#cyclebreakgate

[thatgirlalt]

Operation Cycle-Break: Final Boss Three Keys – Cave Memories & Breaking the Time-Loop

this took me ages ohmygod. it's so worth it though.

Will the three MCs please stand up?

Mike: “I guess it’s up to us again.” Will: “It always is, isn’t it?”

Will: “Don’t tell the others. They wouldn’t understand.” Mike: “El would.”

Mike: “Okay, what don’t I understand?” El: “I am different.”

“If you see what he sees, if you feel what he feels, maybe we’ll know how to stop him.”

Fittingly broken up into four gates parts:

The Three Keys

From one Lettergate to another

Cave memories & the three Birthdaygates

Breaking the Time-Loop

CW: this post will allude to CSA and CA implied within ST. Please read with care. <3

The Three Keys

To avoid being repetitive, I will try to keep this recap as brief as possible!

Henry – 001 – Mr. Whatsit – Vecna, each moniker a representation of the internal struggle each of our three main characters has to overcome in order to resolve their respective conflicts within Stranger Things. And each representation is how our three MCs can relate to and therefore humanize Vecna.

You see, Vecna is an amalgamation of Mike’s fears (Mr. Whatsit), Will’s shame (Henry), and El’s alienation (001), and Vecna is the representation and dark reflection of what it looks like to have history repeat itself again and again.

Because, as of right now, not only do Mike, Will, and El embody the internal struggles that Vecna’s monikers suggest, they succumb to them in the finale. Mike succumbs to his fear, runs away from his feelings, shrouds himself in ignorance, and lives out a lie. Will succumbs to his shame, basically disappearing from the narrative (has just enough screentime to not make it super suspicious to a casual viewer), and in the Storyteller’s “ending” for him, Will is removed (and seemingly forgotten) from Hawkins altogether. And El succumbs to her alienation; thinking she will always be perceived as a monster and never belong anywhere, believing there will never be a stop to the cycle of abuse, ends herself. It’s truly so very sad.

The gate of Hell opens at the end of s4, marking Vecna’s official return to Hawkins. The same gate, that when it originally opens all the way back in 1x01, unlocks a certain fear in Mike, uncovers a certain wound in Will, with El at the center, a result of her experimentation, being the one to open the gate. So, just as the gate re-opens and Vecna makes his return, our three main characters are forced to make their own return to face him. Which means facing the things they hate and fear most about themselves, and ideally overcome them.

Just as there are three doors, I believe there are three keys in El, Will and Mike. Three characters that have lived their own unique Henry – 001 – Mr. Whatsit – Vecna experiences and can therefore relate to, understand and humanize him and stop the time-loop (which is the cycle of abuse/violence and history repeating itself) for good.

How do I suggest our three MCs achieve this? Well, it begins with facing Vecna. Which means Mike facing the root of his fears, Will facing the root of his shame, and El facing the root of her alienation. Which, you guessed it, you could call their cave memories. But let’s hold off on that for now.

While El and Will, from what we’ve seen, have both tried to sympathize and empathize with Vecna as they have gone through their own similar traumas as Vecna’s, Mike is the most compelled to take Vecna at face value, not seek out the truth, and insist that he is just a monster. Just as Mike, who is the representative of the party, can’t humanize Vecna, neither can El and Will believe they can be fully accepted, embraced, understood, and loved by Mike because of their respective connections to Vecna.

From one Lettergate to another

Mike needs to embrace El, just as the rest of the party has. And there’s a reason the rest of the party has been able to embrace El, when Mike has had a wall up with her. The thing is, Mike can mask his difference with his privilege, most of the rest of the party cannot. As @cara-ti-amo effectively puts it: comphet is Mike’s sword, his privilege his shield.

When El and Mike put expectations and a label to their relationship to seek a sense of normalcy, is it any wonder why Mike all of a sudden can’t seem to embrace and understand El anymore? El who represents the magic of childhood, embracing difference, queerness. All of a sudden when Mike seeks out normalcy with her, he can no longer understand her, interesting that is. Because with that, Mike seemingly is the only person of their friends that isn’t different like her.

Let’s break it down, Dustin has a rare medical condition and is from a “broken home”. Lucas is Black in smalltown America. Max is a young woman and a child of abuse. Will is queer, poor, from a broken home and a child of abuse. El is also a child of abuse and has special abilities deeming her, too, a “freak”. The other members can’t “mask” their difference like Mike has chosen to.

He was the first to humanize and understand her until he started seeking out normalcy in her. So, it’s no wonder that, out of everyone, Mike has the hardest time understanding El once he starts pressuring himself to seek out normalcy in a character that is meant to represent difference. Mike can’t embrace El because he hasn’t tried to understand, embrace, and accept what makes himself different. He hasn’t embraced his queerness. There it is. Btw, I really like this post from @sunflowhoops, breaking down the party members respective relationships with El and how they have embraced her vs. Mike.

It’s no doubt that a big part in breaking the time-loop is Mike needing to confess, truly this time. It will take the first person to really humanize El to understand and embrace her once more. Which means embracing what’s different; embracing his “magic of childhood”, his queerness.

He will have to be honest and honour the first rule of friendship he ever teaches her: “friends don’t lie”. By being honest with her and admitting his own difference, he can embrace her in the way he was always meant to, before they conformed to societal pressures and sought out normalcy in each other, that is still a deep and profound love, just not a romantic one.

With that, El can let go of her insecurities and her alienation. She can feel like she belongs again, because with Mike’s honesty, she will realize it was not anything about herself that was unlovable or monstrous. It was always Mike’s heart just not belonging to her, not in the way she sought at first, but in the way that makes the most sense now.

I really see Mike’s true confession to El reminiscing a scene from s1, before Mike and El ever felt any pressure to be a couple because of what Lucas and Nancy would suggest with Mike or what a year in a cabin with nothing but old romance films to consume with El.

I see something reminiscent of this scene:

"I don't know why I didn't just tell you." "Mike. I understand."

Since there is inevitably another confession on the horizon regarding Mike and Will's feelings, just based on dialogue throughout the show, either with his confession to El or his confession to Will, I reckon Mike will use these words specifically, “I’m different, too”.

If anybody would understand the desire for “normalcy” from her life of being alienated, it would be our most empathetic El. Surely, Will would also understand what Mike is inferring since his coming out scene uses those same words.

But just as we speculate about one lettergate, I think it’s important to note there is another lettergate on the table here. A letter that’s been read by one, but was meant for two. A letter that was also meant for Mike and a letter that could very well lead Mike out of his own cave. Hopper’s letter to El and Mike.

Hopper’s letter, as far as we’re aware, was only read by El, but I think it would do a world of good if Mike also got his hands on it. By reading it, Mike would understand his own internal struggle, his own Survivor’s guilt, and why the truth is so painful but necessary to face. He would understand the dangers of being stuck in a cave for so long, after his own time in Camazotz.

Being stuck in a cave is not much different from being in the Upside Down. It is devoid of any emotion, literally the Upside Down is devoid of water (which is synonymous with feelings, vulnerability, truth, purification, and transformation). By putting walls up around you and closing yourself off because you don’t want to get hurt, you don’t get to feel anything at all really, except fear which just breeds hate and self-loathing.

When you’re so afraid to be open (“keep the door open three inches”; just enough to allow yourself to be seen) because you don’t want to get hurt, you don’t allow yourself to be open to anything, which includes feelings of connection, trust, joy, love, and pride in oneself.

Those are the lessons I think Mike could get out of reading Hop’s letter and those lessons would help him in escaping his own cave.

The Cave Memories

El

I think, to some extent, El has already experienced revisiting her own cave memory when she was in Nina; when she regained her Massacre at Hawkins Lab memories, albeit how suspicious and likely tampered those memories are. 001 and El share much of the same root of their alienation. Their shared experience at the lab, being used, degraded to weapons of destruction that have made them feel monstrous, like they can never escape their alienation and never belong anywhere properly.

It is the whole thematic narrative of The Lost Sister episode and much of El’s storyline in general, that El resists the cycle of violence and doesn’t give in to Kali’s insistence on revenge. No doubt, I interpret this as foreshadowing that El will indeed be one of the three keys in breaking the cycle altogether, rather the humanization of El. It is El finding reclamation in her Monster vs. Superhero conflict. It is El’s greatest superpower, realizing her difference is a gift (not a curse), and using her difference as a means to empower her humanity.

I’ll be interested to see in what ways the Nina Massacre memories were tampered with. I imagine 001 has memories from the lab he, too, feels like he can never come back from. Meaning he thinks he can never truly be humanized, normalized, or accepted after his time there. 001’s memories are as mumble-jumbled and unreliable as any.

Mike

Something that haunts Mike all throughout ST is his Survivor’s guilt. We see Mike going through this when Will originally goes missing, again when El sacrifices herself, when he almost loses Will again to the Mind Flayer. That boy is hellbent on never losing Will a second time in s2. I would imagine, to some extent, he also experiences it when El leaves for Nina, not knowing if she will ever return.

The following will be quite speculative based on extensive readings I have done focused on Will’s trauma and Mike’s adeptness of caring for Will and El, who he recognizes are both traumatized children of abuse [here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here]. I suspect Mike likely witnessed something happen to Will (and this ties in with birthdaygate) which is the root of his Survivor’s guilt.

I believe this could reveal to us why Mr. Whatsit, who is a reflection of Mike, desperately wants to save the children from the monsters in Hawkins, even if it requires concealing the ugly truth of what that really means. With that, I do believe Mike and Mr. Whatsit share the same root of their fear when it comes to facing their feelings and their truth.

By that I mean, there is evidence to suggest that Henry witnessed something happen to his own childhood best friend. If you subscribe to Bobgate, let’s say his “childhood best friend” is Bob Newby. It’s no mystery that Bob’s recounting of Mr. Baldo alludes to his own ca. Mr. Baldo would “come to [Bob] every night in his sleep” and Bob would need his mother to stay with him until he fell asleep to evade Mr. Baldo.

Prior to the events of The First Shadow, Bob’s mother left and ran away with another man. @cara-ti-amo theorizes that Bob could have been experiencing abuse by his father and my own take is Henry was, to some extent, witness to this at some point. That would explain why, in The First Shadow, Henry specifically targets Bob’s father, attempting to kill him. I don’t know what other explanation there would be to this (in the “I don’t believe in coincidences” show) besides Henry using his abilities to "play god" for the greater good.

