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{{trope}}
[[File:NecromancerSolvesCase.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|'''Jack Hardemeyer''': Wait! Uh... Now, I'm sure there's another way.
'''Mayor''': Jack, I spent an hour last night in my bedroom talking to Fiorello La Guardia, and he's been dead for forty years. Now get me the [[Ghostbusters]]!
|''[[Ghostbusters]] 2''}}
A character previously shown to be dead appears and converses with a living character. Often a [[Spirit Advisor]] character. [[I See Dead People]] is the ability to do this with spirits in general.
Compare [[Talking to
See also [[Magic Realism]]. Not to be mistaken for [[Dead Man Writing]].
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* The penultimate episode of ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' makes good use of this trope: Ken, [[The Atoner]] of the series after his [[Heel Face Turn]], ends up in an illusion created by the [[Big Bad]]. After the first part of this sequence, he sees his dead brother Osamu, who tells him that his atonement is over. This, of course, is not true - and a ploy that fails when he realizes that there are still things he must do in order to redeem himself, and he needs to fight to [[Save Both Worlds|save the world]] with his [[True Companions]].
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** In the anime, Mary talks to Chrono during his [[Heroic BSOD]]. He admits that he's grown to love Rosette even more than Mary, and she tells him it's okay and saves him so he can try to fix his mistakes.
* Happens in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' towards the end when everyone gets trapped in the Anti-Spiral's illusionary dream world. {{spoiler|Kamina}} appears to all of them in turn and gives them the will to escape. Simon gets a longer inspirational speech and even sees all the other dead members {{spoiler|of the Gurren Brigade}}.
* This occurs between the Queen of France and Marie-a skull-in the anime of ''[[Le Chevalier
* This seems to be the original Lockon's role in the second season of [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]. He shows up to help Tieria find the will to walk his own path and to tell Setsuna to put the past behind him.
** And in [[Gundam Seed Destiny]] Chairman Durandal spends an entire episode chatting with {{spoiler|Le Creuset's}} ghost.
* [[Naruto]] got one with the Fourth Hokage when he was about to release too much of the Kyuubi's power. Turns out, the Fourth put a bit of himself into the seal so he could keep an eye on Naruto. After all, {{spoiler|he is Naruto's father}}.
** Same with Kakashi. After being taken down by Pain, spend some time talking to his dead father.
* In ''[[So Ra No
* Since Subaru Sumeragi is a psychic whose powers include contacting the spirits of the dead, this happens often in [[Tokyo Babylon]].
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', C.C. often chats with {{spoiler|Marianne}}.....[[Not Quite Dead|Oh]] [[Grand Theft Me|wait]].....
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== Comic Books ==
* This is pivotal in the ''[[Marvel 1602]]'' comic miniseries. A character gains vital information, but only by promising not to reveal it as long as he lives. Since he's already on death row and both he and his wife are powerful sorcerers, he's able to use the [[Exact Words]] escape and tell the other characters what he's
* The James Robinson ''[[Starman (
* The ghost of [[Captain America (comics)]], dead for a year in [[Comic Book Time]], was summoned by Thor [https://web.archive.org/web/20081101132355/http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/6495598.html here]. [[Tear Jerker
* In ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]'', Kathy's murdered boyfriend Roger returns as a ghost for awhile. He couldn't talk at first but eventually starts communicating.
* Jesse Custer of ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'' has several conversations with the ghost of John Wayne. According to Custer, the first one happened several years before John Wayne died.
* [[Batgirl|Cassandra Cain]] had a few run-ins with her dead best friend Stephanie Brown during [[Near
* Bill Willingham's ''[[
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* ''[[In The Dark]]'': In an effort to find Melanie after a freak accident involving their tour bus, both the remaining [[Spice Girls]] go to see a medium for some help. The girls' concerns about finding Melanie's lifeless body were alleviated when the medium explains how she wasn't able to talk to her because the abilities only work if the person is already passed on. The good news was that since Melanie wasn't present in the afterlife, she had to be still alive. {{spoiler|She eventually is found, but traumatized from being kept as a prisoner.}} The bad news is that Officer Shaw also meets with the same medium to find out about the other disappearances, {{spoiler|which ends with others being found dead.}}
== Film ==
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* ''Over Her Dead Body''
* ''Sin City''
* [[The Boondock Saints|Connor and Murphy MacManus]], after losing a friend while taking down a murderer, begin to question whether their [[Mission
* [[Shutter Island]]. Teddy spoke with his dead wife during his sleep and his wife offered hints to aid his investigation.
