#twelvegate

[chirpsythismorning]

Fun fact: In the original pitch for Stranger Things, El had a little brother.

After being rejected by almost 20 studios for the Montauk pilot, the Duffers were finally green-lit by Netflix. It was at this time that they began casting and then writing the first season officially, which included reworking a lot of that first episode.

This led to the removal of the brother reference, and with it, removing any sort of arc El could have had about her apparent brother.

But the thing about this moment, is that it might not have been scrapped entirely...

Going into the final season, no one can explain why or how El recognized Will back in 1x02. And while there are plenty of things on the show that are left unexplained, with a small portion likely left that way with the intention to uncover it later, what sets this moment apart from the rest is that there are very few possibilities here.

Because for starters, the story presents El's ability to see people in the void in s1 as requiring either a picture of that person for reference, or having met that person before.

But when El see's this picture of Will, she's never met him before. Or maybe she has, but we wouldn't know because they never showed us. They could have just not done this scene at all, given that it's clearly a copy/paste/edit of something scrapped from the pitch. Or they could have even still included it, but explained it.

One explanation could be that the lab had shown El a picture of Will before, similar to what they did with the Russian agent they wanted to spy on. But then that begs to question, why would the lab show El a picture of Will? Why would they want to see what he was doing? That alone is incriminating in and of itself, implying that Will is more connected to the lab than we realize.

The only other, and frankly most likely explanation, would be that El stumbled across Will at some point on her journey between escaping the lab and Will going missing. This is actually something that happens in The Other Side comic, which explores all the things Will may have experienced during his time in the Upside Down.

Though it’s worth noting the comics aren’t technically canon, and I highly doubt they would outright spoil everything in relation to Will’s time there, years before it was intended to be revealed. But still, let's humor this for a moment given that I do think Will's time in the UD is going to be very relevant in s5, which means it's highly likely they will finally address how exactly El saw him.

Basically, in the comic, Will see’s El walking through the woods, almost apparition like, glowing as she passes by, while also sporting the Benny’s burgers shirt. This means they would have crossed passed within a short span of time, between when El escaped Benny’s when the agents arrived, but before she was found by the boys.

Though it’s worth noting that we’re seeing this all from Will’s perspective. This means from the UD, Will was capable of seeing El on the other side, despite them being on different sides. And not only that, but she also looks back at him.

What confuses me about this, is that it doesn’t make sense for El to be in the woods, only to randomly decide to pop in to the void for a moment. She was trying to escape the lab and everything that came with it. I doubt she had any desire to lurk back there for some reason, not until someone encouraged her to. Not to mention, it would make no sense for her to go there and see Will if she wasn't even looking for him in the first place. And so this would mean Will and El could see each other, with Will being in the UD, and El being on the other side.

While it does seem pretty far off, given that you would think Will and El wouldn't be able to see each other from different sides, it is true in the story that El not only recognizes Will, but knows that he is in danger. She mentions that he is hiding specifically.

Which means she has likely seen him within the last 24 hours regardless.

This, in combination with Will being able to respond to El in the void at the end of the season in Castle Byers, when no one else outside of Terry and flayed-Billy have been able to, seems to imply that there is indeed something special about Will that makes him capable of communicating with El from the UD. Not only that, but El also seems to have an ability to be in this constant knowing state of how Will is doing, without even checking again to confirm. She's just certain of it. And she seems terrified about it.

Going forward, El never uses a picture of Will to find him. She never did. And more often than not, they don’t show us what she see’s either, not until the very end. And that’s the moment they reveal that he was able to communicate with her.

Again, there was really no reason to have El recognize Will. If anything it complicates things. But the fact that they chose to introduce this concept, with a scene from the original pitch that was related to El’s younger brother, with her pointing at his name cryptically, startling Benny, only to revamp it and have El not say anything at all while pointing at the picture of Will, startling Mike… It just really makes you stop and think.

Which brings me to the other aspect of this that might have people doubting, which is that El’s brother was originally younger than her.

We know Will is not younger than El, so how could this apply to him?

