#will has powers

[therainscene]

It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but the Alan Turing poster really tells us so much about Will that I consider it to be a significant piece of foreshadowing for S5.

First, let’s dissuade ourselves of the notion that Will chose Turing for his hero project for nerd reasons -- Will’s preferred flavour of nerdery is escapist fantasy, not computer science. He doesn’t know what an IP address is and the first thing he thinks of when he hears modem noises is a movie he likes.

No, he chose Turing because he admires him for being a gay man who accomplished so much in his short life.

On one hand, that’s pretty heart-warming -- the fact he’s willing to identify with other gay men and look up to them as role models shows us he’s making good progress in accepting his identity. On the other hand, it’s heart-breaking, because Turing’s story is not a happy one -- he was caught having a sexual relationship with a man and forced to choose between jail or chemical castration. He chose castration.

I remind you: Will identifies with this guy.

Will is growing up under the twin specters of AIDS and homophobia and likely assumes he’s destined to die young too. He’s been abused and bullied so much, I imagine he’s heard and internalized it all: that he deserves to die, that he’s disgusting, that he’ll never be fulfilled in life.

So when puberty begins crawling its way inside him and implants those shameful desires that make gay men so worthy of abuse... he chooses castration.

For all the sad pining he does in S4, we never really see Will express desire for Mike -- he never checks him out or shows signs of nervousness when they touch. He behaves with perfect platonic decorum at all times...

...unless we consider That One Scene With The Hose.

Sexual interpretations of this scene are controversial, and I can understand why; we’re so used to seeing Will as this innocent, immature little boy that it's shocking to catch him fantasizing so lustfully, even though these sorts of thoughts are pretty normal for a 15 year-old. But I think that’s the point. We’re supposed to feel uncomfortable about this, because Will feels uncomfortable about it too.

He’s done well in accepting his identity, but he’s an absolute repressed mess when it comes to accepting his sexuality.

So, that’s what the Turing poster tells us about Will. Here’s where the foreshadowing comes in: Will is not the only queer-coded character to have been metaphorically castrated.

Henry’s experience bears striking similarities to Turing’s: he too was caught engaging in a natural but forbidden behaviour and forced by his government to undergo a medical procedure to suppress that behaviour.

His villain speech to El in 4x07, which is ostensibly about his powers, also reads very strongly as a scathing criticism of heteronormativity, and it’s covered in rainbow motifs.

The metaphor here is obvious: Henry’s powers are a manifestation of his homosexuality.

Which implies that Will’s homosexuality can also manifest as powers. They’re repressed because he’s repressed.

It’s not a coincidence that the sexual tension was through the fucking roof in the infamous sauna scene. Every time Will’s supernatural ability to sense the Mind Flayer triggers in S3, Mike is also nearby.

What’s interesting about Mike is that his queer acceptance issues mirror Will’s: Mike has a healthy relationship with his sexuality (he casually checks guys out and plasters his bedroom walls with posters of buff dudes) but he just can’t bring himself to accept what this implies about his identity.

Always with the symmetry, these two. They complement each other perfectly; one’s hang-up is the other’s strength. They have a lot to teach each other about being queer.

And as repressed as they are, I think they want to learn from each other -- Will lets himself get flustered when Mike flirts with him in his bedroom, and Mike hangs on to every word of wisdom Will shares with him in their heart-to-hearts.

Internalized homophobia is a powerful force, but their bond is so strong that it empowers them to fight back.

Henry’s powers symbolize his anger at being mistreated and his desire to take that anger out on the world... but Will’s powers symbolize self-acceptance and love.

So he isn’t just going to defeat Vecna with his powers, and he isn’t just going to get the boy: these two things are one and the same.

