MISTERMANTICORE (Monument Mythos episode)

MISTER MANTICORE is the first ever YouTube video created by the channel MISTER MANTICORE (which at the time was named ALEXKANSAS (the channel was renamed after the video)), and was eventually contextualized as the first episode of The Monument Mythos Season 3. It was uploaded on the 26th November 2016. It was inspired by an oversaturated version of a drawing of a manticore from Edward Topsell's The History of Four-footed Beasts.

## Synopsis

At the beginning, a spinning circle is shown, right before the video's title appears. After that, text at the bottom of the screen reads;

Memorize the following image:

It then cuts to an illustration of a manticore that is slowly shaking in different directions. After this, text reads;

END PART I

(Before it cuts back to the spinning circle, text briefly appears on the screen for a second, saying DON'T LOOK OUT THE WINDOW)

It then cuts to;

Please identify any differences from the prior image shown to you

This time we get zoomed in images of the manticore's body parts, including the head, the long mane, the front legs, the back, the back legs, the underbelly, the tail, and the spikes at the end of it, before cutting back to the head. Text read;

END PART II

(Before it cuts back to the spinning circle, text once again appears briefly on the screen, saying DON'T STAND NEAR THE MIRROR)

After the spinning circle, it says;

Please remain still and breathe regularly

Images begin to rapidly appear on the screen for short amounts of time, all depicting several monstrous beasts and possibly demons, while loud music plays, getting louder and faster.

The spinning circle appears, accompanied by the loud music becoming more rapid, and the circle slowly becomes distorted.

An embossed version of the manticore appears, slowly shaking, the music becoming slower and distorted before the credits appear.

## Description

Music by Jacob Mlinko

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKB\_45AiYOzeyMv0CnxHYOA

The previous version of the description had a link to the Patreon account, with the caption, Support Mister Manticore, between the text and the credit for the music. This was removed when the Patreon was deleted. It is still removed, even though a new Patreon has been made. It also had the words 'Please remain still and breathe regularly'.

## Inspiration

In a QnA, when asked what inspired him to go with a manticore instead of any other mythical being, Alex replied:

'For the original short film, that was definitely a stand alone "How can I scare the shit out of my audience?" sorta deal. And mind you, I was in 7th grade and I loved three movies exclusively - Koyaanisqatsi by Godfrey Reggio, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrik and The Fly by David Cronnenberg, that being my consciousness at the time. I had this really cool book of ancient illustrations and there was this one image of a manticore really just freaked the hell out of me, I don't know why, I guess because of a printing mistake the teeth were all blacked out and the image was oversatured with and it didn't look like the typical image you'd find on the internet. It just looked terrible, it looked really scared. And I asked my friend Jacob to make a music track that just sounded like your parents are yelling at you in an unsolvable argument, and he sent me this track and I edited it with images from the book and another track he made and Mister Manticore was born. But I really got to give a shout out to my brother, he was the one who gave me the idea of calling the short "Mister Manticore".'

## Trivia

* The oversaturated illustration was originally made by Edward Topsell for his 1607 book The History of Four-footed Beasts (it was originally titled The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes).
* This was the first ever video uploaded to Alex Casanas's YouTube channel, which at the time was called ALEXKANSAS.
* Alex Casanas renamed the channel to MISTER MANTICORE in 2022 to honour this video.
* The manticore shown here in this video is possibly a character that exists in the universe(s) of Alex's work. In a now-deleted community post about the rebranding of his channel, MISTER MANTICORE said that he had eaten Alex. Before this, Alex had uploaded a video could 'Did you really think Alex survived both times?,' with the thumbnail having the words 'Because he didn't.' And in the former Discord server for the Monument Mythos, MISTER MANTICORE 'ate' members. This possible character is unrelated to the constellation Manticore, nicknamed 'Mr Manticore' by Lauren Arnoldson, from The Monument Mythos, which was created in honour of the video and the channel.
* This video originally wasn't apart of The Monument Mythos. It's title was edited and it was added to the beginning of the Season 3 playlist.
	+ This is why it is several years older since the other Season 3 episodes, or even all the other Monument Mythos episodes for that matter.
* This is not the final version of this page.