#stranger things 4 speculation

[bymarara]

Ross Duffer has posted a couple of new images. In one of them, we see Disney's 1951 CANONIC Alice.

For those who don't remember or have forgotten what I said about this.

In some of the videos, we see Holly wearing something resembling very strongly, the original Alice dress.

I think that Henry has put Holly in a trance for his own purposes (which are not clear to me, personally, only speculation) and befriended her. He placates her by sending her, perhaps, to her favorite fairy tale.

It is at this point that Holly will probably get lost and the search for her will begin.

Holly Wheeler, will become the Alice in her own mind, in Henry's fairy tale.

[wenclair-more-like-whenclair]

Straight people don't need directions from the people in their life to know how to be straight. Lucas and Dustin never needed to be taught how to interact with/be attracted to girls. They were both instantly drawn to Max because they found her attractive, and they knew how to talk to her. They wanted to rescue the sexy princess lady from the Dragon's Lair arcade game because they are men who are attracted to women.

So why does Mike Wheeler need Lucas Sinclair to practically guide him by the hand when it comes to knowing how to date a girl? Why does the nature of Mike's relationship with El change because of the suggestibility given to him by his older sister?? It's almost like... Mike Wheeler isn't like Lucas and Dustin and doesn't understand attraction to or interaction with girls unless explicitly shown.

[miwiromantics]

Hear me out but Mike getting vecna’d and El using her powers to get into his mind place and save him. She gets into his mind but isn’t able to find him anywhere until she hears soft crying. It’s Mike holding Will in his arms, blood dripping from the other boy’s eyes.

El can hear Mike whispering something to Will, something along the lines of ‘don’t leave me’ or ‘please come back’. He’s clutching onto Will’s hand and placing it towards his lips, fully sobbing now.

El places a hand on Mike’s shoulder and he quickly turns around. ‘Mike, it’s not real’ she whispers but Mike is inconsolable. He breaks down holding El’s arm, repeatedly choking out ‘it’s my fault, it’s all my fault’. She pulls his arm hurriedly and tells him ‘let’s go, it’s not safe hear’

But before she could insist further, a voice booms ‘why do you love someone who doesn’t love you back, Eleven?’ And El is transfixed while Mike holds Will’s body closer to his chest. ‘Why do you waste your time trying to save him?’

In the background the beginning of ‘small town boy’ plays as El can hear the real Will’s voice talk to her, saying ‘quick El please, find him’ and she can hear the desperation in his voice. She stops to look back at Mike, who was still on the floor, cradling fake Will’s body. And she understands.

She understands everything.

Just think about it.

[romainlettusdinnerparty]

judgy bylerism <3

[evilbookworm]

THIS WAS THE OFFICIAL NETFLIX ACCOUNT?!

OH BYLER IS SO ENDGAME.

[love-byers]

we need to talk about the very real possibility that vecna has been messing with people's memories of will, even his own memories

AND that vecna was messing with the phone so mike and will couldn't talk

they didn't forget will's birthday. they aren't changing his birthday and they aren't changing the dates in s4. they've ackowledged will's birthday on march 22nd 2 years in a row. which means it WAS wills birthday the day mike got to california. which leaves no other option than vecna messing with people's memories so will's birthday is forgotten and he grows lonelier and lonelier and eventually vecna can use him.

if you aren't aware, harry potter and the chamber of secrets is on the s4 inspo board. but to back up a bit, will is very similar to harry potter's character. will and harry can both see what the villain is seeing and feel what the villain is feeling because a piece of the villain is stuck with them, it's a part of them. both of them end up using this against the villain. will and harry both experience bursts of pain associated with the villain. will is connected to the hive mind so when the vines/ud/vecna is burned, he feels like he's being burned too. harry's scar feels like it's on fire when he has a vision of voldemorts pov and when he is near. in s3 after will is sure he's feeling the mind flayer again and he's drawing pictures to explain how it left a mark on him, that's essentially what happen to harry when he was a baby and voldemort tried to kill him.

also vecna...voldemort...yeah

in chamber of secrets harry went the whole summer thinking ron and hermione didn't care about him anymore because he never got a single letter or call. not even on his birthday. the first chapter of chamber of secrets is called the worst birthday.

but harry finds out that ron and hermione had been sending him letters, but dobby the elf had been intercepting them and hiding them. he did it because he knew voldemorts plan of getting into hogwarts and to harry, so he wanted harry to think no one cared about him at hogwarts so he wouldn't go back, because if he did go back he'd be in great danger.

this could mean so many things for what happened between s3 and 4, in s4 and what'll happen in s5

el and mike couldn't talk on the phone because it would put el at risk. he makes sure she has her walker before she leaves and says he'll steal cerebro to talk to her. and in s4 you can see el's walkie in her mike shrine clear as day. mike and el cannot talk on the phone. they communicate through walkies and letters.

