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crazy-together-reddie · 13 days ago

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Was the Vanishing of Will Byers REALLY the inciting incident of Stranger Things?

a character analysis feat. your boy Mike Wheeler

I’m reading Story by Robert McKee, a book about screenwriting. The author describes Inciting Incidents - events that set a story in motion. Isn’t this something byler v. mileven fans always argue about? Was it Will’s disappearance, or El sending Henry into another dimension, that is the Inciting Incident of Stranger Things?

Seems pretty obvious, but let’s break it down for fun.

The screenwriting book lists the prerequisites for an Inciting Incident. It is the first in a series of story events, followed by Progressive Complications (ooh!) Crisis (ah!), Climax (OMG!), and Resolution (phew).

Sorry, I'm afraid I won't be taking questions on the genuine academic theory that classical story structure resembles the male orgasm at this time.

According to my man Robert McKee...

1. The inciting incident radically upsets the balance of forces in the protagonist’s life. It must happen to the protagonist, or be caused by them.

So I suppose for many who think El is the main character, then her sending Henry packing into another dimension could technically work on this point. She actively changes the narrative.

2. The main prerogative of the protagonist is, as a result, to restore balance to how things were before the Inciting Incident happened (they may or may not achieve this).

Well, what would this mean for El? Would she want to resurrect Henry, then? Bring him back into the Rightside Up? What has been her aim, her quest, throughout the course of the show?

3. The inciting incident must happen on screen for the audience to see.

Well, we do see it, but only in flashback, many seasons after the story has begun. It seems like El yeeting VH1 to hell is instead what's known as Backstory.

Backstory describes events prior to the main narrative which influence future events, and is often shown in flashback.

4. The Inciting Incident must occur within the first 25% of your story. To find their Inciting Incident, a writer should ask themselves: how do I set my story into action?

Ah.

El sending Henry into the Upside Down cannot be the Inciting Incident, because it does not do what all Inciting Incidents must do: make the audience ask that million dollar question:

‘How the fuck is this gonna turn out, then?’

This is known as the Major Dramatic Question. It is the hook that makes the audience want to watch, planting in their mind what is known as the Obligatory Scene (or Crisis), an event the audience knows it must see before the story can be done.

It’s important to note that stories are about the extremity of the human condition. They push characters to the very limits of their possible experience, on the axis of a value, reaching the highest highs and the lowest lows. What might the value of Stranger Things be? All stories have one overarching main value, even if they have many smaller values. I think it might be Freedom/Slavery, or Truth/Lies. More on this later.

Now, if your story is a happy ending (called Idealist), the Inciting Incident might be the worst possible thing that could happen to your protagonist, a negative on the value axis, with the following story then being why it turns out to in fact be the best thing for them. Tragedy is the opposite - a great turn of events turns out to be their downfall - and an Ironic ending is bittersweet, stretching the protagonist many times between joy and tragedy, over and over, until the ending rests at a place of both happiness and sadness.

Was El sending Henry into another dimension the best or worst thing that ever happened to her? Was it THE original incident that upset the balance of her life and set her story in motion? And what would be the Obligatory Scene that results, the thing the audience just NEEDS to see before the story is done?

Many argue it’s seeing El defeat Henry for good. Sure, this is an intriguing idea, and we do need to see El's plot tied up.

But is this the greatest mystery of Stranger Things that we need answered? Really? I don’t think so. It was not the event we saw at the start of the story that set things in motion, because this particular cast of characters would not necessarily have even met El if one thing hadn’t happened.

What is the thing the audience has always been dying to know about Stranger Things? What is the Obligatory Scene the story must provide us before it can end? The thing that never quite made sense?

How, and why, Will Byers went missing.

"But El has so much screen time! She’s so bold and active! A true protagonist!" the people shout.

Well, of course we don’t have the missing puzzle piece yet. If ST is treated as one large story, then s1 would be the Inciting Incident and Progressive Complications...

... s2-s3 Progressive Complications...

... s4 Progressive Complications and Crisis...

...s5 ongoing Crisis and Resolution.

It’s also an ensemble show, with many subplots that expand off of one Inciting Incident. Will going missing is, for example, also the Inciting Incident for another beloved character.

Guess who.

Hi Mike :)

Will going missing is an event that happens to Mike. It upsets the balance of his life and his quest becomes about restoring that balance by saving his best friend.

But by the end of s4, Will is still not safe.

Mike still has not saved him - not really. A huge part of Mike’s quest is incomplete.

So where does Mike lie on the value spectrum of Freedom/Slavery at this point in the story? (Note that the concept of slavery is contextually appropriate, meaning 'trapped or controlled' here).

Mike's early narrative values were mostly external: having fun playing DnD with friends = positive freedom. His mom cuts their game short = negative, controlled. He isn't allowed to search for Will = double negative. Then later, Mike’s story becomes more internal and complex, with Freedom/Slavery coming to represent his place in society and inner battles in a subtle subplot. He breaks free by playing DnD, but is then trapped by his idea of being a good boyfriend, and so forth as we progress into s4.

But the very best stories push to the limits of human experience. They go beyond the positive and negative, and reach a double negative, what McKee in his book calls the Negation of the Negation. What could this be for Mike on the value of Freedom/Slavery or Truth/Lies?

Slavery masquerading as freedom, and denial - lying not only to others, but to oneself.