I do believe Mike shares the same root of his fear which is the root of his Survivor’s guilt. Mike just wants to be a hero and his greatest fear is feeling useless, being unneeded and unable to protect the ones he loves most. This is why the show makes it a point to depict Mike always “at the scene of the crime”. It’s why bad things seem to always happen around him, affecting his loved ones, but never him directly, and why Will is often perceived as the victim and Mike the helpless bystander. It’s his worst fear coming to life again and again.

From one Birthdaygate to another

Will

Finally, with Will’s cave memory, there is a shared root of Will’s shame and Henry’s. I would imagine this would be the same event of Mike’s cave origins. And, yes, I think this has to do with the clown cake, Will’s fear of clowns, the clown and Big Top references and imagery in s2 and s3, the Big Top circus tent as a supposed leaked s5 set. (The Big Top in s3 was a house of mirrors, mind you. It begs the question, what kind of self-reflection and transformation could one face inside?). And why from Will’s perspective the Demogorgon and Vecna are depicted as especially predatory, they are a reflection of his worst shame and repressed trauma coming to the surface.

As @nightnut pointed out, birthdaygate is coming.

This shame and trauma are undoubtedly rooted in Lonnie’s abuse, whose actor was at the table read for s4 and Noah said in s5 press will have a big influence on Will’s arc in the final season. I can only theorize based on context clues that, like Henry, Will had something especially traumatic happen to him on/around his 8th birthday. Both of Will and Henry’s “first shadow”.

This would be the same root of their shame that then allows them to be revisited by the shadow four years later. If my suspicions are true and something happens on/around Will’s 8th birthday, that would just so happen to be the same year that Henry gets banished to the Abyss and the first gate opens in Hawkins, 1979. As established, when a gate opens, it largely represents a wound being opened, revealed, uncovered.

What’s more, Henry gets revisited by the shadow four years from his original encounter with it, November 6, 1959, when he is twelve. And wouldn’t you know it; Will gets reminded of his own shadow on that fateful November 6, 1983 night when he shares a look with Mike, four years from 1979, when he is also twelve years old. The gate re-opens. Bobgate part fifteen for more on Henry's cave memory.

As I said in the last part, in terms of Stranger Things lore, the time-loop goes as far back as the Silent Generation and the G.I. Generation, which includes Martin Brenner and Henry Creel’s parents. Which leads me to, we don’t just have one birthdaygate (Will), we don’t just have two birthdaygates (Henry), we have three birthdaygates!

Even, ever the antagonist, Brenner had an especially traumatic event happen on a birthday of his. I’m compelled to believe this only reiterates the emphasis the show has put on Generational trauma, the cycles of abuse, and history repeating itself and what this means for breaking the time-loop.

Breaking the Time-Loop

The idea of generational trauma, history repeating itself and children of the new generation feeling defenseless against abuse and therefore helpless in breaking cycles, is something that is ingrained in the imagery and dialogue of the show since its inception.

This motif is reinforced repeatedly through the course of the show. As recently as s5, when, in one instance, Holly, Mike’s stand-in mind you, feels guilty when she is unable to defend or save her mother and Max, using the words “I just stood there". I reckon this is something that will be revisited with Mike.

Again, in s5, when Will tries to empathize with Henry in the final battle, “you were just a kid. A kid like me, and it used you”.

We see another instance of this motif when El also tries to empathize with Vecna in 4x09 in the final battle of that season. “I know what he did to you”. Certainly, El has some idea of the extent of Brenner’s abuse with Henry, but that would be only one out of the three keys.

We get a lot of imagery around adults/parents destroying childhood innocence, as early as s1. When El is seeking out the supernatural in the lab and encounters the Demogorgon, she sees the creature eating its own eggs, consuming its babies.

In s3, Will destroys his symbolic “magic of childhood”, Castle Byers, with a baseball bat. A baseball bat, as we know is a symbol of conformity, but it’s also the sport Lonnie tried to force on Will. Therefore, essentially Will’s “childhood innocence” is destroyed by something associated with Lonnie’s abuse. If anyone is guilty of ruining childhood innocence, it’s absolutely Lonnie.

Just like Billy and his father, Neil. When El is seeking out literally “The Source” of the Mind Flayer in s3, she must go through memories of Billy’s childhood innocence being broken down by his father’s abuse. Which also includes imagery that associates baseball with Billy’s abuse.

It’s not lost on me too, that the teased episodes titles for s3 were meant to be 3x05 “The Source” followed by 3x06 “The Birthday”. Which is just an insane thing to overlook. But yes, with that, I think “The Source” of the Mind Flayer is quite obviously child abuse/trauma. Which, in Will and Henry’s case, is most likely associated with “The Birthday”.

We see three instances of scenes with Victor Creel that are juxtaposed with imagery of a burning baby. And my suspicions wouldn’t be raised around Victor Creel, if it weren’t for the burning baby imagery and these other few images surrounding him.

There’s a reason why a lot of father figures in the show are veterans or participants in wars. It’s not just an easy way to build character background. It is, in and of itself, a reference to history and cycles of violence repeating themselves. It is a direct commentary on each generations’ repeated obsession with power, control, and conquest.

We have Captain Brenner, conducting his own endeavors with the Philadelphia Experiment and U.S.S. Eldridge during WWII, resulting in his obsession being passed on to Martin Brenner. It’s Victor Creel’s inability or refusal to process his own PTSD from WWII, becoming an alcoholic, and I suspect abusive, father to Henry. It’s Virginia’s own ca effecting the way she raises Henry. It’s Hopper’s belief that his time in the Vietnam War cursed him and he passed on that curse to his daughter, killing her.

It is abuse and violence continuously bleeding from one generation to another, from parent to child.

Victor and Virginia to Henry (burning baby).

Neil to Billy (the scene of El encountering the Demogorgon in the void eating its young is so, so similar to the scene in which El finds Billy in the void when he sacrifices Heather to the Mind Flayer. see below).

Lonnie to Will (destroying Castle Byers with a baseball bat, for one).

It’s an innocent child losing a parent to violence (El and Terry).

It’s a child being trapped in a closet because the generation in power says it's not safe for you otherwise (Mike).

So, this is what I mean when I say the resolution of this story is absolutely dependent on the three keys' (El, Mike, and Will) ability to break the time-loop, break the cycle. Breaking the time-loop is "defeating" Vecna because Vecna, at his core, is history, the cycle of violence, repeating itself.

To defeat Vecna is to take time to understand and humanize him. Remember, Vecna is an amalgamation of our three MCs greatest fear, shame, alienation; an amalgamation of what El, Mike, and Will are most afraid of in themselves. "It's like he only sees the darkness in us" [4x09].

Since Vecna is an amalgamation of all of these things, again I ask, what could be the thing to defeat that? It's revisiting their own cave memories with care, understanding what makes them so afraid and why that is, it's not giving into the darkness and instead embracing their "magic of childhood" once more. It is truth defeating lies (Mike); it is superhero defeating monster (El), and it is love defeating fear (Will); it is humanity over cruelty.

Are our three MCs doomed to make the same mistakes as the generations before them, thus repeating the time-loop?

I, for one, believe there is always still time to re-write history.

Thank you for reading!

Operation Cycle-Break parts: [one, two, three, four]

[thatgirlalt]

Operation Cycle-Break: Final Boss Mike - fears & feelings

“Turns out, getting to Mike, that was the key.”

Is Stranger Things all a DnD Campaign manifested by Michael? Well, yes, it sorta is.

Except it’s a metaphor (analogy?) for Mike’s Hero’s Journey to accepting his true self. Which, especially being queer in the eighties, and as Will could already attest to, could feel a whole lot like having to fight for your life against unimaginable horrors and monsters (hopefully with the help of your friends and loved ones – the party). But we often only see Mike as “the Storyteller”, the Dungeon Master, which is more proof that Mike is inadvertently controlling the narrative, not actually being a hero within it.

Fittingly broken up into four gates parts:

When did it all begin?

How does Mike's fears manifest through the seasons?

Season four - who puts a face to Mike's fears?

Why is Mike the bad guy? (and my take on Tharizdungate)

This goes against a few of my predictions I’ve had in the past, in that I no longer think it will all come down to Mike needing to save a dark-sided Will; we’ve seen that before anyway in s2. Mike and Will will equally save each other. Will may very well be the one to enlighten Mike, you could say. Something, something, Will is Pelor, the god of light. And, in other words, I don’t think Tharizdun is the BBEG we think it is, but more on that later. :)

When it all began:

I think a part of Mike realizes, to some extent, his feelings for Will on November 6, 1983 when they share their first scene together – when Will is honest with Mike about “the roll, it was a seven”. This scene already establishes that Mike and Will’s relationship is different than the other boys as Lucas was just telling Will to lie to Mike about the roll. “Friends don’t lie” is Mike and Will’s rule to friendship and Will honours that even if it means “the Demogorgon got” him. The two boys share a look and the lights flicker. The electricity, synonymous with connection and/or romantic chemistry as the show suggests, surges and Mike, unsure what it means at the time, turns off the electricity.

This sets off the events for the entire show, and as the future DnD scenes throughout, it’s foreshadowed by Mike’s campaign just as he is realizing the extent of his feelings for Will. I think everything from the show manifests from Michael’s repressed feelings, repressed self, and his fears through the party’s DnD campaigns and, to me, that means Mike is the real Final Boss.

The supernatural plot and lore are absolutely reflective and based in how the HIV/AIDS crisis progressed in the eighties, but I think it also manifests from Mike’s repression. Conforming, that’s the real monster, right? Hear me out. Mike is constantly self-sabotaging when he is not true to himself, either through his own character actions or, unbeknownst to him, through the supernatural plot that he manifests or foreshadows. It affects almost everyone around him, but never really affects him as directly as he is not facing his fears, he is actively repressing them, and always running away. Is it any wonder why it took him until season five to see the Upside Down for himself for the first time? Even still, with season five most likely being all an illusion, we still can’t say for sure how or if he does ever face his fears and himself.

How does it manifest through the seasons:

Let’s go through the seasons, shall we? I’ll have a post up soon about how eighties politics, especially the response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, works in tandem with Stranger Things chronology. But, for now, let’s focus on how Mike’s fear of embracing his true self manifests through the show.

