Stranger Things - The Rat King

Stranger Things - The Rat King

Most of the creatures in the show Stranger Things have an obvious parallel or base in D and D monsters. (Which I, having played D and D myself for a bit, absolutely love.) Yet at the start of season 3 I immediately saw another parallel with a mythical creature outside of D and D lore - The Rat King.  (Which, please correct me if I’m wrong, is only seen in D and D through homebrew’s instead of any official work.) 

I initially remembered the Rat King through the wonderful little Netflix cartoon Hilda, but I’ve run across it before while searching up random mythical creatures in my spare time(which I do quite often since I frankly absolutely adore them).  So I looked it up again after finishing the season in order to see if my initial comparison held true.

Rat King’s are typically a creature made up of a large group of rats that are intertwined through their tails. Similarly, the first version of the fleshy Mindflayer we see in season 3 is made up of the hatched goop from all of the infected rats in the surrounding area(before it then moves on to humans).

They’re not just mythical creatures but also cryptids (with seemingly fake corpses of the phenomenon supposedly being found). The Upside-down creatures of the show could also be seen as cryptids with only a select people knowing about them/having seen them while the general public is normally unaware of their presence.

They’re associated most with Germany, which is another historical enemy of America and in the same general area of Russia(so it’s fitting that season 3 introduces both the fleshy Mindflayer and the Russians).

In folklore they are associated with bad omens and plagues, which fits super well with this creature’s love of announcing it’s presence and intentions beforehand and with it’s bodysnatching and infecting tendencies/abilities. (Also in real life rats were wrongly considered the plague carriers while it was actually the fleas on them, while in the show the rats were also just being used by the babies/young parts of the fleshy Mindflayer that had borrowed their way inside of them.)

In some stories Rat Kings were actually tied together/created by humans and thus held grudges against their creators. This could parallel the Mindflayer’s grudge against El for letting them into our world in the first place but then almost immediately(in its’ eyes) shutting it back out.

In Hilda, that Rat King is shown trading secrets but I’m not sure how that could tie into the fleshy Mindflayer just yet (hopefully I might think of something later)?

Finally, apparently the name of this mythical creature was first used to reference someone who lived off of others, like “an old king who sits on a throne of young knotted tails” or something along those lines??? That one’s a bit more confusing and hard to interpret for me but it could parallel how both the American and Russian governments keep using all their money to spy on each other and mess with planes/dimensions that they shouldn’t be instead of using their money to more directly help their citizen’s. Or it could even tie into the Mayor thriving off his corrupted team up with the mall operatives while paying no mind/not caring about the small town businesses that suffered from it.

Well, I think that’s about it! It’s highly unlikely they actually intended for this neat little parallel(since like I said most of the parallels are meant to be drawn between D and D monsters and Upside down creatures), but I thought this was interesting to speculate about nonetheless!!!

Ooof these are all so good so it’s hard to choose but my absolute favorite would have to be the Adams Family au! I just love the nanny Patton premise and Virgil and Roman fit the roles of Morticia and Gomez so well???

Kat’s Sanders Sides AUs~

Because I can’t stop my imagination from coming up with a million AUs, I decided to just draw these and let you guys pick which one(s) you want to see more of (and even though I didn’t draw it for this, this does include my disney-fairytale-superheros au)

Also note that I’m gonna start on my Plance Descendants AU comic soon so any art I do for these AUs will be done when I take sanity-breaks from the comic (though text answers I’ll do anytime) 

(All these AUs have Prinxiety and Logicality and the Friends AU has Remile)

Info about each AU under the cut~

Keep reading

I haven’t seen the movie in forever but this is amazing! It’s just so sweet and perfect? And Virgil totally rocks those outfits. Also love that you made Remus’ black stripes thicker while you made Roman’s white stripes thicker. Ahhh such a nice subtle costume design. 

Kat’s Sanders Sides Beetlejuice AU~

And so it is here and it’s come with a twist!! I decided to combine both the movie and the cartoon!

