Running into a snag in GARY AND THE WENDIGO.

Problem is, it works better as a love story. But Wendigos eat people. As a person, I am opposed to this. I am also opposed to making it dark. But I don’t want the Wendigo to be just a misunderstood sort of entity, either. These are all at least semi-conflicting issues to have.

It is, as they say, a puzzler.

5 thoughts on “Running into a snag in GARY AND THE WENDIGO.”

  1. One allergic to “long pork?”

    One who converted to Buddhism?

    One who is very, very kinky (by Wendigo standards). Playing with your food for 60-80 years, and only when they die of exhaustion, finally completing the act?

  2. Wendigos are cursed? Maybe the wendigo is trying to break their curse?
    .
    I agree that “wendigos are just misunderstood” is less than helpful.

  3. Phrased as two discrete problems, it appears surmountable.

    Avoiding the “misunderstood” tropes is the easier of the two – there’s no reason to minimize the nature of the wendigo.

    The love story is also surmountable – non-sociopathic evil people have feelings and emotions and apparently can fall in love.

    This doesn’t mean you’re writing “Sleepless in Seattle”, there’s no reason for a ‘turns away from evil’, this isn’t a tale of redemption.

    This is a cautionary tale that sometimes? Sometimes evil wins.

    (and if evil wins by tormenting both of those in love, double win for evil…)

    Mew

  4. Wendigo as a whole aren’t misunderstood – they’re obligate consumers of human flesh. They’re semi-spiritual entities, though, so they *can* hold back The Hunger… it’s just not trivial, and slowly, grindingly, it keeps getting worse. They’re *weaker* when not feeding, and their powers over frost diminish as well. Still, ehn not driven to a rage, they are capable of rational thought, and acts of will, and they can *choose* to not eat manflesh. Today. And then they can choose it again tomorrow, and then again the day after. It is not an easy choice to make. The ones who do this… often they fantasize about finding themselves in a situation where sweet sustenance *would* be morally acceptable. After holding back for long enough, it may be that their idea of “morally acceptable” reasons to kill and eat someone (…and it *must* be fresh) would be… not the same as yours. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you’d necessarily feel ungrateful when they *do* happen to find themselves in a situation that is close enough to their fantasies tat they allow themselves to eat the person who was troubling you.

    1. …or perhaps, it is that deliberate and conscious restriction of the powers both feels so very unpleasant and is necessary to contain The Hunger… which means that as soon as the Wendigo *does* cut loose, suddenly he is significantly more powerful… at which point it is far too late for whoever it is that has pushed them that far.

      …and you can even curl it back around to a kind of backhanded “love conquers all” thing where the Wendigo’s real affection for the human protag means that even when going full blast they have enough control to not eat them *too*… something that feels very much in doubt for those brief moments when the Wendigo fully takes on their mantle. They had enough control *this* time, anyway. They’ll probably have enough control next time, too.

      Loving a Wendigo is not *safe*.

      One very serious question, though… for the human, which kink buttons (if any) are being pushed, and how hard? Because there are absolutely kink buttons there to be pushed, if you wanted to take it that route.

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