Hells Belles
| Web Series Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Hells Belles |
| Creator: | Jaysea Lynn aka sea.ya.later |
| Premiere date: | 4th October 2021 |
| Website: | The Hells Belles TikTok Playlist |
| Genre: | drama, comedy, angst, found family |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
This article or section needs expansion. |
Hells Belles is a TikTok webseries by sea.ya.later, who plays all the characters, about the lives of the souls who run the help desk in hell, dealing with the newly arrived humans who are often not happy to learn they are going to hell.
With nearly 500 episodes as of March 2024, the series is very popular, with many episodes far exceeding 1 millions views. As the series grew in popularity, a fandom grew around it, first in the TikTok comments section; then in other TikTok videos via stitches, duets or reviews; and then out into other fannish spaces such as Tumblr and Archive of Our Own.
Canon
In hell, a group of souls manage the Hellp Desk, where those who have died go to find out exactly what is going to happen to them in the afterlife. The Hellp Desk is manned by a core group of characters: Lily, Penny, Sharkie, Judy and Ruggy. They are often joined by other characters from different aspects of the afterlife, including: demons Bel, Greg and Dante; succubus Angel; Tech Support John; and a rotating cast of newly arrived souls at the desk who range from bewildered to scared to belligerent to outright hostile.
While comedy is frequent throughout the episodes and longer story-arcs, the web series also touches on many serious topics including family rejection, bigotry, suicide, domestic abuse, and societal problems. There are long-term storyline interwoven between one-off skits and episodes, such as Ruggy's redemption arc and Sharkie learning more about their biological mother and processing what happened to them as a child when they were alive.
sea.ya.later, under the username sea_ya_later, posted an official prequel work to Archive of Our Own titled 'For Whom the Belle Tolls', which told the story of how Lily arrived in hell, met Bel and Sharkie, and how the Hellp Desk came to be. The work was taken down sometime late 2023, as sea.ya.later planned to release it as a novel. The first two chapters can be read on the Wayback Machine[1].
sea.ya.later also posted 'Pull Night', another prequel one-shot for the character Asmodeus[2].
Hells Belles has had a canonical crossover with TikTok webseries Death and Martha (aka "Yes, my mortal companion?"), where the actions of Bel and Sharkie in Hells Belles caused catastrophic events for the universe which had to be fixed by Martha.
Fandom
The comments sections of the Hells Belles videos are active, with people responding to the events of the episode, discussing and predicting future story-arcs, or talking about how the episode affected them, particularly in the episodes where more serious topics are covered.
As of March 2024, there are 103 fanworks for Hells Belles on Archive of Our Own. Works focused on the character of Sharkie, found family works and works focusing on characters healing from the trauma in their lives are all fairly popular. The canonical pairings from the web series are the most popular tagged pairings and there are a number of crossovers, including with Death and Martha.
Pairings
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfiction
- A fundamental beauty to (after)life by Portmanteau818, a Penny focused work.
Fan Art
Fan Vids
- Meet the Hells Belles by roza_pillowz
Resources, Archives and Fannish Links
- Hells Belles tag at AO3
- Hells Belles tag at Tumblr
- Hells Belles at TVTropes