#i know the end is so st4 coded

[stevesgother]

realistically i know this would never happen because the duffers are very detail oriented about the time period accuracy of the soundtrack, BUT what i would not give for a montage or scene of some sort to I Know The End by phoebe...i would pay real united states dollars. that song is so st coded.

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  @stevestark ! With fourteen Stranger Things fics and twelve in the Steve/Eddie tag, their charming works make waves in the fandom!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by @stevestark:

they told me all of my cages were mental (so I got wasted like all my potential)

i think your house is haunted (your dad is always mad)

i was hitting my marks ('cause i can do it with a broken heart)

Eddie and Robin's Very Real Heterosexual Adventure

it’s hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound (it’s hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you)

Whether their fics are under 5k or over 10k, their world-building is so good! they have a way of making our boys feel so natural and the progression of the relationship always feels realistic. they were one of my favorites back in 2022 when s4 dropped, and they've made a sudden return to the fandom this year with new stories that are just as good if not better than what they had written back then! I'm always so excited to see they've posted something new, no matter if it's a new chapter or a whole new story. -- anonymous

Below the cut,  @stevestark answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

After watching ST4 Vol. 1 I was obsessed. Steve Harrington was one of literally two characters I loved from the very first time I “met” them (the other being Jim Hopper, which is why he tends to feature heavily in my works as the resident Dad) but I had never really been into any ships for him up to that point. The immediate chemistry he had with Eddie Munson though? Woof. I knew I had to write them, and it honestly was like I blinked and had suddenly churned out multiple fics. I stopped writing in general around the end of 2022, but when I got fired from my job in April, I got bored and reread my own works, which drew me right back in, especially because I had already written about 10,000 words of they told me all of my cages were mental (so I got wasted like all my potential) but had yet to finish it. I wanted to read the ending so badly myself that I simply picked it back up, and then next thing I knew I was writing more and more.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

There’s so many. I’m always a sucker for some good old fashioned Hurt/Comfort or Angst With a Happy Ending, but I think my all time favorite has to be Enemies to Friends to Lovers.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Definitely Angst With a Happy Ending. I don’t think I really know how to write anything that’s just straight fluff or even straight smut. There has to be some angst in there, and I’m not really one for an unhappy ending. I’ll maybe do ambiguous, but I was raised on Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers ⸺ we’re happy ending girlies.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

The One In Which A Time Loop Is Fucking Exhasuting. by badpancake on AO3. I think about that shit daily. Every part of it is absolute perfection, and I'm in love with it.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

Fittingly with the last question, time travel! I have a title for a time travel fix-it already, I just need to let it ferment a little in my mind so I can figure out how to do it in a way that feels at least somewhat unique.

What is your writing process like?

Step 1: Put Taylor Swift’s folklore on repeat. Step 2: Open GDoc. Step 3: Stare at GDoc. Step 4: Start writing the first thing that pops into my head and hope it comes out coherent in the end. Step 5: Publish and then immediately reread my work after it’s already live, and pray I only find minor mistakes that I can quickly fix before anyone else reads the fic and spots them.

Do you have any writing quirks?

I always have the title before I even know what the fic will be! 99% of my fic titles are Taylor Swift lyrics, and it’s usually a process of me hearing a specific phrase and thinking “This is so Steddie coded.” After that, I begin the above process, and hope I do the lyrics justice, because I tend to choose the ones that are the most poetic to me personally.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Definitely when I finish writing. I’ve tried holding myself to a schedule before with multichaptered fic in other fandoms, and it just never works out the way I want it to. I actually have an ongoing Steddie WIP that I haven’t touched since April, because I’m waiting for the next chapter to come to me fully before I start writing it, and I do kind of regret posting it as a WIP in the first place. I feel much more accomplished when I can just push the whole work out at once, i.e. my season 2 rewrite where Eleven is found and taken in by Eddie and Wayne, which I had debated posting as a multichaptered fic as I wrote chunks of it at a time. I talked myself out of it though, and despite the fact that it took me weeks to finish, once I got there it was so satisfying to hit that publish button.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Definitely i was hitting my marks ('cause i can do it with a broken heart). There’s a whole entire 58 track playlist to go along with it that I carefully researched and curated before writing even a single word of the story, broken down into specifically themed mixtapes in a GDoc; it's linked at the end of the fic, with a breakdown of which mixtape each set of songs belongs to, and it is my absolute pride and joy.

How did you get the idea for they told me all of my cages were mental (so I got wasted like all my potential)?

I had a passing thought one day about the fact that Steve seemed to just tangentially know who Eddie was by the time we met him in canon, and wondered what it would be like if he had actually sort of known him, and what that would look like. Then I thought about the legend of King Steve, and the fact that he probably did know Eddie, if only as a dealer, and the whole thing sort of wrote itself after that.

When writing they told me all of my cages were mental (so I got wasted like all my potential), what was something you didn’t expect?

Definitely how long it ended up being! The plot was truly just a passing thought, and I honestly believed I would write little vignettes of the two of them getting to know each other at parties over the years, but what actually transpired was some deep character work and a true slow-build to anything substantial between Steve and Eddie.

What inspired i think your house is haunted (your dad is always mad)?

Honestly the title itself! Sometimes, when I pick a Taylor Swift lyric and decide it would be a pretty fic title, that’s where the inspiration ends. With this one, I thought about the fanon (and somewhat canon) belief that Steve’s parents are assholes who don’t really love their son, and even though I’ve known the lyrics to folklore backwards and forwards since the album dropped in 2020, for some reason that line hit extra hard in April of this year, and all I could think about was how badly Steve Harrington wants to be loved and wanted, and I just started writing and didn’t stop until I was satisfied.

What was your favorite part to write from Eddie and Robin's Very Real Heterosexual Adventure?

The entire thing. I’m not just saying that, either. Sometimes, such a good idea falls into my lap that I actually do a proper outline, and with this one, I fully had little sketches going on and everything. I meticulously planned every date they would go on, and I knew exactly how it would end. Though, if I had to isolate any single part that was the most fun to write, it would be the last few lines. Just pure chaos. It makes me laugh every time.

How do/did you feel writing i was hitting my marks ('cause i can do it with a broken heart)?

That was one of my favorites to write, and it flowed out so easily; I had just finished rewatching all of ST, start to finish, for the first time since right before ST4 Vol. 1 dropped. And the only thing I could think about after finishing was that even though it made sense for Max to be cursed, it would have made infinitely more sense for it to be Steve. All we ever see in canon of Steve Harrington is his insecurity and feeling that he’s never enough for anyone; season 1, he thinks Nancy is cheating on him with Jonathan, and they try to keep him out of the Upside Down stuff. Season 2, Nancy actually leaves him for Jonathan, and tells him that he ⸺ and his love, and loving him ⸺ is bullshit. Season 3 is literally the story of how King Steve became a nobody who never wins a fight and falls in love with people who will never love him back. Even season 4 ⸺ when Dustin comes rushing into Family Video to try to track down Eddie somehow? Steve’s immediate reaction is “Oh, your new best friend Eddie who you think is cooler than me because he plays your nerdy game.” He’s never not a mess of insecurity and self-loathing, and nobody around him ever really does anything to rectify that feeling for him, so he’d be perfect Vecna bait. And the whole thing started with the playlist, really, because I had this idea that Steve is a vibes guy for music, rather than a style or genre guy, and then it was just a matter of writing around the mixtapes I’d mapped out. Which, naturally, led to breaking my own goddamn heart writing what I think it feels like inside his head, because I was  ⸺ and still very much am ⸺ that person in the friend group. Never the first pick, always an afterthought, the one people always think is fine but never bother to actually check if they are. So, I guess, it felt cathartic to get it all out somehow, but it was also just so deeply sad, because that feeling never really goes away completely, and I hated doing that to Steve.

What was the most difficult part of writing it’s hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound (it’s hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you)?

Probably just the physical aspect of shotgunning, honestly, and also trying to accurately describe the high. Weed doesn’t do anything for me mentally, and I don’t like what it does for me physically ⸺ to the point that I actually wonder if I have a mild allergy to it ⸺ so it’s not really something I can pull from personal experience in regards to describing it, which made it more difficult than I was prepared for.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

Definitely the opening bit of there’s something about you in the moonlight (but your eyes go so well with the day). Both the Eddie intro and the Steve intro. It was just so fun to tap into that feeling of being a kid and getting hit with the lightning bolt of why people have crushes, but I especially have a lot of love and fondness for the way I described Steve’s desire to find his perfect match, and how it’s not rooted in sex like people thought of King Steve, but in his desire to find someone he’d have fun with forever.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

I’m currently working on a multichaptered fic where Eddie lives, but leaves Hawkins the very night he’s released from the hospital without telling anyone; he does stay in contact though, and he and Steve end up falling in love through letters and phone calls, until, eventually, Eddie realizes that he ran away from the one thing that made him feel the most alive. At last edit, which was yesterday, it’s at 15 chapters and 18,000 words, and I’ve only just gotten to the point where Eddie and Steve are playing phone-tag. Also, if anyone is interested in a non-Steddie but still relatively Eddie-centric fic, I rewrote the entire season 2 canon in are we out of the woods? (are we in the clear yet?) and I am currently working on a season 3 rewrite, which will be followed by a season 4 rewrite, wherein Steddie will become canon. It’s definitely for the long-haulers, but I think it’ll be worth it. Actually, despite being non-shippy so far, it’s probably my favorite thing I’ve ever written. There’s just something about Wayne Munson as the world’s best dad that does it for me, and, as we’ve seen in canon, Eddie is surprisingly really good with kids. I like to think that he’d have been an excellent brother, and I got to explore that with him and Wayne deciding Eleven was theirs.

