#st5 opening

[chirpsythismorning]

And their extras were also both there that day.

Will double's is in the blue plaid while Will is in the yellow.

Also note El and her double are wearing the milkshake stained dress…

I was thinking about how again, it makes no sense to have Noah on set at that location, wearing the yellow plaid and bowl-cut wig, if he was not in fact filming at that location. While the production did spend a month renovating that location, they only spent 4 days actually filming there.

While it's not uncommon to do multiple shoots simultaneously at different locations in one day, it's can get very expensive. It requires a lot of manpower to have all those trucks lined up and a bunch of people hired for security and all the other duties required to keep things going smoothly.

So to have a lead actor leave another set and then go to another location, at least 30 or so minutes away, in costume and everything... I just don't see that being very likely.

Because they wanted to get the Rink-O-Mania shoot done fairly quickly, it's likely most of their location shooting in those 4 days was isolated to that location, at least in terms of those actors being expected at that location only because of all the scenes they might have had to cover in that short time.

And reminder, they also had Will's double there that day, who they wouldn't have had present unless they truly needed him, in the case they needed a stand-in to prepare certain shots or film shots that involved Will not actually being seen head on. But what shots would they need for a blue plaid Will, if Will himself wasn't even wearing his blue plaid? If they both just came from a shoot at a different location, wouldn't they be wearing the same thing?

Which brings me right to the implications of a Vecna vision. I don't think it would be a case of El's situation with Nina, because this isn't the same. Nor do I think it will operate in the same way it did as for Vecna's curse victims in s4. I mean, this is Will we're talking about. He already has a connection to the mindflayer, and that sort of connection is bound to make a trick coming from Vecna look a little bit differently.

When it comes to what I think could theoretically go down, I think it's most likely going to stem from a moment that involved Will being isolated at Rink-o-Mania. It allows going into this memory in s5 work a lot more smoothly, because we'd be able to see him in s4 in a way we remember, and then transition a lot easier into him in s5. It would also make sense to need a stand-in for s4 Will isolated, and then have s5 Will watching from a distance behind his past self in this memory.

The first moment would that comes to mind is early on in the afternoon (right around the time we get those shots of the birthday tables) when they're all skating together. We see Will by himself trailing behind Mike and El on the rink (Angela's POV). But tbh that looks like Noah to me and not like the double, considering it is also clearly Millie and Finn in front of him, but still I guess we can't know for sure.

But then there's this other shot that I find even more interesting...

We've talked about how the lights in Rink-O-Mania above the rink look very similar to the mindflayer, which parallels with Max's memory of the snowball, which also has lights that look like the mindflayer.

It's both of the settings in big block letters feat. a disco-ball at the center for me

We know they were being watched that day at the end of s2, with the lyrics in the background literally saying I'll be watching you, along with the mindflayer just outright watching over them from the UD at that very moment.

And then we have Rink-O-Mania, which starts with the kids piling out of the van and going inside, only for Jon to stop Will, with him turning around looking hopeful, only for Jon to tell him to have fun and with Will looking disappointed before turning away.

Most of us understandably read Jon's expression afterwards as him feeling bad for Will, now that he's starting to figure out for certain that Will is in fact gay and in love with Mike. And yet there's also this eeriness to it. Jon doesn't just look like he's experiencing pity or understanding, he honestly ends that shot looking like he is forgetting something...

And then we get that lyric in the background right then: I've got to have my way now, baby.

Mind you, what followed this moment was a disastrous afternoon at Rink-O-Mania, filled with signs that it was Will's birthday...

If it was Will's birthday that day (I'm like 99% sure at this point that it was), then this IS coming back. Like it's a given.

And I honestly don't see them holding off until mid-season or until the end of s5 to bring up the fact that it was Will's birthday, only now trying to open up fans to realizing what happened and how it is going to have an impact on Will. That was a heavy storyline last season, and they'll need to wrap it up to move on to where that storyline is going to take us.

Not to mention birthdaygate is something fans just cannot accept even as a possiblity right now. Fans needed it to be something outright acknowledged in s4. All the birthday references were not enough for them. And I would agree in the sense that I think bc it wasn't confronted in s4, it's something that they have to confront us with pretty quickly in s5, so that when rewatching we can go 'Oh shit! Here were all the signs leading up to what is about to hit us right now in s5!' It makes those details worthwhile because fans only had to wait 1 episode into the following season to have it acknowledged.

