Franchise / Hellaverse

The Hellaverse is a universe and media franchise created by Vivienne Medrano encompassing Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. It centers around the denizens of Hell, which is currently undergoing an extermination crisis, though the main characters in both shows have the opposite goals.

While Hazbin Hotel has been picked up for a full series by A24 and Prime Video, Helluva Boss is free to view on Medrano's YouTube channel.

Works in the universe include:

Music

• "ADDICT" (2020)
• "Just Look My Way" (2023)

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss (2019-ongoing)

Webcomics

• Dirty Healings (2019, 2020)
• A Day in the Afterlife (2020)

Western Animation

• Hazbin Hotel (2019 ^note For the pilot, 2024-ongoing)

---

The setting as a whole provides these tropes:

Tropes A-G

• Adaptational Heroism: Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Asmodeus are depicted, in contrast to their common portrayal as tempters of humanity to ruin, as not exactly good, but pleasant individuals. Additionally, Lucifer's fall here wasn't trying to overthrow God, but simply a naive attempt to give humans free will.
• Affably Evil: Despite being literal demons/Sinners that either murder wantonly, encourage humans to sin or were sent to Hell for a reason a majority of the cast are shown to be likable and charming individuals in their own right to the point it's quite easy to forget they're supposed to be "evil", helped by the fact that the people they oppose are often much worse than them. Charlie and Vaggie are the only subversions by virtue of neither actually being evil, the former being the Anti Anti Christ trying to redeem Sinners and the latter being her supportive girlfriend whose worst traits are being a Control Freak and having a Hair-Trigger Temper.
• Alien Blood: Sinners have a variety of blood colors, with many having the standard red, but some like Angel Dust have pink. Hellborns have black blood and angels have golden blood.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Deconstructed. The pilots of both shows seem to imply the majority of demons of all species are absolutely rotten. However, as they progress, they show the denizens of Hell are capable of feeling genuine love and empathy. Overall, the horribleness of Hell and those in it is implied to be the result of millennia of The Chain of Harm: the Hellborn aren't actually naturally evil and many Sinners made mistakes and actually have decency in them, but living in a world ruled institutionally unjust has forced them to become bad and then pass that on to others. Many Sinners, like Angel Dust, are also in fact bad partially because they've lost hope for themselves. Finally, the idea of demons being Always Chaotic Evil is used by the angels, who are Tautological Templars, to justify the Exterminations.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • What are the requirements to get into Heaven? While it initially seems like the obvious "Don't be like the demons," both shows reveal that the angels are in fact no better. Once C.H.E.R.U.B. gets angry, they become wrathful and start swearing, and it's implied they're only helping people for the recognition. The Exorcists and especially Adam are more open in their demonic behavior, with Adam casually swearing up a storm, recounting how he sleeps around with other angels, and the Exorcists slaughtering with glee. So if "holy" beings aren't good people, what is considered "good"? "Welcome to Heaven" reveals that not even Heaven has any clue as to what gets a soul in or not when Adam lists a set of conditions when Charlie puts him on the spot, and Angel Dust fails to get in despite meeting every one of them. By the end of the first season however, Sir Pentious is the first one that becomes an Ascended Demon and enters Heaven after confessing his love to Cherri Bomb and making a Heroic Sacrifice to take down Adam before being killed by his holy Bram instantly and appearing right in front of Sera and Emily, proving that it actually is possible to redeem a sinner.
  • Where are God, and, to a lesser extent, Jesus? At no point in the first season of Hazbin is God mentioned or alluded to as an actual being, not even in the story of how Earth came to be, with the dialogue implying it was just the angels. However, several characters still invoke His name in vain, and Collin has a Fauxtivational Poster credited to Him, but the latter is ambiguous, as it's a brief visual joke, plus the quote ("Surround yourself with people who will lift you up, so ditch your loser friends who you can't use.") is pretty suspect. As for Jesus, Husk once cries His name in vain, crosses are seen in the Heaven Embassy, and Saint Peter (traditionally one of Jesus's Apostles) makes an appearance.
• Artistic License – Religion:
  • Like is common in media, inverted crosses are littered throughout Hell. Inverted crosses are actually holy in their own right, being how Saint Peter was crucified by his own request due to believing himself unworthy of dying in the same way as Jesus.
