Salt Circle ★ A Supernatural / MBMBAM Animatic 

With this logic, could the boys have filled a hula hoop with salt and used it like a ghost banishing beam.

The unironic answer is that the ring denotes a sphere that also goes underneath. I guess that would mean that if you drew a salt circle on the 2nd floor of a building, you could potentially trap a ghost on the ceiling of the 1st floor

I'm surprised none of the boys pointed out that if you fly up in a helicopter, that's just going to blow all the salt away and destroy your protective circle.

The folklore, iirc, is that "walking corpse monsters" (which have been called various things like vampires, revenants, draugr, etc.) are often psychologically compelled to count things obsessively. It doesn't have to be salt; it can be sand, or grains of rice, anything tiny. Before a deadboi can cross it, they'd have to count every grain, and the hope is that they spend so long counting, the sun comes up.

HAHA That's funny, I can totally imagine them being like this after like 10 beers and being fed up ghosthunting LMAO.

This is so good. Justin really does bring that indignant, burdened eldest sibling energy that fits Dean

@1:34 they actually did do that on the show once. Lured a ghost into a room in an abandoned sewer, dropped a line of salt to keep it from escaping and sealed the whole thing in cement :p

I am tired and I am so used to mbmbam animatics that my brain somehow forgot it was supposed to be a Supernatural animation. I got half way through and thought "This animatic is so nicely styled, but the boys look weird today? I don't think any of them have flowing shoulder-length lockes to my knowledge... wait... that coat looks familiar..."

One of the reasons of "why salt" is that for thousands of years salt has been used to preserve, cure, and keep away bad things from getting into foods. It's also an incredibly important element that living things need to survive. With this in mind, it was believed that the purifying power of salt was able to keep impure spirits away from our very souls. Ghosts, demons, poltergeists and the lot couldn't cross the boundary because it was sacred. At least that's what I remember from my long ago youth. ^w^

"That will bring ants." Thanks, Castiel.

It makes me wonder if it's more of a demense effect. As in, you can use salt to protect a *space*, but it's relegated to that space. Because they didn't just use rings of salt, they used salt across doorframes and windowsills, and if they did that then the ghost couldn't go through the wall and avoid the windows or doors completely. If you shut out all the potential "entrances" of a space, then that seems to be enough to ward the area. Which is why you need a circle of salt if you don't have the time or ability to ward all the entrances and exits. To that end, you've created an "inside the circle" demense that the spirit can't enter into.

Castiel as Travis seemed weird at first but was actually a great choice. I love this very much

As hyped as I was to see the title of this video, my joy is paled in comparison to the joy I know it will instill in Travis McElroy, and I think that’s beautiful

Man, "Supernatural" missed a great opportunity to showcase this during one of their Prank episodes, when Sam gives Dean a bag for the circle, he pours it out, and then looks at it, tastes it, and yells "This is sugar!!" Cut to Sam laughing, Cut to ghost looking confused.

Seeing Sam, Dean and Castiel in any form whatsoever is a nostalgia

Doesn't the salt thing come from vampires needing to count the salt grains? So you could be outside the circle, and the ghost just needs to be near enough for its OCD to kick in and be all "MUST. KNOW. HOW. MANY. GRAINS!"

i love that the sound for the ghost circle force field was just straight up lightsaber noises. Perfection

Now the circle is more of a symbolic thing I think. In folklore, symbols and ideas hold power over the supernatural, so by arranging the salt in a circle, you imbue it with the idea of a barrier, in addition to other connotations associated with circles. It’s the same logic behind summoning circles and sigils

Its funny how Dean sounds kinda drunk

@1:19 Justin accidentally spoils the finale of the Adventure Zone Balance

The way you animated the sign is EXACTLY how I was picturing it when I listened to the episode, it was so satisfying thank you

Salt is often used in particular, because it was believed to have purification properties (probably coming from salting food, and how it prevents spoiling). In that regard, as far as the affective 3 dimensional range, it's typically thought of as a cylinder approximately as high as the person in the circle... It's more of a proximity thing, rather than a radiant thing like the spotlight effect in the clip. And while, in principle, any shape boundary could be used, the circle is the most common choice for its association with the infinite, unity, and perfection... For those concerned about the geometry. There are also creatures that are claimed to have compulsions that would require it to count the grains (of salt, rice, etc) to allow for escape or prevent the creature from being able to move until the sun came up.

A electrical charge thing You don't need to make a circle either Just make a perimeter of salt around where you want to protect My family does this with every house we move in too

One of the Supernatural tie-in novels did address this. Ghost worrms were able to burrow in the earth under a salt ring and then pop up inside. I think about those ghost worms every time a salt ring comes up...

