Our Ghosts Are Different: Difference between revisions

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# The ghost hasn't yet figured out they're dead, or are so attached to what they did in life they are still doing it out of habit and/or affection. This can lead to a [[Tomato in the Mirror]] shock, an [[Obi Wan]] or a [[Ghostly Advisor]].

# They're aware they're dead and angry at the living for still living.

# The ghost suffered so in life that the spirit was drawn to the place where the worst torment took place.

# [[Living Memory|Resounding psychic echo]]. The ghost [[Our Souls Are Different|isn't even the person's soul]], but just a spectral imprint left behind by the person's death that's gained a form of sentience. In paranormal fields, these are usually called residual hauntings.

# [[The Power of Love]]. They feel someone they love can't make it without them, or needs protection.

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'''Powers include:'''

* [[Intangible Man|Intangibility or Phasing]]: Default state of ghosts tends to be intangible. They can, with an effort of will, become tangible, but they usually cannot pass on that intangibility to anything they were holding. Typically, if they pass through solid matter while holding something, the solid matter remains behind after the ghost has passed through.

* [[Invisibility]]: Ghosts can usually, but not always, decide whether or not to be visible.

** For example; ghosts in [[Ghost Whisperer]] are always invisible to humans who don't have the gift required to see them.

* [[Blow You Away|Wind]] powers are usually a common ghostly ability.

** Sometimes they have [[Playing with Fire|fire]]/[[Ghost Lights|Will-o'-the-wisp]] powers too.

** Or equipment the ghost used in life becomes an [[Jacob Marley Apparel|ectoplasmic version of same]] that can hurt other ghosts.

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** Other times, they can project [[Screamer Trailer|Scary Visions]] into the mind of a victim.

** [[Master of Illusion]] is also common, as are creating [[Cold Flames]] or ''actual'' [[Playing with Fire|flames]] in the case of the ghosts of arsonists and their victims.

* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: Ghosts can sometimes take on horrific (or amusing) shapes to terrify their haunts.

* Materializing: Ghosts can usually create a body/illusion of themselves as they were when alive. However posing as a human will usually result in [[Glamour Failure|slight flaws]] in their facade, like lacking a pulse or cold skin.

* [[Demonic Possession]]: Some ghosts can take over the body of a living person and operate it like a puppet. For some ghosts, this is the next best thing to being alive again. For others, it's simply an expedient because they can't experience what their host is experiencing.

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* Some ghosts are only able to show up between sundown and sunrise.

* [[Jacob Marley Apparel]] - the ghost is confined to appearing what s/he wore at the time of death [sometimes the condition in which it was at the time of death]

* Wounds - Ghosts who died in particularly violent fashion end up carrying their wounds with them into eternity.

* Some ghosts are unable to enter churches.

* Most ghosts are [[Closed Circle|restricted to haunting a specific house or object]]. If you can leave the premises you're usually safe. Destroying said house or object will usually remove the ghosts' anchor to the material world and force it to move on. Except when that just frees it to haunt wherever it wants.

'''Interaction With The Living'''

* Avenge Me! Ghosts can often appear to their closest friends or family. Like, you know, [[Hamlet]].

* Attention-seeking. A lot of paranormal investigators who subscribe to the view that ghosts are spirits believe that this is the major reason for most hauntings.

* [[Psychic Powers|Mediums]] can [[I See Dead People|see and/or hear ghosts]].

* [[Magitek]] - Ghosts can become a literal ghost in the machine, and operate phones, computers, etc. without actual tangible hands. (See psychic powers above)

* Artifacts - there are magical gewgaws and doodads, [[Holy Relic]] items and that sort of thing lying around [[The Verse]] that will allow one to contact ghosts. Or are ''[[Artifact of Doom|possessed]]'' by ghosts.

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* Haunting - They will torment the living, annoy or bedevil the living, or seek to drive the living into confessing if they've done wrong.

* [[Angst]] and [[Wangst]] are often involved with ghostly hauntings, particularly when love is involved.

* Often (particularly in media intended for children) [[Ghostly Advisor|only a select few can see/hear them]].

* Popping in and disappearing just as fast, leaving those who saw them claiming [[It Was Here, I Swear]].

