"You know, it's not so much an afterlife, more a sort of après-vie."
— Arthur Dent, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Tropes relating to the afterlife.
Humans have often speculated what fate, if any, awaits them after death. This has been depicted in countless different ways in fiction (not to mention religion and philosophy), ranging from eternal paradise to fiery hellscapes to complete nothingness.
There is, however, the inverse of this that is almost never looked at: what happened before you were born? It could be any of the above, but the two do not necessarily have to be the same for a character. For this trope, we would include "before birth" stories as well, even if they do not say anything about death or an afterlife.
Almost all religions have a belief that you go somewhere after you die, but almost none of them are the same. Some say you go to Heaven, some say you burn in Hell, some say you're reincarnated as a small angry six inch tall blue man. The important part is, that this is a place that you go, after you die.
Spoiler warning: many of these tropes detail major spoilers about characters' fates.
Tropes:
Afterlife locations:
- Infernal Tropes (Hell)
- Tropes of the Divine (Heaven)
Types of afterlife:
Related indexes:
- The Afterafterlife: An afterlife for people who died when they were already in the afterlife.
- Afterlife Angst: After a character dies, they are shown to experience angst over it for one reason or another.
- Afterlife Antechamber: An area in the afterlife where a character goes just after they died but before going to the afterlife proper, which is usually not shown.
- Afterlife Avenger: A character chooses to pursue another into the afterlife just to fulfill a grudge.
- Afterlife Express: A mysterious vehicle (usually a train but sometimes a boat or different vehicle) with a connection to the afterlife, usually taking souls there.
- Afterlife of Service: Being buried with your employer so your soul can serve his.
- Afterlife Tour: A character is given a guided tour of the afterlife world.
- Afterlife Welcome: The souls of a character's dead acquaintances are there to greet them just before the character dies or just after.
- Ancestor Veneration: The veneration, exaltation, and/or outright worship of one's own ancestors.
- Archangel Azrael: An angel who ushers the souls of the dead to God's judgment.
- Artificial Afterlife: An afterlife that was created by regular people.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: A character dies (or pseudo-dies) and then turns into a more godlike version of themselves.
- Backup from Otherworld: The dead assist the living during a fight.
- Barred from the Afterlife: A character is unable to go to Heaven or Hell, and is stuck wandering around the mortal realm for eternity.
- Bloody Bowels of Hell: Hell is full of body parts, almost as though you're in a creature.
- Bonus Level of Heaven: A bonus level in a video game where you need to go through Heaven.
- Celebrities Hang Out in Heaven: Dead celebrities hang out with other dead celebrities in Heaven.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: A bureaucracy whose job is to determine where people are supposed to go after they die.
- Circles of Hell: Hell has multiple layers devoted to punishing different types of evil.
- City of the Damned: Hell is depicted as an urban setting.
- Dead to Begin With: Stories set wholly or partially in the afterlife that focus on a dead character.
- Death Amnesia: A resurrected person has no memory of their death.
- Death Is a Loser: Death is unpopular and/or unlucky.
- Defector from Paradise: A character leaves a utopia that may be actual Heaven.
- Deliverance from Damnation: A person can be rescued from Hell and brought to Heaven.
- Died Happily Ever After: After a character dies, they are seen as happy right before or after they Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
- Divine Misfile: A person is sent to heaven when they should have gone to hell, or vice versa.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: The Grim Reaper isn't such a bad guy.
- Dragged Off to Hell: A person gets dragged to Hell against their will.
- Duty That Transcends Death: One or more characters are so dedicated to some duty or other that even when they die, they keep doing it.
- Easy Road to Hell: Doing one bad deed will instantly condemn you to Hell.
- Energy Beings: The afterlife is occasionally presented as this to avoid any religious connotations.
- The Ferry Man: A character whose job it is to help people pass nigh-impossible obstacles to reach a destination, which can be an afterlife.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: The typical depiction of Hell as a fiery realm beneath the Earth.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: The typical depiction of heaven as a bunch of clouds in the sky.
- God of the Dead: The guy in charge of the afterlife.
- Ghost Reunion Ending: Ghosts reuniting in the afterlife.
- Go into the Light: When a person dies, they have a near-death experience which causes them to cross over to the light.
- The Grim Reaper: Death is personified as a skeleton in a black cloak wielding a scythe who shows up to take people to the afterlife when their time has come.
- Healthy in Heaven: When a character goes to the afterlife, they lose any health problems they had at death and usually the old ones turn young again.
- Heaven: An eternal paradise where good people go after they die as a reward for living honest lives.
- Heaven Above: The sky is associated with the divine.
- Heavenly Concentric Circles: Heavenly planes or beings are depicted as concentric circles in the sky.
- Heaven Seeker: A character does good deeds so that they can go to Heaven or their equivalent.
- Heaven Versus Hell: Heaven and Hell are in conflict.
