#also i have theories about eddie and how he gets manipulated into thinking that there has to be this epic showdown between him and barry

[stagefoureddiediaz]

I still think Tommy won’t be shown much at all. There really is no need. Eddie can express his jealously with little bitchy comments and facial expressions.

I’m not sure. I don’t think we’ll get a huge amount of Tommy but I do think we’ll see him fairly often - for a couple of reasons - yes you can do a fair amount of the work via exposition (such as buck telling Eddie he’s not free because he has a date with Tommy etc etc) but you do also need to establish things visually.

We need to be shown Tommy visually present to heighten the distance - to show him coming between buck and Eddie and interrupting their dynamic. You can’t build drama and tension if you don’t show it. It’s far more powerful if we’re shown Eddie alone while buck is with Tommy rather than it just being talked about.

The other aspect of this is the fact Tommy is Eddie lite and the viewer needs to be shown more of that - it was a key part of the bi buck storyline - his confused feelings - buck misunderstanding the assignment. Showing Tommy with buck allows the viewer to also be shown Eddie and buck which allows the differences in their dynamics to be made explicit.

The show spent all of s7 putting buck front and centre in Eddie and Christopher’s life - paralleling him with Shannon and baking it perfectly clear the three of them have a family dynamic going on. S7 also spent a lot of time putting Eddie into the middle of the buck and Tommy narrative - he’s literally always there even when he’s not. Showing buck and Tommy interacting allows that second aspect especially to be developed further - Eddie always being there even when he’s not is something you can’t establish if Tommy isn’t seen with buck. And that creates tension in the relationship that you can only achieve by giving him some screen time.

Personally I think there are lots of red flags that the show has deliberately had Tommy waving around and I expect those to be developed further. I think he’s manipulative and controlling and I think we’ll see that coercive control explored a bit because it is in part something Gerrard does as well and Tommy was under Gerrards captaincy for a good period of time. Buck struggling under Gerrard as captain plays into this as well and the show likes to use mirrors and juxtapositions - buck has become the buck he is today under the guiding influence of bobby - his captain (and dad) and paralleling Tommy becoming who he is today because he was under Gerrard makes sense and established the ultimate incompatibility of buck and Tommy - because Buck struggling with Gerrard and the way he behaves and treats people means he will struggle with Tommy too because those behaviours are also in Tommy. There’s a reason why we’ve had next to zero accountability from Tommy for his past behaviours - which would’ve been super easy to do without taking up much screen time. It’s because it’s still relevant and important to Tommys arc as a plot device. This arc for buck is seemingly about nature v nurture and how nurture is more important than nature. buck is who he is because of Maddie and then bobby (and hen and Chim and Eddie as well but they’re not his main influences) and they’re nurturing of him, not because of nature - of his parents (this is a very nuanced thing and broad stroking it here). Tommy has stated he had a less than stellar father and was then nurtured by Gerrard and that has made him who he is. Whilst being under bobby for a bit and whomever he’s been captained by since will have in theory developed him further and lessened those influences of G and his father (and likely his superior officers in the military as well who were probably of the Gerrard ilk), it’s not going to have undone it completely.

I’m not saying we’ll be seeing him every episode in 8a or anything, but I do expect him to get several minutes of screen time over multiple scenes when he is in episodes because it’s important for bucks storyline and development - and that is what we have to remember and prepare for.

I did not mean to end up with an essay about Tommy and his red flags but here we are!! Hope it makes sense and is interesting

[ihasafandom]

Carnage re-write

I'll add these all together into a single post and probably put it onto a03 and my artblog when I'm done with all of these, but for now we're going with this format.

Part 2/??

Previous / Next

So for Eddie’s arc let’s have him learn that he needs to open up and allow himself to listen to and rely on other people. He can’t go around behind other peoples’ backs, and he can’t lie to the people in his inner circle. This will connect back to his flaws in the first film, where he tried to do everything himself his own way without considering how other people would feel about/react to that or reaching out to any of his contacts or allies for help or anything like that.

Venom meanwhile got hints of it in the first film, but we need to double down on it learning the value and meaning of community and friends and allies and all that. In theory Eddie has some of that, but he also tends to throw them away so if we can have Venom glom on and stick that’ll be good for them both in the long run (not a necessity for a good story, but I like when partners fill eachothers’ weak spots.

As for the relationship, we need them both to go on a journey where they realize that/why they care about eachother, and come to value that enough to compromise and work to find their balance.

They also both need to temper their impulses and instinctive responses to be able to think thing through and not just rush in guns blazing, though that might be a series arc and not just for the one movie.

Probably makes the main thrust of this movie something along the lines of: People and relationships are important and irreplaceable, but also hard work and compromise. They are well worth the effort of doing things right.

Which gives us some nice points to invert for our villain trio.

And speaking of villains, the villains and side-characters need arcs too.

In the film, Cletus wants to tell his story, wants to escape, wants to find his girlfriend, wants to get married, and wants to wreak havoc and kill people.

Scream wants to escape, wants to find her boyfriend, wants to get married, and wants to wreak havoc and kill people.

That’s all perfect for what the film wants to do (I have not read the comics and know nothing about scream, don’t at me. But also do, maybe you’ve got some ways to sell all of this better) 100%, no notes.

Where this breaks down is when it comes to Carnage itself. We get very little of its motivations, and we don’t get much between the symbiote and Casady, and even less between it and Scream. And what we do get isn’t compelling. It seems clear to me that they were trying to do a parallel to Eddie and Venom here, but it lacks the clarity and follow-through to really work.

Also AFAIK Carnage symbiote is supposed to be she/her and it’s a bummer that it’s not in the movie though I am always gonna be a “symbiotes are it/its first and anything else second” truther.

So to fix it:

Carnage is newly born straight off of the “we should be able to do what we want with no morals/consequences/limits” argument that Eddie & Venom were having and bases its initial personality off of that. Its motivation is that it wants to murder-party its way across the Earth. It sees Cletus as a good time and it is covetous of him as a host. It wants a match at least as good as Venom’s, and it wants its host to have things that make them feel hedonistically good, but it does not respect Cletus and it doesn’t care about Scream herself.

Cletus loves Scream. And he appreciates the abilities and possibilities that Carnage brings to the table and the way that their goals and desires align, but nothing more than that. People are a means to an end, to be used as he sees fit. To be manipulated and lied to without a thought. He doesn’t care to tell Scream about Carnage being its own being, all the better to bask in the glory of saving her and being powered up all by himself. He doesn’t care to explain to Carnage how the world works, or to reel it in, preferring to ramp it up for the carnage and chaos and pretend that it was all his idea.

Scream loves Cletus, but she is jealous and suspicious. She acts up whenever Cletus seems to have anyone else important in his life, and is even more dismissive of the people around them as little more than backdressing and playthings at best. She has skills and knowledge, and tries to use them to plan their future, but gets ignored by Cletus overruling her opinions and choices unless he is in a “yes, anything for you, everything you say will be done” mood. When she finds out about Carnage she is HECKIN jealous. How dare he have someone even closer to him than she is?

The marriage going from the two of them to the three of them is a peace offering without solving the underlying issues. And when Cletus ignores one of Scream’s choices – the officiant or somethign and Scream gets mad and Carnage slaps her for ruining their big day and then Cletus fights with Carnage for hurting his love, that is the crack that weakens them enough for Eddie and Venom (with backup) to eventually win the day. Their bond is stronger, they have put in the work, they have laid out a support network and talked about their needs, and in the end they will prevail because they have a healthier relationship for it.

This is of course diametrically opposed to how the actual movie played it, where Eddie and V got back together with no actual changes and out of desperation but the movie still kind of tried to imply that they won because their bond was better? Nah, you gotta earn that, on both sides, and we’d seen more problems on the protagonist side than the antagonists’ by far at that point.

Part 2/??

Previous / Next

[oceanofflavor]

I’m sorry, but there’s no way Eddie isn’t going to be in season 5 in some way.

Obviously, I’m hoping he gets resurrected and I have a whole theory about time travel/time manipulation since they made a point to mention how the Upside Down is frozen in time, Vecna’s connection to clocks and therefore time, etc. Then you have Eleven resurrecting Max in the finale. 

So, it’s possible for him to be resurrected and brought back. 

I don’t want to see him in flashbacks or Vecna visions or whatever, but if that’s what we get, that’s what we get.

All I’m saying is that at the end of the day Netflix is a business and Eddie Munson is good for business. 

The Duffers wrote him as a throwaway character and a replacement for a main character death like they do every season, but he’s become more than that at this point. 

Let’s not forget how the Duffers mentioned that they rewrote season 5, and in the same breath they mentioned how they looked at fan response. 

For anyone who wants to complain about that, let’s not act like the only reason Steve Harrington is still alive is because of fan response and how much people love him. So, I don’t want to hear it. 

You all know I think his death was forced and he had more potential. So, that’s the main reason I want him to come back, but to be honest, I also just want him to come back at this point to piss off the people who hate him for no reason. 

I don’t know why I made this rant, but yeah, here it is. 

[jazzzzzzhands]

ok ok So Theory time! I'm still very much on the "stay on script" Theory. Which is in short, if the characters start acting off-script, they tend to get hurt! Example: Eddie went out late at night and got himself quite hurt indeed! Good thing Wally was there to fix him up and give him a Watch so that his neighbor wouldn't forget the time! (Link leads to an older theory of my ramblings) ((also I think it will be funny to mention how he was left on the ground in the storybook audio, just for future reference)) And now the Frank picture has been made cannon!:

I think this explains why Frank is a bit cold to Eddie! Everyone knows that they are lovers, but they are not scripted to be.... I think a few nights in a box with chopped up parts of yourself, plus a copy of the script, is enough to make a statement!!! The statement being: "Behave and follow this, or else" So he definitely doesn't want to be caught being off script again For his sake, and mostly likely For Eddie as well. (I believe the red rectangle to be the script, wait for the GIF to stop)

And honestly these are things that were already swimming around in my brain, But now an Addition! It's Julie! There is quite a bit about Julie and scripts and how she does NOT like to stick to them! or rules! If it means having fun, then rules are to be broken! There is a whole audio about her not staying on script.

