The Devil/TCS

Likes: Stealing soulsDancingSingingBeing evil

*For the in-game character, see The Devil.*
"♫ In case you ain't heard, I'm the Devil.
I'm a real low down, not on the level.
They call me Old Scratch, Mr. S, the Big D.
I'm the king of the underworld, yeah it's great to be me. ♫"

—The Devil singing about himself, Carn-Evil

"You have taken something of great value to me, so I shall take something of great value to you."

—The Devil taking Mugman away

 **The Devil** is the main antagonist of *The Cuphead Show!*. He is voiced by Luke Millington-Drake.

## Profile

### Appearance

The Devil's design for *The Cuphead Show!* remains more or less the same, with only a few stylistic changes made. In addition to now always shown as having a tail, his nose has gained a red flush along with having longer yellow horns instead of white horns, and the red irises he is only occasionally depicted with in-game are now a permanent part of his design. His fur is softer and less scruffy and has also gained a slight blue tint. Two more notable differences from his in-game counterpart are that he shows a bit of fat and his ears are a bit longer and spikier.

While the Devil is essentially naked, not counting his fur, he is briefly seen wearing various outfits and accessories in the show, most notably during the third season. His primary outfit consists of a white tailcoat with a matching top hat, white spats, and a red bow tie, that he wears during his song in "Carn-Evil" and during the dance battle against Ms. Chalice in "The Devil and Ms. Chalice". Clothed or not, he goes barefoot throughout the episodes, except for his outfits during his performance in the Underworld and later his audition in "Cupstaged" where he wears a blue and purple prince-like theater costume and pink ensemble with a black top hat and high-heeled boots respectively. In "Sweater Off Dead", he's briefly seen wearing a party hat. In "Release the Demons!", he briefly appears having apparently just gotten out of the shower, draped in two pink towels, one around his body (and held up to his chest) and one around his head (or, more accurately, his horns). In "Roadkill", when mistaken as a stray cat by Elder Kettle, he's briefly seen wearing a pink bow on his head. As shown in "A Very Devil Christmas", his winterwear consists only of a striped red scarf. At the end of the same episode, he wears a train conductor costume when he plays with his toy train.

### Personality

The Devil is manipulative, evil, flamboyant, and has an obsession with collecting souls. He is more jolly and playful than he is in the game, and behaves in a more sassy and childish manner. In "Carn-Evil", he gleefully sings about how great it is to be him, how he adores being a naughty bully to the Isles' locals, and that collecting the inhabitants' souls is his favourite hobby. He also shows a sarcastic side after seeing Cuphead play Soul-Ball without losing the game and his soul, calling him a show-off. Through this, it is also implied that he has a hatred for exhibitionists in general. However, he can be very intimidating as seen in "Roll the Dice" when he threatens King Dice after his failure. In the third season finale, the Devil proves just how nightmarish he can be when he kills Ms. Chalice in a disturbingly graphic way as a show of intimidation before resurrecting her. His temper is violent and (literally) explosive, able to easily level the entire carnival without even really *trying* to and capable of letting off a huge explosion of fire that levels an entire stretch of forest, but he tends to calm down or get distracted as fast as he gets angry, just in time for something else to make him mad. Another example of his rage is shown in "Release the Demons!", where he accidentally (and casually) kills several of his demons during his tantrums about how Cuphead irritates him alone, showing his terrifying amount of power. In the second season, the Devil’s hatred of Cuphead becomes more intense, to the point where just talking about him is enough for him to have explosive bursts of anger. He also becomes more bad-tempered and wrathful in general, including towards other demons such as Henchman and Stickler.

At the same time, the Devil is rather comically conceited. He is incredibly prideful of himself, believing he'll always win and get what he wants in the end. This pride is what leads to his failures in both the game and the show. In "Sweater Off Dead", he throws himself a celebration because of how well he's running his operation, and sees their most productive year as being because of *his* hard work and dedication, giving no credit to his employees who did the actual heavy lifting. He's evil and wants others to know it, threatening Henchman in his song to make sure that the other demon agrees he's "a real naughty boy". He also takes great pride when the residents of Inkwell Isle scream and run away at the sight of him. Despite what one may expect from him, he absolutely loves Christmas time. Mainly because the omnipresent festive cheer "brings out the devil in him". While he's no less dangerous, he's played much less seriously in the series than he was in the game, being much more overtly pompous and bombastic. The start of the series has him retain his fearsome reputation, with the Cup Brothers outright panicking when they see him and the citizens of Inkwell Isles running away in terror. As the series goes on and the brothers keep foiling his plans, however, The Devil slowly becomes less of a feared figure and more of an incompetent loon, to the point that by "The Devil's Pitchfork", the masses of Hell are demanding he steps down from the throne because he simply doesn't command the same respect before the events of the show. He also seems to pay a bit of attention to his appearance, such as putting cucumbers on his eyelids while taking a bath in "Roll the Dice" and, at one point, being seen filing his nails earlier in "Sweater Luck Next Time".

Most of the time he's seen lazing around in the Underworld without a care in the world while his minions work assiduously on his behalf. Despite having the ability to teleport wherever he wants whenever he wants, he initially only puts up wanted posters for Cuphead rather than actually going back up himself to collect his due, which in turn gives Cuphead enough time to seek out Quadratus for protection. The only time he ever decides to take action is when something goes wrong or when Stickler harasses him to do so. He becomes even more egregious when he finds out his contracts have expiration dates.

Despite his evil traits, he does have a benevolent side, as well as some positive traits, and even standards. While he holds very little sympathy for those in his employ in the game, that doesn't really seem to be the case in the show. One of his nicer moments includes replacing King Dice with Henchman, a big fan of Dice and his show "*Roll the Dice*", as the host of Dice's radio show. It is also implied that he has a soft spot for Henchman and is shown to be more patient with him compared to his other minions, consistently thanking him for his contributions, sometimes suppressing his feelings of annoyance, and not threatening him much, even if his thanks are rather clearly not straight praise (though by the third season, his gratitude becomes genuine). While it's likely not the intention, the Devil holding a celebration party for his accomplishment *does* allow his workers to finally take a break from their 3000 years (according to one of the workers) of grueling works. While not explicitly shown, it is hinted that the Devil might actually hold some respect for his other Imps as well, such as when Stickler tries to derail the celebrations to convince the Devil to collect Cuphead's soul; the Devil ignores him in favor of starting a conga line, eating deviled eggs, and cutting a cake and never takes out his wrath on any of the demons, instead sullenly agreeing to go to collect the debt. Additionally, it's shown in "Cupstaged" that he holds stage shows for his demons, though they don't share his enthusiasm for the theatrical arts. Curiously, when he is not obsessing over souls, he can be quite pleasant, the most obvious example being in the episode "Sweater Luck Next Time", where he ends up laughing at Cuphead's jokes while they both wait in line for the ride. Additionally, near the end of "Roadkill", the Devil, although briefly considering it, can't resort to taking Elder Kettle's soul after he took care of him and showed him nothing but love and kindness. This, along with his interactions with Henchman, indicates that he is capaable of showing appreciation for any genuine kindness shown towards him. Quite fittingly for his position as a ruler (though downplayed), he has a rather regal and elegant streak, most notably shown during the first time he comes across the cup brothers.

