#the 'someone' may or may not be henry...

[yokiteryokiter]

Perhaps someone keeps this photo in their pocket to remember the good old times...

(Redrew the famous VHS Afton pic with my version of him, original under the cut...)

[pleeborp]

Anthony: huh it’s gonna be pride month during release of Peachyville maybe I, a bi man, should help give some representation through my character.

*boss music starts playing, emerging from the shadows backlit with white glowing eyes*

Matt, Beth, And Freddie Wong: stand back mortal you know not our power.

[henrysglock]

Breadcrumbs Post, Revisited <3

The VR game really does pain me...particularly about Henry. (Who could have known...this revelation is truly a left-field twist...)

There's one part in Chapter 5 that really gets me:

Shadow Brenner: You were a good child, in your own way. Henry: What does that even mean? Shadow Brenner: Obedient, eager to show off, brilliant—but just like all shining things: Too. Much.

He goes on to show Henry memories of himself in the lab with Brenner as a child. Henry starts in with pleasantries ("I trust you slept well?"), Brenner makes a comment about Henry historically disliking pleasantries, to which Henry responds that they're "made-up rules".

After that, Brenner makes something of a striking comment:

Brenner: Are we getting distracted, or focusing? Young Henry: ...focusing.

After that, we're transported to the tattoo scene, wherein Brenner tells Henry that Soteria is temporary, and will only be in place until Henry's "emotional acuity" increases and they can find "more collaborative ways forward". Read: It'll come out once you submit to me completely.

You mean to tell me Henry's a good kid who's eager to please, brilliant, easily distracted, has a distaste for social games like pleasantries and small-talk, struggles with reading emotions, and is defiant in the face of perceived injustice? That he's specifically "too much"?

Anyone with autism and ADHD has heard all that shit before...which is exactly what I said here last April when I discussed the misuse of the label "psychopath" in regards to Henry, who more prominently displays traits of autism and cPTSD (though after playing this game and seeing The First Shadow...I'm inclined to adapt that diagnosis to auDHD).

The other one that kills me a little is when Shadow Brenner tells us/Henry about how Henry's mind works. Shadow Brenner says that Henry killed his family so they could never send him away again, that Henry loves via obsession...meaning whatever he obsesses over, he loves, and that El and her rejection of him makes him emotional/weak.

Regardless of how true those statements are/how much of it is being said by the Shadow to convince Henry that the monstrous/negative aspects are true/how much of it is being said to try and hurt Henry and break him down...we can at least surmise a few underlying themes:

Henry loved his family, and it hurt him to be cast aside/set apart from them.

Henry was utterly heartbroken by Virginia sending him away/selling him out to Brenner.

Henry loved El.

To some degree, given the obsession: Henry still loves El.

These are all things I've said before. It's nothing new...but it sure does hurt to have them reaffirmed.

Henry was a good kid who loved his family even when they couldn't love him. Shocker (/s). And now, despite the fact that it Hurts, he can't let them go/refuses to let them go, as if holding onto them will make them love him. He was also "too much" for his family to handle, and post-El...that translates very obviously in-game into him believing he's too much for anyone to handle, let alone love. He makes his empathetic mental connections as Vecna based on that feeling of being an unlovable monster (which I also said in my "Henry isn't a psychopath" post!).

Shared trauma, man. That's the real deal. Everything you see Vecna weaponize against someone is something he himself has experienced...which is something I said back in January of last year in a post I dubbed "the breadcumbs post" (hence the title of this post):

In short:

[unicornsaures]

thinking about how william and henry would have accents because william lived in the UK and henry lived in the south for a decent part of their childhood..

[hawksheadcanonblog]

Headcanon - Henry Stickmin got into the mess with the timelines in his game because of a time piece falling on his head. He's technically in a time rift going through the motions until Hat Kid fixes the rift, made all the worse by the fact he already had minor rewind powers that the time piece was able to amplify.

[anchorandrope]

.

[dragons-and-magic]

Thomas and Friends DnD Campaigns.

(Inspired by this post.)

I just had a great idea! Picture this. A YouTube series of ttte characters playing DnD. It doesn't even have to be animated. Just an audio series.

And it's called Railways and Rogues.

Basically it's if the engines were playing DnD in the sheds or something. And they get into all sorts of shenanigans. James is constantly trying to seduce people. Henry is using his druid plant powers in all sorts of weird ways. And Thomas is just commiting all sorts of tomfoolery as a rogue.🤣

I've never actually played dnd. But I can tell you, that I'd watch the HECK out of this. It would be so funny!

Edit: HUGE TYPO. Fixed it. :D

[laurenkmyers]

okay so i may or may not have started writing a fic about potential famous boys henry could have shagged before meeting and dating and loving alex and i need people's opinions on who they think it could be? i have one person already in mind but i need two more.

