#see — sort of fits with the universe? idk cosmic horror

[stuckasmain]

Yeah…they’re not getting the connection with Bowman back. He’s not even on this plane of existence anymore.

[boxfullaturtles]

I have a question about your fic if its okay to ask

I was wondering what the threads and lights were about that mickey saw? What are those?

Ah yes, the worldbuilding I started for the magic system that I never went anywhere with lol

I'm gonna get kinda long here, please forgive me. I love talking about this kind of thing.

"Mortal Shell" was originally going to be a lot longer of a fic, with Mikey being outside of his body for an extended period of time, something nefarious possessing his body, and then it leading the family on a fun little chase all over New York with lots of collateral damage. It would have gone more into the mystic plane that Mikey was existing on and how mystic powers draw from it and so on and so forth.

When I changed almost everything about the fic (partly to make it shorter and partly because I had started reading Dandy's "I May Be Invisible" and got paranoid about being called a copy-cat), pretty much all of that stuff was scrapped. There was going to be a little scene at the end of the fic while Mikey was recovering where he asked Draxum about the stuff he saw on the mystic plane. I did start writing that scene, but it didn't fit the pacing anywhere so it got scrapped too. Here's the only bit of that scene I wrote:

So first off I am a massive fan of personifying things that are beyond comprehension. Sort of cosmic horror but without the horror. I love the idea of a city being alive simply because it is a city, because lives have been lived there and where there's life, there is magic. Kate Griffin's Matthew Swift and Magical Anonymous series have had a huge impact on me and remain my favorite books to this day for a reason. I highly recommend them if you're a fan of urban fantasy and kick ass women and a protag who is a pathetic little meow meow that could burn London to the ground if they so desired.

Anyway. All that to say, when Mikey describes New York City as "alive", it is in an almost literal sense. New York is living place, it is alive, it breathes, it feels, it IS. The white lines are akin to ley lines; the theory is that there are lines across the globe that important and historical landmarks and monuments fall on. I sort of localized this specifically to New York City and its major landmarks. So the ley lines connect to each other like a dot-to-dot going from places like Time's Square to the Statue of Liberty, etc.

The Threads I think I touched on a little in the fic, Draxum dropped a line about them being the connections of the universe. And that's pretty much what they are. Individual people have thousands of Threads that connect them to other people, to places, to objects--they are powerful in their own ways but can't be seen outside the mystic plane. Originally these Threads were going to be used in a ritual to pull the antagonist creature out of Mikey's body and put Mikey back in. But that ritual got scrapped really early on since I never really figured it out. Mikey was also originally going to be able to see the Threads of his family members, flowing out and tying together and attaching to him. But when I was writing the scene, they made everything wwaayyy too cluttered and would have given away what was going on far too early. So why can Mikey only see the Threads in that one specific scene? idk because mystic reasons. The mystic plane is a mysterious and virtually unknown thing, that's why.

As for the golden river of light in the sky, that is very much inspired by the river of light from Mushi-Shi, an anime I love very much which has also heavily inspired me. It represents life itself, in its purest form.

I think that basically covers everything? But please! Feel free to ask me more questions! I am always down to talk about turtles and my writing! And other people's writing. I can wax poetic about that all day, my dude. <3

[wahbegan]

Gather ‘round, children, while i begrudgingly hyper-analyze everything in the THIRD IT (2017) trailer

You know the drill by now i’m putting a read more here because even if i try to be brief which i’m going to try it always ends up failing soooo yeah

1. So it opens with something very similar to the MTV first look, with Stan’s frankly fucking depressing Bar Mitzvah speech that should really concern any adults present, and several similar shots to that trailer. The one thing is we see Bill and Bev engage in a bit of flirty pre-teen eye contact at the watering hole, and Stan’s bit about “you think the universe revolves around you....but that isn’t true” COULD be foreshadowing some of the more cosmic themes in the story

2. This looks like probably The Losers making their blood oath? Idk when else they stand in a circle and join hands like that and it’s definitely after the bullies have broken Eddie’s arm due to his cast. Now the LOSER with a V scrawled over the S isn’t from the book i don’t think but i assume the LOSER was put there by the same bullies who gave him the cast in the first place and someone i’m guessing Bev probably put the V over it

