#because brenners the one that days the line and

[aemiron-main]

also i need to finish more posts about it but i would love to know whats going on with the specific, anachronistic song references during tfs. first chuck e’s in love and now “father and son” by cat stevens???”

[bylertruther]

‘Stranger Things’ Matt & Ross Duffer Dish Season 4 Finale Death & Destruction & Epic Battles Ahead

[nothoughts-onlywomen]

Pink Floyd’s The Wall

This BTS photo has really piqued my interest. Not just because it’s clearly a hint at something for season 5, but also because it happens to be one of my favorite albums ever. So, I thought I’d do a deep dive into how it might factor into the next season.

Full disclaimer: All these ideas I’m about to verbal vomit will make more sense if you watch the film here and/or listen to the album here. I truly recommend you seek it out. Far and away, it’s one of my favorite films/albums, and it’s stood the test of time. In fact, there are certain sequences that may be a little triggering in our current US political climate (I’m thinking of the “In The Flesh/Run Like Hell/Waiting for the Worms” sequence).

War. The Wall is about war; namely, the bitter uselessness of it. The film has a lot of anti-war imagery. Young soldiers wounded and vulnerable, doves exploding into crows, a bloody cross, etc. The film ends with a culturally diverse group of children picking up rubble from the war. There’s a beautiful image where a child pours out a Molotov cocktail. The meaning there is that children are taught to hate and kill, and once they are, the joy of youth is smothered by it. Now I can think of a few scenarios where this is relevant to our crew. This could have something to do with the war against Vecna, in that our kiddos are so young to be fighting this war, and that it will inevitably chip away parts of them. For some, it may take limbs, or even lives. There may also be an assertion that Henry Creel was taught to hate, rather than it being an inevitable part of him. El suggested this at the end of season 4, when she asserts to Vecna that Papa made him a monster. The nuance within the anti-war message of The Wall is that the main character, Pink, lost his father in World War II. Henry Creel’s father went to war (the exact same war, in fact) which is an interesting similarity, but I think greater parallels should be drawn between Pink and Henry Creel in terms of how their relationship with their father (or lack thereof) led to their emotional erosion. And when I’m referring to Henry’s father, I’m not necessarily talking about Victor, though their relationship may have been complex. I’m referring to Dr. Brenner as well. Now the major difference between Pink and Henry - at least, so far - is that Pink is shown to have a soft, gentle side to him. This gets smothered as his emotional wall grows taller. I don’t know if Vecna ever had anything of the sort, but we know that Will is nothing if not gentle. And if they’re going to draw parallels between Will and Henry next season, I have to think there’s some meaning in there somewhere.

Conformity. It should be noted that the film takes place during World War II, so the conformity themes were especially prevalent in those days - the days of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Pink attends a school where the children all wear masks and stand on an assembly line, eventually to be thrown into a meat grinder. All very heavy-handed symbolism, I know. But the idea is that society attempts to suppress individuality and corner the youth into becoming part of the mindless whole. Blessedly, toward the end of the school sequence, the kids all rip off their masks and rebel. Now, in reference to our friends in Hawkins, this could be a nod to how the group has never been afraid to be the “freaks,” and that conformity is meaningless to them. Stranger Things has always reveled in the beauty of being yourself in the face of societal labels. The Wall also utilizes hammers in much of its imagery, which is supposed to symbolize the hammer pounding a nail into submission. With the individual being the nail, and the oppressive whole being the hammer. To me, this hearkens back to the “hive mind” idea. The Mind Flayer operates from this hive mind, and so any deviation from this would be quickly and mightily suppressed. I also addressed the idea of the “hive mind” in my theory about the Wrinkle in Time Easter egg, and how the planet Camazotz adopts this same concept (read here if you feel so inclined). Will Vecna be this deviation? If not, who will? One of the kids? Will Dart break away from an army of demogorgons to save Dustin? I can’t see the Mind Flayer being thrilled about it regardless of how it manifests.

Emotional isolation. Pink undergoes a descent into emotional isolation. The wall itself is symbolic of the emotional wall he builds around his heart, insofar each negative event in his life is “another brick in the wall.” Once his emotional isolation is complete, he becomes callous and disconnected with others. He fantasizes about committing atrocities, even becoming a Hitler-like figure in his imaginings. Such emotional isolation is likely present within Vecna as well, as only someone with a real disconnection from their emotions could kill people in the ways that Vecna has. That scary face on the poster, in fact, is emotion, trying to break free of the wall. A scream of agony from within. Perhaps the Duffers will explore this within Vecna. Perhaps Vecna has some small shred of humanity left that the group will try to capitalize upon. At the climax of The Wall, Pink puts himself on trial in his mind with a judge that is a literal asshole (yes, it’s as batshit as it sounds), and the wall is torn down within him. The album ends with a spoken message that loops into the beginning track, suggesting that the conundrum of emotional wall-building will never end. Perhaps the group will attempt to tear down Vecna’s emotional walls. The Duffers are good enough writers to make us feel at least some empathy for Vecna, if we hadn’t already, and this might just be a continuation of this. There is also the possibility that one of our other kiddos starts to emotionally isolate. It could be any of them: Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, El, or Max. I’m less inclined to believe it would be one of the older kids, though they’ve all certainly got their own demons. None of them will become as twisted as Vecna, of course, but I could see them struggling against their own emotional walls. We’ve seen Max do a bit of this already. It would be a real shot to the heart if the Duffers utilized a deeply sad track like “Nobody’s Home” or a wistful, melancholic tune like “Comfortably Numb” to describe Max’s consciousness literally being absent from her at the moment. I think Will is also an ideal candidate for this concept, especially if (as I suggested earlier), we are going to draw similarities between him and Henry Creel. The ending song on the album, “Outside the Wall,” postulates that those who truly love you will walk up and down outside your emotional wall, banging on it, trying to tear it down and thus forge deeper connection. We’ve seen this happen with Max a bit, and I could certainly see it happening with Will, too.

Mental illness. Pink is suggested to have a mental illness. He’s not particularly easy to slap a diagnosis on (though based on the information we do have, I might have put him in the schizoid/schizotypal/schizoaffective territory. Depression with psychotic features at the very least). Mental illness isn’t a topic that heavily explored in Stranger Things, though season 4 definitely had some poignant things to say about depression. But I’m wondering - if they do decide to touch on this somewhat - if this will hint at a deeper dive into Vecna’s psyche. Killing small animals is generally a precursor to actual murder, and this was certainly the case when it came to Henry Creel, but we have yet to really unpack all of this. We’ve gotten hints. Vecna noting that he “never forgets a kill” and “they are always with me” is a very interesting concept I will be curious to learn more about.

I would love to hear any additional thoughts on this.

[resident-idiot-simp]

I couldn't do it justice but I REALLY want a MW and TWD crossover like I have the plot but there is no way I could write it.

(once again copy paste from discord conversations)

Plot the 141 are in the US because well Laswell told them something is going very wrong. Soap and Ghost of even all of the 141 are in Atlanta maybe to go to the CDC.

Apocalypse happens and they end up at the quarry camp. You can have everyone there being very confused and giving the soldiers a wide birth that pushed them to hang out with the Dixon's. Alternatively, they're liked but still hang out with the Dixon's because the brothers are the only other people who are competent.

So there's this weird duality where everyone else hates the brothers except for single handedly the most competent people in the camp. Also we can have ghost beating the shit out of Ed.

More people survive, Ghost theoretically hack his way out of the CDC if they end up killing Brenner. Sophia lives and the whole plot is them trying to get back to their team or to the main base if it's all of 141. I can go into more detail I have thought a lot about this

They're all very confused by the relationship between Soap and Ghost. Carol clocks it as do the Dixon's but everyone else is kind of like 'huh good friends' and if you go the girls try desperately to get with Soap.

Ghost finds it hysterical. Soap is not amused.

Anyways they are always together and eventually are caught kissing or something and the camp is shocked. There are slightly homophobic comments but the two shut it down immediately. Because no they are not dealing with that. (Ironically most of the comments would come from the Dixon's so that's interesting thought)

Also Merle was in the military so I wonder if he's heard of them

Anyway I just want soap and Ghost to take the kids and Carol under their wings speed up the badassnes process. Also, I need caryl

Another thought. CDC someone knocks on their door (Lori or Andrea maybe) (Shane's reaction would also be funny but he's trying too well.... Anyway) and Soap comes to the door with just shorts on.

He's covered in hickeys and scratches his face is flushed and he looks less than pleased to be interrupted. The Girls are shook because WHO IS IN THERE WITH HIM?!

Then Ghost appears behind him mask on and only that the rest of his body is hidden behind the door. It however is the most skin they've ever seen.

News spreads like wildfire (hehe if ykyk) and by morning everyone knows Soap and Ghost are fucking.

They couldn't give a shit and act as if nothing changed the because nothing has.

However, no one else can look at them the same way.

(I will be back soon with a 09 version of this)

Edit we back

Ok so the Captain makes his way into the camp Roach and Ghost next to him. All of the girls are just drooling because hello?! Exotic Scottish man that just oozes sex appeal. He doesn't even bat an eye at them. Merle about flips shit because HOLY THAT'S FUCKING CAPTAIN MACTAVISH THE GUY WHO STOPED WW3! He tells Daryl and both of them try desperately to get on the soldiers good side.

The first peep out of Ed gets him threatened and beaten within an inch of his life Ghost was restrained before it got worse. Mainly because the civilians didn't need to hear about how Ghost has and will again use someone's intestines to hang them. Roach knows EVERYTHING that goes on around camp. He's the one that set up the defense lines helping the Dixons.

He knows Lori and Shane are fucking had actually caught them and reported back. They just ingest information and use it for future leverage. It's not necessarily for blackmail but I mean if it happens to be used as such ¯⁠⁠⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠⁠/⁠¯ Ghost and Roach have no shame when it comes to each other and the Captain they will cuddle right up and make themselves comfortable.

Roach stole Carol and she now stays near them and Roach insist on teaching her BSL. Shane got pissed one day when MacTavish took over directing the camp only for the captain to just drag him completely for his incompetence.

