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Celestial Bureaucracy
- 698 statements
- 134 feature instances
- 190 referencing feature instances
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A character shuffles off the mortal coil to join the choir invisible. They travel through the Tunnel of Light and come out to find... a numbered ticket dispenser and a long line. Welcome to the Afterlife Bureaucracy. Many movies have shown the afterlife to be just an extension of the bureaucratic nightmare that plagues the living anytime they have any dealings with an official agency, complete with "Now Serving XX (XXXXXXXXXXXXXX...)" signs, waiting rooms and obstructive bureaucrats, or at least severely overworked ones. But if the departed hope to get their Final Reward, they had better make damn sure all the "i"s are dotted and the "t"s are crossed. Expect Hell in particular to be portrayed like this, because after all, for many people, dealing with the bureaucracy is its own kind of Hell. Chinese mythology views heaven and the afterlife as a bureaucracy patterned on their own governmental systems (or was it the other way around?), and ruled over by the benevolent Jade Emperor, making this idea Older Than Feudalism. As a result of extensive cultural exchange between Japan and China that has made this trope especially common in Anime and Manga. Judgement of the Dead is usually involved. A Sub-Trope of Crazy Workplace. May overlap with Hell of a Heaven or Mundane Afterlife. Do not confuse it with the video game series Dept. Heaven. May overlap with Don't Fear the Reaper. As this can be a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware. |
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The Ferryman Institute | |
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The Name of the Game (Elrod) | |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_10d303a2 | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_10d303a2 | comment |
Shin Megami Tensei IV has the player, on dying in battle, arriving at the shore of the Styx... to find that Charon is so far behind on the paperwork that it will take uncountable eons before he gets to the front of the line. It's gotten so bad that Charon now actively requests bribes so that souls can return to the living world and keep him from having to file a report on yet another soul. (He even lets you put one resurrection on a tab, though as soon as you can pay he'll take it out of your pocket.) | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_10d303a2 | featureApplicability |
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Shin Megami Tensei IV (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_11b7db91 | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_11b7db91 | comment |
Adventure Time: While the original Adventure Time series didn't go too much into how its deities worked, the sequel miniseries Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake explored more of it and revealed that it is an especially corrupt and dysfunctional one. Gods regularly neglect their duties or abandon their posts altogether, give special treatment to mortals they like, hold vendettas, engage in nepotism, and sometimes even try to overthrow each other. It is so bad that the system has to employ god auditors whose sole responsibility is keeping the other gods in line and even then the god auditors can also be just as corrupt like Scarab when he decides to shirk his duties to pursue Fionna, Cake and Simon in order to take Prismo's position as the wishmaster. The Top God in charge of the whole system is Prismo's mysterious boss. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_11b7db91 | featureApplicability |
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Adventure Time | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_135faa14 | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_135faa14 | comment |
Discworld's Hell - at least during Astfgl's stint as Demon King in Eric - is also portrayed as a literally soul-grinding bureaucracy, with the torment of pushing a rock up a hill being replaced by the greater torment of listening to the associated Health and Safety regulations, and the ancient ledgers being replaced by modern filing cabinets. While this does have the desired effect on the damned, the demons have to suffer it right along with them. When the demons finally have enough of all this they do what any bureaucracy would do in the situation - promote Astfgl to a position where he doesn't actually have any responsibility, and give him a very nice office and a speaking tube that doesn't connect to anyone. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_135faa14 | featureApplicability |
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Eric | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_135faa14 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1378e535 | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1378e535 | comment |
The Dark Heavens series is based around ancient Chinese mythology, and hence contains numerous references to the celestial bureaucracy, with one character complaining about how much paperwork his quarter of heaven requires. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1378e535 | featureApplicability |
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Dark Heavens | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1469522d | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1469522d | comment |
The Blue Kingdom in Sunless Skies is the region populated by the deceased and oh boy is it a bureaucratic nightmare. There are specific statuses for both the dead and the rare living beings adventuring through this kingdom: Ephemera are the dead waiting to pass through Death's Door, Yoked are deceased which are servants of the Kingdom, Antedeceased, which are the not-dead-yet, and the Invisible, which are devoid of any statuses (a "bureaucratic nightmare" according to the Carious Official). There are a phenomenal amount of Courts held by various animals (Apes, Hummingbirds, Whales, etc) each with a very specific area of influence, and the queues to have an audience with them are ludicrously long. And don't get started on all the protocols that have to be followed in that realm. It can get so bad that it is highly advised to hire a Litigator to guide you while in there. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1469522d | featureApplicability |
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Sunless Skies (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_14af238b | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_14af238b | comment |
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson features the Bardo (the afterlife of Tibetan folklore), which, in reflection of the growing influence of China in the living world, is gradually taken over by the Chinese Celestial Bureaucracy. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_14af238b | featureApplicability |
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The Years of Rice and Salt | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_19184f23 | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_19184f23 | comment |
Parking (1985) has a dreary Underworld based on the metro, and Orpheus accidentally dies due to a clerical error which is corrected once he meets up with Hades. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_19184f23 | featureApplicability |
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Parking (1985) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1b71921c | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1b71921c | comment |
Misfile is based around a filing error within the celestial bureaucracy that genderswaps a boy and erases the past two years of another girl; the human world has been altered to accommodate the change and they are the only ones who remember how their lives should be. The lack of leadership and increasing chaos after God left caused one archangel to snap and try to usurp power using the bureaucracy's own incompetence to mask his assassinations. The main characters kill him before he can retcon humanity, but leave the bureaucracy permanently changed... ...Which leads into sequel series Hell High. After another major filing error causes birth rates to increase in Hell, especially in the infertile human damned, both sides agree to a compromise, creating a school meant for Hellborn to earn their first chance at a life on Earth. |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1b71921c | featureApplicability |
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Misfile (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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In the Death Jr. series, Death is the CEO of the corporation that handles the afterlife. The bureaucracy happens later (endless queues of souls, reams of forms) when Bureaucracy, the fifth horseman of the apocalypse, tries to take over. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1bcb3369 | featureApplicability |
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Death Jr. (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1cc09117 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1cc09117 | comment |
Bleach: Soul Society is run this way, with authority from the (absentee) Soul King delegated to the (civilian) Central 46, which in turn commands the (military) Gotei 13. The bureaucracy has been in place for at least 1000 years and is just about as crusty and hide-bound as you'd expect. It's not an exaggeration to say that a good 75% of all the nonsense that goes down in Bleach is because of Soul Society being poorly governed. In the second half of the series, this is slowly changing as the Gotei becomes more open, and as Kyouraku makes reforms in the wake of Yamamoto's death. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1cc09117 | featureApplicability |
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Bleach (Manga) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1e7ca85f | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1e7ca85f | comment |
Hades' realm in Disney's Hercules approaches this: though the place where the afterlife go is a chaotic swirling pool of ghosts and goo, when the dead enter Hades, a little sign clicks in: "1000001 served." | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1e7ca85f | featureApplicability |
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Hercules | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1f72b18d | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1f72b18d | comment |
Tom and Jerry: The Heavenly Puss cartoon depicts the entrance to Tom's heaven as a gate before the Heavenly Express train. Cats that have just died wait in line before being admitted by the gatekeeper. Tom tries to sneak past, only to be told that he can only ride the train if Jerry signs a Certificate of Forgiveness first. Tom is given just one hour to go back to Earth and persuade Jerry to sign the document. Of course, it turns out it was All Just a Dream. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_1f72b18d | featureApplicability |
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TomAndJerry | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_29e77392 | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_29e77392 | comment |
In Horrible Histories, the Stupid Deaths skits often reference an afterlife bureaucracy, for example Death talks about how big his workload was during the bubonic plague, or tells someone whose death he views as insufficiently interesting (or stupid) to "get back in the Boring Deaths line." | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_29e77392 | featureApplicability |
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Horrible Histories | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_29e77392 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_2a4c791e | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_2a4c791e | comment |
Ah! My Goddess's Heaven is full of celestial sysadmins. The episode where Belldandy gets demon powers plays up this trope. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_2a4c791e | featureApplicability |
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Ah! My Goddess (Manga) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_2bd883dc | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_2bd883dc | comment |
Hotori dies and finds the Japanese Heaven is like this in And Yet the Town Moves. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_2bd883dc | featureApplicability |
