As of Fraud H E L L has become one of my favourite place-characters ever, and it's relationship with V1 (us) is just the fucking best. Many people like to characterise it in a way that V1 is HELL's plaything, that implies a certain level of torment to it, but I think these two are closer to dance partners.
In P-2 we have the first time HELL communicates with us directly. It tells us to have fun :) when we approach the Panopticon. We as players, as V1, play Ultrakill to have fun, to commit stylish violence, and what emotion does HELL consider the purest?
For you however, our truth: Our bodies are not a vessel for the blood
of the fruit, but its prison. The beautiful guts and gorgeous bone
YEARN to be shown and seen! SPLAYED! Under the divine cross of the Tree of Life, we pay it tribute through the art of violence.
GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS, Resident's Diary
In act 3 it starts talking to V1 much more, paint the world red, FEED IT. It starts showing us it's hand, the blood trees, the Earthmover. I think the Earthmover is particularly interesting because HELL absolutely loves it and V1 was made to fight them, they are it's raison d'รชtre after all.
Hakita has said that Ultrakill will end in a way that if they wanted to make a sequel it would be possible. The previous assumptions of the community that the ending would be the 3 main stars, V1, Gaberiel and HELL dying doesn't make sense in that context. Mankind would be dead, the afterlives would be destroyed, there wouldn't be much to portray. But what would make sense?
HELL creating the Tree of Life. HELL creating it's own lifeform that would be capable of even greater Violence, that would overcome the weakness and kindness of humanity, that would allow an endless war without reason.
In 8-1 HELL shows us how it will create the Tree of Life, and it shows us God.
God is an interesting character in Ultrakill. He created humanity, got frustrated at their sin and created HELL to put them back in line. This he regretted even more, he tried destroying it, but couldn't. When Lucifer (God's Kindness) pointed out how cruel it is he crashes out and casts him down to HELL, to Treachery. He can't forgive humanity (there is no Jesus) and he can't forgive himself, God becomes suicidal and then dissappears.
In a way HELL is the foil of God, it loves the sins of humanity while despising it virtues. It's happy when they kill eachother. Then they stop and it's disappointed that the Earthmovers didn't fall to an army of V1s and humanity with them.
So I think HELL is giddy that V1 awakened. Maybe even awakened it itself, if HELL did invade Earth and kill humanity. Even in 0-1 if we die we see the eye of HELL for just a split second. Think about it, if not for V1 the machine invasion of hell would be stopped by Gabriel, mankind would remain dead, HELL wouldn't get any new husks to play with, eternal stagnation. But a mere fucking object goes and defeats Gabriel. Finally someone strong enough to travel down into the depths of HELL and do what must be done in Treachery. And even better because of his defeat Gabriel recognises the joy he feels from violence, and murders the council causing a civil war in heaven itself! HELL must be ecstatic at this point! That is why it can't keep shut any longer, starts talking to us directly. Starts showing us it's plan.
Ultrakill is about art. It's layer upon layer of it. The references. Prelude, Act, Crescendo, Finale, Encore, 8-4 Theater. It is about HELL being an artist and V1 painting with it. I think in 8-3 HELL is just euphoric and stops trying to be believable, to make sense, it just revels in creating the most accursed geometry to chug my graphics card. The multiple title cards, it knows what it needs to do for the tree of life, but before that, let's have one last celebration of all that we made up to this point! Let's keep it going for a little bit longer!
In this way HELL is a foil to God, because God is a bad artist. Not in the way that his creations are tacky or unskillful, but because he hates them, he wants to throw them in a corner and forget about them. He is so disappointed with what he made that he goes and kills himself. And HELL on the other hand...
HELL is the perfect artist.
It is ready to destroy itself, to sacrifice what it created to create more, to let the machines tear it asunder if that means it can create something it finds beautiful. And V1 oh how it relates to V1, this beautiful thing that didn't get to do it's purpose, how it was abandoned by it's creators. HELL must find that relatable. It uses V1 for it's own purposes yes, but it leads V1 to an Earthmover, it lets V1 fufill it's purpose. And oh how fucking beautiful it must have been for this towering behemoth to be lobotomised by a small, blue, metallic insect. How glorious the rain of blood was. This! This is how it should have ended!
At the end of 8-4 we stand on a stage and get an applause. HELL is thanking us for our participation. For being an actor in it's play. We don't know how V1 feels, but I know how I feel. Killing the Earthmover was hype as fuck. Fraud was one of the most beautiful, impressive, fun sets of levels that I ever had the joy to play. So.
Thank you HELL, thank you Hakita.
romaincrisis
snowghoul
2087
