#most lead to either ghosts / demons or creatures...

[thewildones]

clarice + appalacian cryptids + wendigo's = a possible arc for this blog ?

yes .

[ganondoodle]

I probably still wouldn’t have been a big fan of the game, but I don’t think I would have been NEARLY as upset about TotK if BotW didn’t seem like it was so obviously setting up plot points for a sequel. Like, you’re very clearly MEANT to wonder what malice is, and how Ganon became the Calamity instead of just the Demon King. Fi is awake again, where are they going either that? What’s the deal with the Triforce-shaped symbol on Zelda’s hand? There were a LOT of other things like that, and many of them had to do with overarching lore for the series.

I get it if they want to reboot the series, but “BotW 2” was the single worst game you could have done that with. It could have been an amazing conclusion to the original continuity.

EXACTLY, you, you get it

botw felt like the introduction to a vast world with secrets and hints to things that were planned to become a bigger thing- a big giant game as a big giant set up, and then ... like totk likes to do alot, it lacks a pay off, and that is something it even does within itself, cosntantly, set up and no pay off, or set up and the most boring and uninspired pay off you can really not even call that, from the bigger things like the whole dragon thing being hammered into your head as irreversible and then it IS reversible.. out of nowhere without you having to do fuck all, the whole thing with the ancient hero beign a big mystery with lots of interesting ideas attached and then its some weird ass dog creature that doesnt resemble any other race with, of course, sonau armor, bc there nothing that isnt sonau in that game, even finding the old treasure maps you can find that then lead to amiibo stuff from botw id call that

botw wasnt that great with rewards either but exploring the world and wondering about those, surely intentionally, placed mysterious and intriguing designs and places did alot for making it so interesting to think about, totk fumbles it all and even the new stuff doesnt even come close to that environmental storytelling botw was so great at, sonau ruins? ha they look entirely different than in botw actually, bc those were built by hylians you see, the actual sonau stuff is in prime condition considering the time thats passed and its all the same blank blocky blocks that serve no purpose but to be a place for you to find a thing or exchange some currency- the most you can think about it is ... that the sonau hollowed out the entire underground of hyrule, every inch of the map, ... which is WEIRD and doesnt exactly make them look that good but ... thats all there is

at least with the shiekah it made somewaht more sense and it felt much less .. invasive? and you didnt have anyone from that time to talk to, other than dead monks whos only purpose is to give you their last piece of their own spirit, but in totk ... raurus ghost and mineru too are both just there to talk to but DONT tell you shit but vague hints that were already clear, the sky islands used to be on the ground? oh you dont say, you see them there in the stupid memories! and dont get to know how they got up there and theres nothing that can clue you in to that, its just sonau magic yet again i guess

dont even get me started on the whole malice/miasma thing, it made so much SENSE that there was a source of it, someone that has keep kept in a horrible place just between life and death for thousands of years trying to break free by their hate and anger manifesting to such a degree its literally spilling out and building creppy eyeballs, mouths and ribcage like structures like they are trying to rebuild themsleves outside of their awful prison no one knows about is so damn compelling, but no, actually, the guy trapped there was the msot evilest evar, was sealed bc him evil and no other motive, and the previously mentioned stuff is pretty much utterly unceonnected, and his magic beign miasma with red instead of pink and no creepy body parts was the true version of it, that pink one was its own thing heehooo SHUT UP argh

it doesnt help that really, i dont feel like the sonau were set up either, they were a tiny part in botw, really only serving to make the world seem more ancient and more full of history, having ruins from a past civilization there you know nothing about and cant find out more is so good, its compelling and sad and makes the world feel more real, just shoving them into everything, being the center of attention all of thes udden and not even the architecure fitting feels so ... forced, i really truly believe the og sonau werent meant to be more than that, but in their fear of the game being too similarly looking like botw they took the sonau to replace the shiekah with them- imo the shiekah were the ones set up to be deeper explored in botw, with their whole misstreatment by the royal family in the past, monk miz kyoshia reacting the same way a yiga commander would was deliberate and brings up even more interesting ideas, the comments about where the mysterious energy the ancient shiekah used to power everything being concentrated in certain regions?? thats a big ass set up, the fact that the center of what is signaling everything to reactivate being below hyrule castle? the fact the whole arena thing was BUILT INTO THE CASTLE or it on top of it is so??? cool??? and sso damn intriguing, we are scratching the surface of their history- but then no, actually, the sonau are the cool new shit those other ones just uh ... disappear, also the sonau did everythign the shiekah did but even better wayy before them haha

its like they didnt want to tackle the more complicated stuff with the shiekah, their relationship to the royal family and how the yiga ... have a point and a good reason- so they replaced them with entirely new purely goodest good guys that did the same stuff before them with none of the history attached :))

this is why im so insistent on it not really being a sequel, thers no follow up on anything that was set up, NOTHING, and no, a couple having a kid now or whatever isnt a follow up on an interesting set up, how hard is it to understand that-

.... listen to me rambling, you probably know all that already nhjdfkbnkd

(i know i always bring up the shiekah but ... they were so central in botw, while also not taking up every single corner- unlike some other ones >_____>, with so much interesting stuff to connect and think about, i cared about them so much i felt kicked down the stairs by their treatment in totk)

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Halloween prompts no. 17

Danny had to borrow Pandoras box to fight and seal away a giant evil space monster. After defeating it and sucking it up into the box, he takes the time to nerd out about fighting a space monster in space, not only that but another dimensions space! That opens up so many questions about other space anomalies such as wormholes and-

Unfortunately for him he failed to consider two crucial details.

1. The box does not judge what is good or what is evil. Thats the boxs users job.

2. The sun is close by.

All it took was Danny waving his wands around in his excitement from talking to himself for the boxs lid to open up just a crack.

Then the sun was gone.

Danny felt himself go pale. Knowing the people and creatures of Earth (and potential aliens from Mars) required the sun to not, ya know, freeze to death, he panicked hard and pulled all his power to teleport then entire solar system into the Infinite Realms.

Having such a sudden massive drain to his energy right after a taxing fight caused phantom to pass out from exhaustion and he was dragged into a hiding place by the little blob ghosts who were familiar with him and wanted to repay his kindness.

Meanwhile the people of Earth and Mars were wigging out like there's no tomorrow. Thier atmosphere was in tact but a odd green force field was around each of the celestial bodies, preventing anyone from leaving. Thankfully it kept most of the monsters from whereever this place was from entering either. Well, all but these tiny little blobs. But they seemed rather harmless and mostly just stuck to people seemingly at random.

Batman, however, wanted answers and started with inspecting the little blobs. He discovered that they tent to group in places where traumatic events happened and on people who have unresolved trauma or deeply negative emotions. Needless to say his family is swarmed constantly. Damian keeps feeding them snacks, Tim has taken to wearing a pseudo space helmet equipped with an automatic windshield wiper so he could see (he gets swarmed constantly and by far the worst), Jason had run from the swarms at first but has slowly come to except them. Then he found out a group of them had killed the Joker after the clown killed on of thier own and now Jason loves them, Dick somehow managed to convince them to hold little flowers and he made a flower crown using thier squishy moldable little bodies. Cute. Duke has to wear sunglasses all the time because these things make his eyes hurt, Cass surprisingly only has a small following, Steph has them in her hair all the time wether she wants to or not, Barbara has some playing on her wheelchair and and clinging to her arms and Bruce...well let's just say its hard to be intimidating when you're covered in tiny squishy balls of smiling creatures that squee happily at every movement. If he puts on his cowl some will race to the top of his head between the bat ears and claim it as thier nap spot before the others can. They're like children.

The Justice League come together to discuss this issue and how to solve it. They debate on either they should break through the force field to see what the outside is like, but that idea is quickly scrapped due to the giant monsters and the fact they don't know if the force field is whats keeping the atmosphere in tact or if it would be effected if it was broken.

No one on the JL or the JLD knew what this place was, how they got here, or how to get out, but normal people were suddenly able to see things like ghosts and demons which is leading to whole new crisises.

Superman really doesn't like how similar this world looks to the Phantom Zone and he needs to be careful since this place has no sun

Danny does eventually wake up over a week later and has GZ food and water basically shoved in his face by his little friends. The thing about blob ghosts was that they were basically the clean up crew of the place. They absorbed negativity and neutralized it before releasing it back into the area. Many ghosts kept them as pets due to making them feel better and helping them overcome trauma.

Danny really loved the little guys and was currently sticking some onto himself while trying to give himself a pep talk and go ask Pandora how to return the sun to its proper place so he can start figuring out how he was going to send an entire star system back to its home dimension. He doesn't even know how he brought it here in the first place!!!

All Clockwork would say is, "All is as it should be."

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Das Irrlicht

An Irrlicht (stray light, also called a stray wisp, swamp light and ignis fatuus) is a certain luminous phenomenon that is supposedly occasionally sighted in swamps, moors, mires or in particularly dense, dark forests and (more rarely) in cemeteries. It is the same phenomenon commonly called will-o'-the-wisp in English.

In folklore and superstition, Irrlichter are usually seen either as the malicious work of supernatural beings or as the souls of the unfortunate deceased. According to popular belief, following Irrlichter or even trying to catch them brings bad luck. In the natural sciences, their existence as independent entities is fundamentally rejected. Reports of alleged sightings are nevertheless investigated, however, because in nature there are both living creatures and gases that can produce lights that are very similar to descriptions of an Irrlicht. Scientists therefore suspect that reports of an Irrlicht are simply due to confusion and optical illusions. In art and poetry, as well as in modern subculture, Irrlicht motifs are widespread and popular.

Descriptions of Irrlicht sightings vary; they are usually described as small flames, but more rarely they are said to be fireballs the size of a fist or even a head. Their colour is usually described as bluish, greenish or reddish. There are also different reports about how the Irrlicht moves. They are said to either remain motionless in one place or to light up wildly and then immediately go out again. Less credible reports tell of an Irrlicht moving away from the observer or actually pursuing them, as if they were being controlled by someone else or were intelligent beings with a will of their own.

