Probably too old to be here

Veteran Sasunaru stan

[mixu]

A very delayed Valentine's Day story

“How much did you spend on flowers, Teme?”

“How much did you spend?”

“I’d rather not say.” Naruto gave him a nervous smile.

Sasuke could only laugh. At this rate, they might have already paid for the full wedding — would they ever stop doing things the hard way?

Do you want to know how they got here? Go check The unavoidable stupidity of men in love by @ilbenmalpensanteus and I.

[itswhatyougive]

One of my biggest frustrations and reasons I can't accept the ending is that AIDS looms so heavily over Stranger Things, and yet there's been no payoff.

In fact, it makes the epilogue bar scene with Will very disquieting to me, since it's almost implied that's exactly where he's headed.

More under the cut, since it will get lengthy:

AIDS was exploding in the late 80's and early 90's, with horrifying rates of gay men getting sick and dying.

Seriously, follow The AIDS Memorial or some of the gay 80's remembrance pages on Facebook (where the surviving elders hang out) and read their stories of the sheer number of friends, lovers, and casual acquaintances they lost in such a short period of time. That's one thing they all have in common- they lost so many people.

They'll post a happy photo of themselves and eight other friends in better days, and they'll reveal that all but one of them were dead by the early 90's.

These men have repeated that while it was just luck of the draw sometimes, there were some risk factors that increased your odds of getting the virus back then. One of them was moving to the big city from a small town.

I've seen that take expressed time and time again, that the men with deep internalized homophobia who escaped their hostile hometowns for the big-city gay nightlife often engaged in riskier sex and and took fewer precautions, whether due to naivety, trying to make up for lost time, or even due to self-loathing and lack of regard for their own safety.

I'm not saying that Will being shown in a gay bar means that he would for sure get AIDS, because not all gay men did, not even the gay men who had casual sex.

Also, gay penetrative sex wasn't the only way to get AIDS. Sharing needles, blood transfusions, and heterosexual penetrative sex all could spread the disease, but for a long time most people associated it with the queer community and specifically gay men, since their community was hit hardest at first.

But it is unnerving to me that this HUGE part of 1980's history, this ONE cultural watershed moment they didn't mention in the show, still lies in wait by the time we see Will at the bar.

Because it's unaddressed, it means he hasn't been shielded from it.

From the finale we got, we don't know if Will ever finds lasting love or lives a long and happy life. All the storyteller gives us is that Will will find "acceptance."

And because they chose to put him, a newly-minted young gay man with no experience or support network, in the bar, in possibly the center of a major outbreak, with no narrative shield other than finding acceptance, there's no guarantee that he would be spared.

I guess this lines up well with conformitygate, since it's a fake happy ending for all of them. False comfort lulling you into thinking they all made it and Will gets the life he deserves, when it's very possible the narrative is sending Will to his doom.

I'd feel more confident about Will's ending not being unsettling if the specter of AIDS had been addressed somehow, like perhaps if Will was attending an ACT UP protest with his partner/friends in the epilogue or doing some political artwork, something to show that he was knowledgeable of the threat and possibly staying safe in some way.

Then I'd think, okay, even if Byler isn't endgame, at least they're being honest about the times and creating a realistic pathway for Will to have a fulfilling life as a gay young man in the 90's.

But the fact that they weren't honest about the reality says to me that it's being omitted on purpose.

Now, it could be that this is because Mike is telling the story and he is not aware of the danger the future holds for someone like Will, but I'm doubtful. Mike follows the news and even small towns knew about the disease by 1989. Yet he still tells a story about Will that seems worryingly unfinished.

This is the part where people rush to tell me that the Duffers are straight white men and stupid idiots who would never even consider the danger of AIDS or care, and that's the only reason why it's not mentioned in the whole series.

And here's the part where I say ACKTUALLY that theory doesn't hold water. As @thatgirlalt found in their investigation, the Duffers' own father was involved in AIDS research. There's literally no way they were unaware.

Vines spreading across Hawkins like a virus. Jason even referring to the evil like it was a disease infecting the town.

Not only that, but as I said, AIDS looms heavily over the show.

Will returning altered and experiencing strange symptoms after his assault. The doctors can't figure out what's wrong with him. Will being ostracized by his classmates and getting called Zombie Boy, when AIDS sufferers were said to look like the walking dead.

The blood transfusions with the pregnant women dying. Terry Ives giving the condition to El by being pregnant while given Henry's blood. Hopper unknowingly giving a health condition to his unborn child.

Everything to do with the lab and the government, the real life conspiracies that the government was really behind the epidemic.

The religious overtones and constant homophobia of the townspeople. Alexei dying in the middle of a patriotic festival and no one noticing, like the gay men whose deaths went unnoticed by America until it was in their doorstep, like the Upside Down seeping into Hawkins.

It goes on and on. Others have said it better than I have, but even though AIDS is not mentioned directly, it's there in the subtext.

So what was it all for? In real life, the greater public had to realize the threat and take it seriously before the virus could begin to be contained. You couldn't just ignore it forever or slap a band-aid over it like the miitary did with the cracks in Hawkins. Soon it was affecting straight people. Children. Everyone had to face up to the uncomfortable truth and end the willful ignorance and secrecy that was endangering lives.

Getting back to the show- if queer love didn't save the day in the end, the townspeople never had to confront their biases to defeat the evil, and we don't even know if our abused gay protagonist is going to survive or not in the future, what message are they sending?

No, I don't believe that the Duffers, with the family background they have, would leave the threat so unchallenged.

The fact that they haven't mentioned AIDS at all in interviews is very suspicious to me. If they were doing some sort of commentary on the epidemic, how could they resist talking about it? If they included the subtext just as an 80's reference and it had no bearing on the greater story, they could've brought it up already.

But if it is important to the show's message, there has to be a reason why they haven't addressed it. And I'm betting that reason is that the story isn't finished.

[thebestofmyrmidons]

Bobgate proof on a random Saturday

For people who still doubt that Mike not touching Will was the Duffers being homophobic (and not a ploy by Vecna to make Will vulnerable) and that they forgot all about Byler - this is the VR game that was released in February 2024 and developed alongside Season 5 (like the First Shadow). Tagging legendary #bobgate founder @cara-ti-amo

Henry/Vecna is trying to torment Will by exploiting his love for Mike and fear of getting left behind. I can't believe the following screenshots are actually from the canonical VR game, and not a fanfiction.

Will gets a nosebleed, Mike instantly rushes up to him, takes Nancy's shirt without hesitation and start caressing Will's face with it for the longest time while Dustin and Lucas just watch and yap about random things in the background.

We see that Mike shows his love and affection to Will clear as day. Vecna actively tries to warp Will's perception of the event by feeding him lies about how Will is all alone, that no one loves him, that his friends don't care about him. At the same time, we see a huge shot of Mike caressing Will's face over and over again (sorry for the VR Mike jumpscare lol).

Vecna tells Will that he is alone. Right after that, Will snaps out Vecna's grasp after Mike asks him if he's okay. This is so funny because Will just has a nosebleed and Mike is acting as if he's dying (it's interesting that he doesn't have the same reaction to Eleven's nose bleeds but that's beside the point).

The following scene, the Shadow Monster taunts Henry for thinking that Will would be easy to possess because he thought he was alone and isolated. Easy to possess because

you remember the nature of his fears.

They then cut to a shot of El and Henry in the rainbow room, and the imagery is just so on the nose, I genuinely am baffled.

What gets me here is that, through the cracks on the screen, we see Mike's face. That is a key part of Henry's trauma. The game keeps on going on to show that Henry's memories are fragmented across Dimension X, and we don't see much of his memories (e.g. from TFS period). There's something Henry is not remembering. There was someone who is Henry's Mike (I mean, they can't really make it more obvious than that screenshot above). All that rainbow imagery. Henry understanding Will's trauma, and then cutting to a rainbow room. They even emphasise that it's Will he connects to, as he also enters Dustin's mindscape and prows on Dustin's fear of losing his friends and being bullied. It's not Dustin that Henry connects to though - it's Will.

We need to understand that Will experiences lots of different forms of love - from Joyce, from Jonathan, and even from Mike (even if Will doesn't perceive it as romantic, it's obvious that Mike still loves him). Why does Henry understand Will's trauma specifically? It's not just the fear of being alone! (Hint: can you guess what it is?).

Why does Henry kidnap Holly, who is shrouded in rainbow imagery, as well as Holly's best friend? And Derek, who is wearing a rainbow shirt all of Season 5? And Henry being haunted by images of the rainbow room, and choosing to target Will specifically (when there are plenty of other people who have faced more isolation than Will, in terms of a lack of familial bond and friendships).

It's so fascinating, because in the First Shadow, Henry seemingly has romantic love from Patty, but lacks any other type of love (kind of the inverse to Will). So it's so odd that, if that truly is the extent of Henry's trauma, he would prey on someone who, seemingly, has the exact opposite experience to him (in terms of what type of love they're able to receive)...

I wonder...

They literally show us that Vecna/Henry realises that Mike is the key to getting Will out of a possession. So what does he end up doing throughout Season 5? Hm....

What I also find interesting is that they use that memory in the Rainbow Room to awaken El's memory of the traumatic event. Henry remembers the event - so why are they positing it in the same way for him? And keep emphasising that Henry's memories are fragmented, scattered? And shrouded in rainbow imagery? Perhaps there was someone in Henry's life that was like Mike to him, but Henry just can't remember.

[monsterkill--er]

If I said Dr. Kay harnessed the power of the Mind Flayer as she is seen controlling the hive mind, stealing an illusionist's blood (Kali's), and her oppressive government always had been "Vecna's curse" the way it was the cause of Henry's misfortune, that would mean… She could have hijacked the tower's signal and used the mandatory medical check ups to weaken the minds of Hawkins turning them into puppets. Hopper, trained to withstand psychological torture and assumed dead, was the only thorn in her side to capturing El/Jane. If Dr. Kay was using these tactics this would explain how they evaded her for so long—but also why El has trouble finding Vecna with her mind. Adding onto this, there are a few allusions to Vecna fighting government control—he seemed to need to groom the children's minds before he could enact their plans, just like with El/Jane in the rainbow room, but ran into resistance. All Mr. Whatsit's monologues seemed to pin the blame on the true "darkness," aka the oppressive military regime that experimented on Henry. It could very well be Dr. Kay behind the wonky radio signals and lapses in memory—at least, I have a feeling that is what thematically is being said.

