#Bastian Bux

[its-cripptid]

"Why don't you do what you dream, Bastian?"

[thekylemeredith]

"There's still a massive love for The NeverEnding Story"

Tami Stronach and Greg Steinbruner join Kyle Meredith to talk about #TheNeverEndingStory, Childlike Empress, & returning to acting with #ManAndWitch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps

[babyblue-mind]

what’s that old movie about the boy who doesn’t really have any friends and he’s always missing or late to his classes, and is obsessed with fictional media, and then one day a mysterious, weird old man gives him a suspicious magical object that makes him involved in a story, and he forms a close bond with one of the main characters, and eventually the story starts to affect the real world too?

[captainpirateface]

[byler-alarmist]

OK, so as a Stranger Things fan, you know that The Neverending Story has been referenced directly (and indirectly) several times in the show. But have you actually watched it?

[zladdsmith]

I was a little young to grow up with the Neverending Story, but because I had so many older brothers and sisters, things like the Neverending Story, The Hobbit cartoon, and the Goonies were an essential part of my childhood!

[punchitmrsulu]

Re-reading Neverending Story and I just live for every time Bastian tries to give Falkor an order and he looks to Atreyu first and only follows it if Atreyu gives him the go ahead.

He just refuses to take any of Bastian’s bullshit.

Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor is true in every story.

[patheticbatman]

Win A Commission! Guess the story by August 7th, win a commission! This is from a German novel. Here we meet our other protagonist - a young boy in the ‘real’ world who has his head stuck in the clouds. His name is Bastian Balthazar Bux.

Those are the actual words from the the book.

[who-canceled-roger-rabbit]

I need a crossover sequel fic (or sequel comic? I dunno) where Bastian Balthazar Bux starts high school and falls under the wing of Sarah Williams and Lydia Deetz, who are a) officially a couple and b) the de facto den mothers of the school's nerdy autistic misfits

[iviarellereads]

The Neverending Story, Chapter 24 - Dame Eyola

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Neverending Story, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which we flash sideways a minute into another part of the untold story.

Xayide's(1) end is soo(2) told, but hard to understand and full of contradictions like many things in Fantastica.

Many scholars and historians have tried to explain Xayide's end, but some deny or try to erase it from memory. The book purports to offer only the facts as they stood.

As Bastian was reaching Yskal, Xayide's giants reached the place where Bastian's horse caught fire. Her suspicions were confirmed when she tracked his footprints to the City of Old Emperors, and she decided he was lost to her plans whether he stayed and lost his memory or he escaped with a newly rekindled desire to go home instead of seek power.

Xayide commanded her giants to halt, but they did not. In the end they trampled her over and over until she died and her will stopped animating them.

The H-friends and the rest of the group arrived much later, and were puzzled at how her will could have allowed her giants to trample her. They leave the problem to the scholars, and think on what to do about their mission.(3) They decide to disband the army, but to stay committed to finding Bastian, just the three of them. They have many adventures on their futile quest, which are a story for another time.

Bastian himself follows the path through the rose garden until he finds the wooden sign from my illustration, reading "To the House of Change." He ambles his way to the silliest house he ever saw, which is ever changing in its features. Soon he hears a woman's voice singing about how the listener must have traveled far and hard, and should take comfort here. Bastian thinks it would be grand if the song were for him, and then the song returns, indicating it very much is for him, if he will be a child again.

Bastian thinks, then knocks at the door, and is invited in by a non-singing voice. He finds a woman who looks nothing like his mother did, but who he nevertheless wants to run to and call mama. She invites him to eat, and after some coaxing, he finds that the fruit on the table is the best he's ever tasted.

The woman tells him a story that mimics the beats of his story in this book so far, how he gave Moon Child her name, and then came to this world and started losing his memories for wishes. The boy in her story came to the House of Change not only because the house changes, but because the house changes any who reside in it for a time. She finally says that the boy's name was Bastian Balthazar Bux, and Bastian is startled. She adds that her family has waited for him for generations. He remembers Grograman's words, and wonders if it has been a hundred years since he arrived.

The woman finally introduces herself as Dame Eyola, and gives Bastian a fruit fresh from her head where it grows. Bastian is worried about eating food that comes from people, but Eyola says babies drink milk from their mothers, and perhaps if it worries Bastian, he can be that small for a time with her.

