Line #24 Main/InfernalParadise


1	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/Siren1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hanuda_paradise_better_92.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"The vision of paradise depicted here is distinctive to [[VideoGame/Siren1 Hanuda]]."]]
3	->''"If this really is the work of God, then I'd say She has lousy taste."''
4	-->-- '''Vincent''', ''VideoGame/SilentHill3''
5
6	A vision of paradise that is anything but that -- to the average observer, anyway. However, some people in fiction have built their religion around an idea of paradise that might seem a little... ''off'' to outsiders (to say nothing about some people in reality).
7
8	Not all shady cults and religious nuts belong in this category. If someone believes the god they are trying to summon is going to bring on a new era of hugs and puppies, only to discover to their horror that all it does is unleash mayhem and rain of fire upon the world, it's not this trope. However, if the person knows from the start that their god is going to bring mayhem and rain of fire in its wake, but sincerely sees this as the epitome of ultimate bliss, then you have an Infernal Paradise.
9
10	If a character ''ends up'' in one of these, they may have been ReroutedFromHeaven. Or, if they deliberately sought it out, a HellSeeker.
11
12	Most instances of WarriorHeaven are this for non-warrior cultures (who may [[ThisIsntHeaven mistake it]] for HellIsWar). Contrast AHellOfATime and HellOfAHeaven. Subtrope of EsotericHappyEnding. Not to be confused with ThisIsntHeaven, which is when something that seems Heavenly turns out to be a twisted form of Hell.
13
14	----
15	!!Examples
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
20	* [[spoiler:[[FauxAffablyEvil Isla Yura]]]] of ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' and his BrainwashedAndCrazy [[ReligionOfEvil religious cult]] attempt to [[spoiler:bring the world into [[EldritchLocation the Abyss]] by recreating the Tragedy of Sablier at Oz's second coming-of-age party]]. However, while the cult members truly believe that [[spoiler:the Abyss]] really is a paradise of golden light, [[spoiler:Yura]] knew the truth all along and is only attempting it ForTheEvulz.
21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder:Comic Books]]
24	* In ''ComicBook/SecretSix'', Catman's parents are both dead, and he meets them both on a visit to hell--his abusive father chained up, and his mother a lioness who continuously eats and shits out the father ad infinitum. When he questions Etrigan about why his mother isn't in heaven, Etrigan states that one chooses their heaven, and his mother's heaven is being his father's tormentor in hell.
25	* In ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'', Daxia is a pocket dimension where all the various iterations of Darius Dax, the most evil human being in the universe, go after their reality is [[RetCon "revised"]]. It's a WretchedHive of endless night, crime, violence and death. It's so terrible, that an actual Nazi is just one more face in the crowd. And they love every second of it. When the latest Dax arrives, he actually weeps with joy.
26	* ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'': Beauregard Salt, a SerialKiller so monstrous that the virus that transformed mankind into rage-fueled predatory psychopaths couldn't make him any worse than he already was -- the man didn't even notice that he got infected -- sees the Crossed-ravaged world as paradise. Not only did Salt become a DarkMessiah to the infected, he also enacted a century-spanning plan for them to follow in order to make this paradise last forever.
27	* Inverted in ''ComicBook/TheChroniclesOfWormwood'', where one man gets sent to Heaven as he wanted, where he has to take care of 72 screaming babies for all eternity. [[IronicHell Hey, a suicide bomber gets 72 virgins!]] For everyone else, heaven truly is heaven regardless of faith of lifestyle: as long as they didn't do much intentional harm, they're good.
28	* In ''ComicBook/{{BPRD}}'', Johann has to deal with the ghosts of some frog monsters who don't know how to pass on. He eventually gives them a séance and manages to send them on to an afterlife that appears to be filled with {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. The frog monsters seem overjoyed, while Johann is horrified.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
32	* A joke that's appeared in everything from ''Bizarro'' to ''Non Sequitur'': "Dog heaven is where the bad cats/squirrels go."
