The ENTIRETY of S5 is a play within a play - and the audience has been part of it for months (meta theory post)
Ok, I think I've cracked the code!!
I have been reading all of your theories during the past few days and there have been so many refreshing and interesting takes that made me engage on a whole new level with the show. I will tag a few accounts that I've been following because I love your theory-posts and would be really interested to hear your thoughts on this:
@atsadi @penguinchick07 @mixu @bylerswheel @runninguplenorahills @greenfiend @j-aquarian @thestrangestthing89
This is a gonna be a long-ass post, but I promise you that it's worth reading till the end! I also want to put out a quick trigger warning: the following theory is twisty - so be cautious if you have trouble with that.
There have been a lot of great posts about the epilogue paralleling "The Truman Show" and about Vecna possesing Mike / the main characters / Will. Well, I wanna go even further:
We as the audience are equally part of Vecnas curse.
I made several posts about the Stranger Things marketing aligning perfectly with conformitygate here and here.
@theearthisnotacoldeadplace also pointed out the parallel to the "Nightmare on Elm Street-"movie that started as a documentary and turned into a horror movie. I personally love that idea and haven't seen anybody talk about a certain aspect of it, that becomes impossible to unsee once you realise it:
The whole #conformitygate concept works, because the creators deliberately messed up details, characters, plotlines - subtly at first, than slowly building it up untill we reached the uncanny finale. Something felt off and it took most of us a few days to realise that Vecna was definitely messing with the characters (and us).
Well, here's the twist: This didn't only happen inside the show. The same is happening around it, during the presstour and marketing. The inconsistenties have been building up for a long time, but people haven't realised it yet. We've been living under Vecna's curse for months now.
Let me eloborate:
1. Setting the foundation
During promo, the cast and crew were hyping this season up like crazy. They have talked countless times about how emotional, dark and massive it was going to be. They said that the ending would be perfect and that people would be truly satisfied. They talked about the emotional table read numerous times, going into great detail about who cried the most. Our already high expectations got even higher.
2. Plotholes
First of all the obvious (many people have talked about this already, so I won't go into great detail here): There have been countless plotholes that have been directly pointed out by the Duffers THEMSELVES post-finale. Who in their right mind would do this, especially after promising to tie up every plotline perfectly?! Yeah right, no-one. Unless it was for a greater purpose.
At the same time the Duffers planted plotholes within the story during past seasons that people picked up on: Will's birthday, Holly's age, the particles in the upside-down. They never gave satifying answers to explain these and people accepted the mistakes or build theories around it (#Birthdaygate).
3. Leaks
As @chirpsythismorning pointed out in a very insightful post, the leaks of the epilogue are really suspicious. It's the final episode of Netflix' biggest show after all, wouldn't they be able to protect it better?! Same with the trailer being leaked hours before the initial drop. Made the audience feel very ahead of everything.
4. Official promotional content
This is where things get interesting. I unfortunately haven't followed the radio channel at all, so I will only focus on promotional content that was released on YouTube. Something that stands out to me is how much emphasis they put on merging the show with the real world (remind you of anything?) during marketing:
A) There were tons of videos including the fans into official promotional content:
On a sidenote: I wouldn't be suprised if the same actors who received a letter from Max in S4 would do this kind of video. Maybe the letters would never even get adressed again. Subtly implying that those were our letters all along.
B) During one of the first trailers we had a mix of impressions from the show with comments from the Duffers, as well as the actors:
C) The actors were reacting to their own scenes in costume, making it unclear if they were themselves or their characters:
But who is at the place of their TV?
It's us - they are watching the audience watching them from inside the TV.
D) During the presstour we have seen the actors giving interviews in sets from the show:
E) The characters are wearing merchandise from the WSQK-radio-station on the show - merchandise that is sold to the fans:
4. Documentary / Spin-Offs / BTS
I have seen some of you speculating that the documentary will act as a "trojan horse" for the final episode. I am huge fan and believer of this theory, but want to bring up a more fundamental question: Why even dropping a documentary in the first place? We have all the "Inside the episode" videos that should be enough BTS for now. Why not wait a few more months to milk the franchise again?
Well, because the documentary is part of the show - and so are the "Inside the episode" videos (as their title is LITERALLY suggesting). As I said in another post they start out normal and turn full on mockumentary in the end. It's hilarious to watch. But there is more to it, and it's been out there for a long time, existing right in front of our eyes:
I mean, look at this shit, it couldn't be any more obvious:
Re-entering the canon BETWEEN SEASONS with an animated series that LOOKS NOTHING LIKE AN 80s ANIMATED MOVIE? AFTER the show ended? And dropping the announcement OUT OF NOWHERE DURING S5 PROMO?!
How could we be so blind this entire time lmao?! From a marketing standpoint that makes zero sense. People were invested in S5 anyway at this point. The teaser is part of the mockumentary - it's part of S5, of the creators messing with us:
"Nothing you see here is real."
And it gets even bigger:
5. Interviews
Please stay with me on the Mockumentary-bus a bit longer: If we asume that the BTS-content of the show is not or only in parts authentic, we should also have a careful look on the interviews.
A) Ragebait and Inconsistencies
I think right now nobody is taken the Duffers serious anymore. People are annoyed because of their seemingly arrogant attitude and their unwillingness to give convincing answers in recent interviews. I think we all agree that they are ragebaiting us, because no director in their right mind would self-sabotage their career like that.
But they have been other inconsistensies: Remember when Finn said that "Byler wouldn't feel earned" when episode 1 was about to drop? Remember when Noah said that he could relate to Wills "unrequited feelings"? Remember when Gaten said that shipping Byler was "a funny concept" or something like that? All these interviews where sending the Bylertag into a whiplash and caused people to doubt the actor's motivation and integrity. But what if it was done on purpose to make people doubt them?