The world isn't going to get better It's only going to get worse. And Shane needs to stop acting otherwise. Dale probably hates them Glenn is in awe. One day when Riley was helping Daryl butcher whatever animal he dragged in they bonded and became inseparable. Two sides of the same coin honestly those two.

Roach is with Gleen all the time teaching him survival tricks because they are also very similar. And at the end of the day with no care they all curl up in their tent like puppies and sleep. I can see Rick and MacTavish being good friends. Also CDC absolutely doesn't happen MacTavish doesn't even let them Consider that as a possible thing.

He knows full well that place is fucked. Just directs them towards the military base in the middle of bum fuck nowhere they had been placed at. Everyone in the camp suspects Roach Ghost and MacTavish are together but it's never confirmed. Not until they are somewhere like a storage locker place sleeping for the night and MacTavish exists the next morning covered in marks.

(more)

[henrysglock]

I have more bad news about Henry and Patty in the attic vision. Sorry.

So remember what I talked about in this post back from December, about how Henry's experience in the attic was a vision, and the "real" Patty never said "I love you" to Henry?

I want to look at it from another angle, because I'm no longer entirely convinced that was someone trying to help Henry.

Let me walk you through it.

Supposed you're Henry, and the Mindflayer has you trapped in a vision. It indicates that it wants to tell you a secret.

This line is never elaborated on further.

In fact, the curtain closes, and the next time the audience sees inside your mind, the Patty in your vision is telling you—

a) words no one but the Mindflayer has ever heard you say:

b) that this vision doesn't have to be a nightmare...

c) so long as you say "I love you" to her.

This is not phrased as a suggestion or a request. It is a demand.

Now, the Mindflayer has no trouble forcing you to kill. In fact, the longer you stall, the more damage you do to the real Patty's father irl.

As soon as you acquiesce to the demands of Vision Patty, the Mindflayer attack abruptly ends. You wake up to the real Patty telling you to get off her as she runs away from you.

Both before and after this scene, we have instances of the Mindflayer acting like a jealous lover.

In Act I, it, via Henry, asks if Virginia is jealous of Henry's relationship with Patty...and then it/Henry attacks Virginia and tries to drive her away. Then, in Act II, when Brenner says to Henry "I'm the only friend you'll ever have, boy!", Henry's Mindflayer voice jumps out to say "I'm not your boy!"...and then it/Henry attacks Brenner to drive him away as well.

With that in mind, I want to pose three questions:

What secret did the Mindflayer want to share with Henry?

Why was Henry saying "I love you" the thing that made it all stop?

More specifically, why was Henry no longer fighting the thing that made it all stop?

Unless, of course, this vision of Patty was manipulative.

Just a few scenes earlier, less than two days in the time frame of TFS, the Mindflayer learned that Henry is highly perceptive, and that he reacts badly to temptation via violence/power.

It make sense, then, for the next tactic to be figurative honey rather than vinegar. Win him over with comfort and love.

What's the Mindflayer's secret, then?

It's not real, it's a nightmare (read, in flashing neon: this is a Mindflayer attack)

Henry can make the attack stop

It/Vision Patty "loves" Henry

Henry has to say "I love you" back to it/Vision Patty to make the "nightmare" stop.

Lo and behold, it works.

This interaction, while incongruous with "real" Patty's feelings, also sets Henry up to choose her again and again. Like I said in a follow-up to the original post, it's less about romance and more about giving Henry the love he craves: the love that's being withheld from him by Virginia. If Henry believes he can receive/is receiving that love from another source, he will stay with that source. This proves true time and time again, as Henry chooses Patty over everything else...despite the numerous consent infringements he's been dealt by Patty in the past. The only time this doesn't hold true is the very end, when Patty and Henry's relationship is shattered by Brenner's takes on the Creel murders...which is followed by Patty's near-immediate "death" and the dissolution of the majority of the Hawkins High cast.

This is, of course, on top of a word thread Em has shared before...but that I'd like to reference again:

"It" = The Mindflayer. Thus, when "It" is perfect, and Henry tells Vision Patty she is...Henry is, knowingly or not, referring to the Mindflayer.

This directly precedes Vision Patty telling Henry he could make it all stop by saying "I love you" back.

[howtobecomeadragon]

Mike got upset at Hopper in s2 bc Hopper was keeping El hidden... when she could've been helping Will and preventing Will's situation from getting so bad

Obviously there are other reasons too, he was mourning and missed her, it was a shock to see her, etc. I'm just saying I think this is the bigger reason.

This also ties into Mike viewing El as a superhero and how this puts their relationship in a weird space. If someone is a superhero, you're not missing them as a person, you're missing them for their powers and what they can do for you.

Obviously we saw that Mike was missing El in 2x01 and 2x02. But at the end of 2x02, we saw Mike having a new concern about what was going on with Will and that he was seeing something from the UD. Mike is confronted with the reality that he doesn't know much about the UD and doesn't know how to help. He doesn't know if this is real or just visions. He doesn't understand (although he does his best to help), the others wouldn't understand, but Eleven would. She would know, she'd be able to help, she'd know how to stop this.

Because, after all, Mike has said it before: she's a weapon. He viewed her as a way to get Will back before (partly, not claiming this was his only motivation in his relationship with El) and now in s2, Mike is missing her for what she could have done here: helped Will.

Mike does what he can to put positive spins on the situation and he provides that emotional support, which probably helped more than he knew.

But that didn't exactly stop the bad things from happening. Mike still doesn't know how to fix this thing happening to Will. He does everything he can, he comes up with the idea to spy back and to put Will to sleep, but it's still a very upsetting day or two.

When El returns, he greets her happily but as soon as he hears that she's been out there, listening to his calls, his face drops. He wanted to know she was out there. And then very quickly his anger moves to Hopper. El didn't know that Will was in trouble. She stayed away bc Hopper told her to, but she didn't know what was going on. Hopper knew. Hopper knew that El was probably one of the only people who might know enough to help, so he gets mad about Hopper hiding her, when she could've been there, she could've stepped in as soon as Will saw the Mind Flayer the first time.

Moving onto the fight scene:

Mike and Hopper both look and gesture towards this wall a lot (EDIT: credit to @runninguplenorahills for pointing this out, this is also in Will's bedroom, similar to the s3 kiss with El in the finale. just another thing pointing to this being more to do with Will than the GA might thing), and I get that it's probably the direction of where El is in the kitchen, but just like always, Will is there symbolically too. He's there in the drawings that are on the wall between them in the dead center of the shot. It's a symbol of just how bad things got with Will.

Mike looks at the drawings and says he doesn't understand how Hopper let it go on so long with El there but hidden.

Again, looking and gesturing at the walls. And there's this talk of blame here. "Don't blame her, she's already upset." "I don't blame her, I blame you."

Blame El for... just staying hidden? When Mike can tell she wasn't allowed to talk to him? That doesn't really fit perfectly with the word "blame." What Hopper might mean, instead, is for Mike to not blame El for how bad it got with Will. "Don't blame El for not coming to help sooner, don't blame her for everything that has happened the past couple days." And Mike doesn't, he says he's blaming Hopper.

Another couple things from the full fight scene:

"Protecting her?" Mike sees what happened. Hopper chose to protect El over protecting Will this season (in a way, balancing out his actions from s1, selling out El's location to Brenner to save Will).

"So I should be thanking you?" Along that same line: Mike isn't thinking about his or his family's safety. Brenner is gone, and it sounds like Hopper kept El hidden for reasons he doesn't understand or care about at the cost of Will's safety.

"Nothing about this is okay." There's so many things he's upset and overwhelmed and scared about right now. It's multifaceted, just like so many of Mike's scenes. He's not just mad bc he missed El, there's more there.

After the scene with Hopper, Mike and El are standing away from each other. He even seems to be avoiding eye contact with her? Maybe from embarrassment over his outburst, maybe he just feels weird and conflicted already, feeling the strain of having his attention split when he's already so worried about Will. But either way, the shots are framed with Mike and Hopper together and everyone else with El. He didn't rush out from that fight to stick with El, be close, hold her hand, talk with her more.

And the first time he speaks in this scene it feels a lot like another "I'm the only one who cares about Will" moment. He's put the pieces together and was considering Will's part in all of this. He's not voicing concern about El being in danger again or leaving again, his mind is on Will.

And I think this all goes to the goodbye scene between El and Mike. Mike is concerned about losing people close to him. He can't say goodbye to Will, but he says goodbye to El. She tries to kiss him, he leaves his eyes open and doesn't move closer at all. A car with Will drives away and a car with El drives away, both headed towards danger. He stares after both, scared.

GA viewers assume he's just focused on El as he watches the cars drive away, but he spent most of the season just focused on Will. GA viewers assume Mike's outburst just has to do with loving El, but he spent most of the season trying to help Will, just like s1, except this time he didn't have El, his helpful link to the UD, to make the supernatural mysteries a little bit easier.

[ebongawk]

if you're still accepting hellcheer aus: high fantasy assassin Chrissy/Bard Eddie? I have thoughts but I'd *love* to hear yours.

hi yes I am! oh gosh let me think:

Eddie's a bit notorious around the town square. He's friends with everyone, he knows everyone, and he's not afraid to use that knowledge to his advantage (and to line his pockets). While generally charming and well-liked, everyone knows Eddie has all of the blackmail fodder he could ever need. So when a new maid starts working at Lord Brenner's castle, Eddie takes note.

She's beautiful, of course. And when someone slips her name in his ear, Eddie immediately knows it's fake (call it a Bard's intuition.) So he decides to keep tabs on her. For his own benefit, of course.

Whenever she goes to the market for food and things for the household, Eddie strikes up a conversation. It's definitely flirting right off the bat, but it goes from feigned to real real fuckin quick. He learns her name is Ella Ballard (fake) and that her family sent her in from the countryside for extra money (lie) because her mother is sick (actually seems true, but the way she spits it like a curse, Eddie knows she's discussing two different types of sick.)

