Hades (Fairy Tail)

Villain Overview Synopsis

Evil-doer
Full Name	Precht Gaebolg
Alias	Hades Purehito
Origin	Fairy Tail
Occupation	Treasure Hunter of Sylph Labyrinth (formerly) Second Guild Master of Fairy Tail (formerly) Guild Master of Grimoire Heart
Powers / Skills	Amaterasu Chain Magic Bullet Magic Demon's Eye Grimoire Law Katsu Magic Alteration Requip
Hobby	Searching for Zeref
Goals	Awaken the Black Wizard, Zeref Dragneel. (failed, Zeref was always awake) Bring the Ultimate Magic World into existence. Find the "Essence of Magic". Kill Natsu and the rest of Fairy Tail. (all failed)
Crimes	Malefic Mass genocide Mass murder Treason Torture Assault
Type of Villain	Delusional Fallen Hero

“	I often heard young people refer to their mistakes as "life experience". But, true mistakes do not yield experience as there is no coming back from them. Such as the case here. Your future only consists of the grave. There will be no lesson to learn other then opposing me was the biggest mistake of your life.	„
	~ Hades to Team Natsu

Hades, whose real name is Precht Gaebolg, is a major antagonist of the anime/manga series, Fairy Tail. He served as the main antagonist of the pre-X791 storyline, specifically as the main antagonist of the Tenrou Island arc. 

He was one of the founders of Fairy Tail, the guild's second Guild Master, and the one who passed on the title to Makarov Dreyar. After leaving Fairy Tail, Hades later became the founder and leader of the Dark Guild, Grimoire Heart, and became a part of the Balam Alliance, alongside Tartaros and Oración Seis. He was later killed at the hands of Zeref, following the Tenrou Island conflict.

He is voiced by Masashi Hirose in the Japanese version of the anime and John Swasey in the English version, the latter of whom also voiced Sir Crocodile and All For One.

Appearance

Hades' current appearance.

Hades is a tall, elderly man with long, slicked back white hair, revealing his forehead, a mustache, and a similarly long yet mildly thin beard, reaching down to his lower chest in many curves. He has some wrinkles on his face, as evident of his extremely advanced age; nonetheless, despite this very age, his figure is muscular and well defined. His right eye is usually seen covered by a simple eye-patch, hiding away his Devil's Eye.

His regular attire consists of a dark shirt paired with armored shoulder pads and shiny gauntlets, as well as chain-mail covering the parts of his arms remaining exposed, simple light pants with flames near the edges, held up by what looks like a light belt composed of two straps with the relative buttons, possibly part of the pants themselves, and dark, simple shoes or boots. Over this outfit he wears a large, dark cape, bearing Grimoire Heart’s symbol on the back and sporting a mantle with a high collar, lighter-colored borders and jagged lower edges. Sometimes he’s also seen wearing a helmet matching his armor, with a prominent metal plate protecting his forehead, with two lines of studs on the front, siding his face and jutting out in a protrusion on each side, and a darker rear part, adorned by a crest reminiscent of those seen on Greek helmets.

After this first outfit was mostly destroyed and torn as a result of his fight with Team Natsu, Wendy Marvell and Laxus Dreyar, Hades requipped an unbroken, second one, highly reminiscent of the first, but with subtle differences: his shirt, gauntlets and cape remain the same, but his pants are now tucked inside a pair of dark greaves reaching up to his thighs, and their belt holds up a wide, dark waist-guard.

As Purehito, his physical features were almost the same, with only his mustache missing. However, it’s worth noting that the iris of his left eye was dark, while as Hades it’s light grey in color. He sported a light cape bearing Fairy Tail’s mark on the back, complete with a dark fur-lined mantle, and what looked like a loose robe below it. He also carried around a long staff, with its top shaped yet again like Fairy Tail’s symbol.

When using Devil’s Eye, his ears seem to get pointed, and his mustache and eyebrows jut out prominently upwards.

Personality

He seems to be calm and confident man who shows no signs of fear to his enemies, especially Makarov. He was described by Makarov as a "great Master who taught harmony and led the Guild to the proper path". He also called Makarov a "boy" despite his relatively advanced age, possibly implying a playful nature.

