Death

"*♫I needn't no introduction, I'm Death!
The Grim Reaper, the Taker of So-o-o-ouls!
I'll revive your soul, just to kill you again
Men, women, and children, you name it!
God, I love being me!♫*"
— Death introducing himself upon arriving to the Hazbin Hotel.

**Death** is a recurring protagonist in *Hazbin Hotel: Journey to the Light*.

He is an extremely powerful death god, the personification of death itself, and the ruler of the Underworld, serving as the king of his undead victims. He is a smooth-talking, flamboyant, yet immensely sadistic death god who traverses the Universe in search of souls to reap, and regularly causes widespread destruction and death on Earth from his dimension in the Underworld. Throughout the series, he appears sporadically to taunt and bother the Happy Hotel crew, often serving an unintentional ally for them.

## Appearance

Death appears as a slim, skeletal being with his skull engulfed in turquoise-colored flames. He has a grey, cow-like skull that floats above his body, and sports two long, deer-like horns that also slightly float above his skull. His skull is split open, exposing what appears to be his brain. His hands are black, skeletal, and separated at the digits.

Death primarily wears a long, grey apothecary robe with white cuffs, and a black bowtie. He is capable of spawning a long, black scythe at will, which he considers his favorite tool for taking souls.

## Personality

"*Sorry, boys. Princess Charlotte doesn't want to accept my proposition. It's out of my hands. But don't worry, people die every second. I've got plenty more souls lined up! You're not leaving anytime soon. (his slaves begin crying) Quit your crying! My penis can only get so erect!*"
— Death to his undead slaves/victims.

As the Grim Reaper, Death is manipulative, eccentric, sarcastic, and sadistic to a cartoonish degree. He proudly admits to being a cruel and conniving monster, and never fails to brag about how unashamedly vile he is. He takes great pride and gratification in his villainous acts, cruelly abusing and mocking his undead slaves, and enjoys bragging about the deaths of those who have died by his hand. He is evil purely for the fun he derives from destroying the lives of others, and shows perverted joy at seeing others in pain. One of his favorite pastimes is bringing his victims back to life, giving them hope that they will have another chance to live and see their loved ones again, only to murder them once more, and then subject them to a life of eternal slavery. He contemptuously admits to reveling in the suffering, sadness, and deaths of men, women, and children, and is responsible for many worldwide atrocities on Earth, manifesting many series of events that lead to massive causalities. As seen in his Sinstagram posts, he enjoys watching these catastrophes using a flat-screen TV in his home, treating his own atrocities almost like a sports game. Overall, the Grim Reaper has no real redeeming qualities to speak of, and is completely evil through and through, thoroughly getting a kick out of being the vilest entity he can be.

While manipulating others, Death is unflappably calm, keeping up the image of a persuasive and confident, sassy, condescending bargainer along the lines of a sleazy car salesman. During his very brief stay at the Hazbin Hotel, he was capable of behaving almost friendly to the hotel crew, making his slaves keep the hotel clean, and hosting drinking games with Husk. However, this was revealed to be a ploy to get others to fall in line with his devious intentions, which usually involves taking more souls. He is also demonstrated to be quite sinister and intimidating, as he enjoys scaring and instilling fear in others, as shown by him scaring and tormenting Fergus, Niffty, and Husk during his visit to the Hazbin Hotel, tricking Husk into drinking an ale that poisoned and tortured him simply to amuse himself, and when he later attempted to intimidate Charlie into surrendering the souls of the Hazbin Hotel's employees and patients. As previously mentioned, the Grim Reaper never loses his air of smugness, even when in high-stress situations or when he has been outsmarted by a would-be pawn, and he showed no hint of fear even in Alastor's presence, and like Alastor himself, was also unfazed when Vaggie threatened him with an angelic spear.

Death is extremely fond of himself, regarding nearly everyone around him as easily persuaded morons. He has a very nihilistic and condescending view of the Universe and is quite pessimistic in general, viewing humans as total morons who have the survival skills of a rock. That said, his arrogance isn't entirely without justification; due to being one of the most ancient beings in the universe, the Grim Reaper is a highly intelligent and wise entity. Not only is he skilled in effortlessly manipulating people, but he displays immense knowledge of the history, lore, and nature of the Universe and nearly all within.