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And Yet the Town Moves (Manga) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_2cbc520b | comment |
The angels in Holy Bibble have offices, councils, rules, etc... | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_2cbc520b | featureApplicability |
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Holy Bibble (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_334120fc | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_334120fc | comment |
The forces of cosmic evil are this in 8-Bit Theater. At one point Black Mage's patron mentions that having him take over Hell is an unacceptable form of apocalypse because there's just way too much paperwork. | |
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8-Bit Theater (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_33909389 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_33909389 | comment |
In Inferno by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, which is a modern re-imagining of Dante's Inferno, Hell is one big, strange bureaucracy whose motives the protagonist puzzles out during the course of the story. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_33909389 | featureApplicability |
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Inferno (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_3575f9a | comment |
In The Aeneid Aeneas travels through the underworld to Elysium, where he finds his father, Anchises — who is numbering souls on a tablet. So he's pretty much got a clipboard and is taking the names of everyone in Heaven. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_3575f9a | featureApplicability |
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The Aeneid | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_359e9958 | comment |
A Matter of Life and Death, known in the U.S. as Stairway to Heaven. | |
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A Matter of Life and Death | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_36cb251d | type |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_36cb251d | comment |
Dragon Ball Z Elsewhere: The Other World bureaucracy is...less than efficient. The Big Bad is released due to a bureaucratic screw-up, while another screw-up allows Dr. Gero to keep the enhancements he had when he was alive. North Kai is particularly incensed about the latter one. | |
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Dragon Ball Z Elsewhere (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_3736ef8 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_3736ef8 | comment |
Hellraiser: Judgement: Hell, or rather the Stygian Inquisition within it, is portrayed as very bureaucratic. New arrivals are interviewed by The Auditor, who puts their sins to paper, which are then eaten by another demon (The Assessor), and finally judged by the Jury. If found guilty, the Butcher and the Surgeon finish the sinner off. Pinhead and his Cenobites are part of a different faction of demons (The Order of the Gash) dedicated to pleasure and pain as an end in itself, and only rarely get involved with other matters. | |
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Hellraiser: Judgement | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_381d9226 | comment |
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: We don't see a lot of the afterlife, but the Black Rabbits use a clocking-in machine like stereotypical blue collar workers when they're off work and there's mention of paperwork confirming Pinocchio's decease. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_381d9226 | featureApplicability |
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_3aeb1c75 | comment |
Dragon Ball: An ever-expanding heirarchy of gods exist in the various universes who help lord over the realms and make sure things are running smoothly, including in the afterlife. However they do tend to fall hard into The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything and The Worf Effect, meaning it's often left to the protagonists to meet and defeat any conflicts that arise. King Yemma is in charge of judging the souls of the dead, determining whether they go to heaven or hell. He's actually a real figure from Asian mythology, but what makes him this trope is that his role is portrayed as a literal desk-job, with paperwork and pen-pushing and everything. In a sci-fi twist, Yemma attends to aliens from other planets as well. Each world has a Kami, meaning "god", although the FUNimation dubs make Kami their given name and their title changed to Guardian of Earth. They answer to the Kaio (Kai�; "Lord of Realms") of their quadrant, who answers to the Grand Kai. Above the Grand Kai are one or more Supreme Kais (Kai�shin; "Divine Lord of Realms"), who watch over the universe as a whole. The number of Supreme Kais to a universe appears to be variable; most universes appear to just have two (generally an elder and an apprentice), but Universe 7 had five at one point before a monster attack left them with a single Incompletely Trained one. It is later revealed that the Supreme Kais are the 'Gods of Creation' and balanced by a 'God of Destruction,' who destroys old worlds and such so new ones can formed. They are technically equal in "rank" to the Supreme Kai, but given that they are in general much more powerful than the Supreme Kai, in practice the Kai will usually defer to the God of Destruction. The God of Destruction is attended by an Angel, whose job it is to take care of them and train them. Angels also happen to be far more powerful than the Gods of Destruction, generally making them the single most powerful beings in a given universe. In the DBZ universe, (said to be the 7th Universe), the God of Destruction is Beerus, and his Angel is known as Whis. At the top of the hierarchy is Zen'O, "King of All" ("Grand Zen'o the Omni-King" in the English dub). He also has an Angel for an attendant, who is referred to as the Grand Priest. Unlike the Gods of Destruction, whose Angels are more powerful than they are, Zen'O is noted to be far more powerful than the Grand Priest is. |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_3efde824 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_3efde824 | comment |
Hell, in Johannes Cabal the Necromancer. This is apparently fairly recent, as the obstructive bureaucrat to end all obstructive bureaucrats who... "improved" things had only arrived in the mid-1800s. This is Played for Laughs, used to set up at least two impressive moments for Cabal, and one heartwarming scene (a rare thing, in that book). | |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_43576f5 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_43576f5 | comment |
Supernatural: Heaven is like this, at least for the Angels (human souls are all inside their own Matrix-like fantasy worlds). The main hall where the Angels congregate looks like a white, ordane office, and Zachariah can be one scary-ass careerist. Hell, under the Crowley regime, is also like this. It's just one long, shabby waiting line. He changed it to this in "The Man Who Would Be King" because he noticed that too many people sent to Hell were masochists that were Too Kinky to Torture, but everybody hates waiting in line. The (current) Grim Reaper takes Dean to her office in "Advanced Thanatology", which resembles a large hallway lined with dozens of bookshelves detailing mortals' fated deaths. Apparently, as shown in "Byzantium", the back room is occupied by Anubis, who became one of Heaven's "contractors" aeons ago. |
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Supernatural | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_444e73d4 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_444e73d4 | comment |
In Dylan Dog there are multiple "Hells" in the afterlife, some looking like a classical Dantesque caves of eternal torture, others more peaceful and heaven-like (it's even suggested that life could be a Hell and death is only a way to get from one Hell to the other). There's a Hell dedicated to the archive of the deaths that happen in London that resembles the Obstructive Vast Bureaucracy from Brazil. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_444e73d4 | featureApplicability |
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Dylan Dog (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_444f7f18 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_444f7f18 | comment |
The Kushiel's Legacy novels give Chi'in people this version of the afterlife, since they are a stand-in for Chinese. But the very good people get to skip the bureaucracy. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_444f7f18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_444f7f18 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Kushiel's Legacy | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_444f7f18 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_44c0bd13 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_44c0bd13 | comment |
The celestial realm of Dept. Heaven is, ironically enough, one of these; from the glimpses the players get over the series, it is a strictly hierarchy-based realm controlled by a small council who are the gods' proxies, particularly in Riviera, where the gods are in absentia. And thanks to the series' villain, the system is corrupt as all get-out, too. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_44c0bd13 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_44c0bd13 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dept. Heaven (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_44c0bd13 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_455ede40 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_455ede40 | comment |
The Underwhere in Super Paper Mario. The demons here are referred to as D-Men, wear business suits, and are constantly concerned about keeping everything on schedule. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_455ede40 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_455ede40 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Super Paper Mario (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_455ede40 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_468bebb0 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_468bebb0 | comment |
Discworld: This trope taken to its logical extreme perfectly describes the Auditors of Reality, who are essentially bureaucrats who oversee the minutiae of the Magical Underpinnings of Reality. Unfortunately for all sapient life, they despise anything resembling creativity or individuality, since it increases the amount of paperwork they have to do. Discworld's Hell - at least during Astfgl's stint as Demon King in Eric - is also portrayed as a literally soul-grinding bureaucracy, with the torment of pushing a rock up a hill being replaced by the greater torment of listening to the associated Health and Safety regulations, and the ancient ledgers being replaced by modern filing cabinets. While this does have the desired effect on the damned, the demons have to suffer it right along with them. When the demons finally have enough of all this they do what any bureaucracy would do in the situation - promote Astfgl to a position where he doesn't actually have any responsibility, and give him a very nice office and a speaking tube that doesn't connect to anyone. |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_468bebb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_468bebb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Discworld | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_468bebb0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_486ca3f2 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_486ca3f2 | comment |
In The Time of Their Lives (1946), after the curse that prevents Patriot Horatio Prim from ascending to Heaven is lifted, he is still excluded — because Heaven is "Closed for Washington's Birthday." | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_486ca3f2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_486ca3f2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Time of Their Lives (1946) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_486ca3f2 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_49ad83ee | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_49ad83ee | comment |