Well, it might be helpful to consider that in the original script, El was actually 10 years old, while the boys were always 12. Meaning that for some reason, they decided to age her up to the age of the boys, aka the same age as Will…

Ever since @erikiara80 shared this brother discovery with me, I have been sort of reeling. It then led to other little discoveries of changes they made between Montauk and Stranger Things.

It’s important to understand that the Montauk bible and the original script precedes what we ended up with in the final product, with it finally changing and evolving months, maybe even a year since that original vision. Even casting occurred before writing started for the first season. We know this because casting announcements were made in June and August of 2015, with writing not starting until August going into early 2016, simultaneously while they were filming.

And believe it or not, what I've discovered is that a lot of the changes they made between their original plans and what we see in the final product, have to do with not only Willel, but also Byler.

If you've read the original script for Montauk, you'll know that Mike's crush on Jennifer Hayes was focused on right from the jump, along with the birthmark on his face being focused on, which was the main cause of the bullying he experienced.

This has actually been talked about recently, and some of the claims people make do fit with what I am genuinely starting to consider here, which is that the initial plan for what makes Mike an outcast shifted.

I think when they completed casting, and started actually deep diving into what they wanted this world to look like, both from a short-term and long-term standpoint, they were presented with some pretty interesting discoveries, arguably already hiding in their initial plans without realizing it.

And this is where it sort of becomes a 'chicken or the egg' situation. Because which one came first? Byler or Willel?

I can't say for certain, because obviously this is all just speculation. But in the case that Willel came first, I think Byler would come very naturally after that.

The Duffers themselves are twins. Then they hire Noah, who is a twin. Then they're thinking and planning for El's past and how her family all fits into this, and they're thinking... wait a damn minute... We could totally Star Wars this bitch!

And then when they think it couldn't get any better, they uncover another layer that they hadn't planned or really considered in their initial plans.

While Will was always going to have sexual identity issues according to the Montauk bible, meaning that the writing process for him likely involved sitting down imagining scenarios that encapsulated this arc for Will from the beginning, they were simultaneously now finding very interesting aspects of Mike's character that made it hard not to at least consider the possiblity that Mike is not exactly straight.

Just think about it. The Byers and Wheelers are basically polar opposites on the spectrum of what a family looks like. While Will's discovery and acceptance of his queerness is interesting to explore because he comes from a low-income, single-mom household, all while having been bullied for years based on his perceived queerness, he also has a mother and brother constantly reinforcing that they will accept him no matter what. They've been sort of hitting us over the head with it for years, and so it wouldn't be very satisfying for his entire arc to merely lead up to something we've known all along. It's pretty much a given at this point.

On the other side of the spectrum, Mike comes from a more upper-middle class family at the end of a cul-de-sac, more aligned with what a nuclear family looks like. Mike's family is also presented as being more conservative, and while Karen does give that very queer-coded speech to Mike in s1 (I'm convinced they only wrote this after deciding to explore queer-coding more heavily with Mike), it also comes with comments from Ted and even still Karen that hint that they are probably not as open-minded and accepting as Will's family is to him. Which means Mike's arc would be a lot more about acceptance around him from his loved ones who we have been led to believe might not be as accepting of his queerness in contrast to Will.

And so as they're putting this story together, and they're being presented with something very interesting. Two similar experiences that play out in different ways because of the characters circumstances.

Will goes missing, and his twin sister with a buzzcut pops up and has the ability to help them find Will.

This leads to several moments where El is being compared to as not only a boy, but Will as well.

Now suddenly, their initial plans to have Mike's arc be about having a girl be interested in him and to hopefully have his first kiss and feel like less of a loser, starts to look a lot like what the experience a queer kid in his position might encounter growing up in the environment that he did.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, just hear the Duffer's themselves hinting at what they initially planned for Mike and the fact that it changed.

The changes don't stop there.

Believe it or not, 'It was a seven', did not exist in the initial pitch. When the boys went outside bickering over Nancy, they leave right after that.

Another thing that changed from the first script, was Scott Clarke's introduction:

And so you might be thinking, who cares? What does that have to do with anything?

