#which was the duffers' plan all along!

[the-lark-ascending69]

Sometimes i'll see a byl3r theory post that looks so much like it's parodying delusional byl3r theories and laugh along only to realize it's dead serious.

[luckybyler]

This was a reply to someone else, but I'm making this its own post because so many people are being so evil right now re: Noah Schnapp.

You can find other, longer explanations with history and all, but all the places I've seen more or less agree with this:

So you're all calling people to cancel Noah because he's in favor of a Jewish nation in what is today Israel. Which is a perfectly reasonable, decent and educated opinion to have, especially when you, to use a trendy term, "educate yourself" and find out why the state of Israel was created.

11000 dead Palestinians, half of them children

According to Hamas. Don't forget that, ever. They're the current, official government of Gaza, thus they're the ones who give numbers. This means that the real number could be 10, 1 million, anything in between. What I've read is that they probably give more of less accurate total numbers. What they fail to do, however, is distinguish between Hamas militants and civilians, and beteween civilians killed by IDF strikes, civilians killed by failed Hamas or Palestininan Islamic Jihad's rockets (which happens a lot), and Palestinians murdered by Hamas/PIJ (which also happens, a whole damn lot). They also don't specify how many civilians they have prevented or tried to prevent from evacuating or receiving aid.

11k dead people is a horrible number. Even 1 dead person is a horrible number. However, urban warfare in such a densely populated area is its own kind of hell, especially when the other side is fond of using civilians as human shields in every way possible. The fact that the number is 11k and not 50k, 100k, and so on, indicates that the IDF have indeed done a lot to minimize deaths. You don't genocide people by doing roof knocks, opening evacuation lines, dropping guided bombs, putting up an Iron Dome to deal with rockets while avoiding escalation, etc. simply because actual genocide, while a lot worse, is also cheaper, easier and faster than what they're doing. This is important because caling every act of war genocide dilutes the word, and there are actual genocides happening around the world. Also, there is a difference between striking military targets and causing civilian deaths as a side effect (what the IDF is doing) and planning and carrying out a massacre deliberately targeting civilians and inflicting as much pain and humilliation as possible on them. And there is a difference between doing so by breaking a ceasefire (which is what Hamas did), and defending your country because if you don't do that a terrorist group will anhilate you (which is what the IDF is doing).

Back to Noah. So far, these are the things that people have tried to cancel him for:

Traveling to Israel (a completely normal thing)

Having Israeli friends (another completely normal thing)

Condemning Hamas' horrible attack on October 7th (the decent thing to do)

Posting a statement saying he feels unsafe as a Jewish person in the US (which, given the rise of antisemitic acts in the world, including the US, including where he lives and where he studies, is a valid feeling to have)

Signing a letter, along with Shawn Levy, Brett Gelman, Ross Duffer and I think Cara Buono, asking Biden to press for the liberation of every hostage by Hamas. This especially shows the utter ignorance of the cancellers because, as it turns out, caring about every hostage implies a slowdown of IDF's actions (and, at the time, a delay of a ground invasion).

Supporting the existence and preservation of the state of Israel (once again, a completely normal thing). The fact that people are turning against him for these things says to me that the real reason you are all hating Noah is beacuse:

He's Jewish. Like, really really Jewish.

And the fact that this all comes from a place of antisemitism isn't hidden at all: I've seen y'all on here, on Twitter, Reddit, every other social media calling him slurs (such as "cunt"), censoring his name, pretending he's not part of the cast, asking the Duffers/Netflix to fire him, wishing him failure, doxxing him, calling on his classmates to physically assault him, etc. He doesn't need to educate himself: you guys are already teaching him a great lesson on why a Jewish state is necessary. If that's the treament he gets from his own "fans", what can he expect from the world at large?

[teambyler]

The reason for no explicit hints to the GA that Mike likes Will yet

One thing doubters of Byler have right is that there have NOT been the usual (i.e., explicit for the General Audience) clues that Mike is gay/bi or likes Will. We all know what this would look like in TV media.

Here are two examples of the classic Almost-Kiss With Interruption Trope from s1:

We haven't seen that for Mike and Will. Nor have we seen Transparent Closet tropes like Mike having a clear Gay Panic moment, or zooming-in to his face while he checks out a guy, etc. (NOTE: They HAVE been there but are too subtle for the GA. Mike's entire demeanor in the "I feel like I lost you" scene is there for those who see gay subtext.)

Why not?

Put yourself in the Duffers’ shoes. Imagine you plan a Byler conclusion. Would you be able to do any of the above things? NO, not without giving away the ending.

There would have been a huge hoopla in the mainstream in 2022, about the "bisexual love triangle" in Stranger Things. It would dwarf the current one about Buck being bi in 9-1-1, with the media screaming "Breakthrough for LGBT representation!" There would be little remaining suspense about who Mike would end up with in the YEARS leading up to s5, because (1) any non-Byler conclusion would become the most notorious instance of queerbaiting in media history, and, (2) in many ways with which Bylers are familiar, even the GA would have to conclude that Mike and Will are meant for each together and more compatible than El and Mike ever were.

A love triangle isn't effective if there's no suspense. The Duffers kept suspense with Jancy at the end of s1. Through the season, it looked like Nancy was going to end up with Jonathan. But then they redeemed Steve and he had his scene with Nancy at Christmas. THAT was enough to maintain the "Will they or won't they?" for a straight love triangle. But any similar setup for Mike, El, and Will case would have no suspense: the GAY HYYYPPPE would overshadow everything. In the case of 9-1-1, the writers have handled the hype for Buck+Eddie by placing another GAY love interest (Tommy) in the way of the pairing many fans have long wanted. The Duffers clearly can't do that with El.

The Duffers have to limit themselves to bread crumbs that Mike and Will will end up together, enough for observant viewers to see. And it's REALISTIC that homophobia would keep two best friends who love each other from hiding their true feelings, for fear that it would ruin their friendship. It will be like every other well-prepared TV plot twist in recent years. Many will be surprised; others will brag how they saw it all along. Everyone will see the past clues and exclaim, "OF COURSE this is what they were building up to! It was OBVIOUS all along!" =D

-teambyler

[you-were-alone-too]

for any bylers currently panicking over the apparent leak that will is getting a love interest this season, here's a list of reasons why it has to be mike (as someone with common sense and also someone who has witnessed firsthand the filming/writing process of this show since the end of season 2):

for all previous seasons, new characters were announced at the start of each season even before filming began. this has been true even for the most insignificant of new recurring characters added to the show. we also received character descriptions early on for these characters as well. even characters that were eventually scrapped (like a neighborly old lady that was supposed to give advice to the party in s3) had descriptions announced.

again, no confirmed casting call for a boy around will's age has been found, nor has an actor that might fit the role of will's love interest been spotted on set. while the duffers have been one of the primary sources for the set photos we've received, much of them have also been obtained through leaks, so again, even if they were trying to keep this love interest a secret, it would be nearly impossible with the amount of leakers out there.

this leak about will having a confirmed love interest only came out now as they're filming episode 5. notice that the leak did not say "NEW love interest" either. it is extremely unlikely that they suddenly wrote in an entirely new character when we know the duffers have nearly finished all of the scripts. they plan out each season in big detail on storyboards before writing the scripts, so again, it would be extremely unlikely for them to add in a new character to serve as a love interest for even the most minor character, let alone for them to make such a last-minute decision for WILL.

will is the focus of season 5, which has been confirmed multiple times by the duffers, shawn levy, and noah. they said his emotional arc is one that they hope will tie the show together. it's hard to imagine this succeeding if they pair will with some random side character, especially since one of will's main plot lines has been him coming to terms with and accepting his sexuality, along with finding love after claiming that he would never do so.

in conclusion, will's love interest isn't a new character. it is, in fact, the menace we lovingly know as michael wheeler. and considering that we got this leak now as they're filming episode 5, that means that the show will most likely tip its hand toward byler endgame by this point if it's obvious enough to now be classified as a "filming leak"

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things (1x01): "The Vanishing of Will Byers" Review

NOTE: Two years ago, I announced plans for reviews for each of the Stranger Things episodes before S5 premiered. Because of multiple obligations that came up in those years, from work, to training for a marathon, to plans with family and friends, to dealing with other personal issues, this kept getting pushed back multiple times. Now that I have the opportunity this year, I'm aiming to do a full in-depth analysis of each episode, along with analysis of the characters and story arcs present in each season, while also speculating on how the Duffer Brothers plan to end the show.

I will admit that I did a semi-review of the first episode (split into two posts) back in November 2023 in honor of Stranger Things Day. However, at the time, that was me experimenting with a different review style rather than the in-depth analysis I want to aim for with these reviews (though I will be taking certain quotes from that particular semi-review for this specific episode as it does contain some interesting observations I took note of at the time). I have also done reviews for the tie-in materials Netflix, Random House Publishing, and Dark Horse Comics have put out, and given my thoughts on characters, arcs, and potential theories there (you can see my pinned page for links to those), but I also recognize not all fans will have read those materials, and the episodes hold more importance in terms of continuity and canon.

On top of that, another reason for the delay was researching multiple sources of media (books, movies, other TV shows, comics, etc) that the Duffer Brothers have cited as inspiration for how they wrote and structured Stranger Things, as well as how they crafted certain arcs and characters. These reviews will be citing those sources, and even doing a compare/contrast at times to understand why the Duffer Brothers went the direction they did, and whether (IMO) it made things better or worse. I also plan to do a deep dive into the themes the show presents, how those themes continue to be relevant to today's culture, and how the show acts as both a homage to the 80s as well as a deconstruction of it.

Before I begin though, there are a few points that need to be made:

1.) These will be long reviews because there's a lot to discuss. I will try my best NOT to split each episode into two or three posts and contain them to just one per episode. There will be no TL;DR however.

2.) I am writing these for my own interest and for the 4-5 mutuals who follow me (they know who they are). I'm okay if these get liked or reblogged by others, or if people want to leave comments, but I'm not writing these for a wider audience. This is my passion project for 2025, and I intend to enjoy it, regardless of others opinions. Which brings me to number 3.......

3.) I am fine with people disagreeing with my takes, or having dissenting opinions, but if you come on here being rude, condescending, belittling, or behave like an asshole, you're getting blocked. I will not indulge that behavior, and I won't even respond to you if you pull that.

With that out the way......let's get started:

In terms of a Pilot episode, not only do I think this is one of the best I've seen on TV, but it's one that's improved over time and has great rewatch value. There's a lot of subtext and foreshadowing planted in the first episode that not only comes to fruition later in S1, but also sets up aspects that are paid off in future seasons. I know the Duffer Brothers have said that season 1 was originally conceived as an anthology/miniseries (based on the original pitch and whether the show would get renewed), and given how nervous they were about whether Stranger Things would be a success, I can see why they would play it safe with Netflix at the time. However, there is evidence suggesting they had certain story elements and ideas ready to go if they were allowed to continue past season 1. At the time though, this season was "make it or break it" and if it hadn't gotten the audience and appeal that it did, it probably would have gone the way of Freaks and Geeks (a show also set in the 80s that the Duffer Brothers have cited as an inspiration for Stranger Things) in being cancelled before it could reach its potential.

Thankfully, that didn't happen, and not only did the show continue, but it also went forward with the same cast and crew that we would grow to love.

Part 1: Montauk vs. The Vanishing of Will Byers (and why changes aren't necessary a bad thing):

George R.R. Martin once said there are two types of writers: Architects and Gardeners. Architect writers are usually the ones who plan everything in advance to know what the structure is and how everything in a story is going to fit together. Gardeners are more spontaneous in that they will plant something and see whether it develops into anything. Obviously, they will tend to the seed (or in this case, the idea/story/character the writers has introduced), but it's more of a mystery how it will grow, or if it will blossom at all. Some plants/ideas grow into something beautiful. Others fall short. And some don't even make it out of the ground.

If I were to make an educated guess on which one the Duffer Brothers were, based on what their original script was (Montauk) vs what it evolved into (Stranger Things), I would argue they're the rare breed of writers/directors who fall in the middle of being both Architects AND Gardeners. Looking at the way they pitched Montauk in its original form, it's pretty clear they did have a general story planned out (like an architect), and even the original script contained planted ideas/seeds (like a gardener) that may or may not have panned out.

But just like any architect or gardener, that doesn't mean things are set in stone. If an architect discovers flaws in the blueprints (or realizes that the building plan isn't practical with how it's originally designed), they're going to go back and make changes. Same with a gardener: If a plant doesn't spring up or ripen, it doesn't mean they give up and abandon the project. Any good gardener will prune that which isn't working, or figure out why the plant didn't grow the first time and start again in a better environment.