In World of Warcraft the souls of the recently deceased are collected by Kyrians and brought before the Arbiter who assesses the soul's life and assigns them to the appropriate realm. Each realm of the Shadowlands has its own directive to pursue in service of the Shadowlands as a whole, such as Bastion training new Kyrian and Maldraxxus acting as the military. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_49ad83ee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_49ad83ee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
World of Warcraft (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_49ad83ee | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4d1ba412 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4d1ba412 | comment |
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja plays with this; purgatory is an infinite diner where-in the dead must eat dishes symbolizing/made-from each of their sins before they can move on to the next (as yet unseen) stage of the afterlife. The real kicker? There's only one waiter in the whole place so the service is just terrible; people that've been there for centuries are still on the bread basket. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4d1ba412 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4d1ba412 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4d1ba412 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4e79445d | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4e79445d | comment |
The Detective Inspector Chen series features a bureaucratic afterlife based on Chinese mythology. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4e79445d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4e79445d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Detective Inspector Chen | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_4e79445d | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_52eb7183 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_52eb7183 | comment |
Irregular Webcomic! features a hierarchy of Deaths, who are periodically demoted, promoted, or fired by the Head Death. Each one is in charge of a particular cause of death, such as Insanely Overpowered Fireballs, Choking On A Giant Frog, and Being Wrestled To Death By Steve Irwin. One memorable storyline involved all of the Deaths going on strike. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_52eb7183 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_52eb7183 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Irregular Webcomic! (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_52eb7183 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_53a0bd8b | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_53a0bd8b | comment |
The Twilight Zone (1985): In "Dead Run", Johnny Davis begins working as a truck driver transporting condemned souls to Hell. Within hours, he discovers that many of the damned don't deserve to be there. For instance, one woman was too self-centered in life, one man only saw the dirt in life and not the beauty and another was an atheist. After the souls riot, Johnny is brought to meet the Dispatcher, who has the final say on who is sent to Hell because the Boss abdicated responsibility long ago. The Dispatcher explains to Johnny and he is instituting "time honored Biblical standards" in holding the departed souls to a high standard. He sees it as his duty to combat the "secular, intellectual propaganda" of the modern age and ensure that pornographers, heathens, atheists, humanists and others receive the punishment that they deserve. Johnny is disgusted and helps a draft dodger, a junkie, a librarian who fought against banned books being removed from the shelves and a young gay man escape to Heaven. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_53a0bd8b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_53a0bd8b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Twilight Zone (1985) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_53a0bd8b | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_54961d49 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_54961d49 | comment |
The Wish List features Saint Peter griping about how computer programmers never get past the Pearly Gates, so he has to do all of his records manually. The staff of Hell dread being reassigned to somewhere even worse than they already are. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_54961d49 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_54961d49 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Wish List | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_54961d49 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56b43627 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56b43627 | comment |
In Toothless, Limbo is a desert waiting area where souls are judged worthy or not, with professions such as dentistry being considered detrimental to entering Heaven. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56b43627 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56b43627 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Toothless | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56b43627 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56e31de4 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56e31de4 | comment |
White Dark Life inverts this, Hell is the Bureaucracy, Though it's still a horrible place for sinners. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56e31de4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56e31de4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
White Dark Life / Web Comic | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_56e31de4 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5755b96a | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5755b96a | comment |
The Order of the Stick. This being a Dungeons & Dragons-based world, Death is Cheap for adventurers (they get raised pretty regularly), so there are "fast track" procedures for repeat customers. Said "fast track" is a literal Revolving Door. The part of the afterlife where the more numerous recent dead who worship the Southern Gods go on death has a long line. Although that was after a pretty major battle. The Lawful Good afterlife (and possibly other afterlifes) is up a mountain, but the line to get in is in a different astral "place" depending on who you worshiped. It's like they've turned Heaven into the DMV... Somewhat unusually for this trope, and despite the Deva's insistence on doing things by the book (see the trope picture), she's actually quite easygoing on Roy instead of being Lawful Stupid about it. The evil afterlife seems more corporation-styled, with the Three Fiends acting like they're running a start-up company (which, in a way, they do) and worrying about the presentation they have to give to the "lower-downs" and how they haven't had time to clear their inbox all week. Cut to a huge inbox being filled with deceased evil people, including some of the soldiers the heroes are busy killing. |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5755b96a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5755b96a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Order of the Stick (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5755b96a | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5b5eeafa | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5b5eeafa | comment |
Heaven in Andrei Belyanin's My Wife Is a Witch duology is run by a bureaucracy. The protagonist's personal angel Ancifer has to file daily reports on his charge's activities. In the second book, it is revealed that Hell has decided to adopt a similar system, and his demon Farmason is not at all happy with all the deadlines and reports in triplicate. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5b5eeafa | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5b5eeafa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
My Wife Is a Witch | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5b5eeafa | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5c66fff9 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5c66fff9 | comment |
Neverwinter Nights 2: Death, in the Dark Waters fan campaign, is portrayed as a long-suffering bureaucrat who forgives your in-game deaths because he's too busy with paperwork to bother processing you into the afterlife. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5c66fff9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5c66fff9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Neverwinter Nights 2 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5c66fff9 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5ce2f08b | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5ce2f08b | comment |
Black Butler seems to have one too. This may be an homage to Yami no Matsuei. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5ce2f08b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5ce2f08b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Black Butler (Manga) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5ce2f08b | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e0f78d3 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e0f78d3 | comment |
An episode of Murder Most Horrid has The Grim Reaper complaining endlessly about this. They gave her a makeover because they thought she was too grim for modern customers. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e0f78d3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e0f78d3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Murder Most Horrid | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e0f78d3 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e150650 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e150650 | comment |
Exalted includes a Celestial Bureaucracy, and player characters may be part of it. However, it differs from most examples of the Trope in that, while it runs Creation (the mortal world), it has little to do with the afterlife of mortals beyond filing the requisite paperwork to ensure the process of their Reincarnation goes smoothly (assuming that mortals don't have some strong attachment to their former lives, since actual lingering ghosts don't fall under the Celestial Bureaucracy's jurisdiction, which turns out to be a pretty significant crack to fall through). The Celestial Order, as it's called, also has a bit of a problem with unemployment. This is partly a holdover from a time when Creation had been subjected to a series of cataclysms, and thus Heaven shut their doors to prevent the massive influx of gods whose jobs and homes in the mortal world had been destroyed. When it turned out Creation had survived after all, Heaven was also left with the difficult task of working with and around the Spirit Courts, local unions formed by gods and elementals who realised that they had been written off by the higher ups. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e150650 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e150650 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Exalted (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e150650 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e42de8e | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e42de8e | comment |
The Heaven associated with Earth in Stranger in a Strange Land resembles an office, with the angels discussing their projects and sports. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e42de8e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e42de8e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Stranger in a Strange Land | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_5e42de8e | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_60f02ddb | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_60f02ddb | comment |
In the American Dad! episode "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever", Stan dies and is sent to Heaven, where he demands a "Second Chance" at life. This process, it turns out, requires a courthouse trial, with Angels using victories in cases to decide their hierarchy. Stan winds up with Michelle, who hasn't ever won a single case, and thus, lacks even angelic wings. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_60f02ddb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_60f02ddb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
American Dad! | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_60f02ddb | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6374dcbb | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6374dcbb | comment |
