Are the Man Eating Wendigo and Wechuge Stalking the Forests of Canada?
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- Опубликовано: 31 авг 2023
- While both are said to stalk the dark forests of North America, the Wendigo and the Wechuge are two very similar legends with some very key differences. What is it that separates one from the other, beyond simple linguistic and geographic distances? Could the the differences tell us a story about how one people became two? Could the similarities reveal the origin of two of the largest Native American ethnic groups? Most important of all, could these cannibalistic monsters be real? Welcome back to The Lore Lodge...
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Развлечения
The Wendigo, not to be confused with the Wendigoon
Ah yes the Wendigoon, a demon that tricks you into a sense of familiarity via telepathic manipulation, and feasts on your spare time
I was hoping I'd find something like this here 😂
Actually they are more alike than you might think...
A far more vile creature
Ah yes, the Wendigoon, far more elusive yet just as wholesome
If there's anything mythology has told me, a heavy club studded with silver, blessed with holy water, adorned with garlic flowers, has a cross bolted on it and sprinkled with white ash and iron dust will kill goddamn anything.
@chandllerburse737well, it’s hard to put all of that into a bullet
*Scribbles all the info on my cryptid hunter journal*
Buckshot
You can kill anything with the proper application of force and determination
You might want to add red rowan berries to it as well...
Then you hit the really strange things out there...
Yes, we are...
nice
real
Me too. Sometimes I like being the rake, but in the city I like my evil clown mask.
When I go on holiday I like being the wendigo though, no better thrill than chasing folk about stinking of excrement 👌
We 👀
@@QigongGreyDragon Is the eau de excrement new? Y’all supposed to smell like decay and decomposition.
Genuinely? This is one of the most respectful and well-researched videos relating to the Wendigo I've ever seen. You didn't sensationalize them, you spoke of them and the culture they're from with regard and respect and honestly that's a sad breath of fresh air. Thank you for that.
This video was so well done they won't stalk him out of respect
Literally nobody cares about cultural respect it's a cryptid Wendigo my nuts I dont care sue me
grwyhh
He might respect it, nobody watching does because we're using it for entertainment. I would bet if we asked some elders that these two arent respecting it either, since its being monetized for the entertainment of the white man
its really sad that a video in which the phrase wendussy is used could recieve this response
Should have opened by saying "THEY DON'T HAVE ANTLERS!"
The taboos thing is interesting, reminds me of Cuchulain in Celtic mythology. He had two taboos, one to never eat the meat of a dog (his name means 'hound of Cullan') and to never refuse hospitality offered to him. So, of course one of his enemies tripped him up by offering him dog meat, and he couldn't refuse.
The funniest part is that, offering him dog meat was, in itself, not a hospitality, but an insult.
that's neat I like that mythology.
An interesting lil bit of knowledge to tack on to the story of Cuchulainn and the dog meat taboo is that its origins are likely the origin story of the Werewolf. In the reconstructed Proto Indo-European culture, the progenitors of the later Celts (and many, many others), there was a youth warrior band known as the Koryos. It is believed that when a boy came of age, they would be initiated into the Koryos warband for a period of several years to live outside the bounds of civilized society. This ritual initiation was heavily focused upon the breaking of great social taboos, namely that of consuming dog meat. A boy would raise a dog from a pup for the entire year before his initiation, caring for it as a brother, before killing it and consuming it. The belief was that consuming the dog would imbue its soul into that of the boy's, a wolf spirit to guide the boy into manhood of sorts. The Koryos was a ritual breaking of all social taboos, as the boy and his warband would leave their tribe and live as animals, subsisting off of raiding and donning only animal skins. I mention this as one of the longest lasting iterations of the Koryos took the form of the Gaelic Fianna, as well as the Berserkers in Germanic society. The act of breaking social taboos and living as wolves was an incredibly common concept in PIE-derived societies.
I'd personally include a sub-clause that I could refuse dog meat offerings.
@@iainhedley1413 I hope one of the boys went all John Wick and killed every one of his elders and lived a long life with his Doggo!
The Wechuge seems similar to the Chenoo which have hearts of ice. Also the story of the little boy that the Wendigo was waiting to get fat enough reminds me of "Hansel & Gretel" & while both stories are culturally distinct, both are linked to famine & cannibalism.
Shows you how similar we all are at the end of the day, even across oceans
@@TheLoreLodge Very true. That's what I love about folklore & myth
Me too!
The food chain “Wendy’s” started as a cannibal restaurant by a capitalistic family of Wendigo named Thomas.
