#st mindflayer

[henrysglock]

The Lord Is One, The Great I Am

Recently, I re-read I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. Something jumped out at me regarding the use of Latin.

AM calls himself AM based on the Latin phrase cogito ergo sum: I think, therefore I am.

This immediately had me looking at the sole use of Latin in ST:

The Flayed -> E Pluribus Unum: From many, One.

The Russians call it the Shadow. The Party calls it the Mindflayer...but what does it call itself?

In NINA, Henry tells El that she reminds him of someone he used to know very well: One. El, however, is far more closely paralleled to Patty than she is to Henry/001. With my talks about Patty as a manifestation of Henry’s Mindflayer attaché, I’m left with the question: Is Patty One?

Which is to say: Does the Mindflayer, with its near-infinite God/Holy Spirit connections, call itself One the same way God is referred to as One…

and the same way AM calls himself AM?

To note here: God is also referred to as I Am/The Great I Am

Which…Hello, comparisons between AM and the Mindflayer as supercomputers with a bone to pick about humanity.

This makes me squint at Brenner's persistent separation of Henry and 001/One, and perhaps take the separation a step further, which is to say:

Is Subject 001 the same as One?

“When One kills, he consumes.” Is Brenner talking about Subject 001…or One, the Shadow, the Mindflayer, who, per the VR game, is the consumer of worlds unbound by time?

We all know Henry ≠ One/001…but does 001 = One?

[silvercat-s]

So, I finished watching the playthrough,

First things first, Henry/Vecna was way too one dimensional evil villain for my tastes, with just a few humanizing moments here and there, and lots and lots of evil laughing. but they made this game mainly based off of S4 scripts, so it makes sense.

I do believe it would've been better if the game was released long before the play tho

But there were some things I really enjoyed and I hope turn out to be canon

. Will's jealousy toward El in s2/S3, its perfectly normal to be jealous of the boy you like, it just gives him dept, and I hope it's explored in S5 cause I love angst ❤️

. Vecna and the shadow's relationship, here the shadow is a sentient being, whose goal is to devour and spread, and it finds Henry fascinating, it whishes to merge with him and "envolve into a new being", Henry doesn't want that, and eventually subdues the shadow instead...or does he?

"We are a parasite meant to find new hosts, new worlds on which to feast and you will be our vessel, if I can continue this study on all humanity, I will allow you to think you are in control, cause you are the most magnificent thing I have ever encountered"(isn't It a romantic?)

The vessel thing ties nicely with "Eddie is just a vessel for the devil, he made a deal and now he's got his powers" and with TFS, where Henry is nothing more than a vessel for the shadow, with no malice of his own.

So I do think the dynamic between them is still pretty ambiguous, is it even possible to overpower an ancient eldritch being that controls so many minds?

Obviously there will be lots of plot twists in S5, and they wouldn't spoil them on a non canon game, but if the shadow does turn out to be simply an sentient eldritch being, I do hope it will be something like this

Also, crazy how byler and elmax were the big ships of this game huh, mileven who?? (srsly, there wasn't a single moment between them, zero, nada)

[star-41306]

So do yall think Will was consistently spitting up those baby demogorgons? But then how did they age up all at the same time?? My thoughts:

The Mindflayer/Vecna kept them from maturing until they could serve their purpose. I wish I could add more to this, but that's the extent of my thoughts until I gather more information

[hawkinsunderground]

okay so theoretically the pregnancy smoking poster could refer to Joyce, who smokes a lot, right? I think she's one of the most prominent smokers in the show

SO, could it possibly be alluding to something she did during pregnancy affecting Will in relation to his connection to Vecna? or is that just the biggest reach ever lol

[strxnger-things]

Love seeing other people come back to memorygate as an explanation for birthdaygate 😏

[aemiron-main]

still forever insane over the parallels between the ST “demogorgon” vs DND Mindflayers

[starmanbyler]

GUYS I MADE A MINDFLAYER PUMPKIN

[sparks-olivarpente]

Does the hivemind have a brain (before Vecna)?