Although Death is completely unsympathetic and holds no remorse for his heinous deeds, he does possess a set of standards and a (albeit very bizarre) moral code. Even *Death*, of all people, is disgusted by Lucifer and holds nothing but contempt towards the King of Hell, expressing immense frustration over being unable to kill the King of Hell, and shows great anticipation at the possibility that he will one day witness Lucifer's downfall and demise. Surprisingly, Death also possesses the capability to bond with other entities, in case they have similar interests or objectives, as he grew to be quite fond of Alastor, due to their mutual love of antagonizing people. He also even grew to respect Charlie, despite initially viewing her as ignorant, after the princess refused to back down from his intimidation tactics.

He is overall more of an annoyance to the hotel crew rather than an actual threat, as he mostly just appears to mock and taunt them, and has never directly fought against them or impeded them in their goals. He has even aided them in several of their missions, often unintentionally providing them with information that would be useful to them, and in "We Can Be Heroes", he assisted them in finding Forti so they could save Charlie from Satan and Lucifer. However, this was only out of pragmatism, as he was only assisting them because if Forti and Charlie became fully corrupted, Satan and Lucifer's victory would be ensured, meaning nearly all life in the Universe would perish and their souls would belong to Lucifer, rather than Death himself. In addition, Death is still feared by and treated very seriously by the hotel crew due to his immense power and fondness for tricking others.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Nigh-Omnipotence**: As the embodiment of death itself, Death is a godly powerful entity, capable of causing heinous and devastating event with ease, as well as revive and destroy the souls of beings that have been dead for centuries. In addition, he possesses the extraordinary ability to manipulate and warp reality on a universal level. However, while Death possesses incredible power, he is not completely all-powerful, as there are a handful of entities who possess power greater than his own, such as Forti, Lucifer, Satan, the Light Beyond the Stars, and God, all of whom are entities which even Death cannot kill.
	+ **Animation**: Death can bring inanimate objects to life, as shown when he turned the bottles of booze at Husk's bar into monsters, and turned Niffty's feather duster into a monstrous bird.
		- **Aura/Clorokinesis**: Death possesses an invisible, magical, and lethal aura. When Death first entered the Hazbin Hotel, all of the flowers and vegetation in Charlie's garden instantly wilted as the Grim Reaper approached them.
	+ **Clairvoyance**: Death possesses a magical screen in his lair that he can use to watch different parts of the Universe.
	+ **Clothing Manipulation**: When Charlie snapped at Death for poisoning Husk, shooting out hellfire in different directions from her outburst, Death magically conjured a fireman's outfit to protect himself.
	+ **Death Manipulation**: As his name implies, Death has total control over the souls or spirits of those he has killed, which allows him to use them as his servants and slaves. He possesses the power to liberate the souls of his victims, but almost never does, so that he can continue torturing them and revel in their misery. Death also possesses an aura that instantly kills all vegetation around him.
		- **Fatal Touch**: Death is capable of instantly killing any entity to makes physical contact with them, whether they be humans, demons, or angels. The only known entity who is immune to Death's touch is Lucifer, as shown with the portrait of himself and Death framed in the King of Hell's castle.
	+ **Dimensional Travel**: As an extremely powerful primordial entity, Death has the ability to travel anywhere he wants in the Universe, such as Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, and even Earth.
	+ **Immortality**: As the god and personification of Death, the Grim Reaper is completely immortal and likely not even "alive" to begin with. He is immune to poison, sicknesses, old age, and presumably every known weaponry or ailments in the Universe. The only way to "kill" Death would be to erase the concept of death itself.
	+ **Interstellar Travel**: Death is capable of traveling through space by assuming the form of a giant, blue fireball, traveling well beyond the speed of light, as seen in "We Can Be Heroes".
	+ **Nosokinesis**: Death can both create and manipulate diseases, as he off-handedly claimed to have created the bubonic plague.
	+ **Probability Manipulation**: Death has the power to manipulate probability, typically in a way that results in terrible events occurring. This was shown in one of his Sinstagram posts, where Death posted a series of three photos; the first photo was of him taking a photo of his TV, which displays an amusement park, with the TV focused on a Ferris wheel. In the second photo, Death is shown snapping his fingers. The third photo then shows the Ferris wheel crashed into the ground with the entire park in flames, with the news caption "Freak Ferris wheel accident leaves 600 dead".
	+ **Pyrokinesis**: Death can conjure and manipulate blue fire. Among other things, he is able to engulf himself in flames and surround himself in an aura or ring of fire.
	+ **Reality Warping**: Death is capable of warping the fabric of reality with ease, as shown by him changing the entire interior of the Hazbin Hotel to fit his ghoulish musical number, and then warping it back to normal as the song came to an end. During said musical number, he also turned Husk's bottles of booze into monsters, and turned Niffty's feather duster into a demonic bird. The full capabilities of his reality warping are likely far higher than what he has displayed so far.
	+ **Resurrection**: Death can bring a soul back to life, restoring a person to their original forms. Of course, this is almost always followed by him immediately killing them again.
	+ **Shapeshifting**: During his musical number, Death briefly took the form of a cucumber in order to scare Husk. In "We Can Be Heroes", he assumed the form of a giant, blue ball of fire to travel through Purgatory.
	+ **Summoning**: Death can summon his iconic scythe and undead slaves with a simple snap of his fingers.
	+ **Teleportation**: Death can teleport to seemingly anywhere he wishes, most often appearing in a ring of blue fire. The extent of his teleportation is seemingly limitless, as he able to traverse through entire dimensions, including Earth, Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

