#it’s an exact parallel to billy in s3

[thissortofsorcery]

To think that with max lying in a hospital bed with her consciousness seemingly stolen by vecna there’s no hope that Billy’s abuse will ever be acknowledged in the show. There’s no one left to remember him. No one left to miss him. I’ll just go cry in a corner now.

[givehimthemedicine]

🛁💧 Moms, bathtubs and fear of water

today I'd like to dig into some support for the Virginia/Henry/bathtub theory, most notably a Will/Henry parallel I've not seen discussed before, and some thoughts on the rabies thing.

for those just tuning in, we have hints that something awful happened involving Virginia, Henry, and a bathtub of hot water. (that idea is aemiron-main's, you can read the original here)

where there's a tub, there's a mom

let me start by seeing how many ST bathtubs can be tied to mothers. (much of this will have been pointed out before, but I have a couple observations I think are new)

starting at the top: Virginia's vision (turning on the hot water tap and spiders fill the tub instead of water):

Karen soaking in a hot bath listening to "Memories" before milfing it up with Billy, a minor, a boy her daughter's age. check

Will and Joyce "he likes it cold" you better believe that's a paddlin

we saw the Byers' tub before. when El saw it in the mirror (lol) and went to tell Joyce (Will's Mother) about her water tank idea. ok she was addressing the group but Joyce is the one who actually engages. I'm counting it. ps when they do set up the bath for El, Lucas uses a thermometer to make sure the water is the right temperature

this is a tiny one, but Nancy goes to sit on the tub and cry after excusing herself from Barb's mom at the KFC dinner.

that scene where El and Max find Billy's tub with ice bags?

darn, nothing immediately motherly in this scene. but what if we check the last dialogue in the prior scene? or the first dialogue in the following scene?

both hits! mom/age-inappropriate-sexual-knowledge + mother/son combo.💀

next up, FOR WHAT REASON was I made to see Murray get naked and get into a tub full of ice while on the phone with Joyce in 4x01?

let's also toss in a shot of Joyce being weird in her front yard, prompting a neighbor child to dispense a line of dialogue involving mothers.

but seriously. after all the flayed/ice tub imagery throughout s3, why kick off s4 with Murray in an ice bath? no, I'm really asking.

we've got a dash of sexual inappropriateness, or so Joyce thinks - Murray happens to plop into the ice at the exact moment that she observes the Russian doll has nipples, which makes her think his reaction is about that:

the only tub scene I'm struggling to tie super directly to mothers is Heather. you could say it's that Joyce appears in the next scene, but that's weak. or that Flayed Heather later drugs/kidnaps her mom. eh.

as em pointed out, the tub Heather's in here is extremely similar to Virginia Creel's. is that sufficient?

so anyway, some of those are def stronger than others, but they all provide some combination of: mothers, bathtubs (esp with attention drawn to water temperature), and fear/ sorrow / discomfort / sexual inappropriateness.

am I forgetting any other bathtubs?

now let's talk more about fear

what started me on this post was how possessed-Will's reaction to the bathtub is so explicitly labeled as fear - NOT by Will, but by Mr. Clarke's voiceover:

yet what sparked One's strength was a memory that made him "sad, but also angry" - which, if the implied tub incident indeed happened, would totally fit the bill.

sad and angry. not afraid. I guess it makes sense that fear isn't one of the emotions he would draw power from later upon recalling this event, but he undoubtedly would've been afraid in the moment. he didn't say that though.

not in that scene.

now, idk if he's referring to The Incident here, or his early lab life or what, but. oh I'm at my image limit. ok well his lines leading up to this are (close up of dead kids) "why do you cry for them, Eleven? after everything they did to you? you think you need them, but you don't. you don't."

why exactly would El "need" the other lab kids? according to NINA, they treated her poorly. tbh kinda sounds more like a projected reaction to the death of an abusive mother.

anyway. apart from that "I was scared once" reference to some past turning point, man will not say he is or was scared. he'll imply and project but he won't say it:

you know who else won't say they're scared? Will.

Will has never said once on the entire show that he's afraid. ever. throughout all the utterly HORRIFYING situations he's been in. he undoubtedly has been scared, and other characters say that about him many times, but Will has never said, in his own words, as far as I can find, that he's afraid.

he dances around it and veils it and teeters on the edge of it, but he will not actually say I Am Afraid.

"how did you feel?" "it felt like when you're scared" boy what.

but Will has not always been fearless!

wanna know what the very first mention of fear on the whole show is? Will assuring Joyce he won't have nightmares from seeing Poltergeist because:

is it not giving "I was scared once too" ?

now here comes my favorite part:

Joyce replies with the "my witch" thing, and she doesn't actually finish the sentence, but I think that last word can be guessed pretty accurately:

cook him up in your what?

your cauldron? cauldron, kôl′drən, noun: 1. A large vessel used for boiling?

so like... have I got this straight? our earliest flashback of Will involves his mother playing an evil character who's gonna put him in a large vessel of hot liquid?

I ask you again: is it not giving "I was scared once too"?

I'm tacking my red conspiracy yarn in at "Henry was five years old."

now, just wondering, what was the turning point that made Will stop having nightmares from movies and "getting scared like that"? Bob_one_day_the_nightmares_suddenly_stopped.wav

now let's talk about rabies

Robin proceeds to list some rabies symptoms and what's funny about that (besides the fact they're standing in a mysteriously dry lakebed) is she left out possibly the best-known symptom: fear of water.

in fact, rabies used to be called hydrophobia ("fear of water").

hydrophobia in rabies stems from paralysis of throat muscles making it difficult or impossible to swallow, and so sufferers will panic at the prospect of drinking or even the mere sight of water. excessive salivation + inability to swallow it leads to the other pop culture rabies symptom, the appearance of "foaming at the mouth".

pretend here I put in screenshots of El and Barb spitting up water when they wake up in the UD and that unnecessary shot of Billy drooling when El is levitating him

Robin's isn't the only reference to rabies on ST. it's come up in two other seasons:

so every time rabies comes up, it's in reference to demodogs, demobats, and flayed rats. all critters that are part of the hive.

ostensibly controlled by one guy, who is afraid of water.

misc honorable mentions:

what do you wanna bet Dart not only doesn't need water, but would hate water like he hates heat?

Dart grew up to be a demodog, and demodogs dug those tunnels - the ones Bob figured out were a map of Hawkins because the "roads" outlined recognizable bodies of water instead of crossing over them.

when Bob said that, he didn't know the "roads" were underground, and therefore it wouldn't be crossing over water but rather crossing through water. if your tunnel breached a lake or river, it would flood. the demodogs were avoiding water.

also: no one in the water, you say?

speaking of Hawkins Pool, there's also the thing I've mentioned before, how it seems incredibly relevant that One chose Billy as his s3 host - a lifeguard whose one possession-busting happy memory involved his mother warning him not to drown.

also: Hopper saying that jumping into the quarry would result in the water "breaking every damn bone in your body"

and Jason asks Patrick, right before Vecna breaks every damn bone in his body in Lovers Lake:

I'm going to think of more as soon as I hit post but that's all I have for you today.

I want real answers on the Murray ice thing btw

[aemiron-main]

Massacre at HNL vs the S3 Hospital Fight

So, awhile ago I noticed that there's quite a few parallels and interesting connections between the Jancy hospital scene and the 1979 massacre. Like, Bruce has DIRECT Vecna shot parallel, and both Bruce and Vecna say "Nancy-" during that scene too.

Setting that aside for now, though, the first thing I want to talk about it “Whatever you've done, it's not you. He’s making you do this.”

Which is VERY interesting to me vs Brenner pushing 002 around like a chess piece & trying to get him to kill El & likely doing the same with Henward and the massacre.

Like, Brenner was clearly messing with them, and why did Nancy say that "he's" making Tom do this?

And we also have “Whose blood is that” vs Henward’s changing massacre blood:

Like, this is just one small snippet of how the blood on Henward's jumpsuit changes, so go read the full post I just linked for more, but there ARE multiple different versions of his jumpsuit with different blood stains.

And the fact that the bodies not only move during the 1979 massacre NINA scenes, but also CHANGE into adults and completely different people- which would tie PERFECTLY into "who's blood is that?" if there's multiple different versions of the massacre/a timeloop/various timelines.

And after that "he's making you do this/whose blood is that" scene, we get Jancy being paralleled to Henward and El when Jonathan grabs Nancy's hand vs Henward grabbing El's hand:

And look at the scene of Jonathan and Nancy running on the stairs and then running down the hallway vs Henry and El on the stairs and in the hallway:

And look at the bodies in the hallway- the body that's sitting up is in the EXACT same pose as the bottom right body during NINA and in a very similar pose to one of the orderlies in the hallway during NINA, and the body laying face down is very similarly posed compared to one of the kids' bodies during NINA. And as @henrysglock just pointed out here while I was writing this, the body of the lady on the floor is wearing HNL gown, and specifically, an HNL gown that looks like Terry's.

It’s also VERY interesting to me that we see Bruce shatter the glass & reach inside to turn the knob- the EXACT same thing that happened with the Creel house door/window (and also very interesting that Steve is paralleled to Bruce here and Bruce being paralleled to Vecna considering what I talked about in this post regarding Steve and Edward/Henry and the 'you're not a child' line):

And interestingly enough, that’s not the only time this sequence parallels a scene from the Creel house- Bruce parallels Victor when he’s looking at the wheelchair (which is especially interesting considering what I talked about in this post and this post about how the wheelchair in the Creel house is a reference to The Changeling, which is about two children swapping places and has a TON of Henward vibes):

And like I mentioned in the beginnign, Bruce is also directly paralleled to Vecna:

And nancy parallels herself running down the hallway alone.

And speaking of Nancy's S4 lab scenes, Nancy literally swaps places with Henward during the tattoo scene, something I talked about here. And considering that she also has scenes during the S3 hospital sequence that are paralleled to Henward/in his place, which makes me wonder- was there more of the vision that involved her “swapping places” with Henward? Did Henry or Edward run out and already see the bodies in the hallway like Jonathan and Nancy did, and wasn't responsible for the deaths?

And Bruce and Tom are both flayed, with those mindflayer veins, and like James I talked about here, we have that strange "eldritch thrumming" with Henward and his weirdly blue and bloodshot eyes that resemble Flayed Billy's eyes. And this shot of Flayed Bruce especially reminds me of henward, with his blonde hair and staring Nancy down:

And we also have this rainbow cup that shows up during the hospital scene- versus the rainbow room in 1979.

I just think it's interesting that there's so much talk of "this isn't you/you're not choosing to do this/whose blood is that" during a scene that's SO heavily paralleled to the 1979 massacre... I don't fully know what all of these parallels mean yet, but it's just another point on the "things are not what they seem with the massacre" board.

[aemiron-main]

EHHFDFBGFHFHDDBDFGBJDF OMG SO IM SO SLOW TO REPLY IM SORRY BUT IM LOSING IT DFSHJSDFDS OK SO IM GOING TO START WITH THE VERY TOP OF THIS THREAD

Stranger Things S2 01 

FIRST OF ALL IM HOLLERING OVER THE MONSTER HOUSE GIF THATS WHY HE SEEMS SO FAMILIAR OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDD

AND RIGHT POOR WILL HES SO BABY IM SOBBING...

((AND YES OMG GO HAM IM aemiron ON DISCORD!!!! YES YES PLEASE TOTALLY FEEL FREE TO DM ME OMG I HAVE SO MANY TIMELINE THOUGHTS)

HFGHDFGHDFGM GIGGLING OVER YOU MEETING MURRAY HES SO. HES SUCH A GUY. AN ICON

AND MOODDDDD ME IGNORING THE STRAIGHT ROMANCE IN THE GAY SHOW LIKE CMON I COME HERE FOR GAY!!

AND RIGHT GOD MIKE AND EL ARE LIKE. THEYRE LIKE WATCHING A TRAINWRECK ESP IN S3. AND ALSO YOURE VERY RIGHT MIKE DOES N O T COPE WELL

HOLLERING OVER BILLY LOOKING TRANS AGWFSDF billy is so funny 2 me because i actually have an irl brother with the same sort of blonde hair also named billy LMAO AND RIGHT LIKE WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING AT?? ARE THEY HALLUCINATING????

and MOOOOOOOOOOOODDD SCOTT/MR CLARKE MY BELOVED I LOVE HIM SO MUCH I ADORE HIM I SWEAR TO GOD HIM AND HENRY CREEL WERE GAY BOY BESTIES (did you see the black cat decorations behind scott? because those connect to henry) AND REAL JOYCE DESERVES TO BE SOOOOO HAPPY AND BOB IS A SWEETHEART FR I ADORE HIM

AND MOOOOODDD WITH THE HOPPER FLASHBACKS

((AND ALSO IM HOLLERING OVER THE BIRD ASGFSFHSDFNFD)

FHHSDHJDFJ HELPPP IVE NEVER BEEN IN A CORN MAZE BUT THEY SEEM BOTH FUN AND SCARY

AWBSDBJHSJFD HOLLERING OVER NANCY AND JON AND 3RD WHEELER STEVE.. AND YES OMG IM NOT PERSONALLY VERY FOCUSED ON THEM BUT LOTS OF PEOPLE SHIP THEM POLY!!!!!! ESP W STEVE HAVING GIFTED JON THE CAMERA AT THE END OF S1!! DUSTIN AND HIS HATS ARE SO PRECIOUS AND I LOVE MAX SM and RIGHT POOR WILL IS JUST CONSTANTLY GOING THROUGH IT ALL OF THE TIME

and YESSSSSS THE LAB FHJDF AND RIGHT ITS SO WEIRD THAT JOYCE TRUSTS THEM DESPITE THE S1 NEWSPAPER SAYING THAT JOYCE LITERALLY FOUND WILL AS A TEST SUBJECT AT THAT EXACT LAB. AND ITS 10000% THE LAB AND ITS SO DAMN WEIRD ESPECIALLY SINCE HOPPER GETS INTO THAT LAB CAR AT THE VERY END OF S1 AND WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT WAS ABOUT/WHY HE DID IT... IT’S ALL SO WEIRD LIKE WHY DO THEY TRUST THE LAB!!!!!!!!!!! AND HOW DID THEY GET OUT OF THE LAB IN S1????? AND RIGHT THE WHOLE ACT NORMAL THING IS SUCH BS IT DOESNT HELP ME EITHER... AND UIHFJFDJG THATS DR OWENS AND HES SO. HES. HES SUCH AN ENIGMA LIKE IM TRYING TO FIND OUT SO HARD WHATS UP WITH HIM ESPECIALLY SINCE HE’S SUPER SUPER PARALLELED TO VICTOR CREEL/HENRYS DAD AND ESPECIALLY SINCE OK LIKE

YKNOW THE PART IN THAT SCENE WITH HOPPER AND JOYCE AND OWENS IN THE OFFICE AND OWENS TALKS ABOUT HOW HE “GETS IT”/GETS WHAT HAPPENED TO JOYCE??? IM SITTING HERE LIKE. OWENS. WHAT. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GET IT??? WHAT DO YOU GET ABOUT LOSING A SON TO THE UPSIDE DOWN???? (AND ESP CONSIDERING THAT OWENS CALLS POSSESSED WILL ‘SON’ LATER ON... OWENS WAS EDWARD YOUR SON??? ESP SINCE YOURE PARALLELED TO HENRYS DAD???? AND IF EDWARD WAS THE ONE POSSESSING WILL???)

THERES SO MUCH TIMELINE SHIT GOING ON RN FR ESPECIALLY BECAUSE LIKE. WHAT IS UP WITH BRENNER IN S2. WHERE IS HE. WE SUPPOSEDLY SAW ONE BRENNER DIE BUT A.) WE DIDNT SEE HIM DIE HE WAS OFFSCREEN AND B.) WE HAVE BOTH A RICHARD AND A MARTIN BRENNER LISTED.... SO IM LIKE.. IS S2 THE TIMELINE WHERE ONE OF THEM DIED BUT THE OTHER ONE DIDNT DIE?????? ESPECIALLY SINCE S1 BRENNER’S HAIR PARTS ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE COMPARED TO S4 BRENNER’S HAIR..

AND RIGHT THE UD LOOKING FREAKIER GOD....

AND YEAH MAX’S BROTHER. IS NOT A GOOD DUDE.

and RIGHT TED'S CLIFF COMMENT GODDDD

AND YESSSS GOD TY FOR REMINDING ME ABT THAT TECH WITH THE MUSIC HEHE BC I NEED TO GO REWATCH THAT SCENE AND SEE IF IT TIES INTO SOME OF THE S4 NINA PROJECT STUFF....

AND HOLY SHIT YES EXACTLY THATS SUCH A GOOD POINT ABT THE DOORS BEING LIKE PORTALS THERES SO MUCH DOOR IMAGERY IN THIS SHOW ESP IN S3... it DOES affect the inside of the arcade but it took a second to do so at first (the arcade interior goes from totally normal looking with people -> normal looking but Empty except for will -> empty except for will and fucked up UD looking).... and it's so weird bc that "in between" space where it's Not UD Looking but IS empty comes back with el in the cabin in s3... IM LIKE WHAT IS THAT?????? ESP WITH MR CLARKE'S FLEA AND THE ACROBAT THING AND HOW THE TIGHTROPE'S IN THE MIDDLE AND THE FLEA CAN GO ABOVE OR BELOW IT AND THAT WEIRD EMPTY IN BETWEEN SPACE ALMOST BEING LIKE THE TIGHTROPE ITSELF???

also HOLLERING OVER EL BEING A CREATURE RIGHT I LOVE HER SHES SO CREATURE CODED THOUGH FR

S2 02-03

Episode 2

RIGHT AUUWHWGWHWHW EL MY BABY…….. AND RIGHT HEENNFNFFN THEY SHOW US EL LEAVING THE UD BUT THEY DONT SHOW US JOYCE AND HOPPER AND WILL LEAVING?? 🤨🤨🤨🤨 IT’S SUSPICIOUS AS FUCK!!!

ALSO YOU SAYING YOU JUST DONT THINK THAT TERRY’S DAUGHTER IS EL HAS ME LIKE FOX ON CHAIR BC JAMES HAS DONE A BUNCH OF ANALYSIS ON IT AND IT DEF SEEMS LIKE THERE’S MULTIPLE “ELS”/AN EL AND A JANE ETC… IT MAKES ME INSANE FR HDNFNF it’s so weird and it just gets weirder like we see multiple different birth scenes for El and multiple different els and GHRBRNRNRN


and RIGHT EL IS SO PRECIOUS I LOVE HER SHE JUST WANTS TO TRICK OR TREAT….

AND YES OMG WILL’S ART REALLY REALLY KEEPS COMING BACK THROUGH ALL THE SEASONS!!

AND THE PARTY ARE SO BABY THEM BEING THE ONLY ONES IN COSTUME SHDBFNFN

and RIGHT it’s such a good balance of the Insane Supernatural Trauma vs the Shitty Everyday Life Stuff That’s Still Upsetting and just GOD im insane abt it

HELPPP YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE TO CLOCK THAT FOR MAX THERES A LOT OF TRANSMASC MAX ENTHUSIASTS OUT THERE!!

and LITERALLY ITS SO FUCKING WEIRD LIKE OH MY GOD and what you said abt the ud and minimal gear makes me extra insane since a.) it seems like there’s more than one UD i swear and b.) in S4, steve and his group just fucking RAWDOG the UD no hazmat suits or ANYTHING and theyre fine and there S1 UD also doesnt seem to have a hivemind bc joyce steps in the tentacles repeatedly and nothing happens whereas in S4 steve and co cant even BREATHE wrong without the tentacles grabbing them… i swear to god the s1 ud and the s4 ud are two different places.

AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISCREPANCIES PLAY A HUGE HUGE HUGEEEEEEE ROLE IN THE TIMELINE STUFF YOURE SPOT ON… THERES A TON OF WEIRDNESS ON HALLOWEEN IN S2 WITH WILL’S CAMERA & THE 8:15 TIMESTAMP AND JUST. ALL OF THE CAMERA TIMESTAMPS IN THIS SHOW AND ALL THE CLOCKS AND ALL SORTS OF TECHNOLOGY BITS ARE TIED TO TIMELINE FUCKERY FR

AND RIGHTTT st really is The trauma show… AND MOOD I HATE THAT TOO SO IM VERY GLAD ST TACKLES THE FACT THAT THE WHOLE PRETEND NOTHINGS WRONG THING ISNT HELPFUL

AND MOOOODD DUSTIN AND LUCAS AND EL MY BELOVEDS HSFNNGNNG AND THATS SO REAL ABT EL AND HER TV SHOWS LIKE 🤝🤝🤝 MOOODDD

AND OUDGDHD THANK YOUU I AM STARING AT THE BUMPER CROP EP LIKE 👁👁👁👁👁

and yess YESS the ud is def tied to the crops dying

AND GODDD im sorry you had to deal with jackass behaviour like billy’s :(((( he’s rlly such a piece of work /neg

HENDNFNGNG THERES MORE MOLDLY FOOD ETC TO COME IN S4 TOO

WILL AND HIS CRIPASS BOWLCUT LIKE HE WAS AN ICON FOR THAT TBH HDBDND

AND I LOVE BOB SO MUCH HES SO. it also makes me INSANE that bob very very likely knew henry as a kid. bob. BOB WHAT DO YOU KNOW!!!!!!

BDENRNFNFNF HOPPER AND HIS WAFFLES AGAIN EL IS SO CREATURE CODED

AND HEHEHE WILL AND EL BOTH YELLING FOR MIKE part of it imo is byler subtext/starting to make things look like more of a love triangle/will calling out for mike in the same way that mike’s girlfriend does. he’s a gayass i love him

AND HEENNFNF STEVE DEF HAS THOSE BABY COW EYES FRRRR

AND YEHEYEYSSSS THERE IS ANOTHER PARALLEL TO THE COUCH SCENE LATER ON!!!

AND RIGHT MIKE AND WILL ARE SOOO PRECIOUS MIKE LOVES HIM SM AUGH LIKE.. will being able to be honest with mike and mike also being able to open up abt what he’s been seeing… im Normal…

AND THATS EXACTLY THE VIBE RE: HOUSE HDBFNFNFNGMGMG

AND OFUFHDH RIGHT THE USE OF STATIC IN ST SAME HERE WITH THE AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS FROM IT (i was SO scared of static as a kid) and they way they use it in st continues to make me Insane esp with the later stuff with tvs and radios and the creels

EPISODE 3

YESSSSS CLAUDIA HENDERSON MY BELOVEDDDDD HEHEHEHE AND IM HOLLERING OVER “YOU GOT A LITTLE FREAK!!!!!” HENNRFNNGMGMG

HEHENDNDN DART IS SO BABY HONESTLY LIKE JUST LET HIM EAT HIS MUSKETEERS… AND POOR YURTLE FR ESP SINCE DART DOESNT EVEN LIKE THE HEAT

AND RIGHT EHENENND i think hopper had seen el out there since she’d been hunting squirrels in the woods/i think he knew she was out there but didnt know 100% where.. BUT STILL RIGHT WHAT IF SOMETHING ELSE TOOK THE WAFFLES

AND MOOODD I LOVE HER and god el not speaking is esp interesting when you consider the fact that henry as a child has Zero speaking lines. Just lots of Staring LMAO

AND FHFNGNGM BOB MY BELOVED HES SO POOKIE !!! AND YES SAME WITH DUSTIN I LOVE HIM DHDBFNF

And god dont even get me STARTED on mr baldo, i wrote a whole post (https://www.tumblr.com/aemiron-main/720036372124221440/bob-and-mr-baldo-was-bob-abused-as-a-child-was?source=share) about how mr baldo is a creep/likely bob’s way of trying to cope with/explain his experiences to Will… the Agony…

AND HEHEHEBEBEBEBEBEB BOB MY BELOVED HES FINE ITS OK HES FINE HES IN ONE PIECE… FOR NOW

AND YES OK IK WE TALKED ABT THIS BEFORE BUT IM COMING BACK TO IT BC I RECENTLY WROTE ANOTHER POST THAT INVOLVES THIS LINE FROM LUCAS AND NOW IM WONDERING IF either henry or edward was drowned by their mother in the creel bathtub as a child + then had his body dumped in the quarry to try and cover it up. There’s SO much drowning imagery associated with the creel tub and some of the shots we get of lucas in s4 with the creel tub behind him & how they tie to this line are just making me Insane…. ANYWAY IM LIKE WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT DAMN TUB AND THE QUARRY BC ITS NOT LOOKING GOOD FOR EITHER HENRY OR EDWARD IN ONE OF THE TIMELINES!!!!!

and yesss YESSS THE PROJECTOR… And scott my beloved..

AND YEYEYEYEYSHS THE LAB SHIT THOSE BITCHES R ALWAYS INVOLVED IN EVERYTHING

AND OWUDHDH GOOD QUESTION ABT THE WAFFLES- i dont think mike answered it, but if you look at murray’s conspiracy board in his bunker, you can see a news article about when el stole waffles from the grocery store in s1- so hopper probably saw the article is my guess! Or mike told him and we just didnt see it!

AND RIGHT EHEJFN BILLY SEEMS 25 FR

AND RIGHT YOUR OTHER BOYFRIEND CMON THE 3 OF YOU JUST DATE ALREADY

AND EXACTLY im glad this conflict is more reasonable instead of steve’s friends just being jackasses lmao. AND REAL I LOVE DUSTIN AND I LOVE DART THE VOMIT SLUG SHDBDNF AND BOB MY BELOVEDDDDD HEHEHEHE I MEAN. HES FINE ITS OKAY HES FINE ITS OKAY DONT WORRY ABOUT BOB

AND JOYCEEEEEE I LOVE HER SM HFBFFNNFNFGMGN BOB CARES SM AND JOYCE LOVES WILL SM AND AUWHWGWH

AND HEHEHE IM LATE WITH THIS SO IM SORRY SO YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO HIM B IT.. AT LEAST HES NOT EVIL!!!!!!! but *demodog voice* “he Was tasty-“

And yeyeys YES THE JANCY BYLER PARALLEL AND THERES ANOTHER PARALLEL TO THE CRAZY TOGETHER COUCH SCENE IN S4 TOO!!!

and maybe things cant go back to the way they were

you: you’re right!! Moving forward!!

Me, shaking sobbing throwing up: STOP TALKING ABOUT GOING BACK STOP IT WITH THE CONTEXT OF HENWARD USING HIS MIND TO TURN THE CLOCK BACKWARDS IN S4 AND HOPPERS LETTER AT THE END OF S3 AND DTEVE TALKING IN S4 ABOUT CRAWLING BACKWARDS AND ALL THE TIME FUCKERY ABDBFNFNFN WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY CANT GO BACK HRGHBB

AND OH MY GOD OK SO BARB MAKES ME INSANE BECAUSE IF YOU LOOK REALLY CLOSELY AT THE SNOWBALL IN THE S2 FINAL EP, YOU CAN SEE BARB IN THE BG (and bts pics confirmed it IS her) AND SO YOURE SPOT ON LIKE THERES DEF A SOLID CHANCE BARB IS ALIVE IN ONE TIMELINE…

AND EHENRNNRNENENNENFNG AGAIN IM INSANE BC YOURE PICKING UP ON SHIT LIKE THIS AND IM JUST NODDING FURIOUSLY BC YES YES YES THERES SO SO MUCH WEIRDNESS WITH EL’S MOM ND HER POSSIBLY BEING DEAD/NOT BEING EL’S MOM AND JUST GDODUDHDH

AND HEHEHEHE JOYCE AND TECH…. and the fact that we see that weird 8:15 timestamp on will’s JVC in s2 specifically when joyce is rewinding the tape… it makes me Insane

AND EHENFNF MOOOD MIKE AND WILL MY BELOVED…

Also im CRYING over “baby EggHeadMouthFreak” thats what im calling them from now on HBEENDNDNF

AND DHFBFNNG FRRR MIKE AND HIS HETERONORMATIVITY AND HOMOSEXUALITY AND INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA… will is fighting literal demons mike is fighting gay thoughts

AND RIGHT EXACTLY LIKE MIKE AND EL ARE JUST FIGURING THEMSELVES OUT AND YET SOME PEOPLE THINK THEYRE GOING TO GET *MARRIED* AT THE END OF S5 WHICH IS INSANE

HHEBEFNFNFN WILL IS ALWAYS GOING THROUGH IT LIKE THIS POOR GUY CANNOT CATCH A BREAK

AND IM LOSING IT AGAIN OVER THAT PICTURE LIKE THAT WAS MY EXACT FACE WHEN I WATCHED THAT SCENE LIKE PLEASE SHADOW MONSTER STEP AWAY FROM THE CHILD PLEASE PLEASEEEE

S2 04

HGEHEENRNFNFNF HELPPPPPPP

AND RIGHT MIKE STARING AT HIM… THEYRE GAY YOUR HONOUR

AND HE *IS* LOSING MEMORIES RIP WILL GODSPEED BUDDY

AND RIGHT RIGHT WE CANT TRUST THESE LAB BITCHES I AM PUTTING EVERY LAB ASSOCIATED BITCH UNDER MY MICROSCOPE AND STARING AT THEM…

And oh YES will is definitely autistic imo like no doubt AND YES DEFINITELY ALEXITHYMIA VIBES UR NOT WRONG AT ALL….. will is autistic for sure

AND RIGHT AUUWGWHH EL MY BELOVED

AND RIGHT HOPPER PLS GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER LIKE CMON MAN THERES NO NEED FOR THIS

AND EHRBFNGNGN RIGHTTTTTTTTTT

AND GOD YES OK temp low and the dissociating im not sure abt ice powers (still a possibility) but there is SO much temperature weirdness in ST + the UD being cold + UD creatures being susceptible to fire and all the talk of burning things ESPECIALLY in s4… its so…

AND YESSSS YESS THE IRL CONNECTIONS MY BELOVED AND SCOTT MY BELOVEDDDDDDD SCOTT EXPLAINING FLIGHT OR FIGHT…. God i love scott

AND HEBEBEHEHFN HOPPER RLLY HAS. SMTHN UP WITH HIM IN THIS EP FR LIKE BRO GO TAKE A WALK SHES A CHILD LIKE GO TAKE A BREATHER AND LEAVE IT ALONE

AND RIGHT EGEBFNF HONESTLY ITS LIKE WHAT IS BILLYS FUCKIN ISSUE WITH *EVERYONE*…. AND HOLLERING OVER BILLY LOOKING LIKE HED SHOWER WITH SOCKS ON DHDBFNGNG

AND MOOOOD COMMUNAL SHOWERS MY BEHATED

AND RIGHT THE PARK PARANOIA WHICH the park scene makes me extra insane considering that there’s a park/playground literally DIRECTLY across from the creel house….

NAD HEBFNGNGNG WILLS GOING THROUGH MORE THAN DISSOCIATION TOO LIKE JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE HIS BRAIN SCANS SHRNGNNGNG

AND YES YES WILL IS CONNECTED TO THE HIVEMIND THATS WHATS HAPPENING TO HES CONNECTED TO ANY CREATURES WITH SHADOW PARTICLES IN THEM/THAT ARE CONNECTED TO THE UD

AND RIGHT LIKE MIKE PLS CHILL IT YOU DONT NEED TO START BARKING AT HER JUST CAUSE UR MAD THAT UR GAY…

AND RIGHT HOPPERS JUST GOT THE RECORDS UNDER THE FLOOR DHFBGNGNGNMG

AND RIGHT MOOODDDDD AND GOD owens makes me insane bc its like hes obviously Not Great but he is more genuine in s4/argues with brenner and im like. It baffles me bc owens DOES seem to have WAY more morals than brenner (and he also doesnt have the sexual predator coding/imagery that brenner has) but i also do NOT trust his ass because he’s always flip flopping and he also works for hnl so automatically suspicious

AND RIGHT OWENS ACTING LIKE IT WAS AN OOPSIE LIKE BRO YOU KILLED PEOPLE!!! AND RIGHT LIKE CMON OWENS NOBODYS BUYING THAT SHIT ABT THE RUSSIANS (picture me hiding s3 behind a curtain HDBDBDBD)

AND RIGHT THE PUMPKIN PATCH AND THEN AS YOUVE ALREADY SEEN BC IM LATE CATCHING UP ON THIS.. THE UD TUNNELS UNDER HAWKINS

AND YEAH BILLY IS DEFINITELY RACIST LIKE WHAT WE SEE OF IT IS ACTUALLY A TONED DOWN VERSION OF HOW RACIST HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WHICH IS INSANE BC HES CLEARLY RACIST ASF

AND YESSSSSS THE TERRY PAPER HEHEBEBEBEENE. god good point actually i should go compare those two papers at some point

AND OH JUST FUCKING WAIT UNTIL S4 BECAUSE WHILE YES BRENNERS WIG IS HILARIOUS . THERES ALSO. SO MUCH WEIRNDESS WITH HIS WIGS IN S4 THATS CONNECTED TO TIMELINE SHIT AND MORE THAN ONE BRENNER AND LIKE HWOEHRBRNGNGN. ITS INSANE FOR SOME REASON IN THE BTS PICS HE HAS LIKE THIS GOLLUM ASS STRINGY HAIR WIG TOO THAT WE HAVENT SEEN IN THE SHOW YET??

AND THATS SO REAL HWEHFNFN YOUR INTUITION IS SO REAL ABT EL AND JANE LIKE THEYRE NOT THE SAME GIRL FR…. JANE WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU

AND GOD THE LAB BUGGING THINGS MAKES ME INSANE DVFBFNGNGNGNGNG LIKEEEE ESPECIALLY STARING AT THE CREEL HOUSE THE LAB BUGGED THE CREEL HOUSE ON MOVE IN DAY I CAN FEEL IT IN MY BONES

AND RIGHT WIEHFHFNGMMGMGMG POOR MEWS I ALWAYS FEEL SO BAD FOR HIM LIKE DART IS SO CUTE BUT ALSO POOR MEWS.

AND YESSSSSSS THANK YOU EOFJDHDHFNFNGNG IM STARING SO MUCH ST YOUR MUSIC CHOICES CONTINUE TO MAKE ME INSANE!!!

S2 05

HEFBFNF JOYCE LOVES AND SUPPORTS WILLS ART FR!!

AND ODUDGDHD STARING AT WHAT YOU SAID ABT THEM BEING ON THE LEFT BC THERES A LOT OF LEFT VS RIGHT STUFF THAT COMES UP IN S4…

AND RIGHT RHRNGNGNGNG HOPPER WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!! However interestingly enough while it IS stupid for hopper to go into it despite knowing its toxic, what actually ends up getting him is the tentacles grabbing him- which, in s1, they DONT grab him or joyce, so this is an unexpected surprise for hopper when they grab him in s2.

AND WHDNFNFFNNGNG THATS SO FAIR W POLYAM

AND RIGHT THE LITTLE SLEEPING BAG HES SO BABY

AND EHEBFNGNGNG IM GLAD YOU STARTED PREPARING AHEAD OF TIME FOR BOB BC… MY GOD…. POOR GUY

Also hollering over “give that bitch a nicotine addiction” GEBRNFMGKGKG

AND RIGHT AUWHWGWHWH POOR DUSTIN LIKE BUDDY YOU STILL GOTTA BURY THAT…. And also still losing it over Egg Beast GSBDBDBD

AND RIGHT DARTS JUST A LITTLR GUY DOING HIS BEST HE DOWSNT KNOW ANY BETTER

AND RIGHT LIKE GIRL EL WHAT ABOUT STRANGER DANGER i mean i guess she’s grown up with brenner and is like Well It Cant Possibly Be Worse Than That

AND YES ITS THE SAME PLACE unless im missing some details gotta go look again bc timeline shit is always happening in this show

AND YEEYEYEYS TERRY IS 100% REPEATING SMTHN SHE SAW AND IT MAKES ME INSANE BC THE RAINBOW ROOM TERRY SAW IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM THE RAINBOW ROOM WE SEE IN S4 WHICH WOULD ALSO TIE INTO EL AND JANE BEING DIFFERENT PEOPLE SINCE THEY EACH SEEM TO HAVE A DIFFERENT RAINBOW ROOM TOO…

AND DHEBFNF MONSTER HOUSE LOOKING ASS HELPPP

AND BABY EGG MAX AND LUCAS…….

AND WHEOFOGUFHFBFBFB WATCHING YOU SUFFER OVER BOB IS SUCH A MOOD IM STILL NOT OVER HIS DEATH LIKE WODHDHFNGNGMMG

Bob is doing his BEST okay!!!!! HES SO PERFECT

AND YESSSSS ERICA MY BELOVED AND TERRY AND EL AND YEYEYEEYSHSB PKAY SO

WHAT YOU SAID ABT THIS NOT BEING HOME RE: TERRY AND EL makes me insane bc im currently working on an analysis of this but the song that plays when el first pulls up to terry’s house in that semi is “green green grass of home” which when you actually look at that song makes NO sense for el and terry because the song is about a man in prison on death row thinking about his childhood home- el is not in prison not on death row NOR HAS SHE EVER BEEN TO THIS HOUSE BEFORE. But yknow who that song DOES fit perfectly?? VICTOR CREEL WHO IS CURRENTLY SERVING A LIFE SENTENCE IN PENNHURST & THINKS ABOUT THE CREEL HOUSE ALL THE TIME!!! ME WHEN EL’S SONG ABT HOME IS TIED TO THE CREELS BECAUSE SHES A CREEL BECAUSE SHES EDWARDS KID AND- GUNSHOTS

AND GDODUDGH GOD RIGHT WHAT YOU SAID ABT TERRY SEEMING STUCK LIKE WILL MAKES ME INSANE BC ITS LIKE. THERES SO MUCH TIME LOOP IMAGERY WITH TERRY AND WITH THE NINA PROJECT LATER ON AND HOW TERRY CONNECTS TO THAT AND IM LIKE TERRY IS PART OF YOU/YOUR MIND STUCK IN A TIME LOOP??? WHATS GOING ON???


and right BOB IS SO PRECIOUS I LOVE HIM SMMMMM

and fucking HOLLERING OVER COCOMELON SHIT TO TEDS BRAINW EVFNFNGNFNFNFN REAL

AND YEEYEYEYS STEVE AND DUSTIN GET CLOSER YES YOU WILL DEF SEE MORE OF THEM TOGETHER ESP IN S3!!!!!

AND DHDBFNGNGNGNGNG HOPPERS OKAY DW

AND GOD OK SO YES THERE IS AN ACTUAL RUSSIAN PLOT LIKE IN S3 AND ALSO IN S4 THERES AN ACTUAL RUSSIAN PLOT IN RUSSIA…

AND RIGHTTTT MURRAY IS SO RIGHT MURRAY IS HOW I FEEL DOING ST ANALYSIS TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO SEE THE TRUTH OF EDWARD AND HENRY ETC LIKE… LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN PEOPLE!!!

