History Main / HellHasNewManagement

** ''VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2'': For a hat trick, should Laharl's group lose to Sicily in the second chapter, she ends up taking over as Overlord of the Netherworld. Her being an angel aside, it takes little time for her to be quickly accepted as a near UniversallyBelovedLeader. And in Chapter 3, if Laharl's group loses to Barbara, the Krichevskoy Group's champion, she becomes the Overlord, but since Barbara was conditioned for her entire life to follow others' orders, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she has a harshly unsuccessful reign]], causing the throne to be open once more.

** In ''{{VideoGame/Disgaea 2|CursedMemories}}'' it's revealed that the "God of Demon Overlords'' got so powerful from killing hundreds of other Demon Overlords that she started becoming an EldritchAbomination. To escape this fate, she gave herself EasyAmnesia and reincarnated herself.
** Happens in ''{{VideoGame/Disgaea 3|AbsenceOfJustice}}'' if You kill the final boss with just human Almaz alone, he becomes an Overlord, in style much like Prier. The Final Boss himself is an "Evil God" due to being a Hero who killed countless Overlords.
** Also occurs in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 4|APromiseUnforgotten}}'' if you lose to Fuka during your battle with her. She decides to take over the Netherworld before she takes over the human world, and enlists the defeated Valvatorez and Fenrich as her servants in the process.
** For a hat trick, in ''VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2'', should Laharl's group lose to Sicily in the second chapter, she ends up taking over as Overlord of the Netherworld. Her being an angel aside, it takes little time for her to be quickly accepted as a near UniversallyBelovedLeader. And in Chapter 3, if Laharl's group loses to Barbara, the Krichevskoy Group's champion, she becomes the Overlord, but since Barbara was conditioned for her entire life to follow others' orders, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she has a harshly unsuccessful reign]], causing the throne to be open once more.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' expansion pack Shivering Isles - The Daedric Prince of Madness Sheogorath is testing mortals to find one worthy of [[FaustianRebellion granting his godhood]] to. Their job will be to defend his dimension of depravity and despair from destruction by [[spoiler: his true [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood non-mad]] (but even eviler) personality which asserts itself at the end of every era.]]
* ''VideoGame/EscapeFromHell'' includes Adolf Hitler scheming to overthrow Satan and take over Hell.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', killing the Emperor the first time backfires because he takes over Hell and returns to Earth, raising Hell's capital from the earth to serve as his new base. In the remakes, it turns out this is the "evil side" of his soul doing the work - the "good side" ascends to Heaven and takes over that, too. The novelization even depicts the Emperor meeting {{Satan}} after he dies, who is about to take his soul - so the Emperor kills him.

* If ''VideoGame/KrisisReinaDeArgenzuela'' falls into one of the BottomlessPits, she will go directly to Hell. She will be put in charge, and after a while, Hell will run out of fire, no tridents will make it pass the customs, and there will be high taxes for horns.

* ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'': The backstory of Seedle, the Overlord of the Underworld, is that he was once a samurai who got lost down there - and ended up taking over the place. [[spoiler:Actually, he was killed by a woman he was about to rape, but he still took over. Said woman was burned at the stake for killing a "hero" but she also took over her own Netherworld after her death.]]

* Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'': [[TheDreaded So feared]] is one former [[TheEmperor Dread Empress]] that if ever her name is mentioned, every [[TheEmpire Praesi]] character present immediately prays to the [[ReligionOfEvil Gods Below]] to ensure that she never comes back to Creation. When she died, half her Legions of Terror went down with her, and it's widely held that she may have tried to conquer Hell when they all ended up there. Such is the cultural memory of [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Dread Empress Triumphant]] [[note]][[superscript:May She Never Return]][[/note]].

* ''Film/PressStart'': [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/471343 This]] episode has Count Vile rather humorously beating Satan in a duel (via slipping on a banana peel and getting a ring out) and claimed his right to rule Hell.

* ''Creator/DCComics''

** There was a DC miniseries called ''Human Defence Corps'' about a bumbling everyman in a military group who deals with JLA-style emergencies. Their first adventure is against vampires (nebbish everyman takes one for the team). Their last adventure involved going to Hell, taking down the Devil, then using the now-vampiric bumbler to institute a ''regime change''.

** ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'':
*** In ''Preludes and Nocturnes'', when Dream is freed after a human lifetime of imprisonment, he finds that his helmet is in the hands of a demon and journeys to Hell to retrieve it. Several demons tell him that much has changed since he was gone, but he doesn't believe them until meeting Lucifer, who reveals that he has been demoted of sorts: He is no longer sole ruler of Hell, sharing power with his co-rulers Baalzebub and Azazel.
*** ''Season of Mists'' revolves around Lucifer deciding ToHellWithThisInfernalJob, banishing the demons and the damned, sealing the place up, and giving the key to Dream. After Dream has received a variety of offers from others eager to claim the place, it's taken out of his hands: {{God}} assigns two of his angels to run Hell, because SomeoneHasToDoIt.
* ''ComicBook/LadyDeath'' was originally a mortal woman named Hope who made a bargain with a demon to renounce her humanity and serve Hell if the demon rescued her from death. Arriving in Hell, she discovered a civil war was raging. Lady Death led an uprising against the Lords of Hell. During the final battle, Lucifer cursed her never to return to Earth while the living walked. Lady Death swore an oath that she would circumvent Lucifer's curse by exterminating all life on Earth. Lady Death finally ended Lucifer's control over her by casting him through Heaven's Gate (a place where evil cannot go), and in doing so became the new ruler of Hell.
** In the spinoff ''ComicBook/{{Purgatori}}'', a blood-clone of Purgatori tried to convince the demon Cremator to seize the throne from Lucifer Morningstar with a specially-designed demon-destroying blade, planning to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness dispose of him afterwards]]. This met with partial success since Lucifer was left as a shadow of his former self, but then the real Purgatori shows up in Hell to kill Cremator and absorb her clone. It becomes a subversion since Purgatori decides not to take Lucifer's throne for herself and instead leave him in charge but is unable to defend himself from any future runner-up.
* ''Creator/MarvelComics''
* During the 2011 ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'' series, it was revealed that between his appearance in the "ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} in Hell" arc and his return during ''ComicBook/FearItself'', Puck overthrew Ba'al and took his seat, only leaving to save his teammates.
* As of the ''Comicbook/CaptainBritainAndMI13 Annual'', [[BewareTheNiceOnes Meggan. She led a band of rebels and then helped forge them into a new country]] in order to [[HopeBringer spread hope in Hell.]]
** ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'': When ComicBook/DoctorDoom was dragged down to Hell, Reed Richards undertook an elaborate plan to pull him back out before he took the place over, which he estimated would have taken a matter of ''weeks''.
** ''Comicbook/GhostRider'': Nobel Kale takes over Hell after slaying Mephisto and Blackheart, then sends Dan Ketch back to Earth, releasing him from his duties as Ghost Rider.

* Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil: [[TheDreaded So feared]] is one former [[TheEmperor Dread Empress]] that if ever her name is mentioned, every [[TheEmpire Praesi]] character present immediately prays to the [[ReligionOfEvil Gods Below]] to ensure that she never comes back to Creation. When she died, half her Legions of Terror went down with her, and it's widely held that she may have tried to conquer Hell when they all ended up there. Such is the cultural memory of [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Dread Empress Triumphant]] [[note]][[superscript:May She Never Return]][[/note]].

* Music/TomSmith's "Sheep Marketing Ploy" is a song pitching a series of horror movies named ''Death Sheep'' following Fenton, a sheep who takes over Hell after being pulled down there by Lucifer.
* A lyric in the Music/{{Manowar}} song "The Power":
-->''The power in the darkness to see without my sight\\
Walk among the living, free of wrong or right\\
The power of the magic, the power of the spell\\
Not to serve in Heaven, but one day rule in Hell''
* Steve Earle's "The Unrepentant" ends like this.

* Some versions of "Music/StaggerLee" end up with Stag killing or defeating the Devil and becoming the ruler of Hell.

* In ''VideoGame/LaPucelle: Tactics'', Prier can become a Demon Overlord if she goes too far deep into the Netherworld and kills the present one. She appears as such in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series as an OptionalBoss. This is apparently based on a legend in Japanese mythology where one will become a youkai (demon) if they "bathe in the blood of 1000 youkai."
* ''Lucifer's Realm'', an old InteractiveFiction game puts the player in the role of a newly damned soul who is tasked with helping Old Nick take down a junta of historical figures headed by Adolph Hitler that is trying to overthrow him in exchange for a shot at redemption.