....aaaaaand go!

[bythequeenmargaret]

i have been listening to Numb - Linkin Park on repeat these past few days and to me, it literally sums up pretty well the relationship of the second House of Lancaster (John of Gaunt, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward of Lancaster) with each other pretty well

[arinishi]

It’s really interesting how Lanyon Sr thinks of Lanyon being gay; he really does want the best for his son but, like every other character in this comic, he is Not Very Good At Expressing This !! We can see that he has good intentions, he found a wife for Lanyon who is also a lesbian so this should be saving both of them from their potentially doomed fates. It’s just that he doesn’t seem too open to constructive criticism and seems pretty dead set on this path for his son, whether he really wants to or not.

It also makes me think: Does Lanyon’s father know about him and Jekyll? What about the other boys? And why did Lanyon feel as though he had to leave Jekyll because of this when he was aware that the marriage would just act as a cover for him and Everly to Be Gay In Secret?

[mai-mai-lim]

didnt draw her for days and i already miss her.....

oh no, what got her shocked in the first one

wanna show her teddy bear enthusiast side and that she probably have given out ideas for stealing the most expensive teddy bear in the world--

she has a fav one, a beanie baby given by her uncle and aunt (aka Henry's parents) from the US, if the timeline aligns, they got it during the whole beanie baby craze haha

[pey-up]

I think in the right circumstances, any of them coulda been the killer

[homecomingvn]

Wait… how did Henry react when MC and Elijah started dating?

Pure shock mostly! And I mean rightfully so: for the first time, Henry was faced with someone he also 'cared' about being close to you. Normally, it'd be easy for them to scare a suitor off but this is Elijah. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to his only other friend!

It's not jealousy, it's not rage, it's something more akin to agony when Henry realizes he has been 'bested', especially by someone he would never expect in a million years.

[henrysglock]

S4 Victims: Story by Proxy?

Okay so. In spitballing with Em...something stuck in my head.

So we all know how serial killers leave crumbs because deep down they want to be caught/want the truth to be revealed? Well what if the Duffers, or even current Henry, are doing the same thing. That is, leaving breadcrumbs.

This mainly has to do with the S4 victims, their stories, and the order in which they're chosen.

So, it goes like this:

Chrissy: Abusive mother who resembles Virginia

Fred: Eaten alive by the guilt of being responsible for the accidental death of an innocent.

Max: Suicidal over guilt about Billy's death and her response to it. Billy, who died saving her/while she was saving herself from the Fleshflayer, a regenerated form of the Mindflayer.

Patrick: Abusive father, not much else told.

Max (again): Suicidal Ideation, dies, soul taken, but was revived by El. She's now in some limbo-state, where her body lives but her identity/mind is elsewhere. She will likely be brought back entirely by El in S5.

It almost feels like a story by proxy if we piece it together.

So, let's piece it together:

Person with an abusive mother...feels responsible for the death of an innocent...a sibling who was killed while this person was trying to save themselves from a monster which came from Hawkins lab, which leaves them suicidal...and this person lives in a situation with an abusive father figure. This person becomes suicidal, and their suicide attempt was not entirely successful. They were revived by El, and end up in a limbo state. They may or may not be brought back by El later.

Now, let's collect details about our serial killer:

Abusive mother? Check. (No matter how we frame it, Virginia was not a good mother.)

Innocent died? Check. (Henry has nothing bad to say about Alice, which we know he would if she were not innocent, since he does this with every other victim.)

Sibling died as a result of saving oneself? Check. (The Creel massacre was a situation where Henry was, with whatever intentions we may assign for the other family members' deaths, trying to save himself from Virginia and by extension the lab.)

Ended up with an abusive father figure? Check. (Well...an abusive Papa, one might say.)

Brought back by El multiple times? Check. (El was the one who took Soteria out and brought Henry back from being powerless. El was the one who put Henry in the UD/limbo state. El was the one who opened the gate for his return to the RSU.)

IT ALL ALIGNS. So let's put it together with all the feelings involved:

Citations (I guess? Explanations?) are in the tags listed by number!

Henry had an abusive mother who was at least trying to have him shipped off to the lab, if not actually trying to kill him outright. This situation builds and builds, him wanting to be left alone (1), putting out subconscious and conscious cries for help (2), and her targeting him about it, until March 25th, 1959.

Virginia starts it, attacks, and this time she's out for blood (3). Henry defends himself (4). Virginia, being the parent with powers (5), doesn't actually die (6). Victor, Alice, and Henry go for the door (7). Virginia's on the stairs (8). She's got to finish what she started, since her original plan was botched (9). Henry puts his energy into trancing Victor (10), protecting him from Virginia, since logically two people can't occupy one person's mind.