And where does that get her? Off a cliff! In this older picture, Julie can be seen on the edge of a cliff:

and in this audio, it makes mention of falling down, down,down (Thank you so much op for that audio) So now it seems like we have 3 neighbors who have been punished in some sort of way. Tho i'm not entirely sure if Julie was forced or manipulated into jumping. Actually make that 4: Barnaby... This is an older one, possibly one of the first! The art where our good friend Barn lost his head! (You all know the one) Now I had no connections of why in particular, but one of the audios from the update, leads me to believe he is a Liar of some sorts I Have a few other loose thoughts, but i think that there are MANY strings going on at the same time And I want to keep them Separated. So for this one, I will Pin it down as simply "Going off script" I have a few other thoughts and theories, But I will have separate posts for them This post in particular will serve as my observations of the neighbors getting "Punished" for "going off script" If i find any more, i'll prob reblog this with added details

[sweetstarart]

Ahoy neighbors!! Here's how Howdy's day went (sorry I'm so late!!)

Sunrise

Eddie and I are thick as theives! He's the only person who gets up at the same time as me (other than Sally). While we scrubbed the decks, I told him about my current interest. Ghosts. I got to tell him about auras and possession and he actually sounded interested! I'm so glad that I joined this crew, my home town just didn't view things the way they should've. Wally is up early too, is he opening his necklace? Wait a second, that's an apparitious pendant! Those things are only used to seal incredibly dangerous ghosts...

This can't be good.

Noon

I can't believe our ship is possessed! On any other occasion, I'd be over the moon about this but that whole pendant thing has me worried. Especially since Barn's suddenly come down with something. I spoke to him and he says he's really dizzy and can't sleep. I asked him when he started feeling these symptoms and he said it's when he was about to tell the ghost to leave. That can't be a coincidence. I had a theory, but I decided to investigate a bit more before jumping to conclusions. After gathering some information my suspicions were proven to be correct, Barnaby was under the weather due to a failed possession. Luckily, I have just the thing for that! While we were talking, a thought crossed my mind, if the spirit was in the pendant, then their power should be stripped to the point where they can only possess objects. The fact they even attempted to latch onto a sentiment host is strange...

What could they be after? Maybe I should've asked Barnaby before I put him to sleep, he mainly babbles and barks when he's tired. Its really sweet, but I don't have time to think about that now. I've gotta get to the bottom of this.

Sunset

I've spent the entire day buried in my books and I've come up with a theory. There's not much supporting it but its the best I've got for now. What if the ghost (who I've overheard Wally is named Home) is trying to control us? Think about it, everyone on this crew listens to the captain. If Home manages to get their hands on that vessel without us realizing, they could make us do whatever they want. That might be why they possessed our ship, they'd be able to watch us and hear us no matter what. They'd learn exactly what to do to manipulate everyone on deck.

I hope I'm wrong. That'd be seriously messed up. I gotta tell Barnaby about this at some point. I have an idea though! Possession takes a lot of energy, meaning as long as Home remains the boat, they'll have to sleep. When they go to sleep, that's when we'll discuss our plan.

Wait a second, are the mates trying to start a band? God i wish I brought my fiddle with me!

Night

Home went back into their pendant! Nows my time to strike. I knocked on the door, thank the stars he's awake. I told him about my theory, he told me that if they really were stripped of their power, there would be no possibility of them hurting us. But we both know that ghosts can get stronger though different means. For Barn, its food. For Home? We aren't sure.

We have to get more information on them, I said I'd spend tonight skimming through all my books to get as much info as possible, he told me not to. He says he's been asleep all day, so he'll make up for it by doing the work for me. I hate to admit it, but I actually am really tired right now.

I have an idea, I'll sleep in here tonight, that way he can wake me up whenever he needs help/ a break. He better not let me sleep through this. If we don't figure out what Home wants, they could doom us all. Also, he's been working much too hard lately and I can tell its stressing him out.

[ven0moir]

Why I think Byler will HURT before it becomes canon

As I’ve already explained in this post I firmly believe Byler is endgame. However, we’re going to have to be prepared to get our hearts DESTROYED first. Here are my reasons ... 

1. The Duffer brothers said Netflix executives cried when they showed them the season’s outline.  This is a little self explanatory but it could mean a combination of happy vs sad tears. I do believe something MAJOR is going to happen before the happy ending we’ll likely get, and that MAJOR thing will be related to Byler. It will hurt.

2. Mike has been surrounded by death symbolism/foreshadowing since s2.  SOMETHING is going to happen to Mike, especially because a lot of the symbolism we saw applied to Mike this season, we also saw applied to Max (clock imagery and the color red mainly). Mike didn’t get vecna’d this season, which ... you can imagine what that might be indicating for his journey in s5.

3. If they saved the Byler reveal all the way until s5, is because they’re planning something MAJOR for them and will likely be part of the plot. It’s not going to be as peaceful as them simply working through their issues and getting together. They left both Mitochondria and Byler inconclusive because it’s going to be a SHOCKING reveal in s5 that Mike ... actually loved Will back. 

4. Vecna NEEDS Will either out of the way or to join him ... and what’s more powerful than a Vessel that joins you WILLINGLY?  This has been foreshadowed too. It doesn’t make sense that Vecna kills Jonathan or Mike himself to get to Will, and then Will joins him, right? And they said that Eddie’s death will have major consequences. I just find there’s a connection between Eddie, a freak, dying to protect a town that hated him and how Will’s disappearance was treated in s1. Vecna doesn’t have to pull many strings to demonstrate just how cruel Hawkins can be to people who are ... Different. 

5. Vecna is manipulative, and will likely use their love against them in a way we haven’t foreseen yet. I have a couple ideas how he might do that and I sincerely tear up just thinking about it and hope I’m wrong but there’s a lot of foreshadowing that would make something like what I’m thinking plausible. I might delve deeper into what I think Vecna will do in a future post once I’ve gathered and interpreted enough hints and clues.

I might make a longer theory as to what I think might happen but it’s ... yeah, we’re going to have to be prepared because it’s going to HURT you guys! But the payoff will be great, trust 

[eriquin]

The Prophetic D&D Game, Part 25

They might not believe it's real, but at least the Hellfire Club was paying attention to the details of their game.

(master post)

It was one thing to hear about the Upside Down, and the game, and how their DM seemed to know things he shouldn’t, but it was quite another to play with them all. The older boys were actually kind of nice, once she managed to convince Dustin and Mike to stay and play. They wanted to call Eddie’s bluff, but she pointed out the downsides of that. She also pointed out how terrible he looked, with the dark circles under his eyes and the way he was squinting at the lights. There was definitely something wrong with that boy, even if her friends couldn’t see it. They just weren’t objective enough.

Eddie was also pretty easy to manipulate. He seemed to just want to get on with things, and it fit in with her theory that he wasn’t really in control of anything. The character he handed her, Priah, was so obviously based on her that it was a little spooky. They got settled in to play, and she immediately came up with some good strategies for them. 

This was a good group. It was too bad that they were so much older than her that they’d all be out of high school by the time she was a freshman, but maybe she could convince them to let middle schoolers like her join as well. If that happened, she’d be running this club within a year. If they all survived this freaky game, that was. 

It was extra weird when Eddie tried to convince Erica not to go into the demonic realm with the rest of the front line fighters. He didn’t even seem to know why he did it, and he backtracked quickly when the others questioned him. Erica just made a mental note about it. He seemed to look even worse after that, and even more distracted. 

The other players were distracted, too, because they were trying to run three different combat sessions at the same time. The DM was clearly winging it, but it was going pretty well despite that. Erica found herself getting sucked into the story, wondering what he had planned just like the rest of them did, and worried about who would be the first to die. She was surprised when Eddie started talking about Quinn running out to distract the bats, because it didn’t make a lot of sense that he would do that to his own stand-in character. 

When Eddie got up and started flailing around, acting out the part. Gareth whispered something about him being dramatic. “Just wait,” he said to Erica. “He’s probably got a whole death scene planned. It’ll be amazing.” 

But then he suddenly stopped, as if he’d seen something. They looked around, but nothing had changed. His face went slack and his arms slowly dropped to his sides. He was still staring straight ahead, at the wall behind Erica. 

“You all right, man?” Jeff said with a half-hearted laugh. “Man, you better not be high, Munson. We have a middle schooler here.”

Eddie didn’t respond, though. He just stood there, silently staring. The lights in the back of the room flickered a little. Dustin and Mike both flinched at that, and looked worried.

Gareth frowned. “Hey, this isn’t funny,” he said. “Cut it out, Eddie. Let’s just play the game. I was going to try to rescue Quinn if you gave me a chance.” 

But Eddie still didn’t respond. He twitched a little, and blinked a few times, but he wasn’t looking at them. His blinking got faster, and his eyes rolled back in his head. 

“Uh, Eddie?” Grant said. He pushed his chair back and got to his feet. “Come on, man. What the hell is this? Snap out of it.” He clapped his hands near Eddie’s face, but the man didn’t flinch. He just kept blinking. The rest of his body twitched a little, but not much.

“What the fuck is going on?” Mike whispered. “This isn’t part of the game, is it?”

“No, man,” Jeff said. He got up and went to stand by Grant. “I think he’s having some kind of a seizure.” 

The lights started flickering even more. Dustin gulped and looked at Erica. They both got up to take a closer look, but while all the guys were looking at his face and futilely tugging at his arms to try to move him, Erica looked down at his feet. 

“Uh, guys? Does Eddie do ballet?” she asked. 

Mike scoffed. “Uh, no?” 

“Because if he doesn’t, then going up on his toes like that is impossible.”

The rest of them looked down. The tips of Eddie’s sneakers were still on the ground, but his heels had lifted off them entirely, and he was still rising, though slowly. They all jumped back as his toes left the ground. 

“How the fuck is he doing that?” Gareth shrieked. “Eddie, what the fuck are you doing? Cut this shit out!”

“Holy shit,” Dustin said. “Holy shit, it’s happening. It’s happening to him.” 

Mike looked panicked. “What do we do? How do we snap him out of it? Dustin, you’re the bard, what do we do?”

“I’m not actually a bard!” Dustin squeaked. “I can’t play music! These guys can play music! Don’t you guys have a band?”

Grant put his hands to his head and pulled at his hair. “I don’t—Are you talking about the fucking game!? Why are you—That’s not real!”

“It’s real now!” Erica yelled. “He needs music. It’s the only thing that brings people out of this, right? So what’s his song? Come on!”

“Master of Puppets!” Gareth yelled. “He’s been practicing the solo. He almost had it last time.”

“You guys can’t be serious,” said Jeff. “It’s not real.”

Both Dustin and Erica held their hands out at Eddie, who was clearly floating off the ground now. “Does that look fake to you?” Dustin screeched.

Mike slammed his hands on the table. “It’s real! I swear it’s real. It’s been going on in Hawkins for years. It’s why Will disappeared and then came back and why all the pumpkins rotted in the fields and it’s why the mall burned down and it’s back! Now where’s his damn music?”