As mentioned above, I think a part of Mike realized the extent of his feelings for Will, or just that he has different feelings for Will in the very first episode and that’s what sets off the events of the show. Of course, Mike doesn’t understand the full extent of his feelings, he just suspects he feels something different for Will. Nonetheless, he is scared of this realization – “scared of who I really was.” He doesn’t understand and is scared enough by what it could mean, he shuts it down, literally turning off the flickering lights – the electricity – in the garage.

So, Mike doesn’t understand what it is, where it came from, but he knows that it’s scary to him. And just like that a Demogorgon, a faceless, alter-dimensional being, appears and takes Will away. A Demogorgon – we don’t know anything about it, we don’t understand it, where it came from, it is a very abstract monster indeed. The monster is abstract and unknown at this point, just as Mike doesn’t fully comprehend what he is so afraid of. There is, in fact, a lot of dialogue from Mike of him saying “I don’t understand” throughout all five seasons.

And funnily enough, Billy has the same dialogue and repetition that Mike loves so much, “I don’t understand. I don’t understand!” as Billy gets flayed in season three. Billy is also a repressed queer man, let’s not forget that.

When Will is missing, internally Mike is torn up and torn apart by it. I’m sure Mike is pleading with anything, anybody, any god, to bring Will back. He insists he will go out on the night of November 7, and find Will. Mike makes a wish to get Will back. And when Mike is in the woods, wishing Will to appear, Eleven enters his narrative. It’s a common idiom to say you “make a wish on elevens” (meaning making wishes at 11:11 a.m./p.m.), and wouldn’t you know it, Mike makes a wish for something and Eleven manifests in his world. “In her face, the mirror of your dreams!” Eleven represents a lot of beautiful things and, in a way, she is exactly what Mike needs to help him get his Will back. Not sure what I mean by that? Check out these posts: here and here. But, in short, El is a manifestation of queerness, and by extension Byler itself. “I was thinking once Will’s back and you’re not a secret anymore [...] my family will accept you." (1x08).

During season two, we explore the true and pure devotion Mike has for Will, staying by his side as he is hurting, broken down, tortured and possessed all season. It is not a question that Mike loves Will, but to what extent? Does Mike even know yet?

The main monster this season – The Mind Flayer – is arguably even more abstract than the Demogorgon, and it’s not even visible to Mike, still only Will can see it. Will, who has arguably come to the realization of his true self earlier than Michael. Will knows the monsters better and because of this, is rightfully even more scared of them than Mike, who still doesn’t fully understand them.

El (queerness) is hidden away all season, but Mike still senses her and never gave up on her. And when El returns at the end of season two, Mike has a generational crash out, exclaiming “I don’t understand. I don’t understand!” :(

As El returns, Will is able to be saved from the Mind Flayer. Then, at the Snowball, when Will is dancing with a girl, Mike’s feelings for Will manifest once again. I think he is starting to understand them better now.

The monster in season three I think is much more reflective of the HIV/AIDS epidemic progression in tandem with Stranger Things events. But, in terms of being a manifestation of Mike’s fears, it finally eases up on Will and the party for the most part. Interesting. So, you’re saying that after the Snowball, when Mike is presumably starting to understand his feelings for Will, Mike then suddenly, coincidentally proceeds to be a shitty friend and push Will away in season three.

Mike is already self-sabotaging through his own actions; he doesn’t really need supernatural forces and inter-dimensional monsters to do it for him at this point. Mike is being his own worst enemy, his own version of a monster he would otherwise manifest to make sense of his fears. He is also already doing some of the monsters’ dirty work by effectively breaking down Will’s spirit and “childhood magic”. He also doesn’t really spend any time being a Dungeon Master this season, so the Mind Flayer takes action into her own hands and targets another “William”, Billy in this case. By the end, I believe Mike finally realizes and understands his feelings for Will, aka his fears, when El kisses him and he loses Will again. Earlier this season, you could say Will even foreshadows Mike’s realization: “welcome to my world”.

So, just as Mike’s feelings become realized at the end of season three, in the subsequent season, we get Vecna. Vecna enters the narrative - we get a “face”, a poster boy, to the horror of the Upside Down. Vecna was once a boy himself and he is a more personified villain to Mike’s manifestation of fears. He is a more realized monster, while the previous ones were more abstract – because we weren’t meant to understand them, their motives, where they came from, just as Mike didn’t truly understand his feelings until the end of season three.

Season Four – Eddie is Mike Part II and Vecna

Vecna puts a face to these feelings and fears of Mike’s because Mike understands them now to some extent – he loves Will. But still, he keeps repressing himself and running away. And we have another DnD campaign that foreshadows and manifests in the future events of the show, Eddie’s Hellfire night. And let’s not forget that Eddie is a reflection of Mike, so, in a way, Mike himself is still manifesting Vecna and the events of season four through his fears. Mike is aware of his feelings for Will now. He runs away from those feelings so much so that he is removed from the Hawkins storyline altogether and essentially a mirror of himself, Eddie, takes his place in the party.

Eddie is Mike part one here. Eddie’s conclusion in s4 is one opposite of Mike’s. They have a very similar build up but entirely different endings. Just as Eddie has to go into hiding after 4x01, Mike removes himself from the Hawkins storyline by flying to California, hiding from Hawkins in a way as well as hiding from himself. As Mike starts gaining courage by making amends and rebuilding a foundation with Will, Eddie comes out of hiding to help the party in Hawkins. In Mike’s perspective, he probably thinks he is acting recklessly getting so close to Will knowing the risks, like Eddie coming out of his hiding and subsequently getting killed because of it.

For myself and a lot of people, Eddie is easy to love for many reasons, but especially because he is so familiar to us. He is supposed to be akin to an early seasons’ Mike. Eddie is very reminiscent of s1 and s2 Mike, as in a truer and less fearful version of him. Eddie's very own story progression in s4 is just like Mike’s from s1. Eddie (Mike) is targeted and threatened by bullies all season while he is compelled to solve the mysteries and supernatural causes of Chrissy’s death (Will’s disappearance). Eddie (Mike) is wrecked with Survivor’s guilt and even willing to sacrifice himself to “save his friends”, specifically Dustin.

Just as Eddie completes his anti-conformity and bravery arc – he faces his fears and doesn’t “run away this time”, Mike retreats back to safety with El thinking he can never love and be loved by Will.

Mike loves Will, but he can’t completely read Will, in the same way Will can’t completely read Mike, at least they don’t want to risk anything by reading something the wrong way. They both send mixed signals and retreat back to safety and lie to protect their feelings. It’s honestly just the miscommunication trope again and again for these two; more about Mike’s perspective here. At this point, I feel like even El herself is begging Mike to let her go, because it’s not helping either of them anymore and he “has all the answers, he just has to stop being so goddamn scared”.

What’s interesting is Vecna. Henry, or 001 I guess, seems very anti-conformity himself in his monologue to El in 4x07. “I know what it’s like…to be different” (Mike says something just like this to El in 4x03, which is weird). Vecna says he “found comfort in the spiders” but if the Mind Flayer is the spider-like creature we know it as and my interpretation of the Mind Flayer is true, then isn’t Vecna saying he finds comfort in hate, fear, homophobia, and conformity? Contradicting himself a little bit here. But if my theory on Vecna is correct, then his next line checks out, “like me, they are solitary creatures. Deeply misunderstood.” Deeply misunderstood, I do believe Henry is such. The rest of the monologue:

“Humans are a unique type of pest, multiplying and poisoning our world. All while enforcing a structure of their own, a deeply unnatural structure. Where others saw order, I saw a straight jacket. A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. Each life a faded lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce, and die. Everyone is just waiting, waiting for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly terrible play day after day. I could not do that, I could not close off my mind and join in the madness, I could not pretend (I can’t walk the stage). Then I realized, I didn’t have to.”

001 is obviously depicted as very evil and ominous in this scene, but this sounds very Escape from Camazotz coded. And if Henry – 001 – Vecna is meant to be a mirror for Will, could this be foreshadowing Will being the light and Will escaping?

My point is Vecna is an interesting villain, because as I interpret the Mind Flayer as the epitome of fear, hate, homophobia and conformity, Vecna seems to be the antithesis of conformity, yet he is still the Mind Flayer’s five-star general. I stand by the idea that Vecna is self-hatred and internalized homophobia’s final boss, but his victims are different. So maybe it’s around this time when they realize it’s better to go for someone like Mike…hear me out.

The victims being different in season four, just as season three starts infecting a lot of the town of Hawkins, could also be reflective of how the HIV/AIDS epidemic progressed, but again more on that in my next post. Let’s keep focusing on how Mike’s fears and self repression keep manifesting in Hawkins despite Mike being 3000 miles from the scene of the crime. I’d say Mike is quite similar to the four other victims of Vecna.

In s4, Mike is especially hiding from himself. He really tries to pretend to be normal and not at all someone who has feelings for Will. Just as Mike hides from himself this season, we hear Vecna tell Max, “They can’t save you, that is why you hide from them”. Yet, Max is able to be saved. So, that’s encouraging, at least. Max is also hiding from her friends and hiding from herself, trying to be normal, pretending to be fine, like Mike, she is playing her part “in a silly, terrible play”. In fact, it’s explored that all of Vecna’s victims aren’t just traumatized, they are all actively trying to conform despite not feeling “normal”. The victims he targets specifically are teenagers that are hiding from their problems, trying to ignore / forget their trauma, running away from their fears, downplaying their feelings and their pain, pretending to be fine, hiding from themselves, denying their truths. Mike sounds an awful lot like Vecna’s victims, the more you think about.

So, why is Mike the bad guy?

He doesn’t mean to be, truly, he can’t help that he is self-repression and self-preservation personified. By season five, I believe Mike is absolutely at war with himself and his own worst enemy.

@upsidedownlurker made a post recently in their #rightsideupgate series, about how they interpret the Dustin and Steve fight in the Upside Down Rainbow Room to be a fight between Dustin and Mike. This makes a lot of sense to me, especially after analyzing Eddie as Mike. So, remember that Eddie and Mike are absolutely mirrors of each other and they have entirely opposite endings to their otherwise identical arcs by the end of s4. Just as Mike conforms once again and retreats back to safety, Eddie is killed while doing the opposite. And remember Mike has his own progression of courage as he was getting closer to Will. This progression of Mike’s bravery played in tandem with Eddie coming out of hiding. I said earlier that, in Mike’s perspective, he probably thinks he is acting recklessly getting so close to Will knowing the risks.

