History Main / GhostShipping

Ghost Shipping is what happens when fans of a work {{Ship|ping}} an active character with a {{canon}}ically dead character. By dead, we mean ''really'' dead, not OnlyMostlyDead or TheUndead.

* ''Manga/YuGiOh'': Any shipping of Priest Seto and Kisara after the latter's HeroicSacrifice. (Kisara is the spirit who made the Blue Eyes White Dragon) This includes most forms of Seto Kaiba/ Kisara, unless it's presented as a ReincarnationRomance instead.

* In the second ''Videogame/DarkParables'' game, [[spoiler:the Frog Prince is immortal and eternally grieving for his lost brides, most particularly his first wife Ivy.]]

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[[quoteright:340:[[Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gunnerkrigg_shipping_4655.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:340:He thinks she's his soulmate.\\
She thinks he's a soul and her mate.]]
[-[[caption-width-right:340:Image courtesy of [[http://tea-san.deviantart.com/art/Christmas-at-Gunnerkrigg-Court-45065419 tea-san.]]]]-]

Ghost Shipping is what happens when a character is put into a relationship with a member of the undead. This can happen in either {{canon}} or {{fanon}}. Bonus points if it involves a LoveTriangle with a second human (often in a MuggleAndMagicalLoveTriangle scenario). Due to the nature of the relationship, it will usually end with a BittersweetEnding where the dead side decides, "IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy" and will move on... or occasionally a BittersweetEnding where the living side stops living, and the two can be TogetherInDeath.

While it is technically Necrophilia, being in a relationship with the undead is often times seen as less squicky due to the romantic intentions of those involved. It only really gets horrid if one side is [[ILoveTheDead sharing their love with an actual corpse]].

It should be noted that this trope is about relationships where both the dead and the living know the circumstances of their relationship.

Often involves a CuteGhostGirl.

Related to ResurrectedRomance. Subtrope of InterspeciesRomance and BoyMeetsGhoul, sort of...ish. Compare {{Necromantic}}, ALoveToDismember, and NonhumanLoverReveal, where the mortalness of one side of the equation becomes apparent after the fact.

Not to be confused with GhostShip; those are mysteriously abandoned vessels.

!!Examples

* Sayo shipped with Negi in ''MahouSenseiNegima''.
** KenAkamatsu said his intention with her was "Why does she have to be dead?" and not "Who cares..."
** Sayo also gets shipped with [[HeterosexualLifePartners Asakura]], since they make up a small CastHerd.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' The Kurosaki children are the offspring of a shinigami and a human. Since shinigami are either born ghosts or become ghosts after dying in the living world, and dwell in the [[SpiritWorld Soul Society]] as a result, that makes the Kurosaki children the offspring of this trope, which occurred when the shinigami parent decided to shack up in the living world for [[MysteriousPast unknown reasons]].
* Gosunkugi and that one ghost girl are pretty common in ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma]]'' fanfiction.
* ''MyLovelyGhostKana'' is about a poor down-on-his-luck guy moving into an apartment haunted by Kana, the ghost of a girl who gruesomely killed herself. When the UnluckyEverydude protagonist is considering suicide, she talks him out of it with her unique perspective on the matter. They end up falling in love, and both of their situations improve dramatically.
* Kikyo from InuYasha is this, which brings up a fun love triangle. Especially since at the other end of the triangle is [[ReincarnationRomance her own time-traveling reincarnation]]. Yep, [[CharacterTitle InuYasha]] is canonically shipped with two characters who are technically the same person.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'' is full of this:
** For starters, Yami is technically a ghost, so ''any'' shipping involving him counts, including the canon[[TwoPersonLoveTriangle ish]] Yami/Tea
** Then there's the outright canon pairing of [[{{Necromantic}} Pegasus]] and his dead wife Cecelia, who is able to see a vision of his wife that [[LoveMakesYouEvil motivates him to do anything to restore her to life.]] [[{{SparedByTheAdaptation}} In the manga,]] they end as TogetherInDeath.
** Any shipping of Priest Seto and Kisara after the latter's HeroicSacrifice. (Considering she is some sort of spiritual guardian for him after death, and that the Blue Eyes White Dragon is technically ''her mind,'' it's a pairing that's pretty much canon). This includes most forms of Seto Kaiba/ Kisara, unless it's presented as a ReincarnationRomance instead.
** Take any of the numerous characters who are technically dead (Yami Bakura, Shadi, Noah, Chris, Ironheart, Mana, Mahad, etc.) and mix in ''Anime/YuGiOh'''s notoriously rabid shipping. Stir once.
* ''{{Maburaho}}'': Being killed doesn't stop [[spoiler:Kazuki]] from having a harem.
* ''Manga/TasogareOtomeXAmnesia'' about the mystery of the ghost of the old school building, who takes a liking to the one guy who can see and touch her.
* This is the plot of ''LightNovel/GinbanKaleidoscope''.

