#not to mention birthdaygate

[chirpsythismorning]

we would have a parallel to this Benverly moment from IT (1990) only with Byler and Vecna? And the painting would be brought up, not a poem.

https://youtu.be/ZKHyYutpFxA

👀 I’m sat.

[eightfifteen]

I don’t think Alice Creel was actually 15. The ONLY source for that number was the newspaper clipping but like the paper props in ST are notoriously bad at consistency with canon. Eddie’s missing person poster says he’s 17 when we know he’s actually 20 (because he was held back 2 years.) Will’s poster said he has brown eyes when he really has green. Etc.

Fair enough

[paladinsbrainrot]

just realized will's playlist is 3hr 22min long...

[ectonurites]

Byler Week Day 5 — Secret Identities

very loosely interpreting the prompt for today but i've had this idea for a while and... secret identities, Superheroes, that works. anyone who knows me well probably could have seen something like this coming LMAO

also trying to draw Robin & Superboy costumes that look thrown together and home-made when i have spent so much time drawing their actual designs was a challenge

[sinclairstarz]

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL POOKIE BEAR PRINCESS SON 🫶🫶🫶

[willbyersabyss]

Wait oh my god… so not only is there a birthday table, there’s a carousel. These are both shown right after Will is skating all alone. So when we are thinking about how Will is sad, we see a carousel, a birthday table, and a space game before our focus shifts to Angela. Will’s birthday rainbow spaceship memory perhaps?

Later we see Will and Mike walk past these tables and the camera is positioned between the carousel pillars which is what sparked my curiosity. Is this carousel significant?

There’s a carousel at the Creel playground! I’ve already posted about how the playground across from the Creel house represents Will’s memories but I didn’t think the carousel on the left meant anything. I was wrong. A carousel was shown just before a birthday table at Rink-O-Mania on Will’s birthday. So now a carousel is also linked with Will’s birthday and it just happens to be at the playground with two other things relating to the memories that saved Will. The carousel is a new memory Will gained of his friends and family forgetting his birthday?

[lemonycranberries]

sometimes i'm out there living my life in the real world and suddenly i find it so bizarre to remember normal people exist. i mean just completely average people, living their lives regularly. like. what do you MEAN your life hasn't been completely consumed by a gay ship that may or may not become canon from hit netflix tv show Stranger Things (2016).

[runninguplenorahills]

I have an appointment tomorrow and when I scheduled it they were like : “is March 22nd fine? That’d be a Friday” and I was like: “yeah sure absolutely”, meanwhile wondering why March 22nd sounds like it should mean something to me, like, why it sounds so important.

Turns out I fucking forgot it’s Will’s birthday even though I’ve liked posts about fucking birthday gate in the past couple of days, like wtf, two months off tumblr and my memory has degraded to goldfish level.

[ineffablelvrs]

be so fucking serious right now WILL'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

[vanscene]

girls when the expanded universe novel does not adhere to the canon timeline of its source material

[stranger-theory]

i really hate it when people say "they just made a mistake" as if its just two guys writing this show. there are teams of people making sure everything stays on track, how can every single guy who works for them not say "hey, that day is already used in the timeline"?

"coincidence?

i think not. Scott doesn't do coincidences."

Hi! Not gonna lie I was a bit disappointed that you believe the birthday gate stuff... The Duffers wouldn't have admitted to have made a mistake if that were the case. And most of all, it would've come up in volume 2! Now if something happens in S5 it would just feel like they came up with it during the 3 years between S4 and S5. They can say it was planned all they want, people would call bullshit, and rightfully so. I'm sorry I can not believe how anyone can think birthday gate could be a real thing. Not to mention it doesn't even make any sense. Please bylers let's just accept the Duffers made a mistake!!

i disagree with everything you said

1. "the duffers wouldn't have admitted to have made a mistake if that were the case"

they lied.

the duffers are sneaky snakes who want us to analyze and always be looking for little details. they have literally said there are no coincidences in the show.

so yes, i completely believe that they would go out of their way to lie in order to save the surprise for s5. i mean actually think about it, if it really was just a mistake, why would they not just fix it?? they have the full power to just do a little voiceover edit and boom, problem solved. they explained exactly how they'd do it. but they didn't. 2 years have passed and they still haven't changed it when that little tweak would literally solve all their problems if it really was a mistake.

they lied. they're liars.

2. "it would've come up in vol 2"

since when does every single problem have to be solved in one season?? do you know what show you're watching??

there are hints and foreshadowing all over the seasons. vecna is foreshadowed in s1 ep1 when will's door was opened with telekinesis, and we had no idea he existed until 6 years and 3 seasons later.

in s1 they don't fully explain how will was communicating with joyce. but after s4 everything clicks into place.

they show us that will can clearly hear her and is finding a way to make the lights light up. then in ep 8 they show joyce and hopper making the christmas lights light up as they walk through the byers upside down house. jonathan sees this and asks if it's joyce, and joyce hears him.

that isn't addressed AT ALL in s2 or s3. it is fully explained and explored in s4, when nancy steve eddie and robin are stuck in the upside down. they fully show us how it works and acknowledge that it was how will communicated with joyce.

the creators knew exactly how the light upside down stuff worked the entire show. but it wasn't time for it to be explained just yet. it was meant to come up later on. it's a masterful way to write a story with longevity.

stranger things teaches you to never just write something off. everything is important. don't let it go just because it hasn't been fully explained. there will be payoff.

