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My Main Antagonist is a Ghost/Evil Spirit so How Can I Kill Her?

Mari More

Minstrel
Please help, I put myself in a corner.

So here goes. As my story progresses, it will be revealed that the main antagonist is a dead soul who was once a fire magic user. she was once a powerful magic user but in her time, women are oppressed so she was also belittled even though she was reaaally powerful. When women tried to fight for their rights, she was one of the people who openly protected those women. in the end she died. to appease the souls of those women who died fighting for their rights, the then king gave their families money to compensate for their deaths.
Main Antagonist (MV)'s family was given a large sum of money that can live luxuriously for generations and a big house. mainly because she was a great fire magic user when she was alive so they kinda took her accomplishments in consideration.
Years past and where now in the timeline of the story. There will be villains that the MC will face and win against but when she thought everything was over, MV strikes. She seeks revenge because first, her descendants are living miserably (shabby house and poor health). she thinks that the royal family neglected her family and the promise of taking care of her family was only fulfilled in the beginning and was just all talk. but in reality, her family were gambling addicts and are the ones who misappropriated their money. Second, she thinks that it is unfair that she suffered her whole life while the princess was spoiled and pampered even though she is useless. everything mainly roots from her hatred and jealousy.
How can I kill a dead soul who doesn't have a physical body nor something that can kill her as she is already dead?
 
traditionally you don't, at least by using force. you have to help them not try to hurt them -help solve the issues that are keeping them there and angry and then they pass on naturally

if that fails then usually you can't kill them, but you can probably trap them somehow- that is the other traditional way. in a bottle, or gem, or water or even a person (see Naruto). whatever works for your story.

in other traditions things like finding and burning their bones.. or killing off their entire family line...destroying whatever is keeping them tethered to the world. depends upon the mythos.

hope that is somewhat useful.
 

LAG

Troubadour
Who you gonna call?

If you want to kill the ghost, write to kill it. Create a magical maguffin that banishes spirits or let MC meet a sorcerer or priest capable of defeating spirits/teaching her to do it.

Or have the MV posses the MC and end the story there. Maybe have another ghost/spirit enter into story to battle/bind/banish MV.
 

TJPoldervaart

Minstrel
I can think of two options your story could go:

1 - Design a way to kill a ghost (perhaps there is a certain type of metal that can hurt ghosts?) and take care to mention it a few times early in the story, so the readers don't feel cheated.

2 - Take on the problem from a different direction. Perhaps the MC cannot die, but dying isn't necessarily the most interesting consequence a character can face. Perhaps you could have the MV blackmail the MC, threaten those close to her, or find a way to bind her soul to an object so she will live to see everything that happens without being able to do anything.
 
traditionally you don't, at least by using force. you have to help them not try to hurt them -help solve the issues that are keeping them there and angry and then they pass on naturally

if that fails then usually you can't kill them, but you can probably trap them somehow- that is the other traditional way. in a bottle, or gem, or water or even a person (see Naruto). whatever works for your story.

in other traditions things like finding and burning their bones.. or killing off their entire family line...destroying whatever is keeping them tethered to the world. depends upon the mythos.

hope that is somewhat useful.
I agree with joshua mcdermott , they shouldn't "kill" a ghost, but instead try to help them get to...wherever they need to go next. You can't really kill a ghost, now can you? They're hardly even undead. (they're more dead than undead)
 

Mari More

Minstrel
if the main character (MC) has a power to obliterate all mortals in the world if she mastered her "magic" do you think that the MV would also cease to exist if the MC decided to obliterate her? Is she still considered "mortal" because her ghost/soul is that of a mortal or she's no longer considered mortal?
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
'Who you gonna call?' was my first thought too ;)

I would suggest that the Ghost either resolves its life issues, and having no need to remain, moves on. Is encouraged to move on by those sympathetic with its plight, or some type of exorcism ritual is used to remove it. If you watch Amy Allan, on the Dead Files (check tv listing), she always has lots of ideas to make unwanted spirits go away. I think she tries to say something bizarre and different each show.
 
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if the main character (MC) has a power to obliterate all mortals in the world if she mastered her "magic" do you think that the MV would also cease to exist if the MC decided to obliterate her? Is she still considered "mortal" because her ghost/soul is that of a mortal or she's no longer considered mortal?
Ghosts are not mortal. Ghosts are dead.
Are you saying that she became a living spirit without dying? Then she would be alive but immortal. Is she a ghost or a spirit?
Either way, no, she is not mortal, and I do believe there is not a single good argument against that point.
 
Ghosts are not mortal. Ghosts are dead.
Are you saying that she became a living spirit without dying? Then she would be alive but immortal. Is she a ghost or a spirit?
Either way, no, she is not mortal, and I do believe there is not a single good argument against that point.