Anyway his intuition has him on alert one day after a late visit to the market, when stalls are nearly closed, and he watches her steal a dagger from a blacksmith. He follows her back to the castle, stealthily sneaking in behind her. Watching from the shadows as she waits for Brenner to retire to bed.

Eddie stops her before she can commit this one act (because he knows she'll get caught), and that's when the truth spills out: her name is actually Chrissy Cunningham, she was of a noble family and became an assassin when her father's true dealings came to light, and Lord Brenner is keeping mages locked in his dungeon for experimentation. While it isn't his place, Eddie is drawn to help her in her quest for vengeance and freedom of the mages.

send me an AU idea and I'll make up five facts about it!

[reikunrei]

I didn't talk about this at all in my last doctor who post because there was so much else going on that I wanted to touch on, but after @mikesbasementbeets mentioned one of the closing lines of the episode in the tags, I kinda wanted to just talk about it a bit.

So, this is one of the rare episodes of dw where everyone lives at the end, including all of the victims who outright or technically died. Throughout basically the whole show, but especially the early seasons, and especially s1 with the 9th Doctor, there's an incredible emphasis on "we cannot interfere or else everything will fall apart." The episode right before these ("Father's Day") actually tackles this very idea, which I hope to explore sometime in another post. In short, the Doctor doesn't save people. Doing so often results in more harm than good (unless it wasn't meant to happen, but we don't have time to get into that here lol).

However, at the end of this episode, he does something completely different.

He says everybody lives. He sends out a mass of nanogenes, now reprogrammed, toward the gas mask soldiers surrounding the bomb site and they rewrite and "fix" their DNA, making them all normal humans again without the injuries of dead little Jamie. As I showed in the initial post, even Jamie winds up coming back to life, despite the fact that he was already dead when the nanogenes found his body and used him as a blueprint. Realistically, Jamie should still be dead because he wasn't technically "changed" by the nanogenes, simply brought back to life, which the Doctor earlier says is easy.

It's an extremely profound ending to a dw episode, and it's one that sticks with a lot of people.

Now bear with me because I'm sick with a cold as I write this so it might not be very coherent, but in conjunction with all of the other connections/similarities/parallels between these episodes and Stranger Things, this feels startlingly fitting for (at least part of) the conclusion to st.

Throughout all of st, we've seen time and again that knocking things down with violence doesn't really work. It's especially evident in st4 when Nancy, Steve, and Robin flambée Vecna, blast away a few chunks of flesh, and knock him out of the third story of a house. You'd think that would turn him into a pile of smoldering mulch, but it doesn't! Frankly, he gets up and walks away very quickly. We're shown and told time and again that killing outright does not work.

In these dw episodes, they could have tried killing any of the victims to keep them at bay (at one point the Doctor even pick-pockets Jack's sonic blaster so he won't use it on the victims). However, with the nanogenes present, they simply would have been "fixed" again and brought back to life. Much like Vecna, they would've just kept coming back.

And what winds up saving the day in dw? Love and understanding. When Nancy finally admits to Jamie that she's his mother, not his sister, and apologizes for everything that's happened and comes into contact with the nanogenes, it makes them fix their misunderstanding.

A lot of people talk about how Will said "we have to kill him" irt Vecna/One at the end of 4.09. However, again, we've seen that it literally does not work. And along with everything else surrounding the weirdness with identities in st, specifically with the distinctions between Henry/Edward, Vecna, and One (and Brenner) (check out the original post I linked at the top for links to other folk's posts about this), it's not far-fetched at all to assume that untangling the uncertainty left here will be what brings them closer to "saving the day," much closer than anymore fighting ever would.

We spend a lot of these dw episodes being scared of Jamie. Even Nancy is constantly visibly fearful of him and won't go near him, but in the end, she takes him into her arms despite the risk of her becoming infected. They don't brute force the nanogenes into understanding, they don't try to reprogram them, and they don't physically fight them off. They constantly run away, use words, or even sing them to sleep. There is very little violence in these dw episodes, and most of it comes from the victims themselves and is very tame.

Stranger Things, at its core, is about love, and that extends to the (supposed) villains. The way things have been presented thus far are very unreliable, but we have enough information from the show itself (aided by things like TFS and even bits of the VR game) to prove that there's something else going on, and maybe, just like with little Jamie, someone just needs a little bit of helpful truth.

As Joyce Maldonado once said, "Can love defeat fear?"

[erikiara80]

New theory: I'm going to connect the Will with brown eyes to birthdaygate

I like the idea of Vecna stealing memories, and it's possible that in S5 the people Will loves forget him, or that he forgets them, but I think there might be another explanation about his birthday.

Ok, Will having brown eyes is only mentioned in the S1 Missing poster, and we only see them in the shed scene.

So, I wonder if they focus so much on his eyes in S2 not to show that he's possessed, but that there is a timeline where Will's eyes have always been brown.

It would be a smart way to hide the truth in plain sight; letting people believe that the color has changed because of the possession.

But S3 should make us doubt about that explanation. In fact, Billy's eye color never changes. There's even a close up of his eye at the end of 3x03 (here), when he's already controlled by the Mind Flayer. I think they wanted us to notice the difference between the two Williams.

But back to birthdaygate. They said that in S5 they included many S2 ideas and that we should definitely rewatch it. One of the reasons could be the mention of Will's birthday and the I forgot your birthday card in 2x04.

I talk about the Will the Wise scene here

Theory: Maybe the Will with brown eyes was born on March 22, but not the Will with hazel eyes, the one we've seen in every season, including S4. If that's true, it means that nobody forgot his birthday in S4.

We can't be sure, because we don't see what color Will's eyes are when Joyce says 'Do you know what March 22nd is', or when she looks at Will the Wise (and the birthday card). But I find it interesting that Will's birthday is mentioned in the only scene in the entire show where his eyes are brown. The same color mentioned in the Missing poster. And that we only see the birthday card in S1, the season when they make the poster, and then in one shot in 2x04

The card in S1

And in 2x04

They even show Hopper's confusion here, because he doesn't see anything. In fact, in all the other shots/episodes the drawing is on another wall.

Before Joyce looks at the drawing

After she looks at it

The drawing in 2x01 and 2x05 (Will's eyes, always hazel)

I have questions tho. For example. The birthday card. Is it foreshadowing of Will's family forgetting his birthday, or about something important in the past that we'll see in S5?

Also, S4 starts with the mention of someone stealing thoughts. A hint about Vecna stealing the memory of the birthday, or about him spying on Max and the other kids?

The 'Be sure to specify birth date' could also have two meanings. That people forgot Will's birthday, or that it's not on March 22, like we thought.

Then in 4x08 Brenner says that One takes everything from his victims, including their memories. I know he didn't kill Will in S2, but he was literally in his mind. And I'm sure that line is important.

But let's say that the theory is correct and Will's birthday, the Will with hazel eyes, is not on March 22. Then when is it? I think it would make sense if it was just a few days later.

And maybe they told us when it is. March 29, Billy's birthday. The hint could be the fact that his name changes to William. Also, interesting that Not forgotten... If Will's birthday is really on March 29 then it's true, nobody forgot it.

So, maybe the Will with hazel eyes was born on March 29, and the Will with brown eyes was born on March 22.

And IF Will's birthday is on March 29, it makes also sense that Mike doesn't give him any present. Maybe that's why he was supposed to stay in Cali for a week. March 22-29. He wanted to be there for Will's birthday.

But then he sees Will at the airport and his brain stops working. Joyce goes to Russia, El gets arrested, and people start shooting them. They were all busy trying to stay alive and bury agents in the desert. I get that they didn't mention the birthday, lol

Also, this means that Will's birthday would be at the beginning of S5! Before the time jump, when he can hear Vecna again, when he can have visions of other birthdays and Lonnie. In the middle of the apocalypse.

It would make less sense imo if the birthday was before Spring Break, because I'm sure Mike would at least mention it and say that he was sorry he wasn't there.

So yeah,maybe I'm wrong, but seeing Will's birthday in S5, while they have to hide from soldiers, monsters and an angry mob would be epic.

Tagging you, @lilitblaukatz I'm curious to know what are your thoughts on birthdaygate

[sterlingarcher23]

An "eye-opener"

This quite literally opened her eyes... Oh, foreshadowing. Nachtigall ick hör dir trappsen.

"Let me see" (If "I hear you" while listening to the radio forshadows blind Max, the "Let me see" forshadows the opposite.)

Why? Because both Lucas & Erica are connected to the 8.

You know... Kali. The dice could have shown any other number in slow motion but it's the 8 before it's a 20 (the ElMax & Lumax patterns both equate separately to a specific number once the final verse happened: 20)

Lucas speaks directly to her inability to see and feel and he says "We're gonna get you some help". Not for the resurrection, he speaks to her condition, her loss of sight and unable to feel/been paralyzed (the dying/resurrection is addressed after this) - Some don't see her paralyzed forever but blind definitely? That is inconsequential. (Seriously, you can't just flat out say one part is probably not the case but the other is. - It's both or nothing. That's why it's in this scene.)

A supernatural genre show and you truly believe everything is going to be normal?

Blind girl...

...um, psych.

Blind girl connected to her friend - when she grabs Els hand, she pulls off her glasses.

"Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds", Neverending Story

So behind Max's clouded eyes "rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold". We still have to see this, don't we? S4 didn't gave us this.

Angel by Madonna, in its final line, says "Clouds just disappear". One shouldn't overlook this line of the song when everything else IS in the show.

And how? You know how. Brenner explained it even to us. We just misunderstood who was actually meant.

You know "taking abilities & memories".

Well she IS alive, ergo she will see another day even though it won't be her "eyes" that she'll use. It doesn't get more obvious than in this line - not only for this episode but in whole since this scene is a forshadowing of both her death and resurrection (I think there's the clock sound at the 20 minute mark?):

IF Max lives (Yes & Yes), she will SEE another day (Yes and logically Yes again! + "In your hand/s the birth of a new day"). And Lucas & Erica will get her some help as Max demanded "Let me see" via the 8. (which is btw the shape of the binoculars too)

El will be Max's eyes. Yes, I agree. Literally. This scene here is meant literal. You remember Phineas Gage? No? Go watch the scene. 😉

I'll talk about Gage in another post but there's a case of a woman that was blind after an accident. She was diagnosed with brain damage ; you know the thing Max doesn't believe is a thing...and she's right in her case. That woman wasn't blind, it was a misdiagnosis as it turned out many years later. The woman had something else... similar to Gage's symptoms but the correct diagnosis wasn't brain damage.

