EDIT at the bottom: It's Will's bedroom wallpaper.
So it is also in the original (I checked) which means it's not as cool as the different demogorgan scenes, but you can actually see it with this change in the aspect ratio. Did you notice there's a little drawing of a jousting tourney above Joyce's head in the VHS version? I say that because of the flags and it felt like the figures on the side might be a knight and/or a dragon...not sure though at all about those. But those are definitely tents with little flags on top.
Will definitely spent some time in this storage cubby before.
Edited to add: So someone rightfully pointed out that this is not art...it's Will's bedroom wallpaper. Which is still kind of weird but... Here is a picture of the wallpaper. They're right.
A very important element of both Elmax and Lumax are the patterns/rhymes within Stranger Things. There are real patterns for both ships that are complementary to each other.
Because we are heading for a poly relationship which will be like no other, not a love triangle, a poly. That's why they wear this: El & Lucas are equals.
These are there since Season 2 with El and Max meeting and Max is using Luca's binoculars while he's standing next to her. The amount of elements seems overwhelming but it's technically pretty simple and they have a darkness/daylight cycle.
Here's a cut of Elmax so far:
Both patterns have slight changes in the third cycle or verse, meaning that there will be a 4th cycle/verse in order to rhyme/for symmetry reasons.
Each season gives us another line of the poem, so since these look similar to a quartain with a cross rhyme (peotry was not my strength in school and this was also a long time ago).
So, yes, the patterns are rhymes, it's a poem.
"Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds"
Both patterns also give us a timeframe for things to happen, meaning that in Season 5 El & Max meet again in Episode 2(-3) in the mind-world and with the skateboard (that's why they showed us this memory in S4) and Max will use Lucas's binoculars again from an elevated position when both are alone in Episode 4. (Which also tells you at that point: Max isn't blind.)
The patterns are:
It is interesting how the slow motion is used in dark and gloomy scenes, it almost feels like a dream moment.
Note that Max looking to the left and right (especially in S3 & 4) is only possible due to the camera angle, so she's actually looking straight forward.
Obviously even these patterns depend on the story and events but the events basically are repeated and rhyme as good and accurate as possible. Based on when these patterns happen, how and in which constellation, tuey not only structure the events in terms of moment in time/season and the weight it has to the scene and characters, they reinforce a specific feeling you associate with them.
We do know that the Duffers like to parallel things, however rarely is there talk about real patterns or mirroring effects that are also constantly used.
Anyway, these poems are unique and wether or not certain aspects of these patterns were intended already in Season 2, it is noteworthy that they started then when they actually mapped out the character arcs. The tiny changes in the 3rd line may also indicate how the focus is changing. Max being the initial focus in the Elmax-pattern in S4 and Lucas looking at Max, so that we follow his line of sight to Max, is also very telling.
The "follow the line of sight", left to right and it's mirrored version is used often in the show, mostly it is done to tell the story or foreshadow events, highlight certain aspects on a subconscious level.
The Elmax-pattern wasn't something I discovered myself ; the basic events happening was noticed by others I only found put that there is a specific rhyming scheme in them. In other words: these patterns were noticed by others as well.
So, the basic stuff is import before I get to the really heartbreaking and also beautiful stuff, a crazy concept that's in Stranger Things from the start because:
Even though they wanted to kill off Eleven in Season 1, they put in hints that she likes girls.
Oh, and, yes Max is partly inspired by Mad Max but that's a story of it's own.
PS: my guess is that the Episode numbers do play a role here and adding them equals 20 in both cases, so you can make an educated guess what the episode numbers of Season 5 will be.
Nah cause Mike Wheeler is just like me, and if my crush playfully pushed me in the chest, I would have also not known what to do, get flustered and then leave
Two 12 year olds not being interested in anything about each other beyond the girl feeling safe with the boy, and the boy liking that the girl has superpowers.
It didn't really get any better from here. They were separated a week later and didn't meet back up for a year. The boy even thought the girl was dead, while the girl spied on the boy.
They had a train wreck of a relationship where they never got on the same page, not once. They fought and broke up, only getting back together after the boy made amends with his gay best friend, who he also fought with.
Their most romantic scenes together paled in comparison to other couples, and their interactions in the final season were stiff and emotionless, as if their actors hated every second of it, up until a melodramatic final scene that may or may not have even happened.
Yet most of the audience shipped them.
The bar is so low for straight pairings that it's on the floor.
