Okay, so basically it’s pretty generally accepted that the Upside Down is another dimension that’s vaguely conscious and is slowly spreading its veins throughout Hawkins and is trying to take over the town under the rule of the Mindflayer. I’m prepared to disagree.
Stranger Things was blatantly inspired by MK Ultra and the Montauk Project at Camp Hero and the Philadelphia Experiment, all of our favorite fucked up government tests and trials, we all know this by now. There’s a boy who claims he accidentally opened a portal that allowed a monster to escape from his mind, like that’s literally how 11 and the Demogorgon story is presented in season 1. Except…by the end of season 3, we find out there’s more than one Demogorgon. El killed the one from season one and you’d think she’d notice if she made a new one.
I don’t think El actually created the Demogorgons.
The thing is, when people talk about the experiments, they lean a little heavy on the the psychic powers and the alternate dimensions…they tend not to focus too much on the time travel experiments. But there’s just as many stories of people who were able to open portals into different times, see into the future and the past, AND the people who spoke about this all said that there was a certain year they could never see past, almost as if there was a wall blocking them from seeing any farther into the future…
Stranger Things has officially brought in the Russians. The Russians know about the Upside Down and the Demogorgons. The show is no longer *just* about what the American government is doing.
So say…the Upside Down is just the future. A future where the Cold War didn’t stay cold. They all THINK it’s a horrible alternate world but it’s really just their own future suffering from mass nuclear destruction.
We know the Upside Down is high in radiation- Hop had to get the chemical shower after he came out, everyone who goes near it is in hazmat suits or in the case of the kids they at least make sure to cover their mouths and eyes, Will was being monitored for side effects for OVER A YEAR…they weren’t exactly checking for mind control, they were seeing how it effected him physically. We also know it’s always dark and freezing there, Nuclear Winter anyone??? You even SEE ash floating in the air when they show it. And, if there’s a Demogorgon in Russia, that means they’ve probably managed to open another portal there after the gates in Hawkins were closed. Which means, the Upside Down isn’t JUST alternate Hawkins. It’s probably the future of the full planet in this theory.
But what could have caused this to happen? Why would the Cold War end differently in this show, you ask?
RUSSIA KNOWS ABOUT ELEVEN.
I’m almost POSITIVE they’re going to try to bait her into helping them next season- ‘the American’, be it Hop or Brenner or some random fucking plot twist character, they could CONVINCE her it’s Hopper in order to force her to help them research the gate and the monsters. And I’m sure if that happens, the American government who like…literally made her to aid THEM would have some fucking opinions about it, whether or not the program was shut down. Plus from Kali we know there’s still other powered kids out there…these are all things that could heavily stress the situation, you know? Maybe El spurs them, or something, tensions eventually get too high, and with the Mindflayer continuously trying to escape to try to make El suffer, maybe bombing Hawkins will make sense to people who think the Upside Down is connected to the town- and then that results in America counter attacking Russia, which leads to an ending-life-as-we-know-it world war.
And I know that normally just kills all living things, but- this is a Sci-Fi story. A Sci-Fi story that heavily leans into other Sci-Fi tropes, so: the radiation mutates people and animals and boom, bitch, we’ve got Demogorgons and Demodogs.
Obviously a little girl shoved into a sensory deprivation tank, seeing this for the first time would think it’s an different world full of monsters that she created with her powers- but what if she’s wrong about that.
I mean, even think about it more…the Upside Down is the only other “'alternate world”’ we’ve ever seen El access with her powers. Every other time we see her using her powers, she’s looking at people in her world. Mike, in the hospital trying to warn the guards. Hop in the car trying to get a message to her. Mike, Lucas and Will in the basement. Her mother trying to save her and getting tortured- all in her world. All have to do with glancing through time, especially with her mom. So if she’s skilled at glancing through time/space portals in her own dimension…wouldn’t it make more sense if the Upside Down was part of that? Rather than a different reality all together that she’s unexplainably connected to?
Now, here’s were it’s gonna get a bit weird: I think Will is the Mindflayer.
(You’ve made it this far, please stick with me)
In season 3 we saw the Mindflayer possess Billy, and also at least a hundred fucking townspeople. They’re all dead. It wasn’t possible for them to survive. Even if Billy hadn’t gotten stabbed it really didn’t look like he was gonna make it. And that only lasted for like…a week? Will had the Mindflayer in him for a year, and not ONLY did he survive, he even said the Mindflayer wasn’t going to hurt him- why?!
Well, if you kill your younger self, that’s probably gonna present some Goddamn issues for you.
(Avengers Endgame don’t interact)
Even after it’s been out of his head for months, Will can still sense the Mindflayer and figure out his plans- there’s still a connection there. We know Will likely has some amount of psychic powers like El, he just doesn’t know how to use them- and he survived in the Upside Down for so damn long. If we’re working on the assumption that the radiation mutates people…a boy who likely already has powers, which get strengthened by long exposure to radiation, who then likely gets effected by a nuclear mutation event in the future…like, come on. It’s writing itself out. And if Will’s the most powerful person in this post apocalypse, if the Mindflayer is as in control as he is, it makes sense as to why the kids have been able to identify these creatures from D&D…it’s Will’s favorite game, he’s a kid, he’s gonna work with what he knows.
A lot of people have been speculating that there’ll be a future plotline where Will harbours resentment for El, which makes sense- not that it’s actually El’s fault, but if they decided to follow that storyline Will’s point of view would make sense- El accidentally opened the portal which let the monster out, he was taken, possessed, and overall had his life needlessly complicated by the whole thing. We saw he barely interacted with her in season 3, only when he Had To really, and we know he doesn’t care for her relationship with Mike. Since Joyce now has custody of El, he’s not really going to be able to avoid her as well in season 4. That means it would be a great time to bring up a resentment dynamic.
So, say, this girl accidentally fucks up your life, invades your friend group, worms her way into your family, is responsible for the chain events that’s making you move away from your friends, and then…is at the center of a nuclear apocalypse that either kills everyone you love, or mutates them into mindless monsters….YOU’D BE A LITTLE PISSED OFF AT HER.
The Mindflayer’s anger at El is too personal, it’s not just mad she’s foiling it’s plans- it HATES her. It wants her to suffer.
Say, Will’s the Mindflayer, and because he’s special, powerful, because he was already pre-exposed to the radiation, he’s able to hold onto his mind better than the others that were changed. Not completely though- he’s blinded by anger at the girl he blames for this. And he knows it’s possible to rip through time to the past, before the apocalypse, so he thinks maybe if he can just kill her he can rewrite the future, but with the rage blinders he wants to make sure she suffers first, wants to make sure she knows she deserves this- he keeps his mind better than the others but NOT ENOUGH, all he can really remember is this is all El’s Fault, not remembering the past events well enough to know that the more he goes after El, the more she’ll have to fight back, which puts her more on dangerous people’s radar and leads directly to the event he wants to prevent….like BITCH, I’m sorry but that would be a fucking cool story.
Again, I don’t think the show will actually go in this direction but like…it should lmao. I could keep going but this is long enough as is. If you actually stuck it out through the end congrats, you win a prize.
send me stranger things theories I’m all in the mood now
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