She suggests they move into the next room because she thinks the house has arranged something for him. They go, and Bastian finds that there's a dining room he hadn't seen before, with chairs so large he can't even climb up into one. Eyola says cheerfully that the house is awake and heard their conversation about Bastian being small, and accommodated. In the conversation about the house that follows, Bastian remarks that the room is too big to fit in the house he saw, and Eyola says the house "is bigger inside than out."(4)

It turns out that Bastian is the first person besides Eyola who's ever been in the house. She waited so long because she wanted a child to spoil and care for, her mother and grandmother did too but she's the first to get one. Bastian finds a flaw in her explanation: surely her grandmother had her mother, and her mother had her? No, Dame Eyola is a plant-thing, she grows old, and then isn't quite Dame Eyola anymore, until she is again.

Bastian starts to fall asleep while she's talking, and she carries him up to a bedroom, and kisses his forehead, and puts him to bed.

The next morning, Bastian awakes in a crib, feeling better than he ever did before. He thinks he should find it foolish, to be treated as a baby again, but he knows that everything is just as it should be with Dame Eyola, so he is unashamed.(5) So much so, he spends weeks letting himself be a child again with her. Being her child for a little while soothes something he was missing for a very long time.

In the evenings, they talk, and eventually Bastian comes to the end of what he remembers of his story. He thinks he did it all wrong, but Eyola says he took a roundabout path, but he can still set it right. Some humans can't go back until they find the Water of Life, the most secret place in Fantastica. The only way to it is the right one, and it's a way to prove that Bastian hasn't done all wrong. At this a weight lifts from Bastian and he cries in Eyola's lap for a long while.

The next day, he asks Eyola how he might find the Waters of Life. She says they're on the borders of Fantastica, which lie not outside but inside, where the CLE gets her powers but where she cannot go herself. Bastian asks how he can find the way, and Eyola says, only your last wish can take you there.

Bastian worries about losing the last of his memories, about what he's already lost that he doesn't know. Eyola knows something he's forgotten, but won't tell him. Bastian asks if he must lose everything, but Eyola says, nothing is lost, only transformed.(6) Bastian wonders if he should be going, but Eyola says when his last wish wakes, they'll both know it.

From that day on something began indeed to change, though Bastian himself noticed nothing at first. The transforming power of the House of Change was taking effect. But like all true transformations, it was as slow and gentle as the growth of a plant.

More time passes, though it's still summer at the House of Change. Bastian comes to crave Eyola's fruit less, though it's still tasty. He needs less the comfort of her mothering, though it's never overbearing. And a new desire takes root. Bastian realizes that he is incapable of loving,(7) and the wish to become so grows stronger and stronger.

One evening Bastian tells Eyola this, and she says this is his last wish, and he won't be able to go home until he drinks of the Water of Life and brings some back for his world. Bastian asks if Eyola has ever drunk of it, but she has never needed to. He asks if what she was giving him was love, if Fantasticans are capable of love. Eyola says there are some Fantasticans who may drink of the Water of Life, and there is a prophecy that someday two humans will bring love to Fantastica, and the two worlds will be as one, though she doesn't know what it means.

Bastian asks if Eyola can tell him, now, what he had to forget to make his last wishes. She tells him, he forgot his father and mother. Bastian says the words, but they're meaningless to him. Bastian asks if he should leave now, but Eyola says he has one more night in the House of Change, and he should sleep it out. Bastian notices that Eyola's flowers have faded. She tells him not to worry about her.

The next day, Bastian finds Eyola standing in the same place he left her, but her eyes closed, and her body withered like a tree in winter. He thanks her and the House for everything, and leaves. The rose garden has been reduced to bare thornbushes, with snow on everything, in just one night. Bastian shivers and wants to go back for his mantle, but the House has closed to him, so the last leg of his journey begins.

=====

(1) Dame Eyola's house below. To the left and right of the X, the summer and winter figures. Above, the pointing hand sign reading "Zum Änderhaus", which I think translates to something like "to the other house", or presumably, the House of Change. This seems to indicate all these images have been German originals, which I didn't realize until this moment! How charming. The images aren't attributed on the copyright page that I can find, only on the title page does it say "Illustrated by Roswitha Quadflieg". (2) I assume this is a typo in my edition. (3) How, pray tell, did they know the mission was ended? Why did they assume Xayide's death was the end of their whole army following Bastian? I feel like there's a leap here that's lost in the cultural and language divide of the translation/localization process. (4) Yeah okay Doctor Who fan. (Oh I'm confident Doctor Who was neither the first nor the only story to use that concept but the timeline is right for it to be a potential reference.) (5) The trust of childhood and the magic of a child's story, truly. Reading as an adult it's tempting to read further into some of this treatment as troublesome, but the narrative is treating it as totally harmless. (6) There's so much power in a transformation. The changes the House of Change works on Bastian, the changes his journey have wrought on him, the changes as he loses his memory and as he seeks a redemption. What might wishes become? (7) You know… this takes on a weird connotation for me. Bastian is a child, and one who was described openly as sensitive and caring at the outset, who displayed much care for his father, even for the little girl he shared his stories with sometimes. I can't tell if we're supposed to think that Bastian was never capable of love, since all his other wishes were for things he never got to do (even belonging to a community, even in a way the sensation of being loved had eluded him in his pre-TNS life since his mother had died at the bare minimum), or if we're to believe that his other wishes and his loss of memory stripped him of his capacity. Or, there's some nuance lost to translation, and "love" in this sense doesn't carry the same context that we assign to it, a whole language and nearly fifty years away from its intended meaning.

