History Main / NostalgiaHeaven

* ''VideoGame/ToTheMoon'' ends with [[spoiler:Johnny and River as children meeting one another in what's implied to be their first meeting place]].

* In Episode 29 of ''Anime/WolfsRain'' the dead or dying Toboe has a vision of himself as a pup with his beloved human Granny (whose death he always felt guilty over).

* In Episode 29 of ''Anime/WolfsRain'' the dead or dying Toboe has a vision of himself as a pup with his beloved human Granny (whose death he always felt guilty over).
%%* The end of last episode of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' if you get past the MindScrew location.

* At the end of the original ''Anime/YuGiOh'', when The Pharaoh passes on, we see him walking through the threshold of the door to the afterlife. As that happens, his school jacket fills the entire screen for a moment, after which it is now his cape. He appears as he was during the Millennium World arc, and he's in Ancient Egypt with the High Priests.

* A variant is used in ''{{ComicBook/Hitman}}'''s final arc, with Tommy's DyingDream of seeing all his friends again in a version of Noonan's Sleazy Bar where the only rule is "You have to leave your guns at the door."
* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheLastRonin'': [[spoiler:After [[TheHeroDies Michelangelo's death]], he's seen reunited with his predeceased brothers in New York City as it used to be back when he was a teenager]].

* ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/1016261 All The Stars Await]]'' (somewhat NSFW) has the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original Enterprise crew]] spending their afterlives back on the ship in a kind of everlasting AndTheAdventureContinues scenario. It's actually rather sweet, although one reviewer ''did'' point out that [[OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding it's probably only really great for]] [[TogetherInDeath Kirk and Spock]], and for Sulu ([[StatusQuoIsGod now back in the role of helmsman for what will most likely be all eternity]]) and Uhura, ([[Series/TheBigBangTheory answering the space phone]] forever) it's probably more like HellOfAHeaven.

* In ''Theater/TheBlueBird'' the dead grandparents' Heaven is exactly like their home in life, and they work on their usual occupations. We're reminded that no one ever really dies, but they sleep most of the time, only [[AnAesop coming awake when people visit their graves or remember them]].

%%* At the end of the AIDS Drama ''Longtime Companion'', the three protagonists are joined on the beach by everyone who died for a huge party fantasy sequence.

* This was also the plot in ''Film/TheShining'', where dead people stay in the hotel forever as ghosts at a 1921 (1945 in the book) party. Of course, this isn't actually a ''reward'', as many of the ghosts died gruesome deaths in the hotel and are trapped repeating their crimes for all eternity (most notably one of it's owners, Horace Derwent). In reality, they're little more than puppets for the GeniusLoci of the hotel itself.
* In ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}'', Rose apparently died and went to the Titanic as it once was. The DVD commentary said that it could be what happened, ''or'' that Rose is just dreaming it.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': At the end of the [[Literature/TheLastBattle last book]]; the characters see the professor's old home, which had been destroyed. It turns out they are in heaven ("The England within England, the real England"), where "no good thing is destroyed".

* The Creator/HarryTurtledove short story "The Last Reunion" starts with an old general returning to Richmond in 1932 for a United Confederate Veterans' reunion, and ends with him [[PassedInTheirSleep getting up from his cot]] to fight on the battlefields of his youth. Except when the day is done, the men from both sides stand back up, wounds forgotten, and pal it up all evening before replaying another battle the next day. A Nostalgic WarriorHeaven, in other words.
* Creator/RayBradbury's ''[[Literature/TheMartianChronicles Mars Is Heaven!]]'': Some explorers land on Mars and are stunned to find their childhood hometown, populated by all their deceased relatives, very much alive and well. [[spoiler:[[LotusEaterMachine It's a trick]].]]

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': Finnbarr Galedeep in ''The Bellmaker'' dies taking the BigBad with him, then wakes up on the deck of his ship and heads out to sea.

%%* The end of Creator/RussellTDavies' ''Series/{{Casanova}}''.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' special ''The Time of the Doctor'', the Eleventh Doctor has visions of his previous companion, Amy Pond, as he starts to regenerate. The inside of the TARDIS even briefly changes to her old home where they first met.