Remus is Evil!Betelgeuse, Roman is Good!Beetlejuice, Logan is Adam Maitland, Patton is Barbara Maitland, Thomas is Juno, Virgil is Lydia Deetz, Emile is Charles Deetz, Remy is Delia Deetz, and (even though I didn’t draw him) Deceit is Otho

The plot is pretty much exactly like the movie except that Roman wants a free ticket out of the Netherworld but he can only do that by at least getting engaged so he tries to get Virgil to agree to it, saying that they never even have to get married

Meanwhile, Logan and Patton are trying to get the Deetz’s out of their house while also dealing with Roman’s evil twin brother, Remus (who later tricks Virgil into agreeing to the free-ticket-out-marriage by disguising himself as Roman)

In the end they defeat Remus and it’s a happy ending for all, and Roman and Virgil are engaged and go on adventures in the Netherworld!

Reblogs Are Welcomed~ <3

Iambic Pentameter.

Classic.

So About the Numbers...

Just finished watching Stranger Things season 3 with my Mom (it’s one of the few shows we watch and bond with together) and we were discussing and theorizing about The Numbers (Such as Eight/Kali and Eleven/El) as we’ve dubbed them and their possible powers and roles they could have in the show. We also tied in other’s theories and speculations that we really liked and thought would work well with our ideas.

Here’s what we came up with(warning - long post under cut):

 Probably not all of them survived. We’re guessing the first few, probably One through Seven (with Eight being the oldest surviving Number), have died tragically due to the tests the scientists were forcing them to go through. It’s most likely that they considered these first few failed experiments since they didn’t know how to properly test and train them just yet. We came up with 13 being the total original number but only 6 (Eight through Thirteen, will discuss the last two later) being around/surviving until now(the time of the series) but with a total of 7 on the final team if Will does have powers and joins in as an Honorary Number(really hoping he does), since both 13 and 7 hold a lot of symbolism and weight to them.

 They most likely all have different Psychic abilities/powers instead of Physical. Which seems to be what the scientists were focusing on with Eleven and Eight, in order to better spy and traverse the multiple planes. And this possibly ties into what powers Will could have too, with all of the allusions to shadow walking and plan traversing for him so far throughout the series along with the sensing/part clairvoyancy he had for the creature(s) in season 3. 

 Each of the different Squads/Team Ups for the next 1 or 2 seasons could run across one of the Numbers. This could be a nice callback to how they accidentally (or fatefully) ran into Eleven in the first season. And also allow for the Numbers to still come in even though Will, El and the others would probably be more focused on finding Hopper(we know he’s still alive I mean come on).The Byers and El could be the ones to run into Kali/Eight again since they hold the most emotional weight with her(El does specifically). 

 The ones we know so far. El/Eleven most likely has the most powers, especially since she seemed to be the scientist’s favorite/most successful experiment. Her powers mainly include Telekinesis/Psychokinesis(moving objects with her mind) and Telepathy(receives thoughts/memories from and connecting to others minds using the In-between). Though she probably also has Empathy(based on her interactions with Will, Heather, and Billy in the In-between where she appeared to be feeling their emotions herself), Clairvoyancy(a trait most likely shared with Will though hers seems to be geared more towards people while his seems to be geared more towards monsters), Levitation(can be achieved through her Telekinesis), and Retrocognition/Postcognition(seeing past events, mostly through others or through the In-between). Kali/Eight obviously has the power of Illusion and through that she might also be able to implant thoughts and memories into others minds instead of just images( this would be her more invasive version of El’s Telepathy). She most likely also has Thoughtography(imprinting images from one’s mind onto real world surfaces) which would be a more specific branch of her Illusions. Wil/Honorary Number, if he does have powers, would obviously be a plain traverser/ shadow walker which is most likely his version of Astral Projection with slight Apportation(teleporting oneself and objects). I’ve noticed people also speculating over him having Teleporting(which would tie into his version of Astral Projecting) and Invisibility(which could be his version of Kali/Eight’s Illusions) powers which I really love and have to absolutely agree with. Finally, there’s also his version of Clairvoyancy I mentioned earlier which seems to include Auto Writing(or drawing in his case, mainly based on season 2) and a bit of Precognition(being able to see the Mindflayer coming into their world before it actually happened).

