"Look, we got Moxxie, and-and we got Millie, and Loona! And Stolas, and-and whoever the fuck this guy is! Oooh, and we got fucking "Vagooba", and the CAT! Ohh, we're all in the same room! We're having a good time! Oh, we're family now! Look, we got the freaky red guy that everyone's into!"
The "Hellaverse" is a Black Comedy Animated Musical universe and media franchise created by Vivienne Medrano and primarily produced by her studio SpindleHorse Toons, encompassing Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss and miscellaneous media tying in with both. It centers around the denizens of Hell, a setting defined by divided realms of humans reincarnated in Hell and native demons born in Hell itself, plus a brutal and exploitative Fantastic Caste System in both realms, with the human realm currently undergoing an extermination crisis caused by Heaven while the native one is experiencing a progressive social uprising from the lower classes. The main characters in both shows live in different realms and almost never interact, though themes of systemic injustice and social hierarchy are very important to both.
While both series are distributed by and available to watch on Prime Video, Helluva Boss is also free to view on Medrano's YouTube channel.
List of Hellaverse works:
Music
- "Oh Millie" (2020)
- "ADDICT" (2020)
- "Just Look My Way" (2023)
- "Shark Boy Summer" (2026)
Web Animation
- Helluva Boss (2019–ongoing)
Webcomics
- Dirty Healings (2019–2020)
- A Day in the After Life (2020)
Web Original
- VoxTek Employee Hub (2025)
Western Animation
- Hazbin Hotel (2019 note , 2024–ongoing)
The Hellaverse as a whole provides examples of:
open/close all folders
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. Hellborn demons have black blood and angels have golden blood.
- Aliens Speaking English: When Hellborn demons interact with humans on Earth, there is no language barrier between them despite Hellborn not being at all familiar with certain aspects and/or customs of Earth society. On several occasions, Blitzo's interactions with humans seem to indicate that he (and by extension all other Hellborn) speak Earth English by default.
- Aliens Steal Cable: While demons are shown to have their own pop culture to some extent (albeit a lot of it being pornographic or ruthlessly monetized), many Hellborn throughout the universe also make pop culture references to media from Earth, shown to be a product both of their interactions with Sinners and (as Blitzo is shown to do) because they can watch human TV. In particular, Moxxie from Helluva Boss is a theater geek and has directly fantasized about having sex with Michael Crawford.
- 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 beam 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. The Speaker of God from the second season is the closest thing to His representation, yet she is deliberately treated as a separate entity that merely speaks on His behalf. 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. In Helluva Boss, Christmas is depicted, alongside a demon holiday called Sinsmas, which is celebrated at the same time.
- 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 "Genesis 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, as well as cursing him so that he could never hurt Sinners so that he can't find pleasure in making them suffer, 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.
- Ascended Meme: In November 2025, the "[thing] if it was written by Vivziepop" meme was made into an official shirt/hoodie design
reading "Me If I Was Written By Vivienne Medrano". - 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.
- Bondage Is Bad:
- Played amazingly with. Helluva Boss Season 2, and even more Hazbin Hotel Season 1, use different depictions of BDSM to distinguish good and evil characters. Negative characters occasionally use bondage techniques to kidnap or force the good characters into creepy situations, such as the "Poison" song sequence from Hazbin Hotel's "Masquerade" showing Angel Dust being gang raped to let Valentino shoot his porno, dominating him in a bad way. However, having a Safe, Sane, and Consensual BDSM relationship is also used when two characters had developed a positive and trusty romantic relationship, emphasizing the importance of trust in such activity — mainly seen in the relationship between Asmodeus and Fizzaroli in Helluva Boss.
- Also Played for Laughs once in the Hazbin Hotel episode "Scrambled Eggs", wherein Husk is enjoying the visit at a BDSM club as a bonding activity suggested by Angel Dust (specifically via getting a back massage), but immediately steps out of it at the moment he sees Niffty Dressed Like a Dominatrix.Angel Dust: [inside a BDSM club] No stronger bonds than bondage! That's even [this club's] motto.
- 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.
- Central Theme: For the overall franchise, morality and the difference between being a bad person and doing bad things.
