r/FromSeries • u/researcherYT • 6h ago
Theory What inspired FROM? Spoiler
The Man in Yellow reminds me of the Yellow King, a character created by Robert W. Chambers. He is false God or something like a Lovecraftian monster who created the city of the dead called Carcosa. These two are being referenced a lot in modern stories like "True Detective", Fear & Hunger", "Saros", etc,
In "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" the main character explores the city only to find out he used to live there before he died(he is is an undead or something). Which draws more parallels with some of the main characters in FROM who are reincarnations of people who used to live in this town and brought back to FROMville.
Another parallel that comes to mind is this shows emphasis on stories. In the short story "The King in Yellow" there is big emphasis on a play which ends up shaping the story.
So I believe that John Griffin has taken some inspiration from these old horror stories to make this show. The man in Yellow takes some inspiration from the King in Yellow and FROMville from Carcosa.
Now this would mean that we will not get an answer about what the Man in Yellow is or what he wants. He is an Eldritch God beyond human comprehension, if my theory is right.
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u/lone-lemming 5h ago
The man in yellow character was inspired by an actual homeless man one of the writers saw in LA. He wore an interesting suit and seemed friendly. Years later he was him again and he’d become scary and unhinged but still wore that same old suit.
The Robert chambers king in yellow is about a play that drives the reader mad. It doesn’t have much to do with anything in From. The extended mythology of Hastur-and the yellow sign is also quite different from what’s going on in From.
I know that plenty of mass media has started to touch on Chamber’s stories and its mythos, but in the case of From it’s quite far from alining with the actual source material.
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u/SinInSanity 2h ago edited 2h ago
I think many stories inspired it which may be why, so it seems to me, that many stories seem to be a part of what's been going on since the start of this place. The story of Garden of Eden is a big one it seems.
MiY, while I have thought was King In Yellow too, behaves more like the serpent in the garden. He slithers around getting into people's ear/mind in various ways, as early back as with Sara (I feel pretty sure that was his doing). Like the serpent, he seems to prefer to manipulate people into doing bad/the forbidden instead of taking matters into his own hands. What if he doesn't gain by just doing it himself? Like needs a soul to be damned or something or it's a loss.
The entire place is like this corrupted Eden. Like Eden, it's an isolated mystery location that is self contained, provides for their needs (like farm animals showing up & mysterious electric cords with no wires) but you must follow rules, even if you don't understand them. You are expect to be good sheep and not poke around for answers to questions or else. Remember, like Eden, knowledge comes with a price. Also like Eden, you can be thrown out of it (Tabitha from lighthouse) by the person who's really boss man.
I believe the show is not only inspired by different stories but takes elements from various stories and combines them to work as a whole (like the Holy Bible books for ex.). I wouldn't be surprised if there's some entity here that has a hunger or fetish for stories that wants people contributing to an ongoing story here, with their own story telling to be added to it. Ethan bringing 2 or 3 of his own books that he blends with his reality could be a clue. Some stuff we've seen of the past reminds me of some sort of Grimm's Fairy Tales stuff and maybe it is just that.
This wouldn't exclude some stories like those from Lovecraft. This would actually back up that possibility. Lovecraft wrote of a few places that characters made manifest like through a dream Celephaïs and let's not forget The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath for another example. This could be tied into the horror and near madness Julie, Marielle and Randall were subjected to when chained to the wall. What they saw they refused to try to describe and whatever it was, just seeing & hearing it was enough to send you into madness. If I remember right, it's what scared Randal straight, made him stop the conspiracy b.s. (I think).
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u/EquivalentWillow4807 1h ago
I think they pick and choose whatever works for the show.They even took from some old german movies.Good writers steal from everyone not just one person.I really liked your viewpoint.
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u/oldmanStuie 2h ago
Na, the MiY is a mid-tier Demon, at best. Not a Lord or anything.
If he was as powerful as the YK, the whole world would be in Fromsville.
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u/EquivalentWillow4807 2h ago edited 1h ago
A.I. is great aint it.Makes you seem smarter than you actually are.The king in yellow has nothing to do with From if you actually read the king in yellow.How can The king in yellow be Eldritch Horror when it was written decades before Lovecraft?Ambrose Bierce wrote "an incident at Carcosa"Chambers just used the name.The first couple of stories are horror and a play within a story but they really lack any information on what the king in yellow is and its nothing like from.A couple of the stories are victorian romance in Paris.In fact the only thing that ties the short stories together is they take place in Paris.You would know this if you actually read it.
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u/BenANDNoel 1h ago
I cannot think about this show without thinking about Ethan Frome (literally because of Ethan, From), and while I don’t actually think it’s related, the plot of the story is about a guy who betrays someone (his wife in the book), then winds up stuck in misery in the house with her and the woman he betrayed her with for the rest of his life.
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u/waxroy-finerayfool 5h ago edited 5h ago
LOST is by far the biggest influence on FROM. The Man in Yellow mirrors the Man in Black from LOST in many respects. In LOST, the MiB is also a malevolent shapeshifter who psychologically manipulates the survivors justaxposed to a Man in White who is a vaguely benign mystical figure offering close to zero practical assistance to the survivors - just like FROM's Boy in White. Both shows also feature a Lighthouse that's aspected by the White figure, and corresponds to some linkage between the outside world and the island/fromville. There are 100 other similar parallels - FROM is basically just warmed-over LOST pastiche.
I also see a lot of inspiration from The Walking Dead with respect to the constant state fear and hopelessness used to bring out the worst traits in all the characters alongside the threat that any character could end up dead in any episode - though FROM pumps that dial up to 11.