So, if Steve is really Mike in this scene, Mike is more or less saying that because Eddie was acting out, because Eddie was so anti-conformity and acting so recklessly in his final moments, he was basically asking to be killed. Eddie was flying too close to the sun (Eddie’s novel is Flight of Icarus) and therefore his stupidity to act out in such a way got him killed. Mike might think if he continued to act so recklessly by getting closer to Will as s4 progressed, he might as well have had the same fate as Eddie. But, the opposite of what Mike is so adamant killed Eddie is actually what’s killing Mike right now. Btw, Eddie dies by the Camazotz bats, as Mike is dying by the Camazotz prison by s5.

By season five, Mike has trapped himself in his own Camazotz. He is Mr. Mike Whatsit Wheeler and he is continuing to manifest the events of the show through his fears and self-repression. And the twelve kids are actually the members of the party following his narrative, his campaign. Mr. Whatsit portrays himself as a friend to get everyone’s trust, Mike is the heart of the party. In 5x03, they emphasize how they have to get someone that the Turnbows trust to infiltrate the family and begin their attack. One more for you: Eddie, who is Mike, was a drug dealer, you could say he helped to numb and ease people’s pain. In 5x03, Mike knows an awful lot about benzos and putting people to sleep. He lulled everybody into his conformity world and is controlling everyone’s narratives. He is the Storyteller; he is the Dungeon Master of Camazotz. He thinks he is protecting them just as he tries to protect himself from the truth because the truth is still too scary for him to face.

I promised I would wrap this up with Tharizdungate:

Tharizdun is a god that was locked and hidden away ages ago, a god only DMs – Mike would know about. In my humble opinion, Tharizdun is not the BBEG that we think it is. But he is the BBEG that Mike keeps chained up, locked away, because Mike thinks if it’s released, it will destroy his entire life and the world around him.

Mike has never been to or seen the Upside Down, but if he manifests it (and the monsters that come from it) with Tharizdun, the scariest monster of all to him, in mind – Will describes it as “dark, it’s so dark and empty and it’s cold!”. I really believe Will created the exotic matter and stabilized the Upside Down when he is taken there. Will has his own powers of light, creation and connection. I theorize about his powers here. But Mike manifesting it in a way and El opening the gate to it just as Mike first realizes (to some extent) his feelings for Will on that there night of November 6, 1983, I just think that's insane!

Tharizdun was locked away ages ago, people believe he is evil and will destroy the world; everyone and everything in it. But El is his avatar! And remember El is representative of queer love. In my previous analyses, I interpret El’s character as such, she is meant to represent queer love and acceptance and by extension the very concept of Mike + Will. All the way back in 1x01, Mike “makes a wish on elevens” to find Will and Eleven appears; Mike’s love is what helps save Will. El has saved both Mike and Will a number of times and Mike and Will have saved each other. If El is Tharizdun’s avatar and she is the manifestation of queer love, queer acceptance and Byler itself, shouldn’t Tharizdun be representative of something similar? Something scary enough to think it will “ruin the party, ruin everything”, but something that actually needs to be freed to save everyone.

Mike’s feelings scare him so much, he thinks unlocking them, freeing them would destroy his life and everything in it. But again, El, the avatar, is the manifestation of the love between Mike + Will and has saved them again and again. She is the avatar of a god that was locked away and El herself is locked away for nearly half the show and is made to believe she is the monster. And Mike thinks this Tharizdun is the scariest “monster” of them all. Tharizdun is Mike’s queerness and his feelings for Will. Tharizdun is the truth and I think it’s about time to release Tharizdun and free El. In fact, I think this is the only way to win this war. Maybe it will “end the world as we know it”, to make room for a new one - a better, more loving, compassionate, accepting and less fearful one.

Thank you for reading!

Operation Cycle-Break parts: [two, three, four, five]

[thatgirlalt]

Operation Cycle-Break: Final Boss Vecna – or should we say Vance Goodman

What’s that about Sympathy for the Devil on the ‘For Will’ mixtape? Right, well allow me to play Devil’s advocate here.

Aka I think Vecna himself has already told us exactly how to "defeat" him.

“If you see what he sees, if you feel what he feels, maybe we’ll know how to stop him.”

Fittingly broken up into four gates parts:

Let’s recap!

At the core of his character, what does Vecna represent?

What does Vecna’s return really mean?

And what does that mean for our story’s resolution?

First let’s recap:

Mike and Will both come to the realization of their feelings on that fateful November 6th, 1983 evening, thus the gate (the curiosity door) to the supernatural opens, and the events of the show begin to unravel – the thing they find so scary because it’s the thing that makes them so different. And who opens the gate? Jane, El, Eleven. Who I, like many others, have interpreted represents queerness. So, just as Mike and Will simultaneously discover a revelation of their shared feelings, and therefore their difference, their queerness, El, opens the gate.

Mike’s perspective, interpretation, and manifestation of the supernatural stems from his fear based in future uncertainty, the anticipation of danger and the feeling that, more than anything, makes you want to run away. Will’s, on the other hand, is rooted in his shame based in past trauma; shame makes you feel unworthy and wrong and, above all else, makes you want to disappear. In other words, the gate unlocks a certain fear in Mike, and uncovers a certain wound in Will.

El’s throughline the entire show is her internal struggle of Monster vs. Superhero which is reliant on others’ humanization of her and El humanizing herself. It is El choosing humanity over cruelty, despite her repeated alienation. This constant theme around El, the choice of humanity over cruelty, is key to the story’s resolution. El is her most powerful when she remembers her difference as something she approaches as a gift, not a curse, and when she enacts said gift through her humanity; that is indeed her greatest strength.

Much of El’s history with the lab conditioned two things into her, which our other two main characters – Mike and Will – have internalized themselves through their own upbringings.

On one hand, with Mike, we have a reflection of an upbringing that has led them to believe through fear that having a choice, having preference, having curiosity meant sacrificing safety; self-repression and conformity meant survival.

In Will’s case, it’s associating what makes them different with wrongness, a reminder of shame rooted in past trauma that made them feel disgraced, guilty, a mistake, broken, as their abusers (Papa/Lonnie) would have them believe. It’s being aware of their difference and associating that feeling with their abuse; making their difference feel like a monstrosity.

That’s Too Many Names

Henry – 001 – Mr. Whatsit – Vecna, each moniker a representation of the internal struggle each of our three main characters – Will, El, & Mike – have to overcome in order to resolve the conflict of Stranger Things. And each moniker a suggestion of the themes that are constant throughout the show. Each representation being how our three main characters can relate to and therefore humanize Vecna.

With Henry, we have Will for all the points mentioned in Part II. Henry, who was just a kid like Will and was used and abused. Henry, who had something really traumatic happen to him as a child that ruined his innocence. Just a boy, who at twelve years old, is revisited / reminded of the shadow, and therefore comes to the brink of his humanity. Two boys, who must realize what happened to them is no fault of their own and who must be reminded of how truly loved they are. Will and Henry, two boys consumed by shame.

With 001, we have El for all the points mentioned in Part III. Another test subject abused by Papa. An authority figure to El, not unlike Papa, who builds trust with her, only to reveal it was all manipulation. Another example of a male figure using El as a means to their end. But someone that trusted her enough to disclose his own backstory and motivations with her. Someone that empathizes with her because they are both different. A conflicting dynamic and power struggle. A reflection and a constant reminder to El the delicate balancing act between monster and superhero. I would reckon 001 and, by the end, El are consumed by alienation.

With Mr. Whatsit, we have Mike for all the points mentioned in Parts I & II. A leader who has been weakened by fear so he depends on lies to delegate, hoping no one will see through his façade. Thinking that by concealing the truth, he is protecting, even saving, his group from the “evil” supernatural. Mr. Whatsit and, in the end, Mike are consumed by fear. “You can’t even protect yourself […]. You’re not going to protect anyone because you’re too afraid.” (Dialogue from The First Shadow.)

So, what does Vecna represent at the core of his character?

Vecna is a shadow, a “faded, lesser copy” of his former self; a man that lost his “magic of childhood”. A soul consumed by fear, shame, alienation, and therefore hate. Simply put, Vecna is History repeating itself; the very personification of the Cycle of Abuse; the complete loss of all innocence. He is what happens when Fear defeats Love.

And as for the eighties, can love defeat fear in this cycle?

I think Henry already foreshadows that for us in The Last Shadow: to Joyce, “What are you going to do? Rewrite the ending?”

And I think Joyce has already started to do such a thing. With her parenting of Will. In the case of Henry / Billy / Will parallels and how Will has been able to hold off the Mind Flayer for as long as he has, Joyce makes all the difference here (okay and Mike and El play a part). And Joyce of all characters, in my opinion, is the character we see most in-tune with her own “magic of childhood”; unapologetically, shamelessly, fearlessly herself, always curious, always digging deeper, always trusting herself.

We see that Billy had a mother he adored in his childhood, but he got stuck with his abusive, homophobic father. Henry’s relationship with his mother is also tainted by Virginia’s desperation to “fix” him, rather than Joyce’s approach: first and foremost, to understand her son and find the truth through communication, acceptance and empathy.

@cara-ti-amo has done truly brilliant work with her bobgate posts. The most viscerally profound to me have been the recent three-part analyses on motherhood in regards to Henry and Will. Linked here. I cried reading part 26, just beautiful and truly tragic.

The Time-Loop

There’s a lot of talk about the time-loop and when it started. I was always of the opinion that I would rather see a less literal “time-travel” plot.

As H.G. Wells likens the human mind to a time machine: “We all have our time machines, don’t we? Those that take us back are memories and those that carry us forward are dreams”. The concept is that memories anchor us to our past, and dreams propel us into our futures, acting as the psyche’s means of navigating through time.

I do feel like there is a good amount of evidence to support a more literal “time-travel” plot. But I fear it might be too much? A lot of things would have to go right for it to feel authentic and original to Stranger Things. I’ll just link to this conversation with @upsidedownlurker about the human mind x time machine interpretation. I would rather this approach and I have a feeling this would be the direction the show would actually go in terms of a “time-travel” plot.

As for the two timelines, I would say one is the bad ending that we have currently, when our characters have allowed history and the cycle of abuse to repeat. I mean, seriously, the beheading of Vecna is so disturbing and so not what Stranger Things is about.