  • Fitting with Heaven being much less pleasant here, the "Origin of Man" played out differently than most versions in Abrahamic religion. Lucifer was more akin to a free spirit than the rebellious Angel of myth, wishing to bask in and share the beauty of free will, which ran counter to the rest of the Angels desiring order. Lilith was the first woman rather than Eve, and she and Lucifer fell in love after she rebuked Adam's desire for her to submit to him. The two decided to share the gift of free will by giving Eve, the second woman, the Apple of Knowledge, but doing so allowed "evil" to infect the world. The Angels cast Lucifer and Lilith to the depths of Hell as punishment, damning the worst humanity had to offer there so that Lucifer would never be able to see the good in humanity like he wanted, eventually breaking his spirit. Lilith meanwhile was able to gift her new subjects with greater power, and Hell began to thrive. This prompted the Angels to begin the yearly exterminations to prevent Hell from rising against them, the Exorcists led by the now Angel Adam.
• Baphomet: Rather than a singular demon the Baphomet is one of the species in Hell, seeming to primarily hail from the Sloth Ring. They look like winged goats with candles on their heads.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Exorcists like Adam and Lute are of the belief that anyone that goes to Hell deserves to be there forever while anyone who goes to Heaven must be flawless because they made it there. "Welcome To Heaven" reveals that not even the leadership of Heaven know what the actual requirements are to get there, only when a soul arrives, and just use the sinners as speculation on what not to do. After they learn this, Charlie and Emily deliver a massive "The Reason You Suck" Speech against the people in charge of Heaven, because if redemption is impossible to earn even after death, while horrible people like Adam and Lute are never punished for their behavior once they ascend, then the promise of Heaven is a lie and the actual morality is shades of grey.
• Black Comedy: The setting's main brand of humor. Hell is every bit as horrible as you'd expect and it's mostly played for laughs.
• Cast Full of Gay: It'd be easier to list the number of named characters in both works who aren't confirmed part of the LGBT spectrum or show signs of it.
• Celestial Paragons and Archangels: Like Hell, Heaven has an upper echelon, though it's not as fleshed-out. There are the seraphim, Sera and Emily, with the former having the highest authority in Heaven seen so far. Adam and Lute are military leaders heading the Exorcists that come down to exterminate Hell's population annually. Adam mentions having slept with a Virtue, implying there are counterparts to the Seven Deadly Sins and holding a greater level of authority over the other angels.
• Circles of Hell: Hell has seven rings named after the Seven Deadly Sins and ruled by the demons listed by Peter Binsfeld, travel between them is accomplished by use of giant elevators or portals but Sinners are restricted to Lucifer's Pride Ring. However, it seems that Pride is also divided into circles that may be inspired by the nine circles in The Divine Comedy.
  • The Pride Ring is ruled by Lucifer Morningstar, and its main demon inhabitants are Sinners.
  • The Wrath Ring is ruled by Satan, and its main demon inhabitants are imps.
  • The Gluttony Ring is ruled by Beelzebub, and its main demon inhabitants are Hellhounds.
  • The Greed Ring is ruled by Mammon, and its main demon inhabitants are unnamed reptilian demons and Loan Shark demons.
  • The Lust Ring is ruled by Asmodeus, and its main demon inhabitants are succcubi.
  • The Envy Ring is ruled by Leviathan, and its main demon inhabitants are implied to be aquatic demons.
  • The Sloth Ring is ruled by Belphegor, and its main demon inhabitants are Baphomets.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
  • The main casts of the two shows couldn't be anymore different in terms of beliefs and goals. Charlie genuinely wants to redeem Sinners so as to end the yearly exterminations of Hell, working alongside various Sinners who, while still sinning, demonstrate the capacity to change. I.M.P. are willing to kill anyone provided the client can fork over the cash, their victims more often than not ending up in Hell themselves and for the most part don't really care for any morality or belief in their jobs in favor of just getting paid, even willing to take alternate jobs like being bodyguards if the pay is good enough.
  • The leading romances of the two shows are as different as night and day. Charlie and Vaggie have been in a relationship for three years and, Vaggie hiding she's a Fallen Angel and the brief fight aside, are a healthy and functional couple that gladly support each other, are on equal footing with each other, and bring out the best in themselves and others. Blitzo and Stolas by contrast knew each other as children but are highly dysfunctional, both as a result of their own neurosis and from their power dynamic being extremely uneven, resulting in their genuine love for each other to be overshadowed by a toxic relationship.