- Hell: An afterlife where bad people go to face eternal punishment for their misdeeds after they die.
- Hellevator: An elevator that leads to the afterlife, usually to Hell.
- Hell Has New Management: A baddie dies, goes to Hell, and takes over.
- Hell Is War: A character is made to fight for eternity as a punishment.
- Hell of a Heaven: Heaven isn't half the eternal paradise it is said to be.
- A Hell of a Time: Hell is actually a nice place to be.
- Hell Seeker: A character who wants to go to Hell.
- Home of the Gods: Where gods and goddesses live.
- Infernal Paradise: A particular group of people believe in an afterlife that they consider Heaven, but it doesn't sound anything like a paradise to outsiders.
- Inn Between the Worlds: An inn that exists in two worlds at once.
- Ironic Hell: A person who goes to Hell is forced to undergo a punishment that serves as an ironic reminder of the bad things they did in life.
- The Journey Through Death: A dead character must travel through an intermediary place to reach whatever awaits after death.
- Judgement of the Dead: A dead character is judged about which afterlife they'll end up in.
- Karmic Reform Hell: An Ironic Hell meant to rehabilitate lost souls.
- Kicked Out of Heaven: A person gets kicked out of Heaven for whatever reason.
- The Lifestream: The place where souls go in between reincarnations.
- Mistaken for Afterlife: A character thinks they've died and gone to the afterlife.
- Mundane Afterlife: Heaven and Hell are just like life, only perfect and really annoying respectively.
- No Animosity in the Afterlife: Being dead makes people forgive each other.
- Nostalgia Heaven: The afterlife is a place that meant something special to the deceased.
- The Nothing After Death: The afterlife is nothing but an empty void.
- Cessation of Existence: The belief that there is no afterlife and that people who die simply stop existing.
- Not Afraid of Hell: A character isn't afraid of any infernal realm.
- Offscreen Afterlife: The afterlife is never shown/described in great detail.
- Only One Afterlife: All dead people go to the same afterlife.
- Overly Specific Afterlife: Only certain beings are welcome into a specific afterlife.
- The Pearly Gates: The only thing standing between you and Paradise.
- Personalized Afterlife: Everyone has their own personal afterlife.
- Physical Heaven: Heaven is a place where living non-deity characters can physically go.
- Physical Hell: Hell is a physical place.
- Planet Heck: Hell-themed levels in video games.
- Psychopomp: A being who guides the spirits of the dead to the afterlife.
- Purgatory and Limbo: An afterlife where people go who aren't good enough for Heaven but are too good for Hell.
- Quieting the Unquiet Dead: Giving the undead a helping hand to reach the afterlife.
- Refusing Paradise: A character gets given the choice to either go to Heaven or an equivalent place or keep living. They choose the latter.
- Reincarnation: When a person dies, they are reborn in a new life.
- Relieving the Reaper: Someone assists, or subs for, the Grim Reaper.
- Remember the Dead: You only exist in the afterlife as long as people remember you.
- Rerouted from Heaven: A person who was supposed to go to Heaven instead ends up in Hell.
- Rescued from the Underworld: A character can be rescued from the afterlife.
- Self-Inflicted Hell: The afterlife is whatever you think it will be.
- Shinigami: A Japanese deity with a similar "job" to the Grim Reaper.
- Species-Specific Afterlife: An afterlife designed for only one species.
- Spirit World: A place where all the spiritual characters live.
- Stairway to Heaven: Stairs (or occasionally an escalator) that lead to Heaven.
- Stars Are Souls: One or more characters become stars or constellations upon death.
- Taking Over Heaven: Attacking Heaven and taking charge of it.
- This Isn't Heaven: A person who thinks they're in Heaven finds out that they're really in hell.
- Together in Death: Two lovers have died, but the silver lining is that now they'll be together forever in the afterlife.
- To Hell and Back: Part of the hero's mission involves entering Hell or a similar place.
- The Underworld: Subtrope of Only One Afterlife — all dead people go to a dark place underground that's a bit gloomy but not hellish.
- Underworld River: Rivers that surround or cross the underworld.
- Unfeeling Heavens: A Heaven whose angels are far removed from things like feelings and human attachments.
- Unfinished Business: A dead person can't enter the afterlife until they take care of some important task that their death prevented them from doing.
- Valkyries: A fierce group of women who assist the Norse gods and guide fallen warriors to Valhalla.
- Warrior Heaven: A warlike culture's idea of Heaven is an afterlife full of war.
- Whodunnit to Me?: A story centres around a ghost or similar trying to figure out who killed them.
- Winds Are Ghosts: Winds that may contain the souls or spirits of those who have passed on.
- Winged Soul Flies Off at Death: After a person dies, their soul ascends to the skies as a winged angel.
- You Are Worth Hell: Someone's willing to join their love interest in Hell or a similar place.