This leaves good, innocent Alice to fend for herself, standing directly in front of the staircase. She's a loose end (11). Virginia kills her, but can't kill Henry or Victor while the trance is occurring. She figures Henry's going to run himself into the ground (12). She figures she can call Brenner in to collect Henry, like they planned (13). If she disappears, she figures it'll go into the news something like this:

"World War II veteran kills entire family in deranged fit of insanity. Wife missing, presumed dead. Son dies in hospital."

And on both counts, she's essentially right. It does basically go into the papers that way. Victor is taken in for murder, and Henry is taken by Brenner, but not before he sees that Alice was caught in the crossfire (14).

Henry ends up with Brenner, the abusive Papa. He's got the guilt about Alice's death, something that makes him sad and angry. Brenner, maybe, decides to push this in order to increase Henry's powers, but it backfires. Henry's powers increase, but he does...something. He lashes out, he snaps, maybe he even tries to kill himself. He's Brenner's prized pet, though, so Brenner can't let that happen. He seals Henry's powers away with Soteria. It's a death for Henry's entire identity, so far as to have him under the name Peter Ballard. Then comes along 011. She removes Soteria from Peter Ballard...and revives Henry Creel. She then exiles him to the Upside Down in 1979, only to eventually bring him back in 1983 when she opens the Mothergate.

All this to say: It could be his own story, told through the stories of his victims.

Breadcrumbs, or maybe...obvious things, which nobody by any chance ever observes.

Below the cut is where I speculate into motivations for his actions after Soteria's removal, so...not required reading for this particular analysis.

Years of MKUltra torture warp Henry's guilt about the situation into a bastardized, violent, brutal, unethical savior complex based in the notion that he's a predator by nature, but a predator for good. He "saves" the lab kids from a future like his own, filled with nothing but torture. He "saves" El from her ignorance about the lab and intended to have her join him, thereby attempting to "save" her, technically his little sister, from the lab entirely.

He "saves" his s4 victims from their guilt and suffering, which so closely mirror his own, which no one saved him from. I could even go so far as to say he was "saving" Will, who is set up to be so much like him, from a world of horrible people who (from Henry's viewpoint based on his lived experiences) would only serve to abuse and betray him.

This of course isn't to say any of it is right. None of it is right or good...but it makes sense. It follows a pattern. It coheres. The math...maths.

[bornetoblood]

1 2 9 AND 10 VIOLENCE ASKS 🔥🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥💥

Link to the questions!

I answered 10 here!

1. the character everyone gets wrong.

I’ve already talked about why and how I’m not into a lot of Afton interpretations so I’m gonna talk about Henry Emily now (my favourite man ever). A lot of people I’ve seen kinda present Henry as a guy who does nothing wrong, the sane half of the furry franchise duo. I believe this is incorrect. Mr Emily is just as (if not more) fucked up than Billy and I’m tired of pretending he’s not. Before any child murder happened we had the springlock suits (that Henry designed) that Faz Inc’s minimum wage employees were forced to wear and told to go bleed out in the back room if they malfunctioned as to not disturb customers. I think Henry capitalist’ed his way into child murder complicity there’s no way he didn’t know Will was the one doing it I refuse to believe Afton is a component criminal. It’s ALSO implied he either helped build or fully constructed the Funtimes which are specifically designed to kidnap children. He’s also lobotomised at least 2 people on purpose and shoved his puppet daughter in a bear that shocks her every so often. I also love the fact he locked his business partner’s corpse in a back room for 30 years and has an arson streak. In the books also he is filled with a rage so volatile and deep it animates a robo version of his daughter that’s pretty metal. I like him a lot and I think he’s a bad person who tries to make up for his complicity while still running the most exploitative children’s franchise in the US (he totally does fucking union busting no doubt).

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom ( @mrslittletall asked me to do this for the Lozza too).

Okay I have pretty complicated thoughts on this. I think Laurence Bloodborne is a massive switch (he can do both) what I dooon’t like is that he pretty much always subs in all the stuff I’ve seen with him and he’s always doing it in a way that gives me the most visceral “he would not fucking say that” I’ve ever had. People hardly ever let him keep his violence or his love of control in porn stuff and like… idk that’s what I find hot about him. He’s always not old as well which sucks to me I think that old man can get it. Also tangentially related is that I think he’s transmasc and trans men never Dom in anything ever I am actually starved.

9. worst part of canon.

For fnaf there’s so much I’m just gonna say ‘all of it’ and move on lest we be here forever.

In regards to Bloodborne I suppose it’s just a lot of little things that make me a little uncomfortable. I’ll have to mull it over more but there’s certain aspects that I think about and I think ‘Hm and this feels a little off but I can’t tell why’. I also wish there was more character customisation options like hair texture and weight but that’s an issue in a loooot of games unfortunately.

Gameplay wise I hate doing forbidden woods sooooo much oh my god.

[kaleidemaran]

depression room