Here is the link to Crowmudgeons video!! https://youtu.be/cXSBVnoMNrc?is=DALVRhRMa64srMiu

I think the reason the rest of the world disappeared is cuz to a kid (and everyone really), the only world that really matters or exists is the settlement you’re familiar with

The sad part is Dan was right and they probably could have really killed Anthony while he was distracted

In the original short story Anthony was born looking like a goblin. With oak brown skin, claws and purple eyes. The doctor who delivered him tried to kill him the moment he was born and Anthony wished away everyone who would want to hurt him. Peaksville is stuck in an alternate dimension, the people don't know if killing Anthony would return them to the actual world or if it would keep them trapped in this alternative universe.

Anthony is three in the original short story, and because he's three he's not as purposely malicious as six year old Anthony. For instance one time he overhears the concerns about there not being enough food. So he makes the crops grow about ten times the usual harvest. They have such an abundance of food that they have nowhere to store it. So they have to push it into the void where the town's highway once was.

In the original story Anthony's good thoughts can be just as harmful as his bad ones. Because he's three he doesn't understand the reason why the seasons need to progress as they do. Because he wants to help sometimes he hurts people. In one instance a widow was mourning her husband and Anthony has the corpse of the man come back to life and shamble it's way into its old house terrifying the poor woman to death. Because the man had been dead for at least a decade before Anthony was born. He didn't know corpses rotted in the ground.
It makes the idea of killing him much less taking out Hitler and more of killing a child who can't help his powers. He just wants good things to happen but his idea of good isn't what is good in reality.
He makes it snow because his aunt complains about the heat and he thinks snow would cool everyone down.

I loved how terrifying the original episode is, especially with the dark ending of the towns people looking terrified as the snow comes down but proclaiming it to be good.

I think the movie version is pushing the idea that if someone has been willing to teach Anthony about things and why they had to work the way they do, so much could have been avoided. But they didn't because it was easier to just let the kid do whatever he wanted.

In both the original short story and the episode, Anthony can't undo what he does. When he wishes someone away he can't bring them back. So in the story even though Anthony knows it would make people happy to bring the world back he can't. In the episodes Anthony just does whatever he wants because no one ever says no to him.

"It's A Good Life" sticks with me because I see it as almost like a commentary on powerful people who use intimidation to turn others into yes-men that allow them to do anything they please regardless of how fucked up it is; unchecked power ultimately creates its own kind of monster. It's pretty terrifying how relevant it is to this very day

If he actually ended up completely isolated, with absolutely no one left to react to him, control, or get a rise out of, it would force a massive psychological shift. Without the constant eggshell-walking of the adults to feed his ego or trigger his anger, the silence would catch up to him. He’d be left entirely alone with the realization that his actions caused the emptiness around him. Even with all that magnificent power, absolute isolation might be the only thing capable of forcing a six-year-old god to finally grow up and realize he was the monster all along.

this is a good video. real good. isn't right, everyone?

Anthony having a daughter is disturbing in itself because there's no way he had consensual sex. IDK if the writers knowingly implied that, but the implication is definitely there.

With the last version: I think Anthony allowed the guy to bully him to get someone to take him home. You know all he has to say to his 'family' is that today was his birthday and they would do it. We also know he tricks people into going there because that was how he got them in his house. He wasn't picking people out of nowhere.

I wouldn’t call two psychic beings who can manipulate the world a real “happy ending” it’s honestly a disturbing and devastating ending for this new reality to have to face

Him sending them to the cornfield is literal. He sends them underground in the cornfield, so they suffocate instantly.

I’m not sure it’s fair to say that the sequel had a “happy ending” as the people from the town are still gone and they are just unleashing “the monster(s)” on the rest of the world

Personally, I think calling Anthony evil makes him less interesting. I love the concept of an ignorant child being given eldritch powers and not understanding the gravity of their actions. It also adds tragedy because no one wants to hurt a child who doesn’t know any better.

I don't think anyone told Anthony about the birds and the bees, so he probably just decided one day it was time for him to have a baby and a stork dropped it off.
Although I wonder if he ever decided it was time for other people to have babies too?

They weren’t terrified of the dinosaurs, they were just terrified

My theory is that part of the reason why no one tried to kill Anthony is because, evil psychic or not, they'd still be killing a child in cold blood and no one wants to live with that.

the whole dinnertime scene in the Backrooms film felt like something an adult Tony would have done

it horrifies us because it’s an analogy for tyrannical leaders, and on a smaller scale tyrannical employers. Because in the end they can just drop you suddenly, but you can do nothing to them. You can’t get to them. You can’t hurt them without it being a crime but they can completely destroy your life. Remove your livelihood. You can’t feed your family they could blacklist you and make it hard to get another job when it comes to employers and then your wife leaves you your kids think you’re a bum you can make your life 100% miserable. ( symbolically represented by the destruction of the crops.) and in society you’re supposed to just shrug and say oh that’s OK. That’s a part of life and life is full of challenges.

Saying the sequel has a "happy ending" is wild when the two people having that "happy" ending are shown to basically be gods perfectly happy to kill anyone who mildly upsets them.  Like yeah, it's "happy" for those two.  But for the rest of the world, it's probably the start of the apocalypse.

I mean, if those two are traveling the world with how his daughter described what would happen to people who are "mean" to them, the world is actually cooked 💀