History Main / PurgatoryAndLimbo

** A related realm, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barzakh Barzakh]], is more like the Christian concept of purgatory: a place where the dead are due to wait until the final judgment. In the meantime, sinners are punished, while the good enjoy a state of bliss.

* On ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Purgatory is AnotherDimension which serves as an afterlife for all the setting's monsters and a prison for SealedEvilInACan such as the [[HumanoidAbomination Leviathans]] and Eve, the [[MonsterProgenitor Mother of All]]. It's an endless, mistbound forest where all souls are fated to perpetually prey on one another. It's "vast, underutilized, and hell-adjacent", according to the demon Crowley.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E32APassageForTrumpet A Passage for Trumpet]]", after the drunken Joey Crown deliberately steps off the curb as [[DrivenToSuicide part of a suicide attempt]], he is hit by a truck and enters a limbo state between life and death.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E69ThePassersby The Passersby]]", [[spoiler:it turns out that the dirt road outside Lavinia Godwin's house is Purgatory. She and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln are the last people to walk down the road and into the afterlife.]]
** {{Discussed|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E79FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit Five Characters in Search of an Exit]]". The hobo speculates that they are trapped in Limbo.

* Averted in the Catholic depiction of Purgatory. It's very much *not* a neutral afterlife. It's more like a temporary Hell where imperfect (but not Hell-worthy) souls have their sins "burned away" (or purged, hence the name) before they're eventually allowed into Heaven, which is assured. Limbo was once seen as the place where otherwise good/innocent people went if they died without being baptized, though that belief has been largely abandoned in recent decades.

* Averted in the Catholic depiction of Purgatory. It's very much *not* a neutral afterlife. It's more like a temporary Hell where imperfect (but not Hell-worthy) souls have their sins "burned away" (or purged, hence the name) before they're eventually allowed into Heaven. Limbo was once seen as the place where otherwise good/innocent people went if they died without being baptized, though that belief has been largely abandoned in recent decades.

** Interestingly, many fictional romanticized portrayals of hell, which portrays damned souls wanting redemption and may even move onto Heaven, arguably resemble Purgatory more than hell. In fact, a common belief is that souls are well-treated in the highest realms of Purgatory, called the "Threshold," with the only torture being separation from God, a concept even ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' attributed to hell.

** Interestingly, many fictional romanticized portrayals of hell, which portrays damned souls sympathetically and even have characters escape it, arguably resemble the more traditional version of Purgatory in practice than hell. In fact, a common belief is that souls are well-treated in the highest realms of Purgatory, called the "Threshold," with the only torture being separation from God, a concept even Dante attributed to hell.

** "Shadowlands": The realm of Revendreth is home to a race of vampiric overlords who feed on souls' pride and sin, purging them of wickedness until they can safely go to one of the other realms of death. It's not pleasant, but since the alternative is eternal damnation in [[{{Hell}} the Maw]], it's a much better choice for anyone sent there.

* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'': In the infamous ''Souls Winter'' trilogy, it was revealed that the turtles are doomed to not enter heaven nor hell, as they are neither man nor beast, and must spend the rest of eternity alone and isolated.

* Parodied in ''Literature/{{Wintersmith}}'' where the Nac Mac Feegle help Roland visit the (or rather, ''an'') underworld and explain "This one used tae be called Limbo, ye ken, 'cuz the door was verra low."

* "The Sinners' Grove down by the river by the trestle where the willow and the dogwood grow" in {{Music/JohnnyCash}}'s [[https://genius.com/Johnny-cash-down-there-by-the-train-lyrics Down There By The Train]], a song Music/TomWaits wrote for him about an AfterlifeExpress is a version of Purgatory. The attentive compassion and almost tender curative care with which the souls of the [[DeliveranceFromDamnation damned]] are fitted to then be able to travel to {{Heaven}} (by taking the eponymous slow train waiting for them) wildly differs from the [[CurseThatCures brutally traumatic]] way in which the trope is usually [[HealItWithFire played]]. While it's more [[NoodleIncident alluded to]] than outright stated, the beneficial process by which the worst of the worst are re-made into good people all through stands in stark contrast to the majority of examples in that it is ''neither'' [[PainfulTransformation painful]] nor [[BodyHorror frightening]] - rather it's portrayed as a very comforting, soothing, and all around ''positive'' experience for them. Waits later recorded his own version.[[note]]It may or may not be based on [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Hunt-light-of-the-world.jpeg The Light of the World]], a famous Victorian era picture by William Holman Hunt.[[/note]]

* "The Sinners' Grove down by the river by the trestle where the willow and the dogwood grow" in {{Music/JohnnyCash}}'s [[https://genius.com/Johnny-cash-down-there-by-the-train-lyrics Down There By The Train]], a song Music/TomWaits wrote for him about an AfterlifeExpress is a version of Purgatory. The attentive compassion and almost tender curative care with which the souls of the [[DeliveranceFromDamnation damned]] are fitted to then be able to travel to {{Heaven}} (by taking the eponymous slow train waiting for them) wildly differs from the [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally traumatic]] way in which the trope is usually [[HealItWithFire played]]. While it's more [[NoodleIncident alluded to]] than outright stated, the beneficial process by which the worst of the worst are re-made into good people all through stands in stark contrast to the majority of examples in that it is ''neither'' [[PainfulTransformation painful]] nor [[BodyHorror frightening]] - rather it's portrayed as a very comforting, soothing, and all around ''positive'' experience for them. Waits later recorded his own version.[[note]]It may or may not be based on [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Hunt-light-of-the-world.jpeg The Light of the World]], a famous Victorian era picture by William Holman Hunt.[[/note]]