* ''[[An American Werewolf in London]]''. David's dead best friend Jack, who was killed in the same attack that turned David into a werewolf, keeps appearing and telling David to commit suicide, else he'll keep transforming and killing people (who'll [[Walk the Earth]] in Limbo). Each time he turns up, he looks more and more decayed and rotted...and he starts being joined by all the people David kills along the way.
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* Much older than [[Shakespeare|Hamlet or Macbeth]]: Saul, desperate for advice now that God will no longer send him signs, consults a medium to conjure up the spirit of the prophet Samuel for advice. Samuel appears, chews Saul out for consulting with mediums, and foresees his death in the upcoming battle. Whoops.
** Interestingly, the Medium seemed shocked that Samuel actually appeared; she was probably a fraud and God bent the rules to let Samuel speak to Saul.
* In ''[[Harry Potter (
** And in the chapter before that, Harry meets up with the ghosts of his parents, Sirius, and Remus Lupin, who give him final advice and escort him to his apparent doom.
** And one major plot-point resolution is that Snape is killed by Voldemort in the presence of Harry, but doesn't die immediately; he lives just long enough to urge Harry to extract certain memories to later view in the Pensieve, which Harry does. These finally settle the "whose side is Snape really on?" question.
** The characters also frequently interact with portraits of dead people, who seem to possess all the knowledge of the person, as well as with ghosts.
* Mad Larkin of [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Warhammer
* [[Amelia Peabody]], the detective archeologist, has had at least one [[Talking in Your Dreams|dream-conversation]] with her deceased friend Abdullah since his death. They are cryptic enough that they do not interfere with fair play in the detection, but she believes them to be genuine.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]''' main character Harry Dresden has had conversations with both of his deceased parents. His conversation with his mother was in "Blood Rites" as a magical sentient recording stored in Thomas's mind meant to prove that he was Harry's brother. His father appears both in a dream and when Harry is conscious. He just dispenses cryptic peptalks and no explanation is given how he's contacting Harry.
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer
* In ''[[
* In the [[Backstory]] of Steve Parker's [[Warhammer
* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[
* This happens in ''[[The Lovely Bones]]'' when Ray realizes he's talking to Susie who posessed Ruth's body.
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In [[Homer]]'s epic ''[[
* Also occurs in the other lost epics of the [[The Trojan Cycle
* The entire ''[[Necroscope]] Saga'' is built on this, and the various ways the dead can be talked to, or forced to talk.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[The Phoenix
* In Jim Lehrer's ''The Franklin Affair,'' R, a (present-day) historian specializing in Franklin, goes to the house where Ben Franklin lived in London, and has an imaginary conversation with him, asking for advice on dealing with a dilemma involving Franklin's life. (He knows the conversation is all in his imagination.) What Franklin says is witty, sarcastic, and sardonic.
* Roxanne in ''[[
* A running theme for the Takeshi Kovacs novels, starting with ''[[Altered Carbon]]''. Kovacs will remember a long-dead comrade and imagine them giving him tough-love advice.
* ''[[
* In [[Devon Monk]]'s [[
* ''Speaking with the Dead'' short story by Elaine Cunningham (in [[Forgotten Realms|''Realms of Mystery'' anthology]]) explores some problems with this even in the world where such possibility is common knowledge.
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* Dr. Brown talks to his dead wife, Julia, in the first season of ''[[Everwood]]''.
* Sgt. Robert Fraser (Benton's father) fills this role on ''[[Due South]]''. Ray Vecchio's dad turned up once, too.
* ''[[
** An interesting subversion occurs at the beginning of Season Seven, where Willow has accidentally magicked herself invisible to most people. At one point, she talks to Spike, who can see her, and she thinks he's crazy when he starts spouting off nonsense. Then, later, we see the same scene from Buffy's point of view, and he seems similarly crazy because Buffy ''can't see Willow''. It's very much played as a crazy conversation/conversation with dead people.
