Line #29 Main/MonochromeApparition


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11	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/TheXFiles https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monochromeapparition_5620.png]]]]
12	Whether they appear wispy or solid, often a full-bodied, non-[[BedsheetGhost Bedsheet]] apparition is depicted in values of only one color, often white/grey or blue. If there is an exception, however, it will be for the eyes.
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14	This refers to a disembodied apparition of some kind that appears in a full-color work and is monochrome for the purpose of showing that it isn't a physical presence. They somehow glow any color of vapor such as ghostly white or blue.
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16	Compare MonochromePast, DeliberatelyMonochrome, UndeathlyPallor and HologramProjectionImperfection. Contrast LivingShadow.
17	----
18	!!Examples:
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20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	* In the ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/PokemonS1E23TheTowerOfTerror The Tower of Terror]]", after Ash and Pikachu are ([[DisneyDeath temporarily]]) killed by a chandelier falling on them, their spirits are a bluish white.
24	* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': Miranda Jahana's spirit is only seen twice during the OVA: first, when her visage takes the place of [[spoiler: [[MindControlEyes Satomi's irises]]]], and once she's been expelled from [[spoiler: Satomi]]'s body. In both instances, she appears as a greyish-white apparition.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Comic Books]]
28	* Creator/GrantMorrison makes an appearance in their final issue of ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'', with their skin and hair rendered in black and white (although their clothes weren't). This version of Morrison later became a member of ''Comicbook/SuicideSquad'' as The Writer, with the same appearance.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
32	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'': The ghost children are of pale blueish color.
33	* Phantasma from ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'' is pale light blue.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
37	* ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'': When B&T are dead, they're grayish-blue. Looking closely, it's apparent they achieved this with monochrome makeup and costuming rather than using optical effects.
38	* All the ghosts in ''{{Film/Casper}}'' are ghostly white.
39	* In ''Film/CrimsonPeak'', ghosts appear as one solid color, though which color they are varies and [[ColorCodedCharacters correlates to the nature of their death]]. Most of the ghosts in Allerdale Hall are red, symbolic of the red clay beneath the land and of the violent nature of their deaths. The ghost of Edith's mother, who died of cholera and returns to warn her about Crimson Peak, is black. Another black-colored ghost is [[spoiler: Lucille]], who clings to the past and appears to [[BarredFromTheAfterlife haunt Allerdale Hall forever]]. The ghost of [[spoiler: Thomas]] is white save for the bloodstains, indicating [[RedemptionEqualsDeath redemption]] and a [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence peaceful afterlife]].
40	* ''Film/TheFrighteners'' has those when ghosts are in shades of blue.
41	* In ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'', most of the human-esque ghosts are depicted in semi-transparent shades of blue/grey.
42	* ''Film/Goosebumps2015'' has Hannah as a ghost who is in shades of blue like the ghosts in ''The Frighteners'' and ''The Haunted Mansion'' are.
43	* The ghosts in Disney's ''Film/TheHauntedMansion2003'' are whitish-blue, as are many of the ghosts in the actual ride.
44	* ''Film/HauntedMansion2023'': Almost all the ghosts except for [[spoiler:the ghost of Alistair Crump]] are light blue at night and in the Ghost Realm but are ghostly translucent white at day.
45	* In the British comedy ''Film/HowIWonTheWar'', the soldiers of a platoon keep marching even after they are killed. The StockFootage of each battle is tinted a different color, so each ghost soldier is the color of the battle they died in.
46	* In ''Film/{{Juon}}'', Kayako and Toshio have a bit of a blue-ish hue to them. The latter more then the former.
47	* The albino twins in ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' sport white dreadlocks, pale skin and wear white suits in their normal form, but become gray/greenish translucent when in ghostly forms, as this is the default color of the matrix
48	* ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'': White specters appear when the Ark is opened. While they initially seem to be beautiful (and one of the bad guys calls them such), they quickly show a more eerie expression and proceed to kill all the people present except Indiana and Mario (because they close their eyes and the specters not only spare them but also burn the ropes that were keeping them tied).
49	* Force ghosts in ''Franchise/StarWars'' are generally blue-tinted. They're distinguished from holograms, which also glow blue, because holograms are messy and covered in scan lines and static, while Force ghosts are not.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Literature]]
53	* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'': Marley's ghost is said to have a "livid" [[note]] a dark blue-grey [[/note]] colour.
