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Tropes of the Soul

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See Our Souls Are Different for a rundown on the concept.


Tropes:

  • Anatomy of the Soul: Souls depicted as not a single indivisible thing, but being made up of several components, usually "life force", "mind" and "vessel".
  • Astral Projection: A magical or mystical practice that allows a person to detach either their soul or consciousness from their body while unconscious, allowing it to wander.
  • An Astral Projection, Not a Ghost: An astral projection is mistaken for a ghost.
  • Become a Real Boy: A non-human goes on a journey to become human (again).
  • Came Back Wrong: A resurrected person is not the same as they were before they died, for the worse.
  • Creative Sterility: Characters who can't make anything new — things, ideas, life, etc. This may occur to characters who lack a human soul or have their soul altered in some way.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Replacing body parts with machinery causes a living person to lose their humanity or face other drawbacks.
  • Damaged Soul: A resurrected person comes back in a worse mental state than before because their soul was damaged in the resurrection process.
  • De-aged in Death: A person's soul, usually their ghost, looks young even though they died at an older age.
  • Deal with the Devil: A character sells their soul (or something else extremely important) to Satan (or a similarly 'evil' or 'Trickster God' mythological figure, or a mundane powerful and corrupt slimeball) in exchange for something else, usually something valuable.
  • Destination Host Unreachable: A resurrected character has no way to meet up with the ones who resurrected them.
  • The Disembodied: A character survives as a ghost after losing their physical body.
  • Ectoplasm: A substance that paranormal creatures and people associated with them, usually ghosts, emit or are covered in; sometimes seen as the spiritual energy of these creatures/individuals.
  • Ghost in the Machine: Metaphorical people live inside your brain.
  • Giving Up the Ghost: A character's ghost momentarily escapes from their unconscious body; usually appears in Japanese media.
  • Healthy in Heaven: When a character dies and turns into spirit form, they turn into their ideal form, generally free from old age, illness, at times disability.
  • Heart Drive: A part of a person's body that contains their soul, consciousness, or equivalent; generally, as long as it remains intact, the person cannot die, only going dormant at most.
  • Heart Trauma: The heart as a physical representation of one's soul; when something happens to a character's physical heart, their emotions, personality, or other mental/spiritual characteristics are affected for the worse as well.
  • I'm Having Soul Pains: A character feels pain/damage in abstract ways, typically against the soul, in which no marks or gore are caused.
  • Inhuman Human: A resurrected person comes back in a worse physical state than before because their body was damaged in the resurrection process; don't worry, their soul is intact and perfectly fine.
  • Life Energy: A spiritual fuel that the body and mind run on, on which one's longevity and health is dependent; it may be stolen by supernatural creatures to consume.
  • Merger of Souls: Two or more souls fuse into a single soul, usually permanently.
  • Monster from Beyond the Veil: A resurrected person becomes a dangerous monster.
  • New Body, Old Abilities: A character can still use their original body's abilities, even in their new form — often because their abilities are tied to the person's soul, spirit, or equivalent, rather than their physical body.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Depictions of ghosts in fiction and the characteristics they possess.
  • Our Souls Are Different: Depictions of souls in fiction and the characteristics they possess.
  • Our Spirits Are Different: Depictions of spirits in fiction and the characteristics they possess.
  • Out-of-Clothes Experience: A character is naked in out-of-body experiences, usually because their soul or mind is unclothed.
  • Past-Life Memories: A reincarnated character gains or retains memories from previous incarnations of their soul.
  • Pieces of God: God got broken into many pieces (of souls, usually); this is the result of what happened.
  • Reincarnation: The essence of a deceased person's soul is reborn into a new living person.
  • Rescued from the Underworld: A character is rescued from the afterlife (or equivalent), which usually involves bringing their soul out of the afterlife.
  • Residual Self-Image: A physical representation of one's soul/personality looks different from their physical body.
  • Resurrection Sickness: A resurrected character experiences temporary drawbacks from the revival process, usually physical ailments of some sort.
  • Sharing a Body: Two equal characters end up sharing one body.
  • Sold His Soul for a Donut: Making a Deal with the Devil in exchange for something comically insignificant.
  • Soul-Cutting Blade: A supernaturally sharp blade that can cut through or otherwise affect souls.
  • Soul Eating: Consuming the souls of the living.
  • Soul Fragment: The transfer of a part of a character's soul (or equivalent) to another character, intentional or otherwise.
  • Soul Jar: An non-bodily object which contains all of or a part of a character's soul (or equivalent), granting them enormous boons, e.g. immense strength, power, invulnerability, or even conditional immortality.
  • Soul Power: The "elemental" power to manipulate spirits, spiritual energy, or souls.
  • The Soulless: A character who literally has no soul lacks moral and ethical qualms, i.e. being both literally and figuratively soulless.
  • Soulless Shell: A body which contains no soul, which may occur due to resurrection gone wrong.
  • The Soulsaver: A character who saves souls from literal or symbolic hell/limbo.
  • Soul-Powered Engine: The use of souls (or Life Energy) as a functional component or fuel of a machine.
  • Two Siblings In One: A character shares a body with the soul of their dead sibling, who is sometimes able to take control of the body.
  • Winged Soul Flies Off at Death: Someone's winged spirit flies somewhere after they die; usually seen in animated cartoons or comics.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: A character acquires and collects souls by buying, stealing, or consuming them.

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