Hades
| “ | Sorry to keep YOU waiting. But now that I'm here, let's get this party started! | ” |
—Hades revealing himself in Chapter 9. | ||
| Hades | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 冥府神ハデス | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meifu-shin Hadesu (Underworld God Hades) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hades (ハデス Hadesu) is the unexpected primary antagonist of Kid Icarus: Uprising. He is the true ruler of the Underworld and is responsible for Medusa's revival, which set the events of the game in motion. Medusa was revived as a distraction for Pit and Palutena while Hades was busy gathering souls of the human race in order to store them within his realm. He accomplished this by using lies to turn different nations against each other, causing war to break out.
Characteristics
Appearance
Hades appears as a giant, humanoid, demonic deity with purple skin and red tattoo on his eyes. He has fairly long tri-colored hair that is red, green, and pink. He wears very grotesquely designed robes and clothing with asymmetrical shapes and a cape seemingly made out of darkness, flesh, and fire. He has red lines that run up both his arms and legs. The inside of his body is completely chaotic in design, with even skies, grind rails and surreal structures found commonly throughout.
For the final battle, Hades dons a suit of armor he dubs his "devastation ensemble". In this form, Hades's body is more muscular and the red lines running up his body are replaced by an orange covering of light that lets him spawn various laser turrets on his body and cape. The sash around his waist now spreads outward in a ring. The two most noticeable features are the orange drill he can summon from his chest and the spikes on his right shoulder.
Upon being bifurcated by the Great Sacred Treasure, Hades uses the souls he's devoured to regenerate his legs. The legs are mostly black with orange lines and resemble those of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Hades's chest now has a visible gemstone that serves as his core. Hades's upper body is reverted to normal. The sash around his waist now hangs loosely and his cape is in tatters. After he is beheaded by Medusa, he grows a new head covered in blue flames akin to Pandora's with orange flames that serve as his eyes.
Personality
| “ | Gods ARE above living things, which doesn't necessarily mean we CARE about them. | ” |
—Hades displays his utter disregard for life in Chapter 23. | ||
At first glance, Hades appears to be a mischievous trickster. When engaged in conversation, Hades often acts carefree and speaks in a playfully dull tone that is filled with sarcasm and cruelty, often making snide remarks and backhanded compliments. Even in the middle of a battle, Hades is shown to be very calm and level-headed, rarely ever getting angry. Hades also has a bit of showmanship, always boisterous and bombastic. Hades is also shown to have a genuine sense of humor and enjoys telling jokes and making puns at even the most odd or inappropriate of times.
Hades is also very flirtatious and even seems to view himself as a ladies man as he flirts with nearly every female character in the game, mentions wanting to use the Lightning Chariot to attract goddesses, and even claims all the women in the world will weep for his destroyed body as mentioned in the post-credits easter egg.
However, his gentlemanly persona only serves as a mask to hide his true malevolent personality. At his core, Hades is a complete sociopath and a being of pure evil who revels in death and destruction. Hades is considerably arrogant and nonchalantly brushes off any matter as nothing important, often viewing others as beneath him. He has no regard for life and views souls simply as mindless play things for him to amuse himself with and shows little to no sympathy for them or anything else. He treats souls as his puppets and manipulates their memories, hearts and forms to suit his own needs, not caring at all about their existence, even eating them for fun despite how much damage this causes to the balance. Hades's view on the cycle of life is even more skewed and twisted, seeing no difference between consuming a soul and their rebirth.
Hades also shows himself to be a cunning and manipulative strategist, knowing exactly how to trick others into doing his bidding. He revived Medusa to distract Pit and Palutena and when she is defeated, Hades managed to manipulate the humans into starting a war with each other over a nonexistent Wish Seed, even tricking Pit into slaying the Phoenix to kickstart the war.
Hades is very self-centered and controlling. Most of his motivations stem from his greed and lust for power and when something arises that threatens his control, it's the rare moments when Hades reacts with uncontrollable rage. During the Aurum invasion, Hades freely admits that he is only assisting the others because he wants to be the only one to plunder the earth. In Chapter 22, Dark Pit's threat to stop him was enough for Hades to smash a pillar in a rage. During the final battle with Pit, Hades brutally kills Medusa for interfering, and when finally defeated, he scolds Pit for daring to defeat him.
