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[thetheoryisalie]

Yeah so actually if Jane is supposed to represent childhood magic then why did Mike date her because he "isn't a kid anymore"??

[miwiheroes]

i love us so much

[thetheoryisalie]

I say it's actually supposed to be a W (for Will the Wise) and Mike made it for Will when they had an arts and crafts date where they were making new DnD costumes but he's stupid so he made it the wrong way around and now Will wears it as a good luck charm and tells people it's and M for Mike

[thetheoryisalie]

Headcannon that the only reason Will liked Bob in s2 was because Mike really admired him and Will likes Mike so anyone Mike likes Will by association also likes

This is also why Will doesn't like Hopper in s5 because despite making up at the end of s4, Mike and Hopper will always be feuding in some way shape or form

Receipts under the cut:

[thetheoryisalie]

Just remembered that IIRC the duffers at some point said s5 was gonna start right into the action and no slow opening like the seasons before...

...except in all other seasons we had actually seen the final villain several epsiodes before the final fight which made it much more exciting to watch the final fight...

...and not to mention the fact that s1 ep1 STARTS with Will going missing (He goes missing BEFORE THE INTRO PLAYS) meanwhile s5 ep1 ENDS with Holly going missing

[kidovna]

my epilogue

[moonstonecassie]

Since Netflix is removing She-Ra February 21st here’s a link to a Google drive with all five seasons <3

EDIT: I am not the creator of any of the drives I post on here I found these on Reddit and wanted to share them, I’m not responsible for any problems with the drive (not mad)

[thetheoryisalie]

The fact that conformitygate was the name that this theory went viral with is so important to me, because despite the GA diluting the actual theory the core message of it remained as a permanent reminder in its name.

The show that they said was for outcasts, that preached to be against conformity, that included the line "screw conformity, screw the system!" in its final episode. The show that, after all of that, ended with the most conformist ending it possibly could have had.

...and the resulting backlash was a theory that the ending was so conformist and disconnected from the show's messaging that it had to be the villain of the show behind it, and that this show could not possibly end this way.

A theory that became so popular big news networks started reporting on it.

It throws the message they used to preach and ended up betraying right in the creator's face and I think that's genuinely beautiful.

[thetheoryisalie]

I think the entire discourse around conformitygate shows just how homophobic the Stranger Things fandom is, especially when comparing it to their response to byler.

Disregarding the fact that conformity gate (at least to my knowledge) originated from this corner of the fandom (hence the name, which no one seems to question) a lot of the proofs that I see people bring up for it are so similar to proofs that we argued for byler for, yet for some reason while the general consensus seems to be that people don't believe in conformitygate, people are still respecting it.

Exit signs being above character's heads, characters paralleling other characters (e.g. Will - Billy - Henry), A Whtazit game boy being seen in the background of 3 different sets, these are all similar proofs to some of what we used to argue for byler.

Except that this time, for some reason, people seem to take this theory much more seriously, and even while still calling those who do believe in it delusional, it's generally treated with a sense of "that would be cool" and "I see why you thing that and where you're coming from", which byler very rarely, if ever, was.

Furthermore, I'd even argue that conformitygate has much less to stand on than byler when looking at the narrative and the plots of the season. Byler would have tied plots together and completed character arcs, it would have opened the door to a new perspective that was previously completely hidden to us. Conformitygate does none of that.

Sure, it would explain some of the inconsistencies in the show, yet it would still struggle to explain the lacking character arcs, the weird differences in how powers work, and so much more. This is even more obvious due to the lack of common consensus (at least to my understanding) about when exactly conformity gate even starts. Is it after ep 04? Is it the entire season? Is it just the finale? And aside from the audience, who even is the one under the control of Vecna? Is it just Mike? Is it all the core characters? Is it literally everyone? There is no common, concrete theory, because what people are listing as their proofs are largely random inconsistencies that they're trying to make sense of with a single answer. When there (most likely) just isn't one there.

