u/One-Pay-6742

Architecture:

• Otranto Castle (The Castle of Otranto)

• Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

• Palais Garnier (The Phantom of the Opera)

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Tyrant, patriarchal, aristocratic, rapist, sociopathic:

• Manfred - The Castle of Ontranto (1764)

• Marquis - The Romance of the Forest (1791)

• Mr. Weimar and Count Wolfenbach - The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793)

• Montoni - Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)

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Classical hero, handsome, aristocratic:

• Theodore - The Castle of Ontranto (1764)

• Count De Bouville - The castle of Wolfenbach (1793)

• Valancourt - Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) 

• Raoul - Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910)

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Saintly, sensibility, proper, usually blond:

• Matilda - The Castle of Ontranto (1764)

• Adeline - The Romance of the Forest (1791)

• Matilda - The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793)

• Emily - Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) 

• Esmeralda - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831)

• Mina - Dracula (1897)

• Christine - Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910)

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Byronic, moody, charismatic, defiant, self-destructive:

• Hamlet (1603), Macbeth (1623)

• Satan - Paradise Lost (1667) (heavily influenced the Romantics, resulting in the Byronic character)

• Victor Frankenstein — Frankenstein a Modern Prometheus (1818)

• The Creature - Frankenstein a Modern Prometheus (1818)

• Claude Frollo - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) 

• Heathcliff — Wuthering Heights (1847)

• Edward Rochester — Jane Eyre (1847)

• Erik — The Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910)

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Mad Scientist:

• Varthek - Vathek an Arabian Tale (1786)

• Victor Frankenstein - Frankenstein a Modern Prometheus (1818)

• Dr. Jekyll - Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)

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Shunned for his appearance, longs for love, anti-villain, lonely, tragic:

• The Creature - Frankenstein a Modern Prometheus (1818)

• Quasimodo - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831)

• Erik - Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910)

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Masquerade ball:

• The Masque of the Red Death (1842)

• Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910)

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Vampires:

• Glenarvon - Glenarvon (1816) (technically not a vampire, but heavily influenced The Vampyre)

• Lord Ruthven - The Vampyre (1819)

• Varney - Varney The Vampire (1845-1847)

• Carmilla - Carmilla (1872)

• Dracula - Dracula (1897)

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Sorcery/Alchemy:

• Varthek The History of the Caliph Vathek (1782)

• St. Irvyne or the Rosicrucian (1811)

• Frankenstein a Modern Prometheus (1818) 

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Mystery about the protagonist's family:

• The Castle of Ontranto (1764)

• The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793)

• Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)

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Crazy men revealing dark truths:

• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)

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Supernatural explained:

• The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793)

• Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)

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Inquisition:

• The Monk (1796)

• The Italian (1797)

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Devil:

• The Monk (1796)

• Melmoth The Wanderer (1820)

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Catholicism:

• The Monk (1796)

• The Italian (1797)

• Melmoth The Wanderer (1820)

One employee handled the beef patties, and then directly touched the vegetables, buns, and tinfoil without changing gloves. Another one handled the patties, reached into the glove box, and pulled out more gloves that she covered the dirty gloves with, not removing the dirty gloves. When I complained to the manager, she ignored my complaints. What should I do?

multiple narrative story, mystery, unreliable narrater (Utsuki)

story explained through letters, journals, notes, reports, etc.

wandering around dark creepy buildings and forests

patriarchal tyrant = Doman (kept daughters isolated and is controlling to them)

mad sorcerer/scientist = Doman

undead, demons

mansion, religious buildings (temple, shrine)

Mulberry Trees = Lovecraftian (ancient creatures, who are worshipped as gods by humans, and sealed in a sleeping state, unleashes death and destruction when they awaken)

Kureha = vampire (prolonging her undeath using others)

MXTX = Shakespeare:

• exploration and criticism of human behaviors and society

• misconceptions and misunderstandings that have to be resolved for a happy ending 

