| “ | You work nine to five and you get weekends off! "She" only gives Sundays off and I'm the bad guy! She doesn’t even offer dental! | „ |
| ~ Mephistopheles tells Sock about the specifics of his job, mentioning and complaining about Providence. |
| “ | Yeah, well, I’d kill my parents too if they named me Sock. | „ |
| ~ Meph to Sock. |
Mephistopheles is the overarching antagonist of a webcomic and a short film Welcome to Hell by Erica Wester.
He is the ruler of Hell and CEO of Sinnergy, LLC, who hired Napoleon Maxwell "Sock" Sowachowski a homicidal earthbound demon who got in Hell after killing his parents and himself to drive teenage boy Jonathan Combs to suicide.
Mephistopheles was portrayed by an animator Neil Morrissey.
Appearance[]
Mephistopheles looks like a tall middle aged man. He has ginger hair with two triangular sideburns, similar bangs, and a goatee. He wears a purple business suit and white undershirt with a flame pin, the logo of Sinnergy, on the left lapel. The suit's pants and shoes fade to black.
Personality[]
Despite the fact that he is a literal iteration of the Devil, Mephistopheles looks and behaves like a decent, good-natured and organized businessman. He also likes to make jokes and puns.
However, periodically his true devilish nature shows itself, especially when he describes what suffering Jonathan will go through in Hell, when Sock will be able to force him to kill himself, and also when he quite coldly threatens to "fire" (literally) Sock in case he can't do the job.
Mephistopheles is engaged in the renovation of Hell and hardly copes with it, crying out loud when he talks about it, which may hint at his emotional instability. He also believes that he has a better "workplace" than Heaven, perhaps, since he holds a personal grudge with the Providence.
Biography[]
Background[]
Mephistopheles meets Sock.
Providence the ruler of Heaven created Mephistopheles with the intent of having some sort of partnership with him. A disagreement with Providence led to his residence in Hell. Shortly before the events of Welcome to Hell, Mephistopheles begins to renovate Hell.
Welcome to Hell[]
After killing his own parents during a sleepwalking episode and killing himself, Napoleon Maxwell "Sock" Sowachowski ends up in Hell, where Mephistopheles meets him and offers him a job. Ruler of Hell puts Sock in the position of a demon that should haunt people, drive them insane and force them to kill themselves. Sowachowski goes to the living world to torment the gloomy teenager Jonathan Combs.
Meph tells Sock about Hell renovation.
Sock tries to get his victim pissed off and frustrated for a week or a month, preventing Combs from living peacefully and studying at school, but he doesn't succeed, because Jonathan is too detached to react to his vain attempts and only repeats so that he want Sock out of his house.
Mephistopheles appears and says that if Sock fails to achieve his goal of driving Combs to suicide, he will be "fired", literally.
Welcome to Hell 2 - [Part 1][]
Sock continues to try to get Jonathan to kill himself for a week. One day, he reads Jonathan's diary and gets electrocuted. Mephistopheles explains to Sock that demons have no right to touch the personal belongings of people from the world of the living, unless they have previously established a strong emotional connection with them. Meph gives Sock his Employee handbook so that he can familiarize himself with other rules.
Sock reads the handbook and Jonathan sees it and takes it away from him to learn more information about the physiology of Sock and be ready for his next attacks. But, suddenly, Jonathan falls unconscious, and his mom hears the sound of a body falling through the wall. Mephistopheles appears and possesses Jonathan's body to deceive his mother, and then falls out of the window.
Quotes[]
| “ | Welcome to Hell. Would you like a hand? | „ |
| ~ Mephistopheles welcomes Sock in Hell. |
| “ | See, I’m currently in the process of having Hell renovated. Everyone’s off the hook right how. The only one suffering… is ME! | „ |
| ~ Meph complains to Sock about his situation. |
| “ | Oh, come off it, Sowachowski, I already have your soul. Y’think I’m gonna challenge you to a fiddling contest or something? | „ |
| ~ Meph to Sock. |
Trivia[]
- Mephistopheles is named after the German demon of the same name, also called "Mephisto". He first appears in the legend of Faust, in which Faust makes a deal with Mephistopheles to exchange his soul for magical powers.
- As early as 2007, initial versions of Sock, Jonathan, and Mephistopheles appeared in online media published to Wester's social media accounts. Formal manifestations of their story began with the dropped 2010 to 2011 Welcome to Hell webcomic and later Wester's 2013 Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) graduation film, also titled Welcome to Hell.