Hercules / Tropes D to F

Hercules Trope Examples
A - C | D - F | G - R | S - Z

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D

• Damsel in Distress: Lampshaded with Megara, who Hercules finds being harassed by Nessus the river guardian. Megara on the other hand claims to have everything under control.
  Hercules: Aren't you a damsel in distress?
  Megara: I'm a damsel, I'm in distress, I can handle this. Have a nice day!
• Dangerous Interrogative: When Meg tells Hades about her encounter with Hercules, he responds with angry questions because his minions were supposed to (and, as he's now knowing, had failed to) kill him 18 years ago.
  Hades: What was that name again?
  Meg: Hercules. He comes on with this "big, innocent farm boy" routine, but I could see through that in a Peloponnesian minute.
• Dangled by a Giant: When the statue of Zeus is trying to stop Hercules from running away in fear, one of the things it tries to restrain him is by holding him by the back of his tunic. However, Herc manages to break free.
• Dark Reprise:
  • The film starts with the Muses singing "The Gospel Truth", initially joyous as they praise Zeus for defeating the Titans. After Hercules is turned mortal and thus has to be Raised By Muggles, however, they throw in a mournful verse reflecting Zeus and Hera's grief.
  • Inverted with "Go the Distance". The first verse is sad and longing, reflecting Hercules' isolation and desire to be loved. The second verse is more hopeful after his adoptive parents give him a lead on how to find the answers he seeks. The third verse is triumphant as he's learned who he truly is and what he has to do and sets out to do it.
• Dartboard of Hate: With Hercules-painted vases instead of a dartboard. Hades has Pain and Panic throw them up which he shoots down with flames.
• Dead-Hand Shot: Used twice:
  • The first is a rather odd example. When Hercules uses a rock slide to kill the Hydra, we see its fist go limp. However it's not in sympathy for the monster, but for Hercules who apparently died in the same avalanche. And he happens to actually be held inside the dead hand.
  • The second is more conventional, where we see Meg's hand going limp after her Heroic Sacrifice.
• Death by Cameo: Sort of. Scar makes a cameo as the skin of the Nemean Lion Hercules wears for a vase-painting shoot. This is also an in-joke to the fact that both Herc and Scar are animated by Andreas Deja, as well as a clever little Call-Back to The Lion King (1994) itself: when Mufasa asks what he should do with Scar near the beginning of the film, Zazu suggests that he "would make a very handsome throw-rug".
• Death's Hourglass: This film has one with the Fate Sisters and the threads of life: if the thread of life gets cut, said person dies, and their listless soul ends up on the River Styx.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Megara enters as a snarky, cynical young woman. Hades later reveals that she wound up in his service trying to save her boyfriend, who abandoned her, frosting her over. Although it takes some time, Hercules' genuine sweetness and love for her melts the ice.
• Denser and Wackier: Though not to the extent of Aladdin, Hercules is a very comedic, light-hearted film compared to the other Disney Renaissance films, especially the very dark film that preceded it, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
• Despair Event Horizon: Hercules comes close to this after giving up his strength to save Meg from Hades, only to have Hades reveal that Meg was working for him all along. Herc is fully prepared to commit suicide by giant cyclops until Phil comes back and gives him a pep talk. Meg's Heroic Sacrifice also helps to pull him out of it.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: This is Hades's real intent after he plans to take over Mount Olympus — let the destructive forces the Titans are run amok and wreck havoc on Earth as long as they remember who is the top-manager-guy upstairs. When he doesn't care about mortal souls as Lord of the Underworld, why would he care about the living?
• Dirty Coward: Played with. Pain and Panic sneak into the palace of the King of the Gods and steal his kid all the while bemoaning that he's gonna use them for "target practice" yet they still did it. This is because they fear their boss more.
• Disaster Dominoes: Young Herc's market scene involves a lot of stone pillars, one of which he ends up crashing into, causing the rest to topple over likewise.
• Disneyfication: There's quite a bit of it going on, but the most glaringly obvious was that Herc's original Big Bad was Hera because he was the product of Zeus' adultery with a mortal. If they didn't remove/change that part, how on Earth would the script as a whole pass?
