History Main / TragicIntangibility

* Just before the final battle of the ''VideoGame/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' game, [[spoiler:the ghost of Star-Lord's ex emphasizes the point that she isn't real by letting Peter's hand pass through hers.]]

* The character is in love with or very attached to one of the above.

Related to SenseLossSadness, KissMeImVirtual, SupernaturalAngst, YouCanSeeMe, and often connected with tropes from the HauntedIndex. Happy stories dealing with this trope generally end with a FirstTimeFeeling scene. It is a sad, but not uncommon element in stories that go ToHellAndBack. See also SeparatedByTheWall and WindowLove, where more literal barriers are used to show a character's alienation.

Related to SenseLossSadness, KissMeImVirtual, YouCanSeeMe, and often connected with tropes from the HauntedIndex. Happy stories dealing with this trope generally end with a FirstTimeFeeling scene. It is a sad, but not uncommon element in stories that go ToHellAndBack. See also SeparatedByTheWall and WindowLove, where more literal barriers are used to show a character's alienation.

Related to SenseLossSadness, YouCanSeeMe, and often connected with tropes from the HauntedIndex. Happy stories dealing with this trope generally end with a FirstTimeFeeling scene. It is a sad, but not uncommon element in stories that go ToHellAndBack. See also SeparatedByTheWall and WindowLove, where more literal barriers are used to show a character's alienation.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/BladeRunner2049 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/k_cant_feel_joi.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"What's it like to hold the hand of someone you love?"]]

!Examples

[[folder:Fanfic]]

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'': Ghost got her intangibility powers as a young girl from the quantum energy accident that killed her parents. This means that when a group of firefighters found her among the wreckage, one of them tried to comfort her with a hug, only for his arms to phase right through her.

* ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': 

* In ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', Loki attempts to hold his mother's hand, only for it to pass through her and reveal to the audience that she was an illusion. This undermines her attempts to console Loki and assure him that he isn't alone.

-->'''Rimmer''': Being a hologram is fine, Lister. I still have the same drives, the same feelings, the same emotions, but I can't ''touch'' anything. Never again will I be able to brush a rose against my cheek, cradle a laughing child, or interfere with a woman sexually.
-->'''Lister''': Rimmer, you never used to do any of those things anyway!
-->'''Rimmer''': But I would have done one day, murderer!

[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]

[[folder:Video Game]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* [[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-085]] is a drawing of a young woman on a sheet of paper who can move around on the sheet and speak to people. However, as a two-dimensional drawing, she cannot physically interact with anyone else, and this has caused her to become depressed.

* WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond: An unscrupulous reporter named Ian Peek stole a device that gave him the ability to activate [[IntangibleMan this power]] at will, so he could spy on anyone he pleased and [[CutLexLuthorACheck made a fortune as a celebrity gossip anchor]]. In the end, he subverted the trend and did suffer the KarmicDeath (he not only stole the device, but killed the inventor with a fire he set to cover his tracks). Just a day or so before revealing the identity of Batman, he found that abusing the device would make him permanently intangible. Despite begging [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce]] to help him with the promise of retracting his piece, Bruce [[PragmaticHero coldly walks away]] triggering a fight scene with the then-Batman, until Peek permanently turned intangible and fell through each individual floor of the building he's in, then falling through the basement into the ground, as he [[LaughingMad laughed helplessly]]. Terry asked what was going to happen to Ian, and Bruce remarks that he was likely going to [[AndIMustScream keep falling until he hit the core of the Earth]]. Cue BondOneLiner, and [[StatusQuoIsGod everyone moves on]].

* In episode 2 of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Clark is given an artifact that projects a pre-recorded message in his mind from his deceased parents from Krypton, Jor-El and Lara-El, who appear as holograms. After telling Clark about his true origins, Lara-El tells Clark they love him, always, while extending her hand towards him. Clark tries to take it, his hand phases through hers, and the message ends.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' [[spoiler:Tidus]] starts to fade away and [[spoiler:Yuna]] desperately runs to him to embrace him, only to go straight through him and fall down. After she tells him [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove she loves him]], [[spoiler:Tidus]] puts his arms around her to hug her as best he can given they can't physically touch anymore.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' also features this during the ''Shadowbringers'' expansion, as [[spoiler: the shade of Ardbert cannot interact with the world around him, apart from speaking to the Warrior of Light. Tragically exemplified when he attempts to warn and rescue two Crystarium soldiers from an incoming Sin Eater, begging for this to "please work" before he passes straight through the creature, his axe finding no purchase.]]
* ''VideoGame/Halo4'' reveals that Cortana has always wanted to touch Master Chief, but couldn't because of her nature as a holographic AI. [[spoiler:When she finally can touch him, she dies moments later.]]

* WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond: An unscrupulous reporter named Ian Peek stole a device that gave him the ability to activate [[IntangibleMan this power]] at will, so he could spy on anyone he pleased and [[CutACheckForLexLuthor made a fortune as a celebrity gossip anchor]]. In the end, he subverted the trend and did suffer the KarmicDeath (he not only stole the device, but killed the inventor with a fire he set to cover his tracks). Just a day or so before revealing the identity of Batman, he found that abusing the device would make him permanently intangible. Despite begging [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce]] to help him with the promise of retracting his piece, Bruce [[PragmaticHero coldly walks away]] triggering a fight scene with the then-Batman, until Peek permanently turned intangible and fell through each individual floor of the building he's in, then falling through the basement into the ground, as he [[LaughingMad laughed helplessly]]. Terry asked what was going to happen to Ian, and Bruce remarks that he was likely going to [[AndIMustScream keep falling until he hit the core of the Earth]]. Cue BondOneLiner, and [[StatusQuoIsGod everyone moves on]].

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': Having left their bodies behind, all the dead that Dante meets on his journey are just shadows of their former selves that don't breathe, block light, or affect physical matter. This leads to a sad incident when Dante tries to hug his recently deceased friend, Casella, three different times only for his hands to pass through his friend's illusory back.
* In ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce'', the souls of {{Hell}} are so insubstantial that even the blades of grass in {{Heaven}} pass through their form. We see several ghosts fail to lift apples, dawdle on one side of the river they can't swim in, and slowly realize that each time they feel excruciating pain whenever anything passes through them, including light.
* In the fourth book of ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', Nico di Angelo manages to bring back the ghost of a departed loved one, only to find that their body is made of mist that dissipates as soon as it nears living skin. Even as the ghost tries to console him in his grief, it can't even put a hand on his shoulder.
[[/folder]]

* In one episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' features Georgi and Ensign Ro being turned invisible and intangible by a transporter accident, making it impossible for them to interact with their friends and co-workers as they begin to mourn them. The whole incident causes Ro a bit of religious crisis since she assumes their status is the first stage of passing into the afterlife.

Some reasons for the intangibilty may be:

* The character not be "real," whether they are a hologram, AstralProjection, hallucination, or something even stranger.

* ComicBook/{{Deadman}}'s first appearances would often have him try to touch something, pass through it, and rant aloud about how killer has taken everything from him. In the first issue it's just a mouse, but in the second issue, he fails to wipe a tear from his lover's face and despairs.

* In issue 9 and 10 of the ComicBook/New52 ComicBook/{{Superman}}, the villain Anguish reveals she developed her {{Intangibility}} as a response to her abusive father. She explains that she can't feel anything and is so afraid of being hurt that she refuses Superman's offer to help her become fully solid again.

* In ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce'', the souls of {{Hell}} are so insubstantial that even the blades of grass in {{Heaven}} pass through their form. We see several ghosts fail to lift apples, dawdle on one side of the river they can't swim in, and slowly realize that each time they they feel excruciating pain whenever anything passes through them, including light.

* A huge part of the plot of ''Anime/RideYourWave'' is that since Minato can only appear in watery reflections, he can't do anything a real boyfriend can. So when Hinako needs someone to help her up whens he falls or wants someone to hug her, he can't do anything for her. Hinako refuses to admit this bothers her, but Minato wants better for her and begins to doubt if he's helping her move on.

* In ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', Loki attempts to hold his mother's hand, only for it to pass through her and reveal to the audience that she was an illusion. This undermines her attempts to console Loki and assure that he isn't alone.

-->'''Rimmer''': Being a hologram is fine, Lister. I still have the same drives, the same feelings, the same emotions, but I can't ''touch'' anything.Never again will I be able to brush a rose against my cheek, cradle a laughing child, or interfere with a woman sexually.

* In one episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' features Georgi and Ensign Ro being turned invisible and intangible by a transporter accident, making it impossible for them to interact with their friends and co-workers as they begin to mourn them. The whole incident causes Ro a bit of religious crisis, since she assumes their status is the first stage of passing into the afterlife.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Near the end of "Yesterday's Lie", [[spoiler:Luz communicates with her mother inside a portal door by projecting herself on a variety of reflective surfaces, including as a hologram-like projection from a car's headlights in the rain. The tragedy comes from the fact that this will be the last time they'll speak to each other for quite awhile, made worse by the fact that Camila is deeply hurt because her daughter actually ''chose'' to run away and stay in the Demon Realm than live with her]].

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': One of the many things that the hologram Rimmer angsts about is the fact that he is initially a soft light hologram and can?t touch as a result. As such, when he does regain it, he is shown to be quite happy about it. Put best in the first episode:

* In the fourth book of ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', Nico di Angelo manages to bring back the ghost of a departed loved one, only to find that their body is made of mist that disapates as soon as it nears living skin. Even as the ghost tries to console him in his grief, it can't even put a hand on his shoulder.

[[folder:Fanfic]]
* Discussed in the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' fanfic ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} Back to the Future]]''. Tom wasn't literally intangible, but he compares his time as a Controller to being a ghost, ever-present but [[AndIMustScream unable to interact with anything or anyone.]]
[[/folder]]