#orquids

starting off with what the actual fuck is a false hydra (which is also impossible to find info on btw because apparently no one likes to play these things and for good fucking reason i gave myself a headache)

As the hydra begins to feed on the people of a town in order to grow larger and sprout more heads, locals are destined to notice something is amiss.

They are going to wonder where the local priest has gone, or why their loved ones are no longer in town.

vecna originally began feeding on those with trauma that made them easier to manipulate via hallucinations (ie chrissy and max). later on children start going missing for his big 12 kid plan that simply never gets explained.

The false hydra’s song will cause people to create new memories to make their new reality logical.

I just pretended like I wasn't because I didn't want to be. I wanted to be like everyone else. I wanted to be like my friends and, I am like you. I'm like you in, in almost every way. We like playing D&D late into the night and we like that old person smell in Mike's basement, and we like biking to Melvald's for malted milkshakes, and we like getting lost in the woods and getting lost in Family Video and arguing about what to rent and settling on 'Holy Grail' for the millionth time.

oh yes, melvald the general store known for selling milkshakes and will who clearly loves being lost in the woods. how could we forget? (also just like heaven being on the stranger things s5 soundtrack and then disappearing???? and no one clearing that up at all? the song cost money for the rights did they just burn the cash?)

Once it has fully grown to a state of maturity it will drop all pretence and emerge from the ground as a mature false hydra.

It then begins to sing a different song, one that dominates and enslaves the vast majority of those who hear it. The false hydra will have all who are able to resist its domination rounded up and eaten until it is sure that the remaining members of the population are enslaved to it.

The false hydra begins its life with one head, however, as it consumes more humanoid creatures the number of heads increases and it grows larger. A false hydra will always inexorably eat itself to death. The only question is whether it takes days, weeks, months, or years.

i know literal jackshit about d&d and my one dm friend is currently asleep but this caught my eye (it was a seven, the demogorgon… it got me.) but ALSO

If it grows 7 heads, the false hydra transforms into a Mature False Hydra after taking a long rest.

vecnas total kill count + the amount of humanoid creatures eaten for a false hydra (43 if you don’t count the hawkins massacre and flashback kills)

which also reminded me of this poster from stranger things s5 because we see eleven / jane walking down steps and the mind flayer is positioned as such as if it was moving around the party (kinda looks like puppet strings if you squint) and it goes back to the entire will having lost an eye how eddie says in the s4 d&d campaign as his eye is partially obscured

and also all the cassette merch (which drives me insane on a daily basis) and how cassettes have a side A and side B. and from my 2 hour rabbit hole so many people have pointed out this is most likely a side A and side B scenario for the season not only because of the canonical cassette merch that paid no purpose but from the constant use of vinyls and cassettes in the later two seasons

and also how for a few weeks if you paused the episodes at the right point in time you could fucking rearrange the episodes ON NETFLIX DOT COM ?? and the fact that they edited out hollys under armour logo from her shirt so they confirmed they could go back in and edit any minor issues if they so desired but they simply didn’t go back and fix things such as the painting switching in the epilogue, the door being different or most notably, the squawks power lever changing colour.

these are all little things that although they could be to continue to generate hype for the show and a way to excuse shitty writing it all feels like so much? and so many things? and the new horror pop up in which they are looking for people except for holly and mike, who play crucial roles for season five and the entire series respectively

and the cookbook that says both holly and mike are stuck in the upside down, aka the two characters that play crucial roles and are not being cast despite the fact that karen wheeler is being casted?

i’m holding out hope for nov 6 2026 because this alongside props changing colour, design and all the little easter eggs. which could mean nothing! except in this case there is an entire team dedicated to this nothing so maybe it is something after all

OH AND ALSO TO FINISH THIS OFF

False hydras are insidious creatures that take root in communities as a result of rampant falsehood. They start as small lumps of white flesh, but quickly grow their grotesque forms to colossal proportions as they feed on humanoid victims.

and the fact that season one is supposed to be the horrors that hide behind the run of the mill small town and what goes on behind the facade of the perfect family and perfect home (ie. jonathan and nancys entire convo about unhappiness and their future goals and mutual distaste for the house at the end of the cul-de-sac, only for nancy to be given that exact ending to a degree)