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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; spending hundreds of years in Hell has corrupted their souls, leaving them as large, black clouds that generate electromagnetic interference. Subsequent seasons expand their history further by tying it into Christian mythology. The first demon in creation is revealed to be Lilith, whom Lucifer himself corrupted as revenge against God. 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 explained 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", 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 Azazel makes a brief appearance in the pilot episode and 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—she possesses and assume the identity of a young woman 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—in "Dead Man's Blood", Meg hunts down their friends in the subsequent episode 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 in the season finale "Devil's Trap". After a brief confrontation with Azazel, however, a demonically-possessed truck driver crashes into the Winchesters' car. With Dean dying in a coma in the second season premiere "In My Time of Dying", John trades his soul and the Colt to Azazel in exchange for saving his son.

In the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose", Azazel gathers all of the people he had infected with his blood, and forces them to fight to the death. Sam is eventually killed, and the sole survivor Jake Talley is ordered by the demon to open a gateway to Hell that was locked within a mausoleum by the Colt's creator, hunter Samuel Colt. Sam, having been resurrected after Dean makes a demonic pact with a Crossroads Demon, joins his brother and fellow hunters Bobby Singer and Ellen Harvelle in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Jake. Though Lilith and hundreds of other demons are released into the world, the brothers manage to kill Azazel with the Colt.

Although not depicted often, demons then begin waging war against humans in secret, such as in the third season episodes "The Magnificent Seven" and "Sin City". However, they are not united in their efforts until Lilith eventually takes control of the demonic world. After the brothers learn that Lilith holds the contract to Dean's deal, they make a vain attempt to kill her on the eve of Dean's deadline in the finale "No Rest for the Wicked". In the fourth season premiere, Dean is resurrected by the angel Castiel to help stop Lilith from breaking the 66 seals. However, all but one seal are eventually broken, and Sam is tricked into using his abilities to kill Lilith, whose death as "Lucifer's first" breaks the final seal and frees the fallen angel. With Lucifer freed, all demons begin zealously following his command. Many of them sacrifice their lives for his purpose. One notable exception is Crowley, who understands Lucifer's ultimate hatred of both demons and humans and expects Lucifer to destroy both races when his plan comes into fruition.

Demon culture

Demons in the series are generally portrayed as cruel and sadistic, often taking pleasure in causing humans pain. However, they are also—as series creator Eric Kripke deems them—"erudite and sophisticated". 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 in the fourth season is unknown, although a demon in the third season episode "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, though all demons have some similar characteristics. They can possess a human body—living or dead—and are 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 immobilizes a demon and strips it of its usual abilities. Exorcisms are usually used in conjunction with the trap. Demons can at times be detected by the sulfuric residue they leave, while the mere presence of more powerful demons adversely affects the local weather. Other aspects also 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, who answer to Lilith. 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".

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 eventually 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. The demonic world eventually reunites under Lilith's command, and after she gives her life in order to release Lucifer, they follow their creator until his eventual reimprisonment.

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. The writers prefer to limit unique colors to only the "big, big, bad guys". Writer Sera Gamble noted, "If every time we had a demon that was powerful we gave them a different eye color, pretty soon it'd be like, 'The Chartreuse-Eyed Demon is coming for us!'"

Within the hierarchy, lower-level demons have completely black eyes, with Crossroads Demons' eyes being shaded red. Unlike other demons, the yellow-eyed Azazel's irises and pupils are the only areas affected. Actor Fredric Lehne had to wear hard yellow contacts when portraying 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". 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.

Smoke

It was originally intended for demons to not use human hosts, but rather exist "halfway between spirits and corporeal creatures". However, after it was decided to give the demon featured in "Phantom Traveler" the ability to possess people—this quality and its other characteristics were chosen without foresight solely to fit with the episode's storyline—the writers opted to maintain it as 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".

The appearance of demons' true forms have become more complex as the series has progressed. Originally depicted as small, thin streams of black smoke, they now appear as large, thick smoke clouds. When in large groups, the clouds have electricity pulsing throughout them. The visual effects department based the demons' shape off of that of a snake, giving it a "predatorial" and "intelligent" look. Visual effects supervisor Ivan Hayden finds demon smoke to be one of hardest visual effects in the series.

Development

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", 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." Despite her status as a traitor revealed in the fourth season finale, the theme returns in the fifth season with Crowley, who is more perceptive of Lucifer's opinion of demons.

A major theme throughout the series is a "war of demons against humanity", with the potential for it being hinted at during the first two seasons. It finally started at the end of the second season, and was originally intended to be large-scale because the network wanted the writers to increase the scope of the series. However, production on the third season premiere went severely over-budget. The outraged network demanded that future episodes stick to the budget, forcing the writers to scale things back. The war in the third season is mainly depicted through small groups of demons working independently, as the writers wanted to reflect terrorist cells. On this aspect, Kripke commented, "They were not necessarily organized, and there was a danger in that, that they could be everywhere. Each one has a different motive." However, Kripke felt that this format was not working out as planned, as he prefers writing based on old legends rather than current topics. The writers remedied the situation with the introduction of a new lead villain in the form of Lilith; Kripke found it "refreshing to get back on firm ground where you knew there was a bad guy and you knew there was a plan". Other depictions of the war were dropped from the third season due to the writer's strike. Angels were added to the series in the fourth season to allow for a "cosmic battle" between angels and demons, but budget cuts forced the writers to change it from an "all-out demon war" into a "smaller, more contained, underground, more guerrilla-style" campaign.

