Remember how Robin said she wanted to double her audience? Walk with me here.
CONTEXT
ORDER OF EVENTS: Part 1 (Mike the storyteller), Part 3 (12 Episodes), Part 4 (MWTFDYD), Part 9 (Wheeler attack -> Mike's kidnapping), Part 11 (Mr Whatsit = Will)
SCENE ANALYSIS: Part 2 (Will/Robin), Part 5 (Rainbows), Part 6 (The roof talk), Part 7 ("Where's Dustin right now?"), Part 8 (El is missing), Part 10 (Byler's missed date), Part 12 (Byler saw Rovickie kiss), Part 13 (Will's painting)
My conformitygate theory is that Mike is stuck in his own version of Camazotz (the Rightside Up).
After Season 4, the gang prepared for a big battle with Vecna. Mike was kidnapped during that battle, on the anniversary of Will's disappearance: November 6th 1986.
Every important plot point from Ep 1-8 was an edited version of Mike’s memories from that timeframe. Vecna just changed the order, characters or context to suit his own narrative and keep Mike trapped in the Rightside Up, believing he'd won.
Episodes 1-8 were an illusion, but they were real, too. We will flash back to what really happened in Episode 9. The resulting plot will be a reverse of the current episode descriptions; a reordered, recontextualised version of the same story – where Mike's escape from the Rightside Up is crucial.
Now, let’s talk about Robin and Will.
ROCKIN' ROBIN AND HER AUDIENCE
During preparation for the November 6th battle, Robin and Will had the talk from Shock Jock, where they both inspired each other to come out. Will wanted to start small, and Robin wanted to go BIG AS HELL.
Remember how she said she wanted to double her audience? Well, she quadrupled it – there were 12 people there! Nice one, Robin!
Now, the first time I heard Will’s speech, it sounded a little odd to me. Not necessarily bad, but like it was written for a different character. He kept rambling on and on about stuff that really didn't matter. Will does not do that. He is KNOWN for being "always quiet", so quiet that only Mike notices when he's more quiet than usual.
But you know who is FAMOUS for rambling? So much so that her current job is to talk, talk, talk? ROCKIN' ROBIN!
Right before the big November 6th battle, she got everyone together. Sure, it was slightly inconvenient timing… but it makes sense for Robin, who is impulsive and doesn’t do social cues.
Oh yeah, and it’s the end of the world – cut her some slack! :P
That one, random snack scene from Shock Jock happens right before this one, which is why she rambles about Pop Rocks or whatever. Then, instead of saying “I don’t like girls”, she says “I like girls”. Instead of “he was just my Tammy”, Robin explains her Tammy story – exactly how she explained it to Will in The Turnbow Trap. Robin gets her audience, Will gets his moment with Rockin’ Robin (haha), and her words are still what inspire him to unlock his powers before Mike's disappearance.
COPY + PASTE: VECNA'S INFLUENCE
Vecna took Robin’s scene, slapped Will onto it, and assumed Mike wouldn’t notice.
That’s why he was wearing orange, rambled on for so long, didn’t say “gay”, mentioned "Tammy", mentioned “Melvald’s milkshakes”, and was in such clear distress. Vecna had to edit way too much to make Robin's scene work for Will. He got sloppy, and the scene got weird. He left too much of his influence on it.
WILL'S REAL COMING OUT
The Duffers said they ORIGINALLY wrote Will’s scene as more intimate, with just Joyce and Mike, but it wasn’t clicking, so they rewrote it.
THIS IS WHY.
Vecna needed to do this because Will’s actual coming out scene simply wouldn’t fit his narrative. It couldn’t happen the way it really happened, because it would show Mike that he's important to Will. :(
So… how did it happen? Well, that’s something we haven’t seen yet, because Vecna cut it out of his narrative. What we have seen is Mike’s reaction – during his talks with Will on the tower and the field.
I imagine Joyce was supportive as hell, while Mike was visibly shocked. Joyce might’ve left them alone to talk in private after showing her support. This is when the tower scene actually happened.
Mike: Hey, um… I’m sorry. I mean, not sorry about what you said. That came out wrong. I mean, not ‘came out’ wrong! Jesus Christ!
[...]
Will: Blah blah blah, what matters is that you still think we can be friends.
Mike: Friends? No thanks…
Will: 😨😨😨
Mike: Best friends.
Will: Ugh, Mike! Don’t do that! You scared me.
Will does the little punch from the field.
Mike: Sorry…
Unlike the field scene, Mike doesn’t leave. He hugs him!
This means Mike’s “came out wrong” line is actually the sickest pun EVER, because it references the fact that Will literally came out WRONG in Episode 7 – it wasn’t Will.
It also explains why those scenes on the field/tower were so flirty. I mean, seriously. When Mike gives Will water on the tower, he says, “You want some?” which is an innuendo. WHY DID THEY WRITE THAT??? LMAOOOO??? Anyway, all I’m saying is, there’s a reason people called it the buzziest rejection scene ever.
Despite being framed as a rejection by Vecna’s illusory narrative, Mike and Will’s love manages to break free and show us the truth.