[mixu]

I hope so because otherwise the military was there for nothing.

[mixu]

Mexico or Stanger Things ARG?

If you’re not Mexican or live in Mexico, it’s probable that you’ve never heard of this game we play called Mexico or AI? In which we try to discern whether something we found on the internet was created by AI or a regular day in the neighborhood. I know it sounds preposterous because who can’t discern between reality and a stupid video or picture generated with the help of a ridiculous prompt?

Before I continue, I should clarify I’m not talking about the kind of media that creates disinformation and has real and dangerous consequences (that’s a serious issue and greatly surpasses the purpose of this post). I’m talking about the videos of a dog learning a Quinceañera's choreography, Barney the Dinosaur fighting Dr. Simi in the middle of the street or the mayor from a small town marrying a crocodile. All of them are true fyi, but please don't fret about the last one as nothing questionable happened to the animal. If anything, blame syncretism.

Anyway, these last few days (Inspired by @mymussings, @gritstartar and @whispering-goat’s search for patterns in international promos), I found myself playing a similar game trying to discern whether ST promos for Mexico were just another example of Mexican marketing doing what it has always done (being super extra and heavily relying on popular culture) or a more substantial part of ST ARG strategy.

In this post, @whispering-goat already explained how the Duffer Bothers made a prototype for Stranger Things ARG via a Reddit creepypasta by _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9 that goes way back to February 2016. This is a connection that was dismissed at the time and mostly forgotten for years because the similarities between both stories were not as clear at the moment, but came back to attention after the ST ARG machinery was officially set into motion in 2025.

But was it really only set into motion until 2025?

Maybe not.

Given the very interesting videos I found just in the Netflix Latinoamérica YouTube channel, specifically the ones targeted towards Mexico, I think there's a chance the ARG elements were always present, but dismissed at the time, just like the prototype.

Stranger Things inserted itself into Mexican reality right from the beginning

I think it's pretty clear that this video (August 4 2016) is kind of an Amber Alert comercial break used to ask the cooperation of the population to search for Will and Barb with instructions to contact the Hawkins Police Department. The phone number doesn't connect now but I wonder if it did back then.

What I'd like to bring to attention is that it was built upon something real. If you play just the audio to any Mexican 90's kid, they'd recognize the voice immediately and the phrase at the very end. This is was created using a template for real missing people announcements. Someone who had never seen or heard about the show then could have been convinced that these two were real missing children if the Netflix logo wasn't present (maybe even with the logo).

Then we have this video (September 2 2016) in which Jaime Maussan and his crew went to investigate the vanishing of Will and ended up in the Upsidedown themselves.

Putting it simply, Tercer Milenio was a well-known, real program dedicated to the research of UFO's and other paranormal stuff, created and hosted by Jaime Maussan, a not so serious Mexican journalist surrounded by controversy due to him spreading of conspiracy theories and disinformation. Basically our real life version of the Weekly Watcher.

So Netflix regional team chose a Latin America TV personality related to the paranormal for this promo, pretty standard, right? You could say that, but this has layers.

You see, Jaime Maussan has been famous for being a firm advocate of the existence of the supernatural creature known as the Chupacabras, which he claims to be either a prehistoric creature or an inter-dimensional being that terrorized various countries during the mid 90's and created collective hysteria. Some depictions of it even have some similarities with the demos.

Pretty neat connection right? Well, this has a darker side.

Of course, it has never been confirmed, but it's a bad kept secret that this creature was an invention from the Mexican Government of that time to redirect people's attention away from the political and economical crisis.

Was the use of Jaime Maussan a very clever choice of Mexico's Netflix team or another nod to the way people behave when faced with conspiracies and disinformation?

As a CG truther, I'm inclined to believe the latter because...

Jaime Maussan had the approval of Netflix Headquarters and ST team

Maussan came back for a S2 promo (November 15 2017) with three members of the original party. One thing is to use a celebrity whose line of work aligns with the supernatural elements of your show to catch the interest of the locals, and another very different is to take time to film that a promo with said celebrity and members of the main cast of your show. At the very least this should be proof that the work of the regional teams is approved and supervised. On a narrative level, does this mean the Chupacabras is another creature native to Dimension X? A cousin to the demo, maybe?

The SFX are low quality, so I wondered if Maussan was just inserted with the kids (like this promo), but I found the picture below in pinterest, and it looks like it was filmed when the kids came to promote S2.

Maussan was the first one to get trapped in Camazotz?

The video (July 15 2019) to promote S3 didn't include members of the cast anymore, but it has a bunch of weird cameos and conversations that seen from the vantage point of 2026, and having watched S5 Vol 2 and ep 8 have some interesting information.

This video requires a lot of context, and I apologize for not translating the whole thing but it's a lot of work. I'll do it with the most relevant parts, so bear with me.

Let's start with the bunch of people that appear trapped in the Upsidedown. With the exception of Maussan, the rest are characters from cross-generational Mexican/Latin American childhoods:

Cositas, who hosted something similar to Art Attack

Mage Frank and Blas the rabbit

Chabelo, very famous for his variety show targeted to kids

Chiquidracula

And a couple others I can't identify

More than the characters present, what interests me is that many people associate them with their childhoods, that thing that the characters from ST are supposed to let go by the end. Without that hindsight, I would have questioned why choose them; it's like a fever dream. Now I know there was a reason.

Second point that at that time was an odd script choice but in hindsight points towards some famous conformitygate theories.

Fake Cositas, the one in dark blue, tells him all they need is the power of imagination to escape and opens a portal with yellow garden scissors. Real Cositas, wearing Byler colors, replies by saying she won't let the fake one trick and manipulate another innocent person. They hear something coming and Fake Cositas drops this ominous line: It's coming... and you won't be able to escape.

The presence of a doppleganger of a person Maussan knows in the real world trying to trick him to do something because that's the only way to escape the Upsidedown? Are you meaning to tell me they recycled the whole Camazots plot from this promo?

Of course, they don't manage to escape. When Cositas gets captured, her last words are the catchphrase she uses to end her programs (Truman show?). As for Maussan, he gets captured too and replaced in the real world with a fake version of himself that warns the audience to be prepared for an invasion from the Chupacabras (Henry, is that you?).

We're left with this final shot of real Cositas and Maussan watching from something that looks like the Mindspace?

It's too early for I saw the TV glow, so is this a reference to Get Out? Is Jane spying on them like she did on the boys in S3?

Any doubt that I had that this was part of ST ARG, dissipated at this point. I'd like to know if the promos for any other country followed a consistent story line. Perhaps, this is what Mexico (I wont' dare to speak for other countries) got due to our close relationship to television growing up?

El Santo vs Demogorgon

S4 promo didn't have Maussan in it; perhaps due to scheduling or because he's supposed to be trapped in the UD. What we got though, it's another Mexican celebrity inserted into the ST world. I couldn't get the oficial one from Nexflix but this one was shared on May 2022.

El Santo was a super famous Lucha Libre wrestler from around 1930 up to his passing during the early 80's, after which his son succeeded him. Lucha Libre is one of the most internationally recognized aspects of Mexican Culture so using arguably the most famous of the wrestlers seems like a great choice. Why El Santo? He has an extensive filmography where he fights supernatural beings like witches, vampires and other monsters. Why not a demogorgon?

The return of Maussan

I've no way to know how this man escaped the UD, but he returned for a very CG themed S5 promo (November 19 2025)

This one I translated

In every corner of Mexico strange things happen. They are not myths, not ghosts. I dedicated my life to investigate them, and I discovered all are connected. Like here in Tampico, where the reports have multiplied. What I found, seems to come from another dimension. I followed their trails. It played with my mind, but when I connected the signals, I arrived to a much stranger place. Dark, cold. The end has begun. Look for hints of the strange, and let all Mexico know. In this last adventure, we’ll need everyone.

We have this man, who is known for promoting conspiracy theories, who has partnered with ST since S1, who was trapped in the UD, telling us to pay attention and look for hints even before Lucas Sinclair told us not to believe in coincidences.

And there are people still trying to convince us that we should leave the Bus? Not possible.

[thebestofmyrmidons]

more trademark shenanigans

Just FYI - they wanted to be as vague as possible in their original filing, so they didn't specify the nature of the online interactive TV series:

The examiner got grumpy and asked them to make it more specific:

They asked Netflix to change it to an interactive online action, adventure and comedic television series.

But since this interactive online TV show won't just be a goofy spin-off with Dustin and Dart (ie not comedy, action nor adventure). No, Netflix said let there be DRAMA:

And guess what category the original TM filing for Stranger Things (the non-interactive TV show) falls under? That's right!

It's classified as a dramatic television series!

I can't stress this enough, but they have to be quite specific about the goods and services to be registered. I don't have time to look at ALL of Netflix' TM filings, but Bridgerton, for example, doesn't have a TM for an online interactive TV series...

It's also no coincidence that this is what I hypothesised with the copyright registrations, and the TM registration explicitly confirms that hypothesis. Guys, we can theorise all we want, but the registrations don't lie...

[thebestofmyrmidons]

Trademark registrations don't lie - we're getting an interactive online dramatic television series

Not a game. An interactive online dramatic television series.

Netflix had initially filed the TM application for "an online television series" - the office thought this was too broad and suggested they change this to "providing interactive online action, adventure, and comedic television series".

Netflix rejected these suggestions, and limited the claim to an interactive online dramatic television series. Not action! Not adventure! Not comedy! A dramatic series! (Note: they're gonna file for products they intend to cover commercially, so they already knew approximately what type of content was coming when this was filed). The TM was filed in 2019, which aligns with the DBs saying they had figured out the ending around 5 or 6 years ago.

YAY! We're getting the interactive TV series! (note: not a video game! a tv series!)

WHOOOP - the US is also pretty strict on TM filings (you can't file for all goods & services under the sun) - you need to prove that you are either using it or have evidence that you intend to use that trademark for those goods & services in the future. This TM was filed in 2019, and is still upheld currently!

FYI - looks like Tales from '85 will actually be an animated show/episode/whatever they release (again, TM filings don't lie), so don't get your hopes up too high for that date. You can't fool me Netflix!