He has a rather warped sense of fair play and honesty, gladly using any ability at his disposal to get Cuphead's soul, but as he points out, Cuphead *did* lose at Soul Ball and therefore owes his soul like anyone else at the carnival. The Devil also holds up the bargain to paint Elder Kettle's fence in exchange for Cuphead taking off the protective, invisible sweater and is incensed when the boys run off behind his back. And while he does not hesitate to hurt Mugman alongside Cuphead when he has the chance, the Devil never threatens to take Mugman's soul as leverage presumably because *Cuphead* is the one who owes him. At the end of "The Devil's Pitchfork", he actually does kidnap Mugman so he can trade him for the pitchfork, but only after Cuphead electrocuted him repeatedly while pretending he was trying to give it back and mocked him when the Devil let it slip that he is off the hook because the deadline to collect his soul has expired leading to the Devil to decide to just screw the rules. Even so, it seems the Devil only did that because he considers it a fair trade, trading something he finds valuable (his pitchfork) for something Cuphead finds valuable (Mugman). In "Roadkill", when the Devil needs to bring back one soul to the Underworld to gain access to his prized possessions, even he can't bring himself to steal Elder Kettle's soul after the old man had mistaken him for a stray cat and treated him with love and kindness. In the Christmas Special episode "A Very Devil Christmas", he's highly unnerved by Santa Claus' Christmas ritual and goes so far as to refer to him as a 'complete psycho' to Henchman.

Though he's perfectly happy to be widely feared and dangerous, at the same time, more and more hints have been dropped in Season 3 that the Devil is quite starved for validation and affection (from people other than Henchman). It kicks off in "The Devil's Pitchfork", when he takes a bad review of him in a newspaper column very badly. In "Cupstaged", he flat out admits that one of the reasons he wants to become a star is for the love from an audience of "strangers". This comes to a head in the Season 3 finale when he, in near tears, slinks away with only Henchman by his side when Cuphead eventually outwits him at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' while the crowd lovingly cheers for the cups and Ms. Chalice.

The Devil is noticeably more actively involved in pursuing his goals than his counterpart character from the game.

### Powers and Abilities

* **Teleportation:** Using his pitchfork, he can transport himself to a location of his choosing in a cloud of smoke. He is also able to teleport objects and people with a snap of his fingers.
* **Levitation/Flight:** He can lift himself off the ground and fly.
* **Telekinesis:** He can move people and objects without touching them.
* **Shapeshifting:** Like in the game, he can transform into other creatures, such as a goat, octopus-like monster, a giant serpent, and even Quadratus himself. Sweater Off Dead proves that this power can go haywire when the Devil is extremely angry.
* **Pyrokinesis:** He can produce and control fire, usually when angered. He can even force it to become more intense with effort, like when he's trying to get Cuphead to take off an invisible sweater. The flames are hot enough to set an entire city ablaze and turn the strongest demons into piles of ash. The fire he produces usually explodes on contact.
* **Thermal Resistance:** The Devil can withstand being surrounded by flames and high temperatures without any damage on his body. However, while his fur seems effective against heat coming from a specific direction, as shown in "The Devil's Revenge!", he has a limit under extremely high temperatures, but the fireball explosive was only hit on his belly, which has immense scales without any fur, showing that in The Devil's serpent form, it may be only his scales that are limited to fire.
* **Soul Stealing:** He can remove people's souls with his bare hands.
* **Contract Bestowal:** The Devil can also create contracts with others to gain ownership of their souls or grant them special abilities.
* **Prehensile tail:** His tail acts as an extra limb, seen when he uses it to pop the balloons of a group of children.
* **Mutation:** He can transform animals into monstrous versions of themselves, such as enlarging a pigeon in a park. And transforming a snowman to scare Ribby and Croaks. As well as mutating some band instruments that turn into monstrous sentient roaring aggressive version of themselves.
* **Dancing/Singing:** The Devil definitely knows his way around a musical number. This includes singing, playing music, and dancing. His dancing (and singing) ability comes up more than once, first during his song and then when he makes a big show out of painting Elder Kettle's fence. He also demonstrates some dexterity in playing the piano and is implied to be familiar with fiddling. This trait gets put on full display in Season 3, with his interests expanding to include theatre acting and opera singing, as shown in "Cupstaged", and when he has a full on dance-off with Ms. Chalice in the finale. During the latter, he demonstrates remarkable ability in tap dancing along with other skills that come along with it.
* **Size Manipulation:** He can turn into a massive giant version as himself, as seen in "The Devil's Revenge!". Though he can able to shrink to his normal size too, in fact, as seen in "A Very Devil Christmas", he may have likely shrunk himself to a small character, while at the same time, while he may have also approached his toy train at normal size too.
* **Death Inducement:** Using a cloud of smoke from his pitchfork, he can reduce anyone to a pile of bones, namely Ms. Chalice when she refuses to help him. This cloud also is sentient and has a disturbing face on it, and often thunder booms when the cloud of dark thick smoke appears, the sentient face on the smoke roars disturbingly, this can kill a living object by cracking their head open, and turning them into dust, with their bones falling down, and turning rotten, resulting in death.
* **Unlimited Stamina:** When he climbs up stairs, he does not stop while he gets really tired, but after trying and getting to the very top, he takes a deep breath and allows him for a burst of energy. Whenever he runs, he doesn't get tired, especially in his transformations.
* **Immortality/Longevity:** Likely tied to the fact that he has an enhanced endurance, while he can still get hurt and feel pain, he is able to withstand attacks and hits that might otherwise incapacitate or even kill someone, showing his endurable body. Since The Devil has been around for more then 3000 years, which is a very long time, he is shown to not be killed within old age, within Conventional Means.
* **Great Durability:** Along with the fact that he is Immortal, with his endurable body, he has survive a lot of death-causing situations that can put a person's life at risk, he even survives impaling, and seems to withstand a lot of dangerous, painful situations or objects. Due to this, he also has a supernatural healing factor, able to heal himself quickly during these kinds of situations he is involved in.
* **Object/Matter Creation:** The Devil has the ability to conjure fire, as well as spawn objects through it, such as a money bill (currency), a brick wall, and even a bunch of party supplies. He also seems to be able to fix objects with his pitchfork, like broken walls, his throne, and tapestries.
* **Mirror Cloning:** He is able to clone himself in mirrors, with said reflections being able to get out of the mirror to attack targets.
* **Demonic Voice:** He has the ability to boom out in a deep, demonic voice (fitting, as he is a demon), which causes everything around him to echo. This is a trait he mostly displays when he is livid, though it doesn't often seem to come out intentionally.
* **Painting:** He uses telekinesis to paint an entire fence in Sweater Luck Next Time, in all rainbow colors. However he is also capable of removing the paint, as a spark on the paint removes the rest of the colored paint on the fence.
* **Weather Control:** It Is shown in Sweater Luck Next Time, when he removed all the paint from Elder Kettle's fence, a small amount of rain pours down, and some thundering lightning strikes near the house. He also can control the weather when he transformed an area into an hellish version, changing the weather from sunny to dark smoke of clouds.
* **Electricity Manipulation:** He can zap objects with electricity, which he uses to change all stop signs to go signs on a busy street with cars in the area, making them crash. This power may also be used to electrocute someone to instantly kill or attack them.
* **Speed and Agility:** While he generally runs pretty fast, his speed can vary based on what he transforms. For example, when he turns into a bull, it is shown that he can run at speeds high enough to catch up with Cuphead and Mugman on their bikes. In fact he can even catch up to them without much of a problem.
* **Quick Revival:** He is capable of reviving his victims, like Ms. Chalice after killing her in inkwell hell by using a snap of a finger near her dead body to turn her back alive.
* **Matter Manipulation:** He can reshape his surroundings to his liking, as shown when he transforms the entire city of Inkwell Isles into a hellish version of itself with hot molten lava, solid rocks, and rocky stalagmites replacing the skyscrapers, which also causes an earthquake, in order to create an arena for his dance-off with Ms. Chalice.
* **Cooking:** Although not shown on-screen, his claim of having invented deviled eggs could imply that he is at least quite good at cooking.
* **Sword Skills:** Although technically not shown on screen, he claims to be an expert sword fighting, as well as a skilled knife thrower.
* **Feline intimation:** He can intelligently intimate a cat while pretending to be one and can even create real cat sounds such as purring, screeching, and meowing. He can also crawl on four legs like a regular cat does. Even the horns on the Devil while he is in cat mode does not confuse Elder Kettle that he is not a real cat, outsmarting him.
* **Piano Maestro**: The Devil seems to play the Piano pretty well while singing his song.
* **Defensive Horns**: Though he has never used his horns as much as a power or ability, the horns can be used to defend The Devil from bumping his head to the ground hardly when he slips off the stage and smashes into Sally Stageplay headfirst in Cupstaged. He also uses his horns while transforming into a bull to ram Cuphead and Mugman on their bicycles.
* **Intelligence**: While The Devil may not be shown much of having Intelligence, he is pretty smart and clever in combat, it also shows that he is able to outsmart people in getting their souls consumed by placing special traps in Carn-Evil disguised as a regular game. He even attempts to fool **Cuphead** and **Mugman** in such a way to actually outsmart them and trick them, as well as thinking about Henchman being the sleigh puller while attempting to deliver presents in A Very Devil Christmas.
* **Head Detachment**: He is able to unnaturally detach his head and roll it around, along with removing his horns.
* **Sharp Claws**: During his Feline intimation, his sharp fingernails or claws can be used as a weapon to attack any targets that will fail to escape him, such as Cuphead and Mugman.
* **Strength**: While never intentionally seen, The Devil may have some kind of supernatural strength, as seen when he bursts into flames during his angered rage, on his torso appears to be muscles, or six pack, he also seems to have a strength advantage in some of his shapeshifting forms, especially in his giant form, he has a lot of strength, showing that he has the power to squeeze Mugman really hardly, as well as busting out of a pipe destroying it, and he is able to carry Cuphead or Mugman by the shirt with just his fingers.
* **Inducement of Fear to other characters:** Because of **The Devil** known as the dreaded hunter of souls, and the ruler of the underworld, despite his ridiculous/non-terrifying appearance, a lot of people, such as the Inkwell Isle Citizens, The Bee Cops, Cuphead & Mugman, and Ms. Chalice are often terrified and panic in great fear upon seeing him, because of this, The Devil often uses this as an advantage, making everyone fearing him gives him the advantage for easier advantages and skill, even Henchman, King Dice, and some of the underworld's demons can sometimes be seen as fearing him, especially when he loses his temper, he even makes Santa's Reindeer panic upon throwing a tantrum in a firey rage.