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* [[Jacob Marley Apparel]]: As they looked at the moment they died.

* [[Bedsheet Ghost]]: Covered in a shroud. This white sheet may be the only part of them that's visible.

* [[Stringy Haired Ghost Girl]]: A Japanese variant. Wears a Kimono with long stringy black hair covering her face.

* [[Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl]]: A Japanese variant. Wears a Kimono with long stringy black hair covering her face.

* As they looked right after they died.

* As they look now - rotted, filthy, partially skeletal and covered in worms or maggots, wearing the clothes they were buried in.

* Any of the above can also be combined with transparency or the ability to become invisible.

* Good ghosts may be even more beautiful than they were in life, either as a reflection of their true self or as a reward.

Some good ghosts get to [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]] (either literally [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|heaven]], or something else) once they've [[But Now I Must Go|sorted out]] their issues or unfinished business. Bad ones can get the express elevator [[Hell|down]]. Some of them have problems with [[Ghost Amnesia]]. Every ghost has different [[Ghostly Goals]], again depending on what they want.

Shows and movies will usually address these baseline rules, whether or not they're enforced.

See also [[Our Souls Are Different]]. Compare [[Living Memory]].

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* [[Hellish Horse]]

* [[Poltergeist]]

* [[Stringy Haired Ghost Girl]]

* [[Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl]]

* [[Spirit Advisor]]

* [[Undead Child]]

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* [[Honey Crush]] revolves around ghost of [[Schoolgirl Lesbian]], who later meets another (living) [[Schoolgirl Lesbian]] who can see ghosts, who she develops feelings for, who is then targeted by (another dead) [[Schoolgirl Lesbian]]. You might have guessed that series is [[Girls Love]] series.

* One of the weirder episodes (which is saying something) of ''[[Paranoia Agent]]'' revolves around three people trying to kill themselves. At its conclusion, they realize that they succeeded early on and didn't notice. The implication is that ghosts in the ''Paranoia Agent'' universe don't know they're dead. The only visual sign of their death is that ghosts don't have shadows (as made clear when a man tries to kill himself by jumping in front of a subway train; he staggers away, bitching about his failure, but he has no shadow - and really, you can't survive that). There's an odd moment after [[The Reveal]] when the ghosts, happy to have died, stop in the background of a schoolgirl's picture-taking; when the girls look at their photo, they scream in terror. We don't see the picture, so it's not clear what happened (though it's possible only ''we'' see the ghosts as they were in life, and the ''girls'' saw their corpses).

* In ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', Nadeshiko (the protagonist's mother) died at age 27 from [[Ill Girl|an unknown illness]]. She was very attached to her family, so she often makes appearances to check up on them. She eventually stops doing that, particularly after {{spoiler|Touya gives up his clairvoyant ability to save his boyfriend.}} She is notably very different in that she appears more like an angel than a ghost.

** Also, from the first movie to that series, we have "Madoushi", Clow Reed's ex-girlfriend (and former student) who has been waiting for centuries for him to free her from [[Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere|an interdimensional prison]] he made for her after [[Moral Event Horizon|she started practicing dark magic.]] {{spoiler|Sakura helps her move on, even facing her fear of ghosts...and this particular one's wrath.}}

* [[Ano Hana]] revolves around Memma, a [[Cute Monster Girl|Cute Ghost Girl]] trying to rest in peace sort of.

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== Ballads ==

* Many [[Child Ballad|Child Ballads]] have ghosts coming back to drive their killers crazy ("The Cruel Mother", Child #20), or just to say goodbye ("Sweet William's Ghost", Child #77; "The Wife of Usher's Well", Child #79).

* In some variants of ''The Famous Flower of Serving Men'', the heroine's love appears to the king as a bird to explain how he was murdered and the heroine had to disguise herself as a man and go to work for the king.

* In "The Unquiet Grave", the dead love begins to speak after [[A Year and a Day]] to complain that the lover's laments will not let her rest.

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* Johann Kraus from ''[[BPRD]]'' is a ghost that's technically still alive.

* Ye Olde Tyme Golden Age Comics had Sgt. Spook, the ghost of a police officer who was able to interact with his medium - an orphan boy, of course - and solve crimes. These crimes varied from bank robbers and gangsters to supernatural romps.

