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| The background of demons in ''Supernatural'' is mostly shrouded in mystery for the first two seasons of the series. However, the third season episode "Malleus Maleficarum" reveals that all demons were once human, their souls having been corrupted after spending hundreds of years in Hell, leaving them as large, black clouds that generate electromagnetic interference. The fourth season expands their history further by tying it into Christian mythology. The first demon in creation is Lilith, whom Lucifer himself corrupted as revenge against God. However, Lucifer was soon locked away by the archangel Michael, and Lilith was imprisoned deep within Hell. Thousands of years later, after much searching, the demon Azazel was able to find the doorway to Lucifer's prison. The fallen angel revealed that only Lilith can break the 66 seals keeping him imprisoned, and instructed Azazel to find him "a very special child". As depicted in the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2", Azazel spent the following years feeding his own blood to babies—one being main series protagonist Sam Winchester—as they would then grow up developing demonic abilities. | The background of demons in ''Supernatural'' is mostly shrouded in mystery for the first two seasons of the series. However, the third season episode "Malleus Maleficarum" reveals that all demons were once human, their souls having been corrupted after spending hundreds of years in Hell, leaving them as large, black clouds that generate electromagnetic interference. The fourth season expands their history further by tying it into Christian mythology. The first demon in creation is Lilith, whom Lucifer himself corrupted as revenge against God. However, Lucifer was soon locked away by the archangel Michael, and Lilith was imprisoned deep within Hell. Thousands of years later, after much searching, the demon Azazel was able to find the doorway to Lucifer's prison. The fallen angel revealed that only Lilith can break the 66 seals keeping him imprisoned, and instructed Azazel to find him "a very special child". As depicted in the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2", Azazel spent the following years feeding his own blood to babies—one being main series protagonist Sam Winchester—as they would then grow up developing demonic abilities. | ||
| Although an ordinary demon is featured as a ] in the fourth episode of the series, "Phantom Traveler", demons do not become actively involved in the show until the introduction of Azazel's daughter—possessing a girl named Meg Masters—in the second half of the season. She follows Sam and Dean Winchester, and later sets a trap for their father John Winchester, who has been hunting Azazel for years. | Although an ordinary demon is featured as a ] in the fourth episode of the series, "Phantom Traveler", demons do not become actively involved in the show until the introduction of Azazel's daughter—possessing a girl named Meg Masters—in the second half of the season. She follows Sam and Dean Winchester, and later unsuccessfully sets a trap for their father John Winchester, who has been hunting Azazel for years. When the Winchesters find the Colt—a mystical gun capable of killing anything—Meg hunts down their friends to force them to give her the gun. John tries to give her a fake, and is captured, although the brothers manage to rescue him. After a brief confrontation with Azazel, however, a demonically-possessed truck driver crashes into the Winchesters' car. With Dean dying in a coma, John trades his soul and the Colt to Azazel in exchange for saving his son. | ||
| ==Demon culture== | ==Demon culture== | ||
Revision as of 22:14, 17 October 2009
Fictional character| Demon | |
|---|---|
| File:Man possession.JPGA demon being exorcised. | |
| First appearance | "Phantom Traveler" |
| Home | Hell |
| Leader | Lucifer |
Demons are a fictional race of supernatural beings from the American television series Supernatural. A creation of Lucifer, demons are the corrupted souls of humans sent to Hell.
Fictional history
The background of demons in Supernatural is mostly shrouded in mystery for the first two seasons of the series. However, the third season episode "Malleus Maleficarum" reveals that all demons were once human, their souls having been corrupted after spending hundreds of years in Hell, leaving them as large, black clouds that generate electromagnetic interference. The fourth season expands their history further by tying it into Christian mythology. The first demon in creation is Lilith, whom Lucifer himself corrupted as revenge against God. However, Lucifer was soon locked away by the archangel Michael, and Lilith was imprisoned deep within Hell. Thousands of years later, after much searching, the demon Azazel was able to find the doorway to Lucifer's prison. The fallen angel revealed that only Lilith can break the 66 seals keeping him imprisoned, and instructed Azazel to find him "a very special child". As depicted in the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2", Azazel spent the following years feeding his own blood to babies—one being main series protagonist Sam Winchester—as they would then grow up developing demonic abilities.
Although an ordinary demon is featured as a villain of the week in the fourth episode of the series, "Phantom Traveler", demons do not become actively involved in the show until the introduction of Azazel's daughter—possessing a girl named Meg Masters—in the second half of the season. She follows Sam and Dean Winchester, and later unsuccessfully sets a trap for their father John Winchester, who has been hunting Azazel for years. When the Winchesters find the Colt—a mystical gun capable of killing anything—Meg hunts down their friends to force them to give her the gun. John tries to give her a fake, and is captured, although the brothers manage to rescue him. After a brief confrontation with Azazel, however, a demonically-possessed truck driver crashes into the Winchesters' car. With Dean dying in a coma, John trades his soul and the Colt to Azazel in exchange for saving his son.
Demon culture
Demons in the series are generally portrayed as cruel and sadistic, often taking pleasure in causing humans pain, Kripke deeming them "snotty and sophisticated". However, at times their culture has been compared to that of normal humans. Introduced in the third season is the concept of some demons being religious, believing in their own higher power—Lucifer. According to Azazel in a flashback in "Lucifer Rising", most demons eventually lost faith by 1972. Whether this changes before Lucifer's release is unknown, although a demon in "Sin City" comments that some believe in his existence, stating, "Well, no one's actually seen him, but they say that he made us into what we are, and they say that he'll return." Azazel's endgame throughout the entire series is to free Lucifer, whom he refers to as his "Father".
