In The NeverEnding Story, the titular book created a world called Fantasia using imagination, but a theory suggests that the book put a curse on Bastian and the shop owner for reading it. The movie centered around Bastian, a boy who ran into a book store to escape a group of bullies. While there, Bastian noticed a book called The Neverending Story, and unable to resist, he stole it and spent the day skipping class to read in his school’s attic.
The NeverEnding Story was released in 1984 but gained more traction when it was referenced in Stranger Things. Some considered the homage to be the best scene in Stranger Things season 3, and another theory (via Fandom) suggests that plot points in Stranger Things were revealed by The NeverEnding Story’s theme song. The movie was criticized for being depressing and scary during some scenes, but it has remained a popular contribution to children’s films of the 80s, so it’s no surprise that it was referenced in Stranger Things – a show that consistently took inspiration from 80s entertainment.
The theory (via Reddit) that the book was cursed cites Bastian’s change between films as evidence. The theory explains that in the second movie, Bastian was no longer the intelligent child seen in the first film. He was easily tricked by a sorceress into making frivolous wishes, which caused him to slowly lose his memories due to silly wishes, such as when he asked for individual stairs instead of an entire staircase. The theory also describes how the shop owner promptly left town in The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter after he gave the book back to Bastian and suggests that he did this because the curse was lifted off him once it was placed on Bastian, so he was eager to escape before Bastian could return it.
If the theory is correct, how and why did the book use the curse on the very people who created the story? Fantasia’s residents asked Bastian for help because people had stopped dreaming, causing Fantasia to die. The book used a person’s mind to keep itself from ending, which likely took a lot of mental energy from the reader. This could’ve resulted in a curse that continued extracting from the most recent reader until a new one was found to prevent The NeverEnding Story and the characters of Fantasia from dying. The previous reader, in this case, the shop owner, might have been completely drained. Perhaps, The NeverEnding Story was ending because the aging shop owner ran out of the energy the book required and became depressed after it spent years feeding on him. The theory suggests The Nothing was a manifestation of this depression.
This theory might sound viable for anyone who only saw the feature films; however, Michael Ende, the author of the original 1979 novel, was so upset by The NeverEnding Story film and how it changed his message that he sued the production company. Even director Steven Spielberg’s assistance in tailoring the film for American audiences couldn’t make the film’s messaging match the book. While the sequel tried to course-correct to more closely align with the source material, it still ignored Ende’s message. The backbone of the theory was that Bastian became less intelligent, as evidenced by how easily he was tricked into wishing for individual stairs, but this did not happen in the novel. Ende’s message was to embrace the power of imagination without getting lost in fantasy. In the book, Bastian became evil as he made more wishes. He wasn’t tricked into wishing, and he wasn’t less intelligent.