[[folder:Film]]
* Pretty much the whole point of Steve Guttenberg/Daryl Hannah movie ''High Spirits''.
* The film ''Film/{{Ghost}}'' features a romance between a living woman and her dead boyfriend.
* There is the classic 1947 film ''[[TheGhostAndMrsMuir The Ghost and Mrs. Muir]]'' (not so much on the TV show), which does indeed involve a love triangle ''and'' the ghost [[IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy leaving his beloved to the other man]] [[spoiler: ... who A) is already married and B) is a HandsomeLech who has had numerous affairs already. All ends happily, though.]]
* ''TrulyMadlyDeeply'' is another example.
* ''ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' part 3 has a romance between a boy and his zombified girlfriend.
* ''Zombie Honeymoon''.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Boyfriend%27s_Back_(film) My Boyfriend's Back]]'' is about a boy who is killed, and just before he dies the girl he's in love with tells him that she'd go on a date with him if he recovered. So he comes back as a zombie in order to get that date.
* In ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'' this is the plot, though it becoming a romance instead of [[AllLoveIsUnrequited a misunderstanding]] takes most of the movie.
* In ''Film/{{Casper}}'', the title character falls for the young Kat Harvey, the daughter of a ghost shrink. Friendly Ghost falling in love? It's as adorable as it sounds.
* ''Film/{{Nightbreed}}'' by Creator/CliveBarker has the main character Boone/Cabal returning from the dead after being shot repeatedly by police and later continuing his romance with his girlfriend.
* The [[FanPreferredCouple most popular ship]] in the WesternAnimation/ParaNorman fandom is likely [[ISeeDeadPeople Norman]] and [[spoiler: [[CuteGhostGirl Aggie]]. They're also [[IncestYayShipping related]], albeit [[Really700YearsOld very distantly]].]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Zombie Lover'' in the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series.
* Let's not forget ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', although not so much anymore after [[spoiler: Bella became a vampire.]]
* Creator/CJCherryh's Rusalka in which Pyetr, one of the two main characters falls in love with Eveshka, a Rusalka and the the title character. A rusalka is the ghost of a drowned woman that devours human life to remain in the world. And its mutual. [[spoiler: she is brought back from the dead at the end of the book though]] and in the third book in the trilogy his daughter Ilyanna, [[spoiler: her mother's Eveshka,]] is caught in a love triangle between a ghost she grew up knowing [[spoiler: he also happens to be the man who murdered her mother, having been redeemed during the second book,]] and a boy she rescues from drowning. [[spoiler: In the end she gets both of them due to Kavi,(the ghost) possessing the boy to save his life, and then due to complicated magical circumstances becoming unable to leave him. They manage well enough and are both so smitten with her that everyone comes out happy in the end. ]] It's the strangest resolution to a love triangle that I've ever seen.
* In ''Literature/LabyrinthsOfEcho'', TheAce of the series once mentioned that for most people the touch of a ghost is very unpleasant, but he must disagree and offhandedly added "if I'll ever want to vary my life with a dalliance, living lasses have no chance". That's from a wizard who once enchanted a deck of cards so that ghosts can handle it without problems and non-enspelled humans can't touch it. [[ForScience Just to see if he can]] turn into a "ghost" a thing that never lived to begin with.
* There was this Canadian book where the protagonist fell in love with a boy during her vacation in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and it wasn't until the end of the book that she realized he was actually a ghost. It's called Gravesavers.
* Inverted in the ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' novel ''Bearing an Hourglass'' Orlene, a beautiful and intelligent woman is technically married to a ghost named Gawain. But, the ghost needs to carry on his family line. So, the ghost tries constantly to set her up with suitors, to produce the heir he needs so he can pass on. However, she has never seen and cannot see Gawain.
* This happens with the main character and a ghost named Jesse in ''Literature/TheMediator'' series.
* In Maggie Furey's Aurian books, [[spoiler: Aurian's lover]] dies, but spends the rest of the series jumping in and out of death trying to protect and help her, despite the fact that she's found a new love by then. Death is understandably not very happy about this, and tries to claim all three of them.
