Little_Pasta

They/Them, This is a safe space for my nonsense

[hellfirehoe]

[auracobaltblue]

Haven’t heard the words “Byler doubt” in exactly 3 months now I only experience byler euphoria

[littlepasta]

Here’s my The Amazing Digital Circus theory input:

(SPOILER WARNING)

(I hope this hasn’t become a popular theory already without me knowing cause that would be awkward)

I take your “Bubble is the blue AI” and “Bubble is a virus” theories, and raise them to “Bubble is what remains of the blue AI, but it’s been infected by a virus.”

Evidence:

- AI can be infected by viruses (did a bit of research on this, and this was the answer I got, but pls correct me if I’m wrong)

- Bubble was helping Caine create the “adventure” with Abel, meaning he was able to come up with ideas and implement them the way Caine- an AI- can.

- HOWEVER! There’s no denying that Bubble could be a reference to the Bubbleboy virus, and that, in general, Bubble seems to have virus-like traits (especially the fact that he’s started to multiply, with the little baby Bubble)

More evidence for this:

(Got this from @iam_jamina on tik tok)

I JUST THOUGHT OF SMTHN: If Bubble is the Blue AI, it would absolutely make sense that Caine needs to keep him close and compliant, because Caine, the Red AI, was having trouble functioning (considering how it was spitting out weird/messed up shapes in the episode 8 intro); Maybe Caine needs the Blue AI to carry out his tasks and to function properly.

OK ALSO! When Caine got deleted, the digital circus didn’t completely crumble- it was broken, but the foundation was relatively in tact.

I agree with theories suggesting Scratch created the circus to help kids with terminal illness live longer and thrive, so while Scratch might’ve just been the one to create the world without the help of AI, I think it’s likely that the AI were responsible for building/creating the world (after Scratch coded/created them to)

(After Caine was deleted, stuff started breaking and disappeared, so the framework of the world is clearly connected to the AI in some way)

SO! What if Caine needed the Blue AI not only to carry out his adventures, but to build the digital circus as a whole?

(THIS IS ALSO EVIDENT IN THE EPISODE 8 OPENING SEQUENCE! Because the circus is only created after the two AI fight and combine, with the Red AI overpowering the Blue AI

However, the Blue AI may be infected by a virus

This would explain why Bubble seems to malfunction (long string of bleeped curse words despite the no cursing rule, the backwards speech in episode 3, the tongue disappearing when Bubble stopped the water spill, and Caine commenting “that was weird”, etc.)

It would also explain why Bubble suddenly starts criticizing Caine and egging him on in episode 8- he even glitches when saying “why would they hate you when they could just- hate you?” As if he was being manipulated. Caine also pops two bubbles when the situation start to escalate, demonstrating how the virus has begun spreading.

So, to sum everything up: After Caine, the Red AI, combined with, overpowered, and took control of the Blue AI, he used it to help him create the digital circus. He maintains control by keeping the Blue AI close and compliant in the form of Bubble, his assistant. However, the Blue AI has become infected by some kind of virus, one that seems to be attempting to destroy Caine, and maybe the circus as a whole.

(MORE EVIDENCE: I saw a tik tok created by @ieorjus explaining how Caine’s deletion wasn’t just an accident, but a deliberate attempt by something in the system to delete Caine by screwing with Kinger’s responses and initiating sequences he tried to cancel. One of the comments suggested there are blank spaces in the code that hint at Bubble being the culprit as well.)

THATS ALL!

That was way longer than I anticipated-

Lemme know if I said anything that was straight up factually incorrect 💔

[littlepasta]

Not a Mileven by any means- BUT

If they had done a better job exploring Mike’s worsening mental health and his responses to the stress and trauma he was dealing with regarding his parents, Holly, (Will),

The final scene before the epilogue would have hit so much harder.

For the audience to see him struggle so much throughout the season, especially considering his complicated relationships with his family and with Will, that final blow would’ve been so much more impactful.

