Essentially "haunting the narrative" means that another character's past actions and current absence are having a profound effect on one or more characters and so is influencing their choices and the events they're going through. Others already mentioned a character dying before the story starts and the resulting grief affecting the characters as one form of this trope (for example, Batman's 2nd son (and 2nd Robin) Jason Todd's murder at the hands of the Joker when he only 15 profoundly changed the Batfamily, was the direct cause of Tim Drake (Robin 3) even entering the family, and changed all the characters and their interactions with each other. Every family argument, every fearful reaction the family had to Tim taking up the role his predecessor died in, the ways they approached fighting enemies going forward, etc were ALL changed and influenced by the fact that Jason died as a child soldier in his father's war)
Another common example is a past abuse causing long-lasting effects that influence every relationship the MC has going forward. (An example of this is Kate Argent in Teen Wolf. She was an adult woman who groomed a grieving 16 year old Derek Hale and used him to get access to his home so she could kill his entire family. That kind of betrayal, abuse, and grief damaged Derek and emotionally crippled him so she's going to be affecting Derek's future relationships and his ability to trust his partners or his own judgement. Even if she doesn't physically appear "on-screen" she's going to be haunting any narrative that deals with romance or family themes)
Comment on Updates to "No Fandom" Additional Tags, September 2026
Peramia Thu 24 Sep 2026 05:53PM UTC
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