And this has gotten to the point where it genuinely infuriates me to see people be all "conformity gate would be so cool and make so much sense" when the evidence that you list for it is characters in the epilogue having a similar hairstyle to Henry. THAT'S your evidence? THAT is what you base your theories on?

So then why were byler shippers called delusional, made fun of, and almost unanimously hated for creating a theory that is rooted much more deeply into story threads and character arcs and thematic exploration and film language than conformity gate has ever been?

This isn't just not believing a theory, nobody expects you to agree with every theory. We just wanted our theory to be respected, for you to understand the points that we are making (even if you do not come to the same conclusion) and to respect that we interpreted the show in this way. Instead we were bullied, made fun of, called delusional, because our theory "has no basis in the show".

Yet conformity gate, started by the same people that shipped byler, NAMED by these people, relying on similar 'proofs' as evidence, is somehow widely acceptable to believe and would be celebrated if true.

It was never about not having enough evidence or basis in the show. You didn't want to see it, because while you might not be consciously homophobic, deep down, you are prejudiced against queer voices, so you dismissed claims as unreasonable and delusional because you dislikes and disagreed with the topic they were about, an honest and genuine queer relationship in popular media.

You didn't want to see it, not because there wasn't enough evidence, but because it was gay and that made you uncomfortable.

You didn't want to see it, because byler was created by queer people who you dismiss on principal, who you do not respect and who you are biased against and hold to different standards than straight people because you find us abnormal.

"They call us homophobic just because we don't like their ship", No we don't. We call you homophobic because you are. Because you refused to even consider the possibility and dismissed any arguments for it as delusions by people you refuse to listen to, refuse to understand, and refuse to emphasise with.

Yet when another theory comes along that could fix all the inconsistencies in the finale, you are quick to consider it, you don't dismiss it just because it's "delusional", in fact, you encourage it. You say, "I don't believe it, but all these coincidences are weird."

It was never about agreement, about winning an argument. It was about understanding, consideration, and respect. All of which you failed to give us because of your underlying prejudice that you refuse to acknowledge and remain comfortable in perpetuating.

That is homophobic.

[thetheoryisalie]

I really do believe that whoever was responsible for the good writing in stranger things, for whatever reason, dropped out halfway through writing season 5.

It's not that every stranger things season has been perfect without contention, there have definitely been less compelling and though out story lines in earlier seasons, but in this season in particular everything just feel less cohesive.

But, fact of the matter is that there were some story lines that were executed well and with depth throughout the entirety of season 5.

Dustin's grief over Eddie, subsequent carelessness and the fight it results in with Steve was written well and nuanced, and was tied perfectly into the ending when Dustin is the one who graduates just how Eddie always wanted to. It's clear to me that this story line at least was though out and plotted through to the end. Even Nancy, Jonathan and Steve's story line had a good resolution and was coherently part of every volume, and seems to have been thought through and planned for the most part.

This is exactly what makes it so hard for me to believe that this is the same person who wrote all the rest of season 5, because most story lines are set up very well only to do a complete 180 or not go anywhere at all.