Within the demon culture exists a hierarchy based on levels of power. All demons have some similar characteristics, such as being able to possess a human body—living or dead—and being invulnerable to natural harm while in the host. They are also unable to cross paths of salt or iron, and are vulnerable to a devil's trap, a mystical symbol from The Lesser Key of Solomon that temporarily strips a demon of its usual abilities while it is inside the trap and prevents it from leaving until the symbol is disturbed. Exorcisms are usually used in conjunction with the trap. However, other aspects of demons depend on their place in the hierarchy. The most common demon featured in the series are low-level black-eyed demons, who generally just gain enhanced strength while in possession of a host. However, stronger black-eyed demons, such as the one possessing Meg Masters, exhibit other abilities such as telekinesis, and are not barred from entering hallowed grounds. Above them in the hierarchy are the red-eyed Crossroads Demons. Master manipulators, they love to play on people's emotions, making them feel extreme guilt or fear. Their main purpose is to make bargains with desperate people in exchange for their souls, and are summoned at a crossroads by a person by burying a box with his or her picture, graveyard dirt, and a bone from a black cat, though they also sometimes seek out their victims. The yellow-eyed Azazel is immune to the effects of holy water, and has pyrokinetic and dream-manipulating abilities. Although Kripke stated during the third season that he felt Azazel was "just below" the white-eyed Lilith in the hierarchy, the fourth season introduced other white-eyed demons. The most powerful type, these demons are able to emit from their hands rays of "searing white energy", and all Crossroads Demons answer to Lilith.
However, even below the hierarchy exist those whom Kripke refers to as other demons' "pit bulls". These demons, such as the "savage" and "primal" Zoroastrian daevas of the first season episode "Shadow", do not possess people, but rather use their true form to kill. Only visible as shadows, daevas can only be controlled through the use of special altars or pendants featuring their Zoroastrian sigil. Another such demon, an Acheri, makes an appearance in the second season finale. Unlike daevas, the Acheri exists as the typical demonic smoke cloud, but can take on the form of a little girl to lure in victims and attack.
Demons in the series have generally appeared to have little dissent, though it does exist. They are held together at first by the "tyrant" Azazel, who releases an army of demons from Hell in order to wage war against humanity with Sam Winchester as their leader. However, after Azazel is killed and Sam fails to assume the role, the demons' cohesion falls apart, with hundreds of demons attempting to fill the power vacuum. However, the demonic world eventually reunites once again under Lilith's command, and after she gives her life in order to release Lucifer, they appear to now follow their creator.
Development
It was originally intended for demons to not use human hosts, but rather exist "halfway between spirits and corporeal creatures", though capable of taking solid form. However, after it was decided to give the demon featured in "Phantom Traveler" the ability to possess people, the writers chose to make it an element of all demons. Kripke feels that this added an interesting aspect to the storylines, as the viewers "never quite know who the bad guy is".
Inspirations for the types of demons have come from numerous sources, such as the devil-on-your-shoulder concept that is used in the episode "Sin City". The writers often try to base the demons off of actual aspects of history, as is done in "Malleus Maleficarum" by having the demon Tammi turn a group of women into witches. An encyclopedia on demons is used for research, with Binsfield's Classification of Demons inspiring "The Magnificent Seven"'s storyline of demons being the physical embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins. For the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose", writer Sera Gamble needed a creature that matched the episode's setting, and decided to borrow the Acheri from Hindu mythology, making it into a type of demon. In lore, this creature is a "diseased spirit that kills everybody in the settlements", so it fit in with the abandoned town that the episode takes place in.
For the third season, writer Ben Edlund pitched the revelation that demons were once human, which series creator Eric Kripke feels "opened up the mythology in an interesting and complicated way". It was further expanded upon to both convey the belief of the writing staff that the "worst evil is the evil inside all of us" and to serve as a plot device by showing Dean that being in Hell will "burn away his humanity" and turn him into the "thing he hates most". Also introduced was the demon Ruby, who was meant to make the perception of demons into more of a grey area, rather than the "black and white", "They're evil, we're good" approach previously used. Gamble commented, " brought the idea that you can't just dismiss demons as things that need to be killed right away. They could be useful, and while fundamentally untrustworthy, there might be cause to trust them in a given situation."
Physical characteristics
Eyes
While in possession of a host, a demon is appearance-wise indistinguishable from normal humans. However, when a demon uses its abilities, or for reasons such as intimidation, its eyes change to a color based on the demon's place in the hierarchy. Lower-level demons have completely black eyes, with Crossroads Demons' eyes being shaded red. Unlike demons below him, the yellow-eyed Azazel's irises and pupils are the only areas affected. Actor Fredric Lehne wore hard yellow contacts when portraying the Azazel in the second season, forcing him to act blind. During production of the second season, Kripke viewed the horror film I Walked with a Zombie, and found one of the creatures having all-white eyes to be "really disturbing". Thus, the writers considered changing the eye color of regular demons to white, but eventually decided against it. However, Kripke later used the idea when Lilith and other high-level demons were introduced, though the demon Samhain's eyes feature black pupils.
Smoke
References
- ^ Knight, Nicholas, (Season 1 Companion), p.105 Cite error: The named reference "p105" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- Knight, Nicholas, (Season 3 Companion), p.93
- Knight, Nicholas, (Season 1 Companion), p.115
- Knight, Nicholas, (Season 1 Companion), pp.114-115
- ^ Knight, Nicholas, (Season 1 Companion), p.114
- ^ Knight, Nicholas, (Season 3 Companion), p.104
- Knight, Nicholas, (Season 2 Companion), p.117
- Kubicek, John (February 5, 2008). "Exclusive Interview: 'Supernatural' Creator Eric Kripke". BuddyTV. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
- Eric Kripke, Sera Gamble, and Bob Singer. Supernatural season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "All Hell Breaks Loose" (DVD).