#but it’s not like s5 is going to be only vecna focused on will

[chirpsythismorning]

What’s up with the spores? Like, has anyone got info on what spores do to a person who is exposed to them????

This got me thinking about all the whose getting vecna’d speculation in s5, and it could very well mean ALL of them are in danger in terms of being targeted.

If all it takes is them being exposed to the spores, could they all be at risk?

Maybe they could all experience effects like nightmares/hallucinations??

This also reminds me of El’s line at the start of s4 where she says We’re all time travelers if you think about it!

Is it possible ALL of them could be dealing with having to confront past memories, ie they’re own form of time traveling to figure out how to defeat vecna??

[conflictofthemind]

TL;DR: HNL was studying how to give human subjects electromagnetic, most specifically visible light based, powers in order to bend space-time for their needs.

I’m going to try and condense this as much as I can because considering electromagnetism as a major force in ST (pun intended) opens up so many potential areas of analysis that can only be a brief cover of without turning into multiple essays.

Let’s go over the electromagnetic spectrum:

I hope you might already be recognizing some symbols we see often in Stranger Things, especially if you’ve been following the BTS and some location and set leaks from Season 5.

The electromagnetic spectrum encompasses the different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation - waves of energy that travel at the speed of light (and produce visible light to us at certain frequencies). You’ve probably heard of most of these, including cancer-causing gamma rays and x-rays, the visible light spectrum (the rainbow), microwaves, and radio waves.

In S5, we have the radio station as a main location for the characters. They’re also driving around in the radio station’s van, which has an image of a hawk emitting a rainbow (visible light radiation). Steve’s car also has a massive antenna on top of it. My first thoughts were that the team was trying to keep in contact with Max in hopes of her being able to hear them in her coma, considering she has a radio near her bedside. While that still may be a reason, I think the characters may have come to realize how important electromagnetic fields could be in their fight against Vecna (this where leader of the AV Club also focused on electromagnetic objects Scott Clarke may make his triumphant return).

Now to pivot onto why electromagnetism is so important to the lore of ST:

What the scientists in Hawkins Lab are likely studying is a way for human brains to produce or manipulate certain types of electromagnetic waves through telepathy. Most obviously this is seen by them having the kids try to manipulate and turn on a circle of light bulbs. Our brains actually already produce electromagnetic waves, but at a very slow frequency. The scientists are constantly measuring brain waves while conducting these experiments. We even get full shots of El’s brain waves during NINA, for example. We also see similar shots in S2 while Will is in the HNL.

You can also observe that the Hawkins National Laboratory has absolutely massive satellite dishes on it’s rooftop; ones that do not exist on the real life building but are added in post because they pose some sort of significance. Nudge, it’s because they are transmitting and receiving massive amounts of electromagnetic waves.

Why are they studying electromagnetic waves then?

They are studying electromagnetic waves because they are a method in which time travel can theoretically be achieved - the focus of the Montauk Project in which Stranger Things is based on. The military likely is investigating time travel as another war tactic against Russia.

Let us take a look at the first chapter of the Montauk Project: Experiments in Time book (they are seriously plagiarizing the living hell out of this thing):

Also, did you catch the whole 'attaching a massive antenna on the hood of my car to pick up a secret signal' thing? That's suspiciously similar to the state of Steve's car! Anyway...

The story of Stranger Things starts chronologically, as does Montauk, with the disappearance of the USS Eldridge and Project Rainbow (named after the bending of the visible light spectrum). Brenner’s father was revealed to have captained the boat in TFS, which disappeared for 12 hours into Dimension X and when it came back, the crew was killed or driven mad (except for Brenner Sr). This inspires Brenner to continue onto the Nevada project, and eventually, Hawkins National Lab’s studies. The USS Eldridge / Philadelphia Project conspiracy from real life went as follows:

They were studying electromagnetism, specifically the bending of light, to make objects invisible. This was only the first step in the experiments. Once Henry got involved and came back from his trip to Dimension X with powers, Brenner must have realized he could potentially use human subjects to manipulate electromagnetic fields themselves. Human subjects didn’t require machinery or set up and could bend space-time wherever they pleased, as long as they were able to learn the ability.

The more conspiratiorial side of Theoretical Physics proposes using circulating light beams to warp time-space, creating a wormhole in which one can literally walk through time. This is pop-science, likely not true but interesting for fiction purposes. This method of time travel being used is heavily implied due to the fact that the USS Eldridge was already able to disappear into another dimension by the bending of light.

This is how it worked in the Montauk Project book (absolutely ridiculous how much they took from this honestly):

My guess is that in the Stranger Things universe, they have not yet managed to time travel, only to create portals into this alien Dimension X. Previously, said portals were only made twice by highly advanced technological equipment. El demonstrated that she was able to open a portal all by herself - another step to achieving time travel with singular human subjects. Season five is when we will see the beginning of the time travel plot line, though it like in Montauk is likely already in a loop.

That’s where we get the name for the Rainbow Room, named after this Project Rainbow. The rainbow represents the full spectrum of visible light, and the goals of the project to bend said light into portals and eventually time travel wormholes.

Implications?:

-Well, first of all it seems very obvious by this point that we are going for a time travel plot line, and this is how it will be achieved.

-Will is heavily connected to light in general, the sun, and of course… the rainbow. He is also implied be the one involved in the time travel plot line. This will be very relevant going forward and deserves it’s own post. Potential funniness of defeating Vecna with the power of the rainbow afoot.

-Coma patients are known to have odd, barely detectable brain waves. The kids will be able to communicate with Max in her coma using the electromagnetic spectrum somehow, probably through the radio waves.

-On the farthest end of the spectrum, we have ionizing gamma ray radiation, which is known to cause cancer in humans. Expect Hopper’s daughter Sara to connect to this plot line (and perhaps Sam Owens’ dead son). There is a whole theory on this site already called radiationgate. I have not managed to look into it yet but I think they are probably onto something there. The original al pitch mentions the UD leakage into the real world causing cancer as well.

[redshoes-blues]

Emotional Time Travel: How Will Byers Controls Time in the Upside Down

"We are all time travellers, if you think about it."

Buckle up, everybody, this is gonna be a long one! :)

Over a year ago I wrote an analysis on the references to clocks throughout Stranger Things, and looked at how this connects to the show's specific form of time travel. This post is a bit of a redo of that original analysis, but this time I'm focusing on the idea that emotions have the power to alter the movement of time. And not only this, but Will Byers specifically has the power to control time in the Upside Down.

From the clock symbolism throughout the show to the time travel references, it’s clear that S5 is going to delve fully into the way the Upside Down operates; more specifically, I suspect we'll finally get answers to the question raised last season—why is the UD stuck on the day Will vanished?

I have some ideas on how that might work, and it has to do with emotions, which are described in ST as a way to time travel, as El says it best herself in the opening of S4: "We are all time travellers, if you think about it."

[CW: this will delve into the various forms of trauma and abuse faced by Vecna's targets in the show]

The Vanishing of Will Byers: Time Travel and Dimension X

First of all, let's deal with the obvious. The Upside Down, aka Dimension X, is a dimension that is stuck in the past. This is tied directly to Will Byers, given that it exists perpetually as the date he vanished. Therefore, entering the Upside Down is a form of interdimensional time travel.

To me, this could work in one of three ways, although a combination of these factors could also be at play here.

First, the UD could be a fixed point in time. A place where time doesn't work. It acts as a set piece, where characters can move around and exist within, but otherwise, it remains the same. In this case, it is quite literally frozen from the moment Will is taken. However, there are some things in the UD that do change. The weather, for example. Or vines that move and grow. So it's really hard to say how the fixedness would work. Perhaps, if this is the case, time is fixed and frozen, even non-existent, but space isn’t.

Second, is the idea that the Upside Down exists as a time loop. How long the loop would be, we don't know for sure. All we know is that the UD is stuck, somehow, on November 6, 1983. Maybe the loop is a single day long. Maybe it goes on for the entire duration of Will being missing. Either way, the time loop is certainly a plausible theory for how time operates in the UD.

Another important thing to consider is S5's use of A Wrinkle in Time as a source for inspiration, which brings me to the third way that time could operate in the Upside Down. Now, it has been awhile since I read AWIT, but there's an important concept in that novel called a tesseract. This is basically a way of travelling through time and space, to a fourth dimension. Looking at ST, this seems like a likely culprit for what's going on with the UD, which would be a sort of fourth dimension in this case. Vecna as much as says the UD is a fourth dimension himself:

"I became an explorer. An explorer of a realm unspoiled by mankind. I saw so many things, and one day, I found the most extraordinary thing of all."

But Vecna isn’t the only one to explicitly refer to the Upside Down as another dimension/realm. The government call it “Dimension X,” and the Party refer to it as the “Shadow Realm” pretty early on, an analogy to D&D’s location of the same name.

Now, I went googling for a description of the Shadow Realm, and I found this one that is very telling: “The Shadow realm is a realm caught between the realms of the living and the dead, a place where the boundaries of time and reality blur.” [link to article]

Looking at the UD, this absolutely makes sense as the location of choice that the Party (aka, the writers) chose to compare it to. As we’ve discussed, time does blur in the UD, and things don’t always happen as they would in Hawkins (there are strange storms, cosmic horror style monsters, etc.). Perhaps, in this realm, time itself doesn't even exist in a way that makes sense to us.

Now, going back to Vecna, we see that this sort of fourth dimension where time doesn’t exist as it should is exactly what he wishes to achieve.

On his motivations, Henry Creel says this: "Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years. Decades. Each life a faded lesser copy of the one before. Wake up. Eat. Work. Sleep. Reproduce. And die."

Clearly, he feels burdened by the limitations of how time functions in the real-world. This is why, he explains, "I became an explorer."

Now, the Upside Down we see him enter is very different from the one that Will is taken to, and the one we see from S1 onwards. There are two people we know that may be responsible for this change in appearance. Either Vecna shaped the world to his liking, or Will did.

Maybe it's a both/and situation. After all, we know Vecna has powers and has been communicating with the Mind Flayer (who seems to be a sort of eldritch/cosmic god/force of the UD) for years. However, it is Will's vanishing that shapes the "time" of the Upside Down.

Will vanished on November 6, 1983, which is the same day that the UD is stuck on. This means that the Upside Down is inexplicably tied to him. Why it's tied to him is hard to say. He's the first kid Vecna kidnapped, and it is very interesting that he didn't just kill Will like he does his other victims: there's something different about Will.

I'll get into that later, but for now, what does this mean for Hawkins, where the UD is beginning to leak out of the gates?

As I mentioned previously, it's clear that one of Vecna's goals is to create a world that is "unburdened" by time's constraints. As the gates open up, we see a clock turning backwards (see: gif above), which may represent how time is slowing down or ceasing to exist the same way it always has.

If we want to get metaphorical about how time functions in Hawkins vs. the Upside Down and Vecna's mind lair, just look at the first sign of someone's Vecna vision, which is represented by a chime of the Creel house clock. For Vecna's targets, time is literally running out. Not only because they're about to die in Hawkins, but because they're about to enter a dimension where the passage of time does not exist.

"We Are All Time Travellers": Emotions Alter Time

Let's back things up a little bit.

Last spring, I was rewatching S4 to look for any references to time travel (turns out there's a lot of them when you go looking for them). It didn't take long for me to get a reference. In fact, there's one in El's opening monologue, as part of her letter to Mike.

"Dear Mike. Today is day 185. Feels more like ten years. Joyce says time is funny like that. Emotions can make it speed up or slow down. We are all time travellers, if you think about it. For example, this week is going very fast because I am so busy..."

In one sense, El's line here is describing how time can literally feel fast or slow depending on how we feel. For example, if we're busy and happy, time often goes by fast, but it we're upset, time can feel slow. Of course, I believe this line also has a deeper meaning that foreshadows what we later learn about the Upside Down being tied to Will’s vanishing.

It's no coincidence that in the season whose villain is represented by clocks, who is tied to a dimension where time is wonky, and who feels burdened by the existence of time, this opening scene mentions time travel directly. It's also important that El says this line. She's the one who opened the gate in the very first scene of the season, after all. She's also the one who goes through the NINA program, which is essentially sending her back into time (through her memories) to access her powers again. Isn’t it interesting that revisiting her traumatic experiences is what restores her powers?

If we take what El says literally, emotions actually have the power to speed up or slow down time, and not just our perception of it, depending on which emotions are felt. This bit about emotions is vital. As we know, the UD is shaped around Will's vanishing, which is a traumatic experience that he continues to deal with for years after it has occurred.

Now, this begs the question: did time in the UD slow down because Will left an emotional imprint on the landscape via his childhood trauma?

Again, it isn't a coincidence that Will's vanishing is the day that the Upside Down is stuck on. The "demogorgon"—which is pretty obviously going to be revealed to be Vecna—took Will into this fourth dimension, traumatizing him in the process.

All of Vecna's victims in the 80s timeline are also victims of trauma and/or abuse in their childhoods. Chrissy and Patrick have an abusive parent, and Fred has trauma from the car accident. Max has mental health issues and a complicated family life that we see in detail—an abusive brother whose death she blames herself for, suicidal ideation, a dad who isn't in the picture, a mom who becomes an alcoholic, and that's not to mention the inherent traumatizing circumstance of living in poverty. Will is also implied to have been abused by Lonnie, who called him homophobic slurs and turned into an awful deadbeat who doesn’t accept that his son doesn’t follow traditional masculine gender norms; he's also bullied at school for being different.

