#time loop theory

[erikiara80]

A sword for Mike

Like others have pointed out, the Castle Byers in this flashback is the one we see in the UD (no microscope when Joyce and Jon look for Will) So, if the UD is really made of different memories, then the Castle Byers with the sword is the one where Will is attacked.

But there's something weird going on there. 1) I don't see any sword when El finds Castle Byers, but inside, it is the Castle Byers with the microscope, so the one with the sword (more about this in a second)

2) The creature is not alone. It's too far from Castle Byers to destroy it, and Will sees a shadow. We still don't know what really happened there!

I also noticed something in S3 that could be connected to that specific moment.

I don't think Max's line "Mike will come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness" is just there to show that Mike actually looks for Will. I think the "crawling back" is connected to going back in time (maybe through memories?) Steve "crawling backwards", Max and El being brought back, El being dragged on the floor in the Rainbow Room, before she sees the past. And when Mike "comes crawling back to Will, begging for forgiveness", he finds him at Castle Byers.

In S3 Max and El are called "a different species" by the boys because, they say, they act on emotions -> Max mentions Mike crawling back in no time -> because "time is funny and emotions can speed it up or slow it down. We're all time travelers..."

Mike's photo in the shot when El mentions emotions and time travel

So, I think the line about him crawling back, finding Will at Castle Byers, and the sword, mean that Mike will save Will

This could be another clue: when El finds Will, before Castle Byers is destroyed, we see everyone's reaction but Mike's. Interesting choice, since he spends the whole season trying to prove that Will is alive.

No reaction, no sword (because he "has it", or, he will have it? He will be there, in the UD. Well, I don't know if he'll really use it, but I think the sword represents Mike)

El gives him his watch, and behind her the words Home and Time

The title of the first episode of S5 is The Crawl, and the first scene is Will singing (imo) in the UD

But Mike must hurry, because in the S3 campaign, which is paralleled to the one in S1 (The vanishing of Will Byers, The case of the missing lifeguard) there's a trap, a distraction, an ending that is not good, not the real ending ("No, let's finish for real"): dying and then living on as heroes in someone's memories. Mike is even mocking Will here, the only time it happens. And we see Will angry for the first time.

And what does he do? He yells: "FORGET IT, Mike!"

Then he goes to Castle Byers and destroys his memories. Castle Byers is destroyed, like it was destroyed in the UD (Mike was too late)

Another parallel between the campaigns: Mike doesn't understand Will in S3 (before Will destroys his memories and senses that the Shadow is back) and he doesn't understand what he's saying about the roll (before Will vanishes)

They need to communicate, let their emotions guide them, through time and space, and they will find each other. Getting to Mike is the key, and he can't be late anymore, or we don't know what happens if Will doesn't remember anything. If there's nothing left and Joyce's boy is gone

[twisted-wonderland-but-gayer]

I always loved the time loop theory because of the angst potential for yuu/mc. I feel it would make the most sense for the loop would start after yuu comes to twst.

So yuu is currently stuck in a loop for who knows how long, but what happens when they figure out the truth? Or when they break free from the loop? If they find a way back home?

It would all be different. Only nrc is affected so if yuu ever finds a way back, depending on how many loops they went through, maybe it’d be like 10 years? 20? 50? Idk I just can’t help but think of how angsty that would be.

For yuu, they’d be there for about a year, only to come home and see that the world has moved on without them, their friends and family accepted long ago that they will never find out what happened to them.

Coming home to see their parents much older, if they had any younger siblings, they’re now older than yuu. Their friends now grown up and living out their lives. Older relatives/family long gone…

There’s just a lot of ideas with this time loop theory that I love to look into

Oooh yess and there's a few lil ideas/twists i also thought of to add onto this! Especially with book 7 where you can see in peoples dreams. Minor spoilers? Just in case

Imagine a Yuu that talks to the seven in their dreams/the mirror. I mean they're getting dreams from somewhere right? Something something, a deal where Yuu has to bring them intel or help them get a body in exchange for their help/powers/whatever. Them coming back from the dead in the mirror after each failed attempt to save everyone. All of them saying some form of "you cant save everyone kid" just for Yuu to say they will and try again stubbornly.

Imagine in book 7 when everyone sees Yuus 'dream' which is just them in their headspace begging the 7 for just one more chance cause they got so close to saving everyone this time and getting them their bodies back. The shock of Yuu knowing the seven and what they've done to try to save them.

A yuu realizing throughout each time loop that they are the reason they can't save everyone. For everyone to have a happily ever after they must die or bargain. Maybe they can erase themselves from everyone's memories afterwards so it doesn't hurt as much.

Grim insists there was someone else in his exclusive dorm. Deuce swears he learned this studying technique somewhere but doesn't remember... Ace knows there's someone missing in the crowd at his game... hmm. Cater looking at some class photos and there's an empty space... Characters like Jamil or Riddle or Leona swearing they had someone to talk to and they're not there...

Bonus if they slowly remember them or see their shadow wandering about. How they try to follow or talk or reach out to them but they're not there. (been playing DDV and something very similar happens there so this could be a thing in TWST too and even be related to the seven...)

A Yuu on their last leg about to attempt something drastic in their next loop, hands shaking as they steel themselves to fight at the entrance ceremony.

A Yuu who's dream happily ever after is to die.

A Yuu that accumulated so much blot through time loops they're dying from it– they're the final boss. The blot itself. Yet, despite their overblot form and all the destruction at their fingers tips, they just sit there between it all, wanting to relax in their final moments.

An overblot Yuu that's being puppeteered and forced to fight against their friends even though it's so painful...

An overblot Yuu whose final attack is to latch onto someone– anyone– to hug in their final moments.

A Yuu that just wants to be understood throughout each loop.

And maybe DDV Yuu themself. Someone that was forced to be a ruler at such a young age that they never had enough time to be a child– seeing that child in their dream having to manage a whole kingdom and being relied on for everything and all the terrible mistakes their kid self made when they just wanted to dissapear and even how some members of the seven treated them so horribly. Their magic comes from helping others and yet they can't help themself.

[henrysglock]

so...for anyone who doesn't think there's something fucked up going on time-wise in TFS...how would you explain Henry reciting/mimicking Brenner's exact vocal tick a split second before he does it?

Because to me that's giving "Henry's seen this all before"/time looping, especially when it's preceded by Henry saying "The wheels turn; no one changes. Nothing gets better."

[radarsmenagerie]

ok so we all know the “MASH is all happening inside Hawkeyes head; the laugh track, his behavior, the timeloop etc” but what about its actually Radar’s timeloop:

-gary burghoff playing Radar in the mash movie and the show

- the psychic behavior (he knows whats going to happen because its happened before)

and then he is freed from the loop when he transfers the teddy bear to Hawkeye—-which remains until they bury it and then all go home.

[randomfandomtwst]

I went back and watched the intro scene of TWST, everyone knows the part.. Where Crowley's walking toward the Dark Mirror and we can hear his voice but we can't see him. In the very beginning. And he says the iconic "For me. For you. For them. The hour is late and time is scarce." Yeah that scene. Anyway, before that iconic line, when Crowley's talking to the Dark Mirror instead of Yu, he addresses a mysterious benefactor... I don't think it's the mirror itself. So my question is... Who is the benefactor? What have they given Crowley and why? Also, Crowley says, "show me the visage I seek"... I believe this is a reference to Yu, since it immediately switches to Crowley talking to us (Yu). All time loop theories aside (or not!) Does that mean he was expecting us (Yu) to arrive at NRC? Was it Crowley who summoned us (Yu) through the Dark Mirror?? Idk, thoughts???