Thank you to our author, @stevestark, and our nominator! See more of @stevestark works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Oh, thanks for answering so quickly! (I didn't expect it, really)

I'd really like to share my headcanons about Something new!Killer and player!Killer

But first of all, I AM VERY SORRY that in the last post some parts were simply translated into Russian when sending?? For some reason??? It shouldn't be this way, so I'll put the English version below, I hope it's not too confusing [The higher the Stage, the more player!Killer is a Player than a Character, and the less he cares about others as equals - Players can care about Characters, of course, but this will not be real love, but LOVE, what makes hurting those you love because you love them or because you don't care about them

And Killer has a lot of LOVE

ST0 - The Character, Killer before killing Chara, is not able to return to this stage without removing the Demon and changing the code

ST1 - identifies most strongly with other Characters, considers others to be living individuals, has all the emotional burden on his shoulders and is capable of emotions and feelings of pain. If memories of other Stages are not blocked, then he remembers what they did, but from his own point of view - and is not happy about it. At this stage has a solid LV 20

ST2 - emotions and affections are suppressed, comparable to soulless creatures like Flowey. For him, others are, as Flowey would put it, lines of dialogue that become difficult to care about after they've run their course. The fake emotions are fake, and Killer himself is apathetic, except when something interesting is happening. LV 99

ST3 - a borderline stage between ST2 and ST4, where the Killer cannot be described by any word other than a Monster in the most direct human sense of the word. There is no restraint or control like Stage 2 or 4, just boundless Fun and pleasure in causing pain and suffering to others. LV 999999...

ST4 - Killer, but if only he had the full Player mentality. Or Demon. All connections and “friends” are just paths to passages, new dialogues, and games that can be arranged. At this Stage, Killer fully understands why Players and Creators do what they do. LV :)

ST5 - Demon Vessel. Player. All pretense of the Character is stopped. Not considered a real Stage

The Characters are, well, the characters, from Color to the Killer himself, while We are the Players, and the Stages are a kind of stages in the approach of the Character to the Player with all that it entails It's interesting to see how the mentality of a broken person gradually changes closer to being inhuman At least for other Characters

Just as described above, the Demon follows the Killer after Chara's death again, replacing the hallucinations with his presence

And instead of the usual hallucinations of everyone he once loved, player! Killer hears Us and sees what We do to the world around him, when We change the world to suit our idea of ​​reality. Imagine remaking history while the Character is still inside and seeing the world change around them, along with the rest of the Characters and their memories of how the world should be

Therefore, player!Killer is also unsure of the reality of what he sees, not because of the hallucinations of those he loved, but because he can never be sure that his memories correspond to the current iteration of reality (as How would you feel when you know that at any moment your memories and behavior can become invalid for the world around you, but at the same time people believe that everything has always been like this because their memories have been changed in accordance with the new state of the world?) . Because of this, some people may believe that Killer has memory problems. Or hallucinations. This is all about what player!Killer remembers when the Creators changed the world

And since I mentioned this earlier, it's worth mentioning that player!Killer has a lot of gameplay mechanics at its disposal. Starting from the menu and inventory and ending with something more interesting

For example, Killer, starting from Stage 2, has too much Determination, which prevents him from seeing and makes him almost completely blind (even worse at higher ST), so he sees “from a different point of view,” that is, with a third-person camera or The Eye of the Demon, as I like to call it, which replaces his vision and allows him to look at himself and others from the outside]

Now, about my player!Killer headcanons (which I actually sometimes apply to Something new!Killer because the line between the two is really fine and interchangeable)

I really like the idea of ​​a third person camera replacing Killer's vision when he can no longer see with his own eyes This will not only make him distance himself even more from his own body, but also from the events in his life - because it really looks like you are just observing someone else's life, and not living your own It's like you're watching a TV series, or playing a very interactive game. And this kind of vision must have been very confusing the first time - looking at yourself from a different point of view, easily moving your vision to the sides without moving your body, and moving your body without moving your gaze But he will never need a mirror again! It’s also very useful for spying and eavesdropping.

I also like the idea of ​​some kind of mini-map where you can mark living creatures and follow them. This is an excellent material for finding your prey, no matter where it hides and no matter how far it runs - perhaps Killer will even have a pointer in the direction of his prey

Something new!Killer in canon has two projections of himself that seem to be able to talk to each other and push Killer to do different things Personally, I replaced one of the voices with the Demon because it's just aesthetically appropriate to have a Demon on Killer's shoulder pushing him to do terrible things (or not so terrible, after all, this is still a Player with Our mood swings and curiosity) And the second, of course, is the Character, or the remnant of Sans in this terrible mixture of Human, Monster and something else Perhaps it is the struggle between these two "voices" that is the reason for the existence of the Stages. If you can call it a struggle, having a Demon control every part of your life and allow you to function as a separate being for reasons known only to the Demon.

And that part about the hallucinations in the last post, which was perhaps too confusing without context. I'm talking about how a character is able to realize that he is inside the story, and at the same time without the ability to influence anything, and realizing that something has changed only after the fact For example, how are stories created? Usually the Creator creates a setting and adds characters to the resulting world who already have all the necessary knowledge and context clues in order to think that everything around them is real, and their life really was and existed before the beginning of the story. The characters have no point of view from their own history, so they cannot understand that the Creator has changed anything in their world, because from their point of view “everything has always been like this.” They cannot understand that their life may not have even existed up to a certain point, and their personality and emotions were fabricated But what if one of them could? In this case, player!Killer was not aware of such changes in his existence until he received his first Stage, like any other Character, and, of course, unless you really want Killer to remember something, then he there won't be. But it's just fun to imagine Killer tripping over himself when talking about events that never happened from the other characters' perspectives. Or about other characters. About other events from other people's lives. How terrible is it to exist in a world where you REALLY can't be sure something is real? The usual tactile sensation is not enough to understand what is real and what is not. xdd

I also thought about making player!Killer more... physical. Like Flowey. If Monsters are made of magic and dust, Humans are made of flesh and water, then Killer is made of magic, matter and Determination, holding everything together like really strong glue. I want you to be able to shatter every bone in Killer's body. I want black determination to flow out of him instead of blood. I want you to be able to burst his head like a ripe watermelon, filled with a black, viscous substance instead of juice. I want you to be able to smear him across the wall, leaving only his Soul intact. And I want you to be able to tear and tear his Soul like a dog squeaking toy, and it will Refuse to die again and again, restoring Killer's body and shattered mind from the remains so that he can try again or you can break him once more for a snack

I love the idea of ​​Killer being able to interact with the world through a game interface and have it actually affect the world around him I've seen some people use Check outside of Fight in their pieces as a way to identify the person in front of them or check their LOVE. Sometimes Check will also show a short description of the character, which looks pretty interesting to me! But what if instead of a simple Check there are other ACTs? And MERCY? What about SAVE? I like to imagine how in Fight you could use ACT to manipulate people enough to spare them even if you killed everyone else. ACT itself even provides actions that can be used to make a monster lose its will to fight! If a regular fight doesn't work, use words as your most skillful weapon and use your opponent's weaknesses against him, and considering how observant Killer is, this will not be difficult for him MERCY can be used as a feint, like classic Sans does, to stab his enemies in the back, and ITEM could very well be an inventory item And about creating pocket spaces for Fight. This mechanic can be used as a trap - the victim will not escape and will not win, and you can break it in any way possible - the victim is at your disposal. The Killer could use a similar technique to carefully remove Souls, blood and dust for his experiments. Or even living people.

Somewhere on this blog it was mentioned that between Killer and Horror the cannibal is probably Killer and I fell in love with that idea! After all, Killer is already crazy in every possible sense of the word, and cannibalism looks like a nice pinch of sweetness on top! Will he eat dust and flesh to try different flavors? Maybe people with different LOVE have different taste? All for the sake of curiosity, of course. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried some of his own. Maybe he will eat Souls? Not that it would give him anything other than a strong boost of energy, and perhaps residual memories of the Soul owners, but it should be an interesting experience!

I've been toying with the idea of ​​what Killer would sound like in different Stages, and I think it would be fun if his lyrics changed from Stage to Stage as well. For example: 0st *Sans blocks the way. 1-2st *Killer blocks the way. 3st *A Monster is blocking the way. 4st *You are blocking the way. 5st *I am blocking the way. And I like to imagine that Killer's voice in ST4 is incredibly relaxed and even friendly, as if he doesn't take everything around him seriously (because he does), and it's just a game between friends, where he kills his friends, like you can kill a character your friend in the game for fun ST3 probably wouldn't talk because he's always choking due to Determination, and when he tries to talk, Determination would leak out of his skull (ST4 is also choking from the amount of Determination, but that doesn't stop him from talking, which is weird)

And I've been thinking about another game mechanic for some time - Tasks. Just like in games you have a list of tasks, why shouldn't Killer have one? This actually solves a lot of problems! A Killer can be given tasks by a higher up in the hierarchy, be it a Demon, a Nightmare or even a Color (think of what that alone can add to their relationship), and no matter what Stage or state of mind he is in, he will never forget his current task (except ST3, he doesn't care). This way you can also write down what you need to complete the task, without actually listening to the briefing, and always updating the information in the Killer's head. There's also no need to worry about not completing a task - Tasks has an internal punishment/reward system that will make sure that Killer actually does what he's told to the best of his ability! (until, of course, the tasks start to conflict with themselves - the Demon and any other authority figures may have different opinions on different things, so I assume that the Demon's tasks will automatically take precedence over external authority figures)

The same goes for the Demon. Maybe other "ghosts" like X!Chara, Dust's Phantom (a variant with a real ghost), Passive Nightmare (I think that's what they call it?) and the like could see the Demon? A little party of extra soul passengers xd

Also, maybe player!Killer will have some kind of code manipulation abilities at high stages? The only thing I can think of right now is that Killer will be able to inject his victims' code with a "poison" or some kind of small virus that will destroy the code from the inside until the victims stop working in any way

And in the end I was thinking about some kind of body horror, most likely on ST3, associated with changing the body, like the same Flowey does (did you see the hands/vines with which he held the characters at the end of the pacific path? I'm sure it's an ordinary flower not capable of this), but I think it will be left for the viewer's interpretation

I think that's all I have for now and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!!! Thanks for running this wonderful blog and allowing others to express their thoughts. <3

CW: forced cannibalism mention, torture/abuse, suicide/driving someone to it/murder, murder, brutal violence but that’s expected with a killer variant

I think i remember seeing a similar concept of like, the world changing around in accordance to the creators’ whims with ink before in fanfic but itd be interesting asf to explore this type of thing from killers pov. Who does not know too much about creators yet, just players, and hasnt yet encountered those who seem to see and know and experience anything he does. I’m sure he feels like he’s losing his mind (but what else is new for a killer variant.)