And in the case of how Montauk evolved into this episode, and how they structured the rest of season 1, I would argue most of these changes were for the better.

Let's look at the original setting for instance: Montauk's premise is centered around the infamous mystery regarding The Montauk Project. These were a series of alleged experiments that took place at Camp Hero, a base owned and operated by the United States Air Force, in the town of Montauk, New York, between 1971 and 1983.

These experiments are chronicled in several books written by Preston B. Nichols, an alleged scientist who worked on the Montauk Project and claimed to have been witness to bizarre and inhumane experiments centered on mind control, time travel, alternate realities, psychics, and the apparent aid of aliens from the distant stars.

Having read the first book, Experiments in Time, and watched the documentary Montauk Chronicles (which is two hours of my life I'm never getting back), I can attest to this being a huge rabbit hole of conspiracy theories that have no solid evidence or concrete proof, other than the word of the author and the people in the documentary who claim they either worked at Camp Hero or were used as experiments in the Montauk Project. As a science fiction story, it's a mind-trip wrapped in a mystery, and I can understand why the Duffer Brothers would find it fascinating enough to write a show around. However, outside of that, the whole idea taken as fact (which is what Preston and the documentary aims for) is outlandish and even self-indulgent at times. Maybe this is just my cynicism talking, but after so many years of seeing people on both the Right and the Left fall into QAnon levels of thinking, or having moron politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene and organizations like Code Pink spewing garbage conspiracies, I find that my patience is pretty thin in regards to topics like this.

All of this factors into why I'm not bothered that the show changed the setting from Montauk, New York to Hawkins, Indiana, as well as creating an original mythology for Stranger Things centered around Hawkins Lab as opposed to basing the entire show on a real-life conspiracy that some people would have swallowed wholeheartedly and claim was actual truth. The Duffer Brothers have admitted that the change in location was based on practicality, weather (Long Island is freezing cold during winter and it would have been miserable trying to film there during the season), budget, and having more flexibility with what they could do with a fictional town vs setting the story in a real town to correlate with specific events in the past and NOT have that break suspension of disbelief.

In spite of moving away from the premise of the Montauk Project, there are certain elements the Duffer Brothers kept:

1.) The Philadelphia Experiment (Project Rainbow). A.K.A The fate of the USS Eldridge in 1943. This was the precursor for why and how The Montauk Project got off the ground. While "The Vanishing of Will Byers" doesn't specifically mention this particular incident, it is brought up in the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, and anyone who's seen the play can tell you that it is a MAJOR PLOT POINT central to the show's mythology regarding the Upside Down, and the characters of Dr. Brenner, Vecna, and El. If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the play, or even read my review if you're looking for a quick summary.

2.) The connection between someone with special powers and the monster that's unleashed as a result of their actions. In the book Experiments in Time, there was a psychic named Duncan Cameron who had worked on the project for years and, through the use of a transmitter connected to a chair that he sat in during sessions, was able to create physical objects with his mind. After Preston and several of his colleagues expressed misgivings about their work, due to how it was messing with the space-time continuum and the number of people they were callously sacrificing for the project, they formulated a plan with Duncan to have him use his subconscious to form a monster that would destroy Camp Hero. In 1983 (the same year the first season of Stranger Things takes place), Duncan unleashed the monster to cause chaos.

While the beast eventually dissolved into the Ether after power to the transmitter was cut, it resulted in the base being permanently shut down.

As evident by Stranger Things, there are parallels between Duncan and Eleven in that both have special powers and worked in a top-secret government facility. The difference is that Duncan was psychic whereas El is psychokinetic. Duncan willingly worked on this project whereas El was a prisoner for years manipulated into working on behalf of Dr. Brenner. Unlike Duncan, her release of the Demogorgon and opening the Gate to a different dimension was an accident and not premeditated, in contrast to Duncan knowingly opening a vortex in time for people to travel to different time periods. And while the monster unleashed on Camp Hero was a creation of Duncan, that turns out not to be the case with the Demogrogon, with El having nothing to do with its creation.

The Montauk script implies that the Duffer Brothers were originally planning to recreate the same story beats as Experiments In Time, even right down to the last scene:

I am curious is this was supposed to be the first appearance of the Mind Flayer before they moved it to season 2. If it was, 1.) I'm glad they waited for that reveal and didn't tip their hand too early (especially since they had planned for 4-5 seasons) and adhered to the rule of "Less is Better." And 2.) It gives the impression that characters like the Mind Flayer (and even Vecna) had been planned out from the beginning, and were eventually going to be introduced, regardless of whether they stuck to the Montauk mythology or not.

Alternatively, there is the possibility this may have been meant to reference the Radiosondes from The Montauk Project. Long story short, this was an alleged device created by the government that manipulated the amount of DOR (i.e. energy in a descending spiral) and orgone energy (i.e. orgasmic or life energy, similar to Isaac Newton's idea of Ether) in a weather-related storm. It's the idea that the government has a device that can control the weather.

Yeah.......it's easy to see why this didn't age well, and why I'm glad the Duffer Brothers went a different direction. Even this would have been too much, and sounds like something that belongs on a show like The X Files as opposed to Stranger Things.

Speaking of different directions, the original script was a lot gorier than this episode. We're talking about mutilated and burnt bodies once the monster is unleashed:

Even Will's encounter with the monster plays out differently:

It's interesting that the original idea behind the Demogorgon was that it acted as a disruptive metaphysical force that could cause a person to start bleeding profusely. As if its mere presence was something that mere mortals couldn't handle being around, or even looking at without suffering some sort of physical or mental breakdown. The Duffer Brothers have cited Lovecraftian horror as an inspiration for how the Upside Down and its inhabitants were structured, and that is shown in this episode with the slime, vines and rotting mold growing out of the Gate, as well as how the Gate itself breathes like it's a mouth sucking air:

In regards to the change with the Demogorgon, where they got rid of the "humans start bleeding if they're anywhere near it" aspect, it hearkens back to the principle of "Less is Better." One of the brilliant things the Duffer Brothers did was introduce the horror gradually, with season 1 paying homage heavily to Steven Spielberg and movies like Poltergeist, as opposed to immediately going for gory shock value the same way shows like Elfen Lied, True Blood, Game of Thrones, and The Boys did. It was inevitable this show would eventually introduce bloodier aspects, like the Flayed in S3 and Vecna's mutilation of his victims in S4, but those instances felt earned as the show progressed and moved away from lighter aspects in order to explore darker and more mature themes.

Part 2: Will getting dragged to the Upside Down

Parallels between Will's disappearance and Carol Anne's situation in Poltergeist (which is referenced in this very episode) have been drawn before, but there is another reference that often isn't brought up, which Poltergeist owes acknowledgment to for its story: The episode "Little Girl Lost" from The Twilight Zone.

Similar to Poltergeist, "Little Girl Lost" features a girl named Bettina Miller who disappears one night into another dimension. Unlike Carol Anne or even Will, this happens on accident when she falls through a portal at the wall of her bed. The main premise is still the same though: The parents of the disappeared kid desperately attempt to find where this portal leads and rescue them before it's too late. Like "Little Girl Lost," a dog is featured that's aware of the alternate dimension, but the big difference is that the dog in said episode (whose name is Mack) was able to follow Bettina into the other dimension and help lead her back to her parents whereas Chester, the dog in Stranger Things does clue Hopper into the area where Will disappeared, but isn't able to follow him into the Upside Down:

(Side Tangent: I think there was a story opportunity missed here with the dog. It's made ambiguous if its barking at the shed is because it was Will's last known location, or because it can sense Will's presence despite being in the Upside Down, or it's somehow aware of the Upside Down, but the idea of animals having some kind of sense regarding the Upside Down and the eldritch abominations that exist there and are hostile to it (similar to how living creatures flee the presence of the Nazgul in The Lord of the Rings) was ripe for potential. However, I am aware that the reason Chester disappears after season 1 is because David Harbour had problems working with the dog, so any potential for that story arc likely went out the window. Though if UD monsters start appearing frequently in the woods during season 5, maybe they might explore that arc again. Who knows?)

Carol Anne's disappearance in Poltergeist initially appears as a random accident, especially with the revelation at the end of the movie regarding where the Freeling family lives, but it's implied in the movie (and later confirmed by its sequels) that she was intentionally targeted by a monster called "The Beast" (who's later revealed to be a malevolent spirit named Henry Kane) for his own nefarious purposes. Interestingly (and something I'll discuss more when I review "Holly Jolly") the BTS photos of S5 that they've revealed of Holly and Vecna together (with Vecna even wearing an old-fashioned suit like Henry Kane did as a preacher) implies they might actually use aspects of the Poltergeist trilogy for what they do with Holly's story in season 5.

Getting back to Will, I've talked about this before in my review of The Other Side (which chronicled the events of season 1 from Will's perspective in the Upside Down, and is a comic I highly recommend reading), but given the revelations in season 4 regarding Vecna and the UD freezing in place on November 6th, 1983 (the same night Will disappeared), it changes the context regarding what happens to Will in this episode. Instead of it just being the Demogorgon randomly stumbling onto Will (the way season 1 initially frames it), it comes off like Will's disappearance was planned by either Vecna or The Mind Flayer (or both) for a yet unrevealed reason. I've held to the theory that Will somehow had to do with the Upside Down freezing in time. Or at the very least, there is something Vecna wants from Will. The fact that Jamie Campbell Bower has stated in interviews that Will is central to this whole conflict (something that was confirmed by the Duffer Brothers when Bower went to talk to them), as well as how both Noah Schnapp and Bower have talked about there's unfinished business between the two of them (Vecna and Will), only confirms that.

Part 3: Changes to Characters (and why it works better in the final product):

Just like the changes to location and story beats helped improve the show and allowed the Duffer Brothers more creativity in constructing the show's mythology, the same can be said for changes made to the characters that helped improve them and the story.

Take Dustin's arc for instance. In the Montauk screenplay, and the original outline the Duffer Brothers drafted before revising it, there was a great deal of emphasis placed on Dustin's weight and how would impact his character going forward:

I'm sure there are fans who have accused the Duffer Brothers of engaging in fat shaming, and while the original script is iffy on this (the line from the original script about how Dustin will be fat later as an adult doesn't help) the way the outline frames the fat shaming itself is in a negative light. It's portrayed as detrimental for Dustin, with him being made the target of bullying because of it, and having to work to gain self-confidence to overcome his insecurities surrounding it.

However, the way Dustin was originally written may have also been a callback to certain 80s characters who were the butt of jokes about their weight and eating habits, such as Vern Tessio from Stephen King's Stand By Me and Lawrence "Chunk" Cohen from The Goonies, and I can understand why fans would have a major problem with this, especially if the Duffer Brothers blurred the lines between calling out the fat shaming Dustin would've experienced vs indulging in it. Look at F.R.I.E.N.D.S for instance in its portrayal of Monica Geller and how the writers alternated between showing the negative impact fat shaming had on Monica vs the constant jokes made at her expense, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Or even Avengers Endgame and what they did to Thor's character in that movie.

So for me, I'm fine with the Duffer Brothers not going that direction because I'm wary about whether they would have stumbled into that pitfall. I also think the decision to write in Gaten Matarazzo's condition of cleidocranial dysostosis (CCD) works better and even helps raise awareness regarding genetic birth defects people have while also humanizing them, similar to the Eric Stoltz film Mask (1985) (another movie the Duffer Brothers cited as an inspiration for Stranger Things) and the way Rocky Dennis's condition was portrayed and how he dealt with it.

Likewise, the way they rewrote Lucas for the show, from an angry loudmouthed kid whose parents were getting a divorce (and was set to cause problems for the group later on), to a kid who's blunt about his opinions, undergoes positive character development, has a stable family and loving parents (Charles Sinclair is one of the few characters who doesn't fall into the "Deadbeat and/or Abusive Dads" club), and maintains his loyalty to the Party despite his disagreements with them works a helluva lot better. I also think the decision to reverse Lucas's crush on Nancy and giving it to Dustin was a good choice in hindsight since it freed Lucas for his future relationship with Max.

Mike also has some minor changes made to his character. The original screenplay talks about him having a birthmark on his cheek, making him a target for bullies, as well as a possible crush on another girl named Jennifer Hayes before he meets Eleven.

It's similar to the character of Sam Weir from Freaks and Geeks, who had a crush on another girl in school named Cindy Sanders (before Cindy revealed herself to be a jerk) and was also initially bullied for his physical appearance. I can see why they cut Jennifer from the script since she was superfluous as they intended for Mike to fall in love with El and have her be his first crush. As for removing the birthmark, that may have had to do with casting, the decision to write Gaten's CCD into Dustin's character and have that be the reason he's targeted by bullies like Troy and James, or they simply figured that having Mike get bullied for being a nerd was enough. In either case, one thing that they kept consistent with Mike in both the original script and the final product (which unfortunately carries over to season 4) is his passivity to bullies (though he certainly becomes a lot snarkier than he is here).

