Talking to the Dead: Difference between revisions

Ubiquitous in Japanese media; it is believed in Japan that unless the living keep the memories of their near and dear ones alive by talking to them, their spirits will disappear into oblivion. Thus a manga or anime character chatting about everyday things with a picture of their dead parents or sibling is not a sign of losing it.

 

 

Does not, of course, preclude the dead person's not actually being dead, but does require that the character believe the person to be dead. ([[Please Wake Up]] does not fall under this.)

Symbolic or [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|ambiguous]] apparent messages from the dead start to edge this into [[Dead Person Conversation]].

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Tohru of ''[[Fruits Basket]]'' does this with her mother.

* ''[[Code Geass]]'': "...right, {{spoiler|Lelouch}}?"

* Being the [[Necromantic]] that she is, Precia naturally does this with {{spoiler|Alicia's}} [[People Jars|floating corpse]] in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]''. "We won't be separated this time..."

* Takamichi of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' during his date with Asuna: "[[Posthumous Character|Master]]... even though I can't tell her everything, I would at least like to tell Asuna-kun about you..."

* ''[[Ranma One Half]]:'' Ranma Saotome has one of these moments with {{spoiler|Akane Tendo, when he thinks she has died. However, after his [[Anguished Declaration of Love|declaration of love]], it turns out she was only severely stunned, and able to hear everything even if she couldn't move.}}

* In the original ''~Yu-Gi-Oh!~'' manga, Ryou Bakura is shown writing a letter to his sister Amane. [[Word of God]] says she died in a car crash before hand, showing that her death either had a rather traumatizing effect or very little effect on his actions. And in a series full of [[Promotion to Parent|signi]][[Morality Pet|ficant]] [[Big Brother Instinct|sibl]][[Ill Girl|ing]] [[I Know You Are in There Somewhere Fight|relation]][[Split Personality|ships]] and characters motivated by protecting/rescuing/avenging their loved ones, it's a little jarring.

* In ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'', Spike is ambushed in a convenience store shortly after its owner bleeds to death. Before the action starts, he says to the dead owner "Sorry, gonna make a bit of a scene."

* In ''[[Kyou Kara Maou]]'', after {{spoiler|Wolfram}} dies, Yuuri has a conversation with his preserved body, promising to save him. The imaginary ghost of the deceased does most of the talking.

{{quote| '''Neji''': Father... There are so many birds in the sky today... Flying free.}}

** Sasuke also starts talking to {{spoiler|Itachi after he killed him.}} It's just another reminder of his [[Sanity Slippage]].

* In the first Tim Burton ''[[Batman]]'' movie, [[Ax Crazy|The Joker]] has a conversation with a mob boss he just killed with an electrified joy buzzer named Antoine Rotellei. It is during this conversation that The Joker decides to kill the whole lot of the mob summit immediately, allegedly under Rotellei's "suggestion."

* In a particularly [[Tear Jerker|heartwrenching]] version, the movie ''Grace is Gone'' features John Cusack repeatedly calling his (dead) wife's answering machine to ask her advice on how to relate to their two daughters.

** To his house, but meaning his wife, Ellie. Russell thinks his house is ''named'' Ellie.

*** Compare with [[Monster House]], which is kind of the opposite.

* Mikey in ''[[The Goonies]]'' has a heart-to-ribcage chat with the skeletal remains of One-Eyed Willie.

* Lampooned in the disaster movie parody ''The Big Bus'' with so many people talking in the graveyard the protagonist has to shout in order to be heard above the din.

** That's more the start of the folktale the movie was based on. Victor thinks the bride's hand is a conveniently-shaped branch.

* Johnny in ''[[Red Roses and Petrol]]'' has an emotional goodbye by speaking to his dead father's video diary.

* In the [[Sixth Sense]], {{spoiler|Anna talks to Malcolm, not knowing he can hear her}}.

* John Preston (Christian Bale) tearfully apologises to Sean Bean's Corpse in ''[[Equilibrium]]''. Preston was the one who executed him for feeling emotions, a crime punishable by death. Preston was now committing that same crime.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''The Flight of the Eisenstein'', Garro finds his armor, carefully readied for him by his now-dead [[Old Retainer|housecarl]] Kaleb. Garro addresses the air, telling Kaleb that he was an honor to the Legion.