Max is blind...but she isn't at all. Because she'll consume. The silver cat feeds. Abilities. Memories.

The Talisman which Lucas reads from passage refers directly to Speedy. Speedy Parker whose alternate version, Parkus is a gunslinger, a knight. There's a third character with the name of Snowball (Seriously!) a blind musician who, although never directly confirmed, the protagonist of The Talisman, Jack, identifies as Speedy Parker. Snowball is extremely good in identifying other people himself even though he "can't see" - but if he is indeed Speedy, how can he be blind and be able to see at the same time? The Talisman - a healing object like the Grail - doesn't answer this oddity, it can be interpreted as a case of multiple identities/versions. However it is obvious why the Duffers chose this reference: Max is "Speedy" and therefore Snowball. That's why the "Snowball" happened. Blind yet not blind at all.

Plus: El literally removes blindness where he blinds the kids.

Oh, and about that brain thing...wait for a space walk that's been foreshadowed too when Max is introduced to the class.

[aemiron-main]

Silly, Terrible Play: Henry Ripping Off Virginia’s Dress and TFS Henry Breaking The The Fourth Wall

So, the TFS scene of Henry pulling off Virginia’s dress.

What happens is that it’s “present-day” (in TFS, not like present day S4)/it’s the night of the murders, and Virginia starts off in her murder dinner night shirt and pants, and then Henry pulls that outfit off of her, and a dress was underneath it, that Virginia is now wearing, and then, while Virginia’s wearing the dress, we’re in a sort of flashback to prior to the murder night, when Virginia is talking to Brenner about her being scared by the idea of Henry coming home (which, he comes home on the night of the murders), and then Henry pulls Virginia’s dress off, to reveal her murder dinner night outfit AGAIN, and as soon as Henry pulls her dress off, the flashback ends and we’re back to present day/the night of the murders.

Here’s the video so you can watch for yourself & see what I mean:

Which, Virginia doesnt acknowledge her dress being pulled off. It’s not like Henry pulls it off and she’s like “Henry, what the hell??” She doesn’t acknowledge that it’s been pulled off, Virginia as a Character doesn’t have her dress pulled off- instead, it’s like a costume change for her actress.

However, this means that Henry knows he’s pulling off a costume, and that he’s in a play.

The choice to have Henry be the one to not only pull the dress off- but also HOLD IT UP TO HIMSELF (indicating even MORE that he’s aware he did it/that he’s Holding a Dress/He’s Holding A Costume That Shouldnt Even Be Physically There Because He Didnt Actually Rip Off Her Actual In Universe Dress/it’s not just a way of showing a flashback for him)-

-makes it clear that Henry knows that this is a costume change and that he’s in a play.

It’s yet another moment where Henry breaks the fourth wall & acknowledges that he’s in a play- just like when he picks at the actual walls of the theatre (NOT just the stage set):

And when he says “I’m in a theatre” while looking out at the audience/theatre:

And when he runs into the audience and bangs on the actual theatre exit when trying to escape Brenner.

And all of this PLUS his “silly, terrible play” line in S4??? I won’t be surprised if Mr Interdimensional Travel and Time Travel over here literally ended up in our dimension, in the “real world,” during the play, REALLY breaking the fourth wall.

[castleclerics]

possible origin for the idea of edward creel from the og inspo: montauk project, and other parallels

edward creel truthers pls listen to this part of this interview i’m gonna throw up

if you don't know, this is Preston Nichols, who wrote the book “The Montauk Project: an Experiment in Time” which is where the conspiracy that inspired ST originated from. in this interview he’s talking about Al Bielek, who was also involved with Montauk and their experiments for ref.

(I DO NOT KNOW WHY ET IS COVERING HIS FACE DONT ASK ME)

EDWARD?? NEW FAMILY????? GET ME OYUT OF HERE ,

(he also explains a lot of timeline stuff in there if u wanna look but it's hard to copy word for word bc he veers off a lot lmao)

i already knew about the Montauk MK-Ultra relations but only now am i finally relating all the experiments with time to all the time fuckery in this show

so Al claimed his name was actually Edward Cameron and to be one of the missing crewmen from “The Philadelphia Experiment” aka "Project Rainbow". here's some backstory:

so when this ship vanished it was said that a green or blue fog took it's place. which is so funny especially because what i believe the ST fog to be is a visual representation of when a timeline or dimension switch happens. and Al claimed he slipped through time at random and landed in 1983 at Camp Hero because of the vanishing ship.

like Vecna's victims get dragged to a different plane of existence or timeline when he has a hold on them (hence why they are no longer in their physical bodies) so cue the blue-green fog.

and at camp hero they did a lot of experiments with broadcasting to new alternate realities and time experiments. Duncan Cameron was used for these and they started to realize he could manifest objects outside the current time and they would appear hours or days later. which falls in line with ST. we see objects changing places especially right after some weird time-related thing just happened.

for example Joyce always "misplacing" her keys after shit happens to Will the night before, or Will's walkie falling in the bathroom but being right by his feet on the field.

eventually Duncan could open an aperture and they started abducting boys aged 10-16 to send through the portal (probably what Preston is talking about in that interview)

*cough cough Brenner controlling Henry or whoever tf to commit mass murder maybe who knows*

and their first training mission was always sending them way back in time to a world in ruins and without life.

RAAAAAAAAAARARRARARARDRFDFDHSHF

Preston also claimed there was a large on-site library of videotapes for every mission

so that's cool

last fun thing is that this video of Preston is interesting because he has this sound room in his house and he lays down and listens to the swan lake theme and says this is the same recording they played at Montauk "for the matrix or the background of the transmissions(?)"

he also has lights set up that flicker with the frequencies of the music yayyy

bro it just reminds me of Victor with DALDOM and he says vague stuff about how your you can travel to different places mentally by doing this and he sees weird activity like people appearing out of nowhere LIKE SHUT UPPPPP

i think i covered everything all this digging was from months ago and i didn't take notes like an idiot so i had to research it all over again so i hope i didn't miss anything i originally wanted to include but this shit is wild !!!!

[ronanceautistic]

What do you think about an Ronance AU where Robin and Nancy get captured by Brenner, and end up becoming his new experiments?

Like, they get abused and tortured just like El, Kali, Henry and the rest of the lab kids were?

Whst do you think?

And what kind of powers they would have respectively, in your opinion?

Literally was thinking about this the other day.

For one thing I loveeee incorporating canon into non-canon, so one of Nancys abilities would be the classic That’s So Raven future vision. But it’s also (in that’s so raven fashion) whacky and out of context so she finds it difficult to correctly interpret her visions, but the Lab still try to exploit her for all she’s worth and then punish her when she gets something wrong or misinterprets what she saw.

Aside from that, I really love the idea of her powers being based around light. Can control lights, create her own source of light, make shapes out of them and stuff. In the Lab they don’t exactly have proper toys, just puzzles and shit in the rainbow room. But Nancy would create little people and animals and stuff out of her light powers and play with them using her powers. I also think it’s cute if when people touch her when she feels threatened she gives off, like, static shocks. Everyone believes she’s just like that constantly, but after she’s rescued and starts feeling safer they realise she’s not shocking people anymore.

Robin, again canon into non-canon. Something along the lines of being able to comprehend all languages, especially helpful to the Lab considering they’re spying on Russians. I also think something to do with nature would be cool, ability to make plants grow. Combining both of those things, being able to kind of kind of communicate with wild animals. The Lab think they can use this to basically turn wild animals into weapons that’ll do whatever they want. But Robin can’t control them, they just listen to her and sense what she wants from them. And she doesn’t want to make them weapons, so whenever she tries to for the sake of the Lab, they don’t listen, in fact sometimes they turn on the scientists because Robin is scared of the. The Lab thinks the powers are essentially useless then.

[hbyrde36]

Chapter 9!

Steve Harrington: Vampire Hunter

Clandestine meetings at the Waffle House

ao3 link

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

Steve merged onto the highway at the first possible opportunity. It served the dual purpose of getting them as far the fuck away from that cemetery as possible, while also getting them to their meeting on time.

“I’m surprised you didn’t want to stay back and try to kill as many of those things as we could. You’re usually more worried about leaving innocent bystanders in the line of fire and all that.”

“Well for one thing, Brenner is controlling them somehow, so I don't think they’ll go too far without orders. Alsooo…” Steve trailed off as he dialed a number on his cell, allowing the call to connect to the car since he was the one driving. 

“Preternatural investigations hotline, how can I help you?” An overly perky voice answered when the call connected.

“Hi, I'd like to report a pack of rabid ghouls at Thatcher’s cemetery.”

“Oh my, that is serious. Can you give me your name and a few details, sir?”

“Sorry, I might lose you, I'm about to go through a tunnel and..”

Click.

Nancy snorted. “You think the PD will be able to handle all that?”

Steve offered her a half shrug. “Hopper knows what he’s doing. Maybe if we’d have had a flamethrower or something we could have made a dent in their numbers, but otherwise they would have overwhelmed us in no time.”

-

Within 15 minutes they were pulling up to park in front of the Waffle House. Steve hadn’t really thought about it at the time, but the wide panoramic windows of this place left the diners inside kind of exposed, especially at night. He supposed he’d have to trust that if the wererat king was comfortable enough to suggest this location to meet, he must have thought it was safe. 

The bell above the door dinged as they entered the restaurant, and Steve quickly scanned the occupied tables for a familiar face, realizing a little too late that he had no idea what Gareth looked like in human form. 