[quercus-queer]

How did Will mess with the lights in s1 he was so short and he was doing it so much faster and stronger than the fruity four who were directly touching them, he also couldn’t see the letters, he was hiding in that cabinet and was leading Joyce there without getting up, how did he press the play button from the upside down, how did he call Joyce twice, how did he do the circle of lights thing in his room the same way the numbers did in s4, the demogordon would find him whenever he messed with the lights or when el contacted him suggesting it’s drawn to psychic happenings, he also only got caught after El told him to stay put, Brenner only agreed to Hopper because he was sure Will was dead so how the hell did he last a week, how did Joyce hear Will when the party can’t hear the fruity four at all, Joyce literally SAW Will in her head in his current state at the time, Joyce’s aunt had hallucinations, Will almost opened a gate in the wall, how did Jonathon recognize Joyce from the lights, how did El know who Will was and that he was hiding in the upside down before looking for him, how did she know which dnd figurine represented him, all those Will and Henry parallels, why was Will even being stalked in the first place, how did-

[will80sbyers]

Vecna was making Max and the others have nightmares before he attacked them so he was going inside their dreams to torment them but if someone good was to use that power, like Will, he wouldn't make her have a nightmare he would try to talk to her

[certainty2witch]

When your love interest has powers that he can’t control when he feels strong emotions… well can be pretty a mess.

Bonus 💋 (dw Mike will feel ok after this)

I share also the version without the panels

I wanted to try a less complicated style for the lineart, and I really like it! For the colouring I tried but it ended more elaborated than I established lmao

[azanatha]

Will has powers and it's...... ambiguous ability to create light with his fingers (?)

[lovesitcomsandgaystuffs]

I'm sorry but whichever way you look at it this scene has no explanation other than Will having powers.

And if you are in such denial that Will has powers then Will is flash ig.

[ikarakie]

the party being faced, suddenly, with older (~19/20 y/o) versions of mike and will who have just stumbled out of a fucking gate that opened in the middle of the steve's living room, that promptly sewed itself back up again. older will, who's leaning heavily into his mike's side, has a bloody nose and collapses as soon as the gate's shut.

everyone's freaking out, obviously. older mike drops to his knees as will faints and is frantically holding him close and just whispering "you're okay, you're okay." no one can tell if he's speaking to himself or to will.

turns out, these two are from a fucking parallel world (dustin nearly has a breakdown) and will has powers that he used to open a gate to get him and mike out of their upside down. though he's accidentally, somehow, opened a gate to the wrong damn world. once he wakes up, he and his mike have the audacity to fucking laugh about it, making jokes about his aim or whatever.

the most shocking part, weirdly enough, is how casually affectionate they are. mike has an arm around will's waist as he talks, will is leant into his side, etc. OG mike and will are resolutely NOT looking at each other.

it's only when older mike, seemingly without thinking, presses a kiss to his will's lips that younger mike finally breaks.

"why are you kissing will?!" he demands, face red. younger will has grabbed a pillow and put it over his face, seemingly trying to suffocate himself. el is petting his hair while trying not to laugh. their older counterparts stare at them, look at each other, and then sigh.

"shit, love." older mike mutters. "seems you've sent us to a world where i'm still emotionally constipated." then he reaches across the gap and pats the other mike's knee. "you'll figure it out, and when you do, it all goes up from there!" older will is just cackling the whole time.

[erikiara80]

About Will

Last year the Duffers said that in S5 Will takes center stage again, and now they're even telling us how the season starts, with the flashback of Will in the UD. That's why I think the reveals about him should be huge, like the ones about Henry and El in S4.

This makes me happy. Will and his story are my favorite thing, and I have so many questions.

Was Will really just in the wrong place at the wrong time, a random victim who later became the brother of Vecna's actual target, Eleven?

Maybe. But I'll be honest, I think this would be disappointing. Most of the audience already believes that. All these years, all the mystery surrounding Will, and in the end it was just to hide Vecna, who was introduced in S4, so when we see S5 it's not even a plot twist anymore? Hm.

There could be an interesting parallel with Henry winding up in Dimension X tho. Wrong place at the wrong time. But Henry developed powers. What about Will, who ended up in the UD? Also, if he was just in the wrong place, why did they make his abduction so different from all the other attacks? It's just because it was the first one and they wanted it to be cool? Again, disappointing, imo. And if the reason was just "make the scene cool", I don't know why in other seasons they kept making parallels between the Demogorgon opening the Byers' door, something it only does in 1x01, and El opening a LOT of doors with telekinesis.