33	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' likewise postulated that Dog Heaven is Mailman Hell.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Fan Works]]
37	* An example in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'' is the continent of Baravada, which used to be swarming with monsters and the conquering reptilian Tayhil. However, the skahs warriors wiped them out 25 years ago. Unfortunately, the skahs were, and still are, so addicted to adventure and combat that their now essentially utopian, danger-free world is a dystopia for them. Brox is working to return monsters to the continent to restore their combat utopia. The ActualPacifist four, who much prefer things as they are, are not pleased when they inadvertently provide Brox with the means to do this, [[spoiler: though they manage to spoil these plans in the end.]]
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
41	* The Cenobites' dimension in ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}''. A dimension where pain and pleasure are synonymous. They even lampshade it themselves, like when Pinhead describes himself and the other Cenobites as "Angels to some, demons to others." In fact they are usually summoned by someone "seeking the pleasures of heaven or hell, it doesn't matter which". They tend to change their mind about how much like a paradise that sounds after a couple of decades.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Jokes]]
45	* A joke told of an avid {{FPS}} (''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' in this version of the joke) gamer who discovers he won't be let into Heaven, but St. Peter grants him a consolation prize of three wishes. His wishes? [[GodMode IDDQD]], [[MoreDakka IDKFA]], you can drop me [[{{Hell}} down]] now.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Literature]]
49	* Depending on where they fall in [[ScienceMarchesOn science marching on]], SpeculativeFiction stories might feature the hellish surface of Venus this way for their Venusians.
50	* At least one SpeculativeFiction story ("Desertion" by Clifford Simak; also published as a chapter in his «City») does this for the surface of ''Jupiter.'' In this story, people turn themselves into native lifeforms to explore inhospitable worlds and it works great until people stop coming back from exploring Jupiter. The hero heads out to see for himself where everyone has been going and it turns out that being a Jovian rocks so hard that their explorers don't want to come back.
51	* In the [[{{Satire}} satirical]] short story "Heavens Below - Sixteen Utopias" by Creator/JohnSladek, one of the Utopias is a family picnic in a garbage dump, with the family eating the garbage as if it was a heavenly feast.
52	* Creator/MarkTwain:
53	** In one short story, he deliberately invokes this: the protagonist finds himself in the heaven of an alien race, which is full of beer, women, and song. He is horrified -- he ''wanted'' to go to FluffyCloudHeaven. He and the aliens each see the other's idea of heaven as this trope.
54	** In "Letters From the Earth", Twain's Satan writes back to the other Archangels about how crazy Man's heaven is, clearly portraying it as an infernal paradise. It consists of an incredibly boring endless praise service for the Abrahamic god (as opposed to the Creator Satan and the other Archangels actually served). Here, everyone sings even though most of us are terrible at it, everyone is in an endless prayer service though most humans view church as a terrible chore, everyone has to play music though most of us are bad at it, no one can exercise their intellect though all humans long to, and worst of all, no sex.
55	* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', most of the Darkfriends, Black Ajah and even the Forsaken are following the Dark One because of the "promised rewards" they think they'll get once the Dark One takes over (you know, power, getting to rule the world, etc.). Ishamael seems to be the only one who serves the Dark One knowing that once the Dark One gets out of his prison and takes over the world, he will destroy the world and everyone in it.
56	* In ''Heaven'' by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, planets having been [[TheAssimilator assimilated]] by the religion of Cosmic Unity have been turned into "Heavens". These look extremely {{squick}}y to outsiders, because every -- still living -- inhabitant has been disassembled and their parts blended together for ease of storage, so that you get rivers of blood and the like. However, the combinations of parts that make up individuals are still being kept track of and their minds exist as wholes within a paradise-like [[LotusEaterMachine virtual world]]. Nevertheless, it's ultimately presented as not such a terrific way to be.
