#ghost death

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Almost every Ghost remembers how they died. It's often violent, traumatic, and/or painful, but they remember. Death is a ghosts biggest PTSD trigger-it is how they died after all-so no one asks how you died as it's grounds for a capital F Fight. But you know how some people have something so traumatic happen that they repress everything related to it? That can happen to ghosts too.

And it's not pretty.

@mittensmorgul​ -  and/or @hazeldomain​ (or anyone else) care to hazard a guess/opinion?  (This is too long for the limits of an Ask, so you get it in a text post.)

I’m trying to figure out what exactly HAPPENS when one salt and burns a ghost. For science...and internal consistency in my own writing.

Here’s what I’ve sorted from SPN canon (and yeah, I know I skipped some examples in cannon below, and I acknowledge that I am trying to make a logic chain from canon knitted by multiple writers out of Swiss cheese, but, whatever, here we go):

Season 1: Establishes an SPN foundational point: salt an burn a human’s bones or the artifact a Ghost is attached to, it “cannot come back.”  The visual effects we get here - and throughout the series, implies that it is painful/uncomfortable for the Ghost. IE non-consensual. [Note that hte very 1st Ghost we encounter is NOT dealt with this way, but rather ‘resolved’ by forcing the ghost to ‘go home’ and face the consequences of her actions..]

Season 2: - 2.01 In My Time of Dying: Establishes that a Ghost is a person’s spirit that has, for a range of reasons, “not moved on” with a Reaper when it was their time.

T!REAPER: Well, like you said. There's always a choice. I can't make you come with me.  But you're not getting back in your body. And that's just facts.   So yes, you can stay. You'll stay here for years. Disembodied, scared, and over the decades it'll probably drive you mad. Maybe you'll even get violent. !DEAN: What are you saying? T!REAPER: Dean. How do you think angry spirits are born? They can't let go and they can't move on. And you're about to become one. The same thing you hunt.

2.16 Road Kill establishes a theoretical difference between NORMAL moving on and “Death for Ghosts” via salt and burn:

MOLLY: You hunt these things, but you don't know what happens to them? DEAN: Well, they never come back. That's all that matters. SAM: After they let go of whatever's keeping them here, they ... they just go. I hope someplace better, but we don't know. No one does. MOLLY: What happens when you burn their bones? SAM: Umm... Well, my dad used to say that was like death for ghosts, you know? But... The truth is, we still don't know. Not for sure.

BUT that same episode showed that ghosts can just “let go” and “move on” without the salt and burn as Sam talks a ghost into moving on (a non-vengeful spirit whose bones are already cremated). This process looks peaceful ie: consensual.

Season 4 - In 4.15 “Death Takes a Holiday, We learn that ghosts exist in a “spirit world” much like our own but with different rules - also called “the veil.” We also see a Reaper ‘take’ a ghost/spirit who was unable to move on due to demon’s messing with the local reaper. [So we know that whatever a Ghost/spirit is, is a thing a reaper can reap/move on.]  Again, this ghost, who was a little vengeful, is talked into moving on (consensual).

Season 7 - Bobby Dies and chooses not to move on - becomes a Ghost {7.12, 7.13, 7.17, 7.19, etc.} We learn things about ‘ghost energy management’ and another comment on “the Veil”:

DEAN: Wait a second. Don't you think you should be saving your strength? BOBBY: For what? DEAN: I'm just saying you might want to slow down. You don't look so hot. BOBBY: I'm in the Veil. My Brad Pitt days are over.

7.23 - We see Bobby “burn up” as the guys melt the flask he is attached to. [aka Ghost Death]

Season 8 - 8.19 Taxi Driver, we learn that Bobby’s “soul” is in Hell (dragged there by demons) - it is freed and delivered to heaven. This establishes that a “Salt and Burn” does NOT destroy a human soul, but rather releases it...(from what?)

8.23 heaven is ‘closed’ due to metatron’s spell [We later learn that this means souls cannot go to heaven]

Season 9: 9.07 - we get a very vengeful ghost talked into moving on, who CHANGES from nasty ghost demeanor to sweet mom before moving on (consensual).

TIMMY: Mommy, stop it!  Stop hurting people! You have to go.  Never come back.  I'll be okay.  I promise. GHOST MOM's ghostly essence peels off, leaving GHOST MOM looking whole and human, smiling tearfully at her son as she holds her arms out to him.  TIMMY (continues): I love you, too. GHOST MOM fades completely away.

Wait, what ‘PEELED OFF’ here? Is THIS what is destroyed in a ‘salt and burn’? (and if so, wtf was that?)

Kevin dies in 9.10 and is given a hunter’s funeral “salt and burn” BUT we find out in 9.14 that he and all the others who have died since heaven closed are “stuck in the veil.” At this point we have a working definition of Ghost as “A human soul which is ‘stuck’ in the veil/spirit world and cannot move on to its final resting place (Heaven/Hell).

