TW: Grooming, covert incest, emotional abuse

I don’t think any of the it adaptations really does a good job portraying how disgusting was Eddie’s relationship with his mother.

Eddie, in the book, was actively being groomed by his mother she wasn’t just “protective” of him. What Stephen King describes in the novel is emotional incest between the two. Sonia manipulated Eddie by making him fell like “weak”, “sick” so that he felt like he couldn’t live without her and then he wouldn’t leave her like Eddie’s father did (by dying). Eddie is treated like a replacement of his father and expected to take his role (at least emotionally) in his relationship with his mother, but yet he’s still treated as a little kid by her, she can’t really see Eddie growing up and being his own person, so she grooms him to make sure that never happens. Another reason why what she does is not protecting him is the fact she doesn’t want him to have any friends, and that’s especially true talking about Bill, there is no reason why she wouldn’t want her son to hang out with him, there is nothing wrong about Bill and he could (and he does) protect Eddie from the bullies, but still she doesn’t want her son around him. Why? Because he keeps Eddie away from her. Then there are the to long hugs or her being overly touchy with him. But I really don’t want go get in that part…

It’s also the reason why Eddie never has problems with people overstepping his boundaries and why Eddie first search for a fatherly figure in Bill and them became “obsessed” with him. But that is something for another time.

I don’t think that it is a case of MbP, most people affected by this disorder act like the child is sick for attention, but Sonia doesn’t want that, she does because she wants to control Eddie. I think she most likely suffered from BPD and the loss of Frank was to much to handle. I’m not a psychologist or a expert of any kind, so take everything with a grain of salt.

Sonia grooming of Eddie is another big example of how in Derry people ignore problems. Even the children could see that what was happening to Eddie was not normal, but yet nobody did anything about it.

We all float down here

⠀ 🏚️ ⠀༝ 𓂃⠀˙⠀♱ ◞

🤡 ━╤デ╦︻᭄ 🩸

Like no, Eddie adores Richie. Sure they love a good heated back and forth, and Eddie will call Richie out when it’s deserved, but fundamentally Eddie is deeply endeared to Richie’s humor, quirks, and eccentricities. My favorite portrayal of reddie is when they respect each other, bc they have such a deep understanding of who the other is to their core.