Irrlicht sightings can be scientifically explained by life forms capable of bioluminescence such as glow worms (Lampyris noctiluca) or fungi such as the bitter oyster (Panellus stipticus). Marsh gases consisting of methane, hydrogen sulfide, and phosphanes or phosphines may combust spontaneously if they reach a critical concentration, causing luminous phenomena.

In folklore and superstition, Irrlichter are said to have an ominous or even malicious nature. In many myths and legends, they are the souls of the deceased who were either evil during their lifetime and must now walk the earth forever as punishment, or who cannot find peace after death and are looking for redemption. Similar stories are told about the souls of stillborn children. Some legends interpret them as the sad souls of murder and accident victims who drowned in the moor.

Most of the time, however, they are understood to be the work of evil goblins, nature spirits, ghosts and/or demons. These are said to summon an Irrlicht or transform themselves into one in order to then deliberately harm people. The light is said to lead travellers, adventurers and the curious to their doom: the victims, who have already ventured dangerously close to the swamp or forest, are lured even deeper by the Irrlicht until they sink into the mud or get lost in the deep forest and die there.

From Sorbian folklore there are stories about the Blud, who are said to appear as Irrlichter. According to tradition, these are the souls of children who died without being baptized. Now their souls are said to wander around weeping in the form of an Irrlicht.

Irrlichter have often been referenced in art and poetry. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had them appear in his epic work Faust during Walpurgis Night. Hermann Hendrich painted the dance of the Irrlichter for Walpurgis Hall at the Witches' Dance Floor near Thale in the Harz mountains, where according to the legend the witches are having a dance party every year at Walpurgis Night.

Irrlichter are a recurring motif in modern subculture in fantasy and science fiction cartoons, movies, and games. The Pokémon Vulpix, for instance, can conjure an Irrlicht.

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Skizzekai- First Few Days Summary

Now that the asks have calmed down a bit, and hermits have been established, here's a summary post to get a general idea of where we're working from. I've also cleaned up any plotholes best I can.

Skizz, a human from Earth, was summoned to this fantasy world by god-king Joel. A prophecy stated he would defeat a great evil. It did not explain how. He keeps a journal to help him figure things out and keep track of everything.

Over his adventures so far, Skizz has made both allies and enemies, and picked up a magical necklace from travelling merchants. His suit also picked up durability enchantments somewhere, but only after the sleeves came off. The necklace was made for mages, gathering and focusing ambient magic for their use. It was not designed for a creature with no magic of their own.

He probably wouldn't have stayed human either way, but the necklace certainly sped it up. He's adapted to the world, become able to use it's magic, and dragonfly wings have begun to sprout from his back.

This could be concerning. But Skizz finds he loves his wings, his adaptation to the world that is gradually becoming his home. He embraces it. Maybe he really does belong here. Maybe soon he'll even be able to fly.

Joel, the ruler of the lore kingdom and recently ascended god, was originally an ogre- but after the belief of his people sent him through a few transformations, he's settled into his divine status. He can look however he wants now! But an ogre form is still most natural to him. Just a really tall and handsome ogre.

Skizz finds quick allies in Tango, Impulse, and Zed. Tango is a being of fire, with strong flame magic connected to his emotions. He is also in possession of a magical deck of cards. Zedaph, apprentice of Death Himself, joined their group after bringing Skizz back from the dead. He insisted on the completion of some difficult tasks first, but now they're buddies! He's also capable of reality distortion magic, knows alchemy, and has a card of luck magic Tango gave him. Everyone is terrified of Zedaph. Probably for good reason.

Impulse.... may not have intended to become an ally. The demonic man used to work for the forces of evil- before Skizz showed up, and his doubts became a true betrayal to join the side of good. They became fast friends. He doesn't want Skizz to become lost like the last hero was.

That last hero is one Gemini Tay, human-turned-Drowned, who was summoned a few years back, and is not happy about Skizz. It's like she's not even needed anymore. She puts a bounty on Skizz's head. She cannot accept her failure.

Chasing that bounty is False, harpy and former pirate queen. She may have had to leave her crew after that deal lead to a mild case of possession, but she still appreciates some good treasure. That's why she's been working as a travelling merchant.

Her fellow merchants, Cub and Scar, are equally possessed but not quite as motivated. They mostly just like messing with people. Including Skizz. Maybe especially Skizz. They are fae, after all.

Skizz did have one unfortunate interaction with them- he got his name taken for a bit. Fortunately, after returning Scar's cat familiar to him, the name was given back.

Gem isn't the only former human in this world. Joe Hills, a half-ghost living in the republic of the undead, was summoned from Nashville a while back, and befriended Prime Minister Cleo along the way.

Cleo's republic was once a kingdom, run by Ren, but as soon as she got the throne she declared the monarchy over. She got voted in, and Ren is her second in command. Together they run the place, maintaining the army of constructs and fighting back against the sculk creeping into the tunnels.

Most humans that end up in this world don't tend to stay human long. The ambient magic eventually soaks in and alters them, and most embrace it. The changes are a new beginning, or a sign of belonging in this strange world. But Hypno did not embrace it.

No, Hypno was the human half of a changeling deal, and has been clinging to his humanity for quite a while. He's even gotten hold of an artifact, somehow, that pushes the ambient magic out of his body, keeping him human. His friend, Jevin, is a slime guy who enjoys being a slime guy, and doesn't understand this drive to stay human one bit. Magic is cool.

Other hermits that I couldn't neatly tie into the one ramble:

Wels is a selkie proficient in bard magic, and a former member of False's crew.

Stress is a fae queen who rules a kingdom specializing in ice magic, with Iskall as her loyal bodyguard.

TFC is a miner of unknown species who helped Skizz out during a quest

Mumbo is not a vampire, thank you very much. He's actually the former god of the night who lost half his power. Vampires were made from that stolen half.

Pearl is a moth fae who used to rule a prosperous kingdom... until a talking dog came to advise her, corrupting her into a cruel and evil queen. She has since slain the beast, fled into exile, and changed her ways. She now works delivering mail.

Etho and Bdubs are plant constructs, guarding a deep and dangerous jungle. Etho may have a metallic shell, but he's all plant inside. Doc and Beef guard the jungle as well, the four of them ensuring safe passage for travellers. Doc in particular has the ability to become absolutely gigantic.

Xisuma was a bubbling puddle of nothing that became a person and sustains itself on bones. Far too many bones. Bones in places they really should not be, such as outside the skin.

Keralis is a unicorn! He is also a menace who is very protective of his magic, refusing to use it unless he feels like it. Claims to be able to read the value of souls. Bothers xB by calling him the princess of the lake. xB is not a princess.

Grian is... something. He's strange, is what he is. He's a nice guy, and helpful to Skizz, but has these weird mutterings about "watchers", and what was that about accidentally stealing Mumbo's power?

And that's the AU so far! It's still going, so send in more ideas when you have them. Happy headcanoning!

[whereserpentswalk]

You know someone. Mabye something is a better description. He's an entity that just sort of joined your freind group, and there's something terrifying about him. Something uncanny about all the things that he does.

He's a supernatural creature of some sort, but not one of any kind that you've seen before. Faeries and all things of the gods stay clear from him, even vampires and werewolves seem to not want to be near him, and demons and ghosts all have at best a begrudging respect. He's something different.

He looks human, perfectly human. Blond hair, clear skin, bright smile, like the type of person who you'd see in a well lit ad. He's always well lit. Always photogenic. Of all the people you know who could secretly be a cryptid he seems the least likely. He's always dressed in the latest fashion, always knows the latest trends.

But there's something deeply wrong with him. At first he just seems a bit boring. He never curses. Likes the most popular movies and shows. Knows no counterculture, nothing unknown, nothing older, nothing not mainstream. It's so consistent. You think you saw him alone once and he was just standing still, not doing anything, not bothering to look like a person. It was the first time you realized he wasn't human at all.

He's very non controversial. He seems to have no religion, no political positions, perhaps no bigotry but no hatred for bigotry either. Mortal fence sitters could never hope to be what he is. It seems fine at first, but one time you were talking about politics with some people who agreed with you, but he seemed to disagree with you talking about it at all, and acusse you of starting fights.

And not to mention you remember a girl who was opening up to you and your freinds about the death of her father, and he told her to stop, told her she was making everything sad. He seems to hate everything sad. Hates sad movies. Hates sad music. Hates sad stories. It's like he sucks up all the sadness out of the room, and all the anger, and all the fear, and sometimes those things belong in some rooms.

You had a freind who said he was there when someone tried to assault them. They had been lead into someone's room at a party, and told to take of their clothing, and realized they were not permitted to leave. And he, the entity, was there, not inside the room but right outside. He didn't even know he was guarding the door, but he was. And he made it all so normal for everyone, told the person inside not to scream, that they were upsetting people, made it so nobody passing through that hallway might be upset at the assault going on outside. Perhaps an entity like him didn't truly know what he was guarding, either way he didn't care.

Eventually your freind got out of that room thanks to a poket knife. They drew the blood of the assaulters easily, such creatures are mere mortals. But the entity outside, the false human you thought was your freind, he was mad, mad at the victim for "bringing violence into a peaceful place". They stabbed him too to get out, but there was no blood inside of him, just void, like shadow given flesh, and the absence of all life incarnate.

You don't know what he is. He's not your friend anymore. There are many entities that have disguised themselves as humans. But you don't understand why one would disguise itself as someone so inhuman.

[that-ari-blogger]

This Is About Relationships (Hell's Greatest Dad)

I feel like we are seeing more and more stories that draw on horror elements as of recent times, with mixed success.

Critical Role, for example, has put some heavy emphasis on body and cosmic horror in their most recent campaigns, and I think that has worked really well. They are telling a story about feeling powerful in the face of adversity, and so having villains who are either unknowable or far too knowable really works for that idea.

On the other hand, the horror elements of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness actively took me out of the story, because they didn’t fit with the rest of the franchise at all, and I found that rather jarring.