Will and Robin's dynamic is an essential part of volume 1, and ends in a great resolution in vol 1, and while it's still present in volume 2, the message is weaker, repetitive of what already happened in volume 1, and non-existent in the finale. Vicky as a whole serves no narrative purpose, and while barely set up, having her work at the hospital could have been integrated into the story as an essential part of S5, but it wasn't. Will's powers are the climax of volume 1, and Vecna's monologue to Will right before sets up the importance of both his powers and his connection to Vecna/ the hivemind for the season, both of which become successively less important in every episode and are basically completely irrelevant by the finale. Hopper and Jane's dynamic, while annoying and already repetitive of s3, makes sense as a starting point for the season, but remain stagnant the entire time through volume 2 and even Kali's return barely has any impact on their story line. The only thing that actually changes because of Kali's return is Jane's outlook on her future, however even this makes very little sense because we see from the beginning with her and Mike's conversation on the WSQK roof that she's pessimistic about her future, and the revelation about the pregnant women is what actually causes her to believe she has to kill herself to end the cycle. Kali would not have been needed for this to happen, Jane and Hopper could have stumbled on the pregnant women by themselves and realised that Dr. Kay wants Jane's blood. This leads me to believe that this was not the original purpose of bringing Kali back, but that her story line, too, was dropped after her reintroduction at the end of vol 1. Holly and the other kid's story line serves no purpose but to bring Max back and to explore Henry's backstory, which they barely ended up doing and ended up being completely irrelevant for S5. This could have very easily been accomplished without Vecna kidnapping anyone else, e.g. by having either Will or Jane enter Vecna's mind and help rescue Max, and having them escape through Henry's memories. Mike is set up in s5 ep 01 as a character that lifts others up and motivates them. He tells Jane about his future plans for the party, he helps Will realise his powers and accept himself, he tries to build up Holly's confidence in herself. This is still consistent with some of volume 2, he insists on the innateness of Will's powers, he is somehow more genuinely emotional when reuniting with Max than when his girlfriend says goodbye before killing herself, and he actually does try to understand Jane when she tells him that 'this isn't like one of his campaigns'. This is dropped entirely after that, so much so that this core character trait of his was not enough to save his girlfriends life. The importance of the innateness of Will's powers is proven false in volume 2 when we see that he got his powers from the MF's possession in s2 and ultimately completely irrelevant because it's shown that not even Henry's powers are innate, therefor they neither serve the purpose to compare them (since it's factually false that either of their powers are innate) nor does it serve the purpose to differentiate them from each other (since neither of their powers are innate). Volume 1 and Mike's and Erica's insistence on it in ep 05 sets this up as an important factor in the story, but it turns out completely irrelevant and false by the end of the season.

And aside whole character arcs changing or being set up for nothing, not even the supernatural plot line makes cohesive sense

Vecna, since his first introduction in season 4, has been set up as a villain related to the theme of time. His symbol is the series is a clock. In s5 he kidnaps 12 children, like the 12 numbers on a clock. He wants to use these children to create a wormhole, a bridge between universes that can travel space and time. Never mind all the time themed movies we were told to watch 'in preparation for season 5' Dimension X/the Abyss has no purpose that was not already present with only the Upside Down. Vecna's goal in s5 is to bring dimension X into the real world and merge the two dimensions, so that he can destroy it. In s2, the Mind Flayer's goal is to merge the Upside Down with the real world and destroy it.

Nor do Will's, Jane's, Kali's or Vecna's powers, because volume 2 and the finale have somehow managed to confuse all 4 of them.

Will's connection to the Upside Down and the hivemind that only seems to be relevant when it's plot convenient but is forgotten about and non existent otherwise. Vecna showing us Will building the tunnels in s2 after being possessed by the MF despite the tunnels already being there before that. Kali's powers suddenly covering sounds when they were explicitly shown not to in s2 Jane possessing Max like Vecna does despite this only being possible via piggyback before and we never saw any development of Jane's powers that would explain her now being able to do this Hopper not being in a trance when Vecna possesses him and being able to move, but still not actually shooting Jane despite his actions in the vision also translating to the real world

This isn't even factoring in all the weird coincidences that now appear to just be idiotic mistakes.

Forgetting Will's birthday in s4, despite all the birthday related Easter Eggs present in that season (most notably the number on Argyle's van), the only birthday that is mentioned by date in the show, is already a very weird coincidence, but then forgetting his age again the next season? Joyce pointing out twice that Will isn't wearing a jacket in volume 1 despite it being cold and is seemingly unaffected. All the weird inconsistencies in Will's coming out speech. Sure, maybe they forgot that Melvald's only sold milkshakes in the 50s and didn't anymore in the 80s, but Will likes getting lost in the woods?

Then there's also Will's 2nd self acceptance arc, which is mildly repetitive of his arc in volume 1, and not tied into the story at all.

