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Everybody Hates Hades: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:rsz hades hate 2965.jpg|frame|'''Left''': Hades, from [[Classical Mythology]]. [[Licked by the Dog|Animal Lover.]] '''Right''': Hades, from Disney's ''[[Hercules (
{{quote|''"Oh and you think I enjoy this? I'm sick and tired of always being the bad guy! What I do has to be done!"''|'''Death''', ''[[Family Guy]]''}}
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A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[Sadly Mythtaken]] and a form of [[Adaptational Villainy]]. Compare with [[Hijacked by Jesus]], when the similarities with Christianity are painfully obvious. Contrast with [[Don't Fear the Reaper]]. See [[Historical Villain Upgrade]] for when this is applied to historical rather than mythological figures. See also [[The Theme Park Version]] and occasionally [[Mythology Upgrade]].
Named after the [[Greek Mythology|Greek God of the Underworld, Hades]], who is often a victim of this in modern times.<ref>Probably the worst thing Hades did is kidnap his niece and maker her his wife. The tale of which is normally called "The Rape of Persephone". He did this with the approval of his brother Zeus, who among other things was the god of justice and a serial rapist. So while not a paragon of virtue by todays standards, if you use most other [[Jerkass Gods|greek gods]] as a baseline, he was a pretty nice dude.</ref> In the original Hercules myth, Hera (Zeus's wife) was the antagonist, because Hercules was the product of Zeus's... um... "[[Anything That Moves|extra-marital activities]]". Poor Hades had nothing to do with the operation. [[Hercules (
{{examples}}
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== Comics ==
* Of all the places this trope could be averted it had to be on a Disney comic. Yes, the same company that forever cursed Hades as evil in media. In a European Disney comic, Hades appears as a somewhat goofy and sympathetic character, whose relationship with Persephone has met a problematic stage and as a consequence the summer had extended and caused a global warming. Fortunately, Donald and his nephews fix their relationship and everything gets back to normal. In this comic Hades is also not portrayed as the demon like being he was on Disney's ''[[Hercules (
** So Hades resembled...[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Pluto]]?
* Played dreadfully straight by the [[Marvel Universe]] version of Hades, who's referred to by his Roman name of Pluto. Pluto has earned the enmity of both [[The Incredible Hercules]] and [[The Mighty Thor]], and has been shown as trying to overthrow Zeus and seize control of the Greek pantheon for himself.
** This is also the case of [[The Mighty Thor|Hela]], the Norse goddess of the dead (well, the dead who didn't die in heroic battle, anyway). Sometimes it is justified, as she on occasions took the role of a villain and tried to take over Valhalla (the Norse equivalent of heaven), but it still doesn't justify the hatred she gets when she only tries to care for the souls under her charge.
* Other Marvel characters subvert this. The Marvel universe contains the embodiment of Death, who is often depicted as [[True Neutral]]—she takes ''all'' life, good or bad (as she told [[New Mutants|Danielle Moonstar the Valkyrie]], who said "you cause pain!" -- "and end it."), though has ordered the deaths of billions just to take back the balance. Hela (The Norse goddess of the Dead) is more or less neutral as well, though she leant towards evil back in the day, and selfishly punished Thor several times for perceived slights; however, its her fathr Loki who is the ''actual'' Asgardian [[God of Evil]], and they don't get along ''at all''. There are also other "reapers" in the MU that aren't really evil, like Doorman from the Great Lakes Avengers.
** Also, in [[The Thanos Imperative]], we see a dimension literally without Death (Somehow, someone managed to kill ''her'', and [[Cosmic Horror|it's not pretty]].
* ''[[The Sandman]]'' averts this, with a [[Perky Goth]] Death who is arguably [[Neutral Good]] (or a sunny [[True Neutral]] at worst). She used to be a lot more [[Incredibly Lame Pun|grim]], but now that she spends one day per century as a mortal, she seems rather fond of people. However, she shares [[The DCU|a universe]] ([[Vertigo Comics|tenuously]], anyway) with [[Blackest Night|Nekron]], who plays this trope straight. Debate still rages on which is the "true" Death.
** [[Word of God]] is that ''both'' of them are the "true" death, along with [[New Gods|the Black Racer]] and possibly others. They all just represent different aspects of death, created based on the different expectations and perceptions of sentient races and individuals of what death is like. [[Perky Goth]] Death is thus Death as a Peaceful End; the [[True Neutral]] Black Racer is [[Implacable Man|Death as Inevitable]]. Nekron is thus a [[Justified Trope]] as he merely serves the purpose of being [[Enemies with Death|Death as the Ultimate Enemy]].
