Lyle Lipton

"Heaven?! You don’t make millions in technological advances in robotics by NOT experimenting on the poor!"

- Lyle Lipton, explaining why he is in Hell.

Lyle Lipton is a minor character in Helluva Boss. In the season one episode, "C.H.E.R.U.B", he becomes the target of assassination of I.M.P due to his old business partner, Loopty Goopty, wanting to prevent him from taking over the business they co-founded, Lyle-Loopty Robotics.

Appearance
Prior to the aging machine mishap, Lyle was a rather short white man with a mustache and indeterminate hair color with two tufts of hair poking up towards the back. He wore dark gloves, an overcoat, some light colored goggles with spirals on them and what could be a tank top under the coat with brown pants and boots. After the mishap his nose and head underwent rather massive growths easily doubling in size. His mustache is all that remains of his hair, which is now light grey. As an elderly man, he wore a pale blue shirt and a diaper.

In his demon form, Lyle acquired a robotic appearance with a round, spherical body with his head on top and arms on his sides. He wears a light green vest with a dark outline on top and one button on the front, a dark bowler hat with a red stripe, and a pair of light green gloves on his hands. He has mint-green skin with a red triangular patch on his chin, a large bushy light grey mustache, and a pair of red pince-nez goggles with dark red spirals on the lens. With his lower half being a ball and lacking legs, he gets around simply by rolling. His teeth resemble that of piano keys.

Personality
As described by Moxxie, Lyle is a selfish, greedy and authoritarian capitalist. His greed is so great that, when he at first was ready to die, Lyle had a stock photo of money (complete with watermark) that he said goodbye to. He has little to no care about other things, especially when it comes to experimenting upon poor people and despises children (despite admiring their innocence at times). At first he is suicidal and unwilling to live with his old body before the intervention of C.H.E.R.U.B. In the end he saw the value in life after watching the cherubs and imps fight, realizing his life must be worth something if supernatural beings were fighting over it. While appearing to show some affection towards a few of the concepts C.H.E.R.U.B. showed him (such as children indulging in innocence and romance), it ultimately could not overcome his sense of greed.

Skillset

 * Wide Intellect: Lyle is shown to be quite the genius, as he and his business partner invented an anti-aging machine, and co-founded a company that eventually grew into a technological empire.

History
Lyle Lipton was the co-founder of Lyle-Loopty Robotics alongside his business partner, Loopty Goopty. During their life, Lyle and Loopty performed inhuman experiments on poor people to expand both their empire and vast fortune.

Then one day, they invented the De-Age-Ifier, a specialized chamber that could alter the age of anyone within, which they planned to sell to the richest people on Earth. However, being so sure of their genius, they decided to test the machine on themselves rather than on someone-else, and neglected to switch the device from forward to backward. This costly mistake ended up aging them both into fragile old men. Lyle passed out but lived, while Loopty suffered a fatal heart-attack and died. With Loopty gone, Lyle would have the company and the fortune all to himself, but was greatly depressed by his feeble old body, which was dependent on life-support.

Later that day, Lyle attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself by his own air tubes, just when I.M.P. arrived to assassinate him as requested by Loopty. However, C.H.E.R.U.B. arrives on behalf of those who benefited from Lyle's company to convince him to keep on living and use his resources for good. This ends up sparking conflict between I.M.P. and C.H.E.R.U.B., who competed over Lyle's continued existence on Earth.

During his final moments, C.H.E.R.U.B. took him to an auditorium, while Blitzo accidentally murdered an operatic soprano with a falling light. C.H.E.R.U.B. began to fight with I.M.P on the rafters. On the ground, Lyle realized that since supernatural beings were fighting over his life, it must be worth something. Additionally, he can buy anything with money, so he ultimately ends his will to kill himself. Unfortunately for him, however, when Cletus tried to kill Blitzo with a magical crossbow, a stray arrow accidentally let loose a metal beam that landed on a wooden plank, which catapulted a piano in the air, immediately crushing Lyle and killing him instantly. Because of their unintentional involvement in Lyle's death, C.H.E.R.U.B. were then banned from returning to Heaven with no chance of redemption.

He later appeared as a mechanical demon in Hell after his death, explaining how his actions when he was alive condemned him there instead of Heaven, this reuniting him with Loopty, his best friend and deceased business partner.

Gallery

 * Lyle Lipton/Gallery

Trivia

 * Lyle's demon form resembles that of Bigweld from the movie '. He also partly resembles from the ' franchise.
 * Lyle's demon teeth being piano keys is a nod to his cause of death.
 * It is also a possible reference to classic cartoons where a character, crushed by a piano, is then seen with keys having replaced their teeth.
 * Similar to Alastor, he and Loopty Goopty both still retain their human names upon arriving in Hell.