History Main / HellHasNewManagement

This trope is where a character is sent to wherever it is that evil people go when they die and decides to take over. Depending on the setting, it may be [[TheUnderworld where everyone, good and bad]], goes, but rest assured that this character will make himself king of them all. It takes an especially devious, powerful and/or determined character to accomplish this given the heavy odds stacked against him.

AmbitionIsEvil will likely come into play. It's "better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" right? According to Milton, that's what Lucifer thought when he set up a kingdom down there. Likewise, that's likely motivating this particular character. It's possible that they believe they can do a better job of ruling Hell. Whether this means EvilerThanThou or creating {{Ascended Demon}}s, this trope overlaps with GodJob. On the flipside, if they never intended to follow through on taking the Devil's job but are forced to anyway by metaphysical laws, they'll find out that SomeoneHasToDoIt.

It doesn't have to be the Judeo-Christian idea of the devil or hell to count. [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible Any local equivalent will do.]] In other words, [[CrystalDragonJesus Crystal Dragon Devil.]]

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': When Dabura dies, King Enma is afraid that if he is sent to Hell (as he rightly SHOULD be, considering his sins), it wouldn't be a suitable punishment - he's already King of the Demon World. In an effort to improve him, King Enma sends Dabura to [[IronicHell the most peaceful part of Heaven.]] Later in the series, Dabura is seen again, and has turned into a character so peaceful and loving that the MainCharacters are actually ''creeped out'' by him.
** In ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', Piccolo died, but is later seen in Hell, bringing order to the endless chaos and protecting Hell's leaders, becoming more of an authority figure than they ever were.

* In the spinoff ''ComicBook/{{Purgatori}}'', a blood-clone of Purgatori tried to convince the demon Cremator to seize the throne from Lucifer Morningstar with a specially-designed demon-destroying blade, planning to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness dispose of him afterwards]]. This met with partial success since Lucifer was left as a shadow of his former self, but then the real Purgatori shows up in Hell to kill Cremator and absorb her clone. It becomes a subversion since Purgatori decides not to take Lucifer's throne for herself and instead leave him in charge but unable to defend himself from any future runner-up.

* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'': One of the Halloween issues has Ned Flanders voluntarily take over for the Devil, who's gotten bored with his job. Ned does so well the higher-ups let him take the job full time, resulting in Hell turning into a tediously dull shopping mall of a place. Bart and Homer are utterly horrified.

* For most of Piers Anthony's ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' series it's implied or outright stated that God and Satan are truly eternal beings unlike the Incarnations themselves (who are just the current officeholders of positions in a sort of Cosmic Bureaucracy). The sixth book ''For Love of Evil'' reveals that this isn't true; the Satan depicted in the previous books has held the office for several hundred years, but is still a newcomer compared to the current God (who has been around for about two millennia). To ensure competence, the new holder of the office has to prove himself by forcing the previous incumbent to agree to serve him, or the previous incumbent can re-take the position. There are a couple of management changes in the book (including both successful and failed examples).

* Terry Pratchett’s ''{{Literature/Eric}}'' revolves around this, ultimately inverted when the original demons marginalise the moderniser Astfgl in a meaningless desk job with an impressive sounding title, but no real power or responsibility.

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': It was revealed that Katherine Pierce was sent to Hell where she manipulated Arcadius, AKA the Devil, from the minute she arrived. She eventually returned, became an ally of Kai Parker and, after Cade's death, became the queen of Hell.

** In most settings, Asmodeus is the Overlord of Hell, but there are suggestions that he was not the first. A few ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' sourcebooks about Hell mention the "Ancient Baatorians", creatures that ruled Hell before he came along and exterminated most of them. The ''Elder Evils'' book introduces an EldritchAbomination named Zargon as Asmodeus' predecessor, though by his statline, Zargon's power has degenerated significantly, since it's possible for mortals to kill him.

** Noob Saibot has this as his Arkade Ending in ''{{VideoGame/Mortal Kombat|9}}'' (no, [[NamesTheSame the OTHER one]]) - with his powers boosted by Quan Chi in order to assassinate Shao Kahn, he is able to break free of Quan Chi's control, and make a secret deal with the rival Realm of Chaos. After the Realm of Chaos severely weakens the Netherworld in a surprise attack, Noob Saibot seizes control and becomes the new King of Hell.