He gently coaxed a little bit of his power to the surface of his mind. He didn’t really know what he was doing when he tried stuff like this. He was comfortable enough with raising the dead, obviously, and he knew he had a little immunity from vampire shit even before Eddie got his hooks in, but he also knew deep down that he had other abilities too, one’s he mostly ignored, and he could probably sense the wereanimal’s energy if he tried. 

Steve just…didn’t love that part of himself. It all felt a little too woo-woo to him, unreliable, intangible. He preferred to work in the physical world. You see a vampire, you kill it. Shotgun, silver blades, stake and hammer, you can feel what you're doing with your bare hands, and see if with your own eyes. He might have to start getting used to more of the mystical stuff though, because the way things were going in his life, he would need all the leg-up he could get. 

The magic flared to life, or that’s how he imagined it in his mind's eye, like a flame. He immediately sensed the presence of two supernatural beings in the corner of the room. Unfortunately, he sensed them a little too strongly, likely due to the boost he got from his link to Eddie, and it threw him quite literally off balance. Nancy steadied him with a strong grip to his upper arm, and he smiled at her inbashful apology. 

Every eye in the place was on them then, and Steve cursed himself for not practicing more. If he lived through this he’d have to find a teacher or something. Maybe Wayne would be able to help, of course that would mean being willing to explain about the whole human servant business. A problem for another day.

The two boys in the corner were looking right at him. Both had short to medium length brown hair, and slightly mischievous eyes, and yea they were definitely adults in the technical sense, but they reminded Steve too much of the kids he used to babysit for him to call them men in his own head. 

Steve tilted a nod in their direction and moved towards the table, knowing Nancy would follow.

On their approach, the taller of the two boys stood, extending a hand to each of them in turn. “I’ll spare us all the embarrassment of you trying to guess, and just tell you that I’m Gareth. I’m aware that you’ve only met me in rat form. This is my partner, Will.” 

The other boy, Will, offered them each a small shy smile and a wave, while he kept himself tucked tightly into his king’s side.

“This is Nancy, she’s working with me on this particular..project.”

Gareth waved them to the chairs on the other side of the table as he took his own seat.  Will, in an overly formal gesture considering they were in a hygienically questionable 24-hour diner, waited for everyone else to be seated before taking his own chair. It reminded Steve that Gareth was not just the leader of the wererats, he was their king, and maybe that distinction meant something more than he knew. 

Before they could get down to business, a server came by to ask if they were ready to order. Steve wasn’t sure if this would be that kind of a meeting, but when Gareth and Will each ordered a coffee and a meal, he and Nancy followed suit, neither having eaten all day. That was the moment Steve realized he didn’t feel the ravenous hunger that had been plaguing him recently. Was Eddie not pulling energy from him anymore? Had something happened to him? No, that didn’t feel right. Steve got the sense that he would know, somehow, if Eddie was dead. Maybe the vampire finally felt guilty about the whole thing. It didn’t matter, Steve reminded himself, Eddie was still a bad guy even if he felt bad for what he’d done. 

When the waitress finally walked away, Gareth asked, “So, what is it you think I can do for you, Harrington?” 

“I was hoping to convince you to lead us into whatever secret passageway you used to enter that basement room where you found me under the corroded coffin.”

“Not to be too blunt, but why would I do that? What's in it for us?” Gareth said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. 

“You hate that Billy has power over you, right?

The rat king nodded.

“Show us the way in, and we’ll take care of that little problem for you.” Steve didn’t know Gareth that well, but he knew what it felt like for someone to have power over you, and he was willing to bet that the wererats would do anything to get rid of the master of the city.

Gareth tilted his head side to side, making a little show out of considering his offer. “You already know where he is. Just get in yourselves.”

“We can’t just waltz in the front door. Even in broad daylight, especially in the daylight, Billy will have guards there. We’d be killed on sight.”

“Hmm, true enough. How do I know I can trust you? If you fail, and he finds out we helped, me and my people will be in an even worse position than we are now.”

The waitress appeared, balancing a tray of coffee mugs and forcing them to put their conversation on hold. Steve smiled at the woman gratefully and sipped at his cup. He’d been tired enough on his own after waking from his too short nap, and his fatigue had only gotten worse with the fading adrenaline from the fight with Brenner’s ghouls. 

Nancy took the opportunity to speak up when their table was left alone again. “I know you don’t know me, and you barely know Steve, but this is what we do, and we’re damn good at it. When I say I can promise you we will end the master of the city, I mean it.”

Gareth subtly sniffed at the air as he looked her over, considering.

“I can only get you in there, we can’t help any more than that. I can keep the small rats and my people from coming to Billy’s aid for a while, but we wouldn’t be able to fight him beside you. His pull on our kind is too strong.”  

“That's no problem.” Steve was quick to comment. “Just sneak us in and we’ll do the rest.”

“Okay. I'll do it.” Gareth agreed.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Steve. There's a part of me that truly thinks I'll be sending you to your deaths. If you survive this, I'll be shocked.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence there, Gare.”

The rat king blinked at Steve for a moment, and then burst out laughing. “When do you want to go in?” He asked.

“Tomorrow, after sunrise” He didn’t want to waste any more time. 

Gareth raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting them to want to get to it so quickly. “I like you, Harrington, I hope you don’t die.” 

Their food arrived shortly after they finished making arrangements to meet in the city at dawn. As it so often does, the act of sharing a meal let the small group relax around each other a bit more than they might have otherwise. The only exception was Nancy, who remained quiet throughout. It didn’t surprise Steve in the least, she was one of the most private people he knew, and for good reason, though he was sure she was listening intently to every word the others shared. 

Gareth told the story of how he and the younger boy met. He had just won a fight against a challenger to his crown, and Joyce, Will’s mom, was the nurse who patched him up. Luckily, Will had taken his older brother’s place in assisting her that day. The two boys took one look at each other and the rest was history. 

Steve didn’t have much he was willing to share by way of a personal life, but he happily told a few stories about his years babysitting back in his hometown, finally letting slip that Gareth and Will reminded him of his young charges, a fact that made even the shy boy laugh. 

“Not to give too many of our secrets away, but we’re older than we look.” Gareth said.

Steve couldn't help but to tease them. “Oh I'm sorry. Here I was thinking you were a young spry 20 year old. What is it then, a decrepit 24, 25?”

“I’m only 35” Will said with a little smirk. “But,my king is…” Before the boy could finish, Gareth slapped a hand over his mouth. 

“You know it’s rude to share a man’s age!” He gasped with exaggerated offense.

Steve gaped at them. “You can’t be serious.” 

Jesus, he was younger than both of them. He tried to wrap his head around that fact as Gareth chuckled. “A little tip for you, Harrington, wereanimals age slower than humans. Don’t underestimate one of us just because we look young.”

“Duly noted.”

-

When all was said and done, Steve and Nancy decided to go back to her hotel in the city to get some rest before the morning, agreeing that it was the safer option than Steve's house with Brenner still on the loose. 

Her room housed only a single king bed, which would have been awkward with any of Steve’s other exes. The fact that it wasn’t was a testament to how nonexistent romantic feelings were between the two of them. Steve enjoyed his first dreamless sleep in far too long, and woke rested and refreshed. If he also rose with a vague sense of disappointment, he chose to just push that feeling way, way down. 

-

The meeting place wound up being, more specifically, behind a dumpster in an alley next to a restaurant, which was fitting, and sort of hilarious, Steve thought, considering they were about to be led underground by giant rats. 

Gareth and Will were there, which surprised Steve. He had assumed the king would put some lackey’s on the job. He was further surprised when the middle aged woman who joined them turned out to be Joyce. Steve took an instant liking to her, she was very friendly and simply exuded kindness. 

She toted along a backpack with her that, when he saw the first aid symbol on the outside, Steve realized must hold medical supplies. The wererats were clearly planning on him and Nancy getting hurt today, at the very least. He decided to view the gesture in a glass-half-full kinda way. If they were planning on administering medical attention, that must mean they think he had a chance, right? No point in bandaging a dead man, after all.

There was one more addition to their group, an older boy named Jonathan who quickly identified himself as Will’s older brother. It seemed this was a family affair. 

All present and accounted for, and heavily armed in the case of Steve and Nancy, Gareth led the way down through the cellar doors and into the basement of the building. From there, they entered the city’s sewer system through a grate near the floor. Steve grimaced as they sloshed through the foul liquid in the dark and tried very hard not to think about how gross it all was. 

Now that they were in the tunnels, Gareth, Will, and Jonathan all transformed into their rat forms, only Joyce remaining human. Their senses were stronger this way, that much Steve knew, and it would be helpful for getting the group where they needed to go. 

It didn’t take as long as Steve expected to reach their destination, only about an hour or so. The trip could have been made quicker if they’d been willing to run, but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement amongst the group to try and splash as little as possible, for obvious reasons. 

Gareth approached an opening, not unlike the one they had used to gain access from the other building, and waved Steve and Nancy closer. 

“The Corroded Coffin’s basement is through there. We’ll wait down here in the tunnels until dark. If you’re not out by then, I'll assume you failed. If you do manage to kill Billy, I'll know, and we’ll come out to help you if we can.”

Steve nodded at him and yanked on the grate, it was loosened just like the other one. The bars were meant to be welded in place, but someone had come along and cut it free. It could be propped up to give the illusion, but pulled away easily. 

He went through first, not knowing if the room would be occupied, though Nancy tried to pull rank as the better shot. The opening was small and close to the floor, and they had to all but crawl to get through. 

On the other side, Steve stood up and started across the room, coming to an abrupt stop as he stared at a point on the wall.

“What is it?” Nancy asked, hackles up.

“This is where Chrissy died, chained to the wall like an animal.” Steve’s voice broke.

Nancy clenched her jaw. “I’m sorry, Steve, really I am, but we can’t afford for you to be distracted right now.”

It would’ve been easy to get mad at her, in fact he wanted to. Anything to stave off the tidal wave of sadness and guilt that was building up inside of him for failing to save the girl.

But Nancy was right, and there was no reason to take it out on her. He did his best to push it all deep, deep down, to be dealt with at a later date. He felt like he’d been doing a lot of that lately, and he wasn’t looking forward to the day when he finally had to unpack it all. 

