Daemonologie
Epistemon
A "whole-hearted believer in witchcraft" who argues in favor of their existence (and the need for its erradication) in Daemonologie
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.- Author Avatar: He serves to represent James I's views on witchcraft.
- Children Are Innocent:
- When asked by Philomathes if a child conceived by a human and an incubus would be a monster, Epistemon states that such kids would be normal humans because incubi can't produce their own sperm and must instead steal it from dead humans. He also says this conclusion is hypothetical, because such a conception couldn't occur anyway because the above-mentioned sperm would be inviable.
- When asked by Philomathes if "bairns" should be executed for witchcraft, he states that they'd be too young to practice or even understand it.
- Defiled Forever: Averted. He states that women who are assaulted by incubi should be pitied and prayed for, not punished.
- Expy: Defied. Atun-Shei stated that he purposely didn't try to play him as a copy of his famous Witchfinder General character, even if both are ardent believers that witchcraft exists and must be fought against, because he felt that would get old quickly. (Even setting that aside, the Witchfinder General, despite quoting from or referring to the Daemonologie a couple of times, has dismissed the historical King James I as a "degenerate sodomite" in a previous video, mirroring King James's own attempts to hide his reliance on Catholic sources like Der Hexenhammer in writing the Daemonologie with a thin veneer of "solo scriptura.")
- If Jesus, Then Aliens: Defied a couple of times, most notably when Rakich plays him as audibly and visibly scoffing at the suggestion that if witches are real, werewolves must be too, before providing a shockingly reasonable counterpoint arguing that they're almost certainly just a handful of cases of people suffering from mental illness being overblown by sensationalist rumor-mongers. Rakich, in the video's afterword, points out that, without losing the forest for the trees, one can hear portents of the Enlightenment in Epistemon's rationalistic, if solidly scripture-based, attitude towards many subjects.
- Insufferable Genius: Atun-Shei states that this character came across as a "know-it-all" to him, and that he wanted to bring that energy to the video.
- Meaningful Name: His name is derived from the Greek word for "truth," which is what he's elaborating on (from James' perspective, anyway).
- Moral Event Horizon: He argues that becoming a witch is the worst possible sin, to the point of undoing baptism. However he still acknowledges that witches can repent and turn out to have been among the Elect.
- Values Dissonance: He believes that men are superior to women, that Protestant Christians are superior to people of any other belief system, and that witchcraft should be a capital offense. This isn't Deliberate Values Dissonance because this character's dialogue was written in 1597 and thus his beliefs were standard for the author's culture and era, or, in the case of some of the measures he is arguing in favor of that even those at the time found authoritarian and unjust, arguing for positions held by the author.
Philomathes
A curious and skeptical man who came to Epistemon to ask him questions about witchcraft in Daemonologie.
.- Agent Scully: He is pretty skeptical of witches existing, then of the necessity of the deeply authoritarian (even by the standards of the time) measures his jousting partner is advocating in trying to combat their malign influence. True to the trope, at least in King James's mind, he's shown to be wrong at every turn, but the text never quite loses all sympathy for his reasonable doubts.
- Audience Surrogate: He's intended as this, to provide questions that readers might have about witches.
- Meaningful Name: His name is derived from Greek for "lover of learning," as he is the eager student who absorbs Epistemon's teachings.
- Skeptic No Longer: He begins the dialogue doubting if witches are even real, but ends it not only accepting them but hoping for them to be eradicated.
Various
Klaus the Nazi
Oberführer-SS Klaus
"To sow disorder, to maximize Chaos, to WREATHE THE MULTIVERSE IN UNQUENCHABLE FIRE AND RULE OVER THE ASHES AS HIGH KING OF OUTER DARKNESS!'"
—The reason Klaus does anything, Frozen '50s Man ~ Episode 2
Played by: Andrew "Atun-Shei Films" Rakich
An archeologist turned enthusiastic Nazi, Oberführer-SSnote Klaus escaped the war-torn ruins of Germany after a failed suicide and shoot-out with Soviet troops with the help of Operation Paperclip, and fled to Argentina, where he made himself into something more than human. Now he is plotting a Nazi takeover of the United States across space, time, and parallel realities, in between antagonizing his roommate and appearing on various podcasts with very low standards.- Argentina Is Nazi-Land: A passing mention is made in "My N@zi Roommate" that he came from Argentina to answer Atun-Shei's roommate ad. Later, his Alternate Self from a parallel universe (or from our universe) is shown wasting away in an Argentinian bed surrounded by mosquito netting in the 1970's.
