#the first shadow

[dumbassunicorn08]

When you go to your high school reunion and don’t recognize anyone

[hollyslostshoe]

let’s dress like mama

[daniartonline]

I’ll be here til you’re you again.

[j1gsawz]

it would be so funny if joyce and hopper had just forgotten henry’s name then they realize vecna is that weird ass kid they went to school with for like a month during their senior year and they lose their fucking shit

[bylerworld]

i wonder if she'll figure out that's the guy she cast in her school play

[dearest-loveliest-elizabeth]

I’m not crying, you are

[malyen0retsev]

the completely crazy thing about watching the first shadow and realising that henry is what will could have turned into if he wasn't surrounded by the love that he had, is you slowly realise that will and mike is not just a fun pair to ship. it's utterly central to the entire plot of the story. quite literally, the story the duffers are telling will not be able to be resolved without the love will and mike have for each other.

a hint (or rather, slap round the face) of this is how when the mind flayer is taking over henry, the person henry loves the most, patty, tries to reach him by saying "do you remember the day we first met?" and it doesn't work. meanwhile, when the mind flayer has turned will into a spy in s2, mike, the person will loves the most, tries to reach him by saying "do you remember the day we first met?" and it does work, and will is able to pull out of the mind flayer enough to tap out 'CLOSE GATE' in morse.

all this time, henry has been preparing for will to be the 'perfect' person to corrupt, to utilise him to join forces together. will is like henry in the sense he has dormant powers but they are from the upside down, not the lab. together, they will be unstoppable, and henry has been laying the ground work for years - that's why the connection is still there between them.

but it won't work with will, because unlike henry who's mother ran in fear, who's sister ran in fear, who patty (the person henry loved the most) ran in fear at the monster taking over, will's loved ones won't. joyce will never abandon her son, jonathan will never abandon his brother, and mike will never ever abandon will.

it's not just about 'after all the trauma will's been through you think the duffer brothers will write his ending as being rejected by mike?' it's that the key to defeating vecna is love, because to be loved is to not be alone, isolated, open for manipulation. the entire story the duffer brothers are telling will not work if mike rejects will's love; not out of being kind to will's character, but because that love is utterly key to beating vecna. will's greatest fear in many ways is being ostracised for being gay and losing mike, and there is only one way for vecna to not be able to take advantage of that - and that's called mike loving will back.

the duffer brothers have been slowly building one of the greatest slowburn love stories of all time right under our noses. i'm utterly in awe. also go see the first shadow if it's in your country and you haven't i swear to god