Interestingly, Will is the one character that remains consistent with both the original script and this episode. Aside from tweaking his encounter with the Demogorgon so he isn't pleading with the monster (and being horrified when it appears behind him despite having locked the shed door), his characterization remains the same. Just look at how he was described in the Montauk pitch:

This also carries over to the conversation in Joyce has with Hopper at the police station about Will's clothes and being referred to as 'queer.' The implication here is that, even if they had gone with the original screenplay, there was always the intention of eventually revealing that Will was gay. Maybe the revelation wouldn't have happened in the first season of Montauk, and they would have dropped subtle hints beforehand (just like the first 3 seasons did), but, contrary to the homophobic idiots out there who want to pretend LGBT+ people didn't exist in the 80s, this was the direction they intended to go with Will's character from the beginning.

There are other minor changes that work better:

Hopper's establishing character moment of waking up, smoking, and downing pills with beer is the same, but unlike in the original screenplay, this is the first image we see before we pan over to Hopper:

It's a small scene, but it makes a huge difference (especially on rewatch) in how the show quietly foreshadows WHY Hopper has become like this as opposed to in the Montauk Pilot (which doesn't mention this scene at all in the screenplay), helps make his initial apathetic behavior more understandable, and cues the audience in quicker to his depression.

Joyce's swearing and casual use of F-Bombs is absent in this episode, and the 1982 flashback of her entering Castle Byers to give Will tickets to Poltergeist is added in as a way of emphasizing her, caring, motherly side while toning down her impatient outbursts.

Jonathan's character also remains the same, albeit some minor changes, from how he was written in the original version: He still acts as both a loving brother and a parental figure to Will, as well as supportive of his mom. The difference is his reason for not catching that Will wasn't home the night before: In the Montauk script, it's because he was busy getting photographs developed and didn't come home until later. In this episode, it's because he picked up another shift to help his mom. It's a change that does a better job showing how Jonathan is forced to shoulder a lot of responsibilities for the family since Lonnie left. It also makes Joyce's frustration with Jonathan overworking himself more understandable, as opposed to the Montauk script where their exchange comes off like she's lashing out at him:

Mr. Clarke goes from a handsome teacher the girls fawn over to a more traditional science teacher with the same passion for his subject. The scene with him showing Mike, Lucas, and Dustin the Heathkit Hamshack Radio is also a new addition, which does a good job highlighting why the boys like him so much as a teacher, and also avoids them being publicly drawn out of their class to speak to the principal and Hopper over Will's disappearance. They also cut parts of the conversation with Mr. Clarke and Hopper in the woods that would have revealed when they both graduated. This was definitely for the best because the date of Hopper's graduation in the original script (1958) would have been a major continuity error when they wrote Hopper still being in high school for The First Shadow.

El's age is changed to 12 instead of 10, likely as a means of keeping El and Mike the same age for their relationship, and so they could later have El attend public school in S4 in the same grade as her friends, which the Duffer Brothers have admitted was an arc they'd wanted to explore with El for a while. There's also a reference to a Tommy that El calls her "little brother," which may have initially been a subtle nod to James Cameron's Aliens with the character of Newt and how she had a brother named Timmy who fell prey to the Xenomorphs. Considering that the Duffer Brothers have mentioned that all of the other special kids, with the exception of Eight, were dead when they initially conceived the story for Hawkins Lab, it's likely Tommy was meant to be Eight before they rewrote the character to be El's older sister Kali Prasad once season 2 was underway.

Dr. Brenner is noticeably not named in the Pilot script, and his dialogue is spoken by someone called "Agent One." The way he's described, along with the other two Agents, reminds me strongly Agent Smith from The Matrix. Furthermore, the script implies he has some kind of relationship with Eleven, and considering he's already calling the shots in regards to the investigation, it's clear Dr. Brenner evolved from Agent One, with the addition of having him be in charge of Hawkins Lab.

The biggest change in regards to characters (and one that the fanbase tends to fixate on) is how Steve's character is written here vs in the Montauk script, and by extension how that impacts the way Nancy and Barbara were written. I will go more in-depth about these three characters in the next episode, but there are important things to note here:

1.) Contrary to how the Montauk script killed Barbara off in the first episode, I prefer how they did it on the show where her role was expanded for two more episodes after this one, and we at least got the chance to know her better before her death. #JusticeForBarb wouldn't have the momentum it did after season 1 if it hadn't been for the Duffer Brothers keeping her around longer than intended and fleshing out her character.

2.) I hold that the conflict brought up between Nancy and Barbara about her interest in Steve, and how much of this is based on the two actually liking one another vs social status and how this relationship would be perceived by others, is a lot more nuanced than its been made out to be by the fandom. It also makes the motivations behind all three characters complex as opposed to shallow and simplistic. Had the show gone with the original Montauk script, it would have removed that complexity regarding Nancy's reasons for liking Steve, Steve's reasons for being interested in her, and Barb's ambivalence about the two of them getting together. That's not even getting into how "Popular Douchebag wanting to get into another girl's pants" is a trope that's been done to death way before Stranger Things was ever written, so it's nice to see this trope subverted instead of taking the cliche route of playing it straight.

3.) I will talk more about this in future episodes, but ironically enough, by rewriting Steve's character, they actually manage to improve Nancy's character. Rather than coming off as a shallow brat pining for the rich popular dude (while referring to Mike's friends as "losers" in the process) and ignoring all the warning signs that Montauk!Steve couldn't care less about her, she comes off as someone who is trying something new with her relationship with Steve, but also establishes boundaries and isn't shy about calling out Steve if she thinks Steve is behaving badly. We see this even before her make-out session in the bathroom when both she and Barbara express their disdain for becoming friends with Tommy and Carol (Tommy is still as shitty in the Montauk script as he is in the final product), indicating that while they might tolerate Tommy and Carol for the sake of Nancy's relationship with Steve, they do not like them (rightfully so), nor have any intention of becoming friends with them. Same thing goes for how she deals with preparing for Mrs. Kaminsky's test (whose named Mrs. Krietzberg in the Montauk script): In the original screenplay, she basically blows off studying, sneaks out of the house to go to a bonfire, and gets put in an extremely horrific situation as a result. In this episode: While she does flirt with Steve, she is pretty firm in telling him her priority is studying for the test, and even brings up the question of whether Steve actually cares about her, or if this is just "another notch under his belt." It makes Nancy look a lot more responsible and intelligent than she was in the Montauk script. Which brings me to Steve.........

4.) Again, I will discuss the difference between the sex scene between Nancy and Steve on the show vs how it was originally supposed to go in the next episode, but in regards to how they wrote Steve.......I will always maintain the direction they took his character was a better choice, not just because they cast Joe Keery in the role, but for the story as a whole. It's easy to write hateful characters who have no depth to them (looking at Troy, James, Tommy, Carol, Angela, and Jake to name a few 😒), but it's a whole different ballpark when you have to write characters who have unlikable qualities (or in Steve's case, start out with unlikable qualities), but also have hidden depths to them that show they have potential to be decent people and get the audience to invest in them. Steve is one such character, and a far more interesting one than the Montauk version.

Take for instance the difference between Montauk!Steve vs Stranger Things Steve: In the show, it's stated in dialogue to Barbara that Nancy and Steve made out a couple of times, establishing this relationship had been ongoing for a while, and leading to speculation about where they take things from here. Furthermore, the way Nancy and Steve's make-out session in the bathroom is filmed comes off as a lot more consensual (helped by the immediate jump-cut to Steve and Nancy in the bathroom following her conversation with Barbara) compared to the original draft where Nancy has NOT been in a relationship with Steve at this point, and Steve just comes out of nowhere and starts kissing her when she doesn't expect it. It doesn't help that the Montauk script already spells out what his motivations are:

The problem with this is it takes away any mystery regarding Steve's motivations. It also makes it hard to invest in Nancy's decision to sneak out of the house to meet up with Steve because we already know it's going to end badly for her.

By contrast, Nancy commitment in this episode to study for her test and Steve's volunteering to help her raises an intriguing question: Is he actually doing this because he cares about her, or is he doing this for selfish reasons? It's a question that drives part of the episode, and helps keep the drama fresh instead of one-note.

In regards to Steve climbing through Nancy's window (and making such a hash of it that even Mike is rolling his eyes while he leaves the house with his bike), I always took this as a homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street (and even watched the movie three months before bingeing the first season of Stranger Things) where the main character (who's also named Nancy) had a consenting arrangement with her boyfriend Glen where he would show up at her bedroom window to avoid her parents and she would let him in and later help him sneak out once they were done talking. Considering that Steve informed her about coming to her house around 8:00pm and Nancy let him stay to study, I'm not remotely interested in doing the hysterical pearl-clutching about the ethics of this like Steve-Antis on Reddit and Tumblr want to. 🙄

Finally, with the way the study session goes, it hearkens back to my previous points: Steve is being challenged by Nancy about his reasons for coming over, and unlike the original script that spells out Steve's sleazy motivation (and kills any interest in that version of the character as a result), this Steve shows a different side: He projects the cool, popular, IDGAF image that might have made other girls attracted to him, but when Nancy makes it clear she isn't really interested in doing anything sexual, he lays off and continues to help her prepare for her test, showing he DOES actually care about what she thinks. Add on the clumsy way he sneaks into Nancy's bedroom, combined with his "stealthy like a ninja line" (which wasn't in the original script), and the Duffer Brothers are already setting the groundwork of the image Steve projects to others vs who he actually is on the inside. I will happily take that kind of character study any day of the week.

Part 4: Subtext and Foreshadowing:

Like I said before, there's a lot that's set up in this episode, and it's fun going back and picking up on tibits that not only foreshadow what will happen in season 1, but also foreshadows later seasons and contains multiple 80s references.

The opening with the scientist attempting to escape the Demogorgon, only to be pulled through the roof of the elevator by it is not just a homage to Ridley Scott's Alien, but specifically to Brett's death scene in the movie:

The main difference is, unlike with the Xenomorph, we don't see the Demogorgon yet since the Duffer Brothers are adhering to the principle established in Steven Spielberg's Jaws: Waiting for a certain amount of time (in this case, a few episodes) before revealing what the monster looks like, and build anticipation and dread in the audience as a result.

In regards to the D&D campaign that introduces Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas, one thing I failed to notice first time around was the poster of John Carpenter's The Thing in the background. It can be assumed the movie is one of Mike's favorites since I seriously doubt anyone else in his family would have been fans of it. Even though it's likely meant as just a reference (and the whole idea of body horror and assimilation from a monster will play a bigger role in S3 with the Flayed), it does foreshadow the conflict that will erupt between Mike and Lucas in future episodes.

For those who haven't seen the movie, John Carpenter's The Thing centers around an alien threat being brought unintentionally into a research facility on Antarctica that has the ability to assimilate and imitate creatures and people, which it uses to kill off the human crew in gory detail. The two main characters are R.J. MacReady (played by Kurt Russell) and Childs (played by Keith David), and the main drama of the movie centers on their conflict over how to deal with this "Thing" as tensions grow and hostiles threaten to turn everyone against each other. Both characters have parallels to Mike and Lucas in that they both have the Party's best interests in mind, but disagree over how to handle it, and it eventually comes to a boiling point where trust is shattered. Childs is (rightfully) suspicious of everyone around him in the movie, similar to how Lucas is suspicious of Eleven when she's first introduced, and even clashes with Mike over his leadership and decision-making in regards over how this helps Will, similar to Childs's antagonism towards MacReady's leadership and how his actions are impacting the research crew. Likewise, MacReady and Mike act as the unofficial leaders of the Party, make decisions with the consent of everyone, but also take stances that put them at odds with the people around them. Both Mike and MacReady also share stubbornness as a trait, which becomes a problem later on when they're trying to rally their respective groups.