[whispering-goat]

Stranger Things conformitygate: an ARG on steroids

How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale

Disclaimer: This is a post in a series of collaborative posts that provides evidence that the next piece of Stranger Things content is going to be an interactive film using Episode 2 to 8 as the base. #bandersnatchgate

Contributors: @thebestofmyrmidons @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @power-kinesis @nuffit @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate. Check out the thorough and well-substantiated post by @thebestofmyrmidons.

I present a sypnosis:

The type of delay of copyright registration by Netflix that has been witnessed for Episode 2 - Episode 8 of Stranger Things Season 5 has ONLY happened for interactive shows and movies.

Posts on this topic from me:

1. How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale.

2. The Netflix and DONTNOD 2025 collaboration and the Life is Strange parallels hiding in plain sight.

3. The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis

In my posts, I will argue that the promo for both Netflix originals "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend" is eerily similar to what we have witnessed for conformitygate (CG). We will realize together that these worked as a prototype for CG. Netflix did not only take the time to improve the interactive element in their backend (Post 2), but especially worked out their flaws in setting up a successful promotional puzzle (Post 1 and Post 3). My promotional timeline posts, from beginning to end, mirror what we are about to witness here.

Thanks to @fixthehyper for collecting most of the sources in chronological order :)

Promotional timeline for "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" (BMB):

2017

Dec 17: Report on Netflix's mission to create "choose your own adventure" media for adults. (Bloomberg)

https://archive.ph/OBvT1

2018

Oct 1: Speculations about an interactive Black Mirror episode in Season 5. (Bloomberg, Verge)

Netflix hasn’t yet announced season 5’s release date, but a new report says it’s coming by the end of the year.

Oct 3: Speculations continue about an interactive Black Mirror episode in Season 5. (The Independent)

The streaming service hopes to introduce more interactive series

Nov 5: Shutdown of multiple rumors about Black Mirror Season 5 by show producer Charlie Booker. He did NOT respond to BMB rumors. (THEWRAP)

At least Charlie Brooker told fans what WON'T be in Season 5

Nov 21: Rumors about BMB continue, the name "Bandersnatch" is dropped by a random Twitter account. (I feel so vindicated about my Nikki Baxter coverage btw)

Dec 2: A verified Netflix "leak" confirms Dec 28 release date. Note how fans already had been speculating for days in a similar fashion to conformitygate. (TVGUIDE, Forbes)

Ready to go down the rabbit hole again with Black Mirror's new episode?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2018/12/02/black-mirror-gets-season-5-release-date-via-leak/#e1b5deb211b7

Dec 3: Netflix deletes a tweet with the BMB release date, further fueling the flames of this being a trustworthy "leak". The Stranger Things ARG has shown me that Netflix leaks information on purpose, especially on Twitter. (Observer, THEWRAP)

Did Netflix Accidentally Leak the ‘Black Mirror’ Season 5 Release Date?

We might be getting another season of ‘Black Mirror’ at the end of December.

"Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" coming at ya later this month -- possibly

Dec 19: First confirmation by Netflix of BMB being the interactive stand alone movie from the rumors, rather than part of Black Mirror Season 5. A Reddit user is credited for finding it, but a preview was posted on Netflix. Notice how the OG Reddit thread, to be found in links provided, reeks of plant behavior. (Forbes, Esquire)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2018/12/19/black-mirror-bandersnatch-is-revealed-to-be-a-film-via-netflix-heres-what-we-know-so-far/#7ce5b3957d53

'Black Mirror' Film 'Bandersnatch' Is Coming To Netflix Later This Month

And it features a time-warped London

Dec 20: Explanation of the promotion of and the fan speculations on BMB up until that point. We have seen similar articles on CG in Jan and Feb (2026). (Screenrant, Digital Spy)

Netflix may be releasing a surprise Black Mirror movie (or interactive episode) next week!

You've got ten days, guys.

Dec 27: Official announcement of BMB

Dec 28 (2018): Release of BMB

Look at a summary on Wikipedia of the events leading up to the BMB release (parts were highlighted by @fixthehyper ):

People noticed inconsistencies, clues and easter eggs in the same way we are doing for CG. Social media accounts speculated and leaked info, mainstream media reported on it, to create hype. We also see an early, non-coincidental reference to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which eventually turned out to be a little tease for the other interactive movie that was released later, in 2020.

Short promotional timeline for "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy versus the Reverend" (KvR):

2020

April 16: One month prior, a surprise announcement!

Of course, this is a lot smaller in scale, but notice how Netflix preplans their interactive releases far in advance and cross-references them in promotion. This becomes relevant, especially when examining the parallels with the Stranger Things ARG. Check out the post on Kimmy vs the Reverend parallels by @thebestofmyrmidons . @fixthehyper also has a post with evidence that the script of Stranger Things Season 5 was already finished in Spring 2023!

I encourage everyone to participate in dissecting both these interactive movies to predict what's coming next. That task would be a lot easier if Netflix had not removed both of those in May 2025.

The last remaining interactive specials on Netflix are departing the service...

Ohhh nooo, why did they do that???

That will become clear in Post 2, where I do a deep dive into what Netflix and the Stranger Things team have done in preparation for their new upcoming interactive movie.

[whispering-goat]

Stranger Things conformitygate: an ARG on steroids

The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis

Edits in green and the word plant(s)

Disclaimer: This is a post in a series of collaborative posts that provides evidence that the next piece of Stranger Things content is going to be an interactive film using Episode 2 to 8 as the base. #bandersnatchgate

Contributors: @thebestofmyrmidons @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @power-kinesis @nuffit @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate. Check out the thorough and well-substantiated post by @thebestofmyrmidons . I present a sypnosis:

The type of delay of copyright registration by Netflix that has been witnessed for Episode 2 - Episode 8 of Stranger Things Season 5 has only happened for interactive shows and movies.

Posts on this topic from me:

1. How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale.

💬 0  🔁 27  ❤️ 95 · Stranger Things conformitygate: an ARG on steroids · How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" f

2. The Netflix and DONTNOD 2025 collaboration and the Life is Strange parallels hiding in plain sight.

💬 2  🔁 4  ❤️ 18 · Stranger Things conformitygate: an ARG on steroids · The Netflix and DONTNOD 2025 collaboration and the Life is Strange pa

3. The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis

My final post on the promotional timeline and my last theory post on conformitygate (CG). It's here. Let's walk through the dates one last time. I leave out all the minor promotions, but realize we did have lots of social media buzz, Jimmy Fallon Show and other cast interviews and hints for CG almost daily since Jan 1 (2026), even though Stranger Things is supposedly "over". I recently realized that every 5/6 days we did not just get major promotional drops, but also there was a purposeful cycle of positive and negative press that played with the emotions of the fandom. That was completely calculated and predetermined by the Stranger Things social media team. Edit: I forgot to mention why. If you read Post 1, it will dawn on you that the current promotional timeline is very similar to what happened the two months leading up to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. CG is just the new, improved and far crazier version of that. Plants also changed behavior cyclically before, during and after promo drops, but that's neither here nor there.

Dec 25: Stranger Things 5 Vol 2 drops

(negative reaction after E7, review bombing IMDB, change.org petition)

Dec 26: birth of cutgate, a major clue for conformitygate (CG), beginning of the Stranger Things ARG

(positive anticipation of the finale)

Jan 1: The finale drops 💥 birth of #conformitygate

(extreme negative crashout)

People started theorizing about CG, it spread on social media, mainstream media reported on it. People were speculating about a Jan 7 date.

Jan 6: Jamie Campbell Bower posts a video on instagram, counting up from 1 to 12, saying "It's Time".

(positive anticipation of new release)

Jan 7: The Netflix crash

(extreme negative crashout)

Here, I entered the scene, most fans left the CG bus at this point.

(positive anticipation of "documentary fakeout")

Jan 12: The documentary drops 💣

(negative crashout)

The remaining fans realize the documentary is satire. I prove that CG is real with some logic and probability:

💬 11  🔁 35  ❤️ 183 · "Season 5 and the finale of Stranger Things, the documentary and other press surrounding it are all part of a larger me

(positive anticipation for announcement at SNL)

Jan 17: Finn's SNL performance

(negative crashout from parasocial freaks)

(positive responses from CG theorists)

At this point, I created my promotional timeline, I predicted the following pattern based on the previous dates and my little research on the life span of news stories:

Jan 23: The YouTube Quiz ✅

(neutral response, loss of interest)

Now with bandersnatchgate, we know this was indeed a major drop, because the questions and answers are a tutorial or guide for the interactive puzzle that's to come.

Jan 28: Purposeful negative reporting on Nikki Baxter ✅

💬 20  🔁 41  ❤️ 154 · The curious case of Nikki Baxter · A story about a potential Netflix plant, misinformation on a Family Guy fanon Wikipe

(negative reaction)

(positive anticipation of CG clues)

Feb 2: Tales from '85 trailer drops ✅

(negative reaction)

Many speculations about a Super Bowl announcement started popping up during this time. This was obviously to generate hype again. Reminiscent of Jan 1 - 6 period. Recycling strategy.

Feb 8: The Super Bowl hell ✅

(extreme negative crashout)

Feb 9: ...

Feb 10: The First Shadow ProShot announcement ❓

(positive hype)

This is where I noticed that two big promo events occurred in the span of two days. One very negative, one pretty positive. I was confused. Did my promo timeline fail me? I gave two routes, because I was expecting the 5/6 days cycle to resume.

Now, I think I noticed the beginning of a new phase of promotion in the Stranger Things ARG: rapid fire! The hints and clues have become more cryptic, information and ragebait from unverified sources has increased, it is brazenly spread by plants and the rest of the social+mainstream media apparatus. These promo drops mostly illicit a negative response or create a state of confusion.

Feb 11: Caleb McLaughlin commented on CG in a negative way

The well-reviewed animated film marks his first project since the Netlix series wrapped — and generated a strange theory from fans who weren

Feb 12: Empire Magazine published an item on Tales from '85 with CG clues.

💬 5  🔁 17  ❤️ 74 · Yet another Nikki Baxter (curse her name) Update · Yes we are still not done with her... The vague reporting on her has

(confusion)

Feb 13: Trailer for Something very bad is going to happen ✅

Edit: The movie GOAT, starring Caleb McLaughlin, and the movie Cold Storage, starring Joe Keery, came out on this day. Both of them had CG clues and some ST nods, according to @vanillajunmyeon . Confirm yourself though :)

This one is technically not Stranger Things related, but as a Duffer Brothers production, it still serves its purpose of keeping the attention on the show.