Taking the wheel is an analogy often used in cases of DID - that's why this scene, this line is in that moment in which Max sits behind the wheel. (see down below)
Because it happened before:
The accurate moment is right after the zooming effect, even though Eleven uses both hands, not one - moments earlier in the scene when El pushes him away with one hand the first time it doesn't result in 00I flying through the one way mirror. That's why I replaced this from the original post that inspired this one ( source down below). Technically both psychic blasts are accurate to use, I guess depending on the pov of the character. as I pointed out before and do again in this post, Eleven isn't a name you can use for one specific character - nonetheless this is a clear parallel between Max and Vecna, putting Max in the same place as him (maybe we should call him Edward, Henry's evil twin/alter/variant)
Mirrors
And here the mirror shards are flipped - she is as much of a mirror to him, as he is to her.
That moment here, is also mirroring the same event that took place in the lab - when El "wished" for her other half to appear, and the lights go out (as if she absorbs the energy?). That's how Vecna knows what Max is doing.
Both are clearly visual reflections/mirrors of each other. When he nails Max to the wall, it must have been her who did it in 1979 as they show us them as mirrors by changing the align of the glass shards.
You know: Stop him-- Her.
The silver cat feeds...
And when One kills "he" consumes.
The imagery and dialog makes them equals but also sets them apart, mirrors them.
"And there upon a rainbow is the answer to a neverending story" - like exactly before they are thrown through something and nailed to the wall.
Lie vs untruth (lies are deceptive, not everything that's untrue is a lie, could be a mistake, misunderstanding)
I vs We (the ego vs the team)
00I vs 0II
And the event - it split "Eleven". In two ones. As indicated that Max is One and El too (You are One of the good Ones).
That's the only possible explanation. The girl...in the beginning, that turns around? It (probably) doesn't even look like we think she looks like. What if she actually has red hair - the most likely explanation is that it's perception fuckery, showing us different scenes, even flipped events, not just allude to potential timeline splits but to the perception of two different personalities of the same event. And it's obvious because the older El has a different blood stain on her gown than the two younger versions. (A bit like in Matrix there are different self images of the same person, a real one, the way you see yourself, the residual rest image and, the way others see you)
There's also a whole section I would have integrated here if possible about how Max and Vecna are mirrored in another aspect: it's about werewolves and vampires, like a blood feud, it's about gamers playing an Immortal Game of chess and it's about the "Owl", the wendigo.
Pronouns & Gender ambiguity...
The pronoun game between El and Owens is verbally alluding to this. As much as theres some trans coding with Henry/Edward/Vecna with the emasculation, the association with female black widows, Max is also trans coded. Similar to characters like George (Georgina) Kirrin from the Famous Five is been trans-coded since the very first TV-show from the 70s, almost openly in the 90s show in which a gender swap & confusion happened in a conversation. And George doesn't like it to be called by her birth name, only her father does it. I should write that post I wanted to do last year how media likes to play with gender identity, gender roles and also sexuality.
Remember when Mr Clarke introduced Max to the class? He calls her Maxine, gets corrected by Max and the boys realize the supposed boy is a girl. Like in the dialog with Owens. Who then continues "Stop her and the rest of them". Seriously? On surface level it's just a misunderstanding in a not so great dialog. Or is it done deliberately? To swap pronouns? Yes - so that him=her. Which makes "He" potentially "she".
Vecna also calls her Maxine. But she wants to be called Max. That's a deliberate choice made by someone: choosing a name. - In S4 when Jason wants to "go out" with Lucas, Erica mentions Max by name, that Jason is a step down - two things: 1) to Jason this must sound as if Max is a boy. 2) and Lucas is...gay? Or bisexual? Or pan? It's at least clearly coding. Especially in regards to Max.
Now, does this make Max a boy/transgender, even though there's a very specific graffiti in her mind: No. Because otherwise "There's more to life than stupid boys" wouldn't fit.
But it tells me that she's probably meant as "gender ambiguous", that her character is at least questioning gender roles and definitely been mistaken as a boy at times is important in her character arc. "He" is actually a "she".
Hence Brenner is using what I'd call a gender neutral He - "he" as referring to someone that isn't specified. Brenner doesn't say Henry or uses any name, but "He" and One. And you can see how "She" is mistaken as "He" - by us. Most think that this clunky, almost amateurish exposition (which the audience didn't need as Vecna showed us and said what he does) isn't about "him" but about "her": Max.