• Disney Death: In the middle of the film, it happens twice in the same scene during the epic fight between Hercules and the Hydra; once when the audience within the film sees him swallowed by the monster, the next time they think he's crushed by an avalanche.
• Disney Villain Death:
  • As a god, Hades can't die, but he is defeated by being punched into the River Styx, where the souls of the dead (who he's been treating poorly since they ended up there) dogpile on him. He can't fall to his death, so he falls into a bunch of other people's.
  • Played straight with the Cyclops, who falls off a cliff after Hercules blinds him with fire, and then ties his legs together.
• Divine–Infernal Family: As in the original myth Zeus and Hades are brothers, though Zeus is the older one here. Unlike the original myth Zeus is a clear stand-in for God and Hades is a stand-in for Satan.
• Diving Save: Meg pushes Hercules out of the way of a falling pillar.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Before his training with Phil, Hercules' Super-Strength caused him trouble. Even afterwards he has some trouble with it.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Herc's reaction to Meg and the situation with Nessus is reminiscent of a young, idealistic police officer on his first Domestic Abuse call. When Meg dismisses him after he tries to tell the centaur to let her go, he's confused by her not wanting his intervention. Meg claims to have matters under control, and Herc answers that he thinks she's too close to the situation to see it clearly.
  • Hades and Megara's interaction makes you think of an emotionally abusive boyfriend with a girlfriend who is having trouble getting away from him.
    Hades: Meg, my sweet, my flower, my little nut Meg.
  • His Faux Affably Evil personality also mimics her gay best friend trying to console her about her issues with men.
    Meg: This one is different. He's strong, he's caring, he would never do anything to hurt me...
    Hades: Oh please... He's a guy!
• Dragons Versus Knights: Hercules is more of a hero rather than a knight, but he is of noble birth and wields a sword. In order to kill Hercules, Hades sends the Hydra, depicted here as a giant dragon-like creature. While the first battle was more of the traditional dragon vs knight, it goes crazy after Hercules cuts the Hydra's heads off to the point of the monster having dozens of heads. Hercules successfully kills the the multi-headed monster after a rockslide.
• Dramatic Drop: Meg drops a vase when Hades offers her soul and freedom in exchange for seducing Hercules into revealing his weakness.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: When Phil starts training Hercules, he becomes this and it's shown he has to be: Hercules's strength is amazing but he lacks discipline and control initially. He could easily tear apart a damsel or impale a bystander. One wrong move can spell collateral damage, death, or a Humiliation Conga for Hercules in question; that's why he yells at Hercules for storming into battle with Nessus impulsively. As Phil points out, Hercules let Meg's distress and "goo-goo eyes" distract him from pragmatically analyzing the situation.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The Finnish dub changes the last part of the prophecy from "If Hercules fights, you will fail" to "If Hercules lives, you will not succeed", which raises the question of why Hades doesn't kill Hercules after depowering him.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Invoked with Meg, who plays it up to seduce Hercules, and justified. According to Phil, it is a hero's job to save a Damsel in Distress.

E

• Eagleland Osmosis: Played for Laughs, and adds a Genius Bonus.
  Child: SOMEBODY CALL IX I I!
• Easy Evangelism: After the initial shock of Zeus appearing before him wears off, Herc readily and immediately buys that Zeus is his real father. Justified in that a statue of Zeus has come to life to explain this to him.
• Eaten Alive: Hercules. The Hydra eats him. It's clear he's still alive because A) he cuts off its head from inside and B) the film's only about halfway through.
• Eating the Enemy: One of the first monsters the titular character faces is the Lernaean Hydra (sans swamp), who quickly swallows him whole. Miraculously, he cuts himself out of its throat before hitting the stomach. Unfortunately, for each head that's cut off, three new ones will grow in its place, as in the original myth. Eventually, the monster gains a veritable army of heads and pins him to a wall. It then tries to eat him again but Hercules is able to collapse the mountain it has him pinned against, crushing it to death in a rockslide.