[bolcseszgoblin]

I think mine was Bastian Balthazar Bux (Bux Barnabás Boldizsár in Hungarian) from the Never Ending Story - the book of Michael Ende. (the film... not bad not so good. the book is a forever favourite)

the next one was Momo for Momo by Michael Ende I guess.

who was your original blorbo? Like the first ever blorbo that you felt Blorbo Induced Emotions for

[captainpirateface]

Get em' Falkor!!!!

[willbyersabyss]

Creation Powers, Memories, & Time Travel

Will has creation powers and he's the main component in time travel, the Montauk book (confirmed inspiration for ST) proves it. This is yet another addition to the memory time travel theory.

Important posts to read before this one:

The Upside Down is stuck on multiple days

Will traveled into the Wheeler house memory when he was kidnapped

In "The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time," a man named Duncan Cameron has a set of powers, one of which is the ability to create things out of thin air. He would create objects, even buildings, using his mind. Later on, they discovered that time travel was possible because of the creation powers. Duncan would think of a time period, his creation powers would activate, and a portal to that time period would appear. As long as he concentrated, the time tunnel would stay open and stable.

Ring any bells? This is just like Max's memory travel. She focused on a memory and was able to make her mind look like that memory. When she was distracted by Vecna, her memory travel couldn't be achieved. This is likely how time travel will occur in the show.

Max thought she made El. She's making things. Not thinking, making. Max made the Snow Ball a real, physical location somewhere...

Shadowfell, the DnD dimension that's the inspiration for the Upside Down, is described as a timeless dimension. Like Shadowfell, time doesn't function in the Upside Down and this is why it seems stuck in 1983. It's just a transitional plane between the real world and Dimension X. This plane can be tapped into using the mind. This is why El and Vecna can open gates to the Upside Down using psychic connection.

The Montauk book describes one of the time periods they traveled to as: "Everything was stationary, not unlike a dream state. There were no signs of life." If you told me that this was a canon description of the Upside Down, I wouldn't doubt it for a second. A lifeless place stuck in time.

When Max traveled into her memory, her mind connected with the Upside Down and replicated her memory there, creating the Snow Ball decorations we see in the UD at the end of s2 (read this post).

El said that they're all time travelers. Yeah, they definitely are. Max was able to time travel through her memories despite her lack of powers. Emotions impact time. Why would that be? Because time travel is linked to their brains, their emotions.

Max's memory time travel was possible because of her emotions. She wanted to be somewhere happy, to hide in the light. But when Vecna interrupted her with upsetting images, it no longer worked. Emotions change time!

So how does Will factor into this? As I've theorized before, he tried to travel into a happy memory (the Wheeler house) when he got kidnapped and this changed the appearance of the Upside Down. He then continued to memory hop to hide. How? Creation powers.

The inspiration for Will's look in s1 says all I need to say. His outfit is based on Marty McFly, a time traveler, and Bastian Bux, a kid who created a world using his imagination. Back to the Future and The Neverending Story are huge influences on the show and they're directly referencing them through Will for a reason. Will is time traveling through imagination. And his imagination is becoming real... creation powers.

The longer Bastian stayed in the imagination world, the less he would remember about his real self. Sounds similar to what happened to Will in s2, doesn't it? As Will is caught between the two worlds, he loses himself. He loses his memories.

The first thing that really clues Nancy into the state of the UD is her study cards. Cards that she had to memorize. These cards instantly send her into a memory of her and Steve. Before we even know what's happening, we are being shown memories. Then she looks at the journal, where she emphasizes Will's disappearance before relating it to the gate. Memories -> stuck in time -> Will.

In an interview with Chris Trujillo, the production designer for ST, he says that the UD is stuck in time because El created a snapshot of Hawkins when she opened the first gate. This would be a pretty crazy thing to reveal before it's directly discussed in the show. That's why I think he's lying. People who work on ST have a history of lying to cover up plot points (cough cough "Will isn't gay"), so I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case! Ross Duffer himself said that the reason why the UD is stuck when Will went missing has yet to be answered.

So that pretty much rules out the UD just being stuck because El opened a gate there. They wouldn't just give that away. But we have yet another mention of Will's disappearance being related to the reason for the freeze. Thank you, Ross Duffer.