%%* The whole series of ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' (in the 1970s) and the {{spinoff}} ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' (1981) is a continuous version of this trope, though it is somewhat subverted as it isn't explained how or why they end up there. It happens briefly in ''Ashes to Ashes'' as the protagonist Alex sees her dead parents. Only it is revealed in the final episode of Ashes to Ashes that everybody is dead and their world is really a purgatory dreamed up by Gene Hunt to prepare them for heaven. So basically, two T.V. series where the premise is this trope.
%%* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
%%** When [[spoiler:Eko]] dies, he is seen as his young, pre-warlord self, walking arm in arm with his beloved brother, [[spoiler:Yemi]].
* Heaven on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' is like this -- every soul gets their own personal space where they get to relive their happiest memories. For the main characters, the fact that you only have illusions of your loved ones for company instead of actual people makes it far less happy. Dean describes Heaven as less of a paradise and "more like ''Film/TheMatrix''". [[spoiler:Come the GrandFinale, however, and Jack (who has become the new God) changes this, tearing down the walls separating every soul into their own Heaven and allowing everyone to truly be together in a paradise of their own making.]]

* Used in the Music/{{Flobots}} "Handlebars" music video, where the main character is killed by his childhood friend, and the last shot is a recall of the first scene with him and his friend riding bikes.

%%* ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' would be a [[DarkWorld deliciously twisted]] version of this.
* ''VideoGame/ToTheMoon'' ends with [[spoiler:child!Johnny and child!River meeting one another in what's implied to be their first meeting place]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* The infamous furry webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'' focuses more on Hell and Earth than Heaven, but it is shown on occasion. While theoretically, people who actually get into Heaven are essentially given RealityWarper powers over their own pocket dimension; in practice, the Heavens we do see tend to mostly be Nostalgia Heavens, as people recreate their happier lives from Earth with the souls of friends and families. One horrifying aversion is the Heaven of a woman who loved Drip, a serial-killing rapist who became the Sin of Lust upon Death; she's created a nightmarish world like what she imagines Drip would consider Heaven, in the hopes that he'd hear of it and it would drive him to seek reincarnation for a chance to reach Heaven. Which, of course, means that all she's done is make a hell for herself, as even on the off chance that Drip would ever qualify for reincarnation, be reborn and die in salvation, he wouldn't be the kind of person who'd want a Heaven like that anymore.

* The ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Rapture's Delight" (which may or may not be canon) starts off with Stan complaining about church service being crowded by "fake" Christans who only show up during the holidays. To take his mind off it, Francine convinces Stan to have sex in a nearby janitors closet. However, while they're gone, many characters, including Steve and Haley, are ascended into heaven during the Rapture, where it's revealed that everyone gets a personalized Heaven. Stan blames Francine for being left behind and shows willingness to abandon her on Earth to get into Heaven. Furious, she runs off with Jesus whom she meets in a diner. Years later, the Earth is a hellhole filled with demons, and Stan is alone and misses Francine. Jesus returns to Stan, seeking his help as Francine had been kidnapped by the anti-Christ. He helps rescue her, so she and Jesus get out alive, but Stan dies. He is then escorted into his personal heaven, and in a surprisingly heartwarming moment, it's back with his family on Earth (with the notable exception of a dead Klaus).
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Primal}}'': When [[TokenGoodTeammate Lula the Witch]] dies at the end of "Coven of the Damned", she is reunited with her daughter in an afterlife resembling the field of flowers the two used to play in.

[[folder: an Works]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In episode 29 of ''Anime/WolfsRain'' the dead or dying Toboe has a vision of himself as a pup with his beloved human Granny (whose death he always felt guilty over).

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fan Fic ]]

* [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/1016261 All The Stars Await]] (somewhat NSFW) has the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original Enterprise crew]] spending their afterlives back on the ship in a kind of everlasting AndTheAdventureContinues scenario. It's actually rather sweet, although one reviewer ''did'' point out that [[OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding it's probably only really great for]] [[TogetherInDeath Kirk and Spock]], and for Sulu ([[StatusQuoIsGod now back in the role of helmsman for what will most likely be all eternity]]) and Uhura, ([[Series/TheBigBangTheory answering the space phone]] forever) it's probably more like HellOfAHeaven.

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'', Rose apparently died and went to the Titanic as it once was. The DVD commentary said that it could be what happened, ''or'' that Rose is just dreaming it.
* This was also the plot in ''Film/TheShining,'' where dead people stay in the hotel forever as ghosts at a 1921 (1945 in the book) party. Of course, this isn't actually a ''reward'', as many of the ghosts died gruesome deaths in the hotel and are trapped repeating their crimes for all eternity (most notably one of it's owners, Horace Derwent). In reality, they're little more than puppets for the GeniusLoci of the hotel itself.

%%* The entirety of ''Film/WhatDreamsMayCome'' starring Robin Williams is related to, or references, this trope.

* In the Japanese film ''After Life'', it is the job of the afterlife workers to help the recently deceased to identify the happiest moment in their life and film a re-enactment of it, and when the subject watches the film they enter that moment for an eternity.