[twisted-drawritings]

A Thousand and One

Prologue - Part One (2, 3)

“Okay, Let’s Do This One Last Time…”

~~~

‘This human is weird…’

That was the first thought Grim had looking up at the dark skinned, green haired human.

He’d just managed to blast open the closest coffin with his flames, only to be greet by a human who was already awake!

“Some things never change, huh?”

Their face looked not at all surprised to see the direbeast as they easily stepped out of the coffin and looked around the mirror chamber. Their light grey eyes seemed almost…bored. Tired?

Familiar

Grim shook the thoughts of deja vu from his head, puffing himself up to look as imposing as possible.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve, ignoring a future Great Mage like myself! Now, give me those clothes, human!”

“Ah, apologies, Grim, but I feel like they’d be a bit big on you, wouldn’t you agree?”

They wore an amused smile, grinning at him as though they were old friends. It made his fur bristle.

Grim balked. “How’d you know my name?!”

They blinked, and if Grim was paying more attention he’d have noticed their shock.

“...You said it yourself. Just now? Future Great Mage Grim?”

He hissed at them. “Oh, whatever! Gimme your uniform, and be quick about it! ‘Cause if you don’t…”

Smoke at his lips escaped from his lips, a blue fireball on the tip of his tongue.

“..you’re gonna regret it!”

The human only shook their head fondly, smile not leaving their face for a moment.

“Silly kitty. If you want my robes… you’ll have to catch me first~!”

The human jumps over Grim’s head with a surprising amount of grace, and he yowls in surprise. Laughing at his reaction, the human takes off through the thick double doors.

“M-Myah?! G-get back here!”

He takes off after him, spewing fire all the way.

He finally catches up to corners them in the library, where they have the audacity to be reading a book.

“Oh? You finally decided to join me?”

“Huff…huff… Gimme…*huff* gimme those robes, human, or I’ll burn ya to a crisp!”

They tilt their head and shoot him an amused grin.

“Oh, will you really? Killing your fellow student is surely a one way ticket to expulsion, you know.”

‘What’s wrong with this kid?!’ Ignoring the morbid comment, he flicks his tail, irritated. “Don’t think I won’t! Now, take off those-“

Something strikes him, and in an instant he’s bound. ‘What the-!’

“Me-YEOWCH! That hurt! What gives?!”

Shoes clack on the library floor as deep voice scoffs from behind him.

“Consider it tough love.”

~~~

[alumi-san]

(Based on the time loop theory)

If Yuu could be based on Mickey Mouse. What if there were another person from Earth who took Yuu's place? But when someone who organized this loop started viewing them as a future problem they cast them back to their home world. After some time they found a way to return but when they did they discovered that someone had taken their place and their friends didn't remember them. Thinking that they were replaced they attempt to kill Yuu and in the process, both of them learn about the time loop.

Yes, I'm speaking about Oswald.

[specialinterestsgalore]

The M*A*S*H Time Loop

This was pretty much just a stream of consciousness writing. I haven't looked at it much since I wrote it a couple of days ago but I wanted to post it anyway.

The sitcom M*A*S*H ran from 1972 to 1983 and captured households around America. The series follows M*A*S*H (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit 4077 through the Korean War. Knowledgable readers might have noticed that the Korean War lasted 3 years from June 1950 to July 1953 while the M*A*S*H series ran for 11 years from September 1972 to February 1983. This significant timeline difference created an interesting effect on M*A*S*H that led to many fans discussing the ‘M*A*S*H time loop theory.’ As the name would imply, this fan theory posits that the events of M*A*S*H do not take place during the Korean War as we know it, but instead that the show follows the 4077th as they are stuck in an endless time loop and are unable to escape the war. 

Clearly, the timeline of M*A*S*H is a bit difficult to line up with the events of the actual Korean War due to the 8-year difference. Characters such as BJ Hunnicutt and Radar O’Riley were on the sitcom for 8 years but canonically it is difficult to say if they were meant to have spent the same amount of time in Korea. While the episodes were aired weekly, it is impossible to say if most of the episodes were meant to take place a week apart. There are several episodes for which we know this is not the case, for example, the season 9 episode ‘A War for All Seasons’  begins with the 4077th ringing in the new year and follows several key events throughout 1951 and ends on New Year’s Day 1952. This seems to imply that the previous 8 seasons all take place in 1950. It could also imply that subsequent episodes all take place in 1952 or later, though many assume that some episodes show events that were not seen in ‘A War for All Seasons.’ On the opposite end of the spectrum, several episodes take place over a matter of hours. The season 8 episode ‘Life Time’ happens essentially in real time as Hawkeye has only 20 minutes to complete an arterial graft on a wounded soldier. These and other episodes make creating a sensible timeline for the M*A*S*H series an incredibly complicated process. Trapper John leaves in the first episode of season 4, does this mean that he was only in Korea for 6 months? As mentioned earlier, Radar and BJ were on M*A*S*H for the same number of years, but Radar leaves before ‘A War for All Seasons,’ does this mean that Radar was enlisted for a year or less while BJ was present for 2 years? Does it matter how long any of these characters were engaged in the Korean War? The time loop theory certainly says no. 

The nature of all sitcom television lends itself very well to the concept of a time loop. The show almost always resets itself at the end of every episode and it begins the next episode in essentially the same place. The order of the episodes often doesn’t matter. Everything is always happening, nothing happens, it doesn’t matter. In M*A*S*H specifically, one of the core themes of the show is the cyclical nature of war. It intentionally pokes fun at the repetition, the monotony with lines like ‘the future’s been canceled by the war department’ and ‘Father, what do you think of purgatory so far?’ as well as with aspects such as the omnipresent PA voice. Hawkeye Pierce becomes the main focus of the show and the audience's lens in many ways and as such is one of the easiest introductions to this concept. Hawkeye complains about being stuck nearly every episode and often phrases it as though he is not just stuck as a surgeon in a war zone, but as if his whole life is stuck, as if his past and future are all contained within the war. Another character giving credence to this theory is Radar O’Riley. Radar earned his nickname due to his uncanny ability to sense incoming wounded before anyone else and to predict what his commanding officers will ask for before they open their mouths. While this is certainly a fun gag for the show, many think it shows that Radar is aware, consciously or unconsciously, of the time loop. Radar is aware of when the choppers will arrive and when Henry needs files because it has all happened before and will happen again. Many fans also point out that this could be the reason for Radar’s reaction to Henry being sent home. It is more than just realizing that he will be left in Korea while the man he has come to see as a father figure goes home to his family. On some level, Radar remembers that Henry will not make it home; he knows he can not stop it. Of course one of the biggest pieces of evidence against the idea of a time loop is the fact that it does end. Everyone goes home in the end, however, this does not entirely disprove the theory. Many pieces of media that focus on the concept of time loops end with our protagonists escaping. But they can not escape entirely. Though all of our characters leave Korea by the end of the series, those who are still alive have not left completely. They will be stuck remembering this time forever. 

While the original intention of M*A*S*H certainly was not to tell a story about a group of army doctors, nurses, and enlisted men trapped in a time loop, that is in many ways the story we got. It is the best showcase of the cycle, the monotonous horror of war in modern media. The only changes come with tragedy, death, or abandonment. It is a time loop in the only ways that matter.

[cleolinda]

Silent Hill 2 commentary: Eastern South Vale & jukebox puzzle (1)

PREVIOUSLY ON: Out on the town. NG+ clues for getting other endings, highly symbolic scissors, James' amnesia, the sun mural & the Lady of the Light, lots to explore. Afterwards: corrections & additions.

Spoiler policy: Just about anything but That One Big Thing near the end of the game, particularly information about characters, their motives, and their dynamics. The game's eight endings may also be discussed. Content notes are below the cut.

Content notes: In this video, there's a lot of acid vomit and blood in combat, including the body horror of the "lying figures" (description written for the 1:06:00 mark), and at one point I discuss the idea of violence against monsters with sexualized/feminine features (this is purposefully part of the story, IMO). There's some oversized insects now and then (also blood). In terms of themes, I discuss suicidal ideation, alcoholism, drug addiction, terminal illness, infidelity, infertility—most of this is very subtle, and this is not one of the Huge Trigger Warnings videos.

I'll say up front, I roped @idoherty451 into doing his own commentary alongside mine. Ian's both a musician and a longtime Silent Hill fan, so he's specializing in music theory/storytelling and the context of the other Silent Hill games/lore. We refer to our email discussions a lot, I'm usually in his Twitch chat, and we've decided I'm just gonna straight-up be like "Iaaaaaan what is this?!" while I'm recording, as necessary. Our commentaries are sometimes kind of a conversation back and forth, and I like that. So this is the "Ian" I'm referring to throughout. (First stream; second stream.)