That was enough of a speech to get the other boys moving. “Fuck, okay,” Jeff said as he ran to the side table and started digging around in the boxes. He found a boombox and plugged it in. “A tape! We need the tape! One of you assholes has to—”

“Got it!” said Grant. He had been searching through his bag while Jeff was finding the boombox, and held it aloft. “We have to rewind it, though. I was listening to Sanitarium last.” 

There was some fumbling as Jeff and Grant got the player to work spun through the tape. Eddie rose higher. He made little gasping noises, like he was choking. “Hurry!” Erica yelled. If the boys had been right about their description of how it happened, his bones could start breaking any second. She really didn’t want to see that. 

“Eddie! Eddie, listen to me!” Dustin yelled at him. “If you can hear me, listen, please! We’ll get you out of there, you just have to fight it. I know you can fight it.” 

The speakers crackled and started playing a song with growling vocals and heavy guitar. It was exactly the kind of music Erica expected Eddie to like. 

“That’s too early,” Gareth yelled. “The guitar solo is later. Fast forward to—” 

“Just let the song play!” Dustin yelled back. “He’s got to hear it, remember? Sadie had to hear the music and run towards it. He’s got to hear something familiar so he can escape.” 

They let the song play on as Eddie rose higher and higher in the air. His hands hung out to the sides, joints limp but held up by an invisible force. His head tipped up, chin in the air, and his back arched. They couldn’t see his eyes anymore, but he was still twitching slightly. 

Dustin grabbed Erica’s hand, squeezing it tight. Neither of them could take their eyes off of Eddie’s floating body. He almost looked like he was already gone, just a doll floating in the air, waiting to be broken. Erica couldn’t find her voice, even though the rest of the boys were all shouting at him to snap out of it. Jeff was singing along to the song, which was probably the best idea, but she didn’t know the words. Mike was just standing there, twitching like he was about to scream. Erica grabbed his hand as well. 

The song transitioned from a slow part to something with much more emphatic, almost violent beats. Then the guitar part picked up. It was fast and complicated and when it kicked up to a crescendo, Eddie twitched. His arms and legs flew out straight, and Erica shut her eyes, convinced she was going to hear his bones break and unwilling to also watch it happen. 

But instead, he gasped and called out. He hung in the air for a second before crashing back down to the ground. Grant was right beneath him, not so much catching him as breaking his fall. 

Everyone ran to his side. Eddie was twitching, but also babbling and crying and clearly not cursed anymore. He curled up into himself, whispering, “It’s real it’s real it’s real,” over and over again.

Taglist: @weirdandabsurd42, @10moonymhrivertam, @blueskiesandstarrynights

[jaynaneeya]

Feeling so many feelings about the lack of romance in Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story (spoilers ahead so please watch it before reading this. Actually watch it regardless of whether you read this.)

I feel like the general perception of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is that it's about Ichabod and Brom fighting because they're in love with Katrina. But if you actually read the story, them wooing her feels like more of a status thing than an actual romantic thing, and Katrina is so underdeveloped that we have no idea how she feels about any of this. Naturally, with Sean Persaud playing Ichabod and Mary Kate Wiles playing Kat, my expectation going into Shipwrecked's version was that they were absolutely going to be in love with each other and their romance was going to drive the story, much as Poe and Annabel's had driven their previous series. Ichabod and Katrina don't end up together in the original story, so if I'd thought about it I might have anticipated some tragedy would pull them apart, but regardless, I thought this was definitely going to be another MK/Sean love story.

And then...it wasn't? Ichabod definitely had a crush on Kat, but she was responding very confusingly, and the story was way more about hijinks with the horseman's heads and the history of Sleepy Hollow and the quirky townspeople than about their relationship. Which was great and kind of what I was hoping for, so perfect, yay, another fabulous Shipwrecked ensemble piece.

And THEN. Out of NOWHERE. We got a wedding plot twist. And here's where others might disagree with me about the lack of romance thing, because I feel like a lot of people definitely interpret the fact that they stayed married to mean that Brom and Matilda fell in love with each other romantically. But from my perspective it absolutely looks like a queerplatonic relationship. They don't even want to kiss at their wedding. Also the fact that Brom was SO OBSESSED with Kat for a full DECADE but then just completely forgets about her when he accidentally marries someone else? That screams aroace pretending/convincing themself to have a crush. Brom even says that "there's always been Tassels and Brunts, forever, getting married and stuff." Brom decided he was supposed to end up with Kat, and he had no alternate plans for if that didn't work out, so he was just waiting for her to come back around to that idea. But then when he marries Matilda instead, he's just like, "Okay, cool, this works." Matilda seems pretty annoyed by Brom early in the series, but she's also mildly amused by him, and definitely recognizes that he's trying to overcome his own toxicity. They've known each other so long that even though they probably don't realize it, they already deeply care about each other as friends. And she's clearly lonely and terrified of losing the few people she loves, so having one of them closer to her probably seems appealing. So they stay married. But I don't believe it's romantic or sexual attraction that brought or kept them together. Which of course is just my personal headcanon, others could reasonably disagree, but I'm just saying, the series at no point disproves this theory.

And then, after the friend group continues to get closer, both to each other and to solving the mystery of the head, we get the immensely satisfying explanation for why Kat's behavior has been so confusing. She never cared about him, she was manipulating him. And what is so. fricking. cool. about what happens next is, Ichabod, instead of dwelling on this heartbreak, turns to his friends, and they all work together to save the day. And in the end, he doesn't have a romantic partner, but he has a community, and he seems to be perfectly satisfied with that, and I think that's so incredibly beautiful.

Poe Party is also about friendship, but the catalyst for the events of the story is Poe's desire to win Annabel away from Eddie. But in Headless, the story is driven by a combination of Ichabod redeeming his family and Matilda trying to save her friend (I realize people are probably going to ship Matilda and Kat, too, but there's no canonical indication that their relationship isn't platonic). I already appreciated Shipwrecked for telling stories that place a lot of emphasis on deep and complex but not romantic relationships, but Headless really takes this several levels beyond what they've previously done. Of course, this is far from the only way Shipwrecked has leveled up with Headless, and it's probably one of the less intentional or noticeable ways. But as an aroace person who has only recently started unpacking the ways that amatonormativity has impacted how I see myself and the world, it means a lot that my favorite creators keep telling stories about people who are very easy to headcanon as aspec.

TL;DR Matilda and Brom are in a qpr, and Ichabod is happy being single with friends, and this means a lot more to me than it probably should

[queerlyglittering]

Ok so we're all familiar with the theory that Eddie Munson will come back in the Upside Down as a pawn/right-hand-man of Vecna, like the character Kas in their D&D campaign

And I just read a screenrant article based off a quote from Jamie Campbell Bower saying that he wanted to see Will be the one to square off with Vecna in season 2. The author expanded on that quote by saying that there should be more of a D&D tie-in to the climax of season 5, since that's one of Will's strengths/special interests that holds a lot of happy memories for him (memories being one of the keys, like music, for breaking the mental hold of Vecna/the Mind Flayer/the Upside Down)

And I've been bemoaning for months that Will never got the chance to meet Eddie, who would have been a fantastic role model for him in many ways, like the Steve to his Dustin 😭

...

Now I really need season 5 to culminate in Eddie, coming back as Kas (as foreshadowed in s4), basically masterminding and manipulating Vecna/Henry/One's whole plan to parallel the plot of the D&D campaign - as a subconscious nod to his friends, to give them a chance and let them know he's still in there and secretly on their side or whatever - and I need Will to be the one to catch on. Maybe with the help of Dustin/Mike/Lucas, who were actually part of Eddie's campaig specifically, but iirc they were playing a variation on a published campaign (Greyhawk I think?) that was part of like one of the official D&D rulebooks/guides at the time, so it was commonly accessible knowledge that Will could easily have been familiar with as well. And he'd be more likely to notice since D&D is more significant to him than to the others. I need him to have a Ron-Weasley-wizard's-chess type moment where he sees the plan, sees the opening in it that Kas!Eddie has left for them, and they just have to trust his knowledge and instincts about it and it pays off. (Could do without the self-sacrifice part, unless it's necessary. Which I could see them setting things up to where each member of the group gets separated/sacrificed basically one at a time in order to get Eleven to the final confrontation with Vecna, though I'd like to see someone else take him on for a change, or at least her not have to do it alone. And Will does have an axe to grind against the Mind Flayer and subsequently Vecna.)

It would be super cool if they could also figure out how to break Kas!Eddie free of Vecna's mind control, especially if it involves D&D memories (and/or more Metallica lmao), and super especially if they can bring him back home to Hawkins. But that might be asking for too much. I just really need Eddie to pull enough strings to get the D&D plot to happen and the boys, especially Will, to catch on.

[chirpsythismorning]

Something we should definitely not overlook, because it feels relevant to birthdaygate, is the individual character posters for season 4.

There's actually even an interview with the Duffer Brothers, where they were asked about this theory:

Though, I should clarify, this interviewer got a few details wrong, as it appears Max was actually looking away from the camera, not directly at it. Not only that, but she also wasn’t the only one to do so. She was one out of four total...

Looking directly at the camera: El, Hopper, Murray, Will, Argyle, Steve, Dustin, Robin, (not shown above: Karen, Lucas, Erica, Nancy, Eddie)

Looking away from the camera, to their left: Joyce, Mike, Jonathon, Max

We could deduce that this visual choice was foreshadowing Max getting cursed by Vecna in season 4, and Matt did sort of elude to this in his response to the question, seeing as it was focused only on her. But what could this possibly mean for the other three then?

Initially, it didn’t seem like we got anything substantial enough in s4 that could have possibly paralleled Joyce, Mike and Jonathon to Max's situation, or even being cursed by Vecna like she did for that matter. Well, except—

I do find it interesting that the same episode we see Max slowly discover she has been cursed, in an episode literally titled 'Vecna's Curse', it's March 22nd, Will's birthday, and in real time we are seeing the three people who would definitely never forget Will's birthday, presumably forget.

Because undeniably, the first thing that crosses my mind when it comes to what could possibly connect these three characters with each other, is Will. He's what connects them all. But even more specifically, THIS scene below is what connects them all, a scene which, might I remind you, has a major emphasis on the word 'remember':

Joyce: Do you know what March 22nd is? It’s your birthday. YOUR birthday. When you turned 8, I gave you that huge box of crayons, do you remember that?

Jonathon: Do you remember the day dad left?

Mike: Do you remember the first day that we met?

Vecna:

Not only do I think this means that Vecna most likely took away these three's memory of Will’s birthday, I also think it means he took away this specific memory and all the memories mentioned within it.

