#I'll watch it

[tylwer34567]

Character Analysis: The Boogieman (RGB)

This post will hopefully be the start of many focusing (or I guess hyperfocusing) on my favorite characters in media (books, movies, cartoons, etc.). Since this is primarily a The Real Ghostbusters blog, it makes sense to start with the Monster in the Closet himself: the Boogieman (or Boogeyman). For this post, I will give a quick syponsis of who the Boogieman from RGB is, a slight tagnet on his design, the real life folklore behind the boogeyman, and talking about only his episodes but other media he has appeared in.

(This is part 1, part 2 talking about the comics and other stuff will be out soon in a couple of days.)

@differentsublimephantom @king-mera I really want you guys to see it first

Syponsis

The Boogeyman is one of the many villains to be created for 1986's The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. Not much is known (as of now) about the creation process aside from a sketch of an early design:

Some elements of this early design still translated into his final one such as the lower body of a goat, his enormous height, and his iconic tailcoat. But there are many differences as well such as the early design having a more rounded body shape, his ears being more smaller, having a unicorn? horn on top of his head and some sort of tail. Despite the fact this design was not the one the show ended up using, I think it's interesting that the artists always had the idea of their version of the Boogieman being a mismatch of different ideas all combined into one like a chimera.

___________________________________

Design

The Boogeyman throughout fictional media has had many designs, mostly due to the fact that people have different artistic interpretations of what the embodiment of fear would look like. The staff who worked on RGB (I guess) all went in one room and decided to think of whatever wacky/scary things they could think of and stick it onto a monster/lh

But seriously, this has to be one of my favorite villain designs right now. There's so much I have to say about it, but I don't want to meet the dreaded Tumblr word limit so I'm going to highlight some stuff I find interesting about it.

He looks like the Joker - Yes, I know everyone from Ghostbusters fans to Batman fans have pointed this out many, many times. But what's interesting to me is that The Boogieman Cometh was around the time of the Bronze Age of Comic Books (which was the time when comic books went back to their roots of being more mature and willing to show certain topics deemed inappropriate). It was also during this time Batman along with his rogue gallery were becoming more darker and edgier; this includes of course the Joker going from the Silver prankster/Cesar Romero from Batman 66 to the homicidal, 'will kill you just for laughs' criminal mastermind we all know him for today. Them lookin similar is probably a coincidence, but I still find it interesting.

He's techinally a satyr - In Greek mythology, satyrs are woodland spirits who have the physical appearance of half-man and half-goat. It wasn't always like that as they were more half-man/half-horse but later on they gain more goat features such as horns. Boogie shares many similarties to satyrs in behaviour as they're both mischievous, bestial creatures. The only thing that isn't really prevalent with Boogie is the satyrs' well known ranchy behaviour like their high liblio and their obsession with chasing down nymphs, but I guess you can say that Boogie's obssession with consuming fear is similar to that I guess???. Also the Greek god Pan, who the satyrs accompany, has a story where he terrifed humans and the Titans into a state of panic and running away with his scream, similar to how Boogie being a feared being and having a sonic scream that sends people back.

His tailcoat - The fact that he wears clothing at all, the fact that he doesn't even bother to button it up, the fact that he has a cute purple bowtie to boot, the fact that the tails themselves are freakishly long, etc, etc.

__________________________________

Folklore about the Boogieman

According to Merriam-Webster, the Bogeyman is:

1: a monstrous imaginary figure used in threatening children

2: a terrifying or dreaded person or thing : bugbear

And according to Etymonline, the bogey or boogey probably derives from words like bog/bogge (dialect variant of the Middle English word bugge), boggart (1570), and bogle (Scottish word attested from the 1500s and popularized in the 1800s)

The Boogeyman were used by parents for centuries to scare and threaten their children into correct behaviour. He would hide in closets, underneath the bed, or in the closet, waiting in the night to punish the child/children in the night. Some stories claimed that he would play annoying yet non violent pranks on his victims, while other stories goes as far in showing him kidnapping, killing, or even eating children. There's so much out there about the Boogeyman and the many variants of this type of creature in different cultures, but I haven't found any folklore book that talks about this topic as a whole. Thankfully, there is the Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts editied and translated by D.L Ashliman that caterogizes many folklore and mythology stories based on its main trope, which include tales of Boogeyman-like creatures. It's very Eurocentric and doesnt dive deep into other cultures' monsters that possess Boogeyman-like traits, but I still recommend the article and internet library as a whole.