57	* "A Song for Lya" by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin presents an alien world where the locals, the shkeen, live in medieval squalor, with no advancement of any sort for thousands of years. They also host disgusting parasites called "greeshka" which shorten their lives and retard their intellects. However, when "Joined" beings die, their minds are preserved in a psychic union which is so pleasant that just the telepathic spill-over to the living Joined is enough to make them indifferent to achievement and personal hygiene; they join this "Union" by going into a network of caves outside their sacred city, finding a giant greeshka, lying down on it and waiting for it to consume them. The bad part is presented as being the shkeen belief that anyone who does not die in the Union is [[DyingAlone utterly alone]]. A psychic couple, Rob (the narrator) and Lya (for whom the story is named), are summoned to the planet to find out why the religion is starting to get numerous human converts, and they discover that each of the "Joined" are truly happy and love everyone, even total strangers, as strongly as a married couple would love each other. [[spoiler: This convinces Lya to join their cult and put herself on the fast track to Union. Her psychic calls to Rob to join her in the Union are waved off by the planetary administrator as being some kind of "psy-lure" but it's left ambiguous.]]
58	* From Creator/WilliamBlake's illustrated novella, ''Literature/TheMarriageOfHeavenAndHell'':
59	--> ''As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity. I collected some of their Proverbs: thinking that as the sayings used in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs of Hell, shew the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments.''
60	* A mild example from the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series. The Karsite description of Heaven is open, grassy plains with lots of sunshine, where the followers of Vkandis can sing his praises continuously. The Tayledras mage Firesong points out that this sounds spectacularly boring, to which Karal, the priest telling him about this, points out that the original prophets and followers of Vkandis were shepherds eking out a living on gloomy, rainy and rocky mountainsides, to which the Karsite heaven would be considered a vast improvement.
61	* In one of Creator/CSLewis' non-fiction books, he speculates on the possibility of earthly animals existing in the afterlife, and the theological conundrums in either answer to the question. He doesn't reach a clear conclusion, but he jokes that Heaven for mosquitoes and Hell for humans might well be the same place.
62	* ''Literature/JohannesCabal'': The titular ImmortalitySeeker claims that God is so obsessed with order that He inflicts DeathOfPersonality on all souls in Heaven. A believer is greatly put out to hear it, but doesn't have a response.
63	-->'''Johannes:''' That's what the Heavenly Host is, countless thousands of bars of light, souls burning, all the same. Your personality lost forever.
64	* "Rautavaara's Case" by Creator/PhilipKDick. The titular character is a technician nearly killed by an accident in space and recovered by a rescue team from Proxima Centauri. Her body is beyond repair but the Proximans put Rautavaara's mind on life-support, effectively making her a BrainInAJar in her dying moments. SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology allows them an experimental glimpse of what her soul is experiencing as it moves on: Jesus Christ welcoming her and her Christian shipmates. The Proximans then offer to make a few "improvements" to this passage to the afterlife, based on their own religious ideals. At their stimulation, Jesus bites into the crew and devours them. The Proximans (or "Approximations") are EnergyBeings who consider the Christian ritual of consuming God's flesh and blood utter blasphemy. Instead, they believe the ultimate bliss is to be eaten ''by'' God. Despite Rautavaara's horror, they [[KnightTemplar insist they are doing her a favor]]. This "experiment" causes a diplomatic rift between them and Earth.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
68	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
69	** Several vampire / demon cults, such as the Order of Aurelius, desire to bring about Hell on Earth by releasing the [[EldritchAbomination Old Ones]]. This seems particularly nonsensical for vampires, who require mortals to feed on to survive. It's probable they think they'll be rewarded in the new order, which given the capacity for gratitude the Old One seen in the series demonstrated towards its summoner (i.e. not making any attempt to save him when he was killed, nor caring that he was) seems unlikely. It doesn't even appear to be a trait of the transformation, because when Angelus met The Master and learned that he considered the purpose of vampires to be worshipping the Old Ones, ceasing only to feed, he promptly decided ScrewThisImOuttaHere.