As for everything else in this scene (including both Will and Dustin), the semi-review I did over a year ago which talked about that scene in detail sums it up best, and I'm going to quote it here:

"They do a good job with the establishing character moments for both Dustin and Lucas in Mike’s D&D campaign: Dustin telling Will to use caution and cast a protective spell while Lucas insists Will fireballs the Demogorgon while he has the chance. Lucas’s strategy is to go on the offense while Dustin’s is to go on the defense. Specifically with Lucas, he uses that strategy in other situations he’s in: Like when Lucas kicks Billy in the groin in S2 after being pinned to the wall by him, or gets an axe to chop at the Meat Flayer’s tendril to save El in S3, or even how Lucas is the one who later convinces everyone to take the fireworks from the store to use as ammunition (which helps turn the tide at the Battle of Starcourt). By contrast, Dustin prioritizes the safety of the Party, from pointing out to Mike and Lucas that they might be walking into the same danger Will encountered when they later look for him in the woods, to telling Mike NOT to jump off a cliff when Troy threatens Dustin, to enlisting Steve’s help in S2 because he knows Steve will be able to protect them due to his size and skill with the bat, to rescuing Steve and Robin from the Russians in S3. This isn’t to say that Lucas is wrong and Dustin is right, or even that Dustin is wrong and Lucas is right. It’s merely noting they have opposite approaches. Each situation they encounter is different, and sometimes (just like with Will’s dice role) it’s really up to chance. Also (as noted later in the episode by Mike), Will took Lucas’s advice and used fireball as a means of protecting the Party instead of trying to save himself. He puts other people’s safety before his own. The comic book “The Other Side” (which focuses on Will’s perspective during the events of S1 while trapped in the UD) expands on this aspect of his personality by including several moments of him coming to the aid of others (including Nancy) while in the UD, despite knowing it would put him in danger. Also, regardless of Lucas insisting the role doesn’t count because Mike didn’t see it, Will still chooses to be honest with Mike. He knows there are situations you can’t cheat your way out of, or pretend didn’t happen (as he’s about to find out with the real Demogorgon)."

In regards to mythology related to the Upside Down, there are some references that could come into play in season 5:

First is the mention of monsters like the Troglodytes in this episode. While they may be a simple D&D monster reference, considering the final season is implying there will be an invasion of monsters from the Upside Down, the Duffer Brothers could choose to introduce new creatures that the Party could give these names to. Troglodytes in D&D are a reptilian-humanoid species that's known for their stench, their bloodthirst, their desire to prey on innocent travelers, their short-sited stupidity, and their inability to plan in the long run.

Their characteristics have similarities to the goblins in the Artemis Fowl series, especially in their ability to be manipulated by the antagonists in those books to creating general chaos and kill as many people as they can get their hands on. Since Vecna and the Mind Flayer have long since abandoned the stealth approach they used in the first two seasons, if they're looking for a direct brutal attack that will rake up a high body count and happen to have creatures in the UD similar to troglodytes, they will inevitably be throwing these at the military stationed in Hawkins.

Same goes for the Thessalhydra that's mentioned in the S1 finale:

Considering that the vision Vecna showed Nancy in S4 involved a creature with a "big gaping mouth," we will likely be seeing a version of the Thessalhydra appear in the final season.

Adding on to this, there's a reference made to Mirkwood from The Lord of the Rings, which is one of the places inhabited by giant malicious spiders. Originally, they had planned to introduce a new creature on top of the Demobats in S4 called the Demospiders:

Even though those plans got scrapped in favor of the Demobats, there's nothing stopping the Duffer Brothers from formally introducing them in S5. And considering that the BTS photos for S5 have emphasized Castle Byers and Mirkwood, I wouldn't be surprised if Demospiders made their appearance there. Just like with D&D, references and even parallels to LOTR have been dropped, and it wouldn't be remiss to use Tolkien's books as a blueprint for the direction they could go in S5.

Speaking of references, comics like X-Men and Fantastic Four are brought up in this episode. When Will races Dustin for instance, the prize is the X-Men #134 comic, which features the X-Men against the Hellfire Club (Wonder if that's where the Duffer Brothers got the name for Eddie's D&D club? 🤔) and contains foreshadowing for the S1 finale regarding the Demogorgon's eventual fate, as well as a direct parallel between how Jean Grey/Phoenix deals with Mastermind:

BTW, I actually bought the comic and now own it! 😁

Additionally, after Troy and James get done with making fun of Dustin for his CCD, Mike tries to make Dustin feel better by comparing him to Mr. Fantastic and trying to get Dustin to see his CCD as a cool superpower. This is a general theme that will persist on this show: That being an outsider or a nerd isn't a bad thing, and can even be a "superpower" if the characters choose to see it as such and use it. The fact these characters also go to the lengths to support and uplift each other in spite of the world putting them down (similar to the constant discrimination the X-Men face, which forces them to rely on one another for support) also strengthens this theme.

Speaking of uplifting others, let's talk about Benny and his encounter with El.

I didn't appreciate the significance of this interaction the first time I saw this scene, but given what's revealed in El's flashbacks to the Lab, the way she was bullied and abused by the other kids (with the possible exception of Kali/Eight who later escaped), and how she was groomed and manipulated by both Dr. Brenner and Vecna........El's interaction with Benny is probably the first time she's experienced any type of kindness and human decency with no malicious motivations behind it. I mentioned in my previous semi-review that I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Brenner deprived her of food either as a means of getting results (which was the same reason he allowed the kids at the lab to repeatedly bully El) or as a means of punishment. That man was a monster, and one thing y'all are about to find out real fast is I don't have a lot of patience for him, or for the fans out there who make abuse apologies on his behalf.

In any case, Benny is an example not just of a decent person, but a perfect example of how to write a character for such a small role and still have them leave enough of an impact that the audience will miss them and be upset when they're gone. For all the flaws the Duffer Brothers have, they excel at this. Benny was one of them. Chrissy and Barbara were also great examples. All of them deserved better than the fates they were subjected to.

Speaking of which, there's nothing like human cruelty and stupidity to quickly snuff out compassion and decency, is there? 😒

I still hold the same opinion about Connie Frazier as I did before: Not only was her murder of Benny evil, it was downright moronic and caused so many unnecessary problems for Brenner and the government. Granted, I don't feel sympathy for Brenner or his goons, and I'm hard pressed to care they all suffered horrific consequences down the line, but damn! I pretty much summed it up best once before:

"I’ve questioned the logic of Connie killing Benny, especially because of how it drew unwanted attention (especially from Hopper of all people) when that’s likely the last thing Brenner and Hawkins Lab wanted. At this point, Benny was fully cooperating with Connie, and was about to give El to her since he believed Connie was from social services. There’s nothing in his conversation with Connie prior to his death that would’ve made her suspicious that Benny saw something he shouldn’t have, or that he believed there was something abnormal about El. It’s also notable that El doesn’t run when she first sees Connie at the door with Benny. She runs AFTER Connie shoots Benny. That implies that Connie was someone El hadn’t seen before, meaning Connie could have gotten El to come with her without fuss (and without arousing Benny’s suspicions) and then later hand her over to Brenner before El realized what was happening. If Connie had been ordered to kill Benny just for seeing El and wanting to keep her existence a secret, then at the very least, she should have waited until after they had El in their custody so that she wouldn’t be able to run away. Connie really screwed up here."

There seems to be an uneven ratio between decent people vs vile human beings. For every Benny, there's a Connie Frazier or Dr. Brenner or Colonel Sullivan in the wings. For every Chrissy, there are multiple Angelas. And for every Steve, there are multiple Billys and Jasons. 😒 I'm not just talking about on the show, but in real life as well. This past year alone has been eye-opening in that regard.

Part 5: Song Choices

It goes without saying I'm a big fan of 80s songs, and part of the anticipation I've had with the release of each season was based on what 80s songs would be featured in a given episode, and what context they'd be used in. Because of the sheer variety though, my aim will be focusing on songs that either are plot-relevant, are used to foreshadow certain story or character elements, or are connected to a character and what that says about them.

Two specific songs in this episode stand out: "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, and "Africa" by Toto. The first song plays when Benny is murdered by Connie, and El is forced to escape Brenner and his cronies. The second is played when Steve is helping Nancy study for her science test.

Like I've said, with the semi-reviews, in spite of their experimental nature, I did aim for analysis, especially in regards to the songs, and it's for that reason I'll let my quotes speak for themselves:

I love the song choice of ��White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane for the scene where El escapes Benny’s restaurant. The lyrics to the song were inspired by the book Alice in Wonderland, and the natural curiosity Alice has when she explores Wonderland (similar to El’s curiosity about the world outside of the lab). However, it was also about the type of drug-induced “trips” you take when you get high on psychedelics. Grace Slick, front-woman for Jefferson Airplane, argued Alice in Wonderland contained metaphorical drug references, like the caterpillar on a psychedelic mushroom smoking opium, or Alice eating something that causes her to become “too big for the room.” The song itself was written and released in the 60s when psychedelics like LSD were being used, and those same psychedelics were taken by El’s mom, Terry Ives, during the experiments she did at Hawkins Lab while pregnant with El.

I would like to take this time to amend and add on to a comment I made in that previous semi-review about the way El was created: While she was conceived during the time Terry was being experimented on with psychedelics, we know from S4, as well as the events of The First Shadow, that Vecna's blood was an important factor in Brenner replicating these kids, and that said blood was transfused into Terry while she was pregnant, resulting in El having her powers.

Finally, there's "Africa" by Toto:

Another song choice I liked was “Africa” by Toto for the Steve and Nancy scene. There’s always been a debate about what the lyrics mean (and from what I’ve heard, the band meant for the song to actually be about the continent of Africa rather than just a metaphor), but when I first heard the song years ago, I interpreted it as about a man being enamored by a woman, anticipating the moment when they get together, and wanting it to be a special moment. Given Steve’s interest (and flirtation) with Nancy in this scene, as well as his insistence to her that he doesn’t just see her as another notch under his belt and is truly invested in her, both he (and Nancy) want it to be a special moment as well.

All I'll add to this is the choice of song acts as a paradox in that it's oddly comforting, but also highlights the conflicting feelings in both Steve and Nancy about where their relationship goes from here.

Final Thoughts:

I know this review has ballooned, but there is (and always will be) a lot to talk about, not just in terms of characters and story arcs, or even homages to 80s trivia and media, but also in regards to real-life themes and how the issues that are brought up in Stranger Things continue to be relevant to today's culture. It's a big reason I'm passionate about this show, and why I want to discuss it.

On top of that, one thing I'm grateful that the Duffer Brothers carried over from the original Montauk pitch is this:

This, more than anything, is why I value this show, why I defend it against accusations that it's just "popcorn entertainment," why I argue there's more depth and intelligence to this show than people (especially on Reddit and Tumblr) give it credit for, and why I'm willing to go to bat for it (even in regards to writing choices I disagree with).

1 episode down. 33 more to go! 👍

[stregoniconiconii]

I think a lot of people really don't get the Eddie Dustin dynamic. They think Dustin and Eddie are new best friends, that they are equal, which is not the case. Their dynamic is more mentor-student coded. Eddie said it himself he sees the people in his club as little sheep he saved, he never really was their friend. His world view also shaped Dustin's personality. This kid and his friends saved the world 3 times, they consider themselves heroes and yet by society standards they are seen as nerds and get bullied. Then there comes a dude who they think gets it, so they latch on. Even though he is not that different from popular kids who think they are better than the rest. His harmful opinions influence Dustin (I would argue even Mike) that they suddenly ditch their friend, are mean, failing school even though in Dustin's case he absolutely loves learning and so forth. Eddie brought out the worst of them which contributed to the tensions in s4 between Steve and Dustin (along with Dustin maybe being jealous of Robin tbh I haven't considered that way but it makes sense). You can't compare the Steve and Dustin dynamic with Eddie and Dustin because Steve never saw himself as something better than Dustin, he always treated him as someone equal which is why their bond will always be stronger than the bond Dustin has with Eddie. I really hope for s5 they somewhat touch on this. (Sorry for coming in your inbox like this)

Most people in this fandom don't get Eddie, full stop. They completely buy into the bullshit he spews about conformity and "the man", which isn't helped by the Duffers also leaning into it. Most egregious example being the supposed conclusion to Lucas' s4 arc. It's ridiculous precisely because Eddie does begin to learn that his assumptions/"doctrine" is wrong through his growing admiration for Steve and his bravery.

Eddie's relationship with his friends is absolutely not based on any kind of equality. He is looked to as a leader and not a particularly forgiving one at that. More like a tyrant. It's played for laughs but Mike and Dustin are genuinely anxious about how Eddie will react to not only Lucas not being available for DnD on one particular night, but him being unavailable because of a basketball game. Lucas didn't even want to talk to him himself, probably because Eddie has already shown himself to be unreasonable when it comes to DnD and basketball.

It's not purely Eddie's influence that leads Dustin to his meaner path, but he certainly doesn't help. Dustin has always been a know-it-all and cocky, he has a foul mouth, and he clearly has hard set ideas about other people that he finds very difficult to let go of. I think Eddie's main influence is in the us vs them attitude that Dustin adopts regarding the "popular" kids, but Dustin's overconfidence is definitely also because he has cheated death 3 years in a row. Nobody that was real to Dustin has died and he believes his plans are infallible... until Eddie dies following one of his plans. Yes, Eddie made the stupid decision to run into certain death for no real reason, but it is through Dustin that Eddie is connected to the larger plot. If he had just witnessed Chrissy's death and then hid, then he would have eventually been found by someone else and never directly involved with the Upside Down.

