#in theory i think it could be henry

[greenfiend]

So, I think maybe that’s why I came in here, to try to maybe stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were.

I know everyone knows about this parallel, but have we truly discussed how time is mentioned? Turning back time and how it’s connected with Will supposedly being dead!!! The association with Karen Wheeler too. I truly think the Wheelers are connected to time manipulation.

Plus this line from the David Bowie version of Heroes (cover of the song playing in the scene on the right):

We could steal time just for one day.

[telling-tragedy]

henry and richard’s back and forth throughout this scene is absolutely addicting. richard isn’t having it

[historyartthings]

‘Most likely some papist, and then I would wish myself far away’.

at that moment, he showed far too much of his hand.

Hence the king’s, ‘no one could keep their secrets from me’. As in, I think, in Thomas saying that, Henry felt it confirmed everything others have been telling him about Cromwell as true.

if there was a final tipping point, it seems as though that was it

[llamaisllama777]

My THEORIES ON WHO THE EAPS KILLER COULD BE?

Since tomorrow's Friday and the killer always strikes on Friday and I have a feeling we may learn who the killer is in tomorrow's episode I wanted to get my theories out on who I think the killer really is...

(This will either age really well or really poor.)

Suspect 1. Michael Afton(of the EAPS universe)

So, in either episode 3 or 5 of EAPS Eclipse briefly mentions that Michael Afton does indeed exist here in this universe too and that he build something that's down in the basement that they should keep an eye on. (Ominous and foreboding), and since then, we haven't heard about since. Either Michael has been fired from Henry's fazbear, or Michael still has a job there.

I can see Mike being the killer in this world cause in this universe his mom, Wanda Afton, was accused of being the killer back in the day. (She might have been the killer back in the days of the MCI Incident, but nothing was ever confirmed) Mike might be following in his mom's footsteps. Either Mike is doing this to make his mom lose her business cause ever since the deaths of the children. Fazbear has been losing the case. Mike might be doing this to spite his mom. Or maybe Mike was ALWAYS the killer in this world, and he either let his mom take the fall or she tried to take the fall for him to protect him. Mike might be the psychopath in this world, not his mom. Mike is also a likely suspect cause Mike knows how to build animatronics. He's built animatronics. He would know about the recall code. And the ins and outs of the building, seeing as how he's worked there for a while.

Problems with this theory

-Mike hasn't been mentioned since ep 3 or 5

-Why would Henry even keep Michael on staff? Maybe Henry is just genuinely a nice dude, but letting the son of your arch-enemy work for you during a lawsuit where you are actively suing their parent for their business feels a little... dumb.

-If Mike is doing this: WHY? What would drive a guy like Mike to homicide? Spite? Revenge? Pursuit of Science? Remnant?

Chances of it being Mike 7/10

Suspect 2. Henry Emily

The lawsuit has really been going in Henry's favor since these deaths have been happening. Maybe Henry is willing to let a few eggs get cracked if it means he wins. The killer does know his way around the animatronics and since Henry did help build the animatronics he would know about the recall codes and that flashing lights could blind them temporarily. It's possible Henry IS the killer from the MCI incident in this world. Maybe Henry and W.A.'s roles were swapped, so Henry lost Sammy and went mad, trying to find a way to bring him back. He's restarting the remnant experiments perhaps and needs more remnant

Problems with this theory.

-Henry is too old. There was no way he could never be the killer. Unless he is surprisingly spry for an old dude.

-Would he really risk his whole life and winning the lawsuit just for a chance he'll win the lawsuit by murdering a bunch of kids?

-Henry seems to care about his kids. Why would he take someone else's from them.

