Wendigo: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|''The Wendigo, the Wendigo

 

[[Spell My Name with an "S"|Also spelled]] Windigo, Weetigo and Wetiko among others (depending on the language and region), the Wendigo is a human being turned into a cannibal monster in the belief systems of several Algonquian peoples. The causes of this transformation and the Wendigo's general appearance vary from region to region. Some lores have it that eating human flesh is [[Evil Makes You Monstrous|what makes you turn into one]], but in others you can become one just by coming across a Wendigo or by being possessed by the spirit of a Wendigo. Its most common description is a dreadfully skinny giant of ice devoid of lips and toes. The more it devours, the larger it grows, and thus it can never find enough food to satisfy its hunger. In the mythologies of several Amerindian Nations, the Wendigo can revive if you don't destroy its body entirely, which may lead to [[Kill It with Fire]]. More info on [[wikipedia:Wendigo|the Other Wiki]].

 

{{examples}}

* [[Digimon|Wendigomon]] is the villain for the first ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' movie (though it is never identified as such). It is a corrupted evolved form of Wallace's Chocomon (infected by a virus, and referred to solely by that name in the movie), compared to Turuiemon, named for the Festival of Rabbits. It's a Wendigo with stretching arms, ice breath, and [[Defanged Horrors|giant laser cannons that burst out of the flesh in its chest.]] Early American Bandai materials mistakenly called it ''Endigomon'', while it Japan it is known as ''Wendimon''.

* One of [[One Piece|Chopper's]] transformations looks oddly like this, only with prongs and a top hat. [http://www.mangareader.net/103-2514-12/one-piece/chapter-407.html It still manages to be terrifiying, even for the cutest character of the crew.]

** It's a common [[Incredible Hulk]] villain too, having made its first Marvel appearance in his book. (And its ''second'' story in that book was the first appearance of [[Wolverine]], giving the association more historical weight than it might otherwise have.)

** In ''[[Earth X]]'', Multiple Man is transformed into one when he eats one of his own doubles to survive. He doesn't lose his self-duplication powers.

* A run of ''[[BPRD]]'' involved a Wendigo curse being transmitted from person to person.

** This one is a particular [[Tear Jerker]], since the Wendigo retains his memories as a family man, though he had been unaware that his family thought him dead and had moved on. He is told that he will eventually lose his humanity, and when he asks Abe and Hellboy to kill him, is told that it won't work, since the only way to break the curse and let him die peacefully is to kill someone else and pass the curse on. HB and Abe regretfully inform the Wendigo that they have no choice but to lock him up. The last shot of him curled up in his cell with nothing but a photo of him with his family for comfort makes this example something of a [[The Woobie|Woobdigo]].

* Ithaqua from the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] makes an appearance in [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]] when it accidentally takes over Allen Quartermain's body while he's astral-projecting. Ithaqua was perfectly happy to be a nightmarish mass in an infinite void of space, and isn't particularly pleased to be in Quartermain's [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|disgustingly alien, human meat-body.]]

 

* ''[http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-3182/DonSample+Tales+of+the+Slayer+Wendigo.htm Tales of the Slayer: Wendigo]:'' A Buffyverse story in which a Slayer is called in pre-Columbian America.

 

* The Wendigo Myth features prominently in the 1999 film ''[[Ravenous]]'', although an actual wendigo did not show up.

* The same author/director of ''Wendigo'' used the wendigo in his 2006 film, ''[[The Last Winter]]''

* ''Ghostkeeper'', where an insane woman keeps the Wendigo that was once her son locked in the basement.

* ''[[Maneater]]''

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* The second book in the gory [[Monstrumologist]] series is called ''Curse of The Wendigo''. It has been confirmed that a super creepy version that is "neither living or dead version of the Wendigo" will be the main antagonist....

* One of Alvin Schwartz's ''Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark''. In that story, the Wendigo is more of a spirit of wind and frostbite, although there are still cannibalistic overtones (the two men are starving). The Wendigo calls you out of the tent with its eerie, windblown song, and makes you run until your feet burn away, and makes you keep running after that.