3. The red balloon floating out from behind the Warner Bros logo is a nice touch

4. The couple in the car is just a random couple illustrating ITs control over the people of the town, making them apathetic to the ghastly shit going on actually i think they were in the book too, they just drive past when Henry’s trying to carve his name into Ben’s stomach and a red balloon floats up in the backseat minus the red balloon i think that is a pull straight out of the novel

5. I WAS TOTALLY RIGHT ABOUT PENNYWISE’S EYES A HA!!! They in my first breakdown i said i thought it looked like they were doing the thing where Georgie sees his eyes as yellow at first and then It changes them to blue to gain his trust and this basically confirms it. Also first sample of Pennywise’s voice and it sounds pretty durn spooky

6. The shot of the empty storm drain makes me think that rather than pulling his arm off which would be extremely gruesome even for a hard R horror movie and more importantly hard to do without showing ITs transformation, which is only hinted at in the book as something soul-shatteringly horrifying, they’re probably gonna like It grabs Georgie’s arm, he looks in fear and starts screaming his head off, his screams cut off, and it’s implied that It dragged him bodily down into the sewers. That’s also later in the trailer Bill says something about “another Georgie going missing”, which seems to confirm that. That would also explain why Georgie’s “ghost” in later scenes has both arms intact

7. So Mike’s talking about his grandfather (Mike is the like town historian of the group and i’m glad they’re keeping that intact cause they totally ditched it in Fukunaga’s script), which is interesting cause it’s actually Mike’s Dad in the original that passes on the lore of It and talks about the Black Spot burning down but since the setting’s been updated to the ‘80s, it makes sense that they’d change it to his grandfather. Anyway, while Mike’s talking about that, you can see the Bangor Maine statue of Paul Bunyan that later comes to life and attacks Richie Tozier in the novel, which is a nice touch

8. Ben in the library, now i earlier talked about how Ben it’s weird that It makes Its presence known here, because in the book it’s just kind of there’s a little bit of foreshadowing with the librarian reading the Billy Goats Gruff to the children, but for the most part it’s just like Ben being a kid and writing the poem for Bev. Now this kind of explains why, apparently he’s actually doing some research on It, which i mean makes sense they’re gonna have to cut out some of the longer just like character establishing scenes or mix them with scare scenes to make it into a 2 hour movie, even if they are only doing half. Anyway, the articles he’s looking at reference the Kitchener Ironworks explosion, the event that sent It back into hibernation in 1906, and the Silver Dollar Massacre, the event that woke It up in 1904. 

9. Woodcutting of It, which seems to....in going back to what i said before True Detective and Beasts of No Nation’s Cary Fukunaga wrote a script treatment for It a couple years ago and it fell apart due to him trying to shoehorn in really bizarre and fucked-up scenes of sexual violence involving children but they are taking elements of that and inspiration from it, it looks like and anyway in that script (which you can find online with a bit of digging) Ben is the town historian instead of Mike, so especially since the projector coming to life scene seems to have taken the place of the old picture book from Mike’s Dad coming to life scene this is probably where the book with the history of Derry is introduced in the plot is instead of being from Mike’s Dad, it’s just a book Ben finds in the library. I personally don’t like it cause i really, REALLY want like Mike to basically be 100% the Haunted House Historian of the group because otherwise his role is like.....y’know Token Black Kid(TM) but anyway no opinions yet just analysis moving right along

10. Georgie’s “ghost” with a red balloon leading Bill down into the basement it looks like i was right and first of all this does confirm it’s in the Denbroughs’ basement, but it looks like i was right and this is how he first encounters It, rather than a picture of Georgie leering and winking at him and then bleeding all over the place which i mean from a cinematic perspective makes sense it’s more dramatic leaves more room for tension to be built. Then again, they could also be doing both, with the picture being sort of a lead-up scare to the basement, i mean it looks at the beginning like Bill is in Georgie’s room i’m just guessing based on the wallpaper when he notices the wet tracks leading downstairs

ALSO i didn’t catch this until now but Bill is holding and subsequently drops a lego turtle which is a nice reference to the novel, although apparently according to Muschietti, that’s about the only reference we’re getting to The Turtle which....hrrrngggg