I think it's more likely that Will's flashbacks in S5 will be like El's flashbacks in S4. They made us believe that Eleven killed all the other numbers, only to reveal later that it's not what really happened. I expect something like that for Will too. Maybe at first, everything seems to confirm that he was just a random victim, and then we find out that it's not true. Or he was a random victim, but then, like Henry, he developed psychic abilities.

Speaking of that

Does Will have powers or not?

I am a Will-has-powers truther, this is not a mystery lol. But does it make sense in the story? (some thoughts here) Does he have powers like Harry Potter, or the Turtle (here), or Bastian, or he's like Peter Bishop, Marty McFly and Frodo Baggins? Noah said that Will's superpower is his heart, but you know, you can have that and also powers. Plus, in S4 they connect the concept of time travel to emotions, so if there's a timeloop or something like that, and Will's name is on the grandfather clock...

Maybe his abilities are different from anything we've seen. Maybe something more connected to the UD. I'm just saying, why making him a wizard/cleric, if he's just a normal kid?

For example, they never really explained why he's still so connected to Vecna and, I suspect, the UD (because he is also like Radagast, and the kid in Poltergeist, who gets kidnapped because of her powers) Yes, Max seems to have answered that question: when Vecna makes a psychic connection, you are marked. In fact, at some point she even says that she can still feel him. But when she's in his mind lair, she doesn't feel his thoughts. She says that he was surprised and didn't want her there... but he actually says that. Also, they would really answer the questions about the big mystery of Will's connection to Vecna like that, when he's not even the focus of the scene?

That's why I think the answer is more complex for him. Max can't feel Vecna's thoughts or feelings, Will can, like Harry can feel Voldemort. Could the reason be that he was connected to the hive mind? We can't be sure, he's the only one who survived a possession. There are no particles left in his body (as far as we know) or he would've died in S2. So, why is the connection still there and so strong, that the moment he's back in Hawkins, he can feel that Vecna is hurting and wants to destroy everything?

Why in S2 Will knows that the evil wants to kill everyone but him? And why would Vecna/Mind Flayer want to kill everyone but a random kid with no powers, whose only ability was to hide from a monster for a week? Henry Creel considered all the lab kids, people with powers, inferior to himself and Eleven, but for some reason he wanted a sensitive child who's just good at hiding? It doesn't make sense to me.

In the game, they seem to give us the answer. Well, they don't explain if Will was just in the wrong place at the wrong time on Nov 6, but they say that the reason he is the key and Vecna wants him, is that he wants to use him to find Eleven.

Ok

If this is true... Henry/Vecna needed Eleven to open a door, so he makes her make a psychic contact with a Demogorgon. When the gate opens, he lets the creature kidnap/kill random people. Then realizes that he can find Eleven, if he uses the only victim he is letting hide in the UD because, reasons. But when she finally is in the void with Will, instead of killing her, he interrupts the contact with Will, goes to Castle Byers, takes him to the library, and impregnates him with a little Demogorgon. And then? What would've happened if Joyce hadn't found Will? We still don't know if the tendril was killing him or giving him oxigen, like the facehugger does in Alien (the parallel with Sarah could be a hint tho), because we don't know what happened to Barb. If she died in the pool and then was taken to the library, or if it's the tendril that killed her.

If Will was actually dying, then the answer in the game doesn't make sense. If Vecna just wants to use him to find and kill Eleven, he wouldn't have tried to kill him. Unless that whole process was supposed to turn Will into Zombie Boy, a creature of the UD, similar to Vecna, who could find Eleven. That's a bit complicated, tho.

Not to mention the whole possession in S2. Again, let's say that Vecna didn't want to kill Will in the library, but just turn him into a monster. He failed. So, when Will is home, he makes him have visions, then possesses him, with the intent of killing everyone but him. Because he wants him to find and spy Eleven. But in the 1959 flashback, in TFS, and in the game, we see that Henry can read any mind. So, sorry but why does he need Will, specifically, to find Eleven?