“Sorry. I’m good now. Let’s go.”

Steve took the lead again, quietly tiptoeing up the stairs and out to the hall. Luckily, the door wasn’t locked. They would have had to shoot the handle off otherwise, he realized, and that would have entirely defeated the purpose of the sneaky entrance. 

He peeked around the corner, shocked to find the immediate area deserted. The vampires would be asleep for the day, but still, he had expected someone to be lurking. Heather at the very least should have been around here somewhere. She was Billy's servant after all, and as a technical human she wasn’t a slave to the sun like he was. 

The pair took their time traversing the halls and checking doors until they finally found the coffin room. Each box sat on a little stone dais to keep it up off the floor. They were all different, some larger, some smaller. A few were made of natural wood, stained and adorned with cheap brass fittings. Others were painted and polished to a high shine, more like the modern one’s Steve was accustomed to seeing. 

They went for the closest box first. Nancy covered him with her shotgun as Steve opened the lid. He didn’t know this vampire’s name, but recognized him as Chrissy’s overly enthusiastic dance partner from that first night at the club, the one who had looked so perturbed when Steve evaded his mind tricks. He was also present for the debacle in the small graveyard the night of the freak party, and was definitely on Billy’s side of things.

Steve drew a long silver knife from its sheath and readied himself to plunge it into the thing’s chest. That, and a few twists of the blade would shred his heart. A shotgun would be easier, but it would also be messy and loud. He’d have to cut the head off at some point anyway, so the knife would be getting used tonight one way or another. 

Nancy stopped him with a hand on his elbow, before he could strike. “I might have an easier way. Have you ever used silver nitrate?”

Steve hesitated, lips pursed.“Like, from the movie Blade? Does that work?”

Nancy rolled her eyes, pulling a small vial of silver liquid and a syringe out of an inner pants pocket to show him. “Yea it works. Any idea how old this one is?”

“No more than a hundred.”

“Better go for a full dose then.” She filled the syringe, leaning over the body as Steve covered her with his own handgun full of silver bullets. 

Nancy unceremoniously jammed the needle into the vampire’s neck and depressed the plunger. The body began to twitch, startling Steve, but it fell limp again after only a minute or two of spasms. He stared at it, waiting for some sign that the creature was really dead. When it didn’t seem like anything else was going to occur, he finally took his eyes off of the body to look at Nancy.

“Is that it?” He asked, sounding more than a little disappointed.

“Pretty much, yeah. Why, what did you think was going to happen?”

“I don’t know, just, something more than that I guess?”

Nancy crossed her arms over her chest. “You were expecting him to blow up, weren’t you.”

“I absolutely was expecting that. Yes.” Steve grinned.

She shook her head but smiled back at him. “You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”

“Maybe, but I'm still cutting his head off before we leave here. I’m not taking any chances.”

“Suit yourself.” She shrugged. 

The next coffin they checked was empty. It probably belonged to one of the murdered vamps, Tommy maybe, or at least that’s what Steve told himself. Surely it was too early in the day for any of them to be awake

The next was similarly unoccupied, and then they found Neil. 

Again Nancy had pointed her gun at the casket while Steve raised the top. He curled his lip in a snarl when he laid eyes on the monster’s face. Not only had this piece of shit bespelled and threatened one of Steve's friends, but he bore half of the responsibility for Chrissy’s death. He almost regretted doing it like this, when the vampire was all but helpless. A real, god's honest fight would be much more satisfying to his craving for revenge, but it would also be needlessly risky.

This time, it was Steve who loaded up the syringe. Nancy had advised that at Neil’s age they should do two full doses of the liquid silver just to be safe. Steve stuck the needle deep in his neck, quickly administering the first shot, anxious to refill it. Before he could so much as pull the needle back out, however, Neil sat up, eyes still closed as if he were half asleep. The move would have sent Steve sprawling to the ground, but as the vampire surged upwards, he gripped Steve by the throat, lifting him clear off the ground.  

His ears started to ring as he fought to think through the panic of having his airway cut off. He grabbed on to the vampire's wrist with both hands, pulling to take as much of the pressure off his neck as he could. He kicked his feet, trying desperately to dislodge himself, but Neil’s grip was like a vice, and it became clear that Steve wouldn’t be able to get free unless he chose to let go, or died. Fuck. 

Nancy appeared suddenly on Steve’s other side, the only vantage point in the room that would give her a clear shot without risking him. She aimed, and fired nearly point-blank into the side of Neil’s head. Red fluid splattered across Steve's face, and immediately the hand that had been holding him up let go. He crumpled to the ground, sucking in greedy gulps of air as he wiped the  blood from his eyes. 

So distracted by his own situation, Steve didn’t realize for a moment that Neil hadn’t entirely gone down. His head was a red mess of meat and bone, but his body hadn’t quite gotten the memo yet, and it was grappling hard with Nancy as she tried to gain enough distance from the thing to get another shot off. 

Though he was still a little lightheaded, with spots dancing across the edges of his vision, Steve waded into the fray, carefully slicing through the air with his blade to capture the thing’s attention. He got a few good cuts in and it was distraction enough to give Nancy time to line up her shot. 

“Steve, move!” She howled.

He didn't need to be told twice. Steve threw himself down and to the side. He even put his hands over his head for good measure. Nancy’s second shot rang out, deafeningly loud in the enclosed space. He hadn’t even registered the sound of it the first time. Steve shuddered, realizing how close he must have been to passing out to have not noticed. 

Her bullet hit home, going straight through Neil's chest and out the other side, leaving an impressive exit wound. Finally, mercifully, the body fell limp to the ground. He was dead, permanently this time.

Nancy pulled Steve to his feet, scanning him top to bottom.

“How are you holding up?” She asked.

“I’m fine.” He said, voice rough from the damage to his throat. 

She stared at him silently, unblinking.

He sighed. “It looks worse than it is. Come on, let's get this done.”

Steve limped to the front of the room, where the final three coffins were placed. The one in the center, a glossy black lacquer number with gilded handles, had to belong to Billy. Not only because it was the fanciest of the bunch, but because the two that flanked it were wrapped in heavy chains with small crosses dangling from their links like some sort of twisted charm bracelet. 

He could tell Nancy was considering blasting a hole through the side of the box with her shotgun, anything to avoid another jack-in-the-box style surprise, but even if she did it would never be a killing blow. 

Steve approached the coffin, holding his breath as he lifted the lid. He wished he could say he was surprised when he looked down to find nothing but white satin, but he wasn’t.

“Looking for me?” Billy drawled from the back of the room. 

He and Nancy turned towards the voice at the same time, both lifting their weapons to eye level on instinct. 

“You didn’t really think at my age that I needed to sleep off the entire day still, did you?”

Steve gulped audibly. Up until he saw Neil’s form move in the daylight hours just a few moments ago, he had thought that. 

“Aw, it seems you still have so much to learn, Harrington. Why don’t you put those silly little guns down and we can work this out.”

“There’s nothing to work out, Billy.” Steve said through gritted teeth.

“Sure there is! Look, I know I killed your girl. I would say I was sorry about that, but I don't like to make a habit out of lying. As far as I see it, now that you’ve killed my father, we’re even! Trust me, I don't even mind that you took him out. Saved me the trouble of doing it myself some day.”

“Don’t move.” A female voice said suddenly to Steve's right. 

He glanced over to find the human servant, Heather, standing behind Nancy, holding an old fashioned pistol to the back of her head. Her arms were already in the air, and Heather snatched the shotgun from her with her free hand, tossing it to the floor. 

“You better drop your weapon too, Steve-O, wouldn’t want Heather to get nervous and shoot your pretty friend there by accident.”

Steve glared at him, but dropped the gun and the knife he was holding to the ground. He had other knives on him, they could have those. 

Brenner appeared in the doorway behind Billy. He didn’t look particularly happy to be there. 

“Oh good, you’re finally here.” Billy snarked, not turning around but still clearly addressing the man. ”Be a good boy and help Heather check these two over for more weapons.”

Brenner scowled at the back of Billy’s head, but quickly crossed the room to do as he was told. 

Heather started to frisk Nancy, while Brenner approached Steve. 

“Does he know what you’ve done?” Steve whispered to the older man.

“Shut up.” Brenner hissed as he kicked Steve’s legs apart, doing a much more thorough job at searching him than Steve had been expecting. 

He couldn’t be sure if Heather had found all of Nancy’s goodies, but unfortunately, Brenner had found all of his. Even the small knife that he liked to keep tucked in his boot was now living in the other man’s pocket.

“Would you like to see what we’ve been up to while you two were busy sneaking around and killing my father?” Billy asked.

Steve didn’t respond, it wasn’t like he had an actual choice in the matter, so why entertain the vampire with an answer?

“You really know how to take all the fun out of things, you know that pretty boy?” Billy huffed. “Escort them to the basement.” He commanded the two lackeys.

Steve and Nancy found themselves being roughly pushed out into the hall, and he didn’t need three guesses to know where they were going. Back to the same fucking torture chamber of a basement room he was becoming all too familiar with. He wondered if they ever called it a dungeon, it was a fitting name for the awful space.

The small group paraded down the stairs and stood in an awkward half circle.

“Come on out, sweetheart.” Billy called towards one of the dark corners.

There was a soft shuffling sound as something moved in the darkness. Slowly, a small figure with a petite frame and strawberry-blonde hair was revealed under the single dim light that hung in the middle of the room.

Steve sucked in a sharp breath. He should have seen this coming, in hindsight, but this was cruelty beyond his imagining, even for someone like Billy. 

“Chrissy?” His voice broke as he whispered her name, before rounding on Billy and shouting nearly right in his face. “Why?! Why would you do this?!”

The motherfucker smiled like a Cheshire cat. “To torture you mostly, why, is it working?”

Steve raged inside. He wanted to lay Billy out, to spit in his smug face, but he had no wish to set the guy off. Had it only been his own life on the line, he might have risked it, but with Nancy here he had to hold it in. He forced himself to take several steps back.

