Kaya

I’m not a clone. I just don’t good with words. Stranger Things/Tower of god

[kaya-not-kaya]

Wow the painting of Will is behind El when Mike and El kissing in season 3 and this painting is still behind El when they fight in season 4. And this painting is on frame when El stands up and throws the letters to Mike. Will is the reason why Mike can’t say or write I love you to El. Case closed.

[upsidedownlurker]

MIKE THE STORYTELLER

(his story has been turned upside down…)

Part 1 (Reality = reversed), Part 2 (Will/Robin), Part 3 (12 Episodes), Part 4 (MWTFDYD), Part 5 (Rainbows), Part 6 (Mike and Wileven)

Have you ever wondered why Season 5 is listed in reverse?

These 8 episodes are a fake version of the real story, told out of order; flipped upside down. 

Mike is the storyteller of Season 5, and he’s a very unreliable narrator. It’s not his fault though; right now, he’s trapped in a fake world, based on his own memories. 

"The storyteller keeps telling stories."

EVIDENCE?

It’s not Holly who was kidnapped into a fake world – it was Mike. All the episodes we experienced are based on things that really happened to him, but they’re out of order. Wrong.

Part memory, part story. 

So, for this theory to make sense, what happened to Holly must be what happened to Mike. Are there any similarities or details that suggest this?

Production:

Holly is aged up, and replaced by a different actor

Holly’s character arc completely replaced Mike’s. Most of the time, Mike’s just watching everyone else do stuff. No personal development.

Holly has more screen time than even Will, let alone Mike. 95 entire minutes – for someone who's usually a side character!

Interesting, but there’s plausible deniability here. It could all be the result of poor writing. So let’s test that by examining the way Holly is actually written in the show.

In-Show:

Max tells Holly, “You’re not like your brother, you are your brother”.

Holly the Heroic mirrors Mike the Brave. They wish they could become fearless like their characters, but they both feel like they’re not good enough.

Mike and Holly both tell the kids, “Eyes on me.”

Holly’s head wound in Camazotz mirrors Mike’s head wound from MAC-Z.

Holly the Heroic wields a fire poker, like Mike the Brave wields a sword.

Holly and her best friend Mary in the basement on Halloween while Vecna was watching mirrors Mike and his best friend Will in the basement on Halloween while Vecna was watching.

Holly and her friends replace Mike and his friends in the final D&D scene.

Okay, so not only are they written with a TON of similarities, but Max literally tells us straight-up that they are the same character. This doesn’t point to bad writing, it points to very intentional writing! The Holly/Mike switch has evidence, and lots of it!

Taking all of this into account, I can only conclude that Mike is literally Holly. He tells the tale of Camazotz from Holly’s perspective, but really, he is stuck in a fake world.

Why it Makes Sense

We all agree here that at least part of Season 5 is an illusion. But which parts? When does it start? Who is in the illusion? The exact details are extraordinarily hard to figure out, because there is evidence for both. 

There’s loads of dream imagery and signs of Vecna’s influence since Episode 1. This points to none of the episodes being real before 8. However, there are also moments from the characters and plot that just don’t make sense if they’re completely fake; for example, Robin giving gay relationship advice to Will. WHY AND HOW WOULD VECNA DO THAT??? LMAO??? This points to all of the episodes being real before 8.

That's the problem with the illusion theory – how can we possibly tell what is real? Well, this theory solves that problem.

ALL of it is real, and NONE of it is real. it's nerf or nothing

These episodes are a fake version of the real story, flipped upside down. Act 1.

C'mon, I'll show you Act 2!

THE REAL STORY OF SEASON 5

I noticed that the episode descriptions for Season 5 are pretty vague. So vague, in fact, that the first and last episodes could pretty much be swapped. Hey, wait a minute–

If you reverse the order of every episode, as they're listed on Google, they tell a very different story. This story makes genuine, logical sense. This is what's really going on.

The Overview

Don't worry – my explanation, evidence, original episode descriptions, the reversed order, the titles, etc are all below this overview!!!

It's 1986. After Vecna took over Hawkins in Season 4, the party planned to defeat him... but on November 6th, something went wrong. Vecna kidnapped Mike and brought him into a fake world.

[This is where Mike experiences the Season 5 we all saw – the "upside-down" story of Vecna's defeat, based on his memories of what happened in real-world Hawkins.]

[Since Season 4 took a long time to film, and was written in tandem with Season 5, it's possible that some of the "real" scenes were already filmed back then!]

