History Main / JudgementOfTheDead

* In ''FanFic/PonyPalsDirkStriderEdition'', {{Author Avatar}}s Dirk Strider and Jeanne Betancourt get together with a [[{{Psychopomp}} demonic cat]] named Minos to judge Acorn for his many crimes and shepherd him into the afterlife. Things quickly get derailed in a very meta way, and Acorn is able to return to the land of the living through a {{Retcon}}.

%% Examples have been alphebetized. Please place your example where it belongs.

-->-- Literature/BookOfRevelation 20:12, New Revised Standard Version

* While there is no singular 'judgement' that happens per individual, the idea of judging people based on the good or bad they did on Earth and sending them to an appropriate afterlife is an essential part of the premise of ''Series/TheGoodPlace''. Each action has a positive (good) or negative (bad) point value, and only the people with the highest positive scores get into [[{{Heaven}} the titular Good Place]], with everyone else save one person sent to [[{{Hell}} the Bad Place]].
** At least that's how the system is supposed to operate. In season 3 the characters discover that it runs off BlackAndWhiteMorality and fails to account for how complicated and interconnected modern life has become. The points system continues to judge people for decisions they have no way of knowing they've made, such as a man losing points for giving his grandmother roses because they were grown with toxic pesticides. As a result nobody has made it to the Good Place in ''521 years''.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[/folder]]

* ''Film/DontEatThePictures'' features Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus helping a 4000 year old Egyptian child solve a riddle that will allow him to be judged by Anubis. Once that's over with, Big Bird then has to provide one of his feathers to be balanced against the child's heart to decide whether he joins his ancestors among the stars.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon "Heavenly Puss" has Tom get squished by a piano (a typical injury that in other episodes Tom would bounce back from, but in this story he actually dies) and ascend via escalator to FluffyCloudHeaven. However, a gatekeeper cat informs Tom that he cannot board the Heavenly Express until he obtains a signed Certificate of Forgiveness from Jerry. Tom has only one hour to complete this mission; failure will result in Tom being condemned to a fiery Hell presided over by a satanic bulldog. Fortunately for Tom, given that[[spoiler: Jerry relents a fatal instant too late and Tom falls into the fiery cauldron just as he was making a dash for the escalator, it turns out that ItWasAllADream.]]

* In ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'''s version of TheUnderworld shown in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', the judgement of the souls is performed by a rotating roster of judges done at the Judgment Pavilion. They decide whether souls go to the Fields of Punishment (for those who did evil), the Fields of Asphodel (for more or less neutral souls), Elysium (for good souls), or in exceedingly rare cases, the Isles of the Blest (for the absolute best souls who do good three {{reincarnation}}s in a row). True to Myth/ClassicalMythology, Minos is one of the judges, although historical figures such as UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson and UsefulNotes/WilliamShakespeare are also mentioned.

This trope is OlderThanDirt, as the judgement of the dead was a key part of Myth/EgyptianMythology. Similar elements exist in many modern religions. ShoutOut{{s}} to to older examples are common; {{expies}} of characters from ''Literature/TheAeneid'' and recreations of the Weighing of the Heart from the Ancient Egyptian [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Book of the Dead]] seem to be especially popular.

* In ''FanFic/PonyPalsDirkStriderEdition'', AuthorAvatar{{s}} Dirk Strider and Jeanne Betancourt get together with a [[{{Psychopomp}} demonic cat]] named Minos to judge Acorn for his many crimes and shepherd him into the afterlife. Things quickly get derailed in a very meta way, and Acorn is able to return to the land of the living through a {{Retcon}}.

* In Myth/GreekMythology the dead were judged by Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus upon entering Hades' realm to determine what their fate in the underworld would be. Especially wicked people were sent to torment in Erebus/Tartarus.

** Laura Moon. She declines to have her heart weighed, and Anubis sentences to TheNothingAfterDeath for her lack of belief. She refuses to go, but then she's resurrected by the power of Mad Sweeney's coin anyway.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': In a tribute to Rodney Dangerfield. In the sketch, St. Peter reads a list of questions to the late comedian who has arrived at the pearly gates, then simply says, "Okay, you can get in." RD is amazed at this, and St. Peter admits, "I just wanted to hear those jokes one last time." RD is nearly reduced to tears upon realizing that he has finally gotten some respect.

* ''Theatre/{{Liliom}}'' has a scene in which Liliom and two other suicides are posthumously brought to a police magistrate's court. (An analogous scene was written for the musical adaptation ''Theatre/{{Carousel}}'' but ultimately deleted.)

%% Examples have been alphebetized. Please place your example where it belongs.

* PlayedWith in ''Series/{{Lexx}}''. Stanley falls off a Moth and drowns on the Planet Water, which the course of season 3 eventually reveals is the in-universe equivalent of Heaven. Its counterpart, Fire, serves as Hell. Stanley is then judged as to which of the two planets his soul should be remanded to. Unfortunately, the judge is Prince the ruler of fire, (and thus, the analog of Satan) who has his own reasons for wanting to condemn Stanley to Fire, effectively making it a KangarooCourt. At the end of the episode, despite having tried his best in a hard universe and ''numerous'' extenuating circumstances, even Stanley ''himself'' is convinced he truly belongs of Fire. And then the whole thing gets subverted since souls on Fire and Water are effectively still alive, and Xev is ultimately able to rescue him.