Each of these victims of abuse and/or trauma are all targets by Vecna. They have that in common. And we know that Vecna is targeting these kids on purpose because we see him sifting through his mind lair to select his next candidate. How does he do this? By looking at these kids' experiences and selecting someone vulnerable.

After Patrick is killed, Lucas and Max say as much when they discuss Vecna's motivations. To them, to be hurt us to be haunted:

Lucas: "It's like everyone Vecna targets has something in their life...something that's—"

Max: "Hurting them. Haunting them."

With this in mind, it begins to look as if Vecna is using the trauma and hurt of these kids because their emotions are strong enough to create gates, and therefore to alter—or even slow down—time.

Interestingly, the psionic powers of the lab kids seem to be impacted by their emotions as well.

Dr. Brenner tells the kids in the NINA memory to not use their emotions, but it’s One’s advice to El—to focus on something that makes her angry and sad—that helps her win the battle against Two. Brenner is so angry at One’s interference here that he tortures him for it. We know that Henry Creel was the original kid with telepathic powers who was experimented on. Somehow, Dr. Brenner learned to develop powers in these other kids, but it’s Henry/One who first received his powers from the Mind Flayer. Even as a kid, he understands that channeling negative feelings makes his powers grow stronger.

Before we look at why I believe Will is the only one truly capable of restoring the Upside Down to the way it was before, aka Dimension X, I want to dive a little bit deeper into Vecna’s targets themselves.

The Trauma of Vecna's Targets

There isn't a single main character in this show who isn't traumatized, hurting, haunted, or a victim of various societal pressures and/or forms of oppression. This isn't an accident. These themes are built into the show on purpose. Sometimes they aren't handled as well as they could or should be, but they're certainly present.

When we look at Vecna's victims, the reason they were his "perfect" targets is because of their vulnerability.

Lucas suspected Patrick was dealing with abuse at home, but Patrick never talked about it with anyone. Same with Fred's guilt about the hit-and-run. He's terrified of the idea that he'll be found out, so he never tells anyone about his visions. In the case of Chrissy, her own boyfriend has no idea about what she's going through, and she turns to drugs for an escape from her pain. If Max hadn't confided in her friends about her visions, equipped with her knowledge of Vecna and the Upside Down, then she would have had the same fate as them.

So, not only are Vecna's victims people who have something in their life that is hurting or haunting them (trauma, abuse, mental health issues, etc.), but they are also actively repressing these emotions. With this, I think the writers are trying to say that opening up about what you're going through with other people who care about you is vital to your survival and well-being.

Healing from trauma requires you to confront the emotions and/or experiences many people would rather suppress. I think El is a good case study for this. She is very clearly a traumatized character who is a victim of child abuse. Much of it is stuff she doesn’t actively remember, because she has repressed it, as we see in the NINA project. But despite her repression, the trauma, those memories, are still with her. She believes she's a monster, and she carries this guilt around with her for years. But El is also very resilient.

In fact, she confronts her trauma head-on in the NINA project. She relives her abusive childhood, the bullying she experienced, and the massacre, and she comes out of it a stronger person—even though she doesn't beat Vecna this time around, because she’ll require the help of someone else who is deeply tied to the UD if she wants to beat him.

Looking back at what Henry Creel knew from a young age, that his pain and experiences could be a source of his power, it becomes clear why he’s killing all of these traumatized kids. He’s doing so to harness the power in those experiences, perhaps because their emotions will affect the UD and cause time to slow down.

However, when El talks about emotions as a way to time travel in the beginning of S4, she isn’t just referring to negative emotions like boredom or sadness, etc. She also refers to positive emotions which make time move faster. If Vecna used his targets’ trauma to slow down time—originating with Will’s arrival in the UD—then maybe it is positive emotions, like love, acceptance, and healing, that will undo the changes Vecna has made in the UD.

Will The Wise: Why Will Byers is the Antidote

Will's connections to the UD are my main reason for believing he is the key to defeating Vecna. It began with Will, and it will end with him, too.

This is also supported in the text.

D&D always forms a direct analogy to the events that happen in any given season of Stranger Things, and it's through the lens of D&D that the Party describe the happenings in the Upside Down. For example, Will rolls a 7 in the first episode of the show, and tells Mike that "it [the demogorgon] got me." Later, the creature we're told is a demogorgon does get Will.

So, that's why the D&D campaign run by Eddie in S4 is very interesting, as it serves as foreshadowing for the rest of the season. An 11 is rolled first. This is a miss. It isn't until Erica—who is an unlikely hero in this campaign—rolls a 20 that Vecna is defeated.

It's crazy foreshadowing that an 11 is rolled, which isn't enough to defeat Vecna, in the season where Eleven is not able to defeat Vecna on her own, despite her powers being stronger than they've ever been. That's because power isn't the only thing at play, here. And we don't know yet who will be the Erica in this story, the underdog who will swoop in and join the fight, being the unlikely hero to defeat Vecna, but I think the missing piece will be Will.

It's like Dustin said in reference to his drawing skills (interesting, because when Will drew to solve the puzzle before, it was directly related to his connection to the Upside Down): "we need Will."

This brings me back to the main point of this analysis. If emotions alter time—with traumatic memories causing time to slow down, and causing Vecna to gain power—and if the Upside Down is shaped around Will's trauma, then confronting Will's trauma is crucial to Vecna's defeat.

Everything goes back to Will. To the moment he entered the UD on November 6, 1983. The very day the Upside Down is frozen on is the same day that Will's trauma began. By experiencing his trauma and imprinting those emotions onto the dimension, did Will quite literally grind time to a halt in the UD?

I certainly think so. And we've already seen a little bit of how positive memories can be used to fight against Vecna. Music is shown to carry positive memories and emotions, almost forming a shield around a person, as was the case for Max and Will, who were able to fight back through the power of music. If we take this a step further, it makes sense that healing from his Upside Down trauma, would work as a sort of antidote to Vecna, who feeds off of people's trauma. He only targets people, haunts them, if they are hurting. Heal the hurt, and he has no use for you any longer.

Functionally, this could work a number of ways. I think it could work by Will re-entering the UD and bringing positive emotions with him. Maybe the UD would reshape itself again, this time in a more positive way, removing the "rot" that has existed there since Will first entered. After all, Dimension X does not appear to be inherently evil like the Upside Down, it’s only when it begins to shape around trauma that it changes and rots.

Some Final Thoughts

If we consider that it was Vecna who took Will, then it’s clear that Vecna's goal isn't to kill Will. In fact, in S2, Dr. Owens asks Will if the evil wants to kill him, to which Will responds that the Mind Flayer wants to kill "everyone else."

Why? Because Will has powers that Vecna wishes to exploit for his plan. Because, by keeping Will and his strong connection to the Upside Down alive, he caused the Mind Flayer to enter Will, giving him the ability to feel what it feels—and later, in S4, to feel what Vecna feels.

My speculation, given all of the similarities between Will and Henry Creel, is that Vecna hopes Will will come to see his view as the correct one. He recognizes that Will is treated differently, that he’s an outsider, and he wants to exploit this to have Will join his side. Like the Emperor to Anakin, and later Luke, Vecna doesn’t actually care about Will: he’s manipulating his emotions to access his power. He didn’t keep him alive out of the goodness of his heart. He kept him alive because he knows that Will’s emotions have the power to alter time in the UD.

Killing Will simply wouldn’t serve his purpose of using his trauma to keep the UD stuck in time, grinding it to a halt.

Because, if Will’s emotions have the power to imprint on the Upside Down to the degree that he shapes the way an entire dimension appears and operates, everything begins to make sense. That’s why Vecna kept him alive: to continue his plan of removing the burden of time from the world. That’s why the UD is shaped around him. And that’s why Eleven could not defeat Vecna on her own.

Will controls time in the Upside Down. He shapes it through his emotions and experiences. His fear and trauma slowed down the movement of time, so, if Vecna is to be defeated, it only seems plausible that healing from his trauma, learning that he is loved and accepted for who he is—that he’s not a mistake—will have the opposite impact. By doing so, time will speed back up in Dimension X, healing it in the process.

In the end, everything began with Will. It was his vanishing that kicked off the story we’ve followed for what’ll be five seasons. And it’ll be him that brings an end to everything, as well.

Author’s Note

Thank you to everyone who stuck around and read this whopper of a theory/analysis! Writing it has been a long (but very fun) process. I started writing this about three weeks ago, as a rewrite of my old clock theory with more of a focus on how I think the UD functions, but then it grew into a beast of its own. I just couldn’t help it! When I get a meta idea about Will in my head, I can’t not write thousands of words about it lmao.

That said, I always love to read other people’s thoughts on these theories—it’s truly the best part of our little community on here. So please, feel free to add onto this if you have any ideas! :)

—Em

[despapillon]

When it comes to awareness, I do think that the s3 finale Melvin kiss led to Mike’s realization. I think throughout all of s4 he was aware of his lack of attraction towards El and during the monologue he wasn’t confused about his feelings for her and just simply lied aware of it all. Mike is sort of stuck, he is scared of losing El and probably many other things, so he stays with her and tries to be a good boyfriend while trying to not lie to her too much. But it’s clear he is doing the bare minimum and wants out deep down.

To me I just think they are focusing each season on him figuring out more and more and not just doing repeats or whatever.

S1 - Mike spends time with El away from Will and the relationship develops

S2 - Mike spends time with Will away from El and the relationship develops

S3 - Mike is with El and at the end has his realization he doesn’t like her the way he should

His behavior doesn’t point to him being unaware and that carrying over into S5 I mean come on.

It’s only fitting to me S4 is Mike, struggling with his knowledge, and that it is a repeat of S3 but with Willel swapped, where he has a realization regarding Will this time. And yeah I don’t view Mike as totally clueless about his feelings for Will, just in denial and repression

In my opinion just like El saying ily and kissing him led him to find out he doesn’t love her, I feel the van scene did that in regards to Will. I yet have no idea exactly what, but I know he realized *something* important there, and I suspect that is that he loves Will. I’m not saying he immediately was sure of it that instant but he probably wasn’t purely admiring the painting when Will turned around, just looking at it and trying to sort out how all things Will said made him feel. Mike didn’t notice Will crying right next to him because he was busy thinking, his head was too full. He glances at Will at one point but that doesn’t change the fact he must be zoned out. I’m still unsure if Mike clocked something was off with Will or he was too focused on his gay panic. Literally Vecna’s thoughts are easier for me to figure out than S3-4 Mike’s. Give us his POV ffs.

S5 is going to be Mike now knowing all the basics, the culmination, and having to deal with that, deal with his lie, Will’s lie. He has to choose either live a lie or be honest with himself and be with the person he loves. Mike needs to know he is not just a random nerd, he’s more than that. Will needs to know he has to stop being so self-sacrificing because it has the capacity to hurt not only himself but the very people he wants to help by sacrificing himself and that he needs to do something for himself for once, quit being a doormat as rude as that sounds.

[hawkinsindiana]

i’m not gonna leave you here

ALMOST PARADISE: PART FOUR - CHAPTER NINE OF NINE

pairing: steve harrington x henderson!reader

word count: 4.8k

a/n: i have returned from the dead to drop this lil nugget of a final chapter. literally bat shit to think i have been writing this shit for FOUR YEARS! thank you to those of you who have continued to support my writing even through all the droughts. i definitely needed time to step back from tumblr so also a quick kiss to the few that sent me sweet asks checking up on me ily ily!!! writing this story has truly brought me such immense joy i feel ridiculously grateful to the ones that have decided to READ THE WHOLE FRICKING THING!!!! anyways..... thank you thank you thank you and i hope to see you for s5 >:)

masterlist

“What are you thinking about?”

Your voice filters into Steve’s mind, reaching him through the anxious worries he’s been so focused on beneath the reporter’s drawl on the television. The back of your index finger glides gently across the line of his jaw, helping to coax him away from what made him cast his gaze down towards his socks. His skin is smooth under your own, freshly shaved and moisturized to perfection.

Steve’s eyes shift to you, who’s comfortably tucked under the weight of his arm. Your irises are as warm and inviting as ever, quietly beckoning him to divulge. He grins lightly as the answer reaches the tip of his tongue.

“You.”

The only reason he’s so blunt is because he wants to see your reaction — a brilliant smile that fades into awe and pure love. He feels your body melt further against him as you try to play it off with a rather endearing roll of your eyes. Steve’s sure that some joke about him being a sap rattles around inside your pretty head, but it never comes to fruition. It must be the look on his face that keeps words from escaping you because once again, your gentle eyes silently plead with him.

He bites down on his lip before anxiously darting his gaze across the room; this is the last topic of conversation he wants to bring up, but it keeps shouting at him from the depths of his mind. Before Steve gets the chance to speak, you reach over to take his free hand between yours, lightly massaging his tired knuckles. The crease in his brow softens.

“When are you going back to the city? I know you weren’t supposed to leave for another week but…” 

Steve pauses like he’s carefully choosing his words. His hand, which you’ve dragged to your lap, shifts to intertwine a few of your fingers together. He swallows harshly, “I don’t know, maybe that’s… changed. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to go sooner.”

