I genuinely don't see either Mike nor Will ever doing stuff just to make the other jealous, or doing stuff just out of spite, Mike with El is different bcs he WAS dating her, but Will never did anything like that at all, even though Mike hadn't reached out to him that much, and was so focused on El, Will still didn't do anything, instead he made him a gift 😫😫😢😭😭😭 🥺🥺🥺🥺
Wills love literally reminds me of Ben's love for Beverly in IT, where he waited for her for 27 YEARS, he never moved on, he was never with anyone else, THATS the type of love Will has for Mike, he will wait forever 💙💛💙💛
The reason why I want Mike to be the only who is in a trance is bcs I want Mike to see how LOVED he is (esp by Will), that he is the heart.
I can imagine Nancy, Will, Karen, El, Jopper, Dustin, Max, Holly reactions to Mike being in danger, going crazy looking for him and Mike seeing just how loved he is and realizing that he IS important 😭😭😭😭💙💙💙💙💙
Do you guys remember that "leak" of Mike getting seriously injured and Will sitting by his hospital bedside and Will lending over and kissing him on the cheek while saying "please don't leave, I need you" what if that happens if Conformitygate is real, Mike gets seriously injured bcs Vecna was pissed off that Mike was able to fix everything and save Will, but then Will saves Mike and then that hospital scene happens?
I love how even though Vecna tries to separate Mike and Will, no matter what he does, makes them believe or manipulates them into thinking this "world" (conformitygate) is safe, and that they are "happy" that "this is how it should be",(Mike believing that Will is better off without him, Will moving away etc) Mike and Will are forever going to be half of each other's soul as the poets say, they are each other's heart, and without each other they feel incomplete, NOTHING is going to take away the fact that Will and Mike want to be in Mike's basement playing dnd for the rest of their life until they die & nothing is going take away the fact that they can't see a future without each other. Just like someone said to me, they are too important together, you can't separate them. They only way I can see Will moving away is if his memories of Mike are gone or if they are slowly gone but STILL, Will would still feel like his other half is missing. If you separate them, they become lost without the other. They are each other's happiness, no matter what you do Vecna, they will always find their way back to each other, bcs they can't live without the other, they are like peas in a pod.
Am I the only one who doesn't the vision of Mike and Will "needing some time apart" or "drifting apart bcs of El's death?
I mean we literally see in Season 2 that even though Mike is grieving El, it didn't separate Mike and Will, now you could say that "it's bcs Will was going through alot so of course Mike had to be there for him" but if you watched Season 2 from the beginning (yk before Will goes through chaos basically) you can see that Will and Mike were actually still close and being with Will really did help Mike.
Now with Season 5, I can understand why Mike would push people away bcs of El's death, I mean he WAS dating her, he known her for longer by now, his fear of losing her again obviously became more intense after she came back, Mike feeling like he needs to be with El bcs he feels like she "needs" and doesn't want to fail her, and Mike obviously has grown to love and care for her more (platonically), and maybe other reasons that I forgot to mention.
So obviously this poor boy is going to take it harder then he did in season 2, BUT, we have to remember that Will also lost his SISTER, this isn't only about Mike, it's about Will as well!, now yes, does it make sense for two people who have a close friendship/relationship to drift apart or to have some time apart from each other, or to have a break bcs of someone's death? Yes! but not in Mike and Will's case imo, (I mean, they didn't do that with Lumax and Lucas & Max were El's best friends ESPECIALLY MAX) I truly don't believe that Will would move away from Mike while they are in this current state. I mean didn't they show us how much Mike and Will really do help each other get through tough times, how much they need each other, how much theur support helps each other? How Mike gives Will the strength to go on? It does make sense but it doesn't with Mike and Will.
Even if Mike was pushing Will away, I don't see how Will would just drift away from Mike and just move someplace else like it just doesn't make sense to me, bcs we saw how Will took it being away from Mike when he was in Cali, (this poor boy said he was lost without him) and I don't think Will would leave/move away from Mike ESPECIALLY when Mike is still grieving and clearly not okay and Will is clearly not okay at all! (they need each other during this difficult time) I can definitely see Mike and Will maybe needing some time apart bcs of El's death but I DON'T see Will moving away from Hawkins, moving away from Mike basically like I'm sorry but I just don't see it.
The way that I see it is that Mike and Will maybe do have some time apart after El's death but Will STILL being in Hawkins, bcs he wants to be there for Mike but not only that, Will lost his SISTER, Mike being there with him would help him enormously and vice versa. Having each others support helps them in numerous ways. They have some time apart but they are still together in Hawkins and once that is over Mike and Will start to be there for each other little by little.
