History WebAnimation / HFIL

* EvilLawyerJoke: When Cell asks if he can sue someone in Hell, Raditz snarks that there are enough lawyers.

* AHellOfATime: Downplayed. While HFIL is still presented as unfavorable compared to being alive, it is more of a rehabilitation center than a prison. All of its residents are provided with room, board, entertainment (albeit only in the form of bad movie sequels), and even food and drink (which they don't even ''need'' in the afterlife, mind you), they don't face any harsh punishment as long as they follow the rules, and they get to participate in extracurricular activities.

'''Cell:''' Fuck it. I'm down. Where the bowls at?

* CodeRed: King Yemma declares Code Orange after [[ListOfTransgressions reading just what Cell did in his first form]].

** Cell is able to turn it around on Freeza in the second episode by revealing he knows exactly how Freeza died during the sharing circle, which sends the warlord on the defensive in their argument. Then it becomes an ExaggeratedTrope in the third episode when Cell tells Freeza exactly who his killer is...or more specifically, who his killer's ''father'' is.

* AdaptationalSexuality: In canon, Burter didn't have an established sexuality. While DBZA revealed that he was gay, it was through a flashback that Vegeta had of talking to Guldo, and the only other time Burter was seen in the show, the focus wasn't on him. Episode 2 of ''HFIL'' is the first time that the audience hears Burter admitting to everyone (quite proudly, in fact) that he's gay.

** While discussing ''why'' HFIL was even made, Goz mentions that "that Radish guy" ruined their water feature, referencing Episode 4 of [=DBZA=], where Raditz had evidently turned what was originally a fountain of water into a fountain of ''blood''.

** In DBZA episode 4, King Yemma said Raditz kicked him in the balls and escaped after arriving in the afterlife. Episode 2 here shows the immediate aftermath.
** Because nobody has any respect for Guldo, he finds himself LockedOutOfTheLoop on a lot of things; this includes the Dragon Balls in DBZA Episode 19 and patchouli in HFIL Episode 2.
** Cell went out singing his own version of 'My Way,' implying he has no regrets with how he lived and died. He flat out tells Freeza that while he's not ''proud'' of his death, he sees no reason to be ashamed of it either.

** In Episode 6, when King Yemma was going over "Ginyu's" crimes, one of the things that disgusted Yemma enough to send Ginyu to HFIL was the infamous "[[NoodleIncident jockstrap incident]]" that was bought up a few times in DBZA.
** Raditz' StringTheory board in Episode 7 has a picture of Nappa with question marks, indicating that he ''was'' in the [=HFIL=] camp with everyone else after Vegeta killed him, but disappeared when he was [[ExactWords indirectly]] [[BackFromTheDead wished back to life]] by the dragon balls at the end of Season 2.

* ChekhovsGag: The whole premise of the show is built upon the [[AbortedArc abandoned news]] from all the way back in Season 1 of WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged that Raditz managed to escape from King Yemma; Hell needed a way to contain villains of Raditz's strength and higher and HFIL was established.
* CodeRed: King Yemma declares Code Orange after [[ListOfTransgressions reading just what Cell did in his first form.]]

** In "Frognapped", after the Ogres reveal to the Ginyu Force [[spoiler:that their captain's body has a frog's soul in it, the members celebrate believing this means Ginyu himself is still alive. Unfortunately for them, [[DeathByAdaptation Vegeta is "eight for eight" in the Abridged canon]], and the stinger shows he was dumped in the soul scrubber because they didn't know about the swap until it was too late. Even worse, in the main canon Ginyu is still alive, living past Z and eventually getting a new body... shortly before dying.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: PlayedForLaughs. After one of [[spoiler:Guldo's]] pranks in episode 5 douses Cell with white and purple paint, Freeza bears witness to it and is legitimately offended, mistaking it for "whiteface". Considering one of his most notable traits is being a genocidal racist, however, [[HypocriticalHumor pot calling the kettle black is very much applicable here.]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The good is, admittedly, only relative because it's Freeza we're talking about, but he is absolutely ''floored'' when Cell tells him [[spoiler:he's not going to tell the rest of the group that the Super Saiyan that killed him was Vegeta's son, despite knowing full well that it would completely destroy him.]]

** Cell manages to turn this entirely on Freeza in episode 3 by ''not playing his game.'' Stating in [[PragmaticVillainy no uncertain terms]] that he'll be playing his own, while [[ForTheEvulz Freeza]] will, by Cell's own words, eventually be left with [[FateWorseThanDeath two German Ogres and a whole afterlife of shame]].

* FirstNameUltimatum: [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents King Cold]] usually calls Freeza by several endearing nicknames, but scoldingly calls him by his name when [[spoiler:Freeza was deliberately going to let Cell hit the ground in the Trust Fall exercise]]. [[SpoiledBrat Freeza]] doesn't catch on at first.

** If you look carefully in scenes before he tries to fry Goz and Mez, Cell's already wearing the ankle monitor.

** And King Cold's official title in his managerial position is "Honorable Atonement Director and Enrichment Specialist", or HADES. Cell lampshades the trend by this point.

'''Raditz:''' [[EatingOptional No,]] but it helps pass the time.\\

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: At the end of the Christmas special where it was revealed the entire thing was [[ShowWithinAShow a story told by King Cold]] Cell asks if King Cold just wrote fanfiction and King Cold turns to his left, away from the group, and asked if this whole thing wasn't just fanfiction. Freeza asks if King Cold is having a stroke only for said king to lose the ability to speak before passing out meaning yes, he was having a brief bout of intense confusion in universe.

** Raditz perks up when Cell mentions that his father was a brilliant scientist. This is a reference to how the Ocean dub claimed that Bardock, Goku and Raditz’s father, was a brilliant scientist.
** At the start of episode 2, the song Cell is humming to himself is his canon version's {{Leitmotif}}.

** It's quite possible Cell's clean victory against the Ginyus in episode 6 is a reference to a certain [[VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ video game]]. In ''Fighter Z'' the plot not only restricts everyone's power levels, much like the anklets, so everyone is roughly even but as characters Cell is a single fighter while the Ginyu force has all 5 members as a single character. Without Ginyu himself there they would technically be an incomplete character against a whole one.

* NonActionGuy: Despite having a power level of 18,000, thus being much stronger than Freeza's average {{Mook}} and being powerful enough to break the Soul Scrubber like Raditz, Cui is mentioned as not being in HFIL because his [[DamnedByFaintPraise greatest sin]] was [[SitcomArchnemesis hating Vegeta.]] Meaning that he likely never even exterminated a ''single'' planet while working for the PTO since [[OmnicidalManiac Cell]] was admitted for absorbing several cities' worth of people on Earth.