Satanic Archetype / Live-Action TV

The Beast, also known as The Awakened One, and Rocky.

Examples of Satanic Archetype in live-action television.

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• Arrowverse:
  • Arrow has Damien Darhk. He was a potential candidate for the next Ra's al-Ghul, but was cast out of the League of Assassins along with his League allies, similar to Lucifer and angels sympathetic to him being expelled from Heaven. His light blonde hair brings to mind the meaning of Lucifer's name, "light bringer." He infiltrates Star City under the guise of a benefactor, before using it as a base to try and destroy and remake the world in his image. After experiencing a Rogues' Gallery Transplant to Legends of Tomorrow, he loses most of these features.
  • Black Lightning (2018): If the titular Black Lightning is the show's Jesus-figure, his arch-enemy Tobias Whale is the show's devil stand-in. He was a Freeland politician who was expelled from politics after being exposed for corruption. He's an albino and therefore has Light Is Not Good built into his character. Gambi, who has dealt with Whale in the past, notes that he's exceptionally good at bringing out the worst in people, of which he uses Whale's right-hand woman Syonide and Jefferson's former student Lala as examples. In the show proper, we see it when Whale approaches Khalil, a teenager paralyzed in a shooting Whale ordered, posing as a sympathetic benefactor to try and poison him against Black Lightning. Sadly, it works.
  • The Flash (2014):
    • Savitar, an ancient and extremely powerful speedster that always wears shining armor and uniquely leaves a trail of white lightning whenever he runs. He promises potential followers superhuman powers in exchange for their service, leaving them to torment the people of Central City and Team Flash.. He also turns out to be a Fallen Hero, since he's a potential future self of Barry Allen.
    • This trope is invoked in "The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Part 1." The episode, being a Whole-Plot Reference to The Last Temptation of Christ, places Bloodwork in the role of Satan as a Foil to the Speed Force's Messianic Archetype.
• In the Battlestar Galactica (1978) episode "War of the Gods", the fleet is tempted by the promises of the mysterious "Count Iblis" (an Islamic name for Satan), who turns out to be a fallen angel from Caprican mythology.
• The Boys (2019): Homelander provides a chilling example of this, being Satan crossed with Superman. He's a blonde, charismatic and handsome man who was supposed be a true hero — in other words, an angel — but toxic egotism and the desire to do whatever he wants has turned him into a monster who is incapable of true heroism, only fooling others into thinking he's a pure person while manipulating people to serve his own ends. Season 1 even hints towards this allusion with graffiti of an upside-down cross being framed behind Homelander at one point.
• Buffyverse:
  • Glory from Buffy the Vampire Slayer shares a lot in common with you-know-who; a fallen god exiled to Earth who lives in a lavishly decorated apartment, wears expensive clothes, takes on the form of someone nobody would suspect, and is called "The Beast" despite her followers describing her as a "shining light".
  • The Beast, the highlight from series four of Angel, is the most demonic monster◊ in the whole franchise, and nearly unstoppable since the only thing that can harm him is a dagger made from his own bones. But the Beast being the ultimate evil gets subverted as he's taking orders from Cordelia, who is being controlled by Jasmine, who appears in the world as a beautiful goddess but who also removes the free will from every human, which Angel takes issue with.
  • Wolfram and Hart is the underlying evil and the final villain to beat in Angel, having existed at the dawn of time and having connections to many separate dimensions. Even when apparently being in control of Wolfram and Hart, the Angel gang suffer their greatest losses just getting sucked into the evil business. Even killing all the top staff merely gets the Senior Partners angry, which leads to a seemingly unwinnable battle, but Angel and his friends decide to go out fighting.
  • The First Evil, an incorporeal being who first appears in the Buffy episode "Amends" as well as taking the role of major antagonist in season 7, is ultimately the source of all evil in the Buffyverse.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Master/Missy was always Satanic as well as being the Doctor's childhood friend and counter to all the Doctor's goodness. The Master takes pride in being a megalomaniacal time-travelling killer, and who could forget that devilish beard. Though The Master usually wants to kill/torture The Doctor, they also want the Doctor to give into power and corruption and cannot understand the Doctor's fixation with "mercy". Despite the Master's evilness, the Doctor cannot bring themself to destroy the Master since they have a connection that's lasted thousands upon thousands of years.
