Okay, so we’re only on day two and we’ve hit a slight snag. My brain keeps yelling at me that this is B – a friendly letter, one which should conjure a bounty of beautiful beasts. And there are indeed creatures we could discuss, Brownies for example, and I’m not talking Girl Guides, but few are represented within media. If you’re going to promise a theme, you’ve got to deliver. Am I right? So I settled on Banshee, despite the slim pickings, and decided we’d create our own fictional character to add to the Fantasy Squad.
First, let’s deal with Banshees in film and television. Cry of the Banshee, a 1970s horror staring Vincent Price, might seem to be a film about, well, banshees, but no banshee actually appears in the movie (though there was a fair amount of screeching, I suspect). I found no other references to these fantastical creatures in film until 2008, and the release of ‘Banshee!!!’ why the overkill on exclamation marks I’m not sure (perhaps its symbolic!). This particular beast had the ability to generate hallucinations through sound waves, a handy trick to lure and kill victims. Scream of the Banshee (2011) involved a creature who was able to kill with its bone-splitting scream. Hmm…
Created by belle333black
The only banshee I can actually talk about though, is Lydia Martin from Teen Wolf. I really like the character because she’s complex and interesting. She hides her genius behind sharp claws (metaphorically speaking), and can sense when someone is about to die through a frequency only she can hear – not just your average teenager then.
I know there are novels featuring banshees, but I’m not familiar with them, so unless you’ve got recommendations (which you can leave in the comments), we’ll move on to the creature creation!
So, according to Irish mythology, a banshee is a fairy whose scream was an omen of death. I like the fairy idea, so we could keep that. But we need to give her a special gift. Some legends involve song, and as a power the voice can be pretty hypnotic. She might be a harbinger of death, but what if she could prevent it? What does she look like – fiery hair and pale skin, or sun kissed complexion and dark locks? Should she have wings? Should this banshee be female? Why not a male? I’ll ponder on your suggestions and create a kick-ass banshee for the team!
Thanks for stopping by
Mel
Melissa Barker-Simpson 
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