Sir this is a Wendy's
@@jameszawislak436indeed
Wendy's Twitter account gonna cook you. Figuratively and literally.
@@tuphatz7119 I wish!!!
Red Headed gingers are the bane of my existence.
Stumbling across a giant subterranean super moose would be terrifying
Moosen
@@Ron-pg4zo a whole flock of moosen
Something not dissimilar to that happens in Elden Ring
@@ultramagnus1859 think we’ll get anything related to the ancestral spirits in the dlc?
Imagine a heard of super moose fighting a heard of megalodon sharks and winning. That would be terrifyingly interesting.
Along with many werewolf legends this fits the almost universal cultural taboo against cannibalism.
I don't know about First Nations on the other side of the country, but my Innu friends told me they lived several intense famines over the years, to the point that their metabolism has adapted to it in some ways. This has to change something in a people's culture. There are stories like having one partridge to share between over 20 people during a month of December. There is such a thing as going ''crazy'' from hunger, which I think makes sense when talking about the Wendigo.
There are scientific studies related to native Americans and native northern peoples (ie Greenland Iceland northern Russia northern Scandinavia) metabolism and genetic... resistance? Idk of that's the right word? But resistance to famine because of their ancestry and that is why they're more prone to obesity in a western diet than other ethnicities. Or, at least that was the science a couple years ago.
@@Ksweetpea
Peoples around the world that once experienced frequent famines are more likely to suffer from abdominal obesity and diabetes.
Thank you for saying some of the tribal names, so nice to hear them. Loved your work on this. I'm part Metis but grew up around the Seneca people. Still, the stories reached me as a youngster.
Of course! We try to include a good chunk of the history that we didn’t get to learn in high school haha
Echoing similar comments, thank you for the respectful and well-researched video! I'm Mi'kmaw from Nova Scotia Canada and we're part of the Algonquin language family. Our word is wintiku (when-dig-oo), and similar to other cultures, our people had very harsh winters of famine. We have a ceremony for the first moon in february called esmut apuknajit meaning "feeding the snow-covered moon" where we offer spirit plates (plates of food with a prayer) to grandmother moon because February/that time of year is when our people would've struggled the most to harvest food. the idea is to give thanks to the moon and the earth for taking care of us all year round, and offering what we can in a time of our own desperation. Also, I would totally LOOOOVE to see you interview some natives and have them tell their teachings of the legends. Ethnographers are great in their own right, but lots of our Indigenous cultures are traditionally oral storytellers and those stories would be passed down for generations. It would be cool to learn directly from the people in addition to this video and the research you've already done and compare notes!
When someone is considered insanely strong immortal monster, and some fella breaks their back in WWE style is indeed pretty damn badass story
The Windwalker is considered the father of the Windigo, would you please consider an episode on that subject. Even if it is a modern myth does that make it any less interesting than an ancient myth?
Windwalk was an ability in the classic RTS game WC3:TFT
@@Rompelstaump Windwalker reference was to an Inuit myth, about a god of winter. It has been many years since I played games
(Inuit myth) - Negafok's face is said to become long and forlorn as spring comes and the ice recedes, and he must head to the icier northern areas. He was apparently more active around 1900 during a particularly icy weather period
When searching this it just give me Ithaqua. Is there another name?
@@raynightshade8317 Negafok but I've come across several names for more or less the same thing, and despite the modern references I have the Ithaqua name in a book of Northern myths from the 1930's. Something about his steps causing everything underneath to freeze instantly.
this was incredible to listen to. i'd never heard of the Wechuge before, and seeing comparisons between cultures and exploring where similarities might have come from is something i find incredibly facinating.
I’m half German half native, and I always get a tad nervous when people talk about these things. You did it with great respect. ❤
Damn, that made me think of a crazy ass Nazi Wendigo stalking through the Bush......that is a nightmare mix of monsters
@@Babidi111 Oh God I hadn’t thought of that. Sounds like the beginning of a good story though
@@Babidi111how about this:
In ww1 a german soldiers went insane, ran away from the trenches and lived in no-mans-land, feasting on the flesh of fallen soldiers, be they dead or not yet. And because he craves for fresh meat, instead of rotten sludge, he grabs soldier directly out of the trenches, for them to never to be seen again.
@@aleisterlavey9716 Great start! I recall that wolves did become an issue in world war 1 and they did a sort of ceasefire to deal with it via a hunt. THat would make a great setting where soldiers of opposing sides are forced into a team up to deal with what is actually some curse on soldiers who defected or did something horrendous to some group that cursed them. Would be a great horror story!