• Crapsack World: To nobody's surprise, Hell. This is a world where drugs are freely available in vending machines, clout is everything, the truly depraved are allowed to accumulate power and oppress the relatively decent and society is ruled by the elitist Goetia class and the uncaring Lucifer. However, Helluva Boss reveals that Earth is also this, being populated by cruel and idiotic humans and heavily implying Heaven is little better than either. "Welcome to Heaven" in Hazbin Hotel outright confirms this by revealing that even the leadership of Heaven don't even know what it actually takes for a soul to get into Heaven, just when one arrives, and that the yearly exterminations in Hell are actually a Government Conspiracy that only the Exorcists and Sera actually know about while keeping it secret from the rest of Heaven until Adam accidentally reveals it during Charlie's court trial in Heaven.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: They come in a few different flavors. There are the Overlords, Sinners who managed to accumulate enough power to control parts of the Pride Ring. There are the Goetias who are hereditary demon nobles (appearing to mainly be birds) and according to official sources are more powerful than Overlords. At the very top are the Seven Deadly Sins, the rulers of Hell, in addition to Lucifer's family.
• Demon of Human Origin: All Sinners are human souls who became demons after their deaths on Earth and damnation to Hell. Unlike the other species they're restricted to the Pride Ring (it's unknown if it's legal or magical). Charlie's goal through the Hotel is to redeem them so they can ascend to Heaven.
• Devil, but No God: The verse's mythos includes Lucifer ruling Hell, but no God in Heaven, with a Seraph called Sera as head of the angels, who is benevolent but helpless against reeling in Adam and the rest of the Exorcists. That said, God and Jesus are invoked by various characters, so whether or not they exist is an Ambiguous Situation.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Both of the main entries in the Hellaverse have Pilot episodes that differ from their main series to different extents, resulting in different states of Canon for each one:
  • Hazbin Hotel's pilot is the minor case, as it only differs to a certain extent in terms of series goal and minor characterization beats. The Pilot suggests the overall goal behind the hotel is to solve Hell's overpopulation crisis and end the yearly exterminations, while the main series has the overall goal being to prove redemption is possible in general to Heaven. Characters like Vaggie and Angel meanwhile have minor characterization differences, such as Vaggie lacking her pseudo-Dry Crusader behavior from the pilot, or Angel's behavior and promiscuity more openly being shown to be a front he puts on to deal with trauma. Some of the main characters even have different designs in the pilot compared to the main show, specifically Charlie herself due to having black eyes instead of red ones like in the main show. Due to these differences being minor however, as well as the main series occasionally referencing the events of the Pilot, it is still considered Canon. Interestingly, Blitzo and Moxxie from "Helluva Boss" also made cameo appearances during Charlie's song "Inside of Every Demon is a Rainbow" in the pilot due to originally being planned to be side characters in the show before "Helluva Boss" was created, albeit with Moxxie only appearing as a background silhouette while Blitzo had a different color such where he has one white horn and one red horn, the mark on his forehead being heart-shaped, and having red sclera. Blitzo actually addresses this look in a post on his Instagram account. According to him, it was a Halloween costume.
  • Helluva Boss's pilot is the major case, as it heavily differs in terms of characterization and plot beats. The dynamic between I.M.P. is shown to be a lot more dysfunctional, Stolas has a much greater hand in their actions by arranging assassinations connected to contacts on Earth, Blitzo and Stolas's relationship is cast in a much darker light, and I.M.P. doesn't really care for keeping up The Masquerade at all. Characterization-wise, Blitzo and Moxxie's stances on humanity have effectively swapped, Loona is more unpleasant and treated more like a bitchy adult than a moody teenager, Stolas is more sadistic and a flat-out Depraved Bisexual, and Millie's characterization outside of Moxxie is non-existent. As a result, Vivziepop would eventually declare the Pilot Non-Canon. However, later episodes reference parts of the pilot and how Blitzo got the grimore from Stolas was altered in "The Circus".
• Easy Road to Hell: Helluva Boss shows that someone can be a good person their entire life and still go to Hell for committing a single sin, or even no sin at all in the case of a counselor who drowned. Hazbin Hotel's episode "Welcome to Heaven" reveals that not even Heaven has any clue as to what gets a soul in or not when Adam lists a set of conditions when Charlie puts him on the spot, and Angel Dust fails to get in despite meeting every one of them, while someone like Adam who breaks every one of those conditions did get in.
• Fantastic Caste System: Rather than chaos and unruliness as one would expect of Hell there exists a rather rigid and multilayered social hierarchy regarding its denizens and their position in Hell's society with those that rise above their allotted position being rare and higher stationed individuals facing potential scorn for associating with those below their station.