He reappears as Hades, Master of Grimoire Heart, and is now much darker of a person. When Makarov questioned him about his belonging to a Dark Guild he answered that "this world is full of things that cannot be measured as merely good or evil", implying an enlightened or a philosophical frame-of-mind, or perhaps, even a corrupted heart. He is shown to be very confident in his abilities, stating that he "dances with Magic freely", and has the will to destroy those who would hinder his path, as seen when he crushed Makarov with very little remorse.

Although he believes his strongest team, the Seven Kin of Purgatory, to be invincible, due to their Lost Magic abilities, he seems to be happy knowing someone can defeat them, possibly appreciating talent and apparently not caring very much about the ones he raised himself. He was especially happy when he learned that "Makarov's kids" had already taken out three of the Seven Kin, laughing out loudly.

Despite being the driving force behind Grimoire Heart, Hades is not entirely cruel. He admitted that fighting his former Guild Fairy Tail made him sad, but that he could live with it. He also wanted Makarov to just surrender to him in order to avoid a fight between the two, and he silently apologized to him when Bluenote Stinger got out onto the battlefield, as he didn't want things to escalate that far between them.

However, as the rest of Grimoire Heart is defeated and the only one left standing to take on Team Natsu is him, he displays a more wicked and cruel side of himself, and shows that he has very little care for his former Guild, complaining that Marakov changed Fairy Tail too much since his own tenure as Guild Master. He also insults his predecessor Mavis Vermilion, and reacts with subdued anger when Natsu calls him out for abandoning Fairy Tail's ideals in order to find the "Essence of Magic", unnecessarily shooting him repeatedly with Magic shots when Natsu was already past the point of fighting back.

