#Stranger things speculation

[bylerst5]

when season 5 comes out and everybody starts calling byler endgame “a plot twist” “came out of nowhere” LIKE BROO DID WE EVEN WATCH THE SAME SHOWW✋✋😭

[everbyers]

We could be getting something on Will's birthday

This is just a theory, and I don't have any proper evidence for it, just pure speculation!!

Even though all the dates stuff are announced are random (expect st day), I think that a possibility of getting something like the teaser/trailer or even announcement dates is very possible on Will's birthday. Hear me out:

It's gonna set birthdaygate in stone even further.

Since It's an important announcement, the GA will have the date memorised and will be like "wait, this date is familiar"

It would make sense between the gap of the release and the dates announcement. The days between the dates announcements and releases are around 100-200 days. So, I calculated it.

If I'm right, the earliest release is June 30th and the latest is October 8th.

I personally believe that we are getting the teaser very soon and that we didn't get it because of the elections on st day. Possibly around December/Christmas?

[galactiicpup]

reasons i think that "the vanishing of ***** wheeler" is holly —

biggest reason: holly was recast for the final season, meaning she'll probably bave a bigger role than before

we know holly has a tendency to wander, obv she was very little in season one but still it could be a habit she never grew out of!

what we've seen of st5 so far, there's a clip, blink and you'll miss it, of holly screaming

in season one, the only two people other than will (that we know of) who attracted the demogorgon without blood were joyce and holly. the demogorgon wanted holly like it wanted will for no real reason!

holly has a tendency to notice upside down related things, like in season one when she wandered into will's room, season three when she sees the mind flayer in the trees, season four when she calls out "look mom it's snowing!" after the upside down starts to leak through

the wheelers have to have some weird connection to the upside down the same way the byers do, even if karen isn't alice creel, something is just very off when it comes to the wheelers and the upside down

[alcalystrasz]

I just made a HUGE discovery for a possible song featured in Stranger Things 5 for BYLER, PLEASE hear me out 😭

This song, is called "Bizarre Love Triangle" and guess when it was released...

In November 1986 (the year of S4 + the possible month S5 is settled). I'M CRYING.

This song, talks about a Love Triangle. It is gender neutral, so we can totally interpret it the way we want, so here's mine:

The love triangle is obviously Mike - Will - Eleven. Now why bizarre? Because it is not two boys in love with the same girl, but one boy and one girl in love with the same boy, and that boy not sure if he likes the girl or the boy...

Let's see the lyrics shall we?

FIRST VERSE:

Every time I think of you

I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue

It's no problem of mine, but it's a problem I find

Livin' a life that I can't leave behind

There's no sense in telling me

The wisdom of the fool won't set you free

But that's the way that it goes and it's what nobody knows

Well, every day my confusion grows

———

Now, let's analyse these lyrics with Will's pov...

Every time I think of you = Mike

I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue = the color of Mike. Every single time he thinks about Mike, it feels like being shot, maybe in the heart.

It's no problem of mine, but it's a problem I find = meaning that for him, it isn't a problem of liking Mike, but it's a problem overall for society or for everyone else (their friends, families...)

Livin' a life that I can't leave behind = he can't forget Mike so he lives the life he's currently living because he can't leave it behind, leave Mike behind. He's too attached to him, to leave him.

There's no sense in telling me

The wisdom of the fool won't set you free = Will is known as the wise one of the group, and also the fool (= doesn't like girls, is childish, is gay). Meaning that his own wisdom won't set Mike free (probably of the fake person he's being, the fake relationship he has with El).

But that's the way that it goes and it's what nobody knows = It's the way things are, Will likes him but Mike is trying to act straight and nobody knows that, nobody knows they're struggling.

Well, every day my confusion grows = this sentence can feel like a response to what Will has "said" before. He says all those things, and Mike answers this. His confusion of liking Will grows every day. He feels confused if he actually likes El or not and if not, if he likes Will.

