In Japanese folklore, Mekurabe are rolling skulls with eyeballs who menace
Taira no Kiyomori.[5]
Mexico
Figurines and images of Skeletons doing routine things are common in
Mexico's
Day of the Dead celebration, where
skulls symbolize life and their familiar circumstances invite levity. Highly-decorated sugar-skull candy has become one of the most recognizable elements of the celebrations.[6][7] They are known in Mexico as
calacas, a
Mexican Spanish term simply meaning "skeleton".
The modern association between skeleton iconography and the Day of the Dead was inspired by La Calavera Catrina, a zinc etching created by Mexican cartoonist
José Guadalupe Posada in the 1910s and published posthumously in 1930.[8] Initially a satire of Mexican women who were ashamed of their indigenous origins and dressed imitating the French style, wearing heavy makeup to make their skin look whiter, it later became a more general symbol of vanity.[9] During the 20th Century, the Catrina entrenched itself in the Mexican consciousness and became a national icon, often depicted in
folk art.
Modern fiction
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adding to it. (March 2014)
Literature
The animated skeleton features in some
Gothic fiction. One early example is in the short story "Thurnley Abbey" (1908) by
Perceval Landon, originally published in his collection Raw Edges.[10] It is reprinted in many modern anthologies, such as The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories and The Penguin Book of Horror Stories.
An extended battle scene against an army of skeletal warriors was produced by animator Ray Harryhausen for Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and is remembered as one of the most sophisticated and influential
visual effects sequences of its day.[12]
Animated skeletons have been used and portrayed extensively in
fantasyrole-playing games. In a tradition that goes back to the
pen-and-paper game Dungeons & Dragons, the basic animated skeleton is commonly employed as a low-level
undead enemy, typically easy for a player to defeat in combat. Thus, in games which make use of them, such enemies often appear relatively early in the gameplay and are considered a suitable opponent for novice players.[14] In these contexts, they are commonly armed with medieval weapons and sometimes wear armor.
In the PlayStation
action-adventure series MediEvil, the protagonist is an animated skeleton knight named Sir Daniel Fortesque.[15]
In the 1999 cult classic Planescape: Torment,
Morte is a character who joins the protagonist on his quest and is essentially a sentient, levitating human skull with intact eyeballs who cracks wise and fights by biting.[16]
In the 2011 Minecraft video game, skeletons appear as bow-wielding monsters that shoot players with their bows and burn under the sunlight unless they wear helmets. Sometimes the skeletons spawn with stronger bows or random armor, or without a bow, and they can choose melee weapons. Variants include the wither skeleton, which causes the player's
health points to wither away, a frozen variant found in snowy biomes, and a
poisonous variant found in
swamp and
mangrove swamp biomes. In the spinoff game Minecraft Dungeons, they are the guards of The Nameless One, the king of the undead. In this form, they are equipped with glaives, shields, and iron armor, and are referred to as Skeleton Vanguards.
In the video game Fable III, there exist a race of antagonal characters called "hollow men" which are featured throughout the game.
The
Mario series has some
Koopa Troopa-skeleton themed enemies known as Dry Bones, where after they get hit, they return to their form.
Bowser also has a skeleton form known as Dry Bowser, first debuted in
New Super Mario Bros., and featured in other games such as
Mario Party and
Mario Kart.
The Legend of Zelda series features an enemy called Stalfos, armed skeletons who serve as regular enemies and occasionally as minibosses. Variations such as Stalkids and Stalblins also appear in various games in the series.
In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, skeletons are recruitable troops from the Town, Necropolis.
^Paffenroth, Kim; Morehead, John W. (2012). ""Can These Bones Live Again?": Theological Considerations of the Zombie Walk".
The Undead and Theology. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 112–120.
ISBN9781610978750.