  • At the top of the system is the Royal Morningstar family comprised of Lucifer, his wife Lilith and their daughter Charlie, the three having supreme authority over Hell. Officially, Lucifer's decree supersedes his wife and daughter, but Lilith was more accurately the one in charge before she disappeared seven years ago thanks to Lucifer's disdain for his subjects and depression. And with Lilith gone and Lucifer too preoccupied... making ducks, that leaves Charlie as the de-facto ruler, not that it does her any good.
  • Next is the Seven Deadly Sins, a group comprised of Lucifer and six members of demon royalty as old as Hell itself, each embodying one of the eponymous sins and holding a position of authority over the remaining six rings.
  • Then there's the lesser Demon Royalty such as the Goetia family, akin to nobles and tasked with their own royal duties such as Stolas being tasked with studying and documenting the cosmology and prophecies of Earth and the known universe.
  • Then there's the Overlords, a group of very powerful Sinners who run various sections of the Pride Ring akin to mafioso and can claim ownership of the souls of other Sinners that made deals with them. Many of the Overlords also run side ventures throughout the Pride Ring, and often hold meetings to address political and territorial issues. It is possible for an Overlord to lose their position however, as Husk gambled away their assets and made a deal with Alastor, resulting in their soul now belonging to the Radio Demon and having lost their position as Overlord.
  • Following that is the average Sinner, humans who were damned to Hell and confined to the Pride Ring but are functionally immortal outside of holy weaponry.
  • Then there are the lesser Hellborn demons, with distinct breeds associated with specific rings of Hell, such as Succubi and Incubi of the Lust Ring who are allowed certain access to the human world to perform duties that tempt humans to sin such as Verosika and her crew seducing humans to give into lust. While considered beneath Sinners, they are allowed to move freely between the different rings of Hell
  • Then there are the Imps, the Hellborn associated with the Wrath Ring, who are comparable to the peasant class that are often overlooked and abused by those in higher positions, left with low class jobs like farming and circus performing. Some can get better jobs like assassination or running their own mafias but they often still face stigma for being Imps.
  • Lastly are the Hellhounds, The Hellborn associated with the Gluttony Ring, dog demons treated more like pets than actual individuals despite being fully sapient, making them akin to the slave class with even an Imp being able to own one. How they're treated depends on their "owner", as while Blitzø treats Loona as his adopted daughter other Hellhounds are shown to be kept in poorly maintained kennels if not already owned, Loona herself being one such example before Blitzø found her.
  • It's implied the angels have something similar. It's confirmed that cherubs are Heaven's imps and Winners are Heaven's Sinners.
• Fantastic Racism: Twofold.
  • Between Heaven and Hell, the latter are all the same to the former: filthy and vile beasts that need to die. Keenie refers to imps as "disgusting loathsome beasts" and "nothing but dirt that shitty dead people tread on".The only reason the hellborn aren't purged in exterminations alongside the Sinners is because Lucifer managed to get them immunity from Heaven's forces, but it's made abundantly clear that, if given the chance, Heaven would gladly subject Hell and everyone that inhabits it to a complete and total genocide. Though "Welcome to Heaven" makes it a little better by revealing that there are angels sympathetic to demons, such as Emily.
  • In Hell itself, the Fantastic Caste System breeds this between those of the higher and lower classes, in particular the Imps being seen as trash and worthless by those of the higher class. This in turn causes some Imps to despise those of the upper class like Demon Royalty, some like Striker even going as far as to become Imp Supremacists.
• Fantasy Metals: Angelic steel, weapons made from it can kill souls, including Sinners and Demon Royals who can normally regenerate from injuries and angels. The weapons used by Exorcists are naturally made from angelic steel, and there's a thriving industry in Hell based around collecting their dropped spears and recasting them into new weapons ranging from guns to ballet shoes.
• Graying Morality: At first glance, it seems like Hell is bad and Heaven is good, which is why Charlie wants to redeem Sinners so they get into Heaven. But both shows eventually show that Heaven, while idyllic and happy, has a lot of flaws of its own, and in fact may be more like Hell than the angels are willing to admit. On the flip side, Helluva Boss reveals Hell outside of the Pride and Greed Rings is not as terrible as you would expect. Charlie and Emily even shout "The rules are shades of gray" after finding out Heaven doesn't actually know what makes a soul good and has been assuming demons are irredeemable and they're the good guys. Overall, it turns out both Heaven and Hell are heavily flawed, but not wholly irredeemable.