💬 3  🔁 5  ❤️ 44 · Many "coincidences" in the teaser of Something very bad is going to happen. I'm not saying it's not real, and this is from

Small promo point: Is this article below made to put SNL and the Duffer Brothers in a bad light? Why would Finn Wolfhard need to notify Daniel Radcliffe himself?

https://people.com/daniel-radcliffe-reveals-finn-wolfhard-gave-him-a-heads-up-about-the-snl-skit-11906583

(confusion. Edit: probably meant as positive)

Feb 14: AI video "fixes" Stranger Things ending

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2026/02/14/bad-game-of-thrones-stranger-things-endings-are-being-remade-convincingly-poorly-with-ai/

Disappointment about no byler on Valentine's Day.

(ridiculously negative)

Feb 15: "The Duffer Brothers Birthday Bash'

Post by @whispering-goat · 1 video

💬 0  🔁 15  ❤️ 90 · Stranger Things conformitygate ARG · Stop falling for misinformation and believing unverified sources!!! Two Stranger Th

(confusion)

Feb 16: More Nikki Baxter Bullshit (see below), unverified reporting on The First Shadow changes (see above)

💬 16  🔁 7  ❤️ 76 · Nikki Baxter keeps haunting my narrative... · I was just minding my own business, working on my upcoming #bandersnatchgat

(confusion)

Feb 17: @HawkinsHappenin starts vagueposting about Feb 20 again and shared multiple live streams from YouTuber q. One is still running (Feb 18/19) and has (morse) code messages related to CG. Information+screenshots from @arubikhandy0707 , @avbyler and @livinglikelarries , they'll probably want to share full details of their findings, so I am not giving spoilers :)

(positive anticipation for...?)

Feb 18: (negative, misdirect, attempt to make people lose hope) Screenshot by @biigiiiii

There has been so much more weirdness happening in between Feb 10-18, even more unsubstantiated rumors on Nikki Baxter from unverified Twitter accounts I haven't reported on, plus slither.io and @HawkinsHappenin conversing in code...? Not touching that, but feel free to attempt some code cracking.

Feb 19: ...

Edit: More Randy Havens ragebait

Q&A: Randy Havens on Mr. Clarke's grand 'Stranger Things' return

One of Stranger Things' most beloved supporting characters returned for the show's final season.

Feb 20: ⏰⌚ ✅

Notice how Feb 20 was in both my promotional timeline routes btw. Feb 20 will be the end of this phase of the Stranger Things ARG. Why?

- CG is real. Interactive content is coming. #bandersnatchgate

- It's been two months and attention span is dwindling, even among the strongest CG bus drivers

- Any real promo for Stranger Things has been shared by now: the documentary, interviews with producers and cast, trailer for Tales from '85 and the announcement of The First Shadow proshot.

- CG clues have become more erratic, nonsensical and outrageously unverified, with a focus on Nikki Baxter. There is so much, in particular on Twitter, it's hard to keep up!

- @HawkinsHappenin is putting his yearslong reputation as a trusted plant on the line by claiming something is happening on Feb 20, multiple times! Check the date of the tweet below, he keeps bringing it up (also, playing into time shenanigans). You can check my posts on plants where I show he is one, but this Twitter account has a long history in the Stranger Things fandom and is undoubtedly connected to the Stranger Things social media team.

- Feb 20 does not only fall on the promotional timeline, it also should be positive promo, considering the pattern I have outlined above. We are coming out of a negative slump, and before all this we had a consistent postive-negative cycle.

- Feb 20 is the ONLY DATE that has actually been shared with us. All other dates were fan speculations. I'm talking about Jan 7, Jan 12, Jan 17, Feb 8, Feb 14, Feb 15, Feb 17. All of those were predicted by fans on hopium.

Do I think we will get new content on Feb 20? It's not... impossible? What I am pretty sure about is that we will get answers on that day, whatever they are.

If this date is a fakeout again, I won't understand the point of the Stranger Things ARG anymore. Why let a confirmed plant hint at a specific date and not make anything happen? Why have this very calculated promotional timeline for weeks on end and there be no payoff? Just to string people along? That seems needlessly cruel, a puzzle is supposed to be fun and solvable too.

Edit: It's not a puzzle, it's a social experiment.

Despite that bleak possibility existing, I stay optimistic. The optimism remains that made me and many others believe and ultimately prove the existence of CG.

I feel like the wait is almost over considering my and other people's analyses, but I can never be certain. Gg everyone, thank you all for the laughs, the crash-outs and the theorizing. Final 🫂 before the chaos ensues.

Crazy together.

[whispering-goat]

Hello people that follow my blog for conformitygate (CG) and Stranger Things ARG related analyses!

I am not going to do very extensive deep dives on the promotional timeline and other CG related topics (as often) anymore, as I mentioned in my pinned post. The reason: I am going through a pretty difficult period in my life and I don't have as much energy to put into this, unfortunately!

Posts that you can expect from me in the future, but possibly with some delays:

1. What happened on Feb 20 exactly and what can we expect from Stranger Things promo going forward?

In my pinned post, I posed the question in the end: A puzzle needs to be solvable, so if it isn't, what's the point? The short answer: CG is not a puzzle, it's a social experiment at its core. We are data, not players. We can't win, because the fandom's (predictable) behavior is used to make a point.

2. What's wrong with the Netflix video distribution system and the platform's backend?

Lol, I really want to talk about the HTML code still, @fixthehyper and I have stared too long at it to not share our findings with the class.

3. #bunnygate 🐇🐇

This is a very obscure puzzle that lives on DeviantArt that also surprisingly relates to the Stranger Things ARG. You can expect childish drawings of cartoon animals with secret Mind Flayer shadows and lots and lots of symbolism. I'll tag anyone here, who wants to be exposed as a #bunnygate truther.

4. Why do mathematicians like CG? Self-explanatory ^^ #mathgate

I hope y'all stick around even if I can't post as frequently.

One thing remains for sure: My fellow CG theorists and I proved without a shadow of a doubt that CG is real and that interactive content is coming with E2-E8 as a base. #bandersnatchgate

The only thing we don't know is when the new content is coming out. I knew from the start that we would never be able to predict an exact release date, but just because it's not here yet, doesn't mean it's not going to happen :)

Have a good day!

[whispering-goat]

Stranger Things ARG on steroids: Commentary on Fandom Culture

What did we learn from Feb 20 (2026) about the Stranger Things viral marketing strategy?

Or: The Duffer Brothers made a prototype ARG back in 2016 called _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9

(I should have made two separate posts, but in my head these two subjects are connected and I have no time to fix it)

Hello everyone! Remember when I posted my ultimate promotional timeline for the Stranger Things ARG and then said, pretty confidently:

Something is going to happen on Feb 20!!!

And then... Nothing happened? Well, not quite nothing. I said we would get answers and, oh boy, answers we got. Let's talk about it! :)

A lot of my thoughts and reflections are inspired by my conversations with @fixthehyper, @nuffit, @thebestofmyrmidons, @luminescentlama, @randomstblog, @autoasta, @disastertourwaterdeepedition, @arubikhandy0707 and @picsbydarienjay

I still stand behind my promo analysis master post so far, read that one first:

💬 17  🔁 28  ❤️ 114 · Stranger Things conformitygate: an ARG on steroids · The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis Disclai

I have amended it a bit, check out my edits if you haven't seen them yet!

So what exactly happened on Feb 20?

We had FIVE distinct posts:

1. An Architectural Digest article on Matt Duffer's and his family's home:

Duffer, his fiancée Sarah Hindsgaul, and designer Kyle O’Donnell transformed a long-neglected 1929 apartment into a playful escape for famil

His apartment is a bit CG themed, the orange and green everywhere. The article also features two videos on S5 set design. Maybe something is in those? Nice grandfather clock you got there, Matt Duffer.

2. An announcement revealing the second cast of The First Shadow Broadway Production:

Casting is complete for year two of the Tony-winning Broadway production Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Joining previously announced pri

3. A report about a Private Stranger Things Tour for super fans:

See all the coolest local Stranger Things filming locations right here in Atlanta, led by the one and only Tours by Locals!

4. More Nikki Baxter Bullshit from a "commentary account" on Twitter, @UDScoopMedia:

5. The insanely long over 48 hours YouTube live stream by q, who is also known as @HawkinsHappenin (HawkH) on Twitter.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Going forward, I assume that the reader fully understands that @HawkinsHappenin aka q is a plant. Still unsure? Let's quickly address this common criticism:

Regardless if you think this is the original "teenager" who leaked some Stranger Things BTS content or someone else, who took on this identity for lore and mystery, this account has a purpose. It retweets Twitter ragebait and misinfo, it plays into people's beliefs of CG and it behaves exactly like the other Twitter plant accounts. It creates hype by making posts of cryptic nature, sprinkling half-truths throughout. You don't get BTS content from official sources by begging on Twitter. @HawkinsHappenin is connected to the Stranger Things social media presence, if you like it or not. Check out my posts on plants on my blog for more of my thoughts.

Looking at the five points above, it's quite a substantial list of promo, but it's also not mind-blowing, content-wise. What fascinated me the most though, was not the livestream itself, but the existence and purpose of it.

About 50-120 people tuned in to q's live stream on Feb 20 (2026) and the days before and after, they kept watching, listening and waiting for something to happen during it. It was mostly the same clips on a loop over and over again, with distorted music, some morse code on Nikki Baxter, some timers/countdowns, some coordinates that lead to a location close to Hawkins Headquarters. It was building and building and building up to... a whole lotta nothing, in my opinion.

I argued in my ultimate promo timeline post, that the Stranger Things social media team has been cycling between positive and negative promo every 5/6 days and that on Feb 20 we would have to get out of the super weird, confusing, negative promo slump we have observed since Feb 8 (or Feb 10). In the past, I made the logical error of viewing the Stranger Things ARG as a puzzle for us, the players, to solve. That's why Feb 20 felt like a clue, but I was wrong.

Ask yourself this: Can this livestream even be considered... promo? It only targeted about a hundred people. How is that effective? Unless... promo was never the goal, but only the byproduct of all this. Edit: q doesn't gain money or substantial notoriety with his streams.