And one is the good ending, when they break the cycle, break the “time-loop” by understanding and humanizing Vecna, just as they humanized El, hell, just as they humanized Dart, who both could be perceived and otherwise become monsters themselves.

All that being said: when does the less literal time-loop start? Well, if we’re talking about cycles of abuse and history repeating itself as Vecna represents, it would start with every new generation. The fifties would be the Baby Boomers – Henry, Joyce, Bob, Hopper, Karen, etc. – and the eighties would be Generation X – Will, Mike, El, Jonathan, Nancy, etc.

The Last Shadow would suggest Virginia and Victor, of The Silent / G.I. Generations, have as much of a part to play in cycles repeating themselves. Victor being a veteran of the war, never able to truly unpack and resolve that trauma, making him an absent, alcoholic father. And Virginia, a child of abuse herself, struggling as the main parental figure, turns to pills. And the cycle repeats, the time loops. (There’s also something really sus about Victor, but I digress.)

The first riddle of the Hunt for the Thessalhydra goes as follows: “At my heels you nip in this game we play. But cursed is the maze and lost am I. So, who’s chasing whom? Oh, who’s to say? The front is back. Hello is goodbye.”

And the thing is: it’s so easy to blame people from the past generation as the root of our problems, but it is also so easy to make the same mistakes. It is much, much harder to collectively put in the work to break cycles. It takes a lot of courage - facing fears, resolving shame - and resistance to do such a thing.

There are a number of ways to interpret Vecna (and the Upside Down) but at his core, I do believe Vecna is History and Cycles repeating themselves. What’s truly more horrifying than cycles of abuse, violence and generational trauma repeating themselves to no end?

Why else do you think Vecna makes his home in the attic of the house where his fears, trauma, and alienation consumed him? (And manifests the Abyss based on the Nevada desert when the Shadow first visited him.) There is a comfort in the refusal to face fears, unpack trauma, and resolve alienation, thus allowing the cycle to so easily repeat.

But this is where I think we misunderstand Vecna. Vecna who, I believe, would rather break the clock by any means necessary, despite the internal struggle of wanting to hold onto the comfort of the Creel House attic and everything it represents.

What to make of Vecna’s return?

In this Cosmic Love Story post, I liken Vecna to the Roman god and planet Saturn. In Roman mythology, Saturn seemingly consumed all of his children because it was prophesized one of them would overpower and overthrow him, just as he overpowered and overthrew his own father before him. What’s that about the fear of cycles repeating themselves?

I think, in this case, it’s fair to assume El is Juno and Will is Jupiter, two of Saturn’s (Vecna’s) children. But as it turns out, the mother’s deception and devotion to her children saved them from Saturn’s consumption. She tricked Saturn into only thinking he did such a thing. And it’s El’s connection to her mother (I love you, Jane) and Will’s mother Joyce that have saved the wondertwins repeatedly at this point.

The lore of Saturn consuming his children has sparked discussion by scholars and historians. The story is interpreted to be a cautionary tale around the fear of change, destructive nature of time, power and control, and the cyclical nature of violence, all themes that are ever present in Stranger Things and this particular post.

The Return of Saturn

More importantly, let me tell you about Saturn returns in astrology. Use Vecna and Saturn interchangeably to help me get the point across:

As someone who has Saturn as a ruling planet and just went through my own Saturn return, I can attest to the challenges Saturn puts you through. Saturn itself is the planet of trials and tribulations. And when there is a Saturn return, it will put you through HELL.

Saturn returns can be absolutely brutal, even devastating at times. It breaks you down and makes you face your deepest, darkest fears, shame, and insecurities until you are transformed and feel as though you have no choice but to follow your destiny. It feels like it quite literally kicks you into the place you're supposed to be if you try to resist your true path. It makes it all the more transformative and enlightening when you understand, accept, and embrace, without a shadow of a doubt, your destiny.

A Saturn return is a ~ Cosmic Coming of Age ~

What do the Duffer Brothers always say about the show? It is, above all else, a coming-of-age story. Is the coming-of-age story in the room with us? As of right now, I would say no, in fact, it remains very obviously unresolved.

Saturn’s energy in general can feel very heavy and punishing, but it rewards us with growth through perseverance and karmic retribution. By understanding Saturn in this way, it can lead to profound breakthroughs and exponential personal growth. By understanding Saturn, this is possible. And as of right now, Vecna remains largely misunderstood.

You're telling me that the gate of Hell opens up just as Saturn Vecna returns to Hawkins? The same gate that unlocks a certain fear in Mike, and uncovers a certain wound in Will opens just as Mike, Will and El are forced to make their own return?

Vecna's return, if it's anything like Saturn's, means making you face the truth about yourself ("I held up a mirror"), face your deepest, darkest fears, shame, and insecurities. Vecna's return means a coming-of-age that will have you transformed and understand, accept, embrace your true destiny. Huh, looks like Mike, Will, and El are just in time.

The amalgamation (Vecna) of Mike's fears (Mr. Whatsit), Will's shame (Henry), and El's alienation (001), the representation and the dark reflection of what it looks like to have history repeat itself returns. And his return forces our three main characters, who I am certain play the biggest part in "defeating" aka humanizing Vecna, to make their own return to face him.

Facing Vecna means facing the mirror he holds, the reflection of the consumption of fear, shame, alienation, and therefore hate. A dark revelation of the ugly truth. The ugly truth that is what our characters and the world look like if they allow history and cycles of abuse to repeat themselves once more.

What does Vecna's Return mean for the story's resolution?

Much of Henry – 001 – Mr. Whatsit – Vecna's monologues actually suggest foreshadowing of how to break the cycle and resolve the story. Because they are juxtaposed with sinister music and imagery, doesn’t mean they aren’t meant to help and guide our protagonists to their destinies.

With Vecna’s monologue to Will in 5x04, he explains why he took the children, not because they are weak as he falsely claims, but because they can re-shape the world into something beautiful. And how can they re-shape the world?

Well, Mr. Whatsit’s monologue in 5x05 tells us exactly how. Because children possess a certain power. Powers that are otherwise dormant if you don’t know they’re there or have yet to embrace them. I can only assume awakening these dormant powers means unlocking or reclaiming, you guessed it, your “magic of childhood”. Meaning understanding, accepting, and embracing everything that makes you different and realizing that is your superpower. Being completely unashamed, unafraid, and unapologetic of yourself. And when we awaken these dormant powers, the light will expel all darkness.

But by 5x08, our three protagonists seem to have entirely lost their own “magic of childhood” (literally because El dies </3). So, how do we resolve that?

Well, wouldn’t you know it, 001’s monologue to El tells us exactly how! A step-by-step guide to escape Camazotz and it's really quite simple.

“Where others saw order, I saw a straight jacket. A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made up rules. […] All while performing in a silly, terrible play day after day. I could not do that, I could not close off my mind and join in the madness, I could not pretend. Then I realized, I didn’t have to.” Step 1: Realizing what a silly, terrible play you’re in and Step 2: deciding you don’t have be. You don’t have to walk the stage, you don’t have to play the part. You can make your own rules.

Is that all there is to it then? Not quite. We’re forgetting the most important part. Breaking the cycle, meaning we’re never stuck in a terrible play again. And how do we break the cycle? We humanize Vecna by understanding him.

Just as there are three doors, I believe we have three keys in Will, El, and Mike. Three characters that have lived their own unique Henry – 001 – Mr. Whatsit – Vecna experiences and can therefore relate to, understand, and humanize him and stop this cycle for good.

Will needs to revisit his cave memory and know that his abuse is no fault of his own and that despite his shame, he is so very loved. Unpack his baggage trauma (or else he will suffocate!) and unravel possibly one of the biggest mysteries of the shows – birthdaygate. More on that in Part II and V. Henry and Will, I would suspect, share the same root of their shame.

El needs to be humanized and remember that what makes us different should not alienate us, it should, in fact, empower and, when all is said and done, it surely will unite us. She must remember she is superhero, not monster. This will allow her to reclaim her power. More on that in Part III and V. 001 and El, no doubt, share the same root of their alienation.

This humanization and empowerment relies heavily on possibly our biggest obstacle yet. It requires the one that humanized her in the first place to understand her once more.

Which requires this certain character to face his fears. Which, if I suspect a pattern here, likely shares the same root of his fears as Mr. Whatsit. More on that in Part V.

It requires this character to face the truth; understand what it is that makes him different, and understand that his own difference is his superpower too. And then, I reckon, he will be flying, indeed. You could even say he might be a Human Cannonball. But more on that, the three keys, and the vicious time-loop in Part V.

Thank you for reading!

Operation Cycle-Break parts: [one, two, three, five]

[thatgirlalt]

Operation Cycle-Break: Final Boss - Jane the girl & Eleven the alien

"All I needed was someone to open the door.”

Will: “Don’t tell the others. They wouldn’t understand.” Mike: “El would.”

Mike: “Okay, what don’t I understand?” El: “I am different.”

Fittingly broken up into four gates parts:

Who is Jane the girl?

Who is Eleven the alien?

Who is El the superhero & the magic of childhood?

008, 011 & 001

In Parts I and II, I suggested that Mike and Will started manifesting the horror and supernatural plot of the show when they first realized their feelings for each other, therefore the thing that makes them both different. Mike’s perspective, interpretation and manifestation of the supernatural stems from his fear, and Will’s stems from his shame. Fear is based in the future (future uncertainty, anticipation of danger) and more than anything, it makes you want to run away. And shame is rooted in the past (trauma that has made someone feel unworthy, guilty, wrong) and above all else, makes you want to disappear.

 They both come to this realization on that fateful November 6th, 1983 evening, thus the gate (the curiosity door) to the supernatural opens, and the events of the show begin to unravel – the thing they find so scary because it’s the thing that makes them so different. And who opens the gate? Jane, El, Eleven. Who I, like many others, have interpreted represents queerness. So, just as Mike and Will simultaneously discover a revelation of their shared feelings, and therefore their difference, their queerness, El, opens the gate.

We will dive into El as queerness, as difference being your superpower, but first, I want to talk about Jane the girl and how Jane has been conditioned to conform most of her life too. She is not much different from Mike in that regard. Mike, who’s locked himself away in a prison of conformity himself, on his own accord as he is not embracing his difference. But El has been different her whole life, and can’t change that or, better yet, “mask” it like Mike; she is locked away against her will.

