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The Mothman
- 157 statements
- 29 feature instances
- 28 referencing feature instances
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The Mothman | |
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| The Mothman | comment |
The Mothman is a relatively recent addition to popular folklore, first emerging in 1967 from the association of sightings of a strange Winged Humanoid figure around the city of Point Pleasant, West Virginia with the disastrous collapse of a local bridge later that year which killed 46 people. In part due to media popularization in the years after the disaster, some came to see a causal link between the sightings of the entity dubbed the Mothman and the collapse. Mothman sightings decreased sharply afterwards, but the occasional incidents and resurgences in media eventually led to a formalization of the current mothman myth. In modern popular culture, the mothman is typically depicted as an entity with the characteristics of a human and a moth or butterfly, either as a full-on insect-like humanoid or as an indistinct shape with the silhouette of large, mothlike wings—all of this in spite of the fact that reports of the creature described it as more closely resembling a vaguely humanoid bird than an insect. Enormous, glowing eyes are also a common feature, as the original sightings often reported otherwise indistinct figures with large, luminous eyes standing out against the gloom. The creature may not always have a distinct head, instead simply having a rounded torso marked by two glowing, lamplike eyes. Mothmen, due to their association with the Silver Bridge collapse, are often linked with disasters. Typically, their appearance will be treated as a sign or omen of some imminent calamity in the coming future. Mothmen rarely do anything themselves to hinder the event or speed it along: indeed, their motives are almost always deliberately mysterious. They watch from the sidelines, observing seemingly random people, and then quietly vanish after the disaster invariably comes to pass. They do not usually attempt to communicate with people, but those they observe may be stricken with nightmares relating in some form to the future tragedy. Their motives are often unclear at best — they may be actively trying to cause the disaster, they may be trying to warn people of their imminent danger, or they may simply be passive watchers, come to observe the calamity for reasons of their own. These mysteries may not be actually resolved in the works in which they appear — indeed, their mysterious and frustratingly inscrutable natures may be actively played up to increase the aura of suspense and mystery around these entitles, or to unnerve both the characters and readers. Subtrope of Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious and Winged Humanoid. See also Lovecraft Country, an area close to the mothmen's West Virginian homeland, and Macabre Moth Motif. They may also be linked to The Greys, because few cryptids aren't. See also The Slender Man Mythos, for a very similar creature, and The Flatwoods Monster, a fellow West Virginian cryptid. |
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| The Mothman / int_138cf4ce | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_138cf4ce | comment |
Wagadu Chronicles: One of the playable races, the Daa'ima are humanoid mothmen. | |
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| The Mothman / int_17842d5f | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_17842d5f | comment |
Fallout 76: The mutant fauna of the West Virginia wilderness includes mothmen as enormous, upright moths taller than a grown human. Their enormous, glowing eyes are a sign of their owners' temperament — mothmen with purple eyes are passive, mothmen with yellow eyes are friendly, and mothmen with red eyes are hostile and aggressive. | |
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| Fallout 76 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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| The Mothman / int_17c622f9 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_17c622f9 | comment |
Bigfoot Bill: The title character and main antagonist of Shadow of the Mothman. He was created by a group of scientists referred to as the "Bald Men", and was captured and taken to the Crypto Zone to be held captive. He can look into the future, cause fear among his victims, and absorb their fears to get stronger. He also has a very frightening appearance. | |
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| The Mothman / int_1c552432 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_1c552432 | comment |
Inside Job (2021) — a show with a strong Conspiracy Kitchen Sink theme — has Elliot Mothman, a kindly mothman who works in the Shadow Government's "Inhuman Resources" department and is voiced by Ron Funches. | |
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| The Mothman / int_2f203125 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_2f203125 | comment |
Shin Megami Tensei: Mothman is a recurring demon in the franchise, looking adorable with his bug eyes and large wings, occasionally hopping in place in the 3D games. The Monster Compendium often mentions its connection to UFOs, and in one game an NPC Mothman offers cryptic warnings to the player. | |