Well, it's interesting because the line we end up with on the show is arguably one of the most on the nose Twelvegate proofs to date. Mind you, this is from the first episode:

Why chuck the original version, which was arguably more interesting and fascinating in terms of it hinting at the mysteriousness surrounding this story, only to replace it with him listing off tips about their upcoming test?

Well, I think it's the irony of it all. Here Mr. Clarke is practically telling us where to look to figure stuff out for ourselves what is going on, with all the kids filing out and ignoring him...

I relate to Scott a litttle too much in this shot here, any time I try to drop Willel evidence.

And the changes go on, as they obviously would.

Things like Terry Ives not even being El's mom, but actually a man who more so aligns with the characterization of Murray.

And one very interesting one I almost overlooked was in Hopper's introduction, where instead of a kids drawing done by who we assume to be Sarah, we actually see a picture on the wall of him and his wife and daughter... Interesting that they decided to switch it something that is a lot less definitive in presenting what Hopper's past looked like...

If you've made it this far, congratulations.

If you still think I'm out of my mind, just remember that El was going to have a brother in the original script, but they scrapped the scene and gave a near identical one to introduce her connection to Will instead 😘

[thefirstihateyou]

Saw this trend going around and immediately thought of my favourite siblings

Oh and i just love twelvegate and willel twins theories like ik it might not happen in canon but its such a cool concept (tho ofc el would never want her brother to suffer like she did)

[erikiara80]

Them

Us

[lordystrange]

We have had so many byler gates that I’ve lost count, so could you people help me?

Flickergate (Byler kiss in UD, when lights flickered in wheeler’s garage in s1)

Birthdaygate (the theories about Will’s birthday)

Twelvegate (Will being 012)

Scriptgate (August 5th you will always be famous but I hope you weren’t)

Mikhailgate (Enzo’s son being shipped with Will)

Gridgate (The smudge in the s5 whiteboard)

Pocketgate (Mike’s pocket that looked like an envelope)

Lettergate (Mike’s unsent letter(s) to Will)

Mattduffersbasementgate (Noah and Finn being held there so they wouldn’t spoil byler endgame)

What did I forget?

[twelvegate-blog]

[justmy-account]

List of byler-gates

I’m just bored, but read it anyways, it’s fun

there sooo many of them, and i’m still pretty lazy so this isn’t perfect, but just let’s start

Mikhailgate

This is practically anti byler theory, but nvm

So, Dimitri has a son named Mikhail, which is russian version of name Michael, Mike

So, people were just saying that instead of Mike, Will will end up with Mikhail(who’s technically Mike bc of the name, yk)

I think everyone was just joking, oh, good ol’ times

and willloveinterestgate is the same

Lettergate/Pocketgate

These theories aren’t the same one, but it’s basically the same concept, ig

The basic thing is, that Mike wrote a letter to Will(singed Love, Mike)

In pocketgate, Mike has the letter saved in his triangle pocket, bc in st, characters many times has letters, that were important to them, in their left pocket(above the heart), for example Hopper and El(Hopper’s heart-to-heart), Jonathan(acceptance letter to college) etc.

And he would just take it out in the middle of confession or sth

+the triangle always points to Will like an arrow

Lettergate is just basically the same, ok, idk how to describe it differently 

Twelvegate

Not exactly a byler, but theory, that Will was number twelve in HNL, and that he’s El’s actual twin

And from that, there’s theory that Will has powers, but wasn’t n. 012

Okay, back to byler

This is same as rainbowgate i think

Flickergate

This theory is very lovely! after Will tells Mike that rolled seven in s1, the light behind them flickers

and since ud is frozen on nov6 83, when you signal sth from ud, it should appear at nov6 83-s1

this connects to electricgate(i dunno if sth like this exist, but just keep reading), the electricity~are friends electric~will possibly having electric powers

so mike and will could go together in s5 to ud on a mission or sth, and kiss in wheelers garage, and that would make the light flicker(i’m so good at explaining things, right😐)

will and mike going to ud together is predicted by mike and will sitting on upside down couch in last ep. of s4

