Hades

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"Did you forget who you're talking to? I am the Lord of the Dead!"

—Hades

Hades is an antagonist from the Kingdom Hearts series, originally from the 1997 Disney animated feature Hercules. Hot-headed literally and emotionally, he will stop at nothing to see the end of Hercules.

Story

Before Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Desiring to conquer Mount Olympus with the power of the Titans, Hades learned from the Fates that if his newborn nephew Hercules fought with the rest of the gods, Hades's plan would fail. He sent Pain and Panic to kidnap Hercules and force-feed the baby a potion to take away his godhood, then kill him. However, unknown to Hades, Hercules didn't drink the last drop and maintained his god-like strength, though he was now kill-able. Fearing retribution, Pain and Panic told Hades that the scheme went according to plan. From this point on, Hades began building a dark army of monsters and warriors for the day in the future when the planets aligned and opened the portal to the Titans' prison.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Still building up his army, Hades noticed a strong dark and brooding warrior outside the Coliseum - Terra. Pretending to offer Terra the chance to learn how to master the darkness, Hades signed him up for the Games in the hopes that combat would force Terra to rely on his darkness and grow stronger. However, when it appeared that this wasn't going to work, Hades decided to manipulate Terra's final opponent Zack by controlling his darkness. However, Terra freed Zack, prompting Hades to give up on his plans and flee.

When Aqua arrived, Hades has been winning in the West bracket, earning the right to challenge the East bracket winner for the championship. Deciding to check out who his opponent is, Hades appears before Aqua, finding that she's just a "little bluebird". He makes the mistake of insulting Terra, by calling him a coward for not using his darkness. Facing off with Aqua, Hades called in a copy of the Ice Titan called the Ice Colossus as his back-up. However, Aqua defeated him, and Hades decides that he needed a real titan if he wants to take out heroes like Aqua and Terra.

Between Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts

Hades had aquired the services of many monsters by this point, and was waiting for the alignment. However, he soon learned from one of his agents, Meg, of a new hero called Hercules. Realizing that Pain and Panic lied to him, Hades began sending his army after Hercules, who pummeled every last monster that was sent at him. However, Hades was able to take advantage of the love between Meg and Hercules to trick the demigod into forfeiting his strength on the day of the alignment - though he had to promise Meg's safety in return. Releasing the Titans, Hades attacked Mount Olympus; however, Hercules soon joined the battle as Meg was fatally injured during another Titan's rampage. Hercules defeated the Titans, but Hades decided Meg's soul was a good consolation prize. However, Hercules dived into the River of Souls and retrieved Meg, regaining his godhood for the selfless act, but later forfeited it for a mortal life. Hades was promptly knocked into the river, but managed to escape later.

Kingdom Hearts

When Maleficent began her conquest of the worlds, Hades became one of her allies. 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 by promising to lead him to Sephiroth if he will kill Hercules.

When Sora arrives at Olympus Coliseum and is rebuffed by Phil, Hades provides him with a pass to enter the games, but when Sora starts winning the tournament, Hades instructs Cloud to kill Sora as well. When Cloud fails to kill Sora, Hades has Cerberus attack Cloud, but Hercules rescues Cloud while Sora defeats Cerberus. As Sora leaves the Coliseum, Maleficent warns Hades not to be overcome by the darkness, but Hades waves Maleficent away, claiming he can handle it. He later attends the meeting to discuss Jafar's defeat, where Maleficent again warns him about succumbing to darkness. Hades rebuffs the statement, instead helping her inform Riku that they have kept their end of the deal and located Kairi.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

When Sora and his friends are in Castle Oblivion, Hades appears as a figment of Sora's memories. He hires Cloud to defeat Hercules, and in exchange, Hades promises to restore Cloud's lost memories. When Cloud is unable to defeat Hercules, so Hades decides to fight Hercules personally. Sora intervenes and defeats him.

Kingdom Hearts II

One year later, Hades resurrects Auron in the Underworld and offers him his life back if he kills Hercules. When Auron refuses this offer, Hades becomes enraged, and almost strikes Auron down until Sora and company arrives, needing to speak to him. However, Sora and the others quickly retreat, 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 dispatches Cerberus to take care of them instead. However, Sora and Auron defeats Cerberus and escapes 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. After Pete informs him that only Sora can wield Keyblade, Hades kidnaps Meg and traps her in the Underdrome, knowing that Sora must use the Keyblade to rescue her and unseal the Underdrome in the process. Additionally, Hades sent a Hydra after Hercules to prevent him from interfering and had Pete on standby to ambush Sora once he enters the Underdome. However, Sora is able to save Meg with Hercules's help. At the exit of the Underworld, Hades confronts them and reminds Hercules about the Hydra which he had neglected to finish off completely. They enter 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.