  • The Monster of the Week in the two-parter "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" is the Beast, a monstrously large creature with red skin and curved horns, imprisoned within a large chamber deep underground, put there by the so-called "Disciples of the Light". It claims to be the inspiration for all the Devil figures in all of the religions of the universe, and to be older than the universe. However, it clearly does have a liking for messing with people's heads, so it's entirely possible that it's simply a Sufficiently Advanced Eldritch Abomination with a good grasp of psychology. Whatever the case may be, the Beast's attempt to escape its prison is thwarted by the Doctor, and no definitive answer is ever put forward. The Beast's greatest feat is making the Doctor question his own belief and even consider the metaphysical.
  • There is also the Black Guardian, the Anthropomorphic Personification of Chaos, who claims to act in the name of evil, and wants to plunge the Universe into eternal chaos.
  • Swarm in "Doctor Who: Flux" is very much framed as a Satanic figure, having been imprisoned in the distant past for rebelling against the established order, before breaking free. They even talk about reigning in Hell.
    • There's also the Grand Serpent, who was exiled from the world he once ruled and who uses serpentine imagery, plotting to betray Earth to the Sontrans before he is exiled again.
• Verna from The Fall Of The Houseof Usher 2023. If she's not literally the capital-D Devil, then she's at least an extremely close relative. In her case, though, she's very much the 'Satan-as-prosecutor' version of this archetype, a supernatural force who exists to test people's susceptibility to evil through traps and temptations (and exact terrible punishment if they fail those tests). She's not so much malicious as she is responsible for dealing with human malice, and can actually be quite pleased when people prove themselves better than she expects.
• Frasier: Frasier's agent, Bebe Glazer. She'll pull any trick for her clients, including (but not limited to) seducing them, sabotaging the competition, and staging a suicide attempt, all for better contract deals and greater exposure. Niles never fails to draw the comparison to her as a literal devil.
• Game of Thrones: The Night King is this, in contrast to Jon and Dany's Messianic Archetype (s). He rules over a kingdom of what are essentially ice demons, and he either serves or is R'hllorism's equivalent of Satan. As far as we know, the Night King is the ultimate evil of Westeros.
• In Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter serves as a Satanic figure vis-a-vis Will Graham's messianic archetype. Mads Mikkelsen plays Hannibal as if he were Lucifer, a destructive and inhuman being living among humanity. Hannibal tempts, manipulates, deceives, and destroys those around him. He appeals to the worst impulses in his targets (fear in Abigail, guilt in Jack, and ambition in Sutcliffe). He mimics God's power over life and death and arrogantly thinks he understands the Almighty, as suggested by his conversation with Will about how God enjoys killing, and his conversation with the "muralist" about reflecting God's light in his "mural". In several scenes, he's lit with bright light from behind, evoking Lucifer as an angel of light. Finally, in Will's dreams and hallucinations, Hannibal is symbolized by a monstrous horned man.
  Will: Hannibal's not God. Wouldn't have any fun being God. Defying God, that's his idea of a good time. There's nothing he'd love more than to see this roof collapse mid-Mass, choirs singing...he would just love it, and he thinks God would love it, too.
• Kamen Rider:
  • The Great Leader in the original Kamen Rider is a faceless, shapeless being which tempts others to do evil and forfeit their humanities in exchange for greater power, and who ultimately desires to corrupt the human race by remodeling select humans into kaijin and enslaving the rest.
  • Kamen Rider Kuuga: The lord of the Grongi, N-Daguva-Zeba is a man in white whose the sadistic ruler of a race of effectively demons and who plans to corrupt humanity into evil and wicked creatures.
  • Kamen Rider Agito has an interesting take on it. The Big Bad known as the Overlord Theos proves to be the one who created humanity, and the low-level superpowers some people have — Riders like Agito being what you get when that power fully matures — turns out to be the "Seed of Agito" left by Prometh, an El Lord identical to Theos, who wanted to help humanity break free of his superior's control. As a guy with a light-based name who leads humans to rebel against their creator, the Big Good is actually based on the devil!
  • Kamen Rider Gaim gives us an unusual example in DJ Sagara. The show features an extended metaphor for the Book of Genesis, and Sagara has the Animal Motif of the snake. He's also the avatar of Helheim, the Alien Kudzu trying to destroy the world. In spite of this, Sagara/Helheim is never depicted as malicious or evil, but simply a very harsh Secret Test of Character because the power of the Golden Apple is quite literally world-shaping. In fact, at several points in the story he helps out the protagonists (particularly Kouta, to whom he takes a liking), and at the end of the story when Kouta and Mai leave the Earth, he remarks "Though I'm probably the last one who should be saying this, be fruitful and multiply!"