* In ''Theater/TheBlueBird'' the dead grandparents' Heaven is exactly like their home in life, and they work on their usual occupations. We're reminded that no one ever really dies, but they sleep most of the time, only [[AnAesop coming awake when people visit their graves or remember them]].
* ''Film/TheGreenMile'': Just before his execution one of the prisoners expresses his hope that, if he is sincerely repentant, his afterlife in Heaven will be like this: That he will spend eternity reliving "the time that was happiest for him" (which in his case was being married at eighteen, spending summer in the mountains with his young wife, making love every night, and then talking, sometimes until the sun came up).

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Literature/TheLovelyBones'' mentions that each person's heaven is based on an individual vision of what made him/her happy in life. Susie's includes a high school (because she had eagerly looked forward to going to high school, but was murdered before she could do so) and her own duplex (because she wanted one when she was alive).

* Creator/RayBradbury's [[Literature/TheMartianChronicles "Mars Is Heaven!"]]: Some explorers land on Mars and are stunned to find their childhood hometown, populated by all their deceased relatives, very much alive and well. [[spoiler:[[LotusEaterMachine It's a trick]].]]
* Finnbarr Galedeep in ''[[Literature/{{Redwall}} The Bellmaker]]'' dies taking the BigBad with him, then wakes up on the deck of his ship and heads out to sea.

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

%%* ''Series/{{Lost}}''
%%** When [[spoiler:Eko]] dies, he is seen as his young, pre-warlord self, walking arm in arm with his beloved brother, [[spoiler:Yemi]].
%%* The whole series of ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' (in the 1970s) and the {{spinoff}} ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' (1981) is a continuous version of this trope, though it is somewhat subverted as it isn't explained how or why they end up there. It happens briefly in ''Ashes to Ashes'' as the protagonist Alex sees her dead parents. Only it is revealed in the final episode of Ashes to Ashes that everybody is dead and their world is really a purgatory dreamed up by Gene Hunt to prepare them for heaven. So basically, two T.V. series where the premise is this trope.

* Heaven on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' is like this-every soul gets their own personal space where they get to relive their happiest memories. For the main characters, the fact that you only have illusions of your loved ones for company instead of actual people makes it far less happy. Dean describes Heaven as less of a paradise and "more like ''Film/TheMatrix''". [[spoiler: Come the GrandFinale, however, and Jack (who has become the new God) changes this, tearing down the walls separating every soul into their own Heaven and allowing everyone to truly be together in a paradise of their own making.]]

--> '''Amy''': Raggedy Man... good night.

[[folder: Music Videos ]]

[[folder: Theatre]]

* ''Theatre/LesMiserables'': when Valjean ascends to heaven, he joins the dead students, usually on the very barricade that they had died on. The 2012 film takes this even further by placing them on a giant barricade that crosses the square that Le Marche's hearse passes through where the revolution had started. Evidently, for them, heaven is a version of the world where the revolution had succeeded and all of Paris got to be free - and this is reflected in the lyrics:
---> "They will live again in freedom in the garden of the lord/They will walk behind the plowshare, they will put away the sword/The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward!"

[[folder: Video Games ]]

%%* ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' would be a [[DarkWorld deliciously twisted]] version of this.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII Final Mix'' has Axel and Roxas meeting up one last time at the clock tower in Twilight Town before Axel fades away from existence [[spoiler: [[BackFromTheDead or so it seems]]]] and before Roxas becomes consumed by Sora.
* ''VideoGame/ToTheMoon'' ends with [[spoiler: child!Johnny and child!River meeting one another in what's implied to be their first meeting place]].

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* The infamous furry webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'' focuses more on Hell and Earth than Heaven, but it is shown on occasion. While theoretically, people who actually get into Heaven are essentially given RealityWarper powers over their own pocket dimension, in practice the Heavens we do see tend to mostly be Nostalgia Heavens, as people recreate their happier lives from Earth with the souls of friends and families. One horrifying aversion is the Heaven of a woman who loved Drip, a serial killing rapist who became the Sin of Lust upon Death; she's created a nightmarish world like what she imagines Drip would consider Heaven, in the hopes that he'd hear of it and it would drive him to seek reincarnation for a chance to reach Heaven. Which, of course, means that all she's done is make a hell for herself, as even on the off chance that Drip would ever qualify for reincarnation, be reborn and die in salvation, he wouldn't be the kind of person who'd want a Heaven like that anymore.
* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Roy finds his mother and baby brother living together in the LawfulGood afterlife. Both are stuck as nostalgic versions of themselves- his mother as her 19-year-old self, his brother as the toddler he died as. Roy spends a lot of time engaged in nostalgic activities like eating his mom's cooking and playing with his brother. Roy also meets his dead grandfather, who's living in a different part of the afterlife.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

If they died after PlanningForTheFutureBeforeTheEnd, they may end up keeping their date after all.

