watching the season 1 vhs version is such a stark contrast to season 5, it's like day and night. i mean that has to be on purpose, right? people were already talking about how st has completely lost the atmosphere it once created, how cheap and tacky the visual effects are in s5, how they seem to fall victim to the 'netflix lighting', etc. -- and with the vhs version they're really hammering down that point to the ga... reminding us of what stranger things once was. the vhs version feels so atmospheric compared to s5...
So Stranger Things is basically a terrible modern remake of the Stranger Things VHS edition made by Brenner because history was being rewritten by the victors.
It starts as a faithful adaptation (S1/S2), then loses the plot—the heart—halfway through by watering down sensitive 80s topics (S3), adds a bunch of new characters (S4), and censors the queer relationship because "gay people didn't exist back then" (S5).
look how interestingly the Wheelers’ mailbox indicates that the Wheelers are Hawkins Lab workers (including the last shot emphasising that with a red pointer)
it also feels like “wheeler” in this case is a working “wheel” of the system, so it makes sense to call hawkins lab workers wheelers, and it goes back to Mike’s family ofc right away
It's unusual that we see Robin working in the radio station when she has no history of public speaking but you know who should have it....a journalist....Nancy.
Nancy is a reporter, a journalist. Not just a reporter but an investigative one as we have seen throughout the seasons but a reporter nonetheless.
Roles of a journalist/reporter...
"A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, writes and reports on information in order to present using sources. This may entail conducting interviews, information-gathering and/or writing article" Wikipedia
".....sources".
"....broadcasts"
It's very interesting to me that her brother is the president of the AV club and his close friend, Dustin invented the Cerebro tower that can broadcast to distant locations. I made a post about the WSQK being the AV club and the tower representing Cerebro in S5 here.
The Wheeler House
Nancy and Jonathan hurried out of the house after breakfast. Why? It wasn't necessary if they were just going to the station to hang out with Steve and Robin. Well, what if they did so because they had jobs/school just like in S3 & S4. In S5, all of them hurried out of their houses just like in S4...
There is also something I noticed...
Jonathan (Mike) said they overslept. Read here to understand why I think this is Mike, not Jonathan.
To oversleep means to accidentally sleep longer than you intended.
This means they were late for school but we see them eat breakfast with everyone. That doesn't make sense. If they overslept, it could mean that they missed their means of transportation which would be the Wheeler car. This would explain why Mike, Will and Holly used bikes to go to school instead of a faster means of transport-the Wheeler car we see Nancy drive.
I propose that Nancy and Jonathan went out earlier than them and started the broadcast, that's why we see Steve and Robin in the station after Jancy drove out.
I think this proves it...
Warning!: "The Duffer Brothers" is written here (please laugh)
They were the last to leave the house.
One thing I noticed in this episode is that Holly was really eager and excited to listen to the Morning Squawk. She remembered the time because she said "we're gonna miss it" ..perhaps it was because her sister was the host/speaker.
After the broadcast started, the first person we see is Nancy...
In my other posts about this theory, I noticed that the surroundings indicate the first letter of the name of the actual character in a scene. Read here and here.
The WSQK station
Well, the first time, we see Robin, she adjusts her mic to make this...
We can see this letter clearly formed when she says "me". N for Nancy.
In her broadcast, she says "...fifty five degrees, low chance of rain"
This sounds like what a reporter, a weather reporter to be exact would say. Then she goes on to talk about the events of S4 finale which is a controversial topic in the town reminding me of when she furthered the case of the rats in S3 despite being met with disapproval in her workplace which led to her occupational leave.
Nancy was also seen in S4 at the basketball game, observing it and noting down the events of the game. As a reporter, she must have read a lot of articles and newspapers about Hawkins to know about a lot of things ranging from the weather to new constructions/developments like the MAC-Z and the military involvement and may share her opinions on those things.
I'm not sure but I think that Steve here could be Jonathan or someone else working with Nancy but I may be wrong.
Extra: When there was technical difficulties in the squawk, Steve contacts Dustin complaining to him. Dustin tells him the actual cause of the problem being the remote radio head but Steve doesn't understand. It's almost as if Dustin had to be there for the problem to be fixed.
Dustin says......