As for the “third eye”—i love that idea. could definitely explain why tf killer knows things he shouldnt, and only serves to make his dissociation so much worse if he doesnt understand what hes seeing yet. and like..the idea that you can absolutely just tear killers body to shreds and it wouldn’t mean a damn thing because killers DT just Refuses to die and will pull that vessel back together bit by bit from sheer determination alone..could definitely lead to body horror all around.

and also the idea of st4 choking on DT and yet..somehow still talking is actually kinda disturbing too. and also with all the Act stuff and manipulation I just had the image of killer just..psychologically tormenting someone until they just kill themself for him or someone else kills the victim for him. and luring them with hugs and mercy, or doing what he did to swap and pretending to cry to provoke pity and convince someone into letting their guard down, just enough that he can kill or brutally hurt them.

And when I brought up the possibility of killer and cannibalism it was actually not because hes “crazy” (I don’t really like using that word, as a mutual of mine said something along the lines of before, “no one’s ever just crazy,”), but was moreso because..well, it was a favorite “suggestion” and game of chara’s.

sometimes theyd playfully suggest eating up all the dirty dust if hes really that hungry and if he’s really earned enough food, and sometimes they’d give him food on to later suggest or imply they put a little something in it but killer never knows if its true or not. sometimes theyd offer two or more different food options (when he isnt around to see where they came from or how they were made) and imply hed better be smart and “choose the safe one.”

sometimes killer would die from poisoned foods, sometimes its safe (either some or all are), sometimes its just rotten and spoiled. sometimes Chara changes their mind and decides he’s not actually hungry. sometimes he gets nothing at all unless he wants the dust. (Which he doesn’t think hes ever went that low or gotten that desperate..he thinks..)

ultimately killer never really knows for sure if he has done something like that, but itd be interesting to explore what itd be like if he did know. maybe he did get that desperate one day..or maybe he just finally caved when chara kept hammering on the threat..

And also! I love the tasks idea, the idea that killers mind runs in series of tasks and there’s internal reward and punishment systems to ensure he does them exactly as hes supposed to; usually the internal tasks would take precedence over any external ones, and external ones that come from higher up in “hierarchy” favor out over tasks given from like, teammates or those asking for favors. those at the bottom like that tend to be easily forgotten and discarded in the more important tasks that must be done.

{ @vizellian }.

[henrysglock]

A Little Catholic Calendar Math for March 1959

Something I can't believe I didn't do earlier, especially regarding my book of revelation post (here) is the calendar math on the Creel murders for both Henry and Edward.

Specifically, I want to talk about Easter of 1959.

As we know, Edward's murders occurred late on March 21st, 1959, and the bodies were discovered the next morning: March 22nd, 1959.

(lifted from Em's post here)

Can we guess what that Sunday was? Anyone?

It was Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday being when Jesus enters Jerusalem, marking the beginning of Holy Week.

It also happens to be the day Edward would have officially been entered into HNL.

Interestingly, the Saturday before Palm Sunday is known as Lazarus Saturday, as it marks the day when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead as proof that he would be resurrected when the time came.

A miracle of resurrection...on the night of Edward Creel's murders. (Staring at El's resurrection powers, featured front and center in ST4...)

Now, as we also know, the Creel boys ended up in a week-long coma:

That next Saturday is Holy Saturday, also known as Black Saturday or Easter Vigil...

...Commemorating Christ's descent into Hell.

—cough cough—

Anyway.

Edward, then, would have woken up on Easter Sunday:

...making his story an altered version of the resurrection of Christ.

That was Edward. Now, let's talk about Henry.

Henry's murders took place the night of Wednesday, March 25th, 1959, and the bodies were discovered the next day: Thursday, March 26th, 1959.

Holy Wednesday and Holy Thursday respectively.

What's so special about Holy Wednesday?

Holy Wednesday, also known as Spy Wednesday, is the day that Judas betrayed Jesus.

The bodies, then, were discovered on Holy Thursday, the last mass before Easter.

Then Henry, like Edward, has his coma. However. This seven-day coma means that Henry does not wake up on Easter Sunday.

He wakes up on April Fools.

He's a false Christ. He's not the droid we're looking for.

None of these dates line up again until...you guessed it: 1986

Chrissy dies on March 21st, Friday of Sorrows. She's found on March 22nd, Lazarus Saturday. Fred dies on Lazarus Saturday. Max is cursed on March 23rd, Palm Sunday. Patrick dies on March 25th, Holy Tuesday. Max falls into a coma on March 27th, Holy Thursday. The full gang meets up after the 2 day jump: March 29th, Black Saturday.

Season 5 will pick up after March 30th: Easter Sunday, 1986.

All of this corroborates what I've been saying since March: We've got a holy trinity, but it's not the one you think it is.

As I laid out in my Book of Revelation post, Edward/Vecna/001 has a frankly insane amount of Catholic God coding.

Here are some highlights, if you don't want to read the entire thing:

Our Holy Trinity, in Stranger Things, is likely Edward, Brenner, and the Shadow. Christ the Son, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

And all of this...with Henry and El as false/failed Christs, scapegoats for the real deal (see: El being blamed for both One and Vecna's murders, when in fact she's been standing against both the entire time).

This post also serves as my retraction re: Will as Christ. (Gasp! James retracting a statement? Say it ain't so...) I'd like to send the statement in another direction, because this isn't me saying that Will is unimportant. While, in my opinion, Will is not a part of our big Holy Trinity...I personally see him as a prophet, much like St. John of Patmos, rather than one of the Big 3. That's not to say I'm staunchly against him as a Christ figure, but it just doesn't hit quite right for me anymore.

[byleriscanon713by]

So I might be reading too far into this but I took the duffers funko pop thing and sorted it

Code:

Yellow- friend pairings

Green: romantic pairings

Blue: familial pairings

Red: not currently present

Okay so we’ll get into the friendship parings first.

So I think will and robin will get to have a fun friendship this season. I think they prob want robin to hang out with someone other than Steve and Nancy so will and her would bond well since they’re both part of the lgbtq+ community. I also think there’s potential for her to help in the buildup for byler. i also see a lot of potential for Mike and Lucas to kind of mend their friendships that’s always been a little rocky throughout the seasons. I think they’ll get some (not a large amount) of interaction together to kind of mend their holes throughout the seasons. I also have seen the theory that Lucas will be integral in helping Mike realize his feelings for Mike which is possible. It’s 50/50 but I do think Lucas may just say something unintentionally that triggers Mike into being like “oh god I’m a homosexual.” (Even tho he probably ALR knows that from the ending of season 3)

The Dustin/Johnathan/Nancy/Steve pairing is interesting and I think it’s gonna be a great quartet thing-a-ma-bobber. So we know Dustin and Steve are joined at the hip and Nancy and Johnathan are also super close so they’ll def stick together. However we’ve also seen previs’ of steve and Johnathan having a conversation in episode 1 of st5 so I think the two of them will become friends. There was also a previs from episode 5 I believe and it looks like they’re in the upside down and you could see Dustin in the passenger seat of a car and Nancy and Johnathan in the back. I think it’d be weird for Dustin to just casually be hanging w/ Nancy and Johnathan so I bet Steve is driving. Also, we know Eleven is gonna be an integral part of the series and so is Will, so the four of them kind of are on the outskirts a little. They’ll prob have a more separate storyline where they’re discovering things unrelated to the core problem. Now why would robin and Lucas not be with that group? Well Lucas just lost max so I think he might need some separation time from that group and he might want to rekindle with mike and will cuz he was kind of distant with them in season 4. I think Robin may be with that group part time, but I also think she may take up some sort of fondness for Will where she wants to protect him (especially if he’s susceptible to vecna) Also if Will is susceptible to Vecna, Lucas has seen Max get vecnad and saved her the first time so he might have that instinct to “I need to save Will since I didn’t save Max.” Robin may be there because she’s the one who discovered the whole music thing and she may want to be wills lesbian protector idk. And obvious mike would want to be there but we’ll get into that later.

Now why did I put Steve/Nancy/Jonathan in green? I think they’re gonna be a love triangle. Not the love triangle where they all date, but just the fact that Steve and Johnathan are both obviously pining over Nancy. As much as I hate admitting it, I think stancy is endgame with the way they set them up in st4. I also think there’s a large possibility of Johnathan well… perishing. I’ve seen a lot of people saying “omg stonathan” cuz they saw Steve and Johnathan touching heads in that photo but I am skeptical of stonathan ever happening. I think they’ll be friends, but I think the head touching could still meaning there’s some head butting over Nancy going on. They both love her so I do think they’ll both have romantic moments throughout the season with her. Idk. That love triangle is quite a mystery. Let’s get into the best ship: Byler! I believe Byler is endgame and I could go on for probably eight hours about all the proof and all the queer coding they’ve gone through. Now why do I think byler is a logical thing going to happen in a straight to the point way? Well you saw Mike at the end of st4 when Will was talking abt feeling Vecna. Mike looked terrified. Mike has that instinct of needing to protect Will, and I think as st4 went on Mike started gaining it back and releasing el didn’t love him as much and that will was the one who needed him. The duffers have also teased a lot about circling back to the og relationships and dynamics from st1, but they’ve also said a lot of it is based on st2. Now in st2 Mike was practically attached to Will since he was possessed by the mid flayer. I am 100% sure Will is going to be under Vecnas trance and I’m pretty sure that’ll happen early in the season. I think once Mike sees that he’ll snap right back into his protector mode and be joined to Will for the rest of the season. From there, the potential of the painting being recalled and basically them confessing their love is quite obvious. I’m not gonna get too into byler here but it you love hearing about byler you should follow me cuz I post about them a lot :) (Also if your a st account or like any fandom I’m interested in I’ll prob follow u back and stalk ur page cuz I adore reading yalls theories and fics and ahhhh)

Now let’s get into the familial relationship!!! I forgot to circle Joyce and hopper in green but that’s okay cuz they’re endgame and it’s obvious. Now since Joyce lost hopper for so long and it took so much tension building over the seasons for them to get together, I think they’ll be partnered up again. They typically are anyways. I think Eleven will also be with them. I think Eleven is going to break up with Mike and become her own character. Now I think eleven is going to die at the end of the season by using all her powers and instead of fainting, destroying the upside down for good and killing herself in the process. I think it’s a full circle but also depressing and plausible ending for her. It’s very likely. This season I think they’re going to focus on her character. In every season her character has either been based on her powers or on being mikes girlfriend. I think her having time with Hoppet and Joyce will give her some good character qualities and depth that we haven’t seen. She’s also reeling from the death of Max and I feel she’ll just want some space (especially from what we see at the end of st4) However she also misses Hopper cuz he was the primary influence in her life and personally I think he loves her more than anymore. She wants to makeup for the lost time with him. Also wherever hopper is Joyce will be too, especially since she’s always had that kind of motherly dynamic towards El (and she is her mom now technically.) I’m just so excited for el to finally get to be her own person.

