dante

i love love!!!

[legolascontacts]

the concept of queer love saving the world on the biggest show release of the year in a time where we’re slowly going backwards im sick

[ab0g1arka]

okay. OKAY.

are mike and eleven already broken up?

let’s talk about it. let’s scream about it. let’s lose our minds about it in true tumblr fashion.

this is my clown-car main theory heading into ST5 vol. 2 and I’m standing by it like it’s the last Eggos in the freezer: mike and eleven are already broken up and the show is soft-launching it like Netflix is scared to see our reactions in 4K.

first of all: they spent FOUR WHOLE EPISODES washing that relationship out the window like mildew. like “oops! no more Mileven, sorry girl!”

they intentionally sidelined both of them. separated them. emotionally benched them. basically gave us a soft breakup but forgot to tell us.

and the math? THE MATH IS MATHING.

Exhibit A:

Mike & Eleven aren’t referenced as a couple until 47 minutes into episode 1. Forty. Seven. Minutes.

Season 4 opened with their love letter nonsense. Season 3 opened with them kissing. Season 2 opened with Mike calling Eleven on the walkie-talkie.

This season?

He barely remembers she exists until we’re halfway to the hour mark.

meanwhile we get Jonathan/Nancy, Joyce/Hopper, Robin/Vickie, Lucas/Max (EVEN THOUGH MAX IS UNCONSCIOUS LMFAOOO), and Mike/Will scene BEFORE Mileven even breathes in the same camera shot.

AND THAT HUG??

Mike “Makeout Monster” Wheeler—who used to smash his mouth into El’s face like a 8 years old girl playing with a pair of Barbie dolls—doesn’t even kiss her. Not even a forehead peck. NOTHING.

El grabs his face like she’s holding a grapefruit. which means NOTHING romantically because the girl was raised in a lab and learned physical affection from Hopper bonking her head affectionately like a cat. NOT a reliable romance gesture!!!

And i also want to point out that El literally hugged Will the same way!

then we get the roof scene.

they are sitting farther apart than divorced parents at Thanksgiving.

they talk about Dustin. And Hopper. And Will-as-a-feeling™.

not each other. not their relationship. not “when this is over let’s smooch so hard we create a portal.”

JUST. THE. GROUP.

and when Lucas calls them “lovebirds?”

they look more confused than I do when trying to explain the plot of this show to someone’s grandma.

like “lovebirds?? us?? doing WHAT??”

be serious.

and THEN???

Eleven disappears into the Upside Down and Mike reacts with the energy of a man whose DoorDash is running late.

Season 4 Mike would’ve been shaking, crying, throwing up, calling Argyle to borrow the van so he could go rescue her IMMEDIATELY.

Season 5 Mike? “oh no anyway.”

SIR. SIR??

Eleven doesn’t mention Mike AT ALL.

Mike mentions her twice.

TWO TIMES.

FOUR EPISODES.

this isn’t romance. this is coworkers who nod at each other in the hallway.

and THEN… THENNNN…

Will asks Robin what the signs of dating are.

HE WOULD NOT BE DOING THIS IF MIKE AND EL WERE STILL TOGETHER.

Will Byers is many things but a homewrecker he is NOT.

combine that with the fact that Mike and El literally have ZERO interactions past episode one and suddenly Will’s question feels a little like:

“hey soooo hypothetically if your best friend maybe got out of a relationship and maybe has been making heart-eyes at you for 18 months… what does THAT mean?”

NOW. HERE’S WHERE I STITCH THIS INTO THE “WILL IS THE CENTER OF VECNA’S DEMON CLOCK” THEORY:

if Mike & El are already broken up, THEN IT MAKES SENSE why:

— Mike is suddenly more emotionally available

— Will is suddenly more attuned to Mike

— Will’s role is shifting to the literal center of the supernatural plot

because the emotional arc is paralleling the supernatural one.

Vecna/Shadow Monster is out here building his evil 12-kid cosmic carousel and reserving the CENTER SEAT for Will like it’s the VIP table at Hell’s Cheesecake Factory.