### Weaknesses

* **Anger issues:** The Devil's temper often gets the better of him. As of Season 2, he has been trying to learn to control his emotions, with little success as he is seen ripping up the pages of a book, "Controlling Your Rage", destroying his favourite teacup after his hallucination about Cuphead and burning his finest demons alive in Episode 8, **Release The Demons!**. Although in Season 3, he seems to be less angry than in the previous seasons, having less anger issues, but he still teases others aggressively in a rude manner.
* **Brotherly love:** The power of brotherly love can repel his attacks, seen when Mugman hugs his brother to shield them from The Devil's flames.
* **Invisible sweater:** Powered by brotherly love, the sweater can prevent The Devil from stealing the wearer's soul, giving him a painful electric shock whenever he touches it. It can also protect the wearer from The Devil's pitchfork, seen when The Devil tries to destroy Stickler with a ranged attack, only to learn he has become the sweater's new owner.
* **His pitchfork:** He is not immune to attacks from his own weapon, seen when Cuphead repeatedly electrocutes The Devil with his pitchfork when the latter tries to retrieve it. Additionally, half his powers are tied to his pitchfork, and he cannot teleport or shoot fire whenever he is deprived of it. However, he may have accidentally mistaken this, as seen he doesn't need his pitchfork to shoot fire since he can still use fire in his rage form, and he still has Telekinesis. He can even still levitate and fly without his pitchfork, and transform, or even grow into a giant. Coincidentally, as seen in Carn Evil, he is shown to actually teleport without his pitchfork, as seen in an in-mirror "flashback" while singing his song.
* **Bureaucracy:** Even a being as powerful as The Devil is not above rules and regulations, as Stickler reminds him he has exceeded the time limit for acquiring Cuphead's soul. However if Cuphead signed the soul contract, this owes the devil his soul again.
* **Santa's Ritual:** Technically not a tied weakness that the devil has since possibly other people are weak to it, but at first after the ritual Santa and his elves do, it's nothing, but later the Devil transforms into a Santa version of himself, and while transforming, this causes a lot of pain to him.
* **Bubbles of Failure:** The bubbles prevent him from interacting his most valuable and most used things, including his pitchfork and his elevator to take to the surface world. This happens if he hasn't collected a soul in months. However if he collects just one new one, the bubbles will pop, even Henchman was also in the bubble too. The bubbles will not pop on contact surprisingly, unless if Stickler requests the bubbles to pop.

## Appearances

### Season 1

#### Carn-Evil

On their way to buy more paint, Cuphead wanted to go to the carnival as Mugman tries to stop him from getting distracted. but they went anyway. Cuphead saw a game called Soul Ball and began playing, immediately excelling at it and grabbing everyone's attention. The Devil sings a song introducing himself until Henchman informs him that the soul counter stops working. Noticed there were no souls, he went into the carnival where he scared locals ran away from his presence. Alarmed, Mugman accidentally made Cuphead lose, almost having his soul taken away. The Devil then chases Cuphead and Mugman around the carnival where it ends with the two tricking the Devil into destroying the Soul Ball game, thus freeing all of the souls. Since this day, the Devil is the cup brothers' enemy, as he has not claimed Cuphead's soul.

#### Roll the Dice

After King Dice realizes he has Cuphead, he calls the Devil to let him know. The Devil, though annoyed at his bubble bath being interrupted, is happy to learn this. But, he does warn King Dice that he "hates' disappointment". After King Dice fails at getting Cuphead's soul, he invites King Dice down to Hell, where he violently confronts him about losing Cuphead's soul, and fires him as the host of *Roll the Dice*. At the end of the episode, we can see that the Henchman has been employed as the new host of the game show.

#### Sweater Off Dead

Mugman knits a sweater for Cuphead so he can be safe from the Devil taking his soul. The Devil is touring the Gluttony Department with Henchman, before he throws a party in the underworld in celebration of the operation he is running. Stickler, his auditor, keeps ruining the Devil's vibe in the party until he goes out to collect that "Cup Soul". Throughout the episode, he tries various attempts to get rid of Cuphead's sweater, to no avail and only gets angrier after each failure. The Devil becomes frustrated and bursts into flames in rage, but soon attempts to use that to his advantage after realising he can make Cuphead take off the sweater with the heat. However, the protective invisible sweater Cuphead is wearing, combined with Mugman's "one last hug", creates an invisible forcefield that protects them from the literal firestorm unleashed by the Devil. Even though the flames scorch the forest area around them, they are still unharmed when the smoke clears away, which makes the Devil throw a big tantrum where he angrily shapeshifts into different beasts and lastly an eldritch horror before quickly settling and leaving in a huff, stating that he "hates those cups." Now back in the Underworld, the Devil tries to continue the party but Stickler tries annoying him again. The Devil lies that he captured Cuphead's soul, to which Stickler reminds the Devil that each soul must be registered in order for them to count as being captured, to which the Devil irritatedly responds by destroying Stickler's book of souls, announcing that they must all be counted again and kicks him out of the party.

