#Dr Brenner

[elijbclawz]

Uh oh he’s at it again

[erikiara80]

Happy Stranger Things Day! One of the worst days of Will Byers' life. But at least he played dnd with Mike and his friends for 10 hours

[conflictofthemind]

TL;DR: HNL was studying how to give human subjects electromagnetic, most specifically visible light based, powers in order to bend space-time for their needs.

I’m going to try and condense this as much as I can because considering electromagnetism as a major force in ST (pun intended) opens up so many potential areas of analysis that can only be a brief cover of without turning into multiple essays.

Let’s go over the electromagnetic spectrum:

I hope you might already be recognizing some symbols we see often in Stranger Things, especially if you’ve been following the BTS and some location and set leaks from Season 5.

The electromagnetic spectrum encompasses the different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation - waves of energy that travel at the speed of light (and produce visible light to us at certain frequencies). You’ve probably heard of most of these, including cancer-causing gamma rays and x-rays, the visible light spectrum (the rainbow), microwaves, and radio waves.

In S5, we have the radio station as a main location for the characters. They’re also driving around in the radio station’s van, which has an image of a hawk emitting a rainbow (visible light radiation). Steve’s car also has a massive antenna on top of it. My first thoughts were that the team was trying to keep in contact with Max in hopes of her being able to hear them in her coma, considering she has a radio near her bedside. While that still may be a reason, I think the characters may have come to realize how important electromagnetic fields could be in their fight against Vecna (this where leader of the AV Club also focused on electromagnetic objects Scott Clarke may make his triumphant return).

Now to pivot onto why electromagnetism is so important to the lore of ST:

What the scientists in Hawkins Lab are likely studying is a way for human brains to produce or manipulate certain types of electromagnetic waves through telepathy. Most obviously this is seen by them having the kids try to manipulate and turn on a circle of light bulbs. Our brains actually already produce electromagnetic waves, but at a very slow frequency. The scientists are constantly measuring brain waves while conducting these experiments. We even get full shots of El’s brain waves during NINA, for example. We also see similar shots in S2 while Will is in the HNL.

You can also observe that the Hawkins National Laboratory has absolutely massive satellite dishes on it’s rooftop; ones that do not exist on the real life building but are added in post because they pose some sort of significance. Nudge, it’s because they are transmitting and receiving massive amounts of electromagnetic waves.

Why are they studying electromagnetic waves then?

They are studying electromagnetic waves because they are a method in which time travel can theoretically be achieved - the focus of the Montauk Project in which Stranger Things is based on. The military likely is investigating time travel as another war tactic against Russia.

Let us take a look at the first chapter of the Montauk Project: Experiments in Time book (they are seriously plagiarizing the living hell out of this thing):

Also, did you catch the whole 'attaching a massive antenna on the hood of my car to pick up a secret signal' thing? That's suspiciously similar to the state of Steve's car! Anyway...

The story of Stranger Things starts chronologically, as does Montauk, with the disappearance of the USS Eldridge and Project Rainbow (named after the bending of the visible light spectrum). Brenner’s father was revealed to have captained the boat in TFS, which disappeared for 12 hours into Dimension X and when it came back, the crew was killed or driven mad (except for Brenner Sr). This inspires Brenner to continue onto the Nevada project, and eventually, Hawkins National Lab’s studies. The USS Eldridge / Philadelphia Project conspiracy from real life went as follows:

They were studying electromagnetism, specifically the bending of light, to make objects invisible. This was only the first step in the experiments. Once Henry got involved and came back from his trip to Dimension X with powers, Brenner must have realized he could potentially use human subjects to manipulate electromagnetic fields themselves. Human subjects didn’t require machinery or set up and could bend space-time wherever they pleased, as long as they were able to learn the ability.

The more conspiratiorial side of Theoretical Physics proposes using circulating light beams to warp time-space, creating a wormhole in which one can literally walk through time. This is pop-science, likely not true but interesting for fiction purposes. This method of time travel being used is heavily implied due to the fact that the USS Eldridge was already able to disappear into another dimension by the bending of light.

This is how it worked in the Montauk Project book (absolutely ridiculous how much they took from this honestly):

My guess is that in the Stranger Things universe, they have not yet managed to time travel, only to create portals into this alien Dimension X. Previously, said portals were only made twice by highly advanced technological equipment. El demonstrated that she was able to open a portal all by herself - another step to achieving time travel with singular human subjects. Season five is when we will see the beginning of the time travel plot line, though it like in Montauk is likely already in a loop.

That’s where we get the name for the Rainbow Room, named after this Project Rainbow. The rainbow represents the full spectrum of visible light, and the goals of the project to bend said light into portals and eventually time travel wormholes.

Implications?:

-Well, first of all it seems very obvious by this point that we are going for a time travel plot line, and this is how it will be achieved.

-Will is heavily connected to light in general, the sun, and of course… the rainbow. He is also implied be the one involved in the time travel plot line. This will be very relevant going forward and deserves it’s own post. Potential funniness of defeating Vecna with the power of the rainbow afoot.