If it's all coming full circle and everything leads back to Will, it would make sense that Vecna 'took notes' during this whole incident in 2x08. These memories and these specific people in Will's life played a role in thwarting Vecna's plans last time, so obviously, he's not going to give them the chance to do that again.

This also brings up some interesting questions:

Were those weird POV shots of the Cali gang, that looked oddly stalker-ish, meant to represent Vecna keeping a close eye on them, to make sure his plan was still in motion?

How long will this manipulation (curse) Vecna has on these three last? And to what extent? Will it all just come to a head right away in early season 5, at a moment when they're trying to save Will, but they inevitably fail because all of the relevant things that saved him last time, are now missing from their memories?

And last, but definitely not least, is it possible Mike wouldn’t have gone through with professing his love to El, the way that he did, even going as far as to say his life started the day he found her in the woods (the day Will went missing), if he had remembered already doing the exact same thing with Will…? If he had remembered the best thing he'd ever done was ask Will to be his friend? Because if this theory is correct y’all... MIKE DOESN'T REMEMBER!!!???

Well, that's all (for now)

Please be sure to check out this post if you haven't already, but even more importantly, scroll down to the bottom of that post, because there I have linked all the most incriminating evidence thus far.

And trust me, once you read all of it, it's pretty much undeniable.

I also hope this gives some validation to those of you out there who denied vehemently that Joyce, Mike or Jonathon could EVER possibly forget Will's birthday. Because you were right. Technically, they didn't. Technically it required an inter-dimensional monster for this to be possible at all. So props to ya'll and your faith in these characters! YOU WERE RIGHT!

[strangertheories]

Finale theory

Ok Volume 2 comes out tomorrow for me (time zones) and I'm done isolating with COVID meaning I'm going out, so I have barely any time for theories. Hence why I'm releasing this at like 12:30 am. I've put out my theory of Eleven trance hopping already so now I'm going to talk more about my theory for what I think the older group will be doing whilst the younger group get Vecna'd. I'll explain that and what that could mean for our characters and Will in the post, but it's not the main focus.

At the end of Episode 7, we know Nancy is in a Vecna trance and knows his backstory. We also know that Nancy will escape that trance because there's tons of shots of her in the Upside Down. So what if Vecna let her escape on purpose? Hear me out on this one...

Because of Vecna's trance, Nancy realizes that Vecna is just a human guy and so is vulnerable but not within his mindscape. Only within the Upside Down can he be attacked. It's like Freddy Krueger; in order to take him down you have to pull him into the real world. So Nancy and company decide to go and track down Vecna in the Upside Down to shoot him and put an end to the killings. But the issue is, what if they get Vecna'd and also they could get attacked by the demobats.

In terms of them distracting Vecna, I've written a whole theory on this here so I'm not going to into too much detail. Basically, the kids willingly go into trances to preoccupy Vecna whilst Eleven infiltrates their mind to try and fight Vecna within his mindscape. This is a big risk for the kids. Especially Will because his feelings for Mike and for boys in general could get exposed to Eleven. We already know Eleven is going to be in Max's trance because Eleven is in the Snow Ball where a magazine says Max has a trance and that Lucas will wear Vecna contacts so it's not too much of a stretch to say Will or Mike could get Vecna'd as well. It's a huge risk for the kids, but they said there would be a non-stop 1 hour sequence in the final episode and I believe it's going to be their trances whilst the older group go to kill Vecna.

For the demobats, this is where Eddie and Dustin come in. Bats use echolocation to find their prey so Eddie uses his loud guitar in order to lure the demobats to his trailer where he and Dustin attack, hence the spears and shields. It keeps the demobats away from the Creel house and guarding Creel meaning Nancy, Robin and Steve can swoop in and attack Vecna. A later shot of Dustin screaming has me concerned that Eddie could die luring away the demobats.

As this is going on, Robin, Steve and Nancy sneak into the Creel House. They could meet some obstacles along their way though. Mini visions, monsters that Nancy will no doubt shoot and also vines if a photo of Robin is anything to go by. Nancy could get more visions of Barb, Steve about his feelings of incompetency and Robin about Vickie and maybe even Nancy (delusional Ronance, I'm aware). But I believe that they do eventually make it up to the attic in order to kill Vecna. But here's where things go horribly, horribly wrong. And possibly my theory too haha.

You see, Vecna knew Nancy would work out he was a human. Which is how he lead her and her friends to his location. In the teaser, Vecna says that someone has freed him. What if Vecna's physical form was possessed by the mind flayer which kept him trapped by the vines in the Creel House attic. It would explain why he didn't do anything in the earlier seasons. And what if by killing Vecna's physical form, it set his mind free from his body. He's clearly not a human anymore and is more of a zombie like thing.

So maybe Vecna thought that if he was physically killed, he'd be able to betray the mind flayer and just commence havoc on Hawkins and even the world. It's like the soteria earlier with Brenner. Vecna is manipulative and smart. He will get you to free him without even realizing it. So somehow, Nancy and her friends killing his physical form frees his mind. It could be his body physically from the vines or...

Now this next part of the theory is kind of insane and I'm ready for it to be incorrect. But what if Vecna possesses someone? With his mind free, he puts himself in Nancy or Robin or Steve's body. The group thinks they have successfully killed him and leave, perhaps with some casualty. But we know he's still alive and in the body of one of our beloved characters, dormant but ready to strike.

Or maybe the possession is only temporary. Enough so that Vecna can wreak havoc in Hawkins by exploding things, earthquakes, etc, using the portals he's been building. He could also flood it with demobats, demodogs, demogorgons just demothings. This could be when Eleven uses her mind powers on him and fights him within his mindscape, freeing the beloved character from possession. But we know his soul or essence or whatever is still out there somewhere, waiting to strike as Eleven only kicked him out of the mind. He doesn't even have to be in someone else's body for this, it could be in the shrivelled version of his body we saw in episode 7 or hell even his Vecna form.

I'm not saying this is going to happen as I don't really know how this all fits together. Up until the possession part, I'm fairly confident in the theory. I just think that would be a really cool concept and an alternative to killing off one of the characters. What do you guys think?

[itspkuwu]

EEnE characters ranked (MY OPINION)

Let’s cut right to the chase, because I really wanna put this out there.

Lee Kanker is in last place. She gets lower than F tier. Where Marie and May had moments where they seemed to genuinely care about each other, Lee just sits there, manipulates, and spreads cruelty. And as for the times where Marie and May were fighting/being mean etc? Well, I have a theory. Remember in Big Picture Show where we see that Lee has a third eye? You know who else has a third eye for no good reason…?

DEMONS. LEE IS AN ACTUAL DEMONIC MENACE WHO BRAINWASHES HER SISTERS JUST TO MAKE OTHERS FEEL MISERABLE. AND EVEN THEN SHE MISTREATS HER “MINIONS” TOO.

And remember when Nazz kissed Double D and Eddy on the cheek? Compare that to how they react to the Kanker’s kisses. How big those lips are… that specific shade of red… the way the Ed boys become horrified every single time…

THE LIP STICK IS CREATED BY LEE AND HAS DARK MAGIC INSIDE OF IT. THATS MY THEORY. IM STICKING TO IT. SCREW YOU LEE.

(that was a joke lolol)

Everybody in the “lol why” tier it’s just an object that isn’t Plank or I haven’t seen those episodes yet. So I can’t really give my thoughts yet.

Rolf’s animals get their own tier. They have an amazing caretaker :3

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH DORK DORK DORK DORK ITS KEVIN DJDJUDUFHDBRJRIRID.

He’s just a jerk lol. AND NO I DO NOT SHIP HIM WITH ANYBODY. NOT NAZZ. NOT DOUBLE D. ESPECIALLY NOT DOUBLE D. NOBODY.

except his bike.

Eddy’s brother (whose name is apparently Tarry??) is also a jerk. But he makes a pretty cool antagonist. And he just makes me like Eddy even more.

also i feel like he would be a tumblr sexy man

Mildred blinks at you :D

Plank is an immortal God who will one day rule the world. This is my canon.

I REALLY wish we could have seen more of what happened to Jonny post Big Picture Show. Him being “The Gourd” and having a villain arc just sounds super fun. Other than that he’s just a weird kid. I like him.

Don’t let Jimmy fool y’all. He’s a lil maniac. He probably gets it from Sarah. And it’s always a shocker to me given how much he acts so innocent and harmless. He’s a pretty neat anti hero.

I KNOW I SHOULD HATE SARAH. But I feel like there’s more to her than meets the eye. I honestly think her parents taught her the hate her big brother. If they weren’t around, she probably wouldn’t been to mean to him. Making me feel extremely sympathetic for both of them. And at least she looks after Jimmy, giving her redeeming qualities.

To be honest this show needs a character like Nazz. Everything has to be balanced out with someone who isn’t constantly out to get something, being mean, or acting like a weirdo. But yes, she does have her moments, which are rightfully deserved. Plus, I just really like her chill and hippie way of going about.

Marie Kanker and May Kanker are being ranked together. The potential they have to be redeemed is through the roof. They deserve so much better. If Lee wasn’t around to mess with their heads, I think they would be truly happy. Marie could spend her days jamming out and living on the edge, while May is cute and ditzy and a voice of reason at times. Plus both of their hairstyles are really eye candy for me.

The Ed boys are also being ranked together. What else can I say that hasn’t been said already? The way these three bounce off of each other is extremely enjoyable and definitely gets good laughs out of me. I know they have their moments where they aren’t so friendly, but you don’t always have to get along with someone for you to still love them. And when the gentle giant goof, the soft hearted nerd, and the selfish man with a heart of gold do get along, it’s sweeter than jawbreakers :)

AND NOW WE HAVE ARRIVED AT THE TRUE GOD. THE LIGHT IN DARK TIMES. THE DIAMOND WITHIN THE DIRT. THE ONLY BOY ON THE SHOW WITH A GOOD HAIRCUT.

ROLF. THE SON OF A SHEPHERD.

Rolf is hands down one of if not the best side character in animation history. He’s a goober for one thing. But a goober that’s gets us to take him seriously. You do not mess with this man. His pride is enough to break you leg. And yet, he still manages to be one of the nicest characters in the show. He’s so friendly and upbeat! And when he isn’t… his dark side is also a fun time.

And another thing, he’s a fish out of water. Which also allows the viewer to feel sympathetic for him. Like in Wish You Were Ed. Seeing Rolf cry is something you’d never think you’d see, but when you do, it makes you feel a somber emotion you had no idea existed. It’s amazing.

yeah, Rolf is amazing.