Birthdaygate/Memorygate

Soo, remember how they forgot Will’s birthday? what if all wills memories, that people reminded him of in the shed are gone? his birthday, building castle byers, meeting mike… and that’s why mike says that his life started the day he found her, bc he doesn’t remember meeting Will

for me, it’s really weird, they couldn’t just forget Will’s birthday, no, this ain’t it

Kiss at lovers lake

I’m not sure if this has a different name, but it’s that their first kiss will be near lovers lake

evidence: patrick(the kid who died at lovers lake), had a nickname “berlin wall” or sth(we saw this in the school newspaper), and it was devided to four, same as hawkins

and song heroes is abt couple who lived at different sides of berlin wall, and idk, it just connects, okay?

when will painted the map of hawkins while he was possessed, mike was holding blue and yellow meter

Eightfifteengate

Context: will left the wheelers at 8:15 in s1

in s1e1, time mark 8:15 is literally the shot where will disappears in the shead

i think there’s a season 2 soundtrack called eight fifteen

tw: time fuckery: while will was recording on halloween night, the time says 8:04 while he’s recording mike saying “did you agreed with this?”, but when joyce rewatches it, it show 8:15(byler)

“ it’s 8:15, you’re late”

btw, clocks and watches from hiroshima are stuck at 8:15

aaanywaaay, there’s just too much 8:15 things, aaah(this is just a few)

what it has to do with byler?

well, 15-8=….(wait for it)….seven. a byler number. it was a seven!

also, “the first lie”, when murray says this to jancy, the time mark is… guess what, 8:15

there’s this theory with the songs “the first lie” and “the first i love you”, and it just connects 

Motelgate

theory, that after mike’s “love” confession to el, they went to a motel for sleep, and mike and will had to share a bed, and we could possibly see flashbacks of it in s5, and it would kinda explain the two day skip

Colorgate

blue and yellow meet in the west, i’m sure you know this one, and there’s sooo many evidence in this

mattduffersbasementgate

It’s too late for this to be true, but the duffers are(/were) holding every cast member that ships byler in their basement, lol

bloopergate

Bloopers from byler scenes, basically, for example “not when i was the spy, oh fuck”, basically Finn and Noah being all giggly, i guess

bloopergate implies to every blooper, but why not to mention it

curtaingate

Sth like, that when there’s some fight happening between characters, if curtains are open, it means they’re open with their feeling and opposite 

Example: milkvan make out scene-closed, but you don’t love me fight-opened

Bonus: „ but they like the curtain. people like us are just trying to look behind the curtain”(my very bad quotation of murray, yk what i mean)

Also, Suzie had blue and yellow curtains, and they were opened

And, “and i love her and i can’t lose her again”? Also curtains closed, like wtf, this fandom is crazy

piggybackgate

El knows abt Mike and Will. she saw how they act around each other, she’ve heard will saying “you’re the heart” to mike, saw that mike has Will’s painting now

New Coke Theory

basically, old coca colla is mileven, new coke is byler. it contains some of the old ingredients(mike), and new ones too(will). not everyone likes(bc its gay ship). and when you look at scenes with can of new coke, it’s many times symbolizing byler vs. milkvan

one of my favorite new coke theory examples is this: in s3, after el gets attacked by the flesh monster, she tries to crash a can(but she doesn’t have her powers, so she can’t). this is a can of new coke(byler) and she can’t crush that/destroy it. and in this scene, we get a flashback to the lab, where she crushes aka destroys regular coke(mileven)

phonegate

mike and will not calling each other, bc of joyce’s telemarketer job(he won’t stop whining abt it)

————

i miss all these little silly theories abt literally everything

i hope the byler tag will be like this once again

maybe we could start naming our new theories “gate”s again

for example: heartfeltgat, strangerwritersgate, snowkissgate or sth

anyway, byee

[greenfiend]

So i heard requests are open and well i have a weird one

Miwi au with s1 mike and will but will switches places with el (he’s like 012 or something)

Thats the basic idea like yk it could be them holding hands or whatever you’d like

Ok thnx if you find time for this 👉👈

Didn’t expect to post two requests in one day but I just had too much fun with this one!

Will/Twelve using his powers (creation powers) to impress the cute boy who helped give him shelter. Obviously it worked!