-Coma patients are known to have odd, barely detectable brain waves. The kids will be able to communicate with Max in her coma using the electromagnetic spectrum somehow, probably through the radio waves.

-On the farthest end of the spectrum, we have ionizing gamma ray radiation, which is known to cause cancer in humans. Expect Hopper’s daughter Sara to connect to this plot line (and perhaps Sam Owens’ dead son). There is a whole theory on this site already called radiationgate. I have not managed to look into it yet but I think they are probably onto something there. The original al pitch mentions the UD leakage into the real world causing cancer as well.

[camaro-and-smokes]

Finally I get to reveal my art for @billybigbang2024 !!!

I had the pleasure to work with @kittyphoenix12-xx for their fic

Lost and Found and Turned Around

Read it on AO3 >>

[will80sbyers]

Brenner is back probably as a vision (?) what the actual hell is going on though why are they making him look older lmao

Edit: apparently it's an old video????? I'm so confused by this man every single time

[willthewiz]

Mike's Truth

Mike: “I didn't… I didn't know what to say.”

Will: "Sometimes I think it's just scary to open up like that. To say how you really feel. Especially to people you care about the most. Because, what if… what if they don't like the truth?”

Mike: "I… I care for you… so much.”

El: "Care." But you don't… you don't love me anymore?

Mike: “What… Who… Who said that I didn't?”

El: “You never say it.”

Mike: “I say it.”

El: “You can't even write it, Mike. "From Mike." "From Mike." "From Mike." "From Mike." "From."

Mike: “Okay, okay. Eleven, you're being ridiculous. What, like… What is this? You know what I think of you. You're the most incredible person in the world. And you can't let these mouth breathers ruin you. Ruin us. I mean, they're nobodies. They're nobodies. And you're a superhero.”

El: “Not anymore.”

Mike didn't know what to say. He knew El wanted him to tell her he loved her but he didn't. Instead, he told her that he cared about her. And because he cares about El, he scared to say how he really feels. Because what if El doesn't like the truth?

Mike didn't know whether to say the truth about how he feels or to lie about how he feels. Telling El the truth about his feelings, opening up, is scary because he doesn't know if she will be okay with the truth.

But she already knows the truth. She knows Mike cares about her, but she also knows he won't say or write about how much he loves her. As Mike said, "You know what I think of you."

Mike: “I am scared that one day you’ll realize you don’t need me anymore.”

Mike: “But the truth is, El, I don’t know how to live without you.”

Mike: “And… I can’t lose you. Okay? Do you hear me? I can’t lose you.”

Mike is scared that he will lose El if she knew the truth. He's scared she wouldn't need him anymore once she found out. It's not that he can't live without her, but that he doesn't know how to live without her. He's kept the truth about his feelings hidden for so long that he doesn't know how to stop hiding because of that fear of losing her.

El: “I saw what I did. I am a monster.”

Papa: “You speak of monsters, superheroes. That’s the stuff of myth and fairy tales. Reality, truth, is rarely so simple. People are not so easily defined. Only by facing all of ourselves, the good and the bad, can we become whole.”

People are not just monsters or superheroes. They are not just bad or good. Because there is more to them than just being totally good or totally bad because we all have a reason for being those things and we all have a little good and a little bad in us. This doesn't mean we're all bad people. It just means that we aren't perfect because we have flaws. And we should embrace that. By facing not just the good things about us, but the bad things (the things that make us imperfect) too, we’ll understand ourselves on a much deeper level. A half, becoming whole. By facing all of ourselves, we become whole. We become whole by finding the other half of ourselves that we ignore and hide from.

“A half cannot truly hate that which makes it whole.”

El: “What if I don’t wanna become whole?”

Papa: “Then that is a choice. Your choice. The door is always open. This place is not a prison. This is. You chose to trust me once. I’m asking you to trust me again. Journey with me into the past one last time. Stop hiding, Eleven.”

In order for Eleven to get her powers back, to face all the good and the "bad" parts of herself to become whole, she must journey into the past. Step out from hiding in the shadows and step into the light. But no one can do this for her. She must be the one to make her choice to open the door to the past, come out from her hiding spot, and face all parts of herself that she has ignored and hid from.

I believe other characters will also have to stop hiding and journey into the past. For them to grow, they must become whole. There is another character who still chooses to hide and ignore the other half of themselves. And that is…

Mike.

Mike will need to say how he really feels. The truth needs to come out. Will a journey to the past help Mike face himself, all the good and the bad, and become whole?