NOT to make the scene more romantic, but for him to undergo all of that just to lose someone so important to him, and someone who he’d already lost. That paired with the potential guilt he felt about not being there to protect Holly and/or Will (and potentially, feeling guilty about liking Will in a way he was never able to like Jane, and never being able to tell her/sort out their relationship)…

They just did my boy Mike Wheeler so dirty by portraying him as depressed and dissociative without actually exploring that, because the audience (especially those who aren’t familiar with those kind of mental health struggles) is left thinking he’s just passive and uncaring, and that perception of his attitude throughout s5 makes the final Mileven scene feel empty and forced and out of nowhere.

[narrativelogicofbyler]

i’m genuinely furious, because from a film and television studies perspective, will arc is a clear example of narrative abandonment disguised as character progression. the writers construct an entire emotional framework around his internalised belief that he is “stupid” for loving mike, not as a momentary insecurity, but as a sustained thematic pillar. this isn’t incidental; it’s embedded into the show’s representational logic. his desire is framed as something shameful, something that must be managed privately to maintain the stability of the dominant narrative.

what makes this especially infuriating is that the text simultaneously deploys the formal apparatus of a confession arc. the cinematography isolates him at key emotional junctures; the editing lingers on his silences; the score underscores his moments of near‑disclosure. these are established audiovisual signals that a character is approaching a point of narrative transformation. the show teaches the audience to expect a rupture, a moment where will’s internal conflict externalises and shifts the trajectory of the story.

instead, the writers repeatedly engage in queer narrative deferral. every time will approaches the threshold of self expression, the plot redirects him into emotional labour for others. his longing becomes a tool for advancing someone else’s arc rather than his own. he is permitted depth of feeling but denied the agency to articulate it. this is a familiar pattern in queer coded storytelling, where desire is allowed to exist only as subtext, tragedy, or narrative fuel for heterosexual development.

the most structurally egregious element is the manufactured teleology of hope. the writers build a trajectory that appears to be leading toward confession, catharsis, and emotional reclamation. they escalate tension, repeat motifs, and frame scenes in ways that signal imminent resolution. and then they refuse to resolve it. they leave will suspended in a state of emotional paralysis, his arc halted at the very point where narrative logic demands movement.

this isn’t simply disappointing, it’s a violation of the narrative contract. the show establishes a promise through its formal choices and then refuses to honour it. they allow will to hope, they allow the audience to hope, and then they reinforce the very dynamic they spent seasons constructing: the queer character as the one who must swallow his feelings, diminish himself, and accept that his desire is something foolish, something that will never be met with reciprocity or narrative space.

and i’m angry because this isn’t neutral. it has consequences. it shapes how viewers understand whose emotions matter, whose arcs deserve completion, whose longing is narratively legitimate. will is left feeling smaller, quieter, and increasingly convinced that his love makes him foolish, and the text does nothing to challenge that. it leaves him there. it leaves us there.

and that is not just a missed opportunity. it is a failure of storytelling.

[miwiheroes]

AO3 SPEAK TO ME COME BACK TO US AO3 COME BACK BREATH BREATHE

[littlepasta]

Ao3 is still down but I need my bedtime stories 😔

[loserrsquad]

yall i am very hype im starting my paladin mike cosplay this week, this is the (extremely) loose sketch for the design

ok locking in

[littlepasta]

THIS IS SO AWESOME OMGGG

[littlepasta]

“WHY WASNT BYLER CANON!” “THEY WERE LITERALLY GAY FOR EACH OTHER!”

“I’VE PLAYED THESE GAMES BEFORE!”