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== Film ==
* The Disney animated movie ''[[Hercules (
* [[Drive Angry]] has an excellent subversion. There's a Satanist cult behind most of the film's events, and the Accountant encounters one of them left alive after the heroe's rampage through their 'church.' The Accountant makes it clear that, from his ''personal interactions'' with Satan, he's a well-read and rather pleasant guy. He made a foolish mistake eons ago, and has spent the entire time since then stuck as the warden to the worst prison in the universe. And what ''really'' ticks him off is having to watch people on Earth commit atrocities and claim that he had a hand in them.
* ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' has the evil [[Hollywood Voodoo]] doctor Facilier sell his soul to a group of evil spirits referred to as his "friends on the other side". No actual Loa are named (and blasphemed), but it's far from a balanced portrayal of any vodou entity. Though it might count as a slightly exaggerated portrayal of ''petro ghede''.
** Although they also have Mama Odie, a good voodoo priestess. She also has a pet snake named Juju, which would be considered good in voodoo even as it defies the usual [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]] rule of Disney films (twice even, as the alligator character is also unambiguously a good guy).
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* ''[[Watership Down]]'': The Black Rabbit of Inlé somewhat illustrates this trope: he is not actively malevolent, being pretty much neutral and a servant of the rabbit analogue of God ([[Captain Obvious|who incidentally happens to be good]]), but nobody likes him because of his job as an entity responsible for death.
* In Lloyd Alexander's ''[[The Chronicles of Prydain]]'' the [[Big Bad]] is Lord Arawn whose goal is to take over the world. The books are based on Welsh mythology, in which Arawn isn't that bad a guy. However, this is still an aversion of [[Did Not Do the Research]], as Alexander does note this change in character in his introduction...he just decided to make Arawn the villain anyway.
* Averted in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[American Gods]]'', in which Anubis ("Mr. Jacquel") is among the more pleasant and helpful deities that Shadow encounters, and works alongside Thoth ("Mr. Ibis") as a small-town funeral director. In an inversion, Czernobog is depicted as a [[Boisterous Bruiser]] who is a little hardcore, but not that bad.
** Played a little straighter with another death-associated god, {{spoiler|Odin, aka Mr. Wednesday}}, who's a [[Con Man|genuine]] [[The Chessmaster|scheming]] [[Manipulative Bastard|bastard]] and one of the main villains, along with {{spoiler|his friend Loki Liesmith}}.
* Averted in the Dark Hunter book "Acheron". Hades seems to be one of the few gods who pities Acheron and leaves him be when Acheron {{spoiler|dies and appears in the Underworld.}}
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*** She ''is'' the Black God's daughter.
* Deconstructed in Flavia Bujor's ''[[The Prophecy of the Stones]]'' where Death, who is actually quite lovely, gets tired of being hated and quits. We are told this is not the first time it has happened.
* Subverted in the ''[[Shadowmarch]]'' series; the god Kernios is a pretty blatant counterpart to Hades (he's a god of death, darkness, and the underworld, and his brothers are a sky god and a sea god to boot) and it's heavily hinted throughout the books that he's the mysterious supernatural entity who is manipulating the mortal villains. {{spoiler|Nope- Kernios is in hibernation and has been for milennia. The [[Big Bad]] is Zosim the trickster god, who'd been impersonating him}}.
* Averted in ''[[The Goddess Test]]'' series; Hades (known as Henry) is neutral and hardworking as the god of the dead, and Persephone was initially his willing wife. In the series, {{spoiler|Hera}} is the antagonist, not Hades. While the series twists some mythological details, it is a case of [[Artistic License]] rather than [[Did Not Do the Research]], and the differences are acknowledged and addressed by the characters.
* The last book of [[In the Net of Dreams|the Dreamland Chronicles trilogy]] subverts this, Hades is pretty much the only decent god. While the rest of the [[Classic Mythology|pantheons]] are preparing for an interfaith war, Hades is trying to get back his rightful throne from a usurper who has upset the balance of life and death. He deals fairly and honestly with the heroes to get their help.