———

So with this first verse, things are set that Will loves Mike but he's too detached from that, too confused about who he loves and what he should do. Now, let's see the chorus:

CHORUS

Every time I see you falling

I get down on my knees and pray

I'm waiting for that final moment

You say the words that I can't say

———

It seems like the chorus can be perceived as Mike's pov. Let's see how the analysis works out here:

Every time I see you falling = every time Will is on the bottom, like with his feelings, when he feels at the bottom (= sad).

I get down on my knees and pray = can be a reference to the fact that Mike's family are conservatives, and religious. Although we've never seen them pray or anything, they're the cliché of the suburban family with a big house, and this cliché involves being Christian.

I'm waiting for that final moment = the ending of the show?

You say the words that I can't say = the most obvious of them all: we know Mike is unable to say I love you to El, so he's waiting that final moment where Will is going to say I love you to him, because it seems like he's incapable to do it himself. Which means that Mike won't be the one to say I love you first.

———

So this chorus was centered on Mike's feelings and current situation. Now, the second verse.

SECOND VERSE:

I feel fine and I feel good

I'm feeling like I never should

Whenever I get this way, I just don't know what to say

Why can't we be ourselves like we were yesterday?

I'm not sure what this could mean

I don't think you're what you seem

I do admit to myself that if I hurt someone else

Then I'll never see just what we're meant to be

———

This is so Byler coded, and it is again, Mike's pov. So here's my analysis:

I feel fine and I feel good

I'm feeling like I never should = not okay to be feeling that way, this good.

Whenever I get this way, I just don't know what to say = this can have 2 meanings. Either it is about how he's feeling good when he's next to Will and he doesn't even know what to talk about or say because he's flustered. Or, he says he's feeling "good" and he shouldn't be when he's with Eleven, and whenever he gets this way, with El, he doesn't know what to say because he doesn't like her that way.

Why can't we be ourselves like we were yesterday? = About Will: why can't they be friends like before, like what changed? About El: why can't they be strangers/friends like before, why did they have to be together that way? Why did he push himself to in the first place.

I'm not sure what this could mean = About Will: the feelings he has, he's not sure what they are about (= his love feelings towards Will). About El: he's not sure of why he's feeling uncomfortable when he's with her (= platonic feelings towards El).

I don't think you're what you seem = I'm not sure if this could be said by Will or El. It can be, again like some sort of answer, response to what's previously said. So I think it could be El or Will saying to "you" (= Mike) that he's not acting like his usual self, he's different, faking to be perceived as normal (= regarding El, acting straight).

I do admit to myself that if I hurt someone else = back to Mike. Again this can have 2 meanings. For El: admitting that if he hurts her, by using her as a beard. For Will: hurting him by ignoring his feelings, letting him on the side and only concentrating on Eleven, hurting his feelings (platonic like romantic).

Then I'll never see just what we're meant to be = for El: what they're meant to be, so friends. Meaning if he hurts her by not admitting that he doesn't like her, he'll never see her and him as friends. For Will: what they're meant to be is boyfriends. Meaning if he hurts him by not admitting his feelings and ignoring him, he'll never see each other as lovers.

———

We can clearly see how this verse applies to Mike, as how he's confused and trapped between dating a girl he doesn't like and wanting a boy he likes. But it is the 80s, he's scared of what others would think, especially himself. Because of this internalized homophobia he has.

The rest of the song is the chorus repeated four times.

Overall, this song is exactly what Mike feels about Will and about Eleven, about this Bizarre Love Triangle.

If you have other interpretation for that song, please feel free to give it. This was mine, and you may not be agreeing with it entirely, so if you have a different opinion, I'd be glad to read it.

[obsessionatthemoment]

Prior to season 4, Joyce and Hopper's romantic feelings were only implied. Their scenes together showed a close, intimate relationship. But, they never said that it was romantic with words. Will and Mike's relationship has been portrayed in a very similar way, but many people refuse to acknowledge that they're building up romance. Why are people okay with saying, "yes, they are building this relationship ship up to be romantic." With a straight couple, and not a gay one?