- Hazbin Hotel focuses on deliberate actions, with the main characters consciously blaming themselves for decisions they made in the past (like Sir Pentious hiding from a serial killer when he could have helped bring him to justice and Angel Dust killing his father and choosing to stay at the hotel, which (to him) caused him to put everyone in danger due to the Vees' manipulations.) The main conflict comes from the characters trying to decide whether they deserve to be forgiven for their actions while outside influences push them one way or the other.
- Helluva Boss goes the other direction with major conflicts coming from the harm caused by the characters acting impulsively or habitually, sometimes without even realizing the effects on those around them, with examples from the main characters including:
- Blitzo disfiguring Fizzarolli, killing his mother, and tearing apart their family after accidently starting a fire during an emotional outburst and him believing himself cursed because of this, pushing away people who try to love him in fear he'll just end up hurting them only to end up usually causing messy breakups that make things even worse.
- Stolas rushing to save Blitzo from being executed, breaking his promise to Octavia in the process and his upbringing giving him an almost unconsciously bigoted view of the lower class, his resulting treatment of Blitzo despite his genuine affection for the imp driving a wedge between them.
- Loona kicking Blitzo in the crotch when he tries to hug her after they find Octavia, feeding Blitzo's insecurities in the process.
- Stella with her motivations for causing harm to others usually boiling down to "because I want to" at an almost self-destructive level, with Western Energy in particular revealing she would throw away any chance of getting Stolas' fortune just for the fleeting joy of killing him.
- Chekhov M.I.A.: While many biblical figures related to the "Genesis of Man" have either made appearances or at least been referenced in some capacity, one individual conspicuously absent is Adam's firstborn son and the "first murderer": Cain. While his parents and even his younger brother/victim Abel have had roles in the Hellaverse, Cain is noticeably both absent and unmentioned despite Abel's existence suggesting he does exist in some form, as does the notion Adam had Parental Favoritism and Abel was The Un-Favorite but it being unclarified if Adam's "favorite" was Cain or their less often discussed brother Seth. It isn't even clear if he's dead or not, as while logically he should have died of old age long ago, Pop-Cultural Osmosis has result in Cain often being depicted as immortal in media due to the "Mark of Cain" he was cursed with after killing Abel, making unclear if his soul is in either Heaven or Hell, or if he's still alive on Earth.
- 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 succubi.
- The Envy Ring is ruled by Leviathan, and its main demon inhabitants are Infester Demons and aquatic demons.
- The Sloth Ring is ruled by Belphegor, and its main demon inhabitants are Baphomets.
- Class-Based Legal Immunity: Lesser demons, especially imps, are regularly executed by Satan's court, but a Goetia convicted of the same crime will suffer a lesser punishment.
- 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, culminating in a messy breakup, Blitzo becoming a Broken Pedestel to Stolas and Stolas being the latest in a long line of people Blitzo genuinely cared for that he ended up hurting and pushing away.
- 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. It was eventually confirmed by Medrano that God is too ethereal and beyond comprehension to show up in the series.
- 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 to be 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, helped by the main series already only referencing parts of the pilot in a Broad Strokes manner such as how Blitzo got the Azure Grimore from Stolas. The original pilot would be rendered completely non-canon with the release of the prequel episode "Mission: Zero", detailing I.M.P's very first job as well as how the full moon deal between Blitzo and Stolas actually came to be, contradicting most of the original pilot while keeping the tone of the actual series so as to subvert this.
- 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 to be 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
- Easy Road to Hell: Implied to be the case with three examples from Helluva Boss. The fact that, according to Hazbin Hotel, not even Heaven itself knows what makes a Winner and what makes a Sinner just makes things more complicated.
- Mrs. Mayberry from "Murder Family" shows that someone can be a good person their entire life and still go to Hell for committing a single sin; though to be fair, Mayberry did kill one person and try to kill another, so it's reasonable to assume that one sin was bad enough to overshadow all the good things she's done.
- The drowned counselor from "Unhappy Campers" shows zero bad qualities that could possibly land him to Hell, and we're not told what he did in life either. However, it's because we don't know his actions in life that we have no idea if he deserves Hell or is an innocent damned for a small reason.