70	** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and Subverted when Spike decided to help the good guys save the world, because:
71	---> '''Spike:''' We like to talk big, vampires do. 'I'm going to destroy the world.' It's just tough guy talk - strut round with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is I like this world. You've got dog racing, Manchester United, and you've got people - billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs. It's all right here.
72	** Funnily enough, he was saving the world ''from Angelus'', who had the conversation below shortly after he was turned. Either the centuries brought him around, or he took the whole soul incident pretty hard.
73	--->'''The Master:''' Awaiting that promised day when we will arise, ARISE, and lay ''waste'' to the world above.\
74	'''Angelus:''' Why'd you wanna do that?\
75	'''The Master:''' Huh?\
76	'''Angelus:''' Well, I mean... have you ''been'' above lately? It's quite nice.
77	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' : Heaven is basically TheNothingAfterDeath combined with the LotusEaterMachine and ''Film/TheMatrix''. With a bunch of crazy [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]] on the sidelines.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Music]]
81	* Music/EbenBrooks' ''Hey There Cthulhu'', a parody of ''Hey There Delilah'', features a cultist of Cthulhu who longs to bring the dark god to his world, fully aware of what will happen next.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
85	* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''. Franchise/CthulhuMythos cultists know that if the Mythos deities are let loose in the world it will lead to HellOnEarth, but they try to bring it about anyway because they're totally insane so hell on earth sounds wonderful to them.
86	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
87	** There is a tale of a full battalion of soldiers who wandered into the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Eye of Terror]] and landed on a planet ruled by Khorne. Now they are cursed to fight the planet's daemons to the death, only to be revived every day. [[BloodKnight Those guys happen to be Orks]], so they consider it WarriorHeaven.
88	** The Fall of the Eldar was caused by the Eldar being so depraved on a societal level that it birthed an entire new Chaos God. Slaanesh, prince(ss) of excess, who now delights in consuming the souls of the Eldar, and whose followers inflict physical and mental sensation on each other and their enemies (pleasure and pain, but mostly pain). It turns out some of the Eldar were actually working ''towards'' this happening, as they were hoping to create a never-ending source of physical sensation. [[FateWorseThanDeath They got their wish.]]
89	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': Nagash, the god of death, ultimately plans to bring all the Mortal Realms into an empire of undeath: static, unchanging, and entirely under his tyrannical control. While the vast majority of his servants don't really have the free-will to decide if they like this or not, he does have worshippers, living and undead alike, who approve of the concept. In the novel "The Last Volari" one his vampiric worshippers explains how being immortal means watching the world around you constantly changing and slipping through your fingers, never staying the same. To her, the world Nagash seeks to create would erase that burden, because it would be a world eternally locked in a single state of still death.
90	* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' one of the major factions of the white mana New Phyrexians believe in the "Flesh Singularity"; when all life has been sutured and woven and riveted into a [[BodyHorror single amalgamation of flesh and metal]]. Only in this way can they achieve perfect unity.
91	* Creator/WhiteWolf's TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness setting.
92	** ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension''. The Nephandi have a thing of willingly wanting to bring destruction to the world, and in the case of Malfeans, want to help [[EldritchAbomination the Wyrm]] turn it into an eternal, rotting hell, similarly to their [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Black Spiral Dancer]] counterparts
93	** As mentioned above, [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse the Black Spiral Dancers]]. They believe that the Wyrm was driven mad by being trapped in the warp and weft of reality by the Weaver (technically correct), and thus the best way to serve the Wyrm is to spread enough corruption and decay that the bonds loose and their (now completely batshit) lord and master can get loose. Whereas Gaian werewolves have sacred places that are effectively glades and oases, Black Spiral Dancers like to commune in toxic waste pits.
