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alicent-florent

The Testaments S01E09 "Marat Sade"

dearafah

fioweress

worship

fioweress

romance is not dead

alicent-florent

The Testaments S01E10 "Secateurs"

bo-kryzze

THE TESTAMENTS 1.09 "Marat Sade"

uhicareforcharacters

Agnes looked at her with so much love in her eyessssss 😭😭😭😭

miwiheroes

"You never know the ending till it's sung all through." -- Byler/Creelby analysis

I believe that the recent post on the ST instagram paralleling Henry and Will, and proving true what the WiseOne theorisers have been saying, is the missing piece of the puzzle to Byler endgame proof. Not only do we have direct confirmation of Will and Henry being intentionally similar, but we have the play's cast and the cast of the show stating that it's important that you watch the play before watching Season 5.

Will is Henry. Henry was in love with Patty. Will is in love with Mike. Patty ran away out of fear. Mike will not. And love will win.

The writer of The First Shadow is also a writer for the show, and wrote the play either simultaneously with writing S5 or directly beforehand. And there is a clear set-up for where this show is going. Where fear won in TFS, love will win in Stranger Things.

The writers have, time and time again, emphasised that love and triumph and heroism is crucial to the themes of ST. Not just "cool supernatural elements". The evils of this show are supposed to represent the "everyday evils" of our real lives. Horror is a medium for portraying themes of queerness, discrimination, conformity, and trauma. Defeating the big evil (the Mindflayer) with love equates to defeating conformity, hatred and trauma and the cycle of pain we all live in.

And as Caleb once said, the main takeaway from Season 5 should be... love.

Of course, not many people have the time or money to go to the play or watch it online - But here I am again to set the record that where Henry and Patty's story became a tragedy where fear and hatred won, Mike and Will's story becomes a success, where conformity and evil is defeated through love and self-acceptance. They are direct foils of Henry and Patty.

Creelby and Byler's Dynamic

There are some extremely intentional parallels between Creelby and Byler.

Both are seen as outcasts in their school:

Henry and Patty became friends and connected through their shared commonalities and the fact they are both outcasts. -> Byler's first meeting is directly paralleled to this: "I was so alone, and so scared. But I saw you on the swings and... you were alone too." This is supposed to symbolise or analogise queerness. Before queer people find each other they feel alone in the world. But after finding one another, they aren't alone or scared anymore. This element of love and pureness and being able to just be themselves without fear is tied to Robin's speech and the flashback in S5 E4. Will sees himself and Mike unencumbered by fear and shame and this unlocks his powers. Both Mike and Will love DnD, which is the thing that has been directly tied to their relationship multiple times: Mike being the heart (brave, inspiring, a leader as called by Will, leading to Mike becoming more of a leader in S5.) and Will being the sorcerer (magical, innately powerful, a selfless hero as called by Mike, leading to Will honing his powers in S5). DnD has been related to nerdy interests and being an outcast ever since Season 1, but Mike and Will are the only ones that are directly tied together in this. Their love language of DnD is the lifeblood of the show itself.

"What if the thing you hate about yourself isn't a mistake? What if it's a miracle?" - Patty to Henry.

"You can pull the strings too" "Your powers don't come from a book of spells, they're innate." - Mike to Will. Mike turns something that Will hates about himself (symbolising the queerness he hates inside) into something heroic and miraculous (at the same time, Will accepts being gay and in love with Mike).

Henry and Patty both wanted to run away from Hawkins, to write their own story together:

Mike wishes the Party to leave Hawkins after everything is over.

(Finn has said that his ideal ending for Mike is for him to leave Hawkins. Smalltown Boy is the top song on Mike's old playlist that got deleted when filming for S5 began - that song is about a queer man leaving his small town to escape conformity.)

-> This somehow leads to El saying that Mike "doesn't get to write the ending, not this time." This will happen in Volume 2, so we don't know the full context yet, but does this bode well for that couple? Why parallel Mike and El to not being able to write their own story like Henry and Patty and accepting that not everything has a happy ending - when we know that the show will have a "perfect" ending for all characters?

Henry and Patty's story ends in tragedy -> Henry could not resist the MF, he was forced to try and kill Patty.

I believe that the rest of this season will have Will being increasingly tormented by the MF through the hive mind and an increased attempt at trying to distance himself from his family and loved ones through fear just like with Henry and Patty. Maybe the MF will try and make Will kill someone, this could even result in Mike getting hurt because of Will. Could be why Caleb, when asked to describe the season in one word, described it as: Traitor.

But this time: Mike and Will's love will prevail over the fear. AKA, queer love will prevail over conformity.

Why am I so confident in Creelby's story being flipped on its head like this? Well, it's all to do with Joyce's play.

Creelby and Byler's Endings

Look, here we even have blue and yellow and green colour coding for Mike and Will and the two colours combine when they connect! Pretty blatant here, along with the use of "gay"-- but we'll talk about that in a moment...