Chances of Henry being the killer 4/10

Suspect 3. Charlie Emily

Okay..... so.... this is probably the least likely-est one(but also the coolest and angstiest one). Charlie is mentioned once in this series. She is alive in this world! She was never killed by Wanda in this world. From what we've heard, she's in college, I think? She seems to be doing good, but what if she is helping her father win the lawsuit by making things look really bad for Fazbear. She is the daughter of one of the founders, and Henry did take her to work a lot, I'm sure. Meaning she would know the ins and outs of Fazbear. The buildings, the animatronics, Everything! It's likely she could be the killer.

Problems with this theory

-she's in college

-She has literally only been mentioned once in the show(then again, so has Michael)

-I mainly want this to happen because the angst would be delicious!

-In TSBS main universe, it's been shown Charlie isn't really interested in her dad's work, so there is a chance it's the same here in the EAPS universe.

Chances of Charlie being the killer 3/10

Suspect 4. The Mimic!

Okay, while yes, the suspect appears to be human. There's a chance it could be a skin suit!(Possibly from a missing person)

The Mimic is known to steal suits and even people's skin! (I.E. Burntrap.) The Mimic has been known to mess with tech and manipulate his voice. So, there is a chance the killer really is an animatronic, not human. Eclipse did mention he saw something the Michael of this universe in the basement of the Lefte Pizza-plex. He said it looked like a kinda like a rabbit. One of the Mimic's most popular fan designs was a tall bulky animatronic with bunny ears. (I LOVED THAT DESIGN, SO MUCH! The Canon one is cool, too.) It's possible the Mike of the EAPS world created the Mimic, and now Mimic is going on a killing spree. The Mimic knows a lot about the pizzaplex it would know every escape route. The best places to hide. Where the cams are. Plus, the Mimic can copy voices so that could explain how it lures kids away from the animatronics and their folks.

Problems with this theory

-Mimic is not yet confirmed to exist in this world, but if Detective Larson from the stitchwrait books exists in this world, then there is a high probability that the Mimic exists here too.

-No adult has been reported missing. So, no free human flesh for you Mr. Mimic.

-The Mimic is known to be more brutal and violent with its kills more messy, not a clean stab like how I assume the kids have been killed.

Chances on the Mimic being the killer 7/10

These are all my current suspects.

I highly doubt it's Vincent. 1. Vincent has kids and seems pretty broken up by these murders. 2. Just cause Vincent is named after a very popular variant of William doesn't mean he is the killer.

So, let me know your theories and any evidence you may have to help confirm or denie my theories.

[cresneta]

「99」

You know how we just found out that Henderson got married?

What if it turns out that Yuri's boss is a child from that marriage? Just imagine Martha meeting Henry again only to discover that not only did he get married, but he also has a child as well. Talk about twisting the knife!

A marriage doesn't need love in order to produce children, and I imagine being raised by parents who don't love each other could mess one up enough to join the SSS.

Since Henry is 66, I don't believe this theory necessarily contradicts the fan theory that Yuri's boss is Loid's dad, but I'll admit I'm not convinced that Endo is going to connected his characters to this degree. Then again, Henry is shown to be blond in his youth, so I suppose that's another point in the favor of this theory. Then again, my math might be a little off

[razberrypuck]

rotating henry emily in my mind

[ourplefever]

William actually refused to have a business partner in the beginning. Bro had a bunch of connections with experts in the field but his big ego told him he could run everything himself. But instead he latched onto a socially awkward but talented guy from Utah who he met within a day at some carnival performing as a dancing bear and William thought “holy shit I need him (for my business)”

[thsc-confessions]

"I LOVE the headcannon that Henry is Terrence Suave's SO MUCH. I find that this headcannon just makes the whole game more interesting for me. The fact that both of them were known to be chaotic, both were Toppat leaders at one point, the fact that Henry WEARS HIS HAT when he becomes leader, the gold chan on said hat having an S on it which could stand for Stickmin but also Suave."

"It's also supper interesting in the non toppat routes as well. The idea that no matter how bad you were in the past, or even if you had horrible ancestors, there's still the possibility of change and turning over to the good side."