54	* The ghosts in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books are described as 'pearly white' (with the exception of Peeves the poltergeist, who is technically not a ghost but a kind of supernatural creature who was never human to begin with). In the movies they are merely desaturated, however.
55	* In ''Literature/HauntingChristmasTales'' short story ''The Investigators'', an elderly man who fell downstairs to his death, is said to appear completely white.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
59	* The Lady of the Lake in ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}'' is pale blue with a wave texture when she appears to King Arthur.
60	* In the 2006 ''Series/{{Marple}}'' adaptation of ''Literature/TheSittafordMystery'', the ghost of murder victim Clive Trevelyan (played by Timothy Dalton) appears in shades of bluish grey at the end of the episode.
61	* In the episode "The Ghost of Queen's Park" of ''Series/MurdochMysteries'', there are several mysterious deaths in a building near Queen's Park that look like murders. People report seeing a ghost that is blue and glows. It turns out the ghost was a woman who wanted a revenge for her mother's death. She looked exactly like her mother and her adoptive father was a scientist who experimented with radium. She rubbed herself with it, and radium is luminescent, glowing a faint blue.
62	* ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' has Moze as a green CuteGhostGirl in Vampires, Ghosts, Werewolves, and Zombies.
63	* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': At the very end of episode "Laws of Gravity", [[PreacherMan Jeremiah Cloutier]] appears to fellow inmate [[BadassBiker Jaz Hoyt]] in this form as Hoyt sits naked in solitary confinement frightened by the image he sees.
64	* In ''Series/ThePretender'' episode "Indy Show", Sydney dreams he's having a conversation with his twin brother Jacob, who has been in a coma for decades following a car accident. Jacob appears as he did before the accident, as seen in MonochromePast flashbacks in earlier episodes -- ''exactly'' as seen in the flashbacks, meaning he's monochrome in the midst of a scene that's otherwise in full color.
65	* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': In a filmed sketch parodying tween comedies, a commercial for the Creator/DisneyChannel's [[http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/489151 "Aw Nuts! Mom's a Ghost!"]], mom had gone to South Korea and had an affair with a Korean official. He's worried she'll talk so he drowns her in a river and now she's a Mool-Gwishin - a Korean water ghost. She appears in monochrome gray while having wacky hijinks.
66	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': The ghost of a [[MonochromePast silent film star]] is rendered in black and white in the episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E18HollywoodBabylon Hollywood Babylon]]", as well as the ghost of company founder P. T. Sandover in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS04E17ItsATerribleLife It's a Terrible Life]]". Some other ghosts or death echoes in the series are static-y black and white as well, but often there is some color, particularly red blood to highlight various wounds they suffered when they died.
67	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Devil's Alphabet", the ghosts of the deceased members of the Devil's Alphabet Society are entirely green.
68	* ''Series/TheXFiles'':
69	** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E22Elegy Elegy]]", people report seeing injured pale women trying to convey a message. It's found out that at those moments, the women were already killed, and they were seeing their ghosts, all in pale blue colour.
70	** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS06E10Tithonus Tithonus]]", Alfred Fellig can recognize who is about to die. He sees the people going black and white when they are dying, while the background stays fully coloured. (Inverse of SplashOfColor.)
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Pinball]]
74	* The numerous ghosts in ''Pinball/HauntedHouse'' are all in various shades of pale blue.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Theatre]]
78	* Many productions of ''Theatre/TheAddamsFamily'' have the ghosts of the ancestors in entirely white clothing and facepaint, or sometimes pale blue or grey.
79	* Most productions of ''Theatre/BlitheSpirit'' have the deceased wife Elvira [[spoiler:and later the second deceased wife Ruth]] in monochrome dress and makeup (the stage directions say grey, but pale blue has also been done).
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Video Games]]
83	* ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' and sequel ''VideoGame/Bioshock2'', as a SpiritualSuccessor to the ''System Shock'' games also feature ghosts, explained as memories being recycled through reused BioAugmentation material sold in vending machines. They're transparent with a blue or grey glow to them and a static InterfaceScrew effect occurs while the player is near them.