Reframing everything we have noticed so far not as an attempt at promoting new content, but as a social experiment, everything starts to fall into place. The promo is a cover for what is really happening, a targeted provocation of the entirety of the Stranger Things fandom.

The fandom reaction has been central in the Stranger Things viral marketing campaign. The General Audience (GA), disgruntled bylers, and yes, also CG theorists have been collectively played. Maybe we all react differently, due to our various perspectives, but emotionally, we all have been strongly affected! Just reflect on these past two months, how everyone, no matter their thoughts on Stranger Things, has had some gripes with the ending. Nobody is truly satisfied. They're fucking with us to prove a point. I know people on Tumblr have a bit of a cynical view of the GA, but most of them got hyped for the possibility of a secret episode on Jan 7, even if during the finale they didn't notice anything or have completely moved on by now.

The point the Stranger Things ARG is making is that by playing it safe and selling out, artists create mediocre and conform art and fans should be angry about this!

What I have been calling ragebait, Nikki Baxter, has been tailored to be exactly that for ALL groups:

- GA: Ew, what's this pink-haired butch lesbian looking character infiltrating my 80s themed show for?! (sorry I have seen many comments like this ._.)

- Sad bylers (nudged in this direction by the mainstream media narrative): Why do we have a spin-off with more Mileven content and why is another girl in the way of our gay boys?! Introducing a new character creates continuity errors... The writers ARE STUPID and SELL-OUTS?!

- CG theorists: Why does none of the information add up about her, most sources are dubious or unverified? What's her purpose in the ARG?? Is she the manifestation of the Mind Flayer, is she messing with the timeline??? Is the cartoon even real?!?! Argh, we want to know!!!

I already connected the emotions of the fandom to the promotional timeline previously, because they are hard to ignore. Like clockwork (lol), around every major promo drop, the fandom, in particular CG theorists, would behave in a similar way: hope, hype, crash-out, repeat!

In this context, q's livestream actually makes perfect sense. It specifically targets the most hardcore of the fan base, of course it's not for GA or regular bylers, they don't even know it exists. It's there to create hype, but also it's to call CG theorists out. We are so desperate, we will cling to any clues and will follow the plants whims for a nothingburger. Give or take a hundred people stopped messaging in the live chat of the stream simultaneously, because a supposed plant said so. Some genuinely thought for a moment it would do something. Even the most critical and media literate of us, in extreme circumstances, will behave like a hivemind. Or, perhaps more like Joyce in Season 1. While she was right about Will being alive, she did put too much trust in that goddamn phone:

CG theorists losing sleep and hoping HawkH will give them actually some interesting new information (colorized). Pic from @thebestofmyrmidons #phonegate post.

We know that Netflix takes super fans into account in their profit model, very pragmatically. Super fans are the main source of free promotion for them, they have admitted it themselves ("FQ3 2025 Earnings Call Transcripts" Oct 21, 2025):

My full analysis of the Netflix business strategy is linked inside the promotional timeline master post at the beginning of this post.

Well, isn't this something? I feel we are not just players in the Stranger Things ARG, we are also predictable data points for a giant corporation. We're like puppets on a string doing their choreographed song and dance.

What Vecna is to the characters, Netflix is to us.

It gets worse, kind of.

In my humble opinion, the social experiment part of this marketing campaign is ethically dubious at best, kind of exploitative at worst, mainly because of Netflix's involvement and their corporate greed. Of course, I acknowledge this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to study fandom behavior and see how propaganda and misinformation influences the masses. It's definitely valuable data for all kinds of research. I am just not particularly fond of being a data point, that's all.

I think the Stranger Things ARG overall is a passion project orchestrated by the Duffer Brothers though, it is performance art at its core, and I appreciate that. What if I told you the online component has been in the works since 2016? I suspected that due to the gigantic scale of this project, it had to have taken years of planning. We have indications that most major social media platforms are involved: Reddit, Twitter, Insta+FB, TikTok, Tumblr, ao3, etc. Some of us have even found CG clues in more obscure places like Pinterest, DeviantArt and web forums such as fanon wikis.

Perhaps a prototype would be hidden somewhere? Lo and behold, @picsbydarienjay shared this bombshell with me. Thank you dude! :D

_9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9

My jaw dropped the first time I read about this. I genuinely was shocked. Between February 2016 and July 17 (2016), the end date being 2 days after Season 1 of Stranger Things was released, a creepypasta was posted in Reddit comments across multiple subreddits that formed one semi-cohesive narrative with themes of the show. A summary:

Note the "30-something American male". Who were 30-something, American and male in 2016? A Reddit user suggested 10 years ago this could be related to Stranger Things, but got heavily dismissed in the comments at the time:

This person was NOT wrong in hindsight, when having the context of the Stranger Things ARG in 2026. I can't believe how people overlooked this:

_9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9: the mysterious tale terrifying Reddit

An intimidating story emerging on Reddit plays on the horror of the unknown lurking in plain sight among the tools we use for everyday dialo

This creepypasta has many connections to Stranger Things, I encourage anyone to dig through the lore.

I will mention a "simple" parallel that @picsbydarienjay told me about:

Posted in r/9M9H9E9 by u/_9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9 • 89 points and 44 comments

The mysterious account linked to "Fairy Queen - Tami Stronach", the singer Tami (Tammy!!!) is the actress of Childlike Empress in The NeverEnding Story (1984).

HA HA HA HA HA

Okay, I am done. If this post does not prove that the Stranger Things ARG has been planned from the very beginning of the show and that this entire promotional campaign has been one big troll and social experiment I don't know what will.

But Goat, when will the content come out??? I am anxiously waiting 🥺👉👈

Soon, most likely before the end of April. The Black Mirror: Bandersnatch mini ARG and viral marketing campaign took about 2-2.5 months in total. The promo for Stranger Things has reduced to triggering the super fans mostly, the active plants are confused themselves on what to do, maybe there is a production delay for the interactive content, who knows?

The Duffer Brothers are leaving for Paramount after April (2026). Since Tales from '85 airs on April 23, allegedly lmfao, and most cons with cast appearances will commence at the end of March (2026), I have a feeling they literally can't make us wait that much longer. They really want to though, they do. The Stranger Things social media team also wants us to keep guessing specific dates for their little stunt by leaving misleading clues, but I won't entertain them anymore, and neither should you.

You’ve been waiting for it… The Stranger Fan Meet is back, and once again: we’re going on tour! For its

https://www.paramount.com/press/paramount-signs-multi-year-exclusive-deal-with-matt-and-ross-duffer-the-visionary-duo-behind-the-global-phenomenon-stranger-things

Good morning, oh and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

[monsterkill--er]

A Nod to Lady Di and Gay Rights in Stranger Things' Costume Design

Here's an excerpt of the Amy Parris' interview:

"So, we made these custom knitwear sweaters for Erica. And my inspiration was the warm and wonderful Princess Diana sweater. It was a little bit earlier than '87, but Indiana's a little bit slower in fashion, so it would have been the sweater to like have at the moment. We changed it. We made it blue. We put Scotty dogs instead of sheep and just kind of flipped the script of that. It's a bit preppy, but fashionable. This is her growing up."

As Season 5 is set in 1987, one of the biggest historical events of that year was the moment Princess Diana shook hands with AIDS patients and staff at the only Hospital wing dedicated to HIV+ treatment in England at the time (x). While the conservative Prime Minister conspired to suppress awareness, her mission was to change the perception of HIV and AIDS to lambast stigma, shed light on the truth, and promote assistance. She did not wear that sweater at the time, but it was a public statement that she felt othered by the royal family for her different views—and it's very much the case in retrospect. Many gay men in America idolized her for what she did to help the community, and still do to this day.

For a lot of her screen time, Erica wears this sweater side by side with Derek, who has a Rainbow color coordinated outfit, split into a group with two canonically LGBTQ characters—one of whom is heavily tied to an AIDS allegory, especially in S2.

Parris chose to invert the pattern and color to blue with a lone white Yorkie from red with a black sheep. It matches the themes of waning light amongst darkness against a conformity backdrop, tying this aspect to "growing up." Erica becomes the voice of reason this season going against the mold, so it makes sense for character in that regard.

The costume design choice here is reminiscent of the triangles Parris gave Robin last season, which was a nod to the queer community, and it also ties into the black hand on El's shoulder, which is a symbol of an abuse of government in regards to the AIDS epidemic.

As she states in the interview, she worked closely with the production designer, Chris Trujillo, who had consistently hung "Be a Hero, Give Blood" donor posters in the hospital further cementing this allegory and symbolism. It's important to note, gay and bisexual men were barred from donating blood solely based on their sexual orientation from 1983 to 2015, and even now the FDA still holds them to a different set of criteria.

These posters follow Mike around like a ghost, prominent in an episode he disguises himself as a patient while Nancy's in a candy striper outfit, which altogether infers his acute anxiety on contracting the disease as well as facing its stigma when the theme keeps popping up.

[upsidedownlurker]

HOW VECNA KIDNAPPED MIKE!

Hint: Vecna used Holly as "bait", and... let's just say it's not looking good for Karen Wheeler...

[A timeline from November 3rd to November 6th, 1986.]

Theory Overview

What happened, exactly? (a summary from Nov 3rd to Nov 6th)

November 3rd, 1986 – The Wheeler attack

Karen's tragic fate

Mike, injured but alive... just what Vecna wanted.

Holly, the "bait"

Mike's hospital stay, survivor's guilt, and becoming Mike the Brave

November 6th, 1986 – Mike's sacrifice and kidnapping

^ I'll provide evidence for all of this!

First, as usual, here's a brief overview of my main theory:

MIKE IN THE RIGHTSIDE UP

Mike is stuck in his own version of Camazotz: the Rightside Up.

In the 8 months after Season 4, the gang prepared for a big battle with Vecna. Mike was taken during that battle, on the anniversary of Will's disappearance: November 6th, 1986.

Every important plot point from Ep 1-8 was an edited version of what really happened in those 8 months. Vecna just changed the order, characters or context to suit his own narrative, keeping Mike trapped in the Rightside Up – a story with a happy ending that he wishes was true. That's why Mike's real memories will be crucial to his escape in the upcoming episodes: a reversal of the current episode descriptions.