  • Kamen Rider Build: Blood Stalk/Evolto is a Cobra-themed manipulator who offers power to the other villains in exchange for doing his bidding only to screw them over in the end while furthering his own plans to kill everyone by starting The End of the World as We Know It. Also, his primary Fullbottle and first Evolbottle are snake-themed, with red being his main color motif. The ROGUE spinoff even has him be directly compared to Mephistopheles from Faust.
  • Storious of Kamen Rider Saber is a cunning manipulator who makes deals with others, only to inevitably backstab them when they're of no more use. His monster form also resembles a Big Red Devil, being largely red and black with two large horns coming from either side of his head. The comparisons are further amped in his backstory, where it's revealed Storious was once one of five followers of an angelic Miko who was the embodiment of the Wonder World, until he selfishly tried to steal the Great Big Book of Everything for himself and led two others to follow him. Furthermore, when he obtains a Kamen Rider form, it summons six wings behind him during the Transformation Sequence.
• Loki (2021): The Big Bad, He Who Remains. He calls himself a devil, is introduced holding an apple, says that he's seen all and knows all, and tempts a pair of characters, a male and a female, both created from the same source, with a choice to maintain or disrupt the status quo. His Citadel with pointed arches, rose windows and candelabrum looks like a dark gothic church, and on his official poster he has a Background Halo on the purple background.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
  • Morgoth is the Satan analogue of Middle-earth, as a fallen archangel who led a failed rebellion against heaven. Sauron was his right-hand demon. Given Tolkien's strong Catholic faith and his statements that Middle-earth is meant to actually be our own world, but in a lost historical age thousands of years ago, Morgoth is literally meant to be Satan, just appearing in a different version (it's complicated).
  • Sauron becomes the next one by the end of Season 1, after deceiving everyone around him with a handsome and charming human form. Bonus points for having Hellish Pupils and Mordor as his lair.
• The two deity-like figures on the island of Lost, Jacob and the "Man in Black", both share numerous traits with the devil as a way of making it unclear who is good and who is evil:
  • Jacob has blonde hair, likes wine (and uses it as a metaphor for evil "corked" by the island), interferes with the lives of the characters in subtle ways, and is explicitly called "the devil" by the Man in Black, though he was presumably saying this metaphorically to exploit Richard's Catholic faith. He's also played by Mark Pellegrino — Lucifer in Supernatural.
  • The Man in Black is a shapeshifter and manipulator, known for taking the forms of the dead and deceiving mortals. He cannot kill Jacob himself and must use someone else to do it. He takes the form of a giant cloud of black smoke that sometimes looks like a slithering snake. He has been called "evil incarnate" and a personification of hell by various characters.
• Lucifer (2016): Ironically is not Lucifer, the In-Universe Devil himself, but his Evil Twin, Michael, who behaves more like the stereotypical idea of Satan. His motivations are based on sheer sadism brought on by a wounded ego towards his brother, even implying that he planted the idea into Lucifer's head to rebel against God. He is infamous for his lies (making him the "King of Lies"), he corrupts those around him like Amenadiel and Dan into doing genuine harm unlike Lucifer's less damaging Poke the Poodle temptations, his powers are based around causing chaos through fear and doubt; even his scarred face, lop-sided posture, and mangled wing all make it look like he was the one who fell instead of Lucifer, having once been beautiful before being permanently scarred by wickedness.
• Mr Gold/Rumplestiltskin in Once Upon a Time. An immensely powerful being who loves to make deals, he'll make all your dreams come true, for a price. He even looks vaguely demonic- long nose, pointy ears, goatee.
• Person of Interest has Samaritan. A malevolent A.I. that sees itself as God meant to rule mankind, has a near infinte amount of followers (referred to as "Assets") all of which wear black and are more than willing to die on its name, directly opposes The Machine (regarded as a God) and finally, its human avatar is a young boy named Gabriel. The Archangel Gabriel is usually said to be God's herald, the same way Gabriel Hayward acts as a herald to Samaritan, as fitting of its biblical references.
• In Lexx, the planet Fire is a hot, barren world where people can only survive by living in cities built on top of tall pillars that hold them in the slightly-cooler higher altitudes. The planet is ruled by the Affably Evil Prince, and it turns out to be the afterlife for people who make bad decisions in life. Prince himself often claims ignorance of his origins and purpose, but understands that his job is to make sure the people of Fire suffer forever.