* ''Cabal'' by Clive Barker, the book that the film Nightbreed was based on. The book features a graphic scene between the corpse of the protaganist Boone/Cabal and his girlfriend.
* The short story "Tomorrow's Ghost" by R. Chetwynd-Hayes is based around a romance between a Regency-era woman and a modern-day (1980s) man, each of whom believes the other to be a ghost. It turns out that [[spoiler:in a time paradox, back in the woman's own day, she killed herself because she could not be with the man from the future and was being forced into a marriage with someone else - thus is a ghost in the present.]]
* An ''attempt'' at this kicks off the plot of ''The Ghost Bride'' by Malaysian author Yangsze Choo. A recently dead young man wants to marry the protagonist, so he haunts his mother into proposing a ghost bride deal. (This is an actual tradition that was once observed, though not often. The basic idea was that marriage would put a troublesome ghost to rest ) The protagonist, however, is vehemently opposed to marrying him, both because he's dead and because he's kind of a JerkAss, so while he tries to court her and sets up an engagement dinner , they don't actually get married.
* ''The Haunted Bookshop Mysteries'' by Alice Kimberly features this on the side. Penelope owns a bookshop haunted by Jack, a 1940's detective, who was killed on the premeises way back when. Together, [[TheyFightCrime they solve murders]] and have... ''[[UnresolvedSexualTension something]]'' going on between them.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Jim/Sam and Melinda in ''{{Ghost Whisperer}}''.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' fandom appears to be rife with this.
* ''GreysAnatomy'', infamously.
* Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}} and Series/{{Angel}}. Or Buffy & Spike. Or Angel & Cordelia. Or Cordelia & "Phantom Dennis," the ghost who haunts her apartment.
** Vampires are ''supposed to'' have a decadently sexual air about them, at least from some point of the legend's evolution. TheVamp, FemmeFatalons, and so on. Ghosts ''aren't''.
* Quite a literal example with Annie/Mitchell from ''Series/BeingHuman'' (original series): Mitchell is a vampire, while Annie is actually a ghost.
** The third season gives us [[spoiler: Pearl and Leo, who confess their love for one another just in time for Leo to die. He and Pearl go into the afterlife together, not long after.]]
* In ''TheVampireDiaries'' [[spoiler: Jeremy and Anna. To be fair, they were dating before she died. Well, she was already a vampire.]]
* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse'' [[spoiler: Tate and Violet. Tate is a ghost and Violet is alive...until she commits suicide and ends up a ghost as well]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:MMORPGs]]
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has [[HeterosexualLifePartners Thassarian/Koltira]] shippers (admittedly atypical in that ''both'' parties are undead), and a canonical example in Marcus/Ah'tusa.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Escape Club had a song called "I'll Be There" about a ghost who was haunting the one he loved.
--> ''Don't be afraid, oh my love
--> I'll be watching you from above
--> And I'd give all the world tonight,
--> to be with you
--> Because I'm on your side,
--> And I still care
--> I may have died,
--> but I've gone nowhere
--> Just think of me,
--> And I'll be there.''
* The song "Mi novio es un zombi" ("My boyfriend is a zombie") by Alaska y Dinarama.
* EmilieAutumn's "Ghost" is about a woman who is in a courtly romance with a ghost, and ponders the full effects and consequences of their relationship.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' support more ways to interact with non-corporeals, and even without them...
** ''[[http://ww2.wizards.com/books/mirrorstone/Article.aspx?doc=fr_spinayarn2005 The Lady of the Mists]]'' reminds us: "Prestidigitation [[PowerPerversionPotential is a spell with many uses]]."
* Ghosts in ''TabletopGame/FengShui'' are based on the seductive ghosts of Hong Kong cinema. They're quite prone to falling in love with mortals.
* Both [[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness old]] and [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness new]] Worlds of Darkness support this: ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'', ''TabletopGame/{{Orpheus}}'', ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' and ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* ''{{Ruddigore}}'': Dame Hanna and Roderick end up together, although Roderick is (arguably) a ghost.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Happens with Mia/Godot (and to a lesser extent other dead/alive pairings) in ''Franchise/AceAttorney''. The justification is that spirit mediums like Maya and Pearl can channel the souls of the dead, to the point of taking on their physical forms. [[PowerPerversionPotential And then just about anything could happen.]]