Evidence! ORDER OF EVENTS: Part 1 (Reality = reversed), Part 3 (12 Episodes), Part 4 (MWTFDYD), Part 9 (Wheeler attack -> Mike's kidnapping) SCENE ANALYSIS: Part 2 (Will/Robin), Part 5 (Rainbows), Part 6 (The roof talk), Part 7 ("Where's Dustin right now?"), Part 8 (El is missing)

So what happened, exactly?

This is a summary of events spanning from November 3rd to November 6th – I'll provide evidence later.

Nancy's vision came true. On November 3rd, (Lucas tells us this date) 1986, there was an attack on the Wheeler house, and Karen, Holly and Mike were put in grave danger.

Karen was fatally injured (died)

Mike was injured (survived)

Holly was kidnapped (taken into the Upside Down)

Mike was rushed to hospital for his injuries (like Karen), and forcibly sidelined from the upcoming search for his sister, Holly.

The guilt and grief from this traumatic event, along with feelings of uselessness, ate away at Mike – until he was inspired by one of his friends, who assured him that he wasn't useless; he is Mike the Brave, and he has been this whole time.

All of this led Mike to do something very brave on November 6th, 1986. When Vecna sent Demos into the hospital, Mike pulled out his IV, got out of his hospital bed, and set off an explosion to protect his friends (what Karen does in Episode 6). They were grateful Mike saved them – but they said he needed to stay in hospital to recover.

With most of the gang looking for Holly in the Upside Down, the others completing their plan to connect Will to the hivemind, and Mike left alone and severely injured... Vecna had the perfect opportunity to kidnap Mike.

And now, he's stuck in the Rightside Up – kept there by his feelings of guilt, and his desire to believe in a fantasy story with a happy ending, instead of a much more unfortunate truth.

Where does this fit into my theory?

To reiterate: everything we've seen so far from Episodes 1-8 has already happened. Vecna kept as much the same as possible, to make it more believable for Mike – And, as I outlined in my 12 Episodes theory, the remaining plot for Season 5 will be a reversal of the current episode descriptions.

Now, Mike being a part of the Wheeler attack just so happens to match up with the reversed episode descriptions. What a crazy coincidence.

Episode 12 (from my post) Mike confronts the cost of secrecy after a vicious attack at the Wheeler home [Mike's real memory of the attack]

After navigating through the Rightside Up with Max's help, Mike will have to confront his most traumatic memories... and he'll have to revisit the day that the Wheelers were viciously attacked in their own home: November 3rd, 1986.

Now, let's get into the evidence.

The day of the Wheeler attack: November 3rd, 1986

As mentioned prior, my theory so far has been that Mike was taken on November 6th, 1986.

Well, this might seem obvious, but I literally just realised that it makes total sense for the Wheeler attack to have taken place three days prior; on November 3rd, the date Lucas directly tells us about.

Lucas: You know what date it is, right? November 3rd. Will was taken on the 6th.

Remember, Vecna would have changed as little as possible about what happened, to ensure that Mike believed his new story.

Just as the evidence suggests that Jane really did go into hiding on June 13th, 1986, the evidence suggests that the Wheeler house really was attacked on November 3rd, 1986 – except Mike was there for it.

This explains:

Why Holly, Mike's stand-in, feels so guilty about not saving her mother

Why Will goes through the exact same thing as Holly, except he is able to save his mother

Why Mike parallels Karen so heavily in ST5 (limping in a hospital gown, setting off explosives, talking to Holly about Mr Whatsit etc.)

Why Karen suddenly becomes an action hero, while Mike is sidelined (they swapped roles)

Why Holly remembers her mother falling in two different positions during the Wheeler attack

And more!

^ We'll explore all of this soon!

Karen the Hero (written by Mike Wheeler)

Throughout Season 5, in a surprising turn, Karen Wheeler becomes kind of a badass.

Protecting Holly with nothing but a broken wine bottle

Miraculously surviving two Demogorgon attacks against all odds

Providing the information that leads to Henry's defeat

Pulling the IV out of her arm and limping through the hospital

Setting off an explosion in a laundry machine, single-handedly saving four of Mike's friends

And by the end of the show, she gets a happy ending. One in which she tearfully tells her son she loves him, hugs him, watches him graduate, and calls him up for her homemade lasagna. Yes – Karen's happy ending is VERY centred around Mike, and there's a reason for that.

Out of everyone, why would Mike turn Karen into a brave hero who can survive anything? Well, heads up, it’s about to get real sad in here!

Karen: I'm fine, Michael. I'm fine. Vickie: With all due respect, Mrs. Wheeler, you're not. You could get an infection, haemorrhage – God forbid, stop breathing.

...What if she did stop breathing?

Have you ever wondered why Holly remembers Karen lying on the kitchen floor in two totally different positions? [Episode 2 vs Episode 6]

This is why.

When Nancy found Mike and Karen, they were together in the kitchen. Mike was lying on his back near the phone with an injured throat. Meanwhile, Karen was lying on her stomach – dead from a chest wound, and not breathing. Sorry, Nancy.

(Alternatively – based on the red phone's location, Mike may have even been thrown into his own bedroom, through his own closet. Nancy even tells Robin to "call my house, tell everyone to get out of there". Maybe she did, but was too late.)

When the Wheeler house was attacked, Mike ran to Karen. Then, in the kitchen, he stood there while Karen defended him, and when she was slashed in the chest – right in front of him, like a scary movie he couldn't turn off. Karen probably never even found out the truth about the Upside Down, not until it was too late.

Mike: You saved us. [...] There's so much that I need to tell you about the Upside Down, but...

But he can't.

Mike loved his mother. He didn't want her to die. He wants to live in a world where she could've survived; where he could've told her the truth, and she could've seen him graduate, hugged him, told him she loved him, and called him upstairs from the basement one more time.

Just as Kiara said here!

And so, when Vecna kidnaps Mike later on and scrambles his memories, Mike subconsciously separates the true story of the Wheeler attack into three different characters.

Karen, Holly and Will.

He gave his injuries to Karen, and her injuries to Ted, giving his mother another chance at survival. And after that, Mike gave his own bravest moments to her too (more on this later).

Mike also gave his fears and insecurities to Holly.

Holly: When my mom was attacked, I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t even save myself. I just stood there. [...] There's nothing heroic about that.

He couldn't save his mother, only watch – and he blames himself. But as I've explored previously, Mike views his fears and struggles as childish, so he gave them to his little sister.

And then, Mike gave his deepest desires to Will. Everything he wished he could've done instead. Through him, Mike wills it all to be true.

Will: I was afraid. I was afraid for my mom. Mike: You wanted to protect her. Will: Yeah, but I just... couldn't. It was like this scary movie you just can't turn off.

In the edited version of Mike's story, now it's Will who couldn't save his own mother – except Mike makes it so he actually did.

All the way back in Season 1, It was Will who "put himself in danger to help the Party" in their D&D game, inspiring Mike – so, from Mike's perspective, Will the Wise is the obvious choice for a hero.

Mike: Are you positive you didn't? Turn off the scary movie, protect your mom, not the other way around?

See what Mike is doing here? He is controlling the narrative subconsciously, telling a story that he wishes was true through Will and Karen, and telling a story closer to his own reality through Holly.

Mike gave all of his "childish" fears to Holly, he gave all of his bravest moments to Karen, and he gave Will everything he ever wanted.

This way, Holly gets to be scared and comforted like any child would be. Karen survives "by some miracle"; she saves him, his friends, and herself. Will gets to accept himself for who he truly is, beat his tormentor, and be the powerful, confident hero of his own story.

And Mike, stuck in the Rightside Up, gets nothing... thereby keeping himself even more trapped, which is exactly what Vecna wants.

And, speaking of what Vecna wants...

Holly the "bait" (A.K.A. Mike Lite)

Lucas: It makes no sense that Vecna took Holly; Holly, who has nothing to do with any of this.

Or does it?

When I was first putting things together in late Jan/early Feb, I was under the impression that Holly was never actually kidnapped, and her story fully replaced Mike.

However, after re-examining the evidence? Holly was kidnapped. But she was just the bait.

^ These are my old notes btw – no need to read unless you're curious

By taking her on November 3rd, Vecna baited the gang into the Upside Down for a long and dangerous Crawl. This way, their best resources and strength would be expended during the fight for Holly, all of them would be injured, and some might even die.

Come *CRAWLING* faster, obey your master, Your life burns faster, Obey your master, master... Master of puppets, I'm pulling your strings Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams

All that effort to get Holly back... only for Vecna to swap her for the one he really wanted the whole time: Mike.

I'd make a deal with God, and get him to swap our places.

On November 6th, Vecna was able to do just that.

Let's explore how exactly that happened – starting with Mike's hospital stay, and ending with the brave sacrifice he made for his friends.

Survivor's Guilt! at the Hospital (feat. Lucas)

Now, before the November 3rd attack, Mike had already been feeling a truckload of guilt. We saw only the tip of the iceberg in Season 4, with how Mike considered himself both useless, and totally inferior to El...

Mike: One day she's going to realise that I'm just some random nerd that got lucky that Superman landed on his doorstep. Mike: I'm scared that one day you'll realise you don't need me anymore.

Mike feels like he's always there, standing by his loved ones, but that no-one actually needs him around. Sure, he figures things out, but he feels like it will never be enough to repay his loved ones for everything they've done for him.

El, who sacrifices herself over and over again for her friends, because if she doesn't, who will?

Will, who goes through trauma after trauma and still remains gentle, brave and kind.

Eddie, who Mike idolised as exactly the kind of rebellious, authentic person he wants to be; he fights with Dustin about whether Eddie's sacrifice was brave or stupid, before ultimately settling on brave.

And finally, the nail in the coffin for Mike's self-image – his mother, Karen, who has always assured him that he can tell her the truth, and who he can always go to for a hug, even when he doesn't say a word. Karen, who died to protect him, never knowing the truth.

That's why Mike imagines Mike the Brave is "by his side". Not that he himself is Mike the Brave, but that he's just standing there.

He's always just standing there.

And after the November 3rd attack? All of Mike's worst fears about himself have been totally confirmed, in his mind. He is useless, he isn't brave, he isn't honest, and he survived while his mother sacrificed her life for his protection.

[Mike]: I just stood there. Why didn't I fight? Why didn't I help her? Max: That was old [Mike]. You would now.