Will is the prototype. Will is the vessel. Will is the power core.

AND MIKE??

Mike’s entire arc this season is circling around Will, not Eleven.

the narrative is LITERALLY rearranging these relationships to place Will at the emotional center at the SAME TIME Vecna is trying to place him at the physical center of his spooky 12-child clock of doom.

that is not an accident.

that is storytelling.

that is cinema.

so yes.

YES.

Mike and Eleven are already broken up.

Will knows.

Mike knows.

Eleven knows but isn’t saying anything because she’s too busy fighting extradimensional monsters.

the group doesn’t know yet.

WE will find out next volume.

and then? and THEN??

BYLER ENDGAME, BABY

because even Vecna said Will was the prototype.

and he was talking powers but also let’s be real: he meant romance too.

[mikesbasementbeets]

no context necessary

[teambyler]

Let's talk about #WallGate

The Upside Down appears to have been created the night Will went missing. I just read a theory from @MarianDalton on YouTube that Will has powers and in 1983 he created an Upside Down version of Hawkins because he wanted to get back home...

Whether or not that's exactly it, there's SOME connection between the Upside Down and Will. And destroying the Upside Down and saving Hawkins might be directly connected to Will.

Remember the lyrics to "Heroes" about forbidden love and kissing at the Berlin Wall?

Well, it now looks like the Upside Down has a wall:

It's possible that the Upside Down's wall maintains its structure, and destroying it is key to ending the UD and saving Hawkins. Since the Upside Down and Will are likely connected, what if the UD is connected somehow to Will's psychology and his likely coming-out arc this season? A place he created to wall himself in, a seemingly safe place, but also where he's closed off from the world because he can't be his true self? (His CLOSET?)

Ross Duffer has said about season 5, "This emotional arc for [Will] is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together."

One theme of the show has been the prejudice and fear of Hawkins. What if the physical wall parallels the metaphorical walls in Hawkins? After all, "conformity is killing the kids." We have an episode titled "Escape from Camazotz" which in A Wrinkle in Time was a hive-mind planet...

And what if the key to Vecna's power over Will is the fact that Will never thinks he'll find love? The show establishes that love is what frees people from Vecna.

Will and Mike are standing by the wall in the UD, and Will is about to use his connection to the UD to destroy the UD and save Hawkins, but he has to destroy himself along with it. He tells Mike to leave or he'll die, which he refuses to do: Mike had promised Will they'd be a TEAM. Finally, Will, to explain himself, makes clear he loves Mike, and he couldn't go on if Mike died (my own favorite theory... mine lol). Mike says NO: he will die with Will.

When Will doesn't understand why Mike's doing this, MIKE KISSES HIM.

But they don't know yet that the key to tearing down the wall is that Will sees he is loved. For all they know they'll die together to save Hawkins.

They kiss and hold each other tightly for their last moments alive. The lyrics to "Heroes" suddenly become perfect:

Standing, by the wall And the guns, shot above our heads And we kissed, as though nothing could fall And the shame, was on the other side Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever Then we could be Heroes, just for one day.

-teambyler

P.S. See my follow-up post about a behind-the-scenes photo corroborating this theory!

[teambyler]

Just sharing this again after having watched "Sorcerer" and seeing the possible structure of the Upside Down itself...

-teambyler

[ju-nebugg]

oh, i felt so free

[significant-ace-nnoyance]

absolutely flabbergasted that i’ve seen NO ONE bring up the most important callback of the season

THE ENIGMA?? ALAN TURING???

oh my god i just know she made will feel so safe with that one line like. comparing will to a gay historial hero that he made a whole presentation about 🥺

that’s the subtle importance of queer community right there

[rillixthegreatest]

ppl always want the queer character to "choose themselves" because they "can live without romance" while every straight character in their vicinity is in a romantic relationship

[fatfatgaybitch]

What accepting yourself for being gay does to a mf

[marsartz]

the paladin & his trusty candlestick

someone get this poor boy a real weapon i’m begging

[srilankanwillbyers]

adorable

[emblazons]

Saw this post and article (not for the first time, but for the first time related to Stranger Things) and started thinking.