Then there is Hazbin Hotel, which isn’t scary, but it definitely draws on some of the tools of writing horror. Although it doesn't do that in the way you might expect. Specifically, it uses the character of Lucifer to both embody and subvert the very nature of Gothic horror itself.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (Hazbin Hotel, Ratatouille, Paradise Lost, Frankenstein)

I have made my stance on genre extremely clear in the past. I think it exists, but I think it is bollocks, and Hazbin Hotel kind of proves my point.

Because, yes, you can boil Horror down into however many constituent parts as you would like in order to organise a bookstore, but however you spin it, Hazbin Hotel fits that, with the exception that it isn’t scary.

Then again, being scary is entirely subjective. For example, I am completely fine with ghosts and ghouls, so the only thing that gets me about games such as Phasmophobia are the jump scares, and Jump Scares aren't horror. By the same score, I am incredibly squeamish, so Hazbin Hotel itself was more difficult for me than a few of my friends.

Which leads me to gothic horror, which has a distinct aesthetic to it that isn’t actually essential at all.

The name actually comes from its aesthetic. Gothic fiction got started in the 1700s when Gothic architecture was popular but gained traction in the early 1800s when authors such as Edgar Alen Poe and Jane Austin got involved. The latter of whom wrote Northanger Abbey in 1818 to parody the overdramatization of the genre in a book that I personally despise.

Austin’s book comes across to me as incredibly insincere. I have an infinite respect for Austin’s work, but there is a deep sense of contempt in Northanger Abbey that drives me up the wall.

I want to be clear here, this is not me saying the book is bad. It is incredibly well written. I just hate it with every fibre of my being.

To me, Northanger Abbey missed the point of the gothic genre. Gothic isn't about the emotion, it's about the humanity. The fallibility, the force of will, the instability and resilience that come and go like the wind.

Gothic horror turns that into fear, specifically the fear of morality. It’s the Ratatouille genre. Any angel can sin, any demon can rise. Or in other words:

“Anyone can cook.”

Gothic horror is the fear of inconsistency. That someone you trust can betray you, or spiral into awful deeds, or that someone you despise might be right. It’s the fear of redemption, and conversely, the terror of good motives leading to bad ends.

Other subsets of horror draw on the fear of the unknown, or of not knowing. Gothic fiction is steeped in the terror of what you know being wrong.

Case and point, Frankenstein is both the archetypal science fiction book, and a phenomenal Gothic story. The terror is derived from the fact that it’s titular character can be so great and yet such an absolute monster, as well as the horror of creating a conscience.

The creature is intelligent, and its intrinsic morality is up for debate the entire time. Frankenstein calls it his "Adam", for Pete's sake. It kills multiple people, but as a reader you are unsettled by how much you agree with its motives.

Gothic horror is the fear of absence. There is no good or evil here, just people.

There’s a reason I brought up Ratatouille. The conflict of the series is derived from Skinner’s visceral fear that someone he despises as much as Linguine can actually be competent, combined with a field rat rising from the gutter to run a restaurant. “Anyone can cook” is a threat in this movie, but it gets better explained by Ego in a way that I really like.

“In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto: ‘Anyone can cook.’ But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.”

According to one of the greatest fanfics ever written, Paradise Lost, Lucifer rebelled against G-d’s vision and fell, which can be taken any number of ways. It’s written so that you sympathise with the main character, who is, may I remind you, the literal devil.

Worth noting, Frankenstein's monster reads Paradise Lost. I wonder if there is any significance to that.

Lucifer from Hazbin Hotel is nominally the same character as his biblical counterpart, except that he is blissfully unaware of any of the themes surrounding him. Kinda.

He has grasped the fact that anyone can fall, but the reverse of that hasn’t quite registered to him yet.

Case and point, he doesn’t understand people at all. He has sought escapism through “stuff”. By which I mean the ducks, but I also mean his song, Hell’s Greatest Dad.

Part of the gothic theming in Hazbin Hotel is that people aren’t static, and that relationships are more important than anything else. Angel Dust and Pentious don’t become better people through trust falls, the find it through love and companionship, both platonic and more than platonic.

To demonstrate this, we contrast Lucifer with Alastor, who once again doesn’t sing his own song but steals it off someone else. Alastor’s relationship with Charlie is so obviously sinister, and that will be better explained two episodes down the line, but at least he has a relationship with her.

The agony of this is that Jeremy Jordan is a phenomenal voice actor, who, along with Lucifer’s stellar writing, endears the character to you from his first scene.

Alastor is a villain; Lucifer is an absent father. Who do you side with here? That’s gothic fiction.

“Sailors fighting in the dance hall, Oh man, look at those cavemen go. It’s the freakiest show. Take a look at the lawman Beating up the wrong guy Oh man, wonder if he’ll ever know He's in the best selling show. Is there life on Mars?”

This is the chorus of a David Bowie song called Life On Mars. It centres around someone seeking escape through television and storytelling. It points out the futility of this, but the fact that it works. It’s a stable dynamic that doesn’t go anywhere.

Remind you of anything?

“Who needs a busboy, now that you've got the chef? Michelin tasting menu, free à la carte I'll rig the game for you because I'm the ref Champagne fountains, caviar mountains, that's just to start!”

Lucifer is offering Charlie anything she could dream of. Any thing. But Charlie doesn’t need an object. She needs a father, and she needs her relationship with Lucifer.

Enter Alastor, who, up to this point, has been generally benevolent to Charlie. He’s basically the embodiment of that old Tumblr textpost that described someone as “chaotic gay. I haven’t done anything evil yet, but my general aesthetic and demeanour tell you that I will, any day now.”

Side note, I know this post exists. I have seen it, I have screenshots of it. But Tumblr’s search function is so legendarily awful that I cannot locate it. Tumblr’s search function has beaten the FBI before, and I don’t have that much patience.

In any case, Alastor offers up his own curriculum vitae in the form of this:

“Who’s been here since day one? Who’s been faithful as a nun? Makes you chuckle with an old-timey pun? Your executive producer.”

He’s pitching himself via his relationship with Charlie. But what I wanted to point out specifically was how the two characters relate to the beat of the song.

This song is inspired by Friend Like Me. I know it's subtle, but I'm onto something, and I can pick out the clues. If you look closely at his moustache in this shot...

Lucifer is clicked to the rhythm, or rather, his backing music is. The band hits ever downbeat as one, looping back to play the same thing every few bars. It is incredibly stable. The one thing that isn’t, is Lucifer.

The man misses every single beat by a fraction of a second. Not much, but when you contrast him with the entirely of the rest of the song, you notice that tiny imperfection, especially when Alastor doesn’t share it.

Alastor starts singing by matching the beat perfectly with his opening sounds, then going free within the restraints. Later, when he co-opts the song, the band begins playing along with him and matching his melody.

The Radio Demon understands people incredibly well, and he works on relationships. As such, his music has a much more symbiotic relationship between each of the parts. Lucifer’s feels like a creation, Alastor’s feels like it was created, if that makes sense. There’s a human element to Alastor’s take on this song.

Which brings me back to the gothic stuff going on here, and the relationship between Lucifer and Alastor. Alastor is, of course, a manipulator. He takes issue with Lucifer because he wants Charlie isolated. But Lucifer has no reason to get upset by Alastor, right?

Alastor shakes up Lucifer’s entire worldview, to the point where I find some of the double dad dynamic between them rather compelling. Most of it.

Alastor is risk incarnate; he stands for the idea that anyone can do anything. A radio presenter can be a cannibal, and have parenting instincts take over with Nifty and at times Charlie. But he is unsafe. Because he is such an unknown, he is untrustworthy. You don’t know where you stand.

Lucifer, meanwhile, is terrified of this fact. He likes the safety of knowing where he stands, he can protect himself there, but he can also protect others. In my eyes, that’s why he was so absent with Charlie. He found something he could understand and kept it because he didn’t want to shake up the rhythm. But that was futile, and he realises this over the course of this episode.

But you might say “wait, Alastor is ace, he can’t be with Lucifer,” and my answer is twofold. First up, I am ace too, that doesn’t prohibit relationships. I’m not even talking about romantic stuff here, Alastor is the poster boy for being aromantic, but more importantly, parenting isn’t just about the other parent.

The two can both be dads, joined by their mutual care for their daughter, rather than affection for each other. I find that compelling. Charlie needs both the security and the sign that everything is possible. She needs someone to lift her up, but she also needs someone to catch her when she falls, and Lucifer and Alastor both play different roles in that dynamic.

Any angel can sin, any demon can rise. Anyone can be a dad, anyone can cook.

Final Thoughts

Jeremy Jordan is a global treasure and even if this series doesn’t stick the landing with its next season (we will see), Lucifer will be amazing.

Do I have a crush on this man? No. No, I do not. Why do you ask?

In all seriousness, I think episode five should have been two episodes. One for this song, and one for the next. Lucifer would join the Hotel’s crew for a few days, befriending Pentious and co., being utterly disrespected by Husk, and being eased into the fact that morality isn’t binary.

I don’t even mean this from just the pacing perspective, I think the series would have so much more thematic weight if it devoted more time to the literal devil learning the thesis of the series and becoming on board with redemption. I think that would be cool.

I'm also just now realising that this is a Gothic Horror musical, so of course Alex Brightman got cast in it.

In any case, next week is More Than Anything, which is yet another case study in why Jeremy Jordan is amazing. Stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[dodgeballstuckonthegymceiling]

Hello if I could make a request

Platonic Zim,Dib,and Gaz with The Uncanny ability to attract Supernatural objects and keeps them in a Shack in the backyard be it hyper Advanced alien, technology mystical items of magical power, or weird anomalous mundane objects if it's out of the ordinary odds are the reader has come into contact with it

Goodbye I'm going to have a lovely day

YES YES YES! This made the tism go burrr :D

Zim, Dib and Gaz X Reader who attracts the supernatural

Zim

★ Understandable, you would be friends with an alien. He likes you because you don't ask to many questions. When you do it's usually on topic for the conversation, like when you asked if he could digest chicken nuggets.

★ Before he considered you a friend, his paranoia about you secretly working for Dib- or even Tak lead him to keep tabs on you. Untill he could prove that you don't work for his enemies.

★ He isn't really interested in the magical objects you keep around. Unless it can be useful to him, but that's only if the object can hurt someone or has some kind of curse that he can weaponize.

