Hades (Disney)

"Ba-boom. The name's Hades, Lord of the Dead. Hi how ya doing?"

- Hades

Hades is the main antagonist of the Hercules franchise, and one of the secondary antagonists in Mickey's House of Villains. He is the ruler of the Underworld, Pain and Panic's leader and boss, Hercules's uncle and arch-nemesis, and Zeus's younger (older in original Greek mythology) brother.

He was voiced by the legendary actor, James Woods.

Personality
Hades is normally evil, cruel, selfish, cynical, ruthless, impatient, egocentric, and manipulative, but has a serious anger management problem. As an Olympian God, he is immortal and specifically has authority over the dead.

Though temperamental and destructive, he is a fast-talker and a shrewd bargainer. At some point prior to the film, he took ownership of Megara's soul as the result of one of these bargains. Hades is shown to be completely aggressive and resentful of Zeus's position as King of the Gods and makes long-term plans to overthrow and kill him.

Also, unlike most villains, Hades really doesn't like arrogance, but does have constant mood swings, being entertaining, whimsical, comedic, and laid-back one minute, and then inimical, conceited, persuasive, egotistical, obstreperous, argumentative, confrontational, short-tempered, materialistic, cantankerous, quarrelsome, unmerciful, indignant, uncaring, furious, savage, and angry the next.

Despite his villainy, Hades can be quite honest and appreciative, even willing to honor his deals to those who served him well. This was confirmed when he happily frees Megara from her servitude after draining Hercules of his super strength, saying that a deal is a deal. Also, when Megara was harmed and killed by the pillar that she protected Hercules from, Hercules's strength was restored, even though it would mean the downfall of Hades's plan. As well, Hades can be somewhat friendly at times (hence when he politely introduced himself and greeted Hercules and others).

In House of Mouse, Hades is more polite, but only towards Maleficent (whom he has a crush on).

Appearance
Hades has bluish-gray skin and flaming blue hair. He is also very tall. Hades's fire hair also affects his emotions: When he is angry, his skin turns red and his hair turns orange. In Hercules: The Animated Series, when Hades is confused or embarrassed, his hair goes out, revealing his baldness.

Hades wears a blue, gray, and black robe.

In Hercules
In the original film Hercules, Hades is the main antagonist. He is first seen appearing on Olympus to see the celebration of Hercules's birth, joking about the sentimental moment between baby Hercules and Zeus, saying that he hasn't been that choked up since he got a "hunk of moussaka caught in his throat". He pauses with a grin, waiting for the Gods to laugh, but Hades only gets a response of scowling looks (since they aren't happy to see him). Confused, Hades asks if it is an audience or a mosaic. After politely greeting the Gods (and at one point, staring at a girl's dress while complimenting on it), Zeus greets his brother and asks how things are in the Underworld. Removing Zeus's hand from his shoulder in contempt and disgust, Hades replies that things are just fine, explaining they are a little dark and gloomy and full of dead people (as always), then asks Zeus what he is going to do about it.

Upon noticing Hercules, Hades pushes an oblivious Zeus out of the way and observes the infant, whom he calls the "little sunspot" and a "little snootchie". 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 does this by pinching Hercules's nose, making him open his mouth. Hades almost succeeds, but Hercules squeezes his finger tight, making Hades drop the pacifier (which disappears). Pulling away in pain, Hades quietly calls Hercules a "powerful little tyke" to himself.

Wrapping his arm around his brother, Zeus tells him not to be a stiff and to join the splendiferous celebration. Slipping away, Hades says he would love to, but cannot because unlike the Gods lounging about, he regretfully has a full-time gig that Zeus charitably bestowed on him and then leaves. 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 says to himself, "If only. If only.".

Returning to the underworld, Hades asked the Fates if Hercules could prevent him from taking over Mount Olympus with his super strength and they told him that he would if he were to fight, so Hades ordered Pain and Panic to kidnap Hercules and give him a potion to make him mortal so that they would kill him. However, he didn't drink the last drop, thus retaining his super strength and allowing him to defeat Pain and Panic, who decides to keep it a secret from Hades to avoid any punishment. Years later, Megara sold her soul to Hades to save her boyfriend's life, but her boyfriend ungratefully left her for someone else, leaving a demoralized Megara under Hades's control. Hades remained oblivious to Hercules's survival until he found out from Megara that the centaur Nessus was defeated by him. So he sent several monsters, like the Hydra, the Minotaur, and Medusa the Gorgon after Hercules, who destroyed them all in retaliation, much to Hades's anger.

