princess creature

this is another old theory of mine. while I was researching some other stuff, I came across The Book of Enoch. it's a Jewish religious text that talks about demons, nephilim, etc.

one thing that stood out to me was a fallen angel named Azazel who got cast out by God for sharing forbidden knowledge with people. interestingly (and assuming Wikipedia is not lying to me folks) Azazel gets chained to a rock and his face gets covered, so he can't see the light. does that remind you of someone hmmm?

this information led me to another rabbit hole. Azazel was also the name of a desert where a scapegoat bearing the sins of people was sent. there were two goats - one got slaughtered as a sacrifice and the other was sent into the wilderness.

as we all know, Scarlet Hollow hides several different "seals" that give our MC visions of the past, usually tied to the sins of our family. a long time ago I realized they could symbolize each of the seven deadly sins.

the first seal can be found in the Scarlet mines. I decided that greed is the corresponding sin here. the collapse was a direct result of Enoch's greed. funnily enough, greed is the reason why kids were hanging out down there in the first place - they wanted their own secret spot. from what I could notice, the seal itself has a motif of hands chained to money boxes as well.

the second seal in the library could correspond to wrath. wrath is what destroyed the Shaw family - the locals needed someone to punish for the collapse. wrath is what makes Charlie Jr return to Scarlet Hollow to take revenge on the Scarlets. Charlie's ghost wants to punish us, a completely innocent descendant of some assholes, for the sins of the fathers. the seal itself has a carving of a goat surrounded by wolves, perhaps a metaphor for a scapegoat?

the third location, the clinic, ties to lust. first we have the immaculate conception of Reese, the amount of options to flirt with him and as a cherry on top the sacrifice can be avoided with hot as one of your traits. in my opinion it can also relate for Enoch's lust for power and Reese's lust for blood. the seal has carvings of humans, animals, demons and to me it all screams of carnal desire.

now, what about the other locations?

I think the farm is going to be related to envy, mostly because of the ongoing fight between the two families that live there.

pride can easily be attributed to the estate, the heart of the family.

sloth could possibly relate to the church, more specifically though - Tetanus Lake. it grew near the church, on top of a tunnel system (? sorry, no idea what Oscar said exactly). it's a place where people drop down their trash out of laziness - makes sense, right?

so, as you can see that's only six sins. what about the seventh one?

in my opinion we encounter the first seal in episode one. you can see it marked on the map with two people shaking hands (possibly Enoch and Silas?) it symbolizes gluttony and it's whatever the hell the ditchlings were doing with the animal bodies in the forest. chapter 1 has many food interactions in general and the central sacrifice can be avoided with powerful build (from what I remember it allows you to eat more food?). I think it's possible it was build in the place where the original Scarlet cabin stood, but there's no proof I'm right about this (about any of this, actually). the fact there was no vision could be explained by the distance or maybe there's something wrong with the seal in general.

of course, you can ask why would anyone make seals with such negative correspondences? my humble opinion: they weren't meant to be negative, they're just malfunctioning. let me explain.

all of the seals can also be read in a more positive light. I recently discovered a bunch of notes in Enoch's study (basically what reignated my interest in this theory) which suggest the following:

mines = greed = prosperity (to make sure the mines are, well, prosperous)

library = wrath = dominion (keeping order amongst the sheep)

clinic = lust = vitality (keeping the people/Teddy(?) healthy, also what does the cycle of life unending, wound through by something of healing mean? something to do with Entity?)

estate = pride = power (the note says consciousness itself, again the Entity?)

farm = envy = cycle of death and rebirth

church = sloth = old and new together

as for the last two, I honestly don't know. it's just a lucky guess. notably, Enoch's notes don't contain my own theory about the ditchlings and greed. however, to expand a little bit more on the malfunction bit - I think it ties directly to the Entity and the fact it needs a pure Scarlet vessel or something like that. Wayne says the body he's inhabiting is refusing to let him stay, that's why it's rotting. to me it's obvious Scarlet blood is needed to keep town in order and because no sacrifice was made, all of the seals are doing the opposite of what they're supposed to be doing.

it makes a lot of sense in the context of Tabitha being so burdened by keeping the town together. I think she realizes her efforts are futile. she knows that whatever work she's doing can't really fix this place. Scarlet Hollow demands blood to keep it together.