AND RIGHT TERRYS WHOLE BIRTH THING IS SOOOOOO. AND YEYEYS TWO DIFFERENT RAINBOW ROOMS JUST WAIT UNTIL S4 AND ITS SO. ITS INSANE IT MAKES ME INSANE BC TERRY ALSO HAS DIFFERENT CONTRADICTORY BIRTH SCENES FOR EL LATER ON AND ITS SOOOOOO

UAWGDHHGNGNMGNGNGNG HOLLERING OVER ALL OF THIS BOB IS SO PERFECT FR AND RIGHT THE FUCKING WHITE VANS. JUST WAIT UNTIL BRENNER LITERALLY STARTS HANDING OUT CANDY IN S4 LIKE ITS LITERALLY SO FUCKING ON THE NOSE

AND WILL. WILL IS SOOO. His possession makes me insane like WILL WHO POSSESSED YOU

AND YESSS IFUDGDHD GREAT CONNECTION WITH THE MUSIC YESSS

S2 06

RIGHT LIKE CLAUDIA HENDERSON WHAT ARE YOU DOING RN?????


and right RIGHT HIM AND HIS YES MEN IM EXPLODING ALL LAB EMPLOYEES WITH MY MIND RN THEY ARE THE EPITOME OF GASLIGHT GATEKEEP GIRLBOSS IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE

HEBDNFNF I LOVE MURRAY AND HIS CONSPIRACY STUFF And him giving them drinks LMAO HENENENENE AND YES HE LIVES AT LEAST SO FAR YOU DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABT HIM HES IN S3 AND S4 TOO AND HE JUST KEEPS GETTING MORE ICONIC

AND RIGHT LIKEEEE NO THANK U

RIGHTTTTTTTT LIKE THEY JUST WANNA THROW HIM BACK OUT THERE??

AND HOLLERING OVER WHOSE SKINFLAKES WHENENNFNFNGNGN I WISH I KNEW WHAT THAT SHIT WAS

BOB IS SO PRECIOUS WHENFNF I WOULD DIEEE IF YOU DREW HIM HES SO. BELOVED FR I NEED TO SEE HIM IN THE FIRST SHADOW PREQUEL PLAY CMON BOB ITS ALREADY CONFIRMED THAT UR IN THE PLAY (omg wait remind me 2 show u the leaked first shadow play bob audition videos…. hes so silly i love him we get to see highschool era bob doing a little dance)

AND HDFBFNGNGNG BILLY HATERS UNITE FR

AND RIGHT EHRNFNRNRNF HOPPER GOT THE SHORT END OF THE STICK

AND YES YES CALLING WILL SON HEHEHEHEH IT MAKES ME INSANE WHY ARE YOU CALLING HIM SON STOP THAT OWENS WHY ARE YOU CALLING HIM SONNNNN

AND YES BASICALLY!!!

AND EHEBDBFNFN STEVE AND HIS BI SWAG AND HAIR TUTORIALS… HES TEYING HIS BEST OK

And also im EXPLODING your asshole ex boyfriend with my mind im tearing him apart but also LITERALLY WHAT KIND OF REDNECK HICK SHIT IS THAT WHICH IS RICH COMING FROM ME BUT LIKE COME ONNNNNN

AND RIGHT RIGHT LIKE HOPPER!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!! Its rlly so disappointing to see & EXACTLY THOUGH LIKE YOU SAID ITS INTERESTING TO SEE HIS ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES… AND EXACTLY THE WAY THE DISMISSIVENESS USUALLY GETS PLAYED FOR LAUGHS VS IT NOW BEING TAKEN SERIOUSLY AND ADDRESSED.. AND IT MAKES TOTAL SENSE OMG THE THAT 70S SHOW COMPARISON IS SO GOOD YOURE SPOT ON

AND RIGHTTT LIKE CMON HOPPER YOU GOTTA GIVE HER A BETTER APOLOGY DIRECTLY TO HER

and right RIGHT OWENS ALWAYS FUCKING SEEMS LIKE HE KNOWS MORE THAN HES LETTING ON HE ALWAYS FUCKING SEEMS LIKE HES HIDING SMTHN LIKE OWENS LET ME IN YOUR WEIRD LITTLE BRAIN

ALSO HOLLERING OVER THE YONI EGG INTERJECTION HEHHRFNNGG

AND YES THE DAMN FOG IT HAUNTS ME BC OF SOME OF THE DND FOG STUFF AND MIKE LATER TALKING TO WILL ABT CASTING FOG CLOUD AND THE FOG ON THE NIGHT WILL VANISHED AND IM LIKE WHAT IS UP WITH THIS FUCKING FOG!!

And thats so fair god exploding both ur brother and billy… billy stans rlly r Something (delusional)

OH THERES MORE THAN TWO WHENRNRNFNG

AND RIGHT ALL THE DAMN BONES

GODUDGDHDHD ANOTHER HALF SONG IM STARING SM YESSS

S2 07

YES OK SO YES THE TERRY EP GOD IT MAKES ME INSANE LIKE THE LITTLE BLONDE GIRL IS SUPPOSED TO BE BABY EL /JANE AND ITS SOOOO. ITS LIKE. THATS NOT EL. WHO ARE YOU!!! AND KALI/8 IS THERE TOO YES ANS SHE GETS NAMEDROPPED IN S4 AGAIN AND IT MAKES ME INSANEEE

AND RIGHT BECKYS SUCH A GOOD SPORT ABT IT LMAO

AND RIGHT AUWHDGDHFHF EL….. AND YEAH KALI DEF USES HER LMAO KALI IS LIKE.. i enjoy her character but some of the shit she pulls with el esp with that brenner vision??? Mean as fuck like JESUS

AND RIGHT RIGHT RIGHTTTTTT KALI STOP IT YOURE REPEATING THE CYCLE KALI PLEASE YOURE JUST CREATING MORE TRAUMA YOURE TRAUMATIZING THOSE GIRLS AND RE TRAUMATIZING EL LIKE PLEASE JUST SIT DOWN AND CHILL A LITTLE

and right like i get where kalis coming from but a.) what happens when theyre all dead and b.) she’s dragging el along with her And traumatizing other kids in the process

AND YESSS HOME TIME FOR EL

S2 08

HEHNFNFNMFMF HELPPPPP

AND RIGHT WILL FREAKING TF OUT AND YELLING ABT LYING VS HENWARDS MONOLOGUE ABT LYING LATER IN S4 GOD IT MAKES ME INSANE

right RIGHT IT PRETENDING TO BE WILL ITS SOOOO. GOEUEGRHDNFNGNFNGMGM

And RIGHT billy just triggers the instinct to Kill and Maim fr

AND GOD A WHITE VERSION OF UR DSD…

And yeah SO many people think it excuses his behaviour and its INSANE. Like with henry my whole point with defending him isnt “its okay that he did xyz” its instead “henry literally did not do xyz heres the proof it Wasnt Him Free My Man From The Allegations” whereas so many hardcore billy stans are like “actually racism is ok bc billy’s dad called him a faggot”

AND ODUDDHH YES TY OH IM JOTTING THAT DOWN ABT BILLYS DAD AND SON I NEVER NOTICED THAT THANK YOUUUU

AND RIGHT STEVE IS SO FUNNY EVEN WHEN HES NOT TRYING TO BE DHDBFNF

BOB NEWBY SUPERHERO IS LITERALLY SO ICONIC HERNRNFNNF

BEBRNTMGMGMGMGMGMGMHMGMG WATCHING YOU LOSE IT OVER BOB IM JUST LIKE OUGH I KNEW THIS WAS COMING BUT ITS STILL AGONIZING TO WITNESS IM SORRY MAN EGDBNFNF BOB WAS SO GOOD HE DIDNT DESERVE THAT AT ALL POOR BOB MY BELOVED IM HOLLERING OVER THESE REACTION MEMES GEBENFNN IM THE CAT GETTING MY FACE GRABBED AND GIGGLING EVILLY

AND RIGHT RIGHT BOB LORE WHICH THAT MEANS BOB KNEW SCOTT IN SCHOOL WHICH MEANS SCOTT WENT TO SCHOOL IN HAWKINS WHICH WORKS PERFECTLY WITH SCOTT BEING JUST THE RIGHT AGE TO HAVE BEEN IN THE SAME CLASS AS HENRY..

AND DHDBFNF THEYRE PUTTING THE CHARACTER TO WORK!!! MAKING THEM DO MANUAL LABOUR FHFNFN

AND DUSTINS DOING HIS BEST FR AND I SUPPORT U HITTING MAX W THE TRANS BEAM SM..

AND RIGHTHTTTTTT THE RAINBOW SHIP JOYCE IS SO PRECIOUS…

AND IM LOSING IT OVER IT BEING LIKE AN EARLY 2000S COMMERCIAL SEGMENT OH MY GOD THATS EXACTLY THE VIBE HELPPP EHDNFNFNGFNGMG

AND yesyeyessyYES THE WEAPON THING YOURE SPOT ON BC THE GUN NANCY HAS??? IS THE SAME GUN THAT WILL HAD IN THE SHED WHEN HE VANISHED IN S1!!!! YOURE SO RIGHT AND IT MAKES ME INSANE

EPISODE 9

EXACTLY EXACTLY THATS HER FRIEND THATS HER BUDDY HER ROTTEN SOLDIER HER SWEET CHEESE HER GAY BESTIE!!!!

AND RIGHT GET HIS ASS MIKE HFBFNGNGNG and RIGHT ITS THE GATES TO HELL FR

AND GOGUFHFHFJFNFNF RIGHTTT BILLY IS SO. RANCID FR!!!!!!! ALSO HOLLERING OVER PUT THE BOY IN THE SAUNA RIGHHT AFTER BILLY HATER ….HENENENRF YOU ARE GONNA LOVE S3 WHEN BILLY GETS SAUNA’D HEHENNFNF BILLY GETS 7/11 ROTISSERIE CHICKEN’D FR (just realizing youve already watched s3 at this point i how you enjoyed billy getting sauna’d)

AND YESSS MILEVEN AND HOPPER AND EL THOUGHTS IM STARING 👁👁👁

AND RIGHT THERES SOOO MANY GOOD PRACTICAL EFFECTS (fun fact in s1 there’s two diff demogorgons & one is cgi and one is a guy in a practical effects suit)

AND RIGHT STEVE IS IN HIS BABYSITTER ERA FR AND HIM WRAPPING UP THE DESD DEMODOG LIKE A BABY TO PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE LMAO

And RIGHT GOD BILLY STANS ARE. SMTHN ELSE

AND GODDDDD EXPLODING BILLY FOR TRIGGERING YOU and god huge mood with how realistic the character are, there’s so many times where ive been like Oh This Is Very Familiar Unfortunately

AND RIGHT RIGHT THE EXORCIST COMPARISONS ARE SO GOOD ITS SOOOO. IT MAKES ME INSANE BC THE CREEL NEWSPAPERS IN S4 TALK ABOUT AN EXORCISM AT THE CREEL HOUSE AND IM STARING AT THE WILL-HENRY PARALLELS AND HENRY HAVING AN EXORCISM DONE ON HIM….

AND OHHHHHHHH MAN THERES SO SO SO FUCKING MANY CONNECTIONS TO LOST ITS INSANE ITS CONSTANT ESP IN S4

AND YESSSSS WILL HAS BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH

AND RIGHT OH MY GOD DUSTIN AND DART MY BELOVEDDSSSSS FEED HIM HIS SNACK DUSTIN!!!!!!!

AND GODUDGDHDHFH GOD YOUR MIND I NEED TO LOOK INTO THE SONAR FIELD AND LOST STUFF MORE OFJFFHJFJFJG YOURE MAKING ME INSANEEEE IM LOOKING AT STUFF FOR IT RN AND OH MAN I NEED TO SIT DOWN WITH THIS LATER IM HAVING THOUGHTS

AND RIGHT RIGHT THE HALLOWEEN EP AND THE CAMERA COMING BACK THE THE END OF S2 BEFORE THE SNOW BALL!! And speaking of lost, the lost flight 815 vs the 8:15 timestamp on the camera when joyce rewatches the tape even though the tape did Not say 8:15 when will recorded the footage…

AND EXACTLY THE JUMP FROM TRAUMA TO EMBARRASSING KID STUFF

AND RIGHT DUSTIN WITH HIS HAIRRRRRR HES SO POOKIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

AND SCOTTS MOUSTACHE AND LITTLE XMAS SWEATER…. HES SO BABY….. AND LUCAS RIGHT AHSHDB MY BELOVEDS

AND RIGHT RIGHT I DONT GET IT EITHER WHY DO PEOPLE WANT HIM TO BE AROACE SO BAD WHY ARE THEY PICKING HIM SPECIFICALLY I DONT UNDERSTAND!!!!!! AND V SIMILAR AS HE GETS OLDER!!!!!! LET HIM HAVE THE ROMANCE HE WANTS!!!

AND RIGHT EL IS SO PRECIOUS…. AND RIP BOB MY BELOVED :((((

AND RIGHT ITS WEIRD RE: THE THEME SONG BEING USED ON SOME ENDINGS LIKE 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨

AND YESSS HEHEHEHE IM ALWAYS STARING FOR UR THOUGHTS 👁👁👁 hehehehhfhfjdf <<33333 i sit here like i Have to write essays i will DIE if i dont get these analysis thoughts out…. And also im so Glad ur enjoying max and fuck billy fr

Bo thank you oh my god i dont know if my comments did this justice but this whole reblog chain was absolute GOLD im still crying over PUT THE BOY IN THE SAUNA!!!!!!!!!!

Stranger Things S2 01

this is just me live blogging watching ST none of my thoughts are v coherent enjoy <3

STARTING OFF REAL INTERESTING BUT REAL TALK when you have like a cool haircut how do you expect not to be found if u do a crime???? LIKE I LOVE YOUR MOHAWK AND I GET IT U DONT WANT TO COVER IT BC OBVIOUSLY BUT!!!!

this is NOT the focus obviously its about the fact theres other kids from the lab BUT AKSHDAKSJDKH

DUSTINNNN!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH IM SO GLAD WE'RE STARTING ON HIM KISS KISS KISS

not the reagan sign STOP STOP ITS BEEN 2 SECONDS I HATE TED THATS HIS NAME RIGHT FIGHT KILL DESTROY BITE BITE BITE BITE

also the boys have grown SO MUCH !!!!!!! i forget there was actual real time between when these were filmed KSJHD im so excited to see Will and his perpetual bowl cut

JOYCE MY MOM!!!!!!!!!! SHES SO PRETTY AND SO CONCERNED I JUST LOVE HER

THE CHIP EATING DUDE FUCKING !!!! REMINDS ME OF THAT FUCKER FROM MONSTER HOUSE???????

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE REMINDS ME OF THIS ASKJDHASKJHDKAJSH

Will is so tiny ..... and little? oh hes being teleported into the fucking upside down again baby boy im so fucking sorry also ilu but why would you just walk outside away from wher eyour friends WERE to look at the horrifying shit world you were trapped and almost died in ????? aSDKJH

Im gonna have to DM you on discord or something so i can properly save all the things you have to say about the timelines and how the Russian shit plays into that because was anyone calling El (im assuming he's referring to her) is Russian??? IK this is possibly the third (?) timeline we've seen (genuinely let me know if i can do that its ok if not i forget tumblr has Dms)

ALSO WHO IS THIS GUY IM CRYING HES!!! WHAT A PI??? WHO ARE YOU

NANCY AND STEVE ALSO BESTIES IM CRYING STEVE IS hes trying so hard are they dating my brain is so full of queer shit that im so deadset on platonic hetero relationships - i paused for one second and unpaused and they kissed SO THAT ANSWERS MY QUESTION

idk what relationships to pay more attention to bc the dynamic between Mike and El interests me the most because of how compulsory everything feels and how El is going to navigate a completetly new environment and how Mike will cope with that? (im assuming its not well)

OH is this the !!! the guy that i see people talk about all the time YEAHHH THE BLOND MULLET MAN AND MAX what the fuck is his name Billy??? He looks trans

CRYING AT CHECKING OUT H IS ASS GIRL WAHT ASS HES FLAT HE HAS NOTH ING AKDSHASKHDKAJSH and those jeans are supposed to be supporting cheeks

I love Mr Clark so much and everyone who looks bored in his class just doesnt GET IT

BUT ALSO MAX I GET IT QUEEN the boys all staring are so good I FORGET THEY GO AS THE GHOST BUSTERS FOR HALLOWEEN

JOYCE MY MOM WHO IS THIS GUY HES??? GOOFY AND SHES SO HAPPY ??? BOB !!! i have no initial bad opinions of him bc hes silly and goofy and he makes Joyce so happy and she deserves to be SO SOSOS OS HAPPY and nothing but happy

IF i have to endure another god damn Hopper flash back im gonna throw up and scream and cry and lose my mind and I won't recover and I'll never come back

Im in call while I watch this episode because i really wanted to get through while and actually use my brain bc i don't that often - but my roommates bird is sitting next to her mic and farting really really softly into it and its making me lose my fucking mind

CORN MAZES WHEN YOURE TALL LOOK SO EASY AND LESS SCARY WHENEVER IM IN A FUCKING CORN MAZE ITS TERRIFYING AND I CANT SEE SHIT BC IM LIKE 2 FEET TALL

NANCCYCYY AND JOHNANATHANANSDNSAKDJ BESTIES BESTIES BESTIES BEST FRIENDS IM MAKING THEM A FRIENDSHIP BRACELET ITS THEIR FAVORITE COLOURS AND THEY NEVER TAKE THEM OFF

ADN STEVE TOO!!! IM SORRY YOURE A THIRD WHEEL BUT its the start of season 2 how do we feel about polyam relationships between them where the audience for that point me in the correct direction

DUSTIN IS RIGHT ALSO I LOVE HIM i love his little hats - MAX IS ALSO RIGHT

God i feel so ba for Will like to be??? singled out like that especially in elementary school? hell.

WHERE ARE THEY GOING TOGETHER WHAT IS HAPPENING ISNT THIS THE LAB ??? ougHHH THAt needle sound was unecessary

REALLY starting to see how this might be a different timelinei have no idea how ???? Joyce would.... trust them??? UNLESS THIS IS A HOSPITAL no its not ho films ina fucking hospital like this

also theyre mentioning the upside down

I understand needing to go back to the only place that fully understands that it exists and you need a place to talk to someone and also monitor him physically without being dismissed as insane - but i dont understand how Joyce OR Hopper would trust the Lab again after everything happened??????

I'm glad that he's actually getting help, and im glad that Joyce and Hopper are there to make him feel safe and support him given everything but !!!!!

this iS THE. He has PTSD. when did they get the word to describe that akjhaskjdh NVM HE JUST SAID IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALSO IS PRETENDING LIKE EVERYTHING IS NORMAL HELPFUL BC IT SURE THE FUCK IS N OT FOR ME ????????? also who is this DR hes kinder but "i need you to trust me" to JOYCE AFTER THE BRENNER SHIT ???

also them NOT MENTIONING IT WHEN THEY LEAVE BUT JOYCE UPSET ABOUT THE WHOLE "i need you to trust me" THING B UT NOT BRINIGN UP BRENNER?????? susususususus timeline shit anyway EM @ me tell me wahts up kiss kiss mwuah mwuah

OH they've upped their guinea pig game on entering the upside down and the gatelooks fucking uglier and uglier LOVE THE TORCH glad it works but no wonder the gate looks angry???

DUSTINNN I LOVE H IM I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

ough i have a feeling her older brother is gonna ..... trigger me a lil but we'll get through it

THEM BOTH HAVING A CRUSH ON HER!!!!!