#### Sweater Luck Next Time

Cuphead and Mugman ask the Devil to paint the fence so the boys can sneak away. The Devil teleports to Cuphead and Mugman and does not notice Cuphead has taken the sweater off and Mugman leaves. When they get to the top the Devil pats Cuphead's shoulder and notices he is not wearing the sweater. The Devil finally attempts to take Cuphead's soul but Mugman comes back with the sweater and puts it on the Devil. Cuphead and Mugman were able to escape the Devil.

### Season 2

#### Release the Demons!

After many unsuccessful attempts to capture Cuphead's soul, the Devil is furious. He orders Henchman to bring him his "finest demons". The Devil is impressed by the demons and tells them about how he previously tried to get Cuphead's soul and failed, which makes the Devil so enraged he accidentally incinerates the demons. This happens again with his second-finest demons. He releases the third-finest group of demons, even though he isn't impressed with them, to the hay maze Cuphead and Mugman are going to. After the Devil finds out King Dice has had all of the demons killed (so he could claim Cuphead's soul by himself), he teleports to Elder Kettle's cottage to capture the soul himself. He is then interrupted by Stickler, who informs him that Cuphead's soul debt has expired. It is revealed that Stickler is where the protective sweater was hidden. The Devil and Stickler get into the lift taking them back to Hell, and the lift breaks down.

#### The Devil's Pitchfork

Henchman comforts the Devil after his previous defeat and attempts to cheer him up by opening his curtains to reveal souls being tortured outside and reads the headlines of tragic events in a newspaper to no avail. After the Devil reads a recent review of him, Henchman then encourages that the Devil to use his pitchfork to blow off some steam and to torment those in the Inkwell Isles above. He then appears after the Devil accidentally leaves his pitchfork as he explains what he did, and Henchman says to retrace his steps on where he left it. After the two go back up to the surface, and the Devil is unable to find his pitchfork, Henchman compliments him for blowing up half the forest (being oblivious that Cuphead and Mugman were the ones that did it). He and the Devil later catches onto Cuphead's act with the pitchfork and later in the elevator when the Devil kidnaps Mugman.

### Season 3

#### Special Delivery

The Devil appears at the very end of the episode. He appears flossing his teeth in his bathroom when an explosion from Porkrind's shop cause a chain reaction by breaking a piece of the ceiling and check to see with his periscope. He turns to see the Cups and Chalice, to which he surprisingly knows her from before. Seeing her being friends with them, he decided to use it to his advantage.

#### The Devil & Ms. Chalice

He appears in the underworld, dancing with Ms. Chalice for fun, when after dancing. The Devil tells Ms. Chalice to do the deal from a later date, and tells Ms. Chalice to betray her Best Friends, however despite this, Ms. Chalice decides to play another song one more time, that is when Stickler comes up and stops the song, distracting Mrs. Chalice and The Devil, while having the conversation, Stickler tells The Devil that Ms. Chalice is distracting him from his responsibilities, despite Mrs. Chalice trying to look innocent, The Devil then commits death on her using his pitchfork, using a cloud of dark smoke that is used to kill his victims. As soon as Mrs. Chalice had her whole entire body rotten, and turned into dust. The Devil picks up her skull, drops it, and then snaps his fingers to immediately turn back to normal. Then Mrs. Chalice begs The Devil that she will do anything she wants, The Devil then takes her to the elevator. Later, while watching Mrs. Chalice getting really uneasy about Cuphead and Mugman signing the soul contracts, Mrs. Chalice freaks out and rips the contract in pieces, making the Devil upset as he drops henchman. Then, as Mrs. Chalice is telling her friends about what she had to do with The Devil, then, The Devil appears angrily, then proceeds to kill Mrs. Chalice despite her best efforts on begging for mercy, but Mrs. Chalice then states that she is the greater dancer of all time. He then agrees with Chalice to see who is the greatest dancer of all time. The Devil then immediately proceeds to create a canyon in the floor, creating an entire earthquake in the Inkwell City, soon, a dance off arena is formed from flame, then all the Inkwell Isle Citizens and known residents have been teleported onto the seats, which includes The Root Pack, Sally Stageplay, A Bee Cop, Cherry, Sherman and Dorris, Bowlboy, and other random people. Then a spotlight opens up, The Devil and Ms. Chalice appear in it, the audience gasps in terror, Elephant screams that it is The Devil, and he smiles. Later as King Dice announces that the crowd decides who will be the greatest dancer of all time, he then introduces Ms. Chalice and The Devil. Which The Devil gets his dance costume on, and begins dancing, the crowd is interested in his dance, then Ms. Chalice proceeds with her dance off, as they dance off and The Devil tries to be better at dancing, The Devil proceeds to push Chalice over a cliff, she slides down, The Devil chases after her, although despite The Devil trying to impress the crowd with better dance moves, Ms. Chalice gets more applause points on the Applause-O-Meter, just before she is about to win, she slips on the marbles that Cuphead gave to her earlier, and lands on the ground hardly. The crowd gasps, and so did The Devil. Then King Dice announces that the winner of the greatest dancer of all time is The Devil, and he is happy that he is won, while Chalice and Cuphead try to resist that The Devil winning was not fair, The Devil laughs that Mrs. Chalice lost because of Cuphead, then he proceeds to remove his dance outfit, and uses his pitchfork on Ms. Chalice to immediately kill her, but Cuphead stops it. The Devil then agrees in a game Cuphead is offering to The Devil, that if he loses, the deal is off, but if he wins, he can have both the Cup Brother's souls and kill Ms. Chalice. He agrees, but Cuphead then decides that the game is rock paper scissors, The Devil disagrees, but is embarrassed when the Crowd laughs at him as Cuphead calls him a chicken. (Meaning that he is too scared to play rock paper scissors). The Devil then agrees, and orders henchman to hold his pitchfork, but as soon as The Devil proceeds with his rock paper scissors weapon, Cuphead wins. But The Devil proceeds to try again with Cuphead several times, but as soon as he offers to play again, Mugman ends it, giving the Cup Trio best luck. The Devil is depressed, but as soon as he walks into his Elevator, he watches the Cup Trio being cheered on. Then goes down the elevator, a month later, Cuphead runs to the casino that he has built after seeing that it has a grand opening, while his friends try to stop him before it is too late.

## Relationships

### Cuphead

    In the episode "Carn-Evil", Cuphead first caught the eye of the Devil with a string of Soul Ball wins. Hating show-offs, the Devil himself went in front of Mugman and Cuphead, then made sure the latter lost. However, Mugman managed to save his brother's soul, and the Devil went after them. The two brothers manage to escape the Carn-Evil after releasing all the souls, and the Devil swears that Cuphead's soul will belong to him, no matter what.

At first, the Devil does not really seem to care about Cuphead's soul, except when he learns that King Dice has let him escape, provoking his fury. This annoyance grows when Stickler asks him to retrieve the soul that is missing from his collection, and finally the Devil decides to personally take Cuphead's soul in the episode "Sweater Off Dead". However, in the meantime, Mugman has knitted Cuphead an invisible sweater, preventing the Devil from taking his soul. The Devil sets several traps for Cuphead to force him to remove his sweater, all foiled by Mugman. When he finds that the two brothers are still safe after burning the forest, the Devil can't contain his anger, then reluctantly gives up.