Another detail I find interesting, is that Noah is wearing black roller skates here. Initially I thought they could be his own personal skates, and that is still possible. But if dude had the time to put on personal skates, he had the time to change out of his costume to avoid risking messing up the hair and the clothes. Or he could have just put on any of the skates afforded to all the actors on set, similar to the other three alongside him in this bts.

But now honestly, after actually thinking about it, the black skates make me think this could be a vision/nightmare. It's something that feels isolated and wrong. Like, yes we're here, but something isn't right. It's not Will in his Cali fit in some skates from Rink-O-Mania, it's Will in what he was wearing in Hawkins at the end of s4, witnessing this in a vision, meaning it would make more sense to throw the black ones on him to hint that something is off (AKA THIS ISN'T REAL!).

I could literally picture a POV shot of Will all disoriented coming to, opening his eyes as he's looking down at his skates, while the audience is watching like 'Wait! What? Why is he--? WAIT WHATS GOING ON!?!?' Only for us to see Will witnessing himself in the past from behind in this memory of the events that day, with him watching what's going down with El on the rink.

CAN YALL SEE THE VISION OF THIS VISION?

Another thing about this shot and this scene in general, is that it parallels another scene in s4, when El is confronted by Angela and the others after school, where Will is looking from a distance, frozen.

It's worth noting these parallels and connections are meant to exist, leading up to El discovering the 'truth' about what happened in the massacre.

And considering we have Will lurking in the corner of that final shot with El at the very end, when Mike parallels Brenner shouting during the massacre, makes me wonder if this memory/vision could involve some parallels that also start laying the groundwork for the truth about Will's connection to things in the past...

Someone noticed (here) that March 29, Billy's birthday, is also the day the Cali crew is back in Hawkins.

So, I'm thinking. We see the name Billy as Max is reading the letter, but the name William when she is in the Vecna vision. That could just mean different timelines, or maybe it's also a hint that the theory that Will is in a Vecna vision at the end of S4 is correct (here)

Maybe on March 29 Vecna goes into William's mind and what he sees from the moment he touches his neck is a vision (everything else is real) The end credit song, Spellbound, is definitely an interesting choice...

I would love it if S4 starts with a flashback of El in the lab, and ends with Will in a vision. Also, we know that S5 starts with a UD flashback, so:

4x01 -> lab flashback -> then El's letter, in which she lies about her life in Lenora

5x01 -> UD flashback -> then a vision, which is also a lie?

What would Vecna show Will? Maybe the day at Rink-o-mania. But I think this would be different from El's letter. This time we would see the truth, twisted by Vecna, like the truth about Max wishing her brother to die. Maybe Vecna would tell Will that he is jealous, and that the reason he didn't help El is that, deep down, he wants her to suffer.

Well, Will is jealous, but that's normal. It doesn't mean that he's cruel or doesn't love his sister. We see that in the van scene and in 4x09.

And how could Vecna show Will that he is jealous and wants to hurt his sister? Maybe by making him be the one who throws the milkshake on her dress.

Remember the BTS photo of Noah at Rink-o-mania in his 4x09 outfit? The boy behind him and Millie is the actor who plays Jake, or his double. Jake is the one who throws the milkshake on El's dress. Jake has a bowl cut and kinda resembles Will.

So, maybe Noah was wearing his 4x09 here because this is the vision scene, and this time he's the one who humiliates El.

I could be wrong, but I think this would be a very interesting parallel with the beginning of S4. And a way to make Will more vulnerable

@chirpsythismorning @shippingfangirl013

[bylerain]

"I want to live Mike."

"You will. You're living right now, and you will keep living after all this is over."

"No Mike. I want to live and enjoy it, not survive and pretend to be okay with it. Because I haven't been okay with it for 5 years. This isn't living."