11. Pennywise attacking Bev in her bathroom. Now, she is wearing the same shirt as she is in the blood/black liquid geyser scene, so i assume it’s right after that she doesn’t appear to have anything on her but it wouldn’t very well be....see i’m having trouble with the chronology here because it doesn’t really make sense for It to grab her and THEN she hears voices in the sink, but...all i can think of is after in the book after she hears the voices and the geyser comes out and she sends her dad away, she cleans up the bathroom and sticks a tape measure down the drain trying to see how far it goes, and then It grabs it and starts running with it and laughing and then lets go and it snaps back and the end’s covered in blood and It talks to her again. This could be right after that or instead of that, that’s the only place i can think of it fitting in. Like the tape measure snaps back and she goes to leave and Pennywise is right there OR fake-out, she sticks the tape measure down nothing happens....nothing happens....nothing happens....and it looks like you’re in the clear and then Pennywise is right there which could work

12. If you pause at the shot of the gang in the street, you can still see a huge gash on Ben’s stomach, and Bev’s face looks a bit fucked up too. Now Ben’s in a different shirt than he is when Henry cuts him, and it’s not an H, plus Henry lifted his shirt up, it’s just a huge gash, which makes me think this is right after the werewolf scene at 29 Neibolt Street. Okay yeah i just looked and they’re all in the same outfits they’re in in that scene, so. Now what’s weird is Eddie doesn’t...appear to be with them in this shot? Unless he’s just off-screen, idk what that’s about cause we clearly see him going in with them and inside, maybe he just left the gang to go home first cause of his mom, i dunno.

13. Betty Ripsom’s sneaker, as seen in the MTV first look, one of Its first victims

14. Henry Bowers flicking open a switchblade standing next to his mailbox pretty much confirms my theory that that’s what him walking towards the red balloon was about. His face is a bit fucked up, probably his Dad’s doing. Now in the book there’s no one incident with his abusive father that pushes him over the edge, it’s just told in backstory that he’s a war vet with PTSD and possible brain damage who’s been abusive to Henry his whole life and only shows him approval when he’s doing terrible, horrible things, but they really don’t have room to fit that in the movie, so they’ll probably just have one scene of his Dad going apeshit on him and this’ll be right after that (also kinda like Fukunaga’s script)

15. Couple shots of It in the sewers, what’s weird here is that in what appears to be the basement to the house on 29 Neibolt Street, there’s a well entrance? Which isn’t exactly present in the novel i don’t think but would explain how It gets from the sewers up into that house and why It likes to haunt it so much

16. The woman right between the shot of the well and the shot of the pharmacist, i believe is Eddie’s emotionally abusive Munchausen by Proxy-afflicted mother based on her description in the book but idk i’d have to look at the cast

17. Gotta be honest, right about here the trailer starts moving too fast for me to follow effectively and there’s some stuff that i can’t really place, even if i pause, but i’ll do my best. No idea what the red glow is. I don’t think The Deadlights given that they’d all be shrieking and insane or dead

18. It seems to be standing behind plastic curtains like they have in slaughterhouses here? I have no idea why, nothing like that in the novel, although Mike’s Dad owns a slaughterhouse in Fukunaga’s script, so idk that could be it. I hope not honestly and it doesn’t really look like anything real, It just looks like some bizarre dreamscape It’s conjured up. It is worth noting i forgot until just now, but one of Its forms the actor credited as playing it is credited as “The Butcher”, so that could be right before It transforms into that form to hunt....someone at some time, idk when or who. Also Its eyes seem to be going full Deadlights here so i’m guessing whoever It’s hunting doesn’t make it out alive

19. I’ve been racking my brain since i first watched the trailer like two hours ago and i have no earthly idea why the hell Bev’s floating. I can’t even....begin to guess. I mean floating could be....it could be this movie’s way of visualizing someone partaking in The Ritual of Chud, which Bev never does in the novel in either Ritual so this would be a radical departure but idk i wouldn’t mind somehow i don’t think that’s what it is though, especially since the spider’s nowhere to be seen. I have no idea what it is, but...one thing that does come to mind is it could be...ugh in Fukunaga’s script which it really looks like they’re sticking with in large part more and more at least the first draft of it which is...look it’s mainly the subsequent draft that’s weird and gross and shitty but i wasn’t crazy about the first draft either and one of the reasons i wasn’t is because in Its lair, rather than a giant spider, they go into this weird room where physics stops applying and they float up these waterfalls that go up to the ceiling and there’s this upside-down pool with a big one-eyed starfish monster at the bottom/top of it that’s supposed to be Its true form and i.....really, REALLY didn’t like that and her floating up like this could be something similar to that and they’re all gonna float up to wherever Its true form resides which once again i’m hoping is not the case