Yeah- not mortal. the definition of mortal is "will die" but ghosts have already done that. the whole issue you have is you can't kill a ghost when its already dead... if it was mortal you would not have this problem in the first place.
 
Well, technically some immortals can die, just not through natural causes, but for the sake of this, ghosts cannot die, at least not in the traditional sense.
 
I'd go with Oblivion. Not the game, fun though it is. For rendering even the souls there's not quite anything like being reduced to nothingness.
 

Chasejxyz

Inkling
You need to figure out your "magic" system a bit more. What, exactly, is a ghost? What is it made of? Where does it reside? It exists, there is SOMETHING that makes up its existence, where is that located? The spirit world? An additional dimension to our own? Invisible ball of energy? How is that stuff created or destroyed? What makes someone be a ghost? Do all dead people turn into ghosts? Where do these billions of ghosts live?

In the Ace Attorney video game series, a big part of it are a family of spirit channelers so you can talk/interact with dead characters. The Big Bad in one game is a dead person who's already been executed for a previous murder, but now they're being channeled (residing in the body of a living person) and doing more murders. In court they say "I'm already dead, what are you going to do to me?" which, yeah! You can't put a spirit in jail, you can't execute a spirit. But the reason why the spirit went through all this effort was to punish the lawyer who found them guilty of murder (which led to their execution). But your efforts in lawyer-ing foil their plans, they won't be able to enact their revenge, and they have to live in eternity in (wherever it is spirits reside after death) knowing that they've completely and utterly failed.

Usually, we kill people to keep them from doing additional evil things because their no longer existing keeps them from doing that, but throwing them in jail forever usually works, too (hard to be a serial killer when you're trapped in solitary). There's ethical questions as to the morals of killing someone, of forcing them to live in suffering, of denying them their freedoms, and killing/destroying/trapping a ghost would beg these questions as well. Anything used to get rid of a bad ghost can be used against a good ghost, too, so if there is a ghost-killing mcguffin, do other people want it? What problems can that cause? Is it more ethical to kill a spirit so it no longer can think or is it okay to be in purgatory forever?
 

Nighty_Knight

Troubadour
You can always perform an exorcism of sorts. Or some sort of seance. You can always find a way to help the ghost, or if worse comes to worse, have if possess something you can kill.
 
The answer is obvious. Find a way to bring her back to life... then kill her again! And do it right this time! Find a "no backsies" type of killing.
 

Aldarion

Archmage
Ghosts are people who could not pass into the afterlife (Heaven, Hell) due to having unsolved issues on this world, or for whatever other reason. So either find a way to banish her... or solve her issues.
 
There's always containment of some kind. Heck, the Ghostbusters didn't destroy the ghosts, they captured them and put them into a containment unit. Likewise, the concept of a Lich having a phylactery comes to mind, but used to trap the spirit within an object which is then sealed away some place. Just because a spirit cannot be destroyed does not mean it is beyond the means of removal. So, she could be sealed into an object and then that object could be locked away in a place with a lot of security measures in place. Or tossed into the depths of the sea or into a deep pit.
 
Please help, I put myself in a corner.

So here goes. As my story progresses, it will be revealed that the main antagonist is a dead soul who was once a fire magic user. she was once a powerful magic user but in her time, women are oppressed so she was also belittled even though she was reaaally powerful. When women tried to fight for their rights, she was one of the people who openly protected those women. in the end she died. to appease the souls of those women who died fighting for their rights, the then king gave their families money to compensate for their deaths.
Main Antagonist (MV)'s family was given a large sum of money that can live luxuriously for generations and a big house. mainly because she was a great fire magic user when she was alive so they kinda took her accomplishments in consideration.
Years past and where now in the timeline of the story. There will be villains that the MC will face and win against but when she thought everything was over, MV strikes. She seeks revenge because first, her descendants are living miserably (shabby house and poor health). she thinks that the royal family neglected her family and the promise of taking care of her family was only fulfilled in the beginning and was just all talk. but in reality, her family were gambling addicts and are the ones who misappropriated their money. Second, she thinks that it is unfair that she suffered her whole life while the princess was spoiled and pampered even though she is useless. everything mainly roots from her hatred and jealousy.
How can I kill a dead soul who doesn't have a physical body nor something that can kill her as she is already dead?
If your ghost is the family defender, she's in deep denial. How could she watch over her family and not know they have a gambling problem? I dunno why your ghost comes out of left field at the end (or is the ghost coming after the heroes the real story?) but it's unlikely she's been hanging around the mansion rattling the dishes and banging on the pipes without knowing how her descendants squandered their share of the settlement.

That being the case, the most obvious answer is to get your ghost of Oppressions Past is to open her eyes to the truth. It sounds like the ghost was a hero in life. She just needs a good therapist.
 
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