* ''Literature/DeathsMaster'': The Queen of Hell (or "Innerearth") was a human queen, Narasen, who owed Death a thousand years of servitude. However, she was too much of a queen to act as anyone's servant, and Uhlume, lord of Death, instead abdicated much of his role to her. He decided he liked roaming the Earth, but the inhabitants of Hell want him to come back and relieve them of Narasen's harsh rule.

* The short story ''Literature/Unferno'' by George Alec Effinger features a protagonist who arrives in Hell after his death to find it empty, the fallen angels having repented and returned to Heaven, and over time realizes he has the power to control the place. By the end, [[spoiler: he rejects an offer to go to Heaven and consciously takes his place as the new ruler of Hell.]]

* In the Series/{{Arrowverse}}, Astra Logue was DraggedOffToHell as a young child. However, she was fortunate enough to be taken in by one of Hell's less demonic denizens, and grew up to be a low-level employee in Hell's hierarchy. That beat eternal torture by a longshot, but Astra decided to dream big. After the demon Neron overthrew Hell's ruling Triumvirate, and was then killed by the Legends of Tomorrow, Astra used the chaos to raid Neron's vault, seizing some of the most valuable souls in Hell, which she used to install herself in the power vacuum left behind.
* Attempted on ''Series/Lucifer2016''. After Lucifer quit, he left hell with no management whatsoever. The demons needed someone to be in charge, but since only an angel could sit on the throne of hell and none of the angels were remotely interested, there were no options. Until the demons found out that Amenadiel had a half-human son. The demons plotted to kidnap the child to raise him to be the new king of hell.

--> '''Peg''': Am I dead? Is this hell?
--> '''Al''': If this were hell, you'd be on a throne and the devil would be packing.
* ''Series/{{Preacher 2016}}'': The end of Season 3 saw The Saint of Killers blow Satan's brains out. Adolf Hitler, a resident of Hell, seizes the opportunity to take over.

** In ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', Piccolo died but is later seen in Hell, bringing order to the endless chaos and protecting Hell's leaders, becoming more of an authority figure than they ever were.

* In ''VideoGame/LaPucelle: Tactics'', Prier can become a Demon Overlord if she goes too far deep into the Netherworld and kills the present one. She appears as such in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series as a BonusBoss. This is apparently based on a legend in Japanese mythology where one will become a youkai (demon) if they "bathe in the blood of 1000 youkai."

** For a hat trick, in ''VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2'', should Laharl's group lose to Sicily in the second chapter, she ends up taking over as Overlord of the Netherworld. Her being an angel aside, it takes little time for her to be quickly accepted and achieve a near HundredPercentAdorationRating. And in Chapter 3, if Laharl's group loses to Barbara, the Krichevskoy Group's champion, she becomes the Overlord, but since Barbara was conditioned for her entire life to follow others' orders, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she has a harshly unsuccessful reign]], causing the throne to be open once more.

** Noob Saibot has this as his Arkade Ending in ''{{VideoGame/Mortal Kombat|9}}'' (no, [[NamesTheSame the OTHER one]]) - with his powers boosted by Quan Chi in order to assassinate Shao Kahn, he is able to break free of Quan Chi's control and make a secret deal with the rival Realm of Chaos. After the Realm of Chaos severely weakens the Netherworld in a surprise attack, Noob Saibot seizes control and becomes the new King of Hell.

* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': After dying, Shishio Makoto declared his intent to overthrow the King of Hell. Depending on how you interpret it, Shishio may or may not have succeeded in this endeavor when he visits the catatonic Kenshin in the latter's living hell during the Jinchuu arc.