Mike wants nothing more than to get out there and fight... but he can't. See, Mike was badly injured during the attack. In the end, these were his injuries:

An injured leg – resulting in a limp [Karen in Ep6] [Vecna in Ep5/6] [Mike in Ep2]

An injured arm – [Karen slips on water and slams against the counter in Ep2] [Mike slips on water and slams against the wall in Ep4]

An injured throat – hurts to talk (but he talks anyway) [Karen in Ep2] [El in ST3]

Mike's throat getting injured has actually been foreshadowed for a while.

SEASON 3 Max: Does it still hurt? El: Only when I talk.  Max: Well, it’s a good thing you’re not Mike, then. "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," and you'd be in constant pain!

Stuck in his hospital bed, Mike feels useless, cowardly, and most of all, he feels very, very guilty.

Lucky for Mike, the battle is about to take place, so his friends are coming over for one last visit.

That's when Lucas gives his speech to Mike.

Firstly, if you're curious... out of everyone at the hospital (Robin, Lucas, Joyce and Will – I'll explain later), why Lucas?

This is based off of Max's speech to Holly in Episode 6. In that scene, they each mention one character: Holly mentions Mike, and Max repeatedly mentions Lucas. In fact, "Lucas" is the first word Max says in the scene! Holly is clearly a stand-in for Mike, so... Max is probably a stand-in for Lucas.

A speech like this would fit Lucas' character arc more than the others

Lucas is in several hospital scenes with Mike already

"Lucas and Mike are an underrated duo"... Um, where exactly?

So what happens?

As stated in my 12 Episodes post, the gang cooked up two plans for the final battle:

A larger group will go into the Upside Down to find Holly

A smaller group (Robin, Lucas, Joyce, Will) will stay in Hawkins to connect Will to the hivemind.

During their preparations, the Party did everything they could to prevent themselves from being put under Vecna's curse. They realised:

Max: Music isn't the only way back. Something that connects you to the real world, to home. Something powerful. Meaningful.

Since they'll be remaining in Hawkins for the Hivemind plan, Lucas and the others visit Mike to A) say goodbye before the battle, and B) tell him this information.

This is how Lucas and Mike's conversation goes:

Lucas: [We realised that if any of us get stuck in a vision...] Lucas: Music isn’t the only way back. [...] You just need something that’s special to you. Something that makes you feel safe, something that brings you strength, that brings you hope. Mike: ...Mike the Brave.  Lucas: Just try and remember what he means to you. Mike: He doesn’t mean anything important. He’s just a toy. [...] I guess I thought if I ever got scared, I could just become him. But I keep trying and it never works. No matter what I do, I’m still me. [...] When my mom was attacked, I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t even save myself. I just stood there. [...] There’s nothing brave about that.

This continues Mike's long-lasting negative self-image; as someone useless and unimportant – and his devaluing of what he views as "childish", which started all the way back in Season 2 with Mike donating all his favourite toys.

But Lucas pushes back against Mike's self-loathing.

Lucas: There was nothing that you could do in those moments, Mike. I mean, you’re a Wheeler. You’re smart. You honestly think you could’ve stopped that monster with a shovel? And, I think you're leaving a few important things out. [...] Lucas: So you see, Mike the Brave isn’t just a toy. He’s you, Mike. He’s you.

By challenging Mike's assumptions, Lucas is able to break through his friend's self-loathing and allow him to see the truth – that this whole time, he has already been brave. Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is stand there, even though you're scared.

Thanks to Lucas, Mike is no longer limited by the belief that he is a useless coward – and as an unexpected bonus, he has all the fuel he needs to do something very, very brave.

And just in time, too.

The day of Mike's kidnapping: November 6th, 1986

I've listed everything that happens in dot points, and next to them [in brackets like this], the scenes they're based on.

The gang split in two. [based on: Lucas and Erica's two plans in Shock Jock]

Most of the gang went out to find Holly in the Upside Down. [based on: the beanstalk plan from the finale, El and Hopper searching for Holly]

The other group, comprised of Joyce, Robin, Will and Lucas, planned to connect Will to the hive mind. But first, they went to the hospital to give Mike and Max one last visit. [based on: Will's hivemind plan from Shock Jock featuring Robin + Joyce + Lucas + Will, the hospital scenes with Robin + Lucas].

While the rest of the gang was putting their resources and effort into saving Holly, Vecna sent Demos into the hospital – and they came straight for Max, Robin, Lucas, Will and Joyce. [based on: Vecna sending Demos to these four characters in the MAC-Z, the tunnels, the barn, the truck, AND the hospital... and somehow they survived every time lol]

Mike heard this over the intercom. Instead of sitting there and staying safe, Mike decided to be brave. [based on: Karen hearing the hospital intercom warning + getting out of bed]

Fueled by his newfound sense of bravery and self-worth, Mike got out of bed and pulled out his IV, limping and grunting in pain. [based on: Karen limping in her hospital gown to save Robin, Lucas etc.]

Mike set off an explosion in the hospital, saving his loved ones from the Demos. He finally got to be Mike the Brave. [based on: Karen's hospital explosion, Mike exploding his "Mike the Brave" figurine in the Upside Down]

Mike had to stay behind and rest while the others completed their plan. [based on: Karen staying behind to rest while the others completed their plan]

Will: Mike, this group saved me when no-one else could. You did that. And we're about to do the same thing with Holly. We're gonna bring her back to you, Mike, I promise. Okay? Yeah? [based on: Mike reassuring Karen]

Now that his friends are gone, and Mike is even worse for wear than before – Vecna himself appears in the hospital. [based on: Vecna appearing to Mike at the MAC-Z, Vecna appearing to Max and Holly in her memory, Will being Vecna's "spy"]

The thing is, though... Will was connected to the hivemind by this point. He could see everything Vecna was seeing, and he tried to save Mike. [based on: Will trying to save Max and Holly from Vecna in her memory]

Will: MIKE! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, YOU NEED TO RUN! RUN!

But MIKE CAN'T RUN! ...His leg.

He tried anyway, limping down the hallway as fast as he could. [based on: Mike limping down the hallway and looking behind him, Karen limping down the hallway, Max and Holly running from a limping Vecna]

Vecna (to Will): Get out. GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!

Will was knocked into a trance. [based on: Will being knocked into a trance in Shock Jock]

Mike was totally and utterly screwed.

Vecna reached Mike easily. He fell to the floor, possibly even falling down a flight of hospital stairs, and slammed his head. [based on: Mike falling to the ground and slamming his head, Holly falling down the stairs and slamming her head, Robin's fake granny in hospital who fell down a flight of stairs]

Mike was knocked out. [based on: Mike getting knocked out by Vecna's explosion at the MAC-Z, Holly knocked out from falling down the stairs]

VECNA KIDNAPPED MIKE. [based on: Vecna kidnapping Holly after she fell down the stairs, Vecna kidnapping the kids in front of Mike]

In a cruel twist of fate, it was Mike's final act of bravery that led directly to his kidnapping.

Vecna now has Will: his builder and Mike: his storyteller – exactly what he needs to complete his plan and create "something beautiful".

Well, shit, right?

What happens next?

Episode 12 Mike confronts the cost of secrecy after the vicious attack at the Wheeler home [his real memory of the attack]

Mike will have to accept the unfortunate reality that he's been trying to run from – that his mother will never learn the truth; not about the Upside Down, nor Mike's love for Will, nor any other secrets he may have kept from her.

But he'll be freed from the Rightside Up – and with this freedom, he'll let go of the idea that he needs to hide, to live in fantasy, or to be someone other than Mike, in order to be loved.

Because in the end, truth and love will triumph over fear.

Vecna can try to convince Mike that there are only two doors, but as long as Max is still running around in his mind, there's a third one.

Escape :)

...

Whew.

This was a BIG ONE, omg. It literally took me around four days to put this thing together – excluding the work I had already been doing to try and piece together Mike's explosion moment. It was worth it though. I love theorising and puzzles, so this is actually, miraculously, fun for me. Hope it was a good read for you!

Thanks for making it to the end!

Also: I found some crazy shit when I was analysing Karen's hospital scene, way too much to fit in here lol. Let's just say "I was him, I was Vecna" makes a lot more sense now – just not in *that* way.

#lovewinsgate #rightsideupgate

[mixu]

You absolutely blow my mind with this!

These would be such emotionally charged moments for Mike. I can't wait to see them play out.

[upsidedownlurker]

Mike + Will’s cancelled “dinner plans" on November 3rd

…Mike couldn’t make it, because the Wheeler house was attacked that very night.

Analysis Overview

Summary

1 - The Stranger Things rewatch video

2 - Rovickie’s missed date = Byler's missed dinner plans

3 - Rovickie mirror Byler (literally)

4 - Clues from Robin and Will's talk

Why would Vecna replace Mike's memory of this?

Theory Summary

As I explored in my MWTFDYD = conformitygate analysis, Vecna reversed Mike and Will’s love story. In the months after Season 4, they didn’t lose hope for a relationship, they actually gained hope and got closer to each other. 

If you haven't already, please read that analysis before this one! You'll kind of need it to understand what's going on.

Mike and Will planned to go on a date the night of November 3rd, 1986 – but Vecna had other plans. That was the day the Wheeler house was attacked, and Nancy’s vision about Karen, Holly and Mike came true. Karen was fatally wounded, Holly was kidnapped, and Mike was severely injured and rushed to hospital.

Thus, Mike and Will’s dinner plans for November 3rd were VERY inconveniently interrupted.

…

Okay, okay, it’s a fun theory – but let’s explore the evidence, shall we?

1. Mike’s Dinner Plans With… “Who?”

A few weeks ago, @mixu commented this great idea. 

If Mike and Will were already dating before his disappearance, and we consider that they were rewatching the seasons in character… Mike had a date with Will.

In the ST5 rewatch video, the actors are fully in-costume, dressed as their characters in settings from the show. They essentially are their characters. Which is why it’s very interesting that “Mike” says this…

Mike: "You know I had dinner plans, right?" 

Dustin: "With who?" 

Firstly: It’s a date. Otherwise Dustin would’ve known about it (or been invited along).

Secondly: The fact that Dustin doesn’t know who it is implies it’s not the “obvious” choice for him or the audience – it's not El.

Thirdly: The fact that Mike had any dinner plans at all is a REALLY BAD OMEN for him.

Every time a character has planned a date in this show, it's been doomed by the Upside Down.

