{{short description|Type of fictional, jelly-like creature}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}} thumb|An illustration of a slime creature
In fiction, '''slimes''', also called '''oozes''', are amorphous creatures composed of gelatinous ooze. In literature and film, slimes typically take the role of horrific monsters, while in video games and anime, they are often depicted as cute low-level enemies.
==History== [[File:Slime Rimuru.svg|thumb|Rimuru, the protagonist of ''That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime'']] Slimes as monsters in literature originated with the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. In his novella ''At the Mountains of Madness'', Lovecraft described shoggoths, shapeless beings made of black slime. Lovecraft's writings would go on to influence later Gothic fiction and other aspects of popular culture.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wedlich |first=Susan |title=Slime: A Natural History |publisher=Melville House Publishing |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-68589-020-9 |edition=First Melville House |pages= |translator-last=Türkoğlu |translator-first=Ayça}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=12–17}}<ref name=":3" />
Slimes have appeared as monsters in tabletop games such as ''Dungeons & Dragons'' since the first printing in 1974,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gygax |first1=Gary |title=Dungeons & Dragons |last2=Arneson |first2=Dave |publisher=TSR, Inc |year=1974}}</ref> being partially inspired by horror films such as ''The Blob''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How To Play Oozes Like Body-Devouring Terrors |url=https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/949-how-to-play-oozes-like-body-devouring-terrors |access-date=10 October 2024 |website=D&D Beyond |language=en-us |archive-date=25 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231225133629/https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/949-how-to-play-oozes-like-body-devouring-terrors |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Forest |first=Richard W. |title=The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters |date=2014 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |editor-last=Weinstock |editor-first=Jeffrey |pages=192–195 |chapter=Dungeons & Dragons, Monsters in}}</ref>{{Rp|page=193}} Slime creatures in ''Dungeons & Dragons'', such as the gelatinous cube, envelop prey before dissolving them in acidic ooze.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Boyar |first=Michelle |date=12 April 2023 |title=How The Gelatinous Cube Works In D&D: Honor Among Thieves (& Why It Burns) |url=https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-gelatinous-cube-burns/ |access-date=10 October 2024 |website=Screen Rant |language=en |archive-date=14 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514023742/https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-gelatinous-cube-burns/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting ''Spelljammer: Adventures in Space'' (2022) introduced plasmoids as a playable race, making the "ability to reshape their body to their needs" available to players.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Baird |first=Scott |date=2022-08-18 |title=How D&D's Spelljammer Races Are Different |url=https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-spelljammer-races-different-changed/ |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=Screen Rant}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Thomas |first=Brooke |date=2022-08-20 |title=Every New Race In D&D 5e's Spelljammer Setting, Explained |url=https://www.cbr.com/new-spelljammer-dnd-5e-races-explained/ |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=CBR.com}}</ref>
Drawing from their depiction in ''Dungeons & Dragons,''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-06-11 |title=Hardcore Gaming 101: Wizardry |url=http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wizardry/wizardry-interview.htm |access-date=2024-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170611185603/http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wizardry/wizardry-interview.htm |archive-date=11 June 2017 }}</ref> ''Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord'' features slimes as low-level monsters, which in turn inspired their appearance in ''Dragon Quest''.<ref name="origin">{{cite web | author=Jason Cipriano | date=9 July 2010 | title='Dragon Quest' Creator Sheds Light On The Inspiration For The Slime |url=http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/07/09/dragon-quest-creator-sheds-light-on-the-creation-of-the-slime/ | work=MTV | publisher=MTV Networks and TM MTV Networks | access-date=1 March 2013 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020071233/http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/07/09/dragon-quest-creator-sheds-light-on-the-creation-of-the-slime/ | archive-date=20 October 2013 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> The ''Dragon Quest'' slime, designed by Akira Toriyama,<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 May 2007 |title=Dragon Quest Interview |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/05/25/dragon-quest-interview |access-date=10 October 2024 |website=IGN |language=en |archive-date=14 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514020258/https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/05/25/dragon-quest-interview |url-status=live }}</ref> became a highly popular and recognizable character, and went on to influence slimes in other fantasy video games. Slimes in video games are typically 'cute' characters, sometimes appearing not only as common enemies but also as allies or pets.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McKeever |first=Madison |date=22 June 2022 |title=7 Most Iconic Slimes In Gaming |url=https://gamerant.com/most-iconic-slimes-in-gaming/ |access-date=10 October 2024 |website=Game Rant |language=en |archive-date=27 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527005534/https://gamerant.com/most-iconic-slimes-in-gaming/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Cute slimes feature in games such as ''Slime Rancher'', ''Stardew Valley'', ''Terraria'', ''Minecraft'', and ''The Legend of Zelda'' franchise.<ref name=":4" />
In the 2013 light novel series ''That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime'', the protagonist is reincarnated in a fantasy isekai world as a small blue slime inspired by the slime from ''Dragon Quest''. This series created a trend of anime featuring cute slimes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Freedman |first=Maxwell |date=3 May 2020 |title=Slimes Are Taking Over Manga & Anime... But Where Did They Come From? |url=https://www.cbr.com/slimes-taking-over-manga-anime/ |access-date=27 September 2024 |website=CBR |language=en}}</ref> In ''Delicious in Dungeon'', slime monsters are a core ingredient in several meals eaten throughout the series.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Egan |first=Toussaint |date=2 February 2024 |title=Delicious in Dungeon's delectable dishes, ranked |url=https://www.polygon.com/24050648/delicious-in-dungeon-food-dishes-ranking-worst-to-best |access-date=23 October 2024 |website=Polygon |language=en-US}}</ref> Other examples of Japanese media featuring slimes are ''By the Grace of the Gods'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chapman |first=Paul |date=April 17, 2020 |title=Slime Time is Relaxing in By the Grace of the Gods TV Anime |url=https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2020/4/17/slime-time-is-relaxing-in-by-the-grace-of-the-gods-tv-anime |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=www.crunchyroll.com}}</ref> ''I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chapman |first=Paul |date=October 19, 2019 |title=I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level TV Anime Announced |url=https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2019/10/19/ive-been-killing-slimes-for-300-years-and-maxed-out-my-level-tv-anime-announced |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=www.crunchyroll.com |archive-date=2 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302171553/https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2019/10/19/ive-been-killing-slimes-for-300-years-and-maxed-out-my-level-tv-anime-announced |url-status=live }}</ref> and others.