00:00: First: while I was reviewing the video to write this up, I realized that I misspoke about the Lilith graffiti in the first video (and then came up with a different interpretation). At the time, I had only posted the first video for Patreon, and I ended up tacking on a "corrections" edit before I made it public. So this is referring to the version that's currently up to watch. 

Second, I mention wanting to record a sidebar about liminality, which I have not yet done as of this writing. 

Third order of business: playing the game. 

03:05: Picking up at the save point in Neely's Bar. We reread the note from the end of the first video: a man who is sort of a dream-logic reflection of James broke the bar's jukebox. The record store and an apartment complex are mentioned, implying that we'll need to go to both places to find what we need to repair the jukebox and the half a broken record left behind. 

04:40: I cheerfully have a "radical acceptance of what a disaster I am" as I struggle with the interface.

In the previous commentary, I linked to a video by thegamingmuse about the "There was a hole here. It's gone now" graffiti," and I mention it at this point. 

Did not mention: To be honest, I have since come up with an interpretation that I like better—not that multiple interpretations can't live in harmony—and that I think fits what we actually see onscreen. The short version is, there are mostly two kinds of holes in the game, and we'll see one of them later in this video: ridiculously deep wall holes that James has to stick his arm into, in order to fish out some quest item. (There's at least, I don't know, 4-5 of these throughout the game.) In the second half of the game, we'll also see multiple Alice in Wonderland-inspired holes he has to jump down in order to progress. James is visibly disgusted by the former and frightened of the latter. But he has to venture into and through these holes in order to find the answers he wants. He can't learn the truth without going into the dark. And it will turn out to be, after all, a very dark truth. (Not spoiling it.) But here in Neely's Bar, James can't remember things—to the point where he needs a jukebox to recall even a brief, pleasant memory about his wife. There was a hole here (memories, however dark, available in James' mind), but it's gone now. Imagine needing the dark to get enlightenment, and that's kind of the idea. So I think this is a fairly solid but also simpler interpretation, and sometimes simpler might be stronger.

For the record, Ian subsequently found (I nearly said "dug up") the original game materials' comment on holes as a motif, and it is, "the abyss which has opened up in [James'] heart" and "diving into his own subconscious" to accept his own wrongdoing. 

05:00: Recapping the unseen janitor character as kind of a reflection of James or his feelings, in a dream-logic way: this subplot functions as a gaming convention, basically, to give us puzzle clues and guidance. We'll be looking for a missing jukebox button and the second half of a broken record, then fix the jukebox, and that's our quest for the South Vale level. 

06:00: The theme of the puzzle: "Music will bring you back." James doesn't remember what he doesn't remember; music from the jukebox will help him remember time he spent with his wife and direct us to a future destination. Did not mention: There's actually scientific research to this effect, such as:

Why music causes memories to flood back (Washington Post)

Why does music bring back memories? What the science says (Durham University)

08:00: Leaving the bar for our next location: the Happy Burger. Outside, there's a newspaper box with the headline "Wood Side Apartments Severely Flooded," foreshadowing the next level; a pet care flier that alludes to the Pet Center and the "Goodest Boi" joke ending; and a Drug Hotline poster referencing a drug epidemic related to the cult that runs the town (see 39:00 or Ian's second stream).

I also talk about recognizing different types of monsters by the noises they make (we hear various squelching sounds the entire time I'm talking out here). You'll see this in the third video coming up, where I react to sounds in dark spaces before I actually get jumped. 

10:50: Inside the Happy Burger, where a lying figure is on the floor playing dead. I talk about the lack of health indicators being immersive—we don't get health bars in real life. Instead, James' magical jacket gets a bit bloody around the shoulders, he staggers around, and there's a red vignette around the edges of the screen; these visuals intensifying, plus a medical plus sign in the lower right corner, are the only way you can tell how badly James might be doing. Did not mention: your controller (or gaming mouse, if applicable) changing colors will also indicate your health level, but I'm on a PC with a very plain external mouse. (I think controllers may also vibrate when the radio goes off?) All of this is customizable in the extensive settings—you can turn off the vignette if you want, and just rely on damage to James' magical healing jacket and the plus sign.  

12:45: "I have a new theory": the Happy Burger has imagery indicating Maria (the Sexy Wife Doppelgänger we haven't met yet; see previous commentary), including a Happy Burger flier that reads, "Feel the craving?" and "What you need is what you get!" Which I think indicates temptation and instant gratification for a man who was frustrated during his wife's three-year illness. There's also a "Queen's Special" poster on the wall (but a clock with Mary's time of death as well). 

Did not mention: I know I keep talking about Maria when we haven't even seen or heard of her yet—and we won't for a few hours more!—but I think talking about her well in advance actually makes space for the ideas that she'll emerge from, so that when she finally shows up as a manifestation from James' subconscious, it'll feel like she's materializing a little bit from our minds as well. 

14:38: Battling two lying figures amid copious acid vomit. I have not yet warmed up for the day. In the audio I posted back in January from my first run, you can hear my attempts to lure the lying figures to better areas, which I didn't try to do this time because I was too busy running my mouth. 

16:16: Discussion of James' magical healing jacket, which Bloober Team painstakingly obtained in real life and scrunched into a microphone for the perfect fabric sound effect.

18:45: Doing better outside with a lying figure. My dog Cooper shows up, upset—you can't see or hear him, but you hear me talking to him at various points from here on. "You will notice that I talk to James a little bit the way I talk to my dog." As I say a minute later, I realized that I don't call James "honey" the way his wife does; I call him "honey" the way I call my dog that. 

Did not mention: The columned building is the post office, which I wasn't sure about at the time. 

20:00: I stumble across something I had really wanted to find: a Dead James slumped against a semi-truck with two documents (written in blood?). Discussion of time loop theory: I like the idea that James has been living this search for Mary over and over, with both the collectible Glimpses of the Past and various corpses that look like James throughout town supporting this. There are at least two other explanations for those bodies, but that's the one I like. 

But the reason I had wanted to find this James is to pick up a "Code Note" that describes trying to brute-force guess a four-digit code at Grand Market. I already knew the code from watching and playing the game previously, but for the commentary, I'd wanted to come by that information honestly. 

We also pick up a "Sanders Street Note" (written in blood?) that says, "You will see. Sooner or later, you will see." Did not mention: In Ian's second stream, he pointed out that the smear on the back is Pyramid Head-shaped. 

I mention that you often pick up notes/items at a price: some monster immediately attacking you. This time it's a slithering lying figure that rears up like a dolphin and headbutts James in the knee. 

23:13: I had pointed out in the first video that the game tells you that white cloth marks "items and traversals you can interact with," and then it puts "white cloth" all over the rest of the game as well. Here's an example of that: giant white-cloth barriers blocking off various streets in town. 

25:15: I couldn't remember what "Magical Envelopes" referred to. Ian answered this on his second stream: it refers to the way James received a letter from his late wife, who could not have possibly mailed something to him 1) without an address on it 2) while being dead.  

25:50: Neely Street is named after pulp author Richard Neely, per Lost Memories: Silent Hill Chronicle.

Did not mention: I wondered why we have "black smoke-fog right there," lying low on the street. I think it mostly relates to the way that the lying figures' acid vomit dissipates into black steam. 

26:45: Let's stop in front of the Dance Company. James kind of has a thing for legs, which you see in the creature designs. Like, I don't have a source for this, but we all just seem to take the idea on faith, because it's a pretty solid hypothesis. Regarding the Dance Company, the mannequins (which you'll see in the third video) have ballet-reminiscent wrappings on their feet.

In the "Leave" ending, James will admit that he had wanted to "move on with [his] life" during Mary's illness—an idea that shows up in this poster about dance lessons that will pair up singles: "No partner? No problem."

In his second stream, Ian asked if the inset photo, which shows a couple dancing, might be using the James and Maria models.⁠ Here it is, enlarged and brightened:

I don't think these two are actually James and Maria, but I think the woman being blonde (as opposed to Mary's brunette) is meant to evoke Maria the Sexy Wife Replacement, yes. 

