Our Ghosts Are Different: Difference between revisions

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Stock traits:

* [[Back ~~From~~ the Dead]]

* [[Back from the Dead]]

* [[Dead to Begin With]]

* [[Disappears Into Light]]

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* In ''[[Hikaru no Go]]'', a ghost (Fujiwara-no-Sai) is one of the main characters.

* Spirits and corpses in [[Shikabane Hime]] are animated through regrets they had when alive, such as a mother who died giving birth and is hanging around to take care of her child, except as a giant hideous monster. A few more powerful shikabane result from people embracing their true natures and in doing so discard their humanity.

* Oshizu of [[To ~~Love~~ Ru]] is haunting an abandoned school building for some reason. At least until she gets an artificial body to move around it.

* Oshizu of [[To LOVE-Ru]] is haunting an abandoned school building for some reason. At least until she gets an artificial body to move around it.

* In ''[[Bleach]]'' all the major characters and antagonists are fundamentally ghosts, or are humans with ghost related, derived, exterminating powers. Ghosts themselves come in three flavours: 'pluses' -- your regular unquiet spirits, 'hollows' -- pluses who lingered in the mortal world too long and became monsters, and [[Shinigami]], who have been granted tremendous supernatural powers to police the afterlife.

* {{spoiler|Nahashi and Lilith's ghosts}} in ''[[Venus Versus Virus]]'' episode 12 get summoned by Laura, and restrain [[Big Bad|Lucif]] from attacking the girls. See types 2 & 7.

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** A ghost who'd been in the military in life had spectral, ectoplasmic machine guns that could deal damage to other ghosts.

** A ghost who was masquerading as [[The Grim Reaper]] had a scythe that could deal damage equally to humans or other ghosts. And when this ghost was defeated, its victims turned out to be very polite, laid-back Avenge Me! types.

* ''[[Poltergeist (film)|Poltergeist]]'' had a group of ghosts who were of the "angry at the living" type. Adding insult to injury, their graves had been desecrated.

* ''[[Poltergeist (film series)||Poltergeist]]'' had a group of ghosts who were of the "angry at the living" type. Adding insult to injury, their graves had been desecrated.

** These ghosts were adept with the haunting.

*** They turned an already-creepy clown doll into an [[Monster Clown|extremely creepy one]]. They also used trees and ectoplasmic tentacles.

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* [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' features a character who's learning what it's like to be a newly restless spirit. He's definitely in the Unfinished Business camp; luckily his business consists merely of {{spoiler|finishing the long-winded voice messages he was in the middle of when he was so shockingly, unexpectedly shot}}.

** Although the main point of {{spoiler|finishing his message was to warn his sister.}}

* [[Forgotten Realms]] in addition to usual [[Dungeons ~~and~~ Dragons|xDnD]]'s cloud of incorporeal undead has its own phantom people. Watchghosts, watchnorns, spectral harpists... Few are even more unusual, like ancient archwizard Mharrander Dorolkh ("Ander" for friends) who got some disembodied sort of "immortality": he has a low opinion of [[Dem Bones|liches]] "shuffling about as crumbling, putrefying wreckage until they collapse altogether" (''Elminster: The Making of a Mage'').

* [[Forgotten Realms]] in addition to usual [[Dungeons & Dragons|xDnD]]'s cloud of incorporeal undead has its own phantom people. Watchghosts, watchnorns, spectral harpists... Few are even more unusual, like ancient archwizard Mharrander Dorolkh ("Ander" for friends) who got some disembodied sort of "immortality": he has a low opinion of [[Dem Bones|liches]] "shuffling about as crumbling, putrefying wreckage until they collapse altogether" (''Elminster: The Making of a Mage'').

* [[Peter S. Beagle]]'s ''A Fine And Private Place'' revolves about a romance between two recent ghosts.

* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[The Graveyard Book]]'' features a young boy who lives in a cemetery that is inhabited by ghosts and ghost-like creatures, and they accept him as one of their own. The villain is actually another human.

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* [[Angel]] had Spike turn up as a ghost after a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] finale.

** The show also has the recurring character of Dennis, Cordelia's phantom roommate. He's a surprisingly nice guy, considering {{spoiler|his own mother bricked him up in a wall because she didn't like his fiancé.}}

* ''[[Ghostwriter]]'' was a ghost which could read and arrange letters and phrases to communicate with persons he choose, but couldn't see any images or talk. Just who or what he was before is very ambiguous. He also gains [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]], such as traveling over the Internet or ''[[Time Travel]]'' with enough concentration, though that one takes enough out of him that he wound up having to take [[The Slow Path]] back to the present after repeated trips. What non-word-related aspects of the world he can see can vary with the plot as well.

