TW: antitheism Growing under a strict dogma, Tanrak had all his life set to become a priest and meet his parents in heaven. Then comes Barth, struggling with his own faith and changed everything he knew about religion and what is the core of serving God. Heaven for Tanrak is the ultimate goal. His whole character was always trying to be "good" so he could see his parents. Just by that, he accepted any hope he could find as a kid and tried to never question anything. As child, he didn't even had a choice to believe, he was simply gave an anchor to cling into while going through his own grief. He was simply rise to believe and that drove his character until the end. Tanrak dealt with loving Barth just as one would expect. Being gay could be considered a sin, but if you repent you can find salvation. And that rose the first conflict of the story so well. If God is love, how could just loving someone be wrong? It is said that love is the greatest thing to exist and God made humans with hearts to feel love. Tanrak, felt guilty for his love, he thought he was ungrateful of what the church taught him and struggled with understanding the difference between a love that takes you away from God driven by lust and a sincere love that transforms your life for better and God wouldn't oppose to. Thanks to that Ticket to Heaven felt more like a branch of hope for Christians queers, than an actual view of what christianisim stands for. And maybe that's what many people see, just like Tanrak, if one desire to keep their faith they need to know that loving someone or accepting yourself doesn't mean it's considered something sinful. Along the story, it was clear they detached the church from faith. Holding the belief that you can keep your religion and exist as a queer person without being rejected by your God. Even if they showed how Barth wavered for a while to believe in God. He still chose to come back to his path again. And, I expected that from the beginning. This drama wasn't for people who didn't believe in God, this was made solely for the ones having problems to accept themselves and the trials the comes with living in a strongly homophobic environment when you grew up with religion. Barth, was my favorite character from this story. He felt so personal as an atheist (even if he's not) and questioned enough to be proud of who he is. He showed you deserve to exist in any possible way and love, love strongly, love with everything you have. As simply as it could sound. This drama just had a core message. God is love, and you can love him and yourself as you are without having to choose between them. Being atheist that is also antitheist, I had to separate what I really feel for religion and see what people who holds this ideas goes through. There were many times when I felt like it was better for them to free themselves from believing in something that just brought them pain. I feel they justify many things to keep believing, and having blind hope. I believe it wasn't intentional, but they demonstrated how religion affects society with outdated ideas, and just because it's transform into a softer way of oppression doesn't mean they're right to entertain. Thanks to this story, once again, I realized that I'm so grateful to not believe in any of this. I could never justify injustices, grey preaches that are borderline homophobic (the whole confession scene) and indoctrination. I will always stand by the fact that most of the time dogmas and doctrines caused more harm than good. But even if for me it felt like they were stripped of freedom. The message was well executed, in fact. All the drama was so well done that I hold this quote close to my heart. " Humans can live without faith Humasn can live without hope But humans can't live without love." Barth and Tanrak showed that love conquer anything. And love is never a sin, isn't something to fear about or to regret. One can hold different beliefs and still appreciate how well done everything is in this drama. The symbology of every scene is perfect to let you know how deep is their love for the other, and their growing through the series. Implementation of paintings , religious figures, illumination aspects and even communicating what Barth felt for Tanrak using a music sheet or Tanrak acceptance through the drama's ost made connecting with them and their message something special. One thing I loved the most was the intimacy. How they portrayed their love beyond desire, and felt more like a strong current moving through their lives without restraint. The hugs, flowers and notes were so sincere that their love was the purest thing inside the walls of their hearts. At the end of this journey, you can see that every single one of us is deserving of existence and having our rights recognized. Of forming life without guilt beyond others expectations and be loud of what you stand for. Even when I felt conflicted with the way they ignore problems showed at the beginning of the drama, reaching the conclusion that God just love you, I can still feel greatful that we have a story where people don't end up being dead or in an unhappy marriage just because of their beliefs. Ticket to Heaven is a story that separates church and faith to demonstrate that queer people can exist inside religion and no one besides God has the right to say how worthy they are. Barth and Tanrak carved a space in my heart that is filled with so much love. They were brave enough to build a life and choose their own definition of heaven. Being the proof that every living being is deserving of paradise.