oh man – Backup Tumblr Blog

@fablepaint’s #ReverseDisney of The Lion King really got my gears turning, and I resolved to give it a whack with Hercules. I’d like to do a proper illustration but here’s my bits and bobs for now, which will be filed under #Jerkules on my blog. I’d also like to do a design for Meg, Cerberus, Pegasus and maybe Persephone but, we’ll see how much juice I got in me.

Feared by humanity and spurned by the rest of his pantheon, a frustrated Hades abandons his post to walk among men under a fabricated identity – “Melanthios”, his very fake demigod son – for the purpose of proving his worth. As he begins performing labors, Hades finds himself rival to Hercules, the very real Son of Zeus, who is on a similar quest. Though Hades is catty and brusque, once he gets past the learning curve he’s actually a pretty good hero, if not a little unconventional in his methods. He seems to sincerely care about people underneath it all (though he denies it and claims to just be in it for the moment he can GOTCHA the other gods), and develops a small but loyal following of people who are rooting for him. Though Hades does more good, with less structural damage, he gets less recognition than the flashy, violent powerhouse and national darling that is Hercules, making his success seem less substantial in comparison. For Hades, the lesson to be learned is that most acts of heroism are selfless and go unnoticed, and also that it’s the quality, not the quantity, of people who support you that make a difference in the richness of your life.

It would seem that Hercules is the model hero, celebrated by the people and on a noble quest to reclaim his birthright. But being rejected by his father until he proves himself, after a lifetime of being known as the guy who breaks everything he touches, has made him bitter, violent and resentful. To his horror, Hades finds out that Hercules’ stalwart public persona masks his true intentions: to reach godhood, destroy the Pantheon, and take Olypmus for himself as its sole, supreme ruler.

Pain and Panic are eudaemons summoned by Hades to get himself into fighting shape, as his only solution to things can’t really be “set it on fire” when he’s masquerading as a demigod. Philoctetes is more of a traditional Satyr, and more of a hype man/agent than a trainer.

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