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stranger-chichka · 2 years

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Stranger Things/IT (1990) parallels

As I was watching IT (1990) lately I realised something. I need you to recall the moment our Cali gang is driving home from Rink-o-Mania, Argyle and Jonathan are talking about the wheels and…start singing (I already analysed this scene, but my main focus was on the wheels, now I want to focus on the word "blip" and what it hints at).

Jonathan calls the incident with Angela "a little blip" and then he and Argyle start singing this word. The melody is definitely "Entry of the Gladiators" written by Julius Fucik. It is associated with circus and clowns, right? And who's the main villain in IT? Pennywise. A clown.

Before we move on, I want to add some references I found in the name of the composer.

Julius. I noticed this exact word in relation to drinks while analysing Starcourt Mall teaser. It means "youthful, downy-bearded" and my guess is that it's a reference to the OG party's DnD characters? Will draws them with beards. Fucik. In 1985 Tomas Fucik was born. He's a Czech former swimmer (we have A LOT of water references in ST), who specialized in backstroke (=piggyback reference?) and individual medley (=El's individual arc reference?) events.

So, the song. The name of this military march (= soldiers attack the Byers' house and are chasing El) is "Entry of the Gladiators." It was composed in 1897 (1+8+9+7 = 25. 2+5 = 7)

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In s3 Hopper calls himself Antique Chariot, and "chariot" is a two-wheeled vehicle that was used in ancient times for racing and fighting and was pulled by a horse or horses. And this foreshadows his fight with a sword against the demogorgon.

Joyce calls herself Wheelbarrow, and "barrow" is a vehicle moved by a person from which fruit and vegetables, etc. are sold at the side of a road. This one foreshadows the Cali gang's road trip + pineapple pizza in s4.

So, the original march is called "Entrance of the Gladiators" op. 68 and adaptation - the one, that became a screamer march for circuses, often used to introduce clowns - is called "Thunder and Blazes."

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Thunder. A loud rumbling or crashing noise heard after a lightning flash. Lightning comes first with the sign of light presence followed by thunder. Light = Will. He is the first to realise his feeling for Mike ("It was a 7"). And Mike = thunder. He's always late. And, of course, blazes. Downtown on fire.

A giant creature with a gaping mouth. This once again reminded me of IT. In the final battle IT transforms into a giant spider with big teeth. And who is obsessed with spiders in s4? Henry Creel.

IT (1990)

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Now, the word "blip." A spot of light. At first, I thought it was something romantic because of how Mike always sees Will in the light, but that was until that moment in the film. Deadlights.

"The Deadlights were writhing, radiant orange lights that were a mysterious but very deadly and terrifying eldritch form of energy that originated from the preternatural dimension known as the Macroverse, also known as the Todash Darkness (=the Upside Down). They're a recurring plot element in Stephen King's works including The Dark Tower and IT. It was well known that just a mere glance into the bright lights instantly caused death or permanent insanity."

IT used these Deadlights to blind new victims, usually children, and robbed them of their conscious minds. It used this to drive his victims insane as well as leaving them both immobile and lifeless before taking them away to consume later."

Doesn't remind you of anything? Or better to say, anyone? Vecna.

I believe the blue light in Stranger Things = The Deadlights = evil while the yellow light going from Will is opposite to that - it's good.

Examples of blue light in ST:

the Upside Down is blue;

Vecna kills under the blue light;

blue light in Starcourt Mall and it's associated with 1) russians who were opening the gates into the Upside Down; 2) Vecna, because he's connected to the Upside Down; 3) Mike, because of this teaser and his probable blood connection with Henry;

Scoops Ahoy has a lot of blue everywhere. Bad things happen to Steve and Robin when they're wearing Scoops Ahoy's uniform + it's name and theme related to water and water is bad. We can see Scoops Ahoy when Billy dies. Also, they’re selling ice-cream. It’s cold. Who likes it cold? The Mind Flayer? Who controls him? Vecna. Everything in the Starcourt Mall is pointing at his presence there. Water is bad in IT as well. Bill's brother is killed by it when it's raining. Pennywise literally says that his victims “float.” Bill relives his memories of first seeing IT in the form of Georgie (his brother) in the basement of his old house, all while actually being submerged in underwater (=El & the sensory deprivation tank). IT lives in the sewers (=an artificial passage or pipe, usually underground, that carries waste and used water from sinks and toilets) and the Losers defeat it there.

Vecna chases Billy in blue light;

blue light at Rink-o-Mania & Will wearing blue outfit there;

+ the disco ball may symbolise Vecna's watching them (a reference to Snow Ball and "Every Breath You Take" song about stalking) but later we have this transition from the ball (=Vecna) to the yellow light (=Will).

We have this contrast of blue = cold = evil (He likes it cold. When it's cold I want to die. The preacher likes the cold) and yellow = warm = good. It's definitely Will.