Also, if the particles can just possess you in a vision and then appear in our world, why didn't they possess more people? Easier to find El, and even if you lose Will, you still have the others. It's what the Mind Flayer does in S3. The big difference? In S3 the particles are already in our world.

So I wonder if Will is the only one Vecna/Mind Flayer can possess like that, because they were already connected before the possession

Ok, in S3, the Mind Flayer takes a guy named William because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And then he uses him to build a monster that finds Eleven and takes her powers. So, maybe the 'wrong place, wrong time' is true, but the rest... is interesting. Jonathan says that they built Castle Byers the way Will drew it, and MindFlayer!Billy tells Billy to build what he sees. Also interesting that there are two Billies. It reminds me of If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double (different timelines, twin imagery, Henry and Edward, Richard and Martin. And Will and Eleven?)

So, my theory is that Will and El are more connected than it seems, and that's why Vecna needs Will. And maybe he is also using him to "build" his army, and make the UD spread? I don't know.

But for all these reasons, I think it would make more sense if Will wasn't just a random victim, or at least he's developed some ability.

Will has parallels with Cerebro (here) and Nancy says that the lights came to life when he was in the UD, a parallel to what Steve says in S3, (Let there be light) after Will senses the Mind Flayer for the first time at the mall. When he's watching a zombie movie. There's also that beautiful theory (I don't remember who posted it, sorry) about Will being connected to the light particles and using them to destroy the black particles of the Mind Flayer.

Light particles that look like fairy dust -> Will being called fairy. Lights that come to life -> a battery

I think I've found some big hint that this theory might be correct. Anyway, it seems that Will is connected to the very existence of the UD. Not saying he created it, but if lights came to life when he was there, maybe if they interrupt the connection, that place, whatever it is, will cease to exist.

[starsarefire824]

“Will- you are not fine,” Mike says adamantly, interrupting Will’s thoughts of escape.  “And you haven’t been for a while. I mean—sometimes I feel like—” He huffs at him. “--- Like we aren’t even friends anymore? ” Will fidgets under his piercing gaze. It’s dark and accusing. And hurt? 

“What is that supposed to mean?” he asks, hating how hurt is building up in his own chest. How dare he put this all on him? He isn’t the one that avoided him or constantly chose to hang out with his girlfriend. He isn’t the one who hasn’t kept one promise he made in California. Will moves further away from Mike, trying to level his breathing. His back hits the cool tile wall and he rests his palms against it to quell the feeling that the room is closing in on him. 

“I mean—I mean…I thought we were a team,” Mike says, still closing the distance between them. “You said we could be a team again.” 

“Yeah, and I meant it!” Will tells him adamantly, then looks away, unable to hold his gaze. 

“Well, I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like you would rather not even be in the same room with me. Sometimes it feels like just the thought of you being around me… repulses you, or makes you upset.”

Will truly observes him then, the sadness flashing across Mike’s face making his heart ache. He’s covered in shadows in the dim light, but it’s obvious in the way his mouth twitches and how his shoulders collapse in on themselves. How had he never seen it before? How can Mike possibly think that? When all Will’s ever wanted is to be near him? 

“That’s- that’s not— That’s just not true, Mike,” he tells him, determined to change his mind. Will blinks and Mike’s face changes, his brow creasing deeply and something venomous creeps across his features. Will freezes against the wall, and pushes his back harder into it, suddenly realizing there really is nowhere to go. Mike is closing in on him. “You’re a liar,” he declares, barely a whisper, looming above him with angry tears in his eyes and breath hitching in his throat. He’s so close and Will feels the angry heat radiating off of his skin, feels his resentful, jittery energy, as if he’s about to burst out of his skin. All the while he's moving closer, his face suddenly mere inches from Will’s. He can’t shake the feeling that Mike is waiting for him to say something. To do something.   

