The Thing From Episode 3 Is Definitely The Tree Banshee, And It's A Stand In For The Unused Witch Idea

The thing from episode 3 is definitely the tree banshee, and it's a stand in for the unused witch idea he had for UG

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Okay

SM 7 in October 2025 (probably)

How y'all feeling about that?

I'm personally 100% fine with it, apparently I have unnaturally good patience when it comes to this show so waiting 1.5 years really doesn't seem bad to me, that's almost the time we waited for SM 6 after all

Also with the fact that the people working on it definitely need a while to rest after creating that half-hour beast, and apparently Pelo's wanted to make this really bad since SM3, I'm happy with however long it takes to make the next episode as good as it can possibly be, it'd be horrible for anyone to be overworked

I'll be fine with the current food we've got for that long, I'm like the Beldam from Coraline, I can wait

And who knows, we might get another Spooky Short between now and October 2025!

Check the eyes of the Dexter Fella... they move, he's still trapped in there.

Wait ayo?

The Tree Banshee theory

This is a theory predicting the role of Spooky Month's most enigmatic monster, one many fans might not even know about yet, so sit back and enjoy!

Watching HS for a second time, Gregor's pose here stuck out to me, so I went back to check my hunch...

Yep, he's in the same pose as the figure on the left wing of the gate. But what about the tree like figure on the right wing?

Well, for that, we turn to the movie theatre, many fans know about the demon priest poster that foreshadowed HS back in TT, well we see a very interesting poster for a second in episode 6

"The Forest Sight", huh?

Now for the clencher, we turn to an image from the arg

The same eye patterns, and a ghoulish being I've come to call the Tree Banshee, you might remember it for it's scream in TT or for an illustration of it in the book from the TT arg.

I believe this entity also somehow benefits from sacrifices made to Eyes and that it will be a/the major monster of a future episode, which lines up well with my idea of Roy's episode being about him chasing Skid and Pump into the woods, where they get lost.

I'm currently losing my mind over Hollow Sorrows with @crossover-enthusiast, but rest assured, when I'm capable of properly functioning, I will share ALL the important thoughts I have on the episode as of now.

Also, it's pretty weird to see that while I was wrong about there being a second demon, I was right on many finer points of the episode and it even supports some of my personal HCs

Father Gregor: Spooky Month's fascinating anti-villain

Now, before I go full tilt into my rambling, I want to explain why I'm classing Gregor as an anti-villain. Put simply, his character flaws get in the way of his noble goals and lead to him and the boys being in danger.

So, what does Gregor do in Hollow Sorrows, anyway?

Well, he suddenly takes it upon himself to teach two unruly children how to act in a way he deems acceptable. Over the course of his effort he first gets them to ask people for forgiveness and/or make amends for issues they've caused. Where this went wrong is Gregor making the boys systematically apologies to everyone, including Patty, which leads to all the Moloch shenanigans, and Ignacio, which is implied to be what led to Gregor being sacrificed at the end of the episode.

Then we have the other lessons Gregor tried to teach the boys, all of which backfired, with Skid and Pump applying them in situations or ways Gregor didn't foresee or intend. The reason for these backfires being Gregor's inability to look past his own values and understand why someone might not act in accordance to them. He shows this almost every time he talks to someone other than the boys, as the criticisms he makes, while usually at least partly true, often don't come from the right place or don't consider context.

This is what makes Gregor an anti-villain to me, and why I consider this to be his episode instead of Moloch's. Pelo said in the stream where he redid the cultist reference sheet that he wants the villains of the episode to have a seven deadly sins theme to them. Seeing as the first 2 episodes didn't really have focused villains and the cult, as the big bads, aren't likely to be grouped with the episode specific villains, I always saw his statement as referring to episodes 3-9. With this in mind, the villains and their sins would be: Moloch- wrath (obsessed with getting revenge on the boys) Dexter- lust (bloodlust or his "needs") Bob- gluttony (duh) and now, with Hollow Sorrows, Gregor- pride (as his arrogance and perceived moral superiority to others continuously causes problems during the episode) I do have theories on the remaining episode villains and their sins connections, but that's a story for another post.

Because Bob survived 25 bullets and 2 car collisions before the third one finally killed him, at least, that's my best guess.

The clown isn't dead