Stranger Things: A Story about Fear, Love, Biases, Misconceptions and Us

We are well aware of the plot The First Shadow. A story in which two people fall in love, but fear wins over love.

We are all well aware of the ending of Stranger Things. A story where two people fall in love, but fear wins over.

First, I will preface this meta by saying a few things: I will not accept anyone rebloging this with points about a divorce, or about these people's personal lives, and if anyone tries I will block without discussion because I am not here to serve as jury, judge and executioner.

Secondly, this meta will touch on implicit bias, PR manipulation and what I think the meta of Stranger Things might be trying to do.

Why Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke) has been acting like *that*: Tharizdun, Spirals, Fractals, Chaos & Doom.

Source:

TikTok link:

"Woah. Woah, woah, woah, woah woah. That's not it, is it?"

"No, there's a medal ceremony-"

"Oh, a medal ceremony? What are you talking about?"

"yeah man, the campaign was way too short."

"yeah!"

“It was ten hours!"

"But it doesn't make any sense!"

"It makes sense!"

"Uh, no. What about the lost knight?"

"And the proud Princess?"

“And those weird flowers in the cave?”

Yep, Mike is still queer

After another rewatch, I still can't get over how many signs there are that Mike is both queer and in love with Will. Intentional signs. We've all talked a ton about how the things they've put into the show are not simply just "accidents". The lighting, set design, costumes, script, music, editing, everything is all carefully planned.

This post isn't really saying anything new, once again. I just still love to keep talking about these signs again and again because it really gives me faith that the ending is not what it appeared to be.

Symbolism is everywhere. I know I'm not the first or only one to point this out, but sort of piggybacking on my other post about Derek waving to Mike in the truck, I thought about the classic water pipe scene, which is so clearly a representation for the feelings Mike and Will have towards each other that are bursting. Specifically Mike's feeling for Will, considering he was the one that hit the pipe, causing it to break in the first place.

Mike & Will desperately trying to stop the water from spraying everywhere (trying to stop their feelings from overflowing). Then there's Derek in his rainbow sweater, holding the door shut, where the military, (representing conformity, loss of power/control and authority) are trying to break in and stop/capture them.

Then later Derek, still in his rainbow sweater, looks at Mike and smiles and waves. Like I said in my last post, it could have been meant as a funny moment. But I took it as more eerie and almost like Vecna was mocking Mike.

The cuts between Derek (in his RAINBOW sweater, representing possibly Mike's hidden sexuality) and Mike, who looks confused and waves back... it felt more than a "funny" moment. It felt like the show was trying to tell us something about Mike.

You know when a show or movie will have a moment that seems initially funny, but the longer they continue the moment, the more strange and uncomfortable it feels? That was this moment for me. The emphasis on Mike was very telling. I said previously, it's like you could feel Vecna's presence here.

And Vecna knows Mike's thoughts. He knows what goes on in his head. He's seen those hidden feelings. He's already tried to use Will's sexuality and feelings for Mike against him. Mike being a target feels almost inevitable. Many of us think Mike most likely is already in a Vecna trance at this point.

Again, I know none of this is new information, but I just refuse to believe that Mike was written as straight. He is a queer character 100% and I'm hoping we'll see that with a possible secret episode release.

the GA talking about conformitygate is funny to me because to them it’s all about “oh the props changed colors” but to us it’s “mike wheeler is a gay man doomed for eternity and this is not a fate he deserves”

The actual finale IS still coming

This whole stunt worked out even better than expected for Netflix, we guessed a date for the release of the actual finale and it was WRONG, now almost all the people that had hope for a different finale are convinced there isn't one.

The only thing Netflix promoted was the documentary.

Jamie Campbell Bower on the Jimmy Fallon sketch said tomorrow it begins and we assumed the ending was coming out the next day but he must've meant the countdown begins tomorrow, he starts counting down from 1, then the ominousness begins at 7 and finishes at 12. The documentary comes out on the 12!! so remember how season 4 was heavily influenced by Nightmare on Elm Street?

After yesterday's let down tiktok user @cleanslatekait was like "what if they premiere the documentary and we start seeing it and get to the reading of the finale and then we get to the reading of the ACTUAL finale and then boom the new episodes drop" and someone commented this

They go into detail:

And want to know where people are expecting something and they get surprised with something completely different at the last second??

The First Shadow!!

People will go in expecting something and Boom! It's the actual finale! (although I think it'll be at least 3 eps but that's just a personal theory and don't have actual proof, well except for a tiktok from @cleanslatekait where she found the last 4 eps aren't legally registered!)

This has got to be it!! These feel like stronger evidence than our january 7 theories!!

Quoting myself, pre-Vol.2

But first, let me say this:

— It seems pretty obvious they're dropping something more at this point. This isn't an organic little movement, this was clearly coordinated. Major publications and news outlets do not talk about fan theories, even if it is Stranger Things. If this was circulating on smaller, fandom focused sites, sure, okay. But not whatever the hell this is.