And besides some gender ambiguity regarding Max, we had several instances of characters in the show mistake her for a boy aka he. That in itself is all you need to understand why this exposition about "One" was written as a dialog for Brenner who doesn't see these kids as humans, nor as male or female, hence the fact get only numbers, wear the same clothes, have the same haircut. Only as numbers. And that's why "One" isn't necessarily a "he".
Example: "Whosoever holds this hammer if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." - 2014, Jane Foster took the hammer. "He" wasn't necessarily meant as "only male" but more gender neutral.
The use, in formal English, of he, him or his as a gender-neutral pronoun has traditionally been considered grammatically correct.
The pronoun he can be used to refer to an unspecified person, as in If you see someone in trouble, help him. (See Gender above).
Final words & additional thoughts
(And sorry for the repetitions in my posts) Max is One, as much as she's Eleven when together with El as the script points out because the Duffers do not call El "Eleven" all the time - they make a clear distinction between El and Eleven in the script. So, who is Eleven? It's a number not a name and the script making this distinction between El and Eleven, even indicates that Eleven and Max are interchangeable, like pronouns, through the window scene in which El says "This is Max" - so if "Eleven" is Max, then Max is "Eleven".
Also, in regards to mirrors, this window is like a one way mirror. From El's perspective, she sees herself when drawing Max, since she can't see beyond. For us, the audience, however this is a window through which we see El through Max. It's actually not even subtle.
Mirrors are also used in other instances, like the "pretty" moments but this deserves its own post.
castleclerics had an interesting thought:
But not her "twinner". El's alter. Her other half. The Zoomer. Not timelines, even though the event resulted in different timelines or alike that split them.
And these alters do look differently in her physical versions - that's what alters are: they are different. Different gender, ethnicity, age. Not only is it a setup for what will happen in 5, the fusion through consumption but an explanation for why it has to happen:
"Only by facing all ourselves, the good and the bad, can we be become whole" - Bad, according to David Clarke's "Between medieval men" (a study about same sex relations from 2009) it has it's roots in an Middle English term: bæddel. Which means hermaphrodite. "Usually taken to be related to (an unattested Old English root of) Middle English badde (“wicked, wretched, bad”)" - this is likely just a coincidence - but we cannot rule out the possibility that the Duffers did stumble over the Wiktionary entry. - Doing your homework does help with writing fiction, I heard. - That sentence is important because El questions that what if she doesn't want to be whole. And Brenner replies: Then that is a choice. Your choice. And choice is important to her character, it's an integral part of her.
Only by facing all of ourselves, the good and the bad, can we become whole. - What if I don't wanna become whole? - Then that is a choice. Your choice. The door is always open.
What's in the show is rarely coincidence - yes it happens, mistakes etc, sometimes the "curtains are fucking blue". I would however also argue with a Professor for media science who analyzed "John Adams" that most things in film/tv are deliberat and the Duffers give us yellow curtains in many cases as if they wanted to tell us...what you see are (mostly) no coincidences, I guess. These guys are said to be meticulous. So, actual patterns, repetitions of the same or similar message, seeming mistakes like changing elements as the inscription on a gravestone and a drawing on a piece of paper, dialogs, mirroring scenes etc. are no coincidence. It's fiction. Made up. There's bad fiction and good fiction, they all have however something in common: it's all "artificially" (it's in this word: art) created by their writers based on real life experiences and other fiction. It's not even that new (that's why you can compare it with other works of fiction even if it's not sure if that was an actual inspo) or revolutionary however can be something unique and great, if they don't fail, in the way it's done. - Max as a character is made this way by choice, that she's mistaken as a boy and showing signs of gender ambiguity and trans coding (such as Vecna himself for God sake), most definitely questioning gender roles which goes in a similar direction, is not a mistake but a deliberate choice that leads to the question: Who does Brenner talk about? - The answer is, yes, in parts about Vecna, but to see it as a pure expositional dialog is, as far as I see it, at best short sighted. It's about One. One of the good Ones. It's about Max.
Until you find something that feels like you...
....I mean, at a certain point you don't need imagination that there's more to this sentence. Like the script description "on her heart" - El's actual, physical heart is in Max's chest and El is the beat of this heart. Like I said: Max, Eleven, El....5+6=11.
(There's a whole debate why they changed Millie's height of about 5'3 or 5'4 to 5'6 on the Wiki page and it's amazing that not even there they see the simple math in it. Because there's math everywhere in the show. Like art.)