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| The Mothman / int_34fd3cf6 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_34fd3cf6 | comment |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: In the first episode, a mothman voiced by H. Jon Benjamin moves in next door to the Aqua Teens and keeps hanging around their porch light. | |
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| The Mothman / int_3a575d3c | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_3a575d3c | comment |
The story of the original Mothman is covered by Bedtime Stories (YouTube Channel), as are multiple explanations for it. | |
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| The Mothman / int_42ffb88e | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_42ffb88e | comment |
The SCP Foundation have their own take on the Mothman, designated SCP-2901. | |
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| The Mothman / int_45a29545 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_45a29545 | comment |
The Secret Saturdays featured the similar cryptid known as The Owlman as the Monster of the Week in the episode "The Owlman Feeds at Midnight". It has Hypnotic Eyes as well as the power of flight. | |
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| The Mothman / int_4d97191f | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_4d97191f | comment |
In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, there are three elusive cryptid enemies who are hidden in the game. Vague hints can be found by purchasing the tabloid-inspired UMA Newsletter. Mothman can be summoned by turning on a giant spotlight using an electrical attack. | |
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The Mothman / int_4d97191f | |
| The Mothman / int_4dd54482 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_4dd54482 | comment |
Ben 10: Alien Force: Big Chill is explicitly modeled after Mothman, being a large humanoid moth-like alien. Though he is notably blue rather than black. | |
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| The Mothman / int_5e8c3a6f | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_5e8c3a6f | comment |
He's a character in Trying Human, a worthy addition to the Conspiracy Kitchen Sink, although the Mothman in person is a total sweetie. He can't even make a Cryptic Conversation properly scary. | |
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| Trying Human (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Mothman / int_5e8c3a6f | |
| The Mothman / int_61a36df5 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_61a36df5 | comment |
In Havenfall Is for Lovers, Mothman is a friendly side character, identifiable by their Virginian accent and retractable moth antennae and wings. Other than that, they have little to do with the mythos, instead just being a nice person and ally to Havenfall's Finest. | |
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The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_66971d4e | comment |
The Adventure Zone: Amnesty: A major figure in the third arc, which is suitably set in West Virginia. He is conflated with the similar figure of Indrid Cold and calls the protagonists up on multiple occasions to warn them of upcoming disasters. However, he himself isn't their cause — he's simply able to see potential futures, and trusted the Pine Guard to take care of some particularly bad ones. | |
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| The Mothman / int_679b3acd | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_679b3acd | comment |
In The Department of Truth, the Mothman is explored in issue #15 and appears as a physical Tulpa. The issue reveals that the titular Department wound up creating the Mothman in their attempt at creating, capturing and reverse engineering a UFO. This also had the side-effect of causing the Silver Bridge Collapse, due to the Mothman having become seen as a bad omen. | |
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| The Mothman / int_68237790 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_68237790 | comment |
Pathfinder: Mothmen are insectoid humanoids with large wings, which may resemble those of butterflies or moths or instead appear as vaguely wing-shaped sheets of fire, and glowing compound eyes. They appear before large-scale disasters, plaguing seemingly random victims with prophetic nightmares, leaving behind strange, random objects that invariably turn out to be life-savingly useful for their finders in unpredictable ways (such as odd wooden figurines that happen to catch an otherwise deadly arrow, or maps in foreign languages that slip from the hand at just the right time to mop up a poisoned drink) and vanishing once the disaster comes to pass. There is no consensus as to why they do what they do — speculations include that they're time travellers seeking to ensure their own future existence or avert some catastrophe, that they're malicious manipulators or even simply huge Trolls. Their appearances stopped almost completely after the death of the god Aroden and the worldwide failure of prophecy and prescience, but in recent years they have begun to appear sporadically once again. | |
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| The Mothman / int_691be369 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_691be369 | comment |
