bestcryptids

[bestcryptids]

They were going to put the yeticide in the new Superman movie

[bestcryptids]

The quagga was a zebra subspecies that lived in South Africa before going extinct in the wild in 1878. There have been sporadic reports of its survival, including strange ones several miles away in Tanzania. A pair of South Africans claimed to see a group of quaggas in 1956

[bestcryptids]

Mawas are a Malaysian cryptid said to be hairy, upright hominoids about as tall as a man. Their coat is said to be black or brown, unlike the more reddish orangutan.

[bestcryptids]

Newly uncovered photograph allegedly shows an unidentified primate on the coast of Malaysia.

[bestcryptids]

The nguema-monene is a Congolese cryptid described as a long serpentine reptile, up to 40 feet (13m) in length. It moves low to the ground, and one eyewitness described it having a serrated back. Another witness was in a river when the animal emerged and flicked its tongue at her

[bestcryptids]

Florida footage of a trident tailed sea monster taken by an area local. Made famous on Monsterquest, it's been theorized that the animal is simply a marine mammal with propeller damage to its tail.

[bestcryptids]

Like the passenger pigeon, the Eskimo curlew once numbered in the millions before going extinct in the 1960s. Also like the pigeon, there have been sporadic reports of the species survival. One sighting in 1982 in Saskatchewan spotted a sole survivor amongst a flock of plover birds

[bestcryptids]

One of my favorite weirdly reoccurring cryptid encounters

These are the

U-28 Sea Monster

U-108 Sea Monster (see In the Wake of the Sea Serpents for these two)

UB-85 Monster (see James Sweeney's Sea Monsters)

Unnamed u-boat (see this)

[bestcryptids]

One interesting cryptid uncovered by Tyler Greenfield is the under-billed swordfish. Called the eieheraha by some locals, it's "sword" was on the lower jaw instead of the upper jaw like most swordfish.

[bestcryptids]

Around the time of World War One, a mysterious lizard was reported near Yazd, Iran. It inhabited the remote desert, and locals said it was able to eat a man as fast as a smaller lizard gobbles a fly. A reporter pointed out that the region was mostly uninhabited and unexplored.

[bestcryptids]

One thing I love about ASOIAF is that so many people do the right thing, even if its difficult. Many of them die for it (Ned, Robb, Cat, Oberyn) and many of them know how dangerous its going to be, but they do it anyway.

"She had no chance against seven, she knew. No chance, and no choice. She stepped out into the rain."

“BUT WHAT IF WE PREVAIL?”

–Ned Stark, A Dance with Dragons

I love how GRRM weaves these threads of hope throughout his stories, even in the darkest hours when all our heroes are teetering on the edge of the abyss. And it’s Ned who reminds us not to give up hope. Of all the characters GRRM could have chosen to express this sentiment in ADWD, he picked good old dead Ned. Ned who helped do the impossible and cast off the tyranny of the dragons, Ned the White Knight who lives on in the rallying cries of Northmen willing to fight and die for “Ned Stark’s little girl.” 

Because Ned Stark is just … everything. GRRM isn’t saying Ned Stark was a fool. GRRM warns us against abandoning honor in the face of a dishonorable world. When the world grows dark, GRRM tells us, we need to hold fast to our principles as tightly as Arya clings to Needle. It will be a long, stumbling journey through night, but that’s when true knights are needed most. It will be hard … but what if we succeed?

“what if we prevail?”

It makes me think of JFK:

We choose to […] do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win

One becomes a true knight, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that’s what makes it worth doing. And not everyone will succeed, but what if you do? “what if we prevail?”

This feels like the point of ADWD to me, Ending slavery is hard, but Dany must try anyway, because it is right. Incorporating wildling refugees into Westeros is hard, but Jon tries anyway, because it is right. The break between Tyrion and his family is crippling, but opposing House Lannister is right. And Bran … Bran’s journey through the darkness is one of the hardest of all … but what if we prevail?

So try, GRRM says. Try, even if it’s impossible. Because what if we prevail?

[bestcryptids]

Just found out that there was an alleged great auk photo taken in Cornwall back in 2014

[bestcryptids]

In Horn Pond Massachusetts an out of place animal was witnessed by a father and son. They had been fishing when the father spotted a fin. They threw a dead fish as bait, and the cryptid shot up out of the water to grab it. They said it looked like a red shark with two dorsal fins

[bestcryptids]

A rather bizarre bigfoot sighting from Pennsylvania uncovered by Stan Gordon. He was fishing at night when he saw the cryptid. He said it had very wrinkly skin, missing teeth, patches without fur, and strange hair almost like a mohawk. It grabbed the witness before letting go.

[bestcryptids]

According to the Cryptid Archive, In 1609, a monkey with "a beard and moustaches as well made as a man's" was caught in Peru. The most likely identity, the emperor tamarin, was discovered in 1907, leaving a gap of 298 years between this animal's probable first sighting and its discovery.