* An episode of ''[[
** To clarify, Wesley wasn't so much worried that Angelus had killed her as that she wouldn't be staying dead. (You know, since Angelus is a vampire.)
** That season of ''Angel'' had a few incidents like that, especially as [[Sanity Slippage|Connor began to break down]]. It could all be explained as The First Evil, who was [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer
** Lilah also came back in the Season 4 Finale "Home", to offer the Angel team Wolfram and Hart. (She had a scarf tied around her neck, concealing the mark where Wesley decapitated her.) Similarly, Holland Manners made a brief reappearance after his death. It is made known that Wolfram and Hart contracts extend beyond death.
* Adrian Monk's deceased wife Trudy has shown up a number of times on ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Also used later in the same season when Daniel infiltrates Teal'C's human-fireman hallucination as a psychiatrist to give him something of a mental lifeline while Teal'C is keeping himself and an injured Bra'tac alive with only his own symbiote. An alternate interpretation (it's not explicitly the real Daniel) is that Daniel in the dream was actually the dying symbiote trying to help Teal'C survive.
** In the spinoff ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', McKay talks to the late Dr. Beckett after the latter dies of stupidity: carrying an explosive tumour to the bomb squad. He apologises for not going fishing with Beckett, feeling that if they had done so, Beckett would still be alive. (Realistically, after the ''first'' explosion, Beckett would probably have been called back from the mainland to help deal with the crisis.)
* ''[[Slings and Arrows]]'' prominently features the ghost of a dead Shakespearian director, visible only to his replacement, in productions first of ''Hamlet'' and then of ''Macbeth''. For good measure, the ghost in question actually ''appears'' in both plays.
* A recent episode of ''[[
* ''[[Ally McBeal]]'' had many conversations with her dead ex-boyfriend Billy. Ally was often shown to have an active fantasy life, however, and it's likely she was just imagining it.
* In the episode of ''[[
* In ''[[Providence]]'', Sydney's mother dies in the pilot, and Sydney ends up talking to her ghost every episode.
* Pretty much the entire schtick to ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]''.
** Ditto for ''Medium''
*** Ditto for Jeff Goldblum's short-lived TV series ''[[Raines]]'', though unlike the above two shows, the protagonist is talking to hallucinations, not actual ghosts. He knows it's all his mind but it disturbs him anyway. Also, [[Talking to
* In an episode of ''[[
** The "Calling the dead" spell has been used throughout the entire series, mostly to talk with the sister's dead grandmother.
* An episode of ''[[
** Now in a season 5 subplot, Izzie Stevens is seeing/talking to/making out/having "mindblowing" sex with the apparition of her dead fiance/patient Denny.
* Jeff has a lot of these in ''[[
* Miles on ''[[
** It's also used a few other times during the 4th season: Charlie shows up to talk to Hurley at the mental institution, during a flash-forward, and another patient sees him so Hurley is not hallucinating. And Locke talks to Christian Sheppard, who may or not be dead. The writers like to keep it unclear...
** Christian constantly does this: he's spoken with Locke, Sun and Frank, Jack...
** Miles is unique, since he doesn't really converse with dead people: he just gets impressions of their last thoughts.
* In the second season, ''[[Dexter]]'' has one of these conversations with his brother, the Ice Truck Killer.
** The writers must like this
* Caleb of ''[[American Gothic]]'' has these with his [[Spirit Advisor|sister Merlyn]] all the time.
* [[Veronica Mars]] spends much of the first season conversing with her murdered best friend Lilly Kane. Duncan, Lilly's brother, also speaks with her. In the second season episode "I Am God" Veronica dreams she's speaking to the victims of a bus-crash.
* Tommy Gavin from ''[[Rescue Me]]'' regularly talks to dead people, most notably people he failed to save and his cousin Jimmy Keefe, a firefighter who died during 9/11. It's left ambiguous whether it's in Tommy's head, or whether the ghosts are actually present. Jimmy gives Tommy beatings on several occasions, only for people to walk in on it and wonder whether Tommy has lost his mind. He also talks with his son Connor after he dies, but before Tommy is aware of it.
* Season 3 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' begins with Nathan Petrelli having conversations and chess games with Mr. Linderman, who was quite decisively killed onscreen by D.L..