Hopefully I made sense here hehe
But yeah, let's hope CONFORMITYGATE IS REAL bcs that means that this is all fake!! 💅💅💅💅💅
soo, i think we have been shown what will happen in the real finale. i ask you kindly to hear me out.
right, "M marks the spot". this is just a fun play on words, right?
as the idiom usually sounds, "X marks the spot" means it's marking a specific, significant location, usually hiding a treasure. hmm, if only there were any visual cues telling us there's a specific spot we need to look for this "treasure".
right on. we see here that the x marks the spot as will's heart. that's cool. too bad we don't have any significant previous information that tells us what that could mean. but, hold on..
will's heart is mike. "m" marks the spot: mike marks the spot.
but what significance does that have, when the show is already done, over, kapish? and, well, they haven't given us any good reasons to explore this "coincidence" further, anyway.... oh, but they did.
will learns that henry is "just like him". henry is only a vessel and it's the mind flayer that's controlling him. but we kind of knew that already, though?
the duffers said the play the first shadow would serve as a prequel to stranger things, but that it also links to season five: “(it) will take you right back to the beginning of the stranger things story - and may hold the key to the end.” (source: spyscape)
most fans that dive deeper into the lore would already have known henry is being controlled by the mindflayer, either from seeing the play themselves, or through reading about it online. this was not the "big, recontextualizing plot twist" they have been teasing us that the finale would bring. if it was, it would not have been spoiled in the play, over a year beforehand.
but if the spoiler is not the plot twist, what could the 'key to the end' be?
soo,,, will's pleading to henry is a lot more significant than we might have first thought after finishing episode 8:
will tells him he can resist the mind flayer, and help them fight it - speaking from his own experience. but henry says no, he chose to join it, because the mind flayer gave henry a reason to; making henry believe the world is broken. as he tells us, henry believes this is the truth.
will is begging henry not to listen to it: says it's controlling him right now. and he is breaking the fourth wall in this first shot btw, looking directly into the camera. this implies it's not just henry who is about to get pulled into the mindflayer's twisted world view. it's also happening to us. but most of all: it's happening to will.
and will is begging henry not to let the mindflayer win. but as i said, henry is not the only one will is begging to resist it's control.
what i'm saying is that what's happening here is more than just will getting emotional from hearing about henry's bleak world view. yeah, no, i'm sorry babes; this scene shows will falling headfirst into the mindflayer's control. that's why we don't see him again during the "final battle". this is the moment where will loses his control. he becomes only a mere part of the hive again: a vessel. and everything we see in episode 8 from here on out, is being shown to us by the mindflayer.
and hey, some more breaking through the fourth wall! henry is looking directly into the camera as he says the mindflayer needs him: "we are one". would you look at that - i think the audience was just confirmed to be part of the hive mind, too.
and the puzzle pieces are really starting to come together now. let's go back to some earlier scenes that all of this now shines a new light on.
mike says will is vecna (sorta). and yeah, we know what the implications behind this choice of wording is now; will can tap into the hive and siphon vecna's powers, right? but no, not exactly. as we learned in the eight episode, it's actually vecna who is like will. they're both part of the hive, and vecna has only been portrayed as the face of the operation. it's in fact the mindflayer's powers they've been tapping into all along.
when will asks if mike is saying that he's "evil and hell-bent on destroying the world", mike's answer is affirmative. yeah, he's joking, but these things always mean something! dialogue in scripts serve as a vital tool. dialogue should be layered on top of the reason why the scene is in the script in the first place, with stakes attached that relate back to the protagonist’s central dilemma (source: scriptreaderpro)
aka, mike is not just flirting here, he's also driving the plot forward; it's foreshadowing. mike is saying something that sounds like a joke, seemingly meaningless at the time, but i think it will be revealed to have deeper meaning at a later point. i think will is evil and hell-bent on destroying the world (sorta)
because what did we learn the steps for joining the mindflayer are? well. there's just the one: believing something that hurts you deeply to be the truth
oh snap. when the love of your life isn't like you and can never love you back. it's enough to break a man:
but can it break you enough to make you fall into the control of an evil eldritch monster? sorry, but yes i think it can :(
because they told us from the very start, didn't they... mike is going to fight monsters (✔️ he already did that now), evil wizards (i mean... kinda?) and sorcerers (oh god: will is a sorcerer: "an honest to god, real-life sorcerer!").
but i dont think mike is predicting exactly what his words imply here. he won't have to physically fight will.
because now, we can tie it all back to where we started in this post: remember how "M" (MIKE!!!) marks the spot (WILL'S HEART!!!)..
and holly is mike. what happens to holly, parallels what happens to mike. holly receives a letter from "henry" (though it's actually from max, who wants to save holly by telling her the truth), telling her he needs her help and to meet her at the "X". and she gets a map: drawing a path through a memory forest leading to the truth.
and holly is scared to go into the woods, because henry told her to never go in there (so she would never find the truth). but she finds the courage through holly the heroic to try anyway, because she thinks henry needs her help.
in short, here's what's up:
mike (the brave) is going to "fight" a sorcerer, by daring to enter into the memory forest to get to the "M".
meaningggg... mike is fighting will's mindflayer stolen mind by finding his heart: through proving that what will believes to be the truth in fact isn't, so that he won't be "broken"/"fallen apart" anymore. so that will gets back his control.
will is the key to fighting the mindflayer. but mike is the key to will opening up the lock that makes him able to do so.