28:00: Silent Hill Fresh Meats, the butcher. Here's the first collectible Strange Photo, which I am 99% sure shows a room we will see at the end of the third video, in a Wood Side apartment (which I believe is either a partial or full manifestation of a place that James and Mary lived). See comparison below: 

All images are ©2024 Konami Digital Entertainment, and captured from my gameplay in January-March 2025.

I kept forgetting the name of the redditor who solved the Strange Photos—it's u/DaleRobinson, and I have videos on my research playlist running through how this worked, as confirmed by Bloober Team. On the front, the picture seems to have four (4) sort-of film burn holes; the photo's caption is, "I've been happy." What DaleRobinson figured out is, you count the number of something on each picture, and you count to that letter in the caption: "I've B." On the back of this one, you see the number 6. There will be 26 photos total to collect, and you'll see them in numerical order in your inventory. Using this process to count which letter in each caption to use, DaleRobinson came up with the sentence, 

"YOU'VE BEEN HERE FOR TWO DECADES." 

The letter B is sixth in that sentence. 

Later in this commentary (but I'll go ahead and write it up now), I gradually fumble towards the realization that the town may currently be frozen in the mid-80s, based on a pharmacy receipt dated 1982 and a calendar dated 1983. I had always assumed the story took place in 2001 (the release year of the original SH2) and James was wandering through a ghost town that had "died" and been abandoned decades before—but, as I say later in this video, the model and condition of James' car would make more sense in the '80s.

So what does "two decades" mean? 

1) Some people believe it means that "you," the fans, have been playing this game for two decades (from the first game in 2001 to the remake in 2024), and it's a way to recognize the fans' loyalty. 

2) Some people (including me) like the time loop theory (which has been a fan theory since the original game), in which case "two decades" would mean that James has been repeating the events of the game over and over for some 20 years... every time we play it. 

At which point: what's the time frame of those two decades? 

At first, I assumed James had arrived in this abandoned ghost town in 2001, and therefore he would have been looping this (roughly) 24-hour period from then until 2024, when the remake was released. Because the town isn't just abandoned; it's dilapidated and decayed. However, you could say that James arrived there in 1985ish, and the town froze in 1982-83ish and somehow rotted and decayed this quickly because this version of it is projected from James' subconscious, and "rot" symbolizes his wife's death, or even the breakdown of their marriage. (See the discussion of the "While I am decaying like a rotten thing" graffiti in the first commentary video/post.) At which point, James has been looping this experience over the course of the second half of the '80s and the full 1990s ("two decades") until the original players picked up the game in 2001. And maybe Silent Hill has just been revising the surroundings all that time to keep things interesting (especially since some of the Dead Jameses leave notes with helpful hints, which suggest they've realized they're not the first James and they won't be the last). And this is why James keeps finding Glimpses of the Past—things Silent Hill has moved or changed for him over the years, and that feel vaguely familiar to him.

I personally think the phrasing is "two decades" rather than "twenty years" so that it can fit both meanings—both James and the fans have been here. (Well, not me. I've only been here 4-5 months. And that's why I prefer time loop theory, heh.)

Let's end this first post here; we'll pick up with another Strange Photo and Your New Best Friend.

(SH2R commentary master post)

[mash4077confessions]

[moonligyt1234]

Think Positive Twisted Wonderland x Reader

Fandom: Twisted Wonderland

Funny how the perfect of the Ramshackle Dorm always think positive and look for another when in a tough situation.

Funny how the perfect of the Ramshackle Dorm always smile in the darkest days.

Funny how the perfect of the Ramshackle Dorm is always there to lend a heart even to people who they don't know.

Funny how the perfect of the Ramshackle Dorm was thrown into another world with no connections or someone they don't know.

Funny how the fact that the perfect of Ramshackle Dorm who always think positive cannot do it anymore.

How could they when their friend Grim went into a overblot.

How the ink going out almost drown them if they hadn't been saved by their friends.

How the NRC was set ablaze with blue fire.

How the mirror to their world was destroyed.

How their friends we're all bleeding.

So when they saw a huge fire heading to a bloodied Ace and Deuce they run.

Run like there's a wild goose chasing them.

Run they did. As they take the hit the last thing they see was blue fire.

So hot.

But no screams were heard.

'Oh Prefect of the Ramshackle Dorm let us help for you time shall turn back as your good deeds will not be turned blind eye. '

[erikiara80]

I have so many drafts, and with all these leaks, maybe it's better if I start posting them, before someone spoils the whole season lol

Parallels parallels

(Jon's photo)

But this is also about Mike

Jon says that Lonnie made him kill a rabbit the day of his 10th birthday. So, in 1976, the year Will and Mike met

The same birthday mugs in their houses (yeah, I think birthdaygate is connected to what happened in the past. There's an I forgot your birthday card in Will's room in S1. So it's not just S4)

Mike sees Will's fake body in the quarry, but he's the one we see fall

And it's Mike's parents who hear the reporter saying that another person was found dead in the quarry, "seven years ago". In 1976

"Byers isn't the first person to drown in Sattler's Quarry. You'll recall only seven years ago..."

But El saves Mike. And it's interesting, because it almost seems like she's rewinding time. And after that, she remembers when she made contact with the Demogorgon and opened the gate.

So, they connect El, Will, Mike, dying the in the quarry/a lake, Lonnie, Jon's 10th birthday (1976) the gate, and time travel/time loop

The way El saves Mike also makes me think about Erica's line, "You lost me at Mothergate. Please be kind, rewind", when they're at the Wheelers', talking about tears in time and space, before Nancy realizes that her house is stuck on November 6, 1983

Well, and you know what?

I think there might be another person connected to this. Sarah. In 1x04, Hopper tells O'Bannon that his daughter won the spelling bee: Odontalgia. Toothache. In 1x06, before Mike falls and before we see El's memory of the gate, Troy threats to cut out Dustin's baby teeth.

And when Steve and Dustin are in the car, joking about missing collarbones, not eyes (like Vecna's victims, Zombie Boy Will and the lab kids), Steve says that he'll punch Dustin in the face so hard that his teeth will fall back out

[cutesykeito]

Excerpt of a Little Nightmares Fanfic

((Written by: me)) ((Feat. My OC called PJ))

~*~*~*~

Waking up with a sharp gasp, PJ shook her head to recover from her nightmare. She told herself that it was only a nightmare, that it wasn’t real, even though she knew better than that. If it wasn’t real, she wouldn’t still be here. Nevertheless, it was at least a little comforting to pretend.

There was no way of knowing how many days had passed since PJ found this house, or if any days had passed at all. PJ figured it had maybe been three days, since she’d fallen asleep and had that same nightmare three different times in this house. She would sleep inside of a small dresser that the monster with the gun never opened–at least he hadn’t so far. There was only an empty can inside the dresser so it was safe to assume the monster with the gun had no reason to look in there anyways.

Before PJ shoved open the dresser for some air, she took a moment to listen for the monster with the gun. She didn’t hear his heavy breathing nor his heavy stomping through the house, so she carefully pushed open the dresser doors and climbed down onto the ground. The air in the house wasn’t fresh by any means, but it felt better than the dresser. The house didn’t smell too bad, if you ignored the faint reek of rotten flesh.

Now, until she fell asleep again or had to hide, PJ had some time to herself to…well, she didn’t quite know what she was doing. For the past however many days, PJ had been in this room, staying here in the safety of that dresser. She figured it would be better to stay in this house than wander around outside, even with the monster with the gun lurking about. She was also too frightened to try and escape in case something went wrong and the monster with the gun saw her. So, PJ wandered around this room, examining everything for what felt like the hundredth time.

There was something hanging from the ceiling that she couldn’t reach, that seemed like it would open something, though PJ didn’t know what since the monster with the gun had only used it when she was hiding, and she was too scared to get a peek. Since it was on the ceiling, PJ thought that maybe it opened up an attic. She didn’t think that’d be useful to her, though. Attics were scary enough back at her old home.

The first day she was here, PJ had ripped up some of the wallpaper, thinking that maybe some secret unlocked door would be hidden behind it, but she had no such luck. If there was a secret door, it would be monster-sized so she couldn’t reach. PJ was already short for her age, but being in this place she felt like an ant all alone in an abandoned ant farm. If only this place was actually abandoned and had no monsters.