### Abilities

* **Deal-Making**: Death can perform deals with multiple entities at once that allow him to reach his personal gains.
* **High Intelligence**: Being one of the most ancient entities in the Universe, Death possesses a genius level intellect and is very experienced and well-versed in the nature of the Universe and many dimensions. Not only is he skilled in effortlessly manipulating humans and spiritual entities alike, but he possesses an immense knowledge and awareness of the history, lore, and nature of the universe and nearly all things within.
* **Intimidation**: Death frequently uses his immense powers and reputation to scare others, most often frightening them into submitting to him. His reputation and presence alone was enough to put the entire hotel crew (excluding Alastor and Angel Dust) on edge during his brief stay at the hotel. However, his intimidation tactics often proved ineffective against those who were experienced in dealing with unscrupulous people such as himself, as he failed to intimidate Charlie into making a deal with him.

## Relationships

### Allies

#### Undead slaves

"*Have you met my flunkeys? (Death summons dozens of his undead slaves, who begin reaching and pleading to the hotel crew for help) The fodder of humanity. Men, women, children and all. Once upon a time, they were all people who had dreams, families, a long life of success and happiness ahead of them. And now, they're nothing more than my personal servants. (cackles and claps his hands) I love it! (Charlie has a look of horror and disgust on her face, which Death notices) Oh, don't look so fucking alarmed, Charlotte. You don't know humans like I do! They truly are the lowest forms of life. I've tortured cats that have more sense of self-preservation. Hell, some of these sons of bitches wouldn't even be with me if they had looked both ways before crossing the road while taking a fucking selfie!*"
— Death introducing the Happy Hotel crew to his undead slaves.

Death has control over a legion of undead men, women, and children who were forced to serve him after he caused their deaths whilst they were still alive. The Grim Reaper is incredibly cruel, sadistic, and abusive towards his undead victims, treating them with extreme disrespect like any master would treat their slaves. He frequently kicks them around, and enjoys mocking them over how he killed them and their inability to see their loved ones again. His undead slaves possess great fear of the Grim Reaper, and obey everything he says as a result.

#### Alastor

"***Death**: (he stares at Alastor intently, who grins at him) Hmm.... I like you! What do you say we meet up sometime and fuck some people over?
**Alastor**: I just might have to take you up on that, good sir!*"
— Death greeting Alastor.