Link to article:

__________________________________

Analysis Time :D

The Boogieman Cometh

The title is probably a reference to the play The Iceman Cometh which got its name from a quote in Mathew 25:6, "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." The quote is from the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, a story about ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom with five foolish virgins brought lamps but no extra oil, while five wise virgins brought extra oil to fuel their lanterns. How does this all relates back to the episode's name? I guess because the play has the Iceman symbolize death instead of salvation for the characters, Boogie being the monster scaring the Carter children could also symbolize the worst case scenario that Egon doesn't want to happen as it would be facing his trauma. Then again, the ______ man Cometh is a very threatening title for a story, so maybe I'm just reading into it (like the rest of this analysis/lh)

I love that there's buildup before he shows up from Egon's reaction to the Ghostbusters searching for him only to find nothing at first, its good.

OH MY GOODNESS HIS INTRODUCTION, IT'S SOOOOO GOOD

The imagery of Boogie appearing in Egon's glasses is amazing and I'm so glad that his second episode did it again.

The smirk that Egon gives him when they have him cornered, only for Boogie to smirk and send all of them flying back with his scream uggh I hate them/lh

Also I like the small detail of Boogie closing the closet door when he's escaping. Instead of him gripping the door knob, he uses his talons to pinch the knob and then close the door.

Dude really came back again to the Carter household to scare the siblings and was like "Well, that's not very nice of you."

Also that scene's the only time the animators made him button up his waistcoat. Idk I just find that funny.

Him calling Ray "a rather large toddler" will never stop being funny. I've seen reviews of this episode saying that Boogie needed to get his eyes checked, but I think the joke was supposed to be him realizing it's Ray and basically insulting him.

Thoughout this episode, Boogie's solution to dealing with the Ghostbusters is throwing random furniture and hoping they get hit by it/j

I need to take this moment to praise the ever living crap out of Frank Welker because HE'S SO GOOD. I love the animalistic growls and weird moaning (please don't take me out of context plz) noises Boogie makes, showing how bestial he is despite of him being intelligent.

He may have short goat feet, but boy are they fast/lh

I love the use of the "You and what army?" trope phrase in this because instead it's Peter saying "Yeah, you and what Starfleet?". Which on one hand, yay a Star Trek reference that I can get without watching 1,000 hours of content, but also yeah Egon probably needs a whole USS Enterprise to deal with him.

I think the reason why Boogey didn't immediately destory Egon was because he wanted to have fun with his prey before anything else. I'm saying this cause I don't want to face the true that Boogie was being too cooky/in the moment/j

HOLY SHIT THE CARTER CHILDREN ROASTED HIS ASS LETS GO!

Me seeing Boogie tripping on a bunch of marbles: Oh my god, he's so pathetic I love him more/j

Also when he lands on his butt after falling, it sends him flying before dangling off the bridge??? Dude's ass is flat like cardboard/j

Him going "HUH?!?" is funny.

I LOVE LOVE THE LAST SCENE. For once and I guess the last time if I'm correct, we see him truly caught off guard and afraid. I also love that it shows him running at the bomb. I've seen this type of scene many times in fiction where someone goes back into a place despite how dangerous it is for them and so many times I've seen people complaining "Wow! They're so stupid! Why go back?" and its like.... the story clearly shows them going back, because something or someone of value was still in the building and clearly those characters that do go back are either not in the right mindspace and/or flight-or-fight response going haywired. Which is what I think happen to Boogie, as he was finally realizing what the Ghostbusters were doing (blowing up his home) and not thinking straight, ran to the bomb. Also the scene, in the way it's set up, makes it look like the Boogieman was fucking massacred. I saw someone in Reddit who questioned why Boogie was being included in Spirits Unleashed because THEY THOUGHT HE DIED IN HIS FIRST EPISODE! While I'm glad that he was killed off, they could have easily done and I would have respected them cause the scene is that good.