Also I asked my sister if she wanted to dance to That’s My Horse at her wedding and she said no. What a loser right?

So uh, that’s my list. Hope you enjoyed.

Go hug a chicken.

[kaypeace21]

Theories for s4 .

May be wrong but whatever XD I will mention movies said to inspire s4 as well. Also throwing in some of my crack theories in the small chance they're right. This will be just a quick rundown of ideas. I will also briefly discuss leaks, merch etc so just warning you now. To not read-if you don't want to see that.

- Eddie may die . he has a skull with lighting on it (on his d&d book). This is probably hinting he dies in the (lightning filled) upsidedown. Billy had a skull tatoo before he passed away, ( so it has precedence) . Eddie may distract the bats with his guitar (inhibiting their echolocation) and sacrificing himself to protect the others. maybe another hint he dies is how bob died and was a vampire for Halloween (vampires = bats /un-dead).

- satanic panic is alive and well, and false rumors about the hellfire club(being linked to chrissy or others de*ths spread). S3 foreshadows the satanic panic (and it's historical ties to d&d). In the 80s (on 20/20) was literally a "news report" claiming d&d was correlated to :Satanism, witchcraft, necromancy, m*rder,  being gay (rolls eyes the homoph*bia of conflating that with the others), and many other things. The gang probably first gets involved to clear eddie and Co.

- I feel like we will hate Jason and Freddie. My guess is Freddie with his school newspaper and Jason with his popularity help spread the satanic panic and witch hunts. Their names are probably from the villains in the freddy vs Jason franchises . Which is why I think we will dislike them. Also maybe a weird coincidence but in friday the 13th: Jason and the heroine chris were enemies. Despite in st, jason/chrissy dating. Could just be an Easteregg but maybe Jason is a jerk of a bf to chrissy. We also have nancy and Freddie working on the newspaper- and given how elmstreet is inspo. Freddie and nancy probably don't get along. Similar to freddy kreuger and nancy thompson -in elmstreet.

- appears like max and Co break into the counselor's office. My guess is: they look at the psych notes of the missing students for leads . Maybe that's where the drawing of the creel house comes in? Chrissy or someone else may have had nightmares of the house before they're attacked by vecna. The ripped drawing is also a callback to nancy finding the ripped photo of the demogorgan and later investigating it. So the drawing probably is what causes robin and nancy go to pennhurst (mental hospital) ,in addition to the creel house.

- already explained 2 possible theories for vecna. Skip this bullet point if you want to avoid leaks. Ok so if leaks are true. My theory is then ...henry creel, later peter ( who maybe changed his name to start fresh ) worked at hnl as a guard. And prob had powers and became vecna when trapped in upsideown. Since vecna is based on freddy k... St's vecna's backstory is probably based off the freeddy k comics. Freddy was a boy with ab*sive (step) dad, he was bullied because his dad was in an mental asylum (victor). He later becomes a dream-monster who targets kids with similar ab*sive backgrounds to himself. Explaining why the monsters targeted: Will, el, billy, max, chrissy etc. The clock immagery of the monsters- may be correlated to the m*rders and the cursed creel clock). maybe it's like a metaphor for being stuck in the past ( to the creel m*rders)? "Wanting to turn back the clock" to a better time. Vecna also makes dreams based on peoples' fears, secrets,etc. And s1-3 made direct references to Alice in wonderland/wizard of oz (which have dream worlds). And if vecna is a ruler of the upsidedown it could explain why the upsidedown monsters already mirrored the fears of el, hopper, and the byers boys in s1-3. Silent hill is st inspo: the alternate version of the town (silent hill) is filled with monsters and they reflect the tra*ma of various towns people. This alternate version of silent hill was first made by an ab*sed psychic kid . Apparently Peter can also manipulate minds /memories too which mirrors the mindflayer's ability to do so. And I already explained this , plus the alternative crack theory that could be connected to the creels in part 2: about a time paradox/loop-Here.

- there's most likely a lot of infighting in the government and that is shown via sullivan's team attacking the cali/owen's base. People think the sbp gang save her. But I think its more likely she uses the fighting between gov agencies as an opportunity to escape and head to Hawkins... maybe even hitchhike like s2.And she only reunites with sbp later. I also think el may have shaved her own head trying to "turn back the clock" to a time when she had powers while in the lab. She may try anything to regain her powers and help her friends. A few movies involve a character having a breakdown and cutting their hair (most likely El). She probably gets her powers back when in the sensory tank (called nina). Since  the hnl-pre teaser has the opera song sung by nina - and the character NINA had  repressed memories- El may recollect something before her powers reactivate (probably involving the lab massacre). In assasains creed: a character also sees their repressed memories/ past while in a water tank . Also I think it’s interesting that creel can mean ‘fish trap”. An nina can mean “enclosure of fish"” (and el is stuck in a tank like a poor fish in an aquarium). :(

- vecna forces El to have a vision of the rainbow room. The inception totem is a  and eye imagery of El/vecna is a hint of this. What may be weird is the person playing chess looks like Will. But could be a coincidence. However it is weird that when max enters a vecna dream- the grave of billy changes to William. Or the fact the creel clock also says "williams". link here

- I do wonder if jonathan and Will have vecna flashbacks of their pasts as well ,in part 2. Especially regarding lonnie. Because some s4 movies have trippy dreamscapes - one film "the cell": involves a dream memory of an ab*sive, h*mophobic father hurting his young son. Bill and Ted's bogus journey: teen turns into little kid, chased by giant rabbit monster, told he's a horrible big brother, is harassed by older relative (in dream flashback)- reminds me of jonathan, etc. Also some trippy swing flashbacks - in "terminator 2 " and " enter the void" (so mike or Will?). I agree with 0aurelion-solo theory that Will's true sight may let him eventually see past the illusions/break the code (of the dream) like Alan turing. Because in d&d truesight allows you to see past illusions.

- the fake name used for filming s4 was "ocerat", an anagram for tareco- in d&d he's a "wizard hunter". He believes the world would be a better place if he could k*ll all wizards.  He often would st*lk his victims for weeks and try to isolate them to attack them. He obviously isn't a fan of El (a mage). But... is sullivan's group just getting rid of the byers cause they know too much? Why not be subtle and make it look like an accident *like what they did to Hammond? Barb? Etc? Are they unaware El isn't there? If sullivan's crew attack the base and house at the same time: that would ring alarm bells for me, that something else is going on. Maybe the sbp crew doesn't realize sullivan is after them for other reasons. I mean will is a "wizard" -could be a part 2 twist. And since Utah (suzie's house) is between California and Indiana. It appears the sbp crew is going to Indiana maybe to warn their friends they are in the "eye of the storm". A monoply card claimed suzie would help them find el... but idk if it will be that simple ... maybe they learn El isn't even at the base anymore. And or ...

- crack theory: I still think there's a strong chance suzie and her family may be spies and working for the gov. May betray the sbp gang initially. Theory and reasoning here. If not her- I do wonder if there is some other betrayal or spy. It's a common theme in the s4 films. Even the s4 videos store has a movie poster about a undercoverspy gf , and another film poster about basketball. 

- hopper's imprisonment probably has parallels to el's time in the lab (especially cause irl: soviets experimented on soviet prisoners in the "psychic armrace" ). But in the show they use the soviet prisoners to train and weaponize the demogorgan. If what david said is true: We probably see flashbacks of vietnam ,his dad,sara. Along with possibly solitary confinement in the prison etc. I think vietnam/prison scenes may be pretty messed up if in the show (just from the s4 movie selection). Historically the usa also did questionable experiments on vietnam soldiers as well. So his time in the war (buzzcut , being trained to be a weapon) probably echos el's time being in the lab , and being trained to become a weapon/experiment.

- also not sure if it's symbolic or something else. We see a Russian doll at the creel house. And in the st mobile game Victor's favorite food is a Russian dish borscht. So is it just simple easterggs, are they of Russian descent - or is there some type of parallels/symbolism we will see later on in the season relating to the creels and the soviets. Perhaps all 3 storylines: lab , creels, and soviets are all linked via experimentation gone wrong.

-the creels probably will have parallels to: the byers and  el (which we’ve already seen),  along with max , maybe chrissy and her ab*sive mom. And I think I heard Eddie had an ab*sive dad too. So there may be parallels there as well...

- Max seems to be having nightmares connected to vecna- before they realize it’s supernatural in origin. She obviously is grieving and vecna’s pursuit of her probably is a metaphor of survivor’s guilt , tra*ma , etc. It’d be interesting and cool if Max and Nancy bonded over this commonality (since they both suffered through it). Wouldn’t it make sense for Nancy to be super protective of a red-head after what happened to Barb? Not sure if they’d do it- but it’d be nice if Nancy was like a mentor-friend to Max. 

- Lucas’ pursuit of basketball and popularity echos how steve who was on the basketball team and learned popularity is over-rated. And being your authentic self is the best thing to do. I think Lucas’ is still very loyal to his friends even when on the team. But is initially torn. And quickly sides with his friends. Hopefully he gets some good characterization like s2. 

- I think Hopper may escape on his own, he also may use fire as an escape method. We saw in the trailer- an explosion in a snow covered place. We already see hopper using a flamethrower etc. Also, there's little evidence for it ... I just worry the joyce/murray's rescue mission won't go as planned. It could. It just seems ... too easy tbh. I kind of wonder if joyce is stuck in russia at the end of s4.because of a st comment of hers. Plus, their plane literally crashed so...

- I still wonder if in part 2: Will and el are captured at the end of the season by brenner (where he may have restarted his program at pennhurst mental asylum ). Or maybe Will goes with Lonnie and El goes with Brenner. Especially if joyce is m.ia. Mkultra historically did experiments in mental asylums. Lucas made a joke in s1 ,  that el is from pennhurst (foreshadowing?). There's movies where questionable guardians, dead beat dads etc- got custody. Plus s4 films where psychiatrists do unethical supernatural experiments on patients.

-crack theory: I still wonder if chrissy's death will be faked (and they find her in water like Will). And at the end of the season it's revealed she's at pennhurst (where Brenner may have restarted his program). Theory and reasoning here. Ofcourse 50/50 chance she may be another Heather but we will see.

-kali may return in s4 part 2 or s5. It was foreshadowed: Kali also wants to take down Brenner and suggested to El they work together to do so. Maybe they team up again?Not to mention in a season exploring El's past: why not bring back Kali? Or maybe in s5 she helps the gang rescue El- if El's in need of rescuing. Plus, in s4 bts: there was a pic of a guy that looked very similar to axel (Kali's friend ) in Hawkins.