* The comic book mini-series ''[[Brody's Ghost]]'', naturally enough, has several types of ghosts.

** Regular ghosts, like title character Talia, are invisible and intangible, but can interact with the world in one specific way that’s different for every ghost. Talia, for example, can break glass with her mind.

** Site specters, are the same as regular ghosts, except that they attach themselves to specific locations.

** Demighosts, which are ghosts controlled by other ghosts, and who can actually touch things.

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** he believed he'd been mugged but turned out to have been murdered. So he became an Avenge Me!

** he could not leave his girl due to [[The Power of Love]], but then he realized his murderer was also after her.

** he needed to learn [[Psychic Powers]], so sought out a [[Spirit Advisor]] in the form of another ghost. Once learning them, he used them to torment his murderer.

** Oda Mae was the [[Psychic Powers|Medium]] Sam tormented with bad singing until she agreed to help him. Oda Mae was also the one possessed; once willingly, once not.

** With effort and training, Sam mastered the [[Intangible Man|intangibility]] power. He was able to physically lift a penny to prove to Molly he was really there.

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** [[Jacob Marley Apparel]] - Frank's two friends were stuck in the outfits they'd been wearing in death until {{spoiler|they went to heaven, at which point they got wardrobe updates}}.

** [[Psychic Powers|the Medium]]: Frank himself, and Lucy, later.

** 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.

** 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.

*** They also had the power of illusion to make the hallway to Carol-Ann's room seem five times longer than it really was.

* ''[[Scrooged]]'': see ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' in the Literature section.

* ''Ghost Dad'' was the "protect the loved ones" sort.

* ''[[Bill and Teds Bogus Journey]]'' is a significant subversion. The comedy featured Bill and Ted dying, coming back as ghosts, and then getting exorcised and sent to hell when they tried to communicate about their predicament. At which point they challenged [[The Grim Reaper]] to games for their souls, and went to petition Heaven for assistance against the bad guy before returning to earth alive and well.

* ''[[Monster House]]'' {{spoiler|is a case of an angry and vengeful spirit who hates ''children'' in particular, possessing her own house after her reactions to prankster children caused her accidental death.}}

* ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'' has a ghostly animal: Zero is Jack's ghost dog.

* ''[[Ghost Dog]]'' was actually Forrest Whitaker as a samurai hit man, and not a ghost.

* ''Scoop'' had a recently deceased legendary reporter interview a recently deceased secretary who thinks she was poisoned because she found out information that could lead to a notorious serial killer. The reporter escapes back to the land of the living a few times to reveal hints, clues, or whacks with a guilt club to the school newspaper reporter he randomly appeared to the first time appeared.

* The '90s horror flick ''[[Idle Hands]]'' has examples of Jacob Marley Apparel and possession. After the protagonist's best friends are murdered by his hand they decide not to go to heaven and possess their own dead bodies. The bodies function normally despite the fact that one has a beer bottle in his head and the other was decapitated. They can interact normally with everyone else too. Once they duct tape the head back on they can even go out in public. So I guess they aren't really ghost even though they are dead. You know what, never mind.

* ''[[Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' has Dead Marni. She died of a rare blood disease shortly after her daughter was born, and apparently hung around. She mostly appears to Nathan to guilt trip him.

** She's also once helped along in the apparition department by Blind Mag in 'Chase The Morning.'

*** She's a ''hologram.'' A ethereal lookin' one, but still...

* The ghost in ''[[The Devil's Backbone]]'' is caught in an existential loop, doomed to repeat his death until he can get revenge. {{spoiler|The heroes help him out (and vice versa), but he actually kills the bad guy personally.}}

* The [[Creepy Child|child ghosts]] in ''[[The Orphanage]]''.

* The ghosts in ''[[Ghost Town (film)|Ghost Town]]'' reverse the traditional Unfinished Business idea - it is the inability of the ''living'' to let their loved ones go that keeps the ghosts around.

* Ben Willis/The Fisherman in ''[[Ill Always Know What You Did Last Summer]]'' appears to be the Resounding Psychic Echo type. He's actually lacking in a lot of powers associated with ghosts (apparently only able to appear and vanish at will) and can be physically harmed (even bleeding, though it's evident the only thing that actually hurts and doesn't just annoy him is his original hook).