84	* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': The spirits of the dead are the same teal colour as liquid [[{{Mana}} Source]]. In Act 2, the player characters learn that spirits' spectral bodies are actually made of Source, and that they can [[SoulEating devour spirits]] to replenish their own power.
85	* ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerStarResistance EXTRAPOWER Star Resistance]]'': The ghostly Shakun warriors who haunt the latter half of Stage 3 are all uniformly green.
86	* The free-floating viral apparitions of Sigma and Zero in the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series are violet-hued and glitchy.
87	* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'', party members who fall in battle will be shown as opaque grey ghosts.
88	* The [[spoiler:ghosts of the murdered children]] in ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'' are only ever represented in monochrome 8-bit, even in scenes where they should be by all rights have defining colors.
89	* All ghosts in ''VideoGame/GhostMaster'' appear in greenish tint when they are in their normal mode. Some of them can materialize in mortal world and show themselves to people in their normal color pattern, scaring them and averting this trope.
90	* In the ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles'' games, Emma, Rose, and the twins are ghost-white. The [[spoiler: ghost pirate]] in ''13th Skull'' is blue.
91	* The ghost of [[spoiler:Mari]] in ''VideoGame/{{OMORI}}'' has only two colors in the sprite: black and white. Said ghost's portrait additionally depicts a gray skintone.
92	* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': Dead Pikmin will evaporate into a colored ghost, the color depending on [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience their color in life]].
93	* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' Ghost monsters are monochromatic white, while their Wights are variations of green (and surprisingly opaque). Other non-hostile ghosts are usually some variation on bluish-green, almost teal. Revenants are largely gray. The Shades are ColorCodedForYourConvenience but are always a variation of a single color on any given example.
94	* ''VideoGame/TheSims'':
95	** ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheSims3 3]]'': Ghosts are color coded based on how they died. For example, Sims that died due to drowning become blue ghosts, and Sims that died due to fire become red ghosts.
96	** The original ''[[VideoGame/TheSims1 Sims]]'' averted this; the ghosts were the same colors as the living Sims, but transparent.
97	* ''VideoGame/SmokeEmOutStruggle'' has Garcello's ghost appear as one of four solid colors, depending on what note he's singing.
98	* ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'': The apparitions, which are explained in universe as the psychic remnants of the recently deceased interfering with your cybernetic DiegeticInterface HUD glow a pale blue-grey light.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Webcomics]]
102	* ''Webcomic/AGirlAndHerFed'' ghosts are a very distinct bright blue when interacting with the world of the living.
103	* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' has a number of ghosts, including a BedsheetGhost and full-color varieties. The ghost of the woman by the Annan waters, however, is just a white figure.
104	* ''Webcomic/ThePhoenixRequiem'': The ghosts of regular, non-Shade human beings are depicted as wispy white figures. The Spirits also start off this way as pale gold, but more color begins to show as they gain strength.
105	* In ''Webcomic/UndeadFriend,'' All ghosts are pure white and glow slightly. They can however become full color physical beings through a process called reversing.
106	* In ''Webcomic/WildeLife,'' WordOfGod notes that she had a few ideas of how to draw Sylvia, but opted for this trope so that she would look like a black and white photograph.
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Western Animation]]
110	* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Spirit World", when Aang accidentally transfers himself into the Spirit World, he's shown as completely blue and translucent.
111	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'' has Uniqua, Tyrone, and Pablo are blue ghosts in "It's Great To Be A Ghost".
112	* In ''WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost'', the ghosts are transparent, pale and white-ish and not detailed.
113	* ''Animation/MrKrbecAndHisAnimals'': The spirit of Duke Ruprecht who used to be the lord and owner of Castle Kulikov and now haunts the place is designed as a white ghost. In one episode, he uses a spell that allows him temporarily gain "body and colour".
114	* Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past in ''[[WesternAnimation/MrMagoo Mr. Magoo]]'s Christmas Carol'' are blue and orange respectively.
115	* High-Five Ghost from ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' is white and transparent.
116	* The Flying Dutchman in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' is [[SicklyGreenGlow sickly green]].
117	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'':
118	** The Teen Titans turn light blue after they die.
119	** In "Hot Garbage", the ghosts of the Titans except Beast-boy are blue-ish green.
120	** The ghostly grandma from "Grandma Voice" is light blue.
121	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / MonochromeApparition