Hades also loves to play mind games with his opponents, teasing them, annoying them, and finding any way to get under their skin. He frequently insults and belittles other characters. Pit in particular seems to be his favorite target as he goes out of his way to enrage him, usually by bringing up his inability to fly. During the Aurum Arc, he frequently sends Mimicuties in Pit's path to impede his progress and in Chapter 20, he mockingly presents the very real possibility that the angel may have to kill the possessed Palutena. The only one immune to Hades's mind games is Dark Pit, who mostly ignores him.
Despite all his malicious tendencies, however, he does at the least comes to view Pit as a worthy opponent. He also held no grudge against Pit after the angel killed him and destroyed his body, and even complimented his abilities, albeit still throwing a few nasty remarks in his direction.
Abilities
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Hades is an extremely powerful deity, easily one of the most powerful characters in the game, possibly second in might only to Dyntos. As the god of the Underworld and its true master, Hades has full power of control over his realm, with it appearing to be impossible to enter it without him knowing it right away. He can house himself anywhere (and everywhere) within the Underworld, even in the darkness, not needing a castle to live in like Medusa.
As the god of the Underworld, Hades possesses full control over the souls sent to his realm. He can use the souls sent to his realm to revive fallen allies and create his Underworld monsters with them to increase the size of his army. He can also devour them and increase his own power. Hades can also use the souls he devoured to regenerate lost limbs, but the immense number of souls makes Hades more vulnerable to damage as a side effect.
In battle, Hades proves to be a deadly opponent, showing tremendous magical abilities, weapons, and hand-to-hand combat prowess. Hades can fire off powerful energy blasts and barrages from different parts of his body, like his eyes and hands. He has a suit of armor he dubs as his "devastation ensemble", which is covered with weapons also capable of firing powerful magic attacks. Hades is shown to be quite adept in taijutsu, able to attack very fluidly and quickly with unbelievable strength. Hades is able to nonchalantly tear off Medusa's (a goddess similar to himself in size) right arm with one hand and destroy her with a single punch. Despite being so huge, Hades is extremely fast, arguably one of the fastest character in the game, able to keep up with the Great Sacred Treasure by merely sprinting and can fly at incredible speeds.
Given his size, along with his strength and status as a god, Hades has incredible durability and vitality, having survived being bisected and beheaded only to regenerate these body parts easily and not be slowed down by it. Even when his heart was destroyed, Hades simply to brushes it off with a joke. Like the other gods, Hades is able to telepathically talk to others and project a giant astral hologram of himself wherever he wants. He also has a suction ability, which allows him to swallow things (including Pit himself) whole.
In Kid Icarus: Uprising
Hades was hinted to exist in chapters 6 and 7, but first reveals himself at the end of Chapter 9, where he interrupts the game's credits sequence after the defeat of Medusa to reveal his master plan. He states that it was him who revived Medusa, partly because of her hatred towards Palutena. In the next chapter, it is revealed that Hades created the rumor of the Wish Seed in order to make humans fight amongst each other which led Viridi, the goddess of nature, to destroy them for their hubris. This was all part of his plan to collect the souls of all the countless human soldiers lost in battle. This soon leads the Forces of Nature, the Underworld Army, and Palutena's Army into a massive three-way conflict.
Later in Chapter 15, Hades agrees to a temporary alliance and joins the Forces of Nature and Palutena's Army to work together in order to destroy the Aurum, but after this threat has passed, Palutena's Army and the Forces of Nature return to fighting against Hades's forces and each other.
After the three-year time skip in Chapter 19, Hades hints out that it was him who captured Pit's soul in the Ring of Chaos, but is likely that he got help from the Chaos Kin to do so.
In Chapter 22, Hades is revealed to be using the souls of the humans he captures in order to replicate Underworld monsters, but even worse, it is also revealed that it takes numerous souls to create a single monster, wasting them entirely. This is seen as a disturbance in the balance, and Palutena, Viridi, and Dark Pit greatly oppose his actions.
Pit, armed with the Three Sacred Treasures finally confronts Hades in Chapter 23, but the Underworld god easily destroys the Three Sacred Treasures with a single blast of his "raunchy breath" and ends up swallowing Pit whole. According to the Idol description of Hades' Belly, Pit is actually transported to another realm and is not really inside of Hades. Pit struggles to escape Hades' twisted insides and soon manages to destroy Hades's Heart in an explosion, allowing Dark Pit to see Pit's location and rescue him with the Lightning Chariot. However, Hades remains unfazed from his injury.