The thing I mentioned about jealousy over Steve and Robin's friendship, I think it's something that gets overlooked Way too much. Dustin was very invested in his idea that Steve and Robin are perfect for each other. We all know why they're not together, but Dustin doesn't. He just sees Steve being best friends with Robin instead of boyfriend and girlfriend like he had expected/predicted and that throws him off. 1. He was not right about something and 2. HE'S supposed to be Steve's best friend. He feels replaced. So, he tries to replace Steve. Not totally, because he can't, but Dustin Literally says to Steve "You're just jealous I have another older male friend". Dustin doesn't have subtlety. He's Trying to make Steve jealous and it is working!

Steve and Dustin's friendship was so fresh and unexpected. They're not supposed to be friends, but they are. Steve watches Star Wars with Dustin, Steve does Dustin's hair. They save each other's lives. Attempting to recreate that brotherhood with Eddie just...doesn't work. They haven't gone through what Steve and Dustin have gone through. Plus, you're right, Steve and Dustin are on a more equal level. There's elements of mentor-student with them, but most importantly they teach each other. Steve isn't leading Dustin down a road of enlightenment, he's just hanging out with his buddy. Eddie doesn't compare.

I have zero faith in s5, which I'm barely certain I'll even be watching. The Duffers lean too hard into fan service so they're going to recreate the Justice for Barb storyline but with Dustin and it's going to suck. The Duffers don't think it's a bad thing that Dustin snipes at Steve constantly or puts down his intelligence, because it's meant to be funny. Comic relief yay. The characters on this show are mean to each other, yes, but it's annoying to deal with when we see Steve apologise for going too far when he bites back at Dustin.

[spicybylerpolls]

Here me out, I am not against a byler sex scene cause I don’t think it would be anything remotely explicit anyways so discussing it in depth for me feels pointless, but I have issues with tying a sex scene into the character arcs of mike and will as if it’s the only logical way to wrap up their story, only because had there not been a pandemic and multiple delays, byler would have happened while at least one of them was still a MINOR (maybe both I would have to do the math) and there’s no way the show woulda had a sex scene in those circumstances so it’s more likely to me that having a sex scene—while it would be interesting to go there now that the actors are older—it is not the end all be all for their character arcs and not something that *has* to happen for their end narrative to make sense, since it probably was not going to happen in the first place. So maybe let’s reframe the discussion away from “they have to bone or else all the build up and such makes no sense it’s the only way to end things because blah blah blah” and more as it would be fun/cool/hot to see something more adult now that they ARE actual adults, and it would feel satisfying to their story, but that’s it. cause some people are starting to feel so passionate about the idea that i am concerned they are going to make themselves very angry if there isn’t one …

Hmm, I kinda see your point, but I also feel like there's no real point in speculating about what might have happened in the hypothetical past where the pandemic and the strikes didn't happen because A) we don't live in that timeline lol, and B) the Duffers have always had the ending in the show in mind from the jump and many/most of the beats they knew they needed to hit along the way, BUT I personally don't think they've planned out literally every single detail from the start with no wiggle room.

The writers have said as much, like for example when they tweeted all the crazy things that were supposed to happen in season 2 like possessed Will killing Bob or El mercy killing her mom. They've definitely added and subtracted some things along the way.

Beyond that, regardless of the ages of Finn and Noah, it's not outlandish to argue that sex is still thematically connected to the characters and their arcs. Byler is a story about sexuality, of which sexual attraction and, well, sex play a huge role.

And ST is a coming-of-age show, of which sex often plays a huge role regardless of the age of the actors. During S3, the writers didn't shy away from including sexual themes such as Max's happy screams comment, and the actors were still minors then. Every season has progressed these themes further. The writers and filmmakers are the ones putting the sexual symbolism and jokes into the story, and we're just picking up what they're putting down, right?

Like, I don't think Murray using the phrase "experiment sexually" was accidental, nor was hosegate, nor was Mike checking out Will's ass lol. It's all fair game when you're telling this kind of story (as long as you're creating a safe and comfortable set, of course). Because of this, IMO, there's a high chance the ST writers would've still at least implied that Byler had sex even in your hypothetical scenario. There actually isn't a hard-and-fast rule that prevents actors who aren't legal adults yet from acting out light, non-explicit sex scenes.

You say that, "byler would have happened while at least one of them was still a MINOR (maybe both I would have to do the math) and there’s no way the show woulda had a sex scene in those circumstances," and I understand why you'd say this, but if you look closer at films and shows in media history, that's not always true. I can name several shows and films that call this theory into question.

While it's true that most modern shows with teen sex scenes do tend to also have adults already playing teenagers- there's a whole page on TV Tropes about this phenomenon called Dawson Casting- (and these tend to show a lot of skin, i.e. Euphoria), which makes it easier to explore sexual storylines, that's not the case across the board.

In your hypothetical scenario, the Byler sex scene obviously wouldn't have been an explicit one (and no one's saying it will absolutely be that way now either), but that doesn't really mean it wouldn't have existed in some form. There are many examples of coming-of-age shows/movies where the actors were technically still underage at the time of filming, and it showed them making out intensely before cutting out (and sex was implied) or it showed something slightly more (closer to Stancy) but still not anywhere near HBO-level.

McLovin's sex scene in Superbad comes to mind (his actor was still 17 at the time, and his mother had to watch while it was being filmed). Thora Birch was 16 when American Beauty was filmed. More recently, there was the Jevon sex scene in Chucky this season. Devon's actor recently turned 18, but Jake's actor is still 17. And yet the season was non-subtly building up to the scene, it was 100% tastefully done, and it cut away before anything super specific happened.

Now that both Finn and Noah ARE adults, and we know there will definitely be a time jump, this hypothetical is extra meaningless. And if the Duffers want to go further and bolder with a Byler sex scene, they can, even if this wasn't the original plan. And there's lots of brilliant analysis that argues the Duffers have been planting the seeds for a while for at least some kind of sexual resolution.

But your assertion that, "some people are starting to feel so passionate about the idea that i am concerned they are going to make themselves very angry if there isn’t one" doesn't seem based in reality either. Spicy bylers might want a sex scene, and many might believe there at least will be something implied like Jancy, but I don't think anyone will actually be angry if there isn't one. Correct me if I'm wrong? I think most people are just happy there's a space to talk about Byler in unfiltered ways, to analyze the mature themes of the show, and also to have fun while doing so, especially since the season is still a ways away. It's not like people will actually fist fight the Duffers if Mike isn't moaning and giving Will backshots in S5 💀.

What do y'all think?

[chirpsythismorning]

I'm not going to say we should take every single thing official Netflix accounts post as gospel, because obviously they are not run by the Duffer Brothers themselves.

But to be clear, these people are hired by Netflix and there's more to it than just random interns scheduling posts. The people running these accounts are not the same people designing the posts made there, just like the people designing those posts have higher ups telling them what to do/not do in terms of the content they are creating. And there are plenty more levels that go beyond that, which eventually does lead to the Duffers and producers of the show, who do have a stake in how the show is promoted on a basic level to best align with their intentions and all the revelations still to come.

It is common knowledge that the Duffers work with Netflix marketing directly on a consistent basis to get their vision across, and that carries out in promotion with posters, merchandise, social media, etc., because it's really important in ST case (with it being a show made by nerds that love easter eggs), that they foreshadow what is still to come outside of the show itself.

When it comes to social media, the core purpose of those accounts is to encourage engagement for Netflix's user base, ideally ensuring they tune in to whatever is being promoted (and more), but it’s also more than that, in that it’s even more based on data and other factors.

What this leads to is the people in those less major decision-making roles, like graphic designers, simply being advised what to create, based on the information and content they are given to work with.

And so these accounts going from promoting byler subtly for years, to blatantly posting about it post-s5, is actually very, very intentional, going beyond a simple Netflix intern. It’s orchestrated by those in management positions, being advised by those in the ST production to do things a certain way, so that when all is said and done, we are able to look back and find tiny little things that point to it.

Byler can't be something they NEVER talked about even once on social media, only to have them end up being endgame with them posting about it forever afterwards when it's all said and done. It doesn't work like that, at least not in ST case. We're talking about a production that costs hundreds of millions to make, as well as being the most talked about mainstream series of our generation.

They have an obligation to make their story feel not only satisfying on its own, but to also promote the show in a way that makes the viewer feel this whole well-rounded experience, outside of the show itself as well.

And so when ST came out in summer 2022 and Netflix Geeked was making posts about it non-stop, that wasn't a rogue, low-paid Netflix intern doing whatever they wanted. That was multiple people with a job given a task and following through with it at their advisers discretion. Regardless of where it ended up, it started at the top with the Duffers informing higher ups in marketing that Byler is something that will happen, along with other revelations that they want to inform marketing about, so they can take the steps to plan ahead and create content that matches the Duffer's vision, most often to act as a foreshadowing device for the story still unraveling.

Remember when Netflix Geeked made a post acknowledging that Will the Wise drawing in El's room back in s3?? A very well known byler easter egg that only we know about??? That wasn't some ga intern watching the show once and them spontaneously coming up with content to create related to that drawing and posting about it themselves. That was very likely someone associated with the show giving suggestions to marketing, with a few of them being very incriminating in relation to byler, but with most being casual in relation to the show overall.

Just like I said in this post about how Noah didn't tweet about byler or mention it multiple times at cons unprompted bc he was feeling quirky. He was being advised to...

And look what Netflix did to that tweet Noah posted that was clearly a stunt in an of itself.? They broadcasted it and made a cheesy ass edit out of it... And it's bc several people behind the scenes were advised to make content like that specifically.

I mean, if you actually look at how social media promotes byler (if and when it does), it's arguably in the exact way that the Duffers want it to be promoted?. Just enough. Not too little. Not too much. I would argue if the Duffers had no say whatsoever in how the show was promoted, then we'd either be seeing byler constantly or we wouldn't see them at all, instead we see social media sort of dance around it, which tells me they are following the exact approach the Duffers themselves follow... because they were obviously given the instruction to.

And so seeing an account like UK Netflix, an account that as of recent has really went all out with posting Queer content since Heartstopper released, has also notably made really incriminating posts about byler over the years, but especially as of recent. And that's in large part because of what I've stated, but also based on data.

If higher ups in marketing at Netflix know about byler, then they are very likely pushing people lower on the payroll, doing more simple tasks like graphic design and social media management, to make connections to ST with other shows like Heartstopper, Sex Education, Young Royals, etc. And this is because if byler IS going to end up being this huge Queer love story, data is telling them to make these connections sooner than later, so that the eventual revelation will be a smooth transition amongst other content just like it. This works in Netflix's favor at the end of the day, which is the whole point of all of this.

Not saying you should take the most casual of Netflix posts as byler endgame proof if that's what you're asking. But to say that these accounts have NO association with the Duffer's and ST directly, therefore we shouldn’t even appreciate anything they post if it points to byler, is sort of over-simplifying things.

It's not like s5 is gonna drop and all of these interns are going to be like OHHH okay now i'm a byler so i'll post about it... Going into s5 they're going to be making some very side eye posts and it isn't going to have anything to do with them being an intern without any say in things, its gonna be about them getting a task list and following through with it bc it's their job.

[somesaintiam]

What’s your opinion on the likeliness of birthdaygate happening? Do you think this one’s the most probable to happen?

i really like the idea of birthday gate, but my version of it is that will also did not remember his birthday due to some weird vecna stuff going on since will didnt seem to remember his own birthday imo since he seemed focused on mike and el "ignoring" him. I think this gate does have a probable chance of happening, but it is also kind of hard to tell...( even if it wasnt planned from s4, i wonder if the duffers would have to put it in anyways to fill a plot hole ) But if it does happen i would like it be used in some angst scene and cause some domino effect like.. for example birthdaygate happens (along with lettergate hopefully) and this leads to lots of stuff, then eventually.. the painting realization for mike. like at first will being taunted by vecna and vecna tells will about the day which was supposed to be his birthday. and then lots of angst. lots of it.

and i think it might be one of the most probable to happen tbh birthdaygate isnt my favorite gate but i would love for it to happen along with lettergate. Im also torn between churchgate and flickergate now bc theyre all so good🙏🙏🙏

[findafight]

Idk if you’re the person to send this to but like

The whole thing with Murray’s comments and Nancy and Jon getting together…. It is set up in such a way that it can be read as a situation where an ambitious teenage girl was pressured into what she was “supposed” to be. Nancy was told by a man that she respected and who took her seriously (and was the ONLY one to do so, so Murray gained an untold amount of trust from Nancy immediately, and the show just brushing off their relationship is such a loss but ok), that in order to be her real self she must dump Steve. Now Murray was just poking at two teenagers with a metaphorical stick to see what would they do. Understandable position, as a younger sister haver love doing that also (not with romantic feelings though but Murray was never meant to be ethical). I doubt that what the comment meant for him can be easily translated into what it meant for Nancy (let alone Jon, who thinks that he is better than most people and that he is definitely better than Steve, so I imagine he was nodding along). But he did influence her into becoming an investigative journalist. Like Murray with him taking Nancy seriously influenced her into two major life altering decisions (career and significant other). Like wow. And they never interacted again! Fucking hate st continuity.