Lastly I think Max will be MIA for a while. I think that she will come back but not until later. She may help fight Vecna from inside his mind, but I doubt she will truly not come back till Eleven is able to kill vecna. Not seeing Sadie sink in this season much would kill me cuz I love her, but it’s realistic.

Anyways thank you so much for reading this super long rant!!! Reblog and add your opinions cuz I would die to see them. Like I love hearing new theories!

[hawkwidows]

I’m not the anon but I agreed with some things they said, and I’m not afraid of stereotyping him at all, I think that’s a pretty big assumption to make for why people perceive his character as simply boyish, not liking to feel vulnerable, and so on. Maybe stoic is too strong of a word, sure, but what’s on the screen is what’s on the screen, I think the whole point was just that people’s perceptions have nothing to do with blending Noah and Will. It’s clearly due to something the actor brings intentionally to Will that is not his own personality, that low, quiet seriousness. And we’ve seen Will in some pretty tough spots. It makes sense he’d be sensitive in those situations, you know? He’s very special of course but he’s also just a guy

Also, being sensitive or a crier or soft isn’t bad yucky girl coding it’s literally just not something only girls do! It’s uncomfortable to see someone express traditionally feminine traits and have people go “yes, that’s a girl thing.” It’s what his bullies did. I think that’s the point: that we can appreciate these things about Will without constantly obsessing over his Girl role. He’s just Will

you've clarified things I could not comprehend in the og post so cheers tbh.

moving on:

It’s uncomfortable to see someone express traditionally feminine traits and have people go “yes, that’s a girl thing.”

and you just called them traditionally feminine traits. that's literally the whole thing. I am not the one using "girl" in replace of "feminine", that was op anon, and others minimising will's narrative, and I think saying "a girl thing" is missing the point of analysing something as feminine. I can't speak for anybody else, I don't know what you or op anon have seen, but when I ever discuss what was watered down to "girl coding", it's about the fact will is a male character who happens to have been written to express traditionally feminine traits more than other boys/men around him, and also the tropes his story falls under.

it's not a bad or weird thing to point out. noticing feminine traits is most definitely not my entire personality, which it feels like you're implying is for some people. I find it genuinely fucking cool they wrote a male character to follow multiple tropes and narratives usually given to female characters in the horror genre. it's unique and fresh and expressing enjoyment over that isn't taking away from will being a boy.

but he also isn't just a standard boy, btw. his visible difference to everybody else is kind of a big - and important - part of his story. and no, that's not me being wilfully ignorant to what you're saying - I fully understood you, I am just saying that while I agree he isn't overly effeminate or flamboyant atm, he is also not "just a guy".

I think you're making an assumption off my wording - which I get because it was posted impulsively - but holy hell that was definitely not the correlation. you agreeing with op anon but also being fine to stereotype him doesn't make any opinion here special, I mean great to hear you have no problem stereotyping him! but I wasn't making a generalisation. the will and noah criticism is often about noah's physique affecting how people perceive will post-st4, when even that is exaggerated.

people being scared to stereotype will IS a problem in the fandom, even if not related to that specific post, and I brought it up because it was similar language. but also, this is the first I'm hearing the word "boyish" used for will so consistently. what I usually see is people going to the total opposite end of the spectrum of how we know him in the show and making him tough, commandeering or stoic, instead of embracing his softness; and never what's happened here today, which is people insisting that others are 'making him girly when he is in fact boyish' - that's news to me!

from what I've seen, if you explore his canon gender nonconformity, it's too feminising and there's hesitance, even if it's the simplest thing. in fact, guaranteed someone reading me even mentioning gnc in the sentence previous just flinched because it's a touchy or tired subject. but I don't see that issue with mike in headcanons/fics/art, ever, which is what has led me to believe over time that people have an issue/fear with stereotyping will. and that has to come from somewhere in his visual/narrative design because where else could you get it from unless you can recognise the writer's intentions?

I know I've held back from posting more headcanons bc I've been worried people will assume things of me because they project assumptions, when I always take his gnc qualities, and potential, seriously.

also, like I mentioned above, nowhere did you touch on the fact will's narrative is consistent with that of female horror characters (and that's not a bad thing), which is what the people I've seen who may discuss any "girl coding" are often referring to, because it's relevant and unique, and worthy of analysing.

I'm linking this post that explains it more really well, but I know you'll either find it interesting bc you've never seen it before, or roll your eyes bc you already have issue with it; but I can't express more how I'm coming from a genuinely fascinated, excited and well meaning place whenever I might discuss will's narrative having anything to do with something traditionally feminine (which is just a harmless word that happens to have the prefix 'fem').

what’s on the screen is what’s on the screen low, quiet seriousness

what's on screen is being reserved, not stoicism. it's will going through tough times, and - in your eyes - involuntarily expressing emotion when he usually wouldn't......? well all I can recommend for you here is rewatching the show. honestly.

will is a lively, funny, expressive character. not near the same level as noah, but I struggled to understand the relevance in pointing out will's quiet seriousness and noah. are being loud and extroverted not traditionally more masc traits in characters than quietness and being reserved? would that not mean will's expressiveness is what makes him more boyish than his passiveness?

I feel as though the issue being expressed here is feeling importance in will being male and being gay, and so people deeming will's traits feminine = he falls under the 'girl' in other's tendencies to make things a boy/girl dynamic, hence putting such an emphasis on "will is just a boy!!". and I hear you, but being afraid to explore will's story because of optics in relation to his love interest does a disservice to his journey.

I have three (rhetorical, please) questions for that:

a) do you understand that will's story goes beyond his relationship with mike, and that sometimes when people are analysing will's narrative, they aren't even keeping mike in mind? aka there's no intentional placing of will in a feminine role in their dynamic?

b) do you also vocally criticise when people do the same as they may do to will, to mike?

c) do you acknowledge that ST is an 80s show, not set in modern day, and will is from generation x - where we happen to have gotten a lot of those 'stereotypes' from, and it may not be so bizarre to consider he grows up to be similar to the middle aged (visible!) gay men you may know today? or can you see how playing with his gender nonconformity or any stereotypical progression can be different to if he was, say, a 2024 gay high schooler in another netflix original, where it's then a tired writing decision?

I think that’s the point: that we can appreciate these things about Will without [...]

we are. we are appreciating will for who he is, and some of "these things" happen to include him being given roles in the narrative that are often given to female characters, and that's not making anything 'binary'. it's a part of the conversation of will byers. will is not the character who experiences girly issues in the fandom.

He’s just Will

exactly! and "just will" is not your regular male character, and I love that about him. but nowhere does that imply people don't treat him as a boy??

I absolutely know I've repeated myself a lot in this post, but there's a lot of jumping around so, eh.

[buck-yyyy]

hi yes hello, im back on my bullshit and ready to talk more about mike’s one track mind, as a continuation of this post from last night :)

@magentamee made a really great point in the tags that i kinda want to explore further because i wasn’t thinking about it at all when i first made that post, so here we are :0

[image id: tumblr tags from user magentamee that read, “#this checks out for me…. HM!!!! #mike definitely had a one-track mind #which? also makes st4 super wild bc he has his Objective yet.. hes really thinking about something Else the whole time #mike wheeler analysis” /end id]

this is so interesting to me because his objective in season four SHOULD be to find el- but it’s not?

like, let’s recap the beginning of season 4:

he isn’t focused on finding el at the roller rink- rather, he seems like he’s hyper-aware of what’s going on with will.

he crumples up el’s letter.

he shows no clear interest in going to find el until jonathan suggests that they get a ride from argyle to escape the house and go find her.

the only time that he’s completely focused on el is when they’re fighting about the ILY and when she gets arrested- why isn’t that a continuous theme throughout season four?

later, in the van, his objective should still be to find el. and on the surface, it is! but the fact that he and will have so many heart-to-hearts that are INCREDIBLY coded conversations makes that objective rather iffy.

while those conversations appear to be about el, we know that they’re not, especially from will’s POV. in the junkyard? will isn’t talking about how it’s hard to say ILY, he’s talking about how it’s scary to come out. in the van with the painting? will isn’t talking about el’s feelings, he’s talking about his own.

the fact that mike is so captured by will’s own feelings disguised as understanding of mike and el’s feelings/relationship tells me that his objective ISN’T solely el- it’s will. if they wanted to show mike fully focused on el, on getting her back and on fixing their relationship, they wouldn’t have made these conversations the way they are- because they’re not about el, they’re about will.

so if we’re deeming mike’s season four objective to be will, then why does he respond to will like that in the beginning? why does the monologue happen?