** Later subverted when it was revealed that Linderman is indeed dead; Maury Parkman was just using his image to advise Nathan and Daphne.
** Usutu, however, has been appearing to Matt in visions even after he had his head chopped off by Arthur Petrelli.
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* On one of the last episodes of ''[[NYPD Blue]]'' Simone appeared to Sipowitz, to encourage him to be a mentor to his new partner.
* In ''[[Fringe]]'', John Scott, who is dead, occasionally appears to Agent Dunham because his memories are trapped in her brain.
* The third season premiere of ''[[
** Ducky does this quite often.
* [[House (TV series)|House]] had a couple of similar conversations with Amber before she was technically dead. Near the end of season 5 he starts seeing her again, after Kutner's suicide.
** Then Kutner shows up with Amber in the season finale, and House winds up Committed...
* In a series 3 episode of ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'', "The Chokes," the ghost of acting coach Montgomery Flange appears to Howard Moon while he is frozen onstage.
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** Though it's never clear if he was hallucinating or not: Bones remarks at the end of the episode that Booth couldn't have managed that escape by himself.
*** She also converses with the dead guy in the cemetery.
* ''[[The X
* ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' did this when some Loca Hot Coca leads to Miley having a cinderella dream where she's lost her voice and is no better than a house slave. Her mother comes back from the dead to talk her through it.
** It's also a [[Fridge Logic]] moment when you realise that she never actually drank the Coca her dad made for her. She takes the glass, puts it down and goes to sleep.
* Maxwell on ''[[The Nanny]]'' has a conversation with his dead wife about whether him marrying Fran would upset her. She reveals that not only did she approve, she actually sent Fran to him.
* Rochelle on ''[[Everybody Hates Chris]]'' has a conversation with her recently-deceased father (played by Jimmy Walker) concerning the tension between herself, her mother, and the rest of the relatives who are staying with her for the funeral.
* An episode of ''[[Babylon
* Poor Chuck Bass... His dead daddy manages to berate him even from beyond the grave in an episode of ''[[Gossip Girl]]''. Subverted though in that it's not actually Bart Bass' ghost, it's Chuck projecting his own issues.
* In ''[[Wiseguy]]'', Sonny Steelgrave died in the first season. The protagonist, Vinnie Terranova, felt guilty about his death. This was resolved in a second season episode where Vinnie was confronted by Sonny's ghost.
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* Both Fraser and Ray talk to their dead fathers in ''[[Due South]]'', though neither lets on to the other that it happens. While Fraser reconciles with his father (who he had been distant with in life) and their relationship warms considerably, Ray meanwhile, simply seems to come to terms with the fact that his dad simply wasn't a good father, such as the numerous times his dad tries to convice him to ditch Fraser to save his own skin.
* [[Joan of Arcadia|Joan]] talks to her dead friend Judith. [[It Makes Sense in Context|And God too.]]
* The live-action ''[[Witchblade (TV series)|Witchblade]]'' show had Sara do this regularly, usually with her deceased partner. A couple times she tried to solve a murder by speaking with ghost of the victim. They weren't as informative as she might have hoped.
* In ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', Shawn talks to his father a few times after he dies. It seems to be all in Shawn's head, though it's not made clear, since in the [[Grand Finale]] he's shown proudly watching over his boys before grabbing Rachel's ass, which causes her to look around in confusion since no-one was there to do it.
* ''[[
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* ''[[The Family Circus]]'' occasionally has the angelic visage of the children's late grandfather visiting their still-living grandma.
* Tia Carmen in ''[[Baldo]]'' occasionally has conversations with her dead husband.
* In ''[[Jump Start]]'', Marcy's widowed mother decided to remarry, and expressed the hope that her late husband wouldn't object. His spirit appeared, wearing wings, reminded her that it'd been sixteen years since he died, and said now he could rest in peace.
== Radio ==
* The entirety of the ''[[Torchwood:
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== Video Games ==
* When [[Perfect Run Final Boss|Andross]] attempts to take Fox down with him at the end of [[Star Fox (
** [[Only Mostly Dead|Then again, maybe...]]
* An explicit power of the protagonist in [[Planescape: Torment]].