The Underworld as depicted in The Middle Man is a giant office building with files in the back room and a Deadpan Snarker at the desk position. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6374dcbb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6374dcbb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Middleman | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6374dcbb | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_638624c8 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_638624c8 | comment |
Slayers: The monsters have one; all we really know about it is that Xellos, despite being more powerful than any of Shaburanigdo's lieutenants (he was apparently created specifically for the War of the Monster's Fall), ranks well below them. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_638624c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_638624c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Slayers | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_638624c8 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_64c1836 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_64c1836 | comment |
10 Days with My Devil: The Romance Game has human death and reincarnation managed by demons, responsible for making sure that humans meet their fated deaths and that their souls are transported to heaven, and angels, who cleanse the souls of dead humans and reincarnate them into new lives. The two races are each ruled by a king and keep track of the fates of humans using an electronic database. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_64c1836 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_64c1836 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
10 Days with My Devil (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_64c1836 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_651fa476 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_651fa476 | comment |
Music Of The After: The Land of the Dead has one, but unfortunately for Rebecca, they can’t find any of her undead relatives on her American side, and she doesn’t know any relatives on her Mexican side, forcing Hector to act as her caretaker. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_651fa476 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_651fa476 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Music Of The After (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_651fa476 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_67abe4e4 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_67abe4e4 | comment |
In Eek! The Cat, cats have life cards to show how many lives they have left. Eek was once tricked into taking the file of a bad cat and got sent to hell. Once the mistake got fixed, he regained all his lives. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_67abe4e4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_67abe4e4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Eek! The Cat | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_67abe4e4 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68237790 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68237790 | comment |
In Pathfinder, this is the Boneyard, a cemetery like plane where the goddess of death Pharasma sits in judgement of the recently dead, and sends them onwards to the appropriate afterlife. The lines are quite long, but the whole thing is efficiently managed by the Psychopomps, True Neutral outsiders who run the place and handle the paperwork. Why all this is necessary is uncertain, as Pharasma is also the goddess of prophesy, and supposedly knows the ultimate fate of every soul anyway. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68237790 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68237790 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pathfinder (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68237790 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68807451 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68807451 | comment |
Edaniel describes the afterlife like this in Bizenghast. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68807451 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68807451 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Bizenghast (Manga) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_68807451 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ac55ec7 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ac55ec7 | comment |
Dungeons & Dragons: The pantheon of Kara-tur, the Forgotten Realms' fantasy counterpart to East Asia, is actually called the Celestial Bureaucracy. The Nine Hells of Baator has an Infernal Bureaucracy centered around the damnation of mortal souls, which requires a good deal of paperwork and a special breed of devilish bureaucrats. Mortal souls that arrive in Baator are marked based on which devil managed to tip their alignment to Lawful Evil, and shuttled off to the plane's different layers depending on which archdevil will ultimately take credit for their damnation, where they will be tortured for spiritual energy and transformed into a new devil at the bottom of the infernal pecking order. There's a court system where mortals who signed a Deal with the Devil can try to argue their cases and get out of an infernal contract, and though the devils will provide free legal counsel, they'll also do their best to prove that a mortal's other actions in life damned them for unrelated reasons. Devils compete viciously with each other to fill their damnation quotas and earn promotion to a more powerful form of Baatezu - demotion is feared more than oblivion because it's humiliating and agonizing, while at least oblivion is painless. Throw in "soul futures" trading, spiritual loan sharks trading a few souls now to a desperate devil for the promise of more souls later, devils competing with each other for rights to the most productive soul harvesting territory on the Material Plane, "lateral demotions" of dangerous underlings into forms of devil ill-suited for soul collection and thus further promotion, and archdevils trying to poach talent from each other, and the whole thing comes across as a dark satire of corporate politics. |
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Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ac55ec7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ac55ec7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ac55ec7 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6c0aaca7 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6c0aaca7 | comment |
The central premise of Old Harry's Game, a workplace comedy set in Fire and Brimstone Hell. Heaven is apparently even more of a mess from what is seen in-story, since Satan is slightly less of a Pointy-Haired Boss than God. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6c0aaca7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6c0aaca7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Old Harry's Game (Radio) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6c0aaca7 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ce2ea86 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ce2ea86 | comment |
The Haunted Mansion and the Hatbox Ghost Fan Verse has a Reconstruction version of this trope. Though the ghost realm, worldwide, is a rather lawless mess, the Haunted Mansion itself has a bureaucracy through the Ghost Relations Department, and ghosts have to fill out all sorts of forms to be allowed to haunt the house permanently. The Ghost Host, a self-described stickler for paperwork, imposes it on the other spooks, much to their annoyance. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ce2ea86 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ce2ea86 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Haunted Mansion And The Hatbox Ghost (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ce2ea86 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6d0b436f | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6d0b436f | comment |
The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael: Purgatory/limbo is a wasteland where the souls of the formerly living wait in line at the bank of a river guarded by demonic horsemen before receiving judgment by The Ferryman, who will take them to their final destination. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6d0b436f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6d0b436f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6d0b436f | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ed09d93 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ed09d93 | comment |
Big Mouth: It turns out that the Hormone Monsters work for "Human Resources — We Manage People" (presented by Acura), which manages all stages of human life. There is a Childhood Office, Department of Puberty, Center for Adulthood, Geriatrics and Bureau of the Dead. Nick, Andrew and Jessi find their way here when Tyler accidentally leaves a portal open. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ed09d93 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ed09d93 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Big Mouth | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ed09d93 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ee9416d | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ee9416d | comment |
In The Legend of Kyrandia III: Malcolm's Revenge, Malcolm arrives in the lobby of such a bureaucracy and is made to wait in line behind a Captain Ersatz of Elvis Presley before he is able to progress to Hell. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ee9416d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ee9416d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Legend of Kyrandia (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_6ee9416d | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_73a7cc8 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_73a7cc8 | comment |
Angel Moxie: The realm of the Higher Authority, which the characters answer to, turns out to work like this. Appeals to the Authority are handled by a receptionist who manifests as a squirrel. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_73a7cc8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_73a7cc8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Angel Moxie (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_73a7cc8 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_742af508 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_742af508 | comment |
The main character of Grim Fandango is an employee at the Department of Death, which guides souls to the afterlife. It's a post-mortem travel agency. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_742af508 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_742af508 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Grim Fandango (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_742af508 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_74ce3b5b | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_74ce3b5b | comment |
Beetlejuice. The afterlife is a waiting room and a surreal office building staffed by the ghosts of people who committed suicide. The newly dead are assigned case workers who give limited guidance, and the dead are expected to read The Handbook for the Recently Deceased immediately upon their death (not that anyone comes out and tells them to read it, it’s just expected). | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_74ce3b5b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_74ce3b5b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Beetlejuice | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_74ce3b5b | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_75250ce7 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_75250ce7 | comment |
The pantheon of Kara-tur, the Forgotten Realms' fantasy counterpart to East Asia, is actually called the Celestial Bureaucracy. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_75250ce7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_75250ce7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Kara-tur (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_75250ce7 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_754a3044 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_754a3044 | comment |