"Any other headcannons I see for Henry's dad or Terrence having a son just feel weird in comparison. They just don't have the same narrative weight as Henry being Terrence's son. Not to hate on anyone of course." submitted by anon

[boysdontcryboycry]

this post is pretty metaphorical and almost entirely nonsensical. sorry

thinking again about dustin's s2 mindflayer analogy falling apart when hopper asked how to kill it. thinking about how will the wise is a wizard but mike (who is pretty much never wrong about anything) (except for calling el a mage when mages are npcs and she doesn't even really have mage powers she's much closer to a wizard leaping between schools of magic but also manifestationgate 👁👁? cuz this sure descibes her before she broke out of the lab

) called will their cleric. how vecna's curse is literally necromancy in the form of draining a person's life force and how henry should have died from the radiation burns he got traveling between dimensions or disintegrated like jason was by the gate opening in the creel house but didn't because he just necromanced like thirty people. and how the mindflayer isn't actually a mind flayer but a tool and the physical representation of the hivemind that henry is the brain of as the actual dnd mind flayer and so henry is a paradox in that he is both the mind flayer and the undead (lich? zombie? both? who knows!) that can resist the mind flayer's thrall oops i started reading about thralls and having revelations

billy was DEFINITELY a thrall, and will was well on his way before being blasted out of it by the power of love and seventy space heaters. i think the shadow is like a physical representation of the thrall and plugs you into the telepathic network and is also possible to expell Like A Demon so they could do a quasi-thrall that was reversible?

the rest of the flayed in season 3 i think were somewhere between ceremorphs and (reverse?) oblexes? possibly because ceremorphs henry wasn't really looking to make more mind flayers and ceremorphs ? he was just looking to kill? the hive mind. let me be coherent in a different paragraph (although i will say oblexes were introduced just over a year before season 3 came out as the creation of a make-a-wish kid and thus the similarities might've been a happy coincidence)

ceremorphs. illithid tadpoles injected into beings to eat their brains and take over their bodies and either become mind flayers themselves or become some other ceremorphized being that either was a subset of the hivemind to boost psionic ability or to find new victims to become food/members or other stuff idk etc, or in special cases becoming a being powerful enough to split from the control of the elder brain and start their own colony. the flayed in s3 get their faces sucked by tentacles a lot like will in s1, when the tadpoles were first deposited. they certainly look like corpses whose brains are currently being devoured from the inside.

anyway i don't think henry was particularly looking to make more mind flayers at this time partially from his fixation on el and will and also thinking pretty much the entire planet isn't worth it and they don't deserve the power and are better off as food and then as a biomass in his meatflayer that we still don't really know the end goal for? and so their orders were to munch the brains and then destroy the host body! yummy chemicals! the meatflayer ALSO could've been his attempt at literally physically creating his own elder brain. tadpoles plus nutrients plus hivemind shadow particles plus biomass? all the makings of a big ole brain ready to stew in some brine in a deep dark cave with lots of tunnels oh yeah that's why they were digging the tunnels

also btw besides ceremorphs a super rare tadpole will birth a super powerful mind flayer whose job it is to split the colony and move somewhere else and to become a new elder brain :)

and so im gonna black out cuz i can make absolutely anything about rosegate and the mind flayer "deities" ilsensine and maanzecorian just SCREAM rosemary and dick wheeler respectively, bro just trust me (go read their wikis), even dick's glaring abscence from the narrative as maanzecorian "died" and yet survived and his principles still being followed also .

mike wheeler knowing things he absolutely shouldn't check.

so like im convinced there is a (metaphorical?) elder brain underneath the creel house that tadpoled henry on move-in day (running from the bathroom?) and he became a ulitharid and is now splitting off to form his own colony with an elder brain under the library that may or may not be a brainstealer dragon. this bitch tadpoled tiamat

also if time travel is your thing Illithids Are Your Bitches

i completely lost the plot of this post

[akashicpoint]

So, has anyone else ever thought maybe it was Thunder Ryu that killed Shinobu's dad in NMH1?