number one: mike is disguising his own objective. it’s a shield, it’s repression, it’s mike pretending that el is his only focus when it’s now become clear that it’s really will. we see that shield start to crack when mike has his outburst at rink-o-mania, about will rolling his eyes and ruining their time together. and yet, mike still tries to keep it up- but it doesn’t work! we see these coded conversations and we’re able to recognize that really, el has nothing to do with it all. it’s all will.

number two: perhaps will isn’t the true objective, maybe he’s just the surface of the underground objective (yes, i know that wording sucks, but i can’t think of a better way to put it). will starts out there season getting ignored by mike, because he’s still stuck in the mindset of conformity. but underneath, he’s clearly struggling with something- something that’s making him want to push away both will and el.

whatever could that be? /sar

in my mind, mike is trying to figure himself out. he’s struggling with his sexuality, he’s struggling with his feelings for will, he’s struggling with his lack of feelings for el. the reason he’s having so much difficulty focusing on both el and will is because that is his objective- the age old question of “why do i feel like this, is there something wrong with me?”

also, a disclaimer, because i feel like my words can easily be misinterpreted: mike still cares deeply about el! he still wants to find her very very badly, because el is in danger and he loves her! but el isn’t his focus (and neither is will!) and he doesn’t love her the way he thinks he should- so he pretends that she’s the focus and that they’re in love.

this post also doesn’t mean that i think he ONLY cares about one person or thing at a time- he cares so deeply about everyone in his life, and i think that’s part of why i love him. it just means that he tends to get tunnel vision on a specific goal.

tldr; mike’s objective this season isn’t the surface interpretation of el, or the slightly deeper interpretation of will. his objective is himself, and figuring out how that relates to will. and that’s why he’s pushing them both away, that’s what makes season four mike so different from season one through three mike- because for once, his objective isn’t a person. it’s not will like seasons one and two, and it’s not el like season three. season four presents mike’s objective as simply, ‘who is mike, and what does that mean?’

*drops mic*

anyways. thoughts?

[chirpsythismorning]

Predictions for Songs That May (or May Not) Be Used to Promote the Final Season of Stranger Things!

While in the process of making my ST5 Vision playlist (with up to 200 songs), I noticed I was subconsciously making categories. And one of the categories I found myself getting especially fixated on, was one for songs that I could actually see being used, in either the official trailer for s5, or some other form of promotion, whether that be a teaser, sneak peak, or even just a simple 10 second clip of all the main characters dramatically looking up at the camera.

As I continue to stress myself out over the near endless possibilities for this playlist, I wanted to share a few songs here right now which I think, with (some) good reason, could end up being used to promote the show, ie. what Separate Ways was for the official s4 trailer.

Now, I want to make clear that I'm just theorizing here. This is all educated guesses at best. Don't take my word for it and please refrain from getting bitter in the case that you dislike one or more of the songs. If you must know I predicted exactly ONE song that ended up featuring in s4 (Object of My Desire), despite only having like 20 songs on my 'ST4 Vision' playlist (and despite not even taking it that seriously last time), so please give me some credit here! TBH I myself don't even like all these, but I'm still willing to consider them after researching through all the options that are out there.

I also want to add that most of these songs require some imagination. I think it's likely that whatever song(s) they do end up choosing, they'll most likely be modified to sound slightly different than the original. It all depends on the vibe they want to go for. And while we wait for the final season, i figure it might be fun to see if we can guess some of the DNA for s5 by doing stuff like this, which is why I wanted to share!

Keeping all of this in mind, here are my predictions!

The Final Countdown (1986) Europe

Likelihood Rating: 9/10

Yep. I'm starting with the most obvious. Sue me. Honestly though, I don't really have any strong opinions about this one. Like, it fits. It's 'the final countdown' aka the final season. This song is most often used in intense environments, like sporting events, etc.. So there is this element of appeal in that it could be quite fitting for an official trailer, let alone a final season trailer. I have said in the past that lyrically there is some potential endgame byler coding in these lyrics, meaning this song would be fitting not only because of it's literal title, but also in a way that could foreshadow what may end up happening in the show itself (wouldn't be the first time). There's this mention of 'we're leaving together', 'missing her so,' as well as something a little more specific, '-- still we stand tall, cause maybe they'll see us, and welcome us all'. I could genuinely imagine this being used to foreshadow Mike and Will leaving for the city (together) at the end of the show, missing El who stays, and the audience maybe (hopefully) accepting that as a satisfying ending (also a Separate Ways parallel: here we stand vs. and still we stand tall).

I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire (1941) The Ink Spots

Likelihood Rating: 2/10

Yep. I'm going from the most obvious to the most obscure. Sue me. To be fair, I don't think this song is that obscure (you might even recognize it from angsty s4 Will Byers edits: here and here to name a couple). And although it is very old and therefore would not necessarily fit with the 80's vibe specifically, Stranger Things is no stranger to featuring songs that came out well before the setting of the show. In fact, almost every season, we get at least one major oldie. And so, I guess if I had to choose my prediction for the oldie to feature in s5, it would be this one! It should be noted that the preview Tumblr offers for this song does not do it justice (nor do the other previews listed here for that matter), so definitely listen to the whole thing before giving it your full consideration. I do think that the s5 promo version would indeed be modified quite a bit to match the vibe they want to go for. What made me sort of instantly transfixed by this song in particular, is that it sounds and carries itself like a love song, and that's because it is a love song, no doubt. But because of the lyrics, it also feels like it could be framed in an eery way (I've Got Five On It from Us comes to mind). I think by fully embracing the apocalyptic-toned lyrics, while also embracing the romantic-toned ones, they could invoke a really incredible feeling out of the audience. Now, when it comes to the lyrics, that's what really got me intrigued. "I don't want to set the world on fire" reminds me of the expectations for Will's character going into ST5, with much of the GA being convinced that Mike not loving him back is going to result in this villain arc for him, which will inevitably end with Will sacrificing himself (also Will Byers fireball homage). But the truth for Will, and just like the song also argues, is much less stereotypically violent and a lot more surprisingly pure. The truth is that Will, 'just wants to start the flame in Mike's heart'!! And so we've got flame in heart crumbs, with a dash of end of world crumbs? Sign me tf up.

Mad World (1883) Tears For Fears

Likelihood Rating: 6/10 -

I feel like we need at least one Tears For Fears song in Stranger Things. Although I'm convinced (delusional) that Everybody Wants to Rule the World will feature near the end of the series during a happy moment, solely because of how much that s2 behind the scenes video has changed the brain chemistry of the entire fandom, to the point where a lot of us have been convinced it was used in the show at one point. But for the sake of this list, I think song(s) used to promote s5 before it premieres, are going to be less 'uplifting good', and instead more 'eery good'. We're still in hopeless, assumed failed mission territory and so 'No tomorrow. No tomorrow' is quite fitting. While there is hope going into the final season (we've been reassured the ending is beautiful) there's still a battle ahead in the mean time. Unless they plan to change our relation to that song, from aww to OH SHIT (which they definitely could...), I do think Mad World sort of fits the bill in respects to the impending doom a little more than EWRW, which feels more victorious in comparison. Lyrically, Mad World reminds me of Henry's villain monologue at the end of Vol. 1. I also think it's a good example of a song that has some lyrics that fit very well, while other lyrics don't fit as much. And that's okay. In the past, there has been songs used for ST promo, and even in the show itself, that followed a similar criteria, where they even tweaked/removed parts of songs that didn't match the message they wanted to convey. So keep this in mind as the list goes, because I do think a lot of layers go into their final decision for song choices, especially in regards to promotional picks. And so in this case, I guess you can't go wrong with a birthdaygate easter egg either...

Crazy Train (1980) Ozzy Osbourne

Likelihood Rating: 5/10

This song is extremely well known, and I do think it has the range to mesh well accompanying badass frames of the characters fighting and surviving in the trailer for the final season, as it has been used a lot from this sort of hyped up lens before (fingers crossed Megamind is on the ST5 inspo board!). Lyrically, we've got 'mental wounds not healing, life's a bitter shame, I'm going off the rails on a crazy train'. 'Mental wounds not healing', could parallel to what was going on with El at the end of s3 and throughout s4, with her powers not working bc of the memories she was suppressing, and it could also be related to Max ending up in a coma at the end of s4 at the hands of Venca, with her going into s5 somewhere in between life and death. 'Life's a bitter shame', pretty much sums up a lot of what the characters were feeling in s4 (also Heroes crumbs mayhaps?). 'I'm going off the rails on a crazy train,'... I shouldn't even have to acknowledge the implications of them using this song, or any song that includes the word Crazy in the title for that matter, as the official song for the season... and so, I wont. TBH I feel like this song is a little too similar to Separate Ways, and so maybe it wouldn't get picked based on that reason alone? Or maybe the exact opposite? Maybe it would get picked for that very reason? Regardless, I could see it.

Have You Ever Seen The Rain (1970) Creedance Clearwater Revival

Liklihood Rating: 3/10

This is another example of a song that would need to be modified quite a bit in order for it to work with the vibe of the final season. However, I do think there is quite a bit here to work with. 'Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm, I know, it's been coming for some time'. Those lyrics alongside some eery s5 frames, like, it works. And they feel deeper than just the literal storm itself, as everything likely to go down in s5, has indeed 'been coming for some time'... Also, if I'm being totally honest, any songs I can find that involve storms or thunder or rain, I'm there! And so this is just one in particular that stood out to me. This emphasis on rain pouring tremendously, while the sun shines brightly... I love it. Also we know songs by Creedance Clearwater Revival are very very capable of being covered and changed to something more creepy, Bad Moon Rising ring any bells?