Henry is playing John in the play. He says: "It's bad luck not to finish a song."

Patty plays Barbara in the play. She says: "It's a sad song. I like the gay ones best."

Song = Story = Stranger Things.

Joyce's play portrays the characters introspectively speaking about their own endings and the desired true ending of the full "song", aka the full ending of the story, aka the full ending of Stranger Things.

Henry and Patty's story was a "sad song" because they weren't able to fulfil their dream of leaving Hawkins and it ended in fear winning over love.

They like "the gay ones best" because this is how they wanted their story to end (obviously, in this context, gay means happy but.... you'll see)

Henry then goes onto say that: "It doesn't have to be sad. You never know the ending till it's sung all through."

This is extremely important. TFS serves as a prequel to the show. It's a short play in comparison, and is the prerequisite "sad song" with a sad ending. The bigger story at large -- Stranger Things -- is the true ending. It is the ending that will be sung through.

Let's consider for a moment how most queer stories about queer characters end in tragedy. They somehow sacrifice themselves nobly for the story at large or their struggles are pushed aside completely. They achieve self-acceptance maybe, but that means that they can readily sacrifice themselves. Queer suffering and tragedy is seen as a noble sacrifice. BUT not in Stranger Things.

This ending of queer suffering will go against the fabric of what they set out to do with the play:

The ending to the play being a tragedy means that the show cannot end in the same way. Fear will not win, and love will. And what kind of love you may ask?

"Then let's make it a gay one."

This is so crucial. Why? Well, it's not just because they use the word "gay" so blatantly and unnecessarily rather than the word "happy", but because it means that Will -- the main focus of S5 and the person who will tie the whole story together (as said by the creators), and who is directly paralleled to Henry in promo and the show itself -- cannot have a tragic ending that ends in who he is in love with not loving him back.

Of course, a character can have a happy ending without the character they love loving them back. But this isn't what the show has been building up to. Throughout the many years of Will's love for Mike, throughout the years of Mike taking care of Will and not being afraid and inspiring him... a rejection is not what they're setting up here.

Creelby's story serves as the sad song. Byler's story serves as the.... gay one. The happy, true ending :)

We have just yet to see it because the song hasn't been "sung through" and the story of the show has yet to finish. It was always meant to end in Byler. It was always meant to end in love winning. Particularly, the love that Will has for Mike. Particularly, the fact that Mike does not fear Will like Patty feared Henry.

The ending's just inevitable -- as the Duffers said recently.

They will get to have their own ending as they will not longer be plagued by the things that have been hunting them (Vecna, the Mindflayer, the Upside Down.)

In other words, they will get to have their own ending as love defeats hate, as they will no longer be plagued by what the MF, Vecna and the UD represents: conformity, hatred and trauma.

I think that's pretty fucking good representation, don't you?

EDIT:

We won, I predicted it: (quote from official promo website)

sorafyr3

Okay so I'm still on the bus for conformity gate and I have a new theory.

These pictures were posted on the @stonbreadway account on Instagram on the 5th of August 2025

These are part of the scripts for Joyce's secret play in Stranger Things The Last Shadow.

(I actually haven't watched the last shadow so please bear with me if you see any mistakes)

Take a look at the characters names.

John & Barbara - they are highlighted in blue and yellow.

What else do we associate with blue and yellow?

That's right, byler!

AKA Will and Mike

Mike's full name is Micheal.

Micheal has 7 letters

Will has 4 letters

John has 4 letters

Barbara has 7 letters

So,

John -> Will

Barbara -> Michael

Their colours are reversed, since Will is usually associated with yellow and Mike is associated with blue. Whenever Will and Mike have an argument/disagreement, they are wearing each other's colors.

When Mike and Will are wearing each other's colours, we know something is wrong - usually with their relationship, but I digress.

If Mike is Yellow and Will is Blue, something is wrong, and they (Mike) needs to fix it.

If we replace the names on the script with Will and Mike, we get this:

Will: It's bad luck not to finish a song

Mike: It's a sad song. I like the gay ones best.

Will: It doesn't have to be sad. You never know the ending till it's sung all through.

Mike: Then lets make it a gay one.

Will: Sing your own ending.

Mike: (sings)

I'll sing a song from down our way

From the mountains where I's dwellin

About a Witchboy almost got a sou

For the love of Barbara Allen

It was the merry month of May, the greenbuds were a swellin

A witchboy saw a mountain gal and wished that he was human

(They kiss.)

Doesn't this fit strangely well?

Mike is stuck in Camazotz, he needs music/love to find his path out

To get out he needs to go through all his traumatic memories

Find his real ending

Will: It's bad luck not to finish a song

-> Bad luck = Vecna has cursed Mike and has him in a trance where he's not able to escape (because he's not able to finish listening to the song that could let him find his way out)

-> The phrasing seems kind of menacing, it sounds kind of like Vecna so maybe, Will = Vecna, where Will is resisting against Vecna's control, trying to hint to him something is wrong

OR

-> Mike wasn't able to finish his first (on screen) campaign (back in season 1) = he's been cursed by Vecna to not be able to ever properly wrap up a campaign ever since

-> He didn't finish the song = he didn't finish the story - there are plot holes in the ending because it's not finished

Mike: It's a sad song. I like the gay ones best.