* ''Comicbook/GhostRider'': Nobel Kale takes over Hell after slaying Mephisto and Blackheart, then sends Dan Ketch back to Earth, releasing him from his duties as Ghost Rider.
* ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'': When ComicBook/DoctorDoom was dragged down to Hell, Reed Richards undertook an elaborate plan to pull him back out before he took the place over, which he estimated would have taken a matter of ''weeks''.
* There was a DC miniseries called ''Human Defence Corps'' about a bumbling everyman in a military group who deals with JLA-style emergencies. Their first adventure is against vampires (nebbish everyman takes one for the team). Their last adventure involved going to Hell, taking down the Devil, then using the now-vampiric bumbler to institute a ''regime change''.
* As of the ''Comicbook/CaptainBritainAndMI13 Annual'', [[BewareTheNiceOnes Meggan. She led a band of rebels and then helped forge them into a new country]] in order to [[HopeBringer spread hope in Hell.]]

* In the spinoff ''ComicBook/{{Purgatori}}'', a blood-clone of Purgatori tried to convince the demon Cremator to seize the throne from Lucifer Morningstar with a specially-designed demon-destroying blade, planning to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness dispose of him afterwards]]. This met with partial success since Lucifer was left as a shadow of his former self, but then the real Purgatori shows up in Hell to kill Cremator and absorb her clone. It becomes a subversion since Purgatori decides not to take Lucifer's throne for herself and instead leave him in charge but is unable to defend himself from any future runner-up.
* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'':
** In ''Preludes and Nocturnes'', when Dream is freed after a human lifetime of imprisonment, he finds that his helmet is in the hands of a demon and journeys to Hell to retrieve it. Several demons tell him that much has changed since he was gone, but he doesn't believe them until meeting Lucifer, who reveals that he has been demoted of sorts: He is no longer sole ruler of Hell, sharing power with his co-rulers Baalzebub and Azazel.
** ''Season of Mists'' revolves around Lucifer deciding ToHellWithThisInfernalJob, banishing the demons and the damned, sealing the place up, and giving the key to Dream. After Dream has received a variety of offers from others eager to claim the place, it's taken out of his hands: {{God}} assigns two of his angels to run Hell, because SomeoneHasToDoIt.
* ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'': Christopher Rudd manages to go from damned soul to sex-toy for the nobility of Hell into one of the nobility himself and eventually ruler of Hell. Then he reforged the damned souls and the demons into an army to storm heaven. And won.

* The Italian superhero parody comic ''[[http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/n/nonameitaly.htm No Name]]'' inexplicably ends its fourth and final issue with its usually goofy and ineffective "hero" opening a portal to Hell, then going against the Devil, killing him and taking his place as the new ruler. It's implied that he did this out of grief for losing his fiance (who literally left him alone, she didn't die!), but it counts as both OutOfCharacterMoment and GainaxEnding.
* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' strip ''Bec And Kawl'' had this occur. Kawl's uncle Nick is, in fact, Satan. He ends up indisposed while [[spoiler: UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher takes over Hell with the intent to ''privatise'' it.]]
* During the 2011 ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'' series, it was revealed that between his appearance in the "ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} in Hell" arc and his return during ''ComicBook/FearItself'', Puck overthrew Ba'al and took his seat, only leaving to save his teammates.
* Napoleon manages to take over in ''ComicBook/BillAndTedGoToHell'' but moves onto invading Heaven before being stopped by the duo.
* ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'': This has occasionally been a back pocket threat of John Constantine. In one instance, he even got ''God Almighty'' to grant him and his friends a measure of protection by promising that, if his soul were to fall into the hands of Hell, he would likely eventually take over and turns his eyes straight towards Heaven.
* ''ComicBook/TheChroniclesOfWormwood'' has the first miniseries end with Satan being sent away along with God. The void left by the Devil is eventually filled in the concluding ''Last Battle'' miniseries when Pope Jacko goes to Hell and becomes the new lord of the infernal realm.

* In the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' fanfics by [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/614754/QuinlanofRedwall Quinlan of Redwall]], the first BigBad, Hardin, is dead by the end of the first story. Then, in the latest, we find out he overthrew Vulpuz as the Lord of Hellgates.