During his stay at the Hazbin Hotel, Death grew an almost immediate respect towards Alastor due to his love of causing death, as well as their mutual enjoyment of tormenting others for personal amusement. Before he left the hotel after failing to persuade Charlie into surrendering the souls of the hotel's inhabitants, the Grim Reaper told Alastor that they should get together and cause havoc in the future, to which the Radio Demon replied that he would consider it.

It is unknown if Death's plan to steal the souls of the Hazbin Hotel's inhabitants would include Alastor.

### Enemies

#### Lucifer Magne

Due to the King of Hell's desire to create a Universe without death, the Grim Reaper greatly despises Lucifer, at one point outright comparing the fallen angel to cancer. He has expressed a strong desire to kill the King of Hell, and is incredibly frustrated over his inability to do so. Lucifer himself is well aware of the Grim Reaper's detestation towards him and goes out of his way to taunt the Grim Reaper over this fact, at one point having a portrait of himself shaking hands with Death framed in his castle to mock the Grim Reaper's inability to kill him.

Despite his intense hatred for the fallen archangel, he took his side on Charlie's operation on rehabilitating sinners so they can ascend to Heaven, advising the princess that she should listen to her father on that.

### Others

#### Charlie Magne

"***Death**: 'Kay, nice guy act is over. Give me their souls.
**Charlie**: (crosses her arms and looks away with her eyes closed) No.
**Death**: Give their souls.
**Charlie**: No.
**Death**: Give me their souls.
**Charlie**: No.
**Death**: Give me their souls!
**Charlie**: No.
**Death**: Ok, then DON'T give me their souls! (Charlie stays silent) ...GRAAAAAH!!! (he assumes a demonic skeleton form and surrounds Charlie with floating skulls and a ring of fire) **Give me their souls, or you'll rue the moment I stepped foot in your PATHETIC establishment!**
**Charlie**: (remains unfazed) ...No. (Death stares wide-eyed) I hate to do this, but since you clearly aren't going to contribute to the hotel, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave... Please.
**Death**: (he stares at Charlie intensely before returning to normal) Damn... I'm used to people pissing themselves with fear when I do that. You are... Quite special, Charlotte. Then again... (he walks past and glances at a portrait of Charlie with Lucifer) I guess I'm not the scariest monster in your life, after all.*"
— Death drops the 'nice guy' act and tries to intimidate Charlie in surrounding the souls of the Hazbin Hotel's inhabitants.

Death initially saw Charlie as easily persuaded and stupid, believing her to be an easy target for his manipulation. Shortly after the Hazbin Hotel opened for business, he paid an extended stay to the hotel, his visit being a poorly disguised means to manipulate or trick the Princess of Hell into giving up the souls of everyone within the hotel. Charlie was visibly uneasy around the Grim Reaper, as she quickly deduced his true intentions and had already been aware of his reputation, and he enjoyed teasing Charlie and attempting to trick her into falling in line with his plans. Much of their dialogue implies that the two have encountered each other before in the past, as Death refers to himself as the princess' "uncle" and noted that it was good to see her again.

To the Grim Reaper's surprise and dismay, Charlie was not the fool Death had perceived her to be, as she saw through every manipulation tactic of his and refused to surrender her friends' souls. Despite giving him multiple chances to improve his behavior, Charlie ordered Death to leave the hotel after he tricked Husk into drinking an ale that tortured him simply for laughs. Once Death realized that Charlie would not be willing to give him their souls, he resorted to attempting to intimidate the princess. However, Charlie was not moved and politely requested that the Grim Reaper leave the Hazbin Hotel since he clearly had no desire to help her cause. In a surprising twist, her fearlessness invoked Death's respect, although he ominously swore that they would meet again, before cooperating with the princess by leaving the hotel with his servants.