• Seigi No Symbol Condorman: King Monster is a Horned Humanoid who resembles a classical depiction of Lucifer and leads an organization of monsters bent on corroding the Earth and wiping out the human race. The only thing zig-zagging this is that he's implied to actually be Satan, particularly at one point when he's shown to have control over Hell.
• Khan in Star Trek: The Original Series. He was genetically engineered by ambitious scientists to improve the species, and instead became a tyrant (but a more benevolent one than his buds). His exile at the end of "Space Seed" draws a parallel to Lucifer in Paradise Lost. And he opens up Star Trek Into Darkness by making a very Faustian little deal with a desperate archivist to further his own goals.
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Devil's Due", an alien claims to be the devil-figure from any number of mythologies (including Klingon) and "proves" it by taking their forms.
• Stranger Things Season 4 has Vecna aka Henry Creel, who masterfully checks all the boxes for this. He's an inhuman sociopath that seeks out tormented souls and plays on their anxieties and guilt, before killing them and taking their minds/souls to live with him in his hellish domain. He commands an army of monsters and a legion of bats creatures in particular (in the Bible bats are the messengers of Satan), his first victim in the show is someone called Chrissy which can be short for Christina/Christine (strongly related to Christianity in Latin) and even gets wreathed in fire courtesy of Steve and Robin. Henry's backstory in the Hawkins lab and the events that turned him into Vecna only cement this, as he appears as a seemingly kind white-clad handsome orderly to Eleven yet subtly manipulates her into bringing him back to full power, using the gratitude she feels in him helping her escape to get her to remove the Power Limiter from his neck. Henry in this grand spirit of this, even tries to lure Eleven into temptation offering a We Can Rule Together, though she refuses and casts him down to "Hell" aka the Upside Down and just like Lucifer Henry is burned in the descent turning into a demon-like being.
• Super Sentai:
  • Choujuu Sentai Liveman: Great Professor Bias is a charismatic and manipulative cult leader who, at the start of the series, corrupts three of the Livemen's classmates into becoming his followers and guides them throughout the series to sacrifice more and more of their humanity. He claims to want to create a utopia ruled by the most intelligent in society, but his true goal is eventually revealed to be to sacrifice his followers to keep himself perpetually immortal and to Mind Control everyone on Earth into forever worshipping him.
  • In Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, Witch Bandora's true master is named Dai (Great) Satan and is the source of her powers through a pact she made with him. He looks nothing like the usual depiction of the Judeo-Christian devil, being a floating blue head who yells a lot, and is more of just an evil spirit that just happens to be named "Satan" (as opposed to being the "actual" Satan).
  • In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, Our Angels Are Different, but Burajira of the Messiah is a fallen Gosei Angel and the manipulator behind the series' events. At one point, when Gosei Knight is being mind-controlled by him and Alata (Gosei Red) is trying to talk him down, we get each over his shoulder, Good Angel, Bad Angel style.
• Titans (2018): Trigon is a red devil from a world of fire and brimstone that dupes mortals into working for him.
• The Twilight Zone (1959):
  • The aliens from "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" are, when it all comes down, non-human beings who deliberately encourage the worst in others with the goal of said others' destruction.
  • Several episodes involving deals with the devil:
    • Cadwallader in "Escape Clause".
    • Mr. Smith in "Printer's Devil".
    • Miss Devlin in "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville".
• Ultraman Belial of the Ultra Series, a being of light cast from his home for his insatiably arrogant hunger for absolute power (which he eventually got when he merged with the Reiblood alien) to the point where he tried to steal the life source of M78. He was successfully imprisoned after an assault on the Land of Light with an army of monsters and aliens, but was eventually freed and now seeks to take over the Land of Light and destroy his good counterparts once and for all.
  • Alien Mefilas from Ultraman. Named after the devil Mephistopheles, he tried to convince Satoru to hand over the Earth to him, in a parallel of the Devil himself trying to tempt Jesus.
• Gorog, the Big Bad in Wizards of Waverly Place is the leader of the Angels of Darkness. It's not clear if he is The Devil, a high ranking minion of his, or simply an Expy. He does show some traits of the Biblical Satan, such as trying to tempt the main characters into joining him. It also appears his minion base is made up of people he tempted and fallen angels.

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