Mike explores his new surroundings, Joyce wrestles with guilt over his disappearance.

To help find Mike/Vecna, they split into two groups. One group connects Will back to the hivemind, but it works a bit too well. El must find a way into Will's mind.

Meanwhile, tension arises when a group including Lucas and Robin searches Hawkins Lab in the Upside Down. They're caught, causing the military to tighten their grip on Hawkins. Meanwhile, Mike explores his new surroundings, Joyce wrestles with guilt*, and Jonathan + Nancy reach a crucial turning point.

[*Her guilt will probably come from Mike's disappearance, Will's hivemind trance – and maybe Jonathan's "turning point"]

Mike plans his escape from the fake world, while Lucas and Robin plan an escape from the military, and El comes face-to-face with the enemy (whoever that is).

Will is back, and because of his connection to the hivemind, he claims to know Vecna's next move, so they set a trap for him. Meanwhile, Mike fights to escape Vecna's mind – with Max! He confronts his secrets, leading him to escape. Nancy confronts a different secret – perhaps related to her "turning point".

Something about Will's... um... insight (read: possession)... enables Vecna to attack the Wheeler home, and whoever is inside. The trap wasn't for Vecna; it was for them.

El and Hopper go on a rescue mission (Probably Will, but could be for Kali, Mike, Nancy, or Jonathan too).

The gang evade the military and goes looking for Vecna in the Upside Down, but there's a threat closer to home. Something is happening to Will, and Vecna may not just be in the Upside Down.

Timeskip! It's now November, 1987. This is the real epilogue; not sunshine and rainbows, but honest and real.

So, how exactly did we get here?

STANDARD ORDER – ST5, Act 1

Well, here are the normal episode descriptions, for context.

THE CRAWL – November, 1987. The gang evades the military to scour the Upside Down for Vecna – but fails to notice a threat lurking closer to home.

THE VANISHING OF HOLLY WHEELER – After a vicious attack at the Wheeler home, Mike and Nancy confront the cost of secrecy, while El and Hopper embark on a rescue mission. 

THE TURNBOW TRAP – Will gains unique insight into Vecna’s next move, giving the crew an opportunity to set a trap. Holly explores her new surroundings. 

SORCERER – The military tightens its grip on the town. Mike, Lucas and Robin orchestrate a daring escape. El comes face-to-face with the enemy.

SHOCK JOCK – The gang hatches an electrifying plan to connect Will to the hive mind. Tensions flare during a search of the Upside Down’s Hawkins Lab. 

ESCAPE FROM CAMAZOTZ – As Holly and Max fight to escape Vecna’s mind, El must find a way into Will’s. Joyce wrestles with guilt. Jonathan and Nancy face a turning point. 

THE BRIDGE – On the anniversary of Will’s disappearance, the party reunites to prepare for a battle with world-altering complications. 

THE RIGHTSIDE UP – As Vecna prepares to destroy the world as we know it, the party must put everything on the line to defeat him once and for all. 

Doesn’t that sound vague to you? Almost like they would make sense in a different order?

UPSIDE DOWN ORDER – ST5, Act 2

Well, here are those same descriptions – flipped. I actually think there will be 12 Episodes total, but for clarity, I kept them separate here.

I reversed the order of everything, except for the lines about Holly – because her story is what actually happened to Mike, so it's already in the right order. I then replaced Holly's name with Mike's.

I also changed every episode title except The Crawl, which I’ve fully explained below!

THE CRAWL - As Vecna prepares to destroy the world as we know it, the party must put everything on the line to defeat him once and for all. 

THE VANISHING OF MIKE WHEELER – On the anniversary of Will’s disappearance, the party reunites to prepare for a battle with world-altering complications. 

*THE RIGHTSIDE UP – Jonathan and Nancy face a turning point. Joyce wrestles with guilt. As Mike explores his new surroundings, El must find a way into Will’s mind.

*SHOCK JOCK – The gang hatches an electrifying plan to connect Will to the hive mind. Tensions flare during a search of the Upside Down’s Hawkins Lab. 

*SORCERER – El comes face-to-face with the enemy. Mike, Lucas and Robin orchestrate a daring escape. The military tightens its grip on the town.

ESCAPE FROM THE RIGHTSIDE UP – Will gains unique insight into Vecna’s next move, giving the crew an opportunity to set a trap. Mike and Max fight to escape Vecna’s mind. 