- The Helluva Short "Mission: Weaboo-boo" implies simply being perverted is enough to get you to Hell, as Blitzo's target in that episode was a woman who, besides being a monsterfucker, seems to be just a normal person, however obsessed with anime and fanfics. That said, one of the books on Emberlynn's bookshelf implies she wants more than just fictional monsters, so this might be more of a reasonable case of "too perverted for Heaven", and she definitely loved the idea of being cast to Hell, which could possibly play a role in this.
- Fangs Are Evil: Many of the more morally dubious characters from both series (mostly the demonic ones as part of their overall monster-esque aesthetics) have sharp teeth that amplifies their intimidation factors or serve as an indication that they are bad news. Such examples include Alastor, Adam, Vox, Valentino, Blitzo, Striker, Crimson, and Mammon amongst others.
- 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 those of his wife and daughter, but Lilith was more accurately the one in charge before she disappeared seven years ago thanks to Lucifer's depression and disdain for his subjects causing him to retreat into himself. 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 are 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 known as the Ars Goetia, 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 became demons. They’re confined to the Pride Ring, can’t have children, and functionally immortal unless fatally wounded by a weapon made from angelic steel.
- Then there are the lesser Hellborn demons, with distinct breeds associated with specific rings of Hell, like the Succubi and Incubi of the Lust Ring who are allowed certain access to Earth 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.
- Below them are the Imps, the Hellborn associated with the Wrath Ring, comparable to the peasant class/minorities that are often overlooked, discriminated against, and abused by those in higher, more privileged positions. With such limited options, they’re often forced to take up low class jobs (such as farmers, servants, and circus performers) just to survive. Some can attempt to buck the system by starting their own businesses (such as I.M.P. and Striker working as assassins or Crimson running his own mafia crime family), 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 Blitzo 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 Blitzo found her.
- It's implied the angels have something similar. It's confirmed that cherubs are Heaven's equivalent of imps and Winners are the angelic counterparts of 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.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Characters' hands are stylized to have three fingers and a thumb instead of a full five fingers. Played with in the April 2025 "HELLAVERSE UPDATE" video; when Charlie says that Hazbin Hotel has been greenlit for seasons 3 and 4, she holds up three fingers on one hand and all four fingers on the other hand.
- 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 shows that 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.
- God Is Evil: At least Implied, a Freeze-Frame Bonus for the C.H.E.R.U.B ad reveals a poster near a working Colin, with a message from "God" that says: "Surround yourself with people who will lift you up, so ditch your loser friends who you can't use." Which is a very mean-spirited thing to come from the almighty, however since God didn't appear yet in the series, we don't know what he's like, but considering that most angels suck in this universe, its probably likely God is a Jerkass.
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 or angels 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, Vaggie, and Abel 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 disapproves of the exterminations and finds herself agreeing with Charlie after seeing how Angel Dust fits the criteria to be in Heaven yet isn't; Vaggie was made into a Fallen Angel for sparing a child Sinner rather than just killing them like Lute wanted resulting in their being maimed and left for dead, and even before then was subjected to corporeal punishment for defending her fellow Exorcist from being abused by their superiors; and Abel is the opposite of his father, Adam, in every way, being genuinely kind hearted as well as meek, docile, and unconfident in himself until he grew a pair.
- 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 (which as it turns, is just an Animal Motif in her case, as she's really an angel who, prior to developing her current moth-themed style, looked fully human). 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.
- 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 a Murder, Inc. willing to kill anyone so long as the client can afford it, but their onscreen targets tend to be genuinely awful humans, ranging from Satanic cannibals to rich assholes that experiment on the poor.
- A Kind of One: Baphomets are a type of Hellborn demon resembling Gruesome Goats, drawing their name and appearance from the demon Baphomet, of which there was only one in the occult mythology from which he originated. Curiously, Baphomet himself does not appear to exist in the power structure of Hell, with the overseer of the Baphomet race instead being the similarly goat-featured demon Belphegor.
- Like Reality, Unless Noted: While Hell and Heaven are markedly different from any other depiction in media, the Hellaverse's Earth is just like our own... except when it isn't and something randomly insane is shown to exist (like technological developments outside the realm of our own world, or a colony of ravenous monster penguins that only speak with racial slurs living at the South Pole). There's also a handful of minor instances of Been There, Shaped History that diverge from real life (e.g. Vox is suggested to have promoted the creation and spread of color television, invented the 24-hour news cycle, and conceived the idea of Shark Week back when he was a living human).