The X-Files: In the episode "Detour", the monsters of the week are revealed to be strange humanoid creatures able to perfectly camouflage themselves with their surroundings. Mulder speculates that they may be related to the Mothman of Point Pleasant. | |
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The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_8483857c | comment |
TREY the Explainer has videos analyzing the myth. He came to the conclusion that Mothman is just a normal, if slightly large, owl. | |
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The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_86797a61 | comment |
Silk Hills takes place in an Appalachian mining town which is partially kept afloat by tourists passing through to check out the Mothman merchandise, and the town has an overall association with the creature. In addition to the local drug of choice being "moth dust," actual sightings of the Mothman in the distance are a common occurrence. Might have something to do with the Mothman cultists keeping an eye on the surface world, or their sacrificial victims... | |
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The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_9ab9939b | comment |
Mystery Hunters: Araya travels to West Virginia in one episode to investigate the alleged existence of this creature. | |
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| The Mothman / int_a69024bb | comment |
Monster Quest: The fourth level is about a cryptid called the Dark Wing (though on certain screens is named Nightbat) that while obviously not the Mothman (for one, it's from a fictional city in Britain instead of West Virginia) is a clear Expy of it and is suggested to have links to it. It turns out to be a hoax pulled by a college fraternity. | |
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The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_a7ac59af | comment |
In The Perhapanauts, the recurring character Karl (seen here) is a hunched purple mothman who was encountered by the Fictional Government Agency BEDLAM in an early issue and went on to become a reserve teammate and eventual Sixth Ranger for Blue Group. In the setting, mothmen live in hidden tribes, and Karl was banished from the Par-Ha tribe and later put on trial by an extradimensional Mothman Tribunal after his contact with outsiders. | |
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| The Mothman / int_b4fe32c9 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_b4fe32c9 | comment |
Invader Zim: Although the Mothman itself never appears, "Agent Mothman" is Dib's code name in the Swollen Eyeball Network. | |
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The Mothman / int_b4fe32c9 | |
| The Mothman / int_cabb7dd6 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_cabb7dd6 | comment |
In Yokoka's Quest, in response to Grace talking about Cisum, her friend says "Just last month you were going on about Mothman or whatever", and her other friend classes them both as fairy tales. But as Cisum turned out to be real... | |
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The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_cfbbffbf | comment |
Horrified: The American Monsters version of the game features the Mothman as one of the opposing monsters. | |
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The Mothman / int_cfbbffbf | |
| The Mothman / int_f367511c | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_f367511c | comment |
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Danger! is an archetype of monsters based around famous cryptids. Among them is Danger! Mothman!, based on the mothman of course. | |
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| The Mothman / int_faa7b661 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_faa7b661 | comment |
The Mothman Prophecies and the novel which it adapts are almost certainly the Trope Codifier, popularizing and formalizing the Mothman's mysterious nature, its role as an omen of disaster, and its connection with UFOs and the occult. The film is a dramatized version of both the real-life event and the novel, altering certain historical details, such as the time of the events (the setting is updated from the '60s to the contemporary early 2000s), the names of the people involved and the number of victims in the bridge collapse (reduced from 46 to 36). The main characters are vexed by dreams, omens and mysterious phone calls stating cryptic hints that about upcoming disaster, alongside visits by the Mothman. An early omen — a casualty list for Denver — comes true after an airplane crash there. Following omens hint at a disaster approaching the Ohio river, which eventually reveals itself as the historic Silver Bridge collapse. | |
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The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_fba4aca0 | comment |
Covered early on in The Last Podcast on the Left, and used as a mascot for the podcast's collaboration with Spring Heeled Jack coffee, the Mothman Blend, which Henry Zabrowski recorded a bombastic advertisement for. | |
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| The Mothman / int_fd8221d2 | type |
The Mothman | |
| The Mothman / int_fd8221d2 | comment |
Wikipedia has its own thorough article on this subject, describing the rise of the Mothman phenomenon and its use in later popular culture. | |
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