- not really a theory but alot of s4 films have plays, musical numbers, drawings, etc foreshadow huge plot points later. So obviously we will pay attention to the d&d game and anything similar for foreshadowing.

- alot of s4 films have a boy or boys be bullied due to h*mophobia so I feel like given how Will has been bullied in the past he may also be bullied similar to el (just for different reasons).especially after the Alan Turing project. Ofcourse mike and Robin may be bullied for similar rumors? But more likely Will , just given the fact he has a history of being bullied. Also a few films , the boy snaps and beats up the h*mophobic bully or the bullied kid snaps and attacks the bully over very very messed up jokes about him and his family. Whether it happens is hard to say. It may happen in s5 or 4 . Who knows.

- I think jonathan is struggling alot and argyle helps him. Maybe , and hopefully, we get more insight on Jonathan's character and past because of it.

- based on the s4 films: the byers dinner scene is either going to be cute or dysfunctional as heck.  Maybe be related to Will’s b day? We already know the creel dinner doesn't go as planned - could be a loose parallel??

- part 1: most of the canon couples breakup /or struggle in their relationships. Part 1 probably has ambiguous byler scenes too. And Part 2 m*leven and others may break up.

- crack theory I hope is wrong and probably won't happen. elmstreet dream warriors is said to inspire s4. In that film nancy tompson (who nancy wheeler is based on) is killed in a dream by freddy k (who vecna is based on) specifically after doing an investigation at a mental hospital -correlated to a character named Kirsten (chrissy?). I feel like the duffers love Nancy too much to do this(nor do this to any other original main). She's my favorite girl in the show so I'd be really upset If it happened tbh. Probably have nothing to worry about. But just in case.

- and who is in front of the car on fire... honestly there's so many possibilities. Fire was first associated with Will.But has frankly been associated with various other characters since then. So it could be theoretically anyone. Heck... there's 2 s4 films that have someone (In a dream world) burn alive the fake-dream- version of their ab*sive relative. for all we know it's simply a vecna dream. Could be Will or a different victim of vecna? Or just something more realistic we wouldn't expect . Of course could be the more obvious predictable choice - since el has messed up cars before ,using her powers in s1 . We will just have to wait and see.

- 8 minute clip that was on youtube-skip if you haven’t seen it. we also saw the parallels between the m*rder scenes: with victor creel (at the house) and el (at the lab).  We have shots of both El and Victor’s backs (as they stare at a window) and bodies are at their feet. It also reminds me of how Will’s back is shown as he stares at a window (while possessed). It Appears el/victor  were either  possessed during these events. For example when Will was possessed he also caused a massacre at hawkins lab-which could be a parallel to El. Or maybe victor/el were tricked by vecna/henry/peter into seeing things that weren't there- and thus hurt innocent people. Some leaks say- el didn't do anything and she was just framed. But I'm not sure tbh. It's possible. I think it'd make more sense if it was one of the former explanations- just based on what's in the clip (el smiling after wards). But again we will see.

[pzyii]

Okay in theory, the darkest minds au:

(click for better quality)

Just kidding this stuff basically never stays "in theory" for more than like a day here is lore under cut (things can very well change)

(i am just adjusting a few rants i wrote to @eddiend about this since i dont wnat to write a totally new one)

so i just in theory started thinking about a st the darkest minds au, which is interesting. i think i like the movie but it was a while ago i watched it, but i definitely like the concept for it.

if u dont know wht it is, its a dystipian future film based on a book by the same name, about how there started spreading a disease callled I.A.A.N in people under 18, that doesn't show symptoms or anything untill they die, its just randomly the child will have some kind of seizure like thing, where they start to shake and their eyes start to glow, if they r holding anything it will telekinesisly crumble kinda. and then as suddenly as it started the child is dead.

eventually is 90% of children dead and weird stuff starts to happen to the ones who have survived. and that is where the interesting thing to think about is. bc the children get powers categoried in colours (from least to most dangerous):

green: increased intelligence

blue: telekinesis

gold: manipulate electricity

red: create and control fire (shoot from mouth in movie)

orange: mind control

orange and red are the most dangerous but also extremely rare, when all the children start getting sent to facilities are they supposed to kill reds and oranges on sight. but it seems that some reds dont get killed and instead brainwashed and tourtured to become mindless weapons for the military since they are so distructive.

so yeah thats how the world works kinda, i wont go into the continued plot since that is not that important at the moment, whats important is what colours st characters would be so lets start from the top:

orange: el and will (i know that since el have telekinesis in the show that could be an answer but seriously she would be the most dangerous one and for will it is bc of his conection to the upside down and the signs pointing to him being like Henry/vecna/001. yk its obvious)

red: max (thinks it works well, could do great plot lines with it, and she got rescuded from the facilities before they could brainwash her, bc there are adults who actually want to help the kids of course (joyce and hopper would definitely be helping children flee))

gold: eddie, Jonathan (this is alot simply bc it seemed the best, eddies pretty hyper yk, and Jonathan i thought of cameras and simply thought this one was the best suit for him, but he could also be a blue)

blue: steve, lucas, mike (in some ways this was just the ppl i didn't know what to do with, but i do think it works pretty well, dont have that much motivation for it tho. argyle would probably be here too)

green: dustin, erica, nancy (they r all geniuses, it isnt much more than that)

(i just before I continue want to say that in the actual book/movie personality n smartness before i.a.a.n doesn't effect what colour you become, its random, with some colours just being more common, but when u do an au line this, ots much more interesting to think what that suits the character yk, but still keep that in mind)

...so I didn't mention robin in that , she is kinda complicated so i kinda need a long rant about her, thats what i do, bc green could be a simple option, she is a genius we all know that, but honestly i dont think it suits well. i can be me being biased n just wanting to make her something more interesting but i think i genuinely dont think it suits her. and also like i said in the paranphasis above it doesn't always have to be connected. but just i see the green a more focused, textbook smart (which robin is), they know all the physics in the diffrent dimensions. robin is smart, she is great at conections and has great memorie, but she isnt the person who walk around like they are an textbook for school. more a book of random facts yk.

but anyways the colours i actually thought were gold n red. gold is a bit like with eddie, its just their energy, their vibe, which gives of gold feels. i could see her using electric powers yk.

for red its probably more of the biased stuff n just wanting to use it to make more ✨angst✨, but i do think i can see it. n it help that max is the other person whos a red, bc theyarer still a lot alike, and it works well with them having the same colour. plus she is still a pretty feisty, or at least snarky, kinda jerky person (im saying this affectionately bc im not better). it is very much walls n defense mechanisms just like it is a lot with max. like just the way they act n react to trauma n really most situations is a lot alike so them being the same makes sense yk.

...

And also just another reason why I kinda think robin could be a red is BC otherwise the only Red is Max, which would Hella boring. And the two probably best options for another red is Nancy or robin I would say, Robin i argured before, but Nancy works pretty well too, she has a good relationship with Max n I think U can kinda understand with everything n guns why it works. But I feel that Nancy suits being a green too much to be anything else yk, she is the perfect kind of genius to be a green so it feels weird to make her something else, plus if shes a green she can still use guns instead of using her powers which she would use if she was a red yk.

I also think from a narrative point it doesn't work well, I have an idea of how some things would play out which works well, n with that way, Nancy n max wouldn't even interact untill later n have that realationship as reds that is possible with robin being a red in the story

...

N i have continued thinking about what would like happen n stuff n I thought of some things. one is that barb didn't make it, she died from i.a.a.n and in front of Nancy at that (sorry :)). N then with robin being a red, something I didn't mention is that the reds have a tendency to twitch, an extra amount when they use their powers I think. Which u could do that BC of how it looks when they twitch like A LOT, that Nancy the first time thinks that she is going to die from i.a.a.n BC she stil has a fear all her friends will BC of barb.

...

There is also a character in the books apparently who's a red who gets called "twitch" bc of the whole red thing and I could see robin being called that after Nancy has stopped having her panic attack realising she won't die

...

And Steve have a few burns from robin, BC powers are hard and she has trauma

...

and here are deep dives into the powers of oranges and reds

...

Robin basic story kinda (things can have been mentioned earlier):

‪Got found out and sent to a facility after an accident were the fire departement was called.‬ Got rescured from the facility after not having been there long, which luckily meant they never got actually brainwashed. She is though extremly traumatized since she got sent to the facility at the about same time as Max and tried to protect the kid as much as possible ending with her geting waterboared before her and Max (Steve was also at the same facility) got saved. When Nancy realised Robin weren’t going to die she started calling them ”Twitch” for teasing and flirting.

Nancy basic story kinda (things can have been mentioned earlier):

‪Had to vittnes her best friend (Barb) die from I.A.A.N.‬ Got sent to a facility with Mike not long after 90% of children had died by Ted. Got rescured by Joyce and Hoppers group 6 years after I.A.A.N. She often still thinks her current close friends will die from I.A.A.N, and when she first saw Robin twitch more unconrollably since they’re a red she though they were going to die

[knullanon]

how the symbiotes stole you from one another #3

this took 5 hours in total yay

words: 4627

warnings: manipulation, kidnapping, dads being assholes, lmk if I missed any!

Routines in the area where Knull had dropped you off were almost nonexistent. The only reason why you woke up at all was because of the fact that it was already something you did before you got here.

Here, as in this place where Knull seemingly… owned? It was weird. He didn’t just own the land, either, he owned the symbiotes, and by that, Knull, whenever he wanted to talk to you, would just go inside one of their minds, take over, and talk to you. He had done this one multiple occasions, with him always being an asshole about everything. From trying to stop you from going outside, to bitching about your old life, and how you must be enjoying this one. It was really annoying to have to deal with him every damn day, and it was starting to become borderline creepy.

He wouldn’t care about your privacy, only how you were holding up. Literally nothing could stop him from entering your room. He removed the lock when you first got there, and then just left you. Nothing to do besides clean, fuck around, and be bored to death. The only thing you could really do otherwise bsides talk to that asshole, is just try and find something to look at.

So far, you’ve been able to tell that the previous owners of the land were evicted: probably by force by the numerous blood stains all over the place, hiding under whatever Knull didn’t want to clean. Another thing you noticed was that the area you were in used to be covered with trees, but they seemed to be all cut down recently. They smelt fresh and didn’t have any dirt or grime on the stumps. You had to assume it was a safety precaution. For him, at least.

It didn’t take long for you to start snooping around and finding different things, like a hidden diary, all written in russian, an old art kit, and a calendar dated to that year. These items, and their good conditions they were found in, only solidifies your theory that Knull just found a random property and killed the people living there. It also solidified the fact that Knull really didn’t know you existed until that night. Or, morning. Whatever time you were at the gas station. You were able to tell how long you had been taken. 2 weeks just tonight.

