I'm actually planning to do Greek mythological media, but I'm going to avert this trope, and depict Hades as more of a "pessimist turned optimist" kind of character.
Fear me
Should the Discworld's Death be mentioned, as an aversion?
Hide / Show Replies
No, because he's not Hades. There's a whole other trope specifically about Death.
Dude, did you even read the page? The page quote is from Death from Family Guy?
What exactly is this about? I see someone say it's about Hades but a lot of the examples mention death, too. ?.?
Hide / Show Replies
It's about how gods of death from ancient mythology are portrayed as being evil despite not being evil in the myths. This is in part because of the Christianization of the world, as most Mythology teaches death as a force of nature, but Christianity teaches death as an unatural result of the evil that men do.
Edited by Smasher
In Christianity death is also considered a natural force of nature and something completely normal. Large part of Christian doctrine, especially Catholic one, focuses on preparing for death. Vilification of death, and, in extension, deities associated with it is much, much later invention, usually hailing from late 19th and 20th century, when death become a taboo in Western culture.
Basically, the trope is about portraying death deities as the beings _responsible_ for death or actively working towards demise of mortals, while in most myths and religions, including Christianity, they were simply guardians of the dead and judges of fate (they often decided whether the soul is to suffer eternal torment, eternal bliss or something else).
Please take note, that satanic image is also related to Manicheian rather than Christian doctrine. In the Bible, Satan is not the ruler of hell, he is simply one of the first damned.
Isn't Death one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in the Bible? And it's funny you mentioned Satan, I read a description that said "While Hell was meant to be Lucifer's prison, he made it his kingdom" I don't remember where I read it though
Does Death count for this? Aversions of Don't Fear the Reaper could go on this page, but it's tough to say whether they're demonizing him since it's tough to pin down an "original" mythology for Death.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
Engineer At Large
I wonder if there are any deliberate inversions of this where the work of Hades (or equivalent) or Death is seen as a distinctly good thing - in the vein of The Sacred Darkness, it may be that in some (fictional) mythology, the work of caring for the souls of the deceased may be considered extremely important if there is some consequence for improper care - as far as I know, the Egyptians put emphasis on the preparation of the dead for the afterlife. Just a thought...
Develop complex analytical understanding. I remain,
I realized something, Hades has to have the most boring, monotonous job in history, I mean, he is in charge of collecting the souls of all dead people in order to give them their proper judgment, and in ancient Greece, war and plague ravage the population every day. That means every five minutes Hades has to get off his throne, pick up a broom and clean up after the last War/Plague, and then when he gets back with all the souls he picked up, he has to organize them into varying degrees of punishment/redemption. And (If he existed) would be doing this day in and day out for CENTURIES without a break, I bet his wife would be pretty fed up with him, and he would have no time to himself. No fuckin' wonder he's so grumpy. Also, you ever wonder why he is so hostile towards any heroes looking to save the world? Well, if the heroes are vanquishing bad guys, that means they're giving Hades EVEN MORE souls to collect, so to him, those so call "Heroes" are making his job more tedious and boring then it was in the first place.
sdmitch16
In Disney's Hercules entry, it's mentioned Hera being Herc's mother raises more question but I don't see any.
Will I be informed if people reply to my discussion post?
"Death is scary. We fear death because we simply do not know what will happen to us once it inevitably comes a knocking'."
I know it's minor, but this sentence really annoys me and I'd like to change it to "Death is scary. We fear death because we simply do not know what will happen to us after we die." Would anyone mind?
Hide / Show Replies
I don't see anything wrong with it as-written. *shrug*
Rhymes with "Protracted."
I just find it's attempt at being irreverent and funny to be extremely grating. Like, TV Tropes entries are expected to be funny and snarky, so occasionally you get snark shoehorned in where it doesn't fit.
In my opinion though, if there is a Satanic archetype in Greek mythology, it's Eris, the goddess of chaos. Don't know how to feel about Tartarus, I see him as more of a no nonsense meathead