This one is especially weird, because Will's self acceptance was incredibly plot relevant in the first volume and was so tied into the super natural plot that is was half of the supernatural plot. In comparison, in volume 2, Will gets shown a vision by Vecna of his worst fears, off screen, which causes him to come out to basically everyone so that Vecna cannot use this against him anymore. This sets up Vecna at least trying to use this against him or someone else in the next episode, but this never happens. Will's coming out was despite the bad writing for it an incredibly important scene to have, but because it is never brought up again, Will's coming out is now narratively redundant and unnecessary to include (in terms of plot relevance).

This isn't even mentioning all the plot holes from earlier seasons that they promised they would answer with the final season, nor the entirety of Mike and Will's relationship

The thing is, this all goes so far past just coincidences and accidents, because you can clearly see the set ups for plots that were then inexplicably dropped or twisted into something nonsensical. And these are just things that you do not do as a writer. Sure, maybe the voltage dial on the radio tower was accidentally the wrong colour, maybe they forgot Will's birthday once, maybe they got a bit confused with their own power system. But just the sheer amount of inconsistencies is baffling.

I cannot stress enough how these are just things that you don't do as a writer.

You don't forget the only birthday ever actually mentioned in your show only to then put in a number that, when called, plays the happy birthday song as promo for that same season, and then you proceed to forget that same characters age the next season.

You don't just mention a character not wearing a jacket twice when this was a majour hint towards a possession in previous seasons for shits and giggles

You don't just make the entire motief of arguably your main antagonist a clock and then have fans watch a bunch of movies all related to time or time travel and have that character live in a worm hole only to not have anything to do with time at all

You don't introduce whole story lines with new characters only for them to have absolutely no importance in the finale and lead nowhere

You don't have a character insist on another character's power's innateness only for that to be false and both irrelevant in terms of comparison to others' powers and to their character arcs

You just. don't. do. this.

And the things is, yes, mistakes happen when your write a series with a lot of lore that wasn't planned out from the beginning, but it's just the sheer number of mistakes that are so glaringly obvious to anyone who has watched the show one and even just remotely paid attention. And that's not even mentioning that most of what I listed in this post were things that were only set up this season.

Besides that, when you write in details into your stories, you yourself as the writer usually have an idea of where these details come from and where you want to go with them.

If you write your character as not wearing a jacket, somethings that has previously been plot relevant, and mention it twice, you have a reason for that.

If you insist on the importance of the innateness on someone's powers, despite this being untrue, there is a reason for that.

If you make your entire character's motief related to time and continue to relate him to time, there is a reason for that.

However, it seems that, whoever had those reasons, was not a part of writing the final script, instead whatever story lines they had already prepared and set up were picked up by people who did not even bother to watch the previous seasons in preparation for writing the final script.

[thetheoryisalie]

So... is this Mike making out with Kali disguised as El?

As Mike explains to us when he tells the party about the mage that now lives in a very far land, El was unable to use her powers during that time because the kryptonite was turned on. I implore you to watch the video below, where Mike makes explicit mention of El casting 'Sunbeam' which is then shown to us to refer to talking to Mike in her mind, and that she could not have cast this because the kryptonite was activated at the time.

...I guess that explains why she says that Mike is the only one who has ever truly understood her...

[thetheoryisalie]

So what exactly was the amazing plot twist that is only good when it's revealed an you go "How did I not see this coming?"

Is it that the mind flayer is behind everything after all? Because all I remember after volume 2 is praying for the duffers to have remembered that, and with the exactly zero relevance the Mind Flayer had in the final fight, I guarantee you casual viewers don't even realise that that's the same Mind Flayer from season 2 and 3. Like the only actual reason the Mind Flayer is even involved in this fight is so that anyone but El can actually help fight, because they can't do anything against Vecna without powers.