And Elfen Lied is an inspiration for Eleven. El is therefore Nyu - Max is Lucy/Kaede which means that Max could also have a different name and might be the daughter of someone we all know all to well. - They are alters. And in Stranger Things made physical reality in two different girls. And about taking the wheel...
"Dissociative Identity Disorder Alters Feel Like Being in a Car with Other People:
The car-driving analogy is common when talking about DID and the experience of alters. My therapist would often ask me to make sure I was the one "at the wheel," which can be difficult when you have alters fighting to take control. One person described having alters as all being together, riding in the same car, with each person taking turns driving. Another person described the experience of alters as feeling like being on a bus full of people; sometimes it's loud and scary, while other times it's quiet and calm. It's always an interesting experience."
Living with alters in dissociative identity disorder feels complex. Sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's difficult. Here's what it feels
October 28th (simple math) ....and there's Kali.
Note how they highlighted the "A" in MAX - "A" like the 1st letter of the alphabet. Or One
El is Nyu. That's why they keep let her saying "No" - the alter personality of Lucy/Kaede that took over after Lucy was shot and received a
The lie of One... "It's never true"
The Musketeer chocolate bar clue is about the Musketeer's motto "All for One and One for all" - similar
Certain aspects I already covered again and again in previous posts:
Linked... connected.
Something happened when Blue and Yellow met. El
Him... Her.
I need to rethink that post I'm working on once again because I had an epiphany. Not in regards to content but how to structure
The Matrix (inspo board) scene is actually the ElMax love confession and revival. Um, yes, love confession. Similar to Lucas confessing earl
You will need to fly.
Oh, Jesus, how do I incorporate this into the actual post?
See, the board game "Can't stop" is something I noticed s
Post that inspired this one:
Vecna's Revenge
Henry getting payback (in the Piggyback) for El sending him to the Upside Down by going after what she loves most—Max
S04E
So, I had no idea how to show this properly through just screenshots, so I made a quick edit.
They completely altered the scene where Dr. Brenner gets attacked too😭
I made an edit where I play each version separate and then play them in sync with one another, and then again in slow-mo. The VHS Edition actually prolonged the scene and I had to cut part of it in the beginning to make it sync up properly‼ Just FYI.
Please note The 1st/top clip is always the standard/original version and the 2nd/bottom clip is always the VHS Edition version. I had to put the video in 2:3 Portrait mode to fit the clips properly.
(I tried to lower the volume on the clips since Tumblr loves to jump scare you with loud audio)
but please watch this and tell me what you see. Because I see a difference in both versions. In the original release, the demo moves in to the frame slanted and it's back is completely curved & it also moves more quickly.
In the VHS Edition, it moves in straight-forward with a straightened back and just lunges forward, and also more slowly, which actually made the clip a tad longer than the other so I had to shorten the beginning of it so that they sync up properly sound-wise.
I was gonna say "they used a different take" before I remembered the demos are fully CGI... Someone on the vfx department pls break your nda tell us what's going onnnnn
The VCR has little guides that pull the VHS tapes out and into the system for it to be read basically…
The shape… M… M marks the spot
M-loading system
I think Mike literally has all of the memories somehow, or he has access to them somehow… this man has been playing the longest game of all time I know it to be true
When conformitygate gets confirmed to the whole audience I'm not even going to be gloating that much because I genuinely deeply envy people who don't believe in it, my brain has been kidnapped and I'm being mentally fustigated every day waiting for it and I want to stop thinking about it because it's making me furious every time but I can't
My own theory a while ago was that they would post the new material on the day the Berlin wall came down (9 of November) but I really really don't like to wait, I don't have the patience for any of this
Did someone else notice that we can see the supernatural creatures more in the VHS version? Like holy fk, the scene of Will in season 1 episode 1 when he is in the little cabin, we can barely see the Demogorgon in the original version, but in the VHS version it almost clear as day. I don't if you guys understand how big that is, THE VHS VERSIONS ALLOWS US TO SEE MORE THAN WE DID BEFORE
I know everyone is talking about the white lines, but LOOK HOW MUCH OF THE DEMOGORGON you can see in the background in this shot! That’s CRAZY! I’m going to reblog with the original clip just for comparison!
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JK it won’t let me repost with it!