Everyone turns, and there I am, holding up an iPad with the Do I Wanna Know (Hozier Version) Jayvik edit

[zzzoomiii]

mike and will would 100% babysit lumax’s kid, will would be VERY overprotective and like giving them gourmet meals whereas mike would just shove a can of tuna into to the kid and say eat up and hand it a gameboy or something

[snartsyfartsy]

The Dial is the Key.

the dial haunts many of you, I’m sure. as it haunts me. and I know everyone knows about it, but I believe it’s MUCH more important than we realize.

out of all the pieces of confirmitygate evidence, this one is the most obvious, in my opinion. they want us to notice it. it’s HUGE on the frame. it’s moving; it’s the focus of the shot. the new color is BRIGHT red. and, they point it out to us in various ways:

if it’s just an error… why the hell would they be reminding us of it? telling us in the show to keep an eye on colors that are wrong?

the dial been on my mind for so long. its clearly important here, but the question on my mind is… why? why the dial?

well… first of all,

don’t these shapes look… similar?

the moving, pointy hand at the center? the 12 sections of markings around the perimeter? yeahhh….

so it resembles a clock. cool. awesome. …maybe it’s just a coincidence!

and that’s not even the crazy part.

but before I get into the dial more, I need to explain another theory I have that ties into all of this.

QUANTUM DECOHERENCE AND PARALLEL TIMELINES

I believe that vecna, or the mindflayer, is a being which goes against our character’s quantum reality—and that their mere existence is causing their reality to fall apart because of it.

let’s remember how the brothers emphasized that this is a science fiction show, and they clearly love playing with the quantum world. it’s been included as a plot point since at least season 3! (remember how the key to closing the gates in s3 was planck’s constant?)

(PSA: I’m not an expert, just someone who autistically researches and fixates when something applies to my special interest—so forgive any information that may be wrong. but I tried my best to ensure I explain it as accurately as possible.)

in quantum physics, it’s supposed that there are infinite realities—infinite timelines, alternate universes, etc. you get the idea. this is something that stranger things already explores!

check out this excerpt from a page in will byers secret files:

crazy stuff! (I’m being mean and blacking out the right side because it contains a smoking gun… but I wanna reveal that later)

in quantum physics, in order for parallel realities to exist, our reality needs to go through a process called quantum decoherence.

essentially, it’s a process that prevents us from seeing or interacting with parallel timelines and realities. this process keeps our universe—our reality—in check. it keeps time moving steadily, it keeps everything normal.

so what would happen if this process were to fail?

well…

Clocks would act weird

Colors / status of objects would be wrong

Timelines would be weird

People’s memory would be inconsistent

Age and time weirdness

Overall inconsistency

Everything just being… off. Weird.

HMMMMMM….

it’s almost too convenient how well it explains away all the inconsistencies. but… this is a real element of quantum physics that's inherently tied into the quantum-physics lore they have in the show!

I believe that in s5, and more noticeably from vol 2 -> onwards: parallel, wrong realities started to seep into our characters world. this might be due to the cracks, the upside down seeping into their world more and more, or due to the mind flayer gaining more control as the season goes on.

I wonder if the mind flayer, or vecna, is able to control which parallel realities are at play here? or if this process is what “vecna visions” actually are—our characters viewing alternate realities? just some food for thought.

with all that out of the way, let’s take a look back at that page from earlier:

TURN THE DIAL. AND VISIT PARALLEL REALITIES. OKAY.

THE DIAL IS WHAT CONTROLS THE SPECIFIC REALITY OUR CHARACTERS ARE IN.

(or, with a less literal reading, the changed dial is a direct indicator that the timeline is different)

but I kind of like the literal interpretation—after all, things got especially weird after they turned the dial in shock jock, right?

let’s remember what the dial does second:

it controls the voltage of electricity coming off of the WSQK tower. robin turned it up.

vecna and the mind flayer (through "vance" and "mindy") even WARNED US to "don't touch that dial!" constantly throughout the WSQK broadcasts.