Yes, Will is similar to Vecna in many cases, but they're so much like Harry Poter and Voldemort. Harry/Will was chosen by Voldemort/Vecna. Voldemort wanted to kill Harry but in reality, created a connection between him and Harry. This connection was both a good and bad thing. Harry could feel how Voldemort felt but Voldemort, knowing about this connection, could manipulate Harry. The same thing is with Vecna and Will. Will tells Mike in the cabin: "I can feel him. I can still remember what he thinks and how he thinks." But in s2 Vecna uses this connection for his own purposes. God, I was supposed to write a post about UT/Stranger Things parallels and ended up on Harry Potter parallels, I'm hopeless...But let's go back to IT.

IT reminds Venca so much. Let me demonstrate:

can disguise Itself as anything its victims want - or fear - to see (=Vecna showing his victims their fears);

prefers to encounter Its prey alone (=Vecna usually attacks when they're alone);

assumes a form which is the most terrifying to Its prey before revealing Its true form, and driving the poor unfortunate to madness (=the same with Vecna here);

an interesting fact: in 1985 IT changed his form into the shark from Jaws. Guess what poster we see in Will's room, very often behind Mike's back? The Jaws.

feeds on that human’s soul, the one thing that gives It sustenance (=Vecna also feeds on people's souls and becomes stronger from it);

"Silver cat feeds"

adopted a cycle (= never-ending story) of hibernating for long periods and waking approximately every 27 to 30 years (=Vecna kills his mom in 1959 and starts killing again in 1986);

telepathy (can clearly read the Losers' thoughts, and use them to its own advantage), mind control ability (has the ability to erase particular things out of a person's memory or knowledge = birthdaygate), telekinesis (these are Vecna's powers too);

Possibly IT may have an effect on the weather in Derry's region. On more than one occasion, when the Losers face It, the weather changes into a thunderstorm. Most notably at the final confrontation, which actually devastates Derry's downtown region. Also, possibly photokinesis (light manipulation).

In Stranger Things we see a thunderstorm:

in s1 on the next day Will went missing when the boys go looking for him (Mike insists on them going);

in s2 we hear thunder when Bob comes to Byers to check on Will and Mike's already there, worried as hell about him;

in s3 when Mike & Will are arguing, Mike hurts WIll's feelings but immediately rides apologising;

in s4 we also hear thunder during Mike's monologue to El, when he's ripping off the band-aid and thinking this time he definitely lost Will.

Every time Mike is devastated because he thinks he lost Will he manipulates the weather subconsciously.

Talking about photokinesis, I do believe both Vecna and Will can manipulate light. But as I wrote previously, Will's light is always bright = warm = good, and Vecna's is blue = cold = bad.

It leads to this moment in Creel's house:

Time manipulation = Vecna (maybe Mike, because he's always late); Weather manipulation = Mike (we see Alice wearing a dress with colourful umbrellas on it and Alice might be Karen); and...light manipulation = both Will & Vecna.

Also, I found some characters' parallels, so I'm adding them too.

This obvious love triangle was already mentioned by incredible @will80sbyers - El/Bill, Mike/Bev and Will/Ben.

Bev is Ben’s first friend at school, she initiates their conversation and Mike is Will’s first friend in kindergarten, who also initiates the conversation (AND they ended up together).

Bill’s brother is killed by IT and he blames himself for that. In s4 El thinks she’s the one who killed the kids in the lab (=her brothers and sisters), she also suffers from that feeling of guilt. However, it’s not their fault and they admit it in the face of evil.

Bev is the first person who volunteers to help Bill and fight against IT and Mike is the person who takes El to his home and is going to protect her from “bad people.”

Ben writes a poem for Bev, but she thinks it's from Bill at first and has a crush on him. Will paints a picture for Mike, but makes him believe El commissioned it.

I believe Max is paralleled to Audra (Bill’s wife) in s4.

She’s taken by IT and is made catatonic. The Losers Club rescue her but she’s still not there (=Max is taken by Vecna, is cursed, the party saves her but she's in a kind of coma). Bill never leaves her side and he’s the one who heals her (I didn’t include the moment of El making Max's heart beat again, because she's not awakened yet.) Also, this parallel gives so much Elmax energy that I start worrying about Lucas’s fate in the show… However, he's the one never leaving Max's side in the hospital, so I hope the Duffers won't copy everything from IT and it will be Lucas who heals Max (No hate, I like Elmax, but I just want Lucas to have a happy ending too!!!)

Dustin is paralleled to Mike in some ways.

both are bullied and threatened at school;

both are connected to the library (Mike works here Dustin goes there a lot);

both were separated from their party for some time (Mike stays at the hospital after being hurt by Henry while the Losers Club are fighting IT, and Dustin in s3 while he’s stuck with Steve, Robin & Erica).

Now, some things that are bothering me.

The first one - Silver cat.

I still have doubts about who exactly it is. It's associated both with Creels and Wheelers, because my guess is they somehow must be connected. The same in IT - it's associated both with IT (eyes like silver coins) and the Losers (silver slugs and Bill's bicycle).

