just saw the weirdest criticism of CPeak in the tag
namely, “ghosts don’t look like that. only ghosts that are trying to be assholes look scary, and Edith’s mom wasn’t, so she shouldn’t look scary”
like, everyone has their Thing that bugs them, and that’s fine. it’s all highly subjective. but on an equally subjective level I can say that makes no sense to me
sure, I haven’t heard of any ghosts that look like color-coded bog bodies- but I also haven’t heard of a single, unified way that All Ghosts Look. I’ve heard of friends seeing everything from ordinary-looking people that vanished suddenly to translucent figures to orbs to columns of light to humanoid forms with death wounds/bits missing/parts of their bodies stretched out of shape. and none of the hauntings my friends have experienced were malevolent
(hell, there’s a locally famous photo of a ghost from my hometown who I call “Lower Jaw Guy” that would make Del Toro jump for joy. and I’ve never heard of him doing anything but hanging out looking terrifying)
besides all that, though...it’s fiction. the ghosts can look however the designers want them to look. even if you believe in ghosts, which I know GDT does, you’re free to play around with them in the world of your story. and as I said, they’re not even bound to the same incontrovertible facts that allow us to say “that hairstyle is inaccurate in L*ttle W*men 2019″ or “that sci-fi movie put sound in space when there is none”
again, be bothered by whatever bothers you. but I really don’t get it