#kali 008

[actuallyathena05]

The Lab would forget her,

Jane barely knew her,

Hopper and the Party had never accepted her as one of their own.

In a few years, there would be a vague memory of a girl who helped save the world with her illusions.

And then that would be forgotten, too.

Goodbye, Kali Prasad, we hardly knew you

[theoremin]

so... they've been dead from the start.

[willthebowlcut]

they deserved to be young, free, and happy together 💕

“there’s more to life than stupid boys, you know”

[nostalgicmermaaiid]

I just love that one of the only poc characters was brought back as a plot device to progress the arc of a white character, then promptly discarded because the duffers wanted a death but didn’t have the balls to do it to the main cast! I love that she didn’t get to interact with anyone besides hopper and jane, so nobody really cared about her. I love that this sentiment is echoed by the general audience who forget to include her in their lists of characters who “deserved better”. I love that in this show for weirdos and outcasts, the two most traumatized and outcasted characters’ stories end in death, and/or the inability to live a normal life in society. I love this writng. I love this message so much yay

[pixiatn]

I'm on my hands and knees begging Kali to beat the traitor accusations cus all the hate towards her is so sus bro. People are allowed to not like a character but mfs want her to die more than the ACTUAL VILLAIN💀💀💀

[katebushglazer]

thinking about kali and jane again and my honest opinion is whatever happened, it happened to them both. jane is alive? so is kali. kali died? so did jane. where ever they are, they're together now, and i hope they're happy

[dandelions4dew]

my brother pointed out that kali’s death with el was similar to eddie’s death with dustin and im not fucking okay

i just. i can’t take this

[danijela08]

Where Els powers actually come from and what the lab is all about

One learns that Els' powers were already trained in the lab. These were supposedly given to her through drugs by her mother. Later, we find out that it is a lie. In reality, they come from Henry. So what is meant? This is the story that is told to us by Mike. He has given El a background. She has a name and even a mother. Of course, she was also born (created) one day in the real world. You can argue about the name, but for me, these are names that have a meaning related to healing, resilience, immortality, and longevity. When she was born, El was taken from her mother. Since Mike gave the personification (El) a story involving drugs and a lost mother, the lab child also represents the lie one tells oneself to survive. They hid her in a lab and did cruel experiments on her. But Hopper says later, you never broke (she stayed strong). The story is about conformity, the coercion/pressure of society. The lab is the metaphor for social and inner conditioning here. The lab child represents stigmatization. The little lab child is the most powerful and, at the same time, the saddest symbol of your story. It represents the abused, queer innocence. The lab child symbolizes how society (the fathers, the doctor, society) sees the love between Will and Mike: as something abnormal that needs to be examined, isolated, and "treated." It represents the feeling, as a young person, of realizing that one's own feelings are viewed by the outside world as an "experiment" or "problem." The drug lie is a metaphor for Mike's internalized homophobia. Mike told the origin story in such a way that the shine (Els' powers) comes from the drugs. He knows that they come from Will, but he denies it. When the glow comes from Will, it is a deep and fateful love between two young men. The drug lie makes the magic an "accident." It depersonalizes love. If it's just chemistry, Mike doesn't have to admit to himself that he loves Will.

The lab in the Rainbow Room is the cruelest form of conditioning. It represents the attempt by the fathers (Dr. Brenner as Dad) and society to dissect, test, and dismiss this "other" love as a disease or experiment. That El calls the doctor Dr. Brenner "Papa" shows the Stockholm syndrome effect: the oppressors (the fathers/the lab) pretended to be the "creators" to obscure the true connection between Will and Mike. In the lab, the shine was just a test subject. The scientists tried to isolate the magic without allowing love. The goddess Kali reveals the truth because she is the only one powerful enough to shatter Mike's web of lies. She exposes the antagonist Henry as the true source of the powers. Henry is what happens when you betray the power of love and join the "ruling race" (the homophobic, oppressive structure-Mind Flayer). Kali says, "It wasn't drugs." This forces El and Mike to realize that the power came from within themselves, even back then at twelve years old. If the powers now come from Henry, then they also come from Will. Right? Will has exactly the same powers as Henry. He has contact with the Demogorgons and the Mind Flayer. Mike doesn't say for nothing that you are like him. You are also a magician, or rather a wizard. Will is like Vecna, but he is the "good" one. Mike always knew that. El believes the only way is to break the cycle; she understands that Kali is right. El can therefore do good things, or she will become the monster that was seen in her before. The monster is her when she is denied. She said that more monsters could be created with her blood. That only happens if Henry wins. Mike made El his girlfriend to keep the "glory" but rid himself of the "guilt." He pressed El's true, powerful self into the form of a woman to be considered "normal" in front of his father and himself. As a result, the powers have died, for they are based on the truth of love for Will. In a lie, magic cannot exist. Mike tells the lie version to survive his trauma. Only through Kali's revelation and the battle against the "evil mirror" Vecna can he accept that the shine he loves in El is actually the shine of Will. Healing begins when he gives up the drug lie and accepts that he is not sick but in love. When Kali says the cycle can only be broken by death, she doesn't mean El's death but the end of the masquerade. The girlfriend must die: the role of "Mike's girlfriend" is the shell that stifles the glow. This false identity must be destroyed. The end of the dream: the "fantasy plan" of simply escaping and pretending to be a normal couple doesn't work because the lab (the trauma/society) will always find them as long as they live in the lie. Blood and abuse: if they maintain the lie, the system will eventually get them and drain their "blood" (their life energy/love) for dark purposes.

To be continued:

Ted and Karen Wheeler (the attraction to Billy)

Mike's mirror characters Bob and Eddie (potential characters "heroes")

Sara and Hopper/the poison and the DNA (Ted)

Vecna and the Dermogorgons (Dart)

Holly and Derek

Steve the good one

Nancy and Johnathan (mirror characters) vs. MIke and WIll

Joyce and Hopper

or how about Argyle?