Like Nancy dumping Steve because Murray told her to do so is a major thing. It’s BAD for jancy. Before s4 I thought that they were not mentioning it because jancy happened and was the endgame. But with them toying with stancy and likely knowing that they might toy with stancy all along??? Why did they not leave it open to interpretation. It’s such a juicy storyline, it shows the magnitude of the influence that you can have on a teenage girl, it’s beautiful, it’s painful, it’s the stuff of a real love-triangle (which is hard to make interesting but that would make it interesting!!!). Why did they write it then??? Whyyyyyy?????

oooooh that's so interesting anon!

I am much more of a murray fan when he is being a weird gay conspiracy uncle guy and isn't matchmaking, it must be said.

He and Nancy have the potential for a really interesting dynamic! It really is a shame we don't get to see more of it tbh. and you are so right in what his comment meaning to him and what it meant to Nancy and Jon separately would be so different! I don't know if Nancy would necessarily feel pressured by it, (though I wouldn't say she wasn't, either) but maybe it would vindicate something of how she was feeling about her relationship with Steve at the time and her feelings for Jonathan? Like a "oh this man I respect and who takes me seriously also thinks Jonathan is better for me, thinks I should go for it. Maybe I will..." kind of thing?

And lol yeah so true Jon just had his own conception of himself and Steve and their relationships with Nancy confirmed by Murray. he just kinda got...permission? I guess? to make a move on Nancy even though he was the one bringing up Steve both times he's mentioned on the road trip.

Totally see where you're coming from of Murray's influence not being mentioned because you figured Jancy was endgame, makes sense (if boring) to not question it if it doesn't need to be addressed as an issue because the pairing is canon for the rest. But now the teen love triangle has been brought back.... you're so right it is bad for Jancy. It brings up stuff about them that a lot of people (especially the Duffers!) don't want to deal with or acknowledge. Though I don't think they were planning the whole time to bring stancy back I think that sort of happened because the duffers unfortunately don't know what to do with Nacy if she doesn't have a boy to look at and Steve when he isn't pining over Nancy.

There's not enough time left to fully and satisfyingly delve into the issues between the original older teens, especially since some of those issues aren't treated as issues. It would be interesting to see, and also so so juicy, the complicated relationship they have with each other because of the UD etc, but I don't think a whole lot of interesting canon material will come from it (though that doesn't mean fan content can't!!) just based on how other romantic relationships and their dynamics with each other have been treated through the show. tbh I think maybe s5 will tease the love triangle but ultimately either end up with them all single (my preference) or with Jancy still together.

[thestobingirlie]

To answer your Byler question: it’s about the slow burn of it all and about the audience that the story will reach. I don’t really know what you mean by “with gay rep the way it is now” because the state of gay rep rn is just two characters getting together after a few episodes of no buildup. Regardless of Will and Mike being white (which I’m going to assume is what you’re getting at), there are very few modern gay stories out there that spend this long on a slow build and the careful construction of a seasons-long sexuality arc. That is what would make Byler so unique if it ever becomes canon, compounded by the fact that ST is the most mainstream of mainstream shows. This isn’t Heartstopper or Schitt’s Creek or another gay show whose audience is limited because it’s targeted specifically to gay people — Everyone and their mother watches it, and that means that everyone will end up witnessing Byler’s story if it happens. That is what would make this special and groundbreaking. 

Of course, no one should be dismissing the importance of Robin as a character on her own, and lesbophobes claiming that Robin and Vickie mean nothing is unfair, but your point about it being the other way around (aka Byler meaning nothing Vickie and Robin as a couple) doesn’t make any sense, as Rovickie has had barely had 5 minutes of screen time together compared to the way Byler has been built up since S1. Even Robin and Nancy got more screen time than them, hence Rovickie’s complete lack of popularity. Stranger Things had the opportunity to make Vickie important in s4 and chose not to do it. It’s no different than any other show, where as you said, the wlw couple is just in the background. It’s nice that ST included a love interest for Robin, but it would have been more meaningful if she was actually a character in her own right. 

(And Robin and Vickie are also white, btw.) 

okay.

first, i would like you to watch more gay shows, because from the sounds of it you are not very well versed. but that’s okay!

second, i mentioned will and mike are white because while there are a lot of white mlm ships around nowadays, that number obviously drops with gay characters of colour, and i wanted to be clear i was taking that into consideration.

third, and i presume this is where our opinions majorly differ, i don’t think will’s sexuality arc has been handled as well as it could have been. and i think if the majority of the audience is unable to recognise that mike is going through a sexuality arc, then byler won’t be recognised as a slowburn anyway.

fourth, other shows have been popular and included gay characters and couples. and people are already calling stranger things a “gay show” because they have one lesbian and one gay character. though i think it’s very sweet that you think people, at the bare minimum, watching byler happen will make byler groundbreaking. a ship isn’t groundbreaking just because it’s been seen by a certain amount of people.

now, you seem… riled by my comparison of rockie to byler lmao. i think you misunderstood my tags. so i suppose there’s a few things to address with this too lol.

so. i very very much so doubt byler has been built from s1, because the duffers didn’t plan past s1. we were never going to see those characters again. the duffers are largely making this shit up as they go along.

a lot of bylers i’ve seen on tumblr seem to have this… obsession with making stranger things the mike and will show, and it just isn’t. and i think they’re doing a disservice to the characters and the ship by imagining this importance.

and i don’t think rockie not having a main part is a bad thing. i want my gay characters to exist past their sexuality. rockie isn’t groundbreaking! so many ships have come before it lmao. but it doesn’t need to be groundbreaking. i’m okay with vickie being introduced this season as her love interest, and robin having a life and arc outside of vickie. that’s how most side romances go. that’s what happened with dustin and suzie! if vickie receives no time at all in s5 and rockie end up together off screen, then yes, obviously i’ll be annoyed at the lack of time given to them. but that’s a problem for future me.

my point was rockie having their moment, and dating, and us watching it throughout s5 would mean more to me than byler happening. not that everyone shouldn’t care about byler rep lmao.

(and i know rockie are white, babe, but wlw shows are being cancelled regardless of if they’re both white)

[marypsue]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on S1 of ST being a tragedy! No main character dies, so I never thought of it that way before

I mean, nobody has to die for a story to be a tragedy (at least, in the modern definition. I'm pretty sure '(almost) everybody dies' is a requirement of Greek tragedies and Renaissance revenge tragedies). But also, no main character dies in season one...if you take season one as part of a series. Which it wasn't originally conceived as.

I am not going looking for copies of the original pitch bible, because I am lazy, and also I only saw them floating around this webbed site. But the show changed a lot from the initial pitch (Joyce had a Long Island accent! Lucas' parents were divorcing! Murray was there and named Terry Ives! Most of what ended up in Hopper's character originally belonged to Mr. Clarke! The original pitch bible is fascinating). And part of the original pitch was a proposal for possible sequels.

The Duffers' proposal for a possible sequel was "It's ten years later, and Eleven is dead".

So that's the setup. Everything that came after season one was made up wholecloth after season one was a hit and people wanted more, but also people loved the adorable little psychic murder child (cue the Duffers shockedpikachu.jpg) and Netflix obviously recognised it would be a bad call to make a new season without her in it. So it makes sense to take season one as a unit, as a self-contained story on its own. You can also take it as part of a whole, but it makes sense to read it first as a complete story. Especially given the thematic drift of later seasons and the way they are...I'm just going to say it, each new season is very much added-on to what came before rather than being built on foundation that the earlier season(s) laid. It is very clear there was never a planned five-season story arc from the beginning. (This isn't necessarily always a bad thing, when it comes to sequels, but it does mean it makes sense to 'read' each season as its own thing.)

Okay, now that we've established all of that. Season one has one very clear goal, one very clear stake for the characters: save Will Byers from the Upside Down. (I like this. It makes the stakes both extremely high and extremely personal, it makes it very easy to understand each character's motivation, it also keeps the stakes grounded in reality. I like this a lot.) And by the end of the season, that goal is accomplished. So at first blush, you're right, season one doesn't look like a tragedy.

But when you start to unpack it a little, you start to see just how many important things were lost along the way. It's most glaringly obvious with Mike and El, with Nancy and Barb. The whole Wheeler family is fractured down the middle, with Mike and Nancy on one side and Ted, Karen, and Holly on the other, and Karen, who's been trying so hard the whole time to be part of her children's lives and understand what's going on with them, is aware of the ever-expanding gulf between them but will never be able to cross it, and will never fully know why. Hopper's finally managed to snatch a kid out of the jaws of death, save a woman he obviously cares about from the pain of losing a child, and Joyce has finally had someone believe her, support her, trust her. But it became blindingly obvious to me on my fourth rewatch that Hopper's plan, from the moment he went to leave the middle school gym, was always to trade El for Will. And that decision (and the fact that Joyce obviously understands that he did something to get the lab to let them go after Will, but she obviously doesn't dare press him on what) has broken her trust in him, and left him with what looks like an equally heavy burden of guilt as what he was carrying before. The lab stays open. The government gets away with everything. No one will ever know the true extent of the hurt they've caused.

And in the end, none of it even saved Will. He's back. He's alive. But he's spitting slugs in the sink. He's permanently marked by the Upside Down, and by trying to hide it from his family, he's putting a crack down the centre of them, as well. They're losing Will, just as surely as they had when they thought he was dead, just without him going anywhere.

And there's still a hole in the world.

The fragile bonds of community, the things that people share in common, the way catastrophe can bring people together and bring out the very best in them, are the major thematic threads woven through season one. Human connection is the only thing that can change what seems inevitable, the only thing that can bring back what's seemingly lost forever.

And it's still not enough to protect anyone from the random tragedy of the world.

The love was there. The love mattered. The love bent the entire course of the world around itself.

And it still wasn't quite enough.

If that's not a tragedy, then I don't know what is.

[asoiafpostsfromanothertimeline]

Just Announced! Netflix’s “The Conciliator” — First Look at the Official Cast for Spinoff in Popular "Ice and Fire" Franchise

Netflix’s Ice and Fire took the world by storm in the 2010’s. With over 30 Emmy and Critic’s Choice wins (and twice that many nominations) fans were certain the show would have get the ending it deserved. Those hopes were quickly dashed, however, when author George R.R. Martin and Netflix executives couldn’t work out a writing contract for Season 5. Since then, renewals and spin-offs have been rumored to the Wall and back, with none true—until now. The Conciliator will follow the life and reign of King Jaehaerys the First, the third Targaryen king to rule the fictional land of Westeros. Taking place 200 years before the events of Ice and Fire, the new show will serve as a prequel to the original series. Martin hopes the show will “provide some interesting insights into the history of the Targaryen dynasty, which is an important plot element in A Dream of Spring, my last book. (We can only hope this means a release date for The Winds of Winter is imminent!)

Slated to air in 2025, The Conciliator is helmed by Matt and Ross Duffer, fresh off season 6 of Stranger Things. They’re “looking forward to switching gears from science fiction to fantasy” and were “mega fans” of the original series. Conciliator will begin its story during the last day of King Aenys' reign and aims to cover King Jaehaerys' rule until his death. Will the Duffers continue the story afterward? "Jae's story actually sets a Targaryen civil war," Ross Duffer says. "If all goes to plan, the sky's the limit there, really. Unless you're a dragon, haha." (Note: Jae is the Duffers' nickname for their titular character, who they "already view like a son.") The Duffers are also bringing along some familiar faces to their Ice and Fire universe journey, too—Stranger Things stars Finn Wolfhard and David Harbour are slated to play a 14-year-old Jaehaerys Targaryen and his usurping uncle, Maegor the Cruel, respectively. Check out the full cast here: Finn Wolfhard as Jaehaerys Targaryen I Madeline Arthur as Alysanne Targaryen Sarah Paulson as Alyssa Velaryon Tom Hiddleston as Aenys Targaryen Julia Garner as Rhaena Targaryen Timothée Chalamet as Aegon Targaryen (the 2nd) David Harbour as Maegor Targaryen Cate Blanchett as Visenya Targaryen (Read the full article here on Vaulter)

wow! what do we think? i'm still super bummed that ice and fire ended before dany ever got to westeros, but it was probably for the best since they ran out of grrm source material lmao.

