Wicker Man - General Discussion

[Sawboss]

If the ride theme itself is about paganism and reconnecting with the natural world it may not be as dark a theme as some people were fearing. Not a fear I really share since I love dark themes but I can understand people taking issue with every new ride having a sinister theme.

[Danny]

If there is any reveal on Halloween itself I believe it'll be the unveiling of the theming structure- or at least I hope so!

[jackf1tz]

That, or it means they'll reveal the next video with Elliot Crawford! \:D/

[jayson2125]

If there is any reveal on Halloween itself I believe it'll be the unveiling of the theming structure- or at least I hope so!

I was at the Ohm speaker factory a few weeks ago and was chatting to them about sw8...they wouldnt give anythign away which I was not surprised at but they did say watch the firework show as there is something in the show about sw8...

[NeoXIII]

I'm assuming hints and nods to SW8 during Fireworks, but no full-on reveals during the show.
2018's Fireworks is probably all about SW8 then though.  

[Sawboss]

What do we think the chances are of SW8 being open at the start of next season then? Construction of the track seems well along but I'd bet there's a lot of work and tons of testing still to do.

I'd love to go to the park on the day it opens but being so far away and having to book a hotel in advance makes that pretty unlikely.

[Adz]

The ride is targeted to open with the season next year.

However the resort won't confirm this until much nearer the time as they don't want to get caught out like they did with The Smiler. 

[JC13]

What do we think the chances are of SW8 being open at the start of next season then? Construction of the track seems well along but I'd bet there's a lot of work and tons of testing still to do.

I'd love to go to the park on the day it opens but being so far away and having to book a hotel in advance makes that pretty unlikely.

I think it might do, once the season ends they will just get work done without worrying about anything secret about the ride being shown, like having the themeing structure out of the tarp should make it easier to work on it

[Yappo]

Just looking at these excellent photos from Scarefest that just got posted... so much detail in The Welcoming that I missed, really makes you appreciate the effort gone into the theming... but this in particular caught my eye (no pun intended) which, despite its large size, I completely failed to notice when actually in the maze. Clearly, a large wicker eye under construction... presumably just a small part of something much larger...

Also some really good clear shots of those rune banners. Some are, as we've established, just people's names, but interestingly there are also larger banners each bearing a name of one of the elements (fire, water, earth) which backs up the possibility of an "elemental" theme that's been suggested.

[Chris]

If SW8 has half the detail that went in to The Welcoming then we are in for a treat!

[8byfire]

Just looking at these excellent photos from Scarefest that just got posted... so much detail in The Welcoming that I missed, really makes you appreciate the effort gone into the theming... but this in particular caught my eye (no pun intended) which, despite its large size, I completely failed to notice when actually in the maze. Clearly, a large wicker eye under construction... presumably just a small part of something much larger...

Also some really good clear shots of those rune banners. Some are, as we've established, just people's names, but interestingly there are also larger banners each bearing a name of one of the elements (fire, water, earth) which backs up the possibility of an "elemental" theme that's been suggested.

I'd been working on the banners etc since before those photos (I'd sussed out the J and L already, it's amazing the little things that can be satisfying in life if you like puzzles) but these shots have helped me fill in the gaps. Here's my decoding of what's in 'The Welcoming' symbols-wise:

"SW8", "be chosen" and "feed the flames", no surprises there!

Although "feed the flames" along with "SW8" is with the very-likely-to-be-in-the-structure 'Wicky' and 'Bony' as I nicknamed them- you can see both clearly in pictures 9, 19, 20 and 21, 'Wicky' looks a lot different front-on, I'm still convinced we'll see 'Wicky' on one side of the structure and 'Bony' on the other, these pics suggest even more the possibility of entering 'Wicky's chest and / or mouth (look at both and then the structure) and leaving through 'Bony's mouth so this remains my thinking for now. And I'll probably be totally wrong, people are seeing heads all over the place with that enigmatic structure, we're still not 100% sure on it! I also spotted the eye but hadn't worked it out it as such when in the maze, so maybe it won't look exactly like 'Wicky'. You miss a lot of these little details in the darkness and in the speed you pass by them.

"Food store" with the wolf like picture that was lit up near to 'barbecued Bony' (where the actors are telling us about how we love to consume, another clever fiery link).