The depiction of Hell and the Norse Afterlife seem to work this way in Ninja High School. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_754a3044 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_754a3044 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ninja High School (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_754a3044 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76394e02 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76394e02 | comment |
In Afterlife Inc a con-artist named Jack Fortune dies, discovers an afterlife in chaos, then takes over and runs it like a business. The road is hell is paved with good intentions, but Jack's doing pretty well in building a kinder, caring afterlife. So far. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76394e02 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76394e02 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Afterlife Inc (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76394e02 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76885dcf | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76885dcf | comment |
In an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, "The Tale of Station 109.1", the main character is mistaken for a dead person at their local Celestial Bureaucracy. The clerk there, played by Special Guest Gilbert Gottfried, tells him "I don't make mistakes! When I was alive, I worked at the Department of Motor Vehicles!" | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76885dcf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76885dcf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Are You Afraid of the Dark? | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_76885dcf | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7bea3d7b | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7bea3d7b | comment |
The afterlife in Along With The Gods: The Two Worlds is organized like a bureaucracy. King Yeomra oversees all of the Hells and decides on the order in which a soul will face the Hells. The gods of each Hell judges souls, with guardians acting as defense lawyers and prosecutors on the other side. There are different levels of guardians and prosecutors, with each gaining a promotion if they succeed. There are also rules and regulations that govern how guardians and prosecutors can operate. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7bea3d7b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7bea3d7b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Along With The Gods: The Two Worlds | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7bea3d7b | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7efbc126 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7efbc126 | comment |
Divine Misfortune: While it's implied that The Time of Myths was a free-for-all, the Court of Divine Affairs was established to keep the gods from destroying the world out of vindictiveness, vengeance or sheer boredom. They also help enforce the rights of their mortal followers to a minimum (albeit while still being lower than gods in the cosmic hierarchy) and dually punish gods who threaten the world. Fury Central from "My Dinner with Ares" is a service that sends gods associated with Divine Punishment to reap justice on mortals accused of some great sin. Because of sheer workload, they will often outsource with gods of death and doesn't bother looking to see if the job actually gets done. |
|
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7efbc126 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7efbc126 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Divine Misfortune | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_7efbc126 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_81bd6d63 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_81bd6d63 | comment |
Atlantis: The Lost Tales: In the sequel(Atlantis II in Europe, Beyond Atlantis outside Europe), while traveling in ancient China the player enters Hell to acquire an item, discovering it is a bureaucracy run by bored demons. The lost souls of those who died trying to cut through the red tape still wander the area. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_81bd6d63 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_81bd6d63 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Atlantis: The Lost Tales (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_81bd6d63 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89465e75 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89465e75 | comment |
The Underworld in Percy Jackson and the Olympians is victim to this. There's a long wait for departed souls, and Charon really wants to have a pay-raise. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89465e75 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89465e75 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Percy Jackson and the Olympians | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89465e75 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_896e7011 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_896e7011 | comment |
In Monkeybone comatose people are kept in "Down Town" until Death, from her office building, doesn't send a reaper to give an "Exit Pass" to those who are free to go and return to the living world. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_896e7011 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_896e7011 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Monkeybone | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_896e7011 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_898a1932 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_898a1932 | comment |
Journey to Chaos: The grim reapers of the Abyss are organized into ranks and governed by laws and customs. Their scythe is the symbol of their office. For instance, Reno Grade is a third class trainee reaper whose scythe is blood red while Modil Pera is a first class senior reaper and carries a sycthe with a gold blade. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_898a1932 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_898a1932 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Journey to Chaos | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_898a1932 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89e1ec58 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89e1ec58 | comment |
Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane: The Court of Azathoth, the place where Tyrion and Eris appear when he pledges to dispute the Blood Pact that Celeste has with Eris. They're all taken to a higher plane of existence to argue their respective cases. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89e1ec58 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89e1ec58 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_89e1ec58 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_8e7e21c8 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_8e7e21c8 | comment |
In Spirited (2022), aside from the afterlife being like a musical with song and dance numbers happening all over the place, it contains the department dedicated to redeeming one selfish person every Christmas. This is run like a mortal office job with a staff of assistants who do the investigation and prep work that the Spirits of Christmas need to play their parts. And after Clint Briggs dies performing an Heroic Sacrifice, he quickly gets to work expanding the department to cover more holidays. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_8e7e21c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_8e7e21c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Spirited (2022) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_8e7e21c8 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90cc79f0 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90cc79f0 | comment |
Fury Central from "My Dinner with Ares" is a service that sends gods associated with Divine Punishment to reap justice on mortals accused of some great sin. Because of sheer workload, they will often outsource with gods of death and doesn't bother looking to see if the job actually gets done. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90cc79f0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90cc79f0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
My Dinner with Ares | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90cc79f0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90e09c2e | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90e09c2e | comment |
Descendants of Darkness is based upon this trope. The main characters are all dead people who serve as bureaucrats for the Afterlife Bureaucracy. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90e09c2e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90e09c2e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Descendants of Darkness (Manga) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_90e09c2e | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_91c46e04 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_91c46e04 | comment |
The Tooth Fairy: Not afterlife, but still (usually) invisible to humans. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_91c46e04 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_91c46e04 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
TheToothFairy | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_91c46e04 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_923dd091 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_923dd091 | comment |
In CollegeHumor's "God's Boss Craig", God is not in charge of heaven. He has a boss named Craig. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_923dd091 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_923dd091 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
CollegeHumor | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_923dd091 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_93090430 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_93090430 | comment |
Given it was written in Qing dynasty China it's not surprising that a number of stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio feature the Heavenly Bureaucracy. In one, a newly deceased man takes the Celestial court's exam and is awarded a post as god of his city, but refuses on the grounds that he needed to care for his ailing mother. His examiners are impressed by his show of filial devotion and grant him a sabbatical leave until his mother dies of old age and he's free to assume his divine position. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_93090430 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_93090430 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_93090430 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_98288223 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_98288223 | comment |
The Magicians (2016): In a variant, the Underworld is a nice version of this trope, especially considering everything else is a Crapsack World. Dead souls find themselves in what looks like a pleasant hotel lobby, with friendly staff ready to help them make the transition as smoothly as possible, along with an orientation video from Hades and pamphlets promising newcomers that they're (probably) not going to Hell. There are miniature paradises filled with mundane things people might enjoy like bowling while they wait to be sorted into their final afterlives, and the only real rules are that souls without shades are quarantined, and you're not allowed to interact with other souls if you were culpable in their deaths. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_98288223 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_98288223 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Magicians (2016) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_98288223 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9b2df4bd | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9b2df4bd | comment |
The premise of You Are Dead (Sign Here Please) is the protagonist runs afoul of the bureaucrats who run the universe by being the first person in history to refuse, upon the end of his natural life, to sign his 21B (Decedent Acknowledgment and Waiver of Liability) and therefore becoming immortal until such a time as he can be tricked or cajoled into doing so. Bureaucracy in the world of the novel turns out to be not only essential to anything happening over a certain size, but also the literal meaning of life. As the universe expanded and grew more complex, the original bureaucrats created life on Earth, culminating in humans with immortal souls who could enter the afterlife upon death and help out with all the paperwork that was piling up. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9b2df4bd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9b2df4bd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
