#shadowsofmerlinacademy au

Hades is the eldest son of Cronus, the oldest of the Big Three, the God of the Dead and a being of unfathomable power. Maleficent is an exceptionally powerful dark fae who knows how to use her power to cause incredible amounts of destruction. Uliana, while her other parent isn't certain, is at least the daughter of Poseidon, either a demigod or a full goddess, and Poseidon's blood in her veins gmakes the amount of power she could have... well, let me put it this way- a sufficiently motivated Uliana, considering her parentage, could be an extinction-level event. We also know next to nothing about Morgie but his mother? One of the most terrifying beings in Arthurian mythology because hers is a power that cannot be controlled, cannot be stopped, only curbed or delayed. Sometimes, she is literally a goddess. With her blood in Morgie's veins, he also could very much be a world-ender. Those four are beings of incredible power, either explicit or implicit.

And then we have James. Who is completely and utterly human and mortal. Sure, he's nothing to turn a nose at, but he looks like exceptionally small potatoes compared to the other four. This mortal human teenager is running with these beings of unfathomable power capable of incomprehensible destruction, and not only is he keeping up with them with apparent ease, but they seem to consider him an equal. Which usually implies that he has something of equal or greater threat level up his sleeve. It's always the apparently-normal ones who are the most dangerous and considering how dangerous the others are, that is a concerning idea.

What does James bring to the table that got him the seat? What is he capable of that allows him to keep up with the rest of them?

Look, Hades probably outclasses Uliana power-wise by a long shot. Even if Uli is full goddess, he's one of the original six and also the eldest of the Big Three, he's at the top of that particular food chain. He has no reason to be there if he doesn't want to be, and he has no reason to be taking orders if he doesn't want to be. Even Poseidon himself wouldn't be able to order Hades around- Hell, even Zeus can't manage to get Hades to do as he says. He also does not tolerate being disrespected at all, or even being treated with less respect than he thinks he's owed, and he lets her interact with him casually. The fact that Hades is there and following what Uliana says proves that at least he likes her. And he's actually interacting with her and the others, even messing around with one on screen multiple times (Morgie.) Hades does not do that unless he genuinely likes everyone present. If Uliana has managed to get Hades, dictionary definiton of antisocial, to like her and be part of her friend group, I imagine the rest are probably there willingly, too. He probably wouldn't be there if Maleficent didn't like Uli and as for Morgie and Hook, well, they hang on Uliana like three-toes tree sloths, there's no way they don't like her. At the very least, the cour ones like Uliana.