[filmnardo]

How are we feeling byler nation 🫶🌻

[jonathanbyersphd]

It is exhausting to be a Jonathan Byers fan

[butterflysonnets]

el finding out mike is queer and has feelings for will, smiling softly at him and holding his face gently in her hand and saying, you are in love, mike, but it is not with me, and mike being absolutely mortified and devastated, i'm so sorry, el, i'm sorry, i do love you, i do, and el saying, i know, friends don't lie, i know you love me and i am sorry i ever said you didn't. i did not know the difference. mike shakes and shakes, and el steadies him with her hands, telling him, it's okay, being in love is a wonderful thing, isn't it? and mike just choking out a broken no and it's not supposed to be like this, i'm scared of losing you, i'm scared of losing him, i'm scared i'll lose everyone, and el just hugs him tight. you won't, she promises, you won't, i think you will just… gain yourself? and mike laughs through his tears. he laughs and laughs, and el never stops smiling.

[apocalyptic-byler]

what if i said he’s looking at the painting

[bylerposting]

sitting here with my fist on my chin like the statue guy trying to figure out how exactly a time skip to fall of 1987 is going to work without feeling extremely weird

[chirpsythismorning]

We never really left

[hawkinslibrary]

[byleriscanon713by]

WAKE UP EVERYBODY THE FIRST PART OF THE S5 SCRIPT IS OUT AND ITS OPENING WITH A WILL BYERS FLASHBACK OF HIM SINGING SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO!!!

WILL BYERS STANS WE WON! ITS LITERALLY HIM IN THE UPSIDE DOWN SINGING!!!

[will80sbyers]

This is apparently Hopper's cabin right now, but I don't know if they are filming here 🤔

[wheelercurse]

Thinking about episode 7, which is called The Bridge because the Upside Down is literally the bridge (a wormhole) between Dimension X and the real world (The Right Side Up).

El has the power to open the gates, but she isn't the one who created the Upside Down because if it's a wormhole, it means that someone has bent space and time. And that someone was Will. He was trying to escape the Demogorgon. We don't see what happened, only the lightbulb flickering, and then both are gone.

That's why they're emphasising that the Upside Down is frozen on November 6th, the night Will vanished and El opened the gate. (I don't think he could have created the upside down if El hasn't opened it). And the Duffers put emphasis on one of the interviews, that it's frozen in time when Will disappeared. He's the key to understanding the Upside Down.

The question is, How did Will obtain this power? I believe he also travelled to Dimension X in 1979 when El opened the gate to send Henry there. That's why we have a flashback of Will (8) in episode 4, The Sorcerer. How that's possible, I don't know, but this was likely the first time he vanished (and maybe Jonathan and Mike were looking for him)

If you don't know, Henry obtained his powers when he travelled to Dimension X when he was a kid. His blood was "infected".

Now, with wormholes, there are more opportunities for them to travel in time. In this post, I wrote a while ago, and I explain a bit more about how it works with Will's abilities. Here, I called the Upside Down a tesseract because it's according to A Wrinkle in Time lore, but it's the same idea; it's like a wormhole/bridge.

But I don't think they can change the past because they're also in a time loop between 1943 and 1983. I bet the day the ship disappeared was also November 6th.

[athiestpaladin]

if (when) byler becomes canon, i feel like (on full rewatch) it'll end up feeling like the core of the stranger things plot with how much of the story can be seen as parallels or double meanings about them; molded to them

[bebx]

do u think henry is gay? /gen

I think he is. or at least it’s my headcanon that he is.

it’s also something I think might later be revealed to be one of the things Henry and Will have in common. maybe it can even be what Henry uses to convince Will that they’re alike, since Will’s sexuality is what convinces him that there’s something (according to his own belief) “wrong” with him. and perhaps Henry | Vecna might even use that to make Will see that Will is just like him. that they both struggle just the same.

now what happens after, is either Will caves and joins Vecna, or he stands his ground and makes Vecna see that — while they have so many things in common — they are also completely different. because Vecna | Henry chooses the path that involves death and violence, while Will chooses the opposite one.

that being said, though, unless my theory’s right and Henry’s sexuality will later be what connects him to Will, I don’t think the show will go any much deeper, if not at all, into it.

[byler-alarmist]

I am SO DEEP in the weeds right now about the "Surfer Boy" motif in Stranger Things beginning in S3 and being cemented in S4.

It began with kind of a joke post, but now I'm fully convinced if its deeper meaning re: queer coding and what it could possibly mean for S5.

[eightfifteen]

Another day, another dash filled with untagged spoilers