Jane the Girl

Jane’s growth as an individual is distorted not just because her life in the lab was secluding her, but because it was controlling her. It’s one thing to be secluded from the world, but the lab was conditioning her, enforcing conformity through fear from the beginning.

Brenner would have her think her value was measured only on her obedience and what she could produce. If she made a mistake, she was not redirected, she was punished. Brenner, positioning himself as a Father figure, Papa, was not meant to be a comfort to her. Rather, a manipulation for Jane to believe affection and care were conditional and that condition was compliance. It equated compliance with care, meaning obedience and conformity meant survival. Solitary confinement being a consequence meant associating being alone (independent) as dangerous and a punishment.

Jane shows softness and empathy when she refuses to kill the cat, and she is subsequently punished for it. This conditions her to believe her softness, her empathy, her humanity is weakness. She has had enough and she kills the two men on their way to solitary confinement. So, what’s worse is that Brenner’s amazement at what he has just witnessed equates her horror as a breakthrough, her pain as productive, and her anger as her superpower.

This conditioning: associating anger as power and empathy as weakness, is what ingrains this Monster vs. Superhero struggle that Jane has to then navigate throughout the whole show. This dynamic is especially relevant as we consider 001 and Eleven being mirrors of each other, but more on that later.

I should mention here that much of what is ingrained in Jane from her upbringing is what our other two main characters – Mike and Will – have internalized themselves.

On one hand, with Mike, we have a reflection of an upbringing that has led them to believe through fear that having a choice, having a preference, having curiosity meant sacrificing safety; self-repression and conformity meant survival.

In Will’s case, it’s associating what makes them different with wrongness, a reminder of shame rooted in past trauma that made them feel disgraced, guilty, a mistake, broken, as their abusers (Papa/Lonnie) would have them believe. It’s being aware of their difference and associating that feeling with their abuse; making their difference feel like a monstrosity.

So, when we see this shot of Jane, seeing a reflection of herself and then screaming into the void, it's not just an indication that she is revisiting this feeling of her being a monster after she hurts Lucas. It’s also a reflection (literally) of her childhood and girlhood being stolen from her, that theft being a constant reminder of what made her the “monster” to begin with.

What makes this scene of Jane screaming into the water even more heart-breaking is it’s immediately followed by a scene with baby Holly being cared for by Karen, a nurturing mother feeding her breakfast. A life Jane will never know. This tells me that Jane’s resolution is centered in familial, especially maternal, love.  

In season three, Max and Jane build a beautiful bond around girlhood. Max allows Jane to be self-driven and independent. Better yet, Max shows her it’s not a danger to be independent, as Jane’s experience in the lab would suggest. I would reckon Max is extremely reparative and healing to Jane.

When Max and her pick comics, when they pick clothes, Jane learns she can try things, make choices, without any stakes attached. She can voice her opinion without consequence. She can say “no” without repercussion. The moments Jane shares with Max allow Jane to reclaim her autonomy and imagine her identity on her terms.

“How do I know what I like?” is really one of the most impactful lines we hear from Jane, as it gives us a lot of insight into her character in relation to her girlhood, and her relationships with others. It dismantles any M11 argument for me completely. @massy2ly has a great post elaborating on this here.

The show needed Max so badly, they needed Jane to have a peer, and they built this relationship beautifully in s3.

What’s more, Max introduces Jane to Wonder Woman. Jane is her own Wonder Woman; a reminder that she can have power and strength in femininity without apology. It’s Wonder Woman choosing to protect just because she has the power to. It’s humanity without weakness (a comparison the lab so desperately tried to ingrain the opposite in our Jane). It is a reminder to Jane that she can be strong and soft; that the love she gives and receives humanizes and empowers her.

This arc is one that should stick with Jane for the rest of the show, but like in reality and any good fiction, there are always obstacles, it is always a struggle to choose between Monster vs. Superhero.

Something can be said about El losing her powers in s3, when Mike and Will’s paladin-cleric oath has been broken, and Will destroys Castle Byers (“magic of childhood”). Later, Vecna claims he stole them from her so he could open his own gates, but I digress.

In the subsequent season, Jane is bullied for being different, again equating what should be her superpower as something that reminds her of her abuse and makes her feel, yet again, like a monster. Once again, Jane is empowered by revisiting her memories, and confirming that she was never the monster, even coming to the realization that Brenner is the real monster (Agreed!). She tries to use her superpower of empathy despite adversity, to get through to Vecna. Vecna who then only reinforces her greatest fear. That Brenner did not make him this way; she did and that she is as much of a monster as he is. What’s that about El being queerness? (Put a pin in that).

And, finally, the slop that is her story in s5 and really, truly, one of the biggest reasons I can’t get behind that being the real ending, because, seriously, what the hell kind of messaging is her resolution? There is no resolution for our main characters (Jane, Mike and Will) and that is the whole point. By dismantling their respective arcs in the “villains win” ending, it is all the more confirmation that they are the three biggest players in “defeating” Vecna, but more on that later.

Jane gives into the Mind Flayer (as Kali) and agrees that the world will be better, restored to order, without her in it, because she will always be a monstrosity. Yeah, I’m not buying it. But since we’re on the topic of Jane giving into the monstrosity propaganda, it’s a good segway into the next section.

Eleven the Alien

The name itself, is the dehumanization of El. It is a version of El that is the most at risk of being consumed by alienation and giving into the mentality that she is a monster. But allow me to explore Eleven the Alien just for a moment because I do wonder if much of season two is trying to suggest to us that she was immaculately conceived from “A Love Supreme” as @cara-ti-amo theorizes in bobgate.

Early on in s2, El asks, “Do I have a mother?” to which Hop replies, “Of course you have a mother, you couldn’t really be born without one.” And the fact that Terry Ives brings El and Kali together raises suspicion, Kali who is the avatar of the Mind Flayer.

What’s more is that when El leaves the cabin and ends up in the backyard of a mother and daughter, the mother asks her, “Where are your parents?” and El turns her attention to the swing set behind them and uses her powers to make the swings move. That’s an interesting connection to another Love Supreme, Mike and Will.

And what’s really interesting is Dart and El share much of the same storyline. Allow me to elaborate. Dart is discovered by one of the party members and instead of being scared of it for being different, Dustin decides to take it into his care. Dustin promises to take care of him and Dart begins trusting Dustin. They form a bond, while the other party members think they should turn him into the authorities. Dustin says if they turn him into the authorities, he’s as good as dead. Dart oddly enough, really likes candy, just like we know El loves her sweets!

Okay, how about this: when El leaves the cabin for the first time, in the very next scene, we see Dart grow legs. Dart is the reason Dustin breaks the rule of law, like Mike in s1. Dustin says, Dart “missed him. He wanted to come home.” And, “I’m sorry about Dart. I guess I just thought he was my friend. I broke the rule of law so Max can take my spot in the party if you want to banish me.” But indeed, Dart ends up saving the party as they escape the tunnels, even sacrificing himself in doing so.

Dustin is immediately fascinated by him, as he is with El in s1. Funnily enough, Mike wants to kill it even though Dart takes an affinity to him. Which is just funny if you consider the Dart (who represents homosexuality) of it all. Lol. Okay, let me be so serious.

With that being said, I don’t think El is literally Dart. Rather, Dart is an example of an alienated being, someone that could easily be perceived as a monster, easily become a monster, but is humanized by a member of a certain party. I can’t help but think this is also meant to be a commentary on the Nature vs. Nurture debate. The debate which asks if human behaviour is determined by genetics or environment and experiences. If we take that into consideration when analyzing Stranger Things, it’s a matter of interpreting creatures from the Upside Down and El as monsters or not. Dart and El could surely share the same DNA, no? Henry’s DNA was altered by the Mind Flayer and passed down to El. Dart would likely share that DNA given he’s from the Mind Flayer’s world.

Of course, we know El is not a monster, and even Dart, who is much scarier at surface value, proves to be not a mindless, soulless monster himself. So, we know just because they have this DNA, that does not make them inherently evil. Just as I don’t think anyone is truly inherently evil, that is dependent on your experiences and what you make of them. And that got me thinking, I wonder if that could at all be foreshadowing a redemption arc for Vecna, which this whole Cycle-Break series centers around. It really is a matter of humanizing Vecna to break “the time-loop”, break the cycle of abuse, violence, and hatred. Is he too far gone? Is he doomed to be monster forever or can he be superhero?

El the Superhero & the Magic of Childhood

I have to re-iterate that El loses her powers shortly after Will destroys Castle Byers, symbolic of his “magic of childhood”. When Will destroys Castle Byers, he is, to a degree, destroying himself. Mike destroys his blanket fort, where El (“magic of childhood”) lived, when he thinks he has lost El. The track Castle Byers plays as El loses Mike in the void in s2, while he is in his reconstructed blanket fort. I surely hope there is a scene in new content where they rebuild Castle Byers, that would be quite beautiful to see. But moving on.

I’ve seen some people are dismissive or uncomfortable with El being a “concept”. But as you can see in my breakdown above there is also the story of Jane the Girl; a complex story of girlhood, discovering and reclaiming autonomy and identity. El the Superhero does not diminish or take away from Jane the Girl. They honestly go hand in hand. Jane the Girl and El the Superhero can exist in the same context and, in fact, they coexist beautifully.

I believe this interpretation of El originated, or at least was popularized here. I have my own breakdown of that interpretation here and here. And I’ve seen @vecnapilled is doing their own breakdown here.

I’ve seen people say it is reductive to her character and I honestly don’t see how that argument stands. When, in fact, it actually adds so much depth to this already incredibly well written character and story. It reinforces why El is the superhero because of her difference. Why the name itself, El, means “God” and why El gets this Jesus imagery (see 4x09), because El is the show’s savior. Why? Because El the Superhero and Jane the Girl do coexist, and better yet, they empower each other.

El is the “magic of childhood”, the representation of absolute self-love and self-acceptance, the pure innocence of all forms of love and acceptance, and the fearlessness and shamelessness that comes with accepting and being yourself completely. That includes accepting and loving “every part of yourself”, meaning embracing what makes you different, your queerness.

It’s Jane choosing compassion and humanity time and time again. It’s Jane herself proving time and time again that her difference does not make her a monster, in fact, it’s her superpower. It’s Jane being different, and being accepted, embraced, and understood by everyone in the party. It is all love and no fear.