Billy laughed, so obviously amused with Steve’s struggle to control himself. “Actually, to be honest, I had Martin raise her before you arrived. As an animator I'm sure you’re aware that murdered zombies have a tendency to pursue their murderers, and since Neil landed the final killing blow… let’s just say, I thought I'd give Chrissy here a fair shot to get back at him while he was asleep for the day. Your showing up to witness her impromptu resurrection was just a happy accident.”

Steve gaped, somehow still surprised at the vampire's level of depravity. “He would have destroyed her all over again. That’s…sick”

Billy shrugged. “When you’ve been alive as long as I have, you have to find new and interesting ways to entertain yourself.” 

The vampire’s mouth twisted into a predatory grin as his eyes began to glow with blue fire. Steve averted his gaze. 

“Speaking of which.” Billy continued. ”Drop to your knees and crawl to me, human.”

Steve stared at the floor and braced himself for the pull of Billy’s power, though knew they had cleaned the bite thoroughly. He felt nothing.

The vampire growled, and Steve chanced a look at his face. He looked pissed.

“What have you done?”

“Just a little routine cleaning with holy water.

”I suppose next time I'll just have to keep you with me to stop that from happening. Or, if you prefer, I could make you into one of us. You could take Tommy's place. It’s really the least you can do since your lack of finding the vampire murderer led directly to his death.”

Steve shot a sideways glance at Brenner’s nervous face before he spoke. “I’d die first”

“One way or another that’s where we’re headed, baby boy.”

Chrissy, who’d been hovering near the edge of the group, mostly looking around in confusion, seemed to finally realize where she was. Steve heard her gasp as she ran her hands lightly over a spot on the wall. He watched in agony as she clawed at her throat, clearly remembering the moment it had been ripped apart, and screamed. She collapsed to the floor sobbing.

Steve tried to lunge for her, desperate to offer what little comfort he could to this echo of his fallen friend, but Heather grasped him by the back of his shirt, shoving her little pistol roughly into his ribs.  

“Do you really think i’ll just stand here and watch you torture that poor girl even in death?” Steve snapped, whirling on Heather with a vicious snarl. “You want to shoot me for it? Fucking shoot me then!”

Billy stepped between them, suddenly the picture of cool, calm, and collected. “Let’s just everyone calm down. Why don’t we play a little game.”

“Why?” Steve spat. He didn’t understand why they didn’t just kill him already. Billy knew he was never going to join him willingly. Was he really this enamored with playing with his food?

“Maybe i just want to see how good you really are, besides, if you win i’ll let you comfort poor Chrissy there.”

What other choice did he have? 

“Fine.”

Steve was given back one of his knives and told he was to fight Heather, who had apparently trained in many forms of combat over her years with Billy. The rules were simple. If she killed him, she won. If Steve drew her blood, he won. It almost sounded like a fair fight.

Heather looked like a small, unassuming young girl, but Steve knew now more than ever just how much looks could be deceiving, so he didn't let his guard down one bit as they circled each other.

He was pretty good with a blade, Wayne had insisted on training him heavily with them even more so than firearms, because ‘knives can’t run out of bullets, son’.

Still, Heather was better, and she managed several shallow cuts on both of his arms before he could get anywhere near her. She was fast, and she was toying with him. He needed to find a way to gain the upper hand here, and quickly.

“I know who the murderer is.” Steve said casually, never once taking his eyes off his opponent. For a moment, all movement in the basement ceased except for him, and Heather. 

“What did you say?” Billy hissed.

“I know who killed your vampires.” Steve reiterated.

Martin spoke over him. “Don’t listen to him, surely he’ll say anything now to save his own skin.” 

“Quiet, Martin. Tell me who it is, Harrington, or I'll kill your partner.”

Steve risked a glance at Nancy then, only to find that Billy had stepped up behind her, her hair fisted tightly in his hand. 

He opened his mouth to answer, but Brenner interrupted shouting, “NO!” As he pulled Steve’s own handgun out of his suit pocket and aimed.

The room fell into chaos. Billy dropped his grip on Nancy and appeared in front of Brenner like magic. The man had no time to react before the vampire reached up with both hands and snapped his neck. 

Heather had finally looked away to watch her master work, and Steve used the opportunity to step into her, and plunged his blade deep in her chest. She wasn’t a vampire, but she was tied to one, and Steve was betting she could be killed like one too. 

She stared at him wide-eyed, as she stumbled and fell to the ground. Steve plucked the weapon she’d been using out of her hand and slid it in Nancy’s direction. She caught it, and they both turned in tandem to face Billy. 

The vampire had dropped to his knees, weakened as his human servant lay dying. It was everything Steve had hoped for. He’d been told that a human servant would live as long as their vampire master. Which, if you thought about it, translated to, if their master died - so did they. Steve had thought if that was the case, then maybe the reverse could also be true. 

Billy tried to gather his power, Steve could feel it in the air, but he was too weak for tricks. Nancy made a go for him first, lunging and slashing but unable to make contact before Billy grabbed her arm, spinning her hard into the nearest wall. Steve came at him from behind as he threw her, aiming as best he could for the man’s heart. The knife penetrated his body, but he must have missed the mark. 

Billy heaved himself off of Steve's blade with a grunt, only to be met with Nancy once again in front of him, having recovered quickly from ricocheting off the wall. She jammed her blade down into his chest and he tipped sideways to the floor. Nancy remained above him, holding the knife in place while Steve scrambled for his gun where it had fallen out of Brenner’s hands. 

He leveled the weapon at Billy’s head.

“Nance!”

It’s all he had to say. She pushed with her feet, scooting back on her butt to get some distance from the half-dead vampire. 

Steve screamed as he shot round after round into Billy’s head until the gun clicked empty, and Nancy had to force it out of his hand. He’d lost time somewhere, he hadn’t seen her get up, let alone approach him. 

He blinked at her, and watched as she knelt by Heather's unmoving body to check for a pulse. 

“She’s dead.” Nancy said simply.

The vampire’s body was similarly still. His head was utterly destroyed and Nancy’s knife was still sticking up out of his chest. Steve would want to burn the body to make sure, just as a precaution, but it seemed Billy’s reign of terror was finally over. 

Steve made his way slowly over to where Chrissy still cowered in the corner, not wanting to spook her when she was already terrified. He sat down next to her and took one of her small hands in both of his. 

She looked at him with sad eyes, though she was no longer crying. “I’m really dead, aren’t I?”

Steve whimpered. “I'm so sorry.”

She fell against him, and Steve wound his arms around her, rocking them back and forth for a long time. There was so much he wanted to say to her, and none of it was good enough, so he just held her until she was ready to let him go. 

Eventually she pulled back and looked Steve in the eyes. “Can you put me back? I know I'm not supposed to be here, I want to go back.”

“Yea, I can do that.”

-

When Steve returned from laying Chrissy to rest, the wererats had come. Joyce wanted to treat him, but there were still a few things to be dealt with before his work here was done.

Brenner lay in the spot where he dropped, neck bent at a very wrong angle, but still alive. Steve didn’t know much about the magic that had been keeping this man alive, but he did recall an old rule of thumb he learned from a colleague. A spell can usually be reversed by the opposite of whatever is used to feed it. He’d always liked the idea, it had a certain amount of poetic symmetry. The power in Brenner's necklace was fueled by vampire blood, and what’s the opposite of vampire blood? Steve hoped he knew the right answer.

He knelt by Brenners head and held a shaking hand out towards the man’s throat. The necklace had fallen out of his shirt in the fall, and Steve dragged one of his bleeding cuts along the chain, making sure to leave a fat droplet of the red liquid on the cluster of stones that made up the pendant. 

Steve watched the light fade from Brenner’s glassy eyes and felt no satisfaction. He just felt empty. 

Joyce again tried to coax Steve to sit down and let her look him over, but he still refused and told her to check on Nancy instead. 

He felt eyes on his back as he climbed the stairs, but ignored them, he had one more thing to take care of before he could rest.

-

Back in the coffin room, Steve searched until he found a key hanging from a hook on the wall. He unlocked the chains from each of the boxes and dragged them off. He knew who was in the two coffins, he could have left right then knowing that when the sun came down Dustin and Eddie would finally be free to leave their confinement, but he couldn’t walk away. Not yet.

He opened the lid of the first coffin and sucked in a breath when Eddie’s face was revealed to the lamp light. His eyes were closed, and if he wasn’t so still Steve could have believed he was sleeping peacefully, but that sort of stillness wasn’t natural. This wasn’t sleep, this was death, temporary as it might be.

He stared down at the vampire's beautiful face and wondered what the right thing to do was. He thought he could save himself a lot of trouble in the long run if he took care of Eddie now. It would be easy to kill him while he was sleeping, while Steve wouldn’t have to look into those big brown eyes. While he wouldn’t have to listen as those pink lips that he’d become so familiar with in his dreams begged for his life. 

In the end it came down to Chrissy, and respecting her wishes. She wouldn't want this. She had trusted Eddie. He may have let her down as much as Steve had, but maybe he could be there for others, for Dustin. So, he replaced the lid and turned to the other coffin, hoping his decision wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass. 

Dustin, Steve finds, when he opens the other coffin, looks a little more worse for wear than Eddie had. Of course, the younger vampire hadn’t had someone to feed off of while he was locked up. 

He knew he should go, but he couldn't stop staring at the boy’s face. Steve had been to a lot of funerals over the years, where the body of his loved one was put on display, but this was one of his kids. He knew Dustin wasn’t really dead, and that in just a few hours he would rise, and he would feed, and he’d be fine, but it still made Steve's chest tight to see him like this.

He heard the soft footfalls behind him as someone entered the room, but didn’t bother to turn around. He already knew it would be Nancy. 

When she reached his side and peered over the edge of the box, Steve tensed. 

“I hate that he’s done this to himself.” She said softly.

He watched her carefully through his peripheral vision. “Me too.”

Nancy frowned at him. “You can relax Steve, I'm not about to suggest we kill him or anything. I knew him too.”

