Goddddddddd Void's Design Drives Me Mad. Why Are You Dressed Like A Gay Priest? Who Are You Praying To?

I am so in fucking love with the stairway to heaven animation and the only ways I can express that is to either say I am bricked the FUCK up, or I give in to the uber instincts of my uber autism and write an essay on what I THINK are some of the references/inspirations used in the animation. I chose the essay because I need people to know why I am "bricked up."

I am fully willing to accept if I am wrong/reaching for some of these but even then, I think it's cool that I can still connect certain moments with things I enjoy. With that out of the way, behold my analysis/breakdown of Stairway to Heaven!

Spoilers below the cut not just for the animation, but also minor spoilers for Kane Pixel's backrooms series, Liminal Land, Skinamarink, and Mandela Catalogue. Also just a warning for the incoherent ramblings of a guy who's abnormal about analog/indie horror. Please please please please PLEASE go watch the animation if you haven't.

First, "subject 087" is in reference to SCP-087, the never ending staircase SCP. I actually didn't even catch that the first time until I scrolled down to the comments lmao. In my defense, when SCP was blowing up in the mid 2010s I wasn't really old enough to appreciate it or find the format interesting (and honestly it is still hard for me to really get into it, but that's more of a me thing. Conceptually a clinical approach to horror like with SCPs or in All Tomorrows is fascinating, but it can be a bit of a slog for me), so I only knew the main three's numbers. (173, 096, and 682).

"Motion detected" has been used in just about every analog horror series now, but Mandela Catalogue is probably the main series that popularized the trope when analog horror first started getting popular.

The backrooms is, obviously, the backrooms. You can probably assume it's Kane Pixels' backrooms because his version really blew up but it feels more like early days backrooms before we got all those monsters and almond water stuff. (Which btw it's so funny we got "almond water" from whoever the first person to say the air smells like almonds was. For reference, almonds smell like cyanide. OP was trying to say the air smells toxic, not that almonds are the safest thing to consume in the backrooms.)

This shot just reminded me of The Oldest View, ALSO from Kane Pixels. Tbh that's probably just me but I thought it was neat.

Next up, the door. Aside from the obvious 333 angel numbers which also appear very prominently in Mandela Catalogue (this series is going to pop up a lot, I'm sorry), but for some reason it reminded me of the Silent Hill 4 door. Again, that's just the tism probably.

Skinamarink ahh shot, was honestly expecting the door to just poof, disappear.

Next, the shot with all the houses. While KP's Backrooms do have that creepy neighbourhood, this exact shot and set up feels closer to H.O.M.E. from Liminal Land.

And then our most darling biblically accurate horror icon Columbina would make False Gabriel proud, and just... she is so fucking cool and creepy in this and I love her so much.

This whole sequence was for one absolutely horrifying and beautiful, but what caught MY attention were the settings and locations shown. These are standard creepy liminal spaces and analog horror gore censorship, yes, but they also reminded me of the locations Trevor Henderson uses in his art pieces, so suffice to say I think Columbina looks RIGHT AT HOME regardless of how you wanna look at these shots. And the animation on her face opening up into wings and eyes is just an absolute chef's kiss moment. Props to the animators, man.

This trope, the whole main character monologue overlaying the screen moment, very common in analog horror but for me, again popularized by its use in the Mandela Catalogue.

The smudged picture is a reference to one of the ending shots in Skinamarink, where it pans over the childhood photos only for their heads and faces to now be missing, which most agree is the movie's way of saying these kids were trapped her for so long they eventually just stopped existing/faded into nothingness.

And finally, the classic ending scene of KP's first Backrooms video.

I know for a fact there are probably other references to liminal spaces/analog horror that I either missed or they're like general concepts/tropes used in analog horror. I did almost mention the mill in petscop because of Columbina's "two in the mill, one taken, one left" because that phrasing felt really specific, but it doesn't quite fit the vibes of all the other references. Also her only being seen in the camera is a trope used in all manner of horror media. My first thought was the forest scene in VHS (2012) where the murderer could only be seen in the film static.

I just wanted to get the especially cool/unique moments out there. I didn't even touch on the storyline but that's because it seems pretty straightforward. I'm also aware not many people are gonna read my red string corkboard ramblings, which I'm fine with. I just needed to get this out of my system, but I do appreciate those who did take the time to indulge my ramblings!

That's all for now, back to whatever the hell I had planned for today.

that alternative ending where the tb stayed on the space station and became a researcher. how much angst do you think it can contain

OOC: things I believe Lovecraft has had breakdowns over

Accidentally saying "thanks you" to a cashier

Not knowing what to call sizes at Starbucks and accidentally referring to them as 'large' and 'small'

Bumping his head on a doorway

Being bumped into and not knowing whether to apologize or not

Having to tell the cashier they forgot his ketchup

Having his order messed up horribly (he ate it anyway)

Accidentally giving someone in the Guild the wrong tool because he was having a breakdown and ½ over what tool he needed to grab

Accidentally referring to a celebrity as another celebrity (the kpop stans destroyed his self confidence)

Not knowing a minor character's name in a movie (again the fans got em)

Accidentally knocking over something not breakable at a store

Etc :3

The Trailblazer is so so silly! I wonder what hijinks they'll get up to next!

The Trailblazer is a catalyst of destruction, every part of them screams out in pain as their body stabilizes the stellaron inside them yet they will never feel a moment of calm. 'course, they lie to March and Dan Heng so that they aren't concerned but Welt knows. he knows Trailblazer's pain.

they will continuously poison the worlds they go to through the fact that they truly are destruction incarnate, though they may hold the capability of all paths, they will always be destructive. they truly are alone in their pain, for no one could have predicted it.

they are faced with The Stellaron Hunters and have to wonder what their connection is to them because no information is in their brain, they were like a small, pitiful baby at the start of HSR but now hold three (3) paths. they recognize Blade, Kafka, and Silver Wolf but just barely, they are shadows of a haunted past in their mind.

The Trailblazer will suffer like this over and over until eventually their body gives out and they die, releasing the Stellaron which holds 7 paths inside it. technically, the stellaron in them is the only thing protecting them from becoming a lifeless husk, as they were a constructed body before modeled after someone the Hunters used to know.

they use humor as a coping mechanism because every day they get closer to their death date and then, when it happens, all around them will suffer. they cannot allow themself to get closer to others because what would happen? could they be infected and harmed, too? so many questions whirl around the trailblazer's brain, and even then, there's so little time and answers.

they are destined to die. with each day, the strands of life in their body break and strain. truly, their body is the form of one of the enigmata for it was a shell, forged together with new life.

The Trailblazer can't escape their fate. they do not want to hurt anyone else. they are sorry for the pain they have and will cause.

I love the Trailblazer!!! so silly!!!

Im so goofy cause i will scroll twitter and repost an artwork and then i will go on tumblr and reblog the exact same artwork from the same artist again

recAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Homicipher? More like homocipher haha im so fucking hillarious

It was a series of little commas; the final period never came.

Dazai Osamu, “Eight Scenes from Tokyo” from Self Portraits

THE DUALITY✨️

I love this man so much

someone help him 😭