Mike comes from a seemingly perfect middle class suburban conservative family. It's the definition of white picket fence America. Everyone should, technically, be happy - but they aren't. If Mike continues down this road of normality, he could end up in a life where he tricks himself into thinking he has everything, but is actually in denial.

And what about Will? What’s his quest? Was being taken - his Inciting Incident - the worst thing that ever happened to him? Surely it wasn’t the best. On the value axis of Freedom/Slavery, he was captured - a negative value. If Will’s story is not to be a tragedy, his quest must be about how his vanishing will turn out to be something good in the end. And as Stranger Things will be a bittersweet (Ironic) ending, this Inciting Incident will turn out to bring both happiness and pain for Will.

So in what way could going missing have been a blessing in disguise for Will, allowing him opportunity for growth? What positive values could come about on the potential axes of Freedom/Slavery and Truth/Lies?

Will is enslaved by his secret - his sexuality - as well as by the shameful trauma inflicted on him by the creatures of the Upside Down, a possible metaphor for abuse. He experiences brief moments of freedom - positive value - when he is rescued, when he plays with his friends, and when he escapes the supernatural in California, but his sexuality secret remains - negative value.

But what is the Negation of the Negation for Will?

It's remarkably connected to what Vecna's ultimate goal is. Vecna wants to control the world, forcing people to live under a tyranny that he deems ideal, even if no one else wants it. He apparently wants to free people, but all he would be doing is enslaving them.

For Will, slavery masquerading as freedom could take the shape of Vecna trying to manipulate him into joining him, forcing Will to live in a form of denial where he accepts he can never have the freedom he craves.

Now, it’s important to note that while Will is a seemingly passive protagonist, he is in fact not passive at all, because his actions and choices have profound effects on the narrative (such as the painting lie, his choice to fight back against the Mindflayer in s2, etc), making him an active character.

And this is when I came across something very interesting in my screenwriting craft book.

A film called Ordinary People was mentioned. It’s a social drama about a family with a dark secret. The son has psychiatric problems and is freshly home from hospital. His mother is cold and resentful towards him, and his father is the passive, kindly man who wants everything to be right. There are two plots: the central plot, and the subplot. But the two are often mistaken.

People think the main plot is about the mentally unwell son, who has been despairing ever since the death of his brother in a boating accident.

His story is action-driven and draws the audience's eye with big emotion, a plotline given more screen time and more emphasis, leading people to think it is the crux of the story.

But the main plot, the central plot, actually belongs to the father - quiet and seemingly passive, he is the spine of the story. And because he is so quiet, the writer chose to do something highly unusual: to build the main dynamic of the film around the subplot, foregrounding the young son’s despair at the loss of his brother and how this rends the family apart, while subtly increasing the momentum of the main central plot in the background; that of the father figuring out what actually caused his family to fall apart.

I won’t spoil Ordinary People for you. But I found it very interesting when my hunch was confirmed and I found that this movie, this simple domestic social drama, was included on the Duffers brothers’ s4 film inspiration whiteboard.

So, in Stranger Things, what could be the hidden central plot? Who could the main character be, even if they are quiet and seemingly passive? What was the true Inciting Incident of this story, the thing that set everything in motion, sparking a burning question that the audience needs answered?

And is Will capable of restoring the balance? Is this his quest - to reclaim his childhood? Is this what he truly wants?

Or is he in fact on a journey towards an 'Ironic' ending, both happy and sad, where he learns that his unconscious desire - what he actually needs - is something else entirely?

And how could the Inciting Incident - being taken - actually turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to him?

Could it, somehow, give him the courage to finally grow and reclaim power over his own life? To turn the Freedom/Slavery axis back to positive? Could Will not only gain the courage to live truthfully, but gain a double positive, and receive the thing he's too hopeless to actually want for himself?

Will thought he wanted to have his childhood back, but perhaps what he secretly wants is to grow up. To grow up into his true actualised self, a gay man, free and able to love and be loved in return.

And Mike? If his Inciting Incident was losing Will, then could that also turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to him? Mike says befriending Will was the best thing he's ever done - but that might not have been enough to make him confess his feelings had they both lived relatively normal, untroubled childhoods.

But losing Will? And potentially losing him again in s5?

That might do it.

Mike’s quest, his conscious desire, his want, has been to save Will. Maybe it's also to be saved, from his humdrum life.

But perhaps what Mike needs is not just someone to save (Will), or to be saved by (El).

Perhaps, deep down, his unconscious desire is to find the courage to be able to save himself. To be his own superhero, the paladin from his fantasy games. To live a life unchained by the expectations of society - a life of freedom and truth.

Byler has a beautiful symmetry to it not because it’s the restoration of original balance before the Inciting Incident - not because it’s what the characters have spent the entire show thinking they want - but because it has the potential to be the perfect Resolution; the unexpected outcome that neither Mike nor Will consciously let themselves need.

Of course, they would both have to weather terrible losses as well - this will be a bittersweet 'Ironic' ending, after all, and the Obligatory Scene might well be a showdown between Will and Vecna, but Mike and Will coming together romantically would certainly be an event of irrevocable change, something that upheaves the characters’ worlds and not only restores, but renews them, ending their quests and rearranging their lives in a way that the audience knows can never be undone.

In other words, the end of a story.

#this is the best thing i’ve ever read #not to be dramatic #stranger things #will byers #mike wheeler #byler #byler analysis

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