THE PALADIN AND THE CLERIC – Preceding a vicious attack at the Wheeler home, Mike and Nancy confront the cost of secrecy, while El and Hopper embark on a rescue mission. 

*THE RAINBOW SHIP – The gang evades the military to scour the Upside Down for Vecna – but fails to notice a threat lurking closer to home. November, 1987.

* = switched, blue = replaced, all other text is simply in reverse order

Don't these descriptions work suspiciously well in their reversed order? Perhaps their vagueness was intentional.

I believe that in their new order, and with Mike swapped for Holly, these descriptions tell the real story.

Although, I think it's more likely they'll condense it into four longer ones, rather than putting out eight more one-hour episodes. I'll touch on this in Part 3.

Why these titles?

Below is an explanation of the new titles I chose for each revised description. You can skip this, but it provides some extra context.

The Crawl = The Crawl. Only The Crawl has been registered for copyright, so I’ve changed every title EXCEPT this episode. Also... when baby Steve got knocked on the head, he stopped CRAWLING in reverse, and started CRAWLING forwards instead. The episodes are now in the correct order.

The Vanishing of Mike Wheeler, because… duh. Also, "The Vanishing Of..." only reveals that it's Holly Wheeler after you watch the episode. Perhaps they did that for a reason... ;)

I swapped The Turnbow Trap with The Rightside Up, because this is the episode in which Mike finds himself trapped in his version of Camazotz. Except Mike wouldn’t name it after a book he hasn’t read. He would be much more likely to compare the fake world to the Upside Down. Therefore, it’s the Rightside Up! Here’s my theory that the Rightside Up is a place.

Similarly, I replaced Escape from Camazotz with Escape from the Rightside Up, because… duh. 

I simply swapped Shock Jock and Sorcerer. They both start with “S” and they’re both right next to each other. Interestingly, the official art for Sorcerer uses a frame from Shock Jock, and the official art from Shock Jock uses a frame from Sorcerer. Hmmm.

The Season 5 titles were leaked before they were announced, and the only incorrect leak was Episode 7 – The Paladin and the Cleric. So, that’s what I chose. Similar titles have been used throughout the series (The Flea and the Acrobat, The Monster and the Superhero) so it’s plausible. It matches Mike and Will's D&D characters... but it ALSO fits El and Hopper, who are a duo in this episode. Why? Mike's campaign from the epilogue. El is the mage of Saint Markovia, but in D&D lore, Saint Markovia is a cleric. Mike called Hopper a paladin in that same campaign.

Now, the final episode. I have literally no out-of-show evidence for the final episode’s title could be, so here’s my idea. As a replacement for The Turnbow Trap, I chose The Rainbow Ship, because of the strong rainbow themes throughout the show. The rainbow room from the lab, "rainbow, sunflower" etc, Holly’s association with rainbows, the rainbow El sees between the two waterfalls, and crucially, Will’s rainbow ship drawing. His drawing of Castle Byers became real, his drawings of Will the Wise became real, his drawings of the tunnels... and presumably, the rainbow ship, too.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY! “There upon a rainbow is the answer to a never-ending story.”

ALSO IMPORTANTLY! As @persistentmimicgrail pointed out, the USS Eldridge ship was part of project rainbow. RAINBOW SHIPPPPPPP~

Easter egg – a rainbow forms when water and light combine. Will is associated with light, while both Will and Mike are associated with water.

Also, I think it would be hilarious if the episode where Will + Mike get together is called The Rainbow Ship. COME ON!!! THAT WOULD BE SO FUNNY!!! If the Duffers don’t do this, it’s going straight to my ao3 account, that’s for sure.

MIKE WHEELER: the storyteller, or the Dungeon Master?

As well as being Mike the Brave, Mike used to be the Dungeon Master. The one in control of the story. Now, he’s merely the storyteller of Season 5, telling fake stories, trapped in a fake world built from memories, with no control at all. 

“The storyteller keeps telling stories. Stories inspired by his friends.” He hopes “all can know of their great bravery.” 

Isn’t that sad? Mike’s friends get to be brave, but the only thing Mike The Brave gets to do is tell their stories. Not his own. 

This reminds me heavily of Owen from I Saw The TV Glow (2024).

[SPOILERS!!!]

Owen is a heavily queercoded character trapped in a fake world, while the real world is presented as a TV show Owen and their friend are obsessed with.