* ''[[Ghostwriter (TV series)|Ghostwriter]]'' was a ghost which could read and arrange letters and phrases to communicate with persons he choose, but couldn't see any images or talk. Just who or what he was before is very ambiguous. He also gains [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]], such as traveling over the Internet or ''[[Time Travel]]'' with enough concentration, though that one takes enough out of him that he wound up having to take [[The Slow Path]] back to the present after repeated trips. What non-word-related aspects of the world he can see can vary with the plot as well.

* ''[[Beetleborgs]]'' had this in the form of Flabber- a phasm who looked like a cross between Jay Leno (host of ''The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'') and Elvis Presley. Flabber's a rather genie-like ghost who lived in a pipe organ until he got freed accidentally by those kids. Plus he's the one that gave them their powers.

** On one episode of ''The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'' during the Monday headlines segment, a picture of Flabber was sent to Leno, which got laughs from the audience but Leno was more than just not pleased with it.

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* In the [[New World of Darkness]], ghosts are somewhat less elaborate. Whether or not they are the human soul is deliberately unclear, but magic can bind a person's soul to an anchor and thus make it into a ghost. They have trouble communicating with mortals, and the specifics of their powers (Numina) vary from ghost to ghost. A ghost tied to its Anchors is basically a psychic echo of the actual human, unable to fully comprehend that they're dead and unable to change. Once the ghost is free of its Anchors and descends to the Underworld, however, it regains its sense of self and is able to change.

** And then there's ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters]]''. The geists of the title are essentially ghosts who've been boiled down to the bare essence of what defined them in death (e.g., a soldier who died at Ypres in a gas attack becomes the Gasping Colonel, a gaunt figure with wheezy breath and a gas mask that appears to be made of tanned human skin). As a result, their human memories are fragmented, to say the least, but they gain access to the power sources of the Underworld and can make bargains to bring the mystically inclined back from the dead... as long as they get to come along as passengers.

* [[Warhammer ~~40000~~]] brings rather different sorts of ghosts to the field-all of which are armed to the teeth. Eldar Wraith-constructs are the souls of dead Eldar given material form, and the robotic shells of the Necrons house the souls of the long-dead Necrontyr. Necrons Wraiths in particular drive the point home, being able to phase in and out of existence. Space Marine Dreadnoughts aren't technically dead, they're just the head and vertebrae of a 'mostly dead' Space Marine hero. Although since they are inside a tank sized mini-mech you'll call them dead if they wish to be called so.

* [[Warhammer 40,000]] brings rather different sorts of ghosts to the field-all of which are armed to the teeth. Eldar Wraith-constructs are the souls of dead Eldar given material form, and the robotic shells of the Necrons house the souls of the long-dead Necrontyr. Necrons Wraiths in particular drive the point home, being able to phase in and out of existence. Space Marine Dreadnoughts aren't technically dead, they're just the head and vertebrae of a 'mostly dead' Space Marine hero. Although since they are inside a tank sized mini-mech you'll call them dead if they wish to be called so.

* ''[[Dungeons ~~and~~ Dragons]]'' has creatures known as Allips. To quote the book, "An allip is the spectral remains of someone driven to suicide by a madness that afflicted it in life. It craves only revenge and unrelentingly pursues those who tormented it in life and pushed it over the brink."

* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has creatures known as Allips. To quote the book, "An allip is the spectral remains of someone driven to suicide by a madness that afflicted it in life. It craves only revenge and unrelentingly pursues those who tormented it in life and pushed it over the brink."

** D&D in its various incarnations has so many different types of undead, corporeal or otherwise, that any attempt to tell them apart merely by sight and behavior is probably quite doomed to failure. Is that figure flitting about in the ruins a ghost? A specter? A wraith? Something notionally else altogether? Usually you won't know until it attacks, and sometimes not even then. Just make sure you bring along a cleric.

* No surprise that [[Ravenloft]] has ghosts by the truckload: about the only variants of this trope that ''aren't'' present are the hokey bedsheet-wearer and anything played purely for comedy.

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== Video Games ==

* ''[[Alone in ~~The~~ Dark]] 1'' features a ghost woman sitting in front of a fire place, as well as several [[The Dead Can Dance|ghost dancers]] in [[Jacob Marley Apparel]] in the ballroom. If any of these are disturbed by touching them, they will [[Shapeshifting]] into a swirling multicolored mist which proceeds to chase the player. If it makes contact again, it's a [[One-Hit Kill]] to you. Fortunately, they are not [[Intangible Man]], i.e. can't pass through walls or closed doors.