I just watched s4 last episode again and right now, I don't believe the Mind Flayer ever existed at all, as a separate entity. Something about how they filmed One discovering the shadow and shaping it… There probably already was a hive mind in the original UD, and the black cloud of particule is the materialisation of that hivemind, but was there a leader controling everything? Or no brain, just demo-beings linked together? Which would mean One just took over the hivemind and uses it for his own benefit. Rewatching everything, one recurrent theme I noticed is control: characters wanting to take control, it's a big thing in ST, so this would make sense

Good bye Mindflayer, I liked you :'-(

waiting for Stranger things 5 is like being in a constant schrodinger's-cat state of mind: i keep changing my mind about stuff (will has powers, will doesn't have powers, will has powers…) and I believe in theories that contradict each others... so I'll probably change my mind about this too

[cypherheartnokey]

Infected Subjects:

Will vs. Eleven

Agent of infection:

Will -> Mindflayer

El -> Fleshflayer / Meatflayer

Place of Infection:

Will -> Open field (outside Hawkins middle school)

El -> Hopper’s cabin

Place of removal:

Will -> Hopper’s cabin

El -> StarCOURT (court ~ field)

Failed agent of removal:

Will -> Jonathan (was too afraid to hurt Will) & Joyce (turning up the heat was not enough)

El -> Jonathan (the piece of flayer escaped his knife)

Successful agent of removal:

Will -> Nancy (hot iron on Will’s flank) + Mike? (Mike concocted the plan to set the tunnels on fire simultaneously)

El -> herself (with her powers, after Jonathan’s failed attempt)

Failed means of removal:

Will -> heated environment while being tied up

El -> improvised surgery with a knife (“I had to get it with tweezers, remember?” — Jonathan to Will, s4)

Successful Means of removal:

Will -> burned with a hot iron on his flank + burning of the hub in the tunnels

El -> her own telekinetic powers

Consequences after removal:

Will -> residual tingling on the back of his neck when feeling the Mindflayer / Fleshflayer, otherwise Will was okay -> this means the removal RESOLVED the issue

El -> complete loss of her powers -> this means the removal CAUSED the issue

Guardian saying “you just need to remember to get back to normal”:

Will -> Joyce, after infection & before removal (Will was traumatized, felt sleepy & unlike himself)

El -> Brenner, after both infection & removal (El was without her powers)

woah woah woah

[henrysglock]

It's All About Computers? Always Has Been.

^ November 1st, 1984

^March 11th, 1986

^ Sometime from 1986-1988

^ September 24th, 1990

[silvercat-s]

"Obsession is how you love, but you love them only after you killed them, and they could never send you away" (virginia and alice)

Honestly, the gameplay looks kinda boring, but getting those lines is probably worth buying the game for

The fact the shadow takes Brenner's form and just talks to Henry/Vecna, guiding and corrupting him the entire time is crazy

"remember how this child rejected you, weakened you" and then saying Eleven being back made him emotional, and his control over the hive mind is slipping because of it 😭

[creelticalobserver]

Well the parallels are quite obvious 👀

[miharuhebinata]

the mindflayer is always gonna be the best st villain to me idc

[aemiron-main]

Leave No Trace: Henry Creel’s Questionable Hiking Etiquette (Did Henry Bring The Shadow Particles To Dimension X? Does Soteria Inhibit The Replication of Shadow Particles?)

‼️TFS SPOILERS BELOW! However, I still only have minimal spoilers as I haven’t seen the show yet & so please be mindful of that in the tags/reblogs on the post!! <3‼️

So, in TFS it’s revealed that Henry’s had the shadow/been infected with the shadow since pre-Hawkins.

And there’s been a long-running question of “how did the shadow particles/mindflayer get into the yellow UD/Dimension X?”

And now, I’m wondering if Henry brought the shadow particles into Dimension X. Let’s get into it.

So, we all know that Will was also infected with shadow particles in S2:

And we also know that Henward’s got all of those weird things during the 1979 massacre that point to him still having the shadow, such as the weird bright blue bloodshot eyes that resemble Flayed Billy’s eyes and the “eldritch thrumming,” that he has:

And so, how did they remove the shadow particles from Will in S2? Heat, the shadow was exorcised from Will by applying heat to his body/raising his body temperature:

And who else had their body temperature raised in a very significant way, far beyond the temperature that Will’s body was raised to?

