History Main / GhostlyGoals

* Ghosts in ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' (cosmic-level spoilers) [[spoiler: come in two basic varieties: "revenants", whose method of haunting is determined by what they held important in their life (e.g., ghouls are ghosts of people obsessed with death, and appear near those who are about to die) and "demons", who seek to possess people in order to experience life again and/or take care of unfinished business.]]

* The first option is the entire premise behind ''Film/{{Ghost}}''.

* The boy's [[InvisibleToNormals "imaginary friend"]] in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaoVpVXcZsA Missing Halloween]]'' is revealed to be a Type A in the end. [[AdultFear She was a little girl who died alone in the middle of a forest after her leg got caught in a bear trap]], and all she wanted was for someone to find her body.

** Sophrosyne shows up at random in Kholusia, reviving sin eaters that have been slain. [[spoiler:In life she was Lamitt, a dwarf who left her village to learn how to cure a deadly disease, succeeding with ancient Ronkan magic [[DudeWheresMyRespect only to be immediately banished from the village in question]] because she took off her helmet in the course of her adventure, which was against the village's rules; those dwarves she cured, in protest, decided to exile themselves as well, since they'd all taken off their helmets at some point or another while locked up in a cave to keep the disease from spreading - the sin eaters she now revives as a Cardinal Virtue are those [[WasOnceAMan who had once been the other dwarves she'd saved]].]]

* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfThe Dark'' featured this a few times.

* Subverted in ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura''. [[spoiler: Touya finds a girl who looks like Sakura and is stirring mischief around. He believes at first that it's Sakura, yet soon he realises with his PsychicPowers that she ain't Sakura... and then he thinks it's a ghost who has taken a human form and goes along with whatever plan she has as he wants he to fulfill this. She's actually a Clow Card who's doing mischief to pin it on the real Sakura, but once Touya confronts her and [[ArmorPiercingQuestion asks her]] what are her Ghostly Goals (which unmasks her to him), [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she shows remorse]] and allows herself to be sealed by Sakura.]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWomanBlackAndGold'': "Beyond the Horizon" has Diana helping lay to rest the ghost of a young girl who died in the late-1880s. She and her siblings had been held hostage on the ship and had gradually died off while she desperately tried to find a way back home.

* In ''Film/{{Slaxx}}'', the titular pair of [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever killer jeans]] turns out to be [[spoiler:possessed by the ghost of a 13-year-old Indian farm laborer named Keerat, who died in a workplace accident. Keerat, who blames Western consumerism for enabling the [[NoOSHACompliance horrific labor practices]] of [[PeaceAndLoveIncorporated Canadian Cotton Clothiers]] that got her killed, wants justice for her death and to expose to the world how she died, specifically telling her story to Libby and Shruti so that they will go public with it. When [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Craig]] tries to cover it up, to the point of killing Shruti to silence her and trying to do the same to Libby, Keerat singles him out for [[DevouredByTheHorde the most horrific death in the film]].]]

* In ''Film/{{Slaxx}}'', the titular pair of [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever killer jeans]] turns out to be [[spoiler:possessed by the ghost of a 13-year-old Indian farm laborer named Keerat, who died in a workplace accident. Keerat, who blames Western consumerism for enabling the [[NoOSHACompliance horrific labor practices]] of [[PeaceAndLoveIncorporated Canadian Cotton Clothiers]] that got her killed, wants justice for her death and to expose to the world how she died, specifically telling her story to Libby and Shruti so that they will go public with it. When [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Craig]] tries to cover it up to the point of killing Shruti to silence her and trying to do the same to Libby, Keerat singles him out for [[DevouredByTheHorde the most horrific death in the film]].]]

* In ''Film/{{Slaxx}}'', the titular pair of [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever killer jeans]] turn out to be [[spoiler:possessed by the ghost of a 13-year-old Indian farm laborer named Keerat, who died in a workplace accident. Keerat wants justice for her death and to expose the [[NoOSHACompliance horrific labor practices]] of [[PeaceAndLoveIncorporated Canadian Cotton Clothiers]], specifically telling her story to Libby and Shruti so that they will go public with it.]]

* ''Literature/GhostsOfTheTitanic'': When [[TheProtagonist Kevin Messenger]] and his family come to the Seaton Estate at Shearwater Point in UsefulNotes/NovaScotia, Kevin starts seeing a Type A ghost who constantly asks "Where's Michael?", "What has become of my precious boy?", "Does he weep for me in the green-black deep?", "Does he walk on land, searching for me?", "How will he know me?", and says "Well may you sleep, robber of the dead, thief of a lost boy's past...". Said ghost haunted Angus Seaton since he took the purse of a dead woman from the Titanic. Said ghost then took to haunting Kevin, and only Kevin, in the present. [[spoiler:Turns out, the ghost is a woman named Annie [=McConnell=], who was the mother of a baby named Michael. When the Titanic sunk, the two got separated, and Annie drowned not knowing if Michael survived or not. Kevin helps her figure out that Michael survived and was adopted by the Messenger family, and grew up to be the father of Kevin's father. The haunting stops once Kevin figures all of it out.]]

* The children's ghosts in ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' are trying to avenge their death by the Purple Man...though they'll kill any other night guard that's working at the pizzerias in the mean time. [[spoiler: The fifth night mini-game in [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3 3]] shows they they were able to extract revenge on their true killer, and thus move on to the afterlife. Though by doing this, they ironically make their murderer ''[[NotSoDifferent the exact same thing they were.]]'']]

* ''Literature/ReturnOfTheLiving'': All ghosts on Earth dutifully follow what they refer to as their personal "definitions" as they haunt a place of their choosing, and must stick to it lest they lose their form and become a formless, identityless "wisp" in a sort of FinalDeath.

[[folder:Fanworks]]

[[folder:Film]]

* Nicely inverted in ''Film/GhostTown''. Ghosts think they're still hanging around because they have unfinished business... except the Greg Kinnear character who has no idea what's keeping him tied down. Turns out it's not the ''ghosts'' who have trouble letting go, it's the people they left behind. Which, if you think about it, rings very true.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' (3.5) held a campaign module called GhostWalk which allowed players to return as ghosts in the City of Manifest that, depending on the way they died, gain different powers and abilities.

*** And then there is ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}''. All ghosts in ''Ravenloft'' should be constructed as unique individuals who cannot be put to rest until their goals or reasons for remaining have been taken care of. Several [=NPCs=] in the settings are ghosts, many with quite intelligible motivations. Of course, the setting is GothicHorror; the ghosts are nearly invariably evil Type B's, and many of those with "kill the living" as their motivation actually have a plan much more effective than "sit in a creepy tomb and wait for adventurers to wander by." There are a few exceptions, such as the Laughing Man, a harmless ghost who joins fishermen, tells bad jokes, and scares away the fish.

[[folder: Web Animation]]

** Played straight in the first {{OVA}}. Sakura and co. are troubled by the ghost of Madoushi, Clow Reed's ex-girlfriend, who, having been ([[FridgeHorror involuntarily]] in the English dub, voluntarily in the original) sealed in [[SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere an alternate dimension]], is [[IWillWaitForYou waiting for Clow Reed]] and does not realize that both of them are long dead. [[spoiler: Eventually, by offering a WorldOfCardboardSpeech, Sakura gets her to move onto the afterlife, and Madoushi apologizes for causing so much trouble.]]