thetwelvetears

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What if we don't get one or two but THREE Byler kisses????

Like the first at Lover's Lake— intense, charged, emotions spilling over! (Maybe like Jopper kissed on Season 4??) The second, more wholesome... Perhaps like a quiet promise before the resolution. And the third on prom night at the finale 🥹❤️‍🩹

Am I being too greedy?

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I personally think Ergokinesis/Electrokinesis or Dimensional Manipulation.

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s4 mike and will: mike… you’re the heart🥺❤️

hopper:

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After shouting “RUN”

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I know Chance is a jock, but what if we actually got to see Mike get crazy jealous over him? Like, picture this: Mike starts noticing Chance acting kinda... off around Will. Not just his usual bully crap, but something weird. And it makes Mike hate Chance's guts way more than any other jerk at school... deep down, Mike knows this level of hate is messed up. Why should he care this much about some random meathead jock hassling him and his friends? That's just Hawkins High life. But here's the thing: Will is EVERYTHING to Mike. And that makes it a thousand times worse.

On top of it all, those confusing feelings Mike's been having lately –the ones he can't even name, the 'weird' ones– are getting way stronger ever since the Byers moved in.

They're bubbling up all the time, harder and harder to shove down or hide. So seeing Chance sniffing around Will? It stabs him right in the guts. It makes him feel like even more of a freak – like his own stupid heart is consuming him – and he hates himself so much for it... But Will's still there for him, even though he has no idea Mike feels this 'twisted, disgusting' way about him...

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Compilation of Lovers Lake Gate Information/Theories

The crew filmed at the Lovers Lake location for Season 5 and episode 5 also has a water safety stunt coordinator, which means 5x05 is going to be the Lovers Lake episode

Photos on Twitter show a blue tarp behind the crew which looks similar to the underwater set from a S4 BTS video. Also Finn and Noah are in this crew photo too by what appears to be the underwater film set!

As @bylerworld points out Byler always have a "moment" in each season that matches with the episode (1x01, 2x02, 3x03, 4x04) so their moment in 5x05 could be the Lovers Lake scene

Noah liked a TikTok about there being a reason both Mike and Will's hair is wet which included the hashtag #LoversGate

In the original photo of Noah in the towel, we see another cast member's chair in the background, but the name is conveniently blocked off by a crew member

In another BTS photo with Noah and Maya's chairs you can see the two were playing a word game and one of them spelled out "lover" (could be unrelated but I thought it was an interesting detail to include)

It's been have pointed out by @miwiheroes that Season 4 has lots of moments where Will is framed with photos of crashing water

In Season 3, Mike plays around with a male CPR dummy which could be more possible foreshadowing (maybe when Mike saves Will he gives him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?)

As @televangelistics points out the line from Eddie to Steve in Season 4: "Wheeler right there... didn't waste a second. [She] just dove right in... That was as unambiguous sign of true love as these cynical eyes have ever seen" could very well be foreshadowing for Mike rescuing Will from Lovers Lake in Season 5. While Eddie is wrong about Steve and Nancy (Steve and Nancy aren't true love) it is right for Mike and Will. It's interesting that they have Eddie also call Nancy "Wheeler" too, so this conversation could easily apply to Mike as well

If Mike saved Will from drowning/going into the Upside Down gate it would also be a parallel moment to Mike seeing Will's "body" being pulled out of the quarry; it could be a full-circle moment and give Mike perhaps some catharsis that he was able to rescue Will from the water this time

Lovers Lake is in the shape of a heart which in the season 4 finale is cracked open by the UD gate (now it's a "broken heart"). Mike is "the heart" as Will calls him (and the Stranger Things social media team continues to call Mike "the heart" in their Twitter and IG posts)

Lovers Lake "cracking" could symbolically represent Will's broken heart due to believing his love for Mike will remain unreciprocated (Lovers Lake cracking in half also happens soon after Mike's "profession" of love to El, which Will of course witnesses). What if the UD gate closes after Mike rescues Will? Probably not but it could be a hint to the audience that Will's love for Mike/Mike's love for Will is connected to the Upside Down (and will likely be the key to defeating Vecna)

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Hawkins Lab Cover-up, Dimension X, Henry Creel and Will Byers parallelism, and Dr. Brenner interest:

The Hawkins Lab cover-up involving Will Byers' fake body in Season 1 wasn't just a hasty reaction to a missing child. It was a calculated move by Dr. Brenner, driven by deep, specific knowledge about Dimension X (the Upside Down) and the potential locked within Will himself.

Brenner's Pre-Existing Knowledge & Obsession:

1. The Creel Precedent: As revealed in The First Shadow, Brenner knew Henry Creel (001) gained his extraordinary psychic abilities after exposure to the entity ("Shadow") within Dimension X. Henry returned fundamentally changed.

