Everybody Hates Hades: Difference between revisions

[[File:rsz hades hate 2965.jpg|frame|'''Left''': Hades, from [[Classical Mythology]]. [[Licked by the Dog|Animal Lover.]] '''Right''': Hades, from Disney's ''[[Hercules (1997 film)||Hercules]]''. [[Obviously Evil]].]]

 

 

Oh, c'mon, what's wrong with Hades? He's a pretty nice guy. Not his fault he [[Drawing Straws|drew the lot]] of being god of the dead... why is Hades always so evil in media? Why?

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Both ''[[Mazinger Z]]'', ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' and ''[[Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen]]'' involve [[Greek Mythology]], and Hades is the villain. In ''Shin'', Mazinger Z [[Rocket Punch]]es him in the face. Zeus does like-wise with ''his severed arm''.

* Hades is a major antagonist in the ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' anime/manga series. His "evil" is apparently off the charts.

** Fun fact: Hercule was a name originally given to Mr. Satan by the french anime translation ([[Captain Obvious|Hercule is Hercules in french]], amusingly enough), but it wasn't due to [[Bowdlerisation]]; rather, the name Satan was already taken, as they'd given it to Piccolo from his [[Big Bad]] days (when he was known as the "Great Demon King").

 

* 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 (1997 film)||Hercules]]'', but rather as one of the dog faced people that fill the Disney comics.

** So Hades resembled...[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Pluto]]?

* ''[[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]].

** Hades himself also shows up in the re-telling of the myth of Orpheus. He is presented as cold and uncaring and probably not a very ''nice'' deity, but he isn't directly evil. And in his defense, he had enough sympathy for Orpheus to let him take his dead wife from the Underworld (even if that didn't turn out so well in the end).

 

* In the dread ''[[My Immortal]]'' the "goffic" analogue of Sirius Black uses the nickname Hades. Much like all [[Designated Hero|supposed "good guys"]], he is at best unsympathetic (not to mention his sadism). Given that the "goffs" are satanists, it pretty much implies that Hades is satanic. Of course, many assume the author is either a gigantic [[Troll]] or simply [[Too Stupid to Live|retarded beyond reasoning]].

 

== Film ==

* The Disney animated movie ''[[Hercules (1997 film)||Hercules]]'' casts Hades as the villain, probably the most well-known example of this trope. This portrayal, in addition to some of the ''other'' liberties taken with the myth, meant that the movie had to be marketed as ''Beyond the Myth of Heracles'' in Greece to avoid a national backlash, which... [[Americans Hate Tingle|didn't exactly work]]. However, due to how [[Deadpan Snarker|funny]] and [[Affably Evil|genuinely]] [[Ensemble Darkhorse|likeable]] Disney Hades is, you probably won't find any viewers (Greek Mythology buffs excepted) who hate Hades, except for being [[That One Boss]] in [[Kingdom Hearts]].

* [[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.

** This is made stranger by the fact that Anubis aided the hero's in the first first film by {{spoiler|making Imhotep mortal}} when summoned. He actually does this again during ''The Mummy Returns'' when he evens the playing field for the final showdown. It seems the film makers were aware of his actual role in mythology, alluded to it and then [[They Just Didn't Care|ignored it]] when it suited the plot.

*** Pretty egregious since Egyptian mythology has Set, a god of destruction who would have suited the role much better, but for some reasons the film makers didn't think about using him. Maybe because they thought jackals looked cooler than whatever the hell kind of animal Set is supposed to be.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'': Hades is the prime suspect of the theft of the master bolt in order to overthrow the gods. {{spoiler|It turns out to be a subversion. It's not him; he thinks it was Percy and only wants the bolt so he can ''return'' it, along with his stolen helmet. The real thief? Ares, being manipulated by Luke, being manipulated by Kronos.}} Humorously, this version of Hades mentions on his [https://web.archive.org/web/20131123035810/http://www.percyjackson.co.uk/site/pj_features_hades.php profile page] on the official ''Percy Jackson'' site that Disney's ''Hercules'' is one of his favorite films. He even claims to like being portrayed as the bad guy for the movie; his only gripe was the blue flaming hair. (It's of course possible he's being sarcastic.)

* Averted by [[Lord Dunsany]] in ''The Gods of Pegana''. Mung, the god of death, is an implacable force of nature who is genuinely perplexed at the way people fear him. He asks one man, "Were the forty million years before thy coming intolerable to thee? Not less tolerable to thee shall be the forty million years to come!"

* In ''[[Discworld/Mort|Mort]]'' when Death is testing out the pleasures of being human, he allows himself to get drunk at which point he starts drunkenly moping about how everyone hates him and he has no friends. Death is portrayed as being incredibly lonely.

** Discworld's Death in general is a pretty nice guy, likes humanity, and is [[Discworld/Hogfather|usually on the hero's side]] or [[Discworld/Reaper Man|one of the main heroes himself.]] [[Discworld/Thief of Time|He even convinced the other Horsemen to ride out for humanity instead of against it once.]]

** The Graveyard Hag, a death goddess in Carthak, is also fairly helpful to Daine in ''Emperor Mage'', though she's still a fairly creepy goddess.

*** She ''is'' the Black God's daughter.

* 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.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': Though none of them are actually the gods they've adopted the personae of, Anubis of the Goa'uld is considered the most evil of the bunch.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':

* Averted in [[All There in the Manual|the manual]] of ''[[Caprica]]'' and ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'': Hades is a heroic figure to the Colonials and the capital of Canceron is named after him.

* In the Greek Myths spin-off of ''[[The Storyteller]]'', Hades is presented as a bitter being.

* [[Death]] on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' is notable in that, among the Four [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]], he's the only one who's not outright evil. In fact, he's not a bad guy at all, leaning close to [[True Neutral]] than anything, and has willingly helped the Winchesters on three separate occasions so far.