Somebody to Love (1967) Jefferson Airplane

Likelihood Rating: 3/10

Now, ST has used a song by Jefferson Airplane before (White Rabbit), which is from the same album as this song Somebody to Love here. Although I don't necessarily think that alone rules out this song being a possibility, I still felt like it was worth mentioning. Lyrically, we've got, "When the truth is found to be lies. And all the joy within you dies. Don't you want somebody to love? Don't you need somebody to love? Wouldn't you love somebody to love? You better find somebody to love." This could fit very well with what's going on with El towards Mike in s3-4. Though I think she already knows the truth, which is that his monologue wasn't romantic and that he's sort of stringing her along with this falsehood, this song captures an emotion that I think is present with her still, and will be until they finally end things romantically. I also think the audience still hasn't realized the truth themselves, seeing as most of them assumed she loved the monologue. It's almost like the audience would also be discovering the truth aka the lie, and so if a song like this were to be incorporated in some type of promo, it could be interesting... El also very much deserves someone to love her the way she wants to be loved. Whenever someone finds themself in relationship, where they're giving 70% and the other is giving 30%, it might be time for the person putting in more to let go and remind themselves they deserve somebody to love them, truly. And this could also apply to every character on the show, as most songs used in promo apply to more than just one character. However, I do think the initial lyric at the start of this song definitely applies to El and her relationship with Mike, along with her desire to love someone and for them to love her back equally. Oh and also "when the garden flowers, baby are dead, yes and your mind, your mind is so full of red"...

Smalltown Boy (1984) Bronski Beat

Likelihood Rating: 1/10

I don't want to hear about how unrealistic it is, it's called manifestation. We all know Smalltown Boy is the very first song on Mike's official Spotify playlist, and so there has been a lot of hype in the byler community that it could potentially feature in the final season, aka the same season Mike's feelings for Will are anticipated to be revealed. To be fair, You Spin Me Round featured in s4 (at Rink-O-Mania where Mike was being an absolute gay disaster bc of Will) and was also on Mike's playlist, along with Mad World which I also listed as a prediction for s5 promo. Even still, personally, I can't really imagine this song in the show itself, as like non-diegetic nor diegetic sound. I could however imagine it being used outside of the show for some kind of promotion. I know all the Netflix socials release more than just teasers and trailers, but also like small snippets of promo, for example the one with the main party all looking up at the camera dramatically for ST4 promo. I could totally see a short clip of s5 Mike looking up at the camera all worried, and accompanied by that notable Smalltown Boy (Bronski) beat.

Should I Stay or Should I Go (1982) The Clash

Likelihood Rating: 7/10

Even though I try to not dwell too much over songs that have already been on the show, I feel like this is one of the clear exceptions. Should I Stay or Should I Go had so much importance early on, like it was literally the Running Up that Hill of the first season. And so if we're going to see a lot of things coming full circle, with us getting some big questions answered related to Will and the Upside Down, I think it's possible and even likely we could hear it on the show again. There's a bunch of popular theories that Will could get Vecna'd based on a decent amount of substantial evidence, meaning we could hear this song play on the show again in attempts to save him... However, it's probably not likely to play out exactly like this, since we know Vecna/Henry needs Will and doesn't want him dead (as far as we know at least). I do think it could also be used as promo for s5. There's one TikTok edit in particular that made me realize how awesome something like this could look. It would feel very much like we're back to s1 vibes if they used this song, and I think that since they've admitted to going back to their roots, it's definitely a possibility we'll hear it again. (Also another iconic s5 concept edit from this user bc they’re a legend!)

Down Under (1981) Men At Work

Likelihood Rating: 2/10

This is probably my most unique prediction of all, because although there aren't a lot of lyrics to go off of here, we don't really need a laundry list of lyrics, as it first and foremost depends on the style of promo the song would be used in. The title itself could parallel to the Upside Down, aka 'Down Under'. Lyrically, we've got, '--Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover'. It doesn't take a lot to recognize this fits pretty well with what we're going to presumably be thrown into at the start of s5. I do think this would be another case of them having to edit the original drastically in order for it to work. But again, I could really imagine it working well for promo that's smaller in length. And if given really eery, edgy modifications in the ST version, I could honestly see it being pretty epic too. A lot of people know this song from other entertainment over the years, so it would be instantly recognizable, but also unique and engaging enough to impress viewers. Underground is another song from this album that feels slightly Upside Down coded, though not as well known so probably not as ideal for promo purposes. (Double also, Men At Work have a couple extremely Mike Wheeler coded songs, including, but not limited to: Who Can It Be Now and Man with Two Hearts)

AND that's all for now!

I'm curious to know if any of you can imagine one or more of these songs featuring on the show in some way? Or if there's any other songs you can think of that might work for s5 promotional purpose? So please don't hesitate to share! I would love more inspiration!

It's been a lot of fun making this playlist, especially knowing there's at least a small possibility in guessing some of the DNA of the final season in doing so. I feel like with previous seasons, it wasn't as easy to guess the music that might feature because there was just such a broad understanding of what was to come. Though, with this being the last time around, there's just so much to go off of in terms of the expected tone, especially with the whole 'end of the world' aspect.

As of now, I'm not sure if or when I'll ever post the ST5 vision playlist. I could see myself being able to release it in chunks, like I did here first with songs that I could see being used in s5 promotion. Some of the categories include themes involving catastrophic weather conditions/war, doors and/or locks, hearts, unrequited love, sleepless nights, magic/powers, etc. are just some of the few categories I have going on. If there's any in particular you're interested in hearing next, don't hesitate to ask!

[henrysglock]

ooooh okay i love this because these all can connect with different details that have already come up (this is about linking, not necessarily analyzing yet)

"The campaign way way too short!" "It was 10 hours!"

-> El's "we are all time travelers" bit in her letter about emotions shortening and lengthening time -> The difference in perception re: byler reunion vs mileven reunion, and that discrepancy being tied to El and the 1979 Massacre/Brenner -> Powers, specifically Henry's, being tied to big emotions and time -> Henry's clock scene being shown to us during his big emotional monologue...but he never actually talks about the clock

Contradictory births

-> Ties in with Willel twin imagery and lab twin imagery/Brenner's Mengele-Schumann coding (Will and El could actually be twins, Mengele and Schumann used to use one twin as experimental and have the other twin as an unchanged control. The control twin was always collected later for comparison, hence Will's fake body in ST1)

Brown vs Green eyes Will

->Ties in with changelings vs Will and HNL vs The Talisman and Twinners -> Ties in with Henry vs Edward and their inconsistent stories -> Ties in with Henry's color-changing socks in the different retellings

Clock differences 1:20 vs 1:21

-> Ties in with the 1 month vs 2 years detail about the Creels -> Ties in with Victor being back from war in either 1943 or 1944, the difference between which would decide whether or not he's actually Alice's father -> Ties in with the changing times in the ST2 Halloween tapes and the changes in the ST4 NINA tape times/angles (as well as the fact that we rarely get to see the analog clock very clearly, which would tell us an unaltered timeline)

The Big Clock times vs chimes

I haven't looked at this one quite as much so I'm not sure what times the clock actually reads, it could be the time of death for each of the victims. If it is, then the 4 chimes is foreshadowing how many victims there are. If it isn't, then it's possibly that Max ending on 4 o'clock could be representative of the fact that one timeline merges with the Party's current timeline with her death (i.e. chimes finally matching the time).

Scott Clarke's parallel universe

-> Ties in with Henry vs Edward and the Richard vs Martin time loop theory (i.e. Martin can't send Henry back to become the Richard of the other timeline, since El sent Henry to super hell and broke the time loop. Thus, there is a timeline with an Edward/Henry but no Brenner...a timeline where none of the bad things ever happened?) -> The flea and the acrobat...about time. Time works consistently in one direction for most humans/acrobats. Henry/Edward (and possibly Richard/Martin) is the flea here due to his time-based abilities. (Side note: Spiders, like fleas, can also crawl upside down.)

Ruth/Ruth/Rose/Rose and swapping places

-> Ties in with NINA and the multiple Henries/Brenner's manipulation via timeline fuckery with El's memories -> (Robin) Rose, like the rose door at the Creel house, talks about Petey Mchew when trying to visit Victor Creel alongside (Nancy) Ruth...Henry Creel is Peter Ballard in HNL in the NINA memories that happen in Ruth, NV...but so are all the other Henries (Edwards?) that seem to appear in the span of NINA. -> Ties into the weird unexplainable yet very distinct Brenner-esque vs Henry-ish hairstyle changes in the 1979 massacre -> Ties in with Henry vs Edward and the Alice/Virginia swapping

Skull Rock: Right or Wrong

-> Ties in with the "who's the monster?" stuff in ST4. El is the monster at Rink-O-Mania if you don't know her history with Angela, which then makes you realize she's not the monster. She sees visions of the 1979 massacre, and believes she's the monster until she sees more backstory, which tells her she isn't the monster. She sees Henry's behavior in the lab and, despite everything, tells him that Brenner is the monster, which Henry rejects. So who's the monster? (It's perception-dependent. People are both monsters and not monsters based on how much you know about the person, and we know just about nothing about Henry and Brenner) -> Ties is with Virginia being dead or not dead after Henry's attack in 1959. We don't have all the information, so it's hard to prove either way.

and likely more!! but this is what i've got off the top of my head for possible connections

@laozuspo more possible timeline weirdness crumbs / time perception vibes for your consideration

"the campaign was way too short!" "it was ten hours!"

El has either a twin or two contradictory birth memories

Back To The Future as a whole, but the specific scene that's playing in the theater is the one where Doc syncs 2 stopwatches and sends Einstein the dog one minute ahead in time wearing one of them and he comes back with the stopwatch one minute off so there's two different clocks both true hmmm

that clock always chiming 4:00 in all the victims' visions despite not actually reading 4:00 (except for when Max dies)

Dustin being simultaneously right and wrong about skull rock (I know he's talking about magnets or whatever but it gave me something being true in one timeline and false in another vibes)

Mr. Clarke's parallel universe where none of this ever happened comment

RUTH / swapping places (maybe not swapping with another person but with oneself in another timeline. eh? eh?)

there was a Will who had brown eyes all along, according to Jon and Joyce

[la0istouden]

god I just have so many feelings about eddie munson. just. he was a social outcast but he never changed himself to fit in. and he stayed kind throughout all of it? Like dude lives with his uncle for a reason. People are rude to him based on his clothes and the fact that he likes to play dnd. He's demonized by an entire town. And the entire time he stays kind and. God he deserved so much better. He deserved to graduate, he deserved to have his name cleared, he deserved to be regarded as the hero he was and he got. he got nothing. he deserved so much better.