[stranger-theory]

something so funny about Milevens is that they post shit about them from s2 and caption it "soulmates!!" like sure buddy they may have looked like it then but im pretty sure that was before the lying and gaslighting.

i think this is something a lot of Milevens fail to understand. they think that because Mike said he loves her they can go back to posting shit from back then as if they're still at that level. this is something i HATE.

a good plot resolve should play out like this: Mike cant say he loves El because he's afraid she'll realize she doesn't love him. more miscommunication, blah blah blah, but then Mike overcomes this fear and says he loves her. they talk about it and finally go back to being a happy couple!

here's how it actually went: Mike can't say he loves El because he's afraid she'll realize she doesn't love him, they miscommunicate, get separated, reunite. Mike says he loves her. she refuses to talk to him for about two full days and this is explicitly called out by two of the characters.

"Has she talked to you at all?" –Will

"No. I mean- a little." –Mike

why would that interaction be included at all if it's not necessary for catching us up on their relationship status? in fact, the reason Will asks this is because the camera pans to Eleven making a face at Mike before walking into another room and shutting the door. he notices that she's acting weird. they're not acting normal, they're not on speaking terms, that plot wasn't resolved. the issue is still relevant. we're supposed to notice.

the ignorance for people to casually assume they're okay now is astounding and shows clear evidence that these people don't even have any idea what's going on. this is basic media literacy and they're not even batting an eye.

this is lightly inspired by @teambyler , i liked his video a lot !

[koobyers]

imagine we get the teaser/trailer and there's just action and characters talking in the back and stuff and at some point we hear mike say "i can't love you" but we don't see him nor the person he's talking to and we have no damn idea if that's him rejecting will or him breaking up with el. like the terror something like that would cause i can't even think about it

[periwinklepanic]

Yesterday my coworkers and I were discussing stranger things season 5 theories and one of them said “I really hope they give Will a love interest” and I sat there like “yeah 😀” as if I haven’t been shipping him with his best friend since Obama was still in office.

[skeletal-butterflyy]

Even max could write “Love your shitty little sister Max” to Billy, the brother that abused her that she could barely stand to be in a room with that she secretly wished death upon, at the end of her letter. While mike can’t write love at the end of his letter to his girlfriend who he cares about very deeply? 🤨 I know what you are mike wheeler.

[starrycloak]

ptsd flashbacks, hyperphantasia and true sight - Max's drawings in 4x05 were too good, actually

cw discussions of ptsd

I was thinking about how, the morning after she escaped Vecna's lair, Max took upon drawing what she saw there. Mostly HOW she drew those pictures:

Separate elements, fragmented individual snapshots (like an officer taking pictures at a crime scene- by the way, check out @threemanoperation's post about other instances of weird puzzle collage-solving-seemingly-without-a-reference here; it was a major inspo for this post). Sure, nobody was expecting her to render a single 360° view of Vecna's mindspace, but her drawings are more than clear enough. This level of detail (the broken, scattered structures, trinkets, Chrissy and Fred's bodies in their current state, mixing the crayon colors available in Holly's box so they'd more closely match what she saw, the different angles) is more than quite accurate for someone who 1) hadn't previously been labelled as skilled in drawing and 2) might have been scared for her life to mindfully focus on her surroundings. I have two main questions, both quite connected to one another, but I'm afraid I won't be able to answer them fully: how and why.

how could max remember so clearly what she saw in vecna's mindscape and externalize her memories with such high fidelity?

some assault/attemped m*rder survivors have very vivid memories of the moment they were attacked -those memories might not even be limited to image and sound, but even smells, textures, etc.

When traumatic memories are retrieved, the physical stress response actually serves to strengthen them, to reinforce the memory in the circuits of the brain. The PTSD response makes these memories stronger and stronger over time. [Survivors] may not remember all of the details, but the things that they do remember remain sharp and consistent.