The Bogeyman Is Back

GOAT BOI IS BACK. And he sorta has a new design, though it's more like a revamped design, but I still love it.

I love how you don't see Boogie at all during his intro scenes. First, it's POV shots, then as he's walking from one door to another you have a blink and you'll miss it glimpse of him in the mirror, then there's the shadow of him monologing while holding up the grand piano, then a shot when he turns his head, then the back of him when he removes the slime off of the wall, and finally the scene of him being reflected in Egon's glasses (like TBC) athough he's in the shadows.

Him trying to open this one door only for the knob to be violently ripped out was so funny that I put it in my fanfic (shameless plug: https://www.tumblr.com/tylwer34567/775500744009957376/chapter-two-of-springs-first-meetings-is-out?source=share)

Still miffed that he destroyed his piano. GIVE HIM A MUSICAL NUMBER, GHOSTCORP (preferably with Samhain)

Also I've already talked about this, but there's similarites between Egon and Boogie's dynamic with that of the hunter and vampire in the old movie Egon watched in this episode (shameless plug #2: https://www.tumblr.com/tylwer34567/772763623894450176/just-had-another-thought-that-changing-boogey-from?source=share)

One thing I noticed was Boogie's eyes. Sometimes, the red pupils would have a shiny white dot and its usualy happens when he's consuming fear/or in an proximity of large amounts of fear

Also he drools, a lot. Like people who haven't watch the show, I'm serious he drools like a dog in this (probably cause he's hangry/lh)

This episode is the first time Boogie says Egon's name (two times in fact) and I wish he didnt because it sounds like actual moaning and I feel unclean

He's such a troll. He doesnt try to kill Egon and instead goes Boo! And instead of harming the dog on the rooftop, he just...creepily groans at it??

Hippity hop hop/j

Everyone who made the joke of Boogie bursting into the Junior Ghostbusters' place like the Kool-aid Man is amazing and deserve to live a long life/lh

The way he does his scream makes him look like a brat who just got told no by their parents.

The face Boogie makes when he's rubbing his hands after turning the amusement park into his realm gives me Spongebob and the Strangler vibes "Hm, yes, excellent~" (I need to make an edit of that)

I have used the "On the contrary" gif so much on this blog, but can you blame me? He looks like he's more ready to seduce than feed off the gang's fears/lh

Him jumpscaring Peter by being the gargoyle knob actually gave me a heart attack. I didn't exspected it.

BIGGER GOAT BOI :D

Casually pushes his minions aside/lh

If there's one thing that I don't like about this episode (there's alot I don't think), it's that techinally thanks to the Junior Ghostbusters, Boogie gets trapped and defeated. I don't know how to explain it, but I much prefer how the first episode dealt with it. Also Janine was robbed of beating up Boogie

I kinda feel bad for Boogie since his entire body is turning (against his will) into incorporeal and it's clearly causing him much pain. But then, I remember all the stuff he did and I go "Oh yeah, burn the bitch."/j

Bye Boogie, see you never in animation cause you never showed up in Extreme Ghostbusters goddamnint/lh

[renegadesstuff]

I'll be watching the x-files next, I guess 🫠

[amethystina]

Hii!

Do U perhaps plan on watching beyond evil? If so, would U write fanfics based on it? Love your writing so would Def like to read it if U ever do plan on watching and perhaps write it some day.

Hi!

I do plan to watch it some day, yes. It's been on my list of things to watch since it came out but, by chance, I ended up watching The Devil Judge first and then just got derailed for literally four years I guess? xD But I still plan to watch it eventually!