• examination of what is right and what is wrong

• drama, betrayal, revenge, romance, comedy, supernatural beings

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PIDW = The Count of Monte Cristo:

• teenager is hated because of jealousy

• teenager is sent to a horrible place to die (the endless abyss, Chateau d’If)

• mentor teaches teen (Meng Mo, Abbe Faria)

• protagonist gets something that gives him power (Xin Mo, treasure)

• protagonist rewards those who help him, punishes those who have hurt him

• protagonist ingratiates himself among the powerful and well-connected (Huan Hua Palace sect, Parisian society)

• protagonist schemes for revenge against those who hurt him

• protagonist publicly exposes the dark secrets of his enemy/enemies, and has a woman testify against him/them (Qiu Haitang, Haydee)

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Wei Wuxian = Prospero:

dark sorcerer, banished to an isolated place where he learns sorcery, betrayed by his allies, controls supernatural beings, necromancer

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MDZS = Pride and Prejudice: 

• Catherine de Berg = Lan Qiren (aunt/uncle, demanding, unreasonable, disapproves of the protagonist)

• arrogant jerk who’s the last man she’d ever want to marry = a cold, stiff, unreasonable man no girl would ever love

• commentaries on social class

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Xue Yang = Phantom:

• sociopathic manchild 

• manipulative, unhealthy and toxic relationship

• wants relationship with pure innocent person (Xiao Xingchen, Christine)a 

• wants domestic bliss with Xiao-Xingchen/Christine

• deals with rival through murder (Raoul, Song Lan)

• murderers, geniuses, sadistic

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Phantom = Hua Cheng:

rejected by their parents, outcast, becomes hateful towards the world, desires love, obsessed with their romantic interest, extremely intelligent and talented, creates statues of their romantic interests, hides their deformity with cloth (mask and face-wrappings) 

• perfectly proportioned, symmetrical, beautiful facial features

• long shiny black hair 

• yellow shriveled skin 

• skin tight over the muscles 

• yellow watery eyes

• dark lips

• 8-feet tall 

• no mention of stitches or electrodes

• deformed (Erik’s face and Byron’s foot)

• unhealthy relationship with mother (Byron’s mother bullied him over his deformity and nearly beat him to death)

• able to mesmerize people against their better judgement

• wild fits of temper and emotionally unbalanced

• wrote about Don Juan 

Horace Walpole (who wrote the first gothic novel) was heavily influenced by Shakespeare, which you can see in The Castle of Ontranto...

• doomed passionate romance (Romeo-Juliet, Theodore-Matilda)

• friars who help the protagonists (Friar Laurence, Father Jerome)

• usurping villains (Macbeth and Hamlet, Manfred)

• ghosts (Hamlet), prophecy (Macbeth)

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You can see a lot of similarities between the gothic genre and Shakespeare in general:

• examination of the darker parts of humanity, revenge, guilt, corruption, madness

• family drama, melodrama, usurped heirs (Hamlet), usurper villains (Hamlet, Macbeth), forbidden romances

• ghosts (Hamlet), sorcerers (The Tempest), witches (Macbeth), prophecy (Macbeth), undead (The Tempest)

• perfectly proportioned, symmetrical, beautiful facial features

• long shiny black hair 

• yellow shriveled skin 

• skin tight over the muscles 

• yellow watery eyes

• dark lips

• 8-feet tall 

• no mention of stitches or electrodes

• The Patriarchal Tyrant who tries to force the heroine into marriage with either himself or another man against her will.

• The plot forces the heroine to explore and travel which was considered “unfeminine.” This gave an excuse for the heroine to have an adventure.

• The heroine will marry the man she chooses at the end, and regain her property from the Patriarchal Tyrant.

• The real horror is not the supernatural, but the oppression women experienced in a patriarchal society (forced marriage, imprisonment, rape)

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The Mysteries of Udolpho was the most famous example of this subgenre

Lovecraft has evil cults, human sacrifice, evil deities, people becoming monsters, and alternate dimensions. Poe has the darkness inside people manifesting externally in multiple stories.