It was this morning that Steve remembered what the initial plans for Spring Break were. Just over a week ago, you two had been excitedly swapping ideas about what to do with all of your free time. But now, he can barely remember what any of them were. The only thing that crosses his mind is the intense and gut-wrenching desire to keep you close, but simultaneously out of harm’s way.

You blink in surprise as a deep inhale is pulled into your lungs. In the wake of all the destruction your actions have caused, it’s hard to imagine leaving Hawkins without attempting to rectify what you’ve done. In comparison, your education seems like the least important thing in the world right now. But then again, who knows how long it could take to hunt down Vecna once more? 

He’s still out there… you can sense it, burrowed deep in your soul. It’s the same feeling that told you the Russian code was more than a transmission — a feeling that’s grown into more than intuition or anxiety, but rather the upsetting truth that you know intimately how the Upside Down works. There’s more to come and soon; when it does, you want it to be the last time. 

You’re tired. You want to rest. You feel like every ounce of courage you once had has left your body. You’re terrified to plan anything that could backfire again. But you want your family safe. You want Steve to be safe. These horrors have plagued you long enough. They’ve stolen so much of your life from you. 

You’re angry. 

It scares you, but you know that there won’t be a sense of closure until you watch the life leave Henry’s eyes — whether by your hand or someone else’s, you don’t particularly care. 

Are you willing to see this through to the very end? To do what it takes to get the life you crave?

“I don’t… I don’t think I can go, Steve,” You mutter, “At least not until this is over.”

Confirmation washes over Steve’s face — the slight lift of his brow and the sigh he expels says it all. As he cards his free hand through his hair, he speaks.

“Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that.”

Suddenly, you realize his reaction was not one of reassurance and relief, but rather disappointment.

Steve’s arm slides to the back of the couch as you sit up straighter. Your voice is a bit more stern, straddling the line between genuine confusion and vexation, “What, you’d rather have me leave?”

“No, no,” Steve replies immediately as his anger suddenly begins to churn. It’s not directed at you, no, but at the mere thought of having to watch you drive away from him. Selfishly, he wants you by his side at all times. He wants to turn to you for support whenever he needs or offer you his shoulder to cry on at a moment's notice. Whether it’s healthy or not, Steve cannot imagine himself without you. He needs you now.

But hurt is starting to cloud over your irises; the slightly cold and calculating look Steve knows will impale him through the heart if he doesn’t act fast to clear this up. Maybe a different approach would be best considering you both are so high strung at the moment. He shouldn’t have assumed that you’d want to leave right now — that much is clear.

Steve has begged you to leave Hawkins more than once; now it feels more like a matter of life and death.

He sighs and re-adjusts, moving from a laid-back posture to one of thought and concern. He wants to lean in closer even though you’ve shifted away, but decides to reach for one of your hands instead — you don’t recoil from his touch. Your gaze stays locked on his face, analyzing every micro expression so you can attempt to understand.

“God, of course I don’t want you to go, baby. I never want to be away from you ever again,” Steve begins softly, gently holding your hand between both of his, “I just…”

He stops again, recognizing that your face has slightly relaxed due to his tone and touch. Something in him withers knowing that his instinctual reaction and initial question prepared you for a fight he never wanted. 

And then that image and sensation flash through his mind again.

Your cold skin. The whites of your eyes. The weight of your limp body in his arms. Overwhelming grief — the kind he’s only read about in your books. Emptiness. Fear. Longing. Pure, unfiltered anger.

All of that was real. Steve didn’t know he could feel something so strongly. He never wants to experience anything as intense as those feelings for the rest of his life, unless it’s his love for you. That’s an exception he’s willing to overlook.

“I can’t do… that again.”

You see it too; the pain in his eyes that’s lingered since returning home. You’ve noticed it every time he looks at you, as if it’s the last time he’ll see your gentle smile. He’s touched your bare skin with such intention it’s addicting and branded kisses onto everywhere he can reach. The most beautiful words have fallen from his lips — how excited he is for all of this to be behind you, how lucky he feels to be a part of your future. 

You did this to him. Even if it couldn’t be helped, you still damaged him. For the first time, Steve Harrington has felt truly desired. You want him for more than just his body or his parents’ money. With you, he finally has a life in front of him; one that promises fulfillment and unabashed happiness. 

You understand his fear perfectly. You sigh too, your hard exterior cracking instantaneously.

Defeated, you nearly pout as you murmur, “And I’m not gonna leave you here, Stevie. I don’t care how long it takes.”

You don’t have to say anymore for him to accept this fate. If you’re willing to give up your education over this, something you and Steve have been discussing for years, then he knows you’re set in your choice. He understood how much it meant to you to leave Hawkins then, but now you’ve made the decision to stay and fight.

How could he have asked you to leave in the first place? It would hurt you just as much. With the phones still down, there’s no telling when he would get word to you about his or your brother’s safety. If there’s one thing Steve doesn’t want, it’s for you to be living with uncertainty as cruel as that.

“I know, I’m sorry,” He frowns as you shuffle closer again and relish in the warmth of his palm against your cheek, his fingers deftly tucking a few stray hairs behind your ear. How fortunate is he to have someone who’s unwilling to leave his side?

He continues as you turn your head to kiss his wrist, “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

You tut softly with forgiveness, despising the feeling of a disagreement no matter how small it is, “No, I understand why you did. I mean, all of this has been so…”

No other words come to mind, so you chuckle in disbelief instead; you’re relieved Steve’s frown quirks up at the sound, his hand dropping to clasp both of yours now. He loves the varying texture of your skin; he could get lost for hours exploring it, even though it’s already committed to memory.

“It makes sense why you’d want me to go, even if you don’t want me to.”

You’re glad Steve’s arms open up for you when you worm in closer still, now awkwardly pinned to his side; when you press your cheek to his shoulder, you can practically feel his love for you radiating like his warmth. The soft fabric of his sweater against your skin is an added comfort you can’t quite describe. How lucky are you to have someone as dedicated to your safety as Steve?

A smirk crawls across your lips as all four wandering hands finally settle somewhere in this embrace, “What a shame I feel much safer when I’m with you, hmm?”

It’s half-hearted sarcasm, of course; a playful jest that has Steve’s chest rumbling a bit in soft laughter, “Yeah, what a shame.”

He’s more uneasy than he was before.

—

If it weren’t for the plumes of smoke billowing up into the clouds, this would be the most gorgeous day of the year. Selfishly, a part of you wonders if there’s still a chance you and Steve could sneak off to the lake and drown in sunlight. On second thought, given your previous visit, maybe you aren’t willing to go swimming anytime soon.

It’s hard to confront the consequences of your failure. For many, this cataclysmic event was the final straw — dozens, if not hundreds, of families have continued to flee. As Steve drives through the suburbs, you watch a father frantically loading the trunk while the mother lifts their toddler into the car seat. On your street, there was a home left abandoned with the front door wide open. 

Continuing into town, the destruction grows more severe. The flames from a gas station have finally been contained. The diner you and Steve used to frequent has been reduced to crumbles, the neon sign shattered against the pavement. Your eyes linger on it a bit too long, heart aching that you’ll never get to return; Steve’s grip on your hand tightens.

As gut-wrenching and upsetting it is to see the carnage, nothing prepares you for what washes over you upon entering that hospital room.

A different type of guilt pools in your stomach — nausea that you’ve grown used to over the past few months. It’s unmistakable as the sight of sterile white plaster and bruised skin floods your vision.

“The doctors said it’s… pretty much a miracle that she survived,” Lucas says, continuing his explanation of that fateful night as he returns to Max’s side. His hands remove a book from his chair before sitting down — he must have been reading to her. More pain echoes in your chest.

You wish you could’ve visited sooner. When you received his call on the radio this morning, another wave of emotion made itself known. After everything, you didn’t make sure Lucas and Erica were safe. You didn’t bother to check on the others. All that mattered to you was if Steve was okay, if Dustin was. They’re not the only family you have in this fight anymore.

As Lucas goes into more detail about the events at Creel House, your brain grows cloudy from thought. The older they’ve gotten, the similarities between Lucas and Steve have made themselves more apparent; they’re fiercely loyal, unapologetically kind, gentle, and compassionate. But a striking similarity is their willingness to get bloodied and blue to protect the one they love.

Lucas has come to you many times over the course of the last couple years seeking advice over Max. Not only does he trust you and your opinion, but you and her also share many similarities. You both can be incredibly stand-off-ish and suspicious of others, but those that prove their worth are given a plethora of love and care in return. If Lucas asked you for help with his love life, he knew you’d never steer him wrong because you understand the one he’s tried to woo — whatever you worked worked every time. Well, except for the last time.

Steve knows it’s the reason why Max’s involvement in all of this chaos has been weighing so heavily on your conscience. In your mind, if you had done more to help her, Vecna never would’ve seen her as a viable target. He hates to think of the alternative, that the fourth victim might have been you instead, with guilt loud enough to beckon that monster closer. But one way or another, Steve nearly lost you. He doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to come to terms with that fact.

You can’t help but reflect on how close you were to a similar outcome. If Steve hadn’t reacted as quickly as he did, maybe you’d be in another room in this hospital, your love wrought with worry and fused to your side until you woke. Maybe your body would be enclosed in a wooden box and buried beneath a willow tree, an abundance of flowers curling around your headstone — peonies, probably. 

Your love is mirrored in theirs. But made clear is the fact that you and Steve have gotten lucky. You never thought you’d look at your life and consider any part of it to be more fortunate than someone else’s — a flaw you understand to be incredibly selfish and blind. You still have your twin flame, burning brightly in this room with you and a kind of warmth felt even with a lack of touch. 

The other pair has dimmed, one of them too weak to fight anymore.

You want to help again. You need to help again.

“Can you…” You whisper, wrapping your fingers around Steve’s arm as you pull yourself closer to him. You glance back to the Sinclair boy, noticing the desperate way he clutches the redhead’s hand. 

“Can you gimme a minute alone with him? Please?”

Concern immediately blossoms in Steve’s chest with your request. Knowing that your last attempt to support Lucas was ultimately in vain and a heavy burden on you, he’s not super keen at the idea. But Steve also knows you. You’ll find some way to help the boy either way, and he’d rather it be here in this room than during a moment of danger and desperation. Whatever it was you said to Max seemed to have helped her — maybe this will be different. Steve nods, remaining silent as he answers.

Clearing his throat, Steve turns to Erica and Dustin and gestures to the hall, pulling a couple of loose dollar bills from his pocket. He mutters something about the nearby vending machines and ushers the two of them out of the room, closing the door while flashing you a brief look. You’re not quite sure what he’s feeling, but you can’t imagine you’re particularly easy to read right now either. Between the pair of you, there’s enough compartmentalization happening to last a lifetime. But keeping a straight face in front of the others isn’t quieting the raging thoughts as well as you thought. Instead, you can feel them building — your fault your fault your fault.

As you sit in the chair beside Lucas, you can’t figure out where to begin. He doesn’t seem to blame this on you; if anything, he’s being too hard on himself. There wasn’t much more he could’ve done to try and keep Max safe, but you’re confident that’s not what he needs to hear right now.

“I, um… I almost didn’t make it back the other day.”

It takes a moment for Lucas to register your words. His eyes drift to you upon the realization, but you quiet his concerns before they ever make it out of his mouth, lips parting to speak.

“I’m fine,” You mutter. A lie, of course. The skin of your throat is still tender to the touch and there’s a roughness in your voice that hasn’t faded. If you think too hard, it feels like the tendrils have returned, crushing your esophagus more and more with each second. The fear kicks in again, until the face of your rescuer greets you out of the darkness.

“But Steve, he…” You pause, forcing yourself to avert your gaze from the boy because you see too much of your love in him. A younger version perhaps, a soft reflection in Lucas’ bruised eyes, but enough that your heart grows heavy once more. You shake your head gently, a wobbly breath falling from your lips.

“I’m only here because of him. I wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for Steve. I don’t know what-”

You immediately stop yourself, refusing to consider the alternate outcome any further. You shove it away deep into the recesses of your mind. When you finally look to Lucas again, you don’t have to say anything else for him to understand what it is you’re trying to tell him. 

For a while now, Lucas has wanted what you and Steve have. Everything about the two of you… seems perfect. Even though he knows you haven’t always had good times, that doesn’t matter to him. He had hoped maybe Max would want that too.

But now?

Lucas nods silently, fully embracing the support you offer. There’s still hope. The road may be difficult, but he can’t let this be the end for them.

“She said she wasn’t ready.”

“Hm?”

“Max,” He clarifies sadly, his demeanor rapidly shifting to one of sorrow, “She said she wasn’t ready to die.”

Immeasurable grief swarms you. The air is drawn from your lungs as the hefty weight of his words burrows deeply into your soul. It’s the final nail in the coffin that solidifies your shame and remorse. You feel numb.

—

There’s a steady stream of people that filter into the school from the parking lot; it seems that you’re not the only group in Hawkins that felt inclined to help those affected by this disaster. Numerous boxes packed with all manner of clothing, toiletries, and other necessities line the walls and coat the tables. Resources are passed around to those who need them while the rest is organized to be distributed around town to multiple relief sites. Those that were displaced and can’t afford to leave rest on the various cots sprinkled throughout the gymnasium. It’s a bit overwhelming to say the least. 