94	** Signature character of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', Sascha Vykos has a similar goal to this, wanting to create a 'vampiric utopia' out of the [[BodyHorror flesh and bones of thousands of people]]. Hilariously, they got the idea from their [[AGodAmI batshit insane]] teacher, Michael. Fortunately for, well, everyone, Sascha really is no closer to achieving this goal.
95	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':
96	** The whole hierarchy of death (the [[EldritchAbomination Neverborn]], their Deathlord servants, and the Abyssal Exalted) is directed to follow the idea that the complete CessationOfExistence that would come about by feeding all of Creation into Oblivion would bring about eternal peace and bliss. This is mainly because the Neverborn themselves [[AndIMustScream have been dealing with flesh-eating bacteria of the soul for millennia on end]], and can't pass on as long as Creation exists to fetter them to it. And even then, many of their Deathlord servants are in it for their own ends, with only three really preaching the blessed peace of Oblivion.
97	** This is also a strong theme of [[SocialDarwinist Cecelyne, the Endless Desert]], one of the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Yozis]], and thus passes on to her Infernal charges via her Charm set. As she wants those who follow her to be [[DarkMessiah priests of a gospel of the strong over the weak]], many of her Charms rely around the creation of holy lands (by inflicting desolation on an area) and the production of manna from heaven (in the form of delicious locusts that will turn anyone who eats enough of them into a creature of darkness).
98	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
99	** Some of the Outer Planes (where souls go after death) can be like this, since there is at least one for every CharacterAlignment (and they are accessible by mortals through Plane Shift and similar spells). The Heroic Domain of Ysgard probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, being basically a giant battlefield where everyone fights endlessly, only to come back to life every day. The Norse would have loved it. Olidammara's realm is an eternal party filled with wine, women, and song, but probably wouldn't appeal to a straitlaced paladin very much. Elysium is so pleasant that it's impossible ''not'' to feel good while you are there...but you will eventually lose your memories, and many would rather avoid that.
100	** Even some of the ''bad'' afterlives are acceptable to their inhabitants. Kobolds are the [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]] of the universe, and their afterlife (assuming they worship the evil Kurtulmak) would seem to reflect this; they are packed in like sardines in a giant hot cave, with little room to move, which would be an AndIMustScream eternal fate for most. The kobolds like it fine, however; they are safe and never hungry, which is better treatment than most of them got while alive.
101	** TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'s Beastlands could definitely fit this bill, despite being considered NeutralGood. The dead are reincarnated as animals and "nature red in tooth and claw" is exaggerated for BlackComedy. The reborn animals retain their sapience. Anyone want to sign up for the life of a sapient rabbit or other prey animal just waiting for some other intelligent being to hunt you down for dinner?
102	** A common theological question raised amongst D&D fans is "why would anyone in this setting be evil when the Outer Planes where evil souls go are so uniformly unpleasant?" The inevitable answer to this question is one part this trope, and one part pointing out that most consciously evil individuals are so arrogant that they expect that they'll get special treatment upon death, rather than ending up at the bottom of the infernal FoodChainOfEvil, while others either [[ObliviouslyEvil don't see themselves as evil in the first place]] or are simply [[StupidEvil too short sighted]] to worry about the afterlife in the first place. Of course, many evil doers simply try to cheat death by becoming immortal or attaining godhood, while others actively worship dark gods and fiends in return for favourable treatment in this life ''and'' the next.