* ''VideoGame/BloodRayne'': the backstory says that Satan became the ruler of Hell, by usurping the throne from the game's villain Belial.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': When the [[TheLegionsOfHell Hidden Fun Stuff]] gets unleashed, it usually spells the end of a fortress. However, some fortresses not only beat back the demons, but take the next step and launch a full scale invasion of Hell and take the place over, such as what happened in {{LetsPlay/Waterburned}}, the succession game hosted on [[Wiki/TVTropes This Very Wiki]].

* If ''VideoGame/KrisisReinaDeArgenzuela'' falls into one of the BottomlessPits, she will go directly to Hell. She will be put in charge, and after a while Hell will run out of fire, no tridents will make it pass the customs, and there will be high taxes for horns.

* ''Film/PressStart'': [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/471343 This]] episode has Count Vile rather humorously beaten Satan in a duel (via slipping on a banana peel and getting a ring out) and claimed his right to rule Hell.

* See the Trope image. On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' a church carnival had a mirror that showed what people would look like in Hell. While it showed Lisa in rags and being tormented by fire, it showed CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Burns in a crown and flowing robe, and eating Smithers head. "Excellent!"

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': There's an episode where the three main characters have nightmares. Billy and even [[TheGrimReaper Grim]] are both terrorized by their dreams, but in Mandy's dream she actually takes over Hell and becomes the Lord of Darkness.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}'': At the start of season 4, Bean manages to trick her mother, Dagmar, into marrying Satan. Dagmar quickly proceeds to make Satan a HenpeckedHusband and becomes queen of Hell.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', Lucifer decides ToHellWithThisInfernalJob, banishes the demons and the damned, seals the place up, and gives the key to Dream. After Dream has received a variety of offers from others eager to claim the place, it's taken out of his hands: {{God}} assigns two of his angels to run Hell, because SomeoneHasToDoIt.
** Happens earlier in the story too. When Dream is freed after a human lifetime of imprisonment, he finds that his helmet is in the hands of a demon and takes the trip to Hell to retrieve it. Several demons tell him that much has changed since he was gone, but he doesn't believe them until meeting Lucifer, who reveals that he has been demoted of sorts: He is no longer sole ruler of Hell, sharing power with his co-rulers Baalzebub and Azazel.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[HellOfATime Excellent!]]'']]

* Terry Pratchett’s ''{{Literature/Eric}}'' revolves around this, ultimately inverted when the original demons marginalise the moderniser Astfgl in a meaningless desk job with an impressive sounding title, but no real power or responsibility

* See the Trope image. On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' a church carnival had a mirror that showed what people would look like in Hell. While it showed Lisa in rags and being tormented by fire, it showed CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Burns in a crown and flowing robe, and eating a human head. "Excellent!"

The typical fate of characters that enter {{Hell}} is a horrific one; tortured by demons for all eternity. That's not the case with this guy. He'd much rather be the demons' ''boss'' than their victim.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman,'' Lucifer decides ToHellWithThisInfernalJob, banishes the demons and the damned, seals the place up, and gives the key to Dream. After Dream has received a variety of offers from others eager to claim the place, it's taken out of his hands: {{God}} assigns two of his angels to run Hell, because SomeoneHasToDoIt.

* ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'': Christopher Rudd manages to go from damned soul to sextoy for the nobility of Hell into one of the nobility himself and eventually ruler of Hell. Then he reforged the damned souls and the demons into an army to storm heaven. And won.

-->'''Bart:''' Maybe we should start going to the other place.
-->'''Homer:''' Church?
-->'''Bart:''' Yeah. Fire and brimstone, I can take, but ''this''?

* This has occasionally been a back pocket threat of [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]]. In one instance, he even got ''God Almighty'' to grant him and his friends a measure of protection by promising that, if his soul were to fall into the hands of Hell, he would likely eventually take over and turns his eyes straight towards Heaven.

* This has occasionally been a back pocket threat of [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]]. In one instance, he even got **God Almighty** to grant him and his friends a measure of protection by promising that, if his soul were to fall into the hands of Hell, he would likely eventually take over and turns his eyes straight towards Heaven.