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* ''[[Rome]]'': An enraged Lucius Vorenus shouts, [[This Is Sparta|"I am a son of Hades!"]] The line works on modern audiences because it sounds like he's calling himself the son of Satan, ie a horrible, monstrous person. However, the line also works from a Roman perspective, since Hades/Pluto/Dis is a rather grim god, and screaming that you're his son would make you sound like a lunatic with a death wish.
** Though Pluto/Hades wasn't an evil deity per se, but invoking his name was an extreme taboo, only done when swearing an unbreakable oath. Vorenus basically declares himself utterly relentless and merciless, as well as desperate enough to call upon the Stygian deity.
* ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' and ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'': Completely averted. Hades is one of the nicest gods in the pantheon, and except for that one early bit with Persephone, tries to help out his nephew when he shows up to [[Death Is Cheap|turn those revolving doors]]. It's just, well, there are rules to follow. They also show that the underworld is ''not'' the equivalent of the Christian Hell. Yes, souls are being tortured, but if they truly repent, then they will be sent to the Elysian Fields instead, which is their version of Paradise. This is shown to happen to Iolaus' father, whose soul admits to his son that he was wrong in focusing on his military career instead of his family. Hades, who is present, immediately offers to transfer him to the Elysian Fields.
* ''[[Charmed]]'' never used Hades (except for a rather dishonorable mention as the father of the demon Nikos in the novel), but Hecate, another underworld god(dess), came off particularly badly, being [http://charmed.wikia.com/wiki/Hecate turned into a demon]. (Way to go, [[Did Not Do the Research|have witches fight the matron of witches]].) Yama also got this treatment, becoming the totally amoral gatekeeper of Chinese hell who tried to snatch whatever spirits were not "properly buried" and drag them to hell, regardless of whether they were good or evil.
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* While Disney did go a bit over the top, [[Trope Namer|Hades]] was ''not'' a favorite god of the Greeks, who didn't even like to say his name and would avert their eyes when sacrificing to him. He was said to "enrich himself with our sighs and our tears" by Sophocles. In Homer's ''[[The Iliad|Iliad]]'', Agamemnon described him saying "Hades who is utterly unyielding--and hence he is, of all gods, the one most hateful to mankind." While he was not considered out-and-out evil, being a death god put the kibosh on his ever getting ''that'' popular.
** But Hades couldn't have been hated that much his wife was goddess of springtime and flowers plus Hades was god of Precious metals meaning both of them must've been worshiped a lot.
** Hell, Disney didn't exactly start making him outright evil - you can really blame [[The Dung Ages|Medieval Christians]] for their common practice of demonizing pagan deities. Hades had his name lent to Hell, while aspects of Pan were put into [[Satan|the Devil himself]].
*** Some other common "demons", such as Baal, Dagon and Beelzebub, were demonizations of Semitic deities. Beelzebub and Ba'al were both corruptions of the same god, in fact! Dagon's demonization is a fair bit more recent, and comes from the pen of [[H.P. Lovecraft]], who made him into one of the [[Eldritch Abomination]]s of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]].
* Egyptian mythology presents two good examples in the form of Seth, god of the desert. The portrayal of Seth as a demonic figure was actually a political response to the unification of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms. As the Upper Kingdom, represented by Seth, resisted the union their patron's name was smeared and his darker aspects were emphasized in later myths; this is what inspired modern depictions. However, while Seth was jealous of his brother Horus' position and a harbinger of doom with no love for humans, he would help the other gods and play a key role in defeating Apophis, the actual devil-equivalent. This makes him one of the earliest mythological [[Anti-Hero]]es.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** The splatbook ''Deities & Demigods'' lists Hades as [[Neutral Evil]] largely so they could give him levels in the assassin [[Prestige Class]]. The book specifically notes that he isn't actively hostile or vicious, and that he mostly just ''is''; everyone dies eventually, and someone has to run the afterlife. Anubis on the other hand was listed as [[Lawful Neutral]].
** Nearly every deity of death and/or the underworlds in that book is Lawful Neutral or Neutral Evil (mostly the latter). The big exception is Osiris, who's listed as [[Lawful Good]]. In various other books, the deity of death tends to be Lawful Neutral instead, and there tends to be a different underworld for each alignment.
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* In the city-building game ''Zeus,'' this trope is ''averted.'' Basically any Greek God can be built a temple to (sometimes you have to do so just to keep away another one that's pissed off at you), and that includes Hades. In-game he can defeat any god that attacks your city save Zeus and Poseidon, and the game recognizes Hades is more than just the lord of the dead; he's also the god in charge of everything within the earth itself, including ''mineral wealth'', an often-overlooked aspect in modern times. In this game, he rewards you with infinite silver veins that spawn around his temple and occasionally grants you the blessing of additional cash. He also lets his pet Cerberus guard your city as a bonus.