- Big Bad:
- Of Frozen '50s Man, where he calls Dick Jett at the end of the first episode to taunt that he has a master plan which will be revealed after a multi-episode story arc.
- In Checkmate, Lincolnites!, he is part of a greater Myth Arc between episodes where he uses the Sword of Baron Samedi to resurrect all the high-ranking Confederate leaders as undead.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: In Episode 2 of "Frozen 50's Man", he's revealed to be Q, the Conspiracy Theorist that started the QAnon Movement, having founded it to destabilize America to make it easier for Fascist rule.
- Characterization Marches On: While still a sinister figure in his debut, Klaus was originally much more of a comedic character who milked the Those Wacky Nazis trope for all that it was worth and engaged in a lot of Poke the Poodle moments. However, as he became more of an overarching villain for the entire channel, his menace grew alongside his notoriety and now he's almost guaranteed to be a Knight of Cerebus whenever he shows up.
- Continuity Snarl: Mostly due to Rule of Funny, but details of his story do not exactly match with each other. "Ancient Aryans: The History of Crackpot N@zi Archaeology" shows him being picked up by the Americans via Operation Paperclip at the end of World War II, yet in "My N@zi Roommate" he appears in the present day still a young man, even stating that he came from Argentina to answer the ad. And that's not even mentioning that he has been killed or mutilated several times; he shoots himself in the head at the end of "Crackpot N@zi Archaeology" rather than listen to one of Joe Rogan's stories about being high on his podcast, his face gets melted off Raiders of the Lost Ark-style in Atun-Shei's 100k subs button unboxing, and his eyes seem to have been melted out of his skull after the Witchfinder General exorcised him from Johnny Reb's body, yet he continues to reappear no worse for wear in later videos. One ending slide even lampshaded it. This may be explained by The Reveal in "Frozen 50s Man II" that he is a demonic Humanoid Abomination who can travel between dimensions, or the post credits scene from "Wasn't it KINDA about STATES RIGHTS?!" that shows he has visited other versions of himself across space and time.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Despite Still Wearing the Old Colors, modern Americans have a hard time seeing him for what he is, though the Witchfinder General knows devilry when he sees it.
- Driven to Suicide: Parodied. In "Ancient Aryans," he's introduced getting ready to kill himself with a gun in the mouth before the Russians can get to him, only to collapse swearing and weeping, unable to bring himself to do it. But, at the end of the episode, when he appears on Joe Rogan's podcast to spread his theories about an ancient Aryan superrace, he finally manages to do it when Joe starts talking about some thoughts he had while on drugs.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Played for Laughs. After initially not having the guts to Eat His Gun when the Russians were marching into Berlin, at the end of the episode, while making an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast and gloating about how dissenting archeologists were forced to comply with the Nazi narrative through force, he finally finds the courage and will to shoot himself when Joe Rogan starts rambling about thoughts he had while on drugs.
- Everyone Has Standards: Repeatedly on the receiving end, although not universally. When Americans do see him for what he is, unmasked, they tend to reject him, even old-fashioned ones like the Witchfinder General, or unpleasant ones like the Q cultists in Frozen '50's Man.
- Evil Is Hammy: Like only the very best cartoonishy evil Nazi villains, Klaus leaves tooth marks on the scenery whereever he goes. He also has an extremely diabolical and over the top Evil Laugh.
- Evil Is Petty: On top of being an unrepentant Nazi, Klaus is also a shitty roommate who constantly pushes at boundaries, takes up more and more of the fridge for his beer while pouring out others, hangs posters on their shared walls in a deliberate effort to stake his claim on things, and uses Atun-Shei's computer without permission.
- Expy: His "ancestor," for lack of a better word, was "Doctor von Murderall," a hypothetical Nazi antagonist from Atun-Shei's "Fixing The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" video in the earliest days of the channel, who would sometimes pop in to make unwelcome and unsolicited comments whenever the conversation shifted to ultranationalist or eugenic politics on other videos. His role was eventually taken by Klaus; compare the "Fixing Braveheart" video, where Doctor von Murderall shows up to parrot Mel Gibson's infamous anti-Semitic rant after being pulled over, with Klaus's literal possession of Johnny Reb in "Was it REALLY the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION?!?!?!" while one of Johnny's comments crossed the line from the usual Lost Cause misinformation and insults into outright advocating for ethnostates to "preserve heritage and culture."