[pareiwheeler]

im joining the stranger things textposts party

[milliebugydementia]

I completely missed the parallels in s4 between el and max, especially in episode 1

- theyre both struggling with grief and loss of a family member who they had mixed feelings about. billy had been paralleled to max's stepdad, and hopper had been compared to brenner. they're both girls who have grown up in violent and controlling environments, but we see them bond in season 3 as each others' only female friends amongst the nerds. they get to have fun being girls together and el grows massively as a person for it

then in season 4 she's immediately tossed into the deep end as soon as she was trying to find a sense of self. we don't see max's mom, but we hear that she drinks, and we see joyce also having wine and being sad, not that this is ever shown to affect her parenting. but max and el are both incredibly lost at this point in the absence of each others' only true friend, and they both become withdrawn from the people around them in trying to act like everything is fine - el trying not to show will when she's upset, and max trying not to show lucas that she's seeing things, and being defensive to the rest of the party.

in s4e1 we see el getting mocked in her presentation while max is walking out of the counsellor's, both in positions of vulnerability trying to move very fast and get away from the past which is clearly haunting them (and they're both talking about the past and the specific trauma they're dealing with in the scenes prior) and failing to.

they're also both being pursued by vecna, which i feel is likely intentional on his part because he can read max's mind and knows he can use killing her to break down eleven.

and max is also so relieved when el finally comes to save her, from vecna but also from everything he is bringing up - el's intervention is as a hero but also as emotional support after max has been so isolated and alone in her feelings for so long, and we never really get to see her and el bond over their mutual grief before she moves away, nor exchange letters about feeling each others' absence.

it would be nice if in season 5 we get a reunion from them that explores some of that in their relationship as it develops, if they decide to bring max back.

i also think it's noteworthy that el and will and max and mike are also kind of parallel characters? mike and max have a lot of sassiness & sark and strength in character for standing up for the people they love & their friends, and a lot of their feud comes from being the same kind of defensive bitch (especially of eleven) and bickering cos they're just the same person? and even in terms of like gender nonconformity, max is a masculine girl while mike is not necessarily effeminate but by being the weedy gay autistic phenotype is kind of inherently gnc.

and el and will are both the sensitive, impressionable counterpart who they fight for, who've also both come from violent backgrounds, experienced a load of trauma pertaining to the same one guy, have the same terrible fringe and cry and have ptsd episodes a lot.

which i think is relevant because for both will and mike and el and max, that separation really strains on all of them, and when they come back together they realise just how much they missed each other.

in conclusion elmax byler supremacy

[wheatnoodle]

mr harrington who’s a scientist at hawkins lab. doctor harrington who made his pregnant wife an mk ultra experiment. dr harrington who gladly hands his baby over to dr brenner the second he is born.

007 who grows up with his dad as his main assigned researcher. being poked and prodded and tested and tased and tortured, all while his father stands next to dr brenner behind a glass pane, taking notes on his clipboard.

007 who lashes out when told his mother is dead. he knows she’s alive. somewhere. he can feel her. 007 who begins to lash out at anyone who comes close. they are the bad guys. they took him from her.

007 who kills a guard and steals his key ring to sneak 008 out. though he’s stopped before he can follow. he cannot wander free. but he cannot be here anymore.

a small device is implanted in his neck. hooked up to several wires to his brain, his memories are stolen, replaced with new ones. with fake ones. ones of a father who always travels for work and a mother who follows to keep an eye on his secretary, yet still somehow manages to keep a name for herself.

he does not question waking up in a bland, plaid room. no emotion, no personality in the space. it is normal to him. it is all he knows. this is steve’s room. it always has been.

[halfadaylayaway1]

Had such an amazing time the past weekend at The Upside Down con

[spookystarfishzombie]

[apersononearth011]

stranger things rant time bc i want to

i hate it so much when ppl say "b-but brenner cared about el! he was a father to her!"

he kidnapped all of those kids, locked them in a lab with no windows away from the rest of the world, severely stunting their social development. all of them are very slim so they are probably being underfed, there is hardly any colour there so that part of their development is stunted too.

routine experiments on the kids that cause them extreme distress are done in the name of science. because he cares about them, right?

that's why he kept them with henry in the building. that's why when the gate opened and he didn't know how to control it, he didn't move eleven to another lab, he kept her there.

AND ON TOP OF THAT he makes them call him "papa". they think he is their father. he electrocuted eleven's mum's brain into not being about to tell anyone what happened to her, or where her daughter is.

that's weird and predatory and so fucking disgusting but it's fine because he "CARES ABOUT HER"??? he CAUSED everything that happened to her. "she's his daughter"

no. he kidnapped kids, performed experiments on them, called them his children, HELL HE DOESN'T EVEN LET THEM HAVE NAMES, they are numbered 001-017!!!!

he's a kidnapper. a child abuser, and a bad person. and i am sick of seeing brenner defenders.

no, idc that he's fictional LET ME RANT.

[erikiara80]

And it's 7:04 PM (11)

(not implying that Will or Jon are Brenner)

[greenfiend]

Puppet master

Determinism | Free will

[bowieisawizard]

I put my blorbos in fish tanks so they don't escape.

I feed them every day but if I set them free so many people would die.

[silvercat-s]

" Being in close proximity to special people doesn’t make you special. Controlling greatness doesn’t make you great. It just shows everyone that you’re a parasite.”

BEAUTIFUL