After Steve’s recruited to fold donated clothes, one of the volunteers leads you away.

“How do you feel about being around kids?”

“I think I could handle that, yeah,” You say, forcing a somewhat warm smile to pull at your lips. She gestures towards a young girl, no older than six, fiercely clutching a well-loved stuffed elephant between her soot stained fingers. 

“Her house was destroyed, just torn right down the middle. We’re trying to find her parents,” The woman whispers, her hand touching your shoulder gently in gratitude, “But still nothing.”

You sigh, feeling your throat tighten, now able to put a face to all the destruction you and your friends weren’t able to stop. You approach the girl by asking if you can sit with her, to which she eventually nods at you with tired and exhausted eyes. When you introduce yourself and ask her for her name, she shifts a bit, “Erica.”

“Erica, huh?” You smile again, “I have a friend with that name. She’s pretty tough and strong.”

With your comment, the girl turns her head toward you; her skin’s coated with dirt and dust, hair a touch matted up. There’s a bit of blood on her forehead too.

“Is she like She-Ra?”

You can’t help but laugh a little at her reference. You pretend to think about it for a moment, even bringing your finger up to your chin to sell it further, “I think she’s more like Firefly. You know, from My Little Pony?”

Your answer brings a slight grin to her face; it simultaneously warms and breaks your heart. You put your hands down onto your knees, trying to remain as casual and maternal as possible, “What do you say we get you cleaned up? Would you like that?”

Erica nods before she grabs your now extended hand and uncurls herself from the plastic chair. As you start to walk forward, one hand wrapped up in yours and the other still tightly around her stuffed animal, she freezes unexpectedly. Her eyes are darting between the seas of people milling around, anxiously unable to focus on anything. You crouch down, meeting her eye line once again. 

“I get nervous around a lot of people sometimes, too. I can hold you… if you want.”

Erica nods quickly, reaching her arms up for you to lift her. It takes a bit of effort ao you don’t anger your back, but you manage to settle her onto your left hip.

The added closeness seems to comfort her as you continue forward, taking a moment to grab a spare plastic bag. She’s a bit harder to carry than you expected, but now’s not the time for you to complain. You wander through the tables, picking out anything that you might need to get her freshened up. The longer you walk, the more she begins to speak, telling you to grab certain items that she likes — a butterfly hair clip, some berry scented chapstick. You even make time to stop by the snacks to grab her something to eat; Vickie makes her a strawberry jam sandwich when Erica tells you she’s allergic to peanuts. She gobbles it up quickly, smearing some of the jelly onto her cheek, which you wipe it off with the back of your sleeve. Your smile grows more genuine the longer you spend with her.

Steve thinks he nearly has a heart attack when you eventually stride up to the clothing table, this small child latched tightly to your side. You look so at ease with her head resting against your chest, whispering little comments that manage to engage her amidst all the chaos. At a quick glance, this child could be your daughter. Her eyes have a similar hue to yours — even your noses are similar. His brain starts to go quite fuzzy the longer he spends watching the two of you together.

“What’s your favorite color?” You ask Erica as Steve hands you the small pair of folded sweatpants, underwear, and socks you point to. The girl hums for a second, adjusting her grip on her elephant, “Green.”

“Good choice. I like green too,” You answer, focused intently on her as you shift your arm to hoist her further up your side. Steve watches you with this kind of dumbly adoring look, lips pulled back in a small but optimistic smile as he gets lost in a daydream.

He sees flashes of you, curled up on the couch wrapped in blankets with your children — your children. Yours and his. He sees the smile that spreads over your face on their birthdays, the sadness in your eyes when one of them gets sick, the anger you feel when they mention they’ve been bullied at school. 

He sees the road-trip summers with your baby girl — little Marcie Harrington, maybe a younger sister too. He nearly swoons at the thought of your family taking in the sights at Mount Rushmore, the redwood forests, even the Finger Lakes. He imagines you wrangling your daughters in front of the Moab arches while he tries to figure out the damn timer on the camera; he ends up accidentally taking three pictures of himself before finally getting it to work. Then the two of you are splayed out in the sand on some beach while your children nap in the RV — you’re clad in that stupid red bikini you keep taunting him with, your warm and exposed skin practically irresistible. Steve looks at you fondly before leaning over to give you a big kiss under the Californian sun, so incredibly thankful for the life you’ve been able to build together.

“You got any green, Stevie?”

He blinks once, then once more; the first for snapping him back to reality and the second for the nickname. He clears his throat, trying desperately to forget about the blood that rises in his neck. He looks around for a moment, forcing the dream from his mind as he searches for something small enough to fit the girl in your arms. You watch him almost knowingly, like you could picture the same images behind your eyes.

Eventually, he finds a couple of options and holds them up for the girl to pick from; she’s made up her mind from the first one he shows her. Erica gasps, hand immediately shooting outwards to grab the small tie-dyed tee with wide eyes. The pink and green gradient twists and turns across the fabric, clearly enthralling to a child her age. 

Her enthusiasm takes you by surprise but it’s a welcome one; you chuckle a bit before speaking, “Oh, that’s a nice one. Good choice.”

As she puts the clothes into the bag, you smile across the table at Steve, effectively punching the air out of his lungs. You casually address him, “Thanks, baby.”

Trying to regain some of his composure, he winks at you as he starts refolding the other shirts, “Any time, ladies.”

Before you get a chance to reply, Erica’s desperately trying to wiggle free from your grasp. The moment she touches down onto the ground, she takes off in a full sprint and gets scooped up into the arms of a couple — you instantly understand this to be her mother and father. The girl looks like a perfect mixture of her parents, maybe more like her dad. It’s hard not to let their reunion warm your veins, the relief in all of their joyful sobs making your eyes a bit misty. You don’t particularly care that she left without any thanks, knowing that her and her family are back together is more than enough.

“You’re good at that.”

Your gaze moves back to Steve. In this light, his eyes are as soft and warm as liquid caramel. He rests a sweater on his shoulder — a gentle smile curls his lips. A bashful expression washes over your face as you feel blood pool in your cheeks, the underlying meaning of his words bringing back a hint of hope inside your chest. You can see your family too.

A flash of red breaks you from the comfort Steve’s attention brings; both of your faces drastically warp as you glance out the window, a very familiar feeling washing away any source of happiness. You find yourself frozen as you stare up at a rapidly moving cloud of smoke. It spreads, expanding large enough to cover the expanse of blue sky until none of it remains. Crowds begin to flock to windows, watching in awe while you and Steve join them, soon joined by Robin and Vickie. White particles begin to gently fall, earning a few shocked noises from the onlookers. You sigh as Steve’s hand finds yours, a silent solace; you both know what this is.

“An earthquake and snow in two days?” Vickie says in a moment of innocent disbelief.

The worst kind of dread rolls over you, the kind where you know that this is only the beginning. Everything that’s been happening has been building to this. You hate to spoil her childlike wonder, but as another bolt of red lightning cracks through the sky, you can’t help it. 

“That’s not snow.”

—

[hercynianforest]

Okay, I quickly wrote this, before the adrenaline from the new ST photos subsides.😁

First part of a short Stancy fic, completely based on s5 speculations around some hospital drama.🏥❤️‍🩹

Haven't decided on the rating of the whole thing yet.😏 But for this part, I guess it's K+. Just has some mention of blood/an injury, nothing graphic.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Nancy sighed, not really focusing on what she was doing (sorting files).

She had signed up as a candy striper after the first attacks on people by creatures from the Upside Down. They needed all the help they could get at the hospital.

But it wasn't like she could do anything really significant. She was aware of this, no matter how often some of the staff thanked her for volunteering (others were more of the Hawkins Post breed and treated her like a sub-human).

She stifled a yawn - getting up early was no problem for her, but it was undeniably a very dull morning. She didn't know how she was supposed to hold out until the early afternoon.

The sudden noise of an ambulance and slamming doors made her look up in surprise. Oh no.

There was a commotion at the emergency entry, so it was impossible to see what was going on, but no doubt it was another attack victim being brought in.

Her heart was racing and as always she longed to do something to help, but she knew from experience not to get in the way.

She was about to pick up the box of files and carry it to a different room, when she spotted a mess of dark blonde hair, and the distinctive rambling of Robin reached her ears.

"…. And I have no idea how many there were, or if it was only bats, might have been a demogo- I, I mean one of those larger things thrown into the mix as well!"

Nancy's stomach filled with ice. If Robin was here, then who…?

She got up abruptly, running over to the group of people, trying hard not to think…not Holly, not Mike…please…

But then one of the doctors moved aside and she saw him: Steve was lying there, unconscious, his shirt had been removed and was currently being used to be pressed against his side, soaked with blood.

She stopped dead at the sight.

"Nancy!" Robin had spotted her.

The sound of her name made her snap out of it - in an instant, she was at Robin's side, gripping Steve's shoulder protectively.

It was a completely instinctive action, no thoughts attached.

No one payed her much attention as she ran along to the emergency room, only when she followed inside, did one of the nurses stop her.

"I'm his-" She started to protest, outraged. But then she didn't know how to finish the sentence. "Friend," she finished lamely.

"Sorry dear, only family. You know the rules."

Robin put a hand on her shoulder as the doors flung shut in front of them.

An unbearable sense of powerlessness hit Nancy like a wave - she had to escape!

"What happened?"

"We were on patrol…" Robin looked around frantically to see if there was anyone in earshot. "You know, by the gate at the cemetery. And just before sunrise…it was like an explosion, Nance! Monsters everywhere, we couldn't get to the car fast enough and…and…"

She broke down, starting to sob uncontrollably.

Nancy rubbed her friend's back, a flashback of what she had seen in Vecna's vision back in '85 hijacking her mind. Monsters everywhere…

"Did anyone else…?"

"No…just Steve. Dustin was with us, he couldn't keep up, so Steve…he…"

Nancy's jaw clenched. She didn't need to hear the rest to know what had happened.

"Somebody's gotta go down and check this out. It's gotta be me. No complaints."

His words echoed in her head, reminding her of the last time he had been attacked by demobats.

"Where's Dustin?" She clung to the questions - anything to keep herself talking and away from thinking.

"He was a mess," Robin sniffed. "Must have reminded him of…you know…To be honest, I didn't give him much of a choice…thought it was better for him to stay and tell the others…" She shrugged. "He'll probably come bursting in on a bike any moment now."

Nancy never felt less like laughing. What else could she say?

"Okay, it's okay," she repeated mechanically to Robin, whose tears didn't seem to want to stop. She was glad, it gave her something to focus on, something to do.

She didn't know how much time passed like this, but suddenly the doors swung open again, startling both of them.

"It's okay," the nurse from earlier told them. "No vital organs hurt, just a lot of blood loss…it's stopped bleeding now. We'll transfer him to a room."

Robin looked like that was entirely too much information.

Nancy sighed a very different sigh than the one from earlier this morning. God, she would never complain about boredom ever again.

"He needs rest now." The nurse held her back again, as she made to rush to Steve's side.

Nancy narrowed her eyes, ready to argue, but then she changed her mind.

"Please, we just want to…" Robin started before Nancy interrupted her.

"She's right, Robin. He'll be okay."

Robin stared at her, incredulous.

"Is there anything you need, nurse Watkins?" Nancy asked sweetly.

"Not for the moment, dear. You can return to your chores." And with that, she was gone.

"I swear to god, Nancy-"

"Robin. Let me show you around and have a look at my work." She grabbed Robin's arm and dragged her over to the main desk, where her box with files still waited - as if her world had not been turned upside down.

Robin's face was a question mark, but she followed along, having learnt to trust Nancy's hunches and intuition.

Nancy sat down and started telling her friend all about the art of ordering files, seemingly not paying any attention to what was going on around her.

Although she was clearly impatient, Robin tried to play along, asking her nonsensical, dumb questions, waiting for god knew what.

Nurses came and went, picking things up and bringing them back. Robin paid no heed to it, but after one of them left, Nancy quickly grabbed a book, opened it, and closed it so quickly, that Robin felt dizzy from just watching her.

"Room 315," Nancy hissed between gritted teeth. Then she got up. "Come on, Robin - I need to deliver some flowers, would you help me?"

As they went to the flower shop, it dawned on Robin.

"Nancy, you're a genius! With a capital G!"

Nancy smiled, appreciating the compliment despite of the situation. They picked random bouquets and rushed back to the hospital as quickly as possible, without trying to look like they were in a hurry.

"315…315…" Robin muttered, as they went down the corridor. "Aha!"

They quickly stole into the small room, both stopping at the sight of Steve lying in bed, still unconscious.

There was entirely too much white for Nancy's liking. White bed, white hospital gown, white face. Lying in the morning light streaming in from the windows, he looked as pale as a ghost.

She willed herself to move forward, placing the flowers on the bedside. Before she could think twice, her hand was cupping his cheek gently.

"Steve Harrington, you idiot," she whispered. "You're going to get through this, do you hear me?"

He did not react, of course not. Still, she felt somehow disappointed. As if she really had expected her presence to work some sort of healing magic on him. She blushed, feeling presumptuous.

Robin had moved to the other side of the bed and took his hand.

"Dingus, you heard her. You'd better wake up soon."

She turned to Nancy. "Do you think we can bully him into waking up?"