* From the film versions of ''[[The Ring]]'':

** Sadako Yamamura seeks vengeance upon all of mankind. Her manifestation is {{spoiler|originally}} psychically anchored to the well where she died, whereupon it projects abstract thoughts and images that can be conveniently recorded by electronic equipment. Anyone who experiences this is cursed to die in seven days, and experiences both psychic projections as well as prophetic dreams (whether they're awake or asleep.) Her appearance is similar to the clothes she died in ([[Stringy Haired Ghost Girl|a white dress]].)

** Sadako Yamamura seeks vengeance upon all of mankind. Her manifestation is {{spoiler|originally}} psychically anchored to the well where she died, whereupon it projects abstract thoughts and images that can be conveniently recorded by electronic equipment. Anyone who experiences this is cursed to die in seven days, and experiences both psychic projections as well as prophetic dreams (whether they're awake or asleep.) Her appearance is similar to the clothes she died in ([[Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl|a white dress]].)

** Samara Morgan, in addition to Sadako's attributes above, also has full control of her psychic abilities --telekinesis, psychography, possession of electronic equipment-- and can also possess people. Not only does her appearance resemble her condition upon death, but her final manifestation displays the ''decay and rot'' of her corpse inside the well. Not a pretty sight.

* Dave Bowman in ''<nowiki>[[2010: The Year We Make Contact]]</nowiki>'' was kinda-sorta a ghost of the "resounding psychic echo" variety. He even says at one point "I was Dave Bowman."

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** Some also displayed the wounds that killed them.

** Ghosts in the [[The Dresden Files]] are described as fossils, imprints of a personality. The more emotionally charged the death, the stronger the ghost. For example, graveyards in the books are always filled with ghosts, but most of them are so weak that they are imperceptible to normal people. While if someone commits suicide, or dies while emotionally distressed their ghosts can take on physical forms and even heavily effect the material world. Ghosts don't disappear unless killed by magical means or the reason they are created (normally unfinished business) is fulfilled.

*** It is possible for a ghost to be created even if someone's death is very brief, i.e. they were revived via CPR after suffering a bout of clinical death. Also, powerful individuals like wizards can leave very powerful ghosts behind when they die. In ''Grave Peril'', {{spoiler|Harry takes advantage of this by passing unconscious so a ghost can kill him in his sleep, only to be revived by CPR, and thus creates a ghost ''of himself'' that he teams up with to beat the crap out of the hostile ghost that killed him. The ghost Harry disappears once this is accomplished, as the purpose that caused him to linger as a ghost has now been fulfilled.}}

**** And in ''Ghost Story,'' Harry gets to know just ''how'' different these ghosts are, since {{spoiler|he's now one himself, a la Type One, Avenge Me style. At the end he discovers that his body is still clinically alive, having been kept on magical life support by Mab and Demonreach, enabling him to return to life and explaining why he was able to run around Chicago as a genuine disembodied soul rather than the "psychic imprint" type of ghost previously described.}}

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'':

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** Moaning Myrtle haunts a girls' toilet because {{spoiler|she had been hiding there from her tormentor, classmate Olive Hornby, when she died. Initially after her death Myrtle followed Olive everywhere until the Ministry of Magic forced her to stop, at which point she returned to the toilet and stayed there.}}

** Peeves the Poltergeist is most likely the last type of ghost; it's suggested that he's simply a spirit of chaos who never was a living being, and just showed up when the castle was built.

* The Sonja Blue Series by Nancy A. Collins had a mad architect design a house he called Ghost Trap; and it did just that -- trap and confuse ghosts inside its bizarrely designed walls. (Collins probably based this on the real life Winchester Mystery House, designed to do just that.)

* The title character of the 1965 young-adult book ''The Ghost of Dibble Hollow'' by May Nickerson Wallace had unfinished business holding him to the earth, and very strict conditions controlling who could see (and thus help) him.

* King Verence I and the other ghosts in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]'' cannot rest until they've been avenged(which, given the castle is crowded with ghosts, including the ''first'' king, must almost never happen), can only be seen by close relatives, psychics and cats, and, officially, cannot leave the castle (although if a ''bit'' of the castle, such as a single stone, is moved they can go with it). [[Jacob Marley Apparel]] also applies; Verence is wearing his crown, and at one point, when trying to decide if his son is wearing the real crown, takes off the ghostly version to compare them.

