History Main / GhostlyDeathReveal

As this is a DeathTrope, '''UNMARKED SPOILERS''' are below.

* In the first episode of ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'', Steven Crain walks into his apartment to find that his sister [[TheOphelia Nell]] is waiting for him there. Given that Nell's been trying to call various family members for the past twenty-four hours, Steve is eager to find out what's wrong... but she can only stare mournfully at him in total silence. At that moment, their father calls, revealing that Nell made a nighttime journey to the eponymous HauntedHouse and is now dead of an apparent suicide. Horrified, Steven turns around -- [[JumpScare and finds that Nell is now standing behind him, screaming]].

* At the end of Creator/{{Walrusguy}}'s WebAnimation/YoutubePoop "[[https://youtu.be/Gm3H1l-o8RM The Ewoks Go Mad From the Revelation That Their Show Is No Longer Canon]]", [[WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}} Dr. Raygar]] appears to be fine after returning from Endor. Admiral Kaz snidely remarks that he should just consider himself lucky that he survived his mission. Raygar promptly corrects him.

* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': In "Vaulting Ambition", Stamets encounters [[spoiler:his husband, Dr. Culber, while trapped in the mycelial network, and Culber reveals that he was killed in the real world (as seen in the previous episode) and that his spirit now resides within the network. After a tearful goodbye, Stamets escapes the network and returns to the normal universe. Luckily, in season 2 they're able to find a way to resurrect Culber]].

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'': Early on, Jonathan and Charlotte meet a ghost who calls himself Wind. Later on, though, Wind reveals himself to be the ghost of [[spoiler:Eric Lecarde, one of the protagonists of ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines Bloodlines]]'' and a friend of Jonathan's father John Morris. In the interim Eric was killed by Brauner but managed to bind his own spirit to Dracula's Castle.]]
* There are several characters in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' who become Unsent (the spirit of a person who wasn't laid to rest by a Summoner who can still interact with the world and doesn't actually look or act any different, but may degenerate into a fiend if left to fester) along the course of the game ([[spoiler:Seymour, repeatedly]]) or were Unsent all along ([[spoiler:Auron, Maechen]]). And then there's [[spoiler:Tidus and Jecht]], who were more or less sentient physical dreams.

!!Examples

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* Literature/GiveYourselfGoosebumps have a few bad endings where this happens.
** In ''Literature/TheTwistedTaleOfTikiIsland'', you and your cousin Gina end up being pursued by several GhostPirate skeletons. You might lose Gina at one point, and depending on your choices, you end up being trapped by a ghostly skeleton... wearing Gina's swimsuit. You then realize there's no escape, she's dead, and you're next.
** Several bad endings in ''Literature/CheckoutTimeAtTheDeadEndHotel'', after you chose to pull a LetsSplitUpGang in Hotel Morte to find Drew Mortgarth, have you rendezvous with your friends, only to realize they're dead and are now among the hotel's resident ghosts, and they want you to join them. In one of the bad endings, it's your friend's mother who is revealed to be a ghost.

* In the first episode of ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'', Steven Crain walks into his apartment to find that his sister [[TheOphelia Nell]] is waiting for him there. Given that Nell's been trying to call various family members for the past twenty-four hours, Steve is eager to find out what's wrong... but she can only stare mournfully at him in total silence. At that moment, their father calls, revealing that Nell made a nighttime journey to the eponymous HauntedHouse and is now dead of an apparent suicide. Horrified, Steven turns around - [[JumpScare and finds that Nell is now standing behind him, screaming]].

[[folder:Mythology]]

-->'''Dr. Raygar:''' But, Admiral Kaz... I ''didn't'' survive my mission.
-->'''Admiral Kaz:''' What?!
-->'''Dr. Raygar:''' ''(now a Force Ghost)'' So long, Admiral Kaz.

[[folder:Web Original]]

** Odysseus' meeting with Agamemnon at the same time also counts as in-universe, and also out when taking only written epics into account. When he and Odysseus last saw each other they were youthful, healthy, and happy. In the underworld, Odysseus finds Agamemnon's ghost, who reveals that his wife had remarried while he was gone, and her new husband killed him upon Agamemnon returning home. Formerly, the audience would likely have already known about this due to the ''Nostoi'' (the immediate precursor to the ''Odyssey'') describing this incident, but as this epic is now lost, the reveal would also come as a surprise to a modern audience unless they previously read a surviving adaptation of Agamemnon's death (such as the ''Theatre/TheOresteia'') first.

A kind of [[KilledOffscreen offscreen death]], primarily in fantasy stories, where the protagonist has some chance encounter with a ghost (either in a vision or while travelling through some kind of ghostly underworld), only to find out that they're the ghost of someone they knew or expected to be alive before they left or earlier in their journey. They died or were killed while the hero was away, and now they get the news straight from the deceased themselves. Usually allows the deceased to have a few parting words with the protagonist before finally passing on, thus serving as an avoidance of NeverGotToSayGoodbye. Often expect the very shocked and saddened protagonist to go full PleaseDontLeaveMe as the deceased fades away, if the deceased was someone they knew or were close to.