In the purple banners which have a feint SW8 logo on them, bracketed letters out of shot, :"Earth" "(W)ater" "Fire"
And note (picture 13 by appropriate coincidence) that "fire" is next to what looks like a dunking stool (wooden) with a cog (metal) by a well (stone + wood + water), on woodchipped earthy ground, linking fire to wood, water, stone/earth and metal, even teasing at a drop into water (I have been thinking 'maybe...' for a long time for this woody, even since the old pirate teasers when I thought it would be pirate themed, well walk the plank and shiver me timbers (sorry) wasn't that way too obvious in hindsight , could I be right on the water drop though, although of course it may just be scenic water around the ride?) and of course the 'Air' / 'Galactica' poster, wood and other elemental teasers in Alton's video. We've already seen rock and obviously wood in the build and both feature in the scenery of the maze. There's some metal in the structure including cogs and maybe making up 'Wicky's head...

Or water, maybe there's some kind of washing machine gimmick *cough* element (sorry couldn't resist an in-joke born of the knowledge of how wrong the water drop theory might be, when coaster fans get it totally wrong!)

Then the names which could be creative peeps as suggested or maybe the acting crew of the maze, thematically they are by skeletons so I'm thinking they are the deceased being honored:
Gwen, Elise, Aaron, Jenni, (C?)hris, Becky and Eddajane

All these seem to use the r-like letter for I, there is some variation in how the symbols are written- P has been  a T with an X at the base, similarly H is sometimes an X where the lower V is and C is sometimes drawn with a curve as it is in "Becky", S also seems to vary... So sometimes you need to just find the closest match. There are some similar symbols like O and K though. Just in case any future words stump us!

I love all these theming subtleties they've put in the maze,  a scare maze that's something of a work of art, and so many teasers / potential red herrings / decoys, will be interesting to see how much SW8 connects to them all and if we've been fooled at all by anything that's cleverly put us off the scent.

One final thought for today that only just dawned on me - Thirteen was followed by fourteen loops (in 2013, chance or planned?!) so clearly this will have fifteen drops for SW8 in 2018 The world's first fifteen inversion woodie? OK no more jokes! Did I mention - fifteenth post, in Oct-ober 20-17 1+7=8 My inner geek is on fire tonight!

[Owen]

The element banners are supposedly for a sub-plot of The Welcoming rather than a major part of the new attraction, so I don’t know if it’s too wise to look into these so much!

In regards to the water aspect, it’s very unlikely that this attraction is going to utilise any large body of water. The landscaping and pathways won’t allow for it and there doesn’t seem to be any drainage points built in around the ride! :P

[ChessingtonSam]

Just looking at these excellent photos from Scarefest that just got posted... so much detail in The Welcoming that I missed, really makes you appreciate the effort gone into the theming... but this in particular caught my eye (no pun intended) which, despite its large size, I completely failed to notice when actually in the maze. Clearly, a large wicker eye under construction... presumably just a small part of something much larger...

Also some really good clear shots of those rune banners. Some are, as we've established, just people's names, but interestingly there are also larger banners each bearing a name of one of the elements (fire, water, earth) which backs up the possibility of an "elemental" theme that's been suggested.

I'd been working on the banners etc since before those photos (I'd sussed out the J and L already, it's amazing the little things that can be satisfying in life if you like puzzles) but these shots have helped me fill in the gaps. Here's my decoding of what's in 'The Welcoming' symbols-wise:

"SW8", "be chosen" and "feed the flames", no surprises there!

Although "feed the flames" along with "SW8" is with the very-likely-to-be-in-the-structure 'Wicky' and 'Bony' as I nicknamed them- you can see both clearly in pictures 9, 19, 20 and 21, 'Wicky' looks a lot different front-on, I'm still convinced we'll see 'Wicky' on one side of the structure and 'Bony' on the other, these pics suggest even more the possibility of entering 'Wicky's chest and / or mouth (look at both and then the structure) and leaving through 'Bony's mouth so this remains my thinking for now. And I'll probably be totally wrong, people are seeing heads all over the place with that enigmatic structure, we're still not 100% sure on it! I also spotted the eye but hadn't worked it out it as such when in the maze, so maybe it won't look exactly like 'Wicky'. You miss a lot of these little details in the darkness and in the speed you pass by them.

"Food store" with the wolf like picture that was lit up near to 'barbecued Bony' (where the actors are telling us about how we love to consume, another clever fiery link).

Sorry I don't get this at all. Who or what are "Bony and Wicky"? I thought they were the actual Wickerman structure itself but you've called about 15 things by that name here... Could you clear it up a bit?

[EndlessWire]

If the ride theme itself is about paganism and reconnecting with the natural world it may not be as dark a theme as some people were fearing. Not a fear I really share since I love dark themes but I can understand people taking issue with every new ride having a sinister theme.