but dustin still says, "joyce has this telemarketer job she's always on the phone, mike won't stop whining about it."

he's not whining because he can't talk to el. he's whining because he can't talk to will. undebatable.

but after dustin says that, the hawkins gang start to think it can't just be joyce's job because the phone is ringing and ringing for hours. i bring this up because the writers have already introduced one instance of the phone being busy, but not because of joyce's job.

so what if that's happened before too? clearly it's not out of the realm of possibility.

what if vecna was intercepting the phone line when mike tried to call? so he thought the phone was busy and it never even rung for will? and it went the other way around too, so they could never talk? so will would think his favorite person doesn't care about him?

or, what if it's true that henry's good conscience is alive and he's really just under the control of the mind flayer like people theorize, and he's intercepting the phone line because he doesn't want will to go back to hawkins, because if he does, he'll be in danger just like harry was?

OR, what if the phone interception isn't to hurt will, but to hurt mike? there's piles of theories about why mike is a good candidate to be vecnad in s5, so what if it was an attempt to make mike think his favorite person has moved on and doesn't care about him anymore, making him sad easier to target? but mike left for california, so vecna wasnt able to get him.

the possibilities here are endless. i'm so excited for s5!!!!!!

edit: after i posted this i started thinking more about the fact that will doesn't act nearly sad enough for someone who's birthday was forgotten by everyone. he acts like he doesn't even know it's his birthday.

in response to the birthdaygate theory, the duffers said something along the lines of, "we aren't that cruel". now we all know how sneaky the duffers are. so i think this is a way of them saying "oh don't worry, will isn't hurt by everyone forgetting his birthday because he doesn't even know it's his birthday."

remember what joyce said in s2 when will was posessed?

"Do you know what March 22nd is? It's your birthday."

i think this is foreshadowing that vecna is messing with will, because the last time will didn't know what his birthday was, he was possessed.

and in s4, will doesn't know what march 22nd is.

VECNA STAY AWAY FROM HIM I SWEAR TO GOD

ps

i made a whole post about the harry potter parallel here

also a post about mike and el only communicating through the walkies and letters here

[kurtkankle]

Eddie coming back for season 5 be like:

[inconspicuousdreamgirl]

I've said it once and i'll say it again robin and vickie is a lazy pairing.

okay so maybe its because i ship ronance but aside from that let me explain why this pairing is so extremely lazy and lacks what other relationships have.

aside from the show being sci-fi and monster/battle focused something it does really well is developing friendships and relationships between characters.

example one: jonathan and nancy's relationship has been developing since season one. we see them pine over eachother in season one and season two until they eventually get together. even in season three and season 4 we see how their relationship develops and how the deal with issues in and outside of the relationship together. this is good character pairing. it has that establishment in season one, the team up and tension in season two and well yeah its just very good writing.

example two: byler. whether you agree its romantic or platonic thats your choice. But we see how much will means to mike in season one and how he is so focused on finding will, in season two we learn more about their friendship and we see mike being super protective over will. and since then there has been this underlying tone of homosexuality for their relationship. if they do end up together the build up and tension over the seasons will make it a really good relationship that once again is established and developed. the same can be said for lumax, elmax, jopper and even the friendship between dustin and steve.

now vickie was just placed into season 4 as robins crush and thats literally it. we see them interact in the first epsidode, which oh my god lacked what I was hoping would be good chemistry and tension. right off the bat this ship/pairing became so uniteresting. to me it feels they only placed her in as a crush and nothing more. also there was literally no establishment or development over the season which is why its lacking. It also is very hard to picture her character in season 5 as they didn’t set her up well or gives us a really cool new character.

from a ronance standpoint it would make alot more sense if they ended up together. we see them interact in season three which establishes their relationship. its also worth mentioning nancy is mentioned in robins coming out scene (this would’ve been the start of good development) we only then see them again when they team up to solve vecnas curse. we see them have to work with eachother closely which leads them to being friends but has alot of tension and angst. this would be a excellent lead up to them being together.

robin is the first openly confirmed queer character which is why the vickie pairing is so disapointing. if they wanted the relationship to have the effect that the other ones do they needed to develop it more. they could have mentioned her in season three while robin is talking to steve, have her walk in the video store when robin and steve are applying to the jobs. but instead they placed the most boring character with no previous connection to robin as her supposed love interest. It just feels super out of place and almost awkward!!

I think all sapphics and gays can agree we actually want to see a well thought out and developed relationship, especially a queer one!!