[paleshelter29]

[stranger-theory]

GUYS WHY ISNT THIS MORE TALKED ABOUT

Outside The Wall: What Would El Have Seen If She’d Gone Through The Tunnel During NINA?

So, I was rewatching the tunnel scene during NINA, and something hit me- what would El have seen if she had gone through the tunnel during NINA?

Sure, IRL/in 1979, if she’d actually gone through the tunnel, she wouldve seen the forest outside of the lab/the rest of Hawkins etc etc.

But what about within NINA? What if NINA El had gone through that tunnel? What would be on the other side? Does NINA simulate anything beyond the lab? Would it have just been an empty void? Would El have gone into another part of her own mind like how she goes through various parts of Max’s mind later on in S4? Would El have ended up in Henward’s mind like how Max found a backdoor into Vecna’s mind and what I’ve talked about with a.) Henward being sentient and present during NINA/hooked up in a NINA tank and b.) this post that I made re: a “backdoor” into Vecna’s mind and how a “backdoor” is a coding term, which would tie into NINA’s computer programming.

And this also makes me think of Pink Floyd’s The Wall & all of the references to The Wall in ST, versus the white bricks in HNL during NINA resembling the white bricks from The Wall, versus the direct reference to The Wall right after that tunnel scene:

Versus the song “Outside The Wall” from The Wall, which is about the idea of breaking the cycle (staring at El’s literal cycle in the beginning of NINA where she’s stuck in a loop/cycling through all those doors that lead to the rainbow room), also how all it takes to break that cycle is a change in perspective- to break down the wall/ specifically to get outside the wall/out to the other side of the wall, which is exactly what El would have done if she’d gone through that tunnel.

Would El getting outside of HNL have ended a time loop? Would it have ended the simulation entirely?

What would El have seen outside the walls of HNL if she’d gotten out during NINA?

I wonder if she would’ve gotten a literal change in perspective- if she would have, maybe, ended up seeing stuff through Henward’s eyes- especially with what I just talked about re: a backdoor into Henward’s mind and also what I talked about in this post with the line about how a “scared enough ONE” might use the tunnel, and the idea of Henward having tried to escape the lab via the tunnel when he was younger/small enough to use the tunnel.

[tawneybee]

Okay so I had an intense fnaf movie theory

(⚠️SPOILERS FOR THE FNAF MOVIE⚠️)

So starting off, one of the major plot points of the film is that Vanessa is William's Afton's daughter, and that Mike and Abby don't seem to be related to them at all, right?

And there's a theory about the Golden Freddy Spirit BEING an Afton kid. Not just the blonde hair (the actor isn't a natural blonde, it was dyed for his role) but the way the kid seems to react to everything.

He remembers his death. That's a plot point for the other kids, that they don't remember their deaths and the drawings make them believe the Yellow Rabbit is a friend. But he does seem to remember, since he told Mike through a drawing that the Yellow Rabbit killed his brother.

It's uncertain why he doesn't tell the other kids, or why his main goal is getting Abby rather than getting revenge, but it seems he's playing William like a pawn rather than vice versa. It's only when William stabbed his sister Vanessa that he stepped in. And the way William reached out for him in the safe room like he was asking for help almost solidifies it.

Now back to my theory, I'm sure plenty of you have heard the theory that the Schmidts are actually Henry's children, not William's. It would explain why William drove 9 whole hours to kidnap some random kid in Nebraska if the kid wasn't actually random. Maybe a revenge scheme over some company fault.

So my thought is, the family dynamics with the Aftons and Emily's are switched in the games vs the movie.