Nancy gave her a weak smile before looking back down at Steve. She felt like the stitches that had held her heart together until now had become undone, one by one. She had been running away for so long, she had forgotten what it was like to stand still, to be present. But now there was no more escaping it. Her feelings could not be hidden away any more, they were swirling inside of her, all around her, like a swarm of butterflies.

Strangely, she did not feel afraid of them. The only fear that clenched her heart, was that it might be too late…

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Rewatch: "The Vanishing of Will Byers" (Part 1 of 2)

Disclaimer: This is NOT a traditional review/analysis, but a collection of observations, brief commentary, favorite moments, and so on that I'm noting as I go through these episodes. All of these are just my opinions and/or theories, and can be subjected to change as the rewatch continues.

Observations:

Happy Stranger Things Day! :) As of today, this took place 40 years ago.

Love how reminiscent this opening scene is to the climax of Ridley Scott's Alien when Ellen Ripley is escaping the USCSS Nostromo as the alarms go off. I wouldn't be surprised if this homage turned out to be intentional on the Duffer Brother's part:

When we're introduced to Mike's campaign, The Party is in the middle of being attacked by an army of Troglodytes. This is the image I found when I looked them up:

It's probably just a fun D&D moment, but since the Duffer Brothers have named a lot of their monsters (Demogorgon, Mind Flayer, Vecna) after D&D creatures, it makes me wonder if there's some kind of animal like a troglodyte in the Upside Down. It's unlikely we've seen all the monsters from that dimension, and they might introduce new ones in S5 that the Party hasn't encountered yet and will inevitably fight.

They do a good job with the establishing character moments for both Dustin and Lucas in Mike's D&D campaign: Dustin telling Will to use caution and cast a protective spell while Lucas insists Will fireballs the Demogorgon while he has the chance. Lucas's strategy is to go on the offense while Dustin's is to go on the defense. Specifically with Lucas, he uses that strategy in other situations he's in: Like when Lucas kicks Billy in the groin in S2 after being pinned to the wall by him, or gets an axe to chop at the Meat Flayer's tendril to save El in S3, or even how Lucas is the one who later convinces everyone to take the fireworks from the store to use as ammunition (which helps turn the tide at the Battle of Starcourt). By contrast, Dustin prioritizes the safety of the Party, from pointing out to Mike and Lucas that they might be walking into the same danger Will encountered when they later look for him in the woods, to telling Mike NOT to jump off a cliff when Troy threatens Dustin, to enlisting Steve's help in S2 because he knows Steve will be able to protect them due to his size and skill with the bat, to rescuing Steve and Robin from the Russians in S3.

This isn't to say that Lucas is wrong and Dustin is right, or even that Dustin is wrong and Lucas is right. It's merely noting they have opposite approaches. Each situation they encounter is different, and sometimes (just like with Will's dice role) it's really up to chance.

Also (as noted later in the episode by Mike), Will took Lucas's advice and used fireball as a means of protecting the Party instead of trying to save himself. He puts other people's safety before his own. The comic book "The Other Side" (which focuses on Will's perspective during the events of S1 while trapped in the UD) expands on this aspect of his personality by including several moments of him coming to the aid of others (including Nancy) while in the UD, despite knowing it would put him in danger.

Also, regardless of Lucas insisting the role doesn't count because Mike didn't see it, Will still chooses to be honest with Mike. He knows there are situations you can't cheat your way out of, or pretend didn't happen (as he's about to find out with the real Demogorgon).

The lights flash at Mike's house just as Will leaves. I'm assuming Vecna and the Demogorgon he was controlling were already beginning to track Will's movements here.

I've talked about this before in my review of "The Other Side" (and I know for a fact I'm not the only fan who's speculated on this), but I don't buy that Will's kidnapping by the Demogorgon was random. Given the revelations in S4, I'm inclined to believe Vecna deliberately targeted Will and used the Demogrogon under his control to bring Will alive to the Upside Down. I also would argue it was Vecna who used telekinesis to unlock the door to Will's house:

I know several episodes from now, Jonathan talks to Nancy about how his dad took him hunting when he was 10 and forced him to kill a rabbit, so I'm assuming Lonnie also taught Will about loading and shooting a gun. It's possible Jonathan could have, but considering how traumatized he was over what his dad made him do, IDK if I see Jonathan teaching Will how to use a gun.

I've said this before, but I don't buy Vecna wanted Will to just impregnate him with the larva's that would grow into future Demodogs/Demogorgons. He could have easily used the Demogorgon to kidnap other residents of Hawkins for that purpose if he wanted to. He didn't need Will specifically for that.

Still one of my favorite openings for any TV show I've seen:

I missed the drawing Sara did of her family the first time I saw this. Nice foreshadowing about Hopper's past life!

To this day, I still don't understand why Troy and James got their own graphic novel. Out of all the side characters they could have focused on, why did they choose these two? Was there some kind of demand from the fandom to bring them back that I'm unaware of?

I know Caleb McLaughlin gave an interview after season 4 aired where he expressed frustration over how certain fans have been dismissive of any racial trauma Lucas has gone through, and this goes all the way back to season 1. Both Troy and James's bullying of Lucas was racially motivated, and the graphic novel Zombie Boys also highlights this:

On a related note, Troy and James making fun of Dustin for having cleidocranial dysplasia is disgusting.

I've seen this discussion before in the fandom about Barb's attitude towards Nancy dating Steve, and this idea that Barb was jealous of the idea of Nancy possibly becoming popular, which.................is not an interpretation I've ever understood. I never once took Barb to be some kind of social climber. When she's talking with Nancy in her first scene, she sounds genuinely excited for Nancy about Steve calling her, as well as cheekily acknowledging that both Nancy and Steve are into each other.

On top of that, Barb knows Nancy well enough that she wouldn't discard her as a friend, even if she became popular. The way she talks with Nancy in this scene, she doesn't seem worried or upset with her. If anything, Barb is amused during this conversation (including when she sees the note Steve left for Nancy in her locker). There's also the way they both talk about Tommy and Carol, indicating they both have low opinions of them, and that Barb is aware that Nancy doesn't like them and isn't going to abandon her for them.

@will80sbyers pointed this out in a recent post, and I thought I'd note it here since it's a good observation: The first scene we see of Steve and Nancy's relationship is in a restroom..........and their breakup in S2 happens in a restroom as well. That's how things come full-circle for these two:

It's notable that the two times Steve and Nancy meet in this episode, it's in an area that's supposed to be private (the school restroom, Nancy's bedroom) but there's always the risk of someone (a high school student/teacher, Nancy's parents) walking in on them while they're making out (not that Steve seems to care). Both times involve Nancy interrupting to tell Steve she needs to study for a test, and while Steve initially tries to make it all fun-and-games between them, he eventually concedes when he realizes she's serious about her schoolwork and agrees to help her.

This still remains one of my favorite quotes from the show (and is literally what weekday mornings are like for me before I have to clock in for work):

This has been pointed out by others, but there's an interesting parallel between Joyce calling Will "sensitive" vs. Victor Creel calling his son Henry "sensitive."

Notably, when Joyce talks about Will being sensitive, it has more to do with him being aware of other people's feelings, as well as the way other people look at him and judge him. Meanwhile, I'm skeptical of that being the case with Henry. Maybe Victor thought Henry was sensitive because of his inability to "fit in" with the other kids (as well as being labeled "broken" by teachers and doctors), but considering how insulted Henry is at the idea that he was broken, as well as how he didn't care about torturing and killing animals before murdering his mom and sister in cold-blood (and letting his dad take the blame for it), I doubt Henry gave a damn about what others thought of him. His behavior indicates he doesn't feel empathy for anyone the same way Will does. Henry's "sensitivity" likely had more to do with the abilities he had locked inside of him, or even possibly being able to feel the presence of the Upside Down before he was banished there by El 20 years later. Maybe they'll expand on this in "The First Shadow" when it comes out.

They foreshadowed pretty early on that Will was secretly gay. I remember this was discussed by fans way back when season 1 first came out.

Yes Hopper, he is.

There's a dark irony in how Hopper's been working as Chief of Hawkins for 4 years, and claims that nothing awful has happened during his tenure. 4 years ago would have been in 1979, the same year Henry/One/Vecna slaughtered the special kids (and most of the staff) at the lab before El banished him to the Upside Down. I know Hopper wasn't aware of any of this when it happened, and none of that was his fault or responsibility, but still.........

Something I always found frustrating with the show (and even supplementary materials) is they never really explain how the chain-of-command works when it comes to government officials on this show. They establish Dr. Brenner as the head of Hawkins Lab (and later that role gets transferred to Dr. Owens in S2), but they never truly say which higher-ups Brenner answers to. Then there's the introduction of Colonel Sullivan in S4 (despite him never being hinted at or mentioned in the previous 3 seasons): Judging by the conversations he has with Dr. Owens, as well as how Dr. Owens got fired for the Russian infiltration of Hawkins in S3, I assumed Sullivan was Owen's superior. Does that mean that Brenner also answered to Sullivan during this time? Or was Sullivan just part of a different faction of the government (i.e. the same faction Ellen Stinson warns Mike about in S4) who was opposed to what Brenner was doing from the beginning, and only recently got involved?

In any case, I'm assuming the men pictured above who are meeting with Brenner are either government agents sent to investigate the opening of the gate, or Brenner's superiors who want to know what happened the previous night.

I wonder if there will be a twist in S5 that Upside Down itself is one whole Lovecraftian-like monster, and stuff like the Demogorgons and other creatures are just extensions of it. Just the way that gate breathes, and how it looks like you're traveling through someone's insides.............

I missed Scott Clarke in S4, and I hope he comes back for S5 to give more scientific advice to the main characters (assuming he didn't leave Hawkins). Who knows? It may prove helpful against the upcoming fight against Vecna.

Since Stranger Things loves referencing Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit), with the show even drawing parallels to the books (like the Upside Down being similar to Mordor, or even Hopper's fake death in S3 and return in S4 having similarities to Gandalf's apparent death in Moria and his later return), I am looking at the books as one possible blueprint to predict how Season 5 will go. That's just me though.

Also, Will disappearing near Mirkwood, which in The Hobbit is where Bilbo encounters the spiders that try to eat him and his companions, and Vecna has a creepy obsession with spiders and shaped the Mind Flayer into a spider, and the Mind Flayer later attacks Will..................

I'm sure there's somewhere I'm trying to go with this, but I can't articulate it in a way that makes sense.

SIDE NOTE: This particular scene with Dustin and Lucas fighting while Mike sits in the middle looking irritated is hilarious. 😂

Come to think of it, this scene is a perfect representation of the dynamic the kids have this episode: Dustin and Lucas argue (whether it's over D&D strategies, how to find Will, etc) and Mike is caught in the middle. This changes later once El is introduced where it's Mike and Lucas fighting, and Dustin is trying to act as the peacemaker.

To be continued in Part 2..........

[shippingfangirl013]

Twelvegate Theory: Drowning in the Quarry and Will & El (Part 1)

I found some interesting information while analyzing Stranger Things and taking note of the movies that we are shown in the show. In particular, I was mainly focusing on any scenes including Will, El, Joyce, Jonathan, and Hopper. . . because I think something bigger is going on that the writers want you to catch onto, but we don't get the full account of what truly happened (and probably won't!) until S5. The colors are so I know which character I'm talking about, and so this format can also be used later with my other twelvegate theories.

First off. . . there are only three characters directly associated with the quarry (in terms of scenes happening standing on the edge of the quarry).

Mike, Will, and Hopper.

Mike, because he steps off of the ledge and falls (then El saves him) and Will because we find his (fake) body there. Hopper, because he and Callahan are on the edge of the Quarry looking down while searching for Will.

The other direct association with characters to the quarry would be the night that the body was found.

State Troopers found the body. State Trooper, David O'Banon, found Will's body, and Hopper later interrogates him at Hideaway, the bar. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and El are there on the shore as they pull the fake body out of the lake. Mike gets mad at El because she couldn't find Will, alive. (This is the only direct association we have of El and Will being at the quarry at the "same time" and "one body was found 'drowned'," in the quarry.)

But there are some characters that are associated with the quarry indirectly as well. . . Like Lonnie blaming Sattler's Quarry for what happened to Will. Joyce and Hopper talk about the police and the working theory on how Will fell into the quarry. El watches Frankenstein, alone, in S2 on Halloween night. The young girl in the film, Maria, is talking to Frankenstein's Monster. It isn't shown on screen for long, but after looking up the movie, I learned that Maria drowned in a lake after asking the Monster to play with her.

So, now that we have the direct and indirect associations out of the way. . . we can get to the more interesting connections and parallels that I found!

Okay... So, there's this establishment of the Upside Down/ The Mind Flayer/Henry/Vecna/001's presence as being cold. . . and Will feels scared [frozen] because of it. I find it interesting that the line "I've felt it before," from S3 is actually panned on El and Will, but the focus is on El. Brenner makes the association that El's mother was sick, very sick. Lonnie makes the association that Joyce is sick to Jonathan, as well.

And then, we have the other freezing references.

Lonnie's "Your Mom was half frozen to death when I got here." after Joyce sees Will in the wall, and the Demogoron comes back.

Hopper's "I'm gonna freeze to death out here." after his fight with El, because he wouldn't let her see Mike in person.