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"I think not," the lady readily replied--quite as if she had thought it out, long ago. "It has to be something thick. For instance, you might welter in bread-sauce. That, being white, would be more suitable for a Ghost, supposing it wished to welter!"'' }}

** Central to his poem "Phantasmagoria"

* In the [[Night Huntress]] series, sentient ghosts are rare and are created when a person felt an usually strong emotion at their time of death. They can only be seen by the undead. They cannot possess humans but they can experience sensations such as drinking alcohol by passing through the human's body.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''The Hour of the Dragon'', [[Conan the Barbarian]] surprises a follower who thinks he's this.

{{quote|''Why have you come back from the gray lands of death to terrify me? I was always your true liegeman in your lifetime--''}}

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* This editor isn't sure why the ghost in ''[[The Ghost and Mrs. Muir]]'' stayed around in the movie or the TV show.

** In both the series and the film, it is stated that Captain Gregg the Ghost remained more out of stubbornness than anything else: he had intended to renovate the house, and he was not about to let his unplanned death interfere with what he had decreed would occur! As film/series continues, he realizes how foolish it has been for him to haunt the house over petty mulishness, but by then, he had fallen in love with the widow Mrs. Muir.

* Marty Hopkirk in ''[[Randall and Hopkirk Deceased]]'' was of the Avenge Me! stripe. He stayed out of his grave for too long and couldn't go heaven for another 100 years (in the Remake he only had to wait until the person he was haunting, his ex PI Partner Jeff Randall, dies). Ghosts can only wear white. The only people who can see him are Jeff (who he's haunting but in a non-malicious way), animals, and occasional psychics and very young kids.

* Of course, ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'' and ''[[Medium]]'' are [[Dueling Shows]] that involve psychic women helping ghosts finish their business. Medium uses the dream method, while in GW, the ghosts are only visible to the lead (and her coworker's son in later eps).

* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] had an episode wherein there was a spell in effect that turned your costume literally real. Willow was wearing a ghost costume, so she became ghostly without dying.

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** 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.

* Filmation's ''The Ghost Busters'' dealt with ghosts who took the forms of classic film and literature ghosts (e.g. Count Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster, the Abominable Snowman, etc.) but all had some comical twist.

* Subverted on [[Eureka]], when Allison thinks she's seeing a ghost, but really it's a hologram programmed into her logic diamond necklace.

* ''[[Bones]]'' had a full-on TANGIBLE ghost showing up when Booth was trapped on a ship about to explode. Tangible as in, could pick stuff up, could help Booth open doors, Booth physically picked the guy up and carried him... and then the guy disappeared as the helicopter came to rescue him.

* ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' has Annie. She can interact and pick things up like a living human, but her visibility rides up and down the scale with her confidence. She can also teleport.

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* This is played with in ''[[Lost]]'', when Hurley learns of Miles' ability to talk to ghosts. Hurley says that ghosts regularly talk to him and even play chess, but Miles insists that, in his experience, ghosts only represent the last thoughts of dead people and cannot interact with the living.

* Ghosts appear regularly on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. Their appearances are heralded by a [[Ghostly Chill]]. They can be repelled with salt and iron. Laying them to rest usually involves destroying their remains with fire, though one was simply persuaded to [[Go Into the Light]].

** Hostile ghosts tend to be [[Stringy Haired Ghost Girl|pale with stringy hair]]. Many attack the living through [[Mind Over Matter|telekinesis]], and some are capable of [[Demonic Possession|possession]].

** Hostile ghosts tend to be [[Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl|pale with stringy hair]]. Many attack the living through [[Mind Over Matter|telekinesis]], and some are capable of [[Demonic Possession|possession]].

** Benign spirits and those [[Tomato in the Mirror|who don't know they are dead]] can be indistinguishable from the living.

** Eventually ''all'' ghost that haven't ascended to the afterlife end becoming vengeful spirits.

* [[Poltergeist: The Legacy]] tends to feature the wrathful variety, with the occasional [[Unfinished Business]] thrown in.

