After years of reading Greek mythology adaptations, watching Greek mythology adaptations, listening to Greek mythology adaptations, and making my own Greek mythology adaptations, I've decided that there are two ways in which I will accept Hades as a villain.

The first is the way Hadestown handles him---yes, he's sympathetic and shown to care for his wife, which is a point, but they don't go the stereotypical route of "oh, Hades is the ruler of the afterlife, which is called the 'Underworld' and must therefore be hell? Definitely an evil goth boy, death gods are always evil because death is scary." No, they recognize the fact that Hades is the god of wealth, and use an incredible allegory of capitalism and industrialization that is of course at odds with his wife's solarpunk nature and her constant refrain of "it ain't right and it ain't natural" at her husband's practices. Stories where capitalism is the villain are always some of my favorites, and Hades does admittedly slide perfectly into that role as the god of riches... who just so happens to have dominion over souls.

And the second is one that I don't believe I've really ever seen, but is so, so, so fucking compelling to me, and it's Hades going the "you want a villain, I'll show you a villain" route---something that would fit in perfectly with a modern adaptation.

It would be so damn fun to see a Hades who has been constantly vilified through no fault of his own, either by Zeus or the narrative shifting as culture has shifted, seeing his image change from the passive and fair king of the afterlife who loved his wife and treated her as an equal to the cruel king of hell who keeps his wife captive and rules his domain with an iron fist. Hades, who was already the black sheep when his stories were first being told, and who now has to hear that he's the evil god while his misogynistic brothers are getting off scott-free and are barely even blamed for their rampant infidelity. Hades, who never did anything wrong other than take his brother's horrible advice once and always tried to be hardworking, fair, patient, and understanding. Hades, who had suffered the longest at his father's hand and likely would have taken the throne had Kronos not been a fucking monster, and yet had to watch as Zeus, who'd avoided all of the trauma and had been doted on and treated like a perfect prince his entire life, ended up getting all the glory and reward while not even letting Hades have the dignity of being an Olympian...

After thousands of years of that, it wouldn't take long for Hades to snap.

And I would adore to see a story where Hades claims the role of the villain out of trauma and bitterness and anger, and for it to culminate in a third-act breakdown where he realizes he's lost sight of himself but for him to still get the catharsis of letting it all out