is a cosmic destroyer) of Earthbound and Ganon (the wielder of the Triforce of Power, and the King of Evil) of The Legend of Zelda.