Anyways, Nancy runs downstairs and she can't get her mind off of Will. They hear Dustin on the other side and Nancy says "Will found a way" to speak through the lights. It's really just Will, Will, Will once they find out that the UD is stuck in time! He is the reason!

Ok back to the Montauk book. The book mentions time tunnels. They would take samples from the environment of these tunnels to experiment on, just like the lab did in s2. It's a reference! The tunnels that extend from the main UD gate have something to do with time travel. They're portals. This is why Hopper loses track of time after investigating the tunnel-related rot at the farm.

The tunnels in the Montauk book were also related to "Seeing Eye" experiments done on Duncan Cameron. The discovery of his creation powers led to experiments where he would try to see through the eyes of other people. In these time tunnels, people would feel an intense energy related to a higher intelligence. They wanted to harness this energy so Duncan could practice mind control.

Who was able to see through the eyes of the Upside Down tunnels because of mind control again? Will.

Will's tunnel connection is a reference to Duncan Cameron. The Mind Flayer was seeing through Will's eyes, but Will was also able to see through the Mind Flayer's eyes.

His power is literally called "now-memories." The UD tunnels not only relate to time travel, but also memories! This is telling us that memories will unlock time travel. Will was using some sort of creation power like Duncan to make his memories become physical locations in the Upside Down in s1. This creation power would be impacted by emotions like the other powers are, linking this back to the "emotions change time" sentiment El mentions.

The time travelers in Montauk would be recorded, much like how the lab was recording and tracking stuff within the UD. Will's Halloween video also recorded UD weirdness. The time on the camera starts at 8:15 even though the original recording said it was 8:03. Will's Mind Flayer vision was him actually traveling into the UD, making this different from Vecna's visions. It was real.

Will's visions in s2 do have something in common with Vecna visions, though. They're related to memories! Vecna would take the memories of his victims and alter them to fit his agenda. Will was both physically traveling into the UD and experiencing a memory because the UD is both. That's why the camera changed times. He was time traveling through a memory.

If it's true that Max's mind connected with Will's during the piggyback (read here), then that may be why Max was able to change the UD with her memory travel. Will has the creation powers to change the UD and when her mind tapped into his, he accidentally made her memory come true in that dimension too.

But how can this time travel be used? The UD is just a snapshot of the memories, not the actual time period.

When El went into Max and Billy's memories, she was just a spectator. She couldn't be seen by anyone there or interact with them because this is basically a recording of the time. This memory travel is different from the one Max experienced and the one that is changing the UD's appearance.

So what if they... combine? This conversation feels like code to me. Robin found the girl of her dreams (El found Max in her memory) while Steve goes on a million dates (Will memory traveled to a bunch of different dates in s1) without achieving what they want. And to really hammer in that this is secretly about Will: the movie they're standing in front of came out on March 22nd... Will's birthday. So Will and El need to combine in order for the time travel to actually take them into a new time.

El can travel into memories that include people. Will can create memories into real locations without people. If they combine their powers, they may be able to create people in these memories too, making the time travel substantial enough to matter. I believe this was foreshadowed when El used happy memories to bring Max back to life.

This also gives the Mind Flayer/Vecna a motive. He said that when he kills people, they aren't really dead, they're still with him in his mind. The more minds he collects, the more memories he has. He just needs Will by his side to make these memories a reality, allowing him to travel to as many time periods and locations as he wants. Memory time travel could very well be the reason why birthdaygate exists. If Will has no powerful memories to travel to, he can't harness time travel. Vecna may be interfering with his memories to keep that power at bay.

I recommend reading @conflictofthemind’s post about Montauk’s time loop as well. Will already has a memory of the USS Eldridge and this could be how he travels there in the future. He uses that memory (or is forced to by Vecna) to both start and end the time loop. Will’s memory of the ship being because of a memory really ties in the time loop implications.

So there you have it. Memories and emotions are heavily linked to time travel throughout the show and this time travel has already been unlocked before. Will Byers is one of many characters inspired by Duncan Cameron, so he is likely the owner of creation powers. The constant mention of memories surrounding Will (birthdaygate) is another hint for memory time travel occurring thanks to Will!

[punchitmrsulu]

Re-reading Neverending Story and Atreyu adamantly refusing Auryn when Bastian offers it back to him immediately shows why he’s the one who should be carrying it.

Meanwhile, Bastian’s walking around with swords that do the fighting for him, bragging about riding Grograman to anyone who’ll hear him and other various forms of self-aggrandizing.

No wonder everything went south once he was in charge.

[murphymakestherules]

"What do you have there?"

"One grain of sand. It is all that remains of my vast empire."