Throughout the film, timeskips get larger and larger, and Owen slowly loses control of the narrative, going from the protagonist to a background character in their own life, no longer in the center of the frame. Owen's friend from the real world tries to help them escape, telling Owen that they must choose to give up their fake self to get back to reality. But Owen isn’t brave enough. Instead of choosing to escape, Owen runs away. Chooses conformity instead.

“There’s still time” for Owen to accept reality, but that time is quickly running out.

This is what Mike is going through. Being trapped in a fake world with altered memories. Starting as the protagonist, but fading into the background. Timeskips and time distortion. An ambiguous ending. Queerness. Repression. Conformity. Bravery. 

Why is it that the way Mike is written is incredibly similar to the main character of an explicitly queer film? A film about the difficult choice to end your “normal” self in order to keep your true, authentic self alive – and the deep, dreadful horror of living in queer repression after failing to do so?

This film isn’t even listed as inspiration for Stranger Things, yet Mike’s story mirrors Owen’s near-perfectly. How is that even possible? Because they’re about the same thing. Queerness and conformity.

“There is a story he can never tell. The story of the mage.” Cut to Will. “Or at least, not the real story.”

Mike is going to escape his own doomed narrative. He is going to take back control, confront his secrets, become the protagonist of his life again – the Dungeon Master of his own, personal game of D&D.

Why does it need to be Mike – not Holly?

Thanks for the question, @poisongardens!!

From a character perspective, I think it relates to how Mike sees himself. Mike sees his fears as childish and silly, so it makes sense he projected them onto a more "acceptable" replacement – his little sister. It's okay for Holly to be scared, but not Mike, right? He also thinks he's not important or brave enough to be the hero of his story, so he replaces his character with a different one.

From a writing perspective, I think the "bad ending" happened because the characters succumbed to their fears and insecurities; the "good ending" will be the result of bravery, love, non-conformity etc. So, Mike needs to be in control of his own story to achieve this, not Holly… meaning Mike must have something Holly doesn't.

This analysis gave a great explanation!!

Even though Holly and Mike live in the same house, their experiences are different. They both see their parents argue, but Holly sees them argue about her. They both have close best friends who are under Vecna's control (Will, Mary) but while Will is able to remember Mike, Mary doesn't, and even attacks her. Holly befriends Derek, but he's too scared to defend her when she's in trouble. Holly can talk to Mike, but he doesn't tell the full truth, and he's stuck in Camazotz too.

Holly is like Mike, but with less support/accessible love (similar to Henry vs. Will). Believing in herself unfortunately wasn't enough – because when she fell, no-one was there to catch her.

Mike's different though. He has people there to support him, who aren't stuck in conformity – and he has love that is accessible to him, but only if he's brave enough to seek it out.

How's it going to end?

Well, to reference the Truman Show – a film that is on the Stranger Things inspiration board – it starts with Mike walking up the stairs, and out that basement door.

The ending has already begun.

Thanks to @astrangerthingsblog, @warmglowhc, @atsadi, @thatgirlalt, @thebestofmyrmidons, @whispering-goat, @vecnapilled… and a bunch of other peeps I’ve probably left out by accident. Your theories and analyses inspired this one!

[spookeart]

Mike realises his feelings a little too late

[you-didnt-have-to]

akhdjargjakaejdkahauyegaj

[erikiara80]

Kali says that her blood isn't working, it's killing the pregnant women, because there's only one kid who's really like Henry. And she looks at El.

But 1) El doesn't actually have all the powers Henry has, 2) Henry got his powers from the Mind Flayer, 3) the only other person who's been possessed by it and connected to the Hive Mind is Will.

Throughout the season, they keep saying that Will is Vecna, we see him use his powers, see what Henry sees and even speak through him.

So, they made us think that El is the kid who's like Henry, because she has his blood, but it's actually Will, who doesn't have Henry's blood, but like him, was changed by the very source of the powers.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

This is a really good point. Kali, presumably, has powers because she was infused with Henry's blood, too. So, how could El provide a different result? They never bothered to explain that beyond it just being a hunch Kali had.

Meanwhile, Will is literally said to be like Vecna, and he was infused with shadow particles, just like Henry was, and fully integrated into the hive mind, just as Henry was. But that ends up serving no purpose beyond having Will try and fail to find Henry's humanity buried inside him.

I feel like every writer was doing their own thing despite a "collaborative" process.

[j-aquarian]

The Truman Show

There's all this talk about the season 5 ending referencing The Truman Show and how that means they must be living in an illusion now, so I was like oh cool, I'm not sure I ever watched this movie, I should go do that now. And as I was, I was just dumbfounded that everyone's comparing this to s5 and s5 only, when it's obvious

Stranger Things has always been The Truman Show.