He believed her, to an extent, but he also knew how much she hated vampires, and it worried him. She might let Dustin live for now, only to come back for him later.

“I’ve spent a little time with him over the past few days, Nance. He’s still Dustin. Almost infuriatingly exactly as you’d remember him, just, with fangs.” Steve explained, trying to keep the pleading tone out of his voice. 

“I know it might seem that way sometimes, Steve, but…”

“No, I'm serious. It’s him, and…you know I didn't talk to him, haven't talked to him since he transitioned. I thought I was doing the right thing, but all I did was rob us both of our friendship. Promise me you won’t go after him.”

“I won’t. I swear. I don’t think Mike would ever forgive me if I did.”

Steve wanted to say, I wouldn’t either, but he didn’t think he needed to.

“What about that one?” Nancy asked, pointing at Eddie's coffin. 

“That is, something I think I'll call - ‘better the devil you know’ - and all that jazz.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing there.” She said.

“Me too.”

-

Steve finally let Joyce treat him after that. The wererats promised to clean up the mess and take care of any remaining Billy supporters. Steve thanked them profusely, and soon he and Nancy were walking out the front door of the theater. He was forced to call Robin to pick them up, no uber or taxi would have stopped for them in their current state.

She picked them up, no questions asked, and she even let him get away with silence until they had dropped Nancy off at her hotel. They parted ways with a hug and Steve thanking her endlessly for her help. She assured him it was her pleasure, and that since the master of the city was in fact killed, she would still be getting paid by her client. If anything she should be thanking him, she assured him.

Once they were alone in the car, Steve filled Robin in on everything she’d missed. They didn’t even pick up his car, he was too tired to drive anyway. They could always get it the next day. 

He was still going over the play by play of their fight with Billy when they arrived at his house. Robin helped him inside and coaxed him right into the bath, sitting on the edge to keep him company and he finished his story. 

“What are you going to do about Eddie?” Robin asked, as she trailed her fingers through the bath water.

“I don’t know. Ignore him until I can find a way out of this mess?”

“Babe, is that, like, healthy?”

“I don’t know, I'm too tired to figure it out right now.”

All Steve could think about was getting out of the tub and falling into bed. He wouldn’t have minded some platonic best friend cuddles either, but he didn’t want to put Robin out even more than he had already. It turned out, he didn’t even need to ask.

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight?”

God he loved her.

“Please’

Chapter 10

Author's Note: This fic has two pretty definitive halves, since the au inspiration comes from two separate books. This chapter marks the end of part 1, and puts us at the halfway point of the original plans I had for this story. Now, I'm considering making this into a series to be continued past the end of the main fic. There will be a conclusion of sorts by the end of this, but there will still be so much that could be explored past that. Please, as we continue, let me know if you would like to see more when this main story is over.  As always, thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I can’t wait to dive into the back half of this fic!

[henrysglock]

A Little Catholic Calendar Math for March 1959

Something I can't believe I didn't do earlier, especially regarding my book of revelation post (here) is the calendar math on the Creel murders for both Henry and Edward.

Specifically, I want to talk about Easter of 1959.

As we know, Edward's murders occurred late on March 21st, 1959, and the bodies were discovered the next morning: March 22nd, 1959.

(lifted from Em's post here)

Can we guess what that Sunday was? Anyone?

It was Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday being when Jesus enters Jerusalem, marking the beginning of Holy Week.

It also happens to be the day Edward would have officially been entered into HNL.

Interestingly, the Saturday before Palm Sunday is known as Lazarus Saturday, as it marks the day when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead as proof that he would be resurrected when the time came.

A miracle of resurrection...on the night of Edward Creel's murders. (Staring at El's resurrection powers, featured front and center in ST4...)

Now, as we also know, the Creel boys ended up in a week-long coma:

That next Saturday is Holy Saturday, also known as Black Saturday or Easter Vigil...

...Commemorating Christ's descent into Hell.

—cough cough—

Anyway.

Edward, then, would have woken up on Easter Sunday:

...making his story an altered version of the resurrection of Christ.

That was Edward. Now, let's talk about Henry.

Henry's murders took place the night of Wednesday, March 25th, 1959, and the bodies were discovered the next day: Thursday, March 26th, 1959.

Holy Wednesday and Holy Thursday respectively.

What's so special about Holy Wednesday?

Holy Wednesday, also known as Spy Wednesday, is the day that Judas betrayed Jesus.

The bodies, then, were discovered on Holy Thursday, the last mass before Easter.

Then Henry, like Edward, has his coma. However. This seven-day coma means that Henry does not wake up on Easter Sunday.

He wakes up on April Fools.

He's a false Christ. He's not the droid we're looking for.

None of these dates line up again until...you guessed it: 1986

Chrissy dies on March 21st, Friday of Sorrows. She's found on March 22nd, Lazarus Saturday. Fred dies on Lazarus Saturday. Max is cursed on March 23rd, Palm Sunday. Patrick dies on March 25th, Holy Tuesday. Max falls into a coma on March 27th, Holy Thursday. The full gang meets up after the 2 day jump: March 29th, Black Saturday.

Season 5 will pick up after March 30th: Easter Sunday, 1986.

All of this corroborates what I've been saying since March: We've got a holy trinity, but it's not the one you think it is.

As I laid out in my Book of Revelation post, Edward/Vecna/001 has a frankly insane amount of Catholic God coding.

Here are some highlights, if you don't want to read the entire thing:

Our Holy Trinity, in Stranger Things, is likely Edward, Brenner, and the Shadow. Christ the Son, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

And all of this...with Henry and El as false/failed Christs, scapegoats for the real deal (see: El being blamed for both One and Vecna's murders, when in fact she's been standing against both the entire time).

This post also serves as my retraction re: Will as Christ. (Gasp! James retracting a statement? Say it ain't so...) I'd like to send the statement in another direction, because this isn't me saying that Will is unimportant. While, in my opinion, Will is not a part of our big Holy Trinity...I personally see him as a prophet, much like St. John of Patmos, rather than one of the Big 3. That's not to say I'm staunchly against him as a Christ figure, but it just doesn't hit quite right for me anymore.

[starsarefire824]

Everyone are having doubts do you still believe in byler endgame and if you do how you think will be? Not what do you wants but what really will happens knowing the duffer and how they write the show.

Hey anon, thank you for the ask!

As far as Byler goes, I'm still at the same point I've been this entire time...I honestly and truly believe that the writing has hinted at, suggested, alluded to it being real. I h lol ave personally been on the "wrong" side of a different major fandom (which I won't mention here)---ridiculed, called crazy, obsessive etc--to then have everything we had claimed from the beginning be proven true in the final act. If you want to know what I'm talking about you can probably figure it out from my profile or you can message me and I'll go on that rant in private lol.

Either way, my point is.....everything that is happening in this fandom...mimics that one entirely. It is a fandom that is dominated by a generally male, white, hetero-normative point of view. And so I think it's easy to lose hope, it's easy to give in to those people telling you that you're crazy for seeing what you're seeing.

But what it comes down to in the end is, most of us have been here since season 2. Most of us have been noticing the hints for years. And after season three, I'm not really sure what people are looking at if they are not seeing the complicated relationship that Mike has with El and Will. It is a canon fact that he cannot balance them emotionally. When one is in his life, the other is out. Season 3 proved that when they are both in his life at the same time, he cannot make it work. When he is paying attention to El, he is hurting Will. When he is paying attention to Will, he is hurting El. And this all comes to a head in season 4.

And season 4 is interesting to me because once again, El is (after a few episodes) quickly removed from Will and Mike's immediate story line. Mike, once again, ends up with Will in situations that make them work together. Situations that make them be emotionally vulnerable with each other. Situations that allow them to become closer.

I firmly believe that there is a reason, besides Mike being emotionally stunted by his family, that he can't say "i love you" to El. I think that the writers' had specific intentions when they wrote Mike's "love confession" to El as a direct response to Will's emotions. I firmly believe that if I was supposed to be rooting for El and Mike to be together, I as an audience member, would have been given a private, softly lit, romantically coded emotional scene between Mike and El post "2 days later". But we didn't. The softly lit, emotional, intimate moment we got? Was with Will.

Furthermore, El and Will have been directly paralleled since season one and since season 2 both of their storylines have directly revolved around Mike. And one character, Will, has been the one that has been show to need and want Mike in the way that he needs to be needed and wanted. Will has been the character that specifically benefits from Mike's attention and love. El's journey has always been for herself. It has always been figuring out where she belongs in the world and claiming her autonomy from Brenner (and Henry and many others).

As for how I believe the Duffer's will accomplish this? I have as good a guess as the rest of you. I am just a humble fan. But from the context clues that we've been given throughout the show....I have a hunch that El and Will will discover some sort of connection between the two of them. This connection will probably directly relate to the pull they feel towards Mike. I think that El will continue her journey from season 4 of self-discovery and standing on her own two feet, rejecting the men (people) around her who tell her they know what she wants/needs/desires. I think that Will will have his "coming of age". He will finally accept himself for who he is. I think it will be revealed that Will has some sort of direct connection to either the Upside Down or Henry himself. I think that he is the "cure" or the "key" to healing what has been broken. I really love the "wonder twin" idea that Will and El will work together to defeat Vecna.

And finally, I think that Mike, the knight, the paladin, the heart of the party....he'll finally realize where his heart truly lies. And Will, understanding that his love is reciprocated, that their love is true. I really think it will, in some way, (even if it's one small working part in the huge machine that is Stranger Things), help defeat the evil that has reigned over Hawkins for too long.

Maybe I'm too much of a romantic. But I'm gonna continue to believe it until I'm proven wrong. I will be the first to admit defeat as it comes, but for me....

There are just too many parallels, hints, subtext etc. for me to believe anything else at this point. I don't think the Duffer Brothers are pulling our leg, I don't believe they are trying to queerbait us, I don't believe they made this show for the people of Reddit and Facebook. I truly think, when they said it was for the "outsiders" and the "misunderstood" they meant it. And imo, Byler is a real part of that that will be made clear in the final act.

Let's hope we're right! <3