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Author: TTurtle

Sep 22nd 2011 at 7:14:17 PM

I like IntermediateAfterlife or one of the other name suggestions that suggests what this IS rather than getting bogged down in a debate about what it's called.

If you do name this Purgatory, you have to accept that there will ALWAYS be geeky Catholics coming into the wiki, rolling their eyes at this trope, and protesting "But that's not what purgatory means!" Eventually someone will bring the trope into the trope repair shop and suggest it needs a rename. Wouldn't it be more logical to avoid that issue now, since it is clear that it WOULD be an issue?

ETA: Go to dictionary.com and look up the word purgatory. The first definition is the specific Catholic definition. The one this trope employs only shows up as the third definition. So, while "any condition or place of temporary punishment, suffering, expiation, or the like" is a definition of a purgatory, it isn't the most common one, and it's not going to be what most people think of first.  ETA: Even that definition doesn't actually cover this trope. As Elwoz already pointed out, even the broadest (accepted) use of purgatory is usually restricted to a temporary place of punishment.