A subcategory of slime creatures are slime girls, which are slimes that take a feminine humanoid appearance rather than an amorphous form. These monsters have appeared in media such as ''Monster Girl Encyclopedia'', ''Monster Girl Quest'', and ''Monster Musume''. While slime girls frequently appear in hentai,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cole |first=Samantha |date=2018-09-14 |title=Slime Girls are the Sticky, Gooey Monsters of Your Wet Dreams |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/slime-girls-fetish-porn-monster-musume-suu/ |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref> they sometimes also feature in children's media, such as ''Puniru Is a Cute Slime.''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-04 |title=Maedakun's Puniru wa Kawaii Slime Web Manga Gets TV Anime Adaptation |url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-12-13/maedakun-puniru-wa-kawaii-slime-web-manga-gets-tv-anime-adaptation/.205450 |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=Anime News Network |language=en |archive-date=13 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213152825/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-12-13/maedakun-puniru-wa-kawaii-slime-web-manga-gets-tv-anime-adaptation/.205450 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Analysis== [[File:Shoggoth by Nottsuo.jpg|thumb|upright|An artistic depiction of a shoggoth, an influential slime monster created by H. P. Lovecraft]]
According to Steven Shaviro, slime creatures in fiction often take the form of either a unicellular organism or a superorganism, "both of which cannot grasp its complex nature." Additionally, slimes lack the differentiation of organs and tissues that are characteristic of multicellular life. In this difference, slimes are "a collective without individuals, without any specialized parts, and without any sort of articulated (or hierarchical) structure." Marijeta Bradić writes that the motif of slimes in fiction "serves as a tool for questioning the idea of human exceptionalism."<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Bradić |first=Marijeta |date=2019 |title=Towards a Poetics of Weird Biology: Strange Lives of Nonhuman Organisms in Literature |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=836364 |journal=Pulse: The Journal of Science and Culture |language=English |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |issn=2416-111X |archive-date=20 June 2024 |access-date=27 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240620211856/https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=836364 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Slime has had symbolic meaning in fiction. In science fiction, slime is often "a metaphor for the intangible or unthinkable", according to designer Steven Heller.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Heller |first=Steven |date=21 August 2023 |title=The Daily Heller: The Existence of Ooze and Slime |url=https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-slime/ |access-date=1 October 2024 |website=PRINT Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> Historically, some male writers, including Lovecraft, associated slime with femininity, characterizing women as disgustingly different from men. An example of this symbolism is in Lovecraft's short story "Dagon", which features a monster made of ooze and shares a name with Dagon, a Mesopotamian deity sometimes depicted as a hybrid of a fish and a woman.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|pages=23–25}} American journalist Daniel Engber considered slimes in cinema of the 1980s, such as Slimer and the ectoplasm in ''Ghostbusters'', to be emblematic of cultural fears during the Cold War of nuclear radiation and radioactive material created by nuclear weapons.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Engber |first=Daniel |date=18 July 2016 |title=Out of Slime |url=https://slate.com/technology/2016/07/ghostbusters-made-slime-a-national-obsession-can-the-reboot-make-ooze-cool-again.html |access-date=10 October 2024 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339 |archive-date=18 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018091702/https://slate.com/technology/2016/07/ghostbusters-made-slime-a-national-obsession-can-the-reboot-make-ooze-cool-again.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Writing for ''Polygon'', Ana Diaz described video game slimes as "loyal punching bags", owing to their role as common low-level enemies.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Diaz |first=Ana |date=22 March 2022 |title=Which slime is the ultimate slime, according to a polymer chemist |url=https://www.polygon.com/22984964/slime-minecraft-dragon-quest-zelda-stardew-ratings |access-date=10 October 2024 |website=Polygon |language=en-US |archive-date=10 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210144542/https://www.polygon.com/22984964/slime-minecraft-dragon-quest-zelda-stardew-ratings |url-status=live }}</ref>
==See also== * Slime (toy)
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{stock characters}}
Category:Fantasy tropes Category:Fictional characters who can stretch themselves Category:Fictional monsters Category:Fictional superorganisms Category:Stock characters Category:Fantasy creatures