But who knows my opinion could change when season 5 comes out!! Let’s hope they fix their chemistry and actually make it interesting

[smalltownrobin]

I've been absolutely obsessing over Maya and Amybeth's con appearance yesterday and all the info and hints we got about rovickie so I'll just quickly summarise everything I know here:

before filming the marching band stuff Amybeth was told Vickie would play the drums so she learned how to look believable playing the drums, until it came to filming and they gave her a clarinet instead

the pb&j scene was Amybeth's first day and she was absolutely shaking with nerves

both Maya and Amybeth said the pb&j scene was one of their favourites

Amybeth also said her favourite scenes are yet to come

Amybeth's favourite thing about playing Vickie is getting to work with Maya because they have great scenes and a lot of fun on set (and Maya agreed)

if they weren't playing their characters Amybeth would want to play Hopper and Maya would want to play Dustin, Joyce or Eleven (Maya's answer changes every time tho she's said Nancy she's said Steve she's said Vecna like)

someone told Amybeth they were jealous she gets to kiss Maya and she just replied laughing and said "I love my job"

another person told Maya they're rooting for rovickie and she just smiled and said "aren't we all"

I think that's everything, of course we've still got loads more of the panel to come but I guess all the interesting stuff would come out immediately so

[will80sbyers]

Thinking about this again, he's for sure gonna get hurt 🤕

SIKE! HE'S ALIVE 😤

[eddiemunsonbrainrot]

what if Mike’s love confession to El and to be honest the entire plot line of Mike not being able to say I love you only serves to set up a byler parallel in season 5

Ultimately, Mike telling El he moved her was futile - they lost for the first time and their relationship is still broken. But what if he finally works up the courage to tell Will he loves him when Will is in a near death situation and it saves both him and the rest of Hawkins. Mike being truthful and byler finally being shown to be requited is what saves them because FORCED CONFORMITY IS KILLING THE KIDS!!!

[skeletal-butterflyy]

OH MY FUCK WILL IS A WIZARD!

Stay with me now, I made a post a month-ish ago analyzing D&D in stranger things (which I recommend you read *winkity wink*), specifically addressing the party’s characters. We all know that Mike said that Will is a cleric in s2 to Max. BUT, it can be confusing because will’s character is named “Will the Wise” and he is dressed like a wizard. One might be able to argue, “well his name and clothes don’t mean that much to his class” well yeah you’d be right. But one thing that DOES showcase the class of a character is the moves they are able to make.

Clerics are able to cast spells based on the domain they occupy/the god they serve. To my knowledge, wizards don’t really have this problem of needing to be in a certain domain to cast a certain spell.

In s1 ep 01 Will casts fireball, a spell that can be cast by a Wizard or a Cleric, if they occupy the light domain. Recently I saw a post that showed this screenshot from s2

And I noticed the spell that Mike was talking about in his story. Fog Cloud is a spell that can be cast by multiple classes but most notably by Wizards and Clerics in the Water Domain.

It’s not very practical for a Cleric to occupy multiple domains for storytelling aspects but also, it makes the Cleric’s gameplay just a little overpowered.

So basically, Will probably isn’t occupying two domains and is more likely a Wizard. Which begs the question, why did Mike say he was a cleric?

TLDR; Two spells specifically mentioned in the show to be casted by Will can only be casted by him if he is a Wizard or Cleric occupying multiple domains, which doesn’t really make sense.

[azureroses1]

Ok idk where I’m going with this but i was rewatching the Byler rinkomania fight and noticed that in the background the basketball game specifically has the point score as

70, 50, 30

Which then reminded me of Mike specifically calling El’s bouquet a 30/70 split

Anyway I looked up the significance of these numbers and

they are literally standing in front of these numbers

And then they move on

They had were right there

Also to note the flowers Mike picked were more yellow than purple so 70 percent for Will 30 for El. Again here the number 70 is specifically isolated to be for Byler so we can infer that Mike’s attention has always primarily been on Will

Side note I also just looked up the symbolism of the number 50 and

Mike will find freedom in his relationship with Will

Also Mike and Will in that moment were vulnerable in what they wanted albeit a little clouded and veiled yet it didn’t come across to the recipient aka Mike to Will and Will to Mike.

Will - well what about us?

Mike - What?

Will - you mad that I didn’t talk to you? It seems you made it super clear you’re not interested in anything I have to say.

Mike - That’s just not true.

Will - You called maybe a couple of times it’s been a year Mike. Meanwhile El has a book of letters from you.

Mike - That’s because she’s my girlfriend Will

Will - And us?

Mike - We’re friends, We’re Friends

Will - well we used to be best friends

In this part they are openly communicating, it seems like Mike is realising something but then

Mike - well maybe you should have reached out more, I don’t know why am I the bad guy?