★ Gone is the master lock you use for security, he replaced it with a fingerprint lock. You bribed him into making the upgrade for you by offering him some broken alien tech in exchange.

Dib

★ You're the only person other than Gaz who believes that Zim is a alien. Be prepared for him to info dump about the irken race. You are probably the first (willing) person to hear him talk about it, so please listen.

★ Your shack in the backyard is his own personal heaven. It's not to shabby either, you installed fairy lights on the inside. He takes the initiative to catalog everything you keep in there.

★ He keeps notes on what you have and the stories behind it. Each object has its own story behind it, by now you must have plenty of good stories. He'd love to listen to you talk about your experiences.

★ I can see you keeping a baseball bat inside the shack for safety reasons. Dib will always remember the time you hit Zim in the stomach with said baseball bat. It was his own fault for shouting in your ear.

Gaz

★ She might "borrow" some stuff from your shack. It comes in handy when she gets into a fight with Dib and needs something to terrorize him. Emotionally damaging people is okay when it's your sibling!

★ When you get into trouble with cursed objects or haunted dolls she only helps you if she might get to see a ghost or some other undead creature. It's the goth in her. She seemed like the kind of person to own a ouija board.

★ Naturally, you've learned differently ways to fight supernatural and paranormal things. Gaz now knows how to banish a demon and that you should never invite talking animals inside your house.

★ The talking animal incident will not be discussed. Let's just say that vampires are on your list of most hated cryptids.

[azureseacloud]

Music Lessons

A Ghost (band) oneshot

Cirrus x Reader

Words: 2,070

Warnings: none really, reader is called handsome but they are not explicitly assigned a gender (so can still be read as gender neutral)

Summary: Reader ventures into Cirrus’s room, only to be distracted by the keyboards. Cirrus catches them playing and decides to teach them.

This was written for an awesome friend :)

There’s some ✨sexual tension✨ and flirting as per usual. I don’t know anything about keyboards so please forgive me if something is wrong <3

Feel free to ask for requests with any of the ghouls, I am more than happy to write for them :))

Enjoy!

I hesitated at the door to the ghoul quarters. I’d been in here several times before, collecting shredded uniforms or broken masks to get repaired before the next ritual. Swiss was the main problem—he was always breaking his helmet during rituals, to the point that I was venturing down here almost every day. I didn’t mind it though.

The ghouls were eventful company. They were unpredictable most days—sometimes super friendly and nice, while other times they were overly flirty, and there were some times when they were almost cruel, giving a brief glimpse into the dark creatures that they were. Literal demons summoned from hell. But that was rare, and most visits they were pleasant.

This was one of my favourite parts of the job.

However, I couldn’t help but stall at the door, taking a deep breath to compose myself before I entered. It wasn’t normally this scary—but I was seeing her.

Cirrus.

I ran a nervous hand through my hair, bouncing on the balls of my feet before I pushed through the ornate door.

The ghoul quarters were underground, a main passageway leading to an open common area, complete with a kitchen, lounge room and dining area all enclosed in a large open room. It was cozy, and not at all what I had expected the first time I had been down here. From all the rumours and whispers, I’d imagined it would be a lot more ominous and cold.

The room was empty today, which was strange but not unusual. I checked my watch—it was definitely 3:00, and the note Cirrus had left me had said to meet her then.

I was supposed to collect her cape for repairs. It had torn during rehearsals, and she needed it for the ritual tomorrow, which meant I had very limited time to fix it.

Heading toward a corridor connected next to the kitchen, I kept my eyes open for any ghouls lurking around. I strode down the corridor, wondering if practice today had run late. They had never let me walk this far without one of them interacting with me, whether that was with a silent stare, a flirty comment, or a brush against my skin as I walked past. Either they were still with Papa, or they were testing out a new twisted prank.

I reached the door I knew belonged to Cirrus. It was carved with impressions of clouds, the silver highlights and white accents making them almost appear as if they were moving. Her name was etched in gold. Raising a hand, I knocked three times.

I waited outside her door tentatively, bouncing on the balls of my heels as I listened for any movement or sign that she was inside. Five minutes passed, and there was no answer.

I reached out for the handle hesitantly. She needed it fixed today and I still had other jobs to do around the clergy before the ritual tomorrow. Maybe she had left it somewhere obvious?

I wrapped my fingers around the door handle, still unsure. Going into a Ghoul’s room without them there—should I? I didn’t want to risk Cirrus getting mad at me, or feeling like I’d betrayed her and the other ghouls trust. But I wouldn’t be snooping—I’d just grab the cape and go. Maybe leave a note or something to let her know.

Bracing myself, I twisted the handle and pushed the door open.

Her room was breathtaking. I walked in, open mouthed as I got a glimpse of the ceiling. It had been painted to look like a cloudy sky, and was it just my eyes or were the clouds moving? It definitely seemed like they were lazily drifting across the roof in a dreamy fashion.

The whole room was light and airy, and gave off a calm comfort. It almost felt like I’d entered a floating palace high in the sky. Wow.

I spotted the cape sitting on her bed, folded neatly.

I picked it up, about to walk to the door when I spotted the keyboards in the corner of the room.

I stalled, taking in the beauty of the instruments. I’d always wanted to play keyboards—after watching the rituals, I’d been enraptured by the way Cirrus could play, her fingers gliding over the keys as she danced. I was going to try the music room, but I never had the time to venture down there during the current ritual period.

But her keyboards were right there.

I glanced at the door, trying to resist the pull of temptation—what were the odds that she would walk in and catch me? I contemplated, fiddling with the blue and black fabric in my hands as I considered.

I’d be quick, I promised myself. Just a few little chords, and then I would leave.

I set the cape back down on the bed, slowly approaching the keyboards and staring at them in awe. They were beautiful—the keys shining in the light of the room.

I reached a finger out, tentatively hitting one of the white keys. The sound that rang out was deep, and I lifted my finger at the loud noise, glancing nervously at the doorway.

I waited for a moment, straining my ears to hear any sound of movement that might indicate the ghouls were back. When there was none, I tried one further down. The pitch was higher, sweeter in a way.

I ran my hands across the keys, picking different ones and trying to put them together the way Cirrus did on stage. It was hard, and I had no idea what I was doing, but it was also mesmerising in a way. How each note was slightly different and you could combine them with another to create a deep melancholy or a high happiness.

It was addicting, my fingers continuing to experiment with the sounds even when I knew I should stop. That I should leave, that the ghouls could return at any moment.

I was slowly trying to match up the notes to my favourite one of their songs, managing to get halfway there when I stalled. A chill ran down my spine as I realised I wasn’t alone.

I looked up at the open door like a deer in headlights.

Cirrus was leaning against the doorway, one hand on her hip and the other braced on the doorframe. She cocked her head to the side and I felt a small stroke of panic. Was she mad?

“Hello, handsome,” she said sweetly, taking a step forward into the room. I froze, feet rooted to the floor as I watched her prowl closer.

“I’m sorry-I didn’t mean to. I was just collecting the cape but then I saw these and I couldn’t help myself. I’ve always wanted to—“ I cut off, twisting my hands together nervously. I could do nothing but watch as she approached me.

She was silent as she stepped gracefully, and I found myself admiring her. The curve of her waist, the shape of her uniform and how it accentuated her form—

“It’s meant to be A then B,” she said, tilting her head in that way all the ghouls seemed to do. I was taken aback, expecting her to be angry or offended.

“I’m sorry? What’s meant to be A and B?”

Cirrus stepped closer, brushing against me. She reached past me, grabbing my hand and placing my finger on a key. Her hands were smooth and softly held mine.

“It goes to this one first, then the second one,” she said, sliding my finger across to the key next to it. “The rest of it was correct.”

“Oh,” I said, lost for words. “Thank you.”

She pulled her hand back, trailing it over my forearm in a delicate way that brought goosebumps to the surface of my skin. “Why don’t you try it again, handsome?”

My mouth went dry at the name, mind scattering at her soft touch. It was all I could do to answer in complete sentences.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to bother you,” I said quietly.

She shook her head, smirking as she pushed me gently forward, until I was standing at the centre of the keyboard. She was to the left behind me, a hand sliding to my back.

Tentatively I reached out, playing the first few notes, this time playing the A then B key like she had told me. It sounded right now, and I slowly played to the end of the small part I had figured out.

Cirrus reached out to her side of the keyboard, her fingers slowly running over the keys to the next part. I watched, mesmerised by the flowing movement of her fingers. Mine looked clumsy compared to hers.

“Your turn,” she said softly, moving around to my other side as I shuffled closer to the left side of the keyboard. As she settled on my right she rested a hand gently on my shoulder, her touch light and airy just like her element. It sent a small shiver through me and I quickly began playing the keys, hoping she hadn’t noticed.

“That’s it. Good.” Her voice was low as she spoke into my ear, her thumb rubbing soothing circles into my arm. I felt my face heating up at her words.

I practiced the keys a few more times, trying to move my hand in the smooth flowing way that she had. My mind kept wandering to her casual touch, my heart spiking as she leant her head on my upper arm, her hand curling around my elbow.

“Now play it from the start. Go as slow as you need.”

I began playing slowly. I missed a few, and she quietly corrected them, dragging her fingertips along my hand. I shivered at the touch, craving more. It was as if her touch was addictive.

When I began playing it smoother, she joined in, playing the keys on the other side in time with my pace. Her other hand slid down to my hip and I almost missed a note. I could see her teasing smirk out of the corner of my eye as she continued smoothly playing with me.

We reached the end of the chorus, and she gently tugged on my waist. I turned to face her, searching for any glimpse of her eyes through the mask, slightly disappointed when there was none. She smiled, her hand slipping into mine.

“You’re a good player,” she hummed, fingers stroking the underside of my palm.

“Thank you,” I breathed, still in awe that the beautiful ghoulette in front of me had spent the last, however long it had been, teaching me to play. I’d expected her to be annoyed at me for touching her keyboard and being in her room without her permission. I knew Dewdrop definitely would have been.

Shit, what time was it?

