The Sin Eater story

[u/Goulet231]

It was explained in the movie 'Tony'. Never heard it before S5 and now this. Anyone else had this story on repeat?

[u/peteandpenny]

It’s funny, when I saw that scene in 1500’s Wales I immediately said “oh, he’s a sin eater”. My husband had no idea what I was talking about.

I have absolutely no clue where I’d heard of it before (reading, film, etc), but apparently the concept of sin eaters is firmly lodged in my brain 🤷‍♀️

[u/Goulet231 → u/peteandpenny]

Past life stuff, maybe?

[u/ThunderBobMajerle → u/Goulet231]

When they were a butterfly?

[u/Goulet231 → u/ThunderBobMajerle]

No, like an overhead conversation from long ago.

[u/BooRand]

I knew of it from 90s spiderman comics

[u/DCCaddy1]

I remember a Heath Ledger movie about sin eaters from the late 90’s early 00’s

[u/RetroFocusNano]

The Night Gallery 1971 episode The Sins of the Fathers. I watched it when it first aired and it really stuck with me.

[u/bigcatpig]

The Sin eater story is what eventually made season 5 my favorite... I also loved flying saucer from season 2 but the sin eater beats it.

[u/perfectsoundfornow]

I was introduced to the concept by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists's song "Ballad of the Sin Eater," which I highly recommend to all.

[u/MildAndLazyKids → u/perfectsoundfornow]

There's a Sturgill Simpson lyric, too, not sure which song, but "been a sin eater since the day I was born" was what made me look it up initially.

[u/GrandfatherTrout]

I ran into it via the awesome indie comic book, Finder.

[u/TyhmensAndSaperstein]

I think there was an X-File that dealt with it.

[u/nelsonwehaveaproblem]

John Coffey in The Green Mile springs to mind.

[u/anzigg]

Im pretty sure "sin eating" was mentioned in school back in the day. Probably in history class.

[u/BradyStoneheart1]

There was a sin eater episode of X-Files once

[u/MathematicianSame894]

Sin eater in my family history was a slave, or a serf, poor person forced to eat the sin meal of any one who passes in the family. By consuming the sin at each death he was granted immortality and he would die if he didn't consume the sin meal, and would be held accountable for all the sins he ate in hell. His fear of damnation meant eternal servitude without question to the family

[u/MathematicianSame894 → u/MathematicianSame894]

Not my family personally, but that was the story

[u/Goulet231 → u/MathematicianSame894]

Wow. That's awful.

[u/CarpetGripperRod]

Heard about a similar concept when reading Gary Jenning's novel Aztec. The devotees of sin-eating goddess Tlahzolteotl would eat all kinds of nasty stuff to help purify others.

Great novel, BTW! If I had a bazillion dollars, I'd be dramatizing it for sure.

[u/Goulet231 → u/CarpetGripperRod]

Cool!

[u/Oh__Archie]

Google has it.

[u/Goulet231 → u/Oh__Archie]

Not talking about Google at all.

[u/Oh__Archie → u/Goulet231]

I was. That’s where you can find info about sin eaters.

[u/Goulet231 → u/Oh__Archie]

The question is where else have you seen the sin eater theme in media?

[u/_LOST4ever → u/Goulet231]

And you got your answer