(I feel like a lot of people will assume this is Mlvn at first glance. I gotta be honest... drawing Will without his hair was tough!)

Previous requests

[shippingfangirl013]

Will Byers and El Hopper would be running a Boop Laundering Scheme Operation.

I say this, because I tried it. You can, in fact, become a Boop Laundering Mafia Boss.

[stranger-chichka]

@chirpsythismorning the red tower 👀

[will80sbyers]

Not them confirming byler endgame on the TWELVE

[chirpsythismorning]

RAINBOWSHIPGATE?!!

[chuckycheezel]

Incorrect Quotes: Twelvegate Edition

Will: Mike, am I ugly?

Mike: WHAT??? NO.

Will: Really?

Mike: Will, you’re not ugly.

Will: 🥹

Mike: You’re like a twelve out of ten, alright?

Will: 😳

Will, thinking: FUCK HOW DID HE KNOW??? I DON’T EVEN HAVE THE TATTOO HOLY SHIT HOW DID HE KNOW???

Mike, thinking: OH GOD I’M BEING TOO OBVIOUS, DIAL IT BACK MIKE HE’S NOT EVEN GAY–

Mike: Uh… yeah. Bye.

[erikiara80]

Thinking thoughts.

Time. Home.

Mom is coming.

Mom!

The (W)right Bros

This whole scene. Dimitri's son, not slow or stupid, top of his class. And Hopper says 'Then you're not his father.' In 4x01 we learn that El struggles in school.

Is this a subtle way to tell us that she IS Hopper's daughter? Also, that bald guy in the frame. Maybe it's just me, but he reminds me of Sarah. So, Hopper is El's father, not Sarah's?

And when Hopper mentions a wife, we see two bald guys. Twin imagery. El and Will? And the wife is Joyce? Of course, this could also be a subtle reference to Henry, Virginia and Victor.

Will and El's connection and, imo, their connection to Hopper, have been hinted at since S1.

Their true connection. They're family. And they both have powers.

[lordystrange]

It’s time to open a new gate:

#namegate - Why is Will Byers named Will?

All the other Byers-Hopper family members’ names start with the letter J. Except Will’s. And since the writers of the show have said that we should really pay attention to the details, this is the detail I’m paying attention to now.

Will’s full name is William Jacob Byers. So why wasn’t he named Jacob William Byers, to match Joyce, Jonathan, Jim and Jane?

The theories are:

1. Will isn’t a part of the Byers(-Hopper) family

Now ofc Will is a part of that family, but what if he’s not actually Joyce’s child and Jonathan’s brother. I have two options on this, and they both connect to the #twelvegate:

A) Will is a random lab kid (number 012) who’s parents are not Joyce and Lonnie, but who somehow after the massacre ended up living with them

Or

B) Will has a twin, who is 012, and the lab either had to exchange the twins for some reason or 012 was in the UD for some reason and Joyce and Hopper found him (meaning the original Will is dead or somewhere else)

2. Will’s name had to have a meaning, and a connection to Billy

The name William means ”Vehement protector”, and I think that might mean something in s5. What? Well Idk but I’m guessing that Will will be very protective of everyone he loves and hopefully about himself too

The connection to Billy, I think, is for a contrast. In s2 Will was possessed but managed to break out of it to warn and help, to protect, Mike and others. Billy also broke out of the possession and protected El and others.

They were also both abused by their fathers. The difference is, Billy became bad himself, but Will stayed good. (Which is why he won’t die!)

3. M for Mike is upside down W for Will

This is my oldest theory and my favorite one. Take a look at this first:

Above the yellow line is our world and below it is the UD.

We know that Will was in the UD (and still has a connection) and that Mike was the key to get him back to our world (S1 not giving up on him, finding El who could help, S2 pulling him back from those episodes and the possession…).

I read a theory (in @andiwriteordie ’s fic) about Max’s consciousness being stuck in the UD. Her body is in our world, Vecna took his mind, but when Hawkins and Russia groups grilled the shit out of him, Max’s mind got freed, but still stuck in the UD, just floating there kinda like a ghost. Therefore Max is sideways on that figure I made. She’s stuck in between worlds.