You Are Dead (Sign Here Please) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9b2df4bd | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cb5fb63 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cb5fb63 | comment |
In Death and Taxes the player character is a Grim Reaper charged with maintaining the balance of life and death for a small town, through paperwork. Departments exist for the death of all things - from plants to animals to humans to stars to galaxies. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cb5fb63 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cb5fb63 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Death and Taxes (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cb5fb63 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cc8c624 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cc8c624 | comment |
In Valérian, the celestial hierarchy based on planet Hypsis appears to be an extremely capitalist enterprise. Each pantheon's position in the hierarchy is determined by the gross national product of the planet it oversees, and it's possible for the enterprise to fail, which leads to stripping divinity and immortality from the pantheon's members, and banishing them to the infernal depths of the Point Central to work off their debts, as happened to one Mr. L.C.F. Sat. The members of the Earth's pantheon, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are a dilapidated business near collapse, and harassed by their colleagues over the Earthlings' habit of meddling with the affairs of others. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cc8c624 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cc8c624 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Valérian (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9cc8c624 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9d7ec380 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9d7ec380 | comment |
The Good Place: Every single action in your life is given a score managed by accountants. Even trivial things like buying a trashy magazine (bad) or eating a healthy sandwich (good). When you die you need a very high positive score in order to get into the titular Good Place while everyone else goes to the Bad Place. The scoring system however is infamously convoluted and at times nonsensical with a mention in season 3 that only the accountants have full knowledge on how the system works (for example, that healthy sandwich is worth less points on a baguette, because it makes it more French). Outside the neighborhoods, everything (at least on one side) is run like a company complete with board meetings, climbing the corporate ladder, approaching work like a day at the office and coffee breaks, while another side is run by a committee so hidebound that it's going to take them 1,400 years just to form the committee to investigate a complaint. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9d7ec380 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9d7ec380 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Good Place | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9d7ec380 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e7ed97a | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e7ed97a | comment |
Dead Like Me features a character who gets turned into a grim reaper and joins the bureaucratic mess of being a psychopomp. One episode (the cut scene episode) explicitly lampshades this. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e7ed97a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e7ed97a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dead Like Me | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e7ed97a | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e876c22 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e876c22 | comment |
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, is built on this trope from start to finish. Crowley and Aziraphale treat their respective work— infernal wiles and heavenly intervention— like boring quotas that just need filling in between the real fun, which only Earth can provide. Both are frustrated with orders from higher-ups (or lower-downs) who know all about paperwork but nothing about how sinning and saving is different in the 20th century than the 14th. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e876c22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e876c22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Good Omens | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_9e876c22 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a03824e8 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a03824e8 | comment |
The DCU: Back in 1942, back before DC Comics absorbed all of their characters, Fawcet Comics debuted Kid Eternity, a young hero who was the victim of the first celestial clerical error in two million years. After his grandfather’s boat is torpedoed by a German U-boat, he ends up in Eternity (the name for Heaven here) where he finds out he isn’t supposed to die for 75 years. Fortunately, this is a Celestial Bureaucracy that is big on restitution; they not only grant him life, but incredible super-powers (including the ability to summon both historic and fictional characters to aid him) and as further largesse, appoint the portly desk jockey (“Mr. Keeper�) who made the error to act as his partner. The duo fought crime and Those Wacky Nazis for about eight years, but Kid Eternity never had the Popularity Power he needed to be a hit, although he has had a few guest appearances since then. (And ironically, if he does indeed ever want to become A-list, he has to hurry; his 75-year reprieve is almost up!) |
|
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a03824e8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a03824e8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The DCU (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a03824e8 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a62dae97 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a62dae97 | comment |
The Qur'an: Islam, every part of a sentient being's (djinns are included) afterlife is managed by angels. For instance, every single human has two angels sitting on their shoulders to write down their piety and sin. After the Kiamat (End of the World), everyone will be in purgatory, where they have to go through several trials, which will be made either easier or harder based on those angels' reports. Afterward, the reports will be publicly announced to everyone who has been gathered, whereupon it will be decided how long they're going to stay in hell. Yes, according to some interpretations of Islam, everyone's going to hell at first, where the angels — not Satan — will torture them based on the sins they've committed. After repenting for their sins, the person will be removed from hell and gain eternity in heaven, where the same angels who tortured them become their steadfast companions and servants. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a62dae97 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a62dae97 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Qur'an | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a62dae97 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a6543322 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a6543322 | comment |
Touhou Project loves this trope. At one point, hell's budget is dangerously in the red, and so it opens up stands in the world of the living in an attempt to balance the books. Hell itself has the rather amusing title of "The Ministry of Right and Wrong" and they publish guidebooks. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a6543322 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a6543322 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Touhou Project (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a6543322 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a77de360 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a77de360 | comment |
In the "Shroud of Wally" episode of Dilbert, Dilbert is briefly killed and discovers that the afterlife is identical to his cubicle at work. Naturally, his engineer coworkers have one major concern: | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a77de360 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a77de360 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dilbert | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_a77de360 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_aae9b70b | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_aae9b70b | comment |
Rhapsodies has the Department of Minor Nuisances, which is in charge of things like missing combs and traffic lights. Though when they are behind on various accounts they may resort to drastic measures. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_aae9b70b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_aae9b70b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Rhapsodies (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_aae9b70b | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ab9e04fe | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ab9e04fe | comment |
A Life Less Ordinary saw heaven as this, complete with archangels as harassed middle-managers. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ab9e04fe | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ab9e04fe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
A Life Less Ordinary | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ab9e04fe | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b0b4e8ff | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b0b4e8ff | comment |
Jade Empire, being set in a fantastic equivalent of Imperial China, has its own Celestial Bureaucracy which is played for comic effect. In one instance, a minor god assigned by the bureaucracy to tabulate the karmic effects of the player's actions appears to him/her, in order to complain about all the work you've caused him to have to do. In fact he was overwhelmed and demoted to finance, where he now tries to show his superiors how efficient he is by acting as your private store. Having taken up his new role he actually seems rather happy, and flavour lines has him pitying the poor sap who got his old job. He's not the only member of the Celestial Bureaucracy helping you out. Far from it. Turns out Mad Scientist Kang the Mad is the minor inventor's deity Lord Lao who was slumming it on Earth with a case of amnesia. Black Whirlwind apparently has an entire department dedicated to recording all his karmic disruptions. And so do you, after the aforementioned minor god's disruption. The whole problem of the game started when the Brothers Sun defeated and imprisoned the deity in charge of rain... who also was in charge of escorting the dead to their rest. Yes, it saved the Empire in the short term. In the long term? Nice job breaking it. |
|
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b0b4e8ff | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b0b4e8ff | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Jade Empire (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b0b4e8ff | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b36f7cc5 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b36f7cc5 | comment |
Nick's introduction to the R.I.P.D. takes place in an office, outside of which are walls full of filing cabinets as far as the eyes can see. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b36f7cc5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b36f7cc5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
R.I.P.D. | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b36f7cc5 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b39043a7 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b39043a7 | comment |
Knights of Jebalot has the Afterlife Office, with Clerks to send souls to the Paradise Suites or Hell floors. One even complains that murders are "a lot of paperwork." And this bureaucratic nightmare leads to problems, like souls escaping, an Eldritch Abomination they're supposed to keep locked up going unnoticed for decades, and more. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b39043a7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b39043a7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Knights of Jebalot | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b39043a7 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b554847 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b554847 | comment |