In the episode "Sweater Luck Next Time", his obsession only increases, confessing to Henchman that "the only thing that can make him feel better is to get that cup's soul." He then tries several times to take Cuphead's soul, without success, always because of the sweater. He is even willing to paint the fence just because Cuphead promised him he would take off his sweater if he did. When he realizes he has been tricked, the Devil returns to the two brothers, who took advantage of him being focused on his task to flee and line up for a ride. Having learned from Henchman that the ride in question goes so fast that it takes off all the clothes, the Devil sees the perfect opportunity to get rid of the invisible sweater, and offers Cuphead to wait with him. While they wait, Cuphead tells jokes to the Devil, which he tries to ignore at first, before he cannot stop laughing. He is finally surprised to find that he is having a good time, and even admits to Cuphead that he finds him "not so bad after all." However, when the Devil realizes that Cuphead is not wearing his sweater, he obviously tries to take his soul, bringing things back to status quo. This proves that if the Devil was not obsessed by souls, he and Cuphead could get along.

At the end of the episode, after Henchman has rid him of the sweater that Mugman had put on him by force, the Devil is delighted to finally be able to take Cuphead's soul whenever he wants, since Cuphead does not have protection anymore. However, since he was not able to collect his soul within the month he was supposed to, he no longer can.

### Mugman

While the Devil is obsessed with Cuphead and his soul, he seems to have no interest in his brother, Mugman, even if he's annoyed by one as much as by the other. Curiously, while Mugman is the one who manages to foil all the Devil's traps, the latter never attacks him. Yet the Devil is perfectly aware that it is Mugman's brotherly love that protects Cuphead, not being surprised when he tells him that is what makes his sweater so effective, adding "Of course it does". The hypothesis would be that the Devil cannot attack anyone who does not owe him their soul, which is the case of Mugman, who has never lost at his game. However, this does not stop him from kidnapping Mugman as means of payback against Cuphead stealing the Devil's pitchfork. In the Underworld, the Devil, to take revenge on the two brothers, tries to break Mugman's spirit and hopes by telling him that he's been down there for 80 years (actually, just a couple of days, at most) and the reason why Cuphead hasn't come to save him after all this time it's because he died long ago. Fortunately, Mugman doesn't buy it and humiliates the Devil once again.

### Henchman

"Thank you, Henchman."

—The Devil to Henchman, various episodes

Henchman is, as his name suggests, the Devil's henchman and closest associate. Henchman has a friendly and helpful approach towards the Devil and, despite his clumsiness, the Devil is rarely aggressive towards him and even seems to appreciate him, such as knowing that Henchman is a big fan of the King Dice show and never misses an episode. The Devil trusts him enough to admit to him that he failed to get Cuphead's soul at the beginning of "Sweater Luck Next Time" and let him treat his injuries at the end of the same episode. The Devil also seems to pay attention to Henchman's advice, notably concerning the Obliterator, which could allow him to force Cuphead to remove his invisible sweater.

The Devil noticeably avoids targeting Henchman in all of his attacks, which is specifically shown in "Release the Demons!". Seeing the Devil tearing the pages of a book entitled "Controlling Your Rage," still upset about not having retrieved Cuphead's soul yet, Henchman tries to lighten up his mood by complimenting him about his fur having almost grown back and attempts to calm him down with some tea, to no avail as the Devil blasts it with his pitchfork once he hears the word "cup" (not having left a scratch on his assistant). He is later seen helping the Devil send a squad of his finest demons. However, as he expresses his vengeance about Cuphead, he accidentally ends up destroying them, as well as his second finest demons. Over the course of this, Henchman demonstrates his cognizance of the Devil's incinerating outbursts, hiding behind a stalagmite and later pulling King Dice back too. Throughout most of the episode, Henchman corrects the Devil when he refers to Cuphead as "cup". Although it's clear that the Devil is very annoyed by this, he merely thanks Henchman for reminding him.

In "The Devil's Pitchfork", Henchman attempts to cheer the Devil up, who is upset over no longer being able to collect Cuphead's soul because he missed the deadline, by reading the headline of the newspaper. This does not work until he hears a review about him, and how that his touch is getting frantically weaker, thus angering him and using his pitchfork to roast the newspaper. Henchman then encourages the Devil to cause mischief around Inkwell Isles and thus finally cheers up the Devil, who thanks him (sincerely this time) and goes out to do so. Afterwards, the Devil blissfully tells Henchman about the trouble he caused. Later in the same episode, Henchman helps him look for his pitchfork and tells him to retrace his steps, which makes him realize that he left it lying against a tree. Shortly thereafter, they find Cuphead and Mugman are the ones who have Devil's pitchfork. The two demons are later seen descending with Mugman in the elevator, leaving Cuphead standing in the woods alone, devastated.

Despite the fact that he gave the invisible sweater to Stickler, who the Devil is incredibly fed up with, the king of the underworld does not seem to be angry with Henchman about it after he finds out and doesn't even bring it up.

The Devil's relationship with Henchman is fleshed out considerably in the third season. In "The Devil's Revenge!", Henchman and the Devil make a friendly bet over whether the Devil will succeed or fail to break Mugman's spirit before the clock strikes twelve, where the Devil bets he will. Knowing how slimy the Devil is when it comes to betting, Henchman is quick to warn him not to cheat beforehand, cutting him to the quick. Over the course of the episode, while the Devil tries to win the bet without cheats, he eventually attempts to cheat after noticing that it's almost twelve. He lies to Henchman about having some dry cleaning for him to pick up. Though temporarily fooled, the Fat Demon is quick to realise his boss is lying and catches him in the act when he tries to turn the clock back.

Although the Devil tries to excuse himself, Henchman is not convinced in the least and expresses his disappointment in the Devil for trying to play dirty. The Devil, still trying to cover his tracks, calls Henchman rude, to which his assistant only responds that he ought to be ashamed of himself. Through this, it is shown that while the Devil can trick others into numerous situations, such as giving their souls, he really can't fool Henchman. They briefly argue until they notice the cup brothers escaping. At the end of the episode, Henchman has won the bet.

In "Cupstaged", the Devil holds a performance for his workers. However, Henchman is the only demon to cheer for him as the other spectators are not that intrigued. Later, Henchman accompanies the Devil after learning that Sally Stageplay is hosting auditions for Inkwell Isle's most ambitious show to date: *Cup Rogers vs. The Meteor: A New Space Opera*. The Devil's motivation to audition is that while he may be feared, he wants to be adored and appreciated in the theatrical arts. Though Henchman claims that he adores him, the Devil insists that he wants to be appreciated by random strangers.

"Aw, thanks, boss."

—Henchman to **The Devil**, Roadkill

In "Roadkill", The Devil orders Henchman to bring more doughnuts after Stickler has made him drop his. Due to his indolence in retrieving all the souls he lost due to Cuphead and Mugman or collecting souls in general, the Devil, according to Stickler, has activated the Bubbles of Failure that entomb everything the Devil cherishes (that he himself designed) to encourage soul collection. If he doesn't collect a single soul within a business day, all assets will remain permanently seized. Henchman also appears in one of those bubbles, heavily implying that, despite the Devil’s rudeness, he genuinely does have affection for him. Near the end of the episode, after The Devil returns to the Underworld, having brought back a soul (the Telephone's), he catches his assistant after the bubbles begin to break, leaving the Fat Demon flattered. He asks if he got more doughnuts, to which he replies that he couldn't as he was in the bubble.

The two demons are the focus characters in "A Very Devil Christmas". The special is focused on the Devil trying to enter Santa's nice list (with Henchman's assistance) and helping him deliver the toys in order to get a toy train. After the Devil learns about the "Nice List" and the "Naughty List", he returns to the Underworld during a round table discussion and learns that Henchman and the other Imps already knew about them. The Devil asks Henchman why he didn't tell him about the "Nice List", to which he replies that he (quite rightly) didn't think it was his type of list as he is evil to the core.

