Virtual Ghost: Difference between revisions

** Motoko from the movie wonders if she is a virtual ghost, and if her personality and memories are, in fact, [[Fake Memories|programmed]], due to the small amount of brain matter she is left with.

** {{spoiler|Motoko Aramaki and the rest of the "children" of Motoko and the Puppetmaster were not born with biological bodies, and yet have a "ghost".}}

* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] Schwarzwald made a Virtual Ghost cameo in ''[[The Big O]]'', inexplicably taking over a robot and killing the pilot for no real reason other than to indirectly save the hero via [[Deus Ex Machina]], though, if the ghost's words are to be believed, it was a type 4 [[Deus Ex Machina]] ([[Chekhov's Gun]] style) as the Megadeus are sentient and Schwarzwald, despite his insanity, turns out to be much more correct about the world than anyone else in the show.

* Noah (and Gozaburo) Kaiba in the [[Overtook the Manga|anime-only]] Virtual Nightmare [[Arc]] of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!''

* {{spoiler|Tieria Erde}} in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' [[The Movie]].

** George Glenn in ''[[Gundam SEED Astray]]'' is a semi-example. [[Brain In a Jar|Though he's still technically alive]], he can only interact with the outside world through a hologram.

* The AI versions of Harold Hoerwick in .hack//Sign. They're nowhere near as advanced as most other versions on this page (and rightly so; this series is set 20MinutesIntoTheFuture) and tend to only repeat a few cryptic lines at a time, but the information inevitably proves crucial. He also appears in the four [[PlayStation 2]] games set slightly afterward.

* ''[[Zegapain]]'' is about this trope and giant robots.

*** In fact, the end of ''X5'' suggests {{spoiler|that Light's hologram is capable of existing outside the capsules. In fact, the capsules in the game show that the hologram knows who Zero is (there are various explanations for this), but also who Alia is, which would be impossible for the original, living Dr. Light. In addition, he actually tells Zero early in the game that he has no knowledge of Zero's systems, so he can't upgrade him, but then states later, in a hidden capsule, that he's done some research and can now upgrade Zero. A very capable Virtual Ghost, indeed.}}

** ''[[Mega Man X]]'' himself takes a page out of his creator Dr. Light's book. X is now an [[Energy Being]] to serve as Zero's [[Obi Wan]] when ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' rolls around.

** It is possible for a "smart" AI to hang on for a little longer than seven years, if it has a purpose to do so. Juliana, the AI of the Rubble asteroid base in ''[[The Cole Protocol]]'', only shows small signs of rampancy despite being older than 7. However, after the end of her purpose, she volunteers to make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].

** Forerunner AI {{spoiler|343 Guilty Spark}} is based off the mind of {{spoiler|a prehistoric human named Chakas}}.

* Lumi in ''[[Child of Eden]]''.

* Ma3a in ''[[Tron|Tron 2.0]]'' straddles the lines of this, [[Brain Uploading]], and [[Interface with a Familiar Face]]. {{spoiler|Dr. Lora Baines-Bradley was killed by being partially digitized with her laser. Whether by accident or design, the part of her left in cyberspace was compiled with the AI project she and Alan were working on, creating Ma3a.}}

* In ''[[Portal 2]]'', Cave Johnson's dying wish is to get a [[Brain Uploading]]. [[Subverted Trope|Ironically, he dies before they could do it]], so they go with his back-up dying wish: apply the [[Brain Uploading]] to {{spoiler|1=Caroline, AKA GlaDOS, who ends up becoming more [[Mission Control Is Off Its Meds]] than [[Spirit Advisor]] Virtual Ghost.}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* Possibly Franz Hopper from ''[[Code Lyoko]]''; his daughter Aelita was thought to be a Virtual Ghost, but is actually a digitized person who has survived for years in [[Cyberspace]]. Ulrich also spent one episode as a sort of Quantum Ghost due to his mind being accidentally separated from his virtual body.

* {{spoiler|Megabyte}} pulls this trick near the end of ''[[Re Boot]]''. Even though he's already a computer program on a show taking place inside a computer. Yeah, probably best not to think about it too hard...

** He did this ''twice''. First to mess with whoever tried to shut down Mainframe's core manually, second time as a distraction. He was more or less intangible both times.

* In the ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' episode "Lost Soul", Robert Vance does this to himself so that he can advise his company from beyond the grave.

** Subverted in ''Return of the Joker''. The subversion is the kind of hardware the Virtual Ghost runs in. {{spoiler|It's former Robin Tim Drake's brain.}}

* Quite literally on ''[[Futurama]]''. When Bender commits suicide in one episode his programming is uploaded into the cloud and he acts like a "normal" ghost who can't be seen by anyone except the robot devil and can possess machines.

* Proffessor Honneycut from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had his body destroyed when he was struck by lightning, incedentally he was helping his robot assistant Sal get untangled from some fallen wires and had his mind uploaded to Sal's body.{{spoiler|It is later revealed that he uploaded himself to the internet shortly before his heroic sacrifice and comes back later to further aid the turtles}}.