To celebrate the Underdrome 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 orders him to take care of Hercules and Sora. Inevitably, the scheme fails, as Sora finds 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 overpowers Sora and his allies until Hercules emerges, his full power restored by willing to risk his life to save Meg. Hades is 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 company much trouble after that. Later on, Hades opens his Paradox tournaments. After Sora wins the Hades Paradox Cup, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Hercules, and Auron celebrate with the trophy while Hades looks at them furiously, only to be kicked by Pegasus, which sends him flying across the Underdome.

Kingdom Hearts coded

Within in the Datascape, a data version of Hades makes a deal with the Data-Cloud: if Cloud destroys Data-Sora and Data-Hercules, Data-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 Data-Cloud, and reveals that he isn't the source of Olympus Coliseum's Bug Blox. After the defeat of the Data-Cerberus, the real source of the world's Bug Blox, Data-Hades battles the trio of data heroes.

Appearance

In his normal state, Hades has blue skin and blue flaming "hair". His eyes are completely yellow except for his black pupils. He has very sharp teeth and an unnatural black mouth. His face is quite long and thin, with his chin jutting out abruptly. His fingers are long, thin, and clawed. He wears what appears to be a dark grey shirt underneath a black toga, the latter of which seems to be held up by a small skull pin on his right shoulder. Hades's feet are never visible, due to the length of his robes.

When Hades gets angry, he quite literally erupts with anger; his skin turns a reddish orange and his hair flares up in a bevy of glowing flames.

Personality

"What is so funny, you imbeciles! How dare you get a happy ending... HOW DARE YOU!"

—Hades, after Hercules saved Meg

Hades is one of the most temperamental characters in the series. Although others are shown to be temperamental, Hades bursts out in anger on a more regular basis. When Hades gets angry, he explodes into a red pillar of fire and his normal blue colored "hair" burns red (which is ironic since blue fire is warmer than red fire).

Hades is also shown to be very cunning and smooth when calm and tends to talk a lot; for instance, when he tricked Sora into opening the Underdrome to save Meg. He also shows this trait when talking to Hercules, most of the time giving indirect answers and eerie hints that usually lead Hercules to danger. Also, unlike other Disney antagonists, Hades never seems to lie directly, instead never telling the whole truth of the matter. He possesses a biting, dry wit, and has a habit of making both subtle and overt verbal jabs at those around him. Hades also has childlike tendencies, like blocking his ears with his fingers and pretending he doesn't hear Sora when he tries to talk to him. He admitted that he has an ambition to rule the world in Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.

Abilities

Hades is a powerful boss in the Kingdom Hearts series, using fire as a weapon, with which he can deal great amounts of damage. The Lord of the Dead has high amounts of HP, and can even become invulnerable for short periods of time. In the first Kingdom Hearts, Hades is fought only in the final rounds of the Hades Cup. In Kingdom Hearts II, he is fought not only as a scripted boss, but also in the Hades Paradox Cup.

Origin

Hades, like many characters from Hercules, is based on a person from Greek mythology. While the Greek version of this deity has a humanoid depiction and is for the most part a relatively passive but unmerciful deity, the Disney version is depicted as an evil, satanic god with a hatred for his brother Zeus, jealous of being assigned to the Underworld while the Sky God became ruler of Olympus. Both versions of Hades also have a series of demonic beasts at their disposal, and reign supreme over the souls of the dead. Believers in the Grecian Hades would show their devotion to their god by going as far as to bang on the ground to ensure he was listening to their prayers. Major differences between these two depictions of Hades are that the Disney Hades is trying to overthrow Zeus, has an affiliation with fire, and is served by the demons Pain and Panic, qualities that were actually associated with Alcyoneus, Hephaestus, and Ares, respectively, in the original mythology.

In the Disney film, Hades crashes an infant Hercules's party, only to return to the Underworld and learn from the Fates that the boy would be the only thing that stood in the way of the Lord of the Dead's stealing his brother Zeus's job as Ruler of the Gods. He later had sidekicks Pain and Panic kidnap the baby and turn him mortal so that he could be killed, the dark god plotting while Hercules aged. Hades eventually found a girl named Megara in his ownership, using her to lure Hercules into his traps once he learned the hero had lived. Hades succeeded in freeing the Titans and taking over Olympus as prophesied 18 years ago, yet was defeated at Hercules's hand. The god was then sent tumbling into the River Styx.

Trivia

• In all of his appearances, Hades tries using a character from the Final Fantasy series 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 uses Zack in this manner, as well as to display the power of darkness to Terra.