El is also in between worlds but not sideways, because she’s not stuck. She can come and go in her mind whenever she likes (maybe not whenever but you get the point). Also she’s opposite from Max, meaning that she’s probably her way to become ’unstuck’.

And those 4 names’ connection to each other would be the reason Will’s first name is William and not Jacob.

Thank you for reading!

Like I said earlier, the last one is my favorite. But I think that if twelvegate is happening, this could tie into it somehow. And if options 1 and 3 are too much of a reach, theory 2 is quite mundane but still nice to notice. 💚

[twelvegate-blog]

Thinking about this 😏

[theyaregayyourhonor]

Gates, portals, birth and rebirth

Aka: Yes, Will and El are twins from birth (also I'm pretty sure Vecna cherry-picked our cast from different timelines)

Ever since I saw El's vision of her birth I've been having trouble with it and I couldn't figure it out for the life of me until I saw this image again:

I have to be a bit vulgar but my first thought was that it looked a whole lot like a vagina. Which made me think about how we have in the first and second season three people enter and exit the UD and the whole thing about birth/rebirth

So I was bugged by this idea until it started to fall into place.

So firstly I have to establish something

Portals: they are opened from the UD by Demogorgons and they are closing up just fine, not leving behind cracks =natural birth

Gates: they are opened from the RSU by humans and if they close up they leave behind cracks but if they don't they can spread and fester =c section

That's when I stopped because if I'm correct than El's rebirth or escape from the UD is fishy.

According to everything we know she was born with an emergency c section do to complications around her birth, so why did she exit the UD through a portal and not a gate? You can argue that than portals are equalling c sections, but portals are created from inside of the UD or womb, by something that is part of it. Portals are natural, gates aren't.

If gates were natural they wouldn't leave behind cracks or scarring, but they do and they are created by an outside force instead an inside.

But I have more proof.

Nancy Wheeler

I know this one come out of nowhere but we actually see our first birth/rebirth thanks to our girl. In her case it's more metaphorical and it's ends when she is back in the RSU and I also believe that is it here more, to show how a natural birth/rebirth should look like in contrast with the other two.

So Nancy Wheeler decided to climb into the tree portal left by a demogorgon, she wanders in, spends a little time there than she sees the demogorgon, she is the first one to move, she indicates the escape as she is frightened by the beast, that's when the demogorgon sees her and starts chasing her until she gets to the portal, she yells for Jonathan who is waiting for her on the other side and helps her out of the UD into the RSU and the portal closes.

If we traslate it into the birth/rebirth metaphor.

We have Karen and Ted Wheeler deciding to have a kid (Nancy willingly went inside) the baby spends nine month in the womb (Nancy spends the amount of time that she is not stuck here, but still sees the place and the demogorgon) than the water breaks (Nancy starts to leave) and the mother's body helps her (demogorgon start to chase her) the baby is born with the help of others and there are people waiting for her arrival (Jonathan)

Also real birth is fucking traumatazing so good job on that one too Duffers

Now like I said with Nancy its more metaphorical, like she saw hell and that made her change as a person.

But that's just makes El's whole ordeal more confusing. First El is draggeg into the UD by a Demogorgon that she demateralized with her powers.

Than in s2 we have El calling out to Mike as she wanders the UD, but there is no Demogorgon (aka help from the mothers body) as she tries to get out, but in the end she escapes through a portal, like Nancy.

I'm going to circle back in a minute

William Byers

So in season one we have Will being kidnapped, that is the first episode and the whole catalysts of the show. Now like with El, Will is dragged into the UD involuntary by a demogorgon, he spends most of the first season there and in the end he is saved by Hopper and Joyce who are bringing him out through the gate in the laboratory.

So we have two kids, whom are in the first season established to be look alikes, so much so that they could've be confused to one an other. They are both dragged into the UD by a demogorgon and they are trapped there, El enters the place on her own through a portal but Will is stuck and has to be carried out through a gate.

Demogorgons

Something that I've been stuck on is the whole thing about El and Will being dragged into the womb by something that is from the womb and I might be crazy but I think Will and El are tube babies.