 The ones we have yet to see. So that means so far we have 2 official surviving Numbers and 1 Honorary Number, leaving 4 more official Numbers to be found to make our dream team of 7. Which would be Nine, Ten, Twelve and Thirteen. The reason we included Twelve and Thirteen is that we still don’t believe Jane is Eleven or that El is the same as the girl in the Rainbow Room. There’s an age discrepancy between her and Kali/Eight that hints that they’re not the same person(which has been theorized by many before). So either Jane’s the one in the room and older than Eleven (making her Nine or Ten) or she was an unseen baby (making her Twelve or Thirteen). The former seems more probable given the timeline and Kali and El’s age gap. Either way though, we’re also guessing that they definitely didn’t stop at El and were beginning to create others that weren’t to her stage testing wise yet(probably being held at other facilities- we highly doubt there was just the one).

 Heavy Speculation Town. This is the part where we go a bit off the deep end and basically start writing our own show but bear with us. We came up with psychic based power sets and in some cases character plot points for the remaining members of the Numbers dream team. We hadn’t assigned them specific numbers though so I might as well go ahead and do that now, if only just to put them into placeholders. But bear in mind that this is mostly what we’d be most excited to see and/or what we feel would fit best for the show and that these power sets and especially the placements have a lot of wiggle room.

 Nine/The Firestarter. This Number could have mainly Pyrokinesis(fire control and manipulation) and perhaps some Energy Manipulation(to an extent of course) and Aura Reading(being able to sense other’s powers and abilities, maybe even the monsters). I made them the next oldest surviving number after Kali/Eight due to another idea we came up with for them based off of the theories other’s have come up with for a “Winter Soldier”-esque plot for a potentially surviving(or resurrected) Billy. The idea is basically based on a similar trope I’ve seen for a lot of Pyrokinetics (Such as Tom from Star Vs and Zuko from Avatar) where the fire starter is seen in a negative light at first before they’re redeemed and start helping the protagonists out. If Billy really is being brainwashed and used by the Russians, then perhaps they found one of the Numbers as well and have been brainwashing them too- allowing both him and the pyro to have an arc where they break free, redeem themselves, and join the main group. Fire is also a wonderfully useful power to add to the team due to the Upside down's creatures aversion to heat!

 Ten/The Rainbow Room Girl. This could possibly be Jane herself, or just the girl seen in the Rainbow Room with Kali. Being Ten would make her slightly older than El/Eleven and closer to Kali/Eight’s age. This Number could have Psychometry/Psychoscopy(ability to gain insight or visions through touching physical objects) which could be a prerequisite to El/Eleven’s more controlled way of gaining her insight through people and minds themselves. She could also have an early version of El’s ability to traverse plains using the In-Between(and Will’s potential ability to do so without the In-Between), which would be the power of Portal Making or Opening. This would be a more out of control way of traveling the plains since it temporarily opens the passageways up for everyone instead of just oneself. An accident with this ability could also explain where she’s been all this time/what’s happened to her and how her mom and Kali/Eight could never find her until now. It could also explain why the scientists also started making a machine to open up the passageways instead of having just the experimental kids do it- they realized because of Ten that it was too much of a job for the kids to handle alone. If Ten is Jane or the Rainbow Room Girl, it would then make sense for Hopper to find her while he’s trying to escape the Russians. Maybe the Russians manage to open a passageway to wherever she trapped herself during their experiments and she tumbles out into Hopper, who then comes to the realization/revelation that El/Eleven is not Jane- this girl is. And having similar yet less controllable/less poweful powers as Eleven would be another wonderful way to draw parallels between their two characters and overall arcs!