20. Looks like Mike’s being attacked by several pairs of burnt hands here, it looks like down in the sewer, so i think it’s safe to assume that’ll be Its preferred form when trying to terrorize him, which makes sense seeing as how his Dad (or i guess Grandfather in this) is the one who tells the story of the people who burned in the Black Spot

21. The Losers screaming and trying to pull, who is that? Eddie? Out of the sewer idk not much to go on

22. Probably how Pennywise first shows himself in the house on 29 Neibolt rather than jumping out of an exploded toilet drain, which is fine. WHAT I LOVE is that his upside-down contorted position, besides being creepy as fuck, seems to imply he’s gonna do some kind of Exorcist spider-walk out of the closet, which would be awesome foreshadowing

23. The long, creepy female arm reaching out behind Bill doesn’t correspond to any of Its known forms, but is probably this mysterious “Judith” we’ve heard teased at in production who’s said to be absolutely horrifying.

24. Andres Muschietti has said in no uncertain terms that It’s not going to turn into any “classic” monsters in this movie, including the werewolf, but It’s definitely turning into something Werewolf-esque here. I mean, well to be fair It specifically turns into The Teenage Werewolf in the novel/mini-series, and It could just be that he meant It wasn’t going to turn into that, It still turns into some kind of werewolf. Or it could be that Muschietti was straight-up lying WHO KNOWS

25. I have....no idea what the hell is around Ben’s neck here. I’ve paused and been staring at it, but....I was thinking maybe spiderwebs but it doesn’t really look like it? And also they’re so thick and sticky in the book that if you touch one when you try to pull away you leave flesh behind, so that would be...problematic to be wrapped around his neck. It also doesn’t really look like spiderwebs? More like ragged material from Pennywise’s clown costume? Actually, it could also i mean The Werewolf and The Mummy were the two forms Muschietti explicitly stated It would NOT be taking in this movie, but this definitely looks like those could be mummy wrappings around his neck so idk maybe explicitly saying “he’s not gonna turn into a werewolf or a mummy” was a deliberate misdirect and this is some kind of version of the mummy encounter

26. Stan getting grabbed by Pennywise. The background is pitch black and he’s in the same shirt he’s in in that shot in the MTV first look where he looks terrified that i theorized was the standpipe, so this is i mean i’m pretty much 100% sure it’s the same scene, the question is whether i was right about it being in The Standpipe. But seeing as how it’s pitch-black and all and drowned kids are still scary, it probably is, i don’t see why they’d change that scene

27. I think this is Patrick Hockstetter at the end with the fire? Idk in Fukunaga’s script he’s a pyromaniac and his most notable scene from the book has him lighting farts on fire in the junkyard, so it’d make sense and it looks like Owen Teague more than anyone from what i can tell. Anyway, he looks completely terrified, but he also looks like he’s down in the sewers, which means they’ve definitely changed at least some aspects of his death from the book which i’m a bit upset about because that scene was....infamous and revolting and genuinely disturbing. Oh well

28. Finally, the scene with Richie Tozier in the room full of clown dolls. Not sure where this would fit in, as it’s an entirely new scene, nothing like it in the novel, the mini-series, or Fukunaga’s scrapped script. I thought maybe it would be Richie’s encounter with It instead of getting attacked by the statue since that could definitely come across as camp, but they definitely still have the statue and idk why if they plan on ditching that scene, unless it’s just as a little nod or they plan on doing something more subtle with it. Then again, when Richie runs into the statue, he’s running from Henry Bowers and his gang, who chase him through a toy store so actually yeah it definitely could be during that part and the statue will be put to different use, maybe giving him a subtle little taunt or wink after he’s escaped the clown doll room.

I know there are things i didn’t talk about, but it’s because they’re shots from the other trailers which i’d already discussed

Oh yeah, speaking of which, if you want, you can check out

My first trailer breakdown My second trailer breakdown And my crash course in Pennywisology 101