Is it that El survives in the end? Except this was super obvious as the ending they would choose for her and there was no actual way to see this coming from hints given in the episodes, only when looking at subtext and how character arcs usually go, and a plot twist that is only set up that episode when you've had all season can barely be considered good by any means. Not to mention that even that ending is ambiguous, and we don't actually know if she survived or not, we just have to 'believe'

Is it that the military ends up only being and inconvenience to increase the stakes, and then proceeds to immediately become irrelevant after that? Because among all the other grave disappointments this was one that I don't see talked about at all (so far). Season 1 was so good at having everyone try their best but things still not working out, which is so refreshing in comparison to other shows where negative consequences are usually entirely avoidable and only happen at all because of small mistakes that characters make (e.g. dropping a weapon). Among everything else that made stranger things great, they also seemed to have dropped this part this season, and I guess I really should have seen it coming with how volume 2 went.

I cannot emphasise enough that the actual only reason the military mattered at all in the finale is to kill Kali and to force Jane to "die". They become completely irrelevant after that.

I cannot think of a single 'plot twist' from this season that wasn't both entirely predictable, and/or only (badly) set up this season in the first place, but if you can, please enlighten me.

Edit: I figured it out: [link]

[thetheoryisalie]

This scene was meant to be ambiguous, and maliciously so.

There is only two ways this scene can be read, and that last shot where Mike stokes the spines of both his and Will's binder makes it so clear that they intended for it to be interpreted in two ways and that they knew what they were doing.

Either you ignore the last picture and interpret it as Mike being emotional because El doesn't have a binder to put on the shelf next to all the others,

Or you consider it and interpret that the true story Mike can never tell is about his queerness, and how he will always remain repressed and in the closet now.

They know bylers are their most active community when it comes to theorising and picking up subtext, and they wanted us to see this.

Thank you for that stab in the heart before being decapitated by 'Heroes'.

[thetheoryisalie]

Let's all collectively agree to NOT WATCH Stranger Things: Tales from 85 because I don't even want to think about how many plot inconsistencies this is going to create after how they wrote season 5

[thetheoryisalie]

Somewhere in Hawkins in a shed, the Turnbow family starved to death and their bodies were never found.

And somewhere in another dimensions, dozens of tortured pregnant women died when the dimension collapsed, forever to remain unsolved missing cases that will be talked about in true crime podcasts in the distant future.

[thetheoryisalie]

Continuing from this post I made about how I believe season 5 was never written to be released in 3 volumes (1-4, 5-7, 8), but in two volumes instead (1-4, 5-8), this is why it makes even more sense for ep07 to be a set-up episode, not a vol-2-finale episode:

Ep 07 is the pinnacle of a preparation-for-the-finale episode. Basically the entire episode is spent reconvening and setting up story lines for the finale.

Holly's escape fails and she is back in Vecna's lair, this sets up some sort of rescue or escape for the next episode. Vecna has fully brainwashed the kids and has them convinced he is the good guy, Derek and Holly fail to resist this (for now). This likely sets up a betrayal from Derek, who Vecna is still unaware knows about his true intentions. Steve, Dustin, Nancy and Jonathan return from the UD, bringing new information upon which plans are build. The military finds clued about El's whereabouts, setting up some sort of military interference or meddling in ep08. Will comes out, and as this post by @gayofthefae says, the show itself frames coming out to be the set-up for romance, not the climax of self acceptance. Therefor this is also set up for a romance for Will in ep 08, as well as the 'signals' we have yet to see play out. Everyone changes into their 'battle outfits' and the episode ends with everyone in the back of the van riding into the Upside Down. This is very similar to the ending of s4 ep08, which is spent getting weapons and armor, and ends with everyone getting to their planned places on the battlefield.

Aside from Max finally waking up, which is arguably already concluded in ep 06, no story lines that were set up this season or this volume were concluded in this episode.

Max's waking up itself is also set up for her potential role in the final fight. I find it hard to believe that they would have her wake up the episode before the finale, only to then be completely irrelevant to the final fight. If she has no role to play awake, they could have easily further delayed her awakening to the finale. This would have allowed her so play a role from inside Vecna's mind during the final fight, and would have avoided the repetitiveness of Holly's recapture. The fact that they had Holly be re-captured after she has spend 4 episodes escaping Vecna in the first place speaks to the importance that Max waking up will have on the story. Otherwise they would not have done so.