Pit later confronts him again in Chapter 25 with the Great Sacred Treasure, battling and pursuing Hades. The Great Sacred Treasure changes forms as it is repeatedly damaged, but its third form cuts Hades in half but the god simply respawns his lower half and continues to fight Pit. Eventually, Hades manages to destroy the Great Sacred Treasure and leave Pit temporarily vulnerable, allowing him to charge up his most powerful attack. Palutena tells Pit that a force is seeking Hades, and Pit must guide this force. As Hades is about to release his attack, Medusa suddenly appears and distracts him with a powerful punch, destroying his head. However, the god grows a new one and furiously destroys Medusa with a single blow. Viridi then grants Pit the Power of Flight then he wields the remaining cannon of the Great Sacred Treasure while Palutena charges the gun with her energy. When the gun reaches its maximum charge, Pit fires the cannon, unleashing a devastating blast which destroys Hades once and for all, bringing peace once more to the realm and all its inhabitants.
While seemingly destroyed, if the player waits five minutes past the ending credits he reveals that his soul is still very much intact and begins to compliment Pit on his skill and power, and seems to be somewhat proud of him. He then begins to make comical empty threats which is usual of his joking nature. The god claims that his condition is quite bad and might not be able to resurrect himself. He begins to whine about missing his body and all the women who will miss his godly physique as well. Despite the loss of his body, Hades hopes to figure out a way to resurrect himself in the next twenty-five years (when he assumes the next sequel will be released) and get his revenge, but until then he gives Pit a few tips and to prove he's not a sore loser, unlocks a special challenge for him. He then gives a few parting words to the player and announces that Kid Icarus: Uprising is his new favorite game before signing out.
Idol Descriptions
Hades
The true master of the Underworld. He is immeasurably strong, even among the divine pantheon, but prefers to rule from the shadows, forcing Medusa to do his dirty work. Yet even with all this evil, Hades still manages to act nonchalant.
Hades (Battle)
Hades, prepared for the final battle. Covered with missiles, his body is quite literally a weapon of mass destruction. Only Hades's selfish protection of the Underworld's bottom line keeps him from going all out on Pit.
Hades (New Legs)
After being cut in half by the Great Sacred Treasure, Hades heads to the surface world to regenerate his legs. Because this trick uses an immense number of souls, the usually invincible Hades suffers damage in the process.
Hades (Final)
Mere moments after having his head crushed by Medusa, Hades returns with a new, fresh complexion. While he attacks Pit with a renewed ferocity, it still isn't enough to withstand the assault of the Great Sacred Treasure.
Super Smash Bros. series
Hades appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS as a collectible trophy. His theme also plays on the Palutena's Temple stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Hades also appears as two spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, one in his regular form and one in his battle form.
Trophy Description
The true ruler of the Underworld, he is so powerful that he easily resurrected Medusa for his own amusement—and to distract his foes. Full of arrogance, he does have a genuine sense of humor, though it mainly serves to conceal his callous disregard for life.
Gallery
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Hades with new legs
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Hades and Pit
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Trivia
- Hades has appeared in many Greek myths and legends as Poseidon and Zeus's brother. Although Poseidon was in the game, he mentioned nothing about Hades, so there is no way to see if this applies to the game.
- Hades is one of the few major characters to not have a weapon named after him, but the End-All Arm could be inspired by his appearance.
- Hades is one of the three characters to be fought as a mini-boss and a boss. The others are Dark Pit and Hewdraw.
| Kid Icarus series characters | |
|---|---|
| Palutena's Army | Centurions (Centurion Knight, Centurion Strongarm) • Palutena • Pit |
| Underworld Army | Dark Lord Gaol • Hades • Hewdraw • Medusa • Pandora • Thanatos |
| Forces of Nature | Arlon • Cragalanche • Dark Pit • Phosphora • Viridi |
| Aurum Fleet | Aurum Brain (Aurum Pyrrhon) |
| Space Pirates | Space Pirate Captain |
| Chaos Kin | Chaos Kin |
| Unaffiliated | Chariot Master • Crow • Dog • Don • Dyntos • Fighter • Girl • God of Poverty • Magnus • Nurse • Orcos • Poseidon • Pseudo-Palutena • Pyrrhon • Zeus |