#### Vaggie

During his stay at the Hazbin Hotel, Death and Vaggie developed a tense and hostile relationship akin to Vaggie's relationship with Alastor. Vaggie was even more untrusting of the Grim Reaper than she was with Alastor, as it was very obvious that the Grim Reaper was only staying at the hotel for malevolent purposes. He enjoyed taunting Vaggie by treating her as if she was Charlie's pet, and demanding that she served him as a patient of the hotel.

## Quotes

### Season 1

"*Charlotte, put your fuckin' dog on a leash! I just stopped by to say hi!*"
— Death to Charlie about Vaggie, after entering the Hazbin Hotel.

"*Cute place! Real homey! Evening, lads! Name's Death, call me Grim, D, John, just don't call me late to **TAKING YOUR SOUL!!!***"
— Death introducing himself to the Happy Hotel crew.

"***Death**: Do tell me, Charlotte, do you actually think this little scheme of yours is going to work? Or are you just feigning stupidity? 'Cuz I know you've conducted some hairbrained plans, but this is just getting ridiculous!
**Charlie**: Yeah, I've been told that.
**Death**: By who? Lemme guess, your dear old dad? Lucifer the Morning Star? God's Favorite Angel who betrayed Him and murdered his own brothers? BOO-FUCKITY-HOO! As much as I despise that miserable cunt, I think you might want to listen to your da' on this one.*"
— Death to Charlie.

"***Charlie**: (to Husk) Oh, my Satan! Husk! (she kneels beside him, holding his head in her heads) Oh, shit! You okay?! Look at me, please!
**Husk**: (slowly looks at her) Charlie...
**Charlie**: J- Just hold on, Husk! I'm right here! You're gonna be fine!
**Husk**: Charlie... Fuckin' kill me, please... (he continues spazzing and conjorting his body)
**Charlie**: (she faces Death, slowly shifting into her Full Demon Form) What... The fuck... (surrounds herself and Death in hellfire) **DID YOU DO TO HIM**?!
**Death**: (in a fireman's outfit) I know what it look's like, but hear me out, princess! Me and Husker were havin' a wee drinking contest, and wouldn't you fuckin' know it, he's a lightweight that can't hold his supernatural ale! (he looks down at Husk and kicks him in his head as he twitches violently) Oh, for fuck's sake, pull yerself together, man! Fuckin' Alastor's more of a drinkin' man than you!*"
— Charlie and Death after he poisoned Husk with a supernatural drink.

### Season 2

"*Lucifer is a plague, a cancer, and disease. Powerful in ways that defy description. Even I can admit that. If you continue to defy him and arouse his wrath, you're even bigger fools than I expected.*"
— Death warning the Happy Hotel crew to not oppose Lucifer.

### Season 3

"*Knock knock!*"
— Death to the Happy Hotel crew after teleporting inside Baxter's ship.

"***Vaggie**: Why are you doing this?! I know your game, you wouldn't do this unless you had some trickster bullshit up your sleeve!
**Death**: (giggles) **Please** don't mistake my assistance for kindness, Vagatha. I'm only helping you lot because it suits me. If Forti and Charlie fall into the Devil's hands, it and Lucifer will be unstoppable and everyone will die. And I'd rather fuck a cactus than let that spoiled, pompous dickhead claim the souls of everyone in the Universe.*"
— Death to Vaggie, clarifying that he is only helping the hotel crew find Forti for his own selfish reasons.

## Trivia

* He is based on the Grim Reaper, a personified version of death itself, often depicted as a robed skeleton carrying a scythe.
* His theme songs would be "Death Death (Devil, Devil, Evil, Evil Song)" and "Land of the Dead" by Aurelio Voltaire.
* He speaks with a faint, come-and-go Irish accent.
* Death's favorite drink is "Tears from the Swirl of Suffering", an alcoholic ale which he brewed himself.
* At one point, Death claims that he works for God Himself.
* Death was very much aware of Stolas's thanatophobia and has a long history with the Goetia prince. He greatly enjoyed teasing and tormenting Stolas over his prophesied untimely death.
* According to one of the co-creators of the series, the reason Death cannot kill Lucifer is because God has the final word on when Lucifer will die.
* He tortures and mutilates birds and cats as a past-time whenever he's bored.