After a visit to the North Pole, where the Devil asks Santa Claus for the toy train he wants and later gets assistance to gain a place on the Nice List by turning into Santa, he and Henchman begin a journey to deliver the gifts for everyone on the Nice List. Throughout the episode, it's shown that Henchman is not only adept at managing his boss' mood swings, but also giving him the right encouragement to snap him out of his slumps. Additionally, another example of the Devil listening to Henchman's advice is shown when the Fat Demon suggests he uses his pitchfork to get inside houses to deliver the presents rather than go through the chimneys, as he had difficulty doing so. With their last destination being Cuphead and Mugman's house, it is then that the Devil discovers that the gift Cuphead wants is the same toy train he wants. Though considering to keep it at first, the Devil eventually lets the little cup have it, who wishes him a Merry Christmas (without knowing that he isn't Santa). As it was something nice to do, the two demons are delighted to see that the Devil's name has been added to the Nice List. When they return to the North Pole, having successfully delivered the presents, the Devil soon turns back to normal. When he asks Santa about a toy train again, Santa tells him that his present is even better than that: the joy of being nice. Though Henchman is touched, the Devil becomes furious and quickly ushers Henchman to return to the Underworld.

     At the end of the episode, the Devil is upset about not getting the train he wanted, even after doing everything he was supposed to, only to be greeted with a surprise: a bigger train with an even better "choo-choo" sound than the one he originally wanted. Believing that it was Santa Claus that brought it to him, he blissfully jumps aboard and starts playing with it. It's then revealed that it was Henchman that built it for him. Smiling from behind his boss' throne, he wishes the Devil a Merry Christmas.

In "Down & Out" the Devil and Henchman come across King Dice again after they decide to go to the "new club" the latter heard about (mainly to avoid going through a ledger review with Stickler). There, they find Dice performing. During the break, the Devil tells Henchman to wait outside and confronts Dice, reminding him of the last time he was unable to capture Cuphead, revealing that, if he failed, he would destroy him. However, instead of being terrified, King Dice reassures him that it's all part of his plan to make up for it: with Cuphead believing to be his "manager", he's planning on getting him to sign a business contract, which gives ownership of his soul directly to the Devil. Hearing this, the demon decides to give his former Number One one last chance. King Dice presents the scroll to Cuphead as a contract that confirms the cup as his official manager, only to be turned down, with Cuphead claiming that "music's out and comedy's in", using Mugman's ventriloquism as an example.

This infuriates the Devil, who proceeds to leave with Henchman back to the Underworld. Just before they get in the elevator, they notice Dice walking out of the barn and the Devil stops him. Near the end of the episode, however, a more positive interaction is seen between the two. While the Devil is very disappointed in King Dice, he admits that Dice "has something that's been sorely lacking from the organization for too long" and how it needs "his glitz, pizzazz, and razzle-dazzle." Though baffled at first, King Dice agrees and the two demons welcome him into the elevator with them.

In "Dance with Danger", the Devil and Henchman appear alongside each other when Chalice makes a deal with the Devil to be resurrected.

In "The Devil & Ms. Chalice", Henchman cheers for the Devil and Chalice after having performed a dance routine. The king of the Underworld and his assistant are later seen observing Chalice to ensure she holds her end of the favor to betray Cuphead and Mugman, and get them to sign soul contracts. After she rips the contract, the Devil becomes infuriated and, after a bit of pushing from Chalice claiming her dancing to be the best, suggests to sort things out with a dancing competition. If she wins, she gets her life and doesn't own the Devil anything. If the Devil wins, he obliterates Chalice.

     Eventually, the Devil wins. Just as he is about to obliterate Chalice with his pitchfork, Cuphead steps in and challenges the Devil to a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" competition. If the Devil wins again, he turns Chalice to ashes and claims Cuphead and Mugman's souls. Beforehand, he orders Henchman to hold his pitchfork (a smaller example of his trust towards his assistant) and begins the challenge with Cuphead, which the latter wins multiple times, subsequently upsetting the Devil more. The Devil desperately demands a rematch but Henchman tells him it's time to go. Admitting to having been defeated, the Devil hangs his head in disappointment. As the two demons head to the elevator, Henchman comforts the Devil and manages to brighten him up a little bit by giving him his pitchfork, as it always cheers him up, and offering to draw him a bath, to which the Devil expresses gratitude.

The Devil is notably a lot less harsh on Henchman, compared to his other minions. Even when Henchman annoys him, the worst the Devil does is just give him a sarcastic, "Thank you, Henchman," even when alluding to things that will bring out the Devil's extreme anger. He generally seems to be the closest thing the Devil has to a friend, being the only demon seen to act as his advisor and generally just caring about the Devil's health and well being, as well as the only demon who the Devil confides in and never seriously threatens in any way, indicating that he genuinely values Henchman's companionship on some level.

### King Dice

Although he is supposed to be his self-proclaimed Number One, the Devil does not really seem to pay attention to King Dice, sometimes even forgetting who he is, until he tells him that he has captured Cuphead (which is not true), as shown in "Roll the Dice". The Devil finally calls him his Number One, but not without warning him that he "hates disappointment". When he learns that King Dice has let Cuphead escape, he threatens him without restraint, then tells him that he is no longer his Number One and fires him as the host of Roll the Dice. King Dice seemingly tries to have a chill and easygoing approach towards his boss, though, The Devil seems to have more respect for Henchman than him.

In "Release the Demons!", after having to comply with his third finest ranking demons, the Devil releases them from the Underworld before King Dice realises he is also required to get Cuphead's soul. When he arrives at the corn maze, that Cuphead and Mugman are at, he eliminates the demons one by one so he can catch Cuphead himself. However, his actions are discovered by Henchman, who immediately reports to the Devil that King Dice is the only one left, though Henchman didn't tell him that the latter had killed all of them. Given the Devil's immediate decision to unleash the Four Horsemen instead of allowing Dice to try to capture the boys, it's most likely that he was still upset about the first time he ordered Dice to do so (which he failed), and really has no trust left for him.

In "Down and Out" the Devil and King Dice cross paths again after the former and Henchman decide to the "new club" the latter heard about (mainly to avoid going through a ledger review with Stickler). There, they find Dice performing. During the break, the Devil confronts Dice and reminds him of the last time he was unable to capture Cuphead, revealing that, if he failed, he would destroy him. However, instead of being terrified, King Dice reassures him that it's all part of his plan to make up for it: with Cuphead believing to be his "manager", he's planning on getting him to sign a business contract, which gives ownership of his soul directly to the Devil. Hearing this, the demon decides to give his former Number One one last chance. King Dice presents the scroll to Cuphead as a contract that confirms the cup as his official manager, only to be turned down, with Cuphead claiming that "music's out and comedy's in", using Mugman's ventriloquism as an example. This infuriates the Devil, who proceeds to leave with Henchman back to the Underworld. Just before they get in the elevator, they notice Dice walking out of the barn and the Devil stops him. Near the end of the episode, however, a more positive interaction is seen between the two. While the Devil is very disappointed in King Dice, he admits that Dice "has something that's been sorely lacking from the organization for too long" and how it needs "his glitz, pizzazz, and razzle-dazzle." Though baffled at first, King Dice agrees and the two demons welcome him to the elevator with them. After this, it could be assumed that the Devil and Dice are starting to be on better terms now or that, at least, the Devil is willing to acknowledge King Dice's talents and abilities.