"...be there" as in be present. Why would Steve want Dustin to go all the way to where we see the squawk? It's because it's actually in the school so Dustin could've easily gone to fix it but he chose not to.
Extra(2): In S4, Nancy was working in her senior year for her school's newspaper, The Weekly Streak.
The Weekly Streak = WSQK The Squawk
The first letters were just rearranged.
Summary
Nancy and Jonathan went on time to school with the car we see Nancy driving. They may be working together just like in S3. Mike and Will overslept for some reason, maybe they were up late watching movies or something just like we see with Holly and her friend in Holly's memories in Camazotz. They use their bikes instead because Nancy and Jonathan had already left with the car leaving that to be their available means of transport. When there was electrical problems in WSQK, they had to call Dustin to come to the AV club because they were close, in school.
I believe WSQK and the tower is simply the AV club/school broadcast w/o Cerebro.
I also believe we are going to have way more scenes at the school. I'm intrigued.
i’m a quiet cg enthusiast. i reblog every theory i find interesting, even if it completely contradicts something i reblogged five minutes earlier, because i just love reading and rereading them so much
two words that sounded so out of character for jonathan that it proved at least nancy and jonathan are awake, and speaking to each other in code
people have done plenty of theorizing about this scene, what they are trying to say in code here
all I'm doing is proving that that is, in fact, what they're doing.
and it started with me realizing Jonathan would NOT say "hell, man" 😭
my first thought: the mayo company, and it's collab with jake connelly. and the company colours being very obviously blue and yellow, paired with the almost rainbow of Derek's shirt (gay ending, gay supression in camazotz etc etc)
anyone remember mayogate? hello @mixu 💚
then I dug a little deeper (not deep at all) and found this gem:
read more on this here
alright so basically they're hiding their true message from both vecna and the audience
the name drop of hellman insures that the message gets across to the right people: each other (and on a meta level, the theorists)
maybe this is jonathan's litmus test for the others?
another thing: the original protocol used the names alice and bob, two characters that are established in the show (alice creel, bob newby)
so, maybe it is just nancy (alice) and jonathan (bob) who are awake?
if anyone remembers that "script leak" for the finale, I wanted to grab it as proof of what he said, but the two words are missing:
honestly, this is more proof for me, since "hell, man" isn't in the subtitles either
jonathan put it there himself, to flag the others. breaking out of the script.
considering the way nancy is smiling, she is at least acknowledging his code. I can't quite place if robin or steve clock it though...
side note why is steve so much more vulgar in this script??? here's what he says in the show
and here's what he says in the "script"
I'm sure the person writing that thought they were hilarious... (they are). steve also says "thank you?" instead of "what is wrong with you?? I'm clean"
which, the "what is wrong with you" and "little nuggets" are references to other scenes!! deja vu = a glitch in the matrix, something has been changed
anyways lol
tldr, the older teens (or at least nancy and jonathan) are very likely awake in camazotz and communicating solely in code, likely planning their escape/trying to break out!!!
and (my personal interpretation) nancy REALLY wants to kiss robin here (you can see it in her eyes I swear)
Like it’s literally all just AV shit being manipulated I swear
All of the Vecna/memory/D&D references (D&D especially in S4 & S5) are just AV stuff.
Looks an awful lot like a spider too
Not an illusion, but an allusion. That’s why there’s so many media references, the media references are being used to rewrite their memories. The actual shit is going on between the seasons, the seasons we see are the rewriting over their memories bc it takes time to edit with analog tech
then steve throws molotov at vecna and he performs his silly little play of dying while running up that hill starts playing right from the lyrics "it doesn't hurt me" lmao
vecna is building building building something here
and then right before jane resurrects max there is this sound that sounds suspiciously like the rewinding of a tape
Just found an interesting old interview about the season 1 mileven kiss, and how disgusting that was supposed to be:
A two-month build up for how disgusting it would be, how horrible, because she's an 11 year old girl. Hm. They describe that season 1 kiss as 'horrible' and 'disgusting', but still included it in the finale montage? Huh....