** Osiris comes closer to this trope, being pretty much a [[Jerkass]].

** On top of this we have [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|the Demon lord Orcus, and the Archdevil Dispater]], both Roman names for Hades. Just being neutral evil isn't enough.

*** Orcus is actually the Roman name for Thanatos, but it's pretty much the same anyway.

* ''[[Scion]]'': Utterly averted—Hades is presented as he is in the myths - probably [[Only Sane Man|the only level-headed person in the Dodekatheon]]. Aside from mild tendencies towards greed and [[Pluto Is Expendable|irritation at being a "dwarf planet"]], he's an all right guy. On the other hand, Miclantehcuhtli of the Atzlanti is portrayed as being evil in a spiteful, petty bureaucrat sort of way; Hel of the Norse Aesir is cold, cruel and unfeeling, and the Ragnarok supplement mocks players who want to make her happy through the power of true love (although it does leave open the possibility); and Izanami of the Amatsukami torments other gods and Scions for being unable to save her from her tortured and rotten state as ruler of the Japanese underworld. All of these are pretty close to their respective myths, no less. White Wolf likes to do the research.

* The ''[[Fighting Fantasy]]'' universe has Death as the ultimate [[God of Evil]], with his brothers Disease and Decay just a step behind him in power.

* Palladium's ''[[Rifts]]'' is particularly bad about this. Here's a breakdown by pantheon:

** '''Aztec''': Predictably, the cultural [[Values Dissonance]] wreaks havoc. With the exception of Quetzalcoatl and his pal/sidekick Xolotl, the entire pantheon is made up of [[Complete Monster]]s and a few gods who feel they don't have a choice in following them. Mictlan, the lord of the dead (well, [[Did Not Do the Research|it's actually the name of the underworld]], but by this point, who cares, right?) deserves special mention, as it's the [[Eldritch Abomination]] co-ruler of Hades (the place, which is crawling with [[Our Demons Are Different|a bunch of demon races]]; Hades the god rules another chunk of it) with fellow abomination Modeus.

 

== Theater ==

* Subverted in Stephen Sondheim's ''The Frogs.'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xeTSecKRho Listen for yourself].

* The main antagonist of ''[[Once On This Island]]'' is Papa Ge, a Vodou Loa associated with death whom the actual lore seems to portray as [[wikipedia:Guédé|a pretty decent guy]] (at least as far as [[The Other Wiki]] can be trusted on the subject).

** Especially when you consider that the main plot boils down to a bet over whether love or death is more powerful, and Papa Ge doesn't really do anything besides offer the main character the option of choosing death. Add to that the fact that it's somewhat implied in some productions that Erzulie, the goddess of love, more or less used her powers to make Timone (the main character) fall in love with somebody totally unsuitable (an affair that can only logically end in pain for somebody), plus the other gods general manipulation (which boils down to "it's fun to play with humans") and you get a case of all four being [[Jerkass Gods]] at worst and operating under [[Blue and Orange Morality]] at best.

* In ''[[Hadestown]]'', Hades is depicted as a welfare capitalist, with all the false promises (to the dead in general, and Eurydice in particular) that entails.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Castlevania]]'', Death is [[Dracula]]'s [[The Dragon|Right Hand Man]]. And while Hades is not present in this series, his wife Persephone is a villainous [[Ninja Maid]].

* Subverted in the ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' series, where Hades is no more evil than the other gods of Olympus [[Dark Is Not Evil|despite his demonic appearance]]. However, it's played straight in the manual, which describes him as "a greedy god who is greatly concerned with increasing his subjects." In the sequels, he is finally motivated to kill Kratos out of revenge for his niece (Athena), brother (Poseidon) and wife (Persephone), thus making his actions at least understandable.

* ''[[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.

** And even then {{spoiler|s/he doesn't want to. S/he was content with sleeping away until a bunch of [[Death Seeker]]s in the Kirijo Group wanted to end the world. Only the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of Yukari's father and the Main Character buys enough time for humanity to get its shit together.}}

* Played with in ''[[Age of Mythology]]''. While some of the villains will choose to worship him early in the campaign, Hades himself never shows up. Also the real villains are {{spoiler|Poseidon}}, who actually ''did'' try to overthrow Zeus in the myths, and {{spoiler|Kronos}}.

* ''[[Kid Icarus]]'' has Pluton, an invincible and incredibly annoying ogre thief, whose name is the original Greek spelling for Pluto (Ploutōn). The Grim Reaper(shortened to Reaper) and the God of Revenge are also enemies.

* 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]]''.

* 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.

 

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' gives us a few different soul collectors and versions of "death" that correspond to various religions and myths. All of them seem quite nice and even enjoy conversation with mortals who can see them.

* ''[[Jack (webcomic)|Jack]]'', the assigned Grim Reaper, really doesn't like his job of (among with a whole list of other things) [http://www.pholph.com/whole_arc_viewer.php?id=5&sid=561 ripping lovers apart.]

 

== Web Original ==

 

== Western Animation ==

* Subverted in the ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' animated film. Hades looks like he's agreeing to free Ares so the restored god of war can kill, well, everyone, on Earth and provide Hades with their souls, but it turns out there's only one soul Hades is really interested in, revealed when his [[Evil Plan]] comes to fruition.

** His evilness is up for debate. Sure he was a bit of a dick but he did put one of the worst psychopaths ever on a permanent lockdown and well... [[Asshole Victim|Ares and his son deserved it.]]

** They made Hera into Hercules' mother, so she wouldn't have reason to persecute him as an illegitimate child. [[Futurama|Which only raises more questions.]]

** 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]]''.

* 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.

* 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]].}}

 

== Other ==

 

{{reflist}}