I still had to fix her cape before the ritual tomorrow, and I knew the delicate material could take hours to fix cleanly. And we’d been practising for what felt like hours.

“Thank you for teaching me.” I said shyly, not able to look at her all of a sudden, heat still blooming on my cheeks. I looked at my feet instead, nervously shuffling. “Umm, I’m really sorry but I should be going, I still have to repair your cape.”

A hand gently lifted my chin, pulling my gaze from the floor between us to her masked face. Cirrus tilted her head, trailing her hand down my neck and across my collarbone as she leaned in. I could feel goosebumps prickle along the places of my skin that she touched, a shiver going through me at the sensation.

“You’re welcome to come back here, handsome darling,” she muttered lowly, squeezing my hand in hers. “I’m more than delighted to teach you.” She leaned back with a wicked grin, releasing my hand.

I was frozen for a moment and her grin grew more amused. Snapping out of the almost trance-like state I had been in, I slowly backed away, reaching to grab the cape off of her bed.

She watched as I walked to the door, calling out as I walked over the threshold.

“See you tomorrow, handsome.”

I blushed even harder, gently closing her door.

It was safe to say that I would definitely be going back.

[enkeladyte]

Hellboy & his world

this is for people who dont know anything about hellboy..!

Hellboy is a series created by Mike Mignola, which began in 1994 with the four-issue story arc Seed of Destruction. The story begins in 1944 and establishes his origin story as a hellbound human-demon hybrid, summoned to Earth by Nazis during World War 2 to be used as a weapon against the Allies. This, of course, didn't work out as planned, as the operation was intercepted by a contingent of paranormal experts, soldiers, and the Torch of Liberty, an analogue for Captain America.

Upon finding the infant, a young Professor Trevor Bruttonholm adopts it and names him Hellboy. We also get a sneak peek of Rasputin (yeah, that Rasputin), who is the Nazi's own paranormal expert, and the one who performed the ritual that summoned Hellboy.

Skipping forward a year, the Professor establishes an international organization to combat and research paranormal threats to the world. This group is the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), and nearly every one of our protagonists will be a member of it at one point or another. Hellboy himself is granted honorary human status by the UN, and joins the BPRD in 1952 (having grown at an accelerated rate to the size of a young adult). These early years of his are collected in an ongoing series called 'Hellboy and the BPRD', and they all take place before the rest of the Seed of Destruction story.

Going forward again, we get to 1992, and the Professor goes missing during an expedition in the Arctic. He resurfaces two years later, but is tragically killed in front of Hellboy by a mutant frog creature. This begins a chain of events which leads to a confrontation with a seemingly immortal Rasputin, who reveals to Hellboy that he is destined to end the world.

During this story, we are introduced to two members of the BPRD who aid Hellboy in his fight against Rasputin, and who are close friends of his.

Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic human with a tragic past,

-- and Abe Sapien, a friendly fishman of unknown origins.

Now, all of this probably sounds familiar. If you've seen Guillermo Del Toro's first Hellboy movie, you'll have seen something close to this exact story, yet there are several key differences. In the movie, Rasputin is the ultimate Big Bad of the story, and there is only a hint of something greater behind the scenes-- but in the comic, it is explicitly stated that he is serving an extra-dimensional being known as the Ogrdu Jahad, the Seven Beasts, also known as the Serpent, the Dragon, and so on. He even summons one of the Serpent's offspring- known as an Ogdru Hem.

The Ogdru Jahad are intrinsic to understanding the story of Hellboy. Their origin goes back to the creation of the world itself, and most of the enemies of the BPRD are either wanting to summon it to end the world, or harness its power for their own benefit. The Hem themselves are a complicated topic. While most of the time they are physical monsters you can fight, they are capable of influencing the world in more subtle ways.

There's also some key characters lacking in every one of the Hellboy films. One that I find quite insulting to leave out is Kate Corrigan.

She plays a supporting role to the rest of the cast, and has several important moments with Hellboy and the others. She also has a few stories in which she plays a much more active role, such as the Wolves of St. August.

There's also a few characters that get their own spinoff titles that delve more into the past of the series, like Lobster Johnson, Sir Edward Grey, or Sledgehammer 44.

Going back to the threats out protagonists face, there are others that come from some unexpected places. Hecate, who plays both the role of antagonist and supporting character of Hellboy, comes from the more mythological side of the world. There are mad scientists, monsters from other realms unrelated to the Ogdru Jahad, secretive cults, vampires, fae creatures, ghosts, zombies, and more.

If I were to name one in particular that poses as big of a threat as the Ogdru Jahad, it would be the denizens of Hell and their forces. Demons, imps, humans who have made pacts with them, and the Dukes that rule over them all. Hellboy is half demon, after all.

Oh yeah. There's also the aliens. They kinda look like Abe, but they're unrelated to any of the goings on of Earth, and are simply monitoring the situation.

Last but not least, there's the Right Hand of Doom. This hulking mass of stone that been attached to Hellboy from birth is not only one of his most useful assets- for pummeling his enemies- but also a curse he carries everywhere with him. It is an iconic part of the character and the mythos surrounding him, and it plays a massive role in his unwilling fate to end the world. The nature of it and how he came to have it are explored in detail throughout the many series Mignola has written.

...and with that, this is the end of a very long post about a very long series. Hopefully it'll be the longest post on this blog. Thank you to anyone who actually read all this, and I hope you stay to learn more about the world of Hellboy!

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

okie chokie, let’s go

uhhh

just gonna paste this directly from my notes cuz I suck at summarizing…

Witch au:

Okay, so this entire thing essentially revolves around lunar because um reasons that I don’t feel like disclosing (I have none). Okay. So. There’s this funky lil pendant that pretty much everyone sees as a priceless artifact. There’s legends surrounding at, whispers of untold power beyond time and space, secrets that bend reality to your every whim. (Fun fact that definitely isn’t important at all: KC helped design it!) So of course, a certain orange dorito man goes looking after it. He’s dedicated pretty much his entire life to researching its abilities and whereabouts, and finally, after countless years of searching, it’s in the palm of his hand. Exceeeept…whoops! He doesn’t know how to use it. And he tries everything: he flips through all his texts, all the notes left behind, but there’s nothing said about activating it. He tries knocking, incantations, different acids and solvents (fun fact: he was an alchemist’s apprentice for a lil while in his youth!) to no avail. Finally, he rubs the dumb thing like Alladin’s lamp, grasping for straws before giving up and tossingn the damn thing across the room. And who should come out but a little ghost, curious to see who disrupted its vessel.

Lunar is essentially like Casper. Very sweet and friendly, but a little oblivious of boundaries. Besides, he hasn’t been outside in a loooong time; he’s eager to explore and check out what’s changed, much to Eclipse’s chagrin. He doesn’t exactly like the new spirit, but it’s the only lead he has in unlocking the pendant’s power. So, he puts up with him, albeit not with the…best treatment. Eclipse isn’t exactly well-versed with kids; he hardly got to be one for very long. That, and his main priority is the pendant; Lunar’s a liability. He conducts a good deal of experiments, trying to set Lunar free from the object, but that is seemingly impossible. As Eclipse’s experiments continue to fail, his temper grows shorter, and Lunar suffers all the worse for it. Eventually, Eclipse gives up altogether and scraps the project regarding Lunar’s involvement, and seeks out someone to just break the pendant in hopes that that’ll work (his time working on it have made him…less than mentally stable). So, poor Lunar finds out and is cast to the wayside, seemingly forgotten. He resolves to run away and escape Eclipse’s place (since he has no real ties there besides the emotional abuse and manipulation on Eclipse’s part) with the pendant tied around his neck. 

He wanders around for a lil while, and what should he happen upon but a nice little cabin in the middle of the woods. It’s a lot cozier than Eclipse’s, and he wanders inside in hopes of somehow figuring out how to solve this little amulet issue since it’s…kinda not great for him either. So he explores the little house, only to be caught red handed by our good friend the witch.

Moon is the witch in this au. He, like Eclipse, was also an alchemist under KC, but he actually completed his training and went on to study on his own, becoming fairly well-versed in magic and the dark arts. Anywho, he walks into his cabin and meets this little ghost who looks absolutely terrified at his presence. Moon assures him that he’s not here to cause any trouble, and the ghoul seems to relax, if only slightly. Moon essentially decides to just let him stay for as long as he wants to, only saying that he might have a bit of an issue with his brother…

Sun isn’t a witch like Moon, He dabbled a little bit in alchemy, but he only knows the basics of that and most magic. His knowledge gravitates more towards creatures of myth and legend. He’s a demon hunter of sorts (he runs into a particular demon at some point…), collecting the necessary ingredients for Moon’s experiments, as well as a few of his own. He comes home a week or two after Lunar, and, considering his line of work, may have…overreacted a little. Moon stops him and explains the situation, after which Sun profusely apologizes to a wary and somewhat fearful Lunar. 

I’m gonna just cut myself off here cuz I ran out of steam for the day.