* In the Japanese film ''Film/AfterLife'', it is the job of the afterlife workers to help the recently deceased to identify the happiest moment in their life and film a re-enactment of it, and when the subject watches the film they enter that moment for an eternity.

[[folder: Film ]]

* In the Japanese film ''After Life'', it is the job of the afterlife workers to help the recently deceased to identify the happiest moment in their life and film a re-enactment of it, and when the subject watches the film they enter that moment for an eternity.

* The infamous furry webcomic ''{{Jack}}'' focuses more on Hell and Earth than Heaven, but it is shown on occasion. While theoretically, people who actually get into Heaven are essentially given RealityWarper powers over their own pocket dimension, in practice the Heavens we do see tend to mostly be Nostalgia Heavens, as people recreate their happier lives from Earth with the souls of friends and families. One horrifying aversion is the Heaven of a woman who loved Drip, a serial killing rapist who became the Sin of Lust upon Death; she's created a nightmarish world like what she imagines Drip would consider Heaven, in the hopes that he'd hear of it and it would drive him to seek reincarnation for a chance to reach Heaven. Which, of course, means that all she's done is make a hell for herself, as even on the off chance that Drip would ever qualify for reincarnation, be reborn and die in salvation, he wouldn't be the kind of person who'd want a Heaven like that anymore.

* Heaven on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' is like this-every soul gets their own personal space where they get to relive their happiest memories. For the main characters, the fact that you only have illusions of your loved ones for company instead of actual people makes it far less happy. They describe Heaven as less of a paradise and "more like ''Film/TheMatrix''". [[spoiler: Come the GrandFinale, however, and Jack (who has become the new God) changes this, tearing down the walls separating every soul into their own Heaven and allowing everyone to truly be together in a paradise of their own making.]]

* Finnbarr Galedeep in ''[[Literature/{{Redwall}} The Bellmaker]]'' dies taking the BigBad with him, waking up on the deck of his ship and heading out to sea.

* Heaven on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' is like this, but because you become distracted by the projections of your friends/family, instead of actually getting to meet up with your loved ones, the characters who find out are decidedly unhappy. They describe Heaven as less of a paradise and "more like ''Film/TheMatrix''". [[spoiler: Come the GrandFinale, however, and Jack (who has become the new God) changes this, tearing down the walls separating every soul into their own Heaven and allowing everyone to truly be together in a paradise of their own making.]]

%%* Heaven on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' is like this, but because you become distracted by the projections of your friends/family, instead of actually getting to meet up with your loved ones, the characters who find out are decidedly unhappy. They describe Heaven as less of a paradise and "more like Film/TheMatrix".

* Creator/RayBradbury's [[Literature/TheMartianChronicles "MarsIsHeaven!"]]: Some explorers land on Mars and are stunned to find their childhood hometown, populated by all their deceased relatives, very much alive and well. [[spoiler:[[LotusEaterMachine It's a trick]].]]

* Creator/RayBradbury's "Literature/MarsIsHeaven!": Some explorers land on Mars and are stunned to find their childhood hometown, populated by all their deceased relatives, very much alive and well. [[spoiler:[[LotusEaterMachine It's a trick]].]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Rapture's Delight" (which may or may not be canon) starts off with Stan complaining about church service being crowded by "fake" christans who only show up during the holidays. To take his mind off it, Francine convinces Stan to have sex in a nearby janitors closet. However, while they're gone, many characters, including Steve and Haley, are ascended into heaven during the Rapture, where it's revealed that everyone gets a personalized Heaven. Stan blames Francine for being left behind and shows willingness to abandon her on Earth to get into Heaven. Furious, she runs off with Jesus whom she meets in a diner. Years later, the Earth is a hellhole filled with demons, and Stan is alone and misses Francine. Jesus returns to Stan, seeking his help as Francine had been kidnapped by the anti-Christ. He helps rescue her, so she and Jesus get out alive, but Stan dies. He is then escorted into his personal heaven, and in a surprisingly heartwarming moment, it's back with his family on Earth (with the notable exception of a dead Klaus).

* The Creator/HarryTurtledove short story "The Last Reunion" starts with an old general returning to Richmond in 1932 for a United Confederate Veterans' reunion, and ends with him [[PassedInTHeirSleep getting up from his cot]] to fight on the battlefields of his youth. Except when the day is done, the men from both sides stand back up, wounds forgotten, and pal it up all evening before replaying another battle the next day. A Nostalgic WarriorHeaven, in other words.