- A Mythology Is True: According to the Helluva Boss episode "Ghostf**kers", the only two afterlives in this universe are Hell and Heaven. Ghosts, a type of supernatural being commonly mentioned in most interpretations of Christianity and Judaism, are explicitly debunked as mythological beings invented by humans to explain the perceived paranormal activities on Earth that are actually done by a Hellborn demon species called infestors.
- Non-Heteronormative Society:
- For all of Hell's many, many problems, homophobia isn't one of them, as both Sinners and Hellborn Demons are frequently open about their attractions to the same sex or complete lack of sexual attraction. There are homophobic demons, but they're a minority whose named members tend to be Hate Sinks, such as Katie Killjoy and Crimson.
- Surprisingly, given how it's heavily coded with elements of Christian fundamentalism, Heaven is accepting of LGBTQ people, though this is shown more subtly. While not quite as unapologetically queer as Hell, St. Peter is hinted to be bi and proudly declares "everyone is hot" and zero people have a problem with it, one of the films in the multiplex is a gay Christmas romantic comedy, and in season 1 of Hazbin Hotel, Sir Pentious manages to ascend into Heaven despite being bisexual. The 2026 pride merch reveals that Sera is a lesbian and Emily is queer.
- Our Angels Are Different: Like the demons, angels are split into Winners, former humans who ascended to Heaven after their deaths, and the Heavenborn native to Heaven. Thus far, their overall differences and further classification have been more vague than that of the demons, with only a few named species such as cherubs (who are implied to be Heaven's equivalent of imps) and seraphim (who are comparable to Hell's royalty), and some angels being vaguely defined in terms of species (such as the rank-and-file Exorcists that serve under the command of the Winner Adam).
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons' species are mainly divided into two major classes:
- Sinners are former humans who died and were sent to Hell, where they acquired new bodies based on their sins and/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 have nigh immortality that can only be countered by angelic weapons.
- Hellborn demons are demons born in Hell, divided into multiple species that are mainly grouped between regular Hellborn (such as imps, Hellhounds, and succubi/incubi) and the royals in charge of governing Hell (Goetia royals and the Seven Deadly Sins). The regular Hellborn, while tougher than living humans, are mortals who can be killed by regular weapons. The royals, on the other hand, are nigh immortals like the Sinners; Goetia can't be harmed by anything short of angelic weapons, and the Seven Deadly Sins currently have no explicitly known way of permanently killing them.
- Lucifer, the overall King of Hell, is a Fallen Angel, and the high rank he had even back in Heaven as a Seraphim makes him invulnerable to even common angelic weapons, with it being stated that angels more powerful than him are the only ones who have a chance at defeating him in a fight. His daughter Charlie inherited his power level, making her only second to him in the overall power hierarchy of Hell's royalty (even if only because of her being nowhere near as skilled as Lucifer in terms of handling her own powers). While "Welcome to Heaven" also reveals Vaggie is a fallen Exorcist, it's yet unknown if any other demons are also ex-angels, though the other Sins seem likely.
- 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.
- Random Power Ranking: The Fantastic Caste System doesn't just denote the difference in social standing but also how much power a demon possesses: Lucifer, Lilith and Charlie are the strongest beings in Hell as its rulers; followed by the highest ranking hellborn demons like the Deadly Sins and the Ars Goetia; Overlords are in the middle as Sinners who can grow stronger; and working class natural born demons like imps, succubi and hellhounds are the weakest. Interestingly, it seems the difference comes down less to physicality and more the amount of supernatural power a demon possesses; after being explicitly depowered, Stolas could still bloody and batter the magically empowered Ars Goetia Andrealphus and Loona, who belongs to the working class hellborn demon classification, could similarly wound him (although he regenerates quickly from both, he still took damage). Heaven is implied to hold a similar ranking system, with angels being stronger than a demon in an equivalent Hell rank.
- Rousseau Was Right: A pervasive theme of the entire setting is that all sentient beings across Heaven, Hell and Earth—not just human, but demon and angel too—have an innate capacity for good inside of them, and it is only through their own choices and the culture of the society around them that they become evil. There's even an entire song in Hazbin Hotel, "Live to Live", celebrating this concept.Mistakes are innate to being human and alive
We fall, we repent, we survive! - Satan: Lucifer and Satan are depicted as two separate individuals, as per the traditional list of arch-demons associated with the Seven Deadly Sins, and both have the highest rulership positions in Hell.