Hypothesis: SO - given this definition, a “salt and burn” seems to FORCE a separation of a human soul from “the veil” - making them move on, and somehow preventing them from ever returning to the veil/spirit world.

This implies, however, that some ‘component’ of a ghost/human spirit is forcibly  LOST or changed in the process of a ‘salt and burn’ (and voluntarily given up in most other cases.)  What IS that element? [We know it is not free will, as evidenced by Bobby’s actions in 10.17 Inside Man and Ashe’s actions in 5.16 Dark Side of the Moon.] So I ask again:

“In your opinion, what exactly HAPPENS to the ghost/spirit when one salt and burns a ghost?”

This is part 3 of my Danny Phantom head canons!  I hope you enjoy! ^^

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

41. The ghosts call earth the Human Zone.

42. Ember and Kitty are best friends and often hang out together in the human world, going to a coffee shop or just to the park when they want to get away from the boys.  

43. All ghosts can eat if they want, but normal ghosts don’t need to eat anything at all, but if they are really drained of energy they can get a little boost from eating food.  

44. Ghosts absorb the ambient ectoplasm in the ghost zone, and if they are in the Human Zone they need to stick around an ectoplasm or portal rich area to keep their form intact for long periods of time.  But if they are far away from ectoplasm they will start to fade and become less powerful until they get back to the Ghost Zone.

45. Ghosts that have haunts in the human zone that are in low ectoplasm rich areas and can’t get back to the Ghost Zone will become really faded and almost transparent, able to do less and less stuff as time goes on.  That would explain the original ghost sightings of ghosts that would sometimes roam through houses floating and saying nothing while fading out of visibility.  Danny can sometimes catch these ghosts and bring them back to the Ghost Zone to recharge their core and get a more stable form.

46. Danny’s claws can wrip holes into the ghost zone, similar to Wulf.  But it does take a lot out of him when he does that.  

47. Danny has started to make ice Daggers using his core, he is learning from Kitty and she likes to show him the tips and tricks for knife fighting.  He has gotten a great hand on it.  And sometimes uses it to threaten people by holding it to their necks, which is something Kitty taught him.  But if he is low on time he will just create a sharp icicle to throw at someone, often landing above their head.

48. Princess Dorathea has much more control over her dragon form than someone else who would use the pendant as she has had way more practice with it.  She can have a conversation in her dragon form with someone and choose her decisions clearly.  But when she is in her dragon form she is also much more defensive and territorial.  She can also transform back into her core form at will if she is calm enough.

49. Sam often goes into the Ghost Zone to hang out with Princess Dora at her kingdom, they have become close friends and Dora refers to her as Lady Sam.  

50. Sam has been trying to get Dora to go goth, but the princess prefers her normal clothing, but she is willing to try time and again.  

51. After clockwork saved Danny and changed the timeline is is now tasked to being Danny’s guardian and is now incharge of his actions, if Danny does something wrong, either Clockwork gets in trouble or he has to destroy Danny.  Witch he always finds a way around. ;)

52. Youngblood’s guardian is his parrot Cyberious, he will always be around young blood and is tasked with taking care of him, even if he is less powerful than the young ghost. He is a great mentor.

53. Cujo and Pandora’s dog Cerberous play sometimes, even if Cerberus is much bigger.  When the three headed dog gets annoyed by Cujo's playing he will hold up Cujo in his puppy form and bring him back to Danny before going back to Pandora’s palace.

54. Danny as well as most of the other frequently seen ghosts were invited to Box Lunch’s baby shower.  There were no fights during the party. 

55. Box lunch and Youngblood play a lot, but Box lunch gets jealous of the fact that young blood gets to go to the human zone often.  When she can only go with her parents.  Danny often explains to her that Youngblood is technically 30 years older than her and she is only 4 months old, even if they look the same age.

56. Danny often likes to sit on Skulker’s shoulder just to annoy him, Skulker always threatens to kill Danny when he does that but never really does anything.

57. On Danny’s death day, Skulker gave him a hand crafted ecto dagger telling him that it would be unfair of him to fight an unarmed opponent, to which Phantom replied that he could beat him with one hand behind his back.  Skulker didn't say anything and flew away. Danny always keeps the Dagger on him.

58. Danny has a fear of electricity because of the way he died, and Technus is very careful to never use an electricity blast on Phantom, only ever energy beams or other weapons.  As he respects Phantom’s fear of his death, that all ghosts have.

59. To bug Sam, every time they see Aragon or mention him they always say, hey look Sam, it's your ex finance.

60. Sam likes to kick the boys in the shins with her steel toe boots when they are being especially annoying.  But Danny is in his phantom form, he will change his legs into a tail and say, you can kick me in the shin’s if I don't have any.  And in retaliation she will always kick tucker twice.

This was part 3 of some of my DP head cannons.  Please tell me if you want to see more, and what you thought of them. <3

And also, what are some of your own Danny phantom head canons?  I would love to hear about them!