Despite serving him, King Dice can be seen as a foil to the Devil in the show: both are villainous soul stealers in positions of power, but while the Devil is dreaded and feared by the residents of Inkwell Isles, King Dice is a villain with good publicity and adored by the masses. Their soul stealing tactics are exact opposites; the Devil's carnival steals the souls of those that lose the games there, while King Dice's game show steals the souls of the winning contestants. The Devil's first instinct to getting Cuphead's soul is to chase him down and attack him with fire, while King Dice only resorts to violence as a last resort. Neither of them like Cuphead, but the Devil slowly (albeit temporarily) bonds with him over their shared sense of humour while King Dice progressively hates him more and more as Cuphead continues to fail his (rigged) game show.

Headwriter Deeki Deke believes that the Devil enjoys it when Dice feels like he has something to prove.

### Stickler

The Devil is very annoyed with Stickler, his auditor, because he keeps reminding him that he has not yet succeeded in taking Cuphead's soul. When he makes everyone believe that he has finally succeeded, Stickler does not believe him and reminds him that all souls must be counted, prompting the Devil to burn his account book and order him to do a full recount. At the beginning of the episode "Sweater Luck Next Time", the Devil confesses that he lied just to buy himself some time before Stickler found out, adding that he "hates that guy". Curiously, despite his hatred of him, the Devil does not attack or fire Stickler. He does try to do so once in "Release the Demons!", but it turns out he cannot as Stickler now has the invisible sweater.

### Elder Kettle

While the Devil had heard about the two cups' guardian, he interacts with him on-screen for the first time in "Roadkill", after Elder Kettle hits him with his car and takes care of him, believing him to be a cat. Earlier in the episode, the Devil had activated the Bubbles of Failure that entomb everything he cherishes, unless he captures at least one soul. Although he briefly considers taking Elder Kettle's soul, he begrudgingly decides against it after the latter comes out saying "Mrs. Meow Meow, I love you!", likely due to appreciating his kindness.

### Ms. Chalice

The Devil first met Ms. Chalice after she was killed and sent to Inkwell Hell due to her life as a con artist. Impressed with her musical talent, he offered her the chance to return to life with her ghost powers in exchange for a favor in the future, to which she eagerly accepted. Later, upon discovering that she is close friends with Cuphead and Mugman, The Devil summons her back to Inkwell Hell to convince her to betray the brothers, threatening to kill her for good if she refuses to cooperate. Reluctantly, Chalice convinces Cuphead and Mugman to literally sign away their souls, but tears up the contract at the last minute and tells them about her deal with the Devil, angering him. Chalice prepares to accept her fate, but ends up challenging the Devil to a dance off. She almost wins, only to slip and fall on a bag of marbles Cuphead had given her. Realizing his mistake, Cuphead challenges the Devil to a game of rock paper scissors and wins, saving them both.

### Inkwell Isles Citizens

From the start of the series, he retains his fearsome reputation as the dreaded collector of souls, with most citizens and residents of Inkwell Isles, including the bee cops and even the Cup Brothers outright panicking when they see him and running away in terror, as shown in "Carn-Evil". As the series goes on and the brothers keep foiling his plans, however, the Devil slowly becomes less of a feared figure and more of an incompetent loon, to the point where in "Sweater Luck Next Time", he spends the whole day at the carnival and nobody there seems to find anything strange about it. Additionally, in "Cupstaged", Sally Stageplay easily kicks the Devil out of her theater and doesn't seem to be aware of who he is. Even so, the Devil loves terrorizing them and the Inkwell Isles residents are still terrified of his antics nonetheless, as shown in "The Devil's Pitchfork" and appear to, once again, tremble at his presence, as seen in "The Devil and Ms. Chalice". Still, they were all astonished by his performance during his dance-off with Ms. Chalice. Some of them know him by reputation, others even work for him (specifically King Dice), and some have interacted with him directly (namely Cuphead, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice). The Devil has stolen numerous souls from the town a couple of times (most notably Telephone's), though they were all set free by the Cup Brothers during "The Devil's Revenge!".

## Gallery

A sketch of The Devil in Serpent formThe Devil warning his henchman about the carnival destroyedThe Devil getting angry/frustrated (CarnEvil)Cuphead dodging the bolts of the Devil's pitchforkThe Devil getting angry/frustrated (Sweater Off Dead)"Attention Everyone, we're having the most productive year in a millennia"Comparison of Storyboard and Final productionThe Devil straight off appears in the CarnivalA character card of the Devil LaughingThe devil, as he appears in front of a crowd of people in Carn-EvilThe Devil and Henchman annoyed with Stickler"Stickler! What are you doing here?"The Devil enragedThe Devil LaughingThe Devil thanks HenchmanThe Devil and Henchman in the Gluttony Department"I adore ya, boss."The Devil and Henchman argue while Cuphead and Mugman escape"That is Sally Stageplay?"
## Video

The Cuphead Show! - Party in the Underworld - NetflixThe Cuphead Show! - Calling All Bosses - Netflix