@@Babidi111if you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend the movie "Overlord". It's surprisingly good for a newer film and there's some characters that fit a similar description
It was a shame to hear that Aidan had succumbed to madness, causing him to attack and partial devour Aidan before disappearing into the nearby wilderness. My heart goes out to Isaiah; it's hard to lose a son, especially in such a horrific way.
Love the Phineas and Freb joke in the intro
freb
all this stuff about taboos that can't be broken reminds me a lot of the ancient irish ideas of the geas, a taboo that can't be broken otherwise it makes you weak or close to death or something like that.
Like for example, in the story of Cu Chulainn, Cu Chulainn is offered dog meat before his final battle, this is important because Cu Chulainn's geas' say he must eat offered food, and that he cannot eat dog meat (because his nickname is the hound of ulster). So when he eats it, the arm he used to take the food becomes numb and limp, making it harder for him to fight in his final battle against queen Medb and the forces of Connaught.
Also it should be noted that Dene peoples are thought to have entered the continent at a later date than the other Native groups (besides the Inuit and Aleut who came after them), so if the story did originate as one story that split between peoples it was either a thing all the way back when both groups were in Siberia, or it originated amongst one wave or the other before spreading through cultural diffusion to another.
There is a sister group in Siberia called the Ket, I wonder if they have an analogous piece of folklore
You know, there's a whole proposed language group involving the Dene and Caucasians. It's literally called the 'Dene-Caucasian Complex' or something like that.
Very interesting.
Me: “ha, a video about cannibal monsters. Sounds fun.”
Me more than 5 minutes later: “This is like the most thorough essay about native Americans ever.”
But in both cases, once the cannibalism happens, you can't come back.
This is correct
So I don't know if you already have a guest in mind for the lore lodge podcast episode about this, but if not roanoke tales or gaming as he's also known would be a good guest for an episode about these creatures.
Let me see if I can get him for this weekend
@@TheLoreLodge he's a biologist and he's talked about mothman before so this is up his alley and so I think he could have a lot to say about the wendussy. Thanks for being a great content creator and listening to your fans, I hope it works out!
@@TheLoreLodgeconsider wendigoon aswell
@@tikimillie oh trust me we do
Ok. So after having watched your entire missing 411 list, all your wendigoon colaborations, and a handful of your podcasts i have made the decision to subscribe to the Lore Lodge.
Koyukon Athabaskan here, from interior Alaska. Thank you, I'm learning about the many indigenous groups of the world by watching ur videos. You do excellent work & we do appreciate it immensely ⭐️✨️
A peculiar parallel between the Wendigo and Wechuge is the organs made of ice. The Wendigo is said to have a heart made of ice that must be burned to ash before it can be killed. And of course, he just said it lol.
just listening to this while crocheting and then "Wendussy" at the end hit me like a goddamn truck
Spiritual transformations are incredibly cool to think about, since at what point is it just true? If a person is raised in a culture that reinforces that they will turn into an inhuman monster hungering for human flesh if they eat human flesh, then if they are forced to eat human flesh, their perception of themselves can easily be shaped by that expectation, and they become what they were told that they would, simply because they expect that that's what will happen. Physically, there may be nothing changing, but mentally and psychologically, the human brain, personal identity, perception of self... All of it can be morphed around this cultural expectation.
The bible actually explains that. Sin sears the conscious. Meaning the more you do a bad thing, the more an individual (doing the bad thing) stops perceiving that thing as bad and in fact can come to crave it. Think addiction.
I would definitely be interested in more videos about native american mythology/folklore! The way you handle it seems pretty respectful and well researched
It'd be interesting to compare the geographical origin of each of the tribes with the variants of the wendigo/wechuge stories-- I read one thought once that harsh living conditions might have fed into the "death alone" solution versus the idea that one could do dark things and come back from it, in part due to the strain physical conditions can have on mental health.
Wait, I have questions about the Wechuge's wife. That came out of nowhere. Is she also some kind of monster? Can women become Wechuges? If she's a human then how did she end up marrying him instead of getting eaten? Does the Half-Buffalo Man have to go back for a second round and kill her too, like Grendle's mother?
Unfortunately, while these stories often share overarching concepts and characters from storyteller to storyteller, a lot of the details vary and many things are taken on the assumption you have prior knowledge.
@@TheLoreLodge that's what I figured but still disappointing. Thanks.
I've had personal experience with something similar to this, and i was never a believer until it happened. I can confirm that they roam as south as Iowa, and move supernaturally fast.