Well-

Henward did, when El sent him to the scorching Dimension X & he was struck by lighting:

And the amount of heat he was clearly exposed to is evidenced by his burns.

And so, if Henward did have the shadow particles inside of his body when El sent him to Dimension X (which, he very much seems to have had them based on the eldritch thrumming/TFS etc), then wouldn’t it stand to reason that his exposure to the heat/lighting, which was hot enough to sear his flesh off, would have exorcised him of said particles?

And we saw the way that the particles flew out when Will was exorcised:

So, I wonder if the shadow particles that Henward “found,” actually came from within his own body and were exorcised as he was flying through Dimension X.

Now, you might be thinking “but Em, that’s a LOT of shadow particles,” and you’d be right.

However, there’s some key things to consider here that I think demonstrate why it’s 100% feasible for Henward to have had that many particles inside of his body.

So, in S2, Owens compares the shadow particles to a virus- and even more specifically, he compares them to a virus in the context of replication & spreading & multiplying:

And look at the amount of particles that Will had- he has quite a lot, and those were enough shadow particles to cause the events of Season 3, and Will only had the shadow in him for a few days- Henward had the shadow in him for 20 years.

Like if THIS is the amount of particles from a few DAYS???? Imagine *henward monologue voice* “DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS, DECADES-“ of shadow particles replicating constantly. Imagine all of the particles in those S2 screenshots, which are a week’s worth at ABSOLUTE MOST if we’re being GENEROUS, because i don’t think it was a week between Will being flayed and his exorcism, I think it was less, and then multiply however many particles are in those photos by 1043 (the number of weeks in 20 years)- point is, you’ll end up with a TON of particles.

And also, I know James @henrysglock has mentioned the idea of Soteria suppressing the shadow in Henward, but I’m also specifically wondering if Soteria inhibited the replication of the particles, meaning that Henward would’ve stopped making new particles whenever he was Soteria’d, which could explain why he a.) has so many particles but isnt completely gone/still has brain function and b.) why so much changed after Soteria was removed/the amount of particles he dispelled, as the particles would’ve resumed replication after Soteria was removed.

Plus, there’s the chance that the shadow particles were able to replicate even after leaving Henward’s body- hence adding even more of an explanation for the large cloud. This is less likely than Henward simply having had a ton of shadow particles in him, as the particles seem to need a host to replicate, but still.

So, I actually think the amount of shadow particles that we see in Dimension X is as reasonable amount to have been expelled from Henward considering that the shadow was likely replicating inside of him for decades (and then if I’m right about Soteria inhibiting shadow particle replication, it would’ve stopped for awhile after he was Soteria’d, and then resumed replication after El removed Soteria, which could also explain his increasingly erratic behaviour during the massacre & how it’s not just an ‘on off weird behaviour vs not weird behaviour/shadow off vs shadow on’ switch after the Soteria removal, but instead, is a slow slide into increasingly erratic behaviour, which would make sense if the shadow was replicating inside of him.

I also wonder if the shadow is tied to Henward’s ability to “consume” his victims/absorb their skills and memories etc, but that’s a topic for another time.

So, did Henward being blasted into Dimension X & being burned alive exorcise the shadow from him and the that’s how the shadow is present in the previously “untouched” Dimension X? Especially since the shadow likely can’t be native to Dimension X, as the shadow is around pre-1959 according to my current knowledge of TFS & as far as we know, Dimension X had never been opened/explored prior to 1979.

And also, it does almost seem like Henward doesn’t recognize the shadow/he talks about “finding it”:

Which, on the surface, that may seem like a point against my theory, as why wouldn’t he recognize it if it came from him/why would he say he found it? And I think that this can be explained by the idea that Henward’s memories may have been affected by the shadow (just like S2 Will’s memories were), and so he doesn’t remember getting flayed/being infected with the shadow.

And this could explain why he was able to control the shadow, which I theorized forever ago about Henward being able to shape/control the shadow due to him having particles inside himself + them almost working like magnets/wanting to be together, but even that aside, point is, Henward’s connection to the shadow via having been flayed & the particles being out of him may explain why he could control it- much like how Will could still sense the particles in S3 even after being exorcised

Long story short: Henward needs better hiking etiquette. You’re supposed to leave no trace/bring out everything you bring in when it comes to natural areas. Dimension X was unspoiled by mankind until SOMEBODY decided to ignore hiking etiquette 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 I suppose he didn’t actually plan on going on an interdimensional hike, though- El sort of forced him into a wilderness retreat situation.