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== Music ==

* Dickie Lee's song "Laurie (Strange Things Happen)" is about a young man who picks up a girl who needs a ride. When he gets to her destination, the seat beside him is empty, though he never stopped the car. All that remains is her sweater. When he knocks on the door with the sweater to see if she went inside while he wasn't looking, the person who answers is astonished to see the sweater. It belonged to his daughter, who was killed in a car crash at about the spot where the young man picked up the hitcher girl...25 years earlier. The song was inspired by the urban legend of the Vanishing Hitchhiker.

** As this editor recalls, the young man of the song takes Laurie back to her home, leaves, realizes he forgot the sweater he gave her to keep warm with, and goes back for it. The person at the house tells him "She died a year ago today" and that she's buried in the local cemetery. He goes there to look at her grave, and finds the sweater folded up on top of it. So, even truer to the Vanishing Hitchhiker legend.

*** All made especially effective and actually creepy by the disarming early 60's (made in 1965) music that accompanies this telling. Not surprisingly, Dickie Lee was responsible for about three or so of the songs that [[Don McLean]] called 'dirges in the dark' in American Pie--the song, not the movie series.

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** People and places that kept a ghost attached to the world of the living were called fetters.

** Wraiths in the World of Darkness saw said same world as way darker than the living did. Shiny new cars would be dilapidated wrecks. Buildings would be all run down and in disrepair, etc.

** Wraith powers are called Arcanoi (plural of Arcanos), and range from telekinesis to limited substantialness to emotion control to possession of objects and people. ''Orpheus'' had similar skills, called Shades, but they were more of a direct reflection of the character's personality.

** Wraiths bear remnants of how they were killed, known as "Deathmarks."

* 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.

* ''[[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."

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

** Electrocuted Sims randomly jitter with electric shock.

** Sims who burned to death turn red and occasionally leave piles of ash.

** Sims who starved to death will attempt to raid the refrigerator.

** Additionally, the ghosts in the Sims are haunters who can scare other Sims badly enough they wet themselves. Or ''die of fright'' Which produces a pink ghost.

** And rather than call a ghostbuster or someone of that nature, simply moving the gravestone can get rid of a Sim Ghost.

** They become playable characters in ''[[The Sims]] 3'' once you complete a certain opportunity. They control more or less the same as normal sims, though they can walk through walls and other objects, as well as have a creepy sound effect on at all times. They're also immune to most forms of death. By making ambrosia, you can fully restore them to life. They are also capable of having ghost children.

* Ghosts are just another type of Pokémon in the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games. In general, most Ghost-type Pokémon like to play pranks on people and scare them.

** The exception to that general rule are Yamask and Cofagrigus, who are real human ghosts.

** Drifloon and Drifblim are also stated to be human and pokemon spirits.

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** The very first Zelda game featured ghosts called Ghinis haunting the graveyard in the West of Hyrule. Most games since have featured ghosts of some sort, including friendly ghosts and [[Boss Fight|boss fights]] against ghosts. Also of note: in the first game, Peahats (flowery enemies fluttering around the screen) are described as being the spirits of ''dead plants''.

** Princess Zelda herself is a fairy-like ghost in ''[[Spirit Tracks]]''. So we got a [[Cool Train]] and a [[Everything's Better with Princesses|Princess]] who also is a [[Our Ghosts Are Different|Ghost]] who also is an [[Exposition Fairy]] who can also possess living suits of armor. [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]], anyone?

* All spirits seem to linger near their bodies after death in ''[[Ghost Trick]]'', but only certain ghosts have special ''ghost tricks' which allow them to move around and affect the world through possessing inanimate objects {{spoiler|or living bodies, or swapping similarly shaped items}}, as well as go back in time four minutes before a recently-deceased person's death. {{spoiler|Only people who die near the Temsik meteorite receive ghost trick power, indicating even in that world it's a very unusual thing.}}

* The ''[[Metroid]]'' series gives us Phantoon, a flying, bulbous, tentacled thing with an eyeball in its mouth. Its powers include [[Invisibility]], levitation, [[Intangible Man|intangibility]], and attacking with flaming blue balls of plasma. Apparently it gets its nutrition by sucking on the electrical current of the wrecked ship it lives in. Also inhabiting the wrecked ship are coverns, ghost-like entities that look like half a dozen rotting human heads rolled together into a ball.

