Karalora

That's what I do with them!

This is a good point. Passing judgment on the morality of a figure based on the appearance is kinda...less cool than it used to be. That said, I think there's still room for dark and scary counterparts of existing archetypes. Just use those terms--"dark" or "scary" or something along those lines--rather than "evil." Maybe the mermaid looks like that because she's from the deep ocean. Maybe the scarecrow looks like that because he takes his job seriously. Stern King, Gothic Queen, Spooky Snowman (with a half-melting face), etc. There are lots of ways to convey a more sinister appearance for people who want that sort of thing than labeling the figures as evil. iykyk

I think she technically counts, but she looks more like Cinderella's Fairy Godmother to me. I've been hoping for a more classic/folkloric look.

If you want to be zoologically pedantic, any antlered reindeer in a Christmas set is a doe, since the males lose their antlers in the winter but the ladies are on a different shedding schedule. But that doesn't help us, does it?

I would definitely prefer that over a buildable Master Sword tbh.

There are some decent costumes in this wave for Castle and fantasy builders, and Shrek's book and Gingy's lollipop could be useful, but...woof on the general concept and many of the specifics. Reducing Dragon to a minifigure is a weird choice. I don't think I even remember the wizard character.

I wonder if we would get a new mold to represent a zebra? We think of them as "striped horses" and they are, but they have proportionately larger heads than domestic horses and I think they would look "off" if the same mold was used.

This is my thought as well. An abandoned hospital is a serious horror setting, and I don't see LEGO going that direction with this line. If the Mayor Manor is indicative, this looks like more of a lighthearted "spoopy" concept.

I love that idea! A seafood shack built into a derelict pirate ship! When I used to imagine my Halloween village concept, the werewolf got a ratty old camper shell in the woods, like he was the forest equivalent of a beach bum. I think it would be fun if the werewolf minifig could be swapped between human and wolfman forms, but there were also a German shepherd or husky dog included, leaving it ambiguous whether that was his pet or another of his transformations.

Jonas Kramm designed the Mushroom Village sets for the Bricklink Designer program. I have one of them--delightful concept! You're right that a fairy village can express any season, not just spring. But there aren't really any strong culturally recognizable themes for a springtime village apart from fairies. DDLM is in fact on November 2. It depends on who you ask. Halloween is Irish in origin, came to the U.S. with Irish immigrants and subsequently got blown all out of proportion, and is now being exported to other countries in its inflated state. Not everyone in those other countries appreciates this imposition of American culture. Likewise, some Mexicans (and Mexican-Americans) are fine with the conflation of Halloween with Dia de Los Muertos, while others would prefer to keep them distinct. I am not Mexican, but I think keeping them distinct preserves both, while treating DDLM like "Mexican Halloween" risks erasing its uniqueness and especially the more sentimental elements.

Yeah..."Easter Village" isn't really a thing. I think a fairy village would be a more likely identity for a springtime lineup with lots of flowers and pastel colors. They could, but I hope they wouldn't. Despite certain similarities in the imagery and despite how it often gets treated in pop culture, DDLM isn't really "Mexican Halloween." I did like last year's sugar skull/ofrenda set, but it's something for a couple days after Halloween, not Halloween itself.

I suspect the GITD faces are meant to indicate that these are ghosts, so whether it carries into future sets depends on whether it's meant to be an all-ghost village or if other Halloween figures will also be present.

I'm loving the design of the actual house, with the textured stonework and off-kilter bits like it's actively falling apart. I understand people preferring full builds over facades but for me, for something that's only going to be a seasonal display rather than a playable concept, this is very nice!

Sand green

They might look better once we have some better images.