If YouR fRiEnD jUmPs OfF a ClIfF 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

THEYRE GOING OVER TO HAVE DINNER WITH BARBS FAMILY STOP STOP STO PST OPST OPST IM GONNA CRY Oh they hired a P.I okay yeah the bald guy he..... HIS CARD STOPPPPP

realizing they defenitely can't tell her parent's what actually happened to her an di hate that im gonna oaufkahd girl im so sorry im so sorry im so osrry UPSET BC SHE AS A CHARACTER DID NOT DESERVE TO DIE I WISH THEY HADN'T DONE HER DIRTY LIKE THAT

all the photos of her would make me so ill to look at like god NANCYYY THE GUILT AND B LAME GIRLIEEEE

also Mike rebelling after experiencing that kind of trauma and losing Will and El even though Will came back he's not the same of corse he's struggling - calling it with the !!!! WALKIE TALKIEEEE girl i miss her too

YEAHHH ITS dustiNNNN BUT HE AKSHDKAJSH

DUSTINNN IM KAHSDKJH I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM SO MUCH HES SO SILLY !!!!!!!!!!!!! HES THE SILLY IN MY HEART

HONESTLY props to him again for not like invesigating something that was probably gonna be HORRIBLE he'd survive a horror movie

JOYCEEEEE IN MY FAV SHIRT SHES SO KISS KISS KISS KISS

Johnathan is such a good brother bro BUT ALSO WILL IS SO RIGHT I GET IT I GET IT I UNDERSTAND TREATING IT LIKE ITS NORMAL MAKES IT WORSE !!!! SOMETHING HAPPENED PLEASE ACKNOWLEGE THAT and JOHANATHANNN HES THE FREAK AND A WEIRDO

STOPA SDADKSHJ iT S THAT WHY YOU DONT HAVE ANY FRINEDS SHUT UP STOP STOP /POS

BOB i love you so far and ik that being a step parent in these situation (even tho hes only dating Joyce its the same) is so hard especially when there are kids involved BUT YOURE DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB

AND THEYRE ALL WATCHING THE MOVIE TOGETHER AHHH

ew the phone the trigger GIRL YOU GOT THIS ITS OKAY ITS OKAY BUT ALSO THATS SUCH A HORRENDOUS RINGTONE WHAT THE FUCK

love me a tech who accidentally ignores the alarms going off (i couldnt hear the song playing it feels important - unintentially placing importance on all the music in this show now thank u em)

OohuaAHDAKJH OH WILL IS GONNA get ,,,,, yoinked back again isn't he ouguhadhAKHDJS interesting that it really only affects the *outside* like doors are now portals in a way ? i cant remember if it affected the inside of the arcade immediately or not

OH MIST LOOKING MOTHER FUCKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wood Waffle Hours !!!!!!!!!! OH NO CABIN HOURS??? IS SHE. IS SHE. BIG EYE BALL EMOJIS LET ME SEE MY GIRL LET ME SEE THE BABY GIRL !!!! this entire scene makes it seem like shes a fucking AKSJDHA freak ass creature

HER HAIRRRRR SHES SO CUTE STOPPPP HOPPERS LITTLE SMILE IM TEARING UP AND CRYING ACTUALLY LOOK AT THEM LOOK AT THEM LOOKA T THEM OUGHHAHAHHHHHHHH IM HEAVING

thank u for reading these were my thoughts

[kaleidoscopic-quiddity]

food for thought: the true potential of will byers

alright buckle up girlies i finished stranger things 4 and i have many thoughts

let’s start with what we already know:

henry’s existence proves to us that it’s possible for someone to have telepathic/telekinetic powers even without brenner’s fucked up human experimentations

we still don’t know how or why henry has powers, or whether or not he was born with them vs them manifesting over time, but the fact remains that as far as we know, neither he nor his mom were involved in any kind of experiments/torture/drug trials/etc

we now know that the upside down is frozen in time, but not the day el opened the gate, nor the day henry killed his family, nor any other major upside down/telepathy related event, but specifically the day will got taken

barb was killed near instantly upon being taken to the upside down, yet somehow will managed to hide/survive as long as he did

all the other humans who were possessed by the mind flayer were unable to resit it (billy only could for a brief moment thanks to el’s telepathic interference), yet will managed to fight back against its influence through, for lack of a less ironic term, sheer force of will

this could just be main character plot armour, but my point is the upside down has been incredibly lethal to pretty much all of its victims, except for will byers, who keeps on managing to survive, and we still don’t entirely know how or perhaps even more pressingly, why

as other people have already pointed out, back in s1ep1 the garage light at the wheeler house seems to ‘follow’ will and at the byers house the deadbolt slid to unlocked without anyone touching it

obviously, this could just be atmospheric affects meant to hint at the demogorgon’s presence that have aged poorly as the creative team have developed and hammered down the in-universe rules for upside down and/or telepathy/telekinesis related fuckery, but we know that this show has engaged in some major  long haul foreshadowing before

switching our focus to the idea of henry and will as foils, victor described henry as a ‘sensitive child’, joyce said the exact same thing about will back in season 1

this one is definitely a reach but as we know will is obviously gay coded (i mean, alan turing as his ‘historical hero’? could they be any less subtle), and we also primarily see henry in the rainbow room

similarly, we know that virginia, henry’s mother, disliked him and wanted to get doctors or exorcists/priests to fix him, or get him sent away somehow, and obviously this was down to all the spooky shit going on, but also it’s not as if gay people were particularly thought well of in the 1950s

we’ve also seen that henry, just like will, had an affinity for art, particularly colour drawings, which has been stereotyped as a ‘gay ‘ or ‘effeminate’ interest for boys to have, especially in toxically masculine 1900s america

basically im not saying henry is also gay coded but im also not not saying that

on the topic of henry, whilst he was presumably born with his powers, it doesn’t seem as if he really came into them until his family moved to hawkins when, based on his appearance in the flashbacks, he was somewhere around 11 to 14 years old, and we know that will was 12 when he was taken

there’s also an obvious parallel between will and henry when it comes to music

playing a song, particularly a song an individual has emotional attachment to, is the only known way for someone to break free of vecna’s curse

will sang ‘should i stay or should i go’ right before the demogorgon got him in fort byers back in s1, and in s2 it’s by playing that song (plus being reminded of good memories) that will is able to momentarily escape the mind flayer’s control

we also know that will’s first dnd character was a wizard named will the wise, and vecna is described multiple times as a ‘dark wizard’

its also worth thinking about how will’s arc is s3 was about letting go of his childhood and finally accepting that he had to grow up, and vecna still has a very childish mindset as a villain that he doesn’t seemed to have matured from at all, what with his dreams of world domination and all

additionally, traumatic memories and the prolonged effects of trauma were a big theme this season, and in el’s case, specifically repressed memories and false memories as a result of trauma was a major narrative beat

in particular, this season dealt with el subconsciously repressing her telepathic/telekinetic abilities, as a result of trauma

to summarise:

there are some very obvious parallels to be drawn between henry creel and will byers

we now know that people can have telepathic/telekinetic powers even without them or their mothers undergoing human experimentation

repressed memories and ‘forgetting how to use’ one’s telepathy/telekinesis are already central narrative concepts this season

will has a unique relationship/resistance to the upside down that’s been put in focus numerous times but never fully explained, although it does seem to mirror el in some ways

in conclusion:

im not saying that i think will byers might have superpowers, but i think will byers might have superpowers

[wheelercore]

Mike and Ted parallels: is there more to it?

It's known that the ST production crew love subverting cliches to give a more real view of what people were actually going through in the 80s. Karen, the diligent housewife and mother, is actually deeply unhappy with the life she settled for due to the misogyny at the time of her coming of age. Nancy, smart, perfect and actively rejects the idea of a nuclear family she grew up in, doesn't end up with Steve, the older richer popular guy who likes her, but Jonathan, the outcast. Billy, the typical 80s macho man, is revealed to have lived with an abusive father for most his life after losing his only maternal presence. Mike, the male protagonist, is introduced to the female protagonist, El, and almost immediately starts an expected "love at first sight" relationship with her- only for it to turn sour and maybe break up in season 5.

However Ted, the typical emotionally distant, disciplinarian, and slightly mean comic relief 80s father, is the only character that has an archetype and sticks to it completely until now. For other characters these cliches are meant to be expectations in the form of obstacles but yet Ted is ironically unique among the Wheelers in that fact that he is one dimensional. He at times seems shockingly out of the loop, can't read the room, cannot take serious situations with any form of levity, and barely has a relationships with his own children. It all comes off as fake to me.

Why is this?

A question I believe is answered through Mike's character arc.

Mike's been paralleled to his father increasingly often in s3-s4. Which is interesting. Parallels have been kept to a minimum before, yet it isn't until Mike hits puberty and became hyperaware of societal expectations did he start to parallel his father. The most obvious has been clothing choices and the most subtle have been restricting POV.

Colors/outfits/bears

In season 3, Mike is undergoing a sexuality crisis. True to the writers words- the monster is supposed to symbolize "puberty".

The first outfit we see Mike wearing that parallels Ted is the teal polo shirt:

This scene shows Mike's gay panic over being in the men's sauna. Even before he opens the door, he's passing by men changing in the locker room and exercising on equipment (a direct parallel to s4 Mike where he talking to the wrestler and is framed directly with men exercising behind him). We see from this scene which type of men Mike is attracted to: muscular, taller, larger men. Bears to be exact.

Onto the end of the season we see El kiss Mike with a stuffed bear between them:

Also obviously- the open closet and Mike's open eyes. He's not into it. He's realizing for the final time, coming to terms with the fact and finally admitting to himself that he doesn't like girls. What is between him and El is Mike's sexuality- symbolized by a toy bear, his specific preference for attraction of men.

This is emphasized much more on s4.

In between those two scenes we get Ted at the fair wearing the same teal shirt and, guess what, holding a stuffed bear.

This scene in particular. As we've seen, the bear is used to symbolize Mike's attraction to particular men at the end of the season getting in between him and El. In that shirt, Mike is faced with men who fall under that particular category. Who is Ted talking to here in this scene?

Hopper.

Do I need to explain exactly what makes Hopper a bear? It's not necessary, just look at him.

Also may I point out, the bear itself is blue but with red inner ears. I've already theorized before but I believe that blue is meant to symbolize conformity while red is desire. The bear conforms on the outside while keeping its desire inside and hidden. Now if the bear is supposed to symbolize someone's sexuality... Well.

(Small tangent: Ted saying that there's "someone for everyone" after Karen mentions that Joyce and Hopper are a strange couple- at first comes off as, again, as a bit tone deaf given the state of their own marriage. Karen looks exasperated at this statement as well. But perhaps there was a double meaning given the symbolism utilized?)

In season 4 we see Mike and Ted sharing another similar outfit

Even the triangle on the pocket over their left side is the same, with the only except that Mike's points to the side while Ted's points down.

In this outfit, Mike gets close to uncovering Wills feelings, but eventually succumbs back to expectations and "confesses" his love to El. His confession was completely disingenuous because he does not love El and is simply only confessing his love under pressure to do so.

Really, I do believe that's what blue in particular symbolizes: conformity, shame, and pressure. However, not overt dishonesty. That's yellow: Mike was wearing yellow over purple when being fake as hell at the airport and was also wearing yellow in S3 when straight up lies to El about his Nan. Mike has scenes where he's actually very genuine in this outfit, however in the end he is reverted back into the same box he was in in the beginning with this outfit.

Also to point out, blue is the color Ted and Mike parallel each other in. Ted very often wears blue and Mike wears blue in moments that relate to him struggling with his sexuality: coming to terms with it and deciding whether to be open about it or hide it.

However when do we see Mike not wearing blue?

1. His hellfire outfit. He's being genuinely himself and coming out of his shell. He's being authentic.

2. The desert outfit. As in, he's taken of his blue shirt. Here he has a heart to heart with Will and relates to what Will is indirectly saying about his sexuality.

3. The airport outfit. Mike isn't being authentic here at all- hence the yellow. He also is wearing purple which is a mix of red and blue.

As you can see, with the exception of the 3rd option, when Mike is authentic- he's not in blue. But each time, he puts the blue back on and is pressured to revert back to conforming (being interrupted in the desert and Will lying to him about the painting).

Why is Ted paralleled to him in this outfit specifically? As the same with the polo shirt from S3 as mentioned previously?

I can't give a definitive answer, but let's think about what we do know about Karen and Ted. Nancy explicitly says that she doesn't believe her parents ever loved each other. We know Karen's side, she married Ted because she had no other choice as a woman in the 60s. She was pressured into that by a society who wouldnt let her have the means to stand on her own two feet.

But what about Ted? At the time of marrying Karen he was a single man in his late 20s, perhaps 30, who had a stable income and a cushy job. Why didn't he have the option to marry someone he loved? Given his age, he certainly had the time to find someone and there are other married men in ST who dont seem to have that problem, ie Lucas' dad and Hopper (previously). Why is he paralleled to Mike in an outfit where Mike was pressured into declaring his love for a woman he was not actually in love with because his heart lied elsewhere (that wasn't socially acceptable)?

Conformity, shame, and pressure.

Lack of POV

ST rarely deals with 1 dimensional characters. Even Billy, a racist and somewhat sadistic character, got a fleshed out background on why he is that way. The whole premise of the show backs this- it takes cliches and subverts them, expanding on why these characters could fit into their box and why they may chose to or not to.

Ted since the beginning has lacked something critical to this, a POV. We don't know why he acts the way he does or why he says the things he does. And it doesn't have to be sympathetic reasonings, just any reason. He is just an slightly exaggerated caricature of a emotionally distant and oblivious father. Which is intriguing to me because, fun fact! I am cursed with the overwhelming need to take unfleshed out characters and dig into them deep until I find substance in the form of subtext. Which is why I'm making this whole post.

Anyways. I digress.

Ted's lack of POV isn't obvious until we get to s4, when another character loses a lot of their POV and also suffers in likability (at least with the GA) for it- Mike.

There is even a completely 1-to-1 parallel of the dinner scene from s1 and the one in s4. Mike, saying something insensitive, causes El to storm off and he sips his drink as if unbothered. Ted does the same thing with his children and Karen.

Both are completely oblivious in this scene, not showing that they understood what they've done wrong. Mike later talks to El and then proceeds to completely brush of her direct appeals him, replying with insincerity. Ted is more sincere, comically asking what he did, but what connects both is that they don't believe that they did anything wrong.

What connects both of them is the emotional insensitivity. Mike doesn't understand why El would be lying to him about being popular. He makes a snarky comment about it, which upsets El. He isn't sympathizing with her, and blatantly waves away her concerns the morning after (saying that he always says he loves her when he clearly doesn't). He calls El a superhero and just repeatedly appeals to superficial aspects of El to justify that he loves her. His love isn't genuine.

Ted in this scene isn't trying to understand or speak to his children in a manner that is constructive. He instead emphasized on things that were insignificant- admonishing them for their language and taking the opportunity to warn Mike against being 'queer' (which really tickles my brain given the obvious queercoding shared between them as mentioned above). He isn't trying to understand why his kids are upset- particularly Mike who is concerned for his friend. He's being the traditional disciplinarian father here- getting in the way of Karen who was actually trying to have a constructive conversation with her children. He doesn't understand what he's done wrong because as far as he's concerned he's played his part to the T.

(Interestingly enough, later on when Will's "body" is found- Ted asks Karen if he should go talk to Mike. A rare moment of levity from Ted, showing that there are moments where he does seek an emotional connection with his son. However he is unsure if he should and is dissuaded by Karen- showing that Ted let's Karen take the lead on emotional matters as it relates to their family -as the maternal figure- rather than acting on his own volition).

I've seen people compare both these scenes but I have yet to see anyone actually point out the underlying meaning of it. Both Mike and Ted are emotionally disconnected (and therefore sometimes insensitive) here because they are playing a part set out for them by the culture. Ted- being the stereotypical 80s disciplinarian father/husband and Mike- playing the part of the heterosexual male protagonist who is head over heels for his gf, the heroine. Keeping up that image leads to both of them having issues in their relationships. We're even shown in Nancy's vision that Ted wasn't a part of it- he was incapable of even forming a relationship with his own daughter.

Aka, pretending to be someone youre not makes your relationships ungenuine and superficial. And that leads to problems as it makes you unable to form a deep connection with anyone you care about.

Mike loses his POV when he starts to actively behave in this manner. This shows that Mike is possibly hiding something, because his perspective is hidden. He comes off as uncaring and distant, like his father, however we know there is much more going underneath that we are not allowed to see just yet. If we extend this parallel to the other direction, does this mean that there is more to Ted than we are allowed to see also? From what I mentioned earlier with clothing and colors, you can see that the parallels often go both ways between them.

You can also see Mike and Ted coming to similar conclusions in s4, Mike calling that satanic panic "media bullshit" in the beginning of the season whereas Ted also rags on the media sensationalism around the satanic panic and the earthquake at the end.

Although it isn't explicitly mentioned, there is a certain hidden subtext to both Mike and Ted denouncing it.

Homosexuality being one of the vilified aspects of the satanic panic, specifically of D&D. In universe, they both would reasonably be aware of this although it isn't explicitly shown. Although Ted still seems to think D&D for losers LOL, while he doesn't seem to be of the impression that it's demonic.

Which is surprising from Ted particularly given his homophobia in s1 and his usually unquestioning attitude towards authority such as the media. Could something have changed during s4? He could have subtly figured what others that season figured out, and what Lucus explicitly says to Jason towards the end: people want to be normal but the satanic panic exposed who being "normal" really is for- "psychopaths" like Jason and others in power who seek to pit people against each other.

Regardless, if I am correct, Ted most definitely meant Will when he said sweetie pie. I am taking no criticism /lh.

[dexterthewolf]

Parent!Steve Harrington

First off: Dustin is Steve's OG child.

Like that scene in S2, they're trying to catch Dart.

Dustin's like "I'm insecure!" and Steve's like "I'm adopting you!"

Second: MadMax

With everything with Billy going to shit, Steve's the next big brother figure. He protected her from Billy.

Then with Max's mum drinking and Neil gone, Steve's her only parental figure left. Ergo: Mum.

Third: El

I don't have a reason for this. I just want them to be siblings.

Mainly inspired by the "Dingus, your children are here!" in S3x01

But the others took longer.

Babysitting while Hopper is away!!

Fourth: Erica

This dynamic in S3 is fan👏tas👏tic👏

"gOd she's such a little shit..."

"I better take care of her. Y'know. Only because I dragged her into this. I don't actually like her."

Spoiler alert: He did, in fact, like her.

Fifth (possibly controversial): Lucas

This is exclusively because I believe that Steve would support his basketball hobby with my heart, body, and soul.

Possibly the only one to do so.

And with Steve always around to babysit Erica, there's gonna be some kinda bonding?!

Sixth: Mike

Yes, I put Mike before Will.

Mainly inspired by the "But you don't love me anymore?" in S4

If we remember, Stancy had a near-exact parallel

I think Steve would've talked to Mike about it. And his relationship with Nancy (which, WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THEM IN S4???).

Maybe Mike would've seen Steve as the father figure he never had with his dad <3

Seventh (And finally....): WILL

Will's last, mainly because of Steve's tension with Jonathan

Steve also did insult his entire family in S1

⁓tension⁓

But, with Steve having just gone through his own gay awakening (cough, Eddie, Jonathan, Tommy, whoever you want, cough) and seeing Will go through a similar thing- he'd wanna help!

Again: giving Will the father figure he never had. (This also goes for Dustin)

[strangerthings4theories]

The Demogorgon Is Billy’s Dark Reflection

At first glance, the Demogorgon seems irrelevant to the question of whether or not Billy’s coming back. But as I aim to prove, it has everything to do with it. 

Stranger Things deals heavily in the theme of reflections and opposites. Characters are designed to mirror each other, embody the opposite of each other, and sometimes both at once. Hell, the Upside Down is presented as a reflection of the real world. Literally.

(Damn. They ain’t subtle.)

By the term “dark reflection,” I mean a relationship like that between the Upside Down and the real world. The two are almost exact copies; the Upside Down has all the same landmarks, down to Will’s fort in the woods. But the Upside Down has been corrupted by the Mind Flayer, its inhabitants turned into unthinking monsters.

It’s like us. But it’s everything we hate about ourselves, everything we’re afraid of becoming.

When we probe relationships between characters, we find that pattern replicated across the board. I don’t have room to explore it in full here. However, Billy and the Demogorgon are one of the most obvious examples.

With the exception of El, the main character of the show, no one else has been compared to the Demogorgon like Billy has.

>>Billy fills the “monster” role in S3 that the Demogorgon filled in S1.

In S1, the Demogorgon stalks the inhabitants of Hawkins, kidnapping and killing them. In S2, we find out Demogorgons do not act alone, but are the puppets of a greater monster: the Mind Flayer. 

In S3, the Mind Flayer possesses Billy, turning him into His puppet. Billy then stalks the inhabitants of Hawkins, kidnapping and taking them to his master, which ultimately results in their deaths.

In S3, the Demogorgon wears a human face.