 Twelve/The Body Snatcher. This Number could have another version of Astral Projection and Telepathy that is more inline with Mind Control and Hive Minds. Their power could have been modeled after the Upside down’s creatures abilities to posses and body snatch people, after the scientist’s first run ins with the monsters(assuming they ran into the creatures previously before season 1, or at least that another location did). Instead of traversing plains, they mind hop from body to body(perhaps even animal’s bodies as well) in order to hide, sneak around, communicate, and gather information. If Radios or Walkie Talkies fail, this Number could be the replacement by jumping into multiple willing hosts or maybe even connecting the minds of all previous hosts. If trained well enough, this Number could also potentially take control of monster’s bodies and fight fire with fire so to speak. They might even be able to gain information from the mind of each host they’re in (which would be a more direct and potentially harmful version of El/Eleven’s information gathering abilities). This character would essentially be a human version of the Mindflayer that uses those types of powers/abilities for good instead of evil! My hope for them then would be to be the Number that runs into Mike, Nancy, Lucas, and Max’s group due to them all being present at the Mall fight with the Mindflayer and thusly would have a lot of reservations towards someone with that power set.

 Thirteen/The Stunted. This Number would essentially be mostly powerless. Being the last one potentially created before the scientists were shut down, they were rushed out and not properly tested on/experimented with. They might be able to sense the other Number’s(like how Eight/Kali and Eleven/El seemed to sense one another) but that would be it. This would certainly make them feel out of place amongst the other Numbers and allow them to later on bond with Will, who has went through the same feelings before. They would also be another reason why Will is brought in as an Honorary Number in the first place, since there’s essentially a gap in the team. Perhaps since Will has so many negative associations and past trauma with his powers(unlike El/Eleven who has used her powers to save those she loves multiple times and definitely wants her powers back) he could eventually permanently give Thirteen his powers(further strengthening their bond). If the theory I saw that El unknowingly temporarily gave Hopper her powers is true, then she could be the one to show him how to do this. After the other Numbers I’ve listed, that leaves Thirteen to be the one to run into Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Erica’s group. They would be yet another kid for Steve to babysit (at least this one doesn’t have superpowers to sass him with like El does Hopper...yet). And since Thirteen is the youngest of the Numbers this could potentially let them get along well with Erica, the youngest of the overall group so far!

Whew, there we have it. Wow that was so much longer than I though it would be. Sorry about that lol. But if you actually read any of this please let me know what you think of our ideas and if you have any of your own theories for the Numbers. Super hyped about the potential of these superpowered kids!

Stranger Things Squad Goals

A.k.a Future Team Ups I Wish to See in the Show!

* If Robin does help Will come to terms with being Gay, maybe in season 4 Steve can figure out he’s Bi in order to help Mike come to terms with being Bi in season 5(the final season?).  Thus making the four of them an LGBT power team up, how great would that be?

* Another team up combo that could have been great (or will be great if they somehow find a way to make Alexei alive) is Alexei, Mr. Clarke (kids’ science teacher) and Murray. Also their codenames could all be birds!!! Woodpecker (due to the plushie), Meadowlark (rhymes with/similar to Clarke), and Bald Eagle (already canon lol) respectively. 

* Give us more sibling shenanigans! El with Will and Jonathon now that they’ re going to be living together(come on good big bro Jonathon for both Will and El). Some more Mike and Nancy team ups. And finally some Lucas and Erica bonding now that she seems to be finally accepting the fact that she’s a nerd too. (Also if Billy really is “Winter Soldier”ing it maybe we’ll finally get some more closure for him and Max.)

* If Will really does have powers and Eight/Kali does make a return, I’d love to see a team up of them two and El. El and Kali could have an opportunity to but heads over how best to train/help Will with his powers. Which could potentially help them eventually understand each other better after the falling out they had. (Maybe they even team up to go find the other Numbers/Test Subjects or at least try to find documents/information about them who knows.)

* If Hopper and Alexei are both still alive, for them to team up to escape the Russians. (Maybe even running into and teaming up with “Winter Soldier” Billy.)

* Steve and Hopper interactions because they both seem to be good at randomly adopting lovable yet troublesome kids. Plus they’re the sole Prep and Jock(respectively) amongst an entire group of Nerds lmao.

* For Steve to have a chance to bond with Will and El, one having been pushed to the background and the other not having been adopted by him yet since she was mainly home stuck(if you get this reference I love you).

* For Robin to bond with Max, El, Will, Lucas and Dustin and for Nancy and Jonathon to bond with Erica. One big found family here we go!!!

* Might add more on later but that’s it for now. Let me know if you have any other team up combos you’d love to see!