Will created the mindflayer & Upsidedown theory
I wanted to explore this theory again after the recent release of “Will byers: secret files” (which is Will’s cannon journal). Essentially, to keep a very long story short.El opened the “door” to Will’s mind and unleashed the repressed memories of his father. That manifested into the upside down- and all the monsters that inhabit it. So lets begin.
Will has always been hinted to have powers.
In the 1st episode, Will wins Dustin’s xmen comic in a bet- and Dustin later asks the gang “Do you think Eleven was born with powers like the xmen?” While in the last ep of s1 (when Will returns) Dustin says to him “she’s like a wizard.” COUGH ‘Will the wise’ , Will’s alter-ego who happens to be wizard. Mike even corrects Dustin and says she’s not a wizard. So the fact that Dustin’s Gf references Wizard stories relating to Will is kind of brilliant!Her room references 2 stories Wizard of Oz and A wizard of Earthsea.
In ‘the Wizard of Oz’- the land of Oz (the upsidedown) was a figment of Dorothy’s (Will’s) imagination.
-‘A wizard of Eathsea’- Is about a male wizard Ged (Will) who casts a powerful spell, but the spell goes awry and instead he releases a shadow creature! The new Archmage, Gensher, describes the shadow as an ancient evil that wishes to possess Ged. But the ‘shadow’ turns out to be a representation of the darkest aspects of his personality.
-‘Never ending story’( the song susie sang , from the movie of the same title)- In the story the land of Fantasia represents humanity’s imagination and is thus without boundaries. However ‘the Nothing’ (the upside down) which has taken over Fantasia is a manifestation of the loss of hopes and dreams. The monster even bites Atreyu (El’s) leg. An Empress later tells Bastian (Will) that as he follows Atreyu’s (El’s) story, “others” (El/atreyu and the rest of the st cast) are following Bastian’s (Will’s), making them all part of the neverending story. And that they were all wrong - atreyu isn’t the chosen one, but sebastian (the human with the power of imagination, a bowl cut, single parent household, and who in the novel temporarily went evil after losing his memories)- aka Will.
-‘Suspicious Minds’ (ST prequel novel)- a psychic character named Alice, says “Monsters…of course my brain has them.”As long as they stayed in there, everything would be all right. “Wouldn’t it?”
-‘Montauk Project’- The original title for Stranger things was “Montauk”- in reference to the Montauk Project. It was about experiments conducted on psychic children, where the scientists would “break” them psychologically to strengthen their powers and to program them. In one of the stories there was a boy named Duncan who could “open portals to other dimensions and periods of time” . However, one day “Duncan let loose a monster from his subconscious.”
Will created everything the demorgorgan, the mindflayer,demodogs, etc- and his ‘story’ is very susceptible to other peoples’ suggestions . In the 1st episode Mike said demogorgan was attracted to blood- so when Will created it in real life, that was what it was attracted to. He also always asks his friends what he should do when facing the d&d monsters (the demorgorgan & thessalhydra) - and both times they suggested “fire balling it” (which is all the upside-down creatures’ weakness). In S1 Jonathan/Nancy/Steve light the demogorgan on fire. In S2 they burn the mindflayer out of Will, and burn the vines. S3 they throw fireworks (fireballs) at the monster the mindflayer created. And in the 1st ep Will is captured by the demogorgan (in the game) so he was captured in real life.
In s2 , the gang read (in Will’s d&d manual) that mindflayers (the representation of his abusive dad/the thesalhydra shown at the end of s1) could be killed by zombies. Will was dubbed zombie boy in s2, and in s3 watches ‘day of the dead’ (a movie about zombies) and then writes a story about juju zombies. Will says in his d&d story “it bites your arm, flesh tears- aaaah!” But instead it bites El’s leg as she screams “ah!” as Mike rips it off her leg. Than the victims of the mindflayer turn into zombies and become ‘the thing’. Because when Will’s writing his d&d story he’s sitting right next to Mike’s ‘the thing ‘ poster. And when talking to Nancy & Jonathan he describes them as “those things”. In will’s journal it is also said ‘the thing’ is one of his fav movies.
In s3, Lucas and Mike even debate which version of the film is better- so obviously the whole gang (including Will) has seen it. And in s2, he lies to his mom and says the mindflayer sketch was ‘for a story he’s writing’. But unbeknownst to him, that’s what is actually happening. We even see in s2, the demorgogans become “demo-dogs” after his dog died between seasons 1-2. And in Will’s cannon journal he says he understands why Dustin is attached to it - since it reminds him of Chester (his dead dog) that he misses. In s1 Hopper even mentions the book Cujo about a violent dog, after that dog dies the owner even get a new dog named ‘Willie’.
