ectoplasmed: (GHOSTBUSTERS)
Dr. Erin Gilbert
Ghostbusters (2016)

appearance |
Erin is the kind of average-looking that lets her go unrecognized in a crowd. Average height, almost-athletic build that she hides under the most plain and conservative of outfits (think blouses-buttoned-up-all-the-way paired with tweed & Sensible Heels), reddish-brown hair cut to frame her face, blue eyes. Sometimes, you’ll catch her in jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt. Or her Ghostbusters uniform.


age | ~40

history |
Once upon a time, in the cold and far-off land of Michigan, second-grader Erin Gilbert saw a ghost. It was the ghost of her neighbor, Mrs. Barnard. Mrs. Barnard died because Erin's little black dog, Corky, ate Mrs. Barnard's rooster, Ernesto, and the poor old lady's heart couldn't contain the rage she felt over the incident so it just went and gave up on her. This was Erin's view of it, anyway; it's more likely that Mrs. Barnard was just hella old and, based on the evidence, lived a miserable life full of anger and anxiety—and we all know that's no good for heart health.

But because Mrs. Barnard was such a crotchety old witch, she went and haunted Erin for an entire year by standing at the foot of her bed and vomiting spectral blood on the poor child night after night. She didn't stop until her old house next door burnt down. Luckily, Erin was well into therapy by then. But the thing is, therapy can only do so much for the person on the receiving end, and the best Erin's therapist could do was convince her that she didn't see what she knew she saw.

And everyone at school had already come to know her as "Ghost Girl" anyway, so the damage was done.

No one, not a soul, believed Erin until she met Abigail "Abby" Yates in high school. The two became fast friends and partners-in-science: Together, they formulated theories about the existence of ghosts, wrote deep into the night, presented evidence at science fairs, got scholarships to the same college, and... eventually broke up.

While in grad school, Erin realized she would never, ever be taken seriously as a scientist if she continued spewing nonsense about ghosts. And she hadn't actually seen one anyway, right? So she decided it would just be better to take all the research she and Abby had published in a book called "Ghosts From Our Past: Both Literally & Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal"—now available on Amazon and Books on Tape!—and burn it. Both copies of the book, all they could afford, were reduced to ash and tossed into the Hudson. Erin cut off all contact with Abby at that point, put her head down, and made a career for herself.

Except then Abby re-published the book around the same time Erin was up for tenure.

Erin, furious, approached Abby and the kind of drama you'd expect ensued, but the happy ending here is that they finally saw a ghost. It puked all over Erin. Abby got it on tape. It was put on YouTube. Erin got fired.

So Erin, more convinced than ever that she was not, in fact, cuckoo bananas, joined up with Abby and Dr. Jillian Holtzmann—and later, amateur historian Patty Tolan—to prove that ghosts actually DO exist. And they did. They also saved New York City (and the entire world) in the process. It was awesome.
personality |
Over the course of the film, Erin does a lot of growing the hell up. When she reunited with Abby, she did so out of a desire to protect herself; nothing was more important to Erin than her reputation, at that point. Thanks to going through what was literally almost a lifetime of ridicule and being told she was crazy, Erin found it absolutely necessary to buckle down and be as normal as possible so that she could advance her career, be taken seriously, and become a respected asset to the international scientific community. She saw getting tenure at Columbia University as the first step toward that, so anything that threatened her bid for tenure was seen as a threat to her, personally.

But part of her always, always wanted someone to say, "Erin, you're not crazy. Ghosts are real. You're right."

In the beginning: Erin is selfish. She's fueled largely by a desire to prove herself worthy, but she also has a genuine desire to have an impact on the world in terms of Science. She's a hard worker and a brilliant physicist and she wants to use her skills to advance modern physics.

In the middle: Erin is angry. She's fueled by an intense need to show the world that she was right, she and Abby were both right.

In the end: Erin is selfless. She's fueled by the need to protect the city and also save her best friend from a PORTAL TO THE FRIGGIN' GHOST DIMENSION.

In the epilogue: Erin is vindicated and gives slightly less of a shit about what people think of her because she has proof, she has science, and she has a team of badass, brilliant women to back her up. (And their secretary, Kevin.) She's tougher, stronger, smarter, braver. She has a family she loves and a job she loves. It's a happy ending.
river power |
Liquid resistance: She's waterproof, basically. Liquids don't stick to her skin or hair; think of her as a human Teflon pan or the equivalent of a freshly-waxed Benz. Any liquid, even acid, will just roll off of her and leave her unharmed and dry/clean/etc.

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Profile

ectoplasmed: (Default)
dr. erin gilbert, spectral warrior

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Style Credit

Page generated Jul. 11th, 2025 06:06 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios
August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 2020