B) Post-Finale Interviews
The lack of interviews after the finale is one of the biggest proofs of conformitygate for me: Right now the actors should be touring Late-night-shows, reminiscing they big moments from the finale and discussing the experience of ending the show. But there is only radio silence. Apart from three apparences on Jimmy Fallon (Sadie, Jamie, Maya), there have been only pre-recorded interviews. And those Fallon-interviews have been suspicious:
Sadie pointing out that fan theories are sometimes right? Stating confidently that she believes El is dead when it is "up for interpretation"?
Jamie saying "the show is over right" in an ironic tone? The promo-video with the infamous "tomorrow it begins" line?
Maya pointing out Bylers enorme potential as a couple when that's not how the show ended officially?
Anybody who is assuming that this them "putting the Duffers in their place" clearly doesn't know how PR works. These interviews are scripted and pre-approved and look a lot like PR for future content. The interactions themselves almost seem like a sketch, with the actors still playing their mockumentary persona. Let's see if this also applies to interviews from the past.
C) Pre-Finale Interviews
While rewatching some of the cast's interviews I came across certain statements that seemed either unserious/out of character or almost forshadowing if you take conformitygate into consideration. To give a few examples:
Noah saying that he would've liked to kiss a girl on the show.
That interview with the core-four-boys when Caleb is saying "I had a different finale" (I saw a post about it on here the other day but can't find it anymore, so thanks for tagging me if you do come across it).
Finn saying jokingly "Dustin dies" when asked to spoil the ending in the spicy-wings-interview. (I hope he isn't right, but it would for sure be a twist.)
The cast saying that S3 wasn't important to the plot when they have been clearly a lot of parallels with S5 (scenes in the hospital, the meatflayer, people getting possesed).
Whatever that was:
Most of the interviews appear to be genuine, but it seems as if the cast is reusing certain themes (for some reason they continue to bring up Michael Jackson?) and potentially dropping hints/inconsistensies during the interviews (if this is the case there are probably hundreds of them, as they did a lot of interviews).
Even if all these inconsistencies are purely coincidental it leads us to mistrust them, as we can't tell apart their "mockumentary-persona" and their "real" persona anymore.
The audience under Vecna's curse
So where does all this leaves the audience at?
As Max suggests, we find ourselves with three options after watching the finale: Despair (people unhappy with the finale, in particular Bylers, nerds and members of marginalized groups), acceptance (big parts of the general audience), and escaping the narrative (conformitygate-truthers). Even though the show suggests the third option as the right one, there is only a tiny percentage of the people in the fandom seriously believing in conformitygate and an alternative ending. This is due to our experience with queerbaiting, and the phenomenon of big shows tanking their final episode/season. A lot of Bylers are rightfully hurt and therefor not willing to engage with the show any longer. The GA, although in parts underwhelmed by the finale, has either already lost interest and moved on, or is unwilling to look for clues. Conformity-gate-truthers are in consequence mirroring Joyce Byers in S1: Despite finding countless clues and having a gut-feeling about the fact that something feels off, they are the ones looking crazy. Because how could you believe in something when it's extremly unlikely to happen for a show of this skale?
On top of that the show and its marketing did they best to confuse people, making them lose trust in the consistency of plot lines and the integrity of both cast and crew. We feel betrayed. And that's when we accept our fate.
But the real horror is reserved for people who start questioning the narrative: they start finding more and more inconsistenties, to the point where they don't know who to trust anymore: The Duffers? Certainly not! The cast? Probably not. The show itself? Yes, but when did the inconsistenties began? The result is an intense feeling of unease and paranoia that makes us recontextulise everything we know about the show (sounds familiar?).
As fans we try to get ahead of the creators by predicting and analysing its narratives. But what if the creators are already three steps ahead, without us knowing?
Season 5 of Stranger Things is not just the ensemble of 8 (+X) episodes on Netflix. It's a social experiment, including the interviews, promo content, and us, the audience. We are part of season 5.
Season 5 actually started months before the first episode dropped, just as Vecna is infiltrating his victims' minds before giving them their first visions. He (the Duffers) knows this part of the fandom's biggest fear: Conformity, queerbaiting, getting disappointed. Now it is up to us to escape Camazotz.
Final thoughts
Despite being a huge fan of the theory and its execution (content, clues, consistency) I still hope that the Duffers will adress their queer audience and other marginalized groups (victims of abuse, women, POC,...) by the end of all this, as the whole concept has caused a lot of hurt. They should speak up about the blantant homophobia and misogyny in parts of the fandom and not just leave their critique of it on a meta-level.
I also see a risk of conformitygate being really triggering to certain people because it can make you feel like losing your mind. As it has such a subtle note of psychological horror, the audience is not able to prepare themselves, which is why I hope that the final episode(s) is/are dropping soon.
On a more positive note, this whole stunt will increase media literacy and will encourage people to interact with the show more critically. I also think that this meta-plottwist is a great comment on PR and parasocial-relationships, showing how easliy an audience can be manipulated by framing. It is also a love letter to nerds and critical thinking, as well as to people who find joy in analysing the show.
On a more personal note this whole twist made me realise how emotionally dependent I was on the show during these last few months, compromising my everyday life and relationships in order to focus on my hyperfixation (thanks adhd-brain!). If anything, this showed me that despite my love for Stranger Things and Byler, there is also the real world that I want to focus on more in the future. I still want to engage with the fandom but will likely reduce my time here in the next months to focus more on personal relationships and my mental and physical health. Right now I am enjoying the ride with the people still on the Byler-bus. We almost made it out of Camazotz, just hold on a little longer.
