Hades (Disney)/Synopsis

Images and videos of the smooth and evil god named Hades from Disney's Hercules.

Past
In the past, Zeus entrusted his brother with authority over the Underworld, where all mortal souls go to after death. However, Hades had become fed up with having to reside in such a lowly and dreary place while Zeus the other gods enjoy their residence on Olympus, so he hatched a plan to overthrow his brother and take control of the cosmos with the help of the destructive Titans, who Zeus himself imprisoned eons ago.

Part 1
Hades is first seen in the movie appearing on Olympus to attend the celebration of Hercules' birth, joking about the sentimental moment between baby Hercules and Zeus, comparing it ti having a "hunk of moussaka caught in his throat". He pauses with a grin, waiting for the Gods to laugh, but only gets a response of scowling looks (since they are unhappy to see him). Zeus on the other hand greets his brother with a smile and asks how things are in the Underworld. Removing Zeus' hand from his shoulder in contempt and disgust, Hades replies that everything is as dark and gloomy as they always have been. Upon noticing Hercules, Hades pushes an oblivious Zeus out of his way and observes his newborn nephew. Creating a spiked skull-shaped pacifier out of black mist, Hades tries his very first attempt to hurt Hercules by trying to stick his pacifier in his mouth. Hades almost succeeds, but Hercules grabs his finger and squeezes it tight, causing Hades much pain. Pulling his finger away in pain, he observes how bent it had become, realizing how incredibly strong the infant is at such a young age. Wrapping his arm around his brother, Zeus tells Hades to lighten up and enjoy the festivities. Slipping away, Hades points out that he would love to, but he has to continue his duties of maintaining the Underworld (which Zeus himself stuck his brother with). Zeus tells Hades he should slow down or he will "work himself to death", but then realizes he made a joke since Hades is the Lord of the Dead, making himself and the other Gods laugh. When Zeus falls into his throne and says he kills himself, a humiliated Hades fake laughs and quietly but also angrily says to himself, "If only... If only.".

Returning to the Underworld, Hades his escorted by Charon across the River Styx. Along the way, a couple of souls try to climb unto the boat, but Hades ruthlessly blasts them off. He then greets his guardian and pet, Cerberus with a giant steak, which the heads fight over. He then finally reaches his palace, he demands the presence of his minions, who present themselves in a humiliating fashion. He then orders them to let them know when the Fates, but when they tell him that they are already here, Hades is enraged that they did not inform him ahead of time. They apologize pathetically to avoid punishment, but Hades calms himself and go to address the fates (but promises to punish his minions afterwards). He then meets the Fates, who had just cut the life-string of an unfortunate mortal woman. He apologizes for being late, but is informed that they knew he would be as they know everything. So Hades tells them about the party he was at and that Zeus now has a child, but they brag that they knew all that that as well, which angers him momentarily. He then asks them if Hercules will become a problem in his plan to overthrow Olympus, and after a little convincing (complimenting their hair and handing them back their eyeball), they agree to.

The Fates prophesize that within 18 years, the planetary alignment will reveal the portal to Tartarus, where the Titans are imprisoned. This will allow Hades to release the Titans who will help him dethrone Zeus and take control of the cosmos. Hades is ecstatic that his plan will ultimately come to fruition, until he is warned that if Hercules does fight that day, Hades' plot will inevitably fail. As the fates take their leave, Hades becomes infuriated at the thought of his own nephew thwarting his plans, but calms himself down and brings Pain and Panic to a hidden chamber. There he asks them if they know how it is possible to kill a god. Pain doesn't have a clue, but Panic answers that gods are immortal and are impossible to kill. Hades confirms this and then shows them a potion that can negate the immortality of any god, effectively making them mortal. He grants them the potion along with a mission: kidnap the infant Hercules from Olympus, force him to drink the entire mortality potion to completely remove his godhood, and then finally end his life; thus removing any chance of Hades' plan being foiled.

The gruesome two manage to complete the first objective of kidnapping Hercules and bringing him to Earth, but could not fully complete the second due them being interrupted by a farmer couple Amphitryon and Alcmene, forcing them to hide before Hercules could drink the last drop, and then ultimately fail the final task of killing him since he retained his divine strength by not drinking said drop. Fearful that Hades will punish them greatly for failing their mission, they choose to lie to their master that they succeeded in murdering the child. This pleased Hades and he continued his plan to conquer Olympus by recruiting several monsters into his cause.

