Zeus' Master Bolt is missing and all of Olympus is in disarray. Zeus hurls insults, accusations, and threats at his brothers, but it's sadly the norm. Poseidon is weathering the storm as best he can when Hera suddenly calls for an emergency meeting on Olympus. The poor goddess is inconsolable, her hair astray, her nails chewed off, her face halfway frozen between confusion and terror.
But before Poseidon can reprimand his younger brother for leaving Hera in such a state, everyone present is stunned to find that Zeus has gotten a glowing tan. Not to mention that his stormy grey eyes have turned a bright blue, his dark hair snow-white, and his perpetual frown replaced with a beaming smile. In fact, he's a completely different person altogether. Had he not radiated the power and majesty of the King of the Cosmos, no one present could possibly imagine that the being before them is Zeus.
Meanwhile, the "new and improved" Zeus is wondering what the fuss is about.
The Heroic Adventures of Zeus
is a Crack Fic by Redchaos1. It follows the misadventures of a very different Zeus than the one from myth as he inexplicably finds himself in the place of the Zeus from The Camp Half-Blood Series. Will he succeed in making a hero out of someone? Or will he too be poisoned into cynicism by godly politics?
Last updated in June, 2021
And then along came Zeus (with these tropes):
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Everyone has some sort of bone to pick with Zeus in Olympus. He's cruel, unfair, vindictive, lustful, arrogant, and only cares about himself and his desires. But when he's switched with Disney Zeus, they consider him to be unnatural — a result of insanity from losing his lightning bolt — and are generally freaked out by his recent Nice Guy behavior.
- This goes doubly for Hera who becomes rather unhinged and emotionally unstable ever since her husband's transformation. For someone who desired a faithful husband for so long, she's unable to cope with any positive affection Disney Zeus gives her.
- Hades finds himself wondering about Zeus' behavior, and wants to know more about it. Unfortunately for him, he gets to experience the King of the Gods firsthand when Zeus shows up at his door, claiming that Hera kicked him out.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The “new” Zeus may be kind and eccentric most of the time, but he erupts with fury at how poorly-managed Camp Half-Blood under Dionysus is; when he later calls a meeting at Olympus to lay out the changes he plans to implement and is talked-back to by Ares, he literally smacks him into orbit around the Earth.
- Big Damn Heroes: A group of five unnamed demigods are about to die at the hands of a cyclops when Zeus shows up out of the blue and rescues them.
- Crack Fic: Zigzagged. The story is mostly meant to be a comedy and does not take itself too seriously, but when Disney!Zeus loses his joviality there is a serious context to it, even with the comedic underpinning.
- Crossover: The story's premise has Disney's Zeus suddenly switch places with PJO's Zeus and all of the shenanigans that come from that.
- Everybody Loves Zeus: Inverted. Pretty much everyone on Olympus has a bone to pick with Zeus for one reason or another. But when Zeus suddenly makes an about-face and becomes a caring, doting husband and magnanimous king, everyone is alarmed and wonders if Zeus has suddenly gone mad. Meanwhile, Zeus is wondering why everyone is giving him the cold shoulder while embodying all of the traits of God Is Good.
- Fountain of Youth: After Disney Zeus learns about Hercules real fate in this verse he's more than horrified. He goes to confront him about it only to discover to his disgust he acts like a servant instead of a son towards him. Then when Hercules has finally had enough of his hypocrisy about not having "A true heart of a hero", he hands him a "Reason You Suck" Speech in a fit of rage, fully expecting to be struck down. He was not, however, killed, as instead, Disney Zeus gave him a second chance at life by de-ageing him, erasing his memories, and letting him live a peaceful life.
- Getting the Boot: Zeus apparently got this from Hera when she kicked him out of Olympus. Dejected, he goes to his "little brother" Hades to crash, much to Hades' own bewilderment.
- God Is Good: In stark contrast to the Jerkass Gods that populate Mount Olympus, the new Zeus is a friendly, outgoing fellow who's more than happy to help a demigod in need and is outraged when he discovers that the Hermes Cabin is overcrowded and the camp understaffed.
- Heroic Build: The kindly Disney Zeus is so muscular that even Ares looks tiny next to him. He even jokes about it by flexing in front of the war god. The way he's outgoing and friendly to everyone leaves the Olympians dumbstruck, and he's more than willing to intervene when a bunch of demigods are about to meet their end at the hands of a cyclops.
- Internal Reveal: Zeus, after leaving the underworld, goes and looks up what activities his pantheon has been up to in this world. It's one of the few times that we see big, bright, jovial Disney Zeus stricken with absolute horror.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Hades groans at all of the puns Zeus makes about the dead.Zeus: Hades, my little brother. How are you doing, like what you've done with the place?
Hades: [trying to keep his anger contained] I am fine.
Zeus: You sure, cause you look pretty dead on the inside... get it brother? Dead on the inside! [busts out laughing]
Hades: Very... very funny. - Large and in Charge: Zeus is huge even compared to the other Olympians. He makes a joke about Ares not quite having the muscles of his old man, and he towers over everyone even more than usual.