Compare and contrast PosthumousCharacter, for when a character is considered long dead before the story even starts. Compare DoomedPredecessor where an explorer is introduced alive (or missing) and is later found dead. Also compare DeadAllAlong, where a character assumed to be alive turns out to be... you know.

A notable kind of [[KilledOffscreen offscreen death]], primarily in fantasy stories, is one where the protagonist has some chance encounter with a ghost (either in a vision or while travelling through some kind of ghostly underworld), only to find out that they're the ghost of someone they knew or expected to be alive before they left or earlier in their journey. They died or were killed while the hero was away, and now they get the news straight from the deceased themselves. Usually allows the deceased to have a few parting words with the protagonist before finally passing on, thus serving as an avoidance of NeverGotToSayGoodbye. Often expect the very shocked and saddened protagonist to go full PleaseDontLeaveMe as the deceased fades away, if the deceased was someone they knew or were close to.

A notable kind of [[KilledOffscreen offscreen death]], primarily in fantasy stories, is one where the protagonist has some chance encounter with a ghost (either in a vision or while travelling through some kind of ghostly underworld), only to find out that they're the ghost of someone they knew or expected to be alive before they left or earlier in their journey. They died or were killed while the hero was away, and now they get the news straight from the deceased themselves. Usually allows the deceased to have a few parting words with the protagonist before finally passing on, thus serving as a subversion of NeverGotToSayGoodbye. Often expect the very shocked and saddened protagonist to go full PleaseDontLeaveMe as the deceased fades away, if the deceased was someone they knew or were close to.

** Odysseus is surprised to find his mother Anticlea in the Underworld, and we learn that she (depending on the source) died of grief or suicide during the many years of his absence.

* OlderThanFeudalism: In ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', Odysseus is surprised to find his mother Anticlea in the Underworld, and we learn that she (depending on the source) died of grief or suicide during the many years of his absence.

* ''ComicBook/StarWarsLegacy'' begins 88 years after the chronologically previous work in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' (the novel ''Literature/StarWarsCrucible''). Although Force users can him live for centuries, even human ones, Luke Skywalker is revealed to the audience to have died during the TimeSkip when he appears to Cade as a Force ghost.

** In ''Literature/TheTwistedTaleOfTikiIsland'', you and your cousin Gina ends up being pursued by several GhostPirate skeletons. You might lose Gina at one point, and depending on your choices, you end up being trapped by a ghostly skeleton... wearing Gina's swimsuit. You then realize there's no escape, she's dead, and your next.
** Several bad endings in ''Literature/CheckoutTimeAtTheDeadEndHotel'', after you chose to pull a LetsSplitUpGang in Hotel Morte to find Drew Mortgarth, have you rendezvous with your friends, only to realize they're dead and are now among the hotel's resident ghosts, and they want you to join them. In one of the bad endings its your friend's mother who is revealed to be a ghost.

* OlderThanFeudalism: In ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', Odysseus is surprised to find his mother Anticlea in the Underworld, and we learn that she (depending on the source) died of grief or committed suicide during the many years of his absence.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'': Early on Jonathan and Charlotte meet a ghost who calls himself Wind. Later on, though, Wind reveals himself to be the ghost of [[spoiler:Eric Lecarde, one of the protagonists of ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines Bloodlines]]'' and a friend of Jonathan's father John Morris. In the interim Eric was killed by Brauner but managed to bind his own spirit to Dracula's Castle.]]
* There are several characters in VideoGame/FinalFantasyX who become Unsent (the spirit of a person who wasn't laid to rest by a Summoner who can still interact with the world and doesn't actually look or act any different, but may degenerate into a fiend if left to fester) along the course of the game ([[spoiler:Seymour, repeatedly]]) or were Unsent all along ([[spoiler:Auron, Maechen]]). And then there's [[spoiler:Tidus and Jecht]], who were more or less sentient physical dreams.

--> '''Dr. Raygar:''' But, Admiral Kaz... I ''didn't'' survive my mission.

* Subverted for surrealism in ''Webcomic/PicturesForSadChildren''. In one comic, Gary finds his father's ghost in his apartment, then angrily calls his mom to ask why nobody told him his father died. Mom has no idea what he's talking about, and she puts Dad--still very much alive--to talk on the phone with Gary. Yet the ghost is still definitely haunting Gary's place. The characters never figure out how this is happening.

** "Ghost, Interrupted" features a flashback to a younger Melinda visiting her grandmother, who has the same gift as her, in a nursing home. When Melinda asks her how she knows the difference between a ghost and a live person, Mary Ann says she'll be able to feel what a ghost is feeling when she looks at one. Melinda then realizes she can feel what her grandmother is feeling, and runs to her room to find her dead.

* ''Series/GhostWhisperer'': The two-part season one finale has a plane crashing in Grandview. The audience is at first led to believe that one of the victims of the crash is Andrea's brother, but it turns out Andrea herself died in the crash. The season 2 premiere is her final appearance on the show.