* An odd one appears in the internet FlashGame ''GuardianRock'' in which the titular rock is said to hook up with a hot spirit rock chick and they live together with numerous flower filled baths and occasional quarreling for the rest of their eternal lives.
* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon Project Origin]]'' has a rather horrific, brutal, and ''[[RapeAsDrama deeply disturbing]]'' example of this between Alma and Beckett.
* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Aerith]] still gets shipped with Cloud, despite the fact that Sephiroth killed her.
* RealityWarper Yukari and CuteGhostGirl Yuyuko from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is one of the more common ships in the series. Yuyuko and her bodyguard Youmu also counts, since Youmu is [[HalfHumanHybrid half-ghost]].
* In the second ''Videogame/DarkParables'' game, [[spoiler:the Frog Prince is immortal and eternally grieving for his lost brides, most particularly his first wife Ivy.]]
* In ''TheSims3'', ghosts can be interacted with, invited to live with a family, and, yes, can produce ghost children with living Sims.
* Pursuing [[spoiler: Nageki Fujishiro]] in ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' ends with [[spoiler: Nageki recovering from his GhostAmnesia and departing for the afterlife, with a heartrending apology to the heroine]].
** In the "Bad Boys Love" route of the full version, [[spoiler: the heroine is killed and her brain transplanted into a robot; the route ends with Ryouta choosing to remain with her until she can be restored]].
* [[MetalGearSolid3 The Joy/The Sorrow.]] Canonically lovers. [[spoiler: Eventually TogetherInDeath.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/TooMuchInformation''. Ace (who is also TheAce) has a lot of girls gunning for him, but the first one who actually gets with him is noncorporeal. The details of how, exactly, it works, is left mostly to imagination, with only the comment of "It's... messy."
* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', Mort (a ghost) has a barely-concealed crush on Antimony (still alive). She does not reciprocate.
* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'' fans are quick to point out the potential of a romantic relationship between Sette and her undead bodyguard Duane, or at least a [[ParentalSubstitute father]]/[[BrattyTeenageDaughter daughter]] one.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Almost any pairing with [[spoiler: Aradia]] post mortem is this trope, with the canon example of [[spoiler: Aradia]]/Equius.
* ''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName'': Hanna/Zombie has a large fanbase, possibly due to the fact that the author seems to endorse it herself.
* Tsukiko in ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is attracted to the undead in general, and specifically the lich Xykon. He's "not one of those disgusting biophiliacs". As she phrased her ideas ([[spoiler:[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0830.html just before it ended bad]]]])--
-->'''Tsukiko''': And one night, as we're scribing spells by candlelight, his bony hand will brush against my--\\
'''Redcloak''': [[{{Squick}} Not that interrupting that train of thought wouldn't be enough reason for me to speak]]--
** In fact, this issue is the only thing [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0833.html capable of disturbing Xykon himself]].
* Kev of ''Webcomic/AliceAndKev'' encounters a woman who doesn't seem to mind that he's a deranged, lecherous old hobo, and even responds favorably to his flirting. [[BittersweetEnding She vanishes when the sun comes up.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''. As Danny is half-ghost, any ship with him (or Vlad or any of the other ghost/humans) is this.
* Finn-[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Marceline]] shippers in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' run into this occasionally in their mini ShipToShipCombat with Finn-Bubblegum shippers. While Marceline is a vampire, and at the very most, also a HalfHumanHybrid, Princess Bubblegum is also a hybrid...of a human being and bubblegum. Don't worry, Bubblegum [[AllThereInTheManual is actually]] a [[ILoveNuclearPower radioactive]] fusion of woman and bubblegum.
** There's also the [[LesYayShipping Bubblegum and Marceline ship.]]
* In the "Proposition Infinity" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' one of the couples used to demonstrate how accepting 31st century society is are a ghost and a [[BestialityIsDepraved horse]].
[[/folder]]