Tropes H-Z

• Have I Mentioned I Am a Dwarf Today?: A quirk found in both shows, exclusively in song lyrics rather than dialogue, is for the characters to mention that they're demons a bit more often than is necessary.
• Hell of a Heaven: Played with. Heaven itself is, for the most part, rather idyllic, people that ascended there being polite and decent. The problem stems from its staff. Most of the known Angelic characters are shown to be a different kind of unpleasant: the members of C.H.E.R.U.B. are willing to protect anyone regardless of their sins if they're properly paid or even if their target wants to live anymore; the bureaucrats like Deerie are extremely condescending and willing to banish their own for even a single mistake; the Exorcist Angels are shown to be sadistic pricks using the excuse of "stopping an uprising" to justify exterminating Sinners with impunity, with Adam in particular being a misogynistic asswipe who would gladly subject Hell to genocide if he could; and the entire reason for Hell's existence and Lucifer and Lilith's damnation to it being because they dared to go against Heaven's intended plan in favor of demonstrating free will and wanting to punish them by surrounding them with only the worst humanity has to offer. Sera, Emily, and Vaggie are the only real exceptions, as Sera only authorizes the exterminations out of genuine fear that Hell will rise against Heaven and wanting to protect her people while disapproving of Adam and Lute's sadism, Emily disapproving of the exterminations and finding herself agreeing with Charlie after seeing how Angel Dust fits the criteria to be in Heaven yet isn't, and Vaggie being made into a Fallen Angel for sparing a demon child rather than just killing them like Lute wanted resulting in their being maimed and left for dead.
• Hellhound: These are one of the many species in Hell, and one of the lowest ranking. Unlike traditional interpretations, they're anthropomorphic (yet disturbingly still seem to be treated more as pets) and resemble modern dog breeds. They appear to correlate the most to the Gluttony Ring.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Helluva Boss consistently shows living humans as much worse than its demon characters, who are given a variety of redeeming traits and moments. Additionally, the Sinners, who are human souls turned into demons upon their damnation, can only reside in the Pride Ring, and that Ring is tied with Greed in being the most chaotic and horrid Ring in Hell.
• Informed Species: Many demons, mostly sinners and royalty, are supposedly Animalistic Abominations, but simply resemble humanoid or demonic entities with Animal Motifs so vague as to be nearly indiscernible without Word of God to back them up or the occasional in-universe acknowledgment. In the main cast of Hazbin Hotel, Alastor is a deer, Angel Dust is a spider, Niffty is a cockroach, and Vaggie is a moth or at least she was thought to be. Among royals seen in Helluva Boss, Stolas is an owl, Asmodeus is a rooster, and Mammon is a spider. Aversions exist in both groups: contrast Husk, who is nothing more or less than an anthropomorphic winged cat, and Beelzebub, a fox/bee hybrid who is just as obviously canine as most hellhounds.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Defied. Due to Hazbin Hotel being picked up by A24 and airing on Amazon Prime while Helluva Boss remains independently funded and on YouTube, the two works can't crossover without potential legal issues. For the most part, this isn't a problem, as Hazbin strictly tackles the Pride Ring and dealing with Heaven, while Helluva tackles the rest of Hell and Earth, but this does cause some occasional issues.
  • The Seven Deadly Sins are a major element of Helluva Boss, with Lucifer Morningstar acting as their leader and representative of "Pride". As Lucifer is tied to Hazbin Hotel however, he can never actually appear in person in Helluva Boss. This is justified In-Universe by the fact Lucifer is suffering from depression and, aside from Charlie and by proxy her friends, doesn't really care for the people of Hell, more concerned with creating rubber duckies, so his absence in Helluva Boss can be easily explained as him not really caring about the position and being a downplayed Authority in Name Only. The only other member of the sins mentioned in both shows is the representative of "Sloth" Belphegor, who is in charge of Hell's only known hospital in the Sloth Ring as well as all of Hell's drugs, with Beelzebub mentioning her by name on her own debut episode "Queen Bee" and Charlie having her contact information on her phone in "Dad Beat Dad".