Part 2
The next time, Hades is seen in the film is in a dark forest when he meets up with Megara, a spunky mortal woman who sold her soul to Hades in exchange for saving the life of her boyfriend, only for him to dump her for another girl, leaving her heartbroken an enslaved by the Lord of the Dead. He expresses his disappointment for not being able to recruit the centaur Nessus and punishes her by increasing her sentence rather than decrease it. Megara then explains that it was the fault of a young hero named Hercules, who had defeated Nessus and saved her. Shocked to hear the name of the one who will defeat eventually defeat him, Hades turned to Pain and Panic, who he realized had lied to him eighteen years ago. With fiery rage, he strangled his minions for their dishonesty and then burned down the surrounding forest to ashes. Then his minions try to comfort him by saying that they at least succeeded in making him mortal. Pondering this, he hatches a new plan to rid himself of Hercules with the help of his henchmen and henchwoman.

First, Megara finds Hercules in Thebes and leads him to two kids trapped under a rock, who are actually Pain and Panic in disguise. This was part of Hades' plan to lure Hercules to the lair of the Hydra, who Hercules battles as Hades watches. When Hercules decapitates the Hydra, Hades remains calm because he knows that the Hydra can grow more heads whenever one is cut off. Hades then watches with glee as the beast nearly hands the finishing blow, but Hercules causes a rockslide that buries himself and the Hydra. With both combatants believed dead, Hades lights a cigar, reveling in his victory. But when Hercules reveals himself alive, Hades fumes with anger, burning up the cigar and his minions as well.

Desperate to kill Hercules, Hades sends monster after monster to destroy him, only to be thwarted each and every time and only succeed in bolstering his popularity. Running out of ideas, Hades sent Megara to find out if Hercules had any weaknesses, offering her chance of freedom if she succeeds. He soon discovered that Megara is actually in love with Hercules, thus she is his greatest weakness. Taking the opportunity, Hades personally confronts Hercules by holding Megara hostage, convincing him to give up his super strength in exchange for her being set free and not getting hurt. Hercules agrees and with a single handshake, he loses his super strength. Delighted that he finally bested Hercules, Hades releases Meg from her servitude as promised and leaves, but not before he demoralizes Hercules by confessing that Meg was working for him until the moment. Finally rising to power, Hades releases the Titans when the planets aligned, and sent them to attack Olympus and take the gods (including Zeus) as prisoners. During the siege, Hades sends in the Cyclops to kill Hercules. However, even without his super strength, Hercules defeated the Cyclops, who ends up falling over to his death. The impact caused a pillar to fall on Hercules, but Megara pushes him out of the way and ends up being fatally injured, breaking Hades' deal and giving Hercules his super strength back.

With that in mind, Hercules heads to Olympus and defeated the Titans by throwing them into space where they were destroyed, much to Hades' anger. Retreating back to the Underworld, Hades taunts Hercules that while he may have foiled his plans, Megara has already died succumbing to her injuries and her soul will be joining in the river Styx along with other deceased souls. Without hesitation, Hercules went to the Underworld and offers Hades a deal: he will take Megara's place after he fishes her out from the river. Hades gladly accepts the deal, knowing that he will be delighted to have Hercules trapped in the river forever as revenge against Zeus, since it is impossible to retrieve a soul out in time. However, Hercules' selfless sacrifice allowed him to regain his lost immortality and successfully retrieve Meg's soul from the river, much to Hades' complete distraught. Realizing now that he can't stop Hercules anymore, Hades nervously asks Hercules if they can talk and says that since Zeus is the "fun guy", he asks Hercules to put in a word with him and blow the whole feud off. Then Hades holds Megara's face up to Hercules, mockingly telling her to talk to him. Having enough of his hated uncle, Hercules angrily punches him and sends him flying into the river Styx, where the souls start to attack him. Hades angrily tells the souls to get away from him, but they refuse and continue attacking him. Scared, Panic tells Pain that Hades isn't going to be happy when he gets out, only for Pain to cheer Panic up by saying if he gets out. Getting frightened, Hades says that he doesn't feel good and feels a little flushed as he is eventually dragged along with the souls into the depths of the river.

Hercules: The Animated Series
In the TV series, Hades appears as the main antagonist and constantly formulates new plots to dethrone Zeus and take over Mount Olympus, such as tricking the other gods to swim in the river of Lethe to erase their memories, stealing the sun, and turning Zeus into a mortal so that he can feed him to Cerebus. However, as always, Hercules and his friends arrive to foil Hades' plans, much to the latter's distraught. However, this is an error as Hercules have again his teenager's aspect.