Game:

Micheal Afton (eldest brother)

C.C Afton (supposedly middle brother)

Elizabeth Afton (supposedly youngest sister)

Charlie Emily (murdered twin)

Sammy Emily (supposedly survived twin)

Movie:

Mike Schmidt (eldest brother)

Garrett Schmidt (middle brother)

Abby Schmidt (youngest sister)

Golden Freddy Spirit (murdered twin)

Vanessa Shelly-Afton (survived twin)

I say twins because young Vanessa looks about the same age as GFS (although we don't know what year the photo was taken).

It feels like swapped dynamics to me. Garrett is a Charlie Emily parallel in their identical deaths, which could make both Mike and Abby Sammy Emily parallels as the surviving siblings. And the way Vanessa parallels Micheal A. (especially in her guilt and need to make up the kid's childhoods), would make GFS both C.C and Elizabeth. Honestly if GFS did have some sort of loyalty/passiveness to William murdering him like I mentioned, it definitely confirms an Elizabeth parallel.

I don't even need to mention how William makes Vanessa help him with his crimes (just like Micheal in the games) or how he plays with her guilt by blaming the mess on her (which suggests he would've blamed her brother's death on her, just like how Micheal feels guilty for C.C's death).

Sammy would probably also feel guilty for Charlie's murder, as that's how Charlie felt in the books when she thought it was Sammy who got taken. That was a situation that wasn't in the surviving sibling's control, just like how Mike couldn't stop Garrett's kidnapping. But GFS's murder could've been a preventable accident that Vanessa felt at blame for, just like Micheal for C.C (and probably Elizabeth).

MATPAT PLS NOTICE ME I THINK I'M ONTO SMT

[therainscene]

[ST5 spoilers ahead. This theory is largely grounded in canon evidence from S1-4, but I will be referencing a couple of old S5 leaks below the cut.]

Stranger Things is a show that delights in escapist fantasy; it's packed with nostalgic references and celebrates the protagonists' love of gaming in order to remind us that we don't need to abandon our childhood interests just because we grew up.

But escapism is a double-edged sword that all too easily turns into an unhealthy coping mechanism, and boy is this show also one that delights in the horror of unhealthy coping mechanisms.

I reckon they'd be missing a trick if these opposing themes didn't crash into one another for the final season.

Vecna seems to be motivated by a desire to help the kids he targets -- he wipes away their tears, he reassures them that their suffering will be over soon -- but he also barely seems to notice or care that he's just making the suffering worse. Which is exactly the attitude you'd expect from a villain who personifies the urge to turn to shitty coping mechanisms.

Since S5 is going to focus on Will's coming-of-age, then whatever Vecna is up to must resonate with Will's worst coping mechanisms.

What better fit for Will "wants to sit in the basement playing games for the rest of his life" Byers than a fantasy world in which everyone is forced to be a carefree kid forever while their bodies rot in the Upside Down?

Think about it: Henry wants to transform the world into something beautiful, but the world he currently seems to be ruling over is nothing of the sort -- is a cold and barren facsimile of Hawkins populated with monsters really Henry's idea of beauty?

Doesn't it make more sense for the Upside Down/Mind Flayer to simply be the hardware that helps him run his simulation of something more relatable -- an idyllic vision of the childhood he wishes he had, populated with all the kids he oh-so benevolently rescued from the fate worse than death that is wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce, and wait for it all to be over?

-------------------

We know for a fact that one of S5's episodes is titled Escape from Camazotz -- a reference to the misleadingly idyllic world from A Wrinkle in Time -- and leaked BTS photos from last year show Henry hanging out with a Hawkins child at a mysteriously pristine Creel house.

It's promising, but I'm not a huge fan of using leaks as evidence. They always come devoid of context, and even difficult-to-fake things like BTS photos could be staged by production to throw fans off the scent -- so what does the canon suggest?

One possible hint is that the Upside Down has consistently borrowed imagery from The Matrix throughout the seasons:

But more importantly, this theory is thematically consistent with what we currently know about Will in S1: while trapped in the Upside Down, he retreated to Castle Byers (his escapist safe space), and that's where he was caught, dragged to the library (another escapist space), and plugged into the vines that connect him directly to Vecna.