103	* Played around with in ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent''. All demons are looking to achieve their InfernalParadise, their personal Hell, as part of their end-goal, but what that actually ''is'' varies between demons, and some are particularly surprising. For example, there are demons who seek a Suburban Hell, which is literally nothing more than settling down to a nice, quiet, ''normal'' human life with family and friends somewhere. Perhaps the closest examples of this are the Colonial Power and Hellscape paths for Hell-seekers presented in the ''Demon Storyteller's Guide''. Colonists want to escape the God-Machine by seeking refuge ''elsewhere'', to the point of trying to found colonies in defunct timelines, alien worlds and the setting's various {{Dark World}}s. The Devils, on the other hand, want something similar to the Colonists, but deliberately stylized to resemble more classic depictions of hell -- as in, stocked with not only loyal servitor-monsters, but ''also'' damned enemies suffering in endless torment for the Devil's amusement and pleasure. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Other demons almost invariably turn on Devils once they realize what the Devil's Hell actually entails.]]
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Video Games]]
107	* Crazy cultist Claudia in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' is convinced that the deformed monsters, bleeding walls, rusting landscape and all the other lovely things the DarkWorld has to offer are a beautiful example of God's love and the wonderful paradise she's building. Vincent responds with the above quote. WordOfGod has said that everyone's vision of Otherworld is different, and the player only ever sees it through the main character's eyes. It's likely that Claudia, at least up until that point, really ''was'' seeing paradise. Which, [[FridgeBrilliance if you think about it]], [[UnwittingPawn is actually kind of sad]]. An AlternativeCharacterInterpretation is that she was seeing ''exactly'' what Vincent was seeing. It's just a matter of conditioning; since Claudia was brought up as part of the Cult, her worldview is so alien that she genuinely does see the resultant DarkWorld as paradise despite its hideousness, because that's what she's been conditioned to believe.
108	* The Mana cult in ''VideoGame/Siren1'' has an [[OurZombiesAreDifferent unique take on the whole ever-lasting life thing.]] Not everybody involved knows just ''how'' sinister their religion actually is, but the various religious objects you can collect in the game still paint a rather creepy image of the paradise these people yearn for.
109	* The demons from ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' would have you believe that their worlds are like this. Given that the cinemas describe seas of sulfur, hordes of terrible monsters and Home-Ec classrooms that you may never return from, they might have a point.
110	* A more subtle example: as part of a deal with [[EldritchAbomination The One King]], [[TheDragon Valfred]] and his followers in ''VideoGame/SuikodenTierkreis'' aren't erased from existence when the One King is summoned, instead living in the "one true world" of perfect order. The heroes actually get to see this world, and [[spoiler:it's a GroundhogDayLoop of each person's perfect day.]] But that's not this trope. What's this trope is when [[spoiler:they realize that their memories don't match, and they can't all have lived the same day. Then they see this "paradise" from the outside, as those in it blindly wander through the ruins of the normal world, [[LotusEaterMachine hallucinating the presence of their friends and family]]. And Valfred ''knew'' it was all an illusion--he simply could not let go of the family he lost, and he was willing to sacrifice everything and everyone for their imaginary resurrection.]]
111	* ''VideoGame/{{Geist}}''. The main antagonist describes his plans involve blotting out the Sun, boiling the sea, and setting fire to the landscapes, turning it into a "paradise".
112	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
113	** The Mythic Dawn's afterlife in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' is called "Paradise" but is actually quite hellish for the formerly human residents. A few of them do seem to like it there; most don't.
114	** A point of conflict among certain werewolves in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' is that, because of their wolf-spirit, they are [[ReroutedFromHeaven destined]] for [[EgomaniacHunter Hircine's]] [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunting grounds]] when they die instead of the Valhalla-esque Nord afterlife of Sovngarde. A few are looking for a cure to fix this, while others count it as a benefit and go willingly as Werebeasts are Hircine's favorite creation, and serve directly at his side as his bloodhounds instead of being prey, so it's not an ''un''pleasant eternity if one already enjoys the thrill of being a Werewolf while alive.
115	* ''VideoGame/{{Turgor}}'''s Void is a bleak, purgatory-like realm on the brink of destruction. [[KnightTemplar The]] [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Brot]][[BodyHorror hers]] call it their heaven, and not unjustly so, given that they come from the Nightmare, an even ''more'' hellish world. [[spoiler: On a grander scale, every Limit is heaven to the ones below it and hell to the ones above it; were there any Limits below the Nightmare save [[CessationOfExistence Absolute Death]], ''the Nightmare'' would seem like heaven to them.]]
