History Main / HellSeeker

* During Goku's special interaction with Cell in ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'', Goku reveals that he is interested to see what hell is like and even asks Cell to visit it someday. Hilariously, the latter seem to regard it as a miserable, sorrowful place but doesn't divulge any more. It should be noted that Goku has actually been to hell more than once in the anime.

* Before he was killed by the [[EvilOverlord Other King]], the Comet King, Jalaketu West from ''{{Literature/Unsong}}'' sought to invade Hell so he could destroy it and free every soul trapped there, but failed completely. In order to affect Hell with [[RealityWarper his power]], he had to first be part of it. And as the resident BigGood and TheMessiah, his chances of going to hell when he died were pretty much nil, and he feared even doing evil deeds might not send him there if it was ultimately for the greatest cause possible. [[spoiler:Knowing this, his wife Robin West sold her soul to Hell, forcing Jalaketu to follow. The Comet King might not go to Hell if he did incredible evil for the sake of humanity, but doing incredible evil for the selfish goal of rescuing only his wife is another story. Hell will be destroyed either way. So he became the Other King, killed a body double, and set about becoming an EvilOverlord]].

%%

-->--'''Goku''', ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ''

* In some versions of Christianity, Jesus Christ descended into Hell upon his death on the cross, as a result of bearing the Original Sin of mankind, but as he was also the Messiah, his death actually brought the salvation of either the virtuous pagans that had died before he was born, or ''every damned soul in Hell'', depending on who was telling the story, an event known as the "Harrowing Of Hell".

* ''WebVideo/SailorMoonAbridged'' plays this for laughs with Sailor Mars, to the point that when [[KillEmAll The Scouts die in Episode 40]], the others are dragged there with her, even [[TokenGoodTeammate Amy]].

* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'': [[spoiler: Younger Toguro]] is one of these, in addition to being a DeathSeeker. [[spoiler: He chooses to be punished in the deepest level of Hell, even though he could have gotten off with a lighter sentence, because [[AntiVillain he feels that he could never be punished enough for what he let happen to his old martial-arts pupils]] and the aftermath of such.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Hideaway}}'' by Creator/DeanKoontz, the SerialKiller antagonist calls himself Vassago, believing he is the human incarnation of one of the demon princes of Hell and that by hideously murdering enough people, will be allowed to return to Hell at Satan's right hand. After killing them, he arranges their corpses in ways that symbolically/artistically represent the sins he fancies they committed, but truly knows the reason for doing this has [[ForTheEvulz nothing to do]] with punishing the guilty. It's also hinted at that [[spoiler: his beliefs of demon heritage may not be so delusional after all]]

* Akumaro in ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' wants to [[spoiler: break the barrier between worlds and literally bring about hell on Earth. It's the only way he can see hell, because he was born a Gedoushuu (monsters of that series) instead of being a mortal who fell to TheDarkSide.]]

* In ''TabletopGame/InNomine'', many who make a DealWithTheDevil do so with the promise that they'll get preferential treatment when they finally bite it and go to Hell. [[spoiler: Very rarely, their masters even keep their bargain.]]

** Lita wanted to go to hell so she could kill her father, again. Of course, she had no idea he had become [[AnthropomorphicPersonification one of the]] [[SevenDeadlySins Seven Sins]] and [[spoiler: she ended up helping him.]]

* The Other King in ''Literature/{{Unsong}}'' is actively trying to commit so many atrocities that he can't possibly be denied entrance into Hell when he dies. The reason why he's worried about being denied damnation is that [[spoiler: one, he's trying to balance out a truly epic number of good deeds and virtuous actions performed back when he was still [[TheMessiah the Comet King]], and two, [[{{Satan}} Thamiel]] will take every excuse to bar his way into Hell since he knows perfectly well that if the Other King were to fully enter Hell he'd proceed to destroy the place.]]
* WebVideo/SailorMoonAbridged plays this for laughs with Sailor Mars, to the point that when [[KillEmAll The Scouts die in Episode 40]], the others are dragged there with her, even [[TokenGoodTeammate Amy]].

* An interesting take in the {{Creepypasta}} "[[https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/How_to_Survive_in_Hell How To Survive In Hell]]". The protagonist tells about the legend of someone in Hell known simply as "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Slaughter Man]]", rumored to be a particularly brutal Viking [[TheBerserker berserker]]. It's not so much that he ''wanted'' to go to Hell, but rather he thinks he's somewhere else entirely.

* Parodied in the Website/{{Newgrounds}} cartoon "The Grim Reaper Show". When the GrimReaper has to judge where to send a Satanist who really wants to join the Devil's infernal legions, he carts him off to Heaven because "you're actually a pretty easygoing kinda guy".

* Parodied in the Website/{{Newgrounds}} cartoon "The Grim Reaper Show". When the GrimReaper has to judge where to send a Satanist who really wants to join the Devil's infernal legions, he cards him off to Heaven because "you're actually a pretty easygoing kinda guy".

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Zodiac}}'' the super-villain Hellhound is a devout believer who derives horrible pleasure from burning others to death with his flame powers, seeing Hell as his vision of Heaven surrounded by an eternity of burning flesh.

Contrast HeavenSeeker. Also contrast ToHellAndBack and DealWithTheDevil. The former is for characters who want to go to hell but want to get out afterwards, while the latter is when the character accepts hell after death in return for getting good things in life but ''not'' having going to hell as a goal in itself, is likely to try to escape from the deal. This in turn can be contrasted with ImGoingToHellForThis. See also DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans, when they decide to just settle for recreating Hell.