** That's not to say he would ''always'' be a good guy. Depending on your city's interaction with the immortals, Hades could very well end up sending Cerberus to attack you, or even pay you a visit himself. If he visits not only does he shut down your metal-working industry, he also takes a substantial chunk of your population back to the Underworld with him.
* In pretty much all of the [[Might and Magic]] games, whenever your party dies, you get a chilling but well-intentioned speech from Death itself, who chides you that your time in the land of the living is not done, and sends you back... but not before warning you that "... but I am quite sure that we will meet again."
* ''[[Battlezone (1998 video game)|Battlezone 1998]]'' (the 1998 game, not the 1980s classic) implies that the mythical Hades was inspired by an evil, violent faction of [[Ancient Astronauts]].
* {{spoiler|Izanami}} is revealed to be a villain in ''[[Persona 4]]''. Somewhat appropriate in that she ''is'' kind of a villain in Shinto myth.
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* Averted in ''[[Super Paper Mario]]''. The Queen of [[The Underworld|The Underwhere]], Jaydes, isn't hated, she is even {{spoiler|[[God Couple|married to]] Grambi, King of [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|The Overthere]].}}
* The unlicensed NES game ''Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu'' had the god Shiva as its [[Big Bad]].
* It seems that the ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'' verse doesn't like [[Norse Mythology|Hel]]. She's the unseen [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume]]''.
* Averted with online game [[Poptropica]]: On one of the islands, {{spoiler|Zeus is the Big Bad, trying to conquer all of Poptropica}} and Hades is very helpful, giving you one of the items necessary to beat the island. The underworld is certainly not a pretty place though.
* In ''[[Too Human]]'', a [[Cyberpunk]] adaptation of [[Norse Mythology]], Hel is a [[Mad Scientist]] who cybernetically reanimates the corpses of the dishonored dead that she is entrusted with as cannon fodder, {{spoiler|including Baldur's beloved wife}}, and is loyal to her father Loki.
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** That said, given all the [[Genius Bonus|in-jokes for the myth buffs in the audience]], this most infamous example of this trope was a case of [[Artistic License]] and semi-required [[Bowdlerization]] rather than [[Did Not Do the Research|ignorance]]. And hey - the film was still better than ''[[Pocahontas]]''.
* Disney's done this trople waaaaaay back in the past: the 1934 [[Silly Symphony]] ''The Goddess of Spring'' is a retelling of the Persephone myth, and Hades looks like a proper Mephistophelean stage devil. You can watch it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqp1NuyfnqI here] for now.
* Subverted in the TV series ''[[Class of the Titans]]''. While Hades is kind of...swishy, he still is a pretty decent guy who is in a loving relationship with Persephone.
** Thanatos (who is basically, the greek god of death), Hades's subordinate, is sometimes used as a villain, but on these occasions he usually turns out to be mind-controlled by Kronos. He is otherwise a kindly bespectacled old man - who can transform into a boney horror with wings. He is pretty neutral towards the heroes, but does seem to enjoy his job too much...
* Averted in ''[[Gargoyles]]'' with Anubis (voiced by [[Tony Jay]]), who turns out to not be a bad guy. He just is there to maintain balance in the world. The episode "Grief" deals with [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|the Emir]] trying to force Anubis to {{spoiler|resurrect his dead son}}.
{{quote|'''Anubis:''' [[True Neutral|Death is the ultimate fairness. Young or old, rich or poor, all are equal in Death]].}}
* Averted in the Sunbow ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' episode "The Gods Below". Osiris, the Egyptian God of Death, and the other Egyptian gods that appear, for the most part, are portrayed as good or at least neutral. The only exception is Set who's kind of already an evil god in Egyptian mythology, [[Depending on the Writer|depending on which period of Egyptian history any given myth comes from.]]
* Played straight in [[Mummies Alive]], in which Anubis is a dim-witted villain who works alongside Set. In mythology, Set disowned him, since Anubis chose to side with Horus and helped Isis mummify Osiris and restore him.
* The [[Watership Down]] animated series pulls this with the Black Rabbit of Inle. When he starts appearing in season three, he glows red and gets vanishes in a burst of flames.
== Other ==
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