I don't think there's a single scene in this movie that hasn't been referenced somehow in ST! Guys, what are we doing?

This is long as shit but you all need to read this

right now.

The product placement,

one of the first ones we see is an ad for a chicken restaurant or something. Chicken! The mascot of the WSQK that they kept talking about the whole time! Speaking of WSQK, every time Truman does something they don't want him doing, like he sees a studio light that falls from the sky, they make up news stories and shit on the radio and TV etc to gaslight him into thinking there's nothing weird going on. Because they all know what he's doing! Like WSQK made references to what the characters were doing!

There's a golf scene they referenced twice in ST, in s4 with Jonathan and Argyle and s5 with Ted.

This is Meryl designing a nursery, going through a wallpaper catalogue that looks like something Holly's room design came out of.

This is two audience members commenting on how they never see the sex scenes, which is just like how they did the Jancy scene in s2.

Here's Truman stopping some cars in traffic.

Where have we seen this imagery before??

The actor who played Truman's dad was written out of the show, but the he sneaks back onto set to go see him years later and Truman goes full s1 Joyce about it while everyone else tries to convince him he's mad, or how it's the grief!

All the creep shots where it looks like the characters are being watched.

Truman's friend Marlon works in a general store like Melvalds and Truman goes there to talk to him and the scene is all at once just like all the ones where Hopper goes over to talk to Joyce about shit, but also like the scene in s2 where Nancy and Jonathan are in the park waiting to get caught by the lab people and they're looking all around for the spies.

A lot of STRANGE THINGS have been happening. Oh, I'm sure.

That scene of Max in s4 where there's a poster about "running" in the counselor's office foreshadowing the Running Up That Hill scene vs. Truman going to a travel agency to book a flight but it's full of posters warning about the dangers of flying to dissuade him

The main bad guy showrunner sits in front of a globed window/screen that makes him look like Vecna when he's connected to the vines.

Little Truman wanting to be an explorer like Henry but also is dressed like s1 Mike. He has an old chest of his childhood "explorer things" just like the one Holly finds in Henry's room. It's closed with a padlock that felt like a Terry Ives reference.

The way Truman was adopted by a corporation and raised in the fake city since birth etc. is like how El was raised in the lab. The showrunner gets asked in an interview how many cameras there are in the town and he reminds everyone how they started with just one, like Brenner's program. Oh, and look, is that a NINA reference?

He also states that Truman was chosen because his birth coincided with the predetermined air date. Like how Will has the same birthday as Henry? And the November 6th of it all perhaps? There was also a throwaway line of Truman shouting out "your birthday comes but once a year!" And I'm like, they kinda gave Will two birthdays though?Is this what birthdaygate is, a mistake you're supposed to pick up on simply because it doesn't make sense and it's supposed to make you feel like something is wrong?

There's the crazy together scene. Mike's fake ass monologue to El from s4 (here, the showrunner was directly feeding the lines to the actor performing). It arguably felt like El's last speech to Mike as well.

Truman can't leave the island he lives on because they made him so afraid of water that he can't cross it, he freezes at the edge just like Henry freezes at the cave entrance! The only real exit is a BRIDGE that has the sign "You are now leaving Seahaven Island", like we keep seeing that "Leaving Hawkins" sign all the time in ST.

There's a little girl who looks like pre-s5 Holly who breaks character when she sees Truman and points him out to her mom just like Holly had all those weird moments like when she wandered off to Will's room and saw the lights and the one in s3 where she tells Karen and Ted that the trees are moving, pointing out things others don't/can't see for some reason.

There's a power plant thingy that looks like Hawkins lab. Truman gets chased in the woods by guys in hazmat suits.

See his jacket here? The collar look familiar to you? Well imagine the main body of that jacket was dark blue. Will wears this coat in blue when he's being spontaneous with Robin and they find the mandalas in the woods, or like when his head was spinning earlier, and wouldn't you know it, Truman drives his car around and round in a circle here!

This is Mike and El after Rink'O'Mania when El is all you think i'm a monster and you don't love me anymore and Mike's like th-that's not truuuee and brings her her PRODUCT PLACEMENT EGGOS.

Is this the Duffers themselves doing interviews post s5?! The dumbass answers but also—

— we accept the ending/show as real because it's what we were presented with?