(uhh @sunnyinajar mmmgonna tag you cuz uh you seemed uh somewhat hyped about this jumble of ideas earlier but uh I dunno yea here’s this um yes right sorry for tagging you if you already saw it or didn’t uh wanna see it and uh yeah I’m gonna stop talking before I delete this entire thing and shove it down a garbage shoot-)

[rxttenfish]

Omg what DOES Aaravi do as a monster slayer?

the short answer is that it varies with how much of my own stuff im willing to bring in, im afraid

mostly im waffling back and forth on this point right now because if i was a little closer to monster prom canon i might be able to have more fun with it and include a wider variety of situations and it wouldnt be such a downer as it would be in the other case...

mostly, the thing that monster slayers are in the redesign universe is a hate group, plain and simple. a particularly violent and nasty one too, at that - they're focused primarily out of human-majority societies and cultures that have much smaller minorities of other sophonts and/or that contact with those sophonts is new and recent, hence why there's such a strong sorting between "humans" and "monsters". "monsters" isn't a real category in any sense of the word, it's just a social marker for an out-group that is seen as particularly dangerous and frightening and, thus, "not normal". this is also why it doesn't really specify between monsters that are sophonts and monsters that are just normal animals...

primarily this hate group arose out of existing environmental/hunting groups, semi similar to things like forest rangers, and has even common ancestry with witches (or, one of the definitions of "witch"... witch can refer to a human with some innate workable magic, witch can refer to anyone who works with/studies magic as a job, or witch can refer to a supernatural concept/creature which is basically just the trope we have of the witch, as any malignant supernatural person who uses that supernatural prowess for evil. this is different from magic, because magic in this universe is just... another Thing That Exists, not necessarily any different from, say, engineering as a job or study, and belief in the impossible and supernatural is of course going to exist unrelated to that).

as in, there's a fairly universal need in most communities to be able to manage magic somehow. usually there's wildlife or plants that have their own innate pools of workable magic, and those need to be treated and handled differently as a different form of danger in the world, or there's magical aquifers locally, which means that all of that magic is just available as free energy to be used by anyone who has the chance to grab it, and if workable pools of magic aren't regularly maintained to recycle the magic that makes it up, then it can build up wild magic and tends to explode particularly dangerously... so you need someone who has learned how to deal with all of that, and so you get the origins of witches, and the origins of other people specializing to deal in magic and magic-heavy things, and from that you get people specialized in hunting or otherwise managing animals that utilize magic in their biology in some way.

(which, to be fair, nearly everything on this alternate earth is, in some way. magic really is just... free energy for anyone who can grab a little of it, and most life will be able to at least do a little bit of that. humans are a prime example, since even non-innate magic users will still hold and maintain very small pools of magic internally, utilized primarily for metabolism and to offer a slight boost to the immune system and other such things. this is even what souls and ghosts are - just the pools of magic inside of a person that can get shaken loose through particularly traumatic events, although the systems that lead to ghosts are poorly understood (and also different from a soul, the animating supernatural concept... theres a lot of confusing terminology in this universe, and i do that on purpose). it's just that species that either live in or around magical aquifers or are uniquely adapted for it that are magic specialists, where it makes up a much larger part of their biology, and who cannot live without that magic. a human without magic might just be slightly immunocompromised, a demon without magic is dead!)

this is where you get monster slayers, though. because they were a specific movement within this larger group of people who focus on magical life, where they particularly focused on the danger posed by magic specialist wildlife during a time when nonhuman sophonts were being introduced to and "challenging" the dominant culture where they came from, and ended up connecting the two. it's a purposefully very messy grouping without a lot in common other than this specific group targeting them, and their primary goals might be similar to creating and enforcing a human-only community devoid of large, dangerous wildlife around that area that could possibly injure someone. the fact that this also ends up targeting a lot of disabled humans (vampires, zombies, etc, they're just humans who have a specific magic-derived "virus". there's very few benefits to this, it really is just a disability) isn't seen as a problem either in their eyes, mostly because they're also often stereotyped as being dangerous or endangering other people by their sheer presence, so they get sorted in with the other targeted groups as well.

there's also a lot of people and things that we have in real life that would get labelled "monsters" in this specific line of belief, even if i haven't gone into that as much, mostly because i worry that people will think that because i'm writing aaravi as sympathetic that i'm supporting her beliefs or the beliefs of monster slayers too - or that, again, i'm still just in the awkward middle ground where i'm not sure how much i want to go into this and REALLY kill the mood.

(also, because it does kind of miff me when people write fantasy settings but provide some kind of distinction between real wildlife and fantasy monsters in a way that shouldn't actually exist in that fiction. lions and tigers and bears should be considered just as dangerous and frightening as any speculative creatures you put in your work, especially when there's not any one unique feature that tidily separates the world into "animals" and "wildlife". hell this is even what i try to get at with my merfolk, since they really aren't any different from humans, as just another naturally formed sapient animal species.)

and, to be clear, i WANT this to be upsetting. it shouldn't be something comfortable or easy to talk about, let alone witness. it's something that also has to be seen and judged and understood in order to understand aaravi herself, just as much as how you can't understand miranda unless you understand what it actually means for her to be a genocidal monarch who expresses ultimate control over anyone who happens to be under her and is willing to do anything to maintain control in the groups of her equals. for both of them, they're supposed to equally be representative of those who suffer by and under the system they are a part of (aaravi is not allowed to leave the monster slayers even if she wanted to, her being discovered as half-human would mean her potentially being targeted and killed and her family potentially also targeted for association, having her entire self worth tied to her ability to lose her own personhood and perpetuate violence that no one else is capable of or wants to do, or else be blamed as the reason why innocent people get hurt and killed), while also actively perpetuating it (both have a vitriolic hatred of anyone who either "can't do their job correctly" or "isn't hard enough to withstand the pressures of their job", aaravi especially targets and is quick to punish other slayers to try and cover her also being "part monster", she upholds and feels incredibly defensive over her family name and how great her family was at being slayers, she hunts and kills a lot of other people just for them not being human that makes them even more guarded and scared of humans and more likely to retaliate in order to try and keep themselves safe, which also means its harder for anyone else to stop being a monster slayer because even more taboo gets connected to them or being one).

a prime example is actually her grandma, who is still around. aaravi's from a line of monster slayers, which is to say her family was already in this hate group, they were born into it, and aaravi was just the latest in the long line of it all. her mom did work on trying to get out, did meet aaravi's dad and left to where no one else in the group knew where she was, where she could try to start anew and they wouldn't be able to find her, to have a family with someone who she had been taught to view as nothing but dangerous and frightening and not someone to be trusted... and then he turned out to be a garden variety asshole who just... left. never really was very interested in aaravi or salil, got bored with aaravi's mom once she tried settling down after getting out, didn't really do much to support her in trying to remake her life from a brand new foundation, and just left one day without a note or saying anything or anything at all, really.

all of which served as mundane trauma that pushed aaravi's mom back into the monster slayers even harder. it just confirmed a lot of old beliefs that she had burned into her mind after not really helping her to undo or confront them, and she had very little else left to go back to, and she had two kids now that if anyone else learned were the result of her having a tyst with a monster would get hurt and killed as much as she would, serving as a representation of the mistake that had just been confirmed in her mind as such.

it's why it came down on salil so much harder than aaravi, and why aaravi looking so nearly human is so important for the way the story functions. aaravi got pushed harder and harder to both try and make up for her mother's mistake, pushed to become another monster slayer and pushed even harder to be a GOOD one that would be great enough to make up for all that her mother had done while still living up to the legacy that her mom could only think of herself as having ruined, to shove all her monster parts into a deep dark little box that she would never tell anyone else about, who was told over and over how dangerous it was and what would happen if this got out. but salil... salil is much more obviously inhuman, much more obviously something that she can't hide or obscure, and so salil kind of...

well, already their mom was reverting hard onto "all monsters are dangerous and cannot be trusted and NONE of them are EVER going to be good, only lie about it to hurt you even worse", and there was a lot harder... fear, from her, that he picked up on. really, both of them picked up on it, and still aaravi doesn't know and is terrified of the possibility that their mom was scared of them, or thought that they would hurt her, or even outright hated them for being monsters. and because salil was much more obvious about it, a lot more got targeted and felt by salil, a lot more their mom tried a lot less with him, a lot more she just tried to hide him in the house and not tell anyone about him or that he existed. its why when he ran away one night, it was very easy for her to come to the conclusion that he had been found and killed by monsters, and it was very easy for that belief to be passed onto aaravi.

it's also why aaravi's grandma has such a... particular situation. she was also such a prominent monster slayer within that community and group for so long, and so many of the leaders within the community think back fondly of her, but its this very same reason that she can't talk about the amount of doubt she's also felt about it, the mounting regrets and guilt that has built up, the knowledge of what happened to her daughter and to her grandkids, and the knowledge that she can't really DO anything to help it either, even AS someone who holds such an esteemed position and even BECAUSE of it. she's effectively just built up more and more distance from the community over time, isolated herself more and more from these old friends of hers, gone quietly silent in her old age, but its also why shes never been able to fully shake it, and why that connection STILL exists and shes STILL expected to uphold it when it does. she's older than she used to be, more vulnerable, and she has a granddaughter who doesn't have a mom or a dad anymore to look after her, who is at least part of what monster slayers want to exterminate, and there's a lot at stake here that she just can't make herself risk.

so, yeah... i hope this provides a little bit of clarity as to what aaravi in the full redesign verse being a monster hunter MEANS and what she does, because it's not... very pretty, really.

if i write it, i'll likely end up focusing more on the animal side of it, least of all because i can't see aaravi taking miranda on a hunt for a person, but also because it adds in more layers of aaravi feeling disingenuous and doubting herself. she feels like she's lying to miranda, making it more palatable, more acceptable, than it really is, not showing her the full thing and letting herself be judged as is, but also aaravi is ABSOLUTELY not prepared for that conversation and doesn't know how to breach the subject of "i'm basically a serial killer for hire" with miranda, and is equally as scared by the thought of what if miranda actually DOESN'T have a problem with that and doesn't react. but it's also just close enough to still hit that uncomfortable realm with aaravi, just close enough to killing a person that she keeps seeing herself in the eyes of the wildlife, doesn't know which end of the gun she's more scared of being on and doesn't know how to handle any of it.

[chaos0pikachu]

Hiya, finally got around to reading your post on the horror influences of DFF (thank you) and because it added immensely to my to watch list, I was wondering if you had any recommendations / resources for my current side quest.

Last week I watched both 1000 years old and Red Wine in the Dark Night and came across two very different vampires neither of which has fangs. And while that might still be a coincidence (n=2 is not a good basis) it was enough to make me realise that I do close to nothing about Thailand (and related) vampire lore.

While it is a blessing that we are going to have five thai vampire BLs this year, in this case it is actually a curse because any combination of keywords I can think of leads me to 1000 images of Boun staring at me with red eyes. And in this ONE instance, this is actually a complaint.

So, rambles over: Do you have any recommendation for thai horror / supernatural stories that feature vampires / blood sucking ghosts demons or the like?