- Lucifer Morningstar, who's a major character in Hazbin Hotel, is a Fallen Angel, the Sin of Pride, the overall King of Hell, and the de facto ruler of the Sinners with his direct governance over the Pride Ring. He is married to Lilith, and is the father of Hazbin protagonist Charlie. He's not evil, only rebellious, and is now depressed and inactive because his attempt to give humans free will led to the creation of Hell and his being confined there with all the depraved souls and demons.
- Satan, who has only appeared in the Helluva Boss episode "Mastermind", is the Sin of Wrath, governor of the Wrath Ring, chief judge of Hell's supreme court (exclusive to the Hellborn demons), and the creator of the Imps, intended by him to be the Servant Race of the Hellborn demons. He's the fourth-most powerful ruler of Hell, with only Lucifer and his family being superior to him. In Lucifer's absence, he lords over the Hellborn demons, including other lower royals, and enforces a racist and classist segregation system over them. Most regular Hellborn demons are heard regularly swearing in his name ("Oh my Satan!").note Satan also claims that he was the overall ruler of Hell before Lucifer usurped him upon the latter's fall, but
Word of God stated that this is a lie he made up to mock Lucifer's inactivity.
- 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 Faustisse. 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 Faustisse 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: The franchise's version of Hell is divided into seven rings, each one representing one of the sins, and each one is ruled over by their respective patron devil which, in spite of matching the classical names (specifically, as per the writings of theologian Peter Binsfeld), are interpreted creatively as the equivalent of circus acts. All of the rings have a species of demon that originates from there, although Hellborn demon species can also be found on rings outside their native ones — and as of 2024, the information on these was sketchy, save for the fact that the Pride Ring is delegated to the Sinners while the rest of the rings are delegated to Hellborn demons, with both demon species groups and their respective societies mostly living in practically different sub-settings in Hell. Each ring also is assigned a different colour of the rainbow that is reflected in the sky.
- Pride:
- A mostly urban area where the Sinners live. Notable locations include Pentagram City, the Pride Ring's capital city and a crime-ridden area for Sinners, and Imp City, a settlement for Hellborn demons who reside in the ring (mostly imps as its name implies). Due to Lucifer's apathy towards Hell, it's unofficially governed by Overlords, a class of Sinners who earned positions of authority in the ring after gaining ownership of many other Sinners' souls.
- Colour: Red.
- Native demon race: Sinners on a technicality (while they come from Earth as dead humans, the Pride Ring is still the only area in Hell where they're allowed to exist). The Goetia are the ones that are truly native to it, being Lucifer's creation.
- Ruler: Lucifer Morningstar.
- Wrath:
- A western-styled area filled with violent beasts and frequent storms, which concentrates Hell's farms and is where athletic tournaments for Hellborn demons are hosted.
- Colour: Orange.
- Native demon race: Imps.
- Ruler: Satan.
- Gluttony:
- Features lush vegetation and extravagantly shaped buildings, and is implied to be the food center for Hellborn demons.
- Colour: Yellow.
- Native demon race: Hellhounds.
- Ruler: Beelzebub, also known by the stylized nickname of "Queen Bee-lzebub".
- Greed:
- The Hellborn demons' economic center, taking the form of a sprawl of industrial parks and lavish-gated communities that's economically thriving but at the same time rife with pollution and organized crime. Also home to the Loo Loo Land theme park.
- Colour: Green.
- Native demon race: Unnamed shark demons, but apparently also including individuals that look like various reptiles, and the occasional Monster Clown.
- Ruler: Mammon.
- Lust:
- An endless city of brothels, nightclubs and sex shops.
- Colour: Blue.
- Native demon race: Succubi/Incubi.
- Ruler: Asmodeus, or Ozzie for short.
- Envy:
- Apparently a watery place.
- Colour: Indigo.
- Native demon race: An unnamed humanoid fish species, and Infestor demons.
- Ruler: Leviathan.
