My observations on Hell Itself
[a messy character analysis of Hell in ULTRAKILL post layer 8: Fraud]
It was created by The Father—who I also believe to be the demiurge, but that’s another topic entirely—and immediately cast aside, much like a deadbeat dad afraid of commitment.
It's afraid of being seen, because if it is, that's just another person who may hate it simply for existing—a mistake on “The Father's” otherwise perfect name. Because of this, I think it views the world through a distant lens, if not truly dissociative, to the point of losing its sense of self entirely.
However, dispite this, I theorize that Hell, in its own way, has a caricature of compassion at its core. I think it's actually shown us this multiple times through books, terminal entries, and the Fraud layer as a whole. It can’t really love, even if it says it can; it's instead rooted in obsession.
Hell to me is like a kid whose best friend is media. You pick up a book, watch a movie, play a game, and it’s like another world is at your fingertips. To someone who has nothing or something to escape, it's easy to sink in, letting your mind run wild, and the real world become a numb blur around you: no Father, no Heaven, no angels, just this slice of reality all to itself. Unlike us, however, when the book ends, and the story is placed back on the shelf, hell gets to play with the bodies post epilogue.
Funny enough, it's like an author in some ways. Pushing and prodding interesting souls within itself to act for its amusement. It’s like how some writers torture their own characters for fun, just because they love them so much and want more. I think it may also be itching to feel something, feel it through someone.
Minos is a good example. It tried to give him the minotaur, one of the first demons in hell, only for Minos to reject it outright and mirror its own imperfection. I think this is one of the key moments it's “compassion” backfired. Fuck, Gabriel and V1 are just the new toys in its hands this time around.
Hell itself to me is a kid in an empty house playing with shitty toys in an attempt to replicate the feeling of something it never had. Obsession and dissociation act in tandem to shield itself from a family that outright rejected it since it's creation. It's not a good entity, but to me it's hard not to feel bad for it.
And I only thought of this because I joked about Hell itself being a damn “Fujo Theater kid” in response to Gabv1el yaoi…