Hope you are having a good day and happy watching :-)

Tbh I don't know a ton of Thai vampire movies specifically. My knowledge of Thai cinema tends to skew action or horror and even that I'm still a newbie. What's more frustrating is a lot of older Thai films aren't available for streaming and you gotta pirate them - which hey, I'm no stranger to that life either I'm an anime fan lmao - though Netflix has started picking up more Thai imports recently. That's where I watched The Whole Truth, Girl From Nowhere, Trapped 13 (there's a documentary and a drama also fuck Elon Musk), and part of School Tales.

[Netflix is so fucking annoying they have some of the best catalog for international media around but they're so god damn greedy]

As far as I know in regards to like, are there even Thai vampires in mythology/folklore the closest thing I could find was the Krasue:

"A Krasue, sometimes called Pii Krasue, is a spirit that haunts most of Southeast Asia. [...] The Krasue is delightfully gory, consisting of a floating head with entrails and internal organs dangling from the neck. They usually manifest themselves as attractive young women with bloody hanging innards and float about accompanied by an eerie glow. Sometimes, they even have fangs like a vampire." (source)

So I think it's pretty safe to say that, uh, the vampires in upcoming Thai shows are not taking from Thai myth lol but probably Japanese and Korean media.

Japanese takes on vampires which were all the rage in the mid-00s: Blood The Last Vampire (2000), Vampire Knight (2008), Blood+ (2005), Hellsing (1997 - 2008), Blood C (2011), Blood Hound (2004), Trinity Blood (2005) I'm noticing a lot of "blood" used in these titles.

Not that vampires aren't still a sub-genre in Japan, like gosh Seraph of the End was huge in 2013 and was a part of the small re-boom of anime/manga during that time period after the bubble popped.

Korea's also done vampires there seems to have been a bit of a boom in the mid-00s (Vampire Idol 2011, Immortal Goddess 2016) and then again recently (Kissable Lips 2022, Bite Sisters 2021, Heartbeat 2023). From what little I've seen in Korean media - I haven't watched either of the mid-00s shows - vampires tend to be more romance fodder, and treated like any other fantasy creature rather than something scary or demonic.

Which falls in line with the trailer for 1000 Days - which I have also not watched so correct me if I'm wrong and it's actually scary as fuck lmao - while Japanese vampire media ranges from romantic but more gothic or outright just for horror and action.

In my experience horror films from Japan, Korea and Thailand don't usually have blood sucking ghosts or demons? Not saying there's none, but most of the films I've watched the ghosts weren't like, of the blood sucking variety. They tend to be connected to curses left behind because of some sort of wrong done to the spirit in their past life.

Take, White Melody of Death, as an example which is a Korean horror film about a Kpop girl group. The curse that murders it's way through the characters is attached to the spirit of a character who died.

I really recommend this video on White if only b/c I adore Yhara's videos:

Even in The Whole Truth the spirit is more of seeking vengeance than like, to eat people. The concept of "demons" is different in various Asian countries than in an American/Anglo-Saxon context because of the differences in religious, and cultural roots.

Again, totally not an expert regarding all this, and I'm putting the rest under a read more for length but gonna talk a bit more about Japanese, and Chinese folklore (with sources!) under the cut. And I DO list some recs for general horror stuff I like.

Take the concept of "demon" for example:

"Yokai is not simply the Japanese word for demon, as is sometimes believed. They are the embodiment of a moment: a feeling of dread and bewilderment, or awe and wonder over an extraordinary event; or a strange sound or peculiar scent that demands an explanation; an ineffable phenomenon explained only by a supernatural entity. Little wonder then that the Japanese characters for Yokai are 妖怪, which taken individually could mean strange or alluring mystery!" (source)

You can see this reflected in Japanese media like the super famous Inu-yasha: A Feudal Fairytale by Rumiko Takahashi (Inuyasha when directly translated into English means "dog demon"). Where, in the story, there's a mix of demons both human like, creature like, and wide as far as individual morality goes - one of the protagonists, Inuyasha is a half-demon mixed with human it's a whole subplot of his character.

I've found this is more typical in the Japanese media I've engaged with. Like in Japanese horror like Dark Waters (2002) or Ringu (1998) they don't refer to the "monster" as a "demon" it's typically referred to as a ghost or spirit.

You can also see this in Chinese media like Yin Yang Master Dream of Eternity - where the protagonist is also a half demon I'm beginning to see a pattern in the media I like lmao - which makes sense since parts of Japanese folklore/mythology was inspired by Chinese mythology:

"Here, in his third book, Konjaku Hyakki Shui (Supplement to The Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past), Sekien finds inspiration in Chinese mythology." (source)

I feel like this is a long winded way of saying, uh, no I don't know any Thai specific movies about vampires or blood sucking demons. It seems like a fairly new genre exploration from what I've researched so far.

Anyway I can happily share some of my favorite Korean, Japanese and Thai horror things tho, but I really recommend others search themselves and explore the genre. Horror is so vast and flexible as a genre so there's a lot I haven't watched or maybe don't even vibe with that you might!

Perfect Blue, 1997, directed by Satoshi Kon - if you liked Black Swan you'd probably like this film if not more so, it's animated but it's such an amazing psychological horror film there's a reason Satoshi Kon's work has been so influential on media globally.

Girl From Nowhere, 2018 - I talk this one up a lot but I only like season 1 which imo is stronger conceptually, that said, a lot of folks liked season two as well! It has major Twilight Zone vibes, but with a central protagonist who is also a literal force of nature (is Nanno a deity, spirit, demon? No one actually knows and the ambigity is delicious) both seasons are available on Netflix.

Ringu, 1998 - I feel like even if you're a casual horror fan or the like you know of The Ring which is a 2002 remake of this Japanese horror film. I think the 1998 version is better if only because my beloved Hiroyuki Sanada is in it, tho as far as American remakes of Japanese horror films go, The Ring isn't a terrible one (the sequel is tho imo).

Hellsing Ultimate, 2006 - So there's an anime for Hellsing from 2002 that's okay, Hellsing Ultimate is a direct adaption of the manga and it's better. I recommend either reading the manga - the art is FANTASTIC - or watching Ultimate. Out of all three I prefer the manga if only because the art is so good, but if you want Dracula eating and fighting Nazis this is the story for you.

Vampire Princess Miyu, 1997 - this is partly nostalgia but the series is so beautifully animated and it's such a classic. The OVAs will probably be hard to find but if you can and you want some classic Japanese vampire stuff I really liked this back in my youth~~

God Child/Earl of Cain, 2005 - so this is a manga, and it's more Gothic horror than straight horror, but I'm adding it because Kaori Yuki's art is amazing, it's a very subtexually queer series, and it's very Sherlock Holmes meets Shirley Jackson in terms of story.

Train to Busan, 2016 - I am a HUGE zombie film fan love me some zombies and Train to Busan is in my top 3 easy. It's top down one of the best zombie films and the only one that tops it for me is the original Night of the Living Dead. The film has the tag team of Don Lee and Gong Yoo like are you kidding me?

I Saw The Devil, 2010 - This one is A Lot, but it stars Lee Byung-hun in one of his better roles and if you don't trust me watch Kennie JD's video on it.

The Guest, 2018 - This show was such an interesting mix of exorcism and shamanism. The scares were legit SCARY and the entire show was so unnerving, if you can handle slow burns and a good character driven ghost story I really liked this one.

#Alive, 2020 - Okay this feels like cheating cause it's not actually that scary like, at all lol at least not to me, but it's got zombies and the incredible Yoo Ah-In (there's also an American version with Tyler Posey that is unfortunately very bad).

Kingdom, 2018 - I am truly basic but it's SUCH a good zombie show!!! The thrills are amazing, and it had me and my Ma on the edge of our seats. It's not really scary to me, but like its a ymmv (zombies in general don't scare me lol they're just fun).

That's all I can think of right now, I know there's more in my head but I can't remember of them all lol and others that I've watched that I wouldn't really recommend - High School of the Dead, for example, is famous for it's "Matrix boobs" scene which is hilarious but not great cinema lmao - so I left a lot of stuff I know out.

This got long, sorry dude!

[averagetransdude12]

(For legal reasons I'm not a therapist) Uhhh I am bored so now I sha'll rant to yall about Flamingo lore. So I'll be going by this playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMAZgP8rjwSLYgRu2v0gjUWlZ_ucFPC1E

So the first video is called "A normal roblox video" it kinda just shows insanity and losing yourself, and at the end it seems like Albert (which is of course the main character) "dies" but not really dying its just implied.

The second video is called "Albert's new merch made something terrible happen" it shows rituals in which Albert sacrifices a styrofoam head to a god like deity and when his ritual goes well he goes insane, and it cuts to Albert throwing wife (the mannequin) off the roof. Which could be you sacrificing yourself to help others, but they don't care enough to care so it could lead to insanity

The third video is called "Flamingos wife" where it looks like the whole incident was either a dream or it happened earlier. It has nothing of value in most of it until near the end when Albert and wife wake up in a sewer and if you turn up you're brightness you can see a shadowy figure behind them in the sewer. Maybe the shadow could be a guilty conscience? Like how some people deal with guilt they didn't even need to feel guilt about or it could be just a normal guilty conscience.

The fourth video is called "USE STARCODE FLAMINGO" which is just him making an ad for his starcode, but it's ofc deeper then that cause it's Albert. So it has a kid character (which is just Albert but on his knees), and a mom, the kid is just a brat asks his mom for robux, and his mom buys him a robux gift card, and the kid uses it without using the starcode and is sent to hell where a shadow creature threatens him and tells him that he'll kill his mom and take him (well it's implied).

The fifth video is called "I am playing roblox in this video" the video starts with Albert playing a roblox game, (and if you watch the video you would know the context, and rn I'll just mention the lore of the video) it seems in the video as if it's eluding to murder. In said video Albert sees a ghost orb which is a sign of a dead person or someone's ghost (it could just be some fuzz, but Albert said the crew didn't see it and that he didn't mean to watch it go by) and there is a shadow man behind him if you turn up the brightness. (Pretend I put that the lights go out for 2 minutes in said video lol) the lights go back on and Albert gets up from where he was siting and goes over to some scaffolding (he filmed it in his "new" office building) he climbs up the scaffolding ladder and when he gets up onto the top of the scaffolding he spits over the edge spitting out beans (beans can imply drugs/gore if you look into where they mostly come from) he looks shocked, and climbs down the ladder and walks over to his desk where the computer is leaking beans everywhere. He mumbles something about how he thought he hid it and stuff.