In that case we would have a mother and a father desparate for a baby but it's just not coming together. That's when they hear about a doctor who could help. Doctor Brenner takes from the mother and father and the zygotes are made than they are put in the womb of the mother in hope that at least one stuck. They got lucky there is two zygotes that now growing and it all seems fine.

But they don't know something.

The demogorgons are under Vecna's control that he achived with the MF, demogorgons are our zygotes and they are infected with 001 powers (not DNA, Brenner has been trying to recreate him for a time now so he does a science thing that ends with artificial powers or something like that) via Brenner.

El openes the Mothergate which is the reason why Vecna can reach Will, the Demogorgon can open portals thanks to the gate being open and the Demo going through it.

Now El we know after being in the UD comes out premature, she was supposed to stay as the UD wasn't reacting to her escape, the body of the mother wasn't helping with the birth, El still struggles out in the natural way.

On the other hand Will is stuck in the UD, he can't born in the natural way, that's when the emergency c section is in motion, El coming prematurely (probably thanks to Brenner messing with the pregnancy and the zygotes) coused problemes with the other baby, Will. That's when the s section happened.

El opening up the mothergate=El borns early

Will stuck in the UD thanks El opening the mothergate=emergency c section because of the complications

Both times the person responsible is Brenner. Brenner is the one manipulating the pregnancy and the one making El going into the in between place.

Enter season 2

First I thought that I was crazy, than I remembered what happens next season with the characters.

So Will is in the hospital for a while, than he is brought home by his mother who is fussing over him and being protective and she is so scared for him and for good reason. Will is not fully okay, the whole ordeal left it's mark on him. He is sick, can't sleep well and he just can't seem to get any better.

In season 2 he still has the connection to the UD and he also gets possessed by the MF, which is what happened to him. Having Vecna's power and Brenner manipulating the pregnancy and the birth left their effects on him and his life.

While El after birth ends up in the hands of a random man, she doesn't know, who locks her up, has a bunch of rules she has to follow and becomes her Papa/father. Of course Hop is not Brenner, but still there are the parallels and that is what happened to El. After she was born, she was kidnapped by Brenner who locked her up, abused her and get her to call her Papa.

The big difference is that Hopper is acting that way because he already lost a daughter, he doesn't want to loose El, and it is dangerous for her outside. But he grows and learns and fails and apologies for his mistakes, he actually becames her father. I'm mean he is her father so I hoped he would grew into his role.

Vecna is cherry-picking

There is this gate called Twelvegate, according to that Will is twelve and the twin brother of El, and I saw it plausible especially with how I think Stranger Things is really built up.

I think Hopper and El from the same timeline, which follows.

Hopper and Joyce are married, they are struggling to have kids so they end up getting the help of a doctor, Brenner, he manipulates the pregnancy and the birth, El is born premature but strong, Will is stuck. Hopper demands the doctors to help Will, in the mean time El disappears (she is taken away by commands of Brenner by a nurse maybe Terry?). Brenner does the emergency c section, Will comes out dead so they have to revive him, something that they claim didn't work.

Hopper lost both El and Will, Joyce and him and up breaking up, meanwhile Will and El are raised in the laboratory as Eleven and Twelve.

Vecna picks out this Hopper and El, putting them in his little game he created with time travel and stolen powers. He messes with Hops memories thus Sara is created. She is the fuson of El and Will. A little girl who died in cancer, she wasn't breathing and they couldn't bring her back. Sara is Will and El on that fucked up day he lost two child at once.

El is from this timeline too, she and Will were trapped by Brenner but unlike Will she survived the massacre in 1979. That is why El recognises Will in season 1, because she knows him, they grew up together.

I also think that season 1 El and season 2 El are not the same person, that's why we never learn how she knew Will. Either that or when she was in UD Vecna started messing with her memories and Will and Twelve became two separate person.

I'm also trying to figure out if Jonathan would be from a timeline where Joyce and Lonnie get together and he is their son, or if he is from a reality where Hopper and Joyce got lucky. Like Jonathan literally being a miracle to them.

I'm also curious if you think the whole this is a patched together timeline from others thing true (or just like to entertain the idea) what do you think, who is from what timeline?