* ''[[Alone in the Dark]] 1'' features a ghost woman sitting in front of a fire place, as well as several [[The Dead Can Dance|ghost dancers]] in [[Jacob Marley Apparel]] in the ballroom. If any of these are disturbed by touching them, they will [[Shapeshifting]] into a swirling multicolored mist which proceeds to chase the player. If it makes contact again, it's a [[One-Hit Kill]] to you. Fortunately, they are not [[Intangible Man]], i.e. can't pass through walls or closed doors.

* When a Sim dies in [[The Sims]] 2, the method of its death is visible to the player and affects the game.

** Drowned Sims turn blue and leave puddles and may leave bubbles in bathtubs.

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* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' has several character return from the dead as glowing blue ghosts to continue their struggle against the Darkness.

* Ghosts are in [[Monster Rancher]].

* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' {{spoiler|They're called Players, can eat, exist on a separate planes, are invisible, and are fighting to get [[Back ~~From~~ the Dead]]}}.

* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' {{spoiler|They're called Players, can eat, exist on a separate planes, are invisible, and are fighting to get [[Back from the Dead]]}}.

* [[Silent Hill 3]] says that ghosts who killed themselves or were killed unexpectedly must re-live the moment of their death over and over because they don't know they're dead, and will try to kill other humans because they've grown mad from it. {{spoiler|Needless to say, one tries to kill you.}}

** Also in [[Silent Hill 4]], the ghosts you encounter are all {{spoiler|Walter's Victims.}} They come out of walls leaving blood and goo behind, and just being near them causes Henry to get massive headaches and lose health. They look like mangled versions of their former selves, and in the case of some of them like [http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090119220034/silent/images/5/58/Victim17.jpg Jasper], exactly how they looked while dying.

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* In ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'', numerous people, a significant portion of them Unitologists, have claimed to see 'ghosts' near areas where necromorphs are on the loose. {{spoiler|This phenomena is actually caused by the presence of a [[Artifact of Doom|Marker]], which can project the images of dead people- but only dead people- into other peoples' minds in order to manipulate them. The Black Marker did this in ''[[Dead Space Martyr]],'' and in the original ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'', the Red Marker did this by creating an image of "Nicole" to keep Isaac on track.}}

* In ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', ghosts of dwarves who were [[Due to the Dead|never buried and never received a memorial slab]] will haunt your fortress. Most will hang out scaring your living dwarves (which gives them unhappy thoughts); some will attack living dwarves as well (in addition to the obvious danger, this also gives the unhappy thought "has been attacked by the dead"). [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Sometimes they even throw parties!]]

* ''[[~~Runescape~~]]'', while still having it's fair share of "ghosts are just dead people", has one particular slayer monster called "Aberrant Spectres"; ghosts that smell so bad you need a high slayer skill and a nose-peg to not take fatal damage while fighting them.

* ''[[RuneScape]]'', while still having it's fair share of "ghosts are just dead people", has one particular slayer monster called "Aberrant Spectres"; ghosts that smell so bad you need a high slayer skill and a nose-peg to not take fatal damage while fighting them.

* ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]'' has a couple very odd ghosts. The main antagonist of the series, Alma, has been dead for nearly 30 years, walks through walls, teleports, and does other things you'd expect of a ghost... yet still seems to have a physical body; her full powers weren't unleashed until her corpse is released from its stasis pod, and at the end of the second game, she {{spoiler|gets pregnant}}. She also is able to conjure hundreds of ghostly beings out of her fractured psyche unconsciously. It seems a trait of extremely powerful psychics in this series to simply ''not die'' when they die, and Alma is the single most powerful psychic to ever live...

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* {{spoiler|Lee}} in [[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]] is one with a wide variety of [[Ghostly Goals]]: he wants to protect someone, he can't rest because he's {{spoiler|hanging from his neck in an abandoned theater}}, he's a bit in denial about being dead, and he's angry at Zombie for getting a second chance at life.

* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' has ghosts of the Greenhilt family, only visible to other members of that family, and only then when holding the sword. This particular setup is caused by the [[Celestial Bureaucracy]].

** There's also the positive energy spirits of the Sapphire Guard. Redcloak muses on the presence of this trope in ''[[Dungeons ~~and~~ Dragons]]'' a little [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0459.html here].

** There's also the positive energy spirits of the Sapphire Guard. Redcloak muses on the presence of this trope in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' a little [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0459.html here].

* In ''[[Minus]]'', [http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus28.html here].

* In [http://pumpkinflower.comicgenesis.com/ Pumpkin Flower] ghosts can be seen by everyone and have to sleep. Powers and form seem to depend on the individual, but they're all insane. {{spoiler|Even [[Yaoi Guys|Dell]] but no one talks about that.}}