#mandurugo

I love that we’re trying to make the characters more diverse, but allow me to add to the discussion. 

The Denali sisters should be Filipina. Let me explain:

So there are two main Filipinx stories about “vampires” that involve beautiful women drinking blood, the “mandurugo” and the “manananggal”. This is going to be mostly about the mandurugo, but feel free to read up on the manananggal cause they're cool. So the mandurugo are these young beautiful women that seduce men by day and then at night they have wings and drink the blood of the men they seduce. They have these hollow tongues to help them slurp up the blood and maybe other stuff if you want and its cool af. 

You might be thinking, “but phil-dwyer-stan-account, that doesn't match the description of the twilight vampires!” Okay well, neither do most depictions of vampires. Also, Smeyer said that the Denali sister were the ones who inspired the succubus legend. The succubi and the mandurugo have a lot in common. My point is that there are vampires in Filipinx folklore and they seduce men in order to drink their blood. 

Another thing is it would be fine for them to still be in Alaska. Asian people make up the third-highest racial group in Alaska(following white and native American/Alaskan) at 5.4% with Filipinx people making up 4.4 percent(an overwhelming amount of Asian people in Alaska are Filipinx). So there’s an argument to be made for them being Filipinx in Alaska.

Also, most of the Asian representation in the media(and there isn't much) tends to be East Asian and I want all Asian people to be represented in the media. (I still want East Asian vampires I just think the Denali Sisters should be Filipina). 

I just think that Kate(and Tanya and Irina but Kates power and relationship with Garrett would play against stereotypes of the quiet submissive Asian woman) being a powerful outspoken Asian woman of Filipinx decent would be so cool and I feel robbed that it isn't what we got. 

(Also I know that it’s messy cause Carmen and Eleazar are Spanish but I have some ideas about that too)

Sincerely,

An Asian woman that's tired of a lack of representation

The Mandurugo is a type of vampire in Filipino folklore. Related to the Aswang, it appears as a young and beautiful woman by day, but at night sprouts bat-like wings and a long, sharp tongue.

The Mandurugo is infamous for seducing men, and then sinking its tongue into their neck to drain their blood. Sometimes, it will pierce the inside of their mouth while kissing them. Some stories tell of Mandurugos marrying human men, and feeding from them for the rest of their lives.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Cocamelia Masayu & Dulce Busto sketches ! ♥

Coco is a Mandarugo. They are Filipino vampires, typically young beautiful women, who end up marrying overweight men. These men then wither to a sack of bones within a few months and it becomes apparant that she is sucking their blood and draining their life source. They disappear mysteriously, and the mandarugo marries over and over again, and every time, the same thing happens.

Coco is a judgemental, sickly sweet and cruel woman. She appears overly nice, with a hint of scorn in all her words, and fiercely criticizes other women. A slender, petite young woman, she criticises any other bodytype, and insists upon feminine values. She works in her mother’s wedding shop, a small but overdecorated store, pungent with excessive perfumes and flowers falling off every surface. She dresses like a bride to be at all times, favouring whites, pinks and overly glitzy floral jewelry.

In her own time however, she is the guru of a spiritualistic and highly questionable weight loss program, which attracts gullible humans, particularly insecure men, from all over the world. This program, constantly changing names and reappearing, involves bizarre eating practices and encourages marriage in particular. Because of it’s enormous success ( and prominent ammounts of before and after photos of chubby, unhappy men and their thin, hollow looking counterparts, with bright beautiful wives clinging to their arms) , it keeps going.

Dulce is the offspring of El Cuero, a chilean water monster that appears to be an enormous cowhide with teeth and eyes, which hunts for humans and engulfs them whole. They are known by natives as “Water tigers”. Dulce however is much more docile than her father. 

This is a list of 5 vampire-like mythos from Asia. Check out the video. This list includes legends from the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

The video below is made using the above images (and a few unshown above) to show the lore of vampire-like creatures in Asia. Check it out.

The Mandurugo is a scary mythical creature from Philippine folklore. It supposed to use its long, proboscis tongue to suck blood from victims. The images below have been used to create the video above.