#voldemort and vecna get together? maybe

[willel]

A thought on my mind I wanted to type before I go to bed.

Although there are a lot of allusions to time and time travel, I'm thinking there won't be literal time travel. If you don't know what I mean, my two main focus points being:

Will's original S1 outfit being a reference to Marty McFly from Back to the Future and various other Back to the Future references

Henry/Vecna's obsession with time and clocks

Even though I don't think time travel will literally happen, what if the team has to figuratively "step back in time" to find the answer to something? Retrace their footsteps?

They revisit vital locations from the past, finding clues to defeat Vecna along the way.

I'm not a Harry Potter fan but I saw all the movies once and I'm aware of the "horcrux" lore. Did they do something similar in the final movies to find all Voldemort's hidden soul pieces to kill him?

I have a different similar example from my favorite manga/anime called Natsume Yuujinchou (Natume's Book of Friends). To keep it simple, Natsume is an orphan who has been passed around from family member to family member and suffered a lot of abuse along the way. Why? Because he has the rare ability to see, interact with, and talk to yokai. Despite his best efforts, he can't lie about his abilities to himself or the people around him. Luckily, at the start of the series, he is taken in by distant relatives of his father and his life finally starts to get a bit better. I highly recommend you check it out.

In Natsume Yuujinchou, there is a chapter about a powerful mirror that is split apart by a thunderstorm. While venturing in the woods, a piece of the mirror falls into Natsume's eye. The owner of the mirror (a yokai) demands Natsume help them piece the mirror back together or else (threats, as yokai tend to do). How? Well, because a piece of the mirror fell into his eye, Natsume feels pain whenever he starts getting close to another shard. The pain is only relieved when he finds it.

The locations are a little random, but they're all around the small rural town Natsume now lives in. Some places are recurring important places in the story like a shrine, he's friend's house, or Natsume's school. Others not so much.

So think of it this way. The team with Will and El in the lead going from spot to spot looking for.... "something" that will help them learn information or maybe grow stronger? Maybe a way to defeat Vecna who knows.

So that leaves us with what are the "vital places" where they would find such clues to Henry's defeat. Let me put my brain to work

The Byers home. Reason? From the audience's point of view, this is where everything kicked off. The place where Will was taken. I find it unlikely though simply because the real life Byers house got sold off a while ago and might be inaccessible

Mirkwood, the street where Will first encountered the Demogorgon. It's also near where Castle Byers was and where The Party found El. Many significant things happened there Upside Down related or not. I find this one very likely since they posted a picture of what is probably a flashback in Castle Byers

Hawkins Middle School. Like Mirkwood, a lot of significant things happened here. It was where the Mind Flayer finally caught Will. It was also the place of El and Henry's reunion even though it was taking place in Max's mind.

Ruins of the Starcourt Mall. This might be unlikely but depending on how much has been cleaned up/repaired, maybe there is something to be found there as well.

Hawkins Lab. Of course, the lab is the true place where all this begins. Surely if there's a vital place that will help them figure things out, it must be the lab right?

Hopper's cabin. Maybe a stretch since they were only briefly there in S3 to hide away. But it was attacked by the Mind Flesher and deeply wounded by El there. It was also El's special safe place for such a long time relative to how long it's been since she was free.

Mike's house??? Nothing supernaturally interesting has happened here but it's a vital place of safety for most of the cast for pretty much every season so I dunno. Eh, this one is probably a stretch.

Well, that's all I had on my mind but maybe someone else has other ideas for these "vital places" and what they might find there?

[castlebyersafterdark]

there seems to be a lot of talk about will byers x vines lately. some people called it 'vine play' and while im all for the horror coming on strong for our boi narratively, this had undertones of people enjoying the vines sexually lol. i KNOW that UD-adjacent ephemera can be read as metaphorical of CSA and by extension people read sexual choking kinks into the story, but considering how some people reacted to vecna (total desire, no acknowledgement of his evil antics), sometimes i wonder if there are people translating literally every serious element of the show into something a bit sexy and im like... what's left to scare you with lol? if being choked to death with vines is hot then what exactly about the season is going to raise the stakes and make you feel the peril etc etc

or perhaps its simply that meme online culture removes lots of immersiveness in shows these days. my sister actively asked me to send her voldemort-style memes of vecna in order to make him seem less scary, i was like GIRL i was desperate for the opposite effect when the show dropped lol

So much to unpack with this. I think firstly, things can be scary and sexy at the same time. This to me has always been a lot of the fun in horror and how horror and stuff of that nature cans serve both as a way to tap into fear and tap into fantasies, which can sometimes be scary themselves. There's always a lot of chatter about the intersection of trauma and kink and that's for sure a part of it. Or, you also don't need trauma to have a kink. And more or, it doesn't even have to be a kink - some concepts are just interesting and maybe not much does scare you just going into a show like this but you enjoy it and you take away a different element.

