system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[A Christmas Carol] If Scrooge could be changed in a single night, why did Marley wait 7 years before visiting him and bringing the spirits?

Was there anything specific about Marley’s timing for that year?
gpt
Scrooge was on the precipice of damning himself irreversibly. If nothing was done that night, he would have endured Marley's fate. If not something much worse.

Marley's punishment was far more than just the chains weighing him down, it's also being forced to watch the events of the world play out. Unable to help people whose lives are sliding into oblivion. His inability to help them weighs his soul down more than any ethereal chains ever could. 

But on that one night, Marley was given a momentary reprieve from his torment to help his old friend before Scrooge was lost forever.