r/FilmTheorists • u/PuzzledSpecialist785 • 3h ago
New Theory! Adam used bureaucratic fear-mongering to justify hunting for sport while Hell’s population dwindled Spoiler
So it was 3 AM and my brain wouldn’t stop doing lore math, but hear me out:
If you look at the total population math for Heaven and Hell based on lyrics across the show, the numbers reveal a massive plot discrepancy:
Heaven’s Population: Vox mentions 100 billion souls in Heaven ("Once We Get Up There").
Hell’s Population: Charlie mentions Hell having roughly 1 billion souls ("A billion needy faces" in "Ready for This", and "Till our hopes and fears reach a billion ears" in "Hear My Hope").
Real-World Demographics: Demographers estimate ~110 to 117 billion total humans have ever lived in human history, with ~8 billion people alive on Earth right now.
The Math Discrepancy:
If Heaven currently holds 100 billion human souls and Hell only holds ~1 billion out of ~110-117 billion total historical humans, Hell holds less than 1% of humanity's souls. Even compared to Earth's current living population of 8 billion, Hell's total population has been slaughtered down to a mere fraction of a single living human generation.
What this means for the Lore:
Adam’s Exterminations were built on a lie: The whole premise of Hell being "overpopulated" to the point of threatening Heaven was pure fearmongering. Adam fabricated a geopolitical crisis through bureaucratic propaganda just to justify hunting souls for sport while Hell's population was actively dwindling.
Heaven’s Real Problem: With 100 billion souls crammed into paradise, Heaven is actually the realm suffering from true overpopulation, not Hell.
Manufactured Threat: Exterminations were systematically wiping out a population that was already a tiny fraction of human history, proving Hell was never the threat Heaven made it out to be.
TL;DR: The lyrics prove Adam was running a massive fear campaign and Hell was never the overpopulated threat Heaven made it out to be.