- Sloth:
- An opulent city known for being the center of medical facilities for Hellborn demons. This being Sloth and all, you can imagine how long a demon has to wait for a medical appointment.
- Colour: Violet.
- Native demon race: Apparently, Baphomets.
- Ruler: Belphegor, or "Belle" for short.
- Pride:
- Seven Dirty Words: Since YouTube has regulations against "cunt", Helluva Boss censors it whenever characters use it (and it's just about the only swear word that gets this treatment). Hazbin Hotel, being an Amazon Prime series, has no such restrictions, but it's still only ever used by three of the show's nastiest villains (Adam, Lute, and Valentino) as if to emphasize how awful they are.
- Single-Palette Town: With Hell as a whole having an overarching Rainbow Motif, the climate of each ring is largely defined by its respective color (i.e., red for Pride, blue for Lust, pink for Sloth, etc.).
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: The main cast in both shows, barring Alastor and Niffty, all use profanities like there's no tomorrow.
- Succubi and Incubi: A species of hellborn demon resembling imps, but with a pinkish skin color, black wings, and generally more human-like body shapes. Unsurprisingly, they're affiliated to the Lust Ring. Like in tradition, they infiltrate the living world to seduce humans.
- Tautological Templar: The Helluva Boss Season 1 episode "C.H.E.R.U.B." heavily implies, and the first season of Hazbin Hotel later 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.
- There Are No Police: Zig-Zagged. Helluva Boss shows that there's definitely a police force in Hell, but it seems to only be used towards Hellborn demons. The Pride Ring itself doesn't seem to have any specific form of law enforcement, which allows Sinners to do engage in whatever depravity without having to worry about getting punished.
- Terrible Artist: As a general rule of thumb, whenever a Hellaverse character presents their in-universe drawings, expect the results to be not much better than that of an 8-year old. The sole exceptions to this rule so far being Valentino (who draws exceptionally well) and Stolas (who draws fancy sketches to accompany his romantic writing).
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Female characters tend to have long eyelashes, in contrast to male characters, who typically do not have visible lashes. Although some males may have masculine characteristics like Big Ol' Eyebrows and various facial hair such as beards and mustaches.
- Uptown Girl: This is a recurring thing in this setting, particularly between royals and rank-and-file demons. 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.
- The 'Verse: The franchise is called the "Hellaverse", clearly because of the primary location being Hell and in tune to one of the series, Helluva Boss.
- Weird Moon: Given how much of both shows take place in the Rings of Hell, it's only natural that whatever cosmic objects they'd manage to have down there are far from what can be seen from Earth.
- The sky in Pride contains a noticeable red orb surrounded in swirling light emblazoned with a Pentagram Symbol which seems to be its moon.
- The Greed Ring that has so far been exclusively shown in Helluva Boss has a giant coin in the sky in place of a moon.
- 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 on the lowest rung of Hell's hierarchy, such as imps, are capable of causing 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:
- Played with regarding Hell. While one would expect Hell to be filled only with Always Chaotic Evil individuals, it's repeatedly shown with greater nuance, that those who were damned for sinning are not solely their vices, and those who are Hellborn can be just as good or kind as anyone else. People who try to invoke this trope largely do so either to justify their hatred (Adam), shift the blame for their own shitty behavior by stating its natural (Blitzo), cope with their own unfortunate circumstances and indulge in their vices as a means of coping (Angel), or are very misanthropic and project their own lack of faith in humanity on the world around them (Alastor). This is in turn regularly rebuked by those who choose to see the good in Hell's population even if it means going against the Status Quo (Charlie & Emily), calling out those hiding behind it as excuse by demonstrating the good they and others are doing despite being from Hell (Verosika), reminding those suffering that You Are Not Alone and that You Are Better Than You Think You Are (Husk), or just by proving their beliefs objectively wrong through their hard work at trying to redeem themselves (Sir Pentious).
- Helluva Boss depicts Earth as a downplayed version of this. While there are plenty of humans shown to be outright assholes, hence the large amount of Sinners to begin with, a substantial portion of humanity is shown to be more apathetic than outright jerks, uncaring of what's going on around them in favor of just living their lives. This is largely played up for Black Comedy, having people acting nonchalantly as blood is being spilled, and giving a sense of Comedic Sociopathy to humanity.