Thinking about how M*leven's relationship (at least at the start) is the full embodiment of the "Born Sexy Yesterday" trope in the way that even its existence is a play on the relational and sexual insecurity of nerdy and insecure young men.

Thinking about the way Mike kissing El when she has no idea what romance means is literally this trope watered down because they're younger...and you can't deny its rooted in insecurity either, because even the pitch of the show says that Mike has a lot of insecurities he thinks will be resolved by the presence of a girl.

Thinking about how a lot of people who struggle with social relationships and romantic endeavors for the same reason have projected the same fantasy of "Born Sexy Yesterday" onto Mike and Eleven's romance...even though The Duffers have repeatedly made clear their plan is to subvert the trope by giving El autonomy and independence...and showing us that they don't view women as a means to cure insecurity in men...even in science fiction.

Thinking about how the reason people don't want Mike to be queer or M*leven to break up is because Mike is the one who represents the "gets the girl in spite of his rampant lack of desirability" in science fiction, and Mike not getting the girl means that a show they've projected onto is throwing a mirror in their face and saying "this wasn't right when he did it, and its not right when you do."

Thinking about how the more Eleven gains autonomy--the more she hangs out with Max (which also leads to Mike feeling insecure)--the more their relationship crumbles, because El no longer needs the insecure boy to lead her, or to give her insight into the world....which is core to this relationship trope's survival.

Thinking about the way the only thing Mike says about El is that she's his "superhero," because he never learned to view her as a whole and autonomous person--the exact same way this trope does to its female love interests. About how we know this for a fact, because Mike coming to terms with the fact that the naive girl he tried to use to fill his insecurities no longer exists or needs him is what the entirety of his first digression monologue to Will is based on in the van...including the line that made this explicit, though its been moved to the subtext again in the show itself.

Thinking about media illiterate people who think the "trope subversion" in Stranger Things is El being the one with powers isn't a subversion at all, because science fiction has been doing that shit for half a century by making women entirely out of men's leagues their partners by making them naive to the world...which is why people expected the same from Mike and Eleven after Season 1.

Thinking about why people pointing out that S4 "showing the cards" meant of Mike and El's crumbling relationship, El's full fledged autonomy combined with her now losing (removing the superhero effect even more effectively than her losing her powers did) on top of Mike having feelings for another guy is so angering for people--

--because the characters they thought were filling their toxic trope fantasies were actually turning into something else: a girl with a full independent identity and autonomy...and a boy who learned how to view his partner as an equal...once he realized he was actually in love with another boy.

The only way to deny this is to either be entirely unaware its happening or deny the subtext of this trope being turned upside its head...which is also why they probably hate people talking about subtext, right before screaming "its not that deep."

But I mean. You didn't hear it from me. ☕️

[bylersbear01]

[bluepeaaa]

Season 2 Lumax!!

[narrativelogicofbyler]

mike and will were playing emotional chess in silence while mike and el couldn’t even find the board. one pair moved in sync, the other kept missing each other. s4 wasn’t just miscommunication, it was a study in who gets you without asking and who needs a monologue to still not understand.

s4 was a masterclass in emotional fluency vs emotional translation. mike and will were speaking in glances, in pauses, in the kind of silence that says i know you. meanwhile, mike and el were stuck in a loop of a glitchy confession, one shouting ‘love’ like a spell, the other waiting for it to mean something real.

[mikeandwill]

as promo starts ramping up can we just remember that this show isn’t all about ships and every little thing they post isn’t something to point towards byler or m!leven

[srilankanwillbyers]

no literally

[willbyersabyss]

Did Will make a deal with Vecna?

Me and @conflictofthemind were talking about this post of mine and there may be a possibility that Will made a deal with Vecna in exchange for survival.

If Jason's line here was indeed foreshadowing for Will given Will's vessel nickname, then this means Will made a pact with Vecna at some point.