>>Like the Demogorgon, Billy is the puppet of a greater monster... even before he’s possessed.

Max tells us as much in Runaway Max when she’s watching Billy beat the life out of Steve:

I remembered how it had felt the first time I’d watched the Hargroves in action. Neil standing over Billy with the belt in his hand. Neil calling me a stupid little girl for having the guts to try to stop him. Making it so clear that he thought I was small and weak and pointless. And knowing Neil believed that still wasn’t as bad as the way Billy had hated me for trying to help him. He was damaged. Broken, maybe. And even if he’d been coherent enough to argue with, it wouldn’t make a difference. I understood now that Neil was in his head, and that meant he was just as dangerous as his father. (p 218)

This implies not only that Billy is the Demogorgon, but also that Neil is the Mind Flayer. The ramifications of that idea are... oof. Just oof.

Remember the definition of “dark reflection” that I gave you. A dark reflection is something that’s like us, but represents what we hate or fear most about ourselves.

The Demogorgon is Billy’s dark reflection because it represents his fear of losing his humanity to an abuser. 

>>Runaway Max draws on the grossest scene in S2 to give us a Billy/Demogorgon parallel.

In S2, Dustin finds a baby Demogorgon and names it D’Artagnan. At first Dart seems harmless. Then he molts and, in a scene I hate to watch, eats Dustin’s cat.

Keep in mind that Dustin’s cat is orange.

In Runaway Max, Billy seems harmless at first. Then, in a flashback to California, we’re told of the day Billy “molts.” 

One afternoon, he’s hanging out with Max and his buddies Wayne and Sid on the scrubby hill behind the Hargrove house. He’s bored and pissed at Sid for besting him on a history paper. Pulling out his lighter, he starts playing with it.

We learn there’s a corpse of a cat nearby:

There was a dead cat that had been lying under one of the sweet pea bushes for a while. A mangy orange tom with one white foot. (p 63)

Billy stalks over to it with his lighter. In a “hard, bright” voice, he talks about giving the cat a “Viking funeral.” Then, over Max and Sid’s protests, he drenches the corpse in butane and lights it on fire. The flames race down the hill, and the others have to stomp them out before they spiral out of control.

Max notes Billy’s reaction:

Billy just watched, standing over the burning cat, smiling that small, tight smile he got when something seemed funny to him....

After that, I knew.

Not that Billy was crazy or out of control, exactly - it wasn’t like the cat had been alive. But the fact that he’d done it meant something. (p 67)

Yeah, this scene means something, alright. Symbolically, Billy - a baby Demogorgon - has just eaten a cat. And, like Dustin with Dart, Max realizes he’s a monster in the making.

>>The show’s plot and cinematography choices emphasize the Billy/Demogorgon connection.

1) El first meets them in the Void. They’re both crouching, and literally or symbolically feasting, as she approaches from the right.

2) They stalk after the kids, shoulders hunched. In the Demogorgon’s case, the kids are trapped. In Billy’s case, he thinks he’s trapping the kids, but they turn the tables on him.

3) When the Demogorgon is activated, a crack rips through the tile wall of the lab. When Billy is activated, we see cracked tiles on the wall behind him.

4) El pins them against the wall with her powers. Then she screams in their faces before she deals the “death blow.” In the climactic shot, she’s on the left, they’re on the right. Mike and/or her friends are behind her.

All of that ^ is the equivalent of the Duffers banging pots and pans. “Hey guys! Billy is like the Demogorgon! The Demogorgon is like Billy!” When I first noticed it, it told me to look for other examples of “mirroring.” Do we get any other shots that juxtapose the two?

Turns out we do. Oh my god, we do.

Study this pair of shots very, very carefully.

In the first, the Demogorgon is approaching the Byers' house. It's in the center of the frame, moving straight toward us. We see woods in the background; a lamp post is on the left side.

In the second, Billy is running away from the sauna. He's in the center of the frame, moving directly away from us. We see woods in the background; a lamp post is on the right side.

I’ve already talked about how the Upside Down is the deep sea. However, it is ALSO the woods. In fairytales, the woods are a place of mystery and monsters. Some of the most famous tales happen there, such as Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel. (If you want to read more about this topic, here’s a Wikipedia article to get you started. Also a cool article on Medium)

With that in mind, we can describe this pair of shots as follows:

In the first, the Demogorgon is emerging from the Upside Down.

In the second, Billy is going to the Upside Down.

Interesting, right? Ah, but that’s only half of the story.

Study this pair now and tell me what you see.

Yep... they’re related.

In the second shot, Billy is swimming into the ocean. It’s the last glimpse we have of his young, happy self before the Mind Flayer kills him. He’s in the center of the frame, moving directly away from us, just like the first shot.

With that in mind, we could say...

In the first, he’s going to the Upside Down in its ‘woods’ manifestation.

In the second - OUR LAST GLIMPSE OF YOUNG BILLY BEFORE HE DIES - he’s going to the Upside Down in its ‘ocean’ manifestation.

Interesting how we've only seen him leave. Yet we have this iconic image of the Demogorgon, his “dark reflection,” emerging from the Upside Down and coming to us.

I have a spooky vibe, y'all, that we're missing a final shot.

And we're going to see Billy... 

coming to us... 

from the water.

I have so much more to unpack here, but this post has gone on long enough! In future posts, I’ll lay out more evidence suggesting Billy will return from the water. I’ll also explore the mythological implications. They’re mind-blowing :3

»»————-　✼　————-««

P.S. I mentioned El has a unique relationship to the Demogorgon too. I’ll try to explain that eventually~~

»»————-　✼　————-««

The “Billy Is Alive” Meta Series (So Far)

Billy Is Not a ‘B’ Character In Stranger Things

The First Rule of Analyzing Stranger Things: The Upside Down Is Symbolized By Water

The Lifeguard And The Rip Current: Our First Big Hint That Billy Is Alive

Why Haven’t We Seen Dacre On Set?

Frequently Asked Questions

For updates, follow the hashtag #billy is alive meta

[obeetlebeetle]

havent been hateblogging st s3 bc i didnt want to embarrass myself but this is the embarrassing yourself website so. the kids storyline is so weirdly dull, like the horror has no teeth -- which is a bummer bc the progression of violence from the upside down being embodied in a male authority figure and directed at particularly vulnerable children could have been consistent! billy works! but not like this -- the interpersonal drama weakens the effects the last season should have had on these kies. & god i do NOT like the dynamic anymore. even with how much i dislike mike & el, this could have been done well, but the characters have lost all nuance. SO many scenes where will is just in the background :\ wasted potential!

unrelated but i was having this thought about nancy & jonathan and joyce & hopper. in s1 the teens paralleled the adults but lacked their charm, bc the adults saw each other as iterative and complex individuals and the teens were flattening each other. in s2 u would expect the teens to grow, but in order for them to get together the duffers have to completely isolate them in the narrative. this produces the most boring plotline in the show. the adults stay interesting until bob is cut from the narrative -- not bc of any tension between them but abt their specific goal-oriented relationship and how it interacts with joyce & bob's sweet lil romance. killing off bob to try and collapse joyce's relationships into one sucks. and then in s3, you have joyce & hopper (who, importantly, is a ruined character) play out the exact same plotline as nancy & jonathan in s2. down to needing murray to get them together (hey duffers u bozos u should not want to validate murray). so rather than the teens developing in response to the model the adults provided in s1 and s2, the adults are DEVOLVING. i do think nancy & jonathan become palatable around the kids, and the way violence from the upside down is acted on nancy by the men who mistreated her was a decent plot point. but like i said, that whole narrative is so flimsy at this point that one good idea doesnt save it.

dustin robin steve still rules, evil russians still really really sucks (again u should not want to validate murray).

[starring-movies]

Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 2, Episode 6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

The episode begins with Niko returning from Oxford, after Villanelle came to visit him to try and make him doubt Eve. Niko asks Eve “do you want me to love you or do you want me to frighten you?”, to which she replies “I don’t know”. Eve’s indecisiveness about what life she wants is also a problem that we saw between Eve and Villanelle in S2E5. As soon as Eve had Villanelle caring about her and helping her, she was cold and uncaring towards her; so it might also be the case with Villanelle that Eve doesn’t know if she wants her to love her, or be frightened by her.

The song playing over this is ‘(Sigh)’ by Unloved. Usually this song is played in scenes associated with Villanelle, however, it is being used in this scene with Eve and Niko. Through this choice of song and it’s usual association with Villanelle, we can see that it’s the dominance that Niko is exerting (just like Villanelle does) which is the “something about the way you are” that makes Eve “sigh”.

A small note is that Carolyn can be seen putting earrings in when John from Nairobi is visiting. This is something which she is also seen doing in S1E8, when she was with Konstantin and again when she was preparing to meet Henrik in S3E3. The continued repetition of Carolyn putting her earrings in shows us that it’s something she always does when she is reuniting with her ‘old friends’.

In the next scene we get a parallel to a scene to S2E4, used to show us Villanelle’s short attention span and boredom. In both scenes Villanelle is bored in her hotel room and waiting for something to do, she is lying on the bed listening to the TV in the background. She does the exact same thing as this in S2E4, while she is waiting for another assignment after the Amsterdam kill. In both of these instances it is notable that Villanelle chooses to do something related to Eve in her boredom, in Amsterdam she goes to wait for Eve to arrive at the crime scene, and in this episode she goes to Eve’s home to meddle with her belongings.

The song ‘Dangerous Charms’ by The Delmonas is used over this scene. The lyrics are:

“I’ve been lookin’ at you for quite some time,

Should come at no surprise,

I’ve been wanting you at mine,

I’ve been lookin’ at you,

Your dangerous charm,

Seems it’s you,

Who’s been causing all those harms,

I’ve seen you darlin’,

Want your dangerous charm,

Oh dangerous charm,

I’ve been your darling’ glancing at me”

The song is applicable for both Villanelle and Eve, who are both attracted to each other’s “dangerous charm” and have both “been looking at [each other] for quite some time”.

In this episode there are a few parallels made between Eve and Villanelle, through their behaviour. Villanelle sneaks into Eve’s house and messes with her things, just like how Eve messes up Gemma’s things when she goes to see Niko. When Gemma finds Eve rifling through her possessions, Eve asks Gemma “are you scared?”, which is the exact same wording that Villanelle uses in S2E5, when she’s asking the same question to Eve in the kitchen.

However, although Eve tries to imitate Villanelle, with the messing up of Gemma’s things, we can see that there is still a difference between. Villanelle sneaks into Eve’s house when no-one is home and messes up Eve’s things in subtle ways, mainly by hiding and switching things that will only be found later but not immediately. Whereas Eve goes into Gemma’s bedroom, while Niko and Gemma are in the house, blatantly and messily ruining Gemma’s belongings.

This difference foreshadows what happens at the end of Season 2, in that Eve is beginning to embrace her darkness but has not come far enough to be able to accept it’s existence completely; and so when Villanelle tries to push Eve too much by manipulating her into killing Raymond in S2E8, she is rejected by Eve who can’t yet accept her “monster” which Villanelle has tried to open her eyes to.

A small detail is that the camera specifically pans onto Eve’s toiletry bag, drawing our attention to the fact that later in S3E4, Eve uses the toothbrush that Villanelle brushes her teeth with in this episode.

When Eve goes to speak to Villanelle about the job they want her to do (to get information from Aaron Peel), Villanelle tells her “I don’t like to be challenged”. This shows how much Villanelle goes on to change from this season, into Season 3. In this Season Villanelle is comfortable with her situation and doesn’t wish for it to be disrupted; however, when she becomes discontented and unfulfilled in Season 3, she tells Carolyn in S3E8 “I’m looking for a new challenge”.

When they’re discussing how Villanelle should disguise herself with Aaron Peel, Villanelle chooses an American accent which she says is “really, really, really annoying”, just as a way to annoy Eve (who also has an American accent). Villanelle chooses to give herself the name Billie, which is the female version of the name Bill. Villanelle does this not only to irritate Eve, but also to show how Villanelle has replaced Bill inEv’s life, who was probably the closest friend she had - not only has she replaced Bill as Eve’s friend, but also as her work colleague, so she has managed to insert herself as a person of importance in Eve’s personal and private life.

Before Villanelle’s first AA meeting, Eve tells Villanelle “you will never understand how much harder it is to be nice and normal and decent than it is to be like you”, and Villanelle says “like us, you mean”. Eve says this because she does know “how much harder it is to be nice and normal and decent”, because she puts that mask on and does it everyday.

Villanelle repeats what Eve said to her in the AA group and is only met with the reaction of “boohoo, poor me” and told to “be careful with the self-pity”. As this is the reaction to what Eve actually said, and she is listening in, Eve herself is also being indirectly told how she’s being in denial and acting self pityingly about her situation.

Villanelle saying “like us, you mean” again emphasises how she can clearly see that Eve is like her, but Eve is still in denial and won’t admit it, until Season 3. The fact that Villanelle can see what Eve won’t admit to yet, is also shown when Eve tells her “aren’t you always a different person” and Villanelle says “aren’t you, at least I’m good at playing someone else” - Villanelle is making it clear that she can see Eve’s darkness and that Eve isn’t very good at hiding it.

When Villanelle speaks in the AA meeting again, she gives her speech about boredom. She says “most of the time, most days, I feel nothing, I don’t feel anything”, but she tells Eve in S2E7 “I feel things when I’m with you”, again showing us one of the things that makes Eve “special” to her. Villanelle is always in search of something (like killing) or someone (like Anna and Eve) who peaks her interest and makes her feel something, which shows us why she’s so obsessed with Eve - not only is Eve like her (she tells Konstantin in S2E8 “we are the same”), but Eve is someone who makes her “feel things”, a sensation she finds herself constantly seeking.

Most of the things Villanelle says in her speech about how she’s “just so bored” and how “what I really don’t understand is why everyone isn’t screaming with boredom too”, is also applicable to Eve. Eve had a boring and normal life until Villanelle came into it, which is something that Villanelle recognises too, as she tells Eve “don’t forget, the only thing that makes you interesting is me”.

When Eve goes to see Carolyn to try to tell her about Villanelle killing Amber Peel’s assistant, she is fencing. This is probably one of the “hobbies” she partakes in when she tells Eve in S2E6 that “I have hobbies”.

The dinner scene of Villanelle with Aaron and Amber is shot with the same angles and in the same way as the assessment scene from S1E2. The decision to use the same shots show us how Villanelle is being uncomfortably interrogated and probed by Aaron, in the same was as she was by the psychologist.

During the after-dinner game of Dixit, Aaron tells Amber “I wouldn’t classify as a friend someone I once sat next to in a toilet stall”. This is amusing because it’s reminiscent of how Villanelle and Eve met in the hospital toilets, highlighting how ordinarily you wouldn’t usually consider someone you met in the toilets to be your friend, yet that’s how Villanelle and Eve came into each other’s lives.

In the scene in the kebab shop after Villanelle hits Aaron Peel with the psychology book, she is thinking about killing Aaron when she is speaking to the man behind the counter about how people will eat any meat you put into a kebab.

However, Villanelle is then distracted by the two girls that come in and order chips. She looks at the two sheep’s heads and two kebabs, and she follows the two girls.

The specific camera pans to these things (two kebabs, two sheep’s heads, two girls) makes us think that she is going to kill them. But in the next episode our expectation is not met and we find out that Villanelle slept with the two girls instead.

The decision to do this is to display how the line between wanting to kill people and wanting to have sex with them is a bit blurred for Villanelle - just like when she contemplates killing Sebastian after sleeping with him, in S1E2. It also conveys how it’s most likely that she gets the same gratification from both sleeping with or killing someone.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Managment Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leasing or Am I? [Part 1]

——————————————————————————

[stitchkiss]

My Favorite Moments In S3 Ep5:

gilbert talking to the bees

the forest scene

the giggles and snickers when miss stacy says “the birds and the bees” or “breast”

gilbert’s absolute fascination with native american treatments

jane talking shit about billy

anne and diana’s parting scene

i totally thought they were going to kiss

marilla taking the piss out of rachel

marilla comforting bash

gilbert just standing up and being all up in anne’s business when she mentions obituaries

gilbert’s face when diana announces that charlie posted ab her

fucking anne saying “busy, sorry” to charlie then leaving him

Rachel bring her son to the school (fucking hilarious)

the girls in the background giggling when rachel’s son made it plainly obvious he’s trying to court miss stacy

is rachel’s solution to every problem marriage???

the first dance when no one knew what to do and rachel looked ready to murder them

ruby my poor baby

the betrayed faces of all the girls when they thought miss stacy was trying to get them pregnant

miss stacy trying to subtly explain sex

this is why we need better sex education

ruby checking out moody

just moody being a mood the entire episode

the lOOKS GILBERT AND ANNE GAVE EACH OTHER DURING THE DANCE SEQUENCE

GILBERT SPINNIG ANNE

SHIRBERT LITERALLY NEVER TAKING THEIR EYES OFF EACH OTHER

THE HAND HOLDING

THE SLOW MOTION AND THE SONG DURING THE DANCE

THEM STILL STANDING AND LOOKING AT EACH OTHER LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO WHILE EVERYONE FUCKED OFF THE DANCE FLOOR

SHIRBERT JUST RUSHING TO GET OUT THE DOOR AFTER THE DANCE

THE ABSOLUTE CONFUSION ON BOTH THEIR FACES BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT JUST HAPPENED OR WHY THEYRE FEELING LIKE THEY DO

PULLING ON THEIR HATS IN A HURRY TO LEAVE AND COMING FACE-TO-FACE AGAIN

anne going off about dancing

gilbert doing the exact same thing

shirbert parallel stress cooking

gilbert thinking he has to marry anne now because he’s attracted to her

his refusal to tell bash who he’s talking about (because bash would tear the shit out of him, the cheeky bastard. he been knew)

delphine just chillin as gilbert has a crisis

DIANA AND JERRY

MY BABIES

jerry asking to be let off early to he could walk diana home

jerry giving diana Frankenstein

diana staying up to read it

diana waiting for jerry

diana rushing to meet jerry in the forest

but gasp! he’s not there!

sike!

he’s behind the tree👀👀

i just want them to kiss already

the girls handing out the gazett after church and still freaking out that they might be pregnant

all of the girls wanting anne to ask gilbert

(because none of them have the same dynamic with gil like anne does)

them literally pushing anne to gil

“...hello”

the absolute pain anne felt as she was asking him

gilbert totally knowing how sex works and being as gentlemanly as possible as he tries to explain

the hat tip™️

you know what i’m talking about

mary’s obituary

the berrys making it off my shit list

they are in the process of being redeemed

THE GIRLS AND THE FIRE AND THE SPEECH

THEY ALL LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH

ruby being on cloud fucking 9

the flower crowns:))

THE HOWLING

THIS ENTIRE SCENE IS JUST THEM CELEBRATING THEMSELVES

the sticks with a ribbon on them

my girls are soft

anne just fucking throwing her crown and stick while matthew watches her

she’s not subtle at all

it literally made a loud ass noise and she threw it

the lil baby horse

THIS BEING THE BEST EPISODE ON ANY SHOW EVER

GIVE IT ALL THE AWARDS

THIS EPISODE IS MY PRIDE AND JOY

get ready for the angst in the next ep. tho

we really won today.

treat yourselves my darlings, we earned it after a stressful past episodes

[aemiron-main]

you don’t wanna hurt me: an analysis of the “nancy in the tattoo chair” scene

Not loving the Implications of the fact that we just saw young Henry strapped down in the tattoo chair and Vecna pretending to be Brenner and then we got Nancy in Young Henry’s place and Vecna coming towards her.

Long story short, I think there’s subtext in this scene that indicates Brenner sexually assaulting Henry in the lab, specifically regarding oral sexual assault.

Especially considering the theme of “swapping places,” that’s present in S4- and the fact that Nancy literally swapped places with Young Henry and Vecna Henry swapped places with Brenner.