Diego lifted up the hat, and screamed. There was nothing beneath the hat but a pile of ashes. }}

** Which is an adaptation of the Blackwood's story, currently out-of-copyright , [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10897 available online at the Gutenberg Project].

* The Indian burial ground, and the path leading to it, from [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Pet Sematary]]'' were frequented by the Wendigo. (Whether this was the cause or the result of the curse on that area isn't made clear.) At one point, the protagonist nearly meets the Wendigo, but it's a foggy night so he's spared from seeing it.

** The burial ground having "gone sour" is connected to cannibalism. Later, it's <s> heavily implied</s> creatively euphemized that {{spoiler|the resurrected Gage}} [[Incredibly Lame Pun|engaged]] in this.

* Such a creature is mentioned in Michael D. O'Brien's novel ''Eclipse of the Sun'' by a young boy called Arrow.

* In ''[[The General]]'' by [[David Drake]] and [[S.M. Stirling]], the Skinners, descended from French Canadians, refer to Raj Whitehall as the "Gran' wheetigo," translated in-story as the "Big Devil."

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Showed up in an early episode of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''.

* Done on ''[[Blood Ties]]''.

* A Wendigo is the titular [[Monster of the Week]] on an episode ''[[Lost Tapes]]'' in the form of {{spoiler|a lost hiker who kills and eats a severely injured friend, before killing and eating the other friends on the trip}}.

* In ''[[Shadowrun]]'', a wendigo is an [[Our Orcs Are Different|Ork]] (human variant) infected with the HMHVV (Human Meta Human [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampiric]] Virus). They were around 2.5 meters high, weighed 130 kilograms, and looked like a sasquatch (Bigfoot) with white fur. They had magical powers, and mentally influenced their victims into becoming cannibals.

* In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'', there is a werewolf tribe named after the Wendigo who worship the cannibal spirit as their tribal patron. Powerful members of the tribe can summon an avatar of the Wendigo to track down and devour their enemies.

** There's also a variant wendigo that is created not by cannibalism, but by food hoarding. If a hoarder causes others to starve to death because of his greed and selfishness, he runs the risk of being wendigofied.

* The tamanous in ''[[Chill]]'' was a similar cannibalism-promoting Native American monster, which resembled a warrior's corpse partially covered in tar.

* ''[[Pathfinder]]'' wendigos are directly inspired by the Algernon Blackwood version. [[Humanoid Abomination|They're as powerful as they're hideous]].

* In keeping with its [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] (and sci-fi kitchen sink, and horror kitchen sink...) ''[[Rifts]]'' has two types of wendigo: the "spirit" wendigo, wise supernatural hairy hominids friendly to the local [[Magical Native American]] tribes, and the wendigo demons who are truer to the original myths, if slightly underwhelming (it's a good thing they travel in packs, because a lone one wouldn't be much trouble for the average ''Rifts'' low-level PC group).

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** And [[Bad Machinery|it's back]].

* [[The Big Guy]] Sevink from ''[[Geist Panik]]'' is a Wendigo who has 'achieved critical flesh', and you would have to kill him as many times as the number of people he's eaten. He's described at one point as being "...up to the population of California", rendering him nigh unkillable.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* The Wendigo character appeared in an episode of [[Wolverine and the X-Men]] where [[Nick Fury]] sent Wolverine to hunt down the [[The Incredible Hulk|Hulk]] in Canada after a team of his goes missing, only for Logan and Bruce Banner to find the Wendigo behind the disappearance and ''transformation'' of the SHIELD agents into Wendigo themselves. {{spoiler|They eventually discover that the WENDIGO project was an attempt by shield to create super-soldiers that went wrong and cure the victims. Logan figures out that Fury knew all along and shows his displeasure by punching Banner in the face to trigger his transformation for Fury to deal with. Even being knocked into the next county by the Hulk doesn't spoil his glee at one-upping Fury}}.

 

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]