The initial connection that I was focusing on, was the parallel of Joyce freezing to Hopper freezing in the scenes above.

Now, this is where it gets interesting:

In 1983, when Will goes missing, there's this shot while Ted and Karen are watching the news on the night of November 7th.

We don't hear much of what the reporter says, but what he says is crucial information.

"Byers' body was found in the water of this quarry by state police earlier this evening. It was discovered by State Trooper, David O'Bannon, just after dark. The state police are mounting an investigation to determine Byers' cause of death, but an initial inquiry. . . [indistinct]. . . Byers isn't the first person to drown in Sattler's Quarry. You'll recall only seven years ago. . . [news reporter cuts out],"

1983 - 7 years is 1976.

(I'll come back to this! )

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In 1984, on Halloween, we see that El is watching Frankenstein.

This is one of the shots that we see of the movie Frankenstein (1931).

Look familiar?

In the 1931 version of Frankenstein, Maria drowns in a lake after attempting to play with Frankenstein’s Monster. The monster misinterprets the rules of a game, and Maria dies by drowning in a lake.

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We know that "El" is short for "Eleven". . . Mike gave El that nickname. . . and we assume that Terry Ives is El's mother.

We also know that El is known as "Jane" by Terry in season 2. . .but I truly don't think that El is Terry Ives' daughter. . . (I'll come back to this! part 2.0)

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Now, I noticed something in Season 1 that made me think of the year 1976 a little differently. . .

1976 is the year that Will and El turned five years old.

1976 is the year that Will would have gone into kindergarten at the age of five. 1976 is also the year that Mike meets Will on the swingset, and there is an emphasis on the fact that Will is alone on the swings, but Mike felt less scared because Will was alone on the swings too.

Mike is Will's first friend. . . and Mike is also El's first friend. . .

Mike gave Eleven her nickname of "El". . . so is it really that much of a stretch to assume Mike gave Twelve a nickname of "Will" because "Well" wouldn't work as a name? (Obviously this would need some explaining, and the timeline would be off. . . But the timeline that we’re told is already askew…)

In season 2, in 1984, when El goes off on her own to find Mike at the school, she ends up at a house where a woman and her daughter are playing on a swing-set. One swing is left alone, while she flips the other over the top of the swing-set.

Now, I didn't think anything of this, until I paired it with what Mike said about meeting Will on the swings. And then, I thought of this scene of Will and Joyce:

So. . . what happened to Will when he was five years old to scare him enough that he had nightmares for a week?

Maybe he saw a "monster"? Maybe he met a monster that tried to take him (and/or someone he was very close with) somewhere against his/or their will?

I think El was the first "drowning" [read: kidnapping] victim in 1976 in Hawkins. . . and I think Will might have gotten away (at least for 2 years).

In season 4, there's this association of Brenner with the word "Monster". And this only shows up in the titles of two Stranger Things episodes. . .

In Season 1, we assume the "Monster" is the Demogorgon. . . and by Season 4, we learn that the real "monster" is Dr. Brenner. . .

Joyce and Hopper visit Terry Ives in S1 Episode 6 (The Monster). . . Terry has two books on how to care for Bonsai trees. . .

In the opening of S4, Brenner is trimming his Juniper Bonsai tree. . .

Then, we have this shot of El searching for her "mother" in S2:

El finds a photo of Terry walking with Brenner almost as if they are equals. . . But Terry was accusing this man of kidnapping her daughter by the accounts of almost every newspaper Hopper found?

Hmmm . . . that's very suspicious if you ask me.

I think Terry is "Mama" to Brenner's "Papa".

Because in S4, we get this from El's "memory":

Brenner (at one point) told El that her mother died giving birth, but we know that wasn't true.

I think that Terry and Brenner might have managed to kidnap a set of twins from their parents. . . within a two year span. I think El was taken first, in 1976. . . and Will was taken second, maybe in 1978. Maybe something didn't go according to plan, and Brenner finds himself with a mess on his hands. Either way, we find that Brenner electrocuted Terry Ives in 1978. And we find that Hopper's daughter Sarah died in the hospital in 1978 at seven years old from cancer.

(Keep in mind, the hospital we are shown from Hopper's memories, looks eerily similar to the "hospital" section of Hawkins lab.)

We also learn in S4, that Brenner and Owens aren't showing El the full memory from The Hawkins Lab Massacre, because we get these scenes as well:

What secret would Brenner and Owens have the answer to that could compromise the whole of the NINA project? That could - as Brenner puts it - "Risk everything?"

There's an emphasis on fail safes in season 4 as well. . . Max's letters acting as a fail safe, Nancy and her plan to kill Vecna -> the thought that Vecna can't hurt anyone else if they kill him (but her plan fails and there was no back up plan). . .

When Owens tells El that she is the cure, he says "I wouldn't be here if I didn't think this was the only way. If I didn't think that you were the only one who might have a shot to hit this thing so hard that it can't get back up."

His use of the phrase "the only one" implies that there might be another person that could help take Vecna down, but they aren't ready yet. . .

So. . . Will might be the fail safe, but Brenner and Owens don't want El to know the truth? That she has a [twin] brother? Because they know that she would refuse to have him put in harm's way?

(I am making a part 2, because this it a bit long, and part 2 is detailing more on Will.)

(again, i'm not 100% certain on this, there's a lot to explain in terms of plot holes, but it's a theory, so just roll with it)

[aemiron-main]

HUGE MIKE REALIZATION HES SO SCREWED IN S5 OH MY GOD

OHHHHHH FUCK. EVERYTHING IVE  BEEN TALKING ABT LATELY WITH HOW MIKE’S QUEERNESS IS TIED TO HIS GUILT OVER PEOPLES’ DEATHS/LOSING THEM??  SUCH AS IN THIS POST?? well not only does it tie to eddie and tie to el like i just talked abt in the replies of this post with @heroesbyler but it also ties to bob. to be extremely clear i am not saying that mike ever had romantic feelings for bob because he didn’t. what i AM saying is that mike may feel guilt for bob’s death that are tied to his queerness via mike’s gay feelings for will.

like think about it. mike was desperately trying to warn those soldiers that it was a trap. MIKE is the one who will told about his murder plan first. Mike actually prompted Will to talk, going “what’s wrong? are you hurting again?” and then Will says “I saw something,” and mike goes “in your now memories?”. He’s the one prompting Will, in mike’s mind, he might have been responsible for giving will the idea to look at his now memories. He was trying to help Will, he saw that Will was just sort of sitting there in a daze and was trying to HELP, calling will’s name and trying to see what’s happening, make sure he’s okay, asking him what’s wrong. But in mike’s mind, his attempts to help just ended up hurting, just like how his feelings for people end up getting them killed/hurting them. Mike, thinking that if maybe he wasn’t so blinded by his feelings for will/queerness, he could’ve looked at will more critically and realized what was going on. Mike is the one who realized that will is the spy, but he feels like he’s the one who failed to realize it. He’s the one who came up with the idea to sedate Will, but he may also feel responsible for the fact that Will has to be sedated in the first place, that he was too blinded by his own feelings for Will and trust in Will to see what was going on- and not only did this result in the soliders and Bob getting hurt/dying, but it also resulted in WILL getting hurt, in WILL almost dying (he would’ve died if they closed the gate). Maybe if they didn’t need to sedate Will, maybe if Mike had noticed sooner, before possessed!Will could get away with his plan, maybe if Mike hadn’t literally prompted Will to talk about his plan, then maybe the demodogs wouldn’t have been called to the surface, and Bob wouldn’t have been killed by them. Maybe if Mike hadn’t been so happy that Will recognized him, then he would’ve been more focused on being concerned about will *not* recognizing other people. Maybe if Mike had been able to figure out Will’s map of drawings at the Byers house, Bob wouldn’t have needed to be involved, maybe if Mike was just a little bit smarter, had paid a little bit more attention in class or looked a little bit closer at a map of Hawkins once. So now mike also feels responsible for will’s guilt and will being in danger/almost dying and the soldiers’ deaths AND bob’s death and that feeling of responsibility/guilt is tied to his queerness AGAIN. Plus, the shed scene: the shed was Mike’s idea. And it helped! It worked, initially! But then because they were in the shed, Will could hear the phone ringing. Mike, seeing it not as a success for himself, but a failure, because maybe if he hadn’t suggested the shed, maybe if they took Will somewhere else, he wouldn’t have known where they were, because he wouldn’t have heard the phone ring. Mike’s intelligence and love for the people around him SAVES them constantly,  but he sees it as hurting them. He only sees the way that he hurts people. And vecna is going to use this against him in s5. Mike doesn’t have one big moment of guilt or one main person who died/got hurt because of him and his queerness. He has this huge, layared amalgamation of many, of all of those moments, of El and Eddie and Will and Bob and the soliders and everyone. It’s death by a thousand cuts and Henry’s going to deliver the final one in s5. Hell, these are just a few examples of this sort of thing with mike, there’s SO many more examples of how his queerness, in his mind, intertwines with peoples’ deaths. Remember that scene of Mike staring at Will’s lips while quietly telling max to stay away from the door when Billy’s in the sauna? I didn’t really understand at first why they chose to write that scene the way that they did except to hammer home that mike is gay/distracted by his feelings for Will, but why not just show that at another time? Why show it in such a high-stakes situation to the point where it almost becomes comical? Because it links mike’s queerness to other people getting killed/hurt. Mike is so busy staring at Will that he doesn’t warn Max loudly or fast enough. And then everyone is put in danger once Billy breaks out. Mike, thinking about how maybe if he hadn’t been so distracted, if he’d been faster or louder, maybe Billy wouldn’t have broken out, if he’d been stronger when standing up against Billy, maybe he could’ve stopped him. This also gets MIKE hurt though, but mike doesn’t CARE about that, doesn’t care to the point where he doesn’t even register it. Mike gets his head bashed against a pipe by Billy, but that doesn’t matter to him, he only sees how his queerness is hurting other people, he doesn’t see or care how people are hurting him. But how do i know that Mike is making these connections in his brain? That he’s connecting himself in all of these ways that i’ve mentioned? You might be thinking “well em you’re just assuming that mike’s brain works like that. how can you demonstrate it?” How can I demonstrate that this is how Mike’s brain works/that he is likely to make these connections to himself and how his queerness intertwines with getting people hurt/killed? Well, let’s look at the Wheeler family dynamic. t’s summed up best by Ted: “What did i do?” The wheeler family fucking sucks at communication. They don’t tell their kids or eachother what they’ve done wrong and what they can do to make it right. They’re passive agressive, they give cold shoulders and silent glares. Instead, Mike and Ted are both left wondering what they’ve done. Which forces Mike to try and figure it out instead of people telling him. Which pushes his brain towards making all of those connections. And no wonder Mike acts out so much: he’s hoping that somebody will finally get mad enough at him to just TELL HIM what he’s doing wrong! We see this at rink o mania too! He literally ASKS will “why is this on me? why am i the bad guy?” He’s ASKING HE WANTS TO KNOW WHAT HE DID WRONG. USUALLY HE JUST TRIES TO FIGURE IT OUT AND EVENTUALLY FINDS A REASON FOR IT TO BE HIS FAULT BUT THIS TIME?? HE CANT FIND ONE HE HAS TO ASK. He doesn’t even fucking clap back at will and say that it was will’s fault, he doesn’t defend himself and say that he ISN’T the bad guy, he ASKS WHY HE IS. JESUS CHRIST MICHAEL DO YOU HAVE NO SELF ESTEEM OR SENSE OF SELF WORTH?? HE JUST ASSUMES THAT ITS HIS FAULT BUT HE AT LEAST WANTS TO KNOW WHY BECAUSE EVEN HIS SELF LOATHING BRAIN CANT FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE IT HIS FAULT THIS TIME BECAUSE HE DID CALL HE CALLED SO MANY TIMES. “Do you see what happens, Michael?” “What happens when what? Again, Mike is forced to answer the question himself, the wheeler family dynamic literally fosters that guilt and personal responsibility spiral. It’s also a personal representation of the individualistic nature of capitalism and how capitalism fosters a sense of individualism which leads to a sense of personal responsibility for things that aren’t a single person’s fault + purposefully stifles organized change and cooperation. Mike is forced to wonder what Ted meant, and it’s no surprise that after that dinner scene, we get a scene of Mike in the basement saying to Lucas that he’s worried about Will: because mike has been ruminating about what happened to Will, about what ted meant, trying to figure out what ‘what’ isnt, figure out the answer to ‘do you see what happens,’ trying to figure out WHAT HAPPENED, trying to figure out ‘what happens when what?’. And Mike has such a deep sense of personal responsbility for things and also a deep sense of justice and wanting to make things right: he doesn’t like to lie, he wants to resolve the conflict with lucas in s1. But then he starts feeling like he can’t make things right, ESPECIALLY in s4. He DOESN’T resolve things with lucas and hellfire. He DOESN’T properly resolve things with El or with Will, there’s still that tension with both of them.  He still WANTS to make things right even though he’s failing at it and feels like he CANT, just because he isn’t doing it doesn’t mean he doesn’t WANT to anymore.