Please, tell us more!
I’m not supposed to joke about wendigos? Ruh ro Raggy I do it weekly at the least
Canada: *on fire*
Wendigo and Wechuge: *screeching*
Brilliant and clear-sighted ! The Gnostics of all religions have always discussed if the ritual performing of an absolute taboo, resulting in obtaining mental and psychological strength, is something fundamentally evil or just plane crazy. That discussion will never end since no conclusion is possible.
It's possible if there's somebody out there who's not a coward 😂
I think maybe this is a situation sort of like the Nart Sagas in the Caucasus, where the original people of an area (the Nakh) share their legends but not their culture with the other people (the Cherkess, the Ossetians, etc).
When I hear that Djenty intro I know it's gonna be a good day, Hello from Central PA!
8:33 Correction: it wasn’t just loyalists. Ironically enough, shortly after the Revolution many who had fought against the Crown ended up migrating to the Ontario region because the British were offering a better land deal to settlers than the new United States government was. This is doubly ironic as George Washington’s main recruitment tactic for the Continental Army were promises land deals for settlers newly arriving in the colonies, promises that had to be scaled back due to Washington realizing later as President that allowing to many settlers at once to colonize the Ohio River Valley would have resulted in a major conflict with the Natives.
Another large group who came were blacks who had been freed by the British during the Revolution, the largest such liberation that would be seen until Civil War, in fact. Unfortunately, the same land deal that attracted so many from the United States was unfair towards the black settlers, giving them a subpar deal in comparison to white settlers. This led many of these blacks to migrate to England, and from their many were sent by the Crown to help settle newly acquired territories in Africa.
Bit of a history lesson for ya.
Had they known about Trude@u...😅
Hey thanks it's always great to hear about the concext.
Hmm.
Too powerful may mean emotionally. Energetically. Maybe it was a way of explaining mental illness back then and the whole drive to treat the people who are acting irrationally that, as you even said! We would just give a sidelong look at.
A way to tell a story that instills in people the drive to take care of their own. Not abandoning them to become semi feral animals in the woods, or today, the streets.
As a Canadian, this may explain the voices calling for me from the woods.
That's my personal head-canon. They are definitely the reason behind most of the Missing 411 cases. And they're using... antlers.
Just a shout out, this is an amazing show, and both guys are doing a great job on the episodes. I can't recommend them enough.
Any one of your episodes is so good and enjoyable I could watch any episode on your channel over and over again.
So neat to catch a premiere! Look forward to watching this from the start later ^^;
a guy doing the bane move on a wechuge is awesome
There’s a very popular legend here in BC or at least here on Vancouver Island about (and I have probably seen 15 different spellings of this so there is a 90% chance my spelling is wrong) Tsonoqua which was a giant lady that especially liked eating children, it’s thought that the story was used to stop rebellious kids from running off, but it has a few parallels with wendigos and other spirit sort of beings like wetigo as well which i think is the spirit of greed and the idea that when you start taking more than you need you can never stop wanting more until you reach a capitalist society
Oh hell yeah! Unfortunately I'll come back to this tomorrow. Thank for teaching us! I love mythology!
Here before the man himself Wendigoon comments.
You have my follow specifically for the Phineas and Ferb opening. Okay not *only* that, but it's part of it! ;)
Fantastic! I always love hearing about these things, and getting something a bit closer to the actual source, so I appreciate the diligence.
He wanders the icy wilderness eternally famished, lusting for the flesh of men, women and children. His heart of ice frozen within him, a shape shifting hypnotic creature that even the mighty grizzly shuns...This is the curse that the Natives swear happens to those who engage in the abhorrent practice of cannibalism(red lake MN.)
Fascinating and very well done. Thank you.
As a viewer from Alabama seeing that opening... that's fair
Man love the channel bro thank u so much for doing these videos and for your time
Bro I read the title and just freaked laughed for a good bit. I usually turn your stuff on when going to bed because you don’t have stupid background music or joke all the time, and your voice is consistent. I have high standards take this as a compliment ❤. I’m a big fan of the channel. But this… this was on another level 😂
" I have high standards, take this as a compliment " !..wow.. I'll bet he's feeling very honoured that you've chosen to comment to him .. in fact, I feel honoured just to be able to reply on the same comment as you also.. wow... what a compliment!! ....I think I need to lie down now........