PJ continued to contemplate as she stood on the rug in the middle of the floor (she had already checked under it for something, and found nothing, of course). It wasn’t long before she heard something coming. Only this didn’t sound like the monster with the gun. Whatever it was, it was light on its feet and sounded like it was moving really fast, right towards her room. Back inside the dresser she went, heart pounding.

She heard whatever it was pit-pattering its way to the room right next to hers. It was a familiar sound, almost like the sound of her own feet against the wooden floors of the house. Could it be another kid like her? She’d seen other kids in her nightmares before she came here, but she hasn’t once encountered any since waking up for real in the middle of a dark forest. She wanted to call out to whoever it was, but was too frightened, wondering what would happen to her if her assumption was wrong. PJ’s main method of survival is hiding away. She found that worked well back home even though what she would hide from wasn’t as life threatening as this.

[henrysglock]

Local Man Uses The Cyclical 27-Year Torment Nexus To Try And Change His Fate [EPIC FAIL COMPILATION]

You probably guessed that this is the time-travel post I've been slaving over. You'd be right. This is the newest and most formal iteration of my long-standing time loop theory (I have drafted flowcharts back from February that actually predicted a dimension/time fuckery event in 1943 in relation to Brenner, which was made canon by TFS). So...Let's just dive right in. Note: I'm planning to keep calling TFS Henry "Henry" here just for simplicity's sake.

Now, fair warning: There are a few big "bear with me"s in this post. I promise they make sense, I just need you to hear me out.

It all started with Henry's self-proclaimed superhero name: The Stardust Spider.

Some of you may have seen my original post about The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars (here).

Before anyone says "Oh, but that album didn't exist yet", a reference in 1959 about a Bowie album that wouldn't be recorded until November of 1971 is in keeping with TFS's habit of directly referencing things from the '70s that "don't exist yet".

However, all that aside, there's a specific piece I want to return to, because it bugs the living daylights out of me.

There was a cut song that was meant to go on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars titled "Shadow Man":

For obvious reasons in relation to Henry in The First Shadow, this song already stuck out.

Specifically, though, these few stanzas hit me weirdly:

You should call and see who answers For he promises to come running Guided by the truth For the Shadow Man is really You Look in his eyes and see your reflection Look to the stars and see his eyes He'll show you tomorrow, he'll show you the sorrows Of what you did today You can call him foe, you can call him friend You should call and see who answers (see who answers) For he knows your eyes are drawn to the road ahead And the Shadow man is waiting 'round the bend ('round the bend) Shadow man is waiting up ahead

The Shadow Man is you from the future. He's waiting up ahead to show you the the truth/the consequences of your actions.

Considering that the TFS version of Young "Henry" has a direct connection to both the Shadow and Dimension X from a young age, and he also experiences what seem to be Vecna-type visions, this becomes particularly interesting to me...Especially seeing as said fates are not only possible for future "Henry", but also canon for future "Henry". (See: Vecna guy vs Mindflayer guy)

So, when I see an almost comical number of lines in TFS relating to rewriting known, undesirable endings (here are a few of my favorites):

And when we revisit some of the on-film classics:

I start to think it's time we revisit the concept of time-travel and trying to change your own fate.

It's always hard to know where to start with posts like these, so I'm going to kick things off with the technical aspect: The Cycle.

Something I've talked about in the past year, mostly on Discord, is this concept of a time loop. Not just any old time loop, though. A 27 year cycle, specifically.

Not 20, not 30...

Now, we all know the TFS timeline is messy as hell and doesn't actually align with anything that's possible in filmed canon...or within its own time span, even.

For example, the attack on Mr. Newby happens both some point after October 1st, 1959 and before November 20th, 1959...but the papers for the incident report it on March 20th, 1958:

The timeline we're given also largely fabricated, as I pointed out in relation to the newspapers with dates that don't actually exist.

However, much like NINA, the sequence itself being fake doesn't mean the events didn't happen. It's just not happening in the time frame we're told it's happening in:

It's a set of real events, just portrayed on a different time scale.

So, with all that in mind, I want to lay out a timeline, starting from Season 4 and moving backwards in time:

— Vecna opens the rifts, and El opens a gate to Dimension X in NINA, both in 1986. The March 1959 Creel Murders occur exactly 27 years before the Rifts and NINA's Dimension X gate open in 1986...at which point the Mindflayer is shown to be active.

— Mothergate opens through to Dimension X at some point between November 1983 and October 1984, this being somewhere between 16-28 months prior the Rifts opening. The paper about the attack on Mr. Newby, dated March 20th, 1958, is released exactly 610 days, or 20 months, prior to the Creel murders on November 20th, 1959. It's not necessarily the exact dates that are important here (again, these dates are relatively unreliable), but the gap between the dates.

When put in accordance with filmed dates (i.e. setting the release of this paper exactly 610 days prior to March 22nd of 1959), the paper for the attack on Mr. Newby would have been released on July 20th, 1957. This would be in line with Edward Creel's move to Hawkins in the spring of 1957...while also occurring 27 years before July of 1984, at which point Mothergate is open, and the Mindflayer is active.

This July date is especially funny to me considering we get "throwaway" lines like this...with shots in filmed canon from summertime:

Top: Joyce and Jim beginning their investigation into the attic attack. Hopper Sr. is questioning why Joyce and Jim are investigating, rather than attending school. Bottom: Alice and Henry with the rabbit death scenes in filmed canon, the setting showing full foliage and both children in summer clothing. "Is it summer break?" I don't know. You tell me, Chief.

Per TFS, Henry went missing in a cave system near his home town of Rachel, Nevada (hold that thought) at some point in the year prior to the attack on Mr. Newby. We've been told that Dimension X was involved in this event in Nevada, something happened there that left "Henry" altered physically. He was also flayed at some point around this time.

This all coincides with Henry's dramatic mood shift from a "normal and good" boy to one suffering from Mindflayer-induced psychosis. This change happened in tandem with the Nevada incident, dating back 10 months prior to the attack on Mr. Newby:

If we set Henry's initial disappearance in line with filmed canon like before, it becomes September of 1956, which is just over 27 years before Will's disappearance in November of 1983, at which point we know at least one gate is open.

We also have 1952, at which point TFS Henry would be 7 per his age as a 14 year old/freshman in play canon. This exists in a 27 year interval against 1979, when El opens the original gate that sends One to Dimension X, where he subsequently shapes the Shadow into the Mindflayer.

Here comes the first "hear me out".

My questions are:

Since Henry/Vecna/The Mindflayer/etc. in general don't show any capability for opening gates before 1986, then how the hell is the Mindflayer possessing anyone in 1959?

How did "Henry" get involved with Dimension X in Nevada in the 1950s?

Unless, by some chance:

Dimension X exists all the time simultaneously (i.e. it's a space outside time)

The gates exist simultaneously across time and space in the Right Side Up in 27 year intervals. By which I mean: A gate that opens in, say, 1983 would exist simultaneously in 1956, so on an so forth.

There's the disappearance of Captain Brenner and the USS Eldridge in 1943, which would, interestingly enough, align with 1970, the supposed year of El's conception.

Then, 1952. Now, I'm not sure what's special about 1952, when TFS "Henry" was 7, because they don't actually say what happened to make that year important! They make a point to show it to us, though, meaning something happened...we just don't know what. All I can say is that 1952 does exist in a 27 year interval against El's 1979 gate. Hold that thought.

Those addressed, let's fast-forward 4 years: 1956/1983.

Now, to be fair, there is some uncertainty in my mind about whether this specific gate incident stems from Brenner's involvement with Project Rainbow in Nevada pre-1957*, or if it stems from Mothergate in 1983, or if they created some kind of wormhole between the two locations 27 years apart...but that's a concept I need to explore more thoroughly in a another post.

In short, though: Did a singular El open a singular Mothergate? Did El open mothergate? Did Mothergate actually open on November 6th, 1983...or are we just supposed to assume it opened the same night Will went missing/the demogorgon came through? We're never given a concrete date for when Mothergate actually opened.