It's also subtly implied by Will's behaviour in S3 that part of him wants Vecna to succeed: he sticks with El after realizing Vecna is back, despite knowing full well that being able to spy on Vecna means Vecna can also spy on him; and he makes a suspiciously helpful-to-Vecna suggestion about how the party should go about investigating the monster of the week:

Could Will be under Vecna's control here? Perhaps. But I think this is a choice he's making of his own volition.

Consider: At one point Will destroys Castle Byers in a fit of grief that his childhood is over, and this just so happens to be the same scene in which he becomes certain that Vecna has returned.

He has to grow up and face the horrible truth that he's gay and broken and in love with a boy who can't possibly love him back and he does not want to deal with this -- wouldn't he do anything in that moment to find a way to escape back into childhood? Is this not the perfect moment for a seductive voice in his head to start whispering offers?

Bargaining is one of the five stages of grief, after all.

But then, so is acceptance. Will isn't walking the path of villainy here; he's at the temptation stage of his hero's journey.

S4 took him far away from Hawkins and allowed him to work through some of his feelings without Vecna breathing down his neck, and he comes to a very final-sounding decision about it:

He's realized that longing to sit in the basement playing silly games with his crush all day is immature and turning him (in his opinion) into a jealous asshole--

--and now that he's ripped off the band-aid with Mike he's gonna kill that underlying desire once and for all. Right?

Wrong. I mean, that's certainly what he believes at the end of S4 -- but he's still got a whole season of main character coming-of-age shit left to do in this show that delights in escapist fantasy and reminds us we don't need to abandon our childhood interests just because we grew up.

The visual similarities between the Upside Down and the Matrix aren't the only parallels between these two stories -- a theme present in both is the realization that the rules of the world you were raised in are an oppressive lie that you have the freedom to reject so long as you're brave enough to accept the truth.

Much like Neo, Will has a deeper connection to the horrors than any of its other victims (beyond Henry himself), and that connection grants him the gift of True Sight:

Stuck between the View-Master slides is how he describes it. Will can't bring himself to conform to 1980s expectations of normalcy, but he also can't bring himself to retreat into Vecna's time-frozen fantasy and hurt all of his friends.

The solution is to understand that Will's unique position doesn't mean he'll be forced to pick a side and either become a villain or sacrifice himself for the greater good: it means that like Neo he has the power to transcend the rules of false realities.

Will can defeat Vecna without castrating himself in the process, and he can play D&D in Mike's basement for the rest of his life if he wants to...

...just so long as both he and Mike are brave enough to accept the truth first.

[alissangle]

i got a sad one i think.

henry hugging ink demon and crying abt the fact "i wish i was able to treat you better" and "im so sorry". like yk. the loops henry had to do QUUGHHHHHHH FWTHER AND SON. FATHER AND SON LET THEM BE FATHER AND SON-💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

YESS AND I DONT NEED TO LET THEM BE FATHER AND SON THEY RRRR FATHER AND SON!!

Lore does actually support the theory of Henry being his ‘dad’ in the way of being his true creator. Joey may have technically brought him to life with the machine, but bendy is and was Henry’s creation, Henry designed him- Henry made him. Joey simply stole/owned the design.

The ink demon definitely recognizes or feels a connection to Henry, due to him being his creator. You especially see this by looking deeper into their interactions in the first game, the ink demon seems almost conflicted about Henry in many cases- unsure whether to be docile or hostile. I could go on and on about what indicators tell us this, but that’s for another time.

Also if ur referring to the ink demon from batdr I feel like the ink demon when he’s in batdr wouldn’t let Henry hug him, maybe allow him limited physical contact. So I made up for that by drawing him actually hugging the other versions. :} sorry if it’s a bit disappointing 😢