so can I just ask what you feel about rumis and the saja boys demon designs? Like I get it, they look cool, but they're just purple humans with gold eyes and cool patterns and rumi just has the cool patterns... The other demons looked so nice and different and I was waiting for the saja boys to look like that but their demon forms were so human 😭😭
HI omg first of all I'm so sorry that I'm getting back to you so late, but yes please ask me anything ever!!! 🥹
Just be warned that I like to yap. Like a lot
OKAY I actually have a lot of thoughts on this in general. First off I totally get what you’re saying, they do look like humans but with slightly altered features (purple skin, elongated claws, amber eyes, patterns).
They do at least look uncanny in a way, like just inhuman enough to be a lil unsettling? But I definitely would’ve liked to see a bit more as well. This is why I love when fics and artists give Rumi a tail or horns or any other demonic/animalistic traits
Okay so, I think out of everyone’s design, Rumi’s makes the most sense. To establish somewhat of a baseline, regular/full-blooded demons being able to shapeshift and hide their patterns/true forms seems like a predatory advantage to me. Like, their hunting style relies on deception. They have to pass as just human enough to get close to an actual human in order to consume a soul. (Also, I feel like weaker souls would be easier to grab, but strong ones offer the more fulfilling meal)
Rumi is a half demon and only gets some of the traits. One clawed hand, one eye, partway purple coloration (on that same hand, going midway up her right arm), and tiny baby fangs.
She can teleport, but she can’t hide her patterns (which is, ofc, her whole problem). She doesn't seem to have any shapeshifting abilities at all, which means she probably can’t poof them away or mask them, they're just stuck on her all the time.
Also a bit of a side note, but something else I find interesting is that when Jinu gets his soul back, it glows in his chest.
Rumi is implied to have a soul (otherwise I'm pretty sure she'd be condemned to the demon realm), but she’s the only character whose chest doesn’t glow blue with one.
BUT
Her patterns glow blue when Zoey and Mira's chests do!
This seems to indicate her soul manifests itself in her patterns, rather than in her chest like every other human (kudos to @venomlion3 for making me aware of this, I eat live and breathe off of this info)
And that... kinda makes sense. Rumi is, as far as we know, the only one of her kind. She has part human features, part demon ones. Adds up, right?
(Extra fun fact about this: Rumi's is the only soul that displays itself externally rather than internally. And considering the patterns are all over her body, that means we have a LOT of Rumi Soul to pass around.)
We also know that demons and souls have a direct linkage. Patterns are an inherently demonic feature, and so the demon part of her likely rejects the typical human nestling of a soul within the chest. Instead, it forms in the spread of her patterns—the markings that directly reflect the rest of her emotions too (and I know Mood Ring Rumi is a mostly fanon thing, but in some ways it’s kinda canon too. They’re very reactive to her, spreading when she feels shame, glowing pink when she feels distress or anger, shining rainbowy iridescent when she finally accepts them, and ofc, glowing soul-blue when she reconnects with Zoey and Mira).
Jinu, however, is a former human. He isn’t part demon x part human, or at least, not in the way Rumi is. He’s technically both, but gave up his humanity to become a demon. Rumi didn’t do that, she was just born with both biologies.
I think this is why Jinu and the other Saja Boys appear more human than other demons, and why we see other demons that generally follow this trend too (usually the ones who wear hats).
The only other truly specified race of demons we get is water demons (oh great. My favorite).
They prefer water, have a defined webbing on their hands, and all kinda look like swamp creatures. We see a couple of them chilling in the demon world.
There are also, like, regular demons? Like the flight crew, who actually don’t have patterns all over their bodies the way Rumi does, and instead have them contained to certain portions of their arms and legs. I believe these guys are the standard race of demons, born in the demon world to two demon parents.
I think there's also something to be said about naturally born demons having fewer patterns than humans-turned-demon do. Maybe because shame is an inherently human thing that we all experience, but for natural demons, it's more like a condition of their existence. For humans it's all encompassing. One of the worst emotions you can feel, and when you do feel it, it's all you feel.
Anyway, we also know the faceless demons.
We don’t know a lot about them, but my headcanon is that they're actually previous humans too, ones that were successfully hunted. All those missing people who had their souls sucked get condemned to a soulless afterlife where they have no face, no memories, no autonomy. They are strictly controlled by Gwi-ma, who's feasted on their souls, and they can be commanded and recalled at will. This could also be why Gwi-ma sucks them up first when he needs a boost. They're basically small amounts of fuel, and dispensable. Again, all headcanon, but y’know. I think it's interesting that they're the only demons to have human-like fingers and nails.