Is there really anything more pure and powerful than the fearlessness and utter joy of people being unapologetically themselves, loving every part of themselves and embracing everything that is different, before they are exposed to the fear and hate in the world? That is the magic of childhood.

It’s established in the very first episode that being different is what makes you special. What makes you different is your superpower. Mike: “I think it’s cool. It’s like you have superpowers or something. Like Mr. Fantastic!” Dustin: “Yeah, except I can’t fight evil with it.” Oh, I reckon you can, Dustin.

And this is the best part, when El is humanized, meaning when she is accepted and embraced by every member of the party (I’m looking at you, Mike), when they see that difference does not equate monstrosity, when Vecna too can be humanized, they will all be set free, that includes El. And what do you reckon will happen when El becomes accepted, embraced and humanized by everyone? She is not only at her full power, but, when all is said and done, she is free to be Jane the Girl!

008, 011 and 001

The Lost Sister is really an episode all about breaking the cycles of violence, which I do believe the resolution of the whole show will come down to as well. Kali forces a sentiment onto El that is with her the entire show, really. “We will always be monsters to them. Do you understand that, Jane?”

Kali also suggests that pain (“she’s in pain. She needs this.”) and anger should be the source of her power. That those feelings make her the most powerful, the same sentiment Brenner has after El kills the two men in the lab: her horror is a breakthrough, her pain is productive, and her anger is her superpower. We see that it can be a great source of power, indeed, as she moves the freight and closes the gate, but it is not her greatest source ("I love you, Jane.").

At the same time, Kali does make a point to tell Jane, “What you can do is incredible. It makes you very special, Jane,” and “our gifts don’t have to be scary. They can be magic.”

Yet, Kali operates with a similar mentality to that of 001, as in she mostly wants revenge and is motivated by anger, which only perpetuates the cycle of violence we are hoping to break. “I kept my anger inside. I tried to hide from it. Until I finally confronted the pain, I began to heal.” And I do sympathize with Kali, as in I think she does believe she is healing from enacting her revenge. “You hurt the bad men?” “Because they hurt us.”

“Let us heal our wounds together.” I think Kali is sincere when she says this and that’s why she is especially hurt when El rejects her. El, the missing piece that has made Kali feel complete, returning to her “father”, who Kali no doubt associates with their abuser, Papa, to some degree. @cara-ti-amo puts it really well in this post. I think Kali does think she can heal El, but El, at her core, doesn’t operate from a place of revenge (most of the time).

To “heal” their “wounds together” implies using El’s powers as a weapon, as a means for revenge, which just reinforces that El’s powers are innately destructive, meant to hurt, monstrous. Which is exactly the opposite sentiments El has been trying to prove to herself. Kali claims she is healed and can heal El as well, yet she literally puts a wall up to run away at the end of the episode, resulting in El’s rejection.

In The Lost Sister, they make a point to show El objecting to revenge and the cycles of violence. When they go on a mission to kill one of the men from the lab, she is hurting the man and then sees a photo of his two daughters. To kill the man would mean ruining two innocent young girls’ childhoods just as El’s and Kali’s childhoods were taken away from them. It’s a stark revelation for El; that violence only leads to more violence. It reminds her of her humanity; it reminds her that she doesn’t want to be the monster.

And, again, at the very end when they are running away and having a shoot-out with the cops. El is likely thinking to herself, what is the point in all this? It only hurts all parties involved and surely makes everyone angrier. You can’t fight fire with fire, but you can fight fire with love (which is water = emotional vulnerability, and truth).

In that moment, El is reminded of the party back in Hawkins, the party that needs her, the party that was the first to originally humanize her. This humanization the party allowed her, the first of its kind to a young, traumatized, alienated El, surely manifested a feeling that her approach to her difference, leading with her own humanity, is indeed, her greatest superpower. And that makes all the difference.

In Part II, I suggested the following:

Mike becomes Mr. Whatsit, a phony leader motivated by lies, consumed by fear. Will becomes Henry, a boy consumed by shame from his trauma, on the brink of his humanity, thus allowing the shadow to corrupt him. Vecna is a dark reflection of the Town of Hawkins (more on that in Part IV). And El becomes 001, thinking she will never be more than a lab rat, a monster because of her difference, a constant reminder the delicate balancing act of Monster vs. Superhero; consumed by alienation. But, as we know, this is surely the bad ending!

So what does that mean for the good ending and for El and 001?

I reckon it means, El remembering and re-confirming to herself that she was "never the monster", that leading with her humanity is her greatest superpower. And just as the party had humanized El, just as it had humanized Dart, two “aliens” who could otherwise be perceived as, could otherwise become monsters like Vecna, to defeat him means to humanize him.

But just as Vecna is still perceived as a monster, the last reliable interaction between Mike and El suggests that she still believes Mike thinks “she’s a monster, too.” Again, it comes down to Mike (fork found in kitchen) coming around to truly understand, accept and embrace El, that is El the Superhero and, better yet, Jane the Girl, not the monster. Which means coming to understand, accept, and embrace his difference. But more on that in Part V.

Thank you for reading!

Operation Cycle-Break parts: [one, two, four, five]

[thatgirlalt]

Operation Cycle-Break: Final Boss Will - shame & birthdaygate

Mike: “I guess it’s up to us again.” Will: “It always is, isn’t it?”

Indeed, it will all come down to the resolution of Byler, that includes El, and here’s why.

Fittingly broken up into four gates parts:

What is the Upside Down and Vecna to Mike?

What is the Upside Down and Vecna to Will?

Why so Many Names?

What is the Upside Down and Vecna to the Town of Hawkins?

CW: this post will allude to CSA and CA implied within ST. Please read with care <3

To start: oh, I can’t believe how blind I have been. birthdaygate has taken even me victim, just as Will would have wanted, to be honest.

For the better part of the last week, I’ve done a lot of reading of theories and analyses. I read through all of bobgate (@cara-ti-amo your mind is truly nothing short of brilliant!) and I read quite a few posts regarding Will’s trauma (here and here). Of course, as we know, Will is taken to this horror dimension and pursued by monsters, that is trauma enough for a twelve-year-old boy.

But just as I suggested in Part I, that the manifestation of the horror and supernatural plot coming from Mike, the same can be said for Will. What is the Upside Down and the monsters that come from it a manifestation of if not Will’s shame rooted in his childhood trauma? The thing about shame is, unlike fear, it’s rooted in the past (put a pin in that).

When Will and Mike share a look on that one fateful November 6, 1983 evening, I think they both had a certain revelation about their feelings for each other being different and that’s what sets off the events of the entire show. I already talked about Mike’s side, but Will plays an equal part in unraveling and resolving the plot and, better yet, the story of Stranger Things.

What is the Upside Down and Vecna to Mike?

In Part I, I talk about how there is something that goes unspoken between Mike and Will in their first scene together. They are given a close moment by themselves, aside from the rest of the party. While Lucas tells Will to lie to Mike about the roll because it’s just a game, and Dustin is preoccupied offering Nancy the last slice of pizza, Mike and Will’s first scene together stands out as a unique connection between these two boys specifically.

Will honours the cardinal rule of their friendship, friends don’t lie, and the two boys share a look, setting off the electricity in Mike’s garage. And as Steve would put it a season later, electricity is synonymous with romantic chemistry, attraction and/or a deep connection. I’m certain this exchange suggests Mike realizing, in that moment that Will honours their cardinal rule even when it’s something as trivial as a roll of a D20 dice, that his relationship with Will is different. Hence, the electricity surging. I didn’t, however, consider that this was the exact moment Will realized the same thing.

In Mike’s case, he doesn’t understand the meaning of his feelings just yet, only that they are different and that fact alone scares him. Thus, an abstract supernatural phenomenon and a faceless monster manifest. And as Mike’s feelings for Will become more realized, the supernatural reveals more of its depth and lore, eventually putting a personified (and one day humanized?) face to it all – Vecna.

To avoid repetition, I do suggest reading Part I to understand how the supernatural unravels in tandem with Mike’s feelings, and therefore his fears, becoming more realized with every season.

Vecna and Mike

As much as Henry/Vecna is a mirror character for Will, I think he is nearly as much of a mirror character for Mike. Allow me to elaborate.

Henry’s last name itself, Creel, means “weaver” or “weaving”. As in, spiders and spiderwebs? I would imagine, yes. How about as in, story weaving? As in, we have a Story Weaver (Henry) and a Story Teller (Mike)? Okay, I’ll be so normal about this.

Story-weaving: “the art of intricately connecting multiple narrative threads, characters, and themes into a cohesive, rich, and layered tapestry”. Not much different from Story-telling: “the interactive age-old art of using narratives, comprising plot, characters, and emotion, to share experiences, entertain, and convey values”.

A weaver is also a small bird, known for constructing elaborate nests. A bird you say? @walkablepurse50, what’s that about queer subtext of flying? Put a pin in that. In Part VI, we are flying, indeed.

@newgipestel also pointed out to me that a weaver, the wheeled device to spin textiles, spindle is what puts Sleeping Beauty into eternal slumber. And we have this imagery in Mike’s basement, the couch and garbage bin. I said oh, I’m sure!

And while we’re on the topic of name etymology, let’s talk about Mike Wheeler himself. A wheeler, as you can imagine, is a wheel-maker and repairer. No, Mike, we are trying to break the wheel, I repeat, we are trying to break the wheel. More on breaking the wheel in Part IV and V.

All that being said, I think the show has evidence to suggest that Henry/Vecna is not only a reflection of Will, but of Mike, too. In Part IV, I’ll talk more about what Vecna represents at his core. Mike ending up a conformed shell of his former self - a reflection of the depression that comes with repression - by the epilogue, is more or less him becoming another Vecna, less evilly depicted obviously but, in my opinion, just as unsettling.

What I can’t get past is Mr. Whatsit and Mike Wheeler having the same initials. Mike ending up with a nearly identical appearance to that of Mr. Whatsit; Mr. Whatsit and Mike having the same leg limp. And Mr. Whatsit sat at the head of the table like Ted who, up until this point, Mike is seemingly abhorrent and critical of all throughout the show.

I can’t shake this feeling that Mr. Whatsit is a split in Henry’s being that is meant to mostly reflect Mike. Besides the parallels mentioned above, Mr. Whatsit and Mike, whether it’s obvious or not, whether our characters like it or not, are controlling the narrative of s5. More on Mike the Storyteller in s5 here.