Boyce – one of them died to a Demogorgon

Karen/Billy – one of them was possessed by the Mindflayer + later died to it

Jopper – one of them almost died to an Upside Down portal + disappeared to Russia

Lumax – one of them died to Vecna + was revived and put into a trance

Uh, Mike? Are you sure about those dinner plans, buddy? 

Yep. Every date on the show has been cancelled because of the Upside Down and a death/near death. Oh, wait, hang on. 

Every date except Rovickie. 

Rovickie – one of them was suddenly erased from the narrative?????? wtf??????

Yeah. It turns out that Rovickie’s date is a massive outlier in many ways. Let's explore how and why!

2. Robin and Vickie’s suspicious date at Enzo’s

So many aspects of Robin and Vickie’s date totally break the pattern of the other dates, and… just seem weirdly off.

It’s the only date with a cancellation that doesn’t seem to have been caused by the Upside Down. 

It’s the only date where neither of them died/nearly died.

They are the only queer couple, and have previously been paralleled to Mike and Will multiple times.

Their original plans were meant to take place the night of November 3rd… AKA THE NIGHT OF THE WHEELER ATTACK. What a coincidence.

Nothing is stopping them from having their second date, and yet, they still don’t!! Even though they promised to!!! Why??????

Now, if this date really was Robin and Vickie’s… well, it’s really weird that they have all these differences from the other couples, right? 

Unless the date was Mike and Will’s. 

The interruption actually WAS caused by the Upside Down – the Wheeler attack.

One of them actually DID nearly die – Mike.

They literally ARE Mike and Will. 

The Wheeler attack is what MADE them miss their date.

Something actually DID stop them from having their second date (post-November 6th) – Will’s trance and Mike's kidnapping!

See how suddenly, all the weirdness is explained? How Mike and Will’s date would actually follow the exact same pattern as all four other missed dates in the show? 

Remember, all of these writing choices were intentional. This would be a seriously insane coincidence, in my humble, humble opinion. 

Let's explore even more of these writing choices!

3. Rovickie literally MIRROR Byler

I’m just going to leave these parallels here for you to enjoy.

ALL THREE of Rovickie’s date conversations happen in a HOSPITAL. Mike had to miss his dinner plans with Will because he was put in HOSPITAL.

In ALL THREE conversations, Robin and Vickie are repeatedly reflected in mirrors, suggesting they are mirroring other characters.

The mirror on the wall when Robin tells Vickie she has to cancel her date.

Robin’s handheld mirror while she is rambling to Will about missing her date with Vickie.

The big, circular mirror when Robin promises Vickie to go on a second date (while Demogorgons slowly approach them)

Why else would there be mirrors in all three scenes?

Robin, who is missing the date, is dressed like Mike does: blue jumper, black pants and converse.

Vickie, who is being cancelled on, has a bowl cut like Will (despite bowl cuts being “not that popular anymore”).

Robin lies about her “fake granny”. Just like Mike lies about his own fake granny in S3, AKA Nana.

Rovickie was ominously erased from the narrative in the Epilogue – just like Byler throughout all of Season 5.

And here’s a bonus one. 

Robin: “I stole money off the dead guy they just wheeled out.” (

Robin stole this plot point from Mike Wheeler, a guy who almost died due to his injuries and was sent to that very hospital.

Considering how frequently Robin and Vickie were already paralleled to Mike and Will in Season 4... the fact that they’re now literally DRESSED like Byler, and have giant mirrors in all their scenes together? 

All I can conclude is that in these scenes, Robin and Vickie are literally Mike and Will. 

4. Robin’s rambling matches Mike's POV

In the hospital, Robin rambles to Will about the fact she’s going to have to miss her date with Vickie.

Robin flips her mirror open to look at Vickie. Robin: I promised Vickie that I would take her to Enzo’s tonight… and now I can’t, obviously, meaning I have to ditch her again for reasons that she just can’t understand… a massive fight will inevitably ensue, we’ll never make it to my fake granny’s room... I can’t be the reason Wheeler’s plan fails.

Isn’t. That. Interesting. If we replace only a few words, Robin’s rambling fits Mike's POV perfectly.

Mike: I promised [Will] that I would take him to [dinner] tonight… and now I can’t, obviously, meaning I have to ditch him again for reasons that he just can’t understand… a massive fight will inevitably ensue, we’ll never make it to [our dinner plans]... I can’t be the reason my own plan fails.

Obviously he can’t make it – because he was attacked by a Demogorgon. He has to ditch Will again – like he did in Season 3 and 4. A massive fight will inevitably ensue – with a Demogorgon, lmfao. And finally... Mike is unfortunately the reason his own dinner plans fail.

Cut him some slack, though! He was literally attacked by a Demogorgon and sent to hospital!

Robin looks at Vickie through her mirror a second time. Will: You know, you could always just… kiss her again.

Hmm. So if Mike just kisses Will again, it’ll all be okay? Aww :3

...Hey wait, that implies they've kissed before! MWTFDYD = conformitygate is looking pretty good right now, lol.

Anyway, this would mean that Robin – Mike’s stand-in for this scene – rambled on and on about the date Mike was going to have to miss… TO THE PERSON HE WAS MISSING HIS DATE WITH. If nothing else, that’s pretty funny.

AND! ALSO! MORE EVIDENCE!

After this, Will asks how Robin knew that Vickie wanted to date… 

Robin: "...a brush of the elbow, a bump of the knee, a shared look."

Will immediately has a look of realisation. This stuff has all happened between Mike and Will already.

And if this conversation’s already happened before, like my theory presumes… then that is literally how Mike and Will knew the other wanted to date! That’s why they had dinner plans!

Robin (AKA Mike): Let’s just say the snowball turned into an avalanche.

Oh, I’m sure it did, Mr. Made-His-BFF-Dance-With-A-Girl-At-The-Snowball-Then-Got-Jealous.

I’m sure it did.

So, why would Vecna replace Byler's missed date with Rovickie's?

The same reason he edited, reversed and replaced the rest of Mike and Will's scenes: Love and memories are the key to escape.

Max escaped with help from memories of Lucas and El. Will fought his possession with help from memories of Mike, Joyce and Jon. El saved Max with their shared memories, reversing her death. If Mike was to remember his love for Will, he'd be able to escape – but that would ruin Vecna's plans to create "beautiful things".

So, Vecna is doing everything he can to prevent Mike's escape.

Vecna needed Mike to believe that everyone had won, to BELIEVE that he got the happiest ending he could, and most importantly: to believe that ending up with Will would never be an option for him. With his memories now scrambled and replaced by Vecna Mike doesn't know Will loves him. He's back to thinking he and Will never even came CLOSE to dating, and that Will only ever wanted to be "friends."

(Plus, it's commentary on how queer characters are viewed as interchangeable, if not erased from media altogether)

As long as Mike continues to forget the love that he and Will truly shared, he will remain trapped in the Rightside Up.

But when he finally remembers?

Freedom.

…

Thanks for reading!

I’ve gone back and updated the last few dot-points of my MWTFDYD = conformitygate analysis to reflect these new changes.

This one took me quite a while to work out, because I was missing details at first. Lucky for me (and unlucky for Mike), the Wheeler attack on November 3rd was the missing puzzle piece I needed! So after two weeks of "huh?", I finally have an idea of where this fits hahaha. Thanks again for reminding me about the rewatch @mixu :P

Links to my other rightsideupgate posts: ORDER OF EVENTS: Part 1 (Mike the storyteller), Part 3 (12 Episodes), Part 4 (MWTFDYD), Part 9 (Wheeler attack -> Mike's kidnapping) SCENE ANALYSIS: Part 2 (Will/Robin), Part 5 (Rainbows), Part 6 (The roof talk), Part 7 ("Where's Dustin right now?"), Part 8 (El is missing), Part 10 (Byler's missed date)

#lovewinsgate #rightsideupgate

[mixu]

I'm loving all of this. Thanks for the mention!

#lovewinsgate my beloved

[pancak3sandbac0n]

I'm not a fan of orange stripes

[shardlily]

Mike Wheeler, my greedy gay son that you are!

[walkablepurse50]

the skittles saga

In S3 Mike doesn't yet want Skittles. When we see him at the vending machine he wants the KitKat that's stuck in between the Skittles and Reese's Pieces.

In S5 now Mike DOES want Skittles. He tries to reach for them in the pile at the Squawk.

But in both scenes Mike ends up with neither what he wants, nor the Skittles.

In S3 when El rattles the machine everything but the KitKat Mike wants falls out. He faces away from the EXIT sign and away from Will in the love triangle shot. Even what Mike wants from his relationship with El he is not getting and he also doesn't see that there's another option.

Then Lucas takes all of the Skittles from the machine as he pushes Mike to get back together with El. He and Max throw Skittles at each other while Mike talks to El.

In S5 it's Robin who takes the skittles from Mike. She pulls them from him and gives them to Will. Her advice inadvertently forces Mike and Will apart because it is exploited by Vecna.

Everyone ends up with food items that mean something to their character arcs over the next few episodes... apart from Mike. Who ends up in the same place as before...

Stuck in the middle between Skittles and Reese's Pieces. He ends up with Pringles. Which seems to be Mr Clarke foreshadowing and currently has very little to do with Mike's character.

Lucas and Max get to be the sole couple (upon the rainbow would then be pointing to the shared Skittles) who are the answer to the never ending story. They're the only couple whose love saves them from Camazotz.

But... Holly is Mike. And in S4 we get the chess game which foreshadows all of S5, bar one move we haven't seen yet. The whole conversation also seems to be about S5. It ends with Henry saying "It is time you are free from this hell" before handing El a key secretly under the table.

This cuts to the next scene where we see Holly making a rabbit on her Lite-Brite.A reference to her being stuck in Camazotz like Alice in Wonderland. In the background a Cheerios advert plays. Vecna is a cereal killer. I couldn't find the exact advert and it doesn't have the standard Cheerios jingle (it might be for Honey Nut Cheerios instead?). But it says that the cereal is a flavour the whole family likes. Not just Holly targeted, the whole family.

And when the Lite-Brite is taken away from Holly she's given Skittles. For her 'understanding'. On one level it's about Max helping Holly, on another level it's about Mike's own journey with his sexuality.

When Camazotz is over Mike gets the Skittles he now wants.