Electromagneticgate we are so here! I don’t know what it means at all yet, but it’s so interesting because I wonder how this will work when we get to the actual clip of the Shadow Monster on the VHS-C but we’re watching it on VHS or on VHS-C (because VHS-C was out in 1984). Will it disappear…? Are the true monsters, more visible on VHS?
I mean, they are shown to interact with tapes, and now we are getting the VHS tapes. VHS tapes work by having analog signals (different from like radio signals but still signals) encoded onto them, and then the VCR basically decodes them into a format that is visible on your screen.
Even the damn NOISE from a VHS tape looks like the starry sky backgrounds in the show…
Remind you of anything…?
Lastly, putting the date on a VHS is a manual recording option… Will, you smart boy!
Worth noting, this DATED tape is also the one the lab confiscated… 🤨🧐
Some of the ones Brenner has are dated, some are not.
Removing height would also likely, get rid of these dates! *we need more height!*
This is making me wonder about these end shots again, the black and white.
Lastly, the consumer … VHS (video home system) is a consumer-level analog tape recording 👀
WHAT does that mean hehehehe in this context ANYWAYS why is Brenner using consumer level taping for the lab what a weirdo, like ur with the government you have access to higher technology id assume
I knew the shed scene looked different, I just couldn't put my finger on it! Ironically, I'd assumed that the demogorgon had been cut out.... I was trying to focus on the lightbulb to see if anything had changed there, but there's still no explanation for how it turned on- through opening a gate to the upside down ?
Something I haven't seen talked about much from Will's coming out speech that deserves a mention is his claim that they'll argue over what movie to rent despite always settling on Holy Grail.
This presumably refers to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a 1975 spoof of the Arthurian legend. While a common favorite in nerd culture, particularly from the time period, we never really hear of anyone in the Party having a fondness for Monty Python. It sort of stands out when Will could have mentioned, for example, any of the Star Wars movies that we already know they love. Combined with malted milkshakes and getting lost in the woods, things that do seem to fit the Party, it almost feels like we're learning about total strangers, rather than characters we've known for years. But I digress.
Holy Grail was a pretty standard, if particularly funny, spoof. Arthur and the knights stumble through their respective roles in their quests meeting all sorts of kookie characters, including a snooty French castle guard, an extremely determined Black Knight, and an enchanter who doesn't seem quite right in the head. It comes off feeling like a story being made up on the spot by a group of drunk friends (or, perhaps, a nonserious D&D campaign).
What really sets Holy Grail apart, though, is the ending. Relatively early in the movie, a (then) modern-day historian is seen taking part in a documentary, only to be cut down by a passing horseman from the movie. Throughout the movie, the action cuts away to police investigating the death. This culminates at the end where, just as Arthur is about to lay siege to a castle, the police arrive and arrest him, shoving the camera away.
The movie abruptly ends there, with no resolution to the actual plot. I imagine it was quite jarring to audiences at the time, and I remember being thrown off guard the first time I saw it. However, it does make some sense in retrospect considering that they show the police investigating a few times.
I don't know if any of this means anything or if the Duffers are just big Monty Python nerds, but it strikes me as a bit coincidental that season 5 contains references to both Ghosts n Goblins, which has a fake ending, and Holy Grail, which has no ending. It's the sort of thing that is frustrating to realize when given an ending as disappointing as season 5 gave us, as both of those referenced properties have, quite honestly, better endings.
I see people's believe starting to dwindle after July 15th and I kind of get it but I also don't because after the tapes thing with S1 it feels more likely than ever that we are getting something at some point, maybe after tales of 85 😭
Like, I don't think some people understand. Matthew Modine's behavior is very suspicious, not just "troll-like" because this:
is clearly a "professional" marketing tweet, meaning it was most likely prewritten and sent to him to just copy and publish onto his page to promote it. Meaning he is still apart of promoting, possibly out of contractual obligation, which is weird since he is nowhere to be seen in S5.
But also, his personal Insta, I get that he does technically troll in the comments sometimes, but I feel like he does it on purpose. Because if he truly didn't like Stranger Things and didn't/wasn't associated with it anymore? Then he probably wouldn't engage with it at all (unless contractually obligated to like i mentioned, but if he was, then saying "nope" when asked if he liked S5, seems a bit of a risk to take). He is also very vocal about his political beliefs on his insta so he really doesn't seem like the type to waste his time on something he doesn't support/like, but that is just how I see it based on his behavior on there.
Netflix brainrot 😔✌️ @squiddysides - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