So basically in this whole tattoo chair scene with Nancy, it seems like Young Henry = Nancy and Brenner = Vecna Henry. So, try and picture Nancy as Young Henry throughout this analysis and Vecna as Brenner. 

And then, what also haunts me is the parallels between this scene vs Billy and Heather’s s3 scene.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of.” versus “Don’t be afraid.” This scene between Billy and Heather is extremely sexual-assault coded, to the point where even the GA kept pointing it out.  And the writers went out of their way to make sure that the “nothing to be afraid of,” was directed at Young Henry, and not Nancy, as Brenner then turns to Nancy and says “is there, Nancy?” 

Brenner wasn’t talking to Nancy when he said the “nothing to be afraid of,” line, he was talking to Henry, that sexual assault coded line is directed at Young Henry. 

We have Billy-Heather parallels that not only occur between Brenner and Young Henry, but also Vecna and Nancy- but the Vecna and Nancy ones are still between Brenner and Young Henry in a way, as like mentioned previously, Nancy and Young Henry have swapped places and Brenner and Vecna have swapped places. 

Nancy struggles against the tentacles in an extremely similar way to how Heather struggled against the ropes. 

And now, there’s also the fact that Henry’s Vecna hand very much resembles a facehugger- which in and of itself is 100% confirmed to be intended to represent homosexual oral rape (source). I’ve posted before about the resemblance between Henry’s clawed hand and a facehugger but here’s some examples:

And let’s also look at some Alien vs Predator scenes and some Prometheus scenes- granted, these two creatures aren’t technically facehuggers, but they’re from the Alien franchise, they’re related to facehuggers, and they’ve got the exact same sort of oral sexual assault imagery.

And continuing on with the “Henry’s hand vs facehugger parallels,” the facehugger literally has fingers and resembles a pair of hands. And Henry’s clawed hand literally latched onto a victims face and then tilts their head upward, exactly like a facehugger. Henry doesn’t just grab his victims’ faces or set his face on top of their face- he whips his hand forward, latches onto their face, and tilts their head back, all exactly like a facehugger. Look at these gifs as an example the similarities between the motions:

Now that we’ve established that Henry’s clawed hand is definitely intended to resemble a facehugger, let’s go back to that lab vision scene between Vecna and Nancy and the idea of Nancy representing Young Henry and Vecna representing Brenner. 

So, hypothetically, Young Henry was in the position of being attacked by a facehugger, and Brenner was in Vecna Henry’s position- but wait, Brenner doesn’t have a clawed hand.

But let’s remember what the facehugger represents- homosexual oral rape, which is something that, unfortunately, Brenner is most definitely capable of.

And we also have shots like this lingering shot of Brenner with a suspiciously phallic coat fold pointed directly at Joyce’s face.

Also, Vecna’s other victims don’t tend to speak once he had his hand above their heads/sunk into their heads- but Nancy? Nancy continues to shout “no,” repeatedly- why make that choice? Why add that dialogue for Nancy when it’s not there for other characters? Well, Nancy’s scene has one thing that the other scenes don’t- she’s meant to represent Young Henry. This choice is made to emphasize the nonconsensual aspect of it and tie it back to Young Henry being sexually assaulted by Brenner. 

And going back to swapping places yet again, look at the lyrics of “Running Up That Hill”: Do you wanna feel how it feels? Do you wanna know, know that it doesn't hurt me?  Do you wanna hear about the deal that I'm makin'?  And now look at Henry’s dialogue with El:

“You can’t hurt me more than they already have” And then going back to the lyrics of “Running Up That Hill”: You don't wanna hurt me But see how deep the bullet lies

Look at how deep the bullet lies- bullet, like the bullet-shaped soteria that’s buried deep beneath Henry’s skin? In the scene where El is afraid of hurting him? 

And the wording of the lyrics with “you don’t wanna hurt me, but see how deep the bullet lies”- the use of the word “but,” implies that due to the bullet being deep, the person is question is going to be forced to hurt the other person- just like how El was forced to hurt Henry because of how deeply embedded Soteria was.

Like, Henry doesn��t say that it won’t hurt/El isn’t going to hurt him- he says that  no matter how much she hurts him, she can’t hurt him more than the lab has. These scenes tying in to “Running Up That Hill,” reinforce the idea that the theme of “swapping places,” also applies to characters like Henry and Brenner, which reinforces the idea of the “swapping places,” that occurs during the tattoo scene, where Nancy swaps places with Young Henry and Vecna swaps places with Brenner, implying that what’s going on between Nancy and Vecna has subtext regarding things that have already happened between Young Henry and Brennner (the oral sexual assault subtext). 

Also, there’s constant references to Brenner “hurting,” Henry, and it’s interesting to me that El mentions the fact that Brenner “hurt,” Henry when she’s talking to Vecna Henry in the mind lair:

Why is this interesting? Because Henry already knows that El knows that Brenner hurt him, at least in the context of Brenner hurting Henry by electrocuting him. They had a whole conversation about it in 1979 after El saw Henry being electrocuted:

And even if El didn’t initially remember the 1979 conversation, she JUST relived it via nina, so she absolutely remembers it by the time that the conversation in the mind lair happens. So, why does El act as if she’s aware of something that the audience isn’t aware of? Why does she act as if there’s some other “hurt,” that she’s referring to? Because there is. Because “hurt,” in this context is referring to sexual assault. At some point, I’m going to do a deep dive into the use of the word “hurt,” in ST in general, but considering that during the mind lair conversation, El is referring to some sort of “hurt,” beyond the electrocution scene, some sort of “hurt,” that wasn’t shown to the audience onscreen, I think it’s likely that there’s sexual assault subtext here when it comes to the word “hurt,” especially considering how often that word is used specifically regarding the lab, and how frequently Kali talks about being “hurt,” by lab staff and how she was “just a child,” and all of the “loss of innocence,” themes that surround Kali.  So, so far, we have a scene between Brenner and Young Henry that references a deeply sexual assault coded scene between Billy and Heather, and then we have the scene between Nancy and Vecna with tons of “Alien,” imagery that canonically represents homosexual oral rape. And we have Nancy literally swapping places with Young Henry, and Vecna swapping places with Brenner, while homosexual oral rape imagery is literally shoved in her face as she yells “no”. And next, look at this excerpt about Freddy Krueger’s clawed hand (keeping in mind that Vecna’s clawed hand is confirmed to have been inspired by Freddy Krueger’s hand):

And the scene that Englund’s referring to? The one that he ties to being an oral sex innuendo? 

I don’t know about you guys, but that scene looks pretty familar to me: 

So, that’s yet ANOTHER piece of oral sexual assault imagery that’s present in this scene- a scene where Nancy has literally swapped places with Young Henry, and a scene where Vecna has swapped places with Brenner- hell, not only has Henry literally swapped places with Brenner by discarding the Brenner illusion and appearing in its place within the tattoo scene, but the scene of Vecna walking up to Nancy is a direct parallel to Brenner walking up to Henry’s bed when Henry first wakes up in the lab.  And like I talked about in this post, even just that brief scene of Brenner walking up to Henry in the bed has SA parallels, so for ST to then parallel that bed scene in the tattoo scene in ADDITION to all of the oral SA imagery that’s present in the tattoo scene? It paints a pretty horrifying picture. 

Like, going back briefly to that screenshot of the tentacles around Nancy’s arms and legs, it’s interesting that the tentacles have replaced the leather restraints that were previously being used on Young Henry. 

Why is this interesting? Because there’s SO much sexual assault imagery tied to those tentacles, and specifically oral sexual assault imagery when we look at scenes like Will being rescued from the UD:

So, when to comes to Nancy in the chair, even the restraints in the tattoo chair have been replaced with something that’s tied to oral SA imagery in ST. And the fact that Henry had to be restrained and wasn’t just sitting willingly adds to the subtext regarding nonconsent here. And this gets into more speclation territory, but the way that Nancy fights against the restraints (something that we don’t see Henry do) is interesting, because it brings up the question- why WASN’T Henry fighting? He was clearly in pain, so why wasn’t he fighting? Well, he was possibly drugged. We don’t know what all they had him hooked up to when he woke up, and he seems generally out of it and disoriented during the tattoo scene, and he doesn’t seem to fight back physically, or with his powers, and it seems pretty early for him to have gotten soteria’d (and even if he was soteria’d that early, he still isn’t fighting back physically or even verbally).  I wouldn’t be surprised if the Nancy scene wasn’t just showing us what happened between Brenner and Young Henry, but specifically was showing us what happened between Brenner and Young Henry prior to the tattoo scene- Henry likely woke up in the tattoo chair after being drugged, struggled and panicked, was sexually assaulted, and “cooperated,” out of fear of being assaulted again and because the drugs hadn’t fully worn off.

Long story short: the tattoo scene uses Vecna-Brenner parallels and the theme of swapping places (and literally swapping Young Henry with Nancy and Brenner with Vecna) to convey subtext of what happened to Young Henry when he was in the lab with Brenner (oral sexual assault).

[queenarrow]

The Crow’s Nest: A few thoughts on Oliver & SW

For those hating on Oliver right now: I feel you. I understand that you’re confused, that a character you just don’t get is making stupid choices.

From my experience with people, everyone is just plain stupid. Including me. I did a stupid thing yesterday that I had to pay the price today. It happens. We are irrational, skeptic, fearful, biased, and imperfect personages. We’re human.

And saying that one person is never at fault is not true. Even if it’s only 1% of the blame, we all make mistakes.

For Oliver, Susan is easy. In 5x05, Human Target comes into play, and tells Oliver that Felicity has moved on, and he should to. HT sets Oliver up to correspond with SW. He tells Oliver that since he’s become Oliver, he tells him that he should go for it.

Oliver goes for it. I mean, HT essentially tells him what to do. Have you ever wanted someone else to make a decision for you? To have your doppleganger to appear out of the sky and say, “Look! Date that one!” And so he takes an easy road. His life is hard. He’s mayor by day, hero by night. When does this guy sleep? 6am to 8am probably. And here is this guy telling him that a beautiful woman is interested in him and he should go for it.

Before he does though, he talks to Felicity.

“ I want you to be happy, and in the spirit of that, I think that you owe it to yourself to find out if what you have with Billy is real, and I owe it to myself to embrace whatever's next for--for me when I'm not (the GA)”

They essentially go their separate ways. And Oliver owes it to himself to find someone who isn’t Felicity, and to seek a future for himself. He doesn’t want to die in the bunker. He wants to be more than a criminal, more than the hood, more than the mayor. He wants to live to be 86 years old with kids. He wants to be married. And if he can’t get it with Felicity, then dammit, he’s going to go find second best.

She asks him to drinks and he goes. She gives him advice which turned out to be sound. He invites her as his date to a Christmas party.  He ends up at her door after he killed Billy, seeking some woman comfort. Slowly and surely he starts to trust her, not knowing what she’s doing behind his back.

Sure, dating SW is a conflict of interests. But Oliver dated McKenna when he was the vigilante and she the cop. He hasn’t seen himself as a politician. He sees himself as the GA in charge of the city by day. He’s a hero in the light, not a back-stabbing two faced, person who wants power. He wants to make the city better. Dating a reporter is no big deal to him.

Then out of the blue, his girlfriend comes to him and asks him if he’s the GA. He doesn’t bat an eye. He plays it off as a joke, since he’s done it before. If you tell the truth, then act like you’re joking, very few people suspect otherwise. He thinks he took care of it, that her suspicions are laid to rest.

A few hours later, his current gf, the person that he kissed that morning, She tells him that she’s fired, and she’s blaming him because she found out his secret. Like, WTF? Oliver didn’t do anything,   He didn’t touch her profession at all and wonders where the heck this came from. His gf blames him for her life being ruined, and he knows that he didn’t do anything. Someone he cares about as a friend and maybe a little bit more life is ruined. And of course, Oliver blames himself, and by extension, his team. 

So he confronts Felicity. She’s the one with the ability to hack SW computer, and she has expressed her dislike of SW vocally, but when Oliver finds out that it’s Thea, he knows it’s her fault. He knows that Susan was mean to her originally, that SW made a mistake but Thea still holds a grudge. Thea doesn’t like Susan whatsoever. And what Thea did reminds him of Moira.

So he tells her to make it right. Here, it’s a bit hypocritical of Oliver to tell her not to protect him, but it’s a case of do what I say, not what I do.

Oliver’s on the backs of all his teammates for making “dark” choices, because he’s been down that road. He knows where that road leads, and it’s taken him years to even start to see the way out. He doesn’t want anyone to experience what he has, the darkness of a lonely island. He is doing everything he can think of to protect the people he loves from the pitfalls he’s experienced. Despite coming off as a hypocrite.

Think of it this way.

 You’ve traveled a backroad from one town to another. It’s full of speedtraps, potholes and cattle guards. It’s a third gravel, a third dirt, and a third paved. It’s rough, it’s hard, and it’s damaged your car. When you get to your destination, you find out that there was a longer, but easier road to the same place. You never want to experience that road again.

Then your best friend decides to take that road. And you try to tell him what awaits for him down it. You warn him. He doesn’t listen. Another friend goes down that road. Then another. You’re standing there, watchign the people you love go down that same backroad that is damaging, and they refuse to listen to you. They call you a hypocrite: “You went down that road and you’re just fine” They say. “That’s the only path to this destination”. “This is the shortest way.”

This is how Oliver feels. He’s watching his loved ones follow in his very hard, very dark footsteps, something he regrets every day of his life. Actually a quote from Iris in the Flash is very telling:

B: “Oliver has killed.He's still considered a hero.”

I: “Yeah, and he lives with the weight of that decision every single day.”

This is why Oliver is confronting them. Diggle, with the General; Felicity, eventually, with Helix; Thea, with Susan; Dinah, with Sonus. He wants to spare them the pain of what he went through. They’re supposed to be better than him. Oliver is still learning that they make their own choices. He can advise, but he can’t bully them or force them into doing the right thing. They have their agency and to learn from their mistakes, not his.

He’s a poor excuse for a human being. To save Starling, he sacrificed himself, the Green Arrow; a personae that has become his own, the only good product of those five terrible years. Oliver has horrible self-esteem, rarely seeing the good in himself.

This is what I see his character development is. A man who thinks of himself as a monster, who needs to hide that side from anyone and everyone, becomes a person who sees himself as a hero, who can cheer-lead himself, have faith in himself, and reveal that side to the world.

Now, this doesn’t excuse your feelings. This doesn’t mean that you as a viewer are not entitled to your emotions. You are. But to every story there are at least two sides.

Oliver experiences loss a lot. It’s an occupational hazard. Yet the reason I believe he tries so hard to fix what is happening between him and Susan is because he failed with Felicity. With Sara. With Laurel. With McKenna. With Helena.  Every relationship he’s been in, he’s screwed it up some way, and has tried to fix it. Now it’s Susan’s turn. Oliver thinks that if he can make it up with Susan, that maybe he’s not a total failure at relationships. That he can do this. That he can prove to Felicity that he’s not a screw-up, and that maybe she’ll take him back.

(as an aside-- I have no excuse for Oliver being so callous to Felicity and asking her to help him make up with Susan. None. That was him being a dick/jerk/bastard)

This is why he’s trying so hard to “save” SW from Prometheus. He wants to fix the relationship, and if she dies before he gets their, it’s another screw up. There’s a reason why Felicity didn’t want to be a woman he loved. Something terrible always ends up happening to them. Oliver wants to save this one, to not let the darkness that surrounds him to touch SW, as it has everyone else. He doesn’t want to prove Prometheus right.

It’s not that he’s irrevocably in love with the woman. It’s not that at all. Oliver wants to save her because he’s a hero. A dark hero, but one all the same. If Prometheus had taken Caitlin, or Iris, or Patty, or Felicity, or Thea, or Dinah, or Evelyn, or Donna, he still would’ve had the exact same reaction. Oliver doesn’t want someone else to pay for his sins.

Also, those promos are meant to misdirect and obfuscate. They hide the good stuff, the important bits. The sex scene promo hid the fact that Felicity had to walk away from him. 3x09 promo hid that Oliver said I love you and fell off a cliff. They’re shock and awe. A promo will have a dramatic scene, maybe two, but something that in the long wrong isn’t really important.

Remember this as we go through the next few episodes. When next year rolls around, season 6, we’re going to forget about how much we hated Susan Williams. The intensity we feel now will die down and go away.

How do I know this? Because we’ve been here before.

Last night, when I was raving and ranting about how much I hated Susan Williams, my BFF turned to me and said, �� Do you remember how much you hated Ray.” I paused because it hit me-- I no longer hated him. In fact, I kinda enjoy him on Legends.

But for you followers who weren’t around for S3, let me tell you-- the same vitriol we’re spewing at SW is the same we were spitting at Ray. We called him names-- Paymond Farmer is a memorable one-- called him manipulative and a stalker. We yelled at Felicity for sleeping with him when Oliver wasn’t available (paralleled to now when F isn’t available so Oliver sleeps with SW). He was hated, and dissed. There was even the Red/Blue theory.

The whole conflict of 17 episodes was wrapped up in three scenes. Oliver and Felicity fight about Ray (3x17). Ray breaks up with Felicity. Felicity confesses love to Oliver and they sleep together. A season long nastiness, so much that it led to me having insomnia on Arrow nights and a feeling of heartbreak and dread for the next day, was wrapped up in a tight little bow with one episode. 3x20.  Felicity could hardly look at Oliver until 3x17 when Ray found out Oliver’s secret. They fought, they had a whole discussion about being happy, which was one of the points at the very beginning of the season.  Then at the very end, Oliver declares that he’s happy.

And entire season of heartbreak and dread and angst and tension, and being broken up before they’re even started, done, fixed, over with.

My point is that I had forgotten how much I had hated Ray until my BFF pointed it out. The emotion had faded from my memory even though it was the cause of an entire year’s trial.

So hold on tight fandom. We’re in the midst of the storm, but there’s land on the horizon. Come up here to the crow’s nest, and see it too. We’re almost there.

--Genie

[aemiron-main]

vecna is the mindflayer. seriously.

first of all let’s just look at the physical/design similarities of henry vs actual mindflayers/dnd mindflayers. this ALONE is very obvious evidence that henry is intended to be based on/tied to mindflayers, everything right down to the tentacles and the clawed hands.

(UPDATE/EDIT TO THIS POST. When I say Henry, I mean 001/Vecna/whoever the fuck because at this point between Brenner and Henry and Edward, there’s so many options and I do think it all leads back to Brenner)

DND is how the kids attempt to understand the world and threats around them- Henry/Vecna was the ‘demogorgon’ who took Will. Henry/Vecna was the mindflayer who possessed Will. And now, he’s Vecna trying to kill people. It’s just different names for Henry while the kids use DND to try and understand the world around them. I talk about this more in this post. Anyway, let’s get into more similarities between Henry and mindflayers:

“Mind flayers were sadistic aberrations feared by sentient creatures on many worlds across the multiverse due to their powerful psionic abilities. From their twisted lairs deep in the Underdark, these alien entities sought to expand their dominion over all other lifeforms, controlling their minds to use them as obedient thralls.They consumed their victims' very personality by extracting and devouring their brains while they were still alive.”

Let’s break this first wiki excerpt down. First of all, we have the reference to “powerful psionic abilities,” which, very obviously applies to Henry, as his powers are described as psionic abilities.

Second of all, we have “twisted lairs deep in the underdark.” Vecna’s mind lair is literally twisted with all of the twisting vines and looking at these official renditions of the underdark compared to Henry’s mind lair, it becomes obvious that Henry’s mind lair was inspired by the underdark and by mindflayer lairs- it’s literally called his mind lair.

Third, we have “expand their dominion over all other lifeforms,” which is very clearly what 001 is attempting to do. He talks about how the current structure of the world is “unnatural,” and he talks about wanting to reshape the world and we very clearly see him literally trying to expand his dominion onto all other life forms when he opens the gates and brings the UD (his dominion) into Hawkins. We also have the mindflayer-nazi parallels and 001-nazi paralells Steve saying “like the Germans?” when Dustin first describes Mindflayers in season 2 and then Dustin corrects Steve, going “you mean the Nazis?” So, mindflayers have already been paralleled to nazis in ST and 001 has quite a lot of Nazi coding, and the nazis, obviously, were focused on ‘expanding their dominion,’ to put it very mildly. @heroesbyler made a great post explaining 001 and Nazi imagery more in-depth. 