Hades has the distinction of being one of the only Disney villains (outside of fanfiction, comics or video games) to meet and team with another Disney villain; Jafar in the episode, "Hercules and the Arabian Night".

Disney's House of Mouse
In the series, Hades serves as a recurring guest, where he is revealed to have a crush on the witch Maleficent, and used his cruelty in a successful attempt to go on out on a date with her. He also serves as a supporting antagonist in Mickey's House of Villains where he tries to help Jafar take over the club from Mickey.

Kingdom Hearts
In the Kingdom Hearts series, Hades serves as a main antagonist, though his role is small. He first appeared in Birth by Sleep, when he attempts to test Terra during the Games in an attempt to defeat Zeus. He later attempt to battle Aqua after calling her a coward, but ends up losing and forcing himself to retreat, vowing revenge.

During the events of Kingdom Hearts, Hades serves as a member of Maleficent's council, and uses an army of Heartless to attack the Olympus Coliseum, even convincing an uneasy Cloud in defeating Sora, though this ends up all in failure. Following the defeats of Maleficent and her allies, Hades decides to deal with Sora and his friends personally by unleashing two of the Titans. However, this too ends up in failure, forcing Hades to retreat.

In Kingdom Hearts 2, Hades attempt to drain Hercules of his immortal strength by tricking Sora into opening an ancient coliseum known as the Underdrome and kidnapping Meg. Though this was successful, Sora manages to defeat Hades, who then throws Meg's soul into the River Styx. However, Hercules dives in to save Meg's soul, thus restoring his power and allowing him to send Hades into the river as punishment, just like in the film.

In Kingdom Hearts 3, Hades somehow escapes the River Styx and determined not to fail again, goes back to his original plan of conquering the Cosmos with the Titans. He first appears in front of Sora, Donald and Goofy (after they call out for Hercules but to no avail) and shows some frustration over the praise they have for Hercules and their disbelief that Hades will succeed in his plans this time. But instead of fighting them, Hades tells them of his plans before using the Titans to send them flying. Soon after, he then encounters Pete and Maleficent who are after a "distinctive" black box and ask him of its whereabouts. Despite wanting them to leave him alone, Hades reluctantly tells them that the box they are after may just be the one that Zeus hid on Earth. He later appears in Olympus doing the same thing he did in the film with capturing the gods and Zeus before sending the Titans out to deal with the heroes. After a lengthy battle and some help from a recovered Zeus, the four Titans are defeated with Hercules sending them into space like in the film, leaving an angered Hades no other option but to retreat back to the Underworld, taking a bolt of lightning from Zeus with him.

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom
Hades appears in Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom as the main antagonist and final boss. The game features Hades attempting to take over by collaborating with other notable Disney villains, sometimes under punny aliases like "Boss Teal" and "Prince Azure". At the end of the game, Hades and the other villains are magically trapped into a snow globe.

Once Upon a Time
Hades is the main antagonist of Season 5B of Once Upon a Time. He is portrayed by Greg Germann.

Descendants franchise
In the novel Return to the Isle of The Lost, that Hades has a son named Hadie, who chooses not to be evil and instead wishes to go to Auradon and considers himself an anti-hero. However, Hades himself will fully appear in Descendants 3.

Disney Parks
Although not often seen live, Hades has become common in some parks. He's used in advertisements with other Disney Villains around Halloween time.

In the Disneyland Resort, he has a speaking role in the Frightfully Fun Parade.

In Walt Disney World, he appears in the Unleash the Villains and Villains Unleashed events. In the attraction Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, he serves as the main antagonist, wanting to make the Magic Kingdom his new vacation spot by turning it into ruins, but Merlin's Crystal of the Magic Kingdom messes with his plans. And so, he sends Pain and Panic to swipe it, but they accidentally break it, with four pieces being set around the park. Hades then tries to use several other villains to get the remains, but Merlin and the park guests stop his scheme by trapping him and his goons in the completed gem. He also makes an appearance in Fantasmic where he summons Chernabog to defeat Mickey, a plan that fails. He has a speaking role in Mickey's Philharmagic and makes an appearance in Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular as well.

In Tokyo Disneyland Resort, he appears in Maze of Madness: The Nightmare Experiment Continues, where he traps Professor J.T. Wu in the Underworld.

In Shanghai Disneyland, he appears in the Villain's Cavalcade night show, a show that happens around Halloween time.

In the Disney Cruise Line, Hades appears as a main character in the Villains Tonight! show. In it, Hades is stated to have "gone soft" and needs to become nefarious he wants to keep the Underworld. And so, he visits other Disney villains to try to gain back his evil nature.