[queenimmadolla]

do we like the idea of robin buckley x one grade below, bratty cheerleader!reader who’s just trying way too fucking hard to fit in and pretend she doesn’t fantasize about kissing pop singer Tiffany every waking moment and even when she’s not awake? very cracky bc it’s coming of age.

reader is all half up high ponytails, mtv, braces and eager grins that show off her metal mouth despite most of the school and the entire cheer squad hating her for being a try hard. couldn’t be more different from robin. hell, they don’t even run in the same social circle until her big sister starts dating steve harrington. suddenly, she’s stuck fourth-wheeling with a girl who doesn’t know she exists, who she doesn’t even care about and who is definitely NOT Tiffany. Still can’t help but wonder what it would be like to kiss her though. bonus: she’s gotta tell her bestie Gareth that it’s never gonna happen between them at least once a day, poor guy.

anyways, sound any good? or should i just leave it in the drafts to collect dust? definitely would be black coded (i’ll try and keep descriptions to a minimum tho) because for that SPLIT FUCKING SECOND that i thought Robin was gonna have a black love interest at the end of ST4, i kinda felt seen so i wanna go ahead and fix that for the rest of the gay people who look like me.

[levzonvie]

Rescue Mission Part 1

Jim Hopper x masc Male!reader

!!ST4 spoilers!! Takes place in episode 6

Slowburn/enemies to lovers

Warnings: Smoking/cursing/mentions of sex/slight gore

Summary: Hopper and Enzo trapped in their cell enforced with Russian military. Enzo calls in a special favor from a close friend.

━━━━━━ ⚣ ━━━━━━

It was late evening, you were sitting on your porch despite the harsh temperature. Lit cigarette dangling below your lips as you take on your last drag before being interrupted by an earsplitting ring coming from the telephone located on the wall in the hallway. You had woken from a peaceful slumber not long ago and had gotten up for a brief smoke. All was well, until this. Understandably irritated you picked up the telephone with a grumble and answered.

“Hello, this is m/n right?” You let the person on the opposite end of the line speak first.

“I have an extensive favor to ask you, you don’t have to accept however I would prefer you do and quickly at that because my American friend and myself’s livelihoods are at stake currently.” Enzo preposed leaning against the cold rusted bars of the cell biting his nails in a worried state. Enzo knew you weren’t the type to do something you didn’t wholeheartedly want to do, you’ve always been the stubborn type. This time he hoped you’d see the severity of the situation without giving away too much information knowing the soviets could gain suspicion at any time.

“God, Just get to the point already Enzo..” You reply with the facade as if he didn’t convey the message the first time figuring that the call was being monitored.

“I need you to tell my family that I love them given the fact that I have been compromised.” He stated confidently knowing that the guards were listening to his conversation oblivious of the coding of words.

“Ok got it.” You swiftly hung up the phone hurrying to gather gear you had around the house and eventually rushing out of your house and into your car starting it up.

Upon arriving at Kamchatka searching for entry you came across a delivery man, who said to have delivered various goods from America. Approaching his van you knocked on the window. Rolling it down he gave you a puzzled look before he could say anything drove your fist into the poor man’s face. Disoriented he stumbled out of the van pleading for mercy as you climbed in the driver’s seat.

“Sorry dude I gotta borrow your van, promise I’ll give it back once I’m finished. “ You weren’t planning on returning it anytime soon.

You drove off feeling a pool of guilt flood your insides looking over your shoulder at the man. I mean it’s not like anybody would willingly hand over their car to a strange man right? Reaching the gate you pulled into the entry.

“Do you have the authorization to enter permitted areas?” The guard shouted from his post.

“Yes, my name is Yuri I have a delivery of American goods.” You forced a smile.

“Ah yes, Yuri, I’ve heard of you. Go right ahead.”

The metal gates opened with a clang and you drove ahead. Getting out of the car you walked around the back hoisting the packages out from the trunk filled with fattening sweets and porn magazines. Putting the packages down by the feet of the two guards before you, they inspected them giggling between one another at the sight. Catching them by surprise you punch each of them right in their jaws causing them to fumble back onto the icy floor nearly slipping. You grabbed the gun of the guard to the left of you and hit him over the head knocking him out cold. It’s not that you had the intention of killing anyone that night you had mission , and if anybody came in the way of said mission so be it it’s their fault for um.. dying I guess. The right guard dared to crawl away trying to escape looking for any other guard in sight. You put your heel on his back causing him to fall back down.

“Where do you think you're going?“ You chuckled to yourself.

The guard winced bracing impact before you kicked him in the head. Now that was dealt with you could finally make some progress. You carried on into the prison camp making your way through the several groups of cells searching for your mate. Hearing a couple of guards around the corner rambling on about something you stopped in your place. Peering around the corner you eavesdropped on their conversation absorbing as much information as you could.

“After this, they’re pretty much done for. Have you seen the size of that thing? They don’t stand a chance” the guards laughed amongst themselves glaring at the two prisoners in front of them. You heard a very familiar sigh come from the cell across from the guards. The guards eventually walked away and you ran as fast as you could after confirming the coast was clear.

“M/N thank god I thought you’d never come.”

“I came as fast as I could you ungrateful bitch, now how do I get you out.”

“Enzo…who’s this?” An additional voice called out from a dark corner of the shared cell. You looked up and to your surprise he wasn’t hard on the eyes at all, sure he looked pretty rough and malnourished even so he was still pretty attractive. You shook your head clearing your head from intruding thoughts.

“Oh, right this is m/n the friend I mentioned earlier. He is going to get us out.”

“And m/n this is the American I mentioned on the phone.”

“He doesn’t have a name?” You reply sarcastically glaring at the man that stood before you.

“Fiesty, are all Russians like this?”

“I said what’s your name jackass.”

“Hopper, my name is Hopper.”

Notes: I didn’t really intend for reader to be Russian it kinda just came out like that lmao but you can just imagine your nationality. Thinking of making the third part a smut it’s just that I right top reader and I think majority of hopper enjoyers are bottoms hehdjsnskx

[beepboop358]

I don’t think the Netflix Geeked TikTok thing means anything tbh. Their latest ST TikTok is actually about Mileven and it’s that S3 scene where they’re “making out”. So sadly it seems they’re still very much shipping that. I don’t want to get my hopes down because Geeked is not the official Netflix or ST account but its still somehow in conjunction with those so…meh. Let’s hope its not an indicator for how the season will actually go

hey anon!

I mean that scene of them making out has several hints Mike is gay in it, so I don’t think them posting that is actually pro-M!leven, I think it’s probably sarcasm or just trolling honestly 😜 Like the rainbow drawing with his name on it and a heart at the end of the rainbow like the one on his basement wall in s1, Will’s drawing in her room(that Mike gave her) him taking her hands off his body, him keeping his hands folded in his lap, the queer-coded lyrics…🤯 I am very confident the season will not be mileven heavy. Logistically from what we know about the storylines, Mike and El will not even be in the same place most of the time, and the st4 vsf movies heavilyyyyy hint to byler, and they are following a very similar marketing pattern as they did for season 2, showing us no byler, but then Bam!, it was alllll byler 🤪

hope you’re doing great! xx

[hawkinslibrary]

this is for the anon who sent me a message about the ‘mrs. kelley’ audition. i wanted to put your question under a ‘read more’ bc it’s a little spoiler-y. obviously there will be potential spoilers ahead, so please stop reading + blacklist/filter out the ‘s4′, ‘st4′, and ‘spoilers’ tags if you don’t want to see anything.

Anonymous said:

Hi! In the casting leak about Max with Mrs Kelley, how do you think they are going to take the issue about her home life? I couldn't catch well the situation (I'm not an English speaker), who is the parent that drinks, who is the one that works 2 jobs, is Neil gone? Is Sam (Max's biological father coming back? They mentioned Billy's death?

hi !! ok, so, in the audition, i believe that ‘mrs. kelley’ is talking to max, that susan is the one supposedly working two jobs and drinking, and that neil has left. billy’s death wasn’t mentioned explicitly in the video, but i kind of remember seeing the complete version earlier on where i think there was a mention of the death of a sibling. i could be remembering things wrong, though.

we still don’t know 100% if these characters will be part of the next season or if the audition videos have any truth to them at all. i’ve kind of just been using them for speculation since we don’t really have any confirmed info outside of what we can infer from the s3 finale and the hopper teaser.

now, some people believe this could be a scene between ‘mrs. kelley’ and another potential new character -- ‘chrissy’. ‘chrissy’ is the typical popular cheerleader type who is “holding onto a deep-rooted darkness as she suffers under her mother’s emotional abuse”. i suppose this ‘chrissy’ character meeting up with the guidance counselor makes sense, but i don’t think they’d introduce a counselor character without having them talk to someone from the main cast. after s3 and with where i think max’s character is going in s4, she’s the most likely to be having meetings with ‘mrs. kelley’.

the full audition video was deleted and this tweet includes only a snippet of it. i vaguely remember watching the whole video back around march and i’m thinking (possibly misremembering) that there was a mention of a sibling passing away. max’s final scenes in s3 show her having to watch billy die, saying goodbye to two of her friends, and then ending the season alone in billy’s room. we have no idea what could be happening with her family after this. but, neil leaving, susan and max moving to a new house, and susan having to work two jobs + turning to alcohol sounds like a realistic view of where they could be at the beginning of s4.

i know in the scene, ‘mrs. kelley’ says that the student’s dad is the one drinking and the stepmother is the one who left, but it’s totally possible that they’ve just switched the pronouns around. max is the only character we know that has a stepparent, especially a stepparent who happens to be “an asshole”. she definitely would think life was better without neil around, regardless of how much she and her mother might be struggling at the moment.

i think that in the beginning of s4, max will be distancing herself from the party. she’s gone through a lot -- seeing billy die like that, having to say goodbye to el after the two of them just became best friends, dealing with whatever went down with neil and susan. it’s no surprise that her grades might be slipping or that she’ll be on the counselors radar or that she might be retreating into herself.

