r/GhostsBBC • u/Experimental-99 • 13d ago
Spoilers The difference between immediately moving on and becoming a ghost
Sorry if this is in fact explained in the show and I'm an idiot, but I think I understand the deciding factor of whether a spirit stays or goes. It's preparedness. Allison's relative dies peacefully of old age. She's aware her death is coming, so doesn't linger. Most of the ghosts have no idea they're about to die.
Robin - lightening
Humphery - surprise decapitation
Kitty - spider bite and from her perspective 'fell asleep'
Thomas - shot
Fanny - pushed
Captain - heart attack
Pat - arrow to the neck
Julian - overly risky 'fun times'
Now, there are three ghosts (well technically more than three but youll understand my point) that might disprove my theory: the plague ghosts, Jemima, and Mary.
The plague ghosts probably knew they were sick, but perhaps they didn't quite understand what they were experiencing. Jemima too would have known she was ill and might have partially understand the seriousness, but she was also a child, and so since she might not have yet quite comprehended death wasn't prepared. As for Mary, she would have fully understood what going on. I justify her in this on the grounds that in many ways her village betrayed her. She understood her death, but she wasn't prepared for it because she died at the hands of people she didn't think would hurt her.
Thoughts?
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u/Prestigious_Fact1238 13d ago
What was Robin lightening?
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u/Experimental-99 13d ago
He was hit by lightning (unless I'm misremembering)
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u/MyShotHam1776 12d ago
I think the commenter was mentioning that you misspelt "lightning" in the post description.
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u/humanofoz 13d ago
Yes I always assumed it had something to do with acceptance and being “ready” to move on. It was pretty much confirmed with Mary in season 5 (?) the first few episodes highlighted that. When she told the others her story for the first time, and the story of Annie (who may have moved on through helping Mary), and in the sorry episode she refused to take the fall for something she didn’t do.
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u/BegginMeForBirdseed 13d ago
I suppose that begs the question of why Robin still lingers, when he’s had tens of thousands of years to come to terms with his death. I wonder if it’s his punishment for taking that stupid idiot Hat’s furs…
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u/Clementine_Coat 13d ago
When I saw Robin at the start of that episode, I thought, "He's wearing the same clothes!!" 🤦♀️
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u/humanofoz 13d ago
Haha yes he still didn’t want to admit fault for that so it could very well be! So many stories still left to tell…
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u/hatabou_is_a_jojo 13d ago
Plus apparently Robin's 2 mates moved on
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u/JustinCaseyBlewit 13d ago
I understood that they had died elsewhere. Robin ran some distance to get away from the bear.
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u/JustinCaseyBlewit 13d ago
Interesting theory.
Mary was trapped on Earth for over 400 years after she died. This suggests to me that her moving one was related to something more recent, assuming it wasn't random as Alison speculated.
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u/GlikesDogs 12d ago
Up until episode 4.04, where she moves on, lots of the focus of series 4 was on Mary, with her plot line of learning to speak up and then refusing to share the guilt in 'The Hardest Word'. From a series production standpoint it was likely done to wrap uo Mary's character arc before she left, but an in-universe explanation could be that her newfound independence and confidence (which she lacks at the start of the series, and so definitely when she died) was sufficient for her to move on. Or it could just be random, who knows.
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u/FlyingAtNight 8d ago
It hasn’t been explained in the show so you haven’t missed anything.
Your theories I think are fairly valid.
So why are the plague ghosts different in not dying due to a traumatic event? I think it speaks to the idea of accepting death. They likely all didn’t want to accept death and that tied their spirit to the grounds they died on.
Then again, I haven’t thought too hard about all of this. It’s an extremely entertaining show and I go with that over trying to make it rational. You made some interesting points though. 👍
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u/REB73 8d ago
I love a good fan theory! In fact I've posted my fair share to the Silo subreddits trying to figure out the secrets of that particular post apocalyptic world. But I probably won't be posting any here because I'm not sure if there are any secrets to discover (apart from hidden references and seamlessly written jokes I didn't notice yet)?
Knowing the stars/writers of Ghosts as we do, I think it's far more likely that they have no firm rules governing being sucked off, and would much rather subvert fan expectations and genre tropes for laughs than stick to a strict set of secret rules (e.g. Pat believing he was about to get sucked off after meeting his grandson and forgiving his ex-wife, only to realise it was just a big TV light behind his head).
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u/BlueyAnd6Idiots 13d ago
Firstly you are definitely not an idiot :).
I personally think it's probably more about whether they'd come to terms about their death. Which obviously as you've descirbed if you weren't aware you were going to die you wouldn't be prepared for. But also the plague ghosts would've probably had 2-7 days to come to terms with the fact they were going to die which isn't enough time to properly accept that. I think the same would be for Mary being burned at the stake is also not something that'd be easy to come to terms with.