Will's survival of the Upside Down has always been a mystery. When El found him, he was on the verge of death. He could barely get words out. He knew he couldn't hang on much longer.

Something then takes him from Castle Byers to the library. This will be the first scene in s5. New information must be revealed for them to refilm this scene.

What if Vecna came across Will and offered him a few more hours of survival?

Jason's proposal implies that this deal is what gave Will powers, but Vecna would get nothing in return. It could be that Will agreed to was become Vecna's spy, but clearly he didn't hold up his end of the bargain. He wasn't possessed until a year later. So what did Will give Vecna?

His powers.

It's not just Will who received Vecna's powers, it's Vecna who received Will's. This is why Will has no knowledge of his powers. They were taken from him.

The vine down Will's throat acted similarly to the Mind Flayer's attachment to El. El's blood formed a slug-like creature because of this attachment, while Will barfed up a slug. We know this attachment siphoned El's powers. Will's vine did the same, but also kept him alive.

Will was borrowing Vecna's regenerative healing power.

On Vecna's power list, he also has "gate creation." This is interesting because that's the power he stole from El. Right above it is "mindscape creation." It's phrased the same way. Creation.

What if this is the power he stole from Will?

"You were my vessel. My spy. My builder." Was the three part deal. Will would be a vessel for the Mind Flayer particles, he would spy on Hawkins, and he would offer up his mindscape creation powers. He would allow Vecna to create through him.

El got her powers back through memories.

Will is going to be remembering his time in the Upside Down. This is when he used his mindscape creation powers. He'll take back what was stolen from him.

[dexsdoodles]

She's fine.

[erikiara80]

What if Will was always in the library?

I know this sounds a bit crazy, but Vecna needs to be connected to the vines, to make psychic contact with his victims and to go to his mindspace so, I wonder if one of the plot twists of story, one of the reason we've never seen flashbacks of Will in the UD, is because he was always in the library, connected to the vines.

"Dreaming" and shaping the UD, and it was his mind that the Demogorgon was trying to find. If his thoughts can manifest into reality (at least in the UD), he could manifest himself too, without even knowing.

After all, we've seen other kids trying to run from scary visions, so maybe...

Maybe that's what the poster of The Thing and the lyrics "If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double" hint at. Not clones, but a Body and a Mind, separate. And maybe that's why the gate converge at the library.

Jonathan and Joyce are near the library when they argue about Will hiding in the lights. When Nancy calls Barb's mom, she says that Barb is at the library (and she's right, unfortunately). Hopper slept with the librarian. Yes, that's where they find Will and revive him. But again, what if the library is not important because they find Will there at the end of the season, but because he was always there and where he manifested the UD?

From Will's secret files. "Having powers like that can't be easy. It can separate you."

An empty body, like Max's, until Joyce and Hopper save him, but even then, part of him stays in the UD, the reason why he can feel the thoughts of the Mind Flayer before and after the possession. Vecna is literally living in his mind.

There are so many parallels between his vanishing and the kids' visions in S4. Then there's the mystery of the Demogorgon using telekinesis to open a door and temporary gates, but only in S1, when Will is in the UD. The fact that Will is able to see the letters on the wall, and his mom on the couch. And Joyce doesn't feel him anymore after she tells him to run (his mind stopped making psychic contact with her and focused on Castle Byers?)

Somehow El keeps feeling him and is sure that he's still alive, even when she sees his body. She knows where he's hiding, but we can't be sure that he was physically in his house or Castle Byers. Only in S4 they show us people having visions, and even then they trick us: we don't know when the vision starts, so who knows what happened in S1, what is real?

Joyce sees Will in the wall, but like I said, if he can manifest his mindspace into reality, maybe it's possible that he manifested himself too. And it's interesting that Joyce only sees him when El is channeling him.

Another big mystery is Will surviving a whole week without food or water. Erica reminds us that that's impossible, so even if it's true that the UD is Will's mindspace, things and bodies decompose there, like Barb's body and the skeleton, so how could he survive for seven days?

As always, I could be wrong, but I thought this theory could answer some questions