There's no clear-cut time frame for how long it takes for our brains to initiate and run this process, so I'd not rule out something of the sort might have happened to Max from the moment she came back and the next morning at the Wheelers' (plus she didn't sleep at all and probably saw those images any time she closed her eyes). However, I can't help but consider what I said above about Max's main focus probably being elsewhere in that moment, along with the fact that Max's drawings were beyond beginner (as in, not hobby) level (did you see how many different vanishing points she used for the 'floating' objects???), and a very important detail she mentions herself: her walking into the red mindscape wasn't Vecna trying to scare her per se -he did NOT want her to see that, so he probably didn't want her to remember that place either. Yes, he had seemed kind of... "peacock-y" when it came to the classic "serial k*ller leaves crumbs bc he secretly wants to be found out", but he has to call the shots on who gets to see what, like he eventually did with Nancy. Max managed to "infiltrate" his mind bc he did the same to her first, so would it be far-fetched to think that, if it was only up to him, he'd make sure to block or take away those memories from her to patch what ultimately becomes an exploitable vulnerability for the Party and co?

unless someone else, in a similar position to Vecna -or even higher-, was on the Party's side-

I want to explore two possible explanations as to why max was able to retain such clear images/memories, stemming mainly from @greenfiend and @/kaypeace21's posts about DID theory. One: with Vecna being Will's persecutor alter, escaping his claws might have 'granted' Max an ability that has a similar-ish equivalent on an irl condition that can influence memory processing: hyperphantasia.

Hyperphantasia is the condition of having extremely vivid mental imagery. [It] has been described as being "as vivid as real seeing" [...] Vivid mental imagery as observed in hyperphantasia impacts people's ability for "mental time travel", or the ability to remember past events as well as imagine future events. Hyperphantasics have reported more sensory details of episodic memories and future event constructions.

sadly, it's more of a curse that a boon:

Vivid imagery has been correlated to several mood disorders, particularly anxiety, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder, and having hyperphantasia may exacerbate symptoms of such disorders by subserving ruminating thoughts as well as acting as an "emotional amplifier" [...] The vividness of mental imagery has a key role in the development and continuation of intrusive memories, so for those with PTSD, having hyperphantasia is a substantial risk factor.

if this sounds a bit familiar, it's because it's tied to the second possible explanation: Max, being an alter of Will, acquiring/borrowing the host's artistic abilities/motor skills (to a degree*) and a flash of his True Sight so she could help the party navigate that part of the hivemind as if they themselves had been there. or, similar to Billy, she was 'activated' (re: influenced/possessed) to help the party with this particular task.

*at first I thought this detail was too much of a reach, but then I remember how similar Max's and El's -another alter- drawings were in The Piggyback (although El's had bigger heads both times), and how stickmen were either a deliberate choice by Max or just her back to default:

[stranger-things-yapper]

Oh no. Guys, folks, pals.

What if Will DOESN'T confess to Mike in S5.

What if El has to go into Will's mind for some reason, maybe to help him, maybe to try and find Vecna through him

And she sees how Mike is everywhere in Will's mind

What if we don't get a flashback per say, but like, El searching Will's mind and seeing his memories (like what happened with Billy in S3) and finally understanding everything.

Can you imagine El's heartbreak? Would she even be able to tell anybody?

Oh my God I am unwell

[bylerst5]

Vecna seeing byler kiss in the upside down

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

S5 ep 6 is written by Kate Trefry.

S2 ep 6 is also written by Kate Trefry.

In s2 ep 6 Jancy got together.

[strawberrybyers]

what if this is the same day omg?? because it looks like nancy is wearing the same outfit based on the collar in the screen cap of her and mike????

[onlyhereforbylerlol]

THERES MOREEE 😭

THIS FEELS LIKE A DREAM SOMEONE PINCH ME.

[wheeler-fan]

since we already know that a trailer should appear soon, I don't care what date they choose, but please don't deprive us of the last chance for stranger things summer 😭😭😭😭

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