Holly says Mr. Whatsit was trying to protect her and the other kids from the monsters in Hawkins that go after kids like her. For that reason, I believe Mr. Whatsit is convinced he is operating with good intentions, just as Mike does, when they have both trapped their respective parties in the worlds that they have built on lies. Mr. Whatsit and Mike both believe that, by trapping their parties in their worlds built on lies, they are protecting and saving them from the scary truth. But they are both motivated, consumed even, by fear.

What is the Upside Down and Vecna to Will?

So, from Mike’s perspective and how he affects the supernatural plot, we talked a lot about fear. The thing about fear, is that it’s undetermined anxiety of what is unknown. Fear is rooted in future uncertainty, the anticipation of danger, whether real or imagined. Fear makes you want to not change, not grow, not take risks, and more than anything, it makes you want to run away. This sounds like our Mike.

Unlike shame; which upon reading so many analyses on Will recently, makes all the difference in Will’s perspective, interpretation, and manifestation of the supernatural plot. You see, shame is rooted in past trauma, that has made someone feel disgraced, guilty and unworthy. Shame makes you want to withdraw, to hide, to disappear, to forget and to be forgotten. This sounds like our Will. :(

So, when Will also has a revelation about Mike and his relationship on November 6, 1983, it’s not an unknown fear of the uncertain like the one that starts brooding in Mike, that then manifests itself in the supernatural. Rather, in Will’s case, it’s a reminder of his shame.

When Will first suspects his feelings for Mike are different, it triggers this feeling that Will is a mistake, broken, and wrong, as his abuser Lonnie would have him believe. When Will realizes something is different, becoming aware of his queerness, he associates that feeling with Lonnie’s abuse. It’s a complicated, delicate and vicious realization for Will. He associates his queerness with his trauma, and because of that he equates his queerness as wrongness. With this realization of his feelings and therefore a reminder of his trauma, Will’s shame starts to manifest. And what did we say about shame? It makes you want to disappear.

As much can be analyzed about the implications of Mike’s jumping off the quarry cliff being a reflection of his mental after realizing his feelings for Will and then losing him, among other things, a lot can be said about Will’s mental in a similar context. But remember, Mike’s is rooted in fear of the future, and Will’s is rooted in shame from the past.

For Mike, I’ll reiterate, it’s a reflection of his fears; the crippling uncertainty of what it means to have such feelings for his best friend (and no doubt being bullied his whole life plays a part in it) and the anticipation of the worst-case scenario - losing said best friend, the one person who seems to best understand and see Mike truly for who he is. But otherwise, Mike is the most privileged, seemingly the most “normal” and from the most conservative family of his friends which makes his repression all the more reasonable. We often see Mike depicting the responses to fear. Fight – fighting with Lucas in s1, challenging the bullies, his crash-out to Hopper in 2x09 all come to mind. Flight – run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away, need I say more? And Fawn – eventually yielding and conforming by s5.

Whereas, Will, we know is prone to the responses of shame: shrinking and downplaying himself, hiding and withdrawing. And in s1, it’s less literal than Mike’s jumping off of a cliff. But if I’m correct in that Will realizing his feelings for Mike in their first scene together reminds him of his shame, then that realization makes him want to disappear. You can hopefully see where I’m getting at here. The song that plays when Will is “brought back to life” is a song centered in isolation and depression, wanting to escape the world and finding peace in doing so. It’s lyrics “I don’t want to swim forever” playing as the conclusion of s1 hangs in the air, Will may or may not come back. He does come back, as we know, thanks mostly to his mother, and I’ll say it again, I think Joyce makes all the difference here (and, yes, surely Mike and El play a part).

I believe Will’s shame will be revealed in more detail in new content and it does pertain to Lonnie, who we know had a history of abuse, making Will feel inadequate, unworthy, guilty, a mistake, wrong, broken. In Will's case, Vecna is a reflection of Lonnie's abuse.

Lonnie’s actor was featured in a table read video for s4, and I’ve heard (although I’ve not seen it myself) that Noah said Lonnie will have a big influence on Will’s storyline in s5 during press (if anyone has a reference to that, please share so I can link!)

With that being said, Henry, who at twelve when we meet him for the first time, becomes corrupted by the Shadow, the same shadow that first visited him on/around his 8th birthday. Surely, you may know where I’m getting at here. As in, I think we will get some revelations of both Henry and Will’s backstories, specifically revisiting birthdays. I think something really traumatic happened to both of them on their respective 8th birthdays (the real first shadow).

“It wasn’t you. You were just a kid, a kid like me, and it used you.” Will to Henry in 5x08.

 I believe Will has these particular memories blocked out, just as Henry can’t face the truth of his own cave memory, just as there is a wall up in the Upside Down, and hence the Nina Project plotline about repressed trauma. Just as Mike is not fully aware of what his feelings mean, Will doesn’t know why exactly he associates his feelings with shame. Thus, both of the boys’ respective interpretations of the supernatural plot is very abstract and faceless in the beginning, but unravels more with the series’ progression.

I fear this is the real birthdaygate, and why Will would rather forget his birthday, and sadly, to some extent, his existence altogether. The supernatural unravelment, and that includes birthdaygate, manifests from Will’s shame too. That’s why he is so evidently side-lined in the finale, when Will is one of the biggest players in “defeating” Vecna and the supernatural. Why Will is replaced by Max in the DnD finale shot, why he disappears from scenes in the credits. I believe it’s Will that is actively erasing himself because he has become consumed by shame, the feeling that makes you want to disappear, forget and be forgotten.

That’s Too Many Names

I think part of the reason Henry – 001 – Vecna – Mr. Whatsit has so many names to begin with is each one is a different split of the same being. And each split a reflection of a different character(s) and how they perceive him. (As well as the HIV initials).

With Mr. Whatsit, we have Mike for all the points mentioned in section I. A leader who has been weakened by fear so he depends on lies to delegate, hoping no one will see through his façade. Thinking that by concealing the truth, he is protecting, even saving, his group from the “evil” supernatural. Mr. Whatsit and, in the end, Mike are consumed by fear.

With Henry, we have Will for all the points mentioned in section II. Henry, who was just a kid like Will and was used and abused. Henry, who had something really traumatic happen to him as a child that ruined his innocence. Just a boy, who at twelve years old, is revisited / reminded of the shadow, and therefore comes to the brink of his humanity. Will and Henry, two boys consumed by shame.

With 001, we have El. Another test subject abused by Papa. An authority figure to El, not unlike Papa, who builds trust with her, only to reveal it was all a manipulation tactic. Another example of a male figure using El as a means to their end. But someone that trusted her enough to disclose his own backstory and motivations with her. Someone that empathizes with her because they are both different. A conflicting dynamic and power struggle. A reflection and a constant reminder to El the delicate balancing act between monster and superhero. If I suspect a pattern here, I would reckon 001 and, by the end, El are consumed by alienation.

I will have a whole post about El the "alien" coming out at some point. It's here.

So, we have Mike the Storyteller, the unreliable leader as Mr. Whatsit, overcome by fear; Will, the visionary, the artist, the Builder as Henry, overcome by shame; and El, the monster and the superhero as 001, the one who opens the door, overcome by alienation.  

And finally, with Vecna, we have the Town of Hawkins.

The Town of Hawkins – On the Outside Looking In

The Town of Hawkins at large does not and refuses to understand Vecna’s presence and the supernatural as a whole. It is a town consumed by ignorance, and in some cases, consumed by hate. Surely, there are a select few who try to understand it (the party) because it is more or less affecting them. But otherwise, Hawkins is careless, disregarding, ignorant, and hateful of it all.

I do suggest reading this post to understand how the general public and people in power’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic unravels similarly to the supernatural plot of Stranger Things. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest we should interpret it as such; the plot suspiciously follows that of the exponential progression of HIV/AIDS crisis from 1983-1986 (s1-s4) and how the Town of Hawkins' response to Henry – 001 – Vecna is reflective of that.

It’s not until s4, when there is a face to the supernatural, a story-weaver of its lore, that the Town has no choice but to face it and then vilify it immediately, which fair enough, it is killing teenagers.

But here’s the thing about the teenagers that are cursed by Vecna: they are all similar to Mike in that they are all running away from their “problems” and in some cases, are dealing with the complexities of Survivor’s guilt, which is a recurring feeling for Mike. And they are all (but Fred?) similar to Will, in that they all feel deep shame that’s rooted in child abuse. They are all traumatized characters that are pretending not to be, and Vecna is the monster that holds up a mirror to them.

Again, I think that Vecna thinks he is saving them, although in a very horrific and disturbing way, by holding up a mirror to them. And better yet, with his plans in s4, Vecna is bringing the horror of the Upside Down to the surface, making the Town see, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the awful, ugly truth that is the reflection of their misunderstanding, ignorance, and hate.

Vecna is a reflection of what this Town hates, a dark revelation. As his monikers’ initials would suggest, Vecna is the monstrosity of HIV (the demonization of gay men), which causes mass hysteria and what reinforces the ostracization of gay people in the eighties. El is the monster of “being different” (queerness), locked away from Hawkins for almost the whole show, but what is saving the town repeatedly, in every season, from behind the curtain. Mike and Will are two boys navigating what it is that makes them “different”, one responding from fear and running away, and one responding from shame, wanting to disappear.

Take Nancy, ever the investigator, as the representative of the Town of Hawkins here:

“I see you’ve been looking for me, Nancy. You were so close, so close to the truth.”

And what is the truth, and therefore the resolution? It will take more than El and more than Will to “defeat” Vecna; they are not the ones who originally vilified him so. Again, I think it comes down to Mike returning to Hawkins, re-assuming his role as leader and heart of the party, a real leader. Mike will become the representative of the Town, like Nancy the season prior.

More importantly, Mike facing his fears to see the truth, and that the truth is not what Hawkins has made it out to be: a truth that is still scary to face if you’re Mike, yes, but not monstrous. (Will and El have their own truths to face too, which will complete the puzzle.)

It’s only then that all three: El, Will, and Mike can “defeat” Vecna.

It will take a lot to humanize him, because not only do we have to overcome alienation, shame, fear, but we have to have understanding to overcome hate and break the cycle. And to have understanding, we have to find a missing piece of the puzzle, a big one. And, only then will we have the truth. But more on that in the next installments.

As always, thank you for reading!

Operation Cycle-Break parts: [one, three, four, five]