#pennywise appears to richie as Himself as a werewolf and Himself as a dead sewn up doll in the book and movie respectively

[skinks]

been thinking about IT and the Losers a bit recently since I got a very nice comment on my fic the other day, and because I am now receiving therapy for my c-ptsd that I wasn’t when I was writing post-ch2. i never realised how many of the negative coping mechanisms I’ve been living with were related to the trauma directly, and not just because I was irreparably broken and intrinsically weak for “wallowing” in the past or something, it’s like, no this is an actual condition that causes me to unwittingly relive the past constantly and experience debilitating reactions. and suddenly it makes so much more sense why I latched onto the Trauma Book About Trauma lmao, but I never felt confident in my understanding of it enough to really dig in and explore it. The Losers are so much more messed up by their respective abuse and neglect and bullying than they ever were by the space clown. In fact the book’s entire tragedy rests on that concept, which is pretty awful. Get those kids some EMDR therapy stat!!

I mean, this is horrific. By relating deeply to this I don’t know how much I’m reading my own experiences into what SK wrote, but doesn’t this make Richie’s werewolf thing so much worse? You go through your developmental years believing you’re some sort of failed human. A person gone wrong. Is it any wonder self-identity horror becomes the most terrifying kind when your self-perception is so damaged that you look in the mirror and see the Tetsuo monster from the end of Akira looking back