* [[Pac-Man]] is a partial subversion. Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde (or Sue) are ghosts that are deadly unless Pac-Man (or Ms. Pac-Man) eats a power pill.

** Them being ghosts may not be true. They're referred to as either "monsters" or "ghost monsters", the "ghost" part being due to an early [[Fan Nickname]]. They appear to be alive and made of flesh, instead of being dead and untouchable.

* The Unsent in [[Final Fantasy X]], who look and act like alive people do, but due to incompetent 'burial rituals' (Dead person's soul must be sent to afterlife by summoner) they continue living.

** Though some can also be held to the realm of the living if their death was unclean -- e.g., they were killed before their time through malice {{spoiler|such as Lord Jyscal}} -- or if they have unfinished business {{spoiler|with examples including Auron and possibly Maester Mika. I suppose if you think about it, Yu Yevon also counts.}}

* ''[[Ultima Underworld]] II'' has various kinds of ghosts. Normal ghosts are white, with red haunts and black shades as more powerful variants. A few of the ghosts in the game are still rational and are important characters, though most seem to be mindless.

* The titular Phantoms of ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' unable to interact physically unless confined to an object.

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* In ''[[King's Quest IV the Perils of Rosella]]'', the heroine must lay to rest several ghosts in a haunted house. To achieve this, she must unite them with an object that was dear to them during their lifetimes. For instance, the baby wants its rattle; a weeping woman wants her locket, the miser desires a pouch of money; a soldier is searching for his medal; a little boy wants a toy horse. Oddly enough, all these objects are found ''in the graves'' of these individuals, alongside their earthly remains...leading one to wonder why that wasn't enough to set them all at rest, or why the ghosts themselves didn't know where these items were.

** Of course, the requisite shovel can be used [[Guide Dang It|precisely]] [[Lost Forever|five times]].

* Naturally, ghosts play a central role in ''[[The Lost Crown]]: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure'', where they range in power and malevolence from fleeting translucent figures, to a pesky kid who keeps pushing the elevator buttons, to dangerous roiling black smoke-columns that hound you around the room.

* Ghosts in [[Elder Scrolls]] are immune to 'normal' weapons and arrows(they pass though them) but are apparently solid if you try to walk pass them, even able to hit you. They also seem to be related to werewolves in that they can be killed by silver weapons.

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

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* The defunct ''Ghost Cat'' webcomic

** Ghost Cat could become tangible if it wished...at least solid enough to stick a Post-It note to.

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' had a problem with ghosts for a while when they lived in Kesandru House.

** And Oasis might be a weaponized ghost.

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'':

** Mort is a [[Bedsheet Ghost]] who's a [[Shape Shifter]] and a [[Master of Illusion]], haunting the Court and trying to scare people simply because it's his job. (When he isn't trying to scare you, he's a pretty nice guy.) He's visible to anyone, and he has implied that ghosts are attracted to Spirit Mediums -- or maybe he's just attracted to one Medium in particular. According to [[Word of God|Word of Tom]], Mort's haunting is not normal for spirits in the afterlife, but something that had to be arranged with the [[Psychopomp|psychopomps]].

** Martin (the boy in the hospital in ch 16) presumably is a more "normal" ghost. He was lingering in this world because he didn't realize he was dead, and because he was scared of [[Psychopomp|The Guides]]. He seemed to possess powers similar to Mort's, but which operated on a completely subconscious level, and were [[Glamour Failure|negated in the presence of a Medium]]. His coming to grips with his own death allowed him to pass on.

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** There is also a Ghost Lady With A Sword ( {{spoiler|Jeanne}}), who attacked Antimony. {{spoiler|An etheric arrow split her soul into pieces, and the Ghost is all of Jeanne's rage and despair, forged into a spirit of undirected vengeance. As a result, the Guides don't have any idea who she is, and (according to [[Word of God]]) it's possible she would kill any Guide that tries to take her into the afterlife.}}

* In ''[[Misfile]]'' Kamikaze Kate's sister Angelica was a combination of types 1, 2, 4 and 7. {{spoiler|She was eventually persuaded to move on when [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Rumisiel showed her just how much her presence had hurt her sister's life]].}}

* {{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].