  • A major element of Hazbin Hotel's premiere is that Heaven is accelerating the Exterminations, and fully intends on subjecting all of Hell to virtual genocide in retaliation to one of their Exorcists being killed, starting with the Pride Ring where the Sinners reside. Despite I.M.P., the main cast of Helluva Boss, residing in the Pride Ring too though, they can't directly reference said incident or even the Exorcists due to it being tied to Hazbin Hotel. This is justified in the first episode, as Lute mentions Lucifer bargained hellborn demons to not be targeted by the Exterminations.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: A running motif with the main characters, Charlie and Vaggie aside, is that while they are bad people and do bad things, their opposition is so much worse, and lack the more affable traits that make the protagonists easy to like. I.M.P. for instance are Murder, Inc. willing to kill anyone so long as the client can afford it, but their targets tend to be genuinely awful humans, ranging from Satanic cannibals to rich assholes that experiment on the poor.
• Morphic Resonance: Sinners tend to have their bodies reflect how they died and/or the sin they are in hell for. While not as obvious with the Sinners in Hazbin Hotel due to their manner of deaths largely being unknown, the Sinners that debut in Helluva Boss tend to demonstrate this rather well.
  • According to supplementary material, Alastor was a half-Creole radio host moonlighting as a Serial Killer in New Orleans, Louisiana, who was killed by accident whilst burying his latest victim in an area known for deer hunting, Alastor being mistaken for a deer and shot by a hunter. As a Sinner, his default appearance leans into his radio host persona, down to having the title of "The Radio Demon" and running a show in Hell, but also possesses deer traits such as antlers and two tufts of hair resembling deer ears. When using his abilities, Voodoo symbols occasionally appear reflecting his Creole heritage, and when taking on his full demon form, his body shifts to more resemble a deer-demon hybrid, while also making sounds akin to an elk's buggle.
  • Mrs. Mayberry went to hell as a result of killing her husband after learning he was having an affair and entering a blind rage, shortly afterwards killing herself out of regret for her students seeing her do it. As a Sinner, her appearance is largely unchanged, now resembling a stereotypical Big Red Devil version of herself, albeit pink to highlight how she's mostly a good person outside of her sin, along with possessing hair that acts like flames when she is aggravated, fitting her sin of Wrath.
  • Loopty Goopty and Lyle Lipton were prematurely aged as a result of one of their inventions, so they retain their old physiques while having technological augmentations. Lyle in particular had been confined to a bed that had to be wheeled around, and was crushed to death by a piano, this being reflected in his lower half turned into a One-Wheeled Wonder and his teeth resembling piano keys.
  • The counselor at Camp Ivannakummore drowned to death in a lake as a result of another counselor drilling a hole into his boat, his body now resembling a fish man and possessing a torso filled with water.
• Our Angels Are Different: Like the demons, angels are split into those born in Heaven, like Sera and Emily, and those who ascended to Heaven after their deaths, such as Adam and Sir Pentious.
• Our Demons Are Different: They're generally divided into two classes:
  • Sinners are former humans who died and were sent to Hell, where they acquired new bodies based on their sins or the manner of their deaths. Notably they're the most restricted, confined to the Pride Ring, but some of them can rival Hellborn nobles in power, and they can only be killed by angel weapons.
  • Hellborn demons are mortal demons born in Hell, divided into multiple species such as imps, Hellhounds, and Goetia. While tougher than living humans most of them can be killed by regular weapons, with the exception of Goetia who can't be harmed by anything short of angel weapons.
  • Lucifer is known to be a Fallen Angel, and thus invulnerable to even angel weapons; it's yet unknown if any other demons are also ex-angels though the other Sins seem likely. "Welcome to Heaven" reveals Vaggie is a fallen Exorcist.
• Our Imps Are Different: One of the species of demons, and one of the lowest ranking, primarily coming from the Wrath Ring. They're small stereotypical devils with horns that are thick black and white stripes for males and mostly black with small white lines for females.