Seeing the Supernatural boys in my RU-vid recommended really is a blast from the past.

sam and griffin both have huge nerdy youngest brother vibes. a perfect animatic

God, this is brilliant! 😂 Something they definitely should have discussed at some point on SPN 👏

the funny part is, if youre able, you could totally trap a ghost in a ring of salt, its just really hard to do

Words cannot describe how happy this made me. My three favorite boys, as my other three favorite boys. Perfection.

Questions I have GENUINELY thought abt, ty brothers

mbmbam audio can fit seamlessly with truly ANY fandom

I really love towards the end where you emulate the Morton's Salt label. Well done!

I've always thought of it as being like allergies. The ghost can't get near it because it makes their bedsheet break out in hives. So it wouldn't work through the floor, and a little gap isn't going to make a difference, but a large one will.

They did that in an episode to the ghost of H.H. Holmes. (They surrounded him with salt and cemented in the area)

These are the sort of conversations they have in the bunker at like 3AM

Wowowow!! Really good representations of the SPN boys, and a lovely MBMBAM clip to combo them with! The signs with a new little addendum really tickled me. And I loved how you took the time to draw out the different scenarios rather than just show them talking about them. The extra work makes it all the better! And if Travis ever sees this I hope he appreciates being cast as Cas.

THIS ANIMATIC IS SO GOOD???? ITS SO CLEAN AND THE DESIGNS ARE SO APPEALING AND EXPRESSIVE AUGH Also made me cackle amazing job kendkdnjd

I love My Angel, My Brother, and Me: An advice show for the modren supernatural era!!

IT'S A BLOOD PRESSURE THING Ghosts have no blood

This is amazing and incredible and I love it so much. Two of my favourite fandoms!!! And you art style and animation skills are incredible!!! Also, they do technically use this method twice on the show! Once in No Exit where they did it to H.H. Holmes' ghost (who didn't fly up after them so maybe it does go all the way up!) and again in Scoobynatural to the little boy's ghost!

I think that the salt thing comes from one of the original vampire weaknesses. Basically the idea was that if you left a line of salt (not necessarily a circle), a vampire would be compelled to count the salt grain by grain. You could use that distraction to flee or steak em.

Casting Travis as Castiel is just *chef’s kiss*

The planet earth spins at 1,000mph per hour, Imagine getting smacked by a force field traveling at 1,000mph!

Favorite crossover ever😊

This sounds like if Neil and Terry wrote Supernatural

"Why don't they put salt in hoolahoop rings and wear them all the time?", was the best idea on that I've ever read. Don't remember where, but the idea is hilarious 😂 Just imagine them hoolahooping around to avoid ghosts 😂

this brought me so much joy oml, great job!!!

salt fucks with the osmotic pressure in the ectoplasma of the ectovascular system.

my two favorite things combined in a way that’s completely apropos for one another. thank you for this, your art style absolutely suits this so well. 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

I always thought it was Fey that you trapped with salt. Maybe that just kinda jumped myths and got attached to ghosts too

Alright, so technically the reason is spirituality [heh] or whatever. It's why you can also draw a line of salt across entryways like doors and your, probably fine. The exceptions being if the ghost died in this house before if there's been renovations, y'know if there used to be a door over -there- then they can still go through that door...Even if it technically no longer exists. Ghosts respect floorplans more then they respect the living.

I always thought that the salt was just to see if you had ghosts. They would disturb the salt

Ha! This is awesome!

Fun fact: the reason salt deters curses/evil spirits is because it is a blood substitute. If you are cursed etc, you stand in a salt circle (or a blood circle, but that's less ethical) and the curse or spirit is attracted to the salt, thinking it is getting into your blood, but because it is a circle, they can't escape. That's why proximity is important, and also why it is Very Important to not have any gaps in your salt circle.

This is so good! I haven't interacted with SPN in ages but I absolutely loved this!!

I could totally see them having this debate lmaoo maybe I should finish supernatural… I stopped in season 12 I think

I feel the circle is more of a circumference of an invisible sphere, goes above and under the ground but only so much

I love that the MBMBAM boys get to embody the Supernatural boys. Brilliant!

this is a specific combination for a specific kind of person and i happen to be one of them. i absolutely love this and your art style is so cute

I don’t even know what supernatural is but the visualization of this is so perfect

I usually never click on anybody stuff like this but it was playing in the background and honestly made me laugh while I was doing dishes so I had to like it.

the earth is a sphere, so the salt circle can be a a small circle or a big circle including most of the planet, so you always end up making a circle around the ghost, its just so big it can go almost anywhere

YOU DID A WINCHESTER!