[bylertruth3r]

some similarities i've found between Byler and other st canon couples:

1) in s1 Mike found evidence Will was alive and people kept telling him he was dead and El helped him find Will, in s4 Joyce found evidence Hopper was alive and Murray told her he was dead and helped her find him, they got called a couple but they're platonic, Byler and Jopper are a team, Mike noticing Will is quiet, Hopper noticing Joyce is quiet, "this intimate moment was shattered by" "shattering the moment"

2) Mike wrapped his arm around Will in s2, Lucas did the same with Max in s3, Lucas put his hand on Max' shoulder, Mike put his hand on Will's shoulder in s4

3) Mike stayed overnight with Will at the lab in s2, Lucas stayed overnight with Max at the hospital in s4

4) Jonathan lied about Steve asking him to bring Nancy home to help stancy, Will lied in the van scene to help mlvns, Nancy and Mike both sat on cars with Jonathan/ Will while talking about their relationship with Steve/ El they have a "crazy" scene, they both have a scene where their hands get shown

5) Will yelled "Mike", Max yelled "Lucas" "Dustin" (they were in a love triangle in s2), Joyce yelled "Hopper"

6) the Rovickie and Byler parallel in the same episode, Vickie yapping about her ex bf and then saying "sorry", Mike yapping about El and then saying "sorry", Byler and Rovickie both saying "cool", they both got "emotional, tender music playing", "our boys" "our girls" in the script

7) almost all of the canon couples have been in love triangles (Jopper, Jancy, Lumax, Rovickie)

8) "do you remember the first day that we met?" "remember when we met" Will got possessed by the Mindflayer and Mike helped him, Henry got possessed by the Mindflayer and Patty helped him with the power of love, Byler wears blue and yellow, Creelby wears blue and yellow (Lucas' parents too)

9) Byler, Lumax, Jopper, Jancy and Rovickie were all next to each other/ in the same hospital room in the last s4 scene

10) Byler, Jancy and Jopper all said they were friends (Jopper and Jancy are together now)

11) Lumax and Byler s3 double date

12) Byler, Jopper and Lumax have s4 posters together

mlvn and stancy similarities:

) Nancy didn't want to play dnd with the party anymore after she started dating Steve, Mike didn't "want" to play dnd anymore cuz he was dating El

) Nancy couldn't love Steve cuz she's in love with Jonathan, Mike can't love El cuz he's in love with Will

) Nancy wasn't acting like herself when she was with Steve, Mike wasn't acting like himself while dating El

) mlvn argument and stancy break up in the same episode

) both of them acting like there were no problems between them

) "you don't love me?" *Nancy making up excuses*, "you don't love me anymore?" *Mike blaming other people instead of reassuring her

) Nancy and Mike both said "ily" without meaning it

) mlvn and stancy were the only couples who said "ily" to each other, the other couples never felt unloved by the other, they show their love through actions unlike stancy and mlvn

) they both have nothing in common and only spend their time kissing each other

) they're/were dating the other to conform to society, Max died after Mike's monologue, Barb died while Nancy was with Steve

) both mlvn and stancy got called bullshit

[strxnger-things]

Also adding that The Neverending Story was on the inspiration board for Season 4.

Read the below about “The Nothing” (the ‘villain’, in a sense), and think about how it might relate to Will, and specifically everything revealed to the Mindflayer in the shed scene in Season 2...

I don't know... is there something weird going on with the specific memories that were mentioned to the mindflayer/Vecna during Will's possession... ?

Like... Vecna's done something to those memories, those dates... like he's stolen them, or hidden them from the minds of Will and the others who were present at the time. Because they had power over him last time.

March 22nd. Will's birthday. It's just... gone.

Drawing the rainbow spaceship? Building Castle Byers? Maybe they're gone too.

And what about "Do you remember the first day we met?"

Mike saying "I feel like my life started the day we found you in the woods" to El because the memory of meeting Will on the swingset, asking him to be his friend... it's gone.