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"No currency required. No payment do I need. Satisfaction completely guaranteed."

- Duophanes; Be Careful What You Wish For

Duophanes[2] (also known as The Salesman and Duophenes[3]) is a demon taking the form of a tall stereotypical traveling salesman.

History[]

According to Egon Spengler's Spengler's Spirit Guide database, Duophanes is a demon originating from ancient Greece. He reappears briefly every few hundred years in various guises granting wishes.[4] His essence is overlaid with how he manifests, making his human form a shield from attacks.[5][6]

In 1997, Duophanes arrived at Grand Central Station around 4:00 am and took a conductor as his first victim. He traveled throughout the city to Central Park and a Flea Market on 63rd and approached several innocent people in New York (Eduardo Rivera included), offering to grant their wishes only to twist them into something horrible. He was finally stopped on his way out of town by the Ghostbusters when Eduardo gave Kylie Griffin the idea to ask him to grant one more wish before he left: that he not grant her wish. Confused by this paradoxical wish, Duophanes took on his true form, which caused all transmogrification to be reversed and his victims were restored to normal. The Ghostbusters were reunited and they captured him.

Personality[]

Duophanes is a slick salesman, always approaching people with his slogan, and getting them to tell him what their wishes are. His method involves showing their wish as they would like it to be granted from within his briefcase, and at their whim, he then warps their wish according to his sadistic choice.

Powers[]

Once he hears someone's wish, Duophanes can grant it using a release of power that he keeps in his briefcase. In addition, the creatures created/transformed by his power are not ecto-based but actually real, making proton beams ineffective against them.[7] Duophanes can twist the wish only based on the exact wording of it. These wishes were classified as Class 6 Spectral Transmogrifications.[8]

If someone originally turns down his offer to make their wishes come true, he demonstrates the ability to tempt them against their senses until they make a wish, often with his slogan "No currency required, no payment do I need. Satisfaction completely guaranteed." However, it was hinted that he could not grant more than one wish per victim, or enthrall that individual again for that matter, since he never tried to draw out another wish from Eduardo, who was in Pagan's body, as the result of a previous wish already granted by the demon.

Worse still is that once he grants enough wishes in an area, Duophanes will try to leave it to find a new place to terrorize. If he manages to do so, then the effects of all the wishes he granted there become permanent. His human disguise also acts as a shield, protecting him from the Ghostbuster's Proton Streams and Ghost Traps. As a result, he has only one weakness: someone making a wish that can be used against him or one that creates a paradox. It's implied that Duophanes also cannot refuse a wish, regardless of his or the wisher's core intent when making it.

Known Victims[]

  • Conductor
    • Wish: Peace and Quiet
    • Result: Mouth taken away
  • Woman
    • Wish: To be young again
    • Result: Body from the neck downwards was de-aged to an infant's
  • Jeremy the Driver
    • Wish: To have another man's good looks
    • Results: The other man's head was attached to his neck
  • Bicyclist
    • Wish: To reconnect with his family (go back to his roots)
    • Result: Turned into a tree
  • Eduardo Rivera
    • Wish: For Kylie Griffin to treat him with the respect like she gave her cat
    • Result: Trapped in the body of Pagan
  • Security Guard
    • Wish: To be made out of money like rich people (wanted to be rich)
    • Result: Turned into money
  • Grandfather
    • Wish: For things to be like they were in the old days
    • Result: Pet lizard turned into Tyrannosaurus Rex and bird into Pterodactyl
  • Boy
    • Wish: Unknown
    • Result: Giant rampaging toy robot

Trivia[]

  • In the final draft script of the episode, there were three major differences involving Duophanes that were cut at the last minute.
    • In the teaser, the conductor was going to shout back at him, and his mouth was going to disappear mid-sentence.[9]
    • Right before Eduardo blasts the truck, the Extreme Ghostbusters were supposed to go after a normal salesman selling medicine to a woman, before realizing their mistake.[10]
    • While heading to Grand Central Station, right before the giant robot attacked, the Extreme Ghostbusters were supposed to encounter a man with so many brains, they were flowing out of his skull and into the sidewalk. Garrett remarks at the sight of him, "The dude must've wished he had more brains."[11]
  • Garrett refers to Duophanes as Willy Loman, a character from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"[12]
  • Duophanes is likened to a twisted Santa Claus.[13]
  • Duophanes appears to based on the Djinn from Arabian mythology.
  • Duophanes appears on the IDW Convention Variant Cover of Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: Extreme Ghostbusters in his true form.

Appearances[]

Extreme Ghostbusters

References[]

  1. Fil Barlow deviant art reply in "Kylie: XGB Conceptual Design" 4/16/14
  2. Kylie Griffin (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Be Careful What You Wish For (1997) (DVD ts. 11:54). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Kylie says: "Duophanes..."
  3. Carr, Patricia and Runnels, Lara (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters "Be Careful What You Wish For" (Final Draft February 19, 1997) (Script p. 22). Kylie says: "Duophenes. A demon originating in Ancient Greece, he reappears briefly every few hundred years, in various guises, granting wishes--"
  4. Kylie Griffin (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Be Careful What You Wish For (1997) (DVD ts. 11:54-12:03). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Kylie says: "Duophanes, a demon originating in ancient Greece. He reappears briefly every few hundred years in various guises granting wishes."
  5. Egon Spengler (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Be Careful What You Wish For (1997) (DVD ts. 11:40-11:46). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Egon says: "What we're seeing is the demon's essence overlaid with the way he manifests himself in human form. In this case, as a salesman."
  6. Roland Jackson (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Be Careful What You Wish For (1997) (DVD ts. 17:12-17:16). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Roland says: "That human form he's in, it must act as some kind of shield."
  7. Kylie Griffin (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Be Careful What You Wish For (1997) (DVD ts. 15:08-15:12). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Kylie says: "That's because it's not an ectoplasmic entity. It's real."
  8. Kylie Griffin (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Be Careful What You Wish For (1997) (DVD ts. 6:39-6:42). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Kylie says: "You're under the sway of a Class 6 Spectral Transmogrification."
  9. Carr, Patricia, and Runnels, Lara (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters "Be Careful What You Wish For" (Final Draft February 19, 1997) (Script p. 2) Line reads: "The Conductor's mouth suddenly disappears with a <PHWIPP!> cutting him off in mid-sentence."
  10. Carr, Patricia, and Runnels, Lara (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters "Be Careful What You Wish For" (Final Draft February 19, 1997) (Script p. 13) Line reads: "The contents of the guy's case go flying...ALL SORTS of HEALTH BARS and VITAMEN BOTTLES fly out."
  11. Carr, Patricia, and Runnels, Lara (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters "Be Careful What You Wish For" (Final Draft February 19, 1997) (Script p. 29) Line reads: "FAVOR ROLAND - driving, swerves to avoid a huge brainlike glob in the street. They look over to see -- a freaked out GUY WITH HUMONGOUS BRAINS stands on the sidewalk, his brains so huge, they flow down out of his skull and overflow into the street."
  12. Garrett Miller (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Be Careful What You Wish For (1997) (DVD ts. 7:55-7:59). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Garrett says: "Me, I'm gonna find this salesman and kick his Willy Loman behind 10 ways from Tuesday!"
  13. Garrett Miller (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Be Careful What You Wish For (1997) (DVD ts. 12:05-12:09). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Garrett says: "Sounds like we don't have much time before this twisted Santa leaves town."

Gallery[]

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