I was in the mood to listen to War Without Reason earlier which lead me to start thinking about both the song itself and the older content with the context of Fraud. Particularly, I started thinking about the characterization of both Hell and God. I mostly rambled about it in a discord server for an hour but I'll reformat it into one post here.
First, I'm taking it as a given that Ultrakill's God is the Gnostic demiurge, Yaldabaoth -- there is much evidence for this, so I won't go into it now. Having said that: "…Like antennas to Heaven" hits just a little differently when we know God is Yaldabaoth and his hate is the reason this happens. "HOLY HOLY HOLY IS THE LORD. WAR IS ONTOLOGICAL, PEACE IS A FAILURE OF FREE WILL." In that vein, Earthmovers are really something of a monument to God. Not quite to his "will" since he's a bit displeased with the whole thing too -- "FREE WILL IS A FLAW. LET THE EVIL OF THEIR OWN LIPS CONSUME THEM" -- but rather his biases and worldview.
On the subject of God's worldview, it seems to be a bit incongruous. Given the nature of Yaldabaoth is prideful and he angrily tries to exert his will on mankind, viewing himself as the supreme, it's probably not wrong to say he hypocritically believes his might makes him correct simply because he has the power to decide as such, but that humans, made in his image, who exercise their power -- their "free will" -- to decide they're right, are wrong and deserve punishment. Hell recognizes this hypocrisy, understands that by God's design, "PEACE IS A FAILURE OF FREE WILL" -- peace requires compromise, a compromise to one's freedom. When Lucifer also questions these issues with God's design, God responds by casting him into Hell, as to acknowledge that would require him to compromise his free will. Though, "I HAVE CREATED HELL… …And now I can no longer unmake it" is probably the most direct compromise to his free will, an unavoidable reminder that his notion of absolute power is incomplete. And that's probably why he ran away! He is faced not only with immense guilt from his mistakes, but with a reminder that his anger at humans is only a mirror on himself.
Hell itself exists as the natural conclusion to God's worldview, proof and contradiction, thesis and antithesis, the synthesis of God's malice. Hell is simply more powerful than God, it rules in his absence, it claims everything in the end, and it is unendingly cruel. Even the lesser angels, once human much like sinners, wind up in hell one way or another. But it also muses on these things, points out every contradiction and flaw in nature. Hell sees all of this and it finds this "BEAUTIFUL, OUTSTRETCHED LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN. YOU WERE BEYOND YOUR CREATORS*." Hell is cruelty reified, after all. "LUCIFER MY LOVE, I SHALL GIFT TO YOU ALL THE AGONIES THAT CAN EXIST, AND MANY THAT CANNOT," is something the idea of cruelty may consider genuinely romantic. All proves God's views.
*In fact, "YOU WERE BEYOND YOUR CREATORS" only emphasizes Hell's status over God. Probably contributes to its love of the Earthmovers, in fact.
This ties back to War Without Reason, which I believe is a song that characterizes Hell. It's quite a soft, melancholic song, considering the subject. I think it conveys an awe and affection toward such monuments to hate and power. When I listen to it I can only imagine Hell basking in its beauty, the order of its chaos, the chaos you will then bring to its order, that this is simply how things are and will be and that this ending is spectacular and beautiful, to Hell.
Though, back to Hell as a synthesis of God's views, I find it quite interesting how the angels eschew the hierarchy of Dante's Paradise -- and it perfectly reflects God's, as Yaldabaoth's, nature. Supreme angels, created in their current image and never changed, are concrete and material, humanoid much like God, while the lesser angels, humans deemed virtuous, become abstract and geometric. As the creator of a material world, of course god would deem being formed to be "supreme". It's interesting, then, to contrast this with Hell, which is by its very nature abstract. It is immaterial, formless. And perhaps that's what gives it the final say? "THE SPATIO-TEMPORAL MIND CAN CONCEPTUALIZE REALITY ONLY IN BINARY. YES AND NO. IS AND IS NOT. THE EYE OF [LOGOS] SEES ONLY A COLORLESS EXISTENCE IN A MONOPOTENTIAL WORLD," all applies to God, a formed and material being. God likely made Hell abstractly believing that made it nigh powerless, not realizing, in his limited power, that this only makes Hell omnipotent, closer to being idealized than he can ever be. "THERE ARE 39 STATES OF EXISTENCE," and Yaldabaoth truly only has domain over one, the material. This material-centric hierarchy is reflected in the very location of Heaven, in fact: it has trees and temples and grass and all of it is physical! The very nature of the world reflects God's impotent and narrowminded views.
Perhaps jumping the gun, I think this all quite possibly extends to why God mandated that angels remove their eyes when entering Hell, "THE EYE OF [LOGOS] SEES ONLY A COLORLESS EXISTENCE IN A MONOPOTENTIAL WORLD", but the eyes of angels, of ensouled beings, could be shown the truth, given the knowledge to escape material reality, were Hell feeling merciful (or perhaps, spiteful toward God).