(tumblr won't let me attach more than one video but you can find those recordings on my twitter here)

what else did we see happen to the tower in that episode?

no need to go searching I for an in-show screenshot, they conveniently reminds us of it in the poster for the episode!

that's right, the mind flayer particles went up into the tower. the tower that broadcasts electrical signals over the entire town.

they're literally broadcasting the MIND FLAYER PARTICLES all over town. and they turned UP the power.

this is also the episode where nancy shoots the exotic matter.

after both of these things happened, things started to get really weird.

they wanted us to notice the dial, because the dial was the turning point. it's a big part of why everything is weird. different timelines, different, wrong realities started to merge—decoherence started to fail.

(and for the bandersnatchgate truthers out there... maybe an interactive element in new content could literally be us turning the dial to get different timelines/endings?)

anyway, the dial is the key. I rest my case.

(and, as if there weren't enough gates already, I propose this specific subsect/theory be called dialgate) :]

[littlepasta]

“But now I’m thinking there’s too much yellow-“

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MICHAEL.

[littlepasta]

I think in my heart and soul I knew Mike and Jane were better off as friends, because I genuinely only started watching Stranger Things because I saw the scene where Jane dumps him in s3 and I thought “wait this might be gas”

[miwiheroes]

RHEHEHEHEHHEHEEHEHEHEHEHRHEHEHR

[shardlily]

And the ending also paralleled Brokeback Mountain:

[littlepasta]

I know they explicitly stated that Vecna was being controlled by the Mind Flayer in the finale, which was a plus,

But I wish they hadn’t depicted Vecna as the final boss (with him being killed last and most dramatically)- like GUYS ITS ALL THE MIND FLAYER. ITS ALL THE MIND FLAYER’S FAULT.

And yet it’s portrayed as Vecna being the sole cause of everything, and the final one to defeat. Yes he played a major role, but the Mind Flayer facilitated and controlled everything that happened.

Henry was just it’s puppet.

(Not to minimize anything Vecna did, especially with the SA allusions. Vecna perpetuated the cycle of abuse and inflicted the pain and trauma he experienced onto Will.)

But I think everything would have felt more full-circle if Vecna was killed before the Mind Flayer, so the Mind Flayer could really have its moment as the biggest bad.

[the-nerdie-girl]

EXACTLY.

My wish:

A final battle, the Abyss invading Hawkins through the tears in reality.

Demogorgans, Demodogs, Demobats, EVERYTHING.

Vecna is just the general. The Mind Flayer is the commander. The captain. The king.

People previously controlled by them (Chrissy, Patrick, Fred, Billy) rise from the dead as soldiers.

Also: The mantle of "Kas the Bloody handed" is kinda like the Baba Yaga curse from cooking companions. It passes from mortal body to mortal body, now landing with Eddie, with huge bat wings and stuff.

Kas still wants to betray his master, so goes to Eleven in private and offers his power and mantle to her to give her the power to kill the Mind Flayer for real.

The strain kills Eddie for real this time, and Eleven uses the last of her powers combined with Kas' to kill the Mind Flayer, which kills her too.

Upside Down is destroyed pretty much the same way, and Kali puts her plan to protect the future into place by jumping into the military portal in the last seconds.

"Eleven chose her fate. She protected the future. I want to do the same."

The series ends with a mass funeral, and the last D&D game of Mike's campaign. Mike, Max, Lucas, and Will talk about people they've lost to The Mind Flayer, and the series ends with gentle music to scenes of the cast as adults, Mike writing a guide book to alternate dimensions, Will opening an art studio in Indianapolis with his fiance, and Max and Lucas getting married.

Idk. Thoughts?

[littlepasta]

I’m heavy in agreement with El’s death being a sacrifice that wasn’t due to being pressured into the decision (like she was in the show), and with the Abyss invading Hawkins and everyone having to deal with all the demo-monsters.

I’ll forever mourn Apocalyptic ST S5 💔

[num0nia]

how come mike is introduced as a pretty big science nerd but later he shows no interest in the stuff dustin made at summer camp oops silly me i forgot s3 onwards mike isn’t allowed to have a personality outside of being a boyfriend