Sixth video is called "The end of flamingo" let's just skip over the boring shit and go straight to how it implies to not being able to leave people (could imply attachment issues) and thinking you are trapped to be around with them, and how it's like everything is burning around you but you are still conscious. Oh and the weird demon thing that talks to Albert and says he should let her go. And when he doesn't let her go, the demon makes Albert trapped inside of a mannequin on a burnt bed.

Seventh and hopefully last video is titled "I messed up" (man if he posts another damn merch ad video I will point a gun to my head) It seems like it's based in the 80's with the 80's music and the whole laundromat thing and the newspapers. So Albert is driving a car to the laundromat to wash clothes (the fans love this video lol). Skip to the laundromat where he encounters masked shadow man (idk thats his name now) the masked shadow man asks for meat, and shows Albert a newspaper with an ad for a meat store. It skips to Albert driving back to the laundromat with some meat for the masked man, he arrives to the laundromat and looks for the masked man, and the masked man declines the meat Albert brought him and points to a girl outside. And Albert goes outside and goes up behind her and goes to grab her shoulder when she turns into meat, Albert goes back into the laundromat and looks for the masked man. This could imply many things like helping someone but they don't really care much when you actually help them, or being a people pleaser and such, trying to help people as best as you can. Or some shit idk I'm not a therapist.

Matpat should look into this, I shouldn't have to just post this shit at 4 am cause I was bored and no one else will talk about it. If anyone can do it please try and get matpat to look into this. I ruined my damn sleep schedule just to make this post.

[fromxxthexxashes]

My thoughts on Supernatural if it were on different networks/platforms.

ABC: No gore. No brutal murders on screen. So much melodrama. A lot more characters. Many love triangles. Maybe Destiel, but if it was leaning that way they would have had a complicated on and off thing. It would probably play second fiddle to an over complicated romance for Sam.

HBO: More gore and darker themes. More explicit content (lots of seggs). Also F-bombs. Mostly from Dean. Dean’s alcolism and Sam’s demon blood addiction would have been highlighted more and it would be way darker. Destiel would be a thing and they would probably get together pretty early on.

Amazon: So much more blood. Like all the blood and all the gore. Hard core seggs. Also SO SO SO many f-bombs and other taboo curses not allowed on network television. Again, most of them from Dean. Just watch The Boys. It would basically be that, but switch the supes for monsters.

NBC: imagine if supernatural had a baby with a procedural cop/hospital/fire-fighter show. It would basically be monster of the week all the time, with some more romance. Destiel is like a fifty-fifty chance (in the later seasons when the general viewers are less afraid of gay people), but if they were together they wouldn’t get as much attention as Sam’s romance, which would probably be Eileen and everyone would love them, but still.

FOX: It would have gotten canceled after season three.

Netflix: Possibly better VFX, depending how popular it is. Shorter seasons, so way less filler episodes. I feel like it would be way more dreary or way more action packed. They would certainly queer bait Destiel, but I feel like they would be more into it than the cw (Byler vibes yk). Seeing as it is a mostly male show with mostly white leads and no sapphics in the leading role - it would not have been canceled after one season. Also seeing as Netflix wasn’t making their own shows in 2005, the time-line would have been pushed WAY up.

CBS: Less gore. It would be a procedural, monster of the week thing. It would still have its long run time. Way more drama and more suspense. Probably less humor. The only humor would come from some flat jokes or like a beloved comic relief character. Probably lots of copoganda.

Disney channel: No gore at all. Also no death, except rarely mentioned things in the past. John would probably be written as a better father. Dean and Sam would be high schoolers. They wouldn’t kill the monsters, they just put them in monster jail or some shit. Think Wizards if Waverly place (there would probably be a cross over tbh). Sam would definitely be a monster fucker dater. Him and Madison would probably be endgame. Destiel would 100% be a thing, but that’s because they’d make Cas a girl. Cas would still be an Angel, with fluffy white wings and white clothing. Also, no demons, just vampires, ghosts, and goblins and shit like that.

Nickoldian: A) An incredibly overdramatic show on teennick. Think soap opera for teenagers. They would probably make Cas a girl and there would be a love triangle with Sam and Dean. They go to like a private school for monster hunters or something. Horrible ratings. Would barely make it to 2 seasons, but it would a have a very small, but devoted fan base. B) Deeply unserious. It would probably involve Sam and Dean befriending most of the supernatural creatures. It would involve minor comical injuries mixed with mild adult humor (like Icarly and Victorious). It would be Dan Sch*ender era, so, you know, f**t.

Cartoon Network: it would be a cartoon (duh). No blood or onscreen deaths. Either a spin off of Scooby-Doo or very reminiscent of it. Either way, it would have the vibes of Mystery Incorporated. They would definitely lean more into the “Sam is a nerd” thing. If it was made during recent years, they would incorporate more magic, and Dean and Cas would be together and sickeningly adorable.

Freeform: It would be during the ABC family era technically. They’re teenagers but they’d be played by people in their late 20s. So much melodrama. Way less gore. Lots of dead bodies, but no gory deaths. PLL but instead of stalkers it’s monsters. A lot less humor. Inappropriate relationships.

BBC: it would probably be pretty much the same, except they’re, you know, British.

[luminouslumity]

I would've done this way sooner, but I wanted to wait for all of the episodes to come out in English first before I finally did, including the special! So, without further ado, here's a summary on the villains for S4! And much like last time, I'm going off of the order they'd appeared in the book.

YELLOW ROBE DEMON (黃袍怪)

I've actually technically covered Yellow Robe a few times already, but to quickly reiterate, the Pilgrims meet him after Tang Sanzang banishes Sun Wukong for him killing three supposedly innocent people (really the White Bone Spirit in disguise), he quickly incapacitates them, Pigsy goes to get Wukong back, Monkey goes to rescue Sanzang, finds out that he's actually a celestial named Kui Mulang (奎木狼) who wished to be reunited with his beloved Yunü (玉女) after they were separated upon her reincarnation as Princess Baihuaxiu (百花羞), who he had also previously kidnapped. Monkey eventually has Yellow Robe apprehended and returned to Heaven, the princess returns to her family, and Wukong happily rejoins the group.

GOLDEN WINGED GREAT PENG (金翅大鵬雕), AZURE LION, (青毛獅子), AND YELLOW TOOTHED ELEPHANT (黃牙老象)

And now onto the main trio first!

Before the big confrontation with all three, Azure Lion actually appears in an earlier chapter as the Lion-Lynx Demon (獅猁怪), who had killed the ruler of the kingdom of Wuji (烏雞國) after throwing him down a well and ends up impersonating him for the next three years (cue Among Us jokes) before he's finally confronted by the Pilgrims after the king's ghost informs them of the impostor sitting on his throne. After the king's brought back to life thanks to the Lao Tzu's Pill of Immortality, the group go to expose the demon, who then disguises himself as Tang Sanzang, but it doesn't take long for his cover to be blown when he can't recite the Tight-Fillet Spell.

Before any fighting can commence, however, they're interrupted by Lion-Lynx's owner, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, who goes on to explain that his steed was actually meant to be an obstacle for the Pilgrims in order to test their resolve before adding that the king had actually had him tied up and thrown into a river for three days and nights, leading to Lion-Lynx seeking retribution on his master's behalf.

The next time we see him, he's residing in in Lion Camel Cave (獅駝洞) at Lion Camel Ridge (獅駝嶺) with Peng and Yellowtusk. Sun Wukong first learns about them from one of their minions, Xiaozuanfeng (小鑽風), after—say it with me now—the Pilgrims get captured! Unlike the show, however, Peng seems to be the one in charge rather than Azure. Either way, Monkey manages to call upon Ao Shun (敖順), the Dragon King of the North Sea, for assistance, but Wukong is the only one who manages to completely escape their grasp and a rumor quickly spreads that Sanzang had been eaten alive.

After mourning and blaming Buddha for this latest predicament, Monkey goes to ask the Patriarch himself for advice, which Buddha proceeds to explain that not only is the lion demon the same one he and the others had encountered before, but much like Lion-Lynx, Peng and Yellowtusk have a connection to Hinduism as well, with Yellowtusk being the steed of the bodhisattva Viśvabhadra, while Peng is none other than a brother to the peacock Mahāmāyūrī, and long story short, this technically makes him and Buddha family.

For further context, to quote Anthony Yu:

Tathāgata said, “At the time when Chaos parted, Heaven opened at the epoch of Zi, Earth developed at the epoch of Chou, and Man came into existence at the epoch of Yin.

When Heaven and Earth mated,

Then myriad things were born.

The myriad things consisted of beasts and fowl: of the beasts, the unicorn was the head, and the phoenix was the head of the fowl. After having been fertilized by the aura of procreation, the phoenix also gave birth to the peacock and the great roc. When the peacock first came into the world, it was a most savage creature, able to devour humans. In fact, it could suck in a human being with one breath from a distance of some forty miles. I was on top of the Snow Mountain, having just perfected my sixteen-foot diamond body, when the peacock sucked me into his stomach. I could have escaped through his anal passage, but fearing that my body might be defiled, I cut my way out through his back and rode him back to the Spirit Mountain. I was about to take his life, but the various buddhas stopped me with the observation that to hurt the peacock would be like hurting my own mother. That was why I detained him at the mountain instead and appointed him Buddha-Mother, the Bodhisattva Mahārāja Mayūra. Since the great roc had the same parent as the peacock, it could be said that he was somewhat related to me.”

On hearing this, Pilgrim said with a smile, “Tathāgata, according to what you’ve told me, you should be regarded as the nephew of that monster-spirit!”

The three demons are then subdued by Buddha, Mañjuśrī, and Viśvabhadra, and Sanzang of course turns out to still be alive, albeit trapped in an iron chest, which Monkey quickly frees him from. The Pilgrims then carry on with their journey to the West afterwards.