So as of rn, there are a couple of classifications, or general demon races that I can identify:
Humans willingly turned demon (Jinu, Rumi’s dad, the other Saja Boys). These are also the only demons that don't have black sclera in their eyes.
Naturally born demons (like the flight crew)
Water demons (naturally born demons but... water class?)
Faceless demons (humans who had their souls forcibly taken, rather than given up willingly)
Gwi-ma, technically, who is just a mass of fire and doesn’t really have a distinguished form beyond that. I like to think he’s kinda imperceptible in the way Greek gods and some angels are described—you physically don’t have the organs to understand what you’re looking at, and the sight is so visually overwhelming on your senses that you just kinda die on the spot. But for our sake he gets a simplified fire form, and I actually really love his design, even though it isn’t too complex for a demon king!
And, of course, we have Rumi. Who is super unique and perfect and awesome.
Also, on the topic of humans who became demons, I believe they give up all of their humanity when they give up their souls to Gwi-ma, which is why Rumi is still a pretty even split between human and demon, rather than more human than demon. (I'm aware that the expression of genetics is not a clean 50/50 split, but for the sake of simplification I’m gonna make that assumption for now).
Rumi must feel so isolated, because she really is kind of an abomination and her body doesn’t even know what she is. It’s confused. Lacks the human biology to hold a soul, but still has one, so the demon part is forced to hold it instead.
Rumi also has a demon voice that's a lot stronger than other demons for some reason. This is maaaaybe because she's a hunter? I mean they do have voices strong enough to reach the soul, so it makes sense if that's what amplifies her demon voice too.
And I like to think that once she fully demons out by the end of the movie, she also unlocks whatever sixth sense naturally-born demons have that gives them the ability to sense souls. Hunters can perceive them in a very pure, almost ritualistic way, but demons perceive them like a shark senses blood in water.
Okay... this part is a little self-indulgent I'll admit, but notice how Rumi's reaching for Mira's soul here? With her demon hand no less
I imagine that Zoey’s and Mira’s souls are particularly enticing to her, especially because they glow for HER, like, they’re literally hers as offered up by them during What It Sounds Like. Her demon biology would sense that they're very willingly given up, and for a while I’m sure this is quite overwhelming for her. I mean here’s this collection of new demon senses that you have to adapt to after living a relatively normal human life for 23 years, and now you have to deal with not only that, but the two most alluring human souls imaginable. I also think that because Rumi already has a soul, her urge to feed isn’t THAT intense, but feeding on souls would maybe give her a lil power-up and strength boost or something.
ALL that yapping aside, I do wish they did a bit more with the demon designs, but I have to admit. I really dig the patterns, especially on Rumi. I’m a lil biased though… Rumi just makes me completely insane tbh
I think the Saja Boys looking more human than other demons is because they're the human-to-demon kind, and I'm okay with that, for the most part. I do really wish they'd kept Jinu in his demon form throughout most of the movie, but they used his human form to... well, literally humanize him from Rumi's POV. It works story-wise and I like that he never looks at her with his demon eyes, but I also think it would've been more impactful if he'd retained the more demon-y look most of the time.
And that's largely because Rumi seems to have this underlying belief that Jinu is more of an... idea. She wants to believe he's a redeemable demon, because if someone morally worse than her can be redeemed despite being a demon, she can too. Like, even after he betrays her in the most humiliating way possible, she STILL talks about "wanting to set him free." Rumi I love you but come ON STAND UP
Anyway, I think this whole arc would've felt really prominent if Jinu had actually looked like a demon the majority of the time, but oh well
And with Rumi's design, she's a mixed bag. Literally. She’s a hybrid and is asymmetrical all over the place (right hand claw but left side demon eye) which I actually really like. And I mean this in the best way because I love her more than anything... but the asymmetry of her shows how much of an anomaly she is. Not only does she kinda hate herself for being half demon, her own body can't really seem to decide what goes where. It's something she has to grow through, learn, and accept. She can't change any of it and that's okay, it's out of her control. And even if it wasn't, that would be okay too.
As for the Saja Boys... the matte purple skin with the amber eyes is such a delicious combo to me, so I do really enjoy their designs, especially during the Your Idol performance. But at the same time, I do agree with you. At the very least, I wish they’d given the boys slightly more intense features. Like Mystery's giant tusks, those are so cool. The boys all use the same body model except for Abby, and really only their hair shape and hair color is what distinguishes them. I’d definitely love to see more variety in the sequel, but to be entirely honest with you they better keep my baby Rumi the EXACT same. She’s perfect the way she is
Bonus of Rumi almost getting hit by Zoemira's collateral damage water demon
And there were too many boys on this post, so I had to buffer it out by ending with Polytrix, because in the end it's always about them