References

1. Writer: Ben Edlund, Director: Robert Singer (2008-01-31). "Malleus Maleficarum". Supernatural. Season 3. Episode 9. The CW.
2. Writer: Sera Gamble, Director: Robert Singer (2009-05-07). "When the Levee Breaks". Supernatural. Season 4. Episode 21. The CW.
3. ^ Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: Eric Kripke (2009-05-14). "Lucifer Rising". Supernatural. Season 4. Episode 22. The CW.
4. ^ Writer: Sera Gamble, Director: Robert Singer (2007-05-10). "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One". Supernatural. Season 2. Episode 21. The CW.
5. Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: David Nutter (September 13, 2005). "Pilot". Supernatural. Season 1. Episode 1. WB.
6. Writer: Richard Hatem, Director: Robert Singer (2005-10-04). "Phantom Traveler". Supernatural. Season 1. Episode 4. The WB.
7. Story: Patrick Sean Smith, Teleplay: John Shiban, Director: Kim Manners (2006-01-10). "Scarecrow". Supernatural. Season 1. Episode 11. The WB.
8. Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: Kim Manners (2006-02-28). "Shadow". Supernatural. Season 1. Episode 16. The WB.
9. Writer: Cathryn Humphris & John Shiban, Director: Tony Wharmby (2006-04-20). "Dead Man's Blood". Supernatural. Season 1. Episode 20. The WB.
10. Writer: Sera Gamble & Raelle Tucker, Director: Robert Singer (2006-04-27). "Salvation". Supernatural. Season 1. Episode 21. The WB.
11. ^ Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: Kim Manners (2006-05-04). "Devil's Trap". Supernatural. Season 1. Episode 22. The WB.
12. Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: Kim Manners (2006-09-26). "In My Time of Dying". Supernatural. Season 2. Episode 1. The CW.
13. Story: Eric Kripke & Michael T. Moore, Teleplay: Eric Kripke, Director: Kim Manners (2007-05-17). "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part Two". Supernatural. Season 2. Episode 22. The CW.
14. Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: Kim Manners (2007-10-04). "The Magnificent Seven". Supernatural. Season 3. Episode 1. The CW.
15. Writer: Robert Singer & Jeremy Carver, Director: Charles Beeson (2007-10-25). "Sin City". Supernatural. Season 3. Episode 4. The CW.
16. Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: Kim Manners (2008-05-15). "No Rest for the Wicked". Supernatural. Season 3. Episode 16. The CW.
17. Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: Kim Manners (2008-09-18). "Lazarus Rising". Supernatural. Season 4. Episode 1. The CW.
18. Writer: Sera Gamble, Director: Phil Sgriccia (2008-09-25). "Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester". Supernatural. Season 4. Episode 2. The CW.
19. Writer: Eric Kripke, Director: Eric Kripke (2009-05-14). "Lucifer Rising". Supernatural. Season 4. Episode 22. The CW.
20. ^ Writer: Ben Edlund, Director: Phil Sgriccia (2009-11-19). "Abandon All Hope...". Supernatural. Season 5. Episode 10. The CW.
21. ^ Knight, Nicholas, Season 1 Companion, p.115
22. ^ Writers: Robert Singer & Jeremy Carver, Director: Charles Beeson (2007-10-25). "Sin City". Supernatural. Season 3. Episode 4. The CW.
23. ^ Writer: Sera Gamble, Director: Kim Manners (2008-02-21). "Jus In Bello". Supernatural. Season 3. Episode 12. The CW.
24. ^ Knight, Nicholas, Season 1 Companion, p.114
25. ^ Knight, Nicholas, Season 1 Companion, p.105 Cite error: The named reference "p105" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
26. Writer: Sera Gamble, Director: Steve Boyum (2006-11-16). "Crossroad Blues". Supernatural. Season 2. Episode 8. The CW.
27. Knight, Nicholas, Season 3 Companion, p.93
28. Knight, Nicholas, Season 1 Companion, pp.114-115
29. Eric Kripke, Sera Gamble, and Bob Singer. Supernatural season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "All Hell Breaks Loose" (DVD).
30. ^ Supernatural season 3 DVD featurette "From Legends to Reality" (DVD).
31. ^ Knight, Nicholas, Season 3 Companion, p.104
32. Knight, Nicholas, Season 2 Companion, p.117
33. Kubicek, John (February 5, 2008). "Exclusive Interview: 'Supernatural' Creator Eric Kripke". BuddyTV. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
34. ^ Elliott, Sean (January 25, 2007). "Exclusive Interview: Supernatural's Eric Kripke & Robert Singer Return Dad to the Show & a Prequel Comic". IFMagazine. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
35. ^ Knight, Nicholas, Season 3 Companion, pp.11-12
36. Knight, Nicholas, Season 3 Companion, p.11
37. Knight, Nicholas, Season 3 Companion, pp.13-14
38. Bekakos, Liana (April 24, 2008). "Supernatural Creator Eric Kripke Answers Fan Questions – Part II". Eclipse Magazine. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
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40. Williams, Don (April 22, 2008). "'Supernatural' Season 4 Faces Budget Cuts". BuddyTV. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.

• Supernatural (TV series) characters
• Human-derived fictional species
• Fictional demons