* A number of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' fics involving the PeggySue concept mention this trope during the pre-time travel part of the story as a reason not to send Lelouch vi Britannia to Hell and instead back in time (though fanfics are divided if he actually would go to Hell or Heaven after the events of the series, if Heaven would accept him, nor as to how the afterlife even works in the CG verse) The movie continuity differs in this however as any fear of the continued employment of the Devil is unwarranted as Lelouch got resurrected before he could take over hell.
* In ''FanFic/PleaseStopEatingTheHellButterflies'', it's revealed that Urahara conquered hell [[ItAmusedMe because he was bored]]. Yamamoto was ''not'' happy.
* ''FanFic/EscapeFromTheMoon'': In the sequel ''The Mare From the Moon'', the Royal Sisters don’t want to banish Spliced to Tartarus; this is one of the reasons, as they fear her researching the creatures there, and the nature of Tartarus itself, turning them to her own benefit and making her even more dangerous.

* In Creator/TanithLee's ''Literature/DeathsMaster'', the Queen of Hell (or "Innerearth") was a human queen, Narasen, who owed Death a thousand years of servitude. However, she was too much of a queen to act as anyone's servant, and Uhlume, lord of Death, instead abdicated much of his role to her. He decided he liked roaming the Earth, but the inhabitants of Hell want him to come back and relieve them of Narasen's harsh rule.

* In ''Literature/DarkHeart'' this is the backstory of the evil god Vraxor. He was originally a demon created to torment the inhabitants of Hell, but organized a revolt and took over.

* For most of Piers Anthony's ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' series, it's implied or outright stated that God and Satan are truly eternal beings unlike the Incarnations themselves (who are just the current officeholders of positions in a sort of Cosmic Bureaucracy). The sixth book ''For Love of Evil'' reveals that this isn't true; the Satan depicted in the previous books has held the office for several hundred years, but is still a newcomer compared to the current God (who has been around for about two millennia). To ensure competence, the new holder of the office has to prove himself by forcing the previous incumbent to agree to serve him, or the previous incumbent can re-take the position. There are a couple of management changes in the book (including both successful and failed examples).
* ''Resurrections'' from the ''Rhapsody of Blood'' UrbanFantasy series by Roz Kaveney (the point where the series arguably stops being UrbanFantasy and moves up to a bigger scale) has the hero go to Hell in order to rescue her girlfriend, who is being held hostage by Lucifer, and semi-accidentally end up leading a rebellion of the damned and reforming Hell into something much more benevolent.
* Terry Pratchett’s ''{{Literature/Eric}}'' revolves around this, ultimately inverted when the original demons marginalise the moderniser Astfgl in a meaningless desk job with an impressive-sounding title, but no real power or responsibility.
* Over the course of ''{{Literature/Damned}}'', Madison slowly works her way up the demonic ranks, beating the tar out of the likes of Hitler and Napoleon, to improve her station in the underworld. Satan himself watches this unfold from a distance, since he is grooming her to help him usher in his coming war with heaven.

* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': Xena defeated the previous ruler of Hell, Mephistopheles, and learned that as a result, she either had to rule Hell or let all of the demons loose on Earth. She decided to TakeAThirdOption and corrupted Lucifer and had him take her place. Her justification was that his HolierThanThou act was hypocritical anyways.

* The end of ''Series/{{Preacher 2016}}'' Season 3 saw The Saint of Killers blow Satan's brains out. Adolf Hitler, a resident of Hell, seizes the opportunity to take over.
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': Invoked when Peg woke up from an accident with amnesia.
--> '''Peg''': Am I dead? Is this hell?
--> '''Al''': If this were hell, you'd be on a throne and the devil would be packing.
* In the Series/{{Arrowverse}}, Astra Logue was DraggedOffToHell as a young child. However, she was fortunate enough to be taken in by one of Hell's less demonic denizens, and grew up to be a low-level employee in Hell's hierarchy. That beat eternal torture by a longshot, but Astra decided to dream big. After the demon Neron overthrew Hell's ruling Triumvirate, and was then killed by the Legends of Tomorrow, Astra used the chaos to raid Neron's vault, seizing some of the most valuable souls in Hell, which she used to install herself in the power vacuum left behind.
* Attempted on ''Series/Lucifer2016''. After Lucifer quit, he left hell with no management whatsoever. The demons needed someone to be in charge, but since only an angel could sit on the throne of hell and none of the angels were remotely interested, there were no options. Until the demons found out that Amenadiel had a half-human son. The demons plotted to kidnap the child to raise him to be the new king of hell.