I know you can be cared for and I know you can be safe

* "The Sinners' Grove down by the river by the trestle where the willow and the dogwood grow" in {{Music/JohnnyCash}}'s [[https://genius.com/Johnny-cash-down-there-by-the-train-lyrics Down There By The Train]], a song Music/TomWaits wrote for him about an AfterlifeExpress is a version of Purgatory. The attentive compassion and almost tender curative care with which the souls of the [[DeliveranceFromDamnation damned]] are fitted to then travel to {{Heaven}} by taking the eponymous slow train waiting for them wildly differs from the [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally traumatic]] way in which the trope is usually [[HealItWithFire played]]. While it's more [[NoodleIncident alluded to]] than outright stated, the beneficial process by which the worst of the worst are re-made into good people all through stands in stark contrast to the majority of examples in that it is ''neither'' [[PainfulTransformation painful]] nor [[BodyHorror frightening]] - rather it's portrayed as a very comforting, soothing, and all around ''positive'' experience for them. Waits later recorded his own version.[[note]]It may or may not be based on [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Hunt-light-of-the-world.jpeg The Light of the World]], a famous Victorian era picture by William Holman Hunt.[[/note]]

* "The Sinners' Grove down by the river by the trestle where the willow and the dogwood grow" in {{Music/JohnnyCash}}'s [[https://genius.com/Johnny-cash-down-there-by-the-train-lyrics Down There By The Train]], a song Music/TomWaits wrote for him about an AfterlifeExpress is a version of Purgatory. The attentive compassion and almost tender curative care with which the souls of the [[DeliveranceFromDamnation damned]] are fitted to then be taken to {{Heaven}} by the eponymous slow train waiting for them wildly differs from the [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally traumatic]] way in which the trope is usually [[HealItWithFire played]]. While it's more [[NoodleIncident alluded to]] than outright stated, the beneficial process by which the worst of the worst are re-made into good people all through stands in stark contrast to the majority of examples in that it is ''neither'' [[PainfulTransformation painful]] nor [[BodyHorror frightening]] - rather it's portrayed as a very comforting, soothing, and all around ''positive'' experience for them. Waits later recorded his own version.[[note]]It may or may not be based on [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Hunt-light-of-the-world.jpeg The Light of the World]], a famous Victorian era picture by William Holman Hunt.[[/note]]

* "Sinner's Grove down by the river by the trestle where the willow and the dogwood grow" in {{Music/JohnnyCash}}'s [[https://genius.com/Johnny-cash-down-there-by-the-train-lyrics Down There By The Train]], a song Music/TomWaits wrote for him about an AfterlifeExpress. The attentive compassion and almost tender curative care with which the souls of the [[DeliveranceFromDamnation damned]] are fitted to then be taken to {{Heaven}} by the eponymous slow train waiting for them wildly differs from the [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally traumatic]] way in which the trope is usually [[HealItWithFire played]]. While it's more [[NoodleIncident alluded to]] than outright stated, the beneficial process by which the worst of the worst are re-made into good people all through stands in stark contrast to the majority of examples in that it is ''neither'' [[PainfulTransformation painful]] nor [[BodyHorror frightening]] - rather it's portrayed as a very comforting, soothing, and all around ''positive'' experience for them. Waits later recorded his own version.[[note]]It may or may not be based on [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Hunt-light-of-the-world.jpeg The Light of the World]], a famous Victorian era picture by William Holman Hunt.[[/note]]

* ''Wagadu Chronicles'': the material plane in Wagadu Chronicles is something like this, the Upper Realms are a more Utopian Perfect reality and periodically people from there end up falling to Wagadu, as far as anyone knows this is a one way trip.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Shadowlands'', the realm of Revendreth is home to a race of vampiric overlords who feed on souls' pride and sin, purging them of wickedness until they can safely go to one of the other realms of death. It's not pleasant, but since the alternative is eternal damnation in [[{{Hell}} the Maw]], it's a much better choice for anyone sent there.

* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': While Ben Franklin is dead (again) he spends his time in Purgatory, which resembles a ritzy restaurant, waiting for meals representing his sins. After two hundred years he's still on the bread.

* ''ComicBook/SensationalSheHulk'': Issue #53 has She-Hulk dying and going to the Postmortem Mall, a bridge between heaven and hell. The good come to the mall to relive their time with the living while the evil come to the mall to be granted reprieve from their eternal punishment.

This trope is about places, usually called Purgatory or Limbo, which serve as the intermediate afterlife between Heaven and Hell, where morally average people go after they die. The concept not being unique to any one religion or universal to most of them, however, can mean the names get co-opted for any number of other purposes.[[note]]The two actually aren't the same in Catholic theology -- Purgatory refers to a place where one's sins are purged before ascending to heaven; Limbo (from the Latin ''limbus'', meaning "edge") is a region on the outskirts of Hell where the souls of the unbaptized wander forever. In fiction, however, the names are often treated as more or less interchangeable.[[/note]]

* In ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame'', Kiyoshiro ends up in limbo after a near-death experience from Piximon & Gammamon's roughhousing, and after he's revived by Jellymon's MagicalDefibrillator he starts being terrorized by the [[ISeeDeadPeople spirit medium]] Digimon Sepikmon who sought to [[BlueAndOrangeMorality kill him to be his friend]]. After he hits his head and ends up in limbo again, Sepikmon [[DraggedOffToHell attempts to drag him across the River Styx]] to ensure he could never leave again.

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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/SensationalSheHulk'': Issue #53 has She-Hulk dying and going to the Postmortem Mall, a bridge between heaven and hell. The good come to the mall to relive their time with the living while the evil come to the mall to be granted reprieve from their eternal punishment.

** The Asphodel Meadows has been described as a place of utter neutrality and the final destination for people that were in life neither good nor evil.