This is not how you write a finale, whether for one volume or for the entire season. This is how you set-up for a finale. If ep07 was supposed to have been a finale in the sense that 04 was, they would have saved the big revelations for this episode. The wormhole, Nancy and Jonathan, Steve and Dustin, Kali's revelation about the pregnant women. All of these are in episode 5 or 6.

[thetheoryisalie]

Honestly, I think one of the biggest things that fucked volume 2 over is the release schedule.

I was always a defender of releasing series in multiple parts, because while I love binging, I also really enjoy the anticipation every new release date brings with it and the theorising this leaves room for in the time in between.

And I do still think it worked very well for volume 1, but that was because you can tell that volume 1 was written to be released as part 1 of the season. Structurally, while it doesn't end the story, it still follows the structure of a complete season. You have a beginning and build up, some plot twists, and a (although a bit shorter) tension filled battle at the end.

Volume 2 fails to do this, and I think it's likely that this is because volume 2 was never written to be its own volume in the first place. Disregarding some cringy scenes, kind of repetitive story structure and the coming out scene, I find most scenes, at least by themselves, are well written and emotional

Key scenes being Nancy and Jonathan's break up, Steve and Dustin, Max and Lucas re-union, even Max and Holly's heart-to-heart

But volume 2 lacks a satisfying finale, exactly what made volume 1 so great. It's own 'Sorcerer'.

So, now everyone is just left to stew in their thoughts and dissatisfaction with uncompleted story lines for a week, and I think we all know where this has lead. This also means that we now nitpick ever bad thing from the show, because let's not pretend that this show's writing has been completely flawless and perfect ever season except s5

Hopper in s3, 'The Lost Sister', sidelined Jonathan (especially s4), sidelined Will (always), Russian sub-plot (3 AND 4), a lot of season 3 really, non-involvement of Will, Mike and Jonathan in finale in s4, and so on.

But in previous seasons, we always had a finished season, with a finale. (outlier for this is season 4, however I was not around for the release of either volume, so please feel free to tell me about what the wait for ep 08 and 09 was like)

Partly at fault for this is also the marketing, because the way they promoted the series as "volume 1, volume 2 and the finale" made people expect a season in three parts, each with its own finale. But that simply isn't what episode 7 is. It's not the finale of volume 2, it's the penultimate episode of part 2. And that's how it's written. Not as a conclusion for the middle part of the season, but the build up for the second, and final, part.

I find it likely that for season 4, they might have been open about being unable to release the full season on time due to covid, pre the release of volume 2, so people were never expecting to get an 'interim finale' for s4 ep 07. Additionally, 7 episodes is a lot more than 3, and that is without heavily anticipating them for a month and being marketed as incredibly emotional and impactful episodes of the season specifically.

I don't know who made the ultimate decision to release the season in 3 parts, if it was Netflix or The Duffers or someone else, but I find it very hard to believe that the season was written with this release schedule in mind, because then you would simply never write volume 2 the way it was written.

Honestly, I think they could have saved themselves and us a lot of pain if they had released ep 05 and 06 as volume 2 instead, and then 07 and 08 as the finale together, because ep 06, while not a finale, does conclude a lot of story lines from this season (Dustin and Steve, Nancy and Jonathan are all in this episode) and ends on the cliffhanger of Max waking up. It's not 'Sorcerer' but it's a lot better of an interim-finale than episode 07, which is a build-up episode for episode 08.

Ultimately, I think if you want to release your series in parts, the writing needs to be adjusted to fit the new release-format, and this clearly wasn't done with volume 2.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

The Bridge is currently sitting at 5.4/10 on IMDB. This is because 40% of the user reviews are putting it at 1 star.

I'm to understand that people like Elon Musk have started an anti-woke campaign because of Will's coming out scene. We can not, and should not, stand for this.

Regardless of what you may feel about the episode as a whole, I'm sure you don't see it as a 1 out of 10. Please, I am asking that people go and give The Bridge a high review to help offset these review bombs.

Don't let homophobes send the message that creators shouldn't make gay storylines in hit mainstream shows.