Heaven: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''''Heaven''': Dying wish.''<br />

'''''Hell''': Dead certainty.''|Thorax, ''[[9 Chickweed Lane]]''}}

[[Hell]], of course, doesn't have this problem and is ''aaall'' about the visceral and gory [[Discretion Shot|Discretion Shots]]s, so you'll see absolutely [[Fire and Brimstone Hell|Dante-esque hellscapes]] to put [[Mordor]] to shame. [[The Underworld]], being neither particularly pleasant or unpleasant, likewise doesn't have this problem, though if sections of it are equivalent to [[Heaven]], we probably won't see the whole thing.

*** There is no cost per se, you just need to be in a place that intersects with it. Unfortunately, one way to get it to intersect with you is to blow up stars so you can deflect it into your path. ([[Sarcasm Mode|Because that's ''so'' much easier than figuring out its path and putting yourself in its way.]])

** Which heaven? The current version, or the finished product, aka '"New Earth'"? Let's face it; while it may have its moments, our world is at least partially a [[Crapsack World]], even if not to the extent often used for that image -- but according to the beginning of the book, it wasn't meant to be that way. So why not a repaired version that's literally heaven on earth?

* In ''[[The Lovely Bones]]'', Heaven is unique to each person; he or she is given things they most deeply want (except, of course, to be alive again on Earth). For protagonist Susie Salmon, the setting for her Heaven is the high school she never got to attend.

* ''[[The Culture]]'' novels have virtual reality "afterlives". Because a mind can be copied and digitised, it can then be put into a simulation, usually at the point of death. Whilst this means that Heaven (or whatever equivalent exists for each individual alien species) can be made real, it also means that Hell can exist too. And then there are the Sublimed, who may or may not be capable of creating genuinely "real" heavens.

{{quote| Buffy: I was happy. Wherever I ... was ... I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time ... didn't mean anything ... nothing had form ... but I was still me, you know? And I was warm ... and I was loved ... and I was finished. Complete. I don't understand about theology or dimensions, or ... any of it, really ... but I think I was in heaven.}}

{{quote| Buffy: There was no pain / No fear, no doubt / 'Til they pulled me out / Of heaven. / So that's my refrain: / I live in hell / 'Cause I've been expelled / From heaven. / I think I was in heaven.}}

* An odd instance of '"not quite heaven'" that obeys similar rules happens in the [[Inn Between the Worlds|Astral diner]] from the ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode "Threads". It's basically the [[Energy Being|ascended]] realm boiled down to a level that Daniel's unprepared mind can accept (because he hasn't yet made his final choice whether to ascend or stay mortal).

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' had an episode written by [[The Waltons|Earl Hamner]] where an Appalachian mountain man and his dog died, and the afterlife was just like his everyday world. {{spoiler|On a dirt road, a gatekeeper at what was ostensibly Heaven told him no dogs were allowed, so he refused to enter a place that wouldn't take his dog too. Later on, another travellertraveler informs him that was the gate to Hell (and dogs can tell) and Heaven was a way up further.}}

* In the series finale of ''[[Lost]] '', {{spoiler|all of the main characters enter a bright light that is implied to be heaven.}}

** More notablenotably, the heavens are based on different "concepts" of heaven, from most lawful to most chaotic: Arcadia is all about order and Law and society as a perfectly regimented place, ruled with benevolence and justice. Celestia is all about disciplined and constant self-improvement (symbolized by climbing the mountain, when you reach the top... Well, you [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|you don't come back.]] Bytopia is about the pleasures of honest living and hard work. Elysium is about calm and restfullnessrestfulness (so much that people have trouble leaving) [[The Beastlands]] is all about [[Ghibli Hills]] and unspoiled nature alaa la RosseauRousseau. Arborea is all about swashbuckling and High Adventure, while Ysgard is all about competition and contest.

* ''[[In Nomine]]''{{'}}s Heaven has a whole bunch of different areas (called Cathedrals although only some of them are actually buildings), the dead people can hang out in whichever area suits their fancy, there is an endless party, a library containing not only anything that has ever been written, but some things that somebody only thought (or dreamed!) of writing, a number of different places of worship, including one that always appears to be a perfect site of worship for any observer's religious leanings, etc. And all this is just the LOWEST''lowest'' level of Heaven,. the The Upper Heavens are essentially a place of perfect transcendent joy, souls that go there don't come back.. Hell is similarly varied, with an area that's like the stereotypes of Las Vegas writ large, an [[Fire and Brimstone Hell|area with lava pits where people are tortured]], etc. Most souls don't go to either though, they just reincarnate.

* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] ''horrifyingly'' in ''[[Bayonetta]]''. [[Crap Saccharine World|Paradiso]] may LOOK''look'' like [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven]], but it's more like the [[Light Is Not Good|Light-Themed]] version of [[Hell|Inferno]]. Note that [[Dark Is Evil|Hell really IS''is'' a bad place]] and that the [[Our Angels Are Different|Angels]] are [[Eldritch Abomination|EldritchAbominations]]s. [[Cosmic Horror Story|You do the math]].

* Heaven in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' is a good allegorical version; at the lowest levels, it's sort of an earthly paradise: [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0492.html "The Tavern of Infinite One-Night Stands," "the Debate Hall Where You're Always Right", and so on.] However, [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0493.html eventually people go upward toward true perfect enlightenment once their fleshy urges are sorted out.]