Fourth, we have “controlling their minds to use them as obedient thralls.” This is exactly what Henry does with the flayed in s3. I don’t think I need to explain this one very much, because this is EXACTLY what happens to the flayed in s3, and we see flayed like Billy adopt 001’s exact mannerisms and in s4 when Vecna is talking to El in his mind lair, we get a flashback to the scene of flayed billy with el in the cabin because ‘flayed billy’ was 001, he’s the one controlling their minds. 

And fifth, we have “they consumed their victims' very personality.” This is literally 001. Text-of-the-show 001. He talks about how his victims are still “with him,” in his mind, and Brenner talks about how 001 LITERALLY consumes his victims’ personalities, consumes/absorbs everything about them.

Let’s look at even MORE similarities between Henry/Vecna/001 and mindflayers:

“A mind flayer's body was, in fact, a gruesome mockery of the humanoid form. Their skin ranged from mauve to greenish-violet in color. Mind flayers that were healthy from brain-rich diets excreted a thin film of slimy, glistening mucus that kept in moisture.”

“A gruesome mockery of the human form, mauve to greenish-violet, a thin film of slimy, glistening mucus that kept in moisture.” Cmon. ST Vecna literally becomes mauve LMAO and he’s a gruesome mockery of the human form with how he’s become distorted and how he was once human but now is literally a mockery of that form, he mocks humans and tries to separate himself from them but is still technically human, just a grotesque version of it, he is LITERALLY a mockery of the human form. plus the glistening slimy mucus. i think that ‘tentacles squelching wetly’ and ‘wet footsteps squelch’ speak for themselves, and we can clearly see that Vecna is covered in a thin film of slimy mucus. he literally glistens. 

As well, we have:

“Mindflayers were megalomaniacal in the extreme, tyrants driven by an immense ambition and intrinsically ruled by an overwhelming sense of self-importance. The mind flayers sought nothing less than world domination, knew their destiny was mastery over the universe and the ultimate prize they yearned for was complete dominion over all the planes of existence, with the power to reshape reality and all within it to fit their otherworldly designs. However, mind flayers did not believe themselves to be horrifying monsters.”

“megalomaniacal in the extreme,” this one speaks for itself i think. look at 001’s monologue during the massacre. yeah. 

“immense ambition and overwhelming sense of self-importance,” this, yet again, is 001. he is extremely ambitious and sees himself as being inherently superior to people and creatures he deems lessers and talks about how he is a predator and compares himself to a spider and talks about how spiders are the most important predators, literally referring to them as ‘gods of our world,’ he has delusions of godhood, and he refers to humans as pests when most people would refer to spiders as pests when the reality is that neither is a pest and it’s a matter of perspective and henry is a hypocrite because his attitude towards humans is the same attitude humans have towards spiders, which ties into the heavy themes of repeating the cycle of abuse that are present with henry. 

“nothing less than world domination/mastery over the universe/complete domination over all planes of existence,” I already explained this earlier, but 001 very clearly wants others to bend to his will and align with his plans and will force them to do so. 

“power to reshape reality and all within it to fit their otherworldly designs,” 001 straight up verbatim talks about wanting to reshape reality repeatedly, such as in the rainbow room with el and in his mind lair with el. he wants to reshape it how HE sees fit, he wants to enforce his own form of conformity, he wants it to fit his ‘otherwordly designs,’ this is literally completely, exactly henry. he wants to reshape everything and everyone within reality too, literally ‘all within it,’ he tries to mold and shape and destroy people and everything in the world in addition to the world itself. he literally tries to mold/shape/groom el into joining him so that she fits in with his plans/designs. 

“did not believe themselves to be horrifying monsters,” 001 doesn’t see himself as a monster, he sees himself as a saviour initially, and although he later seems to imply that he may acknowledge that he is a monster (although thats a whole post in and of itself because its still up in the air), he doesn’t seem to think it’s a bad/horrifying thing, and instead, talks about  how brenner is not a monster and rather is an ordinary, pathetic man. but it’s worth remembering that henry’s abuse at the hands of virginia happnened under the nose of an ordinary, pathetic man (victor), and that the real ‘monsters’/bad people in henry’s eyes are the pathetic, ordinary ones because THOSE are the ones who  have hurt him. henry tries to separate himself from them and from humanity as a whole. 

And we also have:

“In the minds of the illithids, their kind acted as agents of "Order", forces of law tasked with taming a chaotic and unguided universe. They saw the various races in its confines as potential thralls with no supervision, living out aimless existences and working with no direction. In this role as multiversal caretakers, the mind flayers constantly worked for what they saw as the betterment of the cosmos, asserting their ultimate control to provide the restoration of order that only their superior species could bestow to all the multiverse.”

“tasked with taming a chaotic and unguided universe,’ 001 talks constantly about the world being chaotic and unbalanced and how predators like himself and spiders need to be the ones to bring balance to it/tame it/guide and shape it. 

“potential thralls with no supervision, living out aimless existences and working with no direction,” this is so, SO similar to what 001 talks about in his ‘wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce and die’ speech. he sees others’ existence as aimless and directionless and LITERALLY turns them into thralls in s3 as a result of it. 

“the restoration of order that only their superior species could bestow,” COME ON THIS IS SO 001!! he literally talks about how him and el are ‘superior,’ and how he needs to restore order to a broken world and how spiders were the predators that immobilze the weak and restore order by doing so and how he later talks in the yellow UD about becoming the predator/spider he was always born to be. he sees himself as being the superior species (spiders/predators) that needs to restore order that can only be restored by him/people like him/fellow members of the ‘superior species’ like el. like spiders are literally a different species, it’s not just a parallel of henry wanting to bestow order, it’s literally henry seeing himself as a superior different species (spiders) and that in and of itself being the reason why he needs to bestow order, when in reality, he isn’t a spider or a superior species and instead, only ‘became’ such/tried to become such because he already wanted to impose his own form of order, he isnt imposing order BECAUSE he’s a superior species the way he thinks he is, instead, he is only a ‘superior species’/wants to become a spider so to speak BECAUSE he already had that desire to enforce his own order before he ‘became’ that ‘superior species’. he’s a hypocrite. 

“The mindflayers strongly believed in their manifest destiny, and viewed the task of bringing the multiverse to heel as one of great importance. The illithids instructed all who questioned this view to look at the biological facts, how they stood at the top of the food chain and how all others naturally fell beneath them. While the illithids recognized that other creatures resisted their control, they perceived this as a natural result of reality's current state, the unknowing thralls within not knowing any better than to fight their masters.”

“how they stood at the top of the food chain and how all others naturally fell beneath them,” AGAIN WE ARE BACK TO THE SPIDERS!! LITERALLY A FOOD CHAIN WITH 001/VECNA SEEING HIMSELF AS A SPIDER AND HOW THEY IMMOBILIZE AND FEED ON THE WEAK JUST LIKE HE IMMOBILIZES HIS VICTIMS IN TRANCES AND THEN FEEDS ON THEM TO FUEL HIS POWERS!!

“they perceived this as a natural result of reality's current state, the unknowing thralls within not knowing any better than to fight their masters.” again, henry sees others as naturally inferior to him and acts as if they fight against him because they are inherently incapable of seeing and understanding his vision because they are of a different, inferior species compared to him. 

“One mind flayer sees ye, and they all see. One mind. One nasty, suspicious mind.” This ties into the hivemind. Henry is the mind of the hivemind, he’s the one that sees everything that’s happening through it, he’s the one that controls it. 

“Despite being capable of doing so, a mind flayer that limited itself to such a restricted diet was rare. Mind flayers savored the minds they consumed, and the brains of thinking beings were preferable to those of lesser lifeforms. Experiences and emotions were the part that made the meal truly fulfilling, and the intelligence and imagination of the victim were a key factor in how highly rated a brain was. Various other elements influenced the flavor of a brain: a sense of great self-importance gave brains a pleasing tanginess, those afflicted with demonic madness were more succulent than sane ones, and active, magic-filled, and experienced minds were among the tastiest of all.”

ST VECNA LITERALLY STALKS HIS VICTIMS BECAUSE THEIR SUFFERING FUELS HIM AND MAKES HIS CONNECTION WITH THEM STRONGER, HE’S MORE ABLE TO INFILTRATE THEIR MIND, THEIR MINDS ARE ‘AFFLICTED WITH DEMONIC MADNESS’ (demonic literally used to reference henry when victor speaks about the ‘demon’ in their home) AND HIS VICTIMS’ MINDS BECOME MORE ‘SUCCULENT’ AS HE TORMENTS THEM/THEY FUEL HIM MORE THE MORE TORMENTED THEY ARE!!! 

“Illithids were all sexless, without male or female biological sex, and once or twice in their life they would lay a clutch of eggs from which tadpoles hatched. Tadpoles that survived to maturity were put through the ceremony of ceremorphosis, where each was implanted into a humanoid victim and devoured its brain, taking its place and merging with the body to transform it into a new illithid. Only some humanoid species were suitable hosts for illithid tadpoles.”  Dart/the slug that will coughs up is literally referred to as a tadpole by dustin (even though it isn’t one, they’ve paralleled it to one), and it’s heavily implied that Henry was the one who put the vine in will’s throat, as the actual demogorgon has zero means of doing so and henry is the one who is shown to be controlling the vines. 

This is literally a VERY BRIEF OVERVIEW of things that point to henry being the mindflayer, i’m going to do a deep dive into it at some point, but. yeah.

[kaypeace21]

El is NOT ‘in love’ with Mike

Mileven-shippers be bugging - apparently I’m  ‘misogynisitc’ to think Mike Wheeler is gay, cause I’m not taking into consideration how ‘in love’ El is and am therefore enjoying her suffering (despite the fact I’ve said multiple times I don’t think El is in love with him either). So I’m just doing a rebuttal. Not going to even mention the milevens who lap-up the ‘Will is gay and pinning over straight-Mike for the rest of his life’-narrative. But,besides all the s4 movies having the long distance couple break up and admit in at least 4-6 movies that they both knew all along “it would never work out” and that they never loved each other. And El’s character even being happy for byler .The show hints at the fact (pretty heavily) El isn’t ‘in love’ with Mike. But is simply confused (given her lack of proper socialization). I’ve mentioned it before but just some obvious points people like to ignore...

For some inexplicable reason...We’re supposed to believe in s1 a traumatized girl (with no proper socialization with adults or peers) who doesn’t even know what a friend is -  is supposed to know the nuances of romantic, platonic, and familial love (or just the distinctions between physical attraction, crushes ,or romantic love)? Really?!

-  in s1 El knew Mike for 4 days, but we’re supposed to believe they ‘fell in love at first sight’? Even when the official ST-twitter ‘st writers’ said they don’t believe in ‘love at first sight’.

- El is mixing up familial love with romantic love.  Before he asks her out , El asks in regards to the status of their relationship “will you be like my brother?” And she is confused and upset when Mike says “no”- and proceeds to ask , “Why?” their relationship would be different than siblings. And Mike says “I don’t know, I guess it’s not.” 

Then Mike accidentally implies the only difference between friends/siblings/ gfs is that you kiss them. Mike pretty much says it’s different simply for the fact that it would be weird to go to a dance with someone who is like a sister - then kisses her.  

And then In s2, Mike tries to emulate his ‘non jealous’ friend,  Dustin, who is happy for lumax (despite his own romantic feelings). So Mike tries to act like Dustin, and  forces Will to dance with a girl (who’s wearing a rainbow hair clip). And right after this we see Dustin look sad about Max/Lucas dancing and Mike (next to Dustin) look sadly at Will/girl dancing in the same exact frame as Max/Lucas. As they switch between these 2 shots to emphasize their sadness/jealousy. 

Then they both sit down (mirroring each other) on the verge of tears before Nancy and El show up to comfort them and distract them.  As El once again (presumably) wears Nancy dress.

The parallels continue as Nancy (who has no romantic feelings for Dustin but more of a sibling-esque bond) teaches him how to dance, similar to how Mike teaches El to do the same. Indicating it’s not romantic for either pairings (despite the kiss). Mike :” you don’t go to dances with your sister?/ no?/ i mean you can but it’d be really weird.”

*In s2 they even make a direct parallel to Luke &Leia (who were siblings who had a weird romantic relationship/kiss before realizing they were related). Mike (as Leia) saying “it’s a trap” to El (Luke). 

And Leia (Mike) eventually gets with Han (Will) the one she had the real romantic tension with all along, and who she tried to make jealous by using Luke (El). Specifically, by kissing Luke (El) in front of Han (Will). Doing this by kissing El at the dance where Will could see.

They’re also compared to cousins.

And most damming is how Mike/El is compared to mileven. Cause El is confusing familial love for Mike with romantic.

* In s1 Lucas even compares El to Mike’s sister Holly, while the decoration of a heart being propelled by a rainbow hangs above him. Which echos what happened in s2 as well.In s2 , Erica  forces He-man and barbie to make out. And Lucas angrily separates the two. And then this discussion happens.

Erica: “Hey , They’re in love!”Lucas (livid- and standing right next to a rainbow): “No, actually,  they’re not. They don’t even exist on the same planet.”

Cue El and mike being compared to ET and Eliot (by the Duffers in multiple interviews and in the pilot script, shown above ) .  And  El watching he-man in s1- while Dustin in s2 has he-man and et next to eachother to show they were in fact  Lucas was talking about mileven.  Mike even calls El “yoda” in s1. We also see El compared to ET on multiple occasions in s1 (the bike scene, reese’s pieces vs eggos, et/el both having a the barbie like makeover and dressing as a ghost etc).  And then there’s the  old euphemism of “girls come from Venus, and boys come from Mars”. So El telling mike he should ‘stick with his own species’ (aka boys). And the Duffers saying mileven isn’t in love cause they’re not from the same planet  -is just them telling us , Mike is gay  and El doesn’t love him either. Will even says to Mike “welcome to my world”. In s3 we see Mike’s gotten rid of the sign that has a heart being propelled by a rainbow (symbolizing how he’s trying to hide/get rid of his feelings for Will) . But in El’s room while mileven makes-out we see a drawing of a heart being propelled by a rainbow (similar to the sign in s1 )- emphasizing the fact that no matter how much he makes out with El, and tries to hide the truth... he’s still gay. Like Max said in her rebuttal to El’s comment of “friends don’t lie”. “Yeah, but boyfriends lie ALL THE TIME”. Cause the relationship on Mike’s end was always a farce.

- And before their first kiss ,  after asking if she’d be like his sis, she asks  if he’s asking her to the snow ball as “a friend?” And he says “it’s different”. But  El again asks “how?”. And Mike (similar to El’s sibling question) once again can’t explain the difference of how friends and romantic partners are different to her, before they kiss. And just a few days earlier she asked the gang “what is friend?”. Yet we’re supposed to believe she knows she has a crush on Mike? 

El constantly says in reference to Mike “friends don’t lie” (even in s3). Her instincts are telling her she doesn’t have romantic feelings for him ... which is why in a span of 3 minutes she says she thinks of him as both a “brother” and a “friend” when he tries to make it romantic in s1.

This whole ‘romantic confession’ of Mike’s in s1,  echos his ‘love confession’ in s3. With Mike making it romantic and El once again not understanding his words or reciprocating her understanding of ‘feeling like she’s in love with him’.

Mike, before his love confession, apologizes for everything BUT LYING (the thing that broke them up in the first place). Aka because the love confession itself, was yet another lie Mike was telling. Which is why he never says “I love you” (to her face) but instead says *blank/it* instead of “love” .Saying “It makes you crazy…blank makes you crazy.

In s1 Flo says  “ only love makes you  crazy and that damn stupid”. Re-contextualizing  the “crazy together” scene between Mike and Will as romantic (since  Mike & Flo both equate love to making you ‘crazy’ ) .

When Mike tries to confess his “love” to El , he says “Well , they do say it makes you crazy”… much to El’s confusion as  she says “what makes you crazy”? But when Mike asks Will, “We’ll go crazy together, right? Will immediately responds back ��yeah, crazy together.”As they smile at each other.

Then there’s the fact that in s2 El’s new catchphrase was “not stupid”.She even says this line right before going to visit Mike. Right before Mike says he loves El, Nancy even comments that “El’s not stupid”. And in s3 El says “there’s more to life than STUPID boys.”And in s3 during the byler fight, Mike says “El’s not stupid.”  As opposed to Will who right after this, runs to castle byers, looks at the Halloween pic where they both said they’d go ‘crazy together’, and cries and calls himself “stupid” (4x). 

(x)(x)

The show says El is neither stupid nor crazy for Mike, meaning she DOES NOT (romantically) LOVE MIKE! The only one who is “crazy” and “stupid” for Mike is Will. Therefore, Will is the only one in love with Mike! . She even ignored his confession for 3 months and lied about hearing it- that doesn’t scream ‘in love’ .

- El mimicks Erica Kane and pretends to be with a fictional Mike Roy, while watching ‘all my children’ (Mike and Erica aren’t endgame btw) . Which parallels mileven to Karen/ Billy. Before she meets him she’s reading a romance book that has a guy that resembles Billy on the cover. The Duffers even mentioned they changed the cover to show the resemblance between Billy and the fictional book character. And we see Karen reading the sequel in s3 before Billy appears. Both El and Karen don’t/didn’t love Mike or Billy- they just projected onto them fictional characters they were infatuated with. She knew Mike for 4 days- saw a rushed romance on tv with a character named Mike- and simply wanted to emulate it with the only Mike she knew.

-She latched on to Mike more than the others since he was the first boy her age who took care of her. If Dustin did everything Mike did, she would of assumed she was in love with him too! El through her limited knowledge (given to her by Mike) essentially assumes boyfriends (who you are in love with) are boys who you think of as “friends, cousins, or brothers” who you kiss. Since Mike accidentally implied that feelings for  brothers/ friends are the same as  romantic crushes (in s1 saying about the difference “I don’t know I guess there isn’t”, and she is later taught while in isolation that kissing=romantic love (by soap operas). And then projects Mike roy (who she’s actually crushing on) onto our Mike wheeler. And then she proceeds to mimic what she sees on screen. Similar to how she copies Max’s words in s3. El says “I love you too”, cause (similar to mimicking Max and soap operas) she assumes mimicking him is what she’s supposed to do! Not cause she's actually in love with him! 

(X)

Not to mention the episode of the soap opera episode she’s mimicking is about a women and a man (named Michael) who rush into a relationship despite barely knowing each other, because of traumatic circumstances . And who are not endgame! She’s mimicking the female character who (has romantic feelings for a guy named Mike). Just like Mike projects Will on to El. El does the same projecting qualities of soap-opera Mike Roy onto our Mike Wheeler.

 - For El’s entire life she has known only 4 boys and 1 girl her age (her dating options are pathetically puny). She knew 4 boys for less then then a week, then immediately jumped into dating the first one who kissed her (and the only one who visited her for her 6 months in isolation at the cabin...interacting with her only romantic option, Mike).She’s never had a normal social-life  like most kids who interact with a large number of  boys and girls. So she could never see if what she had for Mike was romantic (or more than a simple crush) cause she has nothing to compare it to. 

In s3 

- Dustin compares stancy to Mileven stating it’s “bullshit”. And in s1 mileven is compared to Karen/Ted, as El sits and enjoys Ted’s laz-eboy chair. Similar to how Steve and Ted both eat chicken as their female partners storm away upset, and both men do nothing to help. Nancy states the only reason Karen and Ted got married was because they were young and that getting together was the more ‘socially acceptable/logical choice’ and saying “I don’t think my parents ever loved each other.” John says Nancy was repeating her mom’s mistakes by getting with the jock (Steve) , similar to how her mom got with a wealthy man (Ted). And now Mike is repeating Nancy and Karen’s mistakes getting with a girl cause it’s the logical choice (instead of being with the boy he loves).It’s mutual though (just like the Wheeler parents, mileven never loved each other).

