What if Hades is actually Zelena’s father? And Once Upon a Time accidentally wrote a perfect Greek myth?
In Once Upon a Time Zelena’s father Cora calls him a “drunken gardener” or a peasant.
What if Zelena’s father was Hades all along?
It explains so much:
- Zelena was born with raw, powerful magic but neither of her parents (officially) had magic when she was born.
That level of innate power has to come from somewhere. And Cora wasn’t magical until she trained with Rumple. If her father was a god, that tracks. OUAT never gives people born with magic unless it’s bloodline-based.
- Hades is a master manipulator who often disguises himself and plays long games.
What if he foresaw the need for a magically powerful heir, came to the mortal realm in disguise, seduced Cora (who wanted power above all), and left her pregnant knowing the child would one day be useful?
OUAT is full of these long-game mythic setups: Rumple manipulating bloodlines, Pan being Rumple’s father, etc.
- Zelena’s green magic, her fiery red hair, and her obsession with death and rebirth all align with Hades’ domain.
Sure, the color is “Wicked Witch” branding, but her actual magic? Elemental. Explosive. Realm-hopping. Time-traveling. And her hair stands out in a family of brunettes. Symbolically, she’s fire and destruction incarnate.
Also who else cheats death more times than Zelena? She’s practically Underworld royalty.
- Hades and Zelena have undeniable chemistry, but their relationship has always felt… off.
What if it’s because he saw her as something more than a lover - a creation, an heir? What if he knew all along she was his daughter and was trying to pull her into his rule? Greek mythology is riddled with gods seducing or using their offspring — and OUAT already leaned into mythological themes hard in Season 5.
- And finally: Zelena kills him.
Just like Kronos, just like Zeus, just like every god-child-destiny story ever written — the child destroys the parent to reclaim autonomy. it’s mythology 101.
So well OUAT tells us Zelena’s father is Johnathan a gardener pretending to be a prince so a liar and a manipulator. Who else lies and manipulates more than any other. Hades fits perfectly: her power source, her thematic opposite, her manipulator, and ultimately her victim. She’s not just the Wicked Witch of the West. She’s the daughter of death who killed the god that made her