* In TFS, Brenner claims he's dedicated his life post-1943 to Project Rainbow with the goal of finding Dimension X, and that he's doing so in pursuit of knowledge regarding the circumstances of his father's death in connection with the Philadelphia Experiment. The USS Eldridge, Brenner Sr.'s ship, disappeared into Dimension X briefly on October 28th, 1943. "Brenner Sr." was the sole survivor. "He" returned to the Right Side Up with a completely unique blood type, supposedly altered by his travels into Dimension X. This is what ultimately led to him succumbing to his injuries, due to his body rejecting all forms of blood transfusion. Brenner Jr. tells us that about 10 months prior to Henry's first stay in HNL, a scientist from Project Rainbow escaped Brenner's lab carrying a container of a dangerous material, and ended up near the same Nevada cave system Henry disappeared into. We don't know how or when this material was collected, or what it was, but we know they found Henry's Captain Midnight spyglass next to a body (identity unspecified) with no trace of that dangerous material. We get no further detail about the Nevada Disappearance.

Anyway, someone opens a gate in the fall of 1956 and/or 1983 (my money's on it being directly linked to an El in 1983 either way). No matter who did it, though, someone opened a gate at both time points, showing us this 27 year link between the 2 dates, 2 key locations.

"Henry" goes missing in Nevada in 1956, and ends up involved with Dimension X...Which aligns with the choice of song surrounding this version of the Creel family while they move into their new home:

Coincidentally, 27 years in the future, so does Will, in Indiana. Their experiences are linked across those two spaces via that 27 year period.

We know that regardless of the gate in Nevada...Mothergate, at least, stays open until from fall 1956/1983 to fall 1957/1984. That covers exact time frame that the adjusted dates for both Henry's accident with the boy in Nevada and his accident with Mr. Newby fall in (as well as Will's time between his disappearance and his flaying).

The closer we get to Will's flaying in 1984, and the closer the Mindflayer gets to crossing through Mothergate, the more TFS Henry sounds like One (post-1979) while he's possessed in 1957, the more strangely he behaves in general (almost as though the Mindflayer is more enmeshed in his everyday life/closer to the surface), and the stronger the possession attempts seem to become overall. He begins giving nightmare visions to other people, namely tormenting Virginia with spiders and her past. He has his final and most powerful "Vecna" vision on the night of the attack on Mr. Newby.

Any kind of reciprocal gate irt Mothergate in the '50s would have gone unnoticed, since the papers in TFS indicate that HNL wasn't established until Brenner showed up to take Henry in.

Mothergate closes briefly, only for a gate to open in July 1958/1985 in the underground location of the future Starcourt Mall. This, in 1958, is during our unaccounted-for 20 months between the attack on Mr. Newby and the Creel murders. (Something rattles about this and the scene where Henry nearly makes full contact with the Mindflayer, when he has a handful of duplicate lines re: his 4.07 monologue self, but I don't have sufficient evidence to make that claim with any certainty.)

That gate closes, until Vecna opens gates in Hawkins in March of 1986, and El opens a Dimension X gate briefly and simultaneously in both Hawkins/Nevada in September of 1979 (September of 1952) and Hawkins/Nevada in March of 1986 (March of 1959) during NINA, concurrently...at least one of which may have gone unnoticed, since the Rainbow Room and the surrounding labs seems to have been abandoned entirely after 1979, and HNL as a whole has once again been abandoned after the events of 1984 ("unnoticed" and "abandoned", I say as if the building isn't still being surveilled by Brenner/Owens et. al...I just mean that the building isn't in use by the government at that point in time.)

We're shown the Shadow activating all the way in Russia due to one or multiple of these events. 27 years earlier, in March of 1959, the Mindflayer once again becomes active, per TFS's adjusted dates. Chaos ensues.

At this point, "Henry" starts swapping between sounding like his young self and sounding like his 4.07 Monologuing Adult self again, doing that kind of "I've seen the future" foreshadowing talk with Joyce that his visions did with him:

Here, he also sounds distinctly like ST3 flayed Billy, specifically in the way of the scene with El in the cabin when "Billy" outlines the Mindflayer's plans for her, her friends, and all of Hawkins while crying.

The rest is, well...history. Whatever fuckery went on, it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. After all, TFS is a "canon event", meaning it had to end the way it did.

Remember those thoughts I asked you to hold?

TFS being a "canon event" means it had to end with Henry in the lab alongside baby El...thus completing our loop, which starts again with the events of 1979/1952. A 27 year loop. TFS may be indicative of a time loop.

Hence:

Out of place dates from the 1970s start to bleed into the 1950s: - A town like Rachel, Nevada, which wasn't established until 1978, now exists circa 1952-1959 after El opens a gate to Dimension X circa 1979 in Nevada circa 1986 via NINA, which exists...about 40-50 miles from Rachel.

- An album like Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (November, 1971) or a song like "Chuck E's In Love" (April, 1979) gets referenced circa 1957-1959. - An article about a "younger, more handsome" alien clone of Elvis appears in a 1959 Weekly Watcher paper about the Creel murders, despite Elvis having been 24 at the time...making this an article more likely to have appeared in the '70s or later, likely sometime around Elvis' death in 1977.

2. The Shadow is always depicted as the fully formed Mindflayer circa 1956-1959, despite the shaping event happening in the 4 years between 1979-1983:

3. Henry has Vecna-type visions, despite being the only vision-giver we know of circa 1957-1959.

4. 6 different guys later in the HNL massacre: 2 with the original baby El, 2 with teen El via NINA, and 2 in an as-of-yet unseen product of NINA's Loop (see: the final scene of TFS).

All this laid out, some questions remain:

Why do Henry's visions show him the genuine, terrifying reality of his future?

Why are these visions generally lacking in coercion?

Why are Vecna chime sounds heard before the major supernatural events that deal with visions, even though we never actually see the clock? (They're heard before Virginia in the attic, before the attack on Mr. Newby, before the Creel murders, and in the basement when Henry monologues at Joyce while viewing the corpses of his family.)

Why don't these chimes play when the Mindflayer alone is present, e.g. when no visions occur? (See: Henry contacting the Mindflayer in the lab)

And we don't really get an answer to any of these. Not an easily spotted outright answer, anyway.

But what's really fascinating, which I mentioned just a second ago and takes me back to the top of this post, back to the "Stardust Spider" and Shadow Man, is the fact that despite occurring concurrently with the possession attempts...none of these visions contain an ultimatum. There's no "If you don't obey me, I'll hurt someone you love", no "I'm showing you what's going to happen if you don't obey me", nothing of the sort.

The closest we get to coercion is the bathroom vision, when Henry fights off a possession attempt in the school bathroom and ends up in a vision regarding Patty. When "Patty" starts to talk to him about his future, about how Henry's going to kill her and so many others, Henry says "you're not Patty...what are you?" Then he gets into a physical brawl with her, which is surprisingly well matched. Vision Patty encourages him during that fight, saying things like "That's it!", "We want the same thing!", and "We can have her!"

Those seem like pretty straightforward "the Mindflayer's encouraging Henry to kill" encouragements, right?

Yeah, at first glance. However...lets read that back right quick, but with Moral Objectivity Goggles on this time. Henry openly, verbally identifies that Vision Patty is "not her, not Patty", but is, in fact, something else. He does this multiple times before he lunges at "not Patty", and he is subsequently encouraged by not-Patty...who tells him they want the same thing. That's not suspicious at all. The motives here are definitely crystal clear and totally aren't conflicting in any way.

There's the straightforward surface aspect, and then something else piggybacking on it, complicating it. Hold that thought.

Other than that instance, the negative parts of Henry's visions are all just...information. They're showing him what will come to pass...almost like they're motivating him to fight the Mindflayer. Hold onto that thought too, it buddies with the previous one.

Henry's freaking out about Prancer because he's getting close with Patty, and he's worried he'll hurt her?

His vision informs him that he's going to kill more, that he's going to hurt things, that he's going to kill Patty if he stays around her and/or gives into the Mindflayer's desires. And then it happens. All of it. He kills more animals. He hurts things and people, the pets and lab animals, Mr. Newby, and Inmate 58361 being prime examples. He gives in to the Mindflayer's desire to kill and kills Virginia. He does, by the extent of his perception, kill Patty in the accident.