There's audience members who are references, like a guy who looks like Murray who's watching in a bath, cause didn't Murray have a bath scene is s4 or something? And a family where the mom and older daughter are so invested in the show they're ignoring a toddler in a baby seat who's crying like how Holly was always being all sad and weirdly centered in the Wheeler dinner scenes??

Graduation Will in the epilogue looks just like Truman in his graduation pics. In fact, there are those bts pics of epilogue Will in the bar with different hair that it seems like they changed in post, and the edited hair makes him look more like Truman. They gave him Truman's hair in post.

Truman's neighbours, like how the Wheelers and the Sinclairs are neighbours.

When Truman makes his escape, he tricks the showrunners by pretending to clean up his basement and covering a bunch of the cameras, then he does a Turnbow trap mannequin trick, but they looks for him in the closet (like how the soldiers in the UD lab thought Hopper was hiding in the closet), and when they open the closet, he's dug a hole that he's climbed out of and the actor who's looking for him peeks out of it (like when they dig up into the bathroom in Sorcerer and then when we see Mike poke his head in)!! There's a whole point about how he managed to hide from the cameras because there's a small break in the feed when they change from regular cameras to night vision cameras which reminded me of the weird black screen in the finale when Steve almost falls off the radio tower!? Here of course, it's Truman tricking the showrunners, which made me think if this conformitygate shit is less about the characters being in a Vecna vision, and more about Vecna being in a Will vision or something? Or like the characters are tricking the audience so they can escape the show? Are we the bad guys, the hivemind, keeping them imprisoned? Well, maybe not all of us... because the ending they performed was only satisfactory to... some people.

The basement in general is like the Wheeler basement.

Look at how Truman walking on the edge of the pool that was supposed to be the ocean makes it look like he's walking on water like El does in the void!

There's a search party for him at night and it looks like the Mac-Z scenes. Truman's great escape is just like El's final moments, he finally manages to set sail, but the showrunners raise a huge ass storm to capsize his boat, just like how El gets swept away by "blowing winds". They also turn all the day lights on and the cast who's looking for Truman cover their eyes like how our guys had to cover their eyes. The showrunners and actors all just stand around and watch like all the soldiers and other characters do in El's scene.

Christoff's last conversation with Truman feels reminiscent of Mike and El's. But then there's this line:

Which feels like the reason we never get Mike's perspective on anything. ST doesn't have a camera in Mike's head!

Oh, I'm gonna be making a whole separate ass post about this scene and it's implication for ST. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Truman's fake ass wedding photos reminding me of Mike and El's Snow Ball photo for real.

There's a library scene that manages to reference s1 Nancy and Steve, s5 Will, s4 Will and Mike, s2 and s4 Lucas and Max, s5 Holly and Mr. Whatsit, and probably more I can't remember right now, all at the same time with just three characters!!

The Snow Ball!

A pizza date!?

Truman sitting in the basement looking at pictures of his dad after he sees him "come back to life", and holding Sylvia's sweater after her disappearance is just like Mike going through his folder of Will's drawings in s1, and maybe when he's waiting to hear from El in s2.

Also Mike wears a red shirt with a white collar in s1.

Seahaven Island is a construct built under a huge dome and it is at the same time just like the UD with it's wall, but also the RU Hawkins that is under quarantine in s5. Guess how he discovers the edge? He sails into it like this.

That's the radio tower poking into the Abyss. Truman then proceeds to try and break through the wall like Jonathan and Nancy when they were stuck in the goo room. His sweater looks similar to what Lucas was wearing in the epilogue movie theatre scene. He finds a door "in the middle of nowhere" like Holly. He exits the show like Mike. Earlier when his boat capsized he was underwater like Karen and Holly in the bathtub. The outside of the dome looks like this,

like a flat surface depiction of a repeating tesseract.

Then there's this part where the same actors play themselves in college in a flashback and they look way too old and it looks funny, and I went, wait a damn minute. Isn't this exactly what people have been complaining about with ST, how everyone looks too old now and it's weird? And I was sitting there thinking, are the Duffers some kind of evil geniuses who deliberately took this long to make ST so they could reproduce that effect with the younger cast, or is this just a hell of a coincidence, like wtf is happening here?! Could they even predict people would react like that if they did? BUT THEN. I realized they could just PUT THAT SHIT OUT THERE THEMSELVES?! Because we have social media now, they could be out there controlling the narrative and feeding us the talking points?! What the hell kind of social experiment are they running here?! I feel like I'm going crazy! And this wasn't the first time I've had that thought, I made a post sometime after vol. 1, before I watched this movie, where I mentioned feeling like the weird divide into casual fans and hardcore fans, Milevens and Bylers, etc, feels in part manufactured somehow, like they're deliberately feeding into it for some reason. That is to say, something told me that could be the case before this movie provided more context, and I can't explain what.

