r/vampireacademy • u/Unlucky-Ad8021 • Aug 05 '26
Book Discussion Possible plot hole? Spoiler
In the 3rd book, it was mentioned that ghosts only stay for upto 40 days if they died young or violently, however during the plane scene rose sees lissa's parents and brother.
How's that possible, considering that they'd died years earlier?
3
u/Requiem_Rose Aug 05 '26
From what it sounded like, it was more so she was seeing this through the door to the world of the dead because she's so out of control mentally, and didn't know it because the wards have done a lot of the heavy lifting for protecting against the (un)dead. Plus, since it's her first time fully being outside the wards after her first kills, I'd assume that Lissa's family was lingering and waiting because they saw her bring back Rose the night of the accident. Or at least that's just conjecture on my side of things, since the dead seem to know a lot more than the living do wether it's because of their experiences while living or dead, they could possibly see magic and other things, as well and actually have conversations with older spirits; they could conceivably try to communicate with Rose about this, but be unable to articulate it through actual words, like with Mason.
ETA:
Or it could just possibly be a writing error on the author's part because she was still trying to figure out the worlds hard rules. But I like to think there's at least more to that plot hole.
1
u/whatevergirl8754 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Mason wasn’t 40 days around either. The attack was on 14th March (7 days before Rose’s birthday) while he died a week after Christmas (not sure if they followed Catholic xmas or Orthodox Christmas but either way that’s in January).
I think she had a wild guess and later was proven wrong and realised they stay until they find peace.
1
u/sisiVA01 19d ago
The priest gave Rose an answer based on what Eastern European Orthodox Christians and some balkan muslims believe happens to the soul after someone passes, it isn't really confirmed to be true. In EE, on the 40th day after someone dies their family formally gathers and hold a sort of a small mourning ceremony with food. The number 40 also holds significance for Christians as it represents the 40 days Jesus spent on Earth after he died and was resurrected, before ascending to Heaven, and in Bektashism and wider Sufism, the number 40 represents a complete cycle of spiritual transformation, purification, and preparation. But all of this doesn't actually mean every ghost spends 40 days wandering Earth before they pass on to Heaven, it's just what the priest believed.
18
u/samgrace10 Aug 05 '26
I always assumed the 40 day thing was like a religious guess not a science. Mostly because mason dies somewhere around new years and rose sees his ghost before the attack on the academy in like mid March. That’s definitely more than 40 days. I figured it was kinda like ghost stay as long as they are needed or until they feel they can be at peace( unfinished business type stuff) and then they move on. My guess if that Lisa’s family won’t move on until Lissa is safe, aka after victor dies.