• Elemental Powers:
  • The Titans represent the four classic elements, albeit substituting stone and ice for earth and water, respectively. Oddly enough, despite this the Ice Titan's name is "Hydros", which literally means "water".
    Stone Titan: CRUSH ZEUS!
    Ice Titan: FREEZE HIM!
    Lava Titan: MELT ZEUS!
    Tornado Titan: BLOW... HIM... AWAY!
    Hades: Uh, guys? Olympus would be that way.
    [Beat]
    Titans: ZEEEEEUUUUUSSS!!!
  • Then there's Zeus' thunderbolts. "Now watch your old man work!"
• Elite Four: Hades releases the Titans from their prison deep within the Earth, using their vengeance against Zeus to engineer a coup d'etat. Four Titans: Lythos (earth/rock), Hydros (water/ice), Pyros (fire/lava) and Stratos (air/wind) advance upon Mount Olympus, while a fifth, Arges (a cyclops with no elemental affiliation) attempts to kill the critically-weakened Hercules.
• Epic Fail: The first two rounds of Hercules rescuing the dummy damsel go this way during his Training Montage. He rips off her arm, violating the rule "Handle with care!" and accidentally trips with her into the river while crossing a log. Phil winces in sympathy. During round two, he swings towards her and accidentally dismembers her on a peak. At that point, Phil tosses his stopwatch in frustration. Fortunately, Hercules gets it by the end, though the damsel looks worse for wear.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first thing Hades does when he appears is to interrupt a tender moment at Hercules' baby shower—and then make a wisecrack that he hasn't been so choked up since he got a hunk of moussaka caught in his throat.
• "Eureka!" Moment: When Meg talks dreamily to Hades about how Herc is unlike any man she's encountered before and has no weaknesses, she turns around to find Hades giving her a sinister smile. The weakness he's been searching for so long is right in front of him.
• Everybody Loves Zeus: The gods of Olympus get this treatment, Zeus and Hera especially. Zeus is portrayed as a light-hearted, if not buffoonish king and loyal husband to Hera free of infidelity, while Hera is sweet and considerate (as well as Hercules being her actual son).
  • Zeus is portrayed as a light-hearted, if not buffoonish king and loyal husband to Hera. While the spin-off series brings up his flaws—like forgetting he and his wife's anniversary, occasionally losing his temper and the whole "Prometheus" thing—Zeus's frequent infidelity is never brought up (most likely non-existent to keep the G-Rating).
  • Hera gets this treatment even more so. In the original myth, Heracles was not Hera's child and was a product of her husband cheating on her. Feeling spiteful, Hera actively sabotaged his life and tried to make him suffer, even forcing him to kill his own family. Here, Hercules is her son and no mention of Zeus cheating on her is ever brought up, so the adaptation portraying Hera as the kind, patient and level-headed of the two. Even in the episode "Hercules and the Return of Typhon" it is revealed that she was the one who threw the lightning bolt that led to Typhon's defeat and that she allowed Zeus to take the credit for image reasons.
• Everybody Hates Hades: At the same time, the movie's Big Bad is Hades, God of the Dead. He's just as morally ambiguous as the other Gods in classic mythology, but a straight-up villain who wants to rule Mount Olympus here.
• Everyone Has Standards: Meg doesn't think highly of men, and feels that Hercules is a goofball if a "Wonderboy". She's not pleased that Hades makes her serve as the errand girl to lure Hercules into a trap and make him face the Hydra. As Hades gloats and praises her "performance," Meg whispers that Hercules should get out of there while he can, and she's genuinely sad when it's seemed Hercules died in a Mutual Kill.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Hades usually sends Meg on "errands" to persuade monsters to ally with him, and also asks her to seduce "Wonder Boy" and find his weakness. Meg assumes that all men are the same and accordingly offer some titillating positions after taking Hercules to see Oedipus. Instead, Hercules gives a Loud Gulp, rearranges her dress strap, and sits at a respectful distance to make sure she is comfortable. Meg is surprised that Wonder Boy is Above the Influence and says, partly gushing, that he's "practically perfect". Eventually, however, Hades realizes that he can use Hercules's inherent good nature against him: by using Meg as a hostage.