“No,” Will pleads, stumbling over his words. “You’re wrong– I-” 

Suddenly Mike's entire expression shifts, and then his eyes are so black and lit with an intensity Will can no longer decipher. He freezes as Mike encroaches on him, and it seems to all happen so quickly his brain can’t keep up. Yet, somehow they’re in slow motion. Mike’s anger has turned into something else, and Will watches as one tear trails down his cheek. He raises his brows in concern, and Will can’t be sure what it means, but his expression is urgent, as if he’s convinced he will disappear at any moment. Will's entire body thrums with nervousness and he breathes in, biting down on his bottom lip.

Mike’s gaze lowers to Will’s mouth as he does so, eyes still impossibly dark- and- needy. The look on his face makes Will shudder, the frustrating white heat pulsing through him again. Except now it’s like a volatile vibration that shoots out from his core and races through his veins and down every limb. He can feel it hum in the tips of his fingers and the bottoms of his feet. The change in Mike is so sudden that Will’s unable to comprehend how they’ve ended up here, pressed together in the dark. Can’t comprehend how the heat that radiates off Mike’s skin and burns inside his irises sets Will on fire. -Tangled.

[marinhosh]

oh yes, POWERS!!!

the painting was supposed to get better but the grammage of my paper is very low, but I even liked the result 🥲

[therainscene]

I think I might have figured out what the Mind Flayer really is.

This theory has been percolating in my brain for a while now; it hasn't really finished baking yet but I wanted to get the gist of it down before The First Shadow debuts.

Let’s begin at the Hawkins National Lab, 6th November 1983. For the second time in her young life, El faces terrifying and deeply traumatic circumstances which cause her powers to lash out and rip a gash in the fabric of reality.

Meanwhile, across town, Will is doing what every queer 12 year-old has done and finds an excuse to spend an extra moment alone with his crush.

His little gay heart is as aflutter as the garage lights.

(Strange, that. The lights, I mean -- considering that he's on the other side of town from the lab. Do you suppose the Demogorgon trekked all the way to Mike's house and quietly followed him home again?)

Will heads home, lost in thought as he cycles past the lab. Is he thinking about how sweet his new X-Men #134 is gonna be? Or is he thinking about something even sweeter? The lights flutter again.

And something in front of him notices.

Will has always been noticeable: his clothes, his mannerisms, his interests -- they've always attracted the attentions of bullies. Now something new -- or maybe something that was always there and is only now making itself known -- has attracted the attentions of a monster.

He runs home, he calls for help, but he's alone, there's no escape. He races to the shed and loads a gun like his father taught him -- but it's not in his nature to be violent. He freezes, petrified.

The lights surge as his terror wrestles control of his powers and uses them to puncture an escape route in the fabric of reality.

Why were we so quick to believe that the Demogorgon -- a minion of the guy whose whole thing is his inability to open gates -- was able to open its own temporary portals in S1 and then never again?

Will could plausibly have been responsible for every temporary portal in S1: he’s at the Byers house when the Demogorgon pushes through its walls; he's on the run to Castle Byers when Nancy stumbles across that portal in the woods; and he's plugged in to one of Vecna's vines during the finale -- something we see Vecna plug himself into when he remotely opens gates in S4.

There’s one exception though.

Barb likely slipped through a gate in Steve's pool, but how could Will have opened that one when he was in his bedroom at the time, talking to his mother through the lights?

Let me ask you this: isn't it interesting that of all the injuries Barb could have obtained in her passage to the Upside Down, she got a nosebleed?

I think powers are more common than we’ve been led to believe, and gates are a last-ditch self-defense mechanism for anyone with powers.

This is why the four curse victims’ deaths opened a gate: Vecna pushed them to their breaking point to artificially trigger the self-defense response. Those headaches and nosebleeds weren't caused by Vecna directly, but by their own powers acting up as they inched towards oblivion.

[Shoutout to @givehimthemedicine's underrated powers and blood theory for the idea of Vecna's Curse being the overcharging of his victims' own powers.]