## Trivia

* As seen in the episode "Sweater Luck Next Time", the Devil is shown to be adept at painting, able to magically paint Elder Kettle's fence.
* In the episode Sweater Off Dead, two demons claim that they haven’t had a break for 3000 years, which would confirm that the Devil is over 3000 years old. The fact that Chalice addresses him as an "old guy" also points to this. In the episode A Very Devil Christmas, Santa claims by checking his naughty list that the Devil hasn’t been nice one day « since the beginning of time », implying that the Devil is actually as old as the time itself.
* While he is unquestionably the Devil, there is no mention of any God in the show, let alone a relationship between Him and the Devil. "The Devil's Revenge!" implies the existence of a heaven (not even referred by name) but that's about it. This is likely done to emulate the conventions of the early 20th century where it would be seen as controversial to depict God.
* As the widely feared ruler of the Underworld who schemes to collect Cuphead's soul, he naturally holds the title of the show's main antagonist. Still, while he is also the game's main antagonist, the Devil is not mentioned in the show outside of the episodes in which he takes on a prominent role. He only appears in half of the first season's episodes and goes from the overarching villain whose actions pushes the entire story to the most recurring villain in the show, with plenty of episodes lacking his presence.
* It's implied that the Devil's ability to claim souls is dependent on people willingly taking part in one temptation or another that he's set up but nothing in the rules says he has to tell people what they're signing up for, which makes it easier to lure in his victims. He really pulls a case of this in "The Devil's Pitchfork" after Cuphead screws him just a little too much after the Devil lets it slip that Cuphead can't have his soul stolen anymore. He may not be able to take Cuphead or Mugman's souls without a proper claim but it appears nothing keeps him from kidnapping people wholesale, as Mugman finds out.
* It's implied that a good deal of The Devil's power in the show comes from his pitchfork: When it gets stolen by Cuphead and Mugman in "The Devil's Pitchfork", The Devil finds himself unable to do anything but ask for the boys to give it back to him, with predictable results. In the games, the pitchfork was just a tool The Devil used, with Old Scratch being as strong without it as he was with it. It is explained that the pitchfork holds half of the Devil's power and gives him the power to control fire and teleport; he doesn't need it for shapeshifting, however.
* Once it's revealed that the Devil's soul contracts have expiration dates, it may seem strange that he is content to loaf around and not bother trying to claim an outstanding soul. until Stickler pesters him about it. This makes a lot more sense when one remembers that most of the Devil's methods of obtaining souls (Soul Ball, Roll the Dice, etc.) have claimed souls the instant they're owed, and it was only through Mugman's interference and a *massive* amount of luck that Cuphead didn't meet the same fate. In short, the Devil was unaware of the expiration date because *it's never happened before*.
* The Devil bursting into flames when angry may have been inspired by Hades from Disney's *Hercules*.
* Another Disney villain he bears similarities to is Ursula from *The Little Mermaid*. Both characters are flamboyant soul stealers who are very dark in tone and by nature, with Ursula being a cunning sea witch and the Devil being the king of the Underworld and embodiment of evil. Both of them also have a wicked sense of humour, with Ursula having a generally morbid nature, and the Devil clearly liking watching Cuphead and Mugman run away from him in terror and openly mocking Ms. Chalice's consternation when she turns into a ghost. Both of them also have a melodramatic side, with Ursula lamenting that she's "wasting away" since her banishment, when she's anything but and the Devil expressing his emotions rather strongly. They also have similar tactics in capturing innocent souls; Ursula establishes herself as a beacon of hope for unfortunate merpeople, allowing them to strike deals and business propositions that would supposedly result in their happiness, should they successfully fulfill their end of the bargain while (aside from using Chalice's favour to him in a very similar fashion) the Devil's ability to claim souls is dependent on people willingly taking part in one temptation or another that he's set up but nothing in the rules says he has to tell people what they're signing up for, which makes it easier to lure in his victims.
* The Devil turns red when angry. This resembles his red form in phases 2-4 of his in-game battle.
* The close-up of the Devil's eye in *The Cuphead Show!* intro is similar to his intro animation from his in-game battle.
* It is unknown why soul debts expire so the Devil cannot take their soul from the person they owed him. As from Stickler he says in over a month or 31 days; if one failed to have collected a soul after that time, it reverts to its' original owner, thus prohibiting the Devil from collecting it.
* The Devil speaks in a British accent.
	+ The Devil is one of a few characters in the show to have a British accent rather than an American one, the others being Quadratus, Ludwig, Sally Stageplay and the ghosts Duke, Emma, and Jasper. He speaks in a posh RP accent.
	+ Coincidentally, his voice actor, Luke Millington-Drake, is British in real life.
* He claims to have invented deviled eggs.
* While he normally has square teeth, he sometimes sports fangs, which can vary from long-sharpened canines to a mouth full of sharp teeth.
* In the game, the Devil has no relation with Ms. Chalice, aside of turning her into Ms. Malice, while in the show, she owed a deal with him in order to get herself back to life.
* As a form of respect, his minions usually address him as "sir" and speak to him in plural. An exception to this is Henchman, who refers to the Devil as, simply, "boss" and speaks to him in singular. King Dice initially speaks to the Devil in plural (which is more noticeable in the international dubs) but begins addressing him in singular as the series goes on.
* His liking for singing and dancing, "being a bit of a song-and-dance man himself" as he puts it, could be a reference to the idiom "Dance with the Devil", which means "to engage in risky, often unscrupulous behaviour". This is basically how most characters act when interacting with him.
* It is possible that he doesn't have a specific gender - despite frequently being referred to as male, he has no reaction to being referred to as female in "Roadkill". But he is a boy because of his voice and being called a him all the time
	+ Along with this, head writer Deeki Deke refers to the Devil with she/her pronouns when referring to the events of said episode.
* "Old Scratch", one of his self-appointed aliases in the song, was an actual nickname used for the Devil in old times, especially in South USA.
* His other name, Mr. S might stand for Mr. Satan, which is another name for the Devil.
* During the Devil's dance at the end of his song, if one looks hard enough, the background has what appears to be a pair of photorealistic eyes.
* The Devil is the only major character in the show who does not wear any gloves.
* A running gag in the series is The Devil referring to Cuphead simply as "Cup" and Henchman adding the word "Head" immediately afterwards.
* According to the head writer Deeki Deke, the Devil's favourite food is a filet of souls.
* Sometimes, the shape of the Devil's tail changes at different emotions; it wags when he's extremely happy, outstretches when he's mad or upset, and crooks when he's caught off-guard.
* Though most likely played for laughs, it's revealed in "The Devil's Revenge!" that Old Scratch got his pitchfork as part of a utensil set alongside a giant golden spoon. The Devil tells Henchman to put it away before someone sees it sees it.
* It's possible that he has a liking for the colour pink, as he is often seen wearing that colour many times throughout the series. Additionally, the Bubbles of Failure he designed to encourage soul collection and the towel with his initial in the bathroom are also that colour.
* The Devil is mostly shown wielding his pitchfork with his left hand, implying he is left-handed.
* The Devil seems to be commonly associated with solar symbols throughout the series, all of which appear in numerous scenes and places associated with him, such as his Carnevil, the base of the stage in King Dice's gameshow, and his office. One such symbol appears behind Ms. Chalice during the series' opening sequence, foreshadowing her association with the ruler of the Underworld. Many fans refer to said symbol as a "morningstar", due to the word's association with the fallen angel Lucifer.
* According to Quadratus, it takes a thousand years to master teleportation with the pitchfork. Given his perfect mastery, the Devil has probably met this requirement. In comparison, Cuphead's one attempt was a complete failure. Instead of teleporting, his body parts randomly shifted. However, it seems that there is no need for training to shoot fire or fly with the Pitchfork, since Cuphead and Mugman were able to do so immediately.
* On multiple occasions over the course of the series, he (quite fittingly) displays a few of the "Seven Deadly Sins":
	+ **Pride:** He's very arrogant and full of himself, reveling in watching Cuphead and Mugman run away from him which leads to him accidentally destroying the Soul Ball game and setting all the souls free. It's even later revealed he blames the duo for destroying his carnival, when it was actually *his* fault. He also attributes the success to the Underworld's industriousness to *his* hard work and dedication, and not his overworked minions. This is also the main reason he can't tolerate just letting Cuphead go: he just can't admit that he's lost.
	+ **Wrath:** When he's after something, he'll often end up burning down everything in his path to get it. This usually doesn't end up working in his favour. He ends up burning down his own carnival in the pilot episode while chasing down Cuphead and Mugman, and in "Sweater Luck Next Time", him setting the cups' fence on fire kicks off a chain of events that leads to him being electrocuted by an invisible sweater. He also accidentally incinerates his first and second best groups of demons in "Release the Demons!" due to his inability to control his rage.
	+ **Sloth:** Especially in the earlier episodes, he spends most of the time lazing around in the Underworld while his minions work assiduously on his behalf. Despite having the ability to teleport wherever he wants whenever he wants, he initially only puts up wanted posters for Cuphead rather than actually going back up himself to collect his due, which in turn gives Cuphead enough time to seek out Quadratus for protection. The only time he ever decides to take action is when something goes wrong or when Stickler harasses him to do so. Becomes even more egregious when it's revealed his contracts have expiration dates.
	+ **Lust:** In the sense that he wants to collect every single soul in the world, which he declares is "his greatest obsession".
		- The only sins he hasn't displayed yet are **greed**, **envy**, and **gluttony**.
* Numerous times throughout the show, he's occasionally compared to a cat. Between Cuphead calling him "a large cat-man" in "Sweater Luck Next Time", Cup Rogers' arch enemy being "the evil Cat-Man" and the entirety of the episode "Road Kill", where Elder Kettle mistakes him for a stray cat he names "Mrs. Meow Meow."
* The Devil can carry Mugman (and possibly Cuphead as well) with just one arm, by the shirt.

## External Links

* The Devil (The Cuphead Show!) - Villains Wiki

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/DeekiDeke/status/1594446776861237249?s=20&t=fMlrOJzPwOIUJSbxmlqhbg