It was annoying the hell out of you how long staying with these assholes would seem. Two months with Eddie and venom, and then 3 months with carnage and cletus.

And now 2 weeks with this asshole, probably more. You really wanted out of this damn place. Actually, you wanted out of this weird game they had. Whoever got you first got to keep you until someone else came along. And tried to do the same thing.

As you grabbed some random clothes, and walked into the bathroom, you tried to remember before everything had happened. Before you decided to walk back home alone, like an idiot. That's what you were, wasn’t it? A fucking idiot for thinking it was a good idea. You really thought that nothing would happen, would it? And now this.

Shoving open the bathroom door, you almost didn’t see the 7 foot tall symbiote sitting in the chair across from the bed. This one was known for having a more emo look to them. With being dark blue and with little streaks of even darker red, they were always quiet and silent when you saw them. They were usually the ones to bring you food, guard the house you were in. They were also the one that Knull preferred to get into when he decided to speak to you.

The symbiote themselves were rumble, and he was… actually quite pleasant. It seemed Knull had let this batch keep their personalities, maybe at the price of kneeling before him. You didn’t know.

What you did know was that Knull was now controlling Rumble through whatever bullshit he did to be this powerful. Rumble, or, Knull technically, was reading an old newspaper dated a few months ago. It was from somewhere in Idaho, where you would assume you were located. Yes, Eddie lived in San Francisco, but when carnage took you wherever the hell he took you, and then Knull, well, it was confusing to say the least.

Anyways, the one good thing about Knull was that he really didn’t care what you thought of the place, as he said it, “a temporary arrangement on both our parties''. Pretentious bitch.

Knull put down the newspaper, and gave a smile, before gesturing with his arm to the bed you had just made. “Ah, _____, sit. Let's talk shall we?”

You didn’t want to talk to him, or even look at him, but you followed his command anyway. You tossed your clothes into an old bucket that you had placed in the corner of the room and walked towards the bed, before sitting on it. Knull smiled again with that weird mouth. Rumble never smiled, so of course it would look weird when he did. Of course, not of his own will, but still.

“So, how have you been liking your new enclosure?” Did- Did he just-

You brushed it off, not wanting to anger him. “It’s… fine. Every home comes with its ups and downs.” you hoped he would get the message about calling a home an enclosure. It makes you feel like a pet rather than a person. If Knull noticed your wording, then he ignored it. Instead, he picked up the newspaper again, saying, “Good, good. I’m glad you could understand the circumstances of your predicament.”

You tried hard not to roll your eyes, remembering what Carnage or Venom would say- even now, if you had no idea where they were, their words and opinions still sat with you months later. Instead, you nodded your head to his words, and sat in silence waiting for him to say anything else. Knull did not say anything for a few minutes. Long, agonizing minutes. It reminded you of being with Eddie and Venom, those two assholes. When they were working, they required the utmost silence otherwise they couldn’t focus. They never got mad at you, but they would always try to put you up to something, like reading. Which is why you would read all their books on crime rates, detectives, natural disasters, anything to pass the time while they were working.

It got you entertained for the most part. Sitting in a room with nothing to do, for 2 months was more difficult than you ever thought it would be.

“Are you thinking of your previous hosts and their accommodations?”

Knull pulled you from your thoughts, and even though he was reading the newspaper, you were able to tell he wanted an answer. You shifted from your spot at the edge of the bed, before answering with, “U-Uh, yeah, I am.”

“Hmm.”

He continued to read for a moment, before he pulled the newspaper down a little to view you. “Are you not tired of them?”

“What do you mean?”

This time, he put the newspaper in his lap. “Venom and Eddie. Carnage and Cletus. How have they treated you in the few months you’ve known them?”

You had to sit there and think for a moment, wondering where this conversation was going. What was he trying to do this time?

“Well, venom and Eddie were… constricting. I never had anything to do. Besides reading the books on the shelf, but even then I had to do that discreetly. They didn’t like me doing those things. Or, rather, reading those things. They said it was too… graphic.”

“Ah, I see.” he acknowledged, picking up the newspaper again. “And Carnage and Cletus? How was their company?”

You really wanted to hide in a hole now. “They were… fine.”

“Were they, though?”

You wondered if it would just be worth it to tell everything: how you felt about Eddie, how you felt about Cletus, and how you felt about this asshole doing the same thing the rest of them had done.

“...No, they weren’t.”

He gave a small smile, before he asked, “Oh? Please do tell me more.”

You knew what he was doing, what he was playing at, and yet, you fell right for it. “They would tell me… they would say that no one was going to come for me. No one cared. Not my family, not Eddie, no one. Only them.”

He nodded along, and when he realized you were done venting, he said, “well, aren’t you glad that you’re with me now?”

Turning to face him, you gave him a glare. “Excuse me?”

“Think about it. With one of them, they gave you limited resources to entertain yourself, and the other made you feel like nothing. With me, I give you free reign to do whatever you please. You may ask for whatever you wish, visit whoever you choose, as long as you plead your loyalty to me.”

You stared at him, before you turned your back towards him, mumbling, “Liar.”

He chuckled, and you heard the newspaper crinkle. “I’m not making any jokes. Pledge our loyalty, and you will receive anything you would ever want.”

“Would that include being let go to see my family again?”

“Yes, actually. You would just have to come back when you were done with your visits.”

That caught your attention. He would let you go back? Really? He did say you would go back to him when you were done with your “visits”... but still, better than what the other two were offering.

You thought for a moment before the doubts started to kick in. How do we know he won’t betray you when you do pledge your loyalty to him? How do we know he won’t just keep you here forever? What ounce of trust should we put in him when everyone has kicked us when we were already down?

Almost as if he heard your thoughts, Knull said, “I will give you time for your answer. After all, I have years and years to spare.”

With that he folded the newspaper, setting it down gently, before you saw something spark in his eyes and Rumble returned to his own mind. He sat there unmoving for a few moments, before he sat up and looked at you. “I assume he just wanted to talk?”

You sighed, feeling tired only at 7 in the morning already. “Yes, Rumble, that’s all he came here for.”

He gave a hum of acknowledgment before he got up and walked to the exit to the room. Before he left, however, he said, “Do not be surprised if the water runs out: this was called a temporary enclosure for a reason.”

Before you could say anything, he left you to watch the door again, just before you could ask him to stop calling the home an enclosure, he shut the door softly. You were about to say something, but decided it was not worth it, so instead, you opted to just continue on with what you had to do throughout the day.

~~~~~~~~~

As Rumble looked on as you would clean and dry out clothes on line and leave them for the hot summer day to dry, hopefully by the end of the day, you had mumbled out when first getting out the big hamper. Next to it, you had a couple pieces of clothing sitting in another basket covered by water and soap. Currently, you were wringing out all of the water from a white top, trying to not stretch it out.

Rumble grumble out something, before he heard him in his head:

“Rumble, I would assume you would have the decency to not talk badly about my daughter behind her back.”

Rumble froze up before he quickly set his posture more straightened as he watched you put the shirt on the line, before going to grab another piece of clothing. “No, Lord Knull, I was just noting the… strange enclosure you had chosen for her.”

He heard Knull chuckle, before responding with, “Oh, Rumble, you should know my plan by now.”

Rumble sent a wave of confusion to Knull, indicating that no, he had no idea what his plan was.

Knull simply sighed, before he continued. “I have had plans to bring her to Klyntar, our homeworld, and yet, I have a feeling she will not be able to live there. For a while, I thought I would only be able to visit her through the symbiotes already on earth, or just get there myself, with obvious consequences. However, I’ve found a third option. There is a way to bring her here without having to worry for her safety.”

Suddenly, Rumble received a vision, or more specifically, a live feed of what Knull was looking at. It looked like a symbiote, and yet, it was… odd. It did not have a mind of its own, it's like it was waiting to be filled by something. And this one did not need a host, either. From Knull’s own memories, it seemed he created this one to rely solely on its own, however, for the need to do normal things, it needed someone to fill its mind. Rumble suddenly realized where this was going.

“Lord Knull, you aren’t saying-”

“Yes, I’m saying exactly what you are thinking of.”

Rumble saw Knull walk up to the symbiote, and stroke it with his claw. It did not respond. “This symbiote that I have created will need a mind, someone who has already been born, only their mind. I am planning on giving it to ______ and then letting her rest there, before taking away her body and giving her mind to.... Well, I have not named this one. Maybe I will name it… _______. After her.”

~~~~~~~

You laid the last shirt in the bucket, and when you tried to grab another and felt that there were no more, you sighed and grabbed the dirty water, and poured it out on the grass, not caring if the soap would kill the already dead plants. Then you put the hamper and the bucket on top of each other and carried it back into the house. When you reached the sink, you put the buckets in the sink and turned the tap: only for nothing to come out.

“Do not be surprised if the water runs out: this was called a temporary enclosure for a reason.”

Fucking hell. You got the hamper out and when you saw that it was relatively clean, you let it go, but the dirty water one…

Yeah, you had to clean this before the next laundry day.

It did not help that there were dishes that needed to be washed. You sighed and left the bucket on the counter, and you were about to walk back up to your room, when you had an idea. You walked outside and saw Rumble standing near a cut down tree, waiting for something. Walking up to him, you said, “Hey, Rumble, is there another water source around here?”

He gave you a look, before he said, “Yes, there is one, why must you use it? We will be moving next week to a new location.”

“Well, if it's gonna take a week, I hope you have some form of water to bring up here for the dishes, or showers, or clothes, or-”

“Alright, alright I get it.” he stalked over to you and looked towards another symbiote, probably trying to talk to them before the other symbiote simply nodded and walked to another part of the property.

“I will take you to a river, but after that, the others will gather the water for you, am I clear?”

You nodded. “Good, lets go.”

~~~~~~

Anti-venom stood at the clearing, looking at the decomposing bodies, just two women and two men. He could tell they had been there for more than a week, but not enough for them to completely decompose.

Anti-venom looked around before he tried to smell where they were from. Unfortunately, whoever dumped their bodies was smart in how they covered up the scent. There was almost nothing out here, and with the fact that someone covered up their scent made it more unnerving.

He didn’t try to think of how they died, only giving them his wishes before he started to walk away. Just a couple meters away was a little river that he knew expanded as you went up the stream. He walked over and saw nothing of old blood on the rocks, so they must’ve died somewhere else-

What was that?

He whirled his head towards the start of the river, upwards maybe by a few miles. Even out here, the stench of Knull and his underdogs were there. He growled, remembering how Knull used them for his own gain. He quickly theorized that for some reason, Knull was here and he had killed these people- but why? What would make him do this?

Anti-venom decided to find out on his own, as he started to sprint his way up the river.