As for whether or not I will write for it, that depends entirely on the drama and what I'm feeling once I've watched it. And that has nothing to do with the quality of the drama or how much I enjoyed it. It's just that sometimes I have something to add, sometimes I don't. And I can't predict what it'll be until I've finished.

Sometimes I don't want to write or read fanfics because I'm perfectly satisfied with what I got (like The Untamed), and sometimes I only want to read fanfics because I have nothing to add myself but really enjoy seeing what other people come up with (like Guardian), and sometimes I only want to write and focus on my own impressions and thoughts (like The Devil Judge). And, sometimes, I come up with one batshit idea that I just have to write because how can I not, but it might also end up being the only thing I write for that fandom (like Strangers From Hell). And, sometimes, I just want a little more time to wrap up the story and perhaps fix one or two things I noticed in canon that I didn't like or wanted to see explored (like Black Knight and Mad Dog).

It's all a gamble, really, and depends entirely on my emotions and impressions once I've watched the drama in question. I can't predict it.

Also, from what I've heard, Beyond Evil already has a bunch of super good fanfics so I'm not sure if I need to get involved, you know? xD Especially since that means I'd have to postpone some other project that I'm trying to work on.

But we'll see! I will watch it at some point and, once I have, I guess we'll find out if I'll want to write for it or not :D

[itzpris]

urge to redesign peppa pig characters

[mrsdarkandyandere7]

Just wondering... Have you watched dune 2 yet? Or are you going to? I did and it was pretty good.

Haven't watched it - yet.

But my fixation right now is with Bnha, so I'll wait for when the motivation hits for Dune II.

[geezmarty]

(bellara/taash) nerd/jocks lovers rise up

[stanning-elmo]

We're so back

[esfiart]

Do u guys ever think about dying?

[krysmcscience]

I have some questions about karaoke night, Alex Hirsch. Very Important Questions. Which I will happily scream at a poor hapless baby triangle who can have no answers for me, and possibly also does not have object permanence yet.

Follow-up that is I guess suggestive, but let's be real here, Bill's a fucking triangle:

Dude slipped right into his birthday suit, lmao

this is so stupid :D

Anyway, I don't care what anyone says, this brilliant individual knows what's up - Bill is absolutely way more of a monsterfucker than Ford could or ever will be, full stop.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

you're humming. Santa's cheating on Mrs Claus And you're humming. Santa's committing blatant adultery with an ingénue sugar baby w/ the voice of an angel Eartha Kitt. and you're SINGING ALONG

[hansoeii]

Ghosts! 👻

[nyaslashthreat]

shout out to when i told my dad about goncharov and he figured out it was fake because i told him "1973 martin scorsese film with robert de niro" and he said that wasn't possible because the godfather came out in 1972 and the godfather part II came out in 1974 and they wouldn't have had time to make a movie in between. a perfectly good jest, foiled by this man's weird and vast knowledge set

[blackkatdraws2]

[Toon x Mobster] Only he can make him laugh like that...

Jack Desmond is the silly guy. Gavriel Huffman is the scary guy. They come from different worlds that has contrasting genres, one more cartoonishly comedic and the other much dramatically darker.

It's kind of a running gag that Sir Huffman is unable to laugh without looking absolutely wicked. Both in the cartoon world and his own world.

That doesn't stop Jack from being completely smitten with him though, his voice is the most mind-melting thing he's ever had the pleasure to hear

[AUDIO USED:] Men I Trust - show me how

[linusbenjamin]

Hugh Dancy as Will Graham Hannibal Season 1 / April 4, 2013 - June 20, 2013

[kkoma94]

Woke up to everyone on the tl drawing kimcom with guns

[conclaveyaoi]

imagine being married to someone who is fully convinced you're going to hell "because" of past mistakes you made when in your younger years – mistakes he smirks at during dinner with a stranger btw – and so he pretty much convinces you to undergo severance simply because he believes innies have souls and this way he can have a part of you making him company in heaven? divorce is not enough, a marvelous love affair with a handsome italian-american man who wants to see you again is required