• Evil Laugh: Monsters in particular laugh at Hercules. Nessus roared with laughter after Hercules frantically searches the water for his sword, only to aim a fish instead. Having lost his sword again, Hercules throws a boulder at the Hydra, only for the monster to crush it and stops to laugh, taunting the inexperienced young hero and his clumsy attempts at battle. Fighting Hercules without his strength, the Cyclops takes his time to defeat the hero, laughing mockingly while he does it.
• Evil Overlooker: Inverted: Hades and his minions are below everyone else on the poster, to correspond with his domain as Lord of the Underworld.
• Exact Words:
  • The Fates' prophecy. "Should Hercules fight, you will fail." They don't say anything about Hercules being a god or having super strength.
  • The reason Herc retains some godly power. The formula to turn him into a mortal required him to drink the whole thing. He sucked down all but one drop.
  • When making his deal with Hercules that he must give up his strength for 24 hours, Hades stipulates that Meg will be safe from any harm. Meg later saves Hercules from a falling pillar and is critically injured, thus breaking the deal, since the harm that comes from her endangering herself still counts.
• The Exit Is That Way: Or rather, Mt. Olympus. The Titans got lost so Hades had to point the way.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
  • In the 18 years since they had failed to kill Hercules and decided to lie to Hades to save their skins, Pain and Panic had pretty much forgotten all about it. That is, until Meg mentions Hercules’ name when she tells Hades about his fight with Nessus.
    Panic: Hercules... Oh, why does that name ring a bell?
    Pain: I dunno. Maybe we owe him money?
    Hades: WHAT. Was that name. Again?
    Meg: Hercules. (Hades snarls; Meg continues without noticing Hades' rage) He comes on with this big, innocent farm boy routine, but I could see through that in a Peloponnesian minute.
    Pain: Wait a minute! Wasn't Hercules the name of that kid we were supposed to…
    Pain & Panic: OH MY GODS!
    Hades: (grabs the demons by the throats) So you "Took care of him", huh? "Dead as a doornail." Weren't those your exact words?!
  • Meg, having fallen in love with Hercules, refuses to work for Hades any longer... which, unfortunately, convinces Hades that she is Herc's weakness.
    Hades: Meg, listen. Do you hear that sound? It's the sound of your freedom, fluttering away, forever!
    Meg: I don't care! I'm not gonna help you hurt him!
    Hades: [sighs] I can't believe you're getting all worked up over some... guy.
    Meg: This one is different. He's honest, and sweet...
    Hades: [rolling his eyes] Please...
    Meg: ...he would never do anything to hurt me...
    Hades: He's a guy!
    Meg: [smugly] Besides, O Oneness, you can't beat him. He has no weaknesses! He's gonna—
    [turns and sees Hades smirking at her]
    Hades: I think... he does, Meg. I truly think... he does.
• Expy: Hercules may be considered a superhero. His origin is similar to that of Superman, in that he is adopted by two mortals who raised him to be a good person, his father becomes his Big Good consultant, very Tsundere Love Interest, and becomes a hero beloved by people. The difference being that Superman was sent to Earth out of necessity since Krypton was dying, while Hercules was kidnapped and made to be mostly mortal to prevent his victory over Hades and the Titans. Although the character also bears some resemblance to Shazam!, a boy who becomes a man, due to retaining his teenage characteristics even after growing into a hero upon completing his training. For example, the teenager screaming in front of Zeus's statue, later the hero screaming in front of the Hydra, and overall his clumsiness.
• Eye Scream: The Cyclops after Hercules jabs a flaming stick into his eye.

F

• Fade Around the Eyes: Hades does an interesting variant at the end of the scene where he figures out Hercules's weakness. The screen fills up with smoke as it fades to the next scene, and the last things we see are Hades's eyes.
• Failed a Spot Check: Hades is the god of death. How could he not know Hercules, the son of his most hated enemy, wasn't in the underworld?