~~~~~~

“Why did Lord Knull choose you, anyway?”

“Choose me as what?”

You were currently at the river, cleaning out the dishes in the bucket, and then rinsing them off. Rumble was nearby, sitting in his own little area, and he was also bored. He wanted to know things that Knull would not tell him: would not tell anyone, to be more precise.

You looked back at him, before you turned back to the dishes. “I don’t question it anymore. I never had a choice, I was just… chosen. It’s something I’ve had to get used to for the past months, and even now I don’t have anything to do, anything to say.”

Rumble quirked an eye. “But Lord Knull gave you a choice, did he not?”

“Oh, yeah, please tell me, what did he give me a choice on?”

“On being free to do as you please.”

You stopped washing the little plate you had, and you turned back to face him. “What?”

“He gave you a choice. You could swear loyalty to him, or-”

“Ok, enough with the loyalty bullshit, I’m tired of hearing it.” You had gone back to the dishes, scrubbing furiously at the plate. “I get it, it's a better option than Carnage or Venom, but could I at least have the option of never seeing you fucks ever again?”

Rumble did not say anything more, letting you get out your anger by scrubbing the dishes that were left, and tossing them into the bucket.

When you were finally done, you tried to pick up the bucket, but all of that scrubbing and cleaning made your arms sore. Rumble decided to restore his reputation with you by getting the bucket for you. You didn’t complain, as your arms were extremely sore from your anger washing.

The walk back to the property was peaceful. You weren’t angry at Rumble: to be honest, he was a sweetheart. He would help you out with so many things it was almost unbelievable. He was much more pleasant to be around than Knull, that was for sure.

Even if he had to call Knull “Lord Knull” each time you met, it was fine. The little trail that you two took was getting more smoother as you got closer and closer to the property. When you reached the clearing, you saw the normal sight:

5 symbiotes around the area stalking, waiting. They were most likely on guard, and even then, they had their eyes on you, making sure there was no funny business between you and Rumble.

Walking up to the one story house, you felt… wrong. Of course, this had always felt wrong, but this time it was like someone was watching you from afar. Before you got onto the porch, you turned to look at all the symbiotes watching you. Nothing unusual, the normal amount that would stand guard in this area. Maybe one of them is looking too long, you thought, as Rumble opened the door for you and you both went inside.

Unfortunately, no one noticed the speck of white in the bushes, hiding. Waiting.

~~~~~~~

It was almost time for you to start getting ready for bed. You already had dinner, and now all you needed was just a nice warm bed. You sighed as you made sure everything was in its place, before you walked back in the hallway and into your room. You got out your favorite pair of pajamas, and started to change. You already had a shower last night, it wouldn’t matter if you had one today.

As you changed, your mind went back to the conversation with Knull earlier that day. Would he really let you do whatever you wanted if you just… spared your loyalty, as he called it? Could you see your family and friends again? Could you tell them you were ok and not harmed?

But, he did say that you couldn’t stay there… you would have to go back with him… where did he live, anyway? He was an alien god, so… space? But… where?

Maybe he lived on some random planet and acquired a bunch of power, you had no idea-

“YOU WOULD ALL DARE TO HELP KNULL AND HIS PLANS?!”

That didn’t sound good. You rushed out of your room, pajamas halfway on, and peeked outside of the kitchen window, where you saw everything.

In the middle of the clearing, stood tall and bloody, was another symbiote. He was white with some black accents here and there, and most importantly, he was holding fire.

You already knew that symbiotes didn’t like heat, or fire. Especially not fire.

You remember one time when you tried to escape Eddie with fire. It did not work out well. You were locked in a closet, and fortunately for you, that was where you stored your books.

Anyways, you had no time to think of those times, when you were running from whatever the fuck is going on outside the house. You ran back to your room to put on a shirt, and when you were finished putting on your socks, running was heard from the hallway.

Rumble came through the door and dragged you by your forearm down towards a specific spot in the floor. He then lifted a larger floorboard that revealed a crawl space. He shoved you in, gently as possible, before he said, “Stay. Here. I’ll come for you when I beat him.”

“Who?” You were about to ask, but he slammed the door shut, leaving you to fear for the next few minutes.

You sat there for a few more minutes, before you heard crackling. Crackling of fire. You were desperately trying to open the door, but it seemed to be glued shut: there was nothing that could open it.

At this point, you were starting to cry. The symbiotes couldn’t stand fire, how would they stand this? You were desperate to leave, to escape: you never wanted to be here, with these people who thought they could help you. You wanted to go home, to see your family, friends, the people who loved and cherished you, and actually respected your boundaries.

The door was broken inwards and you felt every muscle in your body stop. You crouched a little from the trap door, hoping they didn’t hear you. From they're desperate steps and quick feet, it was obviously not Rumble or any other symbiote you knew.

You were pulled from your thoughts as the steps went into the hallway. As they walked by, slower, you held your breath. If they found you… well, you knew what happened when new symbiotes would find you.

You let out a silent sigh when they passed the door… only for them to come rushing back. Without even knowing it, they ripped open the trap door, revealing you, tired, scared, and cold.

The symbiote you saw was the exact one that was outside, who was attacking all the other symbiotes.

He looked shocked, as if he didn’t know you were there. “Child…” he asked, as he reached down to try and grab you, “what are you doing in a place like this?”

He picked you up with the utmost gentleness and care, like you would shatter if he just yanked you out. He cradled you within his arms, like you were a baby. He was a giant compared to you, being almost 7 or 8 feet tall.

“Where are your parents?” he asked, taking you with him, walking out of the house. You tried to crawl out of his palm, but he stopped you each time. “I-I don't know.”

He tried to give you a sympathetic look. “Oh, my sweet dear, don’t be afraid. I will k-”

He suddenly jumped into the fire, and you screamed expecting to be burnt along with all the weeds.

However, you didn’t feel anything. Turns out this was because the symbiote had taken you up into the air, so while he was holding you by your waist, he was also holding you out of the reach of the fire. He held his hand up high, not only to make sure that you wouldn’t be hurt, but as you saw Rumble on the ground, close to the fire, you realized it was to get you out of his grip.

“Rumble. You used to be such an open minded symbiote. Now look at you. You are just leeching off of Lord Knull, the one who enslaves you and the rest of our kind!”

The white symbiotes seemingly noticed you again, and said, “and you have the audacity to bring an innocent child into this mess! How dare you!”

With that, he started to walk into the fire, which surprisingly was not burning him. He still held you up high so you wouldn’t be burnt by the flames, which was nice. You looked back at Rumble, who was trying to get up, but the injuries on his legs seemed severe. The fire was closing in on him as well.

You felt bad for him. You reached out, but before you could do anything, Anti venom started to sprint away from the house. The last thing you saw of Rumble was him collapsing onto the ground, broken and beaten.

When you were out of the fire, the symbiote lowered you to his eye level. “My name is Anti-Venom, tiny child. What is yours?”

BONUS:

Rumble sat on the remains of the house: nothing was left of it when Lord Knull appeared. It was a miracle he had even gotten the distress alert, a bigger one he had arrived in time to save rumble himself. Every other symbiote was gone, either from the fire or the white symbiote. Anti-Venom was his name.

“So, you failed at getting back _____ for me?”

“... Lord Knull, I am deeply sorry, but-”

“I don’t want to hear excuses, Rumble, I want to see my daughter! I want to seeher before the other two get her, or worse she falls for that idiotic Anti-Venom, do you hear me?!”

Rumble sat there waiting for Lord Knull to be done with his rant, before he said, “Yes, Lord Knull. I understand.”

Lord Knull stood up and started to walk away. “Good. I will try to locate her myself. In the meantime, find out everything you can about this Anti-Venom. I want his secrets, every dirty little thing about him, do you understand?”

“Yes, Lord Knull, it will be done.”

And with that, Lord Knull was gone, leaving Rumble to dwell in his own failures.

--------

almost forgot, @anxiousnerdwritings this was for u

[rainbowdelicgalore]

My Theory(s) on Chucky's Backstory

The theory post yall been waiting for!!

For this post, I shall be describing theories I, along with my dad, came up with for Chucky's backstory, why everything happened, Chucky's mentality/perspective and the true reasons to Chucky's descent to a serial killer and why he did what he did (aka killing his mother and in turn saying he "helped")

This was manipulation on Charles' dad's killer's part. Up until the incident, I think that the killer had been stalking Charles' family for MONTHES in advance so he could see how Charles "ticked", giving subtle hints (like giving Charles the razor apple) to have him "take notice" of his dark side. And since the killer would've been watching Charles closely, he would know basically everything he needed to know in order to use it as an advantage. And now Chucky is borrowing this method and is now using it on Jake: manipulating a "weird kid" into killing.

The "push" that Chucky was talking about was the fear and trauma of watching his father getting murdered by a stranger, especially since his father's last words were telling him to run. This also would've caused Charles to gain the fear of oblivion. All of this combined with Charles most likely being closest with his father, would've caused a moment of weakness in Charles making him ask himself: "Is it gonna be me or her"? Thinking that they would both die that night, Charles chose to save himself. Also since I saw this said somewhere: the reason why Charles told the killer that he "helped" was so he wouldn't become a target and to seem like he was on the killer's side just so he'd leave, while taking his advice so Charles can make sure that he WOULDN'T COME BACK!

Chucky possibly didn't actually tell Jake everything about what happened. Yes, he told Jake the surface details and just a basic timeline from the time he woke up in bed to the end where he killed his mom and chatted with the killer. He DID NOT tell Jake much of his feelings and thought process at the time, what he and his parents were like as people (just bare bones stuff) or even what happened to him after the murders. Chucky sure as hell doesn't want to fully open up to Jake since he has plans he doesn't want to mess up. The only people who truly know fully what happened are Tiffany, his kids, and what very few close friends he has (for example; in my AUs, John Bishop and Eddie Caputo know since they're childhood friends).

So basically, a weirdo serial killer stalked the Ray family for monthes, gave subtle hints to a young Charles (via the razor apple) since he noticed that his oddness could turn into "something more", made up a horrible, traumatic event for Charles to behold so he could be "pushed" into killing and now Chucky is trying to do the same thing to Jake (and possibly Caroline) so he could have more killer's for his cult, and in turn, prove to the killer (wherever he is) that HE is better than him and not to fuck with him!

I know this is a most likely unpopular theory but fuck it I really wanted to share it somehow! Enjoy!!