116	%%* The Twilight's Hammer cult in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is all over this.
117	* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'', the titular order's true agenda is to bring about "mankind's greatest wish"[[spoiler:: the reign on earth of Count Dracula. Ecclesia's leader, Barlowe, 'reasons' that since [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil Dracula draws his power from the evil of men's hearts, and he continues to resurrect time and again]], humanity clearly desires his presence]].
118	* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
119	** No matter ''which'' [[OrderVersusChaos utopia]] [[MultipleEndings you get]] humans do NOT have it easy. On the one hand you have Chaos, which has as its ideal world one where [[TheSocialDarwinist the strong do whatever they want]] no matter how horrible with no laws or organizations to stop them and the weak are constantly preyed upon. The alternative of a Law utopia? Well, the strong in society wouldn't be allowed to do anything like that to the weak. Because God is going to be the strongest, [[GodIsEvil morally ambiguous at the best of times]] and usually [[MindRape doesn't]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill tolerate]] [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul any]] [[FateWorseThanDeath dissent or strife]]...
120	** The ThirdOption in the original game is to screw both sides and create a more balanced, humane society in which people have freedom, but with restrictions to protect the weak and rein in the strong, and in which different philosophies and both humans and demons are allowed to coexist... but canonically, both the Chaos and Law sides exploit the freedom, fairness, and permissiveness of this society to undermine it and enact their own "utopia," with Law ultimately winning out and creating the society we see in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII''.
121	* In ''VideoGame/CallOfTheSea'', the island off the coast of Tahiti where the cult of [[Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth Dagon]] originated slowly drives Harry and his group insane. They find the atmosphere oppressive, ominous, and even corruptive, with numerous people ending up dying, fleeing, or trying to kill their teammates. However, to Norah, it's a beautiful place where she experiences serenity like she never has before, because [[spoiler:she's a descendant of Obed Marsh and therefore, a fish person.]]
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:WebComics]]
125	* The Sithrak cult from ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' are eager to tell you that Sithrak will torture your soul for all eternity, but why not worship him anyway? Subverted -- it turns out Sithrak is actually a pretty nice guy who was just an angsty teen when he wrote down the poetry they're taking as holy texts. The cult assumes he's toying with them and even more sadistic and cunning than they imagined.
126	* ''Webcomic/{{Sacrimony}}'': Every soul is sentenced to an afterlife based on the virtue or vice they exhibited the most; good souls go to districts in Dawn to be rewarded, bad souls go to penal colonies in Dusk to be tortured. This would be okay except good souls in one district are forcefully banned from visiting their families in other districts, let alone their less than perfect families in Dusk. The god in charge of judging spirits sees the majority as deranged, and treats all souls as convicts to be sentenced to reward or punishment, forcing good souls where they see fit even if the souls want to comfort their family in hell. This is exactly as screwed up as it sounds, AND the district of the Loyal is in complete shambles: a desert city filled with crumbling buildings, disfigured effigies, and lots of sand in the face. Most in the Loyal district become agitated and angry from their pitiful reward, and being separated from their family and ancestors by law doesn't help things. Meanwhile, TheFundamentalist group spends their days doing nothing but endless prayer to broken statues and silent gods, content with daily life and convinced that true heaven requires further obedience, abusing any who show signs of rebellion. As stated by the ruler of the Loyal district (who has become a massive dick from being imprisoned in a gilded cage for far too long):
127	-->'''Siphram''': Ankhiel and Dawn are full of lies. They lure you in with the promise of a grand reward, but you never truly get the reward you wanted. You will never see your loved ones ever again and you will wander lonely, eternal and aimless. A golden kingdom is nothing without the ones you wish to share it with.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Web Original]]
131	* If the Church of the [[PiecesOfGod Broken God]] of the Website/SCPFoundation universe ever manages to reunite all the pieces of their "god", the result will most likely be everything on Earth (''including the Earth itself'') turning into clockwork.