• Fake-Out Opening: The first 25 seconds of the movie start with Charlton Heston narrating, setting up the movie to be a serious representation of the Hercules myth. Then the Muses cut in, tell him to lighten up, and sing "The Gospel Truth", establishing right then and there that the film is a musical comedy.
• Fangirl: Hercules' heroics mean he has crowds of them. Everywhere. "I'VE GOT HIS SWEATBAND!"
• Fat Bastard: The cyclops titan is very chubby and is repulsive in every way, plus he's sadistic.
• Fauns and Satyrs: Obviously, Phil the Satyr. His appearance is of the later renaissance version, but his nymph-chasing, wisecracking bad looks are in fact taken straight from classical depictions of satyrs.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: The Fates do this, frequently finishing what Hades is about to tell them. It annoys him quite a bit.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Megara, as a result of her slime of an ex-boyfriend, is turned off of love entirely.
• Food as Characterization: Hades snacks on worms and snakes at a few points, while the other gods have standard fare like grapes and nectar.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In their first meeting, Meg tells Hercules "It's been a real slice" which could be referenced in Hercules' later actions while battling the Hydra, in which he slices off the monster's heads.
  • As Hercules arrives to save the two "boys" are "trapped", you can hear a slight hissing at the end of their last under-rock sentence, possibly implying the monster Hercules will soon face.
  • When Hades opens his display to ask Megara about the River Guardian, there are two other figurines visible on it: a giant boar and a gorgon, that are both later sent against Hercules in "Zero to Hero" only to be defeated.
  • When Meg takes Herc to the garden, she is surprised and truly flattered by Herc's sincere compliments towards her. Then she backs into the statue of Cupid's arrow. Then they nearly kiss before Phil interrupts and berates Herc for ditching him. Before leaving, Herc, picks a flower from a tree and gives it to Meg and kisses her. The entire garden scene is what foreshadows the song I Won't Say I'm in Love.
  • Young Hercules hitting his head on the mast of The Argo could be seen as a foreshadow to his "death" later in the film seeing as Jason died from having the mast of The Argo fall on him.
• Framing Device: The parts with the Muses, which involves their likenesses coming to life in a modern-day museum and interrupting Charlton Heston.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Megara plays with this trope:
  Megara: Megara. My friends call me Meg. At least they would if I had any friends.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • As a teenager, Hercules crashes into a pillar. While stopping it from falling, he hits another which starts a domino effect, destroying a marketplace.
  • While training to be a hero, Hercules has to save a "damsel" which is portrayed as a dummy. The dummy is barely in pieces by the time his training was finished.
  • When Hercules confronts Nessus to save Megara, Meg didn't want to be saved. Then Nessus punches Herc into the water. Instead of his sword, Herc wields a fish, causing Nessus to laugh and punch Herc again.
  • After freeing two boys, Hercules unintentionally releases the Hydra from its cave. Then, while battling the monster, Herc realizes that his sword is missing and behind him. Then Herc throws a rock at the Hydra, who crushes it with its teeth and laughs the hero. Then when Herc retrieves his sword, the Hydra swallowed him whole. After Herc cuts his way out through decapitation, the Hydra grows more heads.
  • After Meg has fallen in love with Hercules, she tells Hades Herc has no weaknesses and therefore he stands no chance against him. However, after seeing how much she has come to love Herc, Hades puts two and two together and realizes Meg is the perfect weakness to lure Herc into a trap, and so he holds her hostage and has Herc give him his powers in exchange for Meg's freedom. Herc does so and is left utterly powerless, allowing Hades to put his Evil Plan to take over Olympus in motion.
• From Zero to Hero: The titular character might be a scrawny kid who is an outsider, but being a son of Zeus, he was born with tremendous strength. He starts taking levels in badass in a training montage (set to a song with the same name as this trope) and becomes a renowned fighter of monsters.
• Funny Background Event: When Hades points out to the Titans that they're walking away from Olympus, you can see the Wind Titan in the back being visibly upset for a moment, possibly feeling guilty that he was leading them in the wrong direction.

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