It was already pretty obvious that Vecna's Curse is a metaphor for suicide, and this theory reinforces it: every kid who gets targeted by the horrors of Hawkins for being "different" tries to find some way to escape.

Willel's misfortune is that their powers are considerably more easily manifested than the average person's. Byler tells the story of visible vs invisible queerness, but that's just a reflection of the larger theme at play in the show: the visible and invisible ways kids are othered and abused.

Max's trauma was a quiet thing that came from within and festered until it was almost too late to save her... but Willel's trauma manifests as a giant monster that openly hunts them down.

And I'm being literal when I say the Mind Flayer is a manifestation of their trauma.

We know that Vecna fashioned the Mind Flayer from a cloud of black particles he found in the Upside Down, but where did that cloud come from? The Upside Down is a mysterious enough place that it's easy to assume the Shadow is native to that realm... but what if it isn't?

The Mind Flayer is heavily associated with repression -- Will gradually lost his memories while he was possessed, and El lost her powers when the sliver of Flesh Flayer wormed its way into her leg.

But Will has mysteriously been without powers ever since leaving the Upside Down, and we've seen El lose memories too: her memories of surviving the lab massacre, in which she didn't simply escape by opening up a gate, but by disintegrating her attacker into black particles.

The Mind Flayer doesn't cause repression -- it is repression.

There must have been countless generations worth of traumatized children who took the extra step El did and sent their abusers -- or at least their memories of abuse -- into that hidden realm beyond the gate.

(There's also the possibility that Mr. Time-is-Just-a-Social-Construct is stuck in a time loop of some sort -- maybe the massacre has repeated hundreds of times, and Dimension X is a timeless graveyard of El's attempts to repress her trauma. This would explain why Henry seems to have both disintegrated and survived: we were watching at least two different iterations of the massacre all along.)

Whichever way you slice it, it's a perfect fit: the tool Vecna uses to perpetuate the cycle of abuse isn't some bizarro alien from an alternate dimension, but a direct consequence of the cycle itself.

The Mind Flayer tells us that escape alone doesn't work as a long-term solution: it might help you survive the initial abuse, but if you don't address the effect it had on you...

...it will come back to wreck havok.

[Edit: Click here for post-TFS thoughts on this theory]

[biigiiiii]

So this:

Leads to this:

Which leads to this:

Which allows vecna to do this:

Right? Right………. So then this:

Leads to this:

Which leads to:

???????????????? 👀👀👀👀👀

Will has had powers.

[chirpsythismorning]

It's giving audience was so distracted with 010 in the opening of s4 that they missed the willel wondertwin evidence right under their noses...

[redshoes-blues]

We could be heroes, just for one day. 

Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever.

[byler-alarmist]

[cringengl]

I think Will should use a gun in season 5, but only to show character development.

Since his initial instinct when first saw the demogorgan in s1 was to use a gun, now that everyone is going to be fighting Vecna with weapons, I think that he'll pick up a gun again as others such as Nancy and Hopper will have one and he'll feel like he has to use it in order to save his loved ones. It'll be similar to Jonathan in s1 who clearly has bad memories of using a gun, but tries it anyway as he cares more about saving Will (although I think that Will will be a better shot just so he does use a gun in s5).

However, the point that has been made many times about how learning to shoot is linked to trauma and that Will doesn't have to be made more masculine in order to be a 'stronger' and him liking shooting is kind of ooc anyway.

As guns are linked to Will trying to be a 'real man' and covering up his queer identity by doing something overtly masculine, I think that whilst Will will initially use guns, he won't find them very useful, as Vecna seeks to expose the status quo and destroy it ("conformity, that's what's killing the kids"- or however that line goes) so Will fighting Vecna with something traditionally masculine that he doesn't find strength and power in- which is why Nancy's guns and El's powers have worked for them, they find power in them- won't succeed.

Will will have to find his own way to defeat Vecna and it will likely parallel him truly accepting his queer identity (which honestly seems to be some kind of powers, whether they're light, creation, or an extension of his link to the UD).