[stobinesque]

read my beloved!!! i am here to ask for a Wayfinder snippet because while yes, i am a proud supporter of the Jeff Agenda, i am also a proud supporter of lucas sinclair and believe he should get everything he wants forever <3

also actual question about Wayfinder (which you may have already talked about somewhere and I've just Missed It whoops): when you say S4 Fix-It, does that by any chance happen to include addressing how the championship game/hellfire clash was handled? Because I have Thoughts and Feelings about that plot point and love when fics explore Lucas' feelings about it

Charlie!!! I will certainly tag you in both snippets, and thanks for the question, my friend! 🥰

My full tagline for Wayfinder is "Season four fix-it, but the thing we're fixing is (the Duffer's) racism."* So definitely a huge part of the focus will be on exploring Lucas' feelings about the fallout from the championship game/hellfire scenario, as well as Lucas getting The Apology He Deserves from his friends/Eddie. But the fic will also end up diverging from canon in every place where the answer to the question "how would the average black person in The Real World actually react to this situation?" is different from what the Duffers decided had to happen for Plot Reasons. (Including how all of the Sinclair family reacts to the police**, and just...everything surrounding the plan for the rightside-up Creel House infiltration.) I have a lot of ideas for how the last couple of episodes are going to go relative to canon and I'm super excited to get to put a new spin on the season four fix-it genre ☺️

*Also in more traditional s4 fix-it fashion Eddie will live

**There is actually a compelling way to have the Sinclair family be generally cooperative with the (local) police. In some ways I even think it is, on balance, more realistic for a middle-class black family in the 80s to adhere to a "go along to get along" philosophy. That said, since the Duffers do not afford the Sinclairs any of that nuance--and indeed seem to be allergic to the idea that Charles and Sue would try to prepare their black children for the challenges of living in a predominantly white, rural town in any way--I'm just going full ACAB with them.

Send me an ask about one of my WIPs and get tagged in a snippet for it!

[watchmenanon]

The Wild Story Behind the 'Stranger Things' Upside Down Tunnel Drawings

By Matt Patches

Published on 11/20/2017 at 12:35 PM

A mosaic of psychically illustrated drawings depicting the interdimensional tunnels under a small, Indiana town doesn't just crayon itself into existence, you know. Someone has to draw it.

In Stranger Things 2, that someone is Will Byers. While obsessives of the Netlfix series are eagerly awaiting Stranger Things Season 3 and some firm answers on what (or who?) the Mind Flayer really is, why it's obsessed with the nerdy kid, or what its master plan for our Earthly plane will be, one thing they did learn in the series' second installment is that when a shadowy monster gets in a person's head, the host becomes a prolific, Crayola-wielding Willem de Kooning.

Throughout Stranger Things 2, Will cranked out our first glimpse of the "shadow monster" along with hundreds of other expressionistic drawings, bits and pieces of a larger piece that his mother, Joyce, her boyfriend, Bob, and the other Hawkins boys eventually paper on the walls of the Byers home. Though the show is filled with blockbuster-worthy special effects and some of the finest under-20 acting of the last decade, the wow factor of Stranger Things is in the details, with the drawing-covered set standing as the show's pièce de résistance.

Prop people are sticklers for details, and Reiss, whose credits include American Beauty (where she found the iconic plastic bag) and True Detective (where she made Rust Cohle's clue board, which she notes did not include yarn), lives for burrowing down into the lives of her characters and sculpting out their histories through a materialistic lens. Stranger Things is cluttered with details, from '80s-authentic props that require months of Ebay-ing to source, to every mysterious newspaper clipping shuffled through in the hunt for answers. Reiss tells Thrillist to look for photos of the convenience store owners that Eleven encountered during her first Eggo raid, and "missing dog" ads that line up to animal bones found in both Season 1 and 2. "[My biggest fear is] that Reddit will come down and go, that doesn't make sense," she says.

Stranger Things 2's lengthy shoot ran from November 2016 through the first week of June 2017, and the drawing project took about four months of work. When Reiss and her team first began imagining a house cluttered with creepy, crayon drawings, they only had the Duffers' story arc to go off -- the scripts weren't done. Working with concept artist Jenny Birdsong, who was also responsible for turning pre-visualized Shadow Monster effects and photographs of the Byers home exterior into Will's haunting rendering of the Mind Flayer, the prop people toiled over exactly what kind of images would emerge from a young man grappling with otherworldly forces, and what it would look like assembled on the walls of the house. Only after settling on colors and patterns did Reiss receive the script where Bob discovers that the pages form a map of the Hawkins tunnels.

"Scale wise, my job was to get it all dialed in correctly," Reiss says. "Bob would have a map on the table and they'd go around tape measuring. But if anything was truly to scale the map would be 196-feet wide. That's why there's a line in there, 'It's not exactly to scale…'" Reiss rejiggered her concept to include lakes, rivers, quarries, and other landmarks to give the scribbles clear dimension. They had to be jagged and visceral, but also identifiable enough that Bob could sniff it out. "The logistics got very intense."

Six 800-crayon Crayola bulk boxes, from which Reiss only took the blues, the blacks, the browns, and the teals, provided them with a total of 1500 crayons used on all the illustrations.

Paper was a greater concern: how much blank white paper would Will really have at his disposal? According to Reiss, along with a traditional paper stock, viewers will also notice three-lined notebook paper, colored construction paper, wrapping paper, brown bag paper, and even pages from a 1983 Sears catalogue and a 1983 Indiana phone book. "I ripped out those pages, double-sided copied them, then ripped the sides so they look like they were ripped out," she says. Details.

Reiss charted the winding course around the Byers house with Post-It notes to allow the Duffers to pick patterns and settle on a density of images. The finished pieces were both precise and erratic; black scribbles would run one direction, teal another. And each piece overlapped, sometimes askew, instead of connecting like a puzzle, to ensure that the finished wall art would feel like, as Reiss puts it, "this giant insanity."

The assemblage of drawings had to survive two months of shooting, according to Reiss, and there was no time to take anything down. To work around the hectic schedule, the team essentially built panels of paper illustrations slapped together with packing tape, which could be manipulated as necessary (and in the case of more abused sections, completely replaced on the fly). Reiss says, of her four-person drawing team, two would remain on set with with new Scotch tape, old Scotch Tape, and two of each crayons to repair any roughed-up illustrations. Don't worry, Redditors: all the front-facing tape Joyce uses to put up the in-world drawings is period accurate.

Reiss, who recently added director to her resume, aims to efface what she does from the finished product audiences eventually binge-watch. You're not supposed to notice the variety of paper on which her team of artists drew monstrous tunnels upon, you're supposed to feel the lived-in mood they create. When she steps back from the problems at hand, like, say, mounting a giant wall maze across a multi-room Indiana home, the details make the design-driven answers easy to find. There's just one part of the Stranger Things job hasn't gotten easier: the Eggos.

"We just went with Eggos in Season 1," Reiss says. "We didn't ask for any. But in Season 2, Eggo and Netflix came to some fabulous agreement with each other. But I'm still paying for Eggos! I have to physically go out and buy Eggos! Why don't I get free Eggos?!"

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds Review

WARNING: The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the book, as well as Stranger Things Season 4!

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews! Like, Reblog, and let me know what your thoughts are in the comment section! :)

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and “Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Synopsis: The year is 1969, and Dr. Martin Brenner has set up his base of operations at Hawkins Lab. Having brought along a five year old Kali/Eight to keep her contained while her powers develop, Brenner begins recruiting new tests subject for the MKULTRA Project in the hopes of finding others with potential. When college student Terry Ives hears about the experiment, she becomes intrigued and signs up for the program, believing it to be extremely important in shaping the course of history. However, as she starts spending more time on the project, she begins to realize the Lab and Dr. Brenner are not what they seem.........

Observations:

This is going to be a longer review compared to my other ones because I had a lot to say about the book, the show's mythology, and certain theories I have that might come to fruition in season 5. This will be split into four parts (which are titled below), so heads up on that! :)

Last year, when season 4 premiered, I ordered all the Stranger Things tie-in materials that were out at the time, and this was the first book in the series I read. I wanted to know more about the experiments Terry Ives was put through which would eventually lead to her conceiving Eleven, as well as what methods Dr. Brenner used to create human beings with extraordinary powers. To the book's credit, it (somewhat) answers those questions, but also leaves others vague or ambiguous. I couldn't tell if that's because Netflix and Random House Books planned for there to be more sequels to Suspicious Minds. If that was the case, it's probably a moot point now considering the direction the Duffer Brothers went in season 4.

The question I'm sure people are going to ask is whether or not this book is canon, and the honest answer is I don't know. The book was written by Gwenda Bond, and in her acknowledgements, she gives credit to "creative consultant" Paul Dichter for notes and advice. Paul Dichter is a writer who's been on the show since season 1, so there was someone from the writing team who oversaw this novel as it developed. The problem though is 1.) There is a continuity snarl in the book that contradicts information stated on the show, and 2.) The direction the Duffer Brothers took in season 4 begs the question of whether Gwenda Bond or even Paul Dichter had all the information about the show's mythology (such as Henry/One/Vecna and his relationship with Brenner, or Colonel Sullivan and the factions in the U.S. government opposed to the MKULTRA Project).

Because of these factors, I'm looking at this book more as an analysis of what it can tell us about the thought process behind the writers when it came to crafting the show's mythology and certain characters.

Part 1: The Upside Down's connection to the test subjects of Hawkins Lab.

Back in my review of Stranger Things Six, I proposed a theory that the abilities special kids like El, Kali, and Henry/One/Vecna had were connected to the Upside Down. Whether or not some force from the Upside Down gives them their powers remains to be seen, but both supplementary materials and even the show have implied there's a link between the two. Out of all the places Vecna could have been banished to by El, it comes off as too much of a coincidence that she sent him to the Upside Down once she fully tapped into her powers. It's even doubtful El knew what she was doing in that moment when she dissolved him like that. She wanted Henry/One/Vecna gone, but nothing indicates she had any foreknowledge of the Upside Down, or that she consciously sent him to that dimension.

That's not even getting into how she made contact with the Demogorgon in season 1 despite never seeing it before and not knowing what it was, or how her powers went haywire once she did and ripped open a gate between the two worlds.

In Suspicious Minds, Terry befriends another test subject named Alice Johnson, a mechanic who has a love for fixing machines as well as taking them apart and rebuilding them. When she's given psychedelics and administered electroshocks as part of the experiment, she begins having visions of the Upside Down and the Demogorgon:

Eventually, these visions show Alice parts of the future, such as Eleven being under Dr. Brenner's control and Terry Ives's eventual fate of being caught and administered repeated electroshocks by Brenner until she was reduced to the current state she's in on the show.

A lot of this is similar to what Francine/Six went through in her comic debut: She repeatedly had visions of the Demogorgon in the Upside Down, and even saw glimpses of future events as they played out:

The major difference between Francine/Six and Alice is that Six was shown to be psychic way before Dr. Brenner met her, whereas Alice only began to develop psychic abilities when she started taking acid and was given electroshocks.

This conundrum between characters who were born with special gifts and characters who had their gifts unlocked later in life is something that plays out on the show: Henry/One/Vecna was established as different from other kids growing up, but it wasn't until he moved into the Creel House at the age of 12 that he discovered his abilities. Whether or not something in the house caused his powers to activate or if he just discovered them naturally remains to be seen. Terry wasn't able to remote-view into the void until she began taking LSD during the experiments, and would use that to communicate with Kali in the book and El in season 2 when she came to visit her mother for the first time. El was born with her abilities as a result of the experiments and acid trips Terry went through while she was pregnant.

The idea suggested on the show and by supplementary materials is that psychedelics like LSD and Acid unlock something in the brain, allowing certain individuals to access psychokinetic abilities. However, it's unclear if the implication is supposed to be that the majority of humans have psychological inhibitors that prevent them from having those abilities, or if it all depends on the individual having those abilities at all.

