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

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}