* In the ''Examtaker'' DLC for ''VideoGame/{{Helltaker}}'', Lucifer has been usurped by a demon called Loremaster, who has turned Hell into [[ForScience one gigantic experiment to study sin in all its depths]], even turning Lucifer into a maid forced to serve Loremaster's whims. [[spoiler:Dialogue eventually reveals that Loremaster is Azazel, the FallenAngel who fell after Lucy encouraged Azazel to give into her curiosity about demonkind. So Lucy wanted Azazel to fall, and she did... [[GoneHorriblyRight but she fell a little too hard]].]]
* In ''VideoGame/LaPucelle: Tactics'', Prier can become a Demon Overlord if she goes too far deep into the Netherworld and kills the present one. She appears as such in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series as a BonusBoss. This is apparently based on a legend in Japanese mythology where one will become a youkai (demon) if they "bathe in the blood of 1000 youkai."
* ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'': The backstory of Seedle, the Overlord of the Underworld, is that he was once a samurai who got lost down there - and ended up taking over the place. [[spoiler:Actually, he was killed by a woman he was about to rape, but he still took over. Said woman was burned at the stake for killing a "hero" but she also took over her own Netherworld after her death.]]
* In ''{{VideoGame/Disgaea 2|CursedMemories}}'' it's revealed that the "God of Demon Overlords'' got so powerful from killing hundreds of other Demon Overlords that she started becoming an EldritchAbomination. To escape this fate, she gave herself EasyAmnesia and reincarnated herself.
* Happens in ''{{VideoGame/Disgaea 3|AbsenceOfJustice}}'' if You kill the final boss with just human Almaz alone, he becomes an Overlord, in style much like Prier. The Final Boss himself is an "Evil God" due to being a Hero who killed countless Overlords.
* Also occurs in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 4|APromiseUnforgotten}}'' if you lose to Fuka during your battle with her. She decides to take over the Netherworld before she takes over the human world, and enlists the defeated Valvatorez and Fenrich as her servants in the process.
* For a hat trick, in ''VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2'', should Laharl's group lose to Sicily in the second chapter, she ends up taking over as Overlord of the Netherworld. Her being an angel aside, it takes little time for her to be quickly accepted and achieve a near HundredPercentAdorationRating. And in Chapter 3, if Laharl's group loses to Barbara, the Krichevskoy Group's champion, she becomes the Overlord, but since Barbara was conditioned for her entire life to follow others' orders, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she has a harshly unsuccessful reign]], causing the throne to be open once more.

* In the expansion for ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'', the protagonist can use [[BigBad Mephistopheles]]' TrueName to force him into slavery and take over the devil lord's Hell dimension him/herself. Alternately, they can choose to rule together, though in that case the epilogue implies Mephistopheles betrays them. Either way, you'd still be subject to ''the'' Lord of Hell, Asmodeus[[note]]Mephistopheles is the lord of a single layer of Hell, while Asmodeus is the lord of the lowest layer of Hell and overlord of Hell as a whole -- part of the reason for Mephistopheles' scheme in the game was to gain the power to usurp Asmodeus[[/note]].

* In ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'', Nobunaga claims to have taken over when he returns to the mortal realm in the third game. In this case it's questionable whether DemonKingNobunaga was truly human to begin with, even the first time around.
* ''VideoGame/BloodRayne'': the backstory says that Satan became the ruler of Hell by usurping the throne from the game's villain Belial.
* ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'': The dream match of the series (Tenkaichi Kenkyakuden) pits you for a final stage against a Demon-possessed Gaoh, who has apparently taken over Hell by abusing his demonic power. The first picture that greets you before fighting him is him ''stomping the head of Lucifer''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'': The protagonist of the original becomes the Dark Wanderer in the sequel after losing his battle of wills to contain the evil by embedding Diablo's soulstone in his forehead, eventually being entirely possessed and mutating into Diablo Himself. Something very similar happened with Tal-Rasha and the Lord of Destruction, Baal.
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': When the [[TheLegionsOfHell Hidden Fun Stuff]] gets unleashed, it usually spells the end of a fortress. However, some fortresses not only beat back the demons, but take the next step and launch a full-scale invasion of Hell and take the place over, such as what happened in {{LetsPlay/Waterburned}}, the succession game hosted on [[Website/TVTropes This Very Wiki]].
* In ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'', after Odette is slain by Gwendolyn and Armageddon begins the Halja release King Gallon and pledge themselves to his service since Odette's death has left them bereft of a master and Gallon is the most powerful being in the underworld. Gallon leads the armies of the dead in an omnicidal campaign against the living, fulfilling his role in Armageddon as one of the Five Disasters.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' expansion pack Shivering Isles - The Daedric Prince of Madness Sheogorath is testing mortals to find one worthy of [[FaustianRebellion granting his godhood]] to. Their job will be to defend his dimension of depravity and despair from destruction by [[spoiler: his true [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood non-mad]] (but even evilier) personality which asserts itself at the end of every era.]]