However, s3 truly reveals how powerful he is. Because it’s not just monsters he creates . But he can alter reality itself (without a monster having to do it). When Mike hijacks Will’s d&d story saying ‘they’ll torch the chambers, sacrificing themselves killing the juju ’. Will gets angry and yells “Fine, you win.” And then Joyce and Hopper do just that- when they pull the lever, and Hopper ‘dies’ sacrificing himself, and the Russians literally are eviscerated.
And In s2 Nancy describes the mindflayer (but she’s actually describing Will).
“So this thing is like a brain that’s controlling everything.”
Hopper then says “So how do we kill this thing shoot it with fireballs?”
And Dustin says “ No, No, fireballs you summon an undead army.”
But Mike actually nails it on the head when he says, “If the brain dies the body dies … closing the gate will kill him(referring to Will).”
Because it’s not the mindflayers’ brain - it’s Will’s brain!
Will has a lot of powers and one is lightning/fire powers. And he accidentally created the mindflayer (since it represents the repressed memories of his abusive father and also the d&d creatures/stories) . So the reason the MF has lightning powers is because Will does.
In s2 we see the scientists investigating electronics being burned in the upside down. Similar to Joyce’s phones and the radio at school which was burnt in s1.Will caused the radio at the school to catch fire (not El). The U.S gov goes to the school-to verify it wasn’t a natural cause and then they go straight to Will’s house. Brenner even goes into the Byers’ shed and says “spectacular”- similar to how he referred to El killing those men as “incredible”. And we know the mindflayer is also associated with lightning/storms (but that’s only because it’s one of Will’s other abilities). When Hopper sees Joyce’s phone he even says “storm bq-ed this pretty good.“ And in s2 a scientist said the same phrase while in the upside down. Showing a correlation between Will and the mindflayer.
In the comic we see electricity come out of Will’s hands. And he drew his wizard character with lightning (BEFORE) he went to the upside down. And in the comic he also gets the lights to flick (from another dimension) by closing his eyes and concentrating. Like Joyce said in the show Will did ‘blink once for yes twice for no’.
Then in Will’s cannon journal “Will byers: secret files”. We see Will draw himself with lightning. Will doesn’t consciously realize he created the monsters/upside down- but he is subconsciously aware he can manipulate lights and has electric abilities.
He draws his d&d character on a cloud with lightning and says how he can relate to El “having power like this… it can separate you. Make you feel alone. I think I know how she feels.”
Will in his journal even draws the mind flayer with red lightning, and later uses red paper to sketch clouds/lightning and pastes a picture of himself on to it. Because deep in his subconscious (along with the memories of his father- he realizes he created the mf). And Joyce even describes the tunnels he draws as “like lightning.”
Will (like El) has a lot of powers: Lightning/fire powers, seeing into the future/scrying/ intuition, mind control, creating things from his imagination/altering reality, shadow-walking/opening portals, techno-pathy, and remote viewing.
Will says he’s a wizard ( writing on a music tape in s3 “will the wise-wizard mix’ and having his password for castle byers be ‘rhadaghast’- a lotr wizard). The way they describe d&d Wizards matches Will/mf perfectly “Wizards are adepts and magicians who combine according to the type of their spells. Relying on the subtle weaves of magic that permeate the universe, wizards are able to create spells of explosive fire, sparking lightning, subtle deception, and gross mind control. Their magic summons monsters from other planes of existence, predicts the future, and turns defeated enemies into zombies. Their most powerful spells can transform one substance into another, summon meteors from the sky, and open portals to other worlds”
We also see Will has been associated with bears (along with 3 other animal symbols associated with other psychics- Terry, El, and Kali).Bears symbolically represent “wisdom” like ‘Will the wise’. Wicca even means ‘wisdom’. and in the show they are associated with the demorgorgan/upside down in s1 and 2 . Max and Nancy both compared demorgorgans to bears- and Nancy and Jonathan used a bear-trap to capture the demorgorgan in s1.
So when El tries to grab Will’s teddy bear (it was shown to be his in s1) with her powers. And Mike says “they’ll come back”. They might actually ‘come back’- but now be within Will. Since in d&d mindflayers have telekinesis (which we haven’t seen) and the mf may have taken them .
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