He doesn’t know what to say so he reflects it back at Will. He’s not there yet and he can’t admit fault because he’s begun to realise something, something important but is unwilling to face it.

[stevesgother]

Little Red Lighthouse (Ongoing)

When you move away from your hometown and your best friend turned part time lover to get a fresh start, you realize independence and freedom isn't always what it's cracked up to be. When you return, will you be able to make amends with Steve after 5 long years apart? Or will the resentment have festered too deep?

Little Red Lighthouse

Strange

Part 3 - Coming soon!

[bymarara]

Will and the Boys Don't Cry.

Remember the picture when we were first shown Will on his birthday? In case anyone hasn't noticed, there were headphones in the picture and let's think, who else was wearing headphones and under what circumstances? Uh, Max! Max wore them so that she wouldn't fall under the full influence of Vecna and become his victim, music helped her so called survival.

Now let's get to why Will carries them around. I have two suggestions.

Everyone on the team has headphones now just in case Vecna decides to face someone.

Will is scared. Will himself realizes that he can feel Vecna's presence, in addition he will probably hear him, his voice and his thoughts, which will be very frightening to Byers. Because of the fear, he may choose his favorite song and walk around with headphones on at all times, so that if anything happens, he won't be influenced by Vekna and Vekna won't take over Will's mind. I also think that there will be a similar situation as with Lumax, that Mike will have to turn on these headphones in case of anything, I think Will will warn him alone about it all, thus trusting Mike.

Now something I've been thinking about very, very hard. Most people, and I think or thought that Will's song would be “Should I Stay or Should I Go”, but if you notice the details, you can see the poster in Will's room! “Boys don't cry”, this song references Will in a lot of ways, and if it's in season 5 in his headphones, it will be very symbolic, and will show the meaning of everything we've seen.

Let's take Max as an example. She has “Running Up That Hill” in her headphones. The lines from the song literally refer to what Max is feeling and it also shows how she feels about Billy and how she regrets what happened at the end of season 3 and how she would take it all back. The chorus from her song, literally speaks to Max's morale and what she wants. -And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get him to swap our places, Be running up that road, Be running up that hill, Be running up that building. If I only could, oh These lines literally refer to the fact that if Max had known what would happen, she would not have stood still, but would have tried to help her half-brother. She would have been ready even for the same death as her brother, as long as he did not die. Also, there are very interesting lines like.

“You don't want to hurt me,but see how deep the bullet lies.” which refers to their relationship while Billy was alive. The guy hurt his sister, which she hasn't forgotten, and that deep down inside of her, she wished him dead inside of her, which she now regrets.

What about Will? I know most people have already figured this out, but for those who haven't and don't know the context - this song is about the inner thoughts that guys have when they're going through an unpleasant/transitional moment in their lives. It's also popular in the LGBT+ community. Let's go through the parts that I find most interesting and start from the beginning. -I would say I'm sorry, If I thought that it would change your mind. But I know that this time, I have said too much. Somehow it reminds me a lot of Will helping Mike with his relationship with Al, while ignoring his feelings and even confessing his feelings while hiding under his sisters name. Also, I think there's a season five reference here. I mean, Will could talk about the painting and the speech, but not say what he meant about his feelings! And the lines “I would say I'm sorry if I thought that it would change your mind.” show that Mike could have left with some anger and it left a mark on Will and that he can't even apologize now, and that apologizing won't change anything. (Yes, I know I sound creepy, please.) Now let's get to the chorus. -I tried to laugh about it,

Cover it all up with lies. I tried to laugh about it, Hiding the tears in my eyes. Cause boys don't cry. Boys don't cry. Sounds like Will's confession to Mike to me. He's not showing his real feelings, he's hiding everything under the “Al” mask. and underneath the mask, he keeps his feelings hidden, not showing them. He himself, quietly crying, quietly suffering, realizing for himself that his feelings will never be reciprocated, that he will have to live with it and come to terms with it, and he buries it all by himself and tries to cope with it all by himself. -I would tell you, That I loved you, If I thought that you would stay. But I know that it's no use, That you've already, Gone away… Again he says that he has buried all his hopes and feelings, he sees Mike pulling away from him and as if he is walking away from him, so talking about feelings, about declarations of love is useless in his opinion. Literally the whole song shows Will, shows a guy who in his opinion has already missed his chance, he realizes that he can't change anything and hides himself and his feelings only deeper into himself.

I hope that Will will have this song in season 5, but I will also say that there is a possibility that in case of anything, Mike can play this song, so much in this song refers to Mike.

[noihavenosanitythanksforasking]

gen q but like can a mileven explain why they think mileven is endgame without just using "bc they kissed" "theyre dating" or just trashing on byler bc i genuinely want to know

like no hate fr actually curious