-> Sad song = sad ending - Jane/El dies or leaves him, Will moves on from him, the party splits up and Mike is alone

-> He likes the gay one(s) best = He likes Will the best

-> Since Will was reduced to just 'the gay one' in the epilogue, replacing 'the gay one' with Will, we get ~ "I like Will best" - this tracks with Mike's behavior and feelings towards Will in the earlier seasons

Will: It doesn't have to be sad. You never know the ending till it's sung all through.

-> It doesn't have to be sad = You don't need to be sad - this doesn't have to be your ending, you can find a way out, live a better ending (the 3rd door)

-> You never know the ending untill it's all sung through = You can't control/write the ending but you can follow it through - Mike isn't the storyteller, he's the Paladin, he just needs to follow though with his feelings

Mike: Then lets make it a gay one.

-> Let's make it a gay one = Let me finally accept myself, my queerness and my love for Will - if Will is nudging him into thinking something is wrong, all the puzzle pieces will click for Mike and he'll realise the only way to get out is to be gay (accept himself and his fears)

-> gay also used to mean happy = let's make it a happy one - let's get our happy ending, Mike and Will together, the Paladin and the Cleric, the brave and the sorcerer

Will: Sing your own ending.

-> Sing your own ending = Find your own way out - Mike needs to find his own way out, he has all the pieces, he just needs to connect them: he knows Will is gay, he knows Will has/had some sort of feelings for him, he knows something is wrong and he knows he needs to be brave. Connecting all of these pieces will let him become Mike the Brave and will let him find his way out, back to Will.

Mike: (sings)

I'll sing a song from down our way

-> I'll sing a song = I'll be brave and find my own way out

-> from down our way = Mike will use his memories with Will to give him strength - Will is Mike's greatest strength, his heart

From the mountains where I's dwellin

-> from the mountains where I's dwelling = Mike has been locking up/ repressing his feelings - he's been living there for a while (dwellin = dwelling - he's been residing there for a long time, brooding/bottling up his emotions/feelings so much he's about to explode)

About a Witchboy almost got a sou

-> Witchboy almost got a sou = Will almost got a hint of his feelings

-> witch = magic - Mike tells Will; "we could use some magic up here" -> Will unlocks his powers/becomes a sorcerer -> Will is magic/ a witch -> witchboy = Will

-> a sou = a very small amount of money (according to Google) so,

Sou = small -> small hint -> small hint of feelings

-> Will almost got a hint of feelings - 'signals'

For the love of Barbara Allen

-> Barbara Allen = Micheal Wheeler (like we established at the start)

-> For the love of Barbara Allen = For the love of Micheal Wheeler

-> The love interest of Mike Wheeler = Will/Jane

-> Will/Jane are the most important people to him and they will be the reason he gets out of Camazozts - by using his memories with them, he will find the exit

-> He needs to dedicate his happy memories to Will/Jane to find a connection to get back home (like Lucas was the connection for Max to get home)

-> For the love of Micheal Wheeler = For Will/Jane

It was the merry month of May, the greenbuds were a swellin

-> It was the merry month of May = The epilogue - the epilogue takes place in the spring of 1989

-> Merry month -> Christmas -> Fall/ Winter (the byler seasons) -> the leaves of the trees at the graduation turn brown/yellow like in Fall

-> the greenbuds were a swellin = the greenery (plants/nature) were thriving - the trees at the graduation turn brown/yellow -> they're dying (like Mike is dying on the inside by repressing his feelings)

A witchboy saw a mountain gal and wished that he was human

-> A Witchboy saw a mountain gal = Will saw Jane/El

-> Witchboy = Will (as we've established already)

-> Mountain -> nature -> forest/woods (Jane/El was found in a forest/woods), gal -> girl, so; Mountain gal = Jane/El

-> and wished that he was human = Will wished he was normal (he wished he was a girl - Jane/El) - he was envious of her relationship with Mike

They kiss.

-> Mike and Will will kiss

Wished that he was human

They kiss

-> this part is highlighted in green

-> green = blue + yellow

-> Mike (& Will) will confront their fears/insecurities together and there love will save them/Mike

Do you see what I mean when I say it all fits? Everything fits Mike and Will almost to a T.

I haven't seen anyone talking about it so I decided to do it myself and I'm know calling this playgate (since this was the first page of Joyce's script for her secret play)

Playgate <3

Lmao this was a lot of fun to analyse and I'm so glad Stranger Things still has some of its old magic for me <33

THIS SHOW WAS FOR THE OUTCASTS, SO IT'S OURS NOW, NEVER FORGET THAT!!

Peace out for now ✌️💛💙