* Bjorn Hammerparty from ''VideoGame/HelheimHassle'' is a viking teenager who is a pacifist sick and tired of the viking MartyrdomCulture (Everyone in his village including his family is looking forward to getting killed in battle to go to Valhalla) and after dieing in an accident he looks forward to beeing sent to Helheim before Odin sends him to Valhalla on a technicality (He fell of a cliff by accident and landed on a bear, which counts as a MutualKill fighting the bear) to [[WarriorHeaven fight to the death every day only to come back to life for all eternity]] which is [[HellOfAHeaven not what he wanted his afterlife to be]] so he tries to weasel out of it and get to Helheim.

* WebVideo/SailorMoonAbridged plays this for laughs with Sailor Mars, to the point that when [[KillEmAll The Scouts die in Episode 40]], the others [[GuiltByAssociation are dragged there with her]], even [[TokenGoodTeammate Amy]].

* During Goku's special interaction with Cell in ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'', Goku reveals that he is interested to see what hell is like and even asks Cell to visit it someday. Hilariously, the latter seem to regard it as a miserable, sorrowful place but doesn't divulge any more.

* An interesting take in the Creepypasta [[https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/How_to_Survive_in_Hell How To Survive In Hell]]. The protagonist tells about the legend of someone in Hell known simply as "The Slaughter Man", rumored to be a [[TheBerserker a particularily brutal viking berserker]]. It's not as much as he wanted to go to Hell, but more like he assumed Hell was WarriorHeaven.
--> ''The fleeing slavers heard it as the Slaughter Man tore their tribe apart. Naked, bloody and surrounded by corpses, the Slaughter Man looked up to the storm-wracked sky and bellowed a single word…''
-->'''“Valhalla!”'''

[[folder: Visual Novels]]

* Before he was killed by the [[EvilOverlord Other King]], the Comet King, Jalaketu West from {{Literature/Unsong}} sought to invade Hell so he could destroy it and free every soul trapped there, but failed completely. In order to affect Hell with [[RealityWarper his power]], he had to first be part of it. And as the resident BigGood and TheMessiah, his chances of going to hell when he died were pretty much nil, and he feared even doing evil deeds might not send him there if it was ultimately for the greatest cause possible. [[spoiler:Knowing this, his wife Robin West sold her soul to Hell, forcing Jalaketu to follow. The Comet King might not go to Hell if he did incredible evil for the sake of humanity, but doing incredible evil to rescue his wife is another story. Hell will be destroyed either way. So he became the Other King, killed a body double, and set about becoming an EvilOverlord]].

* The ''Fiendish Codex'' sourcebooks for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons 3.5'' claim that many evil characters make deals with devils on the assumption that, after they die, they'll rocket to the top of Hell's hierarchy. "None ever look at a lemure [the bottom of Hell's food chain] and think that will be their eternity."
** It is said, however, that when bargaining with devils, powerful enough characters can bargain for early or even immediate promotion to higher ranks.
** In the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' setting, devils are allowed to bargain with deceased mortals awaiting judgment in the Fugue Plane due an agreement they have with Kelemvor, the ruler of the place and the god of death. While not allowed to lie to or kidnap the dead souls, they may try to offer souls a bargain in exchange for coming with them, such as wealth for living families on Faerun, vengeance against still-living enemies, or even rapid promotion to stronger forms in the infernal hierarchy. Some mortals who worshipped cruel gods and/or lived lives where they violated their faiths may actually think Hell is better than the fate that awaits them, so while the devils' success rate isn't all ''that'' high, it's enough for them to keep at it.
* Warboss Tuska from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Led a Waaaagh into the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Eye of Terror]], the place where the Warp overlaps with reality, all so they could find a good fight. [[WarriorHeaven They found it all right.]]
** Exactly what [[Literature/SpaceWolf Space Wolves]] Primarch Leman Russ was hoping to find when he left Fenris is anyone's guess, but remember the Wolves are space vikings, and the Warp ''is'' Hell, for all intents and purposes.
* The Chaos Wastes lie at the North and South Poles of the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' world, and is it there that those who serve Chaos make their way to the abodes of the dark gods in the hopes of reaping great rewards (well, only the North- the South Pole is overrun by beastmen, who are thankfully too stupid to figure out how to build boats).
* In ''TabletopGame/InNomine'', many who make a DealWithTheDevil do so with the promise that they'll get preferential treatment when they finally bite it and go to Hell. [[spoiler: Very rarely, their masters even keep their bargain.]]
* Diabolists in ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'' take it as a point of professional pride that they'll be consigned to Hell upon death, whether in the (misplaced) belief that they will be elevated to devils and escape punishment or out of (one-sided) loyalty to their demonic masters; and tend to be quite insulted by the accusation that they'd try to weasel out of their final damnation. It is, of course, inconsequential that a highly specific and situational spell exists to give a damned soul a chance to elude the devil sent to collect it...
* Weirdly zigzagged in ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent''. Demons in this setting are {{fallen angel}}s and the basic assumption is that a given demon wants to find its way to Hell... however, "Hell" is not only seen as [[InfernalParadise a positive place]], but is a highly individual concept; one demon may want to lord over a traditional FireAndBrimstoneHell, but another may just want a quiet, normal life with a human family. The rationale is that Heaven ''is'' Hell in the human sense of the words, as it means being a tool of the alien/malevolent [[MechanicalAbomination God-Machine]] with no free-will of one's own; with this in mind, "Hell", defined as "a complete and total separation from God", becomes a paradise.

* In ''[[Videogame/{{Darkness}} Darkness 2]]'' Jackie [[spoiler:intentionally goes to Hell to save his LoveInterest, Jenny, as [[GreaterScopeVillain The Darkness]] is holding her hostage there. He ends up being trapped there by the Angelus.]]