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** There is also the ghost of a succubus and a the ghost of a [[Catgirl]]

* In [[Dwarf Fortress]], slain dwarves that are not properly memorialized tend to rise up and haunt the fortress, and range from obnoxious (pestering those they disliked in life) to murderous (killing dwarves by scaring them to death).

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' has [[Stringy Haired Ghost Girl]] Aradia Megido. At least until {{spoiler|her soulbot exploded, and then she [[Came Back Strong]].}}

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' has [[Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl]] Aradia Megido. At least until {{spoiler|her soulbot exploded, and then she [[Came Back Strong]].}}

** {{spoiler|About an hour later from the Troll's perspective, Feferi Peixes gets killed, only to also come back as a ghost. Though, the latter was known well before the former.}}

** Weirdly, the game's kernelsprites display more of the properties of traditional ghosts than actual dead people do. All sprites have [[Fog Feet]]. Additionally, Nannasprite and Jaspersprite have also been shown flying through walls and leaving a trail of ectoplasm behind, but both were prototyped with the remains of the dead. It's uncertain whether the sprites made from those who were still living at the time can do this or not.

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** Ember McLain got power from the adulation of fans she never got in life.

** Desiree was obligated to grant wishes, though not always as the wisher [[Literal Genie|would have preferred]].

** Sidney Poindexter was bullied in life so much that his spirit haunts a ghostly clone of Casper High circa 1955. Seeing people get bullied turns on his poltergeist rage. He once possessed Danny under the mistaken impression Danny was a bully.

** Ghosts in the [[Danny Phantom]] [[The Verse|'verse]] are capable of reproduction. {{spoiler|Box Lunch is the future child of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady.}}

** Possession is called "overshadowing" instead because it's a kids show.

*** And for some reason, despite at least one common victim stating more than once that he hates being overshadowed, the concept of overshadowing people without their permission for no good reason being an immoral violation not befitting a hero is never, ever touched upon.

** Ghost animals:

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*** Every other ghost is made of ectoplasm and doesn't resemble any living or human being.

** Nonhuman Ghosts:

*** Skulker is a weird little ghostly entity who does not appear to have ever been human; he wears a cybernetic suit.

*** The ghosts who taught Danny to use his freezing power are all sort of werewolf-ish.

*** There's a ghost who is a plant and who controls them.

** Ghost Gear:

*** There's a metal that harms ghosts or half-ghosts.

*** Johnny 13 has a ghost motorcycle.

*** Youngblood has a ghost pirate ship.

*** Ember's ghost guitar would let her use [[Mind Control]] based on what song she was playing.

*** Skulker has a number of ghost traps, weapons and devices (with the weakness of being hackable by normal earth tech).

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*** Jack and Maddie Fenton were able to invent and use (with varying degrees of success) devices that protected from ghosts or trapped them. The garage sale episode featured a lot of mundane stuff the family owned getting contaminated with ectoplasm.

*** Enemy Freakshow has a staff with a gem on it that exerts [[Mind Control]] on ghosts. Danny is only partially susceptible.

** Overall, it seems that in [[Danny Phantom]] there are three main types of ghosts. 1) Ghosts of people/creatures who died, like Poindexter and Cudo. 2) A entity that was never living, but seems to be a unique life-form formed of ecto-plasm, who can create races and even reproduce. (Such as the race of the 'Far Frozen'). 3) A concept or idea that has taken on conscious form. Clockwork is the ghostly form of Time, Vortex the manifestation of bad weather, etc.

* The animated ''[[Beetlejuice (animation)|Beetlejuice]]'' has most of the same tropes as the movie, but:

** The method of death showing up on the ghost has been removed. It's a kids' show.

** The Neitherworld, where Beetlejuice dwelled, was full of nonhuman ghostly entities.

** Beetlejuice himself was arguably an [[In-Universe]] version, since he displayed all kinds of strange powers most other ghosts didn't seem to have.

* ''[[Ben 10]]'' has Ghostfreak who is a ghost-like alien.

** Who then becomes [[Nightmare Fuel|a lot scarier]] [[Enemy Without|when he escapes]], and wants [[Revenge]] on Ben.