In the book, there are two other test subjects, Gloria and Ken, who undergo similar experiments at the lab, and they don't have the same visions of the Upside Down Alice has, nor are they able to remote view like Terry can. While Ken claims to be psychic, it has more to do with certain feelings he gets about individuals, and when something happens to them. Case in point: He knows about Andrew's death before he's ever informed about it:

However, he doesn't have visions of the future or the Upside Down the same way Alice does. And as Brenner notes later on, the results of the experiments with Ken were lackluster by his standards:

That's not even getting into the other participants at the beginning of the novel (prisoners, insane patients, potheads, and draft dodgers) who were given the same experimental treatments and never showed the results Alice and Terry did. Based on that, the development of psychokinetic abilities likely has a lot to do with the person in question rather than the psychedelics themselves. Brenner even proposes a theory that a mind starting out as a blank slate and not corrupted by outside influences plays a major role in an individual developing certain abilities. It's a big reason why he allows Terry to continue coming back to the lab for experiments despite knowing she's pregnant at the time, and despite the trouble she causes him:

It's also why he keeps Kali/Eight separate from other people besides him:

That's all well and good, but that doesn't do much to explain Henry/One/Vecna's situation, and why his powers were dormant for 12 years before they suddenly weren't. They haven't established him taking psychedelics as a kid to unlock his abilities, and his angry, nihilistic rant to El at the lab conveys he was well exposed to the world around him and wasn't "a blank slate" in the same way El or even Kali were.

This is why I lean heavily on the theory of the Upside Down being connected to the abilities certain individuals have. Some kind of force or presence in that dimension acting as an influence on people without them realizing it, which could explain how they get those powers. I would even argue the LSD/acid acts as a tunnel between the Upside Down and the human mind via telekinetic energy. It's something the comic Stranger Things Kamchatka also touches upon when Dr. Orlov created a device that harnesses telekinetic energy to bridge this world with "someplace else:"

On a semi-related note, it's interesting that every time Vecna established a psychic connection with his victims before killing them, he would do it while held up in the air by vines attached to his back:

The implication I drew from this is that said vines in Vecna's back acted as a way for him to draw power from the Upside Down. In other words, the nature of the Upside Down amplifies his abilities. For now, I'm leaning on the theory that the Upside Down is the original source of his power, and that some force from it reached Henry as a kid all those years ago at the Creel House, which activated those abilities.

Part 2: The Characters

Getting back to the book, the synopsis speaks for itself: It's a prequel centered around Terry Ives (El's mother) during her time at the Lab with Dr. Brenner, and the experiments she was subjected to that led to the creation of Eleven. While there, she befriends several other test subjects: Alice Johnson, a mechanic who (as I described before) begins having visions of the Upside Down and the future once she's given LSD and electroshocks during the experiments. Gloria Flowers, a black college student with a love for the X-Men comics who's forced to join the project to get credits for her classes. And Ken, a self-proclaimed psychic who's later revealed to be gay. All four of them form a fellowship similar to the one in The Lord of the Rings (which is something referenced in-universe by the characters themselves) as they begin to question the nature and ethics of the experiments they're undergoing.

From the way the group is written here, it's clear they're meant to invoke the Party from the show. Ken for instance has a lot of similarities to Will in his sexual orientation and having some elements of being psychic and getting certain feelings at different moments (though in Will's case, it's usually when Vecna/The Mind Flayer is active). Lucas has many similarities to Gloria in being the pragmatic member of the group and having to deal with racism directed at them because of who they are. Alice is similar to Dustin in their natural curiosity about how things work. And finally, Terry has similarities to Mike in their desire to protect the people they love and being the ones to lead the group forward in pursuit of a goal.

The book also introduces Terry's boyfriend, Andrew Rich, who's revealed to be El's true biological father. Andrew is a product of the counterculture movement of the 1960s, both in his opposition to the war in Vietnam, his (valid) distrust of the government, and his willingness to participate in events such as Woodstock and protests about social issues. The book describes him as being rich enough to afford his apartment, and Terry at one point notes he's a little spoiled because of his parents money and his expectation that it will bail him out of any trouble he gets into. Despite this, he isn't entitled or mean-spirited. He's 100% supportive of Terry, and he's shown to genuinely believe in the causes he protests for. All of which makes his fate heartbreaking later on.

If you thought Brenner was a monster for what he did to Terry Ives years later, this book makes his actions even worse. Not only did he steal El as a baby and had Terry's brain fried when she tried (and failed) to get her back, but he's also responsible for the death of Andrew. After Andrew gets in trouble at the University for protesting against the Vietnam War, Brenner specifically pulls strings in the government to get Andrew's lottery number drawn so that he's sent to the front lines in Vietnam to be killed. All of which is done to get Terry back under Brenner's control. And sadly, it works.

On top of that, Brenner's behavior in this book is straight-up psychopathic with traces of narcissism. I don't mean this the way internet users like to throw those words around to describe people they don't like, but in the actual diagnostic sense: He has no empathy for anyone, not even Kali/Eight whom he views as a lab rat and not as a five year old girl with wants and needs. He has zero issues firing people just for questioning him, or because they react in a way that irritates him. He has no moment of consciousness about pushing the boundaries of his experiments, and his reaction to possibly getting someone killed is to note the loss of potential rather than feel any guilt over his actions. He lacks remorse, he's ruthless in his pursuit of his goals, he makes impulsive decisions based on the results it will get him and doesn't give a damn about the collateral damage he causes, he's definitely power-hungry, expects nothing but respect and unquestioning loyalty from others regardless of whether or not he deserves it, and from what little we do see of his personal life, he appears to have no close relationships. Everyone is a pawn to him.

And to the people out there who keep insisting that Brenner loved the kids under his care............he didn't. His interactions with Kali/Eight in this book are proof of that. Not only is he abusive towards her (including depriving her of sleep when he finds out she's been keeping secrets from him), but his internal thoughts about her make it very clear that he does not empathize with Kali, and only indulges her on occasion to keep her under his thumb.

On a related note, this is why I take issue with Brenner apologists in the fandom who buy into the excuses he makes to El in season 4 when she confronts him about his past sins. For all the posturing he makes about caring for the special kids in his care, the truth is it was ALWAYS about him and what he wanted. He saw a potential weapon when he met Henry/One/Vecna, used him to replicate other kids with similar abilities, and was not above abusing and gaslighting them to get results. Vecna was right on the money when he said that it was all about control for Brenner. Even in the book, he displays this attitude, which rightfully disgusts Terry:

This is why I also don't agree with people who insist Brenner was redeemed in season 4. He wasn't. He never takes any responsibility for the damage he causes, and keeps insisting everything he did was justified when it wasn't. Even his dying breath is used trying to guilt-trip El into absolving him for his behavior by begging her to "understand." That is NOT redemption. And based on how El refuses to absolve Brenner as he's dying, she feels the same way. There are some things you can't be forgiven for.

Kali/Eight is also present here. She's 5 years old when this story takes place, and Brenner has kept her isolated from the other kids (and test subjects) because he wants her powers to develop more. One day, during her experiments at the lab, Terry accidentally finds Kali while roaming the halls, and after befriending her, Kali becomes a main factor in why Terry and her friends keep returning to the Lab despite knowing that Brenner is bad news: They think Kali's being held against her will by Brenner and are trying to find a way to help her escape.

If you've seen the first 2 seasons, you know EXACTLY how that's going to go.

The tragedy with Kali's character is, because of how young she is, she doesn't fully comprehend the situation around her. On some level, she's aware that Brenner is dishonest, and a big source of contention between them for most of the book is her being upset with Brenner because he keeps promising to give her a friend to play with and doesn't deliver (he only fulfills that promise at the end once he's kidnapped El, and it's not out of the pure goodness of his heart). Unfortunately, because Brenner is the parent figure she knows at that time, she still refers to him as "Papa," and goes along with what he wants because she doesn't know any better. She also isn't able to keep her visits with Terry a secret, which Brenner is quick to find out about from Kali and use to manipulate both her and Terry going forward.

This all adds new context to the scene in "The Lost Sister" when Kali is persuading El to kill Ray Carroll, the orderly responsible for torturing Kali when she was a child and frying Terry's brain with electroshocks on Brenner's orders. She isn't just pressuring El out of a desire for revenge, but also because she holds herself responsible for El and Terry's current predicament. She isn't at fault for what happened (the blame is 100% on Brenner), but she still feels like she is.

I said this before in my review of Into the Fire, but I sincerely hope the Duffer Brothers bring Kali back for season 5 and give her story a proper conclusion. There was a lot left in the air the night El left Kali behind to return to Hawkins, and it would be cathartic if both of them got closure, and if Kali was able to let go of her anger towards those who wronged her and maybe find companionship and familial love from El. My biggest worry is that, because of how badly she's hurting and because she's still lashing out from the wrongs done to her, she might be susceptible to Vecna's manipulations, especially if he tries to recruit her and use her against El. I have hope she won't descend into the same darkness Vecna has, and that she can find a way to heal, but we'll have to wait and see.

Part 3: The Ending

The last 50 pages of this book were rough to get through. It's not that they were badly written, but when you've seen the show, you know exactly what's going to happen: Kali isn't going to be rescued from the lab, Terry is going to give birth to El and have her stolen by Brenner, and Terry will spent the next several years fruitlessly trying to get El back before Brenner subjects her to a fate worse than death. The only victory Terry manages to achieve at all is faking Alice's death and helping her escape to Canada so Brenner can't use her in further experiments. It's like the writers realized it would be too much of a Downer Ending unless Terry got some way of sticking it to Brenner, so they gave her that moment as compensation. Unfortunately, it still doesn't make the ending any less depressing.

On top of that, one of the aspects that bothers me is, for all the camaraderie shown between Terry and her friends............we never see them again. There's no mention on the show about Gloria or Ken or Alice and if they're still fighting against Brenner or if they know about what happened to Terry. Did Brenner have them hunted down and silenced? Are they still alive? We're never given an answer, and it's likely we might not get one unless they write a sequel to this book. I remember a while back I had a conversation with @pusheen1802 and @lavandulaphoenix about the possibility of a spin-off focusing on Terry's friends, but that remains to be seen, and the spin-offs they have announced don't seem to be centered on that.

And this brings me to how Suspicious Minds ties in with the show....

Part 4: Canon and Continuity on Stranger Things

I said at the beginning of this review that there was a continuity snarl that I couldn't ignore, and that has to do with the year El was born.

The main plot takes place between July 1969 and June 1970 (with an epilogue on November 1970). According to the book, Terry got pregnant in November 1969, and she later gave birth to El in June 1970 after Brenner unknowingly gives Terry a special dose to cause her to give birth earlier than usual. Based on this, it would mean El would have been 13 by the time the first season of Stranger Things starts.

However, on the show, it's specifically stated that El was 12 years old when Becky is telling Hopper and Joyce about the circumstances behind Terry's supposed miscarriage.

From Season 1, Episode 6 "The Monster:"

Becky: I don't think you guys understand. Terry miscarried in the third trimester. She keeps all of this up. Been doing it for 12 years. [sigh] Terry, uh, pretends like Jane is real--like she's gonna come home someday.

If El was 12 years old, that would mean she would have to have been born in 1971. Even if we're being generous and rounding the numbers, she still would have to be 13 if she was born in 1970.

Some people might call this a small nitpick, but it's one that bothers me. I've come to accept that the Duffer Brother and the writing team for Stranger Things may not be so great with numbers and dates (*cough* Will's Birthday *cough*), but oversights like this make me question whether this book can count as canon because of that.

Then there's everything to do with Henry/One/Vecna. It's pretty clear based on how the book was written that Gwenda Bond (and likely Paul Dichter) were kept in the dark by the Duffer Brothers about One's importance to Brenner and Hawkins Lab. There is no instance in the book where Brenner ever thinks or talks about One despite him being the reason the MKULTRA program took off like it did. His inner dialogue is focused on how Kali/Eight has been the only test subject who has shown powerful abilities, and how all the other kids at the lab were "ordinary so far." Based on what's revealed in season 4, we know this isn't true. Henry/One/Vecna had powers by the time he fell into Brenner's care, and had already used them to murder his mother and sister. Brenner also knew that Henry/One/Vecna was dangerous enough that he had to be controlled, which is why he placed the soteria chip in Vecna to keep his abilities suppressed.

And I get for the purposes of the twist in season 4 why the Duffer Brothers withheld information about Henry/One/Vecna, but it unfortunately creates a plot-hole in the book when Brenner is acting like Kali/Eight is the only child who's demonstrated powers thus far.

Final Thoughts:

Usually, I give a recommendation about whether or not someone should check out a Stranger Things Tie-In, but in this case, I'm not sure how to proceed.

The book itself is well-written, and it gives interesting insight into the thought process behind the mythology of the show. It also fleshes out Terry and Brenner's characters while allowing the audience to see the circumstances behind the experiments at Hawkins Lab. However, for the reasons I've just described, I can't 100% claim this book is canon.

I hope this review has given a general overview about the book, and I hope it helps people to decide whether they want to read it or not. For what it's worth, I'm glad I did.

Coming Soon: Stranger Things Runaway Max