@@maggielarkin9314 what is your problem? It was a genuine compliment. I like to sleep with RUclips on usually a documentary or something. And the noise has to be perfect, I can hear the person, no loud parts out of nowhere, not very high background noise. I really was being nice. Go take a nap grump.
@@corning1 I know exactly what you mean, when I want to listen to something to fall asleep to it often takes me ages to find a documentary where the narrator has perfect pitch and tone and there's not loads of "crash bang wallop" in the background 😂😂😂
See? Somebody gets it lol
Man….. I’m addicted to your videos
I’m kinda new and not sure if you’ve covered this before. I was wondering if you have ever done a video on missing 411 style cases that are outside the us. It might be hard to find information but I think it would be interesting.
We’ve considered it, but it’s so hard to come by English language materials and the only foreign language I can even remotely parse is German. Unfortunately, there’s also the fact that many countries do not have the same transparency laws as the USA, so the government is less open about what’s happening in an investigation and FOIA isn’t always a thing.
Very cool video. Appreciate the research done. Keep up the great content.
Damn man love to see the grind I remember watching you on TikTok when you didn’t have many views at all
I was recommended this video early some morning only a few days ago and am only halfway through watching this video, but it is phenomenal.
Maybe it’s just me but I see similarities to vampires and werewolves as well if only slightly.
Thank you very much for the great video❤
Would y'all consider doing a series where you create a cenralized video for the myths and legends for each state? Maybe you don't need go in depth about each story, (maybe linking the relevent videos) but I think it would be interesting to compare from state to state.
Aidan: "You aren't allowed to mention the name of the wendigo in a joking fashion"
Also Aidan: "wendussy"
He's a distant cousin of mine
Also you didn't have to be so rude about my hygiene
So iv heard the history of the Wendigo and the Wechuge...
...but when will you do a deepdive on the Wendigoon? Its as mysterious as its mane is beautiful! ...or so the legends say!
that intro was a lot to unpack. love the little meme reference
Been watching your Channel for a while and bros is looking leaner, fking nice
Love the refrence at the start, have a like
Nice Dr Doofenshmirtz reference in the intro. I love that one
I took a while to see this one but I’m confident y’all did great
I love the fact that if you slowly move the time bar across the bottom you can watch the light creep across the play button lmao
When I first read the title, I read it as a man eating and hunting both of the legendary creatures in the Canadian forests XD
i love the fact you got so close to saying wendigoon but didnt
the fucking restraint. i woulda said it i couldnt help myself
I'm glad I ended up watching this vid after all. the semi-click baitey title and thumbnail put me off and made me hesitant. but in the end this was exactly the kind of vid I wanted. very detailed, well researched and respectfully handled
And these two creatures/spirits/entities most likely have a close connection to a third energy/entity known as the wetiko.
Thank you! I was waiting for someone to mention the wetiko!
I live in redlake ontario, middle of the boreal forrest, you can just feel a presence sometimes you cant explain
"If he listens to country music, he might become too strong" 23:09
I am athabaskan from Alaska. You got some good research homeboy!
Love this channel, another channel called Hammerson Peters also has great content on this sort of topic 😊
This is a great young Man he has a ton of knowledge a Bright future no doubt, awesome channel
I actually didn't know about the specifics of the taboo of discussing the Wendigo, that's a nice thing to know.
This guy is smart and I do enjoy all of his videos. Teaches so much tbh
I don't know, the "ghoul" of folklore is similar enough to the wendigo to be familiar, at least.
As someone who grew up in Eastern Ontario, this was really interesting. Thanks!
Seems to me that the concept of these pieces of mythology, were as a lesson to be close with thy neighbor. Interesting things, thank you for the information.
I really appreciate this video. I’ve been working in creating a low fantasy setting set in the mid 18th century America. Started as helping a friend make a DnD setting but he went a different direction and I decided to try making a setting for some short stories. One of my opening stories is about a trio of essentially monster hunters responding to a call for aid from a small town being terrorized by some sick beast. The main inspiration I’ve been using is the wechuge since it seems to have an even closer relationship to ice than the wendigo, but finding good info is extremely difficult.
Which is a good thing and a bad thing tbh, because the lack of hard info means I can take a lot of creative liberty, but the lack of info doesn’t give me many lines to color in as it were. This kinda indicates I should probably just go with a wendigo instead because I’m definitely going for the more animalistic hunter vibe, not a deceptive cannibal.
Subbed! Great job!