-  In s3 El even says “How do I know what I like?” In reference to clothes and Max says she has to figure that out on her own without letting Mike or Hopper influence her. Associating mileven with El’s lack of understanding of knowing what she likes. This poor girl doesn’t even know how to interpret what objects she likes but we’re supposed to believe , before this she knew with certainty she liked Mike romantically?! 

Later Max even asks her “Is Mike a good kisser?” And she similarly answers “I don’t know, he’s my first boyfriend”. While staring at a pic of the karate-kid ( right after she dumped Mike).  Implying subconsciously she’s thinking of other boys , who are not Mike in the future. Which is actually very similar to the soap opera character who went on to have many marriages after being “in love with” Michael. Plus, despite making out with him everyday for 6 months straight- she doesn’t feel strongly , and is neutral/confused about how kissing him makes her feel (similar to clothes).

This is also in direct opposition to Will, who said he expected him and Mike to never get girlfriends and spend the rest of their lives together, and who later cries while looking at a picture of Mike. Unlike El who is happy and swooning over a pic of a random male celeb. They even have El (after breaking up with Mike) happily read comics books with Max, while Will (right before his breaks down) throws his comic on the floor, frustrated he can’t get his mind off of his fight with Mike.

- Also if she’s ‘so in love with him’ as people claim, her  laughing right after breaking up with him and having a party with Max makes little to no sense. And if you say she simply ‘doesn’t understand how breakups work’... you’re just proving my point that she’s too naive and not emotionally-mature enough to be in a romantic-relationship in the first place.  The breakup between Mileven was comedic, while Byler’s fight was serious, cause byler’s fight is more important to the writers .Mike’s drastically different expressions after the fight. The dramatic framing in the rain vs the casual comedic after-math at the mall. One fight being in front of a crowd, while byler’s fight was something private and just between them. El smiling vs Will’s heartbreak. It just highlights once again Will loves Mike, and El doesn’t!

- After Mike says to  El (in the pool shed) she’s “the most important thing in the world “, to him. She ignores his proclamation, and agrees with Hopper that they’re spending too much time together, and tells him they both need to  spend time with their own species. Which is contrasted with Mike’s confession in the Byers-shed (in s2) where Mike says, asking Will to be his friend was the ‘best thing he’s ever done’ . And those words were what helped break Will from his possession.

The framing of this mileven scene was not cinematic or heartfelt, and neither was the delivery from Mike.We as the audience are supposed to take his words as seriously as El- aka , not at all. Because the scene and his words were meant to feel empty.  He’s not crying, trying to reach her with proclamations of his genuine feelings. There’s no narrative importance to this scene (unlike byler’s). And there’s no dramatic music, framing, lighting or shot composition (and the pool-scene was also incredibly short).

Then, juxtapose this to the MUCH longer byler scene. A literal single tear falls down Mike’s cheek, as he recounts the first day they met. This whole monologue is only of tight shots of just their faces (their bodies aren’t shown like in the pool shed scene). This is a personal moment between them and them alone- and the fact we zoom in on their faces (expresses this to be important emotionally) . And when we see Will’s reaction to Mike saying “it was the best thing I’ve ever done”. We just see Will’s face only- no music is playing and all we hear is  Will’s whimpers and Mike crying in the background. They even have an added layer to this because earlier in the season Will assumes John only hangs out with him because he has no friends. But then Mike (despite all the hardships with the demogorgan and Mindflayer) still tells Will that asking him to be his friend was still the best thing he’s ever done. And those words are  what helps Will begin to break from his possession .

-When Max makes fun of how Mike talks to much, El agrees and laughs. And similarly when Max says Mike is wrong and it isn’t just “a break” El once again chuckles.  This is not the behavior of someone who’s deeply in love with a person.

Canonically El isn’t even into Mike’s real personality traits or his interests. Not only making fun of how he talks too much, but walking away and ignoring him when he excitedly talked about dinosaurs or makes jokes with the cpr dummy. She’s not into ‘nerds’. She only swooned for him in s3 when he was acting like a ‘bad-boy’ who was disrespectful to Hopper and his friends. Probably, because that’s what the tv has conditioned her to like. 

-Robin who had feelings for a girl also points out that Steve “didn’t even like her” despite all the attention Tammy gave him (similar to Mike with El).  Tammy is a someone who sucks at singing but does it all the time (COUGH insert mike’s singing in s3 as  El cuts him off as a parallel XD) .  And Robin annoyed also call’s Steve’s  hair “stupid”  like how Will called El “stupid”.  Implying similar to Steve who didn’t like Tammy (who his gay friend was crushing on) ... EL doesn’t like Mike (Who Will is in love with).

- She also never apologizes for spying on Mike-despite it clearly upsetting him. But to be fair Mike NEVER apologized for lying either (the cause of their breakup). It’s just so obvious they’re not compatible on any level. They can’t even agree to respect each others’ core principles; C’mon guys!

-Her whole arc in s2 was about leaving the cabin and learning more about herself and gaining independence from men controlling her autonomy (aka hopper and brenner). She went from wanting to see her friends and leave the cabin that she was forced to remain in because of Hopper. To in s3 , ignoring her friends and choosing to seclude herself in the cabin even when (unlike s2 ) she was allowed out of the house! All because she was dating mike.She directly went against her own mantra of “friends don’t lie” from s2 , lying to her friends to return to the cabin and kiss mike- limiting her much needed social interaction which she obtained by escaping the cabin in s2. Dating Mike caused her character to regress as a character NOT PROGRESS.

But also... El had no issues lying to her friends to ditch them and kiss mike (compromising her mantra of “friends don’t lie”. Just like Mike who lied to El despite him teaching her the saying in the first place- and how when together he stops being the group leader. They literally bring out the worst in each other! Lucas even says “ they’re lying”. Before Dustin says their relationship is “bullshit”. But then when Mike lied to her, that’s when she dumps him? And of course El pretends she didn’t hear the “I love her” (a form of lying). This is a stereotypical-childish-middle school-romance that falls apart easily based on petty reasons, cause it lacks a strong foundation. XD

-Then we’re supposed to believe she loves Mike-despite ignoring his love confession for 3 months?! Only saying she “loves” him (and‘making-up’ with him) right before she is about to move, and despite knowing about it for so long? To be fair she had other things to deal with (moving in with the Byers and losing Hopper). But it’s also suspicious it happens right after Mike helps her grab the teddy bear she can’t reach. This is because she used 2 different stuffed bears (Hopper and Terry’s in s2) as a comfort objects (and in s3 Will’s). In s2, she’d snuggle with them when she felt abandoned or at her lowest emotionally. And even the (romantic) ‘golden-teddy bear gift’ Mike was going to give her , was an empty gesture- that would of meant less than simply apologizing. She even wears Hopper’s shirt at the end of s3 which in s2 she snuggled with when homesick.  Her using teddy bears like s2,  wearing Hopper’s shirt from s2 (and undoing the s3 makeover where Max said to dress what felt like her and NOT Mike & Hopper),  and kissing Mike again, symbolizes all her character development was undone from s3- it’s symbolic of her CHARACTER REGRESSION. Just like how in s3 she stayed in the cabin and lied to her friends (when she started to date Mike)- undoing her character arc from s2 which was in direct opposition to her s2 character arc. Mileven’s kissing at the end of s3 shows it’s a bad for El’s growth and inhibits it- that’s what  season 3 was saying!

El feels vulnerable  because she’s moving away and  still hasn’t gotten her powers back. But  then Mike comes in and gives her, her comfort object (which she couldn’t retrieve by herself, when she tried to use her telekenesis. That’s when El (conveniently) decides to proclaim she’s in love with him too. While in Will’s room, holding Will’s old teddy bear, as the teddybear comes between Mike and El (as they kiss).  It’s obvious (unlike Will) she doesn’t love him , but has just formed a co-dependency to him- and is looking for stability given all the new changes in her life. Like Hopper’s letter said “I don’t want things to change.” She preferred life when Hopper was still around and she had this fake fantasy that Mike was a good boyfriend- before s3.

-And again the very last shot we see of El and Will shows once again El doesn’t love Mike, the way Will does. (Image by  @tsugarubecker)

She’s not as distraught or crying like Will is. She’s smiling with light over 1/2 her face because even if El struggles in a new environment she’ll be fine without her friends/Mike who she knew for 9 months. Honestly, other than Mike, she only knew the others for 3 months (since El never went out and only hung out with Mike). She’s hopeful . Will won’t be - because he actually loves Mike and won’t be able to have a new party , and will be a mess without his support system of friends, that he’s had for years! (Why jonathan looks at him concerned- when he’s just crying. With absolutely no hope in his face- covered in shadow , the opposite of El).

So again I say- EL IS NOT IN LOVE WITH MIKE! And, she will not be ‘heartbroken’ or devastated when they breakup. Frankly, her being away from Mike and gaining independence from Hawkins, and meeting new people is the best thing the writers could do for her character growth.

[kaypeace21]

The Duffers use of music proves byler is endgame (music-analysis)

The Duffers in an interview said that they choose songs for the show very deliberately -sometimes spending weeks on Spotify to find just the right song to convey an emotion/context of a scene. Songs in all seasons (but especially in s3) were used to show how characters are feeling- or just an action they’re about to commit.

For instance, Karen when she’s about to meet Billy at the motel-  feels apprehensive and wants to get out of it (since it would hurt her family) and she was just flirting with Billy as a way to escape her own issues, about her life. She never flirted with Billy for the end-goal of “getting him.”

They even use “cat’s in the cradle’ which could be shown as a way to illustrate the inappropriate age disparity between Billy/Karen.

Other examples-

Right before the boys run away from the lingerie store- the lyrics are literally “I just walk away” XD

Jim when he looks at Joyce- the lyrics are “she’s got you.” ( cause he’s in love with her).

-And Jim after getting Mike to not come over to see El, (by yelling at him) sings…

Joyce after she sees Bob’s drawing fall to the ground and then crouches to pick it up.

And songs also illustrates how Nancy feels about her job (with her sexist co-workers). As the morose lyrics of “I’ll be working here forever” play as it zooms in on Hawkins post -as Nancy rushes inside.

As well as  her excitement -about investigating a new case. As Jancy leaves and the very on the nose song  of “get up and go” begins -as they get into the car.

Billy when he pulls out chloroform (from a perfume bottle).

El after dumping Mike (and smiling about it) XD

So all the byler stuff I’m about to mention proves byler is endgame.

So yes, the fact that the very first lyrics that play when we see mileven kiss for the first time  is “Just a little uncertainty can bring you down”- reflects that (just like the others, the song reflects Mike’s true feelings). The song is from the album “boy in the box (cough closet)”.

And we know this is how Mike (not El) feels about their relationship because he begins to sing the song right after this lyric. It mirrors how when Will danced with a girl (who owned a rainbow hair clip) the lyrics were “every smile you fake.”

Mike continues “And nobody wants to know you now. And nobody wants to show you how.So if you’re lost and on your own. You can never surrender.” He fears that if he isn’t straight everyone he cares about will abandon him, and that he’d be lost and the only one ‘like this’ -all alone.But he can’t ‘surrender’ the false-idea of being in love with El (out of fear).  El even says to “stop” and tries to cover his mouth to prevent him from singing and Mike asks “What you don’t like it?” and El just says “No!”.

Which may be a purposeful juxtaposition to how Robin came out- and instead both Robin and Steve sang off-tune happily together- while El covers Mike’s mouth and tells him to stop singing. When Mileven kiss at the end of the season the song ‘the first i love you’ plays. The same song that plays when Robin comes out to steve (to illustrate the juxtaposition).

What’s interesting is ( right before the mileven kiss) we see a zoom in shot of a picture of Will and a rainbow . Like that’s Will! He has light brown hair (not black) and Will is the only one associated with fire and has drawn himself with fire in the past.

And since El has Mike related-stuff all over her room, and barely knows Will. Mike probably lied saying it was supposed to be him- which is why it’s above her bed.And we also see that based on it’s placement Mike is facing the Will drawing so he can see it  (cause we see El in front of the poster and Mike sitting opposite of her during the 1st kiss) . 

And during this transition the lyrics read “cause just a little more time could open closing doors” Which could be hinting at byler becoming a thing later - when (after some ‘time’) they both become ready to actually admit their feelings/sexuality - despite the other probably doubting the other has feelings for them.

I mean we even see an illustration of Will & the text of the name ‘Mike’ written out next to a rainbow-heart. And 2 other drawings next to the rainbow heart drawing (that are covered in red hearts). XD

(*for those who can’t see Mike written out in the transitioned will/mike pic)

However, what’s interesting though is the one other things he took down from his wall. In S1 Mike (before he even met El)  has a heart sign, with a red heart being propelled by a rainbow. Then in s3 it's gone from his wall when he dates El (cause he's trying to repress the fact he's gay). Why El has a drawing that says Mike (with a heart also propelled by a rainbow.) He can't use El to escape the truth. His rainbow follows him everywhere even when he tries to hide it (from his basement wall and himself) -  and when kissing El!Aka he tries to take it down (like he pretends to be straight). However, in the first ep of s3 when Mike is making-out with El (trying to project his feelings for Will on to her by looking at the Will drawing while kissing) we see a emergence of the heart being propelled by a rainbow (in El’s room) as a drawing.  signifying Mike participating in compulsory-heterosexuality,  and the fact no matter how hard he tries- he’s not straight!

Also El’s reaction to the song - hints that this isn’t actually her mixtape. But one that Mike made for her. or Will made for Mike (since jon makes mixtapes and prob taught him how- Will in s3 gave a mixtape to Dustin so it would not surprise me if he gave one to Mike).

So similar to the drawing, the mixtape hints at byler’s feelings

  ‘I can’t fight this feeling’ (which mileven makes out to later). Actually indicates Mike fighting his feelings for Will. And how he’s been trying to fight his feelings for Will, all season.

Besides the lyrics themselves- the singer literally went on record about the song’s meaning . Which is about a boy being in love/pinning over his friend of many years and never thinking he had a chance at being with them (and being afraid he’d ruin the relationship if he confessed)- but slowly thinking he could  be with them (and that they might feel the same way about him) . And in the song the 2 people AREN’T even together yet!

“Oh, I can’t fight this feeling any longer. And yet I’m still afraid to let it flow. What started out this friendship has grown stronger, I only wish I had the strength to let it show. I tell myself that I can’t hold out forever .I said there is no reason for my fear ‘Cause I feel so secure when we’re together ‘.You give my life direction. You make everything so clear. And even as I wander I’m keeping you in sight. You’re a candle in the window on a cold, dark winter’s night. And I’m getting closer than I ever thought I might”

This makes no sense for mileven who kissed after knowing each other for a week and who didn’t have a long established friendship, beforehand. And who also are already together (and not afraid to express their ‘romantic feelings’ for each other).

Then in s2, mileven dance to ‘every breath you take’ a break up song about a stalker ex. The writer of the song also has said many times “it’s NOT a love song.” The duffers obviously knew that. Lumax also danced to it and Lucas was called a ‘stalker’. El also stalked Mike in s2 (all that stuff milevens found romantic- El watching him without him knowing. Mike says he was not ok with it in s3). And in s3 he said not to do that and she just says ‘i make my own rules’. Not to mention Nancy teaching Dustin how to dance is a direct parallel to Mike teaching El. 

Mike also tries to act like Dustin, and  forces Will to dance with a girl (who’s wearing a rainbow hair clip). Trying to be a good sport like Dustin is about lumax. And right after this we see Dustin look sad about Max/Lucas dancing and Mike (next to Dustin) look sadly at Will/girl dancing in the same exact frame as Max/Lucas. As they switch between these 2 shots to emphasize their sadness/jealousy.Then they both sit down (mirroring each other) on the verge of tears before Nancy and El show up to comfort them and distract them.  As El once again (presumably) wears Nancy dress. Mike “you cant go with your sister… i mean you can but it’d be really weird.”

Also in regards to Will- when I heard they were going to have the song ‘Never ending story’ I wondered if they were going to re-contextualize one line in particular to be a hint at Will’s queerness. And shock- they did it! XD

The lyric is “ Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds and there upon a rainbow Is the answer to a never ending story. ”

And of course Will is the one with a secret- that is ‘rainbow’ related. And they pan to him during the “secrets” line. I think Will is less in the denial phase than Mike is and already knows he’s gay and in love with him.

And this wasn’t a coincidence because when Lumax makes fun of Dustin they sing the lyrics incorrectly as  “The mirror of your dreams. Rhymes that keep their secrets…” And it pans to Will AGAIN!

We see Will obscured in shadows to represent he’s “hiding”.

And then he appears in the light, looking sadly at D&D as the lyrics , “rhymes that keep their secrets” is sang (again).

And we see he’s specifically looking at the d&d game sadly and about to give it away- since they zoom in on the game title (before he places it in the “donation” box). 

Because the d&d game is used to reflect his desires (like a “mirror”) . It’s the ‘mirror of his dreams’- to be with Mike. Cue Mike saying “ what did you think,really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?” And poor Will  just responding with “Yeah, I guess I did. I really did.”

This lyric about the mirror is NOT in the original song. It was used once again to establish D&D as a romantic symbol for byler. Just like how they zoomed in on d&d right before the romantic “crazy together” speech.

Mike in s3 says “Blank makes you crazy… y’know like the word (love).” Flo in s1 says “ Only love makes you that crazy and that stupid.” Cue Will calling himself “stupid” 4 times (after Mike says they won’t be together playing games for the rest of their lives-and ripping up the Halloween pic , out of heart-break).

(x)

So again right after we see the zoom-in of the game (another romantically coded scene happens after). Will puts the game in the ‘donation’ pile - and Mike isn’t happy about it.

Mike: “WHOA, dude, that’s the donation box.”

Will: “ I know, I’ll just use yours,  when I come back. (pause) if WE still want to play?”

( translation: “I love and want to be with you but I’m not going to pursue you and get my heart broken again. Because even if I feel like you love me… I can’t trust my own instincts about how you truly feel anymore. If you want to play this ‘game of love’  with me you have to initiate/participate in the game properly.” Mike when fixated on El even says it was a cool campaign but  “we just weren’t in the mood right now.” and  also says to Will “c’mon, let’s play for real”  but Will storms off (not thinking that what Mike said was genuine).  

Mike : “Yeah, but what if you want to join another party?”

(*cough, the other ‘species’/girls, or just someone else: girl, guy or otherwise)

Will: “Not possible.”

(Will will always love Mike, and  admits he wants to be with him for the rest of his life).

(x)

And we actually see the Hopper’s Monologue (where Mike is shown)- reflects what Mike said to Will earlier. Mike does want to love Will but he’s just scared of changing their relationship into something romantic- and even though a part of him doesn’t want things to change, he’s still afraid that Will will move on from him as they both get older. “I’ve been feeling distant from you. Like you’re pulling away from me or something” (Will does this both figuratively/literally). I miss playing board games every night (d &d)”. “But I know you’re getting older, growing, changing. And I guess, if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. I don’t want things to change.”

Also the lyric “ Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds and there upon a rainbow- is the answer to a never ending story. ”

One way or another Will’s secret (of being queer and/or being in love with Mike) will eventually come out. And that’s the answer to this “never ending story” between Will & Mike. Their love story. I mean who else is associated with Will’s story and has loads of rainbow symbolism - and has rainbow symbolism that  specifically connects them to Will?

*Lol don’t even get me started  on analyzing how in s1 when Mike thinks Will is dead- Mike hugs his mom and the lyrics are “and we kiss as though nothing could fall. And the shame.” Which is queer coded and written by David Bowie- and during the s2 “freak” speech- Will even says he’d rather be friends with Bowie than Kenny Roggers.

People need to realize no one is a bigger shipper of byler- than the Duffer brothers themselves! XD