The same goes for his vision in the attic. Henry's up in the attic using his powers to find someone/snoop on them, fearful of opening himself up for a possession attempt?

The vision version of Patty's mother catches Henry and tells him she "wants to tell him a secret" while his body is being puppeted to attack Mr. Newby. The next time the curtain rises to show us the inside of Henry's mind, he's seeing himself as Vecna, strung up on the tentacles and strangling people with them...just like the end of Season 4. Once again, he's seeing the future that will come to pass...should he fail to fight the Mindflayer off.

We can tell it's a vision, not what's physically happening in reality, because: a) Henry's watching himself in the attic from the stage below. b) It's got the messed up red lighting c) They show us reality just moments before, not a tentacle in sight and without Henry on the stage there observing:

d) The ending of the vision doesn't match with reality:

At the end of this vision, Henry passes out both in the void and IRL, while the vision version of Henry remains crouching. That is a different guy, entirely separate from IRL/Void Henry. There is at least one other person in the visions who is not a product of the vision itself.

Remember those thoughts from a bit ago that I asked you to hold?

Well. This also happens to be the sequence where we not only get Vision-Patty repeating Henry's own words from just after Prancer's death ("It's not real. It's not real. It's a nightmare") back to him, a phrase IRL Patty has never heard, but we also get:

Visions Patty telling Henry how to fight and evade the possession, as if she knows what she's doing ("It's your dream, remember? Anything is possible").

Vision Patty telling Henry she loves him as the last-ditch effort when his "good dream" memory of the real Patty fails to save him from the possession.

These are both things IRL Patty wouldn't know or think to say, since IRL Patty fully believed that Henry attacked her of his own volition out of malice, and she needed to be shown a drawing of the Mindflayer by Mr. Newby in order to abandon that belief.

IRL Patty's behavior is not the behavior of someone who a) knows the ins and outs of Henry's situation with the Mindflayer, and b) coached him through overcoming a possession attempt a little while earlier. It's just not.

Just like before, we're seeing contradictions and complications between vision-selves and IRL selves, along with a sense of piggybacking within possession attempts, wherein the vision serves as motivation for Henry to fight harder in resistance to the Mindflayer...while the Mindflayer is possessing him.

It's starting to become my favorite thing in the world: A pattern of behavior.

In summary:

Henry's are visions are visions of his future, and they're being shown to him by someone.

They are separate from, but piggybacking on, the Mindflayer's possession attempts.

The purpose of the visions isn't solely to torment Henry or coerce him into doing the Mindflayer's bidding. In fact, the content of the visions seems curated to make Henry fight harder in resistance to the Mindflayer.

So if, for example, Vision Patty ≠ IRL Patty, but she's acting against the Mindflayer's best interest/in support of Henry...then...

I think my answer to the questions of "who", "when", and "how" should be at least somewhat clear by this point:

Someone...from the future.

Specifically, someone from 1979-1986 who has access to the gates from the Dimension X side, someone with both vision-giving and time-related abilities who's directly connected to the Mindflayer/the Hive Mind, but who has a vested interest in countering the Mindflayer, saving Henry Creel, and trying to change the course of the future.

A traitor. A spy, if you will.

"A spy...from the future?"

[gestures at the Signs] Yeah, you heard me.

A spy from the future.

So, on that note: The point in this section wherein I ask you to hear me out.

I get the feeling TFS Henry is being told and/or shown what will come to pass in the future by himself...the Mindflayer.

And you're probably going "How do you figure that one, James? Isn't the Mindflayer a villainous force?"

I mean, yeah. Of course it is. However...

There are clearly multiple forces at play within the Mindflayer (hive mind!), and TFS shows us that Henry Creel wouldn't choose to be a villain.

Thus I think the visions in TFS are situations where, as in the 4.07 rabbit scene, things look really damning on first view. They play on our empathy using small, visibly-frightened, helpless victims and shocking, violent circumstances to guide us into making the assumption that everything about the situation is inherently malicious.

We're shown this poor little guy, "Henry". He's 14 years old, he clocks in at 5'5", he's skittish/scared of (ha) his own shadow, and he's geeky to the nth degree about comic books (just LOOK at that Captain Midnight salute? What an cute little nerd). He's immediately lovable. He's also, we find out rather abruptly, plagued by horrific visions and murderous fits of possession.

The immediate response is to go "He's being psionically tortured by some sick, sadistic son of a bitch who hungers for nothing but blood and control", just like Nancy and the ST fandom collectively did with Young Henry's rabbit scene...only to be proven wrong about Henry's intentions via TFS.

I mean, does anyone (anyone who's able to read this post, anyway 🤭) look at TFS Henry, filmed Young Henry, or even Orderly Henry and go "Yeah. He totally wanted what he got, and if he had the chance, he definitely wouldn't try to save himself from that fate"?

No.

TFS Shows us that "Henry" was a terrified, traumatized boy who wanted it all to stop. He's kind, brave, and stronger than he seems. We're also shown that he's capable of overcoming the Mindflayer to issue warnings to people he cared about (i.e. telling people to run, or prophesying dangers he'd seen via the visions). He was trying to survive with next to no help while causing as little harm as possible. He was a good kid, and he certainly wasn't evil.

So, all that said...I think that, via the Shadow's hive-mind capabilities, Henry's "fronting", in a manner of speaking, in order to show this version of himself the future. Probably as a warning, probably as motivation to fight the Mindflayer, and all with a nice side-dish of "here's how you fight this thing off so that my current future doesn't become our future" before someone else tapes over the figurative laptop camera.

[coughs, drops this Brenner-Mindflayer collage on the table in front of you, and then scurries away]

With that said, I'd like to loop all the way back to the top of this post: The "Shadow Man" may be Henry from the future. He's waiting up ahead to show his younger self the true outcome of his choices.

We all know how TFS ends, though. Hence:

[EPIC FAIL COMPILATION]

This brings me to my final "bear with me" point: The matter of the strange double-agent vibes from the UD in every season.

I'm not sure if anyone else outside the unholycule has noticed this, but in every season there's at least one instance of the UD just...offering up information.

"It does?"

Yup! Let me explain.

On first glance, we look at things like Nancy's vision and even El's vision with Billy in the cabin, and we go "Oh, it's because [insert "the bad guy's cruel/he wants to scare her/his hubris will be his downfall/all serial killers want to be known for their crimes" etc here]"...but maybe that's not the case.

For example: Vecna told Nancy his backstory, and then he immediately went

"Oh hey, so not only am I revealing my identity (Which may help you find out more about me via lab records later on, things like...maybe a list of my abilities, or my weaknesses, like the fact that I have a nut allegry. Allegedly.), but I'm also gonna give you a sneak peek of my apocalypse plans. For free. As a treat. Don't use these to prepare or anything. I'm totally not giving you a head start".

Terrifying, yes. A taunt and a threat on surface view, yes...but also showing his hand. "I want you to tell Eleven everything you see" Why. Why would he want that. He may be confident in his plans, arrogant, even...but he's not that stupid.

I'm serious, though. Check it out in comparison to Henrys visions of the future. The pattern is patterning:

We can track that back to El's cabin scene with Billy, wherein he tells her she shouldn't have looked for him, warns her that they all can see her, and that they're going to be coming after her...and he cries about it. That's vision Billy. That's someone else who piggybacked into El's mind from Billy's mind. That's not real Billy, just like how Billy in Max's vision wasn't the real Billy. The person giving El that vision warns her. Why on earth would he tell her that they can see her, that they're coming for her? That's sensitive information! It would be smarter to let her think she's safe and use that false sense of security to catch her off guard.

In fact, this pattern patterns so well that I'd like to argue this: Henry's TFS visions, Nancy's vision, and El's vision are all the same type of behavior displayed in NINA's chess scene, just in different contexts.

Henry ("Henry") gives some kind of scary prophetic information ("He and the others are going to attempt to kill you", "I would very much like to show you where I am going", "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"), and then we're left to question if it's a scare tactic, manipulative misinformation, or helpful inside information.