'''Black Mage:''' So without any fleshy meats to slow me down, how long do you '''really''' think it'll take me to usurp your entire kingdom?\\

* During the 2011 ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'', it was revealed that between his appearance in the "ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} in Hell" arc and his return during ''ComicBook/FearItself'', Puck overthrew Ba'al and took his seat, only leaving to save his teammates.

* ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. Piccolo died, but is later seen in Hell, bringing order to the endless chaos and protecting Hell's leaders, becoming more of an authority figure than they ever were.

* ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker 2'' : If the player character's daughter is skilled in magic and fighting but has a lot of sin, she'll eventually kill the Lord of Darkness and end up taking his place.

* During the 2011 ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'', it was revealed that between his appearance in the "Franchise/{{Wolverine}} in Hell" arc and his return during ''ComicBook/FearItself'', Puck overthrew Ba'al and took his seat, only leaving to save his teammates.

* For a hat trick, in ''VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2'', should Laharl's group lose to Sicily in the second chapter, she ends up taking over as Overlord of the Netherworld. Her being an angel aside, it takes little time for her to be quickly accepted and achieve a near HundredPercentAdorationRating. And in Chapter 3, if Laharl's group loses to Barbara, the Krichevskoy Group's champion, she becomes the Overlord, but since Barbara was conditioned for her entire life to follow others' orders, [[RealityEnsues she has a harshly unsuccessful reign]], causing the throne to be open once more.

* In the expansion for ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'', the protagonist can use [[BigBad Mephistopheles]]' TrueName to force him into slavery and take over the demon lord's Hell dimension him/herself. Alternately, they can choose to rule together, though in that case the epilogue implies Mephistopheles betrays them.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Excellent!'']]

* ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'': Christopher Rudd manages to go from damned soul to sextoy for the nobility of Hell into one of the nobility himself and eventually ruler of Hell. Then he reforged the damned souls and the demons into an army to storm heaven. And won.

** This is technically what Crowley did with a few hundred years of bureaucracy, backstabbing, and otherwise Machiavellian business. He died, went to Hell, [[DemonOfHumanOrigin became a demon]], worked his way up the ladder to head of purchases, survived the demises of every other major demon in Hell in the countdown to the Apocalypse as all Lucifer's faithful raced into the fray to assure his victory... and then defected to Team Free Will and helped seal the [[{{Satan}} head honcho]] back in his cage and save the world. After the dust settled and with Azazel and Lilith both dead, he approached the remaining [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Princes of Hell]] who had abandoned Lucifer's cause long ago and [[RetiredMonster lived in exile]], but none of them were interested in becoming King of Hell and [[OfferedTheCrown offered the throne to him instead]]. Even many seasons later, after angering every other being more powerful than himself that still ''exists'', all of whom try to usurp him, he retains his hold on this position. He's rather responsible about it, too. "This isn't Wall Street, this is Hell. ''We'' have [[TakeThat a little something called]] ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards integrity]]''!"

** This is technically what Crowley did with a few hundred years of bureaucracy, backstabbing, and otherwise Machiavellian business. He died, went to Hell, [[DemonOfHumanOrigin became a demon]], worked his way up the ladder to head of purchases, survived the demises of every other major demon in Hell in the countdown to Apocalypse as all Lucifer's faithful raced into the fray to assure his victory...and then defected to Team Free Will and helped seal the [[{{Satan}} head honcho]] back in his cage and save the world. In the absence of significant competition he promptly established himself as King of Hell. Even many seasons later, after angering every other being more powerful than himself that still ''exists'', all of whom try to usurp him, he retains his hold on this position. He's rather responsible about it, too. "This isn't Wall Street, this is Hell. ''We'' have [[TakeThat a little something called]] ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards integrity]]''!"

* A number of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' fics involving the PeggySue concept mention this trope during the pre-time travel part of the story as a reason not to send Lelouch vi Britannia to Hell (though fanfics are divided if he actually would go to Hell or Heaven after the events of the sereis, if Heaven would accept him, nor as to how the afterlife even works in the CG verse) The movie continuity differs in this however as any fear of the continued employment of the Devil is unwarranted as Lelouch got resurrected before he could take over hell.