Implied in the earlier chapters of The Atomic Blood-Stained Bus, and then shown outright when Garfield and Algernon go to the offices of the gods and deal with the receptionist and security angels. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b554847 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b554847 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Atomic Blood-Stained Bus | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b554847 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b954ab38 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b954ab38 | comment |
In Atharon, Avatars for different magical professions make one of these. Things get messy quickly whenever live mortals need to interact with them. Dead souls are ok, it's all in the days work for the Avatars. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b954ab38 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b954ab38 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Atharon | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_b954ab38 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bbea52a | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bbea52a | comment |
Hell Inc: Hell, Inc. is a weekly webcomic about the demons who work at Hell, Inc., the massive corporation in charge of running Hell. The story follows Doug, a low-level office drone, as he tries to eke out whatever happiness he can from the nightmare world he calls home. Other than being in Hell, the office environment is only slightly more soul-crushing than normal. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bbea52a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bbea52a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hell Inc (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bbea52a | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bcb03d22 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bcb03d22 | comment |
In Hazbin Hotel, Heaven is shown to be like this with Fallen Angel Lucifer bitterly stating that they have "lots of rules". With no God to keep them in line, the seraphim governing the universe are for the most part condescending Control Freaks, and in the Spin-Off Helluva Boss they and the cherubim are shown to be perfectly willing to banish their own to Hell for a single mistake (with the cherub responsible for the act in question being an expy of Mean Boss Bill Lumbergh from Office Space). | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bcb03d22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bcb03d22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hazbin Hotel | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_bcb03d22 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_be72bcf9 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_be72bcf9 | comment |
The Art of Monsters has a bureaucratic heaven based on Chinese mythology. One of the characters is hauled in front of a tribunal for her misdeeds, while another gets given a job in a celestial library and a fancy hat. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_be72bcf9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_be72bcf9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Art of Monsters (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_be72bcf9 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c11dc7e6 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c11dc7e6 | comment |
This trope is a mainstay of Less is Morgue. Evelyn describes purgatory as being like the DMV, another character is forced to fill out mountains of paperwork before being assigned to his afterlife, and The Grim Reaper uses a mobile app - that he can't even begin to understand - to judge the spirits of the deceased. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c11dc7e6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c11dc7e6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Less is Morgue (Podcast) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c11dc7e6 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c401680e | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c401680e | comment |
Orpheus: For murdering Eurydice and taking her to the underworld, the princess (an angel of death) has to face a tribunal consisting of some weary-looking bureaucrats. She's basically let off with a warning. For making an unauthorized entry into the afterlife to get Eurydice, Orpheus is forbidden to ever look at her again, with her having to go back if she does. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c401680e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c401680e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Orpheus | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c401680e | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
The Promised Land comes off this way in Doctor Who. Characters who have (apparently) died in-story appear in a garden or a gleaming white hallway to give their statements to Missy or her assistant Seb. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c43df4d8 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c7912cea | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c7912cea | comment |
The original pitch of Jimmy Two-Shoes stated that reason why Jimmy was in Miseryville in the first place was that after he was hit by a bus and died, an administrative error by the powers that be sent him down instead of up. Whether or not this is still the case in the final cut of the show is unknown. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c7912cea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c7912cea | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Jimmy Two-Shoes | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_c7912cea | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_cecc64ea | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_cecc64ea | comment |
Afterlife (1996) is entirely based off this concept - The player has to plan out both heaven and hell to be, respectively, as pleasant and torturous as they can be. The game includes workforce management (angels and demons), bank loans (the currency is pennies from heaven, with the banks of heaven and hell offering different terms), placing development zones (for the seven deadly sins), and a dry, worldly demon in a business suit as one of your advisors. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_cecc64ea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_cecc64ea | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Afterlife (1996) (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_cecc64ea | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2cd3b5e | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2cd3b5e | comment |
In Nomine features a form of bureaucracy for both Heaven and Hell. Heaven is ruled by the Seraphim Council, and also has Dominic's angels running around checking for heresy. Hell has Asmodeus's demons enforcing the rules of "The Game", but cheating is often encouraged. It's been said of the setting that both Heaven and Hell are feudal bureaucracies, but the Devil is, quite literally, in the details. |
|
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2cd3b5e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2cd3b5e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
In Nomine (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2cd3b5e | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2d58406 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2d58406 | comment |
Hozuki's Coolheadedness is about the bureaucracy of (Buddhist) Hell. They even have paid holidays for their employees. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2d58406 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2d58406 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hozuki's Coolheadedness (Manga) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2d58406 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2dfd2f2 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2dfd2f2 | comment |
In Journey to the West, there is even a list in the underworld dictating who goes there. Guess whose names Sun Wukong crosses off when he storms in. An entire chapter revolves around someone's soul accidentally being sent back to Earth in another body due to a bureaucratic screw-up. |
|
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2dfd2f2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2dfd2f2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Journey to the West | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d2dfd2f2 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d5164c46 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d5164c46 | comment |
In Hades, which focuses on Greek mythology, many of the Chthonic gods have roles that contribute to running the Underworld and managing the souls of the dead. Charon ferries dead souls down the River Styx (after Hermes delivers them to him), Hypnos keeps track of new arrivals, and Hades himself decides where the dead will be placed, determines any punishments, and listens to their claims. Meanwhile, Thanatos is in charge of delivering the souls of those who died peaceful deaths, and the Furies punish those who committed particular crimes in life. Despite the focus on the afterlife, it's still very much a bureaucracy with a lot of paperwork involved; there's even an administrative office that Zagreus can gain access to (and he even tried to work there himself, with disastrous results). | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d5164c46 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d5164c46 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hades (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d5164c46 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d8520b74 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d8520b74 | comment |
In Sam & Max: Freelance Police, Hell looks like a regular office building with cubicles and the like. It can be assumed that bureaucracy is also implemented there. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d8520b74 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d8520b74 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sam & Max: Freelance Police (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_d8520b74 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dd94e76e | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dd94e76e | comment |
Here Comes Mr. Jordan features bungled soul reaping by an officious (psychopompous?) angel known only as 7013, as part of a rather airline-esque afterlife. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dd94e76e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dd94e76e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Here Comes Mr. Jordan | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dd94e76e | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dea37b6c | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dea37b6c | comment |
Ironclaw: In the first expansion Jadeclaw, ZhÅ�ngguó, being not merely a Fantasy Counterpart Culture but even sharing a name with China, believes in a celestial bureaucracy. And one of the sample characters is a dragon who was fired from his job in the weather department for sleeping on the job and causing a flood, as shown in this◊ comic◊. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dea37b6c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dea37b6c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ironclaw (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_dea37b6c | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e21bc91e | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e21bc91e | comment |
The Adjusters in The Adjustment Bureau are supernatural beings in charge of human destinies... and they dress like '50s office clerks and work in what appears to be a huge chancellery. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e21bc91e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e21bc91e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Adjustment Bureau | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e21bc91e | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e3ba2afb | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e3ba2afb | comment |
Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell envisions Hell as a (literally) soul-sucking cubicle farm, with Satan serving as a Corrupt Corporate Executive. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e3ba2afb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e3ba2afb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e3ba2afb | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6758d93 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6758d93 | comment |
Scion has a game extension dealing with the Celestial Bureaucracy. The main Chinese gods are featured and may be chosen as parents of the player characters. The second edition promotes the Chinese gods to a main pantheon, but changes the name to Shen. They still very much remain extremely bureaucratic, and because of it, Chinese Scions become immune to earthy ones. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6758d93 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6758d93 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Scion (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6758d93 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6a5357f | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6a5357f | comment |
Purgatony is an office comedy web series about bureaucrats in purgatory who determine whether the newly deceased will go to heaven or hell. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6a5357f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6a5357f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Purgatony (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_e6a5357f | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_eb3eebd9 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_eb3eebd9 | comment |
In Shredder Orpheus, Orpheus enters Hades' Underworld to find a gloomy office setting adjacent to his broadcasting network. Apollo and Calliope work in the memory-processing department and are tasked with erasing incoming souls' memories via a magic paper shredder. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_eb3eebd9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_eb3eebd9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Shredder Orpheus | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_eb3eebd9 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec19bd89 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec19bd89 | comment |
Saiyuki, being based on a classical Chinese novel, has an extensive version. Particularly of interest is Saiyuki Gaiden, set mostly in the heavenly realms and where most characters are Celestial Bureaucrats of one form or another. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec19bd89 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec19bd89 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Saiyuki (Manga) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec19bd89 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2531c4 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2531c4 | comment |
In Coco, there's a small team of immigration agents whose job is to help those in the Land of the Dead going to see their descendants (and stopping anyone who's not on their family's ofrenda), or coming home with gifts and offerings. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2531c4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2531c4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Coco | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2531c4 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2c79df | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2c79df | comment |
Soul contrasts the friendly counselors (all named "Jerry") who help new souls in the Great Before develop their personalities before going to Earth with Terry, the ornery accountant who tabulates the souls going into the Great Beyond. And when they notice an anomaly in the count, Terry goes out of their way to drag Joe's errant soul back to the conveyor belt. In the end, the Jerries shift a bead on Terry's abacus while they're not looking and give Joe a second chance at life as a reward for helping 22. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2c79df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2c79df | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Soul | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ec2c79df | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ed05196 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ed05196 | comment |
The main setting of Keys to the Kingdom is one. It's not an afterlife, but it is the heart of creation and was created as a Cosmic Keystone and to observe and document everything that happens in reality. It doesn't function very well, mainly due to corruption and incompetence. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ed05196 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ed05196 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Keys to the Kingdom | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ed05196 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ef705f6d | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ef705f6d | comment |
Mr and Mrs Gold: The Underworld seems to have shades of this. Lines of people waiting to get onto Charon’s boat (with proper payment of course), an intercom voice instructing them what to do, etc. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ef705f6d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ef705f6d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mr and Mrs Gold (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_ef705f6d | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f0b55dd | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f0b55dd | comment |
Housepets! is said to have a celestial bureaucracy when Pete is tried for altering Joel/King's fate by turning him from a human into a dog. The eventual charge was "complicating matters in the celestial bureaucracy." | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f0b55dd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f0b55dd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Housepets! (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f0b55dd | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f3c58c73 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f3c58c73 | comment |
King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow: The standard game over which you have to actually deal with without dying if you want the Golden Ending. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f3c58c73 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f3c58c73 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f3c58c73 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f53022c6 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f53022c6 | comment |
Feng Shui has the traditional Chinese Hells, and it mentions in one sourcebook that the evil imperial eunuch sorcerers of 69 AD are trying to contact and bribe the eunuchs of the Heavenly Court. They haven't succeeded yet, and they think it's probably because they haven't come up with a big enough bribe. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f53022c6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f53022c6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Feng Shui (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f53022c6 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f57525ab | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f57525ab | comment |
It's a Wonderful Life has shades of this. Angels are divided into classes (Clarence, for instance, is a Guardian A2—Angel, Second Class), and to "advance," a particular soul needs to successfully perform duties and thus gain wings and more celestial powers. These duties are apparently assigned in a rotating order, with angels getting turns ever few centuries or so. Even prayer is implied to work this way—the film opens with dozens of people praying for George Bailey, and two high-ranking angels remark that they'll have to send someone down because of the high numbers. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f57525ab | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f57525ab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
It's a Wonderful Life | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f57525ab | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6222924 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6222924 | comment |
Invisible Sun has the Pale Sun, the realm of ghosts and the dead, play host to a surprisingly byzantine bureaucracy holds sway and strictly regulates everything from construction to marriage. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6222924 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6222924 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Invisible Sun (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6222924 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f651ec8f | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f651ec8f | comment |
Have a Nice Death (2022): It's a roguelike platformer where the The Grim Reaper has outsourced soul collection and become a CEO of a company processing souls, Death Inc. , unfortunately the department heads have staged a hostile takeover and Death has to get the company back. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f651ec8f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f651ec8f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Have a Nice Death (2022) (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f651ec8f | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6fe1bfc | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6fe1bfc | comment |
Sabrina the Teenage Witch has elements of this with the Other Realm, the home of all witches and magic users. One episode reveals that there's a gigantic list of rules that must be followed, to the point where a mage is assigned to the role of Official Rule Keeper just to tell people about what laws they're breaking. In another, Hilda and Zelda must go to the YMCA—that's "Yikes! Magical Crisis Association"—to help Harvey out of a jam, and end up waiting in line for hours as they try to fill out the proper forms and deal with a less-than-helpful staff. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6fe1bfc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6fe1bfc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sabrina the Teenage Witch | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f6fe1bfc | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f783ff96 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f783ff96 | comment |
What we see of Hell in Guacamelee! is a huge law firm called "Devil's Advocates", full of accountants and motivational posters. Of course the Devil's office is at the top of the building. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f783ff96 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f783ff96 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Guacamelee! (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f783ff96 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f8956ef3 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f8956ef3 | comment |
YuYu Hakusho; Yusuke's first reaction to reaching the afterlife is to ask "Is this the stock market?" His unexpected heroic death causing problems for the bureaucracy is actually the entire catalyst of the series. Because no one expected him to pull a random selfless act and die, there was no place for him in the afterlife, and he was offered a chance to be resurrected instead. In exchange, he becomes the "Spirit World Detective," overseen by King Yama's son, Koenma. In the manga, it turns out that the bureaucracy is actually corrupt, with King Yama framing demons for violent crimes in order to maintain the Spirit World's control over the Demon World. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f8956ef3 | featureApplicability |
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YuYu Hakusho (Manga) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f8956ef3 | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f9f07d40 | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f9f07d40 | comment |
Heaven in Neon White has lobbies, kiosks, put-upon secretaries, strict regulations, and long waiting times. | |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f9f07d40 | featureApplicability |
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Neon White (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Celestial Bureaucracy / int_f9f07d40 |
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