132	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GjCRWeG_AQ More Communist than the Communists]] by [[WebAnimation/DarkMatter2525 Darkmatter2525]], which compares Heaven to Communist regimes.
133	* ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'': Heaven is portrayed as an okay place...if you're an angel living in one of those homes made of jewels. If you're a human who has been totally and blindly faithful, you get the ideal standard of living in the ''Middle Ages'': becoming a serf to an angel, where no bandit will steal your crops, but you will be forced into working for a demon [[spoiler: Then there's the concentration camp that Michael establishes]].
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Western Animation]]
137	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
138	** Elder Garth from the synagogue of Anti-Semites, who wants to defeat Moses and bring forth the age of Haman.
139	** This is how the {{Goth}} Kids saw their worship of [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Cthulhu]]. They grow disillusioned when [[MundaneFantastic things more or less go on like normal]], despite the Dark God teaming up with [[TokenEvilTeammate Cartman]] to destroy hippies and synagogues around the world.
140	-->'''Pete:''' I thought that when Cthulhu rose from the dead all was gonna be darkness and pain. I thought at ''least'' school would be canceled!
141	** In a related matter, {{Satan}} wound up getting his [[DomesticAbuser boyfriend]], Saddam Hussein, sent to Heaven, which was otherwise populated only by Mormons who cheerfully spend eternity putting on plays. He clearly considers this a far worse punishment than Hell, [[AHellOfATime with its odd mixture of torture and luaus]].
142	* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU The Saga of Biorn]]'': the protagonist seeks honorable death to gain entrance to Valhalla, however he makes the mistake of helping a convent of Christian nuns...
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Real Life]]
146	* Heaven for Viking men was an endless[[note]]at least until Ragnarok[[/note]] cycle of fighting battles, followed by drinking mead taken from the udder of a magical goat that heals all wounds. After a night of feasting, the men would battle all day once again. It was expected that all Vikings should think that constant battle and feasting is [[TestosteronePoisoning just awesome]]. There's a certain amount of both FridgeBrilliance and ValuesResonance when you realise this would be an awful lot like getting together with your buddies to play violent video games and sink a few bevvies between games. [[MundaneAfterlife For eternity.]]
147	** ValuesResonance for at least one former soldier in the Civil War, who speculated perhaps Heaven would be like the war, where both sides would get together, play checkers, drink coffee and whisky, smoke, fight in battle, and then do it all over again. Creator/HarryTurtledove, who often writes Civil War related fiction, did the same idea (quite possibly inspired from this, since he researches thoroughly on all his subjects and is a historian) in a short story about an old veteran finding out Heaven is like this for him after dying.
148	* Many atheists see monotheistic / Abrahamic depictions of Heaven as this, since they'd be forced to spend eternity with a group of devoutly religious people. Or in regards to some depictions of heaven, like spending all of eternity singing repetitive praises to God while living with the knowledge that many many people, most likely including loved ones are suffering forever in Hell. Worse, some Christians like Thomas Aquinas have said watching the damned be tormented will be ''entertainment'' for them in Heaven. Some Christians believe that [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+21%3A4&version=KJV Revelation 21:4]] means that God will provide divine comfort to those whose loved ones will not be joining them in Heaven. Of course, it could come off as GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul to some if true.
149	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_long_spoons One allegory for Heaven and Hell]] holds that both feature people chained to benches in front of a feast, restrained in a way that prevents them from feeding themselves. Everyone gets a spoon long enough to reach the other people at the table, but while people in heaven feed each other, those in hell, being selfish, try only to feed themselves and starve.
150	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / InfernalParadise