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 all 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's 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's 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 be delighted to have Hercules trapped in the river forever since it is impossible to retrieve a soul out in time. However, Hercules's selfless sacrifice allowed him to regain his lost immortality and successfully retrieve Meg's soul from the river, much to Hades's complete distraught. Realizing now that his plans are ruined and that he can't stop Hercules anymore, a nervous Hades 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 thing 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 he doesn't feel good and feels a little flushed as he is dragged along with the souls into the depths of the river, never to be seen again.

Hercules: The Animated Series
In the TV series, Hades returns as the primary antagonist where he 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. Also, the events of the TV show are considered non-canonical as Hercules and Hades had many interactions in the show, as opposed to the movie when they only met each other during the movie's climax.

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 recurring antagonist, though his role is small. He first appeared in Birth by Sleep, when he attempts to test Terr 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 end 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 movie.

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom
The game features Hades attempting to take over by collaborating with other notable Disney villains, sometimes under punny alias like "Boss Teal" and "Prince Azure".

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

Powers and Abilities

 * Pyrokinesis: He controls fire and can shoot it in any direction, which destroys any object in its path.
 * Conjuring: He has the ability to create objects out of black mist
 * Teleportation: He can teleport himself to one point to an other in a black smoke.
 * Reality Warping: He has the ability to warp reality by the using of the deal (like when he took Hercules's strength or when he healed Megara's former lover).
 * Telekinesis: He can move any object with his mind, like when he throw an alter on Hercules.
 * Underworld's Creatures control: He has the ability to control monsters like Cerberus, a three-headed dog, guards his palace.
 * Immortality: He is not affected by age and he can't die (unless he were to drink the magic potion that made Hercules mortal).

Trivia

 * Hades has a surprisingly large fan base. Various fans have sympathy for Hades, claiming he truly could be a good person if he was never humiliated.
 * Hades's voice actor, James Woods stated that Hades is his favorite voice role and is willing to reprise his role if the opportunity arises.
 * It was unknown how Hades became evil in the first place, but it can be assumed that it was out of jealousy that Zeus got to rule Olympus while he got stuck ruling the Underworld.
 * In classical mythology, Hades was actually a relatively passive god; he was simply feared because of his position among the Olympians (i.e. he ruled over the Underworld)
 * He was originally supposed to be voiced by Jack Nicholson, who also portrayed The Joker, Jimmy Hoffa, Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, and Jack Torrance. However, Nicholson turn down the role because he felt that his payment wasn't good. Curiously, Woods was considered to portray the Joker before Nicholson obtained the role.
 * Hades is very similar to Scar from Disney's 32nd full-length animated feature film, The Lion King.
 * They are jealous of the range of their brothers (Zeus and Mufasa are respectively kings).
 * They are the uncles of the protagonists (Hercules and Simba).
 * They have dimwitted and clumsy henchmen (Pain and Panic and Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed respectively).
 * They send their henchmen to kill their nephews, but their henchmen failed and lied saying that they killed their respective nephews (Pain and Panic didn't kill Hercules because his adoptive parents arrived; and Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed didn't kill Simba because he fell into some thorns, like Banzai, but Banzai managed to get to where they were Shenzi and Ed, while Simba got out of reach of the three hyenas).
 * They were finally defeated by their nephews and their respective defeats include a fall (in their respective domains, that are the Underworld and the Pride Lands), that didn't kill them (Hades fell into the River Styx, where he was sucked by the souls to the bottom, and he can't die because he is a God; and Scar fell from the Pride Rock and after that, he was devoured by Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, along with the Hyena Clan).
 * Hades is very similar to Lex Luthor from DC Comics in many ways:
 * Both are masterminds.
 * Both are voiced by James Woods.
 * Both fight super-powered men (Hercules to Hades, Superman to Luthor).
 * Both had a team up with their comical counterparts (Jafar to Hades, Joker to Luthor) to turn both their archenemies against each other (Hercules and Aladdin to Hades and Jafar, Superman and Batman to Luthor and Joker).
 * Both are even annoyed by their maniacal laughter.
 * Both are archenemies.
 * Both are wrathful villains.
 * Both don't tolerate failure.
 * Both have bungling henchmen to do their dirty work (Pain and Panic to Hades, Pinky and Otis to Luthor).