You can grain of salt this, since this is a personal account, but I’ve experienced something similar to a Wendigo in Arkansas. Which, you will note, isn’t exactly known for its harsh winters. The Ozark Mountain Range can make things worse, though, so it wouldn't surprise me to learn some starvation cannibalism occurred here. I say this because sightings have been corroborated by several people in the witchy/ect community that I know. Two of them even told me exactly where they saw it, and it was in the exact same location as I did. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced a being where it shouldn't be. (If you believe in them, of course. Feel free to think I'm loco)
@@ItzTwelve0ClockIt is possible for someone to believe something to be the truth wholeheartedly when it is not, and provide an honest reaccount of events that didn't happen with real conviction. That said, I wouldn't discount anything. The world is more than many would give it credit for.
@TheD736 precisely! The senses are fickle things, and can be tricked. I, for one, used to have hallucinations (mostly auditory, some visual) and really bad sleep paralysis. Then I got diagnosed with Narcolepsy, went on medication for it, and what do you know. No more 3 am demonic visits. I still experience Weird Things, but usually these are corroborated by others as something that happened. Probably there are mundane explanations, but they feel supernatural/paranormal, and I don’t hallucinate anymore so that explanation is out. If I were to find out that none of it is even a little bit true, I'd be disappointed, but then I'd get over it. My witchy stuff is only like .02% of my personality lol
Also I'm technically a minister, so that adds a different layer to things.
Fun fact, white ash and water makes for great soap (lye) if you’re quick enough. If not, you’ll get an alkaline chemical burn.
This may be where the white ash on the weapons comes from.
As always you are a pleasure to listen too
Very good episode.
- I always scream insults at the forest and try to tempt the Wendigo but he never shows :(
Another good one 😊
Awesome as always thanks
Superman could instantly kill a wendigo with his laser eyes
I am wholeheartedly certain that feral people are responsible for all of these legends and I am completely prepared to die on this hill in your comment section
I tend to agree, people can and do go feral.
27:38
That story about the young and middle aged man having to wrestle a Wechuge:
"...the middle-aged man then goes and wrestles The Wechuge for an hour before picking him up and, in a WWE style move, grabbing him by the knee and the neck and snapping his [the Wechuge] back over his [the middle-aged man's] knee. Pretty badass if I'm gonna be honest, but that's not enough to kill the Wechuge. It's [only] enough to paralyze it..."
The middle-aged man grabbing the Wechuge by the neck and knee and then snapping his back over his knee reminds you of a WWE style wrestling move.
The story immediately reminded me of the scene in, "The Dark Knight Rises," when Bane grabs Batman by the neck and leg (possibly even his knee), and performs his patented move:
"Bane's brutal back break™." That really screws Batman up to where he has to spend a large part of the movie healing after Bane put him down for the count, causing him to need to tag out till around the last section of the movie.
I mean, the way you described the move is EXACTLY the same when Bane breaks Batman's back. Lol
Hmm... 🤔 That actually makes me wonder, since the bat is obviously Batman's spirit animal, could him dressing up every night as a bat be something that makes him too strong, causing him to very slowly turn into a Wechuge. 🤔
It would explain how tf Batman not only survived and fully recovered from the patented move:
"Bane's brutal back break™," but it would also explain how tf Batman was able to SURVIVE A NUCLEAR BOMB AT CLOSE RANGE!!! Seriously, that scene is still aggravating because logistically, Batman only had like 60 seconds left to fly the bomb out before it detonated, and he would've had to wait to bail out till pretty close to detonation to make sure the plane didn't accidentally fly off course.
I mean, if Batman jumped off, say, 30 seconds before detonation, depending on the speed of his plane (which didn't look like it was even going that fast) he would've still been too close to the 6 mile blast radius to survive!! If he wasn't killed in the immediate blast by getting vaporized, then he would've, at minimum, been exposed to enough radiation to kill him in days.
Although, unless there's an alternate world comic that I'm not aware of, Batman isn't Native American so I don't know if he could become a Wechuge or not.
I mean, can an outsider become a Wechuge or is it only Native Americans, or is it only members from tribes that believe in the Wechuge that can become one?... Could an outsider turn into a Wechuge if they've experienced a sort of spirit quest where they found their spirit animal, especially if an outsider doesn't even realize that they've found their spirit animal? Batman, or rather, Bruce Wayne, could be argued to have experienced a sort of spirit quest in the cave.
both seem to be manifestations of harsh winters/famine, desperation, greed, and unbalance of spirit. many stories are told to teach younger ones life lessons
Look, I propose an expedition into the wilderness where these supposed wendigos are. All I need are a couple of hardy men, some dragons breath rounds and a few auto shotguns.