I recalled the Kas theory and the existance of the artefact called the Eye of Vecna. "The only way to permanently destroy the Eye of Vecna was if both the Eye and the Hand of Vecna were attached to the same creature, and then that creature was slain by the artefact known as the Sword of Kas. Any other attempt to destroy either artefact merely transported it into a hidden vault in an unknown location." We already saw Hopper with the sword. I believe we'll see Mike with the sword in s5 considering he's paralleled to Hopper a lot and so he could be paralleled to St Michael. Also, the disco ball at Rink-o-Mania is silver and I already wrote about my thought it is the way the Duffers wanted to show us Vecna is watching our trio. Vecna's killing while Mike went to Cali ("Silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west"). Bev wounds IT with 2 silver slugs made by Ben (We know that Will's slug in s2 transformed into demodog and then demogorgon. Does that mean in s5 they will be fighting against Vecna with the party or what?) out of a silver dollar in their first battle in the chapter that is called The Bullseye. After Robin & Nancy succeeded in finding what they needed about the Creels family they call Dustin and Robin says Nancy's "shot in the dark was a bull's-eye," and in the battle against Vecna Nancy makes 5 shots (+ 2 Molotov cocktails from Steve & Robin before) and then Vecna vanishes. Together it's 7. 7 fireballs?

In the same battle Bill has performed the "Ritual of Chüd" (a psychic battle in which the two forces duelled with their wits = El is fighting Vecna through her mind) in an attempt to face IT in the Macroverse, the alternate universe where It is from = the Upside Down.

We have another Wheeler sibling who kinda helped the party. It's Holly. Her Lite Brite with a rabbit on it helps the party to communicate with those who are in the Upside Down through the lights. And what is interesting, when the 4 gates open, they start spreading, we hear the chimes and we are shown Creel's house, Eddie's trailer, Lovers Lake, the road where Fred was killed, Wheeler's house with falling photos, Holly and Karen, then again, Creel's house and the library. They showed us the places where the 4 gates were opened + Wheeler's house. Why? And Karen has her own poster in s4. Why? Because she's Creel. And her children too.

Look at these parallels between Holly and Alice. Nightmares. Both are scared because of Vecna.

Also, it's interesting that Holly has dogs on her collar. Dogs are associated with Mike ("I'm not a dog!" ) and demodogs. Dart was a demodog and I have a theory in mind that Dart may symbolise Mike being ashamed of his feelings toward Will = Holly knows about Mike's feelings toward Will. Also, she knows about the supernatural stuff (remember her noticing the lights and the monster in the wall in s1 + noticing the trees moving in s3?)

One more silver reference in IT - Bill's bicycle name is "Silver" and in the end, he takes Audra on a ride on it and during that ride she awakens. I don't have any idea what it symbolises but a bike has wheels, lol. The Wheelers will play a crucial part in healing Max or what? (actually, this resonates with @madwheelerz 's guess of Creels having the ability to reanimate).

2. The second thing and my main concern is Lucas.

I haven't written about any parallels between him and IT characters because I'm not sure who is he paralleled to. Mostly it's Richie I guess, but also Bev is the one entrusted to fire the silver slugs at IT and we know about Lucas's Slingshot Proficiency (knocking Billy briefly unconscious to save Max in s3) + his idea with fireworks in s3.

Richie:

provides emotional support for the group (= Lucas gives emotional support to Max in s1 and s4 + he's the one to give Mike advice when he starts having problems with his relationship with Eleven);

becomes a secondary leader (=s1 Lucas vibes when he's focused on finding Will) and rescues Bill (=in s1 he's the one to warn the party the dad people are coming for El) when the Ritual of Chüd goes wrong, helping Bill kill IT in the final battle;

ferociously fights IT alongside his friends and keeps Bill focused when his grief for Georgie becomes too much + keeps him stable when he thinks Audra might be dead (I believe we'll see Lucas & El bond in s5).

But this. This makes me feel worried about him. In their second and final battle against IT, Losers hit IT with their collective belief and love and childhood nostalgia. Bill fights his way inside It's body, locates It's heart and destroys it. But one of the main characters dies. It's Eddie. He uses his aspirator as before to seriously hurt IT in the physical world, losing his arm in the process and dying of blood loss. THIS scares me. Because look at the poster near Lucas. It says: "BE HERO GIVE BLOOD." And he's wearing blue. Blue=Vecna. There’s so much blue in that room actually. (Okay, I also remembered it was originally Mike standing near that poster but he decided to stand between El and Will, so now it’s Lucas who’s near it. God, I don’t want anyone from the party to die. PLEASE, NO. If he’s gonna sacrifice himself for Mike…I don’t even want to imagine it. Just no.)

Some parallels I've already posted you can check out here, here and here (if you made it till the end of the post...I hope somebody did though).

Wow, it took me some time to finish this post and I’m not even sure many people read it till the end, but still, I hope someone will. The Duffers really take a lot of inspiration from Stephen King’s books, especially films based on his books, and it’s so cool picking up all these parallels, I really enjoy the process and I want to believe some of us will enjoy the result!

P. S. I haven’t read “IT”, so the research is mostly based on the film and some info from Wikipedia and other sites, so if any fans of King and IT happen to read this post and have something to add or correct me, be free to leave your comments <3

#byler #stranger things #stranger things x it #stranger things parallels #stranger things/it parallels #stranger things theory #vecna #mike wheeler #will byers #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #el hopper #stranger things 5 theory

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