i have no idea where they will take this plotline. there are so many people max could open up to about this but it seems like she might be keeping to herself instead. although, the student in the video didn’t seem to be having much of a problem opening up. that’s either a testament to how many times this student has met with the counselor, how comfortable they are, or how the scene probably isn’t exactly what we’ll see in the show. i hope we’ll get another ‘on the bus’ kind of scene, or just some great lucas and max scenes in general. i also want her and mike to become better friends. i think s4 max is similar to s2 mike and i could see him recognizing what she might be feeling and what she’s doing and trying not to let her push them away like he did. she could bond with will and jonathan, with what she’s gone through and what they must have gone through with lonnie. that would have to be something later in the season, though. i’m not saying any of this will happen but there’s just so many possibilities.

i don’t know if they’ll bring max’s dad back. if this is a scene between ‘mrs. kelley’ and max, then they just switched the pronouns for the adults and it’s just supposed to be neil and susan. it is interesting, though, bc he’s in california and there were rumors that jonathan would be working at a pizza place and then there was a pizza delivery vehicle with a ‘surfer boy pizza’ logo and california area code spotted with the other cars from the show. probably doesn’t mean anything, though.

anyway, i think mostly what we can take from this audition is that max is having a hard time. her home life isn’t the greatest at the moment, whether they have neil stick around or not. she’s got a lot of stuff to work through from the previous season. her grades are slipping, she’s probably pulling away from her friends. and if ‘mrs. kelley’ is a real character, then she’s very likely to end up talking with her at some point. i’m hoping that everything will work out for her by the end of the season -- her home situation will be better/more secure, her friendships will be stronger, and she won’t have so much weighing on her shoulders. 

[henrysglock]

me waking up groggy and disoriented with no sense of reality like: Camazotz is totally giving HNL with Henry’s whole “everyone’s a prisoner here, even the guards and nurses” bit. And while Henry isn’t a small child like Charles Wallace, he’s so incredibly Charles Wallace coded. And Charles Wallace was turned “evil” by IT/Black Thing and left behind by Mr. Murry on Camazotz so he and Meg could escape.

During that bit Meg tells Mr. Murry that the “evil” Charles Wallace isn’t the real Charles Wallace, because it’s the name and not the body that contain a person, which is giving the vibes of the fuckery surrounding Henry/Edward’s banishment or lack thereof, as well as the whole “Henry/Vecna/001” running gag. Because the name contains the person. And they don’t know what to call him. Because we still don’t know who he is.

Anyway Mr. Murry is so Brenner coded in a multitude of ways (Meg idolizes him only to realize he’s just a flawed man, he runs IQ tests on Meg, Charles Wallace, and the twins, etc). And while Brenner seems more like Mr. Murry, he looks more like the Man With The Red Eyes, IT/Black Thing’s main mouthpiece, particularly in ST1 and Terry’s associated flashbacks in ST2 when his hair is parted the wrong way.

So while Vecna is So Incredibly IT/Black Thing coded as an elder brain/evil symbiotic duo, so is this other version of Brenner. Richard Brenner is still unexplained in relation to Henry/Edward, but if he’s anything like TMWTRE then he could be a time loop version of Edward like I had originally hypothesized, which would align with the “Brenner is part demogorgon” stuff from Nick because then in diverging realities (it wasn’t supposed to end this way), Edward could have ended up as Richard Brenner re: turning back the clock. And Henry’s still unaccounted for at the end of timeline theory/end of ST4, just like Charles Wallace before Meg goes back to save him.

In this essay I will—

[lifeattomsdiner]

Seth’s grand unified ST4 theory

Posted at the urging of @maplestreet, who may as well have coauthored this post because we were bouncing ideas off of each other all this morning.

So at long last, the teaser for ST4 dropped this morning, and while it was only ~30 seconds long, the implications from it made a lot of pieces of information slot into place for me.  Not gonna say that I’ve cracked the code and figured the whole next season out, but it all fits together in a way that makes a lot of sense (to me, at least).

Long, involved analysis under the cut--be warned.

PREMISE: Hopper survived the end of ST3 by jumping through the gate into the Upside Down.

This is not a new theory--it basically popped up as soon as people finished bingeing the season--but I’m throwing it in here because it’s the premise on which I’m building everything else I write here.

So to go over the evidence really quickly (none of which I spotted myself to begin with, credit has to go to other theorizers for that)--Hopper gives the gate a significant look right before he gives Joyce the go-ahead to blow up the Russian’s key-machine in an act of apparent self-sacrifice.  He’s noticeably absent from the platform where he was a moment ago when we actually see it blow up.

To top it off, we have what is potentially a sneaky little hint in an otherwise-unrelated quote from El earlier in the same episode.

EL: “There’s another way to get out.  Through the Gap.”

All this is enough that, completely independent of whether I’m right about anything else, I’d call myself about 95% convinced that Hopper did, indeed, jump through the gate right before the key-machine exploded.

What we learned today

The teaser dropped today seemingly has very little to go on; just a creepy, foreboding image of the Upside Down and the ST4 title.  Until you take a closer look at the building in the background.

Two things jump out: first, it’s an isolated, apparently wooden building somewhere in the woods.  The building that immediately jumps to mind from that description?  Hopper’s cabin.

Second, despite it being in the Upside Down, the porch light is on.

(all the best conspiracy theories involve details from grainy photos!)

The implication I get from this?  Hopper was, or is, trapped in the Upside Down long-term.

Who is “the American”?

Obviously, one of the biggest points of speculation following ST3 was the identity of the unseen prisoner in the Kamchatka facility, identified only as “the American” by the guards.  Again obviously, Hopper is the most popular candidate for the identity of this mystery prisoner.  But let’s stop right quick and ask ourselves a question.

What has to be true in order for Hopper to be “the American”?

Well, going off of the assumption that Hopper escaped the exploding key-machine by jumping into the Upside Down, the Russians would’ve had to have fished him out of there at some point, somehow.  Furthermore, the key-machine exploding means that the gate under Starcourt would’ve shut immediately behind Hopper after he jumped through.  Ergo the Russians would have had to open another gate to the Upside Down, somewhere else, in order to pull him out.

Except that it’s all but explicitly stated that they can’t.

According to Alexei, that was the whole point of coming to Hawkins and building the facility beneath Starcourt: it was the only place where the barrier between our world and the Upside Down was weak enough for them to break through.

MURRAY: [translating for Alexei] “They’re using this key to break through a barrier [...] But it seems this key was only half the equation.  Location was the other half.  In Hawkins, this door had been opened once.  It was still healing.”

So if Hopper jumped through to the Upside Down, the gate closed behind him, and the Russians couldn’t have opened another gate to fish him out?  Well, that implies that Hopper’s still stuck in the Upside Down, doesn’t it?

After all, in ST1 we see Will survive for nearly a week being trapped in the Upside Down.  Hopper’s a grown man, is heavily implied to have army training, and is already somewhat familiar with the dangers of the Upside Down; it’s not inconceivable that he could last for longer, even significantly longer.

So if Hopper’s still trapped in the Upside Down...

Brenner is “the American”.

Brenner’s the other popular theory for the identity of “the American”, but I’m not picking him just because he’s the other choice.  Having him be that nameless prisoner actually makes a number of things make much more sense in retrospect.

To begin with, if Brenner was still alive following the events of ST1 (as ST2 heavily implied that he was), then why hasn’t he made a play to recapture Eleven in the over a year and a half that has elapsed in-universe since then?  Well, if he was taken into Russian custody shortly after ST1--either kidnapped by them, or fleeing to them knowing that the US government would disavow him for his actions--then he quite obviously couldn’t.

Furthermore, Brenner being in Russian hands easily explains why they knew about the Upside Down (bear in mind that the ST3 prologue takes place in June 1984, a solid 3-4 months before even the events of ST2), why they would know that the town of Hawkins exists in general, and why they would know that the walls between dimensions are weak there in particular.  After all, Brenner himself was inadvertently responsible for that initial breach.

Basically, if Brenner is “the American”, then a huge chunk of ST3 makes a hell of a lot more sense in retrospect.

(Also Matthew Modine has teased that he’s returning in ST4, so there’s that.)

But if the Russians can’t open another gate, where did the Demogorgon in the stinger come from?

Glad you asked, hypothetical conversation partner that I made up for the purposes of writing up this post!

This one’s pretty straightforward--ST3 went out of its way to show us that the facility beneath Starcourt had Demogorgon-sized cages.

ERICA: “How big did you say that Demogorgon was?” DUSTIN: “Big.  Nine feet or so.  Why?”

Basically, they fished out out of the Starcourt gate at some point during the couple of days that it was open, caged it, and sent it back to the Kamchatka facility.  How did they smuggle a live Demogorgon out of the US without anybody noticing?  I don’t know, how did they build an entire Death-Star-style facility beneath a mall in America’s heartland without anybody noticing?  Either you roll with it or you don’t.

So where does this leave us?

It leaves us with a solid premise for ST4.

If Hopper is trapped in the Upside Down, that presents a major moral dilemma for the main cast in general and for El in particular.  Do they reopen the gate to the Upside Down to save him and risk unleashing the Mind Flayer on our world again?  Or do they leave Hopper in there to protect everybody else?

Brenner being in Russian hands connects two dangling plot threads into one.  Furthermore, given that the Russians are holding him prisoner, he’s likely none too fond of them, meaning he could end up in a tense Enemy Mine situation with the main cast that I for one would be fascinated to watch.  His involvement also would give a reason for Kali to show up again, which (in my opinion, again) is long overdue.

Again, not gonna stand here claiming that I’ve figured out the secret and come up with the only logically possible plot for ST4.  Just that this particular sequence makes a lot of narrative sense to me, and I’d be pleased to see it all play out on the screen.

And hey--shameless plug here--if you like the way I spin a yarn, pop on over to my AO3 and have a look.  I don’t have to theorize about those stories, I know where they’re going.  (Er... more or less, anyway.)

Hope you enjoyed, and happy speculating!