So he’s desperate when it comes to making things right. Especially since he feels like it’s his fault that it’s wrong. Mike stands up against injustice that isn’t even his fault (see: the bullies making fun of will, it’s not mike’s fault that will’s gay (smthn smthn ‘its not my fault that you dont like girls’ smthn smthn mikes sense of personal responsibility and guilt is REALLY starting to beat his ass in s3), so when the injustice IS his fault/he feels like it is, it really hurts him, he REALLY wants to make it right, which gets even more terrifying for him with the fact that again, he feels responsibility for things that aren’t even his fault. And desperate times call for desperate measures. And sacrificing himself in s5? That’s a desperate measure. Mike feels as if he’s hurt so many people so any times, like i said, its an amalgamation of things, not just one event. And so, he KNOWS that he can’t make up for every single one of them individually, can’t make up for those deaths or those moments of hurt. So he has to make up for all of them at once. And it’s going to kill him- scratch that, him dying is going to be HOW he makes up for it. He’s going to die to save others, which in his mind, not only HELPS them by saving them, but also prevents them from experiencing further harm as a result of him and his queerness specifically. I’m also looking fucking DIRECTLY at “war” by frankie goes to hollywood on mike’s playlist. holy FUCK. The queercoding is something i’ve talked about before, with how ‘frankie goes to hollywood,’ was a band known for gay music videos and who had two gay men in it. But look at the lyrics in addition to the queercoding. These lyrics often aren’t listed because it’s more of a voiceover in the song (the song has a voiceover on top of the song ‘war’ by edwin star), but this is what it says: “Then, of course, there is revolutionary love. Love of comrades fighting for the people, and love of people. Not an abstract people, but one who one lives and works with. When che guevara talked of love being at the centre of revolutionary endeavour, he meant both. For people like Che, or george jackson, or malcom x, love was the prime mover of their struggle. And love cost them their lives. Love, coupled with immense pride.” This song is literally about sacrificing oneself out of love, and how love saves people but also kills and hurts people. And saving people in your life specifically, not just a general sacrifice for all of hawkins like Eddie’s was, but rather, about Mike saving the people that he ‘lives and works with,’ the people in HIS life, not just the abstract people of hawkins/world as a whole. “love, coupled with immense pride.” IMMENSE PRIDE?? COMING FROM A DEEPLY QUEER BAND?? AND EVERYTHING IVE BEEN SAYING ABOUT HOW MIKES GUILT ISNT JUST TIED TO HIS FEELINGS FOR WILL OR GUILT ABOUT BEING RUDE/HURTFUL TO PEOPLE IN GENERAL BUT TO HIS QUEERNESS SPECIFICALLY?? LOVE COST THEM THEIR LIVES?? QUEER PEOPLE BEING KILLED FOR THEIR LOVE IN ST (HENRY TARGETING WILL AND BARB AND THE FACT THAT WILLS VANISHING WAS THOUGHT TO BE A HATECRIME AND HOW MIKES LOVE IS GOING TO COST HIM HIS LIFE BC HIS GUILT IS TIED TO HIS QUEERNESS) And this song also ties back to what I talked about with the wheeler family’s representation of capitalism and individualism (and god this HAS to tie into the russia arc and communism stuff somehow), because love and pride and collectivism and fighting for a people are something that goes against capitalism, but it costs people their lives. Mike going against that individualism is going to cost him his life, Mike being vulnerable and sacrificing himself and likely getting outed by henry is going to kill him, but it’s going to save other people. Especially maybe if Mike gets outed to stop Will from getting outed, dies so that will’s feelings for mike aren’t revealed. Love and pride are what’s going to kill mike. His love and his queerness will kill him. But it’s also going to save him. It’s going to bring him back, too. AND LOOK AT ‘MAD WORLD’ ON HIS PLAYLIST TOO: “the dreams in which i’m dying are the best i’ve ever had.” It’s a song about feeling out of place in society/going against society but also out of place in one’s interpersonal relationships and how both of those result in death, JUST like how ‘war’ by frankie goes to hollywood is about how people who rebelled against society and died as a result of it. And while the people mentioned in ‘war’ didn’t die at their own hand and sacrificed themselves but still died at another’s hand, ‘mad world,’ is more suicide at one’s own hand, which ties to how Mike sacrificing himself in s5 is going to be tied directly to his suicidality and work as a metaphor for him having killed himself in a non-supernatural/self sacrificing way, as a metaphor for what i’ve talked about before with how mike is invisible gay men who die by suicide vs how will is hypervisible gay men who die by hate crimes. But also look at this excerpt about the song: “This song is about a depressed young person who feels out of place in this world. He sees life as being empty, and looks for ways to escape the pain. The line, "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" suggests thoughts of suicide, and according to Roland Orzabal, who wrote the lyrics, it relates to the psychologist Arthur Janov's idea that our most dramatic dreams release the most tension. So, the guy in the song isn't necessarily looking to die - he wakes up from morbid, lucid dreams feeling better.“

Mike doesn’t want to die persay: he just wants to stop hurting people, he wants to die in the sense that he sees death and self-sacrifice/suicide as the only way for him to stop hurting people AND for him to make up for the hurt he’s caused AND as the only way for him to save/protect people. Mike doesn’t just randomly want to die, just like how the singer of ‘mad world’ doesn’t want to just randomly die- but rather, sees death as a possible solution to the isolation and pain. Mike is going to experience those morbid ‘dreams,’ he’s going to die, but he’s going to come BACK. Plus vecna and all of the dream imagery with him?? the freddy krueger parallels?? the ‘dream a little dream of me’ and ‘california dreaming’ imagery and paralells and how both songs tie to henry and will? ‘the dreams in which im dying are the best ive ever had’? This imagery almost seems to indicate that mike won’t actually die but rather just dream of it, but i disagree: i think the dream imagery ties his death to vecna, that it’s tied to a dream in the sense that henry kills people in their dreams.

“I find it hard to tell you ‘cause I find it hard to take.” Mike has trouble opening up to people because he’s struggling with his guilt and struggling with finding himself/his guilt/queerness ‘hard to take,’ so if he can’t even accept it, in his mind, how can he expect others to accept it? What he doesn’t realize is that other people accepting it is what’s going to help HIM accept himself, like how i talked about in this post with how mike makes will not feel like a mistake but the vice versa is also true and how mike’s ability to accept his own sexuality is intrinsically tied to Will. Mike is fucked. Mike is SO FUCKED. But he’s going to be saved. He’s going to die and come back. Love is going to save him, the very thing that killed him. Just like how mike thinks his actions/his love for people and helping them actually hurt them when in reality it SAVED them.  And henry’s whole “tricked you? I saved you.” thing. It’s the opposite for mike, it would be ‘saved you? i ‘tricked’ (hurt) you.” 

[pholiabanna]

what's on your s5 wishlist? the silly, goofy things!!!

I'M SO SORRY FOR ANSWERING THIS SO LATE finals were killing me and I wanted to wait and write a good answer to this.

First of all I'm really excited for the 4 og boys to be together again, because we haven't had one full season of them being in the same storyline yet, which I think is criminal. I really think putting them back together will bring back the season 1 feel that made everyone love this show, and I can't wait!

I'm also so excited about learning more about the upside down. The ships and characters are awesome to analyze, but I love the supernatural part and knowing that we're gonna learn what the Upside Down actually is, and why it's stuck on the day Will went missing, among other things, makes me impatient because I need to know rn.

Now I know those weren't really goofy things but I needed to put them because they are a must for me. Moving on to the silly things:

If the season takes place in 1987, the Duffers have the chance to do the funniest thing ever and include a rickroll in a creative way. C'mon, it has to happen

A lot of people are advocating for byler to get murray'd, Erica's or Jonathan'd, but I actually want them to get Argyle'd. I imagine a scene going like: Mike and Will talk about El and Mike's breakup and the camera switches to Argyle smoking a joint in the background, while he says "Whoa Wheeler you were dating supergirl? And I was here thinking you were with mini Byers this whole time, dude, that's not cool man, that's so not cool!"

I need more Erica and Lucas sibling bickering moments, they're the best

I know this won't happen, but imagine Mike's sexuality is revealed through a conversation about movies where he reveals he finds Fast Times boring af and he "doesn't understand the appeal every man sees in that movie". I mean, at this point Fast Times has become the Duffer's favorite sexuality metaphor

I know Max probably won't wake up early on, but I'd kill to get more Elmax scenes where they just bond like normal teenage girls again. Max already taught El how to stand up for herself and how to know what she actually likes, but I think it'd be so cool to see her find out what her hobbies are. I'd love to see a scene where Max just teaches El how to skate, and El keeps trying to cheat with her powers but Max tells her that's not fair.

I need Lucas and Max to go on that movie date as well, I don't care if it's impractical

Also even though I don't really care about Dustin/Suzie because they aren't a very focused on relationship, I think it'd be cute if there was a scene where they reunite in person

More Joyce, Jonathan and Will scenes together please!!!

They need to go around town riding bikes again, bring back the whole s1 vibe

Please let us see Mr. Clarke's pov, mans probably so confused every time he helped his students the town was destroyed. Also, they can't win without him and that's a fact

Troy has to show up again, only so that they beat him up and this time El breaks his leg

Alternatively, Lonnie comes back and Jonathan beats him up (with the help of Will maybe)

Nancy notices Jonathan's tendency to interrupt byler moments and puts a leash on him

I need a new iconic song tied to another iconic scene I can obsess over. Something that can top even the Running up that hill scene

Someone needs to acknowledge the fact that they are straight up calling 001 Vecna as in one of the Dnd characters, when actually he's just some guy named Henry who would probably be so confused as to why they're calling him Vecna

These are all I could come up with but I'm sure deep in my mind there's many more things I wish for and if the Duffers deliver even one of them I'll be satisfied!

[thestobingirlie]

Hello!! Just wanted to say thank you for your absolutely refreshing takes. It makes me feel like I'm not the only one which is so nice. I love checking your blog and reading through your responses, they're always so insightful!! Especially about Steve, Robin and Nancy

One thing ive been thinking about lately  that ive been wondering if you have thoughts on (but no pressure if you dont!) - is Nancy's plan to take down Vecna in s4. She saw the vision , she's ambitious and determined to take Vecna down, but she's also unempathetic, doesn't think about consequences and always needs to be right. She bulldozes over everyone and a part of me wonders how differently it could have gone if they didn't follow her plan. Or adjusted it. I mean, Steve has severe road rash up his whole back and arms, has been bitten, strangled, and is breathing in the toxic Upside Down air - and she still wants to go back into the Upside down relying on him. She dismisses his concerns about the bats and then the bats kill Eddie. A lot of this is probably just the Duffers writing decisions but get this boy some medical attention please oh my god take his injuries seriously. Nancy gets herself another gun even though they don't work on Upside Down creatures.

Sorry this isn't more coherent! Nancy is just so complicated and fucked up and interesting to think about!

thank you so much! i love compliments <3

thanks for calling my responses insightful! i try not to get too lost in what i want for characters and my interpretations and stick to what canon presents us with. obviously my opinions will always seep through, but i’m glad you like them!

i think the thing with nancy’s plan is that the duffers don’t want to make nancy look like an idiot, but her plan was designed to fail.

so everything that goes wrong is kind of outside of her control. there’s an earthquake, and they get caught by vines. eddie chooses to run back into the horde of bats. jason shows up and breaks max’s walkman.

the duffers didn’t want the audience to look at the plan and blame nancy for how it went wrong, because she’s their girlboss.

the thing is, when you look deeper into the plan, it’s just kinda stupid. she has someone majorly injured on the main vecna hunting team (and god someone please help this boy, he’s bled through his bandages nearly the second they’re on), she’s using a gun against an upside down creature when she’s never seen that work (steve has an axe that he just doesn’t use against vecna?), eddie and dustin aren’t given any kind of firepower to defend themselves, and everyone completely forgot that jason was after them.

i think if we’re going within the realm of canon, no plan they came up with was ever going to work because the vecna defeat has to wait for s5.

but within fanon, i do think if they’d waited a little more, if nancy had been a little more willing to listen to the others, planned a little better, this much shit wouldn’t have gone wrong. nancy finds it difficult to consider other people, she can’t always see the big picture when she’s focused on saving people, she’s not super emotionally in tune with others, and as a result the boy that’s seen two people get horrifically killed in the last few days gets put on the suicide mission.

though we also have to remember nancy is traumatised by what vecna showed her, so i don’t know if she ever would’ve been able to think clearly. she’s feeling guilty, and desperate, and so she reasons out max putting herself in danger as for the greater good.

sorry this didn’t end up being more about nancy! nancy is very fun to dive into, and her role in the plan is super interesting, especially because i don’t think she’s a particularly good leader figure, but i think the plan sucked because the duffers needed it to suck. and if the duffers wanted vecna defeated in s4, her plan would’ve worked, and nancy wouldn’t have girlbossed her way too close to the sun.

[samaraevanswriter]

We never actually saw Will with the demogorgon...

He thinks that's what kidnapped him into the upside down, and it might well have been, although I'm a 'Vecna took Will' truther.

Obviously it seems to capture Will at the end of 1x07 by breaking into Castle byers, but again, we see never actually see the demogorgon when it does this. And if it was hunting him and found him, then why wasn't he eaten? Instead he was taken back to its feeding ground but not harmed, instead he had a vine down his throat as if he was trying to be either a carrier for more demogorgons, or Vecna was trying to convert him to the upside down the same way the vines seem to sustain him in S4.