* The [[FanPreferredCouple most popular ship]] in the WesternAnimation/ParaNorman fandom is likely Norman and [[spoiler: [[CuteGhostGirl Aggie]]. They're also [[IncestYayShipping related]], albeit [[Really700YearsOld very distantly]].]]

** It's unclear whether he is a dead person or a spirit who was never alive and just happens to appear like a traditional BedsheetGhost, though.

* C.J. Cherryh's Rusalka in which Pyetr, one of the two main characters falls in love with Eveshka, a Rusalka which is the ghost of a drowned woman that devours human life to remain in the world. and its mutual [[spoiler: she is brought back from the dead at the end of the book though]] and in the third book in the trilogy his daughter Ilyanna [[spoiler: her mother's Eveshka]] is caught in a love triangle between a ghost she grew up knowing and a boy she rescues from drowning. [[spoiler: In the end she gets both of them due to Kavi,(the ghost) possessing the boy to save his life, and then due to complicated magical circumstances becoming unable to leave him. They manage well enough and are both so smitten with her that everyone comes out happy in the end. ]] It's the strangest resolution to a love triangle that I've ever seen.

* The hero and the title character of Creator/CJCherryh's ''Rusalka''. Two books later, [[spoiler:their daughter]] falls in love with the ghost of the man who murdered her mother.

* ''TooMuchInformation''. Ace (who is also TheAce) has a lot of girls gunning for him, but the first one who actually gets with him is noncorporeal. The details of how, exactly, it works, is left mostly to imagination, with only the comment of "It's... messy."

* ''{{Unsounded}}'' fans are quick to point out the potential of a romantic relationship between Sette and her undead bodyguard Duane, or at least a [[ParentalSubstitute father]]/[[BrattyTeenageDaughter daughter]] one.
* Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}: Almost any pairing with [[spoiler: Aradia]] post mortem is this trope, with the canon example of [[spoiler: Aradia]]/Equius.
* HannaIsNotABoysName: Hanna/Zombie has a large fanbase, possibly due to the fact that the author seems to endorse it herself.

* Happens with Mia/Godot (and to a lesser extent other dead/alive pairings) in ''AceAttorney''. The justification is that spirit mediums like Maya and Pearl can channel the souls of the dead, to the point of taking on their physical forms. [[PowerPerversionPotential And then just about anything could happen.]]

* RealityWarper Yukari and CuteGhostGirl Yuyuko from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is one of the more common ships in the series. Yuyuko and her bodyguard Youmu also half counts, since Youmu is [[HalfHumanHybrid half-ghost]]. No, the fandom has no idea how that happened either. This trope being taken to its logical extreme, perhaps?
** In ''Touhou'', there are ghosts are just as corporeal as humans and youkai (Yuyuko is a kind of ghost called a "bourei"), and there seem to be others which simply resemble a hitodama-- a ball with a tail.

* ''Film/{{Nightbreed}}'' by CliveBarker has the main character Boone/Cabal returning from the dead after being shot repeatedly by police and later continuing his romance with his girlfriend.

* This is the plot of ''Ginban Kaleidoscope''.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has [[HeterosexualLifePartners Thassarian/Koltira]] shippers, and a canonical example in Marcus/Ah'tusa.

[[/folder]]

* ''DannyPhantom''. As Danny is half-ghost, pretty much any ship with him (or Vlad or any of the other ghost/humans) is this.
* Finn-[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Marceline]] shippers in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' run into this occasionally in their mini ShipToShipCombat with Finn-Bubblegum shippers. Of course, while Marceline is a vampire, and at the very most, also a HalfHumanHybrid, Princess Bubblegum is also a hybrid...of a human being and bubblegum. Don't worry, Bubblegum [[AllThereInTheManual is actually]] a [[ILoveNuclearPower radioactive]] fusion of woman and bubblegum.

* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'' [[spoiler: Tate and Violet. Tate is a ghost and Violet is alive...until she commits suicide and ends up a ghost as well]].

* ''[[{{FEAR}} Project Origin]]'' has a rather horrific, brutal, and ''[[RapeAsDrama deeply disturbing]]'' example of this between Alma and Beckett.

* [[FinalFantasyVII Aerith]] still gets shipped with Cloud, despite the fact that Sephiroth killed her.

** Any shipping of Priest Seto and [[WhiteHairedPrettyGirl Kisara]] after the latter's HeroicSacrifice. (Considering she is some sort of spiritual guardian for him after death, and that the Blue Eyes White Dragon is technically ''her mind,'' it's a pairing that's pretty much canon). This includes most forms of Seto Kaiba/ Kisara, unless it's presented as a ReincarnationRomance instead.

* Kev of ''AliceAndKev'' encounters a woman who doesn't seem to mind that he's a deranged, lecherous old hobo, and even responds favorably to his flirting. [[BittersweetEnding She vanishes when the sun comes up.]]

** In ''Touhou'', ghosts are apparently just as corporeal as humans and youkai. Being dead just isn't that important a distinction in Gensokyo.