* A major plot point of ''[[Final Fantasy VII|Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]]'' is Cloud having conversations with [[It Was His Sled|Aerith]]. Then again, ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' and its related spin-offs tend to run on the Trope of [[Only Mostly Dead]], to the point where there is a Japanese novella written entirely from the point of view of ''the dead characters in the [[The Lifestream]].''
** Even though he was heard in several scenes in the original cut of Advent Children, Zack now has a new major scene where, during the fight with Sephiroth, he is encouraging Cloud in a conversation as a [[Spirit Advisor]] in Advent Children Complete.
** In a similar manner, ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' raises this trope from Dead Person Conversations to [[Xanatos Gambit|Dead Person Xanatos Gambits]].
** After being killed by Kuja in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]],''[[The Man Behind the Man|Garland]] starts talking to Zidane and the others, providing some much-needed information about Memoria before his soul [[Ascend to
* In ''[[The Suffering]],'' this happens a lot, whether the dead person is a [[Projected Man]], a talkative corpse, or a real ghost. Torque's family appears to be the most common example.
* [[First Encounter Assault Recon|Paxton Fettel]] already talks to the Point Man through hallucinations a few times. A bullet to the head not only ''doesn't'' stop him from doing so, but if you take the expansions into account, he talks to ''more'' people when he's dead than when he was alive.
** In the DLC F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn, Fettel is quite talkative (at least to Foxtrot 813) even though he (Fettel) is dead.
* Arkantos in ''[[
* Tearjerkingly averted in Iji. She talks to Dan as if he's still alive after his death.
* [[
* Both subverted and played straight in ''[[Eternal Darkness|Eternal Darkness: Sanity's requiem]]'': at several points, characters have conversations with the ghosts of other characters. The main protagonist Alex is regularly visited by the ghost of her deceased grandfather Edward. Turns out it's the main antagonist Pious Augustus in disguise.
* Doctor Kyne from ''[[Dead Space (
* ''[[The Adventures of Sam
* If [[The Hero|Celice]] waits by the water on Chapter 10 after [[Anti-Villain|Alvis]] has been killed in ''[[Fire Emblem]] 4: Genealogy of the Holy War'', he will have a conversation with the ghosts of his deceased parents, Sigurd and Diadora... who tell him that nothing was accomplished by the Emperor's death, and the war is not over before giving him a Life Ring.
* [[The Hero|Sgt.Baker]] in ''[[Brothers in Arms]]'' talks to the ghost (or hallucination) of Private Leggett
* ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'': {{spoiler|Happens in the living world in Chapter 5 from the time that Guybrush (as a ghost) has opened up the rips in the Crossroads up to the time that he manages to repossess his own corpse.}}
* At the end of the ''[[
== Visual Novels ==
* Towards the end of Kirari's normal route in ''[[
* Tohno Shiki of ''[[Tsukihime]]'', in the fundisc Kagetsu Tohya, there's an extra movie, Drinking Dreaming Moon, where Shiki talks with his adoptive brother, the real Tohno SHIKI (the other was at first a Nanaya). In the talk, SHIKI says it may be a
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Wapsi Square]]'', [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/05242004/ Monica recalls the pleasant childhood conversations she used to have with her great-grandmother], until [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/05262004/ she found out why nobody else ever spoke to the old lady].
* Roy Greenhilt's father Eugene in ''[[The Order of the Stick
** The ghostly Roy thought he was having one of these with Haley, but she was just [[Talking to
** There's also the scene of Belkar talking with Lord Shojo in his fever-induced dream.
* On ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'', characters had conversations with Big Boss and The Sorrow. Of course it's more people reading from Sorrow's textcards.
* ''[[
== Web Original ==
* In ''[[
* In V4 of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', Albert Lions comes across the body of his friend Augustus MacDougal, and then right away he sees his ghost. Augustus follows Albert around, the pair conversing like normal (Dougal even has to remind Albert that only he can see him). Whether Dougal's ghost is real or just a figment of Albert's imagination is unknown.
* In [[Theatrica]] Arthur has a sudden reunion with {{spoiler|his recently deceased brother Sam}} while on a drug trip. A hallucinagenic experience, and not actually a ghost, that nonetheless {{spoiler|persists, as everyone Arthur kills returns as a vision of some kind later on in the novel}}
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[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Our Ghosts Are Different]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:
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