a-shadow-thinker

[a-shadow-thinker]

Interesting.....

[a-shadow-thinker]

/!\ This post has potential spoilers for season 5, please do not read what follows if you wish to not be spoiled /!\

I'm quite interested in this plaque and the dates written on it.

First, 1959 is the date when Henry and his family moved to Hawkins.

What is buried looks like a time capsule...

I'm curious to know what that means, especially since the plaque says "1959 - 2009", excluding the year 2009 has not yet been reached.

This impression that the plot of S5 can be infinitely linked to time, that Vecna ​​is linked to time in relation to all the symbolisms that we find in season 4, it can make sense with this capsule and the date.

The visuals and the intertwined dates remind me a lot the show Dark again

As Dark, 3 dates seems linked on the plaque : 2009, 1959 and 1983.

If they go on time travel, i wondered, could that be done through the NINA project ? Do, like Martha and Jonas in Dark, Eleven and One have something to accomplish beyond the limits of time ?

To repair past anomalies, such as Henry's presence in dimension X maybe ? To avoid all the events that led the two worlds to merge ?

1983 is when the door to the Upside Down was created. In the show Dark, it's initially a quest for the main character to close the door, which causes the time loop by returning in the past.

Vecna actor said that things were going to be really crazy in S5, going on time travel, a Dark type scenario (who was a really crazy plot) wouldn't be surprising.

Other thought, the arrow on the capsule reminds me a lot the arrow found on the clock associated with Vecna.

Which brings me to the clock motif : The small white circle and the large brown circle can be interpreted as 2 different worlds (our world and the Upside Down) separated by the circle which contains the hours in Roman numerals (which could be dimension X). These two circles seem to have swapped pieces, the small white circle to a brown circle the size of the small white circle present in the large brown circle, like the Upside Down pouring into our world.

You have an aspect that is very reminiscent of the moon orbiting the earth. Shouldn't we ultimately destroy the Upside Down ? Would this dimension be vital for the stability of ours ?

[a-shadow-thinker]

hi guys I somehow shit this out in two days or something but anyways. Vecna. Hello.

trying to revive the fix because it’s evaporating sadly ummm. avatar and afop are taking over help me helpppppppppp help

[a-shadow-thinker]

Very good point about Virginia.

She definitely doesn't have the same relationship with Henry as Joyce does with Will and there is also this question of the time when we didn't pay particular attention to the unhappiness of children, they always had to have this "good face in the eyes of others" which alluded by Henry in season 4.

"Virginia tells Henry to tell himself that it's not real, and that he's normal"

It's the worst thing to do with a child who has had traumatic experiences or who has psychological problems.

It reminds me a little of what happened with Kylo Ren in Star Wars. There was a lot of misunderstanding about his powers and the inner turmoil that inhabited him, which ultimately contributed to his downfall.

I would compare Henry more with Kylo than with Vader personally.

His behavior, like Kylo, ​​is an expression of the unhappiness that devours him, of the rejection by others and their incomprehension.

The fact of "feeling alone in this world, of being afraid" and finally turning to the only source of "comfort that gives the illusion of understanding" Snoke/Palpatine and The Mind Flayer (if you pay attention to the game VR).

I know that there is opposition to a rather positive conclusion for the character given his actions in season 4 and the fact that the elements of TFS are not accepted by everyone to justify redemption because they contradict the s4 and are not in. But in relation to what TFS explains to us, i hope Henry can get this life that he should have had, be happy and accepted.

I have the feeling that TFS is preparing us for a surprising and fascinating twist of the character in S5, meeting the real Henry perhaps without all the weight of the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down.

Why all this if it doesn't serve the plot ? If you don't want to give empathy to the character and promise redemption, you don't do that. A good example is Bumby in Alice Madness Return.

I see this idea sometimes that Virginia couldn’t have helped Henry because of the time period, and that it’s not that she was abusive, she was just afraid of him, and she couldn’t have saved him from The Shadow/The Mind Flayer because she wouldn’t have had the same information Joyce did, or whatever. And that's why Henry and Will are paralleled

I think this is bad, because the point isn't really that Virginia should’ve saved Henry by burning The Mind Flayer out of him like Joyce did. The point is that she instills horrible ideas into his head, and she has full responsibility for that

The Creel’s moving was intended to be a “fresh start”, and this is something I think is very important, specifically because the play wants us to acknowledge that everything Virginia does is antithetical to this. The biggest example is that she refuses to let Henry make new friends, and this is seen during the argument Victor and Virginia have over Henry.

Virginia tells Henry to tell himself that it's not real, and that he's normal. This is horrible once you understand the full context, which is that he was traumatized and instead of providing proper care for him she tells him to just ignore it and pretend it hasn't changed him at all, for her own comfort.

Interestingly enough, Henry tells Brenner that he just fell and hit his head in the cave. But we see Henry's diagnoses during the scene of his 7th birthday and the doctors seem to have known that he didn't remember because he had been traumatized and repressed the memory.

To me this implies that for all the doctors they went to see, Virginia simply did not accept the answer she was given and instead felt more comfortable believing the more "normal" explanation. Towards the end of the play, we see this more, where Brenner tells her no one blames her, and she says she doesn't know if what happened to Henry made him this way or if he was secretly always this way. She would rather believe that he was just born wrong than to accept her own faults as someone who was supposed to love him.

Why I'm bringing any of this up is because clearly Virginia only sees Henry as who he was before the cave incident. That is the sweet little boy she loves, and she treats him like that version of himself is the only one that is worthy of love. Hawkins is supposed to be a fresh start, where no one knows them and Henry can be himself without feeling like a letdown, and Virginia tries to get in the way of that.

This affects pretty much everything about Henry, but I have a lot to say about that, and I kinda want to make a separate post just about him so yeah.

[a-shadow-thinker]

[a-shadow-thinker]

Interesting analysis

Many elements point to the Mind Flayer as the big bad, the puppeteer who pulls the wires.

What is reflected visually : the Mind Flayer's legs remind the wires held by a puppeteer, wires that we found planted in Vecna's back (the vines) which make him more in the position of a puppet than a puppeteer.

With the very humanizing backstory of Henry brought by TFS, it's a preparation to lead us to consider the antagonism of Stranger Things under another prism, to prepare the ground for a grayer evolution/ redemption of Henry in the face of the common enemy, the Mind Flayer.

does anyone remember that part of s4ep7 where Dustin is talking about Vecna's motivations for opening the gates and he says:

"Why would he be opening gates?" "To take over the world" "Who do we know that wants to take over the world?" "The mind flayer" "So if the demogorgon was just his foot soldier, Vecna's his five star general"

When vol 2 happened I just assumed we were meant to think he was wrong because obviously if Vecna is controlling the mind flayer, they would have the same goal. but now I think it's clear this was hinting that Vecna's motivations as we are told them in the monologue actually apply to the mind flayer, and Vecna only has them because he's a part of the hive mind (which is literally what is being said here lol)

case in point:

i might add onto this later and talk about how i think other parts of the play expand on this but im tired :P

[a-shadow-thinker]

It's very interesting, especially with what TFS tells us about Henry's past.

If the writing is done well to fill in the holes and tie in with the way Henry's character was presented in season 4, there is the possibility of getting some deep and fascinating development for the character.

Henry Creel has the potential to become a strong and impactful three-dimensional character with the elements we have.

Also, i draw parallels with the show Dark. (which itself presents references to Stranger Things)

It wouldn't be surprising if Henry (along with Eleven) is the key to repairing, restoring order between the worlds.

Also, it's undeniable to not notice the connection between Henry and time.