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of Rakich's various series, but also the channel as a whole. In Frozen '50s Man episode 2, he departs from Dick and Alexis saying that he's needed in another dimension. The next video he would appear in would be "Wasn’t it KINDA About STATES’ RIGHTS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!", where he is seen stealing the Sword of Baron Samedi from an eldery, dying alternate version of himself in—you guessed it— another dimension. Throw in the fact that he once did battle with The Witchfinder-General and he's encountered every major series on the channel, with hints that his presence in them makes them all loosely connected within the same continuity.
- Ghostapo: Parodied. As an archeologist and a member of Himmler's Ahnenerbe secret society, he made his bones trying to unearth the secrets of the ancient Aryan superrace who created all of human civilization, and enjoyed doing "occult rituals and weird sex things" at Wewelsburg. But, since said Aryan superrace was a totally imaginary product of Himmler's deranged mind, his only actual demonstration of occult power is possessing Johnny Reb and being exorcised in a Shout-Out to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, unless his frequent Unexplained Recoveries count. Episode 2 of Frozen '50's Man strongly suggests that he has become some sort of Humanoid Abomination hoping to collapse all realities into chaos so that he may rule over the ashes and dust that remain, and definitely sees him slip away into another dimension when Jett tried to physically confront him.
- Humanoid Abomination: In a later appearance in Frozen '50's Man, Klaus's body lights up with eerie distortion and chroma-key effects, complete with distortion to his voice, suggesting his humanity has become a mere disguise for something worse, and he is revealed to have the power to traverse dimensions easily. That said, he still relies on his pistol to actually kill people, and he teleports away rather than let Dick apply two-fisted American justice to his face, suggesting he is far from invulnerable. He confirms while meeting with an Alternate Self that he escaped the ravages of time by making himself something other than human.
- I Hate Past Me: Downplayed, but when he visits a version of himself who's a sick old man wasting away in Argentina, Klaus is disgusted by his alternate self's weakness, even torturing him by cutting off his oxygen to wring answers out of him before shooting him... though, he does still seem to consider granting the old man's request to be buried in his old SS uniform when the fellow realizes he's not getting out of their encounter alive.
- Interrupted Suicide: In the video on the history of Nazi archeology, Klaus starts out in a bunker, after Hitler is dead and the Russians are storming Berlin, trying and failing to work up the nerve to shoot himself, but unable to go through with it before a Soviet soldier kicks down his door and starts shooting. Later on, he managed to go through with it on Joe Rogan's podcast, only to somehow survive.
- Leitmotif: His is appropriately called "Klaus's Theme." It plays whenever he shows up, and sometimes just when the topic of Nazism arises in general.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Admittedly, being a literal Nazi war criminal, "harmless" was always a stretch, but most of Klaus's schemes were either petty or pointless. Then came Episode 2 of Frozen '50's Man, where he's revealed to be the Q behind the ongoing conspiracy theory destabilizing American democracy. Guess that explains why the whole adenochrome thing is just blood libel with the names switched around. Later, his encounter with his Alternate Self after the end of Episode 8 of "Checkmate Lincolnites!" is played entirely for drama and horror.
- Obviously Evil: His SS uniform has got the famous "totenkopf" on it, and he speaks in a thick German accent while making his fascist sympathies abundantly obvious.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a Nazi.
- Real Event, Fictional Cause: In "Frozen '50s Man ~ Episode 2", it's revealed that Klaus is Q, having founded the QAnon Movement to sow chaos in the USA and make it susceptible to fascist rule.
- Still Wearing the Old Colors: And, as Atun-Shei complains, looking good in them.Atun-Shei: God damn you Nazis! Why are you so fashionable, you evil fucking bastards?!
- Those Wacky Nazis: Naturally.
- Unexplained Recovery: Has actually been killed or mutilated several times yet inevitably reappears no worse for wear in later videos. Apparently those investigations on the occult in the Ahnenerbe really paid off.