I see what you're saying, but it's all about tone, really. On the face of it, the Smiler has a really light theme - joy, happiness and a desire to make people smile. It's not so much the content as the delivery that sets the tone of a theme - there's plenty of potential for it to go both ways.

[Bert]

If you exclude all the marketing and the sancutary and look at just The Smiler as it is now, It's far from a doom and gloom 'dark theme' to be honest. I could see SW8 working with the pagan theme in the same way. 

[Owen]

If you exclude all the marketing and the sancutary and look at just The Smiler as it is now, It's far from a doom and gloom 'dark theme' to be honest. I could see SW8 working with the pagan theme in the same way. 

I wouldn’t say it’s a happy theme. It’s extremly sinister and is designed to make you uncomfortable. Hence the screams/warped laughs in the audio, disturbing imagery and massive needles!

[ScottLann]

If you exclude all the marketing and the sancutary and look at just The Smiler as it is now, It's far from a doom and gloom 'dark theme' to be honest. I could see SW8 working with the pagan theme in the same way.

I wouldn’t say it’s a happy theme. It’s extremly sinister and is designed to make you uncomfortable. Hence the screams/warped laughs in the audio, disturbing imagery and massive needles!

I agree with you here. I pretty much think all of the Secret Weapons have some sort of dark theme to them ( Maybe not Galactica ). Both The Smiler and Oblivion are based around some type of Hypnosis to make society much happier, yet the atmosphere that is given off around them is fairly dark. This could be the same with SW8. It is said to be about a cult that are focused on reconnecting with the earth and its natural elements, yet the fact that it also has been mentioned something about crossing worlds from the living to the dead, I believe this will also have quite a sinister theme. But, I guess time will tell!

[8byfire]

Sorry I don't get this at all. Who or what are "Bony and Wicky"? I thought they were the actual Wickerman structure itself but you've called about 15 things by that name here... Could you clear it up a bit?

I guess you'd have to follow my ramblings (ram-blings?) to get up to speed on that, I shall explain *possible spoilers for anyone doing 'The Welcoming' scare maze who wants it to be a surprise*  -

I think 'Bony' and 'Wicky' as I've called them are in the structure similar to these views of them that gave me the idea, but in terms of what they are originals-wise to me and what they look like zoom in on the back left of this photo of the prep for Scarefest (it's what we saw in 'The Welcoming'): 'Bony' is on the left, 'Wicky' on the right:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/fi ... 131518.jpg

Both are seen again here, 'Wicky' in images 19 and 20 and 'Bony' in images 21 and 24 ; 16 could also be 'Bony' but it's not a certainty (although it does fit the dialogue at the time about how we love to consume and 'burn the ram' etc...); they are also both in image 9 in 'The Welcoming' images here:
https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/blog/2017 ... g-terrors/

'Wicky' can also be seen flaming in some of the officially allowed videos out there of 'The Welcoming'

Hints of both are visible in the large structure being built for SW8, notably the horns of 'Bony' (possibly) and spiky/ metallic bits of 'Wicky' - although of course the structure quite possibly won't be an exact match
http://www.towerstimes.co.uk/sw8/construction/
and http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/02_464.jpg

It gets stranger though- oddly 'Wicky' as in the brown Scarefest model does have a bit of a weirdly, subtle pirate-y theme feel too, and a ship's wheel eye, has it been cleverly designed to not clash too much with Mutiny Bay by having a visual vibe that cleverly fits both themes, or are we being teased mercilessly by Towers (thinking back to Oblivion - most predictions were very wrong then - and The Smiler's extra inversions that were a secret for ages we could still be being very cunningly misdirected). Not to mention the other one or two theming elements we know nothing of yet. Expect to still be surprised with the 'complete picture'!

I've also used 'Wicky' to refer to T.W.M. as an entity generally - that part of the structure (or all of the structure if it's only that one entity), logo etc as they are all representations of 'it' - but mostly for speculating about the look of the structure (if you read all the theories on here I think collectively we've probably worked it out!) So 'Wicky' is T.W.M., that unconfirmed we think we know what thing.

[Owen]

Whilst the structure may have two sides to it I wouldn’t look too in depth with these theming elements in The Welcoming. They are just repurposed stage theming elements from the old pirate show after all!

[Yappo]

Yeah I was gonna say, "Wicky" is literally just the skull from the old pirate show with a different coat of paint and the addition of tusks (which were also just taken from the show's set) and the SW8 runes. Even the pyro effect isn't new, that was part of the show too. As for "Bony", that's pretty much unchanged from the show's set. While it's certainly possible that they're supposed to represent what the theming structure will be, it's very unlikely it'll actually look anything like that.