Are they trying to show how easy it is for people to fall for a false narrative in media or something? Like making a point about misinformation and fake news and all that by using a fictional story to do it "ethically"? Idk if I'm wording this right. Does this make sense to anyone? The WSQK promotional radio station was run by the Mindflayer and Vecna to keep the people of Hawkins in check, and control them, placate them!

I think there's also a direct link to the reason Will's coming out scene was the way it was, and I want to make a more in-depth post about that as well.

And isn't this how ST seems to be, with how much they sell merch, the ST experience theme park-type stuff, everything?

What's also interesting is how the showrunners in TTS are like Vecna and/or the Mindflayer, and the hivemind, but the irl writers and creators are also, well, the showrunners. They've places themselves as characters in the story. I saw a post that said this:

"They had multiple promos reminding us to pay attention to details, to question what they're showing. Hell, Lucas literally breaks the fourth wall to inform the writers don't believe in coincidences, so neither should we.

Beyond that, their answers are straight up making them look incredibly incompetent and like they don't know their own show. They are almost absurdly bad, in a way I haven't seen them be before.

I have talked about how this resembles a lot of The Blair Witch Project marketing, where they went out of their way to deceive people."

This is like that bit earlier with Christof explaining a 22 year absence with "amnesia" and the interviewer going "brilliant" like it isn't the dumbest most cliche thing he could have said. I swear to god the Duffers are playing Christof right now. And it makes me wonder how much of the cast interviews and everything could be just completely scripted and "part of the story" too. Like a lot of people pointing out how they're silencing Noah, straight up telling him to shut up, all these stories of how dismissive they've been of him, how he seems a little sad and like he's got some beef with them, and maybe he does. I'm not trying to invalidate his possible real life struggles with people who might have been terrible to him. But, it's also a fact that Noah is the one playing Will, who parallels not one, but two different characters who were written out of "The Truman Show" because they were causing trouble for the showrunners. Truman's dad, and Sylvia (and I'm going to make a separate post about her). A coincidence? Idk, because they told us, with Lucas breaking the fourth wall to not believe in coincidences!

And I remember someone saying Finn had expressed worry for the Duffers because the ending is so brave? Because it's controversial, or because they're putting themselves out there and making themselves look bad because they're playing the role of the villain? (I don't have a source for the quote though, feel free to share in the comments if you do)

Someone even suggested that they manufactured the entire Cutgate incident. All of the above just made me think maybe the cuts are real, but not in the way we think, but in the way that they are Christof controlling Truman's story. Remember that scene in vol. 2 where Will is unconscious and Mike wanders into the room, the one from the trailer where everyone was hyped to see him talk with Joyce, but then it cuts off really conspicuously as though the scene ended in the middle and it was dubbed "pointless wandering" online? Like it was removed by the evil showrunners who don't want us to see Mike worrying about Will?

Seahaven is this perfect, but fake world like Camazotz, which is run by Henry, another avatar of TTS showrunners, who tells Will to GET OUT, because Will learned to tap into the control centre and hijack the show, and then Will does. He gets removed from the narrative, his entire arc with Mike vanishes right after this scene, and even his powers seem to be way less important than they were made out to be in Sorcerer.

I mentioned he's paralleled with Truman's dad who got kicked off the show? Well he was brought back later as damage control after he'd snuck back onto set (this was the 22 year absence explained by amnesia bit, btw) and Truman couldn't stop obsessing over him. BUT. He's brought back as a cast member. He has to go back to pretending the show is real, being an actor in it, just so he can be with Truman again. Almost like when Will wakes up and he's been tortured by Vecna, he suddenly acts like Mike was just a crush and his Tammy? We have the amnesia imagery in their costumes which reference The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (this movie has been talked about before as well, so I don't think I have to go into detail about that). And later we see the amnesia imagery again with Mike wearing the Mary Jane shirt in the epilogue, like he's forgotten vol. 1 Will who was his Peter Parker.

This is getting really long... but I suppose the question at the end is this. How does all of this fit into the actual lore and canon of Stranger Things?

I don't know. Maybe it doesn't.

What are they trying to accomplish and say?

