Mogwai Totally Explained

Everything about Mogwai totally explained

The word magwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word 魔怪 (mo1 gwai2) (Mandarin Chinese: 魔鬼; pinyin：móguǐ) meaning "ghost", "evil spirit", "devil" or "demon".

Mogwai/Mogui in Chinese culture

According to Chinese tradition, mogwai are certain demons, which often inflict harm on humans. They are said to reproduce sexually during mating seasons triggered by the coming of rain. Supposedly, they take care to breed at these times because rain signifies rich and full times ahead.
The term "mo" derives from the Sanskrit "Mara", meaning 'evil beings', which shares a cognate with the Persian "Magi" from which the English word "magic" derives. In Hinduism and Buddhism, Mara determines fates of death and desire that tether people to an unending cycle of reincarnation and suffering. He is the source of evil and purposely leads people to sin, misdeeds and self-destruction. Meanwhile, "gui" doesn't necessarily mean 'evil' or demonic spirits. Classically, it simply means deceased spirits or souls of the dead. Nevertheless, in modern Chinese, it has evolved to refer usually to the dead spirits or ghosts of non-family members that may take vengeance on living humans who caused them pain when they were still living. It is common for the living to redress their sins by sacrificing money to gui by burning (usually fake) paper banknotes so that gui can have funds to use in their afterlife.
Notably, the modern popular use of mogui as 'demonic' and gui as 'devils' is somewhat a consequence of Western influences as Chinese-language biblical texts translate the Satan in the Book of Job and the Greek term 'diabolos' as mogui.

Mogwai in the Gremlins series

As depicted in the 1984 Joe Dante film Gremlins and its 1990 sequel, the word mogwai is used by some Chinese characters to describe a rare sentient being. It is a furry cute creature that if exposed to the right stimuli will transform into, and/or create (given the circumstance) gremlins. If exposed to water, it immediately reproduces more of its kind asexually by budding from its back; if it eats food after midnight, it becomes a gremlin (a more reptilian and evil creature). Sunlight will kill a mogwai (like a vampire) and other lights will annoy or hurt it. Most of the mogwai creatures are mean-spirited and mischievous, with Gizmo, the most famous mogwai, being a rare exception.
   The level of maliciousness in the personality of mogwai and gremlins vary. Some like Stripe, Brain, and Mugger are exceedingly violent and show great delight in hurting others. Others like the Christmas carollers, and the flasher, just delight in scaring people and causing hijinx. All mogwai (even Gizmo) are also energetic and extremely curious, the latter quality often getting them into trouble.
   Finally mogwai are pack minded, following a leader who is dominant but also has a quality that differentiates them from the others of there kind. Examples of this come from the primary mogwai/gremlin leaders: Stripe, Mohawk, and Brain. Stripe and Mohawk both had a strip of fur the others didn't, but were more violent and more dominant than their siblings. Brain was originally a normal gremlin but after his transformation became much more intelligent then the rest of his kind and replaced Mohawk as the leader (without any form of conflict). List of Gremlins
   Little else is revealed about the mogwai's biology. In Gremlins 2 Gizmo is taken to a laboratory, where the scientists speculate that mogwai are rodents. However, when confronted with gremlins, they believe that the gremlins are reptiles or viruses. The scientists also note they're uncertain as to whether Gizmo's cuteness is genetic. They also explain Gizmo's hatred of bright lights by calling it an allergy.
   In the novel Gremlins, by George Gipe, published by Avon Books in June 1984, it's stated mogwai were created as gentle contemplative creatures by a scientist on an alien world, and that the transformation into gremlins was an unintentional side-effect.
   Also, in the novel, it's stated that for some reason, mogwai are now almost always born mischievous or just plain evil, with a very rare gentle one (such as Gizmo) viewed as an anomaly and hated by other mogwai.
   In the first movie there are some minor indications that treatment could affect a gremlins personality. Although almost all of Gizmo's spawn come out mischievous one, Earl, seemed to have a disposition virtually identical to Gizmo and being the only one that Gizmo didn't seem to dread being around upon birth and conversely didn't hate him. However, he was left in the custody of an owner, Billy Peltzer's science teacher, who treated him literally like a science experiment. Also the Peltzers, unlike Gizmo's original owner, didn't take the burden of owning a mogwai as seriously as Gizmo's first owner did, often letting his spawn do what ever they wanted.

Other appearances

The Scottish post-rock band Mogwai is named after the creatures who make an appearance in the film Gremlins, although the guitarist of the band, Stuart Braithwaite, comments that "it has no significant meaning and we always intended on getting a better one, but like a lot of other things we never got round to it."

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