In S2, Will himself doesn't view any of the demodogs, only through the hive-mind perception (like in the tunnel scenes we don't see any demo-dogs) and then he's sedated before any of them attack within his eyeline. They're all dead by the time he's himself again. Whatever happened to the one Dustin and Steve stuffed in his fridge, idk, its anyones guess.

In S3, he sees the flesh monster and the possessed people, but not any upside down creatures themselves.

In S4, he's in Cali and doesn't see any upside down creatures there either. Also in S4 the russian guard says the shadow went into the demogorgons and demodogs... So the first assumption is this means it would've been controlling them the same way it did Will at the end of S2. However we didn't see the demogorgons or demodogs acting any differently than they have in previous season's. Still hunting people. The only time we see them actually possessed for any reason Vecna would want, is that Vecna sees Hopper being attacked by the demodog and shows it to Max. Other than that, it only brings about his pain by Murray barbecuing them and it hurting Vecna. So if we're saying the mindflayer isn't entirely controlled by Vecna, then it could've just gone into the creatures so they act as a protective host in a strange new world.

If its possible for the mindflayer to enter the creatures, as well as people like it did with Will and everyone in S3, then could that have been what happened in S2 with the demodogs too? Why they attacked El and Hopper on the lift at the end of S2?

Sure, it could've just been them hunting for food, but it seemed like they were trying to stop them from closing the gate and therefore killing everything alive on our side. If the demodogs are the same as demogorgons and primarily just actual on primal urges and only really kill for the thrill of the hunt and food, then it wouldn't really explain why they were doing the mindflayers bidding in S2. If "the shadow went into them" when they were still in the upside down, and they were under its influence as well, then it makes sense. It would also explain why Dart (who grew in our world and wouldn't have had the chance to have "the shadow go into him") was just hanging out on his own, not following the others in the tunnel to stop El and Hop, and focuses on the food Dustin offers him like an actual animal not under someone's mind control would do.

So in ST5 if the upside creatures are coming into our world, our characters will presumably see some of them from up on the hill. Meaning we'll get to see Will actually view one with his own eyes.

And I don't think he's NEVER seen one before. I do think the creature he was hiding from that week in the upside down WAS the demogorgon, so its likely he's seen it up close. But does he know the difference between Vecna's appearance and the demogorgons appearance? When he does see the creatures in S5 and others refer to them as demogorgons, will he be surprised? If we see Vecna again in the pre-S5 time jump, will Will recognise him??

Who knows. I do love that idea though!

[will80sbyers]

thinking about s5 and Max maybe she wakes up on her own but without memories maybe and El and Lucas go to Vecna to find her memories and not her whole mind Idk I also wonder how is Vickie going to be connected with everything and also like what is it about water being kinda important and focused on this season and how is Dustin's trauma going to affect him like what will it make Dustin do, why was it important to make him experience Eddie's death was it only to torment him with Vecna's visions or there is more... is El going to be feeling ready to fight or is she going to feel insecure about her abilities now that she lost Max, is Lucas going to want to go inside Vecna's mind with El if El tires to or what is he going to do... and the adults are staying to fight random monsters in Hawkins and act like generals for an army of the people of Hawkins? but like we can't have the big battle at the start I think? or can we? the portals are said to keep spreading so the gates are going to swallow Hawkins if they don't find a way to close them all and they have to close the gates before the time jump or everybody is going to have to move to other random places but it's not what the Duffers said because they said we are going back to the vibe of s1 so like they should be in Hawkins imo

is Max being saved and waking up going to give El the power to close the 4 gates because she's using love and that makes her superultra powerful

is the big monster attacking immediately or is it something for the final battle in the last episode

and if the real battle with the real monsters happens at the start of s5 does this mean that after 2 years if they do the time skip all the torture and the battle they are going to fight will be mainly in the upside down itself against the mindflayer plus in their minds because it will be mostly or entirely mental

but if El closes up everything then why do they decide to go back to the upside down to finally kill Vecna if he's not dead

what could be a reason? just to finish him? maybe someone gets kidnapped again? or is Will going to start having dreams about Vecna being alive after two years and they get lured to the upside down because Will decides to go there on his own secretly and the party goes after him? in that case maybe Vecna lures Will back to the UD using Jon if he died in the previous battle... maybe Vecna wants him to go because Will has powers even if he doesn't know?

[henrysglock]

Will getting angry at Henry and yelling back at him? oh yes absolutely.

but i don't think that's how their first meeting in s5 is going to go. if we've learned Anything from Will's reaction to fear after s1 is that he tends to... freeze. first with the MF in s2. also with the human flesh MF in s3. but then this extends to non UD related things in s4 and you have these weird shots of something generally bad happening and Will getting his own reaction shot where he just stands and... looks. when he walks out on Angela bullying El at school and then later again at the roller rink during wipe out. he gets these long shots where he just looks pained but doesn't DO anything. doesn't even try to move. and i've seen people hold this against him, saying he doesn't care or that he's useless. when that's actually something built so consistently and focused on (s2 Will even Verbally explains how he feels frozen).

it's his primary trauma response. Will freezes.

at first only when presented with UD creatures like the MF or Dart, where he takes an extra hour to come to Mike one on one to tell him that he knew what Dart was. he knew the moment he saw it but couldn't bring himself to say or do anything in the AV room. but then by s4 we get more and more of these moments where we Know Will is thinking something but he still never acts. he watches El get bullied three times, looks pained, doesn't act, and then desperately tries to help her pic up the pieces (literally with her Diorama) afterwards. even moments like the pizza kitchen have him just watching, not going in to try and talk to El himself, instead pushing Mike to talk, when Will could have Also tried to reassure El as her loving brother who's been by her side in California for months. but he can't do that. Will's entire thing in s4 is talking (mostly to Mike) and reacting to the bad stuff happening.

but now going into s5 we haven't seen Will in the center of UD related action in over a year. he's had a break from that in California. however, despite that, the same trauma reactions that were established for him as far back as s2 are still present as ever and are even visible in moments that Don't include UD monsters now, so that part of the trauma is clearly something that hasn't gotten better since he explained it first in s2 - literally part of his PTSD as Owens identifies it.

so yeah. i absolutely think Will is going to Yell at Henry, get angry at him, go in on him. tell him to go fuck himself. or maybe even try to kick him a bit if we're lucky. but i don't think that will be their first interaction. i think we will build to this. i think that Will Himself has to build to this.

because if we take anything from the way we've been shown Will's trauma to manifest, seeing the man that did Everything to him and is at fault for all the horrors he went through. literally taking his childhood and innocence from him. he's not going to get angry right away. he'll do what he did when he felt helpless seeing El get bullied. or felt helpless seeing the eldritch unknown monster of the UD visit him. he'll freeze... and seeing Will go rigid and frozen as Vecna greets him back after all these years is definitely going to make me want to die SO much more than if Will got his final girl moment of yelling at he man that hurt him right away at the start of the season...

you’re absolutely right! his response used to be flight, but after the UD it became freeze (as opposed to fight or fawn).

Will’s definitely going to have his freeze moment and it’s going to be hard to watch.

I agree that he’s going to overcome it and have his moment of righteous anger /pos at Henry on his own behalf and on the behalf of his loved ones. It’s coming, we saw a glimpse of it in the “we have to kill him” scene. He’s terrified, but he’s also angry.

It’s coming.

[kurokoros]

If they don't put the stage play on Netflix, what's the point, because I'm from a non English speaking country. How am I supposed to know stuff when that play won't be in our theaters? It takes also so much time to translate it in order to be played. It's stupid, honestly why not give us the information in the actual show? Or make a separate mini series. They just should have given us more episodes within the show, even if they are just "filler" ones. God I hate this so much because I just know as an international fan I keep losing yet again, which makes me upset. Every time someone claims the Duffers are geniuses I have to laugh because did we watch the same show? Stranger things had so much potential, it hurts me physically what they have done, especially to the characters, worldbuilding aside but the way they assassinated 70% of the main characters for action plots is insane to me. Def hard to be a Steve stan when we get nothing each season.

I'm not a huge fan of any secondary media for works of fiction that have direct tie-ins to the primary media. Like, a huge part of why I refuse to get into the MCU is because it's basically impossible to enjoy later films without having watched everything else.

With Stranger Things I think it would be fine to do tie-in media that's part of a shared universe, but has absolutely nothing to do with the Hawkins characters. Because why the hell do we need a prequel about Hopper and Joyce? In stage play format? When nothing sci-fi has happened in Hawkins yet?

S4 was an absolutely shitty attempt at trying to tie everything into a nice big bow with Vecna/Henry/One and I absolutely hated it. Like, wow Duffers you introduced three new characters with mystery backgrounds??? Obviously they're all the same fucking person. And now we need a prequel about Hopper, Joyce, and Henry Creel? I'm already mad about the Creel murder retcon because a huge part of S1 was how Hawkins is a small town where nothing bad happens, and then the town is suddenly bombarded with missing person's cases (and a suicide that doesn't make sense), and the Duffers directly took away from that premise when they threw in a mysterious family murder that no one mentioned for three seasons.

I'm not even going to talk about the stage play anymore. I'm not going to watch it purely on principle because I can't think of a worse waste of time than a tie-in stage play. Like... we know what happened with the last stage play tie-in to a major franchise.

I'm just pissed about how far Stranger Things has fallen from S1 and S2. The early seasons actually focused on the characters and their trauma. Now everyone is a caricature with a vague semblance of personality, the worldbuilding is inconsistent, and the plotlines are horrible. I know some people think Stranger Things is slow-paced and somewhat boring, but I really do wish there was more filler to fully flesh out the characters. They could even add more action to the filler. Win-win.

I haven't trusted the Duffers' writing since S3 when they did that to Hopper. I also don't like the way they made Steve into kind of a loser. blah blah blah people will argue that it makes him endearing because the internet loves pathetic wet men, but there's a clear shift between S1-2 Steve and S3 Steve specifically, and the shift is that they made him stupid and took his charisma out back and shot it because they're insecure nerds who hate jocks.

The Duffer Brothers don't have teeth. Regardless of what they say, they aren't willing to make bold choices with their storytelling. They aren't willing to flesh out their characters more, or delve into their trauma. They aren't willing to make the world--the Upside Down--a real threat to the characters, because that means raising the stakes and needing to come up with more clever solutions to the plot than "El screams at the monster until it dies".

Regardless, I'm not watching the stage play. I'm only watching S5 because I still want to see how the story wraps up, but I'm not going to hold my breath about it being good.

[maddy-ferguson]

yeah that kinda bothers me, like, mike is fine as a character, what's the point of turning him into will 2.0 and taking away will's own storylines?

and i get that people want mike to have personal storylines like will does, but it is kinda weird when they just give other characters' storylines to mike instead. it's not even only about giving will's storylines or characterization to mike, they also do the same with giving max and even dustin's storylines to mike as well.

like sorry but i do not believe mike was supposed to be in max's place or that vecna wanted to attack him or something, when he already attacked chrissy when mike was still in hawkins and cursed max when mike was still in hawkins.. like... i am not saying mike is not smart or not important, but it is kinda disingenuous to give max's storylines to mike or thinking mike is going to have an arc similar to max 's the next season.

it's the same when fans try to give dustin's storyline with Eddie to mike instead when it is clear as day that eddie was specifically created to fuel dustin's own personal storyline in s4 and for s5. that's not to say mike and lucas did not have relationship with Eddie but to say that mike is going to have a huge arc related to eddie in s5 when it is clear that there is no build up or a narrative suggesting that...? and when it is clear that it will be solely dustin who will have an arc about eddie...?

and at the end of the day, that's why i dont vibe with theories regarding mike here.

we're totally on the same wavelength i think i just fell in love with you. and it's like this: do i think mike's mental state is the best? no. because even though he hasn't faced abuse like other characters have his parents are still not the greatest, because he's queer in the 80s and has been raised by reagan supporters and because he's gone through awful things regarding the upside down and all that. do i think he would've made a great victim to a villain that feeds on guilt and whose main thing is relieving people of their suffering? sure, it could've been fun. i see the max parallels. acting like they're going through the exact same thing and feel the exact same way is ridiculous and kind of disrespectful to max's arc. i don't mean to gatekeep being suicidal but you know. they've had very different lives and mike's issues, whatever they may be, are due to very different things. idk

and the eddie and dustin thing yeahh so true and it's not even like eddie is irrelevant to mike's arc as is either! even though they're only together for like 40 seconds in one episode the hellfire club is obviously this big thing for mike too and i mean...they had mike grow out his hair because he's mimicking eddie. it's not like i expect mike to be thrilled that eddie's dead or anything but dustin is finally getting out of goofy comic relief territory after FOUR seasons like this is his thing let's leave it to him lol.

i think it's mostly due to the fact that most people on byler tumblr are focused on Mike (and will but everyone focusing on mike is the point you and i are making) and what He's going through and trying to figure out what exactly is up with Him. that's why even will will get left behind sometimes (haha), because we mostly feel like we know what's up with him, and that's why people think of everything and everyone in relation to mike and kind of lose sight of what is actually happening and what is actually being set up. it's like that time someone said they're looking forward to seeing an el and lucas friendship more than they are looking forward to seeing an el and mike friendship and like...yeah, because that's the one they're actually telling you you're gonna get?