Though hey, maybe I'm wrong. I could be, and that's fine.

I originally, before Vol. 2 thought they were showing the finale in cinemas so they could do the Joyce Maneuver by making a bunch of people show up in person and show them something they don't expect.

I've been feeling a little annoyed about all these theories circulating so widely, just because I don't personally like how everything is so public now, fandoms used to feel more like they were spaces for the fans and by the fans, I guess, and now the fucking news are here. But I just realized that maybe instead of overestimating the creators of Stranger Things, perhaps I've underestimated them. Because this is the biggest goddamn bait they could use to get absolutely everybody tuning in for that switch I've been hoping for.

But now, here's something melodramatic that I said pre-Vol.2 that I think is important, not because of Stranger Things, but in general —

do you believe?

because i sure do. i do hope that if this is true, that bylers will be credited for the discovery. the GA were too stupid, and thought the ending was perfect and now they switch up? so annoying. but i believe in byler, i believe in conformitygate, and we’ll see if both are true tomorrow! what sells its the most for me is not just the inconsistencies and deliberately places inuendos and “coincidences”, it’s the fact that the duffers said they cut ZERO scenes. yet we’ve seen a boat, water, a tent, mike at a grave, so many scenes that we never got. why would they say they cut nothing when there’s REAL evidence showing us scenes never used? it would only be true if there were more episode(s). and the biggest hint is finn and noah saying they filmed before everyone else, in the summer, in water. together. they were said to have the most scenes together, have emotional moments. finn said his ending was more than he ever would’ve expected. caleb said his ending was different from everyone else’s. millie said the ending was meta. the duffers said no one would predict the ending. we’re all of these lies? i don’t think so. i believe. do you?

CLAIM YOUR TICKET HERE

if it isn’t real im gonna look so stupid but we’re not gonna talk about that rn

conformitygate has breached the wwe premises

im laughing so hard

These Duffer brothers interviews are very interesting.

Okay so let's say at least a part of the finale is mike's vecna vision, final battle scene included. Tell me why the mind flayer starts rising and i went "you know what it looks like lowkey??"

It's so funny how Mike's worst fear manifests itself...as this thing...that looks an awful lot like female genitalia...

There's no way they didn't realise what this looks like when creating the design sorry this HAS to be intentional 😭😭

LMAOOO DOES ANYONE HAVE A SCREENSHOT OF THAT ONE TWEET OF MIKE LOOKING AT THE MINDFLAYER VS. LINGERIE

i have a little bit to add to conformitygate, and just the fandom in general:

a lot of people refuse to believe in conformitygate - which is absolutely understandable because you’ve been burnt too many times and even i’m approaching it cautiously. however, i keep seeing people say “the duffers are stupid, they can’t do something this good” and “ross’ divorce is the reason the quality declined” and i have to stop you right there.

the duffer brothers are not the only writers of stranger things. by implying so you’re removing all the other writers in the stranger writers room like kate tefry, paul ditcher, and caitlin schneiderhan from the narrative. people who contributed to all episodes plot points from the beginning.

and then we have intentional costuming and set design which also point to obvious clues. the duffers didn’t do this themselves, there are experts in these fields working on it. okay, say the duffers brothers disappoint us with the writing. are you seriously going to tell me that amy parris (the costume designer) missed by a mile with robin’s styling in the epilogue accidentally when she’s shown us time and time again how much effort goes into the costuming. the hand printed shirt with triangle motifs, letting maya customise robins’s converse, the consistently masc look robin has going on.

lastly, i’ve seen people say “netflix nerfed byler halfway through filming” and as someone who studied film and animation, that’s just simply not how it works. scenes are almost never filmed linearly. the shock jock scenes of will communicating with max (directed by frank darabont) were filmed before the sorcerer power reveal (directed by the duffers). mike doesn’t touch will in shock jock, and mike’s iconic heart eyes that turned a lot of GA into bylers were filmed after the shock jock scene.

i only chose to believe in conformitygate because i know stranger things is the result of many people coming together to create something big. volume 1 was written and filmed by the same people so i want to explore why episodes 6-8 felt off keeping this in mind. and even if conformitygate isn’t real, i do think it’s important to remember that the duffers aren’t the only people who wrote and made stranger things happen just because they keep giving unnecessary interviews.

if i’m wrong about it, i’ll just mourn what stranger things could have been and move on. the ending we have is ambiguous byler anyway so i’ll still be taking that as a win. but if you’re going to hold people accountable for queer baiting, then it’s important to include the entire writers room in the conversation and not make it about a divorce that probably has nothing to do with stranger things.

and lastly. no, foah isn’t the reason we thought byler were going to happen. i’m going to be honest, i hadn’t spared a thought about their friendship before st5 and i refuse to fall for this narrative that the actors’ chemistry is the only reason people ship byler. byler is woven into the narrative threads of the show. in every possible way.