3. "now if it comes up in s5 it would just feel like they came up with it the 3 years between s4 and s5. people would call bullshit."

respectfully i think you're projecting a bit.

the average viewer who does not spend their time on forums is not going to think that whatsoever. the average viewer is going to think "wait what?!", go back and watch s4 ep 2, and think "holy shit it was planned all along that's so cool!"

like that's such a dumb way of thinking. you have to be a master level hater to see a well written plot twist and think "they just did that to cover their asses" like that's some next level hating

and i guarantee you once s5 comes out the duffers will be like "yeah of course we had to lie you guys were too close to figuring it out!"

david harbour has talked about how hard it was for him to flat out lie to people about hopper being dead. it's really not that crazy to think they lied

4. "it doesn't even make any sense"

....it does.

i don't know how you could think it doesn't make sense

rink o mania day was march 22nd. will's birthday. they have not changed his birthday. his official canonical birthday is still march 22nd.

but no one mentions it. even will doesn't seem to know it's his birthday.

s4 is all about memories and trauma and feeling isolated from others. we also literally learn there is a powerful monster man who can read minds and enter other people's memories, just like el can. so i don't see how it's so outlandish to think there's some memory fuckery going on.

of course we can't explain exactly why or how, because it hasn't been adressed yet. you have to wait for the pay off.

5. "just accept the duffers made a mistake"

i would accept that they made a mistake if they actually fixed the mistake LIKE THEY SAID THEY WOULD. they said "we are going to edit the episode and change it to say may 22nd" and then DIDNT. EVER.

and not only that, they wished him happy birthday on march 22nd 2 years in a row. noah schnapp posted a bts photo on march 22nd 2024 with the caption "Do you know what March 22nd is? It's your birthday. - Joyce Byers"

they are saying "yes it's still his birthday so get hyped for s5 where it'll be addressed" every way they can without spelling it out for you.

i really don't know what more you need

[chirpsythismorning]

When you see it...

[conflictofthemind]

The way I see it, there’s three to four distinct possibilities for this flashback if it’s related to a plot point and not just a tiny snapshot of the past.

1. Will had his eighth birthday specifically mentioned in the shed scene, where he got a box of coloured pencils and drew the famous rainbow ship. This is interesting because of birthdaygate and rainbowshipgate both being big theories; specifically the whole birthday thing needing to be resolved in Season 5.

It was mentioned that Lonnie left around 4 years prior to Season 1, which matches with this timeline as well. Therefore:

2. This is a snapshot of Lonnie’s abuse of the boys witnessed when Mike was there. This could serve as a great callback to Lonnie’s mentioned homophobic abuse of Will, and I’ve theorized for a while that Mike was witness to this and only added to his repression of his own sexuality.

3. This was when Lonnie left and they built Castle Byers - with the additional information that this supposedly is apart of Episode 4, this seems possible. I have an entire theory that Mike and Will visit Castle Byers in the Upside Down during that episode for a while now. It was mentioned only Jon and Will built the fort, but this could be Mike’s first witness of it and a snapshot of he and Will playing.

Then the next possibility because the boys would have been eight years old in 1979:

4. The flashback is connected to Henry’s banishment to Dimension X in 1979. I know of a few people who have theorized that this date is important in Will’s life to (from him being involved in the creation of the UD to this being the split point of a timeline). It could also be tied to any of the previously mentioned scenarios as well, except Will’s birthday. The one reason I do think this is unlikely is that there are only scripted lines for Mike, and having some massive reveal here feels like it calls for a larger scene with actual dialogues than the casting call implies.

[henrysglock]

Birthdaygate 2: Electric Boogaloo

Hey guys. Fucking sus moment. strangerwriters on twitter hasn’t posted a single birthday since Jamie’s in November of last year:

In fact, they haven’t posted at all since TFS reviews came out in December, meaning they missed Finn, Charlie, and Matthew’s birthdays. They didn’t even post one for Will.

Meanwhile, the official Stranger Things account was all over the birthday deal for Will...and only Will:

The Stranger Things official account doesn't do birthdays. strangerwriters does...but neither of them have done birthdays for anyone but Will since November 2023.

In fact, I haven't seen anyone do birthday posts for anyone but Will since November 2023. Not Ross, not any of the production team, not any of the official accounts.

So...what the fuck?

Why have they forgotten everyone's birthday except Will's?

Not to mention, of course, the EVERYTHING ELSE about yesterday's birthdayposting.

Like whatever the hell THIS was about:

Or this weirdly "coincidental" post from TFS:

AND A FUCKING FRINGE MENTION????

Or THIS trend of hairstyling bullshit:

I DON'T TRUST IT!! Who are you and what have you done with my boy Will Byers!! That bitch is Bill Wyers atp!!

Or, tangentially, the fact that these appear to be the same flannel based on color, but there's no way they can be based on size:

The same way these are supposed to be the same flannel based on color, but they also can't be the same shirt based on size:

[udkmehahaha]

What gate theory do you think is most likely to happen in st5??

lettergate i am 100% sure is happening, nothing anyone can say will convince me its not. churchgate i also am pretty convinced will happen, but maybe not exactly the same though. birthdaygate i think also makes sense but my doubts of it happening overthrow my belief of it happening. flickergate i dont think will happen at all, i like the theory, but i dont think it will happen.

honorable mention: miniongate my beloved 🌝

thank you for the ask! keep sending more

[miwiheroes]

Of all the gates, which one do you think it's more likely to happen and why?

I’ve thought about this a bunch, and I really think that phonegate is the one that is most likely to be true, but not really mentioned.

However I think that birthdaygate will happen, like, there is no way something to do with Will’s birthday isn’t important to the plot based on all the clues that we have gotten….