Then, the Mileven snowball kiss wasn't written into the script either:
But the Lumax snowball kiss was essential, whereas Millie had to beg for the Mileven kiss:
And, again, their kissing scene in season 3 is described as disgusting:
i think the show might be telling us that vecna (or just the mind flayer. who knows) was being very strategic in s5, and this could be another indication of that.
i've been thinking a lot recently about vecna using s5 like a chessboard. we kind of expected that to be him in s4 but it really wasn't. he just showed up to terrorize people long enough to kill them. it was like trapping people in a nightmare bug jar. he preyed on their fears, but it was never about their reaction. to be fair, he used nancy to lure jane into a trap but that's just standard villain stuff 😆 darth vader did that.
the other day i said that vecna might have baited will into coming out. will would think of it as a countermove against vecna but it could've have been according to plan. will and mike were both weakened after the tammy lie even though will would feel like he had the upper hand. he had no more secrets for vecna to exploit. in the finale battle, vecna didn't even try which could be a clue for us that he was never planning to. that wasn't the goal.
before will talked to joyce, max told him about the cave. she said that it was henry's old memory and he was terrified of it. he wouldn't go in the cave. but henry does go into the cave and takes will with him to watch.
i don't necessarily believe henry was 100% lying the whole time, but i think the show is telling us by how he refuses to help will that something has gone wrong. will should have been helping henry with what was supposed to be his biggest fear (the cave memory). but then that actually backfired. i thought henry was "also afraid" and that meant the characters could beat him? but he wasn't afraid?? and they still won?
i think this could be evidence that either will was not completely honest and therefore couldn't beat henry even after coming out. or henry lied about the cave and tricked them all into believing that's what he was the most afraid of. it could've both a play and a game of chess in that way.
and why would the mind flayer want to keep this memory from henry if he was just going to reaffirm his allegiance to it? maybe it's mind flayer 4D chess lol.
the memory was also incorrect according to the events of the first shadow. many fans of tfs were so baffled by the rock. that might have been on purpose. it just seems odd to change a detail like that.
i think this means we haven't seen what henry is really afraid of. or we haven't seen what the mind flayer would actually want to hide from him: patty. that isn't anything new, but i think the whole "he's also afraid which proves i can beat him" but henry going into the cave and then not being convinced by will's pleas could be an indication to us that they didn't actually beat him. this is just based on the structure of the story though. it's hard to know how henry truly felt since he hated humanity in s4, then he seemed genuinely terrified of the cave in s5, but then he was fine with the mind flayer again.
Why Sorcerer's Ending is CG Proof(from a narrative structure perspective)
Hey guys what is so up.
So, among us CG truthers, it’s common knowledge that the ending of season 5 was made to be bad on purpose. This isn’t something that really needs any more proof, but I have another piece of evidence I haven't personally seen anyone else use that I’d like to share.
A couple months ago I made this post in which I went over narrative structure in ST, specifically the Midpoint. I described the Midpoint as something that tends to do three main things: change the narrative in some significant way(like in a twist or step forward for the characters), mark the switch where the protagonist goes from reacting to acting, and raise the stakes.
However, there’s another trait common to Midpoints that I left out on purpose so I could bring it up in this post.
Basically, Midpoints can oftentimes be a “fake out victory” or “false defeat.” They’re frequently the point in the story where the audience is led to believe that either the heroes have their win in the bag, or that they’re screwed. The fake out will tend to appear good in tragedies, and bad in stories that end happily. Not all stories necessarily have Midpoints that obviously fit this, but they’re pretty common.
As an example, in ST s1, the characters find Will’s dead body, leading them to believe that it’s over, they lost, and they won’t be able to accomplish their goal of bringing him back. It’s a false defeat, because Will isn’t dead and they do succeed in bringing him back in the end.
If they had instead wanted to end the season with Will never being found, they could’ve had a plot beat around the same point where all the characters(and us as the audience) are convinced that they had found him, or were about to, only for it to be later revealed that it wasn’t him and he was dead the whole time. That would be a false victory type midpoint.
To me, this concept gives extra proof towards CG being intentional.
Look for a second at the Midpoint of s5 by itself, which is the ending of Sorcerer. Do you guys remember the discussions people were having after s5 volume 1? I remember a whole lot of “Vecna is so cooked” type of vibes. The ending of that episode gave us both a superpowered Will and the return of Kali, which everyone assumed meant that Vecna and the MF were screwed. It also had a lot of Byler moments that had Bylers hopeful for the rest of the season. Additionally it was the point where Will comes the closest to fully accepting himself that he does in the whole series.
