Basic Trope: A person is unable to enter the afterlife after they've died.
- Straight: Bob dies, but can't move on to the afterlife when he dies.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob can't even get close to an afterlife after his death, or even do anything that a ghost/undead being would be able to do.
- Everyone becomes a ghost after death.
- Downplayed: Bob is able to move on to the afterlife, but isn't able to do much.
- Justified:
- Bob has some kind of curse put on him that prevents him from being able to move on to the afterlife after he dies.
- The god in Bob's universe is trying to decide which afterlife Bob is supposed to go to, so in the meantime Bob is being put on hold.
- Bob is a religious zealot who spent his entire life demonizing, damning and outright committing so many heinous acts in the name of his religious beliefs, under the belief that he only had to "repent" at the end of his life to avoid damnation, and get away with his hate crimes scot-free while being able to enjoy the fruits of a good afterlife. His own gods are so disgusted at his cruelty and outraged at his attempted deception that they decide that being thrown into the Damnation he fears is too good for him, and instead bar him from every afterlife in an eternal limbo, unable to ever move on and making sure to use him as an example to those who think they can scheme the same way.
- Inverted: Bob is already in the afterlife, but is unable to visit the living world even when he'd be expected to do so.
- Subverted: Bob believes he can't move on to the afterlife, but it's revealed that he just doesn't know how to get to the afterlife.
- Double Subverted: When he finally does get to the afterlife, though, he's not allowed in.
- Parodied: Bob is too mischievous for Heaven, would make Hell way too pleasant for the sinners, too big a distraction for Purgatory, too religious for Limbo and too Christian for any other afterlives, so resolves to prank people as a ghost.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob tries to enter Heaven but is stopped by God, enters Hell until he causes too much havoc and is kicked out of Hell by Satan, reaches the gate to the Spirit Realm but the gate seals itself in his presence and finally comes back as a ghost.
- Averted:
- Nobody dies.
- There is no afterlife in the work.
- Anyone who does die is able to enter the afterlife as normal.
- The story is set in the afterlife.
- Enforced: The executives want there to be ghosts in this story.
- Lampshaded: “Let me guess, I’m gonna be a ghost.”
- Invoked:
- Bob gets himself barred from the afterlife on purpose, so that he can “live” forever.
- Alice barres Bob from the afterlife as a form of torture.
- Alice bars everyone from the afterlife to use their souls as a power source.
- Exploited:
- Bob after being barred from the afterlife and dying, becomes a ghost and possesses his own corpse to get revenge.
- Bob is a medium who summons ghosts to talk to.
- Alice binds souls to bodies to animate them.
- Defied:
- Bob breaks himself into the afterlife.
- Someone creates an afterlife just for people who are barred from all the others.
- Discussed: “So can people be forced into becoming ghosts?”
- Conversed: “Huh I guess Bob from “Alice in Troperland” can’t Rest In Peace.
- Implied:When Bob is asked about being dead, he denies going to any afterlife people ask him about.
- Deconstructed: The knowledge that he can’t go to the afterlife, causes Bob to become extremely apathetic.
- Bob's sanity completely shatters upon realizing that he has been barred from ever entering any afterlife for his crimes, but his own selfishness and self-deception means that he is utterly unable to face the truth of what he did, and what he must do in order to even have a hope of getting out of his punishment. He ends up falling into complete madness, delusionally believing that doubling down would save him and that this was a secret test to be even worse than before, while his descent is watched by the souls of those who he had tormented in the name of his beliefs; the very thing he believed he would get to do to them.
- Reconstructed: Bob adopts Optimistic Nihilism, leading him to live in the moment.
- Played for Laughs: Satan kicks Bob out of Hell for being too evil.
- Played for Drama: Bob is ripped out of the afterlife and desperately wants to go back but is stuck as a ghost.
- Played for Horror: Bob is trapped in his decaying body when he dies and feels everything even after he is reduced to scattered molecules.
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