This is not only really fuckin funny, this is really really well drawn!!! Their character designs perfectly capture them. I'm looking forward to seeing them get up to more shenanigans

oh my god i havent seen spn content for a MILENNIA lmao. this is so cute tho!! i love cas just manifesting a giant sign but still putting whatever stupid gibberish theyre actively saying on it

This is so great. XD

THis is exceptional

Salt is considered a purifier. A circle is a perfect shape and denotes eternity. This you create an eternally pure space within the circle that protects the ground within the circle up to the height requiring that protection. example being if you have a 7 foot man in one circle, the protection is going to be 7 feet high. If you have a second circle with a 4 foot human, the circle goes 4 feet up

this is so brilliantly in character

Actually the Circle is just a Part of a Protektiv bubble like a ball and the wider the Ring the more you can up and down.

I didn't know I needed this in my life 🤣

I'm subscribing because of this

This is awesome thanks so much for the video!

Make the circle first, then summon the ghost. At best, they get vaporized upon appearing, and at worst, you get to enjoy a very pissed off ghost from the other side of a barrier. Like an undead aquarium!

1:37 literally happened in the second Hocus pocus lolll

Beautiful

I really hope Travis sees this

Some myths do suggest just throwing salt directly on ghosts, and unclean things, and- (you’d never guess this) food! The only reason it’s a ring shape is to purify things coming in from unexpected angles.

i love this

Seeing this discussion reminded of a really brutal comic series called Crossed. In it, survivors of a kind of post apocalyptic outbreak where infected lose all inhibitions and act on their darkest desires in order to spread the contagion, witness an infected reaction to a pallet of salt and tries to apply it later when an injury slows him down. It doesn’t work, and the man, woman and their young daughter meet an end worse than anything you could imagine.

I never really thought of the logic behind the ring of salt till now lol.

Great work! Love the extending sign

Winnifred:”Salt! What a clever little white witch!”

this is so delightful

It's an orb of protection. In the middle it's as tall as the radius of the circle

you made something i never know i needed

Lockwood and Co sort of addressed this, in that if the circle is too big there will be a weak spot in the middle

This was great! Subbed

I've genuinely wondered this for so long 😭

Now I want a movie about ghost hunters who buy a haunted house, put a ring of salt around it, and then go in and methodically clear the rooms, putting salt around the edges of rooms until the ghosts are trapped in the walls. Climactic scene where the ghost is making the wall bleed and wallpaper warp into its face, and then the hunter shoots it with a shotgun full of rock salt, killing it.

Fawking gorgeous that’s what this is

I'm sure it's already been pointed out but I really like that Dean is Justin and Sam is Griffin

Salt is effective because it smells like the sea and ghosts get scared because they don't know how to swim

If I remember correctly, in various folklores different things can do stuff to the "supernatural". Silver killing werewolves, garlic repelling vampires, vampires being unable to cross flowing water, salt hurting spirits, ghosts, and demons, etc. They are superstitions that are also based in science before it was "discovered". Silver was considered a "pure" metal because things like bacteria couldn't grow on it. Often people extended the shelf life of milk by dropping a silver coin in it... before refrigeration was a thing. Today we know that silver is toxic on a microscopic level. It kills bacteria, just like brass does... thus brass doorknobs, and we use silver nitrate to chemically cauterize wounds. It explains why things like silver rosaries are used for "supernatural" reasons. It kills the undiscovered microscopic "monster makers." Salt is also one of those "pure" minerals. It is said in many folklores that it can "cleanse negative energy"." One superstition is that throwing it over your shoulder gets rid of bad luck. Another is that it repells and traps ghosts. Like the silver, churches used it and popularized it along with things like holy water. Speaking of holy water, when blessing holy water, salt is added to water in silence after a prayer in which God is asked to bless the salt. Recalling the blessed salt "scattered over the water by the prophet Elisha" and invoking the protective powers of salt and water, that they may "drive away the power of evil”. Vampires for example are most likely people with a genetic disease called Porphyria. It has many symptoms depending on what kind you have specifically but it pretty much hits the no sunlight, hallucinations, irregular heartbeat, breathing problems, fragile thin skin, you get the idea. Often this rare disorder is dormant and can be activated by an outside source like malaria for example. Malaria which is spread by mosquitoes, mosquitoes breed in areas with stagnant water. Viruses don't like garlic kinda like how bacteria love sugar. Using garlic in a person with a virus can help them recover faster from the disease, which would explain why a hallucinating person driven by a virus caused by an infection spread by mosquitoes would seem like it was a deterrent to the host... Forgive me if I worded that weird, I assume you can get the gist though.

the supernatural boys did trap a ghost in a salt ring and then promptly filled the basement the salt ring was in with cement.

Dude, it’s magic, don’t question it

I always think of those things as forming spheres

It defines the diameter of a protective sphere.

This is how they dealt with H.H. Holmes ghost!

I saw this before on Tumblr, this is so amazing