Transhumanism— the idea of using technology, biology, or other means to transcend normal human limitations, including aging, death, and physical form.

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1. The "Golden Secret" is Playtime Co.'s pursuit of defeating death or achieving a form of immortality.
2. The Bigger Bodies Initiative involved the integration of organic matter with artificial structures. The gel makes the creation of custom-designed bodies possible.

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What's interesting is that Poppy Playtime presents a very dark version of transhumanism. Playtime Co.'s experiments involve:

1. Loss of personal identity.
2. Non-consensual transformation.
3. Corporate control over human bodies.
4. The reduction of people to products or assets.

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So while the company is chasing goals often associated with transhumanism— immortality, engineered bodies, and the overcoming of biological limits— the story functions more as a horror critique of those ambitions when pursued without ethics.

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Playtime is obsessed with gaining complete control over life itself— who lives, in what body, and for what purpose.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Theosophical ideas had become widespread in popular culture. Concepts such as ancient hidden civilizations, secret cosmic hierarchies, non-human intelligences guiding humanity, forgotten knowledge preserved by initiates.

But where Theosophy generally presented these ideas as spiritually meaningful and ultimately uplifting, Lovecraft often inverted them:

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Theosophy - Hidden wisdom leads to enlightenment.

Lovecraft - Hidden knowledge often leads to madness.

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Theosophy - Cosmic evolution has spiritual purpose.

Lovecraft - The universe is indifferent and purposeless.

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Theosophy - Advanced beings may guide humanity.

Lovecraft - Superior beings are usually indifferent or hostile.

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Theosophy - Occult revelation is valuable.

Lovecraft - Revelation destroys comforting illusions.

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Lovecraft's cosmicism rejects that optimism. In his fiction:

• the universe is indifferent,
• humanity has no special significance,
• hidden knowledge is usually horrifying rather than liberating,
• ancient beings are not spiritual masters but alien and incomprehensible entities.

A Byronic hero is typically:

• charismatic and intelligent

• emotionally intense

• socially isolated or alienated

• morally ambiguous

• rebellious toward authority

• haunted by suffering or obsession

• devoted to a singular ideal or person

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Hua Cheng checks most of those boxes:

• Outsider status: He exists outside heavenly authority and openly mocks the gods and bureaucratic order.

• Dark reputation: He’s feared as one of the most dangerous Ghost Kings, surrounded by frightening rumors.

• Emotional extremity: His devotion to Xie Lian is absolute and enduring across centuries.

• Tragic past: His childhood suffering, alienation, and death shape his identity deeply.

• Self-made power: Like many Byronic heroes, he rejects institutions and builds his own power independently.

• Self-created identity: Like many Byronic heroes, he reinvents himself after trauma and refuses society’s judgment.

• Magnetic charisma: He’s witty, theatrical, confident, and emotionally unreadable to most people.

• Moral ambiguity: He can be ruthless or violent toward enemies while remaining tender and loyal to Xie Lian.

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Where he differs from the traditional Byronic model:

• less self-destructive than many classic examples.

• emotionally healthier in his central relationship than the archetype usually allows.

• His morality is selective rather than fundamentally cynical — he can be ruthless, but he’s not emotionally hollow.

• Unlike characters such as Heathcliff or Mr. Rochester, Hua Cheng’s love is ultimately stabilizing rather than corrosive.

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Hua Cheng is a modernized romantic Byronic hero — dark, obsessive, powerful, and alienated, but written with emotional loyalty and tenderness that soften the archetype.

Lord Byron and the Phantom of the Opera share striking similarities. Both experienced bullying from their mothers due to physical deformities—Byron for his foot, the Phantom for his face. They were intensely passionate, artistic, and had toxic traits. Byron aspired to be a “Don Juan,” while the Phantom created the opera Don Juan Triumphant.