Magic and Abilities

• Chain Magic: This Magic allows Hades to shoot long chains from his hands, complete with grappling hooks at each end. These are capable of piercing through foes without actually hurting them, allowing him to grasp opponents and smash them around against surrounding objects.
• Amaterasu: By creating Magic formulas in the air, the targeted area is engulfed by a massive spherical shockwave. The damage of such Magic increases with the formula's number: the higher the number is, the higher the consequent of damage is dealt.
• Formula 28: This seal engulfs an area in a massive spherical shockwave. It was first used against Makarov, though Makarov was able to protect himself with a seal of his own.
• Formula 100: This seal was able to completely break Makarov's Three Pillar Gods spell and create a rippling shockwave that damaged several sections of Tenrou Island, and that could be felt and heard by most (if not all) people on the island, the damage this spell causes is extremely tremendous.
• Bullet Magic: A type of Magic which allows Hades to produce various types of magical ballistic projectiles out of his hands to attack opponents. In the most common attack, Hades positions his hand to mimic the appearance of a gun, something which allows him to fire magical bullets from his stretched out index and middle finger in rapid succession. These are powerful enough to pierce through flesh. He's capable of performing the attack with both hands simultaneously, as if he were "dual-wielding".
• Piercing Bullet: User mimics with his hands the appearance of a gun and then bends slightly his index and middle fingers, creating a Magic sphere in the air from where a powerful piercing bullet is fired towards the target.
• Explosion Bullet: User puts his arm forward engulfing his hand is a magical sphere from where a beam-like bullet is fired towards the target. Upon contact it creates a large explosion, which is enough to lift an entire air ship off the ground.
• Grimoire Law: It appears to be a malefic form of Fairy Law, with its color being a darker variation of Fairy Law's own color. It is said that if used against Fairy Law it would bring horrible destruction.
• Requip: Hades has been shown capable of using this Magic, summoning forth a second attire after the first one was mostly torn and destroyed during his battle with Team Natsu.
• Magic Alteration: Hades can absorb his opponents Magic and transform it into darkness Magic.
• Katsu: A spell whose effects are unknown, as Horologium protected the intended target before the Magic could fully connect. Nonetheless, Horologium described this attack as the most dangerous he had ever come across, which prompted him to appear.
• Demon's Eye: Seemingly based around the use of Hades' right eye, which is usually covered by an eyepatch, this Magic has to be "awakened" in order to activate its yet unknown effects. Its use prompts Hades' hair, beard, mustache and eyebrows to jut out, and releases a vast amount of Magic Power around him. He claims that, through the use of it, he can show his opponents the "Abyss of Magic".
  • Increased Magic Power: The Demon's Eye further enhances Hades' already monstrous Magic Power, creating a dark aura around him which keeps gradually increasing in magnitude, and which terrified Team Natsu.
  • Black Arts: Through the use of his Demon's Eye, Hades is able to perform one of Zeref's infamous Black Arts, which is written in the Books of Zeref.
    • Living Magic: Through the activation of Demon's Eye, Hades is capable of using Living Magic: a form of Magic that brings things to life under the master's control.
      • Nemesis: He was shown creating numerous powerful Demons from the debris of his wrecked airship. These can perform damaging long-ranged attacks through the use of dark, tendril-like protrusions and similar, elongated dark globes.
• The Devil's Heart: Is a special generator-like device found within Hades' ship, which actually contains his own heart. This device is responsible for the massive amount of power both his physical and magical abilities have, not to mention his augmented longevity in spite of his advanced age. As long as it is functional, Hades is nearly invincible, but as soon as it is destroyed his power greatly diminishes; all in all, it is Hades' greatest asset and his greatest weakness.
  • Immense Magic Power: Hades is an amazingly powerful Dark Mage, capable of performing spells of outstanding destructive power and difficulty in subsequent reprises without the slightest effort: as he puts it, of "dancing with Magic". He casually overwhelmed Makarov Dreyar, the Guild Master of the most powerful Guild in Fiore and a member of the Ten Wizard Saints, defeating him without receiving a single scratch (although it's worth noting that during their confrontation Makarov suffered the effects of old age, which Hades was freed from by the Devil's Heart). Laxus Dreyar, Makarov's grandson and one of Fairy Tail's strongest Mages in his own right, went on to describe Hades as a "monster", noting how, compared to Grimoire Heart's Guild Master, he had still ways to go.
  • Immense Strength: Despite his age, one that is presumably decades older than Makarov, Hades possesses unthinkable physical strength, demonstrated in all of its greatness when he launched his chains into Makarov's Giant form and easily swung him crashing onto one side of Tenrou Island. Even in his youth, Precht was able to lift a fully grown man with a single hand using his chain, effortlessly swinging him around in the air to knock other opponents out.
  • Immense Reflexes: Hades is an extremely agile combatant, having shown incredible reflexes: he was able to easily counter an attempted attack by Makarov while his back was turned, walking away, and also managed to evade assaults from Gray, Erza and Natsu despite the three of them having their already considerable speed enhanced by Wendy's Arms, Armor and Vernier spells, counter-attacking each assailant immediately afterwards.
  • Immense Durability: While his Devil's Heart was still intact, Hades displayed a tremendous amount of durability, with even the most devastating assaults being shown as largely ineffective against him. He was capable of emerging unscathed from a combined group attack performed against him by Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza and Wendy, with only his cape having been torn; he received no considerable damage from his fight with Laxus Dreyar either, despite having been struck multiple times, and yet again remained unharmed despite the barrage of damaging attacks he received from Natsu after the latter was empowered by Laxus' lightning.
• Expert Melee Combatant: During his time as a Treasure Hunter, while still going under the name Precht and having no knowledge in Magic, Hades' fighting style centered around melee combat, and he was shown to be extremely proficient in both armed and unarmed fields.
  • Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Hades displayed great unarmed prowess, using quick backwards kicks to dispatch two opponents who tried to sneak-attack him from behind without the need to turn his back.
  • Master Chain Specialist: Hades' penchant for employing chains in battle was evident even in his youth, before he gained the ability to produce them magically: a self-proclaimed "dancer of blades", Precht's weapon of choice during his Treasure Hunter days was a long chain with a small blade on one end, which he kept hidden in his left sleeve and could extend at any time, allowing him to engage in mid-range combat. He showed tremendous skill in controlling this unconventional tool, employing it to single-handedly defeat at least ten opponents without receiving a scratch himself, either knocking them out by striking them directly with the blade (strangely producing a blunt effect) or ensaring them with the chain itself and then smashing them around (his preferred fighting method in his later days); such moves were all performed with a single arm, with Precht using the other to carry Mavis and keep her safe from danger.

Gallery

Master Precht Gaebolg, 48 years ago.

Hades vs. Laxus.

Hades' change with the limiter removed.

Hades is killed by Zeref.

Franmalth using Hades' soul.

Trivia

• He was the second member of Grimoire Heart to be killed by Zeref, with the first being Zancrow.
• He is one of few Fairy Tail villains to die.