Hmmm… sure seems awfully victorious for an episode in the middle of the season, doesn’t it? So much hope, and then it ended… like that. Terrible, but with hints that it was that way on purpose. What else could you call Sorcerer except a “false victory?” In a way, it wasn’t just a false victory for the characters, but for us as the audience too.
It’s funny, because I remember after volume 1 thinking something like(as well as seeing others say), “Wait, but if that middle episode ended so hopefully for them, doesn’t that generally foreshadow the ending being tragic?” and then being like “nahhh why would they do that that doesn’t make any sense lol it’s probably fine.”
…Whoops.
I will say that there is one part of Sorcerer that reads as more “false defeat” than “false victory,” which is the plot point of the kids getting kidnapped. But, that moment is part of what I would argue is the one subplot that does end the season on a positive note. Yes, Holly and Derek and the other kids are possibly all still trapped in Camozotz with the rest of them by the end, but they are no longer Henry’s main target, and they are no longer separated from their friends and family. The story ends in a better place than it was in the middle, meaning that for that subplot specifically Sorcerer works as a false defeat.
But for the rest; Will’s powers/self-love arc, the crazy amounts of Byler, Kali’s rescue, all honestly could, and maybe should have been considered foreshadowing for the tragic ending just because they were all so victorious for the characters, while happening right in the middle of the season.
Making Sorcerer a false victory type Midpoint overall.
The thing I like about this evidence, is that it’s something you can’t really write off as a coincidence in the way you technically can but logically shouldn’t with most of the other evidence in season 5. You could maybe argue if you’re not thinking very hard that all the small details in the finale that point to cg were somehow done by accident but like… the basic plotline of an entire episode didn’t fall out of the sky, lmao. Like, the other things didn’t either, but this especially didn’t.
And you also can’t claim that the creators no longer understand or somehow forgot this very simple and fairly common narrative choice, because they proved themselves understanding of it not just in season 1, but literally the season before.
In season 4, the Midpoint is Dear Billy, where Max temporarily escapes from Vecna. The story leads the audience to think that Max will be fine and that her curse is broken, only for the story to end with her dying temporarily and going into a coma. It’s a very neatly written example of false victory.
Why the hell would they be perfectly capable of writing a false victory type Midpoint literally last season, and then suddenly forget in this one, but then also somehow do it successfully again anyway?
And when you think about it, don't Dear Billy and Sorcerer just feel similar in a way? At least, in the purpose they serve in their respective seasons. Hmmm. Veryyy interesting.
It’s just another way that s5 was made to be the way it is very intentionally. The entire season was written to end tragically, in the very bones of its story.
To me personally, this fact also proves LWG, because the rest of the show is not written that way. And that’s not just because of its optimistic themes and tone. In my last post I argued that the s4 finale was the Midpoint of the show as a whole. And when you look at how it progresses the narrative arcs of the characters and relationships, it just works way too well as a false defeat type Midpoint, especially for Mike’s relationships with both Will and El.
But in order for it to actually work as a false defeat, it needs a good, victorious ending that effectively proves that defeat to be… well, false.
So my question is, if they really did intend for the show to end tragically, why would the creators understand narrative conventions well enough to be able to set up the tragedy of the season’s end using its Midpoint, but then for some reason forget that very same principle when it comes to setting up the tragic ending of their story as a whole? If they really have known what their ending was going to be for so long, and did intend for it to be tragic, they easily could’ve had a false victory for the characters before s5, or at the very least not given them a possible Midpoint that is written like an obvious false defeat. The story has been set up to have a positive ending overall for a hot second. S5 doesn't disprove that, if anything it shows that they do know how to properly write and set up tragedies/potentially "cynical" endings.
I’m telling y’all, there’s a reason I’ve never doubted CG or LWG. The story has been preparing itself for it like a pregnant woman taking birthing classes for a while. Season 5 was just another step in that process. And to me, it being June now doesn't disprove that.
Anyways, yap to y’all later,
-k
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