The judgement typically takes place in an AfterlifeAntechamber, with the character being judged moving on to HeavenAndHell, the SpiritWorld, TheUnderworld, TheNothingAfterDeath, or wherever is appropriate for the setting and deeds. Occasionally, the deceased person might be able to [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu talk the judge out of sentencing]] them at all, and return to the land of the living. In ToHellAndBack plotlines, this sort of [[RulesLawyer Rules Lawyering]] is essential to persuade the judge to let you in or out.

* While there is no singular 'judgement' that happens per individual, the idea of judging people based on the good or bad they did on Earth and sending them to an appropriate afterlife is an essential part of the premise of ''Series/TheGoodPlace''. Each action has a positive (good) or negative (bad) point value, and only the people with the highest positive scores get into [[{{Heaven}} the titular Good Place]], with everyone else save one person sent to [[{{Hell}} the Bad Place]]. [[spoiler:Given the [[ThisIsntHeaven reveal]] at the end of the first season, however, the entire points system as explained by Michael is suspect, although there is still an as-yet-unexplained method for sorting the dead into the good or bad places.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon "Heavenly Puss" has Tom get squished by a piano (a typical injury that in other episodes Tom would bounce back from, but in this story he actually dies) and ascend via escalator to FluffyCloudHeaven. However, a gatekeeper cat informs Tom that he cannot board the Heavenly Express until he obtains a signed Certificate of Forgiveness from Jerry. Tom has only one hour to complete this mission; failure will result in Tom being condemned to a fiery Hell presided over by a satanic bulldog.

!Examples

Note that the judgement does not need to be a formal proceeding, occasion or event; in fact, the less important the judge is in the grand scheme of things, the less likely it is to be an actual trial. A typical depiction (particularly in comedic works) is to have St. Peter simply read over the newly deceased's entry in the all-seeing Book of Earthly Deeds, and make a pass/fail decision then and there. Of course, the RuleOfDrama states that the protagonist is most likely to be refused passage - unless, of course, he can be returned to the mortal realm to right what once went wrong...

Who does the judging can vary-- it can be anyone from {{God}} himself to the GrimReaper to Saint Peter (by Christian tradition the gatekeeper of FluffyCloudHeaven) or any other form of divine lackey. The judge's temperament can fall anywhere from the HangingJudge to TheParagon, but often they are LawfulNeutral, appearing harsh or eerie but devoted to justice. This trope is almost essential to any CelestialBureaucracy.

* Zig-Zagged in ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'''s Golarion setting. Souls naturally progress to an afterlife appropriate to their CharacterAlignment and/or patron deity, so the {{Psychopomp}}s only adjudicate complicated cases like major last-minute conversions or disputed soul-binding pacts. The ultimate authority is their mistress Pharasma, goddess of death, but it's very rare for her to get involved.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon "Heavenly Puss" has Tom Cat get squished by a piano (typical cartoon demise) and ascend via escalator to FluffyCloudHeaven. However, a gatekeeper cat informs Tom that he cannot board the Heavenly Express until he obtains a signed Certificate of Forgiveness from Jerry Mouse. Tom has only one hour to complete this mission; failure will result in Tom being sent to the fiery realm of a wicked bulldog.

So our hero has died. Will he go to {{Heaven}}, to {{Hell}}, or somewhere else entirely? In this trope, our hero (or his soul) appears before a [[TheJudge judge]], who reviews his actions in life to determine where he deserves to end up. Often this is a chance to recap and reflect upon important events and character-defining moments in the story.

The judgement typically takes place in an AfterlifeAntechamber, with the character being judged moving on to HeavenAndHell, the SpiritWorld, TheUnderworld, TheNothingAfterDeath, or wherever is appropriate for the setting and deeds. Occasionally, the deceased person may be able to [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu talk the judge out of sentencing]] them at all, and return to the land of the living. In ToHellAndBack plotlines, this sort of [[RulesLawyer Rules Lawyering]] is essential to persuade the judge to let you in or out.

Who does the judging can vary-- it can be anyone from {{God}} himself to the GrimReaper to some kind of divine lackey. The judge can fall anywhere from the HangingJudge to TheParagon, but often they are LawfulNeutral, appearing harsh or eerie but devoted to justice. This trope is almost essential to any CelestialBureaucracy.

Most versions of FluffyCloudHeaven are incomplete without St. Peter sitting at the gates with a ledger, reading out the deeds of the dead to determine who may enter the pearly gates.

Compare ChessWithDeath, where a character's fate is determined by a test of skill rather than a trial of their actions. Contrast
ItsAWonderfulPlot and YetAnotherChristmasCarol, which also involve supernatural reflection on a character's life, but seek to make a character change their ways rather than determine their fate in the afterlife.

'''This is a DeathTrope, so unmarked spoilers ahoy!'''

-->-- [[Literature/BookOfRevelation Revelation 20:12]]

Quote options:

->''"During your time on Earth, every one of your actions had a positive or a negative value, depending on how much good or bad that action put into the universe.... You know how some people pull into the breakdown lane when there's traffic? And they think to themselves, "Ah, who cares? No one's watching." ''We'' were watching. Surprise!"''
-->-- '''Michael''', ''Series/TheGoodPlace''

----

[[/folder]]

----
'''Indices:'''
* AfterlifeTropes
* DeathTropes
* MoralityTropes
* OlderThanDirt