- Mythology Gag: At one point, there is a scene where five unnamed demigods are about to die fighting a cyclops, only to be saved with the text announcing "And then along came Zeus." This was one of the lyrics in the Muses' song in the prologue of Disney's Hercules, specifically the line about him defeating the Titans.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Zeus decides to borrow a book from the library about Greek mythology, but as his face pales as he reads the pages, as he's in utter disbelief that he could have done such a thing.
- Not Afraid to Die: Unlike the rest of the Gods of Olympus, death is something Hercules willingly accepts. His life has been horrible, but he's immortal and is assigned a duty of guarding an utterly pointless objective. It's a big reason why he decides to give Zeus a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, because he knows it'll probably mean the end of his life.
- Not So Above It All: Hades acts like he's more mature and sensible than Zeus, but on finding that Zeus created a puppy that knows how to do backflips, a tiny part of his brain decides that he wants to teach Cerberus to do the same.
- Oh, Crap!: Chiron is horrified when, upon finding Zeus is at Camp Halfblood, he realizes that there are plenty of young men and women who could sate Zeus' lusts there, ignorant of how that is really not something that this Zeus would be into.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Everyone is baffled and terrified by the new, friendly Zeus, and worry that he's either plotting something terrible or that he's gone mad from losing his Master Bolt.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Disney!Zeus is horrified by his mythological counterpart's misdeeds.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Olympians have no idea that the Zeus before them is a completely different person than the one they know, attributing his behavior to a fit of madness and grief brought on by the loss of his Master Bolt. Alarm bells start ringing when Zeus can freely enter and leave Hades' domain, intervenes on behalf of a group of doomed demigods, and even show up at Camp Half-Blood unannounced in defiance of the Ancient Laws that keep the PJO gods' hands tied.
- This is further exacerbated by Disney Zeus being implied to operate on a different set of rules — the Mist apparently works on him (which it doesn't for supernatural beings in the PJ world) but at the same time, the laws preventing gods from just showing up wherever they want don't, as Zeus proves when he manages to unintentionally sneak right up to Hades' front door without him noticing, then acting confused when Hades wonders how that's possible.
- Papa Wolf: Zeus is outraged when he realizes that Camp Half-Blood is overcrowded and understaffed, having trusted Dionysus to provide for the camp. He then immediately declares himself the new Camp Director as he prepares to make some changes around the place. As punishment to Dionysus, he makes him assistant camp director.
- "Reason You Suck" Speech: Hercules delivers one to Disney Zeus thinking he's the PJO Zeus in a fit of rage after he accused him of not having "A true heart of a hero" for killing a music teacher because he wasn't very good at playing instruments. To his credit, he recognized how terrible his life was and tried to fix it. It doesn't hurt that this is also a bit of Suicide by Cop, as Hercules genuinely hates his life and wants it to end by, basically, flipping off the king of the gods.Hercules: What nonsense is this father? This heroic pipe dream you now have is nothing but an illusion. If you wanted me to be a good man you could have protected me from her! After the hell that I went through and the absolute nothing that you did to help, you have the gall to preach to me about behaving no better than you, Father. Spare me the false indignation!
- Spanner in the Works: Zeus' actions of making the pantheon more welcoming to the minor deities, not to mention restructuring the camp to give unclaimed demigods more room and forcing various gods to claim their children, threw a big one in Kronos' plans since now Luke isn't interested in working with him and the formerly disenfranchised gods and demigods who joined with Kronos to have a voice in the new world have a voice now.
- Weirdness Censor: The gods can indeed tell Zeus is different, but due to his essence still being the same person they don't realize he's a different VERSION of the Zeus they know. Zeus, meanwhile, is aware that there is another Zeus he replaced, and simply doesn't consider that this world's version of the Gods and his don't match up.
- It's subtly implied that Disney Zeus can't see through the Mist, as he apparently doesn't recognize Athena when she's in disguise. Hermes assumes that Zeus is being fickle and is now mad at his favorite daughter since PJ Gods can see through the Mist easily.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Mount Olympus is profoundly disturbed by this jovial, kindly, wisecracking, and faithful Zeus who can't read the room. They all attribute the new Zeus to a fit of madness caused by the loss of his Master Bolt and just wish for it to be over. Hera in particular believes that Zeus is plotting something disturbing against her when he makes her breakfast, brings her flowers, and takes her out for a nice dinner.
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The Woobie: Hercules pretty clearly spells out to Zeus that he's still horrifically traumatised by having his life ruined by Hera (with the fact he was assigned a pointless job that he hates for millennia not helping the matter).- Chiron's terror at Zeus arriving at his Camp and the creeping, resigned dread he feels when he comes to the conclusion that the young demigods with him are going to feel his "affections" is heartbreaking.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: A lot of the humor and drama is from the Olympians treating Zeus like his PJ counterpart.
- You Don't Look Like You: Disney Zeus looks nothing like the Zeus the Olympians know. Between his snow-white hair, bright blue eyes, and constant smile, he's practically the polar opposite to the dark-haired, stormy-eyed, Perpetual Frowner they know and (kind of) love.
- Zeus also has this reaction when he begs Hades for room after Hera kicks him out, since PJO Hades is more normal looking- for one, his head is not constantly on fire.