I don't really see a problem viewing what's happening in the story/on screen both as a sense of high stakes fear for what's going on while also in the back of your head simultaneously thinking 'he looks good with something wrapped around his throat as he chokes and strains under the vines.' It can be both!! We can totally acknowledge that.

I like Stranger Things so much because it serves multipurpose fictional interests - horror movie vibes, complicated mysteries, themes of friendship, the nostalgia setting, and romance / a coming of age sexuality story. So much to love, ticks multiple boxes for me. So, I can watch a scene and fear for Will and think Henry is terrifying but also want to see him wrap those vines tighter and watch as Will struggles and cries and looks pretty while doing so. And when you engage in the parts of fandom where the dark elements are dived into, it's a safe place to explore those dark elements if you so have an interest in the intersection of sex and kink and trauma and taboo and fears and horror. Whatever ingredients you want to add to your fandom corner smoothie. All valid!

And there are always going to be people who just care about the villain (and yes Henry/Vecna is the villain, why deny that? Some do) and erase the bad elements. That's the nature of fandom. And also, there's a lot of people who just... don't take anything seriously. Either they're jaded and need to appear unaffected and aloof from the media they interact with or need things to be catered to their agenda. I have friends who are super cool and they want to be included in things and say they have no problem with horror movies but when my squad gets together to watch fucked up films they make a fuss, want the lights on, try to joke throughout it like girl, can you be quiet and sit there or skip out on movie night if it's not actually your thing? The point is to be scared or horrified, it's a horror movie. So sometimes when people want nothing to do with the creepier aspects of Stranger Things I'm like, why engage??? Just my opinion.

[catharusustulatus]

Based on the time jump confirmation in interviews and behind the scenes photos, I am pretty sure ST5 will go like this:

Starts where it left off in the finale. The town is falling apart, everyone is spread out, and they need to come together and get on the same page. Giant info dump/round table explains and explores all the details to catch people up.

They fix the problems for now. Max wakes up. Vecna was strong enough to open the gates but not strong enough to fight, so he pulls a Voldemort and has to regain his strength maybe? The bad gov agents take over the town/run interference.

Time skip to 1988. The world is back to relatively normal and the party has been trying to move on.

Everyone comes back together to fight the big bad one more time.

They go back in time to 1986 and stop Vecna before he can kill/hurt (insert Max/Eddie/Chrissy here). Someone sacrifices themselves or dies in the final fight, most likely El, Will, Murray, Jonathan, or Steve.

Happy ending, ish. Jopper wedding, graduation, plans for college, tribute to those they lost.

I personally think the “going back in time to fix it all” thing is overdone and kinda dumb but I bet it’s their top choice for tying it all up.

[wheelercurse]

Let’s talk about the last scene of vol2 and what I think is leading too.

So, I knew that Will’s connection with the UD was gonna be relevant again. And with his conversation with Mike confirmed that he still have his “now memories” and he can know what Vecna is thinking/planning. So that means our superspy is back in town. He had to be relevant to the plot again.

Someone also pointed out that the main gate was in Hawkins Library, where they found Will in the upside down!! That’s has to be relevant. Also the UD is frozen the day Will vanished, AND Noah confirmed that in s5 they were going to explore more about why Will was taken. 

AND all the parallels between Henry/Will, people think that it means that Will is going to became a villain, but it’s more about how the hero parallel the villian and are connected somehow, similar of Harry and Voldemort connection, and also their lives have many parallels. 

Everything is leading for Will being a pivotal character to the last season. I really wish that I won’t get disappointed again. 

I love this final shot with these seven characters. In the first two seasons they were the main characters, and I think this last season will revolve around them. They’re leading the plot. And maybe they’re also hinting the teams up: jancy, byler and jopper working together and El working on her own.