#standard disclaimer: I'm sure this has been discussed I haven't been paying a lot of attention to analysis lately. just shaking my brain out

[givehimthemedicine]

can I talk about the 001 tattoo?

so we can agree the 001 is darker, thicker, and WAY bigger on Vecna, right? also it's got a vein running prominently right under it, which doesn't seem to match the anatomy of his wrist in the broom closet tat reveal. (idk if that's an original vein or some kind of vine nonsense tbf)

"oh that shot is dark and spooky and cluttered, maybe they just exaggerated it so you can see it" maybe but.. they can do literally anything with cg - zoom into his skin cells or whatever they gotta do to make sure we see that tattoo without having to make it cartoonishly large.

can I also talk about how Nancy sees the tattooing scene twice, and the tattoos look different?

I know em and/or james (sorry much like henward I forget which of you has said what lmao) have discussed the differences in lighting, etc. in the tattoo scenes and the fact that one is unfinished and so might be 000 instead of 001, but I wanted to touch on the Nancy aspect of it too.

just for clarity, the tattoo scenes go like this:

in 4x7 - "when Papa realized he could not control me, he tried to recreate me" we, and Nancy, see the boy getting tattooed 00(unfinished). this is the last time we see Nancy in 4x7.

4x8 picks up with Nancy watching the tattooing, Brenner wiping off a finished 001, and then turning to her with creepy eyes. she tries to run, pries some boards off the doorway, and arrives back in the tattoo scene again.

so although it's broken across two different episodes, this is all one continuous vision for Nancy (one thing split in two - isn't that fitting for a secret Henward reveal)

it's super weird that after Nancy runs from the tattoo scene, Vecna tells her "Now you've seen where I've been; I would like very much to show you where I am going" and then... sends her back into the tattoo scene?

why say that and then immediately show her more redundant "where he's been"? why not just have her bust through that doorway straight into the apocalypse vision, like Victor in wartime France?

"it's like El arriving in the Rainbow Room over and over" yes. it is! but that was El getting clockwork orange'd with HNL footage and her brain struggling to reject it. whereas this is Vecna. and Vecna, as far as we saw, doesn't usually force his victims into loops like that, right?

Max, Chrissy, Fred ran inside their visions. unsuccessfully, yes, but when they ran, they actually travelled. like, when Max ran in the graveyard, she didn't keep arriving at Billy's grave over and over. Chrissy didn't keep finding her mom in every room. so it's curious to me that the only loops are Nancy and El, both in the lab (or I should say, "in the lab" given that neither of them are actually in the lab). so Vecna deviated from his usual method because he reallllly wanted Nancy to see that tattoo some more.. it's just odd to me, IF those tattooings are truly supposed to be the same event.

why else are WE the audience shown this scene multiple times than because they need to have shown us two events, but made sure we conflated them as one? to assume that that was the same boy getting the same tattoo?

anyway, the actual tattoo:

the 00 in 4x7 seems a lot lighter in comparison to the very dark 001 we see being finished up in 4x8.

people with tattoos: do they start it light and then go over it darker? is that a thing? is the 4x7 a realistic depiction of the 4x8 tattoo in progress? because if not I have more thoughts.

btw if I wanted to get real crazy, I would point out that El's tattoo also seems to vary slightly - it seemed bigger when she was little (maybe that part makes sense. how do tattoos behave on growing children?) but also it keeps sneaking closer to her wrist. look how in s1 it's four tattoo-lengths from the crease of her wrist, and by s4 it's more like two. (does anyone know when MBB got that for real?)

anyway I'll leave you with the thought of: remember those two extremely similar and redundant El-dragged-off-to-solitary scenes they showed us in s1?

#standard disclaimer: I'm sure this has been discussed I haven't been paying a lot of attention to analysis lately. just shaking my brain out #mine #analysis #henry creel #what's my tag for this I forget #lab stuff #long post #sorry I'm not readmoring it'll mess up my photo arrangements bc tumblr doesn't know how to behave <3 #ok but 'papa tried to recreate me' the boy we're shown right then is not Me it's The Recreation (000) (Henry) #so then are we thinking Nice Orderly Henry has the 000 tattoo under his sleeve and we just never see it? #I've totally lost track of which guy this is supposed to be when. so lmk if this jives #my free trial of brain has just expired