It's not that the Mindflayer or Vecna can't hide things from people (see: "Somewhere he didn't want me to see")...like, say, the fact that the Mindflayer is now able to see El, or that Vecna's planning to open 4 gates with his 4 kills.

It's always this miraculous "Huh! Weird info-dropping behavior from the UD's side. Shouldn't look that gift-horse in the mouth though. It's probably just a writing oversight or a shoehorned exposé, so really there's no need to question it." situation where it's just...information that's offered up with no real explanation.

Some of my favorite examples:

...and it's all topped off with Max's line:

"He's been telling us his plan this whole time".

That is to say...You're telling me:

The first message from the Upside Down isn't any of the messages that are concretely Will's, but instead it's the one that's a repetitive Henry line...and it's conveyed in a distinctly not-Will style? A message that saves Joyce, something that's definitely not in the UD's best interest given her tenacity in finding her boy...but is definitely coming from the UD nonetheless?

Will, who fell total prey to the Mindflayer in less than 3 days, was not only able to figure out how to defeat the Mindflayer, but was also strong enough to convey it in Morse code? The Mindflayer, who is able to keep secrets (see below), just...let that information slip?

El, who acknowledges that the Mindflayer is more than able to hide things from her, is suddenly released into Billy's memories and allowed to find the source unimpeded?

The Mindflayer, as Billy (Remember: not actually Billy, because Billy can't give visions or invade minds), is telling El that because he's able to see her now, she shouldn't have looked for him? The Mindflayer, which was supposedly building the Fleshflayer to track El down and kill her? Suddenly he's telling her she shouldn't have done the thing that allowed him to find her more easily?

Vecna's giving up all the information about himself and his plans before he's even gotten the 4th gate open, despite him being so secretive about it up until that point?

Henry's visions in TFS are going to scare him into resisting the Mindflayer, making it less likely that he's going to upgrade to killing humans, i.e. the very thing the Mindflayer wants him to do?

None of that makes any damn sense...until we hit this last point:

Orderly Henry is known for giving inside information about "Papa" to El with no clear motive other than getting her to leave the lab.

Now, if you know my page then you know Em's been talking about double meanings in phrasing recently (see: this post about "who"s and "what"s).

So, with that in mind, I'd like you to chew on this:

"He's been telling us his plan this whole time." vs "He's been telling us His plan this whole time."

By which I mean: "He's been telling us some other man's plan this whole time."

[Mike voice] Superspy.

As a parting thought, I made it all into a nice, neat set of collages:

Not to mention this final, parting bit:

[viridislumine]

Ninjago Dragons Rising theory!

Sourse dragon talked about this "cycle".

"Maybe we meet again at the end of this cycle"

Cycle can mean some kind of loop. That all of that already happen. Time loops aren't really new trop but i think it can be interesting and as I saw today someone talking about that Lloyd maybe will die at the end od Dragon Rising I just come up with another thing.

The end will be "end of this cycle". It will be the event that is reason of this cycle, being their end, marking it reset and starting new one.

It can be also that somehow the cycle will be broken, but I actually think not breaking it can be interesting but it's up to discussion.

Co now, what is "center" of loop?

I think the center is Lloyd. We saw his vision after first encounter with Source Dragon. The graveyard with ninja masks and sand. Sand is really made me think of destruction, the battles and this post-apo climaxes. I don't think we should take this scene as realism more like symbolism. All ninja will fall and world will become wilderness.

He showed him the moment where cycle is restored. Lloyd alone is quite powerful being Green Ninja and being able to connect with Golden Power (real power never really fade right?) And now we see he is able to use power led by source dragon. What we can assume isn't normal as he sayed it couldn't "change him forever".

So, this end is Lloyd seeing his family falling, (they don't need to die but he think that), and with his own power, creation and destruction, and energy of source Dragon recreate world to be again with his family. To spend time with them again, to not lose them. He kinda become the most powerful being.

It may be a little too much but it could also be why the other realm Merge with Ninjago specifically. Because there is the center of the loop, Lloyd. It all come back to him, and maybe some plan of FSM? Maybe he setup for something to happen but it back fire and left all realms in infinite time loop of creation and destruction?

Actually it would also fall with whole deal about creation and destruction because it would mean the world is destroyed to be create yet again.

I know It may be and most probably isn't the case. But I just wanted to share that. What do you think? I would love something like this to happen! (If not there are always fanfics....)

[the-exhausted-xexandaler]

Tears of the Kingdom hot take; It’s not actually the latest in the canon… it would’ve been the first in a repeating cycle.

I’m not talking about like how Majora’s Mask does it with the Song of Time reverting Link to the start of the three day deadline. I mean a cosmic repetition. Let’s break it down:

Bomb Flowers are commonly seen around the caves and underground, yet only super tech from an ancient civilization can make explosives artificially. Bomb Flowers are also nowhere at all in BotW, but plentiful in TotK. It may be true that the BotW had bomb Arrows and barrels, but no organic bomb flowers.

The master sword broke and was ‘restored’ by the light dragon who (it’s already been a few months since the game came out so spoilers are a go ahead), in other words Zelda, an incarnation of the Goddess Hylia who is said in multiple places to be the Goddess of Light and/or Time. The sword is now filled with so much holy, godly energy that if Link didn’t have his arm on loan from the original king he probably wouldn’t have been able to handle.

Notice how Ganondorf was specifically called ‘Demon King’ in multiple accounts of TotK’s plot and takes an appearance similar to the original Demon King Demise. If Zelda hadn’t been able to restore the Master Sword over 10,000 years, he might’ve conquered the world or had to be sealed by the gods all over again.

Ganondorf is also the origin of all monsters. Bokoblins? Moblins? Hinox? All from Ganondorf’s malice.

Bokoblins in both BotW, TotK and Skyward sword hold similar appearances. About human sized goblin creatures.

While the Moblins of BotW and TotK don’t look like Moblins in SS, the Boss Bokoblins do. Large stocky body that lumber over to whack the incarnated hero with lots of sticks.

Freaking floating islands that no doubt would have been Skyloft and it’s accompanying islands a few thousand years down the road.

The map of the regions in SS matches pretty well with BotW and TotK. Eldin Volcano matches up with Death Mountain in the Eldin and Akala regions to the NE.

Faron’s woods matches up with Lanayru, Nacluda and Faron regions being a mix of both a well forested and very watery region.

Lanayru Desert matches up with the Gerudo region pretty nicely with the exception of the robots and greenery, but oh oh the Zonai have a depo deep underground and a swarm of well learned ladies who could easily learn how to reverse engineer the technology for agriculture and mining especially given the Gerudo highlands that are literally a light jaunt away.

The boss Scaldera is eerily alike a pillbug version of a Talos or more likely to be akin to the Marbled Gohma, a similarly single eyed creature that lives in a volcanic region.

The Mucktorok is a being that creates vile sludge that could poison the resilient Zora, likely would be able to even poison a legendary dragon in a strong enough dosage.

The Gibdos in TotK may be more humanoid and more similar to moths, but Lanayru Mining facility has had an awful infestation by a seemingly immortal species of Scorpions.

Rito species could easily be seen as an evolutionary upgrade to the Loftwings, but could also be seen as a predecessor. The Loftwings aren’t simple birds, but a clever species able to respond to complex instructions and respond to the unique whistles of their chosen riders. This is especially likely as the region might’ve just kept growing colder and colder until the Rito race have to adapt to new surroundings.

Nit every Goron had been corrupted by the Marbled Gohma. The young could have fled Death Mountain after all the corrupted Gorons killed eachother over the Marbled Roast. Maybe becoming a race of nomads like they were in SS.

Zelda was able to restore herself with the help of Link, Sonia and Rauru at the end of the game, so it’s likely the other three roaming dragons that loop around Hyrule (Farosh, Naydra and Dinraal) could regain a modicum of sense in time to help restore a few regions to sense, and all three relate to the elements of the sacred dragons of Skyward Sword (Faron and Naydra have water and ice based abilities respectively, Eldin and Dinraal are fire based, Lanayru and Farosh are electric based).