ROBIN'S FEARS
Now, let’s get back to Robin for a moment.
In the coming out scene, "Will" talks about being afraid of everyone drifting away from him. This could apply to him, but it actually makes much more sense for Robin.
With her mother being so unsupportive and mean, she NEEDS her friends for support. Of course she'd afraid of them drifting away from her! Without them, she doesn’t have anyone else. This would also give Robin’s offhand comments about her mother a narrative purpose. It would deepen her character.
It’s possible that she came out entirely because she wanted to, but it’s also possible that there's another reason she brought it up so suddenly: Before the big battle, Vecna wasn't silent. He had been terrorising her (and others) with their greatest fears.
This also means that whatever Vecna showed Will after Shock Jock was different than he said. That’s why it was never shown onscreen. It would have spoiled the “real” episodes.
BUT WHY?
To keep Mike trapped in the Rightside Up.
Vecna needed Mike to believe that everyone had won, to BELIEVE that he got the happiest ending he could, and most importantly: to believe that ending up with Will would never be an option for him. Mike still doesn't know Will loves him. Will wants to be "friends."
You know how Will's leaking can of coke represents his bottled-up feelings for Mike? Well, the coke bottles in the epilogue are all EMPTY. Will's feelings for Mike have been totally removed. :(
See the empty cans?
Why specifically edit out Will's love for Mike, though? Well, because Will was able to fight his possession with help from Mike. Max was able to escape Vecna's mind the first time with help from Lucas – and presumably the second time, too. This is why Vecna did whatever he could to stamp out Mike and Will's love from the narrative. They make each other more powerful. Love beats fear.
This way, Mike never seeks escape, because he doesn't know escape is an option. Moreover, he doesn't want to leave; Vecna gave him even MORE survivor's guilt over Eleven's death as a bonus.
Hopper only gives Mike two roads; blame himself, or accept his fate.
I know it’s unrealistic. So unrealistic, but I wholeheartedly believe that we will get episode 9 on January 7th. There’s just too many clues and inconsistencies for this to just be.. this.
I come in peace, but it is incredibly important that you all know this information.
let me ask you simply, do you know what the word “comform” means? Are you sure? Here’s the dictionary definition:
Comformity gate was built off of the idea that Micheal Wheeler is stuck in a mindscape of his own or Henry’s and is living out a false reality whilst CONFORMING to HETERONORMATIVE society.
I completely understand that the theory has gone mainstream. I am glad that it has gained so much traction. What infuriates me is that everyone in the GA is straight washing this theory that has its roots in the queer community. That is unacceptable and incredibly disrespectful. That’s like if Will came out to that entire room full of people and then they spat on him. Honestly, if you didn’t know that it was originally (and still technically is) a byler fan theory, that’s totally okay. Ignorance is something that exists and you can’t necessarily blame anyone for being ignorant, per say. HOWEVER, the people who do know where this theory originated from and choose to contort it anyway need to either shut the fuck up or grow the fuck up. Gay people exist, a lot of us are goddamn smart, and we deserve as much recognition and respect as any other group of people.
Thank you for tuning in.
Glad you finally hopped onboard.
if documentarygate is true, I like to think there’s a scene where everybody starts referring to Finn as Mike and he’s like “no, I’m Finn” and everybody just stares at him for a second and goes “yeah, yeah, sorry. We knew that.” And it’s more people only seeing him as Mike, referring to each other by character names, leaving X’s around pieces of evidence, and he looks in the mirror and realises that he is Mike Wheeler and everything around him is fake. He closes his eyes and when he opens them, he’s back at Hawkins. And everything is wrong. But there’s signs, messages, and doorways with yellow on them. Will is trying to get him out, but Mike is stuck and he doesn’t know how to get out
Transcription of the ST S4 Inspiration Whiteboard to make it more readable. I tried to keep everything in a similar vicinity to where it is on the whiteboard, but towards the center I just started squishing things in where they fit. Also, I might have made some mistakes with the color-coding.
Red Text = crossed out on the board
??? = I couldn't read the text
Title(?) = I could read some of the text and made an educated guess of what the title could be, but I could be wrong
2 = the title was on the board twice
Ocean's 11+12 are written together on the board, Ocean's 8 is written separately
LOTR Trilogy is on the board, but LOTR Two Towers is also written on the board separately.
Have fun with this conformitygate theorists!
EDITS:
thank you @warren-j for identifying one of the ??? as "The Cider House Rules" and "Star Wars: Jedi/Empire"
the transcription has been updated to fix a few of the titles I got wrong!
below is the titles I couldn't make out. I'm 90% sure that the top left is "Final Destination" (which I did put on the transcription), I think middle right could be "Skyfall", and middle left the top line looks like it could be "F+F Tokyo Drift" (aka: "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift") but I can't read the second line.
okay but fakefinalegate WOOOULD explain a lot of things the actors and creators and writers have all said leading up to now. aaand it would explain finn carrying a lot of emotional weight and it would explain finn and noah started recording way before everyone else it would explain a lot