Is there going to be a secret, true ending we're going to see, or are we simply supposed to speculate and find the truth in their controlled narrative and see how even though this is what we saw happen, it is not the truth? I guess we'll have to see. But I think we should all collectively keep analyzing the details, yes, but also, look at the bigger picture. Step outside the narrative and realize the story isn't confined within the walls set up around Hawkins, because that's where we've been looking for the answers. We are just as trapped inside the story as the characters are. Go through that door. Look behind that curtain. Be like Joyce with the lights!

TL;DR — The Duffers might be evil geniuses who have been playing some kind of long con this whole time? Who the fuck knows!

Part 2

Yeah! There's a second part! This is ridiculous!

[henrysglock]

I was talking to my mom about the finale, and she said to me "I can't believe they sent Will to Milwaukee in the Dahmer era". And so I had to go back and rewatch Mike's epilogue for Will myself.

Sure enough:

Vallaki, with the same syllable stresses as Milwaukee. I can see why the two sounded interchangeable to someone who doesn't know anything about DnD.

However, I looked a little closer at the scenery in the bar:

That's 100% the Pabst logo.

From what I can tell, they fucking sent Will Byers to Milwaukee circa 1990-1991, when Jeffrey Dahmer was most active.

And on top of this (which is news to me, because I'm not a true crime girlie):

Lionel (Lonnie..?) and Joyce? Really?

What kind of sick joke is this 🙃

(Not to mention Vallaki literally being the Enforced Happiness Tyranny City that's prone to cult takeovers...now why is that...why is Will being sent to the DnD near-equivalent of ST's Camazotz...Literally for what reason...)

[miwiheroes]

I swear I could feel the real Mike Wheeler struggling to emerge from the Duffers’ restraints this whole season. You know how they say that some characters break free of their creators and do their own thing after a while? That’s what Mike almost did. Regardless of what those dudebros intended, Mike is madly in love with Will and that’s the truth, that’s the character any media literate viewer can see.

these two images about to become my favourite thing

[bylerworld]

mike when he realizes he fumbled the most handsome boy that has ever walked the earth

[bylerworld]

mike wheeler could never handle all that

[lookingatyourlips]

to those saying they ended up writing mike to be straight--

they didnt. they wrote him to be a closeted gay man who chose fear instead of facing himself.

he didnt say i love you back. STILL.

he ended with trying not to cry while touching his and Wills dnd books. after it was delivered to his conscience that all that time ago.. telling Will "its not my fault you dont like girls, what did you think really that we'd play games in my basement for the rest of our--yadda yadda" legitimately tortured him, on top of everything else his supposed best friend has been through.

they didnt write mike as a straight man, they wrote him as a coward. and worst of all, they wrote it ambiguous enough to make people believe they wrote him to be straight, while still leaving room for bylers to think they could still get together eventually.

[bylrlvr]

everything sucks ass right now but i’m sorry i just have to say this frame is so buzzy for the concept of older depressed writer mike who realises he’s missed his chance with the love of his life who’s already moved on. so now whenever he writes he looks over to the painting his best friend once gifted him, as he lets his emotions bleed into words. feelings he never got to confess. i will die on this angst hill

[mikewheelerisaqueerler]

nancy's alcoholism mirroring her mother

mike's emotional absence mirroring his father

[fatfatgaybitch]

“What did you think really? That we were just gonna sit in my basement and play games for the rest of our lives?”

And Mike being the only one left in the basement playing games

Mike you will never be free and maybe that’s what you deserve

[ninidarlings]

Mike fucking has Will’s painting on his wall in the story he tells. He’s gonna have a real hard time when good luck, babe! come out

[l0sersitsbyherself]

if we want to talk about unrealistic, can we talk about everyone cheering Dustin for hellfire, when they most likely haven’t got an explanation for everything that happened so probably think hellfire is still really bad

[greenfiend]

- Why did TFS allude to a “gay ending”?

- Why did the cast compare the ending of ST to the ending of Schitt’s Creek (which ends with a gay wedding)

- Queer coding aside, why does Mike have so many clues/build up to a “Love, Mike” letter?

- Where was “Let’s start a new party, you and me”?

- Why all the birthdaygate clues and why does Henry and Will have the same birthday?

- Why did Steve/Jonathan have more of a heart-to-heart than Mike and Will?

- WHO OPENED THE DOOR TO THE BYERS HOUSE? Didn’t they say they’d answer that?

I feel like this is a fake ending.