Erm...

[katikat]

What's the difference between ghouls and shapeshifters? They both take over their victims' visage and memories... But 'shifters don't eat their victims and they are allergic to silver. But that's it? *scratches head*

And SPN's ratings: 2.76 mil., 1.1/3 - on the one hand, ouch; on the other hand, everything was down last night and by down, I mean down - CSI and Smallville hit series low with 14.45 mil., 3.6/9 and 3.05 mil., 1.3/4 respectively. Now, that's what I call OUCH!

Comments

[ckll.livejournal.com]

SV will hit bottom till S9. I enjoyed the Clois scenes in the last episode but nothing else.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

I stopped watching during S4 so I have no idea what's going on on SV right now...

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

The ghouls didn't make much sense to me at all, really. If their staple diet is corpses, they would have no need to take on the memories of victims - it's very nonsensical. But they were merely plot devices, rather than logical mythology.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Hm, maybe the ghouls didn't know that they could do that because they usually eat dead people? Maybe it should have been pointed out that they didn't know that they could take on other people's visage and steal their memories because they usually don't eat the living?

Also, I think that with shapeshifters, they stay the same inside, just their skin changes but with ghouls, they basically become that person? Who knows...

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

They seemed to have done it deliberately, though, so...who knows. Basically, they were illogical devices constructed to serve the plot, rather than representing a coherent and plausible mythology. But the rest of the episode was so strong I can forgive it!

[bendtothesun.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much it really, Ghouls rob graves and eat corpses to take on the appearance (ect) of the deceased, it's also said to prey on young children and depending on your mythology they can also shift into animals. Usually they're desert bound creatures and comes specifically from Arabian folklore if I remember correctly.

The thing about shapeshifters is that a lot of creatures fall under that vague title (yes including Ghouls), so I think SPN used the Skinwalker myth especially for their "true" creatures yes? So it would make sense that they'd be similar considering the skinwalker comes from Native American mythology (the idea that legends from different areas of the globe will mirror themselves as every cultural has it's version of creatures). As far as I know Supernatural is the only one who has it that silver can kill the skinwalkers.

So despite my rambling yes that seems to be the main differences, also that to kill a Ghoul you had to get a headshot or burn them until they're ashes, Skinwalkers can imitate any noise they want (and can read people's minds but I don't remember if SPN went with that). Essentially they're similar creatures but with the cross-cultural mythology SPN works with it's gonna happen.

*cleans up after self*

Edit: I also forgot to mention that while Ghouls generally have to kill a person to take over their appearance and such Skinwalkers don't have to, they can simply "steal" it (or your body depending on).

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *bows* I think that ghouls are much creepier than skinwalkers because, eww, eating corpses. Yuck.

[bendtothesun.livejournal.com]

I find Ghouls super cool, they're also a form of Jinn (evil genie!) and are kinda enhanced zombies. Skinwalkers less so although their original way of being killed (say their true name and three days later they will drop dead)is pretty interesting. Oh! Also a Ghoul has always been a demon and a Skinwalker was once a person.

*ahem*

Creepy! And yes, poor Sammy! Losing so much blood, he looked about ready to collapse at the end there! *hugs*

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Re: your edit - oh yes, that's why the 'shifter was keeping his victims alive in Skin!

[bendtothesun.livejournal.com]

Yeah as far as I know they can't take on the guise of a dead person but I will admit I don't know everything! :D

Re: ghouls

[redina]

In one of those TMI, gotta pee and will be running to the bathroom in a bit but... dunno about needing a living body but I'm estimating the cellular/metamorphosis layer mimics tissue, and unless that person wants to mimic dead tissue, they'd need a living body. I don't think a shapeshifter needs to keep the 'template' alive afterwards as evident by Nightshifter's 'body in the ceiling'. I think they may keep a person alive as a 'scapegoat' or they just aren't the serial killer type.

Re: ghouls

[bendtothesun.livejournal.com]

Yeah like I said I'm no expert on the subject and mythology is very... frustratingly vague on certain aspects. I'm totally willing to buy the only needs to keep it alive long enough to shift into it aspect though. Especially since the walkers are generally there to get people in trouble and scare the shit out of them. And with those shifter's they're still people, sorta, and not going to just lose their personality traits simply because they're evil now. So yeah! Basically everything you said!

(Although for ghouls it's really deviant for them to eat flesh that's still alive so I don't even know how to begin to fit stuff around that)

Re: ghouls

[redina]

Although for ghouls it's really deviant for them to eat flesh that's still alive

I also wondered about that but maybe the analogy of how folk may prefer cooked meat versus raw. After all, cooked meat does destroy tissue cells, thus, *definitely* dead tissue. For a ghoul, maybe a living person is like 'sushi' to them. ;-)

As to ghoul versus shapeshifter, I'm thinking ghoul is a different 'species' that mimics humans, while a shapeshifter is a human with a genetic trait (e.g. 'hungry hungry hippo guy'**). I'm guessing this based on the 'Monster Movie' episode and the shapeshifter referencing 'normal' parents.

**This would add an interesting element to Adam saying he was hungry when he sat down at the diner.

Editing to add: Like I said, had to visit the bathroom, and after posting this, I read the above responses. {g}