2. The Philadelphia Experiment: Brenner's own father had previously discovered Dimension X via "Philadelphia Experiment." Exposure to its environment altered his DNA, demonstrating Dimension X's transformative potential on humans.

3. The Lost Subjects: By November 6th, 1983, Brenner's situation was desperate. Henry Creel (001) had been banished back to Dimension X by Eleven in 1979. The other test subjects were dead. Eleven was his only remaining powered asset, and she had just escaped after accidentally opening the MotherGate.

Will's Disappearance:

When Will vanished on the same night Eleven opened the Gate, Brenner immediately suspected the truth: Will hadn't been kidnapped conventionally; he had been taken into Dimension X intentionally. Brenner knew the history: Exposure to Dimension X had transformed Henry Creel and altered his own father. He theorized the same could happen to Will. Will represented a potential new test subject, one who might develop unique abilities due to Dimension X exposure, just like 001.

However, Will's case was unprecedented. His disappearance triggered an extraordinary event: Dimension X morphed, freezing into an exact, decaying replica of Hawkins as it existed on November 6th, 1983. This wasn't Henry's influence; it seemed intrinsically linked to Will's presence and the massive energy surge of the Gate's opening ("like a nuclear bomb going off," freezing time akin to Hiroshima/Nagasaki).

Brenner's team would have quickly observed this impossible, frozen reflection of their own town. This confirmed Will was in Dimension X and suggested his connection to it was uniquely potent, fundamentally altering the dimension's very fabric. This made recovering Will even more critical – he wasn't just a potential powered subject; he was the key to understanding this new, Hawkins-locked state of Dimension X.

The Cover-Up:

Hawkins Lab couldn't risk Joyce Byers, the police, or public scrutiny interfering. A frantic mother and an official investigation would jeopardize his ability to locate and retrieve Will from Dimension X for study.

The fake body served a brutal purpose:

1. Stop the Search: Declaring Will "dead" would halt the active police and community search, giving the Lab unimpeded access to search Dimension X.

2. Control the Narrative: It provided a simple, tragic explanation ("drowned") to quell public panic and suspicion.

3. Isolate the Asset: If found alive, Will could be taken into custody as a "miracle" survivor, effectively disappearing him into the Lab system. He would become their next test subject, just like the children before him – stripped from his family, manipulated, and studied, with his potential transformation in Dimension X being the core of Brenner's research.

Critical Post-Rescue Intervention:

Crucially, when Will was rescued from the Upside Down, he wasn't taken to a hospital. He was brought directly to Hawkins Lab for "medical treatment" and "decontamination." This was highly unusual for a missing child found traumatized and physically compromised.

This period under Lab control presents a significant opportunity for Brenner. Knowing the transformative potential of Dimension X exposure (from Henry Creel and his father), and observing Will's unique connection (the slug, his physical state), Brenner would have been desperate to understand and contain any changes.

It's highly plausible that during this time, Hawkins Lab implanted Will with a Soteria chip – the same neural inhibitor used on Henry Creel (001). Brenner's goal wouldn't just be study; it would be preemptive control. If Will had developed latent abilities akin to Henry's, a Soteria would prevent their manifestation and keep Will docile, manageable, and unable to become a threat like 001. This would explain why Will's profound sensitivity (visions, sensing the Mind Flayer/Vecna) never manifested as active powers – they were potentially suppressed at the source.

Conclusion:

The fake body wasn't just panic or simple containment; it was the opening gambit in Brenner's plan to exploit Will Byers as a unique scientific specimen forged in Dimension X. Armed with the knowledge of its transformative power, Brenner saw Will not as a victim to save, but as a potential successor to Henry Creel – a new source of power to be controlled. It was Brenner attempting to regain control of his life's work by exploiting another child's trauma.

What truly happened to Will Byers that night remains a mystery that I'm certain the Duffer Brothers will explain further in Season 5...

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me trying to convince myself the scene noah had to fight for was a will and robin interaction scene where they bond over being queer and instantly become best friends

as you can see i make many valid points

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been thinking about lover’s lake recently…

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Ughgggghhhghhgghhhh

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S2 shed scene -- Will/Vecna POV -- part 2 of 2.

[Finally finished the Bylerween comic! And only *checks watch* six months late!]

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the fic is 'within a diagnosis' by gumiie on ao3 !! oh I love their dottore and pantalone so much

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lesbian byler because I don't know how to draw men

Roller rink fight

Random kiss and s5 fem byler

Van scene <33

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in honor of our first byler set leaks and pride month

i present to you: the romantic goth byler i was yapping abt

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No Longer Will

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Mike is gonna stop breathing when he sees will in s5 lmfao

He's gonna hyperventilate

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Behind every gay person there’s someone gayer