** Later, when Sachiel hears that Rafen was caught in an exploding factory ([[No One Could Survive That]]), he gloats, actually saying, "Rafen, you are dead."

* In Brian Jacques's ''[[Redwall]]'', Matthias addresses a tapestry showing Martin the Warrior about his weakness. When Cornflower appears to reassure him and say that his tears are not [[Water Works]], he [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|interprets this as message from Martin]].

** Heck, just [[Once an Episode|about every Redwall book]] has one of the characters talking to the tapestry of Martin the Warrior. Given that many of them actually receive a ''response'' of some sort (especially if they're the main character of the book), this usually falls within the realm of [[Dead Person Conversation]], but not always.

* [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Miles Vorkosigan]] has a tendency to talk to dead people during crises of motivation, most particularly his Grandfather and a baby girl named Raina who was killed for having a birth defect. In ''Memory'' he tells his driver that he wants to go talk to the latter of these two, causing the driver to doubt his sanity.

 

 

* Ducky does this all the time on ''[[NCIS]]''.

* Alexx on ''[[CSI]]: Miami'' not only talks to corpses, but also calls them "baby".

* ''Providence'' - the main character talks to her dead mother at least [[Once an Episode]].

* Early ''[[Smallville]]'', where Lana would go to the cemetery to talk with her dead parents.

** The entirety of Castiel's monologue on his park bench in "The Man Who Would Be King" could be taken as this, though he's attempting to talk to {{spoiler|God}}, who isn't exactly dead. No-one knows this, however.

* [[Monk]] also frequently visits his late wife's grave, often to ponder whether or not she would approve of his actions (usually, such actions involve giving up something of hers in order to help someone else, or anything he thinks might cause him to drift away from her memory).

* Booth encourages [[Bones]] to talk to her mother's grave, though Bones is skeptical of its value.

* A character on ''[[Jericho]]'' does this to {{spoiler|his dead, deaf sister. Interestingly, he signs the conversation over her body instead of speaking out loud to her, even after she is dead, because that was the way he communicated with her his entire life.}}

 

== [[Music]] ==

* The entirety of "Majic" by [[Starflyer 59]] is addressed to Jason Martin's then-recently-deceased father.

* This is a recurring Trope in [[Country Music]], to the point that a [[Genre Savvy]] listener can see most attempts at such a [[Twist Ending]] coming well in advance. Prominent modern examples include [[Leann Rimes]]' "Probably Wouldn't Be this Way" and [[Miranda Lambert]]'s "Over You"--both of which at least attempt to [[Invoked Trope|invoke]] a [[One-Woman Wail]].

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

* In ''[[The Most Happy Fella]]'', Tony talks (and sings) to his sainted mother up in heaven.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', after Leila is killed, Matthew occasionally talks to her. He even goes so far as to imagine that Leila told him to give up on trying to enact revenge on Jaffar, who was responsible, because he wasn't really in control of himself at the time, and Matthew obediently lets him go and backs down.

 

 

** Elan over Therkla's grave.

* In ''[[Something Positive]]'', Davan occasionally chats with Scotty's grave, Branwen and a few others went to visit her father, and several people spoke to Faye at her funeral.

* Thomil of ''[[Juathuur]]'' frequently speaks to his dead girlfriend, Neilli. {{spoiler|Who isn't even dead.}}

* [http://doodlediaries.comicgenesis.com/d/20100719.html Orpheus] converses with his sister.

* [[Roza]] to the [http://www.junglestudio.com/roza/?date=2007-05-14 skeleton]

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Static Shock]]'': Virgil often went to talk to his mom during the first bit of the series.

** It was Andrea (the [[Love Interest]]) talking to her own dead mother who gave him the idea.

* Subverted in [[The Venture Brothers]]. Henchman 21 talks to the skull of {{spoiler|Henchman 24}} several times during the first half of Season 4, but we only hear ''him'' talk. It isn't until the mid-season finale that we learn {{spoiler|24}} [[Dead Person Conversation|responds to him]]...