• Rousseau Was Right: As both shows progress, they show that, with a few exceptions like Valentino and Crimson, even demons have hearts. The Sinners still have their capacity for love and empathy and many are implied to have been sent to Hell for lesser reasons, but they had to double down on their flaws to survive in Hell. In the case of Angel Dust, Husk, and Sir Pentious, being around a positive environment brings out the best in them. And if Blitzo, Fizzarolli, and Stolas as children are any indication, hellborns aren't born evil and are, again, implied to be a product of their environment. Even as adults, hellborn demons show instances of genuine love and kindness. Even Lucifer was in fact an optimistic dreamer who was forced into a cynical depression, and his daughter's genuine drive to make Hell better inspires him again.
• Satan: Hell is ruled by Lucifer, who is not the same entity as Satan, in accordance to the classification by Peter Binsfeld. Lucifer is the ruler of the Pride Ring and Hell overall, while Satan rules the Wrath Ring.
• Schrödinger's Canon: A lot of details regarding both shows, Hazbin Hotel moreso, were revealed via various comments and streams held by Vivziepop and crew members who helped with the pilot prior to the main series being released like former Hazbin Hotel artist Fautisse. How Canon these details remain for the shows themselves however is a murky point, as unless the show directly contradicts it, there's nothing to say it can't still be Canon to an extent as many of the crew members that helped with the pilot like Fautisse later left to pursue other projects. Vaggie's backstory is one such example, as originally she was said to have been a Salvadoran prostitute named "Vagatha" who died in the 2010's before becoming a Moth Sinner and meeting Charlie, while the main series has her backstory reveal she's a Fallen Angel Exorcist actually named "Vaggie" who was left for dead but found by Charlie and pretended to be a Sinner. While her new backstory renders some of her original backstory irreconcilable, certain details like her still speaking Spanish regularly make it unclear if this is a flat out change, or if she was a Salvadoran human but was reborn as an Angel like Adam was.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Hell is split into seven rings each correlating to each sin, and each ring is ruled by one of the seven rulers of Hell as per the writings of theologian Peter Binsfeld. They are Lucifer for Pride, Satan for Wrath, Beelzebub for Gluttony, Mammon for Greed, Asmodeus for Lust, Leviathan for Envy, and Belphegor for Sloth.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: The main cast in both shows, barring Niffty and Alastor, all use profanities like there's no tomorrow.
• Succubi and Incubi: A species of demon resembling imps, but with black wings, and unsurprisingly reside in the Lust Ring. Like in tradition, they infiltrate the living world to seduce humans.
• Tautological Templar: Helluva Boss heavily implies, and Hazbin Hotel confirms that the angels have a bad problem with this. Many of them are actually as bad as the demons, but hide this up with holiness and self-righteousness. Even when the requirements to get into Heaven are exposed as being not as simple as good/bad, the angels sans Emily still hold onto their conviction that they're right.
• Uptown Girl: This is a recurring thing in this setting. Charlie (Princess of Hell) is dating Vaggie (a common Sinner (supposedly), Stolas (a Goetia) is having an affair with Blitzo (an imp) and has genuinely fallen in love, and Asmodeus and Beelzebub (Sins) are in relationships with Fizzarolli (an imp) and Vortex (a hellhound) respectively.
• World of Badass: Events in both shows prove that any character who wants to make something of themselves in Hell needs to know how to throw down. This is especially evident among the Overlords in Hazbin Hotel, who possess incredible personal as well as political strength, including various unique supernatural powers, and Helluva Boss demonstrates that even those such as imps on the lowest rung of Hell's hierarchy are capable of massive amounts of havoc. It might even be easier to list characters who aren't afraid of showing their enemies who's boss.
• World of Jerkass: Hell is this, unsurprisingly, since it's Hell where all the bad people end up, plus the native inhabitants are pretty hostile. Helluva reveals Earth is this as well.

---