* If ''VideoGame/KrisisReinaDeArgenzuela'' falls into one of the BottomlessPits, she will go directly to Hell. She will be put in charge, and after a while, Hell will run out of fire, no tridents will make it pass the customs, and there will be high taxes for horns.

* ''Lucifer's Realm'', an old InteractiveFiction game puts the player in the role of a newly damned soul who is tasked with helping Old Nick take down a junta of historical figures headed by Adolph Hitler that is trying to overthrow him in exchange for a shot at redemption.

* ''Webcomic/HeadTrip'': This happens in [[OhCrapThereAreFanficsOfUs a fanfic Mal reads]] in wherein Mal falls in love with the Devil Guy and attacks Satan so they can be together.

* ''Webcomic/TheKarnakHatesEverythingShow'': The titular character is the ruler of Hell, having taken that title from the previous ruler, Ohmdalar. In one plotline, a mysterious portal forms, confusing the hell out of the cast until Ohmdalar comes ripping through and takes the place back, banishing Karnak to the void. In a double example, Karnak eventually comes back through the same portal, then proceeds to instantly reclaim power using the unstoppable force of a legal document.

* ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'': This is humanity's stated goal in the first novel and they don't plan on [[RageAgainstTheHeavens calling it a day after that, either.]]

* ''WebVideo/HitlerRants'': Some Downfall parodies feature Hitler winding up in Hell, and it's usually implied that he's now running the place.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': There's an episode where the three main characters have {{Acid Reflux Nightmare}}s from eating moldy pizza. Billy and even [[TheGrimReaper Grim]] are both terrorized by their dreams, but in Mandy's dream, she actually takes over Hell and becomes the Lord of Darkness.
* ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'' has Hecate, a demigoddess who stole Hades' power and set herself up as the new head of the Underworld. Unlike Hades, she has a plan to improve the Underworld...by actively killing the living. It takes a lot of persuasion for Hercules to help Pain and Panic get rid of her and save Hades' unlife, but he eventually does it.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}'': At the start of season 4, Bean manages to trick her mother Dagmar into marrying Satan. Dagmar quickly proceeds to make Satan a HenpeckedHusband and becomes queen of Hell.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017''. [[spoiler:After returning from the dead, Dracula's wife Lisa jokes that she expected him to dethrone Satan after he died, rather than seeking her out like he did.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Lisa:''']] [[spoiler:I assumed you had other options. Shouting at Satan until he admitted he was just keeping the chair warm for you.]]

* The Italian superhero parody comic ''[[http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/n/nonameitaly.htm No Name]]'' inexplicably ends its fourth and final issue with its usually goofy and ineffective "hero" opening a portal to Hell, then going against the Devil, killing him and taking his place as the new ruler. It's implied that he did this out of grief for losing his fiancé (who literally left him alone, she didn't die!), but it counts as both OutOfCharacterMoment and GainaxEnding.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': When the [[TheLegionsOfHell Hidden Fun Stuff]] gets unleashed, it usually spells the end of a fortress. However, some fortresses not only beat back the demons, but take the next step and launch a full-scale invasion of Hell and take the place over, such as what happened in {{LetsPlay/Waterburned}}, the succession game hosted on [[Wiki/TVTropes This Very Wiki]].

* ''Lucifer's Realm'', an old InteractiveFiction game puts the player in the role of a newly damned soul who is tasked with helping Old Nick take down a junta of historical figures headed by Adolph Hitler that has overthrown him in exchange for a shot at redemption.